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Interview With Former Acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf; Actor Gary Busey Facing Multiple Sexual Offense Charges After Attending A Monster Mania Convention; Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-NY) Orders Arrest For Sucker Punch Attack; House Candidate's Violent Suggestion. Aired 4-5a ET
Aired August 21, 2022 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.
More buses filled with migrants arrived in New York City today all sent by the governor of Texas who gave them a one-way ticket east.
These are new images just in to CNN. The city says 140 asylum seekers pulled up in three buses, the largest single day arrival so far. All of them came from the Texas-Mexico border under a controversial program pushed by the governor of Texas there. He is taking a dig at the Biden administration's immigration policy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R), TEXAS: Before we begin bussing illegal immigrants up to New York, it was just Texas and Arizona that bore the brunt of all of the chaos and all the problems that come with it. Now the rest of America is understanding exactly what is going on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: In the last two weeks Texas has sent roughly 1,000 migrants to New York and since April they've sent 7,000 migrants to Washington, D.C., where the mayor has asked for help from the National Guard.
And joining me now to talk about this is the former acting secretary of Homeland Security under President Trump, Chad Wolf.
Chad, thanks very much for being with us. What do you think of this policy? Do you agree with what the governor of Texas is doing, loading these migrants on the buses and just dropping them off in New York and Washington without really much of a plan in terms of dealing with those municipalities? I mean, they're just handing them over.
CHAD WOLF, FORMER ACTING SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Well, I think this is what DHS has been doing now for 17 months. Right? So as individuals cross that border, they're sending them into communities all over the country, whether it's in New York, it's Chicago, it's Tennessee, it's a number of states. So this isn't just been happening over the last four or five weeks. This has been happening for, again, 17 months under this administration. This is the catch and release policy that they're advocating before. ACOSTA: The state of Texas is taking it upon itself to do this.
WOLF: Absolutely.
ACOSTA: In addition to that.
WOLF: I think what the governor is saying is that he has been under a siege in a sense for 17 months. You talk about 4,000, 5,000, or maybe even 6,000 migrants that are going to New York City and Washington, D.C. That's what comes across the border in a single day not only in Texas but obviously in Arizona and elsewhere.
And so I think what you're seeing is, we need the federal government to step up and clearly his calls for it, his pleas with the federal government, are not working. So you and I are having this conversation. Big city mayors are now weighing in on the immigration crisis that we see at the border. I think part of that is the purpose of let's start talking about solutions to the crisis along that border today.
ACOSTA: But how do you have a conversation when you're dumping migrants off in other parts of the country?
WOLF: But, again, you're not dumping anything. This is the policy of the Biden administration. We've seen those flights time and time again.
ACOSTA: Well, the governor of Texas is doing it. The governor of Texas is doing it.
WOLF: The governor of Texas is doing it, the governor of Arizona is doing it. Again, their facilities along that border, and even in the state of Texas, even not along that border, they are overwhelmed. They're beyond capacity. And so what he is saying is let's move some of these illegal aliens to these sanctuary cities.
You've got to remember, New York, D.C., these are sanctuary cities, these policies that these mayors and these jurisdictions have embraced. This says not only will you be shielded from law enforcement if you come to our city --
ACOSTA: So it's political move.
WOLF: -- we're actually going to give you benefits.
ACOSTA: It's a political move. It's taking a shot at sanctuary cities.
WOLF: I'm not sure it's a political move. It's a reality move for Governor Abbott. He is overwhelmed at that border.
ACOSTA: So you agree with it?
WOLF: He is overwhelmed at that border. He's trying to figure out how do we start that national conversation because he alone is obviously not moving the Biden administration. How do we have that national debate about some policies -- ACOSTA: Why didn't he do it when you were in charge?
WOLF: Well, because we didn't have the crisis that we see today. We are in a historic crisis that we have never seen before. If you think back --
(CROSSTALK)
WOLF: I know you covered it, 2018-2019 we had a crisis in the Trump administration. It dwarfs the crisis, the minor crisis, the UAC crisis that we see today. And so obviously we were a partner in trying to solve that crisis. You don't have the federal government being a partner today.
ACOSTA: Wait, you mentioned the Trump administration and what it did when it came to migrants coming across the border. You were involved in the Family Separation Policy that under Trump would take more than 3,000 children away from their families. And it was immortalized by this audio that was captured by Pro Publica. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text translation): Don't cry.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through text translation): I want to go with my aunt.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through text translation): You're going to get there. Look, she will explain it and help.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through text translation): At least can I go with my aunt? I want her to come. I want my aunt to come so she can take me to her house.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[16:05:02]
ACOSTA: I mean, should you really be in a position of critiquing what's going on in this administration when your administration was literally ripping children away from their parents?
WOLF: Well, absolutely. So, look, I think it's important --
ACOSTA: Absolutely what?
WOLF: Absolutely. It's important to keep in mind, absolutely, I have a view on what should be occurring now. You talk about 3,000 migrants or children back in 2018 in a four-week period. Let's talk about a 17- month period where we have a UAC crisis that we have never experienced before, UACB and minors. We have thousands and thousands and thousands --
ACOSTA: Those are the unaccompanied children.
WOLF: Those are the unaccompanied children. Much more than -- ACOSTA: Well, I'm asking about the children that came across --
forgive me for interjecting. I don't want to be accused of being rude, but you know, these children who are coming into the country with their parents, through no fault of their own, they were ripped away from their parents during your administration. You were a part of crafting that policy. Do you ever think about these kids?
WOLF: I think about all the children and all the families and all the individuals that come --
ACOSTA: Those specific kids, if you don't mind.
WOLF: I think about all of them.
ACOSTA: Yes. Yes.
WOLF: Let me answer. I think about all of them that come to that border illegally, tried to cross that border illegally, putting their lives in the hands of smugglers, the trauma that they have to endure through that process. But what I would also focus on is over the past 17 months, thousands and thousands of children have been separated from their parents because of the Biden administration policies.
When you exempt minors from Title 42 but yet you apply it to their adults or to their family members, you see, and we've seen this, we have reporting on this that thousands --
ACOSTA: You guys put Title 42 in place.
WOLF: Thousands and thousands of families are separating themselves before they get to that border. So let's start talking about the thousands of children that have been separated from their parents under this administration that dwarfed -- any number dwarfs what occurred in 2018.
(CROSSTALK)
ACOSTA: Chad, but let me ask you. You were a part of putting that policy in place of separating children from their parents. Do you regret being part of that?
WOLF: Look, I totally agreed with President Trump when he ended that policy. What I said at the time, or what I've said several times is once you lose the trust of the American people, when you are instituting those types of policies, particularly law enforcement officers instituting it, it's time for a change.
ACOSTA: So that policy --
WOLF: So absolutely I agree with that, and I agree with President Trump when he decided to end that.
ACOSTA: Should that policy ever come back?
WOLF: Look, what they do on that border and how they separate -- I think it's important to remember DHS and Border Patrol officers right now to this day are separating families for a variety of different reasons along that border.
ACOSTA: But a simple yes or no. Should that policy ever come back? Separating children from their parents.
WOLF: Again --
ACOSTA: If you could answer yes or no that would be great.
WOLF: Again, law enforcement does that every single day. They do it under the Biden administration. They've done it under multiple administrations. I agree -- again, to the question again, I agree when President Trump decided to end that specific -- when we talk about zero tolerance --
ACOSTA: And it should never come back.
WOLF: I agree with him at that time.
ACOSTA: Zero tolerance --
WOLF: I don't see any reason why it would need to come back. But it's time to start talking about how we enforce border security along that border and solve the crisis that's today instead of burying your head in the sand and hope it goes away on its own. It's not going to go away on its own.
ACOSTA: And I want to turn to the recent FBI search at Mar-a-Lago. Here is what some Republicans have been saying about the FBI since that search.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. ELISE STEFANIK (R-NY): The FBI raid of President Trump is a complete abuse and overreach of its authority.
SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): Do I know that the boxes of material they took from Mar-a-Lago that they won't put things in those boxes to entrap him?
REP. LAUREN BOEBERT (R-CO): I will make sure these tyrants pay the price.
SEN. RICK SCOTT (R-FL): The way our federal government has gone, it's like what we thought about the Gestapo, people like that, they just go after people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Is that kind of rhetoric going to get somebody hurt, do you think? Are you worried about that? I mean, you were in charge of the Department of Homeland Security. You've seen the threat of domestic extremists. That's been brought to your desk, I'm sure, on a number of occasions, that kind of rhetoric. Healthy? Helpful?
WOLF: Well, I don't think it's going to get anyone hurt. I certainly hope that it doesn't. I think some of the comments that you just played, I think there's skepticism out there. Certainly those on the right that see what's going on, this historic precedence that was broken and the events that we saw at Mar-a-Lago. The unequal application of justice and what the FBI perhaps didn't do to Senator Clinton, and what they're doing to President Trump. I think that those are --
ACOSTA: The FBI revealed --
WOLF: Those are some of the concerns that we see out there.
ACOSTA: The FBI revealed the investigation into Secretary Clinton 11 days before the 2016 election arguably helped Trump get elected president of the United States.
WOLF: Well, I think you can argue about that point or not. But I think what those comments say is that there is skepticism out here. That's why we need transparency. That's why I've been calling it, and I know others have been calling for, let's have the AG and let's have others start to obviously make the affidavit public, but let's talk about --
ACOSTA: Do you think there are some sort of conspiracy going on to entrap Trump?
WOLF: Well, we don't know. We don't know because they're not talking about it. What we do know is that this has never happened before. Never happened before.
ACOSTA: There's no evidence. You also have the former president taking all these documents down to Mar-a-Lago. What is he doing with that information? Why -- do you think that's a good idea for --
WOLF: I don't think you know what type of documents he took. I certainly don't know what types of documents --
[16:10:05]
ACOSTA: Do you think it's a good idea for the president to have classified top-secret documents down at Mar-a-Lago, a club on the beach?
WOLF: It's very difficult for me to answer. I don't know what documents he took. So what we need is the AG to come out, right. I think if they keep hiding behind the fact that this is an ongoing investigation so we can't reveal anything. What they don't seem to understand and what the American people are saying is this is such a historic move that the FBI and the Department of Justice has taken. They need to take such a historic move to bring some transparency to this, to actually tell the American people here is what we were concerned about, here is what we were looking for.
Either we found it or we didn't find it, or whatever it may be, the more information that they can provide, the more I think, you know, closure that we can bring to some of this. I don't know that it's going to allay a lot of the concerns because, again, we talk about that unequal application of justice, and I think for a lot of folks they see a lot of this targeted towards the right. And they want to know why isn't this also -- these types of procedures also be applied to the left.
When we talk about IRS, the FBI or whatever it might be, and that's the concern here. And I think that's what we heard from a number of those folks that you just played.
ACOSTA: Well, I think there's a lot of fear-mongering going on. I mean, it's pretty obvious when you're accusing the FBI of Gestapo tactics, things of that nature, you are crossing a line rhetorically.
WOLF: Well, you also have the FBI involved in the Russia hoax that went on for years and years and years. And so --
ACOSTA: You're the acting secretary of Homeland Security.
WOLF: And so that is concerning. That's concerning.
ACOSTA: Don't you stand by the FBI?
WOLF: I stand by law enforcement, absolutely. 100 percent.
ACOSTA: The FBI?
WOLF: I stand by the FBI. Do they need to be reformed? Absolutely. But you can still be supported by --
ACOSTA: The FBI is run by a Trump appointee.
WOLF: You can still be for federal law enforcement, for the law enforcement mission, and still hold them accountable and say they still need to be reformed from time to time. The two are not mutually exclusive. So there is no issue with that at all.
ACOSTA: Let me ask you about January 6th because "The Washington Post" reported that your text messages along with those of your acting deputy Ken Cuccinelli are missing for a key period leading up to the attack. Messages are also missing for the Secret Service from that same period. You were the acting secretary of Homeland Security at the time when some of this was going on. Were you texting about what might happen on January 6th?
WOLF: No.
ACOSTA: What happened to those text messages?
WOLF: Well, I saw the public reporting probably the same time that you did that said that some of the text messages were missing. That's news to me. I returned all of my equipment, whether it was laptops or all the different computers I had, secured equipment and unclassified equipment as well as phones back to the department. They have all my records, they have all my e-mails, they have all my documents. They have everything. And so it's baffling to me --
ACOSTA: Should those messages have been --
WOLF: Absolutely. I think so. Anytime you work on government equipment, a computer or a phone of some kind, those are all -- I was always told that those were always there. You know, there's always backups, but they were there for the federal government. The federal government owns that. So whether I was texting on, you know, my government phone, which I did from time to time, but not a lot, or the e-mails that were all on my computers, all of that should be record and should be at the department.
ACOSTA: And you were interviewed by the January 6th Committee. Were you warned at any point that the Vice President Mike Pence might be in danger on January 6th?
WOLF: By the January 6th Committee?
ACOSTA: No, no.
WOLF: Sorry.
ACOSTA: I'm just saying that you were interviewed by the committee.
WOLF: I was interviewed, yes.
ACOSTA: I assume that subject may have come up. Perhaps it didn't but I'm asking you --
WOLF: It did not.
ACOSTA: It did not. OK. Let me ask you this. While you were the acting secretary of Homeland Security, was it ever brought to your attention that Vice President Mike Pence might be in danger on January 6th?
WOLF: No, no.
ACOSTA: Did not happen?
WOLF: It did not happen. I talked to the Secret Service director on the 6th and there was no concerns.
ACOSTA: And what about the 25th Amendment? Apparently there were discussions going on among Trump cabinet members about whether or not the 25th Amendment should be used to remove the president at the time from power. Were you involved in any of those discussions? Were you aware of any of those discussions?
WOLF: No. No, I've heard public reporting that seems to be, you know, one of many, many rumors going around. I was never involved in any -- nor do I know of anyone that was ever involved.
ACOSTA: And you saw the aide to Mark Meadows, the then White House chief of staff, Cassidy Hutchinson. She testified that there was some sort of altercation in the president's vehicle as all of this was unfolding on January 6th, he wanted to be taken up to the Capitol that day, according to Miss Hutchinson. And there was an altercation that occurred according to her testimony. Does that ring a bell? Were you ever -- was that ever brought to your attention?
WOLF: No.
ACOSTA: Were you briefed on that?
WOLF: No. Not only was that sort of episode or, you know, reporting that she described, it was never obviously brought to my attention. But what I know about, obviously I had Secret Service protection as acting secretary and know the type of vehicles that they operate in. I can't imagine that scenario unfolding under any number of circumstances, and I'm happy to walk that through. But what she described in the president's act, I just --
ACOSTA: Were there any security concerns brought to your attention?
WOLF: It's so unfathomable to me on how that would actually play out. I think it's totally ludicrous.
[16:15:00]
ACOSTA: And what about Trump not doing anything for 187 minutes while this was going on, failing to make any effort to tell the rioters to leave? What's your response to that?
WOLF: Well, I know the president --
ACOSTA: Was that a dereliction of duty on his part?
WOLF: I don't think so. I know the president talked about wanting to go to the Capitol in a peaceful way. Look, at the time of January 6th, I think I was one of the first cabinet officials who came out and said, look, the president needs to talk about this more. I continue -- you know, I believed that at the time. But I think he addressed it. Look, at the end of the day we've got to hold individuals --
ACOSTA: Do you support the way he handled it?
WOLF: Who decided to go to the Capitol, individuals made their own choice when they decided to go to the Capitol and then when they decided to enter the Capitol to make certain decisions. And I think you've got to hold those individuals accountable. Holding other individuals accountable.
ACOSTA: Trump saying you've got to fight like hell, all of those things that he was saying on January 6th?
WOLF: Yes, I think --
ACOSTA: You don't hold him accountable in any way?
WOLF: Well, I think it's also interesting, you know, he mentions peacefully, doing that peacefully several times during that speech. You didn't mention that. So I think it's important to keep in context the full flavor of, again, how he was addressing that crowd.
ACOSTA: Let me show you this picture of something from your former Instagram account.
WOLF: Yes. ACOSTA: This is a picture of you back in September of 2020 working
with your cyber security infrastructure, security agency director Chris Krebs at the time, and it shows you talking about how you were hoping for a secure election in 2020. He has since said obviously, and you know this, that it was a secure and free and fair election. Do you agree with him on that?
WOLF: Well, I certainly --
ACOSTA: And that Joe Biden won the election fair and square?
WOLF: Yes. Well, let me address the photo that you showed, obviously working with the Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency, what we call CISA at the department. Their mission is very tailored which is to make sure that elections are free from any cybersecurity threats. And certainly during 2020 we were focused on foreign threats because of the intel that we had seen at the time.
What DHS does not do, what CISA does not do is talk about election fraud. We don't have that jurisdiction. We don't have those authorities. That's the Department of Justice. And so I --
ACOSTA: Do you think there was election fraud?
WOLF: I think there's a number of election irregularities, illegalities, and fraud. And I think that's been widely reported on both the right and the left.
ACOSTA: But enough to alter the outcome of the 2020 election? Are you an election denier?
WOLF: I would say any type of fraud.
ACOSTA: Wait --
WOLF: Any type of election fraud -- no, no, this is important. Any type of -- I don't want to just bypass was it a little or was it a lot. Right? Any fraud should be addressed. And I don't think we can say just, hey, there's a little fraud, so that's OK.
ACOSTA: Who won the 2020 --
WOLF: At the end of the day. I think that's very, very important.
ACOSTA: I've got you here. Who won the 2020 election?
WOLF: Obviously Joe Biden is president.
ACOSTA: No, no, no.
WOLF: I mean, there's -- no, no, no. I just answered your question.
ACOSTA: No. But he is the president obviously.
WOLF: He is the president. ACOSTA: I've seen folks from Trump world parse this out and say, OK,
Joe Biden is president. We know that. OK. That is a matter of fact. Do you believe that he won that election fair and square?
WOLF: I believe that -- I just answered the question, first. Let me answer it in two parts. One, Joe Biden is president. Two, a number of irregularities, illegalities and fraud occurred during 2020.
ACOSTA: But not sufficient to throw the election of Joe Biden.
WOLF: Again, I don't have all of that evidence. I think there's been a number of reporting --
ACOSTA: You sound like a conspiracy theorist. You sound like an election denialist.
WOLF: How is that a conspiracy theory?
ACOSTA: Chad, you know, you know full well that Joe Biden won the election.
WOLF: Let's look at Wisconsin.
ACOSTA: You know who won the election.
WOLF: Let's look at Wisconsin. Wisconsin Supreme Court says that the way they use drop boxes --
ACOSTA: The U.S. Supreme Court did not want to have anything to do with these challenges.
WOLF: The way they use of drop boxes was illegal in the state of Wisconsin.
ACOSTA: Yes.
WOLF: So how do you sit there and say that that is a conspiracy theory when that happens to be the facts.
ACOSTA: Yes. The Supreme Court wanted nothing to do with anything.
WOLF: Well, OK, that's fine.
ACOSTA: Any of these challenges.
WOLF: That's fine.
ACOSTA: Trump lost over and over and over again. Why not accept that? Why not move on?
WOLF: I have moved on. And so what we're doing at the America First Policy Institute through our Center for Election Integrity --
ACOSTA: Well, you had Donald Trump speaking -- you had Donald Trump speaking to organizations -- WOLF: -- is actually talking about a lot of these issues at the state
level where we talk about voter I.D. We talk about scrubbing voter rolls. We talk about same day election voting. Look, you asked me the question so I'm answering it. If you want to look back to 2020, I'm focused on looking forward. We've got midterms and obviously we have a presidential.
ACOSTA: Should Donald Trump still be out there peddling the election lies that he spreads every day?
WOLF: Look, I'm happy to continue to answer questions about President Trump. But I think polling every single day --
ACOSTA: Do you think he's lying about the 2020 election?
WOLF: Polling will say folks on the left and the right do not have confidence in our election system and that's a problem. And I think that's what we should be focused on. How do we solve these problems so that when we have the midterms and --
ACOSTA: Our elections are fine.
WOLF: Jim.
ACOSTA: Chad. Chad.
WOLF: There is fraud in our election system. And if people don't acknowledge that, then that becomes part of the problem. Absolutely.
ACOSTA: You are the former acting secretary of Homeland Security, and you're spreading doubt and fear and --
WOLF: It's not doubt.
ACOSTA: About our election process.
WOLF: These happen to be facts.
ACOSTA: No.
WOLF: These are simply facts.
ACOSTA: These are alternative facts.
WOLF: Jim --
ACOSTA: You make --
WOLF: You're saying there's no problem --
ACOSTA: Joe Biden won fair and square.
[16:20:02]
WOLF: Are you saying there's no fraud in our election system?
ACOSTA: Of course there are some episodes of fraud.
WOLF: Absolutely. And that's what I'm talking about.
ACOSTA: Bill Barr, the attorney general.
WOLF: Let's talk about that.
ACOSTA: Said this was BS. Why not accept it? Move on.
WOLF: Jim, this is what I'm talking about. There are a number of irregularities, illegalities and fraud when we talk about our election.
ACOSTA: Not sufficient to alter the outcome of the 2020 election.
WOLF: Look, I don't -- I certainly don't know that. I'm not in charge of that but what I would say even if there's a small amount, that is worth coming together and trying to solve that at a national level and at a state level so that we can get past this so that we have some integrity in our elections.
ACOSTA: Well, we need to have integrity but we also need to have integrity among officials who work in the government and who have left the government who will tell the American people the truth.
WOLF: And I think we need to have -- we certainly need to have some integrity by those reporting the news as well.
ACOSTA: And we do have that integrity.
WOLF: OK.
ACOSTA: But we expect that of our elected leaders and people who work under them because you can't continue to sow these seeds of doubt about American democracy. It's simply failing the American people to continue to lead them down this path of lies.
WOLF: So it's not lies, Jim. I'm happy to go through everything that I just said and to go into detail. I think when you deny the facts, when you deny the facts that there has been some amount of fraud -- I can't tell you how much.
ACOSTA: All right, well, we're not going to --
WOLF: Obviously there's been some fraud. There's been illegalities. We see it state after state after state. We haven't even talked about Zuckerberg, we haven't even talked about the number of things that occurred --
ACOSTA: It sounds like you've watched one too many conspiracy films about the 2020 election.
WOLF: No, I'm actually -- I'm actually reading the news.
ACOSTA: That's all the time that we have.
WOLF: And reading the facts.
ACOSTA: All right. That's all the time that we have.
Chad Wolf, thank you very much for joining us. We appreciate it.
WOLF: All right. Thank you.
ACOSTA: Coming up, former actor Gary Busey facing multiple sexual offense charges at a Monster Mania convention. What allegedly happened while he was serving as a celebrity guest.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:26:02]
ACOSTA: Police say actor Gary Busey is facing multiple sex offense charges after attending a Monster Mania Film Convention in New Jersey.
For the very latest let's go to CNN's Jean Casarez.
Jean, do we know exactly what happened there?
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, let's talk about, first, what we do know. All right. Now let's look at the timeline. It was a convention. It was last weekend in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, Monster Mania. All the fans come out. Gary Busey was to be the celebrity guest three days. During the course of that weekend the Cherry Hill Police of New Jersey tell us that they were called to the hotel because of allegations of a report of a sex offense.
And so at that point nothing was done, and then you have last week and on Friday they actually filed, and this is the police department, not the district attorney's office, the police department, filed charges. Now let's look at what they are. First of all, two counts of criminal sexual contact, fourth degree. One count of criminal attempt, criminal sexual contact, fourth degree. One count of harassment, disorderly persons offense.
And according to the statute, because I looked them up, fourth degree, the presumption is there is no incarceration. It can be up to 15 months but is normally a probational defense. Now we did get a response also from the attorney that's representing the Monster Mania Convention, and he said that immediately upon receiving a complaint from the attendee the celebrity guest was removed from the convention and instructed not to return.
We have asked if there's a mug shot. We have asked if there is a complaint. They say there is one. It is not being sent and there is no mug shot, the police tell us, because he has not been processed.
ACOSTA: All right, Jean Casarez, thank you very much for that update. We appreciate it.
Coming up, a suspect who police say sucker punched a stranger into a coma gets arrested, released, and then arrested again. All the twists and turns in this case and why the governor of New York is now involved.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ACOSTA: The suspect accused in a sucker-punch attack that cracked a man's skull and put him in a coma is now back in police custody after initially walking free. Let's show you the video of what happened. The police say the suspect did this to a total stranger outside of a restaurant in the Bronx.
He was initially arrested but then released when the charges were downgraded from attempted murder to assault and harassment, both misdemeanor and non-bail eligible offenses. But then, the governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, intervened. According to the governor, the suspect was a convicted rapist on parole and he was rearrested.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D), NEW YORK: I took action into my own hands. I directed the Department of Corrections and community supervision to immediately examine whether or not this parole violation occurred. Yes, it did. You could tell it occurred. This was a person on lifetime parole.
And, as of minutes ago, that person is now in custody. That is at my direction. The people of New York need to know that, as the governor, I'll stand up and protect them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Now, CNN reached out to the suspect's attorney who had no comment. And CNN Political Commentator, and columnist for "New York Magazine," Errol Louis joins us. Errol, great to see you. Long time no talk.
But this is a fascinating case up there in New York. And there's been a lot of outrage over all of this. Give us some background on why the governor felt like she needed to get involved here.
ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, the short answer, Jim -- good to be with you.
ACOSTA: Yes.
LOUIS: The short answer is that we're less than 90 days away from an election in which she has a sizable but not insurmountable lead over her Republican opponent. And so, to the extent that crime has been rising in New York, especially in New York City, and it's become an issue in this race, the governor does not want to be seen as soft on crime. That's really the short answer.
The particulars of the case, of course, are, you know -- nobody will be happy to hear this. But in most jurisdictions around the country, this is not just a New York thing, when somebody, kind of, throws a punch at a stranger, whether it's a bar fight or at a concert or a random encounter on the street, they are usually are not charged with attempted murder no matter how bad the resulting injury. Because the thought is that somebody who does that does not expect to kill someone. And that's why the charges were downgraded. And when charges are downgraded, you aren't necessarily held on bail. The governor, of course, intervened for a combination of sound legal and, frankly, political reasons, I think.
ACOSTA: And the governor, she's not going to be able to intervene in every case. Might she be painting herself into a corner where you might have another instance where people start clamoring for the governor to get involved?
[16:35:05]
ACOSTA: And that's why you have law enforcement. That's why you have prosecutors. I'm just -- I'm assuming that's what folks are saying up in New York right now about some of this (ph).
LOUIS: Well, That's the first thing that occurred to me, Jim.
ACOSTA: Yes.
LOUIS: Is that, you know, there are about 55,000 people in custody in New York state prisons, in the counties and all over the state. The governor, obviously, cannot intervene in every case of somebody who -- of whether or not their parole has been violated, or whether or not they should be released, and so forth and so on.
We do have a system. And, frankly, it's what you want. You want a neutral administration of justice, because every person, even someone who committed the heinous deed that you just showed, is entitled to have their case fairly and neutrally adjudicated on its own terms. Not thrown into some political cauldron, according to what happens to be in the headlines in an election season.
But I think the governor will be asked about this in future cases. And you know, all I can say is we'll have to wait until November 9th or later to see whether or not this is going to be the ongoing way that business is done in the capital.
ACOSTA: Yes. It is an awful case. And when you watch that video, you see those images of what occurred. I mean, it is -- it is absolutely awful. I can -- you know, it is -- it's an interesting case. We'll have to keep following it.
Errol Louis, thank you very much. Great to see you. We appreciate it.
LOUIS: Thank you.
ACOSTA: All right, coming up, how the search at Mar-a-Lago led to a rise in dangerous and even violent rhetoric from Republican candidates running for office.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
CARL PALADINO (R), NEW YORK CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE (via Breitbart Radio): An administration of people like Maryland, OK, who should be not only impeached, he should -- probably should be executed. (END AUDIO CLIP)
[16:36:41]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ACOSTA: First lady, Jill Biden, is out of isolation today, after testing negative on two consecutive COVID tests. The first lady tested positive for the virus on Monday, while she and the president were vacationing with family in South Carolina. She isolated for five days there.
Turning now to the FBI search of former President Donald Trump's Mar- a-Lago estate. A majority of registered voters want that investigation, and others tied to Trump, to proceed. That's according to a new NBC News poll.
Nearly six in 10 voters back the investigations. And this is despite a daily barrage of criticism from prominent Republicans, ranging from accusations that the FBI search was politically motivated to flat-out calls for violence.
This morning, GOP Congressman Dan Crenshaw condemned extreme rhetoric coming from his party and he called out his Republican colleague, Marjorie Taylor Greene, for pushing to defund the FBI.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. DAN CRENSHAW (R), TEXAS: It's crazy and it makes us seems like extremist Democrats, right? And so, Marjorie and AOC can join the defund the law enforcement club if they want. 99 percent of Republicans are not on that train.
What we want accountability. We want transparency. And these -- and the criticisms that we're leveling against the FBI and DOJ are fully warranted. It is -- it is not those criticisms that lead to a crazy person, you know, attacking an FBI --
JAKE TAPPER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, no, I'm not saying that. I'm talking about people who are, like, saying kill FBI or --
CRENSHAW: No, it's completely wrong, right? It's completely wrong. But that's not where 99 percent of Republicans are at, of course.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: Let's bring in former FBI and CIA official, Phil Mudd. Phil, what's your reaction to what we just heard there from Congressman Crenshaw? It kind of echoes a little bit of what we heard from Chad Wolf, the former acting Homeland Security secretary, earlier on in this program that somehow Trump is being treated unfairly.
PHIL MUDD, CNN COUNTERTERRORISM ANALYST: Yes, I've heard some of that. I guess, I look at what Mike Pence said recently, Jim. And I say -- Mike Pence was, obviously, pretty cautious on the FBI saying -- and trying to rein in that fringe of the Republican Party who's been attacking the FBI. So, there are people out there saying, hey, be careful. To the Republicans saying be careful to their own party.
I would handle this with a bit of caution. We're going into an election campaign in the midterms with a lot of election deniers. If they win, they're going to be talking negatively about the FBI, when there might be charges related to Mar-a-Lago, or do you have that inflammatory case against Rudy Giuliani and others in Atlanta. And when maybe President Trump, himself, will decide whether he's going to announce a campaign.
So, even though you have some Republicans saying, let's step back. If I were a practitioner in the business, I would be worried about the threat and whether that threat gets worse not better after the midterms.
ACOSTA: And, Phil, one of the most appalling comments that we've heard thus far was this recent remark from Republican House candidate, Carl Paladino. Let's listen to that.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
CARL PALADINO (R), NEW YORK CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE (via Breitbart Radio): An administration of people like Merrick Garland, OK, who should be not only impeached, he should -- probably should be executed.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
ACOSTA: I mean, this is a -- this is just over the top. I mean, it's just completely crazy to make those kinds of comments.
MUDD: I would say it's worse than crazy. You're putting people in danger. And the -- and the reason is what the Congressman just said in the clip leading up to this. He admitted that maybe there's one percent, maybe one percent, which seems tiny, of the party who he would, I assume, characterize as an extremist fringe.
Let's go into -- put an investigative hat on and look at that number for just a second. Even if it's one percent of the party, that's hundreds of thousands of people who are looking at violent rhetoric, like what you just heard, and maybe saying, that validates my worries about things like electoral fraud. That validates my views that people in the FBI need to be attacked.
Even if it's one percent of a major party, when you get politicians who say violence is appropriate, that one percent will take that and run. That's the same kind of validation we saw in extremists that we chased after 911. That's extremist rhetoric that people will listen to and they might act. They might act.
ACOSTA: And as someone who worked extensively on radicalization, do you think that the portions of the Republican Party are walking us down the path toward another January 6th?
MUDD: I think there's the prospect of that. I know it sounds odd talking about radicalization in the same terms that I would have witnessed 15 years ago in Islamic movements. [16:45:02]
MUDD: But, to me, in terms of leads -- leadups to violence, like January 6th, the model is pretty basic. You have a -- you have a group of people, a fairly large group, in this country who are angry. They have incendiary moments coming up, like the moments around whether there will be charges around Mar-a-Lago, like moments when major politicians, maybe including the former president, say things that are incendiary. And they look at that and say, putting those things together, I need to act.
To me, that's the radicalization I've seen my entire career. And there is a fringe of people who will listen to that and go out and do something at some place like an FBI office, Jim.
ACOSTA: And, Phil, you know, that same NBC poll I mentioned at the top also asks voters about their confidence in the FBI. And I think this is -- I think this is notable. 65 percent have at least some confidence in the FBI. About a third have little or no confidence. It sounds as though the public wants to see this investigation continue, and that they have faith in the FBI, despite all the sludge that's being thrown around these days.
MUDD: But as a voting American, I cannot understand the idea that members of Congress, whether they're on the left or the right, start attacking law enforcement. Look at polling data on whether people trust Congress. Incredibly low. Look at polling data on whether people trust law enforcement at the local level and at the national level.
You just mentioned the polling data very high on the FBI. Look, also, at polling data on whether Americans trust judges or trust the Congress. Congress keeps attacking institutions, judges and the FBI that people trust. Who do you think people are going to side with? I would say they're going to side with the institutions they trust and look at members of Congress and say, throw them out. That's what I'd do.
ACOSTA: So, what's the answer? I mean, do you think -- would you want to go up to Capitol Hill and pull some of these Republican Congress folks aside and say, hold on a second. You're out of control here. Tone it down. I mean, what needs to happen?
MUDD: Well, the answer is pretty basic. And, again, I'm going back to the history. This is not just my opinion.
ACOSTA: Yes.
MUDD: The history I've had of following extremism. If you have leadership that takes air out of the room, people will feel increasingly embarrassed, publicly on things like Facebook or whatever or in a meeting, to publicly talk about extremism that leads to violence. Things like going after the FBI.
If you pull the air out of the room, and that is leadership saying it's wrong and, potentially, you should be charged. People will talk about it less. Conversely, if you see what we're getting when leadership says that negative commentary, including violence about the FBI, is appropriate, people will start to react and simmer.
This is a leadership problem. If leadership speaks, we will take the air out of the room, and you will see less extremism in this country. It's the way I've watched extremism for 30 years, Jim. Leadership counts.
ACOSTA: It absolutely does. All right, Phil Mudd, great to talk to you, as always. Thank you very much.
MUDD: Thanks.
ACOSTA: Coming up, an update on the little league player seriously injured. after falling from a bunk bed. What we're learning about another fall that he had last night.
[16:48:11]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ACOSTA: In Indiana, three people are dead in a crash involving several Indiana state football players. It happened about 10 miles from campus earlier today. The school said five people were in the car, all expect -- all believed to be ISU students.
According to police, the car ran into a tree and then caught on fire. The driver and two passengers died at the scene. Emergency personnel were able to free two other passengers and they were taken to the hospital with serious injuries.
Doctors are going to perform another CAT Scan on an injured little leaguer after a new fall. 12-year-old Easton Oliverson fell and hit his head again, while going to the bathroom by himself last night. On Instagram, his family shared that Easton is not allowed to go to the bathroom by himself. He told doctors that he fell on his bottom and then hit his head.
Doctors are now trying to see if this new fall has caused any new swelling. Easton has -- was already being treated for a fractured skull that he suffered after falling from a bunk bed at the players' dormitory for the Little League World Series. Just yesterday, his family had shared this message.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EASTON OLIVERSON: Hey, this is Easton. Thank you for the prayers.
UNIDENTIED MALE: Are you starting to feel better, bud?
OLIVERSON: Yes, I'm starting to feel better.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Awesome. Team Easton. We love you buddy.
OLIVERSON: Love you, too.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ACOSTA: And we are all thinking and praying for little Easton today. Easton's team from Utah, Snow Canyon Little League, was scheduled to play against Iowa, but the players were pulled from the field because of a rain delay. And keep going, Easton. We're pulling for you.
After growing up with a sister who has Downs Syndrome, this week's CNN Hero was inspired to help other adults with learning disabilities get the college experience that they want. Meet DeAnna Pursai.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, everybody.
DEANNA PURSAI, FOUNDER, ANGELS ON STAGE (voice-over): College of Adaptive Arts is a lifelong equitable collegiate experience for adults with special needs of all differing abilities who historically haven't had access to college education.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You hit that right there.
PURSAI: We have 10 schools of instruction, and they get the same access to the array of classes that any college student can select.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Out reaching towards the sun.
PURSAI: I want for every student that walks through our doors to be treated like they're thinking intellectual, that they are --
[16:55:08]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love you.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I love you, too.
PURSAI: My experience with my sister, Angel, has helped me be a better, more authentic, transparent person. I am so humbled each and every day by their depth and ideas and ways to make the world a better place.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: And to learn more about DeAnna's inspiring story, go to CNNHeroes.com.
[16:55:39]
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