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Philly Man Pleads Guilty After Targeting Fantasy Football Rival; Harris, Oprah in Michigan for Virtual Campaign Event; Endangered Corals Moved for South Florida to Texas Gulf Coast. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired September 19, 2024 - 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: A Philadelphia man's feud with a fellow fantasy football player has now become a federal case. 25-year-old Matt Gabriel pleaded guilty to two counts of interstate and foreign communication of a threat to injure, admitting that he called in fake threats to go after someone he had a disagreement with in his fantasy football league.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: What's more, it looks like Gabriel just could not let it go, calling in phony tips even after he knew that the feds were on to him. CNN justice correspondent Jessica Schneider is here. Jess, federal prosecutors say that this fantasy footballer caused law enforcement to be diverted, obviously, from real investigations.

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and that's because they say that he called in these fake tips not once, but twice internationally. Once in Norway, once here in the U.S., and it was all because of this beef he had with a fellow player in his fantasy football league. So apparently, they had some sort of disagreement.

And then this 25-year-old Pennsylvania man, Matthew Gabriel, he thought it would be a good idea in August 2023 to send out an alert in Norway to the Norway Norwegian police security service, claiming that this man he had a feud with online was going to conduct a mass shooting. And this is how he put it in the alert to the Norwegian authorities.

He said, On August 15th, a man named (blank redacted) is headed around Oslo and has a shooting plan with multiple people on his side involved. They plan to take as many as they can at a concert and then head to a department store. I don't know any more people than that. I just can't have random people dying on my conscience.

Now, as you can imagine, once Norwegian police got that tip, they worked with U.S. authorities, conducted, you know, hundreds of hours worth of investigation over five days. The FBI actually then interviewed Matthew Gabriel, later charging him.

And then it was months later where he apparently, according to authorities, did it yet again, this time in the U.S., sending an alert to the University of Iowa. And he said that there was going to be some sort of incident at the university, knowing that that's where his rival went to school. So now this man, 25 years old, he has pleaded guilty to these two charges.

And, you know, the U.S. attorney in Pennsylvania, who her office brought this case, issued what's a pretty poignant statement here. This is from the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, Jacqueline Romero.

Writing this: While already being prosecuted for one hoax threat spurred by, of all things, his fantasy football league, Matthew Gabriel inexplicably decided to send another. His actions were extremely disruptive and consumed significant law enforcement resources on two continents, diverting them from actual incidents and investigations.

And then she warns, you know: Hoax threats aren't a joke or protected speech. They are a crime. My advice to keyboard warriors who'd like to avoid federal charges, always think of the potential consequences before you hit post or sent.

A big lesson for this one man in particular.

SANCHEZ: Yes, do we know what was at the root of this beef? And where is Matt Gabriel now?

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SCHNEIDER: So they just had some sort of online disagreement on a chat that somehow resulted and escalated to this. So Matthew Gabriel, he's been under investigation for quite some time because this first threat was way back in August, 2023. He's now been charged. He faces those two counts.

He was released on $25,000 bond and he will be sentenced this coming January. And he does face up to five years in prison. So, you know, like the U.S. attorney said, this is no joke. And his hoax went way too far.

SANCHEZ: I hope the commissioner of fantasy football league has also given some punishment, hopefully kicked him out of that league. There are way better pranks to pull on folks that play fantasy.

KEILAR: Way more legal pranks.

SANCHEZ: 100 percent.

KEILAR: This is why I don't do fantasy football.

SANCHEZ: This is one of the many reasons.

KEILAR: One of many.

SANCHEZ: Somebody's going to call in a bomb threat and claim you're going to hurt somebody.

KEILAR: Clearly it happens. Jessica Schneider, thank you so much.

SANCHEZ: Appreciate you.

The race for the White House is razor tight. Could Black women help tip the scales for Vice President Kamala Harris? We're going to talk about that as Oprah Winfrey looks to rally voters for the VP.

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SANCHEZ: Tonight, the queen of talk, Oprah Winfrey, is holding a virtual event with Kamala Harris in Michigan. More than 90,000 people are expected to join the live stream gathering, featuring numerous grassroots organizations that could be key to a winning coalition. After that, Harris is set to make campaign stops in Wisconsin and Georgia tomorrow.

KEILAR: Oprah spent much of the year on the sidelines of politics until, of course, that surprise appearance at the Democratic National Convention where she told delegates that Americans must choose optimism over cynicism when they vote this November.

Joining us now, we have CNN's Renee Marsh. She is out with a new piece today about how Black women are showing up for one of their own, and they showed up as well for President Biden. We should note, Renee, right, 90 percent backed him in 2020 according to exit polls. How are they mobilizing behind Harris this time?

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, they show up regardless, which is the message that I got from all of these Black women who I spoke to over the last week and a half. Political organizers, political activists, leaders of Black-centered female organizations. But there is a level of excitement that is up here.

To quote one, we're going to work our asses off. To quote another, if Kamala Harris does not win, it won't be because Black women did not do their job.

So that's where the energy is, and that's where the mindset is. But when we talk about tangibles of what's different here with Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket, we've seen a couple of things, like Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, historically Black sorority. Vice President Harris is a member. They, for the very first time, recently launched their own political pack, allowing them to inject themselves in politics, endorse and fundraise for candidates.

Delta Sigma Theta, another Black female-centered organization, Black sorority, they are running TV ads in battleground states for the very first time. So we're seeing that sort of thing.

And then tonight's event that we've been talking about with Oprah Winfrey, that was organized by the Win with Black Women organization. You remember them, they did that Zoom call. They say some 90,000 Black women tuned in. This was just hours after President Joe Biden said he was dropping out of the race. So this event tonight is an offshoot of that Zoom call. But that is what we're talking about here as far as how these Black

women are organizing. But what they all tell me is we've been doing this for decades. This is not new to us. But what they are saying is new is that the nation is paying attention to what preparation, meeting this very specific historic moment, what it looks like. And this is what it looks like.

SANCHEZ: What are the issues motivating them? What did they share with you about that?

MARSH: They are concerned about everything from reproductive rights to the economy. Those are gun control, all the issues that impacts their daily lives, their communities and their families. So yes, they're excited.

Yes, they understand the historic nature of this race. But what's driving them at their core are these issues. And I would love to quote one of the women who I spoke to.

She says, Black women have been carrying the Democratic Party over the finish line decade after decade. But what's good here and what's sweet this time around is we get the best of both worlds with a woman who deeply understands our struggles.

So there's this sense that within the issues that they care about, they trust how a Black woman will handle and address those issues.

KEILAR: Really interesting reporting, Rene. Thank you so much for your work on this and for sharing it with us.

MARSH: Thank you.

KEILAR: Still ahead, a last ditch effort to save some of Florida's sea corals from the worst of climate change. We're going to speak with one of the scientists behind an incredible mission.

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KEILAR: Worldwide, oceans are warming at an alarming and unprecedented rate, and it's having an impact on everything from extreme weather to the marine species struggling to survive, including coral reefs.

SANCHEZ: Coral in the Florida Keys suffered a massive bleaching event last year, and now scientists have just sent hundreds of endangered sea corals from South Florida to the Texas Gulf Coast as part of a research and restoration project. We're joined now by one of those involved, Keisha Barr. She's the chair for Coral Reef and Ocean Health and Texas A&M University Corpus Christi.

Thank you so much for being with us. Walk us through how this coral was moved, and what happens next.

KEISHA BAHR, CHAIR, CORAL REEF AND OCEAN HEALTH, TEXAS A&M CORPUS CHRISTI: Yes, great to be with you all. Well, the process of moving these corals is not simple, because they're extremely fragile organisms, and they can't handle very extreme fluctuations in temperature.

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So in order to do that, we need to carefully package how we transport the corals. So we individually package each of these corals into containers. They can be Tupperware containers or individual plastic bags that you can think about when you bring a fish home from the pet store.

So we put the corals in there, filled it up with clean seawater and air, put it inside of a Styrofoam insulated box, and then we moved it from Nova Southeastern University in Florida and Fort Lauderdale. Put it on our university plane where I flew to Fort Lauderdale, loaded it in the plane and brought it here to Corpus Christi where we unloaded them with the Texas State Aquarium. Took them in an ambulance to the rescue center and where they will stay for a little bit of time before they come to my lab here at the Heart Research Institute at Texas A&M Corpus Christi.

KEILAR: OK, and then what do you do? Then how do you manage to preserve them and what are the challenges of that?

BAHR: Yes, corals are extremely simple but complicated organisms. I like to joke that I'm kind of like a coral because corals don't like it too hot and they don't like it too cold. They're just very fragile in what the temperature can be and we have to be extremely careful when we take care of them because they have these very narrow thermal temperatures.

So when we have them in the aquariums and why we're partnering with the Texas State Aquarium is we need to make sure that the conditions that we have the aquaria at are maintained in these very narrow windows that are optimal for corals to grow at. So we're able to work with the aquarium here and be able to maintain those temperatures for the corals and have certain levels of the temperature, the pH of the water and of course the nutrients of the water to be able to grow the corals here. And make sure that they're thriving in the waters that we have here and it's not getting too hot so we can continue to grow them and make sure that they're healthy in the environment here in Texas.

SANCHEZ: What are some of the risks associated with going into a marine ecosystem and removing life forms from it? I imagine that it's not only challenging but that there might be some risk involved too.

BAHR: Yes of course, and I think one of the challenging things it might sound like well we're removing these organisms from this environment why exactly are we doing that? Well the primary reason behind doing this work is we were collecting some of these coral to do some experiments to understand if we were to do some dredging activities to have more ports or any kind of coastal development we want to know what kind of impacts that's going to have on corals. And that's what the research that we do here in my lab we want to have better informed decisions of how what we do here on land impacts our corals. So that we can make informed decisions about how to be more responsible here on land.

So this is part of the reason why we need to get corals from this area so that we can make sure that the work that we are doing is actually relatable to the area where this work is intended to happen.

The second reason why we wanted to remove these corals from some of the nurseries that are in Florida is these nurseries that are housed by Nova Southeastern University is out planted to be able to have this critically endangered species of coral known as the staghorn coral.

They're trying to grow them out and have more of this coral because it is depleting and it's unfortunately dying because the waters are getting so warm. So we're trying to grow them so that there's more of them available when the water gets cooler.

Unfortunately as you just mentioned the water is getting really, really warm right now. So this is a really great opportunity for us to take some of that coral remove it from the environment and move it somewhere where the water wasn't warm so we could save those corals from potentially bleaching and dying at the same time.

And the last thing that we did was when we think about our waters there is some debris that's in the water whether it's tires or old piers or other structures some of that needs to be removed and sometimes coral settle and grow on that.

If we want to remove that structures from the water the coral also needs to be removed and that coral needs to have a home and we would like to have that coral to have a home. And when the folks at Nova Southeastern said well we need to find homes for this coral I said can we please take those corals and provide a home for that because we wanted to be able to make sure that those corals had somewhere to go.

SANCHEZ: It is really fascinating work and important too in ocean conservation. Keisha Bahr we appreciate you joining us.

BAHR: Of course thank you for having me.

SANCHEZ: Of course.

It looks like a scene out of the movie Speed. One cop being hailed for a daring highway rescue. You're looking at it right now we'll get you the details in just a few minutes.

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KEILAR: Pop quiz hot shot. How does one heroic officer stop an erratic car moving at five miles an hour? A sheriff's deputy in Michigan climbed from her moving car and into a moving pickup truck to save the driver who may have been having a medical emergency.

SANCHEZ: Look at that the pickup had been driving erratically and the driver didn't respond to lights and sirens. CNN's affiliate WXYZ spoke with the deputy. Listen to this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEPUTY NICOLE MIRON, MACOMB COUNTY POLICE: I just was trying to think of any way possible to stop the vehicle and try to get his attention. Nothing we were really doing was working. Once I get in I realized the park's right at the steering wheel.

I put it in the park immediately as soon as I got the vehicle checked on him. He was just in a daze. He wasn't sure what was really going on.

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KEILAR: Wow! The 63 year old driver was taken to the hospital. The sheriff says the deputy's selfless actions helped prevent a tragedy. That is amazing.

SANCHEZ: Yes it's like a Hollywood stunt, yes.

KEILAR: Wait, so was her partner then in the first car?

SANCHEZ: I would hope so.

KEILAR: Otherwise it gets really tricky right?

SANCHEZ: I'd hope so. Pop quiz hot shot. Was that from Speed?

KEILAR: Yes, that's right.

SANCHEZ: Keanu Reeves.

KEILAR: That's what Dennis Hopper would say to Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock. Great movie.

SANCHEZ: Yes.

KEILAR: We'll see if it stands the test of time. You know who does though?

SANCHEZ: Keanu Reeves.

KEILAR: Jake Tapper.

SANCHEZ: "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.

END