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Hero Pilots Speak Out; Renewed Concussion Concerns in NFL; Trump Refuses to Face Harris on Debate Stage Again. Aired 11:30a-12p ET
Aired September 13, 2024 - 11:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[11:30:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (R) AND CURRENT U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's too late anyway. The voting's already begun. You have got to go out and vote.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Fresh off a bruising 90-minute debate showdown, where former President Trump repeatedly took Vice President Kamala Harris' bait, he says he won't face off against her again.
Let's discuss the ramifications with CNN political commentator Maria Cardona and former RNC communications director Doug Heye.
Guys, thanks very much for joining us.
The poll immediately after the debate among those who watched the debate, as you know, Doug showed 53 percent thought -- of registered voters who watched the debate thought Harris won, 24 percent thought Trump won. Why won't he face her again?
DOUG HEYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well I don't know that he won't face her again.
BLITZER: He says he won't.
HEYE: Right. So many times Donald Trump says something. We often say in politics there's the rhetoric and the reality. Both parties put out those press releases and e-mails all the time.
The rhetoric right now is that he won't. It's not clear that he definitely won't face her. Donald Trump changes his tune quite often, and he doesn't get charged with flip-flopping the way that other politicians do. It's part of his Teflon persona. And if he feels a need to do it, he will do it.
He does raise one good point, though, and this has been consistent for the Trump campaign, that debates typically happen after people start voting. And we know we're voting earlier and earlier in this country. Alabama is already voting. North Carolina is right about to start voting, should have already. I think he does have a good point that we should have these debates before people start voting.
But I'd love to see him debate Kamala Harris again. I think it'd be both for good for both of them. He needs to prove that he can be that stable genius he keeps saying that he is, which he wasn't at the last debate. And Kamala Harris still needs to put meat on the bones and tell voters, here's who I am and here's what I want to do.
BLITZER: Should Kamala Harris and Maria keep pushing for a rematch?
MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think she can continue to talk about this because, look, Wolf, I think the reality is that he is scared to debate her again, he is scared of her.
And I think you saw it in a couple of ways. At the debate itself, when she came over to his side of the debate stage to shake his hand, I think that shook him to his core. The rest of the debate, he did not even look at her.
And I think that shows a couple things, that he's scared of her. But, at the same time, he has disdain for her. And so that, I think, demonstrated where his discombobulation started. And it was at the very beginning.
After that, the fact that he showed up in the spin room, that does not happen unless you really feel that you did badly in the debate. And then, thirdly, when have we ever seen Donald Trump shrink from a challenge? Never. And so the fact that he is saying, no, he doesn't want a debate, I think he's going to be the really proves that he's actually scared to do it.
But I agree with you, Doug. I...
HEYE: Well, he's skipped debates and talked about skipping debates in the past.
CARDONA: But I think -- but I agree with you. I think that if his team and he sees that he is losing this up and from -- any time from here up until November, I think he will actually change his mind.
If he's really losing in the polls that he believes in.
CARDONA: Right.
BLITZER: I know he's got a lot of polls out there.
(CROSSTALK)
(LAUGHTER)
CARDONA: That's right. And he's winning in all of them.
BLITZER: All right, Trump allies, as you know, Doug, on another issue, are increasingly concerned that far right provocateur and Trump confidant Laura Loomer may be pushing him further down conspiracy rabbit holes. She's promoted the lie that Haitian immigrants go out there in various
towns in Ohio and elsewhere and look for dogs and cats and other pets and kill them and eat their meat, suggested 9/11 was an inside job, it was all coordinated by the U.S. as an inside job, and is a self- described proud Islamophobe, white nationalist.
What do you make of the company Trump is keeping?
HEYE: It's a problem for the campaign. And we see this dichotomy and the struggle within the campaign. There are real pros, Bryan Lanza, Chris LaCivita, Susie Wiles, people who know what they're doing.
But there's also the Addams Family sort of part of Trump world that always is never far and seems to be getting closer and closer to him, and spouting not only bizarre conspiracy theories that are completely false, but also going to Ground Zero with Donald Trump on 9/11, on sacred ground on a holy day for America, is not only the wrong message or the wrong thing to do and the wrong message to send.
It also tells people that you're not focused on what you should be. And so if you're a Republican campaign or you're the state party of Arizona, which has put up billboards on these eating of cats and geese and all this, you're not talking about those issues that Kamala Harris is underwater on.
Talk about what people were paying at the grocery store. Talk about the situation at the border. Don't be your nine nonstandard deviations away from the border to what the truth is. And stay away from the pillow salesman and the Addams Family, Groovie Goolies that we see always sort of lurking around Trump world and getting closer and closer.
BLITZER: Groovie Goolies?
HEYE: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
HEYE: Go back to -- it's an '80s reference, yes.
(LAUGHTER)
BLITZER: All right. Good.
It's interesting, because, on another matter, the Trump campaign is now selling what they're calling Swifties for Trump merchandise after Taylor Swift actually endorsed Kamala Harris. What's the strategy here? Why are they doing that?
[11:35:03]
CARDONA: Well, because I think they're concerned about the effect that Taylor Swift will have in urging her followers to register to vote and then to go vote for Kamala Harris.
And, look, I know that a lot of people talk about that celebrities don't really have an effect, but she's not a normal celebrity, right? Other celebrities might move 10 people, 20 people, even 100 people. She can move 100 million people.
And so that is where I think the Trump campaign is really concerned, and they're trying to counter that in some way. We have already seen the registration numbers have completely skyrocketed. The interest in actually just going to register has skyrocketed ever since Taylor Swift has told her followers to go register to vote and then to support Kamala Harris.
So I think the Trump campaign is concerned. This is what they're trying to do to counter. I think the Kamala Harris campaign has got to continue to push voter registration, to push actually people coming out to vote. That's where I think this campaign is going to be won and lost.
BLITZER: You went to a Taylor Swift concert, so you understand the following she has.
(LAUGHTER)
HEYE: The power of the Swifties is significant. I wouldn't mess with them.
And, look, can she move mountains, per se? Not necessarily, but what we have seen with these early voting numbers are truly impressive, and that's her influence and how she will then raise money and how the Harris campaign will use her. I also think it's smart of the Trump campaign. Make some money off of this. Raise some money.
CARDONA: They need it.
BLITZER: She's got hundreds of millions of followers on Twitter and Instagram and everything else.
All right, guys, thank you very, very much, Maria and Doug.
CARDONA: Thanks, Wolf.
BLITZER: Coming up: new concerns about the safety of the NFL after the Miami Dolphins' quarterback suffered another concussion.
Our own Dr. Sanjay Gupta is joining us on changes to one of the game's most iconic plays and how potentially it could make a big difference in preventing head injuries.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:41:27]
BLITZER: My Buffalo Bill is getting a big win over the Miami Dolphins last night, but the victory was overshadowed by yet another very scary head injury to Dolphins quarterback, about Tua Tagovailoa.
CNN's Andy Scholes is joining us right now.
Andy, what do we know about Tua's condition right now? I'm worried about him.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes, certainly, a lot of people are, Wolf.
Dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel said Tua was in good spirits after the game, but just lots of concern about where Tua's career is heading and if it even continues at this point, because a couple of years ago we had one of the scariest moments in recent memory on a football field with Tua's hand seizing out there on the field after taking a hit to the head.
And then last night against the Bills, Tua on this play running for the first down, lowers his head, slams right into Damar Hamlin. Tua immediately went into a fencing response with his arms in an unnatural position. He was attended to on the field, was able to walk off on his own.
But this is Tua's third diagnosed concussion of his career. He has admitted in the past he's considered retirement due to concussions. His status moving forward now certainly unclear. But here was coach McDaniel this morning on the talk of Tua walking away from football.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE MCDANIEL, HEAD COACH, MIAMI DOLPHINS: I totally get how that's where people want to go to. I just wish that people would for a second hear what I'm saying, that bringing up his future is not in the best interest of him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Now, Tua did play all of last season, but in 2022 he had a series of concussion problems.
In week three against the Bills, he stumbled after a hit, but he was clear to return to that game, and the NFL Players Association actually ended up firing the independent neurologist that led Tua stay in that game. The very next week, Tua hit his head, and that's when his hand seized up on the field, and he was carted off with a concussion.
He would return two weeks later and would play until week 16, when he suffered another concussion against the Packers. Tua ended up missing the final two games of the season and the playoffs.
Now, as for the game last night, it was dominated by the Bills. James Cook, he ran for two touchdowns, caught another from Josh Allen. Miami actually controlled the time of possession and had more yards, but Tua threw three interceptions, including this pick six right here in the third quarter, before leaving the game.
The Bills beat the Dolphins for the 14th time in 16 games 31-10 there. Josh Allen after the game, Wolf, said that his thoughts were with Tua, he was praying for him, and he just talked about how good of a guy he is.
But players across the league -- or former players, I should say, Wolf, really saying today that Tua should take a real hard look at whether he should continue playing football.
BLITZER: Yes, I hope he's going to have a very speedy recovery. We're all praying for that right now.
Andy Scholes, thank you very, very much.
Tua's concussion has renewed concerns around the safety of football. And while the game will never be 100 percent safe, the NFL and leagues around the country, for that matter, have continued to work to try to make it safer.
CNN's chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, shows us how changes to one of the game's most dangerous plays could actually wind up making a big difference.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What you're watching is perhaps the most dangerous play in football, the kickoff.
DR. ALLEN SILLS, NFL CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER: It's space and speed. So if you think about where we're standing here, you've got players that are lined up in this case, maybe 50, 60 yards away from where we are. They're running down the field as fast as they can possibly run.
So, coming down the field at speed and then having collisions obviously is a driver for injury.
[11:45:03]
GUPTA: The NFL says, last season, concussions occurred four times more often on a kickoff than any other play.
It's exactly why Riverdale Country School in the Bronx wants to change the game.
JOHN PIZZI, ATHLETIC DIRECTOR, RIVERDALE COUNTRY SCHOOL: I sort of jokingly said to him, like, what I want to change football in America. Like, we need to figure this out.
GUPTA (on camera): Want to change football in America. It's pretty audacious.
PIZZI: Yes, I don't know if I actually realized what I was saying at the time.
GUPTA (voice-over): John Pizzi is the school's athletic director.
PIZZI: Yes, so, in 2018, we had 18 players left for the last game of our season. We had a bunch of concussions and a bunch of season-ending injuries. So we made a decision to cancel our last game.
But when that season ended, we had to figure out how we were going to manage the next football season. GUPTA: So, together with the Concussion Legacy Foundation, they
proposed something pretty radical, getting rid of the sport's most iconic play, no more kickoffs, no more returns. The beginning of their games now look like this. Play just starts at the 35-yard line.
And so far, Pizzi says they've seen a 33 percent decrease in concussions across the league, and, importantly, an 18 percent increase in participation.
Parents certainly liked the idea and it turns out so do the players. Like team captain Tristan Cornell.
TRISTAN CORNELL, CAPTAIN, RIVERDALE COUNTRY SCHOOL VARSITY FOOTBALL TEAM: I have talked to people. When I tell them that my school doesn't do kickoffs, they're like, oh, my gosh. That's one of the biggest parts of the game. How can you not do that?
But then I see all these injuries that happen from kickoffs, so the fact that we don't have that probably allows us to keep healthy and play throughout the entire season.
SILLS: It's a fascinating approach.
GUPTA: But the NFL's chief medical officer, Dr. Allen Sills, says the league is not yet ready to give up on the kickoff altogether.
SILLS: All options are on the table. I mean, I think that certainly the eliminating the play is one of those options, but I believe there are potentially other solutions. And I think that's our challenge, is, can we understand what's driving injury and, again, preserve the elements of the game?
Because people love the athleticism. They love the speed. They love the skill level that you see out there.
GUPTA: So, this year in the NFL, you're going to see a very different sort of kickoff, what they're calling a dynamic kickoff.
Now, again, previously, as soon as the ball was kicked, all 11 members of the kicking team would start sprinting down the field to try and tackle the receiving team. Lots of speed, lots of space.
This season, only the kicker is back here, while the opposing teams are lined up, all the way over here, separated by just five yards. And none of those players can move until the ball has been caught by the receiving team or it hits the ground. It reduces the speed and the space of the play.
It's what competition committee co-chairman Rich McKay says is one of the biggest rule changes in 30 years.
RICH MCKAY, NFL COMPETITION COMMITTEE, CO-CHAIRMAN: The problem is, is, we're trying to not just make this game better next year. We're trying to keep the game going for 10, 20, 30, 40. That's what our legacy is supposed to be.
And so you have got to look at health and safety and make sure that the numbers, when they tell you something, you do something.
GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, the Bronx, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: Very important report from our Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
Thank you, Sanjay, for that.
As a former high school football player myself, I can relate. It is so important to come up with some new rules to prevent these kinds of concussions and other head injuries.
We will be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:52:44]
BLITZER: Today, the FAA is investigating yet another close call at an airport runway in Nashville.
An Alaska Airlines crew was forced to break so suddenly when a Southwest flight taxied across the same runway, that they reported blown tires. In some of these cases, it's the pilots who prevented incidents from turning deadly.
Pete Muntean has CNN's exclusive interview with two of them who stopped this disaster in Austin, Texas, with only feet to spare.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ROBERT BRADEEN, FIRST OFFICER, FEDEX EXPRESS FLIGHT 1432: Cleared to land 1-8 left, FedEx 1432 Heavy.
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The voice that you are hearing is that of FedEx pilot Rob Bradeen.
Approaching Austin-Bergstrom International Airport before dawn on February 4, 2023, Bradeen, alongside Captain Hugo Carvajal, thought this was going to be an uneventful landing.
BRADEEN: It was very routine right up until the very end.
MUNTEAN: This investigative animation shows the disaster that was unfolding in front of the FedEx pilots. A Southwest Airlines flight was cleared for takeoff in front of them, but it sat on the runway for 19 seconds, a delay invisible to even the air traffic controller in the tower, with thick fog blanketing the airport.
AUSTIN TOWER: Southwest 708, confirm on the roll?
SOUTHWEST PILOT: Rolling now.
MUNTEAN: The two airplanes continued barreling closer together, when Bradeen began looking out of the windshield. BRADEEN: I saw a position light in the silhouette of the Southwest
airplane right over the glare shield with closure.
MUNTEAN (on camera): You saw the silhouette of the other airplane?
BRADEEN: I saw the silhouette of the other airplane, which is what I called for, called, go around, go around, go around.
Southwest abort. FedEx is on the go.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): Investigators say Captain Carvajal nosed up immediately, missing the Southwest flight by 150 to 170 feet. The move not only spared the lives of the FedEx crew, but the 131 people on Southwest Flight 708.
This is the FedEx team's first interview since their close call.
(on camera): How terrifying was that? What was the feeling like?
BRADEEN: It was definitely a shocking moment. You don't expect to see an airplane that close.
CAPT. HUGO CARVAJAL, FEDEX EXPRESS FLIGHT 1432: I knew it was pretty close, because I knew Rob's -- just the inflection in his voice when he said go around. And then the focus at that point is just getting away from the ground, getting away from the airplane.
[11:55:05]
MUNTEAN: The Austin incident is now known as the closest near- collision during a time when they kept happening at airports coast to coast.
The National Transportation Safety Board has now investigated at least a dozen similar incidents since the start of last year.
JENNIFER HOMENDY, CHAIR, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: Great job.
(APPLAUSE)
MUNTEAN (voice-over): During an NTSB hearing this spring, Chair Jennifer Homendy thanked the FedEx pilots for saving lives.
HOMENDY: This incident could have been catastrophic, if not for the heroic actions of the FedEx crew.
MUNTEAN: On Thursday, Carvajal and Bradeen received their union's Superior Airmanship Award for their teamwork and vigilance that prevented what could have been one of the worst air disasters in decades.
CAPT. JASON AMBROSI, AIR LINE PILOTS ASSOCIATION: This could have been a tragedy. If there were not two well-trained and qualified pilots on the flight deck that day, we could certainly be telling a very different story right now. MUNTEAN (on camera): Are you heroes?
BRADEEN: I guess it depends on your perspective. To us, we did our job. It's what we're trained to do.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): Pete Muntean, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLITZER: And our special thanks to Pete for that report.
And, to our viewers, thanks very much for joining me. I'm Wolf Blitzer. I will be back later tonight 5:00 p.m. Eastern for a special two-hour edition of "THE SITUATION ROOM."
Stay with us. "INSIDE POLITICS WITH DANA BASH" starts right after a short break.
