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Harvard's President Faces Pressure; Jason Miller is Interviewed about the Harvard President Controversy; Biden Hosts Zelenskyy; Tornadoes Strike Tennessee. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired December 11, 2023 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:30:52]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, new this morning, the faculty to the rescue. More than 600 Harvard faculty members are putting their support behind Harvard President Claudine Gay, signing a petition urging Harvard officials to resist calls to remove Gay from her job. She is facing mounting pressure from prominent alumni, donors and politicians to step down after answers she gave in congressional testimony about genocide.

CNN's Jason Carroll is in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Where do things stand this morning, Jason?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's the big question. It's unclear as to what exactly is going to happen with Claudine Gay. Will she stay? Will she go? Harvard's board of governors, as you know, governing board met yesterday. A regularly scheduled meeting. They're meeting again today. And so the question will be, will they come out with some sort of statement for or otherwise? We're waiting to hear what will happen.

As you mentioned, already seeing some support here on campus for Harvard's president. You talked about that petition that was signed by some 600 faculty members. Last night it was at 300. Today it's at 600.

But a little bit of context there because some of those faculty members, remember, John, are folks who were actually critical of the president, but what they say is they don't want external forces forcing her out. It's a decision that they say should be made internally.

So, there is some support there. But having said that, there are a number of people here on campus who say that Claudine Gay's apology after that disastrous testimony last week simply isn't enough.

One of the people who spoke to CNN, Polina Kempinsky. She's a student here at Harvard. She's Israeli. She said, after October 7th she already felt like a number of Jewish students here on campus feeling not safe. She said after that testimony last week it just made things worse.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

POLINA KEMPINSKY, HARVARD STUDENT: It felt like a failed leadership. I was really expecting a clear statement of we're against anti-Semitism. And either here's our plan or we need your help implementing this and that. Instead of this, when hearing the lack of response, the attempt to evade, it just made us feel like we're alone in this and I'm sure a lot of Muslim students have been feeling the same way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: MIT's - it should be known that MIT's governing board issued a statement in support of their president. So, again, waiting to see if Harvard's governing board will do the same.

John.

BERMAN: All right, Jason Carroll, in Cambridge. Thanks so much, Jason.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And joining us now is Jacob Miller. He's a student at Harvard and also the president of Harvard Hillel.

Jacob, thank you for coming in.

You've been outspoken about how painful and dangerous really you found President Gay's testimony before Congress last week. And a lot - and there's been a lot that's happened since I - since I last, you know, heard you speak, which is now you have Penn's president resigning and now at Harvard you have hundreds of faculty kind of defending President Gay. What do you think of that?

JACOB MILLER, PRESIDENT, HARVARD HILLEL: Well, first of all, thank you, Kate, for having me.

The Liz Magill resignation, you know, was somewhat anticipated after, you know, all the controversy she caused. And I do acknowledge the concerns surrounding academic freedom. I think that's very important. And I think, for that reason, you see a lot of Harvard faculty signing on to that letter to support Claudine Gay because faculty, you know, academic freedom is extremely important here at Harvard. I think it makes sense that a lot of faculty, even those who have been extremely critical of the president, have signed on to that statement.

[09:35:00]

You know, it's a really tricky question because the hearing was so, you know -- Claudine Gay's testimony was so kind of -- just for lack of a better word, bad. And, you know, I don't know exactly what the right step forward is because Claudine Gay resigning would look like a capitulation to donors and politicians, which is what not - which is not what Harvard stands for. But on the other hand, having Claudine Gay continue in her role in this compromised position is also not a great solution either.

BOLDUAN: And, Jacob, you've raised an important question around all of this. Even -- maybe even a more important question than should the president of the university resign or not after the congressional testimony, which is, how did Harvard even get here? I mean what does this whole situation say to you or has exposed to you about campus culture?

MILLER: Yes, I think Jews are kind of treated very differently than any other minority group. And I think there was a great example of that this past weekend. You know, the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee issued a statement, which I think came in response to some Jewish students who had, you know, for the past several weeks been condemning the use of the phrase "from the river to the sea," which we view as an eliminationist phrase, and, frankly, an anti-Semitic one. And their statement said that the charge that from "the river to the sea" is anti-Semitic is racist. And I don't think you see any other group that calls out speech they say targets their community and you see other students respond by saying, oh, well, actually, you're the racist ones.

And I think - I think this kind of discourse is harmful. I think Jewish students should be able to say that, you know, certain speech is offensive to our community, especially when the implication is that it's, you know, calling for the elimination of the only Jewish state in the world. You know, one where, you know, I have friends and family living. And so I think we've arrived at this kind of very dangerous state on campus where Jews are not viewed as any other minority. And I think part of that has to do with the fact that, you know, Jews have been traditionally successful, but at the same time anti-Semitism is very real and we've been seeing it on college campuses across the country, we see it in rising hate crime statistics and we can't just dismiss it because, you know, Jews have historically been successful over the past several decades.

BOLDUAN: You know, I spoke with the head of the ADL last week, this was before, you know, Penn's president's resignation. And one thing that Jonathan Greenblatt said to me that stuck is, he's spoken to president - President Gay. It's not clear, though, to him that these leaders, he said, are deeply committed to kind of getting this right.

What do you think showing a deep commitment to getting this right, if what we're seeing is getting it wrong, what does - what do you think that looks like at Harvard?

MILLER: Yes, thank you for the question. I think Claudine Gay needs to, you know, be more vocal in her - in her comments. So, for instance, I think hearing she often said things were kind of personally abhorrent. I think she needs to be stronger. I think she needs to say that this is not what Harvard stands for.

You know, it's very regular to walk around Harvard's campus and hear chants for intifada, which is a call for, you know, violent resistance against Jewish people living in Israel. You know, terrorist attacks against civilians. And so I think she needs to be more strong in her condemnation of those phrases and I think she needs to ensure that the enforcement of the code of conduct is even and that, you know, people who are causing disruptive protests are, you know -- are punished according to the code of conduct, you know, not - not -- we shouldn't be punishing just, you know, mere protest. I think that would go against university values. But when the protest veers into violations of the code of conduct, that should be punished, especially because these protests are so, you know, disconcerting to the Jewish community.

You know, one - one girl told me just last week that she sometimes has to go into a side entrance into the building to get to class because she's afraid of walking near the protests because she's, you know, Jewish. I mean it feels extremely uncomfortable to her.

And then I guess the last thing is that President Gay should be making more time to meet with students. She's come to Harvard Hillel twice since October 7th happened and it feels like there's been kind of a real absence of leadership. We have had the, you know, dean of the college, Rakesh Khurana, come relatively frequently. And, you know, and the provost, Alan Garber, has also come several times. He was at a Hanukkah candle lighting last night at Harvard Hillel. But President Guy has been more absent. And I understand her schedule is much more busy as university president, but in this kind of difficult time, her presence would mean a lot to the Jewish community.

[09:40:03]

BOLDUAN: Yes, it seems like right now this is top of mind for so many at Harvard that this is such a priority and should be.

Thank you, Jacob, for coming in.

MILLER: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Fred.

FREDRIKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right, still ahead, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy is set to visit Washington tomorrow to meet with President Biden as critical aid remains stalled in Congress.

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WHITFIELD: President Biden will host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House tomorrow. The timing is critical. Zelenskyy will try to persuade congressional lawmakers to back billions of dollars in more aid for Ukraine before they leave town for the holidays.

[09:45:04]

The emergency aid package is stalled in Congress right now as Republicans say they won't pass it without major changes to U.S. border and immigration policy.

CNN's Arlette Saenz is at the White House.

So, Arlette, what's your understanding about what's on the agenda for Zelenskyy?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, officials here at the White House view Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as the best advocate for his own country's needs. And they are hopeful that with this visit here to Washington he will be able to apply some additional pressure on lawmakers as that funding for Ukraine remains stalled up on Capitol Hill.

Now, in the afternoon tomorrow President Zelenskyy will be here meeting with President Biden where officials say they will -- it will give the president a chance to once again show U.S. commitment for Ukraine.

But he actually starts the morning up on Capitol Hill meeting with lawmakers. That includes a briefing with the entire Senate, as well as a one-on-one meeting with House Speaker Mike Johnson.

But right now this $60 billion in funding that the White House has requested for Ukraine still remains held up as Republicans are insisting that there must be changes to border policy before any aid for Ukraine or Israel is agreed to.

Now, President Biden, last week, said that he has acknowledged there needs to be some changes to border policy. Officials saying that some things under consideration are changes to the asylum process to enter the United States. But senators have been working around the clock for weeks trying to see whether they can come to some type of agreement to enact these border policy changes. It really remains unclear at this point if they will be able to reach a consensus on that, especially as lawmakers are set to head home for their holiday recess at the end of the week.

But Zelenskyy's visit here will give him an opportunity to try to make the case to lawmakers on Capitol Hill of why his country needs more funding as they are continuing this war against Russia. The White House has also warned that time is running out, that this aid for Ukraine is critical as they continue their fight on the battleground -- on the battlefield and they are hopeful that somehow this aid will get passed up on Capitol Hill, though so far there hasn't been a clear path forward on this endeavor.

WHITFIELD: Arlette Saenz, thanks so much.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, we have just learned of another death from those powerful storms that hit over the weekend. A 10-year-old boy. We'll take you there for an update.

And this also just into CNN, Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny has gone missing from a Russian penal colony. What his team is saying this morning.

Much more ahead.

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[09:51:35] BERMAN: All right, just into CNN, jailed Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny is missing from prison. His team just posted that his whereabouts at this point are not known. According to a spokesperson, lawyers tried to get access to two penal colonies where he was believed to be but they were informed he was not there. He's now been missing for six days. Navalny has been in prison since June of 2022.

AAA is predicting that the next few weeks could be the busiest holiday travel season on record. One hundred and fifteen million Americans could be hitting the roads and taking to the skies for Christmas and New Year's. Most of them will drive, but airports could see a record 7.5 million passengers going through.

More than 40 million people are under flooding alerts from Maryland to Maine. That, of course, includes major metropolitan areas, including Philadelphia and New York. Some areas could even see up to a foot of snow. This is part of a deadly storm system that slammed the south with tornado's over the weekend.

Fred.

WHITFIELD: This morning hundreds of families are trying to figure out how to rebuild their lives after deadly tornadoes and storms ripped across Tennessee. At least six people died. And we just learned that one of those victims is 10-year-old Arlen Bernam (ph). He's from Clarksville, Tennessee. More than 50 people were hurt during the storms. The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency reports 13 tornadoes touched down in the state over the weekend. And one of those tornadoes stayed on the ground for nearly 43 miles, carving a path all the way from Montgomery County, Tennessee, to Logan County, Kentucky.

CNN's Rafael Romo joins us now from a damaged neighborhood in the Nashville area.

Rafael, what are you seeing there?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fred, good morning to you.

It really helps to understand the powerful devastation caused by those tornadoes when you take a look at something like this. This is what remains of a utility poll. It snapped like a match stick under the force of those winds. That is the other portion of the utility polls. And also take a look behind me, Fred. That second floor right there, the very corner used to be a bedroom. Now you can see the bed right there because the force of the wind took away what remained of that wall.

And you were mentioning before what happened in Clarksville, about 70 miles northwest of here. That was an EF-3 tornado with winds topping 150 miles per hour according to the National Weather Service, the local office here in Nashville.

And here where we are, in the Madison neighborhood of north Nashville, the tornado was an EF-2 tornado with winds topping 125 miles per hour. And yet that tornado in Clarksville, it tracked for 43 miles, and it was on the ground for over an hour, Fred. And that's why those people died, including that 10-year-old boy that you mentioned before.

Here in this community we talked to a couple and they said that as soon as they realized that they were in danger, they ran to the kitchen, the only room in the entire house without windows. A decision that they say might have saved their lives.

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GREGORY CHANCE, TORNADO SURVIVOR: No sooner than we got in here, and knelt down on our knees, all this started just cave in.

[09:55:02]

Glass was busting. Stuff was flying around. It was crazy.

The good Lord is what saved our lives. I can tell you, he was on our side last night.

A friend of mine lost his life last night down the street here.

ROMO: Who is that?

CHANCE: His name is Joseph.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: And, Fred, officials have confirmed that that victim was 37- year-old Joseph Dalton, the friend of the gentleman that I was talking to. Two other people who died here, a 31-year-old mother and her two- year-old son. That tells you a lot about the sadness that we have seen here in this community. Very sad indeed.

Fred, back to you.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh. I mean the images, the damage, and what they went through, absolutely extraordinary.

Rafael Romo, thank you so much.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, Donald Trump dominating. Brand new polls painting a pretty dramatic picture. Two key battleground states and also, in terms of a hypothetical matchup between Trump and Biden and also some big messages and some real warning signs ahead from some new polling out of Iowa for his Republican challengers.

We'll be right back.

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