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Tornadoes Devastate Parts of Louisiana; Recent Report Indicates Routing Cancer Screening Only Responsible for 14.1 of Early Cancer Detection; Communities Along U.S. Southern Border Worry Ending of Title 42 Will Cause Increased Influx of Migrants; Texas Officials Beg Biden To Act Ahead Of Massive Migrant Surge; Prince Harry Says Brother Screamed At Him Over Royal Split; CNN Examines The Truth Behind The Twitter Files. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired December 15, 2022 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:13]

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. It is a very busy day. It's Thursday, December 15th. And welcome to CNN THIS MORNING. A lot of news to get to this morning. We're going to catch you up on the five things that you need to do, CNN THIS MORNING.

At least three are dead after a dangerous storm system tore through Louisiana. Nearly 50 tornados reported across the south over the last 48 hours, 16 of them in Louisiana. More than 50,000 people are without power right now. There remains a severe weather threat with possible tornados for hundreds of thousands of people in Georgia and Florida this morning.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: The man accused of attacking Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul Pelosi, apparently had plans to target other very well-known people. Prosecutors say the suspect, David DePape, had a hit list that including Hunter Biden, California Governor Gavin Newsom, and actor Tom Hanks. During the preliminary hearing in California on Wednesday the judge ruled there was enough evidence to proceed to trial.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And first lady Jill Biden all in for 2024. CNN now reporting the first lady's attitude about her husband running for reelection has changed and shifted over the last few weeks. She is now supporting the idea. The president has not yet announced if he will seek a second term, but a new CNN poll shows that most Democrats right now say they prefer someone other than Biden at the top of the ticket.

LEMON: An unexplained fluid leak at the International Space Station cancels a spacewalk for two Russian cosmonauts. The leak is being called significant, and you can see the thick stream of frozen coolant particles spewing from the spacecraft that's docked to the ISS. It's not known what caused the leak or how long repairs will take.

HARLOW: And the final three episode of the Harry and Meghan docuseries on Netflix dropped overnight. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex offering many details, details of the miscarriage that they endured, Prince Harry revealing how his brother screamed at him for the leaving the family. Meghan also talks about her struggle with suicidal thoughts and says she ultimately realized the royal family was, in her words, quote, feeding her to the wolves.

COLLINS: But first this morning we get to our top story of tornados ripping through the south overnight leaving a trail of destruction, killing at least three people in Louisiana where this morning more than 10,000 customers across the state still don't have power. CNN's Nick Valencia was in Gretna, Louisiana, showed us the devastation firsthand.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This used to a church, and you can see that this tornado came through, busting pipes, water pouring out of this building, portions of the roof ripped off. The damage here in this community was extensive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Severe storms, unfortunately, are continuing to threaten the southeast today. So joining us now this morning to talk about this is the lieutenant governor of Louisiana Bill Nungesser. Thank you so much for joining us this morning. We've been paying close attention to this. What is the latest that you have when it comes to the understanding of what the damage looks like statewide?

LT. GOV. BILLY NUNGESSER, (R) LOUISIANA: Well, it's widespread. We had tornados from north Louisiana down to the south. You were just talking about the one in Gretna that went through three parishes, Jefferson, Orleans, and across the Mississippi River into St. Bernard. So it's widespread. They're still assessing the damage. The latest I got last night, there was about 50 people that couldn't go back to homes. They were completely destroyed. We're moving trailers to our state parks to try to house those people closer to where they live.

LEMON: I have got to ask you about deaths, Lieutenant Governor. Any confirmed deaths this morning is this?

NUNGESSER: Yes, there's three deaths, two up in Caddo Parish and one in St. Charles Parish. A young lady and her eight-year-old son were found, I hear, blocks from her home, horrible deaths in this horrible storm.

HARLOW: That is terrible to hear. I wonder about missing people. Are you aware of any missing people?

NUNGESSER: You know, last night they were still looking to identify where people were. They are still going through the neighborhoods and going through the rubble. Like I said, it's across many parishes, so it's widespread. And hopefully we'll have some updated information now that the sun is up this morning. We can finish those searches and make sure there's no other deaths or people hurt.

HARLOW: Lieutenant Governor Billy Nungesser, we know you're busy this morning, so thanks for joining us for those important updates.

LEMON: Thanks, Governor.

NUNGESSER: Thank you.

HARLOW: Also in health this morning, cancer survival rates are continuing to improve in the United States. This is according to the American Association for Cancer Research. The number of survivors of cancer in the nation rose by more than a million over the last three years, and that's partly as a result of catching and treating cans are early. But there is a new report, and it suggests we still have a long way to go in the quest for early detection.

[08:05:01]

Our chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is with us again this morning on this. I was stunned to see this number, Sanjay. Good morning.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I was as well. I really had no idea of trying to figure out just how many cancers that are found every year, how many of those are actually found by recommended routine screening tests, and that's the number on the screen -- 14.1 percent. That's what they found. When you look at all the cancers that are diagnosed in any given years, this information coming from the University of Chicago, look at all those cancers and say, OK, let's look back and say how exactly were these cancers diagnosed. And again, only 14 percent or so from routine recommended screenings. The vast majority for other reasons. People develop symptoms, that takes them to the doctors, or what are called incidental findings. Someone goes in for something totally unrelated, in my world of neurosurgery, someone may come in after a car accident or something, they get a scan of the brain and they find something unrelated to the car accident. That happens quite a bit. But that's sort of where things stand right now.

LEMON: Sanjay, that doesn't give me, and I'm sure most people, a lot of confidence about cancer screening. So what does this say about cancer screenings?

GUPTA: Yes, so let me give you a little bit of context here. First of all, when you look at recommended screenings, there are only four cancers that actually have routine recommended screenings now, breast, cervical, colorectal, and lung. And that gives you some idea of how well they work in terms of actually finding cancers, which isn't bad. Breast cancer, 61 percent, as low as lung cancer, three percent. People are screened for lung cancer if they have a 20-pack year history of smoking, meaning they smoked at least a pack a day for 20 years or two packs a day for 10 years. Some of those screening tests are better than others.

But I think what is interesting, there's obviously lots of other cancers out there that don't have recommended screening tests, like prostate cancer, for example, but there are screening tests out there that can be effective. I think there's two messages here. One is if you look at the data more a little bit closely, you still see that there's a lot of people who simply aren't getting the screening tests. They're just not doing that. So the tests are not going to work, obviously, if people aren't doing them. And we also need better screening tests. So more people need to get screened and we need to do a better job of getting screening tests out there that are even more effective at picking these cancers up. I don't think the answer should be, feel discouraging that these don't work or that we should just stop doing it. I think if anything, just the opposite, we've got to lean more into these.

COLLINS: And Sanjay, how much of this had to do with, during COVID, a lot of people didn't get cancer screenings, and how much did that affect this?

GUPTA: Great question. So this data that we're showing you is actually from just before the pandemic. That's the last year this sort of data was made available. So it's quite possible, Kaitlan, those numbers did go down even in terms of people actually going and getting screening tests during the pandemic. Hopefully they go back up again. But I think, again, people see this 14 percent number today. Think of it as a rallying cry as opposed to discouragement with regard to screening tests. They can work. They have saved lives, lots of lives. My mom found a breast cancer on a routine mammogram. I think she's here today because of that. There's a lot of people who have stories like that. So hopefully this isn't something that is going to be discouraging to people.

LEMON: Doctor, thank you. Much appreciated.

COLLINS: Thanks, Sanjay.

LEMON: The Biden administration bracing for a surge of migrants at the southern border. Coming up, we're going to speak to Hidalgo County Judge Richard Cortez who has asked President Biden twice to extend an expiring Trump era policy that helped control the influx at the border.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:12:31]

LEMON: So the Biden administration is warning of a lively influx of migrants at the southern border next week. It's because a Trump era border policy known as Title 42 is set to expire next Wednesday. It allows officials to turn away migrants at the southern border under a public health authority. Officials in Texas say they're already overwhelmed.

One of them is Judge Richard Cortez of Hidalgo County, Texas. His county shares a border with Mexico. It contains a key ICE processing center. Cortez has urged President Joe Biden to visit the region to see their challenges firsthand for himself. And Judge Cortez joins me now. We appreciate you joining us. Thank you so much. It's a very important topic. From McAllen, Texas.

JUDGE RICHARD CORTEZ, (D) HIDALGO COUNTY, TEXAS: Good morning. It's my pleasure. LEMON: Good morning, thank you. So let's get into this, Judge. First,

please tell us what you're seeing at your portion of the border right now. What is the situation like on the ground?

CORTEZ: Well, the situation is pretty much the same. We continue to have a large inflow of migrants coming in. I speak to the Border Patrol often. They tell me that now with having the two of the Title 42, they're managing that flow of immigrants, but they're very, very concerned that when Title 42 is lifted that the influx will be overwhelming and turn a manageable situation to an unmanageable situation. So we're very concerned.

LEMON: We're looking at pictures now of tent cities across the border in Mexico and people are just hanging out there and waiting to cross the border. I wanted to ask you about this memo. DHS is warning that if Title 42 ends, right, next week, it will likely increase migration flows immediately. How is that going to impact your community that is already under stress?

CORTEZ: Well, it's going to have a huge negative impact. And as you know, these immigrants, we don't know, some may have infectious disease, some may be criminals. We'll get a mixed bag of them. Many of them are honest people that want to come here and work, but we have a mixed bag of things. And none of them really want to stay here in our area. They're all moving north or east or west to other municipalities. And there's always a concern to us when they come into our airports or our bus stations, to our neighborhoods in such large numbers, it presents a logistic problem.

[08:15:00]

And, you know, thank goodness we have some non-governmental agencies that have been assisting with this process. But it puts a burden on not only cities, but all our federal agents. And we're going into a holiday season that hopefully, our people that are entrusted with protecting us will spend some time with the families with them. This time (INAUDIBLE). And then it's going to be all hands on board, everybody working. It will really be -- and I think everybody agrees with that.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: You have been calling on the President to do something. As I said in the introduction, you've been saying the President should come down and see the situation for himself. You've pointed out the problems and the issues here. Now, the question is solutions, right? Because you have to figure something out. What do you want the President and his administration to do? What action do you need them to take today?

CORTEZ: Well, I look at things on objective basis because many people or many Americans have subjective beliefs of what is happening. But let's look at the data. The data says that America's economy will not sustain itself or grow itself without immigrants. So, obviously, that's telling America that America needs immigrants. So, if that's true, and we all want our immigrants to come here legally, then the President and Congress need to pay attention to the laws that we have so that they can have an easier way for immigrants to be able to come here, the one that come and work.

America has been trying to deal with this border problem, with enforcement of all the policy. I've been chairman of the Board of Trade Alliances. It's a financial organization dealing with trade issues. We've had this issue since way back in 1986 when President Reagan gave amnesty to many illegals that were here. And nothing has changed because the laws haven't changed. We have outdated laws that Congress needs to look into. And our president needs to provide leadership to accomplish that.

LEMON: So, just again, just to be more specific, because in a statement, the Department of Homeland Security said that it is deployed additional agents and resources to the El Paso region. I'm wondering if you think that is enough. You just mentioned the laws, specifically.

CORTEZ: Well --

LEMON: Laws and what?

CORTEZ: You know, I'm smiling because what we have is we have a leak. We need a plumber to come and stop the leak. And instead, what we're doing is we're sending us more buckets to hold the water. That is not the solution. We have a mixed bag of people coming in, some we want and some we don't want. If you talk to Border Patrol, they'll tell you this. Mayor -- I used to be Mayor. I'm sorry. Judge, 28 people are coming in between the ports of entry, two are very bad criminals, and 28 percent of our economic immigrants that simply want to comes and work. Can you please tell me which are the two bad ones and which are the other 28 not so bad? We don't know. So, we have to go after all of them.

So, one way to reduce the flow of immigrants that our people have to be pursuing is to give them an easier path to come here, the ones that we do want, and eliminate having the volumes that they're having to deal with. With this amnesty program, what is happening and what will happen here, it was lifted, they're going to have to redeploy people that are in between the ports of entry, because they only have so much time to come and administer to those people by law.

So, that means that they're going to take people out of -- in between the ports of entry, where the danger is, where most of the danger is and put them here to administer asylum seekers. To me, that's not a plan that works. And that's why I would like the president to come here and see it for himself and provide the leadership that we need to finally, finally quit trying to solve the border problems with enforcement on the policy, because that hasn't happened over 35 years. And then somebody thinks that we can solve it with enforcement only and adding capacity. Then, I've got a bridge in New York that I want to sell.

LEMON: Yes. Well, listen, there is an immediate deadline coming up. And so, let's see what happens in the coming days. Judge, we appreciate you joining us here on CNN THIS MORNING. Thank you so much.

CORTEZ: Thank you very much. LEMON: Kaitlan?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR (on camera): In London this morning, Buckingham Palace says they're not going to comment on those new episodes of the Harry and Meghan Netflix series that was released earlier today. In the new clips, they talk about their split from the Royal Family, including Harry's claim that his brother, Prince William, screamed at him. Max Foster has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MEGHAN, DUCHESS OF SUSSEX: What she said to me was -- it's like this. The fish is like swimming perfectly, powerful, it's on the right current. And then one day, this little organism comes in.

MAX FOSTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): The second installment has landed. Harry and Meghan's Netflix Docu series latest drop could prove to be a lot more explosive than the last time around.

MEGHAN: In the entire thing goes on. What is that? What is it doing here? It doesn't look like us. It doesn't move like us. We don't like it. Get it off of us.

FOSTER: While the piece starts with fond recollections of wedding, it goes on to accusations that the institution became jealous of the couple during their triumphant tour of Australia in 2018.

[08:20:09]

HARRY, DUKE OF SUSSEX: The issue is when someone who's marrying in and who should be supporting -- a supporting act, is then stealing the limelight or is doing the job better than the person who was born to do this. That upsets people. It shifts the balance.

FOSTER: For Meghan, her claims of jealousy, media intrusion, lack of protection from the palace, even leaking of negative stories was too much. The stress of the coverage she says triggering a miscarriage, and even suicidal thoughts.

MEGHAN: All of this will stop if I'm not here. And that was the scariest thing about it because it was such clear thinking.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I remember her telling me that, that she had wanted to take her own life. And that really broke my heart.

HARRY: I was devastated. I knew that she was struggling. We were both struggling. But I never thought that it would get to that stage. And the fact that it got to that stage, I felt angry and ashamed.

FOSTER: In late 2019, Harry says conversations were leaked between him and his father about Meghan and Harry taking reduced roles and leaving the U.K. In early 2020, they issued their own statements laying out their plans, which culminated in a family rile at the Queen's Sandringham estate between Harry, William, Charles, and the Queen.

HARRY: It was terrifying to have my brother screaming shouting me and my father saying things that simply weren't true, and my grandmother quietly sit there and sort of take it all in.

FOSTER: A year later, ahead of their bombshell interview with Oprah Winfrey, a story leaked that Meghan had bullied her palace staff.

HARRY: To see this institutional gaslighting that happens is extraordinary. And that's why everything that's happened to us was always going to happen to us because if you speak truth to power, that's how they respond.

FOSTER: Harry speaking out for his wife but also his mother. Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace say they won't be responding to the Netflix series, instead Senior Royals will continue with their planned public engagements.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: I mean, I was just telling them that I have a lot to watch on vacation next week.

LEMON: That was Max Foster, by the way, our Royal Correspondent.

HARLOW: Yes, Max, thank you.

LEMON: When we talked earlier, I didn't even think about the mom part because considering what happened with the paparazzi in the media --

HARLOW: Diana?

LEMON: Yes.

HARLOW: Oh, yes.

LEMON: So, this is -- I didn't even take that into account.

COLLINS: There's so many layers to it. OK, so guys, ahead, we're going to talk about the Twitter files. You've probably heard about this but we're going to tell you a lot more. They have become a political lightning rod. What is fact, what is fiction, we will tell you on CNN THIS MORNING next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:25:00]

COLLINS: Welcome back to CNN THIS MORNING. Coming up this hour, the first Avatar movie set the record for highest grossing film of all time. But with box office numbers struggling in this post-COVID world that we're in, is there any chance the sequel can actually live up to that success?

Also, rapper Meek Mill sitting down with CNN's Chloe Melas on his effort to reform the criminal justice system. And you might know him from the O.C., but the actor, Ben McKenzie, is spending more of his time these days on the East Coast in Washington, telling Congress that the crypto market is the largest Ponzi scheme in history. He will join us live to talk about that ahead. HARLOW: I cannot wait for that. But let's begin with the so-called

Twitter files. Elon Musk has claimed he wants to bring transparency to Twitter. And well, it's not totally what's happening. But cue the birth of the Twitter files. Let me tell you more. Musk selected a handful of journalists unaffiliated with major credible news organizations with whom he has shared internal Twitter systems and communications that seemed to focus on some of Twitter's most high- profile and sometimes controversial content moderation decisions.

These files which the selected journalists then tweet out, appear to call into question the integrity of the company's former leadership while also riling up Twitter's right-leaning -- some of them right- leaning users. This week, former CEO Jack Dorsey responded to the Twitter files acknowledging, yes, there were mistakes made, but saying he believes "there was no ill intent or hidden agendas and everyone acted according to the best information we had at the time." Dorsey added later, "As for the files, I wish they were released WikiLeaks style, with many more eyes and interpretations to consider. There's nothing to hide." He went on to say, "Only a lot to learn from."

But Dorsey is not fond of the attacks on his former colleagues. And he says if you want to blame, direct it at me and my actions or lack thereof.

So, let's bring in our friends and colleagues, CNN Senior Media Reporter Oliver Darcy and CNN Correspondent Donie O'Sullivan. Thanks, guys very much for being here. And Oliver, we'll get to your reporting in just a minute on these. I would though, like to begin with, I think what is maybe the most talked about Twitter file? What are they called? Is that right?

OLIVER DARCY, CNN SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER (on camera): The Twitter files, yes.

HARLOW: Yes, Twitter file, the Hunter Biden laptop, and the New York Post story that was squashed weeks ahead of the election. What has come out of the Twitter files on that?

DARCY: Well, I think one, we need to first say that Jack Dorsey admitted that suppressing the New York Post story was a mistake. So, that he did I think last year. So, the Twitter files though, they really showed the, I think, messy content moderation that was happening behind the scenes. And I think we're seeing -- and it's probably no surprise, but we're seeing that not everyone agrees it's on the same page when they're making these complex decisions.

I will say on this specific Twitter files drop, I thought what was really noteworthy was that Elon Musk's handpicked reporter Matt Taibbi said that there was no evidence of government involvement in trying to suppress the story. And that was a big claim that Elon Musk had made earlier when he was hyping these Twitter files. I think that's very important to point out here.

COLLINS: And part of this, I think also.