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Bezos Urges Individuals, Companies To Prepare For A Recession; Dave Chappelle Talks Antisemitism In "SNL" Monologue; Crypto Trader FTX Under Investigation By New York Prosecutors. Aired 3:30-4p ET
Aired November 14, 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]
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, one of the wealthiest people in the world, is weighing in on the divisive state of U.S. politics. He's also warning Americans to prepare for a likely recession.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Bezos and his partner Lauren Sanchez sat down with CNN's Chloe Melas for an exclusive interview and he shared his thoughts on a wide variety of issues, including what he plans to do with his fortune. And Chloe joins us now. Chloe, great interview. So, what did he say about that? CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: Well, listen. It was wide-
ranging. We covered a lot of topics. We spoke for over 20 minutes at their Washington, D.C. home. It was their first ever sit down interview together since they first debuted as a couple in 2019. And we spoke about these tough economic times. And also, what is he going to do with $124 billion and what he said to me was pretty interesting. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF BEZOS, EXECUTIVE CHAIR, AMAZON: I don't know whether we're technically in a recession. Economists argue over that, and they have certain technical definitions. What I can tell you is the economy does not look great right now. Things are slowing down. You're seeing layoffs in many, many sectors of the economy. People are slowing down. The probability, say, if we're not in a recession right now, we're likely to be in one very soon.
So, my advice to people, whether they're small business owners or, you know, is take some risk off the table. If you were going to make a purchase, maybe slowdown that purchase a little bit. Keep some dry powder on hand and wait a bit and see. Try to reduce some risk in your business or your life.
MELAS: The nation is very divided right now on many issues. Do you think that the American dream is something that really is still attainable right now?
BEZOS: Well, I'm an optimist. I think the American dream is -- is and will be even more attainable in the future. Look, one of the things that I don't like about the current environment is that I think there is a lot of division. I think that people use conflict as a tool to achieve their own ends. I don't think it's a good tool.
We see sometimes in our political sphere, certain politicians criticize other politicians, they criticize their motives and character. They call them names. Once you've done that, it's hard to work with somebody. And that's why we created the Courage and Civility Award because we want to highlight people who don't do that.
LAUREN SANCHEZ: And we wanted to amplify their voices, you know, because we -- the voices that are really negative seem to get amplified in this world.
MELAS: You know, when you go and you look at your net worth, it's too much money to even spend in a lifetime. Do you plan to give away the majority of your wealth in your lifetime?
[15:35:00]
BEZOS: Yes, I do, and the hard part is figuring out how to do it in a levered way. It's not easy, you know, building Amazon was not easy. It took a lot of hard work, a bunch of very smart teammates, and I'm finding and I think Lauren is finding the same thing that philanthropy is very similar. It's not easy. It's very hard, and there are a bunch of ways that I think you can do ineffective things too. So, we're building the capacity to be able to give away this money.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MELAS (on camera): So, you heard him there say that he gave -- that they have this Courage and Civility Award, and my interview came on the heels of giving Dolly Parton $100 million with no strings attached, but to use it for her philanthropic endeavors. And we know that Dolly she especially loves to help children and she's done a lot in her home state of Tennessee.
But we had a wider reaching interview. We talked about the NFL. Is he going to buy the Washington Commanders? He played coy about that. He said more on that later. And then we also talked about space travel. He believes that we will all be able to go to space -- get a ticket to space and it will be affordable in this lifetime, and he referenced the Wright brothers. So, for more of this interview, you guys can actually catch it on CNN.com.
CAMEROTA: No one ever went wrong giving money to Dolly Parton or doing anything with Dolly Parton basically. That is a great choice.
MELAS: "9 to 5," "Jolene," I was singing it a little bit. Off key.
BLACKWELL: Chloe, thank you.
CAMEROTA: Great job.
All right, the comedian Dave Chappelle spent much of his "SNL" monologue on Kanye West's antisemitic statements and of course he made some controversial remarks of his own. So, we're going to speak to a fellow comedian about it all next.
[15:40:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAMEROTA: Comedian Dave Chappelle talking about Kanye or Ye's antisemitic comments and about NBA star Kyrie Irving's actions.
BLACKWELL: Yes, he used his guest monologue on "Saturday Night Live" to give his take on all the social media blowback that ended up getting backlash of his own. Here's a sample of what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVE CHAPPELLE, ACTOR/COMEDIAN: Early in my career, I learned that there are two words in the English language that you should never say together in sequence, and those words are the and Jews. I never heard someone do good after they said that. I have been to Hollywood. This is just what I saw. It's a lot of Jews. Like, a lot. But that doesn't mean anything, you know what I mean? There's a lot of black people in Ferguson, Missouri. Doesn't mean we run the place. I know Jewish people have been through terrible things all over the world, but you can't blame that on black Americans. You just can't.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Judy Gold is a comedian and friend of Dave Chappelle. She's also the author of "Yes, I Can Say That: When They Come for The Comedians, We are All in Trouble." And she is here with us. Judy, good to have you.
JUDY GOLD, COMEDIENNE: Thank you for having me.
BLACKWELL: So, you saw the monologue -- that was probably half of the 15-minute monologue. What did you think?
GOLD: You know, I laughed at a lot of the stuff. I know Dave. I love Dave, and some of it made me feel uncomfortable. You know, I feel one way as a comedian. I feel another way as a Jew, and it's -- it's a tough time for us, and I think the last thing you showed was when he said, you can't blame a black person for the Holocaust. And it didn't get a response because no one ever has blamed black people for the Holocaust.
So, I think there's a, you know, comparing atrocities is not a good -- I don't think it's a helpful dialogue to have, but everyone is talking about this now. And we're in a really -- Jews are in a really scary place and, you know, you think about Kanye and you think about -- or Ye, and you think about Kyrie, and you think about their reach. They have more followers than there are Jews in the world. We are 2 percent of the population of the United States, and we're two-tenths of a percent of the population in the entire world.
So, when you are sending a link about a, you know, a movie that denies the Holocaust, you know, it's -- it's not really a careful or thought out thing to do, especially when there's so few of us. And you know, I would never send -- I mean, I don't have that many followers, but maybe after today, but you know, I would never, ever send a link that -- denying that slavery ever happened.
CAMEROTA: Well, that's the point. I feel like, Judy, that's the distinction that Dave Chappelle who is so charismatic -- I would watch him read the telephone book. He so charismatic, he has such a winning, I think, delivery at all times. However, he is being a little disingenuous there.
GOLD: Right.
CAMEROTA: Because nobody is blaming black Americans for the Holocaust, but they are blaming black artists and black artists for perpetuating antisemitic tropes.
GOLD: Right.
CAMEROTA: That's what they were blaming them for. So, he fudged that a little bit.
GOLD: Right, so yes, that didn't make sense to me. And people go to Dave to get his perspective, and that's his perspective, and as a comedienne, I believe he can say whatever he wants. You don't have to agree with it. You don't have to laugh at it.
CAMEROTA: You think he can say anything he wants. I mean, isn't there a line?
GOLD: There is a line, but you decide. The audience decides, you know.
[15:45:00]
George Carlin famously said, it's the comedian's job to cross the line. Find it, cross it, and make the audience glad that you did. And you think of other comedians who've been jailed. Lenny Bruce, a Jew who was jailed and they got him on cursing, but it was really that he was talking about segregation and the Vietnam War and things the government didn't -- truths. You know, you speak truth to power. That's the greatest comedy of all, you know, and I think it has to be based in the truth.
But this is Dave's perspective, and people look up to him, and he really is a really nice -- a nice guy. I don't, you know, some of the stuff did make me feel uncomfortable.
BLACKWELL: We were talking during the break about the tweet from the Jonathan Greenblatt, the head of the Anti-Defamation League, where he tweeted -- I'll read just a line here.
Why are Jewish sensitivities denied or diminished at almost every turn?
We talk a lot about these issues as we should.
GOLD: Right.
BLACKWELL: But do you see that Jewish sensitivities are denied or diminished at every turn? GOLD: I don't think at every turn. I think he's being specific about
comedy and laughing at something that is not really based in reality or the truth. So yes, I hear people always -- oh, yes. I saw the movie. Oh, yes, oh, she had to give her kid away. It was sad, but then there's so many people -- I mean, the Holocaust ended 17 years before I was born. That's not a long time ago, and yet people know nothing. It's not taught in schools, and we see what happens when things are not taught in schools.
Like, you know, Tulsa, Oklahoma. I wish that someone had taught me that when I was growing up, you know. It's about -- it's about facing all your comedy in truth and doing your due diligence and realizing, you know, Dave, he's funny. He's a great guy, did you he's got a lot of ears.
CAMEROTA: But did he miss the mark here?
GOLD: I think he missed it a little bit at the end, you know, but I laughed at a lot of it, you know?
CAMEROTA: Yes, I understand. It can be both those things.
GOLD: Right.
CAMEROTA: Judy, thanks for coming in. Great to get your perspective.
GOLD: Thank you so much for having me. Appreciate it.
BLACKWELL: Another twist in the FTX crypto crash. A source tells CNN federal prosecutors in New York are now investigating that collapse. Details ahead.
[15:50:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLACKWELL: New this afternoon, the sudden collapse of cryptocurrency trader FTX is prompting investigations by federal prosecutors now in New York. Authorities elsewhere are also looking into what happened. Police in the Bahamas confirmed that they are conducting a criminal investigation also into what prompted FTX's stunning fall.
CNN's Matt Egan joins us now. Matt, what happened?
MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Yes, I mean this story is just so stunning. FTX was a power house in the crypto industry. A-list investors, $32 billion valuation, prominent backers including Tom Brady and others. And then in just the span of days it all blew up. It's just this incredible train wreck. And everyone is searching for answers including law enforcement.
Just last hour our colleague Kara Scannell reported that federal prosecutors in New York are investigating the FTX collapse. This investigation is being led by the U.S. Attorney's Office in the Southern District of New York. Now FTX is actually based in Bahamas. And authorities there have a team of financial investigators probing potential criminal misconduct. We don't know precisely which part of this debacle they're looking at. But there's no shortage of threats for them to follow.
"The Wall Street Journal" and other media outlets are reporting that FTX used customer funds to prop up its sister hedge fund's high risk trading operation without their permission. Also, over the weekend FTX said it's investigating whether some crypto assets were stolen. Experts say the missing assets could be worth almost half a billion dollars.
Just to take a step back for a minute, FTX is a crypto exchange. So, it's a place for people to buy and sell bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies. And it's also a place where individual and professional crypto investors, they actually keep their crypto assets there. It was believed to be a safe place for them.
At a minimum, this bankruptcy filing is going to tie up billions of dollars in customer funds for a while. Legal experts say though ultimately customers may end up losing most, if not all of their funds in this bankruptcy filing. It's just a stunning situation. And another reminder of how crypto really is not regulated. It's still the wild, wild west of the financial system, and this is going to just increase those calls for a regulatory crackdown.
BLACKWELL: It's remarkable how much money disappeared in no time.
EGAN: It's incredible, billions. Doesn't even make sense.
BLACKWELL: Matt Egan, thank you.
EGAN: Thank you, guys.
CAMEROTA: All right, votes are still being counted in the midterm elections, but House Republicans already set to decide whether minority leader Kevin McCarthy will take the reins. What deal he may strike, next.
[15:55:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAMEROTA: As I'm sure you all know, it's National Pickle Day, and pickle maker Vlasic has away for you to celebrate, Victor.
BLACKWELL: It's my third favorite day of the year. Look at this. Now you'll think, oh, those are jars of pickles. Nope, candles made to look like a real jar of pickles. They look like pickles, smells like pickles too.
CAMEROTA: Great, I guess? I mean, do you know that this is all the rage, that there's also chipotle candles and there's also Shake Shack. Like, I think that's kind of great to smell a cheeseburger, but then aren't you just starving at your house?
BLACKWELL: Yes, I've never liked like the sugar cookie scents and all that. CAMEROTA: Yes, it just makes you hungry.
BLACKWELL: But who has ever sniffed a pickle -- well, who has ever sniffed a pickle and decided, hey, I want more of that?
[16:00:00]
CAMEROTA: I don't know. We'll see if these fly off the shelves like hot cakes.
Meanwhile --
BLACKWELL: You want to take it?
CAMEROTA: No, I want you to take this.
BLACKWELL: OK. If you really love turkey for Thanksgiving, you can choose to cuddle with one instead of eating it.
CAMEROTA: That's right. An animal rescue facility in California, Tennessee and Missouri, are offering visitors a chance to cuddle with their live Turkeys. Here's some pictures of doing that. People who have described it say it's very soft and sweet.
BLACKWELL: I'll take your word.
CAMEROTA: Just like Jake Tapper. "THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER" starts now.
