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Suspected Attacker Of GOP Rep. Lee Zeldin Appears In Court; U.S. Secret Services Identifies Potential Missing Texts On 10 Phones; Steve Bannon Guilty Of Contempt Of Congress; Eighty-Five Million Under Heat Alerts Across Central U.S. And Northeast; Greenland Ice Melting Rapidly Due To High Temperatures; Vince McMahon Retires From WWE Amid Hush Money Allegations; Texas Woman Forced To Carry Dead Fetus For Two Weeks. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired July 23, 2022 - 17:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:00:35]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.

First this hour, the man accused of attacking New York's Republican nominee for governor made his initial appearance in federal court just a short time ago. The 43-year-old was arrested earlier today on federal assault charge -- on a federal assault charge for Thursday's attack on Congressman Lee Zeldin.

Zeldin was giving a campaign speech when the suspect approached him, you can see in this video right here, held out a key chain with two sharp points on it toward Zeldin and grabbed him, pulling him down. Bystanders managed to subdue the suspect.

CNN's Evan Perez is following all of this for us. He's here with me now. Evan, what more are we learning about this man? And that video, again, we've shown it a number of times -- very alarming.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Look, it's a very disturbing thing to happen, obviously. Lee Zeldin, the congressman was on stage when this attack happened. And he is -- the suspect, his name is David Jakubonis. He's 43 years old. And he is now charged with assaulting a member of Congress with a dangerous weapon.

You can see that he's carrying this object, he has this object in his hand as he approaches the congressman. Now, according to the federal criminal complaint, these are federal charges that he is now facing, he told the FBI that he had consumed whiskey on the day of this attack and that he, quote, must have checked out as he walked on stage and asked if Zeldin was disrespecting veterans.

We should note that according to the army, Jakubonis had served in the army. He's a veteran serving in Iraq in 2008, 2009. So there appears to be that part of the story that the FBI was told when they went to arrest him. Again, he was appearing -- he had his first appearance before a federal judge today in the western district of New York where he's facing these charges.

Jim, he was first arrested on Thursday by the state authorities. He was charged with some state charges, a second degree charge there in the state of New York, but he was quickly released, which of course caused a lot of controversy given the fact of the nature of this attack, which you can see, you know, again, this is a sharp object, key chain, some kind of defensive weapon is what the FBI calls it.

ACOSTA: Yes, that raises a lot of questions why you would release somebody that quickly after basically an assault on a member of Congress.

Evan, stay with me. We're going to turn to some other news from the January 6th investigation, turning now to those mysterious missing Secret Service text messages. This is some reporting that appeared first on CNN.

Investigators have closed in on ten phones containing metadata of messages that were sent and received around January 6th of last year, the day of the Capitol insurrection. The sudden urgency to retrieve the texts sparked by the January 6th select committee. On Thursday the panel presented radio transmissions from then Vice President Pence's Secret Service detail as they sought to secure his safety during the Capitol attack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We may to want consider getting out and leaving now. Copy?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will we encounter the people once we make our way?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a clear spot if we move quickly. We've got smoke downstairs. Standby. Unknown smoke downstairs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: By the protesters?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is that route compromised?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have (BLANKED OUT) is secure. However, we will bypass some protesters that are being contained. There is smoke -- unknown what kind of smoke it is. Copy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Clear, we're coming out now, all right? Make a way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: The situation was so intense that one official testified that agents feared for their lives at the time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The members of the VP detail at this time were starting to fear for their own lives. There were a lot of -- there was a lot of yelling, a lot of -- a lot of very personal calls over the radio, so it was disturbing.

I don't like talking about it, but there were calls to say good-bye to family members, so on and so forth. It was getting -- for whatever the reason was on the ground, the VP detail thought that this was about to get very ugly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[17:04:58]

ACOSTA: Now, did these missing texts offer any insights into those events? Do they contain details about Trump's heated exchange with Secret Service agents. That's what the select committee wants to find out. They need more time and maybe they might need the owners of those ten phones to provide some answers.

Evan Perez is back with me. Evan, what is this probe uncovering and is there any chance that these texts will see the light of day. I was I was under the impression, and forgive my layman expertise here, which isn't very much. I thought this stuff could be recovered.

PEREZ: Yes.

ACOSTA: I don't understand, ok, so they wiped out all the phones because they were doing an upgrade of technology or devices that they were using, but that doesn't explain how all of a sudden these messages are gone forever? I don't get that.

PEREZ: Well, I think you might be right. I mean, in the end it is possible, you know, talking to the technical experts, it is possible that some experts might be able to bring this back, to be able to recover some of messages.

But keep in mind, you know, pulling back here, the inspector general for the Homeland Security Department was doing a review of what happened on January 5th and January 6th because one of the things that did not happen, the Secret Service did not do an after action of its own.

You saw those scenes. That doesn't look to me as a fairly smooth handling of everything, that you know, that the Secret Service wouldn't do an active reaction. So the inspector general was doing this, and one of the things they wanted, Jim, they wanted devices, messages and, you know, communications from 24 devices belonging to people, key people who were involved in events on the 5th and the 6th.

It appears that only ten of those had metadata that indicates that there were messages going back and forth that may have been work- related. So that's what the inspector general wants access to. That's what the Homeland -- I'm sorry -- January 6th committee wants access to now.

And of course, the Secret Service says that there was a device changeover happening during that process. These messages were deleted. Again, it is possible perhaps during some expertise from the technical experts that they might be able to recover this.

But it does raise the question of why these devices were wiped when the January 6th committee had told the Homeland Security Department that they wanted to make sure that everything was preserved. The Secret Service should have preserved all of this because they knew this was going to be under review given the events of January 6th.

So it's very, very mind boggling that even after getting that preservation order from the January 6th Committee, these devices were wiped about a week later.

ACOSTA: Yes. Just more and more questions being raised by, you know, the January 6th committee, legitimate questions about what --

PEREZ: It raises suspicion, right?

ACOSTA: Right. What is going on inside the Secret Service. Why can't they provide these answers.

All right. Evan Perez, thank you very much.

A federal jury has found former Trump adviser Steve Bannon guilty of contempt of Congress. That happened yesterday after he defied a subpoena from the January 6th Committee. The panel believes Bannon's cooperation was key pointing to his contacts with then President Trump in the lead up to the Capitol attack, his presence in a hotel so- called War Room of Trump allies prior to the insurrection and his ominous prediction on his podcast that all hell was going to break loose.

Bannon was smirking as the verdict was handed down and he now faces at least 30 days behind bars. His lawyer says he will appeal the verdict.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE BANNON, FORMER TRUMP ADVISER: In the closing argument, the prosecutor missed one very important phrase, right? I stand with Trump and the constitution and I will never back off that, ever.

DAVID SCHOEN, LAWYER FOR STEVE BANNON: You'll see this case reversed on appeal when a former president or a current president invokes executive privilege, it's presumptively valid -- period. It's not for congress to decide that it's valid.

BANNON: I only have one disappointment, and that is the gutless members of that show trial committee, the J6 Committee didn't have the guts to come down here and testify in open court.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Of course, we should point out that Steve Bannon did not have the guts to go up and testify in front of the January 6th Committee.

Joining me now to talk about this, former Trump White House lawyer Jim Schultz. Jim, after being found guilty, Bannon said we may have lost the battle here today, but we're not going to lose the war. I mean, I guess in his own mind he's Churchillian but it's not very Churchillian to not go up to Congress when you're subpoenaed and testify up on Capitol Hill. I mean where's the courage? What's this war in Steve Bannon's mind?

JIM SCHULTZ, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE LAWYER: Look, I think he's looking at the appeal, and he's looking at it and saying, ok, he has a shot with an appeal. I'm not sure how strong that is, quite frankly.

[17:09:52]

SCHULTZ: But I think Steve is always the bravado, the fire, the brimstone. That's what you're going to see out of Steve day in and day out if you watch his radio show. That's what you see out of Steve. That's what you saw coming out of the courtroom the other day.

Obviously, he's going to stand up and continue to fight alongside the former president.

ACOSTA: And I want to ask you about the revelations during the January 6th Committee hearing that we got this week.

We heard from the former White House counsel Pat Cipollone that many people around Trump's orbit, including family members, wanted the former president, the then president at the time to do something, anything to stop the violence.

But when he was asked about Trump himself, Cipollone said this, it was a little different.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAT CIPOLLONE, FORMER WHITE HOUSE COUNSEL: I can't reveal communications but obviously I think, you know. Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: You know, Jim, you know, Trump goes out there on the campaign trail. He describes this as a partisan witch hunt and calls it the unselect committee and so on and so forth. But there you have Pat Cipollone the then White House counsel all but saying that Trump didn't want anything to be done about the Capitol insurrection.

And of course, throughout this process, we've seen Trump loyalist after Trump aide after Trump loyalist testifying and pointing the finger at Trump.

SCHULTZ: Yes, I mean, you have Pat Cipollone the entire time beating back the craziness in the White House at that point in time or trying to beat back the craziness at the White House and bringing some sanity to that whole effort by the former president.

You also saw him, you know, hesitate, and what he didn't say meant as much as what he did say. I mean, obviously he had an agreement with the committee not to reveal communications with the former president. The committee knew that. They were pushing Cipollone to release some of that information. Pat stopped short of that, but I think his body language said it all.

And I think the important thing to note here is this is a congressional hearing, which is different than a criminal proceeding, and the standards there are going to be quite different once you get to a criminal grand jury if it gets that far.

ACOSTA: And a telling moment came -- there were so many telling moments came when we saw footage of how the insurrectionists were reacting to Trump finally telling them to go home. Let's watch a little bit of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go home. Go in a slow --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He says go home. He says go home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, he said to go home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHULTZ: What do you make of that, Jim? I mean, you know, we saw earlier on in this process, you know, people saying, you know, reading out to the crowd at January 6th what Trump had tweeted about Mike Pence as the riot was unfolding up there on the Capitol.

And then when Trump tells them to go home, they say, oh, well, Trump's telling us to go home. I mean, they're hanging on his every word.

SCHULTZ: Well, sure, I mean, they were there. He obviously was a big part in drawing the crowd there. He held the thing at the ellipse, you know, asked them to go down to the Capitol. Asked the Mags to go away. Said some things about Mike Pence clearly trying to pressure former president Pence (SIC) to do some things that quite frankly he wasn't lawfully able to do and stood strong for our country in the Capitol that day.

So you know, I think it was his obligation to, you know, send these folks home, send the message that these folks needed to go home. He failed to do that, and you know, ultimately it was not good for the country, a very sad day for the country.

ACOSTA: And for the first time, we got a look at these outtakes of Trump's January 7th message. Let's play that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And to those who broke the law, you will pay. You do not represent our movement. You do not represent our country, and if you broke the law -- I can't say that. I'm not -- I already said you will pay.

But this election is now over. Congress has certified the results. I don't want to say the election is over. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: He says I don't want to say the election is over. I mean even after what had happened on January 6th, he still is clinging to the big lie, and I just have to wonder as somebody who served as a Trump White House lawyer, do you think that the former president is in legal jeopardy based on the case that was presented by this committee up until this point.

SCHULTZ: So I think there's a ton of evidence that's going to head over to DOJ, and DOJ is going to have to make some real decisions. And I think there's going to be a lot more questions that come of this.

Again, Congress in many ways is only asking generalities. The DOJ is going to get into specifics on this thing, and they're going to have a lot more detailed questions for a lot of the same witnesses. It remains to be seen whether an indictment comes.

[17:14:50]

SCHULTZ: I do think in Georgia there's significant jeopardy for the former president. I think they are heading towards an indictment there. They have sent out target letters. They have hit some big names.

They're asking to come in as witnesses, and they're being compelled to come in as witnesses and testify. And they're not messing around in Georgia.

ACOSTA: Yes, when I talked to Trump advisers, that is the one thing that I hear from them is that they're more concerned about Fulton County really than anything else because of the seriousness of that investigation. And the fact that you heard Trump on tape saying, you know, find me these votes.

And the committee will resume these hearings in September. Do you think that there are people in Trump's orbit who should be concerned about liability themselves?

SCHULTZ: I mean, sure. You know, you had that whole discussion with Jeffrey Clark and we've already seen folks show up at his house, the FBI showing at his house serving subpoenas. There's a lot of folks that probably are very worried and should be rightfully worried, especially folks involved in the elector issue, folks involved in trying to, you know, instill a new -- instill Jeffrey Clark as the attorney general.

There's a lot of exposure there, and I think the exposure really comes from this collective effort, if you will, pressuring the vice president, encouraging people to go down to the Capitol, pressuring members of Congress knowing that some of these folks were armed.

I mean, this all just starts to mount and mount and mount. It's going to go over to DOJ. They're going to ask a lot of questions, and I think that's where the rubber's going to hit the road. ACOSTA: Yes, I mean, and at the end of Thursday night's hearing, I

mean, you know, you heard some of your fellow former White House staffers saying things that they were ashamed of what had occurred inside the Trump White House. I mean, what were some of the thoughts on your mind just after collectively taking all of that in?

Painful for a lot of people inside the Trump White House is what I heard from talking to people there as well.

SCHULTZ: Absolutely, sad day for the country, say dad for anybody working in the White House on that day. Look, you saw a lot of great people that were protecting our country resigning the next day as soon as this thing was over, if you will, because they had been in there fighting the good fight, trying to do what was necessary to protect this country, you know, on the tip of that is Pat Cipollone and the vice president.

ACOSTA: All right. Jim Schultz, there's a lot more to come in these hearings. We'll see how it all shakes out.

Jim, thanks for your time. We appreciate it.

SCHULTZ: Thank you.

ACOSTA: And a programming note, the vice chair of the January 6th Committee Congresswoman Liz Cheney joins Jake Tapper tomorrow on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION". That's at 9:00 eastern, here on CNN.

Coming up, 85 million Americans suffering through a dangerous and deadly heat wave, and it's about to get a whole lot worse.

[17:17:37]

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ACOSTA: Emergency evacuations are underway in California as a giant wildfire just got even bigger. The Oak Fire near Yosemite National Park has exploded in size, now burning more than 6,000 acres, and it is zero percent contained. A very serious situation, ten structures have already been destroyed and at least 2,000 more are now in danger of burning. Four helicopters and 45 fire engines are battling this blaze.

More than 85 million Americans are under heat warnings or advisories today as soaring temperatures continue to wreak havoc across the country. The northeast and central U.S. are feeling the worst of it this weekend with temperatures hitting triple digits in some areas.

Meteorologist Gene Norman joins me now from the Weather Center. Gene, I'm glad you're inside handling this for us. It is just brutal almost across the country.

GENE NORMAN, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Exactly right, Jim, and these longer lasting, long duration and more intense heat waves are certainly one of the fingerprints of climate change that we've been tracking. Again, as you mentioned, the middle of the country, the northeast, these are the places that are under the alerts for today. And take a look, triple digit heat index right now in Philadelphia, it was feeling like that within the last hour in D.C.

But these temperatures in the 90s are nothing compared to what folks in the middle of the country are dealing with. How about this? 104 St. Louis, 105 in Wichita. Yes, get indoors if you can because this heat can be dangerous.

And the heat beat continues tomorrow with those heat advisories extended and the excessive heat warning for Philadelphia where the heat index there could top 107.

And how about the Big Apple. It's five days in a row over 90 degrees. If we do it again tomorrow, and we likely will, that will tie 2013 stretch of six days in a row. That's the last time we had that many days in a row of summer heat.

ACOSTA: Wow. They are just roasting up there.

And Gene, the stormy weather, we're going to see some of that over the next 24 hours. That should bring some relief to certain parts of the country.

NORMAN: Exactly right, Jim. In fact, just near you there are some big storms bubbling in West Virginia where a new severe thunderstorm watch has been issued. That's going to be heading your way likely after sunset, and those storms originated in the Ohio River Valley.

There's another batch behind them that's moving through Wisconsin. And earlier today we had over 215,000 people without power in Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia from those storms, and they will be moving towards you, at least towards the East Coast over the next 24 to 48 hours.

In fact, they get into the Ohio River Valley as we head into the day on Sunday, and then on Monday they make their way into the East Coast, and that's when a big cooldown could be occurring, finally a bit of a relief from the heat.

Another hot day tomorrow, but look by Tuesday we're into the 80s. So that will be a nice welcome change, Jim.

ACOSTA: Yes, we just have to hang in there a little longer, and please take care of your elderly neighbors, relatives and those pets. Little dogs out there, don't leave them outside in this sweltering heat. It's very dangerous for them.

Gene, thank you very much.

[17:24:54]

ACOSTA: It was a surreal moment of life imitating art, a TV news clip about the extreme heat wave in the U.K. is drawing comparisons to the doomsday movie, "Don't Look Up". Here's the scene from the movie where a scientist is trying to make her voice heard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER LAWRENCE, ACTRESS: Are we not being clear? We're trying to tell you that the entire planet is about to be destroyed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ok.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, that's just, you know, just something we do around here. We just keep the bad news light.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: That was just a movie. This is not, a British weather expert talking about people dying from crazy high temperatures in England and not being taken very seriously.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: By early next week, you can scrap 20 degrees. It could well be 40 degrees. I think there will be hundreds, if not thousands of excess deaths early next week.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So John, I want us to be happy about the weather. And I everything -- I don't know whether something's happened to meteorologists to make you all a little bit fatalistic, and harbingers of doom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Oh, boy. All right, CNN's chief climate correspondent Bill Weir joins me now. Bill, life imitating art to some extent here. But it really highlights how all of the evidence can be there and people just don't want to hear it, even as we are suffering from triple digit temperatures in some parts of this country right now. It's just incredible.

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Jim. But I also look at it from a different point of view. The fact that that is such an obvious punch line now shows how the public is moved in terms of awareness of this.

I did that early in my career, I made those quips. Boy, it'd be nice to get some global warming up in here. You know, it's been the old -- it's an old trope.

And just now are we coming to grips with the idea as the U.K. over there, they hit almost 105 degrees Fahrenheit. Shakespeare didn't experience temperatures that hot, you know, going back to the Romans in the U.K. And so now it's becoming much more in your face and all of those -- and now the debate has shifted a little bit as to whether or not it's happening to -- whether it's too late to stop or how bad is it going to get. All of the above.

ACOSTA: To be or not to be indeed. And we saw some incredible satellite photos from NASA of -- I mean, I know you've talked about this before, of the dramatic water loss at Lake Mead out in Nevada at the Hoover Dam. It's the biggest reservoir in the United States. It's drying up.

Add to that the sweltering temperatures that we've been talking about, how dire is this situation right now? We were just talking about the wildfires in California that are nasty. I know there are folks out there who might say, oh, this is typical. This happens every summer. It gets hot. These things dry up. We have fires. It's different, right, Bill? This is different.

WEIR: Well, just to widen out and because we just as human beings, our species tends to normalize the horrible. You notice a change and then you adjust to it. We went through all the cycles of that with the pandemic, right?

This is according to NASA and NOAA, June of 2022 was the 450th straight month where the temperatures globally on average were higher than the 20th century. So only people now in their 40s remember a cooler than average month on earth, and it's not cooling off, right?

And so the mega drought, which is now 22 years long, there's no rain in the forecast. There's no huge snow year that is just where, you know, everybody's betting on.

And that is -- those are the water -- that's the bank, first national banks of life, Powell and Mead for the west. The only reason we have a Los Angeles or an Albuquerque or a San Diego is dam projects that held that water back, but those were built in a different time. And the Colorado river compact was where they divvied up the water for seven states in Mexico was written after one of the wettest years in the 20s, and all that water's been over allocated.

So now we're going to get into the really dicey human puzzle of who gives it up first. You're already seeing farmers in Arizona, you know, people who are last in line have to see their waters get cut. They tried to get people out west to change their lifestyle voluntarily with modest, modest success on that, but yes, there's no happy news in sight unfortunately.

ACOSTA: And here's something you can't write off. This incredible statistic coming out of Greenland where enough ice melted in three days that it could cover the state of West Virginia and a foot of water. I mean, you can't write off, I mean, what is happening in Greenland right now.

WEIR: No, and the sea level rise, it happens so gradual, but it's accelerating and so the new rate of it was what scares a lot of folks. It's not just that the water's going to go up like in a bathtub around the world, it won't. it depends on where you are, it depends on tides and winds.

[17:29:52]

WEIR: But it's changing the way that heat exchange moves around the planet. All that fresh water sliding off of Greenland changes the conveyor belt of ocean water that goes from the Caribbean up to England. That influences weather patterns.

The same thing is happening in the jet stream. And now you're seeing these heat domes that are sitting.

Scientists are seeing it's almost like these fingers from the North Pole that come down and pull the heat up over the skull of the earth, and just hold it there, smothering these -- so these heat domes last in place a lot longer.

So again, the earth we grew up on doesn't exist anymore. We're trying to figure out how the new one works in real time.

ACOSTA: Yes, and in the meantime, we have our kids, our grandkids, people, you know, who are going to be coming up behind us wondering, why haven't folks like you and me, folks who are older than us, why haven't we gotten a handle on this problem and tried to solve this problem. It's such a huge issue.

Bill, we're so grateful to have you on this afternoon. Thanks so much. We appreciate it.

WEIR: Anytime, Jim. Good to see you.

ACOSTA: All right, good to see you.

Coming up, knocked out by scandal, Vince McMahon retiring as head of the WWE amid hush money allegations.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:35:29]

ACOSTA: It's a stone-cold stunner that wrestling fans thought they would never see. Vince McMahon, head of the WWE, is out.

McMahon is stepping down following a report from "The Wall Street Journal" that he paid more than $12 million to four women to cover up allegations of sexual misconduct and infidelity.

McMahon says he's cooperating with investigators.

Joining me now is Dave Meltzer, the editor of WrestlingObserver.com.

Dave, thanks so much for being with us.

There's not a bigger figure in professional wrestling these days as the man who is at the top of that empire, Vince McMahon himself.

Do you get the sense that his stepping down is going to be enough to prevent further damage to the WWE, which, as you know is -- I mean, this is just a monster moneymaker here in the U.S.

DAVE MELTZER, EDITOR, WRESTLINGOBSERVER.COM: I don't expect -- I mean, so much of the revenue is guaranteed so I don't really expect from a financial standpoint that there's going to be much damage.

I mean, from an image standpoint, I mean, certainly there's been, you know, the negative stuff.

And there may still come -- you know, more may come out, but with him being out of, you know, no longer the head of the company, the damage will probably be minimal.

It'd be kind of like, OK, a lot of companies, where the head of the company had to step out, but the company continues.

ACOSTA: And McMahon released a statement on Friday which reads, in part:

"I am extremely confident in the continued success of WWE. And I leave our company in the capable hands of an extraordinary group of superstars, employees, and executives. As a majority shareholder, I'll continue to support WWE in any way I can."

Vince's daughter, Stephanie McMahon, is going to be one of the co- CEOs.

Do you think Vince McMahon will continue to call the shots behind the scenes like, you know, likes one of those wrestling segments you might see?

I can just see him on the phones behind the scenes working the phones calling in the next move and so on.

MELTZER: I mean, you never know. It's kind of a weird thing because, you know, it is a publicly traded company and everything.

But you know, his daughter is co-CEO. His son-in-law is probably going to end up with a lot of power, you know? So his influence will be there. He is the largest shareholder in the company, largest stockholder.

So it will be interesting to see if he remains on the board of directors, you know? That's another thing because that's the one thing that hasn't been addressed yet.

But I think there will be influence there but I also think it is the beginning of a new era in some ways. Vince was going to have to step down at some point anyway, just with the age factor and everything like that.

And if he stayed, it would be very bad for the company because, you know, what would the sponsor say, what would the networks say if these stories keep coming out?

So it was one of those things where -- I don't know if it was inevitable, but it's -- it's a shock that it happened, but when you think about it, it's not that big of a shock after all the things that have come out in the last month.

ACOSTA: Well, Dave, I mean, I grew up in the era of Hulk Hogan and macho man, Randy Savage, and Andre the Giant. And Vince McMahon has been there for all those years since.

MELTZER: Forty-one years.

ACOSTA: It's incredible what he's had, 40 years. He's both the --

(CROSSTALK)

MELTZER: Forty years running. And 51 years, 52 years probably as far as being in the business, you know, starting as a local promoter.

ACOSTA: Yes, and he's also an on-screen presence as the billionaire bad guy boss. We've seen him from time to time in that role.

In the case of "The Wall Street Journal" report, though, about paying women millions of dollars to cover up these, quote, unquote, "allegations of sexual misconduct and infidelity."

Was any of this known in a company that -- I mean, do you think this was well-known inside this company that has been a family business for so many years?

MELTZER: I mean, as far as Vince McMahon's womanizing, it's been known since the '80s. As far as paying off, you know, these payoffs, I didn't know about that until, you know, a month ago when it first came out in "The Wall Street Journal."

As far -- you know, it's funny because that is, you know, whether it's rock business or, you know, business or whatever and you have a lot of wild guys on the road, you know, there's the idea that maybe things have been done to protect talent, yes.

But Vince himself I was not -- I can't say -- I was not aware of these payoffs.

So when they first came out, know, and there was many of them, it was and wasn't a shock. Because there's been payoffs in other situations with the company and everything like that.

[17:39:57]

But I didn't know it involved Vince and John Laurinaitis, who is the head of talent relations, who also looks to be out, although that hasn't been officially said.

ACOSTA: All right, Dave Meltzer, thanks very much. We'll stay in touch with you as this case develops. We appreciate it.

MELTZER: OK, thanks, Jim.

ACOSTA: Coming up, America after Roe versus Wade. A woman shares her experience with newer restrictive abortion laws after suffering a miscarriage.

Plus, what is fueling Texas' move to the right? Join CNN's Ed Lavandera as he follows the money. "DEEP IN THE POCKETS OF TEXAS" begins tomorrow night at 8:00 Eastern.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) ACOSTA: In states that now ban abortions, there are questions about whether doctors can legally perform procedures to aid women who are pregnant and suffer miscarriages because those procedures can also be used in abortions.

For one Texas woman, that resulted in a horrific reality. She was forced to carry her dead fetus for two weeks.

Here's CNN's Elizabeth Cohen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[17:45:00]

MARLENA STELL, FORCED TO CARRY DEAD FETUS FOR TWO WEEKS AFTER REFUSED MISCARRIAGE TREATMENT: Whoo!

DR. ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Marlena Stell and Avi De Silva have always wanted a little brother or sister for their daughter, Adelina.

Instead, what they got was a nightmare because of a Texas anti- abortion law.

STELL: I get so angry that I was treated this way because of laws that were passed by men who have never been pregnant and never will be.

COHEN: Her nightmare started out as a dream come true after months of trying, she became pregnant late last summer.

STELL: We were super excited because we didn't think I could get pregnant.

COHEN: An ultrasound at seven and a half weeks showed all was well. But at an ultrasound two weeks later -

STELL: She said there's no heartbeat. There's no viable pregnancy.

COHEN: Stell asked her doctor for standard treatment, a surgery to remove the fetal remains. She says her doctor refused. That surgery, commonly known as a D&C, is the same procedure used to abort a living fetus.

STELL: She said because of the new law that passed, you're going to have to get another ultrasound for me to be able to do anything for you.

COHEN: Overwhelmed emotionally and physically --

STELL: The pain would get so severe, it would be hard to walk.

COHEN: -- she went to get a second invasive ultrasound at an imaging center, describing it later in a YouTube video.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STELL: Someone shoves a wand in my sensitive area and tells me, hey, you lost your baby. I shouldn't have to go through that twice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN (on camera): So you had to hear it twice that you lost a baby.

STELL: It's gut wrenching. I'm sorry.

COHEN: That's OK.

STELL: Because you already know what you're going to see. It's just like seeing it twice and being told that you're not going to be a mom.

COHEN: Even after that second ultrasound, would your obstetrician give you the surgical procedure?

STELL: No. No.

COHEN (voice-over): Stell had to get yet another ultrasound showing her dead fetus.

(on camera): So you were walking around carrying a dead fetus?

STELL: And just emotionally carrying it around and knowing that there's nothing you can do, it just feels very -- it's like I can't grieve or move past it because I'm just walking around carrying it.

COHEN (voice-over): Dr. Lillian Schapiro has been an Ob/Gyn in Atlanta for more than 30 years.

(on camera): When a woman is walking around with a dead fetus for weeks because she can't get a surgical procedure, what's the danger to her?

DR. LILLIAN SCHAPIRO, OB/GYN: She can develop an infection that can make her sterile and never able to have children again.

COHEN: Or even worse --

SCHAPIRO: When the baby dies inside, the baby starts to release parts of its tissue that can get into the mother's blood supply. It can cause organ failure. It can cause death.

COHEN (voice-over): In Texas and some other states, a doctor who does the right thing and surgically removes a dead fetus could be vulnerable to an expensive lawsuit.

STEPHEN VLADECK, LAW PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS: Any private citizen can walk in the court and say, I think Dr. Smith performed an abortion.

COHEN: And citizens are incentivized to bring such cases. They can win more than $10,000.

And even when doctors can prove the fetus was dead, the doctor still has to be responsible for their own legal fees. VLADECK: They're going to lose even though they win, and that's the

chilling effect. They face this specter of potentially endless ruinous litigation that they just can't stop, they can't avoid, they can't preempt.

COHEN: As I spoke with Stell, I thought back to how, between my second and third child, I had a miscarriage that was handled very differently.

COHEN (on camera): There was no heartbeat. They did a D&C. It allowed me to move on quickly and get pregnant again and then I got pregnant again, too.

SCHAPIRO: Right, and that's great. And that's the story that we want to hear from people.

COHEN (voice-over): Stell was not so lucky. She did finally manage to find a doctor to perform her D&C, but it took two weeks. She worries the nightmare could happen to her again.

(on camera): Are you trying to get pregnant again?

STELL: No.

COHEN: Why not?

STELL: I'm worried about getting infected, have something happen to me, and then my daughter's left without her mom.

COHEN (voice-over): Now they're contemplating moving away from Texas, away from their extended family just so they can try to get pregnant again.

Elizabeth Cohen, CNN Conroe, Texas.

[17:49:22]

ACOSTA: And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: The Mega Millions jackpot is working out to be one heck of a deal. A $2 ticket could win you a $790 million prize after no one drew the winning numbers on Friday.

This ranks as the third-biggest Mega Millions jackpot in history. Two jackpots, each worth more than $1 billion were won back in 2018 and 2021.

The next drawing is on Tuesday. Statistics say the odds of winning are about one in 200 million. So there's a chance.

And you may need lottery winnings to afford a Bruce Springsteen ticket.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) (SINGING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: The good news for Springsteen fans, a new U.S. and international tour launches in February.

The bad news? A new official platinum pricing model from concert promoters Ticketmaster has some seats, the good ones, going for as much as -- get this -- $4,000 and $5,000.

[17:55:02]

A stinging op-ed on nj.com is titled, "Bruce Springsteen Does Not Care About You."

And Twitter is predictively on fire about all of this. One fan figured out, it's cheaper for him to fly to Munich to catch the show, because Ticketmaster isn't selling the tickets in Germany.

CNN has reached out to Ticketmaster for comment. For now, we're just dancing in the dark.

That's the news. Reporting from Washington, I'm Jim Acosta. I'll see you back here tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. Eastern.

Pamela Brown takes over the CNN NEWSROOM live after a quick break.

Have a good night.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)