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Interview With Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO); Class-Action Lawsuit Filed Against Navy Federal Credit Union; Judge Rules Over 150 Of Jeffrey Epstein's Alleged Associates & Victims To Be Made Public In 2024; McConnell Responds To Trump's Comments On Immigrants "Poisoning The Blood" Of The U.S. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired December 19, 2023 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): So we have to make sure that American interests are being served as well as Israeli interests. That is why we sent that message through this letter.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: You call out Netanyahu specifically in your letter for his approach. You say Israel obviously is a key U.S. partner. Is Netanyahu a good U.S. partner?

CROW: Well, that is why we drew that distinction between the state of Israel and the Israeli people. And Prime Minister Netanyahu, which I think is a really important distinction to draw here.

I do not have confidence that BiBi Netanyahu is doing the right thing by Israelis. I think he failed Israelis on October 7th.

Listen, just earlier this year, 20 percent of Israelis, a fifth of the country of Israel, was out in the streets protesting the Netanyahu government and some of its more extreme policies.

Then you have what is potentially their greatest intelligence failure in a generation, a military failure in a generation, on October 7th.

So I don't think he has served the Israeli people well. That is why we have been very clear that we don't think his military strategy and his approach is one that is tenable for the United States and for Israel. That is why we want drastic change.

KEILAR: What's the political threat to President Biden and also to Democrats here?

You have this new "New York Times" polling that shows 57 percent of registered voters disapprove of Biden's handling of the conflict. Notably, nearly three-quarters of voters between 18 and 29 disapprove of his handling.

CROW: Public support is essential in anything we do. We cannot conduct any military operation, you can't support any conflict. We have seen that in Ukraine. We have seen that in Israel. We saw that during our 20 years in Iraq and Afghanistan. Public support and sentiment is essential. That is one of the reasons

why we expressed these concerns. Because those on the letter are members of the Intelligence Committee, the Foreign Affairs Committee.

We speak frequently with ambassadors, with heads of state all over the world. And we are concerned that there is a reduction in support for Israel because of the conduct of their campaign in Gaza.

So we want to make sure that we are shoring up that support both within the United States and internationally. That is why we expressed concerns about the manner in which the operation is being conducted.

Both it's fueling extremism in the region, we think. It is unacceptable that we are seeing the level of civilian casualties we are seeing in Gaza.

Of course, in public sentiment we think is turning as well, both in the United States and internationally. These are all reasons why we felt compelled to write this letter.

KEILAR: Congressman, we appreciate you taking the time to talk to us about it. Thank you so much.

CROW: Thank you.

KEILAR: The names of dozens of Jeffrey Epstein's alleged associates and victims will be made public. That is the ruling from a federal judge. We are going to tell you when and why they are going to be released, next.

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[14:37:21]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Welcome back to CNN NEWS CENTRAL. Here are some of the other headlines we are watching this hour.

Investigators are trying to figure out what caused this house to go up in flames in New Jersey. Crews struggled to battle the fire this morning after a powerful storm caused severe flooding in the area.

Officials say, fortunately, the house was not occupied so no injuries were reported. But that same storm system has killed at least four people across the northeast, causing widespread power outages, too.

The NFL has suspended -- another story now, the NFL has suspended Pittsburgh Steelers Safety Demonte Casey without pay for the remainder of the regular season for repeated regulations or rules meant to protect the health and safety of players.

In a game this weekend, Casey launched himself at the head of another player who was trying to make a diving catch. He was ejected right after that play.

Casey can appeal the suspension under the collective bargaining agreement. We'll see where it goes. In the meantime, nearly nine million borrowers missed their first

student loan payment after the pandemic-related pause ended this fall. That's according to the Department of Education. That adds up to roughly 40 percent of the 22 million borrowers who had bills due in October.

The borrowers, though, still have a grace period. Those who missed payments through September 2024 are set to not face significant penalties.

So the nation's largest credit union, Navy Federal, is now facing a class-action lawsuit over its mortgage lending practices.

This is after a CNN investigation found it had the widest racial disparity in mortgage lending approval rates of any major lender.

KEILAR: These are the numbers here. Navy Federal Credit Union approved 48 percent of its black applicants for conventional home mortgages in 2022 while approving 77 percent of white applicants. This is according to data from the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

Joining us now is CNN's Rene Marsh.

What is this new complaint alleging because that is a staggering disparity?

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It certainly is. So this lawsuit, by one of the attorneys behind it, a civil rights attorney, Benjamin Crump -- he is one of several firms involved in this suit filed in federal court in Virginia over the weekend.

The lawsuit says that Navy Federal essentially violated federal housing discrimination laws.

This class-action is aiming to represent a wide range of potential plaintiffs. People, minorities who try to get a loan, anywhere from 2018 to present, who may have been denied, who may have gotten a higher interest rate than was normal compared to others.

[14:40:58]

Or others who may -- or perhaps the process was delayed or dragged out unusually long compared to other applicants.

This lawsuit says, and I am quoting here, "While describing its corporate values, Navy Federal claims that it champions the community, but Navy Federal's claims of community support are meaningless in the face of its actions, systemic discrimination in housing in violation of federal laws."

So strong words there. But again, what they are alleging is that this credit union was discriminatory. We should point out that CNN's reporting showed these racial disparities, but it did not prove discrimination per se.

SANCHEZ: So how is Navy Federal responding? MARSH: Navy Federal, we have learned since our first report, has hired

a civil rights attorney, who has come on board to review their lending practices. They shared that information with us.

However, they continue to dispute that they've had any sort of discriminatory practice as it relates to who gets more and who does not get mortgages.

I will point out here, in Washington D.C., this has caught the attention of people on Capitol Hill.

Congresswoman Maxine Waters yesterday calling on Navy Federal to explain to Congress and to its members why the date looks the way it looks. And what is it that we don't understand?

They are saying there is no discrimination. She's also calling for a federal investigation.

KEILAR: It's so important that you point out not only is it the rejection but the people who are accepted, I mean, when you are drawing things out, that costs money.

It's obviously costing money if your interest rate is higher. All of these things are expensive even if you are getting the loan. That is key.

MARSH: That, too, as well as depending on the time in which you are applying, if it's a very competitive market, you potentially lose the opportunity to get that home.

So depending on what these investigations find in the lawsuit, we could potentially find, we will see what changes of anything.

KEILAR: We know you will keep following this.

Rene, Thank you so much for that.

SANCHEZ: Still ahead, a new ruling in the case of Jeffrey Epstein. The names of dozens of Jeffrey Epstein's alleged associates and victims will be made public. We will have the details straight ahead.

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[14:46:40]

KEILAR: This just in. A federal judge has ordered the names and documents in connection with dozens of Jeffrey Epstein's alleged associates and victims to be made public in 2024.

SANCHEZ: CNN's Kara Scannell joins us now live.

Kara, what more are we expected to learn?

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Boris and Brianna, we are expecting more than 150 people to be identified when these documents are unsealed. These are associates of Jeffrey Epstein as well as some alleged victims.

This is all stemming from a court case that one of his victims, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, brought against Ghislaine Maxwell.

That's Epstein's former girlfriend and longtime associate. She was convicted of helping Epstein groom and recruit women that Epstein had sexually abused. So this has been a long-running lawsuit.

And now some of these documents are going to be unsealed. And it is a trove of documents. So these are -- it's not going to be a list of names that we will see when the unsealing happens, but it will be a lot of documents and a lot of names referenced in them.

So the judge, in making this order yesterday, noted that many of those in this case, both John Does and Jane Does, do not object to their names coming out.

Others' names have been in the public domain for years, either through media reports because they gave media interviews, or their names came out at the criminal trials.

So some of these people, it's not a surprise we will see their names. Other people's names are being unsealed because, as the judge put it, they are not salacious details around them.

But there will be a number of victims whose names will not be unsealed because there were minors at the time of this alleged assault.

So while some of these names have been in public for a while, what will be interesting to see when this unsealing happens is just how they are referenced in these documents and what documents there are that exist and the context for this.

Because a lot of Jeffrey Epstein's associates have publicly said they had nothing to do with the sexual assault and abuse.

So we will be looking there to see exactly how these names are included in the documents and what it says about them.

So the judge is giving all of the Does about 14 days to decide if they are going to appeal the ruling. If not, we could see these names being unsealed in all these documents by the end of the very beginning of next year - Boris, Brianna?

SANCHEZ: A really significant development.

Kara Scannell, thanks so much for the reporting.

Stay with NEWS CENTRAL. We will be right back.

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[14:53:17]

KEILAR: This just in. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell offering his first response to former President Trump's comments that immigrants are "poisoning the blood" -- that was the quote he used this weekend -- of the United States. That rhetoric drawing comparisons, of course, to Hitler.

SANCHEZ: CNN's Manu Raju was at that press conference.

Manu, walk us through what McConnell said.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I asked him about that specifically, whether or not he had any concerns about the frontrunner for the party's nomination using that term "poisoning the blood of our country," referring to illegal immigrants.

But in responding to Donald Trump, Mitch McConnell invoked his own wife, Elaine Chao, who is a Taiwanese immigrant and someone who is a naturalized American citizen, someone who served in Donald Trump's administration as his transportation secretary.

He made that point as he pushed back against the former president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Are you comfortable with your parties' leading presidential candidate referring to illegal immigrants as people poisoning the blood of our country?

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): Well, it strikes me that it didn't bother him when he appointed Elaine Chao as secretary of transportation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: So McConnell has rarely talked about Donald Trump and all the controversies that come along with Trump through the campaign trail.

In fact, in the aftermath of January 6th, very rarely invoked the former presidents' name.

Even in the past, when Trump attacked his own wife, Elaine Chao, racist attacks against Elaine Chao over social media. McConnell instead decided to sidestep and didn't want to talk about it.

Thought it was a distraction and simply wouldn't engage whenever he was confronted about questions about it.

But decided here that it was important to reference his wife in a dismissive way. Perhaps suggesting that Trump is hypocritical by having an immigrant in his cabinet. But you hear the response there.

[14:55:10]

And I talked to a number of other Republicans about this. A lot of them simply are not comfortable with their former president being the party's leading candidate, going that far, saying, in the words of Senator John Thune, that is not something I would say.

But as you can see here, Donald Trump once again putting his party in an awkward position with the Republican leader of the Senate saying very clearly he doesn't agree with him -- guys?

SANCHEZ: Manu Raju, thank you so much for the update.

Still to come, some incredible images of the lava flow from an erupting volcano in Iceland. It could last several days, potentially even posing a threat. We'll be right back.

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