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Protesters In China Demand President Xi Step Down; How Kherson Resistance Fighters Helped Liberate City From Russia; Trump Faces Backlash For Dining with White Nationalist, Holocaust Denier; Early Voting Underway in High Stakes Georgia Senate Runoff; Popular Appalachia Wrestling Events Center on Politics; Mayor Eric Adams (D), New York City Is Interviewed On Crime Solutions; Pandemic And RealDoll. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired November 27, 2022 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:32]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.

Extraordinary protests across China showing no signs of slowing down as anger over the regime's Zero COVID policy boils over. Lockdowns have taken so much from the Chinese people. Money, social freedoms, and in some cases their lives sparked for these now widespread demonstrations. It came a few days ago when a high rise apartment fire killed 10 people in the southwestern part of the country. Many locals there are saying that lockdown measures delayed firefighters and prevented people from escaping.

At one protest, crowds can be heard chanting freedom of speech, freedom of the press, others are calling on Chinse President Xi Jinping to step down holding blank pieces of white paper, a symbolic protest against censorship in China.

Security personnel are cracking down, however. This video we're going to show you now shows police beating and dragging a protester across the ground. Amnesty International is warning that in the coming hours and days we could see much more of this.

Let's go now to CNN's Selina Wang at a protest in Beijing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm in the center of a protest in Beijing right now. They're chanting that they don't want COVID tests, they want freedom. They've been chanting this for hours. People have gathered here at the center of Beijing to protest the COVID measures.

We are in Chaoyang District. This is the city center. This is also where the authorities have urged people to stay at home because the COVID outbreak is severe here. Now the area is also important because this is where the American embassy is over there, there are many foreign embassies over here. There is a heavy police presence.

I am surrounded by police, they're telling me to shift in a little bit, and if we just turn the camera around you'll see there is a row of police. There is -- mostly young people who have gathered here. And many people are also holding white papers in their hands which is a sign of solidarity against censorship.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Well, let's continue this discussion now. Steve Hall is a CNN national security analyst and a former CIA chief of Russia operations.

Steve, let's start with these extraordinary protest erupting across China. You don't see this very often. Crowds chanting that Xi Jinping step down, calling for freedom of the press, freedom of speech, and so on. Obviously these are things that, even though Selina Wang was just reporting there a few moments ago, regular folks in China don't have that ability to report on what's happening in their country.

How significant is all of this?

STEVE HALL, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Jim, it's always a balancing act for these totalitarian regimes whether it's China, Russia, very recently in Iran, of course we've seen a lot of protests popping up there. I saw it in Cuba from time to time. So these authoritarian states have a real problem. It's sort of like a pressure cooker, you have to decide if you're the authoritarian figure in charge, how much pressure you're going to let off.

In other words, how many protests or demonstrations, how much of that are you going to let happen so that people sort of relieve their internal pressures, their own internal frustrations with the government, and then when do you crack down and when do you let people, for example, emigrated and leave the country because a lot of people will just leave and sometimes that's good for the government, too.

So it's a real, real balancing act. But in China, I really doubt that we've got a situation whereby you're going to see sort of an overthrow of the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese leadership. The Chinese Security Services like all intelligence services in authoritarian countries spend a lot of time trying to penetrate, get inside these group so that they can have spies inside to know what they're up. So it's a difficult balancing act but I don't think we're going to see the collapse of the Chinese government any time soon.

ACOSTA: Well, that was what I was going to ask you is whether or not this had any sort of potential for, you know, I guess presenting some kind of major challenge to Xi Jinping's iron, you know, like grip over that country. Is it a situation where the Chinese authorities essentially try to manage and contain this situation until it eventually peters out?

HALL: Yes, I think that a lot of these authoritarian governments understand a couple of things. First of all, they understand the Western news cycle, so they understand that, you know, while this is interesting right now, because of what's going on there, they're also watching how we treat, for example, the Iranian protest. So how quickly does our won attention here in the West sort of move on to the next thing, because of course when that happens, that's a considerable amount of pressure off the government to be able to then crack down further once, you know, the Western media has gotten tired of the story.

[16:05:03]

Now they may come back so they've got to time this all out. It really is a difficult juggling act for authoritarian governments like the Chinse.

ACOSTA: Right. Well, let's talk about Ukraine. Russia is targeting their civilian infrastructure, trying to deprive Ukrainians of heat, water and electricity. Another brutal winter approaches. What do you think? Is Russia -- how are they approaching this winter, do you think? Is it crank up the misery, crank up the suffering, and see if that has any kind of an effect?

HALL: I think it's going to be an iteration (PH) of what we were just talking about with China but sort of on the battlefield and of course in the cities and towns across Ukraine. The Russians understand that they themselves are under a lot of pressure because it hasn't gone well for them in this war. But I think they're seeing an opportunity here.

They're saying OK, it's going to be a long, cold, difficult winter for the Ukrainians, even though the Ukrainians might galvanize, you know, because they feel this sort of, you know, we're being oppressed by the Russians, attacked by the Russians, our country could go away if we give up fighting.

They understand that that's a very strong reaction inside of Ukraine. But also you've got, you know, you've got an elderly an elderly population, you've got very young population, you got kids in hospitals, some of whom are being killed by the artillery fire. So, you know, the Ukrainians are in a difficult position but the Russians also understand that as I was talking about earlier the West is also under some pressure.

How long can Europe continue to push on with the energy issues that the Ukrainian war is resulting in? Difficult times for them. How long is the United States going to continue the massive shipment of weapons there? So they're playing for time. They're playing for the long run and this winter is going to be a very interesting long-term prospect I think for the Russians.

ACOSTA: Absolutely. But let's talk about this little piece of video which I think is very interesting from Friday. It was Russia's Mother's Day. Vladimir Putin meeting with mothers of Russian soldiers fighting in Ukraine, seeming to reassure them that spirits remain high among his troops. This is all Russian propaganda of course. I mean, they cherry picked the mothers that they want to have in the room with Vladimir Putin, and so on.

But this is despite widespread reports of Russian soldiers not having enough to eat, Russian mothers launching an anti-war petition. How telling is this photo-op? It's, you know, it's interesting, it's Putin's way of saying, I've got everything under control but it's revealing in that he has to do this.

HALL: Yes. I think it's working asking, you know, why? Why sit down with these -- you know, with these mothers? Why not sit down with, you know, others? But the issue here is Putin recalls how badly this ended in the Chechen wars that he was involved in when he first came to power. In both the Chechen and the Afghan wars, you had a really strong internal movement on the part of the mothers of Russian soldiers fighting in that time in Chechnya and also in Afghanistan.

And surprisingly these self-organized groups that were not funded by, you know, the United States or by any other foreign government like the Russians often accuse these opposition groups of being, these were mothers that actually caused real, serious problems in Russian society for the Russian government because of those previous wars.

Vladimir Putin remembers that and does not want that to happen again in Ukraine and so I think he's trying to be proactive here and sit down, provided these are photo-opportunities, you're absolutely right. It's all propaganda. They're cherry picked. But it plays well internally inside of Russia to other mothers who might be concerned about, you know, what their kids and sons specifically are being put up against in Ukraine. So I think he's trying to stay out ahead of a problem that could materialize for him if he's not careful.

ACOSTA: Yes. That problem being the mothers who were tired of seeing their sons go off to Ukraine and dying.

All right, Steve Hall. Thank you very much. We appreciate it.

In a CNN exclusive, Ukrainian resistance fighters are revealing how they help drive Russians forces out of the eastern city of Kherson. CNN's Sam Kiley reports on the civilians who risked their own lives to liberate their home.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Archie killed twice while he was still a teenager.

(On camera): If I'm the guy who stops to pee, so I'm having a pee, and then what do you do ? Oh, God, I've got a chill then.

(Voice-over): He says he left his victim to bleed on the grass in the pitch dark. Archie struck again moments later, another drunk Russian soldier. Another throat cut. He acted alone, but now he was one of Kherson's resistance fighters.

ARCHIE, KHERSON RESISTANCE FIGHTER (through translator): They were wasted. It had only been a few days since they entered the city. I finished the first one immediately and then caught up with the other one and killed him on the spot. I threw away the knife and the jacket covered with blood and just left.

KILEY: Archie was only 19 when the Russians captured his city in March. With a friend he says he drove around the city gathering intelligence to send to Ukraine's armed forces. [16:10:07]

ARCHIE (through translator): At least 10 Russians were slaughtered every night. I wasn't the only one in Kherson. There were a lot of athletic and clever partisan guys.

KILEY: For eight months, Ukrainian partisans waged a psychological war against the occupiers and their collaborators, targeting Ukrainians who took top posts handed out by Russia.

KIRIL STREMOUSOV, RUSSIAN-APPOINTED DEPUTY HEAD OF KHERSON REGION (through translator): As a result of a sneaky terrorist act today our colleague, my friend Dimitri Savchenko (PH) has died.

KILEY: Stremousov himself would die in the final days of Russia's occupation of Kherson City, which ended three weeks ago.

Kherson was the only regional capital to fall to Russia, but its population made sure that the invaders were unwelcome from the start.

(On-camera): That's incoming. In the last hour or so that we've been here in Kherson, there's been a constant shelling backwards and forwards. Almost all of that shelling will ultimately rely on somebody on the ground telling the gunner where to drop those bombs.

(Voice-over): Ihor is a young father. This warehouse is wrecked because of him.

IHOR, PART OF KHERSON RESISTANCE (through translator): The Russian military kept here around 20 to 30 vehicles. There were armored trucks, ABCs and the Russians live here. I was passing by this place and I saw all the vehicles.

KILEY: Ihor communicated on his phone app with his handler, codename the Smoke.

IHOR (through translator): I turned on the camera and pointed it at the building and I was just walking and talking on the phone and the camera was filming. I deleted the video of course because if they would stop me somewhere and check my videos and pictures, there'll be questions.

KILEY: Less than a day later he says Russian vehicles were a mangled mess as Ukraine rained missiles down on the newly identified target. It was a crucial step in destroying Russia's capacity to hold on to the city.

With the Russians now massed on the eastern side of the Dnipro River, they're close and still control 60 percent of the province, which they claim is now part of Russia. No doubt there are many Ukrainians among them, who will also prepare to prove them wrong and to kill.

(On-camera): Do you feel sorry for the guys you killed at all?

ARCHIE: No.

KILEY (voice-over): Sam Kiley, CNN, Kherson City.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

ACOSTA: Back here in the U.S. today there was growing backlash against former President Trump as he tries to explain why he had dinner at Mar-a-Lago with a holocaust denier and white supremacist. Trump claims that he didn't know who Nick Fuentes was because he came to the dinner as a guest of rapper Kanye Wet who is also had a history of making antisemitic remarks.

Former Republican Congressman Denver Riggleman joins me now.

Denver, good to see you. Thanks as always for joining us. What was your reaction to all of this and I guess these various Trump explanations which don't add up.

DENVER RIGGLEMAN (R), FORMER VIRGINIA REPRESENTATIVE: Not shocked. Not surprised. I mean, that's the thing that he's done in the past. Right, Jim? He's done something appalling and then try to say, well, I didn't know about it or I didn't know these individuals. But when you have, you know, an antisemite and neo-Nazi go to Mar-a-Lago, I mean, it starts like -- feels like a bad joke but when you have those two people actually dinner or lunch with a sitting president I think all of us should be appalled.

And I think any excuse that he has is something that he's done in the past, it's his playbook. And what he does is he does something awful. He denies it or says he doesn't know about it. And you get to the point either he's one of the most incompetent individual we've ever actually encountered as POTUS or he's an antisemite and a white nationalist. So, you know, either-or, right? So that's the thing that really struck me about a meeting with a knuckle dragger like Nick Fuentes and honestly, you know, somebody Kanye West who is just about antisemite.

But again having a neo-Nazi and an antisemite at the table and having discussions with them I think should tell every -- should actually tell the American public everything they need to know about Donald Trump.

ACOSTA: And here's how some Republicans have responded. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ASA HUTCHINSON (R), ARKANSAS: No, I don't think it's a good idea for a leader that's setting an example for the country or the party to meet with avowed racist or antisemite. And so it's very troubling. And it shouldn't happen. And we need to avoid those kinds of empowering the extremes. And when you meet with people, you empower.

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY): Certainly needs better judgment in who he dines with. I know that he's issued a statement, said he didn't know who those people were. I would not take a meeting with that person, no. I wouldn't take a meeting with Kanye West either.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ACOSTA: Denver, I guess it's encouraging to hear those kinds of reactions from some in the Republican Party but we're not exactly seeing a stampede of Republican loaders condemning this.

[16:15:06]

RIGGLEMAN: Well, the next question you ask those Republican leaders, would you still vote for Trump? And then watch them trip over their feet trying to answer it. And, you know, it's interesting to have those two people at the table. It's like the antisemite and the white supremacists have come together.

If you look at what Kanye said, you look at what Nick Fuentes is saying you're seeing a merging of groups. And I think Trump is not a good enough chaos agent for them anymore. You know, it's interesting, you know, they leave Mar-a-Lago and all of sudden he starts talking smack about Donald Trump. And I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that they're trying to make money. That's always the root cause of this but the real part is that they're hateful individuals with bizarre xenophobic and racist ideologies that are out there, you know, say they're going to run for president.

And my guess is they still will come around to supporting Donald Trump after all this because this is just a reality show, Jim. I mean, this is just pathetic that anybody would think that Donald Trump didn't know who was sitting at the table, which is laughable.

ACOSTA: And let me ask you this. You served as an adviser to the January 6th Committee. I need to ask you about this report in the "Washington Post" that some staffers had raised concerns that Congresswoman Liz Cheney had focused so much of the report on Trump. One former committee staffer was quoted as talking about how they had all given up prestigious jobs believing this would be a fact-finding mission for the public. The staffer says, quote, "But when the committee became a Cheney 2024 campaign many of us became discouraged."

You worked on this committee, put a lot of work into this committee. What did you make of that when you saw that?

RIGGLEMAN: I was a little stunned that that many people were talking about it, to be honest with you. And, you know, I didn't know about it until I read the article obviously. And I think what got to me was some of the comments from the committee directed at the staffers. And listen, I don't know what the outline of the report is. I don't know what the appendices are. I don't know where they're going with it. I don't know what it's going to look like when it's all over. But I think if you have the committee talking about staffers that are uninformed, why are they uninformed?

If you're talking about staffers that are cowards, I mean, that's the first cousin of traitor. And I think we need to have adults in the room and take away the hyperbole, right, in some of these emotive outbursts when it comes to staffers who obviously thought that they needed to go on another direction and the committee who didn't. The other thing, too, I think it's unfair for me to criticize the

committee before the report comes out but Liz Cheney isn't the only one making decisions. She has an outsized influence on the committee but the committee decided to do that. So what bothers me I think more than, you know, even the leaks that came out of there in that report which did stun me a little that it was reported is that we're this close to a final committee report.

And you have people or you have the leadership saying that they have uninformed staffers, or they're cowards, or things of that nature. My question is, as somebody who's led people in battle, right, I've been there, somebody who's been a CEO, somebody who's looked at situational awareness and targeting of terrorist networks, somebody who's run multimillion dollar programs, I wonder if there was a leadership challenge that wasn't met with communication within the staff and the leadership element. So for me it's very difficult because I'm not there anymore.

ACOSTA: Yes. But, Denver, just to follow up on this. You said a few moments ago that you thought Congresswoman Cheney had an outsized influence. Do you think it's been too much?

RIGGLEMAN: You know, for me as somebody who's a follow-the-data person and looking at some of the comments about specifically talking about Republicans, they're not willing to call Republicans white supremacists or some of the things that nobody on the committee has ever said. I think that sometimes somebody takes a ball with it and you like that type of initiative but it can overwhelm any other opinions or fact-finding that's going on at the time.

Now it looks like the structure will deficit to me. You know, a teaching moment, right, or a training issue as we would say in the military. So I do think that she should have had more members sort of taking the ball, you know, and running with it when it came to some of this reporting. But again I haven't been there for a bit. It's hard for me to criticize specifically but I do think that Liz probably had outsized influence and maybe too much influence on the committee but on the other hand that's my opinion. And again, I don't know what the final report looks like or what it's going to entail.

ACOSTA: All right. Former Congressman Denver Riggleman, always enjoy the conversations. Appreciate the time. Thanks so much.

RIGGLEMAN: Thank you.

ACOSTA: All right. And coming up, we'll go live in Georgia where early voting is underway in the Senate runoff race there. Tens of thousands of ballots have already been cast. We have details next. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:23:34]

ACOSTA: Georgia Senate runoff won't decide the balance of power in Washington but early voting turnout so far suggests there's still great interest in the outcome of that race.

CNN's Eva McKend joins me from Atlanta.

Eva, we knew this was going to be a hotly contested race. A lot of interest in what happens there in this runoff. What did we hear from the candidates today?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Jim, Senator Warnock just wrapped up a Souls to the Polls event. That of course popular in the black church tradition. The idea being you go to church in the morning and then you get your souls to the polls. You get out and you go vote. And what we've seen so far in Georgia is a really robust turnout among black Georgians. About half, about half of the 70,000 voters that voted yesterday on the Saturday were black Georgians.

I asked Senator Warnock about this and he said that he is really proud that Democrats have built a multiracial coalition here. He was campaigning with the civil rights icon Andrew Young. But he also told supporters earlier today that that Saturday voting yesterday didn't come easy. That it was a real battle with Republicans. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D-GA): We filed a lawsuit so you can vote on Saturday. They filed a petition asking for emergency relief. What you ought to ask yourself is, what do they want relief from?

[16:25:04]

You want relief from people voting?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: So Senator Warnock then voted here at the Metropolitan Library after that Souls to the Polls event. There has been a steady stream of people here all day, even the senator had to wait about an hour to vote.

For his part, Herschel Walker has not been campaigning this weekend but he does have a host of events this week. Walker will be in Coming, Georgia, Dalton, Georgia, and a number of other places as well -- Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. It's certainly going to be a fight to the finish. No question about it. Eva McKend, thank you very much.

In the meantime, fans of former President Trump in and around Appalachia don't have to wait for a possible rematch against President Biden. They have a version of it complete with full nelsons, pile drivers and maybe the occasional atomic drop.

CNN's Elle Reeve has the story of a popular villain on the local pro- wrestling circuit and how that person has turned a mirror on our national politics.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELLE REEVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This is politics in America right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Baby killer.

REEVE: Channeled through a pro-wrestling ring.

DANIEL HARNSBERGER, AKA "THE PROGRESSIVE LIBERAL", INDEPENDENT PRO- WRESTLER: I just criticize their way of life and tell them how they need to follow a real man like myself or my hero Joseph R. Biden.

REEVE: The progressive liberal Dan Richards is a wrestler who fans in Appalachia love to hate.

BEAU JAMES, INDEPENDENT PRO-WRESTLER: When I grab a hold of him and I'll look in the crowd and say hit him in the mouth and they all come through the seat, yes, I hit him in the mouth. And they go he did that for us.

REEVE: Dan and his mentor, Beau James, came up with a gimmick when Trump was first running for president.

JAMES: I said, my god, if we had a guy that was the anti-Trump, and we could send him to the ring in these towns, how much heat would we get?

HARNSBERGER: They want to see you get your ass kicked, that's the heated one.

JAMES: It's the greatest feeling in the world. It's a high.

REEVE: Now that politics has gotten so intense, it's getting too real for Dan.

HARNSBERGER: The response to me and people who think like me are more violent.

REEVE: Dan really is liberal. I first interviewed him in 2017, which now bizarrely feels like a more innocent time.

(On camera): So in 2017, you wore like an all over print Hillary shirt, it's very Hillary-focused.

HARNSBERGER: Hillary.

REEVE: Like what pieces of current events do you pull from to sort of trigger people?

RICHARDS: Well, I've got Biden collage shirt and one of Kamala Harris. The Biden one triggers more people than anything, because I don't think half these people even know who Kamala Harris is.

REEVE (voice over): Dan says he gets more heat now than when Trump was in office. He thinks fans feel like they've got their hero taken away.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Donald Trump.

JAMES: There's so many people who think an election was stolen. I sell realism and emotions. It gets an emotion out of people. So whatever the headlines are that week, that's what we're going to use.

REEVE (on camera): Did you ever talk about the election being stolen?

JAMES: Yes. If Dan wins by cheating then his opponent can go the microphone, like I do, and I say a lot of these good people here tonight think you stole that just like an election was stolen, the building goes nuts.

REEVE (voice over): They usually wrestle in Appalachian counties. Some went for Trump by more than 80 percent.

JAMES: It's a small mountain town, poor county, poor community, no hope. He represents to them everything that's put them in that position.

REEVE (on camera): And do you think it's changed in the last five years how intense it is?

JAMES: Yes, it's more dangerous.

HARNSBERGER: The moment I realized things have changed, I think is when I had rocks thrown at me and someone tried to light me on fire and someone pulled a knife on me.

REEVE: So recently?

HARNSBERGER: Yes. I mean, that was a month ago.

JAMES: People are even more frustrated, they're even more divided. So now here's this guy in our town, saying this stuff that we see on television that we don't agree with, so we can't get those people, we can't get the politicians, let's get him.

REEVE (voice over): They'd advertise Dan would be wrestling Beau in Sicklerville, Virginia, a community of about 330 people. Fans came ready to boo Dan.

ALEX ADKINS, INDEPENDENT PRO WRESTLER: We all have our own opinion, but his especially in this area is a lot different and, you know, everybody wants to punch him in the face.

JESSE PROFITT, WRESTLING FAN: We love wrestling, first of all. But to come and show the liberal like, hey, you know what we stand for.

REEVE (on camera): Yes.

PROFITT: And definitely not the left side.

REEVE: So do you want to see him get beat me?

PROFITT: Yes.

REEVE: Do you want Trump to run again?

PROFITT: Amen.

REEVE: You do?

PROFITT: Yes.

REEVE: Yes? OK.

(Voice-over): Corey Smith wrestles as White Trash Millionaire. He doesn't like Dan's politics, but he's off the Trump train.

COREY SMITH, AKA "WHITE TRASH MILLIONAIRE", INDEPENDENT PRO WRESTLER: I don't see how things could get any worse.

[16:30:00]

But with Trump, we would find out.

REEVE: You think so?

SMITH: I believe so, yes. When you stop putting America first, start putting yourself and what you want to do first. I'm jumping -- I'm jumping off any train.

REEVE: But you've got to tell me when that moment was.

SMITH: Twitter. If I'm at my job and I'm constantly tweeting, I'm getting fired. I want somebody that leads the country by actions not by words.

REEVE (voice-over): The crowd was loud for other matches. But when Dan walked out, it was next level.

CROWD: (INAUDIBLE.)

REEVE: Then, he got out of the ring and riled them up more. A guy looked ready to fight Dan. Some fans fought each other.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE.)

UNIDENTIED FEMALE: Will (ph) cut the match short. Backstage, they said the crowd got too hot, too fast.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We felt it coming. We pushed it too far.

DANIEL HARNSBERGER, PROFESSIONAL WRESTLER, INDEPENDENT: It's a different hate now and it's at a level I haven't experienced previously. So, anyone who doesn't think it's getting more violent and what -- and on what side it's coming from needs to have a reality check.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You have to know how to let it breathe. You have to know how to hear it, feel it, live it. You can be great and do all the athletic moves, all the stuff. If you don't know the audience, it doesn't matter.

REEVE: Elle Reeve, CNN, Stickleyville, Virginia.

(END VIDEOTAPE) ACOSTA: Coming up, the battle against crime in New York City. After the new mayor there promised to put his police experience to work, are things any safer? Do people feel safer? That's next.

[16:31:58]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Crime is frequently cited by long-time residents as a real concern in New York City for many of the 8.5 million people who live there. But does perception match reality? CNN's Jason Carroll reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Last Saturday night, police respond to a triple shooting in Chelsea, a neighborhood known for its million-dollar condos and trendy restaurants. Reports of the shooting not surprising, though, to New Yorkers, such as Peter Panayiotou.

PETER PANAYIOTOU, OWNER, CELLAR 53 WINE & SPIRITS: And Manhattan is not safe anymore.

CARROLL: Panayiotou is the owner of Cellar 53 Wine & Spirits. And for him, crime isn't just something he reads about or sees on the news.

(on camera): How many times have you been stolen from?

PANAYIOTOU: You know, every day, they come in and try to. I mean, I had an incident the other day. They came in. They arrested a guy in here for something that he did outside. OK, they arrested him. They put him on the floor. And then, three hours later, he came back to buy something.

CARROLL (voice-over): Panayiotou has taken security measures into his own hands. Wine bottles now glued into place.

PANAYIOTOU: Look at this.

CARROLL (on camera): You can't lift up the bottle.

PANAYIOTOU: You can't lift it.

CARROLL (voice-over): You have to ask for the real one. As for expensive bottles, --

(on camera): Oh, these are empty.

PANAYIOTOU: They're all empty.

CARROLL: There's nothing in them. OK.

PANAYIOTOU: Anything the customers need, I have to go downstairs and get it for them.

CARROLL (voice-over): Shop lifting has gotten so bad this year, Rite Aid is considering, literally, putting everything behind showcases. It's already closed at least two of its stores in New York City. A spokeswoman saying, in part, in regards to theft, like many in the industry, we are seeing a higher level of brazen shoplifting and organized retail crime.

SARON ASSEFA, I.T. TECHNICIAN: I mean, it's a little crazy out here.

CARROLL: It's not just the streets and the stores. Saron Assefa, an I.T. technician living in Brooklyn, said she started feeling less safe after what happened to her.

ASSEFA: I was in the subway and somebody snatched the purse and my shoes. I was --

CARROLL (on camera): Wait, your purse and your shoes?

ASSEFA: And my shoes.

CARROLL (voice-over): With some feeling more uneasy, they're turning to New York City's Mayor, Eric Adams, now in office for about a year. Adams ran on a platform that he, as a former cop, was best suited to tackle crime.

ERIC ADAMS (D), MAYOR, NEW YORK CITY: I think this city and the police commissioner is moving in the right direction.

CARROLL (on camera): But are you moving fast enough?

ADAMS: Yes, we are. It's been -- it's been 11 months. And when I said what I wanted to focus on when I was campaigning, shootings and homicides and guns, 27-year high and removing guns off our streets.

CARROLL (voice-over): Murders are actually down 13 percent and shootings down 15 percent, since Adams took office in January. But the numbers of murders and shootings still higher now than they were in 2019 before the pandemic. And overall, major crimes are at a 16-year high, such as felony assault, robbery and grand larceny.

(on camera): Critics say bail reform, which went into effect in 2020, is part of the problem. The legislation was designed to help New Yorkers facing nonviolent charges who could not afford bail.

(voice-over): But police say it has also resulted in some offenders, instead of getting bail, they're released with a ticket and then they go out and commit more crimes.

Take Darin Mickens, a notorious transient and pick-pocket offender, arrested again this week. He's already been arrested more than 40 times.

The mayor says bail reform was a key issue addressed at a so-called crime summit held with New York law makers at his residence, Gracie Mansion, last month.

(on camera): So, what's our time frame here? Because it sounds like Because it sounds like what you're saying is the law does have to be changed. So, when are you going to change it or how are you going to change it?

ADAMS: Well, you know, that's beyond my scope to do so.

CARROLL: But you can still influence the governor, right?

[16:40:01]

CARROLL: Or can you influence the governor? Can you talk to the local district attorney here and say, look, we've got to fix this. Let's all get together and do something about it.

ADAMS: Yes. And that's what we did at Gracie Mansion. And the governor has been an amazing partner.

CARROLL: What can we tell people who are looking at this, who are going to be watching this and saying, all right, when is the law going to change to stop these repeat offenders from doing what they're doing?

ADAMS: Well, there's a combination that must take place. Albany reconvenes in January. In the meantime, my officers are zeroing in on those repeated offenders. And we're having conversations right now with lawmakers to say, here's what we're saying how to tweak that. But we can't wait until January. We're doing things right now.

(voice-over): Until things do get better, shop owner, Peter Panayiotou says much of his inventory will stay locked down. And he'll do double duty keeping one eye on his bottles and the other on everyone else. Jason Carroll, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Coming up, Lisa Ling on how the loneliness of the pandemic era has changed the very fabric of human relationships.

[16:41:09]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Lisa Ling is back with an all-new season of "THIS IS LIFE." In tonight's premiere, Lisa explores how the loneliness of the pandemic era is changing the very fabric of human relationships and how some people are embracing non-human companions to fill the void. Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LISA LING, CNN HOST, "THIS IS LIFE": Tell me about when you first became aware of RealDoll.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, gosh, it was a special on one of the cable channels. OK. And I'm, like, well, that's interesting. Before I brought her home, I wasn't sure what to expect. I opened the box and I just went hahhh (ph). Like that. I was just so taken back. And I felt her say, my name is Tasha. Take me home. Take me with you.

LING: Is she really heavy?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's about 60 pounds.

LING: And you must carry her around a lot, right? Or is she usually pretty stationary?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She has a stand or she sits in a chair like this.

LING: And you style her, you do her makeup, everything?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Yes, I do. A lot of YouTube videos.

LING: You're doing a pretty good job.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: OK. Joining us now is the host of "THIS IS LIFE" with Lisa Ling. Lisa, interesting stuff. What did you learn about these non- human attachments formed after the pandemic?

LING: Well, you know, Jim, that our show, "THIS IS LIFE," likes to look at issues through very unique, sometimes non-conventional, lenses. And this episode is no different.

And I will say, though, that this is not an episode about sex dolls. It is about relationships that most of us have now with non-human entities. I mean, most of us, I would argue, are probably reliant, even addicted, to our devices, our smartphones, and what we can do on them and the experiences we can have on them.

And even -- we are in relationships with them, because we probably spend more time on these devices with these algorithms than we do with human beings anymore. And let's face it, they've gotten to know us really well. They're a lot smarter than we are. They know what makes us happy or sad. They know what kinds of things that we want to buy.

And these days, the algorithms, they know so much about us, based on the data they've collected, that they are personalizing our feeds, which is -- it's, essentially, cutting us off from other ways of thought and, in some ways, thinking for us.

ACOSTA: Yes. I mean, there are drawbacks to all this, although I suppose we saw in that clip there. He was able to carry her across the threshold. I mean, what did you learn about the impact that this is having on the way people interact?

LING: Well, these days, those dolls are being outfitted with very powerful A.I.

And so, when you think about the direction the world is taking, right, V.R. is also becoming so powerful. We could get to a point where we literally don't have to leave the confines of our own homes for anything. We can travel. We can go to concerts. We can go to sports games. We can even have sex without leaving our home. And, for people who deal with social anxiety or a crippling fear of rejection, you know, what if there was a world where you didn't have to face all those things, right? The problem is that human connection, it's fundamental to having a satisfying life. It's fundamental to having sound mental health.

ACOSTA: All right. Well, Lisa, I mean, it's a fascinating episode. You certainly have my interest peaked, and I encourage everybody to tune in. Lisa Ling, thank you very much.

Be sure to tune in tonight. The final season of "THIS IS LIFE" with Lisa Ling. You've got to catch it while it's still here. It premieres tonight at 10:00 Eastern only on CNN.

[16:49:16]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: And now, it's time to meet one of the top 10 CNN Heroes of 2022.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MEYMUNA HUSSEIN-CATTAN, TIYYA FOUNDATION: For all refugees and immigrants, food is a sense of self-preservation. So, as long as you preserve those family recipes, it really instills a sense of rootedness, feeling connected to your cultural upbringing.

In August, Chef Orball (ph) will be partnering with Flavors From Afar to highlight her dishes from Afghanistan. My restaurant, Flavors From Afar, we really bring international cuisine to Los Angeles in a way that hasn't been done before.

And it's a way to highlight chefs who all share some form of displacement. Giving these home-trained chefs an opportunity to shine, it's amazing. And 40 percent of the proceeds go back to the non- profit.

Can I borrow some of yours?

The Tiyya Foundation serves immigrants, refugees and displaced indigenous communities. My mom and I, we knew that we could help make the path easier for other families.

[16:55:02]

HUSSEIN-CATTAN: We want to create a sense of community.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Go to CNNHeroes.com right now to vote for her or any other of the top 10 favorites for CNN Heroes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.

[17:00:01]

ACOSTA: A rare show of public outrage on the streets in China, as ordinary citizens vent their frustrations over that country's zero COVID policy.