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"Washington Post" Investigative Reports Released On January 6th Insurrection; Interview With Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ); President Biden Disappointed That China And Russia Was A No-Show At The G20 Summit; Interview With Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA); Knife-Wielding Man Sets Fire Inside Tokyo Train; American Airlines Cancels Flights; Federal Reserve Tapers On Emergency COVID Support; White House Press Secretary Positive For COVID-19. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired October 31, 2021 - 17:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[17:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington. We have breaking news. A brand-new investigation by "The Washington Post" is revealing in chilling detail all the missed warning signs before the January 6th insurrection. Here's just one part, and we have this on-screen.

"One of the most striking flares came when a tipster called on the afternoon of December 20th. Trump supporters were discussing online how to sneak guns into Washington to overrun police and arrest members of m Congress in January." The tipster offers specifics.

"Those planning violence believe they had orders from the president, used code words such as pickaxe to describe guns and posted the times and locations of four spots around the country for caravans to meet the day before the joint session. On one site, a poster specifically mentioned Senator Mitt Romney as a target."

According to "The Washington Post," the FBI believes many of these threats were aspirational and couldn't be pursued. The investigation also found some Pentagon leaders feared Trump would misuse the National Guard to stay in power. There were also fears that far right extremists could bait soldiers into a Boston massacre-type situation.

And it was those fears that contributed to the fateful decision to keep soldiers away from the Capitol on January 6th. The paper also found that then President Trump had direct warnings of the escalating violence that day, but stood by for 187 minutes before telling his supporters to go home. Last hour, I spoke to investigative reporter at "The Washington Post" Aaron Davis, and here's what he told me just moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AARON DAVIS, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: We've kind of took a little bit different turn on the story where we look more at the 187 minutes in between when the Capitol was breached and when Trump said anything to call off the supporters of his that were raiding the capitol. And so many things happened in those couple hours. People died. People had heart attacks.

You know, there was obviously the Ashli Babbitt shooting. There was just numerous tragedies in the course of those hours when he was doing nothing.

With everything that we've looked at, you have to question why this crowd was allowed to get that close to the capitol that day. We were able to document I think in greater detail than has been done before that there were warning signs of this violence dating back not just hours or days, but weeks in advance.

Then, you know, fast-forward to the actual day on January 6th. There were signs of violence in the hours leading up to the breach as well. There were numerous firearms taken off members of the crowd after they left the ellipse where President Trump was speaking.

And they even surrounded at one point in time park police officers around the Washington monument and started beating on the doors there. There were violent signs all the way down the mall as this crowd moved, and yet they basically were allowed to walk straight into the capitol.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Joining me now to talk about this is Democratic Congressman Ruben Gallego of Arizona. He was inside the capitol on January 6th as it was being attacked. Congressman, the number of red flags before the riot, it's just mind-boggling to listen to some of the details coming out of this "Washington Post" report. It included a Capitol Police intelligence assessment that Trump supporters had grown desperate to overturn the capitol -- overturn the election and Congress itself would be the target.

According to "The Post," that key analysis was tucked at the bottom of page 13 of a 15-page report. The Capitol Police chief didn't have that information when he initiated a last minute request to bring in the National Guard, one that was swiftly rejected. You've seen some of the details coming out of this investigative report. What's your reaction so far?

REP. RUBEN GALLEGO (D-AZ): Well, I mean, to be honest, it's nothing that surprises me. It's very good reporting, goes really, really into deep, deep detail. You know, for me, it just does make me wonder, though, had this been a group of, you know, Muslim men trying to operate this way across the country, would there have been just much as lax of a reaction, or Latino men or black men?

The only reason, you know, this even got close to it it's because for some reason, it's okay to be a white terrorist trying to attack your country, and somehow we just allowed it to happen and it's ridiculous. There was a total failure upon everybody up and down the security spectrum and they really need to be held accountable.

[17:04:59] And lastly, you know, it's one thing that security failed. It's the other that the people that enabled it to actually get to that point. The president and all the president's men, including people like Mark Meadows who, you know, tries to play both sides according to this report. You know, really are -- and the lawyers that really put up -- put them in this -- put all of us in this spot.

And the fact that they are walking free right now, the fact that none of them had been seriously arrested. There's been no, you know, serious criminal repercussions for this. The fact that Rudy Giuliani, Sid Powell still have law licenses, it's ridiculous. If we don't prosecute these men and women, we're going to have another insurrection again.

ACOSTA: And I want to highlight another part of "The Post" reporting. This is about Senator Lindsey Graham. He yelled at the sergeant-at- arms, Senate sergeant-at-arms at one point, "What are you doing? Take back the Senate! You've got guns. Use them." The South Carolina senator was adamant according to "The Post." "We give you guns for a reason," he repeated. "Use them." And yet after all of that, he's allied with Trump again. How do you explain that, and do you think they should have used those guns that day?

GALLEGO: Well, the way -- the way it explains it that Lindsey Graham is a hypocrite, a liar and a coward all wrapped into one human being. And, you know, he was a person that was actually part of the problem leading up to the election, taking part in all the conspiracy theories, you know, saying that the election could have possibly been stolen, so, he is part of the problem.

And a lot of these other politicians that, you know, hide behind the Capitol Police -- and hid behind Capitol Police on January 6th and afterwards turned on them are part of the problem and are going to continue being part of the problem.

And by the way though, it extends out to everything else. The fact that we still see some of these, you know, former Trump, you know, White House officials on T.V. as if they didn't participate in an almost coup of this country. You see them on corporate boards all across this country.

You know, we really need to shut them down in all avenues because what they did is horrendous, and the fact that we -- and I say "we" as a society -- pretend that everything's fine is only going to cause this to actually happen again and maybe even be successful.

ACOSTA: Well, as you know, congressman, Merrick Garland is the attorney general. He was put in charge of the Justice Department by President Joe Biden, members of your party. Are you saying that you would like to see Merrick Garland step it up?

GALLEGO: Look, either Merrick Garland steps it up or needs to step out. The attorney general of the United States has done -- is the most important thing is to protect the constitution of the United States. He is failing right now and he's failing because he wants to stick to some norms. There is no norms when there's an almost coup of this country. There

are people out there that should be prosecuted and Merrick Garland needs to be leading the team that does it. Right now event the (inaudible) sentences that they're trying to hand out to people that actually were caught, you know, on January 6th in the capitol are slaps on the wrist.

So, I don't know what Merrick Garland is thinking he's able to accomplish this, but he's showing true weakness in a moment when we need actually true strength.

ACOSTA: I want to ask you about something I saw recently. You were recently featured in an HBO documentary called "Four Hours at the Capitol" where you share in a very unfiltered way what you went through on January 6th. Let's take a look and talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GALLEGO (voice-over): I was an infantryman in the United States Marine Corps. I had to deal with some very aggressive crowds when I was in Iraq. Individuals themselves aren't usually a problem, but when they get collectively together and they create a mob, the mob is the weapon.

UNKNOWN: Use your helmet! Use your crowbar!

GALLEGGO: I was ready to fight. I saw a lot of shit back in my day, but I was not going to die on the floor of the (BLEEP) House of Representatives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And you also said how in other countries, leaving the capitol means you lost. And so you didn't want to leave because you didn't know if you'd ever come back. What does that say about the shaky state of affairs here in Washington and how things were on January 6th?

GALLEGO: Look, I think there's a couple things to remember. Number one, the shakiest affairs, while it's dangerous, it's only dangerous because we really allowed these, you know, dumb bastards to get pretty far largely because we didn't think they could really do it, and number two, because we had a compliant, you know -- I would say compliant executive that didn't want to actually enforce it.

Let's remember for a couple years prior to January 6th, the Democrats had been trying to put legislation as to actual -- legislation into actually go after white supremacy, to actually, you know, try to stop it from, you know, even infiltrating to the military. And there was always pushback by some of the more conservative Republican cogs.

We've seen this -- we saw -- a lot of us saw this coming. I certainly feel, you know, those of us from the CBC and the CHC kind of felt it a little sooner than other people because we had been hearing about these death threats. We had been receiving death threats more so than some of our colleagues for many years.

[17:10:02]

So, you know, what happened on January 6th was a combination of, you know, Trump really bringing in all these, you know, thousands of people, some planning by some really, you know, extreme militias, and then some incompetence, you know, I would say police forces although they did some great work in terms of that day, but the planning was poor.

In order for us to really stop this in the future because we're not going to get as lucky as we did on January 6th, we really need to be ready and also need to show there's consequences for it, and that's what I'm trying to say.

ACOSTA: Yes. And let's talk about the president's agenda. It's stalled although President Biden was just expressing some optimism that maybe these bills are going to get passed in the next couple of days. A source telling CNN House Progressives held a virtual meeting today ahead of the vote on Tuesday on both the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill as well as the larger economic and climate plan. Were you a part of this conversation?

What can you tell us about it? Do you think we're going to see these bills pass on Tuesday?

GALLEGO: So I was not part of the conversation today though I am a member of the caucus. I do believe that we're going to have some success this week. There is popular support for the president's Build Back Better agenda within the caucus, and there is support for the infrastructure package provided that the Build Back Better agenda also moves.

But the one way to guarantee success is for Manchin and Sinema, both senators, to stop being so opaque, stop playing coy, and just say whether or not you trust us and you actually agree with the president's agenda. We've already pared this down. You know, we're still going to have some very great pieces of legislation in this.

We're going to have child care for majority of Americans. The child tax credit, an extra $300 per kid is going to be in there. All of these things that we desperately need in this country to help working class group (ph) is going to be in there. We just need Manchin and Sinema to also want the same thing we want.

ACOSTA: All right, Congressman Ruben Gallego, appreciate your time very much. Thanks so much for joining us.

GALLEGO: Thank you. Have a good one.

ACOSTA: All right, you too. Appreciate it. Coming up, on the heels of the G20 summit, President Biden now heads to Scotland for a climate summit. The future of the planet is on the line. That's next. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:15:00] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: With regard to the disappointment, the disappointment relates to the fact that Russia and, and, and including not only Russia but China, basically didn't show up in terms of any commitments to deal with climate change. And there's a reason why people should be disappointed in that. I found it disappointing myself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: President Biden disappointed today, calling out major polluter countries like Russia and China for curtailing global ambitions to fight climate change after skipping this year's G20 summit in Rome and the United Nations climate summit in Scotland. CNN's chief climate correspondent Bill Weir joins us now from Scotland where the COP26 summit got under way today.

Bill, this comes on the heels of the G20 summit. What did world leaders agree on there? I know sometimes these summits, you know, they put out a lot of flowery language. They've solved all the world's problems, and then you find out there isn't any teeth in this. What's your sense of what was accomplished?

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Toothless would work today. I think, you know, most environmental groups, young people who care very much about this issue, since they have to live with the repercussions, are voicing their disappointment today. Basically the richest 20 countries in the world says, yes, we agree that our house is on fire, but they refuse to say how exactly they want to put it out or by when.

They really tried to knuckle down on coal, like how soon can we get humanity off of this, you know, dirty fuel from the age of Charles Dickens? It's the most egregious sort of planet-cooking pollution. And the economy, the free market is actually doing more in the United States to shut down that form of energy.

But meanwhile, China is put on, I guess, three times more coal capacity in 2020 than the rest of the world combined. So a lot of the world still depends on it, India as well. They also talked about sort of paying poor countries, sort of the moral responsibility of these developed countries like United States, which has gained so much wealth by burning all our fuels for so long, and the $100 billion fund that should go to those countries who contributed nary a drop, but are -- many low-lying countries really reaping the worst wrath of the result.

ACOSTA: And Bill, what are some of the goals for this 12-day United Nations summit in Scotland? How important is it that the president of the United States is taking part in it and committed to combating climate change unlike what we saw with the previous administration? Does that make a big difference, do you think? Is that the sense you get?

WEIR: I think so, absolutely. This is an anecdote to the Trump years in which, you know, it really looked like the world's historic biggest polluter in this space was going to stick the rest of the world with the check ultimately. And so his tone matters. The number of people -- he's bringing huge number, 11 or 12 cabinet members, former President Obama set to make an appearance here as well.

And just to remind people, the Kyoto Protocol back in the mid-'90s was the first-time rich countries says, yes, we should cut down on our pollution, but then a Republican president backed away from that. And then of course the Paris Accord of 2015, Donald Trump did the same. But I think we have a full screen just to say sort of the wide goals are to keep the hope of that 1.5 degrees warming alive. We're right now at 1.1.

[17:19:57]

Well, at current promises, even if people make the -- all these countries keep the promises of Paris, it will be put us at between 2.7 and 3 degrees. Anything close to 4 means pretty much the end of life as we know it.

So, it's never too late to try to save as much as we can. There's the coal piece, unabated coal. Stop digging it. Leave it in the ground. Providing that $100 billion fund. They're years behind on that promise to help those countries. And then methane is a big one. It's sort of the 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide in the short term and much easier to control in the short term. You got to tackle methane if you want to tackle the whole thing.

ACOSTA: There's no question about that. All right. Bill Weir, thanks so much for that report. Our chief climate correspondent covering this very important summit that we're going to see unfold all week long in Scotland. It's highly important stuff for everybody around the world to pay attention to. Bill, thanks as always. We appreciate it.

And it is go time in Virginia. The highly competitive race for governor is neck-and-neck just days before the polls close. We'll take you there on the trail next. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[17:25:00]

ACOSTA: That highly competitive race for a Virginia governor is in a dead heat with just two days to go. Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe and Republican Glenn Youngkin are neck and neck ahead of Tuesday's election in the commonwealth where they're pulling out all the stops in the home stretch. Let's go not to CNN's Eva McKend who's following the Youngkin campaign in Virginia.

Eva, I mean, I guess it's going to come down to voter turnout as it always does with these types of elections, especially one that is -- I mean, this is a really close race. What is your sense of how the candidates are trying to energize their voters in this final stretch?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: Well, Jim, it is just a mad dash around the state for these candidates. You are right. In an off-year election like this one, they have to excite as many voters as possible. We've been on the trail with Youngkin in heavily Democratic areas like Charlottesville and Fairfax County, and what he's done there is try to appeal to a cross-section of Republicans, both those on the far right as well as moderates and even trying to peel off some disaffected Democrats.

Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic nominee, he's in this region today, in Richmond where we are now. But Youngkin actually made his way to southwest Virginia today. Take a listen to what he told voters there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GLENN YOUNGKIN, REPUBLICAN GOVERNOR CANDIDATE: The polls look pretty good. The polls look pretty good. Polls do not win elections. Votes do. Votes do. We have got to turn out the vote, and I will tell you to vote in southwest Virginia counts more than any vote in the entire commonwealth of Virginia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: Now, that region where he spoke from, Scott County, that is a very conservative county. Former President Donald Trump won that county by nearly 70 percent. But he's still there trying to excite people because both McAuliffe and Youngkin leaving no stone unturned. Jim.

ACOSTA: All right, Eva McKend, thank you so much for that report. We appreciate it. Joining me now is Democratic Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger of Virginia. Congresswoman, I think the main question is, you know, what is happening in this race right now. What's your sense of how Terry McAuliffe is doing? Is he in danger of losing this state that Joe Biden won by 10 points just a year ago?

And if Glenn Youngkin pulls this off, how much of this is due to problems back in Washington, problems getting these economic bills passed that the president has been coming to you guys and saying, we need to get this done?

REP. ABIGAIL SPANBERGER (D-VA): Well, thank you so much for having me on. I'm excited to talk about the elections in Virginia. I was just at an event a couple hours ago where there were just -- just a crowd of people excited to get out and vote, excited to make sure that their friends, families, neighbors get out and vote.

And I'm excited about the election on Tuesday. Virginia, because of our off-year elections, always has the challenge and the opportunity of setting the pace kind of after a presidential year of what it is that we're going to see, you know, in our commonwealth and certainly in the nation moving forward.

So, I'm excited about the election. People are fired up. There's a lot of enthusiasm. And you know, I cast my vote a couple weeks ago because thanks to our Democratic House of Delegates and state senate and our Democratic governor, we have expanded early voting.

So we have phenomenal access, great voting rights, and these are just some of the things that occur when we have good Democratic leaders, which is why we want to continue that trend. Re-elect our House of Delegates members and send our slate of Democratic statewide candidates to Richmond.

ACOSTA: And, Congresswoman, I know you represent a district that is both suburban and also rural. You kind of stretch both sides of the coin there in the commonwealth. And I wonder whether you think Terry McAuliffe's strategy of talking about Donald Trump so much and tying Glenn Youngkin to Donald Trump so much has been effective. Was that the right approach, do you think?

SPANBERGER: Well, I think that some of those comparisons certainly break through frequently in the reporting. But if you're there listening to Terry McAuliffe, anybody who is out stumping for him, anybody who knows what he did when he was governor, Terry McAuliffe brought billions of dollars of investment to central Virginia -- or to Virginia, excuse me, not just central Virginia, to Virginia. Brought tens of thousands of jobs. Was great for our economy.

[17:29:57]

We are now the best state in the nation for business two years in a row. We want to make that a third under Terry McAuliffe's leadership. And so, you know, out and about, people know what he did when he was governor. They knew he was a great jobs governor.

Frankly, that's one of the reasons why I'm so excited to be pushing for a vote on our infrastructure investment and jobs act because bringing billions of dollars of investment home to Virginia, when I know that we'll have a future governor, Terry McAuliffe, who will be focused, laser focused on bringing jobs to Virginia.

I mean, that is just -- that is a perfect mixture of federal policy meeting good state leadership that I want to see into the future.

ACOSTA: And, Congresswoman, I want to talk about January 6th. You're a former CIA officer who was in the capitol on January 6th as it was being attacked. First, I want to get your reaction to something that Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene said about the attack. Let me play this for you, and then I also want to talk about this "Washington Post" reporting that's come out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): January 6th was just a riot at the capitol. And if you think about what our declaration of independence says, it says to overthrow tyrants.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: What's your response to that kind of rhetoric and what did you make of this very explosive "Washington Post" report that's come out today that shows that there really was just a breakdown behind the scenes with law enforcement, inside the administration, and so on to prepare for what happened at the capitol that day? SPANBERGER: My response to Marjorie Taylor Greene's comments frankly

probably can't be aired on television. So I'll just move on and say that what she said is outrageous. It's a lie. The idea that she would give any sort of safe harbor or excuse to people who violently attacked the United States capitol, who beat police officers with American flags, the idea that she's somehow excusing that and saying that's what the founders wanted, that's -- it's disqualifying frankly for anyone who's expected to be writing or legislating, writing laws or legislating or governing.

I was in the capitol as police officers were barricading up the doors, as these violent insurrectionists were banging on the doors and screaming, breaking the glass. You know, when we finally were able to get out of the house chamber after being there for the entirety of the siege on the capitol, there were police officers, NPD officers, Capitol Police officers with just throngs of insurrectionists proned out on the ground because they had invaded the United States capitol.

They were trying to stop us from certifying an election. It is outrageous that she would justify a coup attempt, an insurrection against the United States capitol, and that she's also serving in the United States Congress.

ACOSTA: And before I let you go, we're learning just in the last several minutes while progressives are likely to back both of these Biden agenda bills, the infrastructure bill, the economic climate bill, the vote is not really expected to happen on Tuesday. It is likely to happen after Tuesday. Is that your understanding of how things stand right now? Do we think that's going to happen after Tuesday, and are we going to see a vote this week?

SPANBERGER: Well, I hope we'll see a vote on the infrastructure bill as soon as possible. This bill passed the Senate with 69 votes back in August. We should have voted in August. We should have voted in September. We should have voted in October. But ideally now we'll vote as soon as we possibly can in November.

As for the Build Back Better Act, final text is supposed to come out tomorrow. I think it's wholly appropriate for legislators who will be voting on it to ensure we have time to read through the final version. So, I can't predict whether or not that bill will get a vote this coming week. I hope that -- I expect we'll have enough time to do due diligence.

Already just reading through the drafts that came out, you know, my team and I found some just basic typos, right? And if we are going to be legislating to this level, a bill full of transformative programs that impact people, the people voting on it do deserve and should expect a basic amount of time to read through the final text.

But I'm excited to vote on the infrastructure bill. I've been excited for a while. Hopefully it will actually happen this week, and we'll move forward.

ACOSTA: And I just want to -- let me just follow very quickly on that. If you don't mind me reading into what you're saying just a little bit, it sounds as though your patience has run out a little bit in getting that hard infrastructure bill passed. Do you think that that hurt Terry McAuliffe in Virginia to some extent? Has that been a drag on his chances, do you think?

SPANBERGER: You don't have to read into it. My patience ran out about a month and a half ago. But I appreciate your being polite about it. You know, here's an opportunity where we can demonstrate how Democrats govern, right? We brought people together.

[17:34:54]

We created a bipartisan bill that passed the Senate with 69 votes, would make record, historic investments in our roads, our bridges, a broadband infrastructure, which during the pandemic, kids in my district and people in my district were doing their homework or commuting to work from a McDonald's parking lot or a Food Lion parking lot.

We would replace every lead pipe in America in this bill. We would invest in mitigation and resiliency efforts to prevent flooding and to mitigate for forest fires.

ACOSTA: Yes.

SPANBERGER: We would invest records amount in public transportation, electric buses, electric vehicle charging stations, and Amtrak. And so, would I love to say look at what Democrats on Capitol Hill have done and won't it be great when we have a jobs governor like Terry McAuliffe in the governor's mansion in Richmond? Yes, that would have been a fantastic thing to talk about.

But most importantly, it is a fantastic demonstration of what happens when you have focused Democratic leadership that are working on bringing people together, creating a coalition around the actual needs of our country, and governing. That's why I'm so excited about the bill and because it, you know, it's one step away from going to the president's desk.

ACOSTA: All right. Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger, thanks so much for your time. We appreciate it.

SPANBERGER: Thank you. Happy Halloween to you.

ACOSTA: All right. You as well.

Coming up, music superstar Jon Bon Jovi testing positive for COVID. We'll bring the latest on what we know about that. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:40:00]

ACOSTA: ACOSTA: Breaking news right now out of Tokyo where reports are emerging about an attack on a moving train, an attack that involved a knife and fire, and a number of people are hurt. I want to go to CNN's Blake Essig. Blake, tell us what happened.

BLAKE ESSIG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You know, Jim, a knife-wielding man has injured at least 17 people on a train and tried to set it on fire as the train was heading into Tokyo. At least one of those people injured, a 70-year-old man who was stabbed in the chest, is in serious condition.

Now, passenger cell phone video posted on Twitter captured this chaotic scene from inside the train as it was happening. Now, in the video, you can hear loud bangs and people screaming as they're seemingly running for their lives, going from train car to train car to get away from the attacker.

You can also see a large ball of flames in one of the cars, which filled the train with smoke. Now, police say the suspect used cigarette lighter fluid to try to set the train on fire. Now, according to public broadcaster NHK, the train made an emergency stop, allowing passengers to evacuate the train.

It happened around 8:00 p.m. local time last night as large amounts of people were streaming into the city center to celebrate Halloween. Now, unlike in the United States where Halloween is more so geared towards kids, here in japan, the holiday is more so geared towards adults where people will dress up in costume and celebrate in popular places like the famous Shibuya crossing, which is where this train was heading.

Now, police say the suspect has been arrested. He's identified himself as a 24-year-old man named Kyota Hattori, and he has been arrested on suspicion of murder, Jim.

ACOSTA: And what do authorities know about the suspect, Blake?

ESSIG: Well, at this point, not a whole lot. Again, he's identified himself as Kyota Hattori. He actually told investigators at the scene that he wanted to kill people, at least two people, and then receive the death penalty himself. Of course, Jim, this is a developing story. We'll bring you updated information as we're able to confirm it.

ACOSTA: And that video is just chilling. All right. Blake Essig, thanks so much for that report. We appreciate it. Just very disturbing details coming out of Japan.

New today, rock and roll superstar Jon Bon Jovi has tested positive for COVID. Bon Jovi had been scheduled to perform in Miami last night but had to pull out at the last minute after his rapid test turned out positive. The 59-year-old is fully vaccinated. A representative telling "Variety" he is doing well, and we wish him the best.

If you're flying American airlines this weekend, you'll want to check your flight status. The airline has canceled more than 1,500 flights since Friday because of what the company calls weather issues and staffing shortages.

CNN's Pete Muntean is with us now. Pete, American canceled about a quarter of its flights today. Just sounds miserable for passengers out there. Other carriers have to deal with the same weather conditions without these huge cancellations. I know I sound like one of those, you know, customers at the airport griping about what's going on here, but I can just hear the words coming out of their mouths right now. What's going on?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, the truth is here, Jim. But no airline is really immuned to these cascading kind of problems. First, it was Southwest Airlines three weeks ago. Now it is American Airlines this weekend. Just look at the latest numbers, 816 cancellations today alone, 548 yesterday, 343 on Friday. This means about 1 in every 10 American Airlines flights have been canceled over that three-day period.

This all really started according to American on Thursday when it says that high winds and bad weather hit one of its biggest hubs at DFW. That really started this chain reaction of cancellations. It left planes and crews at a position. American COO David Seymour sent a letter to the entire airline saying he wanted to build certainty into the operation. SO the airline began proactively cancelling flights.

[17:44:59]

But that left thousands of people stranded in long lines at airports across the country. Listen now.

(BEGIN VIDE CLIP)

UNKNOWN: I don't understand why it's canceled. I've heard that they didn't have enough staff. Well, you sold me a product. I paid for it. Now it's your job to get me there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: Remember, this is not just about staffing. That is only part of the issue here. A bit of good news, though. American Airlines says about 1,800 flight attendants who were on pandemic-related leave are now coming back starting tomorrow. So, the airline says there is an end in sight here, but it may still take a few days for things to get back to normal.

ACOSTA: All right. Pete Muntean, thank you very much for that.

And some breaking news coming in, in just the last couple of minutes. Here it is, the breaking news. We have just learned that White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has tested positive for COVID. She says she last saw President Biden Tuesday outside while masked.

Psaki said she made the decision not to travel on the foreign trip with the president due to a family emergency, which was members of her household testing positive for COVID-19, and we'll bring you more information as we get it, as it all comes in.

But the latest breaking news just happening in the last couple of minutes. We're learning that the White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki has tested positive for COVID. We'll get more information to you as it develops. And now here's CNN's Christine Romans with your "Before the Bell" report.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Jim. Supply chain disruptions, worker shortages, rising prices. Since the pandemic, all of these have been serious challenges to the recovery. But the Federal Reserve thinks the economy is strong enough to stand on its own.

This week the Fed is expected to outline plans reducing its emergency COVID support. Since the pandemic began, the Central Bank bought $120 billion worth of bonds every month. Economists expect that number to begin to be trimmed by $15 billion a month.

But even as it dials back support, the Fed is closely watching the labor market. Last month the economy added just 194,000 jobs, well short of expectations. On Friday the October numbers are due. Economists forecast 385,000 jobs added and a jobless rate of 4.8 percent. Another big miss, like the last couple of months could underscore how fragile this economic recovery remains. In New York, I'm Christine Romans.

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ACOSTA: And back with our breaking news. We have just learned that White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki tested positive for COVID. She says she last saw President Biden on Tuesday sitting outside more than six feet apart while masked. Psaki said she made the decision not to travel on the foreign trip with the president due to a family emergency, which was members of the household testing positive for COVID-19.

And of course, we wish the best to Jen Psaki, but again, another reminder that even though folks are getting vaccinated, they are sometimes testing positive in these breakthrough cases of COVID-19. And the latest coming in to CNN in the just last several minutes that Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, has tested positive for COVID. We'll be bringing you the latest information in all of this as it comes in. My colleague Pamela Brown will be also on top of it in just a few moments.

In the meantime, Buckingham Palace says Queen Elizabeth will spend the next two weeks resting on the advice of her doctors. At this point, all we know is that the 95-year-old monarch spent a night in the hospital last week for some preliminary investigations. We haven't been told what for.

Concerns about the queen's health were raised earlier this month when she arrived at an engagement with a cane, which is rare to see in public. Since then, she's opted for some light desk-based duties holding virtual meetings rather than any official visits.

In the meantime, on tonight's brand new episode of "Diana," we see how a desperate princess challenge the royal family and shook a powerful institution to a core. Here's a preview.

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UNKNOWN: There is a real pressure cooker atmosphere as Diana is planning for the publication of the book. It's at least a year in the making, and she's doing all this literally under the noses of royal officials.

UNKNOWN: Diana was effectively planting a bomb underneath the royal family.

UNKNOWN: Diana knew the minute Buckingham Palace found out about this, it would have been stopped.

UNKNOWN: At one stage Diana felt that all her conversations were being listened to, so we decided to get some scramblers. These are the original ones that were used which will be laughable nowadays, but each time we used them, we would have a conversation for perhaps a half a minute and then the line would be cut. Completely dead.

UNKNOWN: She insisted that we have our rooms at Kensington Palace swept for bugs. Diana trusted no one inside the royal system.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And don't miss this blockbuster series that delves into the life and death of Princess Diana. Be sure to tune in to an all-new episode of the CNN Original Series, "Diana" airs tonight at 9:00 p.m. only on CNN.

I just want to give you a quick final note on Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, testing positive for COVID. She did put out a statement just in the last several minutes and she is saying thanks to the vaccine, she's only experienced mild symptoms, which has enabled her to continue working from home.

[17:55:01]

She says she's going to continue to work at home until she can get back to work at the White House, but she plans to resume to work in- person at the conclusion of a 10-day quarantine following a negative rapid test, which is an additional White House requirement beyond CDC guidance. Take an adamant abundance of caution. So that's the latest news on the White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki testing positive for COVID.

That's the news for now. On this end, reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. Happy Halloween. Pamela Brown will have the latest details on all of this in just a few a moments. She takes over the CNN NEWSROOM live after a quick break. Have a great week, everybody. Good night. Happy Halloween.

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