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CNN International: Pope Francis Leads Funeral Service for Benedict XVI; U.S. House Paralyzed as Republicans Fight Over Next Speaker; Guardian: In new book, Prince Harry alleges William Attacked him; Republicans Scramble to end Speaker Deadlock; Brazilian Man calls George Santos "A Professional Liar". Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired January 05, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

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MAX FOSTER, CNN HOST: Hello, welcome to CNN "Newsroom". I'm Max Foster in London. Just ahead, bidding farewell to a giant of the Catholic Church a Former Pope Benedict is laid to rest. Two days, six votes, zero answers, the fight over who will be the next Speaker of the U.S. House drags into his third day. And one newspaper reports it seemed Prince Harry's new book and reveals it contains explosive claims that his brother William physically assaulted him, details coming up.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI was laid to rest today following a traditional funeral service at St. Peter's Square in Vatican City. Tens of thousands of faithful attended the ceremony, which is led by Pope Francis. This was the first time in modern history that the Pope presided over his predecessor's funeral.

As Benedict coffin was being carried to St. Peter's Basilica. Many were heard calling for him to be immediately may the saints. CNN's Fred Pleitgen joins us from Rome. You were there, what was it like?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I there, Max? Well, it certainly was an incredibly large ceremony the same way, also a humbling ceremony and certainly a ceremony. That was very much the way that Pope Benedict would have wanted if he had wanted to be more low key, for instance, than the one for John Paul the II in 2005. And there were a lot fewer people on the square today than there were in 2005.

But certainly at the same time, it was a very respectful ceremony that, as you said, was led by the current Pope by Pope Francis. But then and him praising Pope Benedict XVI as a great thinker of the church, but also, of course, someone who led the church in some very turbulent times as well and really gave his entire life to the church, so certainly a ceremony. That will be remembered for a very long time here in Rome, in the Vatican by many people.

And certainly also Max, the end of an era in the Catholic Church and in the Vatican as well, we have to keep in mind that Pope Benedict, even when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger, for many decades, was a very influential and powerful figure in the Vatican, who did a lot to shape the church and the direction that the church was going into.

So certainly the end of an era here, the latest word that we have from the Vatican right now is that the coffin of the Pope has now been brought to the Crypt of the Pope's underneath the Vatican, and that he has found his final resting place. That's information that we got from the Vatican just a couple of minutes ago.

So certainly things have run their course here and at the same time, of course, people are now letting all, of this sink in. But we witnessed this morning and that very imposing ritual that took place there. As far as the attendance is concerned, a lot of Heads of States did come, although not as many, as did to John Paul II funeral, but the Germans certainly present with a very large delegation Pope Benedict XVI, of course, was a pope from Germany, specifically from Bavaria.

And if you look at the crowd and you were just alluding to the fact that some of them had a sign that said sainthood sent immediately, and there were some people chanting that as well. Certainly from our vantage point, it looked as though that was coming from the corner. And when we saw a lot of German flags, a lot of Bavarian flags, but in general, this is certainly discussion that could unfold in the next couple of years.

Again, this was a Pope with a punch ticket. That didn't last very long. It was less than eight years long, but if you look at his full body of work, certainly one of the most influential figures of the Catholic Church of the past decades, if not even longer than that, Max.

FOSTER: Fred Pleitgen in Rome, thank you. Patience is wearing thin in Washington as Republican lawmakers tried to end a contentious stalemate that's now in its third day. Kevin McCarthy is under growing pressure to end the deadlock after losing six speakership votes due to hardliners in his own party standing in his way. The house is set to reconvene in about four hours and McCarthy says although there's no deal yet progress is being made.

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FOSTER: Well U.S. President Joe Biden says the political chaos is humiliating America on the world stage.

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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: It's embarrassing for the country. I mean, literally, I am not making a part of this reality that, you know, to be able to have a Congress that can't function. Is this embarrassing? We're the greatest nation in the world. How can that be?

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FOSTER: Well, the fight over leadership has exposed extreme divisions within the Republican Party and brought a big part of the U.S. government to a standstill. CNN's Jessica Dean joins us from Capitol Hill. Jessica, what is the process now then? Do they just keep reliving the last two days?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right, just like Groundhog Day again, and again, and again. They are set, as you mentioned, Max to reconvene in about four hours. The question is, will they go ahead and take an immediate seventh vote. That's what we're trying to dig in on right now.

It's possible that McCarthy tries to just adjourn and go back to meetings and negotiations because McCarthy and his allies do believe that they're making some progress with some of these hardliners. But the simple math remains, even with a bunch of concessions that he made just in the last 12 hours really giving in to a lot of these demands from these hardliners. It's still not enough to get into that magic number.

So he's still going to have to negotiate, they still need to bring more people over. And frankly, sitting on the floor and having the same 20 people vote against him, doesn't look great for him. It continues to weaken him. He doesn't want to do that, he wants to show progress. His allies and supporters want him to show progress.

We're told they don't have endless patience for all of this. At some point, they want this to be resolved. But there are tiny indications that he is at least going in the right direction after days of going the wrong direction having more people vote against him. But the question remains, can he get there?

And again, we're now it was Tuesday, all day Wednesday. And now here we are on Thursday. Can he get it done today? Does this stretch into a fourth day or even into the weekend? As you mentioned, in your reporting, the house is at a standstill, all of these new members haven't even been sworn in. And not to get too into the weeds, but they're operating without any rules that's set by the new Congress.

So, it's kind of the Wild West in there in terms of how they're doing all of this. They are they're voting but they're not operating by any sort of set rules, which is normally what's put in place by the House Speaker by the majority. So we're waiting for all of that and it just remains at a standstill until they can come to an agreement on who's going to be the next House Speaker.

FOSTER: Another busy day for Jessica Dean. Thank you for joining us from Capitol Hill. Now here Prince Harry is causing a royal stir yet again. He's accusing his brother Prince William with physically assaulting him back in 2019. That's according to the Guardian newspaper, which says it's seen as an advanced copy of Prince Harry's much anticipated new book Spare. The paper says Harry writes that William knocked him to the floor during an argument over Harry's wife, Meghan. Bianca, has been following all of this. I mean, we've had revelations but this is right up there.

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is probably among some of the most dramatic revelations that we've ever heard. And that's, of course, because it does depict this event according to Prince Harry have a physical altercation between the brothers when during an argument over the Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle. Apparently Prince William, according to Prince Harry struck him, causing him to fall to the floor hitting himself, on a dog bowl apparently resulting in visible injury, which according to this passage that has been published by the Guardian.

We understand that Meghan Markle was not told initially about this fight between the two brothers. But then when she noticed some marks on Harry's back, she asked him what had happened. And that led them to the revelations, Harry described it, saying he sat down the water, called me another name and came at me. It all happens so fast, so very fast. He grabbed me by the collar, ripping my necklace, and he knocked me to the ground.

So Max, these are serious allegations. And we haven't heard from Buckingham Palace or Kensington Palace. And as you know, that is par for the course and really puts the differences of communication styles into sharp relief here, because Prince Harry has said in his interview that was pre-recorded with ITV that he doesn't believe that silence is going to solve any of the problems here. Whereas in terms of the Prince and Princess of Wales, we haven't heard anything, there hasn't been any briefing and it seems that we're unlikely to hear anything from them, Max.

FOSTER: Yes, I mean, I'm wondering why that might be. I mean, we don't know, do we? They'll just say they're not commenting. Is that a case of not playing into the briefing narrative or is it rising above it or letting them have the last word? I mean, what do you think the strategy is?

NOBILO: Well, whether intentionally or not what's happening is tantamount to a battle for hearts and minds in public support.

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NOBILO: And that in the United Kingdom across the Atlantic and all over the world. And because some of Prince Harry and Megan Markel's chief criticisms of the way that they were treated by what they call the firm or the royal family, is their allegations that there was briefing against them by more senior members of the royal family and that they weren't able to speak their truth. So it might be a logical response, as you suggest, perhaps, the palace just doesn't want to add any oxygen to this and thinks that by briefing in any way.

That won't be a helpful response to this situation, if that is in fact, what Prince Harry believes has led to the tensions being where they are right now. And also because there's that royal motto never complain, never explain. And in response to people that are being public writing books, doing documentaries and sharing their story with the world, perhaps the best alternative if you don't want to escalate matters is, to remain silent.

FOSTER: OK, Bianca, thank you very much indeed. Now, turning to the war, Ukraine and provocative rhetoric coming out of the Kremlin as Russia demonstrates a new show of force. Russian state media reporting, Vladimir Putin has dispatched a warship armed with advanced hypersonic missiles on a long voyage through the Atlantic to the Mediterranean and into the Indian Ocean, featuring claims that Zircon missiles are harder to detect and will reliably protect Russia from what he's calling potential external threats. CNN'S Scott McLean joins us live from Kyiv. Explain all of that. What does it mean?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Max, the reality is that this deployment of this frigate with those hypersonic missiles, as you say, is not necessarily germane to what is happening on the battlefield in Ukraine. But it is a chance for the Russians to flex their Military might and show that they still have it. What because things are not necessarily going well for them on the battlefield where they have had some success if this was one of their goals is really depleting the Ukrainian economy.

The Ministry of Economy in this country today said that the economy has shrunk by 30 percent, perhaps not surprisingly, last year. But what is surprising is that the forecast had it down at losing 40 or 50 percent of its value. So things could have been a lot worse.

The ministry credits the efforts to keep the lights on and of course foreign aid and help with making sure that the things were not worse. As I said things looking much better on the battlefield for the Ukrainians, though, especially after that devastating strike on the Russian barracks that killed a large number of Russian troops. Even the Russians have acknowledged that some 89 people were killed.

Ukrainian estimates are that it's much higher. What's remarkable there is that the Russians have blamed the troops themselves for the mass use of cell phones by allowing the Ukrainians to pinpoint their location. The head of RT Russian state TV has welcomed the investigation and is actually calling for the Russian Military leaders who allowed that to happen to be named and to be punished.

The Russians are also having trouble in the Bakhmut area where Ukrainian says that some 60 percent of the town has been destroyed. But the frontline doesn't really appear to be moving all that much. Even the Head of the private military group, the Russian private military contractor Wagner said that the Ukrainians have defenses up every 10 meters or so.

A couple other things to mention and that tomorrow, is Christmas Eve for the Orthodox Church. And so that's the majority faith in this country and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. In Moscow has actually called for a 36 hour ceasefire beginning tomorrow at midday to allow Orthodox Christians to mark the holiday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is actually calling for a much more ambitious kind of ceasefire. He held a call earlier today with Russian President Vladimir Putin calling for him not only to call for peace talks, but also to loot you unilaterally announced that there was going to be a ceasefire, no word from the Russians yet but everyone is going to have the same call with Zelenskyy or a similar call we expect with President Zelenskyy. Of course the Turks lately, Max, have been trying to use their good relations with both Moscow and Kyiv to try to coax both sides back to the negotiating table to try to restart peace talks. FOSTER: OK, Scott in Kyiv, thank you. The European Union wants its member States to require a negative COVID test for any travelers from China. The EU stopped short of imposing travel rules for the whole block. This sort of COVID cases are skyrocketing across China and the government there eases its travel rules.

The World Health Organization, meanwhile, says it's not getting adequate data from Chinese authorities. Still to come we're going to take a look at how to end the leadership jam in the U.S. Congress so can finally start a new season.

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FOSTER: Welcome back, so how will the U.S. House Speaker deadlock end? Two days and six failed attempts, and the stalemate, has left the whole chamber in a state of paralysis. The numbers don't paint a pretty picture for the man who would be Speaker that is Kevin McCarthy.

These are the six votes hardly budged at all, haven't moved at all in the last three votes. They're not moving forward at all 218 is the magic number here. He needs to get above that to get the position, but he's not going anywhere. He says he's wanted this for years.

This is the history he's been close to the speakership before he had a failed bid in 2015. This is the first time that we've had this situation in more than a century. The first time voting has gone beyond one round in 100 years and it all comes down to this a key branch the U.S. government can't operate right now.

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REP. BRIAN FITZPATRICK (R-PA): We have a third one of our three branches of government offline right now. That is a very dangerous thing for our country, and it cannot continue much longer.

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FOSTER: Well, how does it, ends then? Let's bring in our Senior Political Analyst John Avlon, you are sort of obsessing with this question I know. But it's very difficult, isn't it when there wasn't a leader to help the chamber through this?

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes and Kevin McCarthy, as you say, desperately wants to be that leader, but his own conference doesn't seem to want him in sufficient numbers. You know, in our polarized hyper partisan era. It's sometimes been said that American politics has all the disadvantages of a parliamentary system with none of the advantages.

And this is in part, what you're seeing, he can't crawl the so called Chaos caucus, a lot of Trumpist election denier types. And he's going to keep trying to push this vote forward. But he needs 218 to pat and to get become speaker, and he's nowhere near that right now. FOSTER: So what are the, you know, potential options to get a majority behind the leader?

AVLON: Well, the only option that Kevin McCarthy has is and he was working late into the night trying to offer concessions to individual members is to somehow coax that crew over back over to his side. Now he had some successes with conservative groups like Club for Growth, which is a fiscal conservative organization. But even McCarthy's allies will say there are at least four members who are no goes which means he's got to win everybody else.

That's a long haul and there's no sign of it breaking his way. If he cannot, if he spends another day, fruitlessly doing the same thing and not coming anywhere 218, you're going to start to see Republicans you just heard Brian Fitzpatrick Republican from Pennsylvania say we need a different way that could be a compromised candidate, like his Deputy Steve Scalise from Louisiana. Or there are other scenarios where Democrats could form coalitions with moderate Republicans but we are deep in uncharted territory.

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FOSTER: Yes, in terms of working with the Democrats, is there any sort of a motivation for that on the Democrat side?

AVLON: Democrats are not going to bail Kevin McCarthy out. He has been two partisan a figure for that. But one scenario and we've seen it in a number of States in recent days, is where moderate Republicans say we need to stop having the far right, call all the shots. So moderate conservative saying, look, let's do the math with Democrats have a Republican Speaker that may perhaps a former member, which is allowed under U.S. law, and get Democrats plus moderate Republicans to easily blow past 218.

I want to caution that is not likely that is contrary to the culture of Washington right now. But it would mathematically erase the deadlock. And it would be the kind of bipartisan governing that the vast majority, the American people want, but Washington seems unable to comprehend.

FOSTER: It feels as though the Republican Party is two parties right now. What sort of damage is being done to them?

AVLON: Enormous I mean, look, they just narrowly won the house majority. They lost independent voters in the last midterm, which is highly unusual for a midterm election. And here, they can't even get out of the gate because 20 members just seem to want to be professional obstructionist.

And this is the problem with the sort of election denier caucus we've seen in the Republican Party. They exist primarily to oppose their collection of grievances rather than focused on governing and proposing solutions. So you reap what you sow, and that's what Kevin McCarthy is dealing with right now.

And for him, it's a nightmare return to as you pointed out earlier, you know, 2015, when he tried to get the speakership the last time, he couldn't do it then. And then Republicans had 245 seats. So it's a steeper climb right now with a much smaller margin for year.

FOSTER: John Avlon in New York, thank you very much indeed for your analysis today. Now talk by controversy as he arrives on Capitol Hill, more allegations surfaced against incoming Congressman George Santos. His past may be coming back to haunt him.

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FOSTER: Well, the U.S. House is locked in a power struggle. One incoming Congressman is struggling to shake off his past Joe Santos has been dogged by accusations. He lied about his personal life and his education. He's admitted to some fabrications and now the New York Republican is accused of using stolen checks in Brazil back in 2008. CNNs Jessica Dean spoke with a man who says he was defrauded by Santos.

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DEAN (voice over): Embattled Congressman elect George Santos isolated in Washington and dodging questions from reporters about his past lies as he faces investigations by federal prosecutors and local investigators. New details about a third probe in Brazil were according to documents obtained by CNN. Santos admitted in 2010, to stealing a man's checkbook two years prior that was in his mother's possession, and using it to purchase clothing and shoes.

BRUNO SIMOES, VICTIM OF FRAUD: I was very frustrated being deceived is a terrible feeling.

DEAN (voice over): According to Brazilian authorities, this REO shop clerk at the time was a victim of Santos fraud, losing over 1300 U.S. dollars when Santos forged the checks. Bruno Simoes telling, CNN's Julia Jones in an exclusive interview.

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DEAN (voice over): He was responsible for paying the shop owner for the damage, which he says was equivalent to more than four times his monthly salary. The store manager later told Police that they had waived part of Simoes debt.

SIMOES: I might, being mugged by someone with a gun who robs you. You might get angry, but being deceived being fooled someone acting in bad faith to steal from you. To me it's even worse feeling.

DEAN (voice over): Simoes track down Santos at the time using social media, and he said Santos promised to pay him back but never did. Santos tow police at the time he was an American with dual citizenship and confesses that he forged the signature seen on these checks according to the documents. But after that confession police and Brazil - Santos disappeared unable to locate Santos for nearly a decade. They suspended the investigation and the statute of limitations as a result.

REP. GEORGE SANTOS (R-NY): My name is George Santos.

DEAN (voice over): That is until Santos burst onto the scene as a Congressman elect under scrutiny for his lies during the campaign. Now Brazilian authorities say they will reinstate fraud charges against him.

DEAN (on camera): Congressman, like you have a second to talk.

DEAN (voice over): The Long Island Republican maintains he has not committed any crimes, including in Brazil.

SANTOS: I'm not a criminal. I committed absolutely no crimes and not a wanted criminal in any jurisdiction.

DEAN (voice over): But the victim of his fraud could not believe. Santos had been located and elected to Congress and the United States.

SIMOES: I was in shock and at the same time, I thought it was a joke. Because how can someone who committed crimes in Brazil be elected to public office in the United States? It can't be possible that these people don't know George.

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FOSTER: Jessica Dean, reporting there for us. Thank you for watching CNN "Newsroom", I'm Max Foster in London. "World Sport" with Andy Scholes is up next.

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