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Unexplained Delay Is Start Of FOX News Trial; Man Who Shot Teen Who Rang His Doorbell Surrenders On Felony Charges; DeSantis Lays Groundwork For 2024 Run With DC Visit, Disney Feud. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired April 18, 2023 - 15:00   ET

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

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: The 84-year-old suspect is now facing two felonies. What police say happened after Ralph Yarl rang Andrew Lester's doorbell by mistake as the teen's family says he was profiled, judged by the color of his skin.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: The Wrong Side of History: Vladimir Putin resorts to deploy in Soviet-era tanks and armored vehicles. The last time some of them saw the frontlines, the 1940s. And the American journalist illegally detained in Russia, he just lost an appeal but his head remains held high. Hear what more the U.S. can do to get Evan Gershkovich back home.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: And listen to this, an unexplained delay in the start of a once in a generation trial as the news channel that made millions promoting the 45th President's election lies is now under oath. We're following these major developing stories many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

All right. Any moment now, opening statements are set to begin in the historic trial of Dominion Voting Systems versus FOX News. In this sketch, the FOX defense lawyer is on the right, Dominion's attorney on the left. The defamation case could set legal precedent for journalists for generations to come.

Dominion, we should remind you, is seeking $1.6 billion for FOX News' repeating false claims that Dominion machines rigged, somehow, the 2020 Presidential Election against Donald Trump, flipping votes they claimed, paying off politicians. The jury is now in place. The two sides were getting contentious even before the opening statements, but now we have some sort of delay.

CNN's Danny Freeman, he is in Wilmington, Delaware, just outside the courthouse. So we had some progress, the jury was set. We had the judge officially naming a special mount master to go through evidence to see if FOX News had somehow withheld evidence they should have given to discovery. But we still haven't heard opening statements. Do we know why? Those were scheduled to take a little more than - take place a little more than an hour ago?

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. So let's start there with the delay. So as you said opening statements were expected to begin around 1:30 this afternoon after the recess, that was after the jury had been selected. But we've been waiting, as you said for about an hour and a half now and still there's been pretty much silence in the courtroom so far.

At this point, we don't have a reason as to why there's been different speculation within the courtroom and without the courtroom, of course, but at this point, we just don't know why this delay has happened. But again, I think the odds of us necessarily getting both opening statements potentially from both Dominion and FOX seem to be getting smaller as court usually adjourns here around 4:30.

Now, I just want to actually bring you back to the earlier news from today. That was about the makeup of the jury. The jury was seated and sworn in earlier at about 11 am. There are 12 jurors and then 12 alternates as well. That's more alternates than normal for this kind of court because it's expected to be a six week trial, and the judge said he wanted to have a lot of alternates ready.

The 12 core jurors, though, made up of six men, six women and our court reporters that are inside say that about nine of them appear to be people of color. So that's what's happening today. And, of course, we're still working to see and understand why this delay right now in court.

SCIUTTO: Danny Freeman, thanks so much.

We should also note that as that trial was kicking off, the judge made sure to instruct the jury to do its best to avoid media coverage of this high stakes case focus on the evidence presented in the courtroom. Of course, it's a highly charged case, all the politics.

CNN Political Commentator, Jonah Goldberg, is also here.

We should note Jonah has been subpoenaed and deposed by Dominion in this case.

Jonah, I know you've been covering this case very closely here. It's not the first delay we had, right, because it was meant to start on Monday, pushed it a day, there was some discussion of a possible settlement talk going on including, as reported by The Wall Street Journal, of course, tied to FOX News by its ultimate owner here.

Do you have any sense from folks you're talking to as to what's responsible for this latest delay? Why no opening statements yet?

JONAH GOLDBERG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No. And there was actually some pushback and some reporting semaphore (ph) in some other places that the initial delay that we we're referring to ...

SCIUTTO: Yes.

GOLDBERG: ... on Monday might actually not have been about a settlement, it might have actually been about the fact that the judge was debating how much of discovery to reopen because he's quite across with FOX's lawyers ...

SCIUTTO: Yes.

GOLDBERG: ... for allegedly concealing or withholding some information or evidence.

SCIUTTO: Even key information as to whether Rupert Murdoch is an officer of the company ...

GOLDBERG: Right.

SCIUTTO: ... which they had to apologize for.

Danny Freeman there, just remind us for folks at home following this of some of the very big names at FOX who are expected to be called to the witness stand here. Danny, checking if you hear me ...

FREEMAN: Well, some of the names that we're expecting to see potentially is ...

SCIUTTO: ... yes, just run through who's going to be testifying.

FREEMAN: Yes, absolutely. Some of the names that we're expecting to hear potentially from would be Rupert Murdoch, Chairman of the FOX Corporation and then Suzanne Scott. That's the leader of FOX News right now.

[15:05:01]

And then, of course, some of the other folks we might hear from are some of the news personalities that a lot of people are familiar with FOX News, that includes Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, potentially, Laura Ingraham, all folks who were - in Dominion's argument - part of this lie that were - or these false accusations against Dominion that they were rigging the election against then-President Donald Trump.

But again, it's interesting, we are still waiting to see - before we can tell who the witness is going to be, we got to get through opening statements and at the moment that's delayed. So hopefully we'll get more information over the next few days as to who we may see take that witness stand.

SCIUTTO: Jonah, let me ask you this, because we should note to folks at home, FOX News is not covering this trial. In fact, their own media reporter has been instructed not to cover it. You were a contributor at FOX News. Your sense? I don't expect you to speak for all of them. But your sense of how this news, this trial, the allegations here being received in that audience?

GOLDBERG: Well, the audience - I think there's probably a significant portion of the audience that doesn't know much about the trial, dismisses what they have heard. And at the same time, I think that the - to the extent it penetrates the core audience - I mean, there are a lot of FOX viewers who are channel flippers as well.

But the core audience, the extent it penetrates through it's going to be very interesting to see how much the testimony and evidence from the news division ...

SCIUTTO: Yes.

GOLDBERG: ... is actually on - supports the Dominion case against the opinion side, because basically ...

SCIUTTO: Yes.

GOLDBERG: ... this is a lawsuit against the opinion side. There not - there are a very few - the opinion side, I should say - and the executive leadership who allowed all this stuff to get out there.

Bret Baier, my former colleague at FOX News, he wanted to cover this stuff accurately and there was a lot of pushback against it. There was a lot - there were a lot of reporters who wanted to cover the fact that - and fact check the president - the former president statements, which were lies ...

SCIUTTO: Yes.

GOLDBERG: ... and the opinion side was furious because they thought their own audience couldn't handle that kind of honesty. It was very much a - what we would call audience capture phenomenon.

SCIUTTO: Right. Well, I mean, part of the discovery we saw that there were - there was upset when some of the news reporters tried to fact check the president via Twitter for instance ...

GOLDBERG: Right.

SCIUTTO: ... and then those tweets later deleted.

Listen, there's so much to follow here and I think this is changing by the hour, it seems. Jonah, thanks so much for joining us. And of course, Boris, we will continue to follow events there in Wilmington as the trial proceeds.

SANCHEZ: No doubt about that, Jim.

We have a major new development to bring you in that shooting of an unarmed black teenager in Kansas City. Authorities there confirming that 84-year-old Andrew Lester has now surrendered to police and is in custody.

This brand new booking photo just coming into CNN from the Clay County Missouri's sheriff. Remember, Lester is facing two felony counts, first degree assault and armed criminal action.

Police say that Lester's shot 16-year-old Ralph Yarl twice after the teen rang Lester's doorbell by mistake. Yarl was trying to pick up his younger brothers, but he went to the wrong house. Fortunately, he's now out of the hospital.

This morning, his high school classmates actually held a unity walk showing their support. And we're also getting a first look at this, President Biden just moments ago, sharing this photo of his phone call with the injured team. And in a Twitter message, the President is vowing to keep up the fight against gun violence.

Let's take you to Kansas City now and CNN's Lucy Kafanov who has been tracking all of these latest details. Lucy, Lester turning himself in less than an hour ago it seems.

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. This is the news that the family, the community has been waiting for, 84-year-old Andrew Lester who lives inside this home who allegedly shot 16-year-old Ralph Yarl twice in the head and in the arm on this front porch effectively five days ago as we understand it turned himself into the Clay County Detention Center. This is according to a tweet from the sheriff.

Again, this took place roughly five days ago. He shot Yarl or is accused of shooting Yarl with a 32 caliber revolver. The mother of this teenager speaking out on CBS earlier today. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLEO NAGBE, RALPH YARL'S MOTHER: He went and rang the doorbell. And he was supposed to stay outside and his brothers was supposed to run outside, get in the car and they come home. And that was what was supposed to happen. And while he was standing there, his brothers didn't run outside, but he got a couple of bullets in his body instead of a couple of twins coming up out and giving him a hug.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAFANOV: And we understand from the family attorney that the Clay County prosecutor, Zach Thompson, is actually meeting with Ralph Yarl's family at this hour. We will be monitoring that for you closely. And I just want to sort of give you a sense of the choreography of what unfolded on April 14th.

[15:10:03]

This is the house where Andrew Lester is based. He received this phone call - pardon me - the - a doorbell ring. The 16-year-old was actually supposed to go to that gray house over there. It's one block away. It was the wrong home. That mistake nearly costing this teenager his life.

SANCHEZ: And Lucy, that dispute between Yarl and Lester over what happened at the door that night is going to be central in that investigation. Thank you so much for the update from Kansas City, Brianna, over to you.

KEILAR: Kansas City clearly hurting over this tragic shooting. Eric Bunch from the City Council is joining us now. Councilman, thank you so much for being with us. We're seeing these two charges, both felonies. Lester is now in custody. Are you satisfied with how this is playing out at this point?

COUNCILMAN ERIC BUNCH, KANSAS CITY, MISSOURI: Yes, it always seems to go a little bit slower than what we hope. I'm thankful that Mr. Lester has turned himself in. But my thoughts are very much with Mr. Yarl's family.

And this is a 16-year-old boy who was just trying to be a good big brother picking up his twins. And I'm happy to see - this is on the path to some level of jurisprudence. However, it's frustrating that this kind of thing continues to happen in cities across America.

KEILAR: Are you surprised that something like this has happened in your community or - I mean, is this something that you unfortunately might expect knowing how some people feel erroneously, but they may be feeling like Mr. Lester in a way that creates a situation where a boy like this nearly dies?

BUNCH: We live in a - Missouri is a stand your ground state and that combined with completely unfettered access to firearms and implicit bias, which had to have been the case here, really leads us often to seeing cases like this. So is this a common occurrence?

Thankfully, it's not. This is the first time that something to my knowledge of this specific nature has happened. But I want to speak just briefly on the challenges of - the fear that some families must be going through right now to think that a simple mistake as ringing the wrong doorbell, which by the way, if it hadn't been the right doorbell, it still should not have ended this way.

You have a right to walk up to someone's door and ring their bell. But I can only imagine the fear that it must - that must be there for parents of - in particular black boys that a simple mistake can often end up like this.

And I'm so thankful that that Ralph is - seems to be on the mend. This could have ended so much more tragically. However, we know that Ralph has a long way to go before he's fully recovered, especially emotionally.

So, again, this is a stand your ground state and I think that that unfortunately leads often to cases like this, add an implicit bias and you have a recipe for disaster.

KEILAR: Yes, we're hearing that fear of families, not just from Missouri but all across the country. Councilmember, thank you for making time for us. We appreciate it.

BUNCH: Thank you very much.

KEILAR: Jim, over to you.

SCIUTTO: Coming up. Is he running for president. Sources close to Chris Christie say he is talking to donors now. What the former governor of New Jersey has to say about it. That's just a head.

Plus, police say the man who shot and killed a 20-year-old after all she did was turn into the wrong driveway is showing no signs of remorse. We're going to have the latest from Upstate New York.

And an intrusion, albeit (ph) a tiny one at the White House. Secret Service capturing a toddler on the lawn. All this and more in CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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[15:18:00] KEILAR: This is just in to CNN, we are following a developing story out of Maine where a man has been detained by police after two separate incidents. Investigators say four bodies were found at a home in the town of Bowdoin in Southwest Maine. Additionally, there was a shooting on a major highway. This is video from the aftermath of that shooting on I-285.

And we have CNN's Athena Jones, who is following the story for us.

Athena, what do we know about what happened here?

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Brianna. Well, as you mentioned, this is developing, this story, as the details are still coming in. And in fact, the investigation is being carried out as we speak. But authorities in Maine say that these two shootings are connected.

Earlier today this morning, those four bodies were found in a home in Bowdoin, Maine. That's a town of about 3,100 people. A little bit later or shortly after, according to state police, three people were shot at on a freeway while traveling south on Interstate 295.

You can see there police activity. That section of the freeway has been shut down indefinitely. But as you mentioned, there is a person of interest who has been detained and authorities say there is no threat to the public at this time. But there's a mystery here as to what was going on here, what led to the deaths of these four people found in the home in Bowdoin and then several others being shot at while driving their vehicles.

The victims of the shooting on the freeway were transported to a local hospital, one of those people is now in critical condition. As for the four found dead on Augusta Road in Bowdoin, they have been transported, the medical examiner and there'll be an autopsy.

But bottom line here, strange series of circumstances that police - that authorities in Maine believe are related. We will continue to watch and see what else comes out of this investigation, Brianna?

KEILAR: Yes. Strange for what is also known as a pretty sleepy little town as well.

Athena Jones, thank you for the latest on that. Boris?

[15:20:00]

SANCHEZ: So Florida's governor, Ron DeSantis is in Washington today, meeting with key Republican allies on Capitol Hill. It's the latest pit stop on his non campaign stump circuit. He's been hitting up all the key primary hubs in the United States as he lays the groundwork for an expected 2024 presidential bid. He's been to Iowa, New Hampshire, the NRA Convention, but one thing he hasn't done is to take on the party favorite directly, former President Donald Trump.

That hasn't stopped the former president from launching a volley of attacks against the Sunshine State's governor. DeSantis has largely declined to take the bait. Instead, he has been focusing on his feud with Disney, showing his laser focus on headline grabbing culture war issues.

Let's discuss this and more with CNN Senior Political Analyst Gloria Borger.

Gloria, this whole Disney war ...

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.

SANCHEZ: ... with DeSantis, it started over the Don't Say Gay bill. It's Florida policy that restricts the education of sex and issues of gender in classrooms. Is that leaning into a cultural issue like that a winning national strategy?

BORGER: Well, leaning into a cultural issue is a good strategy right now, if you want to win over the Republican base. And what DeSantis wants to do, because he's running for president, even though he hasn't declared ...

SANCHEZ: Right.

BORGER: ... he is running for president. What he's looking at is the base of the party. And so I was talking to an unaffiliated Republican strategist today, who said to me, look, there's a lot of juice in the anti-woke, populist, anti-corporate power wing of the party right now and that's what he's playing to.

But he hasn't always been winning with Disney and so that can create another problem for him, which of course, Chris Christie is talking about if you can't take on Mickey Mouse and Walt Disney, how can you take on Vladimir Putin?

SANCHEZ: Right.

BORGER: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Right. I want to ask you about Chris Christie in a moment, but part of the interesting dynamic between Trump and DeSantis is where Republicans are landing on the - both sides of that choice. And in Florida, Trump just picked up two more endorsements ...

BORGER: Yes.

SANCHEZ: ... from Florida Republicans, that brings the total number to six. Should that worry, Ron DeSantis?

BORGER: I think - look, it's not a good look, if you're the popular governor of a state who won your election by double digits and you've got now a handful of Republicans saying, you know what, I think we're going to go with the other guy. We're not going to go with you. That raises a lot of questions.

That's one of the reasons, of course, he's in Washington today ...

SANCHEZ: Right. BORGER: ... which is to meet and greet. Tell people, here I am, I'm running, I'm serious about it and to tell those donors who are getting a little antsy because his numbers haven't been going up in the polls, tell those donors, you know what, I'm here and I'm going to win this thing.

SANCHEZ: Yes. It's notable that since Trump's indictment of - the polls have only been moving in one direction, right?

BORGER: Yes, for Trump.

SANCHEZ: Right. So the other question about DeSantis, he just signed a six-week abortion ban in Florida.

BORGER: Yes.

SANCHEZ: Yet another front in the culture wars. I've not seen Trump say anything about that.

BORGER: Well, it look Trump did - happens to disagree with his base on this issue. He has said that the party is going too far out on the anti-abortion issue. He doesn't want to go there right now. And so he's going to leave it until he gets into a debate perhaps with DeSantis, but he doesn't want - Trump doesn't want to do to alienate - doesn't want to do anything to alienate the base either.

SANCHEZ: Right.

BORGER: So they're all playing this game where they're walking a fine line here.

SANCHEZ: So quickly Gloria.

BORGER: Yes.

SANCHEZ: I promised a question on Chris Christie, is he going to run?

BORGER: I think so. Absolutely. He's met with staff. I spoke with somebody who is a close personal former staffer of his who said he believes Chris Christie is going to run. He believes he's going to run as the truth teller in the Republican Party, which he thinks the party could use. We'll have to see if that works.

SANCHEZ: We'll keep an eye on that. And just a point of note, Ron DeSantis, apparently waiting for the END of the Florida legislative session to declare ...

BORGER: Exactly.

SANCHEZ: ... that's May, June. So we'll keep an eye out for that.

Gloria Borger, as always a pleasure.

BORGER: Thanks.

SANCHEZ: Thanks so much. BORGER: Good to be with you.

SANCHEZ: Jim?

SCIUTTO: All right. We do have breaking news into CNN as we continue to follow the FOX-Dominion trial in a intriguing new development. Just moments ago, FOX and Dominion lawyers briefly huddled in court in public view, as a 90-minute delay, actually more than 90 minutes now, delay in that trial drags on.

Danny Freeman has been covering this case in Delaware. Danny, do we know - do we have any sense of what those lawyers were discovering? Because as you noted, just a few minutes ago, we're almost two hours past when we should have been hearing opening statements.

FREEMAN: That's right, Jim. We were all expecting 130. That was when opening statements were supposed to begin. But again, you said almost two hours now and it's been relatively silent in the courtroom except for what we noticed within the past 15 minutes or so. And I'm just going to read from some of our reporters who are currently inside of that courtroom.

Like you said, we observed a top FOX lawyer showing a piece of paper, presumably of note to a top Dominion lawyer.

[15:25:04]

A few minutes later, they both stepped out of the courtroom, huddled outside presumably and then walked back in the court together. But we don't know at this point, what they privately discussed. We're, of course, working our sources to try to figure out what was mentioned there. The lawyers then - the top lawyers of this particular case, FOX attorney Dan Webb and Dominion Attorney Justin Nelson, they then huddle at Dominion's table for a few minutes. That was in public view. That was right there, the middle the courtroom, and they were talking to each other, but we were not able to hear what it was saying.

And just to describe the scene in there, that courtroom was packed there. They are packed to the brim with the journalists on the back half of the courtroom and all of the attorneys there, almost a dozen on each side are right there in full view of everyone. So something like the FOX attorney and the admitted attorney coming together, passing a note and speaking, that's something that I feel like we're going to hopefully get an answer to, because you can imagine that it's very significant, as we're waiting here for now, two hours for opening statements, Jim?

SCIUTTO: No question. And to be clear here. It's not the first delay. The trial was supposed to start on Monday. Judge kicked it back a day there was some discussion of settlement talks. Two hours ago, they were supposed to sit - to begin opening statements, that did not happen and now we have this. And I know, Danny, you got a lot to interpret here so we'll wait to hear developments from inside that courtroom. And, of course, Brianna, we're going to keep on top of what this all means coming up next. KEILAR: Yes, we sure will. And coming up a deadly wrong turn disturbing new details about a man accused of shooting and killing a 20-year-old woman after she pulled into the wrong driveway.

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