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Spotlight on NFL Concussions; Delta Stowaway to Appear in Court; Pete Hegseth Dodges Questions Over Drinking. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired December 05, 2024 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:03]

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: And within hours of putting that out, we had people calling and saying, I know who that is.

I'm pretty confident that this will work. When you look at that image, if him, you will know him.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Yes. Yes, it's true. Well, certainly, we hope so. And it's so important for the public to help and to reach out to authorities, as he is still on the loose after killing this UnitedHealthcare CEO on the streets of Manhattan.

John Miller, thank you so much.

MILLER: Thanks, Pam.

BROWN: We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:35:22]

BROWN: And we have some more breaking news, this time from Capitol Hill.

President-elect Trump's secretary-defense pick, Pete Hegseth, declining to answer when asked if he denies reports of excessive drinking detailed in "The New York Times" and "Washington Post."

Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Mr. Hegseth, do you deny reports of excessive drinking in "The New York Times" and in "The Washington Post"? Just looking for a clear answer there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: This as Senator Joni Ernst spoke out today and declined to give her endorsement of Hegseth for the time being after meeting with him just yesterday. CNN's Lauren Fox joins us now on Capitol Hill.

Lauren, what more are you learning?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, what we have heard from several of these meetings is that, privately, Pete Hegseth is giving assurances to Republican senators that if he is selected and wins confirmation to be the next head of the Pentagon, that he will not be drinking.

That is something that we heard from both the incoming chairman of the Armed Services Committee, Roger Wicker, as well as Kevin Cramer, a Republican from North Dakota, who told me last night that in a very frank part of their discussion yesterday in his office, he had asked, what are you going to do if someone calls you at 3:00 in the morning? Are you going to be ready?

And essentially what Hegseth said was he'd be ready at 3:00 a.m., he'd be ready at 3:00 p.m., and he'd be ready at any hour in between. Now, our Morgan Rimmer was pressing Hegseth as to what he was telling Republican senators about some of those allegations of drinking. Here's what he said.

BROWN: Lauren?

FOX: Yes, and, of course -- yes, Pam, I mean, it's just important to point out here that when he's having these meetings, part of what is happening inside is that senators are level-setting with him about what this process is actually going to feel like.

Right now, these meetings, they're happening in private. Hegseth maybe doesn't want to talk about what senators are telling him, but there's a moment where this is going to be a confirmation battle. These are going to be happening in a public setting.

And Cramer reminded him last night in their meeting that not everyone on the committee is going to be -- and these are Cramer's words -- going to be as friendly as Cramer was yesterday in that private setting, and so just sort of reminding him what is at stake, what these meetings are going to feel like.

Again, we are still weeks, potentially months from that moment as we are waiting to see Hegseth's nomination and whether or not it continues to hang in the balance -- Pam.

BROWN: All right, Lauren Fox, thanks so much.

So, how did she do it? That's a big question. The woman who snuck onto an international flight will be in court today. I'm going to speak with a former TSA administrator about how it's possible she was able to get past airport security.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:42:46]

BROWN: Well, today, just hours after returning to the U.S., a Russian stowaway will face a federal judge right here.

This woman, who has been accused of sneaking onto a Delta flight from New York to Paris, is expected to face a federal charge. The FBI says officials arrested her on Wednesday after she stepped foot back in the States.

Joining us now to discuss this case is former TSA Administrator John Pistole.

John, I'm so looking forward to your insights on this, especially after we learned from the TSA that this woman initially went through this line that's designated for airline flight crews and was able to slip through somehow and get on the plane to Paris and hide in the bathroom. How does that happen?

JOHN PISTOLE, FORMER ADMINISTRATOR, TRANSPORTATION SECURITY ADMINISTRATION: Well, right, Pamela.

There's actually three points of failure in this instance, one, as you mentioned the airport employee at JFK there who is to check the credentials, the identity for flight crew. Some places, it's known as the known crew member lane. So they would go through that.

And then at the document checker for TSA, and she was able to get in behind a family and not have her identity checked. And then, at the gate, as you mentioned, the Delta gate agent for whatever reason did not identify her, allowed her to board the plane, as we learned.

And so those three points of failure are of great concern to each of the entities I mentioned. The good news is that she was physically screened by TSA at the checkpoint. And, as has been reported, I believe that there -- she had two bottles of water on her and those were detected, and she gave those up.

And so out of the 18 million or so people the TSA screened over the Thanksgiving break, she was one who got by the identity check. So the bad news, she didn't have her identity checked. The good news is, she was physically screened, so if she was a putative terrorist, for example, that -- and had an underwear bomb or something like that, she would have been detected and not allowed to obviously proceed like that.

BROWN: So Delta, for its part, has not provided any specifics about how the woman was able to stow away on its flight. As you mentioned, this woman was able to get by the agent who would typically be checking the boarding pass.

[11:45:02]

But the airline issued this statement, saying: "Our review affirms that Delta's security infrastructure as part of our security management system framework is sound and that deviation from standard procedures is the root cause of this event."

Do you agree with that? PISTOLE: Well, without knowing all the details and what actually

happened and not having reviewed their protocols, yes, generally, that if the protocols in place that worked 99.999 percent of the time were in place and it was an employee error, then, yes, I would agree with that.

But the key will be for -- and I'm sure Delta has already done this, just as TSA and JFK have all done their reviews to assess what went wrong, why it went wrong, and what needs to change. And, of course, this woman has been arrested. She's subject to criminal prosecution. TSA can assess her civil fines, just like somebody who tries to bring a gun on it on a plane.

So TSA has that authority to assess the civil fines, in addition to the criminal exposure that she is facing in the Eastern District of New York or the Queens DA office, whichever way that goes, federally or statewide.

BROWN: Yes.

PISTOLE: So, yes, I think that the protocols were probably in place and just it was human error.

BROWN: All right, she's going before a federal judge today.

Do you think Delta, though, should be more forthcoming and transparent about what happened here? I mean, it's very broad in its statements, saying deviation and so forth. I mean, would you like to hear more from Delta right now?

PISTOLE: Well, sure.

I mean, well, the key is -- and they have identified the right language in terms of what's the root cause of her particular issue. I think the broader question is, are there any systemic issues in terms of their policies and protocols and in their practice? How do they put those policies and protocols into practice?

Is there adequate training for all their employees? Was it a new employee at the gate? All those questions, I think inquiring minds, as they say, would like to know just to make sure that this is truly just a one-off and not something that may be repeated tomorrow or the next day when there's heavy passenger loads, as there always are over Thanksgiving break.

BROWN: Right. I think that's the question, because we're about to have another heavy load for Christmas, right? So people want to have that reassurance.

John Pistole, thank you so much.

PISTOLE: Thank you.

BROWN: And still ahead: renewed questions this week about the consequences of head injuries in football after the latest brutal hit left Jacksonville quarterback Trevor Lawrence with a concussion. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, our favorite doctor, joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:52:10]

BROWN: Well, this past weekend, yet another big hit in the NFL is spotlighting concussions.

Jacksonville Jaguar quarterback Trevor Lawrence was taken out of the game after being illegally hit by a Houston Texan linebacker who has since been suspended for three games. And this has put the spotlight back on head injuries in America's favorite sport.

So let's bring in our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who is a practicing neurosurgeon and deals with the head injuries like this in the operating room.

So, I mean, Sanjay, just watching that hit, what did you think?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think, for most people, it was awful to watch.

I think, if you're a neurosurgeon, it was horrific to watch. I mean, there are several things. We will just show this one more time. And I just want to point this out, several things happening. First, you see the hit on the helmet first and then there's a rotation, and then his head hits the ground.

So just let me show you on this brain model for a second, Pamela. You're sort of moving -- the brain is moving within the skull, within the helmet accelerating, and then a rapid deceleration. That's the first hit,and then a turning of the brain and then that sort of hitting on the turf.

So it was sort of in some ways three separate blows to the brain specifically that occurred within a very short time. But let me show you this other video quickly in terms of what happens after that, because this is the thing that I think most people from a medical standpoint really pay attention to.

So, again, you see from a different angle the same hit, but watch what happens to him immediately after. Left arm goes straight up in the air and right arm is flexed. This is what -- this is a type of posturing it's called, the fencing position.

And that's really concerning. I mean, that's a brain injury for certain, Pamela. And, again, just pulling out the brain model for a second, you have all these pathways from the brain that are eventually going into the spinal cord. You have the brain stem in between. When you see that sort of fencing posture that you just saw, that's an indication that there's been a disruption of some of these pathways.

So, look, it's a really significant injury. We know that Trevor Lawrence was able to get up. He was communicative shortly after. That's obviously a good sign. But there are certain criteria that are what are called no-go criteria. It's always the question. Does someone come out of the game? Do they stay out of the game?

The no-go criteria includes several things, as you might imagine, loss of consciousness, confusion, amnesia, but also that fencing response. So that's for sure someone who cannot return to the game for obvious reasons.

BROWN: It's just so hard to watch the video of it, especially as you were describing what is actually happening to his brain.

GUPTA: I know.

BROWN: And it makes you wonder what the recovery is going to be like for him. Will he ever be able to kind of get back to the place he was with his brain before this injury?

[11:55:07]

GUPTA: Yes, I think that he can. I mean, there's a good possibility even before the end of the season.

There are these criteria. There's no set return to play sort of timeline from an NFL standpoint. But the way they do it is, they basically start to introduce, in a graded sort of way, different levels of activity, trying to see if someone has any symptoms, so light activity at first, and then going all the way to full activity, but making sure he's not having symptoms, headache, or other problems, when he's doing these things.

BROWN: Well, we are certainly wishing him the best.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you so much, as always.

GUPTA: Thank you.

BROWN: And don't forget to submit your questions to Sanjay about these types of head injuries by scanning the Q.R. code right here on your screen. We're going to have him back on tomorrow to answer some of those questions.

And thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Pamela Brown. You can follow me on Instagram, TikTok and X @PamelaBrownCNN. I want to hear from you.

Stay with us. "INSIDE POLITICS WITH DANA BASH" starts after a short break.