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U.S. Increasing Military Aid For Ukraine As Russian Troops Amass Along Border; Interview With Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA); New York City Police Officer Killed In What Authorities Are Calling An Ambush; New York City Mayor Eric Adams Hosts Roundtable On Gun Violence; Supreme Court Rules House Select Committee Investigating The January 6th Insurrection Can Have All Documents From National Archives That Former President Donald Trump Tried To Block; Surge Of Omicron Variant Of COVID-19 Appears To Be Easing In U.S. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired January 22, 2022 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

DR. MEGAN RANNEY, PROFESSOR OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE: For folks who have not gotten their vaccines yet, this is still not a mild disease. For 30, 40, 50-years-olds who have been vaccinated, you still have a high chance of ending up in my emergency department hospitalized, or worse, if you haven't gotten your vaccines. And p.s., prior infection does not protect against Omicron the way that it did against prior versions of COVID.

So I don't want folks to take this as a carte blanche to go out and party like it's 2019. Please go get your shots and wear your mask if you're in a state where cases are surging, which is pretty much all of the U.S. right now.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: All great points. Dr. Megan Ranney, thank you so much. Continue to be well.

RANNEY: Thank you. You, too.

WHITFIELD: Thank you.

Hello, again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

A shipment of new U.S. military aid is now in Ukraine. The region remains tense while tens of thousands of Russian troops sit along the Ukraine border. The U.S. embassy says the shipment includes 200,000 pounds of lethal aid. The Pentagon is also working on new military options for the Biden administration, should Russia invade.

Sources are telling CNN the U.S. embassy in Ukraine has requested authorization from the U.S. State Department to evacuate all nonessential staff and their families. CNN's international and diplomatic editor Nic Robertson is in Moscow for us, and CNN's Arlette Saenz is at the White House. Nic, you first. While a diplomatic solution remains possible, how much of this is in Vladimir Putin's hands? NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, I think the

next step is clearly in his hands. What he's waiting for at the moment is that written response from the United States to Russia's security proposals, demands, as they're seen by NATO. He already knows the answer. He knows that the answer to Putin's question that Ukraine should not be allowed to join NATO and NATO should roll back its borders to 1997 lines is, no, he knows that. But he's going to get it in writing and it's going to come in the next few days, and then he and his advisers will have to figure out what their next move is.

The concern in the United States is that, while this diplomacy is going on, Russia is still ramping up its military presence in the region. They've brought in some sophisticated surface-to-air missiles in Belarus, where there's planned with Russia and Belarus military to have huge military exercises there.

And unlike that troop deployment, the Russian troop deployment on the eastern side of Ukraine, that troop deployment in Belarus, the joint military exercises, will put them much closer to the capital of Ukraine. So huge concern.

Yes, the diplomatic track is on, but the military option is still there, and, yes, the Ukrainians are beginning to get some military assistance. It's not huge, but it's designed to send a message. While President Putin is in this phase of what shall he do next, this military support to Ukraine is designed to send a message which says the costs of an incursion, which Russia says it doesn't want to do, is going up. That's the message.

WHITFIELD: Arlette, with the Pentagon preparing war options for President Biden, where does he have room to maneuver right now?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, that's exactly what President Biden is working through this weekend as he's set to meet with his national security team from Camp David to talk about these tensions regarding Russia and Ukraine. The administration has made clear that their first priority is trying to achieve de- escalation through diplomatic efforts, even as they are drawing up potential options for what to do if Russia does decide to invade Ukraine.

Now, Secretary of State Antony Blinken was in Geneva yesterday meeting with Russian's foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, where they talked about some of what he called severe consequences that the U.S. would take against Russia if they invade. The U.S. has been seeking to clean up a little bit these comments from President Biden when he suggested a minor incursion might draw lesser of a response from NATO, comments that really rattled some nerves in Kyiv. But take a listen to what Secretary of State Antony Blinken had to say yesterday about Russia going forward.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: We've been clear, if any Russian military forces move across Ukraine's border, that's a renewed invasion. It will be met with swift, severe, and a united response from the United States and our partners and allies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now, the U.S. has been working through what those consequences might be, including severe economic penalties, as well as possibly bolstering the U.S. military presence in eastern European countries to not only act as a deterrence to Russia, but also an assurance to allies that the administration is still hoping that that diplomatic route will work, and they are still keeping that option of having President Biden and Putin sit down for a meeting to try to work through some of these tensions.

[14:05:02]

WHITFIELD: All right, we shall see. Arlette Saenz in Washington and Nic Robertson in Moscow, thanks to both of you, appreciate it.

Let's bring in now Congressman Ro Khanna. He's a Democrat from California and a member of the House Armed Services Committee and the Oversight Committee. Good to see you, Congressman. So both President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken have said that Russia will face severe sanctions if it were to invade Ukraine. So what do you think the U.S. should be prepared to do if, indeed, this happens?

REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): I'm encouraged by Secretary of State Blinken's meeting with the Russian foreign minister. He said that cooler heads were prevailing, they're looking at possible diplomatic solutions.

Here's what I think should happen. Ukraine itself should declare that they're going to be the a non-aligned nation, neither on the United States nor Russia's side. They were like that up until 2008. I think if Ukraine declares that, then it would de-escalate tension and we could have peace.

WHITFIELD: Now can you be a non-aligning nation when you're now receiving U.S. munitions?

KHANNA: Well, they were non-aligned from 1992 to 2008, and at that point there wasn't actually Russian aggression. And then we pushed to expand NATO. In my view, that push of expansion at that time was unnecessarily provocative. Now there's no doubt that Russia has invaded, and it's illegal and it's wrong, but the question is, how do we de-escalate? One of the things we could do is for Ukraine themselves to say we want to just live in peace. We don't want to be a battleground between Europe and Russia. And I hope that they will do that.

WHITFIELD: So this is what Republican Congressman Mike Waltz and a fellow member of the House Armed Services Committee said about this situation. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE WALTZ, (R-FL): We have seen massive amounts of tanks, planes, and ships moving from east to west to the Ukrainian border. And it's not just the numbers. It's the types of troops. Many of them are from his reserves and National Guard, which are primarily intended for occupation duty. So I do think that invasion is imminent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So if you have that, why is it there are those who remain hopeful about a diplomatic solution?

KHANNA: What I would ask is, what do they want the president to do? He's actually, I think, taking exactly the right steps. He sent Secretary Blinken. Blinken has made some progress in his meeting with the Russian foreign minister. The important thing is to deescalate and convince Russia it's not in their interest to invade.

The last thing the America want is for us to be in some drawn-out war in Ukraine with Americans dying. So given that that's not an option that the American public wants, what the president has said is there will be severe sanctions, crippling economic sanctions if Russia continues. And at the same time, they're looking at a solution. And in my view, the solution is somehow Ukraine non-aligned neutrality.

WHITFIELD: President Vladimir Putin has said he wants a commitment from the U.S. to not allow Ukraine into NATO. The White House says that's not an option right now. But that really isn't -- the U.S. isn't in the driver's seat for that, anyway.

KHANNA: Well, look, the president of the United States is not going to be blackmailed. He can't give in to Putin's threats of Putin saying we want x, y, and z to not invade. If he were to do that, every country would start to try to blackmail the president. So I appreciate the president has been tough.

But the diplomats can have Ukraine themselves say maybe it's not that great of an idea for us to join NATO because it's going to be unnecessarily provocative, and our country is going to be a battleground between Europe and Russia. And I think there needs to be more thoughtful leadership from Ukraine, which has had a war-torn country for the past decade, and Secretary Blinken and others can help urge Ukraine to make that decision.

WHITFIELD: All right, let's turn to the president's Build Back Better plan. This is what house Speaker Nancy Pelosi said just this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: What the president calls chunks I would hope would be a major bill going forward. It may be more limited, but it is still significant. There are big chunks of the bill that have to be contained in the bill. Call it a chunk if you want, but whatever you call it, we want it to be able to make a difference.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So what do you believe here? What would it take for you to support a broken-up version of this Build Back Better?

KHANNA: I think it's going to be a new version that is going to make a historic mark on climate, the biggest investment we've seen in climate, which will have universal preschool, every kid in America, three or four-year-old, is going to get to go to school, and that's going to expand Medicaid coverage so working families can have it.

[14:10:03]

I think those are the three building blocks of a new plan. All will be major achievements, and we should get around that. And I actually think we need to get 51 votes in the Senate for that.

WHITFIELD: What do you believe, do you think the president has conceded that in order to get it passed, it just simply means taking out, removing chunks, as the House Speaker referred to it?

KHANNA: Look, what the president was trying to do would have been bigger than the New Deal. It would have been FDR, LBJ. So if we get three things that are historic on climate, on preschool, and on Medicaid expansion, as opposed to getting eight or nine things, yes, obviously the president is a realist. But that shouldn't diminish from what we're doing. Every kid having preschool and having bold climate legislation is a big deal.

WHITFIELD: And you, too, would consider that to be a success then?

KHANNA: Not only would I consider it a success, I would say how can any single Democrat vote against a piece of legislation that had bold climate provisions. I think we can come around on that. It should pass, let's get it to the president's desk, and then let's continue to deal with inflation, deal with the supply chain shortage, and of course with COVID.

WHITFIELD: Congressman Ro Khanna, good to see you. Stay well.

KHANNA: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much.

All right, and this breaking news now, New York City Mayor Eric Adams is hosting a roundtable this hour on gun violence. This following the shooting of two police officers in Harlem last night that left one officer dead and another seriously wounded.

I want to bring in now CNN's Mark Morales. Mark, good to see you. What do we know?

MARK MORALES, CNN REPORTER: It was a very violent night last night that really capped off a violent stretch of days for the NYPD. And let's put this into context, including the two officers that were shot last night. We now have five NYPD officers that have been shot since the start of the year.

Now, last night a woman calls for help. She's saying that she has a dispute with her son. So NYPD responds to the home a little after 6:00 p.m., and two officers are walking down a narrow hallway inside of an apartment in Harlem. And before they get to this door where the suspect was, the door swings open, and he opens fire. The shooter has been identified as Lashawn McNeil, 47-years-old. And at that point the officers were not expecting these gunshots.

WHITFIELD: And Mark, I apologize for interrupting, but I want us to listen now to the New York Mayor Eric Adams. Let's listen.

MAYOR ERIC ADAMS, (D) NEW YORK CITY: -- I'm fighting from a place of victory. And part of that comes from during the time of being in the State Senate, as well president, and throughout those years I came across all of you on the street. We would stop, we would talk, we would be out shooting responses. I just saw what you did on the ground. And I just took notes in my book, in my journal, and said, you know what, when we get the helm, we can do this the right way.

But doing something the right way starts with communicating with people on the ground. I don't want to go in and attempt to dictate to you when you are on the ground. I want to hear your ideas. And what we need to be doing as we evolve into the next level of the on-the-ground fighting crisis management of all the different groups and organizations that are doing this, I want to hear from you as we build out the program and come with some not so standard, that is not unique to the particular areas, but to really have an understanding.

I just saw Sheena. Sheena, what are you doing all the way over there? Come on, come one. This is my deputy mayor of strategic partnership. So she's the one that's going to create all these partnerships. So you've got to grab a chair and sit here.

So we want to spend the bulk of our time hearing from you and your thoughts as we arm ourselves for the next couple of years, but just being present in what we're doing. So I want to do give my colleagues that are here a few comments, and then we're going to turn it over to you. Just give me your insight. Go down the line. Go ahead, Senator. We're just all the way through.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you all for being here, and thank you, Mr. Mayor, for calling us today. I'll be very brief. As I said yesterday, the vigil for that 11-month-old, first we have to support families and communities --

WHITFIELD: We're going to continue to monitor what is this gun violence roundtable with New York City's mayor just three weeks now into office, and he is talking about, he has clarity on trying to address the problem of gun violence in the city of New York.

[14:15:03]

However, it's also going to take the participation of the public and bringing together ideas just as it's happening right now at this roundtable. Mark Morales was with us there reporting out of New York on the shooting that took place in Harlem. One police officer killed, another who continues to fight for his life. So, Mark, pick up your thought on where the investigation goes. All this as the new mayor is also trying to address the problem of gun violence in the city.

MORALES: Right, and that's a very big deal right now, because gun violence has been an issue across the country, definitely in New York City. And right now, it's about figuring out why this happened, how did the weapon get into this person's hands. Federal authorities, along with local authorities, everyone is working together to trace this gun to go back to where it was originally purchased.

Now, the gun traces back to Baltimore, somewhere in Baltimore, sold in 2017. ATF officials are going all the way back, trying to do interviews, trying to find people. They're trying to determine where it is that this weapon, and how it was sold to this person to get into Lashawn McNeil's hands.

And that is in addition to what the NYPD is going to have to come up with in terms of a strategy to combat this gun violence, because, as we've said, it's been an issue that's been ongoing in the city. And we've seen it this week with NYPD officers being involved in a lot of violent altercations, and the 11-month-old child that Mayor Adams was talking about was also injured in an earlier accident in the Bronx this week from a shooting that was happening out in the street. So the issue of gun violence isn't going away, and the NYPD and the city are actively trying to come up with a strategy, a new strategy to combat this.

Mark Morales, thanks so much for hanging in there and joining us again. Again, we're continuing to monitor the developments there with New York City Mayor Eric Adams there leading this gun violence roundtable.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:21:14]

WHITFIELD: The National Archives says it has turned over all the records that former president Trump tried to keep away from the January 6th select committee. This week the Supreme Court cleared the way for the panel to receive all 700 plus pages. The records could help answer some critical questions about what conversations happened between Trump and other high-level officials on January 6th and the days surrounding the attack.

For more on this, let's bring in CNN Capitol Hill reporter Annie Grayer. Annie, good to see you again. So what more are you learning about these new documents?

ANNIE GRAYER, CNN REPORTER: Yes, Fredricka, as you laid, when the January 6th committee started its investigation, it wanted to obtain all of the Trump White House records, but as soon as they tried to do that, Trump tried to stop that process from happening.

Now, the two sides were in a back and forth in court until the Supreme Court, as you mentioned, ruled earlier this week to give the committee access to those documents. And as of yesterday, we know the committee has those 700 plus pages in its possession.

Now, we don't know every detail about what these documents are, but based on court filings, we know so far these documents contain call logs from the White House, they contain visitor records, they contain handwritten notes, including from Trump's former chief of staff, White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows, who, it's important to note, is not cooperating with the committee.

We also know that "Politico" was the first to report yesterday that within these documents includes a draft of a memo of how the government could seize voting machines in an effort to halt the election certification process. So that's just an example of how specific these documents really are.

And the big picture here is these documents can answer a lot of questions for the January 6th committee and fill a lot of investigative holes about what was going on in the White House in the lead-up to January 6th, and specifically what the former president was doing on January 6th, who he was talking to, who he was meeting with.

WHITFIELD: And so the committee also wants to hear from Ivanka Trump. And why is her voluntary cooperation so significant? What might her role be here?

GRAYER: Right. So as you mentioned, Fredricka, the committee has reached out to Ivanka Trump for a voluntary interview. This is not a subpoena. This is them reaching out, asking for her to voluntarily cooperate. The reason why this is so significant, though, is Ivanka is the first Trump family member that we know of for the committee to reach out to say they want to speak with.

And Ivanka was at the White House on January 6th. We know that she can speak to the former president's state of mind that day because she went into her father's office at least twice to try and get him to stop the violence that was unfolding at the Capitol before he finally put out that video.

We also know from new testimony that's come out that Ivanka was a witness to a phone conversation that her father had with his former vice president, Mike Pence, on the efforts that -- and listened to the efforts her father was making to get Pence to not certify the presidential election. So Ivanka Trump can really provide a lot of firsthand testimony about what was going on in the White House with the former president on that day.

WHITFIELD: All right. It could be very compelling. Annie Grayer, thank you so much.

So the release of those White House documents are adding to a week of troubling revelations and legal setbacks for the former president, and as CNN's Sara Murray reports, the legal troubles may continue for quite some time for the former president.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: An extraordinary week of investigators ramping up legal pressure on former president Donald Trump and his family.

[14:25:02] FANI WILLIS, DISTRICT ATTORNEY, FULTON COUNTY, GEORGIA: As a district attorney, I do not have the right to look the other way on any crime that may have happened in my jurisdiction.

MURRAY: In Georgia's Fulton County, District Attorney Fani Willis is asking to see a special grand jury this spring to collect evidence for her probe into Trump's efforts to overturn Georgia's 2020 election results. She wants subpoenas for testimony from witnesses like Georgia's Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Trump's target in this infamous call last year.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: 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.

MURRAY: The special grand jury request a sign Willis is pursuing possible criminal charges against Trump and his allies.

Manhattan's new district attorney Alvin Bragg has now been briefed on the criminal investigation there into the Trump Organization. Last year Bragg told CNN the Trump case merits the attention of the D.A. personally. New York Attorney General Letitia James also ramping up her investigation into the Trumps.

LETITIA JAMES, (D) NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL: We have conducted a civil investigation into the Trump Organization. We also have a parallel investigation, a criminal investigation.

MURRAY: She's looking to compel testimony from Trump, as well as Ivanka Trump and Donald Trump Jr. in her civil probably, after laying out a trove of findings about what her office believes are fraudulent or misleading financial statements. This, as the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th insurrection now asking Ivanka Trump to voluntarily cooperate and shed light on the pressure her father put on Pence not to certify the election.

REP. JAMIE RASKIN, (D-MD) JANUARY 6TH SELECT COMMITTEE: She could really perhaps complete the portrait of what happened on January 6th for us.

MURRAY: The committee also sifting through documents from the National Archives after the Supreme Court cleared the way for their release.

RASKIN: It's been a very good week for us with the Supreme Court decision rejecting Trump's efforts to block release of a whole bunch of documents.

MURRAY: While witnesses like former White House press secretary Stephanie Grisham shed light on Trump's paranoid mindset and the meetings he was convening in the White House residence ahead of January 6th.

STEPHANIE GRISHAM, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There were meetings taking place up there. Mark Meadows would have been there as well as the legal team that was working on all of the bonkers little plans. (END VIDEO TAPE)

WHITFIELD: Sara Murray, thank you so much for that report.

Still ahead, while COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations are finally beginning to drop in some areas of the U.S., hospitals are still overwhelmed by the number of patients. Why some medical professionals say they are still in a crisis.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:32:05]

WHITFIELD: Some encouraging signs that the Omicron surge may be on the downturn. New cases and hospitalizations are beginning to drop in some parts of the U.S. But others still say they are in the midst of a crisis, hospitals overwhelmed by the number of patients and staffing shortages. CNN's Nadia Romero has more.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: A trio of CDC studies released Friday underscore just how urgently the booster shot is needed to fight off the Omicron variant. According to the CDC, the booster was 90 percent effective at preventing hospitalizations over a period of December and January, compared to 57 percent for those with only two shots six months after their second vaccination. The new data raised the question of whether people with just two vaccine doses should still be considered fully vaccinated, but CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky stopped short Friday of endorsing such a change.

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: And what we really are working to do is pivot the language to make sure that everybody is as up to date with their COVID-19 vaccines as they personally could be, should be, based on when they got their last vaccine. So importantly right now, we're pivoting our language. We really want to make sure people are up to date.

ROMERO: Meanwhile, those fighting COVID on the front lines are being stretched beyond their limits. Six metro Atlanta hospitals say they're seeing mostly unvaccinated patients fill up their hospitals beyond capacity.

DR. ROBERT JANSEN, CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER AND CHIEF OF STAFF, GRADY HEALTH SYSTEM: We are running about 110 percent capacity right now. We've had to divert ambulances over the last several weeks because the huge number of patients coming in. That has a big impact on the rest of the city. It's wall-to-wall stretchers. We have no capacity left at the hospital.

ROMERO: The message from health care experts to get vaccinated and boosted also comes with a renewed push to limit the spread of the virus. And to alleviate long lines at testing sites across the country, you can now order free at-home coronavirus tests from the federal government online or by using a new hotline. JEFF ZIENTS, WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE COORDINATOR: People need a

test immediately. We continue to encourage them to utilize one of the many testing options that are out there in addition to the website. And 20,000 community-based testing sites nationwide, federal surge sites, dozens of which have opened in the last few weeks are online.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

ROMERO (on camera): So let's talk more about the at-home test kits. The Biden administration says she want to push out 1 billion, that's "billion" with a "b," kits to Americans all across the country, four at home test kits per household. But there have already been reports of people saying that they've received error message when they try to go online and get those test kits sent to their homes.

Fredricka, they say they were getting those error messages, saying their properties weren't registered, or because they were trying to have them sent to mobile home parks. Just yesterday the Biden administration says it is working directly with USPS to try to address some of those concerns. Fred?

WHITFIELD: Sometimes the rollouts are a little challenging, and hopefully those wrinkles have been smoothed out. Nadia Romero, thank you so much.

[14:35:05]

Let's talk more about the challenges facing a lot of hospitals still. Joining us right now, Dr. Jayne Morgan. She's the executive director of Piedmont Healthcare COVID Task Force in Georgia. Doctor, always good to see you.

DR. JAYNE MORGAN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, PIEDMONT HEALTHCARE COVID TASK FORCE: Thank you. Nice to see you, Fred.

WHITFIELD: OK, so while there's some uplift and optimism in some places, still in others hospitals are stressed. What is the situation in Georgia?

MORGAN: Certainly, we are seeing, as we are seeing in other parts of the country, some of these numbers starting to come down. But our hospitals are still stressed, at or near capacity, throughout the state of Georgia. And so we want to make certain that people are aware of that and absolutely don't use the emergency rooms to come and just get testing if you otherwise are not feeling unwell.

WHITFIELD: So we've heard of some hospitals being forced to triage care, some saying they are running above capacity. How much longer can the overall health care system handle this?

MORGAN: In this surge, is this surge, that is really the great question. Obviously, this is a great deal of stress, really, on humanity, and physicians and nurses alike are a part of this humanity. However, we continue to stand and continue to treat all patients who are coming to our facilities, whether you're vaccinated, whether you're unvaccinated, and making certain that people can receive the absolute best care.

One of the concerns that we have in this particular surge is that we don't have an adequate or a continuous supply of all of these new medical therapeutics that are being approved under emergency use authorization from the FDA, and so we want to make certain that the public is aware of that, that we do not have enough supply for everyone. So please make certain that you wear your mask and do your best to stay out of the hospital.

WHITFIELD: We're starting to see cases and hospitalizations fall in many parts of the country, but does that give you any hope about where hospitals might be in the coming weeks? There were so many warning signs that January is likely to be the worst as it pertains to Omicron, and perhaps things might get better. But spring is right around the corner, and one has to wonder what might be around the corner as it pertains to COVID as a whole.

MORGAN: Fred, I am ever-hopeful, and we are definitely seeing this begin to turn the corner. We are praying that this will be the last surge and that we will be able to move forward beyond this. We've certainly looked at South African American, looked to the U.K. specifically with regard to how it has peaked and how it begins to ebb, and we are tracking that the United States will also follow in that direction.

But we should not let our guards down, because on the way out, Omicron still has the ability to wreak a lot of havoc in its wake. So we must be certain that we continue to have our guard up and use home testing as a tool to help you protect yourself, protect your children, and make decisions about where you're going or who is coming into your environment.

WHITFIELD: And hopefully, indeed, home testing will become much more accessible as people begin to get their packages after making those orders.

So Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, he activated the Georgia National Guard to help hospitals with the surge. In what way do you see that making a difference?

MORGAN: It certainly makes a difference as we offload some of the strain on our system. We have had quite a bit of absenteeism with our staff with regard to COVID positivity and having to isolate or quarantine, which means that even though, on occasion, we have beds, those beds aren't available because we don't have staff for those beds.

And so hospitals like every other industry in the United States are also dealing with staffing shortages. And so the National Guard helps to offset a lot of those tasks that now people can be redeployed to help support our hospital system while we also deal with absenteeism.

WHITFIELD: Dr. Jayne Morgan, always good to see you. Stay well. Thanks so much.

MORGAN: Fred, you, too. WHITFIELD: After nearly 80 years sitting outside a New York museum,

the statue of U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt was removed after criticism over its racial image. That is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:44:20]

WHITFIELD: New York's Museum of Natural History is removing one of its most well-known yet controversial works, the statue of former president Teddy Roosevelt which greeted visitors for almost 50 -- I'm sorry, 80 years. It came down this week after a long debate over its racial image. CNN's Athena Jones has more.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The equestrian statue of Theodore Roosevelt spent more than eight decades welcoming visitors to New York City's American Museum of Natural History. The statue, commissioned in 1925 and designed by American sculptor James Earle Fraser, debuted in 1940.

[14:45:00]

The nation's 26th president depicted on horseback towering over two sparsely clothed men, one Native American, the other black, allegorical figures meant to represent the continents of North America and Africa. But critics, like former mayor Bill de Blasio, say they explicitly depict black and indigenous people as subjugated racially inferior. Now, after years of debate, the controversial work is being moved.

PHILIP DELORIA, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: I think it's fair to say that we should see these as complicated kinds of issues. Roosevelt was a complicated person, both in his motivations and his consequences. James Earle Fraser was a complicated sculptor. The museum is a complicated place.

JONES: The museum writing in 2020 in its initial removal request, the statue conveys a "racial hierarchy that the museum and members of the public have long found disturbing." A city parks official calling the move "incredibly rare but the right course of action."

DELORIA: Over time, the meanings of the statue really did start to change as we thought more about what our social landscape looked like.

JONES: Workers began dismantling it this week.

Roosevelt, who also served as New York's 33rd governor, was hailed as a driving force for antitrust and progressive policies and as a conservationist. But scholars say he was also an imperialist, and he said of immigrants in his 1905 message to Congress, "The laws now existing for the exclusion of undesirable immigrants should be strengthened."

ANDREW ROSS, PROFESSOR OF SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ANALYSIS, NEW YORK UNIVERSITY: It's pretty clear that his personal opinions were, quite frankly, racist, especially in regard to indigenous Americans, African Americans, and many immigrant groups.

JONES: Roosevelt helped create the National Park System, but he did it on once native land.

DELORIA: What Roosevelt did was participated in taking native land, putting it in the public domain, and locking it up in the public domain for the good of all, but that doesn't change the fact that it was native land.

JONES: Opposition to the statue began to build in the 1970s, the movement reaching a crescendo in recent years as the nation's racial reckoning led to a reexamination of many national heroes. New York City's Public Design Commission unanimously voted last June to loan the statue on a long-term basis to the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library in Medora, North Dakota, slated to open its doors in 2026. It's a move even members of the Roosevelt family support. Roosevelt's great grandson Ted Roosevelt the Fifth, saying in a statement to DON LEMON TONIGHT, "I don't think the statue's racial hierarchy is a good representation of Teddy Roosevelt's legacy."

Athena Jones, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WHITFIELD: Still ahead, the weather system that brought snow and ice to the southeast is pushing away, but freezing temperatures could create dangerous conditions overnight. We'll have the latest forecast next.

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[14:52:12]

WHITFIELD: One little monkey is not hanging around after police say a tractor trailer carrying about 100 monkeys crashed in Pennsylvania on Friday. Crates containing the live animals scattered across the road, allowing some of the monkeys to break loose and flee the scene. No immediate human injuries were reported. The state's game commission accounted to most of the monkeys except for one. Officials urge residents to call 911 if they spot it and do nothing else.

In the mid-Atlantic, the weather system that brought snow and ice to the Carolinas and Virginia is moving out today. The below normal temperatures will remain in place throughout the weekend. Much of the deep south experienced frigid arctic air this week, but luckily was spared from crippling ice. CNN's Allison Chinchar is live for us in the CNN Weather Center, and she's joining me now. Good to see you, Allison. So temperatures warmed up a little bit today, but what are the chances of all of that freezing overnight?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right, yes, look, we have got some good news on top of this. One, the storm system finally well out to sea, taking with it all of the moisture. So the system has come to an end. And yes, we had some sunshine out there and some warmer temperatures, so a lot of that was able to melt.

But you have to keep in mind, there was a lot of it. We are not just talking one to two inches. In fact, several locations of North Carolina and even Virginia, including North Virginia Beach, they had about seven inches of snow total.

And again, in addition to snow, we also had some ice accumulations. The top ones were about half-of-an-inch, both in North Carolina but even areas of South Carolina picking up to about a quarter of an inch of ice there. And again, not only does that cause problems on the roadways but also brings trees and power lines down too. So you obviously want that to melt and be gone as quick as possible.

Temperatures across much of the area, high temperatures-wise, will all be above freezing, some even making it into the 40s. So yes, you're going to have some melting take place today. But likely not all of it. And whatever is left is definitely going to refreeze tonight. A lot of these areas looking at temperatures in the 20s for lows.

Now, the other bit of good news I will say is that by tomorrow, another day of full sunshine and even warmer temperatures means whatever left really finally will all melt tomorrow afternoon. We just got to get to that point before we finally see an end to it.

It has also been very cold in the Midwest. And that means when this next clipper system comes in, it's going to drop a pretty decent amount of snow for several states in the Midwest. That's why you've got some winter weather advisories in effect for several states in the Midwest today into tomorrow.

Overall, again, that system just kind of dives down to the south and east hitting places like Milwaukee, Chicago, eventually over toward Cincinnati and Cleveland. So again, Fred, you are talking most of these areas about four to six inches. But we will maybe get some lake- effect enhancement with it, so some areas could even pick up as much as eight to 10 inches total.

[14:55:05]

WHITFIELD: OK, big burr. I can feel that cold front right now. Allison Chinchar, thanks so much.

And this quick programming note, you know her face, but Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe was so much more. Learn all about her life and career, the CNN original series "Reframed, Marilyn Monroe," tomorrow at 9:00 p.m.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. The CNN NEWSROOM continues with Jim Acosta right after this.

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