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The Lead with Jake Tapper

570 Plus Dead, 2,500 Plus Missing In Catastrophic Nepal-China Flood; Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-SD), Is Interviewed About Republicans Worry "Trumpapalooza" Could Fall Flat, Trump Says He'll Make It Easier For Ranchers To Process Their Own Beef; Kennedy Center Delays Plan To Add Trump's Name After Hearing; Riders Suffer Brain Injuries After Riding Six Flags' X2 Rollercoaster. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired August 28, 2026 - 17:00   ET

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

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lesser degree, second degree murder or manslaughter. So a lot to consider and they're going to continue doing that on Monday. Kasie.

KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: A lot -- a lot indeed. Really, really tragic. All right. Brynn Gingras for us.

Brynn, thank you very much for that reporting.

Thanks also to my panel. Thank you all very much for being here today. Thanks to you at home for watching as well. Don't forget, you can watch much more of The Arena tomorrow. The Arena Saturday airs at noon and again at 4:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

I'd love to have you with us. "The Lead" with Bianna Golodryga starts right now.

[17:00:34]

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: The number of those killed and missing in Nepal going up even more. The Lead starts right now. New drone video giving just a glimpse of the horror right now in Nepal. Town after town buried in thick mud and the formation of a second lake raising fears of more flooding. Hear from survivors who say the initial wave of water hit like a tsunami.

And President Trump with a new proposition for U.S. ranchers. Can he win back farmers who criticize his plan to import foreign beef? One outspoken Republican will be here on The Lead.

Plus, a new twist in the battle over mail-in ballots. Sixty-seven days out from midterm elections, how the Trump administration is pushing back on a rare ruling that blocked the president's plan for an overhaul.

And welcome to The Lead. I'm Bianna Golodryga in for Jake Tapper. We start once again in our World Lead. Right now, an urgent search underway in China and Nepal for survivors of the devastating flash floods that took the region by surprise. At least 579 people in Nepal were killed, but that toll is expected to rise.

Emergency workers still aren't able to reach remote areas of the region. The landslide and flooding were that destructive.

The number of missing people now up to 2,500. State Department says some 90 Americans are among the missing. Rescue crews resumed the search after pausing earlier. A barrier lake created by the landslide broke its banks and sparked fears of even more flooding. Now a second newly formed lake has been observed in aerial footage of the flood zone in Nepal.

Authorities are closely monitoring this, especially as monsoon fueled storms will continue to pop up across the disaster area over the next few days. Survivors say the flooding hit like a tsunami and many people had nowhere to escape. This new video posted on Chinese social media shows the glacier collapse that likely led to this catastrophic avalanche and landslide. CNN's Will Ripley is on the ground in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Will, there are concerns of a secondary disaster there. So what are you seeing and hearing today as that search continues?

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there was a lot of Fear in the flood zone yesterday. In fact, there was an alert that went out, and all of the rescuers that were trying to get closer and closer to that Himalayan border crossing near the border between China and Nepal, that building where you saw that huge black wave inundate the entire building, they actually had to pull back because there was a warning that floodwaters were imminent. And there were also very heavy rains that were falling in the mountains. And also here in Kathmandu, every time it rains in this -- in this particular region, there's always a concern for flooding, and people's sensitivity is especially high now. Also, there's concerns about the stability of that -- of that glacial lake.

And obviously, nobody wants to risk having their rescuers or having any more people in the path of that deluge of water, like what we saw, that just unspeakably horrific scene. But I was able to speak with two Americans who actually were at that border crossing. They were sitting in one of the buses. And you saw in the video how there was a row of blue buses. There were other buses that were parked, and all of them essentially were washed away when the wave came through.

I had a chance to meet a couple from Northern California. Their names are Pattabi (ph) and Anjana, and they were part of a Hindu pilgrimage. They were in a long line of buses. They had breakfast with people at their hotel, including another tour group with Americans, with 67 people that was on a bridge that was completely washed away. None of those 67 people have been heard from.

Here in Kathmandu there is just a growing wall of -- with a photo of bodies from the disaster zone. People have been coming. People have been flying in, including people from the United States, to try to go to the morgue and see if they can identify their loved ones. But this couple describes to us exactly what happened in the moments when they were sitting on their tour bus and they knew something was wrong because they looked out the window and they saw people running then they looked up the hill and they saw this massive, what they described as almost like a black wall of something. They didn't know if it was water.

[17:05:07]

They didn't know if it was black smoke or if it was a landslide. But they saw that it was racing towards their location and they had just seconds to act, to try to run up on a hilltop to safety. And their tour guide kind of guided them and other members that were on their bus to safety. Here's a bit of what they told us.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANJANA RAJA, U.S. SURVIVOR OF NEPAL FLOOD: So the way it came is came just like a tsunami. Just came going all the way up and just like a tsunami. The -- how it's sweeps going like a row. It just took the buses, the --

PATTABIRAMAN VENTAKASEN, U.S. SURVIVOR OF NEPAL FLOOD: Houses.

RAJA: -- houses, people, everything. We saw people just getting sucked in the water. It was so traumatizing to see that. People are screaming. But of course, water doesn't hear anything.

It just kind of sucked them in. I don't know if they were thrown away somewhere in the shore, but then this happened. It was just a span of 30 minutes. In 30 minutes, everything was swept and gone. It was -- there was no water after that.

RIPLEY: How are you doing?

VENTAKASEN: We are doing well. Seeing so many people die, I think that's going to last for a while. It's going to linger for a while. I don't know if we will get over it anytime soon. Just -- it was -- it was very disturbing.

The speed at which things came down and it -- you know, we were very fortunate. But that aside, I think we are fortunate. We are blessed to be here. So from that perspective, we are -- we are doing good. We are -- we are OK, personally, but --

RIPLEY: Does it feel kind of surreal to just be sitting here and leaving the embassy and -- with the temporary passports and just everything that you've gone through?

VENTAKASEN: It is surreal. I just don't know, you know, what I been asking myself, why me? In the reverse sense, why was I saved, and so many people had to go. So this -- I don't know if I'll find the answer, but something worked somewhere and we survived and a lot of people didn't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIPLEY: They said they're still processing. As you can obviously imagine, the things that they saw and heard. People's bodies, they describe being essentially broken into pieces right before their very eyes, watching their bus and other buses just sink into this black abyss. And then they had to go through the process at the U.S. embassy here in Kathmandu, spending several hours to get that temporary passport that we talked about. And then in the coming hours, they're going to be picking up their visas from the Nepal tourist police so that they can actually fly home, because all of those documents were inside the border crossing building when that black wave destroyed the building.

So -- and this is -- these are just two people with two stories and there are so many people with so many stories. They are the lucky ones, obviously, because they walked away from this. They are not injured and they're able to go home and see their families.

Bianna, they actually had just a few minutes of cell service when they were huddled up shivering on a mountain to call their daughter. And they said in that -- in that window of time, all they could think of to do was to give her all their passwords and tell her that they love her and to just watch over their son, her younger brother, because they didn't think they were going to make it home to them.

GOLODRYGA: What a dramatic moment. As -- you're right, they are the lucky ones and yet so scarred from this. Will Ripley, thank you.

Let's bring in a member of the CNN family, Sugam Pokharel, our director of news and video at CNN International.

Sugam was born and raised in Nepal before he came to the U.S. 21 years ago. And he returns to Nepal every year to visit his grandparents, extended family and close friends. His family, thankfully, is safe, but he has friends who are still missing.

Sugam, again, our thoughts are with your friends that are missing. Thank you so much for taking the time. You spoke with our colleague Brianna Keilar yesterday. Any update today on your missing friends?

SUGAM POKHAREL, CNN DIRECTOR OF INTERNATIONAL NEWS, VIDEO: Thank you, Bianna. Unfortunately, no, a couple of my friends, they were on a road trip through this area in a van. And just earlier this week, one of my friend -- friends posted on social media saying, look -- posted a video saying, look how beautiful this place is. And this region is famous for hiking and trekking, but there are some major religious sites in the area for both Buddhists and Hindus, including pilgrimage routes that extend across to the border into Tibet. For many people, it's a religious journey and that's why there were so many visitors there, including foreigners.

And my friends were on their way to this place called Gosainkunda, a beautiful sacred religious lake. And we haven't been able to reach them. And I called their wives and, you know, one of them told me she has no hope that her husband will be found alive anymore. She's only hoping that they can find his body so that she and her small daughter can see him one last time. And like I was telling Brianna yesterday, people from my village, 30 of them, were swept away by the flood.

[17:10:11]

They were on a bus. And four of them survived. And the rest, we just -- one of them died, and rest, we just haven't heard anything. And that's what makes this tragedy so devastating because, you know, these were people who went there for -- to experience one of the most beautiful and religious places in Nepal. And now their families are just simply waiting for any news and hoping for the last chance to say goodbye.

GOLODRYGA: And we hope that your friend's child can see their father again as well. You've been part of the CNN family for 15 years. You've been working tirelessly day in, day out as we've been covering this story. On a personal note, how hard is it, Sugam, for you to cover this story and do your job right now? I mean, this was your home, your entire childhood.

Thank goodness that your family is doing well. But I know that you are so focused on finding your friends right now.

POKHAREL: I mean, it's hard. I'm in the newsroom still working, you know, contributing to our coverage. And I have to tell you, in my lifetime, apart from the earthquake in 2015, I have never seen the level of destruction that we are seeing in Nepal right now. When I woke up and saw the videos the other day, my brain struggled to process the scale of sudden destruction. And I'm still processing it.

And I said to myself, this just cannot be real. And it made me think about how quickly everything can change in people's lives. And I have been to some of these places and -- so many times. And when my colleagues are geolocating videos from social media, you know, I go to them and be like, wow, I have been to this place, I have been to this shop, and it's just devastating. And satellite images show, you know, in some area, there's literally nothing left, totally flattened out by mud.

And you have to remember, you know, Nepal is a mountainous, hilly country. And right now it's the monsoon season, so you can expect a lot of rainfall and landslides. But this is beyond anyone's imagination. And just -- and just to tell you the global impact as well that in Atlanta, we have a huge Nepali community, around 5,000 people in Atlanta and outside. And the Nepali Cultural Center is holding a candlelight vigil on Sunday.

And also there are two bands performing, Kandara and the other band to basically give all the profits to the victims in Nepal.

GOLODRYGA: I know the Nepali community there, you said it is rather large. I'm sure that they are so grateful for the work that you continue to do. The fact that there's a global reach of networks like CNN that can hopefully perhaps locate some of those that are missing and help families reunite.

Sugam Pokharel, we are thinking of your friends right now. Thank you so much for everything.

And if you want to donate to help the victims of this unimaginable disaster, please go to CNN.com/impact.

And breaking news from Massachusetts right now, jurors call it quits for the weekend in the Lindsay Clancy trial. What a question for the jury may signal about their deliberations. That's next.

Plus, the new one sentence court filing that may say a lot about the push to put President Trump's name back on the Kennedy Center.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:17:35]

GOLODRYGA: Breaking news in our Law and Justice Lead, day two of jury deliberations and the Lindsay Clancy murder trial just wrapped up. Deliberations will resume Monday as the jury tries to decide whether Clancy committed murder, manslaughter or was suffering from postpartum psychosis when she killed her three children in 2023. CNN's Jean Casarez is outside of the courtroom in Plymouth, Massachusetts with more.

Jean.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Judge William Sullivan Friday afternoon told the jury you are excused for the weekend, but asked them to come back to this courthouse in Plymouth, Massachusetts, Monday morning at 9:00 a.m. Our producer in the courtroom noted that several of the jurors were speaking to each other as they walked into the courtroom, as they walked out of the courtroom, but that is to be expected because they've gotten to know each other. They have sat listening to the testimony for several weeks now.

As far as the evidence, the juror asked for two pieces of evidence on Friday. One prescription pill bottles from Lindsay Clancy, the other being the knife. Prescription pill bottles were entered into evidence by the prosecution. Patrick Clancy was the first witness on the stand. He had a paper bag of pill bottles and he wanted to take them after the event to law enforcement and officials.

The jury saw those pill bottles and it was learned that only a few pills out of every prescription were actually out of the bottle. The defense showed the jury during closing arguments a drawer from the nightstand next to the bed with a plastic Ziploc bag filled with prescription bottles and law enforcement had never collected that.

Secondly, the knife, the knife is truly not an issue in regard to the suicide attempt because both sides believe this was a very serious suicide attempt. But there was blood on the knife, blood in the bedroom. As we know, the jury did a jury view where they went into that bedroom now. And so -- but they wanted to see the knife up close. We do not know why, but it is something that they wanted to see.

In other news, Dr. Avram Mack, who was a prosecution rebuttal witness, CNN has confirmed that he has resigned from a children's hospital in Delaware. We do not know why he has resigned. CNN has reached out to Dr. Mack, but he was a board certified forensic psychiatrist that testified that he did not believe Lindsay Clancy had bipolar shortly before she killed her children. He thought it was an episode of depression and also anxiety. The reasons why he is no longer with that children's hospital remain unknown.

[17:20:20]

GOLODRYGA: Our thanks to Jean Casarez for that report.

Still ahead for us, President Trump's new push to help American farmers and ranchers after facing backlash over plans to import foreign beef.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GOLODRYGA: In our Politics Lead, President Trump wrapped up a two-day visit to Texas this afternoon, but he will be back in the Lone Star State in a few weeks time for a convention style rally that's being dubbed "Trumpapalooza." The problem? Some Republicans worry that it's pricey, poorly timed and may end up being more about Trump than the candidates on the ballot. Joining me for more on this and other topics, Republican Congressman Dusty Johnson of South Dakota.

[17:25:06]

Congressman, thanks for taking the time. So what do you make of this fanfare, "Trumpapalooza," good idea?

REP. DUSTY JOHNSON (R-SD): Well, I think if the president shows up and if he's disciplined, if he seems presidential, I think it will be a great thing. You know, listen, if it is more of a kind of a stream of consciousness, which the president loves doing and in a rally environment, that works really well. But for this kind of a national audience, I think if he's disciplined, that will be much better than stream of consciousness.

GOLODRYGA: Do you think that's what we'll see from him?

JOHNSON: I do. I -- we have seen that when the president's under -- when the president understands how high the stakes are, think State of the Union addresses, he is generally more disciplined. He does have a theme that goes throughout the body of the speech. He has a tendency to really speak to middle America at those moments of key inflection. And so it's not hard for me to believe at all that the guy is going to have a couple of good at bats at this midterm convention.

GOLODRYGA: I want to play for you what Congresswoman Crockett said about the convention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JASMINE CROCKETT (D-TX): People are asking questions about why are Republicans going to Texas --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right.

CROCKETT: -- for their convention, coming to Texas 30, in fact, my district, you have to face the reality. Democrats outvoted Republicans not by 5,000, not by 10,000, but literally more than 100,000 votes in our primary.

(END VIDEO CLIP) GOLODRYGA: What do you think? Is there more enthusiasm on the Democratic side this time in a very, very red state of Texas, my home state?

JOHNSON: I think -- now, I don't know about Texas, but I would say generally nationally, my sense is that the last six months Democrats have had a little bit more enthusiasm. I would tell you, though, some of these -- the DSA primary winners are changing that dynamic. I have a fair number of my Democratic colleagues, even in the United States House, that are telling me that their enthusiasm for their party has come down as they feel like they're nominating folks that are a little bit outside the mainstream.

GOLODRYGA: OK.

JOHNSON: And some of them a lot out of the mainstream.

GOLODRYGA: OK. Well, let's talk about an issue that is impacting a lot of your constituent farmers. You and I discussed this in the break, the beef. On another note, President Trump wrote on Truth Social --

JOHNSON: Yes.

GOLODRYGA: -- "I am authorizing legal documents to be drawn in order to allow farmers and ranchers to be given the right to process their own food." What do you make of that?

JOHNSON: I think it's great. My bill, the Butcher Block Act, which we managed to get into the farm bill that we passed out of the House would, in essence, do that. Now, let's be clear. I don't think the president means that ranchers are in their backyard going to be processing cattle one at a time. They don't have the machinery to do that.

They could, but what I think he really means is let's give the ranchers an opportunity to take those cattle not to one of the big four, but to some more small independent or regional packing houses. That's what my bill would do.

We do need to add capacity, add shackle space outside of those big four. I think it's a good move, and I like it a lot more than what the president did with adjusting some of these beef tariffs, which I think was moving us in the wrong direction.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, and I want to get to that. South Dakota has nearly 30,000 farms. You oppose President Trump plans last week to import foreign beef. He's put a pause on that. If you want lower grocery prices, though, wouldn't limiting more competition actually work in reverse? And as a Republican, is it at all about free market competition?

JOHNSON: Well, I think two things. First off, yes, I'm a big fan of free market. And if we've got a free market, the American rancher will be able to compete and win with anybody. What I don't love so much, though, is the idea that government should manipulate the market to be able to get a particular price point. We have had this current regulatory and economic regime around beef tariffs in place for a long time.

You've got lots of producers in America and outside that have normalized their operations to meet that reality. When you got politicians willing to turn that knob just so they can send prices up or down, I think that's problematic. Yes, I'm a free trade guy, but part of the reason I like free trade is that it takes power out of the hands of the government. What the president did is that is a different approach.

GOLODRYGA: So what would you advise the president quickly to do on this front?

JOHNSON: If we want affordable food long term, particularly in the protein space, the right solution is more American cattle, not more Argentinian cattle.

GOLODRYGA: Republican Congressman Dusty Johnson of South Dakota, thanks for your perspective and the time. Have a good weekend.

[17:30:03]

JOHNSON: Thank you.

GOLODRYGA: Two women who dare to ride an extreme roller coaster at Six Flags. Later, both needed emergency brain surgery. The curious similarities in both cases raising questions about the safety of the ride.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GOLODRYGA: In our Law and Justice Lead, the Trump installed Kennedy Center board is taking a brief intermission in its efforts to put Trump's name on the historic building. In a new filing last night, the board said instead of September 8, October. October 8 would now be the soonest they'd put Trump's name back on the building and grounds. This after a tense court hearing on Thursday where a district judge questioned why it was so urgent and necessary.

Joining us now is Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward. Sky, welcome to the program. So what do you make of this one month delay after yesterday's hearing? Do you think Trump's team saw the writing on the wall literally?

[17:30:03]

SKYE PERRYMAN, PRESIDENT OF DEMOCRACY FORWARD: This is unfortunately so typical of the administration, where the federal courts will stop them from doing something and then they try to bob and weave and get around a court order. And so I do think we've seen this administration lose in court overwhelmingly before these judges and looking forward to seeing what the court will do in the future.

But you did hear the federal judge be so skeptical of the Department of Justice, of the Trump administration coming in, trying to essentially do same thing that the court has already blocked it from doing. So I do think that it's a positive sign that at least this is on hold for now.

We just know that so many across the country are concerned about this, that care about the Kennedy Center and care about what Congress said about the Kennedy Center, which is that it is a memorial to President Kennedy. It is not a memorial to any other president, certainly, and not, certainly not the existing one.

GOLODRYGA: So what is your response to someone who says, you know, this is not a big deal, let the president do what he wants to do, because when the next president comes in, they will change it. You've compared this to sort of tactics that we'd see in Pyongyang in North Korea. Nonetheless, on the scale of urgency, how big of a crisis is this?

PERRYMAN: Look, I mean, there is so many crises, fortunately, across the country, because we have an administration that's prioritizing its own interest over the interest of the American people. But every single American should be concerned when the President of the United States believes that he can do things that are contrary to what federal judges have said and that are contrary to what Congress has made clear.

This is entry based on checks and balances. And this administration continues to obstruct those checks and balances.

GOLODRYGA: So let's talk about your new book. It's titled "Ordinary People, Extraordinary Times: How to Reclaim Your Power, Fight for Freedom and Reimagine Democracy." So aside from voting, what's the top way you can advise people to reclaim their power?

PERRYMAN: Absolutely. The first thing is to actually believe and know that you do have power. Right now, so many anti-democratic movements, people in the White House, the President himself, want people to believe that they have no power, that what they're doing just is going to be the way that it goes, and that there's nothing that people and communities across this country can do to change it. And that could not be further from the truth.

People in this country do have power, and there are such a range of ways that we can engage. But the first thing we have to do is we have to stop believing that we don't have power. And so the book goes through a series of steps, starting from shifting that mindset, continuing to get correct and accurate information as opposed to all of the noise and chaos that's being thrown at us and then moves into very practical ways that people can take action from things that are a short time commitment to things that require a longer term commitment.

GOLODRYGA: So the Trump administration just appealed a judge's order temporarily blocking the U.S. Postal Service from carrying out the president's mail-in voting overhaul. You say it's clear the Supreme Court decision last week was not the final word. So what do you think will come of this appeal?

PERRYMAN: Right. So last this time last week, everyone was very concerned that the Supreme Court had at least paused or stayed what we call it earlier court order. We were trying to let everybody know all the Supreme Court said was it was a little too early to sue, but that they were not saying that what President Trump could do was lawful.

You saw that happen this week where a federal court has all again blocked the U.S. Postal Service from implementing these regulations. The Constitution could not be more clear. The president does not have a role with elections in this country. That's not what people who threw off a king 250 years ago. That's not how they organized government.

Our elections are products of the people. People in communities administer collect admin elections. And so I do think that you'll continue to see the League of Women Voters, the states, the challengers in these matters. I think you'll continue to see them prevail in court because there's just no constitutional authority for what is trying to do the protest service.

GOLODRYGA: All right, Skye Perryman, thank you. Up next, a CNN investigation into an extreme roller coaster at Six Flags. Thrill seekers who wrote it later needed emergency brain surgery.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:43:35]

GOLODRYGA: In our National Lead, thrill seekers braved a world famous Six Flags roller coaster. Then they were rushed to the hospital for emergency brain surgery. CNN's Kyung Lah investigates the severe and dangerous injuries allegedly tied to a popular ride that is now closed to the public.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Six Flags calls the this their cutting edge break all the rules roller coaster. But these two riders never imagined minutes after getting off the ride this summer, they would end up in the same hospital the very same week with similar brain hemorrhages. And they're not the only riders who say they've been hurt.

A CNN investigation finds more than a dozen people who rode the X2 roller coaster at California's Six Flags Magic Mountain suffered serious injuries and hospitalizations over nearly two decades, including a 22-year-old who died. And the latest cases happened just weeks ago.

PAMELA GUILLEN, INJURED ROLLER COASTER RIDER: It was seconds. You go in as yourself and then when you come back, you're a medical emergency.

LAH: This was from a roller coaster.

GUILLEN: Exactly.

LAH (voice-over): Pam Guillen was at Magic Mountain with her daughter Camille, celebrating her 16th birthday. On July 5, they boarded X2.

CAMILLE MARQUEZ, DAUGTHER OF PAMELA GUILLEN: We got off the cart and we saw my mom.

[17:45:00]

She looked lifeless. Not a thought behind her eyes. Nothing. I was talking to her. Mommy, please wake up. Mommy. Mommy. It's OK. Over here. She had a brain bleed. My mom had a really bad brain bleed.

LAH (voice-over): An ambulance rushed Pam from Six Flags to the hospital where surgeons discovered what's called an acute subdural hematoma with brain compression. Surgeons cut her skull open to relieve the pressure on her brain.

MARQUEZ: I was shocked. I was just -- this is not okay. It wasn't okay for me to see my mom like that. It's like it's my mom.

LAH: How large is the incision?

GUILLEN: It's pretty long.

LAH (voice-over): While Pam Guillen fought in this hospital bed, X2 kept running. 25-year-old Naomi Greer-Wilkinson had no idea what had just happened. Six days after Pam's injury, Naomi got on the X2 roller coaster. She collapsed after she got off the ride.

LAH: What had happened to her brain?

JOSHUA WILKINSON, FATHER OF HOSPITALIZED RIDER: The jarring had damaged part of her brain and it had begun to bleed.

LAH (voice-over): She was rushed to the same hospital. Joshua Wilkinson and Artemis Greer are Naomi's parents.

ARTEMIS GREER, MOTHER OF HOSPITALIZED RIDER: I do remember one of the surgeons storming through the ER and yelling, how many is it this month? They've got to shut that ride down. He was furious.

LAH (voice-over): This is Naomi. And just like Pam Guillen, she had emergency brain surgery.

GREER: They sat us down and said, she is at the end of life. And I just -- I didn't have any thoughts. I was totally blank. We leaned over her and said, Naomi. And she fluttered her eyelid.

WILKINSON: We looked at each other like she's in there. Like she's there.

LAH (voice-over): Naomi, a healthy, vibrant young woman who loves cats and the arts, remains in the hospital with an uncertain future.

GREER: Naomi should have never ever in a million years even had the option to get on that ride. It's absolutely insane.

LAH: Why do they leave it open?

WILKINSON: Revenue. There's no other explanation. LAH (voice-over): Six Flags says what makes X2 different from other roller coasters is this. The seats spin 360 degrees forwards and backwards independently around the track. Riders plummet 200 feet at speeds up to 76 miles per hour with two so called Raven turns or half loops that turn into sheer drops.

Doctors who treated both Naomi and Pam say the severe brain injuries were the result of a traumatic rapid acceleration deceleration event experienced while on the X2 ride. Court cases alleging serious brain injuries from X2 date back years.

Christopher Hawley died after riding the X2 four years ago. A coroner's report found he died of blunt head trauma during a park ride accident. Six flags didn't answer CNN's questions. But the company's court filings have stated the ride went through daily inspections and a normal rider using the ride as instructed would not have traumatic brain injury.

CHRISTOPHER BULONE, ATTORNEY FOR RIDER'S FAMILIES: It's greed that keeps this thing going.

LAH (voice-over): Lawyer Christopher Bulone represents both Naomi and Pam's families.

BULONE: No ride should ever be dangerous enough for anyone that they're coming off of it with severe intracranial bleeding.

LAH (voice-over): More than 3 million people visit Magic Mountain each year. But on this day, we find X2 is temporarily closed. Six Flags tells us it hasn't run since shortly after Naomi Greer-Wilkinson was hurt.

LAH: You're looking at a very long road.

GREER: It could be six months, it could be two years. It could be five years. I don't know. This is the hardest thing a human being could go through.

GUILLEN: I remember everyone so excited that I could walk. I have headaches every day, fatigue after doing simple things. I won't be 100 percent because it's brain damage. Sometimes I just like feel really down because I'm not me anymore.

LAH: Multiple lawsuits we've seen have settled before going to trial. That includes a wrongful death suit of 22-year-old Christopher Hawley. We reached out to California's Occupational Safety and Health Division because it oversees amusement park operations. It did not respond to our questions about history and did not say how it was allowed to reopen. Bianna.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[17:50:05]

GOLODRYGA: Just terrifying. Kyung Lah. Thank you. Ahead, some of the remarkable stories of Dolly Parton and her acts of kindness. Next, how I call to Ireland, one musician initially thought was too good to be true.

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GOLODRYGA: Tomorrow, the Grand Ole Opry will honor the late, great Dolly Parton, who died this week after a short battle with cancer. The Opry will live stream musical performances.

Another great tribute, an Irish musician who collaborated with Dolly. She spoke with my colleague Phil Mattingly and even played a song in Dolly Parton's honor.

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PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: The late Dolly Parton's iconic blonde wigs may have hidden her roots, but she never hid her Irish roots. She collaborated with Irish musicians throughout her career and in 2020 spoke about the direct connection between her Appalachian music and her Irish music.

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DOLLY PARTON, MUSICIAN: We speak the same language, you know, they appreciate and know, you know, what it's like to live hard and to be brought up poor. And it's just built in my. I call it my Smoky Mountain DNA. But it's from those old songs brought over from Ireland and England and that my mother used to sing those. And there's a place in me that just goes there when I -- when I sing those songs.

MATTINGLY: Joining me now is Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh. She is the lead vocalist and fiddler of the legendary Irish folk band Altan. She's here to share her memories of working with Dolly Parton. And Altan has an American tour this fall. They will be performing a song in honor of Dolly Parton.

Mairead, I really appreciate your time. Just to start with, how did you fall in to Dolly Parton's musical orbit and what was it like collaborating with her?

MAIREAD NI MHAONAIGH, FIDDLER AND LEAD VOCALIST, ALTAN: Well, I don't know how she heard about us, but I think Bill Whelan of Riverdance fame had a connection there. And it was Steve Buckingham, her producer that co-produced the albums with her, came to see us one day and said, would you like to record with Dolly Parton? And we thought it was a joke because we thought the world of her as a singer and we thought he was having us on.

But eventually we got to Dollywood in 1990 and we recorded the "Heart Songs" live album with her in Dollywood. And it was just a joy. What a lady.

MATTINGLY: There's a song you worked on together that Dolly Parton specifically asked to be in the Gaelic language. Tell us what that meant to you.

NI MHAONAIGH: Oh, well, you know, the Gaelic language is I'm passionate about. It's my first language. And it really is the psyche of what Ireland's all about. You know, this is how we got the best. Even Hiberno English writers Joyce and Yeats and all of these people were inspired by the way the Gaelic language is so poetic.

And I think she just liked the sound of it. And she -- she made a joke about it. We're speaking in tongues, she said. But she actually insisted that I would sing in my native language. And I did that three times with her. We recorded three times with Dolly, twice on her own albums, "Little Sparrow" in L.A. as well, in 1999. And then she offered to sing with me on one of Altan, our my band on Altan's album. And she sang the "Pretty Young Girl," which was a song in Gaelic, and Kalin Jas Og.

And she loved the air and, you know, she was such a -- an integral musician. Just a wonderful, wonderful. Had great passion for real music. And because we just play traditional Irish music, we don't do anything fancy. But I think she just tuned into what we were doing, and we are so grateful to have had that small time with her.

MATTINGLY: I have been told that there may be a fiddle near you or with you. I was wondering if there was something you -- you might want to play for Dolly for her honor.

NI MHAONAIGH: Well, I was going to play something fast because, you know, we have to celebrate life and, you know, we all have losses, and she's had many losses, but, you know, it's the celebration of Dolly. I think we -- her life was just wonderful. She touched us all, and she touched us with a joyous way. So I'm going to play a good tune, fast tune for you now called the Humors of Whiskey.

MATTINGLY: What an absolute treat and also what a wonderful way of celebrating a woman. There have been so many stories and so many perspectives shared throughout the last couple of days, and the celebration part and the appreciation has been such a wonderful thing to see and hear. Mairead Ni Mhaonaigh, I really -- I can't appreciate enough, your time, your perspective. Thank you very much.

NI MHAONAIGH: Thank you. Thank you. Go raibh maith agat. Thank you.

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