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CNN This Morning

Warnock Campaign Releases Adequate Tying Herschel Walker To Trump; Quentin Tarantino Reflects On Working With Harvey Weinstein; "Michelle Obama's Mission: Empowering Girls" Airs Sunday At 8PM ET; Christy Turlington Burns On The State Of Maternal Health In U.S. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired November 18, 2022 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

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DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: So can you believe it just two weeks ago until the Georgia Senate run off, Democratic senator Raphael Warnock's campaign is running a new adequate. They're tying former President Trump directly to Warnock's Republican rival Herschel Walker, demonstrating exactly what many in the GOP were so worried about.

Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, 45TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We must all work very hard for a gentleman and a great person named Herschel Walker, a fabulous human being who loves our country and will be a great United States senator.

Herschel Walker. Get out and vote for Herschel, and he deserves. He was an incredible athlete. He'll be an even better senator. Get out and vote for Herschel Walker.

SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D-GA): I'm Raphael Warnock and I approve this message.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So joining us now, CNN anchor and the host of look 'Who's Talking to Chris Wallace?' Hope his name is Chris Wallace. Chris, thank you very much.

Listen, when you see that ad, right, this is exactly what I think many in the Republican Party and Democrats believe that the former president is an albatross at this point around at least Herschel Walker and maybe the party.

[08:35:00]

CHRIS WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: Well, they sure do. Good morning, guys. It's quite astonishing, because in no way is it an attack on Trump, in no way is it attack on Herschel Walker. It is just playing Trump's endorsement of Walker.

And clearly, the Warnock campaign feels this is a, as you say, an albatross. This is a liability for Walker and not applause. And the Republicans had pleaded with the former president not to announce before the December 6 runoff, because they didn't want this to be in any way a referendum on Trump.

The President, of course, ignored that. And remember, Georgia is a state where the Governor Brian Kemp was just elected after in the Republican primary beating a Trump election denier, and Brad Raffensperger, the Secretary of State was just elected, after the Republican primary beating a Trump election denier.

So clearly, the Democrats think that Donald Trump is a liability in Georgia, not applause.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: So you always get these, not just remarkable interviews, but these interviews where you get people to say something we've never heard before. And you did it this week with Quentin Tarantino.

Talk to us about that. And what we're going to see. You talked to him in this what we're going to show about working with disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. So let's watch it and talk about it on the other side.

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CHRIS WALLACE, CNN ANCHOR: You made most of your movies with Harvey Weinstein.

QUENTIN TARANTINO, FILMMAKER: Yes.

WALLACE: You heard stories about him over the years. You said that. Why didn't you do more to try to stop him and to protect the women?

TARANTINO: Well, I never - ok. I never heard the stories that later came out at all. I heard the same stories that everybody had heard.

Frankly, to tell you the truth, I chalked it up to a madman era version of the boss chasing the secretary around the desk. I'm not saying that's ok. There was never any talk of rape or anything like that.

The reason I didn't was because that's a real hard conversation to have. Because I felt it was pathetic. I felt what he was doing was pathetic. And I didn't want to deal with his patheticness.

WALLACE: Obviously, you say you didn't know how severe it was. But did you think it was casting couch type stuff, kind of, of Hollywood Lower.

TARANTINO: So I didn't think it was "OK, you do this for me, or you're not going to get this movie". And I've never heard any actresses say anything like that. It was just - just 'Don't get in the back of a limo with him'. WALLACE: Right.

TARANTINO: Again, it was easy to compartmentalize it to some degree.

Anyway, I feel bad about - look, I feel bad about it now. But what I feel bad about is, I feel bad that I did not have a man to man talk with him about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Chris, that last part is everything. That's what I was waiting for. And what, I think, everyone hopes he would say as I - it sounds like there was some contrition is - you feel like he could have stopped this. And he's spoken up and have the harder conversations.

WALLACE: Well, again, and let me say that what struck me in that section, because the smarter thing to do would have been just to say, 'Condemn Harvey Weinstein and stop talking'.

But I think he was genuinely regretful and remorseful that he didn't do more. Now, again, he says, he didn't hear the stories of rape, sexual assault. He just heard basically that he was alleged.

But having said that, I think he is genuinely contrite about the fact that he didn't do more, as he said, to have a man to man conversation with him at some point and say, 'You can't do that'.

Having said that, from what we've heard about the Harvey Weinstein story, there's no indication that kind of a conversation with Quentin Tarantino would have stopped Harvey Weinstein.

LEMON: There you go.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. But the larger point that it goes to is that people knew something was happening.

HARLOW: Something, yes.

LEMON: Yes.

COLLINS: A lot of the people who, Chris, as you know, came out after and said, 'Oh, well, I had no idea'. And then you've heard people more candidly say, 'Well, we'd heard these stories and this. And where there's smoke, there's fire'. And I don't know. The whole thing is gross.

WALLACE: Well, look, you're exactly right. And the Clintons, you can talk about an awful lot of powerful people who did business with Harvey Weinstein over the years. Well, I heard stories, and they leave it there. But in the meantime, a lot of women were being abused.

COLLINS: Absolutely. Chris Wallace, your show is fantastic. These interviews are really eye opening, and very well done. You can watch 'Who's Talking to Chris Wallace?' Sunday nights here on CNN.

7pm Eastern, you can see that full Quentin Tarantino interview among the others that Chris did. You don't want to miss them.

[08:40:00]

COLLINS: Also, coming up CNN's Sara Sidner sat down with Michelle Obama, Melinda French Gates, and Amal Clooney, on how their life experiences could help empower women and girls around the world.

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SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: What would you tell your 25-year-old self now that you've lived the life?

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COLLINS: In a new CNN special Sarah Sidner sits down with the former - with a conversation with the former First Lady Michelle Obama, Melinda French Gates, and Amal Clooney, talking about their fight to empower women and girls worldwide.

[08:45:00]

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SIDNER: What would you tell your 25-year-old self now that you've lived a life?

MELINDA FRENCH GATES, AMERICAN PHILANTHROPIST: I would say life is even more beautiful ahead than you realize. And I would say to my 25- year-old self, you knew in high school who you were. And you let go of some of that for lots of reasons, people, situations, college, people around you. You knew who you were. And once you learn to re-be the girl you were in high school is when you grew into the full woman that you could be.

SIDNER: Boom. Mrs. Obama?

MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: That part. Just simply put, I would tell myself, 'You are good enough. You are valued. You are worthy. Your story matters, your voice matters. You will do the great things that you know you can do'.

AMAL CLOONEY, BARRISTER: You know, I would say, 'Define failure as not trying. Because actually going for things and falling flat on your face is fine. It's a learning experience. It makes you stronger. But if you don't try and if you don't actually follow your dreams, or even admit what they are, and go for it, it's something that will stay with you.'

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, Sara Sidner joins us now. She is the host of Michelle Obama's 'Mission: Empowering Girls', which premieres on Sunday, by the way.

An extraordinary - May I say good morning to you. An extraordinary woman yourself - Well, listen, Sara. Let's be honest.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It didn't mean like it. On that stage, I have to be honest with you. Me and Kaitlan were just talking about this. I told them right off the bat, 'Listen, I'm going to let you know, I am intimidated. I feel incredibly intimidated because of the accomplishments that they have made in their lives, but also the people that they are.

They got really real. Like, they did not let anything stop them from saying the things that you were not expecting them to say. I had a couple of moments of shock.

HARLOW: You know what it takes great journalists reporter like you to ask those questions that elicit those answers? And you asked them something that we played, it was like, What was it? What would you tell your 20?

SIDNER: 25, yes. What would you tell yourself? And that was something that they had asked girls who were young, who were struggling in their lives, who were trying to get their education. There are like 100 million girls, school-aged girls that are not in school. And so they were trying to elicit an answer from them.

What do you see yourself as at 25? And so I've reversed it. And said, 'What would you tell yourself?' And those answers really stuck with me. Melinda French Gates when she said, You knew who you were when you were a young woman, when you were in high school.

And I thought about that. And if you sit down and think about that, that could be a man, woman, whoever you are. You actually knew who you were inside. You might not have known what you were going to do, or what you wanted to accomplish. But you knew who you were. That has stuck with me since that moment.

So there's a lot of incredible things said, but this is all to try and help get girls the education that they deserve. And in many, many places, it is not education that's focused on. It's 'You're a wife'.

At nine years old, some of these girls I spoke with, said they were looked at as a wife first. And that was kind of it. So this is their attempt at trying to give them a chance to do other things.

LEMON: Sara, can't wait.

HARLOW: Cannot wait.

SIDNER: Yay!

HARLOW: They were lucky to have you on that stage with them, by the way.

LEMON: Yes. Sara is a war correspondent. That's why I said pretty extraordinary.

HARLOW: Literally the most remarkable. All right. You can catch Sara's full conversation with Michelle Obama, Amal Clooney, and Melinda French Gates Sunday night 8 o'clock Eastern only on CNN.

Coming up. Wait for this, we're going to talk to Christy Turlington Burns.

LEMON: I can't believe it.

COLLINS: She's here.

HARLOW: About this - the remarkable work she's been doing for a decade. There she is, chatting with our producer Mike. But the new film in Arkansas with a really serious message about maternity care and maternal health in America.

LEMON: It's always my favorite.

HARLOW: I know.

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[08:50:00]

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HARLOW: Welcome back.

The film series giving birth in America gives an eye opening look into maternal health care in the United States, where, listen to this, more women die here from complications of pregnancy and childbirth than in any other high resource country in the world.

The latest film in this series shines a light on Arkansas, the state with the highest maternal mortality rate in the country. It focuses on the lack of adequate care so many mothers face in America, both before and after childbirth. Watch.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel like I returned to work a lot earlier, but I needed the money.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's yawning a little bit. Having a baby in NICU, so I'm going through the different stages of grief.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When women have concerns about their bodies or concerns about things that are going on with them, they need to be heard.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I guess there's going to be a certain point where I'm going to have to go back on my medication.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People will come back, 'Oh, let me see the baby'. But nobody says, 'Let me come see the mom'.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just want to lay down.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You just feel so many different emotions.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My job does not offer maternity leave at all.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She is just still adjusting to being a mom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Well, joining us now is the executive producer of the film Christy Turlington Burns, who founded the non-profit, 'Every Mother Counts' back in 2010. Thank you for being here. Thank you for the work you do for shining the light.

LEMON: Good morning.

CHRISTY TURLINGTON BURNS, FOUNDER & PRESIDENT, EVERY MOTHER COUNTS: Good morning. Thank you. Good to see you all.

HARLOW: Why did you want to go there and show those stories specifically?

BURNS: Well, currently, Arkansas has the ranking of the worst place to give birth in this country of all 50 states. And so it felt the right time to shine a light on what those challenges and also solutions are in the state of Arkansas.

HARLOW: You talked about the solutions? What do they need to do better? What do we need to do better?

BURNS: Well, there are a few policy recommendations we've made through diving deeper into the situation in Arkansas. And just nationally, there's a big effort to extend pregnancy-related Medicaid coverage for a full-year postpartum, because about half of the maternal deaths take place postpartum.

And then also to build and strengthen the work care force for health providers that are people of color. People of color who are caring for communities of color and more marginalized populations in those states.

[08:55:00]

BURNS: And then as well, I mean, paid leave. It's touched on on the film. Most of the mothers that we followed in the making of this film did not have paid leave, or very limited paid leave. And it just sort of sets you up for a whole succession of problems that could arise without that kind of support, that mental health support, that financial support. Women are having to make choices between caring for their babies, or their infants in the NICU and going to work.

So there are some very simple things that we can do that can be done that are being done in other states. 26 other states across the country have extended Medicaid coverage. So Arkansas should get on board. COLLINS: And Serena Williams also weighed in on just the - we talk about the women and their circumstances and women - the woman there in the truck, she has no maternity leave, none whatsoever.

And Serena Williams talked about her own near death experience. And she said, saying that, 'Black women are nearly three times more likely to die during or after childbirth than their white counterparts'. She said, 'Being heard and appropriately treated was the difference between life and death for me'.

And she said, 'She knows those statistics would be different if they listened to every black woman's experience and their pain, and registered it as they do with anyone else'.

BURNS: It's true. I mean, respectful care is another thing we advocate for. But Serena Williams' story did more, I think, on this topic than any other story. Because here you have an empowered, the strongest woman, let alone a woman of color, that we all know and recognize.

And she knows her body. She knew what she needed, she was asking for that care. And if she'd been anybody else likely would not have had the attention, or the support that she needed in that moment, which saved her life.

COLLINS: And also, what I'm struck by. I'm from Alabama, you shot this in Arkansas. These states where they are restricting abortion almost completely, and a lot of them in the south, but they're often the ones that rank so low on the maternal care.

And it's just that dichotomy of women don't have access to abortion. But also if they are having the baby, they don't have access to really good maternity care, especially if you live in a rural area and some of these places.

BURNS: I mean, that's a big factor, right? People live far away from care, if they have access to care at all. These post Dobbs, decisions around reproductive care and rights is going to impact women so significantly that we haven't even begin to see yet.

There's a projection of about 30 percent increase in maternal death amongst black women with the restrictions that have been put upon theses.

LEMON: That's why this conversation around Dobbs, because it gets so confined to just abortion. It's not. It's about reproductive rights for women and just women's care, personal care. It's much bigger than just abortion, Christy.

BURNS: It's about family health, ultimately. Like, we need to keep mothers and birthing people healthy and safe before, during, and postpartum. That's the best way to ensure a healthy family, a healthy society, a healthy country. So yes, absolutely, it's beyond this conversation around abortion.

LEMON: It's so good to see you. How's Ed? BURNS: He is good.

LEMON: Tell him, we said, hello. And we'd love to have him on the show as well, both of you. Come back.

HARLOW: Thank you for doing this work. I mean, after what you went through in your own childbirth experience to say I'm going to help change the world because of this. Thank you.

BURNS: Thank you.

HARLOW: We appreciate it.

LEMON: Christy Turlington Burns.

COLLINS: We love having you.

LEMON: Good to see you.

BURNS: Thank you. Good to see you all.

LEMON: Thanks, everybody, for joining us. Good to see you as well. Hope you had a great week. And we're hoping you're going to have a great weekend. Guess what starts right now? You know this place.

COLLINS: The weekend. Stay safe.

LEMON: The weekend starts. It's CNN Newsroom. Poppy, you should know that.

HARLOW: Hi, Jim. Hi, Erica.

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