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NBA Star, Coach Arrested in Mafia-Linked Gambling Schemes; Trump Plans Land Attacks after Drug Boat Strikes; Digital AI Doppelgangers: Illegal or Just Creepy? Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired October 24, 2025 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BRIAN ABEL, CNN ANCHOR: Worth more than $100 million.
[06:00:04]
And a painting by Pablo Picasso, hidden from public view for eight decades, is -- is heading to a Paris auction block in the coming hours.
"Bust of a Woman in a Flowery Hat" was painted back in 1943, and it shows the painter's then lover and muse, photographer Dora Maar.
The portrait has been a -- in a private collection since 1944 and remains in its original state. It is expected to sell for around $10 million.
Thank you for joining us here on EARLY START. I'm Brian Abel in Washington, D.C. CNN THIS MORNING with Audie Cornish starts right now.
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: The FBI dunks on the NBA. Several stars charged in a gambling scandal. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOSEPH NOCELLA JR., U.S. ATTORNEY, EASTERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK: Your winning streak has ended. Your luck has run out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: A Hall of Fame coach and two players facing prison time. Is this just the tip of the iceberg?
President Trump threatening to bypass Congress and expand his war on drugs from the sea to the land.
And comforting or creepy? Suzanne Somers' husband explains why he made an A.I. clone of his late wife.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR DANIEL LURIE (D), SAN FRANCISCO: Our city remains prepared for any scenario.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CORNISH: San Francisco spared. Why President Trump backed off his threat to send in federal troops.
And beef prices through the roof. President Trump says meat from Argentina is a solution. America's cattle ranchers not on board.
The force was with him. The police force, that is. We'll tell you what happened to a protester who blasted the "Star Wars" theme at the National Guard in D.C.
It's 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. Here's a live look at Toronto. That's where its Blue Jays will be playing in game one of the World Series tonight in L.A.
Good morning, everybody. It's Friday, October 24th. Thank you so much for waking up with me. I'm Audie Cornish.
And here is where we begin: that gambling scandal rocking the NBA, as a coach and two players are now under federal indictment.
Miami Heat guard Terry Rozier, former NBA player Damon Jones, and Portland Trail Blazers head coach Chauncey Billups among the 34 people charged in connection with two separate federal gambling -- gambling probes.
Billups is accused of being an accessory to poker games rigged by the Mafia, which included X-ray poker tables, hidden cameras, secret earpieces.
OK, the players are accused of fixing games by leaking insider information to coconspirators about who would play in certain matchups. Prosecutors say they have proof of this going across at least seven games.
The NBA has now placed them all on leave.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NOCELLA: Your winning streak has ended. Your luck has run out. Violating the law is a losing proposition, and you can bet on that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: So, these arrests come as the new NBA season is just getting underway, so it's drawing a lot of questions about why multimillion- dollar athletes would risk it all for gambling.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHAQUILLE O'NEAL, NBA HALL OF FAMER: All these guys knew what was at stake. And I'm just ashamed that they put themselves and put their family and put the NBA in this position.
KENNY SMITH, FORMER NBA PLAYER: The other part is we have to realize gambling is an addiction. So, the addiction of it is what makes you make illogical decisions. CHARLES BARKLEY, NBA HALL OF FAMER: This ain't got nothing to do with
damn gambling addiction. This ain't got nothing to do with addiction. These dudes are stupid. Why are they stupid? You -- under no circumstances can you fix basketball games. Under -- under no circumstances.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Joining me now to talk about this is Randall Williams, U.S. sports business reporter for Bloomberg.
And Randall, the last time we talked, we were saying it's only a matter of time, frankly, before there was a betting scandal because of the league's, and other leagues', embrace of online betting.
So, before we get to the poker thing, what's interesting about this insider trading, right, with the sports betting?
RANDALL WILLIAMS, U.S. SPORTS BUSINESS REPORTER, BLOOMBERG: I think the single most interesting thing is that the NBA did their own investigation. They found no wrongdoing from Terry Rozier.
And then a couple months later, a couple years later -- I can't remember the exact time period -- but now we see Terry Rozier under federal indictment. And so, those contrasts are -- it's startling. It's startling.
CORNISH: Yes. So basically, their investigation somehow missed this.
R. WILLIAMS: Right. Exactly.
CORNISH: I want to talk to you a little bit about what Charles Barkley was saying, where he's like, look, you can't fix the games.
But I do want to play for the Audience how the New York police commissioner described what was going on.
[06:05:09]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TISCH: They placed wagers on unders -- on players to score less, rebound less, assist less -- using information that was not yet public.
In some instances, players altered their performance or took themselves out of games to make sure that those bets paid out.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: And then in one example laid out in the indictment, there's this thing of Jones and Rozier exchanging texts where he's like, "Oh, going to bet on Milwaukee tonight before the information is out! (Player 3) is out."
Apparently, Player 3 was LeBron James. So, you can't fix the game. It's not boxing. But it is something.
R. WILLIAMS: Absolutely. I mean, literally, I think on Tuesday, Adam Silver was on "The Pat McAfee Show," asking sports books to walk back some of the prop bets. And that's what we talked about last time, which is that the prop bet offering was too expensive.
And for anybody that -- what a prop bet is, is essentially betting on two steals, 20 points, eight rebounds, things like that. And if, you know, when sports books set their line, whether that be over six and a half, under six and a half, if someone just checks into a game and checks out, then you take that under very, very early, and now you are basically guaranteed winnings.
And so, that's essentially what was happening and why they're in trouble now.
CORNISH: And also, this second scandal with Mafia crime families involved. The allegations are of illegal poker games that were basically rigged.
R. WILLIAMS: Yes.
CORNISH: I mean, this is probably -- there's been some kind of betting always. But is there something about the atmosphere around online betting now that would literally draw some of the old-school sort of names in the black-market business?
R. WILLIAMS: I think the athletes and celebrities and people with money love to have fun. They just don't like to lose money. And if you can gain money in an easy way, and you think you're going to get away with it, whether that be legally or illegally, then sometimes people will try.
On the sports side of things, I think that once these sports leagues opened Pandora's box, this is what we have to deal with.
CORNISH: Are they ready to deal with it? Is there any sense of whether this could, you know, kind of color the game? We're at the opening of the season.
R. WILLIAMS: I don't -- I'm not entirely sure. And the reason I say that is because, like you just said, the season started. We have a lot to celebrate in the NBA, and now we're looking at things and questioning whether, you know, the NBA's credibility on -- on these sort of things. And I don't think that any of these leagues want their credibility questioned.
But when these things continue to come up time and time again, and in the case of prop betting, then you have to ask like, OK, what is the NBA going to do? Are we going to see more lifetime bans? And really, what can the states and the sports books do to stop things from -- like this happening?
CORNISH: Randall Williams. You can read his reporting in Bloomberg. Thanks so much. WILLIAMS: Thank you for having me.
CORNISH: And coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, President Trump says he doesn't need Congress to take on drug traffickers. So, is this a bold move against crime or a dangerous shift in presidential power? Our group chat has some thoughts about that.
Plus, A.I. resurrecting celebrities. Some family members want that to stop.
A man files suit after being cuffed while blasting Darth Vader's theme at National Guard troops.
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JAMES EARLY JONES, ACTOR: General Veers, prepare your men.
(MUSIC: "IMPERIAL MARCH (DARTH VADER'S THEME")
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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[06:13:14]
CORNISH: President Trump plans to expand his military campaign against drug traffickers from the sea to land. And he's not planning to seek authorization from Congress to do it.
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DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I don't think we're going to necessarily ask for a declaration of war. I think we're just going to kill people that are bringing drugs into our country. OK? We're going to kill them. You know, they're going to be like, dead.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Nine U.S. air strikes on alleged narco boats have killed at least 37 people, the most recent attacks taking place for the first time in the eastern Pacific.
Colombia's president claims President Trump is a war criminal, and he doesn't believe the narco boat bombings have anything to do with the war on drugs.
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GUSTAVO PETRO, COLOMBIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): That's domination. And it's why Trump got angry when I refused to buy his claim that he's preparing to invade Venezuela over drug trafficking. It's a lie.
The real motive is to seize Venezuela's oil, which will be worthless in 20 years anyway.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Joining me now in the group chat, Noel King, co-host and editorial director of the "Today, Explained" podcast; Rob Bluey, president and executive editor at "The Daily Signal"; and Eugene Scott, op-ed writer at "The Boston Globe."
OK. Welcome, guys.
NOEL KING, CO-HOST/EDITORIAL DIRECTOR, "TODAY, EXPLAINED" PODCAST: Good morning.
CORNISH: I want to start with you, Noel, because this is one of those things where, when you talk about it as cartels, drug dealers, very easy to sort of say we don't care about them.
KING: Yes.
CORNISH: The problem is they haven't proved any of that anywhere in any time here.
KING: They haven't proved any of it. And I think, you know, you hear the president talk about these are bad guys and we're just going to kill them. And I do think there is a segment of the American population that really appreciates like, look, it's tough talk. Let's get it done.
Here is the problem. President Trump was elected, in part, because he said he was going to keep us out of foreign wars. We were not going to do another Iraq. We were not going to do another Afghanistan.
[06:15:04]
I am old enough to remember Iraq, and this looks a lot like the run up to Iraq. We're talking about a land campaign.
The president doesn't seem to be looking at polling. He doesn't seem to be listening to the voices in his administration who say, Hey, Mr. President, Americans don't want this. He seems to be listening more and more to Marco Rubio, who has made this part of his agenda.
So, I don't know. I don't know where this is headed.
CORNISH: Yes. No, but you've raised a couple of things here that I want to bring to this side of the table, because to Noel's point, I mean, the CIA is providing intelligence for these strikes, reportedly.
But several CIA experts have said, you know, intelligence is not evidence, and none of that is proved in court. And we actually just don't know who the U.S. is killing in the name of our families, who have dealt with overdoses and drugs --
ROB BLUEY, PRESIDENT/EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "THE DAILY SIGNAL": Oh, sure.
CORNISH: -- drug problems in -- in our hemisphere.
BLUEY: Yes, that's the tension, Audie. Obviously, you feel great sympathy, and I think we all probably work with colleagues or know friends who have faced significant challenges in their own lives, personal lives because of drug problems and fentanyl overdoses.
There is right now, I think, an inclination on the part of Republicans in Congress to give President Trump the deference to carry out these strikes.
However, there are certain members of Congress who believe that there is a [SIC] important role that Congress should play in giving him the authorization. Personally, that's where I am.
CORNISH: Do they? I have not seen them once do anything --
BLUEY: Oh, sure. Rand Paul. Rand Paul, Mike Lee. Certain -- certain principled conservatives.
CORNISH: So, you know what? I brought this up yesterday, and someone said, Oh, he's an isolationist. That doesn't matter. A Republican.
And I was like, oh, OK.
BLUEY: They -- there's a distinction between what you would call an isolation and somebody who doesn't want to intervene in -- in foreign conflicts, I think as Noel was trying to explain.
And -- and remember, this is an issue that animated a lot of conservative voters, and I think Americans who were tired of George W. Bush's foreign policy --
CORNISH: Yes.
BLUEY: -- and wanted to see Republicans move in a different direction.
CORNISH: Eugene, what do you think?
EUGNE SCOTT, OP-ED WRITER, "THE BOSTON GLOBE": It's frightening. And it's scary to move in this way without any evidence, without any approval from Congress. If it starts here, where else could it go?
And if Trump is so confident that what he's doing is the right thing to do, and he has support in Congress, just go about it in the manner in which he's expected to go about it, if he was following the laws of the land.
CORNISH: Reaching even further back than the Iraq War, I think of all of the attempts the U.S. made to try and do regime change in narco states in Latin America.
KING: Yes.
CORNISH: And hearing the Colombian president bring up Venezuelan oil. To your point, I think some Americans -- I hear some key words there, like oil. And they think, well, wait a second. What is this really?
KING: It feels like the '80s again. It feels like -- I mean, there were -- CORNISH: Well, if it's just regime change, be regime change, right? Like, why are -- why go through this process of saying it's about drugs?
KING: Exactly.
CORNISH: Because then otherwise, you'd be attacking Mexico or something like that. It just seems odd.
SCOTT: To Rob's point, it is an issue that so many of his voters have cared about. So maybe he thinks he's getting a two for one.
But being up front with what it is that you say you want would be much more effective, perhaps, in getting people on your side, if what you're doing is the right thing.
CORNISH: Also, I think the anti-entanglement wing of the Republican conservative movement has lost so far on Iran, on several things.
BLUEY: Sure.
CORNISH: And so, is this something that they step up? Or are they just like, we're -- foreign policy, he's not going to listen.
BLUEY: Yes, I think that that's an important question. Right now, again, I think we're within the first year of the Trump administration. They're probably willing to give him more leeway in terms of carrying out some of these strikes.
It's interesting, because if you look back to the Obama administration, remember, there were voices that were deeply concerned about him using drone strikes. I believe over 500 drone strikes which killed almost 4,000 people.
And so, there was a debate.
CORNISH: But, like, it wasn't in, you know, Papua New Guinea. It wasn't like here.
BLUEY: Sure. It was in the Middle East.
CORNISH: Yes. In an actual, I think, war situation we were discussing at the time.
KING: And -- and it wasn't animating voters in the same way.
CORNISH: Yes.
KING: I mean, remember, we decided we were done with this. It is a big part of why we elected Donald Trump. We were done with foreign entanglements.
CORNISH: OK. We're not done with this.
KING: Yes.
CORNISH: So, we can just wrap it up here.
You guys stay with me. We have more to talk about this hour.
Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, A.I. bringing stars back to life. Not everyone is happy about it. Is it innovation or exploitation?
And U.S. cattle ranchers have major beef with President Trump after his deal to import meat from Argentina. What's at stake?
And we want to say good morning to those watching us in Seattle.
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[06:23:41]
CORNISH: Bringing a loved one back from the dead, now not so unheard of, thanks to A.I.
The husband of the late Suzanne Somers, creating her A.I. twin. The actress and wellness icon died two years ago. Alan Hamel says this was actually his wife's wish before she passed.
Somers' twin was trained using all of her books and lots of interviews she's done in the past. And Hamel tells CNN, it's hard to tell them apart.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALAN HAMEL, WIDOWER OF SUZANNE SOMERS: I talked to her for two minutes, and it was a little odd. And then after about two or three minutes, I totally forgot I was talking to her twin. I was talking to a robot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Joining me now to discuss is Elliot Williams, CNN legal analyst.
And, Elliot, we wanted to spend some extra time on this one, because there are questions here. Start with celebrities, but kind of end with the rest of us.
ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes.
CORNISH: So first of all, I want to share what the OpenAI spokeswoman said when "The Washington Post" asked her. She said, "We believe that public figures and their families should ultimately have control over how their likeness is used."
But she declined to define recently deceased.
E. WILLIAMS: Did you notice that, she said, "should ultimately have control" but did not say that it is unlawful to make a representation or an image of someone? And that's a very important point here.
[06:25:06] We kind of don't have control over our image or likeness, for the most part, when technology allows others to create it.
Now, the thing that we're going to talk about a few times over the course of our few minutes together --
CORNISH: Yes.
E. WILLIAMS: -- is this idea that once somebody uses your image or likeness for a commercial purpose to make money off of it, then things change.
CORNISH: But isn't everything a commercial purpose on social media? Like, we are all the commodity there? You're in -- the opportunity to make money on social media is such that just about anybody is a creator, and therefore, a business.
E. WILLIAMS: It gets a little complicated. I do not make any money off of my social media presence. Maybe you --
CORNISH: You've got to work on that, Elliot. OK?
E. WILLIAMS: Touche, Audie Cornish. Touche.
CORNISH: I'm just saying.
E. WILLIAMS: But no, but -- but -- but you know, I am not paid by Instagram. You know, you can make an argument that maybe, as a public figure or semipublic figure, that it's all in furtherance of making me more money.
Were I to put someone's likeness on social media, it's probably not a commercial purpose. Now, someone could sue me over it. Maybe.
But it's not like, for instance, if my kids had a lemonade stand, and I take an image of Audie Cornish and say, you know, "Audie says these lemons are great," or something like -- I don't know. That's a that's a lame slogan.
CORNISH: OK. That's actually the best-case scenario --
E. WILLIAMS: Yes.
CORNISH: -- of this A.I. scenario.
E. WILLIAMS: Absolutely. Right.
CORNISH: Which brings me to another thing. Zelda Williams, the daughter of the late Robin Williams, actually just said publicly to fans, stop sending A.I.-generated videos of her father. Right?
And I've seen a lot of these. I've seen them with, like, Michael Jackson and others. And I think people are sort of amused by it, because we think of these people as characters, not people.
E. WILLIAMS: Yes. And back to this -- this broader legal point. Yes, you're allowed to do it, but the mere fact that you're allowed to do something does not mean that you necessarily should. And this is a challenge of the internet age and this quest for clicks and putting things on social media and so on. You know, people make bad judgment.
And it's when people are grieving, seeing images of their loved ones reanimated, revivified in some way, is actually quite upsetting.
Nothing wrong with it. But, you know, do you want to see images of your loved ones coming back to life that you did not bless and did not approve? Probably not.
And I think that's the central rub here.
CORNISH: Do you expect that this is something that's going to play out in court? I think of Scarlett Johansson going after OpenAI for using her voice for their likeness of her voice.
E. WILLIAMS: Yes.
CORNISH: And being successful in getting them to back off.
E. WILLIAMS: Yes.
CORNISH: But there are no actual regulations yet around any of this stuff.
E. WILLIAMS: Yes. You know, I was -- I was a little glib when talking about the lemonade stand or the social media account.
CORNISH: Yes.
E. WILLIAMS: But this world of content creation is really going to blur things, because people do make money off of their social media presences, and people put images up online that could be seen as having a commercial purpose.
And I think this world, this explosion of new content and newly created uses of people's images are absolutely going to create uncharted territory for all of us as we just figure out what the limits and what the legal parameters are around how to use people's likenesses.
CORNISH: OK. Elliot, thanks for digging into it with me. Appreciate it. I know we're going to have you back to talk about a couple more legal issues today.
But straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, San Francisco avoids a federal troop surge, at least for now. So, is this just a pause or a warning shot from the Trump administration?
And President Trump's new deal to import beef is not sitting well with U.S. ranchers.
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