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Former Vice President Mike Pence Publicly Rebukes Former President Trump's Claim that Pence Could have Overturned the 2020 Presidential Election; Reporting Indicates Congressman Jim Jordan Spoke with Former President Trump for 10 Minutes During January 6th Insurrection; New Video Released of January 6th Capitol Insurrection; Numbers of Hospitalizations Due to COVID Falling Across U.S.; FDA Considering Expanding Availability of COVID Vaccine Shots to Children under Five-Years-Old. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired February 05, 2022 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:11]

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. Welcome. It's Saturday, February 5th. I'm Christi Paul.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Christi. I'm Boris Sanchez. You are live in the CNN Newsroom, and we are grateful that you are with us.

We begin with hour with former Vice President Mike Pence. He's come out with his most forceful denunciation of the big lie forced by former President Trump.

PAUL: Speaking at a gathering of conservative lawyers, the former vice president called out his former boss by name, saying that, quote, "President Trump is wrong" in claiming that he, meaning the vice president, could overturn the 2020 election. Now, Vice President Pence has previously defended his actions on January 6th. But Donald Trump has ramped up his push of the big lie, even suggesting he might pardon rioters if he's re-elected.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I heard this week that President Trump said I had the right to overturn the election. President Trump is wrong. I have no right to overturn the election. The presidency belongs to the American people and the American people alone. And, frankly, there is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president. Under the Constitution, I had no right to change the outcome of our election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: And now we're seeing new video of the violence and carnage from January 6th. We should warn you. Some viewers might find it disturbing, but it shows the actions that just yesterday the Republican National Committee declared legitimate political discourse. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SHOUTING)

CROWD: USA! USA! USA!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: You see in this video a fierce battle between rioters and Capitol police. In the background, you hear chants of "USA, USA" as glass breaks and rioters launch objects at police.

PAUL: The Capitol insurrection has led to the arrest of more than 700 people, and much of this new video is evidence that the Justice Department is using to prosecute these cases.

SANCHEZ: We have to again warn you, the language in the video we're about to show you is very graphic. The man you will see is Ryan Nichols. He's a former marine from Texas who was arrested around charged last year. If you have children in the room, you may want to have them step out. And we're going to show you to you uncensored, again, because it underscores the mindset of the rioters that day and the very real danger that members of Congress and Capitol police faced. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN NICHOLS, SUSPECTED CAPITOL RIOTER: I'm hearing that Pence just caved? Is that true? I'm hearing reports that Pence caved. I'm telling you, if Pence caved, we're going to drag motherfuckers through the streets. You fucking politicians are going to get fucking drug through the streets, because we're not going to have our fucking shit stolen. We're not going to have our election and our country stolen. If we find out you politicians voted for him, we're going to drag your fucking ass through the street.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Legitimate political discourse according to the RNC.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz joins us now. And Katelyn, these videos are obviously troubling, but they paint a clear picture that these wasn't tourists visiting the Capitol, as some Republicans have tried to claim. And despite these videos, the former president is still dangling pardons as he hints at another presidential run.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: That's right, Boris and Christi. Donald Trump has been talking about giving pardons to January 6th rioters. But even in this situation, what Donald Trump is selling, the January 6th defendants are not buying it. Justice producer Hannah Rabinowitz and I made lots of phone calls this week to lawyers representing those January 6th defendants, including people in jail, people not in jail, people who have pled guilty. And overall, they were telling us that they believe that what Trump is talking about, about pardons, is largely theatrics. There's a couple reasons for that. One, he's not president right now,

so he can't actually give pardons because he's not the president. When he was the president for 14 days after the insurrection, there were rioters who were asking for pardons publicly, and Trump did not give them at that time. So that was gone.

And the third reason is that a lot of these court cases for these January 6th defendants, they're moving slowly, but they're moving fast forward that they will be wrapped well before the next presidential election. So there just really isn't a way for these people to be relying on Trump's help. At this time, one criminal defense attorney for several January 6th rioters told us no help is coming when we asked him about Trump's statements this week about pardons.

That said, there is still this Capitol Hill investigation that is ongoing. There are people who the House wants to talk to, witnesses that if they do not comply with subpoenas, one possible consequence of that is being held in criminal contempt, being prosecuted by the Justice Department.

[10:05:10]

And so, Elaine Luria, she's a representative that sits on the House Select Committee, she was asked about Trump's comments this week. This is what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ELAINE LURIA, (D-VA): Someone who is waiving out there that if I'm president in the future, I'm going to pardon you, someone who could be right now thinking, I need to do the right thing, I need to state the facts and potentially plead guilty to the criminal actions that I have, if they think there is a way in the future to get off from any consequences from their actions, it could certainly color what they do right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POLANTZ: So, Christi and Boris, there is a lot of motivations at play here. Back to you.

SANCHEZ: No question about that. Katelyn Polantz, as always, appreciate your reporting.

Speaking of the House select committee investigating the insurrection, they now have records that provide new details of a phone call between former President Trump made to Republican Congressman Jim Jordan.

PAUL: The committee is drilling down right now on many ways Trump and his allies, including those in Congress, tried to overturn the election results. CNN's Annie Grayer is with us now. So, I know, Annie, you spoke with Jordan concerning that call. What did he tell you?

ANNIE GRAYER, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: I did. But before I get into what Congressman Jordan said to me, I want to provide some key context. We reported yesterday exclusively that the January 6th committee has in its possession White House call records that show Donald Trump wanted to speak with Jim Jordan, and he initiated that phone call, and the pair spoke for 10 minutes on the morning of January 6th while Trump was still in the White House residence.

Now, that is key because Jordan is a key Trump ally who on Capitol Hill was trying to carry out Donald Trump's goal of trying to stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election. And the two spoke before Congress met to go through that certification process.

Now, Jordan himself has said that he spoke with Trump, but he's been very unclear about when he spoke with the former president, how long that conversation lasted. I spoke with Congressman Jordan yesterday in the hallways of Congress to try to nail down these details. Take a reason to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JIM JORDAN, (R-OH): As I said, I had no more calls with -- I talked to the president a couple times a day, but I don't remember the times. So, I don't remember.

GRAYER: You don't remember if it was the morning, if there was one in the morning before?

JORDAN: I don't recall, but I know I talked to him after we left off the floor, but I don't remember the call.

GRAYER: So, you don't remember if there was one before the violence started?

JORDAN: I don't.

GRAYER: And that it was 10 minutes?

JORDAN: I don't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRAYER: So, as you can see there, I was really trying to get Representative Jordan to clarify whether or not he spoke with President Trump in the morning like the White House call records show. And he was not able to confirm that, but he did provide a new detail about how he spoke with Trump after he left the House floor on January 6th, which is more specific than he's ever been.

But the big picture here is the January 6th committee is building a timeline of events from what led up to January 6th and specifically on that day. And this call between Trump and Jordan is a new detail that we can now add to that timeline.

SANCHEZ: And, Annie, the content of that call could be consequential when it comes to the January 6th committee's work. Annie Grayer, thank you so much.

CNN legal analyst Jennifer Rodgers is here now with us to discuss all things January 6th. She's a former federal prosecutor. Jennifer, thanks for being with us this Saturday morning. You just heard Katelyn's reporting about how some of these defendants' lawyers are viewing the hints from Donald Trump about pardons. But it strikes me that the former president is playing more of a political game than he is offering any kind of legal remedy for these folks. Is that a fair assessment?

JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: I think so, Boris. I don't know what former President Trump intends, but the fact is he can't do anything about this now. So, whether he would or not if he had the power, there is nothing he can do. These cases are going to be resolved long before he got back into office even if he wins in 2024.

SANCHEZ: Yes, so the committee is still deciding whether to subpoena federal lawmakers like Jim Jordan. We just heard the reporting from Annie about that phone call. What kind of reaction would you expect if they did? Is there any way that Jordan and some of his colleagues could try to evade those subpoenas?

[10:10:00]

RODGERS: Well, listen, the reaction from Jim Jordan is probably the most easy to figure out of all of them. He's going to refuse. We now have a decision from the Supreme Court that effectively blocks these executive privilege claims, and yet people are still going to make them. And if anyone is going to make a claim like that, it's going to be Jim Jordan. I would expect that he would not cooperate at all with the committee. He's always been a stalwart, and I don't expect that to change now.

SANCHEZ: Would there be some kind recourse for them to pressure him, the potential for a contempt of Congress charge?

RODGERS: So the contempt of Congress charge, which of course, Steve Bannon has been charged with and the consideration is going on now for Mark Meadows, that is something they could do. It puts pressure in the sense that no one wants to be charged with a federal crime, but there is really no way to force anyone to comply with a subpoena unless you go to the civil route. If you go the civil contempt route, you can actually put someone in prison until they testify. There's not been any sign at all that Congress is willing to even try that.

So I think where we are is the worst they would do is send it over to DOJ. DOJ could, of course, charge him, although, the length of time they're taking with the Mark Meadows case suggests to me that they're not at all thinking that they want to do that with current officials or even officials who were there under former President Trump like Mark Meadows was. So I don't know that there is that much they can do except, of course, the pressure that all of this publicity brings.

SANCHEZ: A process that would be rife with landmines and overly complex as Chairman Bennie Thompson explained it. So I do want to ask you about former DOJ official Jeffrey Clark. He was a key player in the plot to try to overturn the 2020 election. He met with the committee this week. He pleaded the Fifth more than 100 times. The panel already voted to hold Clark in contempt last year for his lack of cooperation. They paused on moving that referral forward until they met with him again. Any expectation? What do you think might happen now?

RODGERS: Well, there was a suggestion the other day that they may immunize him, that Congress may give him immunity. And I'm finding that troubling. I'm sure the select committee is working closely with DOJ, that they're in communications. But any time that Congress gives immunity, that basically thwarts DOJ from later bringing the case, or at least potentially does so.

So the fact of the matter is, and I don't know if they're seriously considering immunizing Clark, but if they do, then that is really going to undermine DOJ's efforts to charge him if that turns out to be what they ought to do. So I hope they think long and hard about this. I hope DOJ is involved in these discussions because, to me, if we end up seeing Jeff Clark immunized by the select committee, that suggestions to me, again, that DOJ may not really be pursuing this to look at the top people and potentially charge them, and I think that would be a mistake.

SANCHEZ: And Jennifer, quickly, you mentioned Steve Bannon just a moment ago. He's accusing DOJ investigators of unfairly obtaining his lawyer's records. His team realized that prosecutors had collected hundreds of pages of e-mails and phone logs for his attorney. How could that complicate his upcoming criminal trial?

RODGERS: Well, attorney-client privilege only covers the communications themselves. So if they have been obtain call records, email records, but not the content, which they would need a search warrant for, a subpoena doesn't work, then there can be no breach of the privilege. And the second thing I will say is that if he asserts an advice of counsel offense, if he effectively says, well, I did all this on the advice of my lawyer, then that waives the privilege.

So in any case, I don't expect if he proceeds that way that we will have an actual intact attorney-client privilege at trial anyway. So I don't see any problem with that. Of course, he is going to kick and scream about them getting any information, but they're entitled to do it. And at trial, we may actually end up seeing communications in the former e-mails and other things if he proceeds with this defense, and that could get very interesting.

SANCHEZ: Jennifer Rodgers, as always, appreciate your expertise. Thanks so much.

RODGERS: Thank you.

PAUL: We're following a developing story out of Virginia this hour. One person is dead, several others are hurt after a shooting in a bar near the Virginia Tech campus. What we're learning about this just ahead.

Also, we are finally able to give you some good news in the fight against COVID. We're going to tell you what trends are heading in the right direction. Stay close.

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[10:18:30]

SANCHEZ: A shooting at a hookah lounge near Virginia Tech's main campus Friday left one person dead and four others injured.

PAUL: Blacksburg police say the incident is complex, that they have now shifted the case to a homicide investigation. Here's CNN's Polo Sandoval who has more for us. What are you learning at this hour, Polo? And good morning.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Boris and Christi. Police there in Blacksburg, Virginia, are not just calling it a complex investigation, but also an ongoing one, so it certainly speaks to why not a whole lot of information is available at this point.

But here's what we do know, is that officers responded to a hookah bar work just before midnight and found that five people had been injured, had been shot, one of them fatally. We understand according to investigators that the university nearby, which is Virginia Tech, did confirm that at least one of those victims is a student of theirs. However, we also know that alerts and a shelter in place order was actually issued by campus officials at around the time of the shooting, but it was lifted a few hours later at about 3:15.

Now, information on the victims not yet available, which is certainly not unusual as authorities are still speaking to families, obviously. But what is unusual at this point is that we don't know a lot about the suspect's information or possibly a motive. We are actively reaching back out to Blacksburg police to see if there are any updates that are scheduled possibly for today as we try to find out a little bit more about what led to these shots fired, again, at a hookah bar near the Virginia Tech campus that left five people injured, one of them fatally. Christi, Boris, back to you.

[10:20:02]

SANCHEZ: Polo Sandoval, thank you so much.

PAUL: Thank you, Polo.

So, listen, we're seeing some promising signs this morning in the fight against the Omicron variant. COVID cases declining in all but one state. All of you in Tennessee, take good care of yourselves there. You see that one, hospitalizations dropped 16 percent in the last week.

Here's the sad part, more than 2,400 Americans on average are still dying from COVID every day. Now totaling more than 900,000 people who have died since the start of this pandemic. And many still are unprotected against the virus, like our youngest children. Well, the FDA is set to meet this coming Tuesday. They're considering expanding COVID vaccine shots to kids under five, and federal regulators hope to begin vaccinations by the end of the month. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll shows only three in 10 parents say they will get their child under five vaccinated right away, a sign that convincing them to get the shot is going to take more work.

Dr. Stan Spinner is with us, the chief medical officer and vice president for Texas Children's Pediatrics in Texas Children's Urgent Care Clinics, with us now out of Houston. Dr. Spinner, thank you for being with us. I understand that your grandchildren, both of them, volunteered in the Pfizer trial for this regimen. How are they doing it? And what was the process for that for them?

DR. STAN SPINNER, CMO AND VP, TEXAS CHILDREN'S PEDIATRICS AND TEXAS CHILDREN'S URGENT CARE: Yes. Both my grandchildren at the time, the first one was four. The second one was about a year-and-a-half. We couldn't wait for them to get into the trial, by the way, both myself as well as my son and daughter-in-law who are both in the medical profession. They are doing great. They had no side effects whatsoever from the vaccine.

Our now five-year-old, she was unblinded. So we found out she did get the real vaccine, the two doses. Our younger one we actually find out on Tuesday. She is now two, and they will unblind her. So we are very much hoping that she did get the real vaccine. But they're doing great.

PAUL: So I want to read you something from Dr. Jeremy Faust, who is a doctor and a dad, like you. You are a doctor and a dad as well, and a grandfather, obviously. He wrote this on Twitter. He said "I've organized large portions of my life around avoiding my three-year-old getting COVID. But I will not be giving her two doses of anything that doesn't work. If they show me three doses work, she'll get three. Until then, she gets zero doses of something ineffective." Ineffective is what caught my eye and I think the eye of a lot of other people. Are you finding there are doctors who are questioning the science here, and because of that, I mean, again, like you, this isn't a doctor and a father, is there something to question?

SPINNER: Yes. I'm glad you asked that question, because so many people and certainly physicians unfortunately I think really don't understand the process for what the trials do. The vaccine was not found to be ineffective in two to four-year-old group. What happened was the Pfizer sets a threshold for antibody response, and what happened was it did not meet that threshold. It doesn't mean it's not effective. It just means that it didn't hit the market they wanted it to, in compared to the six months to two-year-old's where it did.

So it's not that the vaccine doesn't work. It's not that the vaccine doesn't protect that age group. It doesn't give them the optimal protection. But considering how many hundreds of thousands of kids have been recently infected, how many thousands have been hospitalized, I will take good protection over optimal protection any day until we can know that hopefully that third dose that they're now doing the trials for will give them an even higher protection. But for physicians, especially to say that the vaccine did not work at the two doses, at the three micro grams, is really unfortunate because that's not at all the case.

PAUL: OK, so I wanted to ask you as well about the recent reports of myocarditis, that rare heart inflammation that was shown in some kids. It's rare, I want to point out. But the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practice, I know they met yesterday. Pfizer and Moderna's vaccines were both linked to this risk, Moderna's more so than Pfizer's to some degree. What do you know about that risk in myocarditis in young people?

SPINNER: Well, the risk of myocarditis from the COVID vaccine is rare at any age group, but extraordinarily rare in the younger age group. We have mostly seen it in the adolescents and young adults in the male population. But those cases are generally very, very mild. They usually go away on their own within a couple of days. Again, just very mild symptoms. What's important to know that myocarditis occurs from the virus itself. So getting infected with COVID, you are probably three times more likely to get myocarditis than from the vaccine.

[10:25:06]

And when you get myocarditis from the infection, you could be a lot sicker. So when you compare those two, there's no question about the fact that the vaccine is much, much safter when it comes to a much lower risk of myocarditis.

PAUL: So when you are talking to parents who have real trepidations about having another vaccine for their kids five and under, what should they know? And are there children who should not get this vaccine?

SPINNER: So what parents should know is that children are not immune to COVID. They hear constantly that it's a benign disease or a mild disease in children. And fortunately for most that's true. But we've had tens of thousands of children hospitalized due of COVID, well over 1,000, unfortunately, have died, and about a third of those in the younger than five-year-old age population that up until now haven't been able to be protected.

I will speak to anyone who is a parent out there. If your child has ever been in the hospital, it could be for something relatively benign like dehydration, where they just need some I.V. fluids, or it could be more serious. It is one of most devastating you will ever have as a parent. So having a child in the hospital with COVID on oxygen, maybe hooked up to a ventilator, hooked up to multiple tubes is -- that type of experience is not something you recover from, nor does your child very easily.

So as parents, I want you to understand, understand the risk of the infection itself. And we don't even know what the long-term effects of COVID can be. We have been dealing with this just shy over two years. We may see even more problems later with kids who have had mild cases today.

But I ask, what are you afraid of as far as the vaccine? What is it that you worry about when you see hundreds of millions of doses given in this country, and the safety profile has been extraordinarily safe?

PAUL: OK, Dr. Stan Spinner, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to cut you off. We are just -- we've got to move on here. I apologize. But I am grateful to have had you and your expertise on today in talking with us. Hope everything continues to go well for you, sir.

SPINNER: Thank you, Christi. My pleasure.

PAUL: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Coming up, U.S. troops are being deployed to eastern Europe. What exactly is their mission? We'll take you to Fort Bragg after the break.

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[10:31:46]

SANCHEZ: Russia is pushing back against U.S. claims that the Kremlin is producing a graphic propaganda video. The U.S. says the video would depict an attack by Ukraine that could be used to justify a Russian invasion. All this comes as U.S. troops are headed to eastern Europe in a show of support for NATO allies that are worried about Russian troops being amassed along Ukraine's border. The deployment includes troops from the 82nd Airborne based in North Carolina.

PAUL: We're covering this story from all angles. CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson joins us from Moscow, and correspondent Isabel Rosales is at Fort Bragg, North Carolina. Nic, I want to start with you. Talk to us about what you're hearing from Russia, what they are saying about these accusations about a false flag operation that may be in the works.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, the foreign minister is calling them delusional. He said that there have been so many of them lately that they keep coming one after another. We've heard U.S. officials talking about a false flag operation over the past few weeks, British officials says that President Putin was going to replace the Ukrainian leader with essentially a puppet government once Ukraine was invaded.

To this point, Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister, said it's really obvious to everyone what's going on here. And Ned Price, the State Department spokesman, has been lampooned, if you will, trolled on state television here, when a reporter asked him for more details at a press conference about this false flag operation. And he didn't want to give further details, obviously appearing to protect sources and methods, quite normal in these circumstances. But that's given Russia the opportunity to say that this is the United States essentially stoking and stirring up all the trouble here.

And we have a reflection of that from the foreign ministry spokeswoman today who even said that right now the United States and others in the west are trying to diminish what's happening in Beijing and the Olympic games there by putting so much focus on Ukraine. So the Kremlin's spin machine, if you will, is taking this and going into overdrive with it.

Meanwhile, real diplomacy will begin here Monday. Again, President Putin will be back in town, back from Beijing. President Macron of France will come to visit him. Macron today having a couple important phone calls, one with the British prime minister, one with the NATO security general. Both of these leaders saying to Macron that NATO unity is important. He heard exactly the same messaging from President Biden a couple of days ago in a phone call, and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau the day before. Why? Because one of the ideas that President Macron will be pushing with President Putin is for the European Union to get a greater role in European security, and to many onlookers, that looks like an opportunity for Putin to find gaps in NATO's alignment that the E.U. is sort of stepping slightly sideways on that alignment.

SANCHEZ: And that has been his intent over recent years, to try to find a wedge in NATO wherever he can. Nic Robertson from Moscow, thank you so much.

[10:35:00]

PAUL: We want to go to CNN correspondent Isabel Rosales now. She's from Fort Bragg. Isabel, talk to us about the U.S. deployment.

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Christi. President Biden's formal order came down on Wednesday. And less than 24 hours later, we saw the first deployment happening here out of Fort Bragg. Now, the plan is for overall 2,000 soldiers and paratroopers to deploy. Loading up on C-17s military aircraft and heading toward eastern Europe, specifically Germany and Poland. That is the plan, on direct orders from President Biden.

This is the most significant move from the U.S. thus far. And it's acting on the potential of Russian President Vladimir Putin invading Ukraine. Russia so far has refused to draw back tens of thousands of troops there, as you heard from the border. But the Pentagon has been clear. These soldiers, they are not there to fight. This is a message that they're sending, a show of force in support of NATO allies and also to deter Russian aggression. I want you to listen now to what the spokesman of the 18th Airborne had to say about how quickly they deployed.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEW VISSER, SPOKESMAN, XVIII AIRBORNE CORPS: The soldiers of 18th Airborne corps and the 82nd Airborne division are always ready as America's contingency corps and the immediately response for us. They're ready to deploy in support of whatever operation it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSALES: So the Pentagon says that this is a temporary mission. Those soldiers do not know how long they will serve there in eastern Europe. But the Pentagon is also not ruling out that more troops could be sent there to NATO allies. And these 2,000 soldiers are actually separate from 8,500 troops that are on heightened alert and at the ready to go there. Christi?

PAUL: Good, important point to make there, Isabel Rosales. Very good. Thank you so much. SANCHEZ: Still ahead, outrage and demands for more transparency in

Minneapolis after another police shooting results in the death of a black man. What happened and why the Minnesota attorney general is now stepping in after a quick break.

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[10:41:52]

PAUL: All righty, there is a sentencing hearing going on right now, live images you're seeing. This is for the waffle house shooter who killed four people in Antioch, Tennessee. Travis Reinking was found guilty on all charges, including premeditated first degree murder and first degree felony murder. He opened fire with an assault type rifle back in 2018.

SANCHEZ: Yes. You might recall the shooting ended when one customer wrestled the weapon away from him. Reinking fled on foot and was taken into custody when a woman spotted him in the woods some 35 hours after police launched a manhunt.

In the meantime, in Minneapolis, hundreds gathered in a caravan protest for the black man who was killed in just seconds by an officer during a no-knock warrant. Amir Locke, who was not named in any search warrant, was apparently asleep before the incident and was shown to be holding a gun once police entered. Locke's parents spoke to CNN last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDRE LOCKE, AMIR LOCKE'S FATHER: Too many of us in our communities continue to deal with this same type of harassment. It is so unfortunate that this is happening again. And now it hits home. It hurts.

KAREN WELLS, AMIR LOCKE'S MOTHER: Amir was loving. Amir was a sweetheart. Amir loved everybody. He was friendly. He liked to joke. He liked to laugh. He had a beautiful smile.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: CNN's Omar Jimenez has more details on how all of this unfolded. We do want to give you a head's up, though, because there is bodycam footage here that is disturbing, and I don't want you to be caught off guard.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just before 7:00 a.m. Wednesday, a Minneapolis police SWAT team uses a key to enter a city apartment, then bursts through the doorway, searching the apartment, police say, tied to a Saint Paul homicide investigation. Instead, they found 22- year-old Amir Locke appearing to be sound asleep on a couch. Locke then seems to wake up when they kick the couch, and body camera footage shows him holding a gun. AMELIA HUFFMAN, INTERIM CHIEF, MINNEAPOLIS POLICE: You can see along

with an individual emerging from under the blanket, the barrel of a gun. The involved officer was just outside the frame in the direction that that barrel is emerging from the blanket.

JIMENEZ: CNN has not been able to confirm where the officer is, but as Locke begins to stand, three shots.

HUFFMAN: The officer had to make a split-second decision to assess the circumstances and determine whether he felt like there was an articulable threat, that the threat was of imminent harm.

JIMENEZ: Locke's family said he was in legal possession of a firearm when he was shot. The family and their attorney criticized police procedure.

JEFF STORMS, FAMILY ATTORNEY: No lawful gun owner could have survived this situation.

TONY ROMANUCCI, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: This is the definition of no- knock. In seven seconds, seven seconds, that's it. And Amir had no choice.

[10:45:01]

JIMENEZ: It is unclear if this particular breach was originally designated as a no-knock warrant, but attorneys also took issue with the timing before the shooting.

STORMS: There is no announcement prior to entering that threshold, and they give Amir no time to save his own life. And that's something that we don't see white citizens encounter. And the fact that it's happening in Minneapolis again is beyond tragic.

JIMENEZ: After the shooting, police say they immediately provided aid, and officers carried lock to the lobby to meet paramedics. Locke was taken to a local hospital where he died. Police now say he was not named in any search warrants.

HUFFMAN: At this point it is unclear if or how he's connected to Saint Paul's investigation.

JIMENEZ: The subject of the warrant wasn't found in the apartment. And the Minneapolis police officer who fired his weapon, Mark Hanneman is on administrative leave per department policy. Locke's mother spoke out, expressing outrage over her son's killing.

KAREN WELLS, AMIR LOCKE'S MOTHER: I believe that he was executed by the MPD, and I want the police officer that murdered my son to be prosecuted and fired.

JIMENEZ: Police say they're now assessing whether proper procedures were followed, and the mayor of Minneapolis is promising a full criminal investigation of the shooting.

MAYOR JACOB FREY, MINNEAPOLIS: This video raises about as many questions as it does answers. Truth and justice must be our guiding principles.

JIMENEZ: As the interim chief and the mayor left the room, activists expressed frustration.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How is walking out of a press conference transparency? You are a murderer!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is what we have been fighting against since George Floyd was killed, running away from accountability and transparency.

JIMENEZ: Locke's father, trying to control his emotions, said his son was a law-abiding citizen from a law enforcement family and wants the officer to be held accountable.

ANDRE LOCKE, AMIR LOCKE'S FATHER: He forced Amir to respond to protect himself as any law-abiding citizen would do and has the right to do.

JIMENEZ: The officer, Mark Hanneman, has been placed on routine administrative leave, but there are also questions about what put him in this situation in the first place. Mayor Jacob Frey issued a moratorium on no-knock warrants unless there is an imminent threat and it's been signed off on by the chief of police. Separately, the Saint Paul Police Department announced no arrests have been made in the homicide investigation that prompted what became this shooting.

Omar Jimenez, CNN.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

SANCHEZ: Omar, thank you for that.

The first medals of the Beijing Winter Olympics have already been handed out. After the break, we'll go live to Beijing and tell you who is in the lead. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:52:20]

SANCHEZ: The Olympic flame in Beijing is lit and the Winter Olympics are officially underway.

PAUL: We want to go to Coy. Coy Wire is in China live from the Z zone in the mountains, a little bit chilly, but they're already handing out the medals. Hey, Coy.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: A lot of bit chilly. It is minus 10, feels like 10. But good morning, Christi and Boris.

The first gold has already gone out. Norway was at the top of the medal table at the 2018 games at 39 medals overall, 14 gold, and they're kicking Beijing off right where they left off. Therese Johaug battling blistering wind and frigid temps wins the women's cross country skiathlon by a huge margin, over 30 seconds. This is the 33- year-old's second Olympic Gold. America's Jessie Diggins finishing sixth in that event.

Meanwhile, host nation getting its first gold of the games. China edging Italy by 16,000s of a second to win the first ever short track speed skating mixed relay, huge accomplishment when you consider that China took home just one gold at the last games in 2018.

Now an event to keep an eye on coming up a little later this Saturday, the women's snowboard slope style final. Not many people in the world can say that they have won every Gold Medal ever offered in an Olympic event, but American Jamie Anderson is one of them. She could make history by becoming the first snowboarder to win three straight golds in the same event. We asked her ahead of the games what it would mean to top that podium one more time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMIE ANDERSON, TWO-TIME OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: I feel so proud of everything I have done. And my mom always says there is nothing to prove. Just go enjoy. But I think deep down, of course, everyone going there wants to win and do their best. And for me to win three medals would be absolutely insane.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: All right, Finally speed skater Claudia Pechstein making history in the 3,000 meters today, becoming the first woman to compete in eight winter Olympics. At 49-years-old, she's also the oldest woman to ever compete at any winter games. The five-time gold medalist from Germany wasn't in medal contention, but she was still all smiles and fist pumps after finishing this race. Boris, Christi, true inspiration, and a great reminder for all of us to keep chasing those dreams and keep doing what you love to do.

PAUL: Listen, you are never too old and it is never too late. Just saying. Take that with you today and let her drive it there.

SANCHEZ: Winter Games, that is impressive. That is impressive.

WIRE: Preach.

PAUL: Coy, I hope you stay warm.

SANCHEZ: Earmuffs, man. I'm telling you, earmuffs.

(LAUGHTER)

[10:55:00]

SANCHEZ: Coy Wire, thanks so much.

PAUL: Thank you, Coy.

Thank you all for watching. We are so grateful to have your company every weekend. We hope you make good memories today.

SANCHEZ: And don't go anywhere, because there is still much more ahead in the next hour of the CNN Newsroom. Our good friend Amara Walker takes over next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everyone, and thanks for joining me. I'm Amara Walker in for Fredricka Whitfield.