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New Day
Syria Troop Withdrawal; Weinstein in Court; Packing of Produce; Texas Deputies Save Man. Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired December 20, 2018 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:30:00] SEN. ANGUS KING (I), ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Decision of this consequence would be made, as I said at the beginning, without, as near as we can tell, without any serious consolation or discussion.
JOHN AVLON, CNN ANCHOR: So, given that litany of who benefits, Russia, Iran, Assad, why do you --
KING: Don't forget ISIS. ISIS benefits too.
AVLON: And ISIS.
KING: Yes.
AVLON: Why do you think the president made this decision? And do you think he can be convinced to change his mind?
KING: I hope, number one, that he can be convinced because the reaction has been so strong. And particularly for members of his own party and people who are generally -- I mean Tom Cotton is on that letter. There's no stronger supporter of the president in the U.S. Senate than Tom Cotton. But he signed on yesterday morning. Lindsey Graham has been a supporter of the president and he signed on. So hopefully he will listen.
And there's enough wiggle room here because all we really have is this tweet. We don't have any details or timing. And I think there's a way he can, in effect, back off of this without, you know, a dramatic retreat. But I hope he's listening because this is really bad for the country.
And the other thing I mentioned about the Kurds. Here's the long-term problem for the country. We can't do anything anywhere without allies. Everything we do depends upon coalitions and allies. Who's going to be our ally when we abandon them in their moment of need, which is what we're doing with the Kurds. Why would anybody come and say, yes, we'll join up and fight and take bullets for you. And then, all of a sudden, you know, in the middle of the night, you're on your own, man.
AVLON: Sure.
Well, so, look, obviously condemnation in the halls of Congress, but praise from Vladimir Putin today in his press conference.
And speaking of Russia -- KING: What does that tell you? That's all you need to know.
AVLON: Probably everything.
But you, of course, sit on the Senate Intelligence Committee.
This week, two independent reports commissioned by your committee were released authoritatively analyzing all the Russian disinformation on social media and the ways they tried to support Trump, his campaign, and Republicans over the course of '16.
My question to you is, it's not explicitly in either of those exhaustive documents any direct connection between the Trump campaign and the Russians. Is that consistent with your knowledge on the committee, or may there be more to come?
KING: Well, we haven't finalized any work on that ultimate question of whether there was a connection between the campaign and the Russians. That's -- and that wasn't the purpose of these studies. These studies were really stunning, by the way, to show the depth and sophistication of what the Russians did on social media. The social media people missed this. The platforms missed it when it was happening. And, to be honest, our committee, when we started out, this wasn't one of our major points of attention. It has become one.
And I give a great deal of credit to Chairman Richard Burr for really moving us on this issue. And it turns out to be, this was one of the major ways the Russians were messing with us, and these studies -- and you say there's nothing about collusion. Absolutely, that's true. But the studies make absolutely clear that the Russians intentions were to help Donald Trump and to defeat Hillary Clinton.
AVLON: The studies are -- the studies are also very clear that the big social media platforms were less than forthcoming with handing over information. One of the interesting black boxes is these questions of these dark ads that FaceBook ran with the Trump campaign and who they could have targeted. Has the Senate Intel Committee requested those ads to be handed over?
KING: We are requesting additional data. And the studies were based upon data that we got in the first round from the social platforms from FaceBook, Twitter, YouTube. And, I must say, as I say, I think they missed it in -- in the beginning. I think they were naive about how they were used. They seem to have gotten it now. They're taking it much more seriously. But these reports ought to really jolt them because, you know, this is a very challenging situation, John, because we're an open society. We have the First Amendment. We have free speech. And the Russians are getting very clever.
A lot of what they did, they did create their own content. They created their own websites and their own, you know, conspiracy theories, but they also did a lot of work boosting organic American conspiracy theories. Do you see what I mean?
AVLON: Yes.
KING: In other words, they didn't create it, but they boosted it and spread it and used bots and made it much more powerful.
One of their main intentions, which comes through in this report, was to suppress the African-American vote. They built -- they spent a lot of work building up these websites to gain the confidence of the African-Americans and then, toward the end, they said, why bother to vote. Don't vote for Hillary, you know, she's not with you. Vote for Jill Stein. It was a very sophisticated program.
AVLON: Well, much more to come, and we look for a hopefully final report from the Intelligence Committee in January.
KING: Sure (ph).
AVLON: Thank you very much, senator.
KING: Thank you, John.
[08:35:00] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, John, up next, former President Barack Obama plays Santa Claus. We'll show you how.
AVLON: But first, a new CNN film, "Love, Gilda" looks at the incredible life of comedy legend Gilda Radner and it airs New Year's Day at 9:00 p.m. on CNN. And here's a sneak peek.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GILDA RADNER, COMEDIAN: Hi, I'm Gilda Radner, and -- OK, now.
People want to know, what made you funny? From the time I was a kid, I loved to pretend.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She was the very first performer chosen for the cast of "Saturday Night Live."
RADNER: (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They just loved her.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I basically stole all of my characters from Gilda.
RADNER: I can do almost anything if people are laughing.
Boom, ba, ba, boom.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Gilda was just not quite herself.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One morning she just said, I don't know what's wrong with me.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The comedian gets the most unfunny thing in the world.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She felt that she could be of help, and that's exactly what she did.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How often do we get to know exactly how brave we are?
RADNER: I always felt that my comedy was just to make things be all right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: "Love, Gilda," New Year's Day, at 9:00 p.m.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:40:09] AVLON: London's Gatwick Airport shut down this morning. Drones were seen flying over the airfield last night and several times this morning. Police are calling it a deliberate act. Flights are being grounded or diverted complicating the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers heading to holiday destinations. Police have ruled out terrorism as they track down the operators, but they won't re-open the airport until it can be deemed safe.
CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh.
All right, it is a pivotal day in the case against disgraced movie mogul Harry Weinstein. He faces five felony charges, including two counts of rape. Weinstein will appear in court looking to have the charges dropped.
And that's where we find CNN's Jason Carroll. He is live outside of the courthouse for us.
What do we expect, Jason?
JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you, Alisyn.
Well, that's a big question, what will James -- Judge James Burke decide? Will he dismiss all of the charges against Harvey Weinstein? Most of the legal experts that I've spoken to, even spoke to a representative from Harvey Weinstein's camp late yesterday, Alisyn, they all say that would be very much of a legal long shot here. Weinstein facing five criminal charges, including two counts of predatory sexual assault, one count of criminal sexual act in the first degree, one count of first degree rape and one count of third degree rape. This involves two accusers.
Again, the defense is looking to have all of these charges dropped. They say that they have evidence which shows that the sex was consensual. What type of evidence? Well, they say they have e-mails which they say shows friendly correspondence between Weinstein and these two accusers after the alleged incidents took place.
So, again, they want all of these charges dropped. So, what could the judge do out here later on today? Well, a number of different things. One, dismiss all the charges, which again look to be a legal long shot. He could set a court date, this is what the prosecution wants, or he could do something sort of in the middle and set forth an evidentiary hearing. This would kick the can down the road just a little bit and both sides would come back at a later point, present their evidence that would later be debated in court. Of course, all this happening under the umbrella of the Me Too
movement. A number of members of the Me Too movement expected to be out here later on today. Harvey Weinstein expected to be here today as well. He's expected to show up just a few moments from now.
John.
AVLON: Fascinating.
A Yemeni mother is with her dying two-year-old son this morning in California after the president's travel ban kept her from entering the country earlier this week. She landed late last night before heading straight to Children's Hospital in Oakland with her husband. She's reuniting with her two-year-old son Abdullah, who's on life-support. And the U.S. State Department granted the mother a visa this week after her husband made a public plea here on NEW DAY for the process to be expedited.
CAMEROTA: I am so glad that that happened with -- still in time.
AVLON: Yes.
CAMEROTA: And it happened right after our show that she was granted that emergency visa, so we're so glad to bring you that update.
OK, another feel good story. Former President Barack Obama suited up as Santa to surprise children at a D.C. hospital. He decked out in a Santa hat. He delivered presents and holiday cheer.
As you can see, the holiday staff greeted him with a chorus of "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." This one little girl was completely stunned when he walked into the room. Oh, my gosh, that is so sweet.
He told another patient, quote, wherever the people you love are, that's where Christmas is. It was during his presidency that he and former First Lady Michelle Obama also visited this hospital a number of times.
AVLON: Love it. I mean, first of all, I like rocking a Santa hat.
CAMEROTA: Yes, I do, too.
AVLON: It's a good time.
CAMEROTA: We should do that tomorrow.
AVLON: Let's do that.
CAMEROTA: OK.
AVLON: I'm OK with that.
But, I mean, the reaction there was just -- it was just -- that little girl doing the selfie.
CAMEROTA: Because what a surprise. I know. AVLON: You know, just President Obama in a Santa hat.
CAMEROTA: A Christmas feel-good.
OK, up next, we are -- talk about feel good. Wait until you hear from these real live heroes. These are the deputies who ran towards this burning car and pulled a man out of it. It was much harder than they originally thought. And then they made one more move and saved his life.
AVLON: But first, bagged salads and pre-cut veggies are convenient, but packaging can alter their nutritional value. In today's "Food as Fuel," nutritionist Lisa Drayer takes a closer look at processed produce.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA DRAYER, CNN HEALTH CONTRIBUTOR: You know greens are good for you, but does it make a difference whether they're sold in a bundle or a bag? It depends on when you're planning to eat them.
All greens are washed to some degree and the cleaning process can damage plant tissues and reduce water soluble vitamins. So triple washed bagged spinach may be exposed to more surface damage than the bundled kind. The bag version does have an advantage when it comes to storage. That's because oxygen is bagged produce is replaced with a non-reactive gas like nitrogen and that helps preserve nutrients.
[08:45:02] On the flip side, a fresh bundle of spinach sits on a shelf for several days and is exposed to air, light and moisture and so nutrients rapidly decline. So packaged greens may be a more appealing option if your veggies tend to sit in the frig for a few days. In that case, a bit of convenience will go a lot further than a bit more freshness. But whether they're in a bag or out in the open, veggies are still an important part of a healthy diet.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAMEROTA: All right, you have to see this.
Two Texas deputies ran towards a burning car to save a life, and their heroic actions were all caught on video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you pull him out?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's on fire.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hurry! Hurry! Hurry!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just grab him (INAUDIBLE) window.
[08:50:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sir, give me your arms.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pull his hands.
Hurry!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Carlton, I need your help.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's too hot.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Grab him!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: Oh, my God. The officer -- the two officers, dragged the unconscious man out of the car and then they dumped him in a puddle of water to put out the flames that surrounded his body. The man survived. He is in stable condition this morning.
And joining us now are those two officers that the video shows. We have deputies Carlton Carrington and Braedon Boznango.
Guys, you are superheroes.
DEPUTY BRAEDON BOZNANGO, CHAMBERS COUNTY, TEXAS, SHERIFF'S OFFICE: I wouldn't say that, but --
CAMEROTA: My gosh.
DEPUTY CARLTON CARRINGTON, CHAMBERS CITY, TEXAS, SHERIFF'S OFFICE: Yes, no.
CAMEROTA: I mean, seriously. Deputy Carrington, let me start with you.
When you were running towards the fire, obviously it was intense heat. Were you afraid at any point that you were going to catch on fire or was the heat too -- how did the heat feel when you were running toward the fire?
CARRINGTON: On the initial approach, I wasn't that concerned with the heat. But once I started -- once I reached in the vehicle and started pulling the man out, that's when it really hit me how extremely hot the vehicle was. I could -- I could see the man's clothes on fire and the -- his skin literally melting off of his body. And that's when I realized -- I didn't feel the heat on me, but I realized that's how hot it actually was.
CAMEROTA: What about you, Deputy Boznango?
BOZNANGO: Yes, same thing. I mean it was -- it was pretty hot. I mean it melted my body cam a little bit. And, I mean, you could feel the heat radiating from the car from, I don't know, probably five, six feet away at least.
CAMEROTA: Yes. You were wearing the body cam that you were wearing that night that captured all of this video, and it melted. I mean that tells you how hot it was and how close you all were to the fire when you saw that man on fire, in flames, in the car.
Did you think that it was too late?
CARRINGTON: Initially I thought, there's no way we're going to be able to get this guy out. But we're going to, you know, try our hardest to get him out. But I didn't think it was going to be possible. And I really didn't think that he was going to survive just because the volume of flame that was completely around him and the entire passenger compartment of that vehicle. I mean, it was crazy to see.
CAMEROTA: I mean, it sounds like it was even harder than it looks like from this video because you ran up and, correct me if I'm wrong, you couldn't open the passenger side door. You had a harder time getting him out. How did you extricate him?
BOZNANGO: Yes, the door -- when the vehicle crashed, it had flipped several times when it left the roadway and the door was lodged shut. We had to pull him through the window. The windows had all busted out and were no longer on the vehicle. So we had to pull him up over the doorframe, the little doorjamb of the window there, and pull him out that way.
CAMEROTA: And then how did you --
CARRINGTON: I mean he was probably --
CAMEROTA: Yes, go ahead.
CARRINGTON: He was probably 180 pounds or so. And trying to lift 180 pounds straight up and then over a solid barrier was -- it was rather difficult. But not to mention the, like I said, his skin was sloughing off. That made him very slippery. Plus the heat and trying to get him over that window was not an easy task.
CAMEROTA: Yes, we can imagine. I mean, having to lift somebody up that's 180 pounds when they're not on fire and the flames aren't burning you.
By the way, we should let people know, that car exploded like 20 to 30 seconds after this video. Is that right?
BOZNANGO: There were a couple of -- it wasn't a full-fledged the car blew up. But, yes, there were some -- there were some explosives.
CARRINGTON: Once we got him out of the vehicle and got the fire out, I said, hey, Boz, let's, you know, let's move him a little bit just in case the car does go. So we moved him 15 or 20 feet away. And just a couple seconds later, there was a small explosion. So we moved him another 20 or 30 feet away after that and then there was another small explosion. But I think we were in a safe zone then. CAMEROTA: Whose idea was it to dunk him in the puddle? Did you think
of that as you were running there? How did you know that that would save his life?
BOZNANGO: That was just kind of a result of pulling him out of the car. Once we brought him back and the puddle was there, it was just kind of utilized as a tool at that point. But initially when we were getting him out, it was just to get him out of the vehicle. And then it so happened luckily the puddle was there and then we utilized it to our advantage.
[08:55:06] CAMEROTA: Deputy Carrington, not to get too personal, but I did hear that right before you saved this guy's life, you really, really had to pee. And you did not do that because you got this emergency call. Instead, you jumped into the car and went to save this guy's life. You now believe that had you taken time to go pee, this would have turned out much differently.
CARRINGTON: Yes, ma'am. I'd been on shift for a little while and I needed to relieve myself. And I had just pulled up to one of our substations and the call went out. And, you know, we get traffic accidents all the time. And I was going to relieve myself and then head to the accident. And then I heard them say that the vehicle was fully involved and there was a passenger trapped inside the vehicle, so I decided to forego my pit stop and go ahead and go to the accident. And I honestly believe that if I would have made that two- minute delay, that the outcome possibly could have been a little different.
CAMEROTA: I think that's right. And I think that that really brings it home for all of us. You take an emergency call even when nature is calling and you saved a life. And we really appreciate you guys showing us the video and your heroism. It's just astonishing.
Thank you very much, deputies.
CARRINGTON: Thank you.
BOZNANGO: Thank you.
CARRINGTON: Thank you.
CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh!
AVLON: What a powerful, great story. Great, guys.
CAMEROTA: The president defending his plan to pull American troops out of Syria. CNN "NEWSROOM" picks up our coverage after this very quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
