Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Queen Elizabeth II 1926-2022. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired September 12, 2022 - 10:00   ET

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

ISA SOARES, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Between both sides of the public watching.

[10:00:02]

Of course, this family grieving, watching them mourning, and it's so exposed.

And I think one lady said that she had a lump in her throat. Another I spoke to early had tears in her eyes when I told her that the queen had left the palace of Holyroodhouse. So, in the same way that we saw yesterday, Don, that moment where you could hear the pin drop, I think it is going to be so much more powerful, so much more potent because they are, of course, so exposed. Their grief so exposed right now. Don?

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): Yes. Listen, regardless of, as you said, how you feel about the monarchy, the reverence of this moment palpable here. This is a woman who devoted her life to service, who spent 70 years serving the people of the United Kingdom and other realms and, really, the world. There isn't a world leader that she didn't met, that she didn't hold court with, so to speak, and each and every single one of them, from presidents to despot, to dictators, all respecting her.

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS EDITOR AT LARGE (voice over): I am taken by, as Max said, the lockstep march that the bearers, the security and the royals, the left, right, left, right, it is very difficult to do. But, of course, the princes and the princesses, they have been in military service or they've been honorary and they're aware.

LEMON (voice over): Speaking of, let's just listen for a moment let's just listen for a moment.

[10:05:00]

So made ever more audible, which really personifies the gravity of what is going on, the cobblestone streets here. So, you can hear the clap, clan, clap of the hooves of the horses and also of the soldiers and the family marching in the step there. But also this is the first time throughout the days that we have been covering this that they are behind. They are a few minutes behind, and that's because they have to go slowly on these streets not only because of the crowds but because of the cobblestone as well. QUEST (voice over): I walked up the royal mile yesterday from Holyrood where we were all the way up here to the castle side. And I walked that mile yesterday and it is uphill and it is cobblestones and it is not easy and it is narrow as well. So, the difficulty of doing that lockstep march in those circumstances with those people -- and just look at the crowds.

LEMON (voice over): Look at the amount of phones and people who just want a glimpse in this crowd and get pictures.

We still have a ways to go, Max Foster, before we get to St. Giles' Cathedral. But once we get there and once inside, what happens?

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice over): So, it will feel like a traditional church service with a real Scottish flavor to it. I'm just being told there is a very poignant song that will be sung there, psalm 23. It was actually Princess Elizabeth's marriage to Prince Phillip back in 1947. So, she's asked for that to be sung in there. And I'm told that all of the songs that we hear today will be hymns basically that the queen sang in the church of Balmoral, Crathie Kirk. So deeply personal Scottish experience of the queen and as she wanted it played out.

I think this service is slightly different from the one we're going to have at Westminster Abbey, which is also fully signed off by the queen. By I understand from the dean of Westminster, the king has tweaked a few elements of that. So, I think the one here in London will have a lot more of the king's flavor. This is pure Queen Elizabeth II.

LEMON (voice over): Listen, it is not going unnoticed by the eye but it deserves saying just the beauty of Edinburgh, Scotland.

Christiane, over the last day or so, we've seen the beautiful Scottish countryside and now we're seeing the beauty of this city on display at the queen's funeral.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR (voice over): Indeed, of course, this is the beginning of her final journey, as we've seen over the last couple of days, with all these stop as long the way in different forms of regalia and formality and choreography.

And I think one of the most effective scenes that we're seeing today, when we can, is the overhead camera that shows exactly the layout of where they are right now and where the hearse is. It shows you the buildings, it shows you how many people are actually out there and not everyone will be able to see. Let's face it. Many of them, even if their stand standing there, will have come to be just part of this moment.

And the queen, of course, was not just a monarch, she was also a person. And a lot of people make something of a distinction between that. She also has several layers of connection to the people of Scotland as they have been talking over the last several days since her death. They have come out en masse for several reasons. Mostly to say thank you and to pay respects to her as a person who has known them and all of their institutions for 70 years and beyond.

When she was a kid she went up there, of course, too with her own parents when she was princess. And then there's the other layer, which is how many support or don't support the monarchy and then there is the other layer which is how many want to have just pure independence. But what you have is a mixture of people who have come out for her and to witness this historic moment.

There is one historian is quoted as saying in the newspaper, this is possibly the last global outpouring of mourning that suddenly certainly we'll see in our lifetimes for somebody whose reign spanned such a massive swath of history. 70 years is a huge swath of history. It is not just years, it's whole systems that have come and gone, from this system that was the British empire, which is now well and truly no longer an empire, from the system of fascism, which was defeated just before she became queen.

[10:10:06]

But during her reign, well, her experience as princess and the reign of her own father, King George VI, the system of totalitarian communism, which was defeated with the fall of the Berlin Wall, the system of radical Islamic terrorism that heralded such fear not just across the United States but right here in Britain as well on 7/7 in the year 2005. She's seen all of these come and go.

And it is remarkable that she has been this steadying rock, as, again, was described in many of the tributes, a rock on which this very, very difficult world was based around. She was the constant in a world of instability. And I think that, too, is something that will be missed. So, it is not just her, it's not just the monarchy, it's not just the institutions, it is just what she represents. And I think that we're seeing reflected in all of the people who come out.

And then afterwards in the days after the funeral, where she's finally laid to rest, finally in Windsor, people will start talking and politics will start turning around the issues of nationalism, of independence around the United Kingdom and then will continue to be debated around the commonwealth and whether or not she should or rather the king should still remain the sovereign.

And even already, even as we're watching this morning, this tradition, this transition, already some islands in the Caribbean, commonwealth islands are talking about having a vote in the upcoming near future, not the middle of our future, Don.

LEMON (voice over): Yes. And as you see now, the hearse carrying the casket and the body of the late Queen Elizabeth II is now arriving at the cathedral at St. Giles and I think it is appropriate for us just to be respectful and just to listen in.

[10:15:00]

(SILENCE AS QUEEN ELIZABETH II'S BODY IS CARRIED INTO THE CATHEDRAL AT ST. GILES)

[10:20:00]

(SILENCE AS QUEEN ELIZABETH II'S BODY IS CARRIED INTO THE CATHEDRAL AT ST. GILES)

[10:25:00]

REVEREND CALUM I. MACLEOD, MINISTER, ST. GILES' CATHEDRAL: I welcome all of you to St. Giles' Cathedral, the high Kirk (ph), this ancient parish church of Edinburgh. Welcome to all around the world who are watching this service being broadcast. Here at St. Giles, John Knox confronted Mary, Queen of Scotts, here, James VI argued about liturgy, here all over Cromwell (ph) preached, here, parliament sometimes met, here, our late queen received the honors of Scotland and the stone of destiny rested on its return to Scotland.

We are graced by the presence of the king and members of the royal family. Present here are representatives of our nation's life. Present here are people whose lives were touched by the queen and so many unforgettable ways. And so we gather to bid Scotland's farewell to our late monarch whose life of service to the nation and the world we celebrate and whose love for Scotland was legendary. Let us worship God.

[10:30:00]