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Driver Charged with DUI Manslaughter in Florida Bus Crash; Google Unveils Gemini 1.5 Pro; Inflation Slowed in April; Golden Bachelorette Wants to Set Record Straight on Dating and Aging; Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) is Interviewed about Election Threats. Aired 8:30- 9a ET

Aired May 15, 2024 - 08:30   ET

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

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[08:33:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: "Sports Illustrated" swimsuit 2024 models here, model Chrissy Teigen, Hunter McGrady, Kate Upton and CBS journalist Gayle King are the leading ladies of this year's issue. "Sports Illustrated" is celebrating 52 women who it says championed the importance of representation in beauty. This year's issue coincides with the magazine's 60th anniversary. The issue is on news stands Friday. And you can see more, of course, online, swimsuit.si.com.

All right, borrowing to pay for college is about to get more expensive. The interest rate on new federal student loans for undergrads during the upcoming academic year will be at 6.53 percent. That will be the highest in 12 years. Graduate students will see an 8 percent interest rate this coming academic year. Ouch.

All right, in France, this is wild. A criminal known as "the fly" escaped during a violent ambush on a prisoner transport van. At least two gunman ambushed a prison convoy in Normandy on Tuesday, killing two prison guards and wounding three others. A massive manhunt is underway now.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, this morning, the driver of a pickup truck involved in a deadly bus crash in Florida is charged with eight counts of DUI manslaughter. Police say he cross the center line and sideswiped a bus carrying 53 farm workers, eight of whom were killed. Officials say the victims were all from Mexico. They were here on temporary agricultural worker visas.

CNN's Carlos Suarez is with us with the latest.

Carlos, what are you learning?

CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, good morning.

So, talk about a terrible and heartbreaking story. The accident happened in Marion County, Florida. That's about 90 minutes northwest of Orlando.

Now, the sheriff's office said that at the time here the bus was taking these farm workers to a farm when the driver of another car sideswiped this bus causing the driver of that bus to lose control, crash through a fence and that bus overturned.

[08:35:07]

As you noted, John, in all, eight workers were killed in this accident, at least 40 other workers were hurt. All of this happened yesterday morning on 6:35 in the morning here in central Florida. We're told that all of these workers were in the U.S. on a temporary agricultural visa.

Now, the driver has been identified as 41-year-old Bryan Maclean Howard. And as you said, John, he has been charged with eight counts of DUI manslaughter. Now, the sheriff's office did not release any other details about the state of this 41-year-old, exactly what he may have been under the influence at the time of this accident. Officials really have not provided additional information since all of this happened yesterday morning.

As you noted, all of the eight farm workers that died were from Mexico. We're told all of them were from - rather, all of them were men. And that consulate officials in Orlando are in contact with Mexican officials at this hour trying to notify all of the families that were involved in in back in Mexico.

John.

BERMAN: What an awful, awful story.

Carlos Suarez, thank you very much for that.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, Google has announced it's adding AI to its ubiquitous search engine, saying that thanks to its Gemini function, Google will do the googling for you. Convenient for users? Sure. But it's not good for news for everyone.

CNN's business tech reporter Clare Duffy has more.

Clare, Gemini is Google's answer to ChatGPT, which, of course, is, you know, taking the country by storm. But Gemini is also sort of giving these answers and could really do some damage to content creators - create - news content creators.

CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS TECH REPORTER: Yes, Sara, Google had been really worried that generative AI, tools like ChatGPT, could replace the need for its search engine, so it is bringing artificial intelligence to search. This is going to mean some major changes in terms of how users interact with Google and what they see on their search results.

The biggest change is that Google is going to be rolling out these AI search results summaries, these sort of paragraphs of information that people will see at the top of their search results that's potentially going to remove the need for people to click on a bunch of links. Instead, Google will be doing the reading of those links for people. And its AI will be writing an answer to their question in more natural language.

The search engine is also going to be able to handle more complex queries that in the past could have required people to do multiple searches. So, for users, Google is really trying to remove the need to sort of become a search expert, to have the right keywords and do multiple searches. Instead, Google wants to give them those answers in the way that people might be getting information from a smart friends.

But to your point, this is potentially going to have really serious consequences for news publishers, for blogs, for other people, other creatives that publish information on the internet. They are worried that if people start to rely on these summaries rather than clicking on links, that they'll no longer need to read that first-party information and that people will lose the traffic from Google that often allows them to sell ads and make money.

Now, Google does say that it will be still including links in those AI summaries. And the company actually told us that it believes that those links will now be getting more traffic than they would in a traditional ten blue links search results page. But kind of cold comfort at this point to news publishers who have for a long time had to sort of fight against the rising tide, the changing tides of Google in terms of how it delivers search traffic. They're worried that this could be a really significant change, Sara.

SIDNER: Clare Duffy, thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

John.

BERMAN: All right, we have some breaking news. New numbers just in on inflation.

Rahel Solomon is here with me.

I think these are the kind of numbers people were hoping for.

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I think you're right. Yes, so this was a report for the first time this year that actually came in line with expectations. Actually slightly even better in some areas. So, that is a welcome sign.

So, let's talk about sort of CPI, or the Consumer Price Index. And when you think CPI you think a basket of goods and services, right, and then the change in the price.

So, CPI, on a broad level, on an annual basis, came in at 3.4 percent. That is in line with expectations. Also slightly better than the month prior.

I want to point out that it's much better than the peak that we saw in June of 2022. But I should say that the Fed's target is actually 2 percent. Different inflation report, but it's closer to 2 percent. So, we're still quite a ways from there.

If you take a look at the monthly sort of changes in prices, this actually came in better than what we were expecting. So, on a monthly basis, prices in the index increased 0.3 percent. That is slightly better than we were expecting. Also slightly better than the month prior.

So, you know, you'll take the good news where you can see it.

[08:40:01]

Let's talk about core. So, core is really important, especially in this environment, because this gives us a sense of underlying inflation. You take away volatile categories, like food, volatile categories like energy. Energy, obviously, can be impacted by geopolitics. Food can be impacted by weather. If you take a look at that, that also came in line with expectations.

And the reason why that's so remarkable is because all year, January, February, March, all of those inflation reports were hotter than expected. So, this is some welcome news.

Really quickly, in terms of how people are feeling, they're still feeling it, obviously.

BERMAN: Yes.

SOLOMON: But, this is wages, right? So, if you changed jobs, if you've gotten a pay raise, you've probably seen your raises - your raise increased more than inflation. So that's a bit of relief, although you can't talk about CPI this week without talking about PPI yesterday, which is wholesale inflation. And that was hotter than we were expecting. So, it's a mixed bag, but at least this report, at least right now, it's some welcome news.

BERMAN: No, you just dumped a lot of data on us in a really, really interesting and compelling way. Don't get me wrong. But the bottom line here is, is this little downturn right there.

SOLOMON: Yes.

BERMAN: That's what people were hoping for.

SOLOMON: Yes.

BERMAN: What people haven't seen in a while because you were getting that little increase right there.

SOLOMON: Yes. Exactly. Things have started to move up, which had really, wow, that's supposed to be an arrow, but things had started to move up and now it looks like they're starting to move back down hopefully closer and closer and closer to 2 percent.

BERMAN: Yes.

SOLOMON: And 2 percent is when the Fed might start to feel like, you know, they can quit it with a rate hikes, or at least cut.

BERMAN: Again, yes, much better than it was, you know, a year - a couple years ago. Not nearly as good as it was for many, many years. So, people still feeling it. But this might put rate cuts back in play for the Fed. Maybe.

SOLOMON: Maybe not this summer, but maybe in the fall.

BERMAN: All right.

Rahel Solomon, thank you for all of us.

SOLOOMON: Yes.

BERMAN: That was really good.

SOLOMON: Yes. Sure.

BERMAN: Sara.

SIDNER: All right, ahead, she's getting another chance for love later in life. Shouldn't we all? We speak with the new golden bachelorette about the new show.

Also, new weapons on the way to Ukraine's front lines, as Secretary of State Antony Blinken wraps up his trip there.

That's all ahead.

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[08:46:46]

SIDNER: First she was a fan favorite on "The Golden Bachelor." Now Joan Vassos (ph) has been named "The Golden Bachelorette." It's the female fronted spinoff of the popular "Bachelor" franchise featuring Vassos dating men in their 50s through 70s.

CNN entertainment correspondent Elizabeth Wagmeister joining us now.

You sat down with this exclusive interview. How was it? Like, of course, she should be able to be a golden bachelorette.

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And she was so great to sit down with, Sara. I spoke to her earlier this week, just the day before this big announcement was made yesterday, and she said to me, my life is really about to change. And she said, I know that this is an unconventional way to find love, but I believe in the process. I have seen couples come out of this franchise. And she lost her husband of 32 years and she's now ready to get back into it.

So, let's take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOAN VASSOS, "THE GOLDEN BACHELORETTE": I almost felt like I was floating over my body. Like, it was kind of surreal.

WAGMEISTER (voice over): Joan Vassos telling CNN about the moment she learned she'd be the first ever "Golden Bachelorette." The Maryland school administrator is no stranger to the show, appearing on last season's "The Golden Bachelor."

VASSOS: But I know that you're like really hurting now because you wouldn't have sent that message.

WAGMEISTER (voice over): Leaving early to be with her family.

WAGMEISTER: Your daughter had just given birth and you wanted to be with her. But have you ever thought what would have happened if you stayed on the show?

VASSOS: Yes, I - I certainly did. In fact, I left that day knowing that it was completely the right decision. And I got onto that airplane and I thought, this journey is completely over. I still had unfinished business.

WAGMEISTER (voice over): She'll finish that business under a white-hot spotlight since "The Golden Bachelor" reignited the ABC franchise into a pop culture phenomenon and shattered stereotypes.

VASSOS: In our culture I feel like growing old is not a dignified thing. You're just supposed to kind of fade in the back, take a backseat to the next generation. And I'm hoping that we change that a little bit. That, you know, we look like we're still fun and energetic and, you know, we know how to use our phones.

WAGMEISTER (voice over): But the journey doesn't come without risk.

"The Golden Bachelor," Gerry Turner, and contestant Theresa Nist, announced their split just three months after their televised wedding.

WAGMEISTER: Were you surprised?

VASSOS: It was surprised. They were like the perfect couple. And I applaud that they jumped into this process like with both feet and they were ready to find love. And I also applaud them that when they discovered it wasn't perfect, that they were - you know, that they called it quits. And it's not the end of the world.

WAGMEISTER (voice over): The 72-year-old Turner, a widower married for 43 years, also faced scrutiny over his past in whether he was as authentic as he seemed.

WAGMEISTER: Did you ever feel like he misrepresented himself to you?

VASSOS: Not at all. In fact, I learned so much from him about opening up your heart and being vulnerable.

WAGMEISTER (voice over): As for her turn in the hotseat, Vassos says, don't expect her to rush into marriage. And her kids will once again come first. VASSOS: They think it's really fun and like - like what a cool

experience for mom. My daughter, Erica (ph), and my son Luke (ph) are a little like - a little cringy, like, don't kiss a guy on TV. This is going to be really embarrassing.

WAGMEISTER (voice over): But mom isn't embarrassed. At 61, she's ready to be a bachelorette for the ages. All ages.

[08:50:02]

VASSOS: There's a lot of knowledge that we have inside us, because we've lived life.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WAGMEISTER (on camera): You know, whether or not you have ever watched the show, if you are a fan of the show, "The Golden Bachelor" became a cultural phenomenon, Sara, because of this whole notion of dating later in life. Why not find love later in life? There is so much conversation about ageism in Hollywood, certainly ageism for women all throughout society. And Joan said, we are bucking that trend. We are showing that we still got it.

And I have to tell you, they have not gone into production yet. So, she has not met any of the men. So, we'll see what happens.

SIDNER: You know how people say like 60 is a new 40, and 50 is the new 30. I mean, she's proving them right. I love what she said about aging and finding love.

Elizabeth Wagmeister, thank you so much for that exclusive. "The Golden Bachelorette" premiering in fall, produced by a division of Warner Brothers Discovery, which also, of course, is the parent company of CNN.

John.

BERMAN: All right, we have new information on when the prosecution will rest its case against Donald Trump in his New York criminal trial.

And breaking news just moments ago, President Biden throws down the gauntlet, and frankly some shade, to Donald Trump, challenging him to a debate in just weeks. We are standing by for Donald Trump's response.

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[08:55:32]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, today in Washington, lawmakers hold a hearing to examine foreign threats to the 2024 elections with artificial intelligence becoming easier to use than ever. There is renewed concerned about foreign governments trying to influence the outcome of the elections.

With us now, Democratic Senator Mark Warner from Virginia. He is the chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

Chairman, thank you so much for being with us.

SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): Thank you, John.

BERMAN: Threats from whom to what specifically?

WARNER: Well, there are three reasons why less than six months out we should all, as Americans, be concerned.

First, unlike in 2016, where it was mostly just Russia trying to interfere. In 2024, other adversarial nations know than it is relatively easy and frankly cheap to try to interfere in our election. So, I think we should expect China, Russia, or Iran, potentially other nation states, to try to both either cyberattack our infrastructure or, more likely, spread misinformation and to try to pit Americans against Americans.

Secondly, I think we've got to acknowledge, in 2024, Americans, for whatever reason, are a lot more willing to believe crazy conspiracy theories, and a lot less willing to accept as truth things coming from the federal government.

And then third is, as you pointed out before the break, John, artificial intelligence brings new tools where we could change with deep fakes your face, my face, our voices, in ways of scale and speed that are unprecedented.

You put those three factors together, and you've got the potential for a toxic mess. We've got enough disagreements between ourselves as Americans. We don't need foreign governments trying to interfere and mess with our elections.

BERMAN: Do you have any intelligence that you're willing to share for whom some of these foreign governments might be putting their thumbs on the scale for?

WARNER: Well, it has been widely reported - this is not simply attacking us - that Russia, for example, it has been supporting candidates in Europe that are more pro-Russian and less pro-Ukraine. We've seen a country like Slovakia go from about 75 percent of the people, frankly, supporting Ukraine, to now they have a pro-Russian president and over half the Slovakian people believed that the United States started the war in Ukraine. That was due to a great deal of Russian, you know, bots, Russian disinformation, widely spread across that country.

And, frankly, European elections take place in June. I think that may be a precursor, particularly to some of the Russian tactics that we might see in America six months from now.

BERMAN: On the issue of Russia and Ukraine, there is new information coming out about Russian gains, particularly in the north around the city of Kharkiv. How concerned are you that Ukraine may be losing right now? WARNER: Well, John, it was a huge mistake that we went six months without providing Ukraine that necessary aid. Thank goodness the speaker and others finally brought that bill to the floor. And again, I think it was a great show of support, over 80 percent of the House, 80 percent of the Senate supported that aid to Ukraine. We're getting it there as quickly as possible.

We can't question the Ukrainians courage and bravery, but they've got to have the arms. And I think the full component of that military assistance won't be fully there until, unfortunately, middle of the summer. I think if the Ukrainians can stabilize their lines, I think it will be a bit of a standoff during the summer. But as we saw when the Ukrainians tried to advance last year, it's tough to make advances on a broad basis with the level of drones and mining activity. If the Russians try the same against the Ukrainians, if they have sufficient arms, they will be able to hold the line.

BERMAN: We have about 35 seconds left, Senator.

President Biden just challenged Donald Trump to two debates. The first one as soon as June. Just want to know your reaction to perhaps general election debates, you know, four months before election day.

WARNER: Listen, I think that would be a - I'm - I'm glad the president has stepped up and - and said that.

[08:59:56]

I think when the vast majority of American who have not focused on the elections really, at this point, start to realize the kind of really incredibly bitter grievance-ridden language that President Trump.