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Milley Steps Down As America's Top General; Tentative Deal For Hollywood Writers After 146-Day Strike; For The Second Time Ever, Pig Hearth Transplanted Into Human. Aired 3:30-4pm ET

Aired September 25, 2023 - 15:30   ET

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

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[15:32:22]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: At the end of this week America's top general will step down from his role as the President's Top Military Advisor, the highest-ranking uniform member of the military. General Mark Milley departs after four years as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He served two presidents, of course, President Trump, a Republican, appointed back in late 2018. And then later now, President Biden, he had a relationship with Trump during those final days of the administration, sometimes tenuous.

He also drew criticism from this moment when he appeared briefly alongside Trump as he walked to a church just across from the White House, across Lafayette Square for a photo-op, this during the George Floyd protests, Milley in uniform at the time, he did later apologize for creating the perception that the military was involved in what was essentially a domestic political event there. CNN's Katie Bo Lillis joins us now with more of her reporting on military.

You write in your piece that some see him as the most politicized Chairman of the Joint Chiefs in recent history. And I wondered, do you hear that from inside the building, from on the hill? And what is the essential criticism?

KATIE BO LILLIS, CNN REPORTER: Right. Well, Jim, it's a great question. So the -- the Chairman Joint Chiefs, right, is the president's top military advisor, right? He's outside of the chain of command. And like all U.S. generals, he's supposed to operate independent of domestic U.S. politics.

But in ways large and small, Milley, in particular in the military, broadly were really kind of sucked into some of the toxic politics of the Trump era, right? Milley, in particular, in the wake of the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol taking some pretty extraordinary actions to safeguard against what he saw as some of the president's more sort of outlandish impulses and against kind of the chaos of the moment.

He's also become really sort of the face of the so-called woke military for critics on the right. And one detail that we learned that kind of speaks to how attuned Milley has been to kind of the domestic politics surrounding both his chairmanship and the military in general is that his staff every morning pull the transcripts from the primetime Fox shows like Sean Hannity, at one point, Tucker Carlson, that frequently take aim at Milley to sort of monitor if they are talking about Mark Milley.

And so now, Jim, I think there's this very active debate over whether or not Milley kind of stretched the bounds of the chairmanship in ways that may have sort of changed the apolitical nature.

SCIUTTO: So let's talk about that because if you served, if anyone served as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs under Trump and Biden, right, a Democrat and Republican, they're going to -- some are going to accuse them right of politics. And particularly at the time of January 6th, there are some who looked at those moves he took around January 6th as protecting the Republic, right? And then there's some more in Trump's camp who view that as interference. So what -- what specific issues beyond January 6th did they see him as going outside the bounds of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs?

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BO LILLIS: Well, so I think one -- one sort of big episode that really drew a lot of attention was Milley testified before the House Armed Services Committee in sort of defense of what at the time was being -- it was a big controversy over whether or not there was a course being taught to military cadets that was related to sort of diverse -- sorry, excuse me, to diversity issues within the U.S. military and Milley gave this sort of very impassioned defense of studying the idea of white rage.

He said, I'm a white man, I want to understand white rage, what is wrong with sort of understanding the country that we are here to defend? For some members of the military and I would say not just sort of partisan Republican critics, this was Milley stepping too far into a domestic political issue.

SCIUTTO: So how about on base naming? Because I know that's another one that for some was controversial, I speak to a lot of folks in the building, there's general agreement among many particularly uniformed that taking the names of confederate generals off of bases, is not the worst thing in the world, right? So where was the -- where did he get criticism in that space?

BO LILLIS: Milley was supportive of the idea of renaming some of these bases in the South that were named after confederate generals. And I think that's been sort of another one where you've seen him be attacked pretty vociferously from the right.

The other one that I think has -- has drawn sort of a lot of attention and this is sort of one that I think you've seen the Trump -- former Trump officials kind of turn on its head a little bit. In the wake of January 6th, Milley had a call with his Chinese counterpart in which he sort of reassured them, we're not going to attack you. Trump of course now accusing Milley of treason for this.

SCIUTTO: Yeah, I think Trump even said at the time that treason -- that in a different time would bring the death penalty there, right? BO LILLIS: Right. And despite the fact that we should note that Trump

administration officials at the time had been looped into the fact that this call was taking place, right?

SCIUTTO: Right.

BO LILLIS: This was coordinated with policy.

SCIUTTO: I understood. And military to military communications, typically a thing that is considered bipartisan. Listen, it's a great piece, great reporting. Katie Bo Lillis, thanks so much.

And boy, what a four years to be Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

BO LILLIS: Wild, right?

SCIUTTO: Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: They have a deal after a month's long strike, the Writers Guild and major film and television studios have reached a tentative agreement. What is next for the striking writers, just ahead?

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[15:41:46]

SCIUTTO: All right, through the closing credits, it looks like the saga of the Hollywood writers' strike could be over after the union reached a tentative deal with the big studios over the weekend. Earlier this morning, the Los Angeles Times caught some of the 11,000 members of the Writers Guild of America celebrating.

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PROTESTERS: Thank you, NegCom. Thank you, NegCom. Thank you, NegCom.

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SCIUTTO: They were chanting NegCom, which is what they call their negotiating committee. This is the second longest strike in Guild history, more than 145 days. Now clear when they will get back to work since the Actors' Union is still working on their own deal. CNN's Camila Bernal is in Los Angeles.

Camila, the Writers' Union is calling this exceptional. They seem to have made, at least based on the reporting progress on some of the biggest issues?

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Jim, while they haven't made this contract public, a lot of the writers that I've talked to feel like most likely the studios met them where they wanted to be met in terms of their wages, especially when it came to residuals and streaming. Also, how many writers needed to be in the room and then AI? That was

such a big issue for the writers and actually sources telling CNN that, that was really the last sticking point, the artificial intelligence. And so a lot of people just excited because they believe they got what they wanted.

Of course, we have to see all of the details, but everyone telling me they're ready to go back to work. The Union, though, saying not yet. They want to be able to finalize the language of the contract first. That's what they're working on right now. After they do that, we expect a vote from the leadership tomorrow. And once that vote happens, then we'll likely see the details in terms of what they agreed on, and then the writers are going to be able to ask questions and try to figure out exactly if they like it or not.

And then they have to vote to ratify. So it still takes a while, and keep in mind, the actors are also on strike. So even if this gets ratified and the writers are no longer in strike, well, then you still have to deal with the actors. And SAG-AFTRA is saying they're still at the picket lines, and the writers are actually being encouraged to go out in the streets and join the picket lines with the actors. They're essentially one big family.

And so while you may see some talk shows and late-night shows go back to normal in the coming days or weeks, well, for movies and TV shows this year, we still don't know. It all depends on the actors, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yeah, and see if this is a model perhaps for the Actors Union, this agreement, or putative agreement, which we call it. Camila Bernal, thanks so much. Brianna.

KEILAR: Now to some of the other headlines that we are watching this hour, migrant crossings at the U.S.-Mexico border, show no signs of slowing down. A senior customs and border protection official says more than 16,000 people were taken into custody over the weekend. New shelters slated to open in El Paso, but hundreds of migrants have been sleeping on the streets.

The U.S. reached agreement -- an agreement, for Mexico to deport migrants from its northern border cities to depressurize those areas.

Also, all of the students who were injured on Thursday when their bus crashed in New York are expected to recover. The superintendent of the Farmingdale School District on Long Island says that some of the students are still struggling, but that they will return when they are ready. Two adults were killed in the crash. Both were beloved members of the school's music community.

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And signups are now open for another round of free COVID tests from the government. People can receive four tests per household. Shipping will begin the week of October 2nd. The program had been suspended since May, but COVID cases have been rising in the past several weeks. Jim? SCIUTTO: Coming up, just for the second time ever, doctors have

transplanted a pig's heart into a living recipient, just amazing medicine here. We're going to have an update on the patient's condition right ahead.

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[15:50:09]

SCIUTTO: This just into CNN. Libya's Attorney General says that 16 top officials have now been detained in the country's investigation into the deadly flooding in the town of Derna. Thousands of people died earlier this month when two dams burst after torrential rain sent a massive wave into the town.

The Attorney General says those detained were responsible for maintaining those dams. According to the mayor, the last time the dams had maintenance was back in 2002, more than 20 years ago. There were prior warnings of catastrophic flooding if maintenance was not carried out. Important developments there, Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, so for the second time ever, a pig heart has been transplanted into a living human recipient. This is groundbreaking surgery that was done at the University of Maryland Medical Center. I do want to warn some people it's not for the faint-hearted. The recipient of the pig heart, 58-year-old Lawrence Fossett, was facing death with end-stage heart disease. We have CNN Health Reporter, Jacqueline Howard, who is joining us.

Jacqueline, as I mentioned, the pictures are a little graphic, but this is important stuff. How is the patient doing? How does this work?

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Yeah, it is definitely important, Brianna. What we know is that after the surgery, the patient was breathing on his own, his heart was functioning without assistance, and we know that the medical team is now monitoring him closely.

And how this kind of procedure works, the pig that donated its heart was actually genetically modified. Some pig genes were edited to help reduce the risk of the patient rejecting the organ or having a severe reaction and to control the growth of the organ.

And we know that some human genes were inserted into the genome to help reduce those risks as well. And this is the second time we've seen this kind of procedure performed successfully. The last time was just last year. The same medical team performed the same surgery on a previous patient. That patient went on, Brianna, to live for two months after the procedure. He did eventually die of heart failure, but researchers say now that we're seeing the second successful surgery that gives hope for this kind of science, especially at a time where the nation is having a shortage of organ donors.

We know that nationwide, more than 100,000 patients are on an organ weight list. Among them, more than 3,000 are in need of hearts. So scientists and doctors are making the argument that this kind of procedure in the future, if it continues to evolve, could be a possible solution to the organ shortage that we have in the U.S. right now, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yeah, some people will take this chance when you look at these numbers of this organ shortage that we see. Jacqueline, thank you so much. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Well, the biggest star at the Bears Chiefs NFL Games Sunday didn't even touch the ball. Could Taylor Swift be Travis Kelce's biggest catch yet? We're going to have more. Stay with us.

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KEILAR: The Kansas City Chiefs put on quite the show yesterday. They crushed the Chicago Bears 41 to 10 at Arrowhead Stadium. But the biggest star in the stadium was not even on the field. Everyone just about lost their minds after seeing Taylor Swift at the game cheering on the Chiefs, Travis Kelce.

SCIUTTO: He had invited Swift to watch him play after seeing her perform at Arrowhead and you didn't drop the ball. Yuck, yuck.

KEILAR: Good, good.

SCIUTTO: Catching a three-yard touchdown pass in the third quarter.

KEILAR: All right, social media had a field day as you can imagine. The NFL's official TikTok account even changing its bio to Taylor was here.

We have CNN's -- CNN World Sports Don Riddell who has been following all of the action. I don't know if you thought you'd ever be covering this one, Don, but this was quite a night.

DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: Yeah, for sure. You know, Taylor Swift is known to be an Eagles fan. Her Philadelphia team was beaten by Travis Kelce and the Chiefs in the Super Bowl earlier this year but you know what they say? All's fair in love and war and she caused quite the stir by showing up at Arrowhead Stadium.

Maybe Cupid's Arrows was at play. Taylor Swift sitting alongside Kelce's mom, Donna, in the luxury suite. Of course Travis would have wanted to light up the stage and he did so as you just showed catching that touchdown from Patrick Mahomes.

All bad news for the Bears. They were thrashed but the post-game questions weren't really interested in the result. More so, the score.

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PATRICK MAHOMES, KC CHIEFS QUARTERBACK: I heard that -- I heard she was in the house.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Did you feel it? Did you feel the pressure, Patrick?

MAHOMES: I thought a little bit of pressure and so I knew how to get it to Travis. And of course it's on the route that Travis -- he does his own thing and makes up a round and I throw it to him, so I think he wanted to get in the end zone just as much as all the Swifties wanted him to.

ANDY REID, KC CHIEFS HEAD COACH: You know what I've met her before? Out of my set him up, I just leave him with it.

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RIDDELL: Of course he did. After the game Travis and Taylor were seen heading out together maybe looking for a getaway car suggesting that perhaps the rumors are true. Maybe they really are dating. For now millions of Swifties and millions of football fans can only wonder. But there is no doubt that it's all the talk of the town. Even the legendary Patriots Coach Bill Belichick couldn't resist chiming in on the radio, says, it could be as big as catch yet and who knows where this is all heading, guys.

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I will say this, Usher has just been confirmed for this season's Super Bowl halftime show. Taylor Swift famously has never performed at the game. Maybe if the Chiefs make it again, maybe she'll be tempted to get involved because she might be in the house anyway. What do you think?

SCIUTTO: I got to say the pressure of making that catch with your possible girlfriend in the stadium, next to your mom. I mean good for him.

KEILAR: I just think it's funny. That's all anyone asked about.

SCIUTTO: Yeah, seriously.

KEILAR: To talk about in the questions.

SCIUTTO: Don Riddell, thanks so much. The Lead with Jake Tapper starts right now.