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GOP Lawmakers Dismiss Trump's Dictator Remark; Academia Under Fire Over Alleged Antisemitism On Campuses; Deadly Tornadoes Hit Tennessee; Families Of Americans Held Overseas Have A Message; "Being Billie Jean King" Premieres Tonight. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired December 10, 2023 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:01]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL (R-TX): It's entertainment. You know, we've been around him long enough it's entertaining.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): I think it was a joke.

SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): I think that's probably just fairly kind of typical Trump rhetoric.

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY): We all know Trump uses unique expressions when he explains things.

SEN. MITT ROMNEY (R-UT): Sometimes a little baby will spout out all sorts of words that you don't take them either literally or seriously. And that's a bit of what we're seeing, I think, from President Trump and his campaign right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: We should also note Trump's comments last night included another anti-democratic admission when the former president suggested that during a second term, he would weaponize the Department of Justice for political purposes to go after President Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: These are Biden indictments against -- this is just against a political opponent. But they've opened up a Pandora's box, and I only can say to Joe is be very careful what you wish for because what you've done is a terrible thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: But not all Republicans think Donald Trump's focus on revenge and retribution is a winning strategy for another four years in the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): This is what I tell President Trump, too. What President Trump needs to do in this campaign, it needs to be about rebuilding, restoring, renewing America. It can't be about revenge.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's talking about retribution day in, day out.

MCCARTHY: He needs to stop that. He needs to stop that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Though we should note Kevin McCarthy, who you just saw there, is endorsing Donald Trump for president.

Let's discuss more now with former adviser to Vice President Mike Pence, Olivia Troye, and former FOX News host and journalist Geraldo Rivera.

Guys, great to see you.

GERALDO RIVERA, JOURNALIST, FORMER FOX NEWS HOST: Hi, Jim.

ACOSTA: Olivia, let me start with you first. Hi, Geraldo. Thanks for coming on. Hi, Olivia.

Olivia, what's your reaction when you hear Trump? I mean he had a chance to clean this up. He's had all week to this clean up. And last night in New York he doubled down and said he would be a dictator for one day. Of course you have to add the caveat, you know, somebody is a dictator for a day, they can say I'm the dictator on day two and day three and so on. But your reaction?

OLIVIA TROYE, FORMER ADVISER TO VICE PRESIDENT MIKE PENCE: Yes, I would say one day is all it takes to do all the damage is what I would say. But look, he's telling his plans out loud. I think he's doubling down because he meant what he said. That's how he plans to conduct the government, and I think those plans were actually sort of somewhat put in place during the first time around when he was in the Oval Office.

And I mean, you want to talk about the weaponization of the federal government, he did that. I mean he used DOJ. He used, I would say, the disaster relief aid. I mean this is a person who is talking out loud about what he will do to anyone who stands in his way or stands against him.

ACOSTA: Geraldo, you've known Donald Trump for a long time. Do you take this seriously?

RIVERA: I do not, Jim. I think it's just flamboyant rhetoric. You know, we used to have an old daytime talk show, "Queen for a Day." Now we have "Dictator for a Day." You know, we have checks and balances in the United States of America. A dictator, whatever he did on one temper tantrum day could not stand against, you know, the fact that we have a judiciary. We have a legislative branch that, you know, has proven its ability to immobilize whatever his worst instincts were the first time around. I think he's running to get in a position where he can pardon himself

from the barrage of criminal cases that he's facing. But I absolutely discount and scoff at the notion that all of this alarmist rhetoric about him being a dictator is serious stuff, Jim.

ACOSTA: But, Geraldo, isn't there something wrong with a presidential candidate -- and, yes, Donald Trump says a lot of things that you can't really take to the bank. But isn't there something wrong with a presidential candidate going out there and saying that he would be a dictator, whether you take it seriously or not? I mean, if you listen to the crowd in New York and at that town hall the other night with Sean Hannity, people were eating it up.

RIVERA: But that is just for impact. It's just for the visceral reaction of a live audience. I know him well enough to know that this is not serious policy stuff. I mean last time around, his first time around, when he won the surprise victory over Hillary Clinton, he was besieged by day one with impeachment, with Russia, Russia, Russia. He was totally distracted. He was on his back foot from the get-go.

He was barely clinging to office. If it wasn't for William Barr being brought in as emergency attorney general, he might have totally lost it. So I think that maybe it's because we need, you know, something to distract us, but that's what this is.

[18:05:01]

This is just distraction. Keep focused on his poll numbers. I think it's important that he is going to be the nominee, but I also think that he is much more preoccupied with the 91 indictments, the four serious criminal cases that he faces. These are the things that he has to sort through, and I really do believe he wants to be president so he can pardon himself, at least from the federal charges, Jim.

ACOSTA: Olivia, you were in the Trump administration. Do you remember it the same way Geraldo does?

TROYE: Absolutely not. I mean, look, I know the Republicans on the Hill who were upset when Trump would say he was going to do something and then he'd go do it, and then there would be phone calls to Mike Pence's office saying, hey, you know, the farm hands that are being sort of picked up right now off our fields right now, we need them. We need those immigrants here. They are hardworking people. Or how about those times when people would call up when he'd get into a conflict, when he'd be promising libertad to Venezuela, right?

Remember that phrase? Where we were going to -- liberty to Venezuela, and then one day he woke up and decided that he didn't like the oppositional candidate to Maduro, he didn't like Guaido, and so he just woke up on the wrong side of the bed and went off on that. And the next thing we know, we were withdrawing our plans and trying to scramble to figure that out. And there are Republicans on the Hill who are now saying, oh, don't take his rhetoric seriously, who were equally scrambling and panicking on what was happening here to the Republican agenda. So I take these threats seriously, because I've seen them. I've seen

what he does firsthand. And I've seen, you know, Jim, I saw when you got kicked out of the press room and attacked and your press pass was revoked as media. What happened to freedom of the press? I know what is coming. So, yes, we can sit here and say that it's alarmist, but there are those of us who lived it, who saw this firsthand, who are incredibly concerned.

And those checks and balances held because there were people in positions who weren't willing to compromise themselves, who really took their oath seriously, and who took their service seriously. Those people won't be there anymore. It will be a circle of enablers. They're planning to install these enablers that will be a bunch of loyalists. And then the people in the federal government will also be in fear because they also know that there's retribution. They know what a Trump administration is like. So, look, I unequivocally think that we should be concerned.

ACOSTA: Yes. You know, Geraldo, I mean, there's also January 6th. I mean he did try to overturn the last election. Isn't that what dictators try to do? They try to overturn elections.

RIVERA: But that's what we should focus on.

ACOSTA: I mean he's already been behaving like a dictator.

RIVERA: That's what we should focus on.

TROYE: Yes.

RIVERA: Well, on January 6th, he revealed after two months of similar buildup to this process that he's willing to stab the Constitution in the back to achieve his goal of staying in office. That's what we should be focused on. We should be focused on all of those Republicans who, after January 6th, closed ranks like Kevin McCarthy. On January 6th, he was appalled by Donald Trump's conduct.

As time went on, a couple of days, a week at most later, he shows up -- Kevin McCarthy does -- in Mar-a-Lago, you know, hat in hand. Mr. President, how can I help you? And then the entire Republican Party virtually, maybe not Mike Pence or Olivia, his former aide, but the entire Republican Party had enforced voluntary amnesia. They forgot how Donald Trump behaved on January 6th. They forgot that he tried to impede the constitutional order.

And yet he is still overwhelmingly the Republican probable nominee for the presidency of the United States. How can that happen? How can all of America be complicit in this scandalous conduct, Jim?

ACOSTA: Well, I mean, that is a big question. That gets into a lot of what is going on in American society these days where you would have folks applauding this sort of stuff. But the other thing, Geraldo, I mean, last night he also talked about his love for a gangster you've heard of before, Al Capone. Let's listen to this and talk about it on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I always say Al Capone, the greatest of them all, gangster, he would kill many, many people. He was probably the greatest gangster of them all. He got indicted one time. I got indicted four times.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Now, Geraldo, for our younger viewers, they may not remember this, but you famously investigated the legendary gangster Al Capone.

RIVERA: I did.

ACOSTA: You went into his vaults in Chicago, and it was a made for TV moment, no question about it. Why does Donald Trump seem to idolize Al Capone?

RIVERA: I can't answer that, although you bring up a deep sense of nostalgia in me looking at myself.

ACOSTA: There you are. Yes.

RIVERA: I had the highest rated syndicated show in the history of television, humiliating myself and the United States and 16 other countries when the vault proved to be empty. But this is just more flamboyant rhetoric from the former president.

ACOSTA: But people remember it.

[18:10:05]

RIVERA: And people remember it and it is the record holder. And I'm not embarrassed by it, nor am I embarrassed by my former friendship with Donald Trump when I look back on it. He is what he is. If people want to vote for him, they have to know that they are absolutely allowing someone who flaunted his opposition to the Constitution of the United States. They want that person to be president. What has happened is there's been a normalization of --

(CROSSTALK)

ACOSTA: Yes. But you don't want to be friends with somebody who tried to overturn an election? I mean, not to cut you off. You said I'm not embarrassed by my friendship with Donald Trump.

RIVERA: Absolutely not. I don't want people to vote for him. I want people to recognize this happened.

ACOSTA: How could you be friends with somebody who wants to overturn elections and wants to be a dictator and idolizes Al Capone? Why would anybody want to be friends with someone like that?

RIVERA: Well, we are -- we've been estranged since the 13th of November of 2020. We've not spoken, nor will we because I am absolutely opposed to him.

ACOSTA: OK. RIVERA: But I believe that people have to wake up and stop, you know,

being alarmist. We've got to fight. You've got to -- we have to understand what the odds are, what the stakes are, what the choices are when you have Joe Biden on the one hand and Donald Trump on the other. People have to be clear-eyed about this. What's going to happen? Look what happened -- just one brief PS.

Look what happened to the Supreme Court of the United States because people lost sight of what was really important. They went for these phony impeachments over Russia, Russia, instead of paying attention to the process by which Donald Trump stuffed the federal judiciary, including the Supreme Court of the United States, to profound consequence, Jim.

ACOSTA: What do you think, Olivia?

TROYE: Look, I mean, yes, I agree with Geraldo. Like Republicans shouldn't forget what happened in the aftermath and what led to January 6th, but here we are. I mean it's about preservation of power, and they are all going to fall in line with him. I mean, you have Kevin McCarthy who has already flipped, and he's like looking for a position in Trump's Cabinet. I mean, I think this is the direction that they're all going to go in.

And where it lead? I mean, look, we can't predict the future or what's going to happen in 2024, but I do believe it is going to take all of us, whether you are a conservative Republican who disagrees with Trump, like all of us are going to have to come together and stand against this because I do believe that Trump will be the nominee. And I do think that whether -- if he's not in jail, which I don't know, he seems to be like Teflon Don. Nothing seems to stick here. Then I do think that it will be a tough election, and we will all have to vote against this man.

ACOSTA: And just finally, Geraldo, I mean, I have to get your quick take on this. I mean, Trump, it sounded like he was going to be testifying tomorrow at this civil fraud trial in New York. And then out of nowhere on Sunday afternoon, we find out he's not doing it. What do you think?

RIVERA: I think that if I were his attorney, I would have grabbed him by the ankle if I had to. I would have put him in a headlock if I had to. I would have kidnapped him if I had to, to prevent him from testifying. Nothing good happens when someone as controversial and as glib and as undisciplined as the former president takes the witness stand under oath, for goodness' sake. I think that he could seal the deal.

Not that I have -- I'm an absolute critic of Letitia James, the attorney general of New York state. I think she's very opportunistic, very ambitious. She killed Andrew Cuomo because she wanted to run for governor. She announced her candidacy the day after Andrew Cuomo resigned from the governorship. I think that going after Trump on this basis, a landlord inflating values and so forth, this does not belong in a case of this nature. This should have been negotiated, arbitrated. They could have paid more taxes if he had to. But every -- if you find a landlord in New York --

ACOSTA: Well, he probably has -- he probably shoulders some of the blame of that. I mean, he probably could have worked out a deal if he were of that mind-set. But of course he doesn't think that there's anything wrong with anything that he's done.

RIVERA: Well, I do, and I think it's unfortunate, and I think we've normalized impeachments. We've normalized criminal cases against former presidents. I think that toxic politics is where the United States is right now. People better be clear-headed about what's going to happen in November of next year. Joe Biden may be boring, but he certainly is a positive alternative to former President Donald Trump.

ACOSTA: All right. Geraldo, always interesting to have your take on things. Olivia, great to have you on as well. Guys, much appreciated. And thanks for the trip down memory lane just a little bit there. Hope you didn't mind that, Geraldo. Thanks a lot, guys.

RIVERA: Not at all.

ACOSTA: Good to see you. All right, thanks a lot. All right.

In the meantime, we want to turn to what is taking place in the state of Tennessee. Deadly tornadoes ripping through parts of Tennessee this weekend.

[18:15:06]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Got into our safe place, and the next thing I know, all you hear is stuff started flying. Glass is breaking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: A look at the damage and how survivors are trying to recover. Plus fallout from the congressional antisemitism hearing. A donor who stopped giving to the University of Pennsylvania will join us live with his reaction.

Stay with us. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: The spotlight is now on the presidents of Harvard and MIT after a major shake-up at the University of Pennsylvania. Liz Magill resigned from her position as the head of UPenn yesterday after what some called shameful testimony before Congress. Today more than 300 Harvard faculty members signed a petition supporting their president, Claudine Gay, urging officials to resist calls for her removal.

[18:20:07]

And joining me now is venture capitalist David Magerman. He's a former donor of UPenn. He pulled his donations from the university back in October over UPenn's timid response to the October 7th attacks by Hamas.

David, welcome back to the program. Great to have you on. I knew we were going to be talking about this again. I did not know that the president of Penn would be stepping down and the chair of the Board of Trustees. What do you make of these weekend resignations? Do they go far enough?

DAVID MAGERMAN, DIFFERENTIAL VENTURES CO-FOUNDER AND MANAGING PARTNER: I've said all along -- thanks for having me by the way.

ACOSTA: Yes.

MAGERMAN: I've said all along that I don't think that firing anybody is going to solve any problem. I think that Liz Magill is an employee of the university, and she was doing their bidding and doing Scott Bok's bidding and the board's bidding when she testified before Congress. I think she could use an acting coach, but I don't think that anything she said was out of line with what the university believes, and I don't think that replacing her with someone else is going to change anything unless there's a fundamental change in the mission of the school as they're executing it.

ACOSTA: Well, and David, that leads me to this question, which is, I mean, did these actions this weekend sort of allay your concerns to the point where you're going to start donating money to the school again? Are you talking to other donors about all of this? And what are you hearing from the donor community?

MAGERMAN: This does nothing to change my views about the university. I think the antisemitism issue is certainly real at hand, but it's not the issue. The issue is really that there's a culture war going on on American campuses, and right now because of the war and because of the pervasiveness of antisemitism, it's one of the symptoms of the problem. But there's a serious problem between the liberal missions of these schools and the actual -- what the actual mission should be of educating young people to become leaders in the country.

And nothing that's happened with Scott Bok resigning or with Liz Magill being fired -- I mean resigning, none of that is going to affect my opinion of the school.

ACOSTA: And our Fareed Zakaria was making some of these same points earlier today on CNN. He's been sharply critical of a lot of universities who have gotten too involved, too embroiled in politics. What would you like to see take place? How should the dialogue change? Should politics be discussed on college campuses? Obviously politics is going to come up. That's been coming up since -- I mean since universities have been in their existence and certainly since the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s. I mean, that really got things going in terms of political debate on college campuses. But how should the dialogue change? What needs to happen?

MAGERMAN: I don't think that it's an issue of dialogue. I think it's an issue of mission. The elite universities in America have changed their mission from being meritocracies or at least modified meritocracies that try to educate future leaders into institutions that are looking to elevate what they perceive as the oppressed over the oppressor and helping through affirmative action, through DEI initiatives, trying to bring people that they feel have been underserved by America into positions of having access to education, which is, I guess, a fine mission.

But it's not a mission that I think they should have, and it's not the kind of institution I want to support or have the children of my community go to. So I think it's not an issue of changing the conversation. I think it's an issue of changing the venues with which we use to educate our children. The actions we should take is moving our children out of these institutions. The faculty members who don't like the missions of these schools should leave and go places where they feel like they're going to be doing more good with their services.

And our donors should be moving their donations to institutions that are not godless, that are not, you know, representing this kind of new ideology.

ACOSTA: David, are there universities that you see out there in the country that are doing it the way you would like to see it done where perhaps the university leadership at a particular school is not getting as involved in politics or is not doing some of the things that you were just talking about? I mean, I can hear some of our viewers now saying, well, hold on a second. There should be opportunities provided for at-risk college students, students who need opportunities to get ahead and so on.

You can't really paint these things with a broad brush. Is there an institution that you would point to and say, OK, I think this school is doing it right?

MAGERMAN: Well, I think there are ways of achieving those goals. I certainly agree that there should be schools whose missions -- you know, who have that mission. But I don't think that it needs to be a school that I support if they're going to exclude and denigrate people in my community.

[18:25:07]

There's ways of doing these things. And when you see the university when the war first started collected signatures from schools that were looking to support a statement that you see the university made supporting Israel unequivocally and calling out Hamas for the evil that they represented. And it was interesting the universities that signed on to that. Historically Black Colleges, Christian universities, some other universities in what we call red states.

Almost no universities in blue states except for Brandeis University, which joined in. But if you look at the list of universities that signed on to that letter, that's a starting point for identifying the kinds of schools that are willing to stand up, call out evil, and represent values unequivocally.

ACOSTA: Yes. Well, I think there's a lot of agreement that the way President Magill handled things at that congressional hearing the other day was just not anything that folks are going to be able to stomach and continue to support these kinds of institutions that are under fire right now, under some sharp criticism right now.

David Magerman, thanks as always. I suspect we'll be talking about this issue again. Thanks very much for your time. We appreciate it.

MAGERMAN: Thank you.

ACOSTA: All right. And new details about the damage from the deadly tornadoes that hit Tennessee are coming in, including how some military families have been directly impacted. We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:30:39]

ACOSTA: In Tennessee, at least six people are dead including a toddler after severe storms tore across the state late yesterday. Powerful tornadoes started fires, snapping power lines and damaging hundreds of buildings. And now we've learned that nearly 100 military families have been displaced. They live near the army's Fort Campbell in Kentucky. The same weather system is now moving east, placing millions of Americans under threat of severe weather.

Let's go to CNN's Rafael Romo joining us in the hard-hit neighborhood of Madison, Tennessee, outside of Nashville.

Rafael, what a mess there. What can you tell us?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's a good way to describe it, Jim. What a mess. And we have seen for ourselves the devastation caused by this powerful series of tornadoes on Saturday afternoon. Many families who had to leave their homes because they have been told that they're structurally unstable. We have seen throughout the day families trying to come back to recover, to salvage whatever they can.

But the reality is that there's very little left. As you can see behind me, there are many power lines that are down, many trees as well, trees that fell on top of houses, and a community that is trying to recover, taking the very first steps to recover from this devastation. Earlier I had an opportunity to talk to a couple of parents. They had come back here trying to rescue some of the things that her daughter, a 30-year-old, had left behind because she was so shaken, she couldn't come back herself. This is what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JULIA DESPAIN, TORNADO SURVIVOR: Everything just shook up. Everything. She lost the side of her house, all her furniture, all the bedroom, downstairs, upstairs, but she is a tiny 5'3", 115-pound respiratory therapist and she held on to the door as much as she could as it shook up.

JOHN DESPAIN, TORNADO SURVIVOR: Half the house was just blown away. So just family and friends just got together and all these wonderful people out here, and just to try to gather her memories and help her get a fresh start again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: And Jim, restoring power to this area is going to be a challenge. There are still 26,000 customers without power. The local utility says that they restored power to 18,000 customers earlier, but officials say it's going to take not a matter of hours but days before they can fully reconnect everybody who lost power during the storms.

Jim, back to you.

ACOSTA: All right. It's going to be a long rebuilding process for residents there. Rafael Romo, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

Coming up, the families of some Americans detained overseas are in Washington. They have a message for President Biden, and some of them will join us live next.

Stay with us. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:37:39]

ACOSTA: It's been a year since American basketball star Brittney Griner was released from Russia after being wrongly imprisoned for nearly 10 months. This week she thanked supporters and emphasized there are still Americans wrongfully detained abroad. The group Bring Our Families Home is also making sure that their loved ones are not forgotten and seeking to keep up the pressure on the Biden administration for some kind of breakthrough.

Three members join us now. Harrison Li, Kay Denman, and Aida Dagher. They all have relatives being held in foreign countries right now. And of course we want to highlight what they're going through, especially during the holidays right now. It must be just so difficult.

Kay, let me start with you. I know your group is hoping to meet one- on-one with President Biden. Tell us about your story. What's happening?

KAY DENMAN, SON LUKE DENMAN HELD IN VENEZUELA: Well, we do want to meet with President Biden. I have my son, Luke, and also Erin Berry, they were together in -- not even in Venezuela, but they were captured and brought into Venezuela three and half years ago, a long time. Holidays are awful. The birthdays are worse. People know how I feel about my son, and now I have another adopted son, Aaron, who we have to get them home.

ACOSTA: Yes.

DENMAN: And that is our main purpose in life right now is to get our loved ones home. And not only do I want mine home, but, you know, I've gotten to know Harrison and all these hostage families, and we are just so close. We're going to look out for each other and get them all home. ACOSTA: Yes. And Harrison, I see all of you are holding these

Christmas ornaments, Christmas tree ornaments that have pictures of your loved ones on the ornaments to highlight what all of you are going through.

Harrison, tell us about your situation, what's happening with your family.

HARRISON LI, FATHER KAI LI HELD IN CHINA: Yes. So my father is Kai Li. He's been wrongfully detained in China since 2016, so since the time that our current president was vice president. And, you know, we're here because we just don't want our loved ones to be forgotten. You know, this is going to be the eighth Christmas that I'm going to have to spend without my dad, and that is just -- it's just unacceptable.

And we're just calling on President Biden not to forget us, and to show that he cares about us. The least he could do is meet with us and, you know, use the tools to bring them home. And you know, he's shown that he can do it.

[18:40:08]

You know, as you said, Jim, I mean we saw Brittney Griner come home. We've seen dozens of Americans come home under his watch, but we need him to finish the job. We need him to remember that there are still people like my dad and Mark Swidan and David Lin all who have been held in China for, you know, eight years, for 11 years, for 16 years now.

ACOSTA: Wow.

LI: And you know, we keep getting the runaround from people in the administration. But, you know, there's really no excuse because, you know, they've shown it can be done, and, you know, that's just why we're here. And these ornaments are just here to remind the president so that our loved ones are not forgotten.

ACOSTA: And Aida, you're going through this as well. Tell us your story.

AIDA DAGHER, BROTHER-IN-LAW ZACH SHAHIN HELD IN UAE: Yes. It's my brother-in-law, in fact, Zach Shahin. He's been maybe the longer serving hostage or prisoner or whatever you want to call him. He's been there since 2008.

ACOSTA: Where?

DAGHER: In Dubai.

ACOSTA: In Dubai.

DAGHER: Dubai jail. He's an American citizen. He worked for PepsiCo in Houston. They sent him on an assignment to Dubai. A few years later, he was head-hunted by a local real estate company. He became the CEO, and all of a sudden in 2008, he got arrested, and he had two children and his wife. They were left. She had to raise them for the last 16 years.

My sister is a broken lady. She wanted to be here, but she's really totally broken. She's so loyal to her husband, carrying the phone all the time. She can't call him. Just in case he calls her, she takes it with her even to the shower. So finally it's a long, long story, you know, and we don't have the time to say it all.

ACOSTA: Kay, have you gotten any glimmers of hope, or has this been just a long wait of just not getting a lot of answers?

DENMAN: We don't get a lot of answers. About two or three times now, there have been people come home from Venezuela. The Citgo Six were the famous. Then Matthew Heaves. And we all expected for us to get the phone call, too, but it never came. They have not unlawfully given them the title of unlawfully detained, so it just seems like they're not doing anything for our boys.

Our guys are retired or special forces. They're veterans that fought for the country. They love their country, and I feel like their country has just turned their back on them. What else can we do? We personally cannot go to Venezuela to help our children.

ACOSTA: Yes.

DENMAN: We have to depend on them, and they hardly even talk to us.

ACOSTA: And these are all totalitarian regimes that are holding your relatives in separate countries.

DENMAN: Yes.

ACOSTA: Harrison, what about you? Any signs of progress? Anything that you can hold on to?

LI: Yes. I mean, what Secretary Blinken in his one call with our family personally promised me in July that he was looking for substantive progress by the time President Xi came to San Francisco for the APEC Summit. That happened three weeks ago now, but it doesn't seem like we're any closer. I mean, you know, we keep asking, you know, what is the update. What's going on? But all we keep getting is the runaround. So, you know, we need answers. We're sick and tired of hearing, you know, expressions of sympathy.

ACOSTA: We're working on it.

LI: We're working on it, you know, or there's no higher priority than the safety and security of Americans wrongfully detained overseas. I mean, look, that's a line that I get nightmares about now because --

ACOSTA: You've heard it too much.

LI: We've heard it just too many times, and it's just so empty. It's so meaningless.

ACOSTA: Aida, what more can be done? DAGHER: First let me clarify. Zach is in jail because of a financial

crime. He's not a terrorist. He didn't kill anybody. He didn't do anything. And I don't want to go through the details of the case.

ACOSTA: Yes.

DAGHER: But after 16 years, you know, his daughter and his son recently got married a few months ago. He couldn't be here. And just as Kay said, you know, he wasn't in all these occasions. He got physically and mentally sick. We're really worried about him to die any time there. As a result, after 16 years, just a few months ago in March, the State Department, I believe, or anyway the U.S. government submitted a humanitarian request to the UAE government, asking them, you know, to release Zach on medical grounds, and nothing happened.

We know that some senior officials are working on it. They've talked to us, and we appreciate that. But nothing happened, and time is of the essence.

ACOSTA: It sounds like it, yes. For all of you.

DAGHER: We really want President Biden and Secretary Blinken to interfere. I mean Dubai is an allied country. The UAE is an allied country.

[18:45:02]

It's easier than other countries supposedly. So we're really appealing to them to do something, to make it a priority. This is a human life, you know. Physically and mentally he is not OK.

ACOSTA: And I do want to ask about this bureau in Georgetown, in D.C., here in Washington, called Freedom's Alley for Americans held overseas. As you can see, our viewers can see, it's in a state of disrepair right now. As we were discussing before we came on with this segment, it is a symbol of how long you all have been waiting. Is that right, Harrison?

LI: That's absolutely right. I mean, you know, we put this mural up almost 18 months ago now. And as you can see on the screen, you know, the faces are crumbling. But, you know, you have to remember that at the same time, you know, these are real people who are actually crumbling physically, mentally, emotionally, financially. It just --

ACOSTA: These families -- you're crumbling.

LI: Yes.

ACOSTA: Your families are crumbling.

LI: That's not even to mention the family and friends and the whole village that sort of toppled because of the absence of our loved ones. And so, you know, taking this down is not a happy moment, right? I mean, it's just another painful reminder to us of just how long it's been and that the fight is not over for our loved ones. And, you know, at the least the president could do is come meet with us and just hear our stories.

ACOSTA: Absolutely.

DAGHER: We've requested meetings, but we're still waiting.

ACOSTA: Especially during these holidays when it must be so, so difficult. Well, I hope when we see that mural, that image that we were just showing a few moments ago, it would be great to see that replaced with maybe a triumphant mural of all of your relatives coming home.

DAGHER: Wow. That would be great.

ACOSTA: That's what we need to see over there in Washington, instead of this. But thank you so much, Harrison, Kay, Aida. Really appreciate --

DAGHER: If I could say one word?

ACOSTA: Please. Absolutely.

DAGHER: I would like -- if the word could reach the president of the UAE, I mean, they are known for very good values that have been inherited from the late Sheikh Zayed (PH), so if they support all the humanitarian causes in the world, this is a humanitarian case in their own country.

ACOSTA: Yes.

DAGHER: A man is dying there. Please send him home alive. Alive, not in a coffin. That's all I say.

ACOSTA: Absolutely. Well, with that, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

DAGHER: Thank you.

ACOSTA: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:51:56]

ACOSTA: An icon, a champion, a trailblazer, Billie Jean King is all that and so much more. And CNN anchor and chief political correspondent Dana Bash spent some time with King talking about her career, the twists and turns of her personal life, and her fight for equality. You'll see it tonight at 10:00 on CNN in the premiere of "BEING BILLIE JEAN KING." And here's Dana with a preview.

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Jim, we know her as a tennis champion, but Billie Jean King is so much more. In the latest episode of our "BEING" series I spent time with the legend who 50 years ago led the way for equal prize money at the U.S. Open. She won that famous battle of the sexes tennis match and changed not just her sport but the world for women. And last month she turned 80 years old. She's very candid about that

and also revealed to me one goal she never achieved yet. Running for office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: I heard you say that maybe you should have run for office.

BILLIE JEAN KING, TENNIS CHAMPION AND EQUAL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: After the King-Ricks match I think everybody in the country would have known my name. For a lot of politicians you can't get through the clutter of people even knowing who they are.

BASH: Is it something that you wanted to do?

KING: I think if I did not have sports I would have gone to law school and definitely tried to be president of the United States. Why not?

BASH: 80 is apparently not something that is disqualifying to be president. So that's possible.

KING: That's another thing. I have experienced ageism now, too.

BASH: Really?

KING: Yes. And it's not fun.

BASH: How so?

KING: Just people kind of giving up on you. They don't think you're any good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Jim, she is still going at it. Incredibly strongly. She's working on various projects still. Still pushing for women in other sports. Ice hockey league. She's still working of course on issues with equality. And also she's quite candid about things that happened in her past that made it hard for her, like the fact that she was gay. She was outed. And she had to deal with that very much in the public eye.

But she said that at this point she is proud to say that she is gay. She knows who she is. She's so honest and raw about her personal life but also what it takes to be a champion. And we went to the U.S. Open. She actually ran into Coco Gauff there before Coco Gauff became a champion there at just 19 years old.

You're going to want to see that interaction. It was amazing to watch, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Don't want to miss it. Don't miss the premiere of "BILLIE JEAN KING" -- "BEING BILLIE JEAN KING" tonight at 10:00 Eastern and Pacific only on CNN. Make sure you tune in to that.

In the meantime new tonight, Ukraine's president making an urgent trip to the White House this coming week. His request to Congress and the White House, all of that, we'll talk about that in just a few moments, coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:59:25]

ACOSTA: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington. Good evening.

Tonight President Biden is intensifying pressure on Congress to provide badly needed aid to Ukraine. The White House announcing this evening that for the third time since the start of the war President Zelenskyy will meet with President Biden in Washington on Tuesday.

The high-stakes visit comes at a critical juncture in congressional negotiations over foreign aid after Senate Republicans blocked an emergency funding package last week, demanding that any spending bill include immigration reform.

We begin the hour with CNN's Kevin Liptak in Los Angeles where the president is wrapping a weekend fundraising tour.

Kevin, this came as a surprise to a lot of folks here in Washington that Zelenskyy is coming to town. But this visit is very important.