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McCarthy Suffers Another Blow from GOP Rebels as Shutdown Approaches; UAW Indicates Progress with Ford While Extending Strike to GM and Stellantis; Interview with UAW Local 12 Toledo Member and Currently on Strike Jim Roe; Amoxicillin, Most Widely Used Antibiotic, in Short Supply. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired September 22, 2023 - 10:30:00   ET

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

[10:30:00]

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The goal is not to solve problems. The goal is to get famous. The goal is to grandstand and become, you know, celebrities in the house. And, you know, Matt Gaetz when he's not hosting on "Newsmax" tries to get a little governing in here and there. But in his mind, governing means holding Kevin McCarthy hostage for his MAGA, you know, constituents.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: S.E. Cupp, thank you so much for winning the "CNN News Central" game show of the week. Your prize is you, too, get a long weekend. So, you just go and take that.

CUPP: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: S.E. -- thanks, S.E. Thank you so much.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: All right. Just in, the United Auto Workers expanding the strike against two of the three biggest automakers, but there is word of progress in talks with Ford.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:35:00]

BERMAN: All right. We do have breaking news. The United Auto Workers Union President, Shawn Fain, just moments ago announced that at noon today, their strike will expand in part. He says, more workers at multiple General Motors and Stellantis locations will join the picket line, but he raised hopes that progress is being made in talks with Ford. So, they will not expand the strike for now at Ford. Just Stellantis who makes, you know, Dodge and other things, and GM, but not Ford.

All right. CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich here with the breaking news. You've got some details you've been piece this together.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I was listening a little bit to what Shawn Fain just said, an encouraging news at the top. He says, right now, we think we can get there with all three at some point. But he did signal that Stellantis and General Motors needs some pushing. Sudden real progress at Ford. And he said that Ford went ahead, and in their latest offer, reinstated cost of living adjustments, something that the workers gave up in 2009 and were fighting for.

But he announced 38 locations with GM and Stellantis now going on strike. That is all of their parts and distributions center. So, that is a key component of the manufacturing process for General Motors and Stellantis. He said that that is going to happen at 12:00 p.m. noon. So, just in a short time, we're going to see those workers head to the picket lines, across various states, joining those three other plants that were initially on strike.

The one Ford plant that was initially on strike, that Ford plant will stay on strike but no additional Ford plants will be authorized to strike. So, we should not see any more Ford workers heading to the picket lines.

BERMAN: It is interesting, this is the most optimistic Fain has been sounding to date, even as they are, you know, expanding in a big way the number of operations striking against both Stellantis and GM. He did sound different.

YURKEVICH: Yes. He wasn't ripping up deals and throwing them in the trash can like he was doing a couple of weeks ago when he was getting proposals from these companies. There was some hope in what he was saying. That they could get there. That they could make deals with all three, Ford leading the way on their offer. General Motors and Stellantis needs some pushing, according to Shawn Fain.

But as we have seen with the three plants that are on strike right now, there have been ripple effects. So, we have seen layoffs at the direction of the companies. We have seen Ford announce layoffs of 600 people. General Motors has idled 2,000 people. Stellantis about 70 people with 300 coming, just because of those three plants that are on strike. So, you imagine as you now have 38 additional locations for General Motors and Stellantis. We could start to hear from those companies that additional ripple effects, these layoffs, will soon follow.

BERMAN: All right. A lot of nuances in this new announcement and developments today. We'll let you go work the phone. Find out what you can. Keep us posted.

YURKEVICH: Will do.

BERMAN: All right. Kate.

BOLDUAN: Let's get some quick reaction though. Joining us right now is one of the works on strike. Right now, and has been, UAW Member Jim Roe who worked for the Stellantis plant in Toledo, Ohio. Jim, thank you very much for taking the time to speak with me. We're just getting more these details about what is really going to be happening starting at noon. But first and foremost, hearing that the strike is now going to be expanding for Stellantis and for GM, what is the reaction?

JIM ROE, UAW LOCAL 12 TOLEDO AND CURRENTLY ON STRIKE: Well, Kate, it is meant to be. We have to fight for our fair wages for everyone, and try to eliminate these tiers.

BOLDUAN: The -- would the interesting wrinkle in where negotiations stand now as John -- as my colleagues John and Vanessa were just talking about, is that the strike is expanding for GM and Stellantis, not with Ford because there seems to be real progress with Ford. Does that -- as someone who's working for Stellantis -- with Stellantis, is that a hopeful sign to you or does that worry you, in some regard, of kind of what the strike looks like going forward and how these progresses?

ROE: Well, that is hopeful and it is definitely encouraging. Just for the pattern of bargaining between the big three, hopefully GM and Stellantis will get on board and everyone will get back to work.

[10:40:00]

BOLDUAN: What has it been like? You now -- I think, it's been eight days you've been on strike, what has it been like? How is it going?

ROE: It is going strong. A lot of solidarity here in Toledo. We have our community leaders and our community is backing us very well. The morale of the people is up. We are having convoys coming from the Bronco Plant. And the morale is high and the solidarity is really strong.

BOLDUAN: What do you will eventually break the stalemate? We may be looking at it now. I mean, we'll see what's coming from these talks. But what do you -- just in what you -- I mean, you've been a UAW member for a very long time, what do you think so going to change the course here?

Roe: Yes, I have been at the Toledo Jeep Plant for 39 years. And what is going to change the course is we eliminate these tiers and get everybody a fair wage and working together. And get our new hires a fair wage instead of matching what they can get at a fast-food place. They should be making what we make as a legacy worker.

BOLDUAN: And until then the strike continues and is now expanding as we are seeing. Jim Roe, thank you for taking the time. It's nice to meet you.

John.

BERMAN: All right. There are conspiracies and then there are conspiracies. We're going to go inside a group that claims that President John F. Kennedy and his son are still alive.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:45:00]

BERMAN: So, we have a CNN special report. For the past year, CNN's Donie O'Sullivan has been investigating a group, some people are calling it a cult, that believes the late President John F. Kennedy and his son JFK Jr., they're still alive and in hiding. BOLDUAN: And so, this Sunday, on "The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper", Donie goes on a real journey, and he takes you on the journey with him to meet some of these believers, confront their QAnon conspiracy theorist leader and speak with the frustrated family members who are watching their loved ones go down this rabbit hole. Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: One time we went to play tennis and he got a phone call. Jason believed it was junior calling him.

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: JFK Jr.?

ERICA VIGRASS (PH), BROTHER BELIEVES JFK AND JFK JR. ARE STILL ALIVE: JFK Jr. calling him, and this a -- maybe a week before he went to Dallas.

O'SULLIVAN: So, you are playing tennis with your brother.

VIGRASS (PH): Yes.

O'SULLIVAN: And he gets a call.

VIGRASS (PH): Correct.

O'SULLIVAN: And he thinks it's JFK Jr.

VIGRASS (PH): He does.

O'SULLIVAN: At that point, you're like, there is something seriously wrong here?

VIGRASS (PH): Yes, but what do you do?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: And Donie is here with us now. What do you -- I don't -- where does this begin?

O'SULLIVAN: Yes.

BOLDUAN: This is --

O'SULLIVAN: Look -- I mean, this is a kind of QAnon off-shoot type group. Some people -- I think John actually I was on-air with you a few years back, when a group -- a few hundred people showed up in Daley Plaza in Dallas one day, November 2021, waiting for JFK or JFK Jr. to show up. And at the time, everybody was like, what is going on here? We've been kind of tracking that group for the last two years. Most of those -- the hundreds of people who were there that day went home, but some stayed and left their families and ended up living in Dallas for months at a time.

And that woman you see there, Erica Vigrass (ph), her brother was one of those people. So, it really, kind of, gets sucked in by this cult. And really what we wanted to do in this documentary was talk to, not just about the conspiracy theories and all that crazy, but really show the victims here the families.

BERMAN: What I don't understand, I mean -- you know, November 22, 1963, it was a long time ago. You know, JFK Jr., you know, died in a plane crash a long time ago. Yet this new stuff seems to be happening now. Why now?

O'SULLIVAN: Yes, and I mean, I think it's easy for us to try and rationalize this, right? But it is totally irrational. The kind of long story short of this belief is that, you know, JFK Jr. Faked his own death, he's working with Trump to save America, QAnon type cabal stuff. And, you know, there's kind of weird biblical overlap where they believe that JFK might have been reincarnated. Things like that.

Look, I mean -- I think, that's almost all in itself, the distraction. The beliefs themselves are a distraction. What we've been looking at is why? Why are people getting sucked in? And you know --

BOLDUAN: Are they open to this?

O'SULLIVAN: Yes. And I think we also want to, sometimes, assume that these believers have, you know, always been crazy, always been quacks. But what we show in this story -- on "The Whole Story" this week is that, you know, these productive members of society with families, jobs, some of them ran businesses before they got sucked into this rabbit hole. A lot of it, of course, happened during COVID-19. But what we're also seeing is, you know, a lot of people who have gone through some sort of trauma, whether it's a recent trauma or a past trauma, you know, are vulnerable to this sort of thing online.

BOLDUAN: Donie, I mean, it's so more. Like this is -- the JFK stuff is the surface.

O'SULLIVAN: Absolutely.

BOLDUAN: And you really dig into what -- how far and what really is below it, beneath it, and behind it. It's fascinating. Thanks, Donie.

O'SULLIVAN: Thanks, guys.

[10:50:00]

BOLDUAN: Thank you, guys. Thank you.

Be sure to tune in, an all-new episode, you see right there, of "The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper." One whole hour, one whole story, airing Sunday at 8:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only on CNN. That to look ahead to on Sunday.

But we are still following the breaking news of this show. Democratic Senator Bob Menendez and his wife now indicted this morning by prosecutors. We're minutes away from those prosecutors announcing those charges where we can expect to get far more detail, and we're going to bring that to you live when that happens.

BERMAN: Yes, pictures of gold bars in this indictment.

BOLDUAN: Wild. For the --

BERMAN: The second winter in a row, the U.S. is facing a shortage of a drug commonly used to treat strep. What parents can do?

[10:55:00]

BOLDUAN: A common and critical antibiotic, especially for children, on short supply still yet again as we head into another season of illnesses. We're talking about amoxicillin. A prescription medication that every parent is familiar with and so thankful for when our little ones get a strep throat and lots of other things.

CNN's Meg Tirrell is joining us now with more on this. Meg, I'm so confused. What are drugmakers saying why there's still a shortage?

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate. I mean, to put this into perspective, this is the most prescribed antibiotic out of all of them. There are 43 million prescriptions for amoxicillin and that includes the liquid formulations which are the ones on shortage and also the pill and tablet formulations written in 2021.

This shortage started in October of 2022. And really, you know, from drugmakers, there are four listed on the FDA's drug shortages website, only one of them actually gives a reason, and that is increased demand. But when we reached out to these drugmakers, one of them came back to us and pointed out this is a really inexpensive drug. It costs about $10 per bottle. And if you compare that with some other medicines, for example, Keytruda, this is a very popular and powerful cancer medicine that's newer, that costs $10,000 -- more than $10,000 a dose.

And so, drug shortages experts I've talked with point out, a drug like Keytruda, that's not going to go into shortage unless something really bad happens, because the incentives are there to make sure there is enough of that drug. But for cheap medicines that are generic like antibiotics, $10 a bottle, the profit margins are so small it's really difficult for drug companies to find the incentives to invest in those.

BOLDUAN: But still, if it's cheap to make, it should be -- it should -- there should -- it should be an abundance. I mean -- OK. I -- we could go on to this in the business of the pharmaceutical industry which I know you know so well much more later. It's good to see you, Meg. But in the meantime, everyone needs to be -- wash your hand, because you may not be able to get your amoxicillin. It's good to see you, Meg.

John.

BERMAN: All right. A daycare, a trap door, and more than eight kilos of hidden drugs. We have new information on the investigation to the death of a baby from fentanyl exposure.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [11:00:00]