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Doctor: Tiger Woods 'Suffered Significant Orthopedic Injuries'; Former Security Officials Blame Intelligence Lapses for Deadly Insurrection. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired February 24, 2021 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Traffic collision, ALS now. Person's trapped. Sheriff on scene.

[05:59:50]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Firefighters having to break the car with an axe to get the golfer out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's very fortunate that Mr. Woods was able to come out of this alive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a lot of, still, questions to be answered.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For the first time, the key players in charge of protecting the Capitol faced a public grilling about what went wrong on January 6.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: None of the intelligence we received predicted what actually occurred.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The evidence would indicate a coordinated attack.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There were clearly mistakes, major, major failures of predicting what was happening here.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. It's Wednesday, February 24, 6 a.m. here in New York. And we do have breaking news.

Tiger Woods is awake, responsive, and recovering in his hospital room after undergoing a, quote, "long surgical procedure" on his lower right leg and ankle.

This followed the horrifying accident on a California road. The front of the car just smashed in.

His doctors released a statement just a few hours ago. It reads, quote, "Mr. Woods suffered significant orthopedic injuries to his right lower extremity that were treated during emergency surgery by orthopedic trauma specialists at Harvard UCLA Medical Center, a level 1 trauma center. Comminuted open fractures affecting both the upper and lower portions of the tibia and fibula bones were stabilized by inserting a rod into the tibia."

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Oh, boy. The doctor continues: "Additional injuries to the bones of the foot and ankle were stabilized with a combination of screws and pins. Trauma to the muscle and soft tissue of the leg required surgical release of the covering of the muscles to relieve pressure due to swelling."

BERMAN: Right. That's a lot of information that we got overnight while you were sleeping. So what does it all mean?

Joining us now, Dr. Jeremy Faust. He's an emergency physician at Brigham Women's Hospital in Boston.

Dr. Faust, thanks so much for being with us. That statement from the people who operated on Tiger Woods' right lower leg. What does it all mean?

DR. JEREMY FAUST, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN, BRIGHAM WOMEN'S HOSPITAL IN BOSTON: Good morning.

What that all means is that, in the moment that it was determined that Mr. Woods needed to go to the operating room, the surgeons likely believed that, if they did not perform one of those procedures to release that pressure, they actually were worried he could lose the limb, that amputation might have been necessary.

So in my view, the procedure that they did was so that they avoided that. They believed that, if they did not do that procedure, Mr. Woods might have had to have had an amputation amputation.

So my hat is off to them, because our whole assessment, the whole reason we do the kind of assessment that we do in the emergency department where a patient like this comes in, is to make sure the patients do not have what is called compartment syndrome, which means that the pressure has built up so much that blood -- that actually blood circulation is being compromised.

I know a lot of people are going right to those screws and rods and pins. And yes, that's all very important in terms of understanding what's going on with his bones. But in terms of actually making sure that he has a limb that actually has circulation. They really did the right thing, which was to focus on that.

CAMEROTA: Yes, I'm going right to the screws and rods and pins. Because, you know, it all sounds so horrible, frankly. The tibia was splintered, and so they had to insert a rod in and screws and pins into his foot.

I know of some folks who have had things like that after accidents. What's the lasting impact of that in terms of life and walking and mobility? FAUST: It's going to be a long road for Mr. Woods and I know everyone

is pulling for him. Right now, it's unclear to me whether he will actually be going back to the operating room very soon or not, because of the way they did these procedures, they're actually -- it's likely it's actually an open wound, still. They actually want to have that -- the leg open so the pressure does not build up again.

So he'll actually probably have to have what's called a grafting procedure, because at some point, you have to close that up.

So the road to recovery really begins, but it also -- we're not really even there yet, because he will likely, if we see from this statement, really makes sense, I'm sure it does, is that he actually really is still in that acute phase where they may still have a lot of work to do in the present, in the moments and the days to come.

BERMAN: Let me read the part of the statement that I think you were referring to much more, so we can dig in deeper. "Trauma to the muscle and soft tissue of the leg requires surgical release of the covering of the muscles to relieve pressure due to swelling."

What does that mean? Surgical release of the covering of the muscles?

FAUST: What that means is that they actually made an incision through the muscles to open up that area, so that literally they're just -- the blood or the fluid had a place to go other than to cut off circulation.

Think of the blood vessels as a straw and blood going through the straw, I think that makes a lot of sense. But imagine now flattening that straw. Nothing can get through.

And so what happens in this situation is, essentially, your blood vessels are getting collapsed because of the pressure from around it. And so this procedure, which is called a fasciotomy, is really -- has one thing in mind, and that is to make it so that pressure is relieved so that blood circulation can continue so that you have -- you don't have permanent nerve damage and so that you don't have actual death of more tissue.

When they cut into that tissue, of course, there's some tissue loss there immediately, but the idea is that by doing that, you save a great deal more tissue in the area.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh, thank God for air bags. Thank God that these cars are built better than they were years ago and that he, you know, survived this. When you look at the car and how horribly crumpled it was.

You know, deputies said that alcohol didn't -- they don't believe alcohol played any role in this whatsoever. Would the emergency room have done, like, a toxicology test before rushing him into surgery, just to make sure that there was nothing that was -- that would, you know, conflict with the drugs that they were about to give him?

FAUST: They would likely have done many tests, but that would have been more just for gathering information down the road. But it wouldn't actually make any difference in terms of the surgery.

There's only -- there's almost no situation in which they could have delayed it or would want to have wanted to delayed it, based on anything they would have found in the blood for any substances. So they may or may not have tested for alcohol or other substances. But really, it wouldn't matter.

In the moment, when you have a situation like Mr. Woods seems to have had, it's not really going to change anything that you do.

You are so right about that car. That car did its job. It kept him alive. The steering column, the safety area where the occupant sits looks intact from those videos. It's unbelievably good to see that happening.

And I will be honest. We see -- we are seeing more car accidents -- we saw more car accidents this summer than we've ever seen before, even though there were fewer trips. So people were out there. Maybe the roads were a little more open. There were more DUIs, driving under the influence. There was less seatbelt use. There were higher speeds.

So even though, as we opened up this summer and the fall, there were still fewer trips overall, the actual rates of ejections from vehicles and motor vehicle deaths went up.

So I really want people to realize that this is an important reminder to wear that safety belt, make sure any -- you know, any safety features that the car may have are up to date.

CAMEROTA: Dr. Faust, that is really interesting, and thank you for that warning. That is something that, obviously, we need to highlight and explore. We really appreciate all of your expertise on this.

So as Tiger Woods recovers in the hospital, investigators are trying to piece together exactly what happened.

CNN's Josh Campbell is live with more on the crash investigation. So Josh, I mean, it's early, but what's the latest thinking?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning.

The golf legend remains behind me here at this level I trauma center, where he was brought after that rollover accident yesterday, Alisyn. The pictures that we are seeing show just how violent a crash this was and how much worse it could have been.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CAMPBELL (voice-over): Tiger Woods is awake, responsive, and recovering in his hospital room this morning. His team issuing the update on the golf legend in a statement Wednesday after he suffered serious injuries in a rollover car crash near Los Angeles.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do we have an ETA for fire? We have a rollover with someone trapped.

CAMPBELL: Authorities responding to the incident around 7 a.m. local time.

CARLOS GONZALEZ, LOS ANGELES COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPUTY: When I got there, he was lucid. I was able to ask him his name. I was able to ask him if he knew where he was.

DARYL OSBY, FIRE CHIEF, LOS ANGELES COUNTY FIRE DEPARTMENT: Our firefighters used a Halligan tube. They helped pry the seams of the metal from around his legs. They also used an ax to break out the windshield.

CAMPBELL: Investigators are now looking into what caused Woods to lose control of the vehicle before emergency crews pulled him out of the wreckage and transported him to Harbor UCLA Medical Center.

ALEX VILLANUEVA, LOS ANGELES COUNTY SHERIFF: No skid marks, no braking. So apparently, the first contact was with the center median and from there, then crossed into the opposing lane of traffic, hit the curb, hit a tree, and there was several rollovers during that process.

CAMPBELL: Woods becoming a 15-time major champion over a decades-long career. The golfer sometimes sidelined by multiple surgeries and a number of controversies, including in 2017, when Woods was arrested in Florida after police found him pulled over on the side of the road, asleep in his car.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The return to glory.

CAMPBELL: Woods making a big comeback to golf in 2019, winning his fifth Master's title, and telling CBS Sports Sunday he was hopeful about competing in the tournament this April after undergoing his fifth back operation.

TIGER WOODS, PROFESSIONAL GOLFER: A lot of it's based on my surgeons and my doctors and my therapists and making sure that I do it -- I do it correctly. And this is the only back I've got.

CAMPBELL: Fellow athletes, celebrities, and fans sending an outpouring of support to Woods on social media.

DWYANE WADE, FORMER NBA STAR: And I got an opportunity. I say the GOAT. He's not comfortable with it.

CAMPBELL: Including retired NBA star Dwyane Wade, who posted on Instagram that he played with the golfer on Monday.

WADE: I woke up today so proud to be able to post that moment for the world and be able to get, like -- like a little snippet of a moment together. And I took a nap, and I woke up and I woke up to the news. My prayers go out to him and hopefully -- you know hopefully, a speedy recovery.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMPBELL: Now, the officers who arrived first on the scene say that there were no signs of impairment, no signs of intoxication. After these types of crashes, they launch an investigation to try to determine the cause.

It appears as though speed was a factor. The sheriff says that the cause remains under investigation. He says that one thing is clear. The fact that Tiger Woods was wearing his seat belt likely saved his life -- John, Alisyn.

BERMAN: All right. Josh Campbell for us, please keep us posted throughout the morning.

Joining us now, CNN sports analyst Christine Brennan. She's a sports columnist for "USA Today."

And Christine, I have to say, as we sit here this morning, it's a much better situation than I think we all feared yesterday afternoon when the first reports were about jaws of life prying Tiger from the car, when we had no word of his condition at all.

It turned out the jaws of life were not necessary. We now know that he was conscious and talking when law enforcement got to the scene. And we now know this morning that he's in the hospital recovering well.

Still, we just heard from Dr. Faust at Brigham Women's that the nature of the injuries, as reported there, has him concerned that perhaps there was a question of whether or not Tiger Woods might lose his leg. These are serious injuries. And I think the level of concern and the emotional roller coaster we were all on yesterday talked about the -- I think the cultural significance of Tiger Woods.

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: Oh, without a doubt, John. This man has transcended sports and golf and -- and been a part of our culture not just for a few years, but a few decades.

There were kids were born in the '90s, and they don't go a day without hearing the name Tiger. You don't need the last name. We're on a first-name basis with him.

So that -- that goes without saying. He is one of those great, iconic athletes who is a part of our culture and will be studied for years to come. And I think the question -- I know you're a sports fan, obviously. I cover golf. I've covered Tiger for 25 years. The question is that -- very natural, very upbeat, optimistic question. Can he play golf again? That's not the right question.

The question, obviously, listening to the doctors, listening to the beginning of the show, is will he be able to walk again? Will he be able, maybe, to run with his kids: his daughter, a soccer player; his son, a golfer. Young kids. Will he be able to have a normal life?

If golf is part of his life, John, moving forward, that almost sounds like a miracle, at least a sports miracle. But for right now, it sounds like we should be worried more about Tiger Woods the man, versus Tiger Woods the golfer.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. I mean, absolutely. The long road to recovery that the doctor was just talking about, we don't know what his mobility will be. He doesn't know what his mobility will be. Will he have a life filled with physical pain? We don't know any of that.

But Christine, for those of us who aren't as steeped in sports as others, was he poised for a comeback or was that still an open question?

BRENNAN: Alisyn, I think it was probably an open question. The comeback actually happened two years ago, as you well know, when he won the 2019 Master's. And, you know, if that's -- if that's the book, if that's the movie, that's where it ends, with that 2019 Master's victory. So this is extra.

And of course, this is not good news. And he had had back surgery, his fifth back surgery, and he was talking about trying to come back for the Master's, which is just about six weeks away now in Augusta, Georgia.

And frankly, if he's just putting and doing little short wedges and not even able to hit -- have a full swing and hit a club, this might be more golf than we need at this point in the morning, but if he had been able to go further and actually play rounds of golf, which he said he really wasn't yet, it's hard to imagine that he would have been able to be at the Master's.

But that would not have meant that he wouldn't have able to come back later in the year. And I've learned one thing, covering this man, this incredible golfer and athlete, over the last, as I said, 25 years, and that's never count him out. And I would say the same thing today. Never count him out. He is so competitive and so talented. Although, again, this one is -- is scary.

And one last thought on that particular topic, Alisyn. You mentioned pain. He has been in pain for much of the last 10 to 15 years. Broken leg, back problems, the painkillers were what he was on when he was arrested with the DUI in 2017. So pain has been a part of his life for a long time, even though this sounds like this will be a particularly difficult road for him moving forward.

BERMAN: Yes, 2019, he already had the fairy-tale ending. This is past the fairy tale ending to a whole new chapter. And as you said, the concern needs to be for his life.

You know, seeing the images for just a couple of years ago with Dwyane Wade, the smile that was on Tiger Woods' face and to see the pictures of him in that family tournament he did with his son, Charlie.

Look, you and I went through this in 2009. This is a different Tiger Woods. This has been, over the last year that we saw from back then. It seemed, you know -- and it's always hard to tell -- but it seemed as if he'd entered a new, more comfortable phase of his life.

BRENNAN: Absolutely, John. He was different. Kinder and gentler. But he was. He had matured. He had also seen what life was like without golf a couple of times. He also had his two kids.

And what he talked about, when he won that Master's two years ago, and having his daughter and his son there to greet him and to see him win a major tournament. They'd only heard about that. They'd only read about that. They had never witnessed that themselves with their dad. To see that made him so happy and gave him such great joy.

So this was a man who was once so focused, as so many great athletes have to be. So the singular focus, a laser vision, not smiling, not looking at kids in the gallery, not signing photographs, and criticized for it in some places and some ways over the year. I certainly was critical of him over the years for some things that he's done.

But he had changed. There's no doubt in my mind covering him all of these years, John, he had changed. And he was enjoying life more and appreciating his talents more. And that's what led him to the 2019 Master's victory. And now it will be, I think, what he's going to need, that sense of optimism to be able to move forward, whether golf is part of the picture or not.

BERMAN: Christine Brennan, thank you very much. And obviously, we're watching developments all morning long. As we get new reports, we will deliver them. Thank you.

BRENNAN: Thank you, John.

BERMAN: Former security officials deflecting responsibility for the huge security failures in the deadly Capitol insurrection. And one Republican senator is using the hearings to peddle lies, conspiracy theories. Next.

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CAMEROTA: The House will hold its first hearing tomorrow on the security failures of the deadly Capitol insurrection. The chief of the U.S. Capitol Police and the House sergeant at arms will testify.

Now on Tuesday, three former security officials testified before the Senate. CNN's Whitney Wild has the latest for us.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVEN SUND, FORMER U.S. CAPITOL POLICE CHIEF: These criminals came prepared for war.

WHITNEY WILD, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Former Capitol Hill security officials and the acting chief of the D.C. Metropolitan Police were counting the January 6 insurrection, highlighting major communication failures that led to the deadly riots.

The day before the insurrection, an FBI memo explicitly warning about the possibility of violence was sent via email, but never made its way to leadership.

SEN. GARY PETERS (D-MI): How could you not get that vital intelligence?

SUND: I know that's something that's going to be looked at. I think that information would have been helpful to be aware of. Again, you know, looking at the information for the first time yesterday, it is strictly raw data.

WILD: The acting chief of the D.C. Metropolitan Police thinks a greater effort should have been made to relay the intelligence.

CHIEF ROBERT CONTEE, ACTING CHIEF, D.C. METROPOLITAN POLICE: I would certainly think that something as violent as the insurrection of the Capitol would warrant, you know, a phone call or something.

WILD: Lawmakers stunned by the intelligence lapse.

REP. TIM RYAN (D-OH): No, and the idea that the FBI just sent this as an email, like, holy crap. No one picked up the phone, no one made a call, no one elevated this situation.

WILD: As the hearing progressed, former U.S. Capitol Police Chief Steven Sund and former House sergeant at arms, Paul Irving, disagreed when exactly a request for troops was made on the day of the insurrection.

Irving also testifying that the intelligence about the planned protests on January 6 didn't rise to the level of preemptively bringing in the National Guard.

PAUL IRVING, FORMER HOUSE SERGEANT AT ARMS: We all agreed that the intelligence did not support the -- the troops and collectively decided to let it go.

WILD: Contee believes the main concern was the optics of the military at the Capitol.

CONTEE: I was just stunned that, you know, I have officers that were out there literally fighting for their lives and, you know, we're kind of going through, you know, what seemed like an exercise to really check the boxes.

WILD: Some Republican lawmakers still pushing unfounded conspiracy theories, one claiming that the fake Trump supporters and leftists led the riot at the Capitol.

SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): He describes four different types of people. Plainclothes militants, agents provocateurs, fake Trump protesters, and then disciplined, uniformed calm attackers.

WILD: Those claims have been debunked by the FBI, and all officials at the hearing confirmed the attack involved white supremacist groups.

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): There was clear agreement that this was a planned insurrection. It involved white supremacists. It involved extremist groups.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WILD: Senator Amy Klobuchar says in coming days, we will hear from the FBI, DHS, and the Department of Defense. I assume that there will be quite a few questions about the conclusion of the intelligence that Sund, Irving, and Stenger were looking at. Further, I think it's important to remember that on Thursday, as the

acting chief now, Yogananda Pittman, testifies, she may be questioned about this intelligence failure, Alisyn, because at the time of the insurrection, she was the assistant chief over intelligence and operations for USCP.

CAMEROTA: Good. I hope everybody is questioned about this intelligence failure until we can put the pieces together of what happened. Whitney, thank you very, very much.

Joining us now, CNN senior political analyst John Avlon; and CNN national security analyst Juliette Kayyem. She's a former assistant secretary for the Department of Homeland Security.

Juliette, this intelligence, OK, that talked about the violence that was about to happen at the Capitol was sent as an alert bulletin at 7 p.m. the night before, so January 5, to these, you know, Capitol Police chiefs in an email. Is that customary? I mean, should it have been sent with some sort of, you know, louder alarm than just an email?

[06:25:14]

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, it is customary. It would be part of a standard operating procedure. Look, we are assessing what the threat, what the intelligence is telling us, and now we're -- we're telling you, with only about 14 hours' notice, you would hope that the FBI or someone would have told the Capitol Police, Look, we're serious now.

But I want to make something clear. The FBI assessment was not rocket science. You and I and all of us were on TV and talking the days before about Trump focusing on this day and focusing on violence.

So what's still inexplicable to me is that the Capitol Police, out in the world, aware of what's going on, still did not assess this as a real threat.

So at most -- honestly, at most -- at best, that hearing was disappointing. At most, it was damaging. Because it showed -- it showed that we're not ready, that no one wants to take responsibility.

And remember, we're still under threat. The National Guard is still at the Capitol. The president [SIC] is still wailing about the big lie. We've got March 4, which is a galvanizing day for his adherents, and we've got senators, you know, downplaying the violence.

BERMAN: Yes. The testimony -- it was a finger-pointing mess. I mean, we're no closer, really, to getting answers to how it happened. And it wasn't so much a failure of intelligence as it was a failure of imagination as to what to do with what was so crystal-clear, you know, in life, let alone in that FBI relationship.

John, let's talk about Ron Johnson, if we can. I mean, if only the people who stormed the Capitol had some kind of insignia that let people know who they were or -- CAMEROTA: Who they liked. Who they supported.

BERMAN: Who they supported. Or maybe like a Confederate flag or something to suggest where their sympathies lie or T-shirts that promoted Holocaust stuff. Ron -- what on earth? Why is this man so desperate to rewrite the history here?

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean, you know, Ron Johnson seems to reach for conspiracy theories now when he's confronted with uncomfortable facts. He is carrying a lot of water for the former president, but he's -- what he did is he read into the record, used five minutes of his time to redo the record, basically, in an article from a right-wing blog that said this was a false flag operation.

That is a -- that is just frankly pathetic. It is a total dereliction of duty. Absolutely no interest in following up with any of the questions that really need to be asked, when you had all this information that fell through the cracks.

And you can say incompetence is a better explanation than conspiracy. But this just shows how deep the rot has gotten. It's reflected in public polling that shows a vast majority of Trump supporters still believe this nonsense. And people like Ron Johnson are responsible for that.

BERMAN: Why? What's the motivation? Just ask yourself that. Everyone needs to step back and say, what he's saying is lunacy, but why does he feel --

CAMEROTA: Maybe he's fallen into a QAnon rabbit hole. I mean, he seems to really be clutching at this and believing it. I mean, maybe he's lost all critical thinking.

BERMAN: What does that tell you about his sympathies?

(CROSSTALK)

AVLON: Well, it's certainly hyperpartisan. But, guys, confirmation bias is a hell of a drug.

BERMAN: It's more than partisanship, though. Really. People have to ask these questions. Juliette, John, thank you very much.

CAMEROTA: So one of President Biden's cabinet nominees is facing a key test today. We have the latest from Capitol Hill, next.

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