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Scientists Race to Understand Omicron as New Cases Spread; U.S. Imposes Travel Restrictions Over New COVID Variant; South African President Calls Travel Ban Unfair and Discriminatory; U.K. Tightens Restrictions on Travel and Masks Over Omicron Concerns; Moderna Chief Medical Officer Speaks About Omicron. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired November 28, 2021 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:38]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BIDEN: Even with the variant that we don't know yet the full impact, get boosted. Get vaccinated.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN HOST (voice-over): Tonight, scientists racing to decode the new coronavirus variant as more countries detect first cases of Omicron.

DR. PAUL BURTON, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, MODERNA: How transmissible is this? We don't know yet. How severe is this? We don't know the answer to that question right now.

COLLINS: Concern and condemnation as more countries ban travel from South Africa and neighboring nations.

URSULA VON DER LEYEN, PRESIDENT, EUROPEAN COMMISSION: We are now in a race against time.

PRES. CYRIL RAMAPHOSA, SOUTH AFRICA: These restrictions are completely unjustified.

SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: We didn't need to close off travel and unfortunately, we're punishing South Africa for doing the right thing.

COLLINS: The U.S. set to enforce its own travel restrictions tomorrow.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're going to be cautious to make sure there is no travel to and from South Africa and six other countries.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're concerned if we're going to be able to come back home.

COLLINS: But with lessons learned from past variants, immediate measures are being taken as scientists rush to evaluate the threat.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can take a COVID test on site and they give you this little at-home test kit. That definitely feels different when you come home, and you see all that going on.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS: Good evening. I'm Kaitlan Collins in Washington in tonight for Pamela Brown.

Tonight, we start with breaking news because countries around the world are scrambling to respond to a concerning new variant known as Omicron while top scientists are evaluating whether it causes more severe disease. At least a dozen countries have now detected cases of the variant including those shown in red on this map. A short time ago, Canada reported its first cases.

A number of countries including the United States are shutting their doors to South Africa and nearby countries in an attempt to contain the variant, although preventing it from spreading entirely will likely be impossible. Those restrictions have sparked anger especially in South Africa where scientists first reported the variant and alerted the global community. Medical experts say if Omicron is not already in the U.S., it probably will be soon.

And as they struggle to understand its many mutations and what that means for vaccines, there are some encouraging signs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARGARET BRENNAN, CBS' "FACE THE NATION": Do you have any indication that it's more lethal or that it makes people more ill?

GOTTLIEB: Yes, not right now. The three critical questions right now is, first, is this more virulent, so to your question, is this making people more ill? There's no indication it is. And in fact, there's some anecdotal information off of physicians in South Africa that this could be causing mild illness.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: CNN has reporters all over the world covering this fast- moving story. We're going to start in the United States. Nick Valencia is at the airport in Atlanta. Joe Johns is at the White House.

Joe, we know President Biden returned today to the White House. He got a briefing from his COVID task force on the developments around this variant given they met with South African scientists earlier today. So, what did President Biden hear from his team?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kaitlan, we got a readout. And there's a lot in there about what we don't know. It's basically a status report after the long Thanksgiving Day weekend. The president flying back here from his vacation in Nantucket straight into a briefing on COVID with his COVID response team.

And on his readout, there's a lot of attribution to Dr. Anthony Fauci, says, "Dr. Fauci informed the president that while it will take approximately two more weeks to have definitive information on the transmissibility, severity and other characteristics of the variant, he continues to believe that existing vaccines are likely to provide a degree of protection against severe cases of COVID."

And Dr. Fauci also reiterated that boosters for fully vaccinated individuals provide the strongest available protection from COVID. Now the president is expected to provide an additional update on Monday. Monday as we mentioned at the top is also the day when those travel restrictions on several Southern African countries including South Africa and Botswana will go into effect.

The president was asked today at Joint Base Andrews as to whether if he could answer they will actually put in more restrictions on more countries in the future. The president declined to answer that question -- Kaitlan.

[19:05:04]

COLLINS: Yes, and we know, of course, this is a decision he made about restricting travel pretty quickly after getting that update from Dr. Fauci.

Nick, I want to go to you because of course you're in Atlanta. You're at one of the busiest airports in the world. Delta is headquartered there, and they are still servicing those flights to South Africa today. But of course, the clock is ticking on that and it's not going to be for much longer.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And we're starting to see the last of the flights come into Atlanta from South Africa before those travel restrictions go into effect on Monday. In fact, earlier I spoke to one woman who arrived this afternoon from Johannesburg. She said her travel experience was just a nightmare. Her first flight was canceled. She was eventually able to get on another flight, and to her surprise when she got here to the Atlanta airport she did not have to go to or through any additional COVID screenings.

She did say that she thinks people are making a lot to do about nothing with this variant. That's her opinion. She also said that she wouldn't be surprised if the variant was already here in the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALHAN, ARRIVED IN THE U.S. FROM JOHANNESBURG: Here? No, there is no measures. There will be measures only taken in those countries that everyone is so hard on. I wouldn't be surprised. And again, when you have the vaccine you could carry those things and show no symptoms. So, people just need to stop panicking so much.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: She went on to add something that we've heard throughout the last 24 hours. She believes that South Africa is being unfairly punished because of their, you know, because they came out and announced that this variant existed in their country.

And I will say just very quickly here the passengers that we've spoken to in Atlanta have had a similar cavalier attitude about the Omicron strain. It clearly from what it appears did not make much of an impact on this historically busy travel date. At one point, the line here just next to me, which is empty now, was stretching for about 40 minutes. Things are running smoothly here.

Meanwhile, Delta, the hometown airline, is expected to continue their flights to South Africa despite those travel restrictions going into effect on Monday -- Kaitlan.

COLLINS: Yes, and we know that South African leaders are also very upset about these travel restrictions not just from the United States but from many other countries.

Nick Valencia in Atlanta, Joe Johns at the White House, thank you both for joining us and updating us on the latest.

At least a dozen countries have now detected cases of the variant. And the countries that you see in the red have confirmed cases of Omicron. Health officials are still evaluating test samples, meaning the red on that map could expand. Scientists in South Africa first alerted the global community about the severity of this new variant about four days ago. And it has quickly become a major concern around the world as those world leaders wait to learn more about this.

David McKenzie is in Johannesburg. David, South African officials have been pretty vocal about their concerns about the response here. They say their scientists were the ones who sequenced this, who detected it, who alerted the community, and now they feel like they're being punished by all of these travel restrictions.

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Kaitlan. And the very top official, the president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, who I have to say having covered him for some time is usually pretty diplomatic on these issues. He was very not diplomatic naming countries one by one, almost naming and shaming them, including the U.S. Those countries and regions that have cut off Southern Africa including South Africa from travel. He then went on to criticize those countries saying this is all deeply unfair.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAMAPHOSA: Now these restrictions are completely unjustified and unfairly discriminate against our country and our Southern African sister countries. The prohibition of travel is not informed by science, nor will it be effective in preventing the spread of this variant. The only thing the prohibition on travel will do is to further damage the economies of the affected countries and undermine the ability to respond to, and also to recover from the pandemic.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

MCKENZIE: Now the South African president is backed up by the World Health Organization. Just today the director of the Africa region saying that there's only minimal effect of these kind of bans and that the door should be open with possibly more testing and tracing in place. In the coming days South African scientists and all around the world

will be trying to understand just how dangerous this variant is, if at all. So far there has been a spike of cases where I'm sitting in the Gauteng Province but there's no sign yet of a spike in hospitalizations. But as everyone's been saying, it's too early to tell yet. The expectation at least, and maybe it's just a gut feel, that the vaccines will have some level of efficacy against this new variant -- Kaitlan.

COLLINS: Yes. And the White House has said they made this decision about these new restrictions based on essentially an abundance of caution.

[19:10:02]

Even if it only buys them a little time, they say that is pretty valuable in figuring out more about this variant.

David McKenzie, we'll check back in with you. Thanks so much.

We'll also get the view from Europe now. CNN's Nada Bashir is in London.

And Nada, we note that there are a lot of new restrictions going into place, a tightening of restrictions essentially in the U.K. starting on Tuesday, right?

NADA BASHIR, CNN PRODUCER: Absolutely. Those restrictions will be coming into force, all part of efforts to really bring this under control to stem the spread of this variant. The U.K. has today confirmed its third case of the Omicron variant. So there are serious concerns that we have heard from the Prime Minister Boris Johnson announcing that there will be some national measures including mandatory mask wearing in shops and on public transport.

But really the key focus right now, all those travel restrictions that we just heard about, the U.K. has added at least 10 African nations so far to its red list. And that means for those countries, anyone traveling from there will be required to isolate for 10 days in a government-approved hotel or at their own expense.

We have also seen other restrictions coming to force for all travelers. They will now be required to take a PCR test by day two of arrival and will be required to maintain in isolation until they get that negative test results. And we've seen similar restrictions coming into force across the European Union as well. All part of efforts to really stem that spread. But there are serious concerns and serious questions that remain.

The European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen highlighting this saying today she thinks there are still some time needed to assess the risk this variant may pose. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VON DER LEYEN: We are now in a race against time. Why that? Because we know not all about this variant but it is a variant of concern and the scientists and manufacturer need two to three weeks to have a full picture of the mutations of the Omicron variant.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

BASHIR: So, race against time. And that really is how European leaders are treating it. We have seen that sense of urgency in the restrictions being put in place despite criticism from those Southern African nations and the World Health Organization. But there is a sense of urgency as we do see these cases continue to spread, the U.K. Germany, Denmark, Italy amongst those now confirming cases.

And perhaps most worrying in these developments that we're seeing in Europe, the Netherlands today confirming that 13 passengers have so far tested positive for this new variant. Those travelers arriving in Amsterdam on Friday from South Africa. And on Friday a total of 61 passengers tested positive for coronavirus. So, there are serious concerns that this spread will continue and could spiral out of control -- Kaitlan.

COLLINS: Yes. And we could see more of those restrictions as officials say it could be about two weeks before they know more definitively whether or not this is more transmissible or causes more severe disease or of course if it's effective against these vaccines.

Nada Bashir in London, thank you so much for the update.

A heads up that later this hour Dr. Leana Wen is here to answer questions about the new COVID variant, and we'll also have Dr. Peter Hotez weighing in with his advice for those of you at home in the next hour. Also, ahead Moderna's chief medical officer is explaining how long it could take to create another vaccine that is variant specific if the current vaccines aren't effective against Omicron.

Then I'll ask Republican Congressman Nancy Mace if she supports the new travel restrictions that are going into place starting tomorrow. And this man is lucky to be alive after he flew from Guatemala to Miami while stowed away in a plane's landing gear.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:17:49]

COLLINS: Tonight, President Biden is huddling with his COVID experts as the U.S. is bracing for the new highly mutated coronavirus variant and waiting to learn more about it. Starting tomorrow the White House is going to restrict travel from several African nations to buy more time for the scientists to do that, to figure out whether or not it is more transmissible or causes more severe disease.

But new COVID concerns could mean more problems for a president who has promised to put the virus in the rear-view mirror.

Joining me now to discuss is CNN editor-at-large Chris Cillizza. So, Chris, of course, this is something that President Biden has made

very clear. He knows this is the success of his presidency if this virus is actually put in the rear-view mirror. And now that there are these concerns about this variant, though we still don't know a lot about it, we're still waiting to figure out more definitively information about it, but the White House does seem to be responding to this pretty quickly.

CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Yes, and I think they sort of have to. Look, to your point, Kaitlan, the fundamental promise of Joe Biden's campaign as it related to his presidency was, I will bring competency back, that Donald Trump's time in office, which was highlighted by his mishandling of coronavirus pandemic was incompetent. Whether you like me, you don't like me, or not a Democrat, you're a Republican, I will make sure that we as a nation are putting science first and are responding to this because the only way that we get back to normal is to put this virus -- make it endemic. Put it as much as we can in the rear-view mirror.

So, anything that threatens that is problematic for Joe Biden politically particularly he's already in a pretty weak spot. This is -- he's not at 60 anymore whether it's on his handling of the coronavirus or overall. He's in the 40s now.

COLLINS: Yes.

CILLIZZA: So, it's already a dangerous place to be.

COLLINS: Yes. If you look at his poll numbers from June to November on the competence in handling of coronavirus which of course was a strong suit for him entering office. I do wonder what about these travel restrictions that are going to go into effect tomorrow. This is a decision they made pretty quickly. But the president says he decided this after talking to the CDC, talking to Dr. Anthony Fauci, though there were some people in this administration that have been critical of these travel restrictions before saying that they were xenophobic, or they didn't do much to help.

CILLIZZA: Absolutely.

COLLINS: Do you think the calculus changes now that they are in the driver's seat?

[19:20:01]

CILLIZZA: Yes. I mean, I think we are both old enough to remember how when Donald Trump announced travel restrictions, there were plenty of Democratic critics who say like this is pointless. It doesn't, it's not a virus that respects borders, et cetera, et cetera. I mean, why do it? Well, sure, it's a little bit hypocritical. But because you have to show movement. I think the worst thing that can happen for a politician particularly someone in Joe Biden's situation right now is to look like you are kind of sitting back and waiting.

Even if the science, to your point, as you made many times in the show, we're not going to know for a few weeks. COLLINS: Yes.

CILLIZZA: Just how dangerous this is. But if Joe Biden waited for those two weeks and then we found out it was really dangerous. The Monday morning quarterbacking would be vicious for a guy who's not in a strong position. You have to keep remembering that. He is not starting from 60 percent approval. He's starting from low 40s approval. The elections is in less than a year, the midterm election.

So, all of that goes into it and so I think all they're trying to do is show movement, even though they know that it's somewhat pointless both because infections don't respect borders, but also because we don't know enough about this new variant yet to really know if that's the right thing to do.

COLLINS: Yes. So, we got about two weeks, Dr. Fauci says, apparently to President Biden tonight before we learn more. I do want to ask you about something else that's happening this week. Because lawmakers are coming back to Washington after the Thanksgiving recess and one thing that happened while of course they were gone were these comments from Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert. Making these comments about her Democratic colleague Ilhan Omar who was one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress. And basically, implying that she was worried she could be a suicide bomber, and made a joke about it when they were in the elevator together.

CILLIZZA: Yes. That she was a terrorist or could be.

COLLINS: Which we should note Omar says did not even happen. She's denying this interaction ever happened. But are you surprised that in his first statement on this Kevin McCarthy who wants to be the House speaker if Republicans were to take control did not condemn what she said?

CILLIZZA: No, because go back and look whether it's Marjorie Taylor Greene, we've seen comments made over and over and over again. Paul Gosar, right, from Arizona? Kevin McCarthy has not been the one to come down on them. Right? Marjorie Taylor Greene is not on any committees anymore. Not because of Kevin McCarthy. Because of the Democratic House which voted to take her off committees.

Paul Gosar was censured not because of Kevin McCarthy but because of a Democratic House. If anything happens with Lauren Boebert, it's not going to be because of Kevin McCarthy. Why? Think bank when John Boehner resigned very suddenly in the mid-2000s. The point at -- Kevin McCarthy was widely seen as the guy. He was going to be speaker. He goes into a meeting who's going to be speaker, conservatives particularly the House Freedom Caucus revolts, he pulls himself out. Paul Ryan winds up the speaker.

Well, Kevin McCarthy is mindful of that. He has not forgotten that. He has spent the decade plus since making sure he's solid with these folks and with their majority in reach, right, he's less than a year away, everything looks good if you're a Republican to win back the House, he's not going to be the guy that's going to endanger it. Now I would argue that's an absence of leadership that is significant. Right?

Whether or not it's good for you politically, when someone says something like what Lauren Boebert said, or what Paul Gosar said or what Marjorie Taylor Green said, I would argue there are some level of leadership involved in stepping up and saying, this is wrong, regardless of the political consequences. But we can't be surprised. This is who Kevin McCarthy is and we know why. He wants to be speaker.

COLLINS: And of course, he needs those votes to become speaker.

CILLIZZA: Absolutely he needs those.

COLLINS: But I do still think he's going to get a lot of questions on this from Capitol Hill reporters this week when he's back on the halls of Congress.

CILLIZZA: He will. But he's also, look, again, he got lots of questions on Marjorie Taylor Green, he got lots of questions on Paul Gosar, and he was, remember, he was not the guy who penalized these people. It was a Democratic-led House and Nancy Pelosi.

COLLINS: Chris Cillizza, thanks so much for being with us on a Sunday night.

CILLIZZA: Thank you.

COLLINS: Moderna says its scientists are already working on an Omicron booster. But that it could be weeks before they know if their vaccine works against this new variant. Moderna's chief medical officer weighs in when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:28:37]

COLLINS: Scientists in South Africa were the first to alert the global community about the new Omicron variant. Officials say it hasn't been detected in the United States yet but it's likely only a matter of time despite these new efforts to contain it. Omicron has an unusually high number of mutations which may help it spread more rapidly. Doctors are offering a word of caution that it's too early to tell if it causes more severe cases of COVID-19.

CNN's Paula Reid spoke with Moderna's chief medical officer about what this new variant Omicron means for their vaccine.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BURTON: We have to go through a couple of weeks here of uncertainty. There are three questions we really need the answers to. How transmissible is this variant? How severe is it? And will the antibodies produced in response to the COVID vaccines affect it? And we won't know that last question for a couple of weeks. But what we do know is that the best protection is to get vaccinated.

If you're on the fence, if you haven't been vaccinated, get vaccinated. And now everybody over 18 in this country is at least eligible for boosting. So if you now eligible for boosting, get boosted as well. By doing that, we at least know that you'll get that first line of critical protection.

PAULA REID, CNN ANCHOR: If it turns out that this particular variant does not work with the current vaccine, how long will it take to come up with a booster or a new version of the vaccine to protect against a variant like this?

[19:30:00]

BURTON: In Moderna, we've been testing variant specific risks in the vaccines over the summer, one to the beta variant, one to delta. Our platform, we can move very fast. We think within weeks to maybe two to three months we would be able to have an omicron specific vaccine booster available for testing and then for administration.

So, you know, this is going to go at the fastest possible speed, but we have to do careful science now. We don't want to misstep. Academic community around the world needs to generate data that we can all be absolutely certain on if we are going to pivot now and make some changes on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Big questions that a lot of world leaders have and now the World Health Organization is calling omicron a, quote, variant of concern. So, what does that mean for people who are already fully vaccinated, have not gotten a shot and, of course, the country as a whole?

Joining me now to hopefully answer some of those questions is Dr. Leana Wen, former Health Commissioner for the city of Baltimore, and Author of "Lifelines," A Doctor's Journey in the Fight for Publican health.

Dr. Wen, just first, I'd like to get your initial thoughts on what you think about this variant and the developments that we've seen play out today?

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Well, I'm very worried. And I think it is the right thing for the entire public health and scientific community to prepare for the worst because we don't know yet as to whether this is more contagious than the delta variant and, therefore, is going to displace the delta variant. And then other key questions, is it more deadly? We don't know and we also don't know what is the level of protection that our existing vaccines offer against this new variant.

Although chances are that our vaccines are going to work against it, maybe a little bit less well. But that again speaks to why we need to give everybody boosters. It's really time for the U.S. to clarify our messaging around boosters. We should be saying that every adult needs to get a booster and we should even consider potentially changing the definition of what fully vaccinated means. COLLINS: Yes. You've heard officials talk about boosters ever since they've first talked about these new travel restrictions on Friday. One of the South African doctors who was among the first in her country to suspect about this new COVID variant said this about omicron today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANGELIQUE COETZEE, CHAIR, SOUTH AFRICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION: So, so far, we've only seen breakthrough infections, not severe infections. Again, might change. I'm not saying the virus is not going to give you severe infections, but the whole hype out there doesn't make any sense -- medical sense at this stage.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: You see there, she said it doesn't make any medical sense at this stage. So, do you think the concern around this is justified at this point?

WEN: I always think that we need to be proactive here this entire pandemic the U.S. and in fact the world has been behind. I would much rather that this be a false alarm and that we say, okay, we did a lot, we saw that this variant is not that concerning and then we call it a day. That would be much better than the worse, which is not be prepared for something that could really set us back. We have made so much progress when it comes to COVID. It would be really devastating if we let it go at this point.

COLLINS: Well, the U.S. is going to restrict travel. So, while they are waiting to find out more details, they're restricting it from South Africa, seven other nations starting tomorrow. But I do wonder what you think of this comment from the former FDA commissioner, Scott Gottleib, who he says he thinks it's punishment for South Africa even though their scientists who alerted the community to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SCOTT GOTTLIEB, FORMER FDA COMMISSIONER: Well, look, I think it's unfortunately very punitive and we could have accomplished a lot of what we're seeking to accomplish with these restrictions perhaps by increasing requirements travelers, requiring that they'd be vaccinated and also have' negative PCR test in the last 24 hours.

These kinds of restrictions are going to reduce introductions. They could buy us perhaps a couple of weeks. But we didn't need to close off travel. And, unfortunately, we're punishing South Africa for doing the right thing and telling other nations who want to sequence strains that they find, that we're giving them real disincentive to do that because if they turn over new variants, this is what's going to happen to them. So, this is a bad step, I think, from a policy standpoint.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Do you think it's a bad step or do you think it's a good step? WEN: I think it was a step that had to be taken. I mean, look, I agree with Dr. Gottlieb that we don't want to disincentivize scientists from other countries and officials from other countries from disclosing new variants if they were to come up. But at the same time the U.S. has to take all steps to protect ourselves.

I do think that the travel restrictions for these eight countries is necessary, but I also think that the Biden administration, if they're going to go that far, they should go even further, meaning that everyone who are international travelers at this point, now that we know omicron is found in so many other countries, we should really be quarantining and retesting all travelers.

Also, right now, we're allowing permanent residents and American citizens to return from these Southern African countries, which we should, but that we should also have mandatory quarantining and retesting for them as well.

[19:35:05]

Otherwise, there are just too many loopholes and we're not really accomplishing our goal, which is to contain omicron and try to prevent it from getting to this country, recognizing that it may already be in the U.S. We should be doing other things too, including really encouraging boosters but also ramping up testing and implementing indoor mask mandates too.

COLLINS: And we do know President Biden will be providing an update to the country states tomorrow. We'll see if he gets into any of that. But, Dr. Leana Wen, thank you so much for joining us on this tonight.

WEN: Thank you, Kaitlan.

COLLINS: Amid rising tensions with China, five U.S. lawmakers traveled to Taiwan and met with officials there. I'll speak to one of those five, Congresswoman Nancy Mace, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:40:00]

COLLINS: President Biden announcing that the U.S. will restrict travel from South Africa and seven of its neighbors starting tomorrow. As the White House says, this is a way buy to buy scientists more time to evaluate the new omicron variant. The president just finished huddling with his top COVID advisers, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, who said he thinks it will be about two weeks before we have more information on how serious this new variant is, as you can see in this picture provided by the White House.

South Carolina Republican Nancy Mace joins me now. Congresswoman, thank you so much for being here. First, I'd like to get your reaction to the news today about this new variant and these new travel restrictions that we are seeing from the administration.

REP. NANCY MACE (R-SC): Well, I support the Biden administration's new travel restrictions at this time with omicron on the horizon, just as I did when the Trump administration did the same thing. COVID-19 is very serious business. I'm a long hauler. This is a disease and illness that we should take seriously. And I want to take the opportunity to encourage the American people to talk to their doctors and talk to them about getting vaccinated.

I was recently diagnosed, Kaitlan, with asthma and I had COVID-19 a year-and-a-half ago, and I'm still feeling the repercussions of that illness a year-and-a-half later.

COLLINS: Yes. I think that's a big concern of whether or not, of course, all of this is going on, what the effects of this are going to be and whether or not this new variant does cause more disease. So, is that part of something that back in your community you are actively encouraging everyone else to get vaccinated especially now with this new development about the new variant?

MACE: I have been. And I've been a proponent of vaccinations and wearing masks when we need to when we had the delta variant raging in South Carolina. I wrote an op-ed to my community. I work with our state department of health. I run ads encouraging my district to go and get vaccinated. And when we have these variants and we have these spikes, to take every precaution from washing our hands to wearing the N-95 or KN-95 masks more than the medical mask. There is a significant -- statistically significant number of people that are our protected from COVID when they wear those masks.

And I just returned from the new Indo-Pacific region. I had to have a vaccination to enter in all of those countries. I have had four COVID tests in the last seven days. And so, the Biden administration is taking, I believe, safe steps to keep the American people safe as we work through the challenges ahead.

COLLINS: It's a lot of tests in a few days.

MACE: Yes, it is a lot.

COLLINS: On that trip though, I do have some questions about that, because you were part of a group of five U.S. lawmakers who visited Taiwan in a surprise trip as part of this bigger trip where, as you noted, you were visiting troops on Thanksgiving, feeding them, talking to them and whatnot. But this trip to Taiwan is one that China wanted this delegation of U.S. lawmakers to call off. And afterward, you notably referred to it as, quote, the Republic of Taiwan. Can you explain what was behind your visit there?

MACE: Yes. First of all, I want to say it was a tremendous honor to go visit our troops in Japan and Korea with Thanksgiving with this bipartisan delegation, as the lone Republican, by the way. This is the first time in two years the House of Representatives has sent a congressional delegation to the Indo-Pacific region. And the minute I landed. I did tweet that I landed in the Republic of Taiwan. That was sort of my subtle but strong nod to the Taiwanese people and some of their concern about the aggression of China.

And it's the Chinese embassy that contacted each and every one of us on this delegation, Republican and Democrat alike, demanding that we cancel this trip. And we did not. And I'm thankful to Chairman Takano, who led the way and led this bipartisan delegation. It was part of returning to normal. We did a number of CODELs as a country as Congress pre-COVID. And this is sort of an attempt to start to return to normal and continue to build relationships with our allies, our partners and our friends in the region. The only one that's been aggressive in all of these cases is Communist China, not us.

COLLINS: I do think some people have been wondering whether that was an intentional choice of wording from you. So notable to hear you say, yes, it was to call it the Republic of Taiwan --

MACE: Yes, 100 percent. Yes. No, 100 percent it was. And I've had so many Taiwanese and Taiwanese Americans, I even had a young woman walk up to me in tears thanking me for doing that. It was really an attempt to tell the Taiwanese, the people there, that we appreciate what they are doing. They are important to our economy and economies around the world. And we want to make sure that their democracy and their freedoms are protected. And that was my hope in that tweet, and it got a lot of reaction, extremely positive reaction from both Republicans and Democrats around the world and I'm appreciative of that sentiment as well.

[19:45:06]

COLLINS: And you're back in South Carolina now. I know lawmakers are returning to Washington this week. I want to get your take on something that happened while you all were gone from Washington, which was a comment that was made by your Republican colleague, Lauren Boebert, about Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who is one of the first Muslim women elected to Congress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. LAUREN BOEBERT (R-CO): I looked to my left and there she is, Ilhan Omar. And I said, well, she doesn't have a backpack, we should be fine.

I looked over. And then I said, oh, look, the jihad squad decided to show up for work today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: What's your response to that comment from Congresswoman Boebert?

MACE: I have time after time condemned my colleagues on both sides of the aisle for racist tropes and remarks that I find disgusting. And this is no different than any other. As a member of Congress and seeing such division in our country, we all have a responsibility, both elected members of Congress on both sides of the aisle and the American people in our communities and at work in our communities and everything else to lower -- we have a responsibility to lower the temperature, and this does not do that.

I didn't come to Congress to throw bombs on Twitter, to raise -- take advantage of people by saying crazy things to raise money or to be a comedian. I'll leave comedy to Dave Chappelle. I was disappointed in the comments. I was encouraged to see that she did apologize for the comments, and I believe that's a step in the right direction. But I do know as a Republican, I get threats -- I carry a gun now, Kaitlan, because of the threats I get from the fringes of both parties right now. And we have got to do our part to lower the temperature and try to work together.

Again, another lesson I learned as part of this bipartisan CODEL, when we work together, America is stronger on the world stage. And, quite frankly, our world needs that right now because of the aggression we see from places like China and Russia. And so, I've been very vocal even on this network, these kinds of things.

But as a republican, too, I know that even I've disagreed with someone on the left, I know Republicans are blanketed as white supremacists, and I know that's not right either. And so, I encourage people on both sides, they all take a pause and maybe step away from Facebook and social media and really think about how our words have consequences.

COLLINS: But you do condemn this comment from Congresswoman Boebert?

MACE: Oh, absolutely, 100 percent.

COLLINS: Do you think Kevin McCarthy should do more publicly to also publicly condemn it?

MACE: Well, I've seen Kevin personally and privately behind the scenes talk to our conference and bring us together. I know that he's pulled members aside and had tough conversations with them. He's been a good leader on many of these issues. And there are so many crises that have faced our country this year from immigration to the economy and inflation, you know, I appreciate his leadership.

And for me, I'm going to speak for myself, but I have consistently condemned these of comments across the board repeatedly. And, quite frankly, I'm tired of it. It's really time for us to work together and do something better for our nation. I was elected to represent my constituents. I was elected to represent and put our country and people first, and we've got to do a better job, both sides, going forward.

COLLINS: Would it help lower the temperature, which you say is necessary, if Kevin McCarthy was vocally forceful about these comments?

MACE: I would say it would help lower the temperature if both sides did that. What I see from time to time is one sides going after one another and there's no accountability on this. We've seen Maxine Waters make comments at riots and protests. We've seen some of the anti-Semitic tropes from Representative Omar. I would like to see both sides treated equally, and I think that's important. But if we don't, this is a hyper partisan time in Congress, and that's disappointing.

I know, as a republican, I talk with folks who are different religions and different colors and from different countries. And I know that we have got to do a better job because these are people that are coming from places where there are great humanitarian issues, where there's communism, where there's socialism, they're fleeing these countries, and they're conservative. And I think it's incumbent upon us to do more outreach to those communities as well and what has been said last week does not help us get us there?

COLLINS: And Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has said, A, that this interaction didn't happen, and that she wants to see more actions from both leaders and Democrats and Republicans responding to what Congresswoman Boebert said. But we'll have to leave it there. Congresswoman Nancy Mace, thanks for joining us tonight.

MACE: Thank you.

COLLINS: Up next, Matthew McConaughey puts the rumors to rest on whether or not he'll run for Texas governor. We'll let you know whether he's in or out, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:50:00]

COLLINS: Just in to CNN, Matthew McConaughey says he will not run for Texas governor. The Oscar winner made the announcement on social media just moments ago saying he instead wants to focus on serving his home state from outside of public office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEW MCCONAUGHEY, ACTOR: We have some problems we need to be fixed that our politics needs new purpose we have divides that need healing, that we need new trust in our lives, that we've got to start shining a light on our shared values, the ones that cross party lines, the ones that build bridges instead of burn them.

As a simply kid born in the little town of Uvalde, Texas, it never occurred to me that I would one day be considered for political leadership. It is a humbling and inspiring path to ponder.

[19:55:02]

It is also a path that I am choosing not to take at this moment.

What am I going to do? I'm going to continue to work and invest the bounty I have by supporting entrepreneurs, businesses and foundations that believe are leaders.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: McConaughey's announcement leaves incumbent Governor Abbott and former Democratic Presidential Candidate Beto O'Rourke as two of the top candidates heading into next year's election.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [20:00:00]