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President Biden to Visit Kentucky; Derek Chauvin Pleads Guilty to Federal Charges; Senate Set to Grill Airline CEOs on Ticket Prices. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired December 15, 2021 - 10:30   ET

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

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: President Biden set to soon touch down in Kentucky where he'll tour the extensive damage in that state left behind by those deadly tornadoes. He is expected to be briefed at Fort Campbell before heading to some of the hardest hit areas, Mayfield and Dawson Springs.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ACNHOR: Yes, you look at those communities here and they have years ahead of them to rebuild. CNN Correspondent Nick Valencia, he's in Bowling Green, Kentucky, Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins, she's in Dawson Springs, we've been talking about all the damage they've seen there.

And Nick, I do want to begin with you because families impacted here, and you spoke to two families where you are who just suffered just devastating personal losses.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Devastating is the right word to use, just really sad news to report this morning Jim. We've been reporting from this subdivision all week, and it's today that we learned of the 15 casualties here in Bowling Green, 11 of them happened on this one street. That included the Brown family, six of them who live just two doors down, and the Bessicks (ph), they were an immigrant family from Bosnia.

And it appears just from the track that this tornado took, ripping through from just beyond that field, that the Bessick (ph) family home may been one of the first of the homes that were hit here in this subdivision. And it was just a short time ago that I caught up with a neighbor who tells me that among the family members killed were two infant girls.

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GENTIAN EMINI, BOWLING GREEN RESIDENT: Well, when I walked here, I even got the pictures were there dead bodies in the driveway. He was a good man, you know, I always used to say hi, you know, whatever, see each other. There are good families. This right here is just a lesson for us that, you know, we're not here to live forever. It's sad, you know, when you think there are still dead bodies that still not been found.

(END VIDEO CLIP) VALENCIA: We - talking about those unaccounted for, you can see behind me the work continues with the Bowling Green Fire Department. They're canvassing this area, trying to see if they can find any of those unaccounted for. This subdivision really suffered the brunt of the damage here in Bowling Green. And just beyond, block after block of just debris all across the roads.

This is a community that has been just, you know, ravaged by this tornado. And it's just now days later that I think the mental stress is starting to hit them of what they went through. Jim, Erica?

HILL: Yes, the enormity of the loss and then also the enormity of what lies ahead of them as they try to rebuild, they could (ph) appreciate it. Kaitlan Collins, as we mentioned, also there on the ground. So President Biden set to arrive a short time from now. Where will he go, what will he see and who will he be meeting with, Kaitlan?

KAITLAN COLLINS, NBC CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he's got a busy day ahead of him. He's going to land in Fort Campbell, then he's going to an aerial tour of Mayfield where that candle factory to see that destruction, of course, often times seeing it from the sky is the best part to see.

Really the full extent of the damage has become more apparent every day as this has gone on since these storms first happened throughout this weekend, and so he'll do that aerial tour. Then he's going to come over here to Dawson Springs where I am. He'll get another briefing on the ground from local officials after he gets a similar one in Mayfield.

And then he's also going to give remarks here today, and you can expect, of course, those remarks are going to be largely centered on what President Biden has been talking about since Saturday, which is what these people are going through and what Nick was just talking about there as they are seeing not just the loss of life here but also the loss of their everyday items, their houses, their cars, all of these things that they now don't have and have to recover from.

And so that is often what President Biden is characterized as being so good at, which is being kind of this consoler and chief, empathizing with people who have lost so much and gone through something like this. And I think that will be a part of his role today, of course. This is a visit, Erica and Jim, that the president timed.

He wanted to wait for the resources to have time to go around, to look at the level of destruction, to make sure that a presidential visit and, of course, all of the personnel and staffing and security that comes alongside something like that wouldn't interfere with the rescue efforts and the recovery efforts that have been underway here for several days now.

And I think one big part of this is also going to be the federal aspect and what that's going to look like. Housing is number one, I think, for so many of these people because so many people don't have their homes anymore. And where we are in Dawson Springs, about a third of the city's population lives beneath the poverty line, the average median household income here is about $25,000.

And we have had our teams on the ground who have spoken to people who have lost their entire home, and they don't have insurance. And so the question of going forward, what do they do, what does that look like? They are going to be relying on a lot of federal help here in the coming weeks and days and months.

HILL: Yes.

SCIUTTO: And years. Goodness, Kaitlan Collins, Nick Valencia, thanks so much to both of you. In any moment, another story we're following, the former Minneapolis Officer Derek Chauvin is expected to appear in court, change his plea now to guilty of violating George Floyd's civil rights. We'll have more.

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SCIUTTO: All right, this update just in to CNN, Derek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis Police Officer convicted of murder for killing George Floyd, has just changed his plea to guilty in a separate federal civil rights case. Chauvin was accused of depriving Floyd of his right to be free of unreasonable seizure.

HILL: Joining us now is CNN Legal Analyst and Civil Rights Attorney Areva Martin. Areva, good to have you with us this morning. So, you know, this change to a guilty plea, right, we were anticipating this this morning. Why was it a smart move in Derek Chauvin's case?

AREVA MARTIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST AND CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Yes, there was really no upside, Erica, in Chauvin moving forward with a trial and trying to maintain his innocence. Jurors already wholesale rejected his specious argument about why he had to restrain what he wanted jurors to believe was a non-compliant George Floyd.

He was convicted on second-degree murder, he was convicted on second- degree manslaughter in that state, a case that we all witnessed several months ago, so there was nothing to gain by him moving forward with a trial in this federal jurisdiction.

And the federal charges carried with him life in prison, so if he were convicted in this federal case he would be facing significantly more jail time than the 22 and a half years that he's already been sentenced to in the state murder case.

SCIUTTO: A question about that, so 22 and a half years in the state murder case, could his change in plea in this federal civil rights case change his sentence for any federal crime here or even the possibility of those sentences running concurrently?

MARTIN: Well, I would imagine Jim that's what he and his attorney are hoping will happen is that he would somehow be able to have the federal charges, the mound that he's pleading guilty to, to have the sentence for those charges run concurrently with the state charges. And another possibility is that he's hoping that he could serve out this time in a federal prison rather than in the state prison that he's already in. We know that he's been in solitary confinement in this Minnesota prison, so there's speculation that he's hoping to be able to, one, get the terms to run concurrently, perhaps the 22 and a half years is the maximum time that he serves, and that he gets to do it in a federal prison.

And I should note, Jim, that the state time in Minnesota, he only has to serve about two thirds of that 22 and a half years, so that's about 15 years or so. The federal system is different, so it remains to be seen if that time will be concurrent or if, quite frankly, if Chauvin will ever see the outside of a prison cell.

HILL: He's not the only one, right, involved in these civil charges.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HILL: Is there any anticipation that we could see the other three officers change their plea?

MARTIN: I don't think so, Erica. At this point, we're not hearing anything that would suggest that these defendants are going to change their plea. We know they are, in some ways, lesser actors than Derek Chauvin. I would imagine that they're quite happy, though, that Derek Chauvin has changed his plea just now, makes them available to testify in the trial, perhaps he takes the witness stand and accepts responsibility as the senior officer on the scene there.

It removes him from the defense table. We know that these defendants tried to sever their trial from Derek Chauvin, but the judge rejected that motion. Now he won't be sitting at that defense table. And perhaps some of the inflammatory evidence that would - have come out if Chauvin was on trial now is not brought out in the trial of the other three defendants. So this is actually good news, to a certain extent, for these three defendants.

SCIUTTO: Areva Martin, thanks very much.

MARTIN: Thank you.

HILL: The expanded child tax credits could run out in a matter of weeks if the Senate does not pass that Build Back Better plan, so what does that really mean? Well, 10 million children are at risk of slipping back into poverty if Congress does not act.

SCIUTTO: But first, here is a look at some of the other events we're watching today.

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HILL: Later today, a Senate panel set to grill the CEOs of the three major airlines about rising ticket prices, continuing flight disruptions and staffing shortages.

SCIUTTO: Some of you may have experienced it. This has all happened despite the airlines receiving more than $50 billion in federal funds designed to keep them afloat and running and flying during the pandemic. CNNs Aviation Correspondent Pete Muntean joins us now. Pete, I mean, what answers do we expect from the CEOs on this?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim and Erica, you know, the airlines will say that that $50 billion helped them avoid mass layoffs, but they will have to answer to why there were massive cancellations and flight schedule meltdowns over the last few months at Spirit, American and Southwest typically caused by staffing shortages.

Now we are going to hear testimony from the CEOs of American, Southwest and United, and the COO of Delta Airlines at the Senate Commerce Committee today. American CEO Doug Parker answers to the cancellations this way.

He says "the return of demand for air travel has been intense. Like other airlines, we have experienced some operational challenges in recent months, which we have worked to manage as deftly as possible and with the utmost care for out customers and team members." Parker goes one step forward by saying that American is hiring aggressively.

He says it added 16,000 new jobs in 2021. It projects another 18,000 in 2022. He calls that a dividend payment on the billions the airline received from the federal government. We will see if this argument works with the Senate Commerce Committee and we will also see if airlines are truly out of the woods.

The TSA is projecting huge numbers over the holiday travel season. United Airlines says its passenger loads are going to be about 20% higher than what we saw during the Thanksgiving travel rush, that's when we set a new pandemic era air travel record 2.45 million people through security at America's airports on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

And things were pretty smooth, but there were no weather or air traffic control issues, which typically kick off these big schedule meltdowns so we'll just have to wait and see Jim and Erica.

SCIUTTO: And not a lot of evidence of Omicron scaring people from keeping those plans, right, for Christmas.

MUNTEAN: Right.

SCIUTTO: Pete Muntean, thanks very much.

Well, millions of American families are set to get their last monthly infusion of the expanded child tax credit starting today. This unless Congress acts to extend it for another year through that big bill, the Build Back Better plan.

HILL: So what does that mean? It means 10 million children are now at risk of slipping back into poverty. CNNs Vanessa Yurkevich spoke with some families who have come to rely on those extra monthly payments, and they talked to Vanessa about the difference that they have made.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, and 35 million families rely on these child tax credits, especially here in West Virginia which has one of the highest poverty rates in the country. The families we spoke to say they want to make sure Congress is listening to their stories.

JESSE HARDEN (PH), SON: I would like a waffle.

EMILY HARDEN, MOM: You'd like a waffle?

YURKEVICH: At breakfast, Jesse and his sister Madison can have whatever they want.

J. HARDEN (ph): Thank you.

YURKEVICH: But their mom, Emily Harden (ph), says that wasn't always the case.

E. HARDEN: There were a lot of times where we didn't have, you know, more than a couple of dollars and had to kind of decide like I wasn't going to eat so that he could eat.

YURKEVICH: But now the family is on steadier footing, thanks in part to a monthly child tax credit, or CTC, from the federal government. This year, families are getting $3,000 per child ages six to 17, and $3,600 for children under six, that's up from 2,000 per child.

E. HARDEN: It's been a really big deal for us.

YURKEVICH: This single mom makes a modest salary of $34,000 as the pastor of the Church of the Covenant in Grafton, West Virginia. Bills have always been tight and still are, but the $6,600 in child tax credit she's getting makes a difference.

E. HARDEN: Being less worried about those kind of every day expenses, which, you know, if you're worried about every day expenses you're worried every day, has meant that I feel - I feel less stressed.

YURKEVICH: But that stress is starting to build again. The Senate must pass the Build Back Better bill by December 28th to continue CTC benefits at the current amounts. Part of the holdup is West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin, who has concerns about the overall cost of the bill.

UNKNOWN FEMALE: We are potentially risking 50,000 West Virginia citizens or children who are benefitting from the CTC to either be pushed further down into poverty or actually cross into the poverty line.

YURKEVICH: And across the country it's nearly 10 million children at risk.

UNKNOWN FEMALE: Come here, come to mommy.

YURKEVICH: The Butcher's, down one salary after Anna (ph) lost her job during the pandemic, say it would be devastating to lose the $6,600 in tax credits for their two children.

BRIAN BUTCHER, FATHER: The four year old and the 15 year old, they're never going to go hungry, but it's a different story for us and sometimes we have to make those kinds of decisions. YURKEVICH: 91% of low-income families use their CTC on food, education and other basic needs. The Butchers are looking at cutting their grocery bill, but with prices rising across the board, it's nearly impossible.

A. BUTCHER (ph): Our food budget, which is pretty low at this point, so I don't see us being able to go much lower with that. It's scary because I'm not really sure what our next step is going to look like.

E. HARDEN: There's your Santa picture from this year.

J. HARDEN (PH): Yes, with me and Madison (ph).

E. HARDEN: And our little lego.

YURKEVICH: And with Christmas around the corner, these families have been saving. But with next year's child tax credit up in the air, Santa may not be able to deliver on everything this year.

B. BUTCHER: We kind of had like a budgeted set amount, and then we were thinking about like what we could actually get them. It's a tough conversation this year.

YURKEVICH: Now it's easy to forget that there are still so many families struggling financially out of this pandemic, but the child tax credits have had immediate impacts. The Treasury Department says that once the checks started going out in July, just a few weeks later food insecurity amongst families dropped by 24%, and these checks are being used for everyday items, food, shelter, education, school supplies.

And it's important to note that these families really feel like they're being forgotten here and they want to make sure that Congress is hearing their message. Guys?

HILL: It's so important, and I mean, yet again, the message Jim and I were just saying in the break how important all of your reporting has been throughout this pandemic.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

YURKEVICH: Thank you.

HILL: And yet again, hearing from people how they are directly impacted here, bringing their voices to light, it's so, so important.

SCIUTTO: Real families, immediate effect. Vanessa Yurkevich, thanks so much. And thanks so much to all of you for joining us on yet another busy news day. I'm Jim Sciutto.

HILL: And I'm Erica Hill. Stay tuned, At This Hour with Kate Bolduan starts after a quick break. Stay with us.

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