Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

McCarthy Makes Most Direct Impeachment Threats Against Biden; LeBron James' Son Stable After Cardiac Arrest During Practice; Carlee Russell Admits "There Was No Kidnapping." Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired July 25, 2023 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, the breaking news. Bronny James, the 18-year-old son of LeBron James is recovering after going into cardiac arrest during a basketball workout at USC. And this happened yesterday. James was rushed to the hospital. And we are told he is now out of the ICU and he is in stable condition. The James family has released a statement thanking the athletic and medical staff at USC and asking for privacy. Rahel?

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR: House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has ramped up his threat of an impeachment inquiry against President Biden. It all stemmed from the GOP investigation into Biden's alleged involvement with his son's business dealings while he was vice president. A White House spokesperson criticizing House Republicans for failing to focus on important issues.

CNN's Lauren Fox is on Capitol Hill. So, Lauren, what more did McCarthy say?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, these are the strongest comments that we have heard from the House Speaker related to a potential impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. Here's what he said last night to Sean Hannity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): We've only followed where the information has taken us. But --

SEAN HANNITY, HOST, FOX NEWS: But, Mr. Speaker --

MCCARTHY: -- Hannity, it's just arising to the level of impeachment inquiry, which provides Congress the strongest power to get the rest of the knowledge and information needed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: And the House Oversight and Judiciary Committees have been investigating Hunter Biden and his business dealings for months. They still don't have any direct ties to President Joe Biden. But what you are hearing from Kevin McCarthy is that perhaps they could get more information if this was part of an official impeachment inquiry.

We should also note that House Republicans have been talking for months and have their sights set on impeaching other members of the Biden administration. Including potentially Merrick Garland, the attorney general, as well as the Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.

We should also note that McCarthy said earlier in a call with Donald Trump that he supported expunging the impeachment record of the former president as part of his efforts in the House. He told Donald Trump at the time that he still needed to talk to his conference about whether or not they would be interested in doing that. But just a stark difference there between how he's handling this Biden issue and how he has talked to the former president. Rahel.

SOLOMON: Lauren Fox, live force on Capitol Hill. Lauren, thank you. John?

BERMAN: So, joining us now is former Missouri Democratic Congressman and House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt. Sir, it's great to see you. Thank you so much for being with us. And we do appreciate your patience as we've handled some breaking news this morning.

Look. You know the House of Representatives probably better than anyone alive or as well as anyone alive. When you hear that the House speaker is floating the idea of an impeachment inquiry into President Biden because of connections possibly he says to Hunter Biden's business dealings, what's your reaction?

RICHARD GEPHARDT, FORMER MISSOURI DEMOCRATIC CONGRESSMAN: Well, the only problem I have is that I think the American people want Congress to deal with their problems and not go on wild goose chases to investigate everybody under the sun. They've -- we got a lot of problems in this country. And we need bipartisan action to deal with those problems. So, I think that's what the American people really want.

So, I don't know what they're doing or why they're doing it. And they can do what they want. They have the power to do that. But I think they'd be better advised to deal with the problems we all face now and in the future months.

BERMAN: So, you've been in the news lately because you're helping lead a bipartisan effort against the idea of a third-party candidate running in the general election for president against President Biden. Predominantly, you're suggesting that this No Labels group which is trying to get someone on the ballot in every state is a really bad idea. Why do you think it's such a bad idea?

[11:35:23]

GEPHARDT: Well, if this -- if these were normal times, we would have no problem with this. Anybody can run for president. Any party can put up a candidate.

These are not normal times. In 2020, we barely miss having a broken election for the first time in American history by a whisker only because Vice President Pence and five or six election officials, all Republicans out in the swing states stood up against tremendous pressure to do the right thing. They all put country over party and country over self.

Now, the person who instigated the whole questioning of the election's validity, Donald Trump, is running for a second term. He tried to overthrow the federal government, overthrow our electoral process in order to assert something that everybody knew was not true. As Liz Cheney said, he cannot be allowed back in the White House again.

If the third party -- if No Labels puts a candidate up against -- if Biden and Trump are the candidates, they will elect Donald Trump to a second term. So, if Donald Trump is the candidate and No Labels says they do not want to be a spoiler, they don't oil like Donald Trump, then why don't they say that they will put up a third party candidate if Donald Trump is on the ballot as the Republican candidate?

BERMAN: You raise the possibility that the two nominees could be Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Two men, you know, one of them, who will be 80, one of them will be pushing 80. What do you say to those who say that that voters deserve a different generational choice? Do you think it's healthy for the American people to have as their options, two people who are getting on?

GEPHARDT: John, we have a democracy. We have freedom. Anybody can run for president who wants to run for president.

If Joe Manchin wants to run for president, and I like him a lot, he should run in the Democratic primary. There are nine candidates in the Republican primary. The people decide on those candidates.

We're going to have primary elections for the Republican Party and the Democratic Party starting next winter in all the states so the people make the decision. And nobody tells you to run for president or not to run for president.

I ran for president twice. Nobody in the Democratic party asked me to run or told me I couldn't run. It's a free country. So, let the process go forward.

We've been doing this for 240 years. It works. So, let's not try to muck it up by putting back into office somebody who tried to overthrow the federal government.

BERMAN: Very quickly, you reminded me. You ran against Joe Biden in the Democratic primary in 1988. If people want to read about it, the best campaign book of all time, what it takes is available in bookstores near you. Very quickly. How is Joe Biden changed since you ran against him in 1988 to today?

GEPHARDT: Well, look. Nobody perfect is ever assumed that office. We all want the perfect human being, right?

None of us is perfect. I know Joe Biden. I served with him. I like him. A lot of things that he's done I like. Some of the things he's done I don't like.

That's OK. That's fine. But let's not muck up our electoral process.

Look, John. If the American people no longer trust our election process, the democracy is done. It is the bedrock of our democracy. And that's what we're on the threshold of doing in 2024.

BERMAN: Former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt, great to see you. Thank you so much for coming on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

GEPHARDT: Thank you, John.

BERMAN: Rahel?

SOLOMON: All right, John. Coming up for us. More on our breaking news this hour. Bronny James, the son of Lakers star LeBron James, now recovering after suffering from a cardiac event. Reactions are pouring in. And we'll bring you the latest coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:44:19]

SOLOMON: Welcome back. And back to our breaking news now. The eldest son of LeBron James, Bronny James, is now in stable condition after going into cardiac arrest during a basketball practice. It happened at the University of Southern California. I want to bring back CNN's Andy Scholes -- back with us. Andy --

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Hi, Rahel.

SOLOMON: A lot of reaction pouring in as people learn about this. Who we're hearing from?

SCHOLES: A lot of people, you know. Many people sending their thoughts and prayers out to the James family and to Bronny. You know, Damar Hamlin, one of those people who tweeted. He said prayers to Bron and the James family. Here for you guys just like you were there for me.

You know, the good news is -- in this situation is that Bronny James is no longer in ICU. He's in stable condition and that happened rather quickly. We heard Dr. Sanjay Gupta just earlier say that is a very positive sign.

[11:45:04]

But the James family put out a statement earlier that said -- explaining what happens, saying yesterday while practicing, Bronny James suffered a cardiac arrest. Medical staff was able to treat Bronny and take him to the hospital. He's now in stable condition and no longer in ICU.

They asked for respect and privacy. And then they thank the people who were there to help attend to Bronny during his medical emergency as he went into cardiac arrest. But you know, Rahel, you know, Bronny you know he's a four-star prospect coming out of Sierra Canyon there in the Los Angeles area. You know, he was -- went to USC as a freshman, you know he thought of -- you know, he's going to pack those seats there for the Trojans, as many people wanted to see him as he aspired to be an NBA player one day and follow in his father's footsteps.

And we know we've heard LeBron say many times how his dream was to one day play with his son. So, here, he's hoping that Bronny has a full recovery and then -- and he can continue his basketball career at some point.

SOLOMON: Yes. And, Andy, talk to us a bit more about that. I mean, LeBron James you know I think we'll go down certainly as one of the greatest of all time. And Bronny was an incredible athlete, a young man, 18 years old. I mean, just walk us through the athleticism and all that Bronny sort of represented.

SCHOLES: Yes. You know, we rarely see this -- we see you know sons following in their father's footsteps often in sports. But you know, the super high superstar athlete like LeBron James you know it's hard to imagine their kids are going to you know follow in their footsteps and live up to the hype.

But you know Bronny, even with all the pressure and all the people go into his games at Sierra Canyon, you know. He's turned into you know one of the biggest stars in the entire area. That's how he got the full ride to USC.

You know he got a number of name image and likeness deals already with the Trojans, who's going to be you know pulling in you know pretty good bucks there to play college basketball. And you know the hope is that they're going to be able to diagnose this. And you know not only will he be fine, they -- he'll be able to continue his basketball career.

And we've seen that happen before, Rahel. You know, just recently Keyontae Johnson with the Florida Gators a few years ago, he collapsed on the court. Was in a medically induced coma for a few days.

They were able to diagnose that. He went on to have a career at Kansas State. Great run there in the -- in the college tournaments this past year and got drafted in the NBA. So, you know, here's hoping that Bronny can follow in the footsteps of Keyontae Johnson and have a similar outcome.

SOLOMON: Yes. And, Andy, great for you to point out that sort of reference there just so you know, we all as we learn more about what happened to Bronny know that you know, he could potentially play again. There's just a lot of questions. Andy Scholes, great to see you. Thank you.

SCHOLES: Yes. All right.

SOLOMON: John? BERMAN: All right. There was no baby on the side of the road. There was no kidnapping. The strange case of the Missing Alabama woman was all a hoax. So what happens now?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:52:16]

BERMAN: All right. New research finds that China was likely behind a series of protests in Washington, DC last year. A cybersecurity firm says China used a network of more than 70 fake news websites to promote positive Beijing content online. Some of the demonstrations had only a handful of people but researchers say the higher protestors apparently had no idea they were being enlisted in a pro-China influence campaign.

The sexual assault trial of actor Kevin Spacey is now in the hands of a London jury. Spacey faces nine charges of sexual offenses against four men. He denies the charges and has pleaded not guilty.

Iran has banned an annual film festival after a promotional poster showed an actress not wearing a hijab. The Minister of Culture deemed that inappropriate. Women-led mass protests last year over Iran's mandatory dress code after a 22-year-old woman died in the custody of the morality police. She had been detained for not wearing a hijab. That was according to government standards. Rahel?

SOLOMON: All right, John, thank you. Now, to a new twist this morning in the case of an Alabama woman who appeared to go missing after calling 911 about a toddler on the highway. Well, police now say that they received a letter from Carlee Russell's lawyer saying that she lied to 911 dispatchers and was actually never missing.

CNN's Ryan Young with us now. Ryan, as you know, there were so many questions about this one. What does the letter tell us? I mean what are we learning from this letter?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so many questions about this. And look, the internet has really taken this on their own and really expanded this so much. So many people wanting to know what happened to Carlee Russell, especially for those 49 hours that she was missing.

You got to think about canine units. There was a drone. There was a helicopter. All this was put up to find the missing woman.

In the end, she's now telling police that this was a hoax. She saw that this happened. And when you think about the fallout from this and just think about all the people, who across the country who tried to rally behind this community, try to figure out what happened to this woman, when you think back to it, there was a 911 call, there was a toddler apparently on the side of the road, and from there things sort of spiraled out of control. Take a listen to the police chief yesterday talking about this hoax.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICK DERZIS, CHIEF, HOOVER ALABAMA POLICE: There was no kidnapping on Thursday, July 9 -- 13, 2023. My client did not see a baby on the side of the road. My client did not leave the Hoover area, which was identified as a missing person. My client did not have any help in this incident but this was a single act done by herself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Yes. And after Carlee return home, let's not forget she told police detectives that apparently a man with orange hair had kidnapped her, and she escaped several times before being able to return home. Now, there are so many questions about what happens next, something we'll all be looking into.

SOLOMON: Ryan, before I let you go and really quickly, unfortunately, has weren't -- Carlee said why?

[11:55:03]

YOUNG: And that is the big question right now. No one has said why. And we're not sure if she'll face any charges.

SOLOMON: Ryan Young, live force in Atlanta, thank you.

BERMAN: I mean that is a great question, though with --

SOLOMON: Why?

BERMAN: -- why?

SOLOMON: Yes.

BERMAN: I mean why do you do this from the beginning? Why do you send law enforcement down this road? Why do you concern anyone who might care about you like that?

SOLOMON: Yes. Certainly, a lot of questions. Certainly glad that she's OK, but still so many questions. Ryan Young, thank you.

BERMAN: All right. Thank you all for joining us. Thank you once again for being here.

SOLOMON: It's good to be here.

BERMAN: It was great to have you. This has been CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "INSIDE POLITICS" is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)