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Biden to Attend DNC Event; GOP Shifts Focus to Border; Unruly Passenger on American Airlines Flight; Deadly Storm Lashes Bermuda; Truth behind Havana Syndrome. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired September 23, 2022 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: For Democrats with so much enthusiasm in the Democratic base and increasing enthusiasm among women voters in particular.

Now, with six and a half weeks until Election Day, President Biden, today, will hold a DNC event. He'll be speaking at a DNC event here in Washington, D.C. And it comes as he's been really ramping up his political activity. You look at the schedule from just this past week on both Tuesday and yesterday, President Biden held a fundraising reception in New York while he was at the -- in New York for the United Nations General Assembly. On Tuesday he'll be heading to Florida for a political rally in Orlando. Nothing left on the White House -- not lost on the White House is the fact that that state is also home to four potential Republican contenders for the presidency in 2024. Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis. You also look at the two senators from that state as well.

But the president is really trying to drive home that contrast with Republicans, particularly on this issue of abortion rights. And it's notable, given the fact that the president, a devout Catholic, has not always been very comfortable talking about this issue, but there's no question that he sees a political opportunity here.

Just yesterday at that fundraiser in New York, we heard the president talking about this proposal -- legislative proposal for a federal abortion ban at 15 weeks from South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham. The president saying that it's proof that Republicans have gotten more extreme in their positions.

The president is also eager to continue to tout his legislative accomplishments and his economic agenda. He's watched over the last month as his poll numbers have really begun to surge. Now still underwater, but at 43 percent approval compared to 55 percent disapproving of him. That's up from an all-time low that he had in early August where he was just at 36 president approval. The Democrats have also seen some gains in the generic congressional ballot. So they're hoping that they have the momentum at their backs. But, of course, there are so many issues still present, like inflation, that Democrats still have to contend with. Nothing is won yet for Democrats as they look to try and hold on to the House and the Senate. Republicans, of course, still very much favored to take the House back.

Jim. Poppy.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Jeremy Diamond, thanks very much, for us live outside the White House.

And across the country, as Democrats run on abortion rights, Republicans are mostly running away from that issue.

SCIUTTO: Yes, they have other issues they are focusing on. The economy, crime, immigration to motivate voters. Those often rank high in voter priorities.

Here's CNN's Jeff Zeleny.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARYLOU BLAISDELL, NEW HAMPSHIRE VOTER: Two years ago, if you would have said to me, four years ago, Roe v. Wade will be overturned, I would have said, you're crazy, that will never happen. But it happened.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice over): For Marylou Blaisdell, the fall election is first and foremost about abortion rights.

BLAISDELL: I thought that my generation had that issue solved, but apparently we don't, and we're starting all over again.

ZELENY: But for Gary Hendricks, the November vote is primarily about President Biden.

GARY HENDRICKS, NEW HAMPSHIRE VOTER: The people are unhappy with what Biden's doing, number one.

ZELENY: And a chance to put a check on Democratic policies in Washington.

HENDRICKS: He was just anti-oil. I mean I can see you wanting to, you know, save the environment, but do it at a pace that the -- that's not going to hurt the world.

ZELENY: It's one midterm election, but two decidedly different campaigns are underway here in New Hampshire and across the country. Democrats are trying to tap into an urgent desire to protect abortion rights and democracy. That message resonates with Laura Miller, a pediatrician who said she paid little attention to politics before the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade.

ZELENY (on camera): Did that make you more motivated to vote?

LAURA MILLER, NEW HAMPSHIRE VOTER: It did. Yes, definitely. Where now I feel like, OK, we need to get out and actually vote, not -- I don't even know that it makes a difference, but I feel now I need to because I have an opinion.

ZELENY: And was that ever something that you thought could happen in your lifetime?

MILLER: No, I didn't. No. And that's what kind of scarce me with politics.

ZELENY (voice over): Yet, Republicans believe inflation, crime, and immigration will motivate voters to change course.

Mike Gillespie owns a small business and said economic concerns are paramount.

MIKE GILLESPIE, NEW HAMPSHIRE VOTER: I mean my cost to operate my business are astronomically more than they used to be. Finding employees is next to impossible.

ZELENY (on camera): You hope that November brings a change in Washington in terms of who controls Congress?

GILLESPIE: Absolutely. Absolutely.

ZELENY (voice over): This tale of two elections is playing out in a crush of campaign ads from coast to coast. On crime, Republicans are hammering Democrats.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's more worried about criminals than victims.

ZELENY: Spending more than $21 million on ads in the last month alone, while Democrats have invested less than $5 million.

On abortion, Democrats are dominating the air waves.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Kari Lake is serious. Serious about criminalizing abortion.

ZELENY: Spending $46 million over the last month in ads.

[09:35:02]

Republicans, only $4 million.

In New Hampshire, where key races will help determine control of the House and Senate, election integrity is now also at play.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The 2020 election was undoubtedly stolen from President Trump.

ZELENY: Inside her store, Blaisdell said friends of all political persuasions voice concerns about the country's deep divide. The question is whether that becomes a voting issue in the final weeks of the race.

BLAISDELL: We should all be standing up and supporting this country and this democracy because there are those who are trying to tear it down through their anger and their false information that's out there.

ZELENY: Jeff Zeleny, CNN, Nashua, New Hampshire.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: Jeff, thank you so much for that reporting.

Ahead, an American Airlines flight attendant attacked in midflight. You will see what happened, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:40:29]

SCIUTTO: An unruly, violent, in fact, airline passenger is now facing federal charges. This after this passenger attacked a flight attendant. That attack, as you see here, caught on video. A punch to the back of the head. The passenger accused of interfering with the flight, well, by doing exactly what you just saw there.

HARLOW: Wow. Stunned passengers jumped into action, restraining that man. And this happened on Wednesday during an American Airlines flight from Mexico to Los Angeles.

Our Camila Bernal joins us live this morning from Los Angeles.

That is terrible to see. And it comes, by the way, as, for years now, since the pandemic, flight attendants have been under attack.

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and they've been asking for these people to be held accountable because it is shocking, it's scary, but, unfortunately, it's not uncommon. And here's what happened. According to people who were on that plane and federal prosecutors, this man was trying to use the bathroom in the front of the plane. And the flight attendant told him, look, you are not a first-class passenger, so you have to use the restroom in the back of the plane. There was this confrontation and this man, who is now identified as Alexander Lee, then follows that flight attendant, as he's going to talk to the pilot about this incident, and that's when you see him punching him, attacking him. You hear people just saying, oh, my God! Everybody in shock as they see this.

There were people who had to restrain him. He had to be zip tied. People had to sit next to him for the remainder of the flight just to make sure that this didn't escalate any further. He was arrested when he landed here at LAX. He is facing federal charges, is expected to be in court on Monday.

And we have reached out to his attorney but have not heard back yet.

It's also important to point out that American Airlines says he will never fly in an American Airlines plane.

And, look, as you guys mentioned, these incidents have been increasing. They increased in 2021. we saw an uptick. And in 2022, that number has actually gone down. But already the FAA reporting about 2,000 of these incidents. And even though these numbers are down, the enforcement is up. And that's key because they want accountability when it comes to this type of behavior.

Jim. Poppy.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

Camila Bernal, thanks so much.

BERNAL: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: In California, a very close call, also caught on video, of a little girl just inches from being hit by an SUV. The video, captured on the dash cam of a driver who stopped to let a family cross the street. And you'll see it here. Goodness, this moment.

HARLOW: Ah!

SCIUTTO: Oh, Lord, I can only imagine.

HARLOW: Oh, my God.

SCIUTTO: You can only imagine your own child in the same situation. The grace of God, Poppy.

HARLOW: You know, Jim, just seeing that with you is the first time that I had seen that, and I just -

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: Yes, as every parent thinks that could be your own child.

So the girl's father told our affiliate, KGO, that his daughter is going great. That's a quote. Only suffering, if you can believe it, a scraped knee. According to the San Mateo Police Department, the driver of the SUV did return to the scene, spoke with police. The department's traffic unit is investigating and really considering some major traffic changes at that intersection.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Yes, I didn't see a stop sign there. I wonder if that will be part of that investigation.

HARLOW: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Other story we're following, Hurricane Fiona is now hitting Bermuda with winds of more than 90 miles an hour. Goodness, look at the seas there. The latest on the forecast track coming up. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:48:24]

HARLOW: Right now, Canada is bracing for impact as emergency officials warn Hurricane Fiona could be the strongest storm to ever hit the country's Atlantic coast. Fiona is now a deadly cat three hurricane. It is hitting Bermuda after leaving more than a million people without power in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

SCIUTTO: Yes, it's an odd path this one is taking. Meteorologist Chad Myers tracking this live from the CNN Weather

Center.

And, Chad, you mentioned the path of Sandy, right, a number of years ago and all the devastation it laid waste to the northern part of the coast there. What are we seeing now with Fiona?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, we talked about this on Wednesday, Jim, and everybody got scared because they thought I was talking about like it turning left into the United States, and it's not going to do that.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

MYERS: But it's going to turn left into Atlantic Canada. Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, you are in the way of this. So, Prince Edward Island.

The storm is not going to lose a lot of strength. It's getting into cooler water, losing a little organization, but we just had 144 knots fight level winds in a hurricane hunter aircraft. That doesn't sound like it's getting much weaker. And then up here towards Halifax and certainly to the north of Halifax is where most of that impact will be.

Forty-foot waves. Forty-foot waves with this storm as it makes impact late tonight and into tomorrow morning, on top of the areas that has the, by far, the greatest tide, from low to high, in the world. I mean that' Bay of Fundy, but a lot of this does have very, very high and low tides. Hurricane warnings are in effect. Obviously, we're going to have winds over 120 miles per hour at times.

The trees are in the ground. They still have leaves and many of them will be falling. The power outages across parts of Atlantic Canada may truly be devastating for a very long time.

[09:50:04]

Now we're going to talk about number nine, not yet Hermine, but forecast to be that. Hurricane hunter in this area here, too, finding winds at about 40. That's almost enough to get it to be a called tropical storm. But what we're concerned about here is, what we are is this is very warm water. And when we get into that water, all of a sudden this storm is going to want to rapidly intensify, I'm afraid, and then make its way to the northeast, up toward parts of Florida.

Now, if you remember yesterday's maps, the computer models were from here to here. They were - they were a completely, as we said earlier with Brianna, she said they were a hot mess. Yes, they were an absolute hot mess yesterday. But right through here now things are getting a lot more organized when it comes to where these computers think this storm is going.

HARLOW: All right, Chad, thank you very much. Staying on top of all of it for us.

MYERS: You bet. HARLOW: Well, a new CNN special report examines one of the most controversial health mysteries in recent year.

SCIUTTO: Controversial and scary at times. CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta investigates a cluster of unexplained concussion-like symptoms first reported among U.S. officials and covert personnel in Cuba back in 2016. Neuroscientist James Giordano says it could be caused by microwave energy.

Here's a preview of "Immaculate Concussion: The Truth Behind Havana Syndrome."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I went to Cuba and I spent time talking to scientists. And they whole heartily uniformly believe that there were no attacks. And they say there is no evidence at all that these happened.

JAMES GIORDANO, NEUROSCIENTIST: I solidly disagree with that.

GUPTA: Could they have done this in a country and the country not know about it?

GIORDANO: Yes, I have no doubt. No doubt at all.

The equipment could be assembled on site. The components could be brought into the country piecemeal.

GUPTA: How big would this weapon potentially be?

GIORDANO: The device itself would be about the size of this bench or perhaps a little smaller.

GUPTA: And how far away would it need to be or could it be to actually deliver this energy?

GIORDANO: Dozens of meters. The reality is that these devices exist. The science and technology is real and they represent weaponizable entities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Well, Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins now.

Sanjay, you mentioned in that clip that you - we see you in the streets of Cuba.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

HARLOW: What did you learn from being there and what did the scientists tell you?

GUPTA: Yes, I mean, we wanted to go there just to basically see where these incidents occurred.

HARLOW: Right.

GUPTA: How they might have occurred just to really get an idea of the physical locations of that.

But as you mentioned, to also talk to the scientists there. I mean they were the ones who were actually on the ground.

One thing we learned is that while they were in those locations, they never really got a chance to talk to these patients because these U.S. diplomats were then brought back to the United States and examined in places like Miami.

We also wanted to get an impact - an idea of the impact on the Cuban people, as well. I mean the embassy was supposed to open. Didn't open. That was six years ago. There's longstanding ramifications.

HARLOW: Incredible.

SCIUTTO: Sanjay, that was a moment of hope there, right, of reopening relations between the countries. Of course, Donald Trump turned that around. I wonder, what has the reaction been from people who say and believe that they suffered these symptoms?

GUPTA: You know, I'm glad you asked that, Jim, because I think that's one part of the story that hasn't been told enough, and that is that in 2016 there were these grand dreams of what was going to happen in Cuba. I mean it was going to be open to the world. Commerce was going to be open to the world in a way that it hadn't in, you know, several decades. So, there was a lot of aspirations of that point.

When the embassy did not open essentially as a result of these unexplained health incidents, that changed things dramatically. So, you know, the victims in this story are certainly people who still continue to suffer from these health incidents, but also the Cuban people themselves because the economy and so much more was really adversely affected by all this and it's, you know, years now since this all happened.

HARLOW: Sanjay, I wonder what it will take to get a definitive answer because, obviously, this has been studied by the highest levels of government, right?

GUPTA: Yes.

HARLOW: There have been reports on it. But you did this because there are still so many questions. I just wonder, especially those who suffered, deserve answers.

GUPTA: I think what we can say at this point is that something certainly happened to those victims, at least the ones in Havana. Something that's subjective. That's verified by several doctors.

The nature of a directed energy device, as James Giordano was talking about, is that it has no signature. There is no smoking gun so to speak.

HARLOW: Wow.

GUPTA: And as he describes it, it may be the battleground of the future for -- in part because of that reason.

[09:55:01]

So, you know, some things, especially in medicine, you know, we don't always have an absolute clear cut answer on that. If somebody were to actually blow the whistle and say, here's a device, here's what was used, here's what we did, that would be clear cut evidence.

HARLOW: Yes.

GUPTA: But until something like that happens, it may still remain a bit mysterious.

HARLOW: It makes - it makes me think of Navalny in the CNN film.

GUPTA: Yes.

HARLOW: Navalny tracking down those that poisoned him, you know.

GUPTA: That's right. That's right.

HARLOW: Wow. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you to you. Your great producer Jessica Small (ph) -

GUPTA: Jessica Small, yes.

HARLOW: We know how amazing she is at making these things happen.

GUPTA: Thank you.

HARLOW: Thanks, Sanjay. We can't wait to watch it.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: Join Dr. Gupta for this CNN special report, "Immaculate Conclusion: The Truth Behind Havana Syndrome." It begins Sunday night at 8:00 p.m.

HARLOW: Happening now, a staged referendum in four occupied areas of Ukraine is underway. What the U.S. considers a sham set of elections to vote on whether the region should become part of Russia. We'll take you to the ground in Ukraine, next.

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