Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

New Travel Restrictions Set To Take Effect Monday; Biden Orders Flags Flown At Half-Staff For Senator Bob Dole; Ilhan Omar Hits Back At Kevin McCarthy For Not Condemning Anti-Muslim Attacks; GOP Attacks Biden On Pandemic While Fighting Efforts To Curb It; Exasperation And Dysfunction: Inside Kamala Harris' Frustrating Start As V.P.; Biden To Sign Infrastructure Bill As Inflation Worries Grow; Growing Concern After Queen Elizabeth Misses Another Event. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired December 05, 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]

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN HOST: I'm Phil Mattingly, in for Pamela Brown. And you are in the CNN NEWSROOM.

The top stories, President Biden's top health advisers on a massive media blitz as the Omicron variant spreads and new travel restrictions are set to take effect. Meanwhile, tributes are pouring in for Senator Bob Dole, an absolute titan of 20th century politics who passed away Sunday at the age of 98.

Also tonight military families in Honolulu want answers after a contaminated drinking water that smells like petroleum made them sick. And then Democrat Ilhan Omar calls out Republican leaders for letting their members, quote, "traffic bigotry."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ILHAN OMAR (D-MN): Which tells you that their conference condones this. And that's why it's dangerous.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: In just a few hours, brand new COVID testing requirements will go into effect for anyone coming into the United States, that includes U.S. citizens. It's part of an effort to curb the spread of the new and possibly more transmissible Omicron variant. These new rules that start at midnight mean all inbound international travelers to the U.S. must have a negative COVID-19 test within one day of travel. Non-U.S. citizens must also show proof of vaccination.

CNN's Nadia Romero has more. And, Nadia, I think one of the questions we've all been trying to figure out over at the White House has been, why isn't the U.S. requiring domestic travelers to test if it's this big of a concern right now?

NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Phil, and that is something many of the Biden administration officials were asked today, as they did a media blitz on different news outlets trying to talk about limiting the spread of COVID-19 and preventing this winter surge. We know that the Omicron variant is already in the U.S. 17 states and counting already say that they have cases of this new variant, so it's already here.

Why not test or have screening or requirements for domestic travelers? Right now we only have this new travel policy that will begin tomorrow for international travelers. So if you're trying to get into the U.S. from a different country, you have to show a negative COVID-19 test that you took the day before you travelled.

You also have to be fully vaccinated, something that started just last month, but again, no restrictions for domestic travelers, so today, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy was asked about this new travel policy and here's how he broke down the differences between international and domestic travel. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. VIVEK MURTHY, U.S. SURGEON GENERAL: International and domestic travel are in fact different and the international front as you mentioned there are a number of measures we have taken like vaccine requirements, requiring testing before people get on those flights. From a domestic standpoint, what we have seen is that if people do in fact wear masks, well-fitted masks, good quality masks, they can actually significantly reduce their risks on domestic flights.

And finally just keep in mind this, we've taken a number of measures domestically to ensure that we increase vaccination rates which is ultimately are key to ending this pandemic.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

ROMERO: And Dr. Anthony Fauci said today on CNN that those travel policies could change, that they're being reevaluated day to day and that includes what many are calling a travel ban that includes eight countries in Southern Africa including South Africa where scientists were the first to detect the Omicron variant.

And so those countries are banned, people from those countries are banned from being able to come into the U.S. altogether regardless of whether or not they can pass a COVID-19 test and have a negative result, regardless if they're vaccinated or not, they're not allowed in this country.

And that sparked a lot of criticism from the international community. One U.N. official, the head of the U.N., calling it a travel apartheid and it was something that Dr. Fauci was asked about today and said could be reviewed in the coming days -- Phil.

MATTINGLY: And Nadia, I think probably top of mind for everybody right now when it comes to Omicron is the vaccine, in terms of how effective it's going to be in fighting this new variant. What sense do we have of that at this point?

ROMERO: Well, Phil, it's a great question because every time we talk about a variant we have to say that there could be more variants, right. The longer we're in this pandemic, the more like this virus can mutate and get stronger. So Dr. Anthony Fauci said today that he believes that getting the vaccine and getting booster shots shows that that's your best bet against this variant and others.

We also heard from the execs over at Pfizer-BioNTech, and they say that they can modify their current vaccine formula to fight back against this new variant but that could take some time.

[19:05:06]

So still those same mitigation efforts that we've been talking about for a long time, Phil, are the ones that health experts say we should do. Social distancing, wearing masks, getting vaccinated, getting the booster shot.

MATTINGLY: Nadia Romero, fast-moving story all over it as always. Thanks so much.

All right, tonight, President Biden is honoring his friend and fellow long-serving U.S. senator Bob Dole. The president ordering flags across the country to fly at half-staff as a fitting tribute to the former senator, veteran and presidential nominee who died today at the age of 98. This from President Biden earlier, "Bob was an American statesman like few in our history. A war hero and among the greatest of the greatest generation." Adding, quote, "I will miss my friend."

CNN's Joe Johns is live at the White House for us.

Joe, the president clearly moved today by the passing of a man who he saw crossed the aisle, I think battled with to some degree across the aisle, for decades in the United States Senate. What's your sense of things right now at the White House today?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: That's so true and you know what, one of the things that really came through today is that these two men were very close friends for a long time. Decades and decades in fact, despite the fact that they both could be and had to be at times, partisan. A great example of that, of course, was Bob Dole did support Donald Trump in the election.

But when the election was over, Dole, who is pretty good at calling balls and strikes in politics, came out and simply said, and Donald Trump had lost and his friend Joe Biden had won the election, unlike many other Republicans who bought into the big lie and claimed that Trump had won the election.

So we got a statement from the White House today reflecting the personal nature of the relationship between these two men who have been in this city for so long. Meanwhile, on the other hand, I might say, on the other hand I might say on a completely opposite direction, there was the Kennedy Center Honors. This was just another sign that Washington is getting back to normal despite the fact that it's sort of a day-to-day thing.

And tonight, we had five stars from the fields of entertainment, including Barry Gordy of Motown and the opera singer Justino Diaz as well as Lorne Michaels, the creator and producer of "Saturday Night Live," and the president could not help himself but have a little fun at a reception tonight, telling Lorne Michaels he knows how hard it's been to try to find somebody to play Joe Biden on the show, and then Steve Martin, the comedian, in the audience chimed in. Listen.

((BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He's trying out seven guys to play me.

(LAUGHTER AND APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: As we say in our family, bless me, Father, for I have sinned. If you can't laugh at yourself, we're in real trouble, and you make me laugh at myself a lot.

STEVE MARTIN, COMEDIAN: Do you want me to play you?

(LAUGHTER)

BIDEN: Steve, I'm afraid you understand me too well.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: But once again, it was not all laughs here in Washington, D.C. as many of us remembered Bob Dole, including the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi who talked about him. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): For our country, it was a tremendous loss to lose Bob Dole. He's a towering figure, a great leader. He and Elizabeth Dole just crossed the aisle, crossed every divide in our country to bring people together. It is a big loss.

He fought for our country on the battlefield in World War II, he fought for what he believed in in the Congress and the House and in the Senate, as a candidate for president and even in retirement. Just a real blessing to our country. A sad loss.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Bob Dole was the last of the World War II generation to be selected as the nominee of his party to run for president. Back to you.

MATTINGLY: Joe Johns at the White House, and Speaker Pelosi mentioning Elizabeth Dole, a powerhouse in her own right. A senator leading a ton of humanitarian work, philanthropic work as well. Our thoughts with the Dole family tonight.

Joe Johns, thanks so much as always.

All right, and new reaction tonight from Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, responding to those anti-Muslim attacks from a fellow lawmaker. Today Omar slamming GOP leader Kevin McCarthy after he defended Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OMAR: McCarthy is a liar and a coward. He doesn't have the ability to condemn the kind of bigoted Islamophobia and anti-Muslim rhetoric that are being trafficked by a member of his conference.

[19:10:02]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR, STATE OF THE UNION: Why doesn't he have the ability to do that?

OMAR: Because this is who they are.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: I want to get straight to CNN's Melanie Zanona on Capitol Hill with more, and Mel, I've had a very difficult time keeping up with this story and all sorts of stories that seem to be like this on a nearly weekly basis. What else is Congresswoman Omar saying today?

MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ilhan Omar revealed that House Democrat leadership is in fact planning to take action potentially as soon as this week. Take a listen to what else she told Jake Tapper earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OMAR: I've had a conversation with the speaker and I'm very confident that she will take a decisive action next week. As you know, when I first got to Congress, I was worried that, you know, I wasn't going to be allowed to be sworn in because there was a ban on the hijab. She promised me that she'd take care of it, she fulfilled that promise. She's made another promise to me, that she will take care of this.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

ZANONA: Now it's unclear what action would actually look like, but they do have a few options at their fingertips. They could either censure Lauren Boebert, they could strip her of her committee seats or they could put a resolution on the floor that essentially formally condemns her and Islamophobia but, Phil, you were right to say that you had trouble keeping up with this story because initially there was not a huge appetite among Democrats to pursue the punishment route.

And what I'm told is behind the scenes there was a lot of reluctance among Democrats about having to constantly police the bad behavior of Republicans. They feel like when they go this route, they tend to make into martyrs. Marjorie Taylor Green, for example, has fundraised off the fact that she lost her committee seats. They also really feel like the onus should be on House minority Kevin McCarthy to punish his own members.

But it's clear that he is not planning to do that and so there is growing momentum in the Democratic ranks to take matters into their own hands and I think we could see action as soon as this week -- Phil. MATTINGLY: Seems that way, it's been fascinating to watch Democrats

evolve on this.

ZANONA: Absolutely.

MATTINGLY: And potential next speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy, not evolved on this.

Melanie Zanona, on Capitol Hill, thanks as always, my friend.

ZANONA: Thanks.

MATTINGLY: All right, coming up.

You are looking at the anger spilling into the streets of Europe over new COVID restrictions meant to bring down a surge of infections. Also ahead, CNN's Donie O'Sullivan live with new reporting on Facebook profiting from hate and misinformation.

And military families in Honolulu want answers tonight after drinking water tainted with petroleum made them sick.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:16:50]

MATTINGLY: What you're watching right there is police in Brussels, Belgium, resorted to water cannons and teargas earlier today to disperse thousands of -- you could see them. Thousands of protesters angered by mandatory new COVID measures. But so far, fewer than a dozen cases of Omicron have been confirmed in Belgium but officials are taking no chances. On Friday the government announced new restrictions, including a mask mandate for children over the age of 6.

Now joining me with more on Omicron and the continuing threat of perhaps most importantly the Delta at least at this point, Dr. Megan Ranney, associate Dean of Public Health and professor of Emergency Medicine at Brown University.

And, Dr. Ranney, Omicron is getting all the headlines right now. But in the U.S. we still see a number of -- the case numbers are increasing pretty significantly over the last couple of weeks. "New York Times" reporting more than 108,000 new cases across the country just yesterday. And the vast majority are, if I'm correct, Delta variant, right?

DR. MEGAN RANNEY, ASSOCIATE DEAN OF PUBLIC HEALTH, BROWN UNIVERSITY: That's exactly right, 99.9 percent of cases so far as we know right now in the United States are Delta. It is Delta variant that is causing more than a thousand deaths a day across the United States and it is Delta variant that is currently causing these surges across the north, northeast, and the rest of the country.

It is absolutely a matter of maintaining those same precautions that we've had since the get-go of COVID but also preparing for this potentially more transmissible variant of Omicron but today the thing in our headlights needs to be stopping Delta.

MATTINGLY: Now on the Omicron front, Dr. Anthony Fauci says so far signals seemed to be encouraging. It's not causing serious illness, at least anecdotally based on what they're seeing, but clearly study more is needed. Given how caught off guard the U.S. seemed to be with Delta, are you concerned that perhaps people aren't taking Omicron seriously enough at this point?

RANNEY: You know, it's a tough moment for us, Phil, in public health because we don't want to raise unnecessary alarm. Omicron may or may not turn out to be something serious but at the same time you're exactly right, we don't want to be caught as we were with the original COVID surge, or with the Delta variant, not prepared.

So even if -- here's the thing, Dr. Fauci is right that so far the anecdotal reports out of South Africa are that Omicron doesn't seem to particularly more severe but Delta variant itself is not more severe, it's just more transmissible.

So even if Omicron only ends up being more transmissible that's going to mean more people sick, more hospital beds filled and more people dead. So what we need to do today is to prep by getting folks ready to put masks back on during surges, to get more people vaccinated, and to get rapid testing into the hands of more folks across the United States.

MATTINGLY: I've been struck, Dr. Ranney, about, you know, in the last four or five days, we've seen an uptick vaccinations and boosters that we really haven't seen in months. You know, it seems like we're on averaging almost two million shots given over the course of the last four or five days. What do you think that is? What's driving that?

RANNEY: I think it's simple fear. We saw the same thing in the south and southeast this summer. At the height of the Delta waves, when you see people near you who are getting sick or hospitalized or when you have this fear of a new variant, it's enough to overcome some of that resistance, or honestly for some people that I talked to in the E.R., it's not even resistance, it's just that the vaccine is the lowest thing on their list.

[19:20:13]

So when the fear gets higher the incentive to go and get your shot goes up. It may be the one small hidden blessing from this new variant is that it protects the rest of us from Delta that's already out there.

MATTINGLY: One more before we let you go that I've been curious about. The head of the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Francis Collins, says given the low level of global immune protection, Omicron almost certainly won't be the last variant of concern. What does that mean? Everybody is trying to figure out when does this end?

You know? How do we go back to normal? What does it mean when we know there's more variants coming and if you look across the globe, we're not just focused on the U.S., look across the globe, particularly in lower income, less wealthy countries, the vaccine rate is so low, what does this mean going forward for the future?

RANNEY: So unfortunately, I don't have a crystal ball so I can't provide a definite prediction but I can say with pretty good certainty that COVID is going to be around forever. Our kids, our grandkids are going to get old knowing COVID. My hope is that as COVID continues to mutate it will eventually create variants that are less deadly, that become part of the background noise the same way that flu is.

Yes, flu is bad, but it's not as bad as COVID. We have vaccines that we take every year to protect us from the worse side effects of flu. I'm hoping that we'll get to that point with COVID. But essential to getting there is getting vaccines in the hands of everyone. As you said, only 8 percent of Sub-Saharan Africans are fully vaccinated. We need to fix that in order to help us protect the world from more dangerous variants in the meantime.

MATTINGLY: Yes. And the wealthiest nations have a lot more work to do on that front.

Dr. Megan Ranney, as always, thanks so much.

RANNEY: Thank you.

MATTINGLY: Tonight, some harsh words from the Republican governor of Georgia's team, not for his Democratic rival but for another Republican who reportedly wants his job. Maria and Alice are here with their takes on that, and so much more, coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:26:39]

MATTINGLY: President Biden has introduced new measures to fight off a winter surge of coronavirus. Now, his plan does not include any lockdowns or domestic travel restrictions. Many Republicans seem to believe any effort to fight the virus seems to be potentially going too far. "Real America is done with COVID-19," wrote Congressmen Jim Jordan.

"The only people who don't understand that are Fauci and Biden." Last week, a group of conservative senators threatened to shut down the government over the president's vaccine mandate. Afterwards Senator Mike Lee issued a stark warning about the politics to come.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MIKE LEE (R-UT): It's difficult to understand why anyone would want to use the overpowering force of the federal government to tell someone, that if they don't cooperate with the ordained presidential medical orthodoxy, they will be fired. It's going to come back up again. It will come back up in any future vote-a-rama. It's going to come back again every time we get the opportunity.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Senator Lee talking about his amendment there. Joining me now, Republican strategist Alice Stewart and Democratic strategist Maria Cardona. They are co-hosts of the "Hot Mics from the Left to Right" podcast.

Alice, here's the thing that I've been trying to figure out right now is, all right, I can understand from an ideological perspective where Republicans might be coming from on vaccine mandates on businesses, right? That would track. But the idea of COVID doesn't exist, we need to move on, given the fact that we're 108,000 cases a day at this point in time, is it a political strategy that you think would be effective for those Republicans that say that?

ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No. Because of the number you just said, 100,000 new cases daily, it's still continuing to surge. And the most important thing we can do as we do this mass media campaign on COVID is to remind people, this is a health issue, this is not a political issue.

COVID is nonpartisan, masks are apolitical, vaccines are nonpartisan and travel mandates are not discriminatory, and the most important thing we can do moving forward is follow the science, especially with this new variant and take the politics out of it.

Yes, there are areas where we need to pull back on the mask mandates. We need to pull back on school closures and business closures, but we need to make sure that we follow the science of this and take the politics out because that's where we're getting into trouble and that's where these numbers continue to grow.

MATTINGLY: Right, and Maria, and one of the I think developments that have been intrigued by and intrigued might be a euphemism to some degree over the course of the last couple of weeks, is Republicans attacking President Biden for not being able to control the pandemic, for the number of deaths in 2021 as they oppose, some of them oppose vaccines, they oppose a lot of the measures that I think scientists or medical health experts believe would actually help control the pandemic.

Does that put Democrats in a tough spot here? Is the Republican message swamping Democrats to some degree?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't think so because I think one of the reasons why their gambit to try to shut down the government over all of these COVID politics is because people within their own party were very concerned about this new variant and Republicans trying to play politics in the face of this onslaught of this new variant, people getting very concerned about this, and the messages, you know, it's hard when you're trying to message over something that is so new.

And yes, that is something that Republicans will always try to take advantage of.

[19:30:03] They've been trying to take advantage of it from the very beginning.

But CNN did this great analysis of information from John Hopkins University, and, essentially, it said that in red stats, the death rate after the vaccines were readily available is 50 percent higher in states that voted for Trump than in other states.

And I think Americans are feeling that. There will always be people who are anti-mandate, anti-vax, anti-masks, but the majority of Americans understand the danger of this new variant, the danger that still exists on COVID. That's why you're seeing so many boosters happening. You mentioned this earlier in one of your segments, over 2 million people got vaccinated in the last couple days. If the Republican message was working, you wouldn't see that kind of movement.

STEWART: At the same time, Maria, you have to remember Joe Biden, President Biden campaigned on putting an end to COVID. And he -- Democrats are so quick, to say don't put it on the president, he campaigned on this issue saying he would was going to get a handle on this and he hasn't. And you can shrug your shoulders and not take responsibility for it, but when you're promising the American people this is what you're going to do as president, and almost a year in where at this point, I think the criticism is warranted.

CARDON: I don't think that will stick either, because there has been great numbers in terms of vaccination and I think that is because of what President Biden has done and he has not backed down from moving forward and really trying to not just stop COVID but stop this variants and being very clear that the only way to do that is more people getting vaccinated.

MATTINGLY: I think that's why you saw the president take such a forceful position this past week in terms of (INAUDIBLE), trying to kind of recapture the success that they had in the initial rollout.

I want to switch, because you're our resident Georgian on the panel, I'm not going to mention Georgia football, because I'm a Buck, so I have no grounds here. Major development for Republicans in Georgia where we had today, there are new reports that former Senator David Perdue plans to run for governor.

That is not an open seat. That is a seat with Bryan Kemp. If he enters, he will have to win the primary against the current governor, Brian Kemp, who I think everybody knows has been at war with the former president because he followed the law. Walk me through this dynamic right now, what it means for a very serious governor's race in the general.

STEWART: In the general election, it's going to be very tough. In the primary, that's where things are really going to get really contentious when you have, when you have what I see as a popular governor. Kemp has been popular across the state, he has done well with regard to COVID and his only downfall, if Republicans want to say that, is that he stood up to Donald Trump. And I will say this, the fact that he stood by the election results in Georgia and was steadfast that this election in Georgia was fair and was accurate, I commend him for that. And the fact he's taken the lead on COVID is important. But David Perdue, I was on the ground in GOT, the efforts one year ago, helping him and Loeffler to get out the votes.

Their main downfall was being too close to Trump, being dismissive of the election results and the tone and tenor that his campaign was leading. If that's what he want to do moving forward, this is an exercise of futility in terms of trying to be Governor of Georgia.

MATTINGLY: Well it is going to be a war. And if you're a Democrat right now, not just in Georgia but writ large when you are looking at the political map, if you're looking at the current dynamic, the president's approval rating, you're very worried about first time midterm election for a new president, you're seeing Republicans potentially cannibalize their own, you're happy, I presume, yes?

CARDONA: Welcome. We welcome that. I think it does give Democrats an opportunity to continue to talk about this dangerous strain that is happening in the Republican Party all over, in all states and you're seeing it up on the hill almost every day.

People that embrace the big lie, candidates who want to do nothing but kneel at the altar of Trump. Him supporting those candidates, and that I think results in opportunity for the Democrats to say, look how dangerous so many in the Republican Party are and they are still looking at Donald Trump who tried to steal the 2020 election, as they're leader.

And you have so many candidates who are wanting to form themselves in the image of Trump and in of course in Georgia, Stacey Abrams is going to be a huge boost for Democrats really focused on making sure that all of our base comes out. We did it twice last year in the two Senate races. I think that this also gives a lot of ammunition for Democrats to be excited about this race.

MATTINGLY: Very different dynamics this time around.

STEWART: And the case study for anybody running for a governor in any state is like the Virginia model, with regard to Glenn Youngkin embracing policies of the Republican Party but separating yourself at arm's length from Trump and his tone and tenor, that's the rest to be for success.

MATTINGLY: I don't know how you do that. But to be primary it's point and time right. A lots to watch in the months ahead and I know this two individuals will be doing just that. Alice Stewart, Maria Cordona, thanks a lot guys.

STEWART: Thanks Phil.

MATTINGLY: All right. There are outrageous, offensive posts tat compare a vaccine to the Holocaust and Nazi Germany, and Facebook is making money of the truly disturbing rhetoric. [19:35:06]

CNN's Donie O'Sullivan will walk us through his revealing new recording coming up next.

And a quick programming note, CNN's Elle Reeve will have a new documentary this evening, White Power on Trial, Return to Charlottesville. This CNN special report begins at 9:00 P.M.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:40:00]

MATTINGLY: Another day, another absence from Lara Logan on the Fox News air ways and the Fox Nation Host has not been on since she compared Dr. Anthony Fauci to the Nazi angel of death, Josef Mengele. Recently, Fauci said he's astounded that Fox has stayed silent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Absolutely preposterous and disgusting comparison that she made. It's an insult to all of the people who suffered and died under the Nazi regime in the concentration camps. I mean, it's unconscionable what she said.

What I find striking, Chris, is how she gets no discipline whatsoever for the Fox network. How they can let her say that with no comment and no disciplinary action, I'm astounded by that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: But Fox is not the only one profiting from those kinds of comparisons. CNN investigation found Facebook is selling ads to vendors that are spewing that same exact trash, such as this one, likening COVID vaccine mandates to the Holocaust.

CNN's Donie O'Sullivan has been uncovering the disturbing ways Facebook makes at least some of its money. And, Donie, I got to tell you, when I heard a top line about what this story was before it came out, I was kind of slack-jawed that it was even possible. What did you find here?

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. It's pretty disgusting stuff, Phil, what Facebook and Instagram are allowing on their platforms and take a look at some more of these ads that we came across. One is a graphic that shows of a needle, the vaccine and says it compares it to a Holocaust. Another ad we saw says, Make Hanging Traitors Great Again. So, not only are you seeing anti-vaccine misinformation here, or anti-vaccine posts, but also posts condoning political violence.

And these aren't just -- you know, Facebook will often times make the argument to say we have billions of users, they are posting billions of things every day. These are ads. These are ads that they are accepting money for and targeting their users on their platform. Phil? MATTINGLY: Yes. I think -- and that's the key distinction, right? That's what sets this apart. The Facebook whistleblower who spoke to Congress, Frances Haugen, this week to talked about how quickly Facebook could improve this problem. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANCES HAUGEN, FACEBOOK WHISTLEBLOWER: Facebook's business model is conditioned on fixing problems after they find them. Facebook is known since 2018. Mark has publicly make comments on it. Mark Zuckerberg has said comments saying, engagement-based ranking, that means prioritize in content or ads base on their ability to provoke a reaction from you, which is usually the most extreme and polarizing in content is dangerous because people are drawn to engage with extreme content.

But Mark said at that time, it's okay, A.I. will save us. The only problem is the A.I. misses lots and lots of problems. In the case of hate speech, only 3 to 5 percent of hate speech is caught.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: That's an astounding percentage. You brought the ad to see Facebook's attention, Donie. What happened then?

O'SULLIVAN: Yes. If we can show those three ads again side by side, the first two, the ones that compared the U.S. to Nazi Germany, and the vaccine to the Holocaust, Facebook took those down. They said that they were against their rules. But the other ad make hanging traitors great again, Facebook seems to have no problem with it despite this only being less than a year since we saw gallows outside U.S. Capitol.

But, I mean, it is quite incredible that it's news organizations, it is researchers, academics that have to bring these issues to Facebook to ask them why aren't they enforcing their own policies. And, of course, it's not just COVID misinformation, it's not even about political violence and we have heard so much and we will hear more this week about the company's particularly Instagram's harm on children and on young teenagers. The Instagram CEO is going to be testifying before the Senate on Wednesday. Phil?

MATTINGLY: And I believe, Donie, that's why you get to make a statement down to Washington D.C.

O'SULLIVAN: You can see me down there. Thanks Phil.

MATTINGLY: My friend, as always, I'll see you in a couple of days. See you, buddy.

All right up next, a water crisis in Honolulu affecting many military families, which believe to be petroleum chemicals have contaminated the drinking water supply near Pearl Harbor. New reporting after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:45:00] MATTINGLY: In Indonesia, the images are both visually spectacular and completely terrifying. Yesterday's eruption of a volcano in an East Java Province has unleashed rivers of lava and explosions of ash. At least 14 people have died and dozens are injured, another 1,300 people have been displaced, people within a six mile radius are being told to evacuate as hot ash and smoldering debris are a threat.

Now, this breaking development on a crisis depriving families including many active duty military of their drinking water. Right now, the city of Honolulu has had to shut down its largest water source, petroleum chemicals found in the well of a navy base near Pearl Harbor, has led to the shutdown of Honolulu's largest water source.

As CNN is learning the area involved has been plagued by fuel leaks, the most recent contamination, it just happened right before thanksgiving.

Natasha Chen is following this from L.A. And, Natasha, it's not clear where the chemicals in these well and where it came from but tell us about this history of leaks that you've uncovered.

[19:50:06]

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Phil. So the current contamination has not yet been confirmed to be related to a leak that happened just a week before. So on November 22nd, the navy said it's stopped the release of 14 thousand gallons of a fuel water mixture and that just 11 days before the navy confirmed that there was contamination of petroleum in the red hill well. That's a major water supply for them. So they had to shut that well down.

So there is still -- it's still in the clear, not confirmed whether the November 22nd leak is related to the contamination, however, going back to May 6th. There was a release of 1,600 gallons of jet fuel that the navy says was operator error. Just two months ago in October, the Hawaii State Health Department fined the navy and issued violations that came from a routine inspection that the health department did in the fall of 2020.

And this even goes back to 2014, when in January 2014, during the refueling of a tank, the navy identified an estimated 27,000 gallons of jet fuel released according to the Hawaii Department of Health.

So this is going back quite some time. There have been some issues and now they're dealing with a large number of people, hundreds of people, who have complained about smelling fuel and gasoline odor from the water supply and some reporting nausea, vomiting, diarrhea all within the last week of so.

So since the navy shut down the well and determined there was contamination, the board of water supply has since shutdown the largest water source on O'ahu. So, now this is beyond sort of the military families perhaps on the base, this extends to a large number of people who have been told not to use the tap water to drink. And the navy has had to look up temporary housing for a number of

families and to even open up their gym and pool facilities to have those available for showers. Here is a statement from the navy about what is going on with the Red Hill well.

It says the results of the Red Hill sample showed petroleum hydrocarbon roughly four to ten times below the Hawaii Department of Health environmental action level but they did say they're going to take care of it. The navy is developing a plan to restore the water system to EPA standers and fix this.

Now, the board of water supply, though, was also releasing a statement about why they had to, out of caution, shut down that largest water source in O'ahu. And they say, that is because when the -- there it is. They were deeply concerns that were not notified immediately by the Navy about this. They continue to say that when the red hill well stops pumping, data shows that the water moves to the direction of their shaft, and so that's why they had to shut down the shaft, the largest water source.

So this is now causing a lot of headache for a lot of people. And as we speak, they are going to hold another town hall in just a few minutes perhaps to answer some of those neighbor's questions, Phil.

MATTINGLY: Yes, it will be interesting to hear those questions and I think there is a lot more here. Natasha Chen, great reporting, I know you'll stay on this one. Thanks so much.

CHEN: Thanks.

MATTINGLY: All right, up next, Ohio, it runs on kindness. A Dunkin Donuts employee with a home for the holidays thanks to a customer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much. I'm so happy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:55:00]

MATTINGLY: Tonight, a donut shop employee in Ohio is celebrating a Christmas miracle after one of her customer gifted her the surprise of a lifetime.

Ebony Johnson and customer Suzanne Burke have been close since they met in a Dunkin Donut drive-through. One day Burke noticed her favorite employee was missing. And learned Ebony and her kids were evicted from their home after falling on hard times.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SUZANNE BURKE, HELPED FIND DUNKIN EMPLOYEE A NEW HOME: When she experienced this hardship, I just wanted to see if I could help her, just improve her life and the life of her kids and make sure they had stable housing so that she could continue to provide the excellent service she does at Dunkin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Now, with help from several organizations, Burke was able to find Johnson's family a home ex not just that, also furniture.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much. I'm so happy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Now, with a new fully furnished home, Ebony says she and her kids are ready for a very merry Christmas. That is the type of stuff that I love watching. Love seeing and wish we had a whole lot more of. More of that.

All right, your next hour of CNN Newsroom starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY (voice over): Remembering Bob Dole.

Bob Dole certainly exemplified. He underscored that World War I greatest generation.

[20:00:00]

Politicians on both side of the aisle paying tribute to an absolute titan of 20th century politics.