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Journalist Grant Wahl Dies While Covering World Cup; Americans Celebrate Brittney Griner's Return to the U.S.; Kyrsten Sinema Leaves Democratic Party; Russian President Vladimir Putin Hints at More Prisoner Swaps. Aired 2-2:45a ET
Aired December 10, 2022 - 02:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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LAILA HARRAK, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Welcome to our viewers around the world. I'm Laila Harrak.
Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, shock and heartbreak in Qatar. American sports journalist Grant Wahl dies after collapsing at the World Cup. How friends and colleagues are remembering him.
Plus, home at last: basketball star Brittney Griner finally back on American soil. And we are learning new details about what it took to bring her home.
And nuclear fears rising once again after Vladimir Putin floats the idea of changes to Russia's nuclear doctrine.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Laila Harrak.
HARRAK: We begin this hour with shocking news from the World Cup. A prominent American sports writer has died while covering the tournament from Qatar. He collapsed in the press area during Friday's match between Argentina and the Netherlands. Details of his death are not known right now.
But he says he visited a clinic on Monday and he wrote in his newsletter, that same day, of chest discomfort, quote, "My body finally broke down on me after three weeks of little sleep, stress and work took a toll."
Last month, he was briefly prevented by Qatari guards from entering the stadium at the tournament, for wearing a rainbow shirt in support of the LGBTQ community.
Soccer's governing body of the United States, U.S. Soccer, is remembering him as an inspiration, who believed football could advance human rights. Let's get more from CNN's Don Riddell and Darren Lewis in Doha. Don, what more have you learned about what exactly happened and have
we heard from the authorities in Qatar?
DON RIDDELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, we haven't heard from authorities in Qatar yet. To be honest we are still processing this news. He was a friend and a peer and a colleague to both of us. In fact, he sat in this chair just a few weeks ago.
And he is somebody that we saw all of the time. He was on our show, on CNN, all the time. And, I mean, it has just absolutely hit us. We were both covering the same game last night, the Netherlands against Argentina. I left the stadium and went to bed and I just discovered that he didn't make it home.
I mean, Darren, how do you process this news?
DARREN LEWIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, my thoughts are with his wife and his loved ones. And the instinctive reaction is very similar to what you have been saying, that he died doing what we've been doing over the past three weeks, working to the same kind of schedule that we've been working to over the past three weeks.
And as you rightly said, as Laila has been saying, he was much loved, he was respected, he was highly regarded. And so it is very difficult at this present time to process this news that he had gone to a game and will not now come home.
RIDDELL: Yes, let's just bring you up a quote from the Major League Soccer commission, who spoke of his kind and caring nature. And he described his passion for soccer and his dedication to journalism as immeasurable.
We both knew Grant as somebody who was an amazing sports writer, not just in soccer but his reporting was fearless. One of my favorite stories about him was back in 2011, just a few months after the decision was made to award this World Cup to Qatar.
He launched a presidential campaign to run for FIFA, which is just an astonishing thing to do. And it was really a reporting check to highlight the corruption within FIFA.
He really got under FIFA's skin and it is notable that, at this tournament, he was the guy wearing the rainbow shirt and he wasn't allowed into the stadium.
He was the guy who took a photograph of the logo of this tournament, when he went to collect his accreditation badge. He was taken aside by security and told to delete the image from his phone, which was just absolutely preposterous.
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RIDDELL: We have spoken about -- and I can't believe we are talking about this in the past tense, Darren, to be absolutely frank with you.
What did he do for the growth and development of soccer in the United States?
LEWIS: Well, we were talking about this on air, as well as off air. For me, when I think people looked at U.S. Soccer, he worked tirelessly to grow the game. And you only have to look at some of the tributes that he has had from athletes past and present from soccer clubs and to know the esteem in which he was held.
He evangelized about U.S. Soccer, he was someone who cared passionately about what he did. And I don't mind saying on air, when I was working on local journalism, Grant was at "Sports Illustrated," Grant was flying the flag, he was an icon for a young Black guy in England, wanting to get into this industry.
Grant was a leader. And sometimes when you see leaders they don't just have a presence but they stand for something: principle, compassion, ideas. And you look at the ideas that he worked on -- migrant workers, human rights, LGBTQ community.
And that is all Grant. And is the reason why so many journalists, English journalists, European journalists, wake up this morning in sheer shock and disbelief, because I can't believe he is gone.
RIDDELL: And I think some of us still don't know, it's 10:00 am, locally. I've been following other soccer writers in Europe, who have been waking up and tweeting about the game they're covering today. It is obvious they don't even know. They just don't know.
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LEWIS: -- exactly that. (INAUDIBLE) has it happened. And some of the broadcast outlets in the U.K. are just learning of this news. And they are devoting huge amounts of time because Grant had that profile. He was renowned in England as well as here in Doha and in the U.S.
RIDDELL: He began covering soccer passionately in the United States when it was very unfashionable to do so; 20 years ago the game in the United States was not at the level it is now.
I suspect, Darren, in the coming hours and days, the conversation will lead to the cause of death and how he came to find himself in this predicament. He had been writing and talking about the fact that he was sick.
He had been writing and talking about the fact that he was burning the candle at both ends, which I think would be an understatement. And you and I know that covering this tournament is a lot of fun. It is a privilege. But it is tiring.
Can you speak to kind of the hamster wheel that he must've found himself on covering this tournament?
LEWIS: (INAUDIBLE) I texted you a couple of days ago to check how you were, because we were there the other day. And it was getting to you, it has got to me, because it is so convenient here, because you are never more than half an hour, 45 minutes away from a stadium, that is unprecedented at a World Cup. In Russia, four years ago you had to take a flight to Moscow and then
on to another city. When the World Cup is held in four years' time it will be in Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. You will be getting flights everywhere.
Here you are never more than a metro ride away from another stadium. So you can do two games, maybe even three in a day. A lot of journalists are taking advantage of the opportunity to do that.
But the problem is, it starts to tell. And we can't really complain about it because it is a privilege to be at any World Cup, let alone the first in this region.
RIDDELL: We are very fortunate to be here. And, you know, we do get sick. It happens. We are not complaining.
LEWIS: No.
RIDDELL: But you don't think you are going to die from it. And I think that is just something that we are really coming to terms with. Darren, thank you so much for your insight. I know this is a difficult day for both of us and our peers in the industry.
Back to you.
HARRAK: Thank you both so much, Don Riddell and Darren Lewis.
Now to WNBA star Brittney Griner is back home in the U.S. It has raised hopes about Paul Whelan and other detained Americans being freed in similar deals. Russia's president seems to be leaving that possibility open.
Griner stepped off of a plane unassisted early Friday in Texas and was taken to an Army medical center to get checked out. She had been imprisoned in Russia for the past 10 months on a drug charge but was said to be in good spirits upon her release.
She had been laboring at a Russian penal colony where the women inmates make uniforms.
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HARRAK: Her attorney said Brittney Griner cut off her long dreadlocks two weeks ago to better handle the extreme cold.
We get the latest now from Rosa Flores in San Antonio, Texas.
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NED PRICE, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESPERSON: We are absolutely gratified that Brittney Griner is back on American soil.
ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Welcome news today on Griner's return.
We can confirm Brittney Griner arrived at Joint Base San Antonio. Brittney Griner now in her home state after nearly 10 months in a Russian prison, most recently serving her nine-year sentence in a Russian penal colony.
And there is new information about her life there. Griner says she cut her long hair nearly two weeks ago and trimmed it to make her life easier during the Russian winter.
And her attorney there says she was unable to do the sewing work she was assigned at the penal colony due to her large hands and because the tables were too small to accommodate her.
President Joe Biden's National Security Council spokesperson saying she appears to be in good health.
ADM. JOHN KIRBY (RET.), COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: She was very incredibly gracious and kind and humble on the flight. Very, very appreciative of the effort to get her home.
FLORES (voice-over): Griner is now undergoing a medical evaluation before being reunited with her wife, Cherelle and the rest of her family.
A senior Biden administration official saying that negotiations to bring Griner home were separate from any talks about Ukraine.
The deal came together about one week ago, after the U.S. offered to swap convicted Russian arms dealer, Viktor Bout for both Griner and Paul Whelan.
Whelan was detained in Russia in 2018, convicted on espionage charges and sentenced to 16 years in prison, a charge he denies. The Russians rejected that proposal.
KIRBY: It was either make this exchange, get one back and the only one that they were willing to trade was Brittney.
FLORES (voice-over): President Biden didn't sign the commutation papers for Bout until Griner was on the ground in Abu Dhabi, in sight of a U.S. delegation.
Russian President Vladimir Putin saying the Russian Federal Security Service took charge of the swap, adding there is a possibility for further negotiations, raising hopes that Paul Whelan could be the next American freed.
For now, Griner's family, friends and teammates say they are just happy to have her home.
VINCE KOZAR, PRESIDENT, PHOENIX MERCURY: We're incredibly gratified and thankful she's back.
FLORES (voice-over): Rosa Flores, CNN, San Antonio, Texas.
(END VIDEOTAPE) HARRAK: A U.S. federal judge has declined to hold former president, Donald Trump, in contempt of court, for failing to turn over classified records. That is according to two sources familiar with the matter. They tell us that the judge, instead, urged Trump's legal team and the Justice Department to resolve their differences.
An FBI search of Trump's home in Mar-a-Lago uncovered scores of documents marked classified. And while Trump's lawyers have since turned over some additional documents, the Justice Department is concerned that Trump might still have more classified material in his possession.
A shakeup for Senate Democrats, just days after expanding their majority. Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema says she has left the party in favor of becoming an independent. But the move is not expected to change the chamber's balance of power. And Democrats are downplaying the impact it might have. Jessica Dean reports.
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JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Friday brought a bombshell for Senate Democrats.
SEN. KYRSTEN SINEMA (I-AZ): I've registered as an Arizona independent.
DEAN: Arizona senator Kyrsten Sinema, a moderate who wielded enormous power in the evenly split, Senate over the last two years, telling CNN's Jake Tapper she has left the Democratic Party and is now an independent.
SINEMA: I just -- not worried about folks who may not like this approach. What I am worried about is continuing to do what's right for my state.
DEAN: Following her announcement, Sinema talked with reporters at an Arizona food bank on Friday saying she's not focused on re-election but on her constituents. Her term is up in 2024.
SINEMA: Today's announcement is a reflection of any values and I think the values of most Arizonians who are tired of a political system that pulls people to the edges and really doesn't reflect who we are as a people.
DEAN: Sinema gave the White House and Chuck Schumer advance warning of her announcement.
On Friday, Schumer said in a statement Sinema will keep her committee assignments adding, quote, "I believe she's a good and effective senator and I'm looking forward to a productive session in the new Democratic majority Senate.
"We will maintain our new majority on committees, exercise our subpoena power and be able to clear nominees without discharge votes."
Fellow Senate Democrats and the White House echoing that sentiment, saying Sinema's decision won't change much. SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): If she were to say no, I am going over Republican.
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KLOBUCHAR: I am not voting with them anymore, that's a whole different thing. That is nowhere near what she said. And she has tended not to go to the caucus meetings, something she said.
So I'm not, like, telling something out of school, except for rare moments where she's advocating for something she cares about. And that's not going to change, either.
DEAN: Practically, Democrats will maintain their Senate majority with three independents now. Plenty of Democrats have sharply criticized the move, though.
Arizona representative Ruben Gallego, a potential challenger to Sinema should she run again in 2024, blasted the move in a statement saying, quote, "Unfortunately, Senator Sinema is, once again, putting her own interests ahead of getting things done for Arizonans."
In the end, this won't do much to change the day-to-day operations here, in the Senate. The Democrats will still have a lot of the power that they get, with that 51 seat majority. She will, of course, be keeping her committee seat.
So that does a lot to allow the Democrats to use that subpoena power to move nominees through the committees a lot faster than they have been able to previously.
What this does bring about a lot of questions around is, what happens in 2024 if Kyrsten Sinema decides to run for reelection?
Will she run as an independent?
Will Democrats field another candidate against her?
Those are the big questions that will come into focus in the coming years -- Jessica Dean, CNN, Capitol Hill.
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HARRAK: Ukraine may get a better fighting chance against Iranian drones, used by Russia.
Up next, new antidrone defenses soon to be on their way to Kyiv.
Plus, Russia may reconsider one of the pillars of its nuclear strategy. President Putin says the first strike approach may no longer be off the table.
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HARRAK: Ukraine will get a boost for its defenses against Iranian drones that have been wreaking havoc on its energy system.
On Friday, the U.S. announced a new batch of military aid, which includes capability to fight drones like these. Ukraine says Russia has fired more than 1,000 drones and missiles on its energy facilities over the past two months.
The last wave of strikes came on Monday, taking a number of power plants offline. Well, now Ukraine says it is working to repair the damage and restore electricity to critical infrastructure, like water plants and hospitals.
In the east, Ukrainian officials say Russia is making an unprecedented push on the city of Bakhmut. Russian troops are also raining artillery fire on other cities. Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the damage Russians leave behind is staggering.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): For a long time, there is no living space left on the land of these areas that has not been damaged by shells and fire. The occupiers actually destroyed Bakhmut, another Donbas city, that the Russian army turned into burnt ruins.
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HARRAK: Russia's president Putin, is taking his nuclear saber rattling to a whole new level. On Friday, he said Russia might abandon its nuclear doctrine, which says Moscow will not use nuclear weapons first. He made the comments during a visit to Kyrgyzstan.
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VLADIMIR PUTIN, PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (through translator): In the West, there is a theory, even a practiced military strategy of a preventative strike. We don't. In our strategy, there is a response to a strike, there are no secrets here.
What is a response to a strike?
It is a response to a strike aimed at us, our response. We talk about the preemptive disarming strike; maybe we should adopt that practice of our American partners, their ideas of keeping themselves safe. We are thinking about it.
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HARRAK: Let's get you more now. We are joined by Clare Sebastian, from London.
Clare, what should we read into the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, for the second time this week, floating this possibility that Russia may formally change its military doctrine of not being the first to use nuclear weapons in a conflict?
CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Laila, I think this is just the next phase in Russia's nuclear saber rattling, which has been one of the hallmarks of this conflict, really from the very first speech he gave announcing it on February 24th, saying the world should prepare itself for consequences, the likes of which they have never seen.
It has been increasing, fair to say, since September when Ukraine's counteroffensive really began to bear fruit. The worst Russia's fortunes on the battlefield, the higher the risk of nuclear saber rattling.
The West is taking it seriously. The U.S. has said that Russia has been warned in the strongest terms, of the consequences of using nuclear weapons. But the context of this is that Russia and Putin is heading toward the end of the year, with no major gains to celebrate in this war, a declining economy, an increasing level of repression at home.
And one of the ways that Putin can project power is to extract the rhetorical power of his nuclear arsenal and continue to make these threats. So I think that is the context in which we should see this.
HARRAK: Well, at the same time, while he's making these threats, President Putin has potential future prisoner swaps between the United States and Russia.
SEBASTIAN: Yes, not entirely surprising. We have seen, obviously two so far this year. Trevor Reed, back in the spring and of course, Brittney Griner. That is an exceptionally high frequency, in terms of historical precedent, to see two in the space of a year.
And it speaks to the fact that this is politically expedient for President Putin at home. Viktor Bout is being painted in the Russian media as a victim, a patriot. So it is really a victory to bring him home and especially to avoid a two-for-one swap the U.S. put on the table, back in the summer.
Going forward, the question is what about Paul Whelan, conspicuously left out of this swap?
It is a difficult case; he, himself feels he has been treated differently. Bill Richardson, the former New Mexico governor, who has been so instrumental in brokering --
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SEBASTIAN: -- these swaps so that he has been trying for four years, it is very difficult, in the case of Paul Whelan, perhaps because he has been tried and convicted of espionage in Russia.
But certainly, Russia says that it continues to consider the prospect of further talks, further conferences. And we know that the U.S. is working very hard on a potential solution for Paul Whelan.
HARRAK: Clare Sebastian, thank you very much.
Well, after Iran carried out its first known public execution of a protester, mourners gathered at his grave Friday.
And defiant demonstrators returned to the streets. We will have the latest.
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HARRAK: Welcome back to all of our viewers around the world. I am Laila Harrak. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM.
Condemnation rolled in from around the world, Friday, over the execution of an Iranian protester. Mohsen Shekari was hanged on Thursday and many nations have strongly denounced his death. European foreign ministers will discuss it Monday in Brussels with Germany and the U.K. and some of their Iranian ambassadors.
Even so, inside Iran, protesters were undaunted.
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HARRAK (voice-over): Demonstrations were back in the streets of cities across the country on Friday. However, Iranian authorities say more executions could take place in the coming days; 11 other protesters have also been sentenced to death. The U.N. human rights chief says the government's goal is to suppress the mass movement.
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VOLKER TURK, U.N. HIGH COMMISSIONER OF HUMAN RIGHTS: We issued a tweet yesterday about the execution -- sorry -- about the execution of Mohsen Shekari. It's very troubling and clearly designed to send a chilling effect to the rest of the protesters.
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HARRAK: Well, the hanging of Mohsen Shekari is the first known public execution associated with Iran's protest movement. Melissa Bell has details but we must warn you, some of these images may be disturbing.
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MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The reaction to the news that Mohsen Shekari had been hanged. The howl of a relative as he became the first protester to be executed in Iran in the three months of demonstrations.
Just 75 days later, he was executed. The first protester hanged likely not the last, tens more face death sentences.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why the Iranian authorities choose him as the first victim, I think it has got to do with the fact that we didn't know so much about him that his name wasn't so known.
BELL: It was the deaths in the custody of the morality police of 22- year-old Mahsa Amini that set off the wave of discontent that has only widened and deepened, posing the greatest challenge to Iran's regime since the 1979 Islamic revolution swept the mullahs and their strict Islamic interpretation to power.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And then Mahsa was a young girl who just normal young girl but also a Kurdish girl. So in so many aspects it patched, Iranians who have been treated as second class citizens.
BELL: Across Iran this week, a strike called by the protesters and on Wednesday, known as student day in Iran protests at several universities.
Inside Tehran University, Iran's president blamed the United States for what he described as riots. Outside the protesters chants echoed in the grounds.
Tehran's response to the popular anger has been predictably violent. Already human rights groups say 458 protesters have died, many more now face the death penalty.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Death penalty is the strongest instrument of breaking fear. It's more than shooting people on the streets.
BELL: Death to the dictator chanted protesters on Thursday night for now at least unbound by Tehran's campaign of fear -- Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.
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HARRAK: More legal trouble for Hong Kong media tycoon, Jimmy Lai, already in jail. He's been sentenced to nearly six years more prison time and a quarter million dollar fine for fraud.
He founded the pro-democracy Apple News Daily shutdown last year after a police raid during a government crackdown. In this latest case, he was found to have concealed using the newspaper's headquarters to support private firms he controlled, violating its lease.
Lai is a high-profile critic of Beijing, under Hong Kong's sweeping national security law. He was sentenced to almost 13 months in prison last year for participating in an unauthorized protest.
Still ahead this hour, the upsets, the comebacks and all of the highlights as the first semifinal matchup is now set in Qatar.
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HARRAK: Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Laila Harrak. We'll take a quick break. For our viewers in the U.S., I will be back with more news. For our international viewers, "MARKETPLACE ASIA" is up next.
