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Growing Concerns About Impact on Kids as Omicron Variant Spreads; Biden to Speak to Putin at Russian Leader's Request; Jury Finds Ghislaine Maxwell Guilty, Tied to Epstein Sex Trafficking Ring. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired December 30, 2021 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:31]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: It is the top of the hour. Good morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow. So glad you're with me. Jim has this week off.

And new this morning, a stark warning from the CDC as the Omicron variant sweeps the nation. The agency now protecting more than 44,000 people -- projecting, I should say, 44,000 are going to die from COVID in this country in just the next four weeks. Dr. Anthony Fauci pleading with everyone, do not attend big New Year's Eve celebrations. But the annual Times Square celebration in New York City is for now a go.

The FDA has just authorized two new at-home tests, but for now the demand for testing is so drastically outpacing supply. Many hospitals are maxed out with large portions of staff out sick themselves. States like Georgia and Ohio are the latest to activate the National Guard for help. Some experts say this is the new reality for the foreseeable future.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL OSTERHOLM, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASE RESEARCH AND POLICY: Everything we're going to do right now is going to be imperfect. Just accept that right now. We don't know a lot of the things we wish we'd know, but what we do know and what is emerging here is that this country is going to be in the soup in just the next few weeks. With so many cases in so many locations that we're going to see critical infrastructure as well as health care challenged.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: One of those big challenges is a rise in pediatric cases. More than 300 children being admitted to the hospital nationwide from COVID every day in the last week. That's just 2 percent below the peak in September.

So let me bring in Dr. Sadiqa Kendi. She is the chief of pediatric emergency medicine at Boston Medical Center.

Doctor, thank you so much for being with me.

DR. SADIQA KENDI, CHIEF OF PEDIATRIC EMERGENCY MEDICINE AT BOSTON MEDICAL CENTER: Of course.

HARLOW: So I ask you this, as a journalist and a parent of one vaccinated 5-year-old and one unvaccinated 3-year-old. And I want to be very clear here. We just got some news from the president of the American Academy of Pediatrics making really clear that the vast majority of hospitalizations they're seeing with COVID in children is unvaccinated children. Is that what you're seeing as well?

KENDI: Yes, that's what we're seeing as well. And I think one thing everyone has to remember is that, as you alluded to, all kids under 5 are unvaccinated. And so the children are a really vulnerable population at this time.

HARLOW: So what is happening in your emergency rooms? What is the weight of this on your emergency rooms right now?

KENDI: It's huge. It's really significant in that we are just in the start of our flu season, so not only are we seeing flu and other respiratory viruses that we usually see during the winter season, on top of that, we're seeing huge numbers of children coming in with COVID as well. And this is on top of shortages and nursing shortages and physicians, people who are out because they've been exposed or because they've been infected with COVID. And so this has been a really significant challenge for emergency rooms.

HARLOW: Can you explain to us what you're seeing most in terms of how the Omicron variant is presenting in children? Because I think that might be helpful for parents to know if, yes, this is something we should be bringing our kids to the ER for.

KENDI: I think the challenge is it's really looking like many other viral illnesses, and so we're seeing children presenting with fever, cough, congestion, runny nose, and, you know, those are very similar symptoms to what we see with the flu, what we see with rhinovirus, human metapneumovirus and many of the other viruses that we see. And so it is often really challenging to tell if it is, in fact, COVID.

HARLOW: I was struck by your observation that a lot of people are coming to the ER and bringing their children to the ER to be tested for COVID just to travel and that that is a real weight on you guys.

KENDI: It is. And I think one message that's really important for parents to understand is that, you know, we are there for any children who are ill, for families who are concerned about their children, and we want to be able to take excellent care of everyone who presents. The ER is not the place for anyone who does not have symptoms, for anyone who needs testing for travel. It really is a place where then they can be exposed, and I think it's actually very risky. [10:05:01]

But the challenge is finding testing sites, and I think that's why ERs have kind of dealt with these additional challenges of patients who just need testing.

HARLOW: The administration has been more clear this week about the testing failure for this country, and they're trying to do something about it, ordering half a billion tests, but I wonder what your message is to the federal government right now. Is that the number one thing that you guys need, is just more tests? Or is there something else that would be most helpful at this point?

KENDI: I think more tests absolutely is really important. In addition to that, vaccine mandates. I think the more people who can get vaccinated, the more protection there will be. Ultimately, I'd love to see children under 5 being vaccinated. I know that there are trials going on now for that. In the meantime, the best way to protect those children is by everyone wearing masks and by everyone who is able to be vaccinated getting vaccinated.

HARLOW: We just heard from the head of one of the biggest teachers unions that it looks like they're going to move toward supporting mandatory student vaccinations, which would be a huge deal if that happens.

Thank you very, very much, Dr. Kendi.

KENDI: Thanks so much, Poppy. Great to be here.

HARLOW: Well, President Biden will speak today with Russian president Vladimir Putin just a few hours from now is when the call will take place. And notably it's the second call in a month between the two world leaders and it comes amid growing tension over Russia's military buildup near Ukraine's border. It also comes ahead of bilateral talks between U.S. and Russian officials. Those will take place on January the 10th.

Back with me our White House correspondent John Harwood and Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr.

Good to see you both. John, let me start with you. We know that Putin is the one who requested this call. Can you set the expectations for us about what they're actually going to talk about?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the administration is pretty careful in briefing reporters yesterday not to raise expectations about the call. You know, on the surface level, with the previous call a couple of weeks ago when President Biden laid out a series of consequences for Vladimir Putin that would result if he invaded Ukraine again. The fact that Putin was initiating a call you would say, oh, well, he has blinked, he wants to negotiate.

The White House was not setting that expectation. They're saying anytime he wants to talk to us, we say yes. Anytime we want to talk to him, we say yes. We simply don't know. We know that there's a well- established record of aggression by Vladimir Putin trying to make up some of the lost power and influence that Russia has suffered over the last couple of decades after the demise of the Soviet Union.

He invaded Georgia under the George W. Bush administration, invaded and annexed Crimea illegally under the Barack Obama administration, still has it, and now he's got 100,000 troops on the Ukrainian border. No sign of serious de-escalation. However, there are these talks in Geneva next week between the U.S. and Russian counterparts involving NATO, the organization for security and cooperation in Europe.

All of those entities will be participating in discussions. So it is possible that Vladimir Putin wants to explore a diplomatic off-ramp that President Biden may be offering to de-escalate tensions, to provide some assurances to Russia that NATO is not seeking to encroach on Russia's sovereignty. But we simply don't know that that's the case. And I think we'll find out more after this call and in those talks next week.

HARLOW: Certainly. Barbara, you have new reporting on the U.S. Air Force flying that reconnaissance mission over eastern Ukraine earlier this week. What can you tell us?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, this, Poppy, happened on Monday. It's a U.S. Air Force reconnaissance aircraft that is highly capable of collecting intelligence, if you will, on ground movements. It can -- with its sensor package, it can see out, if you will, about 20,000 square miles. So from eastern Ukraine, depending on its route, which is classified, it could have had a very close look at what the Russian positions were and what was going on. Every expectation there will be more of these flights.

The Russians are well aware of U.S. capabilities in this kind of thing. They know that the U.S. is looking at them, looking at those 100,000 forces, seeing where they are, trying to assess their movements, trying to assess their readiness. But what is interesting is Vladimir Putin has made it very clear he doesn't want to see any U.S. or coalition, NATO military assets in eastern Ukraine, anybody near the Russian border.

These flights do put a military capability of the Americans near that border, but, you know, even with Putin's objections, the Russians are well aware going into this phone call that the U.S. has had a very close look at them and the U.S. now will have the freshest intelligence about what it thinks may be going on on the ground -- Poppy.

[10:10:03]

HARLOW: OK, Barbara, thank you for that reporting. John Harwood, thanks for the reporting at the White House as well.

Let me bring in CNN national security analyst and former assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Juliette Kayyem.

Great to have you, Juliette. And given that there are already, you know, these bilateral security talks between the two nations scheduled for 10th of January which Putin and Biden won't be on but still they're pretty high level, what do you think Putin's goal is in requesting this second call in a month with Biden?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I think it's -- we don't know. I mean, there's really one of two options. One is, you know, he's trying to find a way out of this ratchetting up that is clearly on him. The other is he's going to set a series of conditions that are unacceptable to the White House. Rightfully unacceptable to the White House. But I'm inclined to believe the first was right.

This buildup was a distraction from Putin's own internal domestic problems as well as the sanctions that have been ongoing from the Biden administration in response to the election and other areas where he has been disrupting the U.S. A war in Ukraine, it's not like the Russians would love it. It would be very difficult. It would be challenging. There would be a strong resistance movement.

NATO is clearly unified. And so this may be -- the Biden White House has been, you know, sort of slow-burn brilliant in the sense that they sort of brought it to this moment. One would hope that Putin is ready to back down at this stage and Biden would just need to give him an off-ramp that's acceptable to him. And I think that's probably what you're going to see today.

HARLOW: So U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had a phone call yesterday with the president of Ukraine, and he also spoke with British officials, French officials, German officials. How important is it for the United States to really have a united front across the board right now not only with Ukraine but with other leaders in western Europe?

KAYYEM: I mean, this has been the strategy by the Biden White House from the beginning of the buildup. It really was smart on their part in terms of both -- a couple of things. One is they exposed it very, very early, so they've been talking about the buildup. It's not coming as a surprise. Getting a unified front. Keeping NATO in line, which was important given some of the -- obviously some of the tensions coming out of the Trump administration.

And even if you look at what they've done with this phone call. You know, Putin says he wants to talk to you, and they immediately go public and say yes, he wants to talk to us. It is a strategy of transparency that then leaves Russia and the Russian leadership with few options. And so it's really been -- we've come to this moment. One hopes that it's a good moment today or at least one that doesn't get us to the brink.

And that is because of I think a very longish strategy by the White House to unify, expose, be transparent, and say that the options for Russia are not great. A war in Ukraine, it's not like, you know -- you're thinking more Afghanistan for them than anything that would be relatively easy at this stage.

HARLOW: The guarantee that Putin wants is not just a verbal guarantee from Biden that NATO won't move further east and into Ukraine. It's a written guarantee. The White House has said, as John Harwood reported, that's completely off the table. There was a report produced earlier this month by the Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute. And here's part of it that's striking, quote, "Putin may be attempting a strategic misdirection that impales the West in a diplomatic process and military planning cycle that will keep it unprepared."

There have been no tangible signs of de-escalation on the Russia- Ukraine border in recent weeks. Those 10,000 troops they said they pulled back apparently weren't even near the border. So there's that. But you still think that the U.S. and NATO have been quite successful to date.

KAYYEM: I mean, given the options available, given what Putin wanted to do, the fact that there has been at least a status quo for some time is good. I mean, that's actually success, is that you're going to delay the possibility or you're going to delay any move on his part, bring him to a moment where he realizes his options are relatively limited. And then the responsibility of the White House as one has to do is to hopefully give him an off-ramp that he can then take home to a very, very conflicted domestic audience, much like ours.

I mean, it's not a monolith there. And so -- and then, you know, what's most important in my space is then get to the issues that are of particular relevance to the United States and Russia, which is all the ones we've been talking about the last couple years, the disruption of cybersecurity, of infrastructure, of voting, the kinds of things that are really of importance for America's security in the future.

[10:15:04]

HARLOW: Juliet, always great to have you. Thanks very, very much.

KAYYEM: Thank you.

HARLOW: Happy New Year.

KAYYEM: Happy New Year to you. Have a good one.

HARLOW: OK. Let's hope.

All right, next, the woman who helped Jeffrey Epstein abuse young for years could now spend the rest of her life behind bars. What is next as Ghislaine Maxwell awaits her sentence.

Plus, stunning images out of China where the government has taken to publicly shaming people who break COVID protocols, parading them around in hazmat suits with photos of their faces plastered on the front.

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HARLOW: For years, Ghislaine Maxwell was known as a longtime associate and girlfriend of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

[10:20:06] Well, this morning she's also known as a convicted criminal. The jury found Maxwell guilty on five of six counts related to her role in Epstein's sexual abuse of minors. Damien Williams is the U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case and he expressed his gratitude for the verdict and for the accusers who spoke up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAMIEN WILLIAMS, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK: The road to justice has been far too long, but today, justice has been done. I want to commend the bravery of the girls, now grown women, who stepped out of the shadows and into the courtroom. Their courage and willingness to face their abuser made today's result in this case possible.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: And one of Epstein's victims, Annie Farmer, the only accuser to testify open in court using her full name, says she hopes that prosecutors don't stop their investigations here with this Maxwell conviction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNIE FARMER, ALLEGED VICTIM OF JEFFREY EPSTEIN: I wasn't sure that this day would ever come, and I just feel so grateful that the jury believed us and sent a strong message that perpetrators of sexual abuse and exploitation will be held accountable no matter how much power and privilege that they have.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Maxwell's attorneys say they've already started working on her appeal.

Let me bring in Vicky Ward. She is a best-selling author, journalist and executive producer of "Chasing Ghislaine" on Discovery Plus, also the creator of the newsletter "Vicky Ward Investigates." She also wrote a big profile on Jeffrey Epstein for "Vanity Fair" back in 2003.

Vicky, thank you very much for being here. You have been talking to these folks, covering this for so long. Talk about the enormous impact as we just heard Annie Farmer say, of being believed and getting these convictions, especially on the most serious count of sex trafficking of a minor.

VICKY WARD, HOST, "CHASING GHISLAINE" PODCAST: Well, I think Annie Farmer is spot on. It's a beginning, right. It's certainly not the end. It an inflection point that finally some sort of justice has been served out to these women who were once upon a time were children who have waited so incredibly long. I think that one of the things that's very striking about that verdict, you know, five out of six counts, really nasty sexual abuse counts, it does show that the jury in the end I think felt that Ghislaine Maxwell and her narrative of events was missing from that courtroom. What the defense did, what her defense lawyers, very expensive

lawyers, did very effectively was to try to quibble with the credibility of the accusers, show discrepancies between what they told the FBI when they were being interviewed about just Jeffrey Epstein and what they had subsequently said after Jeffrey Epstein's death. But in the end, that wasn't enough because what you had left is this gaping hole, this question mark.

Why did Jeffrey Epstein pay Ghislaine Maxwell an astonishing $30 million? There was no explanation for that. Why did Ghislaine Maxwell stayed with this man who wasn't very nice to her we heard during the testimony? Took her photograph down when he had other women stay. Had her own assistant sent other women flowers. I think juries, you know, were told to use their common sense by prosecutor Maureen Comey about that money, about what the real narrative could possibly be, and that's what they did.

I did, you mentioned kindly my newsletter on Substack "Vicky Ward Investigates." I did report this morning and reproduce the entire transcript of the conversation I had with Ghislaine Maxwell in 20002 about Annie Farmer's allegations because I think it does reveal what wasn't revealed in the courtroom. It reveals a very entitled mentality. She asked me why on earth I would believe strangers over her.

And she told me that Annie Farmer and her sister had been the beneficiaries of extraordinary generosity by Jeffrey Epstein. And I think that right there shows a value system that prosecutors did manage to put their finger on, even if we didn't hear from Ghislaine Maxwell herself.

HARLOW: I think for a lot of people, because I don't believe the interview with Annie Farmer was in your 2003 profile, so for a lot of people, that will be illuminating for them to see it in its entirety in your newsletter. I wonder what you think about what is the hope of a lot of these victims, including Virginia Giuffre, and that is that this is just the beginning.

[10:25:03]

Do you believe now prosecutors have enough and will go against others complicit in this, involved in the abuse?

WARD: Right. So, I mean, yes. We already know, right, Virginia Giuffre has her own civil with Prince Andrew. We know that the U.S. Virgin Islands is suing the Epstein estate and that, you know, that may be of all the upcoming litigation, will focus on the mystery of Jeffrey Epstein's money, which is hugely important, Poppy, because without money, none of this sexual abuse could have taken place.

We don't know who was paying Jeffrey Epstein. We don't know why. He remains a figure of mystery as well as a criminal. And there were all those mentions in this trial of, you know, the big names, Prince Andrew, Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, flying on Jeffrey Epstein's plane. We have their photographs, of him with Fidel Castro. Photographs of the Pope. The question is what were all those men doing around this guy?

How complicit were they? A lot of them have denied any affiliation. A lot of very well-known names were hanging out with Jeffrey Epstein even after he was a convicted sex offender. We also have in terms of what litigation that could be revealing the upcoming battle between David Boies, who represented some of these victims, and Alan Dershowitz, who's been accused by Virginia Giuffre. He's countersued, denied that. That legal battle could potentially also be revealing about the other big male names it could bring in.

HARLOW: Wow.

WARD: So lot -- you know, it is a beginning. It's an inflection point. It is not an end. It is a beginning.

HARLOW: Right. Vicky Ward, thank you for being here and for your reporting on this for, you know, nearly two decades. Now I encourage people to watch your special and read your newsletter. Thanks very much for the time this morning.

WARD: Thank you so much.

HARLOW: Next, some New Year's Eve events are canceled or scaled down. The testing shortage and hospitals overwhelmed. How did we get back here? My next guest details the lessons we failed to learn in the first few waves of this pandemic and mistakes we're still making.

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