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Israel Adds U.S., Canada, Germany, Others To Red No-Fly List; U.K. Weighs Tougher Restrictions As Omicron Variant Surges; France Increases Boosters, Tightens Restrictions To Avoid Lockdowns; Trump Sues NY Attorney General; Third-Graders Allegedly Made To Re-enact Moments From The Holocaust; Closing Arguments In Manslaughter Trial For Ex-Cop Kim Potter; Tiger Woods, Son Charlie Finish Second At PNC Championship. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired December 20, 2021 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:32:54]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: This just in to CNN, and a story that's familiar now. The governor of Maryland has announced he has tested positive as well for COVID-19. He is vaccinated and boosted and says so far he is feeling fine. Senators Elizabeth Warren and Cory Booker also announced positive tests over the weekend.

In Europe, the spread of the Omicron variant is a few weeks ahead of us here in the U.S. Now many countries, they're back on alert and posing new restrictions not seen since the worst days of the early pandemic.

CNN is covering those responses to the variant around the globe.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: I'm Elliott Gotkine in Jerusalem where Israel is adding 10 more countries including the U.S. and Canada to its red no-fly list as it braces for the full force of a fifth COVID wave. From 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Tuesday, these countries will be off-limits for Israelis unless they get special permission.

Travelers arriving from them will have to self-isolate for seven days, first in a designated quarantine hotel, and then once they get a negative PCR test result, at home, so long as they agree to have their movements tracked. Israel has been steadily adding countries like the U.K., Italy, and much of Africa to its red list to reduce the spread of the Omicron variant.

Most of Israel's 175 confirmed cases and 380 suspected ones recently returned from overseas. On Sunday evening, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett held a televised news conference imploring Israelis to take the new wave seriously and encouraging those employed in the private sector to work from home. Public sector workers are expected to follow next week.

He also sought to reinvigorate Israel's stalling vaccination campaign especially among children where take-up has been especially weak. The time we bought is running out, said Bennett. With God's help we will safely overcome this wave.

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Salma Abdelaziz in London. Everyone here in London is asking will there be a lockdown for Christmas? The deputy prime minister Dominic Raab refusing to rule out the possibility that tougher restrictions could come into force before the end of the holiday season, on Monday morning saying there are no hard and fast guarantees and warning everyone to be cautious about their social gatherings.

[10:35:05]

In London, a major incident was declared over the weekend by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who says further restrictions are inevitable and scientific advisers, British scientific advisers says, well, pushing the government to put tougher rules into force. These scientific advisers saying the country could potentially see up to 3,000 people a day being hospitalized with COVID-19 if tougher measures don't come into force before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, in Ireland, where Omicron has also become the dominant variant, a curfew has come into force from 8:00 p.m. All hospitality venues and live events must shut down. Both the U.K. and Ireland grappling with a huge surge in cases.

CYRIL VANIER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Cyril Vanier in Paris. Sadly, we will not be seeing a fireworks show at the Eiffel Tower on New Year's Eve this year. It's been canceled because of COVID. The government has put in place targeted restrictions for New Year's Eve. They are asking towns and cities to cancel public gatherings, fireworks, and concerts. France and much of Europe are currently experiencing record or near- record high infection numbers.

And authorities only expect that to get worse with Omicron, which could become the dominant strain on the continent in the next few weeks. All of this, even though France has had a very successful vaccination campaign. Almost 90 percent of those eligible have been inoculated, yet that has not stopped this latest wave. So the country is betting on boosters. The rollout so far has been effective.

It's open to all adults and about 1 percent of the country's total population is getting boosted every day. That's a high rate. The government wants to avoid another lockdown like the Netherlands or Austria recently. And so it has decided to tighten restrictions on the unvaccinated. The health pass, which is required to access many areas of public life, could soon become a vaccine pass, meaning that only the fully vaccinated would be allowed in restaurants, public events, airports, et cetera.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SCIUTTO: Cyril Vanier, Salma Abdelaziz, Elliott Gotkine, thanks so much. A view around the world there.

This just in to CNN. Here in the U.S., former president Donald Trump has now filed a lawsuit against New York state attorney general Letitia James seeking to halt her long-running civil investigation into his business practices.

CNN's senior legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid. Paula, this is not an unusual tactic for Donald Trump. He has often sued. What more do we know about this suit and the merits of this suit?

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Look, the former president and his attorneys have long argued that James' investigation is politically motivated and in this new lawsuit they alleged that she has violated his constitutional rights and they are seeking to block her ongoing investigation.

Now her office has been looking into whether the Trump Organization lied about the value of its assets, both to obtain favorable loan terms and also to pay lower taxes. Her civil investigation mirrors a similar criminal investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, which has of course already resulted in charges against the organization and one of its executives.

Now the timing of this lawsuit is also interesting because James has signaled that she wants to question the former president under oath next month as part of this investigation. Now in reading this, it does appear like you said to be a traditional Trump tactic, sort of airing of grievances, everything that has happened between James and the former president in the last few years in the course of this investigation.

The lawsuit argues that she has violated his First Amendment, his Fourth Amendment, his 14th Amendment, and they want a judge to block this investigation. Now legal experts tell me that seems highly unlikely, but we'll see what the judge and the courts have to say.

SCIUTTO: Paula Reid, thanks so much. And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:43:28]

SCIUTTO: Some disturbing allegations this morning. Third-graders at a public elementary school in Washington, D.C., allegedly told to reenact moments from the holocaust. "The Washington Post" reports that that included casting one student as Adolf Hitler. The instructor who taught the course is now on leave.

CNN's Jean Casarez is following the story. So Jean, tell us the details here. What exactly were students asked to do?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, the D.C. schools has told CNN this was not an approved project at all in any way. It did involve third-graders, we're understanding, at Watkins Elementary School. Now "The New York Post" is saying this actually incurred in library class and that the students were cast in different roles.

One student was cast as Adolph Hitler. Other students were cast as actually shooting, simulating shooting their fellow classmates. Other students were cast as simulating digging mass graves. Now, there are also allegations that hate speech was said during this project allegedly by the instructor.

We're also hearing that the instructor said, now don't tell anybody about this to the students, but the students went and told their homeroom teacher and that's how this became public and the parents got to know. Now we have some statements that have come in. We want to read one in part by the D.C. schools that says this was not an approved lesson plan. And we sincerely apologize to our students and families who were subjected to this incident.

[10:45:04]

CNN also was able to receive a letter that was sent to the parents, and in part, we want to read this to you, "Students should never be tasked with acting out any atrocity, especially genocide and war. Additionally, there were allegations of a staff member using hate speech during the lesson, which is unacceptable and not tolerated at our school."

And, Jim, the students, we understand, are undergoing conversations with the mental health professionals at the school, and a D.C. school official tells us the teacher is actually on leave.

SCIUTTO: Jean Casarez, thanks so much.

CASAREZ: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Well, right now another story we're following, attorneys delivering their closing arguments, this in the manslaughter trial of former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter. Potter, you'll remember, fatally shot 20-year-old Daunte Wright in April after she claims she mistook or she claims she mistook her gun for her taser. On Friday, Potter testified in her own defense. She apologized says she did not plan to use deadly force that day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You knew that deadly force was unreasonable and unwarranted in this circumstance.

KIM POTTER, DEFENDANT: I didn't want to hurt anybody.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Joining me now to discuss the case civil rights attorney and CNN legal affairs analyst Areva Martin.

Areva, we saw that moment in the courtroom. A remorseful Kim Potter. What does the law say here, particularly the law when it comes to first and second-degree manslaughter, the charges she is facing here?

AREVA MARTIN, CNN LEGAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, the law, Jim, looks at the conduct and looks at the reasonableness or unreasonableness of a conduct. And the first-degree manslaughter requires the jurors to find that her conduct was reckless. The second-degree manslaughter charge only requires there to be a finding of criminal negligence. There's been a lot of focus, Jim, on the emotional testimony of Kim

Potter. But what we know about Kim Potter is that she was emotional right after she shot Daunte Wright. She was emotional saying, look, I'm going to jail. So it's hard to know whether, you know, those tears or the emotion that we saw on the stand was about being sorry about killing Daunte Wright or being scared about going to jail.

And what I think we're not focusing enough on is she pretty much admitted on the witness stand during cross-examination that her conduct was unreasonable, and that makes the prosecution's case. The question is, will the jurors overlook that because of her emotional testimony?

SCIUTTO: That's an important point there because the negligence standard, right, was it met by her own story, right? Not the remorse but saying in effect I screwed up here, right? I mean, does that feed into the prosecutor's case as opposed to help her defense?

MARTIN: I think it was a slam dunk for the prosecutor's case because she admitted that her conduct was unreasonable, she admitted that she was a 26-year veteran of the police department, that she had had training on taser. She admitted that the taser and the gun look and feel different. So she made some critical admissions that are key to the prosecutor's case. So when you look at, you know, is there guilt here, I think she proved her own guilt.

So taking the stand as we know is always a risk for a defendant. And in this case I think it was damaging to Kim Potter. Now, again, the emotional -- but I think people should look at the emotional testimony from Daunte Wright's mother.

There's no guessing there. We know that that mom was emotional because her 20-year-old son was killed in an incident with the police that didn't have to happen whereas we don't know about Kim Potter's emotional state. Was it about Daunte Wright or saving herself from going to jail?

SCIUTTO: Yes. And then the origin, of course, which goes to a larger issue, he was stopped because he had a deodorant on his rear-view mirror.

Areva Martin, thank so much. I know we'll be back to you as we follow this case.

MARTIN: Thanks, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Still ahead this hour, less than a year after surviving a serious car accident that broke both his legs, one severely, Tiger Woods made a triumphant, I mean, really remarkable return to the golf course. We'll have the story coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:53:50]

SCIUTTO: Just a remarkable comeback this weekend for Tiger Woods only 10 months after being seriously injured in a car crash. Woods and his 12-year-old son, Charlie, came in second at the PNC Championship on Sunday.

CNN Sports anchor Andy Scholes joins me now.

Andy, I mean, it gives fans hope. It also gives anybody else who plays golf just, you know, humility. Right? That you can come back from something like this and play so well. What was it, 11 birdies in a row?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes. I mean, super impressive, Jim. You know, I was there in Orlando to watch it all. Incredible what Tiger was able to do just 10 months after that devastating car accident. You know, he was walking with a bit of a limp and he did use a cart to get around the course as it was allowed for this tournament. But he looked really strong. You know, Tiger drove it off the pro tee, took some really hard swings in the fairways.

He said he's still not hitting it as far as he's used to but Tiger also said, you know, he still has the hands, still has the feel, just his endurance that's holding him back. You know, at one point as you mentioned yesterday, he and Charlie birdied 11 straight holes, almost won this tournament. They came up two strokes short to John Daly and his son but it was an incredible weekend and Tiger said he was thrilled to be back.

[10:55:03]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIGER WOODS, 15-TIME MAJOR CHAMPION: The competitive juices, they're never going to go away. This is my environment. This is what I've done my entire life. I'm just so thankful to be able to have this opportunity to do it again. To push as hard as we have the last seven months taking no days off and just working our butts off each and every day, and to have this opportunity to be able to play with my son, and to have these memories, you know, for us, both of us, for a lifetime is worth all the pain.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Yes, and when we see Tiger again, Jim, it's still unknown. You know, he said he remains a long way away from being able to play in a big-time tournament. Always trying to temper expectations. But that comeback is off to a great start.

SCIUTTO: And credit where credit is due. Charlie not a bad golfer either at 12.

Andy Scholes, thanks so much.

Thanks so much for all of you for joining us today. I'm Jim Sciutto. "AT THIS HOUR" with Kate Bolduan starts right after a short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)