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One World with Zain Asher
Nikki Haley Suspends Campaign In The U.S. Presidential Race; Russian Missile Strike Comes Terrifyingly Close To The Greek Prime Minister While He Was With Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky; U.N. Security Council Holds An Emergency Session To Discuss Haiti; The Creation Of Stentrode Aids ALS Patients. Aired 12-1p ET
Aired March 06, 2024 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[12:00:33]
ZAIN ASHER, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: All right, coming to you live from New York, I'm Zain Asher.
BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: And live from Washington, I'm Bianna Golodryga. You are watching "One World". Well, for weeks now, the
writing was on the wall, but in the end, it all came down to the math.
One day after losing big in the Super Tuesday primaries, Nikki Haley has suspended her campaign in the U.S. presidential race. The former South
Carolina governor ended her run for the White House the same way she began it, quoting from the Bible.
ASHER: Right. She also appealed to Americans to turn away from a lot of the darkness of hatred and division. She said she had no regrets. And while she
noticeably did not endorse Donald Trump, she did deliver this message. I want you to listen to what she had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NIKKI HALEY, FORMER U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In all likelihood, Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee when our party
convention meets in July. I congratulate him and wish him well. It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party and beyond it
who did not support him. And I hope he does that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: Haley's announcement fires the starting gun on a general election rematch between Donald Trump and President Joe Biden that many Americans
were actually hoping would not happen.
GOLODRYGA: And yet here we are. Eva McKend joins us now from Washington. Eva, notable in Nikki Haley's speech that she not only did not endorse
Donald Trump, but she also suggested that her voters, those that turned out to support her, will have to earn his -- his presidency.
EVA MCKEND, CNN U.S. NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, she was really clear about that, Bianna. She believes that the former President actually
has done more to isolate her supporters over the last several weeks. Notably, he said a few weeks ago that people that contributed to her
campaign would be barred permanently from the MAGA movement.
I'm not exactly sure how that would have worked logistically, but that's something that she sort of poked fun at. And at her rallies, people would
wear shirts that said barred permanently. But listen, on a more serious matter, there were a lot of Democrats showing up to her rallies,
independents, Republicans who supported the former president in 2016 and then voted for Biden in 2020.
They really -- the message that she often repeated, that the former President was just too mired in chaos to really prioritize the needs of
everyday Americans, it resonated with a lot of people. You also had conservatives who were worried that the former President didn't have a
strong fidelity to the Constitution.
And so, what we're already seeing from President Biden and his team is them working over time to try to capture those Haley supporters, to try to make
this argument -- that in a fundamental way, when you're thinking about the Constitution and the future of American democracy, that he would be a
better choice for those disaffected Republicans.
GOLODRYGA: Yeah, she said, "It is now up to Donald Trump to earn the votes of those in our party who did not support him. I hope he does. This is now
his time for choosing." We'll see if that happens. Eva McKend, thank you. Well, President Biden's campaign is making the case that despite Donald
Trump's near sweep in the Republican primaries on Super Tuesday, he cannot win a general election.
ASHER: That's right. A memo signed by the President's top campaign officials portray Trump as a, quote, "wounded, dangerous and unpopular
candidate" while also claiming that Mr. Biden has what they're calling a clear path to victory.
The President himself, meanwhile, is stepping up his general election attacks on his predecessor, accusing Trump of trying to destroy American
democracy and doing whatever it takes to put himself in power.
GOLODRYGA: So, let's take a closer look at these Super Tuesday results, what they mean and what comes next. CNN Senior Political Analyst Ron
Brownstein joins us now live from Los Angeles. Ron, good to see you. So, on the surface, no surprise here. A big win for Joe Biden, a big win for
Donald Trump.
A lot of Americans likely will be holding their noses because there had been a lot of consternation that it will be these two matching up against
each other yet again. And it looks like that is where we are headed. But both coming with their own baggage, as well, and some headwinds.
Some, perhaps, new ones for President Biden. But as you write, some of the same issues that have plagued Donald Trump in his now three times in
running for office continue to hang over his campaign.
[12:05:00]
Can you talk about those?
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, good to be with you both. Look, the primaries that are now concluded have sent us kind of a
dual message about Trump's position in the Republican Party. Obviously, his coalition is now the dominant faction in the party with Haley stepping out
of the race.
Trump is on track to win more primaries and caucuses than any Republican presidential candidate who is not an incumbent. And maybe we should be
thinking of him as a quasi incumbent -- given that.
But despite that dominance, Bianna, you know, we saw a pretty consistent share of the party, 25 to 35 percent, maybe 40 in states where Haley had
time to campaign voting against him. And it was a very demographically consistent slice of the party from state to state.
And it was further, it was demographically consistent with the kind of voters who have resisted Trump really since his emergence. White collar,
suburbanites, college educated voters, voters who may have been drawn to the Republican Party more in economic than social issues over the years.
That is a meaningful fracture in the coalition, and it is an opportunity for Biden. But Biden is facing his own fracture in his coalition,
particularly among younger voters, Hispanic and black voters. So, what we see are two candidates going into a general election whose weaknesses at
this point seem to me at least as pronounced as their strengths.
ASHER: Yeah, so the big question is, where do Nikki Haley supporters go at this time? And it's worth noting that Nikki Haley's campaign made history,
right, just in terms of being the first woman to win a Republican presidential primary. And also just the fact that she beat Trump anywhere
is no small thing. Where do you think her supporters will be going after this?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know, a large number of her supporters have said in polling that they do not believe Trump will be fit to be President again if
he's convicted of a crime. In the AP Votecast poll, 60 percent or more of them in those first three states, Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina,
said they would not vote for him in a general election.
I don't think it will be anywhere near that high. I mean, in polling and in my experience of talking to Haley voters in South Carolina, New Hampshire
and Iowa, most of them are deeply negative on Biden's performance and his ability to do the job for four more years. And I think that the significant
majority of them, at least the more Republican leaning ones in her coalition, will end up back with Trump.
But it doesn't take that many to make a big difference. If, you know, a quarter or a third of Haley voters say no to Trump, that, you know, that
her coalition was not big enough to deny him the nomination. It's plenty big enough to deny him the general election if, in fact, they remain as
alienated from him as they are now saying they are in polls.
GOLODRYGA: And while both do face some challenges, according to the polls, Donald Trump is winning in a general election between these two for the
majority of these polls, at least they are very close. As you mentioned, the President -- Biden is very unpopular. He's hovering in the 30s.
I mean, what more can he do and what more do you think he will take from this outcome overnight? And what we've seen from the past few primaries
now, we saw Minnesota in the undecided vote, and as well as in Michigan in those that protested and specifically regarding some foreign policy that's
largely out of his hands, right?
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.
GOLODRYGA: -- especially with regards to Israel and Gaza. What can he do? Because the one thing he can't do is turn back the time with regards to his
age.
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, flatly, Bianna, Joe Biden's approval rating is in the range where incumbent Presidents have been defeated. You know, if you look
at the incumbent Presidents who've won second terms really since the dawn of modern polling, like Dwight Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon,
Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, their approval rating was well over 50 percent. The ones who lost, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Donald Trump,
their approval rating was near the level that Biden is now. And in fact, he is lower than many of them.
What we saw in 2022 was that there was an unprecedentedly large number of voters who said they were disappointed in Biden's performance and down on
the economy, but voted for Democrats anyway because they viewed the Republican alternative as too extreme, as a threat to their rights, to
their values, to democracy itself. That is a big pool of voters. Biden will run further ahead of his approval rating than Presidents usually do. I
think it's virtually guaranteed.
But it is not an infinite pool of voters. You know, it's not guaranteed that if his approval rating stays as low as it is. That fear of a second
Trump term will be enough to revive him. Biden needs to improve his own standing, as well.
And this State of the Union tomorrow night is an important, I think, milestone for him in laying out an agenda for a second term that he can
contrast with Trump. There are positive trends in the economy that should lift Biden. Wages are now rising faster than prices.
[12:10:00]
But he has a long way to go. It is not an infinite ladder that the resistance to a Trump second term. Biden has to improve his own standing.
He also has to remind voters more of what they disliked about Trump when he was in office, because maybe the scariest trend for Democrats is that the
retrospective approval of Trump's presidency has increased significantly in many ways because voters now are looking at it as the alternative, the
better alternative on issues like inflation and immigration.
GOLODRYGA: Yeah, Democrats have long said not to worry so much about the polls because most Americans aren't paying attention. It's too soon. Well,
now it's pretty clear that it's going to be a match-up between these two. Yeah. So, that excuse no longer holds. Ron Brownstein, thank you so much.
ASHER: Thank you, Ron.
GOLODRYGA: Well, for months, Western leaders have visited Ukraine to show solidarity with the country and its resistance to Russia's invasion. Today,
it became clear once again just how dangerous it is to do that.
ASHER: Right. A Russian missile strike came terrifyingly close to the Greek Prime Minister while he was with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. It
happened in the Black Sea Port of Odesa. Neither man was injured despite the missile landing only a couple of hundreds of meters from them.
GOLODRYGA: And just to remind you, Odesa is far from the country's fiercest fighting, which is in the east. Meantime, President Zelensky said people
were killed by the missile and others were injured. It is unclear if Russia was targeting the two leaders, but a NATO head of state being injured or
killed in Ukraine could have greatly escalated Western involvement in the war.
ASHER: That's right. Let's bring in CNN's Fred Pleitgen with more on this. So, just to reiterate to our viewers, Zelensky, of course, was not wounded,
he wasn't injured, but he was close enough to essentially have heard and to have seen what actually happened, the strike actually take place. I mean,
this is a big wake up call, Fred, for Western allies. Just walk us through what exactly happened here.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it certainly seems to be a pretty close call for Volodymyr Zelensky and then
also for the Greek Prime Minister, as well.
From what we're gathering from both the Greeks and the Ukrainian side is that they say that the Greek Prime Minister and Volodymyr Zelensky, the
President of Ukraine, toured the port of Odessa, where Volodymyr Zelensky told the Greek Prime Minister about how important this port is, but also
some of the damage that has been caused by Russian shelling and Russian missile strikes on that port.
The interesting thing about that port is that it is a port that is used for goods, for grain, as well still, but also has a small sort of navy
contingent on it, as well. And as far as the closeness of all of this is concerned, I think that it was actually extremely close. We're hearing from
one source that is very familiar with this matter saying that the strike apparently happened, the impact was about 500 meters away from the Greek
Prime Minister.
That is not very far at all, especially if you take into consideration the types of missiles that the Ukrainians are saying could have been used in
all this, one being in Iskander, which has a huge warhead, another one being in Onyx, which also has a massive warhead, as well. So, that is a
pretty close call for both of these leaders.
In fact, Volodymyr Zelensky, the President of Ukraine, he came out and he said that they not only heard the explosion after touring the port, but
they actually also saw the missile come down, which means that they must have been pretty close to that impact site. The Ukrainian navy has now come
out and confirmed some of the things that President Zelensky had said earlier. He said they were killed and wounded.
The Ukrainian navy now saying that five people were killed and there are wounded, as well. They didn't give a specific number. The Russians, Zain,
have in the meantime also come out and confirmed that there was a missile strike on the port of Odessa.
They say that it happened 11:41 Moscow time, which would be around 11:41, or which would be exactly 11:41 Ukraine time or Odessa time. The Russians
claim that they struck a warehouse with unmanned sea drones in it. Of course, this comes just about a day after the Ukrainians say there was a
successful attack by the Ukrainians on a Russian ship in the Black Sea sinking that ship.
So, not clear whether or not this might be retaliation for that. Also, of course, not clear whether or not Volodymyr Zelensky or the Prime Minister
of Greece may have actually been the targets of this missile strike. But certainly we can gather from both sides or all sides involved in this. This
was definitely a very close hit to a NATO leader who was on the ground there.
ASHER: And Zelensky using this opportunity to remind people all around the world why military aid is so desperately needed, saying that it is clear
that we need to defend ourselves first and foremost. The best way to do that is with an air defense system. Fred Pleitgen, live for us there. Thank
you so much.
All right, still to come, violence spiraling out of control in Haiti. First weekend prison break, now armed gangs taking over police stations in the
capital. We will speak with a Haitian journalist after break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:17:40]
ASHER: All right, we're getting some stark statistics from the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza. A spokesperson says at least 20 Palestinians
have died from malnutrition and dehydration in Gaza since the conflict began.
GOLODRYGA: The U.S. is among nations airdropping meals into Gaza, but that food is falling far short of what's needed. U.N. experts have accused
Israel of intentionally starving the Palestinian people in Gaza. Israel has consistently denied targeting civilians, saying that its war is against
Hamas.
ASHER: Now, this video from Rafah shows children holding pots and containers as they line up at a soup kitchen. The World Health Organization
says that malnourished children are at greater risk of dying from illnesses like diarrhea and pneumonia, as well. The alarming humanitarian aid
situation for the people of Gaza was at the top of the agenda when the Israeli war cabinet member Benny Gantz met top American officials.
GOLODRYGA: And aid will also be among the top issues when Gantz meets with the British Foreign Secretary today. David Cameron has told lawmakers that
he'll warn Gantz that London's patience is running thin over the dreadful suffering in Gaza.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID CAMERON, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY: Israel is the occupying power. It is responsible and that has consequences, including in how we look at
whether Israel is compliant with international humanitarian law.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: CNN's Jeremy Diamond joins us now live from Tel Aviv, Israel. And Jeremy, there had been reports that Benny Gantz himself had been
surprised at the level of ferocity that he heard in terms of frustration among U.S. officials with regards to Israel's policy or lack thereof in
terms of supplying and getting enough aid into Gaza. I would imagine that he'll probably hear the same in London today.
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, no question about it. I mean, you can hear the rising frustrations among Western officials with Israel, with
what they view as insufficient efforts to get humanitarian aid into Gaza. You know, I spoke with an Israeli official yesterday about Benny Gantz's
meetings with top White House officials, including Vice President Kamala Harris.
And it was clear that Gantz emerged from those meetings, having gotten an earful from top Biden administration officials about their concerns about
the humanitarian situation in Gaza and what they view as insufficient efforts by Israel.
[12:20:00]
And he emerged from those meetings with deep concerns and a sense of some surprise about the state of U.S.-Israel relations, about the level of
frustrations that U.S. officials were voicing, and also about their clearly deep-seated frustrations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's Prime Minister,
who we should note is also, of course, Benny Gantz's top political rival.
I'm told that Gantz was surprised by how critical the White House was about the humanitarian situation and Israel's lack of efforts on that front, as
well as their criticism of this potential and planned invasion of Rafah. The message I'm told from Vice President Harris during those meetings was,
help us help you, basically saying that the U.S. wants to continue to support Israel, but that it needs Israel to do more on the humanitarian
front.
And today, Gantz is likely to hear a very similar message from David Cameron, the U.K. Foreign Secretary. He said earlier today that he planned
to issue a, quote, "series of warnings to Gantz about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, the need to expand humanitarian aid, as well as border
crossings directly into Gaza".
We know that the Israeli officials have been considering opening up a crossing from Israel directly into northern Gaza, but that has yet to
materialize so far. And Cameron is expected to kind of drive home the urgent need for more action, talking about the fact that, as he said,
people are dying of hunger and dying of otherwise preventable diseases.
So certainly, as Benny Gantz returns here to Israel, he will have a clearer sense of the frustrations from Israel's closest allies with the way that
this war is going on now, with the humanitarian disaster unfolding in Gaza. The question now is what he can actually do about it as a member of this
war cabinet. That remains to be seen.
GOLODRYGA: Yeah, message received clearly in both Washington and now in London. And the question is, how is it going to be delivered when this was
an unsanctioned visit and appearances that he's making in these two capitals? Prime Minister Netanyahu was not happy with this trip, to say the
least. Jeremy Diamond, thank you.
Well, the security situation in Haiti, already terrifying, and it's sadly deteriorating even further. Criminal gangs have launched coordinated
attacks on several police stations in the capital. The police academy in Port-au-Prince, where hundreds of cadets are stationed, has also been
targeted.
ASHER: Meantime, Prime Minister Ariel Henry landed in Puerto Rico on Tuesday after being unable to get back into his own country because gang
members essentially have attempted to seize the airport. There are urgent calls for the Prime Minister right now to resign.
In fact, one gang leader says that the country will descend into a civil war -- into a civil war that will end in genocide if Prime Minister Henry
does not step down. I want you to listen to him as he outlines rather his vision for the country.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY "BARBEQUE" CHERIZIER, HAITIAN GANG LEADER (through translator): We will begin with the fight against the system in place, to have a country we
want, a Haiti with employment for all, a Haiti with security, a Haiti with free education, a Haiti without social discrimination, where all people can
achieve the standing they want.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: For the people of Haiti, it's the latest of a series of devastating crises that their country has witnessed political turmoil,
waves of criminal violence and natural disasters, including an earthquake in 2010 that killed more than 200,000 people. The U.N. Security Council
will hold an emergency session to discuss Haiti in the next few hours.
ASHER: Yeah, the U.S. is asking Henry, Prime Minister Ariel Henry to move forward on a political process that would lead to elections. All right,
time now for "The Exchange". Joining me live now is Gary Pierre-Pierre, the founder and editor of "Haitian Times". He joins us live now from Indiana.
Garry, thank you so much for being with us. I just want to sort of recap to our audience what Haiti has gone through over the past couple of years. I
mean, obviously, aside from the sort of long term violence and the lack of food and the just sort of overall extreme poverty that the country has
seen, in recent weeks, there have been coordinated gang attacks on police stations and state institutions, as well.
We know that armed groups, of course, burned down police stations and released thousands of inmates from prisons, as well. I was just listing
there that the fact that the Prime Minister can't even get back into his own country because gang members are trying to seize the airport at this
point in time.
One of the sort of major gang leaders, whose nickname is "Barbecue", is essentially saying that there will be chaos, there will be extreme
violence. The country will essentially descend into a civil war if the Prime Minister does not resign. Just explain to us who is in charge of
Haiti right now.
GARRY PIERRE-PIERRE, FOUNDER AND EDITOR "HAITIAN TIMES": Right now, no one is in charge.
[12:25:00]
Basically, Ariel Henry finds himself in Puerto Rico under pressure from the U.S. government to resign. And that's really surprising to those of us
who've been watching the Haiti story. The U.S. has been a steadfast supporter of Ariel Henry.
Washington, the Department of the Embassy, they all said that there was no need for a transition. As you know, Henry is a transitional leader. His
task was to create conditions for elections, and he has so far failed to do so.
I'm not sure if he's going to last this afternoon or how long he's going to remain nominally in power. But right now, he's physically out of country
and the police are in a fight of their lives right now.
GOLODRYGA: - yeah -- 2021, and he has not held an election since. In fact, Haiti has had no elected government officials, no elections have been held
since 2016. Eighty percent of the capital is now run by gangs.
In terms of what can be done externally, the U.N. is convening, but is there anything in terms of external pressure that can be put on these gang
leaders that are running the country now and that are threatening a civil war and even genocide at this point?
PIERE-PIERE: Right now, anything short of some kind of outside intervention, there's nothing else you can do. There's no structure in
place. The police are outgunned. They're outmanned. Their operations usually end in failure because the gangs have infiltrated the police force,
and so they are sharing intelligence with the gang members, and the police just simply cannot match the current situation.
That's why Henry was out of the country, actually, in Kenya, trying to negotiate a final solution for a force that Kenya would lead to Haiti. And
that whole force has been rather controversial, as you can imagine, because people in Haiti are leery of outside interventions because they have not
worked out quite so well for Haiti.
ASHER: Yeah, I mean, obviously, you only have to look at Haiti's history to understand why Haitians would be nervous about outside intervention in that
way. But just to your point, Ariel Henry was out of the country. He was in Kenya trying to negotiate about -- I think it was about 1000 police
officers on a Kenyan-led mission, a thousand Kenyan police officers to essentially come to Port-au-Prince and to assist Ariel Henry in terms of
trying to quell the violence.
I mean, is that enough? I mean, even if that does work out, a thousand police officers, foreign police officers who don't really necessarily know
the lay of the land, is that really enough? What more is needed just in terms of international intervention if that's what it ends up being?
PIERE-PIERE: Well, there are many facets to this. First, it is to pacify the gangs. That's, to me, the easy part. The hard part is to push the reset
button, try to turn Haitian society running again. It's been stalled for, I would say, since 2018.
That's when the violence really began. I mean, it has been a long slog down this road. And this weekend, what's been happening lately is really a
continuation. It's not a new level. It's not any more violent than it has been since 2018.
You have to remember, in 2021, the President was assassinated at his residence. And so, this has been a very difficult situation, hence the
reluctance of outsiders to come in and do something, because you're right. It's a difficult -- and it's getting worse situation. It has been led to
fester far too long. Now, it's very difficult to cure this illness.
GOLODRYGA: Wow.
ASHER: Yeah, we really hope that your country ends up turning a corner at this point in time. But as you mentioned, I mean, this is not anything new,
sadly, in Haiti. This has been going on for many years. Garry Piere-Piere, we have to leave it there. Thank you so much.
PIERE-PIERE: Thank you.
GOLODRYGA: All right, coming up for us --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They call it Super Tuesday for a reason. This is a big one.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLODRYGA: Tuesday was definitely super for Donald Trump. We'll look at where the former president goes now and if there's anything in his way to
getting the Republican nomination.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:33:15]
GOLODRYGA: Welcome back to "One World". I'm Bianna Golodryga.
ASHER: And I'm Zain Asher. As we mentioned earlier, Nikki Haley has suspended her campaign for the Republican Party's presidential nomination,
making 2024 one of the shortest primary seasons ever.
GOLODRYGA: Yeah, Donald Trump swept 14 of 15 states that held Republican primaries on Super Tuesday. He's already garnered 893 delegates overall.
While that's not enough to clinch his party's nomination and a November rematch with Joe Biden, he needs just 322 more. After the win, Trump said
things have got to change in America.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We have a very divided country. We have a country that a political person uses weaponization against his political opponent. Never happened
here. It happens in other countries, but they're third world countries. And in some ways, we're a third world country. We're a third world country at
our borders and we're a third world country at our elections.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: Well, Trump did not get Nikki Haley's endorsement today. He did get one from Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell. Let's bring in our
Alayna Treene to talk about this. So, of course, there has been quite a bit of acrimony between those two men. And so, it is significant that Mitch
McConnell did endorse Donald Trump.
Let's talk about Nikki Haley. Does Donald Trump try actively to court Nikki Haley's supporters at this point? Your thoughts, Alayna?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: I think his campaign and from my conversations with his senior advisors, they're going to have to. And that's something
that they acknowledge. They looked at Super Tuesday yesterday, looked at the exit polls that came in and saw that Nikki Haley performed very well
with suburban voters. She performs very well with moderate and independent voters.
[12:35:00]
And they recognize that those are the types of groups and voting blocs that they're going to need to work for to earn their vote and their support.
They also recognize, they tell me, that a potential general election rematch with Joe Biden is something that is going to be very close.
They're going to need every vote. They think every vote will count. And so, part of that is they feel, especially with Nikki Haley suspending her
campaign today, that they can really kick into general election mode in earnest.
And part of that strategy as well is really developing a much broader ground game strategy in some of the battleground states, places like
Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona, states that Biden had won in 2020, but Trump had won in 2016. They recognize that this is going to be hard. And so they
are going to have to court her voters.
And I will say, Donald Trump actually addressed this on social media today. This post from him came out right at the same time as Nikki Haley was
speaking. He said, quote, Nikki Haley got trounced last night in record- setting fashion, despite the fact that Democrats, for reasons unknown, are allowed to vote in Vermont and various other Republican primaries.
He went on to argue that many of her donors are Democrats, something that we have heard him claim many times in the course of his campaign,
especially this year. But then the post went on to say that -- excuse me.
Oh, here we go, "I like to thank my family, friends, and the great Republican Party for helping me to produce, by far, the most successful
Super Tuesday in history, and would further like to invite all of the Haley supporters to join the greatest movement in the history of our nation."
So, this is a very Trump response, but it is interesting. He started by attacking Nikki Haley, mocking some of her supporters and donors, and then
later, in the same exact post, saying, but I welcome you. Come join my side.
So, I think they recognize that this is something they're going to need to do, and her supporters are definitely people they're going to court. Zain.
ASHER: Yeah, very Trumpian. Very Trumpian indeed. All right, Alayna Treene, live for us now. Thank you so much.
GOLODRYGA: So, where do we go next in what's sure to be a chaotic campaign? Let's bring in CNN Senior Political Analyst Mark Preston. So, interesting,
Mark, that you saw a much more gracious embrace from President Biden of those Nikki Haley supporters than we did sort of the begrudging, sure, come
on in. But most of you are Democrats' response from Donald Trump.
In terms of a strategy, let's start with President Biden first. In terms of a strategy of wooing these voters, is there optimism that that can be done?
Some, you know, very few were Democrat. You had independents, but you also have "Never Trump" Republicans.
MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, no question. Look, I always thought and do believe that they have that page in the playbook,
that when they turn to the general election, which we're turning right now, is that they would be trying to reach out to these suburban women, you
know, that perhaps are conservative in certain ways, but maybe not social conservatives. Or in the case of Donald Trump, maybe they're just turned
off by his style and how he acts.
So, we saw immediately last night the White House, Joe Biden put out a statement encouraging those folks to come join his campaign, of course, at
the same time while Donald Trump goes out and attacks Nikki Haley.
You know, I think Alayna is correct, is that you're going to really have to see the Trump campaign do some serious work in some of these swing states,
specifically around some of these urban areas and the suburban areas, if he plans to win in November.
ASHER: Mark, one of the difficulties with sort of trying to predict an election eight months out is that people might say one thing now, but of
course, come November, when they're in that booth and the curtain is closed, they end up doing something completely different.
Joe Biden's first opportunity to try to woo and court Nikki Haley's supporters, will actually happen tomorrow during the State of the Union
address. What does he need to say? What sort of wins does he need to tout? And of course, his age being front and center, that is going to be
something he's going to be keenly aware of as he speaks tomorrow night.
PRESTON: Yeah, no question. I mean, why have one big event this week when we can have two major events that are basically interlocked, right?
ASHER: Why not, right?
PRESTON: It's policy and politics just kind of wound up in a tight ball. I mean, look, what you're going to hear from him tomorrow is he's going to
talk about his accomplishments. He's going to talk about the investments that we've seen so far that his administration has been able to marshal
through Congress, whether that's funding back home to fix roads and what have you.
But really, one of the big issues, and we're going to hear this over and over and over again, is abortion and how the Supreme Court is -- has tilted
to the right and how Roe v. Wade now has been thrown on its head and how that really has upset women voters, conservatives and liberals, for that
matter, across the country.
So, you will see them play that very hard. You'll also probably hear -- I would be shocked not to hear President Biden chastise Republicans for not
getting a bipartisan Border Bill through several weeks ago because President Trump basically told Congressional Republicans don't allow Joe
Biden to get a win this election year.
[12:40:00]
GOLODRYGA: In a way, what's interesting, Mark, is that this is going to be an election between two incumbents. I mean, that's definitely how
Republicans are seeing President Trump -- former President Trump. And what you're not going to see is a real enthusiasm and the turnout in terms of
people coming out excited about these two because people are not very excited. The polls show that it's going to be a match between these two men
again.
So, who does that hurt more in the sense that you look at President Biden's approval numbers that are still very low, Donald Trump is a known quantity.
It's almost impossible for him to say or do something that that turns off his diehard supporters. Who has more of a vulnerability from that
perspective?
PRESTON: You know, it's interesting. I mean, they both have problems with it, but for different reasons. If you look at Joe Biden, you know, an
important part of the voting bloc for Democrats are young people. And we're not back in 2007, 2008, where you had this young African-American out of
Chicago who brought hope and change and got young people involved in the process.
Young people right now are really, you know, turned off by the process. We're seeing that, you know, when polling across both parties. So, you're
going to have Joe Biden have problems trying to get out the younger people.
On the other side, Donald Trump, look, he'll get out his people, you know, his MAGA people. But the question for Donald Trump is, who is he going to
alienate? What is he going to say that is going to frustrate somebody so much that perhaps maybe they don't go, Bianna, and vote for Donald Trump or
rather vote for Joe Biden, but they stay home instead?
And that's what I think Donald Trump, you know, has to be careful about. And there's nothing his campaign can do to try to, you know, keep him in
line. Donald Trump is going to be Donald Trump.
ASHER: All right. Mark Preston, live for us there. Thank you so much.
GOLODRYGA: We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GOLODRYGA: A push is underway to help grow the farming industry in Africa. It's not only important for the African economy, it's also vital for
driving food security across the continent.
ASHER: And Ugandan Fintech company Emaisha Pay is providing a digital platform to help agribusiness unlock new ways to finance growth. Take a
look.
[12:45:00]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SSERUBIRI UHURU, EMAISHA PAY: The agribusiness sector in Africa is growing. It's projected to reach $1 trillion by 2030. And as the sector grows, the
demand for financial services increase. And so, as Emaisha Pay, we see our role as providing that financial infrastructure for any young man, any
young woman across Africa to be able to start an agribusiness and succeed.
We have a mobile application that makes it significantly quicker, easier and cheaper for micro and small agribusiness to sell conveniently, to
transact, track their businesses, to see how much they generated last month, last quarter, last year. And then they can track their inventory so
they can make sense of their businesses.
And as that happens, then that puts them in a stronger position to access financing, which can be in a form of a loan, but they can also pitch to
investors so they can even get financing that's not debt-based.
JOSHUA MURIMA, HEAD OF ENGAGEMENT AND INVESTOR RELATIONS BRITER BRIDGES: Data and analytics actually, what we see, it unlocked new products within
technological innovations, right? So, within the Fintech realm, we see it to be the cornerstone of, you know, alternative forms of credit scoring.
So, it's getting super competitive and founders who are moving within this space have had to be a bit more clever moving to, you know, new products.
UHURU: So far, we are working with over 4,000 agribusinesses. Our biggest segment currently are the input retailers because we decided to enter the
market scientifically in a way how the agribusiness chain works. Start with the starting point. The starting point are the suppliers of raw materials
and those are the input retailers, those are the crop inputs, animal inputs. So, we started with those and decided to focus on those. We decided
to build partnerships within the industries that work with them and then on-boarded them.
SERUWO SOLOMON, EMAISHA PAY CLIENT, BUKOOLA CHEMICAL INDUTRIES LIMITED: Our business is to provide solutions that help farmers fight the pests and
diseases. Emaisha helps us to link our solutions to the farmers through financing the dealers that are able to access now these products from us
and be able to present them to farmers.
UHURU: Our role will be to play the infrastructure role and then be able to build an entire financial ecosystem that empowers agribusinesses across
Africa to grow.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:50:09]
ASHER: A major advance in medical technology is providing hope for ALS patients. A brain implant allows them to control a computer cursor or
keyboard with their mind alone.
GOLODRYGA: Yeah, the hope is that this implant can assist patients who are losing motor function. CNN's Sanjay Gupta introduces us to one ALS patient
who is testing it out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Up, down, left, right. Everything you are watching happen on this screen right now is being
controlled only with Mark's thoughts.
GUPTA: So, that just sent out a health notification.
GUPTA (voice-over): He describes it as contracting and then relaxing his brain.
MARK, STENTRODE PATIENT: It takes concentration. It's a pretty involved process. It's one I don't take lightly.
GUPTA (voice-over): This has all been pretty sudden for Mark. He was diagnosed with ALS in 2021. Mark has since lost control of his hands and
arms. He will likely lose his voice. Mark didn't hesitate to sign up for a clinical trial to have this placed in his brain. It's called a stentrode.
MARK: The one thing about this disease is it affects your physical but not the mind. To me, it gives me the opportunity to be able to continue to do
things that I'm able to do now just by thinking about it.
GUPTA (voice-over): In the world of brain-computer interfaces or BCIs, it is still early days. In fact, up until recently, it's mostly led to monkeys
being able to play pong. But Synchron was one of the first companies in the world to get FDA approval for human trials. And Mark is one of those first
humans. It's all the brainchild of this man, Dr. Tom Oxley.
THOMAS OXLEY, VEO SYNCHRON: Text messaging is a really critical element of how we communicate with our family and friends now. So, that's usually what
people mostly want back.
UNKNOWN: So, then that will text the caregiver.
GUPTA: So you just sent a text.
MARK: I did.
GUPTA: That's pretty cool.
MARK: Pretty simple. Yeah, pretty cool.
GUPTA (voice-over): Dr. Oxley is a neurologist who first started thinking about the possibility of brain implants while in his native Australia.
OXLEY: For people who have got paralysis or motor impairment, but they have that part of the brain still working, then if you can put a device in, get
the information, get it out of the brain, then you can turn what previously was a signal controlling your body into a signal that controls a digital
device.
GUPTA (voice-over): The Stentrode is the device that Oxley and his team at Synchron created. It's a cage of thin wired mesh with electrode sensors
that can detect electrical brain activity, translate that activity, and then transmit it to devices such as a phone or a computer.
MARK: It's amazing. That's all I can say.
GUPTA (voice-over): And just like a stent, it doesn't require open brain surgery. Instead, it's able to travel through the body's natural network of
veins and sit in a major vein right in the middle of the brain.
OXLEY: This is the actual deployment now.
GUPTA (voice-over): I even tried my own hand at implanting one.
OXLEY (voice-over): Keep pushing out the stent nice and slow. Keep going. There we go. So that's deployed on top of the brain inside the blood
vessel.
GUPTA: I think the procedure went well.
OXLEY: It went well. It was your first attempt, no practice, and you landed it perfectly.
GUPTA (voice-over): The procedure is minimally invasive and you can't see the device just by looking. The Stentrode is threaded up through a vessel
along the neck.
GUPTA: Right here you can feel a little cable. That's actually connecting that stent to a device that now sits right underneath the skin here. And
it's from there that signals are sent out that can help him control these devices in his environment.
GUPTA (voice-over): Our brains have billions of neurons firing electrical impulses that control our movements, everything from shaking hands to
taking a step. Each and every one of those actions is associated with a specific electrical signature.
The Stentrode, which again, sits right here around that area of the brain responsible for movement, learns to recognize those specific electrical
patterns and essentially creates your own personalized dictionary of movement.
GUPTA: What can a BCI not do?
OXLEY: One myth for BCI is that it can read your thoughts. I mean, there's 80 billion neurons in the brain and you'd have to be watching all of them
to have some sense of the complexity that's going on inside the brain. BCIs just take a snapshot of particular domains of function.
GUPTA: And so, what we're looking at on Mark's angiogram here, this is the actual Stentrode.
GUPTA (voice-over): Dr. Raul Nogueira implanted the Stentrode into Mark's brain.
RAUL NOGUEIRA, DIRECTOR, UPMC STROKE INSTITUTE: If you really want to cure a problem like paralysis, you really need to specifically read the signals
from your motor cortex, from the center of movement in the brain.
[12:55:00]
GUPTA (voice-over): Previous generation BCIs tried to measure brain activity from outside the skull. But newer generation BCIs, including the
one from Elon Musk's Neuralink, attempt to sit right on top of the brain. The Stentrode is sort of in between.
NOGUEIRA: I like to make this comparison of going to a concert or a symphony.
GUPTA (voice-over): Listen to the brain outside of the skull or concert hall, and the music sounds garbled, difficult to hear. If you're too close,
you only hear one instrument. But by sitting in the center of the brain like the Stentrode does, you can hear the entire symphony more clearly.
NOGUEIRA: My hope is that in the next five to 10 years, you're going to see this in the patient setting.
GUPTA (voice-over): It's a hope for patients of the future and a chance for Mark to continue living a full life now.
GUPTA: Ten out of 10. Nice.
MARK: Ready for a tournament.
GUPTA: The Brain Control Interface Pong Tournament.
MARK: Exactly.
GUPTA (voice-over): Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Pittsburgh.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GOLODRYGA: Amazing. Still early days, but there is hope for people suffering like Mark from this brutal, brutal disease. Well, that does it
for this hour of "One World". I'm Bianna Golodryga.
ASHER: And I'm Zain Asher. Thank you so much for watching. Amanpour is up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
