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Biden to Address Nation on Variant; Variant Found in California; Leana Wen is Interviewed about the Variant; New Information on Michigan Gunman; House and Senate Reach Agreement; Meadows Agrees with Trump. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired December 02, 2021 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:05]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: An historic moment at the White House. A menorah lighting marking the first time the holiday has been celebrated at the White House with the Jewish spouse of a president or vice president.

Happy Hanukkah, everyone.

CNN's coverage continues right now.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: A very good Thursday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto.

The first confirmed case of the omicron variant has now been detected here in the U.S. That person traveled to the San Francisco area from South Africa three days before Thanksgiving. We should note, this person has only mild symptoms at this point.

The appearance of the variant here in the U.S. was expected. But these three big questions remain. How much more transmissible is it? How severe is it? How severe disease does it cause? And how well does it evade immunity, including vaccines?

Dr. Anthony Fauci says you will not find any answers from this single case.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Having a single person who had what would be considered a breakthrough infection because the person was fully vaccinated doesn't really tell you much at all because we have breakthrough infections with delta where people who have been vaccinated, fully vaccinated very often, more often than not, they have mild illness.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: The World Health Organization is advising people in certain high risk groups to postpone travel because of the variant. But, take this clearly, don't cancel Christmas just yet. Dr. Fauci says you can still enjoy a safe holiday with your family, including traveling, if you are vaccinated.

President Biden is set to visit the National Institutes of Health today, where he will lay out a nine-point plan to help tackle the next phase of this pandemic.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond and Natasha Chen, they're covering this, this morning.

Let's begin at the White House.

Jeremy, so, run us through the steps the Biden administration plans to take.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, one thing is clear, the White House is still needing to learn a lot more about this omicron variant. But they are not stopping in their preparations for handling a potential surge of coronavirus in the winter and to handle both the omicron variant, the delta variant as well. That is why we're going to see a range of steps that President Biden is going to announce today, a mix of increased international screening, ramped up efforts to get people vaccinated and also increasing testing here in the United States.

Some of these steps, for example, for international travel, you're going to see the need to get a negative coronavirus test within a day of traveling to the United States. That's for vaccinated and unvaccinated travelers. On testing, there's going to be expanded availability of testing, test kits sent out to federal health centers and also requiring private insurance to cover the costs of at home test kits, to try and make testing more widespread and available.

On vaccines, you're going to see more clinics, including family clinics, that will have doses for children, as well as for adults, and also partnerships with the AARP and efforts by Medicare to get the word out to seniors about the availability of booster shots and information about those booster shots. That's also going to include some public service announcements with paid advertising.

And, finally, there will be more of an emergency response availability. Sixty plus deployments of coronavirus surge teams provided by the federal government. These teams helped during the surges that we have seen previously with providing logistics support, monoclonal antibodies, ventilators, et cetera. So you're going to see the availability of all of that as well.

And President Biden will announce all of this during a speech this afternoon at the National Institutes of Health. A speech, we've been told, he has been personally involved in crafting. That signals the importance, of course, of all of this as we learn -- wait to learn more about this omicron variant.

SCIUTTO: Natasha Chen in San Francisco.

Officials in San Francisco say this is almost certainly not the first case in the U.S. This is how pandemics work, how these things spread. What more do we know, though, about this particular case? NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, Jim, as you said,

this is just the first detected case in the U.S. This person is a San Francisco resident. Here's what we know about the traveler. They were in South Africa, and started traveling home on November 21st, arrived in San Francisco on the 22nd. Started feeling sick over Thanksgiving and got a test on November 28th. The day later, got a positive test result. So self-isolating, mild symptoms, never had to go to the hospital.

This patient is fully vaccinated, two doses of Moderna, in fact, but has not had a booster because we're told it had not been six months yet since that person's second shot.

There is no evidence at this time of community spread. They are doing contact tracing. And so far people in that person's close circle have not tested positive.

We also want to mention that, you know, the San Francisco public health officials say this person did a good job in terms of being proactive and reaching out to the local public health department when they found out about that positive test result because the person knew about the possibility of omicron having traveled from South Africa.

[09:05:15]

Here's what San Francisco health officials say about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SUSAN PHILIP, CITY AND COUNTY OF SAN FRANCISCO HEALTH: We already have very stringent measures in place for masking indoors, for proof of vaccination, and San Francisco is positioned, you know, quite well. We have 81 percent of our eligible residents vaccinated.

No plans to do anything different yet. We keep encouraging people to get their boosters, that is really the most important thing that vaccinated people can do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN: So, what she's saying is that San Francisco already has a lot of public health tools in use that are making the environment as safe as possible for people. As you mentioned, people who are vaccinated are advised to still go about holiday plans. But it is interesting that, you know, people expected there -- at some point to be a case in the United States. This just happens to be the first detected because of some robust testing of variants, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Natasha Chen, Jeremy Diamond, thanks very much.

So, let's dig in a little deeper with emergency physician and CNN medial analyst Dr. Leana Wen.

Dr. Wen, always good to have you back.

This is just one case in the U.S., but we do have more data from South Africa and also Israel as to what omicron means, how serious it is, how transmissible and how much severe disease it causes.

What -- and, again, I know it's early, a lot more to learn, but what do we know so far about how serious omicron is and is it less serious than initially thought?

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDIAL ANALYST: We don't know a lot at this point, Jim, and that's because it really is early. The initial individuals who were infected in South Africa, there were clusters especially in universities and among students. And so it's expected that these individuals would not become severely ill. I hope it remains that way, that ideally omicron does not cause very severe illness. But it's far too soon for us to say.

There are some preliminary reports that most of the individuals who are getting infected with omicron are those who are unvaccinated. And so I do hope that we'll find with time that vaccination and in particular getting that booster dose will give a level of protection against omicron. And so this is the message that we're sending to all of our patients here in the U.S., that if you have not been vaccinated yet, get the vaccine, but also that the booster dose, because it will provide such a high level of antibodies, even if there is slightly diminished effectiveness against omicron, that high level of antibodies should be able to protect you.

SCIUTTO: OK. There seems to be a contradiction in some of the public statements about effectiveness of existing vaccines, but I wonder if there actually is a contradiction. But you hear, for instance, from the Moderna CEO expressing concern about efficacy. You hear from others saying, well, actually the vaccines are standing up.

And I wonder if the distinction here is reduced protection against infection as opposed to reduced protection against severe illness. Is that the difference here?

WEN: I don't think that any of us know for certain at this point. What we hope that the vaccines will do ultimately is, first, to reduce severe illness, severe enough to cause hospitalization and death, but ideally you also want to get vaccinated to stop from being sick in the first place because who wants to get ill?

SCIUTTO: Right.

WEN: Who wants to transmit to others? We don't know which it is at this point. Ideally, it's both, because that's what the vaccines currently do against delta. And, again, I think that the idea of boosters is really important for people to understand because the idea is that you have such a high antibody response that even if the effectiveness is diminished a little bit because of all the antibodies, again, that will protect you.

SCIUTTO: Yes, I mean, and that's consistent advice across the board. You get vaccinated. If you're not vaccinated, get boosted. And that's your best protection at this point.

I do want to ask you your sense of the Biden administration's steps here. Several steps. And it seems acting from an abundance of caution, right? We don't know a lot yet, so let's do what we can.

What do you think of those steps and do they make a difference?

WEN: Well, I think that what the Biden administration has done in terms of acting out of an abundance of caution is great because it's much better for us to have a false alarm and to be ready for the worst than for the worst to happen and we're caught unprepared once again.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

WEN: I would hope that the -- that the -- that President Biden, later today, would do even more. So, for example, the announcement that -- the expected announcement around testing, I don't understand why we wouldn't just give free tests to Americans the way that the U.K. government has, or make them available for a dollar or -- like Germany has. I mean why are we asking people to go through a complicated process of insurance reimbursement?

And so I think that the Biden administration has all the right things in mind, I just hope they do a bit more in order to get us through this next period.

SCIUTTO: Dr. Leana Wen, thanks so much.

Well, in Michigan, a fourth victim dead after 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley opened fire at Oxford High School, injuring at least seven others as well.

[09:10:01]

And we're getting new details about the events leading up to this tragedy, including the suspect's concerning behavior prior to the shooting. It forced his parents to come to the school less than three hours before the attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF MICHAEL BOUCHARD, OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN: On the day prior to the tragedy, a teacher in the classroom where he was a student saw and heard something that she felt was disturbing in terms of his behavior. And they had a counseling session about it with school officials. And a phone call was left with the parents.

The day of the shooting, a different teacher in a different classroom saw some behavior that they felt was concerning, and they brought the child down to an office, had a meeting with school officials, called in the parents, and ultimately it was determined that he could go back into class.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: He was let back into class.

Investigators have also discovered videos that Crumbley recorded the very night before. And in those videos he discusses killing students.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF MICHAEL BOUCHARD, OAKLAND COUNTY, MICHIGAN: Horrendously disturbing. Obviously talks about what -- excuse me -- he intends to do and the kinds of things he's thinking about. It's just chilling.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: CNN's Shimon Prokupecz is live from Oxford, Michigan.

And this is -- this is shocking, Shimon, because it seems that there were quite explicit warning signs, more than one, prior to the shooting, and yet the student was allowed back into school and somehow managed to get a weapon from his father.

How did this happen?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: And this new information, Jim, is hugely significant, certainly for investigators. The fact that there were meetings the morning of, the parents were here, we're told there were concerns about this individual and the fact that he was allowed back into school, back into class, hugely significant. Prosecutors tell us, they said yesterday, they have all sorts of information.

When you look at the timeline here, right, that Monday, Monday there was concern over behavior and things that a teacher was seeing. Then Tuesday morning, hours before the shooting, there are concerns from a teacher. The parents are brought into school. Something happens. The parents are told something. And then it seems nothing was done.

And then, of course, the horrific attack happens, occurs and then now all this new information is coming to light. Obviously, we have a lot of questions for the school. But investigators here don't really want to talk about yet what that information is because they say it's a key part of the investigation and a key part of the case that's going to be an issue at trial.

So, perhaps we will -- before then get to know some of this. Also hugely significant, Jim, are the parents. And if they will face charges. The prosecutor yesterday telling us that it is likely the parents will face charges. The question is, does it happen today or tomorrow? We just don't know. But that would be the next significant step in this investigation, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Four students are dead.

Shimon Prokupecz, thanks very much.

Coming up next, the January 6th committee moves to hold a former Justice Department official in contempt for refusing to cooperate with their investigation. He does have one last chance to comply.

Also ahead, former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows makes headlines with his new book, then goes on TV, agrees with his old boss Donald Trump, that his own book is fake news somehow. And, later, Alec Baldwin speaks out about the fatal shooting on the

set of his movie "Rust," saying he never pulled the trigger. And now one of the crew members who was injured is responding.

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[09:18:11]

SCIUTTO: Some encouraging news on Capitol Hill this morning as lawmakers look to avoid a government shutdown. This morning, both the House and Senate reached an agreement on what's known as a continuing resolution. That is, though, just one hurdle. The big question remains whether all 100 senators will cooperate to move quickly enough to avoid a shutdown at midnight. Of course, you need all 50 Republicans on board.

CNN's Melanie Zanona, she's on Capitol Hill.

So, Melanie, I don't want to accuse anybody of cynicism here, but you do have a cynical possibility here of this agreement being reached with some but not all Republican supports, so therefore you could have some -- a small number of Republican senators force the shutdown?

MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: Right. The threat of a shutdown is not off the table just yet. Congressional leaders did reach a deal on a short-term government funding bill. One of the holdups was how long that funding bill would go. They have agreed to extend it until mid-February. That bill is expected to pass the House as soon as today.

But its fate is less certain in the Senate. And that's because they need the cooperation of all 100 senators to be able to move quickly on the bill. They don't need all 100 senators to pass the bill. Again, they just need it to be able to move quickly enough to avoid that shutdown, which is slated to happen tomorrow at midnight if they don't act.

And over there, there's been a handful of conservative Republicans who are demanding a vote on an amendment that would defund Biden's vaccine mandate. Again, some of these mandates have already been challenged in the court system. Some of them have already been halted. So some Republicans are expressing skepticism with this shutdown strategy.

But this could be a big fight. And it's unclear whether there will be an agreement to mollify their demands. So we could see a temporary shutdown over the weekend. And even though, again, it would only be a short-term shutdown, that is something congressional leaders, a huge stumble that they're looking to avoid.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: We'll see if they avoid it.

Melanie Zanona on The Hill, thanks very much.

[09:20:00] Well, former Trump White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows is now calling claims he made in his own book fake news. According to an excerpt from the book, obtained by "The Guardian" newspaper, Meadows writes that Trump tested positive for Covid-19 three days prior to his presidential debate with Biden. Now take a listen to what Meadows said just hours after President Trump released a statement disputing the claim.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I believe the president says it's fake news. What is the story here?

MARK MEADOWS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Well, the president is right, it's fake news. If you have -- if you actually read the book, the context of it, that story outlined a false positive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The timing is interesting, though, you have to admit. I mean it wasn't even -- was it even a week later that they choppered him to Walter Reed and the president was very sick.

MEADOWS: Yes, listen, any time that we look at things and we look at tests and we look at what happened, it's certainly -- that's what I outlined in the book.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Not exactly an answer there.

CNN senior political analyst John Avlon joins me now. He's also the host of the new CNN digital series "Reality Check Extremist Beat."

You know, I hate to accuse him of possibly parsing words there, but, I mean, what -- they're trying to say, right, he had a test, but that one was false and yet he did still get sick several days later, but, you know, still, the first test was wrong. I mean is that the basic argument here?

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I guess. But I think it's to make a -- I think it's actually a mistake to try to parse it too closely. I think the headline here is that Mark Meadows, former chief of staff for the president, is calling his own book fake news because it came in front of -- in front of a wind shear from Donald Trump's criticism.

It just shows how even the chief of staff, in a culture and administration like that, is a boot-licking toady (ph) at the end of the day. It's just totally supine and spineless. It's pathetic.

SCIUTTO: Well, not the first time we've seen it.

OK, Capitol Hill is not exactly a, you know, an etiquette school right now in terms of how sitting lawmakers speak to each other.

AVLON: No. SCIUTTO: The latest is from Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez attacking House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy for his lack of response to the Islamophobic statements we heard from Lauren Boebert. We have a full screen of her quote here. She says McCarthy is so desperate to be speaker that he is working with his Ku Klux Klan caucus to look aside, allow violent targeting women of color, members of Congress. She goes on to say, it's not just about nasty phone calls and emails. The GOP are given freedom to incite without consequence.

Where does McCarthy stand on this? Has he spoken as much as he will on this?

AVLON: McCarthy's walking a very difficult line, obviously, because he's trying to placate the extremists in his party in the hopes that he can maintain the enthusiasm for the far right to propel him to the majority in the midterms. But it's always a dangerous gamble, right? How many times do we need to learn, do Republican speakers and would- be speakers need to learn that Gollum (ph) always turns on its creator.

And the idea, by the way, that he's going to have a walk in the park in to getting the majorities itself, even if they win, as speaker, is, I think, mistaken. There's not as much support for McCarthy, even from Trump, as perhaps -- especially from Trump as he might want to believe.

I do think that calling -- you know, this escalation of name calling about the Ku Klux Klan caucus also does not help. There's a huge problem with the extremes having disproportionate influence in our debate and in Congress. It is asymmetric. But I think that kind of fighting fire with fire is ultimately the kind of thing that burns the whole house down.

SCIUTTO: No, no question. I mean, when you -- when you literally have to censor comments from sitting lawmakers from your children, right, given the kind of language that's being used.

AVLON: Yes.

SCIUTTO: For McCarthy, is it possible he's not the speaker if Republicans bring back the House, win back the House?

AVLON: Yes. Definitely. And that's why I think he's not only walking a difficult line, but playing a dangerous game, because you can't ultimately placate crazy. You can't actually ultimately placate Donald Trump. We talked about Mark Meadows earlier. But just a few weeks ago he was floating the idea, which I think is nonsense but technically possible, that Donald Trump could be speaker. I don't think there's the willingness or the aptitude.

But it just goes to show, you know, Kevin McCarthy can genuflect and kiss the ring at Mar-a-Lago all he wants, but he's never going to actually get the support from folks who love Donald Trump because he's had the temerity to criticize him at times. And so that is itself a fools errand to try to placate the far right. SCIUTTO: Now, you have many Democratic lawmakers calling for Lauren Boebert to be penalized, including stripped of her committee assignments, which has become a new sort of weapon in all this

AVLON: Yes.

SCIUTTO: I wonder, is this a new cycle that we should expect on The Hill? And, by the way, Democrats face their own risk, if Republicans win back the House, of having the same thing done to them.

AVLON: Yes. Look, I think it's a huge mistake to make more -- to play the moral equivalence game as Republicans tried to do in the censure of Paul Gosar, which was sort of the preview of this, by saying that we'll go back and remove committee assignments for things that Maxine Waters said or members of the squad, who are their hobby horse demonization crew for all sorts of demographic reasons.

[09:25:22]

Lauren Boebert, there is the danger (INAUDIBLE) of continually defining deviancy down. Where someone just says crazy things so much that they're not held to the same standards of basic civility and sanity as their colleagues. And I think that's what we're looking at with Lauren Boebert.

But, ultimately, Republicans should be trying to police themselves, but McCarthy is, again, afraid to do it because he recognizes there's a danger if he wants to be speaker, which is pathetic.

SCIUTTO: Well, the comments seem to get more extreme every day.

AVLON: Yes.

SCIUTTO: John Avlon, good to have you on.

AVLON: You too, man. Be well.

SCIUTTO: Still ahead this hour, after a series of bigoted remarks from some far right lawmakers, as we were discussing, one congresswoman is calling the right wing, as we noted, of the Republican Party the KKK caucus. We'll speak about that, next.

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