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Possible Battle Emerging Between Democrats and Republicans for Next Justice Confirmation; U.S. Nearing 200,000 Mark for COVID-19 Deaths; Protest in Madrid on New Lockdown Measures; Risk of New Lockdown for United Kingdom as Outbreaks Accelerates; Source: McConnell Says Republicans Comfortable With Judge Amy Coney Barrett To Replace Ginsburg; Iran Calls U.S. Move To Reimpose Sanctions Void And Illegal; Feast On Egypt. Aired 2-3a ET
Aired September 21, 2020 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[02:00:00]
KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN HOST: Another Republican breaks ranks with President Trump over the rush to replace Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. We'll dissect what it means for the fight and who's in the running to take her seat.
The U.S. approaches a COVID-19 milestone as we hear new guidance on how easy the virus can spread. And you're looking at another powerful storm heading for the gulf coast. What details on what else is brewing in the Atlantic.
Live from CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to you our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is "CNN Newsroom."
Well, this maybe a sign of just how polarized American politics has become in the face of a Supreme Court vacancy. Lawmakers are divided not over the nominee, not yet anyway, but over when to start the confirmation process.
The battle over replacing the late Ruth Bader Ginsberg begins in earnest in the coming hours when senators return to Capitol Hill. President Trump says he'll name his nominee this week, but Democrats don't want to move forward until after the election. Presidential nominee Joe Biden had a message for senators on Sunday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Don't vote to confirm anyone nominated under the circumstances President Trump and Senator McConnell have created. Don't go there. Uphold your constitutional duty, your conscience. Let the people speak. Cool the flames that have been engulfing our country. We can't keep rewriting history.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Now, if you're feeling a bit of deja vu, you're not alone. Four years ago, the Senate refused to confirm Barack Obama's nominee during an election year, but then it was the Republicans who were stalling. CNN's Manu Raju has more on their about-face.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Donald Trump is moving quickly to name his Supreme Court nominee to fill the seat of the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Raise your right hand.
RAJU (voice-over): According to sources familiar with the process, three female appeals court judges appear to be among the front- runners. Amy Coney Barrett, Barbara Legoa and Allison Jones Rushing. But he has little margin for error to get his nomination confirmed to the bench before the November election.
Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell can only afford to lose the support of three Republican senator in order to get 51 votes to get a nominee confirmed. But already two Republicans have said the nomination should wait until after the elections.
The latest, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, the lone Republican to vote against Brett Kavanaugh's nomination to the court in 2018. On Sunday, Murkowski said, "I did not support taking up a nomination eight months before the 2016 election to fill the vacancy created by the passing of Justice Scalia. We are now even closer to the 2020 election, less than two months out, and I believe the same standard must apply."
But Murkowski would not comment on Sunday about whether she would oppose Trump's nominee in a lame duck session of Congress, which will occur after the November elections and conclude in January.
Similarly, Senator Susan Collins of Maine, fighting to keep her seat, has said the vote should wait until after the election, but her office has not responded to CNN's questions about whether she would vote against a Trump nominee in a lame duck session if former Vice President Joe Biden wins in November.
The battle over the nomination comes amid a furious fight for control over the Senate in November. And it has put some Republicans like Cory Gardner of Colorado in a difficult spot as he campaigns to keep his seat.
In 2016 when Republicans refused to move on Barack Obama's nomination of Merrick Garland to the court, they argued it was too close to the election. Gardner said at the time, "The American people deserve a role in this process." But on Saturday, Gardner refused to say if he would stick to that same position now that there is a Republican president and just 44 days before the election.
SEN. CORY GARDNER (R-CO): There is a time for debate. There is a time for politics. But the time for now is to pray for the family.
RAJU (voice-over): Several veteran Republican senators including Chuck Grassley of Iowa have also declined to say if they think the nomination should wait. And the party's 2012 nominee, Senator Mitt Romney, has so far declined to comment. Several Republicans in difficult races are aligning with Trump.
SEN. THOM TILLIS (R-NC): I voted for several hundred conservative judges, including two on the Supreme Court and another one on the way.
RAJU (voice-over): Tillis sung a different tune four years ago.
TILLIS: If we're going to let the American people speak.
RAJU (voice-over): Republicans say times have changed because they now control both the White House and the Senate, unlike 2016.
[02:05:005]
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): It's a question of checks and balances.
RAJU (voice-over): But four years ago, Cruz said this --
CRUZ: This is for the people to decide.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RAJU (on camera): Now, Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell have spoken multiple times through the course of the weekend. And I'm told one person has come up in those conversations, that's appeals court judge Amy Coney Barrett. She's someone that Democrats strenuously oppose. Conservatives have been trying to get her on the high court for years.
She's someone that Mitch McConnell said Republicans know well, they'd be comfortable with her nomination, and Donald Trump is seriously considering her, putting her forward. Also, we expect this to move pretty quickly.
Once the nomination comes as early as this week, Republicans will try to see whether or not they have the votes to move ahead. If they don't, they're going to punt it until later, but expect this fight to just intensify on Monday when senators get back into town and start to process the monumental developments. Manu Raju, CNN, Capitol Hill.
BRUNHUBER: Well, Democrats have raised the prospect of expanding the Supreme Court if a Trump nominee is approved. Listen to what the Senate's top Democrat said about that on Sunday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If the president's pick is approved and Biden wins the election, should he add more Supreme Court judges?
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Well, it will be a decision that is -- comes to the Senate. We first have to win the majority before that can happen. But once we win the majority, god willing, everything is on the table.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: So to get a sense of why this fight is becoming so heated, consider the cases likely to go before the court. Health care, same- sex rights, immigration, but every time there's an opening that could tilt the balance of the court, well, one issue stands out.
Joining me now is Mary Ziegler, professor at Florida State University, College of Law and author of "Abortion and the Law." Rhank you very much for joining us here. For years Republicans have been chipping away at access to abortion.
As far as I'm aware, at least six Republican-led states have adopted laws to ban some or all abortions, and those laws could obviously end up in the Supreme Court and force the justices to decide whether to uphold or strike down the right to abortion.
So just give us a quick sense of where things stand right now. What cases are winding their way through the court system and could reach the Supreme Court in the near future?
MARY ZIEGLER, PROFESSOR, FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF LAW: Yes, so I think you could divide the abortion restrictions on their way to the court in two broad categories. They're the kind of absolute bans you talked about which really hit the headlines in 2019, in particular on so-called heartbeat bans, which ban abortion around the sixth week of pregnancy when fetal cardiac activity can be detected.
And then I think more kind of stealth strategies which are actually more likely to end up at the court sooner, which include laws banning abortion at 20 weeks, on the theory that fetal pain is possible then. Laws spanning what's the most common abortion method after -- and safest abortion method after the first trimester of pregnancy, and laws banning specific reasons for abortion.
There has even been a recent push by GOP legislators to take medication-based abortion off the market entirely, even though we're in a COVID-19 pandemic. Any of those, in fact, the COVID-19 pill case is -- could come before the court relatively soon, but any of those are important candidates, I think.
BRUNHUBER: All right. So before I get to the, you know, possible injustice and the composition of the court, I just want to get to something very basic. It's a question I get asked a lot from people who just kind of, you know, dip in and out of the news.
They tell me, I don't get it. I thought the Supreme Court, you know, ruled on abortion and made it legal. Isn't that the precedent? Isn't that the law? So, you know, how can you, you know, change it now?
ZIEGLER: Well, the court has actually an entirely separate body of law to deal with if and when you can overturn precedents, because, of course, the court has had to overturn precedent before, right. In this country at one point, it was legal to ban interracial marriage or to ban marriages between people of the same sex or even to forcibly segregate schools.
But at the same time, as you mentioned, the court doesn't want to just discard precedent willy-nilly. So, it's very politicized in the United States if and when the Supreme Court can revisit precedent, and one of the fights that's going on parallel to the fight about what happens to Roe is what kind of precedent Roe is and whether it's the kind of precedent the court should, in fact, revisit.
BRUNHUBER: So, a case in which precedent was central was that Louisiana abortion law which would have left the entire state with, you know, one single abortion clinic. It was struck down this year with Chief Justice John Roberts casting the swing vote, though he opposed it more on legal grounds than because he supported abortion rights.
[02:09:56]
But that case seems like a playbook for the anti-abortion cause and with a new Trump justice who would presumably oppose abortion rights. There would be six votes against abortion on the Supreme Court. So, does that spell, you know, the end of Roe v. Wade?
ZIEGLER: Potentially, right? So Chief Justice John Roberts has emerged as the swing justice on abortion. And as you mentioned, he's not exactly an ally of the liberals. He's already rewritten the rules that apply to abortion restrictions in a way that make it a lot easier for legislators to write new restrictions and get them upheld in the court.
At the same time, Roberts has made a pretty big deal about his commitment to precedent, which would make it less likely that he would vote to overturn roe in the near term, right? Even if he does eventually.
Of course, that all changes if you add one more conservative justice to the court. That likely would make Roberts no longer the swing justice and move the court to the right in general on abortion. And, of course, it's worth remembering that there are other liberal justices who are older.
So it's not out of the question that if President Trump were re- elected in 2020 you could wind up with two new conservative justices and then you're really talking about a situation where their overruling of Roe becomes almost inevitable at that point.
But certainly one more conservative justice would dramatically increase the odds of roe being overturned, although I think potentially you'd have Brett Kavanaugh as a swing justice and Kavanaugh might be a little bit reluctant to move quickly too.
BRUNHUBER: Well, on that point, you know, Chief Justice Roberts sent the message that he wanted to steer the court on a middle course, given that a majority of Americans polled say time and time again they're in favor of access to abortion.
Is there any sense that a conservative justice with a more, you know, centrist bone in their body or someone, you know, concerned about the appearance of the legitimacy of the Supreme Court might sort of swing left on this issue in order to more -- to better reflect the population's actual wishes on this issue?
ZIEGLER: Maybe. I mean, we have some sense that Kavanaugh would be the new swing justice. Of all the conservatives who voted to uphold Louisiana's abortion restriction this summer, Kavanaugh was definitely the most cautious.
He essentially wanted to say, you know, we don't have enough evidence to make a decision one way or another, so let's send it back to the lower court. That was still, I think, a quite conservative thing to rule because these laws were exactly the same.
So to say that there was any daylight between the two definitely suggested that Kavanaugh was open to abortion restrictions and arguments for them, but at the same time he wasn't ready to throw down the gauntlet and suggest that Roe v. Wade was wrong or kind of echo pro-life talking points like his colleagues, Justices Gorsuch and Alito.
So, it seems that Kavanaugh does have the same kind of concern for the court's appearance, but it also seems that he has more confidence that the court can roll back abortion rights without triggering the kind of backlash that seems to concern both him and Justice Roberts.
BRUNHUBER: All right. We'll see so many unknowns on this hugely fraught issue. Thank you so much for joining us, Mary Ziegler. We appreciate it.
ZIEGLER: Thanks for having me.
BRUNHUBER: The coronavirus outbreak in the U.S., well, it appears to be easing, but the number of deaths is still on the rise and soon it will reach a sobering new total. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:15:00]
BRUNHUBER: Bells tolled 200 times Sunday at the U.S. National Cathedral in Washington. They rang once for every 1,000 lives lost as the nation nears 200,000 deaths from the coronavirus. The official number right now from John Hopkins University is just over 199,500. Sadly it's just a matter of time before that staggering death toll has reached 200,000.
Well, for the first time since the start of the pandemic, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is acknowledging COVID-19 can be commonly spread through viral particles in the air. The agency's new guidance says those aerosols are produced when a person talks, sings, coughs, sneezes or even just breathes.
And it's believed the particles can hang in the air and be breathed in by others. The CDC had previously said the virus was thought to spread mainly through respiratory droplets between people within 6 feet of one another. Now this new update reinforces why masks are so crucial.
(BEGINS VIDEO CLIP)
ABDUL EL-SAYED, EPIDEMIOLOGIST AND PUBLIC HEALTH EXPERT: What it means for folks is, number one, those masks are critically important. They're the most important way to stop those aerosols from coming out of our mouths and noses, and then getting into other people's mouths and noses.
So, everybody should wear a mask, as we've been saying for some time now. But also people should pay attention to what they do indoors. The reason indoors is so important is because those aerosols tend to just hang out there for some time indoors, particularly in poorly ventilated indoor areas.
And so when you're thinking about whether or not maybe you are going to go eat indoors at a restaurant or god forbid go to the movies, you really should think twice.
And then lastly, as folks should have been doing this entire time, just ask yourself if it's worth it. All of us know this is the fall. A number of things we want to get and out be doing, beautiful weather, but ask yourself, is it worth it?
In every given thing you're choosing, ask yourself is it worth the potential risk and if I'm going to go ahead and do that, how can I keep my family and myself safe? Put on that mask and try and stay outdoors as much as possible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: The head of the U.S. testing efforts claims the country is seeing fewer deaths compared to its peak in July. But as CNN's Evan McMorris-Santoro reports, America's death toll is still the highest in the world and the numbers are still rising.
EVAM MCMORRIS-SANTORO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Projections now show then the next day or so America will cross a grim milestone in this pandemic, 200,000 confirmed deaths from complications of coronavirus. To put that number in perspective, let's go back to March 29th when President Trump addressed the idea of 200,000 deaths.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[02:20:02]
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If we can hold that down as we're saying to 100,000, it's a horrible number, maybe even less, but to 100,000, so we have between 100,000 and 200,000, we all together have done a very good job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCMORRIS-SANTORO: That 200,000 number comes even as places like New York City, where I'm standing, are seeing their viral numbers come way down. But this country is still in the grips of this thing. The pandemic is wreaking havoc on the American economy, education and of course people's lives.
And there's really no end in sight. Over the weekend, Admiral Brett Giroir, a member of the presdient's coronavirus task force told CNN he has no real timeline for when a safe and effective vaccine will become widely available here. Evan McMorris-Santoro, CNN, New York. BRUNHUBER: Protesters in masks faced off against police in masks.
This was the scene Sunday ahead of a new partial lockdown in some of the poorest neighborhoods in Madrid. Some 850,000 people are under new quarantine restrictions. No one's allowed in or out of parts of the city unless it's for work, school or a doctor visit. Residents say the restrictions unfairly target them and not the wealthier areas.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translation): The measures taken by Madrid's regional leader are unfair. It doesn't make sense that you can go to work in a rich neighborhood, but you can't go shopping. If you are infected, you can infect at work or get infected at work. It is utterly unfair and discriminatory.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Now, the government says it had to take action because of infection rates there are more than five times the national average. Meanwhile in the U.K., officials will impose fines starting at $1,300 on anyone who doesn't self-isolate after testing positive. The health secretary says people have to be vigilant because they're at a tipping point.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATT HANCOCK, U.K. HEALTH SECRETARY: If everybody follows the rules, everybody follows the rules, and we'll be increasingly stringent on the people who are not following the rules. If everybody face -- follows the rules, then we can avoid further national lockdowns. But we, of course, have to be prepared to take action if that's what's necessary.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: All right. So to discuss that and other Covid issues, let's bring in Sian Griffiths who is an emeritus professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong and was the chair of the Hong Kong government inquiry of SARS back in 2003. She joins me live from Oxford, England.
Thank you very much for speaking with us. I want to start there in the U.K. So we heard there about the possibility of a second lockdown, but in England there are already growing protests in the streets, people willing to confront police and get arrested over rules, you know, just about masks, let alone another lockdown.
So, you're an adviser with public health England, so from a public health perspective, how do you go about convincing people to accept increasingly stringent measures when so many people are clearly chafing at the rules right now?
SIAN GRIFFITHS, EMERITUS PROFESSOR, CHINESE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG: Well, I wouldn't put it quite so strongly. I think everybody realizes this is a very serious situation, and if you look at the newspaper headlines in across the U.K. today, it talks about tipping point. It talks about how close we are to tipping over into a second epidemic.
Because in Europe we had one spike. Lockdown measures brought the rates right down and it was releasing them during the summer that meant rates have started to increase again in countries such as France and Spain and the U.K.
We're a couple of weeks behind France and we've started to see (inaudible) 4,000 positive tests. That's way more. That's -- we were in the low tens at some point during the summer. So, we've got the disease in the population and the government is very concerned that we don't see a rise in the -- particularly in the winter - a lot to the levels that we saw in March.
I think most people are complying pretty well with the rules, but not obviously well enough, which is why we've got the north -- a lot of the north of England in lockdown, particularly in areas where the rates are high.
BRUNHUBER: Do you think you will actually have to go into a second lockdown?
GRIFFITHS: When they talk about lockdown, the first lockdown was a very rapid, dramatic, you know, stay at home. This is more likely to be more moderated and targeted where the rates are going up. And we know that through epidemiology, the growing understanding of the diseases, we know that the rates go up through household spread and they also go up through social pubs and restaurants and clubs.
And so the first moves are most likely to be targeted at the areas where we know the transmission is occurring most.
[02:25:00]
I think everyone has agreed we want to keep the schools open and everyone is aware that there are huge issues with the economy, just as there are across the world.
So this will probably be targeted action, but today we're waiting for the chief medical officer to -- and the chief scientific adviser, to do an announcement because there's always been a big emphasis on what does the science tell us.
And the science tells us at the moment that the rates as they started to go up for many among young people, and we've got universities going back, so there are messages there, but we've also started to see the rates going up in older people.
And during the worst of the crisis back in April and May, it was actually our care homes which were hit the worst. And so I think there'll be some messages about what we need to do to protect the vulnerable.
BRUNHUBER: And there also might be a seasonal influence, right? I mean, many areas now in the U.S. are reopening, but one influential coronavirus model at the University of Washington is projecting more than 378,000 deaths by January. So here, you know, where I am in Atlanta, its sweater weather now.
With that, obviously, more people will be indoors instead of outdoors. So how might the cooler weather affect the numbers of infections and deaths?
GRIFFITHS: As you said, we'll be coming indoors and we'll be much more close to each other. And just earlier on your program, you were talking about the growing scientific understanding of aerosol spread as well as droplet spread, which means if you're in an enclosed environment with poor ventilation and someone has the virus, there is just an increased risk that you come into contact with it. \
Which is why I think across the world there are variations on the message. In the U.K., its hands, wash your hands. Face, cover your face with a face covering. And space, keep one-plus meter distance apart. Those rules are really essential until we get a vaccine because we just need to stop the spread, keep the surfaces clear.
If you -- and we're very -- our numbers of tests, we're doing many more testing. Okay, there are issues with the capacity of the testing system, as there are in many countries because as people become aware that what they need to do if they get symptoms, they need to isolate, get a test, and then the public health officials can contract trace and make sure that you try to break that chain of transmission.
That's what we're trying to do. We're trying to stop the spread of that virus because if we can stop it spreading then we can get on with the more normal life until we've got better mechanisms.
BRUNHUBER: All right. That's what is so vital for so many people. Thank you very much, Sian Griffiths. We appreciate you joining us.
GRIFFITHS: Nice to talk to you this morning.
BRUNHUBER: Still ahead on "CNN Newsroom," Iran says it won't give into U.S. pressure and bullying. The international community is speaking out after Washington moves to unilaterally re-impose sanction on Iran. Stay with us for that.
(COMMRECIAL BREAK)
[02:30:00]
KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN HOST: Welcome back to you our viewers in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber and you're watching CNN Newsroom. More now on our top story. A source tells CNN that Senate Republicans appear to favor appeals court Judge Amy Coney Barrett to succeed the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court.
The source says Barrett has come up in conversations between President Trump and Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. The president told supporters he has his shortlist and should announce his nominee this week and of course Democrats don't want to start the confirmation process until after the election.
Ginsburg's seat at the Supreme Court is now draped in black as you can see there. She died Friday at 87.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the country will never yield to U.S. bullying. He made the comment Sunday, addressing the U.S. moved to reimpose sanctions on Iran, excuse me, despite having no legal footing to do so.
As a result runs currency hit a record low against the U.S. dollar on Sunday. Let's bring in CNN's John Defterios following the story from Abu Dhabi. So this is a major push for wider U.N. sanctions by the Trump administration but it seems you know the world body's basically greeted us with a shrug. Is the U.S. on its own here?
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Well, it certainly looks that way in the initial three days of the discussions that have taken place but the tensions have ratcheted up between even allies. You're correct Kim, in saying that 13 of 15 U.N. Security Council members are not supporting this.
Perhaps more importantly, three signatories of the original deal, Britain, France and Germany say this is legally avoid. This has given the confidence to the Iranian President Hassan Rouhani to say that Donald Trump, you're completely isolated in this agreement.
Now the U.S. interpretation is very different, not surprisingly saying that it was an original signatory and because Iran is enriching uranium at a higher level, he has a right to call for the snap back U.N. sanctions overall.
Reuters was reporting yesterday in fact that we're going to see a long list of new targets by the United States of companies and perhaps even financial institutions that have been supporting Iran with arms sales during this period.
Iran is allowed by the way, not with regard to the arms sales but sanctions relief according to those that remain party to this agreement.
BRUNHUBER: All right, so is all of this then an empty threat by the U.S. or can they actually go down that path of unilateral sanctions?
DEFTERIOS: Yes it's a path they followed many, many times Kim, for example with TikTok and WeChat for example but I think specifically when it comes to third parties, if you look at the Russian pipeline and Nord Stream too going to Germany. The U.S. is targeted the ports and even contractors for the building up that pipeline against the will of the Germans for example so you see a case here where Mike Pompeo is leaning on the Europeans to come on board but Mohammad Javad Zarif is saying that Pompeo has not looked at the agreement.
Once you pull out of it, you don't have the right to call for the broader members of this group to do so but I think we should single out, the unilateral sanctions by the United States have been painful. We're looking at a contraction of nearly 20 percent over the last three years with oil production nearly cut in half at the same time frame. Very painful impact, Kim. BRUNHUBER: All right, thank you so much John Defterios in Abu Dhabi.
Appreciate it. When we come back hopefully, I'll get my voice back and then we'll go to Egypt for a taste of some of Alexandria's best street food. You'll want to see that.
[02:35:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BRUNHUBER: Street food dominates Egyptian dining and while Cairo's often the go to destination for these dishes, two food lovers from the capital think Egypt's second city has just as much to offer. Here's this look at dining out in Alexandria.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Laila and Mia live and breathe Egyptian dining. Today they're in Alexandria on Egypt's northern coast, home to some of the country's freshest sea food and finest street food which is their specialty.
MIA NEZAR, CO-FOUNDER, BELLIES EN-ROUTE: We're going to cross the.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Laila and Mia started one of Cairo's most successful food tour companies, teaching visitors about Egyptian cuisine and taking them to hidden gems.
LAILA HASSABALLA, CO-FOUNDER, BELLIES EN-ROUTE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now they've come to Alexandria.
HASSABALLA: And we're super excited.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: With hopes of expanding to a new city for the first time and putting the city street food on the culinary map.
HASSABALLA: We're really here to teach people about Egyptian food. If you go to a mediocre place, you're obviously not going to want to come back and we really think that could make all the difference between deciding to visit again or recommending Egypt to a friend or not.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Laila and Mia research about 30 restaurants for each new tour. Here their priority is finding an Egyptian staple. Liver sandwiches which vary by city.
NEZAR: We eat a lot of liver in Cairo but we don't really cook at the same way so their method is that they chop it very, very like fine, little slivers so that's what makes Alexandria and liver very, very special. Are you ready?
HASSABALLA: Yes.
NEZAR: Let's do it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After sampling half a dozen sandwiches across the city, the ladies land in Wahaba in a residential part of town. [02:40:00]
NEZAR: This restaurant has been around for about four generations. Their great, great grandfather built this place and it's just been passed down from son to son.
HASSABALLA: It's just like a really, really nice, unknown, sort of under-rated neighborhood place and this is exactly what we love about it. It's a hidden gem.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Liver sandwiches are usually made from beef and packed full of garlic, peppers and spices.
HASSABALLA: You can see the pepper in there.
NEZAR: I'm a bit anxious about peppers. Remember, last time I was here. Fire. But we're fit.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: While Wahaba may have been a hidden neighborhood gem for four generations.
HASSABALLA: He is the oldest son of his siblings. He's going to be the next in line one after his dad.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Soon thanks to Laila and Mia, a steady stream of tourists might be knocking at their door.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: I'm suddenly peckish. All right, thank you so much for joining us. For our international viewers, World Sport is next and for our viewers in the United States and Canada, I'll be back with more news.
Now we are following another storm across the U.S. Gulf coast, tropical storm Beta is threatening Texas and Louisiana so I'll bring you the latest on that. Coming up next. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[02:45:00]
BRUNHUBER: In the wake of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death, CNN has obtained audio recordings that give us insight into the U.S. President's attitude towards the judiciary during interviews with renowned journalist Bob Woodward for his book Rage. President Trump spoke about why his judicial appointments are key to his record. He repeatedly boasted about the number of judges he's appointed to the federal bench calling them golden nuggets. Now, this comes as he prepares to try to push through a third Supreme Court nominee.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I just signed my 187th federal judge. It's a record, 187 judges in less than three years, Bob, and two Supreme Court judges. Never been done before. The only one that has a better percentage is George Washington, because he appointed a hundred percent. But my percentage is like, ridiculous. A hundred eighty-seven ...
BOB WOODWARD, VETERAN REPORTER: And there were a couple of those judges ...
TRUMP: I'll end up with - when I get out, I'll probably have more than 50 percent of the federal judges in the country appointed under Trump.
WOODWARD: And Lindsey Graham has said that there were a couple of those judges that he himself didn't care for and rejected them. Are you aware of that?
TRUMP: Yes. And other Senators too, yes. And when they don't like them, I don't put them in. I don't want ...
WOODWARD: Does he have kind of - because that's his committee and they ...
TRUMP: Yes. No, if Lindsey and other people don't like them, I don't put them in. You know why? Why do we want a broken system. They don't like them because they may be, in some cases, they're not conservative or they don't believe or they came out with a couple of bad decisions on something.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Now, during a separate interview, this one from July, Woodward asked President Trump about his response to the coronavirus pandemic.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WOODWARD: So, what grade do you give yourself on the virus for the last six, seven months?
TRUMP: Other than the public relations, which is impossible because it's a fake media, fake. They're fake. I know you - like, I think you do agree.
WOODWARD: Yes, I do.
TRUMP: OK.
WOODWARD: Yes.
TRUMP: Other than the fact that I've been unable to solve ...
WOODWARD: So what's the grade, sir?
TRUMP: ... the media on treating us fairly, I give ourselves an A, but the grade is incomplete, and I'll tell you why. If we come up with the vaccines and therapeutics, then I give myself an A-plus.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER: Well, it's no secret, which presidential candidate is favored in the Irish town of Ballina. Joe Biden's family roots go deep there and the town is showing him love as Biden steps into the long simmering Brexit debate. Nic Robertson reports.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR(voice over): Crisp, clean and freshly hung. No trouble guessing who this Irish town Ballina backs for U.S. president.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We did this in a warehouse so nobody knew it was happening.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON(voice over): Every moment recorded painting, transporting in the dead of night, hanging with the sunrise.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The reaction was just wild. Just literally blew people away.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON(voice over): Part of the attraction, Biden has dozens of distant cousins here.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH BLEWITT, JOE BIDEN'S COUSIN: He's a really a family man. We've missed him a few times now and we've been in the same room and he is just really nice genuine, strong family man.
CATHERINA BLEWITT, JOE BIDEN'S COUSIN: He quotes Seamus Heaney, he quotes Yates (ph), he has a real love of his Irish heritage, but also has a real strong understanding of the reality of life in our end right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: Hi, everybody.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON(voice over): When then VP Biden visited Ballina in 2016, most of the town turned out. Today they love that Biden tweeted Boris Johnson against Brexit maneuver, potentially at the cost of the U.S./U.K trade deal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) C. BLEWITT: To see Vice President Biden's tweet reiterating the
importance of the Good Friday Agreement. I think here it resonates with a lot of people.
ROBERTSON: Biden's concerns are about peace and it all starts here at the border. The Republic of Ireland here, Northern Ireland up here, it's open just like driving from one U.S. state to another.
But Boris Johnson's proposals could change that, could lead to customs posts, a hard border, and that in turn could lead to violence.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON(voice over): North of the border in British Northern Ireland, pro-British unionists don't like Biden's interfering.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SAMMY WILSON, DEMOCRATIC UNIONIST PARTY MP FOR EAST ANTRIM, NORTHERN IRELAND: He ought to be ashamed of himself, because he's playing with the lives of people in Northern Ireland to pander to some section of his vote.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON(voice over): Back south of the border in Ballina, former Irish Government Minister Dara Calleary says Wilson has it wrong.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DARA CALLEARY, FIANNA FAIL MP FOR COUNTY MAYO, IRELAND: It's not just political. It's not just about votes. The U.S. politicians recognize their role in protecting the Good Friday Agreement.
[02:50:08]
J. BLEWITT: We don't want to hard border back again.
CALLEARY: The U.S. politicians recognize their role in protecting the Good Friday Agreement.
J BLEWITT: We don't want the hard border back again. It was years and years of trouble. Everything has gone very low and people are getting on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON: Since Biden's tweet last week, President Trump's Special Envoy to Northern Ireland, Mick Mulvaney, issued the same warning. Even so, Ballinas picked its man.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SMILER MITCHELL, MURAL ARTIST: Everybody is for Joe Biden in this town. I think he's going to win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROBERTSON(voice over): If he does, the town will be counting on him to keep his word.
Nic Robertson, CNN Ballina Island.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Millions of people on the U.S. Gulf Coast are under storm warnings as Tropical Storm Beta heads for Texas and Louisiana. The system is bringing heavy rain and threat of big storm surges. So let's bring in meteorologist, Tyler Mauldin, who joins me now.
Tyler, it seems like just more bad news and what's already been a record breaking hurricane season.
TYLER MAULDIN, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Hey, man. Yes. This is the last thing that they want to see in Texas and Louisiana. That would be another tropical system. That's what we have. We have a nearly 14 million residents in the northwestern Gulf of Mexico under a tropical storm warning at the moment as Tropical Storm Beta makes a beeline towards them and that is a very slow Beeline.
It was stationary yesterday, it's now only moving to the west northwest at six miles per hour. And as it takes this jog, it is looking very discombobulated on satellite imagery.
Despite that, we are still seeing showers and thunderstorms firing up and moving into the Gulf of Mexico, Louisiana is seeing some heavy rainfall and Texas is beginning to see some outer bands push in. We've been seeing the showers and thunderstorms come ashore here and there, the last couple of days because beta has just been sitting there in the northwestern goal for the last couple of days.
Overall, we've picked up about quarter to a half an inch in some areas a little north of that. But notice all of the heavy rainfall amounts offshore. All of that is going to eventually come onshore in the days to come, because Tropical Storm beta is moving very slowly towards that coastline. And the slower it takes that jog, the more rainfall will accumulate.
We could see upwards of six, seven inches of rainfall and some areas could pick up more than a foot of rainfall. Again, it's all because of that slow movement. Take a look at this. It goes to the west northwest. It comes ashore sometime around 1 am on Tuesday. And then from that time on Monday or Tuesday to Thursday night, it is only gone from just south of Texas, excuse me, just south of Houston to just northern Louisiana.
So it is moving very, very slowly. And it's also not going to, if there was a saving grace here, a silver lining, it's not going to strengthen very much over the next couple of days as it comes ashore simply because there's a lot of dry air in place and that dry air is already being wrapped into it. That's the reason why it looks so discombobulated on satellite imagery. But don't pay attention to the category, even though it is only going
to be a tropical storm as it moves up that Texas Louisiana coast. Again, it's moving very slowly. So it's going to create a lot of havoc in terms of heavy rainfall, flooding and oh, yes, storm surge.
By the way, we're already seeing storm surge out there at the moment and Beta hasn't even come ashore yet. Beta is not the only game in town though. We're watching several areas out in the tropics. After all, it is the peak of hurricane season.
We have Hurricane Teddy, which is a category two hurricane at the moment and it is going to push to the east of Bermuda and eventually make landfall in Nova Scotia. Kim.
BRUNHUBER: All right. Lots to keep our eyes on for the next couple of days. Thank you so much. Tyler Mauldin, I appreciate it.
All right. Well, this next story should brighten your day a little. It's about a little boy with an infectious smile which lights up especially when he hears his mom's voice for the very first time. But it took a lot of work and fraught moments to get to this point. Jeanne Moss has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mason. Mason.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT(voive over): Kids often tend to ignore their moms on purpose, but not Mason.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Say hi.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOOS(voive over): At 18 months he just got his first hearing aids watch him as he hears mom clearly for the very first time.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mason. Hi. Can you hear me? Hi, baby. Hi. You can hear me?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOOS(voive over): Behind the camera, his mom Lauren Webb was ...
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAURYN WEBB: Bawling my eyes out. For the first time he heard me say his name when his face lit up like that, I almost couldn't keep it together. I think I was definitely happier than he was.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[02:55:01]
MOOS(voive over): Reaction online was similar, be right back while I go cry.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WEBB: Good job. Yes, you can hear me.
MOOS(voive over): Reaction online was similar, be right back while I go cry.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WEBB: Good job. Yes, you can hear me. Yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOOS(voive over): But you haven't heard the whole story. Mason was born almost four months premature.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WEBB: My big boy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOOS(voive over): After three men broke into mom and dad's place, a random home invasion.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WEBB: I ended up getting shot three times.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOOS(voive over): Two days later, Lauryn went into emergency labor. Weighing in at one pound, doctors thought Mason might not survive, might be blind, might never walk. But he beat the odds and has now been fitted with hearing aids at Virginia Commonwealth University Hospital in Richmond. They even gave him Leo the stuffed lion likewise fitted with hearing aids.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WEBB: He's doing a lot of like yelling and just making noises, because now it's kind of like the first time he can even hear himself clearly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOOS(voive over): But even hearing aids don't help when mom steps away. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WEBB: When have I ever left you? Why would I start today?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOOS(voive over): Sunday, Mason will look back and listen to the first words he clearly heard from his mother's lips.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WEBB: Do like how everything sounds?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOOS(voive over): No audio quality tends to improve when you stick the hearing aids in your ears. Not your mouth, Mason.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WEBB: Oh, no, no, no, no, buddy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MOOS(voive over): Jeanne Moos, CNN New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BRUNHUBER: Yes. That smile hard to keep it together. All right. Well, that wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. The news continues with Rosemary Church.
