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Arkansas Nurse Combats Insults And Disinformation About Vaccine; Hunter Biden To Meet With Potential Art Buyers Despite Concerns; CIA Watchdog To Review "Havana Syndrome" Cases Amid Escalation. Aired 7:30-8a ET
Aired July 23, 2021 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[07:30:00]
JOHN AVLON, CNN ANCHOR: Next time that Republicans --
KIRSTEN POWERS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.
AVLON: -- the Senate or president. So that's just practical. How do you answer it?
POWERS: That's always -- I mean, that's always the situation.
AVLON: Yes.
POWERS: But the point is right now, the country is on fire, democracy is on fire. I think that when you -- when the things that you care about -- you know, if you care about voting rights, if you care about investigating how -- you know, actually getting to the bottom of things like January sixth, which Republicans have no interest in -- you can see that there is a real disconnect, OK?
And so, in terms of getting voting rights passed so that people can vote and so that we can have democracy, I think would be worth it.
Is it -- you know, you can call it hypocritical if you want. I mean -- but it's kind of weird listening to a Republican talk about hypocrisy.
I mean, look, hypocrisy happens. That's not the most important thing. The most important thing is that we're in a situation right now where we have some major issues and I think that if we don't deal with them we're literally putting democracy at risk.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Scott, last word to you.
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER CAMPAIGN ADVISER TO SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL: Look, I just fundamentally disagree that democracy is at risk. We've had massive turnout in the last two elections. We have more political engagement now than at any time during my career and at any time going back several generations. I don't think that's going to change.
I think Democrats are dramatically overplaying the dangers to democracy. I think people are going to continue to participate, continue to vote, and federalizing our election systems and blowing up the filibuster to do it would be a terrible thing to do and set a terrible precedent and have damaging repercussions for both parties in the years to come.
KEILAR: Scott and Kirsten -- look, you both feel very strongly about this topic and we certainly appreciate you talking it out with us here today. Thanks to you both.
AVLON: Absolutely.
KEILAR: So you're about to meet a frontline nurse in Arkansas who says that she faces a torrent of insults and lies just for doing her job.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SUNNY, ARKANSAS NURSE: We heard it more than once that we were just fudging the numbers or we were killing people on purpose to make COVID look like it was worse than it was or to make it look real when it wasn't.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: We'll hear more from her in her own words, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:36:21]
KEILAR: Vaccine hesitancy remains a persistent problem in the country. And in Arkansas, one nurse who is fighting to save lives says she's also facing a torrent of verbal abuse and now she's taken to social media to fight back.
Here's CNN's Elle Reeve.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SUNNY: You need some help in?
It was extremely difficult to watch so many people die and then have people tell you on Facebook or in Walmart that you're a liar.
ELLE REEVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sunny worked on a COVID floor of a hospital at the height of the pandemic. Being a nurse was hard but what made it surreal was living in western Arkansas where many people, even some in her own family, said COVID was overblown -- just the flu.
SUNNY: The nurses were really the symbol for this whole pandemic and almost all of the hate has centralized around us. Nurses got PTSD. A lot of us are suffering from it from last year and now we're having people come in and look us in the face and be like no, I didn't get the vaccine and now I'm sick.
REEVE (voice-over): Arkansas has the third-lowest COVID-19 vaccination rate in the country. Just 36 percent of the population is fully vaccinated. Like many places with low vaccination rates, it's now seeing a spike in cases.
REEVE (on camera): Are you going to get the vaccine?
MIKE CLARK, ARKANSAS RESIDENT: I have not and I will not. I'm not a Guinea pig. There's no change.
REEVE (on camera): You got COVID?
RONNIE ROGERS, BARBER: I did. That's the reason why I'm getting it. But then after I got over COVID I had a heart attack.
REEVE (on camera): So why would you not get the vaccine?
CLARK: I might have a bad reaction to it.
REEVE (on camera): I see.
CLARK: Oh, that's good -- that's better. (Looking in mirror at haircut).
You know, I believe that it's a freedom issue. And I've worn a mask probably a maximum of one hour in the entire who thing since this COVID came out. If it's so communicable why am I still standing?
SUNNY: We had people accuse us of giving their loved one something else so that they would die and we could report it as COVID. We heard it more than once that we were just fudging the numbers or we were killing people on purpose to make COVID look like it was worse than it was or to make it look real when it wasn't.
For the first majority of the pandemic, we wore the same N95 for like one to two weeks at a time.
REEVE (on camera): Tell me what you think about the term "healthcare heroes."
SUNNY: I think it sucks.
REEVE (on camera): Why?
SUNNY: When they dubbed us healthcare heroes it just -- it gave the public this really wrong impression that we were sacrificial lambs and willing to die for them. We want to help people, you know. I want to save lives. I want people to get better but not at the expense of my family's lives either.
Then you have the public going well, you signed up for this. No, I didn't. When I was 17 and enlisted in the Army I knew that I might die for my country. When I was 22 and went to nursing school that wasn't on the agenda, you know? Like, I didn't volunteer to die for everybody.
And even with the vaccine now, it's still a highly politicized thing for no good reason. REEVE (voice-over): Last year, Sunny started venting on TikTok.
SUNNY: You're just trying to spread fear. If that's what it takes to get you to listen to me, sure.
I had avoided posting about COVID for a long time because of the negative reactions I got. Like, it hurts my feelings. But just a couple of weeks ago I had people in my inboxes threatening to kill me, calling me a murderer -- saying I helped kill those people.
I get called a crisis actor all the time.
Is my thing now to respond to hate comments with -- for just $10.00 into my Venmo account and I'll tell you the truth about COVID-19 and crisis acting? I've made about $100.00, so --
REEVE (on camera): Like, really?
SUNNY: Yes.
REEVE (on camera): Wait -- and people like send you $10.00 and you're like yes, I'm not a crisis actor?
[07:40:00]
SUNNY: Well, I'm just like crisis acting isn't real and COVID is real, so surprise. I said I'd tell you the truth. Not the truth you wanted to hear but, you know.
REEVE (voice-over): Sunny says dark jokes bring some relief from a darker reality, like that her own health is at risk.
Her fellow nurse, Hazel Bailey, got COVID last August and was on a ventilator for 42 days.
HAZEL BAILEY, FORMER NURSE WHO GOT COVID-19. It's real. COVID's real. I nearly died from it and will probably have issues from it for the rest of my life.
I have family that -- they believe that it's real but they're not concerned with taking the vaccine. They understand some people get it and it's not bad, but I got it and it was bad.
And now, we're seeing this new variant hit and it's really hitting Arkansas (crying). I'm sorry -- sorry. My sister doesn't have the vaccine.
REEVE (voice-over): Sunny says that recently, COVID patients have been telling her they got it at church. This week, Arkansas had its biggest spike in cases since February and it has the worst case rate in the country.
The state is offering vaccination incentives like free lottery tickets. It hasn't convinced many.
REEVE (on camera): Did anyone you know get COVID? JOY STARR, ARKANSAS RESIDENT: My son had COVID.
REEVE (on camera): How old is he?
STARR: Eight.
REEVE (on camera): Wow. So that's like pretty rare for like --
STARR: Yes.
REEVE (on camera): -- a young kid. What was that like?
STARR: He was sick a lot. He's been sick a lot for a while and he's still sick. So I'm going to have to go get him looked at and see if there's further damage. I don't know. I mean, his -- he got real sick.
REEVE (on camera): Yes.
STARR: Fever every day for weeks.
REEVE (on camera): Are you guys going to get the vaccine?
STARR: No, no vaccine.
REEVE (on camera): How come?
STARR: I just don't trust the government.
REEVE (on camera): Are you going to get the vaccine?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely not. Our kids are not going to get it. None of us.
REEVE (on camera): How come?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I mean, I figure I'll just let the world work its natural ways.
REEVE (on camera): OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have taken other vaccines, ever, so --
REEVE (on camera): Yes. Are you able to get like religious exemption at school for your kids? Is that how --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. I mean, we take the stuff that you have to.
REEVE (on camera): So what do you mean when you say you don't usually get vaccines?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We didn't do the pig flu swine thing or whatever that was. We didn't do any of the -- any of the four (ph). It's something that I don't -- I don't believe in. You know, I mean, I haven't ever. It seems it only comes about every presidency and it seems like it's either crowd control or whatever you want to call it.
But I don't want my family to have nothing to do with it. We've always been healthy and it just seems to work better that way.
REEVE (voice-over): Not everyone around here feels this way.
TERRY "COWBOY": I think you need to get it because it's not only helping you, it's going to help your whole family -- everybody around you. It's better to take a chance on the shot than it is to take a chance on the COVID. Cowboy up and go in there and get a shot and come out of there like a grownup, you know?
SUNNY: Come here. Come here.
One of my biggest fears is like this new wave of COVID. We're seeing a lot of nurses with compassion fatigue and I am really scared how that's going to play out because a lot of the cases that we're seeing are in non-vaccinated individuals.
If I had a patient come in that wasn't vaccinated, with COVID, like I have -- like I'm obviously still going to treat them to the best of my ability. But I do know some nurses that had to quit because they just don't have it in them to do that.
A lot of Arkansans would give you the shirt off their back to help you out -- for a stranger, really. I think that a lot of people being anti-COVID and anti-vaccine is just a product of the way that we were raised here. But they're not bad people.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: And Elle Reeve is with us now. Elle, this report of yours is tremendous and I think it really brings the humanity to the discussion about vaccinations that is often lacking. And I just wonder having spoken with these nurses, do they have any ideas on how to convince their neighbors to go ahead and get vaccinated, or do they say there's just -- there's no way to.
REEVE: So, Hazel Bailey, the nurse who was on a ventilator -- when we went to her house she had Fox News blaring on a huge T.V. She's not necessarily a fan of our network.
But she wanted to get the message out. And so, I was like you know these people best. Like, how would you convince them? And she said I don't know.
And then she said something that really stuck with me, which was our country will never be the same after COVID.
KEILAR: Why did -- why did she say that?
REEVE: Because she thinks that it will always be around the corner -- another variant. That's it's always going to be sweeping through people. And that these attitudes are so baked in that there doesn't seem to be anything that can change it.
KEILAR: Yes. We'll be living with it. If we are living with it there will always be people dying from it, and that is the reality.
Elle, great report, as always. Elle Reeve, thank you.
REEVE: Thanks.
KEILAR: Up next, the White House facing an ethical dilemma over Hunter Biden selling his artwork.
AVLON: And, solving the mystery of Havana Syndrome. The government taking a new look at these possible attacks on Americans.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:49:13]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We have set up a system which we feel is appropriate -- has appropriate safeguards. We believe that Hunter Biden, just like any child of a president, should be able to pursue their professions and their passions. And any selling of the art would be through the gallerists.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: White House press secretary Jen Psaki there talking about an agreement reached with an art gallery. And this comes as first son Hunter Biden is expected to meet with potential buyers, raising ethical questions about possible influence peddling.
Walter Shaub is with us now. He is a senior fellow at the Project on Government Oversight who led the Office of Government Ethics under former President Barack Obama from 2013 to 2017.
And you say, Walter, that the White House is outsourcing government ethics to an art dealer. Why?
[07:50:02]
WALTER SCHAUB, SENIOR ETHICS FELLOW, PROJECT ON GOVERNMENT OVERSIGHT, FORMER DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF GOVERNMENT ETHICS: They've put an art dealer in charge of keeping a secret. And really, what he's doing is keeping a secret from the public because eventually, Hunter Biden or people in the White House will learn who it's going to be.
In fact, Hunter Biden, we now know, is going to be at two art showings where he will meet the universe of bidders on his art. So they left that detail out when they told us he had no way of knowing who was buying his art.
AVLON: Now, obviously, the adult children of presidents have jobs. They have lives. They may even have hobbies. But art, you say, is actually sort of different because of the nature of it being priced somewhat capriciously and that it is -- can be, at a very high end, used to actually launder money and other things.
Explain how art is different and what the right way to do this might have been. SHAUB: So there's no intrinsic value to the art. It's whatever anybody says they want to pay for it. The problem is they're buying it from the president's son at prices that you would never see for a first-time art sale.
There's a local artist collective in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside Washington, D.C., where if you go, really well-established artists who've been doing this for years and have quite a following are selling for $2,000 to $5,000. And he's not even at that level because this is his first sale.
So it really doesn't matter whether anyone likes his art or not. The question is can you find anyone other than a president's son who showed up on the scene and started selling for the cost of a house and a half because $295,000 was the price of the average home sale last year and he's selling for up to $500.
KEILAR: So should we know then who the buyer is? Should the American public know, and what kind of assurances does the White House need to give?
SHAUB: So, ideally, Hunter Biden wouldn't be doing this because it sure looks like profiting off the presidency. But if they couldn't talk him out of doing it there is something that's within their control. They could promise us today that if they happen to learn who any of the buyers are they will notify us immediately and they will tell us again if any of those buyers get a meeting with the White House or any other political appointee.
AVLON: Or I guess Hunter Biden could do this under a pen name and his real value to be established by the market, not his name.
SHAUB: I have a feeling if he did it under a pen name he wouldn't get much for it.
KEILAR: That's very interesting.
AVLON: We'll see.
Walter Shaub, good to see you.
All right. New this morning, the inspector general of the CIA now reviewing the handling of Havana Syndrome cases. The mysterious incidents believed to be by some -- to be microwave energy attacks, possibly by Russia, have injured a growing number of diplomats and other U.S. officials, mostly based abroad.
CNN's Katie Bo Williams joins me now. So, Katie Bo, what can you tell us about the status of this review and the escalating aspects of it?
KATIE BO WILLIAMS, CNN REPORTER: Yes. So what the inspector general at the CIA is looking into is essentially, how CIA officers who came forward with this weird constellation of symptoms that we've come to call Havana Syndrome -- how they were handled internally within the agency. What kind of healthcare they received, what kind of benefits. Now, it's important to note that this is not a full-blown inspector general investigation. This is a review to determine whether or not an investigation is needed.
But it is -- it is notable given the criticism that we've heard from victims and some former officials who've said that -- particularly in the early days, officials who came forward with these symptoms were essentially gaslighted by senior leadership at the CIA and were unable to get the kind of healthcare that they so badly needed. And some of these people are quite sick.
AVLON: So that's important. These folks have actually been vindicated in the eyes of the institution. These are real cases, they're real effects. But what we still don't know is what specifically might have caused them. And tell us how expansive this is now. So tell us the latest on how many people are affected and what the working theory is that this might be.
WILLIAMS: Yes. So what we know now is that there are about 200 cases worldwide over the last about five to six years. One hundred of those are involving CIA officers.
We do know that there seems to be a spike right now. Cases are kind of mushrooming around the globe. We've seen a new set of dozens of victims come home from Vienna, which is kind of -- or I should say report in Vienna, which is kind of a hotspot for spies.
AVLON: Yes.
WILLIAMS: New cases in Africa that was previously unreported. So this is very much still happening and it's happening now.
One of the things that I think has been very tricky for the CIA and for the Intelligence Community at large is it's been very difficult to determine whether any one person who is reporting these symptoms is experiencing the same thing as another person who is reporting these symptoms. They don't have a great handle on diagnosing these cases yet. Oh, definitively, you have Havana Syndrome.
But the working theory right now is that this is Russia using some kind of microwave or directed energy device either to collect intelligence on intelligence officers worldwide or possibly to harm them.
AVLON: That's fascinating. That is fascinating. And this story, we're going to be hearing a lot more because this is spy stuff in real life with a very damaging influence on the individuals.
[07:55:00]
Thank you, Katie Bo Williams.
WILLIAMS: Absolutely. Thank you.
AVLON: All right. Just ahead, the debate over bringing back mask mandates. What will the CDC decide to do? KEILAR: And the new FBI warning about hackers at the Olympics.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
AVLON: In Kentucky, a 6-year-old girl is lucky to be safe with her family after being abducted by a kidnapper who snatched her from her bike. CNN's Amara Walker has more with the police officers who went beyond the call of duty to rescue her.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
POLICE OFFICER: Open the passenger door! Open the passenger door!
AMARA WALKER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This was a heart- stopping moment for officers searching for an abducted girl -- their guns drawn while Louisville Officer Jason Burba, a father of four, approaches the alleged kidnapper's vehicle as seen from his bodycam.
OFFICER JASON BURBA, LOUISVILLE METRO POLICE DEPARTMENT: You never know what you're going to see when you open that door.
Hello. It's OK. Come here. It's OK.
SIX-YEAR-OLD ABDUCTED GIRL: I want my daddy.
WALKER (voice-over): You can hear the terror in the cries of the 6- year-old girl.
BURBA: When I picked her up I could just feel her squeeze around my neck.
SGT. JOE KEELING, LOUISVILLE METRO POLICE DEPARTMENT: That was when it really hit hard for me was hearing how hard of a cry it was and how hard she was having trouble even breathing.
WALKER (voice-over): Sgt. Joe Keeling got the initial call in early July just after 5:00 p.m. He tracked down the suspect thanks to this father and son living six houses down from the victim. They happened to be outside when the little girl was snatched right off her bike in front of her home.
PRENTISS WEATHERFORD, GOOD SAMARITAN: I mean, it was 15 seconds he got her and was gone.
WALKER (voice-over): Prentiss Weatherford and his father Terry jumped in their car and followed the suspect and called 911 with a partial tag and car description.
DISPATCHER: What color and type of vehicle were they in?
CALLER: We're in a Challenger.
WALKER (voice-over): Within 10 minutes, Sgt. Keeling had his suspect.
KEELING: Hand -- put your hands in the air. Stay right there.
WALKER (voice-over): He kept the suspect on his knees while backup arrived.
Sgt. Keeling, who is also a father, says he had to take a moment after the girl's rescue.
KEELING: Every single emotion that you can imagine runs through you in about 45 minutes -- 45 seconds to a minute. I even threw my head back on my car seat and just -- was just thank goodness. Thank God we found her.
WALKER (voice-over): The lifesaving efforts of the Louisville Metro Police Department and the Weatherfords were recognized by Sen. Rand Paul on Monday.
SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): To me, this story was an emotional story.
WALKER (voice-over): Although it was Burba and Keeling's first kidnapping call of their careers, their instincts and training mattered the most.
BURBA: You just kind of go from police mode to parent mode. Once you remove that child from the car you try to comfort them like you would your own.
KEELING: We would have gladly stepped in there to get in between him and her. Sacrifice ourselves and got ourselves injured or -- you know, any way to get this little girl out from this nightmare that she was living at the time.
SIX-YEAR-OLD ABDUCTED GIRL: I want my daddy.
WALKER (voice-over): Amara Walker, CNN, Louisville, Kentucky
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: That is an unbelievable story. I know, I know -- unbelievable.
AVLON: Yes, we both have young kids.
KEILAR: Yes.
AVLON: And God bless those officers and love to the family.
KEILAR: I am Brianna Keilar alongside John Avlon this morning. And good morning to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. It is Friday, July 23rd.
And demands are growing louder and more desperate for the unvaccinated to drop their resistance and to get COVID shots. Even with the safe and effective vaccine available, coronavirus is making a dangerous comeback.
