Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Vaping's Black Market; Standoff over Senate Trial; Trump Talks about Impeachment; Carjacking Victim Mistaken For Suspect in California. Aired 9:30-10a

Aired December 24, 2019 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

MARK HOASHI, FOUNDER, DOJA: Warning, and they have no child resistant mechanism.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Those would be red flags.

HOASHI: Now this one's interesting because this is a really well done counterfeit. It has the information on the testing data here. It does have the government warning. And it does have a manufacture date and a batch number. This would be really confusing to the end user.

GUPTA: But that's what's happening.

HOASHI: Yes.

GUPTA: When people say black market, they think they're buying a legitimate product.

GUPTA (voice over): And that has started to affect the legal companies, which abide by the regulations, like Pure Vape.

ART KUSHKYAN, CEO AND FOUNDER, PURE: We've found that it is possible to purchase our cartridges and our packaging from a number of Internet websites.

This is the California warning sign.

GUPTA: Take a look. These are the authentic, Pure Vape products that Art Kushkyan sells. And now look at what Art says is counterfeit packaging being sold online. They look exactly the same. The problem is anyone can buy these and fill them with whatever they want. KUSHKYAN: Personally, I mean, it makes me feel very, very angry. But,

most importantly, it creates a possible danger to public of consuming products that are untested.

MYRON RONAY, CEO, BELCOSTA LABS: When you concentrate the THC, you concentrate everything along with it. So every pesticide that could have been in that plant material, is now -- if it went from let's just say 20 percent THC and now you've concentrated it to 80 percent THC, you've also concentrated the pesticide the same amount.

So they're trying to get off of tobacco.

GUPTA: Myron Ronay runs BelCosta Labs, one of California's state certified labs that approves products for consumer use. This year alone, Ronay says they've tested more than 10,000 different products.

GUPTA (on camera): Vaping's been around this country for some time, more than a decade. What we're seeing is relatively new. When you add that into the equation, on top of all the testing you've cone done here, does it start to lead you to some sort of conclusion?

RONAY: Yes, I think it leads us to really that there's something going on either in the illicit market that's causing this. You also have a challenge of -- the average consumer not wanting to pay more, so they look at, well, I could buy this for $40 or I can go to a legal store and buy it for $60.

GUPTA (voice over): One way the illicit market keeps the price down, by cutting the product. Let me show you what that means. A typical legal THC cartridge would have 70 to 90 percent pure THC distillate, the rest terpenes, aromatic oils which give it flavor. In illegally cut cartridges, you might have only 40 to 50 percent THC distillate, the rest terpenes and a cutting agents, like Vitamin E acetate, which is a near perfect cutting agent because it looks very much like the actual product, the same color and the same thickness. It would also pass something known on the street as the bubble test. Basically, if the bubble moves slowly, that should mean that it's viscus enough to be mostly pure THC oil.

GUPTA (on camera): When you look at any of these things, propylene glycol, Vitamin E acetate, you super heat it, you breathe it into the lungs, do we know what those molecules then do to the body?

RONAY: So Vitamin E acetate can convert into acidic acid, which is essentially vinegar. And when it heats up, I mean, you're then inhaling an acid.

GUPTA (voice over): It's why the CDC has identified Vitamin E acetate as a chemical of concern. But here's the challenge, the illicit market is a moving target. And if it's not Vitamin E acetate as a cutting agent today, before long it will be something new.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Long Beach, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN NOBLES, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Sanjay.

And it is a Christmas wish that Congress may never see, Republicans and Democrats agreeing on how an impeachment trial will proceed. Is there any chance for a compromise?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:37:56]

NOBLES: And right now in southwest Florida, President Trump -- or southeast Florida, I should say, West Palm Beach, President Trump just after discussing the holiday season with members of the military, he did start to begin to take questions from the press. And he said quite a bit about impeachment. He's talking about many of these different things going on in Washington. We're going to show you a bit of that sound in a second.

But, first, I want to bring in our panel to talk about this. "Washington Post" White House reporter Seung Min Kim and CNN political commentator Errol Louis.

Before we get to that sound, Seung Min, I want to ask you about the articles of impeachment, the fact that Speaker Pelosi has decided to hold on to them. Do you view this as a smart strategy from Speaker Pelosi or does this give Americans a chance to refocus from so-called impeachment fatigue? How do you view it?

SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: We'll see after the next couple of weeks whether it was a successful strategy for now. But what Democrats are doing here are a couple of things. And they've had to kind of explain why they're doing this because this kind of came out of nowhere on the night that the House actually impeached him.

On the one hand, Speaker Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, are saying, we are holding these back as leverage until we can see what kind of a Senate trial Mitch McConnell and President Trump and Senate Republicans will put up. Speaker Pelosi, I had a tweet I believe yesterday saying she doesn't want to name House impeachment managers until she sees what kind of defense the -- and what kind of a trial that Republicans will set up over in the Senate.

And what Democrats are trying to do here broadly is to try to take some of that public attention and put it on the fact that, as they keep hammering away at the fact that -- as Republicans keep hammering away at the fact that they haven't sent over the articles of impeachment, the fact that -- or their view that they believe Republicans aren't going to have a fair and full trial.

So that is kind of the strategy that Democrats are trying to do here. But, at the same time, Republicans have gone after them saying, you've talked several times about the need to do this expeditiously, that the president's actions are potentially a critical issue before the 2020 election.

[09:40:06] Now you're delaying the process? That doesn't make a lot of sense here. So Democrats have also had some explaining to do on their end about this latest strategy.

NOBLES: So let's talk about how the Republican senators are responding to all of this, Errol. Yesterday, Senate Judiciary Chair Lindsey Graham tweeted this, quote, this case should mirror the process used in the Clinton impeachment and should come to an end in weeks, not months, which there's a variety of things that we can unpack about this. We thought the White House wanted to do this quickly. Mitch McConnell said he wanted to do this quickly. Now Graham suggesting it should take a long time.

But also, Errol, if we go back to the Clinton impeachment, we do remember the president at that time sat for a sworn deposition. Does that mean, if we're playing by Lindsey Graham's rules here, that President Trump should as well?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That's right. Look, if Lindsey Graham is held to his word, and we go back to the pattern that was set in the Clinton impeachment, there were all kinds of witnesses. There were several depositions that were taken. And the idea of bringing in new witnesses to continue the evidence-gathering process, even in the middle of the impeachment trial, is exactly what happened in -- in -- back in that trial. So if -- if Lindsey Graham really wants that, he might want to coordinate a little bit more closely with the White House because I'm pretty sure that's not what they want.

You know, whether it's done in person and, again, in the Clinton impeachment they decided they didn't want the spectacle of people standing on the -- on the Senate floor, you know, speaking in that manner. But senators from both parties were able to direct questions to them. There were videotaped depositions. There was, in fact, a debate, although that was a closed door debate. It could be far more robust than I think most of us realize when even a partisan like Lindsey Graham says let's follow those old rules.

NOBLES: Yes.

So, Seung Min, I wonder if Republicans are perhaps opening the door here to a conversation about potential witnesses that that could then bring in witnesses that perhaps Democrats don't want to hear from, maybe Vice President Joe Biden, perhaps Hunter Biden. Could that be a part of this negotiation process if they even open the door to the idea of witnesses coming forward in the Senate trial?

KIM: I mean it could be, but Republicans have been making clear privately and also to reporters for some time now that they don't see the need for witnesses on the Senate floor. I mean -- and despite what the president has said about bringing people like Hunter Biden or the whistleblower whose complaint triggered this whole impeachment inquiry to the Senate floor for President Trump's trial. And McConnell has told members privately and he's also said this publicly too, I believe, that if you get a -- kind of go down the rabbit hole of witnesses, it would be mutually assured destruction because to give -- to get the witnesses that Republicans and that President Trump wants, you're going to have to give Democrats what they want, too.

So I think what McConnell is trying to do now is try to -- you know, if you -- if you go back to the 1999 model, the -- kind of the case that he's been making to the public, to his Republican senators is that back at the time, you know, Trent Lott, Tom Daschle and the 98 other senators agreed to at least start the trial, do an ample amount of opening statements and question time on either side. And the actual vote on witnesses, because that was such a contentious issue also back then too, didn't come until weeks into the trial. So that's what he's going for right now. We'll see if that's the -- that's what actually happens.

NOBLES: All right, so we do now have this sound from President Trump at Mar-a-Lago. And he actually talks about this process and the role that Mitch McConnell should play.

Let's take a listen.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're in a very good position. Ultimately, that decision is going to be made by Mitch McConnell. And he will make it -- he has the right to do whatever he wants. He's the head of the Senate.

People remember, they treated us very unfairly. They didn't give us due process. They didn't give us a lawyer. They didn't give us anything. Now they come to the Senate and they want everything.

You look back, just two weeks. Just look back at what they did, but over a long period of time, look at what they did. We weren't entitled to witnesses. We weren't entitled to lawyers. We sat in the basement. They would leak everything. They would leak it. We weren't entitled to do anything. They would leak selectively with the sick corrupt politician named Schiff. He's a corrupt politician.

No, they -- they treated us worse than anybody has been treated from a legal standpoint in the history of the United States. That's never happened before where you can't have a lawyer, you can't have a witness, you can't have time. Even though recently, when they had the constitutional lawyers, they got three lawyers, we got one. Fortunately, our one lawyer was better than their three and we also had a much better case.

We had a -- we have a perfect case. I say it again, we have a perfect case. They had no case. But they had three lawyers. We were allowed one. They had three. Think of that. They had three lawyers, constitutional lawyers, and each one spoke for an extended period of time. We had one lawyer. What do you think of that?

So now they get to the Senate. And now we have the majority.

[09:45:01]

And it's up to Mitch McConnell. And we have the majority, and now they want McConnell to do whatever things for them. I mean he's going to do what he wants to do. A very smart guy, a very good guy and a very fair guy. But they treated us very unfairly and now they want fairness in the Senate. They ought to look back at the last year to see how they've hurt this country.

Fortunately, we have a president that was able to plow through all of the stuff that went on and goes on. And also tremendous amounts of information are being written about even by the fake news concerning FISA, concerning dirty cops, the people that started this whole thing. What they've done to this country is incredible. And hopefully it's going to be taken care of. The attorney general's working and everybody's working.

But if you just go, because I like to stay out of it, and I do stay out of it, if you just go by what you see in the papers, it's incredible what's going on. We had dirty cops. We had people spying on my campaign. They did terrible things. The likes of which have never been done in the history of our country. It's very sad.

All right, have a good time, everybody. Merry Christmas.

QUESTION: Will you -- will hold this --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, press. Thank you, press.

QUESTION: Mr. President, are you going to hold a signing ceremony?

QUESTION: Are you worried about the (INAUDIBLE) --

QUESTION: Mr. President, are you going to hold a signing ceremony?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, guys. Guys, we're heading out. Let's go, guys.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thanks.

TRUMP: I will be probably doing that, yes, at the right time. We'll be doing a smaller ceremony. Ultimately we will be having one. The China deal, we will be having a signing ceremony, yes.

QUESTION: Will you sign it, you and Xi Jinping?

TRUMP: We will ultimately, yes, we will.

QUESTION: Do you know where that will be?

TRUMP: When we get together, we will do -- but we'll have a quicker signing because we want to get it done. The deal is done. It's just being translated right now, OK?

Thank you.

QUESTION: Are you worried about (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go, press.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, guys.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're moving out.

NOBLES: All right, so that is President Trump just leaving part of his resort in Mar-a-Lago after he had just gotten done with a holiday message to members of the military here. We should point out, he's said that it was proven that his campaign was spied on by the FBI. Even the FBI's own director, Christopher Wray, pushed back on that. And that was, of course, part of the inspector general's report on this particular issue.

But, Errol, I want to bring you in quickly on this.

You know, the president said a lot there, as he often does. A lot of rhetorical flourish there. But I do want to kind of hone in on the one point he's trying to make here and ask you if you think he's got a -- he at least has some sort of a leg to stand on here.

You know, the Democrats had the majority in the House. They could run their impeachment -- their portion of the impeachment any way they wanted. Now Republicans have the majority. Isn't it just as fair for them to operate as they see fit given that they have more votes and can handle this any way they want, just like Democrats did in the House?

LOUIS: Well, look, fair or not, Ryan, it is inaccurate to say that Mitch McConnell can do whatever he wants, which is what I heard the president just say. That is simply not the case. I mean he's got -- he's got other -- members of the -- of the 0-- of the rival party who have some say in this. We've got the chief justice of the United States who's going to be presiding over this impeachment trial, if it ever starts. And he's not going to just sit there like a statue. He's going to be weighing in on where things stand.

Mitch McConnell also, despite what he personally might want to do, and he's made clear that he just wants to defend the president at all costs, he's got a conference that he has to answer to that includes a number of senators who are up for re-election, whose re-election will be made considerably more difficult if they try and ram this through without any consideration for basic elements of fairness.

So, yes, he's going to, I think, have a much more negotiated process than perhaps the president wants. And I would just say finally for -- just for historic reasons, when he says spying on his campaign, the likes of which has never been seen, there's this thing called Watergate, you know. And the last time we encountered this level of spying, it was, in fact, by President Nixon, who paid the price for that.

NOBLES: All right, Errol Louis, Seung Min Kim, we're going to have to leave it there. Thank you guys so much for being here and rolling with the breaking news as always on CNN. We appreciate that.

And we're going to be right back. Stay here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:53:29] NOBLES: A California sheriff deputy has been placed on leave and could be fired after body cam video showed him violently removing a driver from his own car. That man was taken to the hospital where he later died.

We do want to warn you, the video is hard to watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE), man.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why are (EXPLETIVE DELETED) harassing me all the time? What is it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give me your hands. Give me your (EXPLETIVE DELETED) hands.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Give me your hand. Give me your other hand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

NOBLES: That video from the Sonoma County Sheriff deputy was taken the day before Thanksgiving. It shows the deputies pulling the driver from his car and, at one point, the victim's placed in a choke hold. He was also Tased by officers.

CNN's Dan Simon joins me now.

And, Dan, what exactly happened here?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, hi, Ryan.

This all begins after deputies are chasing what they believe is a stolen vehicle. And the man behind the wheel leads them on a high speed chase. It goes on for several miles. It eventually ends and the police body cam video shows one of the deputies using what is arguably extreme force, takes his head and hits it against the car door and then puts him in a choke hold.

Now, what makes this very tragic is that the man behind the wheel had actually been a carjacking victim a few days earlier and had, you know, reported his car stolen. At some point he got it back and didn't alert authority. So they didn't realize that this was not, in fact, a stolen car.

Now, the deputy who administered that severe force, I can tell you that he has been given notice of termination.

[09:55:00]

And I want to read you a statement from his lawyer where he's contesting his firing. It says Deputy Blount didn't cause David Ward's death. Frankly, Mr. Ward caused his own death by inexplicably taking a number of bizarre actions that confirmed in the deputies' minds that he was an armed car-jacker rather than the victim of that crime. It is my understanding that the medical evidence will show that Mr. Ward had a serious pre-existing condition and had methamphetamine in his system -- most significantly, there were no indications of trauma to his neck.

Now, we should point out that the coroner's office is still investigating this. They haven't said whether drugs or alcohol were in Mr. Ward's system. But one perplexing thing here is, you know, this was somebody who was not driving a stolen car. So we don't know why ultimately David Ward chose not to stop.

Ryan.

NOBLES: All right, Dan Simon, thank you. We appreciate it.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)