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Ex-Abercrombie CEO Accused of Sex Trafficking; LeBron James and Bronny James Set to Make History; Trump and Harris Fight For Latino Vote; Just Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired October 22, 2024 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Plus, illegal bombshell as the former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch is arrested on charges related to sex trafficking. The indictment alleges that he and others would recruit and exploit men with model aspirations.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: And it is father's day for LeBron James. The all star player will take the court tonight with his son making NBA history. We are following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN News Central.

SANCHEZ: We have been counting down consistently for months and now the countdown clock has hit exactly two weeks to go until Election Day. Both campaigns are exactly where you would expect them, all over the map.

In the next hour, former President Obama will hold a rally with Vice President Harris running mate, Tim Walz, in the critical swing state of Wisconsin, where today early voting kicked off. We're going to take that rally live when it happens. Later tonight, Obama is set to travel to Michigan to rally for Vice President Harris.

KEILAR: And in the meantime, the Vice President is sitting down for two big TV interviews that are going to air tonight and tomorrow as she pitches her economic plans to Latino voters.

Former President Trump also spent part of his day courting Latino voters. That was at a roundtable in Miami. And tonight, he holds a rally in the battleground state of North Carolina where he held three campaign events yesterday.

We have team coverage of today's race for the White House. We have Kristen Holmes in North Carolina with the Trump campaign. But let's begin with Priscilla Alvarez, who is in Madison.

Priscilla, obviously, Wisconsin, big battleground state, but there's a reason that Obama and Walz are in Dane County specifically.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's right. This is a county that President Biden won by wider margins in 2020 when compared to 2016 in Hillary Clinton's race. It's also a county that Obama performed well in back when he was running in 2008. So this is a state, of course, as you just mentioned, and a crucial one for the Vice President and her team as they try to fortify the blue wall. But it is also a state that they are keenly aware they could only win by a few thousand votes. So it is counties like this. They want to repeat what President Biden did and build on it by expanding those margins.

So the former President will be here with Walz. They'll be on the stage behind me where they were going to do what we have seen the Vice President do over the last several days, which is underscore the stakes of the election. Expect to hear more of that as we get closer and closer to Election Day. That is where they're putting their focus. And so the two will be doing exactly that.

Now, Tim Walz is someone that the Vice President's team has been deploying to also appeal to men and appeal to voters in rural counties as he, too, criticizes former President Donald Trump on the campaign trail. So the two of them joining forces here today.

Now, as you also mentioned there at the top, the former President will continue on to Michigan, another of those blue wall states, before then joining the Vice President in Georgia on Thursday. This will be the first time that the Vice President and former President Barack Obama will be campaigning together and yet another battleground say. So all of this as the campaign pulls together the -- their final messages, including on reproductive freedom, sources tell me that's going to feature prominently in the next several days. On Friday, the Vice President going to Texas to amplify that message because sources say, that is the epicenter of the overturning of Roe v. Wade.

Now, in addition to all of this, as again you mentioned, there are the interviews. So this is a combination of the Vice President hitting the trail along with surrogates and star power, be it celebrities or former President Barack Obama, and also increasing exposure through interviews, traditional and nontraditional alike.

SANCHEZ: Priscilla Alvarez live for us in Madison. Again, we'll bring you that event as it unfolds later this afternoon.

Let's take you to North Carolina now, where Donald Trump is preparing to hold his fourth event in the last two days. And CNN's Kristen Holmes is there to monitor it. Kristen, you have some new reporting about how Trump is trying to reach voters across the country. He's appearing soon on one of the most popular podcasts in the world.

Kristen Holmes: That's right, Boris and Brianna. I mean, one thing to keep in mind, they are still going to continue these events where they try to reach these traditional voters, particularly here in North Carolina, particularly in states where the early voting has begun.

They are trying to drive people to the polls. But as you noted, he is also still trying to repeat -- to reach those low propensity voters, people who don't generally tend to the polls. And one of the ways they are doing it is by appearing on podcasts.

Now, this going on Joe Rogan's podcast, that's what we're told it's going to tape on Friday at Rogan studio in Austin, Texas, is a big deal for the Trump campaign. Joe Rogan has about 14 million followers on Spotify. He is one of the most popular podcasts in the country. And they believe this can help them with those people who don't typically engage in politics.

[14:05:05]

One thing to keep in mind is that Trump has never appeared on Rogan's podcast. And in fact, Rogan and Trump have kind of gotten into a back and forth over the last several months. Rogan saying that politicians on all sides were manipulative, including Donald Trump, except for RFK Jr. Now, that is incredibly important here because I had spoken to both RFK allies as well as Donald Trump's team, who said that when that RFK endorsement came in for Donald Trump, they were hoping that this would be one of the outcomes of that, an interview with Joe Rogan that can reach some of these, again, low propensity, nontraditional voters, and drive them to the polls.

One of the things that we often talk about when it comes to the RFK Jr. voter, the independent voter, it's not as though RFK was holding such a large margin in these various swing states. It was something like 6 percent in a state like Arizona. The problem with those independent voters is actually getting them to show up at the polls in November. They also are not traditional voters.

Something like this, a podcast with Joe Rogan, somebody who is outspoken, somebody who has a lot of people who follow his belief system, they believe can actually help with that process, driving those independent voters to the polls in November. Again, we have talked about this strategy for months now. There's a lot of high risk, possibly high reward, but we just won't know into November when we see those numbers of who actually shows up on Election Day.

SANCHEZ: Kristen Holmes live for us in Greensboro, North Carolina. Thank you so much for that news.

Let's discuss the latest headlines with Pollster and Communications Strategist Frank Luntz. Frank, thank you so much for being with us. Great to see you in person.

Just right off the bat, wondering what you make of this appearance on Joe Rogan's podcast? As Kristen noted, he has millions of listeners. And it's a very specific audience that Trump is attempting to tap into.

FRANK LUNTZ, POLLSTER AND COMMUNICATION STRATEGIST: It's an audience that really matters because it's an audience that's unpredictable. I'm not even saying who they vote for. Do they even vote? Do they even participate? Second is that Rogan's podcast allows people to communicate. It will allow Trump to do long form. He won't get interrupted. He'll be able to put forward his message. The podcast could last as long as two, three hours, even longer. That's what Rogan does.

And right now, you've got Taylor Swift and her impact on Harris and on young women. And Joe Rogan is the perfect balance to that, reaching out to middle aged men.

KEILAR: So Harris has really been emphasizing the Republican support that she has. She had all these events with Liz Cheney yesterday who made this pitch to Republicans. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LIZ CHENEY, FORMER UNITED STATES REPRESENTATIVE: I would just remind people, if you're at all concerned, you can vote your conscience and not ever have to say a word to anybody. And there will be millions of Republicans who do that November 5th.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Is that the don't tell your husband pitch? I mean, what are you hearing there? And do you think that works?

luntz: Yeah, it may work. Harris has gotten an unprecedented percentage of women supporting her, particularly younger women, but women throughout all ages. And Trump is doing exactly as well among men. I think I've said this to you once before, that Donald Trump reminds women of their first husband's divorce lawyer, that it really is a tremendous -- I see that joke did as well here as it does in my speeches. But it's legitimate that we have a gender gap that has never been this large in modern American politics.

If you're underage 30 and you're a woman, you are absolutely voting for Harris. If you're male, you're voting for Trump. The gender gap narrows as you get older. Women tend to vote more than men. They make up 53% of the electorate. Trump has to do as well among men as she does among women. He's doing it right now. This race absolutely is dead even.

And at some point, were going to start to talk about what happens the day after the election and the day after that and the day after that. You're probably going to ask me who wins? And I'm going to say to you, when is that decided? Is it Wednesday, Thursday, Friday? At this point, it is so close. And the way that states count their votes, I think it's going to go well into the weekend before we know who won. And that's dangerous for our democracy. That's dangerous for how polarized we are, how divided we are.

And at some point, we're going to have to start talking about what we do the day after and the day after that in terms of voter integrity, in terms of protecting the legitimacy of the electoral process, and most importantly, for the loser to accept the loss and embrace the winner.

SANCHEZ: Yeah, it's tough to do that if someone doesn't accept and concede that they lost. I do want to ask you, Frank, about these two very distinct approaches to Latino voters. You have on one end Donald Trump holding this roundtable, essentially warning folks that if they don't vote for him, the United States is going to turn into Venezuela.

On the other side, you have Harris making certain promises about entrepreneurship and about lifting barriers for Latino men. It doesn't sound that different from the promises she's making to black men as well.

[14:10:02]

It doesn't sound like that message is specifically catered to that community. I'm wondering which approach you think is most effective.

LUNTZ: They're both correct. It depends on the credibility. I've said that Trump would do better if he says less, not more. They would be more successful if he did not use these outbursts that he's been doing over the last few weeks. And Harris would do much better if she talked with some detail about exactly what she will do, not what she wants, not her objectives, but how she's going to get there. Trump basically has reached the ceiling of his vote and it's enough for him to win. Let me be clear about that. Harris has a higher ceiling. I agree with her campaign in that assertion. But she's not going to get there until she gives voters what they need to know to have faith, trust, and confidence in her.

It's a good strategy that she's doing. But I assure you, if she's just beating up on Donald Trump, she's going to fail.

KEILAR: Trump has said that Nikki Haley, once his nemesis in the primaries, could join him on the trail. She's done a robocall for him. She's recorded robocalls on his behalf. But if the Trump campaign deploys her, what kind of voters could that help with and where do you think that they'll use her?

LUNTZ: It will help with younger women because Trump is doing so well among older men. It will help in these swing states. And Nikki Haley brings interest, brings attention among independents, among swing voters. There aren't many left. But what is left, they will listen to her. And it will be a surprise because she has been so challenging of him, so negative towards him up to now.

It's a very smart strategy. But in the end, it's not going to be the surrogates. It's going to be what they say and how they say it in the last 48 hours that will determine these final votes.

The key for Haley is absolutely turnout, 18 to 29 women. The key for Donald Trump is absolutely union votes, young African-American men and Latinos. It's too close to call right now who does better with those groups is the one who gets elected.

KEILAR: Frank, always great to get your insights. Thank you so much.

And still ahead this hour on CNN News Central, the former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch is arrested, accused of operating an international sex trafficking ring. How prosecutors say he lured and abused aspiring male models.

And we'll soon find out what really happened during former President Trump's controversial visit to Arlington National Cemetery. A judge has just ordered the army to release its records on the incident.

SANCHEZ: And LeBron James and his son Bronny are set to make history tonight. Everything we know about their big debut as NBA teammates. These stories and much more coming up on CNN News Central.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:17:29]

KEILAR: The former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch and two associates are under arrest for allegedly running an international sex trafficking and prostitution schemes.

SANCHEZ: And according to a new federal indictment, former Abercrombie boss Mike Jeffries and his alleged co-conspirators interviewed and hired men for so-called sex parties fueled by alcohol, drugs, and Viagra. And authorities say, many of the victims were prospective male models looking for work in the fashion industry.

CNN National Correspondent Brynn Gingras is following this story. Brynn, what more are prosecutors alleging here?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Boris, one of those codefendants is actually also Jeffries' romantic partner, also arrested this morning along with Jeffries and a third person who was described by prosecutors as sort of a middleman with this whole entire operation.

Let me detail a little bit more of what prosecutors say happened here. They're saying about a seven-year period, part of that time, Jeffries was the current CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch. And prosecutors say he was using his power, his wealth, to basically find men who wanted to be models and essentially have them try out in sexual ways to come to what is being described as sex events. And those sex events would happen in hotel rooms. They'd happen at houses that Jeffries owned all across the world, really.

And at those events, they were sex fueled events where their prosecutors are saying these prospective models would be given drugs, they'd be given alcohol, Viagra, muscle relaxers to perform sex acts on Jeffries and his romantic partner. I want you to hear more from the prosecutors who laid out this 16 count in indictment earlier this afternoon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BREON PEACE, U.S. ATTORNEY: On more than one occasion, Jeffries and Smith either directed others to inject or personally injected men with an erection inducing substance for the purpose of causing the men to engage in sex acts the men were incapable of engaging in or unwilling to engage in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRAS: I mean, pretty horrific allegations here. All three men were arrested out of -- not in New York, but they're going to be brought to New York to be in federal court sometime later this week or possibly the beginning of next week, guys.

KEILAR: And this investigation, Brynn, was prompted by a BBC documentary?

GINGRAS: Yes. So that documentary came out last year. And there were several really dozens of men who came forward to this reporter with the BBC about these allegations. And since that came out, a federal investigation started. Abercrombie & Fitch started its own investigation. And really this, if you can remember at the time, Abercrombie & Fitch really soared in the early 2000s.

[14: 20:05]

And they were hitting, you know, a big, you know, they're basically we're on a big stride until all these allegations came forward when Jeffries was at the helm of the company. It's important to note that Abercrombie & Fitch certainly has changed its image since then. They have hired new management. They have hired, you know, different -- they have different inclusion practices inside their company. But certainly, this is another hit for the company that has been taken several over the last few years, guys.

SANCHEZ: Brynn Gingras, thank you so much for the update. Joining us now to discuss is Defense and Trial Attorney Misty Marris. Misty, what do you make of the charges that these three men are facing now?

MISTY MARRIS, DEFENSE AND TRIAL ATTORNEY: Well, what we're seeing in this indictment looks to be a pretty sophisticated sex trafficking ring, as per the prosecutors. Not only do you have three coconspirators who are indicted, but there's also allegations relating to a network of individuals, employees, contractors, security professionals who are all involved in the recruitment and ultimately facilitating the acts that underlie the allegations in the indictment.

So my guess would be that there's -- we know that there's 15 people who are involved relating to the allegations of the indictment. But the question is, do you have some cooperating witnesses who may have been involved more tangentially, not masterminds who may be assisting with the feds maybe having non-prosecution agreements? That's something to look for as this case proceeds.

KEILAR: And, Misty, the accusers here were under the impression that Jeffries would help their careers. How is that going to factor into the defense?

MARRIS: Well, keep in mind that the prosecutors have to prove for the sex trafficking charges that there was the recruitment and solicitation of individuals through force, fraud or coercion to engage in a sex act. So that's the standard for prosecutors. So that element of forced fraud and coercion is something that's going to be the prosecutor's burden to prove.

Now, of course, when it comes to the defense, they're going to look at each one of these individuals, the specific allegations relating to them, and try and potentially make arguments that some people may have been engaging in these acts willfully. And so that's where you see the prosecutors in the indictment setting out that there were other substances involved, that there were other issues, that would make them unable to consent to these sexual acts. But the defense uses that in a different way to say, this might not be a sex trafficking ring. It might be a case of state sexual assault. And that's how they're going to try and detract from those allegations.

SANCHEZ: Misty, some accusers filed a civil lawsuit against the company itself. I'm wondering if you think these federal charges could bolster their claims.

MARRIS: Well, we see a similar pattern here with another case we're covering frequently where there's many civil cases and ultimately, there was an indictment. Of course, I'm talking about the Diddy case. But the timing here, not only do you have this BBC expose where a whole group of people coming forward alleging that they had been a victim of this conduct and of this sex ring, there's also that class action civil lawsuit. So the standard of proof in a civil case is much different than what is in a criminal case. It's preponderance of the evidence versus beyond a reasonable doubt criminal standard much higher.

That being said, a lot of what's in that civil complaint is reflected in the allegations in this criminal indictment. So there's most certainly overlap between the two. And from the perspective of both the prosecution and defense, you don't look at this case in the vacuum. You're going to be looking at those allegations in accordance with this new criminal case.

KEILAR: All right. Misty Marris, very interesting here. Thank you.

MARRIS: Thank you.

KEILAR: Next, former President Trump courting Latino voters in Florida as polling sets off alarms for Democrats. We'll have the details and the numbers right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:28:46]

SANCHEZ: Prayers and praise surrounded former President Trump today at what his campaign called a Latino summit. The roundtable was held at the Trump National Doral Golf Club in Miami. And the former president repeated multiple falsehoods about Vice President Harris and her campaign. Also, hitting her hard when it comes to immigration and the border.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (R) AND CURRENT U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The only thing I would disagree with you on is that the economy is very important. I actually think that the biggest thing is the border because the border is destroying our country.

I really think that the biggest problem this country has is what they've allowed to happen to us on the border. They've allowed our country to be destroyed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: The event was designed to help galvanize Latino support for Trump. And recent polling shows, he is making headway with the group this election cycle.

Look at the past three Democratic candidates for president. In 2016, Hillary Clinton had a 38 point lead over Trump with Latino voters. Four years later, President Biden's was a 33 point lead. Look at Kamala Harris's. She's currently polling just 14 points ahead of the former President.

Let's discuss with our next guest who attended Donald Trump's Latino summit, Republican Congressman Carlos Gimenez, who represents Florida and has endorsed former President Trump.

Congressman, thank you so much for being with us. First, I want to ask you about something the President said about the Vice President, describing her using several pejoratives --

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