CNN Special Report - Season 13 / Year 2022

As America reaches the first anniversary of the violent insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, CNN's Fareed Zakaria examines the state of the threats to American Democracy. He looks at the evidence that the United States is turning away from Democracy, even as the entire world follows a similar trend. As always, Zakaria offers lessons from American history and abroad to meet this defining struggle of these deeply troubling times. Interviewed for The Fight to Save American Democracy are: Madeleine Albright, U.S. Secretary of State (Clinton Administration, 1997-2001); author, Fascism: A Warning (2019); Anne Applebaum, author, Twilight of Democracy: The Seductive Lure of Authoritarianism (2021); Benjamin Ginsberg, Republican election lawyer; Benjamin Carter Hett, author, The Nazi Menace: Hitler, Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, and the Road to War (2021); Robert Kagan, contributing columnist, The Washington Post; Steven Levitsky, co-author, How Democracies Die (2019); Jon Meacham, author, Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship (2004); Lisa Pine, author, Debating Genocide (2018); and Daniel Ziblatt, co-author, How Democracies Die (2019).

CNN national correspondent Sara Sidner explores traffic stops and the psychological, social, and financial trauma they cause Black drivers who get caught up in a system fraught with racial bias. The disturbing images of unarmed Black men killed during traffic stops and the names that go with those images: Philando Castile, Daunte Wright, Walter Scott, and more dot the canvas of a system that does not treat Black drivers the same as White drivers. According to a study from the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, Black drivers are twice as likely as White drivers to be pulled over and four times as likely to be searched. This extreme disparity is difficult to explain with legitimate law enforcement objectives. Indeed, the data show that contraband is found less often on Black drivers than on White drivers.
Sidner examines the major reforms taking place by cities and police departments and the push back from police unions who warn crime will rise because of them. She talks to the Police Chief of Oakland, California, the Police Commissioner of Philadelphia, as well as Katie Bryant, Daunte Wright's mother, and Valerie Castile, Philando Castile's mother. Sidner learns how a seemingly mechanical system engineered to manage and limit the dangers of automobile usage—speeding, drunk driving, etc.—has turned into a mechanism that unfairly targets and traumatizes Black drivers.

CNN's Drew Griffin tells the story of Alex Jones, the far-right radio and internet host and outspoken conspiracy theorist. Through interviews with people who knew him, worked for him, and believed him, Griffin explores Jones' rise from the fringes of public access television to creating a wide-reaching media empire that touched the Trump White House. The hour also traces the roots of Jones' conspiracy theories from the 1990s to today.

CNN obtained exclusive behind-the-scenes footage of InfoWars headquarters, including portions of a revealing interview with Jones never seen before. Griffin details how Jones became a multi-millionaire and shows how de-platforming and other efforts have done little to silence Jones or diminish his wealth. As Jones' empire is being challenged by lawsuits from the families of Sandy Hook shooting victims and by scrutiny by the January 6th committee, CNN explores how Jones' message grew from the fringes into the mainstream and why that could threaten the future of democracy in America.

In The Fire Still Burns: 30 Years After the L.A. Riots, CNN political commentator Van Jones revisits the historic uprising to reveal the true origins of the fiery clash and how its legacy still smolders three decades later. The documentary delves into how failing institutions, aggressive policing, and deep-seated racism were the driving forces behind the five days of violence and destruction and the crucial lessons that must be learned to avoid a repeat of history. Jones also reflects on his personal experience of being arrested during protests as a young law intern in San Francisco – an incident, he says, that changed his life then and still shapes him decades later.

"The first time I went to jail was in the aftermath of the Rodney King uprisings," Van Jones said. "The impact of those days has never left me. It's a powerful experience to return to the streets 30 years later – and learn what has changed, what hasn't, and why it all happened in the first place."

The all-new special explores the simmering problems beneath the surface of metropolitan Los Angeles – a drug epidemic, rising crime, economic collapse, and a broken criminal justice system – that finally erupted after a jury acquitted four officers charged with using excessive force in the widely broadcast arrest and beating of Rodney King. It also explores another precursor to riots: the fatal shooting of a 15-year-old Black teen Latasha Harlins, whose killer, a Korean American grocery store owner, was sentenced to probation.

The special features notable figures including Representative Karen Bass (D-CA); Henry "Kiki" Watson, one of the "L.A. Four," convicted of beating trucker Reginald Denny; Rodney King attorneys Milton Grimes and Steve Lerman; Christina Rogers, the sister of Latasha Harlins; former LAPD Captain Thomas Elfmont, and many others.

As Russia continues to horrify the world with its brutal attacks on Ukraine, and its crush of dissent at home, CNN's Fareed Zakaria takes viewers inside the mind of the man behind the ruthless conflict, Vladimir Putin. 

Throughout his rise to power and political career, Vladimir Putin has been an autocratic enigma. What drives the notorious strongman? He was reared in Soviet poverty, served as a KGB intelligence agent in East Germany, and through a series of cunning maneuvers, rose from deputy mayor of St. Petersburg to the presidency of post-Soviet Russia. Zakaria gets answers to the many questions surrounding Putin that have confounded leaders worldwide, including at least four U.S. presidents: how did Putin's mindset move from pro-global harmony to isolation, fear, and loathing of the West.

Interviewed are: Robert Gates, former U.S. Secretary of Defense (George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations, 2006-2011); author, Exercise of Power: American Failures, Successes, and a New Path Forward in the Post-Cold War World (2020); Masha Gessen, staff writer, The New Yorker; author, The Man Without A Face: The Unlikely Rise of Vladimir Putin (2013); Edward Lucas, columnist, London Times; senior fellow, Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA); author, The New Cold War: Putin's Russia and the Threat to the West (2008); Dmitry Peskov, deputy chief of staff of the Presidential Executive Office, Russia; Presidential Press Secretary; David Remnick, editor, The New Yorker; author, Lenin's Tomb: The Last Days of the Soviet Empire (1993); Mikhail Zygar, former editor-in-chief, TV Rain; author, All the Kremlin's Men: Inside the Court of Vladimir Putin (2016); and Julia Ioffe, founding partner and Washington correspondent, Puck news.

CNN anchor and chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper conducts the first interview with former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed since his return to America following nearly three years of imprisonment in Russia. Find out what happened to the American Marine in his own words. Reed details the harsh realities he faced in the Russian legal and prison systems while wrongfully detained for 985 days, as well as his mission to help other American families who currently have relatives wrongfully held in Russia and other countries.
Viewers hear from Reed's family, whose steadfast crusade to get him out of Russia is a large part of why he is now safely home. In addition, the special features families of other Americans who are still being held by foreign governments, including the family of fellow US military veteran Paul Whelan, currently detained in Russia, as they continue to fight bravely for their loved ones who they desperately hope will come home.

Three-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared on May 3, 2007, while on a family vacation in Portugal. CNN's Randi Kaye investigates by returning to the scene of the crime and brings viewers the latest on the search for Madeleine that has continued for more than fifteen years.

This episode is filled with rare interviews and new details on Steve Bannon's role in shaping and dividing the U.S. political system and the potential threat to American democracy. CNN's Senior Investigative Correspondent Drew Griffin explores Bannon's mission to defeat establishment Republicans in every part of the government – including those responsible for elections – with the help of far-right "MAGA" extremists who falsely believe Donald Trump was the winner of the 2020 election. 

As the House Select Committee investigating the January 6th events focuses on members of former President Donald Trump's inner circle, Griffin focuses on Bannon's role leading up to the violence at the U.S. Capitol, promoting a strategy that would have let Trump illegally seize a second term. The special also dissects Bannon's current influence on Republican politics as being among the most influential thought leaders of the party and using his daily show as a campaign platform for candidates spreading the lie of stolen elections. 

As we gear up to the 2022 midterm elections and the questions swirling around the 2024 race, Griffin shows how Bannon's power and influence have grown since he left the White House and his job as Chief Strategist.

Ed Lavandera reveals how a handful of influential billionaires steer the politics of school boards, city councils, and the state legislature in Texas.

Texas is one of only 10 states with no limitations on campaign donations to candidates. As a result, a few wealthy donors with strong religious views have an outsized influence on the government of approximately 30 million people. In a state known for its independence, Texas is usually at the forefront of legislation – and its conservative Republicans tell Lavandera that what's happening now goes beyond ideology.

Lavandera speaks with sources on the record for the first time about how a small number of extremely wealthy citizens fund campaigns of little-known candidates who back their ideology against insufficiently conservative lawmakers. In addition to financing candidates, they fund political action committees and the scorecard by which legislators are ranked, maneuvering lawmakers to take positions espoused by the billionaires. Even by Texas' conservative standards, the state has adopted some of the most stringently conservative legislation ever seen in the state's modern history. In this special, Lavandera explores how the ambitions of these few influential Texans are poised to expand beyond the state lines.

Antisemitism is finding new and terrifying footing in American society. Though it has always existed, this ancient hatred has grown in recent years, moving from fringe groups and obscure chatrooms to the mainstream, both online and on the streets of communities across the country. With white nationalists radicalized online perpetrating deadly shootings and insidious conspiracy theories and tropes normalized by political leaders, CNN Anchor and Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash takes an in-depth look.

In this timely and unique hour, Bash visits Jewish communities still reeling from recent violence, including Poway, California, where CNN cameras were the first allowed inside since the deadly attack in 2019, and the Temple in Colleyville, Texas, where an extremist antisemite took congregants hostage earlier this year. Bash also gets a first look at a command center dedicated to tracking threats against Jews by monitoring the deepest corners of the dark web. In interviews with everyone from victims of hate, to a former Skinhead, to scholars and experts, this report digs deep into the complex reasons for growing antisemitism in the U.S. and, most importantly, explores ways to help curb it.

The fertility industry has grown exponentially over the past four decades, making dreams come true for millions of families. As reproductive medicine advances and becomes more inclusive, there are also tragic stories. In the riveting CNN Special Report, CNN Anchor Alisyn Camerota takes a closer look at the ups and downs of the booming fertility field.

According to the most recent CDC statistics, almost a quarter of married women struggle to get pregnant for the first time, and an estimated 1 in 6 couples without children are infertile. As American women are giving birth later in life and LGBTQ+ couples and single people grow their families at unprecedented rates, the use of assisted reproductive technology (ART) has doubled in the past decade. As the demand for reproductive medicine rises, there's increased scrutiny around established practices, consumer protections, and the prohibitive costs of this multi-billion-dollar industry.

Camerota, a former board member and support group leader of RESOLVE: The National Infertility Association, shares her fertility struggles and how IVF benefitted her family. Throughout the hour-long, in-depth report, she tracks how much the industry has changed and illuminates the complexities of the fertility field. Camerota speaks with donor-conceived children, families devastated by what they claim is a lack of oversight of the industry, an egg donor and surrogate with 27 known genetic children, industry experts, doctors, and activists fighting to change laws and create more rules and regulations. Camerota delves deep into several topics, including the growth in popularity of elective egg freezing, egg and sperm donor practices, fertility fraud laws, and surrogacy. Her investigation uncovers gaps in the system and explores potential ways to fix them and improve the customer experience. Forty years after the first IVF baby was born in the U.S., this documentary examines the business of fertility and the painful lessons still being learned.

Queen Elizabeth II is known for order and tradition. She quietly revolutionizes the royal family, leaving the monarchy stronger than she found it.  Behind the stoicism is a leader who oversees an unprecedented reign spanning seven decades. Her reign as the United Kingdom's longest-serving monarch has come to an end. CNN anchor and royal correspondent Max Foster looks at the life and legacy of Queen Elizabeth II. 

For more than a year, the January Sixth Select Committee has investigated and interviewed thousands of witnesses, piecing together their testimonies with videos, texts, emails, and other documents to help uncover an undeniable, coordinated 7-part plan by the former President of the United States to try to overturn the results of a legal and valid presidential election. In advance of the Select Committee's first report, CNN Anchor and Chief Washington Correspondent Jake Tapper looks at the evidence, examines new details, and conducts exclusive interviews with key witnesses, including those you haven't heard from other than before the committee. The fundamental question: Did a former U.S. President lead a multi-level plan designed to hold onto power and overturn American democracy? This episode continues last year's highly successful CNN Special Report Trumping Democracy: An American Coup.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, NN Chief Medical Correspondent, travels to Cuba to investigate one of the most complex and controversial brain mysteries in recent years, known as Havana Syndrome. First reported by two dozen U.S. officials in Havana, Cuba starting in 2016, these unexplained health incidents have since multiplied to include hundreds of reports of concussion-like injuries around the globe. American officials have yet to make clear what is behind these injuries and whether a directed energy weapon may be to blame.

The victims describe suffering from vertigo, headache, brain fog, and in some cases, pain or ringing in the ears without any apparent mechanism of injury. Since 2016, US government officials around the world have reported similar incidents. Investigations by the FBI, the CIA, and the US Department of State have yet to fully explain what happened to these individuals who fell ill while serving their country. The lack of clear answers has led to growing tensions between victims, US lawmakers, and the government agencies investigating these incidents. Critics say these agencies too quickly dismissed these cases despite working theories that a foreign government, or proxy, may have coordinated intentional Cold War-style attacks on American officials using directed energy weapons.

Gupta interviews several patients, including a former CIA senior medical officer who traveled to Cuba to investigate the incidences only to fall ill himself and a former Trump official who believes she was injured at the White House. Both are sharing their stories for the first time.

Gupta also speaks with Cuba's top scientists and diplomatic officials, who conducted their own investigation and remain skeptical of the reported incidents on their soil. However, prominent US brain experts Dr. Michael Hoffer of the University of Miami and Dr. Douglas Smith, director of the Center for Brain Injury and Repair at the University of Pennsylvania, examined many of the patients and explain why they believe their injuries are very real.

But what causes the mysterious illness? Dr. David Relman, who co-authored the influential American Academy of Sciences report, concluded that microwave energy is a plausible explanation. This finding takes Gupta's journey down an eye-opening road into how microwave energy interacts with the brain and what types of directed energy technologies are potentially capable of doing this.

On the eve of the new term of America's Supreme Court, CNN's Fareed Zakaria, host of the global public affairs program Fareed Zakaria GPS, dives deep into the Court's controversial last term, the most conservative in almost a century, and previews the landmark cases ahead. Last term's most dramatic decision, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, stripped citizens of a previously determined freedom.  SUPREME POWER: Inside the Highest Court in the Land yields new details about Chief Justice John Roberts' furious, ultimately futile fight to stop the conservative bloc of Justices from overturning Roe v Wade.

The stunning political and cultural impact of that precedent-shattering reversal of prior Supreme Court case law has roiled national politics. That decision was foreshadowed by another unprecedented event: the leaking of the draft opinion to the public. Considered an act of extraordinary betrayal, the leak from within the Court threw a spotlight on the brewing personal and deepening partisan tensions among the Court's justices. Zakaria also challenges Court insiders to dissect what's at stake with a little-known case in the new session that may be the most dramatic of all.

This special also traces the history of the Court through the 20th Century, from Franklin Roosevelt's battle to expand a Supreme Court he felt was too obstructionist, to the transformative social changes of the Warren Court, to the ugly and divisive confirmation hearings of the last few decades – to draw a clear line to the present moment. Zakaria and Supreme Court experts reveal how America arrived at this most conservative Court in 100 years. Dissecting Dobbs, looming legal battles that could change the way Americans vote, and so much more with Zakaria from both the last term and the term ahead are:

- Joan Biskupic, Supreme Court biographer (The Chief: The Life and Turbulent Times of Chief Justice John Roberts, 2019; American Original: The Life and Constitution of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, 2010) and CNN senior Supreme Court analyst;

- Noah Feldman, Harvard Law School professor, Bloomberg Opinion columnist, and author (The Broken Constitution: Lincoln, Slavery, and the Refounding of America, 2021; The Three Lives of James Madison: Genius, Partisan, President, 2020);

- Carrie Severino, president of Judicial Crisis Network and author (Justice on Trial: The Kavanaugh Confirmation and the Future of the Court, 2020); and,

- Nina Totenberg, NPR legal affairs correspondent and author (Dinners with Ruth, 2022).

As Alex Murdaugh awaits his fate behind bars, many in South Carolina and around the country are left reeling with questions about his alleged crimes, including financial fraud and murder. CNN's Randi Kaye sits down with those closely tied to this mysterious saga unfolding in the low country as they take on these cases together for the first time. At a roundtable, Alex Murdaugh's victims, alleged victims, their lawyers, and local reporters discuss the man who has changed their lives forever and the mystery that has shaken this community.

Local reporters who have been following every detail of this case for years talk Kaye through their coverage of the over 90 financial fraud charges Murdaugh is facing and the five mysterious deaths circling his orbit. Mandy Matney, the creator of the popular Murdaugh Murders podcast, Liz Farrell, Matney's co-host, and John Monk, reporting in South Carolina for nearly 50 years and currently covering crime and the court system at The State newspaper, join Kaye at the round table.

Alleged victims that came together to discuss their cases are: Sandy Smith is the mother of 19-year-old Stephen Smith, whose body was found lying in the middle of a Hampton County road in 2015. The South Carolina Law Enforcement Division initially deemed Smith's death a hit-and-run, but his mother and her lawyer, Mile Hemlepp, believe otherwise. Ginger Harriott Hadwin is the sister of the Murdaugh's housekeeper, who allegedly fell and died outside his home. Hadwin does not believe her sister was killed, but Alex Murdaugh was found liable for another nefarious act connected with her death. Murdaugh is also accused of defrauding Alania Spohn and Jordan Jinks, Murdaugh's childhood friend, who also joined them at the table.

Local lawyers, including Eric Bland, Mike Hemlepp, Joe McCulloch, and Justin Bamberg, some of whom represent these alleged victims, also sit together to discuss their clients and the power and the legacy of the Murdaugh family dynasty in Hampton, South Carolina.

In 2020, facing its first pandemic in over 100 years, the US government implemented mandates to save the lives of the most vulnerable. However, the mandates quickly became politicized, and some Americans turned their rage and anger toward local government. Within months, a contentious election, followed by false claims of fraud and theft, added fuel to the political fires already spreading across the country. Now, election workers, school board members, county supervisors, and others are being targeted and threatened, leaving them and their families fearing for their lives.

In this CNN Special Report, CNN Senior National Correspondent Kyung Lah travels across the United States to meet people behind the anger and try to understand the fears that drive them to terrorize members of their local community. During the 10-month investigation, Lah spends time with local officials, including election officials who share their fear of constantly contending with death threats against them and their families. Some have had to go as far as arming themselves.

On the opposite side of this polarized debate, Lah examines what drives far-right groups to take on their communities. She sits down with activist Carlos Zapata, who led the successful recall of Leonard Moty, the Republican board member in Shasta County, California. Zapata's strategy was showcased in his documentary series and has become a model for activists around the country. As our nation heads into midterm elections, this special explores the climate of fear and rage tearing apart communities and perhaps imperiling American democracy.

On the 10th anniversary of the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School, CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota looks back at the victims' families' decade-long fight to change gun policy, including countless conversations about mental health, unprecedented legal battles, and another unspeakable tragedy in Uvalde, Texas that echoed what happened in Newtown – and asks the question, how much has America actually changed?

Camerota sits down with the families and lawmakers at the center of the fight to remember the lives stolen during the heinous act in Connecticut that reverberated around the world when a gunman opened fire inside Sandy Hook Elementary School, killing 20 first graders and six adults, including the principal. The grieving families reflect on how they have worked tirelessly to fill gaps in mental healthcare, took on fierce fights over gun control at the state and federal levels, and waged extraordinary legal battles.

Additionally, Camerota speaks with the victims' families about how they learned to navigate their new world of policymaking overnight. Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy and former state Senator John McKinney - both successful in passing sweeping state gun legislation - explain all the hurdles at the federal level. The special also goes inside the families' devastating court battles, including the settlement they reached with gun manufacturer Remington Arms and the lawsuits against conspiracy theorist Alex Jones that would eventually award the families more than a billion dollars.

CNN recaps all the best moments and all the worst moments from the year 2022. Guests are comedian Hellen Hong, former NFL player Donté Stallworth, CNN anchor John Berman, conservative commentator S.E. Cupp, and comedian Gina Brillon.