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Former Pool Attendant in Falwell Scandal Speaks Out; Layoffs Become Permanent at Major Companies; Music Venues Face Extinction; Probe into Trump's College Admission. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired August 31, 2020 - 08:30   ET

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


[08:30:00]

GIANCARLO GRANDA, FORMER EMPLOYEE OF JERRY FALWELL JR.: It was this, you know, this constant pattern of making me feel guilty and making subtle threats. And all I ever wanted is just to walk away.

And when the lawsuit went public in 2018, 2019, there's articles being written. You know, the pool boy articles. He instructed me to lie. Whenever the media contacted me or my family to just say no comment or lie, there's always a cover story. I was a good soldier, as he instructed. I was a good soldier, as he instructed and then, once the lawsuit settled, he walked back on that promise of purchasing my LLC -- of my equity stake in the LLC.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: You know, I think the thing that has gotten so much attention is the hypocrisy of Jerry Falwell, Jr., you know, as the leader of Liberty University, this Christian university, that has this charter that says sexual relations outside of a biblically ordained marriage between a natural-born man and a natural- born woman are not permissible at Liberty University, and yet he and his wife were living this other lifestyle.

You've called them predators. Is it your -- I mean, obviously, they were entrusted with young people in their charge, 18-year-olds, 19- year-olds, 20-year-olds.

GRANDA: Right.

CAMEROTA: Is it your impression that it was just about you or that other students were being preyed on?

GRANDA: Right. Now in hindsight, as a 29-year-old man, I realized how methodical they were in targeting me, how methodical they were and then they trapped me. They promised me things and they trapped me into this business. He secretly recorded me. He was hanging it over my head and he kept saying, look, just be a good soldier and at some point we're going to buy your equity stake and you can walk away.

But, in the meantime, he was getting what he wanted, me having sex with Becki while he watched every single time. So, in the meantime, he was getting exactly what he wanted. And, to me, that's predator behavior. And we have to remember, I was the age of a Liberty University

student. This -- he always wipes his hands clean by saying, oh, I'm a -- I'm an attorney. I'm a real estate developer. I'm not a minister or pastor. But we have to remember, he is responsible for thousands of students. He walks around the campus with students. He invites students back to his own private property. I mean, it's more than just being a businessperson.

CAMEROTA: And so you -- and do you think that -- but you have no evidence -- you have no evidence that he and his wife had a sexual relationship with students?

GRANDA: Well, you know, there is a -- there was an article that came out through "Politico" and another student came forward. And I -- apparently they had a similar situation in 2008.

CAMEROTA: Yes. CNN had --

GRANDA: So that just -- that confirmed all suspicions that I had.

CAMEROTA: I see.

CNN hasn't been able to confirm that, but that you --

GRANDA: What was that?

CAMEROTA: But that you -- but you did see the text message that Jerry Falwell, Jr., showed you of a young woman who says -- who sends a sort of risque picture of herself says and says, I'm looking forward to seeing you and Becki. It's been way too long. And he says, me too. We finally got a chance to break away. And she says, I should be able to hang out Monday morning. And if people can't see that, she's in her underwear. We've blurred her face.

What did you think, Giancarlo, when you saw that recent photo that got so much attention of Jerry Falwell, Jr., with his pants unzipped, his arm around Becki's assistant, her pants were unzipped, what did you make of that?

GRANDA: Right. So, again, I want to clarify, I don't know the context of that photo when he sent it to me. It was just isolated. He sent it to me and it triggered an emotional response because I knew that he recorded me, secretly recorded me, threatened to spread it to my family and friends and my girlfriend at the time. And when I saw the picture, I'm like, oh, my God, there's more -- like, I have a feeling that this is going on with other people. And then now you add in that picture with the girl on the yacht, which he didn't even care how she would feel about that picture. I'm like, this has gotten out of control and there really needs to be an investigation into Liberty University because it's not just Jerry and Becki and the Falwell family. It's the board, all those people around him that looked the other way and protected him for years.

CAMEROTA: What did you think when you heard that Jerry Falwell, Jr., was going to walk away from Liberty University with $10.5 million? GRANDA: I think it's absurd. I mean that's tuition money, donations,

federal money. I, again, there needs to be an investigation and see -- and hold him accountable.

CAMEROTA: Giancarlo Granda, thank you very much for telling us where you are with all of this, and we will see what happens next.

Nice to talk to you.

GRANDA: All right, thank you very much.

CAMEROTA: Thanks for being here.

GRANDA: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: All right, small clubs and stages where live bands used to play have been closed for months during the pandemic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't do live music to go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Well, the fight to save struggling concert venues is next.

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[08:38:41]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, stimulus talks are not moving. Millions of Americans have to pay rent this week and don't have the money because of the pandemic. Now tens of thousands of new layoffs have been announced.

CNN's chief business correspondent Christine Romans joins us now with more. Really a spate of these layoff announcements, Romans.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: You know, John, we're in a deep jobs crisis here and I'm super worried that we're beginning to normalize it, right? This is really troubling. Furloughs are now becoming permanent job losses.

Last week, MGM Resorts, Bed, Bath & Beyond and Stanley Black & Decker announced layoffs as they reassess damage caused by coronavirus. Coca- Cola is offering buyouts to 4,000 workers as it restructures and trims its workforce.

The job cuts at MGM start today. That's a quarter of its workforce. Las Vegas, of course, has been crushed by the pandemic. Data shows the number of visitors declined 61 percent in July from last year.

Now, major airlines are planning thousands of layoffs unless they receive more federal funding. Airlines are not allowed to make layoffs or pay cuts because of the CARES Act, but that money runs out at the end of September. Now, this new wave of layoffs is troubling. We had been seeing a

pickup in hiring. The August jobs report is Friday. Economists expect 1.4 million jobs added, but many of those jobs are people returning to work from temporary layoffs. If those estimates stand, here's the tally, it would bring the total number of recovered jobs to roughly 10.8 million.

[08:40:07]

That's half of what was shed in March and April. So halfway out of that deep, deep hole, John, that we dug.

BERMAN: Yes, and a long way to go.

And, you know, there are a lot of people who could use some help from Washington right now.

ROMANS: You know, it's been four weeks now without that extra stimulus in the unemployment checks, the extra $600 a week boost. There could be $300 a week going out to some folks for a few weeks if your state has signed up with the president's executive action for some extra funding here, but they're not talking about, you know, comprehensive stimulus in Washington anymore, and that's a real problem.

BERMAN: Christine Romans, thank you very, very much.

CAMEROTA: John, think of your favorite band.

BERMAN: Grateful Dead.

CAMEROTA: I know. I knew that.

Now imagine if you never had seen them live, OK?

BERMAN: I can't -- I can't imagine that.

CAMEROTA: I know, you can't imagine that.

BERMAN: I don't want to imagine that.

CAMEROTA: I don't either. I've seen them live also. It would have changed your life, right?

BERMAN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: And that's what's happening right now because all these concert venues are shut down. It's obviously affecting all these bands. It's affecting all of us not to hear live music and this is what's happening in the pandemic.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich joins us with more on the crisis facing America's music venues.

What have you learned, Vanessa?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's exactly right, Alisyn, independent music venues are really the mom and pops of the music industry and they've been closed since March with no hope of reopening any time soon. And that's why thousands of them are banding together to call on Congress for a special piece of legislation that would help them survive and keep them open for generations to come.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

YURKEVICH: Would you be where you are today without independent music venues?

JAMES MURPHY, LEAD SINGER, LCD SOUND SYSTEM: Impossible. There's no way. There's absolutely no way.

YURKEVICH (voice over): James Murphy, lead singer of the Grammy- winning band LCD Sound System, spent decades perfecting his sound in small, independently-run music venues.

MURPHY: This is a kind of like natural ecosystem that you can't rebuild. It's like a coral reef of venues. It's like a national asset that if it goes away, it doesn't come back.

YURKEVICH: He was scheduled to play here at Knockdown Center in Queens, New York, in April, a gig that's been postponed indefinitely.

TYLER MYERS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, KNOCKDOWN CENTER: It's really rough. It's like, you know, there is no timeline on when we could reopen. We were the first to close. Our industry will be the last to reopen.

YURKEVICH: Which is why Knockdown and nearly 3,000 other independent music venues banded together to form the National Independent Venue Association, or NIVA. The group, along with 600 other artists, from Lady Gaga to Billy Joel, are calling on Congress to take action. NIVA has endorsed the Save Our Stages Act, a bipartisan bill which would provide a six month grant to independent venues.

In Atlanta --

JOSH ANTONUCCI, CENTER STAGE: This is where young artists grow up. This is where the local talent hones their skills.

YURKEVICH: Josh Antonucci runs Center Stage. He says he got a PPP loan which helped him stay afloat, until now. But with live events indefinitely on hold, he has no other source of revenue.

ANTONUCCI: You can't do live music to go.

YURKEVICH: NIVA estimates that independent music venues generate hundreds of thousands of related jobs, and 90 percent of venues say without federal assistance they won't last six months.

ANTONUCCI: If we don't have capital investors, if we don't have a stock market supported business, how will we possibly continue to pay the bills?

YURKEVICH: Tobi Parks just opened her music venue XBK in Des Moines, Iowa, before the pandemic shut her down.

TOBI PARKS, OWNER, XBK: It's not just hurting us and our venues, it's hurting all the small businesses. It's hurting the pizza place that's next door to me, the coffee shop that's next door to me. It's hurting the community as a whole.

YURKEVICH: It was a dream years in the making, but she's now looking at closing for good in just months. And as a minority-led business owner, the prospect is heartbreaking.

PARKS: That's why I'm fighting so hard, particularly for people like me who are a black queer woman. And so it's incredibly important to be able to maintain it and to continue on for the next generation of people to take my place.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

YURKEVICH: And it's not just independent music venues. It's comedy clubs. It's independent theaters where so many famous comedians and actors got their start. And, yes, it's about the billions of dollars lost in the economy and the jobs, John, but it's also about the culture. It's about giving a place for young actors, young musicians and young comedians to get their start in order to have a successful future for themselves.

John.

BERMAN: Yes. You -- this is irreplaceable time that just disappears here and people can't be developed, talent can't be developed here. It's really a problem, Vanessa. Thank you so much for shining a light on it. Appreciate it.

Time now for "The Good Stuff."

A 13-year-old in Alexandria, Virginia, using her summer vacation to stand up for racial justice.

[08:45:04]

Eighth grader Iris Nijbroek has been busy in her kitchen making delicious baked goods to sell. When someone places an order, instead of payment, Iris asks that they donate to organizations that support racial justice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IRIS NIJBROEK, 13-YEAR-OLD BAKER: This is the first year I've started really paying attention to the news. So this is something that really could use some help. So I decided to bake for racial justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Great idea. So Iris has raised more than $2,000 and has contributed it all to non-profits to fight for equality.

CAMEROTA: How do you know they're delicious? I mean wouldn't you feel better if you had an actual product that you could confirm that with?

BERMAN: I trust her. I trust her. Her soul --

CAMEROTA: Hey, I'm trying to get her to send us free cupcakes.

BERMAN: Her soul seems in the right place, so I'm convinced that she makes yummy food.

CAMEROTA: Let me correct that, they don't even have to be free, just send us the cupcakes and obviously we would --

BERMAN: I don't know why you're going negative on her cooking?

CAMEROTA: Because I'm starving.

BERMAN: All right, did President Trump cheat to get into the University of Pennsylvania? Fresh evidence has some professors there calling for a new investigation, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:50:26]

BERMAN: This morning, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania is requesting an investigation into President Trump's academic records after secretly recorded audio from his sister, Maryanne Trump Barry, alleging the president paid someone to take his college entrance exam.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARYANNE TRUMP BARRY, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S SISTER: I mean, I -- I didn't get him in, but -- but I know he didn't get into college. And he -- and he went to Fordham for one year and then he got into University of Pennsylvania. I guess he had somebody take his -- take the exams.

MARY TRUMP, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S NIECE: No way.

BARRY: And he had --

TRUMP: He had somebody take his entrance exams?

BARRY: SATs or whatever.

TRUMP: Yes. Oh, Jesus! You're kidding.

BARRY: That's what I believe. I (INAUDIBLE). I even remember the name.

TRUMP: Oh, man!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, joining me now is Eric Orts, professor of legal studies and business ethics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Professor, thanks so much for being with us this morning.

Why is it important to you, all these years later, to get this information?

ERIC ORTS, PROFESSOR, WHARTON SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA: Well, thanks for inviting me.

And the first thing I should say is that I'm representing only myself. I don't represent either the colleagues that I wrote a letter with earlier in the summer or the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

I think it's important because we have, as you just played, we have a clear -- we have audiotape evidence of a credible witness, namely Donald Trump's sister, and a former federal judge, who basically is saying that he committed admissions fraud to gain admission to the Wharton School. So we first had that allegation by Mary Trump, his niece, and then this -- this new information was released to "The Washington Post." And I think when we're confronted with a serious allegation of admissions fraud, we need to pursue that, no matter who the person is. So it's not just because someone is the president of the United States and could do something bad to you, et cetera, is not a reason not to pursue the case. So all we're asking or all I'm asking and others have also supported me since -- since this -- since the -- since we wrote the letter, since it went public, all we're asking is for an investigation. So we're not saying there was fraud or there was cheating, but there seems to be a pretty clear and convincing allegation. So we're -- that's why we're calling for an investigation.

BERMAN: What's at stake in your mind for Wharton and the University of Pennsylvania here?

ORTS: I thin, for me, it's basically a question of reputation. So I've taught business ethics and law for 30 years at the Wharton School. And when you have an credible allegation of cheating that's then not pursued, that affects the reputation of everyone connected to the Wharton School and the University of Pennsylvania. And so if you let something like that go, it affects the reputation of everyone.

So that's why I personally feel a potential wrong here. There was -- if there is a damage to the -- my personal reputation through the Wharton School and its reputation, that I think we need to take steps to address that. So even if there might be some short term costs, some donors might be upset, alumni, some other faculty students, I think we have to do the right thing. So that's the question here is -- is whether we should preserve our long-term reputation by looking into this -- into this issue.

BERMAN: So the first time you requested the school to investigate, they told you, we're not going to do it unless there's any other evidence. That this was when the reports from Mary Trump first came out. But then the recording came out and you've gone back to the school. What have they said?

ORTS: We haven't had a response since then. So the first response to a letter from six of us on the Wharton faculty, we received a response. We sent the letter to the president of the university, Amy Gutmann. We received a response from Provost Wendell Pritchett. And he basically said this doesn't look like we have enough evidence here, but if there is new evidence that comes up, we might reconsider. Then -- since then, the audiotapes were put out. I sent an email to Provost -- to Wendell and asked him, hey, this looks like new evidence, what do you think, but we haven't received anything since then.

BERMAN: Does it matter to you that the name that Judge Barry referenced that no one's been able to find such a person and, in fact, one person, you know, one person married to a former Joe Shapiro denies it was that person?

[08:55:00]

ORTS: Yes, I think -- I don't -- I don't know. I don't want to pre- judge the issues. I mean I think the question of having an investigation is -- the purpose of having an investigation is you have an investigation look at all the relevant facts. What was the record when there was a -- when there was a request for a transfer from Fordham. And I believe it was two years, not one year, as was indicated on the video -- on the audiotape.

What was the record? What was the applicant's record at Fordham? What was the test scores? What was then the performance at Wharton? Was it consistent with the test scores? Is there a way to find out whether the signature on the test was accurate? So there's lots of evidence. There -- there could be other people that then come forward if you do an investigation.

So I think my argument, at least personally is, you should do the investigation and see what you find. If you don't find anything that's sufficiently corroborative of the claims, then you say, we did the investigation and we're not going to take any measures. If, on the other hand, you find clear and convincing evidence or whatever your standard of proof would be for the investigation, that there was admissions fraud, then you would revoke the degree.

BERMAN: Right.

ORTS: And this is under our policy. So it's a clear penned policy that we're suggesting should be followed.

BERMAN: Professor Orts, we appreciate your time this morning. Thanks so much for joining us.

ORTS: Thanks for having me on.

BERMAN: All right, we're waiting to hear from Vice President Joe Biden on the racial events surrounding Kenosha and also Portland.

CNN's coverage continues next.

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