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Pentagon Leaders Face Day 2 of Afghanistan Withdrawal Questions; Today, Judge Expected to Rule on Britney Spears Conservatorship Case; YouTube Cracking Down on Vaccine Misinformation. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired September 29, 2021 - 10:30   ET

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

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ERICA HILL, CNN NEWSROOM: Right now, top military leaders answering tough questions for a second day on the chaotic exit from Afghanistan. This time, they're in front of the House Armed Services Committee.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NEWSROOM: On Tuesday, we heard the Pentagon leaders contradict President Biden on whether they advised him to keep a small number of troops in Afghanistan beyond the August deadline.

CNN Congressional Correspondent Jessica Dean is on Capitol Hill this morning. Jessica, are we hearing a similar story this morning?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jim, so far this morning, and this hearing just got under way a little bit ago. We've heard a lot of the same of what we heard yesterday.

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We heard opening statements from top military leaders laying out kind of their plans, their decision-making, what went into their decision- making, and now we're just starting to get into the question and answer portion of this hearing, which as you guys well know, is where you get a lot of the pushback and fireworks, which we are expecting some tense moments in this House Armed Services Committee hearing. But, so far, we've been hearing them defending their decision to withdraw out of Afghanistan.

We did hear General Milley talk about his calls to his Chinese counterparts. You'll remember in the new book recently published, Peril, it was revealed he had two calls with his Chinese counterparts after intelligence revealed that the Chinese believed that the United States was going to attack them. He said that this was done exactly how it should have been done. He walked through who he talked to, both civilian leaders, also military leaders, in making this call, and said that this was something that needed to be done.

Also of note, he did confirm that he went through that intelligence in a classified briefing with members of the Senate yesterday. He offered to do the same for members of the House committee. So, we'll see if they take him up on that. But, again, so far Jim and Erica, we've heard mostly about Afghanistan. That's what a lot of the questions have been about. And they maintain, again, that they made the best decisions that they could. They didn't anticipate, as we've heard them say, that Kabul would fall just as quickly as it did. Jim and Erica?

HILL: All right. Jessica Dean, I appreciate it, thank you.

SCIUTTO: Let's speak now to CNN Chief International Correspondent Clarissa Ward, who joins us now from Kabul, and retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, he's former Army Commanding in Europe as well as Commander of the 7th Army. Thanks to both of you.

Clarissa, I want to begin with you, because one of the most remarkable moments both from Tuesday's testimony and today, is you have the president's senior most military leader, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, calling the withdrawal from Afghanistan a strategic failure, whereas the president and his advisers have talked about the extraordinary success. Really, they're focusing on the evacuation there when they say it. But you have a senior military leader saying, listen, this withdrawal is a failure. And I wonder what you see on the ground there. Is that how Afghans see it?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's interesting, Jim. Because, actually, it doesn't matter who you talk to, whether it's people who support the Taliban and who were delighted to see the back of the U.S., or whether it's people who actually felt that the U.S. presence here had made dramatic improvements to their quality of life.

Both sides of this divide tend to see the U.S.'s withdrawal. And I'm not talking about the evacuation. I'm talking about the broader withdrawal, the sort of last couple years and the Doha agreement specifically as a kind of strategic failure on some levels. Obviously, the Taliban supporters, they'd see the strategic failure more in terms of the U.S.'s presence over the past two decades.

But if you talk to people who support the government or the former government, they're devastated about the Doha agreements. They don't feel that there were any guarantees extracted from the Taliban. They feel that America could have taken a much stronger hand with the Taliban to try to preserve and protect some of the hard won rights that had been established on the ground during the last 20 years.

And, obviously, also, see it as a strategic fail your how it all sort of broke down, the chaos that we saw at the airport, those devastating scenes, the crush of humanity, the lack of clarity about paperwork and SIV applications and not hearing back, and why didn't the evacuations start earlier. These are the kinds of questions and complaints that we hear on the ground from ordinary Afghan citizens, particularly here in Kabul every day.

So, I think it's fair to say very different perspectives from different people in Afghanistan, but most see the U.S.'s, either the presence or the withdrawal, as being flawed on a fundamental level. HILL: General Hertling, General Milley said yesterday in terms of the United States credibility that -- with allies and partners around the world, that it's going to be reviewed by them. It's being intensely reviewed, in his words, and he said, I think damage is one word that can be used.

We've talked about that, right? In the weeks since, the chaotic scene that we saw unfurl. But I'm just curious. A few weeks out here, in terms of repairing that damage, how difficult is that going to be?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: It's going to be challenging, Erica. Certainly, the context of all of this is critically important, because, as you know, part of the force in Afghanistan was driven by many nations in NATO. And the decision- making in the last administration at the Doha agreement and how that was all done was incredibly important because, not only was the government of Afghanistan not allowed into those meetings, many of our NATO allies weren't even allowed into the meeting, and they hold a significant amount of responsibility for what was going on by their forces in Afghanistan as well.

[10:40:15]

But I think, if we can go to General Milley's timeline both yesterday and today, when he started his comments prior to the questioning, his timeline of what happened over the last 18 months was critically important to put all of this in context in terms of all of those who were going to be asking questions about the condition-based withdrawal, the disconnects with President Biden, the comments from the military leaders versus the other members of the National Security Council and what President Biden should do, are all critically important to consider. Unfortunately, I don't think we're seeing a lot of questions on that during today's briefing so far at least. Yesterday's was a little better.

SCIUTTO: Clarissa Ward, the Taliban has been in charge for a large part of the country for weeks now, and Kabul for several weeks as well. You're on the ground there. How's it going? What does Afghanistan under the Taliban look like today?

WARD: Well, I think there's two different ways of looking at it. On the one hand, there's less fighting. The security situation is better. You can move around more easily. A lot of NGOs have said that they can move people more easily than before. There's less risk of IEDs. On another level though, of course, there's a huge amount of fear particularly in cities, in urban areas and particularly among educated women, about what the Taliban is actually going to do, what the government will really look like.

Right now, they're trying to adopt a more pragmatic tone. They are trying to show the outside world that they've changed. They desperately want to see the aid that has been frozen since they took over start to flood in again because at the moment, this country is absolutely on the precipice of an economic crisis.

And so there is this sense of a lull, and it's a transitional period. They are not yet being as draconian as we have seen them being in their interpretation of Sharia law, and yet there are multiple indications that it is only a matter of time before they start to do that, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes, that's a strategic pause, right? Clarissa Ward, good to have you there on the ground in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General Mark Hertling, always good to draw on your experience as well. Thank you.

New this morning to CNN, YouTube taking action against vaccine disinformation circulating in videos on its site. Details on what exactly they're taking down, next.

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SCIUTTO: Today, Britney Spears could be free, right? A lot of people have been calling for it, free Britney. A judge in Los Angeles is set to take up her father's request to terminate Britney's 13-year conservatorship, as it's known.

HILL: Now, on Monday, Britney's attorney filed documents with the judge asking, if nothing else, to suspend her father.

CNN's Chloe Melas has more.

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CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A court hearing that could change her life. Today, a judge is expected to rule on whether Britney Spears' 13-year conservatorship can come to an end. This comes after Spears' father, Jamie Spears, filed a petition earlier this month to terminate the court ordered conservatorship, saying in August that he intends to step aside.

Jamie has been the conservator of his daughter's estate since 2008. But there have been a whirlwind of petitions filed since, the latest coming from the pop star's new attorney, Matthew Rosengart, filed on Monday, asking the judge to, if nothing else, remove Spears' father from any control of her fairs immediately.

The singer's attorney also calling for investigation into allegations that her father and a company he hired secretly placed a recording device in her home and monitored her cell phone, as claimed by The New York Times.

A lawyer for Jamie would not comment on these allegations but said in a previous statement to CNN, quote, all of his actions were well within the parameters of the authority conferred upon him by the court. His actions were done with the knowledge and consent of Britney, her court-appointed attorney, and/or the court.

This summer, during two emotional testimonies, Britney made bombshell claims.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She said the conservatorship was abusive. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She said she's been given lithium against her will.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She said she is not allowed to remove her IUD contraceptive.

MELAS: And during July testimony, she said she wants to charge her father with conservatorship abuse. A lawyer for Jamie Spears said in his statement that he quote, loves his daughter unwaveringly.

CROWS: Free Britney now. Free Britney now.

MELAS: The proceedings have drawn a massive following both online and in-person at the Los Angeles County Superior Courthouse. Fans who call themselves the Free Britney Movement have been protesting for the removal of her father and the termination of the conservatorship for months and promised to show up in full effect to see if Spears finally gets her freedom.

It's unclear whether the Grammy Award-winner will appear virtually this time and give the court and her fans another chance to hear from her.

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MELAS (on camera): There are multiple scenarios as to what can happen today, so the judge, Judge Brenda Penny, could terminate the conservatorship once and for all, but she could also move to suspend her father, Jamie Spears.

So, I will keep you posted. I'll be inside that courtroom today. And we are just waiting for the Free Britney Movement that's going to be holding a rally on the streets outside the courthouse later today.

HILL: All right. Chloe, I appreciate it, we'll look for those updates, thank you.

We are staying on the breaking developments as Democrats try to pass two critical pieces of President Biden's agenda. Senator Kyrsten Sinema headed back to the White House for a fourth meeting with the president today. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meantime, frustrated by moderates who are blocking a deal.

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SCIUTTO: Just in to CNN, YouTube is now finally, you might say, cracking down on vaccine disinformation on its platform.

HILL: CNN Correspondent Donie O'Sullivan is following this. So, what is this new policy?

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, guys. Yes, I mean, every time we hear these announcements from companies, like YouTube, where they're telling us that they're going to take this action, that they're going to ban certain misinformation, I mean, I think it comes to a lot of people as a surprise that they were allowing this sort of stuff all along. I mean, we're almost two years into this pandemic.

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Take a look at what YouTube is saying. It's banning about all sorts of vaccines, not just COVID, misinformation that falsely alleges that approved vaccines are dangerous and cause chronic health effects, claims that vaccines do not reduce transmission or contraction of disease. And they say this would include content that falsely says that approved vaccines cause autism, cancer or infertility, or that substances in vaccines can track those who receive them.

I mean, this is really sort of basic crazy stuff that I think a lot of people would have assumed with all the talk from these Silicon Valley platforms, that this stuff would already be banned. I will also just mention that one very influential anti-vaxxer who was banned today, only today -- I was at a Trump rally recently where a woman told me in Alabama she wasn't getting vaccinated and she cited this anti-vaxxer as the reason, as the person that she trusted more than her own doctor when it came to the vaccine. So, really, that is just a tangible example of how this sort of action from YouTube is just too little too late.

HILL: Yes, and just one of so many examples, right? We know that that disinformation is being gobbled up and leading to these decisions.

Really quickly, Donie, too, it's not just that the vaccine misinformation and disinformation that YouTube has been slow to react to. I mean, it's not the first time we said, huh, weren't you doing this already? Why not? O'SULLIVAN: That's right. I mean, on this very show just a few weeks

before last year's election, on October, the YouTube CEO told Poppy that she wasn't sure if YouTube was going to ban QAnon. They later went on to ban it. But, I mean, that's just an example of how slow and frankly negligent the platform is.

SCIUTTO: Yes, and impactful, impactful, right? We see it in vaccine hesitancy or flat-out refusal now.

HILL: Absolutely. Donie, I appreciate it. Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Thanks so much to all of you for joining us on yet another busy news day. There are more to come. I'm Jim Sciutto.

HILL: And I'm Erica Hill. We'll be back for another one tomorrow.

Meantime, at this hour with Kate Bolduan picks up after a quick break.

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KATE BOLDUAN, CNN AT THIS HOUR: Hello, everyone, I'm Kate Bolduan.

Here is what we're watching At This Hour.

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