Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Biden Sending 1,500 Troops to Southern Border; UC Davis on High Alert after Third Stabbing Near Campus; Hollywood Writers on Strike; Seven Bodies Found during Search for Missing Oklahoma Teens. Aired 11- 11:30a ET

Aired May 02, 2023 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Right now, the search is on for a killer after a string of stabbings at the campus of UC Davis and what police are doing to secure the safety of students and staff and find who is behind the attacks.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): What happens if the United States defaults on its debt?

President Biden and Kevin McCarthy are set to meet.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Thousands of Hollywood writers are on strike right now. How it could affect your favorite shows.

We are monitoring all of these stories and more coming in to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

BERMAN: All right. We have news just into CNN. The Biden administration, we have just learned, is making plans to send an additional 1,500 active duty troops to the U.S.-Mexico border in anticipation of the influx of migrants from the Title 42 public health authority expiring next week.

Title 42 allowed the U.S. to deport people immediately on COVID grounds. This is all coming from sources familiar with the planning to CNN. I want to go to Priscilla Alvarez to get the latest details on this.

And Priscilla, what have you learned?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, this is a common occurrence when we anticipate a surge at the U.S.-Mexico border. We are learning that the Defense Department plans to send additional active duty troops in support roles.

There are currently around 2,500 National Guard troops already along the U.S.-Mexico border. A U.S. official said that at the request of the Department of Homeland Security, DOD is going to provide an additional increase of 1,500 personnel for CPB.

They will be doing ground-based detection and monitoring and data entry and warehouse support and we should note that it is not in a law enforcement capacity. But as you said, John, it is part of the administration's plans as they anticipate the lifting of Title 42.

With that, the influx of migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border prompting them to take additional measures in the coming days for those numbers and which, by the way, we have seen an increase of. A source said they are seeing 7,000 daily encounters, which is a number that is going to be climbing in the coming days, according to their projections.

BERMAN: CNN's Rosa Flores was among those people who had just come over. Priscilla Alvarez, thank you for staying on top of this and keep us posted.

BOLDUAN: The UC Davis community has been on alert since there have been two victims stabbed near campus and have died and now a third stabbing. The most recent attack was just last night.

And the police say that the woman who was stabbed is in critical condition. The first stabbing was Thursday and the victim was a 50- year-old man who was found dead about a half mile from campus.

On Saturday at another park, a UC Davis student was stabbed to death. CNN's Nick Watt is back with us on this once again.

Nick, do police have any information about a possible suspect?

What are you learning?

NICK WATT, CNN ANCHOR AND NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the headline, the frightening headline is that the police do not have a suspect in custody at this point. It is unclear whether they are looking for one person or multiple people.

They have not officially tied the three incidents together, although they are saying that there are obvious, obvious similarities, the brutality and the weapon, a knife.

Now there was a shelter-in-place order issued overnight while the police searched around the area of the most recent attack. A woman stabbed through her tent before midnight. Police say they have finished the search and have not found a suspect.

He was last seen running from the scene, described as a light-skinned man with curly hair, wearing black Adidas pants and carrying a brown backpack. This little college town might see two murders in a year and now two in a week.

[11:05:00]

WATT: One of the victims, David Bro, is known for spreading the words of love, compassion and peace for anyone who would listen. And the second victim, a computer science student, Karim Abou Najm, who was riding his bicycle home after an awards ceremony. Take a listen to what his father had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAJDI ABOU NAJM, KARIM'S FATHER: He was just six weeks away from graduating. This was his last quarter. He was so proud and so happy and so thankful.

He said, "Thanks, Mom and Dad, you paid all of my tuition. You did it."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATT: The FBI is helping local law enforcement with video analysis, might have caught a suspect leaving the scene, also behavioral analysis. These three victims seem very different, no pattern there. Meantime, students scared to go to class.

BOLDUAN: Nick, thank you so much.

BERMAN: And now we are joined by Deputy Chief Todd Henry of the Davis, California, Police Department.

Thank you so much for being with us. You heard the report from Nick Watt there.

Do you have any leads this morning?

DEPUTY CHIEF TODD HENRY, DAVIS, CALIFORNIA, POLICE DEPARTMENT: Yes, thank you for having me here today, John. At this point, we do not. Obviously, we have brought in resource, almost every law enforcement agency in our country and surrounding counties have brought in resources, including the FBI and California Department of Justice.

So we are following a multitude of leads but, so far, nobody has been identified.

BERMAN: How confident are you that it was carried out by one person?

HENRY: It is still too early to be able to connect the crimes. It is obvious that the brutality of the crime are similar but it is hard to link them at this stage.

BERMAN: Any sign that they were carried out with the same weapon?

HENRY: All three of the incidents were stabbing attacks. At this stage, it is hard to tell whether it is the same knife. But the severity of the attack was very similar.

BERMAN: So there had been a shelter-in-place order overnight and that has now been lifted.

What's your message to the public, people in the community?

HENRY: Well, I think it's twofold. One, we are bringing in every resource and working around the clock to be able to solve these crimes. The second part is, like any similar situation, we ask the public to be vigilant, look out for each other, stay aware of your surroundings.

And obviously, the public is a big part in our ability to find evidence or potential suspects. We have multiple ways for them reach out and we ask them to do so.

BERMAN: Can you quantify how many tips you are receiving?

HENRY: At this stage, it is in the hundreds.

BERMAN: Any connection whatsoever in either the geography -- we keep saying no obvious connection of the victims here.

But anything at all?

HENRY: Yes, there's -- two of the incidents took place in a park which is usually unusual for this type of an attack. They're all in an open area, a public place. That is the most concerning part of this to us.

BERMAN: Thank you, Deputy Chief Todd Henry.

If you have any information, share it with the police -- Sara.

SIDNER: Hollywood writers are walking off of the job after no deal was reached between the writers' guild and studios and network executives over pay in the era of streaming. How this could affect you could watch.

Plus in Oklahoma, seven bodies found at a sex offender's home.

And what is the deal with that cat at the Met Gala?

(MUSIC PLAYING)

[11:10:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

BOLDUAN: As of this morning, more than 11,000 TV and movie writers are on strike, halting multiple productions and possibly delaying new seasons of some of your favorite shows. What this means is late night TV shows will see the first impact, because they rely on writers for fresh material and in real time.

[11:15:00]

BOLDUAN: You may see more reality TV. Shows like "Big Brother" boomed, filling in the void. The difference now is the vast content universe of the streaming services. From Netflix to Disney+, they have tons of shows and movies readily available and they can offer new content for quite some time.

As for the last strike in 2007, it left a mark and cost roughly $2.1 billion after that strike lasted 100 days. And right now, the media and tech companies are grappling with a weak advertising market that has driven the stock prices down and driven them to cut cost and labor force.

The writers face a tough reality, too, because a lack of jobs and low pay is making the situation unsustainable. Last month 98 percent of the writers guild voted in favor of the strike -- Sara.

SIDNER: Thank you, Kate.

Joining me now is television writer, showrunner and host of "Adam Ruins Everything," Adam Conover.

Since you're known for ruining everything, is this your fault?

(LAUGHTER)

ADAM CONOVER, TELEVISION WRITER, SHOWRUNNER, AND HOST: I mean, I'm off the clock right now. We're on strike. So, I'm not ruining anything for the time being, except maybe the profits of the companies.

SIDNER: All right, explain why you feel that it is so important that this strike goes forward, that this has to happen now.

CONOVER: So, the studios and the streamers have tried to turn television writing from a career into a gig job. Writer pay has fallen by 23 percent over the past 10 years, even though the company profits have gone up by 50 percent. They're spending more money than ever on making these shows, they're making more profits from them but - than ever. But writers are making less money, they're employing for less time.

And if you look at the proposals that they rejected, that caused us to go on strike, they're proposals that would have protected writers, that would have made sure that when we're - we're not just employed by the day, but by the week and by the month, that we can build a stable life in Los Angeles or New York where we live.

And, you know, that will prevent us from living in precarity. It is - writers are really facing struggle right now. And we are fighting for a stable life, like all workers.

SIDNER: We are showing some of the sticking points. Can you give us what some of those sticking points are? I think 98 percent of the members of the Writers Guild were in favor of the strike, and that's, obviously, the vast majority. What are some of the things that you guys are not going to compromise on?

CONOVER: So, the studios are trying to eliminate the writer's room. You're probably familiar with the term -

SIDNER: I am.

CONOVER: -- the writer's room. This is a room that's existed for decades where writers get together and break a story and write scripts. The companies are trying to eliminate it. They're trying to make the room smaller. They're trying to employ us on a freelance basis. They'd rather we just stay home and e-mail scripts in and they pay us a fee every once in a while. And we can't make a living that way.

And so, our proposals are to ensure that there's a writer's room on every single show. And they have refused to even discuss that proposal with us.

Another sticking point is that we want to make sure that writers are paid the same in streaming as they are on television.

My first show was for TruTV, my second show was for Netflix. The show had the exact same format, but on Netflix, we had no minimums, we had no protections, we were paid less. The residuals are literally 1 percent of what they were under broadcast.

And that's true for everybody in late night, that's true for screenwriters. It's true across all of our work areas.

SIDNER: What do you say to those that are - that run this industry that say, look, times are changing. We are not making as much money as we once did. This is not the golden era of television, although some of us would argue the shows are great. What do you say to them?

CONOVER: So, I'd point out the fact that David Zaslav, the CEO of Warner Brothers Discovery, which is, you know, the parent company of the network I'm talking to you on right now, was paid $250 million last year, a quarter of $1 billion. That's about the same level as what 10,000 writers are asking him to pay all of us collectively, all right?

So, I would say if you're being paid $250 million -- Ted Sarandos made about $50 million last year -- these companies are making enormous amounts of money -- their profits are going up -- it's ridiculous for them to plead poverty when the writers who are making their shows, some of them are not able to pay their rent or their mortgages. I literally know writers who have had to go on assistance because they have not been able to make their year. The - if you - if you look at these companies, they're making more money than ever. It's the people who make the shows for them that are making less.

SIDNER: Adam Conover, thank you so much for coming on. Because you ruin everything, you may have just ruined my career, but I don't mind.

(LAUGHTER)

SIDNER: Appreciate you coming on, and honest - and being very honest and candid with me. I should be in the writer's room, I think.

[11:20:00]

(LAUGHTER)

SIDNER: But thank you for coming on and being honest with me.

I think that I need to be in the writer's room, John.

(LAUGHTER)

BERMAN: Absolutely. You worked it right there.

One week from today, Biden and McCarthy will meet to talks about the debt ceiling. Phil Mattingly is at the White House.

And so they set a meeting, Phil.

Does that mean progress on positions also?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No. Not at all.

That is all I got, John. No.

(LAUGHTER)

MATTINGLY: This is the reality at this moment to some degree. The positions in the wake of the president's phone calls to the top four congressional leaders, to set the meeting one week from today have hard to some degree.

The White House made clear they will not negotiate, they want a clean debt ceiling increase. Then they can have a longer discussion on budget issues. Speaker McCarthy was traveling in Israel yesterday.

He made it clear that while they understand that the House-passed legislation, which would contain significant cuts to go with or to be part of a debt ceiling increase, is unlikely to be passed by a Democratic Senate, that is their starting line.

This is the start of the process. The president said he would not meet with McCarthy on the debt limit and he is still doing that, making this meeting with the four congressional member.

But they're sitting down. That starts a process. But there is a limited amount of time to complete the process and avoid financial catastrophe.

Janet Yellen said the scale would have an acute and almost immediate widespread effect on families. This is something that has never happened in American history. The way out of this -- and I think this is the real problem right now -- nobody is actually sure.

Obviously the two positions are not compatible. There's no way between no negotiations and the Republicans' proposal. What White House officials are talking about formalizing that longer term fiscal budget and spending process.

That is a traditional offramp to some degree.

How do you formalize something that gives everybody a little win?

Speaker McCarthy, how much leeway does he have to make a deal related to that?

There's a lot more work to come. And there is not a lot of time, John. BERMAN: Right.

Meanwhile, economic environment is not happy, markets down more than 500 points just before 11:25 am. It is tough times here. Kate.

BOLDUAN: Seven bodies were found at the home of a convicted sex offender in Oklahoma on the same day he was due at court. What authorities are finding there.

And now, American Airlines pilots have authorized a strike. What is behind that move and what happens now.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:25:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

SIDNER: In California, UC Davis is ramping up security after the third stabbing near the campus since Thursday. A woman is in critical condition after she was stabbed multiple times last night. Two other victims a 50-year-old male and a UC Davis student were killed in earlier attacks. The police have made no arrests but they did provide new details of the suspect. They describe him light complected (sic) male, thin build from 5'6" to 5'9" tall, John.

And now, there were seven bodies found on the property of convicted sex offender Jesse McFadden who is also believed to be among the dead. He was believed to in connection with the missing teens Brittany Brewer and Ivy Webster. We have the latest now out to you, Lucy.

We know that the two teenagers were last seen near the town of Henryetta.

[11:30:00]