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Record for Coronavirus Hospitalizations; Vaccine Distribution in the U.S.; Search for Clues and Motive in Nashville Bombing; Russia Threatens to Arrest Navalny; Biden Accuses Trump of Obstructing Transition; Bills Blow out Patriots. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired December 29, 2020 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

DR. PETER HOTEZ, CO-DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR VACCINE DEVELOPMENT, TEXAS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL AND DEAN, NATIONAL SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE AT BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: The music's loud, people are raising their voice and releasing lots of virus and then drinking alcohol and it's -- it -- and then, you know, letting your guard down. And so this is not a time to be getting together with family and friends on New Year's Eve as heartbreaking as that is.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: I want to ask you what's happening with the vaccinations because you'll recall that we were promised by our leaders, from President Trump to Alex Azar, that 20 million Americans would be vaccinated by the end of this year, two days from now, and 2.1 million have been vaccinated according -- at least to Johns Hopkins.

Let me just remind people of all of the promise, I mean, of what the leaders said as recently as, you know, a month ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (October 26, 2020): We will deliver 100 million doses of a safe vaccine before the end of the year. It may be quite a bit sooner than that.

ALEX AZAR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY (November 16, 2020): We expect to have approximately 40 million doses but the end of this year. So that would allow us to vaccinate 20 million people in December.

DR. MONCEF SLOUI, CHIEF ADVISOR, OPERATION WARP SPEED (December 15, 2020): Overall, in the month of December, between the two vaccines, the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccine, we expect to have immunized 20 million of our American people and keeping 20 million doses for their second immunization a few weeks later.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: There was so much hope, Dr. Hotez, about that, but what's gone wrong? HOTEZ: Yes. You know what, Alisyn, we were let down about the diagnostic testing. We still haven't figured that out. We still have long lines a year into this. We were certainly let down about the finding that we're not doing genomic virus sequencing, so we're missing potential variants that are with lots of mutations and we still need to fix that.

And so our last hope has really been to vaccinate our way out of this because we have not launched a national COVID-19 control programs. So the expectation was at the minimum, at least with all the planning, we would have figured this out by now. So I -- I am concerned. Part of it is no one's fault in the sense that the Pfizer vaccine does have a lot of complicated logistics because of the deep freezer requirements and we have this system, this fragmented system, where we rely on the individual states making national vaccine planning very difficult.

But we're still going to have to fix this because with these dire numbers, we need to quickly accelerate and vaccinate the -- the American population. This means a couple of things. One, we're going to have to get some of those adenovirus vaccines up because I think the mRNA technology is -- still has those freezer requirements. Even the Moderna one, it's at some level. So that's going to be a little more complicated. So we have to get the other adenovirus vaccines up. The AstraZeneca/Oxford, the -- the J&J vaccine. Hopefully the Novavax vaccine will -- will get up soon.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: OK.

HOTEZ: We -- we had the vaccine a little bit later on. So that's going to be critical. And then, I don't know, we -- we've -- whether we have the right health system to really make this work efficiently. We're relying too much on the -- on the private pharmacy chains. Well, people -- what's happening now is people are calling all of the pharmacy chains locally and finding out which one may have the vaccine when and the answer is, well, check the website, check the website.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HOTEZ: I mean this is -- this is not going to be adequate. It's going to create a lot of panic and it's going to create yet another issue on top of lots of existing ones.

SCIUTTO: Dr. Hotez, Dr. Fauci, I'll be speaking to next hour, he has said that, listen, you know, momentum is increasing, right? That the -- it's a slow start, but he's still a -- he expects -- and Dr. Fauci is -- is not one to over or under estimate the positive throughout this, but he expects that by the end of the first quarter we could get closer to that -- to that larger goal of 100 million Americans by then. And I wonder if you agree or you think that that's to sanguine at this point? I mean do you believe that we can catch up?

HOTEZ: Yes, absolutely. I absolutely agree with -- with Tony that I think we can certainly get there. I'm -- the question I'm asking is, what's the mechanism that we're going to use to make this happen because right now it looks like almost total dependence on the -- on the pharmacy chains. And I don't know that that in itself is going to be sufficient given what we've seen so far. So just -- just -- so I think it's -- I am -- I'm optimistic also that we're going to be able to quickly accelerate and we'll gain momentum. But we're going to have to have, I think, more coherent plans on how to make that happen and maybe creating sites and centers for vaccinating large segments of the population.

Also, not making the rules so fussy because those advisory committee immunization practice guidelines are pretty -- they're very specific.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HOTEZ: And I don't know how easily it's going to be to implement them if we're going to rely exclusively on pharmacies.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HOTEZ: And so maybe creating larger vaccination hubs, especially in the cities, I think we're going to have to start thinking about calling an audible at this point.

SCIUTTO: Yes, listen, I mean, testing didn't go that well in terms of getting it out there quickly and broadly.

[06:35:04]

So let's hope it happens better on vaccinations.

Dr. Peter Hotez, thanks very much.

HOTEZ: Thanks so much.

SCIUTTO: Well, coming up in just minutes, we're going to speak live with Dr. Anthony Fauci about the state of vaccinations, the worsening pandemic as well.

Federal agents searching for clues and still a motive in that massive bombing in Nashville. We also have dramatic new video of the moments of the blast. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Police releasing body cam video that captures the Christmas Day bombing in Nashville and the chaos afterwards.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) -- is that going to involve -- is that going to involve (INAUDIBLE) are 10-4?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you guys OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Where's your car? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, go to your car.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: We're also seeing the extent of the devastation left in downtown Nashville by the bombing. Look at that. Federal agents are at the scene still searching for clues and a motive.

CNN's Shimon Prokupecz live in Nashville with more.

Shimon, I've heard that it's like putting a jigsaw puzzle together that is spread out over multiple city blocks.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is. And days after, Alisyn, the fire alarms are still going off in some of these buildings that were destroyed by this explosion.

[06:40:00]

Yesterday we got our firsthand look at some of that devastation. And you could see just buildings collapsed, cars melted. The paint off of these cars melted. And the FBI and ATF agents have -- were on hands -- on their hands and knees looking for evidence throughout the day yesterday, collecting some of the debris. They're looking for chemicals and other bomb making material.

The FBI also releasing video showing the devastation on the ground. The size of this explosion, the force of this explosion damaging so much on this one block. Of course the big question that everyone is asking right now is motive. And the FBI says that's going to take time to figure out. There isn't one specific thing that they can focus on to say why this happened. They do know a lot about this individual, the bomber, he's 63 years old, was having some difficulties in his life and that is something they are looking at, talking to neighbors and family.

But, Jim, they are still trying to figure that out and it could be days, weeks, months before we even learn what the possible motive was in this case.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Like visions of the streets of Baghdad, not Nashville, Tennessee.

PROKUPECZ: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Shimon Prokupecz, good to have you on the story.

Well, the police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black man in Columbus, Ohio, has now been fired. New body camera footage shows Officer Adam Coy shoot Andre Hill seconds into their encounter. This at a home that Hill was visiting. Hill was holding a cell phone. The police chief pushed for Coy to be fired, saying the use of deadly force was not reasonable. The chief also said the officer failed to immediately give Hill first aid in the aftermath. Hill's family demanding justice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARISSA HILL, ANDRE HILL'S DAUGHTER: It just looked like murder. How can we pay these people to walk around and still be on payroll and murder.

ALVIN WILLIAMS, ANDRE HILL'S BROTHER: Andre was shot multiple times, four times, and was actually just left for dead. And could have been many possibilities for him maybe to survive his injuries. And he was just killed like an animal. Killed like an animal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Killed like an animal they say. Well, state investigators are now looking into Andre Hill's death. There's a picture of him there. The mayor said the Justice Department as well might step in. So far none of the officers involved have been charged.

CAMEROTA: The Army Green Beret charged in a deadly shooting spree at an Illinois bowling alley has been denied bond. Authorities say Sergeant First Class Duke Webb admitted to the shootings and that the Saturday attack was random. Three men aged 65 to 73 were killed. Three others were wounded, including a 14-year-old boy who was shot in the face. Webb's attorney says he will be evaluated for PTSD.

SCIUTTO: And developing overnight, Russia says that opposition leader Alexey Navalny is free to return to the country despite threats to arrest him there if he does not show up at a hearing today. Navalny has been in Germany where he was treated after surviving an attempt to poison and kill him with a nerve agent.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen, live in Moscow with more.

And, Fred, listen, I mean, he was -- he was nearly poisoned to death, right, with eyes on the Kremlin for responsibility here.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

SCIUTTO: I can't imagine he wants to return to Russia now. He must fear for his safety.

PLEITGEN: Well, I mean, he has said in the past, Jim, that he wants to return to Russia, but there are some people who believe that this newest move might be an attempt to try and prevent him from coming back to Russia. In fact, he's already missed that deadline that the Russians sent for him. That was early this morning at 9:00 a.m. he was supposed to show up for a hearing here in Moscow. And we can see here on our screens right now it's 2:43 p.m. So he has already missed that deadline. And now they can essentially file with the court to then say that he would be arrested when he comes back to Moscow, or if he comes back to Moscow and if he comes back to Russia.

Now, all that stems from a case from 2014, Jim, which Navalny says was politically motivated but where he received a suspended sentence. And essentially what the Russian authorities are saying right now is, because he didn't show up to that hearing, that he violated the terms of his probation. And so, therefore, they could now file that he would be arrested if and when he ever comes back into this country.

Now, of course, there's two things about this. The Russian authorities are saying he's recovered from the Novichok poisoning so they believe he should be able to show up here, but you've, of course, just mentioned that he is still recovering. And yesterday when this broke, I look a look at the flight routes from Germany, because I fly that route quite frequently myself. There was physically no way for him to actually get here. There were no direct flights. There was no way he was going to make that hearing at 9:00 a.m. this morning.

Navalny has already taken to social media to call all -- call the authorities out on all this. He, obviously, believes that the Russian authorities, especially the intelligence service, are embarrassed after CNN and Bellingcat investigation uncovered large parts of an FSB plot that poisoned Alexey Navalny with the aim apparently to -- or with the aim to kill him. Navalny, of course, also believes.

[06:45:00]

And then he also managed to actually get in touch with one of the FSB agent who was allegedly part of that plot and duped him into admitting large parts of that. Alexey Navalny, on his social media feed, this is from Instagram, he said, quote, like I said, somewhere there is Vladimir Putin in his bunker stomping and yelling, why didn't he die. And if he didn't die, then he is twice guilty and we will jail him.

Of course, the Russian authorities, we always have to say, they continue to say that they were not behind that poisoning. Alexey Navalny, again, he has said in the past that he believes that he must return to Russia, he wants to return to Russia. We're going to wait and see whether or not he rethinks that now, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Goodness. Fearing for his safety, I imagine.

Fred Pleitgen, thanks very much.

Well, President-elect Joe Biden is accusing Trump appointees of obstructing the transition of power. Is that putting this country's national security at risk? We're going to discuss. It's an important question. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT FOR THE UNITED STATES: We have encountered roadblocks from the political leadership at the Department of Defense and the Office of Management and Budget. Right now we just aren't getting all the information that we need for the ongoing -- outgoing -- from the outgoing administration in key national security areas.

[06:50:01]

It's nothing short, in my view, of irresponsibility. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: So, with just three weeks to go until his inauguration, President-elect Joe Biden spoke out against the Trump administration for what he says is obstructing the transition of power.

Joining us now is CNN political and national security analyst David Sanger. He's a national security correspondent at "The New York Times."

David, great to see you.

Do you know specifically what roadblocks Joe Biden and his team are encountering from the Department of Defense?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, Alisyn, we've heard about a few. The first is, they're having a difficult time understanding the full dimensions of American force posture around the world. Now, much of that is public. I mean we know roughly how many troops we have in South Korea, in Japan, in Germany. But in the areas where the president has talked about drawing them down, in fact said he would have them down to zero by Christmas, he obviously didn't, in Afghanistan, and big drawdowns in Iraq, it's not clear exactly how they are distributed. And the same thing about places like Somalia, Syria, places where there have been small numbers of American troops.

In part that's because some of them are special forces or they are working as combatants for the CIA's paramilitary group. And these are not public numbers. And apparently the administration's having a hard time getting ahold of that.

They're also having a hard time figuring out exactly what the government believes the Russian penetration was in SolarWinds, this big hack of the U.S. government.

SCIUTTO: Listen, David, these are places where the U.S. is at war. Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia. The U.S. is still under attack from the SolarWinds hack, right, because, I mean, there's still malware in the system. And this is ongoing. It's remarkable to have a transition where senior defense officials are not sharing crucial information about those issues with the incoming administration. I mean I've covered national security for a fair amount of time. I cannot think of a precedent for this. Is there a precedent?

SANGER: I can't think of one either, Jim. And, you know, you and I have covered a lot of transitions in which we have talked to both the incoming and outgoing groups. And usually the outgoing national security advisor has stacks and stacks of files for their counterpart. And same thing all the way down the line.

In this case, what I'm told, Jim, is that the State Department transition is actually going pretty well, being directed by Steve Biegun, the deputy secretary -- I think Secretary Pompeo may still be in isolation right now after a COVID concern -- and that they're getting a pretty good sense there. But at the Pentagon and the OMB they are not. The last briefing at the Pentagon, Jim, was on December 13th. That's more than two weeks ago. I'm told there will be three this week, including one on cyber. But we don't know what the quality of those are. And when you saw Secretary Miller, the Defense secretary, turn out a statement last night, he just talked about the number of pages they had turned over. And you know how this is. It's not volume, it's quality.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Yes.

CAMEROTA: Here's that statement. Let me read it. This is what the acting Defense Secretary, Christopher Miller, says about Joe Biden's comments. The Department of Defense has conducted 164 interviews with over 400 officials and providing over 5,000 pages of documents, far more than initially requested by Biden's transition team. DOD's efforts already surpassed those of recent administrations with over three weeks to go and we continue to schedule additional meetings for the remainder of the transition and answer any and all requests for information in our purview.

So, David, you see in that statement that there are some holes in his reasoning.

SANGER: Yes. What I think I see, Alisyn, is that he is trying to make it sound as if the number of pages makes up for both the quality of describing a strategy and explaining risk areas. As Jim pointed out before, these are areas where the U.S. is at war, or in the case of a hack where you've got a president-elect coming in uncertain about whether or not he can trust the systems of government that he is being handed.

And, of course, a president who has said that this hack was just a fiction of the media and who was completely disengaged now on the troop issues.

Let me give you a specific example. Last week there was a rocket attack in Iraq that the Trump administration attributed to Iranian proxies. And the president issued a threat to the Iranians. You would think that the first thing you would want to be sure that the incoming team understood is exactly how you were raid (ph) against those Iranian proxies in case something happens right around the transition.

[06:55:01]

CAMEROTA: David Sanger, thank you very much. I think we all understand this better now for you being here. Thank you.

SANGER: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: OK, now to sports. Monday night football, it wasn't a game, it was a shame, for Patriots fans, like our John Berman. In fact, he was so upset he's had to take the week off. Details in the "Bleacher Report."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: OK, let's hear what happened to the Patriots last night. Carolyn Manno joins us now.

How bad was it?

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning.

It was pretty bad. I think Berman's at home with cucumbers on his eyes right now. You know, this is great for Bills fans, not that Berman cares. They've been walking around with this Super Bowl sized pebble in their shoe for the last 20 years, never able to sweep the Patriots when Tom Brady was at the helm there. But Cam Newton fell woefully short of anything close to what Berman and other Patriots fans are used to.

He wasn't the only issue, though. New England just bad all around. No answer for Josh Allen and the AFC East Division Champion Bills. The MVP candidate threw for four touchdowns, three of them to Stefon Diggs, including this 50 yard strike. So the Bills are the first team to sweep the Patriots in the regular season. Since Bill Belichick's first season with the team, and frustrating night to say the least for New England as they end up on the wrong side of a 38-9 blowout. The Patriots finishing with their first losing record in 20 years.

In the meantime, Alisyn, a week after being caught without a mask at a private party, quarterback Dwayne Haskins is now a free agent. Washington's football team cutting its 2019 first round draft pick after a tumultuous week in which he lost his role as one of the team's captain, he was fined an undisclosed amount for violating team COVID- 19 protocols. Before making his Twitter account private, he posted in part, I take full responsibility for not meeting the standards of an NFL quarterback and will become a better man and player because of this experience.

But the two sides parting ways.

And, Alisyn, have we checked on John? Have we sent him a fruit basket? Anything? Anything at all?

CAMEROTA: That's a great point. We will be sending him a fruit basket. And I'll see, when he waking up, how he's feeling. But we'll get him through this.

Carolyn, thank you very much.

OK, NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The House of Representatives voting to increase stimulus checks.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Every Senate Democrat is for it, but, unfortunately, we don't have the Republicans on board.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I've just been waiting on Congress to make some decisions that would be in the best interest of so many Americans like myself.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT-ELECT FOR THE UNITED STATES: We have encountered roadblocks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have enemies in America. They know we're vulnerable in these transitions.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's effectively scraped off that top layer of leadership. That is the layer that has been corrupted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

[07:00:04]

CAMEROTA: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY.

John Berman is off, nursing his Patriots.