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Secret Service Text Message Investigation; President Biden Tests Positive For COVID-19; January 6 Committee Set For Prime-Time Hearing. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired July 21, 2022 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:45]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Hello. I'm Victor Blackwell. Welcome to CNN NEWSROOM.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: And I'm Alisyn Camerota.

In just a few minutes, the White House will give us an update on President Biden's COVID diagnosis. We're going to bring that to you live as soon as it starts.

The president's doctor says Mr. Biden is experiencing very mild symptoms after testing positive today. He has started treatment with that antiviral drug Paxlovid. President Biden tweeted out this picture of himself working in his office and says he is doing great.

BLACKWELL: Yesterday, the president spoke to a small group at an outdoor event in Massachusetts. You see here he shook some hands with people after the speech, exchanged a few words.

The first lady, she tested negative this morning. Now, she attended events with the president and the first lady of Ukraine earlier this week. Mrs. Biden spoke to reporters about the president's condition. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JILL BIDEN, FIRST LADY: I talked to him just a few minutes ago. He's doing fine. He's feeling good. I tested negative this morning.

I am going to keep my schedule. I am -- according to CDC guidelines, I'm keeping masked.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: CNN White House correspondent M.J. Lee is with us now.

So, M.J., what's the latest?

M.J. LEE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, any minute now, we should be seeing White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and the White House COVID coordinator, Dr. Ashish Jha, come to the White House Press Briefing Room and give us an update on how exactly the president is doing.

Of course, you showed the tweet from the president there earlier saying that he is doing great. We know, of course, that he tested positive for COVID this morning. So, let me just walk you through a timeline of just the last several days and what we know.

We know that it was on Tuesday that he last tested negative for COVID, of course, before the positive test this morning. And, yesterday, Wednesday, is when he made that trip to Massachusetts to talk about his climate agenda.

And then, today, after testing positive, we know that his doctor has prescribed and to start taking the Paxlovid antiviral medication. Now, in terms of just how he is doing, according to this letter that we got from the president's doctor earlier today, he says that the president is only experiencing mild symptoms.

So we're talking about a runny nose, some fatigue, the occasional dry cough. And, as of this morning, importantly, we are told that the president did not have a fever. Now, obviously, the White House is now very busy doing contact tracing, trying to figure out and making sure that they are informing everyone who might have been a close contact with the president.

That is going to include members of Congress, elected officials that might have been at this event yesterday, including, for example, Senators Warren and Markey of Massachusetts, who were both there.

Of course, we're also talking about senior White House aides, anybody that was traveling with him yesterday. And also don't forget members of the White House press corps, some of whom were, of course, traveling with the president on Air Force One.

Now, just to give you a sense of all of this that is playing out in a speedy manner today, I was told that one member of Congress who was a close contact of the president yesterday, that their office got that, a contact tracing call, just this afternoon, that they were essentially advised that the lawmaker should of course follow the CDC guidelines for what they should do for being a close contact.

So, again, we are keeping our eyes on that Briefing Room. We should be hearing from the White House press secretary and Dr. Jha any minute now.

CAMEROTA: OK, M.J., you very much for that.

Obviously, we will bring that to people soon as it happens.

Joining us now to discuss, we have seen CNN'S chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta. We have CNN medical analyst and former Baltimore Health Commissioner Dr. Leana Wen, and CNN chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins.

Guys, thanks so much for being here.

Sanjay, let me start with you. If you had a 79-year-old patient, who you knew was doubly vaxxed,

doubly boosted, got his last booster of March 30, but was having some symptoms, how concerned would you be?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: The biggest concern is his age.

I mean, he's going to be 80 in November. And we have known since the earliest days of the pandemic that people who are older are at advanced risk. And that's held up.

And while he's very, very well-protected, as you mentioned, because of his vaccination status, older people are still the greatest risk within the vaccinated population as well. So that would be the biggest thing.

[14:05:00]

So, would be careful. I think, statistically, he's likely to get no worse, probably stay at this sort of level of symptoms for a few days and then improve. But I'd be checking his oxygenation, see if there's anything else that's developing that sometimes is associated with this disease, because he -- those are the things he'd be at greatest risk for.

BLACKWELL: Kaitlan, we were talking before the show started about how remarkable it is really that, up to this point, considering all the travel and events, that the president has not contracted the virus before now.

Do we know how operations inside the White House are changing because of this now diagnosis?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: They're changing quite a bit.

And Ron Klain, who is the chief of staff, actually just sent out an e- mail to staff alerting them about that, he said that President Biden will stay in isolation until he tests negative, and, in the meantime, going to be working from Zoom and from the phone.

And this is kind of something that they had known could potentially happen. Obviously, COVID is very -- it spreads very easily. And they knew that this -- there was a chance the president could get it. So they say that they had a plan in place, and now they're executing that so he can continue to fulfill his duties as president of the United States.

But I think this is something they have been bracing for. Remember how isolated he was at the height of the pandemic, before people were vaccinated? They did drive-in rallies. He didn't campaign, obviously, like he typically would have if there had not been a pandemic.

Even when he first got in the White House, things were very limited when it came to reporters and coverage and staff that was around him. it had started to look a lot more normal at the White House lately. Events at the White House were big. East Room events were packed with a lot of supporters and allies.

But they were still regularly tested. You still saw people around the president wearing a mask as cases had been rising in the United States. So I think they were bracing for this. They knew it could happen. And now, of course, it has happened. And so he is isolating in the White House residence, instead of continuing on with a pretty busy day that he had scheduled.

CAMEROTA: He's also tweeting out a new video which we have just gotten into our NEWSROOM. So let's see what the president is saying right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hey, folks, guess you heard, this morning, I have tested positive for COVID.

But I have been double vaccinated, double boosted. The symptoms are mild. And I really appreciate your concerns, but I'm doing well, getting lot of work done, going to continue to get it done.

And, in the meantime, thanks for your concern, and keep the faith. It's going to be OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: That's a really casual approach. Hey, folks, I guess you heard.

(LAUGHTER)

BLACKWELL: Tested positive for COVID.

CAMEROTA: Because he's trying to assuage any anxieties.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

CAMEROTA: And he's saying, see, look, it's a beautiful day. I'm feeling fine, right, Dr. Wen?

I mean, do you -- does anything raise concern when you see that video?

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: No, I think this actually strikes exactly the right tone.

I think the message going forward should be, hey, getting COVID is something that happens to all of us. We may be getting this once a year or even more frequently. Even despite having all these precautions, you could still get COVID just because of how much virus is around us and how transmissible it is.

I think it's great that President Biden is continuing to work while this is happening. It's business as usual. COVID is something that's not stopping him. And I also think that this is an opportunity to show what honest, frank, transparent communication when it comes to a president's diagnosis can and should look like. And, in this case, I completely agree with what Sanjay said, that, given that he is vaccinated, double boosted, and also that he is taking Paxlovid, the antiviral treatment, the chance of him becoming severely ill is extremely low.

So this is what living with COVID looks like going forward.

BLACKWELL: Yes, Sanjay, I joke, but Dr. Wen makes a good point here about the protection that President Biden has, far more than the previous president, who contracted COVID, spent time at Walter Reed. That was pre-vaccine, of course. President Trump didn't have a vaccine then.

Just talk about the idea of, will his condition be able to stay at this level, even considering his age, considering he's doubly boosted?

GUPTA: I think so.

I mean, I think if you just look at how people his age -- and he's, again, going to be 80 in November -- how they do if they are -- have this level of immunity that he has from the vaccines and the boosters.

That typically is what happens. That's the whole thing, is that they -- it sort of prevents people or greatly reduces the likelihood they're going to progress to more serious illness. But they still need to sort of keep an eye on that.

People often ask, like, how much of a difference does it make, right, I mean, if you have a vaccinated population vs. an unvaccinated population? And I thought this data was sort of interesting. If you look at last year around this time, in 2021, and compare it to now, May of 2022 is when they looked at this.

They basically found that about 29 times less likely for people who have that level of immunity to die. And this was with people over the age of 50. If you just looked at people even older, 75 to 84, the difference was even more striking.

So we now have data two-and-a-half years into this, a year-and-a-half into vaccines, about how much of a difference they make on a population level. And you can certainly say that he obviously has a ton of benefit because of those.

BLACKWELL: All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, Dr. Leana Wen, and Kaitlan Collins, stand by.

[14:10:00]

Of course, the White House press briefing is expected to start in just a couple of minutes. Of course, we will bring that to you as soon as it happens.

Also, the January 6 hearings return to prime time tonight. The panel will show outtakes from this video message that former President Trump recorded to supporters the day after the attack.

CAMEROTA: And the committee is already putting out some preview clips featuring Trump White House insiders. So you will see them next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: OK, we are awaiting an update at the White House on President Biden's health after he has tested positive for COVID. So, we will bring knew this press briefing as soon as it starts.

[14:15:02]

Meanwhile, tonight, the January 6 Committee will hold a prime-time hearing focusing on what President Trump was doing for those 187 minutes while a violent mob was attacking police officers at the Capitol.

BLACKWELL: Congressman Adam Kinzinger released a teaser clip of some of the testimony that will be presented.

Witnesses say Trump watched the riots on television from the White House dining room.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Was the president in that private dining room the whole time that the attack on the Capitol was going on?

Or did he ever go to, again, only to your knowledge, to the Oval Office, to the White House Situation Room, anywhere else?

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: To the best of my recollection, he was always in the Dining Room.

QUESTION: What did they say, Mr. Meadows or the president, at all during that brief encounter when you were in the Dining Room? What do you recall?

GEN. KEITH KELLOGG (RET.), FORMER ACTING U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: I think they were -- everybody was watching the TV.

QUESTION: Do you know whether he was watching TV in the Dining Room when you talked to him on January 6?

MOLLY MICHAEL, FORMER EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT: It's my understanding he was watching television.

QUESTION: While you were in the Dining Room in these discussions, was the violence at the Capitol visible on the screen on the televisions?

PAT CIPOLLONE, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Now, this narrative is central to the committee's goal to show the Donald Trump demonstrated a possibly criminal dereliction of duty during the events of January 6.

CAMEROTA: CNN congressional correspondent Ryan Nobles joins us now from Capitol Hill.

So, Ryan, what evidence will the committee -- what other evidence will they present tonight?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think what you have just shown is going to be a big part of it, this firsthand testimony from White House aides, many of whom were loyal to Donald Trump during this period of time, and witnessed as he did not do much to try and quell the violence up here on Capitol Hill and, in some respects, was rooting on his supporters as they broke into the Capitol and attempted to stand in the way of the certification of the election results.

And what the committee wants to establish is just an attitude that Trump had toward what happened here on January 6. And part of how they're going to show that he, in some ways, was happy with what happened is by showing outtakes from a video message that he taped the day after.

And that message was designed to unify the country, in some respects to condemn the violence that took place there on the Capitol. But Select Committee members say that these outtakes show that Trump had a different opinion of that. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): The president displayed extreme difficulty in completing his remarks. Of course, it's extremely revealing how exactly he went about making those statements. And we're going to let everybody see parts of that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: And there's no doubt that the committee has been building toward tonight.

They have laid out how Donald Trump purposefully attempted to stand in the way of the certification of the election results, despite knowing, at least being told very specifically that he lost, about how he worked very hard to get his supporters to come to Washington on that day.

And now they're going to show that, while the riot was unfolding, that he did not do enough to try and prevent it from getting worse. And, in fact, his actions may have made what happened here spiral out of control.

There's no doubt that, at each stage of this process, they have set expectations at a very high level. They have been able to exceed or meet those expectations every time. Victor and Alisyn, we will see if they're able to do that tonight.

BLACKWELL: Ryan Nobles with the latest for us on Capitol Hill, thank you very much.

Let's turn now to new developments on a story first reported by CNN. The Department of Homeland Security's inspector general has now told the Secret Service to stop its investigation into the potentially deleted text messages that have been requested by the January 6 Committee.

CAMEROTA: CNN's Whitney Wild is following the story.

So, Whitney, the Secret Service has now responded. So walk us through this back-and-forth.

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, the Secret Service is telling us that they have their lawyers basically working overtime to figure out how to deal with all of this.

So let me back up, give you the timeline here and explain why this is so complicated. The Secret Service received a notice Wednesday telling them to stop investigating the matter, this potentially set -- this potential set of deleted text messages, because it could interfere with the inspector general's own investigation into what happened to the agency's text messages.

The letter adds to this growing tension between the Secret Service and the DHS inspector general over those potentially missing text messages, which are also being sought by the House Select Committee as part of its investigation into former President Donald Trump's actions and movements on January 6.

Here's a quote from the letter: "To ensure the integrity of the investigation, the USSS must not engage in any further investigative activities regarding the collection and preservation of the evidence referenced above. This includes immediately refraining from interviewing potential witnesses, collecting devices and taking any other action that would interfere with an ongoing criminal investigation."

We know the I.G. always has the authority to turn an internal investigation into a criminal investigation. The directive could complicate the Secret Service's response to a subpoena it received from the House Select Committee last week, as well as a request from the National Archives this week to the DHS records officer asking the agency to clear up whether or not any text messages were improperly deleted and to explain why.

[14:20:15]

The problem here, Victor and Alisyn, is that this internal investigation by the Secret Service already started. They're pretty far down the road here. They have already told the House Select Committee they're conducting forensic reviews of cell phones. They're interviewing people who were in this group that the I.G. was trying to get records from.

The Secret Service has also told the January 6 Committee about the I.G. letter, so, lawyers right now talking within Secret Service trying to work through all of this, because the reality here is, they can't satisfy all of these oversight bodies at the same time, when one group is saying, you need to investigate yourself and report back to us and another group is saying, stop what you're doing right now -- back to you.

BLACKWELL: Significant conflict there.

Whitney Wild, thank you so much.

With us now to discuss, two former Trump officials. Stephanie Grisham was White House press secretary. Jim Schultz is a former White House attorney.

Welcome back to both of you.

Stephanie, let me start with you. And we watched that montage of White House officials who said that the former president was watching inside his private Dining Room. One of the faces there, Molly Michael, who was the executive assistant. It wasn't clear whether she had testified before the committee before now. How valuable is she?

STEPHANIE GRISHAM, FORMER WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Oh, she is very, very valuable. She sat right outside the Oval and was at the president's beck and call all the time.

I mean, he would call for her for every little thing. She was in and out of that Dining Room all the time. So I was very pleased to see that she did testify or at least talk to the committee. She's one of the names I gave to the committee when I first started talking to them.

I actually said on "NEW DAY" last winter that the president was watching TV while all of this unfolded. So I'm glad to see that that came out. And I really -- I'm not looking forward to tonight, but I'm anxious. I'm very anxious, actually, to see what they will lay out tonight at the hearing.

CAMEROTA: Stephanie, one more follow up to that, because you did say that. You were the person who we learned from that he was watching TV.

And you had described him at that time as gleefully watching TV. And I think you even said that he was rewinding the tape and watching some things that he liked. But you weren't there at the White House that day. You were working remotely. So how do you know that?

GRISHAM: I was told by several people in the West Wing what was happening and what was taking place, all of that before I resigned, of course.

And this is something that the president did often. He would sit in the Dining Room, watch TV, watch the people who were defending him, rewind it, call us in, have us watch the people who were defending him. He enjoyed watching people who would fight for him, whether it was just on TV or, in this case, at the Capitol, when people were dying and the Capitol was burning and his vice president was in potential danger.

CAMEROTA: And now that -- and now that so many people -- we have seen so many people testifying during this investigation, can you tell us who told you? GRISHAM: No, I'm going to still keep that confidential. If that's

something that comes out in the hearing, then that would be up to them.

BLACKWELL: Jim, the case that the committee is trying to make tonight is that this was a dereliction of duty on the president's part.

This term of awful, but lawful has been floated to describe what happened in the White House. But do you believe in this case that this dereliction is actually criminal?

JIM SCHULTZ, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE LAWYER: So I think the answer to that question is, it's a tough case to prove. And I think that is -- I think that analogy is correct.

But the bigger case is the defrauding of the United States government, the overturning of the outcome of that election.

And all of these facts, the witnesses who had close proximity to the president, who have come out and testified, numerous -- numerous individuals at this point, the facts that he was encouraging folks to going down knowing they were armed, all of these facts, the fact that there was pressure put on Congress and the vice president, all of that kind of builds a case, if you will, for DOJ to take a look at, should a referral -- even if a referral doesn't make its way over, for DOJ to take a look at the case for purposes of defrauding the United States government and overturning that election and that type of a case.

Not so much that they're like the dereliction of duty case, which is a much more difficult case to bring and probably not one that's viable.

CAMEROTA: Jim, here's another question for you. Apparently, tonight, we're going to see outtakes from January 7, the day after January 6, where President Trump was in the, I guess, Oval Office and having to make a statement.

This is the -- here's the video that was put out. Apparently, we're told by some members of the committee, this was very hard for him. They had to do take after take. And, tonight, we're going to see some of the outtakes.

And what we just heard from Congressman Jamie Raskin, he said that President Trump had extreme difficulty completing his remarks. Now, he has a teleprompter there.

So do you have any thoughts on why this would have been so hard for him?

[14:25:00]

SCHULTZ: Well, I can't speak for what was going through his mind at the time.

But what you do know is, if it's difficult for him to say, it's something he might not have wanted to say. He wasn't agreeing with one of his -- maybe not agreeing with what his advisers were asking him to say and what was being advised that was in the best interest of the country at the time.

(CROSSTALK)

CAMEROTA: Jim, hold on. I'm sorry. I have to interrupt. Hold on that thought.

We want to go to the White House press secretary about President Trump -- President Biden.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: ... personal physician this morning.

We released it to you shortly thereafter, in the interest of transparency. I have the letter here.

And I just want to read it through, so we can get started -- before we get started.

"This morning, as part of our routine screening program for the president, the SARS-CoV-2 virus was detected by antigen testing. This result was subsequently confirmed by a PCR test. On questioning, President Biden is currently experiencing mild symptoms, mostly a runny nose and fatigue, with an occasional dry cough, which started yesterday evening.

"Given that he meets USA Food and Drug Administration FDA emergency use authority criteria for Paxlovid, I have recommended initiating such treatment. The president is fully vaccinated and twice boosted. So I anticipate that he will respond favorably, as most -- as most maximally protected patients do.

"Early use of Paxlovid in this case provides additional protection against severe disease. He will isolate in accordance with CDC recommendations. I will keep your office updated with any changes in his condition or treatment plan."

I also wanted to provide you with a brief readout of the president's activities today. The president has been working from the residence, like so many of us have during this pandemic, doing calls with senior staff, including the chief of staff, myself and Dr. Jha, who's here with us.

As we read out, the president also-called Senator Casey, Representative Cartwright, mayors of Scranton, mayor of Wilkes-Barre, and Representative Clyburn. The president also-called a few of his cousins from Scranton who were set to attend today's events in Pennsylvania.

And he spoke with Ambassador Gitenstein and Cornyn (ph). You all have seen the photo he posted on -- and the video that was just released to all of you, out of transparency, moments ago.

The president will continue to work from the residence. Today, as you all know, as I just mentioned, and as we sent out earlier, Dr. Ashish Jha, our COVID-19 response coordinator, is joining us today in the Briefing Room.

And, as I tweeted out earlier, Dr. Jha and I spoke to the president this morning, and he said he's feeling fine. He has a little dry cough, as I just mentioned from the doctor's letter, a little runny nose, and he's feeling tired. But he's working very hard on behalf of the American people.

And with that, Dr. Jha.

DR. ASHISH JHA, WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE COORDINATOR: Good afternoon, everybody. I'm pleased to be with you.

So, as Karine mentioned, I spoke to the president earlier. I also spoke at length with Dr. O'Connor, who is the president's personal physician. And I'm happy to share the readout of these conversations with you, and then I'm happy to take questions.

In terms of my conversation with the president, he sounded great. I asked him: "Mr. President, how are you feeling?"

He said: "I'm feeling fine."

He said he was feeling fine. He had been working all morning. He hadn't even been able to finish his breakfast because he had just been busy. I encouraged him to finish his breakfast.

In terms of my conversation with Dr. O'Connor, we talked at length about what happened this morning. As Karine mentioned, the president got his regular testing that he does on his regular cadence. After he tested positive, he reported these symptoms that have been described.

Dr. O'Connor examined him thoroughly, found his exam to be normal, to be at his baseline. And then, obviously, he recommended that the president take Paxlovid. The president accepted that recommendation and has started Paxlovid and has taken his first course already.

I want to also just take a minute to sort of mark this moment. Because the president is fully vaccinated, double boosted, his risk of serious illness is dramatically lower. He's also getting treated with a very powerful antiviral, and that further reduces his risk of serious illness.

And it's a reminder of the reason that we all work so hard to make sure that every American has the same level of protection that the president has.

[14:30:00]