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Video Shows Truck Losing Control In Texas; Twenty-Two Children Have Died From The Flu This Season; FDA Officially Raises Minimum Age For Tobacco Purchases To 21; Hundreds Of Koalas Feared Dead In Raging Fires In New South Wales; Christina Koch Sets Record For The Longest Spaceflight By A Woman; Top Sports Stories In 2019. Aired 9-10a ET
Aired December 28, 2019 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The wreckage of a missing tour helicopter in Hawaii has finally been located.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We had air and ground operations dispatched.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At this time, we have no actionable information on the status of the passengers. Our ground and air crews continue to search for survivors.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Behind the scenes at Mar-a-Lago, President Trump is increasingly frustrated with the standstill in the impeachment process.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have a perfect case. They have no case.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We say to President Trump, if you are so confident you did nothing wrong, why won't you let your men testify?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I couldn't remember if I was recording at the time or how the camera was framed. I just -- I saw that trailer coming. I knew I had to run away from it.
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CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR, NEW DAY WEEKEND: Want to wish you a good Saturday morning. We're always grateful for your company. I'm Christi Paul.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR, NEW DAY WEEKEND: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you. PAUL: And we hope that Smerconish is having a good weekend off the air.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
PAUL: Yes. So we have some breaking news we want to share with you out of Somalia. The death toll is rising after a suicide bomb in Mogadishu, Somalia there.
BLACKWELL: Investigators say 78 people have died. At least 125 people were hurt when a suicide car -- the bomb attacker detonated at a busy checkpoint near a taxation office this morning. A government spokesman says university students are among the victims. That location has been targeted before.
PAUL: We'll keep you apprised of what happens there, but we want to talk about President Trump. He's on vacation. His Twitter feed is not. Over the holiday, he's been lashing out there, especially at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
BLACKWELL: The president is clearly frustrated by the uncertainty surrounding his Senate trial. In fact, we hear he is asking for advice from trusted staffers about his defense strategy. Let's go now to CNN White House reporter Sarah Westwood. She joins us now from West Palm Beach. Sarah, impeachment is clearly on the president's mind.
SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's right, Victor and Christi. President Trump settling into something of a routine here in West Palm Beach that involves going to the golf course, mingling with family and friends at Mar-a-Lago and firing off missives against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Her decision to withhold those articles of impeachment from the Senate until she's assured that Republicans will hold a fair trial has really rankled President Trump. He does not like this extended state of limbo surrounding his impeachment trial.
President Trump, sources say, is eager to get his symbolic day in court. He wants to be vindicated by a Senate trial, not just acquitted. Of course the date of that trial still totally unknown as Democrats show no signs of budging. They want Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to include live witnesses, document collection, other things in that trial.
Now, sources tell CNN that while at Mar-a-Lago, President Trump has been asking friends and allies for advice about his defense strategy. The only certainty right now about what that will look like will be the White House Counsel Pat Cipollone is expected to present the bulk of the president's case before the Senate. He is likely to have some help from some other White House officials, maybe some other White House lawyers, but then there are a lot of unanswered questions beyond that about the president's strategy.
The president is considering bringing on some of his allies from the House, Conservatives like Congressman Jim Jordan, Mark Meadows to present a minority response to whatever the House Democrats present in terms of their argument for the articles of impeachment, Victor and Christi. PAUL: I want to ask you about the tweets between President Trump, Speaker Pelosi, this very public battle that's going on here. Are they trying -- is there a sense they're trying to convince the American people of what their side is here? Are they trying to sway members of the opposite party? What do we know?
WESTWOOD: That's right. President Trump has been really frustrated about this move from Speaker Pelosi not to transmit the articles to the Senate, which means the Senate technically cannot start planning for that Senate trial and the wait could be indefinite. Democrats are not showing their hand as to just how long they'd wait, but it could be weeks. So President Trump, that is his source of frustration and he is accusing Speaker Pelosi and other Democrats of essentially rigging the trial process against him.
I want to read you just one of many tweets that we've seen from the president this weekend. "So interesting to see Nancy Pelosi demanding fairness from Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell when she presided over the most unfair hearing in the history of the United States Congress."
Now, Speaker Pelosi fired back on Twitter. Again, she's showing no signs of when she'll transmit those articles.
[09:05:01] And she wrote, "The facts are clear and every witness told the same story despite the president's attempts to cover it up. President Trump abused his power for his own personal gain. #DefendOurDemocracy."
So President Trump really caught in this standoff between congressional Republicans and Democrats. While he is impatient to get on to the start of this trial, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell showing ambivalence about the start date, claiming Pelosi is not exercising leverage over Senate Republicans by withholding from them something they'd rather not deal with in the first place.
BLACKWELL: All right. Sarah Westwood for us there in West Palm Beach. Sarah, thank you.
PAUL: Want to introduce Daniel Strauss, political -- politics reporter, I should say, for "Politico." Daniel, good to have you here. Thank you.
DANIEL STRAUSS, SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER, THE GUARDIAN: Hey. Thanks.
PAUL: I'm sorry. With "The Guardian" now. I appreciate ...
STRAUSS: Yes.
PAUL: Sorry about that. Want to make sure we get that right, Daniel. Thank you. So I want to ...
STRAUSS: Yes.
PAUL: ... listen with you to something that Ron Brownstein said last night here on CNN because he was making the point that there's no expectation any of these senators, either side, are going to go into this thinking they're going to check their political ID at the door essentially.
He made the point of saying that, you know, every Democrat back in 1998 voted not to remove President Clinton. Every Democrat in fact in 1868 voted not to remove Andrew Jackson, but he made a point of going into something like this that is so momentous with a mind that isn't fully made up yet and that's not the situation we're sitting in. Here's what he says is most at risk.
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RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: The idea that Republicans in the Senate, just from an institutional precedent that they are setting, would be OK with the White House basically saying we're not going to let anybody testify, we're not going to release any documents is just remarkable to me. There is going to be another Democratic president someday. There's going to be a Republican Congress that wants to hold oversight over them and they're going to be looking back at the precedents they are establishing here and realizing they've left themselves in a very weakened position.
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PAUL: What are the long-terms effects of this, Daniel?
STRAUSS: I mean, it's hard to say right now. There is an ongoing pattern, as he mentioned, of partisanship in impeachment hearings. We've heard a little sort of grumbling from a few Republicans and I expect to hear a little bit more from the likes of Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, possibly one or two others, but for the most part I don't see any partisanship breaking between Senate Democrats and Senate Republicans here. Both caucuses are very dug in on this and I think they're going to stand by party lines throughout this impeachment process.
PAUL: I want to talk to you. You mentioned Senator Lisa Murkowski. She told KTUU in an interview that she thinks Leader McConnell, what he had said about the fact that he is cooperating with the White House and he will continue to do so, total cooperation he called it, she said that she thinks that's further confused the process. So she's talking about it, she's putting it out there. Is there any indication or any reporting that there are other Republicans who share her concern and are willing to speak it?
STRAUSS: I mean, this was a pretty striking statement because she was the first senator, as far as I know out there, saying something like this, saying that she has concerns about the senate majority leader's approach to this impeachment hearing. But, you know, Murkowski, Susan Collins, again Romney, these are three senators who usually you would expect to focus a lot on the process of an event like this before anything really happens. I'm still pretty doubtful that there will be a large number of senators breaking with the Republican Party on impeachment, but it's possible.
PAUL: Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal this week said that Majority Leader McConnell, quote, "in effect puts the defendant in charge of his own trial." Is that an accurate description?
STRAUSS: I guess so to an extent here, but like it's still a little unclear how this Senate impeachment process is going to go. Managers still need to be picked and the articles of impeachment have to ...
PAUL: Yes.
STRAUSS: ... have to go over to the Senate. Right now, they're still in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's hands.
PAUL: Right.
STRAUSS: So we're still waiting on that before we see how this really goes.
STRAUSS: All righty. Daniel Strauss, senior political reporter for "The Guardian." Thank you so much for being with us.
STRAUSS: Thanks.
BLACKWELL: Overnight, new developments out of Hawaii. The remains of six people have been recovered after a tour helicopter crashed on the island of Kauai. That was Thursday. Officials say one person is still unaccounted for.
PAUL: Now, police say the debris was found in a remote area of a state park north of the city of Hanapepe. The FAA and NTSB are investigating of course and CNN's Josh Campbell has more for us from Hawaii.
[09:10:01] JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The search for the location where a tourism helicopter went down here in Hawaii with seven people on board is now over, officials announcing that a search team has identified the location of the wreckage, the crash site in a remote area inside a state park in the northwest section of the island of Kauai.
Now, this tourism helicopter was one of many that you typically see here in Hawaii, a popular attraction that allows tourists the ability to look inside volcanoes, at waterfalls, to get a sense of this state's landscape and wildlife, a routine tourist excursion ending in tragedy.
Now, this all began on Thursday afternoon. The Coast Guard, the U.S. Navy as well as Kauai fire and rescue were alerted after the tourism helicopter failed to return to base at its alloted time. Now, that missing aircraft report launched a massive search-and-rescue effort involving multiple agencies throughout the night, working some 16 hours by sea, air and land.
Now, as far as the cause of this incident, that remains under investigation. We're told that officials from the National Transportation Safety Board as well as the Federal Aviation Administration are currently on their way here to Hawaii to launch that investigation to get to that root cause. We're told that early reports possibly point to inclement weather, especially high winds. Now, as far as those who were on board, sad developments we are learning today from officials. We're told that in addition to the pilot, there were two families aboard including four adults, two children, officials announcing that remains from six of those people have been recovered, a search for the seventh continues. Josh Campbell, CNN, Honolulu.
BLACKWELL: A manhunt in Virginia is intensifying after two men robbed a Denny's and murdered a delivery driver. Now officials are offering a reward for their arrest and conviction. We have details next.
PAUL: And this is a video that is just so striking. Watch this. Semi- truck plowing through an accident scene that was already there in Texas. It crashed into emergency crews. A local TV crew caught the whole thing obviously. We'll tell you what happened here.
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PAUL: Fourteen minutes past the hour right now. There is a manhunt going on this morning in Virginia. Police and the FBI looking for a pair of suspects accused of killing a food delivery driver. They're offering a $10,000 reward for any information that leads to an arrest and conviction.
BLACKWELL: Now, police say the two robbed a Denny's restaurant early Thursday morning. There's a surveillance video showing two men running into or walking into that restaurant with gun in their hand -- guns in their hands. CNN's Natasha Chen has been following this. Natasha, what more have you learned?
NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Victor, we're talking about two men who went into this Denny's early Thursday morning, around 2:30 and police say that the people in the restaurant, about 20 of them, were fully cooperative with what these two suspects were asking for. They asked everyone for their wallets and their cell phones.
[09:15:02] Police say they did not actually make it out with any money from the business itself, but on their way out the door, police say they shot two people, one man who was on the ground in the restaurant, another person, that delivery driver you're talking about, who had just arrived and was opening the door as the suspects were going out and that's why police say this was particularly brazen and police in Prince William County say this may be connected to three other robberies in the area that same week. Here's the police chief.
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CHIEF BARRY M. BARNARD, PRINCE WILLIAM COUNTY POLICE: If they are involved with these earlier robberies and as I say, we believe there is a link there, then they've escalated their level of violence.
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CHEN: And that is very true for this case because we have, of course, one person dead, the other victim is expected to survive and the community is really valuing around the family of this DoorDash delivery driver. He leaves behind a wife and two children. There's a GoFundMe that's already raised more than $100,000. The funeral is expected to be today in that area. Victor and Christi, back to you.
PAUL: Natasha Chen, thank you so much for the update. Breaking overnight, at least two people have been killed and six others injured in Texas. A gunman apparently began firing at a group of people who were filming a music video. This happened in North Houston.
BLACKWELL: Investigators say the group filming that music video was ambushed and police say the suspects may have been firing from a moving car. Investigators are still trying to identify those suspects and a motive. We'll keep you updated as we learn more.
Chief Justice John Roberts will likely play a major role in President Trump's impeachment trial. Up next, what we can expect from the Supreme Court leader.
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PAUL: Good to see you on this Saturday. Twenty minutes past the hour. I'm Christi Paul.
BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you. Let's start here. President Trump, he's stewing about his impeachment trial over the holidays, but nothing is going to get done until lawmakers return to Washington next month.
PAUL: Yes. The Senate gets back to work Monday, January 6th, the House clocks in Tuesday the 7th, which means we've got at least 10 days until we know when or if the articles of impeachment will be sent to the Senate. CNN's Kevin Liptak with us now from Washington. So President Trump wants a quick trial we know. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell doesn't appear to be in any rush. Is there any indication when this is going to get going on Capitol Hill really at the end of the day?
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN REPORTER: Well, certainly it's not going to happen in the next week, meaning this impasse is going to stretch into the new year. Sources say that the two Senate leaders, Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer, haven't spoken recently and aren't likely to speak until January. Now, at the root of this impasse is what the Senate trial will look like, what the rules are.
Democrats say they want to hear from witnesses. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she can't transmit those two articles of impeachment to the Senate until the rules are settled and Mitch McConnell has indicated he wants a shorter trial and he's rejecting Democratic calls to include witness subpoenas in that initial trial resolution and those are -- those are two diametrically opposed positions.
They're in this deadlocked standoff and Mitch McConnell says he's working with the White House on what the trial will look like. He says he's coordinating with President Trump and that's caused some consternation not only among Democrats, but also among at least one moderate Republican, the Alaska senator Lisa Murkowski. She said she was disturbed by Mitch McConnell's statement that he was coordinating with the White House. She said it confused the process.
So what does this all mean going forward? There are a lot of unanswered questions. One, will the Senate trial include witnesses? Two, will it include document subpoenas? Three, how long will the Senate trial last and maybe more immediately, when will those impeachment articles be transmitted?
Now, the Democratic Representative Dan Kildee, he's from Michigan, he was on CNN last night. Listen to what he had to say about the timing.
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DAN KILDEE, (D) MICHIGAN: I think we have to wait until we have some assurance that the trial is not going to be some sort of a sham or a joke and we've seen a little bit of movement ...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean, I'm talking extremes here, like in February?
KILDEE: Well, I mean, that's certainly possible, but I'm not going to get ahead of the speaker.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LIPTAK: Now, that of course is the extreme scenario. Most people on Capitol Hill and at the White House believe that there will be some movement on this once lawmakers get back in town at the beginning of January.
BLACKWELL: Hey, Kevin, let me turn to something else that's getting a lot of attention. The president and his secretary of state reporting as he's looking for potentially the next one. Tell us what this is all about.
LIPTAK: Yes. Now, this is very preliminary discussions and this is all meant as a contingency plan should Secretary of State Mike Pompeo decide to run for Senate in Kansas. And now with that thought in mind, with that eventuality in mind, some administration officials are starting to bandy about names of potential replacements and some of the names on that list include Steve Mnuchin. He's the Treasury secretary, very close to President Trump.
Robert O'Brien, he's the national security advisor. He's been in place for a few months now, replaced John Bolton, also very well liked by the president, given increasing amounts of responsibility. And finally Stephen Biegun who was just confirmed as the deputy secretary of state and he's led the North Korea negotiations for the White House.
Now, this is all, as I said, in the very early stages. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has, in fact, dismissed suggestions that he's eyeing that Kansas Senate seat. President Trump says that he would be willing to allow Pompeo to run if it looked like Republicans were at risk of losing the seat. So this is all in the very early stages as we look to see what Pompeo does in the next couple of months.
PAUL: All righty. Kevin Liptak, good to have you here. Thank you.
BLACKWELL: Let's bring in CNN legal analyst Shan Wu. He's also a defense attorney and former federal prosecutor. Shan, welcome back.
SHAN WU, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Good morning.
BLACKWELL: I want to get to some of the specific legal questions, but first, this response to what Representative Kildee says, can you imagine this dragging on until February?
WU: I can't actually, Victor. You know, procedurally and legally, there really aren't any guardrails here about how long it could go on for or what direction it could veer in. So, you know, there are a lot of political speculation about whether it would hurt or help the Democrats to drag it on. My view is actually here it probably helps them to drag it on politically because it keeps more pressure on the president's defenders.
BLACKWELL: Helps Democrats?
WU: House Democrats. Yes.
[09:25:00] BLACKWELL: OK. So there is also -- if this goes on till February, there is a school of thought that's expressed by Noah Feldman, we've discussed this in the past, that says, well, until the articles are taken over to the Senate, the president really has not been impeached and Jonathan Turley, he's weighed in on this now.
The interesting element here, Shan, is that Noah Feldman was a Democrat witness during the impeachment hearings during the House and we heard from Jonathan Turley from the Republicans. Where do you weigh in here? Has the president been impeached by virtue of the vote in the House or is impeachment a process that requires now the second half of those House managers taking the articles to the Senate?
WU: Well, I'd like to assure our viewers that the president has been impeached in my view.
BLACKWELL: OK.
WU: I think this debate is a little bit like that old freshman college philosophy debate. If a tree falls in the forest, no one's there to hear it, does it make any noise? There is definitely someone there to hear it first of all and it's on the record. I mean, the Constitution only talks about the House having the sole power to impeach and the Senate having the power to try the case. There's nothing about whether the physical delivery or transmission of the articles triggers the impeachment and there's been a vote, there are articles of impeachment.
So I think that's mostly an academic exercise at this point and of course interestingly, there's a little bit of a role reversal there with Turley who had been testifying for Republicans saying this is nonsense, he definitely has been impeached. BLACKWELL: All right. Let's go to the Senate now and you remind us that -- I mean, look, first, the president is likely to be acquitted here.
WU: Yes.
BLACKWELL: There is no evidence that 67 senators will vote to remove the president from office and likely the president will, throughout the campaign season, say that he was exonerated, but you remind us that acquittal is not exoneration, especially in a political context.
WU: That's exactly right, Victor. Acquittal in any kind of trial is never an exoneration and if we look at the criminal analogy here, it's important for us all to remember that when a jury returns a verdict in a criminal case, they don't ever find the defendant innocent. They find the defendant not guilty and what they're looking at there is whether, in their view, the evidence proved the charged conduct beyond a reasonable doubt.
So that's a flawed analogy when you look at an impeachment trial because they're not really looking at whether the evidence proved the conduct charged in the articles of impeachment. They're deciding whether he should be -- he or she should be removed for that conduct and that's a whole different question. So if they vote not to remove him, it really has nothing to do with the underlying conduct.
So if we look at the example of President Clinton who was not removed, nobody in hindsight thinks that the fact that he was not removed from office means that he did not have an affair with an intern and did not lie under oath and that's the crucial difference when we talk about impeachment in criminal trials. A lot of analogy is being made, but this is one of the biggest differences and this is the significance of it being a legal proceeding, but in a political form because that's the partisan nature of it, that's the politics. They're making a political decision whether this conduct warrants removal of the president from office.
BLACKWELL: Yes. Let's talk now about Chief Justice John Roberts. He'll preside over the trial and we know that he has worked to keep the court from seeming political, but if this impasse continues and depending upon what the rule agreement is or if there is no agreement and once McConnell gets the articles, he moves on without some handshake with Schumer ...
WU: Right.
BLACKWELL: ... can he maintain that and how much of his ability to do that is based on what we're seeing right now?
WU: I think he can maintain it. I think Roberts, like most chief justices, are very focused on the integrity and the reputation of the institution. It's interesting, the set up there because McConnell of course is also focused on the integrity and maintenance of the Senate as an institution. So Roberts is not going to want to look like he can be accused of partisan politics being too involved here. So I think he's going to mostly try to defer to the senators, make them vote on their own proceedings.
I mean, again, if we look historically at what Chief Justice Rehnquist did during the Clinton trial, he basically did very little. I think he borrowing a quote from Gilbert and Sullivan saying that he did very little, but he did it very well and I think that Chief Justice Roberts is certainly going to try and stay out of the fray.
BLACKWELL: Yes. Of course. Schumer and McConnell have to come up with more than a handshake agreement. They have to come up with the rules and the procedures of all of this, but if it's acrimonious, will they force Chief Justice Roberts to make some a difficult call? Shan Wu, thanks for helping us break it down.
WU: Good to see you, Victor.
BLACKWELL: Likewise.
PAUL: So there are bushfires threatening thousands of homes and businesses as well as wildlife in Australia. The growing threat now to Australia's iconic koalas.
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BLACKWELL: Twenty-eight minutes until the top of the hour.
Look at your screen. This is a video you have to see. A semi truck plows through an accident scene. This is in Texas, and crashes into emergency crews.
PAUL: Oh, my gosh. A T.V. crew from CNN affiliate KCBD was there as it happened but authorities say it's that dense fog. You couldn't even barely see it coming that had so little visibility. In fact it was less than a quarter of a mile. Happy to tell you, no one was killed in the crash. Hard to believe when you see it, but it's true. Certainly some injuries but no deaths. Thank goodness.
So, the number of flu cases across the U.S. are on the rise.
BLACKWELL: Yes. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there had been more than 4.5 million cases of the flu this season. That includes more than 2,100 people who have died from the flu.
PAUL: It's not too late to get the flu vaccine by the way, just so you know. Officials say influenza B which tends to hit children harder than adults is making an unusual showing early this year. There are 22 children who have already died from the flu so far this season. So if you can get your shots please do so.
BLACKWELL: It is now illegal for anyone under the age of 21 to buy tobacco products in this country. The change is part of the massive $1.4 trillion spending bill signed by the president, December 20th. It covers all tobacco products, cigarettes, cigars, e-cigarettes too.
PAUL: Now we know public health advocates and lawmakers debate how to handle the youth vaping epidemic. Nineteen states already had their own laws restricting tobacco sales to people 21 and older by the way.
So bushfires burning out of control in Australia are threatening one of the country's most iconic animals.
BLACKWELL: Australian officials say up to 30 percent of the koalas in one province may have been killed in these fires. Many more of the animals are badly injured, face uncertain future. Our Natalie Allen reports.
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NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): A koala hospital in Australia overwhelmed with patients with wildfire injuries.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He seems to be quite dehydrated and probably quite hungry.
ALLEN: Not all were lucky like this little one. Animal experts estimate hundreds of koalas have died in deadly bushfires raging in Eastern Australia since September. Australia's environment ministers saying on Friday up to 30 percent of koalas in the country's New South Wales' region may have been killed in the ongoing fires.
The region's Port Macquarie Koala Hospital has admitted more than 300 of these adorable animals so far this year. But the hospital's director says the support from the public has been equally overwhelming.
[09:35:03]
The hospital has received over $2 million in donations on a GoFundMe page site.
CHEYNE FLANAGAN, PORT MACQUARIE KOALA HOSPITAL CLINICAL DIRECTOR: The amount of visitors that are here at the koala hospital over the last five or six weeks has been phenomenal. Everyone is so afraid that we are going to lose koalas that they want to come and see them. That's the power of the koala worldwide.
ALLEN: The government says it's working with koala experts and $6 million has been set aside to help save and rehab them. A new heat wave is expected to hit parts of the country over the weekend and into next week, raising fears that high temperatures and dry winds could further intensify the raging infernos. That's all bad news for the already vulnerable koala community.
TERRY HILL, FIREFIGHTER: Very little would actually survive in there unscathed. Wallabies, kangaroos, deer would get out because they can run but koalas just really can't.
ALLEN: The Australian Koala Foundation says the numbers are dwindling and the species is at risk of extinction if the population continues to shrink. Rising temperatures which dry out their habitats, deforestation and disease are taking a toll.
The staff here hope his fate will be different in a time when the death of even one koala could be one too many.
Natalie Allen, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PAUL: Thanks to those people who are helping there.
Well, today a NASA astronaut is earning a page in history books. After the break you're going to hear from Christina Koch. She's breaking the record as we speak for the longest space flight by a woman.
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PAUL: There's a NASA astronaut making history as we speak here today. Christina Koch, she's breaking the record for the longest space flight by a woman. She has been on the international space station -- think about this -- for 288 days. She comes home in February.
[09:40:01]
We're going to show you some video that I took back in October. I was at the Johnson Space Center in Houston with my daughter. And she, Christina, was on the monitor preparing for that ground breaking space walk that month. So I asked her about what she thought, what she feels about her new place in history.
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PAUL: Oh, my goodness, I have to tell you that I was in NASA with my daughter. And we watched you prepare for your space walk, your historic space walk in October. You have -- here you are, you are going to eclipse the last person. We know Peggy Whitson of 288 days in space.
How are you feeling knowing that you are going to be the -- you're going to break the record for the woman who has spent the most time in space thus far?
CHRISTINA KOCH, NASA ASTRONAUT: Well, having the opportunity to do that and to be up here for so long is truly an honor. And Peggy in particular is one of my heroines and she has been a mentor to me. So it's a great reminder to try to make her proud and then also to do mentorship when I get home to sort of pay that back.
I hope that breaking the record is both good for outreach and also inspiration. Outreach because it kind of gets the conversation going about state-of-the-art where we are in human exploration. And inspiring because I think kind of as a milestone it can motivate people.
I know for me personally it motivates me every single day on those rough days remembering that, yes, this might be hard because it hasn't been done before and I do have to bring my best to every single day. And on that point I'd like to think of the record as, you know, it's not so much how many days you're up here, but what you bring to each day, so another great reminder to just bring your best.
It's a wonderful thing for science. We see another aspect of how the human body is affected by microgravity for the long term. And that's really important for our future space flight plans going forward to the moon and to Mars.
Overall though I have to say that my biggest hope for the record is that it is exceeded as soon as possible again and that is because it just would mean we are continuing to push those boundaries.
PAUL: I know that in October you had this historic all female space walk. Tell me what that was like.
KOCH: It was an incredible honor. I have to say that it wasn't necessarily something on my radar from the start of my training, but then in the end to have the opportunity to do that and do it with another crew mate of mine who I have been training with for so long, Jessica Meir, was truly just inspirational both for us but it was our honor to be able to hopefully inspire the next generation of human space explorers and also to pay homage for those that paved the way for us to be here. Not only our heroines who had actually done space walks in the past but our training teams and the teams that we work with to make space walks happen.
So it was overall just an incredible honor. And I just feel privileged to have been a part of it.
PAUL: Astronaut Koch, I think a lot of people look at you even right now in the space that you're in and they think what do you do all day long from March 14th when you got there. I know you're not coming back until February. That is such a long time to be there. Talk to me about what happens on a daily basis for you.
KOCH: You know, on board here we have similar lives to what you might have on the ground. We come to work every day and those workdays consist of a lot of things that both bring benefits back to earth like the science that we do up here that benefits life on earth. As well as a lot of maintenance and upgrades to keep the station running at its peak performance.
In our off time we get to spend time with each other, time -- keeping in touch with our family and friends and, of course, looking out the window and taking pictures of earth and kind of reflecting on our place there. So it's really a mix. Life on board in some ways like I said it's just like life on earth. You have some of the same challenges up here and some of the same rewards. And I think all of that works together to make it an incredible and very enriched experience.
PAUL: How do you handle holidays in space? We just, of course, had the Christmas holiday and New Year's is coming up. But what is that like there? Because you talk about wanting to be with your family and there's only so many ways to do that obviously based on where you are.
KOCH: Celebrating the holidays up here is a lot of fun. And it's because it's so unique. So it's an opportunity to bring those traditions from our families at home on board and share them with our crew mates. And that's exactly what we did.
We each talked about how we spend Christmas at home with our friends and family and we each kind of incorporated that up here. So it was a really unique day to be in space and a special one. And we did have the chance to sort of video chat with our friends and family on the ground. So I felt like I was part of that Christmas celebration as well. So it's a really special time up here and again just such a privilege to be on board for that and have that memory.
PAUL: You have shared some really remarkable images from your vantage point on social media. Has there ever been a moment for you where you saw something and you were just in awe?
[09:45:05]
That probably happens often but I'm asking if there's one thing in particular that you have seen in your time up there that will always stay with you or that changed you.
KOCH: There are several to pick from but if I had to say just one, I would say it is seeing the northern lights and southern lights, the auroras, from above on the planet. I had the opportunity to work in Antarctica and in the arctic where we commonly see the northern lights and southern lights from the ground looking up into the sky and it's absolutely inspiring even to see that there. And so to see it from above and kind of on the planetary scale and to recognize how it looks and how it forms from both perspectives really just was an absolutely awe-inspiring sight and one that I will never forget.
PAUL: While you mentioned at the beginning of our interview that you're looking forward to coming back and being a mentor. So I'm wondering what you're hoping girls learn from you once you come back and speak to them. What is your hope for them?
KOCH: My hope for people that are pursuing their dreams is that they're following their passions and that they're always reaching out and reaching a little further than what they think they can do. One piece of advice that I often offer is do what scares you. And I say that because I think everyone should think about what intrigues them and what sort of draws them in.
And those things can kind of be scary a little bit but they usually mean that you are interested. And if it's just outside what you think is attainable for you and then you reached that goal it really pays off dividends in more ways than one. It can be rewarding for you personally and it usually means that you are giving back to the world in the maximum way possible. So, that's the piece of advice that I like to share with everybody.
PAUL: All right. We saw earlier when you were talking, you let go of your mic and we saw it your microphone and we saw it kind of flip as it was floating in space. Anything cool that you can show us?
Oh, my goodness.
KOCH: Well, I did think about conducting the entire interview upside down but I thought that could be a little bit confusing.
(LAUGHTER)
PAUL: Well, Astronaut Christina Koch, thank you so much for taking time for us and congratulations. We have so many -- this is such a big record and it really says a lot, I think, to the women and girls that are watching about what's possible for them and you're living that way. Can't wait to hear from you when you're back and hear more about your experience. Thank you so much and happy New Year.
KOCH: Thank you so much. Thanks for your interest and happy New Year to you too.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PAUL: It's a long pause but it's the earth and the ISS just --
BLACKWELL: Yes. A little distance to overcome.
PAUL: Just a little bit.
BLACKWELL: I get it.
It has been just a major year, fantastic year in the world of sports from U.S. women's soccer team making history, some other major moments. We're going to count down the top nine next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:51:35]
BLACKWELL: So this was an incredible year in sports, from controversy on the racetrack to that spectacular World Cup win by the U.S. women's soccer team.
PAUL: Yes. Andy Scholes has a look at the biggest sports moments of the year.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: From dominant performances to controversy to comebacks, this past year had it all when it comes to sports. Here's a look at our top nine moments in 2019, and we start with the single tweet that rocked the NBA.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: The NBA is standing up for free speech and behind Houston Rockets general manager Daryl Morey.
DAVID CULVER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The fallout has been huge.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Chinese businesses are cutting ties with the Rockets and the league.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: The China sports channel now says it will not broadcast any of the NBA games being held in China this week.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Before the start of the season Houston Rockets' general manager Daryl Morey tweeting support for Hong Kong's pro-democracy protesters. This caused a firestorm in China where the NBA is the most popular sports league. Chinese officials condemning the tweet and response from Commissioner Adam Silver, the whole controversy greatly affecting the NBA's bottom line.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADAM SILVER, NBA COMMISSIONER: We will have to live with those consequences.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Number eight, what were you doing when you were 15 years old? Well, Coco Gauff is capturing the hearts of sports fans everywhere with an incredible run at her first Wimbledon tournament.
Coco, the youngest player to ever make the main draw at Wimbledon, she beat Venus Williams in her first match and advanced all the way to the fourth round before losing to the eventual champion, Simona Halep.
Number seven. Controversy on the track.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: A stunning outcome at the Kentucky Derby.
PAUL: The horse that crossed the finish line first did not win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: The winner of the Kentucky Derby was disqualified. Maximum Security winning the race, but upon review was seen veering out of his lane.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He came out a little, but then I grabbed it right away. I stayed straight, you know.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Country House was declared the winner at odds of 65 to one. Country House had the second longest odds than any Kentucky Derby winner.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did that really just happen?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Number six. On January 3rd, 2019, the St. Louis Blues had the worst record in the NHL, but that's when they turned it around.
The Blues' season culminating with them beating the Boston Bruins in game seven of the Stanley Cup Finals to win their first ever championship. And Blues super fan Laila Anderson, an 11-year-old battling a life-threatening autoimmune disease was an inspiration for the team all season and she got to celebrate with the team on the ice after they hoisted the Stanley Cup.
Number five. 2019 was a year of more controversy for the NFL.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was simple. They blew the call.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Easy call for sure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's tough. Tough to swallow.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: The Saints were robbed of a chance to play in Super Bowl 53 when the refs failed to call pass interference.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Worst call in history. I feel like somebody just robbed my house.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Honestly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They didn't throw flag.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The guy has to be blind.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: The NFL responded by making pass interference reviewable for the next season.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It doesn't help us at all. It's too late.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: The New England Patriots, meanwhile, beat the Los Angeles Rams in the Super Bowl making Tom Brady the first player in NFL history to win six rings.
[09:55:03]
Number four. Finally, something everyone in Washington, D.C. could agree on. That's cheering on the Nationals. The team taking their fans on a miraculous run in the postseason. And for the first time ever, the road team winning every game in the World Series. The Nationals beating the Astros in seven games to win their first ever title.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope they're ready for a party because we're coming home.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Number three. It was an emotional year for Simone Biles as she opened up about being one of the victims of Dr. Larry Nassar and the failure of USA Gymnastics to intervene.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SIMONE BILES, U.S. GYMNAST: We've done everything that they asked us for even when we didn't want to and they couldn't do one damn job. You had one job. You literally have one job and you didn't protect us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: In spite of the controversy, the 22-year-old dominating the World Championships to become the most decorated gymnast ever.
Number two, the U.S. women's national team capturing the hearts and minds of people everywhere with their efforts on and off the field.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: The U.S. thoroughly dominant so far.
DAVE BRIGGS, CNN HOST: The U.S. women's soccer team rewriting the record books.
CHRISTINE BRENNAN, SPORTS COLUMNIST, USA TODAY: This couldn't have been a bigger story.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: As the team took on opponents in the World Cup, they were battling the U.S. Soccer Federation in their fight to be compensated the same as their male counterparts.
The team winning their second consecutive World Cup title beating the Netherlands two to zero in the final, with fans chanting equal pay.
The women's equal pay lawsuit now looks like it's headed for a trial in 2020 as the team prepares to take the field in the Tokyo Summer Games.
And finally the number one sports story on our list from 2019. Tiger Woods was back on top of the sports world winning the Masters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Breaking news. Tiger Woods is donning the green jacket once again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tiger Woods has made a fairy tale comeback worthy of the silver screen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is an extraordinary comeback.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The greatest comeback ever.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tiger Woods is back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: It was Tiger's first win in a major since the 2008 U.S. Open after multiple knee and back surgeries. Many didn't know if Tiger would ever win major number 15. But the 43-year-old won the Masters in dramatic fashion making his first ever final round comeback in a major.
Tiger shared the incredible moment with his 10-year-old son, Charlie.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLACKWELL: Thank you, Andy. And remember, you can start your new year right here. Ring in the new year with a new decade with Anderson Cooper, Andy Cohen "NEW YEAR'S EVE LIVE" begins at 8:00 p.m. new year's eve right here on CNN.
PAUL: We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PAUL: We wish you a good morning on this Saturday, December 28th.
[10:00:01]
I'm Christi Paul.
BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM.
PAUL: So President Trump is still online attacking --
