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New Jan. 6th Surveillance Video Shows 3-Hour Battle in Capitol Tunnel; Doctors, Nurses Face Threats as Patients Demand Unproven Treatments; Nurse Practitioner Describes Threats; Top-10 Biggest Sports Stories of 2021. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired December 24, 2021 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:30:00]
JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: This is a three-hour- long video. It's from the surveillance camera so that's why there's actually no sound. But this video is part of what's been present by prosecutors in court.
At this point, more than 700 people have now been charged. And our team, they have been in the courtrooms when these prosecutors have been presenting this video in various cases. Dozens of cases are happening at once.
And when CNN saw this video, we sued the Justice Department, and this, week, DOJ released this video.
But it's quite extensive, Poppy, and it does give you that one look from a place where Capitol Police did an incredible job holding that line, not letting anybody in from that point.
ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Jess, explain to our viewers, because it's interesting and important to understand the grounds that a media organization would sue on for the public to be able to see this.
SCHNEIDER: Right. Well, you know, court proceedings, they are public proceedings. These, in normal times, non-COVID times, are when people would be allowed into the courtroom and they would be able to see this.
So by virtue of the fact, this is public information being presented by prosecutors, and under those grounds, that's why media outlets sued to get this video.
Because it's something that the public could see if everyone in the public were allowed in the courtroom, but in normal times.
And now, especially in COVID times, the public isn't allowed in mass numbers. And that's why we as the media have to get it out there and that's what we did here -- Poppy?
HARLOW: A big thanks to you, your whole team, our whole legal team, to make this available. It's important for people to see.
Thank you, Jess. Up next, doctors and nurses tell CNN that they are facing lawsuits,
even death threats. Can you believe that? Our heroes are refusing to give COVID patients unproven and potentially dangerous treatments.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARBARA CHAPMAN, FAMILY & PSYCHIATRIC NURSE PRACTITIONER: Now that folks aren't -- aren't getting vaccinated, they are not believing us. They are questioning our education and our background. It's hurtful. We're exhausted. We're tired.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:36:34]
HARLOW: Well, you'll remember well in the early days of the pandemic, they were hailed as our heroes. But now some health care workers are facing threats of lawsuits and even death from the very people they are trying to save.
Wait until you see this reporting by our senior national correspondent, Ed Lavandera.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. JEFF LYONS, CENTRACARE, ST. CLOUD HOSPITAL: My name is Jeff. Your ICU doctor here.
ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Dr. Jack Lyons spends his days treating COVID-19 patients fighting for their lives inside St. Cloud Hospital in Minnesota.
Like so many other doctors, he feels the strain.
LAVANDERA (on camera): What's it been like to work in this atmosphere?
LYONS: It's exhausting. It is frequently heartbreaking. It is demoralizing at times.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Dr. Lyons says it's also getting hostile as patients are demanding bogus medical treatments.
LAVANDERA (on camera): Are people treating these treatments like they're picking items off of a menu at a restaurant?
LYONS: Absolutely. Folks act as if they can come into the hospital and request any certain therapy they want, or conversely, decline any therapy that they want.
With the idea being that somehow they can pick and choose and direct their therapy. And it doesn't work.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): That's putting healthcare workers at risk. Hospitals are facing a slew of lawsuits demanding risky treatments. Across the country, there are reports of growing hostility between
medical workers and patients and their families. It's a daily dose of threats and vitriol.
LYONS: They insult your intelligence. They insult your ability. And most hurtful, they say that by not using these therapies, you are intentionally trying to harm the people that we've given everything to save.
LAVANDERA (on camera): What has been the worst experience you've had?
LYONS: The most difficult experience we've had is a patient family who, under a pseudonym, had made threats against the hospital.
There was a reference to making sure the hospital was locked and we've got people that are coming for you.
LAVANDERA: Was it a death threat?
LYONS: I'm not sure how a person would take, "We're going to come to -- we're going to march on the hospital, we're coming for you," as anything other than a death threat.
CHAPMAN: The tensions are high.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Barbara Chapman is a nurse practitioner and works at the University of Texas at Tyler.
Last summer, she started a hotline offering teachers and healthcare workers mental health support.
CHAPMAN: I used to think of it as being overwhelmed. Health care workers are overwhelmed. That doesn't even address it.
The way I address it now with folks when I talk to them is I refer to it as moral injury.
LAVANDERA (on camera): What do you mean by that?
CHAPMAN: We want to help folks.
And now that folks aren't getting vaccinated, they're not believing us. They're questioning our education and our background. It's hurtful, we're exhausted, we're tired. And so we have been mortally injured.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Chapman says some nurses have endured so much abuse that even getting them to walk from their cars into work is a challenge.
CHAPMAN: It's like when a veteran comes back from the war, he may be out of the war, but he hasn't left that war.
LAVANDERA (on camera): Man, it's crazy to me that you're talking about a healthcare job as if it was walking into a battlefield.
CHAPMAN: It's a battlefield. It is a battlefield.
(SIREN)
[13:40:01]
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Dr. Jack Lyons often thinks of the pandemic's early days when grateful communities banged pots and pans to honor frontline healthcare workers.
LYONS: The vast majority of patients we take care of now come to our interactions distressed.
LAVANDERA (on camera): So yes, that feeling of goodwill is gone?
LYONS: Long since dissipated.
LAVANDERA (voice-over): Ed Lavandera, CNN, St. Cloud, Minnesota.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: What reporting, Ed Lavandera. Thank you to you and your team for that.
Let me bring in Barbara Chapman, who you just saw in that piece by Ed. She's a family and psychiatric nurse practitioner.
Barbara, thank you so much for being here.
And for our viewers you're also an assistant university professor at the University of Texas in Tyler.
Let's begin with this. I mean, here in New York, I so vividly remember everyone cheering health care workers. Each night, at 7:00, they would come out of their apartments and bang on their pots and pans. And now this.
You describe it being like war. When did things shift so dramatically?
CHAPMAN: Well, thank you. Thank you for having me, Poppy. I appreciate it.
That's an excellent question. I think that when we saw the shift dramatically was during the -- when the Delta started hitting, when the Delta variant came on board.
And that's when people started looking for different treatments. What can I get to treat this? How can I treat this without being vaccinated?
HARLOW: Yes.
Can you talk a little bit about what patients and their families are threatening you with?
CHAPMAN: Well, it's threatening -- the threat has dropped slightly than what it used to be during the Delta variant. We're worried that we're going to see this again in the Omicron.
But some of the things that we had seen were patients demanding to be seen immediately. We had no space in the emergency rooms. We were full.
The hospitals were on divert, meaning that we didn't have any way to even see patients who were needing to be seen for heart attacks or car accidents.
And patients were -- were just refusing to understand that and get the vaccine that is one of the best vaccines that we have on the market and one of the safest, by the way, and most effective.
HARLOW: Yes.
CHAPMAN: And so, yes, so that's when the hostilities increased. And they -- they had to beef up security at the entrances of all hospitals. And -- and it was -- it was very frightening.
HARLOW: You also say you know nurses who have been punched, who have been hit and yelled at by angry patients.
CHAPMAN: I do.
HARLOW: And all your sacrifices are being completely overlooked.
I wonder if it has pushed you or those you know to -- to the brink so much that you would even consider leaving, quitting?
CHAPMAN: Well, I do know nurses that have had that experience. I've talked to several nurses who have been physically assaulted, verbally assaulted.
And I talked to them about this on our mental health care outreach line that a team of us put together at the University of Texas at Tyler because we span across the whole -- the whole state of Texas right now doing this.
And it's my understanding that we're one of the only universities that's doing this. And we offer free mental health care outreach services to both teachers and educators.
And what I see is they -- they come on, and they are afraid. They will talk to me, but they are afraid to even enter the hospital. They are afraid to walk into the hospital. They don't know what's going to happen that day.
So I try to give them the strength or the options or to run through the -- the scenarios by which they can handle, to even get from their car into that facility.
HARLOW: Yes.
CHAPMAN: Now, I don't know if they are -- they talk about leaving. I know we've had a tsunami of -- of nurses leaving. And we're also facing a nursing shortage to begin with from the silver tsunami, we call it, of nursing retiring.
So when you add that on top of this pandemic, we are going to see a huge shortage of nurses going forward.
HARLOW: Just briefly, before we go, you do you ever feel more fearful of the patients that you confront than the virus at this point?
CHAPMAN: Well, you know, that's -- that's a difficult question. It really depends. It really depends on I think where we are in the pandemic.
HARLOW: Yes.
CHAPMAN: It depends on the phase of the pandemic.
And we have got so much precaution now. We now have PPE that we didn't have initially going into this pandemic.
And now what we don't have and what we need is mental health care PPE. We need to get that on board and going.
And we'll see what comes with the next onslaught. And there will be another one and another one depending on when patients get vaccinated.
[13:45:00]
HARLOW: Barbara Chapman, thank you, not only for today but for what you do for all of us.
CHAPMAN: Thank you so much. And thank you for having me.
HARLOW: Yes. Merry Christmas.
CHAPMAN: Merry Christmas.
HARLOW: Up next, a look at the biggest sports stories of the year in our top series of 2021. Can you guess what number one is?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: Now to an incredible story of a TSA officer saving a baby's life.
Look at this video from security footage at Newark Airport showing Officer Ceceliy Morales jumping over the conveyor belt to help a 2- month-old boy who was choking.
She administered the Heimlich Maneuver, and the baby boy began to breathe again. Morales has only been with the TSA since October but served as an EMT for 10 years.
Wow, all of our thanks to her.
And finally, it has been quite a year in the world of sports.
Andy Scholes counts down the top-10 sports stories of the year. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Number 10 in 2021, age proved to be just a number.
(voice-over): And 50-year-old Phil Mickelson becoming the oldest golfer ever to win a major, earning his second PGA championship 16 years after his first.
This was Phil's sixth major title first, since 2013.
PHIL MICKELSON, PRO GOLFER: It's very possible this is the last tournament I ever win but there's no reason I or anybody else can't do it at a later age. It just takes a little more work.
SCHOLES: Number nine, Tom Brady, meanwhile, looks like he may never age.
[13:50:01]
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: And 43-year-old Tom Brady wins a historic seventh title in his first season with a new team.
SCHOLES: Brady leading the Buccaneers to a convincing 31-9 win over the Chiefs. The Bucs, the first team ever to win a Super Bowl in their home stadium.
Brady and the team celebrating with a boat parade that saw him completing yet another pass out on the water.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, wow.
SCHOLES: And 2021 was the year of the Bucs.
(CHEERING)
SCHOLES: Milwaukee also claiming their first NBA title since 1971. Giannis Antetokounmpo capping off an incredibly playoffs run, becoming the finals MVP.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Major League Baseball is moving its all- star game out of Georgia because of the state's new law that critics say suppresses voting.
SCHOLES: In April, Major League Baseball pulled the all-star game from Atlanta.
In October, Atlanta hosted the World Series and pulled off one of the most unexpected runs in baseball history, beating the Astros to win their first World Series title in 26 years.
The team's unlikely championship coming in the same year that the world lost Braves legend, Hank Aaron, who passed away at 86 years old.
Number seven -- UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: NCAA March Madness, the biggest tournament in college basketball for women. This is our weight room. Let me show you all the men's weight room.
SCHOLES: -- the NCAA admitted failing the women in providing facilities for the NCAA tournament last March and vowed to do better.
After being canceled in 2020, March Madness was back in 2021, but it wasn't the same with limited fans. The men's tournament taking place solely in Indiana, the women's in Texas.
JON GRUDEN, FORMER HEAD COACH, LAS VEGAS RAIDERS: I'm not a racist. I don't -- I can't tell you how sick I am.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, Jon Gruden stepping down as head coach of the NFL's Las Vegas Raiders hours after "The New York Times" reported on homophobic, misogynistic and racist remarks that he made in emails over a seven-year period.
SCHOLES: The emails discovered during a probe into workplace misconduct within the Washington Football Organization.
After resigning, Gruden filing a lawsuit against the NFL accusing the league of selectively leaking his emails to ruin his reputation.
Number five, vaccinations in sports were a polarizing topic.
AARON RODGERS, GREEN BAY PACKERS QUARTERBACK: Yes, I've been immunized.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: Superstar Quarterback Aaron Rodgers defending his controversial comments where he raised doubts about the COVID vaccine after he tested positive for COVID.
He also addressed when he lied and claimed he was immunized.
RODGERS: I misled people about my status, which I take full responsibility of.
SCHOLES: Rodgers missed one game for the Packers while battling COVID.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Golf legend, Tiger Woods, hospitalized right now after a very serious rollover car crash.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Golf legend, Tiger Woods, is in the hospital right now after having to be cut out of his vehicle.
TIGER WOODS, PRO GOLFER: I'm lucky to be alive but also still have the limb. Those are two crucial things.
SCHOLES: Nearly 10 months after the crash, Tiger hosted his golf tournament in the Bahamas and said he continues to make progress in his recovery.
And in December, he surprised many by in competing in a tournament with his 12-year-old son, Charlie. Number three, despite the pandemic and calls to cancel the games, the Tokyo 2020 Olympics taking place without spectators in most venues. And it was another historic games for Team USA.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The most decorated U.S. track and field Olympian ever, Allyson Felix, secured that title at the Tokyo Summer Games.
ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: It's a historic moment for USA. Suni Lee wins gold.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Team USA's Katie Ledecky is basking in the glory of having made Olympic history, like again and again and again.
SCHOLES (on camera): Number two, a big theme in 2021 with athletes continuing to campaign for mental health awareness.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm sorry.
NAOMI OSAKA, TENNIS CHAMPION: No, you're super good.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. I think we're just going to take a quick break. Just -- we'll be back in one moment.
SCHOLES (voice-over): Naomi Osaka revealing that press conferences give her anxiety and she had dealt with depression since winning her first U.S. Open title in 2018.
(on camera): The four-time Grand Slam winner pulling out of both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open to work on her mental health.
(voice-over): And number one --
BERMAN: Major breaking news out of the Olympics. We just learned that Simone Biles has pulled out of the team competition.
SIMONE BILES, U.S. OLYMPIC GYMNAST: At the end of the day, we're not just entertainment. We're humans. And there are things going on behind the scenes that we're also try to juggle with as well.
WIRE: The way Biles put a spotlight on mental health showing the world that no matter who you are, even if you're Superwoman, it's okay to not feel okay.
She's going to go down as one of the greatest Olympians ever for the impact she's had.
SCHOLES: Biles would return to competition to take the bronze medal on the balance beam.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[13:55:05]
HARLOW: What a year in sport. Andy Scholes, thank you so much for that countdown. As we approach the new year, don't forget the boys are back. Join
Anderson Cooper and Andy Cohen right here on CNN, live, New Year's Eve. The party starts at 8:00 Eastern.
I'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:00:04]
HARLOW: Happy holidays, I'm Poppy Harlow, in today for Victor and Alisyn.
It is the day before Christmas and the Omicron variant is colliding with holiday plans in a big way.
