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Protesters take to the Streets in China; Early Voting in Georgia; Democrats have Three Weeks to Tackle Several Priorities; Sallamondra Robinson is Interviewed about Her Daughter's Murder Case. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired November 28, 2022 - 09:00   ET

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

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JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Good Monday morning to you, I'm Jim Sciutto.

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Bianna Golodryga.

We begin this morning with a remarkable and unusual scene in China, where major protests are erupting across several cities.

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SCIUTTO: What's remarkable about what you're hearing there is those protesters are explicitly demanding not just freedom from Covid lockdowns but freedom of speech, freedom of the press. And they do this kind of thing, these protests, at enormous risk to themselves. China is a policed state. It punishes dissent.

We've seen thousands of demonstrators taking the streets anyway, in places such as Shanghai and Xinjiang, calling for an end to strict Covid-19 policies, including lockdowns and testing. But they're taking it broader than that now. Some say that the president, Xi Jinping, should step down. We're going to take you live to the capital, Beijing, where there have also be protests, just ahead.

GOLODRYGA: Also ahead this morning, early voting officially opens statewide in Georgia, kicking off the final runoff election of the 2022 midterms. Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock looking to keep his Senate seat from Republican challenger Herschel Walker. We'll have details on who's spending big on ads there.

SCIUTTO: Plus, President Biden looking for big legislative wins before Republicans take control of the House next month. Can Democrats do things like avoid a government shutdown but also pass protections for same-sex marriage? Those are just two of the priorities on a long list of things in their agenda.

We begin this morning with CNN correspondent Selina Wang. She is in Beijing covering these remarkable protests.

Selina, it's a rare show of dissent in numbers at great risk to China's ruling communist party. I wonder, you've been witnessing this firsthand. Tell us what you're seeing there and what these protesters are tell you.

SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, first of all, this is an extraordinary moment in history. No protests of this scale demanding political reforms have been seen those Tiananmen pro-democracy protests in 1989 that led to a massacre of unarmed protesters. You showed that map there earlier. This is happening in cities across China. Protests chanting for free speech, democracy, rule of law, human rights. We're talking about major cities like Shanghai here in Beijing. You saw the metropolis in the Guangzhou, Chengdu in the west and even in more far-flung areas. We verified protests in 16 locations, but there are reports in dozens of other cities and universities across the country.

As you say, this is a policed state. Extremely dangerous to criticize the party, especially Xi himself. You risk prison time or even worse. But that is exactly the risk people are taking across this country. In places like Shanghai, those shocking shows of defiance, chants even for Xi Jinping to step down.

As you mentioned, I was in the protest in Beijing last night. You could hear crowds of young people. They were chanting over and over again, we don't want Covid tests. We want freedom. Some people were also shouting for freedom of speech, human rights, holding up those white pieces of paper as a show of solidarity that they are against censorship.

I spoke to several of the protesters there. There were a lot of excitement. These are many young people who have never participated in anything like this before. I spoke to one who told me he motorcycled and biked more than an hour to get to the scene. And when I asked him how he was feeling, this is what he told me.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I'm overwhelmed. Every conscientious Chinese should be here. They don't have to voice their opinions, but I hope they can stand with us.

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WANG: And, Jim, when I spoke to him later, he was actually having an argument with other protesters who were asking for regime change. And he was saying, no, no, no, Xi Jinping, CCP, they can stay in power, I just want them to hear our voices and to adjust and to change.

I can't overemphasize, though, how rare it is to have someone speaking to me, CNN, maskless, in public. It shows just how determined they are for their voices to be heard.

I will note that there was a large police presence there the whole time. Then after 2:00 a.m., there were many, many more police, a whole mass of them, basically forming a wall to force us to disperse.

[09:05:03] GOLODRYGA: Well, what's interesting, Selina, is that so far we have not heard from Xi Jinping himself, but we also know that it is difficult for western journalists to have access to many of these streets there and the protests and these cities.

We know that there was a BBC reporter who was actually arrested. What more can you tell us about that?

WANG: Well, in terms of the official response we are seeing vast censorship across the country, on social media. Our whole conversation right now, I've got a CNN channel in front of me on a TV screen in China, this whole conversation is being censored.

Yes, we did see varying levels of police violence in some of these cities. The BBC had a journalist, Ed Lawrence, who was arrested while he was reporting at the protest in Shanghai. The BBC says he was beaten and kicked by police during the arrest and was held for several hours before being released.

Bianna. Jim.

SCIUTTO: The censorship there, remarkable.

Selina Wang, good to have you there. Thanks so much.

GOLODRYGA: Turning back here to home.

Early voting gets underway in Georgia as Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock faces Republican Herschel Walker.

SCIUTTO: Of course, control of the Senate no longer on the line. Democrats have already achieved that. But a Warnock victory would give Democrats an outright majority, not a 50/50 tie to be broken by the vice president,, Kamala Harris.

Let's speak now to CNN national politics reporter Eva McKend. She's in Atlanta.

So, long lines of voters over the weekend. You know, clearly folks are taking advantage of early voting here. They want it. They like it. You just got an update on the total number of people. What does it say?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: Yes, Jim, there sure are. Actually, I just want to point to you here. We are in Fulton County. A long line of folks here to vote early.

Senator Warnock quite busy over the weekend. He held a Souls to the Polls event, as well as a number of other events, really emphasizing pushing this early voting. We know that runoffs are ultimately about turnout. Warnock also holding an event tonight with the Dave Matthews Band.

Herschel Walker was not on the campaign trail over the weekend, but he will hold a number of events this week outside of Atlanta in Dalton and Cumming, Georgia, among other places. And even though Walker was not on the trail, both of these candidates

very busy in terms of ads and ad spending. We know that Senator Warnock has spent $18 million on adds to Walker's $6.4 million.

Take a listen to what Georgians are seeing on television.

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HERSCHEL WALKER (R), GEORGIA SENATE CANDIDATE: So I've been telling this little story about this bull out in the field with these (ph) cows.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What on earth?

WALKER: And three of them are pregnant.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no substance. There's nothing.

WALKER: So, you know you've got something going on.

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MCKEND: So in terms of those voting numbers, we saw about 80,000 voters come out on Saturday, and even more on Sunday -- excuse me, we had about 80,000 voters come out on Saturday and about 90,000 voters come out on Sunday. So, a lot of enthusiasm here on the ground, Jim.

SCIUTTO: We'll see how that plays out in the final numbers.

Eva McKend, thanks so much.

Well, President Biden is back at the White House this morning, hoping Congress can push through some of his priorities before Republicans take over the House next month. On the list, a government funding bill,, raising the debt ceiling. Also he's mentioned at least hopes for an assault weapons ban. Those are just some of the items on the agenda.

GOLODRYGA: And CNN's Melanie Zanona is up on Capitol Hill with more.

So, Melanie, what has a realistic chance of getting done, especially considering that we have to keep the government open?

SCIUTTO: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: You don't want a shutdown.

MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: Right.

GOLODRYGA: And also you have that debt ceiling looming.

ZANONA: Well, you can really think about it in terms of two buckets. There's the must pass items and the more wish list items. First, starting with the must pass items. As you mentioned, government funding. If Congress doesn't fund the government by December 16th, there will be a shutdown, which no one wants. There's already talk, though, of needing to give themselves a one-week extension in order to get this done. White House is pushing for Covid aid, Ukraine funding, all of that could be a holdup. But we are expecting it to pass.

And then also in the must pass item bucket is an annual defense policy bill. That's something that Congress has passed every single year. So, we are expecting that to pass. It's bipartisan. They just need to finish up their work on that.

But then, moving over to the wish list items, top of the list is a bill to protect same-sex marriage. It's already been moving through the Senate. There's going to be another vote today. We are expecting it to pass the Senate and then the House would need to take that up and pass it. But, again, are expecting that to happen.

But then, moving down the list, it starts to get a little bit trickier. Congress also wants to do election reform to prevent another January 6th. There's been a lot of bipartisan energy around that. But there's some differences between what the House and the Senate wants to do.

Then there's also talk of whether they're going to raise the debt ceiling. That's something Congress doesn't need to do until next year but there's concerns about whether a GOP-led House would be able to do that.

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Doesn't seem like there's going to be the time or the votes to do that, but there is going to be discussions about whether they can get that done.

And then finally an assault weapons ban. That's something that has only popped into the picture recently, last week, of course, after a string of deadly mass shootings. President Joe Biden is now pushing for that. But even Democratic Senator Chris Murphy says he doesn't think the votes are there.

Take a listen.

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SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): Does it have 60 votes in the Senate right now? Probably not. But let's see if we can try to get that number as close to 60 as possible. If we don't have the votes, then we'll talk to Senator Schumer and maybe come back next year with maybe an additional senator and see if we can do better.

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ZANONA: So, even without action on gun reform, as you can tell, guys, there's going to be a lot of action here on Capitol Hill in these next few weeks. And, of course, the big question is whether this does drag closer to the holidays.

Jim. Bianna.

GOLODRYGA: Melanie Zanona, thank you.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: A lot on the plate there for the president.

Well, joining us now to discuss a Rachael Bade, co-author of "The Politico Playbook."

So, Rachael, let's get to these must do items, keeping the government open, funding the government. The deadline is December 16th. As you heard there from Melanie, there is talk about extending that to December 23rd. That having been said, given that Democrats have control of both chambers, why not do it now through the process of reconciliation and then think ahead to possibly even doing the same with raising the debt ceiling because you have Kevin McCarthy already threatening to use that as leverage once they take control.

RACHAEL BADE, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, on the first one, government funding, you can't really do that via reconciliation. That's typically done with - you've got to get around the filibuster, which means ten Senate Republicans. There is no greater motivator, as you probably know in Washington, than the looming holiday season. So, this will get done at some point. I think the question on government funding is whether Democrats have another opportunity to sort of pass a whole bunch of priorities before they lose the House.

There are some Republicans who don't want McConnell and Senate Republicans to make a deal in the upper chamber because they want Kevin McCarthy to have more leverage next year and engage in some sort of shutdown showdown. So, there's a question about what Mitch McConnell will do. I think all eyes will be on him.

As for the debt ceiling, Chuck Schumer said right before Thanksgiving that this has to be bipartisan. There was a concern about doing reconciliation, trying to do this via just Democrats alone, that that would take weeks upon weeks, a time that they frankly don't have given that they were out for recess last week. So that has sort of -- they have thrown cold water on that, which means we're going to see a real debt ceiling fight next year when Republicans are controlling the House and want to cut mandatory spending in order to raise the debt ceiling.

SCIUTTO: "Politico" story - "Politico" has a story out today, of course you were involved in, about kind of what that's going to look like, right? I wonder if you could describe what divided government is going to look like in this country with the Senate under Democratic control, House under Republican control and issues like this, right, a debt limit fight, which I'm sure is not going to be pretty.

BADE: Yes, I think shutdowns are going to potentially become a regular thing next year. I mean, Kevin McCarthy, if he gets the votes to be speaker, he's going to have a very slim margin in the House, which means these sort of MAGA Republicans, allies of Donald Trump, who want to sort of use their votes to control him, will try to do so and force him to take a harder line. We're already seeing that happening not only with the funding fight potentially but also the other bill --must pass bill that Melanie mentioned, the National Defense Reauthorization piece. This has been passed for 60 years in a row and you already see Kevin McCarthy going out right now and saying, I don't want to pass it this December. I want to wait until I control the House because we want to do all these changes to defense policy and we want to use the House Republicans to do so.

So, we're already seeing the politics of Republicans coming into control, clashing with Democrats in the Senate and it's just going to be a lot of gridlock. I mean that's a word we're going to hear over and over again next year.

GOLODRYGA: We've mentioned Kevin McCarthy's name twice now. Is there any guarantee that he, in fact, will be speaker and in control?

BADE: Of course not. I mean his allies are out there saying right now that he's going to get the votes and that it's just a question of what he has to do to get there, what promises and priorities he has to give the far right in order to get that job. But right now we've seen at least five House Republicans say on the record that they are not going to support him for speaker and right now he can only lose potentially three or four on the floor when it comes to the floor vote for the speaker's gavel. So, he's got a real math problem.

Now, we say this now. Everybody's a no until all of a sudden they're a yes, right? We saw this with Nancy Pelosi and how she was able to pick off and sort of buy out a lot of Democrats who opposed her for speaking last time around. But this is a different game for Kevin McCarthy. The reality is that a lot of these members don't like him.

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It's not just about concessions, they just don't want to see him as speaker. And so that's going to be really complicated for him in getting the votes.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Yes, hard to get the votes when folks don't like you.

Rachael Bade, thanks so much.

BADE: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Coming up next, you're going to want to hear this interview. I'll speak to a mother looking for answers. Mexican officials have now issued an arrest warrant for a suspect in the death of Shanquella Robinson, a North Carolina woman on vacation with friends when authorities say she was attacked and killed. So far we still don't know the suspect's name or whether she's in custody. Robinson's mother joins me live with what she knows about the investigation.

GOLODRYGA: Also ahead, an incredible rescue after a small plane crashes into power lines. See how the pilot and passenger made it out alive.

Plus, details on why Iran wants the U.S. men's soccer team kicked out of the World Cup, just as the two prepare for a high stakes match tomorrow. We'll take you live to Doha. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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SCIUTTO: Prosecutors in Mexico have now issued an arrest warrant in the death of a 25-year-old North Carolina woman who died while on vacation in Mexico. Shanquella Robinson arrived in San Jose del Cabo with six college friends a month ago today and died just a day later. Prosecutors say Robinson died as a result of a spinal injury sustained in a, quote, direct attack. But that's not the story her mother was originally told. Mexican authorities say they have now begun the extradition process for one of the people on that trip who is now a suspect.

Joining us now is Shanquella's mother, Sallamondra Robinson.

And, Sallamondra, I'm so sorry we're speaking under these circumstances.

SALLAMONDRA ROBINSON, MOTHER OF WOMAN FOUND DEAD IN MEXICO: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: First, if I could ask you about the latest we're learning in this case. Mexican authorities have now issued an arrest warrant for one of the women who was on that trip with your daughter. Authorities have not publicly named that person. Have police told you who the arrest warrant is for?

ROBINSON: No, I have no idea.

SCIUTTO: They have not. And have they given any updates on the extradition process, that is, how long it will take to take this suspect now back to Mexico for questioning?

ROBINSON: No, I haven't heard anything. As I was last told that they have not located them yet, the suspect that they are looking for.

SCIUTTO: Interesting. That they have not been able to find the person that they want to extradite?

ROBINSON: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Goodness. Well, authorities have said that your daughter was on this trip with six friends. Do you know these friends and are these people that your daughter would have considered close friends?

ROBINSON: I did not know them. I just knew the one, Khalil Cooke. I knew him. I didn't know the other six. They -- all I know, they all went to college together.

SCIUTTO: Gotcha. I understand you last spoke to Shanquella the day before she died there. Did she tell you anything about how the vacation was going?

ROBINSON: Well, when I spoke with her she seemed to be pretty happy. You know, she was laughing and talking and saying a chef was getting ready to cook them some tacos. And I said, well, OK, enjoy yourself. Love you. I will talk to you tomorrow. And I never spoke to her again.

SCIUTTO: Oh, I'm so sorry. There was nothing she told you in that conversation that indicated she was having any trouble or that gave you any sense of concern?

ROBINSON: No, there was not anything. She seemed to be very happy on that trip.

SCIUTTO: Poor girl. And -- poor you. I'm sorry for you and your whole family.

The people who traveled with her, when they -- first of all, they came back to this country here after your daughter died and they initially said she just had alcohol poisoning. Have you had any contact with any of them, including the friend that you say you knew since -- since then?

ROBINSON: When they got - well, arrived back to Charlotte, they came over to the house to visit and tell us what - what had happened.

SCIUTTO: What was that conversation like? What did they tell you exactly?

ROBINSON: Well, they told us it was alcohol poison. And we, you know, questioned each one of them because we had heard different. We had got a call saying that they was over there fighting her. There was no such thing as alcohol poison. So, we started asking each one of them questions about the situation. And they denied and said there was never a fight. You know, it was alcohol poison.

SCIUTTO: Who told you that there was a fight? Who had told you that?

ROBINSON: Well, it was someone called on the phone. We don't know who it was. They just called us and told us this, that they was over there fighting. So, the video had to be already out then they called to tell us that because they had seen the video and we hadn't seen the video.

SCIUTTO: Yes. I see. OK.

ROBINSON: And that's how we learned that information.

SCIUTTO: Now, CNN deliberately has not aired this video that appears to show your daughter being attacked. Do you have any idea, did anyone tell you who filmed that video?

ROBINSON: No, we have no idea.

SCIUTTO: So, when you asked the friends, you say you asked each of them individually what happened, they all stuck to that story? They all stuck to the story it was just alcohol?

ROBINSON: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Did they give any answers that at the time made you suspect they weren't being truthful? ROBINSON: Well, the phone call was one. When - when I received the

phone call say they don't know why they keep saying alcohol poison, say they know that they was over there fighting her. And so when I - we asked - questioned them about the fight.

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They said there was never a fight, it was alcohol poison. So, I said, well, the only thing we can do is wait until the autopsy come back. And so when the autopsy came back, it came back the following Thursday and it said it was not -- her death was not related to the alcohol poison.

SCIUTTO: Yes. And you haven't spoken to any of those friends since those first conversations when they got home?

ROBINSON: No, I haven't spoke to them since.

SCIUTTO: Goodness.

The State Department as well, the U.S. State Department, gave you the initial explanation that there was no foul play as well. Do you know what they were basing that incorrect judgment on?

ROBINSON: No, I do not. I just felt that they didn't do their job.

SCIUTTO: Have you had any contact from the State Department since then, since these new developments?

ROBINSON: No, I have not.

SCIUTTO: And how about the FBI? I wonder, has the FBI reached out to you or your family?

ROBINSON: Yes, they have.

SCIUTTO: Are they telling you anything about the investigation?

ROBINSON: No, because it messes with their investigation, so they're not telling us anything either. We don't know anything.

SCIUTTO: Listen, this has been heartbreaking for you. It would be for any mother. Particularly, though, with - with --

ROBINSON: Yes, it is.

SCIUTTO: With the changes in the story, right, from the friends and from authorities here. Are you confident now that you're going to get a fair and just investigation?

ROBINSON: I believe we is now. We had a lot of people behind us and we appreciate that. And they got it on the ball rolling. And we just waiting for someone to be arrested.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Well, listen, I hope -- I hope you do get that justice. I want to say that our hearts go out to you from here at CNN to you and your family for your loss.

ROBINSON: Thank you so much.

SCIUTTO: Sallamondra Robinson, thanks so much.

GOLODRYGA: And still ahead, no seat belt, no flight. NFL free agent Odell Beckham Jr. kicked off a Miami flight after he didn't buckle up. Up next, why attendants feared he was, quote, seriously ill.

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