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Lawsuits Over Stampede at Scott Concert; Tony Buzbee is Interviewed about the Astroworld Lawsuit He's Filed; Committee Subpoenas Close Trump Allies; Biden Optimistic about Bill; Gosar Posts Photoshopped Anime Video. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired November 09, 2021 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Thousands of veterans are dealing with right now.

CNN's coverage continues right now.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: A very good Tuesday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Erica Hill.

This morning, a nine-year-old boy is in a medically induced coma after being injured in the chaos of Travis Scott's Astroworld Festival. New details about that night also emerging, multiple lawsuits have been filed, as we also learn there was no plan to deal with a surging crowd.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AYDEN CRUZ, ATTENDED ASTROWORLD CONCERT: I just remember just having so much weight on my body. And I was -- I was pushing. I was -- was fighting. I was fighting. And then I stopped because I -- I was getting winded. I was using all the energy I had left in me. And I came to the point where I was accepting my death.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: An attorney representing a victim who died in the crush of that crowd will join us in just a moment.

SCIUTTO: Plus, new subpoenas issued by the January 6th insurrection investigators. These subpoenas target top members of then President Trump's re-election campaign. Many of them helped spread the big lie which fueled the Capitol insurrection. Will they comply with those subpoenas?

And testimony underway right now in the Ahmaud Arbery murder trial. The prosecution is set to call its fifth witness, Officer Jake Brandonbury (ph), who responded to the scene. We're going to take you to Brunswick, Georgia, later this hour.

HILL: Let's begin, though, with CNN correspondent Rosa Flores, who is following all the latest developments in Houston.

Rosa, at least 18 lawsuits have now been filed in reaction to the events at the Astroworld Festival. What are they claiming?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, a lot of these lawsuits are claiming negligence, in essence that the concert organizers put this together, but it was not a safe event to attend. And so there were people who were trampled, and people who died.

Now, that was the case for Danish Baig and his family, telling CNN that he was actually trying to save his fiance when he died. And describing some of those moments, some of those really tough moments for this family.

His family talking to CNN this morning. Here's what they said. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BASIL BAIG, BROTHER DIED AT ASTROWORLD CONCERT: I just want everyone to know that people who lost their lives shouldn't have lost their lives in this festival. All the parties that were -- that set up this event should be held accountable. It's just, justice for them, just for Danish, justice for the victims and justice for the families. That's what we want.

And in terms of that, if that means rules and regulations need to be changed, how they do things, how they act and how they make these events, they need to do something about it. They have blood on their hands.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: And all eight victims have been identified. Here are their names.

Twenty-three-year-old Ferlo (ph) Pena, 21-year-old Franco Patino, 20- year-old Jacob Jurinek, 16-year-old Brianna Rodriguez, 14-year-old John Hilgert, 27-year-old Danish Baig, 23-year-old Madison Dubiski, 21-year-old Axel Acosta Avila (ph).

Now, some people are still fighting for their lives. That's the case of a nine-year-old who, according to his grandfather, he is in a medically induced coma. He has so much trauma to his little body, that most of his organs are damaged, including his heart, his liver. This grandfather telling CNN that this little boy was with his father at this concert. It was supposed to be a dad and son event where they could spend some time together. And, instead, he is now fighting for his life.

This grandfather saying that the little boy was on his dad's shoulders, and I've heard this from concert -- so many concertgoers that at some point during this concert it was very difficult for people to control their bodies because they were just swaying with the crowd. Many people describing how they couldn't breathe, and that was the case for this family, Erica and Jim. This grandfather telling CNN that the father eventually passed out, the little boy was on his shoulders, fell on to the crowd, and was eventually transported to the hospital as a John Doe later identified and, of course, now fighting for his life.

Jim and Erica.

SCIUTTO: Goodness. We hope that little boy turns it around. All the victims so young.

Rosa Flores, thanks so much.

So let's speak now to Tony Buzbee. He's an attorney with the Buzbee Law Firm. He represents the family of one of the victims, Axel Acosta, just 21-years-old himself.

Good morning, Tony. Thanks for taking the time this morning.

TONY BUZBEE, ATTORNEY REPRESENTING FAMILY OF ASTROWORLD FESTIVAL VICTIM AXEL ACOSTA: Good morning.

[09:05:00]

SCIUTTO: You're, of course, representing Axel Acosta, who lost his life, but also other concertgoers who were hurt. You have described the event as, quote, utter chaos. I want to ask you, what specific security failures do you see evidence of?

BUZBEE: Well, if you see the video, at 2:00 on Friday afternoon, when concertgoers crashed the gates, literally, and tore down barrier and ran past security just to get into the concert venue, you can only imagine how it would have been seven hours later that night, about 9:00, when Travis Scott went on stage.

SCIUTTO: Wow.

BUZBEE: Let's not forget that Travis Scott, the performer who was performing at the time this all occurred, has been arrested on two different occasions for inciting a riot, for encouraging people to rush the stage, to blow past security. And in this very concert, he tweeted before the concert that -- that those people who were not fortunate enough to get a ticket to this sold out show should go ahead -- should go ahead and come anyway.

SCIUTTO: Wow.

BUZBEE: That he would, quote, sneak them in.

SCIUTTO: OK.

BUZBEE: It was -- it was just a complete mess.

SCIUTTO: The pictures there show just, frankly, an out of control security situation from early on.

I do want to get to the impact of the past charges here, but before we get there, we now know that a detailed operations plan for the festival did not include contingencies for a surging crowd incident. And I wonder, whose responsibility is such a contingency? Is it the performer and his team, is it the venue, is it both?

BUZBEE: It's -- it's those two, as well as the promoter, the organizer, the security team, the medical team. This is supposed to be a joint effort amongst all those entities. And it was a complete failure amongst all of them.

SCIUTTO: You mentioned that Travis Scott pleaded guilty to disorderly contact -- conduct, rather, in Arkansas, this is 2018, after he -- police say he encouraged people to rush the stage in a 2017 show.

Are you aware of any changes that he and his team, his promoter, made following that arrest to address security concerns going forward, or were there no changes?

BUZBEE: No. In fact, just yesterday, when we -- when we talk about this, since those incidents, those two different incidents, we have video of him screaming at the crowd to literally beat someone up. They had to literally rescue someone that he had directed to get beat up by the crowd. We have other video where he was encouraging someone to jump from the top level into the crowd. At the same time somebody actually fell and was badly injured.

Nothing's changed. And, in fact, you should know that the police chief of Houston met with Travis Scott before this concert, before he went on, expressing his concerns with some of the rhetoric that Scott had let go before the concert.

SCIUTTO: Right.

BUZBEE: And, I mean, it was a mess. And this should have been stopped from the very beginning. And what we know for sure is that Travis Scott continued to perform even after people were being taken away in ambulances.

SCIUTTO: I want to ask you this because the Harris County judge, Linda Hidalgo, she told my colleague, Wolf Blitzer, last night, there was evidence of drug use. "The Wall Street Journal" is reporting this morning that counterfeit pills, possibly laced with fentanyl, are being accessed as to whether they played a role.

I just wonder, from a legal perspective, would the presence of drugs or the medical examiner citing drugs as a part of the cause of death, would that affect any legal liability here?

BUZBEE: I don't think it would affect legal liability. It certainly it would be something that would have to be dealt with and confronted and figure out how that happened.

I can tell you that -- that, you know, we've taken 50 different statements from people that came in and out of that venue, and there was -- there was no screening whatsoever. There was no screening with regard to COVID. There was no screening with regard to what people were bringing into the venue. And apparently people were openly using marijuana, who knows what else drugs were being used there, you know. I'm not sure what we're going to learn from the autopsies. I'm quite confident that Mr. Acosta will not have any drug use in his system, because this young man did not drink or smoke or do drugs. So, we'll see and ferret that out as it goes forward.

But it needs to be emphasized that Live Nation and Travis Scott have a long history of these types of incidents, and we need a full-scale change in the United States in the way that concerts are handled, organized, promoted, and the security that's provided. When you send your -- this could have been anyone's children.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

[09:10:00]

BUZBEE: You know, this could have been anybody's. My own child, two years ago, went to Astroworld. It could be anybody. It could happen to anyone and we have to get a handle on this and make these venues safe if we're going to have live music.

SCIUTTO: Tony Buzbee, please do pass on our best to the family of Axel Acosta and those of other victims. Our heart goes out to them.

And thanks to you for taking the time this morning.

BUZBEE: Thank you. Thank you for that.

HILL: The January 6th Committee is significantly ramping up its inquiry into former President Trump's inner circle and their efforts to overturn the 2020 presidential election. The panel issuing subpoenas to six top members of Trump's re-election campaign. Trump 2020 campaign manager William Stepien, former senior campaign manager, Jason Miller, Angela McCallum, who was the Trump campaign's national executive assistant.

SCIUTTO: Also subpoenaed by the committee, Bernard Kerik, he's the former New York City Police commissioner, who participated in a meeting at the Willard Hotel in Washington in January centered around efforts to overturn the election. John Eastman, as well, a Trump lawyer who crafted a plan for pressuring then Vice President Mike Pence to invalidate the election results. There is also Trump's form national security adviser Michael Flynn, a staunch Trump ally who discussed invoking Marshal Law after the election.

Joining us now, CNN justice correspondent Jessica Schneider.

So, tell us what's next for these six top Trump advisers. I mean the big question is, do we expect cooperation or do we expect them to fight these subpoenas, as some others have?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they might fight it like we've seen those others fight it.

But first deadline for these six to comply is actually just two weeks away. The committee is demanding documents by November 23rd. They've scheduled depositions for the last week of November, and the first week of December. Each of these six, the committee says, has key insight and information about efforts to promote the big lie, that the election was stolen and several were actually involved in key meetings involving those efforts to further push those false election fraud claims.

There's the breakdown of the deadlines for each. But as we've seen from other Trump administration officials that the committee has subpoenaed, these deadlines could easily slide, even if they start engaging with the committee and working with them to supply information. We've seen that from some other Trump officials and allies.

But, of course, the defiance of Steve Bannon looms, even though the Justice Department still has not acted on his criminal referral.

And, you know, all of these six people, these are people who were and are very close to former President Trump. So, we'll see if the former president puts pressure on them not to comply, as we have seen him do with other former officials and people like Steve Bannon.

Now, the only person we've heard from so far is Bernie Kerik. He, of course, is the former New York City Police commissioner, now aligned with Donald Trump. Kerik paid for rooms and suites at the Willard Hotel here in Washington. That's a spot that served as election related command centers. And Kerik also worked with Rudy Giuliani to investigate those baseless allegations of voter fraud.

So, here's what Bernie Kerik said in a statement to CNN last night. He said, I will not be threatened, intimidated, forced into bankruptcy or silenced at the hands of this committee who are not looking for truth but targeting patriots and members of the president's legal team that wanted nothing more than to investigate and expose those irregularities.

So, Jim and Erica, we are already seeing defiance from the one person so far in this batch of six who's responded, at least publicly now, to these subpoenas being issued. So we'll see what else comes from the other five.

Guys.

HILL: Jessica Schneider, thank you.

Also with us, CNN senior legal analyst, former federal prosecutor, Laura Coates.

Laura, based on what we know, as Jessica said, the defiance of Steve Bannon looms. And even just what we heard in that statement there from Bernie Kerik.

Any expectation that any of these six will comply?

LAURA COATES, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: I mean the chest thumping continues, doesn't it? And the idea here is why it puts more pressure on the Attorney General Merrick Garland, who, as of right now, they have yet to indict Steve Bannon on acting on the idea of thumbing his nose at a congressional subpoena. And so as long as that happens, as long as there's no consequence to the idea that you can just say, no, I don't feel like showing up, I'm not going to show up, you have to prove to me you have some basis to be able to subpoena me, they have proven it, you have to show me some legitimate legislative purpose, they have given it, the idea that he still continues to have this unchecked bravado is what is actually the catalyst for others who might also look at this and say, I don't have to follow it either.

And so this is really incumbent upon the Justice Department, at this point in time, to figure out if they're going to fish or cut bait.

SCIUTTO: Where does the Justice Department stand? Do you have any sense of whether they have a leaning here, and how long it will take to make a decision? Because, as you know well, dragging the process out is part of the strategy here. And if one can drag it out, and wait for the Justice Department to decide, so can others.

[09:15:04]

COATES: It will certainly have a domino effect.

Remember, this is not a case where you've got complicated facts at play. I mean the assertion of executive privilege, none of these people were actually a part of the administration. It's still this red herring. It does not apply. You're talking about for a -- really a former president, it's not settled. It's really people who have not actually been in the administration who have even relinquished the privilege by speaking about it quite openly through either podcasting or other means, essentially that removes any hope of the privilege.

But you have here the idea of, it's important to be deliberative and contemplative about the process. Dot all i's and cross all t's. But this is not a complicated set of effects. You have a subpoena that was issued. Someone did not respond to the subpoena. If this were the average case load and average drug case, for example, a homicide investigation, the idea of not showing up and being responsive and complying with a subpoena would not be a weeks' long task to actually get that indicted.

So, I'm curious to what the methodology is at the office to figure out, what are the delays. I hope it's not a political reason because that would be nonsensical, unethical and impractical.

SCIUTTO: Well, listen, big questions continue, can the system respond to this kind of -- this kind of threat? Still to be tested.

Laura Coates, thanks so much.

Coming up next this hour, a sitting Republican congressman sends out an altered anime, that's Japanese animation video, showing him attacking the president and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Now there are calls to suspend his Twitter account.

HILL: Plus, the prosecution could wrap up its case today in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse. Details on the tense cross examination of the EMT who was shot by Rittenhouse and survived.

And, later, a group of Senate Democrats asking Biden to act to bring down gas prices. But how much can the president really do?

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[09:21:21]

HILL: President Biden is expressing optimism that Congress will pass the second part of his economic agenda. That $1.75 trillion social safety net bill. It's optimism, but it comes with a healthy dose of reality. The president acknowledging it will also likely be a tough fight.

SCIUTTO: Yes, will there be changes made in the coming weeks?

CNN chief national affairs correspondent Jeff Zeleny is outside the White House this morning.

Jeff, the president is waiting a few days to sign the infrastructure bill that passed Congress the end of last week.

What event is he waiting for?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: He's waiting, simply, Jim and Erica, for senators and representatives to come back to Washington. Congress is on their recess this week, which means the vast majority of this bipartisan group has left town. So the president, of course, who spent the majority of his time in the Senate, wants there to be a big event here at the White House. He wants to shine a light on the fact that 19 Republicans in the Senate and 13 Republicans in the House joined virtually all Democrats to vote for this bill. The White House wants to give a little attention to this.

The reason why is, his approval rating. He knows that the American people are not necessarily understanding everything that's in this bill. The White House believes that by beginning to explain it, they can begin to make the case.

You can see the approval ratings right there. Take a look at the strongly disapprove, 36 percent. When you add up the disapprove, it's 51 percent. And the approval, of course, is 48 percent. So not a big difference there. But the intensity of the disapproval certainly is something that is of concern to the White House.

And, of course, that is one of the things that the president going to the Port of Baltimore tomorrow to make the case again for why all this legislation is good. But the White House has a sales job. They know it. That's why they're waiting until next week to sign this big bill.

Jim and Erica.

SCIUTTO: Yes, sometimes having a little spectacle, a big part of Washington.

ZELENY: Right.

SCIUTTO: Jeff Zeleny, at the White House, thanks so much. ZELENY: Sure.

SCIUTTO: Well, this morning, Twitter is facing intense pressure to suspend the account of one of former President Trump's fiercest defenders in Congress. Sunday night, Congressman Paul Gosar posted a photo shopped anime video that depicted him, you're hearing this right, killing Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. It also showed Gosar attacking President Biden with two swords.

HILL: CNN correspondent Donie O'Sullivan joining us now.

So, Donie, it's interesting, Twitter flagged this video last night, but decided not to take it down. Why?

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. So, they say if a regular user, if a non-elected person was to have tweeted this video, it probably would have gotten taken down. It could have got them suspended from the platform. But Twitter has different rules for politicians. They flagged this tweet from Gosar essentially saying that it violated their rules about hateful conduct, but it determined that it may be in the public's interest for the tweet to remain accessible. Basically, the argument here on Twitter's side being that they know this is hateful, potentially dangerous stuff, but they want to show it for what it is.

Now, that is one argument. Others will say, well, this is also ginning up the base and it's dangerous, so it should be taken down. Worth pointing out here that Gosar also posted this video on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, which, of course, is now called Meta.

Facebook has done nothing about it. They haven't responded to our questions. We contacted them last night.

But I guess this all sort of comes back to the point, of course, is that, of course, these platforms have responsibility and it's right we ask them questions of what they're doing. But also just rather remarkable that a member of Congress is sharing something like this.

Take a look at what AOC responded. She described Gosar as a creepy member of Congress, shared a fantasy video of him killing me and he'll face no consequences because Kevin McCarthy cheers him on.

[09:25:08]

GOP leader cheers him on with excuses, should I say -- without excuses.

So, you know, it comes back to, I guess, there's responsibility here on the person who's sharing it, on the part of the platforms and, of course, on Republicans to call this sort of thing out.

Final point I should also mention is that the -- Gosar's staff told "The Washington Post" that, you know, this is a cartoon. Don't need to be worried about it. Don't take things so seriously. And I expect we will see a lot of people who are very upset about Big Bird getting vaccinated over the weekend now defending this as just a cartoon. HILL: Yes, those people who are upset about Big Bird, who are also

very misinformed in their reaction to it, thinking that he was doing it on his own without input from his grannie bird, who asked lots of questions and without lots of doctors. But don't let the facts get in the way.

SCIUTTO: Can't we -- can't we leave even Big Bird alone, Erica, can we?

HILL: No, they can't. They can't.

SCIUTTO: No.

HILL: Donie, thank you.

O'SULLIVAN: Thanks, guys.

HILL: Still ahead, the jury sees graphic images of Ahmaud Arbery's gunshot wounds and now prosecutors set to call their fifth witness to the stand. We are live outside the courtroom, next.

SCIUTTO: And we are moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street. Futures relatively flat this morning after both the Dow and S&P closed at record highs yet again yesterday. The Federal Reserve warned that real estate troubles in China could potentially spill over to the global economy, including here in the U.S. Investors are keeping a close eye on China, as well as infrastructure related stocks which are seeing a boost after the House passed President Biden's infrastructure bill last week. We're watching all of it.

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