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Congress in 2019; Democrats 2020 Race; Formerly Conjoined Twin Update; CNN Original Film "Love, Gilda." Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired January 01, 2019 - 08:30   ET

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


[08:30:00] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The district court who overturned Obamacare. They may have to do something if the economy turns sour, although I'm not sure you can provide much stimulus given where we are with the tax cuts that already existed.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Already had (INAUDIBLE). Yes.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.

BERMAN: But, you know, you just don't know.

AVLON: That's one of the dangers of what Donald Trump did early on is he poured gasoline on an already roaring economic fire. The engine was humming fine, but now we've taken a lot of the leverage out of the Fed and out of other folks. So, you know, another round of tax cuts isn't going to accomplish what it -- what they might hope. But that will be the Republican's impulse. You know it -- that changes the political dynamic in profound ways.

And the big question you always ask is, what could make some Republicans start to question their so far uncritical loyalty of Donald Trump almost no matter what he does. Mueller report, the economy, I think also to the point David just made, if all of a sudden we find -- start finding out more about financial relationships possibly with Russia and other things, that could start to change the calculus.

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: But the obvious thing is --

HENDERSON: And also -- yes.

GREGORY: Yes.

HENDERSON: In some ways foreign policy, too.

AVLON: Yes.

HENDERSON: I mean this is an area where he obviously is a dominant figure in terms of arguing where America should be in the world. And you've already seen some of those cracks, right, with Saudi Arabia, for instance, and the war in Yemen. So that will be an interesting area to watch, whether or not you see some fraying there.

GREGORY: If he gets more politically vulnerable --

HENDERSON: Yes.

GREGORY: And if the economy is more vulnerable, then that's only then do Republicans feel strong enough to separate from him without fearing the reprisals.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we're six minutes into the new year. Time to talk 2020?

BERMAN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: OK.

BERMAN: That's late. We're seven minutes late as far as I'm concerned.

CAMEROTA: This is John's favorite topic. Even in 2018 it was. All right, well, back in 2018 here were the top -- here were the front runners. It was Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Cory Booker, Elizabeth Warren, we're missing some, obviously. Beto O'Rourke, et cetera, et cetera.

HENDERSON: Yes.

CAMEROTA: So --

HENDERSON: Sanders has got to be up there somewhere.

CAMEROTA: But, seriously, when does this begin in earnest?

HENDERSON: I mean it already has begun, right?

GREGORY: It's already begun.

HENDERSON: In some ways you've got some folks already out there, Julian Castro, the exploratory committee. Remember back in 2007, Bill Richardson, I think he announced on "Meet the Press" maybe, I think, on TV, or one of those Sunday shows, and then Obama announced his in February 2007.

BERMAN: The future is now.

HENDERSON: It's now.

GREGORY: Yes.

HENDERSON: People are going to roll because they've got to lock down donors, they've got to lock down the buzz.

GREGORY: And there's a lot of money out there.

HENDERSON: Yes, there's a lot of --

GREGORY: There's a lot of money out there and a lot of Democrats vying for it. Trying to figure out who's viable is going to take -- is going to take a long time. But I think -- I think we're going to see it early because the

president wants to try to define his path. And, look, I think this will confound a lot of people, as politically weak as he may look, if you just look at the polls and you look at all of the potential problems for him, it's not so easy to take power away from an incumbent president. And that's -- and especially with such a large Democratic field, which will maybe start to winnow this year.

BERMAN: I will note, history tells us often that sometimes when you think that it is an election worth running in or winning --

GREGORY: Right.

BERMAN: It turns out to be the opposite and sometimes, you know, Bill Clinton ran against George H.W. Bush --

AVLON: Right.

HENDERSON: Yes. Yes.

BERMAN: And no one thought he had a chance.

I think there's one thing happening on the Democratic side and it's, you know, this may not last, but right now, as we head into the new year, I think Beto O'Rourke is driving the story, not maybe him, but everything surrounding him and forcing decisions by some of these other people who may run.

AVLON: Well, there is an energy and an enthusiasm that reminds some folks of kind of the Obama energy. He's an outsider, he's progressive, but speaks in a more unifying manner. From Texas. Obviously lost a Senate race. This is not typically, as people pointed out, the last person who pulled that out of the hat was Abraham Lincoln, and I wouldn't necessarily say that's a typical path to the presidency. But he's shown a lot of momentum.

The question is one of experience, right? You've got a broad field, but a relatively weak bench on the Democrat's side. And if you typically say that one of the things we've seen in presidential races is, who's the corrective? Who's the opposite of the last guy? It's reasonable to say people are going to look to someone who's a little more experienced in office with an ability to not only unite the party but unite the country, you know --

CAMEROTA: Maybe, I mean unless Donald Trump has broken the mold.

HENDERSON: Maybe, yes.

AVLON: I'm always reluctant to go with this time it's different permanently, but last time definitely broke all the rules.

BERMAN: David, Nia, John, thank you all very much.

CAMEROTA: Happy New Year, guys.

GREGORY: Happy New Year. AVLON: Happy New Year.

CAMEROTA: Two little boys conjoined at the head and separated in a 27 hour surgery. It's a story we've followed closely since it happened two years ago. And now our Dr. Sanjay Gupta checks in with Jadon and Anias McDonald for an update on their recovery.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:38:00] CAMEROTA: We met them a little more than two years ago, Jadon and Anias McDonald. They were born conjoined at the brain. And, at the time, our own chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, took us exclusively into the operating room where they were separated in a 27 hour long surgery.

In the year following, we got to witness so many of their firsts. The first time that they were held individually, the first time that they went home.

Sanjay recently had a chance to reunite with the McDonald's and catch up with the family to see how they are all doing now. Let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICOLE MCDONALD, MOTHER OF ANIAS AND JADON MCDONALD: What matters in the end is that they love each other.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): When we started this story, none of us knew how it was going to end.

N. MCDONALD: When we decided to share our story, I did it with the intention of knowing that everybody would see a miracle. I could almost just keep them like this right now, you know, because they're so -- they're so perfect.

CHRISTIAN MCDONALD, FATHER OF ANIAS AND JADON MCDONALD: They're normal little boys.

N. MCDONALD: They're -- they're beautiful. They are -- they're perfect.

GUPTA: Conjoined twins are exceedingly rare, only happening in one out of every 200,000 live births. Twins joined at the head, or craniopagus twins, are even more uncommon. Eighty percent of twins joined at the head die of medical complications by the age of two if not separated. But separating them is risky and tedious. Jadon and Anias share five to seven centimeters of brain tissue. And for the parents Nicole and Christian McDonald, the decision was obvious and brought them to Dr. James Goodrich.

From the beginning, the McDonald's invited us and our cameras into every aspect of their lives, including this dramatic 27 hour operation where the boys went from being one to two.

And those moments continued, full of surprise, wonder, joy and, yes, miracles. The boys seeing each other for the first time. Nicole holding her babies for the first time. Jadon biking, and Anias starting to talk.

[08:40:12] After two years, Nicole and Christian decided to leave New York, the city they adopted to help care for their boys, and return home to the Midwest, Knox, Indiana. Big changes for everyone. The biggest change of all, though, the boys. This is three-year-old Jadon McDonald. He's starting to read. But as with most stories, along with victories came defeats. You know for conjoined twins there's almost always one that is more dominant and one at a greater disadvantage, Anias.

N. MCDONALD: That's where I kind of fell apart this year because the child that had hit so many walls before and you just want him to fly, you know, and he's still stuck on the ground.

C. MCDONALD: In this day and age we're kind of a quantum leap society, you know? We want quick fixes and if it doesn't happen quick, then we almost get discouraged and think that it can't happen. But we -- you know, we really need to understand that amazing things can happen. And Anias can do amazing things and will do amazing things.

N. MCDONALD: He just started holding his head up like this.

GUPTA: But even Anias has made gains. He no longer needs any of the machinery that was used to monitor him. He's starting to be a kid again, playing with his toys. It's hard to believe that just two years ago Anias and Jadon were connected. And, amazingly, Nicole and Christian are now more connected than ever.

GUPTA (on camera): How are you guys doing as a couple? I mean it's been your life. How are you guys doing?

C. MCDONALD: I think we're getting stronger and better every day.

N. MCDONALD: Yes.

C. MCDONALD: I mean I guess they say, you know, sometimes difficult circumstances, you go through the fire, you know, you come out stronger on the other side. And I think that's definitely true for us. It's definitely made us better as a couple.

N. MCDONALD: This forced us into family. I have gained so much respect for him through the process and the dad that he is and then in the way that he's been able to support me.

C. MCDONALD: Here I come!

N. MCDONALD: But we also have to remember that we're not done. You know, our future has a lot more.

GUPTA (voice over): Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Knox, Indiana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: OK, modern medicine is remarkable. The fact that those little boys can be medically stable now is just incredible.

BERMAN: So they're basically three years old. The mother says they're doing better than they've ever been.

CAMEROTA: It was so great to be able to have access to watch their entire journey, start to finish. And, you know, it could have gone much differently. And we're so happy that we got to report on that update.

BERMAN: A wonderful story for the new year.

Up next, she made us laugh from her days on "Saturday Night Live" until her untimely death. Now we're hearing from Gilda Radner in her own words. Her longtime friend and executive producer of the CNN documentary "Love, Gilda," joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:46:43] CAMEROTA: Gilda Radner was a comedy superstar. Her iconic "Saturday Night Live" characters cracked us up and became instant classics. And her hard fought battle with cancer brought attention and support to cancer patients everywhere.

Now, the new CNN original film "Love, Gilda" brings her -- brings us into her private world through Gilda's diaries, her letters and home videos. So here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMY POEHLER, FORMER "SNL" CAST MEMBER: This is Gilda Radner, her voice in her writing.

First and foremost, above everything else, my main priority is that I am a girl. I've never wanted to be anything else. I'm fascinated with boys, but I never wanted to be one.

I agree, Gilda.

CECILY STRONG, "SNL" CAST MEMBER: To be a girl and be funny means you have to sacrifice a lot of things because of your loud mouth.

BILL HADER, FORMER "SNL" CAST MEMBER: Being neurotic's the only subject I didn't have to research.

Yes.

MAYA RUDOLPH, FORMER "SNL" CAST MEMBER: I can't even begin to imagine how I got famous. It seemed like I just took the next job and then it turned out that millions of people were watching me do it.

HADER: Maybe you know me, and maybe you don't, or maybe you heard of me but never saw me, or maybe you used to know me but don't know me anymore. But one time in my life, I was famous, and it seemed like everyone knew me. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Joining us now is Alan Zweibel. He's one of the original writers at "SNL" and a close friend of Gilda Radner's.

Alan, great to have you here.

ALAN ZWEIBEL, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, "LOVE, GILDA": Thanks for having me.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh.

ZWEIBEL: Happy New Year.

CAMEROTA: Thank you. Thank you very much. You, too.

ZWEIBEL: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: It's amazing to read her diaries, obviously, and to get such an intimate glimpse into her life. You were a close friend of hers, so you always had that. What was her comic genius? What was it about Gilda that made her so special?

ZWEIBEL: I think what made her special, aside from her talent, one of her greatest talents was that she was not afraid to show who she was, not afraid to admit vulnerability. So whenever she would do a character, put on a funny wig or do an accent or bang into a wall, you felt you knew who that was who was doing it. So I think that she touched people's souls that way because she was your friend even if you never met her.

BERMAN: And she was your friend. And what's so, I think, moving about this documentary is you get the personal and the professional. And you bridged both of those areas. You worked with her and then became such great friends with her.

Can I do the professional first, and then we're going to talk about the personal.

ZWEIBEL: Yes, start with any order you want.

BERMAN: Because, you know, we're all "Saturday Night Live" junkies. And you wrote with her.

ZWEIBEL: Yes.

BERMAN: And you created with her some of her most iconic characters. What was that like?

ZWEIBEL: You know, we were just having fun. We just made each other laugh from the moment we met each other. It was the very first meeting of "SNL" in Lorne Michael's office where the writers and actors got together.

CAMEROTA: The first day.

ZWEIBEL: The very first day, 1975. This is way before you were born. CAMEROTA: Thank you. You're a kind man.

ZWEIBEL: And she and I met. And we just started hitting it off. And so we -- there were dinners followed. And whatever made us laugh. Lorne's only rule that he had when we started the show was, let's just make each other laugh. And if we make each other laugh, we'll put that on television. He assured us that there was an audience, baby boomer generation that would also laugh and tell their friends about it. So whoever I wrote with or wrote for, but in particular Gilda, it was a lot of dinners, a lot of walks in the park.

[08:50:10] There was one time that she and I had -- we had a performance we were going to do, like a lecture at Queen's College, and we were on the subway going there. This was way before we could afford cabs, even, OK? It was the first year of "SNL." And we just started talking about something and we started writing and we missed our stop, you know what I mean. So that's just the way it was.

CAMEROTA: And how did you come up with the iconic characters of Roseanne Rosannadanna, Emily Litella?

ZWEIBEL: Well, Emily Litella, Gilda was raised by a nanny named Debby (ph), who spoke that way.

BERMAN: IN the film too.

ZWEIBEL: And she was hard of hearing. As far as Roseanne Rosannadanna is concerned, that was -- wow, it was just pure happenstance. A writer named Rosie Shuster (ph) had written a public service announcement where it was called hire the incompetent, OK? And there were three vignettes of people who were totally incompetent, who we said you should still hire them. Gilda put on a wig and she had it -- put on that accent and she was talking about getting fired from like Burger King because they found a hair, and then she scratched herself here, in a hamburger, OK?

CAMEROTA: Gross. Gross.

ZWEIBEL: We were having dinner a few weeks later and I was running the weekend update segment of the show at that point. I said, remember that character you did a few weeks ago? Why don't we move her into weekend update and make her a -- make her do, you know, social commentary, a consumer advocate, not on unlike Roseanne Scamardella (ph), who was a local WABC newscaster. And Gilda said, OK, can we call her Roseanne Rosannadanna? I said, sure, where did you come up with that? Do you remember in the '60s there was a song called "The Name Game," Jonny, Jonny, Bo Bony, bonana --

CAMEROTA: Yes. Yes.

BERMAN: Yes. Yes.

ZWEIBEL: Yes. If you put Roseanne in there like, you know, stanza number 11, Roseanne Rosannadanna, but she knew it like that. I don't know why we did that. So it just started coming together and it really caught on. BERMAN: So these are obviously all the great moments.

The film documents the battle with cancer --

ZWEIBEL: Yes.

BERMAN: Which I know was so difficult for all of you who were close to her. What's it like to see the documentary and see all of that play out again?

ZWEIBEL: You know what gets me the most is hearing her voice. That is -- that's the part that really touches me. It's really tough because I see some footage there that I never saw before, some of the footage of her in the hospital. You know, my role as her friend, when she got sick, I was doing a show called "It's Garry Shandling's Show," and I moved out to L.A. And she -- they thought she had Epstein-Barr virus. And when she came to -- when I moved in, she came to the house, sat down, and I said, well, you look pretty. How are you feeling? And she said, I just found out I don't have Epstein-Barr virus. I said, great, we can go to Laker games, we can -- she says, I have cancer. I said, what? She says, I have ovarian cancer, Zweibel, and I need you to help me get through this part of my life. And I said, what do I do? And she said, make me laugh.

And that became my role in her life during this time. I'd call her on the phone and tell her jokes. Shandling and I would do a show, send her the cassette every week, like a Hallmark card, and just try to take her mind off. I don't know what she returned to when we hung up the phone. I do know that she just wanted to be reminded of the future and positive things. If -- we'd go over to her house. She was, you know, with her husband Gene Wilder. On the refrigerator were pictures of me and my wife Robin and our kids. Harold Ramis and his wife and his kids. Martin Short, his wife and his kids, just positive things, the future.

And she became a symbol that you can lead a full and productive life even when you have this disease. You know, when she came -- when we discussed her coming on "It's Garry Shandling's Show," which you see in the documentary, we were walking on the beach and she wanted to do the show. We wanted to have her. But then she got scared for a second and said, you know, I'm afraid -- she's hadn't been on, you know, hadn't been on TV in six, seven years. She says, I wonder if when I come through the door if the studio audience is going to remember me. They haven't seen me in a while and I look different. And just as I was about to say, don't be silly, she says, but you know something, I've got to come on the show. My comedy is the only weapon I have against this.

[08:55:01] And when she came on the show, she was unannounced so the audience didn't know she was there. And when she came through the door, 300 people in the studio audience, a thunderous applause, and she wanted to make cancer funny. And this was never done before. But that was her weapon. So when she came through, Garry said, gee, Gilda, I haven't seen you in a while. Where have you been? And she said, well, I've had cancer. What's your excuse? And he said, well, a serious of bad career moves, you know. The audience, when they heard her say cancer, as if one person, they recoiled for a brief second because cancer was being used in a joke. And as if they all computed it the same way at the same time, oh, she can do it because she has it, they started laughing and clapping and got very emotional. So she was a champion.

CAMEROTA: For sure and (INAUDIBLE) her in that way.

ZWEIBEL: You know, and that movie shows that.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely.

ZWEIBEL: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Alan, it's so great to hear your memories of Gilda. There's just -- it makes it -- her so vivid for the rest of us. So, thanks so much for coming on to share all of this.

ZWEIBEL: Well, thanks for having me, guys.

CAMEROTA: We can't wait to have everybody see the movie.

ZWEIBEL: I hope they all see it and like it.

CAMEROTA: Thank you.

BERMAN: Thanks.

ZWEIBEL: Thank you.

BERMAN: So be sure to tune in to the CNN original film "Love, Gilda" premieres tonight at 9:00 p.m. only on CNN.

CAMEROTA: All right, that does it for this special New Year's Day edition. Happy New Year, everyone.

BERMAN: Happy New Year. We hope you have a great holiday.

CNN "NEWSROOM" begins right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)