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Venus and Serena Lose First Round of Doubles; Attempted Assassination of Argentina's Vice President; Bill Nelson is Interviewed about the Artemis Launch; Chicago Mayor Calls Out Texas Governor; NYPD Opens Probe. Aired 9:30-10a ET
Aired September 02, 2022 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[09:30:51]
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Those were the cheers last night as Venus and Serena Williams walked off the court after what might be the final time they play doubles together. They lost in their first round at the U.S. Open, but, Serena, she's not finished yet.
CNN sports commentator Carolyn Manno joins me now.
So, Carolyn, she's got 23 grand slams. She's got another singles match coming up.
CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's going to be a tough test tonight.
Just a quick point on the pair, I mean, because this is historic, what they've done together.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
MANNO: I think we're going to continue to appreciate them as we have the benefit of putting their accomplishments into historical context. I mean there was a time from 2008 to 2010 where they won six out of the eight grand slams together, including four in a row.
SCIUTTO: People forget that.
MANNO: Yes, and they were -
SCIUTTO: I mean they were formidable as a doubles team.
MANNO: They really were. And they, you know, and, oh, by the way, during that time, they were also winning singles titles in those slams.
SCIUTTO: Yes. Just a little bit of win there.
MANNO: Yes, but they have had a remarkable run together.
As for Serena, you know, Aja Tomljanovic is a player who is experienced, has been to the quarterfinal of a major before. She's a great baseline hitter. You know, this is going to be really intense. And Serena's played a lot of tennis already. But I want to play for you, Jim, a little of what she said about balancing the magnitude of the moment with the micro story here, which is getting through some of these early matches.
Take a listen.
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SERENA WILLIAMS, 23-TIME GRAND SLAM CHAMPION: I've been doing a little bit of both. I think I've mostly been kind of blocking everything out. But then, at the same time, I've been embracing a little bit of it because I also want to enjoy the moment, because, yes, I think these moments are clearly fleeting. So, for me, it was - it's really about having a little embrace, but also understanding that I'm here to focus, you know, and do the best that I can this time.
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MANNO: And that's a point that, you know, is important to her. You know, she's trying to win this slam. That's going to be a very difficult thing to do. I think her chances of going all the way and winning are probably slim.
But, you know, there's so much going on around her and she's managed to somehow strike a balance between taking the crowd in, enjoying her last grand slam, and then also really compartmentalizing when she needs to, particularly on the singles side, and just facing these quality players who are beatable players, but just handling what she needs to handle on the court.
SCIUTTO: It will be fun to watch. I'm jealous you're going there, but enjoy it.
MANNO: It will be fun.
SCIUTTO: Carolyn Manno, thanks so much.
MANNO: Sure.
SCIUTTO: So, an entirely different story that we are covering this morning. A truly terrifying moment in front of a huge crowd. All of it caught on camera. And here's the moment here. A man tried to assassinate the vice president of Argentina. This, in front of her home - there's the weapon -- in Buenos Aires last night. The gun just inches away from her face. He pulled the trigger. Thankfully, the gun did not fire.
For more on this let's go to journalist Stefano Pozzebon, who is reporting from Bogota now.
Stefano, I wonder what happened here, right? I mean it seems like just incredible fortune that the gun didn't go off. What do we know about the suspect?
STEFANO POZZEBON, JOURNALIST: Yes, the suspect, Jim, is 35-year-old. He's a Brazilian national. And he's currently in custody. He's been charged with attempted murder.
On his - on the other hand, Cristina is - she's (INAUDIBLE) referred to in Argentinian politics - Cristina has not been seen in public. Today, the cabinet, the Argentina cabinet, is in a meet right now as we speak to come up with a unified response about these attack that some are already talking of a miracle because the gun did not detonate.
I think also for viewers around the world, it's worth striking how the choice of words that the Argentinean president, Alberto Fernandez, chose last night in rejecting these attack, almost mirror those of U.S. President Joe Biden that he delivered a few hours earlier in his speech in Pennsylvania, saying that democracy is under attack and that the nation should come together in rejecting these attacks as firmly as possible.
This comes in a very heightened tensions moment in Argentinean politics. Cristina faces an investigation of corruption charges dating back to when she was the president of Argentina.
[09:35:07]
And only last week, a prosecutor asked for a 12-year sentence against her. You can see that the tension is rising up and the government is trying to do whatever they can to calm the situation and respond firmly.
Jim.
SCIUTTO: Goodness. What a close escape there.
Stefano Pozzebon, thanks so much.
Coming up, NASA officials say there is, quote, no guarantee the Artemis I rocket will launch tomorrow though that's their hope. Details on the issues still that could come in the way of the latest mission to space.
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[09:40:22]
SCIUTTO: NASA will try again tomorrow to launch the next stage of the Artemis mission to the moon. A NASA official acknowledged they are assuming a little more risk, but that they are comfortable with that. Those risks include taking a chance with the conditioning of engine number three, which was one of the issues that forced them to scrub Monday's launch of the mega moon rocket, biggest the U.S. has ever launched.
Joining me now to discuss, NASA Administrator Bill Nelson.
Good to have you back, sir.
BILL NELSON, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: Hey, Jim. Good to be with you.
SCIUTTO: So, let's begin with tomorrow.
We now know that the reason for Monday's scrub, what was the engine, one of those engines, couldn't cool. But since then engineers believe, as I understand it, that it was a faulty sensor giving bad readings.
I wonder, how confident are you in that assessment and do you believe it's been fixed?
NELSON: The launch team is very confident. They have, to use a southern term, they have looked at it from izzard to gizzard. And they're very confident. And the only thing that's going to get in the way, if it does, is summertime in Florida, the rainstorms, the lightning storms. But they're still looking. We got a 60 percent chance on the weather that it's good.
SCIUTTO: Sixty percent. That's pretty good.
There was some criticism in the wake of this, which I know you've heard, that NASA should have completed a full rehearsal, what's known as a wet dress rehearsal, ahead of these launch attempts. And I wonder, do you look back and say, well, maybe we should have?
NELSON: Well, it all goes back to when the engines were tested at the Stennis (ph) Center in Mississippi. And there was almost a complete test, but not a complete test. And then the same thing happened once they rolled out to the pad and dressed it up and filled up the tanks, same thing. They would have caught this problem. So, you learn as you go. And that's what a test flight is for. This is a test. We are going to stress it and test it before we put humans on the top of this rocket.
SCIUTTO: Understood. And that, of course, the next step.
So I'm curious, if the launch does go ahead tomorrow, are you confident that NASA will be back on schedule for the upcoming manned moon missions?
NELSON: Yes. First of all, this test, 32 days, it has to work. The primary test is that the heat shield, Jim, has to work, because it's coming up fast, 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit, 32 times the speed of sound. All of that works, two years from now we will put a crew of four on the top. They will circle the moon, splash down, check out all the systems. Year after that, in 2025, we put a crew of four on. They go into lunar polar orbit. They climb into the SpaceX lander. They go down and the first woman and the next man will walk on the moon.
SCIUTTO: It's exciting just as you lay it out there to think about that, that moment. I'm sure, like a lot of folks watching now, I'm excited about that.
As you know, both the U.S. and China have efforts underway, dueling efforts, to build bases on the south pole, the ice rich south pole of the moon in the 2030s.
Is it correct to say that the U.S. and China are in a space race now? NELSON: Yes. China is good. China is very aggressive. And China is
very secretive. They won't share much. But we know that they are going with robots to the south pole next year. We are too. We're going to dig to see if there's water. If there's water, then that's rocket fuel, hydrogen and oxygen. When we land, in '25, it will be with humans on the south pole. So, yes, there's a space race.
SCIUTTO: Who's winning?
NELSON: Well, let's see. This is the first step, and this is the largest, most powerful rocket ever.
SCIUTTO: Is it -- should folks watching this think that this is a repeat to some degree of what we saw in the '60s and '70s.
[09:45:01]
A space race, of course, at the time with the Soviet Union, which had implications beyond space, right? It was - it was - there were enormous national security implications to that race.
Do you see this race with China as similar to that one?
NELSON: In the space race with the Soviets it was who controls the high ground as the advantage. Today, that's even more so because look how much of the things we do on the face of the earth that are enabled by what we have in space. Take, for example, our early warning satellites on a nuclear attack.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
NELSON: Take, for example, GPS.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
NELSON: You want to go from here, neighbor's house, you dial in your GPS. That has great implications for the national security and defense.
SCIUTTO: No question. Time stamps for financial markets. Switches for railroads. I mean so much dependent on that and space capabilities.
NASA Administrator Bill Nelson, we're wishing you good luck tomorrow.
NELSON: Hey, thanks, Jim.
SCIUTTO: And thanks so much to him for joining us.
Still ahead, an NYPD investigation is underway this morning after an officer was caught on video shoving a woman to the ground. This was during an arrest. We're going to have the details just ahead.
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[09:50:51] SCIUTTO: New this morning, Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot is sharply criticizing Texas Governor Greg Abbott for bussing migrants to Democratic led cities, including hers. Lightfoot said 75 migrants were dropped off there this week with no warning in advance. Lightfoot welcomed them but then rebuked Abbott. She accused him of trying to create a crisis. She also called him, quote, a man without morals, humanity, or shame.
CNN's Priscilla Alvarez has been following the story for us.
Priscilla, I wonder if you can bring us up to date on what's happening here and what else she had to say.
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN REPORTER: Well, she also called this unpatriotic. This is an effort that Texas Governor Greg Abbott launched in April, first sending migrants to D.C., then New York City, and now Chicago. And he is a fierce critic of the Biden administration and the administration's immigration policies. And he's doing it as an affront to Biden.
Now, that, on the ground level, means that cities have to grapple with migrants arriving in an uncoordinated way, as Mayor Lightfoot said. Now, she also said that so far 75 Venezuelans were dropped off at Chicago's Union Station and more are expected. But as you mentioned, she strongly rebuked this.
Take a listen.
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MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT (D), CHICAGO: Governor Abbott's racist and xenophobic practices of expulsion have only amplified the challenges many of these migrants have experienced on their journey to find a safe place. The governor's actions are not just inhumane, they are unpatriotic.
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ALVAREZ: Now, Texas has already sent thousands of migrants to D.C. and New York City, and it is a costly endeavor. We learned this week that Texas has spent more than $12 million to transport migrants to these cities.
And, Jim, we should note that it is not uncommon for migrants to move around the country once they're released from custody as they go through their immigration proceedings. Abbott, though not backing down. Instead saying in a statement that, quote, and this is to the Mayor Lightfoot, if the mayor wants a solution to this humanitarian crisis, she should stop complaining and call on President Biden to make immediate action to secure the border. Something the president continues failing to do.
So, Abbott says he's going to send more migrants to other cities. But again, Jim, this is something that often happens and, to some degree, he's footing the bill.
SCIUTTO: And, of course, the other thing, there's been no action in Congress, right, to change immigration laws.
Priscilla Alvarez, thanks so much.
Well, this morning, the NYPD has launched an internal investigation, this after an officer was caught on both cell phone and body cam video shoving a woman to the ground. That's the video there. Now, authorities say it happened while police were arresting man for attempted murder.
CNN's Brynn Gingras has been covering this.
So, Brynn, I know that New York City Mayor Eric Adams is defending the officer now. What do we know about the circumstances?
BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, when these videos surface, it's always important to look at the totality of what's going on here.
SCIUTTO: For sure.
GINGRAS: And that's what we want to show you here because it was a chaotic situation there. As Jim said, police were trying to arrest a man who they say was wanted for murder and allegedly, according to the mayor, had a ghost gun on him when you can see a 19-year-old, that woman there, steps in. She strikes one of the officers who was trying to arrest this man. And then he tries to fend her off, hitting her, and she falls to the ground pretty harshly.
Now, the altercation was caught on cell phone video and then the NYPD released body cam footage as well. That teen, 19-years-old, was arrested and police recommended that she be charged with assaulting a police officer, harassment, and resisting arrest. But prosecutors charged her with a misdemeanor, and she was released from holding. That officer is now under internal review. And as Jim mentioned, the major of New York City defended his actions.
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MAYOR ERIC ADAMS (D), NEW YORK: But let's be clear, they were arresting a person who was being pursued for attempted murder. He was armed with a ghost gun in his belt. And people got in and interrupted while police were taking action. That just can't happen.
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GINGRAS: And the mayor often defending police officers as they try to get a - sort of a handle on the crime going on in New York City.
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The teen, she's due back in court next month. The officer, it's important to note, has had complaints against him before, but one expert tells CNN that his actions do appear lawful, Jim.
SCIUTTO: Have her lawyers responded? GINGRAS: Yes, her lawyers are essentially saying, listen, we get what
you're saying, but this could have been handled maybe a little bit more nicely.
Let's listen to her attorney.
OK, sorry, we don't have that. But, yes, she - they said police have --
SCIUTTO: Right. So not taking issue with the officers intervening, but saying that they intervened too aggressively.
GINGRAS: Yes, like this is a grown man against a 19-year-old woman, can you just take it a little bit easier.
So, yes, certainly both sides to this story.
SCIUTTO: Brynn Gingras, thanks so much.
GINGRAS: All right.
SCIUTTO: Well, we are watching the markets this morning after news the U.S. economy added some 315,000 jobs in August. So far the Dow, you can see there, up. There are signs that the rate of hiring is slowing. I'm going to speak live with the labor secretary just ahead.
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