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Don Lemon Tonight

Respect Given To Queen Elizabeth By Her People; Less Redacted FBI Affidavit Released; Organizing The Crowd Is A Challenge For Metropolitan Police; January 6 Committee Wants Trump And Pence To Testify; Candidates Campaign Hard To Win Primary Race; Wealth Pass On From Queen To Descendants; Chain Supply May Get Disrupted By Rail Transport Strike. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired September 13, 2022 - 22:00   ET

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

[22:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LAURA COATES, CNN HOST: Hey, thanks for watching, everyone. DON LEMON TONIGHT live from London starts right now. Hey, Don Lemon.

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Hi. How are you, Laura? What a big day today. We've got a big day tomorrow --

COATES: Yes.

LEMON: -- in London and we'll get to it. I'll see you -- I'll see you tomorrow night.

COATES We'll see you. I'll be watching.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: This is DON LEMON TONIGHT.

And this is a day -- all right, this is a day for history in the books. It's right here in London. And a day of big developments back at home and around the world. A judge releasing new, never-before-seen information from the Mar-a-Lago affidavit.

And then we have news out of Ukraine where signs that some of Vladimir Putin's forces are retreating back into Russia. All of that ahead tonight.

But here in London, this is the day of the queen's return to Buckingham Palace. And first on CNN, we're learning that the queen's children and her grandchildren had a family dinner at the palace tonight, a moment of unity for a family in mourning.

What we saw here tonight was really amazing, cars coming to complete stop so drivers could watch the queen's hearse passing by. Crowds around Buckingham Palace, waiting in the rain for hours just for the chance to pay tribute, breaking out into cheers as she arrived at the for the first time -- for the last time, excuse me. The hearse is designed by the queen herself with big windows and lit up inside so everybody could see the coffin. Most people here have never experienced anything like this. Elizabeth is the only monarch that they have ever known.

Now, in a matter of hours, King Charles will lead the royal family walking behind the coffin in a silent procession, from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Hall where the queen will lie in state until the morning of the funeral.

As crowds watch the procession, which is expected to take around 40 minutes, Big Ben will toll and cannon fire will echo all across the city. The public will be able to file past the queen's coffin 24 hours a day until 6.30 on the morning of her funeral next Monday.

But I want you to take a look at this. This is a route for members of the public lining up or queuing, as they say here, to pay their respects. It starts where Albert, ember, excuse me, embankment meets Lambeth Bridge in Central London on the south side of the Thames, continuing along the south bank -- the south bank behind the London Eye, following the river past the national theater, the Tate Modern, the HMS Belfast through the south -- Southward Park. That's more than four miles.

And the government warns people waiting may need to stand for hours, possibly overnight with little or no chance to sit down. And that gives you an idea of just how many people are expected to say farewell to the queen.

I want to bring in now Richard Quest and Bianca Nobilo here with me at Buckingham Palace. Sorry, my glasses were fogging up and I couldn't really see anything.

Good evening to both of you. Thank you so much.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT: Good evening.

LEMON: I said for the first -- it's really arriving here for the first time and for the last time, what I said was actually accurate, Richard. How are you this evening?

QUEST: I'm sort of nervous in anticipation. This is something the like of which we've never seen. The size and scale of what's going to happen tomorrow will be enormous. And in many ways, Don, tomorrow will be, it will be so big. It -- these are the famous pictures, the gun carriage going up the mall and then down Whitehall.

These are the pictures that will live on, if you will, because there'll be so many people on the streets, it will be silence except maybe cheering. Wasn't it, wasn't it uplifting tonight when the queen, I was here, when the queen came round people cheered in a sort of thank you ma'am way. Clapped hands --

LEMON: Yes.

QUEST: Applauded. It was -- it was extremely moving. And I think that's going to be the tone for the next three or four days.

LEMON: Well, why was this so moving because there was -- when we were covering in Scotland, it was pretty much complete silence for the queen. It was reverence. It's just a -- it's different today. I guess the applause are for what?

QUEST: I think that Scotland and Edinburgh, as we talked about was more into it. It was the -- it's a smaller place. It's a very enclosed place. It was -- it was an intimate feeling of sovereign and Scottish people saying goodbye. Here you're talking national and international event. Here you are talking about something much bigger. And therefore, I think that people will feel the need to show, but there will be silence, of course there will be.

But I was surprised and uplifted when I heard people cheering, because the words that came to my mind when I heard it was, thank you.

[22:04:58]

LEMON: Bianca, the royal family having dinner tonight in the palace. Is this a sign of coming together, especially when you think about the royals who are now, two of them who now live in the United States and some of the turmoil that's been going on with the family, what do you make of that?

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Literally, yes, of course. And they're clearly trying to present to united front in the face of this tragic loss of Queen Elizabeth II. And we saw that with that walk about with the prince and princess of Wales and the duke and Duchess of Sussex, that was somewhat unexpected.

And we learned that Prince William had invited Harry and Meghan to join him along for that. And the British public had a wonderful response. There's been so much in the tabloids, whether it's in this country or across the pond about that fractious relationship what's really going on there. Drama and gossip about whether or not books are coming out with more salacious details.

I think this moment is so big. It does transcend all of that and it's suppressed it all. And it's brought the family together. And I think that's probably something a lot of people at home can relate to as well. This is what deaths and big momentous events in the family can do.

LEMON: They have this plan down, really the timing down to a minute, Richard, leaving Buckingham palace 9.22 a.m. arriving at Westminster Hall at 10 a.m. The planning that's gone into this. I mean, it has been years in the making.

QUEST: Years in the making, amended when necessary, everything approved by her majesty, the queen herself, practiced to perfection, rehearsed regularly, and now being executed exactly as intended. They, you know, getting everything together was difficult, but they knew what they had to put together.

And so, I think that's what you're seeing. You're going to see everything go, barring some accident, God forbid, you're going to see everything go absolutely as planned.

LEMON: I want to put up some historical pictures now of Queen Elizabeth's father, King George VI. This is his funeral procession, this from February of 1952. And you can see huge crowds, the coffin on the gun carriage. Which we're going to see in the -- for Queen Elizabeth as well.

QUEST: And this is why I say tomorrow is going to be, in many ways, the big moment. These very famous pictures of large crowds on the street waiting, anticipating, silence, respect. That's what we're going to see tomorrow.

LEMON: Except the whole world will be watching unlike 70 years ago, right?

NOBILO: Well, and also something that's quite remarkable about this. If you think that this country has changed both the prime minister and a monarch in the last week, and yet, it can put on international, sort of, global watched pomp and ceremony of this scale that runs like clockwork. I mean, that's quite reassuring in and of itself.

LEMON: Yes. We watched last night as they were rehearsing. Well, I shouldn't say last night, this morning, it was four in the morning here and they were rehearsing. The queen is going to lie and stay at Westminster Hall Wednesday. And that -- that'll happen Wednesday through Sunday. The government announcing a miles' long queue.

So, put -- to put things in perspective here before the queue was closed at St. Giles' church in Edinburgh, 26,000 people had the opportunity to pay their respects there. And that was just about 24 hours. So, this will be big.

QUEST: Bigger by a magnitude of 10, at least.

LEMON: You think so?

QUEST: I mean, I would never be so vulgar to say I'd put money on it, but.

LEMON: It's interesting how they -- they have told the public that they need to be respectful, especially when the queen is lying in state. It's what they wear, what they do, how they act and so on, this is important.

NOBILO: Absolutely. I think we can expect that and everything we've seen so far suggests that that will be the case. There's something very British about this. The police presence by and large is very discreet. It's restrained. People are behaving themselves. They know how to act.

And if people are going to be queuing many hours, perhaps overnight, probably in the pouring rain. They're there because they admire respect and want to say their final farewells to their queen. And I'm sure that they'll behave accordingly.

LEMON: I would just want to say that many may remember the handshake between Queen Elizabeth and the former IRA leader, Commander Martin McGuinness. This was back in 2012, Richard. It was historic, especially after a conflict that claimed thousands of lies, including the queen's cousin, Lord Louis Mountbatten. I mean, this was a historic moment here.

QUEST: It was, and we saw it again today when the queen met the first minister or elect first minister of Northern Ireland. Again, meeting somebody who had -- who was part of a party that was against everything the queen stands for.

But the queen, remember what we always say. The queen doesn't act without the consent of government. She acts on the advice and consent of government. So, the government says you are going to shake hands with Martin McGuinness. There may be a lot of backwards and forth, but finally, if the government says you're going to do it, she will do it.

[22:10:05]

And she did it because it was the -- it was important for peace.

NOBILO: I was just going to say, she also spoke once in Irish. Do you remember in -- in 2012 and it actually drew gaffs in the room because the Irish language was once banned under British rule.

And whether it's a handshake, a few words said in the Irish language, it does demonstrate the weight, the power of the symbolism --

QUEST: Yes.

NOBILO: -- that the monarch.

QUEST: Still.

NOBILO: Yes.

QUEST: Absolutely.

NOBILO: Exactly.

LEMON: This will culminate of course into a huge state funeral on Monday. President Biden among other world leaders will be there. What are you expecting, Richard?

QUEST: Well, anybody and everybody who is a world leader is going to be here with the singular exceptions probably of, well, definitely of Putin. The leader, the prime minister of Belarus, Myanmar. And we don't know whether President Xi of China, but everybody else you can chalk them up. You you've been looking at who's --

LEMON: Yes. Who else is attending. Do you know?

NOBILO: Well, as Richard said, we're expecting the heads of state and officials from what, over 500 delegations to be attending the funeral and there will be exceptions. And all of this, once again is a royal invitation, but it's taken on the advice of the government to what Richard was saying before. All of this is done with consent of the government where British foreign policy currently is.

So, any countries that the United Kingdom has normal relations with, we'd be expecting to see a very high-ranking representative.

QUEST: And to keep an eye out for the crown heads of Europe, because they're all related to the queen and they all know each other and they're all friendly. So, you're going to have the king of Norway, the -- of Belgium, of the Netherlands. All of these royal families, the king and queen of Spain will be here.

It -- the, and that for that, it's not so much as state event. It's a family event. They all know each other. They're all married to each other in some distant way. So, it's going to be crown heads, presidents, prime ministers. And of course, the people who she worked with.

LEMON: A huge security undertaking.

NOBILO: The biggest ever, some officials from the Metropolitan Police say, and you can understand why, with that many of the world's most powerful influential regal people in a tiny little space in the center of London.

That's why the Metropolitan Police are having to draw in all these additional resources of a 10,000 police in London every day. Counter- terrorism experts working overtime on this, as you can imagine to make sure that not only are all those delegates and high-ranking people secure, but that those in the crowds who are at this extremely public event, that broadcast well, wide is safe too.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: You told -- you told me last night that the -- around, the royal family, right? The inner circle, that will be tight.

NOBILO: Yes.

LEMON: The concern is what happens outside in the crowds.

NOBILO: That's when I was speaking to a former head of counter- terrorism for the Met, that's what he expressed to me.

LEMON: Yes.

QUEST: And you had to do all that. But at the same time, you have to let the people see what's going on. And I don't mean on television, the people who are on the streets. So, this is not unique to what's happening here in London, but it's on a much grander scale. How you can have a massive public event with world dignitaries, leaders and keep everybody safe.

LEMON: Thank you, both. I appreciate it. I'll see you throughout the week here. And make sure you join Anderson Cooper and me as we follow the queen's final journey through London as the United Kingdom honors for life. Our live special coverage begins tomorrow at 8 a.m. Eastern. We'll cover it all for you. We've got a lot more to come on the U.K.'s farewell to the queen and the new Royal era of King Charles II.

Plus, back home, never before seen information from the Mar-a-Lago affidavit. And the last primaries before the midterms. We're going to have the latest results right after this.

[22:15:00]

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LEMON: New tonight, a federal judge unsealing a less redacted version of the affidavit used for the Mar-a-Lago search warrant. Among the new details unveiled, documents handed over to investigators by Trump's lawyers had markings associated with spies. And the Justice Department requested the Trump organization hand over more than six months of surveillance footage.

For more, I want to bring in CNN senior law enforcement analyst, Andrew McCabe. And CNN contributor and former Nixon White House counsel, John Dean.

Gentlemen, good evening to you. Thanks for joining.

Andrew, I'm going to start with you. We have known how highly classified these documents are. What new information have we learned from the details of this affidavit?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, Don, I think what we learned with what's been now unsealed from the same affidavit is, is really more of the same. There is a consistent through line here in terms of the documents that the president had at Mar-a-Lago, and those who are not just classified documents, not just classified at the highest level, but also documents that contained HCS, which is, human source information. SI, which is signals intelligence. That's the communications that we intercept from our foreign adversaries.

And you know, this is some of, as I said, not just top secrets, but some of the most sensitive, most fragile intelligence that we have at the top-secret level and information that could really put people in danger if it falls into the wrong hands.

LEMON: Well, John, this investigation has been put on a bit of a hole since the search for a special master. Does this strengthen the DOJ's argument to continue investigating the documents while that search goes on?

JOHN DEAN, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: It doesn't necessarily strengthen it. I think the judge knows the weight of the -- of the classification issue. This reminds some people in the public of it. So, the public is a little bit more aware of it.

We just got a teeny bit more information. Just tidbits, really. No one knew the surveillance, for example, had gone on as long as it really had almost six months before the warrant, the search warrant was issued.

So, there are those kinds of details. I think, Don, that the -- this just mounts up the weight on Judge Cannon down in Florida to make the right decision on this day and take these classified documents out of play. She'd be very smart to do that.

[22:20:00]

Whether she'll do it or not, I have no idea, but at the -- the argument is there and it's very imposing for her.

LEMON: What's at stake if she doesn't do that?

DEAN: Well, it's still very confusing, even though the Trump people have tried to say that the FBI and the Department of Justice are misreading her earlier order and restricting who can do what in looking at the classified information vis-a-vis, the criminal investigation and then the, sort of, the national security investigation weighing what damage this may or may not have done. That they shouldn't be confused.

That she, they're saying, if they read this as she reads, they think she wrote it, that they couldn't go ahead and do both investigations. Justice isn't so sure because her language was broad and unclear. So, she's got to clean that up one way or the other. But I think they've given -- Trump, people have given her an argument --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Let's have more --

DEAN: -- where she can step back.

LEMON: Yes. Andrew, I want to talk more about the surveillance that has been going on for so along. The fact that the Justice Department wanted surveillance tapes going all the way back to January. I mean, that's a whole lot of footage.

MCCABE: It really is. It's a -- it's a lot of footage, but it's of course completely reasonable amount for the bureau to process. I think it's interesting, Don, that it goes back to about the time that the Trump team turned over the infamous 15 boxes of documents in the National Archives.

So, clearly, the FBI had reason to believe that there was more material on the property, and that that material was being accessed or exposed to people in the storage room in the basement at Mar-a-Lago in a way contrary to what their lawyers had represented to the department in that infamous June meeting at Mar-a-Lago.

So, when the search happened, and we didn't know any of these details, it was pretty clear to most of us who were familiar with the Justice Department, that something had to have happened to trigger the Justice Department to go forward and ask for this search warrant.

And I'm fairly confident that what they saw on that video was the thing that compelled them to believe they had to get in there and recover the rest of these very sensitive documents very quickly.

LEMON: The DOJ, John, has a lot on their plate right now. We've learned of 30 subpoenas to different people in Trump's inner orbit, including one for a close Trump aide, Boris Epstein's phone.

John, this investigation is getting closer and closer to the former president. No?

DEAN: It certainly is. And we're not totally clear as to which investigations are going on now because there are clearly two grand juries. There's federal grand juries by the Department of Justice. They're investigating the January 6th, and the implications of overturning the election.

And they're also investigating the misuse or abuse of fundraising related to that in a separate grand jury. So, a lot of -- a lot of former Nixon, excuse me, of Trump staffers are getting called forward to the grand jury.

LEMON: Yes. Well, it's all very similar so we can certainly understand that, John. Listen, John, there's also the January 6th committee's investigation. They met today for the first time in weeks, supposedly to talk about whether to invite Trump and Pence to speak. Pence has expressed some interest. I mean, that would be incredible.

DEAN: It certainly would be.

LEMON: John?

DEAN: I don't think there's any way Trump would accept, but it's possible Pence might.

LEMON: Andrew, listen to the -- what the committee chair, this is Bennie Thompson, what he told CNN about their investigation and to deleted Secret Service text. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. BENNIE THOMPSON (D-MS), CHAIR, JANUARY 6 COMMITTEE: Yes, we've got significant information in the last week --

UNKNOWN: In the last week?

THOMPSON: -- from the Secret service. Right. And he's still getting this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Significant information. What kind of information do you think he's referring to?

MCCABE: You know, who knows, Don. It's a whole -- there's a whole range of things that that could be, my probably most confident guess and it's a complete guess, is that they are talking to people inside the Secret Service who are shedding some light on the process behind how these devices were decommissioned, and essentially erased. Whether or not that was actually a regular process, whether there was policy behind it, whether it was done for people other than those people who were implicated in the January 6th activity. So, there's a lot of very -- what seemed like mundane basic questions, but which formed the basis around whether -- how you think about the activity that took place with these gentlemen who are on and around Trump and whose phones are now inaccessible to the committee.

[22:25:02]

They are trying to see if this was an intentional act of destroying potential evidence, or if it was simply a standard part of kind of company practice.

LEMON: John Dean, the committee is aiming for its next public hearing to be September 28th. A lot has happened since the last hearing in July. The FBI search of Mar-a-Lago, the ramp up in the DOJ's subpoenas. This is a whole new landscape the committee will have to navigate now.

DEAN: They met for four hours today, Don, in a private meeting to sort of focus on this issue and what they want to do, who they might want to call, how they want to focus the end of their pursuit. Because they're getting to the point where they're going to need to issue a report. Not that their hearings have not been informative, but that'll be a little different form.

So, I think it, you know, I think they will end in a, probably a very significant way and it could even be -- there have been hints and rumors that they may be talking about a referral, a referral of a criminal nature relating to the president to the Department of Justice.

LEMON: John, Andrew, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

It's the final round of primaries for the hotly contested 2022 midterms. Voters in New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Delaware heading to the polls. We're going to go live to the magic wall for the very latest. Results right after this.

[22:30:00]

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LEMON: As we count down to the midterms in November, the final round of primary race is held today in New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Delaware. The most watched race is the battle for the Republican Senate nomination in New Hampshire, where one of the candidates is an election denier. And more mainstream Republicans are hoping to block him from winning.

CNN senior political analyst, John Avlon at the magic wall with it for us all this evening. Hi, John.

Results are coming in late tonight. What, what can you tell us? JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: All right, Don. Listen,

this Senate race is high stakes. Here we are the live freer die state, a true swing state where registered independents outnumbered Democrats or Republicans. And the Republican civil war is playing out in this high-stake Senate race.

You've got a retired general, Don Bolduc, beloved by the activist base but seen as too extreme to win a general election. Fighting against the state Senate president, Chuck Morse. And Republicans outside groups have been flooding the state with money, trying to get Morse across the finish line.

Now right now at 41 percent of the vote in. So, this is still a long way from me going. They're separate by just over 2000 votes. But Bolduc is in poll position. Morse winning a lot of the cities, but not by a big margin. A lot of the more rural areas still coming in.

This is high stakes because the Democratic Senator Maggie Hassan is seen as very vulnerable. If the Republican nominee can win over independents and moderate voters come the general election, Don Bolduc has been getting in a fight with a popular centrist Republican Governor Chris Sununu, calling him a communist sympathizer. Sununu firing back calling Bolduc a conspiracy theorist extremist.

So, there's a lot of bad blood in this race and the Senate could hang in the balance.

LEMON: John, there are also two former Trump staffers facing off for a congressional seat there. What's up with that?

AVLON: Yes. This is a fascinating one. So, take a look at the first district. This is a fight between two Trump administration alumni. Karoline Leavitt and Matt Mowers. Karoline Leavitt was an assistant in the press office, 25 years old, really playing to the base. Election denying, saying that, you know, Joe Biden should be impeached.

Matt Mowers, a former State Department administrator. He's a guy who had the endorsement of Kevin McCarthy, where Leavitt has got the endorsement of the Jim Jordans and the Lauren Boeberts of the world.

What you're seeing right now is again, just 36 percent of the vote in. But Leavitt is around 2,200 votes ahead. Tight margins, but this is not the outcome that the establishment was expecting.

Leavitt has been surging in recent days. We'll see who pulls it out. Again, a long way for being over. But this is yet another symptom of that civil war in the Republican Party, even amid Trumpers between folks who are sort of center right more establishment and folks who are far right election deniers.

LEMON: John, I also have to ask you about Lindsey Graham today. Lindsey Graham introduced a 15-week abortion ban. Republicans have been backpedaling on the issue. So why is Graham introducing this now?

AVLON: That is a question --

LEMON: What's the point?

AVLON: -- Lindsey Graham, Senate Republican colleagues have been asking themselves all day. Look, we know in the wake of this decision overturning Roe, that the enthusiasm, the momentum has been shifting more towards Democrats. Registration, much higher among Democrats and women in particular.

The last thing a lot of Republicans wanted to do was to try to nationalize this issue, especially because their line has been, including Lindsey Graham as far back as just two months ago, saying this is an issue for states to decide.

So, when Lindsey Graham puts forward a bill to say that all abortions nationally should be banned after 15 weeks, it undercuts that federalist messaging big time, and it moves the attention where they don't want it to be.

Graham may be trying to fire up the Republican base. The activists are calling for this, but folks in tough races in this center saying you just undercut our argument and you're elevating the issue that we seem to be weakest on.

LEMON: All right, so we'll be watching.

AVLON: We will.

LEMON: John Avlon, thank you very much.

AVLON: Take care, buddy.

LEMON: King Charles and his heir, Prince William inheriting at least $21 billion in land, property, and investments.

[22:35:02]

And one of the biggest Royal perks, they won't have to pay any inheritance stacks on their estates.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: King Charles III inheriting not only his mother's throne, but her fortune as well. Though, royal's wills aren't made public, the vast bulk of the royal family's wealth worth at least $21 billion in land, properties and investments will now pass to the new king and his heir.

And Prince William now assumes a Dutchy of Cornwall, a royal estate Charles spent decades turning into a billion-dollar portfolio of land and property covering almost 140,000 acres.

So, joining me now to discuss all of this, CNN royal commentator and global business consultant, Hilary Fordwich.

Hillary, thank you for joining us.

[22:40:01] Wow. That, I mean, this is a vast, this is vast wealth here. One of the biggest estates the Duchy of Cornwall generates millions of dollars in rental income every year. That all goes to Prince William. Now he and his -- and Princess Kate, it gets their own source of income now.

HILARY FORDWICH, CNN ROYAL COMMENTATOR: Well, to a certain extent, and pleasure to be back with you again, Don, although different circumstances, perhaps another time. But, a few things here. Let's not forget the fact that they're not the wealthiest people in the world at all.

And in fact, they didn't even make the list of the 250 wealthiest British people on that list. And J.K. Rowling in 2003, she beats out the queen with her wealth after she wrote Harry Potter.

But a few things here, remember that they don't actually have personal assets, Don. You're totally right. They won't pay income tax. I mean, inheritance tax on that, but the queen did agree to pay income tax years ago during the year of her, as she called it, annus horribilis where she had a terrible year.

And then that year was the year that prince -- don't forget that Prince William and -- have I lost you?

LEMON: Yes. I can hear you. I can still hear you, Hilary. Can you hear me.

FORDWICH: I'm sorry. Yes. I thought I'd lost you. But that was the year that Windsor --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Yes. This was in the -- this is a -- there was an agreement in the 90s that the queen and Prince Charles began to voluntarily pay --

FORDWICH: Yes.

LEMON: -- income tax on their estate. So, it took some of the sting out of it.

FORDWICH: That's exactly, you're exactly right. That was the year that Windsor Castle went up in flames. Yes, that was 1992.

LEMON: Yes. So, the crown estate is worth, Hilary, I think an estimated $19 billion and now belongs to Charles. But he only gets a slice of the profit from that. The sovereign grant that's about a hundred, I think it's $100 million. So, the question is, where does it all go?

FORDWICH: Right. Well, actually the percentage she receives from the crown estate. And the crown estate to clarify what it is, the crown estate owns a swath of land, particularly a lot through London, like particularly Regent Street, a lot of the retail shops. It's the income from all those properties. The Royals receive and prince --Prince Charles now. King Charles will receive about 25 percent of that revenue. And you asked where it goes. Well, don't forget Don there's extensive staff to pay. There are extensive costs to running this royal family, such as all the things that you are seeing.

Of course, they don't always pay for their own security, but everybody that works for the royal family has to be paid somehow. So, this is also, look at it as a way of creating jobs as well.

I will say one thing, the queen was renowned for only putting one bar on of her two-bar heater in one of her drawing rooms, because she was very fiscally conservative in terms of the actual, very personal way that she lived.

LEMON: And of course, he inherits much of the queen's personal wealth.

FORDWICH: Yes.

LEMON: This is what Forbes estimated last year, that it's about a $500 million. And it includes her jewels, her art collection investments, two residents, including her favorite Balmoral Castle in Scotland. I mean, British citizens normally pay, Hilary, about 40 percent inheritance tax.

King Charles gets this tax free. I mean, that's been criticized by some in the British public. Do they have a point here?

FORDWICH: Well, yes. The point is actually going to come to fruition, I think, Don, more this winter. They're referring to it as the winter of discontent, of course from Shakespeare. We don't know what extent that discontent is going to be, but I would say, yes, you are right. People do pay inheritance tax.

But let's also remember a lot of those assets can't be liquidated. They might own a lot of properties. They can't liquidate anything from the crown of state. They can't liquidate the artwork. These are properties that aren't, you know, something that they can go and like just toss out of the window and just say, well, I need the money for this and use them in any other way like a regular person can.

They have so many restrictions that you don't have, I don't have. And none of the British subjects have. I will say that Sandringham and Balmoral, you're right, they are private properties. Balmoral was bought by Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband. That theoretically could be sold.

But what King Charles has talked about doing though, is opening it more to the public and actually even, maybe perhaps at one point, when he was talking about streamlining the monarchy, he talked about actually giving it back to the people and opening it to the people.

Buckingham Palace has already opened to the public. In fact, there are lots of charitable events that are already conducted there. LEMON: Well, sometimes, I mean, Charles has sometimes been an unintentional symbol of wealth, inequality like earlier this year. He pledges relief for working families while sitting on a dazzling gold throne, which is interesting backdrop. I mean, just the optics were not good.

Do you think he and his advisors are going to try to avoid these kinds of mistakes even more now that he is king.

FORDWICH: You're right that he needs to be extremely sensitive, I think. So don't forget that so many of these properties and so many of these rooms, and so many of the places that they have staged things are so historical that they're not -- that they look at them as this is part of history, versus this is something that we're trying to brag about.

[22:45:07]

Certainly not. And I think you're absolutely right. I think they do need to be extremely sensitive to the optics.

One of the things though about optics is he's worked, actually his entire life, and something he's set up called the prince's trust, where he actually many, many years ago, he started to go into the poorest areas of what in America, I think would be referred to more as ghettos.

He would go into these poor areas and he would -- he wrote -- he rose funds for young people to start their own businesses and thousands and thousands of thousands of underprivileged young people of all races, all religions of all backgrounds have gone through them and he's helped them with their future.

Because he was actually, and he's criticized of being too sensitive. He was extremely sensitive about the plight of the common person. So, Don, what one would hope is that as he moves forward? Yes, he too, with those sensitivities will be more sensitive about those optic. You're right.

LEMON: Well, this is coming when, you know, there's all of this wealth and you hear about it comes as England is facing rising cost of living, living crisis, austerity, budget cuts and so on.

And then you have those who are asking for reparations for colonialism. And they're wondering, you know, $100 billion, $24 billion here and there, $500 million there. Some people want to be paid back and members of the public are wondering why are we suffering when you are, you know, you have all of this vast wealth. Those are legitimate concerns.

FORDWICH: Well, I think you're right about reparations in terms of if people wanted, though. What they need to do is you always need to go back to the beginning of a supply chain. Where was the beginning of the supply chain. That was in Africa. And when that crossed the entire world when the slavery was taking place, which was the first nation in the world that abolished slave -- slavery. The first nation in the world to abolish it, it was started by William Wilberforce, was the British. In Great Britain, they abolished slavery. Two thousand naval men died on the high seas trying to stop slavery. Why? Because the African kings were rounding up their own people. They had them on cages waiting in the beaches. No one was running into Africa to get them.

And I think you're totally right. If reparations need to be paid, we need to go right back to the beginning of that supply chain and say, who was rounding up their own people and having them handcuffing cages. Absolutely. That's where they should start.

And maybe, I don't know the descendants of those families where they died at the -- in the high seas, trying to stop the slavery that those families should receive something too, I think at the same time.

LEMON: It's an interesting discussion, Hilary. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. We'll continue to discuss --

FORDWICH: Absolutely.

LEMON: -- in the future. So, remember the impact of the supply, the supply chain crisis on the economy during COVID. Well, there's a chance it's going to hit us again. And I'm talking about a possible freight railroad strike that could start within the next 24 hours.

The crippling impact it could have on food and gas. That's next.

[22:50:00]

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LEMON: The stock market plunging today, the Dow dropping more than 1,200 points on news that inflation remains stubbornly high in August. It was the worst trading day in more than two years. And the economy could take another hit if a threatened rail strike on Friday stops the movement of freight nationwide.

Both sides are at an impasse. So, tomorrow they're going to meet with the labor secretary to try and work out an agreement. The White House fears a massive disruption to the nation's supply chain. And it's working on contingency plans to keep goods moving.

More tonight from CNN's Omar Jimenez in Chicago. Omar.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, all of these moves are basically to preempt any form of national railroad strike that could come as early as Friday.

And of course, we learned today from Amtrak that they would be canceling an additional seven long-distance routes to avoid possible passenger disruptions on Wednesday. That of course came on top of the routes that we saw canceled over the course of Tuesday, primarily out of here in Chicago, from Chicago to L.A., Chicago to Seattle, Chicago to San Francisco Bay. But Amtrak makes it clear that these union disputes do not involve Amtrak or any of their workers. They involve those with the freight railroad system. But the reason they're connected is because Amtrak only owns and maintains about 700 miles of track. The other 97 percent, the other 22,000 miles system of track is owned and operated by the freight railroad system.

And so, what we're seeing there is we've already seen stops and shipments of hazardous materials on the freight system. A prolonged strike could also mean we see supply shortages, which of course we've already been dealing with supply chain issues over the past few years, also potential factory stoppages as places might not be able to get the parts that they need.

Keep in mind, these union disputes involve 60,000 union members. And on top of it all, the 30 percent of America's freight is transported by rail. So obviously a lot of implications. The stakes are incredibly high for a strike that again could come as early as Friday. Don?

LEMON: Omar, thank you very much.

The coffin of Queen Elizabeth here at Buckingham Palace. Mourners now camping out overnight to pay their respects ahead of tomorrow's procession to Westminster Hall, and it's expected to draw hundreds of thousands of people.

[22:55:00]

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LEMON: We're live at Buckingham Palace where just hours from now we're going to see a silent procession as Queen Elizabeth's coffin move to Westminster Hall. That's where the longest serving monarch in British history will lie in state ahead of her funeral on Monday.

CNN's Scott McLean and contributor Bidisha Mamata are here with me outside of Buckingham Palace, and former British public affairs officials Shannon Felton Spence joins us from the states.

Good evening to one, and all. Thanks so much for joining.

Bidisha, I'm going to start with you. Because we are learning about a royal family dinner tonight, including Harry, William, even Prince Andrew. That seems to be a remarkable show of unity and some private family time ahead of what's going to be a very public, and certainly emotional day tomorrow.

BIDISHA MAMATA, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: What's really interesting is that they've made those details public. So, what you are seeing is the reintegration of Prince Andrew into public mention. This is extremely unexpected because everyone who is following current events over the last 18 months or so was expecting Andrew to be persona non grata for at least a few years.

But then of course, the queen passed away. What it does also point up, is that in amidst all of the pageantry and the ceremony and the public spectacle, this is also the story of a family who are going to have to communicate with each other as a grieving family does.

[23:00:05]

LEMON: Yes. But can you imagine being a fly on that wall at that dinner tonight?