Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

President Biden Criticized For Acting Indecisive On The Alleged Chinese Spy Balloon; Concussions In The NFL Increased In 2022; Miami Police Defending Cruiser With Black History Month Design; EGOT Status For Viola Davis; It's Beyonce Versus Adele For Album Of The Year In The Grammy's. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired February 05, 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)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington. In Washington today, new details are emerging about President Biden's decision to order the dramatic shoot-down of a Chinese spy balloon. Today U.S. Navy divers and other military personnel are collecting that debris off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

A U.S. fighter jet fired a missile through the balloon yesterday to bring it down. Top republicans say the Biden administration acted indecisively and waited too long, letting the balloon to float across the continental U.S. for days.

President Biden says the military advised him there would be less danger to the public in shooting down the balloon once it got over the ocean. Lawmakers are reacting sharply and along party lines.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): I want to start by doing something that I don't do very often, which is commending Joe Biden for actually having the guts to shoot this down. That was the right thing to do. That is absolutely what the president should have done. Unfortunately, he didn't do that until a week after it entered U.S. airspace.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): They're saying we should have shot down the balloon the minute we saw it. I would use two words in answering these GOP criticisms. They are premature and they are political.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): Presidents have the ability to go before a camera, go before the nation and basically explain these things early on, and his failure to do so, I don't understand that. I don't understand why he wouldn't do that. And that is the beginning of dereliction of duty. And the second is, we have to act swiftly on these things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: CNN's Alex Marquardt joins us now with more. Alex, you're learning more about the timeline of the decision-making. What more can you tell us?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Jim. This timeline is absolutely critical and it is also what Republicans are using to fuel much of their criticism as we just heard there. We are learning from U.S. officials that this balloon first entered into U.S. airspace on January 28th. That was in Alaska. The president got his first briefing on Tuesday, the 31st. So that, Jim, is four days before this balloon was eventually shot down.

And during that briefing, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, as well as other military commanders, informed the president that this balloon had made its way down from Alaska through Canada and would be entering U.S. airspace. And it did so on that day, on Tuesday entering into Idaho.

We now know that it then floated across into Montana and across eastwards across the United States. On Tuesday in that briefing, President Biden did ask for military options and was presented with them on the next day, on Wednesday when Milley and others, including the Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin, advised the president against shooting it down over land because it was simply too dangerous for people and for property on the ground.

The president, we're told, made clear to his military commanders he did want to shoot it down as soon as possible, not just to block it from its intelligence-gathering capabilities, not just to do it in a way that would make sure that people did not get hurt, but in a way, Jim, that the surveillance payload that hung underneath that balloon could be salvaged.

Now, that happened, as we know, as soon as it hit water yesterday right off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. The administration will still have to answer a lot of questions. And one of the first instances that they will have to do that is as early as Tuesday when the so-called Gang of Eight will get a briefing from the administration.

The Gang of Eight, let's remind our viewers, those are the top leaders from both parties in the House and the Senate as well as the chairman and ranking members of the intelligence committees in both the House and the Senate.

They will be asked as to why the balloon wasn't shot down sooner, but also about the administration's claim that they were able to block this Chinese balloon from gathering a lot of the intelligence that it intended to, as well as the claim by the Biden administration that they were able to gather counterintelligence on this Chinese balloon as it crossed the United States.

You can also imagine that these members of Congress will be asking about the recovery efforts so far, what they have been able to glean, what the recovery efforts will look like going forward. So, Jim, this week-long saga of this balloon crossing the continental United States, that may now be over as much of it sits 47 feet below water. But so many questions still to be answered. Jim? ACOSTA: Absolutely. All right. Alex Marquardt, thank you very much.

Now let's go to the ground in Surfside Beach, South Carolina where locals there on the scene were watching with their own eyes as this massive balloon was shot down. CNN's Carlos Suarez is there. Carlos, I'm sure this stirred up a lot of reactions there on the beach. What are you hearing?

CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Jim. So that recovery effort is well under way out here. In fact, some of the rain that we've had seems to have moved through and so we're told that the work to try to get some of this debris out will begin in earnest in the next couple of hours if not the next couple of days.

[17:05:03

In fact, in the last hour or so, we were able to make out what appears to be a military vessel just off the coast here in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. We're told that all of this is taking place at least 10 miles off the coastline. Now, officials believe that crews are going to be able to get to this debris site relatively quick in large part because it is in some shallow water off the coastline.

Initially, we're told that officials thought this was going to land in deeper water. However, we're being told that much of the debris, it seems, is in water that is about 47 feet deep. And so, the thinking is that a team of divers as well as unmanned military equipment is going to be able to get to the bottom of the ocean where this debris is.

They're going to be able to lift it up and put it onto a military vessel, where it will no doubt be analyzed. And then from here in South Carolina, it's going to be taken north to -- from South Carolina rather, it's going to be taken north to Virginia where we're told that the FBI as well as a number of other agencies are going to get a closer look at the technology that was on board as well as whatever else may have ended up coming down here.

Again, we're being told this debris field is about seven miles in an area, and folks are being told if you come across any of this debris, ignore it. Don't take it home. Don't bother it because, Jim, it is part of a federal investigation.

ACOSTA: All right. Carlos Suarez, thank you very much for that.

And China is pushing back against U.S. claims that this was a surveillance craft, insisting it was merely a weather balloon that drifted off course. And Beijing is condemning the U.S. decision to shoot it down. CNN's Selina Wang joins us now from Beijing. Selina, what's the latest from your end?

SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, Beijing has been saying the U.S. is overreacting by shooting down its balloon and China's defense ministry gave this vague warning that it reserves, quote, the right to use necessary means to deal with similar situations. But, Jim, it's clear that China doesn't want to escalate things further.

Beijing has been trying to repair the relationship with the U.S., and Secretary of State Antony Blinken's now postponed trip to China was supposed to be a big political win. Now, both the U.S. and China use surveillance satellites to spy on each other from the air. So, if China already has these more sophisticated satellites, we're still left with this question of why it would use a balloon for spying and why at such a critical moment right before Blinken's trip.

We still don't know if it was an accident, if it was a deliberate test to see how the U.S. military and Biden would respond. We still don't know if Xi Jinping was looped in because it certainly is an embarrassment and a setback. Now, as you say, China has been sticking to this line that it's just a civilian research balloon, a weather balloon that went off course.

State media even announced that the head of China's weather service has been dismissed, which some analysts say is an attempt to support Beijing's claim that this was indeed a weather balloon that went astray.

Now, the U.S. says they are confident this was a surveillance balloon trying to monitor sensitive military sites. The U.S. said this balloon and the other one that was spotted over Latin America have surveillance equipment not usually used for standard civilian research and say both are part of a fleet of Chinese spy balloons that have been spotted across five continents over the last several years.

ACOSTA: And Selina, how is the incident being covered by Chinese state media, for example? What are they saying?

WANG: Well, Chinese state media is mostly parroting the official line and also accusing the U.S. of overhyping this incident to, quote, "smear China." They've also been blaming political pressure in Washington for escalating things. On Chinese social media, some are taking a lighter view. Some are mocking the U.S. and joking the balloon is just a lantern from this month's lantern festival that flew over to the U.S.

But, Jim, all of this just goes to show how tense the U.S./China relationship is right now with so much mutual distress, and it really underscores how important it is that there are these open lines of communication between both sides. Jim?

ACOSTA: Absolutely. Things are getting very tense. Selina Wang, thank you very much. And with me now is a former U.S. ambassador to China, Gary Locke. Mr. Ambassador, thanks very much for being with us, but I know you also used to be the governor of Washington State. Had this -- had you been aware of this balloon, this suspected surveillance balloon? Had it been on your watch, would you have wanted the Biden administration, the Pentagon to shoot that thing down?

GARY LOCKE, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO CHINA: Well, I think it would have been very -- thank you very much, Jim, for having me on. Let me just say that obviously the governors of any state that the balloon is passing over would want to be briefed, especially if taking down that balloon could cause harm to the people underneath. And when you find out that it was carrying a payload, the equivalent of three buses, that's a lot of material that if it were to come crashing down could really hurt and kill people.

[17:09:58]

And so, I think what the Biden administration did was the right thing, to shoot it down when it was over shallow water so they could retrieve it and not have all the equipment destroyed but actually be able to retrieve it for analysis. Obviously, the Chinese say it's only a weather balloon. But, you know, the United States said basically the same thing when in 1960, our U-2 airplane with Gary Powers was shot down from 80,000 feet above Russia.

And we at the same time said it was just for gathering information on weather. But then the Russians collected remnants and what was left of the surveillance airplane, and indeed we had to admit that it was for spying. As your reporter indicated, why are the Chinese using these balloons? I mean it is so backward technology when they have these sophisticated satellites flying over all parts of the world.

ACOSTA: Yeah. What do you suspect that is? What do you think they were up to?

LOCKE: Obviously it was for surveillance, and maybe it's, you know, they send these balloons normally on the periphery of countries and borders and kind of peek in just as we fly very close to the borders of China and using high-level aircraft, try to take a peek as to what's going on. But we really rely on satellites, and all countries do.

And you know, we're taking a peek at what's happening in Iran. We're taking a peek at North Korea. We're taking peeks into China as well as Russia. And the Chinese are doing the same. So, why they're using these balloons makes absolutely no sense. But it caused a huge political blunder, forcing the cancellation of Secretary of State Blinken's visit to China.

The same thing happened in 1960 when the Russians shot down our U-2 airplane. It came on the heels of ostensibly warming relations, Khrushchev and Eisenhower had a good meeting just a few months before. People were thinking that this could lead to some thawing of the tense relationship between Russia, the USSR and the United States. But then after Gary Powers' U-2 airplane was shot down, the scheduled meeting in Paris that was scheduled for just a few weeks later had to be canceled the same way that this trip by Secretary Blinken had to be canceled.

ACOSTA: And do you agree with that decision to postpone Secretary Blinken's trip to China? And when he, I guess, reschedules that trip and heads over there, what should he say? I mean, you've been in this position of having to deal with the Chinese on a diplomatic level. They can be hard-nosed adversaries. Does the Biden administration need to get tough and sort of give a very upfront warning to the Chinese that this cannot ever happen again?

LOCKE: Well, the trip had to be canceled, and it was a message to Beijing that if you're going to spy, use your high-altitude satellites the way that we're spying on them. Don't send balloons that are visible to the American people over our territory and then we will respond with force. We had to shoot it down, and we had to tell the American public.

Now we're going to be able to collect some of the evidence and some of the actual surveillance equipment, and it will -- we'll be able to present to the world that, hey, this is not just a weather balloon.

ACOSTA: Are you worried about the state of U.S./China relations right now? Have you seen them as bad as they are right now?

LOCKE: Well, obviously the U.S./China relations are at a very low point, and that's why the visit by Secretary Blinken was a mechanism to try to kind of thaw out some of the relationship and to start getting back together in terms of collaboration on a whole host of issues, whether it's climate change, stopping North Korea from developing a nuclear weapon, and fighting global terrorism, or even just cooperation to come up with cures for some of the most dreaded diseases afflicting the world.

We have a lot of differences with China. We're not going to mince our words in terms of human rights or the military actions of China with respect to Southeast Asia, the Pacific Ocean, as well as Taiwan. But at the same time, we do need to start getting together and trying to solve some of these problems facing the entire world, of great interest to america as well as great interest to the rest of the world.

ACOSTA: All right. Ambassador Gary Locke, thanks very much for your time. We appreciate it.

LOCKE: My pleasure, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. And one of the biggest Republican financial backers has a plan for 2024, and that is to back someone other than Donald Trump. Billionaire Charles Koch's new strategy is next.

Also, America's most watched sport has a rising problem -- concussions. Can anything be done to protect the players?

[17:14:57]

Plus, Miami police are defending their newest police car. Hear who's upset over this Black History Month cruiser. We'll talk about that coming up. You're live in the "CNN Newsroom."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: A new poll shows most Americans would be unhappy if Joe Biden or Donald Trump win the 2024 presidential race. The ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 62 percent of people would be dissatisfied with another Joe Biden term. Another 56 percent would not like to see another Donald Trump presidency. CNN senior data reporter Harry Enten joins us now to run the numbers. Harry, you're watching how these primaries are shaping up right now. I mean, is any of this really surprising? I mean, I think to some extent, Joe Biden has dealt with this over the years, and frankly so has Donald Trump. HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTE: Yeah. I mean, look, that's among

the general electorate, right? In order to get to the general election, you got to win the primary. At this particular point, Donald Trump is in a decent shape to win the primary, right?

[17:19:58]

So, if we look at the national polling on that, what you essentially see, look, it's Donald Trump at 41, Ron DeSantis at 32, and then nobody anywhere close, right? You know, there's this idea, you know, Maybe Mike Pence will run. We're of the belief that Nikki Haley will run. But together combined, they're just at 10 percent. So, at this particular point, Trump's the front-runner and DeSantis is arguably the co-front-runner.

ACOSTA: And how do these very early polls compare typically with the final results would you say?

ENTEN: Yeah. So, this is interesting to me, right? You know, it's early days yet. We're still 12 months out from the first primaries. But it turns out these early polls actually give us a pretty good indication. So, if you look at primaries since 1972 -- and I know this graphic is a little bit confusing so I'll try to and break it down here.

But basically, if you're polling in Trump's position, folks polling in Trump's position wins the primary about 75 percent of the time. If you are polling essentially in Ron DeSantis' position, people who have polled in his position historically have won primaries about 40% of the time. But if you poll in the position of either Mike Pence or Nikki Haley or polling in, they have won the primary less than 5 percent of the time.

So, yes, it's early, and, yes, this may be an ahistorical year. Maybe something atypical will happen. But these numbers suggest you would much rather be Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis than anybody else. It would be surprising at least historically speaking if someone like a Pence or a Haley won given the early poll numbers.

ACOSTA: Right. It's hard to emerge from all the way in the back of the pack although it has happened from time to time. I remember when Barack Obama was polling quite low way back in 2008, and then of course things dramatically changed. But does it matchup like we're seeing right now between Trump and DeSantis, who seem to suck up all the oxygen on the Republican side? Is that going to discourage other potential candidates from jumping in, resulting in a smaller field do you think?

ENTEN: Yeah. I think it will, you know. Essentially, if you look back at the years in which the two top candidates combined for more than 70 percent of the primary vote at this particular point, you know, in the polling, there have only been a few examples. One was the 2000 Democratic primary. Only two candidates ran that year, Bill Bradley and Al Gore. Look at 2016 on the dem side, right, only five candidates ran that year. Maybe this year we'll end up with more than five. But at least historically speaking when you have two candidates polling as high as DeSantis and Trump combined, it suggests that the field will be quite small.

ACOSTA: And you know, back to the president, some Democrats have said they don't want Joe Biden to run for re-election. As he likes to say, don't compare me to the almighty, compare me to the alternative. He's used to this sort of talk before. But the president's approval numbers have been ticking upward overall, I would say, over the last several weeks, have they not?

ENTEN: Yeah, but you know, really, you know, let's talk about that Democratic primary, right, because that's where you have to get first. And if you look at his approval rating among Democrats overall, it's in the 80s. You know, we have a particular poll up here. This is a Fox News poll that has it at 88 percent. "The Washington Post" poll had in the low 80s. But basically, the bottom line is at this particular point, what we're seeing here is that Biden's approval rating among Democrats is in the 80s.

And if we flip forward a slide here, what we can essentially see is if you have an approval rating that is, in fact, in the 80s, right, if you are an incumbent president, what we know historically speaking is that the candidates who have been challenged in primaries, if we can pull that up, look at this. All of those candidates who have had a competitive primary, those presidents, their approval ratings were 72 percent or below, and it really needs to be in the 60s or below in order for a president to lose a state.

So, the fact is, with Joe Biden's approval rating in the 80s among Democrats, it is quite unlikely, Jim, that he will in fact, face a competitive primary and certainly not one in which he might lose a state.

ACOSTA: Very interesting. All right, Harry Enten, thanks for breaking it all down for us. We appreciate it.

ENTEN: Thank you.

ACOSTA: All right. Be sure to check out Harry's podcast, "Margin of Error." You can find it on our favorite podcast app or at CNN.com/audio.

In the meantime, Donald Trump is finally hitting the 2024 campaign trial starting with what he called a, quote, "intimate event" in South Carolina. But "The Daily Show's" Jordan Klepper spoke to some of the people waiting to get in, including these two women, who insist Trump is still in charge of the U.S. military. Yes, I said that. You heard that correctly. That Trump is still in charge of the U.S. military, or at least one of them anyway. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: The military were put in charge in 2018 when President Trump signed an executive order.

JORDAN KLEPPER, THE DAILY SHOW CORRESPONDENT: The American military arms that are going to Ukraine, we have Donald Trump to thank for that? UNKNOWN: No.

UNKNOWN: There's two militaries.

KLEPPER: There's two -- there's two militaries?

UNKNOWN: There's a good and a bad.

KLEPPER: So, there's two militaries. Donald Trump is in charge of the good one.

UNKNOWN: Yes.

KLEPPER: Biden's in charge of the bad military?

UNKNOWN: That's exactly right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: All right. I've got my bottle of Advil somewhere close by. This always happens, Jordan Klepper, when we have you on. My head starts to hurt. He joins us now. Jordan, two militaries? Where does this rank in terms of the more bizarre moments you've encountered at Trump events?

[17:24:57]

KLEPPER: You know, it's up there although, you know, we've brought people back from the dead. There's been body doubles out there on the road. So, two militaries, it's definitely creative, but we haven't summoned people back from death. So, progress?

ACOSTA: Maybe so. And what was it like, I mean, when you were there? You know, Trump is talking about these smaller gatherings as if it's a plus. You know, we know Trump and how he likes large crowd sizes, and we don't need to go down that road. But what is your sense of how his campaign is shaping up so far?

KLEPPER: Well, it was interesting. You know, if you were expecting a spectacle, you weren't getting it there. So, it was confusing. There were people who came assuming it was a rally. Other folks called it a rally. Others folks called it an intimate event. There was definitely MAGA people who were disappointed that it wasn't this big giant event.

Some people thought it was re-election kick-off. Some were reinstatement kick-off. Some (inaudible) t-shirt super sale. So, there's confusion in the air, which should be expected with a Trump campaign. I think overall, there's hope, at least interior-wise, that this is a new, better Trump 3.0.

Something that should be underlined with this event is these ideas were coming from people who went inside, who were invite-only. So, the folks that we ended up talking to out here, most of them went inside, and they went inside because they're important enough to have invitations to be in the front row of this GOP discussion. ACOSTA: And I know you talked to another gentleman who appeared to be

at one point calling for an elevated discourse. I think we have some of the video right here. But his hat told another story. Can you tell us about that?

KLEPPER: Well, it's not uncommon to go to events where people talk about the things they want, and yet there's a hypocrisy that they wear on their sleeve and/or cranium. And that was the situation here of somebody who arrived and talked about wanting to bring people together, that Republicans unlike Democrats come at this thing with a respectful dialogue and they respect the positions of power. And yet he was wearing a hat that said he could defecate a better president. We didn't challenge him on that, but we did challenge him on the inherent hypocrisy he brought to the rally/intimate event.

ACOSTA: Yeah. And Jordan, I have to ask you about it because I assume "The Daily Show" will be covering it this week and that is the biggest story of this past week, the Chinese spy balloon that was shot down after crossing the U.S. The balloon has also brought its share of mockery. Let's watch a little bit of "SNL" from last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: I entertain you people for four days and then get shot by Biden? I can't believe I'm Joe's Osama.

UNKNOWN: Well, I'm actually surprised you're still floating. Experts were saying you're the size of three buses.

UNKNOW: Okay. Ouch.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Jordan, I'm a little worried how you guys are going to be taking on the spy balloon this coming week.

KLEPPER: Well, I think with respect, Jim. You know, a lot of people find humor in this. Other people could see an act of war. You know, I've checked over on Fox News and I saw it purported to be an act of war. I also saw it mocked hours before, so it's confusing. By I can guarantee you "The Daily Show" will take it with the respect that it deserves.

ACOSTA: I'm sure it will. And I have to ask you this. Your colleague on "The Daily Show," Roy Wood, Jr., has been tapped to be the entertainer at the White House Correspondents' Dinner this year. Any insights on what we can expect? Will you be outside, you know, trying to get the pulse of the people? I'll try to slip past you unnoticed, but you know.

KLEPPER: I would. If Roy lets me be his plus-one, I will definitely be there. But there is a better chance that that goes to somebody else, and therefore I am outside. I will happily "Finger the Pulse" of anybody after his performance and try to get any kind of negative response that I can use against him as somebody who is oftentimes sharing an office with me. This one hurts. This is a big win for Roy. He's going to be on the center stage. So, whatever I can do to take him down a notch, I'll try it.

ACOSTA: And I'm sure he'll be taking us all down a notch, which is also a tradition of these dinners. But let me ask you this, as we're heading into the 2024 campaign, that also makes my head hurt thinking that we are heading into the 2024 campaign this early on. I mean what do you think we're going to see? Are you going to get out there and see other campaign events besides Trump? I mean, what is your reporter's notebook look like in terms of what you're planning in terms of, you know, the next steps? What are you going to be out there covering?

KLEPPER: Well, we're excited to see how this all shapes up. Nikki Haley supposedly is having an event in the next week and I'm very curious who shows up for that with the dialogue around it is. On the GOP side, you know, we're talking to folks there about what they think of DeSantis. And right now, even at MAGA events, Ron DeSantis is not the bad guy. He's not seen as an alternative to Trump. He's seen as a potential V.P.

[17:29:58]

So, I'm very curious to see if as the rhetoric gets hotter within the Trump campaign, if those folks find defection turn against somebody like DeSantis. If Haley holds any sway, like who in the GOP is the voice of the people right now? I will say from this last rally, Lindsey Graham was there and I can tell you it's not Lindsey Graham.

ACOSTA: Yes, I think you're right about that. But we know when you're going to be out there on the campaign trail, you will be getting the pulse of the people. That's what you do, oh, so well. Jordan Klepper, it's a public service whenever you get out there. Thanks so much for being with us. We appreciate it.

KLEPPER: Thanks, Jim.

ACOSTA: Great to see you again. The NFL says the number of concussions during the 2022 regular season increased from last season. Next, perspective of the harm the sport so many of us love could be doing to the health of its players. Stay with us. You're live in the "CNN Newsroom."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:35:00]

ACOSTA: Just in to CNN, new video of arrivals in Arizona for the two teams competing in next week's Super Bowl just a short time ago. The Kansas City Chiefs, so you see on the left. And the Philadelphia Eagles, you see there on the right, touched down in Arizona.

That game is a week from tonight at State Farm Stadium in Glendale. Eagles remain slight favorites in that game. And tonight, on CNN, Chris Wallace sits down with legendary quarterback turned TV analyst Terry Bradshaw. The Hall of Famer discussing everything from a Super Bowl prediction to his view on whether today's game is just causing too many injuries. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR, WHO'S TALKING TO CHRIS WALLACE: Do you think football is too dangerous?

TERRY BRADSHAW, NFL ANALYST: No. No, I would have to say no. It's dangerous. Look, it is a tough sport. It's -- you better be pretty courageous and fear no evil basically. Being hurt or getting hit is all part of it and we accept it. But the NFL has done, I think, a really good job of promoting, taking the hit out of the equation. You can't hit with the head, protecting the quarterback. And so, the improvement in the helmet is certainly better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: On Friday, the NFL said it saw an 18 percent increase in concussions in 2022. This after multiple high-profile injuries captured headlines. Joining us now to talk about this is our old friend, CNN medical analyst, Dr. Jonathan Reiner. Dr. Reiner, great to see you again. What do you think about all of this? You know, we've seen some frightening moments from this past NFL season.

I can think of the Miami quarterback who had that really awful concussion situation that we saw early on in the season. And it sounds like Terry Bradshaw is saying out loud what a lot of people have been saying privately for some time about the NFL. Is there a way to make this game any safer, do you think?

JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Well, it's been a tough year in the NFL. The irresolvable problem that the NFL faces is that football is a sport that's not simply based on fabulous skill but is also based on impact. And when you have very large individuals moving at surprisingly fast speeds, you know, the resulting collision results in the release of a tremendous amount of kinetic energy.

And although the NFL has, you know, gone to great lengths to try and change some of the rules to, you know, potentially make it safer, the fans come for these, you know, these impacts. I mean, you know, the terminology in the sport, you know, revolves around hits. You know, commentators talk about defensive backs blowing up receivers, you know, to try and break up passes. So, it is inherently a violent sport. And although rule changes and some equipment changes can make it safer, you can't make football safe.

ACOSTA: And the NFL acknowledges there was an increase in concussions. Do you think it's possible that some of these injuries are just underreported? Is the NFL doing enough?

REINER: Well, it's hard to know whether this year saw an increase in the number of head injuries or the substantial resources that the NFL is placing on this issue is detecting more and more players are being pulled out of the game. You know, there are some technologies that some players are using. There's something called a Q-Collar that I think about 50 players in the NFL wear, which is basically a neckband that increases the venous pressure in the head that is reported to potentially prevent the brain from sloshing around so much, you know, during some of these impacts.

And a lot of money is being spent on trying to change helmet architecture. But, again, the irresolvable problem is that the sport was, you know, revolves around players coming together. I watched the Pro Bowl today, which for the first time was flag football, and that's a snooze fest. No one wants to watch flag football. Football is a violent game. The NFL, I think, needs to do more to make it safer, but one is never going to be able to make NFL simply safe.

ACOSTA: All right. Dr. Jonathan Reiner, I think you're absolutely right about that. You've given us a lot to think about. Thanks so much. Great talking to you. As always, we appreciate it.

REINER: Thanks, Jim.

ACOSTA: And you can watch more of the interview with Terry Bradshaw as well as a conversation with astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson on tonight's "Who's Talking to Chris Wallace" that's starting at 7:00 p.m.

[17:40:00]

Still ahead, it's Black History Month and the Miami Police Department's choice for how to mark the month is not sitting well with some in that area. We'll talk about that next live in the "CNN Newsroom".

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: Controversy over a police cruiser in Miami as the Miami Police Department defends its decision on how to mark Black History Month. It wrapped a patrol car in the colors red, yellow, and green and they added images of raised fists. A message on the vehicle's back window read "Miami Police support Black History Month."

The department unveiled this last week just days after Memphis authorities released video showing the deadly encounter between Tyre Nichols and five, now fired and charged Memphis police officers. Joining us now is CNN's Nadia Romero. Nadia, critics have blasted the design and the timing of all this. What is the police department saying down in Miami?

[17:44:55]

NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, they are doubling down on their decision saying that, look, there should something that should be celebrated, not criticized, that their intent was to support Miami's black community and black police officers within its department.

And that this should be something that people see as a good move by the department. So, I want to talk about how this all started, where the idea came from. So, you're talking about $2,500 that was spent. And that's how much it cost to wrap this police cruiser. Not taxpayer dollars though, but coming from the Miami Community Police Benevolent Association. That's significant because that is the second oldest black police

officers' organization in the country. So, you have black police officers who helped design this and who thought this would be a great idea and were proud of this unveiling.

And then the criticism came, especially once this video you're looking at hit social media. Take a listen to Lieutenant Carr explained why he believes that the criticism is unwarranted.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAMON CARR, VICE PRESIDENT, MIAMI COMMUNITY POLICE BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION: This was something for us to honor everyone. This had nothing to do with, you know, being disrespectful, being disgraceful. But this was something like a source of pride for us, and it still is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMERO: So, there are many though who say this is performative and tone-deaf, not just because of the recent death of Tyre Nichols but also because people in Miami-Dade County as a whole have been asking for real police reform. Take a look at the numbers from the Florida ACLU. It shows that blacks, not Hispanics, make up 38 percent of the arrestees in that county but only 17 percent of the population.

And so there have been claims of racial profiling by the Miami Police Department. And we also know that those same black officers in the Miami Police Department have filed a complaint against its police chief for racism within the department. So, Jim, other people are saying, listen, we know you wanted to support Black History Month. Maybe there was a better way.

ACOSTA: All right. Nadia Romero, thank you very much for that.

Tonight, it's a Beyonce versus Adele rematch. Which legend will take the Grammy for album of the year or could another artist stun them both tonight? We'll talk about that next. You're live in the "CNN Newsroom."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:50:00]

ACOSTA: This just in to CNN. We are getting new video we're about to show you shot by a local resident in South Carolina who says this could be debris from the balloon that was shot down yesterday. This video was shot at a local boat landing in north Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, earlier this afternoon.

The person who shot the video said it appeared to be some kind of navy vessel. We must say CNN cannot independently verify or confirm whether or not this is debris from the balloon. But we are reaching out to the U.S. Navy for some kind of comment. The landing where this video was shot is along the intercoastal waterway and about seven miles from where that waterway opens out to the Atlantic Ocean on the border with North Carolina and South Carolina. But it just gives you an indication of some of the activity that is

taking place on the coast there as some of these retrieval and recovery efforts are under way right now. The Navy and Coast Guard have secured the area where the balloon was shot down yesterday. Officials say debris from the balloon will be taken to an FBI lab for analysis. We'll stay on top of this and we'll let you know if we get any other pieces of video coming in to CNN that might indicate what the latest is that's happening there on the Carolina coast.

Actress Viola Davis just accomplished one of the rarest feats in entertainment. She won a Grammy today, giving her the exclusive EGOT status. That's someone who has won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar, and a Tony. It's an amazing accomplishment, but this night could still belong to Beyonce.

The global superstar has a chance to become the Grammys' most awarded artist ever, but for album of the year, Adele stands in her way. CNN entertainment reporter Chloe Melas joins us now. Chloe, what should people be looking out for tonight? Is this Beyonce versus Adele?

CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: It is. Okay. So, if you guys don't remember, six years ago, Beyonce and Adele made headlines because they faced off in the album of the year category, and Adele won. And many thought that Beyonce was going to win for her critically-acclaimed album "Lemonade." She didn't, and like the uproar was so loud on social media and the BeyHive as they call it, the fans of Beyonce, were so upset that they felt that Beyonce was wronged.

Even Adele like came out and sort of apologized for winning. So, here we are six years later and many say that, yes, "Renaissance" is favored to win, but she has stiff competition, Beyonce, with Adele's "30," which is critically acclaimed. But I do just want to tell you that just a few hours before the Grammys, Beyonce has already won two Grammy awards.

She's won for best dance electronic recording and best traditional R&B performance, Jim. So that means that she only needs two more wins to break George Solti's 31-win record. So, she's almost there.

ACOSTA: I mean, what an extraordinary career. And one of the many musical performances will be from Sheryl Crow. And you managed to speak with her ahead her performance. She's terrific as well. What did she have to say?

MELAS: I spoke to her earlier this week. She was at an American Heart Association event where she was talking about heart health, but we have to talk about the Grammy's and she going to be a doing a tribute to Christine McVie from Fleetwood Mac who passed away in November. Take a listen to what she told me.

[17:54:54]

(VIDEO CLIP)

SHERYL CROW, MUSICIAN, SONGWRITER: I am nominated. In fact, I'm performing with my fellow nominee, Bonnie Raitt, and we're going to be honoring Christine. And, you know, it's all full-circle for me. I got to induct Fleetwood Mac into the Hall of Fame, Stevie Nicks and really Fleetwood Mac in general were monumentally important to me as a young girl growing up, trying to figure out, you know, what kind of artist I wanted to be. I was a piano player like Christine. And, yeah, it's hard to see her go. And for me, the honor -- the honor is for me really to get to honor her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MELAS: So, Jim, she was talking about this moment coming full circle because when I spoke to Sheryl Crow this week, it was just a few hours after she had been nominated to be inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. So, you know, she was honored. She was flattered. And like you just heard, she was part of that process for Fleetwood Mac, and I love Fleetwood Mac. I've seen them in concert so many times. I still cannot get over the fact that Lindsey Buckingham is not in the band anymore.

But this is going to be a really special night and to see Sheryl Crow get up there with one of her musical idols and to honor Fleetwood Mac, specifically Christine McVie, I bet you there's not going to be a dry eye in the house, Jim.

ACOSTA: Yeah, that will be an amazing moment. All right. Chloe Melas, thanks as always. We appreciate it.

MELAS: Thank you.

ACOSTA: All right. Still ahead, a political debate is brewing over the Chinese spy balloon and whether the U.S. took too long to take it down. We'll discuss with a member of the House Intelligence and Foreign Affairs Committees, Joaquin Castro. That's coming up. You're live in the "CNN Newsroom."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:59:59]