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CNN This Morning

Biden Renews Call for Assault Weapons Ban After Shootings; Musk Says, Banned Twitter Accounts Will Be Restored Next Week; Russian Strikes Near Zaporizhzhia, Home to Massive Nuke Plant. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired November 25, 2022 - 07:00   ET

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

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: For a game-winning field goal.

[07:00:01]

They beat the Lions 28-25, improved 8-3 on the season.

And, finally, the Cowboys trying to snap a three-game turkey day losing streak, hosting the Giants. Third quarter, Dak Prescott gets it over to Jake Ferguson. Look at this, he just leaps over the Giants defender like a hurdle, but impressive. That set up Peyten Hendershot a two-yard touchdown run to put the Cowboys up by 15.

And check out the celebration. All the tight ends went and jumped in the big Salvation Army bucket and Hendershot played whack-a-mole. Cowboys have won 28-22.

They might get fined for that, though, guys. Players have been fined before for jumping in the big Salvation Army red bucket. I don't know why. I mean, it's fun. The NFL should let them go.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: I mean, that's what you have got to do after you humbled the Giants in the way that they did.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Their poor kids' parents. How are they going to live up to that for Christmas?

COLLINS: I know. I mean, that's all he needs.

LEMON: No, I'm kidding.

COLLINS: All right. Andy, thanks so much. And CNN This Morning continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: The idea we still allow semiautomatic weapons to be purchased is sick. It's just sick. It has no, no social redeeming value, zero, none.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Obviously, that's the president of the United States. Good morning, everyone. It is Friday, November 25th, Poppy Harlow is off.

And, again, that's who you heard, the president of the United States talking about the issue of guns, railing against access to assault weapons in the wake of more mass shootings. But are his hands tied by a lame duck Congress?

COLLINS: Also this morning, a miracle rescue by the Coast Guard after a passenger went missing from a carnival cruise ship sailing in the Gulf of Mexico. We have the dramatic details for you.

LEMON: Twitter amnesty, Elon Musk plans to restore previously banned accounts. One expert says it's like, quote, and I'm quoting here, opening the gates of hell.

COLLINS: Also today, it is a crucial test for the U.S. Men's Team against England, one of the favorites to win the World Cup. We're live in Qatar with what you would need to watch today.

LEMON: It is a very busy news day.

But, first, President Biden says that he will make a renewed effort to get some form of gun control legislation passed following the three most recent mass shootings, Colorado and Virginia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I'm going to try to get rid of assault weapons.

REPORTER: During the lame duck?

BIDEN: Whenever I got to make that assessment as I get in and start counting the votes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: All right. And that's it right there.

So, can anything be done by before Congress is seated in January? Beginning our coverage this morning, Jeremy Diamond live for us at the White House. Jeremy, good morning to you. The president is in a tough position, correct?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, no question about it, Don. President Biden was campaigning ahead of the midterms on electing more Democrats to Congress in order to get that assault weapons ban passed. But now, he has not only lost the House but even in the lame duck session. While he still has a Democratic House, there are still not those 60 votes in the Senate to be able to overcome the filibuster to pass the assault weapons ban. That's why when President Biden was able to get through some bipartisan gun reform legislation through this Congress, it did not include that assault weapons ban for that very same reason. The numbers just aren't there.

But the president saying that he is going to try, the White House has previously said that the president is an optimist on this issue and he's going to push forward. But there is no clear pathway. I want us to be very clear about that. Nonetheless, the White House views this as a galvanizing issue for their base. They also that it's useful to continue to talk about this, to put pressure on Republicans because this is something that is broadly supported by the American public. LEMON: Let's dig into this for a moment, shall we, Jeremy. The

president didn't just talk about assault rifles. He questioned the need for semiautomatic weapons all together. Am I correct with that?

DIAMOND: Yes. You heard the president's comments there, Don. He said, the idea that we allow semiautomatic weapons to be purchased is sick. Semiautomatic weapons would include a wide range of pistols as well. In fact, it's the majority of guns sold in the U.S. are indeed semiautomatic.

To be clear, the White House has repeatedly said that the president is only trying to ban those assault rifles, like those AR-15-style weapons, but the president's language here is much less than precise. And, obviously, it provides a lot of fodder for those opposed to any gun reform legislation. And certainly it doesn't help the president's cause here.

LEMON: Yes, a lot of talk about that, I would imagine, at Thanksgiving tables. We talked about it at our celebration yesterday as well. Thank you very much, Jeremy Diamond, from the White House this morning.

COLLINS: Speaking of Thanksgiving, some members of the Coast Guard spent theirs rescuing a cruise ship passenger form the Gulf of Mexico. He went overboard was ship was sailing from New Orleans to Cozumel.

CNN's Nick Valencia joins us now. Nick, this story is just extraordinary in the fact that this passenger went missing, they were able to find him and pull him to safety.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: How wild is this story?

[07:05:00]

Good morning, Kaitlan. When was the last time you heard somebody going overboard or being lost at sea and being found? And according reports, this man was floating in the Gulf of Mexico for more than 12 hours before he was located.

According to the Coast Guard, he was a passenger on the cruise ship the Carnival Valor, which left New Orleans on Wednesday for a five day cruise to Cozumel, Mexico. And it was later that night, on Wednesday night, when his sister says she was at the bar with this unidentified male and he said he was going to the bathroom at about 11:00 P.M. but he never came back.

On noon Thursday, she reported him missing. It was about 2:30 when the Coast Guard finally launched a search and rescue operation. The cruise ship actually stopped and backtracked, retracing its route to try to help to find this individual who was missing. He was eventually spotted by the crew of another vessel, again, floating in the Gulf of Mexico for more than 12 hours. He was air lifted, transported to New Orleans for medical treatment. We understand it's still in New Orleans, and it was on Thursday night that that cruise ship returned on the voyage to Mexico and that individual has one hell of a story for Thanksgiving to celebrate.

LEMON: Wait, Nick, 12 hours. That's a headline, 12 hours in the water?

VALENCIA: How cold was he? How cold must he have been, Don, to be in that water for 12 hours? Going overboard at 11:00 P.M., found the next day. I mean, it's just crazy. What a wild story.

COLLINS: That's amazing.

LEMON: Yes, it is amazing. Thanks, Nick.

VALENCIA: Yes, you got it.

LEMON: Okay. So, nearly two weeks since Idaho college students were stabbed to death in their home, there is still no suspect this morning. But investigators say that they're, quote, making progress in their investigations as residents of a small town remain on edge.

Straight now to CNN's Stephanie Elam. Stephanie, good morning to you. The latest on the investigation?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The latest on the investigation, Don, is that we still don't know any clue who could have done this, who could have murdered the four students.

What we do know is that police there in Moscow, Idaho do plan on stepping up their patrols on campus at the University of Idaho. The university itself saying that they're going ahead and extending remote learning for those who are too afraid to come back to campus. This as police say they're working through more than 1,000 tips.

And some of the witness interviews have also led them to believe that there may have been a stalker for one of the murder victims, Kaylee Goncalves. However, they're saying they're not being able to find anyone to confirm this or identify somebody who would fit that category. The family of Goncalves says this is not true, they do not believe, they think it's just rumor mill activity that she may have had a stalker.

The other thing that we have learned over the last few days here as we've been looking for any information coming out of the police department is the fact that they've been able to rule out some people and say that they're not at all suspected to have been party to this -- these series of murders here. That would be the two roommates who were in the house who slept through it and then another man that two of the murder victims reached out to shortly before they were killed. They say that all three of these people are innocent.

But, obviously, many still on edge over this holiday weekend as they're no closer to finding out who could have possibly have done this in the small town where they had not seen a murder in a very, very long time. Don?

LEMON: Stephanie Elam, thank you very much. I appreciate that.

COLLINS: All right. If you're a soccer fan, you have got a busy day today. If you're not though, we'll still fill you in because there's a huge, huge match, this happening a few hours from now at the World Cup. It's the United States versus England. It is only the third time they have clashed at the cup and Americans hope that they'll be able to be the latest squad to score a big upset in Qatar.

CNN's Amanda Davies is there. Everyone is watching to see what's going to happen there. And we were talking earlier, it's not a must win but they would like to win this for the United States.

AMANDA DAVIES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes. I feel I need to caveat that maybe I should come on today undercover given my England leanings. I feel like an imposter in the ranks. So, apologies in advance. But, listen, there's been a really ominous warning from the England boss, Gareth Southgate, despite their 6-2 win in their opening game. He said his side need to do better in this game because they really want to qualify for the next rounds as quickly as possible. And that would mean beating the U.S. in this game today.

But this is a U.S. side who are so dynamic, energetic, enthusiastic about this World Cup. And they know this English opposition really well because so many of them play their domestic football in England, the likes of Anthony Robinson and Tyler Adams. And the goal scorer in the first game against Wales, Timothy Weah has said they're really relishing this status as underdogs. There are a lot of U.S. fans here on the ground in Qatar and they are feeling the same.

[07:10:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think England is a little overconfident and our youth is going to run them out of the building, 3-1.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Normally, I'm watching American football, but this year, I'm watching the real football.

USA/England, be there, we're going to win. We're going on the semifinal run. Let's do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVIES: Well, Coach Berhalter said they don't need any extra motivation despite dropping those points against Wales. They want to be the team that does the three-peat. As you mentioned, the U.S. have a habit of embarrassing England at the World Cup not only 1950 but 2010 as well.

LEMON: At least she disclosed her bias. I mean, if you get it, people know you're not hiding it from us. Another upset to tell us about?

DAVIES: Yes. Just in the last few minutes there have been incredible celebrations. Iran, the other match in this group, which does have a bearing on the U.S. chances of qualifying, Iran have taken a late, late victory over Wales. The Welsh goalkeeper sent off in time added on. Iran took full advantage winning 2-0.

And given the political situation, all the talk of the anti-government protests, the team opting not to sing the national anthem ahead of their first match, you could see the emotion pouring out of this side with that victory. So, whatever happens today against England sets up a fascinating encounter, U.S. against Iran next week in the final match in Group B.

COLLINS: It's amazing. We'll be watching to see what happens in this match this afternoon though. I know everyone here is watching it closely. Amanda, thank you for that update.

LEMON: I can't wait to see Amanda when we win.

COLLINS: We'll check back in with her. We'll come back on air to talk to her about it.

LEMON: Elon Musk says that he will begin restoring previously banned Twitter accounts, tweeting, the people have spoken, amnesty is back next week. The decision comes after Musk conducted his own poll of Twitter users. Now, Musk does -- he's going to do what he's saying now. He says that the accounts will only be restored if they have not broken the law or engaged in egregious spam, but it is unclear what the parameters for determining that would be.

So, the consequences here could be really great for the embattled company. A clinical instructor at Harvard Law says that what Musk is doing is existentially dangerous for various marginal marginalized communities. It's like opening the gates of hell in terms of the havoc it will cause.

Obviously, this is very controversial. A lot of folks are paying attention to it, especially the two we have joining us now, CNN Economics Commentator and Washington Post Opinion Columnist Catherine Rampell and CNN Political Commentator Scott Jennings. Hello to both of you. Good morning.

So, Catherine, some people may say that this sounds like hyperbole, but Twitter is very powerful when it comes to messaging and influence, and it does have consequences.

CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN ECONOMICS COMMENTATOR: Yes. I mean, I think reasonable people can disagree about what a content moderation policy should look like. One person's fake news is another person's free speech. I'm not sure that pre-Musk Twitter necessarily got the balance exactly right.

The problem is that Elon Musk now is encouraging his users to cross the line, essentially, to become more hostile and potentially harass people more so long as it doesn't break the law. And by encouraging people to cross the line wherever it is, this platform is necessarily going to become a more hostile place to hang out.

And I'm not sure that's great for marginalized groups and high profile individuals who might get harassed, et cetera. I'm also not sure it's great for the bottom line for Twitter. LEMON: Are you talking about the brands that are just sort of leaving Twitter at this point?

RAMPELL: Yes. Yes. I mean, about a third of Twitter's top 100 advertisers have now left, or at least suspended their advertising over the past few weeks. And that's not because they're woke companies or whatever, it's because there are legitimate concerns about brand safety. They don't want their logo posted next to a neo-Nazi tweet or a serial harasser or a would-be terrorist or what have you. It's dangerous for them for their brand image.

And so I think when Elon Musk talks to how he wants to decrease how much the website polices content, polices users while simultaneously increasing advertising revenues, those objectives are fundamentally somewhat at odds. Because when you, you know, open the gates of hell or whatever the analogy was, yes, you're going to maybe drive some more look looky-loos to see the burning dumpster fire, but you're going to drive away a lot of your advertisers too.

[07:15:00]

COLLINS: Scott, the thing that sticks out to me is how Elon Musk is conducting so many of these decisions by just polls that he's using on Twitter. Obviously, you can't really tell who has been voting in these polls. That was the case when it came to restoring big accounts, former President Trump, Marjorie Taylor Greene, accounts like that, also this decision that they're talking about unbanning all the other accounts. I wonder what you make of that and what your take is on how that's been handled so far.

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. I mean, it's really interesting. I mean, obviously, he has been more protective of general free speech than the old regime, and that's been his principle -- as far as I can tell, his argument for having bought this platform in the first place. I mean, it's a little fascinating to watch. I mean, as Catherine said, this is a for-profit company. It would be the four of us buying Coca-Cola and just opening the VATs and pouring stuff in and see what happens. It would be like a little bit high wire act because it's a for-profit company. You have to get people to buy it, the advertisers, as Catherine said.

So, from that perspective, it's kind of fascinating. But I think the way he's handled the decision-making is pretty true to the way he presented it when he decided he wanted to buy it in the first place. Look, I'm not sure twitter got the banning right in the first place. Remember, they once banned the oldest newspaper in the United States during a presidential election because they didn't like what they were tweeting out. And so I think there's probably some people that need to be brought back. There's probably some people that probably don't. Ultimately, though, for him, the bottom line is the bottom line. And whether advertisers stick with this or not is what will determine whether this is successful.

LEMON: I got to ask you. Listen, Scott, I know that you were supportive of the former president. I'm not sure where you land on that now. But you didn't like his bombast. You didn't necessarily like the tweeting. And so bringing all of these people back, I mean, do you think it should just be an open door policy, number one, and do you think the former president should start tweeting again?

JENNINGS: Great question. Well, where I am on it now, just to be clear, is I think we need a new nominee. I think we've had enough. We tried this twice. We didn't get more votes than the Democrats twice. So, just to clear that up, that's number one.

Number two, if he wants to tweet, I don't have a problem with that. I thought it was weird when they banned him in the first place, to be honest, when there are a lot of other world figures who are far worse, in my opinion, than Donald Trump that are allowed to be in that platform. But he has got his own thing now. He's got his own social media platform. And so I'm not sure it's in his best --

LEMON: It would kind of undermine that.

JENNINGS: -- interest to join another platform, but I don't have a problem if he's on there.

COLLINS: Well, contractually, it might be difficult for him to get on. I've been trying to talk to his team about this. It's very not clear what that is going to ultimately looks like. I think he probably wants to get back on. But we'll be watching and to see what happens next with Twitter, what steps Elon Musk takes next.

Scott Jennings, Catherine Rampell, thank you both for joining us.

LEMON: Happy belated Thanksgiving to you both, by the way. Good to see you.

JENNINGS: Happy Thanksgiving, guys.

LEMON: Thank you.

RAMPELL: Happy Thanksgiving.

COLLINS: All right. This morning in Ukraine, there have been relentless attacks on critical infrastructure, including the power grid. It's raising a lot of concerns about a possible accident at one of the nuclear plants. Obviously, that is top of mind for so many officials. We're going to talk to the NATO secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg about this. That's next.

LEMON: Plus, Adidas dropped Kanye West but the says it plans to investigate allegations of misconduct against him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yesterday, for the first time ever, all of Ukraine's four operational nuclear power plants, Zaporizhzhia, Rivne, South Ukraine and Khmelnytskyi lost external power and were disconnected from the grid.

This unprecedented situation would have been unimaginable just months ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: That was the head of IAEA, the International Atomic Energy Agency, talking about Russia's attacks on Ukraine's battered power systems and the fears that they could lead to an accident at one of its nuclear plants. Overnight, Russians strikes hit near Zaporizhzhia and the biggest plant in Europe.

CNN's Sam Kiley is in Zaporizhzhia right now. This is disturbing and you heard what he said. It's unprecedented, Sam.

SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is unprecedented, except in Ukraine, where Zaporizhzhia, as you know, Don, has been the site of numerous shellings just in the last couple of weeks. A lot of reports now that the IAEA have monitors actually inside the power station. We have independent verification, about four or five days ago, they reported a number of strikes close to and even inside the nuclear power plant's compound, not threatening the reactors. It would take a great deal more than some kind of artillery strike to damage the reactors.

But above all the issue here is that the Russians are systematically attacking the energy grid right across the country. This country relies for 50 percent of its power on nuclear power. And to keep those reactors cool, to stop them melting down, they need external sources of electricity, ironically. So, when that is broken, they have to go to diesel backup generators to keep them cooling. And, of course, they are extremely vulnerable. They are the last line of defense before the nuclear reactor gets into serious trouble.

And it is that that the IAEA is drawing attention to. And then the much wider issue from the international community's perspective and, of course, here in Ukraine, is that winter is approaching, the power grid keeps getting knocked out by these mass attack by cruise missiles from Russia, as Russia is losing essentially on the ground incrementally. There is ferocious fighting in the east, but in the south, around Kherson, they have been pushed backing and they've reacted by trying to break the back of the energy structures in the country to undermine both the military effort but also to try to thump the civilians essentially of Ukraine into submission.

I have to say there's no signs of them bending, much less breaking so far, Don.

LEMON: All right. Sam Kiley in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine for us this morning, thank you very much, Sam.

[07:25:00]

COLLINS: All right. In the wake of these attacks on Ukraine's infrastructure, it's critical infrastructure, the European Union has voted to pass a resolution declaring Russia a state sponsor of terrorism. Poland's defense minister is calling on Germany to send the Patriot missile air defense systems directly to Ukraine. That's a request that Germany says would need to be discussed among the NATO member states. And the Hungarian leader, Viktor Orban, says his nation's parliament will vote to ratify NATO membership for Finland and Sweden. He says, that will happen early next year.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg reiterated NATO support for Ukraine just this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENS STOLTENBERG, SECRETARY GENERAL, NATO: So, NATO will continue to stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes. We will not back down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: And the secretary general, Stoltenberg, joins us now. Thank you so much for joining us.

I want to talk though about Hungary, first off, saying it will ratify Finland and Sweden's NATO membership bids early next year. As you know, Hungary and Turkey are the only members of the alliance who have not yet cleared this. What's the risk in delaying it until early next year?

STOLTENBERG: So, I'm confident that both Hungary and Turkey will ratify the accession protocols for Finland and Sweden. I cannot tell you exactly when. But we all have to remember that all allies, including Turkey and Hungary, made a historic decision in June this year to invite Finland and Sweden to become members of the alliance and all NATO allies signed the accession protocols.

And so far, 28 out of the 30 members have ratified these protocols in the national parliament. So, this is one of the fastest ever accession processes in NATO's history. And I'm confident that also the two remaining parliaments will ratify so we ensure that Finland and Sweden becomes full members.

COLLINS: But is there a risk if they wait to ratify it until next year?

STOLTENBERG: We have to understand that Finland and Sweden are in a different place now than before they applied, because after they applied in May, first of all, they are now participating as what we call invitees in NATO's military and civilian activities cooperation. NATO has increased its military presence in the region, in the Baltic region, and several allies, including the United States, have issued security assurances to Finland and Sweden. So, it's absolutely inconceivable that if Finland and Sweden were attacked or were put under some kind of pressure, that NATO would not react.

So we have come a long way already and, again, this process has so far gone faster or quicker than most other accession processes of these lines.

COLLINS: Germany has offered Poland its Patriot air defense systems. Of course, that came after that missile that was fired, landed in Poland, killed to citizens. But Polish officials are saying they actually want Germany those defense systems to Ukraine instead. Germany's defense minister says that deployment is something that would have to be agreed to by NATO. Is this something that you think NATO would agree to?

STOLTENBERG: So, first of all, you have to remember that NATO allies have already provided significant air defense systems to Ukraine and also increased our presence in the eastern part of the alliance, including in Poland.

And I welcome the German offer to strengthen air defenses in Poland because that will fit into what we've already done, especially after the invasion in February. We have more troops on the ground, more air and naval assets and a significant part of that is also different types of air defense systems to make sure that we are there to protect and defend every inch of NATO territory. And by doing so, we're also preventing escalation of the conflict beyond Ukraine.

Just this week, I was in Spain. Spain announced they will provide more Hawk batteries. NATO allies have provided NASAMS batteries to advance NATO air defense systems. At the end of it, it will be a national decision on the specific capabilities, but I continue to call on allies to step up and provide even more air defenses also for Ukraine.

COLLINS: But is it more effective for these defense systems to go to Poland and be there close to the Ukrainian border or should they go straight to Ukraine, in your view?

STOLTENBERG: We need both. We need both increased air defense of our NATO allies in the east, the Baltic countries, Poland, Romania, but also we need more air defense in Ukraine.

[07:30:05]

That's obvious. We see the horrendous, horrific attacks.