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Chappelle Reps Dispute Claim "SNL" Writers Will Boycott His Appearance; Crypto Giant FTX Files for Bankruptcy; Elon Musk Warns Twitter Staff of Possible Bankruptcy; Money Pouring Into Critical Georgia Senate Runoff. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired November 11, 2022 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Anticipation building at "30 Rock" home of NBC and "Saturday Night Live," where comedian Dave Chappelle is set to host "SNL's" post-election day episode this weekend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is Dave. He tells joke for a living. He's also about to host "Saturday Night Live" for the third time.

CARROLL: But this time, questions about possible problems behind the scenes. Chappelle's representatives pushing back on unconfirmed reports that "SNL" writers were staging a boycott related to the comedian's previous comments about the trans community.

Telling CNN: We've seen nothing to support media reports of a writer's boycott. In fact, the writers delivered over 40 sketches for Dave's consideration and collaboration.

Chappelle has come under fire for comments about the transgender community in his standup routine. Most recently in his Netflix special "The Closer."

DAVE CHAPPELLE, COMEDIAN: Gender is fact. This is fact. Every human being in this room, every human being on earth had to pass through the legs of a woman to be on earth. That is a fact.

CARROLL: A reddit user captured this Instagram story from an "SNL" writer Celeste Yim.

Who wrote: I'm trans and non-binary. I use they/them pronouns. Transphobia is murder and it should be condemned.

It is not clear if this was aimed at Chappelle. Yim did not response to a CNN request to comment about him hosting. News of Chappelle's return was met with some backlash on social media as some pointed out the show announced in September, it was adding its first nonbinary cast member, Molly Kearney. Chappelle began his postelection hosting for "SNL" in 2016 following the election of Donald Trump.

CHAPPELLE: All my black friends, who have money said the same thing when Trump got elected. That's it, bro. I'm out. I'm leaving the country. Are you coming with us? No. I'm good, dog. I'm going to stay here and get this tax break and see how it works out.

CARROLL: And he continued in 2020 after Biden won.

CHAPPELLE: I thought we were having a comedy show.

CARROLL: Now Chappelle is set for another go in front of "SNL's" live studio audience as both his critics and fans wait to hear what he will say next.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Our thanks to Jason Carroll for that report. Let's discuss this with CNN media analyst Bill Carter. Bill, thanks for joining us this afternoon. What do you make of this apparent disagreement, even though it's not exactly public, between some of the staff on "SNL" and Dave Chappelle?

BILL CARTER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: Well, it's not surprising that the people in the trans community are now uncomfortable having Dave Chappelle as host because he's been in the middle of this controversy. I would find it really pretty surprising or shocking if there was an actual boycott of him by the staff. That does not make sense to me, and I've known Lauren Michaels a long, long time, and he's the executive producer of course, creator of the show, and I don't see how that would be acceptable to him.

I do think Chappelle is a controversial figure. They've had controversial figures before. The show is supposed to be an out there show, so all that is probably within the frame work of what you expect from "Saturday Night Live".

BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN HOST: Yes, and as we noted in that piece, this would be his third appearance. He is a known quantity. And he is not somebody who I would imagine can be told to act a certain way or stick within certain perimeters. So, is this a situation where any publicity is good publicity, and the fact we're talking about it now will hopefully for "Saturday Night Live" and Lorne Michaels lead to more eyeballs this weekend or do you see a situation where there could be real chaos unfolding internally?

CARTER: I certainly see the former and not the latter. And you're obviously onto something, Bianna, because every time the show has had some sort of controversial host, it drives tune-in. People want to see what he's going to say, and Dave Chappelle is a comedian who is a comedian who breaks norms.

I'm always pro-comedy and I'm absolutely for people who break norms in comedy and are original. He fits the bill, but obviously you can have -- you can't go too far. You're not going to have Kanye West hosting and doing antisemitic jokes. So, I don't expect him to be out there doing things that are really outrageous comments about the transgender community.

He has said some pretty edgy things I have to say in his Netflix special. And of course, you remember, he was even attacked on stage once in the past year. So, he's been in the middle of this, and he kind of welcomes it. You're right about his style. His style is to take on anything that's, you know, challenging. He's going to take it on.

SANCHEZ: Yes, you're right. "SNL" I remember had Donald Trump on to host in the leadup to the 2016 election and that was extremely controversial. Got them very big ratings. I'm wondering, though, Bill --

CARTER: Exactly.

[15:35:00]

SANCHEZ: -- when you say that for Lorne Michaels, any kind of boycott or internal dispute would be unacceptable. How do you think he would handle it? Do you think people would get fired?

CARTER: Well, that's what I don't expect to happen because Lorne besides being a masterful producer and has always been masterful at the psychology of handling talented people. Obviously, this cast of that show has always had a lot of out there kind of people among the writers and performers, and he has had to wrangle them over all these years, 40-plus years. So, I would imagine behind the scenes there's been discussion. He may have said to some of the writers, if you don't want to write a sketch, then you can write a commercial or a sketch that he's not in. The host is not in every sketch.

So, there are ways to manage this, and I would be surprised if he wasn't managing it. And everyone who's on that show knows it's kind of a gigantic career boost and sort of a privilege to be on the show, so to push that too far would be pretty risky for their careers, I think.

GOLODRYGA: No doubt there will be a lot of people tuning in to watch that opening monologue. Who knows? I may even stay up until 11:30 now on a Saturday night. I can't remember the last time I did that, just to tune in. Bill Carter, thank you. Great to see you. Have a great weekend.

We've got an update for you coming up on a major crypto crash and burn. FTX, the exchange backed by everyone from Tom Brady to Steph Curry, it just filed for bankruptcy. We'll bring you the details in just a few moments.

[15:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: More turmoil at Twitter. The company's new owner Elon Musk is now warning staff that he could potentially declare bankruptcy for the company he just bought.

GOLODRYGA: CNN's Oliver Darcy joins us now with the latest. Oliver, so now bankruptcy -- listen. This is like an evergreen segment kind of day to have you on. So, what crazy thing did Elon Musk do now? And it's as if there's like a thought experiment happening in his head that he doesn't actually realize is playing out in real life. The FTC is watching this. What's going on? OLIVER DARCY, CNN SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER: Well, the FTC is worried that

Twitter is perhaps not in compliance with federal regulation. So, they're saying, that we are, you know, actively looking. They're deeply worried about what's happening at Twitter. But the broader picture here I think is, can Twitter survive Elon Musk?

I mean, the FTC is one problem that he has. He has multiple fires now burning at Twitter. Advertisers have fled, executives he ousted, right, and then other executives are leaving the company. Morale is low. I was talking to someone who told me that internally, company -- employees are viewing this as the Titanic, looking for lifeboats, hoping to get out. His verification Twitter blue subscription model has imploded. They had to suspend that today.

And so, you look at all of these factors happening at Twitter, and you wonder how they're going to succeed as a company. And then Elon Musk comes out himself basically and tells them, well, we might not actually survive. We might have to declare bankruptcy. And so, it is just a huge mess, and this could have really significant ramifications for us all because it's a very important communications platform. Government officials use this. Countries use this to communicate, and it's now been thrown into complete chaos.

GOLODRYGA: So, when he tweets, users are up, sort of, like, nothing to see here, what does he -- does he not understand what's happening? Is -- are people actually using the platform more now?

DARCY: It doesn't matter for him though how many people at this point are using the platform or not if he can't have advertisers. So, if he can't actually monetize the users on the platform, that's his biggest problem. And he's admitted it. He said a couple of weeks ago there's a massive revenue drop at Twitter and he told employees in his first note if we don't increase revenue, we might not survive this economic downturn. And his problem is that he has scared advertisers away. And one of the only people, the key figures at Twitter Yoel Roth, who was the head of trust and safety that was really making them have some confidence in the platform, he departed Twitter yesterday.

And so, I don't -- I don't know how they're going to get themselves out of this one. It just seems like one thing after the next, and the last 24 hours, you've seen this company really get into a quickening death spiral. I'm not sure they can navigate out of this one.

GOLODRYGA: Well, carve out your schedule, 3:40 around this time every day, we'll have you in this seat with another update. Oliver Darcy, thank you.

DARCY: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: So far this month, consumer confidence is worse than expected. That is according to a closely watched consumer sentiment report that was released today by the University of Michigan. There are fears over inflation and a possible recession that continue to weigh on consumers. CNN's Matt Egan joins us now with more, and Matt, for the last few months, consumer confidence had been slowly improving. What happened? MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Boris and Bianna, the problem is that

consumers are feeling this painful one-two punch, right. First, you have the high cost of living. People are feeling inflation at the gas station, the grocery store, when they go shopping for the holidays. And then they're also getting squeezed by this spike in borrowing cost. The Feds warn inflation has driven up mortgage rates to a 20 year high, and credit card rates have never been higher. And so, that's why we've seen consumer settlement expectedly take a bit of a hit this month getting closer to record lows.

[15:45:00]

Now this is a big deal because consumer spending is the main driver of this economy. Now we know what people say and what they do is not always the same thing. If they say they don't like the economy, but they keep spending, then this economy can keep going. On the other hand, if they stop spending, you know, all bets are off.

GOLODRYGA: And Matt, this comes as we're seeing the cryptocurrency market really devolved into chaos with one of its biggest companies announcing they're filing for bankruptcy. What is happening there in that sector?

EGAN: Yes, the collapse of FTX is really one of the most stunning implosions that we've seen. It's amazing because of -- first of all, how quickly it happened. I mean, this wasn't something that happened in weeks or months. I mean, it's really been in just the past few days and also because of who FTX is. They're one of the leading crypto exchanges.

Founder Sam Bankman-Fried, and he's been one of the faces of crypto. He was the white knight who bailed out others struggling crypto firms. And now he's become so toxic that he couldn't get a bailout of his own. He's lost a fortune that was worth $15 billion. He resigned as CEO. It's just been an incredible series of developments.

And FTX itself, I mean, it's backed by top investors. It had endorsement deals with Steph Curry, Gisele, Tom Brady. Its logo was flashed on the home of the NBA's Miami Heat. And now it's bankrupt.

That means that its investors may get wiped out. Employees could lose their jobs. Some people -- some of the customers, they could lose money as well through no fault of their own. Let me read you what you what Sam Bankman-Fried said on Twitter today.

He said, quote, I'm very sorry, again, that we ended up here. Hopefully things can find a way to recover. Hopefully this can bring some amount of transparency, trust, and governance to them. Ultimately hopefully it can get better for customers.

Now all of this has shaken confidence in the crypto industry. Bitcoin prices down another five percent today. Down dramatically from the peak just a year ago. Regulators are reportedly swarming, and all of this of course, is going to just bolster calls for a regulatory crackdown. And it's just a reminder, Bianna and Boris, of how many ways, you know, crypto remains the wild, wild west of financial markets.

SANCHEZ: Yes, and as we await to see how the balance of power shakes out in Congress, it'll be interesting to see how they might figure out regulation moving forward. Matt Egan, thanks so much, Matt.

EGAN: Thanks.

GOLODRYGA: With the power of the Senate still at stake, Mitch McConnell is teaming up with Georgia Governor Brian Kemp to help push Herschel Walker over the finish line in December's runoff. Details straight ahead.

[15:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

GOLODRYGA: With control of the Senate up in the air, it could once again all come down to Georgia, where a runoff race is underway.

SANCHEZ: Let's take you to Atlanta now with CNN's Eva McKend. Eva, apparently Governor Brian Kemp is getting involved in that Senate race.

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: That's right, Boris. Mitch McConnell's super-PAC, the Senate leadership fund, is teaming up with Governor Kemp to help bankroll a get out the vote operation to help Walker in the December 6th runoff. That's according to a spokesperson for the PAC. It's a sign of how all factions of the GOP are uniting behind a race that could determine the balance of power in the Senate. The committee is dropping $2 million to bankroll that turnout operation that Kemp built.

Now, earlier this week, we learned the fundraising operation for Senate Democrats will contribute $7 million to boost Warnock. The two wasted no time getting back out on the campaign trail. Senator Warnock, Herschel Walker, their arguments are really coming into focus, Boris. Warnock argues that this is about competence and character, suggesting that he will again work to try to indict Walker over character issues and make this greater argument that Walker is not fit to serve in the United States Senate.

Recalling a moment during their one and only debate when Walker suggested diabetics just need to eat right. Walker, meanwhile, says Warnock is more concerned about carrying out President Biden's agenda than with the worries of everyday Georgians. So, Georgians may not actually even have to wait until December 6th. November 28th is the earliest day early in-person voting could begin -- Boris.

GOLODRYGA: Yes, a shorter runoff than it was last year, but here we are again. Eva McKend, thank you.

SANCHEZ: There's still much more of our election coverage to come, so, stay with us.

[15:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: The top ten CNN heroes of 2022 have just been announced and one of them will soon be named hero of the year. As we honor our veterans today, we are highlighting Richard Casper.

GOLODRYGA: Richard struggled after serving in Iraq and discovered art as an outlet for his pain. Well, he's helping other veterans work through their own trauma.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD CASPER, CNN HERO 2022: Art is so emotional and vulnerable. It's what allows you to understand that it's OK to not be OK.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My artwork is a presentation of some of the guys that we lost when we were deployed. I built a complete mock-up of a casket.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, Dave.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's up, Josh?

CASPER: Most of the veterans have never told their story to anybody before.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They will shoulder the burden as they already have done.

CASPER: I tried to explain to them in the beginning, it's going to be easier to tell your story once you create your art piece, because you're not going to be talking about you, you're going to be talking about your art piece and focusing on it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There's something breaking out of me. I know there is a light.

CASPER: I want them to know that art's an option for healing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've seen some things a man just can't unseen I'm dealing demons, I'm dealing with me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[16:00:00]

SANCHEZ: Richard is so inspiring. To learn more about him and the other top ten CNN heroes, you can go to CNN.com/heroes. Bianna, it has been a pleasure to join you. I hope we'll be able to do it again sometime.

GOLODRYGA: It was so much fun. Thank you, Boris. Have a great weekend.

SANCHEZ: Thanks.