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Adam Rippon is Interviewed about the Russian Skater at the Olympics; U.S. Hasn't Verified Russian Pullback; Missing Girl Found Hidden Under Stairs; New Storm Hits Cross Country; Deep Brain Stimulation to Tackle Addition. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired February 16, 2022 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:30:00]
ADAM RIPPON, OLYMPIC FIGURE SKATING MEDALIST: Seen anything like that. And now I know that I was right. I shouldn't have believed my eyes because it was unbelievable. And it makes us all frustrated and confused and upset that this came -- you know, this came from that specific skater because we were so excited about her. But it puts into question her entire team and the integrity of that, you know, of that team.
You know, Russia here competing again, under a flag that's not their own, for multiple doping violations and uncovering a state-sponsored doping program, that's not good. And it's just -- you know, it feels like a farce. It feels like a joke that we had to sit through that yesterday.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: I think you're also tapping into something, Adam, which is -- and, look, we've seen your tweets. Like on February 5th where you were saying, what can you even say, in all caps, incredible. I mean clearly you are Team USA. I'm Team USA. But you watch a young athlete from another country and you admire them when you see this kind of ability. And then you find out that actually they've gotten an edge, right? So it's -- you can't even admire this sort of -- what you think in a way is almost like a unicorn.
RIPPON: Right. And, you know, there are so many things that make Kamila such a great skater that don't involve taking a drug. So, it feels like such a rotten move that those people -- the people around her have made because, I -- you know, at some point along the way there was an adult that failed her or there were multiple adults that failed her because a 15-year-old does not just walk into Walgreens and pick up a prescription for angina.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: No. And that's what Travis Tygart, who leads the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, and I'm sure that you have had contact, if not with him directly, with his people over the years. That's what he told me last night. He's like, look, you don't end up with three -- not one, not two, but three heart drugs in your system by accident. Someone had to be doing this to her.
And, Adam, you know, the excuse we heard as part of the defense that somehow there was a mix-up with her grandfather's medication. Again, you've been through this. You've heard the lectures. So how did that sit with you?
RIPPON: Right. I mean, where did she go with her grandfather, like burning man (ph)? What -- like what drugs does anybody do with their grandfather? Or, like, how do you accidentally take -- even -- I know the talk was like, they shared -- it could have been a -- from like sharing the same glass or something. I mean, that's not how it works. Sorry, that's not how it works.
But, you know, again, I was a little bit shocked that there was like no denial of this being in her system. But, I mean, this is not the first time that we've had the Russian athletes dope or be part of some doping scandal. I think what's so unbelievable of this is that it involves a minor.
KEILAR: Yes.
RIPPON: And, you know, that they've put the results of this minor ahead of her health and her well-being. And it's -- you know, we've -- in skating, we've seen these young champions come, and they're young teenagers and -- and they retire right away. And then there's another young champion. And, you know, we marvel at what they're able to do. But now it truly feels that like at any expense, the only thing that's important are these results. But it's like, at what cost? I don't think that, you know, it's -- I don't think that -- that it's worth it.
BERMAN: Adam Rippon, we really appreciate you talking to us this morning. We know you're coaching Mariah Bell also. Please give our best to her. And we wish you the best of luck in the next few days. Thank you so much.
RIPPON: I will. Thank you, guys, so much. Thank you.
BERMAN: All right, coming up, Ukrainian President Zelensky will travel to the Russian border as tensions rise. CNN is live on the ground.
And the family of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins suing Alec Baldwin and the producers of the film "Rust." What the lawsuit now alleges.
KEILAR: And scientists appear to have cured a their person and the first woman of HIV. The cutting-edge treatment behind this procedure, straight ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:38:31]
BERMAN: This morning, President Biden says the United States cannot verify Russia's claim that it has removed some troops that have completed their drills near the Ukrainian border.
CNN's Alex Marquardt is live from the Russia/Ukraine border or near the border in the town of Mariupol.
And, Alex, that is where Ukrainian President Zelensky will be traveling today. Why? Why is he visiting there? ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John,
we're about 35 miles from that border between Ukraine and Russia. And President Zelensky is expected here this afternoon.
Today is a day of unity in Ukraine. This is something that President Zelensky announced two days ago. So he is coming here as part of that.
We've been around town today. We've seen hundreds of flags lining the main streets, billboards. There hasn't been any huge event that we've seen, but we just saw a tweet from the European Union ambassador saying that he is coming here with colleagues and other ambassadors to be here with President Zelensky on this day of unity.
This is a very important place to be, John. This is along the southern edge of Ukraine. And we've seen over the course of the past few weeks that Russia has really built up a real presence down here. This is the Sea of Azov. We've seen Russia carrying out naval exercises nearby in the Black Sea. Satellite imagery shows us that there are fighter jets, just across the water, over in Russia.
The Crimean Peninsula also on this body of water. So this is really where we're seeing this -- this -- these confusing messages.
[06:40:02]
Is Russia drawing down? Are they building up? Satellite imagery also showing us that some 60 Russian helicopters have arrived in Crimea, both transport and attack helicopters. At the same time, John, Russia claiming that they are drawing down their troops from Crimea, sending their troops and tanks and artillery home on trains back to Russia. We should note that even if that is the case, and as we've said many times, this has not been verified, they are going back to Russia to positions that are still very close to Ukraine.
John, we believe that Putin has strong interests in connecting the Crimean peninsula, which he took over eight years ago, with the rest of Russia. And that land border -- land bridge as we've been calling it -- would run straight through here. And even if there is a significant de-escalation and a dropping of this tension, what we really have to keep an eye on is the fighting that has been taking place just 15 miles away from here in the Donbas.
Just this morning we heard the Kremlin saying this is still a very dangerous situation. They accuse Ukraine of starting a civil war in Ukraine. And we heard President Putin just yesterday saying that there's a genocide taking place here in the Donbas.
So, you know, the west, the U.S. and NATO have long feared that President Putin could create a pretext to invade Ukraine with what's going on here in eastern Ukraine. So we have to keep a very careful eye on that.
John.
BERMAN: Alex Marquardt in Mariupol. This, again, is where Zelensky is going today. Very curious to hear what he has to say and see the posture he takes there.
We're lucky to have you there. We'll check back in with you, Alex. Thank you so much.
MARQUARDT: Thank you.
BERMAN: U.S. Senator Mark Warner, the chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, will join us to talk about his bipartisan push for sanctions against Russia and what lawmakers are hearing about the path of the conflict.
And a little girl missing since 2019 has been found alive in this just bizarre hiding place under the stairs. We will tell you who the police now have in custody.
KEILAR: And an incredibly close call when a loose tire smashed into a police cruiser with officers inside. We'll tell you what happened.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:46:36]
BERMAN: New this morning, what might be the most stunning story of the day. A six-year-old girl, who had been missing for two years, found alive. Police say her parents, who did not have legal custody, hid the girl in a makeshift room underneath the stairs.
CNN's Laura Jarrett joins us now with the details here.
This is just --
LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR, "EARLY START": Remarkable.
BERMAN: Yes.
JARRETT: Truly remarkable. A story of survival. This case had gone cold until this week when police say they got a tip about this young girl being held at her grandfather's home in upstate New York.
Abducted at four years old, the suspicion had been that she was taken by her biological parents, as John said, as they were set to lose custody of her. Police said they had actually been to the house in question again and again but everyone there denied knowing anything.
But this week they had a real search warrant. And after searching the house for over an hour, one of the officers there thought something seemed out of place.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF JOSEPH SINAGRA, SAUGERTIES, NEW YORK POLICE: But the detective said there was something odd about the stairs. Just the way they were constructed, the way they felt when he was walking on them. And he said he took a closer look at the stairs. And between two of the stair boards, there was a crack. He used a flashlight, looked in there, and he saw what he believed was a blanket at the bottom. So, they used a (INAUDIBLE) tool to -- and they started removing the
steps of the staircase. And, sure and behold, they found a little bare feet.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: Those little bare feet belonging to the girl kept hidden in that box you see under the staircase. She was cold. She was wet. Unclear how long she was there.
Her biological mother was found down there with her and said the parents and the grandfather have now all been arrested and charged. But they were actually later released with orders to stay away from this girl. Police say thankfully she is in good health. But she told officers she hadn't eaten anything in a while. And so they stopped at a McDonald's on their way to the station, a place she told them she had fondly remembered. She has now been reunited with her older sister and her legal guardian.
BERMAN: This story about instincts from law enforcement there.
JARRETT: Yes.
BERMAN: About someone really paying attention.
JARRETT: They had been over the stairs over and over and over and just something didn't seem right.
BERMAN: Well, obviously, we hope this little girl is OK. Laura, thank you so much for that.
JARRETT: Sure.
KEILAR: A major winter storm with snow, ice and strong winds is making its way across the country. So let's go to our meteorologist Chad Myers for details.
What should we be looking at here?
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Brianna, we're going to have snow, we're going to have an ice storm, we're going to have flooding, and we're also going to have the potential for some isolated tornados all because of the storm that's coming out of the southwest right now.
This weather is brought to you by the Jamaica Tourist Board. Plan your vacation and visitjamaica.com.
So, here we go. This is what it's going to look like here. Winter weather advisories, winter storm warnings have already been posted. Eight to 10 inches in some spots. There could be up to a foot with some of this blowing snow.
To the south of the snow, where it's not cold enough to make snow, there's going to be two to four inches of rainfall, making the potential for flooding there. One more thing, Texas, Oklahoma, severe weather for you today.
Nashville, Memphis, all the way down to Jackson, Mississippi, for tomorrow. Some of these storms will be severe. Some of these storms could rotate and could put down some tornados.
There's the low by later on this morning, into the afternoon. It's going to move on up toward the northeast and the cold air is going to be in place, just like the last two storms that we've seen here through the Midwest.
[06:50:01]
A line of ice, a line of snow, and then the cold air comes in behind it Certainly cold enough to make that snow into kind of a packed kind of a mess for you if you're going to be trying to shovel that. Temperatures go from the 50s and windy in Chicago today down into the 20s.
Brianna.
KEILAR: All right, I'm looking at that 68 in Washington, though, and that looks pretty good, I do have to say.
Chad Myers.
MYERS: It sure does.
KEILAR: Love it. Thank you so much.
BERMAN: A very close call for two police officers in Spring Township, Pennsylvania. This is dashcam video as the officers monitor traffic from a median on Monday. Suddenly, oh, my God. Oh, wow, that runaway tire, I guess from a pickup truck, just comes barreling down the street and smashes right into their windshield. Luckily, the officers are OK. Wow. But the cruiser, not so much. It had extensive damage. Just like out of nowhere that tire just comes flying right at the windshield.
KEILAR: That's like my nightmare. I feel like I say that all the time. Probably once a week we have a story where I say, that is my nightmare. But I've never been in an accident where something huge like hit the windshield. I don't know if you ever have been.
BERMAN: We were -- I've have stuff fall off trucks in front of us and had to --
KEILAR: Really?
BERMAN: Yes, it's really terrifying. So you try to drive -- you try to keep a safe distance.
KEILAR: My dad hit a cow once with my car. More on that later. I'll tell you offline about that. Yes, I mean, a cow is very large and dangerous.
BERMAN: That's a deep tease. KEILAR: It's funny, but it's also like very -- it was very alarming too.
BERMAN: Yes.
KEILAR: So, brain surgery to treat substance abuse. Dr. Sanjay Gupta tells us about a radical treatment helping patients with the most severe addiction. We're going to talk about that next.
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[06:55:58]
KEILAR: Fentanyl and other powerful opioids have fueled the rising U.S. death rate. The longer a person uses these drugs, the more danger they're in. So, breaking the cycle of dependence is important, but it can be extremely difficult. And one radical, new frontier that's being explored involves the brain itself. CNN is covering this with the help from the Global Health Reporting Center. Here's Dr. Sanjay Gupta.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): At the age of 15, Gerod Buckhalter was already making headlines.
REX BUCKHALTER, GEROD'S FATHER: So Gerod was a stand-out football player. And he was named Mr. everything.
GUPTA: A football and basketball star, Gerod was fielding college scholarship officers when a shoulder injury changed his whole life.
GEROD BUCKHALTER, DBS PATIENT: I was prescribed oxycodone for six or seven months. And by the time I was cut off, it was -- it was too late.
R. BUCKHALTER: I had already resolved myself to the fact that he was going to die. And that's a tough thing to come to.
GUPTA: For 17 years, times were dark, troubled. Things happened that Gerod still can't talk about. After countless failed tries of getting sober, Gerod found himself at West Virginia University at the Rockefeller Neuroscience Institute considering a radical, experimental treatment.
G. BUCKHALTER: I came home and I said, well, you know, I'm going to have brain surgery, you know, to potentially help me stay clean.
GINA BUCKHALTER, GEROD'S MOTHER: He said, they actually approached me about having brain surgery for addiction. And I literally wanted to pass out on the floor.
R. BUCKHALTER: Are you freaking crazy? That's your brain!
GUPTA (on camera): There's no data. I mean you were the first.
G. BUCKHALTER: What got me through it was when I did my research on Dr. Rezai.
GUPTA (voice over): Dr. Ali Rezai spent more than two decades honing a technique called, deep brain stimulation, or DBS. You may know it as a treatment for Parkinson's. But it has also been used for obsessive compulsive disorder and in clinical trials for depression. But using it to treat addiction, with its subtle dance of motivation, reward and desire, is the medical equivalent of a Hail Mary.
DR. ALI REZAI: There's people dying, 100,000 a year have died of overdoses. So, these individuals were at risk from dying from another overdose.
GUPTA: When the day finally came, Gerod's mother and father were at his side.
R. BUCKHALTER: And we kind of said a little prayer and, you know, on we went.
GUPTA: Over the next eight hours, Dr. Rezai drilled a hole in Gerod's skull, then worked in a tiny piece of wire, barely a millimeter thick, and started stimulating deep in Gerod's brain.
REZAI: The target that we do is the base of the compass (ph) right there.
GUPTA: Addiction causes physical changes in the brain, hijacking our natural reward system, changing sensitivity to neurotransmitters like dopamine. The DBS probe is implanted to deliver an electrical signals causing changes in two different brain regions.
REZAI: And then there's the compass (ph) down there.
GUPTA: Rezai says that stimulating this area, the nuceluszumins (ph) can normalize the dopamine response, essentially rebooting the reward system.
GUPTA (on camera): And then the other stimulation is basically trying to decrease impulsivity by adding more frontal lobe activity, better judgement, better executive reasoning, things like that?
REZAI: Exactly. Better decision-making. Because that part also, with addiction, is less active.
GUPTA (voice over): It would take weeks or months to see if the improvement would stick. First, his life now involves taking the medication suboxone (ph) to help manage any cravings he may have. And he's also holding down a steady job at a sober living house.
But, remember, for the last 17 years he said he had never gone more than a few weeks without using opioids before DBS.
[07:00:00]
GUPTA (on camera): So how many days has it been now since your operation, do you know?
G. BUCKHALTER: I know it's -- it's about two years and about three months.
