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Trump Ramps Up "Enemy From Within" Rhetoric On Campaign Trail; Trump Suggests Using Military Against "Enemy From Within" In Nov.; Miami Dolphins Share Update On Tua Tagovailoa's Future; Aired 2:30-2p ET

Aired October 14, 2024 - 14:30   ET

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

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[14:33:12]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: With just over three weeks until Election Day, former President Donald Trump is painting a dark picture about what could happen as voters hit the polls.

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DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think the bigger problem is the enemy from within, not even the people that have come in and destroying our country, by the way, totally destroying our country, the towns, the villages, they're being inundated. But I don't think the other problem in terms of Election Day. I think the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some very bad people. We have some sick people. Radical Left lunatics. It should be very easily handled by if necessary, by National Guard, or if really necessary by the military.

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SANCHEZ: We want to discuss with CNN military analysts, retired Lieutenant General Mark Hertling. He's a former commanding general of U.S. Army Europe and the Seventh Army.

General, thank you so much for sharing part of your afternoon with us. What's your reaction to Trump's comments there?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Some of those comments yesterday, Boris, they are not only troubling but also very disturbing to say that people who have different ideas, who might express their beliefs in different ways, which is something our constitution says all Americans should be able to do and to say that these are radical left or they are dangerous people on the inside. To me, it's just anathema to what we believe as Americans, and the rights and and kind of value systems that we live by.

SANCHEZ: How do you think members of the military read these comments?

HERTLING: Well, I can't speak for the entire military, but I can speak as a former commander of forces, and when you hear something like this, first of all, it would be illegal for the military to step in because of something called the Posse Comitatus Act. They can provide support to civilian authorities if there are riots or disturbances, but the right to peaceably come together and voice your concerns is something that is an American as apple pie.

[14:35:13]

But here's the problem with that, when you start talking about the military becoming involved, it implies that you're going to mobilize the active duty component to provide resources under the Insurrection Act. Now, only the president can call for the Insurrection Act, and at that point, the elements of Posse Comitatus, where military personnel cannot get involved in arresting are putting down individual citizens, plays a part.

I would think it would be very dangerous to basically call on the insurrection act as a president, unless there is a true insurrection. A riot or a protest against by the citizens of the United States is not insurrection. It's voicing a different view. And as a military commander, I would always disobey illegal orders.

So if I was given as a commander an illegal order, I would say, I'm not going to do that, Mr. President. But then he might call the Insurrection Act, and then it becomes a legal order. But even at that point, Boris, it becomes more problematic, because you have soldiers who are Americans, facing other soldiers, and whenever we've mobilized soldiers to go against their fellow citizens, it usually hasn't gone over well, I'll just comment on two historical examples, something called the bonus marchers of the 1930s where Colonel George Patton ran through a bunch of people who were just trying to get bonuses from World War I that were assembled on the Mall of the United States, in Washington, D.C., and more recently, in the 1960s as protesters were demonstrating against the Vietnam War. And there was this incident at Kent State University where people were shot and killed.

When you place soldiers against fellow citizens and have that kind of tension between emotions, it becomes very difficult to control your citizens, and problems will result. This is not a good look for the individual who's leading the GOP candidacy, and I certainly don't think most military commanders see as a very good idea, and it's illegal to boot.

SANCHEZ: Lieutenant General Mark Hertling. We appreciate the perspective as always. Thanks for joining us.

HERTLING: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Board ahead the Miami Dolphins giving a major update on quarterback Tua Tagovailoa's future. But there are some significant caveats. We're going to break it down.

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[14:42:14]

SANCHEZ: A big update now from the NFL. Tua Tagovailoa's is expected to return to the football field with some caveats. ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Okay. So the Miami Dolphins quarterback

has been on the reserved and injured list since suffering his latest career concussion last month, and it was unclear whether he'd play again. TNT sports, Matt Winer has been following this story for us. So Matt, what are the dolphins now saying?

MATT WINER, HOST, TNT SPORTS: Well, dolphins head coach Mike McDaniel said today he expects quarterback Tua Tagovailoa back on the field at some point this season, which is perhaps surprising considering his history of concussions. The Miami star suffered four documented concussions. One is a college star in Alabama, and three the past three NFL seasons, the latest in week two of this season against the bills.

Remember, in 2022 the league changed its concussion protocols in response to the Dolphins handling of another troubling on-field hit, never diagnosed as a concussion. Tagovailoa has been on the league's injured reserve list after the latest head injury, but he's eligible to return in less than two weeks.

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MIKE MCDANIEL, HEAD COACH, MIAMI DOLPHINS: There's still information that he's that he's seeking this week, and as far as timelines go, I know he's not playing this week, and I do expect to see him playing football in 2024 but where that is exactly we'll let the process continue. It is exciting that I that I that I do believe he'll play football this year.

What I -- I never went down that rabbit hole of if he would or wouldn't, just because I, you know, I've learned through circumstance how that's the wrong question to be asking.

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WINER: If and when he's back on the field, questions will be asked about the wisdom of playing. A number of former players have said a return is not worth the long-term risk that he should retire. It's also notable, Bill's quarterback Josh Allen will be back on the field tonight after hitting his head on the turf last week, he was cleared to return to the field, but as we know, Boris and Alisyn, it's a dangerous game with potentially devastating long term consequences.

SANCHEZ: Yes. And no question about that. Matt Winer, thank you so much for that update.

I want to give you an update now on some of the other headlines we're watching this hour. Here's something that you may never have seen before. Giant lakes in the middle of the Sahara Desert. It's been hit with flooding for the first time in decades. Now, the Sahara does get a few inches of rain a year, but in the last month, multiple inches have fallen within 24 hour periods. Just a surreal picture there.

[14:45:00]

Also part of the Hong Kong Zoo is closed after eight monkeys were found dead. The monkeys range in species, and tests are being carried out. Now to find out exactly what caused their deaths, the zoo is the city's oldest, dating all the way back to 1860.

Still ahead on New Central, we're learning more about the man accused of threatening FEMA officials in North Carolina over the weekend. His alleged threats forcing some FEMA offices in the state to shut down.

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CAMEROTA: As we all know, it can be very hard to figure out the right thing to say to someone who is in the throes of grief. I've learned. Is the hard way. My own amazing husband just died in July, and since then, I've seen people struggle for how best to comfort me, and I've been very surprised by how even kind, nice comments from friends can set me off somehow.

[14:50:17]

So I just wrote a piece for cnn.com on all of this, and it's gotten a powerful response, so we decided to try to unpack it a little bit more. Here now for apparently, a personal therapy session, just kidding, and to help all of us better deal with grief is our friend, Dr. Jeff Gardere.

Dr. Gardere. Great to see you. Thanks so much for being here.

DR. JEFF GARDERE, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: Of course, and my condolences, of course.

CAMEROTA: Thank you. And I just wanted to talk to you, because I would never have known three months ago before this happened to me, that the nicest just pleasantries hit very differently when you're in the middle of grief than they do to just regular people. There's a real divide.

For instance, one question is, how are you? We all ask each other that every day, and it's so interesting. My teenage daughter told me last week that she now sees that as the most personal, vulnerable question you could ever ask someone, because for someone who's grieving? The answer is really complicated, and it's ever-changing. So is there a right way to ask that of someone in grief?

GARDERE: Yes. And you make an excellent point, and you made an excellent point of it in your article, by the way, which I am now sharing with my patients who are either on the receiving end of the grieving or are trying to reach out to someone else. So thank you so very much for putting this together from your own personal pain and triumphs also. But I would say that when we ask someone, how are you that person is in such grief, in such crisis. How do they answer that question?

I mean, they are going through an existential change in their lives, and that's the last thing they want to be questioned about. I think we can be more specific when we reach out to someone and asking them, well, how are you doing with regard to making arrangements, or how was your particular meal the other day? Or how has it been for you to get through this particular day instead of asking such a broad question when someone is going through that kind of pain and may be confused and may be in shock?

CAMEROTA: Yes. That's what I learned, that the existential questions are just really hard to answer. You know, we don't know how to answer them anymore.

And by the way, I mean, I've gotten very -- very nice response to the article. And I hope everybody goes to read it on cnn.com. But I didn't mean to make anybody feel guilty. I asked, I myself, asked these five questions that now set me off. I asked them of friends for decades. I didn't know they can be -- you're so raw in grief and you're just, you know, an exposed nerve ending walking around, but I didn't know simple questions. The next one was, how can I help? And that one is very hard to answer for grieving people. Why is that?

GARDERE: Well, simply because there are so many things that someone can do, but when you're in the grieving process, it's not like you're going to start listing things and you don't want to inconvenience anyone while you are in your own grieving state. So I think it's really important for people to just, instead of asking, How can I help, just make a very small gesture, bringing a meal or offering to take someone shopping, or saying, well, listen, I'll just sit with your children while you are out taking care of other things around funeral arrangements or whatever the case may be.

So it's just a little gestures. And I agree with you, Alisyn, your article, and I tell people all the time, it's not that people are doing the wrong thing. We don't want to throw out the baby with the bath water. It's that in these very personal times, it's important to come in a little bit better equipped, you know, with some things that are tried and true in helping someone who is grieving. So, you know, with no finger-pointing here, no blame game. It's just that, how do we come together in a more substantial way during these difficult times?

CAMEROTA: Because, let's face it. All of us at some point, will be close to grief somehow. And so I think the feeling at least now that I have in it is you don't want to be othered so to speak, you know, to feel as though you're on your own island away from everybody and people saying, you know, I can't imagine what you must be going through. You know, we don't want this to be unimaginable. But I'm sure, Dr. Gardere, you feel this. People do avoid this topic. It's hard to talk about.

[14:55:19]

GARDERE: Absolutely, when you say, I can't imagine what you're going through, even though it must -- it comes from the heart, but it further isolates that individual. If you can't imagine what I'm going through, then I must really be alone in this. And so one of the things that I think we can do is instead of using those particular words or maybe following it up with something like thinking about some of the grief that you have experienced in your own life. That's how we develop empathy, and that's how we develop validation for what it is that the person is going through. We don't have to try to say words that accidentally isolate them more

than anything else. Sometimes it's good just to sit there with them and not say anything. Just be the rock. Just be the person to let them know that they're not alone.

CAMEROTA: Totally agree. Sometimes you can just show up and not have to say the right things. Dr. Gardere, thank you very much. I again direct everyone to cnn.com if you want to read more about my essay, I really appreciate you helping us walk through this.

GARDERE: And thank you for putting this out there. It's going to help a lot of people.

GARDERE: Thank you. We'll be right back.

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