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Trump And Harris Trade Jabs At Al Smith Dinner; FOX Denies Any Staffer Helped Write Trump's Jokes; Baier Says He Played Wrong Clip During Harris Interview; WNBA Star Angel Reese Says Her Salary Doesn't Cover Her Rent; Opening Statements In Trial Of Man Accused Of Killing 2 Girls in Delphi, Indiana. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired October 18, 2024 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[14:33:00]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Comedy on the campaign trail last night in New York at the Al Smith Catholic Charity Dinner. It's a night known for lighthearted roasting between presidential candidates.
Former President Trump took the stage in person while Vice President Harris appeared in a taped video. Both tried their hands at jokes, with comedian, Jim Gaffigan, playing host.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Now we have someone in the White House who can barely talk, barely put together two coherent sentences. But enough about Kamala Harris.
(LAUGHTER)
TRUMP: Let's got onto something else.
(LAUGHTER)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Is there anything that you think that maybe I shouldn't bring up tonight.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, don't lie. Thou shall not bear false witness to thy neighbor.
HARRIS: Indeed, especially their neighbors election results.
(LAUGHTER)
JIM GAFFIGAN, COMEDIAN: There is one -- one group that baffles me. And I'm talking about the undecided voter. You don't see a difference --
(LAUGHTER)
GAFFIGAN: between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump?
(LAUGHTER) GAFFIGAN: Like nobody has ever thought, wait, is that a Trump quote or a Harris quote?
(LAUGHTER)
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN HOST: Jim Gaffigan, he is playing Tim Walz on "Saturday Night Live" these days. So he's very much part of this campaign.
Harris, for her part, has not said who helped her out with her jokes. But today, Trump is claiming that he actually got help, not from comedic writers, but from FOX News staffers.
CNN's Hadas Gold is here with more.
So, Hadas, you have new information. What are you learning?
HADAS GOLD, CNN MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so earlier today, Donald Trump went on "FOX and Friends." He sat on the couch with them and they asked him, you know, who helped you with your with your Al Smith dinner jokes, they were great.
And he said to them, well, actually I shouldn't say this, but some FOX people helped me.
Obviously, this raised a few alarm bells because it would, I think, cross a lot of ethical bounds for staffers for a media organization to help a candidate write their jokes.
But we are learning, according to two sources familiar with the situation, that it was actually a comedian, Nick Di Paolo, who has helped write jokes for FOX host, Greg Gutfeld, but he's not considered an employee or a freelancer for FOX News.
[14:35:08]
He's the one who, apparently, Trump may have thought was a FOX staffer who helped him.
And FOX, in a statement has said, "FOX News confirmed that no employee or freelancer wrote the joke."
So FOX is coming out fully and denying this. We have also reached out for, of course, for an on-the-record comment from the Trump campaign. We have not heard back.
But you know, even if Trump may have gotten confused about who was a staffer and who is not, I do think it sort of reflects that Trump sees FOX as an important, almost extension of his campaign.
Whether or not FOX feels the same way, that's how Trump sees it. And he went even further while he was on air on "FOX and Friends" saying, I'm going to meet with the big top boss of FOX, Rupert Murdoch, and I'm going to ask him, don't run negative commercials about me for the next 21 days before the election.
We've also added as FOX about this meeting with Rupert Murdoch about this request to not run ads. We haven't heard anything back.
We -- he also, yesterday, posted on his Truth Social going after the FOX News CEO Suzanne Scott saying, why is she putting all these negative, you know, left commentators on air going out against me.
Because again, I think he sees FOX as an important place for his home- base where his fans are watching. We've known that he's had sort of an up-and-down complicated relationship with Rupert Murdoch and with FOX News.
But I think that just -- you know, his off the cuff comment saying, oh, FOX staffers helped me with the jokes. That just goes to show you how much he sees FOX as an extension as a part of his presidential campaign.
KEILAR: Yes, it's not helping FOX.
Staying on the train though, Bret Baier, who did the interview with Harris, now says he made a mistake during the interview. Tell us what you've learned yes.
GOLD: Yes, so we -- Bret Baier, if you remember, during the interview, he -- he played a clip from Donald Trump at the town hall he had earlier, talking about the enemy within.
I think we might have that clip from Bret Baier. But if we don't have it, he then later said they played that clip, but it was that really contentious moment with Vice President Harris?
I think we do have the clip, so I think we can play it for just a second, that moment in the interview with Kamala Harris. It got a bit contentious.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRET BAIER, CNN FOX HOST: I did make a mistake. And I want to say that I did make a mistake.
When I called for a sound byte, I was expecting a piece of the enemy from within, from Maria Bartiromo's interview, to be tied to the piece from your town hall, Harris, where you asked the former president about the enemy from within? It just had the piece about the town hall.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GOLD: Now, I think what's really interesting here is that, if he recognized the mistake in the moment during the interview, why didn't he say so?
This is actually something that a former FOX anchor, Gretchen Carlson, pointed out online.
She said, "I want to read this to you, that Bret Baier now says his mistake, he ran the wrong Trump enemy from within clip during the interview with Harris. News flash, when wrong clips run, which happens, the host can easily say, sorry, that was the wrong clip. And he or his producers would have known it was the wrong one right then.
And so that just goes to show you, I think, that it's been a kind of a contrast between the interview that we saw Bret Baier do with Kamala Harris, and then the interviews that he's done in the past with Donald Trump.
Actually, our colleagues, Brian Stelter and Liam Riley, did an interesting article comparing these two interviews. And what they found was that Bret Baier interrupted Kamala Harris nearly twice as much as he interrupted Donald Trump.
And that the tone of the questions were much different. Obviously, it was a very contentious interview with Vice President Harris -- guys?
KEILAR: Yes, for sure, that question out of the gate.
Hadas, thank you so much for the report.
[14:38:40]
Next, she's one of the WNBAs biggest stars, so you'd think she's raking in the cash, right? Well, Angel Reese says her salary isn't even enough to cover her rent. We'll have the controversy next.
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[14:43:27]
MARQUARDT: Controversy is brewing over the salary scale in the WNBA. And it is being started by one of the league's top players, Angel Reese. Not only is she incredibly popular, front and center on the Chicago Sky's Web site, and featured into of the four headlines, but she is also an extremely good basketball player.
She's a first-round draft pick and she leads the league in rebounds.
KEILAR: But in an Instagram Live last night, Reese revealed that her WNBA salary isn't enough to cover her rent.
She says she's paid just $73,000 per year.
Earlier this year, Reese says she considers her WNBA salary a bonus on top of her endorsements deals, which is how she earns the bulk of her income.
CNN sports analyst and author of "On Her Game, Caitlin Clark and the Revolution of Women's Sports," Christine Brennan, is with us now.
I mean, Christine, we compare Reese, a seventh overall draft pick in the WNBA, to the seventh overall draft pick in the NBA, $73,000 to his $6 million. And she averages more points.
CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: Right. Breanna, you know, this is a question and an issue we've been discussing for many years about women's sports not getting the attention, the financial support, the interest, everything, TV, the mainstream sports media, ignoring women's sports for decades.
And now, finally, the attention is there because of Caitlin Clark, because of Angel Reese.
What Angel Reese was doing there in that Instagram Live was she was bringing up a point that is incredibly intelligent, smart, and wise to do. And that is to bring this issue back to the forefront.
[14:45:07]
It came up actually in April after the draft when Caitlin Clark's salary, of course, came out and there was saying, how is this possible?
Now, the point I think you've made, and that has been made as, of course, she's -- Angel Reese has plenty of endorsements, well over $1 million. Caitlin Clark as well, over probably $30 million.
But it does shine a light on how terribly these women are paid. That is now going to change with the interest, of course, in the WNBA that is unprecedented.
But it's going back to capitalism. And I would say to anyone, obviously, that is not happy about this, is that anybody that buys a jersey, if they ever go to a game, if they ever go to game, if they ever buy a product advertised on TV, if they bought a ticket to any WNBA game.
Now people are saying yes to that. But several, a whole generation, decades, people were saying, no, which is why the pay was so low.
MARQUARDT: So despite this Caitlin Clark affect and despite the fact you can make pretty good money in terms of endorsements, there are so many female basketball players not making enough.
So is that why we see people like Brittney Griner, for example, going overseas to play, to a place like Russia, which, frankly, was probably not her first choice.
BRENNAN: Right? Exactly, exactly, Alex, yes.
Brittany Griner and so many of these players who go overseas in the off-season of the WNBA, which, of course, is now for many of them, as the playoffs are finishing up over the next, either today or to Sunday, the finals for the WNBA.
Brittney Griner wasn't going to Russia for the weather or the ambiance or Vladimir Putin's hospitality. Of course not. She was going to supplement her income. She was going to make money, lots of money, which is where the money can be made, sadly, in WNBA and that these players get overseas.
Again, that's about to change, I think, in a big way, moving forward with the new TV rights deal that's four times bigger than the previous one. And that will kick in in 2026.
As well as other things in perks that are going to happen because of the Caitlin Clark effect, as you mentioned.
But that's what was going on and that's why, in the case of Brittany Griner, Alex, was making about a quarter of million dollars, so about $250,000, which is the high end for the WNBA, and when she went to Russia and Steph Curry was making over $40 million.
So that decimal point. Those numbers need to go -- several numbers need to go on the left side of that decimal point for the WNBA players to even get close to the NBA players. No one's, by the way, saying that's going to happen anytime soon. But something that is more equitable and fair.
And, yes, the Brittney Griner situation and her imprisonment, that terrible story, that terrible burden that she bore, was bearing, that emanated from this same conversation of the lack of equal pay, equitable pay or any kind of reasonable pay for these wonderful female athletes.
KEILAR: Yes, we can't forget that.
Christine Brennan, always wonderful to have you. Thank you so much.
BRENNAN: Thank you. My pleasure.
KEILAR: Next, it's a five-second clip that went viral, spawning podcasts and sparking a five-year manhunt.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guys, down the hill.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Today, the alleged man in that video going on trial for killing the two young girls who recorded it. Opening statements in the Delphi murder cases -- the Delphi murders case, next.
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[14:52:57]
MARQUARDT: Jurors heard opening statements today in the trial of the man accused of killing 14-year-old Libby German and 13-year-old Abby Williams back in 2017, Richard Allen is facing two counts of intentional murder and two counts of killing the teens while attempting to kidnap them.
KEILAR: The case has gained so much national attention that the judge has limited public access and issued a gag order in the case.
CNN's Jean Casarez is covering this for us.
Jean, what are you learning? JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, opening statements were today.
And there have been so many documents that have been sealed, so many documents redacted, the gag order.
As prosecutors said this morning, now you're going to learn the rest of the story. So this story starts back seven years ago, and this is when two young girls, Abby -- Abigail Williams and Libby German, were dropped off at the trail in Delphi, Indiana.
This is a large, wooded area. Everybody goes there. Delphi has less than 3,000 people. Everybody knows, everybody. They don't have crime like this.
But here is a pivotal piece of evidence that prosecutors talked about in openings today that they say is going to show who did this to the girls.
We want to show you one of the girl's cell phones that captured this video -- it's believed very short in time -- before they we're murdered.
Law enforcement found the video. They took it to the public years ago to try to find out who did this. It's a man that was on the bridge, right with the girls.
Listen to what he says.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Guys, down the hill.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CASAREZ: Now law enforcement, prosecutors, they say that's Richard Allen. That's the man that was charged with these crimes. And it was the next day that the girls' bodies was found down the hill.
And we've learned today, in opening statements, we never knew the exact cause of death, but today, prosecutors said those girls throats were slit and that is how they died.
[14:55:01]
So what is the motive? Was his DNA found at the scene? We do know that a bullet, an unspent bullet, meaning it was not shot out of the gun, was found close to the bodies.
Well, once they did a search of Richard Allens' home, they found a pistol. And they say that the markings, the tool markings, show that that came from that pistol. Even though it wasn't shot, it was ejected from the gun.
Defense is pushing back on that saying forensics is wrong. It wasn't him.
Prosecutors also saying that he confessed over 60 times when he was in jail. Well, the defense is saying he was in solitary confinement for quite a few years, and he started actually wetting his legal documents and trying to eat them. And after that, he started to confess and that's not trustworthy.
So we'll see where this case goes. But there are definitely two sides, and it is something that community is so vested in, the lives lost of these two beautiful girls. Will they get justice or will the defendant be shown to not have done this?
MARQUARDT: So haunting and so disturbing to see that clip as short as it was.
Jean Casarez, thanks very much for your reporting.
CASAREZ: Thank you.
MARQUARDT: The presidential campaigns descend on Michigan today and actually on a single county in that vital swing-state. Both Harris and Trump are in Oakland today. We'll tell you why it could be the key to winning -- winning that swing-state.
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