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Lindsey Graham Says He's Open-Minded To Impeachment If Evidence Arises; Interview With Former Governor Mark Sanford (R-SC); Largest U.S. Troop Withdrawal From Syria Underway; Elizabeth Warren To Detail How To Pay For Her Medicare For All Plan; Protesters Block Off Streets, Throw Molotov Cocktails; Hundreds Of Pro-Hong Kong Protesters Flood NBA Game; Video Shows Coach Disarm And Hug Student With Shotgun. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired October 20, 2019 - 20:00   ET

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

[20:00:00]

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: You're live in the NEWSROOM. Thanks so much for staying with me. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York.

New tonight, he is one of the president's closest allies on Capitol Hill, but in a just released interview, South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham is signaling he could change his mind on impeachment if new evidence of a crime emerges. But he also emphasized in that interview that he has read the entire rough transcript of the call between Trump and the Ukrainian president and that he did not consider anything in that call to be a quid pro quo.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONATHAN SWAN, AXIOS: Are you open minded if more comes out that you could support impeachment?

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): Sure. I mean, I mean -- show me something that is a crime. If you could show me that, you know, Trump actually was engaging in a quid pro quo outside the phone call, that would be very disturbing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: That interview was recorded on Tuesday. Guess what happened just two days later? Acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney publicly admitted to a quid pro quo.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICK MULVANEY, ACTING WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: If this is a corrupt place, I don't send them a bunch of money, and have them waste it, have them spent it, have them used it to line their own pockets. Did he also mention to me in the past that the corruption related to the DNC server? Absolutely. No question about that. But that's it. That's why we held up the money.

JONATHAN KARL, ABC NEWS: What you just described is a quid pro quo. It is funding will not flow unless the investigation into the Democratic server happened as well.

MULVANEY: We do -- we do that all the time with foreign policy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: He has since tried to walk that back but you just heard him in his own words.

I want to go straight out to CNN's Jeremy Diamond at the White House.

Jeremy, so what's Graham saying now?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, it's interesting to hear those comments from Senator Lindsey Graham. Of course, he has been a staunch defender of the president including through this impeachment inquiry. And now he is saying essentially look, if the president did commit a crime or if there's evidence of that, which again a big if here, that he would be open to some kind of impeachment proceedings.

That being said, after Mick Mulvaney's admission there and his attempts to walk it back since then, I spoke with a spokesman for Senator Lindsey Graham who says that Graham has not heard or seen anything that would rise to the level of there being a quid pro quo, there being some kind of a crime on impeachment here.

Where Graham's comments in that interview were far more biting, though, was as it relates to the president's decision to pull troops out of Syria and to abandon the U.S.' Kurdish allies. Graham in that interview called those actions by the president dishonorable.

CABRERA: And you have reporting that President Trump is increasingly frustrated with his acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney. How is Mulvaney trying to clean up his shocking press briefing on Thursday?

DIAMOND: Well, Ana, today, Mulvaney spends part of his day trying to that cleanup, once again insisting that despite that stunning admission that there was a quid pro quo involving the president's interest in that investigation in Ukraine and the freezing of security aid to that country, Mick Mulvaney insisted today that there is once again no quid pro quo at all and that he was completely misconstrued.

But it didn't do much to help him with the president. A source familiar with the president's thinking telling me and my colleague Dana Bash that the president is increasingly frustrated with his chief of staff and that Mulvaney is finding himself now increasingly on shaky ground.

That being said, Ana, we have seen this movie before. Not only as it relates to Mulvaney, but as it relates to other top aides who frequently draw the president's ire when they don't perform quite up to his standards. So, there is no indication as of yet that his exit is imminent in any way but certainly interesting to watch the president's ongoing reactions to his chief of staff who certainly didn't do himself any favors this past week -- Ana. CABRERA: All right. Jeremy Diamond at the White House. Thank you

for that latest.

Now Graham's open mindedness comes as another Republican lawmaker signals he is open to possibly impeaching the president. Here's Congressman Francis Rooney on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION" today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. FRANCIS ROONEY (R-FL): I don't see how you walk back something that's clear. I would say game, set, match, on that.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: And is that impeachable? I mean --

ROONEY: I don't know. That's the question s. Question is, is it of a great enough magnitude to justify impeachment? And I want to learn a little more about that. I want to get more counsel. I want to talk to, quite frankly, some of the leadership, Democratic leadership, about what they have in mind. I think that this is a very egregious situation in the Ukraine and Syria is even worse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Joining me now, former South Carolina Governor and Republican Congressman, Mark Sanford. He has since launched a primary run against President Trump.

Governor, do you get a sense there is something going on within your party like maybe officials are looking for a way off the Trump train?

MARK SANFORD (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think enough of us have been looking for a way off the Trump train for quite a while. But I would say that there are fissures out there particularly after this last week with what's been occurring in terms of conversation with Ukraine, what has occurred with regard to Syria and, you know, the fiasco with regard to Doral and the G-7.

[20:05:15]

So I think increasingly what I hear from friends back in D.C. is a greater and greater frustration with their being forced to basically defend things that are fairly indefensible.

CABRERA: Where do you stand on impeachment now following Mulvaney's admission there was a quid pro quo?

SANFORD: I've said from the very beginning that I believe in innocence until proven guilty. But where generally where there is smoke, there is fire. And there seems to be a lot of smoke coming out of this conversation. I have said that it ought to be vigorously studied and we ought to get to the bottom of it.

I said as a political document I think we're probably better off with censure, because what you don't want to do is to move forward with impeachment on the House, it have pass there, have it go nowhere in the Senate, and then the president is able to say, see, I was completely absolved of any guilt. I am completely innocent.

I think it leads to that much more confusion in the presidential election and a whole lot of oxygen sucked out of the room with regard to Democratic and Republican debates on what comes next.

CABRERA: But you just said a moment ago that this week there were so many things that you thought were damming, that you were very disturbing when it comes to this president. You went ahead and listed them. And we heard from, you know, Senator Lisa Murkowski this week saying you don't hold up aid that we had previously appropriated for a political initiative, period, reacting to what she heard from Mick Mulvaney.

Do you not agree with her?

SANFORD: I do agree with that, and again --

CABRERA: So would you be ready to impeach based on the facts that are out there right now if you were sitting still in the House of Representatives and the vote were before you?

SANFORD: Well, I -- again, I'm not on the Judiciary Committee, I'm not on the intel. I'm on a 3500-mile trip across this country talking about kids who were bankrupt and we didn't even know it. And what I find most interesting on this trip is the further you get from Washington, the less people like political spin. And so what I've said is, I don't want to prejudge the process. I think that what I have heard sounds very troubling. I think it's a political step, censure is probably better. But I'm not going to prejudge the process.

CABRERA: OK. So, you don't want to weigh in exactly on that. I just wonder, though, if you're not ready to say it's time to impeach then, you know, perhaps a lot of other Republicans are in your same camp right now. Why do you think they would support a primary challenger to the president?

SANFORD: I'm sorry. Why would a Republican support a primary challenger?

CABRERA: Yes, if you're not ready to go there, and other Republicans aren't ready to go there and believe this president should be impeached, why would Republicans vote for a primary challenger to the president then?

SANFORD: Well, because, I don't -- I mean, this is the tip of the iceberg. I mean, when you get to the element that Lindsey Graham was just talking about a moment ago on the piece that played, you know, high crimes and misdemeanors is a big bar.

What the president has done I think should settle every Republican out there is what he's done on trade and tariffs and turning this country inward, what he's done to destroy and degrade if you will, political institutions, that have been the glue that have held our system together for 200 years, what he's done with regard to tone, what he's done in completely upsetting the apple cart on political norms that I think some of which are important.

What he's done on debt and deficit and spending. I mean, I think there are a whole litany of things that would cause Republicans to be frustrated with where this president has gone.

CABRERA: You made your formal campaign launch event this week and reporters on the ground say only one person showed up. Why aren't you resonating more, do you think?

SANFORD: Well, I hate to use Donald Trump's term of fake news, but that was absolutely fake news. You can pull the tape. That was not the announcement of my campaign. You could find that on FOX News about a month ago and I would simply invite folks to look there or go to MarkSanford.com and they can look at the exact date when I did announce.

What we have done on this trip is look for ways of elevating the way in which we are spinning our way into oblivion and we were walking away toward the most predictable financial crisis in the history of man, and so we've tried to do three stops a day. We did on that day, Philadelphia, Harrisburg and Pittsburgh.

And in so doing, those were quick press availabilities and nothing more than that. And that particular reporter tried to spin it into something that wasn't. So, I don't want to use the word fake news, but that was, indeed, fake news.

CABRERA: Well, I'm glad we talked about it. I'm glad you could bring up your case there. I do want to ask you about Syria, and what we are seeing there right now. Hundreds of U.S. troops are making their way out of the country right now. The troops that are leaving aren't coming home.

[20:10:03]

They're going elsewhere in the Middle East. The U.S. brokered cease- fire isn't holding, according to reports. What kind of damage do you think has been done?

SANFORD: Lasting and significant damage. In the -- what we're doing is most troubling when you go outside of the immediacy of what's occurring on the ground in that part of the world is sending a signal to allies and would-be allies as to where America will stand and will they stand with you? And I think that is lasting damage. I mean, really going back to the time of World War II, we've been predictable.

Our foreign policy at times we've gotten it right. At times we've gotten it wrong. But we've tried as a nation to avoid capricious activity on that front, which is why people have seen us as the beacon that they have. What the president did came across as capricious. When you surprise allies across the Atlantic, when you surprise allies at the Pentagon, when you surprise allies on Capitol Hill, you got a real problem in the signals that you're sending.

CABRERA: All right. Former governor Mark Sanford, I really appreciate you joining us, thank you and good luck on the campaign trail.

SANFORD: Yes, ma'am.

CABRERA: Much more to discuss on Syria tonight. U.S. troops are on move this hour and headed to Iraq. Details on the fluid situation there next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: After mixed messaging from the president and the Pentagon on the U.S. troop withdrawal in Syria, "The New York Times" is now reporting the president is leaning toward leaving a few hundred troops in eastern Syria to combat ISIS, and prevent a power vacuum by Syrian and Russian forces.

[20:15:07]

This as CNN cameras captured exclusive video today of the troop withdrawal. Hundreds of trucks carrying them east to their next destination. Iraq. The Pentagon says they're going to Iraq and other anti-ISIS missions in the region. They're not coming home. At least not now. That despite President Trump saying numerous times last week that they were.

Meanwhile, Syrian Kurdish forces are now saying a key part of the U.S. brokered ceasefire is being implemented. Their fighters have begun pulling out of the Turkish designated safe zone in northern Syria. And Turkey's president has said the offensive would resume if the U.S. does not deliver on its guarantee to get Kurds out of the area by Tuesday night.

CNN's Fareed Zakaria, host of "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS", joins us now.

Fareed, let's talk about the situation on the ground in Syria right now. A quarter million people displaced. Our Kurdish allies killed, a power vacuum for adversaries like Russia, Iran, and Syria as well as terrorist groups, like ISIS developing here, what was your reaction when you heard this from the president?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So, I view the situation on the Turkish border with Syria to be for the United States strategically brilliant.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FAREED ZAKARIA, HOST, CNN'S "FAREED ZAKARIA GPS": You know, there have been other failures and mistakes that the United States has made. The curious thing about this one is it seems to have no benefit for the United States. We had a very comfortable situation, which was we had created in a sense separated these two parties, the Turks and the Syrian Kurds. The Syrian Kurds were allies. They were fighting ISIS. They were preventing ISIS from reconstituting. The Turks were minding their own business, also in some ways helping on that front. Because the two sides didn't like each other, we were the buffer

between them. We removed that, created this, all the things you just described, a quarter million people displaced, war crimes, ISIS prisoners escaping, the Kurds being slaughtered for nothing. And in a process that seems there was no process. It was the whim of the president so that's unique. I mean, I don't think that we've ever seen so much destruction produced almost haphazardly, almost absent mindedly, almost like just on the basis of a whim.

CABRERA: Well, and this is how the president's ally Lindsey Graham, a senator, of course, a Republican senator, described what the president did.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GRAHAM: Number one, the president did not give Turkey a green light to invade Syria. But he didn't say red either. He said, he gave a yellow light. And you don't give yellow lights in the Mideast.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Yellow light, Fareed?

ZAKARIA: Well, I think Lindsey Graham has generally been very critical, but that is simply untrue. The point of the phone call between Erdogan and Trump was Erdogan was telling Trump, I'm going to do this unless you tell me no, and I want you to withdraw your troops. It's very simple. If Trump had left the troops in place, there would have been no operation. The Turkish army was not going to fire on American troops. Right? So, by withdrawing the troops, Trump gave a green light.

Again, as with so many things with Donald Trump, it's not that he had to explicitly mouth the words, but by his actions in a sense gave Turkey the green light and again, we're not sure why. It's not clear what the United States got out of that from Turkey as far as I can tell, absolutely nothing. So we destabilized the situation, created conditions where ISIS can come back, betrayed the people who did all the fighting for us. For what?

And you know here's the most important point, Ana. It's likely that in this power vacuum, some bad guys will reconstitute. They tend to dislike America. So they will probably start hatching plots, terror plots against the United States. We will have to do something about that. The United States will have to do something about that. But who is going to do the fighting the next time around? Are the Kurds likely to do any of the fighting? They did 90 percent of the fight. They were the infantry for the United States Air Force.

CABRERA: And yet the president really hasn't seemed that concerned about the well-being or what happens to the Kurds or the region? Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Sometimes you have to let them fight a little while. Then people find out how tough the fighting is, these guys know right up here. These guys know. Right? Sometimes you have to let them fight. Like two kids in a lot, you got to let them fight then you pull them apart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: If this is how the U.S. is going to talk about its allies, fighters who are giving their lives for a common cause, who is going to be there for the U.S. next time around?

ZAKARIA: Well, that's right. When the fighting starts again and there will be fighting against some terror group, we have been very fortunate, the United States has been able to recruit local forces, because what the U.S. has found is, we're not very good at that.

[20:20:06]

It's very hard to do. You need to know the region. You need to know the local areas. You need to know the languages. And then when you conquer land, when you get the bad guys out, you don't want to own real estate in the Middle East. They are not the U.S. I mean, you know, we tried it in Iraq. We tried it in Afghanistan. It doesn't work. So those forces can occupy those areas without it being seen as a Western American imperial action.

That's why the Kurds were just brilliant, priceless allies because they were locals, they spoke the language, they could go into these places. The next time around what Donald Trump has done is he's forced the United States into a situation where it will have to go in, it will have to occupy. Because who is going to be willing to do it given what we did? And you know what's even the saddest part about it is having done it, he has mocked the Kurds.

He has mocked their participation, their heroism. He's questioned whether or not they had mixed motives. He's talked about they didn't -- you know, well, they weren't there for us during World War II. I mean, you know, these are people who have fought and died for the United States. We owed them at the very least honoring them in that sense even if we were going to change that commitment, which we did.

CABRERA: Fareed Zakaria, always good to have your voice and your perspective. Thank you.

ZAKARIA: A pleasure.

CABRERA: To the campaign trail now, these are live pictures of Senator Elizabeth Warren in Iowa this hour. She's become known for having a plan for everything. But some fellow Democrats in the White House race say her ambitious healthcare plan is incomplete.

How Warren is responding next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:25:38] CABRERA: And back live to Des Moines, Iowa, and Elizabeth Warren, they're speaking now. She's the 2020 Democratic presidential candidate known for her detailed plans on, well, everything. But after Senator Warren was pushed during the CNN-"New York Times" debate on her refusal to detail just exactly how she would pay for Medicare for All, the Massachusetts senator is now saying she will put out a detailed healthcare plan and how to pay for it over the next few weeks.

CNN Jeff Zeleny is with the Warren campaign as she travels through Iowa and joins us with more -- Jeff.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Ana, Senator Elizabeth Warren back in Iowa campaigning for her first time after that debate last week. Of course, so many questions from her rivals about how she would pay for her signature campaign pledge, Medicare for All.

Now she did not specifically say here how she would pay for that. But she did say she is studying it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What I see, though, is that we need to talk about the cost and I plan over the next few weeks to put out a plan that talks about specifically the cost of Medicare for All and specifically how we pay for it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: Now, Warren's campaign advisers say she is studying the plan and will be releasing something in the coming weeks. The question is, will voters, you know, accept that? Many of her supporters here we talked to are true believers. They believe in her call for structural change. But it is the --you know, the vast amounts of undecided voters, will they be moved by the arguments from Pete Buttigieg, from Amy Klobuchar, even from Joe Biden saying that some of these plans, in Amy Klobuchar's words, are a pipe dream, not an actual plan.

So that is the dynamic here less than four months before the Iowa caucuses. Can Elizabeth Warren keep surging or will she have to put some more meat on the bones particularly how she'll pay for Medicare for All -- Ana.

CABRERA: Jeff Zeleny, thank you. Coming up, we'll take a look at the pandemonium on the streets of Hong Kong as violent protests continue for a 20th straight weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: They're getting anything and throwing things to gather around for these make-shift barricades. As you can see, petrol bombs (INAUDIBLE).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[20:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: The streets of Hong Kong have been packed again, this weekend, with protesters. Officials have banned Sunday's march, but tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators defied that ban and it turned violent. Some protesters throwing Molotov cocktails and vandalizing shops, riot police fired tear gas at them.

CNN's Anna Coren was in the middle of this chaotic scene.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNA COREN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is the 20th consecutive weekend of protest here in Hong Kong. And as you can see, these protesters, the frontline protesters are setting up barricades here, on Nathan Road, one of the busiest roads here in Hong Kong. They're getting anything and throwing things together to these make- shift barricades.

As you can see, petrol bombs in file to be (INAUDIBLE) to these barricades. And it looks like, I can't tell if they are police, no, they are still protesters. Here to set fire, got a ferocious fire, to barricades in front of us.

Now, we know that the police are 500 meters in that direction. They fired multiple rounds of tear gas, the water cannons were also used to disperse the crowd, forcing everybody down here, to Yamato. Now, this began as a very peaceful protest. Tens of thousands, if not over a hundred thousand people turned out for (INAUDIBLE) assembly.

The police had denied the march as had the (INAUDIBLE) were trying to be organized by the civil human rights organizers, same people that organized the 10 million people march back in June. Well, the march was denied, but protesters turned out regardless.

And they say that this is their right. This is their civil liberty to come out unto the streets and protest. They are calling for an independent inquiry to police brutality. They want the Hong Kong police force to be disbanded. And, of course, they now want universal suffrage.

That has become the main goal, really, of these protesters. But we've heard from the city's chief executive, Carrie Lam, who said never going to happen. We've also heard from the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, who said any act of separatism will be crushed.

But for the people here, this is an act of defiance. Four months into these protests and they are turning out in their thousands, with their make-shift weapons, their metal pipes, their hammers, their sledge hammers. They are smashing up shops that are seen as pro-China. They are vandalizing train stations that are seemed to be the eyes of the Hong Kong government.

They are taking to the streets, and they say they will continue to take to the streets, until the government listens. Anna Coren, CNN, Hong Kong.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[20:35:14]

CABRERA: Those protests have now ensnared the NBA and some of its biggest stars. LeBron James criticized a tweet by Houston Rockets' general manager, Daryl Morey, that supported the Hong Kong pro- democracy protesters. James said Morey was misinformed and James then, faced a lot of criticism for that.

Meantime, support for the Hong Kong demonstrators showed up court side. This was at the Nets-Raptors pre-season game, Friday, here in New York. Academy Award-nominated filmmaker, Andrew Duncan, bought 300 tickets for activists wearing shirts that said, stand with Hong Kong.

Andrew Duncan is with us now, along with Nathan Law, the founding chair of Hong Kong's pro-democracy party, Demosisto, and he helped organize the protests at Friday's game. Thank you, gentlemen, for coming in. Andrew, let me start with you. Why did you buy these 300 tickets? What were you hoping to accomplish?

ANDREW DUNCAN, ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATED PRODUCER, THE FLORIDA PROJECT: I got a phone call two weeks ago, I was in Paris. I got a phone call from a former member of the National Security Council who said that Morey had called, saying that he was about to get fired from his job, and the NBA's initial response was a little less than desirable.

And I got concerned. So, I called the people who I've worked with human rights and members of Congress, state of play that evening, in Paris time, to try to get some action to get some pushback. Because my concern is, this is not just a Hong Kong issue.

This is a sovereign issue of the United States, a U.S. citizen who is speaking out on a U.S. social media platform, who has just put out a democracy tweet, that is banned in China, the platform is banned in China, was trying to make a statement, and he is being censored, and he's still being censored.

He is not -- he should be able to repost that tweet and put it back up. He's a U.S. citizen. And I think it's really important, and I think LeBron and Kyrie and the rest of the NBA family need to understand one other fact, Fentanyl, you know, they want to know what's going on in the United States.

Fentanyl is coming with complicity from the Chinese communist party in Beijing. It's coming to our streets, it's killing our fellow Americans, our brothers and sisters, and I don't think they can parse it, and have it both ways, that it's an issue in China, but not in the United States. There's huge impact here.

And they should -- I think they should call Coco Gauff, down in Delray Beach, Florida, and her beloved Delray Beach, and she's a new balanced person, all made in the United States. She was a made in the United States. And Coco can probably attest to the fact that people in that particular town and all-around America, are dropping dead because the cocaine supply and the heroin supply, because of Fentanyl.

CABRERA: So, you are trying to call attention to so many different issues about --

DUNCAN: Yes.

CABRERA: -- what's going on in Hong Kong, in China, and what you see as an injustice in terms of how this will dispute in the NBA, has played out. And so, people show up at the game, court side, wearing shirts. I wonder, Nathan, do you think that is effective, in terms of shining light on what's happening in Hong Kong?

NATHAN LAW, FOUNDING CHAIR, DEMOSISTO: Well, it has been very effective, because China has always been trying to isolate Hong Kong or try to refrain their internal issue. But, actually, Hong Kong is at the forefront of a global fight. China has been bullying Hong Kong people, trying to silence us.

And they now far reaching their hands into the U.S., trying to silence all the U.S. companies and NBA players, managers. And we are in the courts to say that we are in the same frontline. We are holding hands, and we share and we embrace the same liberal values, and we show that Hong Kong is at a global front, and we are fighting against revival of authoritarian values.

And people in Hong Kong and also, people in the U.S. who embrace liberal values, should join together in this global fight.

CABRERA: Should the NBA have weighted into this situation?

LAW: Well, definitely. I think the NBA is one of the most popular sports in China. Actually, of course, they have a lot of ties with China. But I think money cannot buy out liberty. Money cannot buy out freedom. And I think that is the cornerstone, the founding motto of NBA.

So, I think for us, giving our stance, giving our like, chanting our slogans in NBA, especially in the main stadium of Nets, whose owner is Jo Tsai, who has been speaking on the issue and flaming Morey for his speech. I think we made a good statement and we show that the global front is with us.

CABRERA: Obviously, this issue is not going away. Andrew, how do you suggest the NBA, handles this situation and, you know, try to balance their business interests?

DUNCAN: Their business interests are a problem. They have to -- they have to step away from it. Basketball, they're not owners of basketball. The NBA is an American institution of which they are trustees. It's different than an average business, and it can't be treated as such.

And Martin Luther King has been tied to the NBA throughout the whole history. I'm a huge basketball fan, and it's been very painful to watch. And my friend here, Nathan Law, embodies everything that's good about it, so does Chow Yong-kang and so does Joshua Wong. They embody Martin Luther King.

[20:40:00] And the impact is global. You can't go global and not be a global citizen. And the NBA is better than this. And, you know, LeBron has some things he can do. He actually could walk it back. He could've taken a look at Nike and maybe go to New Balance and say, hey, I met U.S. made shoe company, maybe it's -- you know, Nike is behind the curtain on this whole thing.

And it's a big issue. It's a major problem. And I think the other thing that everyone needs to be aware of, there's concentration camps, and according to the Pentagon, there are over 3 million Uyghurs being held in concentration camps tonight. The NBA should not be doing business with people that are running concentration camps, it's not right.

CABRERA: Andrew Duncan, Nathan Law, thank you both for coming on.

DUNCAN: Thank you very much for having us.

LAW: Thank you very much.

CABRERA: A coach's heroism caught on camera. Unbelievable actions that he takes when he faces a student, holding a shotgun, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: A high school football coach and security guard is being hailed as a hero. A newly released surveillance video shows why. It reveals the moment when the coach convinced a distraught student to give up his shotgun, and then, he embraced him. CNN's Polo Sandoval has this remarkable story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[20:45:00]

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Angel Granados-Diaz walked into his Northeast Portland, Oregon High School campus back in May, armed with a shotgun and loaded with a single shell. This newly released surveillance video shows this enough video shows us what happened next.

That's campus coach and security guard, Keanon Lowe, encountering Diaz at the entrance to a classroom. He grabs the gun with one hand and reaches for the crisis-stricken 19-year-old, with the other. What follows was a consoling hug and a conversation, allowing police time to respond and take control.

Coach Lowe kept a relatively low profile for the last five months, only discussing that moment, publicly, a few times, including this interview with GMA, after it happened.

KEANON LOWE, HIGH SCHOOL COACH WHO DISARMED STUDENT: I feel like I was put in that -- in that room, in that -- in that very moment, for a reason, to protect those kids. And I end up getting the gun from him, you know, getting the gun with my right hand and holding him off with my left hand, calling for a teacher to come grab the gun from me.

SANDOVAL: The surveillance video confirms accounts from witnesses and likely reassures parents who had feared the worst on that summer day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: By the grace of God, nobody was hurt in this one. So, I'm very thankful for that.

SANDOVAL: Earlier this month, Diaz pleaded guilty to unlawful possession of a firearm and was sentenced to three years' probation. As a part of the deal, he'll get mental health and substance abuse treatment.

In a statement, the deputy district attorney confirmed Diaz never intended to hurt anyone other than himself. The D.A.'s office also determined the weapon did not fire when Diaz pulled the trigger, keeping a consoling coach, time to act. Polo Sandoval, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: What a hero. Coming up, Prince Harry, for the first time, admits a royal rift with his brother, William.

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[20:50:00]

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CABRERA: We have royal news. In a new interview, Britain's Prince Harry acknowledges that the press -- what the press has speculated for months, there is a rift between him and his brother, Prince William.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM BRADBY, ANCHOR, ITV NEWS: There's been a lot of talk in the press about rifts with your brother. How much of that is true?

PRINCE HARRY, DUKE OF SUSSEX: Part of the -- part of this role and part of this job and this family, being under the pressure that it's under, never to be, you know, stuff happens. But look, we're brothers, we'll always be brothers. We're certainly on different paths at the moment, but I will always be there for him and as I know, he will always be there for me.

We don't see each other as much as we -- as much as we used to, because we're so busy. But, you know, I love him dearly and, you know, the majority of the stuff is probably -- well, the majority of stuff has created out of nothing. But, you know, as brothers, you know, you have good days, you have bad days.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: This interview aired as part of an ITV documentary filmed during Harry and Meghan's recent trip to Africa.

OK, listen to this, more than 19 hours, nearly 11,000 miles nonstop, Australian Airline Qantas just set a new record for the longest commercial passenger flight ever, with its Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

The direct flight from New York City to Sydney carried 49 people whose tolerance of this long-haul flight was actually studied by researchers during the journey, everything from the pilots' brain waves, to the passengers' melatonin levels were carefully monitored from takeoff to landing. The airline says it hopes that this is just a preview of a service they hope to offer in the future.

Coming up, a new look at actress Felicity Huffman, far away from the glamour and red carpets she's used to.

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[20:55:00]

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CABRERA: A new look at actress Felicity Huffman, serving out a two- week sentence at a California prison. The actress who paid $15,000 to inflate her daughter's test scores, was spotted wearing this green prison jumpsuit.

The college admission scandal that shocked the country earlier this year, raised a very troubling question. Can admission to America's great universities, be bought? It is the subject of a brand-new special report by Fareed Zakaria, "SCHEME AND SCANDAL: INSIDE THE COLLEGE ADMISSIONS CRISIS."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN KOH, CEO, CARDINAL EDUCATION: We decline families all the time. A "C" average isn't going to get you into Harvard and there's nothing any consultant is going to do about that, well, any legitimate consultant.

ZAKARIA: Private Counselor Allen Koh, likes to start his plans, early.

KOH: I do believe the first time we're talking to them is fifth grade. The youngest we've got for college consulting would be third grade.

ZAKARIA: You heard that right. Third grade. Koh shared clients with Rick Singer, but says he had no idea what Singer was doing.

KOH: I was shocked that I knew someone who did this. I was shocked that this was even possible.

ZAKARIA: And something else surprised him, the sums of money involved in the scandal.

KOH: I think a lot of people were shocked because they were so big. I was shocked because they were so small. Our most expensive college application package is $350,000.

ZAKARIA: That price doesn't even include test preparation.

KOH: Everything is a la carte for test prep. For families who have special circumstances, we will create packages that can break $1 million.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Fareed Zakaria is here with us now. There was so much, Fareed, in that clip alone, that kind of blew my mind. I had no idea. We all have talked about this college admission scandal. We know about some of the celebrities and powerful people who have been, you know, caught up in it.

But you explored in your documentary, the legal ways some wealthy families are also finding a side door into universities, big donations, legacy admissions, sports, let's talk more about that.

ZAKARIA: Yes, that's, to me, the most interesting thing, the scandal is not so much, the illegal stuff which is, of course, terrible, but how many ways, how many legal ways wealthy parents can game the system. And so, one of the things you noticed in this whole process was the role of recruited athletes, because it turns out that is the weak link in the college admissions process.

Ordinarily, admissions are decided by committee, but recruited athletes, the admissions are basically decided by the coach, the coaches. So, in a sense, you've got one person to bribe, rather than a whole committee. And that is the funnel through, which almost all this bribery took place.

And that the reason is, because it was the one area where there isn't a normal process. The coach really just gives the admissions committee, a list of the people he'd like, and if they pass some basic muster, they often get in.

So, that's a good example just how the system has these perversions or these discrepancies that Rick Singer, the guy who broke the law, can exploit. But there are actually vulnerabilities anyway. You're, in any case, for example, with a lot of college athletics, your privilege --

It is a kind of affirmative action for rich white kids, because a lot of it is sports-like golf and lacrosse and water polo and crew. These are not sports available to most Americans, you know.

CABRERA: Right.

ZAKARIA: And so, there is a kind of way that the consultant, at fifth grade, can steer your kid into the right extracurricular --

CABRERA: Which seems like that would automatically give rich people an advantage already.

ZAKARIA: Yes. Yes. And then you -- CABRERA: Without having to spend all these extra money on admissions

prep and so forth.

ZAKARIA: Right. Right. And often, they do both, and so it becomes, you know, reinforcing. And as you say, I mean, the thing that blew my mind was the sums of money these consultants charge, for entirely legal, entirely --

You know, they're basically telling these kids in fifth grade, maybe you should go to China for a semester, maybe you should do this, maybe you should do that. But the result is, you know, a bright poor kid, growing up in Harlem or Appalachia is not going to have all that stuff on his or her resume.

CABRERA: Our thanks to Fareed Zakaria. And his CNN special report, "Scheme and Scandal: Inside the College Admissions Crisis starts now.