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Warrant Issued for Friend of American Woman Who Died in Mexico; Major Showdowns and Big Upsets at the World Cup; NASA Rover Finds New Clues in Search for Life on Mars; Adidas to Launch Probe into Misconduct Claims Against Kanye West. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired November 25, 2022 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SALAMONDRA ROBINSON, MOTHER OF SHANQUELLA ROBINSON: And it said that her neck had been broke.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So you can obviously see those two things didn't line up from the very beginning, Jim, but now you have a video online. You have so many questions. You have prosecutors looking for this other person. So many things that still have to be cleaned up. Of course we're still following this to see exactly what happens next, hopefully a mug shot sometime soon.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Goodness. Ryan Young, thanks so much for keeping us up to date.

Here with me now for legal analysis, CNN legal analyst, criminal defense attorney, Joey Jackson.

Joey, good to have you on this. I mean, it's a remarkable case. It's an alarming case here including the role that this video will play or may play in an investigation. First, how does the extradition process or how would it work between the U.S. and Mexico? Do the two countries cooperate on cases like this?

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, they do, Jim, good morning to you. So I think there's two ways this can play out. We know that Mexican authorities now are looking and with regard to the arrest warrant for the extradition, that is to have the party or parties brought back to Mexico to be held accountable. And if they do that I think what you'll see is you'll see the Department of Justice involved.

We have an Office of International Affairs. We have a robust extradition proceeding and we have actually a treaty with Mexico that's been in existence for some 45 years, and so there is cooperation. So on the one hand, you could see Mexico engage in the prosecution. On the other, we certainly have a statute in the United States that would provide for our government to be involved and the federal government to prosecute a foreign national, right? What happens is, just to be clear, in terms of that statement in the

event that you go overseas and an American citizen is ultimately killed by another American citizen, there is a statute that could provide for the prosecution to take place in this country. So we'll see which way it plays out ultimately.

SCIUTTO: Given the timeline here, a number of weeks since this took place, I mean, the role of the folks on the internet kind of keeping this story alive, et cetera. I mean, did Mexican authorities drop the ball in the initial stages of this and could that affect the future of the investigation?

JACKSON: So, it certainly could because what any investigation and with any crime scene you want to preserve it, right? At the end of the day you have to know and understand that the evidence that you have is gathered appropriately, that the crime scene would not otherwise be contaminated, that the autopsy was done properly. And so yes, there could be some challenges there.

Having said that, with the FBI involved now, I'm sure that they'll undertake an investigation which is quite significant. They will be working with Mexican authorities. They will be all over the area where it occurred to try to get answers, so no investigation is without flaws, Jim, but ultimately, I think justice could be served here with the investigation to this point knowing what they know is done properly.

SCIUTTO: Now you have this video here. CNN does not have it, we're not airing it, but is this the kind of thing given its origin that could be admissible evidence?

JACKSON: Without question. I mean, you know, when you talk about a picture being worth a thousand words, look at a video with respect to what it says, what it tells, what it shows, what it demonstrates, and part of that demonstration is counter to what the narrative was of apparently her friends, I use that term loosely, who apparently were there giving information to the family with respect to what occurred.

Alcohol poisoning was the initial indication as Ryan Young said. Certainly didn't look that way. And so yes, I think that's admissible evidence, Jim, and there will be other things that would be admissible. The critical question now is whether Mexican authorities end up prosecuting or whether the U.S. attorney's office in this jurisdiction in North Carolina ends up prosecuting this case.

SCIUTTO: And just quickly, would lying about the circumstances, presuming you weren't involved in the actual killing, would lying also expose folks to criminal prosecution?

JACKSON: Depends who the lie is told to. In the event that the FBI is involved, of course it's a crime to lie to federal authorities, not a crime to lie to other people but it certainly speaks to your knowledge with regard to what happened or what didn't happen when you're giving misinformation or covering it up in any way. That's going to be assessed, as well, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Goodness. Alarming story. Joey Jackson, thanks so much.

JACKSON: Of course, thank you.

SCIUTTO: Well, in just a couple of hours, the U.S. will face off in a big game against England. Major World Cup matchup. I'm going to be watching. Stakes are even higher now after yet another World Cup upset. We have the latest on Iran's big win over Wales.

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[09:39:07]

SCIUTTO: A battle for the ages today, USA versus England, soccer versus football. You might say David versus Goliath. At 2:00 p.m. Eastern the U.S. men's national team faces a potentially era-defining match against England in both their bids to qualify for the knockout stages of the World Cup. It's their third showdown at the men's World Cup and tournament history on the USA side at least, although it goes back to 1950.

With me now, CNN sports analyst and sports columnist for "USA Today" Christine Brennan.

Christine, great to have you on. I'm going to be watching today. You know, young U.S. side, a little bit of a disappointing outcome against Wales. U.S. probably should have won that game. England had a great opening match against Iran. Who do you think has the advantage today?

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: I'd love to say the United States, Jim, just because we're Americans and this is pure fun, this really is going to be great. I do think that the U.S. has an advantage that they didn't have in 1950, you and I weren't around to see that one.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

[09:40:07]

BRENNAN: And even with a tie back in 2010, so as you said, the U.S. has actually done pretty well against England in the World Cup. And that is that six of the 26 American players, young American players in many ways fearless. The emotion, the excitement that you see in them. Six of them play in the Premiere League. So they play against these guys. It's not the old days where you looked at England and you were like you were untouchable, they were too good, their reputation proceeded themselves.

Now the American players, they train with them. They play with them. They play against them. And there's I think a familiarity that probably should breathe some confidence.

SCIUTTO: OK. So you have another match in their group today, this Wales against Iran, and Iran winning that match surprisingly. So if you look at the tables now, you actually have two surprising leaders. England, no surprise really to be at the top, but Iran right there with them and then Wales and the U.S. tied at one point each, although the U.S. has a goal differential advantage.

What is the U.S. path now to qualifying? Is it as simple as even if they lose today just beating Iran or is there more pressure on the team today?

BRENNAN: There certainly is more pressure. If the U.S. were to have the dream the next couple of days, Jim, which would be beat England and then beat Iran, they're in obviously.

SCIUTTO: Right.

BRENNAN: They could lose to England and still beat Iran and be in within four points. You know, it does get a little confusing for fans who don't follow this all the time but it's really quite simple. Two go on to the knockout round and two go home. And, you know, Iran is a fascinating story as we know. What's going on on the field of play and of course what's going on off the field of play as the protests continue. And that's a fascinating story.

And their win against Wales, that helped the U.S. because the U.S. of course has already played Wales, so the U.S. the old control your destiny in sports kind of ridiculous statement but in this case it's actually true.

SCIUTTO: Understood. OK. Is there any criticism you saw the U.S. team in the first match, anything you would do differently with the team the second match? There was some criticism about playing Gio Reyna, although he's had some injury issues. How do you think the coach will and should approach the match against England?

BRENNAN: I think Jim, that halftime will be the most important time because what we saw with the U.S., that's relative with this young U.S. team, only one guy who's played in a World Cup before, is they played really well in the first half and they had the lead. Came out the second half and they weren't quite the same team. And you know, they're a little jumpy. They're emotional. It's understandable.

This is a huge stage for this young American team. And so what the American men have to do is play a full 90 minutes or whatever stoppage time there is. In other words, they need to really back up a good first half with a great second half. If they can do that, they'll be in the game against England.

SCIUTTO: Yes. And they got to finish, they got to score some goals. So big picture. I mean, this has been a tournament with some pretty remarkable upsets at this point. Japan beating Germany, for instance, but when you look at the sort of class of the tournament so far, who do you think have shown themselves to be the strongest team so far?

BRENNAN: Jim, I still think Brazil is the team to beat. Even though they haven't won in 20 years, they have won five World Cups. In a Brazil manner just, you know, terrific. And the firepower they have. Argentina is in trouble. As you said, upsets, losing to Saudi Arabia, and I think for many fans, this is fun to watch because, you know, to see upsets and to see countries rise, and the countries we never expect to do well I think that is also makes the storyline so much more interesting.

SCIUTTO: For sure. That's why they play the game and that's why we keep watching them.

Christine Brennan, we could tweet at each other as the games go on later today. Good to have you on.

BRENNAN: Same here, Jim. Thank you.

SCIUTTO: All right. So now to space. The rover Perseverance has now uncovered some clues that could give new insight to the possibility of life in the past on mars. What researchers just found there in those rocks coming up.

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[09:48:36]

SCIUTTO: NASA's rover Perseverance, one of the coolest things in space, is finding new clues on mars in the hunt for extraterrestrial life there in the past. Rocks excavated from an ancient crater contained key organic molecules essential to life. Some of these rocks were exposed to water as well at least three different times in their history.

Joining us now is Caroline Smith. She's the head of Earth Sciences Collections at the Natural History Museum in London.

Caroline, good to have you on this morning.

CAROLINE SMITH, HEAD OF EARTH SCIENCES COLLECTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM: Hi, good morning, Jim.

SCIUTTO: All right. So not just organic molecules, some of stuff of life but also exposure to water over three time periods. Now that combination promising. How exciting is that to you, one, and then how likely would that indicate that at some point in the past there was life there?

Are you still there Caroline? We're going to try to refresh. You probably all had Zoom calls like this with family. We'll see if we can get it up and going again with Caroline Smith in London. Bear with us here as we test out the connection. We could talk to mars probably more reliably sometimes than we could do those calls.

Let see if we could get her back up, and if not -- we lost Caroline Smith. Let's us fix that and we'll get right back.

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[09:54:12]

SCIUTTO: All right. Line is open again. We have Caroline Smith fixed. She's head of Research Sciences Collections at the Natural History Museum in London. OK, so news from mars. Not just that water was there, perhaps millions

of years ago, but also these organic compounds. Can you explain the importance of that discovery and how much more likely, if you believe so, that that makes it that there was life on mars at some time?

SMITH: Yes, of course. What we've found with data that's come back from the rover and has been studied over the last few months is that we igneous rocks, so these are rocks that have been formed through volcanic processes which have also been affected by the action of liquid water. And that's really, really interesting and exciting because liquid water is one of the key ingredients you need for life to start.

So if you've got the chances life being on mars, you'd need to have it somewhere that had liquid water for at least a period of time, and we've got good evidence for that.

[09:55:08]

Now that's combined with the fact that we're seeing, using instruments like Sherlock, which is an instrument that I'm involved with, also the presence of organic molecules. And organic molecules are molecules, chemical molecules made of the elements, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sometimes with some sulfur, sometimes with some phosphorous, and maybe some other things.

And those are really, really important because you need organic molecules for life to start. And the other thing that's really interesting about organic molecules is they can actually be fossil evidence, sort of fossil chemical evidence of potential past life.

SCIUTTO: OK.

SMITH: Now it's very important to say that the organic molecules we found so far we cannot conclude, at least say or even guess that those are evidence of past life. To be able to do those types of experiments we need to do really detailed experiments on labs on earth which we hope to do in the 2030s when we hope that these samples will be returned from mars.

SCIUTTO: OK.

SMITH: But more evidence coming from Perseverance. We've seen some really interesting scientific results. Very, very tantalizing.

SCIUTTO: So -- and that's another remarkable feature of this mission is that those samples, they're going to be put on a tiny little rocket and sent back to earth. I mean, how much of a difference will it make to have those samples and can you determine conclusively once you have that stuff in a lab back here on earth?

SMITH: Well, we -- yes. That's exactly what we hope to be able to do. So the Perseverance has got some amazing signs of (INAUDIBLE) on it, but you cannot miniaturize some of the instruments and the techniques that you need to do conclusive life detection experiments and evidence for actually the chemical signatures of past life. SCIUTTO: OK.

SMITH: Those have to be done on labs on earth and that's why we're so excited to get these samples back.

SCIUTTO: Would it make a difference, because there's a lot of excitement understandably, about putting men and women on mars perhaps in the next several years both private and government plans to do so? Would it make a difference to have a person on mars who could look in different places than a rover can?

SMITH: Yes, that's a good question. And there's actually a lot of debate about who makes the best explorers. Is it amazing robots and tech explorers like Perseverance that has x-ray vision in some ways and has all of these amazing chemical techniques that it can use? But at the end of the day I'm a great believer in, you know, humans. We have in-built curiosity. We can make decisions very, very quickly.

We have a high degree of autonomy. Much more than the current rovers even though they're fantastic. So I think that, you know, to really push those frontiers of exploration for the moon and for mars, and potentially elsewhere in the solar system, I think we would always want to have human astronauts going to those places.

SCIUTTO: Fair enough. Good. So you and I can still get our trip to space.

Caroline Smith, thanks so much. Thanks so much for joining us.

SMITH: My pleasure. Thank you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: If we're lucky.

This morning Adidas is investigating Kanye West over allegations of misconduct. Adidas announced the probe after a "Rolling Stone" story reported the sports apparel company board members ignored the rapper's alleged inappropriate behavior. The article says the misconduct includes verbal abuse, bullying and offensive remarks especially towards women.

CNN business and politics correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich is following the latest developments on this.

So, Vanessa, there are two layers in this, right. I mean, the offensive behavior, but also the allegations that the company deliberately ignored it.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And Adidas is currently investigating these allegations of misconduct, and as you mentioned this comes after reporting by "Rolling Stone" magazine that said that former high level employees from Yeezy sent a letter to the executive board of Adidas basically detailing some of these allegations and they said, quote, in the letter, "The toxic and chaotic environment that Kanye West created is something they want them to investigate." And just going through a little bit of what was in this letter, this

was verbal abuse, bullying, offensive remarks and misconduct specifically towards women. Also in that letter obtained exclusively by "Rolling Stone," it goes on to say that Adidas knew about Kanye West's behavior but chose to ignore it.

Now we have Adidas coming out with a statement, here's in part what they said. They said, quote, "It is currently not clear whether the accusations made in an anonymous letter are true. However, we take these allegations very seriously and have taken the decision to launch an independent investigation of the matter immediately to address the allegations.

Now, of course, Kanye West and adidas had a very successful relationship for 10 years. That ended last month over anti-Semitic remarks that Kanye Wet made. We did, CNN did reach out to Kanye West. We have not heard back yet but he also doesn't have a lawyer or a representative that is working with him on this particular matter -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: Vanessa Yurkevich, thanks so much.