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Harris, Trump Make Grab for Sports Fans in Race's Final Weeks; Jury Selection Begins in NYC Chokehold Trial; X Changes Terms of Service to Let AI Train on User's Posts. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired October 21, 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]

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: ... These actually belong to the Department of Defense. And one of the first things they're going to be looking into is essentially the universe of people who could have had access to these documents, which might give us an indication that they're actually looking more into the fact that this could have been a leak from the inside. Now, the way that these documents were classified, a large number of people would have actually had access.

But one of the two documents was a scan from a printed briefing book. And so that could give investigators a bit of a leg up because they can track who's actually printing things.

But no doubt, there was some significant secret information here about what Israel is doing. It talked about the movement of their missiles, of their Navy, of their Air Force, and their nuclear weapons, which, guys, Israel doesn't even acknowledge exist.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Yes, that's key. So there you go. I mean, the cat's sort of been out of the bag on that one. But again, the fact that that was, in a way, now is public. That's got a really dangerous relationship.

MARQUARDT: It's pretty embarrassing.

KEILAR: Certainly. Alex, thank you so much. We do appreciate the report.

MARQUARDT: Thank you.

KEILAR: So how does that saying go? Nothing brings diverse members of the voting population together quite like football. Isn't that -- that's the saying, right?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Rolls right off the top, right?

KEILAR: No, yes, no.

SANCHEZ: Box seats and banner ads are now part of the goal line push campaigns are making in pivotal swing states. Football being used as part of the campaigns.

We'll be right back.

[15:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: A gridiron vote grab. The presidential candidates are courting sports fans in the stands and high above them, too. Former President Donald Trump made an appearance at the Steelers-Jets game in Pittsburgh last night.

Earlier in the day, his running mate Senator J.D. Vance served as bartender ahead of the Packers game in Wisconsin. Meantime, the DNC is going with the 10,000-foot approach, with pro-Harris banners and skywriting messages like this one above NFL games in battleground states. Let's get some insight on this collision between politics and football with CNN sports analyst and host of the Right Time podcast, Bomani Jones.

Bomani, great to have you, as always. What do you make of football taking center stage at this point in the election cycle?

BOMANI JONES, SPORTS ANALYST AND HOST, THE RIGHT TIME PODCAST: Well, I mean, I think we've seen in these last couple weeks, particularly with this last podcast tour that we saw Trump in particular go on. But also with some of the appearances that Harris made, that reaching men and young men, it seems to be a goal right now with both of these campaigns. And it's a pretty easy, logical through line to decide that sports is the way to go about doing it.

Like that, I mean, keep in mind, the Democratic campaign started with getting Tim Walz on there and calling him coach like he's a coach right now. Like they've clearly decided that going through people in a football lens is the way to go.

SANCHEZ: How about your thoughts when you saw Antonio Brown hugging Donald Trump? He was also with Le'Veon Bell over the weekend. I see you rolling your eyes.

JONES: No, I'm just trying to figure out, like, look, if you decide, if you just looked at a stat sheet and we were talking about Antonio Brown, he's one of the greatest football players who ever lived, one of the greatest players in his position who ever lived. But like, this isn't me Joe Green or Franco Harris when it comes down to the Steelers. So then it gets you to your next question.

Who is it that puts Antonio Brown on stage and is like, you know, this is going to impress people? I could be wrong. I just feel like the people who hear Antonio Brown talk about politics and not along with it are probably not people who are going to go and vote.

I could be wrong about this, but I just don't feel like they're about to be heading out to the polls and get no mail-in ballot.

SANCHEZ: Does that give you any indication as to what the Trump campaign sort of conceptualizes as the voter that they're trying to reach that they would put Antonio Brown out there? JONES: I think that generally speaking for the Republican Party, when it comes time to try to do some sort of outreach to Black people and finding Black people to do this, particularly when they try to go to the celebrity class, the pickings are slim. You kind of got to take whoever it is that's going to show up and do this. And the guy who's going to do it is Antonio Brown.

If you look at the way that he closed out his talk, you realize this is not serious. Like that -- I think the most mind-blowing part of it was how totally unserious it was. But I'm not sure that Donald Trump can get a serious Black person to speak to Black people and that Black people would actually want to listen to.

SANCHEZ: What do you make of the Democrats' approach? You mentioned touting Governor Tim Walz's coaching bona fides and also these images in the sky over games. What do you think?

JONES: Well, I mean, I think the move with Walz, it felt a little cynical to me. I understand where they're going for this, but I don't, just out of nowhere, we're just going to call him coach. We're not even bringing up that he was a coach.

They started off with, we're going to call him coach. And maybe they think people will fall for it, because I do understand the idea that the title of coach confers a certain authority, particularly in smaller communities. That's kind of hard to explain if you're not from one of those places. I got it.

I think the idea of like flying banners over makes a lot more sense because that's a little bit less intrusive. I don't think that if I were going to a football game and I had to deal with all this traffic and everything else and the additional security that comes with it, I don't know how happy I am going to be to see the person who's the reason why I had to go through all these hoops when all I wanted to do was go through a football game.

[15:40:00]

I know that for years when I would want to talk about important things around sports, you had a long line of people that would tell you that this is not what they come to sporting events for. This isn't why they come to even a sports talk radio station. Those aren't the things that they want to think about.

I always understood to a degree where people were coming from. With an understanding of where they're coming from, I'm not sure how many people at that stadium felt like seeing Donald Trump in that moment. They were actually a little more concerned with whether Russell Wilson could still play football.

SANCHEZ: I'm wondering, Bomani, quickly, as a selfish Dolphins fan, just seeing this news we got this afternoon, if you could give me your thoughts on Tua Tagovailoa saying that he's going to play football no matter what happens to him, seemingly.

JONES: The one thing about America is you're allowed to make as bad a decision as you want. And maybe it's not a bad decision for here and with my risk calculus. That seems like a bad decision.

But we are at a point now where I think that players are far more informed of the dangers of what happens with playing football and the dangers of head injuries. And all you can do really is provide people information. And if he decides he wants to continue playing, that's his decision.

If the Dolphins decide they can't live with his truth, then they have the option of saying, no, you can't play. But he wants to, and they're going to throw him out there.

SANCHEZ: Bomani Jones, appreciate the perspective as always.

JONES: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Thanks so much.

Stay with CNN NEWS CENTRAL. We'll be right back.

[15:45:00]

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KEILAR: It's a death that divided New York and ignited a debate about crime and safety in the city.

The trial of Daniel Penny now underway with the screening of potential jurors. Penny is the former Marine who put 30-year-old Jordan Neely in a chokehold last year, allegedly killing him. Penny said he felt he needed to act before Neely hurt someone.

SANCHEZ: What happened next was caught on tape and so was what happened afterward. As Penny stood over Neely after he'd gone limp and was lying on the floor of the subway car. CNN correspondent Gloria Pazmino joins us now. Gloria, what kind of questions are potential jurors being asked?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, Brianna, we're in the early stages of this process and so far they've spent the day trying to determine jurors' availability. So far, 58 of 86 prospective jurors have already been dismissed. But by the time that they are done, they will have selected 12 Manhattans who will have something in common with all other New Yorkers.

The fact that they likely ride the subway almost every day, that's something that all of us can relate to here in New York City. And that is going to be key because that is, of course, where this incident took place. They are going to try and put that jury as if they were inside that subway car.

Now, Daniel Penny is the Marine who, as you said, was riding the subway on that day last year. He saw Jordan Neely, who was also on the same subway car, and he says that Neely was acting erratically, that he was screaming, that he was shouting, and that he was saying he was not afraid to go to prison. So Penny felt that he was going to hurt someone, and he decided to take action. He put Neely in a chokehold. He brought him down to the floor, and he held him there for more than six minutes until he stopped moving, he stopped breathing, and Jordan Neely died.

Now, Daniel Penny is facing manslaughter charges and criminally negligent homicide. And much of the prosecution's case is going to hinge on this video, on the witness statements that were in the car. While the defense is going to try and argue that there was panic and fear in that subway car that Penny was responding to. We know that some people reported being afraid, while others said that it was just another day on the city's subway. So that is going to be a key element of this, and really an encapsulation of a key issue here in the city, which is crime in the city's subway and public safety -- Boris, Brianna.

SANCHEZ: Gloria Pazmino, thank you so much for keeping an eye on that case for us.

Still ahead, we'll tell you why a big change to X's Terms of Service has some users racing to scrub their feeds.

[15:50:00]

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SANCHEZ: If you read the fine print on the new terms of service for X, formerly known as Twitter, you'll notice a big change that'll have significant implications for anyone who continues using the platform. According to the new language, starting on November 15th, all X users give the site permission to use their data to train AI models.

KEILAR: Yes, up until now, there's been an opt-out feature, but it's not clear if that option is included under the new terms. CNN business writer Clare Duffy is following this story. Clare, some people may hear this and think, you know, what's the big deal? Well explain why it is a big deal.

CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Yes, Boris, Brianna, many users are concerned about this. In particular, people like artists, comedians, certain subject matter experts are worried about their content, their written posts and images being used to train this AI system that could ultimately replace them. Some people are also worried about private information that they've put on X that could show up in answers from this Musk AI chatbot called Grok.

So we're already seeing some users starting to delete earlier posts on the platform. And it's notable because this is a pretty big change. As you said, X used to offer -- has offered the option to opt out from having posts used to train Grok and also said it won't use posts from private accounts, but it's not clear that those sort of opt-out options will be available under this new policy starting on November 15th.

SANCHEZ: And Clare, this isn't the first time that Elon Musk's efforts with AI have courted controversy. DUFFY: Yes, I think that's the other reason that people are probably concerned about this. Grok isn't just another chatbot. It's pretty controversial.

It's been called out for spreading false information about the presidential election, for generating these fake but really realistic looking AI images of political figures in kind of compromising positions. So people might have an issue with having their content on X used to train this kind of tool.

KEILAR: All right, Clare, thank you so much. Clare Duffy, we appreciate the report.

Next, one airport's controversial cuddle crackdown.

[15:55:00]

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KEILAR: Call it a cuddle curfew. Outrage online after an airport in New Zealand imposed a three-minute limit on hugs in its drop-off zone.

SANCHEZ: Three-minute limit. Others are still amazed that any airport still allows a free drop-off area. The airport CEO went on a radio show defending this rule, saying that airports are hotbeds of emotion and also that a 20-second hug is adequate to get that burst of oxytocin, the love hormone.

KEILAR: That's funny. Alright, so for those who need more than three minutes, a new sign suggests, quote, for fonder farewells, please use the car park. The limit there? 15 minutes. The CEO admits in that parking lot, quote, our team have seen interesting things go on over the years, end quote.

You don't say.

SANCHEZ: They set themselves up for that, I feel like.

KEILAR: I mean, when they say your hug can, a three-minute hug, that's a pretty good hug. But yes, when they're directing people to the car park.

SANCHEZ: Also, who's enforcing this rule? Is there a curfew patrol?

There is a producer patrol, and they're telling me to go to Kamala Harris, who's in Oakland County in Birmingham, Michigan right now.

Let's listen.

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: ... has recently come up, for example, that my opponent, Donald Trump, does not believe we should raise minimum wage. And I think everyone knows that the current federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, which means that the person who is ...

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