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Senate Impeachment Timeline Remains Uncertain; Trump Fumes at Popular Evangelical Christian Magazine Calling for His Removal; Trump Sides with Putin on Impeachment in Late Friday Night Tweet; Two Carnival Cruise Ships Collide at Port in Mexico; TSA Whistleblower Says Screening Changes Make Air Travel Less Safe; Brexit Deadline Confirmed; Jewish Lawmakers Call for Trump Adviser's Dismissal; Civilians Fleeing Airstrikes In Northwestern Syria. Aired 4-5a ET
Aired December 21, 2019 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The U.S. president flies south for the holidays as congressional leaders in Washington work on their impeachment strategy.
Also ahead, it is one of the busiest travel weekends of the year and a whistleblower is warning about airport security.
Also, warnings are in place across Australia as a blistering heat wave intensifies the bush fires. They're having so many fires. Ivan Cabrera will have that for us.
Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Natalie Allen. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
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ALLEN: Thank you for joining us.
Donald Trump is escaping the impeachment frenzy in Florida with a two- week trip to Florida. The president, his wife and their son arrive in Florida on Friday.
Along the way, Mr. Trump signed a bill creating the newest branch of the military, the U.S. Space Force. Not everyone is happy about the president's vacation, meantime. White House aides are saying they're concerned he might have too much unstructured time, susceptible to influence from outsiders and TV news coverage. CNN's Sara Murray has more.
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SARA MURRAY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Trump's impeachment trial may be officially stalled, but, behind the scenes, House Democrats are getting ready.
Staff for the key House committees are expected to work over the holiday recess, consulting with Democratic leadership and prepping for a trial as early as the week of January 6. But that depends on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who says she won't send the articles of impeachment to the Senate until parameters for a Senate trial are set.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: When they wrote the Constitution, they suspected that there could be a rogue president. I don't think they suspected that we could have a rogue president and a rogue leader in the Senate at the same time.
MURRAY: In the Senate, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell this afternoon arranged for White House staff to get a lay of the land in the chamber after failing to cut a deal Thursday with Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on the rules for a trial.
SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): We remain at an impasse.
MURRAY: McConnell argued rules from previous impeachments should suffice.
MCCONNELL: I continue to believe that the unanimous bipartisan precedent that was good enough for President Clinton ought to be good enough for President Trump. Fair is fair.
MURRAY: While Schumer pushed for an agreement to include testimony from witnesses, such as former National Security Adviser John Bolton and acting Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney.
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), MINORITY LEADER: Leader McConnell is plotting the most rushed, least thorough and most unfair impeachment trial in modern history.
MURRAY: The standoff means lawmakers are leaving Washington with the status of an impeachment trial in limbo until the New Year.
But if Pelosi's power play was meant to unnerve McConnell, he insists it's backfiring.
MCCONNELL: Other House Democrats seemed to be suggesting they'd prefer never to transmit the articles. Fine with me.
MURRAY: Sara Murray, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: President Trump is firing back at leading evangelical magazine "Christianity Today," which is calling for his removal from office.
On Twitter, the president blasted the publication as, "a far left magazine ... which has been doing poorly and hasn't been involved with the Billy Graham family for many years."
"Christianity Today" editor wrote, "Whether Mr. Trump should be removed from office by the Senate or by popular vote next election. That is a matter of prudential judgment. That he should be removed, we believe, is not a matter of partisan loyalties but loyalty to the Creator of the Ten Commandments." He spoke on Friday with CNN's John Berman. Here it is.
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MARK GALLI, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, "CHRISTIANITY TODAY": We're pretty centrist. We rarely comment on politics unless we feel it rises to the level of some national or concern that is really important and this would be a case.
We wrote editorials about Clinton during his impeachment process. We wrote editorials about Nixon during his. This struck me as rising to that level and I needed to comment.
[04:05:00]
GALLI: As a Christian, I like to think of myself as a person who has given my ultimate loyalty to Jesus Christ and the gospel he's called us to proclaim. So when Christians of any stripe support a cause that strikes me as manifestly immoral, it does damage to the cause that I've given my life to.
So I think that's one part of the equation that all Christians, especially my brothers and sisters in the evangelical world, need to think about more seriously and more deeply.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: A FOX News poll from earlier this month shows 67 percent of white evangelical Christians approve of the president, 32 percent disapprove.
Not long ago, the Republican Party in America was a reliably vocal critic of Russia. But that has been muted under President Trump, who is now getting support from Moscow after his impeachment.
Here the president retweeted a headline from the Associated Press in which the Russian leader called impeachment "farfetched" and predicted the United States Senate would reject it. CNN's Frederick Pleitgen has more from Moscow.
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REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: Article 1 is adopted.
FRED PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After his impeachment by the House, President Trump lashing out.
TRUMP: Well, I don't feel like I'm being impeached. It's a hoax. It's a setup.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): Vladimir Putin seems to feel the same way. Speaking at his marathon press conference, featuring reporters often praising their leader while asking questions, Putin blasted impeachment claiming Democrats made it all up.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translator): It still has to go through the Senate. It's unlikely they will want to remove the representative of their party for some made up reasons.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): And those aren't the only talking points he was parroting.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When the Russia collusion deception didn't work, Democrats sought a new path forward to impeach President Trump.
PUTIN (through translator): One party that lost the elections, the Democratic Party, is now trying to achieve its goals with new ways. But it turned out there was no collusion and it can't be the basis for the impeachment. So now they came up with some pressure on Ukraine.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): While Democrats and even some Republicans were shocked when Giuliani recently went on a fact-finding mission to Ukraine, afterwards appearing on the right wing Trump network OAN, on Kremlin controlled TV in Russia, a very different tone. The hosts and most analysts often praising Giuliani and cheering him on.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): I think Giuliani's trip is going to be a success. Trump's electoral ratings grow little by little, which is weird. We can conclude the goal has been achieved.
PLEITGEN: Russia continues to back an insurgency that destabilizes Ukraine. While Ukraine grappled with Moscow's pressure, unsure of the Trump administration's support, Washington is divided over impeachment, Putin is sitting back and watching it all play out so far in his favor -- Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.
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ALLEN: Joining me now from London to talk about these developments is Leslie Vinjamuri from Chatham House.
Good morning to you. Thanks for coming on.
LESLIE VINJAMURI, CHATHAM HOUSE: Thank you for having me.
ALLEN: Thank you. Let's begin with Russia. Probably Vladimir Putin's response, really, no surprise. And then we have the comparisons to certain circles in Washington to Russia. Let's get your thoughts on it.
VINJAMURI: You know, this is a very tricky one because some of the backlash that the president is aspiring by critiquing and challenging impeachment, I think, does play well certainly with his base and with the Republican Party and possibly with some independents. I'm more skeptical of that.
But I think the affinity to Putin, trying to get Russia behind them. I'm not persuaded that this has the same effect. We've watched this throughout Donald Trump's presidency at various points. The American public doesn't tend to follow the support that the president is getting from Putin.
ALLEN: All right.
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ALLEN: Let's move on to the impeachment itself.
What of the impeachment trial impasse?
Nancy Pelosi says she will not send impeachment articles until the Senate agree to the rules.
VINJAMURI: Nancy Pelosi is a very shrewd leader. But this is a very -- it comes off, I think, of these statements that Senator Lindsey Graham made at the Doha Forum not just a week ago, Mitch McConnell, indicating that they don't see themselves as impartial, that they're seeking to move very quickly.
There is a question about whether witnesses will be called. In a recent poll, 64 percent of Republicans said they would like to see witnesses called. Those who surround Donald Trump such as John Bolton are people even the Republicans would like to see. So there's support for a process that actually brings leverage.
But of course, it hangs over the president's head and I think it does make for potentially a very toxic atmosphere in January and in the Christmas weeks.
ALLEN: Americans and people around the world are looking to focus on Christmas. Hopefully they can, for sure.
Mitch McConnell, he's controlling the Senate.
And when you put Mitch McConnell versus Nancy Pelosi, what will happen?
VINJAMURI: Americans are very divided on this. I think one of the interesting questions is, less what happens, although that clearly is highly consequential; at the moment, Americans remain deeply divided over impeachment. A lot of Americans are watching it at the same time that they're tuning it out.
But this deep contentiousness between the two leaders is going to carry on. One of the moves might be that maybe Nancy Pelosi decides, don't send the articles to the Senate because, leave this as a president who has been impeached by the House and don't allow the Senate to deny them the opportunity to have a president who has been acquitted. That is also one potential tool in the -- that's one possibility.
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ALLEN: That sounds like something that can be in play, certainly.
Meantime, you know, Mr. Trump is furious. He's been lashing out on Twitter. Now we a have Christian magazine saying that he should be put out of office for his immorality.
Could this give the evangelical Right pause? VINJAMURI: Well, I do think this is very interesting. The evangelical base has been important to Donald Trump and it's been strongly united behind him at least in terms of the polling that we've seen in terms of public statements.
There's a little bit of a split or some noise after Trump made the decision to put America's troops out of Syria after that phone call with Erdogan. So this is a second, much stronger statement that we've seen indicating that, despite the polling, there might be a different message coming out of the evangelical community.
Subsequent to that piece, we've seen the evangelical community publicly unite behind the president, it still creates a moment. It indicates in a very public way that there is the opportunity to push back.
And I think, you know, when you see a statement like that made and then the response being unity, it still means that they were, at the beginning, potentially of some people having the opportunity to peel away their support from the president if they think his conduct is not appropriate.
ALLEN: We've got Christmas and New Year's. Hopefully we won't bug you again, Leslie, but we just might. Thank you so much for your insights.
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VINJAMURI: Thank you.
ALLEN: North Korea has a new warning for the United States. It is demanding Washington mind its own business when it comes to human rights. The foreign ministry accuses a U.S. diplomat of making reckless remarks in a "Voice of America" interview this week, saying it's like pouring oil over burning fire.
The statement goes on to say, quote, "If the U.S. dares to impair our system by taking issue over the human rights issue, it will be made to pay dearly for such an act."
Just ahead here, the message, just sail back home. That is the message from Carnival after two of its passenger ships collide. More about it.
Plus a whistleblower is sounding the alarm. Hear why they say it is becoming less safe to fly.
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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've got video?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's going to hit us next.
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ALLEN: Yes, right there, you see it. Those are two Carnival cruise ships colliding in Cozumel, Mexico, Friday. One was already docked and the other hit it while trying to maneuver into port. Carnival said six people had minor injuries. So fortunate that that wasn't worse.
The cruise line believes the collision was caused by spontaneous wind gusts and strong currents. The company provided passengers with a $100 per room onboard credit for the inconvenience. The damaged ship is heading back to its home port in New Orleans.
With millions of us set to travel for the holidays, a whistleblower is raising concerns about the safety of air travel. We're not talking about cruise ships right now. A high ranking official with the U.S. Transportation Security Administration warns that changes to the screening process are putting people at risk.
He spoke exclusively with CNN's Rene Marsh.
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RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: This TSA whistleblower is coming forward because he says the concerns he has raised over the last couple of years have not been addressed. He says the agency is putting speed over security. He says the TSA officers on the front lines are not to blame.
These screening changes, he says, have come from TSA leadership.
MARSH (voice-over): More than 40 million U.S. airline passengers are expected to go through airport security checkpoints this holiday. But this TSA security director says you may not be as safe as you think.
JAY BRAINARD, TSA FEDERAL SECURITY DIRECTOR: What they're doing is injecting danger into the system.
MARSH: Jay Brainard is the top TSA official in his state and has been with the agency for 17 years. He says TSA is cutting corners on the screening process to shorten wait times. One example, TSA reduced the sensitivity on all walk-through metal detectors at airports across America.
BRAINARD: They're reducing the concentration of metal that it would take to setoff that alarms, so that you can speed up lines and have (INAUDIBLE).
MARSH (on camera): How do you know that's why they did it?
BRAINARD: Because there is a memo out that supports it.
MARSH (voice-over): This TSA memo shows the order came in 2013, quote, changing all walk-through metal detectors settings in all lanes to the TSA pre-check setting to normalize the passenger experience. Brainard says the practice continues today and he worries bomb-making components could go undetected.
BRAINARD: You could have a 30-minute wait time and they treat it like it is a national emergency that is such an unhealthy obsession of placing speed over security.
MARSH: Brainard says that obsession also led the TSA to disable technology on x-ray machines that screen carry-on bags and pre-check lanes. This internal memo states as of last month, those X-ray machines should be operated without the auto detection algorithm enabled.
BRAINARD: Put simply, when the item comes through, a box will come around and surround the item that says hey stop and take a look at this, that box is no longer on the screen. TSA has made changes to the settings which really hamper the ability of the X-ray operator to detect explosives in carry-on baggage.
MARSH (on camera): But TSA will say this is pre-check.
BRAINARD: They've been putting millions of passengers in the TSA pre- check who are not pre-checked. So you do not have an entire population in pre-check that are vetted.
DAVID PEKOSKE, TSA ADMINISTRATOR: Good morning everybody.
MARSH (voice-over): CNN put this to TSA Administrator David Pekoske. He said the agency is not prioritizing wait times over security.
PEKOSKE: No, I won't discuss any of our particular security procedures because that is not really appropriate for me to do. But rest assured that we do provide the level of security that we think is appropriate based on the risk of the passenger.
Brainard says the issues he has raised are especially problematic for an agency with a 95 percent failure rate in detecting danger asylums at the checkpoint. That's according to a government audit in 2015. Another audit two years later found there were still vulnerabilities.
BRAINARD: When you sit back and you watch these things happen, it is the most frustrating thing you could imagine.
MARSH: Going public is his last resort. He's filed an official whistleblower complaint with the Office of Special Counsel. He sent complaints to DHS, TSA and sent letters to Congress. Not just about the metal detectors but also the X-ray machines, a policy change allowing some passengers with medical devices to do a self-path down and a new policy called blended lanes where pre-check and standard passengers are mixed in one line, something that could confuse screeners.
BRAINARD: They now have to mentally switch themselves on and off about what is permitted, what's not permitted with every other passenger. You know, the last time I checked our detection rates were not stellar and it doesn't make any sense to introduce this kind of variable.
MARSH: Last year, the Special Counsel ordered DHS to investigate Brainard's complaints writing, "There is a substantial likelihood that the information provided to OSC discloses gross mismanagement and specific danger to public safety."
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BRAINARD: My biggest fear is having something happen that costs American lives and I didn't step up and put a stop to it, or at least try because it is going to happen. It is not a question of if. It is a question of when. We are long overdue for another attack.
MARSH: TSA did take action on one of Brainard's complaint. He says, they continued to use an ineffective test to determine if new hires were color blind, a disqualifying medical condition even after concerns about the test's effectiveness were raised.
BRAINARD: If you had something in the bag and somebody were color bind, they wouldn't see the bomb if it were the only thing in the bag.
MARSH: TSA is now using a new test for new hires. But according to this TSA memo, the agency will not finish retesting the existing work force until the end of next year.
Brainard knows, despite whistleblower protections and consistent top ratings on his TSA performance evaluations, speaking out could cost him his job.
BRAINARD: I fully expect that the first discussion that they're going to have is how they could fire me.
MARSH: But he believes these issues are too urgent to keep quiet.
And to be clear, the changes have not been made to the body scanners that passengers go through. CNN reached out to both agencies that investigated Brainard's complaints but no comment from either.
Brainard has a whistleblower attorney and in response to the complaints he raised in our story, the head of TSA told me that whistleblowers, and I'm quoting, "provide a very valuable service and it is our responsibility to fully investigate those concerns to see if they represent a valid security risk or not."
But the TSA says that they haven't finished that assessment -- Rene Marsh, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: Boris Johnson gets his wish and the U.K. gets its E.U. divorce bill. We look at the next step on the road to Brexit.
Also, Jewish members of Congress fire off an angry letter to the White House, saying adviser Stephen Miller's leaked emails show he is unfit for government service.
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ALLEN: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. We appreciate it. Here are our top stories.
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ALLEN: Now we turn to the United Kingdom. Now the real work begins for British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Lawmakers in London approved his Brexit deal, thanks to Mr. Johnson's new Conservative majority in Parliament. CNN's Nic Robertson looks at what comes next.
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NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: There you have it, a majority of 124. This is precisely what the Prime Minister Boris Johnson was looking for, the expectation he would have a very strong majority for the withdrawal agreement bill.
What happens next?
Parliament on reset for the next couple of weeks. After that, second week of January, three days set aside for further discussions about the withdrawal agreement bill. Every expectation now that Britain will leave the European Union on January 31st, 2020.
However, real contention in the lead up to that vote, the prime minister very clear that this is a more muscular withdrawal agreement bill, that he is setting a very clear deadline for negotiating the next phase of Brexit, the future relationship with the European Union, the trade deal.
BORIS JOHNSON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: The bill ensures the implementation period must end on the 31st of December next year with no possibility of an extension. And it paves the way for a new agreement on our future relationship with our European neighbors based on an ambitious free trade agreement with no alignment on the new rules but instead control of our own laws.
ROBERTSON: And in that debate in the House of Commons, the prime minister taking heat on precisely that issue, this 11-month Kier Starmer from the Labour Party, front bencher criticizing it, calling it reckless and irresponsible.
KEIR STARMER, BRITISH LABOUR MP: This prevents the extension of any transition period. That is reckless and it's ridiculous.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
STARMER: Because the government has now chosen to give itself just 11 months to negotiate an entire trade deal and security deal. That's an unbelievably short period.
ROBERTSON: Undoubtedly we'll hear more of that type of criticism over the next year as the trade deal is negotiated. The prime minister feels he has the wind in his sails but one of the things that you could see behind that result today, a majority of 124, yes; significant, yes; the way the prime minister wanted it.
But break it down a little bit. No Northern Irish MP voted in favor of the bill and very few Scottish MPs voted in favor of it, either. And that tells you one thing very clearly, the union of the United Kingdom is strained and stressed by this still. And that is going to dog the prime minister in the next year -- Nic Robertson, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: Let's talk about a little Brexit, shall we?
Quentin Peel is an associate fellow from Chatham House. He joins me live from London.
Good morning to you, Quentin.
[04:35:00]
QUENTIN PEEL, CHATHAM HOUSE: Good morning. Good morning.
ALLEN: Thanks for being here.
Nic reported the prime minister believes he has the wind in his sails. Which way this ends up, who knows. But I want to get your impressions on the queasy meter.
How queasy are you over Brexit on January 31st?
PEEL: The truth is, it is a step towards Brexit and a very clear step towards Brexit, yet we still don't know what it's going to look like.
These negotiations, quite apart from being under an incredibly short time scale, are very complicated. Nobody has ever tried to do trade talks this way. Trade talks are always about trying to get alignment between two systems.
These trade talks are about the British trying to disintegrate, to extract themselves from a single market and that's going to be actually, I believe, very difficult. So whether we come out with a crash out, which is a danger, or whether we come out with an absolutely minimalist trade deal and actually carry on talking or whether, in the end, the British remain almost totally aligned with the European Union for a very long time, those three possibilities are all out there. ALLEN: That is a good example of the complexities of what they're about to go through. It's hard to even imagine what Brexit will look like and the impact it will have.
What immediately concerns and impacts of the citizens of the United Kingdom?
PEEL: The tension between Scotland, Northern Ireland and the rest of the U.K. is very clear. Scotland and Ireland do not want to leave nor does London. So you have a still very divided country.
But I think the keywords you need to focus on now are "level playing field" because that was the first thing that the European Union said when the vote went through yesterday and that was, we've got to keep a level playing field. That means we have to keep roughly the same rules and regulations for everything we trade.
Otherwise, there are going to be barriers, there are going to be borders and there are going to be checks. And the moment you introduce checks, you slow things up. That will hit consumers because they won't get what they want.
It will also hit U.K., British manufacturing industry because they rely on complicated supply chains of stuff moving across borders within the European Union. If you make that more complicated by not having a level playing field, then I think life is going to get very difficult for U.K. manufacturing industry.
And that's the -- that's the risk that Boris Johnson is taking in insisting on getting this whole thing done in a very short time.
ALLEN: It's just over a month away.
When you talk about a level playing field, how will Boris Johnson play within that parameter?
PEEL: Well, I think he'll start off by saying we're going to have control over our own system. And then, just like he did with this withdrawal agreement, as the clock starts ticking, he actually starts making concessions to the European Union. And he ends up doing pretty much what they want.
And he relies on his own gift of the gab and he comes back to London and says, there you are, I got you exactly what you asked for when, in fact, he got the opposite.
ALLEN: We'll be looking for that. We wish everyone the best in this situation. Thank you for joining us this morning.
PEEL: Thank you.
ALLEN: Now we turn to the United States. Now 25 Jewish members of Congress, all of them Democrats, are insisting President Trump fire Stephen Miller. At the heart of the outrage is a trove of emails, including at least one that links to a white supremacist website. For more, here is Sara Sidner. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is the latest in a long string of folks who have come forward to say that they think Stephen Miller should be fired. Now 25 Jewish members of Congress have signed a letter to the president, asking him to fire senior White House adviser Miller.
[04:40:00]
SIDNER (voice-over): This all comes after his emails were leaked by a former Breitbart editor, who says she was a white nationalist and calls Stephen Miller a white supremacist, who further radicalized her with his ideas.
Now the emails that were linked almost always mention immigration or anti-immigration, if you will. Usually it is targeted towards black and brown people trying to keep people from certain countries out of the United States.
The Congress people have written this letter both because they are extremely disturbed by what Miller has said in these emails in particular and for the policy that has come out of the White House when it comes to immigration, which he has a hand in.
They are disturbed by exactly how the White House defended Miller. And I will read you a portion of their letter when it comes to what happened when the White House defended Miller.
It basically went after the Southern Poverty Law Center, saying that, since they first revealed these emails, that they were going after Miller and here is how they put it.
They said that, "The Southern Poverty Law Center is engaged in a vile smear campaign against a Jewish staffer. And while Mr. Miller condemns racism and bigotry in all forms, those defaming him are trying to deny his Jewish identity, which is a pernicious form of anti-Semitism."
That has very much angered these Jewish Congress people. The way they responded to it is by saying, "We are deeply troubled the administration is claiming that the legitimate criticism of Miller is anti-Semitic simply because Miller is Jewish. Nothing could be further from the truth."
They say in this letter that weaponizing anti-Semitism is incredibly dangerous by muddying the waters, they say, that we're no longer able to see and fight against real anti-Semitism.
So again, these 25 lawmakers are adding on to the 100-plus Democratic lawmakers who have already asked for the resignation or firing of Stephen Miller back in November. So far, the White House has only responded when we question them about Miller and some of the things that he said with absolute positivity that Miller is not resigning. We have not gotten a comment from Stephen Miller throughout the reporting of this story -- Sara Sidner, CNN, Los Angeles. (END VIDEOTAPE)
ALLEN: In the state of Iowa, police say a woman admits to running over a 14-year-old girl because the teenager, quote, "was a Mexican."
Nicole Marie Poole Franklin, 42, frankly now faces a charge of attempted murder. Police say the hit and run happened about two weeks ago as the teenager was walking to school.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NATALIA MIRANDA, HIT-AND-RUN VICTIM: I remember waking up in the snow and I'm screaming, I'm crying, I'm like, how did this happen?
Why did this happen?
Why am I on snow?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALLEN: Authorities are also looking into whether Franklin committed a hate crime.
An update on this video showing U.S. cadets and midshipmen seamen camera at the Army-Navy game last week making a hand gesture some people see as a white nationalist symbol. The Naval Academy and West Point have investigated and now say it was all part of what is called the circle game and not meant as a racist gesture.
Both academies issued statements, saying they were disappointed by the immature behavior.
Next here, as airstrikes intensify in northwest Syria, yes, we're talking about Syria. Coming up, a look at how rescuers work to save men, women and children under attack in rebel-held Idlib.
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ALLEN: Protests in India have claimed the lives of 10 more people, including a child. At least 18 people have been killed since demonstrations erupted last week.
Demonstrators returned to the streets across the country Friday, defying government efforts to stifle the backlash over a controversial new citizenship law. The measure promises to fast track citizenship for several religious minorities but not Muslims.
This week, airstrikes, barrel bombs and shelling have picked up yet again in northwestern Syria. Syrian forces and their Russian allies are targeting the area and, to maximize human casualties, they apparently carry out double-tap strikes to kill rescuers as they respond to the first attack.
Syria's White Helmets have released a video that they say shows us that, as they rescue a 9-year-old girl. Arwa Damon reports and, a warning, you may find some of the footage disturbing.
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ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That's Isla, 9 years old, trapped under her collapsed home from an airstrike.
Moments earlier, Liev, the civil defense volunteer you see in this video, could hear her mother's faint cries from deeper under the rubble. But then there is another warning.
When the smoke and dust clears, Liev is still by Isla's side but he says her mother's voice is gone.
It's hard to describe, he tells us the following day, what it was like with the girl in my arms and the strike and then realizing that I couldn't hear her mother anymore.
He said he tried to distract Isla. He tried to focus her attention on freeing herself. He doesn't have the heart to tell her, her mother is dead. So are two of her little cousins.
And we're on the job, we sometimes have to have hearts of stone, he tells us. But in moments, we melt. We really melt.
The last five days have been especially merciless, even by Syria standards, with more than 50 civilians killed. Liev describes it as being the most deliberate intense targeting of the civilian population in Idlib to date.
The rescuers, survivors and the dead, they're like family, Liev says, bonded by cruelty and courage.
Isla is sealed in his heart, the little girl who he saved but whose mother was stolen from her -- Arwa Damon, CNN.
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ALLEN: Tremendously sad.
We'll be right back.
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(MUSIC PLAYING) ALLEN: Strong winds and scorching temperatures are creating catastrophic conditions in parts of Australia as thousands of firefighters battle more than 100 fires. Authorities are issuing emergency warnings as they give updates on fire conditions by the minute. Two dozen firefighters were injured on Friday.
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ALLEN: Thank you for watching this hour. We'll he be right back with more news after this.
