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Closing Arguments Conclude in Jussie Smollett Trial; Trial Begins for Former Minnesota Police Officer Kim Potter; Law Makers Grill Instagram CEO Over App's Impact on Kids; NYC to Approve Measure Giving 800K Noncitizens a Vote in Local Elections. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired December 08, 2021 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In Chicago five years -- to go into Obama's city to pretend there are Trump supporters running around with MAGA hats? Give me a break.

Also, among what he said, the paid to Bola Osundairo was for training, not any hoax. And if this was supposed to happen on surveillance camera, presumably with no audio, why would he allegedly tell these brothers to then yell out any sort of slurs.

Now on the prosecution's side, they straight up just said that they accused Jussie Smollett of lying under oath here, and they laid out key evidence, they said, destroyed his credibility. Among that saying that Jussie Smollett withheld cell phone records, that he withheld medical records and DNA records. Not only that but said that the brothers would not have known to attack without any sort of advanced knowledge. But again, after nearly three years, this now heads to the jury to make a decision on whether or not they agree that Jussie Smollett, as he has maintained, is innocent.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: OK, Omar Jimenez, come back with any developments. Thank you.

So, the trial of the former Minnesota police officer Kim Potter is also underway. Potter said she mistook her gun for a taser last April when she killed Daunte Wright during a traffic stop. Wright was pulled over for an expired tag. During the stop, officers learned he had an outstanding warrant and attempted to arrest him.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Potter is facing first and second-degree manslaughter charges. Her lawyers say this was all an accident. CNN's Adrienne Broaddus is there now. So, Adrienne, what did you hear in court today?

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Compelling opening statements from the prosecution and the defense. Let's start with the prosecution. Really hammering home, the fact that Kim Potter is a veteran, the former Brooklyn Center police officer had at least 26 years with the department and had extensive training when it comes to use of force. And every year she had to be recertified to use that taser. On the defense side, her team arguing demonstrative at times. Her

defense attorney, Paul Engh often banging on the podium, saying it was a mistake that she did not mean to pull out her gun. She was reaching for her taser. He also says if you listen to the video, you will hear her say taser, taser, taser.

Moments ago, we heard from Katie Bryant, that was Daunte Wright's mother. An emotional testimony from her as she describes the final conversation, she had with her son via Facebook messenger because he didn't have a phone. She saw him before he left the house. He asked for some money because he wanted to go get a car wash, and fill up his vehicle, and he kissed his baby boy Daunte Wright Jr. good-bye. And when he was pulled over for that traffic violation, he called his mom. Here's part of that conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATIE WRIGHT, DAUNTE WRIGHT'S MOTHER; He asked, you know if he was in trouble. I said, no, you haven't done anything wrong. And he just sounded really nervous. But I reassured him that it would be OK, and then I heard -- I heard the officer telling Daunte no, and I heard Daunte say, no, I'm not -- it sounded like he said don't run. Daunte said, no, I'm not, and then I heard them say somebody tell somebody to hang up the phone. And then that's all I heard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROADDUS: Soon after, a neighbor drove her to the scene, and she says she was able to identify her son under the sheet because of the sneakers he wore. Meanwhile, at this hour, the rookie officer Potter was training that day is on the stand testifying -- Victor and Alisyn.

BLACKWELL: Adrienne Broaddus for us there in Minneapolis. Thank you.

Instagram CEO is facing some tough questions on Capitol Hill right now about whether the app is damaging to children. The latest from his testimony next.

[15:35:00]

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BLACKWELL: Right now, on Capitol Hill, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri is answering some tough questions from Senators about how the platform is working to keep teenagers safe. But he's also is playing a bit of what about-ism here. He's calling out other social media platforms. He said all big tech companies need to work together to keep kids and teens safe online.

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ADAM MOSSERI, CEO, INSTAGRAM: Keeping people safe is not just about any one company. We believe there should be an industry body that will determine the best practices when it comes to what I think are the three most important questions with regards to youth safety. How to verify age? How to build age-appropriate experiences? And how to build parental controls?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: This is the first time an executive from the company is responding to that whistleblower testimony that exposed how Instagram ignored their own internal research that found the site was toxic for teenagers. CNN's Donie O'Sullivan is following this closely. So, Donie, What are lawmakers focused on?

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Lawmakers are pretty fed up with Facebook, meta, Instagram, whatever you want to call it. Look, Mosseri makes a fair point, that look, there's many other big platforms with big issues like TikTok. But Facebook, Instagram, Meta should maybe get their own house in order first.

And one question that I thought was particularly pertinent came from Senator Richard Blumenthal.

[15:40:00]

And he talked about how even when parents or even when people find really troubling stuff on the platform, and maybe promoting eating disorders or things like that to their children, even when they report it, Instagram seems to do nothing about it, have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT:): Shouldn't children and parents have the right to report dangerous material and abuse and get a response, get some action. Because we've heard harrowing stories from parents who tried to report and have heard no response. My office made a report and got no response until CNN made a report to press relations. Shouldn't there be an obligation that Instagram will respond?

MOSSERI: Senator, yes. I believe we try and respond to all reports, and if we ever failed to do so, that is a mistake that we should correct.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'SULLIVAN: And what Blumenthal is referring to there is a few weeks ago, his office set up an account as a 13-year-old girl on Instagram, followed a few dieting accounts, a few accounts that were talking about eating disorders. Quickly Instagram's algorithms began recommending to that 13-year-old girl that you should follow more and more eating disorder accounts. We then replicated that experience here. We got the same results. Some of these accounts were reported to Instagram. They did nothing about it. It wasn't until we pick up the phone to the company and say, hey, what about these accounts? Instagram says, oh, Yes, they're against our rules. We don't now accounts. They do this thing where they say, we don't allow accounts that promote eating disorders. I mean, it's against our rules but they do allow it because this stuff is so easy to find.

CAMEROTA: But it's demonstrably false what they're saying.

BLACKWELL: Yes, any more likely than there's going to be legislation than there was than we saw from Haugen several months ago.

O'SULLIVAN: Well, look, I mean, I will say lawmakers -- if you are watching this hearing today, Marsha Blackburn and Blumenthal, it does seem like a rare area of bipartisanship in Congress. But whether they actually step up to the plate and legislate to regulate, that remains to be seen.

CAMEROTA: Donie O'Sullivan, thank you.

O'SULLIVAN: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: OK, let's discuss this with clinical psychologist, Lisa Strohman. She's also the author of "Digital Distress, Growing up Online." Lisa, always great to see you. So, look, we've talked about this before. Just yesterday in some convenient timing, Instagram announced some new safety features. I'll read them to you.

They're going to have new take a break alerts. They're going to take a stricter approach to what content they recommend to teenagers, maybe for instance, not anorexia content. They're also going to allow people to bulk delete photos, videos, previous likes and comments, and creating an educational hub for parents. Will this solve the problem?

LISA STROHMAN, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST: No. It's a quick answer to that. And I think this is just a play book that you can look back in history on a timeline and see that they've done every time that they've gotten into hot water. They're contrite. They throw up a few features and accommodations that they think the Senate will be happy with, and then they move about as business as usual, pushing forward the things they need to do to get their next consumer group which is kids.

BLACKWELL: So, what is it that you would like to see, Lisa?

STROHMAN: You know, I think as a parent myself with a 13 and 14-year- old, and someone who's been talking about this for 15 years, I think what we need to do is really seriously look at whether or not the tech industry has any sort of ability to be a part of the conversation in terms of what regulation is. If you look at from a legislative perspective, there's over 2,000 bills that are typically in one year presented for child exploitation or online internet safety for children, and it is these individual siloed actions of the legislators that are trying to do well, and you can see that in the hearing today, but we have to bring them all together.

We have to come together and find experts like myself who spend hours, hundreds if not thousands of hours with families that have children that have committed suicide. That have been trafficked online. Children that look like our children online that we are busy parents that are working. That are just generally out there on the internet, and we have to recognize that unless we get some true experts and people that are in the field talking about how this happens, outside of someone who has a profit line and a margin that they're looking for to make those decisions, it's not going to change.

CAMEROTA: Lisa, that's such a good point because obviously these social media companies have proven they can't police themselves. OK, so one of the things that he's trying to say is we're saying we need regulation. We have always said we need regulation. But why can't Congress -- I mean, you heard Donie, it's a bipartisan desire. Why can't Congress do some sort of big sweeping legislation that would curtail some of this?

[15:45:00]

STROHMAN: It's a great question. I think Adam Mosseri said something today that I really did like. And he said, you know, unless you get it at the level of the user and say that the device is actually age restricted it's going to be really hard to go after it company by company.

We can legislate. We can put laws in place, but the reality is those laws have to also then be enforced. So, if you put a car out, for instance, on to the road, and it has a seat belt in it, it's up to the law enforcement officer to pull somebody over if they don't have their seat belt on.

And so, what they're doing and what I think is a brilliant move is they're saying we'll give you the tools but it's up to the parents really, and it's going it on the parents to actually enforce those tools that we're handing over to you. Which is causing divisiveness in the family, it's causing a breakdown with teens and their parents. It's pushing them further online back into the hands of big tech, so it's a brilliant move, I think, long-term for them to do it that way.

But that's why I think we have to take it back, and we have to look at it and say this can't be in their hands. And it's not because they don't also have children that want to be safe online, but it's because you're asking them to go against the business interests of your own.

So, we're going to have to change the way that we address this online, and we're going to have to actually create a body in my opinion that enforces these laws, and that's all that they do, and it's going to have to be at a much higher level with much more oversight in order just to protect our minors online.

BLACKWELL: All right, Lisa Strohman, thank you so much for being with us.

CAMEROTA: Thanks, Lisa.

STROHMAN: Absolutely.

CAMEROTA: All right, New York City is on the brink of giving some voting rights to noncitizens. How's that going to work? We have details next.

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BLACKWELL: Tomorrow, the New York City Council is expected to approve a measure that will allow noncitizens to vote in local elections. Now this proposal applies to legal permanent U.S. residents who have lived in New York for at least 30 days. Now that would give about 800,000 people a vote in city elections, talking city council, mayoral races.

CAMEROTA: CNN's Jason Carroll is here. So, Jason, you don't have to be a U.S. citizen to vote?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, let me explain it this way. You do have to be a U.S. citizen to vote. If you are voting in a presidential election.

CAMEROTA: On the federal level.

CARROLL: On the federal level. If you are voting for the governor, even at the state level. If you're voting for governor. This applies to local races here in New York City.

I mean, but still immigration groups are really looking at this as a huge win for them, a potential win. Again the New York City Council is expected to vote on the measure tomorrow and again, all indication is it's looking like it's really going to pass. So, I just want to go over just a few details again of what the measure is all about.

The measure applies to people who have lived in New York City for at least 30 days and are legal permanent U.S. residents. That means it would expand voting rights if you're looking at the population of New York City to some 800,000 residents who fit into that criteria.

If passed -- and again it's expected to pass -- it would take effect on January 1st. The measure covers -- as we discussed -- local city elections. Things like the race for mayor, the race for city council, but those noncitizens would still not be able to vote in presidential elections or an election for the governor or Congressional federal elections.

Those behind the measure say, look, people who live in New York City and pay their taxes, even though they are noncitizens, should have a political say in who represents them.

Those who are opposed to it say, look, if you are a noncitizen in New York City, you should become a citizen in New York City. And there have been a lot of questions about legally whether or not this is going to hold up. And in fact, the mayor has raised some questions about whether or not this will hold up. But he's not going to veto it. They think it's going to pass. And it looks like every indication is that it is going to pass.

And we should also point out -- because I took a little note about this here. There are other places in the country that are taking up similar measures. If you look at places like Massachusetts, Illinois and even in Washington, D.C., they're looking at similar measures there. So, we'll see what happens tomorrow. But again, it looks like things are going to change in New York City tomorrow.

BLACKWELL: All right, Jason Carroll, thank you.

CAMEROTA: Thanks for explaining it.

BLACKWELL: Thank you. CARROLL: You bet.

BLACKWELL: Pfizer says its vaccine can help fight off serious illness from the Omicron variant of coronavirus but they are encouraging a third dose to stop the spread. New figures show most Americans have not gotten that booster shot yet. Dr. Sanjay Gupta will break it down, ahead.

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BLACKWELL: Tiger Woods recently said that he'd never return to competitive golf full time but it looks like he's going to give it a shot next week at the PNC Championship in Orlando.

CAMEROTA: It will be his first tournament since last February's car accident that left him with serious leg injuries. The 15-time major champion will partner with his son, Charlie, teeing off a week from this Saturday in the two-round event.

OK, meanwhile, this story, the U.S. Captioning Company has released its annual list of the most mispronounced words of the year by newscasters.

BLACKWELL: The job ain't easy.

CAMEROTA: It is not easy. We've never mispronounced this one. Here's one at the top: Omicron. We say that perfectly.

BLACKWELL: Yes, I knew this one.

CAMEROTA: But this one I didn't know: Cheugy. OK.

Not only do I don't know if I'm pronouncing it right. I don't even know it. It says it's a trendy term popularized by Gen Z used to mock an outdated and unfashionable aesthetic typically associated with millennials.

BLACKWELL: I've never heard and would never use it.

CAMEROTA: My Gen Zs don't say it. I have a houseful of Gen Zs.

BLACKWELL: You can move that up front there.

CAMEROTA: Yes, move.

BLACKWELL: Dogecoin. Cryptocurrency that started as a joke in 2013. Elan Musk popularized this one. I heard somebody say this. I just picked it up, it was right. Just dumb luck that.

CAMEROTA: Well, done.

BLACKWELL: Glasgow, the host city for the U.N. Climate Conference.

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