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Court Ruling Strikes Down Mask Mandate For Mass Transit; China To Increase Coordination With Russia; Three Sailors From Same Aircraft Carrier Found Dead In A Week. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired April 19, 2022 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: I really appreciate your time.

COL. ANDREW MILBURN, FORMER SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMANDER, U.S. MARINE CORPS, RETIRED: Thank you, Ana.

CABRERA: Excitement, confusion, concern. Americans are divided about wearing masks. And apparently, about not wearing masks as well. The latest after a judge strikes down the CDC mask mandate for public transportation.

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[13:35:17]

CABRERA: Several major airlines say masks are now optional, and the list is growing after a federal judge struck down the mandate aboard mass transit. But is this a done deal?

Joining us now, CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, Elliot Williams, and Lyn Montgomery, flight attendant and president of the Transport Workers Union Local 556.

Thank you both for being here.

Lyn, let me start with you.

As a flight attendant, how do you feel about the masks coming off in airplanes?

LYN MONTGOMERY, FLIGHT ATTENDANT & PRESIDENT, TRANSPORT WORKERS UNION LOCAL 556: I think having the option to wear a mask or not wear a mask is a step towards normalcy, and one that we've all been anxious to see.

CABRERA: You've seen a lot of violence on flights in this pandemic. Do you think this will help?

MONTGOMERY: We're cautiously optimistic that this will help lower the number of unruly passenger incidents. As you know, flight attendants have been assaulted. They have been going home bloodied and bruised.

And we really have to weigh that safety factor as well as the other safety factors that come with COVID.

CABRERA: At this point, though there's still a chance that the Justice Department could appeal this ruling. So when you think about the emotions around this issue, what if it gets reversed? What kind of position will you be in then?

MONTGOMERY: I think that, obviously, we're flight attendants, we have to apply any federal mandate that is going to be imposed. And we will do that with a smile. Except you won't see that we're smiling because we're wearing our masks again.

CABRERA: Elliot, let's talk about the chances this gets reversed. What do you think? Is that possible?

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It's certainly possible. Look, Ana, the government here is a litigant to a lawsuit, and they lost a lower court decision. So they have to make the decision, do they appeal?

The problem is, when a government is in the courts, they also have to consider the politics behind something and the public health questions. And it's just not entirely straightforward.

Sort of, as you were getting into a moment ago with Ms. Montgomery, there's other factors beyond whether the judge was right.

And there are just bigger social and political questions that the Justice Department and Biden administration will have to decide before they decide to move on with an appeal.

CABRERA: When you look at her ruling, I think the backdrop of this is, this judge was the youngest lifetime appointee during the Trump administration, just 33 years old, when she was appointed.

She had a not-qualified rating by the American Bar Association because of a lack of experience.

Do you see any holes in her legal argument on this?

WILLIAMS: You know, it's hard -- you can always find holes in a legal argument.

There's a far bigger question than this individual judge's age, which is, frankly, for the last two years of the Obama administration and all of the years of the Trump administration, the Senate, under Mitch McConnell's very aggressive, let's say, packing of the court with judges.

Number one, depriving President Obama of the ability to appoint judges for most of the last two years. Only a handful made it through. And then very systematically putting judges on the court during Trump's years.

And Leader McConnell has said, if the Republicans take the Senate, this November, you may not see any more Biden confirmations.

So this is one judge, but one judge of many, that is the end result of several years of a very, very aggressive approach to the courts.

And you almost have to hand it to Leader McConnell for being so aggressive. Because it worked. Look at this decision.

CABRERA: Yes, but hasn't the mask mandate been challenged in other cases? Like in other lawsuits?

My understanding is that it has essentially been upheld by most courts, even in cases in which those, you know, that litigation has reached the Supreme Court.

WILLIAMS: Yes, you know, you're touching on something -- this idea of a nationwide injunction, which has been more common over the last 10 or 15 years or so, where one judge in one part of the country can issue a ruling that affects the whole country.

And that's how the system works now. And it's becoming increasingly common. Many people, frankly, many conservatives have complained about the ability of judges to do this.

Now two things can happen. One, the Supreme Court can limit lower courts' ability to have these big broad rulings that affect the whole country.

But also Congress can. They can restrict the jurisdiction of these trial courts to issue rulings -- you know, this was a ruling in Florida that has repercussions across the country -- to restrict the ability of judges to do that.

But you're right. There's, I think, 93 or 94 federal courts around the country. They all have the ability to put in place a ruling like this that affects the entire country.

CABRERA: Elliot Williams and Lyn Montgomery, I appreciate both of you. Thank you for providing your perspective and insights.

[13:40:03]

As many countries around the world are cracking down on Russia over this violent war in Ukraine, China is vowing to ramp up its coordination with the Kremlin. Why?

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[13:45:04]

CABRERA: Russia may be becoming an international pariah because of the Ukraine invasion, but not as far as China is concerned. China agreeing today to strengthen its strategic cooperation with Russia.

CNN's David Culver is in Shanghai.

David, strengthening strategic cooperation. What does that even mean? Where is China going with this?

DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Ana, it seems once again Beijing backing the Kremlin, though still oddly trying to portray themselves as a mutual peacemaker with regards to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

So this strategic coordination, it actually builds on the joint statement that President Putin and President Xi Jinping put out just before the start of the Beijing Olympics, before Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

And in that joint statement, they describe the two countries as having a no-limits relationship.

China's vice foreign minister reinforced this on Monday to Russia's ambassador to China, saying that, regardless of how the international landscape may change, China and Russia will coordinate to achieve win- win cooperation.

Ana, we know that Xi and Putin share this ideological allegiance, though for economic reasons, China has had to play both sides so as not to cut off its largest trading partners, particularly the E.U. and the U.S. -- Ana?

CABRERA: David, help me understand. Could China play an indirect role in supporting Russia in this war?

CULVER: In many ways, they already are. Officials here cited a nearly 30 percent increase in trade between the two countries during the first quarter of this year, reaching more than $38 billion.

Now they consider that to be a testament to the tremendous resilience, as they put it, of China/Russia bilateral cooperation.

But the void left in Russia from Western sanctions is really far too great for Beijing to try to fill.

Then on the propaganda or information side of things, information warfare, if you will, Chinese state media has echoed Moscow repeatedly, spreading the disinformation coming from the Kremlin across China.

Chinese state broadcasters even refusing to call it an invasion of Ukraine. Instead, Ana, they are using Moscow's preferred wording, lateliness, as a special military operation -- Ana?

CABRERA: David Culver, in Shanghai, thank you.

A new CNN film takes viewers inside the investigation into the shocking and brazen assassination attempt against Russian opposition leader, Alexei Navalny.

Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When you come to the room of a comatose patient, you just telling him the news, telling him his story.

Alexei, don't worry. Your poisoning was a murder attempt. Putin tried to kill you with Novichok.

And he opened his blue eyes wide and looked at me and said to me very clear -- (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE). Come on, poisoned? I don't believe it.

Like he's back. This is Alexei.

Putin is supposed to be not so stupid to this Novichok. His wording, his expletives. His intonation.

If you want to kill someone, just shoot him. Like real Alexei.

Impossible to believe it. It's kind of stupid. The whole idea of poisoning with a chemical weapon.

This is why this is not smart because even reasonable people refuse to believe like, what? Come on, poisoned? Seriously?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: The Kremlin and Russia's security services, of course, deny they played any role in Navalny's poisoning.

[13:48:50]

"NAVALNY" premieres this Sunday night at 9:00 Eastern right here on CNN.

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[13:53:21]

CABRERA: The Navy has launched an investigation after three sailors from the same aircraft carrier were found dead in less than a week.

CNN Pentagon correspondent, Barbara Starr, joins us with details.

Barbara, what do we know so far about these deaths of these three soldiers and the investigation?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, so far, no apparent correlation between any of the deaths.

But three young sailors assigned to the aircraft carrier "George Washington" were found deceased within just a few days of each other.

Actually, one, found, taken to hospital, passing away a short time later on the 15th. The other two sailors found deceased off base just a few days earlier.

The "George Washington" is in port for maintenance, so many of the crew lives off base while all of that is going on.

What the Navy did do is bring on board a special psychiatric team to provide short-term mental health counseling to any crew member that felt they needed it. These are mental health resources that are brought into situations

like this after a traumatic event, such as a death.

And now the crew is facing three of their sailors, three of their shipmates passing away with just -- in just a few days of each other.

The investigation goes on. But this comes at a time -- there's no cause -- I want to emphasize, no cause of death has been released.

But the mental health counseling that they are providing to the crew, making available to them, is all important to the U.S. military.

The U.S. military, in many cases, dealing with a crisis in suicide rates and mental health difficulties in so much of the military.

[13:55:07]

In fact, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, a few weeks ago, at the orders of congressional legislation, established an independent panel to look at suicide rates on bases where it was exceptionally high.

Secretary Austin always says, mental health is health, period.

CABRERA: Yes.

STARR: They want to find out what happened to these three sailors -- Ana?

CABRERA: And of course, the mental health of the rest of the crew has got to be of concern as they grieve the loss of these three fellow sailors.

Thank you, Barbara Starr.

And that's the hour for us. Thank you for joining us. I'll see you back here tomorrow. Until then, you can always follow me on Twitter, @AnaCabrera.

The news continues with Alisyn and Victor after a quick break. Stay right there.

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