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Experts Slam White House's Census Report of Alleged Noncitizen Voting; Ex-LAPD Detective Testifies Davis Admitted to Role in Tupac's Murder; Price Checks RFK Jr.'s Real Food Cooking Show; AI Resurrects Late Actor Val Kilmer for New Film. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired August 20, 2026 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: ... There's no author on it. They said that is strange. No citations, no acknowledgements.

They say it does not acknowledge the possibility of margin for error, that there could be errors in the voter data or the matching methods, that it could have produced some errors. And most of all, that there is no acknowledgement of these limitations or of any bias in the report, and that leads to a lot of questions of political bias.

I want to read you a quote from the former director of the Census Bureau who led it under President Biden, Robert Santos, who told me, "I was shocked and dismayed that a document of this sort, and I refuse to call it a report, would appear on a Census Bureau website. It is clearly a product of White House and Department of Commerce analysts."

And that gets to the growing concerns of political pressure being put on a lot of agencies, but that includes the Census Bureau, where I'm told by two sources, recently the administration this year has inserted a group of partisan analysts from a Trump-backed conservative think tank. We cannot say for sure if they had involvement in this latest report, but I did reach out to the White House, to the Commerce Department, which oversees the Census Bureau, to the Census Bureau and to that think tank, asking who was behind this.

None of them have responded over the past 24 hours.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Interesting that they don't attach authors to this report. Gabe Cohen, thanks so much for that reporting.

Still ahead, a former detective testifies in the murder trial of legendary rapper Tupac Shakur. He says, Duane Davis, the defendant in the case, admitted it to him.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: Testimony in the murder trial of Duane "Keffe D" Davis, the man who's accused of orchestrating the 1986 killing of Tupac Shakur, is about to resume in just about 90 minutes from now. Yesterday, witnesses laid out some of Davis's prior statements about the murder, and that included testimony from a former FBI agent who testified that back in 1998, Davis had said his best guess was that Compton police may have been responsible. We also heard from a former LAPD detective who said Davis admitted to his involvement during an interview with law enforcement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DARYN DUPREE, FORMER LAPD DETECTIVE: Mr. Davis had the gun at first. But they came up on the passenger side of Suge Knight and Mr. Shakur's vehicle, so he couldn't shoot across the driver. So he handed the gun to Dre in the backseat, Andre Smith.

He was afraid to shoot. Mr. Anderson grabbed the gun and shot across Mr. Smith into Mr. Knight's car that Mr. Tupac Shakur was in with Mr. Knight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Joining us now to discuss the illegal analyst, criminal defense attorney, Joey Jackson. So much of this -- first of all, it's fascinating, right? What we're hearing too about all the different times that Duane Davis has said things related to this killing.

So the former LAPD detective, Daryn Dupree, right? Talking about what Davis had to say in terms of handing the gun to his nephew and why the detective was inclined to believe that he was involved in the killing of his nephew. I just want to play a little bit more of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you have reason to doubt his version of events as it relates to the homicide itself?

DUPREE: I didn't think that Mr. Davis would put the gun in his own nephew's hand, dead or alive, and put that smut on him unless it was true. The person that killed Tupac, well, in the neighborhood, he's a hero, in the world, he's a villain.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: So that's why I think that moment important.

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: All right, so let's unpack all of this and talk about when this moment came. Good to be with you, Erica. OK, so in 1998, he has this interview.

You showed that initially. That's with the FBI person. The FBI person interviews him as part of this task force.

And what happens during that interview? During that interview, as you noted, what Keffe D says, the defendant in this case, hey, I know nothing about it, I'm not involved, and the police did it. That's in 1998 when he interviews.

Now we fast forward to your question. It's 2008, and there's another interview, OK? And at that interview, he then says, yes, he being Keffe D, I was involved, and he says exactly what Mr. Dupree, who we just heard from, he was an LAPD detective, I passed the gun to my nephew, and my nephew shot. Consider a few things. Number one, the context. The defense will argue that in the context of when the statement was made, Keffe D was facing a federal prosecution that could've put him in jail for life.

Why is that important? Because the defense will say he was liable to say anything to the police to get out from under this.

HILL: Because the defense also told us from the very beginning, you can't trust anything our client says, he's a liar.

JACKSON: And not only did they do that, Erica, but they put up a big graphic that spelled B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T, essentially saying that about their client. So you have, number two, a case of the prosecution that's built upon the notion that, hey, ladies and gentlemen, we know that Keffe D did it because he told you so. But then, what version of that event is fact?

Was it the 1998 situation, when he said, I wasn't involved and the cops did it?

[14:40:00]

Is it the 2008 version when he said he was involved and, you know, I was really passing a gun and this, that, the other? Now, last point.

Now we have the opinion you just showed. Hey, I believe that, you know, he has so reputable, he wouldn't have put the gun in his hand and therefore it was true. OK.

Why would Keffe D put the gun in his nephew's hand in retort, the defense will say, to what Dupree, who we heard from, right, said? Because his nephew's dead. There's no consequence.

If I put the gun in a dead person's hand, and the police investigate, you can't prosecute a dead person. And so that, I think, the defense will seize upon to note that that's why he said what he said. A, he's facing a rap that could put him in jail for life so he's going to give them anything.

And B, he puts it in his nephew's hand because his nephew is dead. And if the police investigate, what are they going to do?

HILL: This brings up, in the little time we have left, an important point, right? Who's actually alive, who was there that night, who can place him at the scene? The short answer, really, no one.

I mean, right? And then that is what really the prosecution needs to do, is to put him in that moment. Are they -- do you see them working toward that?

JACKSON: So, Erica, you put your finger right on the pulse, the heartbeat of this. And what they have to, prosecutors do, is find an eyewitness. They just can't predicate their case upon the defendant's statements.

I was there, I did everything. No, you have to find an independent eyewitness who does a couple of things. Number one, puts him in Vegas.

Number two, puts him in that white Cadillac that was used as a getaway shoot car. Number three, not only that he was in the car, but that he actively encouraged, aided, abetted, facilitated. It's not enough that he was merely present.

Who, if anyone, can testify as to his actual involvement? That's what prosecutors need to do to secure their conviction. If they're basing it on his word, they got a little drama, because his words, Keffe D's are, a little inconsistent.

HILL: Yes, just a little bit. Joey, good to see you, my friend, thank you.

JACKSON: Always, Erica, thank you.

HILL: Still to come, a closer look at the real cost of the real food, featured in Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s new cooking show.

[14:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says that his new reality cooking show, Real Food, can help families prepare nutritious meals at a budget-friendly price. CNN's Tom Foreman has been doing some price checking on that.

Now, Tom, you researched some of the claims that Kennedy was making on his new cooking series. What did you find?

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, what I found was, I think, what a lot of people are finding who watch this show. With the cost of groceries up, some of these claims are hard to swallow.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ROBERT F. KENNEDY, HHS SECRETARY: I'm traveling across America, connecting with renowned chefs to show families how to cook delicious, nutritious meals.

FOREMAN (voice-over): Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s new reality show pushes healthy, affordable eating, with sides of dubious claims about the food industry's science and public wellness.

KENNEDY: The dietary guidelines put Fruit Loops at the top of the food pyramid.

FOREMAN (voice-over): But it's also the math that doesn't add up in this cooking class, especially when the secretary and his guest chef whip up crispy salmon cakes with apple, white beans, and green salad.

KENNEDY: So the servings of each of these, we asked to keep it under $5.

FOREMAN (voice-over): That's the pitch, and prices fly by, backing the idea of a family-sized meal for a bite-sized budget.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fresh herbs are key for me.

FOREMAN: I am on my way to the store.

FOREMAN (voice-over): But when we started buying ingredients used in the show, even going for the lowest prices at a big competitive chain, the cost heated up fast.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: 25.

FOREMAN: This was the cheapest frozen, wild-caught, sockeye salmon we could find, the closest to what they are using. They priced theirs at $8.99. The cheapest we could find, even with a deal from the store, was more than $24. Now, the greens mix, that was about the same cost. So were the eggs on a per-egg basis, but that's the trick here, because they're only pricing that one egg out of the carton, and that gets worse with other things. For example, this red onion.

They say they only spent eight cents on this because that's how much they use. Getting the whole onion cost us more than a dollar. Look at this.

This is the avocado mayonnaise. They priced this at 40 cents because they were only using a couple of tablespoons. To buy the whole thing cost us more than $11.

They're only pricing parts of it. And grocery stores don't sell things that way.

FOREMAN (voice-over): HHS insists this is standard recipe costing methodology, and they want to help Americans stock up on high quality ingredients they can use across many meals.

In any event, the recipe was not too complicated.

FOREMAN: Here we go into the heat.

FOREMAN (voice-over): And it came out at home pretty much like it looks online. But while the show repeatedly says this dish will cost less than $20 to feed a family of four, just getting all those ingredients into our kitchen cost a whopping $70 and 54 cents.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN (on camera): Nobody is against helping people save money. Nobody's against people trying to eat in a more healthy way.

But I'm telling you, Boris, I tried. I couldn't make it work.

SANCHEZ: Yes, especially with things like salmon that you can't keep for a long time, that kind of expense starts getting --

FOREMAN: Yes, once you've thought it out, you got to deal with it.

[14:50:00] And a lot of these fresh vegetables, that's an issue.

SANCHEZ: Yes, right. Could you, though, rework these recipes to try to find a way to make them more affordable?

FOREMAN: Yes, I think you can to some degree. And they say, well, maybe you can try other things. We were trying to do what they did that they said they could do for this cost.

For example, they have another recipe for an omelet where they're pairing it up with a Gruyere cheese. Well, a Gruyere cheese is kind of expensive compared to, for example, a Swiss cheese or something else that you might be able to get a lot cheaper. I went through this other recipe they had.

They've only had two out so far. And I looked at it and I said, can I take this down, take this down, take this down? Maybe.

I can get closer. I can't get down to below $5 a meal, though.

SANCHEZ: Bon appetit. Tom Foreman, thanks so much for the reporting -- Erica.

HILL: Here's a look at some of the other headlines we are watching at this hour. A massive Russian attack on Kyiv and nearby areas in Ukraine, killing at least 17 people, leaving dozens more wounded. Authorities say a barrage of missiles, drones, and weapons hit a hospital, schools, and homes across Ukraine's capital.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says his country has just one-tenth of the interceptor missiles that it needs from the U.S. to defend against these Russian attacks.

Tens of thousands of people in Indiana still trying to recuperate from the deadly storms over the last week there. A number of them still without power more than a week after those initial storms came through.

The Northern Indiana Public Service Utility says its crews are working nonstop to fix the outages but warns that power may not be fully restored until next week.

And the FDA now upgrading a recall of frozen blueberries to its most dangerous recall category. The blueberries we're talking about here were sold at Publix under the GreenWise label.

They are now considered what's known as a class one recall. So here's what you need to look for in your freezer. These were sold in 10 and 48 ounce bags as blueberries alone, but also in bags of mixed berries.

They were actually pulled from the shelves last month after being linked to a dozen cases of E. coli. So give that freezer a check.

If you do have any, you can throw them away, or you can bring them back to the store for a refund. Ahead here, a new film starring an AI version of the late actor Val

Kilmer. What filmmakers and his family have to say about the decision not to recast the actor after his death.

[14:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: A new film is using artificial intelligence to bring a deceased actor back to life. Val Kilmer, known for his roles in films like Top Gun and Batman Forever, passed away last year. But with his family's blessing, an AI version of the late actor will appear in the upcoming historical drama "As Deep As The Grave."

Watch this.

VAL KILMER, AI VERSION: What are you doing here?

Answer me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Joining me now is CNN tech reporter, Clare Duffy. So Clare, what are you learning about the making of this film?

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: Yes, Boris, it's pretty incredible to see that clip given that this really is the first film where we are seeing a real actor having their likeness used to create an entire AI- generated character for a film. And of course, there are lots of concerns about how this technology is going to be applied to Hollywood, concerns certainly from actors about what this is going to mean for their jobs. But there are a couple of things I think are important to point out about this film in particular.

The first is that Val Kilmer had agreed to participate in this film prior to his death. That is why his family says they agreed to participate in this project. And the filmmakers say that they hope this is going to be a model for how AI can be ethically applied to the Hollywood film industry.

Take a listen to what they said earlier this morning on CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN VOORHEES, PRODUCER, AS DEEP AS THE GRAVE: People can judge for themselves, and I think that this is very important for people. Everybody's seen an AI video somewhere on the internet at this point. We are taking extreme effort to make sure that what you see is something that you would want to see in a movie theater, because we do believe that this is actually a way for people to experience stories.

And when they're done ethically and with the consent of the family, it's the only way it should be done. So this is the era that we're getting into now with AI filmmaking, and we want to serve as a good example.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DUFFY: And Boris, I think it's going to be really interesting to see if people turn out to watch this film, given the sort of backlash and concerns that we've seen around the use of AI in filmmaking.

SANCHEZ: And to that question, how are young Americans feeling about artificial intelligence?

DUFFY: Yes, so we've gotten some new research. Pew Research Center just put out some new reporting on Americans' attitude around artificial intelligence. And what they found is that across age groups, around half of Americans are feeling more concerned than excited about the future of AI.

But this is particularly striking with young people. As you see on that chart there, ages 18 to 29, 55 percent of them are feeling more concerned about AI than excited. And that number has gone up over the past couple of years.

We can compare that -- I think we've got another chart here that will show you -- just 11 percent of 18 to 29-year-olds say they're feeling more excited than concerned, and that number has fallen. So Americans not feeling super positive about this technology.

And I think that certainly owes to jobs, but also to the way that we're seeing this show up in art and the creative areas of our lives that people have a lot of questions about.

SANCHEZ: And in politics too, the question of data centers becoming front and center in a lot of campaigns as we head toward the midterms in November. Clare Duffy, thank you so much for bringing us that update.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

END