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Biden: "Economy Is At Risk" If Rail Workers Strike; Pentagon Report: China Could Have 1,500 Nuclear Warheads By 2035; NYC Mayor Orders First Responders To Intervene And Possibly Involuntary Commit Someone Suffering A Mental Health Crisis. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired November 29, 2022 - 15:00   ET

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

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: The fact that these are happening simultaneously, did one trigger the other or is this random and does this have anything to do with climate change?

JESS PHOENIX, VOLCANOLOGIST: So the volcanoes did not trigger each other, even though Mauna Loa and Kilauea are next to each other, they have their own separate magma chambers and that's kind of, if you want to think about it, it's like a storage area for the magma before the pressure has built up to the point where it erupts onto the surface and becomes lava. Magma is underground, lava is on the surface.

And so basically, Kilauea has its own plumbing, Mauna Loa has its own plumbing, so they didn't trigger each other. And fortunately as it's so rare these days when we're talking about geoscience and disasters, volcanoes are not impacted by climate change. So the fact that we have a changing climate doesn't affect these volcanoes at all. The volcanoes erupt when pressure builds up in the system and that's all that causes the eruption.

Now, there is some misconception about do volcanoes make climate change worse? I'm happy to tell you they don't. They produce less than 1 percent of all the carbon dioxide emissions annually around the globe, so humans are still on the hook for that.

CAMEROTA: Well, Jess Phoenix, thank you for making us all smarter. Really interesting to talk to you.

PHOENIX: Thanks.

CAMEROTA: Okay. It's the top of the hour on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Alisyn Camerota.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you.

Right now, President Biden is in Michigan visiting a semiconductor plant. He's scheduled to speak a little later this hour on the economy and the potential rail strike that looms over the holiday season.

CAMEROTA: This morning, Biden emerged from a rare meeting with leaders from both parties of the White House confident that a strike can be averted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I ask the four top leaders in Congressman whether they'd be willing to come in and talk about what we're going to do between now and Christmas in terms of legislation and there's a lot to do, including resolving the train strike and the train - what we're doing now - and the Congress, I think, has to act to prevent it. It's not an easy call, but I think we have to do it, the economy is at risk.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: CNN's Manu Raju is on Capitol Hill and Phil Mattingly is at the White House.

So Phil, the President says he's confident that a rail strike can be averted. Why is he so confident?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, I would defer to our good friend, Manu, on Capitol Hill, because that's where things land right now. The President has made the call and it was a very complicated call for a President who has really bestowed upon himself the title as most labor friendly president in the history of the country.

This is something that will directly undercut what labor representatives have been negotiating for, at least on the rank and file side of things. Guys remember, the tentative agreement that was reached between rail carriers and the 12 major unions had to be signed off on by the rank and file, four of those 12 unions had their rank and file rejected.

Now, administration officials make clear that deal included some very clear wins for union representatives and their rank and file. However, one of the things that did not include was paid sick leave. That was something that they wanted very deeply and was something they could not get.

It's something that the President and his team say they support, but they need to stick to the agreement that's on the table right now. Now, one thing that did come out of that meeting between the President and the top four leaders in Congress is that Democratic leaders who control the House and Senate, House still for at least another month or two will move forward on that agreement. They do believe that they can move it forward over the course of the next couple of days.

However, the reality remains. There is a clock here, it is ticking and it's not just the deadline, which is December 9th. It's the fact that every day they get closer to the deadline, certain critical components of really kind of the backbone of how goods and services are transported across this country will start to kind of productively shut down. That's the concern right now. That's why they want quick action, but still some very real issues outstanding, I guess, I would say as they wait for lawmakers to act.

BLACKWELL: All right. Let's turn now to Manu. Speaker Pelosi said that she will bring a bill to the House floor tomorrow. What's the path look like in the House and Senate to avert a strike? MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now Democratic leaders in the House are whipping their members to make sure that they have the votes to get this passed. Speaker Pelosi is confident that they do, in fact, have the votes or they'll likely have some Republican support as well.

And then the big question will be how quickly can this get done in the United States Senate, it's a much different institution. It's one in which requires all 100 members to agree to schedule a vote, otherwise you have to go to very time consuming process, time that they simply do not have in order to avoid the economic impacts of any disruption along the railway. So the question among Democrats right now is can they get that agreement.

Right now, Bernie Sanders, one of the members of the Senate Democratic Caucus, the Independent from Vermont has concerns he says that he will oppose this legislation over his concerns that it does not include paid sick leave for those rail workers. Now, he told me earlier that he wants to insist on an amendment vote to get essentially ensure those workers do get paid sick leave.

[15:05:02]

That amendment vote will probably fail, but he has not said whether he would agree to a quick vote on the underlying bill before that critical deadline of December 9th (inaudible) within the Republican side is another question. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, is indicating that he plans to support this, will push this forward. But will his conference get in line, Republicans are divided over this issue.

McConnell himself said there are mixed views among Senate Republicans, some say there should be no congressional action whatsoever. Others recognize there should be something to avert a rail strike here. So those are the big questions: Can they get a quick vote in the Senate? Can they get Democrats who are concerned about this in line? And can they get enough Republicans on board at the end of the day? And then right now, Republicans and Democrats are optimistic, they can get there, but it may be a little bumpy until then.

CAMEROTA: Okay. Manu and Phil, thank you both.

So the Pentagon just dropped a major report on the military power of China and it revealed that China is making nuclear warheads faster than the U.S. predicted.

BLACKWELL: The report detail that if China continues at this pace, the country will have 1,500 nuclear warheads in a little more than a decade. CNN Pentagon Correspondent Oren Liebermann has been combing through the report. What else have you learned?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Victor and Alisyn, it was just a couple of years ago, you saw in that chart right there, that the Pentagon said China had about 200 warheads and that could double within a decade? Well, only two years later, a fraction of that time the Pentagon now says Russia - China's nuclear stockpile has surpassed 400 warheads.

It's not a question of where this goes from here. They say the pace they're building they'll hit 1,500 warheads by about 2035, so a little more than a decade. The cause for concern in the Pentagon is what is the goal of having this number of nuclear warheads? Certainly, it seems a far cry from the "lean and efficient nuclear deterrent that China wants said it wanted."

It remains a fraction of the U.S. nuclear stockpile, which is up towards 4,000. But again, it's what is the intent behind having this nuclear stockpile that is a cause of concern for the Pentagon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRIG. GEN. PAT RYDER, PENTAGON PRESS SECRETARY: The challenge here is the more proliferation there is, the more concerning it is, the more destabilizing to the region it is. So certainly, we would want to ensure from a regional global and regional stability standpoint, that we can maintain an open dialogue to ensure there's transparency and that we understand what the intent is behind this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIEBERMANN: The China military power report also gives an overview of China's military. They have an army of nearly a million soldiers, numerically the largest Navy in the world, although not by tonnage and an air force with more than 2,000 fighter aircraft. And those numbers are growing as they look to modernize and expand their military force.

What's the purpose behind this? It is power projection and according to the China military power report, you see that for example with the increased military economic pressure on Taiwan, especially after the visit of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi earlier this year, they are using their military more around that whether its navy operations, whether its aircraft into Taiwan's self-declared (inaudible).

They use it as power projection. And Victor and Alisyn, we saw this one more time essentially just overnight with the South China Sea, much of which China claims is its territorial waters, a U.S. guided missile destroyers - cruisers sailing through the South China Sea, China claims it scurried that away and forced it to flee. U.S. says that's simply not what happened.

CAMEROTA: Okay. Oren Liebermann, thank you for the latest.

So China's government is cracking down on those rare protests that are opposing COVID lockdowns. They have erupted in at least 15 cities across that nation. The White House is treading carefully in its response as President Biden tries to mend U.S.-China relations. The White House says only that the U.S. supports peaceful protests.

BLACKWELL: Officials have steered clear of addressing some protesters calling for the removal of Chinese President Xi Jinping. U.S. National Security officials are concerned that a U.S. response could undercut demonstrators. The thought is that a stronger response could prompt claims by the Chinese government that the protests are part of a malign effort by the U.S.

Let's turn now to former U.S. Ambassador to China, Gary Locke. He's also former Commerce Secretary, former governor of Washington, lots of titles there, Mr. Ambassador. Good to have you back.

Now, let's start here at this rhetorical approach, when it comes to the protests in Iran, the President says, the U.S., we will free Iran. Taking a different tact here with the protests in China, do you think that's the right path? Should the U.S. be more bold in its rhetorical approach to these protests?

GARY LOCKE, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO CHINA: Well, I think the United States and the administration has taken the proper approach by saying that we very much support people's right to express their opinions and their views in a peaceful fashion and that governments should allow that type of free speech.

The problem though, is that we're dealing with a very authoritarian communist regime in China and they can be very, very ruthless.

[15:10:00]

And the hundreds of people in all these different cities, actually thousands of people throughout China who've been protesting over the weekend have already been met by stiff resistance. People have been called into police stations. They've been basically threatened, harassed. Many of the sites where these protests have occurred have been almost barricaded or blockaded and when protesters announced that they're going to move to another location, the police are faster in getting to that location and with a huge police presence intimidating the protesters.

So China is trying to figure out a way in which they can allow people to express their views in a somewhat limited fashion, but then hope it peters out through this strong show of force without actually resorting to any violence.

BLACKWELL: Let me get your thoughts on what we heard from a Chinese health official today, acknowledging the impact of the lockdowns and said that the government would "reduce inconvenience to the public by lifting them as quickly as possible." That's not really what that kind of rhetorical response that the protesters are looking for. But as you point out, the ruthlessness of - as you say, the regime, what is that worth? Is that notable even to hear that from a government official?

LOCKE: Well, I think they're trying to address the underlying concerns of millions and millions of people, hundreds of millions of people all across China, who have suffered under these lockdowns. Anytime a case of COVID appears in a city, they shut down the entire city. People are not allowed to go out for food, to go grocery shopping, to go to restaurants, to go to doctor's appointments, even to go to work. And so that's having a huge toll on the psyche as well as the income of the Chinese people and there's a huge tension, frustration rising.

Beijing is saying, well, our policies are being improperly carried out by local government officials, so they're trying to pass the buck. But the local government officials are afraid of incurring the wrath of Beijing and so they are just doing - imposing these draconian measures, until Beijing actually gives clear guidance on how they're supposed to approach it.

But when you have a city of 23 million people or over 20 million people like in Shanghai, and the entire city is locked down, shut down. That's going to lead to huge tensions and that's why you're seeing these protests erupting all across the country.

When people cannot get their sick ones to hospitals and then the patients die; when first responders can't respond to a fire and people die as a result of these lockdowns, that's when the anger of the Chinese people is coming out and that's what the communist government is most concerned about. They do not want these protests of hundreds of people spread across 15, 20 cities to get larger and larger and larger and then become almost the foundation of the leverage point for unleashing their grievances against anything and everything dealing with the Communist Party.

BLACKWELL: Let me get your thoughts on this reporting from Oren Lieberman about this new Pentagon report. The accelerated stockpiling of these nuclear warheads potentially 1,500 by the end of 2035 at the current pace. Is this aimed primarily at intimidation? And the Pentagon says that this is cause for concern, should it be caused for anything else in the U.S. any response reaction, what do you think?

LOCKE: Well, obviously, we need to be concerned about the amassing of any type of nuclear stockpiles and nuclear weapons, what is the purpose. I mean, how many how many nuclear warheads do you need to obliterate another country? And certainly, if it's a show of force, why do you need so many nuclear warheads?

And they have a huge army, they have a huge Navy, they have a huge Air Force, what more do they need as they try to project power and muscle throughout the world? So the concerns of the Pentagon are very legitimate. What is the intention behind all of this buildup of military arsenal?

BLACKWELL: All right. Ambassador Gary Locke, always good to have you, thank you.

CAMEROTA: A potent storm system is marching across the middle of the country right now: Tornadoes, dangerous wind and lots of snow in the forecast. More than 40 million Americans are under some kind of severe weather alert. CNN Meteorologist Tom Sater is here.

So Tom, what's the timing of this storm?

TOM SATER, CNN METEOROLOGIST AND WEATHER ANCHOR: It's already going on. I mean, we've got three states right now with tornadoes. This is a dynamic system, as you mentioned, watches and warnings for the snow, coldest air of the season, one to three feet in some areas, Minneapolis several inches, but it's the Deep South, once again, that is really the target.

[15:15:02] A level four out of five, Storm Prediction Center, this is the first time during the month of November that not one time, but two times we have seen a level four out of five. The last one was on the fourth of November. We had 62 reported tornadoes, multiple fatalities. The greatest tornado threat is 4pm, 10pm, now that's Central Time, but we're already seeing it ongoing.

Look at the temperatures, how about Missouri? St. Louis is 63 and it's 36 in Kansas City. That's the power behind the storm. Tropical air coming in from the Gulf and here is the bull's eye. When we get in closer now, already you're going to start to see not only a tornado watch, this is an elevated tornado watch. It's been given a PDS signal. That means a particularly dangerous situation, only issued for the most violent and potential damage to occur.

The sunsets in Jackson, Mississippi at 5 pm Central Time. Tornado, Mississippi, tornado, they had one just northeast of Houston. They've got one here in areas of Alabama. So when you zoom in now, you'll see this one's moving north of Macomb.

Again, on the 4th of November, they had 62. We could have more than that today. And that means long track, very large tornadoes, maybe EF3 or higher and it's going to come in waves. And, again, at night, that's when it becomes particularly dangerous, because tornadoes are two to two and a half times more deadly at night.

Still damaging winds even without tornadoes will occur 65 to 70 miles per hour. Some of these could have what we call a tornado emergency. That means they're large on the ground now. So have your phones ready and have the alerts set (inaudible) ...

BLACKWELL: All right. Tom Sater watching it all for us, thank you.

New York City mayor, Eric Adams, is now ordering police officers and firefighters to enforce a law that allows them to potentially involuntary commit someone suffering a mental health crisis, we have details of that.

CAMEROTA: And Elon Musk unleashes on Apple. We'll tell you what he's saying now.

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[15:21:15]

CAMEROTA: Elon Musk is taking aim at Apple and its CEO, Tim Cook. In a string of tweets, Musk claimed Apple threatened to pull Twitter from its app store. He also alleged Apple was engaging in censorship and that Twitter has seen a massive drop in revenue as more brands pause ads on the platform.

BLACKWELL: CNN's Donie O'Sullivan is following this story. So what's behind all this, Donie?

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN REPORTER: Yes. I think Musk is maybe possibly getting a little worried. Now, look, it's important to say that Apple has not responded to any of this publicly. But what potentially is happening here is that Apple kind of has a vetting process for apps in its app store. So before anything can go on your iPhone, Apple takes a look at the apps, one, to make sure there aren't viruses or spyware or things like that in the apps, but also we've seen in recent years and they've looked into apps to make sure that they're not promoting hate speech or maybe what they view as dangerous misinformation.

Last year Parler, that right-wing social media platform was removed for a few months from the Apple App Store until they got their hate speech policy together in a way that Apple was relatively happy about. So it's very possible that Apple has expressed some concerns privately or at least what they thought privately to Twitter about this under Musk.

And what we did see overnight, of course, was that Twitter has - is no longer doing - enforcing its COVID-19 misinformation policy. So tweets that include false information about the virus and the vaccine are now allowed on Twitter.

CAMEROTA: Yes. That's not going to be helpful just to - I'm just hazarding a guess.

BLACKWELL: It's just a guess.

CAMEROTA: Just a guess there. Also, Donie, we know that an ex-Twitter employee is set to speak to the crowd there where you are tonight. Do you know what he or she is going to say?

O'SULLIVAN: Yes. So this person was basically, Yoel Roth - his name, Yoel, he was part of a team, basically led the team that was in charge of enforcing Twitter's rules. He stayed with Musk for a while but quit about two weeks ago. We haven't heard from him yet. We'll be hearing here at this Knight Foundation event in Florida in a few hours.

But clearly the situation, I think, at Twitter became untenable for Roth. I mean, I think somebody in his position where he is supposed to enforce these rules and Musk is then making decisions to reinstate some accounts and not others, clearly, that put him in a very, very difficult spot. It'll be really interesting to hear from him tonight.

CAMEROTA: Okay, Donie. Thank you very much for all of that reporting.

Meanwhile, New York City mayor, Eric Adams, is now ordering first responders to intervene when someone is suffering a mental health crisis and this includes possibly involuntarily committing someone who is in need of immediate care.

BLACKWELL: CNN's Brynn Gingras is following this story for us, so the law - this one was enacted last year, what's changing now?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, a big thing, guys, as the Mayor wants to clear up this perception that if someone is experiencing a mental health crisis, they can only be involuntarily committed or receive help if they're about to harm themselves or harm someone else. He says that's not the case.

Someone can look at someone and see are they not wearing shoes, are they not wearing a jacket when it's very cold outside, of course, they experienced this a lot on the subways which was a big issue with the Mayor. So he wants officers, he wants EMS workers, he wants city staff to be able to assess someone on a case by case basis and intervene and that could mean involuntary - involuntarily giving them help.

So let me first go over some stats with you. First, the mental health in New York City, one in five New Yorkers experience a mental health illness in a given year.

[15:25:02]

Of course, this was exacerbated certainly by the pandemic and this is something that the mayor campaigned on, wanting to really get at the issue, saying that in many cases, the mental health crisis is affecting the crime rates in the city and certainly this is something that he continues to address with the city.

Some of these initiatives that he brought out today in this news conference, particular to this new initiative is helping officers have the tools in their tool belt to help people who might be in a mental health crisis.

For example, having a dedicated tele-consultant line for police officers, this includes actually using video calling, basically allowing a police officer to go up to someone and if they don't think they have the sense or idea this person needs more help, be able to get on the phone with a health professional, medical professional and make that assessment together. So sort of streamlining that process.

And then once that person actually goes to a hospital, gets the care they need, it's important, the mayor says that they have discharge instructions. They don't just sort of fall through the cracks. They actually are then brought to a homeless shelter, if that is what is the next step or they're given medicine, if that is the next step.

They basically - he basically just doesn't want this to be going to a hospital and then they're left to their own devices. Let's just hear more from the Mayor as he sort of described this initiative.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ERIC ADAMS (D) NEW YORK: State law already authorizes a police officer to make a judgment call, to have a person involuntarily be moved to a hospital. But many officers feel uneasy using this authority when they have any doubt that the person in crisis meets the criteria.

The hotline will allow an officer to describe what they are seeing to a clinical professional or even use video calling to get an expert opinion on what options may be available.

(END VIDEO CLIP) GINGRAS: Now listen, there's a lot of critics out there that are already criticizing this plan saying, listen, we don't even have enough care and resources necessary to take care of the people that are experiencing mental health crises right now. Certainly the mayor knows that. He says that this is an evolution. This is a process that's going to take some time and some tweaking, guys.

CAMEROTA: Okay. Brynn Gingras, thank you.

BLACKWELL: So a woman in Texas, who was kidnapped as a baby just reunited with her biological family five decades later. How she figured out the woman who raised her was not actually her mother, next.

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