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New Day

Car Accident in Alabama Kills Nine Children Including Some from Home for Abused and Neglected Young Girls; Dr. Anthony Fauci Addresses His Critics in Interview; John Podesta at Center of Debunked QAnon Conspiracy Theories; Seven Killed and 45 Injured in 10 Mass Shootings Since Friday. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired June 21, 2021 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

VICTOR JACOBO, REPORTER, CBS58 AND TELEMUNDO WISCONSIN. Officials, and so he wants to be there to celebrate. But again, it was very clear that the crowd knew of his objection to it, and they were not really pleased with that.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Victor, thank you so much. You were there. You're the eyes and ears. Victor Jacobo, we appreciate it.

JACOBO: Thank you.

KEILAR: NEW DAY continues right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Berman with Brianna Keilar. On this NEW DAY, the deadly aftermath of the crash that killed nine children and one adult in Alabama. The mayor of the town where the children lived is standing by to talk to us right now.

Plus, Dr. Anthony Fauci fighting back in a brand new interview. You'll hear from him and the journalist who talked to him firsthand.

KEILAR: A U.S. war veteran says he now has just weeks to live because of toxic exposure in a war zone. His story in his own words just ahead.

And bravery under fire, we'll talk to the security guard who stopped a gunman inside a Georgia grocery store.

BERMAN: Good morning to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. It is Monday, June 21st. And we do begin with the aftermath of this horrific chain reaction crash on a highway in Alabama that left 10 people dead, including nine children. The 29- year-old volunteer firefighter Cody Fox and his infant daughter were also killed in the crash.

KEILAR: Eight other victims ranging in age from four to 17 were traveling in a van from a home for abused and neglected young girls, making this story even more horrific. They were heading back from a beach vacation and just a couple of hours from home when this crash occurred in Butler County, and a team of federal investigators is on the scene.

Joining me now is the mayor of Camp Hill, Alabama, where the children lived, Messiah Williams-Cole. Mayor, this is terrible. This is terrible on so many different levels, as we see especially where these girls had come from. How is the community feeling right now?

MAYOR MESSIAH WILLIAMS-COLE, CAMP HILL, ALABAMA: To put is simply, we're got good. The Girls Ranch really does a lot of good, and seeing something like this happen to them is really doing a lot of damage to the community. Morale is down right now.

KEILAR: Of course, it is. And I wonder, do you know what is being done to help other people in that community through this? I know there is going to be a lot of people they were friends with who are trying to make sense of this.

WILLIAMS-COLE: The necessarily good thing about this is just that we're a close-knit community. Last night this Girls Ranch is sponsored by the sheriff. The sheriff showed up, the superintendent of education showed. We've always been there for each other, so making sure those people are in place to make sure that we can comfort everyone has been what's been done so far.

KEILAR: Can you tell us a little bit about where these kids come from?

WILLIAMS-COLE: So the Girls Ranch -- the kids come from all across the state. The Girls Ranch is meant to give people a second chance, per se. Their goal is to create strong men and women and help to repair them. So that's what they really aim to do. This is a safe haven for kids. Trying to build them up and break generational curses that they may have faced in their own personal lives. But this is really providing a Christian, family-based organization that tries to help them.

KEILAR: And they were on a beach trip? They were coming back from that?

WILLIAMS-COLE: Yes, ma'am. That's one of the assets that they do. They make sure that these kids have a chance to lead normal lives, go on vacation. So they were coming back from some of their festivities.

KEILAR: I know the investigation is ongoing, but are there any particular questions you have about what led up to this that you don't have the answers to right now?

WILLIAMS-COLE: Not really. Knowing the type of work that the families do and that the director does, my main thing is trying to give them their privacy right now, making sure that they have the ability to grieve, because I know she's going through a lot, making sure that I'm there for them. My questions aren't that big of a deal, just making sure that I can be there for them in any way that I can.

KEILAR: Mayor, I know a lot of people are paying attention to what happened far from your community and even your state. What can they do to help the community there, especially this girls home where they now have eight funerals that they are planning?

WILLIAMS-COLE: The main way is through GoFundMe. They have a link that's on there, the Tallapoosa County Girls Ranch. You can donate there. Also, what I would say is just make sure -- you can Google their address. Say your thoughts and prayers. This is a Christian organization. They're really strong in faith, so I'm really sure they would appreciate that as well.

[08:05:05]

KEILAR: Sending prayers for sure. Mayor, thank you so much for being with us.

WILLIAMS-COLE: Thank you.

KEILAR: The U.S. extending coronavirus restrictions on nonessential travel to Canada and Mexico for another month. The Department of Homeland Security says land borders and ferry crossings with the two countries will remain closed until July 21st. And this announcement is coming just after Canada extended its own COVID-19 restrictions on overseas and U.S. travel that were set to expire today. Officials say the White House is working with both countries to identify the conditions under which restrictions can be based safely and sustainably.

BERMAN: So Dr. Anthony Fauci pushing back on attacks made by his critics of his handling of the pandemic in a new interview with Kara Swisher on her "New York Times" "Sway" podcast.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER: The people who are giving the ad hominems are saying, ah, Fauci misled us. First he said no masks, then he said masks. Well, let me give you a flash. That's the way science works. You work with the data you have at the time. It is essential as a scientist that you evolve your opinion and your recommendations based on the data as it evolves. That is the nature of science. It is a self-correcting process. And that's the reason why I say people who then criticize me about that are actually criticizing science. It was not a change because I felt like flip- flopping. It was a change because the evidence changed, the data changed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The person on the other end of that conversation joins me now, Kara Swisher. Thanks so much for being with us. I think one of the things that is interesting is that the passion with which Dr. Fauci is pushing back seems to be increasing now almost by the day, and I'm wondering why you think that is.

KARA SWISHER, INTERVIEWED DR. FAUCI ON HER "SWAY" PODCAST: Well, he's getting attacked even more all day long, and the names have become -- he has been called Hitler, he's been called "Flip-Fauci". I mentioned all the names to him of things that were happening and these accusations, and just last night a bunch of senators and congressman, Republican senators and congressmen, were saying things that were just patently untrue.

And so he thinks this idea that he has become this political punching bag is problematic for him and it's problematic to do his job because there are still many unvaccinated people, especially older men who are Republican haven't been as vaccinated and the numbers aren't as up. And so I think he's both concerned that the virus will continue needlessly, and secondly, he has become such a political punching bag, and I think he's sort of had it, especially when he feels he didn't do anything wrong per se.

BERMAN: Did he think this was going to change -- you talked about this. Did he think change in administrations would somehow get him off the hook?

SWISHER: No, I'm not so sure about that. I think he realized he had become a flash point, and he is being use in that way. And it makes sense because he is so well known and he has become such a figure of COVID just the way other people have been. And in this case, I don't think he thought that wouldn't happen. It just feels like some of the stuff he's talking about -- around masks, for example, and these emails that were discovered. In the emails, I read every one of them. He's changing with the times. And I think inability for public health officials to, I don't want to say make mistakes, because that's not correct, is that they know something at the time or not be able to explain themselves in full and to make it so reductive is the real problem. And that's why I did such a long interview, because I want him to explain himself for his critics.

BERMAN: I talked to him about that email about mask wearing, and I asked him if he went back in time would he give different advice, and he said yes, but that's not the question. You can't go back in time. You give the advice you can give based on what you know at the time. So really there are two separate issues.

There has also been fascinating reporting on how Fauci in a way has become a vessel for criticism from the right because they are having a hard time having anything stick on Joe Biden, so they're turning to Fauci instead.

I want to play this sound. You talked about the name calling, and you did bring that up. And there was some interesting talking points from Dr. Fauci on these names. Listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER: I put very little weight in the adulation, and very little weight in the craziness of condemning me.

Now, the other thing is that it gets preposterous. And the thing that bothers you most of all is the impact it has on your family. Getting death threats and getting your daughters and your wife threatened with obscene notes and threatening notes is not fun. So, I can't say that doesn't bother me. The more extreme they get, the more obvious how political it is. Like Fauci is like Hitler, Fauci has blood on his hands. [08:10:00]

Are you kidding me? Anybody who is just thinking about this in a dispassionate way has got to say, what the heck are those people talking about? Here's a guy whose entire life has been devoted to saving lives, and now you're telling me he's like Hitler? Come on, folks. Get real.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Obviously, it has nothing to do with his views on science. Of course, it bothers him.

SWISHER: Yes, of course. Absolutely. I think it did, and I think it does. And yesterday he was in D.C. trying to get people to take vaccines and is trying to push, get the numbers up higher, and he was surrounded by security. And I think that's one of the things, is a lot of this does foment some danger to his family and himself, actually. But I think this is someone who has worked in public health for so many years, and obviously over the years so many different crises in public health, and I think he's sort of shocked by these, even now is still shocked by the amount of vituperative tweeting about him, comments about him, how it has taken over the misinformation and stuff, and just for raising issues.

And again, he didn't say he wasn't -- wasn't correct at the beginning of it. It's that his thinking evolved. And it's a little more subtle, a lot of the things that he said. And so that's the problem. You can't have a cogent debate about what to do even if you have differences of opinion, and you certainly can. And that's what I think bothers him most. But I suspect he's worried for his family, and he should be.

BERMAN: Kara Swisher, I have to say, it was a fascinating discussion with Dr. Fauci, as all of your discussions are.

SWISHER: Thank you.

BERMAN: Thanks so much for joining us this morning.

SWISHER: Thanks very much, John.

BERMAN: Just ahead, a nation numb to gun violence. The number of mass shootings in the U.S. since Friday alone in double digits.

KEILAR: Plus, what it's like to be the target of false QAnon conspiracy theories. Former Clinton and Obama adviser John Podesta will join us next.

And a U.S. million veteran who survived combat says something else he experienced in the war zone is now killing him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I could be dead tomorrow. I could live another six months. No one knows.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:15:42]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The QAnon conspiracy theory, the belief that the world is controlled by some satanic cabal that would somehow be vanquished by former President Donald Trump, it is so obviously insidious, so obviously an absurd, ridiculous lie, yet it has followers, and followers the F.B.I. says will become more violent.

John Podesta was one of the central original targets of the group when it gained traction in 2016. He was a top adviser to Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, and a former Chair for Hillary Clinton's 2016 campaign.

John, thanks so much for being with us today. I just wanted to ask, you know, what it's like to be the target of something this absurd, yet so dangerous.

JOHN PODESTA, FOUNDER, CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS: Well, look, I think you heard that a little bit in the conversation between Kara Swisher and Dr. Fauci. It is certainly no fun to be at the receiving end of a violent conspiracy theory.

And I think what particularly gets to you is that it spreads out. They attack your family, et cetera, and there is no way to fight back because I think really, particularly in the early days, the social media platforms did very, very little to police what was going on and it just spreads.

Now, we have this situation where the F.B.I. has to warn the country about domestic violent extremism emanating from this theory. But I think if you look at who can do something about it, you look around and social media platforms, particularly Facebook, have done little to suppress it.

You look at the Republican Party. They've obviously promoted it. They believe it's in their political interest. You have Members of Congress who embrace it.

So, there's nothing, I think, to do other than to continue to fight back on the lies and to really take seriously the issues around domestic violent extremism, which we saw play out in the Capitol on January 6th.

So, you know, I think from a personal perspective, as Dr. Fauci said, it is frustrating, it's annoying and it -- you know, it is something that effects your family as well as you, so ...

BERMAN: You've also been a target of Russian hacks, one of the biggest, obviously most important one. President Biden just met with Vladimir Putin, handed him a list of 16 areas he would like to see as no-go areas in terms of cyberwarfare back and forth, do you think that goes far enough at this point with Russia? PODESTA: Well, you know, I think the President had an important

meeting with the president of Russia, with Vladimir Putin. He laid down the red lines, particularly with respect to our democracy and critical infrastructure. And I think that Putin now knows there is someone serious in the White House who is going to push back rather than enable the kinds of activities that Putin was engaged with including the tremendous attack on our democracy in the 2016 campaign, and there will be consequences.

And I think that President Biden did a good job in laying that down, trying to re-establish both our alliances in the meeting he had at NATO and G7 and the E.U. Summit before that, but also saying to Putin that there are no-go areas and you will suffer severe consequences if you don't get the Russian government and the people you have enabled, hackers involved, in line. Some of them are making money, some of them are related to Russian Intelligence.

But I think he was pretty clear that no more of this shit.

BERMAN: You have supported creating a White House office to deal with declassifying information about UFOs, in this area specifically. What exactly are you asking for and why?

[08:20:06]

PODESTA: Well, you know, it's funny. I've been on this journey for a little while. I kind of got into it because I've been an advocate for open government and declassification my whole career, and met some people trying to get documents around UFOs. They were stymied in doing that.

Twenty years ago, if you uttered the word "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena" or "UFO," you were laughed out of the room. Now, we know there have been interesting phenomena that military pilots have seen around that videos of which have been taken, they have been released.

I commend my friend, Senator Harry Reid, for pushing The Pentagon to both collect this information and put it out. But it is generally been one of those situations where it operates in classified channels.

And I think that --

BERMAN: But have you seen them? I guess, one of -- my question, John is that, a lot of people see you who have been on the inside, calling for this stuff to be released, calling for more to be done. And one wonders, do you actually know something the rest of us don't?

PODESTA: Well, you know, look, I know that there is information that has been collected by the U.S. government that has not been released to the public, and let the scientists debate what these phenomena are. We've now seen, as a result reporting by "The New York Times" and others the video evidence of these unidentified aerial phenomena. Let's put it out there, let people debate it.

The Director of National Intelligence now is required to issue a report on what -- gathering some additional information, putting it out by the end of this month, and I think the public has a lot of interest in this. And to date, you know, or at least until really the very last couple of years, again, you were kind of just -- you know, it was a joke.

But I don't think people think it's all that funny. They want to know what's going on. They see the video and I think it's worth having a public debate about what the government has collected and it shouldn't be viewed as something that's kind of off limits and relegated to science fiction or fantasy.

BERMAN: John Podesta, great discussion. As they say, the truth is out there. Appreciate it.

PODESTA: The truth is out there.

BERMAN: Appreciate your time.

PODESTA: Thank you.

BERMAN: Up next, we're going to from the hero security guard who stopped a gunman opening fire inside a grocery store.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: And just in, as we get closer to the Olympic Games, we are now learning who will be allowed in to watch and how many will be allowed in to watch.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:27:00]

BERMAN: Ten mass shootings in the U.S. since Friday night, seven people killed, at least 45 injured. Among the victims, at least two children, a 10-year-old and 15-year-old. They include one killed and three injured in Atlantic City, New Jersey; four injured in Newark, New Jersey. One killed and four injured at a Juneteenth celebration in Aurora, Colorado. One killed, four injured at a bar in Granger, Indiana. Four injured in a parking lot in Richmond, Virginia. Two children among eight injured at two parties in Dallas. One killed, six wounded at a lake in Oakland. One killed, four injured in Anchorage, Alaska. Two killed, four injured after a concert in Baton Rouge. Finally, five wounded in Minneapolis.

KEILAR: Now, a security guard has been hailed as a hero after his race to try and rescue an Atlanta-area grocery store clerk who was shot and killed over a mask mandate in the store.

Forty-one-year-old, LaQuitta Willis was gunned down last week after an argument with a customer who refused to wear a mask. The guard was also shot multiple times while coming to her aid, and he is joining us now. Danny Jordan, he is a retired DeKalb County Police officer and he is a part time security guard at Big Bear Grocery Store where the shooting happened.

Danny, thank you so much. I'm so sorry, I know you knew LaQuitta for many years. Can you tell us how you're doing? DANNY JORDAN, SECURITY GUARD W.H.O. TRIED TO SAVE LIFE OF GROCERY

STORE CLERK: Brianna, this morning, physically, I am starting to heal a little bit, but psychologically, it's going to take me a minute to process this, I get that.

KEILAR: You were shot in the arm and also the chest?

JORDAN: Yes, ma'am, the right arm and the chest area, but the vest actually stopped the bullet from going into my chest.

KEILAR: And, you know, just take us through what happened here, because I know at the beginning of this kind of altercation, you actually weren't too worried. Tell us what you saw, what led up to this.

JORDAN: Well, what I initially saw, I saw the male leave out of the store. A few seconds later, I saw him return, which was no big deal. People do that all the time.

I later saw him walk down to, we call her "Quit", LaQuitta -- I later I saw him walk to her register which was probably 30 or 40 feet -- probably the furthest register from me. And I could hear them discussing something about the mask, which that discussion isn't abnormal, because you hear that often, not only in the store, but everywhere these days, about whether somebody wants to wear the mask or not.

So, I wasn't too worried about it. Any time somebody gets out of hand, they normally just call me over and we kind of discuss it. Therefore, I kind of turned my attention just panning the rest of the store. And when I looked back, I saw both of them struggling like her hands were in the air and his hands were in the air as though they were fighting.

My immediate understanding was that I can't believe this guy is actually fighting this female over a mask. So, I took off to run down there and deal with him fighting her.

About five feet before I got to him, somebody yelled out "gun." And at that point, of course, I slowed down, drew my weapon, but almost simultaneously, I just heard a gunshot, and I never actually saw her get shot, but I heard a gunshot and took cover and that's -- a few seconds later, he and I were in a gun battle.

[08:30:29]