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Biden Pledges Government Aid in Tour of Damage Towns; Expert: Ex-Officer Not Justified in Using Deadly Force; Nations Resort to Tougher Measures as Omicron Spreads; Study: Sinovac Offers Insufficient Protection Against Omicron; Airline CEO's Grilled Over Covid Relief Money; Nearly 1,500 Documents Released on JFK Assassination. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired December 16, 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: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Isa Soares. If you're just joining us, let me bring you up to date with our top stories this hour.
Super typhoon Rai has made landfall in the Philippines. Hundreds of thousands of people have been told to evacuate. Rai is one of the strongest storms ever recorded in the region.
And severe weather is slamming parts of the Central United States. More than 80 million people are under strong wind alerts, and more than 400,000 are without power.
Well, U.S. President Joe Biden visited parts of western Kentucky on Wednesday. Just days after massive tornadoes ripped everything in their paths. Mr. Biden announced that the federal government would pay for all the emergency work done over the next 30 days. The extreme weather event left at least 85 dead in five states and caused widespread power outages. CNN's Brian Todd has more on the president's firsthand look at the destruction.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): On the ground, President Biden gets a jarring firsthand look at the damage in Dawson Springs, Kentucky, meeting with victims in the aftermath.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The scope and scale of this destruction is almost beyond belief. When you look around here, it's just almost beyond belief. These tornados devoured everything in their path.
TODD (voice-over): Promising help for a hard-hit states.
BIDEN: And I intend to do whatever it takes as long as it takes, as long as it takes to support your state, your local leaders and as you recover and rebuild.
TODD (voice-over): The state's governor grateful for the help. GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D-KY): We've gone from looking for our dead to starting to haul away the death and destruction around us. And the steps to start rebuilding have already begun. I hope the people of Kentucky know that I care deeply about them, and the president does too.
TODD (voice-over): In Mayfield, Biden sees the destruction of a town the emergency director says, quote, doesn't exist. Downtown, residents of a ruined apartment building pick through the remains and worry for friends and neighbors that lost everything.
JIMMY HENLEY, RESIDENT OF DAMAGED APARTMENT BUILDING: I don't know where they're going. And -- I'm sorry. But I've known these people all my life and they're helpless. I don't know what to do for them.
WILMA TURNER, DAUGHTER OF DAMAGED APARTMENT BUILDING RESIDENT: Every time I look around here, I grew up here. And it's horrible.
TODD (voice-over): Volunteers offering assistance for victims in places like the Mayfield Fairgrounds. Barbara Anderson's sister lost her house.
BARBARA ANDERSON, SISTER DISPLACED BY TORNADO: I have seven people staying in my house. No power, no water, we're living in two rooms.
TODD (voice-over): Mike Goode has run an excavation business in Mayfield for 40 years. His teams are scrambling to clear falling trees from Red Duck Creek, a key drainage ditch. Officials fear if the creek is not cleared soon, parts of the town will flood during rainstorms that are coming.
MIKE GOODE, MIKE GOODE EXCAVATING: The danger is everywhere. There are buildings that are not stable, of course, as I'm sure you've seen.
TODD (voice-over): Survivors still returning to their neighborhoods vowing to rebuild.
GENTIAN EMINI, BOWLING GREEN RESIDENT: This right here it's just a lesson for us that, you know, we're not here to live forever.
TODD (voice-over): On this street in Bowling Green, 11 people died, including five members of one family from Bosnia.
EMINI: They had a lot of kids. I remember them going outside playing and all that.
[04:35:00]
And just seeing this right now, this is devastating.
TODD: And we have new information on the horrific scale of the tornado that ripped through Mayfield and Dawson Springs, Kentucky. The National Weather Service says that tornado had a maximum width of a mile or more, had peak winds of 190 miles an hour, and was on the ground for at least 128 miles.
Brian Todd, CNN, Mayfield, Kentucky.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOARES: Thank you, Brian.
Now, the prosecution in the trial of former Minneapolis cop Kim Potter charged in the shooting death of Daunte Wright is expected to rest its case today. Now, on Wednesday, a policing expert testified that Potter was not justified in using deadly force against Wright during a traffic stop in April. Video shows Potter pulling out her firearm and shooting Wright, saying later she meant to use her taser.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SETH STOUGHTON, USE OF FORCE EXPERT: The fact they had identified him and had his address is a relevant consideration in balancing the threat of escape or evasion.
EARL GREY, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: If he attempted to escape, what should the officers have done?
STOUGHTON: Use a reasonable force to prevent the escape.
GREY: And did they do that when they were trying to stop him from escaping?
STOUGHTON: Are you asking me in this case?
GREY: Yes.
STOUGHTON: No, but the point is using deadly force, no. As I testified, that was excessive and unreasonable, inappropriate and inconsistent with general accepted police practices.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOARES: Now, Wright's father was the last witness on the stand on Wednesday. He fought back tears when prosecutors showed photos of his son.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ARBUEY WRIGHT, FATHER OF DAUNTE WRIGHT: He loved his son
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And did you love your son Daunte a lot as well?
WRIGHT: A lot. I loved Daunte. He was loved.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you miss him?
WRIGHT: I miss him a lot, every day.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, your honor. Nothing further.
(END VIDEOTAPE) SOARES: Now, Potter is charged with first- and second-degree manslaughter. She pleaded not guilty and is expected to testify in her own defense.
Now, another former Minneapolis cop was also back in court. Derek Chauvin convicted of murder in the death of George Floyd appeared before a judge to face federal civil rights charges. CNN's Josh Campbell has all the details for you.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GEORGE FLOYD: I can't breathe, man.
JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For the first time since the murder of George Floyd last year, former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin is admitting responsibility, pleading guilty Wednesday to federal civil rights charges that he violated Floyd's constitutional rights.
It's all part of a plea deal for the man convicted of killing Floyd last year by kneeling on his neck for more than nine minutes. In addition to the more than two decades Chauvin was sentenced to by the state, prosecutors have asked for a concurrence sentence of 25 years on federal charges, adding fewer than three years to his overall prison time, far less than the life sentence he could have received.
In court, prosecutors asked Chauvin, as Mr. Floyd lay on the ground handcuffs and unresisting, you kept your knees on Mr. Floyd's neck and body even after Mr. Floyd became unresponsive, correct? Correct, Chauvin said. When asked if he agreed the offense resulted in Floyd's death, he gave the same one-word response.
Afterwards, Floyd's brothers have mixed reactions.
RODNEY FLOYD, GEORGE FLOYD'S BROTHER: I wish it would have happened when the first day we had the state trial. I want to hear that at the very beginning. So, right now, it just -- it don't mean nothing. It don't hold weight.
PHILONISE FLOYD, GEORGE FLOYD'S BROTHER: To me, this is big, because a blue wall fell and it never falls. Cops usually are solid, but they are opening up and they all say that that was wrong.
CAMPBELL: Josh Campbell, CNN, Minneapolis.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOARES: We'll keep on top of that story today.
Now, a Florida school district paid more than $26 million to the families of those killed in the Parkland School shooting as well as those who were injured. The money covers two legal settlements the district approved on Tuesday. A former student killed 17 people and wounding 17 others in the 2018 shooting which was among the deadliest in modern U.S. history. The gunman Nikolas Cruz pleaded guilty and could receive the death penalty. Now, nine people are dead after a plane crashed in the Dominican
Republic. Among them Puerto Rican music producer Jose Hernandez, known as Flow La Movie, as well as his wife and child. The private jet was headed to Miami when the pilot tried to make an emergency landing just 15 minutes after take-off. The cause of the crash is still unknown.
Now I'm going to take you to Australia where five children were killed, four others critically injured in a tragic accident. They were celebrating the end of the school year when wind lifted an inflatable castle into the air. The children fell about 10 meters to the ground. The school closed early for the day and parents were called to come to get their children. Prime Minister Scott Morrison called it heartbreaking. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[04:40:00]
SCOTT MORRISON, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: The events that have occurred in Devonport in Tasmania are just shattering. They are just unthinkably heartbreaking. And young children on a fun day out together with their families, and it turns to such horrific tragedy. At this time of year, it just breaks your heart.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOARES: Really heartbreaking story. Authorities in Tasmania are offering counseling to the affected families.
Still to come right here on the show, South Korea's ramping up its COVID-19 safety measures as the nation reports a new high of critically ill patients. We'll have more from the region with David Culver next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SOARES: Now, a rise in COVID-19 cases right across the globe is forcing many nations to toughen up their safety measures and prepare for an uptick in Omicron infections. Australia's state of New South Wales is reporting its highest number of daily COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began. Health data shows that more than 90 percent of the people age 16 and older in New South Wales have been vaccinated.
Meanwhile, South Korea, that's tightening the social distancing rules as officials warn the medical system could reach its limit soon. It comes after the country reported a record number of critically ill COVID patients on Wednesday.
And dozens of locally transmitted cases are being reported across five Chinese provinces as Beijing gets ready, of course, to host the Winter Olympics in February of 2022.
Let's bring in CNN's David Culver in Shanghai who's following the story for us. And David, this surge that we just painted out, just painted right now, in cases is worrying given the spread of Omicron, and news that China's Sinovac vaccine doesn't provide sufficient antibodies to protect against Omicron. What more do we know here?
[04:45:00]
DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I think that's most concerning not only here within the mainland, Isa, but also everywhere that Sinovac has been exported to, which is several countries. So, what we're hearing from the University of Hong Kong researchers is that this vaccine, Sinovac, which is Chinese made, is not nearly as efficient at protecting against this Omicron variant. And they're saying that as they have run this research, that it really doesn't have any antibodies to essentially neutralize the new variant.
Now Chinese officials haven't spoken specifically on that. They oftentimes like to say they want to see more research come out and they stand by, of course, their vaccines. Not to mention you've more than 80 percent of this population of more than 1.4 billion people who have been fully vaccinated. So of course, they're hopeful that they will see some sort of protection.
Nonetheless, you have the strict measures still in place here. You've got borders that are heavily restricted still, and you've got essentially many of us living here in the midst of a bubble. And those bubbles are continuing as we are seeing double digits reported. Now folks outside may say, that's not a lot, 69 cases reported for yesterday. But it's significant given that they're trying to move forward with this zero-COVID policy.
And you mentioned the Olympics. That's the main reason. They're trying to keep zero COVID in place well into February of next year when Beijing will host the Olympics. But it is causing a lot of outbreaks, nonetheless, to be targeted with these lockdowns, with mass testing, with contact tracing, all of which is still heavily in place.
And then you mentioned Australia as well. That's, of course, an area that in New South Wales, that state in particular, that has seen a daily record in cases. So, that's concerning. But folks there, Isa, really more focused on the number of hospitalizations and they say as of now those numbers are manageable.
SOARES: David Culver for us in Shanghai, with his rare appearance. Please come on the show more often, David, at this time. Great to see you.
CULVER: Good to be with you.
SOARES: Now, the U.S. is also seeing COVID cases surge, but air travel still expected to roar back to life this holiday season. Meanwhile airline CEOs were on the hot seat on Capitol Hill testifying about how they spent the COVID relief money they received from the government. CNN's Pete Muntean reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: The central question here was whether or not the federal government got its money's worth for the $50 billion it gave airlines in pandemic aid to prevent major layoffs. But there were still staffing shortages that caused massive flight cancellations and schedule meltdowns at Spirit, American and Southwest in the last few months.
Testifying here to the Senate committee were executives from American, United, Southwest and Delta. American CEO Doug Parker says those schedule issues were really the exception and not the rule. United CEO Scott Kirby says the federal government did get a return on investment, seeing as though airlines survived the pandemic.
SCOTT KIRBY, CEO, UNITED AIRLINES: The industry wouldn't -- not only -- it wouldn't exist, anything like it does today, had this not happened. And it's not just about the industry. It's about all the millions of jobs that we support that are dependent on connectivity and aviation and getting people from point A to B. And so, this was not only about saving the aviation industry. It was just about saving an industry that is a critical cog of the U.S. and the global economy.
MUNTEAN: American Airline CEO Doug Parker says another reason why these problems will not happen again at its airline is that it is aggressively hiring, adding 16,000 jobs in 2021, 18,000 planned for 2022.
We will see if this all works going into the massive holiday rush. The TSA anticipates huge numbers. We just saw 2 million people pass through security at America's airports this past Sunday. United Airlines says its passenger loads are 20 percent greater, it says, for the holiday season compared to Thanksgiving when we saw a record set for the pandemic. The most passengers since March of 2020, 2.45 million people at airports across the country on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.
Pete Muntean, CNN, the Capitol.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOARES: Thanks, Pete.
Now, if a cheesecake is on your holiday menu, craft, the owner of Philadelphia cream cheese has come up with a plan to try and convince you to choose a different dessert. The company is offering up to 18,000 shoppers a $20 reimbursement for buying desserts that do not involve cream cheese. The product is the latest grocery item to be hit by supply chain shortage. We've been telling you about that. Shoppers can sign up to get reimbursed on a special website set up by Kraft.
Now, still to come, new details have been released on the assassination of President John F. Kennedy nearly 60 years ago. Our report is just ahead.
[04:50:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SOARES: Now, historians and conspiracy theorists are combing through hundreds of U.S. government documents just released on the assassination of U.S. President John Kennedy. They were supposed to be made public four years ago. But despite some new information, CNN's Tom Foreman explains, there is no great revelation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOHN F. KENNEDY, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Ask not what your country can do for you ...
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The nearly 1,500 documents are filled with intriguing details. A Polish driver in Australia saying he listened in on Russian passengers talking about five Soviet submarines carrying 400 to 500 Soviet soldiers on their way to Cuba. There was a plot to pay $100,000 to kill President Kennedy.
A Nicaraguan claiming, he saw the president's killer Lee Harvey Oswald being paid $6,500 by Russians. Oswald meeting with a KGB agent just months before the killing, and endless reports like this. Oswald entered Mexico claiming he was a photographer phoning the Soviet embassy to ask for a visa so he could go to Odessa, USSR. Little of the information is entirely new to the public. Many of the leads were long ago dispensed with or disproven.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To the White House in Washington comes the final verdict on the fateful tragedy which engulfed the nation ten months ago.
[04:55:00]
FOREMAN (voice-over): But ever since the Warren report, every tiny bit of information pulled from the shroud of government secrecy has fed conspiracy theorists who believe Oswald did not act alone and may have been backed by Cuba, Russia, the Mafia.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And karma. I saw a flash of light in the bushes. And then shots rang out.
FOREMAN (voice-over): And these latest papers are fascinating serious historians, too. Even when they aren't all about Oswald.
TIM NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: I learned some things today, more details about how the Mafia were used in an attempt to kill Castro. Now I sort of understand much better the technique that would have been involved and why it was a serious effort, which did not actually succeed as we know.
FOREMAN: That sort of information is precisely what intelligence agents are cagey about. They don't want their methods or their contacts known, even decades later after this far-ranging investigation. And that's why about 10,000 documents remain either heavily redacted or entirely off limits.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOARES: No reductions there. Now, rise, Sir Hamilton. The British racing sensation Lewis Hamilton
was knighted on Wednesday by Prince Charles. You can see there. The distinction made eased Hamilton's bitter second place loss at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday. Hamilton is the fourth F1 driver to be knighted. He's also the first to receive the honor whilst still racing. He was there with his mother.
And that does it for me here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Isa Soares. Our coverage of the severe weather right across the Central United States continues on "EARLY START" with Christine Romans and Laura Jarrett. Have a wonderful day and I shall see you tomorrow. Bye-bye.
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