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Election Results Bring Fear & Anxiety; Coping with Post- Election Depression; Richard Branson on Trump's Win. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired November 11, 2016 - 08:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:30:29] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: What a long, strange trip it's been. Millions of Americans are now forced to come to grips with an election outcome that many never saw coming. Some are taking up the battle on social media, others are deciding to give change a chance. Many are stuck in the middle and angry. As CNN's Kyung Lah reports, emotions are still raw in this changing America.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Protests may be easiest to see, but that's only part of what many, like Kari Sherman, feel.

KARI SHERMAN, CLINTON SUPPORTER: I think it's leaving a lot of us feeling very shaken and unsure and alone and afraid.

LAH (on camera): Are you still upset?

SHERMAN: Yes. I'm definitely still recovering. This goes beyond politics. This goes to something deeper and more fundamental to who I feel like I am as a human being.

LAH (voice-over): Sherman lives in Los Angeles with her husband and three children, but her anxiety is shared across social media platforms and television. From the minority woman afraid of her own name's foreign sound, to the Latina high school senior protesting in san Francisco.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It means a lot to me right now because a lot of my family, a lot of my friends are undocumented, and it's not fair. It's really not fair.

LAH: To the late night hosts, not telling a joke, sharing, instead, this yet unrealized hope for little girls watching.

SETH MEYERS, "LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS": I imagine this moment today will be a defining one for you. One that will make you work harder and strive farther. And whoever you are, I hope I live to see your inauguration.

LAH: And the Muslim man looking for his place in Trump's America.

AHMED REHAB, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, COUNCIL ON AMERICAN-ISLAMIC RELATIONS, CHICAGO: I'm very concerned as a Muslim. I'm concerned about a candidate who is now going to be president who said on the campaign trail that he wants to ban all Muslims, en masse, just because they're Muslim.

LAH: Part of it is expectation. Kari Sherman, like many, believed she cast her vote for the woman who would win.

SHERMAN: And I'd be in this historic moment and vote for our first woman president. There was just such a high in that moment. And now, in hindsight, I've been in a bubble.

I think a lot of what I'm feeling and that I think other people I know are feeling is the sense of bedrail that this country isn't what we thought it was.

LAH: As politicians work toward a smooth transition in Washington, many outside the beltway are finding this is a change they have yet to accept.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, so let's discuss how to get past the post-election anxiety with neuropsychologist Dr. Sanam Hafeez.

Doctor, thanks so much for being here.

SANAM HAFEEZ, PSY.D., NEUROPSYCHOLOGIST: Thanks for having me.

CAMEROTA: Are you seeing this reflected in your own practice, the people coming in with more anxiety?

HAFEEZ: I mean everyone's talking about it. So whoever's coming in is obviously discussing it, like everyone we know is discussing it, especially in New York, we hear it all the time, yes.

CAMEROTA: Yes. You have some tips for people, because people are desperate to feel differently. I mean they didn't expect to feel such a sense of disorientation and anxiety. One of your first tips - before we put them up, you have a list, but before that you say, take it day by day. It's hard for people because they think of it in terms of four years or eight years or a lifetime or the country changing, but why does it help to just take it day by day?

HAFEEZ: Because you realize that this is, you know, this is not something that's going to change the face of America in one day. So I think it's important to remember that there are checks and balances in this country. That, you know, the facts are going to be our friend. That this is not a one-man show and I think people think that now seventy - you know, we're in this other universe. And we're not. So I think it's important to rationalize the facts and remember things that - things aren't going to just - the sky didn't fall the next day, you know, as much as we thought it would. We went to work. We're paying the bills. The credit card payment's due. The mortgage is due. And I think it's remember to remember, you know, to remember to accept that life is going to go on and, you know, that there will be changes, but they're not going to happen overnight and we're going to have our say. And in four years, which is going to come faster than we think, we'll get our say again, you know.

CUOMO: But one of the like deeper considerations here is, and I love psychology, I love therapy. I use it in my own life. I got a great guy. Is - we're always trying to learn through these process of psychology to see things for what they are and understand them. This is difficult here because Donald Trump said what he said and he said it and meant it and then you're told, but he only said it because it was a campaign. Give him a chance. He will be the person that you are afraid he is not. That he'll show that he's the right person for everybody. How do you have somebody to do that instead of accepting what's right in front of them?

[08:35:12] HAFEEZ: It's hard because, you know, that's the constant - you know, that sense of cognitive dissonance where you have to accept something that you were told for months and months and months that, you know, this is - this is that guy. He introduced vernacular that was unacceptable and to - and we have to tell our children, oh, my God, this is a bad word, this is a bad man, and now we have to say, hey, respect him, he's our new president.

So there's a lot of constant, you know, contradictions going on that we have to live with for the next four years. But, you know, but that's part of life and this is also a teaching moment that, you know, it's - that this is a democracy. Fifty percent of our country, men and women, are happy with these results, whether we like it or not. And, you know, hopefully I think this is a unifying message has to be that hopefully we were wrong. Hopefully we'll see something - he surprised us this far, obviously, and hopefully he'll surprise us moving forward. And I think part of what you just said, Chris, is that, you know, we love a happy ending. We didn't get our happy ending. This was a break-up. A sudden break -

CUOMO: Some people did get their happy ending.

HAFEEZ: Well, some, some - yes, yes, yes, yes. Some people - the ones who are devastated -

CAMEROTA: Half the country didn't, half the country did.

HAFEEZ: Right.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

HAFEEZ: Is that people who are devastated got that sudden break-up, they didn't get their closure, and there's a sense of control and devastation. It's like someone suddenly died and they didn't get to say good-bye.

CAMEROTA: Very quickly, let me put up your tips for everyone because I think that they're very helpful. We'll just tick through them. You say, number one, recognize that you can't change the outcome, only your reaction. Of course that's sort of the AA mantra, God grant me the serenity to accept what I can't change. You say distance yourself from social media. That's a great one.

HAFEEZ: It's huge.

CAMEROTA: I mean take a Twitter diet. Next, go about your normal day, as you say, put one foot in front of the other, get coffee, call friends, go for walks. We saw Hillary Clinton doing that very thing.

HAFEEZ: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Avoid hostile interactions with friends and family. This is so important.

CUOMO: The holidays are coming.

CAMEROTA: Inevitably - right, and families, all the fighting.

CUOMO: This is - you can't do that.

CAMEROTA: There's infighting between them.

HAFEEZ: (INAUDIBLE).

CAMEROTA: And then the last one that I want you to comment on, take action in your community. What does that look like?

HAFEEZ: So, you know, I actually just said this to someone the other day. I said, you know, as we were having this conversation. I said, if you feel so bad, you know, we feel better when we're actually doing something. So stop talking, get out and do something. Even if it's small, even if it's in just your immediate community and neighborhood, especially for the minorities that feel so disenfranchised, that feel so scared, and to some degree rightfully so, get out and do something. Have your voice be heard.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

HAFEEZ: And so in the next four years, you can make a difference, and maybe have a different outcome.

CAMEROTA: Volunteering is healing.

HAFEEZ: Yes. Yes. Absolutely.

CAMEROTA: Do some volunteer work.

Doctor, thanks so much.

HAFEEZ: Thank you so much for having me.

CUOMO: Good tips, but haunum (ph) isn't ethnic (ph) but she ain't Italian. You're not avoiding confrontation with your family if you're an Italian-American.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh. There is a lot of infighting in our families.

CUOMO: That's called family, doc. How am I going to avoid them all together.

All right, so just before the election, Sir Richard Branson went on CNN and called a Trump presidency "dangerous." Ahead, he's going to join us to talk about the fears of what might happen once the president-elect is in the White House.

CAMEROTA: Is he running our show right now?

CUOMO: He's on the phone.

CAMEROTA: Is he in the control room?

CUOMO: He's - I bet you it's a long-distance call, too.

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[08:42:04] CUOMO: Police in Portland, Oregon, arresting 26 people after a protest turns into a riot. Officers deploying flash bangs, tear gas, pepper spray, after a peaceful anti-Trump protest turn into a crime overnight. Several hundred people described by authorities as anarchists started lighting fires, vandalizing store fronts and cars, throwing rocks at police.

CAMEROTA: Wonder what Hillary Clinton's been up to? You're looking at the first picture of Hillary Clinton, you're about to, since conceding the race to Donald Trump. She is posing with a woman named Margo Gurster (ph) who stumbled upon Bill and Hillary Clinton while hiking in Westchester, New York. We're told Bill Clinton snapped this photo.

CUOMO: Voting is now underway for the CNN Hero of the Year. Here is one of this year's top ten heroes. A man name Harry Swimmer. Here you go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRY SWIMMER, CNN HERO: My (INAUDIBLE) is an equine assistant therapeutic riding program and we work with special needs children. And I'm a very lucky man to be able to do that. I met a little girl, nonverbal, deaf, wondered what she'd be like on a horse. So I said to the grandmother, I said, how about if we bring her out to the farm and let me she what she'd do on a horse. I brought her out here and put them on a pony and she just lit up like a candle. And I said, this is what I wanted to do.

These children come to me with all kinds of disabilities, verbal and nonverbal. They gain so much from - from doing something that other children don't do that they can do. When the children are on a horse, you can't tell that they're disabled. They ride like anybody else.

These children come to me every day with open arms, and I - and I love every one of them. And this is their farm as much as it is mine.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

SWIMMER: And I love you too, Bruno (ph).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Beautiful. The magic of a man with passion and equine therapy.

You want to vote for Harry or any of the other top ten heroes? You can go to cnnheroes.com.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: A lot's changed since Tuesday, Chris. Business mogul Sir Richard Branson is now my new co-host. We have his take on Donald Trump, and a look at his new documentary about the wild risks he took to build his brand.

We're looking forward to it. Talk to you in a minute.

CUOMO: What a sellout you are.

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[08:48:23] CUOMO: Many feel great about Donald Trump winning this presidential election. But not all. And you are seeing protests across the country. And some are calling for Americans to support each other in these challenging times.

One of those voices is a Hillary Clinton supporter name sir Richard Branson. Of course you know him, billionaire, mogul, founder of the Virgin Group. He joins us now. He also has a documentary that is really watchable called "Don't Look Down." It's one of the films that allows people to do things that they may want to see but never have to experience personally.

It's great to see you, Sir Richard. Thank you for being with us.

SIR RICHARD BRANSON, BALLOONIST/ENTREPRENEUR: Thank you. Thank you.

CUOMO: So, you were a Clinton supporter. You wrote a blog post about watching the returns where you said your concern goes to the message that this election sends to children and grandchildren. How so?

BRANSON: Well, look, that was before the election. And I think now, I think we all desperately want to have Donald Trump prove us wrong. We want him to go to the White House, we want him to get a wonderful group of people around him, we want him to learn to delegate, and to lead by example. And I think it's important that for the next few months that we give him that benefit of the doubt.

Obviously, as a global citizen, I'm very worried about things he said like, I don't believe in global warming. I mean like 99 percent of scientists around the world know that the world is heading for a catastrophe and we have to do something about it. And as - and if the government of America, you know, backtracks on that, we may not be able to stop a disaster. So business leaders worldwide may have to step into the breach to fill the gap, to create hundreds of thousands of jobs to try to, you know, get on - get - help get on top of the problem. But it would help a lot if the government of America do believe in things like evolution, like global warming, you know, things that the rest of - the rest of the world believe in.

[08:50:23] CAMEROTA: What have you heard in terms of the international reaction?

BRANSON: Well, look, outside America, I think with one voice we've been, you know, extremely worried. And most business leaders I know have been extremely by worried. The - the - I'm worried about specific issues. I mean, like, you know, universal health care is something that should be a right for citizens of the world. And, you know, we're campaigning in many countries that don't have universal health care to help them introduce it. And the universal health care system in America was not perfect. I think it would have got better and better and better.

But to abolish it, I mean it's going to mean millions of people are going to suffer in the states. You know, poor people. People will die. People will, you know, have - you know, the misery will come back to what happened before. And so much better if Donald Trump goes in there and says, OK, it wasn't a perfect system, let's not abolish it, but let's - you know, let's get some business people in to make sure that it - it (INAUDIBLE).

CUOMO: But he has a different mandate (ph), Sir Richard, right?

CAMEROTA: But that's not what his supporters wanted, yes.

CUOMO: Right. And that's the point is that this election was on one level kind of like classic proletariat revolt. Kind of like what you saw in the U.K. with Brexit. You've been on outspoken critic of the Brexit movement, but it was people saying, we see the direction you all want us to go. We don't like it. And now this man has a mandate.

BRANSON: I think what - I think they want to change. I don't - I mean these - these people who voted for Donald Trump are the very people who are going to suffer if you don't have a universal health care system. These people are going to be the very people who are going to suffer if Donald Trump looks after the wealthy and doesn't, you know, doesn't tax the 1 percent.

So, you know, unless Donald Trump actually, you know, changes what he said, you know, to get elected and actually, you know, goes out there and tries to look after the working class person, I mean he - you know, he's talking about, let's reopen the coal mines. Let's put people back down in - you know, into digging coal. So much better if those people were creating a clean energy revolution, you know, pushing forward with solar, with wind power, with wave power, with new innovations to power this country with clean energy. That would keep the price of energy down and it would create hundreds of thousands of jobs in industries that would benefit America and benefit the world.

And so I just - I would beg of - beg him and his new administration just that, you know, to realize that most business leaders in America want to work with him, want to help him do these things. Not to get, you know, completely entrenched in something - in some of the things he said on the election, which I think would be very damaging to this country and the world. CAMEROTA: Tell us about your documentary, "Don't Look Down."

BRANSON: Well, I foolishly, as a young man, decided to see if I could be the first team to cross the Atlantic in a hot air balloon. And -

CAMEROTA: And why did you want to do that? Because you just love the thrill?

BRANSON: Well, it actually started - we had one plane, Virgin Atlantic, second hand (ph) 747. We were up against British Airways 300. And we thought this would be a way of putting it on the map. I -

CUOMO: Why didn't you go with the dirigible? Why did you use the hot air balloon? I see you as more of a Zeppelin guy?

BRANSON: Yes. I should have done - I mean, anyway, it became - it became a great adventure and -

CUOMO: Alisyn liked that one.

BRANSON: We then ended up trying to, you know, be the first to cross the Pacific, and then across - go around the world. And it was quite a gripping -

CAMEROTA: It does seem gripping, and like a great adventure, and I believe we have a clip from it that shows just how hair-raising it is. Let's watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRANSON: Suddenly I saw what looked like chunks of flame falling all around the top of the dome. And for a second I thought, you know, I'm - I'm, you know, I'm beginning to hallucinate out of tiredness. And then I realized, Christ, we're on fire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Chunks of flame falling from the balloon. Is that a bad thing?

BRANSON: It's not the sort of thing you want halfway across the Pacific in a hot air balloon.

CAMEROTA: Then what happens?

CUOMO: He doesn't die. I'll tell you that right now.

BRANSON: We had to go up as fast as we could to where the air was really thin, up at 50,000 feet, to put the fire out and thank God -

CUOMO: Because there's less - there's less oxygen up there, so you cancel (ph) the fire.

BRANSON: There's less - there's less oxygen.

CUOMO: So people ask you the obvious question, while this is cool to watch, why would you put yourself in this kind of jeopardy, though, consistently? What do you tell them?

[08:54:59] BRANSON: I mean it - why would somebody climb Everest? You know, it - I think if something hasn't been done before and you have a chance to do, it it's very difficult just to sit in front of a television and watch somebody else do it. And I'm the kind of person that says, you know, I love adventure. I love to push myself. I love to see what I'm capable of. And, anyway, I've been very fortunate. I've survived. I've - I can now lead a - leave some memories for my grandchildren to watch. And -

CAMEROTA: And is that why you did it? I mean is that why you wanted to do this documentary and sort of do a retrospective of some of those thrills (ph)?

BRANSON: Well, my son - my son has a film company. He actually made it. And - and, you know, there are - there - it is a - it is actually, you know, I mean I've sat on the edge of my seat with three or four nieces and nephews all sitting there watching it and they kept looking at me to see if I was still alive because it's that - it's one of those kind of documentaries that, yes, we had a lot of very near- misses, and it - but it's pretty exciting.

CAMEROTA: It looks like it. Where can people find it?

BRANSON: Well, you can get it through the normal things like Apple and so on. And then we - it's launched in a number of cinemas this week around the country.

CAMEROTA: That's great.

BRANSON: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Sir Richard Branson, thanks so much. Great to talk to you.

BRANSON: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Thanks for sharing a little clip with us and sharing your stories.

BRANSON: Yes. I hope you two can relax now that the election's over, but I doubt it.

CAMEROTA: Great point.

CUOMO: I've been saying this to Alisyn for weeks, this idea that it ends on November 8th was never going to be the case.

All right, so, that's all for us. "Newsroom" with Carol Costello is going to begin right after this short break. Have a great weekend.

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