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New Details On Pentagon Decision To Notify President Biden About Balloon; Interview With Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX); GOP Criticism On Biden's Handling Of The Suspected Spy Balloon; China Expresses Strong Dissatisfaction For U.S. Overreaction; President Zelenskyy To Replace Defense Minister; New Film On The Opinion Crisis In America; Two Arrested In Execution-Style Killings Of Family In California. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired February 05, 2023 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:24]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: Welcome back to the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.

At this hour, we are learning critical new details about when the Pentagon learned about the Chinese spy balloon and when they realized they must tell the president about it. This comes as U.S. Navy divers and other military personnel are scouring the ocean floor off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

And we're getting new video into CNN. A resident in South Carolina shot this and said he believes it could be debris from the balloon. To be clear, CNN cannot independently verify whether or not this is, in fact, debris from that Chinese spy balloon. We're reaching out to the Navy for comment. In the meantime, Republicans are condemning President Biden for failing to take action on the balloon sooner.

CNN's Alex Marquardt joins us now with more.

Alex, you're learning more about this timing, when it came down to the decision-making that was taking place inside the Biden administration. We heard the president stating to reporters emphatically yesterday that he made this call on Wednesday that the balloon be shot down as soon as it was safe to do so. But there's more to the story. What more can you tell us?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there is, Jim. And a lot of the criticism that is being directed at President Biden is because of the length of time between when he was told about it to when it was eventually shot down.

We now know according to the Pentagon, Jim, that this balloon first entered American airspace up in Alaska on the 28th. So a full week before it was eventually shot down, and it wasn't until three days later, on Tuesday the 31st, that President Biden, in fact, gotten his first briefing. He was told by his top military commanders that this balloon was swooping down through Canada and was about to enter American airspace. It did so on that day, on Tuesday, into Idaho. And it is then that

President Biden, we're told, did ask for military options, which he then got the next day on Wednesday when military commanders told him that they didn't think that he should shoot or order the balloon shot down over American territory because of the damage that it could do to people on the ground.

President Biden, we're told, made clear that he did want to see the balloon shot down, not only when it was safe for people on the ground but in a way that that surveillance payload, all those electronics that hang below that balloon, could be salvaged and could be used for counterintelligence reasons. That balloon, of course, shot down yesterday off the coast of South Carolina.

A lot of questions remain, Jim, and the administration is going to have to answer a lot of them to lawmakers as early as Tuesday, when we understand there will be a briefing to the so-called Gang of Eight. Those are the leaders of both parties in both Houses as well as chairman and ranking members of the Senate and House Intelligence Committees.

You can imagine that during that briefing, the administration will be asked why they didn't shoot the balloon down sooner but also about their claims that they were able to not only block the balloon from gathering intelligence but that they, themselves, U.S. intelligence, U.S. Military, were able to gather intelligence about the balloon itself, and about how China carries out its intelligence-gathering measures.

They will also be asked, we can assume, about the recovery efforts, what has been recovered so far, what they've learned so far, and what they expect to recover and learn in the coming days and weeks -- Jim.

ACOSTA: And Alex, we're also learning that this isn't the first spy balloon that has flown over the U.S. in recent years. What can you tell us about that?

MARQUARDT: In fact, there have been at least four others in recent years, Jim, and three during the Trump administration. Despite former President Trump's denials that this never happened while he was president, the Pentagon says there were at least three that flew over the continental United States during his tenure, and at least two during the Biden administration.

We are now hearing from several officials as well as a lawmaker, Representative Mike Waltz of Florida, that balloons have flown over or near the lower 48 states. You can see that tweet there from Waltz, who says that one flew near Florida, asking why it wasn't shot down. We're also told that it was -- that at least one flew near Texas or at least off of Texas.

What was different about this one that was shot down, Jim, we're told is the path. It swooped down from Canada, flying over the northern, central, and eastern parts of the country, and that it loitered. It hung out, in the words of a senior Defense official, for a longer period of time. Of course, we can't forget the very sensitive political moment we're

in right now. Very tense relations with China. This balloon spotted and then shot down right as Secretary of State Antony Blinken was due to travel to Beijing for a very important meeting -- Jim.

ACOSTA: That's exactly right. All right, Alex Marquardt, thank you very much.

[18:05:01]

And joining me now to talk about this, Democratic Congressman Joaquin Castro of Texas. He sits on the House Intelligence and Foreign Affairs Committees.

Congressman, thanks so much for being with us. As Alex mentioned just a few moments ago, a senior Defense official says three Chinese spy balloons transited across the continental United States, or at least portions of it, during the Trump administration. Were you ever made aware of this? Was that ever shared with lawmakers?

REP. JOAQUIN CASTRO (R-TX): I don't ever recall hearing about it. And, you know, as we think about it, I know there's been a lot of conversation about -- and a lot of debate about when you should shoot down this balloon or take it out. And remember, there's at least three different considerations that the military and the intel officials are going through. The first one, of course, is what the intelligence vulnerabilities are. What kind of information that balloon is collecting about nuclear sites, about defense sites, and so forth.

The second one is what is the counterintelligence value of observing what that thing is doing? There is very likely a very important counterintelligence value to the United States government in understanding how China is collecting information on the United States. And then the third one, of course, is the one that President Biden made clear, which is public safety. You know, Donald Trump Jr. going on Twitter, wherever it was, Truth Social, and saying that, you know, people should just shoot guns up in the air and try to take it out, there's a public safety concern about debris and people shooting guns, of course.

So I think the president made a very clear and decisive decision in asking the military to take it out as soon as possible, and they advised that the best time to do it was when it was over water.

ACOSTA: And let me just ask you one quick follow-up question to some of this reporting that this may have occurred -- it appears to have occurred during the Trump administration as well. We just didn't know about it. And it sounds as though maybe lawmakers weren't told about it, and there might have been national security officials in the Trump administration who didn't know about it. Is it plausible the Pentagon would not have told then-President Trump about something like that?

CASTRO: Well, I mean, I would think that over the course of his presidency, because of the presidential daily briefing and other intelligence briefings, that the president would have a pretty good idea about China's intelligence surveillance of the United States. So I would think that over those four years, he would have a good understanding about how exactly China was gathering information about the United States.

ACOSTA: And let me ask you about some of the political back-and-forth that's been going on over this. A source tells CNN the House GOP is weighing a resolution to criticize Biden over his handling of this suspected Chinese surveillance balloon.

What's your reaction to that, and what is your reaction to some of these comments from Republican Senator Ted Cruz, who starts off by praising President Biden for shooting down the balloon but then added a bit of a swipe. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): I want to start by doing something that I don't do very often, which is commending Joe Biden for actually having the guts to shoot this down. That was the right thing to do. That is absolutely what the president should have done. Unfortunately, he didn't do that until a week after it entered U.S. airspace. He allowed a full week for the Chinese to conduct spying operations over the United States, over sensitive military installations, exposing not just photographs but the potential of intercepted communications. And more broadly, I think this entire episode telegraphed weakness to Xi and the Chinese government.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: What's your response to all that, Congressman?

CASTRO: Well, the first thing is people like Ted Cruz and Jim Jordan and others, they're going to criticize Joe Biden no matter what he does. If they'd shot it down an hour later, they would have still been criticizing him. And apparently while President Trump was in office, there were a few of these balloons that were up, and it appears that President Trump and his administration never took action against the Chinese because of that.

So President Biden was decisive. He took the military's advice that the best time to do it, mostly because of public safety, was when this thing was over water and it was taken out.

ACOSTA: And you think that was the right call, to wait until it got over water?

CASTRO: I think so. You know, apparently the debris was seven miles long, and so debris falling like that over one of the states in our country could cause great damage to people and to structures. And so the best and prudent thing to do was to wait. And as I mentioned earlier, I also think that there was probably very likely a counterintelligence value to understanding how the Chinese are collecting information against the United States. The value of that counterintelligence really can't be overstated. It's incredibly important.

ACOSTA: And what does this say about the U.S.-China relationship and just the brazen nature of Chinese intelligence-gathering in the United States? It's more extensive, I think, than people realize.

[18:10:04]

CASTRO: Yes. And that's one of the most interesting parts of this whole thing is that usually nations will collect intelligence against each other in very quiet ways. In other words, they don't usually try to make it public or make a show of it. And so for China to be this brazen about it and then make a statement about it after this thing was shot down and not distance themselves from this thing or say, oh, it wasn't ours or so forth, I thought was incredibly interesting and incredibly telling.

A sign, I thought, of Chinese aggression and a little bit akin to what the Russians did in 2016, where they essentially were part of an operation to dump all this information from the DNC and weaponize information. This, of course, was different. But in a similar vein, it was the Chinese being more aggressive and not keeping quiet about intelligence.

ACOSTA: And if I could just sneak in one quick question about the State of the Union speech, the president has the State of the Union speech coming up on Tuesday. What in particular would you like to hear him tackle in that speech?

CASTRO: There's so much for the president to talk about. First of all, so many successes in terms of helping the country beat back the pandemic. We're not completely out of the clear, but we've come a long way since January of 2021. Also the economy bouncing back the way that it has and having the lowest unemployment rate now since 1969. Those are things that the president and the country -- that we can be incredibly proud of.

So I think he's going to talk about the economy, about where we are now. But I hope that he'll talk about things like immigration and finally getting some big issues done that have been lingering with the Congress and the administration for quite a while. You know, and then of course I think he's probably going to have to address some of the issues or some of the ways that Republicans are waging culture wars in the country, like banning books in Florida and so forth.

All of these things because they have no plan for governing. They have no substantive plan for the country, so they're trying to ignite culture wars all over the place.

ACOSTA: All right. Congressman Joaquin Castro, thanks very much for your time. We appreciate it.

CASTRO: Good to be with you.

ACOSTA: All right. And we'll have much more on the recovery efforts of this Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina ahead.

Plus, a new look into the opioid crisis. How two brothers ran the largest pill mill operation in the United States.

And a teenage mother and her baby try to flee gunmen in California. A surveillance video captures it all. Wait until you see what happened.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:16:45]

ACOSTA: On Tuesday, President Joe Biden will deliver his State of the Union address. But that day he may get an unwelcomed surprise from House Republicans. A resolution condemning him for his handling of the balloon incident.

CNN's Arlette Saenz is at the White House with more.

I supposed the White House was expecting this, but how might they respond?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, so far the White House hasn't responded to this possible resolution from House Republicans. But if it were to pass on the day of the State of the Union, it would mark a major disapproval from Republicans as the president is set to deliver that address in the House chamber. The first time he will do so before a divided Congress.

Now Republicans throughout this incident have tried to paint President Biden as indecisive, slow-acting, and also weak in his position towards China. But we have heard from White House administration officials pushing back, really defending the president for his decision to wait to shoot down this balloon until it was over water. They argue that the president was deliberative and responsible in his decision-making process.

Today Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg went out on the Sunday shows defending the president, saying that what he was trying to do was ensure that the safety of Americans was the first priority. They've also pointed to the president's desire to make sure that they were maximizing the opportunity to recover the payload from that balloon, trying to glean as much information and intelligence as possible from this device by waiting to shoot the balloon while it was out at sea.

That made that ability to recover that payload a bit easier. But certainly these are criticisms that Republicans will continue to lob towards this White House and we will see whether this resolution actually gets passed and whether it might be on the day of the State of the Union.

ACOSTA: All right. Arlette Saenz, thank you.

And joining us now to talk about this and other hot topics, Democratic strategist Maria Cardona and Republican strategist Alice Stewart. Both of them CNN political commentators and host of the podcast "Hot Mics from Left to Right."

Ladies, thanks so much for being with us.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Hey, Jim.

ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Hi, Jim.

ACOSTA: Alice, today we heard from Senator Ted Cruz. He was criticizing President Biden over his handling of the Chinese spy balloon. Republican Senator J.D. Vance slammed him on Twitter for a dereliction of duty or worse for not shooting down the balloon. I think he had an earlier tweet that showed him holding a firearm in his lap suggesting it maybe could be shot down even though that could never happen. Speaker Kevin McCarthy tweeting, "First President Biden refused to defend our borders, now he won't defend our skies." Marjorie Taylor Greene, she also had a tweet of her own.

Alice, are they in danger of maybe being full of hot air themselves? I mean, you know, what do you think?

STEWART: Look, I agree that it was the right thing to do to take down this Chinese spy drone. But it was too little, too late. And we're seeing choruses of Republicans and people across this country saying that it should not have gotten to this point. And as our colleague, David Urban, said this morning, what we saw was in essence China giving the middle finger the size of three school buses to America all the way across the country.

[18:20:01]

And, look, the Biden administration knew about this long ago and failed to acknowledge this and let people know until this was reported by the media. And what this basically did, it allowed China to gather intelligence and gather information all across the country. And that should not have happened. And I'm hearing from Republican and Democrat members of Congress, who say their phones are being blown up by constituents, Republicans and Democrats, who are frustrated with this slow response by this administration.

But they're finally recognizing the fact that China is a tremendous threat to the United States, not just for this intelligence gathering but for their human rights violations, for their failure to condemn Russia for invading Ukraine. So if nothing else, people are understanding the real threat of China.

ACOSTA: Maria, what do you think? How should the White House handle this? How should they respond to this? Apparently Republican House lawmakers may pass a resolution going after Biden on this on the day of the State of the Union. What should be the White House response to all this?

CARDONA: I think their response to that resolution full of hot air is to prick it with the amazing accomplishments that he will go one by one and tell the American people about them during the State of the Union.

Look, this bloviating by Republicans is just so demonstrative of the fact that they are desperate, trying to pin something on a president that has had massive accomplishments in these last two years, and they have no idea how to go about criticizing him because when they do, they just can't help themselves in terms of the ridiculous overreach. The only thing they have demonstrated to the American people is that they would have no idea how to respond to this themselves.

The way that they are saying that people should be shooting this up in the air, showing guns, saying that this should have been done the very first second that they saw it in the air just shows that they have no common sense. They don't know strategic intelligence if it would slap them in the face. And, in fact, what Joe Biden and the administration did was they put the safety of the American people first.

ACOSTA: Yes.

CARDONA: They actually had time to figure out what intel China was trying to gather and, in fact, did the reverse, and now we have intel on them. And now that they have shot the balloon over water, they're able to collect the debris and are able to study it. And so all of this, to me, just demonstrates -- and I believe it demonstrates to the American people that they made the right decision in terms of the person that they elected.

Somebody calm, cool under pressure, strategic, responding with intelligence as opposed to a party that knows nothing other than knee- jerk reactions and is the definition of being trigger-happy.

ACOSTA: Let me park the balloon to the side for a moment here. Let me ask you about this new polling from "The Washington Post"-ABC News showing little voter enthusiasm for Biden among Democrats, for Trump among Republicans.

Alice, it sounds like there are some voters out there who would like to see a fresh face. You know, Joe Biden has dealt with this before for many years. He likes to say don't compare me to the Almighty, compare me to the alternative. And Donald Trump obviously has the same problem among Republicans where a lot of Republicans would like to see someone else leading the party in 2024.

But, Alice, you and I both know that is not how the primary process works. Donald Trump doesn't need to have a majority of Republican voters supporting him. He just needs a strong plurality and he can knock these other candidates out of the field.

STEWART: Right. Look, I think, you know, obviously Donald Trump has a strong pull with the base of the party, but we also have many viable alternatives that will represent his policies but not be quite the dumpster fire that he has been.

But, look, as far as Joe Biden is concerned, I think he needs to consider not just the alternative in the general election with the Republican, he needs to consider what kind of alternative he will be facing in the primary because while my dear friend Maria likes to talk about the accomplishments of this current administration and what he will be touting at the State of the Union, the reality is that poll that you just mentioned, Jim, where we have 40 percent of Americans in that poll say that they are not better off financially than they were two years ago. In fact, they are worse off. And the president's approval rating still

is around 40 percent. That is not good. But on top of that, you're looking at Democratic voters say that about 38 percent of them would support Joe Biden.

ACOSTA: Right.

STEWART: More than 50 percent of them would like to see someone else. So I think Joe Biden needs to be concerned about the alternative within his own party and not the Republicans.

ACOSTA: Gotcha. Maria, quick final word from you.

CARDONA: Joe Biden has nothing to worry about in terms of anyone running against him when he decides to run. And the fact that --

[18:25:02]

ACOSTA: And you voted for the Democratic Party to start with South Carolina. That's going to help Joe Biden.

CARDONA: Yes.

ACOSTA: I would imagine if in the event he has any challenger.

CARDONA: Absolutely it will. And it also reflects what this country looks like. It gives voters of color a voice and a vote in terms of who is going to go along and get a boost out of the nominating calendar. And that's exactly what we wanted to do 15 months ago, and we're very proud of having done that now. And I believe Joe Biden will be the one and only candidate on the Democratic side.

And like you said, Jim, he has faced being the most underestimated president and candidate, I think, in history. And he has shown time and again when people say he can't do it, he does it and then some. And, again, the massive accomplishments that he has been able to amass under his belt in the last two years that are just now showing the American people what they're going to get out of it, when there are polls that actually show the American people what Biden and the Democrats have done, trust in the economy shifts to Democrats by more than five points.

ACOSTA: OK.

CARDONA: So I think that's going to be a big plus for him, and there's a lot of time left.

ACOSTA: OK. Ladies, I've got to leave it there. We've got another story to get to right now. But thanks very much for the time as always. We appreciate it.

CARDONA: Gracias, Jim.

STEWART: Thank you, Jim.

ACOSTA: Thank you, guys. All right. Coming up, Ukraine's president reportedly set to replace

his defense minister. That just coming in to the CNN NEWSROOM. We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:30:59]

ACOSTA: China is condemning the U.S. decision to shoot down its balloon off the coast of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It insists the craft was not for spying but it was merely a weather balloon that drifted off course.

CNN's Selina Wang joins us now from Beijing.

Selina, what's the latest from China?

SELINA WANG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, Beijing is saying that the U.S. is overreacting by shooting down its balloon, and the Defense Ministry put out this vaguely worded statement that it reserves the right to use necessary means in a similar situation.

Now, it is clear, though, from these statements, these are really stock answers, that China doesn't actually want to escalate things. They've been trying to repair this U.S.-China relationship that significantly deteriorated throughout the pandemic, and that Blinken meeting, which has now been postponed by the U.S. Secretary of State to China, that was going to be a big political win for Beijing, for Xi Jinping.

Meanwhile on Chinese social media, Jim, the reaction has been a lot of mocking of the U.S. and some people even joking that why shoot it down, it's just a lantern that blew over from this month's lantern festival.

Now we know that both the U.S. and China already use surveillance satellites to spy on each other from the air. The big question remaining is still why would China use a balloon? We still don't know if this was an accident, if it really just blew over, if it was deliberate, if it was a test to see how Biden and the U.S. Military would respond. We also don't know if there were some bureaucratic problems and if Xi Jinping was actually looped in.

But as you say, China, they're doubling down on this claim that it was a civilian research aircraft, a weather balloon. State media even announced that they've dismissed the head of China's national weather service. Analysts see this as a move from Beijing to try and shore up its argument that it's a weather balloon. That, of course, is something the Pentagon strongly rejects, saying they are confident it is a spy balloon and that this balloon and the one spotted over Latin America are part of a fleet of Chinese spy balloons that have been spotted around the world in the last few years -- Jim.

ACOSTA: All right. Selina Wang, thank you very much.

Staying overseas, Ukraine's government is readying for a reshuffle near the top with the current defense minister set to be replaced by the head of defense intelligence. An official under President Zelenskyy said this move was, quote, "absolutely logical for warfare," but we do know that the defense minister has been under pressure for several weeks related to corruption scandals inside his department.

With me now to talk about this, CNN military analyst and retired Air Force colonel Cedric Leighton.

Colonel Leighton, thanks so much for being with us as always. Appreciate the insights. Let me ask you about this because this official added that war dictates personnel policies. I have to ask you what you make of this move because the Ukrainians, against all odds, have just been exceptional in the way they have repelled Russia's aggression throughout all of this for nearly a year now. Isn't there some risk involved in replacing the defense minister at this point?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Oh, absolutely, Jim. And it's great to be with you again. The real problem that you have when you're making these personnel changes is the cascading effect that they may have. You know, when people are sitting in positions like minister of defense or chief of a general staff or, you know, one of those kinds of positions, they have a lot of people around them. Some of them, they've brought with them.

But there's a machine that if it works well, it can be really bad if you disrupt that machine. So in the case of Defense Minister Reznikov, he seemed to get along really well with people like Secretary of Defense Austin and his counterparts in Europe. So that fact makes the interpersonal relationships, the diplomatic relationships that this minister of Defense has had. It makes a bit of a question, and I think it's a risky move for the Ukrainians to make at this point in time.

I think the calculation was that because there's a whiff of corruption around the Ministry of Defense because of a food procurement scandal, that Zelenskyy wanted to clean house and make sure that from a European Union perspective, that he appeared as squeaky clean as possible.

[18:35:10]

And that of course also plays well here with the Republicans in Congress because they're also demanding accountability of aid to Ukraine, military aid that we've been giving them, and that could be part of the calculation as well.

ACOSTA: Right. And obviously they may want to respond to some of this international criticism that exists on the right about alleged corruption inside Ukraine. What does the timing signal to you about how Ukraine is faring in this war, though? Does it say anything about what Russia may be preparing for in the months ahead because they've been stating very confidently on the Russian side that they're going to step things up and turn the tide of this?

LEIGHTON: Yes, that's -- you know, that's a real danger for the Ukrainians right now because the Russians are amassing troops. You know, we've reported that there are -- there's an increased presence in the south, about 30,000 more troops in one particular area in that southern province. And we know of course about the battle around Bakhmut and the eastern side of the front between the Ukrainian and Russian forces.

So the fact that, you know, when you bring in somebody like General Budanov to be the new minister of defense, you're bringing in somebody with a lot of military experience at various levels as well, not just as head of the intelligence director which he is right now. So what I think this says to me is that Zelenskyy is looking, first of all, of taking care of the corruption piece but also making sure that there is complete military experience, military knowledge when it comes to the response to this new phase of this war.

And so when the Russians -- if the Russians do, in fact, mount this offensive, that the Ukrainians think that they'll be ready, even more ready with this new minister of defense.

ACOSTA: Well, we're certainly heading into a critical phase of this war in Ukraine.

Colonel Cedric Leighton, thanks as always. We appreciate it.

LEIGHTON: You bet, Jim. Absolutely.

ACOSTA: All right. Still to come, a wild story involving a daring Coast Guard rescue. A dead fish and the goonies. We'll explain all of that in just a moment.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:41:32]

ACOSTA: In the last year, about 80,000 people died from opioid overdoses in the U.S. 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.

Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The George brothers did not start the opioid crisis, but they sure as hell poured gasoline on the fire. They became the largest street-level distribution group operating in the entire United States. Nobody put more pills on the streets than they did. Nobody. They created a blueprint for how this is to be done, and they were operating in broad daylight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The scale of this enterprise, 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 jaw just falls to the floor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'd been on the job as a special agent for over 20 years. I've seen a lot of crazy. This was just bat (EXPLETIVE DELETED) crazy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Joining us now is retired FBI supervisory special agent Kurt McKenzie. He led the investigation into the George brothers' operation.

And as we just heard in that clip, the George brothers were running the biggest pill mill operation in the U.S., and we were just watching some of that footage there. I mean, you're just seeing, you know, it looks like hordes of people inside a strip mall or something like that, I guess lining up to get pills. Tell us more about the impact that these brothers had in the wider opioid crisis.

KURT MCKENZIE, RETIRED FBI SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT: Hi, Jim. And thanks for having me. The George brothers ran what we call a diversion operation. So they diverted legitimately produced pharmaceuticals to the streets of the United States. In less than two years, they pushed about 20 million dosage units to the street with a street value of almost half a billion dollars. And the drugs went as far north as Boston from Florida, and as far west as Texas that we know of.

ACOSTA: And one of the fascinating aspects of this story is that these brothers were not technically doing anything illegal. Is that -- do we have that right? How did that impact the investigation?

MCKENZIE: The brothers used what we like to call window dressing. And my fellow investigators, we call it window dressing. In other words, the clinics were appropriately licensed by the state of Florida. The doctors had DEA control numbers. So that made it difficult for us to prove the illegality here, and we had to go about proving that the doctors were prescribing outside of the scope of their expertise, that there was no medical necessity for the issuance of these prescriptions, and that all of the drugs were being handed out because the George brothers said so.

And that was our challenge, and we had to do that by introducing undercover agents and officers and also by surveillance techniques, and eventually that led to a wiretap, a Title 3 interception, and lastly but not least, of course, the search warrants that we served on all of their facilities.

ACOSTA: Fascinating stuff. All right. We're going to be watching tonight.

Kurt McKenzie, thank you very much and great work on your part. We appreciate it.

[18:45:00]

Be sure to tune in. The all-new CNN Film "AMERICAN PAIN" premieres tonight at 9:00 Eastern and Pacific only on CNN. Coming up, the U.S. Coast Guard celebrated a daring rescue of a

capsized boat. Have you seen this video? It is just incredible. But it turns out there was much more to the story. Unbelievable video to watch coming up next, and the details as well.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ACOSTA: We're getting some incredible video of a daring rescue in Oregon, and there's a major plot twist. The U.S. Coast Guard was on a training mission when this nearby boat capsized.

[18:50:02]

Take a look at that. Just unbelievable. The crew received a mayday call from the vessel and then lowered a rescue swimmer, you might be able to see him in the water there, after determining rough waves made a boat rescue too dangerous. The Coast Guard was able to rescue the man, and he was taken to a hospital for evaluation.

But here's the plot twist. After images of the water rescue became public, police said they received a call from a port security chief saying that the boat had been stolen earlier in the day. The rescued man was then arrested shortly after being discharged from the hospital. And then in an even weirder twist, police say he is the same man they have been looking for who left a dead fish at a house used in the filming of the movie "The Goonies."

So twisted fish tale there, but just some unbelievable video as well of that boat. There it is again. Just capsizing. Just being leveled by that wave there. Incredible stuff.

Tonight, Chris Wallace sits down with two legends in their respective fields. Sports broadcaster Terry Bradshaw discusses the Super Bowl, and astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson talks about the intersection of science and pop culture on a new episode of "WHO'S TALKING TO CHRIS WALLACE?" Here's a preview.

CHRIS WALLACE, CNN HOST: Jim, tonight we're talking football with one of the game's greats, legendary quarterback and broadcaster Terry Bradshaw gives us his Super Bowl pick and weighs in on the safety of the game.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Do you think football is too dangerous?

TERRY BRADSHAW, FORMER FOOTBALL PLAYER AND SPORTS BROADCASTER: No. No, I would have to say no. It's dangerous. Look, it is a tough sport. You better be pretty courageous and fear no evil basically. Being hurt or getting hit is all part of it, and we accept it. But the NFL has done, I think, a really good job of promoting, taking the hit out of the equation. You can't hit with the head, protecting the quarterback. And so the improvement in the helmet is certainly better. But you're always going to be dealing with this. (END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Then we kick it up to the stars for a conversation with one of the most well-known scientists in the world. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson joins me to explain some cosmic questions such as if there is extraterrestrial life and why are our solar system is down to eight planets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Is it true that you got hate mail for dissing Pluto?

NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON, ASTROPHYSICIST: Oh, yes. I have a fall cabinet this deep, even from third graders. Third graders.

WALLACE: Listen, well, third grade I learned how you could tell the planets from their distance from the sun. Mary's violet eyes make John stay up nights, period. Period, Pluto. Now there's no period.

TYSON: Yes, so deal with it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: While I may not like it, he does make a pretty compelling argument, which you can watch tonight at 7:00 Eastern -- Jim.

ACOSTA: Chris, thank you. And make sure to tune in tonight for an all- new episode of "WHO'S TALKING TO CHRIS WALLACE." That's tonight at 7:00 here on CNN.

Coming up, in central California, a cartel-style massacre left six people dead, including a teenage mother and her baby. Details on the two men who authorities are calling cold-blooded killers.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[18:57:52]

ACOSTA: In central California two suspects have been arrested in the brutal killings of six family members including a young mother and her 10-month-old baby. The execution killings last month were captured on security cameras sparking a massive manhunt and CNN's Josh Campbell has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're still shooting.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're still shooting?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, hurry, please.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Final moments of a teenage mother and her baby captured on surveillance video. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're coming back in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Who's coming back in?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The guys, please hurry. Come on.

CAMPBELL: Chilling video released by the Tulare County sheriff shedding light on the massacre of six people in central California last month.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She can still hear shooting. Two subject have guns. They're coming back inside.

CAMPBELL: A person inside the house calling 911 to report an attack in progress. Pleading with one of the wounded to hold on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're going to make it through here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you hear now?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nothing. I don't know if they're out there. I'm too scared.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I hear sirens coming.

CAMPBELL: Police were dispatched to the scene.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Unit on scene. Are you actively hearing gunshots?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Negative.

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

BOUDREAUX: Alyssa and Nicholas were both found dead on the street. Both shot in the back of the head.

CAMPBELL: 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 wound 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.