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Committee Reveals Texts from Trump Jr., Fox Hosts Over Riot; At Least 88 Killed After Storms Tore Through 8 States; Storm Survivors Recount Terrifying Survival Stories; South African Study Found People Less Likely to be Hospitalized with Omicron Variant. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired December 14, 2021 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

ISA SOARES, CNN ANCHOR: Well, CNN senior legal analyst Laura Coates weighed in on these latest revelations from January 6th.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LAURA COATS, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: You have people who were in cahoots to try to conspire to overthrow and attack the Capitol. The idea of knowingly doing so. And remember, we talked as from day one, the idea of that what you were seeing on January 6th was not the beginning of the story. It wasn't the end of the story. It was the middle. So, what led up to it?

It blows out of the water any assertion that somehow this is a partisan witch-hunt all intended to just, you know, drudge up information that's not even there. There is there-there and it comes from the mouths of members of Congress and some of the most staunch advocates for Donald Trump in the media today.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: Laura Coates there. And CNN of course will have much more on this story ahead on "EARLY START" in about 30 minutes' time.

Now, across the Southern and Central U.S., officials are starting to get a glimpse of the damage after a series of powerful tornadoes touched down over the weekend. At least 50 tornadoes were reported in eight states. But Kentucky saw the most damage with entire neighborhoods flattened to the ground as you can see there. Some people have nothing left, and really nowhere to go to. One woman tells CNN's Ed Lavandera, she doesn't know how she survives.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BREEANA GLISSON, DAWSON SPRINGS TORNADO SURVIVOR: Can you believe this?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Breeana Glisten still hasn't figured out how she and her two children are alive?

GLISSON: When I opened my eyes and looked around, I had no idea where I was. None. All I could do was stand up and scream for help and try to find someone to help me and my kids.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): She's piecing together the memories of the tornado striking her home in Dawson Springs, Kentucky. The only place to hide was in a bed with her four and two-year-old children clutched under her arms. She says that saved her kids' lives. That's when the windows exploded and the roof collapsed on her crushing her arms.

GLISSON: And then after that in a millisecond, we were no longer in the bed or in our house. We were on the ground all the way over there somewhere.

LAVANDERA: Like on the other side of those cars?

GLISSON: Like over this rubble on the ground in mud with absolutely nothing near us.

LAVANDERA: So, you, you flew from this spot right here.

GLISSON: All the way over --

LAVANDERA: Over that rubble over there? So, this is the area.

GLISSON: Yes.

LAVANDERA: I mean, you're probably close to 200 feet away.

GLISSON: I think being on the mattress saved us, because for the most part of flying through the air. We weren't just flying through the air. We were on the bed.

LAVANDERA: That's one of the most unbelievable things I've ever heard anybody surviving.

GLISSON: It's insane. I can't believe that me and my kids are OK. I can't believe that there's no broken bones on my children.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): They were all cut and bleeding. But she remembers neighbors helping her into a basement.

GLISSON: Thank you so much for helping us. Thank you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not just couldn't bear it.

GLISSON: I know it. I'm all right. I'm all right.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And the girls and boy alright.

GLISSON: I have a head injury though. I have a head injury.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I see.

GLISSON: And my face. My arm is broken.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm glad you all right.

GLISSON: Thank you. Thank you for helping us. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's what we do.

GLISSON: Hi, what you doing?

LAVANDERA (voice-over): With nowhere to live, Breeana Glisson and her family are in a motel room. Glisson says her children both have special needs that require her full time attention. So, she isn't working outside of the home. Her mother lives with them and her job pays the bills.

GLISSON: We've been given clothes. We've been given blankets and food. But we have no worry though.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): They told us they don't have home insurance and the little savings they have is paying for a few nights in this motel.

GLISSON: I'm not OK. Like, one minute, I'm sitting here and I'm smiling and one minute I'm bawling my eyes out. We are extremely lucky to be alive because we were flown through the air and that our neighbors passed away right next to us.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): The Glissons are one of the hundreds of families in Dawson Springs that will struggle to recover. The mayor here says about a third of the city's population of 2,500 lives below the poverty line.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's going to be a lot on that don't have any insurance. They live from month to month on a Social Security check or whatever they can get.

LAVANDERA: Getting through this is going to be tough for them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Be very tough. Very tough.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): You can see the bruises and scars from the storm all over Breeana Glisson, but the wounds to her life from this tornado cutting much deeper.

LAVANDERA: How are you emotionally?

GLISSON: I'm torn up. I've lost absolutely everything.

[04:35:00]

LAVANDERA: Brianna glisten's terrifying survival story is like a scene ripped from the Wizard of Oz. But the question facing her and hundreds of residents like her here in Dawson Springs is, what will the future look like? How will they be able to rebuild and is this small city ever going to be the same?

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Dawson Springs, Kentucky.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: Powerful report from Ed Lavandera. Well, in Bowling Green, Kentucky, the storm killed at least 15 people,

13 are still missing. One woman says she's haunted by what she saw after the tornado. She spoke to our Nick Valencia.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Why are you crying?

LATONYA WEBB, BOWLING GREEN, KENTUCKY RESIDENT: These are my tears of joy and tears of sorrow. I got out alive. I watched some people die that didn't make it. And my question is why? I keep saying why? Why?

VALENCIA: You're asking yourself why you made it?

WEBB: I ask why God, when I come out and the aftermath after the tornado was worse, it was so many people crying for help. And I could hear people praying. And I could hear people saying, lord, help us. And, um, and I come out without a scratch.

VALENCIA: You take your time. You came back to your home here and immediately started to tear up.

WEBB: I tear up because I'm safe. I survived this. I walked away. So, I'm left to tell the story. Before I lot connection, I was on the phone with my mother and I told my mother, I said, mom, I'm about to die. I'm about to die. And I didn't think I was going to make it.

VALENCIA: What was your mom telling you while she was on the phone with you?

WEBB: My mom, my mom was really calm, and I said, mom, I'm about to die. She said, if it's in the Lord's will. And she was really calm. And I found out later that she remained calm because she wanted me to remain calm. Because she said if I was about to die, she wanted me to die in peace, and not in fear. So, I couldn't figure out why my mom was calm. Then she did not tell me that I wasn't going to die. She said if it's in the Lord's will. But I could hear her praying. And up until the phone service went out,

VALENCIA: You said you saw others that didn't make it. Can you tell us what you saw?

WEBB: When I jumped out my back window, I came and I found a lady laying here. She was bleeding from her head. I took my shirt off and I wrapped her head. My neighbor over here run out and we took her into his garage and laid her there. We found her husband down the street with the two little boys and their mother, they didn't make it. I'm sorry.

VALENCIA: How do you -- I mean, you have those images, I'm sure, seared in your mind.

WEBB: I said, when I fall asleep, I see the images all over, all over.

VALENCIA: What's it like coming back to your home here now?

WEBB: When I see it, all I can say is, thank you, Jesus. I'm so glad I walked away from here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: Just heartbreaking story. CNN's Nick Valencia there speaking to a storm survivor in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

And if you would like to help those impacted by these deadly storms, CNN Impact World site has verified ways that you can assist. Go to CNN.com/impact for more information. Of course, our teams on the ground are updating all the details as they become available.

[04:40:00]

CNN NEWSROOM will be back after a very short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SOARES: Welcome back, everyone. We are learning new details about the police shooting death of Daunte Wright. Early this year if you remember, a Minnesota state investigator described the difference between a police service weapon and a taser, and that is central to the case. The former officer who killed Wright said she meant to use the taser but instead mistakenly grabbed her gun and shot him. Kim Potter has pleaded not guilty to charges of first- and second-degree manslaughter for killing Wright, a 20-year-old black man. The court saw a video showing the moments after the shooting.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KIM POTTER, FORMER POLICE OFFICER: Oh, my God.

Him UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kim, I'm going to take this, but give you mine. OK?

POTTER: Oh my god. No, just let me kill myself Mike.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, no. that's not happening, Kim.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: Now prosecutors argue Potter was negligent and acted recklessly during the incident. An investigator described the differences between the weapons on Potter's utility belt. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAM MCGINNIS, MINNESOTA BCA SENIOR SPECIAL AGENT: The taser is yellow, the firearm is black. The taser has a stocky body to it compared to the Glock hand gun. The grip of the taser is shorter and wider than the Glock.

PAUL ENGH, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: While this taser 7 is yellow in color, the black is -- the top is black, is it not?

MCGINNIS: Yes, there is black on the top. ENGH: And the handle itself has black, right?

MCGINNIS: Yes, sir.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SOARES: Well meanwhile, the medical examiner's office says Wright's death was a homicide.

Former police officer Derek Chauvin is set to change his plea in a federal civil rights case in the death of George Floyd. He pleaded not guilty in September to charges of depriving Floyd of his right to be free from unreasonable seizure.

[04:45:00]

Chauvin was already found guilty of murdering Floyd in a state trial and sentenced to more than 22 years in prison.

USA gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic Committee have reached a $380 million settlement with hundreds of victims of former team USA doctor Larry Nassar. A number of those young gymnasts testified before Congress saying their abuse complaints were mishandled and their says they are lead attorney is calling for further criminal prosecution.

Nassar is currently serving multiple decade-long prison sentences for sex abuse as well as child pornography.

Now the Boy Scouts of America has announced a tentative $800 million settlement agreement with one of its insurers to compensate survivors of sexual abuse. It is part of a much bigger $2.7 billion trust. The Boy Scouts filed for bankruptcy last year in the wake of hundreds of sexual abuse lawsuits right across the country.

Now, South African scientists have released a new study on the Omicron variant. We'll tell you what it reveals next. We are live in Johannesburg.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:50:00]

SOARES: Now, America's top diplomat kicked off a Southeast Asia tour Monday with a trip -- as you can see there -- to Indonesia. It's Antony Blinken's first trip to the region since becoming Secretary of State. Like most things involving U.S. policy in Asia, China is very much on the agenda. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: That's why there is so much concern for Northeast Asia to Southeast Asia and from the Mequon River to the Pacific islands, about Beijing's aggressive actions. Claiming open seas as their own. Distorting open markets through subsidies through its state-run companies. Denying the exports or revoking deals for companies whose policies it does not agree with. Engaging in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activities.

Countries across the region want this behavior to change. We do, too. That's why we're determined to ensure freedom of navigation in the South China Sea. Where Beijing's aggressive actions there threaten the movement of more than $3 trillion worth of commerce every year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: After Indonesia Blinken heads to Malaysia later today and Thailand later in the week.

Now, a new study came out in the last 45 minutes or so out of South Africa with some good news and bad news about the Omicron variant of COVID-19. First let me tell you the good news. It shows people infected with the variant are less likely to end up in the hospital than those infected with the original virus strain. But here's the bad news. The study shows two doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine are only about 33 percent effective against Omicron. The data comes from health insurance company Discovery Health and researchers at the South African Medical Research Council.

For more let's go to Larry Madowo who is live for us in Johannesburg. And Larry, put some context on this for our viewers. What is this comparing it to? Are we talking about the first strains of COVID-19 here?

LARRY MADOWO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, Isa, what we are comparing it to is the previous strains of the virus here in South Africa. South Africa is now the fourth wave. And this is largely driven by the Omicron variant. In fact, this new study says 90 percent of new infections in South Africa are of the Omicron variant. But this is important because it is the first real world study of vaccine effectiveness and the outbreak of the Omicron variant in South Africa.

Because we now have three weeks of data, and Discovery Health is an important source of this data because they are South Africa's largest insurer. They represent about 3.7 million customers. And what they are working off of is about 211,000 positive coronavirus tests and they estimate that about 78,000 of those represented the Omicron variant between December 15 -- between November 15 and the first week of December.

So, what they say is that according to this data, what they have crunched together, is that this Omicron variant is responsible for about 90 percent of new infections right now in South Africa. That's huge, but there is more.

The Pfizer vaccine was only 33 percent effective, Isa, in preventing infection. However, it is still 70 percent effective in preventing severe complications, including hospitalization, which is what vaccines are supposed to do, to make sure you don't get seriously sick or you die. So, these are the important things that we're finding from the study.

It proves, for instance, that even though there's a huge rate of people getting infected, even people getting reinfected. There's a much flatter rate of hospitalization which would mean that it is a less severe version of the coronavirus and, therefore, straddle all the preliminary information we heard about this new variant being potentially more transmissible, but less severe.

SOARES: Very briefly, Larry, what about on children?

MADOWO: So, they have found that there's a lot more children were getting infected. But most of these are incidental. In fact, 80 percent of children who are getting admitted in South Africa for non- COVID related symptoms are getting then tested and being found to have COVID-19. But then again, they are less severe. They don't need to stay in hospital that long. In fact, their overall incubation period is three to four days. The recovery period is about three to four days as well. So, even though more children are getting infected, they're not getting seriously sick.

SOARES: Thank you very much, important context from Larry Madowo in Johannesburg. Thanks, Larry.

Now, holiday travel in the U.S. is about to really pick up and that's despite the pandemic being far from over -- as Larry just pointed out. AAA estimates more than 109 million Americans will travel between December 23rd and January 2nd. That's a number approaching a pre- pandemic record of 190 million. That was back in 2019. AAA predicts the vast majority of travelers, more than 100 million will drive to their destination. The national airlines are expected to fly almost 6 1/2 million passengers to their holiday destinations. That's triple the number of travelers compared to last year.

Now, American airline CEO says a return of demand to air travel has been intense. He is expected to tell lawmakers at a hearing Wednesday that his company is aggressively bringing new hires.

[04:55:00]

He wants to avoid repeat of thousands of flight cancellations that occurred this fall.

COVID-19 is also impacting sports. 37 National Football League players tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday. The NFL previously said 94 percent of its players were vaccinated along with nearly 100 percent of other league personnel. Certain eligible staff are required to get boosters by December 27. And this mandate doesn't apply to players, but anyone who has direct contact with them like coaches as well as trainers.

In the National Hockey League, the Cavalry Flames have had to pause their season because of a COVID-19 outbreak. At least three games are postponed after six players and one staffer entered the league's COVID-19 protocol. The NHL expects additional positive cases in the coming days, and this is the third time this season a team had to reschedule games because of an outbreak.

And the NBA has postponed the Chicago Bulls' next two games after ten players and several staff members entered the league's COVID protocols. Last week a source told CNN 97 percent of NBA players were vaccinated.

And the Wizards are getting ready to cast a spell again. The trailer for "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore" is here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Things are not quite what they appear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sweat all of it delicately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SOARES: The movie follows a young professor Dumbledore played by Jude Law, as he tries to prevent in an all-out war with the Dark Wizard. "Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore" is set to hit theaters in April.

And that does it for me here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Isa Soares. Our coverage continues on "EARLY START" with Christine Romans and Laura Jarrett. They'll have much more of course on our top story, the January 6 investigation. Have a wonderful day and I shall see you tomorrow, bye-bye.

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