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Pfizer Will Seek FDA Approval For RSV Vaccine By End Of Year; Supreme Court Rejects Bid By Sen. Graham's Request To Block Subpoena In GA Election Meddling Investigation; Interview With Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI); Fans Wear "Fight Anti-Semitism" Shirts At Nets Game After Kyrie Irving Tweet Controversy. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired November 01, 2022 - 14:30   ET

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

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[14:31:45]

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST: Pfizer has released new data from its RSV trial. The company says the results are very promising. It is now on track to file for FDA approval this year.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr Sanjay Gupta, is here.

Sanjay, what are we learning from this?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: So, first, this is a bad season for RSV. People are hearing this. It's 10 times the hospitalizations as compared to the two years pre-COVID.

Just to give you some scale here, that is really significant. They've been testing this particular vaccine in pregnant women, 7,400 pregnant women.

The idea is that a pregnant woman, while they themselves may not be vulnerable to this, they can pass the antibodies they get as a result of the vaccine onto their newborn.

And what they're finding is pretty impressive. They're trying to figure out how likely is this vaccine going to protect the newborn babies. They find, within the first few months of life about, 82 percent effective.

Keep in mind, there's no vaccine right now. So this is 82 percent against no other alternative right now. And 70 percent effective for the first six months of life. That's what they're finding so far. Again, 7,400 women.

The company, Pfizer, believes it is strong enough to apply for approval. We're only getting this data from the company so far. This has to be independently vetted. But it seems pretty promising.

There are a few other vaccines out there in development. A couple are designed to target older people who are also vulnerable to this disease and to young people. But this is the one specifically for moms to pass on to the babies.

GOLODRYGA: For those wondering why there hasn't been a vaccine to date, is it because we haven't seen such spikes in cases for so many years?

GUPTA: No. This is an interesting story. People are so used to the mRNA story. And saying, OK, disease, vaccine within 11 months. Typically, it can take a long time. In HIV/AIDS, 40 years, we still don't have a vaccine. It can take a while.

They tried to make a vaccine for this in the '60s and the vaccine failed. They found was that vaccinated children were more likely to get sick because of certain things, the way the vaccine was working.

Now they've been able to isolate what is called the F-protein. Think about that the way we had about the spike protein for an mRNA vaccine for COVID. That has been sort of the key breakthrough here.

So again, if the data holds up, again, which sounds promising, that same sort of technology has allowed them to do this now.

GOLODRYGA: Targeting that.

GUPTA: Targeting that protein.

GOLODRYGA: Thank you so much, Sanjay. Great to have you.

(CROSSTALK)

GUPTA: Thank you.

[14:34:05]

BLACKWELL: President Biden is set to make his closing midterm pitch in Florida. In minutes, he'll give a speech where he is expected to frame the election as a choice between Democrats and extreme MAGA Republicans. Will that be effective?

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BLACKWELL: This just in. The Supreme Court rejected Senator Lindsey Graham's attempt to block the subpoena forcing him to testify in the 2020 election investigation in Georgia.

GOLODRYGA: CNN's Sara Murray joins us now.

Sara, what more are we hearing?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, a district attorney in Georgia wanted Senator Graham to appear to give his testimony before the grand jury November 17th.

Now the Supreme Court is saying, we are not going to get you out of that. They declined to block this subpoena for the Senator's testimony while his appeal plays out. This still gives Senator Graham some wiggle room when he does appear

before the grand jury.

Lower courts made clear, there are certain things he couldn't be asked about because it had to do with his activities as a sitting U.S. Senator that would be protected by the speech and debate clause.

But the lower court said, to the extent you were trying to cajole election officials in Georgia, those kinds of things would not be protected.

So all of this could boil down to what happens when Graham gets before the grand jury. The proceedings are secret.

But if questions come up and he says, I can't answer these, these have to do with my legislative activity, there could still be a fight.

[14:40:03]

You know, this order from the Supreme Court makes it clear that he could go back the court over specific questions if he believes he should not have to answer them under the speech and debate clause.

Overall, this is still a win for the district attorney of Georgia. It does make clear that Lindsey Graham does have to appear in Georgia, appear before the grand jury.

BLACKWELL: All right. Sara Murray, thank you.

GOLODRYGA: This also just into CNN. David DePape, the man accused of violently attacking the husband of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, has been released from a San Francisco hospital and moved to the county jail. That's according to the San Francisco Sheriff's Office.

DePape is expected to appear in court to be arraigned on state charges at 4:30 p.m. Eastern time.

BLACKWELL: President Biden just landed in Ft. Lauderdale. Tonight, he's campaigning with Senate Candidate Val Demings and Gubernatorial Candidate Charlie Crist.

Soon he'll make remarks about Social Security and Medicare. Biden advisers tell CNN he hopes to use Florida's, quote, "extreme MAGA Republicans" to help drive home his closing message that voters face a stark choice on Election Day.

Congresswoman Debbie Dingell represents a district there in Michigan. She is with us now.

Good to have you.

Let's start here with the message the president is taking to Floridians. His first event is about Social Security and Medicare. But when he gets to the rally, to the big stage, he's focusing on the mega MAGA Republicans, as he calls them.

Is that the message he should be driving home with just seven days left?

REP. DEBBIE DINGELL (D-MI): Well, I think what he's trying to drive home, what I know he's driving home, is the contrast.

And it's good to be with you, by the way.

The contrast between Republicans and Democrats. Not only on substance, about what they are, how they have voted against lowering the cost of insulin, lowering the cost of drug to many people. We can go through a list of that.

I think that, while I am very strong that all of us have to stand up wherever we see it, there are noticeable things in the last 72 hours that I find deeply disturbing in the way that people are framing what happened to Paul Pelosi.

What is framing, how it is being framed across this country of what is OK and what is not OK. I don't want to see any person hurt, period. Republican, Democrat, far left, far right.

But I think that some of the inflammatory language over the last 72 hours is deeply disturbing as well.

BLACKWELL: Let's talk about that. I was planning to get to it later but here we are.

We heard from the Arizona Republican nominee for governor, Kari Lake. She made what seemed like a joke about not having security in her home, in Pelosi's home in San Francisco, and the crowd laughed.

She was asked about that on FOX News and here's what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARI LAKE, (R), ARIZONA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: We can't talk about Paul Pelosi. Now you can't talk about Nancy Pelosi. And you can't talk about the elections. And you can't talk about COVID.

And I'm talking about all those things. Because I still believe we have a little bit of the First Amendment left.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: She says it's a First Amendment issue. What do you say?

DINGELL: Look, I believe in free speech. And I think we absolutely have to protect it. But I think there's a right way and a wrong way to talk about things. And I don't think we make a joke out of anybody having been shot.

I was in tears and went to mass when Steve Scalise was shot. And I'll tell you something else, Ronna McDaniels is a constituent of mine. I don't agree with her on things but I don't want anyone taking a shot at her.

And I've been very strong protecting that. I think it is inappropriate and particularly maybe he thought it was funny last week when you put a gun out there protecting your Second Amendment. But then do a switch and says fire Pelosi.

Look, there's a line. I think we are normalizing unacceptable behavior. It has been seeping into our communities. And I think we all have to be very intentional right now that we are being divided in communities this country with fear and hatred.

We are normalizing things we should not normalize. And I don't think the Arizona governor was very funny.

BLACKWELL: Let me ask you about this statement that just came out from the chief of U.S. Capitol Police in which he says -- this is just a couple lines:

"We believe today's political climate calls for more resources to provide additional layers of physical security for members of Congress. This plan would include an emphasis on adding redundancies to the measures already in place for congressional leadership."

Let me take the first sentence first. Do you think you could get through a lame duck Congress plan that would increase resources for Capitol Police to secure leadership?

[14:45:05]

DINGELL: You know, look, I would like to see that happen. I want to see more resources voted for, for the Supreme Court justices when it happen.

I also want to make a different statement to you, Victor, which it is impossible to keep 435 members of the House and 100 Senators safe seven days a week, 24 hours a day, if someone really wants to hurt them.

I think our Capitol Police are trying very hard to keep us safe every day and they do need more resources.

But what we are seeing is not just happening at our level. At the federal level. My school board members and school board members across the country are wearing bullet-proof vests.

My state legislators are wearing bulletproof vests at the state capitol, which was before January 6th occurred with assault weapons.

We are seeing a trend that is happening across the country seeping into our communities. We all need to worry about.

And all of us, every one of us, has a responsibility to stand up to hate when we see it.

BLACKWELL: Let me slip one more in here on midterm politics. Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney is in Michigan today, campaigning with and for Democrat Elissa Slotkin.

We've heard from Slotkin's opponent, the Republican State Senator Tom Barrett, who said this is going to backfire. It will bring Republicans out to the polls, to defeat Slotkin.

What do you think?

DINGELL: I think that that race is a race that is razor thin. I think Liz Cheney deeply respects Elissa Slotkin, as I do. I respect Liz Cheney. I've known her for decades. I don't agree with her on some of her positions but I have a lot of respect for her.

I think she's coming in because of the respect she has for Elissa Slotkin and her concern about what Elissa's opponent has been saying on a number of things, including denying the results of the election two years ago of the presidency.

I think we all got to really think about what people are saying, what they're believing. There are people trying to undermine people's confidence and election outcomes. Her opponent is one of those people.

People need to know the Republican and the Democratic clerks across the country that are working to protect the ballot box and that every person's vote is counted.

And when we start undermining people's confidence in election outcomes, our democracy is being undermined and threatened --

BLACKWELL: Congresswoman --

DINGELL: -- in a deliberate and intentional way.

BLACKWELL: Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, thank you.

DINGELL: Thank you.

GOLODRYGA: Several fans spend a strong message to Brooklyn Nets star, Kyrie Irving, wearing shirts courtside with the words, "Fight Anti- Semitism." Protests come after Irving tweeted a link to a documentary deemed anti-Semitic. We'll discuss straight ahead.

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[14:52:12]

GOLODRYGA: Fans sitting courtside at last night's Brooklyn Nets game had a message for Kyrie Irving. They wore shirts that read, "Fight Anti-Semitism," after the Nets star tweeted a link to a film last week that many have called anti-Semitic.

Irving later defended the tweet when asked about the backlash he received. Now he has since taken it down but has not apologized for it. Both the NBA and the Nets owner released statements condemning hate speech.

Joining me now is Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, from the Tree of Life Synagogue in Pittsburgh.

Rabbi, thank you so much for coming on. It's been four years since a white supremacist gunman stormed your congregation and killed 11 of your congregates there. I came to visit you just hours after that.

I'm curious to get your response to something that you said over the weekend in an interview where you described the increase of anti- Semitism in this country as disgraceful.

And went on to say, "Shame on you, America. You let it to grow in this petri dish."

Can you elaborate more on that?

RABBI JEFFREY MYERS, TREE OF LIFE SYNAGOGUE: Yes. And thank you for welcoming me, Bianna.

Victims are not the ones to cure anti-Semitism. It's the place in which it's grown that it must be cured. So in the case of America, America has permitted anti-Semitism to grow unabated over a very long time.

You can't turn to the Jewish community and say, it's your fault and you are to fix it. We have to turn to the remainder of America, and say, America, look what's happening, look at the rot from your core.

You have to fix that, because this is just the beginning. It doesn't end with anti-Semitism.

GOLODRYGA: Sir Rabbi, what do you say to those who may call that a lofty ambition but an unrealistic one. And we can talk about Kyrie Irving. He was called out for that tweet. He doubled down on it.

Others, Kanye West, the list goes on and on. Flyers that you see and posters hanging over major freeways in this country.

Aside from wishing that, which, of course, we all do, what more can be done to fight back against anti-Semitism?

MYERS: We need more people to be able to speak out and say that this is unacceptable in America. It can't just be a few indifferent professions or different callings.

All of America has to be able to say anti-Semitism is unwelcome in America.

It always begin with anti-Semitism but it doesn't end there. From anti-Semitism, it moves on to another minority group and another minority group until there's no one left to call out because all of the groups are no longer around.

[14:55:07]

So, there needs to be a concerted effort by all good citizens, all good people of all colors, faiths and backgrounds to be able to say this is not America. America is supposed to be land of promise for all people. As it says in the Declaration of independence that all people are endowed with certain inalienable rights from the Creator, that's life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

There's a period after happiness. There's not a comma with the words, "except for the Jews." So if America is supposed to live that promise, then the promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness must be available to all Americans equally without any challenge.

GOLODRYGA: Well said.

Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, it's good to see you again. Thank you so much for joining us.

BLACKWELL: Well, soon, the man accused of attacking Paul Pelosi is expected to appear in court for the first time. The charges he faces, new calls for stepped up security, ahead.

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