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Iran Calls For U.S. To Be Banned From Play Ahead Of Match; McCarthy Rallies GOP Support In Heated Race For Speaker; Trump Faces Criticism For Hosting Holocaust Denier At Mar-A-Lago. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired November 28, 2022 - 15:00   ET

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

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Okay. Leyla Santiago, thank you.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: The top of a new hour of CNN NEWSROOM. Good to have you. I'm Victor Blackwell.

CAMEROTA: And I'm Alisyn Camerota.

We begin with historic protests in mainland China where thousands are risking their lives to oppose the government's COVID lockdowns. CNN has confirmed demonstrations in at least 16 locations in 11 cities. The Chinese protesters are fed up with the government restricting their movement ordering constant mass testing and imposing long quarantines.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Foreign language).

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CAMEROTA: Police are using force on some protests.

BLACKWELL: This BBC reporter was held for several hours after the network says police in China beat him, kicked him. As you hear the crowd around him shouting release him. Also, as the rare show of rebellion is spreading the issues they're protesting. They are expanding.

Protesters are calling out the President and his regime today in Shanghai. People can be heard saying stepped down Xi Jinping, stepped down the Communist Party.

CNN has correspondents on the mainland and beyond covering the protest.

CNN's Ivan Watson is in Hong Kong, but we're going to start with CNN Selina Wang in the Chinese capital of Beijing. Selina?

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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 Tongliang 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.

CHURCH: In Shanghai, residents confronted police and sang the national anthem in protest.

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CAMEROTA: Selina, be careful. Thank you very much for that reporting.

Now to Hong Kong, CNN's Ivan Watson has been talking to demonstrators there, Ivan?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The white sheets of paper that have become a symbol of the protests in mainland China has spread here to Hong Kong where you can see small groups of demonstrators have gathered for a vigil for what they say are the victims of China's zero COVID policy.

Now, we've heard these groups separating into groups of 12 and the reason is because in Hong Kong's own COVID regulations, groups of more than 12 gathering are banned right now. Now, this gathering is being closely watched by police, who are urging people to move on, who are trying to create a space for this.

Opposition protests, opposition political parties, independent news media have largely been crushed in this city in the last several years. So a gathering like this is very, very rare. And it gives you a sense of how potent the demonstrations are right now in mainland China and how they seem to be inspiring reactions in other territories.

BLACKWELL: Ivan Watson in Hong Kong, thank you for that.

Excitement is now mixed with controversy ahead of one of the most anticipated matches of the World Cup, the U.S. versus Iran. Now, Iran is calling for the U.S. to be banned from the tournament after the U.S. Soccer Federation altered the Iranian flag and a social media post.

CAMEROTA: And now deleted graphic U.S. Soccer temporarily displayed Iran's flag without the emblem of the Islamic Republic. They say the move was meant as a sign of solidarity with Iranian women who had been protesting for months for basic human rights.

With us now, we have CNN host of World Sport, Don Riddell, live in Doha. We also have CNN National Security Correspondent Kylie Atwood at the State Department.

So Don, Iran says the U.S. violated the FIFA charter rules with that image of the flag. So what are the chances of the game actually being scrapped or of the U.S. being thrown out of the tournament?

DON RIDDELL, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: No chance, Alisyn. This game is going to go ahead. Interestingly, Iran itself is often accused of breaching FIFA's fair play charter. In fact, there were two attempts to get Iran thrown out of this tournament before it began just over a week ago and FIFA ignored all of those calls, so this game is going to be played.

It was already one to circle in the calendar. It was always a game that was going to be, shall we say, interesting. But it now is reaching fever pitch.

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The U.S. Soccer Federation Director of Communications has admitted that they did change the flag, they did so in order to express solidarity with the brave female protesters who are literally laying down their lives in Iran. But he said it was only supposed to be a moment. Well, it was a moment that kind of became a 48 hour of diplomatic crisis.

And today, the players and the coach have had to field questions about this and their whole thing is we didn't know anything about it.

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GREGG BERHALTER, U.S. SOCCER MANAGER: We had no idea about what U.S. Soccer put out. The staff, the players had no idea. And for us, it's again, what Tyler said, our focus is on this match. And I don't want to sound aloof or not caring by saying that, but the guys have worked really hard for the last four years.

Of course, our thoughts and when people, the whole the whole country, the whole team, everyone, but our focuses on this match.

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RIDDELL: Yes, the players absolutely will not want this to distract them and derail their attempts to win the game and get out of the group. And it is a must win game for the Americans, lose or draw, and they go home.

And by the way, this is a rematch of an epic 1998 World Cup encounter between Iran and the United States. Iran won that. It was their first ever World Cup win. It is a result that is still remembered by fans and the players who were all kids at the time. But they all remember what was going on when that game happened and Iran won it. They knocked U.S.A. back out then in 1998. The American players desperately hoping history doesn't repeat itself.

BLACKWELL: Yes, plenty of people, obviously, looking forward to that.

Kylie, let me come to you at the State Department. People there saying anything about this yet?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Well, similar to the U.S. Soccer players, State Department officials said that there was no coordination between the State Department, the U.S. government and this decision by U.S. Soccer to put up that Iranian flag that had missing the Iranian emblem from it.

And so what the State Department is saying is that they, of course, want folks to focus on the game. But they also aren't condemning U.S. Soccer for this decision, what they're saying, over the weekend, a spokesperson said, "We look forward to a peaceful and competitive match on the field. The United States continues to find ways to support the Iranian people in the face of state-sponsored violence against women and a brutal crackdown against peaceful protestors."

Now, of course, you have seen the State Department, the Biden administration come out in support of these Iranian female protesters. And essentially what they're saying here is they're going to keep doing that and they're going to have all eyes on the game tomorrow. Of course, we'll also be watching to see who, from the U.S. government, who in the U.S. diplomatic corps attends that match.

CAMEROTA: Okay. Don, Kylie, thank you both.

BLACKWELL: Joining us now is CNN Global Affairs Analyst, Susan Glasser, she's also a staff writer for The New Yorker.

Susan, good to see you. So as insults go, I've been trying to understand the severity of this, of one country, not just altering another country's flag, but the U.S. removing the emblem of the Islamic Republic from that flag helped me understand how that would be viewed in Iran.

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, look, these two countries are hypersensitive to insults one to the other. But again, we don't know who did it or what the exact circumstances were. It's not exactly - the State Department itself ...

BLACKWELL: True.

GLASSER: ... taking this action. So I imagine, as your correspondent pointed out that the game will go on despite the rhetoric. The problem right now for Iran is much bigger than a tweet coming from a social media account. These are remarkable protests, the first sustained of this kind, really, since 1979.

And I think that they have not succeeded in squelching them. They have not succeeded in saying that they're fomented by the West or something like this. And so, I think you've even seen remarkable acts of bravery by Iranian athletes outside the country, which this tweet in some way was paying tribute to.

CAMEROTA: And Susan, it's interesting to see how this World Cup tournament has brought to the fore these human rights controversies. So not just now Iran, but Qatar, I mean, this is something that wasn't on maybe a lot of Americans' radar, but all of this - people are talking about it now because of the World Cup. And I just think it's interesting to see the intersection here.

GLASSER: Well, the incredible visibility of this platform that you know, Qatar sought out for itself, has now turned scrutiny on the repressive nature of their own government, the lack of freedom of speech, the sort of changing set of regulations, the fact that in this neighborhood, there's so much conflict and trouble. I think it's the kind of thing that repressive governments whether in the Middle East or elsewhere can they really withstand this kind of global scrutiny.

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It's not necessarily the kind of open forum politics that they're used to.

BLACKWELL: Does this conflict over the protest spill into the other issues with which the U.S. and Iran are on opposite sides? We're talking nuclear, obviously. Iran support for Russia in their invasion in Ukraine, does this spill some residue on those other issues?

GLASSER: One thing I have been really struck by in recent weeks is how the protests inside Iran have led not only to efforts to squelch the protests inside the country, but to arguably an even more hardline foreign policy outside the country. And you see Iran essentially becoming an even important supplier of weapons to Russia in his conflict with Ukraine, for example, and a sort of an alliance of bad actors, if you will.

And I think this increased scrutiny at such a high profile occasion, like the World Cup is likely to continue that sense of not only Iranian victimization but making common cause with others like Russia, like China and I imagine that that is something we're going to see even more of. You look at the protests now breaking out in China, another example where you could see a hardline response, both in foreign policy and inside the country.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about that. Let's talk about what's happening simultaneously in China now. How remarkable, Susan, are these protests. As we were just reporting, they're in 16 different locations. They're widespread. They're loud. They're not going home yet?

GLASSER: Well, that's right. I was just thinking about how this is the biggest demonstrations across the country, in some way since that, since the Tiananmen Square protest of a whole generation ago. It doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to lead to increase liberalization and trying to quite the contrast, you are looking at protests that are specifically aimed at a policy that is very much identified with Xi Jinping, the leader, which is the zero COVID policy.

And you could be looking at an even bigger kind of domestic crackdown as a result of it, but it's still remarkable to see people take risks like this in closed societies, such as China has become, such as Iran. It's remarkable how quickly they've spread across the country in China. That's the other thing that is really notable at a moment when so many traditional avenues of communication are shut down. They haven't been able to censor the internet so thoroughly, that China's people locked inside their apartment blocks are able and are defying the authorities to come out. The fact that a blank piece of paper is the symbol so far of these protests, again, it's so telling of the nature of the regime that has been formulated in recent years, which is really the toughest China has seen in decades.

CAMEROTA: Susan Glasser, thank you very much for the expertise.

So lawmakers are back from Thanksgiving plate - oops, break ...

BLACKWELL: Yes.

CAMEROTA: ... with a full plate of bills for this lame duck session.

BLACKWELL: I heard it, it was all there. You got it there.

CAMEROTA: I'm really - yeah, on fire.

BLACKWELL: Yes. The Wall Street Journal's editorial board also issuing a strong rebuke of former President Trump. They accused him of failing to take responsibility for hosting a Holocaust denier at Mar-A-Lago. More on that ahead.

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CAMEROTA: Okay. This week Congress is back in session and with just a few weeks before the Republicans take control of the House, Democrats have a long to-do list that they hope to accomplish.

BLACKWELL: Manu Raju is on Capitol Hill. So what can we expect in these final weeks of this Congress?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, a lot of work in a little bit of time to do just that, but it is important for viewers to remember that if bills are not passed by the end of this year, they'll just start the legislative process all over again next year when the new Congress convenes and the makeup will be different.

Republicans next year will control the House narrowly, but now it's controlled by Democrats and a lot of these bills that Democrats are trying to push will go nowhere in Republican-led House. So they do have a long legislative agenda to get done in just a few weeks time.

One bill that is pending in the Senate right now will be to protect same sex marriage. That is expected to pass the Senate later this week. Then it goes on to house for final approval. There are other measures, too, funding the federal government and deadline is by mid December in order to ensure that all federal agencies can be funded big question there.

Also a big question is how do they deal with the so called Electoral Count Act, those are - that's the law that Donald Trump sought to exploit to force Mike Pence, the vice president at that time, to overturn the elections when Congress met to certify the elections. There are changes to the law that the legislation that are - that is - that the Democrats and Republicans are trying to get through in the days ahead here, and the annual defense policy bill, too.

So another major issue that is waiting in the wings that will take some time for lawmakers to resolve and then there's some questions as well, do they try to avoid a debt default which will be on Congress' plate next year, do they try to do it at the end of this year. So all key questions as leadership leaders as all the caucus has tried to sort out their own leadership teams this year, including the Democratic side in the House, where they will meet later this week to select their new slate of leaders in the House Minority when they take power next year.

CAMEROTA: Okay. So Manu, speaking of new leaders, what is the latest with the House leadership race?

RAJU: Yes. Kevin McCarthy has been behind closed doors for the last several weeks making phone calls, trying to lock down the votes in order to become the next Speaker of the House.

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Recall, he needs to get 218 votes of the full House on January 3rd of next year in order to become speaker. The Republicans are expected to have a narrow House Majority, probably 222 seats. That means he can only lose four seats in order to become elected speaker and already several members of that hardline House Freedom Caucus are threatening to vote against him, so a lot of negotiations are happening behind the scenes.

McCarthy allies I have spoken to believe he can eventually get there after some deals are caught, after potential people can be handed out committee assignments and the like in order to get those votes and whether - to see whether he can make some changes to how he would deal with the speaker's gavel in order to empower the rank and file members, one of the concessions that some of these members have sought.

So a long way to go between now and then when McCarthy is pushing to get the votes and it will be closed when they meet on January 3rd to determine the next speaker, guys.

CAMEROTA: Really interesting. Okay, Manu. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Donald Trump is facing growing criticism even within his own party for his decision to host a Holocaust denier at Mar-A-Lago.

Nick Fuentes, a former YouTube political commentator, has been labeled a white supremacist and anti-Semite by the anti-Defamation League.

CAMEROTA: A source tell CNN, the dinner was at the request of the rapper formerly known as Kanye West. Trump confirmed the dinner with Fuentes did happen, but claims he did not know who he was. Of course, now he does. Let's bring in Gloria Borger, she's CNN Chief Political Analyst and Charlie Dent is a CNN Political Commentator and a former Republican congressman from Pennsylvania. Guys, great to have you here.

Gloria, it is no surprise that Donald Trump enjoys the company of white supremacists and anti-Semites so long as they're complimenting him. And as he was heard to say, this guy really gets me, I really liked this guy, whoever he is. What is more surprising is the silence from other elected Republican leaders. Why is it so hard? Why can't Kevin McCarthy denounce this?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Because as Manu was just saying, he's trying to become speaker and he's afraid of his own shadow. And right now, Donald Trump has endorsed him for speaker. And while Donald Trump may be diminished after the midterm elections, we've been talking about that. The question is how diminished. I mean, he's still the leading candidate in the Republican Party right now for president.

And so you see more of the rank and file coming out. For example, Sen. Cassidy of Louisiana came out and said that the president shouldn't have done this, as this encourages him hosting racist anti-Semites effectively empowers those people, but where is McCarthy? Where is Mitch McConnell, by the way?

He figures, well, okay, he's got an election in Georgia that he's got to win. So they're holding back as they always have. The dam has not broken. There are a few little rickety guardrails missing at this point, but the dam hasn't broken.

BLACKWELL: Hey, Congressman, let me read a couple more here, just the headlines here. The New York Times has statement from the Republican Jewish Coalition condemning Fuentes and West, Rep. Bacon, a Republican in Nebraska says he's appalled the chairwoman of the RNC says that she - says that white supremacy, neo-Nazism have no place in the Republican Party.

But to the point that Gloria was making there, I want you to pull that thread a bit more, how are people supposed to reconcile the relatively flat reaction to Trump's announcement that he's running in 2020, people reporting that Republicans really aren't that excited with what appears to be fear of speaking out against this, beyond just McCarthy and McConnell?

CHARLIE DENT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, the real sad part here is that the Republican Party from top to bottom, from the RNC down to the county committee level has become very Trumpified. And every one of these Republicans know that Donald Trump is indeed a diminished figure and increasingly diminishing, but he is a dangerous figure.

And they need to take the next step and say, yes, what he did is not only outrageous and appalling, offensive, and horrible and lacks judgment, but they have to take the next step and say - but he can never be our nominee. For all these reasons, they've got to cut bait.

But as Gloria pointed out, Kevin - that Donald Trump can cause problems for these members still, but at some point, you have to be willing to risk your job in order to save it. It is not hard to condemn this. This is the easiest thing they can do. Trump is down on the ground again, just as he was after January 6th.

Keep him on the ground, don't let him back up again, pile on now. It's good that Chris Christie and many others who are aspiring to become the next president are out there saying things. Now it's incumbent upon the elected officials currently in office to do this.

And good for Don Bacon and others who've spoken out, but more needs to be done. Trump is in a - he's in a precarious position right now and we need to knock him down.

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But these party apparatus though in this country and the Republican Party needs to be cleaned from top to bottom and that's going to take a while. You can get rid of Donald Trump, it's going to be hard to get rid of all the people he's placed in these key party positions.

BORGER: Here's the thing that I think we ought to be looking at is where does the Republican Jewish money go. And that's going to be a large question, because Donald Trump in the past has had some very sizable Jewish donors and we'll have to see whether this has changed anything. And whether they start to come out and say, you know what, we're going to start giving our money to Ron DeSantis or we're going to start giving our money to Chris Christie or somebody else.

I mean, I think it's notable, as Charlie says, that the people that have really come out, the most straightforwardly are the people who are going to try and run against Donald Trump. But in the end, he's going to need the money. The money is going to be his oxygen and let's see what happens to that.

CAMEROTA: Charlie, on a totally separate note, if Donald Trump doesn't know who he's having dinner with, if the former U.S. president doesn't know who he's having dinner with at Mar-A-Lago, how can he make the argument that the highly classified documents and top secret documents that he took from the White House are secure at Mar-A-Lago?

DENT: Well, again, this speaks to the lack of judgment, the lack of discipline. There are no gatekeepers. Where's his son-in-law who's an Orthodox Jew? Wouldn't he be there to tackle this person before he gets in front of his father-in-law? I mean, it just speaks there's - again, no discipline, there is no judgment. There just is no sound reason for any of this. I mean, absconding with classified documents.

Have I've done something like that, I can assure you, I would have been in handcuffs, I would have been in handcuffs. I mean, there wouldn't have been a negotiation about returning anything. I mean, this is ridiculous what we're dealing with, with this guy and I - again, but the problem, though, that I think the party really faces is that by bringing in the Marjorie Taylor Greenes and the Gosars, by bringing them into the tent, by more or less normalizing them, they have legitimized all these crazy rhetoric and these meetings with the Fuenteses of the world. And so that's the problem right now. They always need to stand up and push back vigorously against these sketchy elements. Yes, the party is a big tent, but it's not that big of a tent to allow these fringe characters in. This is the - and they - and now they can't denounce them because they need some of these fringe characters, in this case, to help Kevin McCarthy get to 218 through the speaker vote. This is what we're dealing with.

BLACKWELL: All right. Former Congressman Dent, Gloria Borger, thank you both.

BORGER: Thanks, guys.

DENT: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: A fire rescue team in Maryland pulled a pilot and a passenger out of their plane that crashed into electrical lines. We'll speak to the fire chief about that rescue. That's next.

CAMEROTA: That is some crazy video right there.

We're also tracking severe weather across the south right now. It could produce tornadoes by tomorrow, so we have the latest forecast you need to hear next.

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