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SpaceX to Launch Rocket Today; Four Killed in Alabama Mass Shooting; Missouri Teen Shot; Delay in Dominion Defamation Case; SpaceX Scraps Launch; Debt Ceiling Showdown. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired April 17, 2023 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:41]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Congress is back in session, but rather than being in Washington, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is taking his battle to Wall Street. The list of demands he now has for Democrats as the high stakes fight heats up.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: New reporting coming in from the mass shooting at a sweet 16 party in Alabama. At least four people killed, 28 others, many of them teenagers, injured. What police are now saying about this investigation.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Moments from now, the most powerful rocket ever built is expected to launch into space. The mission, eventually take people to Mars.

These major stories and more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

We begin with the rocket launch. In just about 20 minutes, the SpaceX Starship is set to take off. The rocket is nearly 400 feet tall and has 33 engines. And this launch will mark SpaceX's first attempt to launch the fully assembled Starship vehicle after years of testing. It's the first step in Elon Musk's vision to send humans back to the moon and Mars. It's also something NASA has gotten pretty excited about as well.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is live near the launch pad on South Padre Island. He's joining us now.

Ed, what's the very latest? How is it looking there?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, according to SpaceX officials, they say that everything is looking very good. So, we are just under 20 minutes away from the launch of the Starship rocket. And we are at a vantage point that should be rather amazing here this morning, about five miles away from the launch pad of the SpaceX Starbase facility here in south Texas.

Kate, there are thousands of people standing along the southern edge of South Padre Island to get this vantage point of this historic moment. This is the first fully integrated test of this uncrewed rocket system. And this is a crucial piece of technology for SpaceX and Elon Musk.

Now, Elon Musk, last night, throwing a lot of cold water on expectations for this rocket launch. And the way it's supposed to happen is that here in just under 20 minutes it will launch. And this is a flight that is expected to last, if all goes well, about an hour and a half. It will launch and head out east out into the Gulf of Mexico. And that massive booster, it's called the heavy boosters, as you mentioned, 33 engines attached. About three minutes into that, it will separate and land in the Gulf of Mexico and then the Starship rocket will continue to make almost a complete orbit around the earth, and it will come back into the atmosphere landing in the Pacific Ocean somewhere near Hawaii. So that is if it's all going to plan.

But Elon Musk is saying this could be a success or it could be a catastrophic failure. An epic fireworks show. So, anything is possible.

Exactly how all of this will unfold will be rather dramatic to see here in the coming moment.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes, hearing him say we just don't want to blow up the launch pad is quite -- is definitely putting cold water on kind of maybe what to expect today. But we're going to be following it with Ed Lavandera is there with us. We're going to be -- we've got -- we've got the clock counting down. We're going to be there. We're going to follow this all this morning with Ed.

Ed, thank you so much.

LAVANDERA: Yes.

BOLDUAN: John.

BERMAN: All right, Kate, new developments this morning in the mass shooting at a sweet 16 party. This happened in Dadeville, Alabama. Four people were killed, dozens more injured. Among the dead are the birthday girl's brother, Philstavious Dowdell, a high school senior who had a football scholarship to attend Jackson State University in the fall, and high school senior KeKe Smith. She was the student manager of the track team and look forward to attending the University of Alabama.

CNN's Isabel Rosales is in Dadeville, Alabama, for us this morning.

Isabel, why don't you bring us up to speed on the latest reporting.

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John, good morning.

We got a chance to take a closer look at this dance studio once police took down that police tape, that yellow tape. And what we saw is that a family member of the owner of this dance studio put up this yellow tape covering of the door. We also counted, from the windows to the glass door to this other right window, six -- at least six bullet holes. [09:05:02]

And the latest press conference from the Alabama law enforcement agency, which is the lead agency investigating this shooting, they finally put a number to how many people were injured. That is 28 people injured in this shooting. And we know from Lake Martin Community Hospital, at least 15 of them are teenagers, at least five are in critical condition.

Now, police have said that there is no active concern to the public here, but they have not answered questions about the status of the shooter or shooters. They say that they are speaking with witnesses, that they are gathering information, and that this is a fluid situation. They're going to take their time here to getting these answers.

We did speak with Michael Taylor, an assistant football coach here at the local high school, who knew Phil Dowdell pretty closely, considered him a son, has been coaching him since nine years of age, and says that he was blessed with sports. He was just good at everything, track, football, basketball. And he says he spoke with his grandmother the morning after the shooting.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL TAYLOR, ASSISTANT FOOTBALL COACH: The biggest idea (ph) is she - she don't understand why. Why did it happen, you know? Because we don't have any enemies.

And Phil just told me about a month ago, he said, Coach, if anything ever happened to me, even when I go to college, take care of my two sisters. I've never dreamed that he was talking about this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROSALES: And, obviously, such a traumatic situation for this tightknit community of only 3,000 people. The superintendent says that there are counselors available at county schools to help these children really digest and go through and work through what has happened in this community.

John.

BERMAN: So many young people. So much potential. Such a loss.

Isabel Rosales, in Alabama, thank you so much.

Sara.

SIDNER: From one shooting to another.

Outrage in Kansas City, Missouri. And this morning, calls for justice after a black teenager was shot in the head when he mistakenly went to the wrong address to pick up his younger brothers. The 16-year-old, Ralph Yarl, is currently hospitalized. He is in stable condition. Police say his parents asked him to pick up his siblings at an address on 115th Terrace (ph), but he accidentally went to 115th Street. And when he rang that doorbell, the homeowner shot him. The homeowner was taken into custody and, after a 24-hour period, was released pending further investigation. Authorities so far have released very few details in the case, but the teen's family says they want police to identify the homeowner who shot their child.

CNN's Camila Bernal is following all this for us.

Camila, can you first of all tell us how the young man is doing?

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey Sara.

Well, the family says that he's doing OK physically, but what they're saying now is that there is a long road ahead emotionally and mentally for this 16-year-old.

Look, they are describing him as friendly, well-mannered, someone who loved music. They say he always has an instrument in hand. And he was dreaming about graduating and going to west Africa. All of this is going to be a lot harder now because he simply went to the wrong address.

You mentioned this. He went to 115th Street instead of 115th Terrace. He was just a block away from where his brothers were the moment he got shot. This neighbor called police. The homeowner is arrested. And this 24 hour hold period, according to state law, says you can hold this person for 24 hours, but after those 24 hours, you either have to charge him or release him. And authorities here are saying, look, we need to investigate this further. They want more evidence. And that's why this homeowner was released.

And there's so much outrage and people are just frustrated about what has happened here. The chief of police in Kansas City saying she understands that frustration.

Here she is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF STACEY GRAVES, KANSAS CITY, MO POLICE: I want everyone to know that I'm listening. And I understand the concern that we are receiving from the community.

The information that we have now, it does not say that that is racially motivated. That's still an active investigation. But as a chief of police, I do recognize the racial components of this case. I do recognize and understand the community's concern.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERNAL: And civil rights attorneys Lee Merritt and Ben Crump are representing the family. They want swift action. They say this was horrendous and unjustifiable.

Sara.

SIDNER: Certainly the family saying unjustifiable. All he was doing was trying to help them out by picking up his younger brothers.

Camila Bernal, thank you so much, live there from Los Angeles for us.

John.

BERMAN: All right, Sara, happening right now, we are watching Wilmington, Delaware, were at this very moment a judge is scheduled to explain why he issued a delay in the most important defamation trial in generations.

[09:10:01]

Overnight, the judge announced he would be delaying the case against Fox by Dominion for 24 hours. Now, "The Wall Street Journal," which is owned by Fox Corporation Chairman Rupert Murdoch, is reporting the network made a push to settle. Now neither Dominion nor Fox nor the judge until now have commented on this, although, as I said, the judge should be speaking literally right now on this. So, we could get details any second. Dominion is suing Fox over false claims that its voting machines rigged the 2020 election. Dominion is seeking $1.6 billion in damages. Fox has denied wrongdoing.

CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig joins us now.

And, Elie, once again, the disclaimer, stuff is going on at this second.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Yes.

BERMAN: We'll update it as we get it in.

If the judge is delaying to allow settlement talks for 24 hours, explain to me exactly what's happening behind the scenes.

HONIG: You know, John, trial can be the ultimate wake-up call for any party in any case because the stakes are so high, the outcomes can be so dramatic, and the outcome is inherently uncertain. I have seen it is not uncommon for cases to settle on the eve of trial, on the morning of trial, even during trial. That actually happens sometimes. So, if they're in last minute settlement negotiations, I think they're both in bunker mode, and they're likely going back and forth with not just numbers but other conditions that may apply.

BERMAN: All right, let's break this down.

HONIG: Yes.

BERMAN: Why would Fox settle?

HONIG: Well, I think two big reasons. Number one, they run the risk of getting hammered with a verdict here. Let's remember, Dominion's seeking $1.6 billion only in compensatory damages. That means how much you have to pay to make us whole could be punitive damages on top of that.

And, second of all, I think Fox has to be concerned about the possibility -- the certainty that many of its top personalities, anchors, reporters, even executives, up to and including Rupert Murdoch, will have to take the witness stand. They will not be in control of the questioning. They will be at the mercy of the judge and the lawyers here, and that could create a nightmare scenario for Fox.

BERMAN: All right, why would Dominion settle? And I think a lot of people are asking this, especially since so much of the news about this until this point has seemed so positive for Dominion.

HONIG: Yes. Yes, so trying to put myself in Dominion's perspective here. On the -- on the one hand, this is not a big company. This is a fairly small to medium sized company, 250 or so employees. And they need to remain solvent. And so if they get a big enough number on the table, they may well want to take that.

The other thing is, no outcome is assured. And if they go to trial, they may not win.

And let's remember, if they're trying to make a point here, and I think they've already done that quite powerfully, they got a finding from a judge that Fox lied. The question is whether Fox lied intentionally, but they already have it on record, Fox lied, and they've already exposed and shown us the contradictory texts from Hannity and Tucker Carlson and others behind the scenes. So, I think in their own mind they can say, we've already made our point, now let's make our money.

BERMAN: Even if they do win it, it could be a while before they see anything because of all the appeals.

HONIG: Yes.

BERMAN: If there is a settlement, and we don't know for sure, by the way, how serious these talks are, at least not yet, how much will we ever learn about the settlement?

HONIG: So, it's interesting. Usually, we would not learn the amount of the settlement, but the parties can negotiate that. But typically, parties will agree to a confidential number.

Now, reporters may be able to unearth it, but if it's confidential, we're not going to see it in any court papers. There also could be, keep in mind, some sort of condition of an acknowledgement by Fox, an acknowledgment of wrongdoing, an apology, a retraction. So that could be in play here too.

BERMAN: Dominion could ask for anything?

HONIG: Absolutely.

BERMAN: And in terms of the money, what are we talking -- a lot of money is a lot of money. And people have to remember that when they're talking about any company or individual involved in a lawsuit. HONIG: And we have uneven bargaining power here because let's say $1 million, if it settles, is going to be a lot -- a lot more than that. But a million dollars means a lot more to Dominion, which is a much smaller company, than Fox. But it's important to keep in mind, that $1.6 billion figure, that's what Dominion is asking for in its papers. That is a high number. I mean this is a company that by its own estimate is not even worth - it's a good -- it's a well -- a company that's well running and profitable, but they're not even worth $100 million. So, they're asking for more than 10 times their value. It's unlikely they would get that.

BERMAN: Though, if there is a settlement, it could be quite, quite rich. At this point -

HONIG: They're going to make it - they're going to make it hurt. I think that's true.

BERMAN: All right, Elie, we are watching this closely. Again, we'll bring everyone updates if we get information about what the judges is saying.

Kate, as I said, the most important defamation trial in generations.

BOLDUAN: That's absolutely huge no matter what happens here.

Thanks, guys.

Coming up for us, the clock is ticking. We are weeks away from the country defaulting on its debt. And in less than an hour, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is going to be making a pitch with his -- for his plan for spending cuts from the New York Stock Exchange. Really an opening salvo in what is now going to be very much heated up negotiations, if they are even talking. But is it a plan Wall Street or the White House is going to get behind? Much more on that next.

Plus, parts of the Sudan are on fire. Nearly 100 civilians are dead as a violent power struggle plays out in that country.

And what Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is promising to do after a Pro Publica investigation revealed he did not disclose gifts and real estate deal that he made with Republican - a Republican donor 10 years ago.

[09:15:10]

And this just in. We're going to show you live pictures of the SpaceX launch pad, SpaceX Starship. We've just learned that they are scrapping the launch for today. We're going to bring you the details and an update on why. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: All right, we have just learned that the -- that SpaceX has scrapped the launch for today of their Starship rocket this morning. We're getting just new details coming in as we speak right now.

Let's get back over to CNN's Ed Lavandera, who's live near the launch pad in South Padre Island.

I feel like, Ed, is it something I said? What happened?

LAVANDERA: I think we - we messed it up. It's got to be our fault. Just moments after we finished talking a little while ago, SpaceX officials started announcing that they had pressurization issues on the booster.

[09:20:07]

And this is that massive booster, that 230-foot-tall heavy booster at the bottom of this rocket ship with 33 engines. And because of that, they will have to scrap the launch for today. They do have windows where they can relaunch here in the next 24 to 48 hours, but we'll have to wait for official word from SpaceX on exactly how all of this will be handled. But I -- clearly a great disappointment for the thousands of people who have been turned out here this morning to be able to witness this rocket ship launch.

But this comes -- and they will continue to go through the process of appearing as if they will launch. In fact, they will not stop this launch officially until t minus 10 seconds. So, they're going to go -- continue going through the process as if this were -- this rocket we're going to launch and they will stop at just 10 seconds before it was scheduled to launch.

But right now, all of this coming to a dramatic halt here this morning on South Padre Island, as we were anticipating the launch of this SpaceX Starship rocket. We will work to gather more information on exactly what the pressurization issues were and if this rocket will be able to take off in the next couple of days.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes, I mean, this is bigger, faster, stronger, more capacity than rockets past. And there's a lot of people, including NASA, that are very excited on seeing if this works and how it works.

We're going to get back to Ed Lavandera with this as it develops, continuing this morning.

Ed, thank you.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, next hour, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is expected to give a speech at the New York Stock Exchange to outline the Republican proposal as a debt ceiling crisis looms. Congress, by the way, is back today after a two week recess. In a tweet, McCarthy says he'll focus on the urgent need for a responsible debt ceiling increase. This could set the stage for a fresh round of talks between House Republicans and the White House. The GOP want major spending cuts in exchange for a debt limit increase. Democrats say that's a non-starter.

This was a huge point of contention for McCarthy back in January. He was forced to promise no debt ceiling increase without steep spending cuts or he may have lost his bid for speaker of the House.

CNN Congressional correspondent Lauren Fox is up on Capitol Hill with the very latest.

Lauren, can you give us a sense of how far apart these two parties are on this right now?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara, I mean, they haven't even agreed whether or not spending cuts should be part of this debt ceiling increase or not. The White House's position has been no negotiations as part of a standard increase against the country's borrowing limit. They argue that these are debts that the U.S. has already incurred.

Meanwhile, House Republicans, and Kevin McCarthy, are arguing that this has to include spending cuts. We expect that in upcoming days they are going to unveil with legislative text their plan to increase the debt ceiling for one year. But McCarthy's speech today in New York is really about trying to pressure the White House to come to the negotiating table. Kevin McCarthy has not spoken to the president about this issue since they met several weeks ago.

This also comes as there's no certainty about what that drop dead deadline is for a debt ceiling increase up here on Capitol Hill. So, a lot of moving parts here.

But this is really setting the stage for McCarthy to try to pressure his conference to get behind one plan to increase the debt ceiling while also trying to prove to the White House, we have a Republican plan. Now, Mr. President, what is your plan going to be?

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, Lauren Fox there for us on Capitol Hill.

This, economists say, is a big freaking deal because it could mean a loss of jobs if they don't sort this out, John.

BERMAN: That is the technical economic term for it, actually, Sara.

SIDNER: A big freaking deal.

BERMAN: A big freaking deal. No, look, you know, we're talking about -- Lauren was talking about the politics here.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Right.

BERMAN: This is the dollars and cents. CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans here with me.

ROMANS: Good morning.

BERMAN: If they don't make a deal over there -

ROMANS: It's just bad in so many ways really. Really, really bad. And they all know it. That's all politics. That's all politics. The practical matter is here, you have a United States that could

default on its good credit rating and have a downgrade and all kinds of terrible -- $31.6 trillion in debt. It's been raised three times under President Trump, eight times under President Obama. They've done it before, right? They've done it before. And now they're fighting about it here.

Here are the consequences. A likely recession. That's pretty much guaranteed. A credit downgrade would awful. That would cause stocks to plunge. A spike in interest rates. A jobless spike. You could see a recession with an awful lot of people out of work.

And here's what's the real practical thing I think you could feel very, very quickly. If they don't raise the debt ceiling, our members of the military will have to take an IOU for their pay. Social Security recipients, you will get an IOU for your -- they're going to send you a little note in the mail, or it may be even just an email that says, listen, we don't have the money to pay you. We can't borrow any more money because we hit that $31.6 trillion mark already this year. And so we would have to ask American citizens to take an IOU from the U.S. government, the largest economy in the world. It's just embarrassing and avoidable.

[09:25:03]

BERMAN: A lot of stuff would happen. All of it bad, correct?

ROMANS: All of it very bad.

BERMAN: And just to remind people, this debt ceiling has been around for a while, and it has been raised before. How did they get through those past moments?

ROMANS: Sometimes they go to this brinkmanship and there's some horse trading, but there are really three ways to resolve this for -- finally for good. One, you just raise the debt ceiling clean, as they say. That's what the Biden administration has so far said. You raise it with conditions. That's what McCarthy is trying to get some, you know, a plan together for. Or you get rid of the damn thing. And that's what a lot of economists think.

You know, the spending restraint and the tax restraint happens in the budget process. It happens in the appropriations process. It shouldn't happen after you've already spent the money.

Congress already spent all this money and now is saying, wait, we want to do over. We want to spend it differently in the future. That's a failure on Congress and the people who pay the price, if they don't figure it out soon, would be the American people. I mean, I can't imagine giving an IOU to somebody who's serving actively in the United States military. It's just -- it's abominable.

BERMAN: Yes. What most people - what most economists and business leaders will tell you is, Congress, you are not helping here.

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

ROMANS: You're welcome.

BERMAN: Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right, not factual. That is what Taiwan's defense ministry is saying about reports about its military readiness and it is speaking out also about its ability to respond to air threats from the Chinese military. We have more on that coming up.

And some of the world's greatest -- it is one of the world's greatest athletic competitions. The Boston Marathon is officially underway this morning. How the historic marathon is also marking 10 years since the deadly twin bombings near the finish line.

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