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Senators Grill Acting FAA Chief After String Of Runway "Close Calls"; Two Americans Killed, Two Survived Kidnapping In Mexico; New Documents In Dominion Lawsuit Shows FOX Hosts Privately Slammed Election Conspiracies They Promoted On Air; Fed Chair: Bigger Interest Rate Hikes Are Possible. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired March 08, 2023 - 13:30   ET

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


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[13:30:00]

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: The big thing here, Billy Nolen says, the acting head of the FAA, is that this is something that the FAA is taking seriously. But also he insists that aviation right now is safe.

There will be a safety summit held by the FAA in just one week's time where he says the FAA will connect the dots, if there are any to connect, between these two incidents.

I want you to listen to the acting administrator of the FAA now.

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BILLY NOLEN, ACTING FAA ADMINISTRATOR: Safety is always a journey. We are never going to declare victory. And if there's something to learn we're going to look for ways and opportunities to learn it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: Senator Ted Cruz is one of the ranking members on that Senate Commerce Committee that learned heard from Nolen today. He said the issues are really concerning. We will see, as this continues to unfold, if there is any commonality between them, Abby. That is the big question now.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN HOST: It very much is. Obviously, a close call is not an actual, you know, coalition. But it is very concerning for people who are on those planes.

Pete Muntean, thank you very much for all of that.

And right now, the two Americans who survived that deadly kidnapping in Mexico, they are recovering at a hospital in Texas. One of the survivors recounted watching her two friends die in that horrible attack. New details next.

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[13:35:53]

PHILLIP: She watched her friends die. One of the four Americans kidnapped in Mexico told her mother that, when gunman ambushed their group on Friday, two of her friends were immediately shot and killed.

Mexican authorities completed the autopsies today. And the two survivors are getting medical treatment in Texas. Right now, one person is in custody.

CNN's Rosa Flores is at the Texas hospital where the two victims are recovering. And CNN's Dianne Gallagher is in their hometown in South Carolina.

Rosa, let's start with you.

It does sound like this attack was, unfortunately, over before it even started. What else do we know about the sequence of events here?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Abby, I just drove from the hotel where these Americans were staying to the international bridge where they crossed and it's about an 11-minute drive.

Now, Mexican authorities say that they crossed at about 9:18 a.m. on Friday. And that that dramatic video of the kidnapping was taken at about 11:45.

And that in between that time, the Americans were lost. They were trying to find the doctor's office where one of the Americans was supposed to get a medical procedure.

Now, in that dramatic video, you see how they are dragged and put into the bed of a pickup truck. Now, police at that point really didn't issue a statement.

That video actually circulated in Mexican news outlets throughout Friday and there was really no statement issued by police at that point in time in Mexico.

Now, on Saturday, one of the friends of Latavia Washington McGee reported this to the police. On Sunday, a family member watched that dramatic video and started asking questions.

On Sunday, actually, the FBI issued its first statement. And overnight, on Monday, that's when it became international news.

Abby, it was on Tuesday, following a tip, according to Mexican authorities, that they actually followed this tip that they received that led them to a Wooden house in the outskirts of Matamoros where they actually found the Americans.

And like you mentioned, tragically two of them dead, the other two survived.

PHILLIP: Dianne, you are there in South Carolina where these families, I'm sure, are broken over how this has transpired. What are we learning about these victims? DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Abby, it's important to remember

that these four were friends who grew up together in a small town. They have been lifelong friends.

Two of them survived and two of them did not. And that is breaking all of these families.

I spoke with the mother of Latavia Washington McGee this morning. And she said that she is absolutely elated that her daughter is coming home, she believes as early as today.

But she is devastated that her nephew, Shaeed Woodard, who she raised as a son for the teen years of his life after she tells me his mother died, and then Zindell Brown, who she said was also like a kid to her - they all grew up together - did not make it.

Now, she spoke with her daughter yesterday. She said that Latavia McGee was crying and upset on the phone while she was in the hospital and recounted exactly what happened and what she experienced to her mother.

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BARBARA MCLEOD BURGESS: MOTHER OF KIDNAPPING SURVIVOR LATAVIA WASHINGTON MCGEE (voice-over): They was driving through and a van came up and hit them. And that van and hit them. And that van started shooting at the car, shooting inside the van or whatever.

And I guess she said the others tried to run and they got shot at the same time. Shaeed and Zindell, they all got shot at the same time. And she watched them -- she watched them die.

Put on - everyone on that has something to do with it, I want them locked up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: Now, Eric Williams also was - survived. He was shot at least three times, according to his wife, in the legs.

She said that she spoke with him as well on the phone yesterday, Abby, that he was extremely emotional, mourning the death of his long-time friends.

[13:40:05]

But she also noted that their 11-year-old son was overcome with emotion as well, so happy that he could speak with his father after these terrifying few days that these families have experienced.

PHILLIP: Just a horrible tragedy all around.

Rosa Flores and Dianne Gallagher, thank you both for your work on this.

And coming up next for us, "I hate him passionately." That's a text message in newly released documents that reveal what FOX News' top stars really thought about Donald Trump in their own words, coming up next.

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PHILLIP: Today, hundreds of just-released documents, including private texts, emails and depositions, from the Dominion Voting Systems lawsuit against FOX News, they expose what top executives and on-air hosts at that network really thought about former President Donald Trump, despite what they were telling their viewers on air.

Tucker Carlson backed Trump's false claims in public. But in private messages, he said, quote:

"We are very close to being able to ignore Trump most nights. I truly can't wait. I hate him passionately."

"We are all pretending we have a lot to show for us, because admitting what a disaster it's been, is too tough to digest. But, come on, there isn't really an upside to Trump."

In previous released messages, Carlson wrote, quote:

"He is a demonic force, a destroyer. But he's not going to destroy us. I've been thinking about this every day for four years."

Now, this is the same Tucker Carlson who still pals around with Trump, who, right now, is selectively airing footage from the capitol insurrection in an attempt to exonerate the former president.

So let's bring in CNN's senior media reporter, Oliver Darcy.

So, Oliver, Tucker Carlson is not alone in any of this. Even Rupert Murdoch himself admitted that the network went too far in pushing Trump's lies.

It's so interesting to me to see and hear the disdain for Trump in these messages, while on air, the commentary, the entire network is so sycophantic.

OLIVER DARCY, CNN SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER: Yes, Abby. This trove of messages has really just exposed these people as total frauds. Right?

They say one thing on air when the cameras are on to their audience and, behind the scenes, the person they have been cheerleading for years and years they trash them. They call them in very harsh terms.

I mean, in these Text messages, as you just read, Tucker Carlson sounds more like an MSNBC host than a FOX News host.

This is something, if someone else were saying this, if someone else had the courage to go on camera and say these truths about the president, Tucker Carlson and other FOX News hosts would attack them. But in private, they're saying these things. Separately, Rupert Murdoch, the FOX chairman, acknowledges behind the

scenes or at least in his deposition here that some of his hosts went too far.

I want to read you part of an email that he had sent to Suzanne Scott.

He says about election lies, "Maybe Sean and Laura went too far. Oh, very well for Sean to tell you he was in despair about Trump. But what did he tell his viewers?"

And that really gets to the heart of this thing. Because, again, in front of the cameras these hosts were saying one thing. But behind the scenes, everyone knew the truth. They just didn't share it with their viewers.

PHILLIP: Yes, and as we were just discussing, I mean, this is happening right now where Tucker Carlson is airing this January 6th footage trying to whitewash what happened on that day.

But the interesting thing is that the response on Capitol Hill has been pretty harsh. They are not particularly happy with his use of this footage.

DARCY: Yes, you don't have to take it from CNN that Tucker Carlson is trying to sanitize the events of January 6th. You can just take it from congressional Republicans.

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REP. DAN NEWHOUSE (R-WA): This revisionist thing, I think, is unfair to the American people. It needs to be broad and clear that it shows everything, not just cherry picked through however many hours.

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DARCY: GOP Republicans are saying Tucker Carlson is being dishonest about his presentation of this footage. And I think that really just says it all - Abby?

PHILLIP: Yes, it really does.

And it also is just sad. I mean, I talked about the disdain for Trump. There's also a disdain for FOX News viewers where they're being lied to in this way day after day.

Oliver, thanks for your work on this.

[13:49:05]

Brace yourself for bigger, faster and more painful interest rates. What the Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is telling Congress on Capitol Hill and what it could mean for you and your pocketbook.

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PHILLIP: Fed Chairman Jerome Powell is back on Capitol Hill today, one day after warning that bigger interest rate hikes could be coming.

Now, that led to a big Wall Street sell-off. Here's how the Dow is reacting today. It's been down most of the day.

CNN's Rahel Solomon is here to sort this all out.

So, Rahel, once again, Powell is basically saying the data is almost a little too good. And that the next interest rate will depend on what the future data looks like.

So what kind of numbers is he looking to see?

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: Exactly, Abby. Data-dependent is what we always hear from Jay Powell.

So we hear from the Fed in exactly two weeks, Abby, but before then, we get a slew of economic data that Jay Powell and other policy makers will be watching very closely to help determine their next rate hike decision.

So Friday, we get the all-important jobs report for the month of February. Next week, we get two inflation reports, the Consumer Price Index and the Producer Price Index and we get retail sales.

And, Abby, what Jay Powell and other policy makers will be watching for are any signs of cooling. Is the medicine working?

[13:55:01]

I want to show you all that the Federal Reserve has done this year in terms of interest rate increases.

And as you can see, Abby, it is a lot, 4.5 percent since last March. And yet, we're not seeing the type of changes in the economy that you may have expected.

And so, as one policy maker put out recently, the data isn't really cooperating.

So what we'll be watching for the next few weeks is to see, is that starting to change? Are we starting to see inflation cool in a more meaningful way? Are we starting to see the labor market cool in a more meaningful way? Which has become a bit controversial.

I should say, however, we got some new reports this morning that showed the labor market is still really strong. ADP adding an additional 242,000 jobs for private payroll. Still a really strong labor market - Abby?

PHILLIP: The economy is roaring. But unfortunately, that is not good news for interest rates.

Rahel Solomon, thank you very much for all of that.

And that does it for me here on CNN's NEWSROOM. Thank you for joining me on this International Women's Day. But don't go anywhere just yet. We have much more news ahead right

here on CNN.

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