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Teen Shot After Going To Wrong House To Pick Up His Brothers; McCarthy Confirms House GOP Is Looking At One-Year Debt Limit Increase; Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX), Is Being Interviewed About Leaked Docs Shows Taiwan Vulnerable To Chinese Attack. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired April 17, 2023 - 11:00   ET

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

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[11:00:09]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A black teenager shot in the head after he mistakenly went to the wrong address to pick up his younger brothers. We will speak with his attorney, Ben Crump as demands for justice grow.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: A historic $1.6 billion deformation trial delayed and the big question now will there be a settlement word as Fox News may now want one with Dominion voting systems, what the judge is revealing this morning.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Horrendous and catastrophic. The U.N. Secretary General is sounding off on a violent humanitarian crisis right now unfolding in Sudan. These stories and more coming in on CNN News Central.

BERMAN: Outrage in Kansas City this morning after a black teenager was shot in the head when he mistakenly went to the wrong address to pick up his younger brothers. This is 16-year-old Ralph Yarl. He is currently hospitalized in stable condition. Police says parents asked him to pick up his siblings at an address on 115 Terrace, but instead he went to 115th Street. And when he rang the doorbell the homeowner shot him.

The homeowner was taken into custody. And after a 24 hour hold period was released pending further investigation. Authorities so far have released a few details for the teen's family say that they want police to identify the homeowner. CNN's Camila Bernal following this story for us. Camila, bring us up to speed on the latest here.

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John. Well, thankfully the family says that physically, Ralph is doing well. But they also say that the very realistic future here is difficult because they say that mentally and emotionally, there is a long road ahead. They describe him as a friendly teenager who was well mannered, who loves music.

They say he plays a number of different instruments, always has an instrument in hand. He dreamed about going to West Africa, and simply wanting to graduate high school like any other teenager, all of this is going to be so much harder now just because he went to the wrong house, it's so important to say this.

Look, he wants to 115th Street and he was supposed to go to 115 Terrace, that mistake could happen to any person. And so that is why there's people who are so upset about all of this and demanding more from authorities, the chief of police in Kansas City, she says she understands the frustration here. But she says that more needs to be done in terms of the investigation. Here she is.

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CHIEF STACEY GRAVES, KANSAS CITY, MO POLICE: I want every one 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.

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BERNAL: Now this happened on April 13th, just before 10:00 p.m. And it was a neighbor who called police. That homeowner was arrested. You mentioned that 24-hour hold period. After those 24 hours because of state law, you either have to charge someone or release them. And authorities here are saying they want more in terms of the investigation. They want to talk to Ralph. They want more evidence and that's why this homeowner was released.

But that's not enough for a lot of these protesters, of course, for the attorneys who are representing the family now who say they want swift action. They say this is unjustifiable, John.

BERMAN: All right, Camila Bernal with the facts and the details of this case. Camila, thank you so much for your reporting here.

Now we are joined by attorney Ben Crump, who was representing the family of Ralph Yarl. Counsel, thank you so much for being with us. Before we get to the case itself, let me just ask you for any new information you might have on Ralph's condition and how his family's doing.

BEN CRUMP, ATTORNEY FOR FAMILY OF MO TEEN SHOT AFTER GOING TO WRONG ADDRESS: Well, my own maker, brother, Attorney Lee Merritt and I are representing the family and we're trying to push to make sure that it's not swept under the rug. But the family's number one priority, John, is the health of their 16-year-old child, Ralph, who had everything going for him. He was a musician. He was an honor roll student. He had dreams of going to Texas A&M University. And then for simply ringing a doorbell and Ben profile. He is shot in the head.

BERMAN: You say being profiled. How do you explain what happened here?

[11:05:03] CRUMP: Well, if inexplicable, John Berman, I mean to have black people ring a doorbell, and then have a white citizen shoot him in the head first and then shoot him a second time. I mean, there is no way you can justify this. I mean, think about how ludicrous this is. You have people who are delivering packages with Amazon and FedEx. And so are we going to start tolerating, if it's a black citizen, that you can shoot them, and then go home and sleep in your bed at night after the police question you? It is unacceptable, unacceptable.

BERMAN: Now, we did hear police officials moments ago and Camila played this say they are aware of the racial component here. We don't know the identity of the shooter. You are suggesting that the shooters race was white?

CRUMP: Yes. We have been informed by his family that it was a white man who shot their 16-year-old son. Furthermore, John, it is inescapable not to observe the racial dynamics here. Because our community, we can only imagine if the roles were reversed. And you had a black man, shoot a 16-year-old white child with simply ring his doorbell. And the police took him in for questioning and let him come home and sleeping in his bed at night. How much outrage would there be in America?

BERMAN: Now the police say that an arrest cannot be made until Ralph gives a statement and more forensic evidence can be collected. What is your reaction to that?

CRUMP: It is two America's as we've said many times, John Berman, nobody can tell us if a black man shot a 16-year-old white teenager for ringing his doorbell that he would not be arrested that they will say, oh, well, we got to go talk to the white 16-year-old who was shot twice, one in the head, one in his chest, before we arrest a citizen.

No, it harkens back to Trayvon Martin and Ahmaud Arbery and so many of these other tragedies where you had citizens profile and shoot our black children. And the police didn't let them go home and sleep in their beds at night, unacceptable.

BERMAN: Counselor, I do have to let you go but just shot in the head, shot in the chest. Is he doing OK? How was Ralph doing this morning?

CRUMP: Well, his Aunt Faith has shared with our legal team Attorney Merritt and I that he's in stable condition. He's obviously distraught. He, you know, he understood, he understands that he could be dead now. So his family, they're grateful that we're not talking about a homicide. But this is tragic, beyond any articulation.

I mean, to have a bullet go in your head and one going your body how this is going to affect him for the rest of his life. And so we asked him and everybody continue to pray for a while and we demand justice, arrest the attempted murder of this young black child.

BERMAN: Benjamin Crump, thank you for that update. We appreciate you being with us. Please keep us posted, OK? Kate?

BOLDUAN: Thank God, he's in stable condition and recovering. We're going to continue to follow that. Great to hear from him, John, thank you.

Also knew this morning, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is taking his debt ceiling pitch to the New York Stock Exchange. He just confirmed also that House Republicans are looking at a one year debt limit increase but also making clear that he wants strings attached, which puts him once again on a collision course with the White House as the country is racing towards the brink over another debt ceiling fight.

CNN's Lauren Fox is on Capitol Hill with the very latest. Lauren, if this is where Kevin McCarthy is starting with negotiations right now, where is -- what does it mean about where this is headed?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kevin McCarthy clearly trying to set the stage, put the pressure on the White House to come back to the negotiating table. He was very clear that the two, the President and the Speaker of the House have not spoken since a February meeting where they discussed the debt ceiling. We also learned from Kevin McCarthy that he is preparing to put this bill on the floor in the next couple of weeks, the legislation would increase the debt ceiling for a year.

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But like you said, it comes with many strings attached, including significant budget cuts that the White House has already said are not part of this negotiation. The White House has been clear, they believe that they can have a discussion about spending in this country as part of the appropriations process. But they argue the debt ceiling is not the place to have these talks.

So McCarthy's next steps are going to be to put this bill on the floor to try to prove that Republicans are united, that's a heavy lift, given the fact that he has a very slim majority. But Kevin McCarthy really trying to make the case here that the White House and the President specifically needs to come back to these talks.

BOLDUAN: Standby to standby on this one.

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REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA), HOUSE SPEAKER: Make no mistake, the longer President Biden waits to be sensible to find an agreement, the more likely it becomes that this administration will bumble into the first default in our nation's history.

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FOX: And what you hear there, Kate, is a speaker of the House who is really warning the White House, that he may walk down that road toward a default. That is why this negotiation is so important. This is why we are all watching it closely. And why House Speaker Kevin McCarthy feels like he wants to take action now, Kate?

BOLDUAN: Except they're going to run right up against this yet again, Lauren. All right, we'll talk very soon, very often about this playing out, Sara. SIDNER: All right now, to the high stakes media case behind "Fox News" and Dominion voting systems. The historic defamation trial was abruptly delayed in the 11th hour last night. It's now set to begin tomorrow. But there are rumblings spreading of a potential settlement, Dominion, "Fox" and the judge not commenting on that just yet.

CNN's Marshall Cohen is in Wilmington, Delaware, where the trial was supposed to start today. We haven't heard any details from any of the parties involved. Are we hearing anything about why there was a delay?

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN REPORTER: You know, if you're hoping to get more details this morning, during the hearing, you didn't get him because this was one of the shortest hearings I've ever covered. It was about four minutes long. The judge said he was the one who made the decision to delay this case by one day, and he basically told everyone to calm down a little bit. He said, quote, things happen. This is not unusual. He said he's almost never worked on a trial or seen a trial that didn't have some sort of delay or hiccup often at the start.

So that's what's happening in court. Outside of court, everyone is wondering like you said, is there going to be a settlement. Late last night "The Wall Street Journal," which is owned by "Fox News'" owner Rupert Murdoch reported that "Fox" is making a late push for a settlement. We will have to wait and see if there's a last minute deal.

But if there is no deal tonight, that means everyone will be right back here at the Delaware Superior Court tomorrow morning, 9:00 a.m. They're going to wrap up jury selection and do opening statements. So we will watch we will wait. And if there is no deal, this could be a six week trial with a lot of revelations. Sara?

SIDNER: We will watch and wait calmly, correct? That is what we're going to do to see how this plays out. Thank you so much Marshall, from Wilmington, Delaware. John?

BERMAN: Yes, you just piped down, that's what the judge is saying, all of you, pipe down. All right, just in the CNN, a federal judge has denied former President Trump's request to delay and assault and defamation trial set to begin here in New York next week. This is the second attempt at a delay by Trump's legal team.

His attorneys asked for a cooling off period to get a what they call a fair and impartial jury after the media attention around Trump's recent indictment. E. Jean Carroll's lawsuit alleges that Trump raped her in her New York dressing room in the mid-1990s in that he defamed her years later, when he denied the incident took place and suggested she had made up the story. Kate?

BOLDUAN: So ahead for us, John Berman and everyone, else Taiwan is pushing back why it says a new report about its military is not factual.

Plus, SpaceX has called off its launch of the largest and most powerful rocket ever built, what went wrong and when SpaceX may try again, we have that for you. [11:14:33]

And a 620,000 square mile swirl of trash, it's known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It's grown so large now that there are ecosystems thriving on it. I don't know if that's good news or bad news. And we're going to find out. An up close look at what this massive sea trash really is, and what it means for sea life everywhere, and Sara and John and me.

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BERMAN: This morning Taiwan is disputing a "Washington Post" report that claims leaked U.S. intelligence documents showed the self- governed island would not be able to fend off airstrikes from China. That intelligence was in the highly classified documents leaked online allegedly by Massachusetts Air National Guardsman, Jack Teixeira, the 21-year-old arrested and charged under the Espionage Act.

This latest intelligent assessment comes as tensions are on an all- time high in just a week after China conducted three straight days and military drills near Taiwan. CNN's Ivan Watson has been covering this. You know, Ivan what's Taiwan saying about this report?

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IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they don't like it. There's a statement from the Ministry of Defense of Taiwan that says, quote, we respect outside opinion on our national defense, but a foreign media cited unidentified documents and the content was obviously not factual. So let's back up to this purported Pentagon leak reported in "The Washington Post." We haven't seen the actual document itself. We've reached out to the Pentagon for comment on this.

Well, what "The Washington Post" is reporting is that the document argues that, for example, Taiwan's Air Force that only about half of its planes are fully mission capable, that there are all sorts of kind of logistical issues like the air defense lacking, compatible secure radios, arguing, assessing that in the event of a full scale conflict with China, Taiwan's air defenses would be overwhelmed and China could somewhat quickly establish air superiority over the self-governing island.

It goes on to say that the U.S. intelligence community is having a harder time assessing China's military activities around Taiwan because it has picked up the tempo of its exercises and flights and the ships moving around. But also because it's using civilian ships that make it harder to assess whether or not China's preparing for an invasion or an assault.

The whole region has been tense. You mentioned these exercises China was conducting. And just yesterday, you had a U.S. guided missile destroyer sail through the Taiwan Strait as part of what the Navy describes as a freedom of navigation operation. Beijing doesn't like it. It just highlights how much military activity is taking place around this area that China claims for itself. John? BERMAN: Yes, so much activity and important for Taiwan to seem strong to the world. Ivan Watson, thank you so much for explaining that. Kate?

BOLDUAN: On that topic, exactly. Joining me right now is Republican congressman, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Michael McCaul, Congressman, Mr. Chairman, thank you for being here. You just returned from Taiwan. I want to get your reaction to this reporting from "The Washington Post" because as Ivan and John were just talking about, it paints a pretty grim picture of Taiwan's military readiness against a Chinese attack. Is that your assessment as well?

REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL (R-TX): Let me first say I think the leak done by this U.S. Air National Guardsman has caused grave damage to our national security, not only what you just heard this report, you know, damaging our foreign policy, damaging the security of Taiwan, also damaging our sources, methods and assets on the ground. This is not a game to be played in some chat room. He put American lives at risk by doing so in a very inflammatory to make the comments he has about Taiwan, I just got back.

The island was surrounded by 10 battleships, and aircraft carrier of Chinese and 70 Chinese fighter jets. This was a live fire exercise drill done to determine both China's capabilities but more importantly, Taiwan's vulnerabilities. And we've seen this in the past when Speaker Pelosi visited as well. We do have concerns about the ability of Taiwan to deter an invasion.

I'm not going to confirm this document. I have participated in red team exercises. We come home to see how prepared Taiwan would be and what our response would be to an invasion. But first and foremost, as I've talked about, 22 weapons systems that I've signed off on in the past three years ago, have yet to go into Taiwan.

And it's absolutely paramount that we get those weapons in as soon as possible to provide that deterrence, along with combat training, and along with intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance by bringing something like a Starlink system into Taiwan.

BOLDUAN: I know you're going to -- eventually, you all will receive a briefing on this massive leak and what is being learned about Jack Teixeira and how he pulled it off. What do you think of the fact that he was able to pull it off seemingly without any knowledge of his superiors in command?

MCCAUL: You know, it's -- I was talking to General Jack Keane about this. I mean, a 21-year-old air guardsman giving access to JWIC which is the worldwide intelligence system. You know, all sorts of information, it's supposed to be on a need to know basis, right? I have no idea why this IT guy had that kind of access to that much information.

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And then so improperly irresponsibly handling it by trying to impress his quote unquote, friends in a chat room that he made during COVID. Just highly irresponsible, we need to take a look at who is the Department of Defense giving this information to you. I understand after 9/11, we want to share information and connect the dots. But for God's sakes, this was I think, gross negligence if not criminal, he is indicted under the Espionage statute.

BOLDUAN: There are a few Republicans right now, Mr. Chairman, that have been defending Teixeira and his actions. Marjorie Taylor Greene is among them. Do you see anything to defend here?

MCCAUL: No, no, I don't. He's not, anybody that violates their oath to protect national security and intelligence, you know, this classified information is not a hero. Just the opposite, I mean, he's jeopardize American lives on the ground. You know, when you're reporting about Russian Federation Intelligence or the GRU, there are assets on the ground now, American lives put at risk. They're very concerned about this leak, and what it means for their safety.

And that's all around the world now, because you're talking about the Middle East, you're talking about our allies. It is gravely damaged our relationship with our allies, as I talked to the Secretary of State, now having to call and apologize to them. Israel, for instance, I don't see anything heroic about that.

BOLDUAN: I need to ask you also, something coming up this week, you're holding a hearing this week on Russian war crimes in Ukraine. You and I have talked about this much in the past. There's much work to be done. But what do -- what are people going to hear this week? What do you want to present? Because obviously, this is being run out of the International Criminal Court, but what are people going to see this week?

MCCAUL: You know, I want them to see the truth, I want them to see what is really happening on the ground, what Putin has done with these war crimes and the lies that have been impacted. You know, I went to Bucha. I met with the families. I saw the faces of the children who were slaughtered and raped, you know, burn victims, mothers being raped. I want them to see what's really happening.

And, you know, a lot of times I know CNN has reported some of this, but I don't think the American people really know what's happening on the ground. And we want to give them a front row seat to the horror that's taking place by Putin, and his, you know, actual atrocity against the Ukrainians.

BOLDUAN: Just this morning, Mr. Chairman, Speaker McCarthy, he just wrapped a speech in New York talking about the debt ceiling, this is the other thing that's going to be -- that's on your, you know, on your plate and other lawmakers plates right now and needs to be dealt with.

Part of his plan that he's -- CNN is now confirming that he's trying to get Republicans to support is a one year extension of raising the debt, one year increase of the debt ceiling, but with a whole bunch of strings attached, like rolling back non-defense spending to 2022 levels. Are you OK with that? MCCAUL: Well, this is the deal I think he made was to go to CAP 2022 levels. You know, I think there's plenty of wasteful spending out there to address. However, I don't want to see massive cuts to our national defense, or national security.

You know, as I've talked about, we're living in very dangerous times right now, when you have a dictator, largest invasion in Europe, yet Chairman Xi, I just got back from Taiwan to see what he's capable of doing in an invasion, possibly after Taiwan's presidential election is very likely. And so it's a very dangerous time right now. I don't want to see massive or dangerous cuts in our national defense.

BOLDUAN: We will stand by to see where these negotiations go. Mr. Chairman, thank you so much for coming on. It's good to have you just have to return from Taiwan.

MCCAUL: Thanks Kate.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much. Sara?

SIDNER: All right, thank you Kate.

SpaceX has called off today's launch of the biggest and most powerful rocket ever. We are live in Texas to find out what happened.

[11:29:29]

Also the U.N. Security general sounding off on the humanitarian crisis that is unfolding as we speak in Sudan, the latest on the violent power struggle that has left nearly 100 people dead.

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