Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

Insurrection, Protesters Storm Brazil's Capital in January 6th Echoes; Biden Hits Border for First Time as President, Doesn't See Migrants; NFL Teams Pay Tribute to Injured Bills Player During Games. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired January 09, 2023 - 07:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:00:00]

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: I mean, look at the similarities there. Because one side of the screen, the government under attack in the U.S., the other side, the government under attack in Brazil. Good morning, everyone. It is striking, isn't it?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: It's crazy to see how similar they are and also to look at the roots of it as well.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, and why.

LEMON: Yes. It is echoes of January 6th as protesters storm the Brazilian capital over election lies and conspiracies. We're going to take you there live, straight ahead.

HARLOW: Also, right now, two hospitals right here in New York City bracing for a strike after no agreement was reached between the hospitals and the nurses' unions, what those nurses are asking for and the impact on patients, even babies. We'll take you outside one of the hospitals.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This history book, an opening kickoff return for Damar Hamlin. And this place is --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: That incredible moment last night. All this going on as Buffalo Bills Safety Damar Hamlin is on the road to recovery this morning as his team clinched that victory in his honor. The heartfelt tributes are pouring across the league. We'll share them with you.

LEMON: You could not have scripted that.

HARLOW: That's awesome.

LEMON: Yes. But, first, we have to get to this. Democracy under attack, this time, though, it is Brazil. So, supporters of Brazil's former president, Jair Bolsonaro, storming the seat of government, vandalizing Congress, the Supreme Court and the presidential palace. The capital rioters insisting that Bolsonaro was ousted in a rigged election. Sound familiar?

Security forces used tear gas to clear protesters and regain control of the buildings. This morning, at least 400 people are under arrest. It comes just a week after President Lula da Silva was inaugurated. He is vowing to punish those responsible for the attacks.

Well, CNN's Brazil Reporter is going to join us, there he is right there, Brazil Reporter Pedro Nogueira live from Brazil, Brasilia, outside a police station where some rioters were first taken. Pedro, good morning to you, we appreciate you joining us. Please tell us what you know at this hour.

PEDRO NOGUEIRA, CNN BRASIL REPORTER: Hello, good morning, everyone. Good morning to you. We're now in front of the police complex where most of the rioters were brought yesterday. And from here they will be taken to a larger penitentiary complex outside the city, a complex called Papuda.

So, as you've described before, hundreds of those people were arrested yesterday after storming the three main government buildings in Brazil. So, those are the congressional palace, the presidential palace and the Supreme Court. The destruction was huge.

So, we have rioters leaving behind a trail of destruction, including glass windows broken, works of art damaged and stolen, even works of art and looted weapons from the presidential palace. Inside the Brazilian congress building, the floor was flooded due to the sprinkler system being activated after an attempt to put fire to the carpet. At the Supreme Court, the chairs of the ministers were cracked out and broke off the building. So, that was the situation at the Supreme Court. At least ten journalists were beaten or mugged during this demonstration.

Supreme Court also ordered the governor of Brasilia to be temporarily removed from office. They understand they did not enough to stop the situation. Local authorities knew a lot of this information before, so they knew a lot of protesters were coming to Brasilia in a hundred buses driving during the weekend to the country and the police did not do enough to stop this situation.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will spend the day having meetings with Supreme Court justices and state governors to solve the situation. Back to you, Don.

LEMON: Pedro, we appreciate your reporting. Thank you so much.

COLLINS: The similarities that Don was just talking about there to January 6th don't just stop with the images of what you're seeing today. Also, Steve Bannon is one of Trump's allies, obviously, he's his chief strategist who worked in the White House, he has acknowledged that he advised Bolsonaro. [07:05:04]

This has been back in November, as he was pushing the misinformation surrounding this election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STAVE BANNON, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE CHIEF STRATEGIST (voice over): Look in the streets of Brazil. Look at the great patriots in Brazil that, at a lot of danger to themselves, have come forward in the streets of Brazil. This is the people saying, no, you didn't follow the constitution. You used the machines, the judiciary to shut us down in the media and we're not going to tolerate it. It's going to be very interesting to see how that plays out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: And we're seeing how it's playing out now. John Avlon is here to discuss. It is remarkable to see, it wasn't just Steve Bannon who's been advising him, it was also Jason miller who was part of those conversations. He had made several trips. Bolsonaro is actually in Florida right now, we should note. What has stood out to you about the takeaways and the similarities between what happened after the election and now what we're seeing play out?

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Of course, the echoes are unmistakable. I mean, you've got a --

LEMON: It's not even really echoes, right?

AVLON: I mean, look, Mark Twain said history doesn't repeat but sometimes it rhymes, but this is a very close rhyme because people fanning the flames on social media, here in the U.S., are some of the sort of the Trumpest wing of that crew who had been fanning the flames around the Stop the Steal movement very explicitly, not just Steve Bannon, as you say.

There has been a move to deny the legitimacy of this election from some of Trump's former advisers, saying do not concede. And here, you have the slightly delayed reaction but a direct attack on the capital by a mob. And it just, I think, speaks to the fact that democracy being under assault is not over. And some of the people using social media to encourage these sorts of mob attacks are some of the people who, from these sort of self-styled populist nationalist movement that they seek to make international.

HARLOW: There was a great piece republished this morning in The New York Times from months ago that just walked through the months and years of lies about election fraud that Bolsonaro made and continues to make that led to this, right, that lead to this. And the parallels are just so striking with the months and years of lies that continue on now. So, I think the question beyond what we saw happen in Brazil is that those lies from those leaders continue.

AVLON: That's exactly --

HARLOW: So then what?

AVLON: Well, look, I think it's highlights the fact there is a struggle between disinformation and democracy, and that disinformation can create real world impacts. I mean, the role of bots, for exampole, in Brazil, spreading disinformation, amplifying false messages, but also being done here from the United States by some of former President Trump's closest advisers. That, I think, just speaks to the fact that the disinformation flow around the world because of social media is international.

LEMON: Do you remember, right, because we lived this --

AVLON: Yes.

LEMON: -- we all lived this. And people would say, why do you guys keep covering January 6th? Why are you trying to divide the country? What are you trying to -- I said, no. There was an attack on our democracy. This is important. This should be the lead story every single night on every news broadcast until people realize. And then you had all these voices on the conservative side or lack of voices, not calling this out or criticizing the news media for reporting on this.

This is what happens when you allow authoritarian-type of behavior from leaders. This is what happens when you allow misinformation to -- when you give it a platform.

AVLON: Proliferate. No. Look, I think that is exactly right because this is a real-world impact, two years delayed in another country. And it just shows that this is not academic. Until there's accountable, until we really get better combating disinformation in a way that's consistent with our liberal values as a democracy, not only here at home but abroad, I think these things will continue occurring. And the fact that it's some of the same players spreading the same degrees of election lies and misinformation, having this real world effect in the southern hemisphere, I think, should be a wakeup call to us all, as Brazil today seeks to reestablish the rule of democracy.

COLLINS: We'll see what Republicans say about this. Democrats want them to weigh in and condemn what's happening in Brazil.

One thing I will now also at 3:45 today, the U.S. ambassador to Brazil is getting sworn in. So, she has obviously a full plate.

John Avlon, thank you for laying out what's really important here, and it has global impacts, as you were saying.

LEMON: This has been top of mind for you for years, for the last two years. Thank you, John. I appreciate it.

HARLOW: Well, this morning, the president, President Biden, is waking up in Mexico facing some criticism, including from members of his own party after his first visit to the border since taking office. It was a pretty tightly controlled visit to El Paso, Texas. It did include meetings with Border Patrol officers, lawmakers and local officials, but President Biden did not appear to meet or actually see any migrants there, including as he visited migrant aid center.

So, everyone asked the White House why that was. The White House says, well, there were no migrants there at the time. It was a coincidence, they say.

[07:10:01]

Our reporting does show, though, that there are still and were when the president visited hundreds of migrants on the streets of El Paso, including children.

Our Rosa Flores joins us live this morning from El Paso. And that's your reporting, Rosa, that those migrants were there, the president didn't interact with any of them?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No, he did not. And that's why the president is being criticized by both sides because of what he didn't see. So, let me show you because this is one of the migrant camps that's here in downtown El Paso. And, you know, the immigration advocates here in El Paso and Governor Greg Abbott usually don't agree on much but they do raise the same question. If President Biden came here to El Paso to see the reality on the ground about the border, and he didn't come here, what's considered the epicenter of this crisis, did he leave with a clear understanding?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES: She wants to be a teacher.

The Tovar sisters have been living in this makeshift migrant camp outside an El Paso church for a week.

She wants to be Rapunzel.

Playing with toys is a luxury they haven't enjoyed since they left Venezuela four months ago, according to their dad.

He says that he decided to come to the United States because of the economic situation in Venezuela, because there's no education really for his daughters.

The Tovars among the hundreds of migrants who call the streets of El Paso home, arguably the epicenter of the current border crisis, a scene President Joe Biden skipped during his first visit to the border, a short 3-hour stop in El Paso that prompted criticism by the governor of Texas.

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R-TX): This is nothing but for show.

FLORES (voice over): And protests by local immigration and human rights advocates, like Fernando Garcia.

You think this is a photo-op for the president?

FERNANDO GARCIA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BORDER NETWORK FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: I think, as you say. In three hours, what else can you do with that? That feeling of disappointment has been transformed into outrage.

FLORES: Outrage over policies, like the Trump-era pandemic public health rule known as Title 42, says Garcia. That rule allows border agents to swiftly expel some migrants to Mexico. Biden said this about the policy.

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: I don't like Title 42.

FLORES: Just days ago, he expanded to Venezuelans, Cubans, Nicaraguans and Haitians.

GARCIA: So, I think the only ones happy with the extension of Title 42 are the Trumpists, conservative Republicans. The people that supported Biden, I mean, we're expecting something different from him.

FLORES: Something more humane, the like the campaign promises he made, says Garcia. During his visit, Biden stopped by a port of entry, a migrant respite center and by the border wall, but didn't appear to see or meet any migrants, which Garcia says means the president was not exposed to the full magnitude of the immigration crisis.

GARCIA: Three hours.

FLORES: is that enough?

GARCIA: No. Obviously, it's not enough.

FLORES: The timing of the president's visit is also raising eyebrows because the situation here as significantly improved. Take a look. This is what it looked like in mid-December when hundreds of migrants were lining up in freezing temperatures waiting to turn themselves into immigration authorities. At the time, Border Patrol said that they were encountering about 2,500 migrants per day. Now, take a look, the lines are gone and the symbol of deterrence here is the Texas National Guard and the fencing they put up. According to DHS, the number of migrant encounters has also decreased to about 700 per day.

The Tovar sisters' favorite toy, a tablet to learn numbers and the English alphabet. Their dream, learning to speak English.

What would you tell the president?

He says that his message to the president is that not all migrants are bad, that most of the migrants are like him, he's a father, he's here with his children and they're just here for a better life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FLORES: Now, the Tovar sisters are sleeping inside the shelter here at the church. They're allowed to. Some of the families are now.

Back to President Biden, my colleague, M.J. Lee, asked the White House about the president not interacting or meeting with any migrants, and a senior administration official told her that it was because there were no migrants at the respite center at the time that the president visited, and that it was coincidental. But, Poppy, I checked the migrant dashboard that the city of El Paso has and at the time when the president was here, there were nearly 1,000 migrants who were in federal detention. So, if the president really wanted to see conditions, I kind of doubt that the president of the United States would have been denied access. Poppy?

[07:15:00]

HARLOW: Right. And it's remarkable what we're seeing behind you, Rosa. Those are migrants sleeping on the street of El Paso, right?

FLORES: You're absolutely right. And we've seen this for weeks. And if the president would have stopped by here, he would have seen that there are hundreds of people. And you see them here behind me, hundreds of people living in the streets of America, I should highlight. This is a city in America, in the United States. And the top executive of this country came here. He did not come to see this.

HARLOW: Rosa Flores, we're glad you're there and continue to be there to show it to us. Thank you for the reporting. We'll be joined next hour by the mayor of El Paso. Don?

LEMON: And what a difference a week makes. I want to turn now to that remarkable recovery of Bills Safety Damar Hamlin. Players and teams around the league honored him before Sunday's games, wearing T-shirts that read, Love for Damar, with his number three front and center.

So, before the Denver Broncos and Los Angeles Chargers kicked off, Rustle Wilson and Derwin James, who share Hamlin's number, met at midfield, as both teams locked arms for a moment of silence and a show of solidarity. Jets rookie Sauce Gardner wore Hamlin's jersey during pre-game warm-ups alongside Hamlin's college roommate at the University of Pittsburgh, Jordan Whitehead. And Hamlin's high school team, Rodney Thomas honored the Bills safety after his interception. The Bills quarterback, Josh Allen, wore this custom sweatshirt quoting Hamlin reading this. It says, if you get a chance to show some love today, do it. It won't cost you nothing, then said this to his teammates. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH ALLEN, QUARTERBACK, BUFFALO BILLS: Don't play for the name on the black, you play for the name on the front. It's pretty special to (BLEEP) number on the front too, all right? So, let's get one done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So, the Bills took to the field carrying flags with number three as thousands cheered on in support. And if that all wasn't amazing enough for you, the Bills scored on the very first play, I want to see that, of that game returning the game's kickoff 96 yards for the touchdown as their teammate cheered from his hospital bed. Kaitlan?

COLLINS: Such a cool moment to see. And a source tells CNN Hamlin is making progress. He is expected to be released from the Cincinnati hospital that he has been in the coming days. His teammates say that they will feel even more relieved once he's actually home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DION DAWKINS, OFFENSIVE LINEMAN, BUFFALO BILLS: It was extremely hard. I don't want to like sugar coat it. Like it was extremely hard and it still is because our brother is still not physically here. But the fact that he's in high spirits makes him here. But until he physically touches his toes down, then it will be a full -- you know? But it's a crazy balance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: The Cincinnati Bengals honored the medical team who treated Hamlin on the field ahead of their game on Sunday.

Joining us now to talk about this is Dr. Jonathan Reiner, a CNN Medical Analyst, who specializes in cardiology and heart attack treatment at George Washington University. So, you're obviously the perfect person to offer perspective on this. I wonder, Doctor, this morning, how do you read this update that we're getting on Damar Hamlin?

DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Well, he's had the best possible outcome. And I love what the Bills did yesterday in honoring the on-field staff because the most important factor in Damar's survival was the pre-hospital care he got. I have enormous admiration for my colleagues at the University of Cincinnati but none of the care they provided for Damar would have been possible without the fantastic resuscitative effort of the on-field staff in Cincinnati. So, kudos to them.

HARLOW: I was struck by your note that the survival rate for commotio cordis, which we don't know the full diagnosis, maybe we'll know more soon, but you've said is the most likely the diagnosis, that survival rate is about 50 percent. Not only did he survive, he's up, he's live- tweeting the game. What does that tell you about potentially full recovery maybe playing again in the NFL?

REINER: Well, that's up to him. And I think the job of --

HARLOW: But the ability to, I mean, Doctor.

REINER: Yes, sure, of course. I think he should fully recover. The most critical organ to recover obviously is the brain. The brain is the least forgiving organ for moments of lack of oxygen. And when you see somebody who is completely neurologically intact following an out of hospital following an arrest, you know that the rest of their organs and the rest of their physical being will fully recover.

Now, he was on a ventilator for two days, he's been in an ICU for almost a week, and even though he's an incredibly well-trained 24- year-old athlete, that takes a toll. So, I think he'll need some physical therapy. He's going to need some time to recover not just physically but emotionally.

[07:20:01] But I would expect from everything we know that he should fully recover.

LEMON: Would you advice him to go back? Obviously, it's his decision. What would you advise your patient to do?

REINER: So, that depends on whether he has any underlying structural heart disease. If this indeed was commotio cordis, and I've looked at the tape over and over and over again, and it really does appear that he arrested seconds after taking that blow to the chest, if this is what this was, this incredibly unusual but well-described phenomenon, which can happen in people with normal hearts, then he'll have that decision to make.

If you look at the American Heart Association recommendations for athletes who survive an episode of commotio cordis, the recommendations do suggest that athletes can go back to competitive sports. But, again, this is -- he'll have to, you know, dig down deep and think about what he wants to do going forward.

We heard that two nights after his arrest, when he started to wake up, when he asked a question, he asked who won, now we know who won. Damar Hamlin won.

COLLINS: Yes, he did. It's a good question, though, and it is a big one to wrestle with on what he'll do next.

REINER: Yes.

COLLINS: Doctor Reiner, we're just glad to hear the updates. Thank you for breaking it all down for us and what it actually means.

REINER: My pleasure.

LEMON: And not so sure what he will do next. Look at the impact that he's been having over just the couple of -- just last week, his fundraising, the charity.

HARLOW: I was not that thoughtful at 24. Like look at all he's done. He's raised, what, $8 million now for these kids.

LEMON: Poppy, I can't even remember 24.

HARLOW: I barely can. All right, Dr. Reiner, thank you.

LEMON: Coming up, Prince Harry detailing more on the royal family feud and defending his wife in a new interview, also what he long believed about the death of his mother, Princess Diana, plus this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:25:00]

COLLINS: In his first interview for American audiences, Prince Harry opens up to Anderson Cooper about his memoire, Spare, a nod to his position of succession after his brother, the true heir. The prince revealed deeply personal details from the trauma of losing his mother, Princess Diana, to turning to drugs and alcohol for relief, to where he stands with his royal family now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: William tried to talk to you occasionally about your mom. But as a child, you couldn't respond.

PRINCE HARRY, DUKE OF SUSSEX: For me, it was never a case of I don't want to talk about it with you. I just don't know how to talk about it. I never ever thought that maybe talking about it with my brother or with anybody else at that point would be therapeutic.

COOPER: You didn't believe she was dead?

PRINCE HARRY: For a long time I just refused to accept that she was gone. Part of, you know, she would never do this to us but also part of maybe this is all part of a plan.

COOPER: I mean, you really believe that maybe she had just decided to disappear for a time?

PRINCE HARRY: For a time, I remember she would call us and we'd go join her.

I had a lot of anger inside of me that luckily I never expressed to anybody but I resulted to drinking heavily because I wanted to numb the feeling or I wanted to distract myself from whatever I was thinking, and I would resort to drugs as well.

The British press and numerous other people were like, he's changed, she must be a witch, he's changed, as opposed to, yes, I did change and I'm really glad I changed. Because rather than getting drunk, falling out of clubs, taking drugs, I had now found the love of my life and I now have the opportunity to start a family with her.

COOPER: Do you speak to William now? Do you text?

PRINCE HARRY: Currently no. But I look forward to -- I look forward to us being able to find peace.

COOPER: How long has it been since you spoke?

PRINCE HARRY: A while.

COOPER: Do you speak to your dad?

PRINCE HARRY: We haven't spoken for quite a while, not recently.

COOPER: Can you see a day when you would return as a full-time member of the royal family?

PRINCE HARRY: No, I can't see that happening.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: And that I think is the really, really important thing, I don't ever see that happening.

Let's discuss. Trisha Goddard, she's our CNN Contributor and host of This Week with Trisha Goddard, Zain Asher as well, the host of One World with Zain Asher on CNN International. Good morning. Good morning.

I think that's really the crux of it, I don't ever see being a member of the royal family, which means can that rift after all this --

TISHA GODDARD, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I don't think he saw himself as a member of the royal family for quite some time when he talked about going to Afghanistan and separating himself. And I think one thing that this shows is it wasn't all about Meghan. There was this competition, there was this tension going all the way back. And it's not unusual to see in a family when you have got very early trauma, losing your mother so suddenly at the peak of her life.

LEMON: Were you shocked by the revelations?

GODDARD: Not really shocked but not surprised. But, I mean, if he wasn't a royal, it would be the kind of average life of something going through trauma. But I don't think -- I always saw all of this other stuff as a distraction. This is about Prince Harry's scream into the night about certain sections of the tabloid media and the relationship they have with the royals. That to me is the underlying major here.

ZAIN ASHER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Can we just take stock of the fact that what we have watched unfold over the past week, not just the interview last night but just this past week with all the revelations from the book, it's essentially the disintegration of a family. I mean, this family is in tatters. And what harry is trying to explain to us is that the tabloids have fed off of this family for decades upon decades. And what he's trying to say is that, listen, there is virtually nothing left.

[07:30:00]

The part that made me sick to my stomach is when he talked about the fact that that night when Princess Diana died in that tunnel in Paris.