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Biden Bans Import Of Products From China's Xinjiang Region; Top 10 Political Stories Of 2021; NASA Set For Christmas Launch Of Most Powerful Telescope Ever. Aired 10:30-11a ET
Aired December 24, 2021 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:01:01]
JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: All they have to do is stop the genocide, you know, closed down forced labor factories, release the Uighurs from the concentration camps. It's a really quick fix, actually. But it doesn't seem like they're going to do that.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah. And, remember, both administrations, Trump and Biden, agreeing on this, both State Departments saying this is genocide.
Your piece on Syria is important because so few people are actually writing in detail in the west and focusing on Syria still. And you called this administration's policy on Syria, quote, incoherent and contradictory. You know importantly, fellow Democrat Senator Bob Menendez, chairing the foreign relations committee, has said I don't want what the administration's policy is.
What is the read you get within the White House on this?
ROGIN: Right. It's interesting because, you know, in 2021, we were looking inward in a lot of places in the world and they fell through the cracks. Syria is one of them. For Syrians on the ground, that's a tragedy on top of tragedy because they're suffering increase in 2021, the international community largely stood by.
Now, what the Biden administration says we're opposing the normalization of the Assad regime and pressure Assad and Russia to negotiate towards a political solution, to give the Syrian people some sense of dignity, justice, and human rights. But what people see on the ground, including all the countries in the region, is that -- actually, we're not doing that at all and we're standing by letting Assad worm his way back into the good graces of the international community while still committing his own atrocities.
So, there's a gap that everyone sees but the Biden administration won't acknowledge. You know, what Menendez and Risch all these other lawmakers are saying is, hey, you know, this is the United States of America, we should have a policy that matches what we're saying, you know, because that's important for our credibility. The normalization of Assad is a terrible thing because how many other dictator will see that and be, like, I can do that too.
HARLOW: Yeah, absolutely. Josh, your reporting is so important, highlighting things that often fall through the cracks. So, thank you for that, and happy holidays.
ROGIN: Great to see you. Happy holidays.
HARLOW: There was no shortage of political headlines in 2021, an attack on the U.S. Capitol, new president sworn in, the birth of a big lie. We're counting down the top ten ahead.
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[10:37:05]
HARLOW: Welcome back.
Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo won't face charges for an incident involving alleged sexual misconduct being investigated by the Nassau attorney's office. Cuomo is accused of groping a state trooper in 2019. Investigators say the allegations were credible and troubling but not criminal under New York law. The former governor is still facing a federal investigation into sexual harassment allegations against him.
Well, 2020 was a political rollercoaster to say the least. Just days into the year, former President Trump's big lie sparked a deadly insurrection on Capitol Hill. Shortly after, President Biden was sworn in, then Trump was impeached again and acquitted again.
Here is our very own Jim Acosta with a look back at the top political stories of the year.
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JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The top ten political stories of 2021 make this past year feel more like a decade.
Starting at number ten. Pandemic paralysis as medical experts addressed vaccines and boosters as the best way of preventing COVID- 19, disinformation continued to spread as well, misleading millions of Americans.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm sure you've seen the pictures on the Internet of people who have had these shots and now they're magnetized. They put a key on their forehead. It sticks. They can put spoons and forks on them and they stick.
ACOSTA: Of course, that's utter nonsense. So, get vaccinated.
At number nine, the Republican Party at war with itself over its leader, disgraced ex-President Donald Trump and his big lie that he won the 2020 election.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Most corrupt election.
REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): (INAUDIBLE) the president caused us. The president is unfit and the president is unwell.
NEIL CAVUTO, FOX NEWS HOST: If Donald Trump were the 2024 nominee, would you support him?
REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): I would not.
REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): You can send Liz Cheney home, back home to Washington, D.C.
ACOSTA: At number eight, Democrats had their own issues.
ANDREW CUOMO, FORMER NEW YORK GOVERNOR: Given the circumstances, the best way I can help now is if I step aside.
ACOSTA: Facing multiple allegations of sexual harassment, which he denied, the Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York resigns.
GLENN YOUNGKIN (R-VA), GOVERNOR-ELECT: Virginia, we won this thing!
ACOSTA: Glenn Youngkin, a Republican, wins the governor's race in Virginia.
DON LEMON, CNN HOST: A big night for Republicans and a major -- quite frankly, a major wake-up call for Democrats.
ACOSTA: And Gavin Newsom, Democratic California in California, successfully fights off a recall there.
GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D), CALIFORNIA: Thank you to 40 million Americans, 40 million Californians. Thank you for rejecting this recall.
ACOSTA: Number seven, messy withdrawal from Afghanistan. The Biden administration scrambles to evacuate American citizens and tens of thousands of Afghans from the country ahead of an August 31st deadline.
[10:40:04]
Thirteen U.S. service members and more than 170 Afghans are killed in terrorist attacks outside Kabul's airport in the chaotic end to America's longest war.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's time to end the forever war. Thank you all for listening. May God protect our troops.
ACOSTA: At number six, the big lie gives birth to an amateurish audit of the 2020 election results in Arizona which ends up confirming what Americans already knew -- Joe Biden won Arizona.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The ballots that were provided to us to count in the coliseum very accurately correlates with the official canvass numbers.
ACOSTA: As new GOP driven restrictive voting laws crop up in statehouses across the country.
GOV. RON DESANTIS (R), FLORIDA: I'm going to sign it right here. It will take effect. Florida, your vote counts. ACOSTA: Number five, President Biden and his team try to show
Democrats can deliver with big legislative victories first on COVID relief and then infrastructure. But the question remains, in his Build Back Better social spending plan, can it pass through the senate?
At number four, double trouble for the GOP in Georgia as Republicans lose two Senate runoff races in January.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Jon Ossoff, the Democratic candidate in Georgia, he is defeating David Perdue, the Republican candidate.
ACOSTA: GOP insiders blamed Trump grumbling that his election lies backfired.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is hereby acquitted of the charge.
ACOSTA: Trump becomes the first American president to be impeached for a second time, this time for inciting the insurrection at the Capitol. Once again Republicans stand in the way of a conviction.
BLITZER: Democrats falling short of the 67 votes needed to convict Trump. This is the second time Donald Trump has been acquitted of an impeachment trial in the U.S. Senate.
ACOSTA: At number two, an event that would normally land at the top of any list of big political stories, the inauguration of a new president.
BIDEN: Serve, Protect, and Defend --
JOHN ROBERTS, SUPREME COURT CHIEF JUSTICE: The Constitution of the United States.
BIDEN: The Constitution of the United States.
ACOSTA: But it was far from a typical transfer of power as Trump tried to scheme his way into staying in office, pressuring state officials like Georgia's secretary of state.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So, look, all I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have, because we won the state.
ACOSTA: The number one story of 2021 -- American democracy under attack. January 6th, the insurrection.
TRUMP: We fight like hell and if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore.
ACOSTA: In one last ditch attempt to halt the Biden presidency, a violent mob of Trump supporters and members of far-right groups stormed the Capitol, some chanting they want to kill the vice president.
CROWD: Hang Mike Pence! Hang Mike Pence!
ACOSTA: Rioters clashed with police. Eventually, they smashed their way inside, sending lawmakers running for cover.
A Trump supporter is shot dead by a police officer as she and others attempt to breach the speakers' lobby inside the Capitol. First responders are beat within the American flag and sprayed with the chemicals. As night falls on a shameful scene, a symbol of American democracy is left battered.
In the melee, Brian Sicknick was assaulted by chemical spray. He suffered strokes and died the next day.
Haunted by January 6th, a handful of other officers later died by suicide and the trials of the insurrections begin.
True to form, Trump went on to lie about what happened at the Capitol. He never showed remorse, never apologized for what he did. Trump is so far escaped any accountability. Instead he's been emboldened by Republicans who have largely adopted his lies as their own.
His lap dogs in conservative media and his disciples in Congress now echo his toxic rhetoric. The political violence Trump and his allies unleashed is now the subject of an investigation by the January 6th house select committee. A probe and findings may alter the political landscape for 2022 and beyond.
Jim Acosta, CNN, Washington.
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HARLOW: Jim, thank you very much. How about this? Seeing space in a whole new way. Up next, we have a look at a new telescope getting ready to launch on Christmas day.
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[10:49:18]
HARLOW: In less than 24 hours, NASA's biggest and most powerful space telescope is set for a Christmas day liftoff. The James Webb space telescope is a complex space observatory that costs nearly $10 billion and took 15 years to build. The mission is expected to answer key questions about our solar system and existence, in addition to helping researchers understanding the origins of the universe.
I'm so excited to bring in Jonathan McDowell. He's a space historian and astrophysicist at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
Jonathan, you have -- and I'm not exaggerating -- been waiting for this moment since 1989.
JONATHAN MCDOWELL, ASTROPHYSICIST, HARVARD-SMITHSONIAN CENTER FOR ASTROPHYSICS: That's right. We had a big conference in 1989 about to launch the Hubble space telescope, but what we're going to do for an encore?
[10:50:05] And, finally, you know, 30 years later, we have the answer. James Webb is the most powerful space telescope ever built going up tomorrow morning. The whole astronomy community is on tenterhooks.
HARLOW: I know they are. I think you'll have a hard time sleeping tonight, my friend. Walk us through why this mission is so important. Like, I've been reading about exoplanets, I don't know what those are. What is it going to tell us?
MCDOWELL: Right. One of the key things that James Webb wants to do is look at the very first galaxies and stars. And so, Hubble gives us really good pictures of galaxies that are by astronomer standards nearby, only a few million light-years away, and -- but the really distant ones when the universe was young are just little dots to Hubble and JWST is going to ill give us the real scoop on how the universe came to be, how it is today.
But also as you say, it's going to study what's called exoplanets, those around other stars. When Webb was first planned, we didn't know that there were any. That's a discovery since then. But it turns out that Webb is actually going to be really good for tasting the atmospheres of these planets, figuring out what elements are in the atmospheres, looking for oxygen, for things that might be a guide to life potentially.
HARLOW: It has quite a journey before it gets to where it's going. A million miles to travel from earth over about a month's time. How challenging is this to have it all executed perfectly?
MCDOWELL: It's an incredibly difficult thing. Not so much the travel to get there. It takes a month to get to those sort of magic spots in space called L2, which is a million miles towards midnight. It's where the sun and the earth's gravity balance. A great place to put a telescope. Nice and cool.
But on the way there, it's going to have to unfold, because we didn't have a rocket big enough to launch it all, you know, deployed out. And so it's followed up by this origami thing. Every day there's some piece of it that's going to be deployed or unfolded.
And it's really tricky. It's all going to go right where you end up with not a shiny piece of space junk. So, the team is great. We're confident it will work but it's tricky.
HARLOW: I mean, I think launching on Christmas Day gives you a little extra boost for everything to go perfectly.
When can our children watch this tomorrow morning? Do you know what time?
MCDOWELL: Yes. So the launch, I'm afraid, is at 7:20 Eastern Standard Time.
HARLOW: In the morning?
MCDOWELL: So you've got to get up early. You're up early anyway. HARLOW: My kids will be up at 5:00 a.m.
MCDOWELL: Right. Exactly. But, you know, there's going to be stuff happening every day for us for the next two weeks. So it's going to be a marathon for us getting this thing on the way.
But, yeah, 7:20 a.m., big boost, big rocket from French Guiana in South America zooming up to this incredibly distant orbit.
HARLOW: How great.
Jonathan, so much fun, an incredible accomplishment to get to this point. Thanks for sharing a bit with us.
MCDOWELL: Thank you.
HARLOW: While omicron is not stopping people from heading to the airports across the country this holiday, the virus is still impacting flights. We'll have an update on last-minute cancellations ahead in our next hour.
But first, here's a look at some other events that we are watching today.
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[10:58:30]
HARLOW: And before we go this Christmas each, a little something for the little ones. Many of you know I have two little ones at home and my son Luca inspired me to write this, "The Biggest Little Boy: A Christmas Story." It is my first book about a little boy in a big, busy city like New York, and finding joy in the little things all around us.
Convincing my own kids that -- well, this should be their favorite book, that's another story. Look what happened when I tried to read it to them.
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HARLOW: What's this? What's this?
(CROSSTALK)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: I hope your children enjoy it more than mine apparently did.
Wishing you all peace, health, and joy over the holidays. Thanks so much for being with me today. I'll see you back here on Monday morning.
"AT THIS HOUR" with Kate Bolduan is next.
Before we go, though, let's leave you with this, one more look at the Santa tracker that has delivered more than 1.6 billion gifts and is currently flying over Vietnam.
