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CNN This Morning

New York Beefs up Security; Haley's Comments on Civil War; Spike in Poison Control Calls; Biggest Attack on Ukraine. Aired 6:30- 7a ET

Aired December 29, 2023 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Sunday night as we count down to 2024. This year there are concerns that the Israel/Hamas war will inspire a lone wolf attack.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: CNN's John Miller takes us inside the security preparations happen right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST (voice over): New Year's Eve in New York City. Security, always tight, has been increased this year. While officials stress there is no specific reporting regarding any threats, a joint threat assessment, based on analysis from ten law enforcement agencies warns, "the Israel/Hamas conflict has created a heightened threat environment, therefore the intelligence community remains concerned about lone offenders using online platforms to express threats of violence against Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities, as well as committing simple, unsophisticated attacks that are difficult to detect in advance."

The assessment, obtained by CNN, "reminds police that massive, live, televised events remain an attractive target for foreign terrorist organizations, as well as domestic violent extremists."

It's a threat stream that will be monitored minute-to-minute, leading up to midnight New Year's Eve, in multiple command posts, from the NYPD's Joint Operation Center, to its intelligence bureau, to the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force, gathered in an operation center in lower Manhattan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: October 7th was something of a flash point. The horrific attacks on Israel and the ongoing war and conflict that's happening right now is certainly motivating and inspiring people to do bad things.

MILLER: Last year, a 19-year-old man from Maine traveled to Times Square with an attack plan that investigators believe was inspired by online ISIS propaganda. New York City Police say Trevor Bickford was shot by officers after he attacked three of them with a machete at a Times Square New Year's security checkpoint. Bickford has pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial. The security package, not just crowd control and traffic, but what

they call the counterterrorism overlay includes a network of cameras, NYPD counter sniper teams in skyscrapers above, bomb detection canines moving around the perimeter, dogs that can pick up the whiff of explosives, even moving through a crowd 100 feet away, radiation detectors worn by police on the street, and an especially equipped NYPD helicopter high above.

Police are also focused on potential demonstrations. The war between Israel and Hamas has brought on protests in New York and clashes with police when some protesters announce their intent to disrupt the lighting of the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree. The live, televised event in Times Square is another potential target for disruption.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We know what the attack they saw. We're going to make some adjustments to our tactics. No one's getting to that ball, I can put it to you that way.

MILLER: But protests, and even disorder, is not what keeps the NYPD or the FBI up at night. Terrorism is. And while the officials say there is no specific, credible threat on their radar, this year they are doing more than ever, they say, to ensure that.

John Miller, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: And our thanks to John Miller for that report.

Well, Nikki Haley doing a little damage control on the campaign trail after saying -- after not saying, rather, that slavery caused the Civil War. Now she has some new explanations for those comments.

MATTINGLY: And more from the decision in Maine to kick Donald Trump off the presidential ballot. The Republican former lawmaker who was part of the bipartisan group that filed the challenge joining us live.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:37:40]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I mean, I think the cause of the Civil War was basically how government was going to run. The freedoms and what people could and couldn't do.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the year 2023, it's astonishing to me that you answered that question without mentioning the word slavery.

HALEY: What do you want me to say about slavery?

Of course the Civil War is about slavery. We know that. That's unquestioned. Always the case. We know the Civil War is about slavery. But it was also more than that. It was about the freedoms of every individual. It was about the role of government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: No, man, it was -- it was about slavery. I'm pretty sure that's the case.

However, it was, obviously, a different answer 24 hours apart. That was Nikki Haley doing some damage control after her initial answer to what caused the Civil War did not include the word slavery. The Republican presidential candidate says it was so obvious that slavery was caused by the Civil War it didn't need to be said out loud. But she adds the entire exchange was actually a setup by Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY (R), 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm from the south. Of course you know it's about slavery.

If guess if you grow up in the south it's a given that it's about slavery.

It was definitely a Democratic plant.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Whether it was or not, there was still an answer to the question. And that's what the issue is, not the question.

MATTINGLY: Oh, man.

HILL: It was an easy question.

Back with us now, Natasha Alford, Errol Louis, and joining us, CNN's Jessica Dean.

There was a lot made of this yesterday. We saw Nikki Haley doing cleanup all day yesterday. I was struck - a South Carolina state senator, who was actually with DeSantis at an event yesterday, had this to say about Nikki Haley.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH KIMBRELL (R), STATE SENATOR SOUTH CAROLINA: Because if you get Nikki Haley, you're going to get a lot of political spin. And I say that as a South Carolinian. I have nothing personal against her. I -- this is not a personal thing for me. She's a nice lady if you meet her, depending on which version you meet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Ouch, Errol. I mean how much - how much damage, right, 24 plus hours later? ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, she's only done damage in the sense that, Nikki Haley was supposed to be, for the Republican Party, she stumbled into a problem to which she was supposed to be the solution, right? Republican strategists, we talk to them all the time in D.C., what keeps them up at night is that this is a party that's 80 plus percent non-Hispanic white in a country that's becoming more and more diverse literally every day.

[06:40:03]

And Nikki Haley was supposed to be the answer to that, a woman, for a party that's not doing well with women, suburban, educated, person of color. And she stumbles all over this and sort of makes them remember that they've still got this existential problem, that they keep losing the popular vote, that they're not doing well with women, they're not doing well in communities of color. They can't afford to keep writing off and getting blowing out in Atlanta and Philadelphia and all of these different communities. And so she's supposed to have some fluency with this. That's what she is supposed to bring to the race.

And here she is sort of spouting South Carolina talking points, pretending that the whole thing never happened, getting it wrong and, you know, frankly, not even being a good, you know, sort of leader of her party. The Republican Party is founded as an anti-slavery party. In a few months we're going to see their 170th anniversary. It is a really, really important turning point in the history of the country. And to sort of just try and whitewash it and pretend and use these kind of euphemisms as if, oh, that the civil war was about small government or something crazy like that. Again, she was supposed to be the answer to that, and it doesn't sound like she's necessarily ready for that assignment.

MATTINGLY: I want to build on that. We got into this a little bit yesterday because the language that was used, including what she said in the cleanup yesterday, after saying, of course it was about slavery, but it was also about -- that is not -- that's loaded language. Like, I'm sorry. Like it is - it is lost cause revisionary history of things. It is why there are monuments that were built after the Civil War, after the reconstruction, to confederate generals. It's why there are military bases named after confederate generals. Really bad confederate generals, by the way, Braxton Bragg. And when you use that language, if you're aware of any of this stuff, it's not simple. It's not, oh, there was also this. You keep saying, we're from the south, of course it was about slavery. The south is where all of this happened.

NATASHA ALFORD, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It is what happens when you are a chameleon, right? You are trying to blend in with whatever crowd is in front of you and say what is appeasing to them, rather then standing on your principles and taking whatever heat comes with that.

And I think voters were watching this moment and they were saying, you know, if they were undecided, we don't respect that, right? Either, you know, be a Donald Trump, be outrageous, say how you feel, or be a DeSantis, say that you are anti-CRT. But don't try to sort of play both sides. And so you lose when you do that. And people can't trust you. They can't trust that you are a leader rather than a follower.

And so, for her, again, like Errol said, this should have been basic. This should have been something that she could have answered easily. And because she didn't, I think we have to ask, why is it so toxic just to state basic history right now? Why are we afraid to state the facts?

HILL: So, it's such a - it's such a great question of, why have we become afraid to - I mean look at Florida, right? Why are we being afraid to teach accurate history in this country?

But it's also, if you look at Nikki Haley's history, I know our colleagues at K-File did some digging. They found her comments from 2010. She also had comments in 2019 in her book that she wrote. She was referencing removing that flag, right, in 2015, after the horrific killing at the Mother Emmanuel Church. And she says in that book that in 2019 she was calling it - she calls it again, lost cause, language here, the flag is a symbol of heritage and service and its tradition.

In 2023, as a woman from the south, a woman of color, to keep going back to that, maybe it does mean tradition and service. But you know what it means to a lot of people, it is a symbol of slavery and a stain on this country. She can't bring herself to say it. It's always both sides.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is the thing - I was thinking about this yesterday after I left you guys, then it continued throughout the day. We did the reporting. We followed along as she first did the radio interview. Then she talked about it in the town hall. She did not take reporter questions on it. I think that is important to note.

And it just dawned - you know, you - I just sat with the fact she, to your point, cannot just say out loud, it was about slavery. It's just say the obvious thing that is the truth. And, to me, that's insulting to voters, right? They can take it. They can take it. It's a fact. And to kind of try to like wobble around this thing is such a strange hill to die on, in a way.

And - and so you look ahead to, OK, what does that mean now? It's -- people, to your point, just can't -- what can you trust if she can't just call it out and tell you what she thinks.

And, look, Donald Trump, people don't - there are - listen, people have very strong opinions on what he has to say. But I think that people do react strongly to him because they like that he just says things out loud. And you can hate what he says, but he's -- he's not trying to like waffle around the edges of things. And that's appealing to people.

HILL: He doesn't really - he doesn't care whether you like it or not he's going to say it.

DEAN: Right. That is appealing to people. And I think we have to remember that. ALFORD: And I would just say, there are voters who are in denial,

right, that the Civil War was about slavery, but we don't need to cater to those voters.

HILL: Right.

[06:45:01]

ALFORD: We need to stand on what the facts are.

HILL: Yes.

MATTINGLY: Yes.

All right, Jess, Errol, Natasha, thanks, guys. Appreciate it.

DEAN: Yes.

HILL: The battle of the border pitting Democrats against Democrats. Three mayors whose cities are taking in migrants are pleading for help from President Biden. This morning, those mayors of New York, Chicago, and Denver will join us together live in the 8:00 hour.

MATTINGLY: And, breaking overnight, Ukraine is hit by what it calls the biggest air attack since the start of the war. Civilian targets hit as calls grow for more help from the west.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MATTINGLY: Welcome back.

Wall Street could end 2023 on a record high when trading opens for the final day of the year. The S&P 500 could hit that record today. It ended up yesterday. And it's on its longest winning streak in two decades. The Dow could also close at a record high after finishing slightly up yesterday. Analysts say optimism is rising that the Federal Reserve can successfully cool inflation in 2024.

[06:50:07]

HILL: So, this surprised a lot of us. Poison control centers this year have said they're really seeing a major spike in calls because of, get this, people eating dangerous wild mushrooms. And this spike comes as interest in foraging has grown as a way to connect with nature and live a more sustainable life.

CNN's Meg Tirrell has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL HICKMAN, ATE POISONOUS MUSHROOM: I saw the mushrooms over here.

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Last September, Bill Hickman found what he thought were edible mushrooms growing near his house in Windham, Ohio.

HICKMAN: I looked down and I put my phone on it and it says, boom, it's a giant puff ball. I'm like, oh, cool. So, I put my stuff down over there and gathered a few up.

TIRRELL (voice over): But the app on his phone was wrong. Eight hours after eating the mushrooms, Bill got violently sick.

HICKMAN: You know, I just didn't think I was going to live.

TIRRELL (voice over): It turns out Bill had eaten four of what are known as destroying angel mushrooms, a highly toxic species.

HICKMAN: The first doctor pretty much told us we can't help him. You know, that he's -- he's not going to survive.

TIRRELL (voice over): Warmer fall weather, due to climate change, is extending mushroom season. Nationally, reports of potentially toxic mushroom exposures are up more than 11 percent so far this year compared to last. To see just how diverse and potentially dangerous mushrooms can be, we went foraging with mycology instructor Rick Van de Poll in New Hampshire.

RICK VAN DE POLL, MYCOLOGY INSTRUCTOR: This one has what they call a classic farinaceous odor. So, it's an odor of neal (ph) or ferena (ph).

TIRRELL (voice over): He uses smells, colors and structural features to help determine which mushrooms are safe to eat.

VAN DE POLL: So, these are puff balls. Open it up and show you that -- what the middle looks like.

TIRRELL: Wow. Looks like a marshmallow.

VAN DE POLL: All right. Yes, exactly. They often call these the marshmallow mushrooms.

And, interestingly, they, in a soup, will soak up the fluid and the taste so you can actually use these as little miniature sort of mushroom sponges.

TIRRELL (voice over): And which ones are not?

TIRRELL: Where would you look for the - some of the ones that are poisonous.

VAN DE POLL: Let's go take a look.

TIRRELL: OK.

Oh, wow, those are orange (ph).

VAN DE POLL: See what you got. And you can touch it, smell it. So that has the farinaceous odor. So if you got that.

TIRRELL: It's subtle. So, what will that do if you eat it?

VAN DE POLL: That will make you sick. Yes, gastric upset. Won't kill you.

TIRRELL (voice over): But some can be deadly.

TIRRELL: So, that's it.

VAN DE POLL: OK. So this is it. It doesn't look like much. It's this little brown mushroom. And, you know, you pick it off the log. So, this is our dead galerina, galerina marginata.

TIRRELL: What would happen if you eat one of those?

VAN DE POLL: So, this has amatoxins in it.

TIRRELL (voice over): That's a poison that destroys liver cells and can cause liver failure. Amatoxin was also in the mushroom Bill Hickman ate. With his liver and kidneys at risk of failing, Bill was transferred to University Hospital in Cleveland, where doctors raced to get him an experimental antidote, an extract from the milk thistle plant called silibinin. The antidote worked. Bill slowly regained his strength, but says it took months to fully recover, both physically and mentally.

HICKMAN: There are a lot of people involved to make it happen, to save me.

TIRRELL (voice over): Meg Tirrell, CNN, Windham, Ohio.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: Quite a story.

MATTINGLY: Our thanks to Meg for that story. Quite the story indeed.

In just a few minutes, Chris Christie is going to join CNN THIS MORNING live. We're going to ask him why he's saying this about Nikki Haley's Civil War comments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I know her well. And I don't believe Nikki has a racist bone in her body. But for purposes of this race, the reason she did it is just as bad, if not worse. And should get everybody concerned about her candidacy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:57:58]

HILL: Breaking overnight, Russia launching its biggest air attack on Ukraine since the start of its full-scale invasion nearly two years ago. Ukrainian officials say Russia fired an unprecedented number of missiles and drones across the country killing at least 20 people.

MATTINGLY: The attack struck civilian infrastructure, causing power outages. Ukraine says the attacks show it needs the world's support after Congress went home without approving more aid.

CNN's Nic Robertson joins us now.

Nic, this was a widespread attack that hit targets in just about every corner of the country. What happened here?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, and you've hit the - the rational of why this is so important, of course, right on the head. Russia looks for weaknesses. And Ukraine's coalition of allies, be it the United States not coming up with money, or the European Union, right before Christmas, going on break without coming up with a 55 billion euros over four years that they were - that they were planning to give to Ukraine.

So, the strikes here in the west of the country, Lviv, nine people injured there, Kyiv, at least one person killed, 18 wounded there. Further northeast in the country, Kharkiv there, people killed there in Dnipro further south of the country. A maternity hospital hit there, five people killed, 15 wounded in that city. Odesa, two killed, 15 wounded. And the numbers go on.

But look, you know, when you try to analyze, what is Russia trying to do here? It's, number one, trying to create fear and panic in Ukraine. This was 158 different missiles, 114 of them Ukraine took down.

But Russia looks for opportunity here. And the Ukrainians describe this as wave after wave. So, the Russians launched 36 drones, which the Ukraine was able to shoot a number of those down. That was not out of the ordinary. Then that was followed up by Russia launching 18 strategic bombers. They fired a total of 90 cruise missiles, five long-range - or eight long-range bombers were launched. They fired eight cruise missiles as well. Five MIG aircraft fired. Five hypersonic missiles. Surface-to-air missiles were used. Anti-radar missiles were used.

[07:00:00]

So, it was the full gamut of the high explosive ordinance they - highly-accurate high explosive ordinance that Russia has at its - at its military fingertips, if you will.