Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Jonathan Greenblatt is Interviewed about Anti-Semitism; Polls on Biden and Trump on World Stage; Musk Sued by Former Employees; Partisan-Backed News Outnumbers Local News. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired June 13, 2024 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You could look at it from the half empty perspective and say, wow, tough state.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: You got problems. Yes.

KING: Or you can look at it from the half full perspective is, despite all those problems, it's that close. It's that close. So, you know, which way do you want to look at it?

BOLDUAN: That's a great - so, I guess, we continue on, half empty, half full-ish kind of thing. Whose coalition is more complicated right now? Is it a Donald Trump coalition to get him elected, or is a Joe Biden coalition?

KING: The Democratic coalition is more complicated because it has more pieces, right? You have the black turnout, you have the Latino turnout. You've got to keep your share of the blue-collar voters. The younger voters have been key to the democrats in the last few election cycles. And they're really mad at the president right now, especially over Israel, Hamas.

Trump's biggest problems is Haley voters. People who are Republicans by DNA, who probably voted for him in 2016. A lot of them went to Biden in 2020. They don't like either one of them.

And so, you know - so, but Trump has - Trump has singular -

BOLDUAN: Yes.

KING: You know, that's a singular problem to solve. It's a big problem. Your home state of Indiana, Nikki Haley gets, what, 20 percent, 22 percent, six, seven weeks after she dropped out of the race. That's a problem for Trump. But it's one thing. And they're DNA Republicans.

Biden has a lot more complicated little pieces. It's tougher.

BOLDUAN: That's great. This is adding to the map that you're taking us through right up until Election Day. This is great to see - see you out there and see these - hear from these people directly. It's good to see you, John. KING: It takes me away from DJing, but, yes.

BOLDUAN: Yes, please, just stop. Got to get back in the DJ booth, my friend.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, new investigations launched after a string of anti-Semitic vandalism and protests on the subways of New York. And then point to parliamentary procedure. The chair recognizes the gentleman from pow, kaboom, letting it fly in the legislature.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:36:14]

BOLDUAN: This morning, the NYPD's hate crimes taskforce is investigating reports of anti-Semitic vandalism at the homes of the Jewish board members of a big New York museum. On at least one home, read paint splash on the entryway, you see, writing blood on your hands. Police say five homes were vandalized like this.

And New York's governor speaking out now about another incident. Pro- Palestinian protests Monday at a memorial for people killed at the Nova Music Festival in Israel during the October 7th Hamas attacks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D-NY): This is so inhumane. And this is not who New Yorkers are. And we should not descend to this chaos and allow any tolerance for this disgusting, appoint behavior.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: At that memorial, at that protests, police say some of those protesters were even waving Hamas and Hezbollah flags.

And there's also the scene on the New York City subway this week as protesters chanted this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Raise your hand if you're a Zionist.

Raise your hand if you're a Zionist.

CROWD: Raise your hand if you're a Zionist.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is your chance to get out.

CROWD: This is your chance to get out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Joining us right now is the CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League Jonathan Greenblatt. Jonathan, thanks for being here.

JONATHAN GREENBLATT, CEO, AND NATIONAL DIRECTOR, ANTI-DEFAMATION LEAGUE: Thank you for having me.

BOLDUAN: From the home of a museum director who happens to be Jewish, to an exhibit honoring victims of October 7th, to a New York City subway. What is going on here?

GREENBLATT: It's really quite astonishing to see this sort of anti- Semitism so brazen, so bold and so ugly.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

GREENBLATT: So, what you couldn't see in those images of the vandalism at that woman's home, who just happens to be Jewish, that is her offense, her identity, were inverted red triangles. This is what they painted on these homes.

Now, the inverted red triangle is a symbol used by Hamas where - and they - you can see this in their videos, how they targeted Jews on 10/7 using that red triangle.

So, when we see these red triangles, it's a bulls-eye, putting a target on someone's home, or someone's building, just because of their faith.

BOLDUAN: I mentioned some of the protesters at the memorial were carrying flags for Hamas and Hezbollah.

GREENBLATT: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Also saw that summary were even saying, long live October 7th.

GREENBLATT: That's right.

BOLDUAN: That's akin to chanting long live 9/11.

GREENBLATT: Of course. And, by the way, this happened feet away from the 9/11 Memorial. To think this is what we have descended to. So again, an exhibit honoring the victims of the bloodiest massacre against Jews since the Holocaust. And then people are standing outside - by the way, preventing others from getting in, holding terror flags and chanting long live October 7th here in Manhattan? I mean it is really almost unimaginable. Like Governor Hochul said, unspeakable.

And we should just acknowledge, there's a reason why ADL (ph) has been saying winging the bell on why anti-Semitism is so dangerous. And it is.

BOLDUAN: You don't need to look very far, sadly, in recent past -

GREENBLATT: Right.

BOLDUAN: To see what hate-filled anti-Semitic rhetoric can quickly lead to.

GREENBLATT: That's right. And we've seen this again and again. We saw in 2020 hate-filled rhetoric against Asian-Americans and a mass casualty event in '21. We saw hate-filled rhetoric against Latino immigrants. We remember the shooting at the Walmart. We saw hate- filled rhetoric against Jews. Remember the shooting in Pittsburgh.

Kate, I worry that we are like a match stroke away from a mass casualty event.

And again, think about that subway. What if I had been on that subway train, standing there as me, surrounded by masked people saying, if you're a Zionist this is your chance to get off.

[08:40:03]

What would they have done if I, or, by the way, the 90 plus percent of Jews who identify as Zionists. Think about that, more than 90 percent of American Jews self-identify as Zionist. This is why at ADL we say anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism, because this is combustible. Someone is going to get killed.

BOLDUAN: We have talked often about how anti-Semitism has been on the rise -

GREENBLATT: Yes.

BOLDUAN: In recent years. This was happening before October 7th, but it has exploded since October 7th.

GREENBLATT: Yes.

BOLDUAN: How does the country and the country's leaders turn this around? This is what - this is the piece that I'm missing.

GREENBLATT: Yes.

BOLDUAN: I hear Governor Hochul. I hear even New York City's mayors speaking out very strongly against what's happened here.

GREENBLATT: Yes. He's been great.

BOLDUAN: But what hasn't been done? What is missing?

GREENBLATT: Well, we need action, not words. I mean, so there's some things we'd love to see happen right away. I think Governor Hochul needs to create a taskforce to address anti-Semitism immediately before something dramatic happens. And that means law enforcement, it means education, it means all of the powers of the state should be focused on, how do we just keep people safe?

BOLDUAN: Yes.

GREENBLATT: That's number one. Number two, I mean, you probably saw the front page of "The New York Post" today. This masking issue has got to be dealt with. And there's a way to balance between free speech and the importance of free expression and keeping people safe from harm. So, at ADL we're looking at that, what's the right framework.

And then, number three, you know, we talked before about what's happening on campuses.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

GREENBLATT: Before kids come back this fall, I think the U.S. secretary of education needs to convene a summit of university presidents. Every university in America should have a plan on how they're going to keep their Jewish students safe and allow all kids to learn (INAUDIBLE).

BOLDUAN: It's a great thing to - that's a great point to make because you have now a summer, right?

GREENBLATT: Yes.

BOLDUAN: And you have - people are on campuses all the time, but you have a summer. And what is going to happen in the fall -

GREENBLATT: Right.

BOLDUAN: Is a really, really critical one.

GREENBLATT: Well, one of the groups, one of the groups who led these - I don't even want to call them protests.

BOLDUAN: I know.

GREENBLATT: It's not a peaceful protest if you hold up signs that say, kill the Zionists. That's not peaceful. But one of the groups has said they're organizing a summer intifada, so the students are ready in the fall. Right, this has got to stop.

BOLDUAN: Jonathan, thank you for coming in.

GREENBLATT: Thank you so much, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Really appreciate it.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, this morning, President Biden is meeting with world leaders in Italy for the G-7 Summit. Big issues, of course, include the Israel-Hamas war, the war in Ukraine, and the impact of artificial intelligence on the world.

Now, with all the political turmoil that Biden is facing here at home, how does the world feel about him from the outside looking in? Well, we've got someone who can answer that question with numbers. Actual facts. CNN's Harry Enten, our senior - let's make you chief - let's make you chief data reporter -

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: I love it.

SIDNER: With a look at this. All right, so what are the numbers? How do other countries feel about

Joe Biden and former President Trump?

ENTEN: Yes, facts first here in this run the numbers segment.

All right, to do the right thing in world affairs. This were polled across 34 foreign nations. Look at this.

SIDNER: Wow.

ENTEN: Joe Biden, the clear leader here. Thirty countries have more confidence in Joe Biden then in Donald Trump. That includes all the G- 7 countries. Just three countries have more confidence in Trump than in Joe Biden. I believe Hungry is one of them. So, a very few - selective few who have more confidence in Trump than Biden. But the world, if there were an election and everyone in the world could cast a ballot, Joe Biden would definitely win here.

SIDNER: Yes, I mean, Ukraine, very, very, very concerned about what would happen if Donald Trump gets into office and whether they would still get the help they need.

ENTEN: Yes.

SIDNER: All right, what about here domestically? Where are we?

ENTEN: Right. So, globally, the voters love Joe Biden compared to Donald Trump. But let's take a look domestically when it comes to foreign policy because this is something we've been seeing across different polling questions. Something was going on in 2020 that was favorable to Joe Biden. Then you jump ahead to 2024 and it's a far more favorable landscape for Donald Trump. So, Biden versus Trump on foreign policy.

In 2020, voters preferred Joe Biden by 12 points on foreign policy. You jump ahead now to 2024. Look at this, Donald Trump is favored by eight percentage points. Of course we know that Joe Biden's approval grading on the Israel-Hamas war is low. We know that his approval rating on foreign policy is low. We know that his approval rating on Ukraine is low. So, it's not much of a surprise that Americans are vastly much more in the direction of Donald Trump than they were four years ago.

But it's quite the interesting sort of dynamic where globally -

SIDNER: Right.

ENTEN: Folks really prefer Joe Biden to Donald Trump on foreign policy. But domestically, they prefer Donald Trump to Joe Biden.

SIDNER: It is fascinating. And we know what happened here, an insurrection, and that helped push him forward.

Let's look at - when you look at this as a whole though, how much does foreign policy matter to - to Americans? ENTEN: Yes, there are some elections that are about foreign policy.

2004 comes to mind. There are some elections that aren't necessarily about the economy, 2020, of course, with the coronavirus pandemic.

This, however, looks to be an election that is most likely going to be turning on the economy.

[08:45:02]

So, extremely important to the 2024 vote. Look at this, the economy number one. I think I drew a decent arrow there at 65 percent.

Foreign policy, look at this, one, two, three. Then we have to skip all the way down, down to number nine, just 33 percent say it will be extremely important to their vote.

So, yes, I think Donald Trump very much loves this going from Joe Biden to Donald Trump in terms of foreign policy. But how much of a difference that will actually make, probably not very much. The truth is, this is the issue, 65 percent, the economy, where Joe Biden, last time around versus this time around, in a much worse position.

SIDNER: It is the economy, stupid, as we have been told over and over and over again.

ENTEN: Exactly right, Sara.

SIDNER: Harry Enten, it's always lovely to see you.

ENTEN: It's beautiful to see you, Sara.

SIDNER: All right, John.

BERMAN: All right, a huge pay day on the line this morning for Elon Musk. Tesla shareholders holding the checkbook.

And then quiz time. Who will next wear number 12 for the New England Patriots? It's a trick question.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:50:22]

BERMAN: Oklahoma's supreme court rejected a request by survivors of the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre to receive compensation. The court ruled that, quote, "simply being connected to an historical event does not provide a person with unlimited rights to seek compensation." It dismissed the lawsuit by the only three known survivors of the massacre, all over 100-years-old.

Chaos in the Italian parliament. One lawmaker walked up to another from an opposing party, shoved an Italian flag in his face and then mayhem. All out brawl. One person was injured so badly he had to be wheeled out.

Tom Brady was officially inducted into the New England Patriots Hall of Fame.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM BRADY: You humble me. You make me proud. And I am eternally grateful. I am Tom Brady. And I am a Patriot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The team announced they will try - excuse me. The team announced - I'm speechless over this. The team announced they will retire his number 12 and they will unveil a 12-foot tall Tom Brady statue outside the stadium this season. Oddsmakers predict, Kate, that it will be handsome.

BOLDUAN: Strikingly handsome, but that should now be how we address each other all the time, you humble me, John Berman. And I would like -

BERMAN: I'm John Berman. And I'm a Patriot.

BOLDUAN: And I would also like and 12-foot statue in studio.

BERMAN: Handsome.

BOLDUAN: Thank you. There we go.

All right, so, this morning, Elon Musk is facing a new, legal drama before him. He's being sued by a group of former SpaceX employees. They say they were illegally fired after raising concerns about harassment at the company.

CNN's Clare Duffy is tracking this one for us.

Tell us more about this lawsuit, Clare.

CLARE DUFFY, CNN REPORTER: Yes, Kate, these four employees claim they were illegally fired at - for their involvement in writing a letter back in 2022 that raised concerns about gender discrimination and sexual harassment within SpaceX. That letter at the time was signed by over 400 employees.

And this lawsuit, like that letters, specifically calls out Elon Musk's habit of making crude sexual innuendos in posts on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. For example, it refers to one 2021 posts where Musk says he plans to open a new university called the Texas Institute of Technology and Science, which, of course, would have a euphemistic acronym.

And I want to play for you what one of these former employees told our Laura Coates last night. Her name is Paige Holland-Thielen. She told Laura Coates about the influence of Elon Musk's tweets within SpaceX.

Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PAIGE HOLLAND-THIELEN, PLAINTIFF IN LAWSUIT: SpaceX will retweet Elon Musk's Twitter, and he will retweet them. And so it - it becomes impossible to separate his personal nonsense from the actual day-to- day life of an actual working environment where engineers are working hard and trying to get things done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DUFFY: Now, the lawsuit claims that because of this culture created by Elon Musk's tweets, employees felt comfortable doing things like naming a part of one of the company's rockets, the up skirt camera. It also claims that Elon Musk himself ordered the firing of these employees after they wrote this letter, which asked other executives to disavow his tweets.

And I should say, SpaceX did not respond to our request for comment on this lawsuit, but an executive previously said that these employees were fired for cause.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right, let's see where this one goes.

Clare, thank you so much.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Take a listen to this new report. It shows the number of partisan-backed outlets designed to look like impartial new sites has officially surpassed the number of real local daily newspapers in the United States. And the majority of these outlets are targeted at swing states indicating they're designed to directly impact political outcomes.

CNN's media analyst and former - sorry, and report, not former anything, you're doing everything for "Axios," joins us now live.

Sara, this is a really interesting report. Everyone thinks they're getting their news from the right place, right? I don't watch so and so because I don't want to hear that. What did you find?

SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: It's interesting, this targeting of local outlets is super important here because local is the most trusted news in America. People trust their community news. So, the fact that they're trying to masquerade as local outlets is important, Sara. But also to the point up top, the fact that they're targeting swing states means that it's undeniable this is a political strategy.

Now some of these entities that are trying to do this are much more transparent than others. Some of the more transparent ones will say where they get their funding.

[08:55:03]

They'll say we get their funding from, you know, progressive groups. But others don't list their funders. There's no bylines on these websites. It's intentionally very fuzzy.

SIDNER: Sort of like dark money, you don't know exactly where you're getting it, but it sounds good to you because maybe this is something that you also think. So sort of targeting people to try to get them to lean one way or the other.

I'm curious if this is happening both with progressives and the right. Is - are both doing the same thing?

FISCHER: Both are doing it. And that's what's super important. This is a strategy that's used on both sides of the political aisle. So, of the eight major groups that we found that are putting these types of websites out there, four are progressive and four are conservative.

Now, it's worth noting, the biggest of the groups, which is outsized by a massive margin, is run by a Republican operative. And so that is leaning more conservative. But these strategies are used on the left too. And the thing I'll note, which is so interesting, they are intentionally designed to look like they're impartial. So, the names that these types of websites will use are like, you know, "The Arizona Monitor" or "The New Hampshire Democrat." These are the types of paper-sounding names that you would use for an impartial news outlet. And that's why I think a lot of people get fooled.

Also, it's important to note, this isn't just a digital problem. It's also now migrated to print. So we're seeing a lot of these operatives are printing sort of fake newspapers that are designed to look like your normal local paper, but in reality they are very biased.

SIDNER: No sort of warning that, hey, this is, you know -

FISCHER: No disclosures. Nothing.

And now, Sara, this has been a thing in the U.S. for a long time.

SIDNER: Sure.

FISCHER: We've had partisan back papers.

SINDER: Yes.

FISCHER: But the difference is, these guys aren't trying to be explicit and upfront about it. And that's where it becomes a political game.

SIDNER: And the fact that, you know, you said they are surpassing the actual number of local newspapers -

FISCHER: Yes.

SIDNER: That people generally trust, because all of the reporters live and work and, you know, send their kids to school in that community. So, the trust factor should be quite high, correct?

FISCHER: Yes. Yes. And this is an important thing to note. Weve long had these types of spammy websites trying to impersonate local news. What the differences is, is the rapid plummeting of the number of local daily newspapers. So, now we're at a point where you can't offset the falsehoods with real news because local newspapers are dying. And leading up to the 2024 election, this is a massive problem, all right. We need to rely on a local electorate that's informed, not being persuaded.

SIDNER: And it's very clear that this is, right, a political pressure point because they're really targeting swing states, correct.

FISCHER: Yes. I went through every single site on that list. I clicked through every single one, there's over 1,000, and I made a list of all the states being targeted. Overwhelmingly it's Illinois, it's Wisconsin, it's Pennsylvania, it's North Carolina, it's Georgia. There's definitely an effort here to focus on swing state voters ahead of the election.

SIDNER: People complain about the mainstream media, right? But this is another big issue. If they have no idea that it's partisan, and they're reading it as if it's just your everyday local newspaper. Wow.

FISCHER: Absolutely.

SIDNER: Great reporting, Sara Fischer. We really appreciate it.

FISCHER: Thank you.

SIDNER: It was great.

John.

BERMAN: All right, 20 years after the deadliest tsunami in recorded history, scientists are still trying to crack the code for better tsunami forecasts. This is a look at the science.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Look over there, sweetie! How the water is rushing up!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We saw a wake. It was all across the horizon. And Dave and I were looking at it going, what in the world is that? The closer it got, the louder it got. It sounded like jet engines.

The owner of the resort started screaming in Thai (ph). But we could tell by the fear in his voice that it was serious.

I just cut the camera and I started running. At the very last point, I don't know why I - I turned, but I did. That's when I saw the wave hit.

It hit the - the bank and it just went, choo (ph), like that. That - that - that wave was not 10 feet anymore, it was 40 feet.

I just thought, that's it, I'm dead.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: A new episode of "Violent Earth will Live Schreiber" airs Sunday at 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time.

We've got an update on a big announcement coming from President Biden's overseas trip. A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

SIDNER: Just in, Ukraine front and center at the G-7 Summit in Italy. And before he even arrived, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy said he's ready to sign off on new security agreements with the United States and Japan.

In just moments, Donald Trump returns to the nation's capital to meet with GOP lawmakers and his vice presidential contenders on Capitol Hill.

[09:00:02]

What could happen as he makes his very first visit back to the capital as - excuse me, Capitol Hill, as a convicted felon.