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Stopping Shoplifters; Holiday Travel; NCAA Deal Paves the Way for Paying College Athletes; Robert De Niro Voices New Biden Ad Attacking Trump; Interview with Jesse Rizo. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired May 24, 2024 - 09:00   ET

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

[08:59:44]

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: This -- how will they get past this though?

SEAN BROWNE, SENIOR MANAGER OF ASSET PROTECTION, HOME DEPOT: We've had certain crews that have cut locks and cables and broken into some of the fixtures that we've built inside of our stores.

LAH: What you see here is because the explosion of online shopping has made it easier than ever to move stolen merchandise sold to a consumer hunting for a deal.

BROWNE: 20 years ago, I needed to store front in order to sell laundry detergent. Now I can do it from my phone.

LAH: California has now put hundreds of millions of dollars towards combating this problem enabling law enforcement here in Santa Clara County to break up a major crime ring, recovering $150,000 in stolen merchandise, authorities say from six retailers.

How big of a heist was this?

BROWNE: This happens daily across stores, even with all those measures that you got to see an door, we're still impacted at this level.

LAH: Local and state law enforcement, as well as these national retailers do want more intelligence sharing so they are all backing a proposed federal bill called the Combating Organized Retail Crime Act.

That would establish an intelligence sharing hub. But this federal bill, which does have bipartisan the port is stalled in Congress.

Kyung Lah, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: An historic settlement that could change the landscape of college sports forever. It is hugely complicated, but the main thing is that athletes are about to get paid directly by the schools. The massive implications.

And this could be the busiest travel weekend in decades; frankly, you probably should have left already. But if you haven't, what you need to know to have any chance of getting where you're going.

And then breaking overnight, a new sexual assault lawsuit has been filed against Sean "Diddy" Combs. The details behind these new, disturbing allegations.

I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan. Amara Walker is in for Sara.

And this is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Happy Friday friends. And to make it even happier, it's a long weekend kind of Friday with millions of Americans hitting the roads and skies for the Memorial Day holiday.

Records already being set when it comes to air travel. This weekend, 38 million people will be taking a road trip. Another 3.5 million will travel by a plane and nearly 2 million others are going to hop on a bus or train, or jump on a cruise.

And forget partying like its 1999. This time were throwing back to 2000. That is the last time that we saw traffic on the nation's highways that is being that are being expected like this, this time around.

CNN's Ryan Young and Pete Muntean are in charge of it all. So you know where to send your complaints when things don't work out for you.

Pete, what do people need to know?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well the big thing now is that the traffic is going to be huge. And we're here next to the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. It is already backing up eastbound the gateway to the beaches in Ocean City, Maryland and the Delaware beaches.

Maryland officials here expect 300,000 cars to pass over the Bay Bridge. Really fits into the theme of this huge weekend for road trips. 38 million people anticipated to drive 50 miles or more according to AAA.

That is significant because the gas prices are about the same as what they were last year. The national average for a gallon of regular about $3.60. It was about the same Memorial Day weekend a year ago.

And Aixa Diaz of AAA says gas prices really aren't playing much of a factor. So many people are just budgeting for travel. They have to do it post pandemic, being so cooped up, they call that revenge travel. And now it's really just something that people do automatically four years away from the start of the pandemic.

The big bottom line here is to make sure that you leave early. And today will be especially tricky, especially in the evening hours, because that is when this holiday traffic also meets normal commuting traffic for folks who are also going to work on this normal workday.

Here's what AAA said about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) AIXA DIAZ, AAA SPOKESPERSON: You're going to have a mix of commuters. There's people going to work and travelers trying to hit the road.

So leave as early as possible, avoid those rush hour windows. Maybe midday might be a good time, but avoid that like 8:00 a.m. timeframe and then avoid when people are leaving work.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: Here are the best and worst times to drive in general. According to AAA leave before 11:00 a.m. or after 8:00 p.m. Try to avoid the middle of the day, 12 noon to 7:00 p.m. That's when traffic will be its worst.

In some major metro areas, traffic today could be two or three times the norm. So you have to plan accordingly and hit the road soon.

[09:04:49]

BOLDUAN: Absolutely, Pete.

Ok. Pete, stand by.

Ryan, you're taking over Pete's role normally, which is why I was a little bit confused this morning. You're at Atlanta's airport. How many people are you seeing who define themselves as a revenge traveler today?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think a lot of people would define themselves as being a revenge traveler.

I talked to a lot of people who say forget the budget when it comes to this, they want to get out of town and they want to get out of town now.

And behind us here at the airport, they are ready. In fact, there's a violinist playing "I am the One" by Michael Jackson as we're live here. As I tried to get people through security.

So when you have mood music playing while people were standing in the security line, you know, there's going to be a long life. We always ask about the (INAUDIBLE) Disney style lines here at ATL. So you never know how far away your --

(CROSSTALKING)

BOLDUAN: It really is.

YOUNG: But things are moving smoothly, but get this nothing ever beats the Super Bowl when it comes to numbers. But here in Atlanta yesterday they beat the numbers from the Super Bowl because overall 111,000 passengers went through the TSA yesterday. That is a record here. During the Super Bowl here a few years ago, 104,000 passengers passed through here.

Look, we've talked to one passenger and listen to her just talk about the idea of being ready for the amount of people who are going to be here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: They say it's going to be the busiest travel day since 2019. Did you go or were you ok with that?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, I was a little I was a little scared and excited. So we left super early. So we're used to Atlanta traffic. We know you had to leave early.

One of the parking decks was close, so we're good now once we get through TSA.

YOUNG: Let's ask what's your first and last name.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jamila Lovell.

YOUNG: Spell your first and last name for me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: JAMILA --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: So look all those people all across the country, not just in Atlanta, you're talking about New York, Miami, L.A., we know traffic is going to be up some 10 percent.

Yes, I stole this from Pete because we knew this location here was going to be busy.

All the airport lines are very long. TSA pre-check. You can see people who are just dying to get out of town.

We are told -- one family told us they spent $2,000 on tickets. They decided to make the decision to get out of town it was late. So Kate, all bets are off. Let's go.

BOLDUAN: It's not called stealing if you give attribution. So you're just being accurate. Thats what -- exactly.

It's great to see you, thank you. Pete, thank you as always.

Amara.

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, [unclear]

CNN sports anchor Andy Scholes is joining us with more now. I mean Andy, this is a major change. What do we know?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Well, Amara, we know that the days of the amateur college athlete are basically over. The NCAA and Power Five conferences, they hope by reaching this settlement that they can stabilize college athletics after just years and years of lawsuits.

But we still have lots of questions remaining even with these settlements, but any athletes who played a Division One sport from 2016 to the present, they have a claim for some of that $2.7 billion.

Now, how they plan on paying the star quarterback versus the pole vaulter, that's still not clear. The $2.7 billion expected to be paid out over a ten-year period.

Now, if athletes opt into the settlements they have to agree to not sue in any further antitrust lawsuit against the NCAA. Now, a big part of this deal is the news that schools will now for the first time ever directly pay athletes in the future.

So each school in the Big Four conferences moving forward and I say four because the PAC-12 is no longer. Those conferences in those schools, they're going to the ability to spend a maximum of roughly $20 million per year on direct payments to their athletes.

And it's going to be up to each school on how much to allocate that money to each athlete while remaining compliant with Title 9 laws.

Now, the direct paid athletes, it could start as soon as the fall of 2025. The deal it still has to be approved by the federal judges overseeing the case and Amara, like I mentioned still so much to be determined with this settlement like, for example, what's this going to do to the roster size, you know, particularly in football? They're likely going to have to have less than 120 players if they're paying everyone and you know, what does this mean for all of those Olympic sports out there that typically don't make any money for schools, will they keep those around?

So, you know, we have a settlement, but like I mentioned, Amara still so many things to be determined with it.

WALKER: Yes absolutely. And what about the schools? Are you hearing anything in terms of reaction?

SCHOLES: Well, we've heard -- we've heard from Notre Dame. They aren't very happy with the settlement, but they understand it was necessary.

The president Reverend John Jenkins, they released a statement and I'll read it to you.

[09:09:45]

SCHOLES: This is what he said. "The settlement though undesirable in many respects, and promising only temporary stability is necessary to avoid what would be the bankruptcy of college athletics. To save the great American institution of college sports Congress must pass legislation that will preempt the current patchwork of state laws established that our athletes are not employees, but students seeking college degrees and provide protection from further antitrust lawsuits that will allow colleges to make and enforce rules that will protect our student athletes and help ensure competitive equity among our teams."

So Amara, as you can see, Notre Dame and other colleges around the country, they still want Congress to kind of step in here because there still needs to be a greater framework of how all of this and the NIL money and how all that will work because it's just been chaos in college football, in college sports altogether since NIL came around and without really strict laws, it's still a lot of uncertainty.

WALKER: Yes, absolutely. So many questions to be answered still.

Andy Scholes, good to see you. Thank you so much. John.

BERMAN: So one of the Americans charged for having ammunition in Turks and Caicos is about to learn his fate this morning. Sentencing really just minutes away. It could mean up to 12 years in prison.

And breaking overnight Sean "Diddy" Combs hit with a new lawsuit. Another woman is accusing "Diddy" of sexually assaulting her four different times.

And as we look at the extreme weather threats that persists this holiday weekend, the National Hurricane Center has released an ominous outlook for hurricanes this year.

[09:11:18]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: So new this morning, the Biden campaign enlisting movie star and known Trump critic, Robert de Niro, for an ad targeting what they see as the dangers of a second Trump presidency.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT DE NIRO, ACTOR: We knew Trump was out of control when he was president. And then he lost the 2020 election and snap -- desperately trying to hold on the power.

Now he's running again. This time threatening to be a dictator, terminate the constitution.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. With us now Democratic strategist Matt Bennett and CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings.

Matt, what do you think about this. Look, I know it's not the only messaging that the Biden campaign is doing, but how much do you focus on the issue that the "dictator" in quotation marks issue as opposed to other things.

MATT BENNETT, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I think there's a lot of evidence that Americans are really worried about a return to power of a guy who's as unstable and chaotic as Trump.

And it is just undeniably true that he has been saying things every single day that are incredibly alarming to people who believe in the American system of government.

So this has been the theme that Joe Biden has been running on since the day he announced his run for president in 2020. He has never really changed. His opponent obviously is going to be the same this time. So I think it's a consistent theme that has worked before and I think it is -- goes to the heart of the thing that Americans are most worried about when it comes to Trump.

They may be looking back at his economy through rose-colored glasses, but they know that he is an agent of chaos and is very dangerous.

BERMAN: Scott, what happens when Americans are reminded of these things.

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, you can just ask the pollsters as Americans reflect on Trump and Biden and their respective presidencies.

Overwhelmingly, Donald Trump is getting the nod from the American people. They remember his presidency far better than what Matt just described. I mean, these videos, I mean it's really what Joe Biden has, its fear and dishonesty.

I mean, terminate the constitution in that is a fear tactic. No one's running on terminating the United States constitution.

But I think Biden is getting increasingly panicky and increasingly dishonest and I think you're going to see more, more of that. They think their base is more motivated by this kind of panicky fear mongering than they are by Joe Bidens policy, which you know, maybe that's true because if you look at the polls, even Democrats aren't so hot to trot on what Biden has accomplished in office.

BERMAN: Look, I will say, we ran the video yesterday, we don't have it right now, but Steve Bannon, big Trump supporter, is out there saying, you know, we want your fear. We welcome your fear. You know, this is what you're going to see when Trump is elected authority, Matt.

So is there a double-edge sword here? And Matt if -- if Americans did care as much about this, I'm not going to speculate (ph) whether they should or not, but if they did won't you see more evidence of it in the polls.

BENNETT: I don't think yet. At the moment, people are still responding pollsters with a real focus on the things that they're seeing in their lives. And there's no question that people are worried about inflation. That is probably the thing that is driving the polls at the moment.

But Scott can try to wish this away all he wants Donald Trump said that he would terminate parts of the constitution, came right out of his mouth.

And there's a whole bunch of things that you're going to see in Biden campaign ads over the course of the next five months that make clear to people that he cannot be entrusted with power. That is the most fundamental question.

Will he keep us safe? That is -- that is the first question people ask when they pick a president and Trump cannot be trusted to keep us safe. He is too chaotic. He is too authoritarian-minded, and he's too narcissistic to be the president of the United States.

[09:19:47]

BERMAN: Scott, I want to shift gears if I can to the messaging we heard from Donald Trump in the Bronx overnight reaching out overtly to minority voters. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: African-Americans are getting slaughtered, Hispanic-Americans are getting slaughtered.

And these millions and millions of people that are coming into our country, the biggest impact and the biggest negative impact is against our black population and our Hispanic population who are losing their jobs, losing their housing, losing everything they can lose.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The right message Scott.

JENNINGS: Well, that whole rally, the crowd, the message, it is reflective of the new Republican Party that Trump is remaking. More working class, multi-racial, I mean it's more populist. I mean this is a message that is I think working with different populations and he singled them right out -- Hispanics and African-Americans, particularly a working class, portions of those two groups.

I think you're going to continue to hear it and this is going to the core of who we have always thought, you know, Democrats have branded themselves as the party of the working class.

Well Trump's going right after it and he's not -- and he's agnostic about race. He's going right after it, and no matter what kind of working class American you are, he wants you.

BERMAN: Matt you know, and you worked on the idea of political realignments for years. Do you see a political realignment underway?

BENNETT: There's no question that there is somewhat of a realignment around educational attainment, the Democrats are attracting a lot more college-educated voters than we did before.

And Scott is right, there is -- there has been an erosion of Democratic support among non-college votes of all races. And that is very worrying.

I mean, Biden's going to win black voters by overwhelming margins, but not by the same margins probably that he did last time. And that means we have real work to do to communicate to the people of all races about, you know, what the next Biden administration would look like?

And if they entrust the government to Trump, what that would mean for them. And how dangerous that would be.

BERMAN: Matt Bennett, Scott Jennings -- both of you have a wonderful holiday weekend.

Stay safe. Thank you.

BENNETT: Thank you.

JENNINGS: Thanks, John.

BOLDUAN: Today marks two years since the massacre at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, two years since nine 19 children and two teachers were killed there. And two years later, the families of those children, are still fighting for accountability and announcing a new settlement.

I'm going to speak with one of those families next.

And an invitation to the Israeli prime minister to address Congress is dividing the Democratic party right now, the length some Democrats say they're ready to go to show their opposition.

We'll be back.

[09:22:40]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Today marks two years since a gunman entered an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas killing 19 children and two of their teachers in one of the worst school shootings in history.

It was a day defined by colossal failure. Law enforcement on the scene waited 77 minutes before going in to take out the gunman. A police response that shocked and horrified the nation.

In the two years since the families have fought and fought for answers and accountability in what the Justice Department eventually concluded were quote, "cascading failures in the police response".

The families this week reached a $2 million settlement with the city of Uvalde, and they also promised more legal action to come.

Now today, all of these sweet faces, these fourth-grade children would be, should be celebrating the end of sixth grade. Among them should be nine-year-old Jackie Casarez.

I spoke with her uncle on this tragic anniversary last year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESSE RIZO, UNCLE OF UVALDE VICTIM JACKIE CASAREZ: It's overwhelming sadness, somber moment. You know, this is a day that you reflect. You think about their love to be shared, you know, the children.

And what Jackins like you can lean on faith and you can lean on your friends and the community and the people that reach out from across the world and tell us, you know, that they love us. And so we lean on that. We can know that. But tomorrow is another day and tomorrow, the same questions lingers

to be honest with you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:28:47]

BOLDUAN: Jackie's uncle Jesse Rizo is with us once again.

It's an anniversary that I -- you know, it breaks my heart that I have been marking with you now more than once.

Does it feel like it's been a year since our last conversation? I mean, does it feel like it's been two years since you lost Jackie, Jesse?

RIZO: In some ways, you know, it seems like an -- like an eternity. In some ways, it seems like it was just yesterday. Even though the moments leading up to today, the moments leading up to 11:30 this morning, very difficult.

You know, at the beginning of the month of May is very challenging to everybody, you know, the community, obviously, especially the parents, the last goodbyes, the last hugs, you know, the last pictures that they had that day.

So the award ceremony, the -- everything just comes right back. It resurfaces. The most challenging thing will occur today around that time, you know, and it's going to be heartbreaking, heart-wrenching. It will reach your soul and, you know -- so it's very difficult. Yes, ma'am.

BOLDUAN: Yeah. Yeah.

You know, some things -- I was taking note of kind of making a list of some of the things that have changed in the last year. The Justice Department report came out pointing to cast -- this cascade of failures as they put it on the part of the city and law enforcement that day, the $2 million settlement just announced, as I said, with the city of Uvalde for the families and a huge federal lawsuit filed against nearly 100 officers involved that day.