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Limo Crash Kills 20 In Upstate New York; Taylor Swift Endorses Two Democrats In Key Tennessee Races; Holiday Worker In High Demand; Banksy Artwork Shreds Itself After Being Sold For $1.4 Million. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired October 08, 2018 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:23] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, investigators are on the scene of that limo crash in Upstate New York that killed 20 people. The driver and 17 passengers -- they were heading to a birthday party -- are among the dead. It is now the deadliest transportation accident in the United States in nearly a decade.

Joining me now is National Transportation Safety Board chairman Robert Sumwalt. He is at the command center for the investigation into this accident.

Can you give us the latest on what you've been finding?

ROBERT SULWALT, CHAIRMAN, NATIONAL TRANSPORTATION SAFETY BOARD: Good morning, John.

As you said, this is absolutely a horrific event and the NTSB is really, today, going to really get into the meat of this investigation. Yesterday was a day where our investigators were traveling in across the country and assembling our teams. Today will be the first real day where we're getting into things.

BERMAN: So let's talk about what we know. We know this modified SUV limo was involved and that is where so many of the fatalities occurred. And we also know that they're not regulated quite the same way as other vehicles -- explain.

SUMWALT: Well, we certainly want to look at the regulation of limos. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration does oversee motor carriers and so we want to see if the regulation for limousines is adequate.

BERMAN: There are no requirements to wear seat belts for the passengers. The driver required to wear a seat belt but not the people in the back.

What do you think the impact of that might have been?

SUMWALT: Well, we will certainly be looking at that, but I can tell you that wearing seat belts does save lives. Whether or not it would have made a difference here or not, that remains to be seen. But I would always encourage people to wear their seat belts. BERMAN: One of the other areas that I know is being discussed -- and we spoke to an assemblyman from the area a short time ago -- is this actual intersection. You have Route 30 going down this hill into Route 30A -- I believe we had a map of that earlier -- at a very steep clip. There's a stop sign there and then into this other highway.

Are there concerns that the intersection itself here might have posed a risk?

SUMWALT: We certainly want to look at the design of the roadway. We do know that there have been other crashes at this intersection so we want to see. Were there factors in the roadway itself that could have -- that could have led to the conditions of this crash?

BERMAN: Peter Goelz, who I know used to work for the NTSB -- I'm sure you're familiar with him -- he called this a wake-up call when it comes to limousines.

Do you agree with that statement and what are your areas of concern when it comes to this type of vehicle?

SUMWALT: Well, I can't disagree with Peter. I mean, this does need to be a wake-up call.

Here we have 20 lives that have been lost tragically. And as you pointed out, the most deadly transportation accident or crash in this country in a long, long time.

So we do need to learn from this so that we can improve the transportation for us all -- the safety of us all.

BERMAN: Were the victims still inside the vehicle after the crash?

SUMWALT: Yes, it's my understanding that most every one of the victims was inside. I think one or two were ejected. However, we need to verify that, and we will.

We've talked to the emergency responders but we need to get a more detailed -- we need to actually do interviews with them. We've talked to them. We need to get formal interviews with them now.

BERMAN: I know as you look at this particular accident one of the things -- there is an irony here which is these people, no doubt, took this limo, in part, so that they did not have to drive themselves after going to a party.

They were doing the responsible thing by making sure that they weren't doing something in their minds that was unsafe, which only does beg for more questions about the regulation of these limousines.

You said motor coach carriers. That means they're regulated as a bus would be regulated?

SUMWALT: Yes, a motor coach -- a bus is regulated. And one of the things that we do want to look at is how are limousines regulated. They are required to have a DOT identification number so there is some oversight by the FMCSA. We want to see exactly what that oversight looks like.

BERMAN: All right.

Robert Sumwalt, who heads up the NTSB. You're not far from the site of this investigation. Thank you so much for being on the scene.

As we said -- and this statistic startled me -- the deadliest transportation accident since 2009, and that was a horrible plane crash in Buffalo. So this is a wake-up call.

Thanks so much for being with us.

SUMWALT: Thank you, John.

BERMAN: Erica.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: The midterm elections are less than a month away. One of the music industry's biggest stars is now weighing in.

[07:35:05] Taylor Swift -- could she motivate people to get to the polls? Oh, there's something about Harry and Taylor, next.

BERMAN: Really?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HILL: Twenty-nine days to go now until the midterm elections and a surprise voice jumping into the political fray, and one very closely- watched Senate race.

There's something about Harry, so let's get "The Forecast" with CNN senior politics writer and analyst Harry Enten.

And today, there's something about Harry and Taylor Swift, which we don't always put those two things in a sentence but maybe it's the start of something.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICS WRITER AND ANALYST: I do -- I do -- you know, I love Taylor Swift. What's there not to like about Taylor Swift? If guess if you're a Republican this morning, maybe you don't like her.

BERMAN: Or Kanye West.

ENTEN: Or Kanye.

HILL: Remember when, for just a little while, it was West-Swift 2020?

BERMAN: It would have been --

HILL: I didn't get the t-shirt then.

In all seriousness, what's interesting is maybe you don't like her if you're a Republican this morning.

Here's -- let's just show people what Taylor Swift put out there on the -- on the Instagram, as the kids do.

So this is here statement, noting, "As much as I have in the past and would like to continue voting for women in office, I cannot support Marsha Blackburn." Noting her voting record " appalls" Taylor Swift. It talks about how she will be voting for Phil Bredesen for Senate, Jim Cooper in the House.

Here's what stood out to me, though. "Please, please educate yourself on the candidates running in your state and vote based on who most closely represents your values."

[07:40:00] She went on to say no one is 100 percent with any candidate which I found interesting because you don't always see that -- especially from a celebrity endorsement -- saying you do you but, oh, by the way, this is me doing me.

ENTEN: Yes, and what I also find interesting is these are two of the least sexy candidates she could possibly endorse.

I mean, Phil Bredesen -- I've been arguing for months that Democrats -- you know, celebrity Democrats should be getting behind Phil Bredesen and not Beto O'Rourke down in Texas because Bredesen actually had a better chance of winning.

And, Jim Cooper, as well, seems to always upset the base of the Democratic Party because he's far to moderate.

And yet, she got behind these two candidates -- and more than that, she endorsed in her home state, right? I think there's a lot of times where celebrity endorsers go out of their way to endorse in states they've never even been to. But here, she decides to keep it localized and she decided to have a message that she thought would best reflect her values.

BERMAN: Is there any evidence at all that celebrity endorsements have any value whatsoever?

ENTEN: I mean, maybe you could give an endorsement one day and we can see exactly because you have just such great -- you know --

BERMAN: I endorse you, Harry.

But seriously --

ENTEN: No, no. I haven't really found that, especially in general elections.

I mean, in primaries when name recognition is quite low and ideology is kind of more difficult to entangle -- untangle, maybe then. But in a general election where people are pretty much into an R camp or a D camp, I don't really see it. Maybe it motivates a few people under the age of 30 to come out and vote.

But I don't think that this is much of anything except for an interesting news story on a morning talk show.

HILL: Hey, hey, we should do that.

BERMAN: There you go.

HILL: We should do that.

And we do have the latest polling, too --

ENTEN: Yes.

HILL: -- from Tennessee. It's very tight.

ENTEN: It is tight and this is another thing that's going on here. She's clearly made an endorsement in a race where it is very tight.

The latest Fox News polls have Phil Bredesen down by five points. That's one of the less favorable polls of at least the polls we would display on CNN.

So this is a race where if an endorsement were to make a difference, this could be it. But I would say that Phil Bredesen has been falling back on the polls.

BERMAN: Right.

ENTEN: This gives him some positive press maybe. So on that point, maybe it's positive. But overall, I think this is -- this is fun but it's not anything that's --

BERMAN: A swift wind at his neck. She wanted to make a difference.

HILL: Oh.

ENTEN: Oh, boy.

HILL: Oh.

BERMAN: She held fundraiser -- she held a fundraiser at her concert, probably last month, where you register voters and get them to the polls. Now, you know, it is a news story, you know.

Harry, there's another big news story today. "The Washington Post" came out with a poll about 20 minutes ago.

ENTEN: Right, right.

BERMAN: It caught our attention because they went to some 69 congressional battleground districts and they asked who would you rather have, a Democratic or a Republican win? And what are the numbers here? Fifty percent say the Democratic candidate, 46 percent say the Republican candidate.

What does this tell you?

ENTEN: Yes. I mean, look, you see that and you see that top line and you say OK, that's good news for Democrats but not necessarily great news. But here's the important thing. Look at how those districts voted two years ago. They voted

overwhelming Republican by double-digits and that's exactly what we're seeing across the country in these battleground districts, even in places that had been voting very heavily Republican, say two years ago. They're shifting into the Democratic column, at least on average they are.

And, indeed, that lines up mostly with the forecast that we'll be putting out online over the next few days, which tends to suggest that Democrats are favored to take back the House of Representatives.

But it is a close enough race where Republicans still have a shot.

You know, there are margins of errors with all of this stuff -- with my forecast, with that poll. Let's say that poll is off by say six percentage points and Republicans are actually ahead by two, and that is within the margin of error, then we are looking at a different picture. But for right now, Democrats are favored to take back the House.

HILL: How much polling are we going to see on the impact of the Kavanaugh -- of Justice Kavanaugh -- now-Justice Kavanaugh in the next few days? How much -- how much polling do you think we're going to see in terms of will this impact midterms and who benefits?

ENTEN: Well, we better start seeing some polling because I was looking back yesterday and I looked back four years ago and how much polling actually had come out compared to that Sunday four years ago, and four years ago it was a bonanza of polling. And yesterday, it was just a trickle.

So I think that there are a lot of pollsters that have been holding back --

HILL: Yes.

ENTEN: --waiting to see the Kavanaugh hearing unfold and the vote unfold. And then, I do think we'll start seeing some numbers. But I am skeptical about how much of an impact it may actually have.

BERMAN: All right. One thing we hear from Democrats is this notion of structural impotence as it were.

They say look, we've won the popular vote for the presidential election, what, three times and only -- and only had the White House for part of that. They say that the Supreme Court is now rigged against them. And they look at the House election and there's a number here from 2016 which illustrates.

Explain what we're looking at here.

ENTEN: Yes. So, basically, we're looking at the breakdown of how many -- what percentage of voters voted for Democratic candidates and what percentage voted for Republican candidates. And we see Republicans only won the House popular vote by a percentage point. And yet -- and yet, when you look at the percentage of seats that Republicans versus Democrats won, Republicans won 11 percentage points more of the seats.

So that's a 10-point difference that's going on there. That is huge and that's something that we're looking at this year, right? I keep saying that Democrats are only slightly favored to take back the House but, indeed, they are heavy favorites to win more votes than Republicans in House congressional districts.

But when you line it up it seems that Democrats may need to win the House popular vote by say seven percentage points -- five, six, seven percentage points in order to win the majority of seats. And that's occurring for multiple reasons.

[07:45:05] Number one, gerrymandering that got spoken about a lot.

HILL: Yes.

ENTEN: Incumbents -- Republican incumbents. They tend to have more of an advantage.

And third, Democrats tend to coalesce themselves in cities, and so it's easier to --

HILL: Right.

ENTEN: -- draw lines around them.

So those three things -- Democrats are going to win more votes this November, no doubt about that. But the question is whether or not they win more seats and that's still up in the air.

HILL: Yes, and that's why it's important to always get to the bottom with those numbers.

BERMAN: And that's why there's something about Harry.

ENTEN: There's something -- there is always something about Harry, but there's always something about all of us. We're all beautiful people deep inside.

HILL: Oh, look at that.

BERMAN: But, Katy -- you know -- didn't Katy Perry sing at the Democratic convention?

HILL: Yes, I remember. I remember watching her rehearse --

BERMAN: Yes.

HILL: -- earlier in the day actually, doing live shots.

BERMAN: Now, I don't know where we are on Katy Perry versus Taylor Swift at this point. I don't know who is rising and who is falling.

ENTEN: Are you -- are you trying to get yourselves into trouble?

BERMAN: No, no, no. I'm in trouble. ENTEN: Oh, you're a bad, bad man.

BERMAN: It's well -- it's well past that point.

But I don't think celebrity endorsing really matters all that much. It doesn't say -- mean to say she shouldn't come out and say it, but --

ENTEN: Endorse who you want. Be who you are.

HILL: You do you.

ENTEN: You do you. Look, we're all coming together. Isn't this nice?

HILL: It's a beautiful thing.

BERMAN: Harry Enten, great to have you with us this morning. Be well.

ENTEN: You, as well, John.

BERMAN: Don't go changing.

Time now for "CNN Money Now." Is it still called "CNN Money Now?" No, it's called "CNN Business Now." A big, important shift that we have to note here.

And the holiday shopping season is just around the corner. Retailers -- they're going to have a tough time finding workers and that might be good news for Americans looking for jobs.

Our chief business correspondent Christine Romans joins us now with that -- Romans.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT, ANCHOR, "EARLY START": Hi there, John.

This is what happens during the tightest labor market in a generation. Americans picking up holiday jobs will see higher pay, flexible schedules, even perks -- perks like paid time off for a temporary holiday worker.

Retailers expect to hire 650,000 holiday workers this year. That's more than last year.

The labor market is super tight. The unemployment rate is the lowest since 1969. So many retailers had to start searching for their holiday workers early, some as early as July.

And they will pay more. Amazon, this year, as you know, will raise its minimum wage to $15 an hour for everyone, including seasonal workers. Walmart promising at least $11; Target, $12. On average, seasonal pay up 54 percent his year.

But it's not just higher pay. Some retailers are offering non-cash incentives to lure workers, like generous employee discounts, paid time off, changes to win a big paid vacation -- even retirement benefits, nearly unheard of for temporary employees.

For more on holiday retail as well as tech, media, and finance, go to the new "CNN Business" featuring exclusive interviews with newsmakers and in-depth coverage of the companies driving business forward. All that, you guys, at cnn.com/business -- Erica.

HILL: All right, Christine. Thank you.

So imagine paying more than a million dollars for a piece of art by none other than Banksy, and then as soon as the gavel comes down -- look at that -- it starts to shred. Your big investment shredded.

One of the men who helped to introduce the controversial artist to the world joins us next with his take.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:52:53] HILL: A jaw-dropping moment. A Banksy painting sells at auction for $1.4 million. The gavel drops and so does the painting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

(APPLAUSE)

(Painting begins to shred)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE). Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to move on here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: So what happened in that moment? A painting is shredded? Yes, that's what you saw.

Joining me us someone who knows the illusive artist Banksy and his work very well. Steve Lazarides once represented Banksy and was the first seller of his art. Good to have you with us.

I'd just love to get your take, first of all, on that moment and what we saw. As soon as that painting sold for $1.4 million, half of it is shredded.

STEVE LAZARIDES, ART DEALER AND GALLERY OWNER, FIRST SELLER OF BANKSY ART: Hi, Erica.

Well, I think it's probably one of the finest moments in auction history. Aside from the Da Vinci selling for that ridiculous amount of money last year, this will go down in history as one of the craziest auction moments of all time, I think. I think it's probably one of the best stunts Banksy's ever done.

HILL: So one of the best stunts. LAZARIDES: I know --

HILL: Do you look at this as art or publicity --

LAZARIDES: Yes.

HILL: -- or a stunt? You look at this as -- what happened -- what we saw as art?

LAZARIDES: I think it's a little bit of everything, to be honest. I think you could have it down as performance art, you could have it down as a stunt.

It reminds me of the -- of the old stunts he used to pull off when he was putting old masters up in places like the Tate Britain and putting stuff in various museums around the world. I think it's a return to a -- it's a tour de force for him, I think. And yes, I think you could interpret it in many different ways.

I'm unsure whether I think the painting is going to be more valuable or less valuable --

HILL: Yes.

LAZARIDES: -- but it's definitely going to be the most famous Banksy painting in history.

HILL: Who is he? I mean, because he -- because of your history, can you give us any more insight into who Banksy really is?

LAZARIDES: Ha ha, no, because that would be like telling a 5-year-old child that Santa Claus doesn't exist. You know --

[07:55:00] HILL: Hey, listen, don't you go spreading that on this program.

LAZARIDES: (Laughing) I'll try and stop.

No, I'm not giving anything away. I've hidden it all these years. I'm not going to give it away now. I think, you know, that's part and parcel of who -- of who he is.

HILL: And did any of that surprise you, though -- what we just saw?

LAZARIDES: No, no really. That's the kind of -- his meticulous planning, the humor, thumbing his nose at the kind of establishment. And I think part of it was a commentary on the price of his works and they're starting to realize.

You have to remember that one of those "Girl and Balloon" pieces back in 2006 when they were made -- he didn't even call them canvases. At the time, they were called street souvenirs.

We used to sell them at an event called Santa's Ghetto and they sold for 250 quid. So that piece you saw selling for a million was originally sold for 250 pounds. So I think part of it is a commentary on the -- you know, the crazy state of his -- of how much his paintings are going for nowadays.

HILL: I'm told that -- so you're at your gallery right now. Over your shoulder -- you're a little small on my screen, but --

LAZARIDES: There's one over there, yes.

HILL: Yes. So tell me about that piece.

LAZARIDES: The "Girl and Balloon" piece or the other piece?

HILL: Yes. No, the one right behind you.

LAZARIDES: I can't tell which one's behind me.

HILL: Oh, he can't see it.

LAZARIDES: The (INAUDIBLE).

So, yes -- so that piece -- he did a whole series of paintings called crude oils. So we did a show in West London many years ago where we took over a shop. It had about 25 of these paintings in it which he called corrupted oil paintings.

And at the same time, it had 200 live rats running around in the show and people would queue for hours to get into the -- to get into the exhibition and walk around with the rats, and they'd get kicked out after two minutes to let the next person in.

And then the corrupted oils became probably the most desirable of his paintings for quite a long time until that was superseded by the "Girl in Blue."

HILL: What are you -- what are you hearing in the art community about this latest stunt? Publicity stunt, performance art -- as you said, you could interpret it in a number of different ways.

LAZARIDES: Yes, I think there's various different theories that have come out over the weekend. There was one that Sotheby's were in collusion with him, which I find having known him for many years and known how anti-establishment he is and how corporate someone like Sotheby's is, I think it's very, very unlikely that there was any kind of collusion.

And I think many people in the art world think this is a brilliant, brilliant piece of performance art by him. And it's -- you know, it's rare that you see something that's not been done before and this is definitely something that's not been done in an auction house before.

Maybe it will start a trend where people are shredding their paintings.

HILL: It just might. That is -- that is a chance, although, you know, the first one will probably be the most important one. LAZARIDES: Yes, I'd kind of like to see a Rothko go up and then suddenly get shredded. I think that might cause an uproar. But I think he'll be the first and only person to have ever done it.

HILL: Yes, I think it sounds that way. That's a lot of money to see shredded.

Steve Lazarides, appreciate you joining us. Thank you. And listen, whenever you want to reveal some more details we're here.

LAZARIDES: OK, brilliant. Thanks, Erica.

HILL: Thanks.

We are following a lot of news on this Monday morning. Let's get right to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's a horrible tragedy. There's no words.

SUMWALT: Twenty fatalities -- it's horrific. This is one of the biggest loss of lives that we've seen in a long, long time.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is going to be a major change in the limousine industry.

BARBARA DOUGLAS, AUNT OF FOUR CRASH VICTIMS: They were fun-loving. One has two little children and they now have no home.

SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D-HI), MEMBER, SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: He's going to be on the Supreme Court with a big asterisk after his name.

KELLYANNE CONWAY, COUNSELOR TO PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Justice Kavanaugh should not be seen as tainted.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Democrats have become too extreme.

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D), CALIFORNIA: That Supreme Court process was a sham.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC), MEMBER, SENATE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: I'm glad those who tried to overturn the rule of law and replace it with mob rule lost.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do we move forward? How do we heal the divisions in the Senate?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.

BERMAN: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Monday, October eighth, 8:00 here in the east.

Alisyn is off. Erica Hill joins me this morning. Great to have you here.

HILL: It's good to be with you.

BERMAN: So, the NTSB is investigating the deadliest transportation accident in the United States in nearly a decade. Twenty people killed in Upstate New York after this limousine -- this modified SUV limousine plowed through an intersection. Eighteen people inside that vehicle died.

One witness said the crash sounded like an explosion. Local residents say that deadly intersection was well known as a danger spot.

HILL: The driver and all 17 passengers, among them four sisters from one family and two newlywed couples, were among those killed.

The victims were on their way to a 30th birthday celebration for one of the passengers in that limo. Two pedestrians were also killed in the crash.

Investigators, at this point, trying to determine the cause of the accident.

CNN's Polo Sandoval is live near the scene in Schoharie, New York with the latest for us -- Polo.