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Soon: House GOP To Meet As McCarthy Lacks Speaker Votes; NFL Player On Critical Condition After Being Revived On Field. Aired 8- 8:30a ET

Aired January 03, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:02]

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: What happened on the football field last night, quite shocking, quite shocking. We're covering it all. Good morning, everyone. Poppy and I are here in New York. There you see Kaitlan is in Washington on Capitol Hill as the new Congress begins. We have to begin with the big story that everyone is talking about, and that is Damar Hamlin, the Buffalo Bills safety suffering from cardiac arrest after a hit during the first quarter of last night's game against Cincinnati. He collapsed just moments after the play.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: And right now he's in the hospital, so we'll take you live outside of the hospital where Damar is being treated. We'll have an update on his condition, how the NFL is responding this morning, all that in just moments.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm live on Capitol Hill this morning, where in just a few hours from now the 118th Congress is set to convene. Obviously, Republicans are supposed to take over the majority, and after those hard-fought elections across the country, a new batch of lawmakers are also going to be sworn in across both parties. But right now, we are also focusing on how Leader McCarthy is facing a tough election of his own, the speakership. A critical meeting between Republicans is set to happen in just moments from now.

LEMON: But first, we have to get to a terrifying moment during Monday night football. Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsing after making a tackle. The Bills say he suffered a cardiac arrest, and his heartbeat was restored on the field. He is hospitalized in critical condition this morning. The scene on the field was really unlike any we have seen before. Players on both teams were overcome with emotion, consoling each other, and praying for Hamlin, crying. The game itself was suspended. But it took the NFL more than an hour to announce the final decision.

Let's go straight to CNN's Adrienne Broaddus live for us outside the University of Cincinnati Medical Center where Hamlin is being treated. Adrienne, hello to you. What do we know about his condition?

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, according to a tweet published by the Bills, he is in critical but stable condition here at the hospital behind me. The Bills also tweeting he was sedated and ventilators are breathing for him right now. I spoke just moments ago with a close friend of his who said he is surrounded by family.

If you're just waking up to this news, it all happened on the first Monday night football game of the year. Following a tackle, he stood up, and then collapsed. CPR was administered on the field. An ambulance also came on to the field and transported him, the 24-year- old, to this hospital. We also learned that he did suffer a cardiac arrest.

This has been devastating. People have been talking about it, as you all know, Don and Poppy, online, but it hits most for his friends and family. The game did end, and we know the 24-year-old to fight on the field and attempt and try to lead his team to victory, but right now he's fighting for his life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JORDON ROONEY, DAMAR HAMLIN'S FRIEND AND MARKETING REP: Be patient right now. I think there is a lot of narratives going around, and a lot of people want certain answers. But, like, this is a human being who has a family, and their well-being, his well-being is what's most important. But I'm excited for him to bounce back from this because Damar is someone who, he will use things like this adversity and he'll make sure he inspires plenty of other people along the way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROADDUS: And I think that's key. It is important to be patient. Yes, as journalists we want answers, we have so many questions, but keep in mind, this is a family at their son's bedside, a mother at her son's bedside. She saw this all unfold. So, it is important for us to take a step back and wait for them to update us so we can share that information with the public. Don?

LEMON: Right on with your assessment. Thank you, Adrienne Broaddus reporting from Cincinnati this morning.

HARLOW: Let's talk about everything we know this morning, still a lot of unknowns. A lot of unknowns. But CNN medical analyst Dr. Jonathan Reiner is with us and Buffalo Bills beat reporter for "The Post- Standard" in Syracuse, New York, Matt Parrino. Matt was in the stadium last night covering all of this. So Matt, let me begin with you. What was it like to be there? What did it feel like, what did you see?

MATT PARRINO, BUFFALO BILLS BEAT REPORTER, "THE POST-STANDARD": I felt like it was a scene out of a movie. When it first happened, I obviously covered the game live, I saw Damar make the tackle and bounce up. And so I went down to tweet what happened on the play, and when I got back up to look at the field, he was down -- somebody was down. And I thought it couldn't have been Damar. I had just seen him pop back up. And then the replay plays.

And it's a scene where I'm quickly trained as a reporter to look at the medical professionals on the field and how they're reacting to the situation.

[08:10:00] And I saw one, whether it be a paramedic or an EMT that was on a walkie-talkie, and you could see the urgency in her face. And then all of a sudden you pan to the players who have been around this game their entire life, they have seen big time hits. It's a very violent sport. And just the reaction, the emotional response, and clinging to each other, Stefon Diggs, Bills wide receiver, pulling his jersey over his face 20 yards away from the scene. It was emotional, and it was scary, to be honest.

LEMON: Dr. Reiner, I want to bring you in. After working with you for a few years, I know you were the former vice president's cardiologist. This is your area of expertise. As you watched what happened, you see this video, talk to us about the possibilities. We know that it was a cardiac arrest. They're saying that this commotio cordis not confirmed, but it was probably that. Take us through what you think happened.

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Right, so what we know, Don, is that he had a cardiac arrest. He had CPR, and then at some point he was shocked with a defibrillator. And that occurring after a direct blow to the left side of his chest is very consistent with this entity called commotio cordis, which is Latin for agitation of the heart. And what happens if a blow to the chest occurs in just the wrong place and just the wrong time, literally, timed for a millisecond in the wrong place in the cardiac cycle, a very fast and very irregular heart rhythm will ensue that essentially causes the heart to quiver.

So instead of contracting forcefully, which causes your heartbeat and your blood pressure, the heart quivers, and the technical term is fibrillates. And that causes the blood pressure to drop to zero. And it takes about six seconds for somebody to pass out once their heart starts to fibrillate. And if you go back and look at the tape, he's hit in the chest, looks like with a helmet, right on the left side of his chest over his heart. Within about two seconds he gets up, and then two or three seconds later he's down. And that's completely consistent with how long it would take for your blood pressure to drop to nothing if your heart started to fibrillate.

What's important now is how long it took for them to resuscitate him. He's made the first big step, which is to survive, to get to the hospital. Everything now depends on how long it took for them to restore an effective blood pressure.

LEMON: What chances of survival for something usually like this? Does it depend on what you just said, how quickly they restarted his heart and he got to the hospital, and so on?

REINER: Right. So, I've taken care of hundreds of people with cardiac arrest from a variety of causes. And what I -- first thing I tell the family, once the patient gets to the hospital, they've made the biggest first step, and that the best case scenario is that they can recover fully.

But there are a bunch of hurdles to get over, and just the same as if you're running a race where you have to jump over hurdles, you don't jump over all at the same time. You have to go over them one at a time. So the first still is for him to be stable overnight. They may have cooled him, which is a technique we use sometimes to cool the body temperature down to protect the brain. If they did that, they won't wake him up for another day. And then we wait, we wait to see what his neurologic status is.

HARLOW: Matt, we just think about Buffalo and what that city has been through just in the last year, the racially motivated shooting at Topps supermarket, the blizzard that killed 39 people, now this. And Coy Wire, who was on the Bills was telling us how tight this team was, the Buffalo mafia, as they call it. Do you have any insight into what the teammates are saying this morning? Do they even want to play this game again?

PARRINO: It's really hard to say just because we haven't been able to talk to any of the players. And the team was at the facility, the buses left a little bit after midnight yesterday. But it is hard to imagine just from a human standpoint going through that. And you mentioned how close the bond is within the community and the team, but then within the team itself, the culture that Sean McDermott has built here, it is a brotherhood. Whenever anybody talks about their own success on the team, it usually is followed with something about other players on the team, other coaches on the team.

And the visceral reaction that you saw last night on the field, it was obvious, there's videos everywhere, it was -- people are going to be going through something, the trauma that this caused, Troy Vincent, the EVP of game day operations spoke about this last night. He was a 14-year NFL veteran, and it is something that he had never seen before. And you have to consider that. The human side is they're all going through this.

LEMON: I just have one quick question for you, Doctor, before we go, and that is so how soon -- everyone wants to know how is he doing, how is he doing. When do you think we'll hear next from the medical team? And what do you think we will hear?

[08:10:06]

REINER: Well, it depends whether they're using this cooling technique that I told you about, because when we use that we keep people asleep fully for -- we keep them cold for 24 hours and then start to slowly warm them. We don't typically allow them to wake up for about 48 hours. So if they did that, we might not -- we might not hear much until tomorrow. We'll have to see.

Now, if he is starting to move his extremities and starting to respond to sounds, that would be a terrific sign, and I would love if we heard that today. But if we don't, that's not necessarily bad news. This can take days.

HARLOW: OK, Dr. Reiner, thank you helping us understand it so much better, and to you, Matt, as well, having been there, thanks for the perspective.

LEMON: Thanks so much. HARLOW: Kaitlan?

COLLINS: Well, this morning here in Washington, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy is still struggling to get the support that he needs only hours away from today's vote for speaker. Right now, McCarthy has the support of most of the conference, but he is short critical votes. That's what's important here, even after he has made major concessions to the group of hardline Republicans who are against him.

CNN's Manu Raju and Lauren Fox are joining us this morning. Obviously, the big question is what happens. Right now, we know he's not at 218. We heard from Scott Perry putting out a statement that doesn't sound very helpful. And so it's really anyone's guess what is going to happen today.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You really are in a moment in history in Congress where things are so unpredictable, and they are so significant of its outcome. And here we are at that very moment. Selecting the speaker is not just naming a random person or a game of musical chairs. This is one of the most powerful positions in government. Someone who will drive a party's agenda, someone who will determine policies that affect the lives of so many people here. And we don't know who the speaker is going to be. We don't know what Kevin McCarthy's future is, and we don't know how long this will take.

This is why we have not seen this in 100 years, because the first order of business in the new House is to elect the speaker. The House cannot govern until there is a new speaker. And right now, Kevin McCarthy can only afford to lose four votes in order to get the 218 he needs and the majority of the House to be elected speaker. He has five hard no's, and another nine who are warning that they'll vote against him. You mentioned Scott Perry. That's a very bad sign for him.

So if there is no vote for 218, this will go on and on and on, and I'm told Kevin McCarthy is prepared to dig in, prepared to let this go to multiple ballots, hours and hours and hours. And they expect this morning at 9:30 a.m. a very tense discussion when all Republicans meet to discuss today how it is going to turn out.

COLLINS: Yes, and Mike Lawler was just on a few moments ago. He told us that Kevin McCarthy does plan to stay on the floor today. Lauren, what does it actually look like after they take that first vote if it does make history by him failing to actually what clinch the speaker's gavel, what does that look like in practicality after that?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This is another huge question. We don't really know what it looks like because there are a couple of options here. They can keep voting. They can keep having this vote over and over again. Or they can try to adjourn. But if they're going to recess the House, they need 218 votes to do that. That means you have to get all of those hardliners to agree to let you get off the floor and save you the embarrassment. If they can't get those votes, they either need Democratic help, or they are going to just have to continue to try to negotiate this on the floor while cameras are all watching. That is why it is going to be so riveting. That is why we are all sort of on the edge of our seats today to understand what is going to happen next.

RAJU: Kaitlan, there really is no alternative candidate either.

COLLINS: That's what I was going to ask. Is there anyone who can actually get the support to be speaker besides McCarthy?

RAJU: No, because there are so many issues here, right. So the conservatives keep saying, there is a mystery candidate who is going to emerge or an alternative candidate. But there are so many members of the Republican conference who are saying we're not going to accept your last second candidate. So even if they come up with some alternative candidate, that person can't get 218 votes.

COLLINS: Scalise or anyone like that.

RAJU: Even Scalise. A number of Republicans that we both talked to over the last several days made very clear that Scalise, they would not necessarily support him for the position because they said he would essentially give in to the people that they call -- they are openly calling hostage takers, members of the Republican conference calling other members hostage takers, trying to get their own speaker involved here. And Steve Scalise has kept his head down, he is supporting Kevin McCarthy, but he himself has not said what he would do or if he would challenge McCarthy for the position. So just so much uncertainty over who a candidate could be.

COLLINS: And Lauren, we talked about the concessions that Kevin McCarthy is making here to these group of hardliners. But a lot of them, they just don't like Kevin McCarthy, whether he supported primary opponents of theirs, or things that he said when it comes to moments like that. Is there anything he can really offer them that would actually get him to 218, or they just don't want Kevin at all?

FOX: Such a revealing moment on that conference call on Sunday night. And I'm expecting that the same issue is going to come up today is when Kevin McCarthy said he was willing to hand conservatives a major concession on their ability to oust the speaker or ae. call for a vote to oust the speaker with just five members. Matt Gaetz still said that was not enough for him.

And I talked to Ralph Norman yesterday on the phone. He said his issues have nothing to do with the rules package and much more to do with the budget, making sure we have a balanced budget.

[08:15:00]

There are so many different things they're asking for that trying to coalesce around what specifically he could give them right now. It's still such an open question. And I think like you said, some of them just don't like Kevin McCarthy. And it's really hard to convince someone who doesn't like you, who doesn't want you to have the job that you can give them something to change their mind.

RAJU: And this is why Kevin McCarthy tried so hard, spent so much money in the elections to try to get what he called a governing majority. That's what his allies wanted. They wanted 230 seats, they wanted 240 seats, certainly not 222 seats because they're in the very problem they were fearing would essentially happen here. And now, they have to deal with it as a result.

And as you said, I talked to Bob Good yesterday, one of those hard nos. He said even if Kevin McCarthy gave him everything, he will still vote no. So that is the real problem here that no matter what Kevin McCarthy does, he still has this immovable conference who doesn't really care whether or not they -- this -- the congress goes into chaos because essentially, they believe that it will achieve their objective here.

FOX: And if you zoom out for a second, one of the complaints of conservatives is that McCarthy thought he was going to have a larger majority and therefore he didn't really start those conversations early enough, in Scott Perry's mind. And I think that is really going to be a determining factor today as to why some of the conservatives just aren't going to get on board.

COLLINS: Yes. Fascinating moment. Lauren Fox, Manu Raju, thank you both. I know you got a big day ahead of you so thanks for joining us.

Ahead, Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania is going to join us live to tell us what he thinks about McCarthy's chances and if he himself would maybe go for the speaker role.

Don and Poppy, a lot of drama happening here on Capitol Hill. I know that's not an unusual sentence, but today stands out more than the others.

LEMON: Oh, today, it is truer than most days. Kaitlan, we'll check back. Thank you.

Up next, more on the hit that sent Bills' safety Damar Hamlin into cardiac arrest. Damar's friend who is at the hospital is going to join us live with an update on his condition.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:20:22]

HARLOW: After about an hour last night, as you know now, the NFL suspended the NFL game after Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field, the Bills' safety. The NFL now coming under some scrutiny for waiting for that. But there are so many questions this morning.

We're joined by Rodney McLeod Jr. who plays safety for the Indianapolis Colts, the same position that Hamlin plays for the Bills. Thanks very much for being with us this morning. And I -- you know, we can't put ourselves in your shoes. This is your position, right? And this could have --

RODNEY MCLEOD JR., SAFETY, INDIANAPOLIS COLTS: Yes.

HARLOW: This could have been you. What did you think when you saw it? What are your thoughts this morning? MCLEOD JR.: Good morning to everybody. And, first and foremost, you know my prayers go out to the Hamlin family, Damar's friends, and teammates. You know, as players, injuries are always our deepest fear. And we glamorize this sport simply because of the financial stability that it can provide for our families. But often, you know, we tend to try to remove any of those thoughts the moment we hit the field, that injuries are real and that they exist in this sport.

And so, the injuries we're most common to seeing are ligament tears, such as MCLs, ACLs, muscle strains, broken bones, and concussions. As we know, concussions are very -- they happen often in our sport. And we become very numb to it, unfortunately. But you've also seen the sense of urgency rise and increase from the league from being able to implement new quality of helmets to new tackling rules and all those sorts of things. And so, you know, what we saw last night was something that we never have seen before. In my 11 years in the NFL, I never experienced anything like that.

HARLOW: Yes.

MCLEOD JR.: And that brings the reality of the sport to life. And we're talking about a man who collapsed, who laid breathless, who you know, unfortunately, is fighting -- is fighting for his life. And so, for us, the dream is real, but the dream -- you know, even though we understand the dream comes with great sacrifice, we never want that sacrifice to be paid from the expense of anyone's life.

HARLOW: Yes.

LEMON: What questions do you have this morning?

MCLEOD JR.: Are you talking to me -- what questions?

LEMON: Yes.

MCLEOD JR.: For me, it's simply, you know, wondering is he OK. What's the status? I think you know that NFL as a whole, a band of brothers last night, you saw the concern, you saw the overwhelming amount of prayers go out and uplifting, you know, that young man in this moment as he battles for his life. You never want to see that. And so, I think for us, we just want to make sure that he's all right as you saw from a lot of his teammates as well.

HARLOW: How do you think the NFL did handling this? Obviously, as you said, it never happened before, it is unprecedented. How'd they do?

MCLEOD JR.: I think they did a very good job. They put the concern of their players first. They prioritize us and our feelings and our emotions. And you saw that from both teams, specifically the Bills. They were not in the state of mind to be able to finish that game and so the league took that into consideration and they did the right thing at stopping this, and like I said, prioritizing our health. We have to do that as players as well. We can't turn our backs. We can't walk away. We can't stay silent when injuries do occur because it is real and they have long-term effects.

HARLOW: Yes. Rodney McLeod, we're really grateful for you being here with us this morning. Thank you.

LEMON: Thank you, Rodney.

MCLEOD JR.: Thank you.

LEMON: So, joining us now is Jordon Rooney, Damar Hamlin's friend, and marketing representative. Thank you so much. I have been -- Jordon, can you hear us? Are you there? Jordon Rooney, can you --

JORDON ROONEY, DAMAR HAMLIN'S FRIEND: I'm not hearing anything out of this.

LEMON: Jordon, can you hear us? All right. So, Jordon, again, is a representative and a friend of Damar Hamlin.

HARLOW: Really close to him.

LEMON: He's really close to him.

HARLOW: Yes.

LEMON: And so, we're going to have technical difficulties obviously.

[08:25:00]

We'll get to -- back to him and correct that for you to get an update. He's been providing condition, a condition of Jordon -- Hamlin online and speaking to media. We're going to talk to him in moments, so don't go anywhere. We'll be right back on CNN THIS MORNING.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: So, we want to get back now to the hospital where Damar Hamlin's friend and marketing rep is standing by, and that's Jordon Rooney. Jordon, we appreciate you joining us again. Thank you so much.

ROONEY: Yes, thanks for having me.

LEMON: So, I understand you're at the hospital. You've been there all night with the parents. What do you know?

ROONEY: Yes. I would say there is not any concrete updates. I can't speak specifically on you know his medical condition or things like that. I would say right now, we're just taking it hour by hour.

HARLOW: You know, Jordon, you know him better, I think, than anyone we've talked to this morning on the program. I'm really sorry for what this must be like for you emotionally this morning. Can you tell us about him as a guy? I mean, everything we heard is he's extraordinary.

ROONEY: Yes. You know I think that -- you know it gets thrown around a lot, like, you know he's more than an athlete.

[08:30:00]