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First Episodes of New "Harry & Meghan" Docuseries Released; Trump and Allies Worried After Walker Defeat; Millions in Western and Central U.S. Under Winter Alerts. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired December 08, 2022 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world, I'm Bianca Nobilo. It's 4 a.m. on the U.S. East Coast and 9 a.m. here in London. We have breaking news this hour.

We'll begin with that breaking news. The new "Harry and Meghan" docuseries was released one hour ago and all over the world viewers are tuning in to hear from the Royals. And we're doing the same right here on CNN. In fact, I have it in front of me on my laptop. Here's what we can tell you so far. Early on Prince Harry issues a scathing rebuke of the media and Meghan talks about her reasons for working on the documentary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEGHAN, PRINCESS OF SUSSEX: I'm not going to say that it's comfortable, but when you feel like people haven't gotten any sense of who you are for so long, it's really nice to just be able to have the opportunity to let people have a bit more of a glimpse into what's happened and also who we are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

With me now, my co-anchor who's had his hands full today Max Foster and Kate Williams who is right next to me on set -- CNN's world historian. Max let's start with you. You have an hour. What have you gleaned so far?

MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Three hours into one. Well, we're getting through it. You know, they've explained their reasons for doing this documentary, which is largely that they want to tell their story. And it's how they got together, very much describing how this was a love story and how they didn't want to ultimately conform into the Royal system.

At the very beginning they had this caveat. They did ask members of the Royal family to contribute and they declined to do so. So, that's why we don't have that side of the debate here. But I don't know what conditions that, you know, offer was made to other parts of the Royal family.

It starts actually with cell phone footage, the two of them recording their thoughts as soon as they've left the Royal family. So, they were -- or not left the Royal family but left their Royal roles. So, from a very early stage they were filming elements of what would become this documentary that came out today.

A couple of sort of sound bites that really stand out to me, they're both from Harry. One from where he says, I think so many people in the family, especially obviously the men, they have a temptation or an urge to marry someone who would fit the mold as opposed to someone who would perhaps be destined to be with them.

The difference between making decisions with your head and your heart suggesting that men in the family had married people they weren't destined to be with and weren't truly in love with, which is quite a thing to say about other members of your own family.

Also talking about how what a struggle it was growing up with so much media around them. And this idea that there's a conspiracy really between the media, the Royal rotor, as he describes it, and the palace. So, this idea that certain U.K. media are given privileged access to the palace system. And the deal back is that they give positive coverage in the media. I personally don't -- we're not part of the Royal rotor but I'm, you know, involved with them. I don't really see that there's a conspiracy there but that's very much what Harry and Meghan felt because they didn't benefit from that system as much as other members of the family.

NOBILO: Yes, Max, that did strike me. When they saying that Royal correspondence are essentially an extension of the PR arm of the palace. I know from working with you, Kate, is not the case in terms of I've observed. But Kate, it does seem that the antagonists, if you like, in the early parts of the episode, just be set up as squarely the British media which can come as no surprise given the harassment that Princess Diana was subjected to and that we've seen occur to members of the Royal family as well. Does it strike you that perhaps that will be the target of some of the criticism rather than the Cambridges?

KATE WILLIAMS, CNN ROYAL HISTORIAN: Yes, Bianca. I mean, I've watched all episode one and parts of episode two and three. I was just forwarding going back and forth so I could watch is much as I could. And certainly, it was very focused on the media. There's talk -- Harry said it's my duty to expose this exploitation that the media involvement. It's not just us, it's a biggest story. About the harassment that his mother suffered and in episode two he goes into the harassment that he suffered as a child right from the beginning.

And he said his earliest memories as a child, his life with Princess Diana was being chased by the paparazzi. I me, that's a very sad thing to remember.

[04:05:00]

He talks also very sadly about how after his mother dies, he's struggling to get over that with very little support and also being chased by the media. So certainly, it's very targeted on the media and very targeted on what they've suffered. And we know that Harry and Meghan have talked a lot about press intrusion. They are suing various newspapers. And there is at the end of episode three -- so episode one is about the love story. Episode two is more about Harry's early life and Diana. Episode three is a lot about the gear up to the wedding.

And at the end of episode three there is a section in which she's texting her father -- you remember Thomas Markle, you know, had the heart attack and he didn't come to the wedding and there was a lot of press coverage. And she text him and he texts back. And she says, that is not the way he'd ever address me by text. She and Harry say, that's when we realized his phone was compromised.

So, there's an implication here, I think, if I'm right in interpreting it, that Harry -- that Thomas Markle's phone was hacked by someone or some people who were trying to get certain texts out of Meghan. So, that is a very serious allegation.

And we've also seen in the trailers quite serious allegations saying, it was a war -- from Harry and Meghan's lawyer Jenny Afiaon -- it was a war Harry and Meghan. And also suggesting not just that they were just press harassment, there were stories being planted. We've seen that in the trailers. I don't think this is discussed in episodes 1, 2, 3. The I think this is going to be the episodes coming out this time next week. But certainly, this is certainly I think bombshell allegations and they are really expressing what they feel about their lives at the hands of the press.

NOBILO: OK, so let's talk more about those allegations, Max. Obviously, you have only had an hour to digest the three hours' worth of episodes. But so far based on what you've seen, which statements or hints or allegations do you think would present the biggest issue for the palace, for King Charles III and for the Prince of Wales?

FOSTER: Well, it's this idea that they weren't protected and the palace would always argue they did protect Meghan and Harry and did all they could to include Meghan and elevate Meghan to a level where she was, as he calls, standing really to other members of the Royal family. Within the other system where ultimately it is a hierarchy. So, you know, William and Kate would always get a higher precedence for example at formal occasions.

But one of the issues that Harry speaks about to -- which is very concerned about -- is some of what he saw as the racist coverage in the British tabloid media. And particularly one article that appeared in "The Daily Mail" online. Which has been the subject of various court cases. But this is how he pushes that towards the family.

He says: As far as a lot of the family were concerned, everything that she -- Meghan -- was being put through they had been put through as well. So, it's almost like a rite of passage. Some of the members of the family were like, right, put my wife had to go through that so why should your girlfriend be treated any differently.

So, he wanted extra help because she had this race element that other members of the rest of the family didn't have and he didn't get that back. And that's I think one of the kernels of what the frustration of the couple and how they weren't mishandled by the palace system, weren't protected and ultimately left.

NOBILO: And Kate, the intimacy of this betrayal and this insight into the couple is quite striking and unlike anything we would have seen from members of the Royal family before. Because in the early episode you see Meghan in her bathroom. She's got her hair in a turban. She's clearly emotional and she's sharing that with the video that she's recording of herself. Prince Harry is referring to the fact that he was afraid of not having anyone that he loved, or relationships in his life staying with him because of this press intrusion and what it means to be a royal. So, there are quite personal divulgences that we're seeing. And how unprecedented is this?

WILLIAMS: Yes, these are personal divulgences. They start with a video diary. The first scene is Harry at the VIP lounge in Heathrow Airport heading -- after leaving the Royal family. Meghan is, as you say, in her bathrobe talking about her early experiences. And you know, there very intimate. They talk about their first date. They talk about, you know, they talk about their love story. And they really, you know, go in a very intimate manner, as you say. I mean, this is unprecedented in terms of the intimacy that they're giving into the lives of Royal family members and the lives of Royal family members, how Meghan came into the Royal family and also how she came out of the Royal family.

NOBILO: And Max, I haven't seen more than the first episode but I understand that we'll be hearing from more friends of the couple and also family members, too?

FOSTER: Yes, so, her mother -- Meghan's mother speaks on there. Also, former palace staffers who now work for Meghan and Harry, some key historians, you know, constitutional experts. Very legitimate voices and columnists, so they got very authoritative people in there.

[04:10:00]

They very much back up parts of what Meghan and Harry are saying.

And I've just been sent something from the director as well. She's saying that I hope when Netflix viewers press play, whatever preconceptions people have, they'll be open to the discovery of what we shared in this documentary series. It's an incredible love story set against the context of huge stakes and their journey of an historical event that will be examined for a long time to come.

So, this is being seen as a historic document, part of Royal history, but very much from Meghan and Harry's point of view.

NOBILO: Well, Max Foster and Kate Williams, I will leave you both to keep digesting the episodes that we have released so far. Thank you and we'll check back in with you in about 20 minutes' time.

A team hired by Donald Trump's lawyers searches his New Jersey golf resort, Trump Tower and to other locations. What they were looking for and what they found just ahead.

Plus, many Republicans are now questioning if their party can afford to keep following Donald Trump after losing the high profile Senate race in Georgia.

And later on, many states in the Central and Western U.S. are bracing for dangerous winter weather. Meteorologist Derek Van Dam is tracking all of it for us. Good morning, Derek.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, good morning to you, Bianca. That's right, a series of storms is going to not only bring rain to the coastal elevations but also heavy mountain snows for many locations across California, Washington and Oregon. You'll want to see how much snow is going to fall and how it will impact cities out West coming up after the break.

[04:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NOBILO: New details are emerging from a Harry and Meghan docuseries that dropped last hour. In it the Duke and Duchess of Sussex talk about their love story and how they got together. And Harry speaks about being harassed by the paparazzi and about what his mother Princess Diana endured. He said that it's hard to watch another woman in his life go through that same feeding frenzy. Harry also describes the conspiracy of swords between the media and the Royal Palace. We'll bring you more revelations from this unprecedented insight into the Royals in this documentary as soonest we get them.

The 2022 midterm elections are finally over. And Republicans are looking ahead now to 2024. Donald Trump's already announced his intentions to run for president again. But his track record of picking winning candidates has come to an end especially after Herschel Walker's loss in the Georgia Senate race. CNN's Kristen Holmes has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Allies and advisors to former President Trump are deeply concerned about what Herschel Walker's loss means for the former president. They had hoped that Walker would win. Of course, Walker being Trump's handpicked candidate in that Georgia election and that it would breathe new life into what has been really a lack luster launch of his 2024 campaign. They also hoped that a win would end the calls for new GOP leadership after so many of Trump's candidates in the midterms failed.

Now what they are saying is quite the opposite. They are concerned that this loss is going to lead to more people, more demand for people to challenge former President Donald Trump when it comes to 2024. And remember, this loss of Walker is coming off a very bad week for the former president. And we are told that he has been stewing at his Mar- a-Lago resort. He is calling his allies, he is calling advisors. He is upset about his campaign's success so far. And he is upset about those verdicts in New York and he remains upset about Herschel Walker.

Now there is a reason for this. We are hearing from a number of people who are former Trump supporters who are saying that it is time to move on. And I want to read you one quote here. And this is from someone who is close to Trump. This is what they said.

They said, Donald's got his problems right now and they are so numerous that I don't think he can win and I want to back a winner. There are a lot of friends of mine who don't want Trump at the top of the ticket because they feel like it's a killer.

That is a pretty strong statement here from somebody who has backed Donald Trump and even spoken to him recently. This is somebody who is close to the former president. One thing to keep in mind though, is even with all of this, we talked to advisers, we talked to Republicans who don't support Trump but who say they are weary of him. Because they say they've been down this road before. And they believe there is still a portion of the base who doesn't really care about any of this and only cares about supporting Donald Trump. So, that is something, of course, that has yet to be seen. But this certainly seems like a pivotal moment. A moment in which the former president has been the most politically vulnerable that he's been in years.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: CNN's Kristen Holmes reporting there.

We have new developments in the Donald Trump document saga. A search team has uncovered more classified materials, this time at a storage unit in Florida. But it wasn't FBI agents who found them. CNN's Evan Perez explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR U.S. JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: A team hired by Donald Trump's lawyers found two more documents that were marked classified in a storage facility when they conducted a search of four Trump properties recently. The Trump team turned over the documents to the FBI which in August conducted a search of the former president's home in Florida.

Justice Department lawyers have repeatedly told the Trump lawyers that the government believed that there were still additional documents missing and that has raised the prospect that Trump was disobeying a federal grand jury subpoena this summer that ordered him to turn over all government records that were marked classified.

A source tells CNN's Kaitlan Collin that the Trump lawyers oversaw the searches at four properties, Trump Tower New York, Bedminster golf club, an office location in Florida and a storage unit where those two documents were found and where the General Services Administration had shipped Trump's belongings after he left the White House. Trump's lawyers offered to let the federal investigators observed the search at his Bedminster property but the offer was declined.

[04:20:00]

A spokesman for Trump said that the former president and his counsel, quote, continue to be cooperative and transparent with the federal investigation.

Evan Perez, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NOBILO: Two weeks from now we should know everything the U.S. House Select Committee has discovered in its investigation of the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol. Chairman Bennie Thompson says that the panel is aiming to make its final report public by December 21st. It will come almost two years after Donald Trump supporters storm Congress in a deadly attempt to overturn the 2020 election.

Simultaneously, the committee is preparing a list of criminal referrals to the U.S. Justice Department. Which sources say could include Trump and some of his closest allies. Committee members have yet to vote on a final list. The referrals do not mean the Justice Department will pursue them since it has its own ongoing investigations but as one prominent Democrat on the committee said, the facts all point to possible criminal charges, including against the former president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): I think the facts support a potential charge against the former president. And, you know, the Justice Department, in my view, needs to hold, you know, everyone equally responsible before the law and that includes former presidents when they engage in criminality.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: Michael Flynn is the latest of Trump's allies to be compelled to testify before a special grand jury in Georgia. That in-person testimony is expected in the coming hours. The Fulton County grand jury is focused on efforts by the former president and his close associates to pressure state officials to overturn Georgia's 2020 election results. Like others before him, Flynn who was fired as Trump's national security advisor, had gone to court to block the grand jury's subpoena but ultimately failed and was ordered to appear in person.

In just a matter of hours, the U.S. House is expected to take up the Respect For Marriage Act following its passage in the Senate last week. Speaker Nancy Pelosi wrote in an op-ed that she is overjoyed that one of the last bills she'll sign will be the legislation protecting same-sex marriage in the United States. Once the bill passes in the House it would had to President Joe Biden's desk for his signature.

Police have a possible new lead as they investigate the killing of four university of Idaho students. The announcement came after officers returned some of the victims personal belongings to their families on Wednesday. Now police say they're looking for at least one person in a white Hyundai sedan that was seen near the crime scene on November 13th. Officers say people in that car may have critical information about the case. The students were stabbed to death off campus in their home in Moscow, Idaho, most likely while they were asleep. So far police have not announced a suspect or a murder weapon or a possible motive.

Millions of Americans are under dangerous winter weather. Today a storm system is bringing heavy snow as it moves from the Rockies to the Midwest. White out conditions, blizzard, and avalanche warnings and bitter cold temperatures are expected. To tell us more about that meteorologist Derek Van Dam is tracking it for us -- Derek.

VAN DAM: I feel like I need to sing the song "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" out there. This winter weather pattern is really shaping up to bring snowfall to so many people. And I mentioned before the commercial break that there were multiple rounds of snow impacting the Central and the Western portion of the country.

Well, I will do my best to try and break it down in the time that I have. But this particular winter weather advisory you see across the plains, Nebraska, into Kansas, as well as southern Minnesota and Iowa. That is actually for this afternoon and evening as more of an immediate snow threat. Colorado Rockies getting some snowfall right now too. So, they have a winter weather advisory in effect now.

But this winter storm watch is for an impending storm that will impact the Sierra Nevada mountain range and into the Cascades Come Friday and into Saturday. So, two separate systems but you see it on the map there. I just want to highlight the avalanche threat that's ongoing across southwestern portions of Colorado. Avalanche warnings and watches in effect, a very unstable snowpack from the recent snow that has taken shape across that area.

This is the initial storm system I mentioned just a moment ago, that's going to create our snowfall into places like Omaha, Denver today, and then eventually into Chicago. So, double check your flight plans if you're traveling in or out of any of these cities -- Minneapolis as well.

There's another kind of weak disturbance moving across Salt Lake City. But this is the main weather maker that's really going to impact the weather across many West Coast cities. Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and even as far south as Los Angeles. Of course, the lower elevations will experience rain but the higher elevations will see snowfall measured in feet.

In fact, one of our computer models depicted upwards of 5 feet of snow in some of the higher elevations of the Sierra Nevada mountain range over the central and northern California. So, impressive snowfall totals, building the snow pack and that's good. Because we know about the well-advertised drought that's ongoing across the state of California.

[04:25:00]

In fact, the entire Western U.S. 99 percent of the state of California under drought conditions. But when you start to see precipitation, add in multiple storms like this, you put in dents every time these storms come through in those drought numbers. This is what we need to see, this is what we want to see even though it may be inconvenient and could cause some travel delays. We want to see that snowpack build up across the mountains because that means more fresh water availability come spring and summer -- Bianca.

NOBILO: Derek Van Dam, thank you so much, excellent information. Disappointed you didn't see the Christmas song.

VAN DAM: Next time.

NOBILO: We are following breaking news with the release of the new Netflix docuseries "Harry and Meghan." Our Royal correspondent Max Foster joins us live with the latest after a short little break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

NOBILO: Welcome back. Netflix viewers are getting a behind the scenes look at the lives of Meghan and Harry. The first three episodes of their new docuseries are available for streaming right now. CNN has been watching and can report some of the details for you.

The couple describes their contentious relationship with the media. Meghan calls their engagement and orchestrated reality show and Harry says harassment from the paparazzi has been made worse by social media.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRINCE HARRY, DUKE OF SUSSEX: This is about duty and service and I feel as though being part of this family, it is my duty to uncover this exploitation and my belief it opens within our media. No one knows the full truth. We know the full truth. The institution knows the full truth and the media knows the full truth because they been in on it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBILO: With me now, CNN's Royal historian Kate Williams and co-anchor and Royal correspondent Max Foster. You both dived into the series. Max ...

[04:30:00]