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At Least 74 Killed, 109 Still Missing in Kentucky; Fox Hosts Condemned Violence Privately, Whitewashed Publicly; U.S. Reveals New Software Vulnerability, Warns Hundreds of Millions of Devices are at Risk. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired December 14, 2021 - 14:30   ET

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

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And so, it is just incredibly complicated operation. Again, three and a half days now after these tornadoes struck, there is still so much work to be done. Governor Beshear, not long ago, gave a briefing kind of an update on what they're doing now. And he gave a kind of a rather discouraging look at the search for survivors and the deceased. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ANDY BESHEAR, (D) KENTUCKY: We still definitely are in rescue and recovery, we have people missing. I still expect that we will find at least some more bodies. There is just so much destruction. I hope that that's not the case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: And one piece of good news that we found out in recent hours is that at that Candle Factory just outside of Mayfield, everybody in that factory now is accounted for. They believed before there were eight missing in addition to the eight people dead, they now believe they've accounted for everybody, which means that more than 100 people who were in there got out alive. That's good news.

I'm going to show you another visual here of kind of the fickle and horrible nature of these tornadoes. As you see building upon building behind me just leveled and people picking through it. Look at this bus, this bus was heavy enough not to be picked up by the tornado but look all of its windows were blown out. And again, it's just sitting here in the middle of all this destruction where brick and stone buildings were ripped apart guys. This is just an incredible scene of just carnage everywhere you look in this town, so much work to be done. It's going to take weeks for them to just get through all of this.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: You're so right, Brian. My gosh, that video, those videos really show the Herculean effort that all of the rescuers have ahead of them picking through all of that, how dangerous it is.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Yeah, the governor says they've started the work, not just moving it around but starting to get it out of the cities so they can start to rebuild.

CAMEROTA: Yeah, Brian Todd, thank you very much.

BLACKWELL: Let's stay in Kentucky, those storms and tornadoes that pummeled Mayfield also killed 15 people in Bowling Green, and more than a dozen people there are still missing. CNN's Nick Valencia is in Bowling Green. So, what are you hearing from the people there?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: -- just these amazing stories of survival admits the tragedy despair and all the grief. We're joined now by Misha Arnaut, who, you know, you can't stop smiling. You're so thankful to be alive Misha. What happened? Tell us what it was like to experience? What happened right here?

MEYLUDIN ARNAUT, TORNADO SURVIVOR: I don't know. No cry and smile.

VALENCIA: Smile, yes. Why are you so -- you're so happy to be alive?

ARNAUT: (Inaudible) that he's alive.

VALENCIA: Yeah, so you hit in the hallway here, show us what happened here? Yeah, come on. Let's talk a little bit. Let's walk there. So, you were right here with your wife while the tornado was coming through. Tell us what happened?

ARNAUT: My wife here.

VALENCIA: And that's you hear, circling in that?

ARNAUT: Yes, blow.

VALENCIA: OK, and then what happened here?

ARNAUT: This three --

VALENCIA: Just each in your right?

ARNAUT: This three -- two by four.

VALENCIA: The two by four shot through here and broken the wall?

ARNAUT: Yes, yes.

VALENCIA: I mean you are just a foot away from that -- if you were just a foot from -- to the right.

ARNAUT: Maybe, three, four feet.

VALENCIA: Oh, my goodness. Now, I know that your daughter was off camera. She said that she called you to let you know that the storms were coming but you really didn't think it was that bad, you went to the refrigerator and got a piece of cake?

ARNAUT: Yeah. My wife -- maybe 30 seconds, maybe a minute pulled cake, two cake. Me and she, wife, eat, cake --

VALENCIA: Scary?

ARNAUT: Scary.

VALENCIA: Yeah.

ARNAUT: Boom, boom.

VALENCIA: Wow. And then, so show us what's left of your kitchen here? Yeah, we just --

ARNAUT: 30 seconds.

VALENCIA: 30 seconds. We just want to show you really quick, guys, what's left with his kitchen here. The entire roof ripped off. Misha is part of a strong Bosnian community here. A lot of them have suffered significant damage and you could see, you know, beyond that, looking in the backyard. All the neighbors have suffered damage, block after block. You know, we've talked spoken so much about Mayfield but here in Bowling Green, it has suffered significant damage. And as you mentioned, Victor and Alisyn, there's still at least a dozen people missing, 15 people died in this county including seven small children. The cleanup effort is very much so underway. A lot of volunteers here helping people like Misha Arnaut out. And you have to be so grateful for that.

ARNAUT: Three house, people is dead, this one, two, three.

VALENCIA: Yeah. And you're alive. Misha says his neighbors didn't make it, and yet here he is standing. You know, he's just thankful. He's just thankful to be alive, guys.

CAMEROTA: OK. Nick Valencia, thank you very much for showing us, what that neighborhood looks like right now.

We also have some very sad news to share. A Kentucky family is mourning their two-month-old baby girl. Oaklynn Koon died after a tornado hit her grandmother's house in Dawson Springs.

BLACKWELL: The baby, her two brothers and their parents were taking cover there. The parents tried to protect the kids by putting them into the bathtub and then covering them with cushions but get this, the tornado picked up the entire house and tossed it onto the other side of a neighbor's house.

[14:35:14]

CAMEROTA: And they had hoped that she would survive -- she had survived for a little while in her car seat. But then tragically, she died. Look at how beautiful she is.

BLACKWELL: Governor Beshear says that the age range now two months, this is the youngest victim now to 98 years old. Those 74 who lost their lives. CAMEROTA: If you'd like to help the tornado victims, we have a list of vetted organizations that are there doing the work on the ground, and you can find it at cnn.com/impact.

BLACKWELL: The three prominent Fox TV hosts were called out by name by the January 6 committee, how the network is responding and what this reveals about the narrative their viewers see on TV about the insurrection. We've got that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:40:32]

CAMEROTA: The Attorney General of the District of Columbia is suing more than two dozen members of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers in an effort to recover millions of dollars the city spent to defend the Capitol during the January 6 attack.

BLACKWELL: The lawsuit filed today in federal court accuses 31 members of the extremist groups of conspiring to terrorize the district on January 6, it calls their actions a coordinated act of domestic terrorism.

Well, Fox News has not said anything about three of its most prominent hosts being caught in the controversial spotlight of the January 6 committee.

CAMEROTA: The network did not bother to air the committee, the hearing, as the committee released new details last night, including frantic texts to Trump's Chief of Staff Mark Meadows from Fox personalities, begging the president to stop the Capitol riot and all of the violence as the siege played out on TV.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JIM MCGOVERN, (D) MASSACHUSETTS: I'm glad that the show's privately pushed to stop the violence on that awful day. But what I'm upset about is that they've -- is what they've publicly said ever since, this would be a good time for these hosts to use their platforms to tell the American people the truth, just like they were privately texting Mark Meadows the truth on that terrible day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Brian Stelter, CNN's Chief Media Correspondent and host of Reliable Sources joins us now.

Brian, what's so striking about seeing these texts in real time from some of the Fox hosts, was it as it was happening, as the violence was unfolding, they saw it with crystal clarity. They knew it was dangerous. They knew it was deadly. They knew that only Trump could call them off. They knew these were Trump supporters, violent Trump supporters.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: They knew the truth. CAMEROTA: And they knew that Trump was MIA. I mean, they knew -- where is he? You need to get him? Let me read some of them. They're saying, this is Sean Hannity, can he make a statement? Ask people to leave the Capitol. Laura Ingraham, Mark, the President needs to tell people in the Capitol to go home. This is hurting all of us. He's destroying his legacy. Brian Kilmeade says, please get him on TV, destroying everything you have accomplished.

And so, they knew in real time, very clearly what was unfolding and are imploring Mark Meadows to help. And then it was shockingly quickly afterwards, where some of them went on TV and said something entirely different to their viewers.

STELTER: Yes, because the spin started to catch up. You know, when the story was happening in real time, they all saw it for what it was, they saw the truth. And then within a matter of hours, there started to become an agreed upon denialism, and agreed upon spin, and agreed upon new narrative, which is, maybe it was a left spot, or maybe there were FBI informants, but surely this wasn't MAGA patriots.

So, I think it's an amazing window into that moment in time before spin can start to take over. Before lies and spinning start to take over where the story actually set us all dead in the face. And it happened on that day as well. What did Kevin McCarthy do when he was terrified by the rioters invading the Capitol, he called Fox News. That was his first phone call before we called CBS or other networks, he called in live to Fox and he basically used the TV cameras to get through to Trump, or at least he tried. But it's remarkable that Sean Hannity didn't really get through to Trump. Kevin McCarthy couldn't get through to Trump, his own son, Donald Trump, Jr. doesn't seem to have the power in that afternoon to get through --

CAMEROTA: Because he was busy watching TV as we know from the reporting.

STELTER: Because he was enjoying what he saw. And that's the part of the story we still don't know a lot about.

BLACKWELL: Yeah.

STELTER: What was Trump doing? Who was he with? What was going on? Was he thinking? Was he thinking anything?

I think it's so interesting to read these texts, because they are a new snapshot into what we thought we knew. And now we're seeing it's even worse than we knew.

BLACKWELL: And nothing from Fox News, nothing from Hannity, nothing from Ingraham, nothing from Kilmeade, the report they have on it only focuses on a portion of the text from Don Jr.?

STELTER: Yeah, that's right there. They briefly mentioned this on air, just, you know, a little bit. They talked about the Don Jr, texts, they are not acknowledging the real substance here. Fox News as a company is not commenting and not nor any of the hosts who are named here. You know, these are just a few of the texts. Presumably the committee has lots of other texts from Fox News personalities, and other right-wing entertainers to Meadows and others.

So, we're seeing a little snapshot, the people involved are not commenting. But Laura Ingraham's words are actually true. She's the one who says in the text Meadows, this is hurting all of us. Now, she I think is referring to the GOP. She's referring to the pro-Trump media world, the pro-Trump ally, she says, turning all of us. But actually, this is hurting all of us as Americans. This denialism, this rewriting of history This attempt to paper over what happened is hurting all of us, so Laura I think she's right about that.

[14:45:07]

CAMEROTA: This is not over, more information will be coming out. Thank you very much.

BLACKWELL: Thank you, Brian.

STELTER: Thanks.

CAMEROTA: All right, a key inflation figure just hit its highest level on record, what this means for all of the prices that you are paying? That's just a head.

BLACKWELL: First, here's a look at what else to watch today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:50:19]

BLACKWELL: We'll now have a new indicator of why you are paying more for the things that you use every day.

CAMEROTA: Last month, a key inflation measure hit its highest level yet, CNN Business Reporter Matt Egan joins us now. So Matt, what prices are spiking the most?

MATT EGAN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: Well, I think part of the problem, Alisyn and Victor is that it's really widespread right now. This new report shows that prices that are charged to businesses by suppliers up by 9.6% from a year ago, that is the biggest on record for so called producer prices since this metric began about a decade ago. And, you know, we've seen how consumer prices are at a 39 year high. We learned that on Friday. And this report suggests they're going to stay hot. You can see what that chart that, you know, producer prices, this level of inflation was pretty tame before COVID. But it's really taken off. And that's because of all of these COVID related supply chain issues, because of the worker shortage. And also, because demand is really, really strong right now as the economy reopens. But what's really striking is that this is totally widespread. We're seeing double digit price increases on everything from food, and trucking to we saw iron and steel scrap up 78%, gasoline up almost 100% more than 100% from a year ago. So, inflation is spreading. That is not what the White House or the Federal Reserve wanted to hear.

President Biden he said that inflation is probably peaking here. And that could be true, but it's really hard to forecast anything in the COVID economy. And also, even if it is peaking doesn't mean it's going to come down to really low levels or healthy levels anytime soon. A lot of positives in the economy, jobs. The housing market is hot, Americans are shopping like crazy. But all of that right now is being eclipsed by sticker shock.

BLACKWELL: So, you mentioned the Federal Reserve meeting today and tomorrow, how do they take these numbers, Friday's numbers, these new numbers into context?

EGAN: Yeah, well, hopefully they take and sitting down because these are pretty crazy numbers. We talk a lot about the political implications here. But really, this is the job of the Fed, the Fed is supposed to be maintaining price stability and anything but stable right now. So, what we should hear from the Fed in just under 24 hours is one, they're going to probably -- they're going to show -- try to show that they're going to take inflation seriously. So, that means they could start to unwind their bond buying stimulus program a little faster. Also, they may signal that they could raise interest rates. The question is whether they can do all this without tipping the economy into a recession, or at least the slowdown and we don't know yet.

CAMEROTA: All right. Matt Egan, thank you.

EGAN: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Thank you, Matt.

The House is expected to start debate soon on whether to hold Donald Trump's former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in contempt of Congress. We will bring that to you, live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:57:52]

CAMEROTA: An ominous new warning about the security of the devices that we use every day.

BLACKWELL: Biden administration cyber officials are warning that hundreds of millions of devices are at risk for a newly revealed software flaw. And hackers may already be taking advantage of it. CNN's Alex Marquardt is following this for us. So, Alex, tell us about it?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, Victor and Alisyn, the officials here in the U.S. and cybersecurity experts are sounding the alarm about this vulnerability, which as you said, could affect hundreds of millions of devices all around the world. The scary part is we don't really know the full extent of this vulnerability, how many devices is going to impact that's going to take a lot of time to figure out and what experts and officials are asking organizations to do is to look inside their systems to try to detect this vulnerability if they spot it, to patch it or mitigate it in some other way. This is how one of the top cybersecurity officials in this country put it. This is from Jen Easterly, who's the Director of the Cyber Agency called CISA. She says, "This vulnerability is one of the most serious that I've seen in my entire career, if not the most serious. We expect the vulnerability to be widely exploited by sophisticated actors and we have limited time to take necessary steps in order to reduce the likelihood of damaging incidents."

So, this vulnerability has already been used, they believe, by suspected Chinese hackers. At its core, this is a software called log4j that is being exploited. It's widely used by companies that we all know IBM, Microsoft, Amazon Web Services. And what essentially it could do is allow hackers and not just sophisticated hackers, but all kinds of hackers to get inside these systems eventually to get inside your computers and your apps to take control of them, to steal information, to install malware. This is an apt analogy that I saw on Twitter that I just want to read you quickly. Pretend that you are inside your car with your phone, and it's like if you locked the doors to your car, but then allowed anybody to shout commands at Siri from outside the car to remotely drive it. That gives you a sense of the level of control that these hackers could potentially have if they exploit this vulnerability again which could potentially affect hundreds of millions of devices.

BLACKWELL: All right, Alex Marquardt, thank you.