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Biden to Take Extra COVID-19 Precautions at White House Correspondents Dinner; No Additional Taxes Imposed on Florida Taxpayers Over Disney; Looking Back at the L.A. Riots 30 Years Later; Polish Schools at Capacity Due to Influx of Refugees. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired April 29, 2022 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:32:47]

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: New this morning, White House communications director Kate Bedingfield has tested positive for COVID-19 just a day before the White House Correspondents Dinner. Now it comes as President Biden will take extra precautions ahead of that dinner.

CNN's John Harwood is at the White House. So, John, how is the White House handling this? He's still planning to go, right?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: He is, Bianna. And I think the White House is handling it the way they would like the country to handle it at this point in the pandemic. That is with a sense of caution, but also not letting it shut down activities, trying to get as close to normal as we can now.

We, of course, have seen estimates that more than half the country has already had COVID. There are vaccines and boosters and tests and treatments if you get it which means that getting COVID right now does not have to be anywhere close to as serious as it was at an early phase in the pandemic.

So what we've seen is, you know, a few weeks ago there was a Gridiron Dinner, a smaller version of what the White House Correspondents Dinner is. I attended that. There were a significant number of people who got COVID there. I'm not aware of any having had serious cases.

There were calls to cancel the White House Correspondents Dinner or if not for President Biden not to go, but he's not opted to do that. Instead, what he's going to do is go only for the speaking portion of the event, not go for the dinner portion, to wear a mask when he's not speaking. And I got to say, Bianna, that is not a bad model for attending the

White House Correspondents Dinner even if you don't have COVID because, as you well know, it can be a life-changing event to go to the White House Correspondents Dinner. But usually it isn't -- and those dinners are really long and the president can limit his time there, I think he probably sees that as coming out ahead.

GOLODRYGA: I think you're referencing the anniversary of when I met my husband, John Harwood.

HARWOOD: I am referencing that.

GOLODRYGA: Thank you, great to see you.

Well, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis continues to insist Florida taxpayers will not foot the bill after he signed a law ending Disney's special status. The bill signed last week ends the Reedy Creek Special District, an arrangement that gave Disney control over the land in and around its central Florida theme parks. But Reedy Creek says the state can't dissolve the district without paying off nearly $1 billion of its debt.

[10:35:03]

CNN's Leyla Santiago joins us now.

Leyla, we've been covering this for a few weeks now. DeSantis wants to punish Disney but avoid punishing taxpayers, making sure they're not going to be footing the bill. Can he do that?

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He says he can, and quite frankly plans to. He is actually speaking right now at a press conference in north Florida. We're waiting to hear if he says anything else about Disney and the back and forth there. But we know yesterday his press secretary says they are guaranteeing that taxpayers will not foot the bill here. He kind of echoed that last night in a town hall on FOX News.

But you know, as you mentioned, we've been following this for a weeks. And we still have a lot of the same questions. The how, how will this happen? So his office says they plan to have a plan out in the next few weeks. We're still waiting for that. A lot of questions. But let's back up as to exactly what dissolving this special district could mean. Let's look at exactly what they do.

Disney essentially foots a lot of the payments there, a lot of their budget for this improvement district, pays for a lot of the services, issues bonds, takes on debt to pay for infrastructure programs. This special district really not saying much right now other than what you mentioned off the top, that letter that it sent to bondholders saying that the state really can't do this without paying off about $1 billion.

And then when you check in with those who could take this on, Osceola County as well as Orange County, you have the Orange County tax collector saying that he doesn't exactly know how this will impact $163 million that they would have to take in. He says if this gets passed on, telling CNN, if this gets passed on as a property tax, you're looking at the average taxpayer in Orange County seeing a 20 percent to 25 percent increase.

Again, Governor DeSantis says that's not what's going to happen here. But we're all still waiting to see the plans behind that.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. Major disruption in 60 years of history there in that state. Unbelievable how things as have escalated so quickly.

Leyla Santiago, thank you.

Well, 30 years ago today, four Los Angeles police officers were acquitted in the beating of Rodney King. And that ruling sparked six days of violent riots in L.A. We take a look at its lasting impact up next after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:42:06]

GOLODRYGA: A new CNN documentary explores the legacy of the L.A. riots that unfolded on the streets 30 years ago after a jury acquitted four Los Angeles officers of police brutality.

"THE FIRE STILL BURNS" premieres tonight at 11:00 Eastern. CNN commentator Van Jones was a law student at the time when the riots erupted after Rodney King was beaten, and the first police assault video to go viral. Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: April 29th, L.A. went up in flames. Then we had protests all across the country including here in San Francisco.

Fairly young lawyer, I was still in law school. Our boss, Eva Patterson, told me, she said, protests are going on, it's good to have legal observers there. Have you ever been a legal observer at a protest? I said, no, ma'am. She goes, go down there and observe.

IGNATIUS BAU, ARRESTED DURING SAN FRANCISCO PROTESTS: I've been to many protests and marches and rallies. It was a Friday night. I was going to do this thing and then go home.

JONES: We didn't make it home. We did not make it home. Not that night.

BAU: This is really where I think things started getting heated. The route was supposed to keep going down church street. This intersection is where that police presence really started like closing in.

As we're heading up Market Street, I saw that there were a whole hell lot of cops up there. And that's ultimately where we got stopped and arrested.

(CROSSTALK)

JONES: We were done for. They brought out the big plastic bag, and they poured out plastic handcuffs on the grounds. And then they brought the city buses, empty city buses. I remember going up to the police officer and I said, hey, listen, I'm a law student, this is the problem of police not letting us have our rights.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GOLODRYGA: CNN's Van Jones joins me now.

So, Van, we were talking in the break about those moments in our lifetime that you just recall, that are just ingrained in your mind. I remember being in school, talking about this with my class. How did this moment affect you personally aside from being arrested and what you reflected upon in this scene?

JONES: You know, it changed my life in that when I got out of jail that night -- I was just a law student, I was supposed to be out there doing a legal observation, I got arrested. I had seen a video of a guy being beaten. I thought that was unjust. The cops got acquitted. That was unjust. I got arrested, that was unjust. I said, there is not liberty and justice for all. This is not what I thought I was getting as an, you know, American kid going to law school.

And I said, I'm going to spend the rest of my life trying to fix this problem, and I have. 30 years later I'm still working on police issues, still working on prison issues. It changed my life forever.

GOLODRYGA: And 30 years later, you know, you're still -- you don't look like you've aged a day.

JONES: Very kind.

GOLODRYGA: Like your hair was a little bit longer at the time.

JONES: I had hair.

GOLODRYGA: Are there times when you're more optimistic, when you're more pessimistic? I mean, you talk about this in relation to the Black Lives Matter.

JONES: Sure.

GOLODRYGA: And the George Floyd movement, and how perhaps 30 years from now we'll be having a conversation about that.

[10:45:04]

But where are we in the scheme of things when you first started this quest?

JONES: Well, you know, the good news is that in those days it was a -- you had to fight to get people to understand there was a problem. That something was going on with policing in some neighborhoods that was much worse than maybe your neighborhood. The good thing is you don't have to convince anybody there's a problem, you got to convince them there's a solution. That's progress.

Now you still got to get better legislation done, there's still a long way to go, but that is real progress. And I think that what I want people to watch tonight, it's an amazing documentary because so much is the same, and yet so much has changed. And I think especially for the Black Lives Matter folks, this is the first time you ever saw a video. It never happened before. You never had a video. You guys watch it every day --

GOLODRYGA: We're so used to it. Right.

JONES: On your phone. But the idea that one video shocked the world so much, one bad verdict shocked the world so much, that was 30 years ago. Now we're at a place where I think there's enough public awareness to make a change, but the change still has not been made.

GOLODRYGA: Listen, that moment changed history. It changed your life.

JONES: Sure did.

GOLODRYGA: Van Jones, thank you. Thank you for everything that you're doing. Can't wait to watch this.

JONES: It's a powerful documentary.

GOLODRYGA: Thank you.

And you can watch "THE FIRE STILL BURNS" tonight at 11:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

And stay with us. At the top of the hour, we'll be live from Kyiv where Russian missiles fell at the same time that the United Nations secretary general was touring the destruction of the city. That wasn't an accident, folks. Couldn't have been. We'll be back after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:51:15]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: More than 5.4 million refugees have fled Ukraine so far. That's more than a tenth of this country's population. And the majority of them have gone to neighboring Poland. And because so many of them are children who of course need schooling, it's putting a strain on resources there.

Here's CNN's Erica Hill.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): New school, new language, new country.

ANDRESZJ JAN WYROZEMBSKI, PRINCIPAL, 1ST LICEUM WARSAW (through translator): We follow the needs. When we open these classes, we did not know what would be in a week, what would be in a month. HILL: There are now 50 Ukrainian refugees enrolled at this Warsaw high

school, bringing the student populations up to 700.

It's Olena's (PH) first day. Lesia is a few weeks in and happy to be back in class.

LESIA, 14-YEAR-OLD REFUGEE FROM RIVNE, UKRAINE: It's given me some space or given me the feeling of safety that I'm safe here, I'm in my normal life.

HILL: In Warsaw alone the mayor's office estimates the city has taken in more than 100,000 children, with 17,000 already enrolled in public school. The question now is, how many more will come?

DEPUTY MAYOR RENATA KAZNOWSKA, WARSAW, POLAND: It's a big problem for us because we don't know how many students go to Warsaw and go to our schools.

HILL: Warsaw was already short 2,000 teachers before Russia invaded Ukraine. The city needs more staff and money.

WYROZEMBSKI (through translator): This is a huge challenge for us. A good heart, willingness to help, and volunteering are not enough.

HILL: And yet they're finding ways to make it work.

Polish students are paired with their new Ukrainian classmates.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We use a lot of Google Translate.

HILL: Local families have donated supplies. The school provides breakfast and lunch.

In Lviv, Maryana taught German. Officially she's now a tutor, yet it's clear this mom of three who also fled the war is so much more.

MARYANA DRUCHEK, REFUGEE FROM LVIV, UKRAINE (through translator): We don't just speak Ukrainian, we speak the language of emotions and the language of what we've gone through.

HILL: Comfort amidst the uncertainty.

(On-camera): Is it good to meet other Ukrainian kids?

DENYS, 16-YEAR-OLD REFUGEE FROM KHARKIV, UKRAINE: Yes, because you're not alone.

HILL (voice-over): While there are more smiles every day, the principal says he can't forget what lies beneath.

WYROZEMBSKI (through translator): We have some who escaped in the middle of the night in their pajamas from the basement where they were.

HILL: While school is a welcome distraction, it's also a reminder of how much their lives have changed. DRUCHEK (through translator): In our hearts we want to start the new

school year in September at home. And we really hope for that.

HILL: Erica Hill, CNN, Warsaw.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GOLODRYGA: Those challenges are worth it when you see those smiles on the kids' faces.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: Well, thank you so much for joining us today. I'm Bianna Golodryga.

SCIUTTO: And I'm Jim Sciutto in Lviv, Ukraine. "AT THIS HOUR" with Kate Bolduan will start after a quick break.

But first, CNN's extraordinary original film "NAVALNY" airs tonight at 9:00 p.m. right here on CNN. It's powerful. Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hello.

ALEXEI NAVALNY, RUSSIAN OPPOSITION LEADER (through text translation): It's Alexei Navalny calling and I was hoping you could tell me why you wanted to kill me?

Hung up.

[10:55:03]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Remarkably Vladimir Putin faces a legitimate opponent, Alexei Navalny.

NAVALNY: I don't want Putin being president.

If I want to be leader of a country I have to organize people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Kremlin hates Navalny so much that they refuse to say his name.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Passengers heard Navalny cry out in agony.

NAVALNY: Come on, poison? Seriously. We are creating the coalition to fight this regime.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you are killed, what message do you leave behind to the Russian people?

NAVALNY: It's very simple. Never give up.

ANNOUNCER: NAVALNY, tonight at 9:00 on CNN.

(END VIDEO CLIP) (COMMERCIAL BREAK)