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CNN This Morning

Tornadoes Tear Across Louisiana, Killing At Least Three People; White House Warning Americans, Now is Time to Prepare for COVID Surge; CNN Polls Show Trump, Biden Going in Different Directions with Parties. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired December 15, 2022 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Let's get something real quick, though. Is there like -- have you recorded or timed it, excuse me, for the longest that you've actually set it?

ANDRES CANTOR, CHIEF WORLD CUP COMMENTATOR, TELEMUNDO DEPORTES: Never, never, because there are so many emotions going into each, so I have no idea. It depends on how much air I have in my lungs. It depends how the play progressed. I never timed it ever in my life.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Can we -- I love what someone said that this will always be Morocco's World Cup, even though they were ousted, just the way that they've played this whole time. But when it comes to Sunday, the French are formidable, and I wonder what your predictions are, what's going to happen.

CANTOR: It's a World Cup final. If Argentina wants to be the champs, they are going to have to defeat the world champions. So, I think that's the beauty of this epic dream final for all to watch on Telemundo streaming on Peacock on Sunday.

COLLINS: All right.

LEMON: Andres Cantor, as Ana Navarro always tells me, Andres Cantor, thank you, we love having you. Best of luck, okay?

COLLINS: We'll talk to you after Sunday.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

CANTOR: Thank you. Thank you so much.

LEMON: Thank you.

CNN This Morning continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRINCE HARRY, DUKE OF SUSSEX: It was already clear to the media that the palace wasn't going to protect her. Once that happens, the floodgates open. MEGHAN MARKLE, DUCHESS OF SUSSEX: And I realized that I wasn't just being thrown to the wolves, I was being fed to the wolves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: What a saga. Good morning, everyone. That, by the way, brand new clip from the controversial Harry and Meghan docuseries, the duke and duchess of Sussex detailing their split from the royal family. We're going to have more from London straight ahead. Did you guys watch it yet?

HARLOW: Not a second.

COLLINS: I've seen it though what we've covered here on the show with Max.

HARLOW: Yes.

LEMON: But, first, we have got to get to tell you about what's happening in the news. Nearly 50 tornados tearing across the south, at least three people are dead and there's catastrophic destruction. We'll get you there.

HARLOW: New this morning, a warning from the White House about a winter surge of COVID, flu and respiratory viruses, how they are preparing.

COLLINS: Also a new CNN poll spells trouble for Trump. It seems that Americans don't have a ton of appetite for his latest White House run or a rematch between Trump and Biden.

LEMON: Yes. Can you blame him?

But, first, we need to get to this. We get a look at a tornado-damaged Louisiana to show you this morning. At least three people are dead, multiple people hurt after a dangerous storm system moved through the state. Nearly 50 tornados have been reported across the south over the last 48 hours, 16 of them in Louisiana. And at this hour, more than 10,000 people in Louisiana are without power. Across the U.S., 130,000 people are in the dark.

And we find CNN's Nick Valencia in Louisiana right now. Not sure if they're in the dark exactly where he is. He's in Gretna, Louisiana. Good morning to you. What's it like on the ground? What's going on there?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Don. It is a very eerie scene here in Gretna, Louisiana. And even though many of the buildings around here are without power, you can hear a faint sound of a fire alarm going off.

And I want to show you what's left of this church here in this community that took a direct hit from that tornado. This used to be a church. And you can see that this tornado came through, busting pipes, water pouring out of the building, portions of the roof ripped off. The damage here in this community was extensive. We went into the neighborhoods yesterday to speak to residents. And despite this extensive damage, we're told by the authorities here, locally, that there was no loss of life.

But many of these residents were just caught off guard by the outbreak of these tornados, which is a really rare event for this time of year. One of the residents I spoke to said that the tornado lasted about 10 to 15 seconds. By the time she realized that she had to go to the basement to take cover, she said the storm had basically passed. Another resident I spoke to said that her week-and-a-half old brother was asleep in as a bassinet and the force of that tornado nearly sucked him away.

So, a lot of harrowing stories, certainly traumatizing stories for these residents here. We understand that the National Weather Service will be taking crews throughout this area, canvassing it, surveying the damage. And we also expect Louisiana's governor, John Bel Edwards, to host a press conference later.

And as I mentioned, there's no loss of life in this community, but across the state, at least three people have been killed and there are many injuries here. As the sun comes up, we'll have a better understanding of the extent of this damage. Don?

LEMON: All right. Nick Valencia in Gretna, Louisiana, thank you.

HARLOW: New this morning, the White House is warning Americans COVID- 19 is not gone, also preparation is key ahead of this winter and a potential increase in cases.

Let's go straight to M.J. Lee. She is live at the White House. M.J., you have great reporting after talking to Dr. Ashish Jha at the White House about their thinking, how they're preparing for a possible winter COVID surge. I'll tell you, we're feeling that here in New York, for sure.

M.J. LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Definitely. As we enter the holiday season of family gatherings and dinners and parties, the White House is offering this warning, COVID is not over and you need to protect yourself.

[07:05:06]

The White House to that end is launching this new campaign urging people across the country to really do all the things that we are all so familiar with already, get vaccinated, get boosted, get tested. And to that end, they are launching and restarting the at-home free COVID testing program. You are now allowed four free tests per household and offering up new support for nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.

And when I was talking to Dr. Jha last night, he said, look, COVID cases have clearly been on the rise in recent weeks. And the reason that the stakes are so much higher right now too is because of the so- called triple threat of COVID, the flu and RSV. He did say though, however, that the RSV situation does seem to have peaked, which is just really good news, especially if you have gotten it or your children have gotten it, it's really rough.

HARLOW: And also I think we all know at this point what to do if you get COVID, isolation time, masking, go to the CDC website. But I wonder, these viruses seem much stronger this year because of masking before like RSV, like the flu. Did Dr. Jha say anything about how to deal with that this holiday season?

LEE: He did. I'm sure you've experienced this. We know what to do when you get COVID at this point, as you said, you isolate, you know you shouldn't go to work. But when you get the cold or something elsewhere, you're just feeling iffy, I think there's still the temptation to still try to go to work or make that family Thanksgiving dinner.

And what Dr. Jha said, and I think this is the advice I think that would come from any doctor, is if you're not feeling well, you just have to stay home. He was explaining too that the reason there was this specific guidelines from the CDC for COVID is because you can spread it when you're asymptomatic, whereas he said with the RSV and the flu, you largely are spreading it when you are showing symptoms. So, again, the basic rule of thumb going into this holiday season is if you don't feel well, stay at home, stay away from other people, even if it's not what you want to do to skip that holiday family dinner.

HARLOW: Yes. But it saves everyone else. So, M.J. Lee, thank you, I appreciate it.

COLLINS: All right. This morning, Democrats still waiting on a formal announcement from President Biden about whether or not he's going to run for re-election, but it now appears that one of the most influential people in his life is actually all-in. CNN has now learned that First Lady Jill Biden is supportive of her husband running for another term. That's notable given she's likely one of the decisive voices in his orbit.

CNN's Kate Bennett reports that despite once being skeptical of another campaign, Joe Biden is now encouraged by the results of the midterm elections and she's ready to go.

But look at this new CNN poll when asked if Biden should be the party's nominee in 2024, 40 percent of the Democratic voters said yes. That's not as strong as where Biden was at the beginning of the year but it is a little bit stronger than where he was over the summer at just 25 percent.

His potential opponent, former President Trump, is not faring as well with his party. He's actually seeing the reverse of that trend, because among Republicans and those who lean to the right, only 38 percent want Trump to be their nominee. Even more striking when those same voters were asked who should be the nominee, who's the next person, the clear leader and clear favorite was Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. 53 percent say they prefer anyone but Trump.

So, joining us now to talk about this is Maggie Haberman, CNN's Political Analyst, and, of course from The New York Times.

I feel like you can kind of hear the screams from Mar-a-Lago from here over those numbers when it comes to DeSantis.

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Doing like this, yes.

I don't think any of this is making Donald Trump happy. And the CNN polls looks like what we've seen with other polls. This is clearly a trend. Donald Trump's calling card is strength and being seen as strong within his party. And when that starts to erode, it's very hard for him to keep other people at bay.

Now, he's the only person who is running right now. You wouldn't know that, Kaitlan, because he's done no events. I can't really remember the last time I saw somebody announce for president and do literally nothing. I'm told it's going to change next month, but we'll see what happens. But this is obviously not where Trump wanted to be.

COLLINS: He put out a survey the other day, I should note, all the reporters that cover Trump get blast emails. He put out a survey asking people where he should hold his first rallies since announcing --

HABERMAN: I missed that one, okay.

COLLINS: So, clearly, he hasn't picked a location yet, but it's been a month now to the day, I think.

HABERMAN: The rallies are expensive. I don't know how much money he's raising. That's something I think that everybody needs to be keeping an eye on. The rallies cost a lot of money. If you start seeing Donald Trump doing events that are not a rally, that is telling about the state of his campaign in a different way. So, we'll see what happens.

LEMON: But the announcement, I mean, it was lackluster, energy was low. As she said, he is not really doing anything. He keeps teasing stuff. But, I mean, honestly, I feel like kind of who cares, out of sight, out of mind. It's a little --

HABERMAN: There was a column this week by Josh Green at Bloomberg that I thought was dead on, which was that Elon Musk, of all people, was actually really hurting Donald Trump's campaign because he's made himself into the main character on Twitter both as the villain and as the MAGA-aligner.

[07:10:07]

And if you have someone doing Trumpian things on Twitter, where do you need Trump? We're so -- it's true. We're so early in the campaign at this point, but if you don't have -- it's not like we're going to see a lot of candidates jousting. Trump got in earlier than I can remember anyone doing it.

HARLOW: Can we talk about this CNN polling that I thought was so interesting, because it's not just that people don't want a Trump/Biden rematch, it's that they don't know who they want. HABERMAN: Totally.

HARLOW: Isn't that kind of like worse for the president and former president? Because it's like not only do we not want you, we don't even know who else we want, just not you.

HABERMAN: Biden is the sitting president, so he is just definitionally in a stronger position. I'm sorry, he just is. And so even though I know that there are a lot of people in his party who privately will say they don't want him to run, until those people start saying that publicly, Biden is in good shape. There's a lot of Republicans saying they don't want Trump.

LEMON: Let me follow-up on that, because Biden is winning. I'm sorry, Biden is winning. And I don't know what the polling is showing, if you look at the Inflation Reduction Act, lower gas prices, lower prescription drug prices, better than expected midterm for Democrats, Brittney Griner's release from Russia, the Respect for Marriage Act. I mean, Biden is winning. So, the polling -- I don't know if the polling is off or whether it's going to show when he does -- I think he's going to run. If his wife says, run, he's going to do it.

HABERMAN: All signs are that Biden is going to run. I think the White House is sending out conflicting signals, which is don't write these stories that he's not running and yet, here, we're going to tell you that he is debating what he's going to do. And so that's their own issue. But I agree with you, that at the moment, all signs are that he is going to run. He certainly has winds at his back in a way that Donald Trump just does not.

One thing that was interesting about one of the polls yesterday, The Wall Street Journal poll showed Biden getting beat by DeSantis. Now, I want to caveat that we're two years out. And polls two years out don't really tell us a ton, but they do tell us a snapshot in time right now. Biden is strong against Trump, Trump is strong against Biden -- or Trump stronger than against Biden than I think he would be against anyone else. It reminds me a little of what we saw in 2016, which is that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump were the two who could beat each other. And I don't know what this looks like going forward if it's not Trump for Biden. It's just something to think about.

COLLINS: Yes. And that's something the White House is watching because Trump is known. DeSantis, he has gotten a lot of praise. We actually don't know how he would fare --

HABERMAN: Really important to bear in mind, so we don't know.

COLLINS: Yes, we have no clue. Maybe he would do better than we think. Maybe he would do worse than we think. But that is something I think the White House is watching because they don't know DeSantis' weak points in a sense like that. But, as you said, we're so far out. And I think some voters are like, okay, let's just wait.

The fight that is happening right now is Kevin McCarthy on Capitol Hill, who is literally fighting for his political life. There was a moment yesterday where Manu Raju asked him about this number, this fight to get to 218, and this is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Why has it been so hard for you to get 218 votes to become speaker when you have President Trump apparently lobbying on your behalf? You've been meeting with members of the Freedom Caucus. But the votes just aren't there. Why has it been so hard for you?

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): Are you spending time with my conference? But, I mean, you know what's amazing to me? Here we are with the biggest things going on, on the spending, and I can always count on you for the most inappropriate question.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: It's not inappropriate at all.

HABERMAN: I mean, this is not an inappropriate question. I'm sorry, this is actually a very legitimate question. It was a pretty mild one and it was asked very politely. The real question is why he can't get there. He's going to get asked that question over and over again until he actually does.

I'm of the opinion he probably will. I don't know what that looks like. I don't know what he gives the holdouts. I don't know if the holdouts just get crushed by the moderates who McCarthy is sort of quietly leaning on right now. But this is not going well and he has a very slim majority among Republicans. And so there's nothing wrong with what Manu asked.

COLLINS: And even if he wins, he still has the same caucus that's incredibly fractious.

HABERMAN: That's right.

COLLINS: And it's still -- it's not like it's like a victory and that everything is done. It's a victory, and it's like it's just getting started.

HABERMAN: John Boehner is cackling somewhere. There's no question that people who have gone through this are looking at this, like, well, not me, good for you, enjoy this.

LEMON: I think that answer shows just how sensitive he is about it. And it was the right question. And you're right he's going to continue to get that. I mean, that was -- that was a snarky answer and it wasn't necessary.

HABERMAN: It looked as if he was using Manu as a tool, which I think that we have seen politicians do over and over again. But we will be in the movie for the next three weeks.

HARLOW: Thanks, Maggie. I hope you get like some sort of break in the next three weeks.

HABERMAN: I appreciate that. I hope we all do. Thanks, guys.

COLLINS: Thanks, Maggie.

LEMON: Well, straight ahead, new revelations from the second part of Harry and Meghan docuseries, speaking of drama and getting a break. The couple detailing their freedom fight out of the U.K., a fight between Harry and William.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRINCE HARRY: It was terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me and my father say things that simply weren't true and my grandmother quietly sit there and sort of take it all in.

[07:15:09]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARKLE: I was going through the manual for our security team at home, and on one of the pages I happened to flip to, it was about online monitoring. They were like if you see a tweet like this, please report it to head of security immediately. It just said, Meghan just needs to die, someone needs to kill her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Three more episodes of the Harry and Meghan Netflix series dropped overnight. The duke and duchess of Sussex detailing a miscarriage they endured. Harry also opening up about his relationship with his brother, while Meghan reveals her struggles with suicidal thoughts.

I want to bring in now CNN's Max Foster, our royal correspondent. He's joining us in CNN This Morning from London. Thank you, Max.

What are the big takeaways and what do you expect the response from the royal family will be?

[07L20:02]

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR AND ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it really was the extraordinary insight behind the scenes as to why Meghan and Harry decided to leave, also a very unusual insight behind palace walls about how things work there.

Effectively, Harry and Meghan are accusing the rest of the family of becoming jealous of them, then working against them, breathing against them to the point where Meghan had suicidal thoughts. So, a very compelling story, very much from Harry and Meghan's point of view.

This is where it culminates really, a showdown, the queen's (INAUDIBLE) between Harry, William, Charles, and the queen, where Harry outlines his plan to leave the royal family but still to continue, to some extent, with the royal role. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're trying to come up with a blueprint for the way forward.

PRINCE HARRY: I went in with the same proposal we had already made publicly. But once I got there, I was given five options, one being all-in, no change, five being all out. I chose option three in the meeting, half in, half out, have our own jobs but also work in support of the queen. But it became very clear, very quickly that that goal was not up for discussion or debate.

It was terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me and my father say things that simply weren't true and my grandmother quietly sit there and sort of take it all in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOSTER: I know I said I expected the palace's response, they just said they're not going to be getting a response. Instead, the family is going to continue with a long-planned engagement today, Don.

LEMON: All right. Max Foster, our royal correspondent, thank you very much. We'll be checking in with him to see what the responses.

Joining me now to discuss, CNN Contributor Trisha Goddard, Royal Watcher and Host of When Meghan Met Harry Kristen Meinzer and CNN International Anchor Zain Asher. Good morning.

Trisha, we're talking about this. So, what if they -- just what if, okay -- what if they had just said, okay, we're all in and stayed but still said their piece and said I dare you to kick me out but I'm going to speak my mind about this family as I work, what would happen?

TRISHA GODDARD, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: You don't understand Brits. I don't think they could deal with Meghan, obviously, with talks about her mental health. I don't think it was an option staying there. And you can't just talk out. If you are all in, you follow the protocol. You still got people managing you, what you can and can't say, who you can and can't see and what have you. So, they wouldn't have had that freedom, they would not be able to have their freedom. They have got the most freedom they're ever going to get in the situation they're in now.

HARLOW: Zain, you watched all three episodes from 3:00 A.M. this morning. Good for you because our viewers --

LEMON: Would you like some of my coffee?

HARLOW: Our viewers haven't had -- likely to see them all yet and this was very emotional for you to watch.

ZAIN ASHER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: It was. I mean, I've got to be honest. I actually cried watching this. I just think that after watching this, the prayer should never be dear God please let me marry into the British royal family. The prayer should be, dear God, please let me survive marrying into the British royal family.

To marry into this family and to survive it, to survive it psychologically, to survive it emotionally and spiritually, you have to be made of something else. And I just think that this -- Meghan talked about this parasitic relationship that exists between her and the British press. It needs to be addressed. I think we need a very mature discussion -- go ahead, Don.

LEMON: I just want to play it, because I want you to talk about it. There is a sound bite where she talks about being fed to the wolves, and then you can finish talking about -- set up what you're talking about.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRINCE HARRY: It was already clear to the media that the palace wasn't going to protect her. Once that happens, the floodgates open.

MEGHAN: And I realized that I wasn't just being thrown to the wolves, I was being fed to the wolves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHER: You know, it's funny. I was -- before watching the documentary, I was having this conversation about it with my husband last night about the British tabloid press. He said to me, he's American, he's like well, isn't it just the same as the New York Post?

GODDARD: God, no.

ASHER: It's not. I think Americans need to understand there is a big difference between the American tabloids and the British tabloids. The British tabloids are venomous. They are a particular strain of just, I mean, you know --

GODDARD: I do know.

ASHER: It's just -- it's awful. And the thing about the American tabloids is that they'll hound you and the next story will come along and they'll be distracted and they'll turn attention elsewhere. The British tabloids, they will not stop until they destroy you.

[07:25:03]

That is what Meghan Markle has dealt with for the past five years.

GODDARD: We have to be fair. It's not all of them. It's some of them in two different degrees. And if you sue them, if you sue them successfully, if you lay down and take it, and I think that -- Harry says that -- yes, if you lay down and take whatever they have to say about you and suck it up, and that seems to have been the royal family's sort of mantra until now with other wives, because it is when women come in, they get this sort of treatment. If you lay it down, suck it up and deal with it, then, hopefully, it will go away.

Diana didn't do that, and you can see that play out with Harry. And neither have Meghan and Harry done that. And once you fight back, once you say, I'm not going to take it anymore, once you sue them, and if you do it successfully, you are done. They are going to hammer you into the floor.

COLLINS: And on that note, Kristen, Buckingham Palace says they're not going to comment on this. They said that previously. They just said it again. We'll see if they comment not officially on it. One thing that Harry said in this that stuck out to me was he compared it to essentially saying the reason they were especially venomous to her is that she's supposed to be a supporting act if you're marrying into the family. But she ended up getting a lot of the limelight.

And when I was going over to the queen's funeral, I read the palace papers book, and it said the same thing about Diana, that they were upset, because she wasn't actually a member of the royal family but she was getting all of the attention.

KRISTEN MEINZER, ROYAL WATCHER: Exactly. And not coincidentally also happened during their tour of the South Pacific of Australia. This is what happened to Diana, young bride, suddenly an international celebrity. Same thing happened with Meghan.

And the documentary says very clearly that the British tabloid press had a cooperative relationship with the firm and the firm would plant stories to overshadow, to sully Meghan's name and also to draw more attention away from their own misdeeds, their own negative stories that were happening with other members of the senior royals.

Other senior royals, if something scandalous was happening with them, oh, now is a good time to plant a story about Meghan being horrible. They talked very frankly about that in this documentary series.

ASHER: And it's interesting. We touched on Princess Diana. Princess Diana came from one of the most aristocratic families England has ever known. I mean, she was a Spencer, so much so that people joked that Prince Charles is actually marrying up by marrying Princess Dian. And even she had a hard time fitting in. You can imagine --

GODDARD: Because of age, the minds, age, these weren't things that royals had done up until that point. She broke a mold in many ways. What we saw in the first of these documentaries with Harry and Meghan is how Meghan got involved with the victims of the Grenfell fire disaster, which was awful. It's a really impoverished area. Nobody else actually went there. And she was going there without the press knowing for quite some time, that's another mold broken and you don't do that easily.

LEMON: Trisha Goddard --

GODDARD: Don Lemon.

LEMON: -- is it a bigger impact what they're doing now or if they had stayed and duked it out, no pun intended, if it end inside the royal family? Can they make a bigger change doing this or if they have just stayed and said, I'm going to stay in this and --

ASHER: Trisha, it wasn't sustainable. It wasn't sustainable.

GODDARD: Not with -- See, Don, you're thinking --

LEMON: No, I'm asking you the question.

GODDARD: No. With the British tabloids, once they had one lawsuit, they couldn't stay there.

LEMON: But my question is, so, it's a bigger impact now what they're doing with the Netflix and the publicity they're getting --

ASHER: He's saying that he believes that they lost some of their influence, right?

LEMON: No. I'm wondering. I don't know. I'm wondering if they can make more change by what they're doing now, if they get more eyes or by staying in the royal family. That's the --

GODDARD: Well, here's the thing. And Harry says that in episode 4. He actually says, you know, the whole -- that weird synergy or the weird relationship between the royals and the tabloids, he said someone needs to challenge it. He said to his father at one stage, and his father just said, King Charles just said, the media is the media.

He is the first one really taking it on. And he's doing it for Diana, he's doing it for himself. This is what this whole thing is about. It's about the palace comms team (ph) and it is the vicious part of the media. Is he doing a service? Maybe.

MEINZER: I would also add that what they are allowed to say when they are official members of the firm, they're not allowed to talk about racism, they're not allowed to talk about misogyny, they're not allowed to talk about colonialism, about slavery, about the monarchy's role in slavery. And all of these are things that they can talk about now and that they actually talk about in their documentary. These are things the firm is not going to go on the record about. And when Meghan or Harry have done it in the past, they've been told they're out of line.

So, I would say they actually have much more freedom now to talk about important things to the world, not just to the palace, and to better serve the causes that the rest of us actually care about.

[07:30:01]

ASHER: I have to say, the line that got me the most, the line that made me emotional, is when she said, look, this is not my country.