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Biden Eases Monkeypox Warning; Judge Blocks Ending Title 42; Regina Romero is Interviewed about Title 42; Tapping Emergency Diesel Reserves. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired May 23, 2022 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:31:56]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Health officials now say they have tracked more than 100 confirmed or suspected cases of monkeypox in 12 countries, including here in the U.S.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: President Biden says he does not believe monkeypox is as risky as Covid. In fact is it's not as transmissible, but this is a change in tone from these earlier comments.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But it is something that everybody should be concerned about. We're working on it hard to figure out what we do and what vaccine, if any, may be available for it. But it is a concern in the sense that if it were to spread, it's consequential.

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SCIUTTO: CNN health reporter Jacqueline Howard joins us now.

Jacqueline, so many questions. And I'm sure ears are perking up out there as we get on this topic. It strikes me, and from speaking to folks in this field, the big question here is, why is this popping up in so many places at once, right? I mean do they know?

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Exactly. That's the big question that health officials are trying to answer. And right now it's still unclear.

So, what we're seeing so far, we have these case in more than a dozen countries where the monkeypox virus is not endemic. Here's a map here. And each day we keep hearing more from countries. Denmark was the latest this morning to report a case.

And scientists are concerned because this is unusual. This level -- these level of cases are unusual. However, for the public, for us, we should not panic. This is a virus that we know well. We have a vaccine for it. We know how to treat it, which is different from Covid-19, when we first saw the SARS CoV-2 virus emerge we did not know how to prevent it or treat it. But we do with monkeypox virus. And as you mentioned, it's not as contagious as Covid-19. The symptoms

to look for, it starts with flu-like symptoms, fever, headache, muscle aches, swelling lymph nodes. And you do develop lesions on the skin or a rash, which I'm sure you've seen a lot of the images of the lesions on the skin there.

But, again, this is something that does not spread as easily among people. With the cases that we have seen recently, you do need direct contact, direct contact with large respiratory droplets, with bodily fluids or the lesions on the skin if one develops into a wound. You need that level of direct contact for this to spread.

Some of the cases that have been reported, health officials think that it might be associated -- or they might be associated with sexual activity. So there's one part of the investigation that's being looked at.

But, in general, Jim, we do not see this as being something that the public should panic about based on the information that we know so far.

HILL: Yes, that's an important clarification and really important context as well.

Jacqueline, appreciate it. Thank you.

If you have any Jif peanut butter at home, you may want to give a look. There's a recall in effect prompted by a possible link to a salmonella outbreak in 12 states. The FDA believes the contaminated products came from a plant in Lexington, Kentucky. You can find a full list of the affected products and how to identify them on the FDA's website.

[09:35:06]

SCIUTTO: Not peanut butter. Not peanut butter, please.

HILL: I'm sorry, Jim.

SCIUTTO: New this morning, police in New York are releasing these images of a suspect in the fatal shooting of an unarmed man on the New York City subway. He was last seen wearing a hooded -- you see those pictures there -- dark colored sweatshirt, gray sweatpants and white sneakers, also a mask as you could tell. The victim was a 48-year-old, Daniel Enriquez of Brooklyn. Police say he was seated in the last car of the train when the suspect pulled out a gun and fired without provocation as the train was crossing the Manhattan bridge into the city.

HILL: The Biden administration taking another blow when it comes to immigration. A judge has ruled Title 42 will remain in place for now. So, what does that mean for border towns? We're going to speak with the mayor of Tucson, Arizona, next.

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[09:40:30]

SCIUTTO: A federal judge in Louisiana has now stopped the Biden administration from ending Title 42. It was supposed to be lifted today. The public health order issued during the Trump administration as a result of the pandemic allowed federal agents to immediately turn away migrants at the southern border, claiming the pandemic. The judge said the Biden administration did not follow the right procedure to end the restrictions. Now that process could take months.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez joins me now.

So, Priscilla, this ruling only delays the enforcement, but it could delay it for some time?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, bottom line is that this could take months.

Now, the Justice Department did say they are going to appeal the ruling. But there is no question that this disrupts the administration's plan to end Title 42.

Now, remember, back in April, the CDC announced that this authority would end on May 23rd, citing access to vaccine and to treatments. And it had been already more than two years that this authority had been in place.

Now, all of this didn't sit well with more than 20 states who filed a lawsuit against the Biden administration for ending Title 42 and they argued before the judge that they would incur costs, like health care costs if potentially more migrants were released into the United States and that the administration didn't follow the right steps.

And what we learned in Friday's ruling is that the judge agreed with the states, that the Biden administration should have taken the right steps in ending this.

What he means by that is that the emergency conditions that existed when this was invoked don't necessarily apply now. Meaning that there's time for outside input. And that notice in comment period that we're talking about could take months.

And the bottom line here is that the Biden administration will not be ending this authority any time soon.

SCIUTTO: Just quickly, are there folks that you speak to in the administration that are relieved to see this judge's ruling?

ALVAREZ: The DHS had been planning for this for some time. They have been in this limbo period of what happens next. And they say they're operating like they were before, preparing for if there are more border crossings.

SCIUTTO: Well, they may have weeks or months.

Priscilla Alvarez, thanks so much.

Erica.

HILL: Joining me now is the mayor of Tucson, Arizona, Regina Romero, who supports the Biden administration's decision to end Title 42.

Mayor, good to have you with us.

Of course you supported that, but as we just heard from Priscilla, at this point it could be potentially months, right, as we're in now this public notice and comment period.

What does this mean for Tucson?

MAYOR REGINA ROMERO (D), TUCSON, ARIZONA: Good morning. Thank you so much for having me, Erica.

What it means for Tucson is that we're going to continue as a border city. We are going to continue seeing the bottle neck on the Mexican side of the border. And it really doesn't resolve much.

Again, I've said over and over again that Title 42 is not an immigration tool. It is a public health order. And the country is resuming business as usual. And so why should we continue using a public health tool on the border as an immigration tool? I think what -- in the long term, what needs to happen is that Congress has to act on its responsibility to fix our broken immigration system.

HILL: So, to that end, I mean you have said that multiple times, right, even tweeting it over the weekend, that it's time for Congress to do its job and fix our broken immigration system. The reality is, not a whole heck of a lot is getting done in Washington these days.

ROMERO: No.

HILL: Is there any area when it comes to immigration reform, is there any area that you see the possibility for some sort of bipartisan work or legislation?

ROMERO: That would be the ideal situation, to be honest. Unfortunately, Republicans in Congress have over and over and over again voted down on a comprehensive immigration reform.

I mean I'm the mayor of a border city. And we see day in, day out what is happening here on the ground. And what happens is that, we rely on each other. The Mexican side of the border, the U.S. side of the border. Mexico's our number one trading partner. Tourists and business people leave $2 billion a year here in Tucson.

But what's happening with asylum seekers and people trying to come in the right way, seeking asylum. Let's remember, democracies like ours accept asylum seekers in our country.

[09:45:02]

And because we haven't, because Title 42 has been in place since the Trump administration, we have seen a bottle neck. So, that adds pressure, on both sides of the border. So, the ideal is for Republicans in Congress to stop pointing fingering because pointing fingers is the easiest thing to do, right? I am -- I'm in Arizona. We live in the SB-1070 state and are (INAUDIBLE) state. We have seen this narrative, this false narrative play over and over again for more than a decade. And President Trump perfected it. It is fodder for -- and it's red meat for the base. And it's tiring.

HILL: So, looking at where we are now, right, you're pointing the finger at the Republicans on this. There have been issues on the Democratic side as well. You know, in terms of perhaps coming together on their own.

Let's look at where we stand today. If it doesn't look like a lot's going to happen in Congress, one the other issues with Title 42 being listed -- lifted, rather, are these very real questions about how prepared DHS is or is not.

Have you been contacted by anybody within DHS, anybody in the administration? Do you feel that they have a plan to deal with what could happen if and when Title 42 is lifted?

ROMERO: Absolutely. I have been in communication with the White House and the Department of Homeland Security. We -- I was -- the White House shared the plan. The Department of Homeland Security shared the plan that they have in front of us. And it's more than just more security on the border. It's about having -- about having staff that will help with the administrative piece of it as well, right?

This is not our first rodeo. For Tucson, we have been on the front lines of receiving asylum seekers and immigrants. We have a system in place with nonprofits in Pima Country. We know how to do this.

What I did say to the administration is that we need to make sure that we have the resources necessary for local governments and nonprofits to be able to provide what we know how to provide. And so we -- I have seen the plan. It has been shared publicly. And I believe that that is the way to be able to deal with the bottle neck that has been created the last two and a half years on the border.

Any time you stop a process, a bottle neck will be created. So I have seen the plan. I have talked to the White House and the Department of Homeland Security, and they understand what Tucson need and what other border land cities need.

HILL: Mayor Regina Romero, really appreciate you joining us today. Thank you.

ROMERO: Thank you so much, Erica. Really appreciate you.

SCIUTTO: Up next, the Biden administration is looking at potentially tapping a rarely used emergency diesel reserve to help ease rising fuel prices. Will it work? Will it make a difference? We'll have that up -- coming up.

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[09:52:44] SCIUTTO: New this morning, the International Monetary Fund is warning that the global economy now faces its biggest test since the Second World War. According to the IMF's managing director, Russia's invasion of Ukraine has, quote, compounded the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, slowing the economic recovery, also fanning inflation. She also added the world faces a, quote, potential confluence of calamities due to issues from supply chain disruptions, volatility in financial markets, as well as climate change. That is a lot at once.

HILL: Yes. I was just thinking the exact same thing.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HILL: Meantime, CNN has learned exclusively that President Biden is now exploring the possibility of tapping into an emergency diesel reserve to ease the spike in prices. A senior White House official says an emergency declaration would enable Biden to release diesel from a rarely used stockpile. The reserve is relatively small. It would only be a temporary solution, but could it make a difference?

CNN business reporter Matt Egan joining me -- joining us now with more.

So, we were talking just last week about this. Insane spike in prices -- I can't even speak this morning. Clearly it's a Monday. The insane spike in prices for diesel fuel, which is so important even though we may not put it in our cars. This is the workhorse of the economy I often hear it called.

MATT EGAN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: It is. Yes, and prices do remain very high. And this is causing a significant amount of anxiety in the White House for a good reason because diesel is what powers the trucks, boats, trains, tractors, pretty much anything that hauls stuff around the country. The national average for diesel stands at $5.55 a gallon. That's just three cents off the record high that was hit last week. Seventy-five percent higher than a years ago.

HILL: Wow.

EGAN: A few reasons. One, energy demand overall is really strong. Two, the war in Ukraine has scrambled energy supplies. And also there's been a series of retirements of refineries in the United States and Canada so the system doesn't have as much capacity as it used to.

The issue with those rising costs is that that's going to get passed along to consumers when you think about all the stuff that we buy.

Now, officials in the White House are so alarmed by high prices and low inventories that they've began consulting inside and outside the industry. And a senior White House official tells me that they are considering releasing diesel from the northeast home heating oil reserve, which despite its name actually holds diesel.

[09:55:02]

It's only been used once before. That was in 2012 after Super Storm Sandy.

HILL: So, if they were to release that, how much are we actually talking about here? How much of a difference would it make?

EGAN: Well, presidents have limited power here to lower diesel prices, just like with gas prices. And we've seen that with the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

And, importantly, this diesel reserve is actually much smaller than the much larger -- the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. It's only got about a million barrels of diesel in it. That's about a day's worth of supply for the region. And that's why oil analyst Andy Lipow, he told me that this is the equivalent of a band-aid. One that doesn't last very long and when it comes off the injury has not healed.

HILL: Ouch.

EGAN: The good news though is that there are some signs that maybe this supply crunch is starting to ease. Inventories have gone up. A key pipeline is starting to be more subscribed, which is good news. Veteran analyst Tom Kloza, he told me he think we might be through the worst of this, which, obviously, would be good news.

HILL: OK. That would be great news. We'll take it.

Good to see you. Thanks, Matt.

EGAN: Thank you, Erica.

HILL: Still ahead here, President Biden catching his own administration off guard with a tough message for China about Taiwan. Now China is responding.

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