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IDF Enters Nasser Hospital in Gaza; Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) is Interviewed about Russian Nuclear Capabilities in Space; Fertility Fraud Victim Speaks Out. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired February 15, 2024 - 08:30   ET

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

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[08:31:19]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back.

Well, this new overnight, Israeli special forces raiding one of the last working hospitals in Gaza. It's the Nasser Hospital in Khan Younis. The IDF claims to have credible intelligence that Hamas fighters are hiding there and that the bodies of Israeli hostages may also be inside. And this comes a day after the IDF ordered hundreds of displaced civilians to leave the hospital.

Our Nic Robertson joins us live in Tel Aviv.

Good morning.

Obviously, there's always extra scrutiny, right, when forces go into a -- one of the last working hospitals in Gaza. What do we know this morning?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, this hospital has really been at the center of the IDFs operations, intense operations in the western part of Khan Younis for a number of weeks now. Hospital officials say that the walls of the compound were breached, that there was destruction in the orthopedic area of the treatment area of the hospital. In fact, in the dust and debris there you can see doctors continuing to try to help patients covered in dust on their gurneys and hospital beds as they're being sort of removed from that area.

The hospital officials say that during the IDFs military operation, an oxygen pipeline was ruptured. They say in the early hours today, one person died and they're worried about the fact that now they don't have an oxygen supply going to their ICU, their intensive care unit in the hospital.

We've also heard in the last few minutes from Medecins Sans Frontieres, Doctors Without Borders. This international NGO did, until the early hours today, have people, staff working in that hospital, but they describe now the scene in the hospital as chaotic. An unknown number of people dead and injured. And they say this is despite the fact that the IDF, yesterday, said that doctors, medical personnel, and patients could remain in the hospital. They say their own staff have left. They say that the IDF has sort of set up a control point, which is how the IDF operates in these situations. It tells the civilians to flee an area, then it sets up a control point so that they can check the civilians. And we know from the IDF that they've now made a number of arrests. But MSF, Doctors Without Borders, are reporting that one of their staff has been detained by the IDF and MSF is now calling for a complete ceasefire at that hospital immediately.

HARLOW: OK. Nic Robertson, please keep us posted. Thank you.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, this morning, the national security adviser said to brief top lawmakers about a new nuclear threat from Russia. Multiple sources telling CNN, the U.S. has new intelligence on Russia's efforts to deploy a nuclear anti-satellite weapon in space. Some lawmakers say the intel is serious enough that it should be declassified and made public. Now, experts say an anti-satellite weapon in space would threaten U.S. nuclear command and control satellites. This story actually broke because of the House Intelligence Committee chairman who should issued a rather cryptic statement that the panel had quote, "information concerning a serious national security threat." The national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, seem to question Turner's decision to make that public statement.

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JAKE SULLIVAN, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: So, I am a bit surprised that Congressman Turner came out publicly today, in advance of a meeting on the books for me to go sit with him alongside our intelligence and defense professionals tomorrow. That's his choice to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Joining us now is Congressman Adam Smith of Washington. He's a top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee.

In terms of the rationale behind the statement, I'll get to that in a minute, but I want to start with, based on what you know right now, is this some kind of imminent threat or can people not be as alarmed as they were when they initially saw the statement yesterday?

[08:35:00]

REP. ADAM SMITH (D-WA): Well, it's difficult and I'm actually going to be in that meeting that Jake Sullivan was talking about later on today and get more information. We have been briefed on this before. We have been made aware of it.

But, look, I mean, despite what Congressman Turner did, this information is still classified. So, I can't really talk about it publicly. And, frankly, I am mystified why Chairman Turner decided to essentially go public with this. I know he didn't specifically release it, but by sending out that statement and then opening up the intelligence to every single member of Congress, he had to know that within hours it would be public information. And that's essentially what happens. So, I think it's a very questionable decision by the chairman to release this information.

It's a threat that, like I said, we've been aware of. The National Security Council and others are dealing with it. But it's not something that should have been leaked publicly in this manner, in my view.

MATTINGLY: Do you have any sense as to the why? And the reason I ask is because Congressman Turner is respected on Capitol Hill, he's respected inside the intelligence community. He works across the aisle, partisan when he needs to be and wants to be, but certainly Democrats can say nice things about him, which is a rarity to some degree in this day and age.

There are two a big legislative debates ongoing, particularly within the House Republican conference, and that's aid for Ukraine and also the Section 702 reauthorization. Do you think either of those are the reason why?

SMITH: Look, and I concur with the remarks you made earlier. I've served with Congressman Turner for over 20 years. He's a senior member of the Armed Services Committee, where I've been the chair and the ranking member. We worked closely together. We have sparred from time to time, but always respectfully. And, you know, I was trying to find him yesterday to have this conversation, but he was a little preoccupied.

I don't know why he did this. I don't. It is inexplicable to me. But I'm sure he has a reason. Again, I just think, you know, it was the wrong choice. This is stuff that should not be made public. And the reason for that is, you know, we're trying to protect sources and methods. We're trying to make sure that adversaries don't know what we know unless we think it's to our advantage. And then also we're trying to make sure that we preserve the people who are giving that information and how we're getting it, and this places that at risk.

Now, there are circumstances when we want the other side to know what we know, but that is a decision that is made at the highest levels of the executive branch. It's not a decision that one individual member of Congress wakes up one day and decides he's going to do on his own. So, this - this is a highly, highly risky move that I don't have an explanation for it at this time.

MATTINGLY: Based on what you do know and the briefings that you've had, and I'm not talking about specific intelligence here, but also given your role on the committee, do you believe the U.S. is prepared to address any capability that may be forthcoming from the Russians in this kind of battlespace, or potential battlespace?

SMITH: Look, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but we live in an uncertain world. To say that we are 100 percent prepared for anything that possibly could come at us is naive and wrong, OK? It's unpredictable. It's uncertain. It's dangerous.

I can say this, we are aware of it. We have defenses. We have our own capabilities. And we have means and methods to protect ourselves. There are no guarantees here, but we've been aware of it and we're - we are working the issue, let's put it that way.

MATTINGLY: Before I let you go, I want to ask you, because you said after the president's press conference last week that, and I'm paraphrasing here, basically there's a better way to handle that or a better way to do it, in the wake of the special counsel report.

The White House has been very aggressive, and their allies have been very aggressive in pushing that -- back on that against Robert Hur, the special counsel, in the days since then. What's your kind of judgment of the response so far from their operation?

SMITH: Well, I think that's been good. I think they should push back. Heck, I pushed back hard on it. I mean that -- in that interview I also said that this was, you know, a politically motivated hatchet job by the special prosecutor. He didn't have to make his own independent judgement about what he thought the president's mental faculties were. It was clearly wrong, and I think they should push back hard on it.

What I also -- do think, though, is that having the president come out there immediately, angry and defensive, wasn't a good look. Now, it's understandable. I mean, they called into question his memory about his own son's death, and the president took that really personally, and he was angry, and he went out there to express that. But on this level, you shouldn't do that. And that's going to happen.

I think since then they've been really smart about the way they've pushed back on it, drawing the contrast, obviously, with the likely Republican nominee, Donald Trump, and really driving home a hard message, and also focusing on the issues. I mean talking about the fact that we have the ability to pass a border agreement, we had the ability to get a national security package to help protect Ukraine that the Republicans are killing, OK? Those are the issues. Talk about these. Talk about what matters to the American people and deliver that message. And I think since that initial press conference, they've done a very good job of that. And I - and I, you know, I think that that matters a lot.

[08:40:02]

MATTINGLY: And an important point, that national security funding package is in the House's hands right now and they have the majority for it, they've just got to put it on the floor.

SMITH: Yes, just give us a vote.

MATTINGLY: Yes, exactly.

SMITH: You say, you know, we won't vote for Ukraine unless you include the border. Now we won't vote for Ukraine if you include the border. So, the Republican position on this is dangerous for the country.

MATTINGLY: It is admittedly confounding.

Congressman Adam Smith, appreciate you time as always. Sir, thank you.

SMITH: Thank you. HARLOW: Well, moments ago, Donald Trump left Trump Tower to appear at a hearing in the hush money case against him right here in New York City. The hearing is happened at the same time, same day, as a hearing in Atlanta related to the election interference case. We've got special coverage in just a couple of minutes, 09:00 a.m. Eastern.

We're back in a moment.

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HARLOW: A shocking discovery in a case lawyers call fertility fraud. A woman learns she dated her half-brother after DNA tests revealed they shared a biological father. That man is the fertility doctor who treated their mothers in the 1980s and is accused of secretly using his own sperm instead of that of the donor.

Our Kyung Lah investigates

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VICTORIA HILL, DISCOVERED FERTILITY DOCTOR WAS HER BIOLOGICAL FATHER: I mean, I'll just put it out there. I mean, I - I was intimate with my half-brother.

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: But you didn't know.

V. HILL: We didn't know. Yes.

LAH (voice over): They couldn't have known. In the early 2000s, they were two teenagers growing up in Wallingford, Connecticut, a suburb like any other, where Victoria Hill met her high school boyfriend.

V. HILL: This, I think, was junior year.

LAH: Obviously, you're dating here.

V. HILL: Yes.

LAH (voice over): What Victoria didn't know then -

[08:45:01]

MARALEE HILL, DISCOVERED SHE WAS INSEMINATED WITH DOCTOR'S SPERM: My husband and I tried for a while, and it wasn't working.

LAH: What was the infertility world like back then?

M. HILL: Back then everything was - was quiet. It was kept not really secret, secret, but it wasn't advertised.

LAH (voice over): Her mother, Maralee Hill, turned to a New Haven, Connecticut, fertility specialist, Dr. Burton Caldwell. She says Dr. Caldwell told her he would inseminate her using an anonymous medical student's sperm. Hill got pregnant.

V. HILL: There's baby me.

M. HILL: I kind of erased it in my mind that they weren't my husband's biological children.

LAH (voice over): Until recently when Victoria took a commercially available DNA test, curious about her health history. To her shock, she found half-siblings she never knew existed. One of them reached out revealing their biological father is Dr. Caldwell.

V. HILL: When I opened it up, it basically just kind of put out there, what you're seeing is some half siblings because we believe that the doctor that did your mother's fertility treatment might be our biological father. And I just -- I just remember sitting there just being like - just like, what? What is happening?

LAH (voice over): Victoria's high school boyfriend, who asked his identity be concealed, was also donor conceived. His parents also used Dr. Caldwell. The boyfriend took a DNA test.

V. HILL: He texted me and it was a screenshot of the 23 and Me connection. And it said, you are my sister. What? We're siblings? So -

LAH (voice over): She continued to find more brothers and sisters, all discovered through DNA.

LAH: All connected to Dr. Caldwell.

V. HILL: Yes. I've slept with my half sibling. There were four of us that we know of in the same high school. Another half sibling, we went to the same elementary school. And that's just in the 23 that I know.

My children have 41 first cousins that we know of, most which are local. So, how many could there be?

LAH (voice over): Victoria's story is a worst-case scenario in the fertility field. The FDA regulates sperm and egg donations, but doesn't limit the number of donations, nor the amount of offspring, vastly behind some western countries with tighter controls. And when it comes to doctors using their own sperm without patient consent, there's currently no federal law, and only 13 states with existing fertility fraud laws.

V. HILL: I consider you guys sisters, or I'll say like half-sisters.

ALYSSA DENNISTON, DISCOVERED FERTILITY DOCTOR WAS HER BIOLOGICAL FATHER: Sisters. A lot.

V. HILL: Right.

DENNISTON: More people than I think we know struggle to conceive.

V. HILL: Right.

DENNISTON: And that's why all of our moms did what they did -

V. HILL: Yes. DENNISTON: Because they wanted -- they wanted babies. They would do anything.

For my kids' sake, I hope you get the tall gene.

LAH (voice over): Victoria and two of her half-sisters say they are Caldwell's biological children. All born within four years in the 1980s. It's only through commercial genetic tests that they can track their growing numbers.

V. HILL: None of us knew and every single time it comes up we end up having to relive what that experience was like.

LAH: So, Janine, you went and saw Dr. Caldwell.

JANINE PIERSON, DISCOVERED FERTILITY DOCTOR WAS HER BIOLOGICAL FATHER: Yes.

LAH: You snapped a picture.

PIERSON: Uh-huh.

LAH: Why did you take a picture?

PIERSON: I wanted proof, but I still, when I see that picture, it's this sick feeling.

I felt strongly that I had to meet him, to make him and the whole situation real, and try to make it make sense.

LAH (voice over): Janine Pierson filed a civil lawsuit against Caldwell last year. It's all she can do for some sense of justice.

DENNISTON: We don't want this to happen to anybody else.

V. HILL: Right.

LAH: Dr. Caldwell stopped practicing sometime in the early 2000s, but he still lives here in Connecticut. So, we decided two stop and see if we could chat with him.

OK, so, I saw Dr. Caldwell. He appears to be frail, quite elderly. I chatted briefly with his wife, who did not want to talk.

MATT BLUMENTHAL, ATTORNEY: The law is, frankly, way behind technology in this area.

LAH (voice over): Attorney Matt Blumenthal represents Victoria Hill, her high school boyfriend, and Hill's mother.

There are dozens of reported cases like this of other fertility doctors accused of impregnating their patients. Hundreds of offspring who only recently discovered the truth because of DNA testing.

BLUMENTHAL: It's been kept from them for so long. They can't do anything about it because the legal system may not provide them a remedy.

V. HILL: It's insane to me that there's just no justice, there's no recourse. The reason why I'm telling this story, I mean, for me coping, I need to make meaning of this somehow.

I am happy to be alive, but I don't want to be the product of a fraud.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAH: Now, Victoria Hill is here in Washington and joined by advocates. She will be spending her day talking to members of Congress. They are pushing for proposed federal legislation that would outlaw fertility fraud nationally. The bill has been written. It is sitting in the House. We will be following them on their journey today.

[08:50:01]

We did reach out to Dr. Caldwell one more time. His -- through his attorney, and the attorney had no comment.

Phil. Poppy.

MATTINGLY: That is an insane story. Our thanks to Kyung Lah.

We're looking now live at Donald Trump's motorcade pulling up to the courtroom in lower Manhattan. He's attending the hearing and the hush money criminal case against him. CNN's going to have lives special coverage starting at the top of the hour.

We'll be right back

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HARLOW: All right, you're taking a look there at -- this is former President Donald Trump just arriving at the courthouse here in New York City. I think you see him. That's him, yes, walking out into court. He's going to be present in the courtroom today for this hearing in the New York hush money case against him. A big day as he faces another hearing, critical hearing, in his Georgia lawsuit.

MATTINGLY: And also happening in New York City, the city is suing the nation's largest social media companies and accusing them of fueling a youth mental health crisis. Now, the lawsuit against TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, and YouTube says the uptick in mental health issues is costing the city $100 million a year in programs and services. The city alleges the platforms are intentionally designed to manipulate an addict children and teens by using algorithms that encourage compulsive use. The city joins hundreds of school districts across the nation in filing lawsuits to force the tech companies to change their behavior.

HARLOW: Also, this just in, the January retail sales report shows spending fell more than expected, 0.8 percent, as cold weather across the country kept some shoppers at home after a pretty robust holiday season.

[08:55:09]

There aren't any glaring signs of a recession for now. Economists, though, widely expect the economy to run at a bit of a slower pace in a couple of the months ahead.

MATTINGLY: And now for your "Morning Moment."

It was an extra special Valentine's Day for a couple in Oklahoma. Jeryl Lee and Emma Lee first met back in 1964 as elementary students on the school bus. Today, they both work at an elementary school where Emma is a teaching assistant and Jeryl is a crossing guard.

HARLOW: But this week the school decided to throw them a surprise bus themed party, of course, as they're celebrating 60 years of marriage. The Lees were completely surprised by all of it. They say the key to their happy marriage is simple.

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EMMA LEE, WIFE OF JERYL LEE FOR 60 YEARS: We like one another. If you're going to be married, you better like your partner. And we really like one another. And he makes me laugh.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: That's some damn good advice. The couple says now they're looking forward to their 75th anniversary.

Remember, coming up at 9:00 a.m., CNN's live coverage on the two hearings involving Donald Trump's criminal cases. Trump just arrived at the courthouse in Manhattan. And our live coverage starts after this quick break.

Have a good morning, guys.

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