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Texas Massacre Suspect Scheduled to Appear Before a Magistrate; Three Knife Attacks Occurred Close to UC Davis, Police Looking for Suspect; Blinken Cannot Validate Reports of Attempted Attack on Kremlin; House Democrat Trying to Force a Vote to Raise Debt Ceiling; Divided Among Lawmakers as Debt Ceiling Deadline Approaches; Trump Choosing to Forego One or Both Republican Presidential Primary Debates; Meta Warns Hackers are Taking Advantage of ChatGPT Interest. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired May 03, 2023 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: In Montgomery County, just on -- the other day, there was a sighting by a highway in a wooded area. There was a giant police response, K-9 units. They tracked him, but lost him there. Then this tip came to the house of a relative that had to be a very specific tip for them to hit that house in the space of time from 5:15. The tip coming in to the FBI call center to a team of law enforcement going through that door in a dynamic entry by 6:30 p.m.

But they're looking at who was in that house, who knew who he was. Everyone knew he was wanted. This is a story that has been widely out there. And the woman that he lived with, who's described by authorities as his wife, has been charged with aiding and abetting, hindering prosecution, avoiding arrest.

SARA SIDNER, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: That, we just heard from our Ed Lavandera who had new reporting, that he had seen her at the house. Sort of, coming out, covering her face, and then later on here she is now charged in this case or at least arrested in this case.

I want to turn now to the string of stabbings at -- around the UC Davis campus. Two of them -- two people have been killed, one person has -- in critical condition. What does this tell you? Because the -- police, at this point, are saying, we are not sure if this is connected, however there are some similarities and there is a suspect that they are looking for in this case. What does it tell you about this person who is going around stabbing people randomly, it seems.

MILLER: Well, you know, he starts off and there are three incidents almost in rapid succession, you know, one a day, starting over the weekend and going through Tuesday. So, that is an incredible pace of violence which shows, you know, he is driven by something. He seems to be targeting homeless people.

The first victim was a homeless man who was known to sleep in the park, that was Central Park. Second victim in Sycamore Park, not a homeless person, a star student from UC Davis, but could have been mistaken as a homeless person because he was in the park at 9:00 at -- after dark. He had a long hair and a beard. We can't be sure of that. But the third person was in a gathering of tents --

SIDNER: Gathering of tents, right.

MILLER: -- where she was stabbed through the tent. Now, you would describe this as a disorganized offender. He -- in the second incident, talked to a witness after the attack and then fled. In the third incident, he engaged in conversation after people saw him hiding and darting around behind trees and they said, you know, what are you doing? Why are you acting that way? Are you that guy?

SIDNER: Right.

MILLER: And then he returned and stabbed the woman after those conversations. So, you have five people who have seen him face to face, but their video canvas has not shown a definitive picture of somebody they can say is that suspect. So, right now, they're working on a sketch because working at this pace, law enforcement can only assume he's going to strike again.

SIDNER: And that is the fear and why they had the campus and the surrounding area, basically, on lockdown. They have lifted that since, but there is still a clear and present danger to the public. John Miller, thank you, as always. I appreciate it.

MILLER: Thanks, Sara.

SIDNER: John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: A top Democrat in the House takes a major step toward forcing a vote -- or trying to force a vote to raise the debt ceiling. New reporting on the chances of success, next.

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[10:35:00]

SIDNER: Welcome back to "CNN News Central." We are continuing to follow breaking news involving Russia's war on Ukraine. Russian state media is claiming that two Ukrainian drones were flown towards the Kremlin last night. Again, this is coming from Russia only. Ukraine has denied this. There has been no independent verification of the claim. As -- and, of course, we have heard from Ukraine saying this is a trick. Now, minutes ago, Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, commented on the alleged incident. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: I can't, in any way, validate them. We simply don't know. Second, I would take anything coming out of the Kremlin with a very large shaker of salt. So, let's see. We'll see what the facts are.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SIDNER: So, you heard there, take everything that you hear coming out of the Kremlin with some skepticism. We are going to have much more on this coming up.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: This morning, the top Democrat in the House, Hakeem Jeffries, he's setting up to try and bypass Speaker McCarthy and force a vote to raise the debt ceiling. But the math right now is not adding up. All 213 House Democrats would need to support the move, of course, but that -- what it means, they would also need five Republicans to join them to get a vote to the floor.

And at this hour there is zero Republican interest in supporting the move, at least stated publicly. The critical timing here is June 1, that is when the treasury secretary says the United States could run out of money to pay its bills.

Let's go to Capitol Hill. Manu Raju is standing by. Manu, what exactly are you hearing about what Jeffries is trying to do?

[10:40:00]

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is really considered a fallback plan in the event that no deal can be reached, in the event that some Republicans decided to break ranks, in the event that Kevin McCarthy does not want to put a bill on the floor. Remember, they have the control of the House but the Democrats are in the minority.

There are procedures in which they can force a vote on the house floor but they need 218 signatures, support from 218 members to actually force a vote. The Democrats currently have 213 seats, they need five to break ranks. And I spoke to several of those Republicans that could potentially break ranks, none of them have any interest in this issue. So, this continues to play out.

Of course, the next big step is that closed-door meeting at the White House next week from the top floor, congressional leaders in the House and the Senate. But they're coming from completely different viewpoints and how this crisis needs to be averted. Republicans aligning themselves in the Senate with a House GOP effort to test spending cuts, a slew of spending cuts to raise the debt ceiling for one year's team, that passed the House last week. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, says, he is behind Kevin McCarthy and he does not plan to cut a separate deal on this issue.

Democrats on the other hand are saying, this just simply needs to be raised without any spending cuts at all. Talk about those issues later. How it gets resolved remains to be seen. And in talking to senators this morning, it's clear that both sides are still digging in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. JOHN THUNE (R-SD): The president has wasted 90 days. It's been 90 days since the president last made any attempt to reach out to Speaker McCarthy.

RAJU: Why not consider some spending cuts? Compromise. That's what Americans want. Avoid default, compromise and agree with some spending cuts.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): We do not want to be a country where the rest of the world says, whether or not the United States honors its already-made commitments to pay bonds and to pay bills depends on whether they can make some kind of political negotiation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: But there just really are not that many legislative days left on the calendar when the House and the Senate are both in session for this month. In addition to that, there is just the time, the calendar is shrinking here. And there is not much interest in the potential short-term fix, maybe a couple of months or so to raise the national debt limit. The has been rejected on both sides of the aisle.

So, how they avert, well it could -- the biggest crisis on this issue since for the past dozen years, at that time 12 years ago, they agreed to raise the debt limit but not before the credit waiting of the United States was downgraded. Can they do it again this time? That is still a major question despite these huge concerns about the economy looming. Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes. It's great to see you, Manu. Great reporting as always.

John.

BERMAN: All right. With us now, CNN's Senior Political Analyst, John Avlon, and CNN Political Commentator and host of PBS "Firing Line", making her new central debut, oh, Margaret Hoover.

John, usually in standoffs like this between the White House and Congress, you can turn to the back page of the story and you sort of know what it's going to say. There will be a lot of fighting, there will be a lot of anger, but sooner or later they're going to get to the end. This time, it's not clear what's on the last page of the book, is it?

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think that's exactly right. And I think people have been, too, saying when that -- it's all going to work out eventually. Look, you know, Kevin McCarthy is holding the nation hostage. And it's -- you need to reiterate a couple of core things.

Kevin McCarthy voted to raise the debt ceiling three times under Donald Trump's presidency. When Democrats and Republicans did it because it wasn't seen as a weapon you wanted to use because of the implications for the full faith and credit for the country. So, this is an artificial problem, self-created. And now, Biden is in a position where he does need to deal with it. He can't simply ignore it. This should be off the table for the good of the republic.

But my guess is, if I had to say what the last page should look like, Biden should agree to a couple of, you know, proposals made by Republicans, the more reasonable ones. You know, in my mind that would be, you know, permitting reform for energy, calling back COVID relief, workfare requirements for Medicaid and say, we're going to do that in a budget. Proper order but you've got my commitment and we'll follow through. But we'll see because I know it's in the mood for compromise. This is just -- breaks some ship (ph) and it's the opposite of fiscally responsible.

BERMAN: Tenuous moments, to be sure.

Margaret, I want to shift gears to electoral politics right now and the primary posturing because former President Trump is suggesting that he may not attend the first two Republican debates, which are already on the schedule. He's saying they're just too early. There's also the suggestion that he's pretty far ahead and doesn't need to show. What do you think of that strategy?

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND HOST, PBS "FIRING LINE": It recalls the very first time he decided to opt out of the debates in Iowa in the presidential primary before the caucuses. Of course, he suffered slightly for that, and that was before he had solidified control of the Republican Party and the base of the Republican Party and then gone through at full term as president.

It's a power play from his position because he actually can't afford to rally the base and not show up to debate. He can let Asa Hutchinson and Nikki Haley and anybody else who decides to get in demonstrate the very little contrast between them as candidates and avoid a contrast with anyone else in the field.

[10:45:00]

It's also coming from a position of what he views as strength in the polls, but frankly, weakness and fear because he doesn't actually want the contrast, I think. Because he is vulnerable from, I would say, 60, 55, 60 percent of the Republican priority that does not want him to be the nominee. And a contrast to all of the things that he has done to undermine the constitution, particularly in the last three years does not suit him.

BERMAN: Strength or weakness?

AVLON: Fear. Fear because he doesn't want that contrast because actually the majority of Republicans would like to see somebody else. Strength because he is in a poll position and that's what front- runners do. They'll say, we don't need to debate. So -- I mean, you know -- look, the American people and the Republican Party deserves that contrast, but Donald Trump didn't give a damn about anybody but himself.

BERMAN: So, what do you do though if you're one of the other candidates on that stage? It does create (ph) a real challenge and we had a lot of time to talk about this -- AVLON: Sure.

BERMAN: -- before the debate. But do you focus on Trump? Because that's the contrast -- you're going to need to make that contrast --

AVLON: Yes.

BERMAN: -- if you're going to win the primary.

HOOVER: If Republicans are going to beat Trump, they're going to have to unify. The reason Trump got the nomination in the first place is because he had a plurality of the Republican Party, not --

BERMAN: Sure.

HOOVER: -- so, they -- and so, they have to. And if there are fewer candidates in the race --

AVLON: Of course.

HOOVER: -- and they can unite against him instead of a circular firing squad among themselves that serves to --

AVLON: Look, in this case, you know, you want to change -- you know, Republicans want to really do something, they need to stop giving out votes, winner take all in primaries and do proportional. But right now, everyone should be getting in. And the main thing is Republicans need to get over this tiptoeing around Donald Trump. This fear of saying his name a la Voldemort. They need to draw the contrast really clearly based on the facts of the case which is the former president tried to overturn the -- an election. And if you're a true constitutional conservative, that's the opposite, well, just be a sport.

HOOVER: That is so good in terms of how it sounds. But you and I both know is that it's not what is selling and what is polling and what is winning in the Republican primary base.

AVLON: Leaders' lead.

HOOVER: And so, if you're going to win in a primary with Republicans, you can't take on Donald Trump or you lose. Look at Liz Cheney. Look at --

AVLON: Trump light (ph) will lose even worse.

HOOVER: -- Kinzinger (ph). Not in the Republican primary, John Avlon, but did a -- the general election is a different question.

AVLON: I just -- leaders' lead.

BERMAN: All right. This is awkward. John Avlon, Margaret Hoover, our thanks to both of you. Please both of you come back and we'll continue this discussion.

Sara. SIDNER: Thanks, John.

Facebook's parent company, Meta, issuing a new warning this morning. Hear why it says hackers are using ChatGPT, that's A.I., to break into people's devices.

And soccer star, Lionel Messi, facing disciplinary action from his Paris base team. Why his trip overseas led to his two-week suspension.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:50:00]

SIDNER: Here is a look at stories making headlines around the world. In Serbia, the least nine people, including eight children, are dead after police say a 14-year-old opened fire on a history class at his school in the capital Belgrade. Seven others were injured. While these types of shootings sadly happen all too often here in the U.S., it is a rarity in Europe. Police say, the shooter is in custody after calling police to turn himself in. His father has also been arrested.

Sudan rattled by new violence today despite the two warring factions agreeing to a seven-day ceasefire. Witnesses say there were explosions near the presidential palace in Khartoum. And a group based in Sudan says at least six civilians were killed in the capital today. CNN has not been able to verify those claims. Separately, airstrikes and anti- aircraft fire were also reported in a nearby city.

Now, to Argentinean soccer star Lionel Messi is in trouble this morning. His team, Paris Saint-Germain, suspended him for two weeks after he reportedly made an unauthorized trip to conduct personal business. A source tells CNN that Messi missed Monday's training session to attend promotional events out of France. And according to multiple report, Messi was in Saudi Arabia where he promoted the country's tourism bureau.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: New today, the parent company of Facebook is putting out a new warning that hackers are trying to take advantage of all of this interest we are seeing in the new A.I. tool ChatGPT. This comes from a security report saying that just since March, Meta's team has blocked more than a thousand phony web addresses that claim to be linked to ChatGPT.

CNN's Donie O'Sullivan has all of the information from the security report for us. He's joining us now. So, Donie, what is Meta saying that these hackers are trying to do?

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, Kate, many of us love playing around with ChatGPT, getting freaked out by it. We spend a lot of time, type in -- trying to get it to say all sorts of stuff. Meta saying that hackers are now trying to cash in on that popularity. They're trying to get people to download browser extensions. So, oftentimes, you know, on your browser whether you're using Google Chrome, you might have an extension that can translate a page. They were kind of selling these extensions to say they are ChatGPT-type technology.

And I want to show you an example of some of these because Meta actually released screenshots of some of these. So, let's take a look. You know, they look in the App Store, if we can pull them up just like what you would see and we can go through a few of these. What you'd see normally like, you know, if you were to go download an app. So, this one, I think we got -- have one or two more.

[10:55:00]

You know, stuff that people would normally download directly from the Google Store.

BOLDUAN: Right.

O'SULLIVAN: And the fact that it's on the Google Store, I think people think that it's secure.

BOLDUAN: Like, that one looked --

O'SULLIVAN: Yes.

BOLDUAN: -- that one looked -- these looks legitimate.

O'SULLIVAN: Exactly. And so, these have now since been taken down but it was actually Meta that identified these rather than Google through their security team. So, they've been taken down. What would happen though if you were to download this and put it on to your Google Chrome, basically, hackers would get access to your device, could access to your private, personal information. Meta says that they blocked 1,000 links, actually more than 1,000 links, pushing this sort of stuff over the past few months. And one Facebook executive saying that ChatGPT is the new crypto in the sense that the scammers, the hackers are trying to cash in on it.

BOLDUAN: And we'll see if it crashes and burns like we saw (INAUDIBLE) or not.

O'SULLIVAN: Yes.

BOLDUAN: It's really fascinating. And important that they're putting this out because that really does look legit as the hackers are attempting to do. It's good to see you, Donie.

O'SULLIVAN: Thanks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Thank you.

John.

BERMAN: So, Russia's parliament speaker calls for destroying the key regime. This after the Russians claim there was an assassination attempt on Vladimir Putin, alleged drone strikes on the Kremlin. The Ukrainians deny this and we are getting fresh reaction from the ground in Ukraine.

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[11:00:00]