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UGA Football Player and Staff Dies in Car Crash; California Still Under Severe Weather; Russian Missile Strike Kills 30 in the City of Dnipro; Rep. Jeff Jackson (D-NC) is Interviewed About President Biden's Handling of Classified Documents Issue; Mental Health Issue of TikTok on U.S. Teens; Two President's Special Counsel Investigation for Classified Documents; Two Planes Nearly Collide at JFK. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired January 15, 2023 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: Georgia Bulldogs football player Devin Willock died here at the scene. Just hours prior to the crash, the team had just celebrated their national championship victory.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's almost an apocalyptic scene that we're seeing here at this site of what was a residential building here in Dnipro.

(SPEAKING IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

With every second that passes, the chances of finding people alive are dwindling.

UNKNOWN: A Yeti Airlines jet liner crashed on Sunday in Nepal.

UNKNOWN: Within 80 minutes of its flight path, it lost contact with the air traffic control and moments later it crashed into a gorge.

UNKNOWN: President Biden will be here at Ebenezer Baptist Church.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: This is the time of choosing. Dr. King's life and legacy show us the way.

UNKNOWN: You can't ignore the political undertones even as the conversation has been so dominated by these classified documents.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: I'm Pamela Brown in Washington. You are live in the "CNN Newsroom."

Triumph and tragedy rocking the University of Georgia. Just hours after the school held a parade to celebrate their team winning college football's national championship, one of their players is killed in a car crash. 20-year-old Devin Willock died at the scene. The driver, 24-year-old football staff member Chandler LeCroy died at the hospital.

Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock with President Biden by his side shocked Sunday churchgoers during a service in Atlanta honoring Martin Luther King, Jr.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D-GA): Sad news this morning. After winning the national championship again, we're saddened to hear that death and grief has visited the University of Georgia football team. Georgia football player and a staff member were killed this morning in a car accident. We lift these families in prayer.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So sad. CNN's Isabel Rosales joins us now live from the University of Georgia in Athens. Isabel, how is the community reacting to this tragedy after so much excitement?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Good evening to you, Pam. The news absolutely devastating and rocking this community. And in fact, right behind me, you can see that fans, students, they're beginning to leave flowers here, paying their respects to two members of their football community that they have now lost.

And as we move the camera up, you can see that they've written "77." That is his number, saying, R.I.P. Devin. And it's not just here in person but online too. So many people in the football community just sharing their support, sending out their condolences.

Pam, here's what we know so far from a statement from Athens Clark County police department. This all happened at 2:45 in the morning. The car they were in, for some reason, left the roadway. It crashed into a power pole and continued going through a couple of trees downhill, coming to rest against an apartment complex. Willock and LeCroy died from their injuries.

Two other football program members, they are in stable condition, one with minor injuries, the other seriously hurt. So, according to the football roster, Willock, he was an offensive lineman from New Jersey. He was a redshirt sophomore. He played every game this year.

We do have a statement from his head coach, Kirby Smart, who says, we are all heartbroken and devastated with the loss of Devin Willock and Chandler LeCroy. Devin was an outstanding young man in every way and was always smiling. He was a great teammate and a joy to coach. Chandler was a valuable member of our football staff and brought an incredible attitude and energy every single day.

And I want you to take a look at this. This is video from our affiliate, WXIA, of a parade that happened here in Athens just yesterday.

[17:04:54]

So many out in the community, so many fans and students coming to celebrate, happy, smiles, with the team there on top of a fire truck, cheering on this national championship victory that had just happened.

I did speak with a Bulldogs fan, who came to the crash site to pay his respects. He was at that parade route yesterday and saw Willock in person. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANIEL DEWITT, GEORGIA FAN PAYING RESPECTS: It's just heartbreaking coming off of a celebratory week and the parade yesterday, getting to see this player, and then come to find out, you know, he lost his life early this morning. The entire Bulldog nation is at a loss and I can't imagine what his family's going through.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSALES: Yeah. And, Pam, I'll leave you with this. A grandfather of a 7-year-old (inaudible) sharing these pictures on social media, showing Willock fist bumping the little child and also letting him actually wear that massive championship ring. The grandfather saying that he spent so much time with the child and he was star struck, it made his day. Pam?

BROWN: Just unbearably sad. Isabel Rosales, thank you so much.

Well, heavy rainfall, wind gusts, mudslides and snow all part of a deadly multi-week weather system still punishing California right now. Flood watches remain in place for around 8 million people in the central part of the state, including the bay area, until Monday afternoon. At least 19 people have died. And California's governor is warning of more weather disasters. CNN's Natasha Chen joins us from Sonoma County, California. So, what is the latest along the Russian River, Natasha?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, the Russian river has been swelling in all of these storms the last couple of weeks, and we're at a place called Johnson's Beach, which is, as the name suggests, supposed to be a beach. If you look at this water all the way up to here right now, this is supposed to be a driveway.

And if you see that sign in the distance that says "No Lifeguard on Duty," there's supposed to be a walkway for another 20 feet after that before the beach. A local resident told me there's a whole parking lot beyond that sign before the beach typically begins. So, we've seen a lot of people coming to the water's edge to take pictures here. Someone who said that she's lived here for 30 years and is just very intrigued to see this.

And we also saw someone trying to kayak in these waters. Not sure if that's entirely recommended. But we also went across the river to the other side to give you a wider look at the Russian River from where we are here in Guerneville. So, you can see that video of just how wide the river's gotten. Again, even if there's not a whole lot of rainfall this weekend

compared to the previous storms, there's just been so much moisture over the last couple of weeks that there's not a whole lot of places for the water to go. And we are seeing dangerous situations like in Belmont, California, south of us right now, on the peninsula, where there was a mudslide yesterday in a residential neighborhood.

They had to close off that road, and, you know, a very tricky situation there with, of course, part of a hill coming down to the back of these houses. So, a lot of warnings out there for people to still be careful as they are driving, knowing that the roadways can give way. And we are still expecting more rain tonight into the morning. And so that can be dangerous if people are on the roads in the early morning hours, Pamela.

BROWN: All right, Natasha Chen, thank you.

Emergency service crews sifting through the rubble of a Dnipro apartment building that was destroyed by a Russian missile. They are now shifting from search and rescue to recovery. The death toll is currently at 30 but it is expected to rise. CNN's Scott McLean joins us live from Kyiv. So, Scott, what is the latest you're hearing there?

SCOT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey Pamela, yeah. So that death toll that you mentioned, 30, the reason that it is so likely to rise is because there are dozens of people, officials say 30, maybe 40 people who are unaccounted for, potentially trapped under the rubble. Obviously the first 24 hours, there have been frantic rescue efforts to try to pull people out of the rubble if they're still alive.

Part of the difficulty that they're running into is, well, when you look at the pictures, the entire center section of the building is not just damaged. It is entirely obliterated. There are 70-plus apartments that they weren't damaged. They simply don't exist anymore. It also appears that this missile struck vertically, meaning it went all the way down into the basement. Not even that was a safe space.

There wasn't a whole lot of damage to neighboring areas but this is a challenge for rescue workers because it means they can't get into the basement to try to reach people from below. The officials on the ground there say that look, by this stage of the game, the chances of finding someone alive are minimal, in their words, because of course, not only would someone be badly injured, but also, there's all kinds of gas.

[17:10:00]

There is still smoke coming from the scene as my colleague, Fred Pleitgen, who is on scene right now, reported earlier. And also, there is the fact that the winter weather conditions mean that the temperatures are below freezing, around 27 degrees. And yet despite all of that, earlier today, they actually did manage to pull someone out alive.

This woman's voice was first heard around 1:00 in the morning local time. It was more than 10 hours later that they finally were able to pull this woman out of the rubble, and obviously it's a delicate operation to try to get to her without actually disturbing some of the debris and those big slabs of concrete.

This woman, though, because of the weather conditions, officials say, is experiencing extreme hypothermia. Right now, she is in the hospital fighting for her life. Pamela?

BROWN: And let's just take a step back for a second here. You know, look at this more and more broadly. Putin today is saying that there is, quote, positive dynamic among his forces in Ukraine. Is this really the reality there, Scott?

MCLEAN: Yeah. So, the Russians say that they got a battlefield win. They are claiming a win in this eastern town of Soledar. The Wagner Private Mercenary Group is also claiming to have helped the Russians to capture that town. The Ukrainians insist though that the fighting there continues.

The Ukrainians are also saying that they -- that there continues to be heavy shelling reported in the recently occupied city of Kherson in southern Ukraine. But the reality is that the Russians have also been taking -- dealing with another mysterious explosion on their own territory.

There was an explosion at an ammunition site in the Belgorod region, which left 13 people injured, including Russian soldiers. The Ukrainians, though, have not even acknowledged that this explosion took place, Pam.

BROWN: Scott McLean, thank you very much. And we have a crew on the scene in Dnipro. We're going to show you what they witnessed in our next hour, so stick around for that.

Well, devastating news out of Nepal. A commercial plane carrying 72 passengers crashed shortly after takeoff. At least 68 people are confirmed dead, and search crews are still looking for the four others but hope for survivors is diminishing. It is the worst air disaster in the country in 30 years, and the cause of the crash is still unknown. But footage circulating on social media shows the aircraft turning on its side moments before the crash. Nepal's government has declared Monday a national public day of mourning to honor the victims.

Well, much more ahead tonight in the "CNN Newsroom" on this Sunday. A classified documents scandal, a budget crisis, and figuring out how to work with Republicans. House Democrats have a lot on their plates right now. I'll talk to one of the newest members up next.

Plus, social media may not just be addicting. Some people believe it is fueling a mental health crisis among teens and young adults.

And then later, a family demands answers after a high school English teacher dies during an incident with L.A. police. One of three officer-involved deaths for the department in one week.

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[17:15:00]

BROWN: President Biden and his staff are facing blistering criticism for their handling of classified information. Just yesterday, the Biden White House revealed that aides had found five more pages of classified material at the president's home in Delaware. They were discovered two days earlier on the same day a special counsel was appointed to take over the Biden documents investigation.

And earlier today on CNN, the chairman of the House Oversight Committee announced that he is formally requesting more information from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY): We don't know exactly yet whether they broke the law or not. I will accuse the Biden administration of not being transparent. Why didn't we hear about this on November 2nd when the first batch of classified documents were discovered?

Remember, they were quick to call for a special counsel prior to the midterm elections, and Joe Biden used as his closing argument during the midterm elections that Republicans were a threat to democracy, and he cited the fact that President Trump mishandled the documents.

(END VIDEL CLIP)

BROWN: Democrats say a key distinction is that Biden and his attorneys immediately turned over the classified documents. Trump's refusal has led to him being investigated for obstruction of justice. So, let's continue this conversation now with freshman congressman, Jeff Jackson, who was sworn in just last week. He is a Democrat representing North Carolina.

Congressman, thanks for coming on the show. So, look, the reality here is Republicans hold a slim majority in the House. At least three new Republican chairmen are vowing investigations into Biden's handling of those documents. What questions do you have that you want answered?

REP. JEFF JACKSON (D-NC): I think there are two questions. The first, did the president have personal knowledge that those documents were there? And the second is going to be, did he obstruct their return or the investigation in either way? And, look, I'm a former prosecutor. I respect evidence and the role that it's supposed to play. We're going to have a chance to see that evidence before we reach any conclusion here.

BROWN: And so, are you glad that there is a special counsel investigating this now for Biden?

JACKSON: Yeah. I don't think there was any choice about that. If there hadn't been, then that means the person doing the investigation would essentially be someone working for the administration, and that wouldn't work.

BROWN: So, you've said that transparency is the key to trust, and I want to play this conversation I had with Comer. Here is more from -- Representative Comer. He is requesting more information from the White House. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COMER: The administration hasn't been transparent about what's going on with President Biden's possession of classified documents.

[17:19:59]

And we just want equal treatment here with respect to how both former President Trump and current President Biden are being treated with the document issue.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Okay. So that was a conversation with my colleague, Jake Tapper, this morning. But he is saying that following a sit-down interview I had with him late November, where I asked him point blank, I said, will the Trump classified documents investigation, will that be a priority for you as the head of oversight, and he said, no, it will not be a priority. Now, he is clearly making Biden's handling of classified documents a priority. So, what do you make of that?

JACKSON: I think the charitable way to say this is that there are probably some consistency issues. And look, I don't think anyone is shocked that this is going to become partisan really quickly. I think if we can all just kind of exhale, all right, there were some documents that were some place they weren't supposed to be.

There is now a process in place that is a sensible process that everyone in the country can understand. That process is going to produce evidence. We are all going to get a chance to see that evidence. That process matters so much more than anything that any member of Congress might say about this, including me.

BROWN: But do you fear that a lack of transparency coming from this White House will erode public trust in the administration? Again, your words, you have said, transparency is the key to trust.

JACKSON: I think that there are questions that the administration is going to have to answer. I think those questions are going to maybe have to answered personally by the president himself. I think that the sooner that happens, the better. But the most important piece here is going to be the formal process.

And the big question will be, is the president participating with that process? Did he do anything to obstruct the investigation? Did he do anything to obstruct the return of those documents? Again, we're going to know the answers to all of those questions by the end of this process.

BROWN: So, this is really the first big scandal President Biden has faced since the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. And I'm curious, would you support him for re-election, or would you like to see fresher faces running for office?

JACKSON: I would support him for re-election. He won the last one, and I think he would be the odds-on favorite winning the next one.

BROWN: Let's talk about something else that is you're going to be dealing with a lot in the coming weeks. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is warning that the U.S. could default on its debt as soon as June. How are you going to work with your Republican colleagues in the House on something as divisive as the debt limit, and do you agree with the White House saying it doesn't want to negotiate on that?

JACKSON: I understand the White House's position because the last White House didn't have to negotiate. The Trump presidency saw a Republican Congress raise the debt ceiling more than once, so I understand their position on this. And look, I think if you're McCarthy, you have an overwhelming political incentive not to crash the economy.

He knows that in order to keep his majority, he's going to want to try and grow his majority. He has to show the American people that he actually got some positive things done. If they decide to be reckless about the debt ceiling and crash the economy, it's going to be terrible. It's going to be terrible for the country. He doesn't have an incentive to do that.

So as a freshman member of Congress who has been there for all of two weeks, I'm really hoping that the small group of people who have said that they're basically okay with breaching the debt limit and crashing the economy, that those people get sidelined in this conversation, that they aren't given the power to really set the terms of this debate. If those people are allowed to set the terms of this debate, the consequences could be catastrophic.

BROWN: Yeah, no doubt the consequences would be catastrophic. Before we let you go, I'm going to share a clip from your Instagram account.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACKSON: Six weeks ago, I was elected to Congress, and now I'm using this account to tell people what happens after you get elected. I don't get to vote on any bills until next month, which means the stuff you see them voting on right now, I didn't get to vote on any of that. But I do get to vote on who our party leaders are going to be, and that just happened, and here's how it went down. They bring all of us into this big fancy room. Lots of flags. Lots of eagles.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: So, you've used social media to kind of pull back the curtain and take your constituents behind the scenes. Why is it so important to demystify the inner workings of Congress and speak directly to the people in your district?

JACKSON: It's because trust in political leadership has never been lower. And in that situation, you can't respond by telling people that they're wrong. You have to respond by showing them a higher level of transparency. Transparency is the key to trust, and it can be as simple as saying, here's what I'm going to do today. Here's what I'm going to do tomorrow. But if I don't take that step, the step of trying to rebuild trust and

there's a whole group of people that just aren't going to hear anything that I say. So, you have to start there.

BROWN: All right. Congressman Jeff Jackson, thank you for your time tonight. We appreciate it.

JACKSON: Thank you.

BROWN: And still ahead on this Sunday, TikTok is popular, but is there proof it's harmful?

[17:24:58]

Up next, what health experts and some users themselves are saying about that urge to keep on scrolling.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEROME YANKEY, DELETED TIKTOK IN 2021: I've definitely done all- nighters on TikTok before. I've just been scrolling until the sun came up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: A growing number of state government workers are being told to delete TikTok from official devices. The U.S. government has already banned the app for federal workers amid fears the popular social media app from China is a national security threat.

TikTok denies such claims, but now psychologists are warning of a different concern. TikTok's impact on the mental health of its young users.

[17:30:03]

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich looks at some of the evidence.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(VIDEO PLAYING)

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): In just five years, TikTok has amassed more than 1 billion global users.

UNKNOWN: Cutting up all the veggies that are going to go into the broth.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): Eyeballs around the world glued to the endless content and viral videos.

(On camera): How long do you think you spend on TikTok every day?

UNKNOWN: Two to three hours.

EMERALD GOLDBAUM, SOPHOMORE, UNIVERSITY OF BUFFALO: Three to four hours.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): But last month, the U.S. government along with more than a dozen states banned TikTok on most federal devices citing national security concerns over its Chinese parent company and the possibility it could pressure TikTok to hand over personal data.

There is no public evidence the Chinese government has done that, but there is evidence of another risk, social media's impact on mental health, particularly among Gen Z.

JEAN TWENGE, PSYCHOLOGIST, SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY: Depression started to rise after 2012. So did self-harm and suicide.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): Dr. Jean Twenge says as smartphones and social media grew, so did the rate of depression among teens, nearly doubling between 2004 and 2019. By that year, 1 in 4 U.S. teen girls had experienced clinical depression according to Twenge.

TWENGE: There's pro-anorexia videos, videos that instruct people on how to cut themselves. What the algorithm is trying to do is get people to use the app for longer because that helps the company makes more money.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): TikTok in a statement said, quote, one of our most important commitments is supporting the safety and well-being of teens, and we recognize this work is never finished. We continue to focus on robust safety protections for our community while also empowering parents with additional controls for their teens' account through TikTok family pairing.

Users of TikTok spent an average of an hour and a half a day on the app last year, more than any other social platform.

(On camera): What is it that keeps you scrolling even if you know maybe you've spent one, two hours on it?

GOLDBAUM: Once you watch the one video, you're like, well, time to watch another, so you just keep -- it's like a cycle you don't realize that the time is passing.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): That's exactly what happened to Jerome Yankey.

YANKEY: I've definitely done all-nighters on TikTok before. I had just been scrolling until the sun came up.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): He says he lost sleep. His grades suffered. He lost touch with his friends. He lost his sense of self. In 2021, he deleted the app.

YANKEY: Getting disappointed by my own life is never something I want to be doing, especially when I have the power to change it, but I just wasn't because I was spending hours on this app.

HANNAH WILLIAMS, CREATOR, SALARY TRANSPARENT STREET: We have a lot of cool resources that we give to our audience for free. YURKEVICH (voice-over): But Hannah Williams proves the positive side

of TikTok, allowing her to create a business, Salary Transparent Street, providing pay transparency to her nearly 1 million followers.

WILLIAMS: I think TikTok definitely helped just because they have such audience reach potential.

YURKEVICH (voice-over): She hopes TikTok's algorithm works in her favor.

WILLIAMS: Helping people in marginalized communities is the only reason I am doing this. It's my entire mission.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: Well, Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you so much.

And it is not just TikTok. In fact, a major federal lawsuit is now playing out in a California courtroom, and it argues that social media sites like Facebook, Snapchat, YouTube, and TikTok are addictive by design and should be held legally responsible for their harmful results.

Dr. Adriana Stacey joins us now. She's a psychiatrist and a medical adviser for Screen Strong. Doctor, lawyers working on this compare their work to the fight against tobacco or opioids. Are the problems that serious here?

ADRIANA STACEY, PSYCHIATRIST: Absolutely, Pamela. You know, this is the thing is that when these were first introduced, these devices -- smartphones I'm talking about, you know, we all that it was harmless, right? It was interesting. It was something new. But what we didn't realize is how addictive these devices are. And a lot of scientists and researchers actually feel like these devices are as addictive as, say, cocaine.

BROWN: Wow. So, as I understand it, there's actually no official diagnosis of social media addiction, but help us better understand the research that supports this theory that these sites are so addictive and can interfere in other parts of our lives.

Sure. So, what we've found out through research is that these devices -- and when I speak of devices, I mean handheld devices, so any sort of tablet or smartphone, something you can hold in your hand. When we use them as the user, it actually causes what we know as a dopamine dump. And so, there is a chemical in our brain called dopamine that's responsible for reward.

[17:35:02]

And it's being released in small amounts when we do things like for example eat because we want our brains to remember that eating is positive and that we should do that to stay alive. However, when we do things that are addictive like use cocaine or we use smartphones, our brains release a lot of that at once. And what that tells our brains to do is to keep using that. And so,

you know, lights and sounds in casinos will do that. Cocaine does that. And so, what happens is you get on these devices and you use them and you don't realize that then the only thing that your brain becomes motivated to do or the strongest thing that your brain is motivated to do is to continue to use the screens.

And so, you know, we're finding that people that are using them, teenagers in particular, because this part of their brain is actually hyperactive compared to adults, is that they can't get motivated to do anything else.

BROWN: Because that's the most exciting thing for their brains, right, compared to everything else they could be doing?

STACEY: Exactly right. That's exactly right.

BROWN: That's really fascinating.

STACEY: That's right.

BROWN: And even just like anecdotally as a mom, I don't, obviously -- my kids are too young. They don't have a smartphone and I understand your kids don't have a smartphone either.

STACEY: Correct.

BROWN: But I notice like a difference if they're, like -- if they have screen time and then you take it away, it's like, you know, meltdown. So, we really had to -- we took notice of that as parents and decided to look into it further and we found this research and it's really, really troubling.

And, you know, when you look at some of the ways this kind of addiction manifests itself, you know, you kind of touch on it, but you go through the list. You have anxiety, depression, suicide, lower life satisfaction, and self-esteem, sleep disturbance, and negative change in brain structure. So, tell us a little bit more. Dive a little bit deeper into that. What kind of change, and what could it mean long term?

STACEY: Right. So, there's a big study that's being done by the NIH and it's called the ABCD Study, and so I encourage our viewers to check that out. They have an amazing website over at the NIH that talks about the study. But what they're doing is studying a lot of different things and screen time is just one of those things, but they're looking at kids from around age 9 to 10 through age 19 to 20 or so and sort of seeing what happens with their brains and other things as they go through those formative years.

And what we're seeing with social media in particular is that kids that are high users of social media, and we tend to think that's more than a couple hours a day, actually show what's called accelerated cortical thinning. So, what does that means for the lay person? That means that the part of the brain, the cortex that actually does the functioning that we need the brain to do, which we call executive functioning in psychiatry, is actually smaller.

So, it's actually shrinking. And we see this in other things like alcoholism and some other pathologies as well. But that's very concerning for us as psychiatrists and especially as parents because as these kids grow, you know, the brain continues to grow and develop until about age 25. And so around that age, the brain pathways are somewhat set.

And so, if you're thinning out your brain during those years, then when you get to adulthood, there's going to be a lot of things your brain is not able to do. We were already seeing that in a lot of ways. I have patients that come in that are extremely depressed, extremely anxious, troubles, like I said, with motivation, impulsivity, low self-esteem, all of these things.

And when I ask them, you know, the average patient is on their phone eight hours a day. And the CDC says that the average teenager is on their phone nine hours a day for -- that's for entertainment. So that doesn't include stuff they do for school or, you know, research at home are so different (inaudible).

BROWN: Right. I was going to ask you very quickly because we're pretty much out of time and I want to squeeze this in, because a lot of schools use iPads, screen time for learning.

STACEY: Yeah.

BROWN: I mean, what do you think about that?

STACEY: I absolutely disagree with it. So, I mean, again, that's getting kids to not be interested in things that aren't screen- related. So, when you need them to write or you need them to do things that aren't on a screen, their brain is just not interested and that really gets in the way of learning.

BROWN: Dr. Adriana Stacey, such a fascinating conversation. Thanks for coming on the show.

Well, two presidents, two special counsels. Up next, perspective on what it means that the sitting president and his predecessor are under scrutiny at the same time. And how previous men in the Oval Office have dealt with these investigations.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:40:00]

BROWN: Unprecedented, back-to-back presidents, Joseph R. Biden and Donald J. Trump both under special counsel investigation right now for allegedly mishandling sensitive documents. The current Trump and Biden inquiries make this a total of four special counsel probes in a little more than five years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: I decided that appointing a special counsel was the best way to complete the investigation appropriately.

WILLIAM BARR, FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL UNDER TRUMP: Before the election, as you know, I designated John Durham as a special counsel.

MERRICK GARLAND, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Today, I signed an order appointing Jack Smith to serve as special counsel.

I'm here today to announce the appointment of Robert Hurl as a special counsel.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley joins us with more on this improbable moment in our nation's history. Welcome, Doug. So, how rare is it for one president to face a special counsel let alone the sitting president and his immediate predecessor?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, we live in weird and strange times. This is not just unprecedented. It's horrific. Our country has its two ostensive political leaders, Donald Trump for the Republicans, ex-president, and sitting president Joe Biden, both guilty or charged of at least having classified documents that they shouldn't have.

[17:44:59]

It's going to be interesting in the case of Biden to see what are this top secret, what happened. We have a big whodunit thing going on now. But since the birth of the special counsel in 1999 when Janet Reno appointed John Danworth to look into WACO, we started really having a kind of more and more of these, you know, attorney generals picking up, like Bob Mueller did when Trump was president with Russia and doing a two-year dig. And I'm afraid Trump and Biden are both in the same both together right now. They're in trouble.

BROWN: So, we did a little bit of research actually to carry on your point here. The first special counsel was appointed by President Grant in 1875 to investigate the so-called whiskey ring affair in his administration.

But throughout our nearly 2 1/2-century history, the U.S. has seen fewer than 20 special counsel investigations involving the president, most of them since Watergate. So, why do you think the frequency has increased and what is your opinion about the fact that it has increased?

BRINKLEY: Well, Watergate rocked the nation, right, and it drove Richard Nixon from the White House and put a lot of the president's men in jail, people like John Ehrlichman and H.R. Haldeman and Attorney General Mitchell. It was a big deal.

And then you had Bill Clinton, who when Ken Starr was appointed to investigate the Whitewater affair, lo and behold, that led to a fishing expedition, which then led to Monica Lewinsky and almost destroyed Bill Clinton. In 1999, our country tried to get a handle on this and decided an attorney general who has been obviously approved by Congress and the Senate, meaning being legit, should be able to appoint a special counsel to look into misbehaviors of a president if warranted.

And we just are in a very polarized country now, and Donald Trump is being looked at not just for the Mar-a-Lago documents but for his role in January 6th. And Joe Biden has not had the transparency he's claiming he's had. He's had cooperation with the National Archives and Justice Department, but we'll have to see how both of these goes. They're definitely a stain on the reputations of both men no matter how it plays out in the end.

BROWN: Yeah. And, you know, the Biden administration certainly has not been transparent. There has been drip, drip, drip. Of course, the Biden White House says, well, we couldn't be forthcoming because, you know, DOJ was involved, but then they were, but then they didn't include the second batch of information found when they released that first statement. How will history look at this moment, do you think, with the former president and the current president under special counsel investigation?

BINKLEY: Well, Donald Trump has tried to destroy what, in his mind, is the deep state to, you know, go after whether it's the FBI or CIA or Justice Department. He basically declared war on our institutions. Joe Biden, by contrast, is trying to do the opposite thing. But I think the White House press secretary made a mistake saying "we've been very transparent" when this was known before the midterm elections in 2022.

And so, I would -- if I were the Biden White House, I would start underlining the word full cooperation and get rid of that word transparency because they weren't transparent and it makes people suspicious.

BROWN: Right. And it overshadows some of the key differences, right, between these two investigations. For Biden, what we know, it's around approximately 20 documents. For Trump, it's more than 300. And, you know, there is obstruction of justice investigation for Trump. There's a lot of differences, but yet because they keep saying transparent, it makes you focus on the fact, well, hold on a second. You haven't quite been transparent. Douglas Brinkley, thank you so much. We'll be right back.

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[17:50:00]

BROWN: The FAA is investigating a very close call between two passenger planes at New York's JFK airport. Take a look right here at this radar video of the incident. The Delta plane towards the bottom of the screen was taking off for the Dominican Republic, when the American Airlines plane towards the top crossed into the runway.

Thankfully, an air traffic controller caught what was happening and forced the Delate jet to abort takeoff. Wow.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP) UNKNOWN: (BLEEP). Delta 1943 cancel takeoff clearance. Delta 1943

cancel takeoff clearance.

UNKNOWN: Rejecting.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BROWN: Wow. The FAA says the planes were separated by only 1,000 feet. Let's discuss with former Department of Transportation Inspector General Mary Schiavo. Wow, Mary, what is -- first of all, what is your reaction to this?

MARY SCHIAVO, FORMER INSPECTOR GENERAL, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION: Well, it's not my reaction. What happened here falls into the most serious category of runway incursions. The FAA (inaudible) administration divides them up through the seriousness of A, B, C and D, and this is the top, this is the most serious.

There are about 20 of these most serious categories, A and B every year. But the more disturbing statistic, runway incursions, in other words, two planes on a runway or taxi way when they aren't supposed to intersect have the risk of intersecting. It had been up 92 percent from 2011 until 2018. So, this is a huge issue with the government, with the FAA and with my old office, the Office of Inspector General.

[17:55:00]

Because this is one statistic that's on the rise and it's not a statistic you want to see rise. It's a problem.

BROWN: And of course, it is all under investigation. But why is it on the rise?

SCHIAVO: Well, many reasons. I mean, obviously aviation has increased over the years, but the studies have looked into why this is occurring blame many different things. There have been many kinds of different equipment and many programs that the FAA has proposed. They put some forth, one was called AMASS. It was nicknamed AMASS, and it was scrapped and now they use ASDE, Airport Surface Detection Equipment, and some -- and they are working on specialized runway lighting to give pilots and air traffic controllers clues as to when there's an intersection.

But the problem is a lot of these programs have been on development a long time. Not all of the aircraft are equipped with them. Obviously, commercial carriers are equipped with the most recent, most modern equipment with general aviation or not. And the most alarming statistic is that most runway incursions, about 60 percent, occur at towered airports, airports with a tower.

You would think they would happen at non-towered airports. So, there are many reasons, but this is a problem that's been on the radar screen, use a bad pun of the FAA for many years, and it's a statistic that they are worried about trying to bring down. This was the most serious category of all.

BROWN: It's really alarming. Mary Schiavo, thank you.

Tonight, CNN is on the scene of an apartment block in Ukraine bombed by Russia. Dozens killed, hundreds of rescuers working to find people who may still be trapped under the debris. What our team witnessed there, up next.

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