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CNN Live Event/Special

Mourners Pay Respects To Queen In Westminster Hall; Markets Up After Suffering Worst Day Since June Of 2020. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired September 14, 2022 - 12:30   ET

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

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[12:30:39]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Britain's longest serving monarch now lies in state and Westminster Hall. Members of the public filing, past paying their respects, some in tears as they stand in the presence of their late Queen, what a remarkable day we have seen and continued to see. And no doubt will all night long and in the days ahead, as people file past hundreds of thousands expect. I want to go back to Bianca Nobilo with another person who has just come out of Westminster Hall. Bianca, what are you hearing?

BIANCA NOBILO, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Anderson. I'm here with some of the people who are at the front of the queue, queue the longest to see the late monarch. And people are starting to be funneled out. And we're seeing a range of emotions and experiences. Now you're all telling me that you had quite an emotional time when you've been in there. Tell me how you felt.

ALEXANDRA GODFREY, PASSED BY QUEEN'S COFFIN IN WESTMINSTER HALL: It was really surreal, sort of like it wasn't real. Yes, by lots of mixed emotions.

NOBILO: And how did you feel, personally?

GODFREY: Personally, I felt a real sense of loss, real grief for me possibly.

NOBILO: I know you're from the United States, yet you still felt moved and you wanted to be here. Why is that?

EOIN JONES, PASSED BY QUEEN'S COFFIN IN WESTMINSTER HALL: Well, this is a big part of history. And she was a very important woman in the world. And there was a great sense of sorrow inside.

NOBILO: And Euan, tell us about what the mood was like, what were the emotions on people's faces that you were seeing inside Westminster Hall?

EUAN GRASSIE, PASSED BY QUEEN'S COFFIN IN WESTMINSTER HALL: So it was very, very somber, very bland, sad, like looking at a blank slate, there was no real sense of like an ending or beginning. It was quite, quiet momentarily. But it was really powerful. People were so engrossed in what was going on there, that there wasn't time to focus on.

NOBILO: And where there obvious displays of emotion or was it quite British affair with people holding a stiff upper lip?

GODFREY: Lots of snuffles just sort of very calm, personal sort of mourning procedures. Yes, very personal, arguably quite British. Yes.

NOBILO: And you've all heard queued for a very long time. Did you feel like it was worth it? And it's something you're going to remember for the rest of your lives?

GODFREY: A 100 percent. We started queuing about 1 o'clock last night. That's about 16 hours in total. Initially, I was on the fence. It's very long time to wait, but I'm so glad that I did it, this will obviously never happened again. Yes, definitely worth waiting.

NOBILO: Thank you all so much for your time. Anderson, back to you.

COOPER: Bianca Nobilo, thanks so much. We'll check back in with you here with Max Foster and Kate Williams. It is so interesting to hear and people who have been waiting for hours and still and once they have been able to go through all saying that it was well worth it.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR & ROYAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, I don't think people really know how they're going to be affected. I mean, I -- yesterday we saw the coffin go by. I was quite affected seeing the reality of it.

COOPER: It's startling to actually see the coffin coming past, startling, I'm sure no doubt for the people who are in that room, the gravity of it, the reality of it, and yet also the sort of majesty of it.

FOSTER: And the Queen, you know, things seem, you know, must have been hundreds of thousands if not millions of people over the course of her reign. And a lot of people I think that, you know, would have had that connection, maybe come back to visit now. I mean, there's deep emotion isn't there for some people. When you talk to them, it's I always find it so interesting, because this is someone they don't know, they can't really relate to. And they never spent any time with particularly.

But what you end up doing is you sort of start thinking about the people around you who have died. And you do have a connection with her because she's been throughout their -- throughout your life. And every Christmas you've sat there as a Brit watching her, give her Christmas address. She's always there. And they are connected to her. But then it's something -- it's complex sort of psychology, isn't it? But you connect it to your own life even though she doesn't really know who you are. She never knew who you were.

KATE WILLIAMS, CNN ROYAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, it's so true Max, isn't it? So when one of those early Christmas messages she said it was inevitable at the time was fairly remote figure to many of you but I'm trying and come into your homes. And yet she doesn't feel like a remote figure. People have this connection. They feel that she's been the nation's grandmother. There's real affection and love for her, real outpouring of love.

The Queen promised that she couldn't be a Queen who was leading into battle or delivering justice but she gave her heart. And I think that's what people feel that they had that she -- that there was a real love and affection and you see that in these really moving pictures of the crowds here. And it also reminds us, we've seen the pomp, we've seen the majesty of monarchy, we've seen the constitutional workings, but at the heart of it was one person and one person who was truly loved.

[12:35:22]

FOSTER: He's a member of the military, a veteran, who's bowing his head. He served in her name. So that's his connection, I imagine.

COOPER: I think what you said is so true, though, that we know we've talked over the days about how because the Queen was the source of stillness for the country, and didn't show her inner thoughts, didn't talk about her inner thoughts, people were able to project onto her, their own feelings, their own thoughts and in death as well. I heard death is a reminder to people who are funneling past of their grandmother they lost, their mother that they lost, their sister, a brother, whatever it is, there is this universal bond in grief and loss that we don't talk about very much but you see it in moments like this.

This is a bond which links people to the Queen which links people to the royal family. She's a bond everybody has in common. We will all lose people, we'll all say goodbye to people. It's really not on this scale, but an event on this scale allows us to all kind of grieve together for them and also for in our own losses.

FOSTER: And this is a nation that's just lost its prime minister, has got a new prime minister, we don't really know anything about her. I mean, we know about Liz Truss, the wider public knows very little about her. And she's certainly here as one of the figureheads. And, you know, we can't connect with her. We don't know anything about her.

King Charles, you know, people have related to less than the Queen and this is an economy in collapse, they're talking about inflation next year of 20 percent. People are really worried about their lives, it's deeply unsettling time and the ones constant in our lives was the Queen. And I think that they're coming here is, you know, almost like a pilgrimage towards the stability that we used to have.

COOPER: Yes, our coverage continues Max, thank you. Kate Williams, thank you so much. We're going to also get an update on a potentially crippling rail strike in the United States back in a moment.

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[12:41:47]

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: you have been watching special coverage of Queen Elizabeth II's final journey to Westminster Hall. I'm Erin Burnett with some other stories that we are following on this day. Right now, union representatives in that high stakes meeting with labor secretary Marty Walsh, the Biden administration is trying to head off what could be a devastating rail strike heading into the holiday season. The White House facing in deadline as tens of thousands of railroad workers are poised to walk off the job later this week. The deadline is midnight on Friday.

And if they don't resolve it before then, the strike could impact up to a third of all U.S. freight bringing it to a grinding halt. As the clock ticks, Amtrak has preemptively suspended additional long range routes because they use those freight lines. Other rail lines are not accepting shipments of hazardous and other security sensitive materials due to concerns of the strike. You already have all kinds of disruption in the system.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, making an unannounced visit to newly liberated Izium just five days after his forces recaptured the strategic city in the eastern Kharkiv region. Zelenskyy took part in a solemn ceremony, raising the Ukrainian flag over the main square there after months of occupation. Speaking to journalists, Zelenskyy said that he is shocked by the utter destruction that he has seen in Izium. He described it as similar to the devastation in the deoccupied suburb of Bucha outside Kyiv, scene of so many horrific war crimes. Zelenskyy is promising all Russian occupied areas will eventually returned to Ukraine.

And Meantime, Boston and Massachusetts officials are now promising an aggressive local, state, and federal investigation after a reported package explosion at Northeastern University, that's in Boston. Investigators now believe that a package employee claimed exploded in a virtual reality lab was actually not sent through the U.S. Postal Service which suggests that whoever placed it there may have actually had access to the building. Now the employee who opened the package suffered minor injuries. And investigators say there are no other threats at this time.

I also want to take a look at the markets after that horrible day yesterday, the Dow right now in positive territory, although it has given up some of those early gains. Yesterday was the worst day of trading since June of 2020. Our business correspondent Alison Kosik is at the New York Stock Exchange. And Alison yesterday was absolutely a rout, absolutely horrific day. How are things so far? I know some of the gains have they've given back already.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Erin, great to see you. We are seeing stocks trying to kind of find their footing as they're moving between gains and losses. We are seeing green arrows across the board at the moment. This is after that consumer price index showed prices remain hot at the consumer level. But we got a different report today the August PPI, that's the Producer Price Index. It's kind of reviving hopes that inflation has peaked.

And now with the inflation reports out, investors are focusing their attention on what happens next week. That's when the Fed meets where the expectation is that the Fed could raise interest rates three quarters of a percent. But the Fed's next move is also keeping markets on edge because they know that the tougher that the Fed has to get meaning higher or more aggressive interest rates means it becomes more likely that the Fed could push the U.S. economy into a recession. Erin?

[12:44:52]

BURNETT: All right, Alison, thank you very much. And we're going to continue our special coverage of the Queen lying in state after this very quick break. Please stay with us.

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BURNETT: We are following the emotional public viewing for Queen Elizabeth. It is now formally underway inside Westminster Hall in London. The Queen lies in stake there. You see people coming. These are people who have waited hours and hours 20, 30 hours in some cases to pay their respects.

Half a million People are expected to enter that hall and honor their Queen in these coming days ahead of her state funeral on Monday. It has been an extraordinary day here thus far a pomp and pageantry, all the trappings of the British monarchy on full display as people in London honored the Queen's place in their hearts and her place in world history.

[12:50:21]

The Royals led by the new King Charles III walking in silent tribute behind the Queen's coffin, all of them sharing grief for the woman who was truly the glue of their family. And back here now, with our panelists, we have watched this, Sally, we have watched people, commoners, as you would say, lined up for 20, 30 hours, it is now their time to bid goodbye to a woman and a monarch who meant so much to so many. And this is, of course, in these days heading into the funeral. And so much reminiscent of what we saw with Princess Diana, and yet you see similarities and so many differences even thus far.

SALLY BEDELL SMITH, JOURNALIST AND ROYAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, well, the grief is very, very similar. And I was over there. And I was astonished at the number of people who'd obviously never met her who have just hugging each other. But the funeral would be very different because the Queen was the head of the military, it will be a highly military funeral. Diana's funeral was by design, minimally military, obviously, they had a case on with a coffin.

But she what their design was, and they were just, they didn't know, they didn't have a funeral plan for her. They did de novo. And they had something like 600 people from her charities. And that was their reflection of who she was that it was striking in the context of royal funerals for how little military there was.

BURNETT: And yet Trisha here what we see so much is the tradition that the Queen wanted. And we saw that today, right? You saw the military, you saw the way the family was, she wanted this tradition. And now as we watch here, and you can see the live pictures, these are live, these are people you're going to see this, you know, minute after minute, hour after hour for the next days. Who will we see when it comes to the funeral?

TRISHA GODDARD, BRITISH TELEVISION PRESENTER: And when you say who will we see there estimated to be 4.1 billion people who are going to be watching that funeral, 4.1 billion. And all --

BURNETT: -- population of 7.6 billion.

GODDARD: 4.1 billion they are saying. And all the cinemas in Britain are stopping all the movies, they're going to be showing the funeral live. Most of the shops will be closed and what have you. Even national humps the week is being postponed. I mean, a lot of people, there are so many quirky stories coming out of this. And actually, that's what I love about the Brits, we Brit. We can be slightly strange. And I think that's what -- we can be.

BURNETT: Slightly.

(CROSSTALK)

GODDARD: But it is that sort of faulty towers, and things that the Queen herself really love. But it's going to be a massive audience all eyes. One person who won't be there or who will be there in a very quiet way and I feel really sad about that is Fergie because the Duchess of York as she was then has, you know, was a very controversial character at the time. And one of the things I liked that she said about the Queen was about how forgiving and how understanding and how accepting she was of Fergie's quirkiness. And it comes back to that. The Queen had a great love of both sort of offbeat moments.

BURNETT: And it's interesting when you say, you know, Fergie and those who we may not notice who will have the small rose, of course, Charles now, King Charles III is going to have is, you know, he is now the King. And we have seen, you know, his grief on display. Also the -- what has now been put upon his shoulders, a lifetime of preparation, Julia, and yet still an exhausting stretch for him.

JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: I just think the last few days have been exhausting. And he said it was the moment he dreaded not just because he'd lost his mother, of course, but the weight of responsibility, too. I think, and it goes back to the point and that you beautifully made it there about the quirkiness of the Brits and the humor. And what we're looking for him now I think is the human response. And we've seen that with the emotion that he shared.

I'm allowed to talk about this because I've called him Pitch Perfect over the last few days a number of times, but even just the issues with the pens, the couple of things that have gone viral, I'm allowed to say it on T.V. called a pen, a bloody thing.

Well, we actually need to see these moments because these are going to define who he is in terms of his relationship with his subjects with the people of the future and the response of the Queen got around the world, we need to see more of these moments, these human moments from him as royal. And as 74 years and yet we are still in a sense now getting to know him, Zain, which is a pretty stunning thing to see even though he has spent a lifetime in preparation for this moment that is now come.

[12:55:01]

ZAIN ASHER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: It's interesting, I mean in order to get to know King Charles, you really have to look at how he was raised. When you think about it Charles and his mother, Queen Elizabeth II, did not have your typical sort of run of the mill mother-son relationship. He had an upbringing that was designed to produce a king.

Think about it, if you are a 25-year-old woman and you have a child that is heir apparent and going to be king, you are going to have to raise them a certain way and that way requires austerity and it requires teaching your children to control their emotions in public. It is a very tough love kind of upbringing.

BURNETT: Yes. Amazing to use the word austere in such a manner I think so powerful. Thank you all so very much as we continue to cover this.

Our coverage of the public tribute to Queen Elizabeth continues next with Ana Cabrera.

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