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New Day

College Campuses Shutting Down as Outbreaks Grow; Extreme Weather Events Quickly Becoming the New Normal; Wyoming Republican on FOX, Right-Wing Targeting Liz Cheney. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired December 16, 2021 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:59]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. It is Thursday, December 16th, and I'm Brianna Keilar with John Berman.

This morning the dilemma facing colleges and really the whole country as coronavirus cases are shooting up and cases are definitely shooting up, rising quite a lot here. Cornell University encapsulating the situation. About 1,000 new cases reported on that campus. But the university president reports they are seeing no severe cases among students, none.

So what is the most important medical headline here? Is it 1,000 new cases? Is it no severe cases? And what is the right reaction to these events? Cornell, Princeton, Middlebury College all are moving fall semester final exams online. NYU says it strongly encourages students to take their finals from home as well. But is that necessary with almost no severe cases?

Several schools have issued booster shot requirements here in recent weeks. Others say that they are thinking about it.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This as both flu and COVID cases are on the rise, which has led to growing concern that health systems could be overwhelmed this winter. Coronavirus hospitalizations up 43 percent from a month ago. The CDC projects virus deaths to increase over the next four weeks. However, the number of fully vaccinated Americans surpassed 200 million earlier this month. More than 60 percent of the population in the past week. The doses being administered jumped 35 percent from the week before.

CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us now.

Sanjay, I'm a little obsessed by what's going on at Cornell because I think it poses all the questions we need to be thinking about right now. They've got 1,000 new cases in a week, which is a lot. Right? They shut down. But the university president sends out a statement that says, "While, I want to provide reassurance that to date we have not seen severe illness in any of our students."

So to me, I'm trying to figure out what the headline is here and how we process this. Is it 1,000 new cases or is it there are 1,000 new cases but none of them were serious? DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. No, I'm with

you on that. And you know, both things potentially can be true. You could have a very contagious virus. That might be causing less severe disease. But here's the issue. We still don't know the full denominator of what we're talking about here. So you're talking about college students. There's been, you know, these outbreaks among athletes as well. Younger, healthier parts of the population.

And we know that even, you know, going back to the original strains, people who are younger and healthier were less likely to get very sick in the first place. Here it sounds like the same thing, and maybe even milder. But what is the true denominator here? And also at a time when you have so many people still dying every day, 1300 people, seven-day average 1300 people have died every day.

Hospitalizations up, as you mentioned. 120,000 almost new cases. We're still in the middle of this viral storm. So the idea that they may be less likely to get sick, that may be true. And we saw that in South Africa as well, especially among younger and healthier people.

But what about older people, what about the graph you see on the screen, which is mostly unvaccinated people, still ending up, you know, taking up hospital beds with COVID.

KEILAR: Yes. And as we're watching these numbers, I just wonder what you're looking for here in the next few weeks, what you want to know about Omicron and what's concerning you.

GUPTA: You know, I think one of the biggest things still is that this does appear very contagious. And I don't know if we have the graph that shows the beginning of what Delta looked like, what the beginning of Omicron looked like. But basically, these are the important questions. We know that the acceleration has been more rapid with this versus Delta. Will it now outcompete Delta, will they sort of coexist these two viruses?

And then, you know, this question that you're just raising. What about the severity of it? Is it truly less severe? How about things like long COVID? Is it still as likely to cause long COVID type symptoms even if it's less severe?

[07:05:02]

And then, you know, the impact obviously on immunity overall. Vaccines and infection acquired immunity. We know in South Africa, there were a lot of people who were getting Omicron despite the fact that they had been infected before. Does that mean that this virus is different enough that infection acquired immunity with an earlier variant just isn't as protective? And what about the vaccines? You know, those are big questions still.

BERMAN: You know, Dr. Fauci, I heard Dr. Fauci with Wolf yesterday, Sanjay, say that boosters are the best bet right now. The best thing you can do, well, first of all, is get vaccinated. But get boosted.

GUPTA: Let me show you some of the data that they were sort of relying on there for that. Because I think this is interesting. If you look at Omicron and Delta specifically and look at just the protection over time, the first few weeks when you have both these variants sort of side by side, the protection is pretty good. It's, you know, in the high 80 percent range. As you sort of progress over time, blue is Omicron there, you can see how it significantly dips off.

But then the question was, what about the booster? How much more protection does that offer in terms of antibodies? And it goes up significantly. So that's two weeks after the booster is the far graph on the right. And it does offer a lot of protection.

Just keep in mind that even in the past there was a Delta-specific booster that was worked on. There was even a Beta-specific booster that was worked on, ultimately not needed because what they found was the existing vaccine, if given, you know, as another dose, seemed to provide enough protection.

BERMAN: So, Sanjay --

KEILAR: All right, we --

BERMAN: I'm sorry. But the important stuff here. I mean, yes, there's Omicron. Yes, rise in cases. But what about holiday parties? Jessica Rose writes, and we have some viewer questions here. How do we deal with holiday parties?

GUPTA: Yes. I mean, this is I think something that, you know, we've been thinking about a lot as a family as well. I think that there's a few things, you know, the vaccines obviously. If you're vaccinated, if you're boosted, it makes it a much safer environment obviously for people who are vulnerable. People may be coming together multigenerational over the holidays. So, you know, that is a first step.

But I would add in other layers here as well. You know, again, testing is something that we're still not doing enough of. We still don't have great vision on exactly how widespread the problem is. There's good testing available now even over the counter that can help tell you whether or not you're contagious. Masks, getting the right kind of masks if you're going to indoor public, you know, events where you aren't sure of vaccination status.

That's particularly important. And then ventilation. You know, I keep a carbon dioxide monitor, sort of a poor man's ventilation measure. You can tell just how much your ventilation is increasing or decreasing at any given time. So, again, you know, vaccines lead the way. But there are other things to help make the party safer and are not that obtrusive.

KEILAR: CO2 monitor. All right, put that in your bag of tricks there.

Susan Blalock wants to know this. "If a person travels by plane to my house for a holiday, will a rapid COVID test detect a virus that my guest has picked up that day?"

GUPTA: The answer is probably not. Because it does take some time usually for even a PCR test to pick up somebody who has been newly exposed. I think, though, this gets back to sort of the value of testing a little bit. If someone is sick, they should stay home, obviously. You know, it's coughing, sneezing, if they have symptoms. If you are not sick, if you feel fine and you've been vaccinated, now the question is, I think I'm good to go, but am I really?

That is where those rapid anti-gen tests can play a role. They may not pick up every viral strain, every viral particle, rather, but they usually can pick up -- turn positive when someone has enough of a viral load to be contagious. So if the question is, am I contagious, that is a good test to get and can answer that important question.

KEILAR: All right, that's what Susan needs to know as she's trying to get ready here for the holidays.

Sanjay, thank you so much.

GUPTA: You got it. Thank you.

BERMAN: So meteorologists say that record heat for December is fueling severe weather across the Central United States. In response to the tornados that devastated much of the Midwest last week, FEMA administrator Dianne Criswell suggested these extreme weather events might just be our new normal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEANNE CRISWELL, FEMA ADMINISTRATOR: This is going to be our new normal. And the effects that we're seeing from climate change are the crisis of our generation.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: As I said, it may just be the new normal. Joining us now, CNN chief climate correspondent Bill Weir.

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, John.

BERMAN: Bill, I was in Kentucky. I mean, look, the idea that you have these really warm temperatures in December interacting with some cold fronts here, what's going on here?

WEIR: John, there was a tornado in Minnesota last night, in December. If you wrote some dystopian disaster movie in which, you know, the Frozen Tundra, Lambeau Field, was worried more about 75-mile-an-hour winds and tornado watches, you would dismiss it outright.

[07:10:06]

Thunderstorms on the north shore of Lake Superior in December. And that's just a little taste. There are 55 reports of hurricane-force winds overnight. That broke the record of last year. We live in the age of broken record-breaking which is one is set, it's broken days or weeks later, and we sound like a broken record saying this is not going to stop. Dust storm in Colorado, 100-mile-an-hour winds there. It looked like

something out of the dust bowl. Softball-sized hail in Nebraska. The Sierra is getting too much snow at once. It's not enough to fix the drought. It's enough to make a lot of headaches there. Oh, and a super typhoon hit the Philippines with category 5 winds. They have a nine- foot storm surge there.

So yes, this is the result of a hotter planet. And some folks think, well, I don't live in the global south. I'm immune from sea level rise. I'm nowhere near the coasts. This is what happens when all that warm supercharged air hits the jet stream and it spins it. It's like putting a baseball in a pitching machine. And you saw the results firsthand. And those poor souls in Kentucky are still picking up the pieces and will be for a year at least.

BERMAN: I think one of the things I just want you to highlight, again, this is different.

WEIR: This is totally different.

BERMAN: This is different than we've seen. And you see in Kentucky, you see it in Minnesota, you see it in Greenland.

WEIR: Yes.

BERMAN: It's just different.

WEIR: You know, the term act of God has been a legal insurance term in the courts. These are acts of humanity. These are unnatural disaster that scientists have been warning us about for a very long time. And unfortunately they don't seem to sink in. We have the capacity to normalize and then politicize awfulness. You know, exhibit A is the pandemic we're going through right now and in which health scientists are getting the same sort of abuse that climate scientists got for a long time.

But this is not going away. And even if everybody, you know, parked their cars tomorrow and, you know, rode horses and skateboards to work, Greenland is not going to stop melting. That's already baked in. And then just to add a nice cherry on top of your holiday discussions, there is this thing called the Thwaites glacier in Antarctica. It's a piece of ice, about the size of Florida, and it's hanging on by a thread. It's pinned up against an undersea mountain. A new report come out that that thing could break lose because it's melting from below within the next five years.

BERMAN: Well, thanks for that Christmas cheer, Bill.

WEIR: Sorry.

BERMAN: But it's intensity, when we're talking about what's happening in the Midwest now. We talk about hurricanes in the fall. One of the direct impacts of climate change it's the intensity of these storms.

WEIR: Exactly. It's too much of the things we need, the source of life, water. Too much at once. Rain bombs in Hawaii. I was just filming there. You know, we saw those winter blizzard warnings in Hawaii. And what's happening in the West now with these mudslides deluges of rain, dumps of snow after so much drought. The soil can't absorb it fast enough. And it's just this knock-on effect. Excuse me.

And I'm afraid we're headed for the day where you'll go, remember when the president would visit a natural disaster area when he had -- you know, when there was only one at a time so, you know, was able to do that? We need to wake up to this, John. This is not getting better.

BERMAN: It's a sobering message, Bill. But I appreciate you bringing it to us. Happy Holiday?

WEIR: Yes.

BERMAN: Nonetheless?

WEIR: No. You've got to keep hope alive. You've got to keep hope alive.

BERMAN: So there are those in the right-wing who've just had it with Congresswoman Liz Cheney. What she keeps doing that gets under their skin. And we're now learning that Congressman Jim Jordan was one of the lawmakers who texted Mark Meadows what he wanted the vice president to do.

KEILAR: And a Louisiana judge facing questions after a video with racist language, her using it. It surfaces. The drug that she's now blaming for using the N word.

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[07:18:23]

KEILAR: Jim Jordan, Republican, Ohio congressman, former wrestling coach, cheerleader of coups. As the January 6th Committee continues to expose Donald Trump's empire of lies, Jordan is emerging as a behind- the-scenes vassal. CNN has learned that Jim Jordan sent one of these newly revealed text to then White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, a text putting pressure on then VP Mike Pence to overturn a lawful election. The pressure, of course, based on lies, nonsense, legal theories and conspiracies.

A few reminders about Jordan's actions before, during and after January 6th, actions that he can't seem to keep straight. This is what he said in October.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JIM MCGOVERN (D-MA): -- former president on January 6th, did you talk to the former before, during or after the attack on the Capitol?

REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): Of course I've talked to the president.

MCGOVERN: Or was it all three?

JORDAN: Of course I've talked to the president. I've been clear about that. I talk to him all the time. Of course I talked to the president. I talked to him that day. I've been clear about that. I don't recall the number of times.

MCGOVERN: Was it before, during or after the attack on the Capitol?

JORDAN: I talked to the president after the attack.

MCGOVERN: So not before or during?

JORDAN: Right.

MCGOVERN: And you --

JORDAN: And I've been clear about that.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Actually, he had not been clear about that. This is Jim Jordan in July.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRETT BAIER, FOX NEWS HOST: Did you talk to the former president that day?

JORDAN: I've talked to the former president umpteen times, thousands, I mean, not thousands,

BAIER: I mean on January 6th.

JORDAN: Countless times. I talk to the president -- I never talk about what we talk about because I just don't think that's appropriate just like I don't talk about what happens in Republican conferences.

BAIER: Sure.

JORDAN: But I talk to the president numerous times. I continue to talk to the president since he left office.

BAIER: No, no, I mean on January 6th, Congressman.

[07:20:02]

JORDAN: Yes. I mean, I have talked to the president so many -- I can't remember all the days I've talked to him. But I have certainly talked to the president.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: A day after that, even with time to think about his answer, Jordan was again flustered by the question.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you speak with President Trump on January 6th? JORDAN: Yes. I mean, I speak -- I spoke with the president last week.

I speak with the president all the time. I spoke with him on January 6th. I mean, I talk with President Trump all the time. And that's -- I don't think that's unusual. I would expect members of Congress to talk with the president of the United States when they're trying to get done the things they told the voters in their district to do. I -- I'm actually kind of amazed sometimes that people keep asking this -- of course, I talk to the president all the time. I talk to him, like I said, I talked to him last week.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On January 6th did you speak to him before, during or after the Capitol was attacked?

JORDAN: I would have to go -- I -- I spoke with him that day after? I think after? I don't know if I spoke with him in the morning or not. I just don't know. I would have to go back -- I mean, I don't -- I don't know that when -- when those conversations happened. But what I know is I spoke with him all the time.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: So to summarize, Jim Jordan was sure, then unsure, and then a month later in August he couldn't recall. He said it twice actually that he couldn't recall. But maybe you recall this. That just five days after the insurrection, Trump awarded Jordan the Medal of Freedom during a close press ceremony. One of the nation's highest civilian honors. Just a short time before Jordan was helping plot a coup. And maybe you recall the Republicans really wanted Jim Jordan on this January 6th Committee. Instead, he's now a potential witness.

BERMAN: Certainly his texts are now part of the record.

Congresswoman Liz Cheney facing the wrath of her party and FOX entertainers after she exposed them texting to then White House chief of staff Mark Meadows during the Capitol insurrection.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: What's really going on with Liz Cheney and the media, the diminutive media?

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS HOST: I want hard text messages. Liz, release yours. Let us look at your text messages.

INGRAHAM: I actually don't -- I actually don't care to read any of their text messages because they're all so aggressively boring.

HANNITY: Right.

INGRAHAM: I don't think Liz Cheney likes us. I'm very --

(LAUGHTER)

HANNITY: I don't think she likes us either.

INGRAHAM: I don't think she likes us, Hannity. HANNITY: You know --

INGRAHAM: I don't know why. I don't know why.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Joining me now is Natrona County Republican Party State Committeeman Joe McGinley from Cheney's home state of Wyoming.

Thank you so much for being with us again. Why do you think Liz Cheney seems to bother them so much?

JOE MCGINLEY, NATRONA COUNTY REPUBLICAN PARTY STATE COMMITTEEMAN: Yes, that's a great question, John. You know, I've been following this closely. And, you know, Representative Cheney is representing Republicans on the January 6th Committee, which I think is great. What we need to get to is the truth. And if the truth shows the president was involved, then we need to know that. If this committee exonerates the president, great. But again, we need to have Republicans represented and we need to see the truth.

BERMAN: What does it tell you that those two we just heard from right there are so uncomfortable with Liz Cheney?

MCGINLEY: Well, that's frustrating. I saw some of those messages. And you know, listen, a lot was happening on January 6th. We had never seen anything like that before. People will sometimes say things and do things that, you know, they didn't really mean. In the situation, you know, you have to discuss it, what is the meaning behind it. Is there a bigger picture that we need to know about? Or was it just misspoken messages? Again, that's the purpose of this committee, and I do hope we get to the truth on it.

BERMAN: What do you think as you see more and more of these text messages? What is your opinion of them as you've seen them so far?

MCGINLEY: Well, I'm watching cautiously. Again, I really have to believe and hope that our government, our leaders are looking out for the best interest of the people of America. I hope that the media is unbiased. I really do. On both sides of this topic. You know, I'm not on the committee. I'm not seeing the data firsthand. So I don't want to make judgment on individuals until we see the full message, the full picture that comes out. And I hope we do.

I hope everyone has that same motive. Not just looking to condemn someone, not just looking to throw someone under the bus, but say how do we prevent this? How as Americans can we come together and say January 6th was wrong? Really -- you know, no one really thinks January 6th was a good thing for our country in any way, shape or form. So how do we prevent that? How do we say, who was involved?

Was it just a small group, was it members of government? Could more have been done? Could our president stepped in and stopped this? That's what's important. That's what we have to get to.

BERMAN: You know, I do have to say, I'm not so sure you're right that no one thinks it was a good day. It does seem that as time goes on there are those who are celebrating it almost. The former president among them, celebrating January 6th.

Be that as it may, I do want to talk about Liz Cheney more because she is from your home state. You know her. You know, you've worked around her for a long time. What do you think it is that's driving her? It can't be easy to stand up to your party.

[07:25:04]

MCGINLEY: You know, I can't even imagine what Representative Cheney is going through right now. And good for her, she has the courage to speak up for what she thinks is right and what she believes in. I think really what's motivating Representative Cheney is sticking to the Constitution and our constitutional values.

You know, as Republicans, we believe in law and order. Even if it doesn't fit our narrative, that's what we believe. So you have to have the courage to speak up, you have to have the courage to say, how can I do better? All of our elected officials should do that. Even if it doesn't fit the narrative of their party, they really should speak up and say, this is what's right for the people of my district.

This is what's right for the people of my state. And this is what's right for the people of our country. It's not one team versus another. We're all Americans. And every representative should think what's best for America first. And we're seeing that from Representative Cheney. I truly believe that she believes something very bad happened here and she wants to get to the truth.

BERMAN: Joe, I have to ask you, if you had to bet your house right now, one year from now, will this be Liz Cheney's Republican Party or Jim Jordan's Republican Party? Which do you think?

MCGINLEY: You know, given -- that is a wonderful question. You know, if I could predict that, you know, I'd be in a much different position here. It will be interesting, that's for sure. You know, I think Representative Cheney is starting to gain a lot of momentum. I think her steadfastness on sticking with constitutional values is helping.

You know, I can't really relate to what Representative Jordan is speaking to, you know, with Representative Cheney, we'll see. We are seeing a growing number of younger individuals, young Republicans, relate to what Representative Cheney's message is.

BERMAN: Joe McGinley, appreciate your time again, as always.

MCGINLEY: Thank you.

BERMAN: So this morning, the president's Build Back Better plan hitting a major roadblock. What it means for millions reliant on the new child tax credit that's about to expire.

KEILAR: And San Francisco's mayor sick and tired of the crime surge that is plaguing her city.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR LONDON BREED (D), SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA: Time for it to come to an end. More aggressive with the changes in our policies. And less tolerant of all the bullshit that has destroyed our city.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Don Lemon will be joining us with his reaction ahead.

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