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NFL Player in Critical Condition; Dr. Dave Montgomery is Interviewed about Hamlin's Condition; Donte Stallworth is Interviewed about Hamlin; McCarthy Struggles to Secure Votes; Make-or-Break Moment for McCarthy. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired January 03, 2023 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:41]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Erica Hill.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto.

We are following several major stories this morning.

First, one that shocked all of us last night. Maybe you as well. Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin still in critical condition in a Cincinnati hospital. The 24-year-old NFL player collapsed on the field after a violent collision during his team's Monday night football game against the Cincinnati Bengals. Players on the field understandably shell shocked as medical staff performed CPR on Hamlin for a full nine minutes before they finally restored his heartbeat. He was then driven out of the stadium in an ambulance. The NFL later suspended that football game. The Bills updated in the early morning hours that Hamlin suffered cardiac arrest after that tackle. We're going to be live in Cincinnati with the latest on his condition. We're also going to be talking to a lot of former NFL players about this.

HILL: Yes, important to get their perspective on how all of that happened last night. What it means moving forward.

We're also, of course, closely monitoring the situation of Capitol Hill today. A new congress set to begin, of course, with Republicans in control, but without a speaker. That vote is set for later today. At this hour, though, Kevin McCarthy still hasn't locked up the support he needs for that gavel. So, will we see a chaotic floor fight between GOP moderates and the far-right wing of the party? We do know Republican lawmakers are set to meet behind closed doors this hour.

We do want to begin, though, in Cincinnati where, as Jim mentioned, Damar Hamlin is in critical condition. He's at UC Medical Center after collapsing on the field last night.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HILL: Now, we do want to warn you, we're going to show you video of that moment because we do think it's important for you to have the context, if you didn't see it last night, to understand what happened.

SCIUTTO: Yes. HILL: You may find it disturbing. We're only going to show it once. This collapse, you see, comes after this hit. Bengals' wide receiver Tee Higgins goes across the middle. You saw there Hamlin makes the tackle. As Higgins lowers his shoulder pads into Hamlin's chest area. Hamlin stands up after the tackle. And then just seconds later we saw him collapse. Now, we know now know, of course, that he suffered cardiac arrest.

SCIUTTO: Listen, perhaps like many of you, I was watching last night. It turned my stomach to watch that. It was heartbreaking. And look at those players on the field. They were saying prayers. Visibly upset in those moments.

CNN's Adrienne Broaddus, she's in Cincinnati for us.

Any there any new updates on Hamlin's condition?

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, he is still listed in critical condition. That is according to the Buffalo Bills. And I just want to point out, you said your stomach turned as you watched that. Can you imagine if you are someone who is close to him? For example, his mother was in the stadium watching this all unfold.

If we just take a step back and realize, this is not just a football player who many look up to, or it's not your favorite player on the team. This is a person who is inside of this hospital behind me fighting for his life.

He is under sedation. But I do want to take our viewers back through what happened. Here's that timeline.

It all started around 8:55 Eastern Standard Time last night. That's when Hamlin makes an open field tackle. Both players fell to the ground. But Hamlin was able to get up for a few seconds, but then he fell backwards to the ground.

Medics responded within ten seconds and CPR was administered for at least nine minutes on the field. The game, temporarily suspended.

Shortly around 9:25, that's when the ambulance carrying Hamlin leaves the stadium. And then it wasn't until 10:00 the game was officially postponed. It's unclear if the game will ever be replayed or picked back up. But that is not what's important right now, at least not for those who are close to Damar Hamlin.

He is a fighter on the field and he's a fighter inside of that hospital.

Here's what his friend told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JORDON ROONEY, DAMAR HAMLIN'S FRIEND AND MARKETING REP.: Damar is someone who -- he isn't someone who's like, oh, I want to be a football player because I want to be rich. He's someone who he wants platform, he wants influence, because he wants to - he wants to inspire other people. And I think that's what -- that's what everyone needs to remember. Like, yes, you watch him on TV, yes, you know, you know, you may be a fan of - of the sport or the game.

[09:05:03]

This is a - this is a person, a human being who means a lot to a lot of people.

If there's anyone that, you know, I have confidence in making it out of anything, it's him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROADDUS: And that was Jordon Rooney, who you heard from. I spoke with him earlier this morning. He said he was in Dallas for another event. And when he heard what happened to his friend, he caught the next flight here to Cincinnati. He's been inside of the hospital all night with Damar's mother.

As you can imagine, they are hoping for another miracle.

The fact that his heartbeat was restored on the field is one miracle, and the family says they're counting on another.

Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HILL: Adrienne Broaddus with the latest for us there in Cincinnati.

Adrienne, thank you.

Joining me now to discuss, Dr. Dave Montgomery. He's a preventive cardiologist at PREvent Clinic in Georgia.

Good to have you with us this morning.

So, let's start with what we know this morning, Dr. Montgomery, the fact that - and this is good news, as Adrienne just pointed out, that his heartbeat was restored on the field. CPR, though, was administered for a long time. He's in critical condition. What do you make of all that? What does it tell us about what he could be facing?

DR. DAVE MONTGOMERY, PREVENTIVE CARDIOLOGIST, PREVENT CLINIC: Yes, good morning to you, Erica and Jim.

So, you know, I think that there are two distinct possibilities, and I will just say, as we're hypothesizing and conjecturing, keeping what Adrienne said in mind, that this is a human being. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and his teammates. Two distinct possibilities. One is what we're been hearing about, and that is that impact to Hamlin's chest hit right at the time when - at the heart rhythm caused a chaotic sort of spiral. We call it Commotio cordis, Erica. That just means a chaotic heart rhythm and the heart stops. You see here on your screen, right at the time where the EKG, which makes the heartbeat, that red line shows you the most inopportune time to get a blow to the chest, in football or any other sport that can cause a chaos.

And then there's another distinct possibility. And I think that that possibility, after I went frame by frame, Erica, yesterday, there is the possibility that the blow went to his jaw and into his brain. In other words, a traumatic brain injury of sorts. Now, here's a connection. In very small cases, or very rare cases of severe enough traumatic brain injury, you can have traumatic cardiac arrest. It happens in the seconds to minutes after, but it still ends in cardiac arrest.

HILL: So, when we look at all that, there's a lot of talk, and rightfully so, as you just pointed out, we are talking about a 24- year-old man. A young man. One would imagine in good health given - given what he's doing for a job. His job there, you know, with - with the Bills. We look at all of that and there are a lot of questions this morning about what is going to happen to this young man. What could the impact o this be as he moves into recovery.

MONTGOMERY: Yes.

HILL: What does an event like this, this cardiac arrest, what - what could that do to someone physically?

MONTGOMERY: Yes. You know, everybody wants to know how well he's going to do. And really the only people who will know, quite frankly, are the people taking care of him.

When you have a cessation of blood flow to the brain, every second counts. That they got there very, very quickly and started CPR quickly bodes well for him. But we won't know. So in this next sort of 48 hours, we're going to be seeing how well he does. Does he recover? Does he have meaningful movement? Is he following and tracking with his eyes? And then the neurologist will come in and tell us just how well he's going to do. But, really, our prayers are really the only thing that we can do right now.

HILL: Absolutely. And real quickly, before I let you go, when we look at how this happened and when I listened to what you explained in that first answer, it almost sounds like this is sort of a perfect storm, a one in a million chance that somebody gets hit at that moment in that spot.

That said, does it raise for you new or additional safety questions about professional football?

MONTGOMERY: Yes, well, you know, I mean that - that -- the answer to that supposes that we do know the answer to it. We don't know his medical history. We don't know that he's got structural heart disease. We don't know if he was having some symptoms. He could have it and not have a diagnosis.

With that being said, any time there's something like this we think about, can we make things safer. And so the answer in general is, sure, sure, we can make it safer. But let's sort of take a pause. Let's get some more answers from the physicians taking care of him and then we can sort of come to that point, which I think will be important.

HILL: Dr. Dave Montgomery, really appreciate your expertise and your insight this morning. Thank you.

MONTGOMERY: A pleasure being with you.

SCIUTTO: Now, we do want to get an NFL players' perspective. Former NFL wide receiver Donte Stallworth joins us now.

Donte, good to have you back on.

DONTE STALLWORTH, FORMER NFL WIDE RECEIVER: Thanks for having me, Jim.

SCIUTTO: You were watching last night. You played ten years in the NFL. You've taken your share of hard hits. I wonder, as you watched that moment, the hit, the collapse, what was your reaction?

[09:10:05]

STALLWORTH: My initial reaction watching that was my reaction any time I see a player fall to the ground or take a tough hit. It's -- I cringe.

But there was something different about this when it happened. He stood up after the hit and looked like a routine catch and tackle, something that we've seen thousands of times in the NFL. Nothing too brutal. But when he stood up, he was up for a few seconds and then he fell back to the ground. And that's when I became concerned about his health.

And when they started to -- when the training staff ran out on the field, the players were calling and motioning for them to run out to the field. And you saw the players standing around and kind of wondering what was happening with their teammate, what was happening with, you know, with Damar Hamlin at the time. You saw players start to become emotional.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

STALLWORTH: And these guys are close - they're just as close as they are with these players as they are with their family members. And so they look at each other as brothers. And to see the emotion on the players' -- even though we couldn't see exactly what was happening with Damar at the time, I knew that it was something that we hadn't seen before. Something that was unprecedented.

SCIUTTO: His mother, Damar's mother, was also present in the stadium.

So, the NFL at first suspended the game. About an hour later, about an hour after the ambulance arrived, they postponed the game. Troy Vincent, the NFL executive VP of football operations said that it never crossed his mind, his words, about warming up to resume play. I wonder, you know NFL players, I'm sure you know some folks who were playing there last night, would they have ever gone back on the field to resume this game?

STALLWORTH: No, I don't think so. And Troy is a former NFL player himself.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

STALLWORTH: Although he is, you know, working in the NFL. He is a former player himself and so he understands the brotherhood that we have on the field. We - we are, as professional athletes, and especially football players, NFL players, we are trained and conditioned to compartmentalize pain, physical pain and mental pain. We are - we are trained to compartmentalize injuries. Whether it's broken bones, torn ligaments, all these injuries that happen where guys are out that - that sometimes require surgery, but we are not - we have not been trained or conditioned to deal with anything like this. And I think that kind of underscores why you saw the players' reaction the way they were.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

STALLWORTH: Half the players on the field were crying. Bengals players were crying.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

STALLWORTH: We've never seen that before. We've never seen a player be administered CPR on the field, whether it be practice or a game on any level, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

STALLWORTH: So, you know, to see the players' reactions, even though we couldn't see what was going on, that, to me, told the story of everything that was happening on the field.

SCIUTTO: This has been a tough year for injuries in the NFL. A tough span of years. By the way, every injury is different. There's no question. This one is particularly different. We've seen a lot of concussions. We saw, you know, players on the field incapacitated by concussions.

I wonder, in your view, has the league done enough to address health concerns and their response to health concerns?

STALLWORTH: Jim, I think I can honestly say - and I know a lot of players current and former can also vouch and would probably also say the same thing. Five, ten years ago this -- the game probably would have resumed. And it - and there's been instances where players have been carted off, players have been taken off by ambulance and, you know, within five or ten minutes the game has resumed.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

STALLWORTH: We've never seen a game postponed because of an injury. Usually, games are postponed because of weather or some other kind of event that is not an injury.

SCIUTTO: Yes. STALLWORTH: And what we saw yesterday, I think, was the NFL today that's a different NFL today than it was ten -- five, ten, 15 years ago.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you this finally. I was watching last night. ESPN analyst, also former player, as you know, Booger McFarland, he made a comment that struck me. He said, we play a violent game. And for all the changes that have been made, and very real changes with consequences to training and medical response, we still see a lot of just debilitating injuries from hard hits. And I wonder, is there something here? Do you ever wonder, as a former player, is the game too violent by nature? I mean are there limits to what you can do?

STALLWORTH: Jim, I grew up watching the San Francisco 49ers in the '80s and just even -- I've been a big fan of the NFL as long as I can remember. Watching plays from the '60s and '70s, it was - it was extremely brutal. And the game has changed over time. I don't know if you can make the game any much safer. I know they're looking at all kinds of data and all kinds of different dynamics of the game to try to make it as safe as possible as they can for the players. But, this is a brutal sport. And I think people forget that.

[09:15:00]

They look at these players more as commodities sometimes, especially with this Fantasy Football. We don't - we -- sometimes we forget the human side, that these players are actually human beings and they have families and they have wives and kids.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

STALLWORTH: And that really is something that we became to see more, especially last night when we saw Damar Hamlin.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

STALLWORTH: And we understood that his mother was there witnessing this with her own eyes.

SCIUTTO: Well, Donte Stallworth, we really do appreciate your perspective on this. Thanks so much for joining us this morning.

STALLWORTH: Thanks for having me.

SCIUTTO: Well, just minutes from now, the House Republican Conference will meet behind closed doors for what is expected to be a tense debate over who should be speaker. We'll do the math on Kevin McCarthy's chances. There's apparently still some counting to do.

HILL: Plus, the suspect in the brutal murders of four Idaho college students expected to waive his extradition rights at a hearing in Pennsylvania this afternoon. New details. What are the new details we expect to learn once he's back in Ohio?

And schools are closed today in Jessieville, Arkansas, that's after a possible tornado took down trees and power lines. There is still a tornado watch in effect for parts of Louisiana this morning. We'll take you live to Shreveport.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:20:20]

HILL: Today, in the nation's capital, a new era begins as the 118th Congress gavels in at noon. Republicans, of course, will take over the reigns in the House of Representatives.

SCIUTTO: But there is still a big question, a big disagreement in fact this morning as to whether Kevin McCarthy will secure enough votes he needs to become the next House speaker. So far a group of at least five Republicans have made clear that they are a no, putting McCarthy one vote short of the 218 votes among his own party that he needs.

CNN's Lauren Fox, live on Capitol Hill this morning, where lawmakers are arriving for the closed-door meeting set to get underway soon.

Lauren, we know where the math stands right now. I mean do we think there's going to be any movement this morning?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I mean this is really an unprecedented moment, Jim, in part because we really don't know what is going to happen next. We know there's going to be a vote for the speakership today and we do not know if Kevin McCarthy is going to have those votes. All signs right now pointing to the fact that he still has considerable work to do.

And this meeting that is going on behind me in just a couple of minutes, it is going to be really important for Kevin McCarthy. And that's because he's trying to make sure that he can win over those last remaining conservatives who right now could really number nearly a dozen because, remember, we have five conservatives who have said that they are voting against Kevin McCarthy. There are nine more who signed on to a letter on Sunday night saying they still had issues. And Scott Perry, one of them, sent out a statement this morning saying that he still had concerns about Kevin McCarthy coming to the negotiating table a little too late. So, that really shows you just how much work is still to do here.

Meanwhile, allies saying that they are going to be for Kevin McCarthy on the first ballot, on the 500th ballot, on the 1,000th ballot, as long as it takes.

Here are some of his allies talking about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP.-ELECT MICHAEL LAWLER (R-NY): It is untenable to allow a handful of people to try and overrun the conference and the will of the majority of the conference.

REP.-ELECT JOHN JAMES (R-MI): We need to work together. We need to figure this out. And we need to run the country. Because I'll tell you what, in normal America, like folks back in my district, don't care about your personality conflicts, bitching and moaning from folks who - who don't have the vision.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: And the frustration here really is that 95 percent of the conference is there backing Kevin McCarthy. There's just a small fraction of folks who are standing opposed to him still this morning, Jim. But it may not matter because he only has that small majority. He can only afford to lose four votes. And like we've noted, he's got a lot more members still on the fence.

Jim and Erica.

HILL: Oh, Lauren Fox, appreciate it. Thank you.

Joining us to discuss further, "Axios" congressional reporter Alayna Treene, congressional reporter for "Politico" Nicholas Wu.

Good to see you both this morning.

You know, it's interesting, as we look at this, as Lauren just pointed out, you've got essentially 95 percent of the conference that's there, but this other very vocal 5 percent. For some of them it's personal. They don't like Kevin McCarthy. For others it's all about these concessions.

And, Alayna, it's interesting, there has been so much that has been essentially given up by McCarthy at this point. But if you're giving in to every little demand, what's he actually left with if he manages to pull this off, Alayna?

ALAYNA TREENE, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, "AXIOS": Well, it's a great point, Erica. And he has. He's given away the store really in trying to cave to what members of the right flank want.

The issue is, he did that without really having any guarantee for what they would be offering in return, which is what he needs, is their votes. And as of now, they are remaining united in their opposition, even though he's caved on giving them a - a lower threshold for the motion to vacate the chair. A number of other big concessions that these conservative members have wanted.

But, still, he hasn't flipped any votes with that. And so I really do think it's coming down to the wire and a lot of people -- Scott Perry, the chairman now of the House Freedom Caucus noted this in his statement this morning say that he -- McCarthy waited until the last minute to give into these demands, to release that rules package that so many of these conservatives were waiting for. And it's really going to all play out on the floor today. And I think this meeting that's about to happen right now is going to be crucial to see if there can be any movement at all from some of these conservative members.

SCIUTTO: So, Nicholas, we know there are - there are hold-outs remaining. Are there remaining concessions to be made here to pull them over or is McCarthy's plan, in effect, to wear them down with multiple votes? NICHOLAS WU, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, "POLITICO": Well, kind of, it

remains to be seen exactly what other concessions McCarthy could pull out.

[09:25:01]

Republicans are having their closed-door meeting right now where McCarthy could, you know, present other options. But, you know, as we've discussed, there are centrist Republicans who vowed that they will sit around for as long as it takes to vote for McCarthy. And so there is certainly this hope that it eventually comes down to a war of attrition in some ways with the right flank of the conference, right?

SCIUTTO: Right.

WU: If you just keep on going, you know, eventually people will give up and vote for McCarthy or just, you know, not vote at all, which would (INAUDIBLE) the threshold. But, you know, we're still waiting to see exactly how this could all play out. It's very unchartered territory.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HILL: Nicholas, something stood out to me. You were tweeting about this yesterday, noting about these concessions that had been made by McCarthy in terms of - of the rules package for the incoming congress. And changes you noted, the very significant impact this could have on ethics - on congressional ethics investigations, for example. Walk us through that.

WU: Well, there's a number of different changes in this rules package that sets up the House that Republicans have laid out. One that I noticed was this change to the Office of Congressional Ethics. This independent watchdog that oversees all ethics issues in Congress. And what Republicans have proposed was basically - you know, on paper it looks fairly benign. But what this would do is institute term limits for the members of its board, some of whom are Republican and some are Democrats. And the term limits would basically boot out most of the existing Democratic board members. It would also make it much harder for the office to hire staff.

And all of this could have a huge effect on ethics investigations at the beginning of this new congress.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

WU: Notably ones into members of Congress who were involved with January 6th or Congressman-elect George Santos, as he faces a number of different scandals.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

All right, Alayna, so it's just notable, as Nicholas was talking there, Steve Scalise walked by. Is there another candidate quietly waiting in the wings here to swoop in and, if necessary, take this from McCarthy? I mean I know Steve Scalise because he is certainly not publicly campaigning for this and he's remaining loyal to McCarthy, but his name has come up as a plan b. Where does that stand?

TREENE: Well, you're right, Jim, Steve Scalise makes the most sense as the second person that the majority of the conference would rally behind. But again, even though he's very popular within the conference, it's not like he's much more conservative than Kevin McCarthy is -

SCIUTTO: Yes.

TREENE: And, also, he's still a member of leadership, which is a huge reason why a lot of these conservatives are pushing against McCarthy.

There are some other names that have been floated. People like Dan Bishop, Don Bacon are starting to say that they want to put other members forward for this. Andy Biggs, one of the people who is very staunch in his opposition to Kevin McCarthy, is also running for speaker. But a lot of these other potential names that are being floated -- Jim Jordan another one that conservatives would love to see become speaker, it's not very possible. Jim Jordan, as another example, like I said, doesn't want this. Other people whose names are being thrown around and the buzz that's coming around them don't really want this. And so it will be difficult.

I do think that if there really is a point of no return for McCarthy and he realizes he will not be able to win the 218 votes that are necessary, then - then potentially Steve Scalise will step forward. He's been privately preparing for this I'm told yesterday as this became a much more realistic reality. But it's still very unclear.

And also, again, even if conservatives all rallied behind one candidate, the majority of the conference really wants McCarthy. And so it's a very difficult position that they're in today.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Well, we'll see how late they're there tonight and into the morning. Nicholas Wu, Alayna Treene, thanks so much to both of you.

TREENE: Thank you.

HILL: Still to come here, the man facing first degree murder charges in the deaths of the four Idaho college students now preparing to face a judge in just a few short hours. What happens as extradition looms? We're going to take you live to that Pennsylvania courthouse.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)