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White House Hosts Kennedy Center Honorees; Final Pitches from Warnock and Walker Ahead of Georgia Runoff; Tampa Police Chief Flashes Badge, Urges Cop to Let Her Go; Kevin McCarthy Calls for GOP to Back His Bid to be Speaker; The Impact of Democrat Primary Changes on the 2024 Presidential Race; Officials Say Massive Power Outage in North Carolina Targeted; Ukraine Blanketed with Power Outages, Colder Weather; "This is Life" Features Online Sperm Donor and Tiger Queens. Aired 6-7p ET
Aired December 04, 2022 - 18:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[18:00:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): Finds a way to govern together. Otherwise we'll be squandering this majority.
REP. BOB GOOD (R-VA): He is not going to be speaker. He doesn't have the votes to get to 218. He's not going to get to 218.
MIKE LAWLER (R), NEW YORK CONGRESSMAN-ELECT: I am confident that Kevin McCarthy will have 218 votes on January 3rd.
PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Wisconsin's Dancing Grannies make an emotional comeback one year after members were killed in Waukesha's parade attack.
JAN KWIATKOSKI, DANCING GRANNIE MEMBER: Trying to deal with what did happen to the group, you know, before that we lost the injured. It's going to be an emotional day, but we're going to have sadness, remembrance, we're going to have a lot of joy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: I'm Pamela Brown in Washington, and you are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
Those stories in a moment, but first, President Biden wrapped up a White House reception for some of the biggest names in entertainment last hour, and tonight's Kennedy Center Honors will be star studded. Among the honorees are George Clooney and members of the band U2.
CNN's Arlette Saenz is there.
So, Arlette, looks like a fun crowd and a glamorous crowd there at the White House tonight.
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Pamela, so many faces and voices that people recognize as President Biden honored and celebrated these Kennedy Center honorees. This is part of the tradition with the Kennedy Center Honors where the president hosts the honorees beforehand for a reception here at the White House. And all of the honorees were on hand. There was George Clooney, also Christian singer Amy Grant, also Tania Leon, a pretty famous composer, as well as Gladys Knight, the empress of soul.
Then a little Irish rock band that you've probably heard of U2, all four members including Bono were on hand for the event. The president calling each of these nominees truly exceptional and also saying that their character embodies the phrase "we the people." And the president also took a moment to talk about the power of arts and music and entertainment, and how they can unite people and he specifically talked about one of U2's most famous songs. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We would do well to remember today in a moment when there's too much hate, too much anger, too much division here in America and quite frankly around the world, we have to remember today as their song goes, "We're one but we're not the same, we get to carry each other."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SAENZ: Now in just a short while President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden will be making their way over to the Kennedy Center for this event, this night. This is a tradition that most presidents have adhered to. This is the second time that the Bidens are attending, but this is also an event that their predecessor, former President Trump, had skipped while he was in office.
So this also marks the second night of glitz and glamour for the Biden family as just earlier this week they had hosted the state dinner for French President Emmanuel Macron here at the White House, which also was star-studded as well. But the president tonight taking a moment to celebrate these artists as the Kennedy Center Honors are really one of the highest honors that an entertainer and an artist here in the country can receive -- Pamela.
BROWN: All right, Arlette Saenz, thanks so much.
Well, after this weekend, just one day left for candidates in Georgia's Senate race to make their case to voters.
CNN's Dianne Gallagher has their closing arguments.
DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Pamela, we are in the home stretch here just really a matter of hours before the polls open on election day. More than 1.85 million voters have already cast ballots here in this runoff election, and one woman told me today, she said, it feels like we're always voting in Georgia, and that's what both campaigns are up against right now, trying to make sure that in an election-fatigued state that the people who haven't already voted show up to the polls on Tuesday. Today in his only public event Herschel Walker appeared with GOP
surrogates Senator Tim Scott and Senator John Kennedy. They focused a lot on former President Barack Obama, who of course came here to Georgia on Thursday to campaign with Senator Raphael Warnock at a rally. Herschel Walker didn't really stray from his normal stump speech but he has been a little more pointed in his attacks on Warnock, chiding him for missing Senate votes while on the runoff campaign trail and also tying him specifically to President Joe Biden, notably President Biden has not come to Georgia to campaign in person for Senator Warnock. But also former President Trump didn't come here in person to campaign for Herschel Walker, even though Walker was really Trump's hand-picked and endorsed candidate.
Now we've talked a lot about the difference between the campaign scheduled for those two candidates, the Walker campaign, a much lighter schedule than the Warnock campaign which is pretty aggressively scheduled events throughout this runoff period.
[18:05:03]
Of course Senator Warnock holding a large event last night with the AAPI Victory Fund. Today he was in Athens, Georgia, what a lot of people consider Herschel Walker territory, the University of Georgia, and also outside of Atlanta. His schedule, that jam-packed aggressive schedule will continue through election day.
Pamela, something we have noticed, though, Herschel Walker's campaign kicking into high gear on Monday. They have five events scheduled around the state, just on that day. That's something we have not really seen from them on this runoff campaign.
BROWN: Interesting. Dianne Gallagher, thanks so much.
And CNN will have full coverage of the Georgia Senate runoff race between Senator Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker. That's going to be Tuesday starting at 4:00 p.m. Eastern.
Turning to Tampa, Florida, today questions are swirling about abuse of power. It's a video you have to see. The city's police chief, Mary O'Connor, flashes her badge during a traffic stop and a police officer immediately lets her go. The brazen exchange is captured by the body cam of the deputy who stopped O'Connor and her husband.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARY O'CONNOR, POLICE CHIEF, TAMPA, FLORIDA: Is your camera on?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is.
O'CONNOR: I'm the police chief in Tampa.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, how are you doing?
O'CONNOR: I'm doing good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. O'CONNOR: I'm hoping that you'll just let you go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Yes. You look familiar, so.
O'CONNOR: Yes. I'm sure I do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Leyla Santiago joins us now.
Leyla, the chief is on administrative leave today. What is she saying about this?
LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, Mary O'Connor is saying she understands why some may view her handling of this as inappropriate but that was not her intent, she says. Now this all stems back to a traffic stop that was about three weeks ago, the entire exchange less than two minutes long, and body cam footage shows that she is in the passenger seat of a golf cart, her husband is in the driver's seat.
When they are pulled over for a traffic stop the deputy explains to them why they are being stopped. He says that they are driving a golf cart on a public road without the appropriate license plate tags. Watch the exchange.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
O'CONNOR: Is your camera on?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is.
O'CONNOR: I'm the police chief in Tampa.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, how are you doing?
O'CONNOR: I'm doing good.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
O'CONNOR: I'm hoping that you'll just let you go tonight.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. Yes. You look familiar, so.
O'CONNOR: Yes. I'm sure I do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. So, all right, folks, well, have a good night. You said you live here in East Lake Woodlands?
O'CONNOR: We live in East Lake Woodlands.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. All right. Well, it's nice to meet you. So, I'm Deputy (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
O'CONNOR: Same here, my friend.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right.
O'CONNOR: Take care of yourself. Sorry to bother you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take care. All right. No worries. No worries. We had a lot of problem with the golf carting around here. You know, everybody --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. We don't normally come out.
O'CONNOR: We never come out. We never ever --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The club was closed so we saw -- stopped at the Greek place to get some food.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK, all right. All right, then, well, take care. And it was nice meeting you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right.
O'CONNOR: If you ever need anything, call me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK.
O'CONNOR: Serious.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right. Appreciate that.
O'CONNOR: Thank you. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, ma'am. You're welcome.
O'CONNOR: Thank you for your service.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you for yours.
O'CONNOR: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So take care.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANTIAGO: Now O'Connor has since apologized for having that golf cart out there, says it was poor judgment, says she called the sheriff's office herself and offered to pay any sort of potential citation tied to that traffic stop. She points out that it was not her intent to do anything wrong here because she knew she was being recorded. That was part of her statement but let's move now to the mayor's statement.
Read this together, the mayor saying, "We hold everyone accountable no matter their position and this behavior was unacceptable. Chief O'Connor will go through the due process and face appropriate discipline." So what now? Well, there's an open investigation and she is now on
administrative leave pending the results of that investigation -- Pamela.
BROWN: All right. Leyla Santiago, live for us from Florida, thanks so much.
Well, the Dancing Grannies were back in action today, returning to a Christmas parade that was struck by tragedy last year. Take a look. These are some live pictures from our affiliate WISN. The group said their return was important to remember those killed by a man who intentionally drove an SUV on to the parade route. Three dancing grannies and one of their volunteers died as well as two other parade goers.
This morning, CNN's Fredricka Whitfield talked to one of the grannies.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KWIATKOWSKI: It's going to be an emotional day, but it's going to be a much needed day, another day of healing and, you know, we're going to have sadness, remembrance. We're going to have a lot of joy and a lot of happiness. Today is our day, it is Waukesha's day to show strength, resilience, courage, healing, as we all come together showing the Waukesha community, the state of Wisconsin, the country, and worldwide that we own the streets of Waukesha.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[18:10:17]
BROWN: And they are certainly demonstrating that tonight. Family members of those killed carried pictures of their loved ones in the parade.
Well, much more to come tonight on this Sunday including Republican House Leader Kevin McCarthy's new push to get more of his own party behind him in his bid for speaker.
Also ahead, electricity to thousands of homes could be out for days after two power stations are knocked offline in North Carolina. Why some authorities think it's a criminal act.
Plus the lawyer representing several accusers of NFL quarterback Deshaun Watson is going to join us, as Watson makes his NFL return after more than 700 days away.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:15:03]
BROWN: Well, Congressman Kevin McCarthy needs more votes. It is as simple as that. The Republican hopes to win the gavel as House speaker in the next Congress, but it is not going so smoothy with some Republicans saying he won't their vote. For his part, incoming Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries is staying above the fray, side- stepping questions about whether his party would back a more moderate Republican as speaker.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): Well, I think the question right now is, what are the Republicans going to do? From our standpoint we know what our mission is. The question on the other side of the aisle is, what will the Republicans do? Are they going to double and triple down on the extremism that we've seen from people like Marjorie Taylor Greene. That would be unfortunate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: And joining us now to discuss, CNN analyst Errol Louis, politics anchor for New York 1 News.
Hi, Errol. So despite Hakeem Jeffries' lack of commitment, could you see Democrats getting onboard with a moderate speaker if it prevents a hardline conservative from taking the job?
ERROL LOUIS, CNN ANALYST: Good to be with you, Pamela. I don't think Hakeem Jeffries is going to get that opportunity. The Republicans may appear to be in disarray. They may appear to be in a state of disunity, but they're really in a state of negotiation. They're going to make some hard bargains. They're going to make some deals, not all of which will be made public. But my guess is that it will be Republicans and Republicans only who select the next speaker of the House.
BROWN: Well, McCarthy's foes say another candidate will emerge, and that talks have already begun to recruit a replacement. So what do you think is going to happen here? Do you think he's going to come up with the votes?
LOUIS: Well, it's interesting because here's the state of the negotiation as best we can tell. Andy Biggs, who ran for the speakership and got 31 votes against Kevin McCarthy, says that there are -- that he's hard no no matter what. Matt Gaetz says the same thing. Andy Biggs says that there are 20 votes that are going to be hard no votes for Kevin McCarthy no matter what. And that does suggest that there would need to be another candidate to come in.
My guess, however, is that there's going to be this negotiation that goes on. A potential speaker has a lot of goodies to give away, Pamela, as far as seniority on different committees, standing on various special committees that are created, leadership roles, federal money that goes to special projects back in their districts. It's a long way between now and January 3rd. So I wouldn't be surprised if Kevin McCarthy finds a way to hold this together. But again it all remains to be seen.
BROWN: Yes, and sources have told me that Kevin McCarthy has been laying the groundwork making those negotiations dangling that the prizes like leadership posts and so forth for months now in anticipation of this scenario right now. But what will a floor fight look like if he can't get the votes? LOUIS: Well, the first floor fight is going to be over the rules
because one thing we know that the conservative caucus within the Republican conference, one thing that they're insisting on is the right to basically depose the speaker at any time. That's a really important fight. It's why John Boehner got deposed. It was the mechanism by which he got deposed. There's some real consideration about whether or not McCarthy can or should accept that.
If he does they'll basically have a sword over his head every day of his speakership if he does become speaker. No speaker wants to have that and that's going to be the first and most meaningful fight, over rules, over whether or not with a very slim majority the speaker could be deposed at any time. If they can get past that hurdle I think it will be a lot smoother sailing but that's going to be the key test of whether or not it's too turbulent for Kevin McCarthy even though he is playing the role of a skinny Santa Claus in this holiday season, giving away whatever he can and trying to figure out who's naughty and nice.
I'm not sure whether or not he can get past that hurdle, if he can do that, then he has a good chance of being a speaker.
BROWN: Sounds exhausting, all of this. My goodness.
Errol, stay with us. I want to talk about the changes Democrats are planning to make to presidential primaries. So stick around, we're going to be back with you soon.
Let's bring in CNN senior data reporter, Harry Enten, he's joining us now to run the numbers.
So, Harry, let's talk about this. These changes to the party primaries, they could have a major impact on the presidential race.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, look, this could be a historic change if it actually goes through, and we'll see if it goes through in a year, right? Essentially what the Democrats are doing is they want to replace the first contest, the Iowa caucuses which have been first since 1972, and the New Hampshire primary which has been the first primary for over a century.
And what they're proposing is they're going to move the first contest to be the first primary, the South Carolina primary, and then the second primary will be a tie between Nevada and New Hampshire.
Now, you know, I was hesitating when I introduced this, the idea being, hey, maybe this might not hold because keep in mind that the state law in New Hampshire requires them to be the first primary, so this is going to be a very interesting battle between what the Democrats want and what the state of New Hampshire may actually try and do.
[18:20:04]
So this is preliminary. We'll see if it goes through, but if it does go through, it is a massive, massive change -- Pam. BROWN: It certainly is. And Democrats are arguing that this new order
will make the earlier states more diverse and more representative of the party. How true is that?
ENTEN: I mean, it absolutely is true. So, you know, if essentially you look at the party demographics, right, the primary caucus demographics, what essentially we had before was two very white states in New Hampshire and Iowa going, you know, first and second, you know about 90 percent plus white. And of course the Democratic primary electorate is not anywhere near that much white. And what you're essentially replacing with, right, is South Carolina going first where the majority of Democratic primary in that state, voters, are African- American.
You can see black and Latino, 58 percent. White voters made up just 40 percent of the primary vote last time around in 2020. And Nevada which will go second, tied with New Hampshire, they have a very significant Latino population, right. The white population in Nevada is just 65 percent. Black and Latino voters there are 28 percent.
So this is a move among Democrats to get the primary electorate in the early states to look a lot more like the party as a whole and of course New Hampshire doesn't necessarily like that but the Democrats seem to like it a lot. And that's why they're trying to make this move.
BROWN: Yes. Right. And so there's that aspect, more diversity, but the results of the 2020 primaries are also playing a role here, right?
ENTEN: Absolutely. I mean, look, Joe Biden is the leader of the Democratic Party, and he's signed off on these changes because he's trying to reward those folks who backed him in the primaries. South Carolina was the saving grace for Joe Biden, right. He won that state, that primary by 29 points. It was the first primary he won, it launched him into Super Tuesday, allowed him to have all that success on Super Tuesday, and then ultimately win the Democrat nomination.
Nevada, which we don't talk about nearly as much probably saved his candidacy a little bit too, right? He came in second there.
Compared that to New Hampshire, where Biden came in fifth. Joe Biden has no love lost with the Democratic primary voters, and of course the Iowa caucuses, they had that count malfunction back in 2020 and Biden came in fourth there. He's willing to throw Iowa and New Hampshire to the wind and reward South Carolina.
BROWN: All right. Harry Enten, great to see you as always. Thanks so much.
And let's bring back again CNN analyst, Errol Louis.
So, Errol, as you just heard there from Harry, South Carolina, that was where Biden's campaign was really resurrected. So what do you think? Are these changes designed to help him or is it some play about, you know, Biden supporting this because he wants to return the favor? What do you think? LOUIS: Well, it's a little bit of both. He's going to be the only
person who really benefits from this, frankly in the Democratic Party. What was unique about the early caucuses in Iowa and the New Hampshire primaries that they're relatively small states, they're relatively cheap states, and because they were relatively isolated in the calendar, candidates who didn't have a lot of resources like Barack Obama in 2007 and 2008, could go there and could campaign and could hang out and could put something together and maybe surprise the world.
It's what Jimmy Carter did back in 1976. This new schedule really eliminates that because it's designed to fit the convenience of Joe Biden, a sitting president of the United States, who will have all the resources he wants plus Air Force One, but you know, imagine trying -- just as reporter, Pamela, to keep up with simultaneous caucuses and primaries in New Hampshire and in Nevada. There are not too many flights going from Las Vegas to Manchester, you know.
BROWN: Yes. Yes.
LOUIS: And it's very hard to put together organizations in both states at the same time.
BROWN: I have sympathy if this all happens for those who have to logistically deal with that and have to go from one to the other so quickly.
So we saw historic moment this week as Democrats elected Hakeem Jeffries as their House leader, the first time an African-American has been chosen for that time. And I just want to hear from you, Errol, how significant that is.
LOUIS: It's very significant, Pamela. I mean, look, on a personal level I've known Hakeem Jeffries since he was first thinking about running for office in 1998, when he left a pretty lucrative job as a corporate attorney in order to run for a very low-paying part-time job in the state assembly. He's put in a lot of time. He's been considered a rising star in New York politics for a long time. There were some who tried to tempt him to run for mayor or some other kind of offices many of which might have been plausible and even available to him.
But he always had this long-term vision of being a senior member of Congress. And so it's very interesting and rewarding in a way to see somebody who's put in so much hard time and frankly sacrifice, he and his family. Long, long hours, a lot less pay that he was making as a corporate attorney, believe me. And to see it come together on behalf of public service is really quite gratifying and of course meaningful for other African-American public servants who have tried to walk the same path. Absolutely.
[18:25:10]
BROWN: Certainly. All right, Errol Louis, thanks so much. Good to see you.
LOUIS: Good to see you. BROWN: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. A doorbell, have you seen this? A
doorbell camera catches a coyote trying to drag off a toddler. When I saw this my heart sunk. See how the little girl's father fought it off. Up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Welcome back, George Clooney just spoke on the red carpet at the Kennedy Center Honors. He is one of the honorees and here's what he said.
[18:30:02]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Hello. Casey of CNN. Nice to meet you. Congratulation.
GEORGE CLOONEY, ACTOR: How are you? Hi, nice to meet you. How are you? Thanks. Thank you very much.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You have a very self-deprecating sense of humor. You don't take yourself too seriously. You're always making fun of yourself, but in the next hour, or the next couple of minutes, you're going to be showered with praise.
CLOONEY: I know.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: In front of the president of the United States. How are you feeling about that?
CLOONEY: It might be a prank. They might be pulling a prank on me. You know, maybe they're going to say a lot of rotten things about me. Maybe this is an intervention. I haven't really thought about that. It's going to be exciting. It's fun. We were just at the White House. It was really cool. It was neat. It was a beautiful -- the White House was stunning, the president said really lovely things and really, really nice afternoon. And my mom and dad are with me so that's exciting.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Yes. That's was (INAUDIBLE). I heard that you have a movie coming out with Brad Pitt that's going to be on Apple.
CLOONEY: It's on Apple. Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Yes. And that the two of you agreed to take a pay cut so that it could also be released in theaters. Is that something you'd like to see other artists who maybe not necessarily a pay cut but just find a way --
CLOONEY: Well, I think they are. I think they're trying. I think even the screeners are understanding that it's really helpful for them to have a theatrical release. You saw that "Glass Onion," the film that just came out for Netflix. Did so well in the box office that they're looking for ways to continue it at the box office. So I think it's a good thing. It's helpful. It's important not to lose that industry. We're always sort of proclaiming them dead and they come back. So I'm looking forward to it. I think it's important to keep it alive.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: With your foundation, you said that, you know, you're not a government, but -- and you can't make laws, you can shine a light on injustice.
CLOONEY: Sure.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you feel that you sometimes try to do that in your work as an artist as well? Maybe not in every role but just in the roles that you look for.
CLOONEY: Sure. Sometimes. It depends. It depends -- you don't do it with where brother art thou?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: No, no, no.
CLOONEY: In some of it, you try to, yes.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Well, last thing, I remember Anna Kendricks said that on set you made everyone feel comfortable, every interaction, always lifting people up. Fun fact, I was an extra on "Ides of March."
CLOONEY: You were? In Cincinnati or in Detroit?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Detroit. Yes. From Michigan. Very true. You were very kind to everybody. You sat with the crews, you sat with the extras. It was a fun thing.
CLOONEY: Well, it's just, you know, I just did it, because I knew you were going to be on CNN at some point and say something nice so I did. I only did it --
AMAL CLOONEY, GEORGE CLOONEY'S WIFE: He's very strategic.
CLOONEY: I am very strategic.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I came home, I was like, mom, I made it. He walked by me.
CLOONEY: Have a good night.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You too. Congratulations.
CLOONEY: Thank you very much.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: There you go. Actor George Clooney and also Kentucky native, speaking to CNN at the Kennedy Center Honors.
Well, residents in North Carolina's Moore County could remain under a mandatory curfew for several days after what police are calling a malicious attack on the county's power grid.
Gloria Pazmino joins us now for more on this. So, Gloria, police are investigating this as a criminal act. Tell us a
little bit more about why.
GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Pam. The local sheriff saying today that, although he doesn't know who is behind these attacks just yet he believes that the person who did this knew exactly what they were doing, that this was intentional. They wanted to take out the power grid and that is exactly what they did. More than 40,000 people are without power in Moore County in North Carolina. That's about 90 miles to the east of Charlotte.
It is a cold night in North Carolina. This is going to cost major headaches for residents there as well as for local authorities who are going to have to try to keep people off the roads, traffic signals are not working, and that is one of the reasons for that mandatory curfew that you mentioned there at the top. We have confirmed from that briefing with local officials earlier this evening that someone went into this power substation.
In fact they managed to take off a gate completely off the hinges. You can see it on the screen there on the ground. Once they gained access to the property they appeared to have shot into these generators, these electric equipment, and that's what caused the power grid in the area to fail.
This is going to be a massive repair operation and the sheriff telling us today that, although he has begun to gather the evidence that is available so far, there's not much he can tell us just yet about why this person or these people wanted to do this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHERIFF RONNIE FIELDS, MOORE COUNTY, NORTH CAROLINA: No motivation, nobody's -- no group has stepped up to acknowledge or accept that they're the ones who have done it. So yes, I call them cowards. I can say this, this individual that had done this, it was targeted. It wasn't random.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PAZMINO: Now local schools will be closed tomorrow on Monday, and a shelter has also opened up to provide a place for people who may need to get warmed up, to charge their devices.
[18:35:05]
This is certainly causing a lot of headaches for people in the area as well as these local officials who are trying to wrap up the investigation and get the power back on. The damage is so significant millions of dollars estimated in damage here that it could take several days to repair at least through Thursday -- Pam.
BROWN: All right. Gloria Pazmino, our hearts are with those residents there. Thanks so much. Lava from the largest volcano on earth is inching toward a key highway
in Hawaii. Look right here. A live look at the erupting volcano. Gosh. Look at this. We're going to have an update up next on CNN NEWSROOM.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: A 2-year-old little girl from California and her parents are recovering after a coyote attack and we have to warn you this video, it is graphic, it can hard to watch and hard to listen to for some.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go. Go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Just makes your heart sink when you see that. The girl's father told CNN that his daughter had to have multiple rabies shot after the attack which happened after he brought his children home from daycare. This is in the Woodland Hills area of Los Angeles and wildlife officials with dart rifles are working to try to catch this coyote.
How terrifying but I'm glad the little girl is OK.
Well, lava continues to flow from Hawaii's Mauna Loa volcano, with molten rock creeping closer to the island's main highway. Right now the lava is moving just 40 feet per hour but officials are warning it could be unpredictable. That is not stopping some folks getting a closer look as tourist and locals alike flock to witness the world's largest volcano in action.
And now an update on a story we told you at top of the hour. The Dancing Grannies just made their triumphant return to the Waukesha, Wisconsin, Christmas parade. Here they are. They are strutting their stuff for the first time since tragedy struck the parade last year. And tonight they dance for the memory of their four members and two others that were killed when a man intentionally drove through the crowd.
One member of the Dancing Grannies we talked to today said it was important for the group to return to the streets and show the world they could do it again.
And congratulations, ladies, you did it.
Well, Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson took the field today for the first time since he was suspended over sexual assault allegations. The reception he got from the crowd, up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[18:46:24]
BROWN: Russia's assault on Ukraine's power grid is causing widespread electricity outages across the country. And that's only going to get more deadly as temperatures keep dropping. CNN's Will Ripley is in Kyiv with more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Temperatures get colder here in Kyiv at night and that is certainly not a good situation for the millions of people in this country who are living without electricity right now.
Here in the capital, the outages are fairly well-organized and usually only last for a few hours a day. But if you get farther out, there are places in Ukraine where people maybe have electricity for two or three hours per day and the rest of time they're in the dark. Whether that affects their heating system or not just depends on the type of home that they live in but certainly being in the dark combined with the drastically cold temperatures, temperatures that are only going to plummet even further in the weeks and months ahead, means that this could be a very long and difficult winter for the people of Ukraine especially given the concerns raised to CNN exclusively in an interview with the foreign minister on Friday where essentially they said that they're bracing themselves for a major Russian attack at some point in the coming days, presumably on their power grid.
They are saying that they believe that the goal of the Russians is to try to shut down electricity across as much of Ukraine as possible by launching a barrage of missile in a very short period of time. Last week they launched more than 70 missiles over a period of just a few hours including dummies. These are 1980s era nuclear capable missiles that didn't have warheads in them but can cause considerable damage if they hurdle into a target like a power plant or in some cases they're hitting, you know, apartment buildings and people's homes and businesses.
But what the Ukrainians believe is that the reason why Russia is firing these dummies is not necessarily that they're running low on missiles, or that they don't have an adequate stockpile but that they're trying to exhaust the missile defense systems by firing a combination of rockets with warheads and dummy missiles. The reason for that is that Ukrainians are remarkably adept at shooting these things down. Out of the more than 70 that Russia fired last week, the Ukrainians say they shot down more than 50 of them.
But that still leaves around 20 or so hitting their targets effectively, and just as they have now started to rebuild and repair the power grid, if there is another major Russian attack it would certainly be a devastating blow which is why the Ukrainian foreign minister is calling on the United States to make a decision as soon as possible on getting patriot missile defense systems into the country. They're also asking other nations including Germany for missile defense systems to try to get those systems in place, not in a matter of months but in a matter of weeks at the latest so that they can defend against these attacks and try to lower the cost, the tremendous cost both in terms of suffering but also in terms of rebuilding infrastructure each time that Russia decides to attack in this manner.
Will Ripley, CNN, Kyiv, Ukraine. (END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: And our thanks to Will.
Well, Cleveland Browns quarterback Deshaun Watson returned to the NFL playing field today after a 700-day suspension for sexual misconduct, and he was greeted with a mix of boos and cheers when he took the field for a game in Houston. Watson has been accused of sexual assault by nearly two dozen women. Around 10 of them were expected to attend today's game. He has repeatedly denied the allegations against him. His team the Browns beat the Texans today, 27-14. Watson did not score and threw one interception.
[18:50:03]
Well, you're in the CNN NEWSROOM on this Sunday and tonight you'll see a brand-new episode of "THIS IS LIFE" right here on CNN. Host Lisa Ling joins us live next with a preview of the show. We'll be right back.
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[18:55:10]
BROWN: Well, we are one week away from announcing the 2022 CNN Hero of the Year who will be chosen by you, our viewers, and to help you choose, for the past few weeks we have been reintroducing each of our top 10 so that you can vote for your favorites.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AIDAN REILLY, THE FARMLINK PROJECT: I spent these first few weeks honestly in a state of depression. All the plans I've been making, the progress were suddenly no longer viable. We ended up seeing an article about farmers having to throw out their food like mountains of potatoes in someone's backyard or milk just being dumped into the dirt, and we would see lines of people miles and miles long, thousands of cars lining up to get a bag or a box of groceries.
We called up my friends and we just said, why don't we join forces, calling food banks, calling farms. We called a whole bunch, like a couple hundred. We quickly put together what was a fully functioning organization with young people, mostly students average age of 21 volunteering their time when they can to help feed people that they might never meet.
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BROWN: That was Aidan Reilly of the Farmlink Project. Go to CNNHeroes.com right now and vote for him for CNN Hero of the Year, or any of your favorite Top 10 Heroes. And remember, you can vote for any or all of them up to 10 times a day every day until December 6th.
Well, tonight an all-new episode of "THIS IS LIFE." Lisa Ling introduces us to the tiger queens saving abused and exploited big cats around the country. But first, Lisa explores a new way people are looking to start families and the help that they're getting from online sperm donors. Here a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LISA LING, CNN HOST, THIS IS LIFE: By the time this episode airs.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
LING: Ari will have helped sire over 120 some children.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Wow. That's amazing.
LING: What are your concerns about those kids?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So he's creating some kind of social experiment and I do think we have to worry about how those children are going to react. Are they going to feel somehow disappointed that donor belongs to, what did you say, 120 other kids and counting? Will these kids have expectations that he will never meet because he made this set of choices about having so many kids?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Lisa Ling, the host of "THIS IS LIFE" joins us now. Just so fascinating, Lisa, and it raises all kinds of ethical questions. You know, the online donor we saw in that clip, and one of the clips, it has now fathered more than 120 children. Why are people turning to him and others like him to start their families?
LING: Well, Pam, there are many women who either can't conceive naturally, they don't have a partner, or they choose to be a single mother. And for women with resources, they might generally seek out the help of a fertility clinic but those are very, very expensive. And so in the last few years, there has emerged this community of online donors, where you can find on Facebook who offer their services for free.
Now in the case of the man that we profiled, he has in fact helped produce over 100 children and while that sounds astounding and if you asked me personally if I think that that's a crazy number, of course, I do, but when you spend time with the women and the families who might otherwise not have an opportunity to have had kids, you know, you might feel a little bit differently and that's what we always try to do in our shows is look at these issues that may sound shocking but in a really nuanced way.
BROWN: I think that's really important. Look at all the different sides of it so you can better understand it. Like you said, your first reaction is, oh, my gosh, 120 kids but when you delved deeper you kind of see the impact that this is happening on these other families.
I also want to quickly ask you tonight about tonight's second episode. Tell us about the so-called tiger queens you met and why their mission is so important.
LING: Yes, Pam, this is a really special episode for me. You know, I can't think of a more popular non-fiction series over the last couple of years than "Tiger Kings." And it featured a bunch of men behaving badly and just horribly treating animals. And it's been left to a lot of women in many cases to rescue those animals and provide them with the safe place to live out the rest of their lives, and there are a lot of people who think, well, there are so many of these tiger species that are going extinct in the wild, why not raise them and breed them in captivity?
But I would ask you to think about the babies. You know, a baby born in prison and live its entire live in prison you might say, well, at least it was born.
