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U.S. Recovering Debris From Downed Chinese Balloon; Miami PD Defends Black History Month Cruiser Amid Backlash; China Condemns U.S. Decision To Shoot Down Balloon. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired February 05, 2023 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:18]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Hello again. Thanks for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

And we begin this hour with the recovery efforts underway off the South Carolina coastline following that dramatic takedown of a suspected Chinese spy balloon yesterday.

The US military blasting the balloon out of the sky after it drifted over the Atlantic near Myrtle Beach. President Biden saying he ordered the military to take it down on Wednesday.

Now, efforts are underway to recover the debris and analyze it to find out what it may have been doing as it drifted across the US over the last few days.

Meanwhile, China's accusing the US of overreacting and expressing what it calls strong dissatisfaction and protest over the balloon's destruction. We're covering this from all angles, from the nation's capital to the coast where the balloon was shot down.

Let's start there with CNN's Dianne Gallagher in Surfside Beach, South Carolina, where the recovery operation is underway, even though the conditions right now are awful.

Dianne, what are you hearing about the search and recovery efforts of the debris.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So far, the weather not exactly clear as it was yesterday when everybody here in the Myrtle Beach and Surfside Beach area watched that suspected Chinese spy balloon be shot out of the air, fall into the ocean about six nautical miles off the shore here.

Now, look, there is some weather issues today, but we are told that recovery began almost immediately after it was shot down, that there were several vessels from the Navy and the Coast Guard in the area. They began to make a perimeter around the debris.

Now, there are a couple of factors that go into how long this is going to take. According to a senior US military official, they don't believe that we're talking about weeks or months here, but it likely will be several days. Now, part of that is because when it came down, it didn't come on over water that was nearly as deep as they had anticipated. According to that official, we're looking at just about 47 feet deep water in the ocean around where it fell, which would make the recovery fairly easy, according to that official.

But when we're talking about just how large this area is, we're told that debris is scattered around a seven mile area in the ocean. Now, once the recovery vessel has arrived, we're going to see Navy divers and we're also going to see these unmanned vessels that can essentially lift the structure out and put it on to that ship. On that ship are also going to be Intelligence officials with the FBI and other agencies so they can take a look at the debris, and then they can bring it back to Quantico to further study it.

Again, we're told that this could take several days, we are not exactly sure on the timeline there, and there is going to be this continuous recovery effort until they're able to do so.

Here in the Myrtle Beach and Surfside Beach area, the cities have told people who might be combing the beach, anybody who has got their metal detectors out, if you find something that you think might have come from that balloon, there are a number that people here locally can call, they've asked people do not take it home with you, don't try to sell it or anything like that, that the government needs this and that they would like to make sure they get every single piece that they can of the debris that may have come from this balloon -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Dianne Gallagher in Surfside Beach, South Carolina. Thanks so much.

I also want to bring in CNN White House correspondent, Arlette Saenz.

Arlette, Biden facing some sharp criticism from some Republicans over the space of time between when the balloon was discovered over US oil and when it finally made it over US waters.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, he is, Fred.

The White House is really dealing with fallout on both the political and diplomatic front over the suspected spy balloon and that includes trying to figure out how they will address and approach the relationship with China going forward.

Now officials here at the White House just simply don't buy China's arguments that this was an errant weather balloon. One senior administration official telling me last night that they are confident that China was trying to seek and monitor sensitive military sites with its trajectory of this balloon.

They also pointed to some of the technical components of that balloon including the collection pods, and also solar panels that were located on that metal truss right below the balloon. They say that this is not something that is congruent with typical meteorological devices.

Now one thing, the President, as he told his military team to come up with plans for shooting it down, he made clear that he wanted to ensure that they were trying to maximize their ability to recover the payload that comes with it. They wanted to glean as much information as possible and that is why that recovery effort that Dianne described is currently underway.

[15:05:14]

SAENZ: But at the same time, throughout this entire process, the President has faced a steady stream of criticism from Republicans. Today, they are trying to paint him as late-acting, indecisive, and weak in his approach towards China.

Here is Senator Marco Rubio, who is the Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): They calculated this carefully with a message embedded in it, and I think that's the part we can't forget here. It is not just the balloon, it is the message they are trying to send the world that we can do whatever we want, and America can't stop us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now, the White House has insisted that the President was acting deliberately and also responsibly in waiting to shoot down that balloon until it was out over water today. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg defended the administration's approach saying that the President was trying to maximize the safety and security of Americans on the ground.

Additionally, Defense officials have pointed to the fact that they were actually able to glean some information about the device as it was traversing, making its way across the United States. All of these factors are things that could play into the President's and the White House's defense, as they continue to face questions about this matter.

WHITFIELD: Arlette Saenz at the White House. Thanks so much.

CNN national security reporter, Zachary Cohen, joining me live now for more insight behind the operation of this shoot down of the balloon. So walk us through the process and all that was entertained before, you know, executing the downing of this balloon.

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yeah, Fredricka. It's really interesting. We're learning a lot about what happened behind the scenes in the days before the dramatic operation that was carried out yesterday when an F-22 shot that suspected Chinese spy balloon out of the sky.

Now, we know that military officials were tracking this balloon for days, days before Biden himself was even briefed on the issue. Now, our sources are telling us that what triggered a briefing for the President was when this balloon made its way from Alaska and started making a direct path toward the lower 48 States in the United States. Now, this is what made this event unusual. Our sources are telling us that normally these balloons, it's not unusual to see them around Alaska, but once it started to make a direct path toward the lower 48, that is when it became a concerning incident, and they briefed the President.

Now, when the President was briefed initially, our sources tell us that Biden's first inclination was to shoot down the balloon, and that he told military officials the next day on Wednesday that he wanted the balloon shot down.

Now, he was convinced and told by top military officials, it was safer to wait until the balloon made its way from over land into the Atlantic Ocean where they can safely shoot it down without risking the safety of people below it or infrastructure below it. And ultimately, that is what we saw yesterday, on Saturday, days after Biden told the military to shoot down the balloon, they did in dramatic fashion with an F-22 firing a single missile.

So we're going to see a lot of questions, as Arlette pointed out, from Republicans on the Hill about this delay in waiting to shoot the balloon down until it crossed into the ocean.

And Representative Garamendi who is a member of the Armed Services Committee and is also a fellow Democrat, pointed to something that we've heard from Defense officials, as well as an added benefit of waiting for the balloon to cross into the ocean was that Defense officials were able to glean some important and sensitive information about its makeup. Take a listen to what he said earlier on your show.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN GARAMENDI (D-CA): I can assure you that we were gathering information. We probably gathered information the Chinese did not want us to have; communication systems, the way in which they are communicating from that balloon probably to satellites, also what it was that the Chinese were looking for as they were on this little journey.

And also all of the detail, and we will go back and we'll take all of that apart and we'll learn from this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: So the Congressman previewing perhaps how Biden officials are planning to really defend their decision and the President's decision to wait until the balloon crossing into the Atlantic Ocean, but there is no question that members on both sides of the aisle on Capitol Hill want information and they want it soon.

WHITFIELD: Yes. All right, Zach Cohen, thanks so much.

All right, let's talk even more on this. "Washington Post" columnist, Josh Rogin is with us now. He is the author of the book "Chaos Under Heaven: Trump, Xi and the Battle for the 21st Century."

Josh, great to see you.

So, you know, China did put out a statement, you know, saying the US response was an overreaction and violated international practice, but one has to wonder, you know how anyone thinks China would react if the US were flying a low lying, at 60,000 feet, balloon or anything else over its borders.

[15:10:00]

JOSH ROGIN, COLUMNIST, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Right, and of course, we are flying spy equipment over China all the time and they're flying spy equipment over our country all the time and really, if we're being honest, the only reason this has become an international scandal is because you could see it, because people went -- and said, hey, there it is.

WHITFIELD: Right, by the naked eyes. It is one thing when you can't see this stuff, and you know that you're spied upon, but this one is in plain view.

ROGIN: So we know that this has happened, even the balloons.

WHITFIELD: Right.

ROGIN: Exactly. So, we kind of have to like, you know, check ourselves a little bit and realize that the reason this has become a scandal -- one is because people on the ground are like, oh my god, there it is. And two, because it happened the day before Secretary Blinken was about to go to Beijing, which means that either the Chinese didn't know what their spy balloons were doing, or which is more likely and according to sources I talked to on the case, that they did it on purpose, that they thought, the Biden administration wanted to reset so bad that they would just have to eat it, and they could do a provocation and get away with it in this moment.

And they were wrong, they miscalculated. They didn't realize a core thing about American politics, which is that Biden wants a reset, but not so much that he is going to take a political hit, you know, by letting this go.

Now, sure, it is not worth having this crazy debate over did he shoot it down fast enough? And, you know, what was the timeline, which is like, really nuts if you think about it, because, essentially, you know, he did the right thing, and that has nothing to do with the bigger issue at play, which, of course, is Tony Blinken's trip to China and what he was supposed to be doing there, and we've totally lost the thread on this thing.

Fred, I have to be honest with you. It's pretty -- it shocks me actually, because, you know, who was the guy in the plane that shot -- you know, like, okay, fine, that's interesting. But what about the US- China relationship that we are supposed to be fixing on this trip?

WHITFIELD: Right.

ROGIN: And I think that's actually a much bigger and much more important story.

WHITFIELD: And in fact, I mean, where is that now? I mean, you mentioned, yes, okay, so if this is a good miscalculation.

ROGIN: Well, here on show, you're doing it.

WHITFIELD: Right, if this was a big miscalculation that China made that, okay, we think we can get away with it, we know that Blinken is still going to come, even with this balloon flying, I mean, this is a big embarrassing miscalculation now because the Biden administration did act.

So Xi has just learned something about this administration, maybe it was a test, but what is the lesson now, you know, Xi Jinping has learned now about the Biden administration, how it is going to react to something like this and what this means for other acts are planned acts of diplomacy.

ROGIN: Right. What he has learned is that he can only push around the Biden administration so far before, they have to start to push back because of their own domestic political concerns. If you think about it, when Nancy Pelosi went to China, they saw that as a provocation, and they were kind of forced into a reaction because of their domestic situation.

And when that comes back to us, we're -- again, we're both sides of sort of constrained by what's possible inside of our own systems, inside of our own governments, and in our own society. So the takeaway for both the US and China I think, should be, if they step back from it and just think about it that, you know, we have to get the relationship to a place where a little thing like this, and in the grand scheme of things, it is a little thing doesn't blow up the whole relationship.

And I happen to be one of those people who believes that the onus to do most of that work is actually on the Chinese side, because the Chinese government is the one that's being aggressive militarily, expanding all over the South China Sea, committing a genocide, menacing Taiwan, you know, cracking down in Hong Kong, and the only thing that we're doing is not saying that that's okay, and we're just going to stand back and watch that happen.

So we have big structural problems in the US-China relationship. None of them have to do with a balloon, okay, and it's not just us. It's the whole region.

I just got back from Tokyo, Fred. I interviewed the Prime Minister of Japan, who doubled his Defense budget, making Japan the most militarized country after US and China for the first time in 80 years. Nothing to do with the balloon. This was before the balloon happened, okay.

So, you know, I'm interested in like what was written on the side of the plane that shut down the balloon, fine tell me that. But then at some point, we should talk about how we avoid going into conflict between the world's two superpowers. And again, I think, if you're asking my opinion, and I think you're that we have to do more to show the Chinese that we care about the US- China relationship, not only when the balloon falls.

WHITFIELD: Well put. Josh Rogin, great to see you. Thank you so much.

ROGIN: Anytime. Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Still ahead --

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one.

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WHITFIELD: After facing backlash, the Miami Police Department is defending its decision to do this, decorate a police cruiser to honor Black History Month. We'll tell you why some are saying the move is tone deaf.

Plus, the massive manhunt for the suspects tied to last month's gruesome murders of a California family has come to an end. Details on how it played out next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:18:51]

WHITFIELD: The Miami Police Department is facing backlash after unveiling a cruiser designed to celebrate Black History Month. The squad car is wrapped in the colors red, yellow, and green and features images of raised fists and the continent of Africa.

Critics say it is tone deaf.

CNN's Nadia Romero is following the story for us.

So Nadia, the Miami Police Department is responding.

NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. They are responding and sticking by this and saying this is supposed to be a good thing, to celebrate Black History Month.

But let's take this all the way back to the 1700s. If you talk to scholars, Yale scholar, Monica Bell, if you look at "The New York Times," 1619 Project, and there's all this evidence that talks about slave patrols, right, when enslaved Africans were on plantations here in the US. There were these slave patrols to stomp[ down those uprisings from people trying to be free and fleeing those slave plantations.

Then you have the Fugitive Slave Law, so you have those same units going out to capture runaway slaves. And if you look at those badges from those slave patrols, they kind of look a lot like modern day Sheriff badges, and so there's that connection that history of police departments and that long history of the Black community here in the United States, that is why people are calling this that you're looking at your screen, tone deaf.

That out of all the ways to celebrate the Black community in Miami, to celebrate Black History Month, this is what was chosen.

I want you to see this statement from the NAACP Miami Dade branch that was released. They said: "What we really need is more police accountability, police reform now and stop killing Black people. A better use of funds would be to make a deeper investment in implicit bias training and other police training that would aid in saving our lives."

And I want to be clear here, the $2,500.00 that was used to wrap that police cruiser actually came from a police organization, the second oldest Black police officers unit in the country. That is who funded this project, designed the project and is standing by it. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. RAMON CARR, VICE PRESIDENT, MIAMI COMMUNITY POLICE BENEVOLENT ASSOCIATION: This was something for us to honor everyone. This had nothing to do with, you know, being disrespectful, being disgraceful, but this was something like a source of pride for us, and it still is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMERO: And Lieutenant Carr there went on to say that people are going to have their criticisms about everything, so this will be one of them. Criticism locally, and then once this video hit social media, Fred, that's when it went viral and people near and far talked about what could have been done, what really could have been done to honor the Black community.

And I want to point out that that same group that helped put this wrap around this cruiser also filed a complaint against Miami's Police Chief alleging that he was ignoring their concerns about racism within the Miami Police Department. So there are a lot of layers to this story. The criticism isn't going anywhere.

WHITFIELD: All right, Nadia Romero. Thanks so much.

All right, two suspects have been arrested in the brutal murders of six family members including a teen mother and her 10-month-old baby in Central California. The two men were arrested during an overnight raid and gunfight at a house near where the massacre took place.

The shocking execution-style murders last month were captured on security cameras and launched a massive manhunt.

CNN's Josh Campbell has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CALLER: They're still shooting. DISPATCHER: They're still shooting?

CALLER: Yes. Hurry please.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Final moments of a teenage mother and her baby captured on surveillance video.

CALLER: Oh, they are coming back in.

DISPATCHER: Who's coming back in?

CALLER: The guys. Please hurry. Come on.

CAMPBELL (voice over): Chilling video released by the Tulare County Sheriff shedding light on the massacre of six people in Central California last month.

DISPATCHER: She can still hear shooting. Two subjects have guns. They're coming back inside.

CAMPBELL (voice over): A person inside the house calling 9-1-1 to report an attack in progress, pleading with one of the wounded to hold on.

CALLER: You're going to make it -- you're going to make it through here. (Crying.)

DISPATCHER: What do you hear now?

CALLER: Nothing. I don't know if they're out there. I am too scared. I hear sirens coming.

CAMPBELL (voice over): Police were dispatched to the scene.

DISPATCHER: Unit on scene. Are you actively hearing gun shots?

SHERIFF: Negative.

CAMPBELL (voice over): By the time the officers arrived, the two gunmen had fled, leaving behind a gruesome scene.

SHERIFF MIKE BOUDREAUX, TULARE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA: As I had indicated that this was clearly not a random act of violence. This family was targeted by cold-blooded killers.

CAMPBELL (voice over): Two of the victims, a 16-year-old mother and her 10-month-old baby captured on graphic surveillance video trying to flee the gunfire. The mother places her child over a fence and tries to get away, but the gunman quickly close in.

BOUDREAUX: Alissa and Nycholas were both found dead on the street, both shot in the back of the head.

CAMPBELL (voice over): After a nearly three-week manhunt, the Sheriff announcing Angel Uriarte and Noah beard were arrested in early morning raids, Friday. Authorities say Uriarte was wounded in a shootout with Federal agents before being taken into custody. He is expected to survive.

BOUDREAUX: The suspects and the victims have a long history of gang violence, heavily active in guns, gang violence, gun violence, and narcotics dealings. However, having said that the motive is not exactly clear at this point.

CAMPBELL (on camera): Just a truly horrific story.

We should note that CNN is attempting to locate attorney information for the two suspects. Their arraignment is expected early next week.

Josh Campbell, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: China is sharply rebuking the US after the shootdown of its suspected spy balloon. Beijing's response, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:29:00]

WHITFIELD: China is condemning the shoot down of its suspected spy balloon off the East Coast of the US. It is accusing the US of overreacting and expressing what it calls strong dissatisfaction and protest over the balloons destruction and saying, I'm quoting now it "... reserves the right to use necessary means to deal with similar situations."

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken postponed a planned trip to China after the balloon was spotted in the US.

CNN's Will Ripley is with us now.

So Will, give us the update from that perspective.

WILL RIPLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's interesting, Fred.

The statement you just read came from China's Defense Ministry talking about using necessary means to deal with similar situations, and yet, China this whole time has claimed that this suspected spy balloon is actually a weather balloon. They even fired the head of their National Weather Service in China, which a lot of analysts say was removed simply to reinforce this dubious claim that the nature of this balloon was purely meteorological purposes and not to conduct surveillance over sensitive areas like those missile silos in Montana.

[15:30:12]

RIPLEY: And so you kind of have China still clinging on to this claim that the Pentagon has debuted, that this balloon was not for surveillance purposes, but yet their Defense Ministry, the Chinese equivalent of The Pentagon, saying that they now reserve the right to shoot down American assets if they pop up in Chinese airspace. The question is, what is China's definition of Chinese airspace? Does that include any US military planes that might try to land here on this self-ruled democracy of Taiwan because of course, China claims this island which has its own government as its sovereign territory, even though the communist rulers in Beijing have never actually controlled it -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: And then you know, you are there in Taiwan, and you know, that island has had its issues with similar Chinese incursions in the past. What happened then?

RIPLEY: Oh, yes.

I mean, as recently as February of last year, there was a suspected Chinese spy balloon hovering over Songshan Airport, just a short drive from where I am right now. There was another suspected balloon sighting back in September of 2021.

The Taiwan Defense Ministry has said that they are constantly monitoring the skies, and there are Chinese military aircraft and drones that regularly encroach upon Taiwan's airspace, or its Self- Declared Air Defense Identification Zone.

It was just last year, you know, less than six months ago, we were talking about Chinese drones flying over restricted areas that were controlled by Taiwan's military, military bases where these drones were taking photos.

So here in Taiwan, certainly, they are no stranger to Chinese surveillance, and that is perhaps why Taiwan has come out strongly in support of the United States' actions, saying that China should not be tolerated by the international community for sending spy balloons over other countries.

WHITFIELD: And so where now, you know, does the US-China relationship go from here?

RIPLEY: Well, it was already -- you know, it's a fraught relationship that arguably that has sunk into its lowest level in decades. There's a long list of issues that the US and China need to talk about. That's why Secretary of State Blinken was supposed to go to China and presumably meet with the Chinese President Xi Jinping.

I mean, the balloon issue aside, they need to talk about Taiwan and the tensions here, they need to talk about semiconductors, they need to talk about trade, and then not to mention cooperation with the global community on issues of concern like climate change.

But at the moment, it's all about how this balloon situation is handled. China is probably going to request that the United States send back whatever pieces of this balloon were shot down, but of course, as we've been reporting, those are going to an FBI lab.

Now, in the past, the United States has actually made a similar request of China. It was back in 2001, in April, when a US spy plane had to make an emergency landing on the Chinese island of Hainan. And even though the crew of that plane was allowed to go home in a matter of days, it took three months before China returned that spy plane and when they did return it, Fred, it was in pieces.

So in the immediate days and weeks ahead, the issue of getting this balloon situation sorted out, the US investigating possibly returning it to China, and then after that, it seems likely that both sides can move on from this and start to get to that very long list of other topics that they really need to talk about, especially given the tense climate right now.

WHITFIELD: All right, we shall see. Will Ripley, thanks so much.

All right, still ahead. As prices were skyrocketing and consumers were struggling to fill up their cars with gas, guess what? Oil companies were raking in record profits. Details on that next.

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[15:37:53]

WHITFIELD: Central Park Zoo officials in New York continue to try to recover an owl that escaped its enclosure and was spotted sitting on a sidewalk on Fifth Avenue at one point. It's beautiful though, isn't it?

On Thursday, zoo officials discovered the Eurasian eagle owl named Flaco and noticed that it was missing and that it is -- its cage had been vandalized.

Well since then, the owl has been seen flying around Central Park Zoo area and perched on trees as you see right there.

For more on this let's bring in Gloria Pazmino.

So Gloria, when was the last time it was spotted? And what's the feeling of about how it is surviving out there in the cold?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Fred. You know, it might surprise you, but there is actually a quite active and big birding community here in New York that is very concerned about Flaco and he was spotted this morning.

He is currently perched above Central Park and he has been there for the past three days. As you mentioned at the beginning, the Central Park Zoo confirming that someone appears to have vandalized the enclosure where Flaco has lived for the past several years, allowing him to escape.

Now Flaco, at one point made it over to a sidewalk on Fifth Avenue. He was on the pavement as police tried to put a cordon around him, but he simply flew off and evaded -- could not be captured in that moment.

He has been in the park ever since. I wanted to learn a little bit more about Flaco, the kind of owl that he is, and what these birding experts that are here in New York City are worried about. I talked to David Barrett. He is here in Manhattan and has been following Flaco ever since he escaped from the zoo. Listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID BARRETT, BIRD EXPERT: Getting him rescued is important. It's becoming critical. Yes, Flaco cannot survive on his own in the wild. Flaco has been in captivity at the Central Park Zoo for over 12 years.

[15:40:01]

BARRETT: If Flaco had any hunting skills prior to coming to the Central Park Zoo, he has lost them, so he cannot hunt on his own, he cannot obtain food on his own in Central Park. So it is essential that rescuers get to him and bring him back to the zoo.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: So part of what I learned, Fred, is that the way that owls get hydration is from their food. Flaco has not been eating the food that Park Rangers have been putting out for him in an effort to get him to come down and eat the food and keep him hydrated and keep him fed.

So he is running out of time here, and that is what they are most concerned about, bringing him into safety, bringing him back into where he will be taken care of, and they are not sure how much longer he is going to be able to go on without eating or drinking water.

WHITFIELD: Oh, my gosh. So are they willing to reveal to you like, what would the other methods be? I mean, if it's not by food that you can't lure Flaco. How else?

PAZMINO: Well, it's actually interesting. I was asking, why do you think he is not coming to the food and part of what he was explaining to me is that this animal has been in captivity for so many years, most of its life, that it probably doesn't realize that something that is being placed for him is food that is meant for him to eat.

You know, he has been in captivity. He is probably used to seeing his food in the same spot, in the same plate brought by a person and that is not happening here.

So everything about this is throwing this poor bird off, and hopefully, he can be rescued safely.

WHITFIELD: Oh, I hope so, too. All right, Gloria Pazmino, thanks so much.

All right, Big Oil is making big profits. Several of the world's biggest oil companies are reporting record profits for 2022 CNN's Matt Egan has the detail on what is driving the surplus and if it will impact how much you pay at the pump.

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Fredricka, Big Oil is minting money right now. Check out these eye-popping numbers from Shell, Exxon, Chevron, all three of them, doubling their annual profits last year.

Exxon alone made almost $60 billion. If you add up all of these companies' 2022 profits, you get a mountain of money or more specifically, you get about $135 billion. That is so much money that they could take just their annual profits and basically buy the NFL.

"Forbes" pegs the valuation of all 32 NFL franchises at $143 billion.

Let's take this one step further. Big Oils combined profits last year are enough to buy Chipotle, Etsy, Peloton, Best Buy, Delta Air Lines, Ralph Lauren combined. So what are oil companies doing with this money? They are spending on new supply, but critics including the White House say they are not spending aggressively enough on new supply.

They are however, spending aggressively on massive shareholder rewards. Check out these multiyear buyback programs that have been announced by Big Oil recently, $4 billion from Shell, $50 billion from Exxon and Chevron alone, $75 billion in buybacks.

So how did we get here? Well, Big Oil is cashing in for a number of reasons. The war in Ukraine, of course, sent oil and natural gas prices skyrocketing last year. Demand for energy bounced back from the COVID cash, and this is key: Wall Street is very much against the "drill baby drill" mantra. I mean, they want companies to return cash to shareholders and not spend it on expensive drilling projects.

One more point here, it is important to remember that this is a notoriously boom to bust industry. When times are bad, they are real bad. Exxon, for example, lost $22 billion in 2020 alone. Dozens of oil companies went bankrupt that year and oil prices briefly even went negative in the spring of 2020.

Still, it is safe to say that the boom times are back for Big Oil. Meanwhile, gas prices have moved sharply higher this winter. The national average is now around $3.50 a gallon, up roughly 40 cents from the low late last year. Thankfully, gas prices are well below that record of $5.00 a gallon last year, but still this recent uptick has been unusual, because normally, gas prices are pretty chill in the dead of winter, people stay off the roads and demand is weak right now.

The problem has been on the supply side. Extreme winter weather just before Christmas knocked out key refineries that hurt the supply of gasoline. Meanwhile China's COVID reopening boosted oil prices.

[15:45:02]

EGAN: GasBuddy's Patrick De Haan he told me that he worries that this winter time surge in gas prices is going to bring forward the return of $4.00 gas to as early as March -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Matt Egan. Thank you.

We'll be right back.

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WHITFIELD: More than one million people have died from drug overdose during the opioid epidemic of the past 20 years. Nearly 100,000 of those deaths a year are from opioids.

Well now, the new CNN film: "American Pain" takes us inside the opioid crisis revealing the rise and fall of the identical twin brothers who ran one of the largest opioid pill mill empires in the country.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It created a blueprint for how this is to be done and they were operating in broad daylight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The scale of this enterprise, and it was enormous.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You had addicts streaming in from all over the country, thousands of miles, just to come to Florida to get drugs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you see what's going on, inside that clinic, your job just falls to the floor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't be sniffing your pills in the parking lot. Don't be shooting up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd been on the job as a special agent for over 20 years, and I've seen a lot of crazy. This was just [bleep] crazy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Wow. I mean, joining us right now is FBI Special Agent, Jennifer Turner. She led the investigation into the George brothers' operation.

Good to see you.

I mean, just seeing that video. I mean, the amount of people going in of that clinic, you know, it was as if free televisions were being given away. So I mean, there are so many fascinating aspects about this, the George brothers were technically, we would learn in the documentary were not really doing anything illegal in the State of Florida, but they were distributing prescription opioid pills to thousands of people.

So how was that not illegal when they weren't the pharmacists or doctors, right?

JENNIFER TURNER, FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Well, unfortunately, at the time of the pill mill epidemic in South Florida, there was no prescription monitoring program in the State of Florida. Had there been this type of database in place at the time, it would have tracked what patients were receiving what controlled substances from which doctor, and it also would have tracked the pharmacies that were dispensing that medication.

In this instance, obviously, oxycodone, so because such a monitoring program did not exist at the time, they were quite literally allowed to flourish in Florida. What was illegal, thank goodness, in the State of Florida at the time, and still is, is a state statute against doctor shopping, which prevents individuals from seeing more than one physician and obtaining the same controlled substance within a 30-day period.

So what we were seeing at the time were carloads, van-loads full of people coming to South Florida, and they were seeing a multitude of doctors, going to a multitude of pill mills, and obtaining multitudes of prescriptions all for the same controlled substances all within a few days.

So when these individuals were arrested for doctor shopping, and they chose to cooperate with us through our State and local law enforcement partners, they initially provided us with some amazing Intelligence as to the day-to-day operations of what it was like to actually be a drug seeker in "American Pain."

WHITFIELD: So what tipped you all off?

TURNER: Well, there were a number of things that tipped us off. We knew very early on in the investigation that the country's -- five of the country's top oxycodone dispensing physicians were employed by Chris George. We also knew that Chris George was a convicted felon, and he was the owner and operator of a medical facility that was dispensing highly addictive controlled substances.

We also knew through individuals who were patients at the clinic that they were dealing in only cash, unlike those of us who go to our doctor's offices or a medical facility here in the United States, no insurance was accepted. You were not allowed to pay via credit card. It was an all-cash business.

So what we were hearing was there was so much cash coming into the clinic every day that within the first hour or two of being open, they couldn't fit all of the cash into their cash drawers. So they literally used very large garbage cans to dispense all the cash into during the day.

We were fortunate enough and that we obtained enough evidence and that we were able to go up on Chris George's cell phone through a Court authorized warrant, and we obtained some really great evidence that way.

We eventually served a number of search warrants on the clinics and their affiliated pharmacies and homes, so some of the co-conspirators which led us in March of 2010 to a 32-defendant racketeering indictment with racketeering, drug trafficking, and money laundering.

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WHITFIELD: My goodness. An elaborate scheme, elaborate bust. Agent Jennifer Turner, thanks so much for joining us and explaining all of this. I mean, it is riveting as much as it is also very sad.

Be sure to tune in everyone. The all-new CNN Film "American Pain" premieres tonight at 9:00 PM Eastern and Pacific, only here on CNN.

Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. The CNN NEWSROOM continues with Jim Acosta after this.

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