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Atlanta Police Run Program to Help Children with At Least One Parent Incarcerated; New Variant of Coronavirus Detected in South Africa; Markets Down upon News of Coronavirus Variant; Retailers Express Worry over Increased Shoplifting; Philadelphia Reaches 500 Homicides in 2021; GOP'S Boebert Makes Anti-Muslim Remarks About Colleagues. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired November 26, 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]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Risk kids in today's "Beyond the Call."

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Over 120 kids participating in Prison Fellowship's Angel Tree program in Atlanta. A day of football and fun for kids with at least one parent incarcerated. And Atlanta's police department is stepping up, coaching and motivating on the field.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Good job.

ROMERO: Today was the launch of Opportunity Kids, an initiative to change mindsets and the label "at risk youth" to "opportunity kids."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want these kids to grow into the God given potential that all of them have.

ROMERO: And 13 Atlanta police department off duty officers were right there, leading the day's event.

SGT. VINCENT SIMS, ATLANTA POLICE: On a Sunday morning, they're here because they want to be here. They're here because they love kids, they love youth engagement, they love youth interaction.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You dropped that ball, that's OK. Next play. Catch it next time.

SIMS: My overall statement to the youth is we're here for you because we are.

ROMERO: Juvetta Lindsey was there with Desire and Mario, her niece and nephew, whose father has been incarcerated for 13 years. She is now their caretaker.

JUVETTA LINDSEY, CARETAKER: It was important for me to show them support. They can actually see that I'm actually watching, taking videos. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On three. One, two, three! Yes sir?

ROMERO: Ashlee Shiffer went with her 10-year-old son Jace (ph).

ASHLEE SHIFFER, MOTHER: Jace (ph) is so excited. He definitely was, like, up and ready to go this morning.

ROMERO: They moved from Illinois to Atlanta about two years ago.

SHIFFER: Jace's (ph) dad has been incarcerated since he was a one- year-old. So we have always kind of been a tight knit family, and it's really important for me to be there for Jace (ph) since one of his parents is absent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The one with the dreads, I think, he's pretty cool.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, sir, I like it.

DESIRE MARSHALL, CAMP PARTICIPANT: I feel incredible. I'm, like, wow. They really took their time out to come to help us today.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, come on, come on. Right here!

SIMS: Do not fear the police. We are not to be feared. We're here for the community. And we're here for you. We actually care.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And honestly, I had a great time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give it up for the coach.

ROMERO: Nadia Romero, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

KEILAR: Honestly, he did have a great time. Great story there, of course.

And a very good morning to our viewers here in the U.S. and around the world. It is black Friday, November 26th. I am Brianna Keilar. Kaitlan Collins is here, welcome.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I can't believe how quickly these hours go by. It is already 8:00.

KEILAR: I know. We're almost done with work, right? Almost done with work here.

COLLINS: And then we're going shopping.

KEILAR: Yes, online anyways.

Up first, though, breaking news. This is bad news here. It's a new and alarming coronavirus variant that has been discovered in South Africa. And the country is struggling with an explosive spike in COVID cases here over the last several days. And this fast-spreading variant has already been detected in other places like Israel and Hong Kong. Scientists are concerned because it spreads rapidly, and it is showing an ability to evade immunity. There is still a lot to be known about this variant, however. We talked with Dr. Fauci about this just moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF MEDICAL ADVISER: We want to find out scientist to scientist exactly what is going on. But as something that emerged in South Africa and seems to be spreading in a reasonably rapid rate in the sense of when they do test positivity, they're seeing there is a bit more widespread in South Africa than was originally felt a couple of days ago. So it's in a fluid motion. We're finding more about it, and literally it is something in real time we're learning more and more about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Still learning about it in real time. And Dr. Fauci also says there is no indication for now that this variant is in the United States. Overnight, though, the United Kingdom banned flights from six African nations starting today, and the E.U. is confirming that they also plan to halt all air travel from Southern Africa.

CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins us now. So Elizabeth, obviously we are still waiting to get a lot of details here. There have been some variants in the past where the concern was warranted, some where it wasn't. So what are you hearing so far?

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Kaitlan, I'm glad you put it that way, because there have been many variants and many mutations that we don't even hear about because there are so many of them. Some of them kind of peter out and end up being nothing, and other ones literally take over the planet, like the Delta variant. And so we don't know which one this will be.

But there are reasons to be concerned. So let's take a look at what we do know about this variant. So it is called B-11529. It does not have a Greek letter because it has not been called a variant of concern or a variant of interest by the WHO, at least not at this point. It has got more than 30 mutations in the spike protein. That's not good. The spike protein is how the virus does its work. And the vaccine is designed to fight the spike protein.

[08:05:06]

So if it has got too many mutations that are of a particular kind, that could be bad news for the vaccine or for natural infection. U.K., Germany, Japan, and other countries have restricted travel from South Africa.

Now, I want to note that back in January, we were doing stories about another variant that was spotted in South Africa and that one looked terrible. And that one did -- it was in a smattering of other countries, but it never got on to the world stage in the way that, say, Delta did. Again, we just don't know which category this one will belong to. The World Health Organization is meeting right now with South African scientists. It could be declared a variant of concern. There have been four of those during the pandemic, or a variant of interest. There have been two of those. Or perhaps neither. Brianna?

COLLINS: Yes, Elizabeth, thank you so much. And Dr. Fauci also told Brianna that they're going to be speaking with their South African colleagues today to try to learn more about this. And so thank you for joining us. We'll come back to you.

But these fears of a new COVID variant has also sent financial markets into a tailspin, with Dow futures plunging overnight. Our CNN chief business correspondent and EARLY START anchor Christine Romans joins us now. And Christine, of course, there are still a lot of ifs about this, including whether or not the U.S. would potentially restrict travel. And we know right now there are no plans to do so. They're still watching and looking at this. But how are the markets reacting to this, because we know how much they don't like when you don't know what's going to happen?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that uncertainty is ricocheting around the world. Global markets down sharply, Tokyo closing out the week with its worst day in months. European shares, those stock markets opened, they are sharply lower. It's called risk off in market parlance, right? It's where you get out of the stock market and investors rush to the safety of things like the bond market, frankly.

We're also seeing oil prices tumble here, down six percent U.S. oil prices this morning. And that's because there is a fear that all of this -- these developments rapidly -- rapid developments overnight are going to maybe slow demand for oil and slow the economic recovery.

Kaitlan, the U.S. economy was in a pretty good position heading into the end of the year. This week, really if you take away the concerns about inflation, and you take away COVID fatigue in this country, you have a very strong U.S. economy right now. This new development, though, really raises questions about what happens heading into the end of the year and whether we can see an end at some point to this pandemic.

So you have uncertainty reigning here today, market downs very sharply. You'll see the Dow down maybe 700 or 800 points here at the opening bell. The S&P 500 looking like it is about one-and-a-half percent lower here. A quick reminder, markets are open for a shortened trading day today. And they were closed yesterday. And markets do tend to overreact as well. So we'll have to see how all of this plays out. But at least for now it's a rush out of the stock market and into safer havens until we know more, Kaitlan.

COLLINS: And hopefully by Monday when they open again, we do know more about this and there is more details surrounding this. Christine Romans, thanks so much for joining us.

ROMANS: Nice to see you.

COLLINS: Today is also black Friday, the official kickoff to the holiday shopping season. And if shoppers are hitting the malls today, you see some high-end retailers hoping that they do not fall prey to this new trend that we are seeing pop up lately, smash and grab robberies, like the ones that happened last week over at Nordstrom, Louis Vuitton, even an Apple store as well.

So joining me now to discuss this is the president and CEO of the California Retailers Association. Rachel Michelin. Rachel, what are you seeing at the level of concern, essentially, among these retailers who, as Christine was just talking about, they are coming off a really awful year for them, and now they have this concern to deal with as well?

RACHEL MICHELIN, PRESIDENT AND CEO, CALIFORNIA RETAILERS ASSOCIATION: First of all, thanks for having me. It is absolutely a concern. It's a concern because part of the retail experience is the shopping experience. And we want to ensure that our employees and our customers are safe when they come into a brick-and-mortar store. So we're concerned. We're doing everything we can to make sure that particularly this holiday weekend consumers and employees are safe. You're going to see heightened security. You're going to see products being placed in different places of the store. We're using every tool in our toolbox to make sure that we can combat these brazen crimes happening across the state.

COLLINS: And are those tactics that you see that are effective, if you move something or you add another layer of deterrence here?

MICHELIN: Usually it does. But in watching what has been going on, we haven't seen anything what we have seen in the last couple of days in California with these brazen, happening sometimes in the middle of the day. We think a lot of this is spurred by social media. We know that these are organized crime rings that are coming in and committing these crimes. So this is a little bit different than what we have seen in the past. We have been working on this issue for years.

[08:10:00]

We were the ones, the industry that pushed for the organize retail crime task forces in California. We're the ones that sponsored legislation that the governor signed in July relating to this issue. So we have been working very hard on it. We're hopeful it will help, but I will tell you that going forward we're certainly having a number of conversations, new tactics we can use in collaboration with law enforcement to protect our retail stores.

KEILAR: Well, and I think part of the issue is that even if you have security there, we saw with the Nordstrom in recent days they pepper sprayed the security guard. And they do go in, and it is broad daylight. So what are you hoping is the trend with this when you are having conversations with law enforcement, what are they saying that they're going to do?

MICHELIN: Honestly, over the last couple of days I haven't had as direct conversations, we have a number of those coming up next week with both the governor's office, the attorney general, and law enforcement and CHP. Right now, the first priority is making sure that our retail stores are safe, and our employees are protected, and our customers have that great shopping experience.

But it is. It is like nothing we have seen before. And I think in California, we have to have a lot of uncomfortable conversations about some of the laws that have been passed, some of the consequences for this type of behavior, and how do we go forward, because we can no longer let this happen. This is not California. This is not what we're about. And we need to make sure that we do everything we can to give law enforcement asset protection, retailers, and particularly our small businesses the tools they need to protect their employees and their customers.

COLLINS: Yes, the former Philadelphia police commissioner Charles Ramsey told us earlier that they need more of a deterrence here, that there aren't enough consequences. So we'll see how this plays out. Rachel Michelin, thank you so much for joining us on this today.

MICHELIN: Thank you for having me.

KEILAR: Really tragic milestone for the city of Philadelphia -- 500 homicides so far this year. That ties a record that was set all the way back in 1990. The mayor says he is heartbroken and outraged by the violence in his city. CNN's Brynn Gingras is here with more on this. What is going on here, Brynn?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and Brianna, listen, if you do the math, Philadelphia averaging one homicide every 16 hours. And, of course, we know this year isn't over yet. A city council leader recently saying in an emotional plea, please stop killing each other. The city hit that grim statistic of 500 homicides on Wednesday when a woman was gunned down on the street in what police believe was a domestic violence incident.

Philadelphia, as you said, Brianna, hasn't seen this high number of killings since 1990 according to police records, and the police chief actually said homicides were trending down this year, but it's also not just the killings. It is the gun violence in general, which is a major issue in the city as well, a critical problem that, of course, we have seen is impacting other cities like New York and other places across the country, a result of the pandemic, the economy, the aftermath of protests over racial injustice and police brutality.

Philadelphia's mayor says the city is on track to remove more than 6,000 guns off the street and is also investing millions of dollars in crime reduction and prevention. Jim Kenney saying this in a statement, "As we close in on the end of a year where we saw unprecedented levels of shootings and homicides, part of a disturbing trend nationwide, I want all residents to know our administration takes this crisis very seriously and we continue to act with urgency to reduce violence and save lives."

City leaders and community activists stressing, though, that every number, Brianna, is a life, hoping, hoping, hoping that will resonate with the public. Brianna?

KEILAR: Let's hope. All right, Brynn Gingras, thank you so much for that. Coming up, Congresswoman Lauren Boebert implying that one of her

colleagues is a suicide bomber. Truly, how low can it go?

And just in, Ukraine's president is now alleging that Russia is plotting a coup against him as the U.S. warns a Russian invasion of the country could be imminent.

COLLINS: Plus, a new documentary that shows the Beatles like we have never seen them before. What it reveals about the fab four and what you may not know about their breakup.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:17:50]

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert is getting laughs from an audience after she said this about her fellow Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. LAUREN BOEBERT (R-CO): I was getting in an elevator when with one of my staffers, and he and I are leaving the Capitol, we're going back to the office, we get in the elevator and a see a capitol police officer running hurriedly to the elevator. I see fret all over his face. And I look to my left. And there she is, Ilhan Omar.

And I said, well, she doesn't have a backpack, we should be fine.

So I only had one floor to go. I looked over, I said, oh, look, the jihad squad decided to show up to work today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Obviously, Ilhan Omar is one of the first Muslim to serve in Congress. In response to that video from Lauren Boebert, she tweeted: Fact: This buffoon looks down when she sees me at the Capitol. The whole story is made up. Sad she thinks her bigotry gets his clout -- gets her clout.

Joining us now is CNN reporter Gabby Orr and CNN Capitol Hill reporter Melanie Zanona.

Obviously, Melanie, you are going to be back on Capitol Hill this week, I imagine this is going to be a big topic of conversation, a big question for House -- for Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy.

MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: I think there could be a Democratic push to censure her or kick her off her committees. What she said is on par with the stuff that Marjorie Taylor Greene said that got her kicked off the committees. The issue is these members are not going to behave any differently until they suffer internal consequences from their own party, and we have not seen that happened.

In fact, Kevin McCarthy not only stood by Paul Gosar last week, but he said, I will reinstate Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene to their committees, potentially better ones, if we win back the House. Lauren Boebert, she's probably going fund-raise off of this stuff. I mean, they really have not suffered any consequences and until we see that happen, they're not going to change their behavior even if they are censured or kicked off their committees by Democrats.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: I don't believe for a second she's telling the truth when she tells that story. It seems like she's just trying to get some, like, terrible, terrible laughs.

[08:20:03]

And she didn't even get that many to be clear.

GABBY ORR, CNN REPORTER: Well, this is the brand of outrage politics that was ushered in among these sort of MAGA candidates in 2020. You know, Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Madison Cawthorn. In 2010, you had the Tea Party wave of constitutional conservatives coming to office. In 2020, you had the MAGA wave of candidates whose brand of politics is to be as controversial as possible.

And they are enabled as Mel said by a leader of a party who does nothing to impose consequences on them when they do behave this way.

COLLINS: And, Melanie, you just brought up Marjorie Taylor Greene. She is someone who Kevin McCarthy said maybe he would put her back on committee if Republicans take control of the House next fall. She has some demands for McCarthy to get her vote to make him House Speaker. What are those demands?

ZANONA: So, the two things that she has already laid out, she wants Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger kicked out of the conference entirely for agreeing to serve on the January 6 Select Committee, and she also wants the 13 Republicans who voted for a bipartisan infrastructure bill to lose their committee assignments, including John Katko, who represents a key swing district. He's a McCarthy ally. He also voted to impeach Trump. She really came after him and said he's not a Republican, he's a Democrat.

But so far, McCarthy resisted both of those demands. I think he's in a tricky spot. He needs the MAGA wing of the party to become speaker, but he needs to win majority first and doing that entails protecting your moderates who voted to impeach, who voted for the infrastructure bill. So, he's kind of caught in between those two wings of the party right now.

KEILAR: Yeah. It really speaks to the grip that Trump has on the party that he has on the House Republican conference, and that he has on the party in general. You have some new reporting about this, just how much he's kind of pulling the strings behind the scenes.

ORR: Yeah, he's almost playing chess and moving his different pawns around the board. And if you look at where he's most involved now, some Senate races, my colleague, Alex Rogers (ph) and I have a story out today that points to instances where he's maneuvering candidates into different races where he thinks they'll be better off and more likely to get elected. North Carolina, for example, former president Trump endorsed Rep Ted Bud earlier this year for the Senate seat. But Mark Walker is still running. And he has tried to encourage Mark Walker to drop out of that race, and instead run for Ted Bud's congressional seat.

In Georgia, he's trying to get David Perdue, the former senator from that state, to run against Brian Kemp, the governor of the state who Trump has obviously been very critical of over his reaction to the 2020 election.

And then in Alabama, you have another candidate who is running in a Senate primary against a Trump endorsed candidate, Lynda Blanchard, running against Mo Brooks, and Trump is trying to convince her to drop out of that race and instead challenge Governor Kay Ivey in Alabama who he is very upset with, we're told, because she did not allow him to hold a rally this summer aboard the USS Alabama.

COLLINS: So, what kind of issue does that present for Republican leaders?

ORR: I mean, it's -- it's -- just further testament to the influence that he has over the Republican Party at this point in time. And it is extremely difficult for them to undo any of that, for them to unravel it, they're constantly up against a former president who is trying to put his candidates in races where he thinks he's -- they're going to win against incumbents who a lot of these Republican leaders have been saying they're going to defend.

That puts them at odds with the former president who we know is a big looming presence over the Republican Party.

COLLINS: And only wants to be more of one ahead of these 2022 midterms.

Gabby and Melanie, thank you so much for joining us this morning.

KEILAR: So, just in, a stunning claim by Ukraine's president that Russia is planning a coup against him. We'll have the breaking details ahead.

And a mystery depicted by Al Pacino in "The Irishman." The disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa now getting another look by the FBI.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:27:56]

COLLINS: Where is Jimmy Hoffa? The question has been asked and not really answered ever since the powerful Teamsters boss first disappeared in 1975. Now, the FBI may have broken some new ground in the search for him, but it has led them to a former landfill in New Jersey.

CNN's Miguel Marquez joins us with more.

So, Miguel, what do the FBI find at this landfill?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So far, nothing. But they are looking and here we are again.

It is worth remembering that Jimmy Hoffa was sort of a union celebrity when he was alive, sort of part Bernie Sanders, part Tony Soprano. The idea that somebody so high profile could just disappear doesn't seem possible.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIMMY HOFFA, UNION LEADER: This is another propaganda of Mr. Robert Kennedy.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Jimmy Hoffa, the infamous union boss.

HOFFA: We're successful in getting from employers of our members (INAUDIBLE).

MARQUEZ: Are we today closer to knowing what happened to him?

ELIE HONIG, FORMER CO-CHIEF OF SDNY ORGANIZED CRIME UNIT: This is one of the great mysteries of the modern criminal world. This is one of the great mysteries in mafia history. What happened to Jimmy Hoffa? Where is Jimmy Hoffa buried?

MARQUEZ: The latest tantalizing possibility points to a former landfill under a New Jersey bridge, the Pulaski skyway just outside of Manhattan.

His disappearance --

AL PACINO AS JIMMY HOFFA: Hi, Frank, this is Jimmy Hoffa.

MARQUEZ: -- becoming the stuff of legend depicted in recent films like "The Irishman", the murder portrayed as a setup by mobsters who wanted the tough as nails union boss out of the way.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's get out of here. Come on.

MARQUEZ: And older films like 1992's "Hoffa" that assume his murder was in the parking lot at the suburban Detroit restaurant where Hoffa was last seen alive on July 30th, 1975.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Hoffa.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah, that's right.

MARQUEZ: Both scenarios contested, and just where is his body? For decades, a near national obsession.

REPORTER: The body, officials believe, was disposed of in an industrial waste incinerator.

REPORTER: Could this be Jimmy Hoffa's grave? The FBI once again digging for answers.

MARQUEZ: That wasn't neither or several locations around Detroit, a backyard, a horse farm, a suburban home.