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Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) is Interviewed about Immigration; USDA to Test Raw Milk; Jury Deliberates in Subway Death Trial; Voters Thoughts on Protester Pardons; Golden Globe Nominations. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired December 09, 2024 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Who were brought here when they were young, not legally, but are still here now. He said he wants to work with you, I imagine, how?

REP. ADRIANO ESPAILLAT (D-NY): Well, we were open to have a - a good discussion. In fact, we already had bipartisan discussion. The Dignity Act, which is sponsored by Maria Elvira Salazar, a Republican from Florida, has been one that we've spoken about. And we're open to a constructive discussion about dreamers, farm workers, family reunification. These are issues that I think are important to the American people. And that poll very well. Dreamers may be polling over 75 percent of the country. So, we're willing to support good things, but we will oppose rigorously bad things.

BERMAN: What are bad things?

ESPAILLAT: Bad things is the end of birthright citizenship. Bad things is roundups and churches and emergency room and schools of people that maybe committed an infraction, not a criminal act of vicious violent murder or anything like that, but somebody that maybe got stopped with a taillight in some street of New York City.

BERMAN: You say you're going to oppose that. Is your anticipation that President-elect Trump, when he comes back into office, will do the mass deportations he's promised?

ESPAILLAT: We will see. It requires a level of infrastructure and support from government agencies to really carry this through. But we will educate people of their rights. We will try to provide the legal background and support that they need. And everything should be done within the parameters of the law. We are still a nation that's governed by the rule of law. We shouldn't violate that concept. That also is a very important part of America.

BERMAN: How will you fight that in the minority? I mean you are taking over the Congressional Hispanic Caucus at a really interesting time.

ESPAILLAT: We will approach that as we come through. Again, we want to have a constructive relationship with things that are good. The president wants to work on dreamers. We will go to the table with that. If he wants to work with farm workers and family reunification, we will do that as well. But if he's going to come in and do massive deportation, which often turns messy, if not inhumane, we will oppose it.

BERMAN: If I can ask you about a question of parochial interest. New York City politics.

Mayor Eric Adams, of course, under indictment. He is a Democrat now, but he was asked whether he intends to stay as a member of the Democratic Party.

Let me play a little sound of him talking about this. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You were enrolled as a Republican from 1997 to 2001. Would you ever consider rejoining the GOP?

MAYOR ERIC ADAMS (D), NEW YORK CITY: The party that's the most important for me is the American party. I'm a part of the American party. I love this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, that wasn't a no.

ESPAILLAT: That wasn't a yes either.

BERMAN: Do you think he would consider going back to the Republicans?

ESPAILLAT: That's his choice. And I work with the mayor. And we will have that discussion. And we will cross that bridge when we get there.

I will support the Democratic nominee to be mayor of the city of New York.

BERMAN: Even if it's not him?

ESPAILLAT: Whoever that may be.

BERMAN: All right, Congressman Adriano Espaillat, the incoming chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

ESPAILLAT: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

BERMAN: Jessica.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: There are new clues in the massive manhunt for the killer of a health care CEO. Are police any closer to catching the suspect?

And jurors returned to deliberations this morning with fewer charges to discuss in the trial of Daniel Penny.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [08:38:07]

BERMAN: All right, this morning we're learning the Department of Agriculture is expanding testing of the nation's raw milk supply to better track the bird flu that has been spreading in the nation's dairy cattle since March.

With us now, CNN's Meg Tirrell.

Talk to us about this tracking strategy. How is that going to work?

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, so they're calling this a national milk testing strategy for H5N1. They're starting with six states, four of which already have testing in place, three of which have detected bird flu in their cattle herds, three of which haven't. So, they're really trying to get a handle on maybe in the states that haven't found this yet, does this exist?

This is going to start rolling out December 16th. And what it will require is nationwide testing of unpasteurized milk. So, raw milk, before it's gone into pasteurization. This isn't just milk that's intended to be sold raw. We have also heard about some H5N1 found in raw milk samples in California, for example. But this is a nationwide testing strategy for milk that is unpasteurized, that is going into the pasteurization process.

The goal, according to the agriculture secretary, is really to put the U.S. on a path to stopping and being able to control H5N1 in dairy cattle. As we've seen, 15 states at least have detected H5N1 in dairy cattle herds. So, this is something that, you know, we call this bird flu, but this year, of course, has really been found widespread through dairy cattle in multiple states, John.

BERMAN: You said 15 states. Overall, what's the status of bird flu in the United States right now?

TIRRELL: Yes, so we know that it is a multi-state, ongoing outbreak in dairy cattle, though California really is the one that's been reporting this most frequently in wild birds. The CDC notes, of course, this is widespread. We also see this in poultry flocks as well. And so, when you start to see the human cases, those come both from exposure to dairy cattle, as well as to poultry.

[08:40:00]

This year, according to the CDC, there have been 58 confirmed human cases. And actually, we've been hearing from states and more local municipalities that there may even be a few more than that right now.

For people, the CDC says the person to person spread, they say that there is none, and that the current public health risk is low. Of course, the risk to people who work with animals is higher. And that's what this testing strategy is designed to do. If you can understand that this is in dairy herds, for example, you can put into place better biosecurity measures and really try to stop that from infecting more people. BERMAN: Yes, a lot of different complexities here with different implications.

Meg Tirrell, thank you very much.

Jessica.

DEAN: The jury in the Daniel Penny trial in the death - subway death of Jordan Neely is headed back to the courtroom for deliberations on a lesser charge after they were unable to reach a unanimous verdict on a manslaughter charge. Penny now facing just one count of criminally negligent homicide in Neely's death. And CNN's Gloria Pazmino is outside court with the latest.

Gloria, do we have any sense at this moment how these deliberations might go today?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jessica, if it's anything like they went last week, this is a jury that has demonstrated that they are having a hard time getting to an agreement. It was two times last week that the jury came back and told the judge they were hung on the first charge, the most serious charge of the two, manslaughter in the second degree.

And it was after the jury came back and said, we cannot get to an agreement, that the DA floated the idea of dropping the first charge. And the judge eventually ended up approving that motion to dismiss.

Now, they are looking at this second charge, the lesser of the two, criminally negligent homicide. Now, just because one is gone doesn't mean that the second charge is necessarily any easier on this jury. And they have a lot of evidence that they need to go through.

So far, they've shown that they are engaged and they have been looking at the evidence and the testimony that was presented here throughout the past six weeks. So, we'll see if they get to an agreement today or if this will continue to go on for a few more days.

DEAN: And, Gloria, what's the defense said about this dropped charge?

PAZMINO: Well, look, this was a very positive development for the defense team. Daniel Penny's lawyers told me last week that they were happy to see the first charge go away. But it was also another opportunity for them to once again motion for mistrial. They said that they should not be dropping charges and just asking the jury to move on to the next one, because it is, in their words, coercive.

So, they are certainly setting up the path for a potential appeal down the line. But there's no question that they were relieved on Friday when their client, in the span of a day, went from facing a maximum of 15 years in prison, had he been convicted on the first charge, to now just four years in prison if he is convicted of this second charge. So, it was certainly a positive development for them. They told me that they remain confident that the jury will evaluate the evidence and choose to acquit their client.

Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Gloria Pazmino with the latest from that New York courthouse. Thank you so much.

John.

BERMAN: All right, Donald Trump has promised to pardon the January 6th rioters his first day in office. How do voters feel about that?

And Taylor Swift, for the first time in years, does not have a concert date on her calendar, or does she? The intrigue that I'm imagining in my head right now that might be surrounding Taylor Swift.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:48:12]

BERMAN: All right, this morning, Donald Trump says he will pardon the January 6th rioters his first day in office. He said this as part of his first really major sit-down interview since he was elected president once again. But how do voters feel about that, the January 6th rioters?

With us now, CNN's senior data reporter Harry Enten.

So, what do voters think about it?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: In a word, they think it's a terrible idea. Terrible, terrible, terrible. Pardon - pardoning for the January 6th protesters, oppose it, 64 percent. About two-thirds of Americans oppose it. Just 30 percent favor it.

And more than that, more than that, this Ipsos poll asked, you know, should he prioritize it to be like the first thing he does when he gets into office? Just 1 percent say it should be Trump's top priority.

So, in a word, it's a terrible, terrible idea - I guess that's two words and the idea is a third word in there - for Trump to pardon the January 6th protesters. Even among Republicans, it's only a slight majority, of course usually Trump gets, you know, 80, 90 percent among Republicans. In this case, he's getting less than 60 percent on the idea of pardoning the January 6th protesters.

So, no, voters really dislike it. How about this, Americans strongly dislike the idea of these pardons for the January 6th protesters.

BERMAN: Yes, when you see numbers like this, it's not just on party lines here. The sort of bipartisan condemnation of the idea.

ENTEN: Correct.

BERMAN: Why?

ENTEN: Why? Why? Well, what's a word to describe the January 6th protesters? Patriotism. Patriotism comes in at just 33 percent. I think a lot of those who want those folks to be pardoned believe that they were patriotic in their actions on January 6, 2021. But voters don't see it that way.

How about insurrection, which is a word a lot who don't like the January 6th protesters say. Insurrection, 53 percent. The majority say that the actions on January 6th was, in fact, an insurrection. So, the idea that there's opposition to pardoning them makes a whole heck of a lot of sense, when the fact is, most folks oppose the actions of the January 6th protesters, and most of them thought that they were taking part in an insurrection, which, John, is a very, very strong word.

[08:50:12]

And yet the majority of Americans here, 53 percent say that is a word to describe the January 6th protesters.

BERMAN: Yes. And when you look at this right - when you look at it right here, you still see 64 percent oppose it. How then did Donald Trump get elected?

ENTEN: Yes, this is, I think, the most interesting little nugget here, right, which is, Donald Trump tells you what he's going to do. And then he goes ahead and does it.

So, take a look here, which was, will Trump try and pardon the January 6th protesters. This was a poll that was taken before the election. And the vast majority of voters believed that he would. Eighty-one percent said that he would try and pardon most of them. Just 19 percent said, no, he would not.

And, of course, this 81 percent includes folks who are opposed - who are opposed to the idea of pardoning - pardoning those January 6th protesters, yet they still voted for Donald Trump.

I think what's going on here, John, is pretty simple, which is, folks knew he was going to do it, and they just really didn't care all that much. Yes, they were opposed, but it was low down on the sort of list of important issues for them. There were issues that were more important. The economy, for instance, was more important. The idea essentially, you know, that Joe Biden's approval rating was only about 40 percent. Most voters thought the country was going in the wrong direction. So, they were willing to look past some of the actions that they thought that Donald Trump would do in office. Actions that they didn't like for the things that they thought that he would do that they would like. And so, they were willing to vote for him, even though they didn't like the idea and they thought he was going to do it anyway.

BERMAN: That's just an interesting number, 81 percent thought he would do it, 64 percent oppose it. What that tells you, people just didn't care.

ENTEN: People just didn't care. And Donald - they do - Donald Trump does a lot of things voters don't like and they just don't care. And I think Trump knew that. And that's why he said it.

BERMAN: Or at least not enough to make a decision at the polls.

ENTEN: Exactly.

BERMAN: All right, Harry Enten, thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BERMAN: Jessica.

DEAN: And on our radar this morning, Merriam-Webster's 2024 word of the year, polarization. That is defined as a division into two sharply contrasting opposites. The online dictionary site says searches for that word grew dramatically over the past year.

Also this morning, ten people are recovering from injuries after a scary moment during a holiday parade in Palm Springs, California. A police traffic officer on a motorcycle crashed into bystanders. That bike sliding into the crowd. Witnesses said the officer was popping a wheelie and lost control, but thankfully none of those injuries are said to be life threatening. But an investigation is underway.

And a passenger on a domestic flight in Mexico is in custody after authorities say he tried to divert that aircraft to the United States. Kind of a wild story that happened there that actually did not happen. The plane actually made an emergency landing in Guadalajara. And the man was detained on - and the flight was gone - went on as scheduled.

John.

BERMAN: All right, thank you so much, Jessica.

Happening now, and by that I mean like actually happening at this moment, Golden Globe nominations being announced as we speak. So far there have been nominations for "Wicked," "Gladiator Two," "The Bear," "Shogun," "Slow Horses" and so much more.

CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister is here.

We're lucky to have you here.

So, give us the dirt.

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: So, this is going to be a big awards season for "Wicked," right? This is already one of the biggest movies of the year. And now getting four nominations for the Golden Globe Awards. And with the Golden Globes, it's really the kickoff to awards season, John. So, I'm already looking ahead to the Oscars, which are in March. And it's being predicted that "Wicked" could actually win for best picture at the Oscars. And I think the showing today, Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo getting nominations and, of course, for the film, I think is a very good start for this major film.

BERMAN: This just in, I saw "Wicked" Friday night with my wife.

WAGMEISTER: And?

BERMAN: Well, my wife's been singing it nonstop since then. So, no matter how I feel about the movie, my feelings are a little bit tainted by - by how much I've been hearing it since Friday night. But that's an aside.

Talk to us about the TV shows that have been nominated.

WAGMEISTER: TV shows. So, one of your favorite shows, John, "Hacks," got tons of nominations.

BERMAN: I love "Hacks."

WAGMEISTER: Yes, I love "Hacks" too. So, there's a lot of our returning favorites that are nominated. Everything from "Hacks," to "The Bear, "Only Murders in the Building." Fun fact with "Only Murders in the Building," Selena Gomez, a double nominee this morning, being nominated in the TV and film category. The film, "Emilia Perez," which is also one of the most nominated films, she got a nom for that and "Only Murders in the Building." But also on the TV side, some new, really buzzy favorites. The Netflix show on the Menendez brothers getting some nominations. And also, if you haven't seen this, you have to watch, but "Nobody Wants This," which is a rom com starring Adam Brody, my teenage crush, on Netflix. Both Adam Brody and Kristen Bell getting nominations this morning.

BERMAN: I am familiar with that. Just on "The Bear," is it nominated as a comedy - comedy hit?

WAGMEISTER: It is. I know. It's the constant debate, right?

BERMAN: Yes. It's not a debate. It's not a comedy.

WAGMEISTER: What - it's not a comedy. We're settling it right here. It's not a comedy.

BERMAN: All right. Yes, all right, the Golden Globes can't get that right.

[08:55:00]

All right, so the Taylor Swift, it's all over. Like, Taylor's done. Like we're never going to talk about Taylor Swift again?

WAGMEISTER: Never going to hear from her again. Yes, no, never ever. But never ever getting back together actually.

So, last night she wrapped up her Era's Tour, 152 shows. And since we're talking about movies and "Wicked." To put this into context, the Era's Tour has been going on for so long that "Wicked" went into production, filmed part one and part two, and was released all in the time that Taylor was on her Era's Tour. It's been almost two years, John.

BERMAN: That's a long tour.

WAGMEISTER: That's a long tour.

BERMAN: So, what does she do next?

WAGMEISTER: Whatever she wants, really. But during the Era's Tour she released three new albums. And we - let's - we have more on this. Let's take a look.

BERMAN: Yes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TAYLOR SWIFT, MUSICIAN: Here with us at the Era's Tour -

WAGMEISTER: Taylor Swift takes her final bow of the Era's Tour in Vancouver, wrapping up 152 sold out shows, is 21 countries on five continents, over a span of almost two years, in front of 10 million screaming fans, singing along to every lyric.

While taking in the epic productions, shows lasting more than three hours, the pop superstar performed an impressive set list, up to 44 songs each night.

The Era's Tour launched in March 2023 as the world was emerging from the Covid pandemic.

SWIFT: Welcome to the Era's Tour.

WAGMEISTER: When tickets first went on sale, Ticketmaster's site crashed. Taylor's estimated take, in the ballpark of $2 billion, easily the highest grossing tour in music history. In fact, Swift already made history before the tour was even halfway over, when Era's became the first tour to ever cross the $1 billion mark.

The tour covering her entire 18-year career. The set list representing the many hits from each Era of her music repertoire.

Swift's star power now right up there with Elvis Presley and the Beatles.

And her personal connection to her fans, the Swifties, is unrivaled.

SWIFT: These are songs that I have written about my life or things that I felt at one point in time.

WAGMEISTER: They've made her Spotify's most streamed artist for two years running.

They've even made the earth shake. Swifties dancing to the beat of Swift's performance of "Shake It Off" during her tour stops in Seattle caused seismic activity equivalent to a 2.3 magnitude earthquake.

Swift's influence setting off shockwaves in politics too.

SWIFT: Please register to vote for something else that's very important. WAGMEISTER: Fans rushed to theaters for her Era's blockbuster movie in 2023, and to by the Era's Tour book when it was released last week, becoming the fastest selling new book release of the past four years. A phenomenon coined the Taylor Swift effect boosted hundreds of industries, venues and even local economies where her concerts were held.

But Swift's Era's Tour isn't just about the music, it's also about the unforgettable memories.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then we pinky promised to be best friends for life.

WAGMEISTER: As Swift ends one era to enter another, she now gets to focus on her family and friends.

SWIFT: My boyfriend, Travis.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WAGMEISTER: I'm really not kidding when I said that she released three albums during this tour. She did. And one of them, "The Tortured Poets Department," was a double album. So, when you ask what's next, I think it's just Taylor's world and we're all living in it. But probably another Taylor's version coming soon.

BERMAN: Yes, look, I grew up - I really did grow up during this whole tour. I feel like I've, you know, entered a new stage of adulthood. Why - why - why Canada? I mean, I love - I love Canada. Don't get me wrong, Canada is awesome. But if you're doing a world tour, 152 shows, you're from the United States, why end there?

WAGMEISTER: She should have ended it here.

BERMAN: Yes.

WAGMEISTER: So, we could have gone together last night.

BERMAN: Oh, missed by chance.

WAGMEISTER: And then we wouldn't have slept and we would have come singing all the songs together today.

BERMAN: Well, better that than "Wicked."

All right, Elizabeth Wagmeister, thank you very much.

WAGMEISTER: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: Great to see you.

A brand-new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

DEAN: Where is the gunman who killed a healthcare CEO on the streets of Manhattan? The search now entering its sixth day as police release new pictures of the suspect and comb through new clues. Meantime, President-elect Donald Trump laying out an aggressive plan

for tackling immigration in his second term. And it includes a willingness to work with Democrats to craft a plan to protect immigrants, known as dreamers.

A forceful denial from Jay-z this morning after an amended lawsuit accuses both him and Sean "Diddy" Combs of sexually assaulting a 13- year-old girl.

[09:00:03]

I'm Jessica Dean, alongside John Berman. Sara and Kate are out today. And this is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.