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Autopsy: Activist Killed In "Cop City" Protests Had 57 Gunshot Wounds; Supreme Court Protects Access To Common Abortion Pill For Now; Women Face A Patchwork Of Restrictions After The Overturn Of Roe; Evidence Of Wagner Group Arming Militia In Sudan; CNN Takes Over 14- Year-Old's TikTok Account, Finds Troubling Result; Nuggets Push Timberwolves To Brink Of Elimination. Aired 12-1p ET

Aired April 22, 2023 - 12:00   ET

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

[11:59:56]

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): But protesters, after this official autopsy say that their narrative and claims that the officer or the trooper, rather seems that the officer or the trooper rather was injured by friendly fire is more likely what happened.

Meanwhile, plans to build this proposed 85-acre $90 million facility are going forward despite opposition from a chorus of activists, dozens of which who have been charged with domestic terrorism.

Meanwhile, this weekend, the robust coalition of activists protesting the site have plans for more days of action. Insisting that building this facility would not only have a detrimental environmental impact to the forest where it's proposed to be built, but that it would only further militarize police in this country. Fredricka?

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST (on camera): Nick Valencia, thanks so much.

All right. Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. A new legal battle is taking shape after the U.S. Supreme Court issues a last-minute order to protect a common abortion drug.

The High Court deciding last night to freeze a lower court's ruling that place restrictions on the drug, mifepristone. The pill is the predominant method for ending pregnancies in the U.S. But now, that decision sets up the most consequential abortion-related disputes since the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Another appeals court is scheduled to take up the case. Meaning, it could be weeks or months before a final decision is made.

CNN's Supreme Court Reporter Ariane de Vogue has more.

ARIANE DE VOGUE, CNN SUPREME COURT REPORTER (on camera): Fredricka, the Biden administration is relieved. Lower courts had put significant restrictions on this key abortion drug. The government and manufacturers had raced to the Supreme Court, asking the justices to put those rulings on hold while the appeals process plays out, which could take months.

The Supreme Court agreed to do so. So, that means that this abortion drug will remain unavailable in the states that allow it. And all the moves that the FDA has made recently to ease access to the drug will also remain in place.

That means that the generic version is available. That women can receive it up to 10 weeks of pregnancy, and they can obtain it by mail. It would have taken five justices to grant this stay, as we call it. And we're not sure exactly how all the Conservatives voted. All we know is Justice Samuel Alito and Justice Clarence Thomas dissented.

Alito was the only one who explained his thinking. He did not buy into the government's argument that patients would be harmed while the appeals process played out if the restrictions remained in place. Of course, all this comes about a year since the Supreme Court has overturned Roe v. Wade. The issue now goes back to the federal appeals court.

Many people believe that after that court rules, it will come back to the Supreme Court and the justices will once again weigh into the issue on whether or not the FDA had the authority, 20 years ago to approve this drug. But for now, it is available in the states that allow abortion. Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: Ariane de Vogue, thanks so much for that.

All right. Doctors in states that allow abortion are weighing in on the Supreme Court's decision. CNN senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen has more.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Doctors in states that allow abortion said they were relieved by the decision last night from the U.S. Supreme Court, allowing them to still use mifepristone. That's one of two drugs that are used for abortions and for miscarriages. Let's take a look at why. 53 percent of abortions in the United States use these pills. They're not surgical abortions, they are medication abortions.

And mifepristone, it has a great safety profile. Women have been using it for more than 20 years in the United States. Millions of women have used it. When you look at deadly side effects. It's safer than Viagra, it's safer than penicillin.

Now, if doctors in states that allow abortions had been told you can't use mifepristone anymore, if they'd been told that, they would have just used the second drug, misoprostol by itself. But they say it's less effective. When you use misoprostol on its own, there is more of a chance that a woman is going to end up having terrible complications. And they said they didn't want to use a drug that worked worse than the two drugs alone. Why not give women the best care rather than inferior care?

Now, for women who are living in states where abortion is banned, last night -- last night's decision is not so significant for them, they already are not allowed to have abortions, whether by pill or by surgery. Back to you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Elizabeth Cohen, thank you.

All right. For more on this now, let's go to Ann Marimow. She is a legal affairs reporter for The Washington Post.

Ann, so good to see you so. So, this is a major step. But the fight is far from over for those who wanted that pill to continue to be accessible. So, what potentially happens now when it goes back to the lower court?

ANN MARIMOW, LEGAL AFFAIRS REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Right. So, what we know is that on May 17th, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals based in New Orleans that hears cases from Texas will take up this case again.

[12:05:01]

The Fifth Circuit is one of the most conservative federal courts of appeals in the country. There are six new judges that were nominated by President Trump on that court.

We know that this Court already had reimpose restrictions on mifepristone. It's very likely that a different panel of judges will hear this appeal now, but it's also likely to be a very conservative panel.

WHITFIELD: So, this case could potentially be backed with the Supreme Court. And is, is it fair to expect that there may be a very similar vote?

MARIMOW: I don't think we know at this point. Even the Supreme Court in their order late last night, I anticipated that the case would come back to the Supreme Court and said in their order, we are putting these earlier decisions on hold until someone comes to the Supreme Court again, and we resolve the issue then.

So, they fully anticipate either side, whether it's the Biden administration, or the anti-abortion groups, challenging the drug that after the Fifth Circuit rules will be back at the Supreme Court.

And as you heard from Ariane, we don't know how the justices voted. And the order that was issued last night, all we know, it was a majority that left access to mifepristone in place.

And we only know that Justice Thomas and Justice Alito noted their dissents.

WHITFIELD: Right. And so, that we have an idea of the sentiments of, you know, Alito and Thomas. Is that customary at this juncture that we wouldn't hear from all nine?

MARIMOW: Yes, absolutely. In emergency motions like this, the justices often do not give us a reason. This has been referred to as the shadow docket. So, we only heard last night from Justice Alito, why he would have left part of these rulings in place. And we don't know yet, what the other justices are thinking.

WHITFIELD: All right. And this is Alito, explaining, you know, his dissent to riding the Biden administration's warnings about the lower court's rulings. And he claimed, quoting now, "The government has not dispelled legitimate doubts, that it would even obey an unfavorable order."

So, that assertion was outright contrary to the Biden administration officials' comments that they would follow court orders, even as they continue to appeal.

So, will this apparent tension between the High Court and the Biden administration affect the outcome?

MARIMOW: We don't know. That was a really surprising line from Justice Alito. He said, I don't buy that there is going to be chaos to the regulatory system if we leave this lower court ruling in place.

He said he didn't believe that the FDA or the Biden administration would not find another way to leave mifepristone on the market.

He said this appeal is going to move really quickly, and it would not have a major impact.

WHITFIELD: What's quickly for it to be in the Fifth Circuit? Might that be weeks? Months?

MARIMOW: Great question.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

MARIMOW: Courts move very slowly, but they did schedule this very quickly for May 17th. I think that those judges on the Fifth Circuit know that the public is watching.

They'll want to write a thoughtful, probably lengthy opinion that they know will be reviewed by the Supreme Court. So, I would say months if I had to guess. But it's totally up to them, they don't tell us their timeline. So, we'll just have to be watching closely.

WHITFIELD: Yes, they get to do that.

All right. Ann Marimow, Washington Post. Thank you so much.

MARIMOW: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. So much uncertainty remains despite the Supreme Court's order. CNN's, Isabel Rosales is here now with more on that side of the story. So, this ruling doesn't really make it any clearer for many people trying to navigate access to abortion.

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Oh, not at all. In fact, it can be a very confusing, stressful attempt for women right now to figure out what abortion access they have by the state.

It's really a patchwork system, that we're seeing an abortion landscape that is increasingly polarized and fragmented in some states. And we've seen due to bans and restrictions, where it's almost impossible or very, very difficult for them to get abortion access.

In other states, they've taken steps to actually protect access to abortion, and some even enshrining it into their state constitutions.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

AMERICAN CROWD: (INAUDIBLE) party!

ROSALES (voice over): Summer 2022, Dobbs v. Jackson. The Supreme Court reverses the constitutional right to an abortion, upheld for nearly half century. Across the nation, intense backlash and scrutiny follows.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why God --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's such a lie!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Abortion bans are illegitimate. Forced motherhood is illegitimate.

ROSALES: Justice Samuel Alito, writing for the court majority called the original 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling egregiously wrong.

Rebels from the Dobbs decision are felt across the country. A so- called trigger laws take effect in about a dozen states. Banning or severely limiting abortion in states like Mississippi, Texas, and Oklahoma.

[12:10:02]

ROSALES: Republican-controlled state legislatures race to outlaw the procedure.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We won't go back!

AMERICAN CROWD: We won't go back.

ROSALES: Legal fights commence over abortion access. Some state Supreme Courts like in South Carolina step-in and block abortion bans.

In other states, the highest courts rule the bans comply with their state constitutions. Meanwhile, others like South Dakota widen the scope, passing a law prohibiting the use of telemedicine to administer medication abortion.

Midterm elections.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to have to make it a federal right.

ROSALES: Voters in many states reject the most extreme versions of abortion bans in California, Michigan, and Vermont, voters enshrine the right to abortion in their state constitutions.

State Legislatures returned to session some states move forward on more restrictive measures.

Just this month, in a first of its kind law, Idaho criminalizes out of state abortions for minors without parental consent, calling it abortion trafficking.

And Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, last week, signed into law a ban against most abortions after six weeks. Opponents argue, that's before many women know they're pregnant.

ROSALES: Nearly a year since overturning Roe v. Wade, another major decision on abortion access from the nation's highest court. The conservative majority court protecting access to a widely use abortion drug, mifepristone, by freezing lower court rulings that place restrictions on medication abortion.

The order means that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's approval of the drug will remain in place while appeals play out, potentially, for months to come.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROSALES (on camera): Now, abortions are actually pretty common in the United States. According to studies by the Guttmacher Institute, which studies abortions, one in four women will get an abortion by the age of 45.

Now, I want you to take a look at this map right here. You can see that those blue states right there, those states have taken steps to protect abortion access. But look at all the orange and the red, you can see there on the map that most states at least have some restrictions on access to the procedure.

And of course, all eyes are on this abortion medication. The Fifth Circuit -- that is with the Fifth Circuit, we're going to see them started taking those briefs by next week. And then, hear oral arguments by mid-May. And as we heard, that could end up back with the Supreme Court. So, this is far from over.

WHITFIELD: It sure is. And of course, with the use of mifepristone that, you know, represents the majority of abortion cases and how it's used.

ROSALES: Yes.

WHITFIELD: So, it will be interesting to see how things play out.

(CROSSTALK)

ROSALES: It plays out. Yes.

WHITFIELD: All right. Isabel Rosales, appreciate it.

ROSALES: Thank you. WHITFIELD: All right. Coming up. Some evacuations are underway in Sudan, as foreign nationals hope to escape the fierce fighting between the two rival forces battling for control. We'll have the latest on the ground next.

Plus, a CNN exclusive. Text messages revealed how Trump operatives sought to use breached voting data to decertify an election in 2021. Those details straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:17:07]

WHITFIELD: All right. Turning now to the escalating crisis in Sudan. The country's army says it will help facilitate the evacuation of diplomats from a number of countries, including the U.S. the U.K., France and China.

Just hours ago, Saudi Arabian citizens began arriving back home after fleeing the fighting. More than 400 people are dead in just a week of battles, as two of Sudan's top generals fight for power.

The Pentagon is now deploying additional troops near Sudan to assist with any evacuations. The U.S. has warned, however, that private American citizens should not expect to be evacuated.

And now, to a CNN exclusive. The Russian mercenaries accused of war crimes in Ukraine appear to be getting involved in the conflict in Sudan.

Senior international investigative correspondent Nima Elbagir, reports on the Wagner Group's effort to help the paramilitary forces.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The Sudanese and the Libyan army celebrated a successful joint operation, Wednesday, April 19th. Near the remote desert border between Libya and Sudan, having captured the Chevrolet Garrison, belonging to the rival Sudanese paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, the RSF.

But why is this military base so important, given how far it is from the existential fight in Sudan's capital, Khartoum?

Because CNN can reveal that the fight in Khartoum is being influenced by what was happening at that garrison. A Russian resupply campaign, backed by a key regional player, aimed at turning the tide in Sudan's war in favor of the RSF, who have been a key recipient of Russian training and military aid.

In collaboration with all eyes on Wagner, a research group focusing on Russian proxy Wagner, CNN investigated the group's current presence in Libya.

You can see here, on April 16th, one day after the fighting began in Khartoum, a Russian Ilyushin 76 transport plane at the Al Jufra base in Libya, previously identified by American intelligence as a Wagner base.

Three days later, this same plane is spotted by flight tracker aviation expert Gerjon, coming back from the Russian airbase in Latakia, Syria, before returning to the Libyan air base in Khadim.

Images of that same plane began circulating online April 17th, heading in the direction of Sudan. Sudanese and regional sources tell CNN that weaponry was air dropped to the RSF within that time frame. April 15th to April 18th, to the Chevrolet Garrison, during a period of fierce fighting, boosting the RSF.

The al Khadim and Al Jufra bases, where the Wagner planes departed from in Libya, are under the control of Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, who commands territory in the east of Libya.

Haftar, and the commander of the Rapid Support Forces, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, aka Hemedti, have in common strategic alliances, one with Wagner, who Haftar is hosting in his territory in Libya, and whom a previous CNN investigation exposed as working with Hemedti to extract Sudanese gold.

[12:20:14]

ELBAGIR (on camera): A second with the United Arab Emirates, who tapped Hemedti to send forces to the conflict in Yemen and backed Haftar in the fighting in Libya.

ELBAGIR (voice over): What does it all mean for the ongoing misery and conflict in Sudan? It means that both a regional Libyan General Haftar and a global player, Russia, are putting their thumbs on the scale, which raises the stakes for the region, for the global balance of power, and for the people of Sudan caught in the crossfire.

Nima Elbagir, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And CNN reached out to both the Libyan General and the Wagner group about our investigation, but of course, did not receive a response.

The RSF, in a statement to CNN, denied receiving aid from Russia or Libya.

All right. Coming up. Lawyers for Hunter Biden are scheduled to meet with the Justice Department as scrutiny around a long-standing investigation ramps up. CNN's exclusive reporting next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:23]

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back. Over 60 progressive organizations are calling for California Senator Dianne Feinstein to resign. In a letter addressed to the 89-year-old senator, it says, "For three decades, 39 million Californians counted on you to be our hardworking voice in Washington, day in and day out. We respectfully ask you to give one more gift of service to our great state by fully stepping back to allow a new appointee."

The Democratic senator was hospitalized with shingles last month and organizers for the letter are worried her absence could affect key Senate votes.

All right. And now, to this CNN exclusive, newly revealed text messages show that former President Trump's legal team didn't just try to overturn the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. Their operatives also tried to impact the Senate race in that state.

In those messages, the operatives tried to figure out what to do with data obtained from a breached voting system in a rural Georgia County, and whether that information could be used to decertify the 2021 Senate runoff, in which Democrat Jon Ossoff defeated Republican David Perdue.

CNN national security reporter Zach Cohen, joining us now with more on this. Zach, I mean, what are these texts say, exactly? And what will be done with these texts?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER (on camera): Yes, Fred. These are text between two men who we know were working for Donald Trump's lawyers, including Sidney Powell and Rudy Giuliani. And what these men were a part of a team that was really focused on gaining access to what was really more than just a single voting machine or a single ballot, they were focused on getting access to voting software and election data around the country.

And ultimately, they were able to do so in Coffee County, Georgia, which is a heavily Trump County, but they found an election worker who would mandate -- who agreed to give them access -- unauthorized access to this restricted voting software.

And ultimately, the goal was to use this data and use this information in a way to undermine and in the case of the Georgia Senate runoff, decertified the legitimate results of that election.

Now, the text themselves make this very clear. They say, "Here is the plan. Let's keep this close hold for now. We only have until Saturday to decide if we're going to use this report to try to decertify the Senate runoff election or if we hold it for a bigger moment."

It really kind of reveals the true intention and reason why these operatives working for Trump's lawyers wanted to gain access to this voting software and to this election data even after January 6th, 2021.

WHITFIELD: Wow, it's pretty extraordinary. And so, how does this fit in with the various criminal investigations related to Trump?

COHEN: Yes, Fred. We know that the district attorney in Georgia who is investigating Trump's efforts to influence and overturn the results there -- or the election results there does have evidence about Trump operatives, seeking to use data from Coffee County, Georgia, and considering using it to up into the Senate runoff results there.

Now, people forget that the investigation in Georgia extends beyond just efforts to influence the presidential results or the presidential outcome.

It can also extend to elections in that state beyond just Trump's lost now. What it also -- we're also learning that Trump's lawyer, Rudy Giuliani did seem to outline the same sort of a plan during an Oval Office meeting that Trump attended in December 2020, suggesting that Trump was, at least maybe aware of this plan that was ultimately put into place and successfully executed on January 7th, 2021 in Coffee County.

WHITFIELD: All right. Zach Cohen, keep us posted. Thanks so much.

All right. And now to another CNN exclusive, the investigation to Hunter Biden is intensifying as his legal team is set to meet with the Justice Department officials next week.

Sources say the long running probe into the president's son is focused on potential tax crimes and a gun purchase.

CNN's Paula Reid has details.

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (on camera): We have learned that this meeting between Hunter Biden's legal team and Justice Department officials was actually arranged at the request of Biden's legal team, seeking an update on this years' long investigation into Biden.

REID (voice over): Now, at this meeting, is expected to be a top career justice department official, as well as the Trump appointed U.S. attorney who has been overseeing this investigation.

He stayed on after Trump left office to continue overseeing this politically sensitive case. But it's unclear if we're going to get any update on exactly what the status of that criminal investigation is.

Now, CNN was one of the first to report last summer that the case had narrowed down to just a few potential tax crime charges and a possible charge of false statements related to the purchase of a weapon.

[12:30:09]

But there have been no public developments in that case now.

But there have been no public developments in that case now in nearly a year. And it's unclear exactly what will happen there and if any charges will be filed.

But in the past few months, we have seen Hunter Biden's legal team become much more aggressive, much more litigious and forward leaning. And part of that is again seeking an update on exactly what is going on in this case. Now all of this comes as news of a whistleblower, a possible whistleblower on Capitol Hill.

An IRS agent has written to lawmakers saying that he wants to share his story about his experience overseeing parts of this investigation, claiming that he has evidence that the Biden investigation has been mishandled, that there was allegedly political interference.

This individual also claims to have evidence that would contradict the Attorney General's testimony before Congress, pledging that there would not be in there has not been any political interference. But I want to note that this individual has not yet been granted whistleblower protections.

They have not put forth any evidence of these claims and other promises about whistleblowers related to the Bidens and other people on Capitol Hill have not necessarily yielded what was promised. We will continue to watch that to see what if anything this person has and how it could potentially impact the criminal investigation.

WHITFIELD: All right, Paul Reid, thanks so much for that.

All right, coming up, a CNN reporter borrows the TikTok account of a 14-year-old to explore the apps algorithm. We'll tell you the unsettling videos that she found.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:35:47]

WHITFIELD: A new CNN investigation is getting a firsthand view of what your kids see on the popular TikTok app. CNN business reporter Claire Duffy obtained an account of a 14-year-old to find out what sorts of things the app would and wouldn't promote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: About 17 minutes into our first day, we were served this video. Now we've come to a live video. All we're really seeing is this girl's bottom in the frame. It looks like that's the point of this video.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Joining me right now CNN is Clare Duffy. So Clare, interesting, in a word. So how did all of this began? And what did you find most troubling?

DUFFY: So Fred, we were aware of these reports of parents of lawmakers of educators were concerned about what their teens could see on this app. And so we wanted to test it out for ourselves, we worked with a 14-year-old with the permission of their parents to set up this sort of test account.

And the first few days of scrolling, we saw what you might expect dance videos, cute little kids. But in the next few days, we started searching based on, we replicated searches that had been done by online safety groups and lawmakers. And we started to come across some really sort of concerning content, videos related to mental health that had pretty specific descriptions of self-harm and of suicide, lots of videos related to eating disorders that had again, pretty explicit sort of instructions about how to cut calories, how to restrict your eating.

We saw a lot of these videos, like you saw on the open there that were sort of such sexual and mature in nature. And so it really sort of gave us a look at what was possible for a teen to see on this app.

WHITFIELD: So is there a restricted mode? I mean, what kind of tools do parents have at their fingertips so to speak?

DUFFY: Right, so TikTok does have a restricted mode, which says can limit some of the inappropriate content, content that might be inappropriate for some people. So we wanted to test this out. We did two days of searching and scrolling with restricted mode on. And we found that it really didn't restrict much of anything.

You know, we saw a lot of these same videos related to eating disorders, mental health, on restricted mode that we had seen before. And so it's this really sort of concerning thing that this feature isn't working as it's supposed to. And I spoke with an expert who said it's just really important for parents to speak with their kids. Imran Ahmed runs the Center for Countering Digital Hate. Here's what he told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IMRAN AHMED, CEO, CENTER FOR COUNTERING DIGITAL HATE: They need to be having conversations with their kids, asking them, what are you seeing, and then helping them to contextualize that, by having that conversation. We can actually help kids and parents understand better this new social media age that we for better or worse living.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DUFFY: And I think that's exactly it. You know, everybody's TikTok account can be so sort of personalized and tailored to them. And so it's important for parents to sort of have an understanding of what their kids are seeing on the app.

WHITFIELD: And then is there a response from TikTok?

DUFFY: Yes, so TikTok said in response to my reporting in a statement, they said, we're committed to building age appropriate experiences where teens can safely have fun and explore their creativity. As part of this, we invest in keeping content with more mature themes from reaching younger audiences and offer family pairing where parents and caregivers can customize the experience their teens have on TikTok.

And look, Fred, our account, this test account didn't behave exactly like a real teen would. And a lot of this content sort of falls into a gray area that may or may not be concerning to parents. But we wanted to give a look at what was possible for teens to be seeing on the app.

WHITFIELD: All right, good work. Thanks so much, Clare Duffy. [12:39:09]

All right, coming up, I'll look at a new episode of the whole story. We'll meet some of the climate experts racing against time to build innovative solutions to protect the planet from the looming effects of the climate crisis.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. Scientists say cutting back on our use of fossil fuels is no longer enough to reverse climate change. We must pull billions of tons of carbon dioxide from the air over the next 25 years. The challenge is there are multiple ways to do this. And they are all newly developed or still in the development stages in Sunday's whole story hosted by Anderson Cooper, CNN's chief climate correspondent Bill Weir takes a look at some of the proposed solutions including one by a CEO named Marty Odlin. He runs a company called Running Tide.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): While he was studying robotic engineering at Dartmouth and Earth Systems at Columbia, he realized a man-made monster was destroying his beloved Gulf of Maine, warming it up at a rate now faster than 95 percent of the rest of the world.

MARTY ODLIN, RUNNING TIDE FOUNDER AND CEO: It's a Godzilla. There's this thing out there, and it's like ruining everything that we love, right? All the good stuff is getting ruined. All the stuff that's free and fun. It's burning forest down. It's stealing our fish. It's devastating our crops. It's hurting our farmers. Get mad and go kill that thing, right?

[12:45:03]

WEIR (on-camera): And right there on a docking main, Marty's metaphor is a light bulb moment for me, a whole new way to think about a giant problem that began when people figured out how to move lots and lots of carbon, that stuff of ancient life. From the slow cycle locked and rock and under oceans into the fast cycle, in the sea water and the sky, and we've moved so much carbon. That monster now weighs a trillion tons, give or take, more than every living thing on earth.

So not only do we have to stop making the monster bigger, we have to catch it, chop it up and bury the pieces back into these slow cycle. It was something called carbon removal.

ODLIN: Removal is chopping Godzilla down. We got this 400-foot-tall lizard, and we're just chopping that thing down. That sort of removal is.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, chopping down Godzilla, we all have to play a part, right? Bill Weir is with us right now. I love the analogy there. All right, so, you know, how do we do that? That's the harder question, I guess to answer, right? How do we do that?

WEIR: Exactly, exactly. And there are so many ideas on how to chop down Godzilla. But it's just the very beginning of this industry. In the meantime, though, the planet is feeding carbon Godzilla 50 billion tons a year operations like Marty's hope to get to, you know, 5,000 tons in the short term, so at the very infancy of this.

But he uses the power of kelp and oysters to accelerate the natural carbon cycles that the Earth has. And there are a bunch of machine ideas that pull it from the air and pump it underground and scoop up bio waste, turn it into oil, put it back in old oil wells. But this is all funded right now sorted by the generosity of big tech companies like Stripe and Meta and Alphabet, they've made this billion dollar climate removal fund for startups like Marty hoping to drive the price down.

So maybe one day when they do put a price on carbon for everybody, these companies will be poised to just scale up massively.

WHITFIELD: OK. And, you know, waste is an issue, natural and otherwise, but you know, another proposed pollution to, you know, solution to reverse this climate change that you explore, talks about artificial whale waste. I mean, how does that work?

WEIR: Well, I was the same way. I went to the Cambridge Center of Climate Repair. Sir David King runs this. He was the U.K.'s top scientists for a decade. And their big idea is sprinkling artificial whale poo on the ocean using volcanic ash to mimic all the nutrients that the whales, the big baleen whales used to be our big ocean fertilizer pumps, they dive down, scoop up all those nutrients and when they defecate at the surface, when they get a breath that builds the bottom of the food chain.

And by creating much more biomass in the oceans, the oceans would drawdown more carbon. Whales are big carbon sinking machines when they die. They take them down to the ocean depths as well. So there's these big natural solutions that are available. The question is how we get there.

And Joe Biden this week, we got indications he's going to try to tighten down emission rules around power plants fueled by methane the way he went after tailpipe emissions. So transportation and power that's like over 50 percent of the Godzilla food we put into the sky. Will that help or change our ways? But this is a long slog, this is a big job. It's changing the modern economy in flight.

WHITFIELD: Yes. And so I wonder of all the solutions that you're going to explore in this hour and help, you know, enlighten us all, do you have a favorite in terms of or something that makes you most hopeful that an impact really can be made?

WEIR: I got a great metaphor that you're going to see in the show tonight. I think about it like a piranha. One piranha made by you, and it won't be, you know, you'll need a band aid. A couple of 1,000 piranha will turn you into a skeleton. And what that's what we need and attacking carbon Godzilla, it's a million ideas, a million piranha coming at it from everything you see in your life, there's a more efficient way to make that product or to move that product.

And that's kind of how we have to think about it. And that that gives me hope. Everything is out there technologically. It's just our old habits die hard. And can they die fast enough to avoid the worst tipping points. And part of that hour also talks about the idea that's gaining traction that some scientists say we should think about spraying the stratosphere with a sunscreen and natural some sort of particles to deflect sunlight and cool the Earth out basically building artificial shade to avoid these words, typically, that's where we are in the conversation because we've sort of kick this can down the road so much.

But I think tonight or tomorrow night's our will open people's minds to new ideas that hadn't even thought about that was really going on at the highest level.

WHITFIELD: Oh yes. Well, ideas are important. I like the idea of everybody's got to take a little bite though. I like the piranha kind of, you know, analogy, metaphor, it works.

[12:50:01]

WEIR: Yes, Godzilla, piranha.

WHITFIELD: Right. All right, Bill Weir, good to see you. Thanks so much. And of course, you can catch Bill Weir's full report in the whole story tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. The whole story is a new weekly program hosted by Anderson Cooper, one whole story one whole hour. We're back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right, the NBA playoffs are in full swing and the Denver Nuggets are on the brink of eliminating the Minnesota Timberwolves. CNN's Carolyn Manno has that and more in sports. Carolyn?

[12:55:02]

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Fred, the Nuggets are proving why they're the top seed in the Western Conference. They made things look easy on the road last night. Denver now just one win away from advancing to the conference semi-finals, back to back league MVP, Nikola Jokic was a one man wrecking crew.

He put up 20 points to go with his 12 assists and 11 rebounds. So that's his seventh career playoff triple double. In fact, only Hall of Famer Wilt Chamberlain has more among centers with nine of those games. But Denver wins game three, 120 to 111. The Timberwolves will now face a very steep uphill climb no NBA team has ever come back from a three nothing deficit to win a playoff series.

The Atlanta Hawks defending their home court against the Boston Celtics. Trae Young bouncing back from a very disappointing start to the playoffs, but he finished with 32 points. This was his best performance of the series by far. And as a team, the Hawks shot a red hot 56 percent from the field and made some really tough looks down the stretch to hold off the Celtics come back attempts. So Atlanta beats Boston by eight to cut that deficit to two games to one, let the Hawks fans happy about that.

The Knicks took control of their first round series against the Cavaliers. New York and grabbing a two-one lead after hammering Cleveland 99-79 in front of a raucous sold out home crowd at Madison Square Garden. That is the first time that Cleveland has been held under 80 points all season long, Fred. Jalen Brunson leaving his team with 21 points while RJ Barrett added 19 for the Knicks, who are now two wins away from their first series victory in 10 years, the city absolutely buzzing afterwards.

Elsewhere, the NFL announced the suspension of five players for violating the league's gambling policies. Three of those players Shaka Toney of the Commanders along with Quintez Cephus and C.J. Moore of the Lions are ruled out indefinitely, Fred, for actually betting on NFL games in the 2022 season.

The Lions 2022 first round draft pick Jameson Williams and Stanley Berryhill were also banned for the first six regular season games for betting on sports outside of football but for doing it on team property. And in a statement the NFL said quote, a league review uncovered no evidence indicating any insight information was used, or that any game was compromised in any way. But the rules are very strict, you cannot bet on League property.

And Cubs pitcher Drew Smyly was almost perfect yesterday against the Dodgers. He was six outs away from just the 24th perfect game in Major League history when disaster struck. This was the second pitch of the eighth inning here. L.A.'s David Peralta hitting a slow roll and dribbler down the third baseline, Smyly scooping it up as he started to turn to make the throw to first, his own catcher ran into Smyly flipped over his back, the perfect game over.

Silver lining this, Smyly still ended up with a 13-nothing one hit victory, but just a tough way for fans there to end that game, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my, baseball or football? Carolyn Manno, thank you so much.

All right, it's official King Charles, a different kind of royalty. A brand new show hosted by award winning journalist Gayle King and NBA superstar Charles Barkley. It will be debuting on Wednesday nights on CNN this fall. They made the announcement just moments ago on TNT's NBA tip off take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GAYLE KING, CO-HOST, CNN'S KING CHARLES: What I think is so great for the both of us is that it's live T.V. And to me, live T.V. is like working without a net. Don't you feel that?

CHARLES BARKLEY, CO-HOST, CNN'S KING CHARLES: Yes, 100 percent.

KING: So whatever happens happens. I like that. Charles always says, I can't get used to you guys call him Chuckster. I'm so used to Charles. So I'll just stick with Charles. Charles always says I don't like a script. I like to have a little bit of a script.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He likes to Charlie a lot by the way.

KING: Charlie?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please don't call me Charlie.

KING: Do you like Charlie? Well, when Charlie and I are on T.V. I just think that we're both very curious people. This is something that excites me most. Neither one of us were looking, I'll speak for myself. I wasn't looking for another job. Were you?

BARKLEY: No. When they said something, I said, hell no, I don't want to be on T.V. more. And then this when they first bought it up, and I said this, what about Gayle? I said Gayle, who? They're like Gayle King. I said, oh, yes, I'll work with Gayle.

KING: Yes.

BARKLEY: That's the only way. We called each other.

KING: Yes, yes.

BARKLEY: She said, Chuck, I don't want to do T.V. anymore. I'm only going to do it if you want to do it. I said just told him the same thing.

KING: Exact same thing.

BARKLEY: We had a great conversation. And that's how the whole thing came on about.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So what do you want the show to look like?

BARKLEY: I want it to be non-political. Just two people --

KING: But we'll talk about politics.

BARKLEY: We will.

KING: Yes.

BARKLEY: But we don't want to say, we're a liberal.

KING: Exactly.

BARKLEY: Conservative, Republican, Democrat, that's one of the things is already ruined television in general. And I know she's going to be a straight shooter. You know, I'm going to be a straight shooter. And when we got together for lunch, we just started talking about random things. And it was really curious. So we had different opinions, which is fine. Like we weren't --

KING: I was correct. He was wrong. Continue there, go ahead. [13:00:00]

BARKLEY: But we were like, all I want is people even if I disagree with them, I want them to be honest with me.