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Christopher Eubanks Stuns Wimbledon, Makes Quarterfinals; Sen. Tuberville's Blockage Leaves Marine Corps Without Confirmed Leader; Northwestern Football Head Coach Fired After Hazing Claims. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired July 11, 2023 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:33:23]

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, welcome back.

A new study is pumping fresh life into exercise as a means of staving off depression. As little as 20 minutes of moderate activity a day, five days a week, can significantly lower the risk of depressive symptoms for people over 50. And this is especially true for people with conditions often linked to depression, such as diabetes, heart disease, and chronic pain. Moderate physical activities, typically defined as an activity that, quote, "takes your breath" so that it is hard to speak while doing it, like brisk walking, bicycling, dancing, playing tennis, or running up and down stairs.

Meanwhile, the European Medicines Agency Safety Committee is looking into the risk of suicidal thoughts in patients who use popular medicines for weight, like Ozempic.

The review comes after three case reports raised by the Icelandic Medicines Agency. Two were cases of suicidal thoughts; one following the use of Ozempic and another use of another -- after another drug called Saxenda.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: I really love this story.

MATTINGLY: It's the best story.

BROWN: I'm sure you do, too.

MATTINGLY: The best story.

BROWN: The story of the day. A moment -- a big moment at Wimbledon on Monday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WIMBLEDON ANNOUNCER: Well, how about that? Christopher Eubanks has done it. Unbelievable. The storybook has another chapter to be played out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: He is smiling and happy for a really good reason. The 27-year- old American tennis player, Christopher Eubanks, extended his Cinderella run. He advanced to the quarterfinals in his first-ever appearance at Wimbledon, upsetting the number five-ranked player in the world.

[07:35:08]

It is a moment that did not come easily, to say the least. Just a year ago, Eubanks was considering leaving the sport altogether after six years of playing professionally and never making it past the second round in a Grand Slam tournament. Well, he even took a side job as a tennis commentator while still playing. Now he is ranked a career-high 43rd in the world. And tomorrow, he will face off against world number three Daniil Medvedev.

Joining us now is tennis Hall of Famer and Eurosport's tennis commentator, Mats Wilander. We won seven Grand Slam singles titles in his career, so safe to say --

MATTINGLY: He knows a thing.

BROWN: -- he knows a thing here.

MATTINGLY: He knows some stuff.

BROWN: Yes. He's got some perspective on what's going on here. I mean, this is just incredible to see his rise -- to see where he has come given he was going to drop out a year ago. I mean, it can be hard if not impossible to predict, of course, who is going to win any match on any given day.

But tell us what stands out to you about Eubanks' game -- how he plays. Why this is his moment. How he was able to sort of turn things around for himself.

MATS WILANDER, FORMER PROFESSIONAL TENNIS PLAYER, 7-TIME GRAND SLAM WINNER, EUROSPORT TENNIS COMMENTATOR: Yes, so he's got a very big game. Obviously, he's six-foot-seven so he's got a huge serve. He's got a one-handed beautiful backhand. He's talked about basing his game on Roger Federer's game and watching a lot of YouTube videos. So he plays sort of an old-fashioned traditional tennis. He hits the ball really hard from both sides. He's got an amazing attitude.

And I actually talked to him a couple of times and interviewed him here at Wimbledon and he said that he gives a lot of credit to the time he spent as a tennis commentator because he started to look at the game differently and he realized the players were going in and out, sometimes, of matches mentally. And that has given the confidence and knowledge that he didn't have before.

So, I mean, I don't know where this is going to end but it's an amazing story. It's definetely the Cinderella story of this tournament. And Daniil Medvedev is tough but Chris Eubanks -- he's got a huge game, and I think that's the big difference from other players that sometimes get through to a quarterfinals.

We don't know how good he can play. He's playing great. He might have to play better.

MATTINGLY: You know, I think the primary question I had for you is what do you do when a six-seven guy is standing at the net to try and actually getting something by him.

But I think, more importantly, the beauty of this story at this moment -- you know, if you were watching American tennis you were thinking Taylor Fritz. You were thinking Frances Tiafoe. That was who you were thinking of going into this tournament.

Eubanks admitted struggling with the playing surface of grass. I think he had this great comment in his press conference a month ago. He was texting back and forth with Kim Clijsters saying basically that this is the stupidest surface to play on. I'm paraphrasing to some degree.

Talk about that -- the ability to kind of get over that and the surface itself.

WILANDER: Yes, very hard to get practice, obviously, on a grass court. So that's why we see a lot of older players do really well at Wimbledon always.

And he won the tournament in Majorca. I mean, that's huge. So he's won --

MATTINGLY: Eubanks.

WILANDER: -- nine matches in a row on a grass court.

It used to be an advantage to be tall and have a big serve on a grass court but they've slowed the courts down at Wimbledon tremendously since the '80s and the '90s so it's not really an advantage anymore to have -- to be that size.

But you don't come to the net as much, but he is coming to the net. He is very difficult to pass. Very difficult to lob over, of course. But it's also not enough in today's game to just sort of hit a slice backhand and come to the net, or serve and volley and go to the net all the time. Guys are too good at returning and hitting passing shots. So you really have to construct points before you get to the net.

And he's doing that. He's more aggressive than anybody in this -- in this draw for sure. So for everybody that's up against him, it's not a style that you see every day and you might play a player like that a couple of times a year. So, it's a big surprise to a lot of guys.

But I think that most important is his mindset. That he's relaxed. He puts no pressure on himself.

BROWN: Let's listen to Eubanks, himself, after his big recent win. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER EUBANKS, AMERICAN TENNIS PLAYER: A dream come true. Yes, I -- it's tough to really put into words but to able to come out today and play the way that I did and just kind of take everything in, it's surreal. I can't really -- can't really describe it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Surreal.

What does he need to do, in your view, to win against Medvedev?

WILANDER: Well, he needs to just keep playing the way he's playing, which -- I mean, the level. That's obvious. He has to most probably raise his level, which is not -- which is not that easy. But with the style that he has that is possible if he has one of the best days of his tennis life.

He needs to hit a lot of winners. He needs to keep rallies short.

[07:40:00]

Daniil Medvedev doesn't give you any unforced errors. He moves extremely well. But Daniil Medvedev has never been in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon either so he's just finding his feet on a grass court. So he has confidence because he's three in the world and he's won the U.S. Open once but -- on a grass court. This is kind of new to him, too, to do well.

So I think that Eubanks must go in with some confidence, but he has to be very aggressive. He has to basically risk a lot and hope that he has another tremendous ball-striking day. He's going to get the crowd on his side if he's in the match from the beginning.

And the best part about it is he serves so well that he will always have a chance in one of the first three sets. And once he gets to a tie-breaker with that serve, anything can happen.

But, I mean, Daniil Medvedev is -- Novak Djokovic will be harder, but Daniil Medvedev is most probably the toughest player in the draw for him to play at this particular moment because of his skills. Because of his retrieving and defensive skills.

BROWN: All right, Mats Wilander, we shall we. We're going to be watching.

MATTINGLY: Best story of the day.

BROWN: I'll be watching that match.

MATTINGLY: I can't wait to watch it.

BROWN: I will be watching it. Thank you. MATTINGLY: All right. Well, one Republican senator is holding up military confirmations. His latest explanation as to why and how long it may last coming up next.

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MATTINGLY: Well, for the first time in more than 150 years, the Marine Corps is without a leader. It's the result of Sen. Tommy Tuberville's blockage on Pentagon nominees. It's a blockage he's had in place since March of this year. At issue, his opposition to the Defense Department's new abortion policy which provides additional support for service members and dependents who must travel out of state to receive an abortion.

[07:45:03]

Now, in an interview with CNN's Kaitlan Collins last night, the Alabama senator doubled down on that standoff.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TOMMY TUBERVILLE (R-AL): When you're in the majority -- a minority in the Senate, it's the only power that you have to get people's attention. To get them to do it the right way. To go by the Constitution. The only power we have is to put a hold on something. And so, we thought that this would get the attention of the Secretary of Defense and we're trying to teach them that you cannot legislate from the Pentagon. And so, it's a tough situation.

And there's nobody more military than me, Kaitlan. My dad was military -- career military. I'm all for the military. We need a strong military but we also need to go by the rules and the Constitution and represent the people and taxpayers. Taxpayers are not supposed to pay for anything that has to do with abortion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Well, joining us now is the Republican senator from South Dakota, Mike Rounds. He's a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Senator, I want to start on that because I think the question has become, as this has dragged on for several months, is military readiness -- is national security actually being affected by the blockade that's been put in place?

SEN. MIKE ROUNDS (R-SD): Apparently not, and the reason why I say that is because if it was you would have Department of Defense officials negotiating with Sen. Tuberville. But in this particular case, they're not responding to him. They're not visiting with him.

We can take each one of those nominations one at a time. The commandant for the Marine Corps could be voted on today and passed out, but they're one at a time. What Sen. Tuberville has done has said we're not going to do by unanimous consent a whole bunch of them all at one time. But if the Department of Defense says this is a very serious issue and

it's one that we need to resolve tomorrow, all they've got to do is make the phone call to the senator and say this is our problem. What are we going to do to fix it? And they sit down and they begin negotiating. Senator Tuberville has made it very clear he has not had contact with them.

So this is a two-way street.

MATTINGLY: I understand.

ROUNDS: If we want to fix it --

MATTINGLY: But to some degree --

ROUNDS: -- the Department of Defense has to play as well.

MATTINGLY: I understand that, but this is the executive branch. This is the Pentagon. And I understand that the -- there are tools that the minority party has in this case. If you are in the majority --

ROUNDS: Every senator -- every senator has.

MATTINGLY: If you are in the executive branch --

ROUNDS: Yes.

MATTINGLY: -- why should the Pentagon feel the necessity -- or isn't that kind of a camel's nose under the tent to start negotiating your independent agency policy with the senator just to break through?

ROUNDS: Yes. In this particular case, it's a very sensitive policy --

MATTINGLY: No question.

ROUNDS: -- that has to do with --

MATTINGLY: I'm not denying that.

ROUNDS: -- with abortion. So each senator has to decide for themselves where they play that card. But every single senator has the ability to decline to participate in a unanimous consent approach to a whole bunch of nominations at one time.

Senator Tuberville has that opportunity. Every other member, Republican and Democrat --

MATTINGLY: Sure.

ROUNDS: -- has the same opportunity.

But remember, this is a two-way street. The Department of Defense can, at any point, step back and say OK, you disagree with one of the policies that we have now imposed. Let's work our way through this.

I saw the interview last night, in part. I understand that Sen. Tuberville made it very clear that he's prepared to negotiate but he has had no contact with the Department.

I've talked to a couple of the folks within the department as well and said look, work your way through this. Sit down with Sen. Tuberville.

MATTINGLY: What's it mean work your way through this, though?

ROUNDS: First, communicate with Sen. Tuberville.

MATTINGLY: But he sat down with C.Q. Brown who is the nominee to be the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff yesterday. They're clearly having discussions on some level.

ROUNDS: And that's where it has to start. And look, I think this can be resolved.

Personally, I'd like to see the nominations move through more quickly than what they are. We can take each one individually. So the critical ones at the very top most certainly could be done one-on-one today, tomorrow, and the next day. But long-term, they have to respect the ability for a single member of the Senate to ask for consideration when he is challenging a policy which the Department of Defense has imposed.

MATTINGLY: All right. Well, this is -- when you guys are in the majority again and somebody is following this plan it will be --

ROUNDS: Same thing --

MATTINGLY: No, I understand.

ROUNDS: The same thing applies on both sides, Republican and Democrat, on the unanimous consent thing. And once again, it's unusual but it is something that it is a unanimous consent. The Senate works primarily on unanimous consent.

MATTINGLY: No -- yes.

ROUNDS: And when you have a problem on something you have to work your way through it.

MATTINGLY: I understand.

I do want to ask you about something else the senator was asked about last night. He's made some comments related to white nationalists serving in the military. Our colleague Kaitlan Collins asked him about it and this is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR, "CNN PRIMETIME": Just to be clear, you agree that white nationalists should not be serving in the U.S. military. Is that what you're saying?

TUBERVILLE: If people think that a white nationalist is a racist, I agree with that. I will agree they shouldn't.

COLLINS: A white nationalist is someone who believes that the white race is superior to other races.

TUBERVILLE: Well, that's some people's opinion. And I don't think -- I mean, a lot --

COLLINS: That's not an opinion.

TUBERVILLE: Pardon?

COLLINS: What's your opinion?

TUBERVILLE: My opinion of a white nationalist -- if somebody wants to call them a white nationalist -- to me is an American. It's an American.

Now, if that white nationalist is a racist, I'm totally against anything that they want to do because I am 110 percent against racism. But there's a lot of people that believe in different things --

[07:50:00]

COLLINS: But that is -- that is a white -- a white nationalist is racist, Senator.

TUBERVILLE: Well, that's your opinion. That's your opinion.

COLLINS: It's not an opinion.

TUBERVILLE: But if it's racism -- if it's racism, I'm totally against it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: I'm going to be honest. I don't understand why this is the hill that the senator has chosen. And to be clear, this -- Kaitlan was following up on something he said in a radio interview.

Is there confusion about whether or not a white nationalist is a racist, in your view?

ROUNDS: Not in my view. For me personally, I think that when we talk about racists, racism has no place in America today. Go back to the very basics and that is that all men are created equal. We've got to work towards that. It's working towards a more perfect union but it also means respecting each other and let's not get race into the middle of it. Let's talk about everybody being equal to begin with.

And so, any time we have the opportunity, to make sure that as a nation we move back in and we eliminate the color barriers that are there and that have occurred in the past. We should do everything we can to make that happen. It doesn't mean that you don't recognize differences but you should celebrate your diversity.

MATTINGLY: I do want to ask you, the briefing that's happening today --

ROUNDS: Yes. MATTINGLY: The classified briefing on artificial intelligence -- look, everyone's trying to get their heads around this on some level right now and I don't think anybody necessarily does have their head around this.

But what are your expectations from the classified briefing? Very high-level administration officials coming up and intel officials as well. And how do you see this moving forward from a legislative perspective?

ROUNDS: The first thing that we want to do is talk about there's a fear out there about what could happen with AI and what it means. Defining AI by itself is going to be a challenge.

The second piece on this is what does it mean for our country in terms of the defense of our country, and what about our offensive capabilities? AI is on the battlefield today, not just at the highest levels but right down at the tactical level today. You find it in Ukraine. You found it -- you find it in the war between Armenia and Azerbaijan back in 2020. It was being utilized at that point.

So our challenge today is to bring our members, Republican and Democrat alike, up to an understanding of just how deeply embedded AI is right now in our military operations so that as we look at different parts for regulating or monitoring, or learning about AI, we don't hurt our ability to defend ourselves using AI, and that we understand clearly how advanced our adversaries are in the use of artificial intelligence in their operations today.

So it's a matter of bringing everybody up to speed with regard to the Department of Defense through DNI and through our most technically advanced capabilities in space. But also, when we talk about theoretically what we're going to use AI for in the future, let's not put ourselves at a disadvantage for our offense of defensive capabilities to the Department of Defense.

That's different that the regulatory aspects that we're trying to do to make sure that there is transparency on the civil side of things when we talk about business operations and when we talk about the invasion of privacy that can occur using AI.

So it's a fine line that we're trying to walk and we're trying to do it in a bipartisan basis to keep everybody -- you know, so it doesn't come a partisan fight on either side.

MATTINGLY: Can I ask you before I leave -- we don't have much time lift -- but who, from an adversary perspective, gives you the most concern --

ROUNDS: China.

MATTINGLY: -- in terms of their capabilities.

ROUNDS: No question about it, China.

MATTINGLY: How advanced do you think that they are at this point? ROUNDS: They are very advanced. They're very, very capable.

Look, AI, as we look at it, is made up of not just the ability to use supercomputers, but the ability to have very large databases and to be able to categorize those databases to actually put labels on everything that's in it so that a machine can recognize them.

China is very advanced in this and they are continuing to develop their databases. They're looking at databases in the West right now. It's one of the reasons why you find TikTok being something that they promote.

But it's not just China but the other countries in the world that are our usual adversaries are also using it. It's an inexpensive way to move forward. Russia does have real strong capabilities. Iran has real strong capabilities. And to a much lesser degree, North Korea has some.

MATTINGLY: All right, Sen. Mike Rounds. I suspect you will give us all the information from that classified briefing later today.

ROUNDS: (Laughing).

Well, hopefully, it's a -- it's a good way to bring -- to bring a number of members up to speed.

MATTINGLY: No question.

Senator, thanks so much for coming.

ROUNDS: Thank you.

MATTINGLY: I appreciate it.

ROUNDS: Appreciate it.

BROWN: Well, Northwestern University firing its football coach after accusations of hazing within the school's football program. We're going to discuss that after this quick break.

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[07:57:05]

BROWN: Well, this morning, Northwestern University firing its longtime head football coach Pat Fitzgerald over allegations of hazing. The university president says an investigation revealed 11 players from the past and present said hazing was ongoing in the program. And while there's no evidence that Fitzgerald knew about the hazing, the head coach is ultimately responsible for a team's culture.

CNN's Omar Jimenez joins us now. Omar, you were a student-athlete at Northwestern. You did not play football, we should note. But what is your reaction to this?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, for starters, I mean, this is a very serious situation, obviously. And Northwestern University president Michael Schill, who is part of that investigation, said that 11 current or former players acknowledge hazing had been ongoing. But not just hazing -- specifically, hazing that included forced participation, nudity, and sexualized acts in a degrading manner.

Some student-athletes, according to the investigation, believed it was all fun and games. Others believed it was incredibly harmful.

And while that hazing was well known by many in the program, according to the investigation, the investigator found no credible evidence that head coach Pat Fitzgerald knew of what was happening.

That said, according to the investigation, it also reads that "The hazing we investigated was widespread and clearly not a secret within the program, providing Coach Fitzgerald with the opportunity to learn what was happening. Either way, the culture in Northwestern football, while incredible in some ways, was broken in others."

That statement went on. "...as much as Coach Fitzgerald has meant to our institution and our student-athletes, we have an obligation -- in fact, a responsibility -- to live by our values, even when it means making difficult and painful decisions such as this one. We must move forward."

Now, I've reached out to Coach Fitz, as he's known, along with his agent, and we haven't heard back anything on that front. But Coach Fitzgerald has denied knowing any of this was going on up to this point.

And just for context for anyone who may not know, he has been involved either as a player or a coach with Northwestern for nearly 30 years and is, by far, the most successful football coach in Northwestern history. But clearly, these allegations and the investigation got to a point where the university felt they had no choice.

BROWN: All right, Omar Jimenez. Thank you so much.

JIMENEZ: Of course.

BROWN: And CNN THIS MORNING continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: ...wet from head to toe without any shoes on. I mean --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I lost them when I came across.

MARQUEZ: So you lost your shoes getting across here?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I couldn't find a rope so I took two heavy- duty extension cords and tied them to there and tied them to the back of the truck, and I was going to bring them out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Well, good morning, everyone. I'm Phil Mattingly here with Pamela Brown in Washington, D.C.

And as you just saw, millions of Americans across the Northeast are still under flood alerts as a slow-moving storm continues to dump huge amounts of rain on New England.

BROWN: And right now, President Biden is meeting with NATO allies in a crucial summit. The war in Ukraine dominating the agenda.

And Sweden is now poised to join the NATO alliance.