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Hundred Plus Civilians Evacuated from the Azovstal Steel Plant; Americans Volunteering to Provide Medical Care in in Ukraine; Reward Posted for Info on Missing Murder Suspect and Corrections Officer; China Sticks to Extreme Zero-COVID Measures; Biden Faces Bipartisan Pushback on Ending Title 42 This Month; Poland's Turbulent Past Inspires Compassionate Present. Aired 8-9 ET
Aired May 01, 2022 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:00]
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STANLEY TUCCI, CNN HOST, "STANLEY TUCCI: SEARCHING FOR ITALY": OK. White wine?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go ahead. That's good. Now we can put a little bit of the passata di pomodoro. Not too much. Because remember, it's all about the black ink. We put the stock.
TUCCI: OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can cover until they become nice and tender.
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PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PRES. VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINE: Nice to meet you. Thank you for coming.
REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): We are visiting you to say thank you for your fight for freedom. Our commitment is to be there for you until the fight is done.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): As of now a special rescue operation is being carried out by the Azov regiment. We get civilians out of the rubble with ropes. We hope this process will continue and we'll be able to evacuate all the civilians.
GOV. ASA HUTCHINSON (R), ARKANSAS: Wherever you have high inflationary pressures, whenever you have interest rates going up, add that to the supply chain woes that we have, we've got challenges.
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight, Naomi Judd to be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is going to be tragic but it's going to be
joyous on so many levels.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: I'm Pamela Brown in Washington. You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM on this Sunday. It is 3:00 a.m. in Mariupol, Ukraine. And hope may be as close as the sunrise.
These are new images from the besieged city. Ukraine's president says that more than 100 civilians evacuated from the steel plant on Sunday, a place which had been the final stand of resistance. Hundreds of people huddled in the basement there for weeks with food, water, and medicine running out. Evacuations are due to resume just hours from now but more Russian shelling overnight could jeopardize that.
The city has been relentlessly bombarded since the first days of the Russian invasion. The sprawling complex as you can see has been reduced to ruins. Every single building is gutted or leveled. In southwest Ukraine, a CNN team witnessed a convoy fleeing Russian held Kherson. At least 120 cars carrying families fleeing the violence.
And House Speaker Nancy Pelosi led a surprise visit to Kyiv with a congressional delegation this weekend. She is the highest-level U.S. elected official to meet with Zelenskyy there and she reassured him that America is committed to Ukraine's fight for democracy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PELOSI: We believe that we are visiting you to say thank you for your fight for freedom, that we are a frontier of freedom and that your fight is a fight for everyone. And so our commitment is to be there for you until the fight is done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Let's get the latest now from Ukraine. CNN's Scott McLean has the latest on the evacuations from Mariupol -- Scott.
SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Pamela, the nightmare is finally over for at least some of the civilians who have been trapped for more than two months under that sprawling Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol sheltering from the Russian bombs. Some of those civilians have been allowed to be evacuated. Russian state media quoting the Defense Ministry says that 80 were taken to Russian held territory.
New video shows them arriving at a small tent camp it looks like a few miles east of the city. There are women, there are children, and there are elderly people. Now, it's not entirely clear how this evacuation took place but President Zelenskyy said that a real cease fire in his words that's lasted two days so far certainly helped the cause. That is surprising though considering that the Russians have been relentless in their bombing campaign of that facility, and even as of Friday were trying to storm the plant by ground. Now the Ukrainians have long been concerned that these civilians would
be pushed against their will into Russian held territory but in this case it appears as if they actually did have a choice. The Russians say that anyone who wanted to go further into Ukraine was handed over to the United Nations and the Red Cross and President Zelenskyy has confirmed that 100 people are en route to Zaporizhzhia on Ukrainian held territory.
Now we're also seeing new video released by the Azov regiment who has been leading the fighting against the Russians from that plant. And it shows civilians coming out from what looks like some pretty extreme destruction using ladders to get out of these holes in the ground and then make their way on to buses. One soldier asks about a woman's son, her baby son. She says that he just turned 6 months old. That means that he has spent about one-third of his young life trapped under ground sheltering from Russian bombs.
[20:05:04]
Now, the Ukrainian deputy prime minister who has been involved in the negotiations to get people out apologized for the radio silence as of late from the government but she says that she didn't want to do anything to jeopardize the success of this operation, which by the way, is ongoing. She specifically thanked the Red Cross and also the U.N. secretary general who has worked relentlessly to try to broker a deal between Kyiv and Moscow.
Now, if these two statements from Ukraine and Russia are true it means that well over 100, perhaps 180 people have already gotten out but there may still be hundreds more yet to come. The Ukrainians also say that there are hundreds of wounded soldiers they would also like to evacuate from the plant but their fate so far is unknown -- Pam.
BROWN: All right, Scott. Thank you.
And now a closer look at the monstrous humanitarian crisis that is unfolding every second of every day in Ukraine. We got a little glimpse of it right there. We're going to talk more about it. Dr. Thom Mayer just returned after spending three weeks providing medical care in Ukraine. Dr. Mayer is the medical director for the NFL Players Association, the executive vice president of LogixHealth, and he knows something about a crisis. He was the command physician at the Pentagon during the September 11th attack.
Doctor, welcome to the show.
DR. THOM MAYER, MEDICAL DIRECTOR, NFL PLAYERS ASSOCIATION: Thank you. It's a pleasure to be here.
BROWN: So you led Team Rubicon mobile emergency team and you treated, what, 350 Ukrainians we're told. When you were there what did you see?
MAYER: Well, first of all, Pamela, thanks for having me on. It's a privilege. What we saw was raw bravery, raw courage, raw tenacity on the part of the people that we saw. And let's be clear we didn't see the soldiers. We were in a western area. We saw their wives. We saw their children. We saw their parents. And the Ukrainian people I can tell you from the 350 that we saw are resolute in their spirit.
BROWN: Why put yourself in that danger? Did you have hesitation or did you just feel sort of this sense of duty to be there to help on the ground?
MAYER: Well, I am an emergency physician by background and a pediatric emergency physician as well. So you're trained to run to the sound of chaos. You're trained as we did at the Pentagon to run into the flames instead of away from the flames. So part of it is training and part of it, we had an amazing team of emergency physician. Dave Young, paramedic, sorry, physician assistant Chris, Leann and Summer, our nurses, and Steve and (INAUDIBLE), our firefighters. And every one of them just felt like get me there, get me to the front, and let us help, find out how we can help.
BROWN: And you also helped train, right, you helped train some 1700 local medical personnel on some of the skills that are needed in a situation like this. How important are those skills? How can that make a difference in a war zone like this?
MAYER: Well, the training it always reminds me of Henry Adams who said a teacher affects eternity. He can never tell where his influence ends. And just so that training because this is going to be a decades long war we fear and having those people train to do what we've been able to do is such a critical piece of the action.
BROWN: Would you like to see a greater emphasis on sending U.S. medical personnel to Ukraine?
MAYER: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. You know, your little story on Griffin, the 6-year-old girl, she opened her heart and she helped. Millions of people are opening their pocketbooks. We had the privilege of opening our passports and going into Ukraine. And we think that that is going to be a necessity for a good long time. Years at a minimum.
BROWN: Do you think then in light of what you just said you'll go back?
MAYER: Absolutely. If my wife and kids will let me. Absolutely.
BROWN: I know how that is.
MAYER: Sure.
BROWN: When you have a family there are other considerations. When you were there, did you feel safe wherever --you said you were in western Ukraine, right?
MAYER: Yes. For obvious reasons, operational security reasons you can't say exactly where but western Ukraine.
BROWN: Exactly.
MAYER: And we knew we were going in harm's way. I will say having seen a fair amount, which means I'm old, when you look at your window and see Russian rockets go past and hit several blocks away, you know you're where you need to be. You need to be --
BROWN: You saw that.
MAYER: Yes.
BROWN: Just several blocks away.
MAYER: Yes.
BROWN: That must have been terrifying.
MAYER: You know, it's strange that with our training the whole team's hearts slow down when you see that, not speed up. But that said, it was clear that that could have hit us instead of somebody else.
BROWN: How did your day job as the NFL Players Union medical director prepare you for this trip?
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You know, when you talked about having to respond on 9/11 but also everything you do in your day job I imagine prepared you as well.
MAYER: Absolutely. DC Smith, my boss, JC Tretter who's the president of our union, they were completely supportive of the mission both financially and psychologically, spiritually, emotionally, and everything else. But day to day, we, the Players Association, have to speak truth to power. A far more powerful organization. And there were, in the middle of the night in the air raid shelters there was that sense of the same speaking truth to power and using our influence to help make some little difference for the folks that we saw.
BROWN: Just any final words from you for our viewers that are watching right now? You have been in a unique position having been on the ground helping all of these Ukrainians. What else would you like to say as we close
MAYER: Well, the same thing that Churchill said. Never give up. Never give in. Never, never, never, never give up on the Ukrainian people. Any time you have a chance to help them it's worth it and it will be repaid many times over with the courage, the tenacity, the bravery that they show.
BROWN: All right. Dr. Thom Mayer, thank you. What an inspiring conversation. Thank you so much.
MAYER: My pleasure. Thank you, Pamela.
BROWN: And there is now a reward of up to $10,000 for information about an Alabama murder suspect and a corrections officer missing since Friday morning.
CNN's Nadia Romero joins us with the latest. It has been three days since this pair disappeared. Any leads, Nadia?
NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we just heard from the sheriff just moments ago. He says they're working on a couple of leads. They're really trying to find video footage to figure out what car the two of them might have left in. Her patrol car was left at a shopping mall. He says they're going through those leads but nothing new to confirm. They have spoken with Officer White's family and the sheriff says they've been cooperative in this investigation.
You're taking a look right now at newly released photos of inmate Casey White inside the Lauderdale County Detention Center. That was released by the sheriff's office this evening. Now Casey White was already serving 75 years in prison for charges when the prosecutors say he told them back in 2020 that he killed 59-year-old Connie Ridgeway. Ridgeway was murdered in her apartment in 2015.
Now White pleaded not guilty but he was back in the county detention center related to those charges. And back in 2020 the sheriff's office tells us that he had this plot to try to escape that also included taking a hostage.
Listen to Connie Ridgeway's son Austin Williams when he was asked about finding out that Casey White said that he killed his mother. We also asked him his thoughts on the escape. Take a listen.
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AUSTIN WILLIAMS, SON OF MURDER VICTIM CONNIE RIDGEWAY: I had no idea who he was until what happened. And as far as I know she had no connection with him. She just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. The ideal case there. They get him quick. And he goes to trial. And they keep him and in 24-hour confinement until then.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMERO: Now one of the big questions still out there is if Vicki White, the corrections officer, is a hostage or if she is an accomplice. Either way the sheriff's office, the U.S. Marshals believe that she is in danger -- Pamela.
BROWN: All right. Nadia Romero, thank you so much.
And still ahead tonight China looks to slow the spread of COVID by forcing many people to stay in their homes. Our David Culver is one of them.
Plus the Homeland Security chief has a symbol and strong message for migrants hoping to enter the U.S. from the southern border.
And as Poland takes in millions of refugees from the war, we remember a time in history when the Polish government actually forced people to leave.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you remember the moment when you realized you had to go?
ALEX GELBER, FORCED TO LEAVE POLAND IN 1968: Yes. It was very unpleasant.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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[20:18:11]
BROWN: With new COVID cases spreading across China the country's zero COVID policy has officials using extreme measures.
CNN's David Culver is in Shanghai under strict lockdown in his own home.
DAVID CULVER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Pamela, officials in Beijing standing by their zero COVID policy fearing that without it this country's medical system will be overwhelmed. And they say their harsh measures buy them time to get more vulnerable groups namely the elderly and kids vaccinated. This despite mounting skepticism over its effectiveness and sustainability.
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CULVER (voice-over): Lockdown in China is like nowhere else on earth. Here you see a man getting swabbed for a COVID test through the fence. Using a megaphone health care workers call for others to get tested.
The country's zero COVID strategy turning millions into virtual prisoners across the nation. Outside of Beijing these residents forced to hand over their apartment keys so community workers can lock them in from the outside. For those who refuse crews drill holes to chain the doors shut. In northeastern Jilin Province, no need for a lock. Workers installing steel bars to keep people from leaving the building.
Right now across China at least 27 cities are under full or partial lockdown. CNN's calculation estimating that directly impacts up to 180 million people. More than half the U.S. population.
For over two years now China's COVID containment has become more extreme. Fracturing everyday life. In Shenzhen, a city not under lockdown, babies kept off the subway. The reason? They didn't have negative COVID test results. It's now mandatory to get access to most of public life in the city. To accommodate the new rule they've opened 24/7 testing sites.
[20:20:12]
A delayed test result had this groom in Xinjiang watching his own wedding ceremony via live stream, not allowed to enter the venue, laughing off the insanity of it all.
China's zero tolerance for any new cases comes from the top. President Xi Jinping tasked the Vice Premier Sun Chunlan to oversee major outbreaks. In Shanghai that means working with the city's most senior official, Communist Party Secretary Li Qiang. Their orders are carried out by the municipal government which runs the quarantine centers and coordinated at local levels with thousands of communities.
Those local workers are our literal gatekeepers, determining who goes in and out of each compound, facilitating food deliveries and managing our health information.
(On-camera): In addition to very regular PCR tests each day we're also required to do rapid antigen tests. We then upload the results to this government app and then we take a screen shot of that and a picture of the test and we share it publicly with our community group chat so that all our neighbors can see we're negative.
(Voice-over): The community group chats can serve as a helpful way to source food but also as a space to call out neighbors. Sometimes becoming a witch hunt to kick out positive cases and have them sent to quarantine centers.
PROF. DALI YANG, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO: It has become quite common for local authorities basically to say we have a war time situation and therefore we have to apply emergency measures and therefore you have to simply follow orders.
CULVER: It reminds some residents of the cultural revolution from the '60s and '70s, a painful era of political and social chaos sparked by extreme policies. Criticism of Beijing's zero COVID strategy is not tolerated from anyone including the son of a Chinese billionaire who was also sent to a crowded quarantine facility in Shanghai.
Wang Sicong banned from Chinese social media after criticizing the policy. His profile with 40 million followers erased. But not everyone is silenced. Back in Shanghai many residents confined to their homes adding to the growing chorus of dissent. As COVID cases surge across China, millions now sentenced to lockdown. Their release date? Unknown.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CULVER: And while we are now seeing more communities ease lockdown here, the vast majority of this city remains confined to their homes. And this financial capital, it is far from restarting -- Pamela.
BROWN: All right. Thanks so much, David.
Well, some Republicans and Democrats are asking President Biden to keep a pandemic immigration policy. Up next, the controversy over Title 42 and why some say it could lead to a surge, a major surge in migrants from Mexico.
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[20:27:32]
BROWN: In just a few weeks the Biden administration plans to end Title 42. The Trump era pandemic measure allows authorities to cite public health safety to quickly expel migrants trying to enter the country. If the rule is lifted on May 23rd the U.S. could see a ballooning number of migrants at the southern border. CNN's Eva McKend is here.
So, Eva, Republicans and some Democrats, they're pushing to keep the order in place longer. Rare that you have, you know, Democrats and Republicans agreeing on this. What is going on here? Do you expect the administration to follow through on that deadline or waive it?
EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pam, it's important to note it's not all Democrats. It's about a dozen or so Democrats who in swing districts who are expected to take on tough election battles. So they do not represent I would say the Democratic Party as a whole. By and large most Democrats actually support this move from the administration.
Now our colleague Dana Bash spoke with the Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas this morning and he really did not waver. He said the administration is listening to the CDC. It's crucial to remember that the stated reason for this policy was to serve as a COVID mitigation strategy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS, HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: There is no question that if in fact we reach that number that is going to be an extraordinary strain on our system but we are preparing for it and that is why the plan we have prepared calls for a number of different actions. Not just in the domestic arena but also with our partners to the south.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCKEND: Now in defending the administration Mayorkas said they have been preparing for months since September and a plan recently released to Congress includes a number of measures including increasing the number of Border Patrol agents
BROWN: And I know you were on the Hill, and you've been talking to several lawmakers on both sides of the aisle about this. Tell us, why are the politics of this more complicated than perhaps it seems?
MCKEND: Now, so, Pam, I pushed Senate Republicans on this last week. They have been very vocally against most other pandemic related restrictions, reversing course on that. So why then do they support this sole policy? And they really don't have a good answer. And I think that represents sort of some of the contradictions here. I think it's also important to remember this conversation always heats up around election season.
[20:30:02]
In 2018 I remember Democrats being baited by Republicans into framing the border as a crisis. For a long time they were holding off on saying that word until they finally reversed course. And when we are talking about this bipartisan concern about lifting this policy that immigrants' rights activists characterize as unconstitutional it's important to note that it is about a dozen or so Democrats largely facing tough elections, not characteristic of the Democratic Party as a whole.
And many of the Democrats who are taking this position now have spoken much more passionately about immigrants in the not-so-distant past. For instance Senator Warnock, for instance, he signed on to a letter last year, did not explicitly call for eliminating Title 42 but it expressed concern with the conditions that Haitians were being treated at, at the border. And so why now has he reversed course?
You speak to activists in Georgia as I have. They are very, very disappointed and demoralized by this decision. So it's important to hold Republicans' feet to the fire on this. This week Secretary Mayorkas will be back before Congress again. And Republicans will largely characterize undocumented immigrants as a public health threat. There is no -- or public safety threat, rather. There is no data to support those assertions.
And so I think this conversation really deserves a lot more nuance and we have to be a lot more critical of both Democrats and Republicans when we question them on this issue.
BROWN: Yes. And you have clearly. Thank you for helping us better understand for both sides. That's so important.
Eva, thank you so much.
Well, Poland has welcomed millions of refugees from Ukraine. Up next how a dark moment from Poland's past may have affected the country's approach now.
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RABBI MICHAEL SCHUDRICH, CHIEF RABBI OF POLAND: And the government decided that the best way to deal with this social tension, social opposition to the government, was by claiming, you know, the Jews. It's all the Jews doing it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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[20:37:58]
BROWN: Poland has welcomed nearly three million refugees from Ukraine since Russian forces invaded in late February. And it's a remarkable show of compassion and humanity. Some of that may be lessons learned from Poland's own history. Like some 50 years ago when Poland's communist government forced thousands of Jews to leave the country in an anti-Semitic purge.
CNN's Dana Bash has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BASH (voice-over): This is the only major synagogue in Warsaw the Nazis did not destroy. A place of worship once again.
(On-camera): How many Jews are left in Poland?
SCHUDRICH: It's impossible to say.
BASH (voice-over): Impossible not only because Adolph Hitler murdered three million Polish Jews, many he did not kill hid their Jewish identity after World War II. And a more recent reason. In 1968, the communist government forced many of Poland's remaining Jews to leave the country.
SCHUDRICH: In March of 1968 there were rumblings in society against the government and the government decided that the best way to deal with this social tension and opposition to the government was by claiming, you know, the Jews, it's all the Jews doing it.
BASH (on-camera): Which is the scapegoat line that has been used for millennia.
SCHUDRICH: Correct. Tried and true.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 1968 was the year of student revolution throughout the world.
BASH (voice-over): It was the late 1960s. Protests were raging not just on American college campuses but Polish universities. And the communist government didn't like it. This exhibit at the POLIN, the Jewish museum in Warsaw, illustrates what happened. After Israel's victory over its Arab neighbors in the 1967 Six-Day War, Poland's communist leader, W?adys?aw Gomu?ka, spoke out against Zionism, thinly veiled hate code.
JOANNA FIKUS, HEAD OF POLIN MUSEUM EXHIBITION DEPARTMENT: He never mentioned the word Jew. But he says --
BASH (on-camera): He didn't have to.
FIKUS: He didn't have to. He was talking about Zionists.
[20:40:03]
After this speech this huge wave of anti-Semitic campaign began.
BASH: Tell me your story from 1968.
KONSTANTY GEBERT, POLISH JOURNALIST: It was a very typical '68 story, when the anti-Semitic campaign started we started losing friends fast.
BASH (voice-over): Konstanty Gebert was a Polish high school student in 1968.
GEBERT: Got beaten up on the street for being a dirty Jew and standing there rubbing my face and wondering what was that all about?
BASH: His family's life was upended by anti-Semitism.
GEBERT: I got expelled from high school for being of Zionist extraction. This was the official reason. BASH: Gebert now a prominent Polish journalist found a way to stay in
Poland. Many Jews forced from their jobs and homes could not.
FIKUS: They were told that they have to leave their home. They were forced to emigrate. They were allowed to leave with one document. This is the kind of the passport which is even not called passport because it's a one-way document which means that you could only leave Poland and never come back.
BASH (on-camera): One way.
FIKUS: One way. And they were allowed as you see here to have with them only $5, nothing else.
BASH: Is that you?
(Voice-over): My uncle Alex Gelber got one of those one-way tickets out of Poland. In 1968 he was 20 and in medical school.
(On-camera): Do you remember the moment when you realized you had to go?
GELBER: Yes. It was very unpleasant because I was pulled out from this fairly protected environment to the situation in which I am essentially a nobody. You would have an official who would stand over you and would say, well, you can take this item or you can take this piece of whatever, some possession, Jewelry or something, and then you cannot take the other.
BASH (voice-over): His father George Gelber was a prominent doctor and professor and a Jew.
GELBER: He was given a choice. They say, well, you can resign, you know, by yourself, or we will fire you. Obviously it made no difference. And so he said no. I am not going to resign. You have to tell me that I'm not worth being here.
BASH: This after surviving Hitler.
(On-camera): For your parents it was only 25 years after the holocaust.
GELBER: Yes, yes, yes. And that was -- they tried to build this semi- normal future and just didn't work well.
BASH (voice-over): Back in Poland Alex's family on his mother's Catholic side were in the dark.
WOJCIECH ZAREMBA, RELATIVE OF 1967 POLISH REFUGEES: It was a kind of shock. We were behind the iron curtain, you know? We had no news, no messages. It was like a disappearance of this very rapid, in a very rapid way. Yes?
BASH (on-camera): Your family just disappeared.
ZAREMBA: They're just gone. They're just gone. Yes. And nobody knew what happened. How they are leaving. Are they fine or not?
BASH (voice-over): Alex finished medical school in Italy then came to the U.S. to reconnect with his parents and met and married my aunt, Dr. Linda Wolf. His sister became a doctor in the U.S. Army, Colonel Renata Greenspan.
(On-camera): When you look at what's happening in Poland now, the Poles are welcoming the Ukrainians with open arms, do you think it's a lesson learned?
GELBER: I hope so. I hope so. There are ordinary people who opened their homes and they let people move in, so this is heartening.
BASH: As a former refugee yourself.
GELBER: Yes?
BASH: What's it like?
GELBER: It's uncanny similar. It is this hate, intolerance, and they drive people out, and people are desperate. They don't know when will they come back. This passage leaves a mark that doesn't leave you.
BASH: Poland's loss is my gain because I got an uncle out of it.
GELBER: That is terrific. I gained a wife.
BASH (voice-over): Dana Bash, CNN reporting.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Wow. Well, just minutes from now a new show debuts right here on CNN. "NOMAD WITH CARLTON MCCOY." Host Carlton McCoy joins me live with a preview up next. Plus, it's a bittersweet night for the world of country music, Naomi Judd honored in Nashville just one day after her tragic death. We'll have an update, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:49:22]
BROWN: Today Naomi and Wynona Judd are inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. The private ceremony going on as planned despite yesterday's shocking announcement of Naomi Judd's death. The mother and daughter duo had been country music royalty for decades ever since they released, they started releasing hit after hit in the 1980s.
And my own mom Phyllis George sat down with Naomi Judd in 1994. Even then Naomi talked about some of the troubles that plagued her.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHYLLIS GEORGE, JOURNALIST: When you stopped traveling and you didn't have your daughter there and you didn't have all this commotion and people waving at you through the bus window, in your moments when you were alone, was there ever a moment you doubted that you weren't going to make it?
[20:50:13]
NAOMI JUDD, COUNTRY MUSIC SINGER: No. I have to say honestly because as soon as I would start to get an inkling, that doubt or despair was going to come into my mind, and this is one of the most valuable lessons that I learned during the illness is that Satan is the author of doubt and despair. He's the one that puts that on us. And we're under scriptural authority to rebuke him. And then I do that, go through that little exercise, and sometimes I'd holler out loud, you know.
GEORGE: Like what would you --
JUDD: Get thee behind me, Satan. You know, and I'm the child of the most high God. And I command you and all your archangels to go to hell.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: That was back in 1994. And clearly, Naomi Judd had these struggles, mental health issues for her whole life. She's written candidly about her battles with severe depression and anxiety. And her 2016 book, "River of Time: My Descent into Depression and How I Emerged with Hope." Naomi Judd died Saturday at the age of 76. Her daughters Wynonna and Ashley saying in part, "We lost our beautiful mother to the disease of mental illness."
Our hearts, our thoughts, our prayers are with them.
Well, Carlton McCoy is a classically trained chef, master sommelier, and expert traveler who has found himself at home everywhere from his grandmother's kitchen to the top restaurants in the world, and a variety of places in between.
Now in the all-new CNN Original Series "NOMAD WITH CARLTON MCCOY," Carlton takes us on a global exploration of food, music, art and culture to discover the universal threads that connect us all.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARLTON MCCOY, CNN HOST, NOMAD WITH CARLTON MCCOY: Julien Pham, the creator of French street food magazine "Fricote" and founder of Family First, a food-focused creative agency that pairs big brands and mega stars with bold new concepts. We could have gotten the best table at any fancy restaurant in Paris. But instead he wanted me to try his mom's home cooking.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's a troublemaker.
MCCOY: You can tell.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here's to that moment.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cheers.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through text translation): Eat this first before it cools off. It's bao bun.
MCCOY: OK. What's on the inside?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sausage. Pork.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Black mushroom.
MCCOY: Is it quail egg?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Quail egg.
MCCOY: Beautiful.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through text translation): Sugarcane shrimp. It's made from shrimp.
MCCOY: From the sugar cane shrimp or chow tom to the fresh green papaya salad, this is a true Vietnamese family style meal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: That's making me hungry. Be sure to tune in, the all-new CNN Original Series, "NOMAD WITH CARLTON MCCOY" premiers tonight at 10:00 Eastern after the season premieres of "Stanley TUCCI: SEARCHING FOR ITALY" only on CNN.
And as we mentioned earlier, the Washington Press Corps, top government officials and Hollywood celebrities gathered for the White House Correspondents' Dinner in the nation's capital last night. It is the first time in three years the event has been held due to the pandemic and it was the first time in six years a sitting president attended.
Host Trevor Noah roasted journalists and poked fun at politicians including President Biden who also cracked jokes about everything from his low approval rating to the GOP.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A special thanks to the 42 percent of you who actually applauded.
(LAUGHTER)
BIDEN: I'm really excited to be here tonight with the only group of Americans with a lower approval rating than I have.
This is the first time the president attended this dinner in six years. (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
BIDEN: It's understandable. We had a horrible plague, followed by two years of COVID.
(LAUGHTER)
BIDEN: Folks, I'm not really here to roast the GOP. That's not my style. Besides, there is nothing I can say about the GOP that Kevin McCarthy hasn't already put on tape.
(LAUGHTER)
BIDEN: Today's Republicans say, tear down Mickey Mouse's house. And pretty soon they'll be storming Cinderella's castle. And you can be sure of it. Republicans seem to support one fella. Some guy named Brandon. He's having a really good year. And I'm kind of happy for him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: And don't forget, you can tweet me at PamelaBrownCNN. You can also follow me on Instagram.
[20:55:00]
Thank you so much for spending some time with us this evening. I'm Pamela Brown. I'll see you next weekend. And the season premiere of "STANLEY TUCCI: SEARCHING FOR ITALY" is next.
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