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Cheney: Jan. 6 Witnesses Are "An Inspiration To American Women"; More Than 85 Percent Of U.S. Could See Temps Over 90 Degrees Next Week; GOP Gov. Nominee Attacked At Campaign Event. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired July 22, 2022 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: As we keep an eye on that, the White House says the President will keep in isolation until he test negative. That's not required by CDC guidelines. The CDC guidelines say you end isolation after five full days, if you are fever free for 24 hours without the use of any fever reducing medications and your symptoms are improving. Does it make sense because he's the President of the United States and he's 79 years old to be extra careful or if the CDC guidelines are for me and for you, shouldn't they be the same for the President of the United States?

DR. CARLOS DEL RIO, EXEC. ASSOC. DEAN, EMORY UNIV. SCHOOL OF MEDICINE AT GRADY HEALTH SYSTEM: Well, remember, John, the CDC says you can end isolation after five days, if you're fully vaccinated and boosted. And then you need to continue wearing a mask for another five days, right? So a total of 10 days of masking is what the CDC recommends. You're not in isolation, but you still need to be wearing a mask when you're in public.

Because the President has contact with a lot of people, he has more contact with people that you and I probably do on a daily basis, I think they want to be extra careful and do the testing strategy. I personally, I'm in favor of the testing strategy. I think, you know, after you've been in isolation for five days, I recommend people getting tested at day six and if they're negative at day seven, if they're not tested day, you know, seven is negative. But having two negative tests or at least one negative test before you end your isolation is advisable. And I would advise that to anybody. Rapid test now are readily available. And if you test positive, I think testing out of isolation with a test, I think is really important.

KING: I take one of those tests every day before I come to this table. So you're right. They are rapidly available now not the case for many, many months ago. Dr. Del Rio grateful for your insight, sir. Have a great weekend.

Up next for us, the January 6th political impact, Donald Trump and Mike Pence both campaigning in Arizona today for different candidates for governor. And as Republican Liz Cheney guides the hearings, she's not shy about painting Trump and keep Trump allies as liars and cowards. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:36:10]

KING: January 6th Committee members say their most important job is to build a detailed historical record, but it's no secret, a secondary goal is to weaken Donald Trump as he takes steps toward another presidential campaign. It is the Committee Republicans who are most aggressive on that front. And last night one goal of the Committee Vice Chairwoman Liz Cheney was to break through to Trump supporters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): Donald Trump knows that millions of Americans who supported him would stand up and defend our nation where it threatened. It would put their lives and their freedom at stake to protect her. And he is preying on their patriotism. He is preying on their sense of justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: It's a direct appeal to Trump supporters who are still out there. Some who stormed the building that day, some who showed up for a speech and did not storm the building but millions more across America. Liz Cheney trying to essentially, you know, crack the code. He lied to you, please leave him.

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And the study in contrast is what you heard from Representative Kinzinger. He said the forces Donald Trump ignited that day have not gone away, the militant intolerant ideologies, the alienation, the disaffection, the weird fantasies and disinformation. They're all still out there. That's the elephant in the room. Totally different tone from him.

KING: And watching Cheney is fascinating. Look, the history of this is most important, the Justice Department can decide about potential criminal charges, but you cannot ignore the politics. You just can't. When the Committee comes back in September, we will know whether she survives her primary in the middle of August whether she will be assumed to be former Congresswoman or whether she will beat a Trump back challenger.

Many think that if she loses the primary or even if she wins and is reelected, she may run for president. So it's been interesting to listen to her. Listen to her. Just close your eyes forget she's a Republican, talking about the brave witnesses with a special appeal that might help a presidential candidate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHENEY: Cassidy, Sarah, and our other witnesses, including Officer Caroline Edwards, Shaye Moss and her mother, Ruby Freeman, are an inspiration to American women and to American girls. We owe a debt to all of those who have and will appear here.

(END VIDEO CLIP) KING: Speaker Nancy Pelosi has to sign off on Liz Cheney being in that chair, the Chairman Bennie Thompson has COVID, so he was remotely. That if you're -- if for Cheney for President campaign trying to reach out to Democrats and Independents, that's a pretty powerful potential moment.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: And in the short term, I don't think that there is -- it's not a leap of faith or to understand what is happening there to think that Nancy Pelosi would be OK with Liz Cheney coming back. That was kind of a -- that was very much helpful for her campaign, let's just say that to have her in that power position, even though she's being challenged as somebody who's, you know, not good for Trump and so on and so forth. I thought what you said in that first sound bite that you played, was kind of the anti-deplorable sound bite.

I mean, instead of saying, you know, all of the people who support Donald Trump are misguided and, you know, you're all not worthy. She was calling them patriots. She was calling them people who want to stand up for America, but that they were lied to, and that they were, that they basically had the wool pulled over their eyes. I thought that was very, very interesting. She was appealing to them, to the very people who don't even want to listen --

KING: Oh, there are a lot of them in Wyoming.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: For sure. And the reality is, most of them most likely were not listening in the moment. But she was also making an argument to the elites on that side of the party, the Wall Street Journal editorial page. Yes, even some of the executives at "Fox News" and other places. One thing we know after watching seven or eight hearings are so that Donald Trump's supporters, the ones who will be at his rally tonight I'm in Phoenix or in Arizona and other places they likely will not change their mind.

[12:40:04]

But there are tens of millions of other Americans who voted for Donald Trump last time who have never gone to a rally, who did it, essentially some of them plugging their nose. So the softer Donald Trump supporters, I believe the ones I've been speaking with at, you know, as we travel, are really disgusted by this in some respect. Can he still run again? Yes. And he probably will. Can he get 30 percent of the party, he can. But this is really chipped away at the armor that he built around him that the election was a lie, because it's simply --

KING: Well, you mentioned Arizona, Donald Trump will be in Arizona tonight. A couple of his rally, a couple hours after Mike Pence is there. They are campaigning for different candidates for governor. Kari Lake is the Trump endorsed candidate. We can show you some of the other fine Americans who support her, the Trump election liars, Michael Flynn, Rudy Giuliani, Marjorie Taylor Greene. The establishment candidate is Karrin Taylor Robson. You see Mike Pence, but also the governor of Arizona, Chris Christie, the more establishment Republicans for her. Will we learn? Is this one of the primaries where at least we get some clue? Are these hearings having an impact? Are Republicans maybe having second thoughts about Trump and the big lie?

CORNISH: I mean, this will seem unrelated, but bear with me, in the course of like 30 seconds. You had Liz Cheney go from completely ostracized from party to running for president with a chance with independence. There is a long path right between those two things. I think what's happened is while President, while the former president has to kind of run defense on what's being said in the hearing other people can raise DeSantis and others. But we should not diminish the fact that there are a great number of candidates who are election denialists or kind of flirt with the idea that there was fraud, and maybe it was stolen and maybe let's, who among us has not wondered about this. And those people they're making great gains. You know, that's why people are talking about the house flipping Republican.

KING: Right, which is one of the reasons particularly, again, the two Republicans, Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger cannot hide their scorn, and they're dripping scorn for Kevin McCarthy.

CORNISH: Yes. Well, they have nothing to lose.

KING: Right. That's true. That's true. For Kevin McCarthy, their House Republican leader and Senator Josh Hawley, let's do McCarthy first. Cheney, at almost every hearing, has found a chance to remind us that Kevin McCarthy was quote, unquote, scared that day. Last night she used testimony from none other than the President's son-in-law, Jared Kushner.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JARED KUSHNER, FORMER TRUMP SENIOR ADVISER: I heard my phone ringing, turn the shower off. So I was leader, McCarthy who had a good relationship with. He told me he was getting really ugly over at the Capitol and said, please, you know, anything you could do to help? I don't recall specific ask just anything you could do. Again, I got the sense that, you know, they were, you know, they were scared.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They mean, Leader McCarthy and people on the Hill because of the violence?

KUSHNER: That he was scared. Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: He was scared. Yes.

BASH: OK. I'm going to talk about that in a second. I've been wanting to say this since last night, he turned the shower off. He was in the shower, while the U.S. Capitol was being attacked. I mean, that's a detail that I feel like we need to say out loud.

KING: He's not a strong character witness.

BASH: But more importantly, more importantly, your point there is really critical that Jared Kushner saying Kevin McCarthy was scared. That was one in a series of very clearly, very deliberate attempts by Liz Cheney and others to remind people that in the moments during the attack, and after the attack, Kevin McCarthy understood the gravity of it. And he changed course in the time since.

ZELENY: And they want to make that clear to the former president who's clearly watching all this because he will have a large thing to say if Kevin McCarthy ever becomes speaker if Republicans win or not. So that was an underlying current all this. Let's, you know, try and muddy him up a bit, if you will. But that was the word scared was fascinating and as you said, getting Jared to make that case. Yes, maybe a double whammy, I guess.

KING: Would you call it trolling or, you know, there's many different words for it.

[12:43:51]

When we come back, a serious global story, millions under heat warnings around the globe, a scorching weather terrorizes the globe, CNN on the ground in Europe, and in China, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: Across the world today, hundreds of millions of people experiencing life or death heat conditions. Here in the United States, dangerously high temperatures will continue. In Europe, wildfires now raging through Portugal, the World Health Organization reports the heat wave has killed at least 1,700 people. Our correspondents are covering extreme weather and climate challenges across the globe including CNN Barbie Nadeau in Rome.

BARBIE NADEAU, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: John, this extreme heat wave that has been gripping Europe for the better part of the week, has shown no sign of letting up. And fires continue to pop up all over southern Europe. More than 1,000 people have died in this heat wave so far. And another country, Germany, just hit their hottest day on record.

Now we've got 16 cities under extreme heat alert in Italy where air conditioning is scarce. There are 19 European countries right now under extreme fire alert. And it's so difficult for these firefighters to work under these excruciating conditions. And the very worst part is the forecast shows no sign of letting up anytime soon. John?

KING: Barbie Nadeau, thank you.

In China, dozens -- a dozen cities issuing red alerts. That's the highest possible heat warning. CNN's Selena Wang is in Beijing.

SELINA WANG, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: John, China's brutal heat wave is about to get even worse. Nineteen cities have issued red alerts, the highest heat warning, meaning temperatures are expected to surpass 104 degrees Fahrenheit. And more than 200 cities are under orange alerts, the next most severe warning. But weather authorities are saying the hottest day of the year will be Saturday, which according to the traditional lunar calendar is called the day of great heat. [12:50:17]

Now this heat wave has been ferocious. Just last week, dozens of cities logged record highs some reaching more than 110 degrees. And this heat wave comes after flooding in recent months that have displaced millions in China. And this also comes as COVID cases are raising. At least 30 cities are in full or partial lockdown. There have been growing reports of COVID workers collapsing on the job due to heat stroke in these suffocating temperatures. They were full head to toe hazmat suits. Videos of giant pools of sweat in their suits have gone viral on social media. And residents across the country, young, old, and sick are required to wait in long lines for regular COVID tests, even in this scorching weather. John?

KING: Selina Wang, thank you as well.

Let's getting out on our CNN meteorologist and weather Correspondent Chad Myers, he's covering this story as well. Chad, how many cities, I see that map behind you. I just had next to me. How many cities is going to break records this weekend?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: More than 50 without a doubt. Now there's some smattering of cities out to the West. But the bulk here in the northeast, that's where the heat is moving up. Our temperatures, even in D.C. are going to start to really go up and the heat index even in Philadelphia will be 105. But breaking the record, D.C. 101 on Sunday, breaking records back out to the West as well, Death Valley 122 today, Phoenix in the 113 to 114 range. So it's hot on all the corners. Sometimes we at least see some spots that are cool. We just don't have it right now.

KING: We don't have it. And look at the weekend, then who gets it next?

MYERS: Well, that is a great question. Because unfortunately, you Portland, you Seattle, the Pacific Northwest, this will be the first time for the Pacific Northwest or Portland, that you will be over 100 degrees. And it may be there for days and days and days in a row, so dangerous heat. We go from 57 degrees tonight to 101, 102 by the end of the weekend and into next week, John.

KING: Chad, is there any doubt, any doubt that when you look away, you just went through here in the States, when you look at what's happening around the world that this is related to the climate crisis?

MYERS: Oh, I don't think there's any doubt in anyone's mind what we have. This is the greatest piece of evidence we have. You know, we don't know that much about what's going to happen to tornadoes and hurricanes and typhoons. But we do know the strongest evidence is for heat waves. And let me just take you back to Tuesday, when London was 104. They're saying that this is between four and five sigma, four and five standard deviations. And I know how much you love the bell curve.

Most of the temperature should fall in here. That 104 before, before we started burning fossil fuels was way over here, sigma, almost a nearly impossible chance. But now we've shifted it. And so now it's not so impossible. And in fact, John, it just happened.

KING: It did just happen. Chad Myers, grateful for your help keeping track of all this.

[12:53:04]

Up next for us, a scary moment in a New York campaign rally, the Republican candidate for governor fights off an attacker who tried to stab him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: A disturbing story out of New York. The state's Republican nominee for governor was attacked at a campaign event last night Congressman Lee Zeldin was delivering a speech near Rochester when a man climbed up on stage and quote attempted to stab him that according to the Zeldin campaign. You see the pictures, the 43-year-old alleged attacker taking into custody has now been charged with attempted assault in the second degree. CNN's Brynn Gingras is following the story for us and is live with the latest. Brynn, what do we know?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, scary moments there, John. So essentially police are saying that man he walked up on stage while the Congressman was giving a campaign speech and he reached across him with a weapon described in the criminal complaint as a set of self-defense knuckles which had two sharp pointed ends which protruded beyond his fist. Now Zeldin, you could see in that video was able to grab his other wrist and sort of hold him down while others including his lieutenant governor candidate, were able to bring him to the ground and hold him there until authorities arrived.

Now I talked to the Sheriff's Department there in Monroe County. They tell me that they believe that this man was intoxicated. And he really didn't know any connection with Zeldin. But they are still investigating of course. So he was held behind bars for about six hours, John, and this is a major point that many are making right now with this story. He was released on his own recognizance because it is a Class E felony in New York with the bail reform laws. A judge cannot set bail, cannot set any cash amount for that type of attempted assault crime.

So that is a major sticking point. But I can tell you this, John, that we know that the authorities there in Monroe County, they are in communications with federal authorities because of course, Zeldin is a sitting congressman so that, it's possible he could be facing, you know, stricter charges in the coming days. But the good news is he went right back on, the Congressman continued his campaign stump. No one was hurt. And this 43-year-old suspect he's going to be back in court later this month or next month rather.

KING: We'll keep our eyes on that one as it plays out. Brynn Gingras, thank you for the latest.

This quick programming note is winning more important than the state of an athlete's mental health. Kamau Bell heads to the legendary sports town of Boston. That's my hometown, Boston, Massachusetts, to find out. A brand new episode, United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell airs this Sunday night 10:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific right here on CNN.

[13:00:00]

Thanks for your time today in Inside Politics. I hope you have a safe and a peaceful weekend we'll see you on Monday. Ana Cabrera picks up our coverage right now.