Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

U.S. Government Issues Report on Climate Change; Demonstrators Gather in Paris to Protest Increased Fuel Prices; Police Indicate Shooter in Alabama Mall Misidentified; Missionary Killed by Isolated Tribe; Democrats Prepare to Take Over House of Representatives; Doctors Clash with NRA on Gun Violence; Company Attempting to Turn Waste into Energy Source. Aired 10-11a ET

Aired November 24, 2018 - 10:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:00:12] CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Saturday, November 24th. We are always so grateful to have your company. I am Christi Paul.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: And I am Martin Savidge in for Victor Blackwell. The top stories this hour. A dire government report on climate warns that thousands of lives and billions of dollars are at stake.

PAUL: In Alabama, a manhunt under way right now for the gunman who opened fire at a mall Thanksgiving night. The man killed at the scene was misidentified as the shooter.

SAVIDGE: Meanwhile, President Trump is preparing for his new reality with a House controlled by Democrats.

PAUL: And protests over the rising price of fuel. Look what that's left on the streets of Paris right now, police firing tear gas and deploying water cannons to try to keep the peace.

You're in the CNN Newsroom.

again, so grateful to have you here. This morning there is this stark assessment of the devastating effect of leaving climate change unchecked. A panel of scientists warning thousands of Americans could die premature deaths, the economy could lose hundreds of billions of dollars if global warming is not addressed.

Scientists behind the study didn't just look at climate shifts over one day or even one year. They looked at long term trends here.

SAVIDGE: And joining us now is CNN's Allison Chinchar and Kim Cobb, climate scientist at Georgia Tech university. Good morning to both of you.

Allison, you were on this call. And there was some interesting insight that came out the way questions were either asked or answered or not. ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes. So the main focus of the

phone call was to talk about the report and the main takeaway from this was to show the direct impacts of climate change on Americans' lives. Usually these reports are from a global standpoint, but this was really a focus on the United States. They talked about the three industries that would be most impacted, real estate, health care, and agriculture being those.

But probably the most interesting thing about that phone call was at the end they did a question and answer segment, and they had numerous people ask about the timeline of this being issued Friday. But one person directly asked, they said this is the official White House climate report, and it says climate change is real. But you have the president of the United States saying it's not. What are we supposed to believe, the White House report or the White House spokesperson? And they refused to answer it. The moderator simply would not allow any of these panelists to answer that question. I just found that odd that these are the scientists, they wrote the report, and they're not even really allowed to answer that simple question.

PAUL: Did you get a sense they wanted to answer the question? Did anybody start to answer?

CHINCHAR: You could hear, things like that where people would start to, but the moderator, and I know that's their job is to decide who gets to answer the question. But I did get the sense that if they were allowed, maybe not all of them, but some of them would have liked to have answered that question.

SAVIDGE: What about the question of timing. In other words, you release this at a time when --

CHINCHAR: The moderator shut that one down as well. Their response to that was simply we want the focus of this to be about the content of this, not about the timing of release.

PAUL: So with that said, Kim, just so the viewers know, Kim Cobb, of course, with us now, that you go to Christmas Island every two weeks. This is your area of study. Christmas Island in the Pacific, of course. Is what you heard from this report, does it correlate with what you found in 18 years of research?

KIM COBB, CLIMATE SCIENTIST, GEORGIA TECH UNIVERSITY: Yes, absolutely. So as a climate scientist, some of us are in the business of digging back into the past to look at climate extremes before the rise of carbon dioxide. And of course what we see locked into records is coming up into the present, things are getting warmer, and the natural climate extremes that I study are getting more extreme, perfectly consistent with the findings of this report.

PAUL: And how -- I'm sorry. Go ahead, Martin.

SAVIDGE: I was just going to ask, we've had a number of reports that have been done over the years. What makes this one so important, and why should we carefully look at it? COBB: Yes. I think these reports come out every several years, and

this one I think caught my eye because it has ratcheted up some impacts that we had bigger uncertainties about in the past, and now with this report they are becoming clearer than ever. And that's unfortunately in the worst direction. So sea level estimates have ticked up. Our attribution of climate extremes has improved since the last report.

And so now we're really facing with a lot more certainty some of the very, very damaging types of climate exchange and impacts. And unfortunately, this report is just another exclamation mark on a year of dizzying records with wildfires, temperature extremes, heat waves, and of course the hurricane season in the southeast.

PAUL: So are we in the thick of this now based on what you ticked down, the list of what we're dealing with, or can you give us, Allison, some sort of a timeline when we're going to see this ratcheted up, or again, are we in it?

[10:05:01] CHINCHAR: So you have some aspects that are already taking place. You have coastal flooding, places like Florida, the Carolinas, up and down the east coast. They call it sunny day flooding in Florida where it is not raining but they're getting those floods from the tides. It is a great example of that sea level rise.

Other things, it really is, it's going to take several more decades before you really start to notice large scale issues with. But the fact of this report was not just to chalk -- and I think that's what separates this report. This wasn't just the here is the doom and gloom. This specific report actually gave solutions to the problem. Here's how we can fix the ones that are happening now, and here's how we can fix the ones that we know will happen down the road.

PAUL: What solution stood out?

CHINCHAR: So they talk about certain things in areas of the west. They have this drought program that's already existed and it is meant for farmers and ranchers on how they can to start to prepare for drought, for heatwaves, and how it would affect their livestock. The Acadiana Group in Louisiana that basically was created to help assess flooding risks for areas along the southeast. So again, you have these programs that are already being established to help look into the future of what can we do to mitigate some of these issues that we know will take place.

SAVIDGE: Professor, is it too late? Can we still prevent it?

COBB: Absolutely not. We have so much work to do. And so, as Allison was saying, some of that work is just reading into those regional reports, the report has region by region what are the expected impacts, and thinking about how scientists can work with people in their communities and policymakers to protect those communities today from the impacts that are coming down the pike today, actually. And so the other bucket of the recommendations that they make is of course to get on top of our emissions and start to make sure that we are not baking in more risk than we need to. It is absolutely not too late and we really have time to get to work.

But this report does stress that the time to do so is now. And it is really important for American health and well-being and economic prosperity that we take this very seriously.

PAUL: Allison Chinchar and Kim Cobb, we appreciate you both being here. Thank you.

SAVIDGE: Breaking news in Paris. Demonstrators are taking to the streets over rising fuel costs, gathering in the French capital to express frustration with President Emmanuel Macron after tax hikes on diesel and gas. Macron is also pushing incentives to purchase electric vehicles.

PAUL: Police are using tear gas, and, you can see there, water cannons to combat some of the, now we're told 8,000 protesters that have assembled there. Government officials are blaming far right extremists for inflaming the tensions there. CNN senior international correspondent Jim Bittermann is live in Paris for us. And Jim, I know you are standing right above this crowd along the Champs-Elysees. What are you seeing, hearing, feeling at this hour?

JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We're now six hours into the protest today. I'll just show you a little bit of what's going on right at our doorstep downstairs on the Champs- Elysees. These are yellow vested protesters, people who are protesting the rise in gas prices, but they've been joined by a lot of other people that are protesting all sorts of things, high taxes in France, the high cost of living. There are some pensioners in the crowd worried about their pensions and their retirement.

And they have been going up and down the avenue, the police have been using the water cannon, you maybe able to see it in the background there in action. And setting barricades out and then setting fire to barricades, which is what we have seen practically all afternoon long here. It does not seem to be at this point that the crowd is dispersing, but on the other hand the overall crowd is substantially smaller than the crowds that gathered in France a week ago. This started with a crowd of 230,000 people across the country. Today according to the interior minister it's about 23,000. So a substantially less number of protesters out, but these on the Champs- Elysees have been far more dramatic than we saw last week, in fact probably as dramatic as I've ever seen on the Champs-Elysees.

Authorities said they were going to try to keep people away from here because of all the high value stores and fashion boutiques and what not, and clearly that did not happen. Christi, Martin?

SAVIDGE: Jim, the explosions and sounds that we're hearing in the background, what are they?

BITTERMANN: Well, they're basically -- some of them flash bombs that the police are using, and some tear gas. But also, the other thing is the demonstrators have brought with them fireworks, and we have seen a number of demonstrators set off fireworks, that's really what the explosions are. There's nothing that, as far as I can tell, that has caused much damage, although we did see one demonstrator injured a short while ago who was right next to one of these when they went off. And we have seen, as you can probably hear in the background, a regrouping of the protesters as the police try to move in to push them off the avenue.

[10:10:08] PAUL: So Jim, we're listening to that as well and we're looking at these pictures, and I am wondering, President Macron has to be watching this as well. You mentioned earlier how low his approval rating is right now. Is there any indication how the government is going to address this?

BITTERMANN: There is some, Christi. In fact, President Macron said that he is going to address the situation on Tuesday. We're not sure what he is going to do. I would suspect there might be a decrease in the gas tax announced or something like that, but he doesn't have a whole lot of room to maneuver here, given the economy in France and that sort of thing. And he's also been very resolute about saying that he is going to carry out government reforms. Some of the protesters today, for example, are against the reforms he announced from the first days in his office, the reforms to the labor laws in this country. He said that's what we have to do to get the economy moving here. That was met very positively by a lot of businessmen in the country, but now two years after those reforms were announced, in fact this is what we are having on the streets as people feel the bite of the reforms and the high taxes and whatnot. Christi?

PAUL: Jim Bittermann, I'll say it again, take good care of yourself and your team there. Thank you, sir. We appreciate it.

All right, so while much of the focus is on climate change right now in Washington, there is a deadline looming there. In a little more than a month, Democrats will take control of the House of Representatives.

SAVIDGE: Let's bring in CNN senior White House correspondent Jeff Zeleny. Jeff, President Trump's financial ties to Saudi Arabia is near the top of the Democrats' agenda, but it is not the only thing.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. It is not the only thing, Martin. This really is the last month that the president will be enjoying a full Republican control of the House and Senate. And he's already getting early sign of what some Democrats who will be coming into House of Representatives to assume control of their investigations and oversight, of what they're looking at.

And one of the things, Adam Schiff, he's the incoming chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, he said yesterday that he in fact wants to look at any links between the Trump administration, the Trump Organization, and Saudi Arabia, financial links. Of course one thing else on the list for Democrats is the finances of the Trump Organization, his tax returns, something he has never wanted to give up. So something is going to change in Washington. We'll see how successful Democrats are in getting these from the president.

But without question, it is going to be a new era, a new moment for the president when the new year begins. But before that, the president on the golf course here in south Florida, he is thinking about some changes of his cabinet. He says he may have some before too long here. But as of now, sunny day in Florida. I think it's pretty much a vacation weekend for the president.

PAUL: Jeff Zeleny, I hope you enjoy a little bit of the sunshine yourself. Thank you.

SAVIDGE: And breaking news this hour. The gunman in an Alabama mall shooting Thanksgiving night still on the loose.

PAUL: Here's the thing. Authorities now say the 21-year-old man killed by an officer at the mall, quote, likely did not fire the rounds that injured two people. CNN reporter Natasha Chen with us now. So essentially they're saying there was misidentification here of who the culprit.

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So overnight the Hoover police department released this statement on Facebook, and the statement said our department does not typically issue media updates during an internal investigation, but there was information discussed with local media last night that merits update and clarification. The initial report was that two men gotten into a fight of some kind at the mall that resulted in a 21-year-old shooting an unarmed 18-year- old, and that victim was taken to the hospital.

The update now says the 21-year-old identified as Emantic Fitzgerald Bradford may have been involved in some aspect of the altercation, but he likely did not fire the rounds that injured the 18-year-old victim. Police say Bradford did flee the scene and brandished his weapon. That's when an armed Hoover police officer who was working mall security shot and killed him.

So if he is not the one who shot the 18-year-old, there's someone out there who did. Police say they now believe there were more than two people involved in the initial fight. They say at least one gunman is still at large who could be responsible for the 18-year-old victim as well as a 12-year-old girl who caught in the crossfire. She was also taken to the hospital.

I reached out to the agency that has taken over this investigation to find out exactly how many suspects they're looking for, and whether they believe Bradford fired any rounds at all. Last we heard the officer involved in the shooting is on administrative leave while they investigate.

[10:15:01] PAUL: Natasha Chen, thank you for the update.

SAVIDGE: And still to come, an American was killed during a mission trip to a remote island near India. We talked to a leader of the organization he was affiliated with and got her reaction to the news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: So we have some new details this morning about a letter an American missionary wrote just before he was killed on an island near India. John Chau gave the letter to fisherman before he left their boat for the island.

SAVIDGE: And it shows that he knew the tribes, people living in isolation there, were dangerous. Chau wrote, "You guys might think I am crazy in all this, but I think it is worth it to declare Jesus to these people. Please do not be angry at them or at God if I get killed." CNN's Polo Sandoval has more details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is one of the oldest and most isolated tribes in the world. Authorities say they're responsible for last week's killing of American missionary John Allen Chau.

[10:20:06] This archived footage from Survival International provides some of the few existing images of the tribe known as the Sentinelese. They live in complete isolation on the tiny island of North Sentinel. According to Indian officials, Chau illegally paid fisherman to take him to the isolated island hoping to convert the tribe to Christianity. Authorities believe he first canoed to shore on November 16th, deliberately disregarding an established perimeter around the island.

According to journal entries left with the fisherman and shared with the "Washington Post," the 26-years-old wrote, "I hollered my name is John. I love you. And Jesus loves you." He was then reportedly shot at by a member of the tribe with an arrow, piercing his bible. The next day, Chau made a second attempt, but never returned.

The fisherman he hired later reported seeing the young man's body buried on the beach by tribe members. Chau's last entry in his journal reads "You guys might think I'm crazy in all this, but I think it is worthwhile to declare Jesus to these people. God, I don't want to die." In 2006, the same tribe killed two poachers who had been illegally fishing near their island. Survival Interview, a group advocating for tribal people, believe the natives decision to be remain isolated should be respected.

SOPHIE GRIG, SURVIVAL INTERNATIONAL SENIOR RESEARCHER: They've made it very clear they don't want contact. Somebody comes, they have no idea what he is coming for and why. I think it is far more self- defense than it is murder.

SANDOVAL: On social media, Chau's family wrote their son loved God, life, helping those in need, and had nothing but love for the Sentinelese people, and forgive those reportedly responsible for his death, the wrote. All they can do is wait to do is find out when or if their son's body will be recovered.

Polo Sandoval, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: Earlier we spoke to Mary Ho, the international executive leader of the missionary organization John Chau worked for, and we got her perspective on the trip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARY HO, INTERNATIONAL EXECUTIVE LEADER, ALL NATIONS: He has been preparing his whole life for this. We knew he was very well prepared. There were several people who would have been happy to go with him, but this is typical of John. I think he did not want to endanger other people's lives. And so finally he went alone. And that was his decision. But there were others who were willing to go with him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Breaking news out of Paris right now. Protesters clashing with police on the Champs-Elysees. Tear gas, water cannons all being used to try to suppress the demonstrators who are angry about rising fuel prices. We have the latest from Paris, next.

SAVIDGE: And then a devastating government assessment warns unchecked climate change will cost thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars in the U.S. What will the president do about it?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:27:24] SAVIDGE: We are continuing to follow breaking news out of Paris. Thousands of people have taken to the streets to protest rising fuel costs. Police have now fired tear gas, water cannons have been brought to bear as well to try to disperse the crowd. This has grown in the level of violence that we have been witnessing, not only the response from authorities but there are fires that are now being set on the streets of Paris. There are the sounds of explosions, a combination of flash bangs that are being used by authorities as well as fireworks that are being used by the protesters.

All of this was sparked as a result of the government implementation of new taxes on fuel, gasoline and diesel, and this is the result of people in opposition. But also, it appears there is a lot more to it than just fuel taxes. Again, we'll continue to monitor the situation as you look at what is happening on the streets of Paris this morning.

Right now, President Trump is golfing at his Mar-a-Lago estate, spending the weekend talking to potential candidates for vacant positions in his administration. Meanwhile, a new government report says if you don't do something about climate change, thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars will be lost. Remember, the president has consistently called climate change a hoax.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The United States will withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord. I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris.

I don't think it is a hoax, I think there's probably a difference, but I don't know that it is manmade. I will say this. I don't want to give trillions and trillions of dollars, I don't want to lose millions and millions of jobs, I don't want to be put at a disadvantage.

I have a strong opinion. I want great climate. (END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: President Trump hasn't responded to the assessment yet of this newest report, but some members of Congress have. Senator Angus King tweeted in part, "We're staring a threat in the face. Now is not the time for denials, excuses, or equivocation. Now is the time for action." Democratic strategist Kevin Cate with us, as well as CNN political commentator Scott Jennings. Gentlemen, thank you so much for being here.

Scott, I want to ask you, how do people reconcile this report by all of these scientists who are in the Trump administration with the president who continually denies the existence of it?

[10:30:04] SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think the president is grappling with a serious issue here, and that is how to deal with what is clearly a real thing. I mean, I don't think climate change is a hoax. The climate is changing. And then on the other end of it you are trying to figure out what actions can we take that would help counteract it, but at the same time not immediately devastate people in economic regions that are more sensitive to it than others, say in Appalachia where the coal industry is still important.

So that's what a U.S. president has to grapple with. That's what policymakers have to grapple with. I do think that some acknowledgment that climate change is real would be a good thing, and then we can have a real debate about how to deal with it without making too many short-term changes that would displace people out of an economy they depend on.

PAUL: Kevin, how hopeful are you that the potency of the report might bring some sort of legislation?

KEVIN CATE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I'm not optimistic. I appreciate what Scott said because he is acknowledging climate change as a real and urgent threat. And I think what this report does is put it in terms of the pocketbook. It talks about the jobs that we'll lose. It talks about the health care that is going to be lost and the complications that are going to happen. I live in Florida. I know Scott is in Appalachia. It is affecting the coal industry there. It's affecting Florida right now. This is an urgent issue. If you go down to Miami Beach during king tide, this is an urgent issue that is costing jobs, it's costing tourism. I think if the president, if we can get him to care, maybe it's about the electoral math in 2020 and how important Florida is, because if we don't have a candidate who understands how urgent this is in Florida and throughout the country, they're not going to win Florida because this is that important.

PAUL: Scott, talk about that. If there aren't some Republicans getting on board with this, what is the political ramification of that?

JENNINGS: Well, I think if we continue to see weather events that are portrayed as being caused by or made more extreme by climate change, that will be more on the minds of voters in 2020. Of course, any of these issues and their impact on an election really depends on if the candidates themselves make it a top priority. My suspicion is this will be a top priority in the Democratic primary for president. The real issue, of course, would be if either candidate makes it a top priority in the general election.

I do think it is important we look at what the United States has done over the last several years. I think sometimes these stories are portrayed as though nothing has been done. I did note that a report from Agriculture Department said that since 2004, North America's share of fossil fuel emissions has fallen 24 percent down to 17 percent, going up to 2013. So I think there has been some progress made.

PAUL: But without the president's support, can progress continue to be made?

JENNINGS: Without the president's support, no legislation would be signed into law, if that's what you're looking for. But that doesn't mean the free market can't continue to innovate. Another core issue here is, will consumers demand more environmentally friendly technologies, will they demand more electric cars, for instance. So I think there's two ends to this. There's the government response, but then there is also will the market respond to consumers if they make it a priority in their own spending.

PAUL: Real quickly, switching gears here, Adam Schiff has said that he wants to investigate the president and Saudi Arabia and any business ties that are in existence there. Kevin, is this the way for Democrats to finally get what they have been looking for, the president's tax records?

CATE: Well, I think it is important to get to the truth of any of this. It is certainly concerning that he is coming out, defending the Saudis in relation to what potentially may have happened there and what our intelligence community, the way that we understand it, is leaning towards. So I think it is important to get to the truth.

But I don't think Democrats are going to lose focus on the pocketbook issue that got them the majority, which is super important. We know that people don't like President Trump, we know we elected the "National Enquirer," some that's womanizing, uses racist language, and denies truths like climate change or the crisis in health care. We know all that. We have to give people a reason to vote for something. So going down the path of why you shouldn't like President Trump, it is probably not a great strategy in the short term or the long term when it comes --

PAUL: Scott, I have 10 seconds. I want to give you a chance to react to that.

JENNINGS: Yes, look, I expect Democrats to investigate anything and everything. I think overreach is definitely possible here with this new Democratic majority. They ought to be careful because it could back fire before the next election.

PAUL: Kevin Cate, Scott Jennings, I'm sorry we ran out of time, gentlemen, but thank you for being here so much.

JENNINGS: Thank you.

CATE: Thank you.

SAVIDGE: The NRA and doctors across the country are going head to head over gun violence, and the images being used make the point a graphic. We talk to a doctor about it next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:39:34] SAVIDGE: Two groups you might not expect to be at odds, doctors and the National Rifle Association. We have to warn you, some of the images we're going to show you are graphic. Doctors have been posting tweets like these showing themselves covered in blood from gunshot victims. It is response to the NRA telling doctors to, quote, stay in their lane when it comes to gun violence prevention.

CNN's Brian Todd has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[10:40:00] BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In the aftermath of two deadly mass shootings, a heated political showdown between two unlikely rivals, the National Rifle Association and doctors that treat victims of gun violence. The fight stems from a recent article published by American College of Physicians, calling firearm violence, quote, "a public health crisis that requires the nation's immediate attention." Doctors shared new recommendations on how physicians can help reduce gun violence, such as counseling patients on the risks of having firearms in the home.

But the doctors also weighed in on issues of background checks and illegal gun sales. That prompted this tweet from the NRA, quote, "Someone should tell self-important anti-gun doctors to stay in their lane. The medical community seems to have consulted no one but themselves." But that broadside came just hours before the mass shooting in Thousand Oaks, California where 12 people were gunned down. Some doctors are outraged.

DR. JOSEPH SAKRAN, TRAUMA SURGEON, JOHNS HOPKINS HOSPITAL: For a group to simply dismiss the medical community that is on the front line of taking care of these patients is absolutely unacceptable.

TODD: Joseph Sakran is a trauma surgeon at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. He not only treats many gunshot wound victims, he was one.

SAKRAN: The bullet ruptured my windpipe right here, and then these scars are where I had the emergency surgery.

TODD: In 1994 when he was just 17, Sakran was at a high school football game when a fight broke out and someone started shooting. He ended up with a paralyzed vocal cord. After the NRA tweet, Sakran responded, quote, "I cannot believe the audacity of the NRA."

SAKRAN: Where is the NRA when I have to tell those loved ones their family member died and is not coming back.

TODD: Sakran's tweet was followed by an avalanche of others from fellow doctors, slamming the NRA. One, accompanied by an x-ray, says, quote, "I helped save a gun violence victim in med school. Those are my hands holding pressure on his femoral artery. The bullet is right by my fingertips. This is me in my lane, NRA."

Recent accounts from weapons experts on the guns used in high profile shootings have intensified the political debate. CBS's "60 Minutes" recently profiled the effects of bullets fired from an AR-15 semiautomatic rifle, one of the guns used in the synagogue shooting, compared to a standard handgun bullet fired on a gelatin target, simulating soft tissue. The AR-15 bullet is much more devastating.

That's one of many complaints from doctors, that it is harder and harder to save the lives of people hit with high power ammunition. The NRA refused to do an on camera interview with us, but the NRA is pushing back hard, telling CNN those doctors attacking the group are pushing a gun control agenda that wouldn't prevent those shootings.

When the NRA says you guys weighing in on policy issues like background checks really isn't in your lane, don't they have a point?

SAKRAN: We have both the possibility and the responsibility to weigh in on this issue that we're having to deal with on a daily basis.

TODD: But the NRA's pushback also includes several tweets from doctors who support the NRA's position. One physician saying that the anti-gun doctors who write some of the articles are not practicing medicine in the trenches. One retired physician saying that he is appalled by the leftist direction that organized medicine has taken.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: Dr. Amy Goldberg is with us now. She's a trauma surgeon at Temple University hospital. Dr. Goldberg, thank you so much for being with us. Just for our viewers, so they understand here, I wanted to show the interesting response that you had on Twitter to what we heard from the NRA when they were telling people to stay in their lane, doctors to stay in their lane. You said "When doctors make recommendations about salt intake, no one accuses us of being anti- sodium, no one tells us to stay in our lane. Seeking to reduce bullet intake doesn't make us anti-gun, it makes us pro-health." If you could sit with somebody from the NRA today, what would you want them to understand about what your intentions are here?

DR. AMY GOLDBERG, TRAUMA SURGEON, TEMPLE UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL: I think it is important for everybody to recognize that what the doctors want is to increase the health of our society. Gun violence is a public health crisis. Just like physicians may deal with high blood pressure and elevated cholesterol, and lung cancer, and heart disease, physicians are taking this on because this is what our patients and our families are seeing. And we feel it is an obligation to care for all of these patients and to do what we can to address this issue. PAUL: Help us understand what it is like for you to see gunshot

victims again and again and again on a daily basis.

GOLDBERG: These wounds are devastating. The wounds that we're seeing now are much more devastating than wounds that we saw 10 and 20 years ago.

[10:45:04] I have been a trauma surgeon in north Philadelphia for about 25 years, and the types of guns that we're seeing, these high velocity guns with these bullets are just destroying the organs as the bullets pass through them. And I think that trauma surgeons, emergency medicine physicians, and all doctors are doing whatever they can to try to stop sanitizing these injuries.

PAUL: The Annals of Internal Medicine suggests new ways for doctors to reduce gun violence, regularly asking your patients if they own a gun, counseling patients on gun safety. Do you do that, and are people receptive to that?

GOLDBERG: Absolutely. We surely do that at our hospital. Our trauma outreach coordinator, Scott Charles, has gun locks, and he will ask our patients and patients' families no questions asked, if you have a gun at home, it is so important you keep it safe. And the hospital has supported us passing out gun locks for free to our patients and their families.

PAUL: You said in an interview prior that Sandy Hook could have been a teachable moment. Why do you think it wasn't for some people in this country?

GOLDBERG: I made that comment about Sandy Hook just because of the terribleness of young elementary school kids being shot, and the fact that none of them made it to the hospital, which told me as a trauma surgeon how devastating those wounds were. And as I said, I sometimes believe that what America season their TVs is really a sanitized version. The pictures that we see are the Facebook pictures of the victims. And instead I think there was a teachable moment, not being disrespectful at all, but we had a teachable moment to show what those guns and what the gun did to all those kids. And we should have had a moment to show those autopsy photos if the parents had given their permission. I think this would have made a huge change in the debate we have now.

PAUL: I'm sure we all appreciate the work that you do. Dr. Amy Goldberg, thank you so much for being here.

GOLDBERG: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

SAVIDGE: On a very different subject, when we come back, the match on Black Friday. Plenty of green in Las Vegas. More on the $9 million faceoff between Tiger Woods and Phil Mickelson next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:52:26] SAVIDGE: This week's Mission Ahead looks at new ways to power your home, and a surprising source of power, your trash. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What if you could power your home and live completely off the grid by just using your own trash.

JULIEN UHLIG, CEO, ENTRADE: The initial vision that we had was to build a powerplant that's truly mobile, that can convert all of the waste and turn it into clean energy on sight.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ENTRADE's powerplants can fit entirely inside a 20 foot shipping container and mainly run on biomass, anything from manure to discarded lumber to yard trimmings, and even peanut shells can do the trick.

UHLIG: We crush it, we dry it, and then we pelletize it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These biomass pellets are what ENTRADE power units run on. By taking plastic that would otherwise end up in landfills and combining it with other green waste, they claim their units can produce enough electricity to power homes and factories.

UHLIG: And then put it into our reactor, and it only stays there a few seconds before it totally converts into a natural gas replacement.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Their newest unit a mini powerplant about the size of a frig.

UHLIG: We were always thinking of this power unit you can bring to middle of nowhere. Use all the waste you find around and pelletize it, and you have a complete power supply on sight.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But are these mini unit as easy to use as they seem?

UHLIG: If you look at bags of pellets that we produce, you need two to three bags per a day. So you can actually fill it by hand in the morning.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's a lot of pellets. ENTRADE's off the grid vision is still in its testing phase. The company hopes that mini powerplants like these could change the ways cities and towns source their electricity, making them self-sustaining, and in some cases cleaner.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: So it was a showdown for the ages. Two of golf's greatest champions, Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, squaring off in what was called simply "The Match."

SAVIDGE: It was something to behold. It was neck in neck all the way, and it took about four extra holes, 22 in all to get to a winner. Darkness was setting in. In the end, Mickelson edged out his longtime rival, earning $9 million prize money, and a fortune in bragging rights. Not bad. PAUL: Amanda Boxtel was a dancer and avid skier. All of that changed

in just a second. And she decided to turn her pain into purpose. Now we want you to meet one of the top CNN heroes for 2018.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[10:00:00] AMANDA BOXTEL, CNN HERO: Twenty-six years ago, I went out skiing, and I remember I somersaulted, and landed on my back. And I know in that instant that I was paralyzed. But I was determined to show that I wasn't going to give up so easily. I was inspired to create a program that could gift mobility to anyone that has a neurological impairment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Isn't that great, to gift mobility to people. You can vote for Amanda or any of you favorite top ten heroes now at CNNheroes.com, and thank you so much for doing so.

And thank you for hanging with us this morning. We hope you make great memories today.

SAVIDGE: There is much more news ahead in the next hour of Newsroom right after this quick break. Have a wonderful day.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)