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GOP Senator Apologizes to Black Community; Trump's Legacy of American Carnage; Sanjay Gupta is Interviewed about his New Book. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired January 15, 2021 - 08:30   ET

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


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ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Developing this morning, Republican Senator James Lankford now apologizing to his black constituents after spending weeks trying to overturn Joe Biden's win. In a letter obtained by "Tulsa World," Lankford writes, quote, what I did not realize was all of the national conversation about states like Georgia, Pennsylvania and Michigan was seen as casting doubt on the validity of votes coming out of predominantly black communities, like Atlanta, Philadelphia and Detroit, many black friends in Oklahoma saw this as a direct attack on their right to vote, for their vote to matter, and even a belief that their votes made an election in our country illegitimate. I deeply regret my blindness to that perception, and for that I am sorry.

Joining us now is CNN political correspondent Abby Phillip.

Abby, I'm sure your perspective on this will be different from mine, but I just want to take a moment and mark the moment. A politician is apologizing out loud. A Republican politician is apologizing.

Your thoughts?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, I agree with you on that, Alisyn. I think, first of all, contrition is a good thing these days. I think it's important for people to recognize when they're wrong and say so clearly and apologize for it.

I think one of the problems for Senator Lankford is that this is something that people have been pointing out for many, many months now, since the very beginning of this conspiracy theory about the election. And so to the extent that he didn't realize that's what was happening, it's probably because he wasn't listening. And I think it just highlights the degree to which, in conservative circles, among Republicans, there is such an echo chamber of just constant lies and misinformation that people are not hearing what the reality is and are not hearing the conversation that's happening in the rest of the world.

When the president says that, you know, it's corrupt in Philadelphia and Detroit and Atlanta, it's only because those are places where many of those voters, majority of those voters are black. And he's not questioning the validity of the results in other parts of the state.

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And I think that was clear from the very beginning. So it's good that he's recognizing that now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: He also -- and, again, the apology is very carefully worded and thoughtful insofar as it goes. At no point does he say it was a free and fair election. I was completely wrong to raise questions about the election because it was a completely free and fair election.

PHILLIP: True.

BERMAN: And the reason I'm bringing that up, Abby, is because of our conversation with Ken Cuccinelli earlier today where we learned that part of this online chatter that they are hearing, Christopher Wray, the FBI and others are hearing about possible attacks and fears over the next several days includes the persistent claim that Donald Trump won the election, which is still the claim that Donald Trump is making to people in private and at no point has he declaratively said, I lost the election, which I still continue to think matters. It matters in terms of public safety.

PHILLIP: It absolutely matters. This is what is motivating this extremism. How can you try to stop extremism or denounce violence when you don't try to address what is the ideology that's motivating them, which is a lie? And it's a lie being spread by the president of the United States.

You know, that's -- your point is exactly the one that first came to mind when I saw President Trump's video on Wednesday in the midst of his impeachment in which he tried to call for peace but never acknowledged that he started this whole thing by indoctrinating his supporters in a massive lie and conspiracy theory. And until that happens, you can't expect people to just -- to just walk away from this. They all believe this because the president told them that it was true. And until he changes his tune, they're going to continue to be steeped in these lies and, frankly, the violence is probably going to continue because they're -- they're just being told right now, stay away from Washington. Don't come here. But that's not to say that they're being also told, what you are espousing is simply not true and you need to stop this entire enterprise from beginning to end. They're not being told that by the president at all.

CAMEROTA: Ken Cuccinelli also tried to tell us that President Trump gave a concession speech. I must have slept through that one. I mean that -- I guess that's what the people around him now consider that last video?

PHILLIP: It's as close as we're going to get is what White House aides have been saying. We're not going to get him saying, I lost, because he doesn't think he lost. He's just acknowledging that he's not going to be in the White House anymore on January 21st.

But, yes, he did not concede. He did not acknowledge that this was a free and fair election. And just to bring it back to James Lankford. I think what's important here is that more Republicans need to be speaking out about the integrity of our democracy, not just about, you know, trying to move on from the lies. The whole thing was not true from the very beginning and they knew that. And so it's time to tell people that this election was free and fair from the very beginning. And it's been proven and borne out in the courts and more people need to say that, even if President Trump won't.

CAMEROTA: Abby Phillip, thank you very much.

President Trump talked about American carnage, you'll remember, at his inauguration. Four years later, his presidency ends with it. A CNN "Reality Check" on his legacy, next.

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CAMEROTA: A president's last days in office are usually about cementing his legacy. So what will Donald Trump's legacy be?

John Avlon has our "Reality Check."

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JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Donald Trump's legacy is American carnage.

But the attack on Capitol Hill by his supporters is only one side of the division and destruction he created. Trump's mismanagement of the COVID-19 crisis is the other side of his American carnage. Leading America to the worst caseload and death toll of any nation on earth. Almost exactly one year ago, Trump first spoke publicly about COVID-19 from the World Economic Forum in Davos.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have it totally under control. It's one person coming in from China. And we have it under control. It's going to be just fine.

AVLON: A pandemic is not any president's fault. But the response is their responsibility. And that's where Donald Trump failed in historic proportions. But COVID-19 brought his self-centered chaotic mismanagement style to the forefront. There were early lies about the availability of testing, unhinged attacked on doctors and scientists and surreal claims of cures he heard from cronies and cranks.

TRUMP: And I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute, one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that by injection?

AVLON: In June he urged a slowdown in testing, blaming the rising case on tests rather than the disease, and appointed officials to key positions who pushed the disastrous strategy of herd immunity. COVID denial became rampant among his supporters, as mass protests proliferated, contributing to new spikes and more deaths. In the past month, Trump has publically mentioned COVID-19 only 30

times according to Factbase, mostly with regard to a relief bill he resisted. While by comparison, he lied about election fraud more than 155 times. And in that time, more than 83,000 Americans died.

The U.S. is now averaging almost 250,000 new COVID cases a day. A 13 percent jump from one week ago. December was the deadliest month of the pandemic so far. And January is on track to exceed it. Hospitals are overwhelmed. L.A. County is suffering one death every six minutes.

While a vaccine is being dispatched, its delivery has been marred in logistical problems that stem largely from the administration's decision to leave distribution to the states. And with the new, more contagious variant, first identified in the U.K., spreading around the world, the Trump administration is again flying blind, sowing confusion about whether there could be a U.S. variant, driven in large part because the United States testing for genetic mutations is patchy and inadequate.

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Throughout this American horror story, the Trump administration has resisted sharing information with the Biden transition team, putting partisan politics over people's lives.

On Wednesday, President Biden will take over a divided nation suffering the height of a pandemic. A very real measure of how Donald Trump is leaving our nation far worse than he found it with a legacy of American carnage.

And that's your "Reality Check."

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CAMEROTA: Our thanks to John Avlon, as always.

So the coronavirus pandemic is posing some hidden health risks. Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains, next.

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CAMEROTA: There is a hidden toll of the coronavirus pandemic, and that's the effect it can have on all of our mental health.

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The fear of getting the virus coupled with the stress, of course, of lost income, major disruptions to our daily routine. All of that has a negative impact on all of our brains.

Joining us now is CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. He has a brand new book out. It's called "Keep Sharp: Build a Better Brain at Any Age." John and I are both demonstrating it here. It's available now. It's already number one on "The New York Times" best seller list. Of course it is, Sanjay. Of course it is.

Congratulations.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I -- thank you. People want to build a better brain. You know, you never know if you write something, you never know if people are actually going to even read it, but I think -- I think there's something to be said --

BERMAN: With that (INAUDIBLE)? They're going to read it. With that (INAUDIBLE), they're going to read it.

CAMEROTA: Sanjay, I love the message in it. I love it because all of us who feel as though we're experiencing brain rot of some kind, you're here to tell us that we can regrow and kind of reignite brain connections and brain cells and stuff?

GUPTA: Yes. I am. And, you know, when I say to you that you can build new brain cells at any age, that may sound like a simple even throw- away sentence, but it's actually a pretty remarkable thing. I mean even in the world of neuroscience, up until, you know, somewhat recently, that wasn't the belief. The belief was that you built new brain cells when you were a baby and your brain was just developing or maybe in response to an injury after a stroke, for example, or a traumatic brain injury you might grow new brain cells. But, other than that, it was thought, look, you've got a certain amount of brain cells. You drain the cash as you went through your life and that was the wear and tear sort of things. But other than that, the brain was, you know, impenetrable, unchangeable, immutable. And that's not the case. I mean you can grow new brain cells. So that in and of itself I thought was a really inspiring message. The neuroscience community has known this for some time. But I -- you know, one of the reasons I wrote the book was I was hearing this and thought maybe this -- this should be translated for everyone else.

BERMAN: You've got five pillars of brain health. What are they?

GUPTA: Well, we can put them up on the screen. And, you know, they have to do with how you live your life. I -- when I was thinking about this book, I thought, how do I live my life? What are the things that I do on a daily basis? And are there best ways to do these basic things, such as move and nourish your body and relax and connect with people and discover. Is there ways to do these things that we do on a regular basis that are best for our brains?

And you look at the language even that I've chosen here, movement, for example, as opposed to exercise. One of the things that kept coming up over and over again, as I talked to neuroscientists and also traveled to communities around the world where dementia is really not a thing -- they just don't have much of it -- one thing you find is that people, you know, the humans weren't designed to either sit or lie for 23 hours a day and then get up and go to the gym for an hour a day. They were designed to be moving continuously.

But even more to the point, people who did moderate movement, brisk walking as opposed to intense running, they tended to actually have more of these special factors known as neurotrophic factors, kind of like Miracle Grow for the brain one neuroscientist explained to me, that are released when you are moving. It's fascinating stuff. You can't take this as a pill. You can't inject it. How do you stimulate new brain growth, new brain cell growth?

One of the best ways to do it is through moderate -- moderate levels of movement continuously throughout the day. It's almost like saying, hey, look, it's not that activity is the cure, it's more that inactivity is the disease. It's a mind-set change and that's what I tried to reflect in the book.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh, total music to my ears because the exercise thing, you know, does make me feel guilty and bad when I can't do it, but -- but, you know, we can all do a walk. You know, we can all go for a walk. We can all do some sort of gentle yoga, as I do.

Sanjay, I think that you have a test for John and me that is going to grow our brains?

GUPTA: Yes. I -- and let me set this up for a second because I do find this really, really interesting. You know, we think about changing our bodies, even like changing your heart and it takes months. You know, you eat right, you exercise, you get the benefit over months. With your brain, things can happen quickly. And I think the biggest key thing that I'm about to show you is this idea that you want to use parts of your brain that you're not using that often.

We use 10 percent, 15 percent of our brain 80 percent to 90 percent of the time. If you start to recruit other parts of your brain into things, what you find is, a, you have new parts of your brain that you can draw on. You'll see patterns that you otherwise may have missed. You'll think more clearly. But it can also provide you some resilience against disease later on.

So here's an example.

Alisyn, I -- you know, if you can -- John, actually, I'll have you start. If you can just take off your tie, which I know is very unusual for you.

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I've never seen you without a tie. So just go ahead and take off your tie for a second.

BERMAN: Most of the time I don't even wear a shirt, OK.

CAMEROTA: He only wears a tie.

GUPTA: Wow. OK.

BERMAN: Just a tie.

GUPTA: That's a different program.

BERMAN: All right.

GUPTA: Alisyn, I don't know if you have like lip gloss or lipstick or anything close by.

CAMEROTA: Right here.

GUPTA: If -- if you -- if you -- you're right-handed or are you left- handed?

CAMEROTA: No, I have -- I'm -- I'm right-handed but I brought this with me so that you could test my brain, my lip gloss.

GUPTA: All right, so take that and you're going to try and put that on with your left hand and at the same time, John, you're going to close your eyes and you're going to go ahead and try and tie your tie back on with your eyes closed.

CAMEROTA: I almost just dropped it. I feel like this is going to be so easy for me. I've been doing this -- this is like second nature to me.

GUPTA: Something to do every day.

BERMAN: I can't do it. No way I can do a double Windsor. So just going to forget that.

CAMEROTA: I don't even know what that is. Look at this.

GUPTA: Something you do every day.

CAMEROTA: I mean my brain is so good right now, Sanjay.

GUPTA: You're really good at that.

CAMEROTA: Aren't I?

GUPTA: You're really good at -- actually, yes, Alisyn, you don't need to -- actually, you don't need the book? Did I send you a book? You don't need that book. You can give it to someone else.

CAMEROTA: What's happening over there, John?

BERMAN: I'm tying my tie.

GUPTA: Let me -- when you're doing this, what's happening is -- John, you're doing pretty good.

BERMAN: I -- done. I don't know what to do now.

GUPTA: It's harder -- something you do every day, you're using your other senses to get this done. Your sense of tactile. You're remembering -- trying to remember a little bit of how you do this. It's all flipped around.

CAMEROTA: Oh -- oh, what? What?

GUPTA: What you're doing there as you do this is you're using different parts of your brain to do something you haven't done before.

Somehow that -- you know.

CAMEROTA: OK. I mean it's a scarf. GUPTA: Yes, not bad. Not bad.

CAMEROTA: He's using it as a scarf basically at this point.

BERMAN: I tried.

CAMEROTA: Your brain needs help. That's what we've just learned, John, on national television.

BERMAN: There's a knot here.

GUPTA: Do this for a week. Get new parts of your brain. It will help you now and help protect your brain later.

CAMEROTA: Sanjay, you're wonderful.

GUPTA: I promise you.

CAMEROTA: The book is wonderful. It has so many good tips in here. Take a walk with a friend, as you say.

Anyway, thank you, Sanjay. It's great to talk to you. Have a wonderful weekend.

GUPTA: You got it. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Everybody pick up Sanjay Gupta "Keep Sharp."

BERMAN: Our coverage continues right after this.

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