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Will Menendez Brothers Be Released?; World Series Set to Begin; Interview With Fmr. Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI). Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired October 25, 2024 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Esther Reyes directed the Peacock doc and tells CNN, Roy Rossello will testify if the court demands.

ESTHER REYES, DIRECTOR, "MENENDEZ + MENUDO: BOYS BETRAYED": He's an incredibly credible witness. I interviewed him for hours. He's very consistent.

WAGMEISTER: Not everyone thinks the Menendez brothers, who admit to the murders, should go free. But celebrities like Rosie O'Donnell and Kim Kardashian have led Hollywood's push for a renewed understanding of sexual abuse survivors today.

Docs like "Surviving R. Kelly" and "The Jinx" had real impact on the courts. Now another Hollywood production aims to tip the scales of justice.

ROBERT RAND, CO-EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, "MENENDEZ + MENUDO: BOYS BETRAYED": Some of the Menendez supporters were saying, well, where was Roy Rossello 30 years ago when the brothers were on trial?

But you have to understand that some people are so ashamed of being abuse survivors, they take that secret to their graves.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WAGMEISTER: Now, Roy Rossello, the former Menudo member, his allegation of rape seems to bolster the allegations made by Erik and Lyle Menendez, who, as you said, Jim, have always maintained the reason that they killed their parents was because their father was sexually abusing them.

Now, attorneys for the Menendez brothers, they say that, today, with increased awareness of sexual abuse survivors, especially young men, they believe that the jury could have deliberated differently if the trial was today, not back in the '90s.

Of course, that will now be up to the judge to see if they agree with the DA's recommendation to resentence them.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: All right, Elizabeth Warren, it is so true. Some of these documentaries, some of these Netflix specials, HBO specials, they have an impact. It is -- it absolutely happens from time to time, might happen in this case.

Elizabeth, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

More than 20 Menendez family members, including Kitty's sister, have called for the brothers' release. Here's part of their news conference last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOAN ANDERSEN VANDERMOLEN, SISTER OF KITTY MENENDEZ: As details of Lyle and Erik's abuse came to light, it became clear that their actions, while tragic, were the desperate response of two boys trying to survive the unspeakable cruel (sic) of their father.

ALLEN ANDERSON, NEPHEW OF KITTY MENENDEZ: Their father's abuse was dismissed, their trauma ignored, and their truth mocked by millions.

KAREN VANDERMOLEN, NIECE OF KITTY MENENDEZ: They have suffered enough. I ask the district attorneys to take into account the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: But now the brother of Kitty Menendez, the Menendez brothers' mother, is speaking out, saying that Lyle and Erik Menendez should stay in prison.

Kathy Cady joins us now. She's a victims rights lawyer who is representing Kitty Menendez's brother, Milton Andersen.

Kathy, thank you for being with us.

Why does he disagree that the brother should be released?

KATHY CADY, ATTORNEY FOR MILTON ANDERSEN: Well, first, I do want to say that, of course, if any child has been abused, that's horrific, right? So no one is going to say that would ever be OK.

But Mr. Andersen doesn't believe that those allegations actually -- that he believes their allegations, that it didn't actually occur. And based on what he saw during the trial he thinks that essentially that was made-up evidence by the Menendez brothers' attorney and, of course, that that's been perpetuated throughout the years.

So, based on what we know the evidence was, the brothers decided to kill their parents when they learned that the father was going to take them out of the will, which would mean that they would lose essentially tens of millions of dollars of inheritance. And it was only after that they went out and purchased shotguns.

And, of course, they went in and murdered their parents when their parents were in the den watching TV and eating dinner and they were not a threat to either of the brothers at any time during that, when they were watching dinner -- watching TV and eating dinner.

So it's because of that Mr. Andersen believes that the verdict that the jury rendered and the sentence that was handed down was appropriate and should stay. Even at the trial, there were two witnesses who testified that the Menendez brothers asked them to lie.

And one witness at that time testified during the trial that one of the brothers had asked her to come into court and to lie about being raped and to claim that she had been raped by the father. So, because of that and their apparent willingness to try to get people to come into court and lie for them, Mr. Andersen has concerns about you know what's going on right now.

And what's most important is that, of course, Gascon put off this decision for a long time. And it's only 11 days before the election that he comes in and makes this press announcement.

ACOSTA: Yes.

CADY: And even during the press announcement, he says, yes, I wasn't even really sure what I was going to do until an hour ago.

And that's not how this kind of decision should be made.

ACOSTA: Well, Kathy, I do wonder, though, if the abuse allegations are true, would Mr. Andersen have a different thinking on this?

[11:35:09]

Because there is this letter that has emerged as a part of the renewed scrutiny on this case that indicates that there might have been some abuse at that time. We're showing that letter right now.

Does it -- does that potentially become a game changer in all of this if it can be further established? Might your client be open to the possibility that maybe there was some abuse going on? I mean, that certainly changes the equation.

CADY: Well, I suppose it might, but that's also -- it's so theoretical, right?

And the problem with this letter is that we don't exactly know when it was written. It may have been written by one of the brothers, but we don't know when it was written. They're claiming it was written before the murders, but I will say I have gotten e-mails from people who claim to have proof that that letter was essentially written afterwards and is not a true document in terms of the date that it was written.

I don't know. I'm not an investigator. But, certainly, if I were Mr. Gascon, I would have wanted to look into all of that to make sure that my decision was being based on true facts.

ACOSTA: Yes, I mean, we're showing that letter right here.

And, I mean, on the third page, if I'm not mistaken, there appears to be a drawing of a snowman. I mean, this does appear to be a letter written by a younger person's hand. And I'm just wondering, if that can be established, doesn't that change things? And don't you have to -- as for Mr. Gascon, don't you think he has to

take a look at these things if there's new evidence that's emerging?

CADY: Well, absolutely.

And the district attorney's job is always to seek justice and do the right thing. The problem with Mr. Gascon is that he's had this case for 17 months, and it's only 11 days before the election where he's trailing by 30 points and he knows he's going to lose.

So he also doesn't have any fund-raising money, so he can get free publicity by holding press conferences. And we certainly hope that that's not what his motivation was, but given the way he's been acting in his comments yesterday that he only made up his mind an hour before the press conference, it's somewhat suspect.

So, again, if the boys were molested, that would be horrific. They have never claimed that that was the reason that they murdered their parents, or at least not when they originally spoke to their therapist. They were talking about how they hated their dad and they killed their mom, it was a mercy killing.

(CROSSTALK)

ACOSTA: It did come up at the time, though. It did come up at the time.

CADY: It came up when they testified, yes.

ACOSTA: Yes, it came up when they testified.

All right, Kathy Cady, thank you very much for your time.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:42:13]

ACOSTA: after three decades serving as a Republican representative for the state of Michigan, former Congressman Fred Upton did what some in the GOP would consider unthinkable. He is voting for a Democrat.

He says he has already cast his ballot for Vice President Kamala Harris, calling Donald Trump unfit to serve. Upton retired in 2022 after voting to impeach Trump.

And the former Congressman Fred Upton joins us now.

Congressman, good to see you, as always. We appreciate it.

Why did you make this decision?

FMR. REP. FRED UPTON (R-MI): Well, look, it's a mess in Washington. Let's face it.We're going to have to work together on a whole number of different issues. And rather than veering off to the right, the MAGA right, I'm

convinced that the Harris administration can in fact work with Republicans, as well as Democrats. She's indicated that she's going to have Republicans in her administration, including in the Cabinet.

I talked to Ray LaHood today. He's, of course, a former Republican member of Congress, was President Obama's secretary of transportation, did an outstanding job. And the way that we're going to solve these issues, whether it be immigration, the economy, gas prices, you have got to work together.

We're going to have a very closely divided Congress. And you can't just go off the deep end to the right. Harris, I think, can be a little bit of the glue to bring people together and move the country forward, the debt ceiling, I mean, all those different things, rather than divide us further.

ACOSTA: And, Congressman, you were one of 10 Republicans to vote to impeach Trump over the January 6 insurrection.

You're now warning that, if he loses -- quote -- "He will spread another big lie and that could spark even more political violence."

What are your concerns on that front? And what do you make of what General Kelly, General Milley have said in recent days, what's been reported about what they have had to say, that they believe Donald Trump is a fascist? Do you think he's a danger to the country?

UPTON: Well, a couple things.

I'm not close enough to the former president to label him as a fascist. I know that, in my service, I condemned his language when he went after a couple of my colleagues with racist terms, telling him to go back, in his words, to your shithole countries.

I condemned him on his -- what he said about Charlottesville. But it's -- and he's already calling for voter fraud, trying to insinuate that more people are going to vote in Michigan that live there, which is absolutely false.

So we continue to go with these claims. But, in Michigan, there was 145,000-vote difference between the two. And after a Republican state Senate investigation, they said maybe, maybe two people voted absentee that were dead. That doesn't make up for the 145,000-vote difference.

So it is what it is with him. He's not changed his message at all.

[11:45:02]

ACOSTA: Right.

UPTON: And, as he said after January 6, he had done everything totally appropriate.

I disagreed, which was why I voted to impeach him. ACOSTA: And just in the last 24 hours, he has been going off on

immigration, on that issue, and describing the U.S. as a garbage can. He's saying that America has become a garbage can because of immigration.

What's your response to that?

UPTON: Well, I firmly disagree. We're -- I have traveled around the world a few times in my job and privately as well.

We're a great country. We are respected by the rest of the world. We have a leadership position. I was fortunate to work in the Reagan administration at the White House for 4.5 years. We are the shining city on the hill. We need to maintain that, which is why it's important that we help the coalition in the fight against the aggressor, Putin, in Ukraine.

But the world's watching. It's just -- it's not just us here in America. We will all be so glad when this election is over, based on the ads and everything else. But the world's watching, and we need leadership. And that means, together, we have to confront the issues of the day, whether it be immigration or all the other things that need to be outlined.

ACOSTA: All right, former Republican Congressman Fred Upton of Michigan.

Congressman, thank you very much for your time. We appreciate it.

UPTON: You bet, thanks.

ACOSTA: All right.

All right, and two of the most storied franchises in baseball, well in sports history, for that matter, meet for game one of the World Series tonight, the New York Yankees and the L.A. Dodgers, East Coast versus West Coast.

CNN's Natasha Chen is live at Dodger Stadium, where she gets to sample some of the bicoastal cuisine of the menu.

Hi, Natasha. It looks great out there. Tell us more.

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jim, I am on the field where game one is going to be played tonight, and I'm having the breakfast of champions here with some fried sandwich goods right here.

Well, we will get you more of that coming up, but this is going to be really exciting. It's the matchup that people have been dreaming about, like you said, East Coast, West Coast, two biggest cities in America.

We will talk more coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:51:20]

ACOSTA: It's a matchup decades in the making, the Yankees versus the Dodgers.

For the first time since 1981, the two teams will face off in this year's World Series.

CNN's Natasha Chen has the story from L.A.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHEN (voice-over): East versus West, Shohei Ohtani versus Aaron Judge. It's the dream matchup 43 years in the making.

MIGUEL JIMENEZ, KADI PROMOTIONS: Because it's Yankees versus Dodgers. You know, nobody want to miss this game.

CHEN: Miguel Jimenez a ticket reseller in Los Angeles with high- rolling clients hoping to score seats.

JIMENEZ: What kind of ticket are you looking for?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In this case, I'm just looking for the best deal, whatever the best deal is.

JIMENEZ: OK. You know, the cheapest ticket is $1,100.

CHEN: Seats closer to the action are going for thousands, the most expensive tickets to a World Series ever. Jimenez says that's partly because prices in general have jumped since the pandemic, but also because of who's playing.

(on camera): The interest in this epic World Series matchup between an east and West Coast team from the two largest metro areas in the U.S. really extends beyond our borders to countries where fans may have historically rooted for the Yankees.

JIMENEZ: Just to let you know, in Mexico, 80 percent of the population go for Yankees. A lot of people, the north side of Mexico, they go for Dodgers.

CHEN (voice-over): Gary Lee, founder of the Dodgers Nation fan site, says, similarly, in Japan after World War II, there had been a tradition of rooting for the Yankees, but now Shohei Ohtani is their nation's superstar.

GARY LEE, FOUNDER, DODGERS NATION: Shohei turning into a Dodger right now and then having to face the Yankees, this is going to be some discussions between grandpa and his grandkids at the dinner table.

CHEN: Fans from Japan poured into L.A. during the regular season to see Ohtani play, staying in L.A.'s Little Tokyo, where businesses have seen way more customers this season.

VALENCIA HEMMINGS, MANAGER, POP KILLER: Like, we thought we ordered enough, but then people got -- the word got out and all of a sudden they're here all the time. When he hit the 50-50, when he broke the record, tons of people just swarmed downtown just to, like, celebrate.

CHEN: Very different dynamic than the last Dodgers World Series appearance in 2020, when the pandemic prevented most fans from attending any of the games, played in Texas, rather than at the team's home stadiums.

LEE: That feeling, we didn't get a parade, nothing. It was more of like a, yay, we won. Stay home. Keep your mask on.

CHEN: This time, the series starts in Los Angeles, and people are seizing the moment, even if many can't afford a seat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's the classic clown face, a little bit of pinstriping to bring car culture into it.

CHEN: They're buying merchandise and treats with cultural touches the way only a melting pot of a city can do.

DEANNA DUCTOC, OWNER, LOS ANGELITOS BAKERY: It's even more meaningful because we're bringing our culture and what we love and part of our city together.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: And Natasha joins me live from Dodger Stadium, an enviable assignment.

Natasha, I'm excited about Juan Soto too playing for the Yankees, former National, with the Yankees. I'm not excited about that, but tell us more. I mean, this just looks like it's going to be so much fun.

CHEN: It is. It's going to be fun for the fans, who have a lot to eat as well, Jim.

I'm here with Christine Gerriets, the executive chef at Dodger Stadium.

Christine, you really harnessed the diversity of L.A. cuisine to showcase here for some of these that are World Series specials.

CHRISTINE GERRIETS, EXECUTIVE CHEF, DODGER STADIUM: Absolutely.

CHEN: What do we got here?

GERRIETS: We have our chili oil pork dumplings, which have fish cakes, marinated mushrooms, cilantro, crispy garlic and a lemon wedge.

CHEN: Oh, my goodness. OK.

GERRIETS: And then we have our 50-50 Fry, which we dubbed this for Ohtani. It has the okonomi sauce. It has Kewpie mayor, togarashi dusted french fries, marinated chicken.

[11:55:01]

CHEN: You said that's really popular, kind of like a teriyaki flavor.

GERRIETS: Yes. Correct.

And then we have our chicken karaage bowl with crispy chicken, miso dressing, steamed rice, edamame, carrots, cabbage.

CHEN: Japanese-inspired, because we have had so many Japanese fans here this season.

ACOSTA: That looks so good.

GERRIETS: Correct.

CHEN: But for people wanting classic ballpark food, you still got Dodger dogs. Probably more than 20,000 will be sold today.

GERRIETS: Probably.

CHEN: Baked potato. And this is the one I'm allowed to eat. Tell me.

GERRIETS: Yes.

So this is our fried peanut butter and hazelnut spread sandwich.

ACOSTA: Wow.

GERRIETS: It has strawberries, bananas dipped in funnel cake batter, deep-fried, dusted with powdered sugar.

CHEN: Zero calories, Jim.

GERRIETS: Calories do not count at Dodger Stadium.

ACOSTA: That is so good.

CHEN: No.

ACOSTA: Can you put that in a FedEx box and send that to us? That looks good.

CHEN: So, pardon me with my mouth full.

(LAUGHTER)

CHEN: So you have got classics. You have got diversity here with lots of options. They're going to have a great time.

ACOSTA: Yes.

CHEN: Jim, I'm going to finish this bite throw it back to you.

ACOSTA: And none of it healthy, and nobody cares. That's the important part.

Have a great time out there, Natasha. We will be watching. Thanks so much. And thank you for joining me this morning. I'm Jim Acosta.

Stay with us. "INSIDE POLITICS WITH DANA BASH" starts after a short break.

Grab a hot dog, everybody. It's World Series time.