Return to Transcripts main page
CNN This Morning
Police: 3 Men Charged With Assault In Alabama Brawl; Former Coast Guard Head Covered Up Secret Investigation Into Sexual Assaults At Coast Guard Academy; Ohio Voters Reject Measure In Win For Abortion Rights. Aired 7:30-8a ET
Aired August 09, 2023 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[07:30:00]
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Do you plan to?
MAYOR STEVEN REED (D-MONTGOMERY, AL): Yes. You know, I will speak to all of those that were working on the Harriott as kind of go through this investigation. It's something for us to make sure we're dotting all our I's and crossing our T's as we go through this.
HARLOW: Well --
REED: But certainly, we expect to do that, as well as some of the others.
Now, the police have spoken to Mr. Pickett and gotten testimony from him about what --
BLACKWELL: Sure.
REED: -- took place and he was one of the people who has signed warrants.
HARLOW: The captain of the Harriott II, Jimmy Cottrell, said that he believes -- in his opinion, this attack was racially motivated.
We were looking this morning. There is a hate crime statute in your state. Do you expect that hate crime charges may be brought?
REED: You know, I think it's important for us to understand that there was a young, white dock worker or someone who worked on the boat who also tried to help and who was attacked as well.
With that, you know, we're looking at this from all angles, and again, we're working very closely with state and federal authorities. The FBI told us at this time they did not have enough information to make it a hate crime, but we're continuing to --
HARLOW: OK.
REED: -- ask witnesses and those who were there, and those who have video and audio to share that with our police department and then we'll be able to take those next steps. But I will tell you this. We're taking this very seriously. It's a priority for us. And it's important for people to understand that justice will be served and justice will be doled out fairly.
BLACKWELL: Mr. Mayor, a part of the conversation that up to this point we have not had on air that I think we should is the reception and response by Black people online on social media. Maybe not exclusively Black people, but a lot of Black people, who see this video, and while police are looking for the man who used that chair as a weapon, that man is being hailed as a Black man coming to the defense of another Black man attacked by a group of white men.
We have some of the memes that have happened on social media. I looked at someone who had the Montgomery, Alabama, the folding chair, and the date tattooed on their arm. This is a collective defense argument for Black people.
How do you respond to that interpretation of what we saw -- that the people came to the aid are seen as heroes?
REED: You know, I haven't really been able to keep up with many of the things that have been on social media. Certainly, we thank all the people who had video of this incident. It has helped our investigation tremendously.
Look, I'm a former judge, and so, in that case, I looked at things based on the facts and evidence presented. I do the same as mayor here. And so when you consider that, the main thing for us has been what happened, why it happened, when it happened, and how it happened. And that's kind of the approach that we take.
And I've been in touch with our police chief every day, so I haven't been able to get into some of the peripheral thoughts and responses that have been taking place because, for us, the main thing was bringing the people who were responsible for this to justice. And I want to commend our police department for doing just that and commend the community and those in the public who are assisting us in that.
BLACKWELL: So let me press that a bit more. You watched the video. You've described it. You say you haven't seen what happened online. I understand that. You've got a lot going on.
What would be your message to people who did jump in to help Mr. Pickett? The man swinging a chair notwithstanding, but the people who helped to, I guess, join the fight. Do you think they should not have? What should they have done?
REED: Oh, no, I understand that. No, I certainly understand that. You know, whether it's a sanitation worker, police officer, first responder, EMS, I certainly those who -- we would have preferred, obviously, that they break it up. But I understand emotions taking place when you're trying to dock for 40 minutes -- 40-plus minutes and you have someone who is not obeying the rules and not obeying the warnings they've been given. And I think, certainly, seeing a colleague -- a coworker being attacked like that really brings about a different response. [07:35:02]
And so, it's easy to Monday morning quarterback the situation when you're not in it, but I certainly understand those who took the notion to try to defend their coworker and someone that they thought was being mistreated.
BLACKWELL: Yes. He was just doing his job and tried to get them to move this pontoon boat for 40-45 minutes. So they -- once they saw it became violent, they came in to support him.
Mr. Mayor Steven Reed, mayor of Montgomery, Alabama, I thank you so much for your time.
REED: Thank you for having me.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
HARLOW: Well, ahead, a new study shows this really popular weight loss drug, Wegovy, may actually reduce the risk of heart attack and stroke. What we know about all the potential side effects ahead.
(COMMERCIAL)
BLACKWELL: A popular weight loss drug called Wegovy may also reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke, or heart-related death by 20 percent. That's according to a new study from the company that makes the drug. It comes as the use of weight loss and diabetes drugs like Wegovy and Ozempic skyrocket, but also as we continue to learn more about the potential side effects of both, good and bad.
[07:40:12]
CNN medical correspondent Meg Tirrell is with us. So, sometimes you hear this is great. Sometimes you hear about stomach paralysis.
HARLOW: Right. That's just what I was thinking.
BLACKWELL: Yes, you know.
HARLOW: Just what I was thinking.
BLACKWELL: I mean, is that something you want to risk?
But what do we need to know?
MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: So, people hear a lot about Ozempic and Wegovy and these are just two of a new class of medicines that are really transforming the way doctors think about treating weight loss.
And so, the ones that are out on the market now include Ozempic, Wegovy, and another drug called Mounjaro. Now, Ozempic and Mounjaro are both approve for type 2 diabetes. Wegovy is the only one actually approved for chronic weight management. And you can see in trials they've led to weight loss of between five
and 22 percent. That 22 is for Mounjaro's trial in obesity, so they are awaiting an FDA indication there.
But now we are starting to see this data emerge actually showing that in addition to weight loss, they actually have protective effects against heart attack and stroke and potentially, heart-related death. Twenty-six percent were seen in a previous trial of Ozempic and people with diabetes. But as you mentioned, for the first time, we are now seeing this protective effect with weight loss drugs alone in people who don't have diabetes. Twenty percent there.
HARLOW: Is it because of the drug or is it because of the weight loss you have associated with it?
TIRRELL: Well, it's not clear exactly what the mechanism is. Doctors say it could be improved markers of blood pressure, cholesterol, inflammation. Also, improved insulin sensitivity. But it's really been the conventional wisdom that losing weight should be good for you in terms of your heart health, but this is the first time we've actually seen a drug prove it out in a clinical trial.
BLACKWELL: All right, Meg Tirrell, thanks.
HARLOW: Fascinating.
TIRRELL: Thanks.
HARLOW: So we have exclusive new CNN reporting that the former head of the Coast Guard covered up a secret investigation into sexual assaults at the Coast Guard Academy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ADM. LINDA FAGAN, COMMANDANT, U.S. COAST GUARD: When the CNN investigation started asking questions, that was when I first became aware of the totality of the Fouled Anchor.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL)
[07:46:01]
BLACKWELL: The former head of the U.S. Coast Guard spent years covering up an explosive investigation into rape and sexual assault at the Coast Guard Academy. That's according to a new CNN investigation. CNN was the first to report on the investigation's coverup in June. It revealed a dark history of sexual misconduct at the Academy that leaders covered up in favor of protecting the Coast Guard's reputation.
CNN's chief investigative correspondent Pamela Brown is live in Washington this morning. So, Pamela, you spoke exclusively with the commandant's predecessor. What did you learn? PAMELA BROWN, CNN CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, we did speak exclusively with Adm. Zukunft, who launched Operation Fouled Anchor, but left before it was completed. He says he briefed his successor, Adm. Karl Schultz, about the importance of this investigation into sexual assault, and he said he expected it to be made public. But when the investigation wrapped up in 2020, the report with the disturbing findings of systemic sex abuse at the Academy was buried.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN (voice-over): When the head of the Coast Guard was nearing retirement in 2018 he prepared the admiral who was taking his place.
ADMIRAL PAUL ZUKUNFT (RET.), FORMER U.S. COAST GUARD COMMANDANT: So, I'd sit down with my successor and say here are all the things that -- you know, budgetarily -- but this was a big one.
BROWN (voice-over): The big one was a massive scandal that was only starting to be understood -- an explosive investigation into sexual assault at the Coast Guard Academy.
ZUKUNFT: And I say, hey, we've got this investigation going on. There was no confusion whatsoever of the priority placed upon this.
BROWN (voice-over): Admiral Paul Zukunft told CNN in this exclusive interview that there was no question the results of the investigation he launched would eventually need to be made public.
ZUKUNFT: It was my intent to be the public face of this event as the senior leader of the Coast Guard, and I regret we were not able to complete it during my watch.
BROWN (voice-over): But once the investigation was completed a couple of years later, Zukunft's successor, Adm. Karl Schultz, did not release the results as expected. Instead, a CNN investigation found Schultz, the leader of the Coast Guard at the time, helped cover up the whole thing for years. Schultz would not speak to CNN.
The report, dubbed Operation Foul Anchor, found dozens of cases of sexual abuse and rape at the Academy from the late '80s to 2006 that leaders ignored or mishandled. It was kept hidden until CNN reported it in June. But by keeping the report secret, the Coast Guard avoided the type of intense scrutiny that could have forced more change in the handling of sexual assaults.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was completely toxic and devastating to my sense of self.
BROWN (voice-over): CNN has talked to more than two dozen women and men who say they were sexually assaulted while at the Coast Guard Academy, including this former cadet who recently graduated.
BROWN (on camera): So you have to wonder if they had released this report and if they had done more to crack down on sexual assaults how your experience would have been different. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, I often find myself wondering what my
future would have been like. Time and time again the Academy and the institution don't protect their people.
ZUKUNFT: At a bare minimum, we owed it to these victims to provide some sense of emotional closure.
BROWN (voice-over): Exactly why Schultz didn't release the report is still a question. There were plans for a Capitol Hill briefing on Operation Fouled Anchor in late 2018, according to a memo viewed by CNN, but that apparently never happened.
ZUKUNFT: For an investigation of this magnitude and the number of events, this rises to the very top of the organization. You know, this isn't a mid-level staff decision.
BROWN (voice-over): Members of Congress even asked Schultz about sexual assault in the Coast Guard in a remote hearing in 2021, but he still failed to mention the investigation.
[07:50:00]
ADM. KARL SCHULTZ (RET.), FORMER U.S. COAST GUARD COMMANDANT: We want to bring accountability to all matters. We want to prevent sexual assaults.
BROWN (voice-over): And according to sources, he and his team also kept the report hidden from leaders at the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Coast Guard.
FAGAN: I, again, apologize to each victim, survivor, their loved ones.
BROWN (voice-over): The Coast Guard didn't come clean until just over a month ago when Schultz's successor, Adm. Linda Fagan, testified at a heated hearing and announced she was launching a 90-day investigation.
FAGAN: We failed the committee when we did not disclose in 2020. When the CNN investigation started asking questions that was when I first became aware of the totality of the Fouled Anchor.
BROWN (voice-over): Senators said in a letter to the Coast Guard that failure to disclose conflicted with legal requirements for reports on sexual assault at the Academy to be shared with Congress.
SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): This episode is probably the most shameful and disgraceful incident of cover-up of sexual assault that I have seen in the United States military, ever.
BROWN (voice-over): Ironically, the final report on Operation Fouled Anchor showed the Coast Guard Academy's reputation took precedence over concern for the victim. And former officials tell CNN that's exactly what happened again when the report was hidden.
ZUKUNFT: If you read through the investigation there were conscious decisions made by leadership at the Coast Guard Academy maybe trying to protect the image of the Coast Guard. You know, loyalty to an institution and not doing what's honorable to a victim of sexual assault.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: The Coast Guard officials did not comment on Schultz's involvement but they want to make clear that the current commandant, Adm. Linda Fagan, was not briefed on the investigation when she took office like her predecessor was. However, CNN's reporting does show that there were other people who currently work at the Coast Guard who were involved in the operation -- Poppy, Victor.
HARLOW: Wow.
BLACKWELL: Pamela, some really important reporting there. Thank you so much.
BROWN: Thank you.
BLACKWELL: And as we heard, it was when you took those questions --
HARLOW: Yes.
BLACKWELL: -- to them -- you started reporting -- that they really came forward and started their own investigation. Pamela Brown, thanks so much.
HARLOW: Yes.
BROWN: Thank you.
HARLOW: Hats off to Pam and that whole team on that remarkable reporting.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis shaking up his presidential campaign again, replacing his campaign manager. Will it be enough to turn the tide? We'll discuss.
BLACKWELL: And we just got new information on the format of the first Republican presidential debate. Details ahead.
(COMMERCIAL)
HARLOW: So overnight, huge news out of Ohio where voters rejected what is known as issue one, a measure that would have changed the state's referendum law allowing an amendment to its constitution. This was driven by Republicans ahead of an upcoming November vote that has abortion rights on the ballot.
Let's bring in two people who have a long history of running presidential campaigns. Nina Turner was the national co-chair, I should say, of Bernie Sanders' 2020 presidential campaign. Also, very notably for this conversation, a former Ohio state senator. And Kevin Madden, former top aide to Mitt Romney, running his presidential campaigns in '08 and 2012.
[07:55:11]
HARLOW: Nina, I've got to start with you. It's your state. You know, a huge amount of money -- over $32 million poured in. Huge amount of attention. Who thought that many people -- more than in the last election -- would come out for this, but they did.
What does it mean for the state and the country?
NINA TURNER, CO-CHAIR, BERNIE SANDERS 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN, FORMER OHIO STATE SENATOR: Yeah, they did. It's a win for Ohioans, Poppy. It's very clear that the GOP efforts to take away freedom, take away the right of the people. The people of this great state have had the right to put referenda on the ballot since about 1912.
It shows very clearly that they were rejected and they rejected soundly. So hopefully, they have learned their lessons.
This also reminded me of 2011 when they tried to take away collective bargaining rights and they were soundly rejected there as well.
So, Ohioans showed up and they showed out, and they did the right thing.
BLACKWELL: So, Kevin, what's the message to your party? Every time the people have been asked since Dobbs, about abortion rights, they have voted to support them -- to extend them, to protect them. However, the Republican Party is still fumbling over an answer on this.
What's the takeaway for Republicans from the Ohio vote?
KEVIN MADDEN, FORMER TOP AIDE TO MITT ROMNEY's PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: Yes -- no, it has -- it sends a message that Republican leaders and pro-life leaders have not really positioned themselves very well for a post-Roe world.
If you look at what Democrats have done -- you know, they and progressives -- they've done a really good job of not only activating their base around this issue but they have now built a coalition that also involves Republican moderates in the suburban areas as well as Independents.
So if you look at the backdrop of the politics of this, Republicans have to go out there and pro-life advocates have to go out there and find a way to find a better message for what the post-Roe world looks like and what legislation looks like state-by-state. And they've got to go and build a coalition that sort of addresses the concerns that many Republican moderates who may have voted with Republicans who were pro-life before but are now very worried about this post-Roe world. Because that's the key to the sort of -- the bigger, broader political coalition that they need if they're going to prosper going forward.
HARLOW: The Republican debate coming up in just a matter of weeks here. It's going to be on Fox. We just learned this morning the second one is going to be on Fox Business. I know you're a conservative. You ran Romney's 2008 and 2012
campaigns, but does this surprise you -- Fox and Fox?
MADDEN: Well, first of all, you gave me a promotion. I was a senior adviser to Romney's --
HARLOW: That's what we do on this program. Yes, I know.
MADDEN: Yes, somewhere --
HARLOW: No, you didn't run them.
MADDEN: Yes. Somewhere Matt Rhoades, the campaign manager, is like hey, Madden worked for me.
But look -- yes, I think that this -- the Republican candidates and the Republican campaigns -- they're going right where they want to go, which is these base activist voters that really matter in places like Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Florida. And they want to speak exactly to those -- to those voters and, like, that platform is a very, very big platform with those voters directly.
And the competition for those voters is going to be fierce even as you see former President Trump take a very sizable lead and have a strong hold on the nomination. Many of these candidates that are all fighting each other to break out as the Trump alternative -- this is the best place for them to go.
BLACKWELL: Kevin, question two informs question three. I mean, when we asked you about Republicans trying to come up with a message and then go into --
MADDEN: Yeah.
BLACKWELL: -- Fox and Fox Business for your debate, are you just talking to the same people? Because at some point, you have to come out of this with a nominee. I'd imagine you want one who can win Independent voters.
HARLOW: Yeah.
BLACKWELL: And what we've seen is that some of these positions that you're talking in this kind of silo are not reaching voters outside of it.
MADDEN: Yes. It's a big concern if you're looking at how do we win a general election where the whole ballgame for a general election is going to be moderate voters, Independent voters, suburban voters in the biggest sort of population centers around the country in these big battleground states, right?
So one of the big challenges that every campaign I think has is how is it that you appeal to a base-activist voter now but then you have to find a way to get out of that bubble and have a much broader appeal on a much broader set of issues -- health care, the economy, energy, national security -- BLACKWELL: Yeah.
MADDEN: -- rather than just playing to these sort of very limited base-voter issues that have a limited appeal in a general election?
HARLOW: Nina, I want to ask you about the shake-up number two in Ron DeSantis' campaign. He has replaced the person who is going to run his campaign. It's now going to be James Uthmeier, who ran the shop for him before and was successful when it came to work in Tallahassee but does not have a lot of areas -- a lot of political experience on the national stage but somebody who knows DeSantis' family extraordinarily well.
Is this enough to make a McCain-like turnaround, or no?
[08:00:00]
