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Florida's Top Health Official Calls for Halt to COVID Vaccines; Prominent Names Listed in Unsealed Epstein Documents; Illinois Voters Ask Elections Board to Take Trump Off 2024 Ballot; Hyundai and Kia Thefts Soar More Than 1,000 Percent Since 2020. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired January 04, 2024 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Florida's top doctor, the state's Surgeon General, is calling on health professionals to stop using mRNA COVID vaccines. In a letter to the FDA, Dr. Joseph Ladapo raised concerns about Pfizer and Moderna shots, citing debunked claims, one in particular, that contaminants in them can integrate into DNA, causing healthy cells to become cancerous. Again, these claims are bunk. They've been debunked.

The FDA responded by saying it is confident in the quality, safety, and effectiveness of the vaccines, rebuking Ladapo's claims as implausible and also misleading.

Let's talk about it now with Dr. Paul Offit. He is the director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He's also a member of the FDA Vaccine Advisory Committee, and he's the author of the soon-to-be-released book, "Tell Me When It's Over," an insider's guide to deciphering COVID myths and navigating our post- pandemic world. Clearly the person to talk with us about this.

Dr. Offit, what do you think about what he's saying here?

DR. PAUL OFFIT, DIRECTOR, VACCINE EDUCATION CENTER, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA: Well, it's nonsense. What he's arguing is that these small quantities of fragmented DNA, and by small I mean nanogram levels, which is billionths of a gram, which is contained actually in many biological products, are able to enter our nucleus, integrate itself into DNA, and cause things like cancers and autoimmune diseases. That's impossible, and here's why.

If you think about a cell as like a sunny-side-up egg, and the white part is the cytoplasm, and then the nucleus is the yolk, if these fragmented DNAs get into your cytoplasm, they would be instantly eliminated, because our cytoplasm hates foreign DNA. Even if it got past that, entered the nucleus, which is impossible because it doesn't have a nuclear access signal, and then gets into the nucleus, it would have to integrate into DNA, which means it would have to cut DNA, and then use enzymes like integrase to do that. None of that is contained in these fragments, so it's just nonsense.

Let's also remember, assuming you live on this planet, and you eat any food that's made from animal or plants on this planet, you're always ingesting foreign DNA, which can enter your circulation. And so, the notion that that hurts you just shows how much, I think, this particular foreign surgeon general doesn't understand how constantly we're exposed to small fragmented pieces of DNA. We have trillions of bacteria that live on the surface of our body that have foreign DNA, so it's just nonsense.

KEILAR: Yes, I mean, when you explain it like that, it's so clear how nonsensical it is.

[15:35:00]

And I also want to point out, this isn't the first time that Dr. Ladapo has been associated with a kind of controversy, right? He personally changed some key findings in a Florida study on COVID vaccines. He's known for supporting COVID theories that have not been proven.

He's criticized mask and vaccine mandates. I think that last one is something where you actually have some people with differing opinions and their different policy approaches, but these other ones are very clear, very clearly the purview of a clear direction in science, and he hasn't stuck to it. How harmful are these particular comments?

OFFIT: Very harmful. He's the Florida state surgeon general. He has a platform, and when you have a platform, people listen. But consistently, he has been on the wrong side of issues relating to masks and vaccines and has been a purveyor of COVID vaccine myths.

I don't know why he does that. This seems to be more sort of a phenomenon of the right than the left, and, you know, as they say, when you mix politics with science, you get politics, and I think that's what's happened here.

KEILAR: You think that's what this is all just politics? We should point out he was appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis. Ultimately, it was pretty controversial because of his views. Can you talk a little bit more about that, how you think politics are coming out here ahead of science?

OFFIT: Well, the letter that Dr. Ladapo sent to the FDA weeks ago had a comment from Ron DeSantis where he said, we are not going to bow down to Washington edicts. Meaning we're going to do the things that we think are best for Floridians while ignoring or at least pushing back on things that come out of Washington or things that come out of Atlanta through the CDC. It's this sort of we're not going to be pushed around by institutions in the government, and I think that's sort of his platform, and I think Dr. Ladapo sort of fits into that.

But it's a shame because I think what he's done is he's made science political, and I think Floridians will suffer that. You know, the notion, as he said previously, that ironically, he said, well, so don't use mRNA vaccines. Well, so if you're not going to use mRNA vaccines, the only other licensed vaccine in this country is Novavax, which is also made using cells at some point and also likely contains small fragments of DNA.

So it just shows, I think, his utter lack of understanding of how this process works.

KEILAR: Yes, it really does. Dr. Offit, thank you so much for explaining that so clearly.

OFFIT: Thank you.

KEILAR: Still ahead, a group of voters from Illinois has just asked the State Board of Elections to remove Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot. That makes it the most recent state where the former president faces a challenge to his candidacy. We'll speak with the legal director who filed that challenge next.

[15:40:00]

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BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: At some point today, a records release may expose even more of the VIPs that had ties to the late serial sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The first batch of court documents came out yesterday and confirmed earlier reports that Epstein had contact with major power players, like former presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump.

KEILAR: None of them has been accused of wrongdoing in this case, and we do need to make a correction from an earlier hour. Bill Gates was not mentioned in yesterday's document release, and we certainly regret that error. We are going to turn now to CNN's Kara Scannell for more on this. Kara, what are we learning about Epstein's encounters?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we got the first 40 documents in what is expected to be dozens and dozens of more documents coming out. What we've learned from this release is a lot of the same names that we've known for some time, including former presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump. The information in the release, which is this particular piece, comes from a deposition of a woman who had worked for Epstein. Her name is Johanna Sjoberg, and she gave a deposition in this case where she's saying that she was paid to give massages, and she was speaking about Jeffrey Epstein's encounters with numerous famous people, including those former presidents.

And what she said in her testimony under oath many years ago was that she recalled being on a plane flying with Jeffrey Epstein and that the pilots said they needed to make a landing in Atlantic City. And she recalled, as she said, Jeffrey said, great, we'll call up Trump and we'll go to, I don't recall the name of the casino, but we'll go to the casino.

Now, she said she never gave a massage to Trump, and Trump has not been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein at all in his campaign yesterday when asked about this just attacked the media. But, you know, this just gives a sense about the context of the world in which Epstein circulated. I mean, he also was friends or at least had relationships with Bill Clinton. His team has previously acknowledged that he was on. The former president took many trips on Jeffrey Epstein's plane, but they say that, you know, he did not know about any of Jeffrey Epstein's crimes with young women. Sjoberg also testified about Clinton. And in that, she said about

Jeffrey Epstein that he said one time that Clinton likes them young, referring to girls. Now, Clinton's team yesterday in response to the release of these documents said it's been nearly 20 years since President Clinton had last had contact with Epstein. They also had said previously that he knew nothing of the financiers' terrible crimes. And, again, Clinton has not been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with this.

So it's going to be dribs and drabs of information that is going to be tucked into, you know, what will be likely hundreds and hundreds of more pages of documents that are being unsealed as part of this 2015 defamation lawsuit brought by one of Epstein's accusers.

As more information comes out, it is coming in some legal motions. It's coming in some of these depositions that are under oath. And we are expecting to see other names being released as part of this group of some, you know, 150 to 200 names that will be unsealed.

[15:45:00]

Also expecting to see from maybe some additional accusers who have spoken out publicly in this -- about Jeffrey Epstein as well as speaking privately in these depositions that have been held under seal for years -- Boris, Brianna.

SANCHEZ: Still a lot of questions to be answered. Kara Scannell, thanks so much.

KEILAR: There is another challenge to former President Trump's candidacy. This time in Illinois. We'll have much more on that next.

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SANCHEZ: This just in to CNN. A group of voters from Illinois is now asking the State Board of Elections to remove former President Donald Trump from the 2024 ballot.

The filing says, quote: Donald J. Trump, through his words and actions, after swearing an oath as an officer of the United States to support the Constitution, engaged in insurrection or rebellion, or gave aid and comfort to its enemies, and defined by Section 3 of the 14th Amendment.

The challenge in Illinois comes as the U.S. Supreme Court is widely expected to review rulings in Colorado and Maine that found Trump ineligible to run for office.

We're joined now by the legal director of the group that filed this challenge.

[15:50:00]

Ron Fein him is with Free Speech for People. Ron, thank you so much for being with us. I want to cut straight to the core of the legal argument between your group and Trump's team. In his appeal to the Colorado decision, his team argues that Trump didn't engage in insurrection and that the 14th Amendment doesn't cover the presidency, that he's not an officer. What's your response to those arguments?

RON FEIN, LEGAL DIRECTOR, FREE SPEECH FOR PEOPLE: Well, thank you for asking these questions because, frankly, some of them are ridiculous arguments by Trump. His claim that he wasn't an officer of the United States while he was president is absurd.

The Constitution refers to the presidency as an office over two dozen times, and the definition of an officer is someone who holds an office. As for his engagement in insurrection, we saw that play out on national television, and the news that's come out, and the revelations from the January 6th committee report and in the Colorado trial only add to what Americans were able to see with their own eyes. Where he invited a violent armed crowd to Washington, D.C., told them to be wild, and then sent them to the Capitol, where they nearly assassinated the vice president and for the first time in our nation's history, disrupted the peaceful transfer of power.

SANCHEZ: I want to step aside from the legal arguments for a moment. There are many, whether the 14th Amendment is self-executing, etc., but I want to look at the big picture because, given that the Supreme Court is likely to weigh in on the Colorado case, that would have implications potentially for the entire country. So I'm wondering, from your perspective, why file another challenge in Illinois now?

FEIN: The U.S. Supreme Court, first of all, has not decided whether it will take the Colorado case. If it does, we don't know how quickly it will decide the case, and we don't know what it will decide.

But in the meantime, deadlines for these challenges under state law arise, and this is the time to file a challenge in Illinois, and we will file additional challenges in additional states because unless and until the U.S. Supreme Court issues a final ruling, this is a live issue everywhere in the country.

SANCHEZ: What do you make of the argument from some that oppose Trump who say that this effort inadvertently boosts him, that it gives him a greater chance of winning the Republican nomination?

FEIN: Our strategy is not a political strategy. It's a legal strategy to enforce and uphold the U.S. Constitution. We're not trying to interfere in partisan politics, but rather to ensure that a constitutional mandate which our predecessors set forth to protect us against people like Donald Trump is upheld.

SANCHEZ: But if you believe that he is a danger to democracy, couldn't this, again, inadvertently boost him and put him front and center as one of the top candidates in this presidential election cycle?

FEIN: I would say that not enforcing the Constitution and letting this provision which was designed to protect us from insurrectionists wither on the vine would boost him even more by sending the message that there is no accountability for insurrection.

SANCHEZ: Ron Fein, thank you so much for being with us. We hope to have you back. Keep us updated on your efforts.

FEIN: Thank you for having me.

SANCHEZ: Of course.

So in just a few minutes, we're going to get an update from law enforcement officials in Iowa after a school shooting there. We'll bring you the very latest in just moments. Stay with CNN.

[15:55:00]

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SANCHEZ: There's been a dramatic spike in thefts of some Hyundai and Kia models. We're talking a 1,000 percent increase in thefts in just the past three years. This after social media posts showed how to easily steal some of those models.

So let's bring in our senior auto writer, Peter Valdes-Dapena, for more on this. Peter, what are these automakers doing to stop this?

PETER VALDES-DAPENA, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR AUTO WRITER: Well, actually, Hyundai and Kia, both of them are doing everything they can, I think, to try to get people on top of this. They're putting out -- giving people steering wheel locks, doing software updates. They have new software that should make the vehicles harder to steal. They're trying to get people to come into dealers. They're even working with outside agencies to distribute some of these simpler devices like steering wheel locks to owners of these older Hyundai models that are particularly vulnerable to being stolen using a USB cord like that one.

SANCHEZ: And, Peter, is there any word on a fix for car owners?

VALDES-DAPENA: Yes. Well, as I said, Hyundai and Kia both have rolled out software that makes it much harder for someone to steal a car this way, that they can apply to some of these older models. And some of the ones that, for some reason, can't take that software update, they do have mechanical means that they can add to the car that dealers will install at no cost and do prevent the vehicle from being stolen quite so easily.

KEILAR: Is that impacting sales, Peter? I mean, this obviously isn't a selling point for a car if you're going to be dealing with this kind of thing.

VALDES-DAPENA: It's an embarrassment for these companies. The good news is, of course, that newer models have some anti-theft technology already in them that these older models didn't have.

These were cars with turnkey ignitions that lacked engine immobilizers. That newer cars now have. Kia sales and Hyundai sales, to be frank with you, are going quite well, actually.

[16:00:00]

I think people have gotten the message that this is a problem with older models.

SANCHEZ: Peter Valdes-Dapena, thank you so much for the reporting. Much appreciated.

Hey, and thank you so much for being with us today. Brianna, always a pleasure.

KEILAR: Always a pleasure, as we bring in this new year all week, Boris.

"THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts in just about ten seconds. Thanks for being with us.