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U.S. to Restrict Travel From South Africa, 7 Other Nationals Monday; Rep. Boebert Apologizes for Anti-Muslim Remarks about Rep. Omar; Boebert Mocks Secretary Buttigieg for Parental Leave: "Home Trying to Figure Out How to Chest Feed"; Ukrainian President Says Coup Being Planned Against Him; Montgomery, AL, Fined $25,000 After Mayor Removing Confederate Name from Street; Interview with Montgomery, AL, Mayor Steve Reed. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired November 26, 2021 - 14:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:32:37]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: President Biden now explaining more fully his decision to ban travel from South Africa and surrounding countries in the past hour.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny is live for us in Nantucket with the president.

What is he now said, Jeff?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, we are just getting a statement from the White House and from the president explaining a little bit more about what he's been doing on this.

He had a conversation today and briefed by Dr. Fauci, who is his top medical adviser on the coronavirus.

Let's take a look at a portion of this statement. The president said this:

"This morning, I was briefed by my chief medical adviser, Dr. Fauci, and the members of my COVID response team about the Omicron variant, which is spreading through South Africa."

"As a precautionary measure, we'll have more information. I'm ordering additional air travel restrictions from South Africa and seven other countries."

As we know these new restrictions will take effect on November 29th, which is Monday."

He goes on to say, "As we move forward, we'll continue to be guided by what the science and my medical team advises."

And then the president goes on to issue a longer statement about the need to get vaccinated here in America, that they need to get booster shots.

And he focuses on the unvaccinated, saying this is another reminder why vaccinations are so important.

And Alisyn, I do have more information about why this this is going into effect on Monday.

I spoke to a senior administration official. He said it takes some time and this is a super quick timeline, in this official's words.

Because the airlines have to get operationalized, in the official's words. And there has to be a formal proclamation. And there also has to be some new protocols set in place with the TSA.

So that is why it takes until Monday. This is not simply just like a flipping a switch.

But they said this is faster than previous travel bans. Largely, because they're operating under some experience from the earlier stages of COVID.

So, we do know that president is monitoring this as he's spending a long holiday weekend in Nantucket.

But the bottom line is officials are waiting and trying to get more scientific information about the spread of the variant.

But clearly, the U.S. and other leaders around Europe and the world are taking this extraordinarily seriously -- Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Jeff Zeleny, thank you for all of that. And thanks for getting the answers to those questions. We'll check back with you later.

ZELENY: Sure.

CAMEROTA: Meanwhile, Republican Congressman Lauren Boebert, of Colorado, is now apologizing for her racist, anti-Muslim comments about another member of Congress.

Boebert suggested that Ilhan Omar, who is a Democrat and a Muslim, might be a suicide bomber.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[14:35:04]

REP. LAUREN BOEBERT (R-CO): I was getting into an elevator with one of my staffers, and he and I were leaving the capitol.

We're going back to my office and we get in the elevator and I see a capitol police officer running hurriedly to the elevator. I see fret all over his face. And I looked to my left, and there she is, Ilhan Omar.

(LAUGHTER)

BOEBERT: And I said, well, she doesn't have a backpack, we should be fine. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa.

(LAUGHTER)

BOEBERT: So, I only had one floor to go, and I was like, I look over, and they said, oh, look, the jihad squad decided to show up for work today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Well, Congressman Boebert has now apologized via Twitter, writing:

"I apologize to anyone in the Muslim community I offended with my comment about Representative Omar. I have reached out to her office to speak with her directly. There are plenty of policy differences to focus on without this unnecessary distraction."

CNN's Lauren Fox joins us now.

Lauren, this is interesting. Lauren Boebert is no stranger to inflammatory comments. Why is she apologizing today?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And she used the same term, "jihad squad," on the floor just last week, Alisyn.

And it should be noted that Omar responded to this saying this event never even happened. And it was offensive. Just to echo those comments.

The other thing that is coming is that Boebert didn't just say these comments in a vacuum.

She went on at that same event to go after transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, who recently just had a baby with his partner.

Here is what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOEBERT: Meanwhile, you have the secretary of transportation, good old Mayor Pete, he wasn't even put in charge of the supply chain crisis. Someone else was tapped for that.

Because Mayor Pete is still at home trying to figure out how to chest feed.

(LAUGHTER)

BOEBERT: Somebody ought to tell him so he could get back to work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: And he is in a same-sex marriage that should be noted for part of why that is so offensive.

And she also called the president of the United States, President Joe Biden, that "piece of crap in the White House."

So she has not apologized for those comments that she made at that same event.

This is part of a broader problem on Capitol Hill. Just last week Paul Gosar, of Arizona, was censured for an Anime video he posted depicting the murder of a colleague.

And one of the key questions is, where is Republican leadership in all of this? Where is Kevin McCarthy in all of this?

Part of the challenge for McCarthy is that he has some on his right flank like Marjorie Taylor Greene who has been saying over the last several days that Kevin McCarthy doesn't have the votes if the House were to fall to Republicans in the midterm election to be speaker because of the actions he's taken against some members.

So this is just a mess in the Republican conference right now where you have a number of members that continue to make headlines for offensive comments.

And, yes, Boebert did apologize, but not for the subsequent comments that we flagged -- Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: This is why it's so confusing. She seems to enjoy her stand- up comedy routine that she thinks she's delivering there. I think we need more of an explanation of why apologize today.

But we'll continue to cover this.

Lauren Fox, thank you.

[14:38:35]

Is Vladimir Putin planning to overthrow the president of Ukraine? New claims of a Russian-back coup attempt, next.

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[14:43:20]

CAMEROTA: Ukraine president publicly accused a group of Russians and Ukrainians of plotting a coup against him. He also claims the plotters are trying to involve one of the country's richest men.

And President Zelensky believes the coup is set for next week. His allegations follow a buildup of Russian military forces along the border.

The Kremlin denies of being part of any coup plot or planning an invasion.

Matthew Chance, senior international correspondent, joins us now.

What do we know, Matthew? MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was

an extraordinary and quite a dramatic announcement made by President Zelensky of Ukraine during a round table with journalists.

He said, look, he has intelligence, he has audio recordings of Russians and Ukrainians talking about a coup plot that they were organizing to topple his government.

And it is happening soon. It may still happen within the next few days. If fact, he's saying it is the first or the second of December that this coup plot was going to be put into action.

And so an extraordinary sort of escalation in the war of words that is taking place between Ukraine and Russia.

Russia is accused by the United States, in particular, of massing forces close to the border of Ukraine and being poised to launch yet another invasion of that sovereign country, something the Kremlin denies.

As you mentioned, the Kremlin denies any knowledge of this plot against Volodymyr Zelensky and his government in Ukraine as well.

And there's something else that's going on as well, which is that President Zelensky is engaged in a campaign of trying to undermine and diminish the power of rich businessman in Ukraine, the so-called oligarchs, who have enormous economic and political power.

[14:45:07]

And some critics in the country are saying, this, while it speaks to a real Russian threat, may also be intended to silence or to threaten some of the people who he regards as political rivals inside of Ukraine -- Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK, Matthew Chance, thank you for the update.

OK, the city of Montgomery, Alabama, is being fined $25,000 for removing a Confederate president's name from one of their streets. The mayor is going to join us live with what he does next.

And join Fareed Zacharia for an in-depth look at China's leader. "China's Iron Fist: Xi Jinping and the Stake's for America" begins Sunday night at 9:00 Eastern only on CNN.

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[14:50:18]

CAMEROTA: The mayor of Montgomery, Alabama, removed a Confederate leader's name from a street last month, and renamed it for a local civil rights activist.

Now, the state attorney general has hit Montgomery with a $25,000 fine. This is based on a 2017 law to preserve monuments and memorials in Alabama that have stood for more than 40 years. Joining us now is Montgomery's mayor, Steven Reed.

Mayor, thank you very much for being here.

Did you know you were going to be in trouble when you changed that street name?

MAYOR STEVEN REED, (D-MONTGOMERY): Well, thank you for having me. No, we weren't sure what the state would do. It was certainly something that we knew was a possibility.

But we thought it was the right thing to do. And we want to move forward with it as we try to seek a new image for Montgomery, and a new beginning.

And one focused more on the economic opportunities, our investments in public education and our investments in our people in our community, as opposed to relics of the past.

CAMEROTA: It doesn't sound like some of your fellow Alabamans want a new image for Montgomery.

With this law, they want to preserve the Confederate statutes and leaders names on street signs. That's why you're being fined $25,000, they don't share this vision that you have for Montgomery.

REED: No, apparently not. And that's, unfortunately, because I think we have seen, in my 10 years in office, a lot of interest in the community, a lot of interest in expanding our economic footprint.

However, one has to ask the question, if we were changing this name from Jefferson Davis Avenue to Stonewall Jackson Avenue, would that still be an issue? So you know, what are we trying to preserve here?

I think those are the questions that many of our leaders at the state level have to answer.

And the other portion has, is a street a monument? Is a school necessarily a monument?

This came around the time when statues were being removed from New Orleans and other cities around the country.

I think we have to really look at this from a broader context.

CAMEROTA: What's your plan? Are you going to pay this $25,000 fine?

REED: We're looking at that. We have had donors from across the country offer to pay the fine so we would not have to spend $1 of taxpayer money for that.

We want to also make sure that we don't have the responsibility to challenge this law for a bigger issue as it relates to what cities and municipalities have the right to do and whether or not the law truly is unjust.

If we decide that, we'll move forward potentially with a court challenge.

But no final decisions have been made at this time whether to pay it or not.

We will continue to look at this in the broad view of how we want Montgomery to move forward and what really makes the most sense for us as a community.

CAMEROTA: Please keep us posted.

Mayor Steven Reed, thank you for being on.

REED: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: We have brand-anew details about what Brian Laundrie's parents knew about his disappearance and the disappearance of a gun. That's next.

[14:53:29]

We have a very busy news day. Here's what else to watch.

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[14:58:59]

CAMEROTA: We have new details about Brian Laundrie's disappearance and apparent suicide. Laundrie was the person of interest in Gabby Petito's death.

According to their attorney, Laundrie's discovered a handgun was missing from their home in September the same day they reported him missing.

They told officers but their attorney says both he and law enforcement agreed it was best not to make the information public.

CNN has reached out to the FBI for comment.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CAMEROTA: OK. It is almost the top of the hour. I'm Alisyn Camerota. Thanks so much for joining me on this special holiday edition of CNN NEWSROOM. Victor is off today.

And last hour, the U.S. joined at least a dozen other nations in issuing a travel ban against South Africa and seven neighboring countries.

President Biden announced that, starting Monday, foreign travelers from these countries will be restricted from entering the United States.

This move comes just minutes after the World Health Organization designated a new variant of concern with COVID. And named it Omicron.