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CNN This Morning

Large Numbers of Migrants Lining Up on Mexican Side of U.S. Southern Border in Anticipation of Ending of Title 42; Twitter CEO Elon Musk Bans Journalists for Tweeting His Real Time Private Jet Locations; Schumer, Pelosi give First Joint Interview Ahead Of New Congress; Schumer, Pelosi Say Biden Should Run In 2024. Aired 8-8:30a ET.

Aired December 16, 2022 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:11]

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Friday. Good morning, everyone. December 16th.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Guess what hour it is, to answer your question.

LEMON: So this is a little thing I always say in the 6:00 hour, are we in the 8:00 hour yet? And they knew that was coming.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: The adult version of, "Are we there yet?"

LEMON: Are we there yet? Well, for me, adult? Come on.

We're going to catch you up on five things first here on CNN THIS MORNING. So Kyiv is where we start. Surviving one of the most massive missile attacks by Russia since the start of the invasion, 76 missiles fired into Ukraine with the Kremlin reportedly using strategic bombers for the first time. Kyiv's water supply interrupted in all districts. Kharkiv also bombarded with reports of critical infrastructure facilities being hit.

COLLINS: Also this morning, a sprawling winter storm is blasting the northeast and impacting millions. The nor'easter bringing at least a foot of snow from Pennsylvania to New England and heavy rain in all the other areas. Almost two-and-a-half feet of snow slammed parts of Minnesota and other parts of the upper Midwest, leaving thousands without power in these chilly temperatures.

HARLOW: The mother of one of the victims in the Idaho college murders says that she is frustrated with the lack of communication with police as they are combing through authorities there. Now the registrations of 22,000 white Hyundai Elantras which could linked to a vehicle spotted on the video near the home where the four murders took place. Still, if you can believe it, a month later, no suspects in the case.

LEMON: A satellite that will survey most of the earth's water is on its way to board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Engine ignition and lift off. Lift off of --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So it lifted off from Brandenburg Space Force base in California just over an hour ago. The international surface water and ocean topography mission is designed to show how oceans influence climate change as well as how global warming impacts lakes, rivers, and reservoirs.

HARLOW: Jane Fonda announcing her cancer is in remission. It's good soon. The soon to be 85-year-old actress has been battling non- Hodgkin's lymphoma and started chemotherapy in September. In a new blog post, she just revealed that her oncologist informed her that she can stop treatments. Fonda credits her recovery to everyone who sent prayers and good thoughts her way.

LEMON: That is great news. That is great news. We're rooting for you, Ms. Fonda.

But we're going to begin with Texas bracing for a crush of migrants at the southern border this weekend. The surge is already building ahead of the lifting of Title 42, that's next week. That's a Trump era policy that allows U.S. border authorities to swiftly turn away migrants on public health grounds. All this while the U.S. immigration courts report a record high in backlogged cases, over 2 million of them. Wait times for asylum seekers to have a hearing is now averaging longer than four years, that is according to a data research organization at Syracuse University.

Straight now to CNN's Ed Lavandera for CNN THIS MORNING. He is in El Paso, Texas. Ed, what are you seeing? Good morning to you.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Don. Well, there could be some legal movement on what happens with Title 42 later today. We'll have to wait and see. But right now, the concern is the number of people sleeping on the streets. This is the scene where you see dozens of people gather around typically around the bus stations in downtown El Paso, and that is because a lot of these people are families. They have been released from Border Patrol custody at different points, so they congregate around the bus stations as a safe gathering point for them.

But this is what they've been dealing with in frigid temperatures. As we've been reporting, the shelters overcapacity, Border Patrol processing centers overcapacity as well. So this has been a great concern. Last night we saw officials from the Emergency Management Office here in El Paso walking the streets, trying to urge some of these people to get into shelters that still had available space last night, but this is the scene that's unfolding out here on the streets this morning.

LEMON: You were on the other side of the border in Juarez, Mexico, just yesterday. Ed, tell us what you saw.

LAVANDERA: We saw a long and orderly line of people still crossing the river waiting for Border Patrol to allow them in so they can get processed. But what really stuck out to me, Don, yesterday, in our reporting from Juarez is just how many people are still on the Mexican side of the Rio Grande from El Paso that are waiting to see what's going to happen. So the shelters over there that deal with -- that help migrants are also to capacity. We went into one that had close to 100 people, almost 50 percent more than they would normally have, and a lot of those people told us they're waiting to see what happens with Title 42 next week. They don't want to cross now because they don't want to get deported, but they are waiting to see what happens with Title 42. So there are a lot of people on the other side of the border waiting to see what happens next week.

[08:05:00]

LEMON: Ed, you'll be reporting. Thank you very much, Ed Lavandera.

COLLINS: It was just 18 days ago when Elon Musk said we are in, quote, "a battle for the future of civilization. If free speech is lost, even in America tyranny is all that lies ahead." That was then. But now Twitter overnight has suspended the accounts of several prominent journalists who cover him. The new CEO said that these users violated the site's rules one day after Twitter changed its policy on sharing live location information, mainly to justify suspending an account that tracked and shared the data from his own private jet.

Musk is now arguing that these reporters violated the doxing policy, which was intended to prevent the sharing of private information of users like their addresses or their phone numbers, even though these reporters didn't do that. Yet Musk stood behind his decision late last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELON MUSK, CEO, TWITTER: You dox, you get suspended. End of story. And ban evasion, ban evasion, or like trying to be clever about it, like, oh, I posted a link to the real time information, is obviously -- that is obviously simply trying to evade the meaning. That is -- there's no different than actually sharing real-time information.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: So why does all of this matter? Since buying Twitter, Musk has said repeatedly that he stands for free speech, and he wants to expand it on the site. But what he has said has largely been inconsistent with what he has done. Back in November, Musk said he would not ban the account that tracks the location of his private jet. This week he did. Back in October, Musk said that Twitter would establish a moderation council to decide whether or not an account should be reinstated, saying that no major content decisions will happen before that council convenes. It never did. He then restored former President Trump's account after conducting a Twitter poll.

Also, since announcing his purchase of Twitter, Elon Musk has sold his takeover as a beacon of free speech, including these comments that he made back in April.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELON MUSK, CEO, TWITTER: I think it's very important for there to be an inclusive arena for free speech where -- so yes. Twitter has become kind of the de facto town square.

Is someone you don't like allowed to say something you don't like? And if that is the case, then we have free speech.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: That was in April. Since then, he has punished his critics and journalists on a platform that people around the world rely on for critical information. He is now taking the unprecedented step of suspending journalists from a major social media platform and drawing criticism from world leaders as a result. The German foreign minister chiming in this morning, saying "Press freedom cannot be switched on and off on a whim."

One of those journalists who was banned last night is CNN's Donie O'Sullivan. He joins us now. There are lots of things to clear up here. I think the most important is an accusation that he made. Elon Musk said, quote, they posted my exact real-time location. Did you do that?

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN REPORTER: That's just entirely false. And from what we can see, the other journalists who have been suspended as well also did not post his precise, live location.

LEMON: What did you do?

O'SULLIVAN: This all, this all goes back. I poked the billionaire. This all goes back to a few days ago where there's this account that tracks the location using publicly available information of his plane. And he kicked that off Twitter. He changed the rules to make it against Twitter's rules. And we were reporting on that. We were reporting on the shut down yesterday and late last night around 7:00, 8:00 p.m., colleague Oliver Darcy texted me and say you've been suspended from Twitter.

LEMON: So you really -- I wasn't joking. Seriously, what did you do? You just simply reported on Twitter on Elon Musk?

O'SULLIVAN: Yes, we did reporting. I think it's important to point out here. Twitter is a private company. It can do whatever the hell it wants, OK. When it kicked off Donald Trump back in January, 2021, many people said, look, Trump has other platforms, Twitter. As we spoke about yesterday, the First Amendment does not apply to Twitter. But coming from the guy who is the free speech absolutist, who said he wants to be a beacon of free expression, it is quite something to see him banning journalist who all just happen to cover him critically, but I would also say fairly.

HARLOW: You obviously have a unique position, because you've been reporting on him in this, and you'll continue to. You're also in the middle of it in a way that journalists don't want to be, don't want to become the story. The question is, what levers are there to pull now? You heard what the German foreign minister, I think that was, said. What will businesses, what will media companies advertise on it do? CNN says they're reevaluating a relationship with Twitter in that statement. What will big advertisers like an Apple do?

O'SULLIVAN: I think our colleague Oliver who has been reporting this out this morning also said that that is something to watch.

[08:10:00]

I think one thing that is really important to stress here is I have a platform, I'm on CNN with you guys now. We are in the privileged position really as journalists where if we want to quit Twitter, we're still going to be able to report and do our jobs. For a lot of independent freelance journalists around the world. The reality is they have to be on Twitter, because that is where editors and publishers will see their work and might hire them. I worry about the chilling effect that this might have on those reports are, particularly when up think that Musk also owns these other companies, Tesla and SpaceX. What if you're in Germany and elsewhere and you're reporting on maybe poor working conditions? Is he going to come and just stamp you down because he says that's against the rules?

COLLINS: I'm still fascinated, though, about how this actually went down. You said our colleague Oliver Darcy is the one that told you that you got suspended.

O'SULLIVAN: Yes, that's correct.

COLLINS: Does that mean Twitter, they didn't email you, they didn't say hey, you're in violation of this policy, don't do this or don't do this.

O'SULLIVAN: As far as I see I didn't get an email. About an hour or so after I got banned, after Oliver told me. I did get a message on my account which I think we just showed there a minute ago where it says that you are permanently suspended.

LEMON: I want to know what you think about that phone call last night with reporters. Was he just being a big baby, because it has happened before when he doesn't like the questioning, he just runs away, right?

O'SULLIVAN: So he engaged in what is a Twitter space which is this live audio discussion on Twitter last night, even with some other journalists who are banned. And one of them put to him, they said, look, if you really look at your rules here, we didn't break them. And he came up with some nonsense that you guys played there a minute ago, and then he just dropped off the call.

LEMON: I emailed two weeks ago for an interview. I haven't heard back.

COLLINS: Is it a permanent suspension?

LEMON: Elon Musk, where are you? Camera one. Elon Musk, come on the show. O'SULLIVAN: So yes, that's a good question. Right now, officially,

what I've been told on my Twitter is that it is a permanent suspense. Last night --

COLLINS: He did a poll.

O'SULLIVAN: He did a little poll. It looks like he might be backtracking a bit, and it's possible --

LEMON: Will he do another poll because he didn't like what that poll showed, that you guys should be reinstated.

O'SULLIVAN: Yes, the first poll was rigged.

(LAUGHTER)

O'SULLIVAN: So possibly we'll be back in seven days. But Poppy, to your earlier question, I do think this has me personally and I think some news organizations reevaluating why do we rely so much on the service?

HARLOW: Totally.

COLLINS: Thank you, Donie.

LEMON: Come sit down with us and do an interview. We can talk about these issues.

HARLOW: Oh, you're talking to Elon. Donie, you always have a platform here.

O'SULLIVAN: Thank you very much.

LEMON: Yes, Donie always joins us.

HARLOW: We've got to get to this, because another great interview, just like the great reporting, you've been doing another great interview. The two top Democrats in Congress sitting down with our very own Jamie Gangel for an exclusive just as a new CNN poll finds 59 percent of Democrats don't think Biden should run to be the presidential nominee in 2024.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: You're stepping aside. Do you think President Biden should step aside for a younger generation?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR (on camera): Welcome back to CNN THIS MORNING. Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, the top two Democrats in Congress have gone further than they've gone before in voicing their support for another run by President Biden. In an interview with our Jaime Gangel, they both resoundingly endorsed Biden for a presidential run in 2024, all while enjoying a meal at their favorite Chinese restaurant. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: What are you going to have?

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): I think I would get dumplings.

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): Hi! I'm sorry I'm late.

Hot and sour soup. That's what I was going to have. A nice bowl of soup on a cold day.

PELOSI: There you go.

GANGEL: You actually first met at a meal like this in 1987.

SCHUMER: Correct. And it's like January. And George Miller who was my roommate -- my landlord, he said, there's a new person joining our group. Her name is Nancy Pelosi. She's the new Congress member from San Francisco. And she -- before I met her, she will become the first woman speaker. That's what he said. God's honest truth.

GANGEL: He was right.

PELOSI: But what was interesting about it --

SCHUMER: Yes, she didn't know he was right.

GANGEL: You really knew the first time?

SCHUMER: Well, I knew she would really be a force.

PELOSI: Whatever that might be.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you like put some appetizers?

SCHUMER: So, I'll have an order of shrimp dumplings.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

SCHUMER: And then I'll have some string beans.

GANGEL: Talk to me about your relationship. The two of you finish each other's sentences. You're on the phone constantly, four or five --

SCHUMER: 415-730-and I'm not going to say the last four digits.

GANGEL: You know everybody's phone number.

SCHUMER: I probably dial hers more than just about anyone other than people in my family. PELOSI: Here's the thing. I say this all the time. He has -- what do you call that phone?

SCHUMER: Flip phone.

PELOSI: A flip phone. If he had a regular smartphone, we could reduce the number of conversations because I could just text him.

GANGEL: How would you describe your relationship? You're called the power couple. You're called an odd couple.

SCHUMER: Yes, we're close friends. It's almost like brother and sister a little bit.

GANGEL: When you disagree, who wins?

SCHUMER: Usually her.

PELOSI: No, no. When we disagree, then we end the conversation. And we know we're going to come back.

SCHUMER: We had a pretty tough one a week ago, right? What was it about?

GANGEL: What was it about?

SCHUMER: I don't even remember.

PELOSI: I don't remember what it was. But it was, shall we say, candid?

SCHUMER: Candid, yes.

GANGEL: I want to talk about how the two of you navigated working with former President Trump because --

SCHUMER: We had a -- we had a good time.

GANGEL: He famously nicknamed the two of you, Chuck and Nancy, right? It was always Chuck and Nancy. I think you both knew that Speaker Pelosi got under his skin.

SCHUMER: Right.

GANGEL: Right?

SCHUMER: Yes.

GANGEL: Was there a strategy when you went into a meeting? Was there a good cop, bad cop?

PELOSI: He's just inaugurated. This is an historic moment. The President of the United States. So, I'm thinking, how was he going to begin? Is he going to quote the Constitution, American history, poet, the Bible? You know, I won the popular vote.

SCHUMER: That's how he started.

[08:20:01]

PELOSI: And then I said, Mr. President, that's just not true.

SCHUMER: We sort of set him up instinctively. We didn't plan this. Everyone thought we planned it out. It was about the government shutdown, the first time. And Nancy said something to him about he didn't under -- about women. He said -- what --

PELOSI: Chuck was masterful. Well, he was masterful.

SCHUMER: Well, she set him up so I could go in for the kill.

PELOSI: No, but he was masterful. He's talking to him about the government shutdown and about immigrants and the rest. And he says, I have take ownership of the shutdown.

SCHUMER: Yes, I said, so Mr. President, you'll own -- will you own the shutdown? Yes, I will. And that was, oh, thank you very much.

GANGEL: There are a series of moments that you saw firsthand. There's the clap. There's tearing up the speech. And then there is the famous picture. It's the meeting in the Cabinet Room where you stood up and confronted. Looking back at those moments, what was going through your mind?

SCHUMER: I said, he doesn't stand a chance. He doesn't know what he's up against. I tell people, Nancy instinctively knew how to handle Trump. Because for her first, you know, 35-40 years of life, she raised five children. And she knew how to deal with children. And that's what helped her deal with Trump because he ultimately was a child.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: One of the more entertaining and news-making interviews.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR (on camera): I'm so hungry right now. I want some --

HARLOW: I'm starving.

LEMON: I want dumplings.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Some dumplings.

LEMON: Oh, Jamie is here.

HARLOW: Hey, Jamie.

LEMON: I just -- I just thought we were reacting to your piece. I'm sorry.

HARLOW: No, we get her in the flesh. That was so good. I feel like they've never done that before, right? GANGEL: Thank you. In 35 years, remarkably, they have never done a joint sit-down interview together. The shrimp dumplings were excellent. I will say, there were -- I mean, look the flip phone with Chuck Schumer is --

HARLOW: I know.

GANGEL: It's a classic. He has memorized the phone numbers, not just hers, but every one of the Democratic senators in his caucus. And look, it will not surprise you that as -- you know, when you tease the interview, you see, they have both endorsed Biden for President in 2024. They want him to run. As far as Donald Trump who as we know the only Republican who is announced, Nancy Pelosi said later in the interview, do we really have to talk about him while we're eating?

So, it was just -- you've never seen them sort of that relaxed before. And look, she's stepping down as speaker, but I think they're still going to be talking four times a day.

LEMON: Interesting. I don't even know my own phone number. I don't know.

HARLOW: Give me a break.

LEMON: I don't. I have to like, look it up on. Jamie, that was great. Jamie, you know, you're my favorite. Don't tell these guys.

HARLOW: He tells us every day. And we don't blame him because you're our favorite too. I guess no --

GANGEL: You're all my favorites.

HARLOW: No reporter thought to bribe them with Chinese food.

COLLINS: Well, it's just -- I mean, the relationship and like the actual seriousness of that, like how they have navigated it, especially when we see the split that's playing out on the Republican Party right now. Look at what's happening with Kevin McCarthy and Mitch McConnell.

HARLOW: That's such a good point.

COLLINS: And they're sniping at each other. It's just it's not easy. And they have not always disagreed because there have been moments --- remember when Manchin said he and Schumer came to that agreement. Schumer had not told Pelosi. That was the part of the dynamic of that. So there have been those moments.

LEMON: They haven't always agreed, you meant.

COLLINS: Definitely have not always agreed. But to see them work together and how they've been successful with what they're going after by working together while you see how, you know, it works on the other hand with the GOP, is really fascinating.

LEMON: Again, our thanks to Jamie Gangel for that. HARLOW: It's great.

LEMON: This just into CNN. We are learning that New York College Student Kenny DeLand Jr. who went missing two weeks ago while studying abroad in France, that he is alive. Melissa Bell joins us live from Paris.

Melissa, what's going on with that? What is -- what happened?

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Well, just extraordinary news this Friday morning. Our producer here at CNN Saskya Vandoorne happened to be on the phone to Kenny DeLand Jr.'s father who was explaining that it was simply not possible, he wasn't sleeping, he wasn't well. Really very shaken on this the 17th day that they've been without news.

When he got a text message, he's since confirmed to us that he's spoken to him. We don't know more for the time being, Don, about what happened, where he went, or how he left his family without news for that long. But we know now that he's been found just today before he was due to fly back to the U.S. for the holidays, Don.

LEMON: All right, I guess we'll get more details as they come in. Thank you very much. Melissa Bell, I appreciate that.

[08:25:00]

A misdiagnosis sending the daughter of CNN's Jake Tapper to the hospital fighting for her life. Our very own Dr. Sanjay Gupta sat down with Jake to talk about it. And they both will join us live next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I mean, you really thought that Alice might die.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: A new government report found that more than seven million incorrect diagnoses are made in emergency rooms every single year in the United States. This happened to a family that is very near and dear to us here at CNN, the daughter of our own Jake Tapper. He and Dr. Sanjay Gupta are standing by to talk about this with us. But first, we want to share Alice's incredible story with you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALICE TAPPER, DAUGHTER OF JAKE TAPPER: I was so tired. I would sleep through the whole day and my stomach was -- hurt so bad. I've never been in that amount of extreme pain before.

JENNIFER TAPPER, MOTHER OF ALICE: That was the scariest thing I've ever seen because it was just -- the life was just leaving her. And I just thought this is -- what is wrong? Why is her skin so green? And why her hands and feet freezing?

GUPTA: I mean, you really thought that Alice might die.