Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

U.S. Troops Injured in Missile Attack; Yang's Wife Shares Assault; Trump Adds to his Legal Team. Aired 9:30-10a

Aired January 17, 2020 - 09:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:30:54]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: CNN has learned that 11 U.S. service members were injured during Iran's attack on the Al Asad Air base in Iraq last week. Those troops are now being assessed for traumatic brain injury. That's a concussion following explosions.

Joining me now, CNN's senior international correspondent Arwa Damon. She was the first journalist to report from the Al Asad Air base, and CNN Pentagon reporter Barbara Starr.

So, Barbara Starr, the initial reports that the BDAs, the bomb damage assessments as they're called, showed no casualties. These were discovered after the fact. Tell us how and why.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, what we do know now is the military followed very standard protocols in combat zones these days. Any troops that are near a blast are assessed for brain injury, concussion, traumatic brain injury. And that's what happened here. As the troops were assessed, they got reports of some of the troops experiencing symptoms.

So 11 of them have now been evacuated out of Iraq. Eight to the military hospital in Landstuhl, Germany, three to Kuwait, where there's better medical care and they can be properly accessed for this. The Pentagon believes they will be able to report back to duty. We will see. They will have to be fully evaluated for all of this.

So this is something that is so important because it is that silent wound of war that we have seen for so many years now that so many troops have suffered from. Emerged after the fact. The Pentagon wasn't exactly speedy in revealing this. They had originally said no injuries, but after they learned about this finally late last night, they did come out with a statement.

SCIUTTO: Yes, traumatic brain injury, something the Pentagon takes very seriously. I've met people who have been through it. It is no small thing.

Now, Arwa, you were on the ground at the base. You spoke to service members shortly after it struck. And what struck me about your reporting is, is they said, you know, that some of these missiles struck just yards from where they were.

Tell us what they told you exactly and what their experience of it was. Did they feel that they were in danger?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, I mean, first of all, it is not surprising having been there and talked to some of these soldiers that some of them do have these kinds of brain injuries. Just given, yes, how close some of those missiles exploded to them and then the fact that some of them had to hide in those small bunkers that are intended to protect against rocket or mortar fire, but were, in effect, protecting troops against a ballistic missile which is 3,000 times more powerful than your ordinary rocket or mortar that would actually be landing in this area.

When we were speaking to them, they talked about how the shock waves reverberated through their bodies, how some of them got knocked around. And it's also worth mentioning that oftentimes with these kinds of, you know, head injuries, the symptoms emerge later, keeping in mind that in the days afterwards there was still a lot of adrenaline coursing through a lot of their bodies. Many of them trying to cope with everything that they went through that night because, by all accounts, it was a very physically and emotionally trying experience.

SCIUTTO: Yes. It's a good point you make, that those shelters you often see there, that's for rockets and grenades, RPGs. It's not for something this big.

Barbara, this raises a bigger question here because, in the immediate aftermath of this attack, a lot of the characterizations from the administration was Iran deliberately missed here, right? That this was in effect a shot across the bow as opposed to intending to harm U.S. forces. But based on Arwa's reporting and based on the fact that you have soldiers now suffering TBI, are we so sure of that was? Was this a nearer miss than originally described?

STARR: Well, you know, Jim, I think that that original take that the Iranians deliberately were able to avoid U.S. troops was perhaps a political talking point, if you will, from some civilian officials because the military always felt that they had to assume absolutely if somebody was firing a ballistic missile at them, they were trying to kill them.

[09:35:08]

And, in fact, what they will tell you is what they very quickly assessed, given where the damage happened on these bases, there would have been troops there if the U.S. hadn't had that early intelligence warning and been able at least to move them to these bunkers, try and disperse them.

So the view of military commanders, perhaps quite different than the political side of the house. Everybody was after de-escalation. So nobody really wanted to talk it up. But military commanders privately felt all along that absolutely the Iranians were out to kill them.

SCIUTTO: Yes, that's an interesting consequential difference.

Barbara Starr, Arwa Damon, thanks to both of you.

SCIUTTO: The wife of Andrew Yang, candidate for president, of course, in an exclusive interview with CNN, reveals the personal missions she is on now. This after finally coming forward to reveal she is the survivor of sexual assault.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:40:22] SCIUTTO: In a CNN exclusive, Evelyn Yang, the wife of presidential candidate Andrew Yang, is revealing for the first time that she was sexually assaulted, allegedly, by her ob-gyn while she was pregnant with her first child.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EVELYN YANG, WIFE OF PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE ANDREW YANG: At that moment, I knew that was -- I know it was wrong. I mean I knew, I said -- I knew I was being assaulted.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Did you tell your husband Andrew?

YANG: No. I didn't tell anyone. I didn't tell anyone what happened. I didn't tell Andrew or my family because I didn't want to upset them.

I thought, this happened to me. I can -- I can process this. I can deal with it. I can compartmentalize it. And --

BASH: And did you?

YANG: I tried. I tried. But I -- I just didn't want to affect others. And I certainly didn't want Andrew blaming himself for not being able to go with me to these doctor's visits because, honestly, if he was with me in the room, if anyone was with me in the room, this obviously wouldn't have happened. At the time he was traveling a lot for his non-profit. And most of the scheduling just didn't work out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash joins me now.

And, Dana, this doctor has been accused by multiple women. What's happened to him, and is he still practicing?

BASH: He is not practicing. So what has happened is that he lost his medical license as part of a 2016 plea agreement with the Manhattan DA. But he only had to register as the lowest level sex offender. And what makes Evelyn Yang and other survivors so angry is that this doctor never had to go to jail. And not just that, although he was charged on nine counts involving six accusers, he only pleaded guilty to two charges involving two women. And Evelyn Yang was not one of them. And she told me that it wasn't until after the Me Too movement started that she and others say -- who say that Hadden assaulted them, realized, well, wait a minute, in her words, he got off with a slap on the wrist.

And this is a DA's office that we're talking about. It's the office of DA Cy Vance. He's the same one who was lenient with Jeffrey Epstein over registering as a sex offender and initially failed to prosecute Harvey Weinstein. And we asked, of course, for a response. The DA's office told CNN that obtaining a felony conviction was the goal in this case. And also said, while we stand by our legal analysis and resulting disposition of this difficult case, we regret that this resolution has caused survivors pain.

Now, going back a bit, Evelyn Yang had told no one, as she mentioned, not a soul about her doctor assaulting her, she says when she was seven months pregnant, until after it happened, because she got a letter in the mail saying that Hadden had left the practice. She said she got goose bumps and here's what happened next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YANG: I Googled him. And there it was. There was a headline that said that he had assaulted another woman. And she reported it to the police.

And at that moment, everything just stood still. It was this sense of relief, of finally realizing that I wasn't alone in it. He still picked me, but that it wasn't because of -- right, it wasn't something that I did. It was, you know, this was a serial predator. And he just picked me as his prey.

BASH (voice over): It was at that point she told husband Andrew.

YANG: I just needed to tell someone. You know, I needed to share it at that moment because it felt so big to me. I needed that support. And I told him. And he cried. I mean he wasn't bawling, but he -- he -- there were tears. And he said it's because he remembered when I told -- when I came home one day ranting about pervy doctors, I said something like, why do they let men be gynecologists?

[09:45:13]

It makes no sense. And he remembered that I had made this comment, and he felt so bad. He felt guilty that he didn't make the connection or ask me more.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Goodness, such a powerful testimony there.

This doctor was with Columbia University, a very powerful organization. What has been their role and response?

BASH: Columbia University still has a lot of questions that need to be answered. And the reason why we're talking about Columbia is because it runs a -- the facility where he practiced. And Hadden was arrested in his office about six weeks before the events that Evelyn Yang described because another patient called the police and said that he had assaulted this other patient. The arrest was voided. Dr. Hadden went back to work. He was

unchaperoned, according to Yang. And as she said, that makes what happened to her even more painful because she said it could have and should have been prevented. She says Columbia University protected Hadden at the expense of other survivors to avoid negative publicity.

Now, I should say, CNN, we sent detailed questions to Columbia, including why Dr. Hadden was allowed to return to work after his initial arrest and do so without anybody in the room. The response that we got from the university, in part, basically said that the allegations against Hadden are abhorrent and they deeply apologize to those whose trust was violated.

And what's so incredible is that this has grown so much, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes. No question. Well, great reporting. Fantastic, exclusive interview. And just a deeply, deeply important topic.

Dana Bash, thanks very much.

BASH: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: We have breaking news now into CNN.

We're going to go direct to the White House. Our correspondent Kaitlan Collins.

Kaitlan, tell us what you know.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, we're learning about three new members who are going to be added to President Trump's impeachment legal defense team. Sources are telling my colleague Pam Brown and I that Alan Dershowitz, the famed TV lawyer who the president has been relying on for advice for several months now throughout the Mueller investigation and impeachment, is expected to add -- to join the president's defense team.

And we've got a statement on that saying that Professor Dershowitz is going to present oral arguments at the Senate trial to address the constitutional arguments against impeachment and removal. While Professor Dershowitz is nonpartisan when it comes to the Constitution, he is opposed to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton and vote for Hillary Clinton, he believed the issues at stake go to the heart of our enduring Constitution. He is participating in this impeachment trial to defend the integrity of the Constitution and to prevent the creation of a dangerous constitutional precedent.

Of course, that is not the only person. We are also told that Robert Ray and Ken Starr are also expected to join President Trump's defense team.

Now, we had had sources kind of hinting at this for the last several days, saying there was a chance they could add attorneys as they went on throughout this process because we've been reporting it's the White House counsel, Pat Cipollone, and Jay Sekulow, the president's outside attorney who were going to be heading up his defense in front of the Senate. But now the president is adding these three big heavyweights to his impeachment defense team and it's going to be really interesting to see these figures coming out.

The question, Jim, had really been, is it going to have these Republican House members arguing for him, something that people like the senator, Mitch McConnell, were pushing against, but now we are being told Dershowitz, Robert Ray and Ken Starr are going to be on the president's defense team there on the Senate floor when this trial gets formally kicked off on Tuesday.

SCIUTTO: Kaitlan Collins, thanks for the reporting, from the White House.

We still have Dana Bash here.

And Dershowitz, Starr and Ray, and particularly Dershowitz and Starr, Starr, of course, with a deep past, Clinton impeachment, Alan Dershowitz, these are very public figures who, how should I say this, but that engender very strong opinions, right, from both sides.

BASH: That's right.

SCIUTTO: Interesting choices.

BASH: Interesting choices all. One thing they all have in common is that they are on TV a lot, particularly Alan Dershowitz, less so Ken Starr and Ray, but they are all on -- they are on --

SCIUTTO: Ray -- Ray has been on this network.

BASH: A lot, right, and Starr on another.

And -- but, in particular, Dershowitz. He has -- he has grown more and more over the years and now he is a -- he is fully, and I guess has been for a while now, in Donald Trump's camp on everything.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BASH: But particularly on matters of the law. First on the Russia investigation and now on this.

SCIUTTO: Do you see the president's hand in these choices?

BASH: A hundred percent.

SCIUTTO: OK.

BASH: He likes to see the people he sees to represent him with who he thinks will do well.

One thing I will say is that Dershowitz is an appellate lawyer.

[09:50:01]

He's a professor. He's on TV. I -- you know, we'll find out as we dig in. I don't know how many recent cases he has actually tried in public. And --

SCIUTTO: Well, and sometimes, for better or for worse, right, given -- think of Rudy Giuliani, sometimes questionable appearances --

BASH: Right.

SCIUTTO: In the president's defense.

Dana Bash.

BASH: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Thanks so much.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Welcome back.

Deputies in one county in North Carolina are warning driver to be careful after someone shot at cars on the highway. The shootings happened about 30 miles from Raleigh.

[09:55:01]

There were no reports of injuries, but several people say their windows were shot out. Investigators did not say how many cars may have been shot in total, but did say at least five vehicles were hit.

Police in New Orleans have issued an arrest warrant for Cleveland Browns star Odell Beckham Jr. after he appeared to slap the behind of a man in uniform. Video taken after LSU's national championship win on Monday shows the incident. It is not clear whether the man is a security guard or a law enforcement officer. Beckham is wanted on a misdemeanor battery charge as a result. The 27-year-old is a Louisiana native and played football at LSU.

Massachusetts Congresswoman Ayanna Pressley is now opening up about her own personal struggle. In an emotional interview, she has revealed she has alopecia. That's a condition that can cause permanent hair loss. She told "The Root" she wants to confront any shame associated with the condition.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. AYANNA PRESSLEY (D-MA): This is my official public revealing. I'm ready now because I want to be freed from the secret. I am making peace with having alopecia. I have not arrived there, it's about power, it's about acceptance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Congresswoman Pressley says that she started losing her hair last fall. She says she wanted to explain herself to little black girls who identified with her signature Senegalese twists in her hair. Last month Pressley and Senator Cory Booker joined a coalition that sponsored The Crown Act, which bans hair discrimination.

Coming up, we will have more on our breaking news.

President Trump now adding three names to his legal name ahead of the Senate impeachment trial.

Stay with us. There's lots more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: A very good Friday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto. Poppy Harlow is off today.

The trial of the president of the United States is officially open.

[10:00:02]

And breaking this morning, sources tell us the president is now composing his defense team, adding seasoned lawyers, many who appear on television --