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Top Republicans To Stump For Embattled GA Candidate Walker; Abortion A Flash Point In Testy Ohio Senate Debate; Task Force Recommends Screening Kids 8 And Older For Anxiety; 3 Boaters Rescued As They Fended Off Shark Attacks. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired October 11, 2022 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:31:42]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, (R), U.S. SENATE CANDIDATE FOR OHIO: We're pretty close to Halloween and Tim Ryan has put on a costume where he pretends to be a reasonable moderate.

REP. TIM RYAN (D-OH): I'm from Ohio. I don't kiss anyone's ass like him. Ohio needs an ass kicker, not an ass kisser.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Whoo, fireworks in Ohio in one of several tight Senate races testing the reach of Donald Trump's endorsement.

Georgia is another one heating up. And today, top Republicans are heading there to campaign with embattled candidate, Herschel Walker.

The hardline abortion opponent has denied claims that he paid for an ex-girlfriend's abortion. And asked her to get a second one.

Now, CNN has not independently confirmed those allegations.

CNN's Eva McKend is in Atlanta for us and CNN chief political analyst, Gloria Borger, joins us from Washington.

Eva, first, tell us about this support that Walker is getting today.

EVA MCKEND, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, Ana, this really amounts to a show of force. Senator Rick Scott, Senator Tom Cotton as well as Walker expected to take a defiant tone.

And this show of support that he's getting really has been evident on the national level where you have seen national Republicans really double down and go all in on their candidate.

The NRSC, Rick Scott, the chair of that committee, they're redirecting $2.5 million in ad spending from New Hampshire to Georgia and other states. So that's just illustrative of the commitment. Walker's supporters that we speak to here are questioning the timing

of these allegations, saying they are suspect of the October Surprise- nature of these allegations and are going to continue to support him.

CABRERA: So, Gloria, Tom Cotton and Rick Scott, first, do they have any power or influence really with Georgia voters? Why go to bat for Walker?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'm not so sure they have any influence with Georgia voters. But they're national Republican politicians. Both of them have presidential ambitions.

And in fact, this trip may be more about themselves than about Herschel Walker, per se. Obviously, as members of the Senate, they want to keep control of the Senate.

But they're also doing Donald Trump a favor here by going all out after Herschel Walker. That won't hurt them if they have any kind of national political ambition.

And they want to change the subject for Herschel Walker. They don't want him out there talking about his problems and the question of whether he did or did not pay for an abortion.

They want to talk about the issues that Republicans want to talk about, which is crime, which is the economy, which is immigration, and they're better able to change that subject than Herschel Walker is.

CABRERA: Abortion is also front and center in the Ohio race --

BORGER: Yes.

CABRERA: -- as we saw at the debate last night.

I'm just going to keep this moving because, Eva, I want to get to the sound between Congressman Tim Ryan and J.D. Vance as they debated. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN: He's got a very extreme position.

J.D., you called rape inconvenient. Right? That's -- rape is not inconvenient. It's a significant tragedy.

And he thinks that we should have Ohio state law, which says, if you're raped or incest, pregnant through incest, that you should be forced to have the baby. This is the largest governmental overreach in the history of our lifetime.

VANCE: I absolutely think the 10-year-old girl, the case we heard a lot about, an incredibly tragic situation. The thing they never mention is that poor girl was raped by an illegal alien, somebody that should have never been in this state in the first place.

[13:35:09] You voted so many times against border wall funding, so many times for amnesty, Tim. If you had done your job she would have never been raped in the first place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: That was a perfect example of a candidate trying to flip the script and redirect from the issue of abortion to immigration.

Eva, I have to wonder, Trump won Ohio twice. It has been trending red. Just how tight is that race?

MCKEND: Well, it continues to be very tight and it will be -- continue to be tight up until Election Day.

Listen, Congressman Ryan still has an uphill battle in Ohio. It is just now that him and Democrats across the country have this issue of abortion to run on that actually doesn't fall neatly along party lines.

He can appeal to Republicans, some conservatives who don't agree with the national abortion ban and some of the positions that conservatives have taken.

So this is why Congressman Ryan is talking about this. I don't know if it's enough to bring him to victory but it makes a lot of sense for him to be emphasizing it in Ohio.

CABRERA: Are you surprised that Ohio race is close, Gloria?

BORGER: Well, J.D. Vance has been a candidate that's disappointed Republicans. He hasn't been able to raise a lot of money so the national Republican committees are throwing a lot of money there.

Ohio, by all accounts, should be a red state. But Ryan has shown himself to be kind of a spunky populist candidate unafraid to disagree with the Democrats on occasion.

The problem is he's had to raise all his money himself so he's not getting a lot of help from Democrats who are paying more attention to races like where Eva is in Georgia.

So I'm not surprised. I think he's run a very good race but it is really tight and I'm sure he'd like some more money.

CABRERA: Gloria Borger and Eva McKend, ladies, thank you so much.

For the first time, a key task force is recommending we screen kids as young as 8 years old for anxiety. What's driving this unprecedented move?

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CABRERA: For the first time, the United States Preventive Services Task Force is now recommending children as young as 8 be screened regularly for anxiety.

It cited a 2208-2019 national survey of children's health that found 7.8 percent of children and adolescents aged 3 to 17 years had an anxiety disorder.

Usually characterized by fear or excessive worrying, anxiety can go undetected for a long time in kids.

Let's talk about this with Jeff Gardere. He's a clinical psychologist and associate professor at Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine.

Jeff, it's good to see you.

This feels like an important revelation. Why now? It seems there's a sense of urgency to this.

JEFF GARDERE, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST & ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, TOURO COLLEGE OF OSTEOPATHIC MEDICINE: Well, I think a lot of this is coming from what we have experienced with COVID-19 and how we've seen that there have been increased rates of anxiety, depression, PTSD, emergency visits to pediatric emergency rooms for kids.

So it's really important that we pay attention to the fact that it's not just about academic development that we're looking at for our children, Ana, but also what is their social and emotional development.

And knowing that if you're diagnosed with anxiety as an adolescent or a teen, that you have an increased chance as an adult of having an anxiety disorder or depression.

CABRERA: So is this a reflection of a growing problem among adolescents or youth, or is it just growing awareness?

GARDERE: I think it is certainly a combination of both, because what this task force is saying is that this isn't just about COVID. It's also about genetics. It's also about the environment. It's also about the stress that children are going through.

I think for a very long time -- and a great question that you ask, yes, it is about the awareness. It is about growing statistics. But it's also about the reality that, yes, even children can have mental health issues. They can be diagnosed with anxiety and depression at younger ages.

And we tended to think these are things that we only look at with kids when they go from their teens to their adult years.

So, yes, if we can diagnose earlier on, then certainly what we're looking at is a better outcome if they do actually get the proper treatment.

CABRERA: So if we're talking about children as young as 8, that's the recommendation, go get a screening for those kids --

GARDERE: Correct. CABRERA: -- why do you think that age group is the place to start? And what exactly does a screening entail?

GARDERE: Well, they're not totally clear on that. There's something that we use, as psychologists and psychiatrists, social workers, called the QATD-7. That's a generalized anxiety and depression sort of screening.

[13:45:03]

But this is a screening that we see that has moderate -- just to screen the child, not necessarily that particular screening but screening for anxiety from the ages of 8 to 18, we see has moderate benefits.

Because we see that the treatment may perhaps work better and there are less deleterious effects when we look at psychotherapy, when we look at the pharmacology of treating in that particular way.

So they do feel that the ages from 8 to 18, the data that we reviewed really gives us the best results.

CABRERA: What do we as parents need to look out for? How can we tell the difference between a child who sometimes is stressed, sometimes anxious, which would be normal, right, versus a real issue that may need professional help?

GARDERE: Yes, so we have to look at a lot of the very obvious signs as well as the subtle signs because younger children may not have the perhaps maturity or even the language to say that they are anxious or even can recognize that anxiety, so they act out.

So it's important to look at whether they're isolated. It's important to look at whether they're losing interest in some of the activities that they -- in the past actually enjoyed.

Whether they're very nervous around other people, some of that social anxiety that we see. And physically, how are they behaving? Are they nervous enough that their hands are shaking or that perhaps they're having nightmares and not eating properly or interacting with others.

So those are all very subtle and sometimes obvious signs, Ana.

CABRERA: Jeff Gardere, great to have you here. Thanks so much for that important guidance.

GARDERE: Thank you.

CABRERA: Fending off sharks with their bare hands. Three boaters floating in the ocean for hours and hours after their boat sinks during a fishing trip. And we have their incredible story of survival and rescue next.

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[13:51:29] CABRERA: A fishing trip for three boaters off the coast of Louisiana turned into a terrifying ordeal after their boat sank. They were stranded in the water for more than a day. When the Coast Guard found them, two of the men had been fighting off sharks.

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LUAN NGUYEN, RESCUED AFTER BOAT SANK: That's when the shark bit the life vest in front of me. And I pushed him in the face. And I think that's when I caught these injuries on my hand. I don't really remember.

But pushed him in the face and he wouldn't leave. So I took my two thumbs and jabbed him in the eyes and he took off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: So joining us now is one of their rescuers. This is Seaman Andrew Stone. He was on the Coast Guard response boat. He pulled one of the survivors from the water.

Thank you so much for joining us and for your bravery.

I just wonder, you know, how this all went down. Can you walk us through this rescue? What happened when you got the call?

ANDREW STONE, U.S. COAST GUARD: Sure. So, I'm a part of a small boat station. We responded with a response boat 45 feet in length.

The case started when we got an overdue vessel case. Somebody didn't come back to land when they were supposed to. A family member called in, called in with some concerns.

So we started looking around, all the usual fishing spots, went offshore, checked around oil rigs, last known positions, things like that.

One of the men did receive just a small amount of cell service even floating out in a gulf and was able to text it to one of his friends. And his friend relayed that to the Coast Guard, to the authorities.

And they were able to use that information and give us a more accurate position to search.

So myself, Petty Officer Butcher and Petty Officer McNally went out on our 45-foot response boat. And we weren't out there alone. There was also an aircraft and Coast Guard helicopter out there also searching.

The helicopter spotted one man in the water and they dropped a rescue swimmer. Got him on board. And then the fixed swing aircraft saw the other two men floating about a mile away.

They called us on the radio and said, hey, these guys are about 200 yards off your bow. So that's when we sprung into action and sped the boat up to go get these guys.

We pulled up to them and they were getting harassed by sharks when we pulled up. I was able to pull --

CABRERA: What kind of sharks?

STONE: So these were not too large. Little black tip sharks about four feet in length.

One of the men had been bitten up on his hand, as you saw, and was bleeding into the water. His life jacket, his orange life preserver had been ripped about halfway down by the fish.

So, we got him on board first. Pulled him out of the water. And then Petty Officer McNally and Petty Officer Butcher were able to haul the second guy out of the water.

We got them onto the back deck and administered first aid. Tried to warm them up a little bit. These guys were hyperthermic.

CABRERA: Yes, OK. I was going to ask what kind of condition they were in because, obviously, having been attacked by sharks and being in the water for a significant amount of time.

You say they were hyperthermic. Do you know how long they had been in the water?

[13:54:55]

STONE: So, they had been in the water for over a day. I think the last approximation was 48 hours they were floating. So these guys were suffering from pretty severe exposure. They were very dehydrated, hungry, of course.

And, yes, the water temperature of the gulf, where they were, 78 degrees. Which sounds warm but anything below your body temperature will start robbing heat.

CABRERA: OK.

STONE: So these guys were hyperthermic. So we treated them the best we could.

Then the decision was made that they needed to join their partner up in the helicopter. So we coordinated with the helicopter. They lowered a basket and we were able to successfully transfer both individuals into the helicopter.

CABRERA: That's such wonderful news. Thank you so much, again, for sharing the story with us and for the rescue efforts you and your partners all were able to successfully enact.

I really appreciate your time, Seaman Andrew Stone.

That does it for us today. We're back tomorrow same time, same place. Until then, you can always find me on Twitter, @AnaCabrera.

The news continues with Victor Blackwell right after this.

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