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Teamsters Won't Endorse In Presidential Race; Lawyer: Sean "Diddy" Combs To Appeal Bail Denial For Third Time; New Video Shows Aftermath Of Titan Submersible Explosion. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired September 19, 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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[14:33:57]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: The president of the Teamsters Union is defending its decision not to endorse either candidate in this year's presidential election, despite endorsing a candidate and specifically a Democrat in every election going back to 2000.
Speaking to CNN, he explained his reasoning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEAN O'BRIEN, PRESIDENT, TEAMSTERS UNION: This was not an endorsement for the Republican Party. This is a wake-up call that the system is broken.
If far -- it's far too long that the Democratic Party -- and I'm a Democrat -- has just got there a way. We need to hold them accountable. But this is an opportunity as well for both parties to take a hard look.
Our goal in this whole thing is to work bipartisan and get things done for working people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: The decision is seen as a blow for Vice President Harris. But while the larger union is withholding it's endorsement, the Teamsters' Black Caucus is endorsing Harris.
And its chairman, James "Curb" Curbeam, is joining us now to talk a little bit about that.
Curb, Sean O'Brien also said that one reason for not endorsing Harris was actually a lack of a commitment that the government will not interfere or impede our right to strike.
[14:35:04]
He specifically cited the 2022 rail strike. What did you make of that?
JAMES "CURB" CURBEAM, CHAIRMAN, TEAMSTERS BLACK CAUCUS: If I'm not mistaken, Congress is the one that impeded that strike. And you know, we -- in the Railroad Labor Act, Congress is the ultimate decision- maker when you come into strikes on the Railroad Labor Act.
The president will and can step in. I don't think President Biden got involved in that. I think Congress is the one that actually intervened and tried to -- actually started mediating those negotiations, if I'm not mistaken.
KEILAR: I wonder what you think when he says that this should be a wake-up call for Democrats. He says he personally is a Democrat.
It is hard to ignore that, when you look at some of these key states where union members are very represented, there does seem to be this realignment that is going on.
Shouldn't there be some kind of wake-up call for Democrats since they are seeing some of those voters cleaved from what are normally dependable voters for them?
CURBEAM: I think it should be a wake-up call to all politicians. At the end of the day, the workforce is changing. We are having more engaged workers again. And our union members are not influenced as they once was.
We have to encourage our members to be active in who to vote for. And our members have they own minds. And they're moving in a different direction.
And we've got to make sure, as union leaders and advocates, that's from stewards, the business agents, rank-and-file members, elected officials. We've got to make sure we educate our cohorts about what is best for us.
And I say "us" as working people. We cannot vote against own best interests.
And we talk about strikes? Donald Trump laughed and talking about strikes. He -- he applauded Elon Musk on rai workers. And any elected official, past or present, to laugh at us and workers standing up for their rights is a problem.
KEILAR: You, I know, take issue with these internal polls that the Teamsters released yesterday that showed strong rank-and-file support for Trump. Why?
CURBEAM: For one, we have a lot of members that say that the straw- poll votes that we've done at our local unions, should be the ones that we go off of. We had a lot of people that don't receive the magazine at they house. We have actually been discouraged.
Again, I don't know the one that was 40,000 people was contacted. I wasn't. I attended my union meeting, took part in that straw-poll vote. It was dead down the center, a third, a, third, a third, pretty much Biden and Trump, Cornell West, undecided.
No -- no commitment. But we had a very low turnout in Malmo (ph). And you know, I can -- I can say I believe and my conversations with people around the country, it was a low-turnout also. I look at the percentage-wise of those polls and I ask, what is the
number of the percentage? You know, when we talk about a percentage what is that percentage of?
KEILAR: Curb, I do want to ask you. I think when people think about the union vote and the union rank and file, they often are thinking about white working-class voters. But obviously, the union vote is not monolithic. It is more diverse than that.
Is there a racial divide in the union vote that you see is growing?
CURBEAM: I don't. We have white colleagues just like black colleagues that is outraged about the no endorsement.
I had a gentleman that called me last night from Ohio, a white gentleman, that say, you know, thank you for doing what you're doing, brother, and I stand with you. I'm expressing my concerns and my disappointment to our international entire local.
So it's not about racism. It's about the working class. And the working class is on the attack. Forty-Five made it known that he was going to attack the working people.
[14:40:03]
And we've got to make sure we remind our brothers and sisters and our entire community, the entire working class, not just the union members, but the working class, that we don't need to go back to what Forty-Five had on Sunday (ph).
KEILAR: James Curbeam, thank you for taking the time to speak with us today.
CURBEAM: Thank you.
KEILAR: And ahead, what is next for the wide-ranging investigation into Sean "Diddy" Combs as he remains in custody on federal sex trafficking and racketeering charges?
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[14:45:10]
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Right now, Grammy-winning music mogul, Sean "Diddy" Combs is in a jail cell facing the potential reality that he may never get out. For a second time, he was denied release while awaiting criminal trial yesterday. His lawyer says he will again appeal.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARC AGNIFILO, ATTORNEY FOR SEAN "DIDDY" COMBS: We're not giving up by a long shot. I told Mr. Combs I'm going to try and get his case to trial as quickly as possible. I'm going to try and minimize the amount of time he spent ends in very, very difficult, and I believe, inhuman housing conditions. (END VIDEO CLIP)
SANCHEZ: The 54-year-old is charged with racketeering conspiracy, sex trafficking, and other crimes for allegedly forcing multiple women into sex parties and then trying to cover it all up.
CNN correspondent, Kara Scannell, has been following every step of this case.
So, Kara, what comes next?
KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, as you said, Sean Combs' attorney is still trying to get him out from behind those bars at the jail in Brooklyn, this kind of notorious prison there, where inmates are held as they're awaiting trial.
And so he said he's going to try the appeal route. But he's also going to try to ask the judge in this case to recommend that Combs be transferred to a county jail in New Jersey where he thinks he will have better ability to help prepare in his defense for this trial.
But that is another long shot. The judge doesn't have any authority to move him. It would just be a recommendation. But that is something that they're also trying to work on.
Again, though, this is a high hurdle. Two judges have now rejected and denied giving Combs any bail. Their concerns about the physical violence that was caught on that tape that CNN had obtained in March, as well as the -- the evidence that has been laid out in this case.
Including prosecutors pointing to numerous conversations that Combs has had with some women involved in this, whether they are witnesses or victims. That is something that the judges were also focused on in both of the hearings over the past two days.
And what we also learned from these hearings, prosecutors saying they have a massive amount of evidence in this case. They've collected over 100 laptops, cell phones.
And what we learned is that, on Tuesday, that the head of Combs' security was served with a search warrant for his electronic devices. And a prosecutor said in court yesterday that that is because they have learned of that individuals personal involvement in some of the issues that are under investigation.
So this investigation, as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Damian Williams said the other day, is active and ongoing.
It seems that they are still taking steps to try to obtain evidence in this case as they are working to build out this this investigation. There's charges already against Combs and the prosecutor signaled it's very possible there could be additional charges, whether that's against Combs are other individuals still remains to be seen -- Boris?
SANCHEZ: Kara Scannell, thank you so much for the update. Still to come on NEWS CENTRAL, stunning new details about the doomed
Titan submersible. This, as an OceanGate employee tearfully recounts the day the vessel imploded with five people aboard.
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[14:52:43]
KEILAR: This is some new video that shows the aftermath of the disastrous Titan submersible voyage. A large chunk of debris from the vessel -- you can see it there -- on the ocean floor.
The footage being released as part of a U.S. Coast Guard investigation into what caused the catastrophic implosion that killed all five people on board.
Let's go straight now to CNN's Brynn Gingras with the latest on this.
Brynn, what are you learning?
BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brianna, so the testimony for the third day of this investigation in front of this panel, that just wrapped up.
And it came from a scientific director of OceanGate. Remember, that's the company that owned the submersible and ran it.
His name is Steven Ross. He gave some pretty shocking testimony towards the end of it, not getting into too much detail, but did talk about how there was a malfunction of the sub just days prior to that implosion that you just talked about.
He described the weather conditions at the time. He described what it was like inside that submersible, and the five people on board, what happened to them.
I want you to listen to his testimony.
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DR. STEVEN ROSS, FORMER OCEANGATE SCIENTIFIC DIRECTOR: The pilot crashed into the rear bulkhead. The rest of the passengers tumbled about. I ended up standing on the rear bulkhead. One passenger was hanging upside down. And the other two managed to wedge themselves into the -- the bow end cap.
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GINGRAS: Now again, Ross describing an incident that happened just days prior to that mission where there was that catastrophic implosion. And really shocking testimony for this panel.
It does come after there was a little bit more positive testimony coming from someone else who worked with OceanGate, a mission specialist, who two got emotional at times today. Recounting hurt her with the company, saying that she lost a lot of friends there, that she learned a lot while working with them, and that those five people who were on that mission were excited to be on that mission.
It was starkly different than testimony we have been hearing for the last two days in front of this very important panel with the Coast Guard.
[14:55:06]
One person describing himself really as a whistleblower, saying that there were problems with that company, from top to bottom, when it came to the safety of this submersible, as well as just the operation of the company in general.
So we're getting really into the deep dive of this submersible. What happened to it? That is the purpose of this investigation and to really come to some sort of conclusion of what happened, and how can it be prevented from ever happening again -- guys?
KEILAR: Oh, those details.
Brynn Gingras, live for us on this, thank you so much.
We are following some other breaking news. Hezbollah launching it least 17 attacks into northern Israel. That's after a wave of coordinated attacks targeting pagers and walkie-talkies in Lebanon.
This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.
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