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New Day

North's New Nike Promises; Alcohol and Memory Loss; Carolinas Brace for More Flooding; Administration Loses Track of Immigrant Children; Arizona May Revoke Shelter's License; Cuban Pays $10 Million. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired September 20, 2018 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:33:46] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: The leaders of North and South Korea have wrapped up a three day summit. South Korea's president will travel to Washington on Monday to meet with President Trump to discuss the promises made by Kim Jong-un. President Moon just spoke about their summit moments ago and CNN's Will Ripley is live in Hong Kong with more.

What do we know, Will?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Alisyn.

Yes, we're getting some more insight now about these discussions between Kim Jong-un, the North Korea leader, and South Korea President Moon Jae-in. He said something that was interesting. In previous meetings with the South Koreans, Kim Jong-un refused to talk specifics about denuclearization, but Moon says this time around he laid out to them a specific plan for the permanent destruction of his nuclear program, saying that he is now prioritizing the North Korean economy over its nuclear weapons.

He also said that he really wants that second summit with President Trump. And we believe that plans are in the works right now for a Trump Kim round two somewhere in the world, sometime perhaps later this year.

How far apart are the U.S. and North Korea in terms of what they expect because, remember, the North Koreans have said that in order for them to begin this process, destroying their Yongbyong nuclear reactor with international inspectors watching, they need the United States to take measures that are kind of corresponding with what the North Koreans are doing.

So Moon would not answer that question. He wouldn't say what the North Koreans want from the U.S. and whether that is anywhere near what the U.S. position has been so far. So that, obviously, could be the sticking point.

[06:35:05] Moon will be traveling to Washington on Monday. He'll be meeting with President Trump. And they'll go over all of those details. And then perhaps we could learn what the next steps are going to be. Is this going to really be a breakthrough or will it be revealed that simply what the North Koreans want from the U.S. is just unrealistic.

But it has been an extraordinary few days in terms of the images that we've seen from, you know, Kim and Moon, you know, standing, you know, in the sun roof of a stretched limousine, to climbing the summit of Mt. Paektu, Korea's spiritual hub. Just the imagery has been really striking. But what is the substance going to be moving forward? That's what we need to watch, John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: That's a great point. And those images alone might have been unthinkable a couple years ago. A third summit now. What will come of it?

Will Ripley, thanks very much.

In her accusation against Judge Brett Kavanaugh, Christine Blasey Ford claims he and his friend were drinking heavily. So it raises questions about just how much alcohol affects memories. Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta joins us next.

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[06:39:57] BERMAN: Christine Blasey Ford alleges the Supreme Court nominee, Brett Kavanaugh, and his classmate, Mark Judge, were intoxicated, drunk, at the time she claims she was sexually assault. Kavanaugh denies the accusation. Judge claims -- Mark Judge claims to have no memory of the incident and says he never saw Kavanaugh act inappropriately.

The incident does raise questions about how much alcohol can affect what people can or cannot remember.

Joining us now is CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

Sanjay.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

Yes, well, let me just preface by saying that obviously everyone is going to react differently to alcohol based on your own body or physiology, how much alcohol you've had in the past, all those types of things. But what's interesting, John, is a lot of these studies that actually look at memory and alcohol come from eyewitness accounts crimes. And that actually investigate people who -- you know, ask people, eyewitnesses, about certain details of crimes they may have witnesses. They compared people who were intoxicated to people who were sober. And what they found was actually pretty interesting.

In the immediate aftermath of something like this, if you ask somebody immediately after witnessing something, memory really wasn't that altered in someone who is intoxicated, up to a level of .1, so up to being drunk. That -- that memory may degrade significantly over time in people who were intoxicated compared to people who were sober. But memory can actually be preserved pretty well, pretty detail oriented in the immediate aftermath, John. BERMAN: What about longer term memory and selective memory, Sanjay? Can you -- can you push things out of your mind?

GUPTA: So, let's take longer term, first of all, in someone who's had alcohol. What's interesting, if we can show that graphic again, when you -- when you actually remember something, first of all, you're paying attention. That's the left part of the screen. That gets stuck into short term memory. That all happens pretty well, even in someone who's had alcohol. It's that last part that becomes much more challenging, that idea of sticking now the short term memories into long term memory. In someone who's had alcohol, someone's who's had a significant amount of alcohol, it's that part that becomes really difficult to encode, they say, to stick those short term memories into long term.

So, you know, they -- what investigators will say a lot of times is, we don't mind interviewing someone as an eyewitness who's had alcohol, but the next day or the next few days their memories are likely to degrade significantly.

With regard to selective memory, that can happen as well. And it's because of that same thing. You no longer have the long term memory. You had it for a period of time, but it's gone. You can also have what are called contaminated memories, meaning that if somebody suggests that something happened during that time, during that short term to long term encoding, you could actually implant a memory in that regard, you know, set -- getting a characteristic about somebody and implanting that memory can actually make that happen. And seemingly a real memory for the person as well.

BERMAN: Sanjay, what about binge drinking?

GUPTA: This is -- this is interesting. And, you know, this is something that we looked into a little bit and talked to some researchers yesterday. So it's -- it's not just the amount of alcohol, but the rate at which someone gets to the higher level of intoxication. For someone whose binge drinking gets to a level of 0.1 or 0.08 very, very quickly, a blood alcohol level, they can have much more impaired memory.

People can have these blackout phases, but they're not -- they're not passed out, right. People think blackout and pass out the same thing. You can be functioning. You can be talking. People around you may not know, but you could have complete amnesia to the event if you've actually, you know, had been binge drinking or gotten to the point where you are essentially black out drunk. It's more of a gray out or more of a fragmentary sort of memory that you have at that point.

BERMAN: You know, and I think we should make one thing clear as we're doing this whole discussion, and, Sanjay, you're being so careful here, we're talking about how alcohol affects one's memory over time --

GUPTA: That's right.

BERMAN: In the abstract. Not in this specific case. We aren't, for a second, saying that alcohol absolves anyone --

GUPTA: Absolutely.

BERMAN: For anything that they might do or choose to do in an instant, correct?

GUPTA: No question about it. And, again, I think what the research has shown is that memory, at least in the short term, is better preserved even in someone who is -- who is intoxicated than people thought in the past.

You know, oftentimes those witnesses would immediately be discredited because the person was drunk, but for a period of time, those memories can be very, very detail oriented, at least in the short term.

BERMAN: All right, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much for helping us understand this, because a lot of people have been asking questions about it the last few days.

Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, John.

For the second time in less than a year, the Trump administration admits it has lost track of now 1,500 undocumented immigrant children. Why is this happening? Who is the incompetent person here?

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[06:48:14] CAMEROTA: Nearly a week after Hurricane Florence dumped torrential rain over the Carolinas, the worst of the flooding is not over. President Trump visited and offered help. So what do the people there need?

CNN's Nick Valencia is live in Conway, South Carolina.

What's the situation, Nick?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

During the president's visit here on Wednesday, he warned residents that they haven't been yet hit hard compared to what's coming next. He got a chance to tour a neighborhood that was inundated by flash flooding caused by Hurricane Florence. And it was yesterday that floodwater had finally receded enough to where residents could go inside their homes, collect their belongings, bracing for what's coming next, and that's massive flooding, which could hit this area as early as tomorrow. The president warned that the hard work is just beginning.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The job you've done has been incredible. Incredible. They're talking about it all over the world. And we want to keep it going that way because some of the hard work is now. We've gone through very dangerous work, and it's still dangerous, but some of the hard work is taking place right now.

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VALENCIA: And what Horry Country residents are particularly worried about here is the Waccamaw River, which we're standing in front of. It was just last week, a day after Hurricane Florence, that my team and I were reporting from here on that river walk. It's a river walk that's now under water. Local authorities here are going to be keeping a close eye on rivers like this that they're worried about overflowing. They say it's not a matter of if but when that happens.

John.

BERMAN: All right, Nick Valencia for us in Conway, South Carolina. Nick, thanks for being there.

For the second time this year, the Trump administration has lost track of immigrant children. This time it's 1,500 children. Officials say they were placed in the homes of sponsors and now those sponsors cannot be reached.

CNN's Tal Kopan live in Washington with the very latest.

Tal.

[06:50:03] TAL KOPAN, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Yes, that's right, John.

So what happens is, when these immigrant children come to the U.S. alone, they go into these facilities that are run by HHS and are eventually released to adults who are deemed suitable by HHS. Now, once that transfer happens, HHS says it no longer has any responsibility for these children. But they've been trying to do these follow-up calls.

So over a three-month period this spring, from April to June, they called almost 12,000 of these families where they had placed these children. And in those follow-up calls, they found nearly 1,500 of those children could not be reached.

Now, keep in mind, this doesn't necessarily mean that those children are entirely lost or missing. It means that when those calls were placed, those voluntarily follow-ups, they weren't actually able to connect with the family. It is absolutely possible that some of these families may not want to respond to the government when they call and may be undocumented themselves.

But these follow-up calls started because members of Congress have been pressing, after eight children in Ohio were placed with human traffickers, they've been pressing on HHS to do these follow-ups, to make sure that these adults actually were suitable for the children. And it shows that 13 percent of these children, it couldn't be verified who they went to. So that shows just how much unknown there is in the system.

Now, HHS has put out a statement. Their spokesperson, Caitlin Oakley, was very clear. She said these children are not lost. She reiterated that this is sponsors who are parents or family members and, in all cases, have been vetted for criminality and ability to provide for them. They simply did not respond or could not be reached when this voluntary call was made. But, as we said, it shows just how much uncertainty and lack of responsibility for these children there is after they're placed into these homes, John.

BERMAN: But, Tal, the largest company in Arizona providing shelter for immigrant children is also facing some issues. What happened here?

KOPAN: Yes. That's absolutely right. So these facilities are actually licensed by various states. And under Arizona law, they required these facilities, that are run by contractors, to perform background checks on the adults who are working in these facilities. And in a letter that was very strong from the government to this organization, Southwest Key, they sort of excoriated Southwest Key for not proving adequate information to prove that they had been background checking all these adults that work in these facilities.

Now, Southwest Key has 30 days to respond and they say they will and hope to rectify the situation. But keep in mind, we're at record numbers of these children in these facilities. If we lose them, the overcrowding could potentially only get worse.

BERMAN: All right, Tal. Tal Kopan, thanks so much for covering this for us. You've been pressing on this issue for months and months. Terrific work.

KOPAN: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: OK, John, an apology for billionaire Mark Cuban for a culture of harassment in the Dallas Mavericks organization. The "Bleacher Report" is next.

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[06:57:05] BERMAN: Dallas Mavericks' owner Mark Cuban taking action in response to reports of sexual harassment involving his team's employees.

Lindsay Czarniak has more in the "Bleacher Report."

Good morning.

LINDSAY CZARNIAK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey there. Good morning, guys.

Yes, you know, Mark Cuban has been cleared of any wrongdoing. So now the only way he will be impacted is money. He has agreed to donate $10 million towards women's organizations in response to allegations against his team of sexual harassment and misconduct towards women over the past two decades.

Now, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, he labeled the findings in the investigation into the culture of the Maverick's organization disturbing and heartbreaking. The investigation, it was launched after a "Sports Illustrated" article released in February that described a culture rife with, quote, predatory sexual behavior. Among the findings of the investigation, improper workplace conduct that included lewd comments, also forcible touching and kissing.

Cuban spoke to ESPN's Rachel Nichols yesterday. He admitted his own mistake of not recognizing this behavior.

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MARK CUBAN, DALLAS MAVERICKS OWNER: I'm just sorry I didn't recognize it and I just, you know, hope that out of this, you know, we'll be better. The pain that people went through, the pain that people shared with me as this happened, the tears that I saw, it just -- it hurt. And the way I felt was nothing compared to the way they felt.

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CZARNIAK: I would say a shocking response from someone who we are not used to seeing like that, right? Mark Cuban, we're not used to seeing him get emotional, but clearly the findings impacted him.

CAMEROTA: And you say a blueprints for how other owners should handle things like this.

CZARNIAK: Exactly. You know, it does take your mind right back to the Ohio State situation with Urban Meyer. But we see these types of things come out. And I think he is -- he is a classic example of a way that you do good out there in front of it and apologize. And that's seemingly heartfelt.

BERMAN: Lindsay, thanks for being with us.

CZARNIAK: You got it.

CAMEROTA: Thanks so much.

All right, President Trump visiting North Carolina yesterday and he spoke with a homeowner who had a boat wash up in his yard. Well, late night comedians had some fun with it. Here you go.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump has spent today touring the Carolinas. At one point he stopped to ask a resident about a large boat that had washed ashore next to his house. Here's a picture of the boat here.

Now, according to reports, Trump asked the man, is this your boat? And when the homeowner said no, Trump actually replied, and this is true, at least you got a nice boat out of the deal.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In case you think Trump was just kidding, he later told reporters, I think it's incredible what we're seeing. The boat just came here. They don't know whose boat that is. What's the law? Maybe it becomes theirs. Ah, ah, yes, who could forget the famous Supreme Court case of Finders v Keepers.

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BERMAN: I don't think it's reasonable to expect the president will know that much about maritime law.

[07:00:02] CAMEROTA: No. No. And I think that it is -- that is a nice silver lining if the boat does become theirs. It reminds me of the famous Jack Handy (ph) quote. Hey, if a dummy falls out of the sky, you should just keep it because