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Feds Raises Key Interest Rate By A Quarter Point; Hunter Biden Hearing Ends With Plea Deal On Hold; Ex-Military Testify To Congress On Seeing UFO's; London Jury Clears Kevin Spacey Of Sexual Assault Charges. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired July 26, 2023 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: The next rate hike is here. The Fed making that announcement a short while ago in its fight against inflation. It also comes amid new sticker shock at the gas pump. U.S. gas prices yesterday saw one of their biggest one-day increases in a year, that is until today. The back-to-back jumps have pushed prices up 9 cents in just the past 48 hours. CNN's Matt Egan joins us now live from New York. So Matt, what's to blame for these surging prices?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Boris, this all happened so fast. Gas prices were basically going nowhere all summer and then, boom, this week we see the biggest increase in more than a year. The national average is now at $3.69 a gallon, up by 12 cents over the past week. Now I want to stress that it is still a lot cheaper, of course, to fill up than it was last summer.

[15:35:00]

Gas prices are well below that peak of $5.02 a gallon last June. But still they are going higher.

Why is this happening? All right, well two big factors. One, oil prices are at three-month highs as Saudi Arabia, Russia and OPEC at large they hold back supply. They are trying to boost prices and it is starting to work. Also believe it or not, extreme weather plays a role here. Refineries, just like humans, they don't work so well when it's 100 or 115 degrees out. We've seen multiple refineries have to limit their production of gasoline, jet fuel and diesel. And we're going to continue to be at the mercy of mother nature.

GasBuddy's Pat De Haan, he told me that if it's a bad hurricane season. If there's a major hurricane that hits the Gulf Coast, we could see gas prices go to $4 or even $4.25 a gallon. All of this, of course, plays a big role of what happens next with the Federal Reserve. Because investors are betting the Fed may be able to stop raising interest rates very soon. That perhaps today's rate hike will be the last.

But that's not going to be the case if the inflation -- all this progress on inflation starts to unravel, if gas prices keep going up. So Boris, hopefully that's not the case. Hopefully, gas prices chillout. That's what consumers are rooting for and also what officials at the Fed are rooting for.

SANCHEZ: Yes, especially since we're in the middle of summer travel season. Labor Day is not that far away. Matt Egan, thanks so much -- Jim.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: A big story that we've been following today. A routine courtroom hearing, it seemed, ended with a big plea deal in disarray. We're talking about the Hunter Biden proceedings at a federal courthouse in Delaware. The president's son was set to plead guilty of part of that deal, to two tax misdemeanors today. But the deal he worked out with the Justice Department, with prosecutors, fell apart at the hearing. The judge putting the agreement on hold. Now DOJ prosecutors and Hunter Biden's attorneys, they've got to work out to see if they could bring it altogether again. CNN's Evan Perez is here. So Evan, tell us what went down? How did this break down?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the judge started asking some questions and the two sides couldn't actually agree on what they had agreed to. That's the basic of what -- that's the basic story of what happened today. Certainly we began the day, Hunter Biden arrived in court expecting that he was going to plead guilty to two misdemeanors for failing to file his taxes on time in 2017 and 2018.

And then the judge asked a simple question about whether -- what all this deal covered. Whether there was anything that was not covered by this as part of the broader investigation. And that's where things seemed to go awry.

Certainly, his team wanted to make sure that they wanted to convey that this meant there was nothing else and the Justice Department was not ready to say that. They said there were still other things that were being investigated, that there was an ongoing investigation. Which meant that Hunter Biden still had some legal jeopardy that he could face. And you know, that's where it seemed the two sides could not really come to terms.

They tried to paper it over, coming back before the judge later on, Jim, saying they had worked it out and she seemed to have more questions. And so now, she wants them to provide briefs to the court.

And look, you cannot divorce this from the political chaos and the political noise around this. You can see people on Capitol Hill, some of the members of Congress already saying they, you know, had an impact. It's possible they did. And the judge certainly seemed to be aware that there are questions about this investigation.

She said, do I have to accept this if I find there there's some aspect of this lacking. And they said, no, you have to accept this. And so, in the end she decided she couldn't accept it. And now we're back to Hunter Biden has been processed, he's pleaded not guilty. We could be headed to a trial giving the two sides cannot come to a new deal.

SCIUTTO: Two sides have to agree in court. The judge has to approve of that final so you got three parties in effect to please here. We know you'll keep on top of it. Evan Perez, thanks so much -- Boris. SANCHEZ: Coming up, an Air Force veteran testifying under oath on

Capitol Hill about UFOs says the technology he's witnessed far surpasses anything the United States is capable of. Some really surprising testimony when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Today on Capitol Hill a first of its kind hearing involving firsthand accounts of UFO sightings. What are officially called Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena or UAP. With eyewitnesses testifying, not researchers or enthusiast. A former fighter pilot and a retired Naval commander who said they saw a UAP with their own eyes, where on The Hill. Also under oath a whistleblower, an Air Force intelligence officer of some 14 years, he has been tracking years of UAP accounts from members of the military. And the retired commander said he believed that UAP posed a potential threat to national security.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CMDR. DAVID FAVOR (RET.), WITNESSED UNIDENTIFIED ANOMALOUS PHENOMENON: Yes, and here's why. The technology that we faced was far superior than anything that we had, and you could put that anywhere. If you had one, you captured one, you reverse engineered it and got it to work, you're talking something that would go into space, go someplace, drop down in a matter of seconds. Do whatever it wants and leave and there's nothing we can do about it, nothing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[04:45:00]

SCIUTTO: Joining me is Adam Frank. He's a Professor of astrophysics at the University of Rochester. Also an author of a book on the topic. You know, you read these reports as I have done and they give a range of possible explanations and no certain answers. Ranging to the outside to this distant possibility of alien life but also the possibility that this is advanced military technology by, say a U.S. adversary, Russia or China. You've been deep into this for some time. What is in your view -- based on the evidence -- the most likely explanation?

ADAM FRANK, PROFESSOR OF ASTROPHYSICS, UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER: Well you know, it's hard to say what the most likely explanation is without doing more science. The fact is that the science we have, the actual data we have, is pretty sparse and it doesn't lead anywhere. It's not good enough to make any kind of decent scientific explanation. I'll note that the NASA panel that was convened recently found that only 6 percent of these ones actually didn't have an explanation.

And they even some of the cases like that video. That video you're looking at right now, when that came out, people were like oh my God, that thing is moving in things we can't understand. And the NASA panel showed, they did some science on it and they found that things is moving at 40 miles an hour. Right? I can go that past rolling down the hill on my bicycle. So, you know, there's a lot of big questions here and we need good

science to be done including to see, yes, do they have anything to do with life somewhere else. I think that's a real long shot. But you know, when you do science, you do it agnostically. So if this point, we just don't really have the data other than the witness testimony, which is not enough to tell.

SCIUTTO: Another way of saying that, of 6 percent don't have explanations, that means 94 percent have more earthly explanations. The other explanation that you see when you read these reports is that it could be sensor noise in effect. You've got a lot of highly sensitive instruments in the cockpits of airplanes that they're picking up and reading something different. Is that something that is considered a likely explanation for some of these? And again, like you noted, they don't have an explanation for absolutely every one.

FRANK: Right, and you know, when the telescopes that my colleagues and I were looking at alien worlds, distant stars and looked for the possibilities of life, we know everything about those instruments. We know what they're like at 40 degrees. We know what the like at 60 degrees. And that's the problem with these things. These cameras that were taking the pictures, we don't know if they have a software update? You know, we just don't know enough about them to be able to tell, are these glitches. Is this just part of the way the camera responds? What we need is more science to be able to move along these lines. And with the idea that, you know, we captured a spaceship and we have them, that's you know -- that's a very extraordinary claim. And as a guy from New Jersey, I've got to tell you, that you know, I'm like nah.

SCIUTTO: Yes, I hear you. Well I'm from across the river in New York, and I had a similar reaction there. I suppose what they're asking for is more study and science is about, right, you know, what you can prove. Professor Adam Frank, thanks so much for joining us.

FRANK: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Coming up, Kevin Spacey openly weeping in court as a jury acquits him as sexual assault charges. We'll go live to London where the actor is speaking out next.

[04:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Ken Spacey said he is humbled after a London jury found him not guilty on all charges of sexual assault. The Oscar-winning actor was emotional and he spoke outside of the courthouse following the verdict.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN SPACEY, CLEARED OF SEXUAL ASSAULT CHARGES: I would like to say that I'm enormously grateful to the jury for having taken the time to examine all of the evidence and all of the facts carefully before they reached their decision and I am humbled by the outcome today. (END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: The jury deliberated more than 12 hours across three days before reaching its decision. A verdict that brought Spacey to tears. CNN's Salma Abdelaziz is live for us in London. So Salma, walk us through how the jury reached this decision?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, quite simply, not easily. As you mentioned, it took several days. It took 12 1/2 hours. In fact, they were required to come to a unanimous decision. But when it was clear to the judge that that wasn't going to take place, he lowered the bar. He said a majority decision 10 out of 12 is enough. Once he made that call, the jury was able to make a decision in under an hour. But it shows you at least one or two people were holding out.

Look, throughout this trial, Kevin Spacey has maintained his innocence. This is for him a day of victory. But these were very serious charges brought against Kevin Spacey by four men dating back to the early 2000s, in 2010, that means some incidents are nearly two decades old.

And the prosecution tried in this case to paint a picture of a Kevin Spacey who took advantage of his power and influence. At one point the prosecutor describing Kevin Spacey to the courtroom as a sexual bully. Saying that he delighted in making others feel uncomfortable.

But Kevin Spacey, as you could imagine, and his lawyers, of course, hitting back at that in court. Describing himself as, yes, a big flirt in his own words.

[15:55:00]

Yes, as someone promiscuous, but not as a bad person. He recalled some of the incidents as romantic flirtations and of course, in his mind consensual. This ultimately did turn into a he said, he said situation in court. Many of these allegations surfaced after the me-too movement many years after the alleged incidents took place.

There were questions over the recollection, the memory, the timing of when the incidents took place. And when you're talking about the bar of beyond a reasonable doubt, quite simply the jury didn't see that that bar was met.

SANCHEZ: Major news for the actor out of that London room, Salma Abdelaziz, thank you so much.

A lot of breaking news today, Jim. Not just that, but Sinead O'Connor and important hearings on Congress and of course the Hunter Biden legal saga.

SCIUTTO: Well, and stories that we're going to continue to cover on certain outcome on the hunter BIDEN plea deal and McConnell health situation. And we will certainly keep on top of those for tomorrow.

Thanks so much to all of you for joining us on this busy news day. "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right after a short break.