tv Erin Burnett Out Front CNN December 2, 2021 4:00pm-5:00pm PST
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>> reporter: experts say one potential nightmare scenario for beijing has to do with the winter olympics it's hosting in a couple of months. >> i think this will increase the pressure to at least not have diplomatic presence at the winter olympics. beijing is unhappy about that. >> reporter: chinese authorities have not acknowledged peng shuai's accusations against the former vice premier and are pushing back against the wta for that boycott, wolf. >> thank you very much. "erin burnett outfront" starts right now. outfront next, the race to stop a winter surge. president biden kicking off a new plan to prevent a surge in covid cases that includes booster shots, free at-home testing. is it enough? plus a chilling picture emerging at this hour of the suspected high school shooter accused of killing four classmates. the sheriff is revealing tonight about the suspect's behavior leading up to the very moments of the shooting. and trump's wealth. it may have taken a hit while he was president, but a
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jaw-dropping amount of money still flowed into his bank accounts. wait until you see. let's go outfront. good evening, i'm erin burnett. outfront tonight, pulling out all the stops. president biden in a major address detailing a whole bunch of new actions that he is now going to take to prevent a winter covid surge. >> combined advice from all of you that we develop this plan. it doesn't include shutdowns or lockdowns but widespread vaccinations and boosters and testing and a lot more. we're going to fight this variant with science and speed, not chaos and confusion. >> okay. well, among the specific measures, there is going to be a nationwide campaign for boosters. a bit unclear on what that will be but there's that. there's new family vaccination clinics. that's a specific. and the requirement for international travelers to the united states to get tested one day before their flight. they had had a window, right, three to five days. now it's one day. but what may be the biggest game-changer is dramatically
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expanding testing. that, of course, is maybe the biggest key to safely reopening. >> we're going to make free at-home tests more available to americans than ever before, to better detect and control the delta variant, health insurers must cover the cost of at-home testing. >> that's a really significant thing that he said there, perhaps more than anything else that he said today, that was real. in recent months the united states has dramatically fallen behind other countries where rapid covid tests are cheap and readily available. here a lot of times you go into the pharmacy and there aren't any there. it's clear biden is trying to stay now in front of the virus and the new variant, which has been detected in at least four states already, including minnesota, colorado and new york and likely obviously a whole lot more places. the truth is president biden has learned his message today totally different from the one he gave this summer before the delta wave. remember when he made the mistake of declaring victory. >> america is headed into the
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summer dramatically different from last year's summer. a summer of freedom. a summer of joy. a summer of get-togethers and celebrations. >> summer of joy. he doesn't want to repeat that again. okay. he is keenly aware, though, that the virus has become even more politicized since then. >> i know covid-19 has been very divisive in this country. it's become a political issue, which is a sad, sad commentary. it shouldn't be, but it has been. >> and that is true. no matter what your politics are, you've got to agree with that. republicans obviously have seen, elected republicans, pushing back against vaccine mandates as a way to fire up their base. if you look at the florida governor, ron desantis, he has been fighting biden at every turn and is now upping the ante. his state may now actually pay the fines of businesses that choose to defy biden's vaccine mandates. and he's going to pay those
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fines to the federal government using biden's covid relief funds. and while desantis continues to fight vaccine mandates in every way, you've got to look at what's happening around the world. in germany, they're in the midst of a fourth spike. there, they want a nationwide vaccine mandate. europe closing down. they're going to lock down anybody who doesn't have the vaccine in germany. kaitlin collins is out front at the white house. you are just finding out how soon some of president biden's plans will go into effect, those that are specific. what have you found out? >> reporter: and this is a big one, erin. if you are an international traveler coming to the united states, before you had 72 hours to get a negative test result before your flight, now you've got 24 hours. that is a new rule that goes into effect starting at midnight on monday, december 6th. so that is going to be important for any travelers coming to the united states, including u.s. citizens. that's just one of the steps that the president announced
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today as this new strategy to combat covid-19. going into the winter months dealing with this new variant, they're also extending the mask mandate on planes. it was set to expire but you are right there was a big emphasis on testing today and it seems to be an acknowledgement from the administration that vaccinations are not going to be enough. getting boosters is a big push but also this at-home testing and increasing that. so there are a few caveats to the president's announcement, which is that the white house doesn't think this is actually going to go into effect where it comes to private insurers covering the cost of those at-home tests until mid-january, so about six weeks from now and it's not going to retroactively cover any of the tests that you've paid for before and you will have to file an insurance claim to get that money back for that at-home test. whether it's a $10 test, a $15 test. we've seen about eight on the market so far. the president also noting the political divide here and the
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issues that are up against that. notably his new announcements did not come with any more mandates as the current ones when it comes to vaccinations are tied up in courts, erin. >> yeah, the testing is pretty incredible. i'm sure many people have walked into a store and they don't have any and if they do it's up to $27. and then they hoard the tests. out front now, dr. richard besser, an acting director of the cdc under president obama. he is the president and ceo of the robert wood johnson foundation. dr. besser, how much of an impact do you think the strategy from president biden will have on a winter surge that he warns is basically definitively on the way, including the omicron variant which we know so little about still? >> yeah. i mean that's a great question, erin. a lot is going to depend on whether he is able to pull the nation together. his comments about trying to take the politics out of this, about getting vaccinated and
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following public health guidance being the patriotic thing to do. if that can be the message, if that can be something we rally around, then i think that these measures that he's laying out can have a big impact. but the measures aren't really new. it's what we've been told to do by public health all along. get vaccinated, wear masks, be careful when you're indoors and in enclosed spaces. use testing when you're together with people. all these things are part of the current guidance. ramping it up, getting people committed to doing it will be the big challenge. one of the things about the omicron variant is that it's drawing more attention to this and people who i think were complacent are saying, wow, i think i need to continue to do these measures. >> so let me just ask you about something that is constantly discussion about and that is flying. the president is requiring all international travelers entering the united states, whether american or not, to test negative a day before flying. now, i understand that some
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people wanting there to be testing right at the site of the airplane, all sorts of things are being discussed so peep aren't fully satisfied with that but i want to ask you about domestically. domestically there's no testing requirement, there's no vaccination requirement. why do you think they don't do that? it would seem that domestically having a vaccine requirement to fly, yeah, i'm sure would upset some people but it actually could make a difference. >> well, it would definitely increase the number of people who get vaccinated. in terms of whether it would decrease the amount of transmission, i think the impact there would be marginal. but in terms of people being able to do the things they want to do, and flying is something a lot of people want to be able to do, having that as a barrier or requirement for getting on a plane i think would help. one of the things, erin, that i find extremely challenging is that there are so many people who are concerned about omicron.
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but a week ago before we were even talking about omicron and today, there were roughly 1,000 people still dying every day from the delta variant and we are accepting it as okay. that's just what we're going to see with this. when most of those deaths are fully preventible. >> well, it's pretty incredible. a thousand people a day, everyone can do the math, 30,000 a month, 365,000 people a year. it is pretty incredible. it's no longer even commented upon. i want to ask you about what the former white house senior advisor for biden's response to covid-19 said today, andy slavitt. here he is to our jake tapper. >> what i think everybody didn't see is how rapidly and more aggressively delta would come into the country. so we made that mistake, i made that mistake. i underestimated what would come from delta. people can say today that they might have predicted delta, but i can tell you all during 2020
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very few people said we're going to see a worse variant in 2021. now i think we see that case and i don't think we're going to make that mistake again. >> it's interesting the way he said it. look, he was in an interview. but when he said now we see that case, that's referring to a worse variant. but we don't know that about this variant. do you think that probably is the case? >> well, you know, i agree with andy that you really want to go out strong. when i was the acting director at cdc in 2009 with the h1n1 swine flu pandemic, we went at it really, really strong. we were criticized by some later on that, wow, you really overplayed this. it turned out to be not such a big deal. well, you don't know that right now about the omicron. i hope that's the case. i hope it turns out that it does not cause more severe illness, that it doesn't spread easier, that people who are vaccinated are actually well protected. but until we have the answers to those three critical questions, it is really important that we
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take it seriously. we be much more careful in terms of our interactions, we're more careful on travel. it's only a matter of a couple of weeks before some of the critical information is in on that and you don't want to be in a situation where you're saying, wow, i wish we did more. i would much rather have people say they really did too much. >> dr. besser, thank you very much. i appreciate it. next, we have more on the investigation into that horrific michigan school shooting. now focusing on the very specific moments leading up to the attack, including the concerns that two separate teachers had about the suspect. plus incredible new details emerging about how far trump's then chief of staff went in pushing the former president's lies of voter fraud. and the world tennis association announcing it has received another email from tennis star peng shuai. when she allegedly wrote after the wta pulled all of its tournaments from china.
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tonight we have new details in the michigan high school shooting investigation. the sheriff revealing that two separate teachers, two of them, reported their words, disturbing and concerning behavior from the suspected shooter in the hours before the shooting. the attack on tuesday left four students dead. he killed four people, injured seven more. the news comes as prosecutors say that they could bring charges against mr. crumbley's parents in the next 24 hours.
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shimon prokupecz is outfront. >> we have an active shooter incident. we do have confirmed injuries. >> reporter: new details, including some of the emergency dispatch calls from tuesday's school shooting in oxford, michigan. >> i've got one with a neck wound, one with a head wound. >> reporter: police saying today they are confident that the suspect acted alone. >> we have seen no evidence that there was anyone else involved in this situation with him or anything to follow on. >> reporter: the investigation now focuses on events leading up to the moment when 15-year-old ethan crumbley allegedly started shooting that day. >> on the day prior to the tragedy, a teacher in a classroom where he was a student saw and heard something that she felt was disturbing in terms of his behavior. >> reporter: in fact two separate teachers had reported disturbing behavior before the deadly shootings began. >> they had a counseling session about it with school officials. and a phone call was left with
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the parents. >> reporter: just hours before the shootings, the second teacher brought the suspect's behavior to the attention of school authorities. >> the day of the shooting, a different teacher in a different classroom saw some behavior that they felt was concerning, and they brought the child down to an office, had a meeting with school officials, called in the parents, and ultimately it was determined that he could go back into class. >> reporter: the prosecutor saying there is more evidence to come. >> there's an additional piece of evidence that hasn't been released yet, but i can assure you it was troubling, it was disturbing, and unfortunately he was allowed to go back to class. >> reporter: then just before 1:00 p.m., emergency calls began. >> medical emergency, oxford high school. the scene is secure. possible multiple injuries.
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>> reporter: prosecutors say school surveillance video shows the suspect left a bathroom, gun in hand, and began shooting from the hallway at a methodical pace, firing at least 30 shots at fellow students in hallways and in classrooms. first responders called for advanced life support units, helicopters and hospital support for trauma patients. >> there's one at door 6 with a head injury. >> reporter: crumbley is charged as an adult with first-degree murder, terrorism causing death and assault charges in connection with shooting 11 people, killing four of them. he pleaded not guilty to the charges through his attorney at his arraignment wednesday. prosecutors are now saying an announcement may be coming soon about potential charges for the suspect's parents related to the gun allegedly used in the shooting. >> we're reviewing potential charges and hope to have an announcement about that in the next 24 hours.
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>> reporter: erin, an attorney for the alleged shooter would not comment on the possibility of charges against the parents. neither would the parents. and think about this, erin. all of this really continuing to create fear in this community. police here a short time ago revealing that some 60 schools have been forced to close because of unverified threats. threats that they are investigating. prosecutors and police say they are going to go after those people and bring charges against them once they find them. >> shimon, thank you. i want to go to dave colter, the county executive for oakland county, michigan. dave, just horrible to talk to you in these circumstances. the thing that stood out to me -- many things stand out to me in that report -- but one of them is that the second teacher reports behavior disturbing enough on the very day of the shooting that she calls the main office and ethan crumbley is
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called in. it's serious enough that his parents, who were at work or wherever they are, are called into the school and they come in and yet after that meeting, he is allowed to return to school. when you hear that, what goes through your mind? >> you know, first of all, i want to say i'm not the prosecutor or the sheriff, but it just adds an additional level of pain to what has already been a really painful and traumatic experience for our community. and so it makes a bad situation even that much worse frankly. >> your community obviously has been crushed by this. and you just heard shimon talk about something you're well aware of, the alarming number of threats to schools that you're experiencing on the back of this horrific shooting. 60 schools in the area of detroit have been closed the past day or two because of this? >> yeah. our schools are getting slammed
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with tips and information. unfortunately, what we knew before and is playing out is that after a tragedy like this, these sort of copycat threats are very common. we've been hit with them in a major way. our schools were so concerned that, as you said, 60 of them today cancelled classes, many of them doing the same tomorrow. so we've reached out to them because one of the things that we have been able to identify so far is that there have been no credible threats. now, we take every threat seriously and so they have to be investigated. but it does look like these are just, i don't know, sick individuals, pranksters, people who are trying to draw attention. it really is disrupting our education system as we speak. >> a system that has been so incredibly challenged in recent months. what do you say to the young people, the students in your community, who are terrified? they're scared to go back to
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school? >> they're very scared. what we wanted to tell them today and what we've been trying to say is we are going to do everything we can to protect you. we have a wonderful sheriff's department here. they responded in heroic fashion. we have a strong prosecutor who is prosecuting these cases to the fullest extent. we're going to do everything we can to keep our kids safe at school and that we do believe it is safe at school. we haven't gotten any threat that would indicate that we have a widespread problem. the problem we have is people who for whatever reason are posting things on social media or emails or the like, and adding, frankly, a terror on top of what has already been a terrifying situation. >> dave, thank you very much. i want to go straight to ju juliette kayyem. i want to talk here about the parents. prosecutors are saying they could announce charges against crumbley's parents within the
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next 24 hours. just to set the stage here, the parents were called into that meeting. we know that they were aware of an issue, they were called into the school. we also know the father bought the handgun that was used here four days before the shooting. the prosecutor has made it very clear from everything she has said that she thinks the parents knew a lot and should never have put the gun in someone in this condition's hands, that they would have known the condition, all these implications are there, and that she seems prepared to charge them. what do you think will happen? >> well, if she does charge them, which i think she should if the evidence shows something beyond negligence, gross negligence, just not consideration of life, it will be historic. it will be the first time in which a criminal statute is used to go after the parents for their failure to control a child's access. a child, the killer's access to a gun. there have been cases in the past in which victims' families
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sue the defendant's family in civil court and there have been a few other cases throughout the country in which parents are given citations or something if their kids threaten the use of a gun. but this would be historic and it's about time honestly at this stage. michigan does not have a requirement that there be a lock requirement on the gun itself, so this is really a parent's duty to ensure that the person in their custody is not a danger to society. >> and so what we're learning is that two separate teachers reported deeply concerning behavior about crumbley to the school. one the day before, one hours before the shooting. it was disturbing enough they brought him into the school office. they brought the parents in, bring them all in on the very day of the shooting, okay? and so the parents were aware that there's something deeply wrong. from what they're intimating what the shooter said, you know, that caused this was horrible and probably pretty specific to what ended up happening.
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so what do you think happens here? is the school accountable? >> it's hard to know exactly what was said in the room. this is a really interesting case in a horrible way these things are interesting in the sense that i've never seen a time frame like this. here's a student who at least from the sheriff's report hasn't had discipline issues, has not been bullied, nothing is really going on. his father buys a gun during the holiday weekend and then monday is his first sort of interaction with the school in terms of their concerns. then tuesday he's a mass killer. so something is going on there. i think the school will have to look at its -- what it did in that moment. but see, to me, this just shows that all of this preparation and all of this defense, the active shooter trainers and having armed guards and having guidance counselors who are bringing students in and having drills where law enforcement gets there in four minutes, none of it is
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enough. it's about the guns. we just have to admit that we can't have these kids in these defensive postures anymore. >> you don't want to be in a position where you say, oh, it could have been 8, could have been 12. that's just a sick logic of where we are. you're right, that is where we are. they are heroes for responding so quickly. it shouldn't have been there to begin with. juliette, thank you. startling new details emerging about mark meadows' efforts to investigate lies about election fraud, including the conspiracy theory. do you remember this one? that italy was using satellites to break into our system and change vote total? and china firing back at the women's tennis association over its decision to ban tournaments there. this as we have new reporting tonight on the remarkable lengths some in china are going to, to talk about peng shuai to get around the censors. what the he— henry?
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completely insane election fraud claims. multiple sources tell cnn that meadows contacted top national security officials to talk about an alleged plot by china to use thermostats to change results inside u.s. voting machines. just think about that for a moment. and then pressured the acting attorney general to investigate the baseless conspiracy that satellites in italy were used to change vote totals. paula reed is out front. paula, most people couldn't even make this stuff up if they were trying to come up with the plot of a ridiculous novel. this is the reporting. this is real life, the reporting you have on the details. what more are you learning? >> absolutely. multiple sources have told us that meadows reached out to some of the country's top national security officials in an effort to connect them with trump allies who were pushing unfounded claims of foreign election interference and voter fraud. we've learned that meadows did this because he so very much wanted to please the former president, who was hyperfocused on injecting these baseless
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theories into official government channels. now, meadows' attempts to pressure officials at doj have been well documented, but we learned that meadows also reached out to officials at fbi, pentagon, the national security council and the office of the director of the national intelligence about various election fraud claims. at one point, erin, he reached out with what he said was potential evidence of a massive conspiracy by china to hack the u.s. election by using thermostats to change the results in voting machines. now, we also learned that meadows attempted to set up a meeting between mike flynn and top intelligence officials to discuss this china thermostat hack theory. that meeting never occurred because according to multiple sources even some trump officials meadows reached out to were wary of getting involved in these efforts. >> wow, okay. so all of this obviously, paula, going to be of interest to the select committee when meadows meets with them next week. although he seemed to dance a little bit. he's going to give some emails, but far from cooperate. >> exactly. the question, what are those
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emails, why didn't the archives have them? what does he have that they don't have. a lot of questions. as of now meadow is expected to appear for a deposition for the house committee investigating the capitol riot next week. our reporting is it will definitely be of significant interest because even an election security officials validated the election results, meadows continued to show a willingness to undermine confidence in the election. passing on election information from advisers like flynn and sidney powell, saying he was doing it at trump's behest. meadows' attorney did not respond to cnn's question for comment. you can read more on cnn.com. >> i hope people will. thanks very much to you, paula. i want to go now to el elie honig, former u.s. assistant attorney to talk about this. you were here last night but we are here. you hear paula's new reporting
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that now we know mark meadows was calling the fbi, the cia, the pentagon and others and among other things wanted to look into an alleged plot by china to change the they remember thermostats in voting machines an change the vote totals. meadows at one point was an elected member of congress and this stuff happened. >> yeah, erin. my first reaction is just wow. as a human being, a sane, rational human being, wow, how can this be? when you step back, though, this is really why mark meadows is the single most important witness to the january 6 investigation other than trump himself, and he's never going to realistically testify. this is why meadows is so key because he was running point. he was mission control for a whole of government effort to try to steal this election. this wasn't some one-off or something he did once. he was reaching out to our most serious agencies, to the pentagon, the fbi, doj, the national security advisers, to
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try to get them to put their stamp on this craziness. the fact is it sounds like wild conspiracy wing nut stuff, but it was coming from the chief of staff of the white house. that is incredibly dangerous. i think it tells you exactly why meadows is such a key focal point here. >> here's a video of him in the oval office two days before the insurrection. he's there with trump, mike pence and others. you can see him walking around. a meeting that was specifically, we understand, about how pence was going to handle certifying the electoral college vote on january 6th. meadows has cooperated somewhat with the committee and that's what i want to talk to you about. somewhat. 6,000 emails. i just want to be clear. we all know, and having dealt with donald trump over many years i certainly know the guy doesn't email, he never has emailed, so none of those emails are to trump. so meadows is giving over those emails but making it clear he's going to exert executive privilege over a lot of stuff.
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so is he really cooperating or not? >> i'm a little bit skeptical here, erin. when i was a prosecutor we used to say there are kwaup raters and then there are cooperators. i know on paper maybe it looks good and sounds good, meldadowss cooperating, but is he really? what did you do, mark meadows, in relation to the fbi and doj s? what was donald trump's involvement? if mark meadows gets to say no, guys, not answering that, then this is a bogus deal. what are they going to talk about, what color were the drapes in the oval office? what did you eat for luncheon january 6? this is what they need to know. so if this is out of bounds, the committee got played here. we'll see if they're able to get it out of mark meadows. >> that's the crucial question. elie, thank you very much. the women's tennis association says it has received another email from tennis champion peng shuai. it comes as people in china are going to incredible lengths to
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tonight the women's tennis association calling an email it received from peng shuai, quote, 100% orchestrated. the chinese tennis star wrote in the email, well, under what duress who knows, but she wrote she was shocked by the organization's decision to suspend tournaments in china. steve simon, head of the wta, told me last night they needed to act after demanding a full and transparent investigation into the rape allegations peng made against a senior communist leader. it comes as china is firing back at the wta. will ripley is outfront. >> reporter: when the head of the women's tennis association made this stunning announcement on "outfront" -- >> we are planning to suspend our events until such time as
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the chinese authorities do the appropriate thing. >> reporter: chinese state media began waging a propaganda war, blasting the wta, in english, on twitter, a platform banned in the mainland. this reveals peng shuai sent a third email to the wta's steve simon expressing her shock for the wta's unfair decision to suspend all tournaments in china. simon confirms to cnn he got the email and just like the first two, he's not convinced peng is speaking freely. >> we just feel very strongly that this is certainly being orchestrated. this is something we can't walk away from. >> reporter: even if it means losing a lucrative ten-year deal w worth hundreds of millions of dollars. >> the wta and steve simon has been as strong as i have seen a leader in sports for a long time. >> reporter: the wta's strong response in stark contrast to the international olympic committee's quiet diplomacy. the ioc now claiming on
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wednesday it held a second video call with the three-time olympian. no photos or videos released, offering her wide-ranging support, including a personal meeting in january. the ioc handing out this single photo of its first video call with peng last month. the ioc's longest serving board member telling "outfront" despite no independently verified evidence that call alone is enough proof for them that she's okay and not being held against her will. >> there are lots of countries where you can't easily leave the country. she's fine and not under any kind of coercion or confinement. >> reporter: china's global times citing the chinese tennis association saying the wta's decision was based on fictitious information. this state propaganda saying they are coercing peng shuai to support the west's attack on the chinese system. they are depriving peng shuai's freedom of expression.
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that system censored peng's painful post a month ago accusing a retired senior party leader of sexual assault. >> why did you have to take me to your home and force me to have sex with you. i couldn't describe how disgusted i was. >> reporter: her post erased in less than 30 minutes. chinese social media users appearing to use code words to evade the censors. some using a line from peng's post that going up against a powerful party official is like hitting a rock with an egg. one comment says why don't we talk about the issue of you know whom. the thread deleted 20 minutes later. chinese television never aired these videos of peng, videos activists say are almost certainly staged, released about three weeks after peng's post, aimed at a foreign audience to repair china's reputation ahead of the beijing winter olympics. >> the public face that they will show when the games
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actually happen in february, it will appear as if this never happened. >> reporter: some of the world's most famous athletes voicing support for peng and the wta. olympic partner sponsors remain silent, much like the tennis star herself. and the chinese government is attempting to silence cnn's coverage inside china once again. as soon as we start talking about this story, like every time we talk about the story, they cut off cnn's live feed inside china. why do they do this? activists say it's because chinese leaders are nervous. they're nervous because never before has a woman made this kind of allegation against somebody so high up in the communist party leadership. and the fear is, is that if these chinese citizens using these code words talking about this online and starting to whisper about this, if this spreads, it could be destabilizing for that one-party state, erin. >> will ripley, thank you very much. next, trump reportedly on the cusp of pocketing $100
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million in profit by selling his d.c. hotel. a hotel that my next guest describes as ground zero for trump's pay-to-play. plus breaking news. the late-night scramble to preventing the government from shutting down. what republicans and democrats are saying about a possible deal tonight. for your full financial picture. with the right balance of risk and reward. so you can enjoy more of...this. this is the planning effect. with downy infusions, let the scent set the mood. feel the difference with downy.
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so ditch the old way of selling your car, and say hello to the new way at carvana. profits, that's how much trump could be about to put in his pocket off the sale of his washington, d.c. hotel, and that is according to a new report in "the washington post" tonight. the former president reaching a deal with a miami investment firm to sell the hotel's lease for $375 million, and so he would make a huge prauflt if the deal closes. $100 million, as we said. now, while he was in office, he lost $70 million on the hotel, but still, this would be a net profit here on the sale of $100 million. out front now, david k. johnston, investigative reporter and author of the new book, how donald trump fleeced america and enriched himself and his family. you're going through the numbers looking at this. let's talk about the report from
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"the washington post." trump could make $100 million on this hotel, personally, himself, just to be clear here. you know, and you describe the hotel as ground zero for pay-to-play. 32 countries, officials from 32 countries stayed at that hotel. paying top dollar for access to the president. and now, $100 million more in profits if this sale goes through. pretty incredible. >> well, donald sometimes makes great deals with a lot of money. does lots of bad deals but this looks to be one of his better deals if he makes all tmoney. in the big cheat, i go through other areas where he or his family were phenomenally successful in using the white house to get richer or didn't do well at it. >> you weave together stunning numbers. i want to emphasize, david, you know, a lot of people watching know how completely impossible it is to get real numbers about trump's business. in part because he doesn't want anyone to know.
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he's always said he's richer than he is, but you have done this forensic accounting in your book. you say you have tracked more than $1.7 billion flowing into trump's bank accounts during his four years as president. okay. so how much of that is because he was president? how much is that him profiting from the office? >> yeah, we don't know. and keep in mind that donald keeps two sets of books, as we know from the indictment of the trump organization that's pending in new york right now. the total amount the taxpayers put in is well north of $100 million. donald was so eager to charge taxpayers everything he could that when he and the prime minister of japan had a meeting, he charged $3.15 for each glass of water that was put on the table as a photo prop. i have the invoice for it. >> that is incredible. >> so it's -- yeah, well, what i try to do in this book is take
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all these threads, a story in "the washington post," something that appeared in the "wall street journal" that most people didn't see comprehensively and pick out the most revealing examples that will explain to you how they were trying to turn the white house into a family money machine, and in fact, did so. and at times did so by undercutting american national security interests. >> i mean, it's pretty stunning, and trump's former fixer, michael cohen, has said basically, trump has a few hundred million dollars in debt, $400 million i believe we know, and he wants to pay that back essentially on the backs of small donors who are ponying up $5 to $15 to try to help him now with his quote/unquote legal defenses. and he says that trump is out there floating another run for president and putting all this out there just so he can get the money. listen to this. >> donald trump has made it very clear, right, that he is
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grifting off of the american people, the supporters. he makes a statement, right, that i'm thinking about it, i'm thinking about it. that's only to keep the grift growing. >> you write in the book, david, in just eight weeks, after election day 2020, trump hauled in $255 million in donations. that was the whole rigged business. and it paid for him. he spent less than $9 million on lawyers and legal costs, but only those who read the fine print, you write, knew that trump could divert most of the contributions to maintain his lavish lifestyle. making him a wealthy beggar. so he can live off some of this money? >> oh, yeah, he's probably going to spend a lot of that money on criminal defense lawyers once he's indicted. one of the things they did that's really outrageous is a man who was dying sent half his monthly income, $500, to trump, because rush limbaugh said trump needed the money. the trump organization then went and tapped his bank account
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again and again and again until he had enough left and they did this to thousands of people. if you or i did that, i suspect we would have been indicted. >> wow, yeah. just kind of the automatic people didn't realize they were signing up for it to be a recurring charge. david, thank you very much. everyone, be sure to check out david's new book, the big cheat, how donald trump fleeced america and enriched himself and his family. david k. johnston has been covering trump for 30 years. >> out front now, breaking news. lawmakers now racing to fund the government before a shutdown tomorrow, and we're getting word that there could actually be a vote tonight. could it pass? (wife) hi, honey! (man) like what? (burke) well, you'd get a discount for insuring your jet skis... and boat...rv...life... ...home and more. you could save up to forty-five percent. (man) that's a whole lot of discounts. (burke) well, we offer coverage for a whole lot of things, and you could save a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks. (kid) sup, dad! (burke) seventeen-car garage you got there? ♪we are farmers♪ ♪bum-pa-dum, bum-bum-bum-bum♪
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breaking news. the pressure is on lawmakers scrambling to fund the government before tomorrow's deadline and a possible shutdown. here we are at the last hour again. the house has passed a continuing resolution to fund the government into february and a vote in the senate could happen tonight. now, in order for it to pass because of the rules on this, all 100 senators need to support it. this isn't bipartisan with the one vote. this is the whole thing. biden is optimistic, though, that all will fall in line.
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>> we have everything in place to be able to make sure there is not a shutdown. there is a plan in place unless somebody decides to be totally erratic. >> well, this is washington, so who knows, but at this point, it appears the plan may hold and you would have 100 senators in agreement. wow. thanks for joining us. anderson starts now. good evening. tonight, an exclusive interview with facebook whistleblower frances haugen on her former company's role in the spread of misinformation and disinformation. >> doctors and nurses who have to cope with conspiracy theories about covid-19. it's about people who suffer harassment online. facebook knows what is happening on the platform and they have systematically underinvested in these harms. they know they do far too little about it. in fact, they have incentives for doing it thi
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