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Iran's President Ebrahim Raisi Involved In Helicopter Crash; Biden Delivers Commencement Speech At Morehouse College; Star Witness Michael Cohen Resumes Testimony Tomorrow; National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan Meet With Benjamin Netanyahu; Trapped Cargo Ship In Baltimore Set To Refloat To Terminal Tomorrow; Sean "Diddy" Combs Apologizes For 2016 Hotel Assault Of His Former Girlfriend; CNN Political Commentator Alice Stewart Dies At 58. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired May 19, 2024 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:02:11]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello again. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield, and we have this breaking news that we're following for you.

Iranian authorities say they've now detected the exact location of a helicopter that crashed with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on board. That's according to Iranian state news. Rescuers have struggled to locate the crash site because of fog and bad weather. It is also now nighttime in the mountainous region in Northern Iran.

We've got full coverage of this developing story. Let's get to CNN's Nic Robertson first.

Nic, this appears to be a big step toward actually reaching the crash site that they were able to locate it.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It does. But I think there were a couple of caveats here and of course this is what we've been listening to through the afternoon from Iranian officials. That, number one, you've got the fog, you've got the rain, it's really cold. It's mountainous, it's rugged. There are forests there. But when you dive in and take a look at the mapping for that area, and now this sort of refined smaller area where we believe the helicopter went down, and what are the reasons we believe it went down in this particular area is because there were two other helicopters with it.

They lost contact with the president's helicopter. Now the authorities say that through a signal from the helicopter and a cell phone from a crew member on board the helicopter they have now got a more precise idea of where it is. But when you dive in and take a close look at the mapping, the nearest village, or the nearest town where we know that they're surging the rescue and recovery forces, you still have a whole big mountain range come down the other side, and then you have to go up into another mountain range and into the valleys there to get into the area where it's believed the helicopters located. So because they're not able to use the helicopters, because the

terrain is so tough, and because the weather was so bad with the fog, just getting, even getting to this place that they think the helicopter is at is going to be tough. There was another clue that government officials have gotten from the site and that was earlier they said that they had made contact with one of the crew members from the flight and one of the passengers.

They've been able to reach them a couple of times during the last 10 hours while the helicopter has been missing, and the indication from these two was that the crash perhaps wasn't as bad as initially anticipated. So it's really not clear how the helicopter is lying in the land, how the debris field is scattered, how well have people may have survived it, and then how long that they can hold on with injuries, if they have injuries, in those very cold conditions.

[16:05:01]

But the bottom line here is, even though the authorities now say they know the site where the mountain is, with a medics, with the army, with the police, with everything they bring into bear at it, it's still could be a little bit of time before they actually get in there and can get close to the site.

WHITFIELD: All right. Nic, thank you so much.

CNN's Kevin Liptak is traveling with President Biden in Detroit where he'll have a speaking engagement there at the NAACP dinner.

So what do we know about the briefing the president received on this?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly it was an early briefing that the president received of course details still scant from the ground there. We did learn from the press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre as President Biden was flying from Atlanta here to Detroit that he had received that briefing, but certainly I can tell you, Fredricka, people in the White House, State Department, all watching this situation very, very closely, certainly for the ramifications it would have on the ground in Iran, but also adding another level of volatility to an already very uncertain situation in the Middle East.

And president Biden has, of course, been focusing on that situation intently. His National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan is in Israel today but certainly President Biden very, very focused on a situation on which details are still coming in -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Kevin, thank you so much.

Let's go to a Pentagon correspondent Oren Liebermann now.

The U.S. is monitoring this very closely.

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely of course. But we have seen no public statements and that's not a surprise. First, we don't know exactly what happened. Second, the U.S. doesn't want to be seen as involved in this in any way. So for the U.S. right now monitoring it from the White House, the State Department, the Pentagon. But no public comments we have seen to this point.

The U.S. of course has history with Ebrahim Raisi, going back to at least when he was a big name, 2019. That's when he was put under sanctions. He was the head of the judiciary at that point and oversaw, according to the State Department, the execution of juveniles. And then when he became the president of Iran several years later, it made him the first elected president of Iran to be under U.S. sanctions. Since then, he has taken a much more hardline position than his predecessor, Hassan Rouhani, who was viewed as much more of a moderate.

Raisi has more of an anti-West, anti-U.S. position. And we've certainly seen him grow closer to Russia over the course of the past couple of years since the beginning of the Ukraine war. He's also considered very close to Iran's supreme leader, the Ayatollah Khamenei. Even viewed as a possible successor to the current supreme leader of Iran. So that tells you where his positions are.

Now, it was at the beginning of the Biden administration as they tried to get back into and restart the Iran nuclear deal, the JCPOA, that they viewed Raisi's coming in and inauguration as a bad sign because of his hardline positions. And ultimately those negotiations fell apart. And yet it's worth pointing out that less than a year ago, last September, Iran's government and the U.S. were able to reach an agreement to secure the release of five American hostages in exchange for the unfreezing of $6 billion of Iranian funds. That was viewed as a major breakthrough. Quiet negotiations leading to that point.

And yet, Fredricka, it hasn't led to some major thaw. The relations between the U.S. and Iran indirect, because of course they don't have any diplomatic relations, still incredibly ice and cold.

WHITFIELD: All right. Oren Liebermann, Kevin Liptak, Nic Robertson, thanks to all of you. Appreciate it.

All right. Straight ahead this hour, President Joe Biden is in Detroit where he is set to address an NAACP dinner. This comes just hours after a commencement speech at one of the nation's most prestigious historically black colleges. His message to Morehouse graduates, next.

And later, Sean ""Diddy"" Combs is now apologizing on social media after a video exclusively obtained by CNN showed him hitting, kicking, and dragging his then girlfriend Cassie Ventura inside of a hotel back in 2016. How Ventura is responding to the post.

And just in to CNN, 11 people injured in a shooting in Savannah, Georgia. Details straight ahead.

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WHITFIELD: All right. News just in to CNN, police are investigating an overnight shooting in downtown Savannah, Georgia, that injured 11 people. It happened in Ellis Square just blocks from the city's riverfront. Several of the victims were transported to the hospital with gunshot wounds.

And new today, President Biden speaking directly to the next generation of American leaders. The president delivering the commencement address to graduates at Morehouse College in Atlanta, a historically black, all men's college. Biden highlighting the achievements of Morehouse alumni like Dr. Martin Luther King, Junior, while also addressing America's continued racial obstacles.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Faith asked you to hold onto hope, to move heaven and earth, to make better days. Well, that's my commitment to you. To show you democracy, democracy, democracy is still the way.

If black men are being killed on the streets, we bear witness. For me, that means to call out the poison of white supremacy, to root out systemic racism. I stood up for George -- with George Floyd's family to help create a country where you don't need to have that talk with your son or grandson as they get pulled over.

[16:15:10]

Instead of a trail of broken promises, we're investing more money than ever in black families and black communities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: During the ceremony, some graduates turning their backs to the president during his speech.

CNN's Arlette Saenz has more from today's historic visit to Morehouse College.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Fred, President Biden celebrated the next generation of black leaders here at Morehouse College's commencement, but he also took time to acknowledge the concerns of many young people about his handling of the conflict in Gaza.

While the president spoke several students took their chairs and turn them around, sitting with their backs towards the president in a sign of peaceful protests. The school's valedictorian actually addressed the issue of Gaza head on in his remarks, saying that there needs to be an immediate and permanent ceasefire in this conflict.

Now President Biden also took time to acknowledge the concerns, saying that he respects the right to peaceful protests, that these students need to make their voices heard, and that he is hearing their concerns. And he also tried to talk about what his administration has done to try to secure a ceasefire deal in Gaza. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BIDEN: What's happening in Gaza and Israel is heartbreaking. Hamas's vicious attack on Israel, killing innocent lives and holding people hostage. Innocent Palestinians caught in the middle of all this. Men, women, and children killed or displaced, in desperate need of water, food, and medicine. It's a humanitarian crisis in Gaza. That's why I've called for an immediate ceasefire -- an immediate ceasefire to stop the fighting.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: Bring the hostages home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now the president also during his remarks said that he's working towards a two-state solution, a moment that drew applause from the crowd, including one of those students at least who had turned their back to the president.

Now Biden also tried to use this speech to appeal to black voters, a key part of his constituency back in 2020 and one that he is trying to rebuild support with amid signs of some erosion in support. The president talked about efforts to try to fight back against white supremacy and racism in this country, while also calling out extremist actions, extremist views that have taken hold among some in the country.

The president tried to tout efforts that he has put in place to help black Americans like lowering insulin costs, canceling student debt. But it's clear that the president was trying to keep the focus on the students this week. With this commencement ceremony, he now is heading over to Detroit where he will speak at an NAACP dinner a little bit later this evening -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Arlette Saenz, thank you so much.

When we come back, Michael Cohen's cross-examination in Donald Trump's hush money trial in New York. It will continue tomorrow. What to expect next.

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[16:22:22]

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back.

Cross-examination of Michael Cohen resumes tomorrow. The defense indicates that it will likely finish before the morning break. Two other potential defense witnesses to take the stand include a Federal Election Commission expert witness and Michael Cohen's former attorney, Bob Costello, who repeatedly attacked Cohen's testimony under oath.

CNN reporter Marshall Cohen is joining me right now.

Marshall, what else can we expect tomorrow? MARSHALL COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Fred. Well, the end is near

where you can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel for this historic trial of former president Donald Trump. So as you mentioned, Michael Cohen, he'll be back on the witness stand tomorrow morning. The defense is in the middle of its cross-examination, trying to undermine his credibility, trying to convince the jury not to believe a word he said.

After the defense has done questioning Cohen the prosecutors, they'll get another bite at the apple. They can pose some friendlier questions to him and then after that, we think that the prosecution is going to rest. They've said that they don't have any other witnesses to call. It's been five weeks. They put on a lot of testimony and they are ready to wrap things up.

After that, Fred, the defense, they can put on a case, but remember, they don't have to. The burden is on the government to prove its case. The defense does not have to put any witnesses on the stand. And by the way, they have not yet definitively ruled out whether or not Trump is going to testify, though it's kind of hard to see that actually happening. And the judge has signaled that once that's all done, closing arguments might be happening as soon as Tuesday.

What this means, Fred, is that we might see some jury deliberations this week. It's another three-day workweek so the exact scheduling is not super clear. We'll have to see how it shakes out. But this thing is coming to a close -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. And also right up against the Memorial Day holiday weekend as well.

All right. Marshall Cohen, thank you so much.

Coming up, Iranian authorities say they have detected the crash site of the helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi after it went down in a remote part of the country. The latest on the rescue efforts.

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[16:29:20]

WHITFIELD: All right, we continue to follow breaking news at this hour. Iran state news is reporting Iranian officials now know the exact location of a helicopter that crashed with the country's president Ebrahim Raisi on board. Cold temperatures, fog, and nightfall have all made it challenging for search crews who have been at it now for 10 hours.

For more now on this development, I'm joined now by CNN senior national security analyst Juliette Kayyem and Jon Alterman, director of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Middle East Program.

Good to see both of you.

All right, Jon, you first. I mean, this seems to be a pretty sizable development but the terrain is still going to be a challenge.

[16:30:02]

What do we know about this area? How mountaineers, medics, search teams will be utilized?

JON ALTERMAN, SENIOR VP, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: It is pretty eroded all the way tucked into the upper left- hand corner of Iran near the Azerbaijan border. There aren't a lot of people. The whole province has about 50,000 people so there's not a lot of infrastructure. There aren't a lot of people to help out. An advantage for the government is that means there aren't a lot of pesky eyes looking around.

If they want to hold news in, they want to control the news, it's much easier in a place like this location than if it happened in a more populated area. It would be much harder to control the news.

WHITFIELD: And Juliette, our Oren Liebermann reported that the U.S. is monitoring the situation, but has to maintain a distance. What are the risks?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: We don't want to be any part of this if this was the result of, you know, the wind and the fog and a risky helicopter ride. I mean, in other words, the tensions are so high that we need to deescalate. There are going to be rumors about how this happened, and the United States cannot be seen as saying the wrong thing at all engaged, I will say.

So they're monitoring it. They are -- I know the E.U. and other entities have been helping with surveillance for the Iranians to try to find the helicopter in the news that we just got. And the third, and I think most important thing at least at this stage, is to remain quiet so that whatever is going to unfold can be de-escalated.

It's interesting to me, and I'd be curious, Jonathan, that the Iranians have really sort of lean forward on the fog and the weather, that there's not a lot of sort of state-sponsored conspiracy theories about what this is. And that strikes me as good for the overall tensions in the area.

WHITFIELD: And Jon, I mean, all day, you know, over the, you know, last 10 hours or so, Iran supreme leader has asked the country to pray while also saying there will be no interruption in government business. So speak to the cultural significance of saying those things.

ALTERMAN: I mean, the reality is that the president of Iran has much less power than the supreme leader. The supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who is 85, really has all the coercive elements of the state under his control. Raisi serves him, as does the foreign minister who's also on the plane, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian.

What I think is really significant here is that, first, you have a very unpopular government. The last I heard from a Western investor in Iran is maybe 10 percent of the population supports the government, but with Khamenei, 85 and reportedly ailing, Raisi was thought as a potential person who power would go to. So he was not powerful but could inherit power. If he's not able to inherit power, you could see some shifts within the Iranian power structure.

You could see people trying to move to seize power. I think I agree with Juliette, you don't want to make it seem like this was a U.S. plot, but I think you also, from the U.S. government perspective, have to be aware that this may be a week, two weeks a month where things are starting to shift and there are opportunities for things to capitalize on changes in Iran that will lead to greater security in Iran and in the region.

WHITFIELD: And Juliette, you touched on this, you know, the Iranian government have been known for trying to control the messaging.

KAYYEM: Yes.

WHITFIELD: Jon, I hear you loud and clear when you say, you know, they do have a penchant for a kind of secrecy.

So I wonder, Juliette, you know, what do you make of how transparent, if we can use that word loosely here, about this incident? You know, the country has been and will it remain, you know, with this kind of posture of trying to deliver some messaging out front, you know, talking about it could be the weather, weather was bad. How do you see this moving forward?

KAYYEM: It's fascinating for the leadership in particular, any Iranian leadership let alone Middle Eastern, that were actually following the search and rescue in real time. We are hearing from news sources, state news sources, that there was at least some contact by some survivors. We don't know who they are. There were two other helicopters with the one that went down. And so there's at least some knowledge of at least how it went down and how hard.

So everyone is going to keep assuming possibly at least for the next 12 or 14 hours that there might be some survivors and some of them may be the president. If not, then you start a very, very difficult transition, as Jon was saying, is a very unpopular government that Raisi was under state sanctions, under U.S. sanctions.

[16:35:05]

He's a horrible human being. I mean, people have to remember, this was a man who executed thousands of political prisoners but he was the president. And so that transition is going to unfold very, very quickly. And whether you get someone similar or someone like the previous president, Rouhani, who was more progressive in the scale of things, we don't know.

WHITFIELD: All right. Juliette Kayyem, Jon Alterman, thanks to both of you. Appreciate it.

KAYYEM: Thank you.

ALTERMAN: Thank you. WHITFIELD: All right. New today, National Security Adviser Jake

Sullivan meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Today's meeting follows talks between Sullivan and Saudi Arabian leaders yesterday. The U.S. is urgently trying to broker a deal that would lead to a ceasefire in Gaza and a return of Israeli hostages.

CNN's Scott McLean is following the developments from Istanbul.

Scott, Jake Sullivan, he's been shuttling between the Saudis and the Israelis. Do we know anything about any progress being made?

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Fredricka. Yes, obviously these meetings are important, but it doesn't appear that there are any signs that they're going to lead to any kind of imminent breakthrough. As you mentioned, Jake Sullivan met with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman yesterday and we know from the Saudi side of things at least that they discussed a pathway toward a two-state solution.

And the U.S. has long tried to normalize relations between the Israelis and the Saudis. But since the war began in October, the Saudis have made abundantly clear that that will not happen unless there is a credible irreversible path toward a Palestinian state. And yet just as recently as this weekend, you had the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu making very clear that he does not support the creation of a Palestinian state.

Today, Sullivan was in Israel. He met with the Israeli president. He met with the Prime Minister Netanyahu as well, and we have just gotten an update at least from the Israeli side about some of the things that they discussed. The situation on the northern border with Lebanon, the situation in Rafah, where of course we know that the U.S. has been urging the Israelis not to expand their campaign on the ground there, where you've had 800,000 or so people leaving the city already with very few good options of places to go.

They discussed humanitarian aid and they discussed the hostage situation as well, and getting a ceasefire deal. But at the moment, it does not appear that there's any kind of at least public facing talks happening. At last word, the Israeli had rejected Hamas's offer which was essentially a 12-weeks ceasefire. The Israelis, though, were only willing to agree to six and this seems to be one of the big sticking points here because Hamas does not want to agree to a deal that is anything less than a permanent ceasefire.

Three months is pretty close to that because the Israeli side felt that if there was a pause for that long, it would make it very difficult for them to go back to the battlefield after three months away -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. And Scott, Palestinian health officials are saying at least 35 people now died in an airstrike in Central Gaza overnight. What can you tell us about that?

MCLEAN: Fredricka, yes. So this took place in the Nuseirat Camp in Central Gaza, as you mentioned, and look, local people according to our stringer on the ground taking video of things said that this happened at 3:00 in the morning without warning, a massive explosion, one single explosion that managed to flatten some five houses in the area. And when you watch footage from the ground, you can see people digging through the rubble with barely more than their hands. They don't have any heavy equipment which makes the possibility of finding anyone alive in the rubble pretty remote.

The video shows bodies being pulled out, women and children. We also have video from the morgue where the floor is filled with bodies. Some are literally piled on top of one another. What the Israeli specifically were trying to hit we don't know. They would not comment other than insisting that they follow international law in their campaign to dismantle Hamas.

WHITFIELD: All right. Scott McLean in Istanbul, thanks so much.

All right, back in this country, in Baltimore, officials are preparing to refloat and transport the trapped cargo ship Dali to the Baltimore Marine Terminal. A look at the operation, next.

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[16:44:14]

WHITFIELD: It's been a two-month traffic nightmare after that deadly collapse of Baltimore's Francis Scott Key Bridge and now a step further in both the investigative and reconstruction effort. The cargo ship that slammed into the bridge, the Dali may soon be floated back to the city's marine terminal as early as tomorrow.

CNN national correspondent Gloria Pazmino has the latest on all this.

So, Gloria, walk us through the process.

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, everything about this has been massive in scale ever since the accident. Right here you have this massive ship that has been blocking the federal channel and now the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, along with other officials, are finalizing a plan to refloat the Dali and bring it back to the port, allowing for that channel to finally be cleared of the ship.

[16:45:06]

Now, this is a complicated operation, just like everything else they've done at the site of the crash. In fact, the crew members which remain on the Dali have been getting to work all day today, helping to prepare the ship to be refloated tomorrow. They have been dropping the anchors, picking up the mooring lines, emptying millions of gallons of water that were pumped into the Dali in order to help balance the weight of it from all of this cutting operations that were happening on top to help remove some of that debris.

And tomorrow morning, if all goes as planned at 5:00 a.m. that's when the peak of high tide will come in. The Dali will be escorted back into the Port of Baltimore. Five tugboats will be there to help drag it back to port and finally remove the ship from the channel. One thing that is important to highlight here, Fred, my colleague

Nicole Grether and I have been in touch with the International Transport Workers Federation, and they represent the crew that's been on the Dali. This entire time, more than two months now since the crash happened, they have been on board the ship. They are from India and from Sri Lanka, and the representatives tell us that they are becoming concerned and anxious with the length of time that they've been on this ship not only being trapped there, but, you know, there's all these other operations that have been happening around them.

So we are waiting to hear the plans for what's going to happen with the crew of the Dali once they arrive at port, but we are told that that is still being finalized -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: OK. Gloria Pazmino, thanks so much.

All right. Up next, Sean ""Diddy"" Combs is now apologizing on social media after a video exclusively obtained by CNN showed him hitting, kicking and dragging his then girlfriend, Cassie Ventura, inside of a hotel back in 2016. Now Ventura is responding.

Stay with us.

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[16:52:02]

WHITFIELD: A wildfire is threatening a national forest near Phoenix. This is video of Tonto National Forest in Chandler, Arizona. The fire was first reported Saturday morning. The National Forest Service says since then 5,000 acres have burned. Officials are asking people not to fly drones in the area while air tankers like this one are being used.

And Sean "Diddy" Combs is saying he's truly sorry and embarrassed two days after a video exclusively obtained by CNN shows him beating Cassie Ventura inside a hotel in 2016. We want to warn you the video is disturbing. Combs is seen shoving, kicking, and dragging his then girlfriend down the hallway. And now an apology from him on Instagram.

CNN's Veronica Miracle joins me now with more of what he posted on Instagram.

VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Fredricka. He says he is not asking for forgiveness, that he is trying to become a better man. We'll watch that full apology in just a moment, but I do want to acknowledge that this is the first time that Sean Combs has acknowledged this event. He has repeatedly denied allegations made by Cassie Ventura of assault, which is now the basis of a settled federal lawsuit from November.

Let's take a listen to his full apology.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN "DIDDY" COMBS, MUSIC MOGUL: So difficult to reflect on the darkest times in your life. Sometimes you've got to do that. I was (EXPLETIVE DELETED) up. I mean, I hit rock bottom. But I make no excuses. My behavior on that video is inexcusable. I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I'm disgusted. I was disgusted then when I did it. I'm disgusted now.

I went and I sought out professional help. I had to go into therapy, going to rehab. I had to ask God for his mercy and grace. I'm so sorry, but I'm committed to be a better man each and every day. I'm not asking for forgiveness. I'm truly sorry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MIRACLE: CNN was the first to get a statement from Cassie Ventura's team. They say in the statement that this is less about the victims that he hurt and more about Sean Combs. They go on to say that he was only compelled to apologize once his repeated denials were proven false, shows his pathetic desperation and no one will be swayed by his disingenuous words. That's the statement from Cassie Ventura's team from this morning.

Back to you, Fredricka.

[16:55:02]

WHITFIELD: All right. Veronica Miracle, thank you so much.

All right. For decades, researchers have tried and failed to come up with ways to treat Alzheimer's. But now there are new signs of hope.

CNN's chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta investigates in the documentary, "THE LAST ALZHEIMER'S PATIENT" premiering tonight. Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: In the five years of making this documentary.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The 20-year-old newlyweds.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's right.

GUPTA: I've met with patients all around the country who were diagnosed or at high risk for this devastating disease.

Do remember this time in your life, Mike?

It made me really start to think about my own brain. I have a family history of Alzheimer's as well. Sometimes I feel a little rusty. Sometimes I worry that I make mistakes that maybe my friends and family are too polite to tell me about.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're looking at your body composition.

GUPTA: So that's why I decided to do something quite personal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Your muscle mass, your body fat.

GUPTA: Quite revealing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That wasn't quite right.

GUPTA: I went through a battery of tests to assess my own risk.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just like we got a cholesterol tests every year and check your blood pressure, we do the same thing for the brain.

GUPTA: And what did I find?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll just say it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Sanjay Gupta's full documentary "THE LAST ALZHEIMER'S PATIENT" premieres tonight at 8:00 p.m. Eastern on "THE WHOLE STORY."

And we've got some sad news to share today. CNN political commentator and Republican strategist Alice Stewart died Saturday. She was 58. Alice Stewart was a longtime fixture on CNN on, and on this show, often appearing on our political panels.

CNN's Dana Bash takes a look back on Alice's life and her legacy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR AND POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Alice Stewart was a treasured member of the CNN family since 2016, a fixture on CNN's political panels for the better part of a decade, using her even tone to bring sharp insights and analysis to viewers regularly, drawing on years of her experience working on high-profile Republican campaigns.

She earned the respect of her peers as a conservative strategist, called on time and time again to support candidates and their causes and the ones she believed in. She brought a boundless well of energy to what's often grueling work in the trenches of national politics.

Alice's career started in journalism working in local news in her home state of Georgia, and as a news anchor in Little Rock, Arkansas.

ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Alice Stewart, I'm press secretary.

BASH: That's where she decided to move into politics, becoming a spokesperson for the state's then Governor Mike Huckabee. When he ran for president in 2008, she joined his campaign as press secretary, spending untold days and weeks trudging through the Iowa winter, helping deliver Huckabee's insurgent campaign of victory in the 2008 Iowa caucuses.

Years later, after joining two more presidential campaigns in the 2012 cycle, Michele Bachmann, then Rick Santorum, she returned to Huckabee's side for the 2016 run for the White House. After one last campaign for Ted Cruz in 2016, Stewart came to CNN.

STEWART: Even evangelicals that I talked to --

BASH: As a conservative commentator, Stewart joined her fair share of contentious debates on our air.

STEWART: -- forgive his past sins and say, as long as that's in the past let it stay in the past.

BASH: It's no secret that we live in a time of deep political division. Alice was never divisive. She was a fierce debater, but she prized civil discourse and walked the walk.

STEWART: The potential downfall of --

BASH: She stood her ground and expressed her point of view, but was never angry about it. Just Friday night, hours before her unexpected passing, she was on "THE SITUATION ROOM WITH WOLF BLITZER." Alice was always smiling her megawatt smile on camera and off. She was so kind and thoughtful, cutting flowers from her garden to bring to colleagues in the makeup room just to make their day a bit nicer. That was Alice.

Alice Stewart will be deeply missed and never forgotten. May her memory be a blessing.

Dana Bash, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Alice Stewart, always a class act on this show and in person. I always admired her grace and her fitness. She was an avid runner and she exhibited such fitness while out on runs, competing in races, and of course her fitness as a great strategist and always a reliable political commentator on CNN. We'll miss her.

Thanks so much for joining me today. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. The "CNN NEWSROOM" continues with Jessica Dean right now.

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