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Prince Harry's Longtime Friend Reacts To Bombshell Interview; Starving, Dying Children Pack Yemen Hospitals Amid Civil War; CNN Reality Check: Republicans Gear Up To Fight Voting Rights Bill In Senate. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired March 11, 2021 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Has he shared with you or do you understand why he chose to speak out in such a public way about this private family drama that they've been going through?

DEAN STOTT, LONGTIME FRIEND OF PRINCE HARRY, FORMER BRITISH ARMY SPECIAL FORCES SOLDIER (via Cisco Webex): I think up until now, before the interview, there was a lot of hearsay -- you know, second- guessing. There was a lot of white noise, especially what has been printed in the U.K. tabloids.

So I think for them it was an opportunity to actually spare the hearsay with facts -- you know, this is our part of the story. This is where we are now and this is where we're going, especially moving forward with their life. So it was an opportunity to sort of clear the air and get that off their chest.

Obviously, it was -- you know, I thought it was very courageous, I thought it was honest, and yes, at times it was uncomfortable to hear some of the comments that came out.

CAMEROTA: What part was uncomfortable for you to hear?

STOTT: For me personally, it was the -- it was the mental health aspect. Harry, William, and Kate did so much to raise awareness of mental health -- you know, changing the way society view or approach mental health, taking it from a taboo subject to being openly able to discuss.

And the fact that they were such great ambassadors and the Royal Foundation, which the charity was for, were fully aware of mental health and how important it was, that Meghan couldn't get help herself. And Meghan's the one who has openly come out and said she asked for help. I mean, for me, it would be interesting to see who else before has reached out.

CAMEROTA: Let's play a moment of that where Meghan Markle reveals just how bad things had gotten for her mental health.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MEGHAN MARKLE, DUCHESS OF SUSSEX: But we had to go to this event and I remember him saying I don't think you can go, and I said I can't be left alone.

OPRAH WINFREY, CONDUCTED TELL-ALL INTERVIEW WITH MEGHAN MARKLE AND PRINCE HARRY: Because you were afraid of what you might do to yourself?

MARKLE: And we went and that --

WINFREY: I'm so sorry to hear that.

MARKLE: -- and that picture -- if you zoom in, what I see is how tightly his knuckles are gripped around mine. You can see the whites of our knuckles. Because we are smiling and doing our job but we're both just trying to hold on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Dean, did you have a sense, because you have been in touch with him, of how bad things had gotten for Meghan Markle and for Harry during that time?

STOTT: I did have a sense of it, yes, especially with the -- I call it global bullying which was stemmed by the U.K. tabloids. You know, to have that extent of press and lies being reported, it's going to have an effect on your mental health.

But, for me, the real shocking thing is how much they've done to change our perception on mental health. And I was very fortunate to raise $1.2 million with Harry for one of the mental health campaigns and so it was disturbing to hear that they couldn't ask for help themselves. So, yes, it's not nice to hear.

CAMEROTA: And did you know that Harry was considering this kind of break with the royal family? Was he eluding to this in your conversations?

STOTT: The first I was made aware of it was back in January 2020 when they announced it. So that was the first time I was aware it was happening. Obviously, then -- I then, myself, sort of defended them back in the U.K. with the U.K. tabloids.

Now for me -- you know, he has a different path from that of his brother. You know -- you don't know who you -- you don't have control over who you fall in love with and I think Meghan then opened her eyes and would say I never will.

But having worked with the Royal Foundation on the charity angle, there's a lot of red tape and protocol being part of that institution. And their love for philanthropy is where they're -- you know, where they're headed. And actually then stepping back from that gives them more opportunity to do that.

CAMEROTA: I think we're all getting this lesson right now, this week, that there is a difference now between the royal family and the so- called institution -- the firm. And I'm not sure that Americans quite understood that until now, hearing them speak out about it.

But it was sad to hear -- just then, that sound that we played right before talking to you -- Prince William saying no, he hasn't talked to his brother yet.

STOTT: Yes. I think what I got from the interview with Harry and Meghan, it was no -- I mean, as you've rightly said there, there's a big distinction between the royal family and the institution. I don't think there's a problem in the royal family, I think there's a problem with the institution.

I've been very fortunate to rub shoulders with members of the royal family at numerous events and they're very, very friendly and very down to earth and grounded. I can't say the same for some of the palace aides. They're very arrogant and feel like they have titles themselves.

So from Harry and Meghan's interview, it will be interesting to see how much the family were fully aware of how much they were suffering and how much was kept away from them.

CAMEROTA: You make a great point and obviously, there are more chapters to be written here with the family.

[07:35:05]

Dean, thank you very much for sharing your personal experience as being Harry's friend. We really appreciate it.

STOTT: Thank you very much.

CAMEROTA: Up next, we have a CNN exclusive for you -- a look inside the civil war in Yemen. Hospitals struggling to care for starving children with dwindling supplies. Why doctors say it is worse than it's ever been and what is urgently needed now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Four hundred thousand children are at risk of dying in Yemen as its six-year civil war rages on. That's according to the United Nations World Food Program. Now, a heartbreaking new CNN investigation shows just how dire the situation really is.

[07:40:00]

The Biden administration says it wants to bring an end to the war which was partially funded by American tax dollars by no longer backing the Saudi-led coalition which has been fighting Iranian-backed Houthis. U.S. backing with the war started under Obama and escalated under Trump.

CNN's investigation has found it has been more than two months since the U.S.-backed Saudi blockade has allowed tankers packed with necessary fuel for food and supplies to reach starving families at a crucial port that is controlled by the Houthis. Fourteen tankers are currently being held off the Saudi coast,

according to a vessel-tracking app. This goes against the United Nations agreement and is making the situation on the ground desperate for innocent parents and children.

CNN's Nima Elbagir made the very dangerous trip inside Houthi territory in northern Yemen, a place few foreign journalists have ever been, in order to show the world what's at stake. We do want to warn you reality can be uncomfortable to watch.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The derelict coastline of the north of Yemen. Rusting hulks tell a story of war, blockade, and devastation. For years now, the Houthi- controlled north has been increasingly isolated from the outside world.

We secretly traveled through the night, by boat, after our previous reporting here led the government to deny us entry.

On the road to Hodeidah Port, we get a sense of the humanitarian disaster kept from the outside world. Along the roadside, hundreds of stalled food supply trucks with no fuel to move. In a country in the grip of hunger, their cargo stands spoiling in the hot sun.

The Port of Hodeidah is the supply gateway for the rest of the country. It should be bustling with activity but today it is eerily empty, a result of the U.S.-backed Saudi blockade. The last tanker to dock here was in December.

In the echoing silence, it dawns on us. We are about to witness the terrible impact of this blockade.

Desperate patients and family members trying to get the attention of Dr. Khaled, chairman of Hodeidah's hospital. If he signs these papers, they get some financial relief for their treatments and medicines. He doesn't get far before he is stopped again and again.

DR. KHALED SUHAIL, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, AL THAWRA HOSPITAL, HODEIDAH: Nima, this is the pediatric emergency.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): Since the Yemen war started six years ago, families have been in financial freefall. The fuel blockade has sped that dissent into oblivion.

This is the main hospital for Hodeidah Province and we're surrounded by doctors and nurses rushed off their feet.

ELBAGIR (on camera): Is this a normal day? Is it this busy all the time?

SUHAIL: No, this is not busy.

ELBAGIR (on camera): This is not a busy day?

SUHAIL: It is a normal day.

ELBAGIR (on camera): Wow.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): Dr. Khaled wants to show us some of his critical patients in the therapeutic feeding center. A 10-year-old girl whose growth has been so stunted by starvation she can no longer stand.

ELBAGIR (on camera): Dr. Khaled says every hour of every day they are receiving more and more cases of severe malnutrition that are this advanced because the parents can't afford to feed their children. They also can't afford to bring them to the hospital to treat them.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): The U.N. says pockets of Yemen are in famine- like conditions. But it says Hodeidah is not considered one of them because it doesn't meet the metrics to declare famine. But, Dr. Khaled thinks the reality on the ground has outpaced the U.N.'s projections.

The Saudi fuel blockade is biting. Malnutrition numbers are spiking and at the same time, this busy hospital is running out of the vital fuel that keeps its generators running, which means that babies like Miriam (ph), who doctors say at two months weighs the same as a newborn, would die.

Yemen has been devastated by a civil war which has pitted Iran-backed Ansar Allah, known as Houthis, against the internationally-recognized government and a U.S.-backed Saudi-led coalition.

We're in Houthi territory, some of whose officials have been designated as terrorists by the U.S. for targeting neighboring Saudi Arabia. We've been granted a rare interview with a leading Houthi official. We must meet in an undisclosed location because his aides say of the threat of assassination.

We ask him to respond to allegations they are escalating this war.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Not true at all. The battle is continuing and it has not stopped.

ELBAGIR (on camera): Do you trust America to take forward negotiations to bring peace here in Yemen?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Trust must come about decisions and so far, we have not seen any concrete decisions being made.

ELBAGIR (on camera): You've spoken about being subjected as a nation to international terror, but three of the leaders within the Ansar Allah movement are designated by the U.S. as terrorists. One of your key slogans talks about death to America. How do you see this as pushing forward the negotiation and the possibility for peace in the future?

[07:45:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): When we say death to America they effectively kill us with their bombs, rockets, and blockades. They provide logistics and intelligence support and their actual participation in the battle. So who is bigger and greater? The ones who are killing us or the ones who say death to them?

ELBAGIR (voice-over): The Biden administration has announced it has withdrawn support for the Saudi offensive but it comes after six long years of war. And for the children dying of hunger, it still hasn't brought peace any quicker. Peace and help can't come soon enough.

ELBAGIR (on camera): Over half the hospitals in this district are threatened with shuttering. This is one of them. They need urgent support and urgent help. Can you imagine what it would do to this community if this facility was shut down? Look at the chaos that there is already here, and that's while it's functioning.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): For years now, the U.N. has been warning that famine is coming to Yemen. Doctors across Yemen's north tell us famine has arrived.

Another hospital witnessing wave after wave of children in the Red Zone -- severe malnourishment. Impoverished mothers desperate to keep their children alive are forced to make harrowing choices.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Just to get to the hospital, I stopped eating and drinking -- not even water -- just to get him treated.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): These doctors are keeping track of the numbers spiking beyond what they ever imagined.

ELBAGIR (on camera): The doctor is saying that in 2020, this population -- 23 percent of the children under five here were severely malnourished. In 2021, they think that the number is going to go over 30 percent. There is no doubt in his mind, he says, that they, here in Hodeidah, are in famine.

ELBAGIR (voice-over): Nearly three years ago, the U.N. Security Council condemned the use of starvation as a method of warfare, demanding access to supplies that are necessary for food preparation, including water and fuel, be kept intact here and in other conflicts. That clearly hasn't happened. What's more, the world has stopped caring.

The U.N. needs almost $4 billion to staunch this crisis. They received less than half that from donors. Numbers don't lie. The numbers also don't reflect the full tragedy.

This is Hassan Ali. Ten months and struggling to breathe, he came into the hospital six days ago. He keeps losing weight even with the critical care he's receiving. Hours after we left, Hassan Ali died -- one more child in Yemen that represents so much more pain.

The doctors here are desperate for the world to see and to help.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ELBAGIR: CNN reached out to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for comment but we didn't receive any response to our request.

But minutes after this piece was first broadcast yesterday evening, the Saudi ambassador to the U.S., Princess Reema bint Bandar, released a quite extensive commentary to the English language Saudi newspaper -- news in which she detailed what she said was the kingdom's commitment to peace in the face of Houthi terrorist aggression. In the commentary, though, she did not respond, again, to our findings, John.

BERMAN: To the children dying.

First of all, Nima, thank you -- thank you to you and your team for having the courage to go and do this reporting, which is so hard to do.

I had to warn people before the piece that this would be uncomfortable to watch, but I hope it was uncomfortable. I hope this moved people. I hope people felt terrible about what they were seeing, to an extent. And they need to see it and they are, thanks to you.

What response have you received from the United States?

ELBAGIR: We reached out to the newly-appointed U.S. envoy to Yemen, Tim Lenderking, and it was unusual, John. We do this all the time. We reach out for a right to reply.

We put our findings to him and he told us we were wrong. That what we showed you in the piece did not happen. That those ships off the Port of Jizan that had not been allowed to go into Hodeidah port were actually off the Port of Hodeidah. And that food was flowing unimpeded through Hodeidah when you can see for yourself, as our audience did, those rows and rows of hundreds of trucks -- food spoiling in the sun in a country that's going hungry.

Mr. Lenderking says that the U.S. continues to push for peace. But without a realistic assessment of the situation on the ground -- which, by the way, is caused by a U.S-backed Saudi blockade -- it's difficult to see how both parties can trust the U.S. as an arbiter, John.

CAMEROTA: It's Alisyn here.

[07:50:00]

You can see, obviously, the trucks, as you did, along the road. You can also see the starving children. I mean, all of that video that you got in the hospital of the children starving to death. How -- I mean, obviously, that tells the story. That tells them -- officials everything they should need to know.

And so, if you can respond to that. But also, just explain to us how you got this incredibly rare access to show us video like this.

ELBAGIR: We have been applying for visas to get into Yemen for the last eight months off the back of our previous reporting into the impact of aid cuts by the U.S. and Saudi Arabia and the Emirates and other key allies, and we have been stalled consistently. And we knew -- Barbara Arvanitidis, our amazing senior producer; Alexa

Platt, the senior photojournalist who was with us -- we knew that there was something that we were being kept from and that meant that we needed to go in. And that is actually a huge part of the story.

The world needs to see this because as you said, Alisyn, these are starving children. There isn't really more you need to explain when you show a mother, as you saw there, saying that she stopped eating and drinking to afford to take her child to the hospital.

So, it was a -- it wasn't a great journey, I think is probably the best way to put it. It was really difficult. We had to sail into a northern Yemeni port. But we believed really strongly, as did CNN, that this was the story we needed to tell.

BERMAN: Yes, not a great journey but an important journey and an important story. All right, Nima, we thank you and we thank your team for having the courage to do this. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Thank you, Nima.

BERMAN: We have a reality check, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:55:55]

CAMEROTA: Ted Cruz calls it the universal fraud law. Mike Lee says it was written by the devil. So why are these and other Republicans so scared of a bill that helps more eligible Americans vote?

John Avlon has the answer in our reality check. Hi, John.

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hey, Ali, that is the question.

So, the Republican obsession with cancel culture is actually a bit ironic because they're busy trying to cancel your votes. Remember, more than 250 bills that would restrict voting are making their way through state legislatures. That's seven times more than this time last year. And it's mostly a reaction to the big lie about election fraud -- part of this bizarre world where election integrity is a feel-good way of saying voter suppression.

Iowa's governor just signed a law that would restrict early voting. The Arizona GOP wants to scale down the state legislature to overturn the will of the people and select presidential electors.

And then, of course, there's Georgia with a full-court press to restrict voting, including rolling back no-excuse absentee ballots. And that provoked yet another case of Republicans saying the quiet part out loud. In this case, far-right Senate candidate Lauren Witzke of Delaware.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LAUREN WITZKE (R), DELAWARE SENATE CANDIDATE: We will never win again. We will not have a prayer in 2022 or 2024 if we do not get election reform signed.

So I'm going to save Georgia. Right now, we are pushing through a bill that gets rid of vote-by-mail, it requires voter I.D., bans the ballot drop boxes. It will cut Stacey Abrams off at the knees. Like I said, I only care about winning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AVLON: Yes, not subtle, the knee part.

After the last four years, we should all know that we can't take our democracy for granted and that's why House Democrats just passed HR1, the For the People Act. It's got Senate Republicans reaching for the fire and brimstone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MIKE LEE (R-UT): Everything about this bill is rotten to the core. This is a bill as if written in hell by the devil himself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AVLON: OK, that's a little overheated, especially from a senator who once said we're not a democracy.

So don't get swayed by the literal demonization of the bill. Take a look at what's actually in it.

Its goal is to expand access to voting and ensure that elections aren't rigged by special interests. It's doing that through national standards for automatic voter registration, no-excuse absentee balloting, nonpartisan redistricting commissions so that no single party can rig congressional elections.

Requiring Super PACS and dark money groups to disclose their donors. Making social media companies disclose who paid for political ads. It would impose an ethics code on the Supreme Court, stop members of Congress from using taxpayer dollars to settle harassment claims, create more oversight on lobbyists and foreign agents, and require presidential candidates to disclose their tax returns. Got it?

Now, this is ambitious stuff and good people can disagree on the details, but it is really that scary? Put all the partisan rhetoric aside and just ask yourself whether these provisions would make it easier or harder for every eligible citizen to vote. This isn't complicated but it is important because strengthening democracy shouldn't be a partisan issue. It's an American responsibility.

And that's your reality check.

CAMEROTA: As always, John, thank you very much for that reality.

BERMAN: Does the devil use Microsoft Word or Google Docs when he's writing legislation in hell? That's what I want to know.

All right.

CAMEROTA: All technology, I say.

Thank you very much.

All right, NEW DAY continues right now.

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

BERMAN: All right, welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY.

President Biden with his first prime time White House address to the American people tonight. He will sign the $1.9 trillion relief bill tomorrow. We have new reporting that the speech tonight will honor the 500,000-plus lost to coronavirus, he'll talk about what's being done to speed up vaccinations, and he'll lay out the next steps to getting the pandemic under control.

CAMEROTA: It's a safe bet the president, tonight, will also mention the $1,400 direct payments to millions of struggling Americans. The relief bill also extends unemployment benefits, increases child tax credits, and gives more money for vaccines, reopening of schools, farmers, and healthcare.

There is one thing the bill does not have. That's the support of any Republicans in Congress.

BERMAN: All right. Joining me now is Brian Deese. He's the White House National Economic Council director. Director, welcome to NEW DAY. Thank you so much for being with us this morning.