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New Day
Warnings the Taliban May Seize Kabul; West Virginia College to Charge Unvaccinated Students $750; Third of U.S. Under Heat Alert; Atlanta School accused of Segregation. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired August 12, 2021 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[06:34:13]
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating at an alarming rate. Overnight, another provincial capital fell to the Taliban. That's the tenth in just the past week. U.S. intelligence assessments now warn that the Afghan capital of Kabul could be cut off and collapse in one or two months.
CNN's Kylie Atwood joins us now.
This is a dire intelligence assessment for this city, which was supposed to be much more secure than the rest of the country, Kylie.
KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John, this is not good news, right? If you look at this, 30 to 60 days, that's before the end of the year, that is sometime in October when one intelligence assessment is saying that Kabul could be isolated by the Taliban, therefore increasing the likelihood that it could fall to the Taliban.
Now, another intelligence assessment is giving the timeframe 90 days for when this collapse could come.
[06:35:06]
There are multiple assessments out there. There are multiple timeframes out there. But the bottom line is that these are all giving a shorter amount of time for when Afghanistan -- for when Kabul specifically, for when the Afghan government specifically could fall to the Taliban, then the intelligence assessments earlier this year were giving.
And this comes as the Taliban is making these military gains across the country. It's happening at a faster rate, I am told, than many U.S. officials expected it to happen.
Now, the Pentagon is not commenting on any intelligence assessments coming out of Afghanistan. They, of course, say that they are closely monitoring the situation. But the U.S. military withdrawal is now more than 95 percent complete and President Biden, even as these military gains by the Taliban are occurring, is not at all backing away from his decision for this military withdrawal to happen by the end of this month.
He was asked about it earlier this week. He said he's not going to change his decision. He said he has no regrets. And he also said that the Afghan people have to fight for themselves.
John.
BERMAN: You know, in the meantime, one of these provincial capitals seems to be falling every day.
Kylie Atwood, thank you so much for your reporting.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk more about this now with CNN military analyst and the head of geopolitical strategy for Academy Securities, Major General James "Spider" Marks, retired, of course.
Sir, I just wonder, now the question is, and I didn't think that I would be asking you this so soon, but can Kabul hold and until when?
MAJ. GEN. JAMES "SPIDER" MARKS, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, I'm not certain Kabul can hold, as you can see from this map where we are and remember we still have forces in Iraq and Syria doing some close-out operations. Not sure how long we're going to be there.
But I think what's -- what's really important to realize is that, you know, here's Kabul. Here's where the government continues to control. So the point that everybody is making is that Kabul might be isolated. I don't know that it's going to collapse immediately. This is a city of 6 million plus people. I mean to take the city over, for the Taliban to go block by block and to assume tight control, that's simply -- the physics of that will simply take a considerable amount of time. The estimates might be 90 days. No reason not to believe that.
But certainly what's going to happen, based on what we see on the map, is increasingly the control of the country now belongs to the Taliban. And what's going to happen is Kabul, inevitably, will be completely isolated. Then it's just a matter of waiting, which can happen. Some form of negotiation moving forward. Let's not destroy the entire city. Let's not disenfranchise everyone with an incredibly brutal campaign, which the Taliban certainly can do.
So I would anticipate isolation, then some form of negotiation and talks coming forward.
KEILAR: Here in recent days, as Berman was saying, we have seen, it seems every day, there is a provincial capital that is falling to the Taliban, at least ten regional capitals. What does this mean for the U.S. that all of these gains have been made? What would it mean for the U.S. if this encroachment on Kabul gets even more so?
MARKS: Primarily what it means over the course of two decades, and this is the tragedy of all of this, over the course of 20-plus years, the United States has tried to create an Afghan military, a form of security forces, both law enforcement as well as military, and we've invested time, we've invested money but, most importantly, we've invested the lives of service members on the ground in order to give Afghanistan some time. That's what that's all about.
Look, we'll -- we, the soldiers and the Marines on the ground, will fight as hard as they can and look over their shoulder and say, OK, you guys get your act together. We're here for you. So we did that for 20 year. You think about that sacrifice. And now we have not only what we're seeing on the ground, but also contributing to that is the United States left a good amount of kit, of equipment, of vehicles, of armaments that now the Afghan military is walking away from. And guess who's taking control of that to increase the momentum that they're gaining. It's the Taliban.
KEILAR: That's a very good point. The expectation, and we've seen this happen before, is that it does fall into enemy hands.
General, thank you so much for talking about this, this morning. We appreciate it.
MARKS: You bet. Thanks, Brianna.
KEILAR: At one West Virginia college, you don't have to get vaccinated, but if you choose not to, it's going to cost you several hundred dollars. We'll have the college's president joining us next.
BERMAN: Plus, a frightening incident onboard a plane when a passenger tried to light his phone on fire. The details, coming up.
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KEILAR: As more and more colleges mandate vaccines, one college in West Virginia is going a different route. They're asking the unvaccinated, pay up. West Virginia Wesleyan College will not require students be to be vaccinated but the school will charge a $750 fee for people who show up unvaccinated by September 7th.
Let's talk about this now with the college's president, Joel Thierstein, who is here with us.
Joel, thanks for being with us this morning.
Can you just tell us what is this amount? Is this an incentive to get vaccinated or is this just about cost recovery?
JOE THIERSTEIN, PRESIDENT, WEST VIRGINIA WESLEYAN COLLEGE: This is about cost recovery. We have a collaborative decision making process at our college, faculty and staff and students all weigh in on the processes that we -- and the eventually policies that we issue.
[06:45:05]
And they are -- we got together this summer and decided that rather than spread the cost of testing and what have you across the entire campus, we would apply it to those who have decided not to get vaccinated. And it's -- it's solely for the purpose of cost recovery. KEILAR: OK, so right now I think it's 90 percent staff, you say, are
vaccinated, 80 percent of your students are vaccinated. You have international students who are thrilled to be coming and getting vaccinated.
Are you hearing from the students who are not vaccinated? What are they telling you?
THIERSTEIN: Yes, we hear from everybody. And so, obviously when you make a decision, some people are happy, some are not. The general consensus is that this is -- this is the right thing to do. The students have been even advocating for mandatory vaccine. The student leadership came us to with that proposal. We have not gone that route, as you said. So we're looking to just make sure our costs are recovered.
By the same token, if we find alternative sources of support for the testing, we'll go with those and the fee will go away.
KEILAR: Can I ask you, will you require a vaccine if it is no longer emergency use and it goes to full approval next month?
THIERSTEIN: Yes, that's a good question. And we have told our community that we would look at that decision again once the FDA approves it for non-emergency use. But that will be the next time we look at it.
Again, we have a collaborative decision making process. Students will weigh in. The faculty will weigh in and staff. And then we'll come together and make a decision.
KEILAR: All right, Joel, we'll track what that decision is. Good luck here in the next few weeks as you get ready to start the school year. Thanks for being with us.
THIERSTEIN: Appreciate it. Thanks for the time this morning.
KEILAR: And be sure to join CNN for the "We Love New York City: The Homecoming Concert." This is a once-in-a-lifetime concert event that will take place Saturday, August 21st, exclusively on CNN.
The CDC is now recommending vaccinations for pregnant women. Dr. Sanjay Gupta answers all of your questions coming up.
BERMAN: Plus, a mother in Atlanta has filed a civil rights complaint alleging her children's elementary school is being segregated by race. She joins us next.
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[06:51:03]
BERMAN: This morning, a third of the country under a heat alert. Excessive heat settling over many regions, including the already hard- hit Northwest where temperatures could soon soar to 25 degrees above normal. Let's get to meteorologist Chad Myers.
Chad, that seems hot.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is. I mean over 100 degrees in Portland? Many people there don't have air-conditioning.
Now, we have a number of levels of how hot it can be, you know, advisories and all that, but the Northeast, too, also under the highest level of heat warnings. The excessive heat warning for the Northeast.
This weather is brought to you by Carvana, the new way to buy a car.
So how hot? Well, New York City, you're going to feel over 100. And many spots up and down I-95 will be over 100 degrees, feels like temperature. That's the heat and humidity kind of added together because your body can't perspire and evaporate and cool itself down. The temperature actually on the thermometer in Boston will be 96.
Look at Seattle, over 95 degrees there probably in many of the suburbs. It will go 104 in Portland for later on this afternoon.
We're also looking at Fred. Fred is still out there. Not looking very good today. It is a tropical depression now because it rly ran over Espanol (ph), the Dominican Republic and Haiti. And that tore the storm apart.
But where does it go? It does probably get into the Gulf of Mexico, right over The Keys, but so far so good, not a hurricane, but doesn't take a hurricane to make flooding.
We'll keep watching that, John.
BERMAN: We're still looking at Fred. Fred had a rough night.
MYERS: Yes.
BERMAN: Chad Myers, thank you very much for that.
MYERS: You're welcome. Sure.
BERMAN: Hospitals across the south running out of ICU beds and on the brink of collapse this morning. We're going to speak to a doctor in Texas who said he's scared of what's coming.
KEILAR: Plus, are three Republican governors who are taking anti- science positions in their fight against COVID going to pay for it come 2024?
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[06:57:38]
BERMAN: An Atlanta family is filing a federal complaint against their children's elementary school, saying that the principal has been segregating students by race. In a statement to CNN, Atlanta Public Schools told us they do not condone the assigning of students to classrooms based on race. As such, the district conducted a review concerning allegations of this conduct at Mary Lin Elementary School. At the conclusion of the review, appropriate actions were taken to address the issue and the matter was, quote, closed.
Kia Posey filed this complaint. She joins us now. And her attorney, Sharese Shields, is also with us.
Kia, thanks so much for being with us.
What happened here? How did --
KIA POSEY, FILED FEDERAL COMPLAINT AFTER ATLANTA SCHOOL SEGREGATED CLASSES BY RACE: Thank you for having me.
BERMAN: How did you find out that your child was being, as you put it, segregated by race?
POSEY: I found out directly from the principal. She -- my husband is on staff. And she allows staff to select who -- what class their student is in. So I made the selection for our family, our students.
And she called me and asked if I wanted a different teacher. And I explained to her that I did not. I didn't think that those teachers would be a good fit. And she proceeded to ask about another teacher. And I said no. I think the one that I selected would be a good fit for her.
And I began to ask, you know, what's wrong? Is the teacher not on the grade level anymore? And she stated, no, she's going to be on the grade level. And I said, well, I think she should stay, you know, with that person. And she said, well, if she stays with her, she won't have anyone that looks like her in the classroom.
And I said, that's odd. I said, well where are all the black kids? What happened? And she said, well, that's not the black class. And I said, excuse me? What does that mean? Do we have those? And she went on to say that she was only allowing the black students to have access to two of the classrooms when all of the white students have access to all six classrooms.
[07:00:06]
And I explained to her why it was wrong.
