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Soon: Judge Rules on Challenges to Illinois' New Assault Weapons Ban; George Santos' Constituents Sound Off; Nassau County Students Urge Rep. George Santos to Resign; 37 Million T-Mobile Customers Hacked by "Bad Actor. Aired 3:30-4p ET
Aired January 20, 2023 - 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: Next hour in Illinois, a ruling is expected on one of three lawsuits challenging that recently passed ban on assault weapons. Democratic Governor JB Pritzker signed the law last week. Now it enforces a statewide ban on the sale of certain firearms, high capacity magazines and automatic switches that can alter a handgun. CNN law enforcement correspondent Whitney Wild joins us now from Chicago. So, what -- tell us about these lawsuits. What's in them?
WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: So, there are three lawsuits as you mentioned. One is a federal lawsuit. Two are filed in state court and they're making slightly different arguments.
The federal lawsuit basically says this violates a list of rights specifically, you know, when it comes to the second amendment, it violates specific rights of the plaintiffs. Basically, the crux of that lawsuit is that many of these firearms are lawful and are often used for lawful purposes, and so that's basically the crux of the federal lawsuit.
The two lawsuits in state court make slightly different arguments. The one that is at issue today makes an argument that basically the way that this law went through the legislature was incorrect. And so, in that, they violated their right to due process.
Today's ruling is going to be extraordinarily narrow. It will target -- or be limited to, rather, the plaintiffs -- the 800 plaintiffs that are filing in that lawsuit. That ruling should come down around 4:00 central time, but again, it'll be very narrow, and it will be limited to the 800 plaintiffs in this lawsuit here in state court. Back to you.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: OK, got it. Whitney Wild, thank you.
BLACKWELL: We're just learning that Idaho murder suspect, Bryan Kohberger, he visited the restaurant where the two -- or two of the victims worked. Now that's according to a former employee of the Mad Greek in Moscow, Idaho who spoke to "People" magazine. Now the employee said there was nothing suspicious about Kohberger's visits in the weeks before the killings. CAMEROTA: It's unclear if the suspect interacted with or saw Xana
Kernodle and Madison Mogen. Kohberger is accused of the brutal stabbings of Xana, Madison, and two other University of Idaho students in November.
All right, well massive layoffs at Google. The company announcing today that it's cutting more than 10,000 jobs. What these signals to the rest of corporate America, next.
[15:35:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAMEROTA: Congressman George Santos' list of lies growing even longer this week, and his constituents are taking notice. CNN's Miguel Marquez caught up with voters in Nassau County, New York, about how they feel about their new representative.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Would you like Speaker McCarthy and the Republican leadership to freeze him out, to ask him to resign? I mean, does something more need to happen from that level?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I think they should get rid of him.
MARQUEZ: What would you like to see now? Would you like to see him leave office? What would you like to see?
ELEANOR HANNON, VOTED FOR REP. GEORGE SANTOS: Well, I guess he has to leave office because of everything that he pretended that he was, when he wasn't. However, I'm kind of, like, up in the air. I didn't donate any money, so I don't have that up against me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLACKWELL: CNN's Gary Tuchman also spoke with a group of students to learn how santos' lies are resonating with the next generation of voters.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[15:40:00]
GARY TUCHMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Port Washington, New York, Schreiber High School, in Long Island's Nassau County is in the heart of Representative George Santos' 3rd Congressional District.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean, I think he's an embarrassment and a pathological liar.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): We sit down with a group of AP U.S. history students at Schreiber High. They are 16 and 17, which means they will all be old enough to vote in 2024. TUCHMAN: How many of you would register as an independent if you registered today? How many of you would register as a Democrat? How many of you would register as a Republican?
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Their history teacher estimates Republican- leaning students are outnumbered by Democratic-leaning students by an almost two-to-one margin at the school. But --
JEREMY KLAFF, TEACHER, PAUL D. SCHREIBER HIGH SCHOOL: I haven't found one kid who is sympathetic to George Santos. They know the importance of the numbers on the House of Representatives. And although Santos represents them for issues that they agree on, they don't have sympathy toward the man.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Sixteen-year-old Tej Parlak (ph) is one of the future Democrats.
TEJ PARLAK (ph), STUDENT: I think it's a very scary situation for us, having someone who's so clearly lied and so clearly fabricated his entire resume representing all of us.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Sixteen-year-old Nathan Jackman (ph) is one of the future Republicans.
NATHAN JACKMAN (ph), STUDENT: I like how the Nassau GOP came out against him, but obviously Kevin McCarthy should come out against him. And they should have a vote on the House floor in order to expel him from Congress.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): We asked the teacher if we could watch a class discussion about Santos.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It definitely places some mistrust on your political party.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): These are junior AP students.
KLAFF: First of all, what is your initial reaction to knowing that your representative's integrity has been called into question? Romero (ph).
ROMERO (ph), STUDENT: It was kind of shocking. Because how could you -- how could you trust them? How could you -- if you can lie just about just, like, your life and everything you've done, how can you trust them to do the right thing?
KLAFF: How are his lies perhaps different than others, or is it fair game to lie in politics?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I mean, I think one of the worst things that he lied about, in my opinion, is lying about the origin of his family, being that they were from -- they were survivors of the Holocaust.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I think that it's an obvious choice, given that we live in a community where there's lots of Jewish people. We live in New York. That's where 9/11 happened. He's using things directly correlated to our lives to make himself sound better, because we have emotional attachment to these events.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Especially in politics. Like, your reputation is always going to stick with you. Everyone is going to remember him as, oh, he's the guy that lied about everything and still got into Congress.
KLAFF: Has it gotten to a point in politics where we don't really care about integrity?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you think about it with -- because we'll be applying to colleges soon. If a college found out that we lied about everything on our application, they would immediately kick us out. But he lied about everything, and he's going to get to stay. So, it's like we're being held to a higher standard of integrity than politicians in this country.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Before we leave Schreiber High, we ask our panel of students this question.
TUCHMAN: You're a constituent of Congressman Santos. If you could say one thing to him, what would you say to him?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just want to know why he felt the need to do all this.
TUCHMAN: What would you say to him?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you really want to represent our district and you care about the voters and the people, you should resign.
TUCHMAN: What would you say?
PARLAK (ph): Resign to keep democracy working properly.
TUCHMAN: You?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Apologize and resign now. It's enough.
TUCHMAN: You?
JACKMAN (ph): For the good of the constituents of New York's 3rd, resign.
TUCHMAN: You?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For your district and for your party. resign.
TUCHMAN: You?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Step down.
TUCHMAN (voice-over): Gary Tuchman, CNN, Port Washington, New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CAMEROTA: Smart kids. BLACKWELL: Yes.
CAMEROTA: I feel a lot of optimism when I hear from that generation. They're really sharp and plugged in.
BLACKWELL: If you didn't attend those schools or work at these companies, where did he go?
CAMEROTA: I don't know.
BLACKWELL: What did he do?
CAMEROTA: I don't know.
BLACKWELL: So many questions.
All right. The Bills, the Bengals. The Bengals -- I have been calling them the Bangles.
CAMEROTA: The Bangles, I do the Bangles. And they have great music.
BLACKWELL: Don't do that. Don't do that. They're going to face off again this weekend just weeks after Damar Hamlin went into cardiac arrest on the field. How Hamlin is doing, and how the teams are preparing. That's next.
[15:45:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLACKWELL: Millions of T-Mobile customers have been hacked, and the company says that personal data was stolen, including e-mails and phone numbers and T-Mobile account numbers.
CAMEROTA: Vanessa Yurkevich is CNN's business and politics correspondent. So, Vanessa, when did T-Mobile say this happened?
VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: This happened in November. The company says they just found out about in early January, and they are just letting customers know now. 37 million customers affected.
And what was stolen was people's names, billing addresses, phone numbers, date of births, e-mails. What was not stolen was social security numbers, credit card information, passwords and pins. But the concern is that of the information that was stolen that could help folks access the more sensitive information.
T-Mobile saying that they are working with law enforcement now. They have hired an outside security company trying to figure out what went wrong. But they were hacked in November of 2021 also, 54 million people impacted. So, they're saying now that they're going to make an investment in their cyber security obviously to prevent this from happening again.
BLACKWELL: OK, let's hope it does not happen again. Let's turn to Google Now. Making some big cuts. Why are they saying they are doing this?
YURKEVICH: They are the latest in a string of big-tech companies who are laying folks off. They are saying that they hired during a time when it was a very different economic landscape. They say things have changed today.
[15:50:00]
That folks are not spending as much online, not accessing technology as much. But they join the list of Amazon, Meta as well as Microsoft who just announced yesterday, they were laying off 10,000 people.
One analyst put it to me this way, that the tech companies were hiring like 1980s rock stars. The Cinderella ride is about to be over. But it's important to note that tech represents 2 percent of the employment in the U.S., something like hospitality and leisure represents 11 percent, and we know a lot of hotels, restaurants are still having trouble hiring. They're not laying people off. So, tech while an important part of the labor market doesn't paint the whole picture for us.
CAMEROTA: Here's one job opening that sounds pretty good.
BLACKWELL: Really good.
CAMEROTA: So, Netflix has posted a job opening for a private flight attendant. Victor -- this was Victor's favorite story this morning on our call.
BLACKWELL: Had to read it twice.
CAMEROTA: Yes, because apparently the salary range is interesting.
YURKEVICH: Quite large, but I mean, are you guys comfortable carrying 30 pounds of luggage, and do you guys have good customer service?
BLACKWELL: For that salary, sure.
YURKEVICH: So, you're out and the you also need obviously FAA training. You need to be able to travel at a moment's notice, but this is a position, their lead flight attendant on Netflix's private jet, that salary range is $60,000 to $385,000. The average flight attendant gets paid about $61,000, so I would obviously love to know what gets you the 300,000 range.
CAMEROTA: $385,000.
BLACKWELL: Maybe we don't want to know.
YURKEVICH: They have to -- California has a law where you have to give a reasonable salary range. Questionable if that's reasonable or not. But, hey, the job is still up. People are into it. You know, you just need some specific training obviously if you're going to be a flight attendant on a plane.
BLACKWELL: Yes. That's the hitch. Vanessa Yurkevich, thanks so much. YURKEVICH: Thank you.
CAMEROTA: You probably in the egg prices are soaring, and that's prompting some families to raise their own chickens which is not cheap.
BLACKWELL: We'll go to break.
CAMEROTA: OK. We'll tell you later.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:55:00]
CAMEROTA: The highly anticipated rematch between the Cincinnati Bengals and the Buffalo Bills is happening this Sunday. More than two weeks after Damar Hamlin's collapse on the field from cardiac arrest. Both teams will face off in the AFC playoffs in Buffalo.
Hamlin is out of the hospital but still faces a lengthy recovery. CNN's sports anchor and former Buffalo Bills player Coy Wire is outside the Bills stadium. Do you know if we'll see Hamlin at the game this weekend?
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: It is a possibility, Victor. Coach says he doesn't yet know, but we are being reminded through his latest reporting how scary and nearly fatal Damar Hamlin's injury was, right. His business representative, Jordan Rooney, told me earlier this morning that Damar still requires oxygen. He gets winded easily. His heart is monitored regularly, and he has that lengthy recovery ahead, as you mentioned.
But he also says that Damar remains positive. He's ready to overcome this and his teammates they're a bit more settled now and more comforted to know that Damar has been back in that building with them.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JOSH ALLEN, QUARTERBACK, BUFFALO BILLS: It's been good to see him, you know, with a smile on his face and, you know, guys love having him back in the building.
WIRE (voice-over): It's been a welcome sight to see Damar Hamlin back at the Bills facility on a daily basis this week.
DION DAWKINS, OFFENSIVE LINEMAN, BUFFALO BILLS: To see 3, to smile and just wave and just, you know, put his hearts up and keep a pushing, you know. Like it's a positive energy bubble that's just floating around the facility.
WIRE (voice-over): It's been just over two weeks since he suffered cardiac arrest on the field in Cincinnati.
(AUDIO OF MEDICAL PERSONNEL DURING HAMLIN COLLAPSE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't like how he went down. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to need everybody, all call, all call.
WIRE (voice-over): The NFL ultimately cancelled that game but this Sunday the Bills and Bengals will face each other for the first time since that horrific scene, and there's no question it will be on the players' minds.
TRE'DAVIOUS WHITE, CORNERBACK, BUFFALO BILLS: Just something that I -- I can't get -- I can't unsee. Every time I close my eyes it replays.
WIRE (voice-over): That tragic moment though has also brought out the best in humanity. Fans have donated millions to Hamlin's charity, and others are using the moment to help raise awareness for heart health.
ERIN OLIVER, CO-CREATOR, HEARTS FOR HAMLIN AND HIGGINS: Go donate blood. Do whatever you can do. Just do one thing that can make a small difference in one person's life, and that's all we ask.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WIRE (on camera): A groundswell of support around heart health awareness, around Damar Hamlin, of course. It's pretty sweet, Alisyn and Victor. The players say though that they have to lock in for this huge playoff game. Now they have to manage those lingering emotions, those invaders of the mind from the last time they played against each other. This one will kick off Sunday at 3:00 p.m. Eastern. I will be extremely biased, as I cheer for my Bills in this one, hopefully get a win.
CAMEROTA: A lot of people will be watching. Coy Wire, thank you for that.
BLACKWELL: Thank you, Coy.
CAMEROTA: All right, now to this. Is there anything more annoying than slow drivers driving in the left lane on the highway?
BLACKWELL: I'm like uncomfortable in my seat thinking about how much that annoys me.
CAMEROTA: It annoys me, too.
BLACKWELL: Oh, my god.
CAMEROTA: OK, so now South Carolina will fine you $100 for going too slow in the left lane.
BLACKWELL: So, it's called the "Slow Poke Bill." It was first passed in 2021. It requires left lane drivers to move over if a car comes up behind them and the right lane is clear. State troopers have already written nearly 500 tickets. Now this is not a criminal penalty. It does not go on the driving record.
CAMEROTA: This is how you know if you're going too slow in the left lane. If all sorts of cars are whizzing by you on the right and flashing a middle finger, that's how you know -- BLACKWELL: That's a good sign.
CAMEROTA: -- that you're going too slow.
[16:00:00]
BLACKWELL: Or if I am laying on that horn. I lay on that horn.
CAMEROTA: That was you?
BLACKWELL: Yes.
CAMEROTA: Yes, I heard behind --
BLACKWELL: Yes, if you're driving too slowly -- and you know what, if you're behind someone driving too slowly and I'm talking egregiously, maybe 40 miles an hour, 45, let them know.
CAMEROTA: By the way, the left lane is for passing --
BLACKWELL: Passing.
CAMEROTA: -- not parking.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
CAMEROTA: Passing.
BLACKWELL: Yes, yes.
CAMEROTA: "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.
