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The Democrats Keep Control Of The Senate; The House Still Up For Grabs; Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) Is Interviewed About The Election In Georgia; FTX CEO Resigns; The GOP Red Wave Hopes Crushed; Kyrie Irving Still Not Playing After Five-Game Suspension; Explosion In Istanbul. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired November 13, 2022 - 17:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:00:00]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington. Right now, Democrats are taking a big victory lap as they keep control of the Senate with a late night call in Nevada's Senate race. Democratic Senator Catherine Cortez Masto put her party over the threshold, a feat that seemed unlikely just days ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): This is a very happy day. We had great candidates. They had flawed candidates. Our candidates were talking about the issues. They cared about people. The incumbents had gotten a lot done. Their candidates were off talking about lack of democracy and spreading the big lie and all kinds of other things.

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): This is so -- such a cause for a celebration. Chuck Schumer was so correct when he said it was a victory for the people and for the country. I personally know that it's a joy to Harry Reid in heaven as he is that his state came through.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Now, while control of the Senate is decided, the House of Representatives is still up for grabs. Votes are still being counted in the 20 House races not called yet. Republicans are optimistic they can take back that chamber, but Democrats still have a path. But first, I want to go to Arizona where CNN's Kyung Lah is keeping a close eye on a race that is too early to call. You've been keeping your eye on lots of races there is in Arizona, but now it seems to be coming down to this big governor's race, Kim.

Right now, Democrat Katie Hobbs has a slight lead over Republican opponent Kari Lake. I suppose there's a good chance that Lake will cut into that margin somewhat, but perhaps we will have some kind of a call this evening. What do you think?

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's really difficult to tell, Jim, because we just simply don't know what these ballots are going to say quite yet. The margin is quite tight and as you say it is simply too early to call. Katie Hobbs, the Democrat, she is leading just under 34,000 votes, that is what is separating these two candidates.

And the path that you are talking about, Jim, what the Kari Lake campaign, a source within the Kari Lake campaign says is that this is the path, the mail-in ballots that are dropped off on election day and this process is still continuing here in Maricopa County.

And I do have a bit of an update. We are hearing from election officials here that all of those mail-in ballots that were dropped off on election day, they have now been processed. That doesn't mean they've been counted. They've been processed. They are now in the process of being tabulated.

So, the processing is done, the tabulation now is under way. There are about 75,000 to 80,000 ballots that we are anticipating to be released tonight, the information from those ballots that may tell us a little bit more, that critical information that you're talking about, Jim. And, you know, again, the Kari Lake campaign needs these votes to break her way if she intends to catch up with Katie Hobbs.

So, despite all the talk that the campaigns are whipping out there, we simply don't know what they're going to show quite yet. We anticipate we will know something in the 10:00 eastern hour. Jim?

ACOSTA: All right, Kyung. And we know you know how to separate the spin from what's happening, the reality there on the ground as they're tabulating those votes, counting those votes, getting them ready to be released to the public. Kyung Lah, thank you very much.

And joining us now is Democratic congressman from Arizona, Ruben Gallego. Congressman, it's been interesting election season cycle, midterm cycle there in your home state.

REP. RUBEN GALLEGO (D-AZ): It always is.

ACOSTA: It always is. Let's listen to what Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake said on Fox earlier this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARI LAKE, ARIZONA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: I consider someone's vote their voice. I think of it as a sacred vote and it's being trampled the way we run our elections in Arizona. I've been sounding the alarm for two years, nothing got done, very little got done last legislative session and we need to get in there and restore faith in our elections. We can't be the laughing stock of elections anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Congressman, as Kyung Lah was saying a few moments ago, we may have a projection on the governor's race, we may not in your state of Arizona as early as this evening. We saw protesters outside the Maricopa County election center yesterday, which was a worrying sign, but it seemed like everything was fine there just a few moments ago. [17:05:00]

Do you believe that Kari Lake will accept the election results if she does not win? Is there the potential that they could stir up a hornet's nest?

GALLEGO: Well, it certainly seems like she's willing to do that. And all that she has been talking about for the last two years is how all elections were rigged. The 2020 election is rigged so, past performance is probably a pretty good indicator of future performance. I think that is going to be the case, unfortunately. But look, Arizona elections are very well run. In Maricopa County they are run by Republicans.

The reason we have so many people dropping ballots is because everyone is excited about the race and because the Kari Lake people told their voters do not mail your ballot in, either walk it in or turn it in and vote in-person. So, this whole backup is of their own doing. And in the last two years, instead of trying to actually update our systems, Republicans in Arizona state legislature actually were trying to take away people's rights to vote even by mail.

So, there was no serious effort to make this better. But to give credit, it's going to get done and they will be professional like they have always done and I really believe in the professional people that work for the Maricopa County department.

ACOSTA: And Friday night CNN projected that Democratic Senator Mark Kelly held on to his Senate seat in Arizona. Last night, we projected that Catherine Cortez Masto kept her seat in the Senate, putting your party over the threshold in terms of maintaining control in the Senate. What is your -- why did this happen? There was all this talk of a red wave, a red tsunami. What were your thoughts going into this? Did you think that that was overblown?

GALLEGO: Yes.

ACOSTA: Which voting block do you think might have been key in all of this?

GALLEGO: I think it was overblown; I've been telling people especially after the Dobbs decision. I knew that it was going to be a better year for us, especially in Arizona. In Arizona we have to get our base out and, you know, Dobbs decision really brought up women, Latinos, young Latinos to come out and vote and that actually is what's probably made the biggest difference in getting Kelly elected -- reelected -- and Masto.

At the end of the day, it's also the extremism. They ran the worst candidates; they ran some really weird candidates that just didn't really connect with Arizona voters.

ACOSTA: And let's listen to what House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told my colleague Dana Bash this morning about the attack on her husband. Let's listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PELOSI: It wasn't just the attack, it was the Republican reaction to it which was disgraceful and that I think really -- the attack is horrible, but that trauma is intensified by the ridiculous disrespectful attitude that the Republicans and there's nobody disassociating themselves from the horrible response that they gave to it, you know, which are further into that.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: So, do you think that turned -- that turned voters off?

PELOSI: They tell me so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: What do you think, congressman? I mean, there was that, you also had just Trump being out there on the campaign trail in the final weekend. I mean, I think a lot -- it sounds like a lot of people looked at that and said, no more. No mas.

GALLEGO: A lot of people felt the callousness that was shown by the Republicans, what's kind of indicative of the bigger problem who these Republicans are they were running. If you can't even take a moment and have some sanity, some humanity for a woman's husband, then how can you care about me?

And that's why I think that actually translated into votes. And it wasn't just Trump. Kari Lake was trashing John McCain going into the last day of the election, a man who, you know, we all maybe had some disagreements with but he was very well-respected in Arizona. But trashing a dead man and his family in a state that he essentially helped build a modern Republican Party was just not smart.

And, again, a lot of people both Democrats and Republicans saw that and just looked at it and really just it looked trashy. It's just been a very trashy campaign that Kari Lake has been running this whole time.

ACOSTA: And control of the House is still up for grabs, the Republicans are just seven seats away from the majority. Democrats are 14 seats away and I'm just wondering, do you think that you guys can close the gap here? What do you think?

GALLEGO: We're going to close the gap. We will be able to take the control or keep control. It's going to be very close. I think Arizona --

ACOSTA: Do you think so -- do you think Democrats will keep control of the house?

GALLEGO: I think it's going to be close. Yes, I can't predict -- it's going to be very close. I think Arizona is going to have one or two victories, surprise victories, but you know, the days of us getting blown out are gone. The question is are we going to have a control of the House where it's going to be, you know, maintained by Democrats in a sane predictable way or are you going to throw the chaos to whatever McCarthy or one of the other yahoos ends up taking over. And I think you'd rather have us in charge.

ACOSTA: And how important was the Latino vote in this midterm cycle? Down in Florida -- and it goes to the notion that Latinos are not a monolithic voting group.

GALLEGO: Right.

ACOSTA: Because down in Florida you saw they came out heavily in favor of Ron DeSantis --

GALLEGO: That's right.

ACOSTA: -- helped him win re-election, but in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, it sounds like in Nevada and in Arizona --

GALLEGO: And in Oregon (ph).

ACOSTA: It was a key change.

GALLEGO: Yeah. I mean, look, this is the -- this is going to be -- this Congress is going to be -- it's going to have the highest representation of Latino Democrats in the history of Congress and we're still picking up more.

[17:10:05]

We picked up Latinos -- Latino Democrats in Washington, in Oregon, Nevada, New Mexico, a swing district New Mexico, Colorado. So, we definitely were key to actually narrowing that gap. We were key to actually helping our senators get reelected, not just --

ACOSTA: How did you do it, though, because there was all this talk that Republicans were going to pick up all these Latino votes this time around.

GALLEGO: Well, it was all talk and then there was a big narrative that a lot of the media jumped on for whatever reason, they wanted to latch on the (inaudible), but it never happened. I run the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Pac, Bold PAC. It's a $6 million -- we spend $6 million on independent expenditures just this last year for our candidates to protect our incumbents and even -- and push forward.

What we saw is that Latinos were -- did not like the extremism. They wanted solutions and they felt that the Democratic Party was still delivering for them. There was a lot of -- a lot of pundits and reporters that were purposely selecting bad polling, bad messaging in order for them to push a narrative that ended up being absolutely wrong except for Florida and we do have to work on that, but we clearly stopped the bleeding in Texas and really expanded our leads everywhere else.

ACOSTA: All right. Congressman Ruben Gallego, we'll see what happens tonight in Arizona. I'm sure you'll be watching as well. Thanks for your time.

GALLEGO: I will, definitely. ACOSTA: All right. Appreciate it. All right and tonight, CNN's Chris Wallace has an exclusive sit-down interview with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Here is a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS WALLACE, CNN HOST: Do people want both parties to move from the fringes, from the extremes, back to the center?

REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): I think a lot of people in this country may say yes, but it's important for us to dig into the substance of what that actually means. As someone who is often, I think, characterized as extreme, I, of course, would object to that. I do not believe that I am as extreme in the way that Marjorie Taylor Greene on the Republican side is extreme.

The idea that there is an equating of believing in someone who believes in guaranteed universal health care in the United States with someone who believes that undocumented people should incur physical harm are somehow in the same level of extreme is something that I would object to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Make sure to tune in tonight "Who is Talking to Chris Wallace" airs at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.

Up next, you may have heard the initials FTX in the past few days and have wondered what is that, what is going on, what's happening with the implosion of this cryptocurrency exchange? We'll explain it next. You are in the "CNN Newsroom."

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[17:15:00]

ACOSTA: Authorities in the Bahamas say they're investigating possible criminal conduct in the stunning implosion of the cryptocurrency exchange FTX, the company which was headquartered in the Bahamas, is one of the largest crypto exchanges in the world. FTX saw a massive financial collapse this week that compelled the CEO to resign and drove it into bankruptcy and CNN's Brian Todd has the details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It wasn't long ago that Sam Bankman-Fried was called the Mark Zuckerberg of crypto, a modern- day JPMorgan, but in the span of a week the 30-year-old wunderkind founder and CEO of FTX, the mega powerful cryptocurrency exchange has resigned, has lost his fortune, his firm is in bankruptcy and by Thursday in a twitter thread to investors and customers, he was saying, quote, "I'm sorry. I F'd up and should have done better."

RANA FOROOHAR, GLOBAL BUSINESS COLUMNIST AND ASSOCIATE EDITOR, FINANCIAL TIMES: In some ways, this collapse of FTX is the Lehman Brothers moment of the crypto world. It is a classic financial crisis. TODD (voice-over): At its peak, FTX was worth $32 billion. It had

backers like NFL superstar quarterback Tom Brady, his soon to be ex- wife supermodel Gisele Bundchen and tennis star Naomi Osaka, but its value has now plummeted. Bankman-Fried's net worth once over $15 billion cratered to under $1 billion in a single day according to the Bloomberg billionaire index.

The NBA's Miami Heat had its venue renamed as FTX Arena just last year, but now that name is coming off the building. The meteoric collapse of FTX was triggered last week when serious questions were raised about the health of its finances. Those questions ignited a run on the bank like crisis.

ANGUS BERWICK, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER, REUTERS: Clients suddenly rushed to withdraw several billion dollars' worth of cryptocurrency from the exchange then put, you know, FTX owner Sam Bankman-Fried in a position where, you know, whereby he effectively, you know, he -- his company ran out of money.

TODD (voice-over): Back in July when he did an interview with CNN Business, Sam Bankman-Fried discussed the danger of Ponzi schemes in the crypto world.

SAM BANKMAN-FRIED, FOUNDER AND CEO, FTX: Because I think that when you have something which is basically an empty product which I do think is true of some places, you know, some assets in crypto, you know, that is something where there's certainly real crash potential.

TODD (voice-over): FTX's fall has more than a hint of irony. Comedian Larry David did an ad for FTX during this year's Super Bowl portraying a buffoon who missed the boat on big investments.

UNKNOWN: I call it the wheel.

LARRY DAVID, COMEDIAN: I don't think so. What does it do?

UNKNOWN: It rolls.

DAVID: Yeah, so does a bagel, okay?

TODD (voice-over): At the end of the spot, David is presented with an offer.

UNKNOWN: It's FTX. It's a safe and easy way to get into crypto.

DAVID: I don't think so. And I'm never wrong about this stuff. Never.

TODD (voice-over): Now, analysts are warning about the real future of the cryptocurrency market.

FOROOHAR: I think that the private crypto market, meaning digital coin that is not backed by a central bank is going to be in for a major correction. I mean, you've already seen that. I think regulators have a great case now to say nobody should be trading this stuff. We need a lot more rules. TODD (on camera): And now according to the "Wall Street Journal," both

the Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating FTX.

[17:19:57]

And the man who FTX has appointed as its new CEO is John Ray III who helped manage the notorious energy firm Enron after its collapse in an accounting fraud scandal in 2001. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: And with me now is Scott Galloway, a professor of marketing at the Stern School of Business at NYU. Scott, you said it feels as though crypto and twitter are in a race to the bottom right now, but let's start with crypto first. And I guess Larry David's prediction that, eh, maybe not so much.

SCOTT GALLOWAY, PROFESSOR OF MARKETING, NYU STERN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS: Yeah, it's -- but what you have here, you know, fortunately -- by the way, good to be with you, Jim -- is more spectacle than significant here because the entire crypto market has a market capitalization of $800 billion and Amazon has shed over a trillion dollars from its market capitalization. So, Lehman really is an appropriate analogy here. Lehman was sort of the first domino that could have taken down the entire economy.

Keep in mind as this implosion was unwinding on Thursday and Friday, the markets had some of their best days of the year. So, this makes for real -- this will be a very popular Netflix drama, but it doesn't look as if -- it feels as if kind of a gnat hitting the windshield of the economy, again, more spectacle than significant.

ACOSTA: And so, your sense of it is it's not going to pull the whole economy down or pull the whole market down?

GALLOWAY: The entire crypto market has a market cap of $800 billion. At one time it was $3 trillion but 70 percent of the air has already been let out of the balloon here. I mean, again, the market cap of Apple -- if Apple loses a third of its value that's more capital destruction than if all the crypto went to zero.

What it probably will do is America -- America's super power is avenging; our Achilles' heel is preventing. We come up with the best vaccines in the world, but we somehow decide we don't want to wear masks. And that's what's happening here. The SEC will come in, they will clean this up, crypto will probably endure in some fashion, but be a shadow of itself most likely.

But the question is how did we let this happen because when you really look at it it's sort of easy to be kind of a Monday morning quarterback and say, well, all of this idolatry of innovators and our desire to get rich and FOMO and some of the ads you played, led the economy ultimate to the mania and what felt like just a levered Ponzi scheme. ACOSTA: And I was going to ask you about this because, I mean, this is

one of the main attractions of crypto, little to no regulation. And you mentioned a few moments ago that perhaps the SEC might tighten things up here. Is that part of the reason why we're seeing this go down the way it is right now?

GALLOWAY: Actually, I think last week I think if you really -- if you take the aperture back then, I think this was a great week for institutions and that is the institutions around our elections, the commissions, the electoral board, the voting infrastructure, that infrastructure, that institution seems to be gaining respect, right?

It was a good week for people who respect those institutions and it was a bad week for people who want to constantly disparage those institutions. This is a good week or last week was a good week for the SEC and FINRA who despite all the calls of these very charismatic, very smart people who said that government should just get out of the way, there is a danger to a lack of regulation.

You are about to see an increase in enforcement and you're going to find that kind of the SEC and financial regulation is sort of the bomb again. I think this was a good week for institutions.

ACOSTA: And let's switch to Twitter, speaking of institutions or maybe institutions that may not be sticking around. It's been total chaos it seems since Elon Musk took over, layoffs handled poorly, Musk reportedly telling employees that bankruptcy could be on the horizon. I mean, is that something that typically is said to employees right after taking over a company?

And then the surge of fake verified accounts after the company tried to introduce paid verification, you know, for example, Jesus Christ is apparently on Twitter. You know, Scott, it sounds like it might take divine intervention just for Twitter to survive at this point.

GALLOWAY: Yeah, it's just pure chaos. We have never seen anything like this and it doesn't feel like the undoing of a side or a company. It feels like the undoing of a person. Its mania mixed with chaos. It's just -- it's hard to imagine where it goes from here. And not only that, my friend, Doug Stanton (ph), talks about it's not what you do, it's how you do it.

You know, wanting to -- wanting to come up with new ideas, maybe even laying off employees, acting crisply, trying to come up with a bunch of -- move to a subscription model where I think a lot of media is headed, all of those are probably ideas that warrant or have some justification. It's how he's gone about it, firing people and then asking them to come back, trying to fire them for cause, you know, taking sort of a very happenstance approach to subscription.

[17:24:59]

Even the blue check really didn't make any sense, and now he's trying to roll it back to a gray check. It just feels as if it is literally chaos. I wouldn't be surprised, Jim, if you see the site go down in the next week because at some point when you keep disparaging people like this, you know, somebody is going to piss in the punchbowl here. It's just this -- I've never seen anything like this.

ACOSTA: Yeah. And somebody being Elon Musk, I mean, you know, why is the person who brought us SpaceX and Tesla behaving like this? And does he have anybody around him who can tell him no? I mean, he was on Twitter earlier today going after Senator Ed Markey and I'm just thinking to myself, you know, why? Why do that?

GALLOWAY: Yeah, there's something -- there's kind of a universal truth and that is the universe doesn't like people getting beyond a certain level of power and these really poor instincts kick in, whether it's the Peter principle or surrounding yourself with people that only agree with you, but it appears this individual has absolutely no guardrails and some of the things he's doing here he's clearly not checking with absolutely anybody.

Why would he -- I mean, traditionally in our business, Jim, the means of distribution, the pipes don't come out and recommend one party. If Comcast or your cable provider interrupted this had program and said vote Republican or vote Democratic, we would have never seen that before. So, it does feel like we're seeing literally become the unfolding or the implosion of an individual here.

And also, if you keep planting land mines behind you and you get lost in the forest, you're going to lose a leg. He has upset and angered so many people unnecessarily including our elected representatives who he gets into arguments with and he says profane things about. Like, that's going to come back to haunt him. These people are on speed dial with the SEC and FINRA. So, you know, karma seems to be playing a role here. None of these makes any sense.

ACOSTA: Yeah. And it's just also been a bad week for meanness and nastiness. You know, you've seen a lot of people seeking public office this week who just thought, well, you can just troll people into a Senate seat or the governor's mansion. And it doesn't always work that way. And you know, taking over Twitter and then turning it into a dumpster fire, I just don't see that -- how that's a long-term proposition or strategy.

GALLOWAY: I think this was a good week for America, Jim. I know you feel this way. I think our institutions are holding. Whether it's Lula, a peaceful transfer of power in Brazil, whether its election denial being just a bad campaign strategy, whether it's an individual who kind of have this Jesus complex, the market and advertisers aren't going along with it. It just feels like whether people are starting to value our institutions and our financial regulators.

I would argue that the most noble organization in the history of the planet is the U.S. government and its institutions, as flawed and as clumsy as they may be. And I think that whether, again, whether it's the Arizona, you know, the Arizona electoral board or the SEC or the peaceful transfer of power in the largest democracy in Latin America, I think this was a great week for institutions.

ACOSTA: Yeah. It sure seems that way. Scott Galloway, thanks for giving us some hope, but there's been a lot doomscrolling in this dystopian hellscape. It's nice to start the week with some hope. Scott, thanks so much for your time. We appreciate it.

GALLOWAY: Thank you, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Up next, as the sun sets on the U.S. capitol, we now know who will control the Senate but the votes are still being counted to determine the balance of power in the House. It's clear the so-called red wave didn't pan out. Not even as red as that sunset right here in Washington, D.C. right now. And the blame game begins. That's next. You're live in the "CNN Newsroom."

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[17:30:00]

ACOSTA: As Democrats keep control of the Senate, the blame game is now under way about why the so-called red wave did not materialize for Republicans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LARRY HOGAN, GOVERNOR OF MARYLAND: This should have been a huge red wave. It should have been one of the biggest red waves we've ever had because, you know, President Biden's approval rating was so low, one of the lowest historically, more than 70 percent of the people thought the country was going in the wrong direction and yet we still didn't perform.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Joining us now is former Virginia Congressman Denver Riggleman. Congressman, thanks for being with us. You know, Denver, you've been sounding the alarm about the Republican Party for quite some time. Were you surprised that this happened? What went wrong?

DENVER RIGGLEMAN, FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM VIRGINIA: Yeah, I would be lying to say I wasn't -- I would be lying to say I wasn't surprised. I think what went wrong is that reasonable people actually became afraid. You know, when you look at conspiracy theories or anger, or you look at MAGA, you look at QAnon, it's about fear.

I think finally the sane individuals started to fear what was coming from that crazy side and the hate that was being spewed out constantly and, you know, when you look at the polls beforehand or the top issues you really didn't see January 6 or democracy anywhere in those top 10, but I think people got very afraid near the end and I think they pulled the lever because of the rhetoric that was coming out from some of these candidates.

And you know, again, we look at Kari Lake, we look at Doug Mastriano, you look at some of these individuals, the insanity was so right in everybody's face. I think they started to say that, hey, maybe democracy is on the ballot and maybe these individuals actually mean what they say.

ACOSTA: And I want to get your response to this, Senator Josh Hawley on the Republican side tweeting yesterday, "The old party is dead. Time to bury it. Build something new." Now, we all remember it was Senator Hawley pumping his fist on January 6th.

[17:35:01]

What do you make of this tweet? Wasn't he a part of this movement that had such a bad -- bad night last Tuesday?

RIGGLEMAN: Yeah, even the tweets are performative batshittery, you know what I'm saying? And that's the thing that you have is that this tweet -- the new party for him is the fist in the air. He's saying that the establishment still isn't getting the job done, he's talking about moving forward more into sort of the Trump corner is what I think with that tweet. I think it's actually backwards than what a lot of people are saying.

And you know, I think that same thing about bury the old, right, or it's time for a new party. I think people are looking at that in the House also, Jim. I was thinking today before we talked about what's happening with McCarthy and I think -- I think you're going to see some people maybe look at a more normal or moderate member to maybe lead the House or somebody who isn't so waffling on all of the policies in the Republican Party or the GOP.

So, I think Hawley on one hand is talking about continuing this trend towards MAGA, but I think on the other hand when you talk about the new from the old or something new, I think you have some moderate -- some of the moderate -- or the -- I would say the minority that voted to certify the election, I think they're looking at somebody else rather than McCarthy. I think we're going to see chaos in the next month or two is what I think. I think it's going to be chaos.

ACOSTA: And you -- and just to follow up on that, you're pretty plugged in on the House Republican side. I'm just curious, are there any names that you think we should be thinking about?

RIGGLEMAN: You know, for me, you know, I look at some of the more rational committee chairs and, you know, hey, what I say might get people in trouble, right, Jim.

ACOSTA: That's true.

RIGGLEMAN: I have to be careful. But you know, when you see there's really smart people over there like the Patrick McHenry's, you know, you got other individuals from safe districts that are very intelligent and very bright. And for me if I was still in the conference which, you know, that would have been very difficult these last two years for me, but if I'm still in the conference I'm looking around going who is sane?

I think the first two things that you choose when you're looking at somebody to vote for, the first thing is, you know, are they sane and the second is do they lie, you know? And I think for me those are really the two main points that I vote for. I want somebody who's sane and tells the truth.

And I think people are going to start looking at that even in the Republican conference and they're going to start looking for leadership maybe in a more moderate way. But again, I think you have two things happening. You have the Josh Hawley's I think that want to continue to be performative and push towards MAGA. And I think you're going to have some people that the light turned on, their sanity meter pegged, and they said maybe it's time to go in another direction.

ACOSTA: And let me ask you this. You were senior technical adviser to the January 6th committee. A couple parts to that. How much of the January 6th committee's work do you think entered into the calculus in these midterms? And in the outside chance that obviously, may not be a strong chance, but in the outside chance that the Democrats retain control of the House would it be advisable do you think perhaps if the January 6th committee isn't finished with their work investigating this that that investigation should continue into the next Congress?

RIGGLEMAN: I think the January 6th committee, you know, they're doing the report right now, I think they should finish the report. It's been two years almost since the election and I think it's time for the DOJ or the FBI to utilize their authorities. You know, coming from an intelligence background and what I know we can get, Congress is very limited in their authorities and what they can get as far as technically and so other things, you know, based on law enforcement authority.

So, I think it's time to wrap up the January 6th committee report. I think it's time for the DOJ to get involved. I think it's time to look at what other data that the January 6th committee couldn't access, it's time for that data to be accessed and to see what happens on the flip.

Now, you know, do I still think the GOP takes the House? I do, Jim. I think it's probably going to be 219-216, but you never know. But I still think the January 6th committee will wrap up and I think it's going to go into more of a law enforcement phase.

ACOSTA: And based on what you know on -- in terms of what went on during this investigation, Trump is expected to announce he's going to run for president in on Tuesday, at least that's what his advisers are telling reporters and that sort of thing. What are the chances based on what you know being a part of that process that we could see the former president being indicted and trying to run for president again while dealing with that?

RIGGLEMAN: I actually think at this point, and I know that this has been said before. I think an indictment actually helps him a bit, even though we got to do what's right regardless. I think he looks like a political prisoner; he plays the victim. I think he's very good at that. You know, I think he tries to emasculate the people around, you know, him or people trying to run against him.

On the other hand, he will run to saying, look, you know, I'm taking on this evil globalist movement which is what he's really doing by, you know, this ridiculous (inaudible) with you know, (inaudible). So, I think he's going to announce. You know, the issue, Jim, is that they are in the stages of grief right now. I think he wants to go out during the anger stage. You know, you have -- first you have, you know, denial, then anger. [17:39:58]

I think the GOP is going to be in the anger stage, especially in the MAGA movement and I think that's what Trump is trying to take advantage of. And that's what scares me. You know, you still have, you know, tens of millions of people that are in that current, that crazy current right now.

ACOSTA: All right. Denver Riggleman, thanks as always for your time. We appreciate it.

RIGGLEMAN: Thanks, Jim. I appreciate you.

ACOSTA: All right. And up next, Kyrie Irving remains off the court today after his minimum five game suspension for tweeting a link to a documentary that included anti-Semitic messages. The legendary Bob Costas joins me live next to talk about it. Stand by.

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ACOSTA: Kyrie Irving will not play in today's game against the Los Angeles Lakers. Today would have been the first game where the suspended Brooklyn Nets guard would be eligible to return after the team suspended him without pay for posting a link to a documentary -- we can't really call it a documentary, but it's what's purported to be a documentary, containing anti-Semitic messages. The Nets head coach said there was no timetable for Irving's return at this point to the court.

[17:44:59]

Lebron James tweeted he thinks Irving should be able to play writing, "Kyrie apologized and he should be able to play. That's what I think. It's that simple. Help him learn but he should be playing. What he's asked to do to get back on the floor I think is excessive in my opinion. He is not the person that's being portrayed of him."

And joining me now to talk about this is CNN contributor Bob Costas. Bob, a lot of strong feelings on this. Irving apologized after being suspended. The Nets owner said it's clear to him that Kyrie does not have any beliefs of hate towards Jewish people or any group. He met with the ADL, had a reportedly productive and understanding visit. Your thoughts?

BOB COSTAS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, first of all, you start with the initial posting of a link to "Hebrews to Negroes: Wake Up Black America!" That's the title of the purported documentary. I saw it through the entire three and a half hours. You'd have to be a biblical scholar, a geneticist, a linguist, an archeologist, an anthropologist and scholar of antiquity even to make sense of some of the assertions and sort through them,

But contained within are citing of people like Henry Ford, or whatever his other achievements may have been, a noted anti-Semite connected to the protocols of the elders of Zion. Tap an actual quote that it's attributed to Adolf Hitler and it's cited as a credible assessment of the nature of American Jews. This is filled with very offensive anti- Semitic or anti-Jewish tropes.

Whether Kyrie Irving was fully aware of that or not when he posted it, he needs to disassociate himself and very forthrightly from this film and needs to consider who is applauding him at this point, not urging that he be allowed to return after acknowledging a mistake, but who is in his corner on this? Alex Jones, Louis Farrakhan, a number of white supremacist groups.

You don't want to be in the company of people with their sort of background. So, he was hesitant when it first came out, they gave him about a week to apologize on his own or to acknowledge what it was as forthrightly as possible and then when it didn't happen, they laid down this series of steps he has to take to come back.

And that's complicated the issue because in the minds of many who don't deny that the film itself is offensive, in the minds of many they are asking him -- they're trying to humble him or humiliate him because he has to go through this series of steps. And so, they feel -- many players feel that acknowledging the mistake and serving the suspension should be enough.

Now, as you said, the game today or tonight against the Lakers was a game that was the sixth game after the five-game suspension, but they said it's a minimum five games. They play in Sacramento and then in Portland on this west coast road trip before coming back home in several days. So, the best guess is that he misses at least eight games before he is reinstated.

ACOSTA: Yeah, and, I mean, maybe it is a good thing that he is being punished so harshly because in addition to being a role model, I mean, these pro athletes have huge platforms where they can spread this kind of stuff around and why not tell these players this is not allowed. You cannot do this.

COSTAS: Yeah, and there has to be a principle here. It can't just be my tribe and your tribe. Certain things as a matter of principle should not be tolerated. You can't just say it only matters when my group or a group that I'm part of or that I feel an affinity for has been offended. This is offensive and Kyrie needs to understand that.

There's also this, and maybe people who don't follow basketball closely don't realize this, that Kyrie as talented as he is, and I don't believe he is a malicious person. Everybody who knows him well says he's not a malicious person but, you know, he declared that the earth was flat, he was an anti-vaxxer for quite some time that cost him half the games last year because of the rules and regulations in place in New York City.

He's been a problem. He's kind of a chaos creator or a turmoil creator on every team he's been a part of. A player this talented shouldn't be so problematic for his team. And it's very obvious that the Nets are fed up with him and have no interest probably in retaining him beyond this, the last year of his contract. He will become a free agent still in the prime of his career.

It will be interesting to see how much interest there is around the league given the fact that as talented as he is, there's a whole bunch of baggage that comes with him.

ACOSTA: Yeah. I mean, if you are another NBA team obviously, I mean, he's an incredible athlete on the court. He'd be an amazing asset to any team, but it comes with this baggage and the Nets --

COSTAS: It does.

ACOSTA: -- are without him for how long because of the whole COVID issue. It's this performative stuff. And again, I think the league is well-served in just throwing the book at players who elevate this kind of garbage. Anyway.

[17:49:59]

COSTAS: Yeah. You're probably right about that. And you can say this, Colin Kaepernick was controversial, but he had a point. In Kyrie's case, it's hard to figure out in each of these instances what his point is. Is he standing on principle or is he just enjoy being somewhat who is known as a free speech or an independent thinker and he puts -- very often puts nonsense out there. By the way, the Nets were 2-6 with him on the court. They've won four of five during his suspension which doesn't bode well for him, either.

ACOSTA: Not at all. All right. Bob Costas, always a pleasure. Thank you, sir. Thanks so much. We will be right back.

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[17:55:00]

ACOSTA: The U.S. is condemning a deadly explosion in a busy part of central Istanbul that killed at least six people and wounded dozens of others. It happened in a busy pedestrian area that is filled normally with tourists and shoppers.

Turkey's justice minister says security footage shows a woman sitting on a bench at the scene for more than 40 minutes and then getting up shortly before the blast leaving a bag behind. Video posted on social media shows the moment of the explosion and Turkish President Erdogan says the bombing, quote, "smells of terrorism." Of course, we'll have the latest on that as it develops. We'll be right back.

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