Return to Transcripts main page

At This Hour

Judge Rules on Abortion Law That Would Make Missouri 1st State Without Abortion Clinics Since Roe v. Wade; 8 Democratic Presidential Candidates Hit Florida; Biden & Team Unable to Clean Up Segregationist Senators Remark; "APOLLO 11" Director Talks New Documentary Film; A Look at Why Ebola is Once Again Becoming a Crisis. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired June 21, 2019 - 11:30   ET

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


[11:30:00] ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: To that point, we know, from talking with you and Jeffrey Toobin and other legal experts, that there has been for a number of years actually a plan in place by folks who would like to see Roe v. Wade overturned, to start with these cases with an ultimate goal of getting one or more to the Supreme Court in a way that then would force a decision, a second decision, really, on Roe v. Wade.

PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, and you're exactly right about that, Erica. If you look in different states, you will see that different approaches are being used.

Obviously, in Missouri, they're talking about the need for a second pelvic exam. In other states, there may be another medical procedure. There may be -- we've heard about fetal heartbeat laws being used.

There are a number of approaches being used to give the Supreme Court a reason to take a second look at Roe v. Wade.

HILL: We'll continue to follow all of them.

Paul, thank you.

CALLAN: Thank you.

HILL: We appreciate it.

Ahead, Democrats courting key voters in two critical states. Their messages just days before the first debate, coming up.

First, there are more than 30 million stray or feral cats living in the U.S. This week's "CNN Hero" has made it his mission to bring those populations down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL SANTELL, CNN HERO: My main focus is TNR and rescue, grabbing cats off the streets, saving lives.

With TNR, this is the last generation that has to suffer outside.

Come on, come on.

Now I've probably fixed and returned at least a thousand feral cats in about four and a half years.

A lot of times people ask me, do you love cats. I like them. But that's not really why I got into it. We want to save lives. This is the greatest feeling in the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: For more about how Paul does his work and for some more adorable kittens -- because who doesn't need those -- log on to CNNheroes.com. And while there, remember, you can nominate your own "CNN Hero."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:36:41] HILL: Eight of the Democratic contenders for president on the ground today in the all-important swing state of Florida. They're appealing to Latino voters at a candidates' forum, hitting on key issues like immigration, statehood for Puerto Rico, and health care.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BETO O'ROURKE, (D), FORMER CONGRESSMAN & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is very clear that this country is at a defining moment of truth. And we will either define ourselves forever after by our fears and our pettiness and our smallness, walls, cages for kid, Muslim bans, a level of partisanship that we have not seen before in this country. Or we can forever be known by our ambitions and our aspirations.

We must not wait for that.

(APPLAUSE)

O'ROURKE: But as a matter of principle, we must not wait for statehood to see our fellow U.S. citizens in Puerto Rico treated equally and represented properly.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): Wages haven't gone up. But the cost of sending your kid to school has gone up. If health care costs have gone up for you, and you can't afford housing, blame them. Blame people who don't look like you. Blame people who don't sound like you. Blame people who don't worship like you. Blame people who weren't born in the same place that you were born.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Alex Burns is a national political correspondent for the "New York Times" and a CNN political analyst.

It's fascinating to hear some of those answers.

You've tackled immigration, you put together with your colleagues at "The Times" a phenomenal series asking candidates the same 18 questions. One of them was, do you think illegal immigration with a major problem in the United States. What did you hear?

ALEX BURNS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: That was one of the most sort of striking questions to me because virtually nobody in the field -- and we talked to every single candidate except for Joe Biden -- described immigration, illegal immigration as a problem on its own, right? They talked about a humanitarian crisis at the border. They talked about a crisis generated by Trump's policies.

None of them said illegal immigration is a threat to the country. That's obviously one of the anchors of President Trump's administration, his reelection message.

I think that's what we're hearing from a lot of the candidates today -- Beto O'Rourke in his interview with us said undocumented immigration is an opportunity because it gives the country a chance to update its laws. That's a stark difference from the president.

HILL: One said to you -- I don't remember who it was -- that the issue had been ignored for so long -- I'm paraphrasing -- which is interesting to put in that context, sort of owning the fact that nothing has been done.

Joe Biden did not talk to you for those questions, as we know. This issue between Joe Biden and Cory Booker is not going away. What's remarkable is that this is a situation, this is an issue of the former vice president's own making.

I was struck this morning -- so Alisyn Camerota interviewed Kate Bedingfield, with the campaign, with the Biden campaign. The fact that we could not get a clear answer on why this is such an issue for Joe Biden.

I just want to play that for people who missed it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP): ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Does he still want an apology from Senator Booker?

KATE BEDINGFIELD, DEPUTY CAMPAIGN MANAGER, JOE BIDEN PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: The most important thing here is that he had spent his entire life fighting for civil rights.

CAMEROTA: What has Senator Booker done wrong?

BEDINGFIELD: I think the most important thing here is to remember that Vice President Biden is a champion of civil rights.

[11:40:08] CAMEROTA: I just want to know, what was he supposed to apologize for?

BEDINGFIELD: He was -- you know, the vice president, I think, was frustrated that a story that he has told many times was being taken out of context.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Not only is Biden not cleaning this up, his team is not cleaning up this. Not only did she look uncomfortable with easy to answer, smart, smart questions from Alisyn, and she couldn't give us an answer.

BURNS: It's a strange thing to go on the offense against Cory Booker and not have a theory about what else you want to say about Cory Booker to worry about and why he's upset about that.

HILL: Right.

BURNS: My reporting about Vice President Biden is he has been genuinely angry over the last couple of days because he feels that all of these people attacking him, they know me, they know that I'm not a racist, they know my record, that they're taking something out of context to score political points.

The problem is the vice president isn't saying that much himself about what the context actually was. And his campaign is trying to walk this very careful line between not apologizing and not actually getting into the details of what that record of compromise was and what his relationships with these Senators actually entailed, what was the policy.

They referred a couple of times to the Voting Rights Act. But there was a whole range of policies, from the 1970s and '80s, even '90s, when Joe Biden was working with some pretty questionable figures.

HILL: Right.

BURNS: So what did he get for that?

HILL: And again, what did he want an apology for?

BURNS: Right.

HILL: We'll see because this is not going away. I imagine this will come up this weekend in South Carolina. We'll be looking for that.

Always good to see you, Alex. Thank you.

BURNS: Thanks a lot.

HILL: Still ahead, it was mankind's greatest journey, now brought back to life in a stunning CNN original film. Lucky you. Joining us next is the director of "APOLLO 11."

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:46:51] HILL: The Apollo 11 NASA mission put man on the moon for the first time. It was a crowning moment of American innovation, intellect, and achievement.

As we approach the 50th anniversary, the award-winning CNN film, "APOLLO 11," takes a breathtaking new look at the historic mission. It includes never-before-seen footage, remarkable audio recordings that take you to the heart of the moon landing and the people behind it, that moment that changed the way we looked at the world forever.

Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We passed the six-minute mark on our countdown for Apollo 11. Now five minutes, 52 seconds and counting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Verified, go for launch.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Verify, go for launch.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Verified, go for launch.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Booster flight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Verified, go for launch.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: SRO, over, verified, go for lunch.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Verified, go for launch.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: SRO verified, go for launch.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Flight channel usage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have some 7.6 million pounds of thrust pushing the vehicle upward. A vehicle that weighs close to 6.5 million pounds.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Joining me now, the director of "APOLLO 11," Todd Miller.

This is really remarkable for so many reasons and just so cool to watch. But what stood out to me is the fact that you wanted to make this movie, you wanted to do something on the 50th anniversary.

But as I understand it, at the time, you didn't even know that there was all of this never-before-seen footage, all of this audio that was available. You didn't know it existed?

TODD MILLER, FILM DIRECTOR: No, we had no idea. The original intention was to really use all of the available footage we had, which included the kind of lesser-known -- not the large formats, the 16 millimeter, 35 millimeter. Everybody has seen it. But we were going to rescan all that and just kind of up the quality.

But it's a real testament to the people at National Archives. The archivists that were assisting us with the research came across these large format film reel cans, and that just changed the entire direction of the project.

HILL: It's also remarkable that someone at the time said we need to be shooting all of this, we need to have this massive record. Do you know any more about the people who made that call, the decision to make sure it was documented in this way?

MILLER: Yes, it was all NASA. That was a big part of our research project, was once we discovered these materials, and it wasn't just the film footage but there was also 11,000 hours of audio, so to try to determine the providence of all that material.

And it's a real testament to the artistry, the cinematographers that shot all that. There was NASA cameramen who were working.

And if you put yourself into that time period, 1968 to about 1972, when all of these Apollo missions were happening, they were constantly shooting on these large format cameras, and they were duplicating them. And then saving it, archiving it, curating it for, you know, the last 50 years. It's really remarkable.

HILL: It was so much of what I loved about this movie, it's so human, right? There's the humanity not just of the astronauts in family photos but the people camped out at the beach. There's a feeling at the time of just what a remarkable moment this is and the people making it happen at NASA and getting a sense for how invested they are, not just because it's their job, but because they believe in it so much as people.

[11:50:08] MILLER: Yes, one thing that was not lost on any of us, the entire team of filmmakers working on, was how big it was, the scope of it all. It was truly a global effort.t Hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people spread across tens of thousands of companies that all came together with this common goal to put a man on the moon.

HILL: Real quickly, before I let you go, it was a testament to what was happening at the time. There was so much going on in the country. Between the Vietnam War, there was a lot of social change. And to see the country, the world unite around this one moment.

I mean, do you have a sense -- it's a tough time right now in the country too, that something could unite the country again like that?

MILLER: Absolutely. If mothers were being asked to send their sons off to war and fight halfway around the world, we had civil rights, you know, atrocities being committed around the world, not only in this country back then. Certainly, we have a myriad of challenges today. If we could have done it once, we can certainly do it again.

HILL: Well, in the film, there's this hope and there's this moment. I hope that you just capture that with what could happen after Apollo 11.

It's such a pleasure to meet you. And the film is phenomenal. Thank you.

MILLER: Thanks so much for having me.

HILL: Be sure to tune into the award-winning CNN film, "APOLLO 11," premieres Sunday night at 9:00 only on CNN. Coming up, the deadly disease Ebola is back. We'll take you to the

center of a new outbreak to find out why it's spreading despite an experimental vaccine.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:56:17] HILL: A rare look at a devastating epidemic. The deadly disease Ebola is once more spreading and at an alarming rate. At least 2,000 people have now died in the latest outbreak. It's in the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa.

CNN's David McKenzie goes inside a treatment center to find out why the disease is once again becoming a crisis.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID MCKENZIE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The cameraman enters this exhausting battleground. Their transparent barrier isolates a highly contagious Ebola patient from the outside world.

His team rushes to stabilize a young woman who lost her baby and her husband to the virus.

The death rate in this outbreak, nearly 70 percent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sometimes you forget even for myself. This is my third Ebola outbreak. The terror that this strikes into people.

When people come here, they feel they might die. In fact, they believe there's a good chance they will. But if they're inside there, they can see the eyes, the emotions, the care of the doctors, and also for the family members coming in. They'll be able to interact with them. They're no longer isolated in the same sense.

MCKENZIE: They call these new units, the cube. The family can begin to trust us, says the doctor, because they can see with their own eyes that we are caring for their loved ones.

Its design, a hard lesson learned from the 2014 West African epidemic where Ebola killed more than 11,000.

This time around, teams are also armed with an effective if experimental vaccine. Advances that meant this outbreak was supposed to be different.

It wasn't supposed to last this long or kill so many. Ten months later, it is still spreading.

For the vaccine to work, the teams need to be able to reach all of this. But this is eastern Congo, a region racked by decades of violence, where armed groups continue to thrive in a dysfunctional state, so a mistrusting community is understandable.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's at stake here is whether we can break this transmission or not. If it continues to be interrupted, it's likely that the virus would continue to propagate.

MCKENZIE (on camera): And what would that mean for this region, for global health?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It remains a threat to surrounding provinces, it remains a threat to surrounding countries. So we cannot let it spread.

MCKENZIE (voice-over): For the spread to stop, Samuel needs to work, keeping track of those most likely to become infected.

(on camera): So that's 36.8. So that's safe?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, that's safe.

MCKENZIE (voice-over): But like so many health workers here, Samuel has been threatened, even beaten up by his terrified neighbors.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sometimes all the world knows is fear. They don't look at the individual people.

MCKENZIE: We need to treat these people with empathy, he says. We need to treat them like they're a member of the family.

Nearby, Ebola survivors now immune to the disease, like Masema (ph), become family to young babies, who wait to see if their infected mothers will live or die.

(on camera): You have a smile on your face. Why do you have a smile on your face?

(voice-over): "My smile is the joy of being alive," she says. "I beat Ebola. I'm smiling to the god who gave me life."

Ebola is a disease that breeds unparalleled fear. Here at least hope remains.

David McKenzie, CNN, Democratic Republic of Congo.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: I'm Erica Hill, thanks for joining us today.

"INSIDE POLITICS" with John King starts right now.

[12:00:00]