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Administration to Distribute Free At-Home Covid Tests; Omicron Hits New York; Dr. Megan Ranney is Interviewed about Omicron; January 6th Panel to Question Sitting Lawmaker; House Members Not Seeking Re- Election; Pentagon Moves to Combat Extremism. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired December 21, 2021 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

KATE BENNETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Every room. And so I think he's looking for a companion again and German shepherds provide that for him. So -- so, best of luck.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, they're such great dogs They're such good dogs. And those ears, I'm with you, Kate, they're adorable

BENNETT: Yes, so cute.

HILL: Thank you.

BENNETT: Uh-huh.

HILL: Berman, I'm sure Kate will let you know as soon as the cat arrives. Don't worry.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm sure.

HILL: CNN's coverage continues right now.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: A very good Tuesday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto.

The omicron variant is now already the dominant strain of coronavirus here in the U.S. And it's only been 21 days since the first case of it was detected. Take a look at this chart, it shows it visually. The yellow bar shows how delta accounted for nearly 100 percent of cases for months until a couple of weeks ago and just in the last two weeks you see omicron shoot up from just a small percentage to now 73 percent, three-quarters of new infections. It is important to know this, and this is really the big question, how severe of illness does omicron cause? We still don't have complete data on that.

Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: You obviously want to pay attention to the number of infections because they could be the forerunner of severity. But if you have a lot of infections, and less severity, it's much more important to focus on hospitalizations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: And that's where the jury is still out. Fauci also emphasized that getting vaccinated and boosted remains a strong defense from severe illness for all of the variants. The U.S. has now confirmed its first death from omicron, notably an unvaccinated Texas man with underlying health issues died after contracting the virus for a second time. Again, note, unvaccinated.

Right now, cases are surging across the country, forcing some event cancellations.

The NHL has suspended all of its games for the next several days over the Christmas weekend in an attempt to slow the spread.

Right here in the nation's capital, the mayor, Muriel Bowser, has announced the reinstatement of an indoor mask mandate. That starts today.

In New York, which has seen a threefold increase in Covid infections in the past week, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio says the city is testing more people than ever. And that contributes, actually, to some degree to the number of new infections we're seeing. Officials say omicron is increasing the demand for testing. The supply chain can't yet keep up.

Hours from now, President Biden will address the nation on the issue. He is expected to announce the purchase by the government of half a billion at home rapid tests, which will be sent, for free, to anyone who requests one.

Let's begin at the White House. CNN's Jeremy Diamond is on the North Lawn.

Jeremy, notably this, the president's not going to come out today and say we're going to shut down the country or parts of the country again today. He's talking about targeted steps here, testing, what else do we expect?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Jim, it's going to be a very different message from the one you might have expected a year ago during that last winter surge. Instead, what you are going to see here is the president delivering two clear messages, one to the unvaccinated, warning them of the risk of serious illness and hospitalization if they do not go ahead and get vaccinated. And then another to the vaccinated, perhaps anxious Americans, telling them that they can go ahead and continue with their holiday travel plans as long as they continue to practice common sense public health measures. And also making clear that they are at low risk of serious illness because of the protection they have from vaccination, particularly if they are boosted.

As far as the new steps, a half a billion free at-home rapid tests that will be sent to any American who requests one beginning next month. At least the first tranche of those will go next month. That is a change in approach from this administration after the White House press secretary, just a couple weeks ago, essentially dismissed the idea of sending free at-home tests to every single American. A slightly different plan here, but, nonetheless, a change.

And then you're also going to see additional support to hospitals that are overwhelmed as we see these cases tick up over the coming weeks with a thousand military service members being mobilized and ready to be deployed beginning next month.

SCIUTTO: Yes, we've been talking to a lot of hospitals already overwhelmed.

Jeremy Diamond, thanks so much.

Right now the northeast feeling the brunt of the fast moving omicron variant, or at least positive tests of it. New York and New Jersey seeing a record number of new infections. Officials in New York City said they are working to increase Covid-19 testing capacity -- I mean look at those lines -- as omicron has dramatically driven up demand. Long waits there for those tests.

CNN national correspondent Jason Carroll following all of this from New York.

And, Jason, you know, the good side of this, right, is that folks are being responsible. They're going out. They're getting tested so they can protect themselves, react, protect their family members. Is there any improvement to those lines we've been talking about the last couple days?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's be clear, they're going out and trying to get tested, right, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

[09:05:01]

CARROLL: I mean because if you look at what happened here, early this morning folks came out here. There was a long line of people out here. Turns out that was just the line for the wait list. There are 158 people on the wait list at this location alone. And now the wait list is closed. They're no longer taking new appointments. And so that gives you a sense of the need at this one location where we are.

I mean Mayor de Blasio says that the city is going to open new test sites, at least two dozen of them by the end of the week. And in addition to that, what we're seeing here in the state and in the city are the numbers continuing to rise. I mean if you look what -- just what happened in New York State, they broke another record for the fourth consecutive day of new infections. More than 23,000 new cases reported yesterday. Most of those right here in New York City at 15,245 new infections.

Again, not seeing a spike in the number of hospitalizations. So that's some good news when looking at all of this in terms of trying to keep some of this in perspective. But in terms of all of these numbers that we're looking at and the

wait to get testing, everything that New York City is dealing with, the mayor says, despite all of that, he says he is committed to having the city stay open.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO, NEW YORK CITY: Got to defeat omicron. We got to avoid shutdowns. We got to avoid restrictions. We got to keep moving forward. Vaccination is the key.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: Again, we keep hearing this message over and over again, vaccination is the key. Mayor de Blasio also warning New Yorkers that it is his estimation, based on all the research that he's seeing, Jim, that the worst of this wave is ahead of New Yorkers, not behind them.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: Jason Carroll, thanks so much.

Let's speak now to Dr. Megan Ranney. She is a professor of emergency medicine and associate dean of public health at Brown University.

Doctor, good to have you back.

Let's begin with the president's plan today. Half a billion rapid at home tests sent out for free to those who request them. Will this make a difference? I suppose the real question is here, what's the guarantee that most people, and the most at risk people, actually ask for the test, right, because you have a huge, you know, sadly, political disparity over to how much people test themselves.

DR. MEGAN RANNEY, PROFESSOR OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE: There are a number of questions. First, do people know how to use these? Are they going to be motivated to do it? I'll say, my own parents, when I said I wanted to rapid test for Thanksgiving, my mom's question was, if I'm positive, who's going to cook the turkey. I had to explain that if she was positive we shouldn't be going over.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

RANNEY: Those kind of discussions have to be part of rapid testing.

And then, yes, getting people to ask for them is part of this.

The last part is, will distributing half a billion rapid tests a month from now be sufficient to stem this tide of omicron? We're seeing how quickly it's overtaking the United States now. I worry that in a month it will be a nice to have, but it won't be able to prevent the damage that we're currently undergoing.

SCIUTTO: Right. I mean amazing the speed that this has burned through, or is burning through the country. We are seeing the biggest spikes in places such as New York and New

Jersey, which is not unusual. It's where we saw the pandemic start. These are big urban areas.

But it's also places where people are testing more. And I wonder, what is the likelihood that omicron is actually spreading broadly as well, but in other places where folks just aren't testing as much?

RANNEY: Yes, it's certainly spreading below the surface across the United States. If you actually look at the projections on the CDC's web page, which is how they're estimating that omicron is now the dominant variant across the United States, you see the (INAUDIBLE) higher percentages of omicron. In fact, in some areas with less testing than is being done in the northeast. So that's certainly possible. And based on what we know about omicron, you know, a plane flight from one region to another of the country is enough to seed it in a new area.

Truly this is going to be the strain across the United States. But here's an important caveat, Jim. I expect delta to still stick around and still make people super sick. That's what we're seeing in England is that omicron is rising but delta is still holding strong as well.

SCIUTTO: Are we seeing, and I know it's early, are we seeing a commensurate jump in hospitalizations already as we're seeing this jump in new infections? I mean is there a possible silver lining here that we're not hearing about some of these infections because they're not as serious?

RANNEY: You know, I love that question. And it re-emphasizes the point that thanks to vaccines in particular, there's now a break between cases and hospitalizations. In my own state of Rhode Island, hospitalizations are about half of what they were last year at this time, despite the fact that our cases are the same or higher. That's largely thanks to vaccines.

Now, whether omicron is actually more mild, or whether it's more mild because of vaccines and prior infection, is still up for debate. One way or another, I would be thrilled if this ends up being mild, if this just ends up being a major disruption to our economy for a short month, but far, far too early to say.

[09:10:08]

SCIUTTO: OK, I want to talk about a bigger picture question here, because Dr. Fauci was on CNN earlier this morning and he said that the NIH is actually considering shortening the quarantine period. Has been ten days. But particularly for health workers, something around five days, particularly if you're asymptomatic. And I wonder, do you think that's the right approach and is it something we might want to apply to say students in terms of going to school or employees of private companies?

RANNEY: So this is one of those places where as science accumulates, we should change our practice. And there's growing evidence that with a rapid negative test, you -- after you've had Covid, you can be pretty sure that you're not infectious, particularly if you are asymptomatic. I will tell you, my healthcare system, my group of emergency physicians, we are so short staffed for the holidays because of people getting sick. They're not horribly ill, but they've caught, you know, Covid and now they can't come to work. If we could shorten the quarantine -- or the isolation period, using rapid tests, that would be wonderful for our healthcare system.

The caveat, we can't have workplaces use this to force people back to work when they are still symptomatic. I worry that, you know, especially in healthcare, we have a culture of working through illness. We work ourselves to the bone, especially for the last two years. We need to give people adequate time to recuperate if they are actually feeling sick.

SCIUTTO: OK, I guess this raises a bigger picture question. Is this a model for a whole host of pandemic measures? In other words, we are not in March 2020 because large portions of the population are vaccinated and therefore have some protection to -- a lot of protection, frankly, particularly against severe illness. Should we be relaxing other measures too? I mean, for instance, you do see some schools going remote, right? Is that an overreaction now given where we are with vaccines?

RANNEY: I would strongly argue against schools going remote. To me, and I've said this since the beginning of the pandemic, schools should be the last thing to close. We should not have bars and restaurants open when schools are closed. We need to protect our kids. We need to get them in person learning. We can support our businesses financially in other ways.

I think right now, in the midst of the omicron surge, now is a time to put in place indoor masks, to consider making workplaces remote and putting some of those other measures in place. But, yes, this is not 2020. And I hope that coming back in January we're going to find ways to get back to normal and continue to adjust our protocols in light of the emerging science.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

Dr. Megan Ranney, always good to have you on.

RANNEY: Thank you. Same.

SCIUTTO: Still ahead, we will hear from a Michigan doctor who says that his hospital is worse off now than it was even a year ago. What they need to do now to stem that tide.

Plus, new developments on the investigation into the Capitol insurrection. The January 6th panel has now asked a sitting Republican lawmaker to sit for a deposition.

And I'll speak to Texas Congressman Rubin Gallego. He was the target of a personal threat from a Russian lawmaker. What he says the U.S. must do now to prevent a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [09:17:05]

SCIUTTO: Well now a second January 6th Capitol rioter has been sentenced to prison for assaulting a police officer during the violent insurrection. Devlyn Thompson of Washington state was sentenced to 46 months after pleading guilty to hitting an officer on the hand with a metal baton. He also tried to throw a speaker at law enforcement. He ended up hitting and injuring a fellow rioter. More than 140 other rioters face the same charge Thompson faced.

The House committee investigating the insurrection is now asking for the first time to question a sitting member of Congress. The January 6th panel requested that Pennsylvania Republican Scott Perry voluntarily sit down for an interview. Perry was just chosen to be the next leader of the House Freedom Caucus. The panel says it wants to discuss his effort to install former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general. Clark expressing willingness, it seemed, to go along with the president's plans to undermine the election.

CNN's senior legal affairs correspondent Paula Reid has been following.

Paula, this is an important step. They are summoning one of their own to testify here, albeit voluntarily. Do we expect Perry to comply?

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: It's unclear, Jim, if they're going to get any new information from Perry. But to your point, yes, this is significant because it shows the committee is really zeroing in on Trump allies, even if they're fellow lawmakers.

Now, what's a little unique here is that this is not a subpoena. This is, instead, a letter requesting that their colleague come in and voluntarily cooperate with their investigation. Now, in the letter, it's revealed that they are specifically interested in efforts to install former Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark as acting attorney general.

Now, Clark, during his time at the Justice Department, he was very open to using that agency to push the big lie. And Perry actually connected Trump and Clark at a time when Trump was pressuring the Justice Department to find some evidence that the election was stolen. But, again, it's not clear how much new information they're going to be able to get from Perry, especially with just a letter.

And we are seeing more and more lawsuits trying to block the committee from obtaining evidence. The most recent coming from far right wing media figure Alex Jones, who has sued the committee to block their subpoena, trying to compel his testimony. Now, in his lawsuit, he also reveals that he is going to follow this trend of Trump associates saying that they will invoke their Fifth Amendment right and not provide any documents.

Now, his is just the latest. We're up to over half a dozen lawsuits by various Trump allies and even Trump himself trying to block subpoenas and requests from the committee. We've seen these from the former chief of staff, Mark Meadows, conservative attorney John Eastman and, as I noted, Trump himself has also sued, though twice now he has lost in federal court these efforts to try to block the committee from obtaining some of his White House records, though, Jim, he's expected to appeal that case to the Supreme Court this week.

[09:20:04]

SCIUTTO: Well, sometimes he sues to delay as well, not necessarily to win.

REID: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Paula Reid, thanks very much.

A second member of the January 6th committee will not seek re-election next year. Florida Congresswoman Stephanie Murphy announced Monday she will retire after serving four terms in her seat. It is the latest in a growing wave of Democratic departures from the House, signaling the upcoming midterms are going to be a tough fight for the party.

Here with me now, CNN political reporter Dan Merica.

Specifically, set aside the party for a moment here, what does it mean for the committee going forward? Because with Kinzinger and now Murphy, you know, two members who are not running for re-election.

DAN MERICA, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, it really hints that the committee is on the clock. You know, there's an assumption that because there's such an even split in Congress, and because Democrats are facing such long odds to keep the majority in 2022, that once Republicans, if they are able to win the majority in 2022, that they'll end the committee's work and therefore the committee will cease to exist.

Now, Murphy cited a number of issues for leaving Congress, including the stress that this has put on her family. But it's hard, and political watchers watching these retirements, there are now 22 in the House among Democrats, watching these retirements, there seems to be more at play. And something you do see ahead of, you know, when a party takes power ahead of a tough midterm election, but Murphy's is especially noteworthy because of her role, Jim, on the January 6th committee.

SCIUTTO: No question.

OK, this is not just happening on the January 6th committee. You've got a lot of democratic retirements. You often see that prior to difficult election cycles. That said, we did see this in 2020 -- the lead-up to 2020 with Republicans and Republicans actually did better, you know, in that election than expected. Is this purely about them reading the tea leaves on where things are going in the midterms?

MERICA: It's more complicated than that. Certainly people will tell you it's one thing and that one thing alone, but it really is more complicated than that. You have, obviously, the feeling among Democrats that there's a sense that they're going to lose control of Congress -- of the House in 2022. And you have a lot of committee chairs who don't want to be ranking members. They like the power that they've had in and control and they want to -- they want to possibly leave Congress before they're a ranking member.

You also have the redistricting issue. Across the country, states are redrawing the lines, and some of those members who have enjoyed pretty easy seats are being drawn out of their district and they may not want to face a tough re-election fight.

The third issue and probably the most noteworthy is just low morale in the House. There are a lot of people you talk to in private, they'll say -- House members, they'll say they're just not having a good time. There's not a camaraderie in the House. They don't really respect some of the people that they serve with. And that leaves people saying, why am I doing this? Why am I commuting back and forth from my home state? Why am I putting in these long hours for something that I seem to not be enjoying.

And that is a new issue. I mean there, obviously, been low morale in the House before. But that is a new issue that has really risen with this hyper partisan nature of the House and really lack of relationship between members of Congress.

SCIUTTO: Listen, outright personal attacks between members of the House.

MERICA: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Dan Merica, thanks so much.

MERICA: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: On January 6th, one out of every ten people who stormed the Capitol had ties to the U.S. military. Up next, new steps the Pentagon is now taking to curb what it says is extremism within the ranks.

And just minutes from now the opening bell on Wall Street. Stock futures are all up this morning after a disappointing start to the week. Investors worried about soaring Covid cases, the potential impact on the economy. Some context, though, S&P 500, it's still up 21 percent so far this year. U.S. oil prices also fell on Monday, down 3.7 percent, selling around $68 a barrel. A global slowdown could dent demand for fuel. You might see that at the gas pump.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:28:28]

SCIUTTO: The Pentagon is now sharpening and clarifying the definition of extremist behavior, part of a broader effort to root out what it says is an extremism problem within the U.S. military. The new guidance comes nearly a year after the January 6th insurrection in which several active service members, as well as veterans, participated.

CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr has been following this. Barbara, this is an issue that for months Austin has been looking

into. They've devoted a lot of effort here. How serious a problem does the Pentagon view this and what steps are they taking?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, the Pentagon still feels that it is a relatively small percentage of the active duty or the National Guard reserve force that is involved in extremist activity. Of course, most of those who have been arrested, charged in the January 6th incident, that had connections to the military were veterans, out of the service at this time. But, still, they have had these ongoing problems for many years with some members being part of extremist groups and they were having trouble really focusing in on how to define the problem so they could go after these people, they say.

So what they have done is sharpened it all up. Right now, given the new rules, a very sharp focus on limiting, restricting, forbidding active participation in extremist actions. Not naming any groups per say, but limiting the actions.

[09:29:56]

And we have a list of some of the prohibited activities now, such as recruiting, training, fund-raising, organizing, demonstrating at a rally, displaying paraphernalia or words or