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Supreme Court Preserves Abortion Drug Access, Gun Rights Taking Precedence Over Gun Responsibility; Trump Picks Up Several GOP Endorsements Over Ron DeSantis; UT State Senator's Home Vandalized In Possible Retaliation Over Transgender Legislation; Wrexham AFC Earns Promotion Back To English Football League; Ukraine FM: Need 10 Times More In Military Support From Allies; AI-Generated Song Copies Voices Of Drake & The Weeknd. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired April 22, 2023 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:52]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM, I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.

Abortion right supporters are nervously anticipating what comes next after the Supreme Court moved to preserve access to a commonly used abortion drug. The ruling allows doctors to continue prescribing mifepristone in States that allow it, but there's almost no chance the protective ruling will be the final word on regulation of the drug.

In the next challenge, the Texas case that challenged mifepristone's 23-year-old FDA approval heads back to the Fifth Circuit Court for an appeal on May 17th.

Right now, we don't know why the Court which last year overturned the historic Roe vs. Wade decision moved to protect this drug. Justices offered no explanation with Friday night's ruling.

I spoke last hour with Minnesota Democratic Senator Tina Smith about the ruling and what comes next. Here's what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TINA SMITH (D-MN): The Supreme Court did the right thing. They did the only reasonable thing. It is really incredible that these Lower Courts were prepared to buck precedent and follow their ideology in my view to overturn the authority of the FDA to be deciding what medicines are safe and effective. I mean, Judges are not doctors and they should not play doctors.

For now, this right is still protected only in States where abortion is still legal, but this fight will continue in the Courts, and I believe it will continue in the ballot box as well as people who voice their values on election days.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Our Kevin Liptak is over at the White House. Kevin, what kind of reaction are we seeing from the White House to

this ruling? And what are they planning to do to ensure future access to the drug? I suspect they're breathing a little bit of a sigh of relief over there.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, that's absolutely true, Jim. And really, as soon as this ruling came out yesterday, the President was out with a statement really within minutes. He said: "As a result of the Supreme Court stay, mifepristone remains available and approved for safe and effective use. While we continue this fight in the Courts, I continue to stand by FDA's evidence-based approval of mifepristone, and my administration will continue to defend FDA's independent expert authority to review, approve, and regulate a wide range of prescription drugs."

So here in that statement, Jim, an acknowledgment that this is not the end of the road, that White House officials do say that they are prepared for quite a lengthy legal fight as this continues to make its way through the appeals process.

Now, in the lead up to this decision yesterday, behind the scenes, there was quite intensive preparation at the White House Counsel's Office, at the Department of Justice, and among the President's senior advisers about contingencies, should these restrictions remain in place on this drug.

Now, those preparations will continue. Those options are still on the table about what the White House has been quite frank on, quite candid about is that they are limited in their ability to do much to expand abortion protections that were included in Roe vs. Wade, that were of course, stripped away by the Supreme Court last year.

And the President did acknowledge that in his statement that if people want to see those protections restored, they will have to use their vote as their voice, elect lawmakers who support abortion rights.

Of course, this will be a central issue as the President gears up to run for re-election potentially announcing as early as next week -- Jim.

ACOSTA: All right, Kevin Liptak, over at the White House. Thank you very much.

It has been a devastating week of gun violence across the country. Seven men and a 12-year-old girl were injured last night at two scenes following drive-by shootings here in Washington, DC and at least six other Americans shot this week for being just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Twenty-year-old Kaylin Gillis died when the car she was riding in turned into the wrong driveway in Upstate New York, and the homeowner started shooting.

So far this year, there have been more than 160 mass shootings across this country. And joining us now with more on this Ryan Busse. He is a gun industry

executive for 25 years but in 2020, he quit that career, and now, he is talking about this issue in pretty stark terms.

In 2021, he published, "Gunfight: My Battle Against The Industry That Radicalized America."

[18:05:03]

ACOSTA: Welcome, Ryan. We appreciate it.

And I want to start with a tweet that you sent out this week. It says: "GOP vision for America. Be afraid of 16-year-old honor students in Kansas City, 20-year-old women in New York, always be prepared to shoot all-star cheerleaders in Texas."

What did you mean by all that?

RYAN BUSSE, AUTHOR, "GUNFIGHT": Well, my story, Jim -- and thanks for having me on -- I lived within the machine that built this hate and conspiracy we now live with, in far too much of our country. I saw with my own eyes how the NRA radicalized this whole debate, it radicalized the issue, it handed it off to the right side of our political aisle. Eventually, Donald Trump put that whole thing on steroids.

And let's face it, fear and conspiracy were very effective political tools for the right side of the aisle, certainly for the last five or six years. Sadly, they're exactly the same things that drive gun sales.

And while the vast majority of people in this country, the vast majority of gun owners are responsible gun owners, I count myself among those, it only takes a small percentage of people who are really affected by the sort of fear and conspiracy that the NRA perfected, and when they are gun owners, bad things can happen incredibly quickly, like we saw in Kansas City and Albany, and with the Texas cheerleaders, it's just horrific.

ACOSTA: And we've had about as many mass shootings as days this year, and we could be on a record pace as a nation for the number of mass shootings.

You were raised with guns. You're an avid outdoorsman, and hunter. You were just talking about that. You support the Second Amendment, but you say the issue of gun rights has eclipsed the issue of gun responsibility in this country. What do you mean by that?

BUSSE: Yes, well, again, you can't have 415 million guns, maybe as many as 25 or 30 million assault weapons now and pump hatred and conspiracy through certainly the right side of our media now. You can't have a political system that profits and propagates irrational fear and hatred, have all these guns, and then roll back restrictions like we have in 26 States, Florida just did it. So there is now permitless carry in 26 states. You can't do all that, and think you're not going to have these issues. So my point here is we can have freedoms, we can be gun owners, but we

can't do it without reasonable, responsible norms and regulations. It's just that -- it's just, again, not a perfect analogy, but you can't drive through a town or through a city without speed limits and stop lines and licensing and liability insurance for your cars. It's going to break down if you do that.

And guns, although protected by the Second Amendment is a much more tenuous situation because of the horrific outcomes that can come when just a small percentage of people misuse them.

ACOSTA: Well, let me ask you about that. I mean, polls show Americans by a pretty wide margin support tighter restrictions on firearms in this country. I mean, there are lots of different ideas for that, and how those new restrictions could take place. But why do you suppose we're not seeing the country move in that direction? And what do you think it will take to get there?

BUSSE: Well, I think it's really simple why we're not moving in that direction. You're right. I mean, let's take universal background checks. That poll is somewhere in the neighborhood of 81 to 83 percent.

Jim, ice cream does not poll at 83 percent, okay, not even all flavors of ice cream poll at 83 percent. Why doesn't that get passed? I can tell you why it doesn't get passed because guns and gun radicalization and the intimidation that they provide are now the central totem for the right side of our political aisle and the far right of our political aisle rules the whole Republican Party now.

I mean, Marjorie Taylor Greene's Christmas card, go look at it. Massie's Christmas card, go look at it. Lauren Boebert's Christmas card, go look -- like there's a reason why guns are so central and Republicans won't touch this, because it is their central totem, right?

Who cares about policy, it's not about policy to them. It's about a culture war to them, and without guns in the middle of it, their culture war falls apart. That's why these things don't pass.

ACOSTA: And just recently, we saw that a number have announced, potential Republican presidential candidates appeared at the NRA convention in Indianapolis and this is despite the fact that we have seen a lot of stories out there saying that the NRA was this weekend gun lobby in this country.

What did you make of that? Because I know you have a long history in this industry and I'm sure you've seen the ups and downs of the NRA, but it doesn't seem like it's all that weakened these days if they have all of these presidential candidates going and appearing before their members.

BUSSE: You're exactly right. We can talk about some of the you know, technical weakening of the NRA maybe membership is down, maybe fundraising is down. Maybe a lop here is not getting $3,000.00 suits anymore, but I can tell you NRA-ism is not weakened at all. If it was weakened, why would every single GOP presidential hopeful

come on bended knee to the Indianapolis convention last week where really, Donald Trump was the only one that was raised up in the way that they wanted to be.

[18:10:09]

BUSSE: So they've already picked their horse, right. But my point here is, is that even if the NRA is weakened itself, NRA-ism certainly is not weakened.

We are living with the repercussions of it. We're living with it in Kansas City. We're living with it every day. You started off the segment with 11 people being shot, seven, and four, I think I mean, this is just -- we just pass it off.

And I mean, a kid and her dad gets shot because a basketball rolls into a yard, a 16-year-old honor student is shot because he rings the wrong doorbell. Like, this is what is going to happen if we don't balance freedom with responsibility, and right now our balance is way off.

ACOSTA: And you wrote a piece recently in "The Bulwark," where you cited some chilling statistics since 1997, firearm sales have increased by, take a look at this, over 600 percent sales of about four million guns to current totals of nearly 25 million guns per year.

What are some of the realistic things that can be done to lower those numbers because it seems as though the country is already awash in guns, and even if you were to start to pass some restrictions in this country, there are so many guns out there that you may continue to have, where we will likely, very likely see more episodes like the ones in Kansas City and kids go into the wrong house getting shot and so on.

BUSSE: Well, let's start by being realistic. And I think your question points that out. We're not going to rid the country of gun violence. We live in a complex democracy, and we have guns, there are going to be issues.

So let's not set a standard that we cannot match. However what reasonable citizens in a democracy like ours have always done, work to make things marginally better, instead of working to make them marginally worse.

You don't rollback permitting, when you have more guns and more gun owners, you increase it, okay. We still have on the books, you have to be 21 to purchase a handgun federally, but you can be 18 to buy a rifle. That's a throwback to the days before AR-15s were ubiquitous everywhere.

So we can change that. We can do things that make it better if you don't think we can, think about cigarettes, right? In the early 90s, cigarettes were everywhere. We had much higher lung cancer rates. You couldn't walk into a bar without washing your clothes four times after you're done, you could smoke on planes still, right?

We changed that culture. We didn't ban cigarettes, you can still go buy cartons of them, but we changed the culture. We made things marginally better. We lowered lung cancer rates. We didn't make it perfect, but we made it better.

We can do those sorts of things. It doesn't have to be a monumental lift. We can just do what reasonable responsible decent citizens need to do.

ACOSTA: All right, Ryan Busse, you've given a lot for us to think about. I really appreciate your time. Thanks very much.

BUSSE: Thanks for having me on, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right, still ahead. He promised to be a bridge to the next generation. Now, President Biden is set to announce a re-election run on Tuesday. Will his own party rally around him for a second time? That's coming up.

Plus, the home of a Utah State Senator is vandalized and police say, it could be retaliation for a bill restricting transgender care.

And later, why two comedian say Tom Brady is threatening to sue them over a comedy special done with Artificial Intelligence. We'll try to explain that one, too.

That's coming up. You're live on the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:17:40]

ACOSTA: All right, let's delve a little deeper into last night's Supreme Court ruling protecting access to the abortion drug, mifepristone, at least for the time being.

Joining me to talk about that and more Seung Min Kim is a CNN political analyst and White House reporter for the Associated Press and Molly Jong Fast is a special correspondent for "Vanity Fair" and host of the "Fast Politics Podcast."

Welcome to both of you, ladies. Thanks so much.

Seung Min, let me start with you first. The underlying case is going to the Fifth Circuit for an appeal on May 17th. I'll get it out. What do we think's going to happen after that?

SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, we know that the Fifth Circuit is actually the most conservative Appeals Court in the United States. There is a reason why this abortion case, it originated in Texas, set to go to the Circuit Court.

So I mean, we could see this as a very long legal battle that could make itself back up to the Supreme Court because you'll recall, when we saw this initial ruling from Judge Kacsmaryk in that Federal District Court in Texas, we actually got a near simultaneous ruling from a Federal Judge in Washington State that allowed mifepristone to be continued to be sold and kind of pushed back these attempts to limit this abortion pill.

So when you have two conflicting rulings like that, oftentimes they do end up back to the Supreme Court on its merits. So, I think we're in for a very long legal battle ahead. It just doesn't stop with the brief stay at the Supreme Court yesterday, this is going to be something that we're going to be watching for months to come.

ACOSTA: And, Molly, were you surprised by how the Supreme Court weighed in on this last night? I mean, what do you think and, you know, a lot of eyebrows were raised by Justice Alito's dissent in all of this, what did you think?

MOLLY JONG FAST, SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT, "VANITY FAIR": I was actually really surprised. I thought that these three very conservative Trump Justices who already overturned a woman's right to choose, a right that she had had for 50 years would actually get involved in this even though the case itself is not such a great case, but it does --

I mean, the reason -- I mean, it sets a precedent which is District Court Judges being able to overturn FDA approval for drugs they don't like, and if you think about that, it opens the door to a lot of stuff that is sort of secondary consequence that I think even these very conservative Judges wouldn't like.

[18:10:17]

FAST: So ultimately, I think that, you know, I'm sort of surprised and I'm sort of not surprised. But remember, last year, they said after they overturned Roe, which was pretty seismic, they said they weren't going to get involved in abortion anymore and I think that's probably unlikely, and that this will go back to them.

ACOSTA: And Seung Min, let's talk about what President Biden is planning to do or what we think he's going to do on Tuesday, expected to announce his official bid for re-election.

He is facing a number of challenges. He's got, obviously the economy in which way that goes. There is also the situation about his son, Hunter Biden and whether or not there are going to be some legal questions there in that case.

What do you think of Biden's announcement coming up on Tuesday? And what does he need to worry about moving forward do you think in the months ahead?

KIM: Right, right. So what did we expect from him early next week is try to make -- just make formal what we have expected for a very long time and what President Biden has himself said for many months that he intends to run, this making it official allows him to ramp up that fundraising, but we don't see too much -- we are not going to expect to see too much of his behavior in terms of how he goes about his day- to-day after that official launch. He and his aides are really focused on looking presidential on the

day-to-day job of governing. You know, he is meeting with foreign leaders, traveling abroad, dealing with domestic policy and obviously, selling his legislative accomplishments. So that's what they're going to focus on in the coming months until the campaign season really ramps up in earnest next year.

But he's got a lot to concern about. We, at the AP just did a poll where it said three out of four voters believe that the country is on the wrong track. You also have only half of Democrats who actually are excited about him running again, who want him to run again, so his challenges are to keep everyone that he persuaded in the 2020 election, whether it's the Democratic Party and these independent swing voters in in his camp and also hope that the economy's doesn't get worse than it already is right now.

ACOSTA: And Molly, on the Republican side, former President Donald Trump recently picked up the endorsements of several congressional Republicans, despite Florida Governor Ron DeSantis visiting Washington just this past week.

I mean, if you're inside the DeSantis camp, I would assume you have to be worried about this. Even Florida Republican Members of Congress are coming out and getting behind Trump, despite DeSantis being the Governor there.

FAST: Yes, another really bad week for DeSantis. You even saw Florida Republicans criticizing him for not being in Florida, for not -- I mean, look at this is the thing about running for President so early, and especially DeSantis. I mean, he really has -- you know, he's been crisscrossing America and doing events. I mean, he was in New York City. I mean, he was in Staten Island.

So I think for sure that there is some bitterness there. I also think ultimately, Trump has a hold on the party and the idea that a less charismatic version of him would somehow be able to take his place when he considers himself very much still in it was a lot of conservative wish casting.

So I do think that this is Trump's nomination to lose at this point.

ACOSTA: Well, I think also for some of these members, Seung Min, it helps with the base, right, if they get behind Donald Trump at this point, and if he somehow doesn't end up being the nominee, they can always switch to somebody else.

But one of those potential candidates out there, Mike Pence apparently just told CBS News, he is going to announce his plans for 2024 before late June. I guess, it doesn't really narrow it down, but it gets us a little closer.

If the GOP field gets too full of candidates, like Trump, I mean, what do you think? Do you think we're going to see Mike Pence make a huge dent in this process?

KIM: I mean, it's really hard to see with the former Vice President because if you're running for your party's presidential nomination, you have to figure out your lane and that lane for Mike Pence has pretty much all but closed.

Obviously, he has gotten on the wrong side of Trump, even though he did the right thing on January 6th and voted to uphold the election results, that obviously has put him on the wrong side of Trump and on the wrong side of the base.

You could argue that Mike Pence could go for the path of evangelical voters, but you do have many other competition in that lane. Evangelicals, especially White evangelicals still very much love Donald Trump and South Carolina Senator Tim Scott could also easily make a play for those voters particularly in Iowa.

So it's really hard to see where and if the former Vice President can make a dent, but you know the more people who get in, and I think this is what some in the party, particularly those who don't like Donald Trump are worried about, the more who get in, the easier will be for the former President to get the nomination again and they feel that that is something that will be a surefire loser for Republicans in the General Election if Trump is back on that ballot.

[18:25:27]

ACOSTA: And Molly, former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has been stepping up criticism of Ron DeSantis. He was going after DeSantis on his whole handling of the Disney situation. I mean, that has led to a lot of speculation, obviously, that Christie might jump into this race, could he become the new anti-Trump candidate that actually has a chance with this?

FAST: I don't know who Chris Christie is for. I mean, he worked for Trump. He was someone who was preparing Trump for the debates, gave him COVID during that time, you'll remember that was 2020. So he's been in and out of the administration, but now he's going to be the administration's greatest critic? I don't know that you can have it both ways quite like that.

I also think Christie had his moment and he's sort of, you know, and since then he's kind of squandered all of his political capital. He also is, you know, still tainted by Bridge-gate. So maybe there are some lane for Republican voters who like Trump, but then are mad at Trump, but then go back to Trump. I don't know who that's for.

ACOSTA: All right, we are not going to get in that lane anytime soon.

All right, Seung Min Kim, Molly Jong Fast, thanks to both of you. Appreciate it.

All right, like something out of a movie script or maybe a TV show that you binge watch, when a soccer club owned by two Hollywood stars just pulled off today that had fans going wild. We'll talk about next.

You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [18:31:11]

ACOSTA: Local Utah police are looking for suspects who vandalize the home of State senator, Mike Kennedy. Authorities believe the senator was targeted because of legislation he sponsored that banned gender affirming surgeries for minors.

Kennedy responded to the vandalism by saying, "To those who seek to use violence, vandalism and intimidation to deter me from standing up for what is right, let me be clear: you will not succeed. I will not be deterred by your cowardly actions."

A group of attorneys general across the country claimed millions of Kia and Hyundai vehicles are unsafe and too easy to steal. They're calling for a recall. The vehicles in question were manufactured between 2011 and 2022. The Attorney General say they include ignition switches that are easy to bypass.

CNN's Polo Sandoval is following the story for us.

Polo, what have you learned?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So Jim, this coalition of attorneys general they are petitioning the federal government asking for a federal recall for certain kinds of Kia and Hyundai vehicles say that their manufacturers have failed to address what's been noted as an alarming rate and thefts of specific kinds of vehicles.

California's AG leading this coalition of 17 states as well as Washington, D.C. in a letter that they wrote to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the coalition requests a recall of what they described as unsafe Hyundai and Kia vehicles manufactured between 2011 and 2022, whose easily bypassed ignition switches and lack of engine immobilisers make them particularly vulnerable to theft.

Vehicles such as Hyundai Santa Fe and Tucson as well as the Kia Sportage - rather Kia Forte and Sportage when equipped with turnkey ignitions are roughly twice as likely to be stolen as other vehicles of their similar age.

As for the federal response, the NHTSA responding that this is really not the sort of thing in which an agency would demand or recall saying that this falls within the purview of law enforcement, as for the manufacturers of the vehicles, both automakers offering free software patches they say will fix the problem.

In a statement on Friday Hyundai saying that their vehicles are fully compliant with federal anti theft requirements and Kia adding that they are also providing steering wheel locks for impacted owners at no cost. Jim if you look at it, though, the potential impact, you're talking millions and millions of vehicles.

ACOSTA: Polo Sandoval, thanks very much.

This sounds like something right out of a Hollywood story book, Wrexham AFC, the small Welsh soccer club owned by Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney has earned promotion back to the English Football League. It's the United Kingdom's Fourth Division, just a few rungs beneath the Premier League.

CNN's Don Riddell joins us now.

Don, just how historic and unprecedented has this rise for Wrexham been. It seems pretty remarkable.

DON RIDDELL, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes. Look, it's not unprecedented teams go up and down between these divisions all the time, Jim, but it is a rapid change in fortunes for Wrexham, a once proud club that had found himself really down on its luck. And when McElhenney and Reynolds invested in the club and bought it a couple of years ago. I don't think anybody could have imagined that the transformation would be so rapid, but they have been absolutely brilliant in this league this season.

Today, they were fantastic winning their last home game with the regular season, 3-1 against Boreham Wood, couple of brilliant goals there from their megastar talismanic striker Paul Mullin. And the scenes at the end were just delirious, so emotional. Look at the owners here. They were so emotional because they've become so invested in this club on so many levels. This is what they had to say afterwards.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN REYNOLDS, ACTOR, CO-OWNER OF WREXHAM: I'm not sure I can actually process what happened tonight. I'm still a little speechless. Know that one thing that's running through my head over and over again, as people said at the beginning, why Wrexham, why Wrexham. This is exactly why Wrexham, happening right now is why.

[18:35:06]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You've put so much into this project, how does it feel when it finally feels like it's paying off?

ROB MCELHENNEY, ACTOR, CO-OWNER WREXHAM: Well, I think we can hear how it feels for the town and that's what's most important to us. I think this is a moment of catharsis for them, and celebration and for us to be welcomed into their community. And to be welcomed into this experience has been the honor of my life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RIDDELL: The Wrexham fans, Jim, are just pinching themselves, not only if they won promotion, which is what they've been trying to do for the last 15 years, but they now have a global fan base. People all over the world are watching this because of the successful Welcome to Wrexham documentary.

It's just incredible that so many people are now invested in this story. There's talk that the club could feature in the next Deadpool Ryan Reynolds movie. The whole thing is just a fairy tale, frankly. And it definitely got a Hollywood ending. Spoiler alert, we've kind of ruined the ending of season two, because

we know how it's going to end. But I think a lot of fans are going to be coming to the show and just enjoying every second of it.

ACOSTA: That is one spoiler they will take.

All right. Don Riddell, thanks so much appreciate it.

RIDDELL: All right.

ACOSTA: Congrats to that team.

Right now, China is the most populous country in the world, but the UN says another country will soon take that top spot. We'll discuss which country that is and what it means for international relations that's coming up next. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:40:26]

ACOSTA: Despite an estimated $55 billion in security assistance, Ukraine's Foreign Minister said that is not enough to finished Russian aggression this year. Though the ministry thanked its allies. The official said Ukraine needs 10 times more military support. He also called on Ukraine's partners to cross all artificial red lines and devote 1 percent of GDP to supply weapons to fight Russia.

After nearly three quarters of a century, there will be a new population leader in the world, I should say. The U.N. predicts that India will pass China to become the most populous country in the world. India and China account for more than a third of the global population. That's almost three billion people have an almost eight billion world population.

Sajjan Gohel joins us now. He is the International Security Director for the Asia-Pacific foundation. Sajjan, thanks very much for coming on. This is kind of an astonishing thing that's about to happen when we take a look at the numbers. This is - it's an incredible milestone, China has held this number one spot for the most populous country since 1950. The U.S. falls at a distant third at approximately 340 million people. What does this mean for geopolitical relations?

SAJJAN GOHEL, INTERNATIONAL SECURITY DIRECTOR, ASIA-PACIFIC FOUNDATION: Well, it's a certainly a very significant development, Jim. Keep in mind that India may have actually crossed that threshold in terms of numbers ahead of China, perhaps even a couple of years ago, because its last census was in 2011 and then you had the COVID 19 pandemic.

So India potentially overtook China over a while ago and when the next census comes through probably next year, we'll actually have that officially confirmed, but it is demonstrating the fact that India's workforce is now very substantial. It's about 900 million to put it into perspective and it's expected to get to a billion by the end of this decade. ACOSTA: And as China's population slows, what might be the

repercussions for China and its global relations? I mean, if the rest of the world sees India as the most populous country, does that affect China's standing somehow internationally?

GOHEL: Well, it certainly has a symbolic and psychological impact on China's psyche as well. They've been somewhat terse in the replies officially when they've been asked about this. Keep in mind that China's having to deal with the fact that there are higher living costs, there are shifting attitudes amongst its younger generation towards family and marriage.

COVID-19, again, had a huge economic slowdown, so the cost of having a family are significant. The One China policy had a massive impact on the imprint of China's population, which would have resulted in stiff economic penalties if you had more than one child. Now to try and reverse that is proving to be very hard.

One thing that's very interesting, if you look at what President Xi's government is trying to do is that they're in a race to attain Paramount influence before its population gets too old. So China's military spending, its economic expansion via the Belt Road Initiative is certainly something that they're pushing. It's a calculated risk, but it also potentially brings them further at odds with the United States and also with India as well.

ACOSTA: And did the U.S. and its allies, do they need to be paying more attention to India? Are they paying enough attention to what is taking place in India right now?

GOHEL: So this is a really important question that you are raised, the U.S. can do a lot more to engage with India. I think one of the most important things that's happened very recently is that they finally have appointed a U.S. Ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti, the former mayor of Los Angeles.

But it's taken about two years to actually get that process approved by the Senate. And the U.S. needs to have somebody on the ground in New Delhi, directly talking to India working on behalf of the United States. engaging on issues to do with geopolitics, the economy, supply chains, things that are very important.

And even though there is bipartisan support in the U.S. to engage more with India, there needs to be greater consistency over how the U.S. approaches that relationship, because the U.S. will have another election in a year's time. If there's a different president, does that mean there's going to be another U.S. Ambassador, because these are tend to be political appointments.

And again, the process then gets impacted as a result of that.

[18:45:04]

But already, the U.S. is doing so much in terms of working with India militarily, enhancing intelligence sharing, cooperation, the quad, which is a four-nation alliances along with Japan and Australia is proving to be a very important country in terms of shared values, rule of law, things that are very important for the U.S., important for India as well.

So the world's most powerful democracy and the world's largest democracy can definitely do a lot more to work together and also aid in terms of economic support to other countries.

ACOSTA: Sajjan Gohel, thanks so much for being with us. We appreciate it.

GOHEL: My pleasure.

ACOSTA: All right. Still ahead. It went viral on TikTok and climb to the charts on Spotify, but a song featuring the voices of Drake in The Weeknd. That is not what it seems. We'll discuss next. You're live in the CNN Newsroom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:50:19]

ACOSTA: A song that uses artificial intelligence to copy the voices of Drake in The Weeknd has gone viral. Heart On My Sleeve racked up more than 11 million views in a matter of days. An anonymous TikTok user named ghostwriter977 claims to have used an - used AI to generate the music. It appears the artists themselves have nothing to do with this, listen to this.

The original TikTok video of the track has seemingly been taken down. It has also been removed from streaming services, including Spotify, but the conversation and controversy over this technology continues.

CNN's Jon Sarlin joins us now. He's the host of CNN's NIGHTCAP.

This is bizarre, what's going on here?

JON SARLIN, CNN HOST, "NIGHTCAP": Jim, this is the first AI hit song, right? When you look at all the different AI products and new ones are coming out every week, this is some of the best technology we've seen. I mean, the output of this technology is basically indistinguishable from the original singers.

And I think it's worth to take a step back and think about what this means. Anyone with a modicum of technical technological ability can create the song in their house and have the voice of a famous singer on it that is virtually indistinguishable from the original, right? That is something that can happen right now. You can have infinite copies.

If you want Drake to be the lead singer of your band, you can do that. But when you start to think about that, your mind begins to reel about all the different scenarios that that - the questions that beg. Culturally, will we still value a Drake song when anyone can create a Drake song on their own?

Maybe this will be kind of a novelty factor, right? Think of it like fan fiction. Then you start to think about the legal implications of this, because this is a gray area. The law has not caught up caught up with the technology, which is moving at a rapid pace.

The recording industry has been prepping for this fight. Last month, they launched what's called the human artistry campaign, which is a recording industry coalition to advocate for the recording industry for exactly these kinds of cases for what they call human created art.

UMG is the record label of both Drake and The Weeknd and they have been very aggressive in this case. They issued takedown notices to platforms hosting the site like Spotify and YouTube and then they released a scathing statement in which they called for people to - they call for Congress - sorry, they call for copyright law to be factored in here.

So when you take a step back and you look at all this, this is a brave new world that recording industry or - the recording industry, lobbyists groups are all circling.

ACOSTA: Yes. I mean, you can't steal people's likeness, and music, and whatnot and do your own thing with it and try to pass it off as a real thing. But let me ask you this. Jon, Tom Brady is apparently threatening legal action over an AI generated special created by two comedians that impersonate the retired NFL star. Can you tell us about that?

SARLIN: Yes. So I talked to one copyright lawyer on this who says that this is - seen as like a parody. So two comedians created an AI stand up special using the voice of Tom Brady. So they fed in audio from Tom Brady, and then output a voice that sounds remarkably like Tom Brady.

Well, Tom Brady's lawyers were not having it and they sent a cease and desist letter to the comedian's who took down the special. So when you look at all of these stories, I think one thing is clear, it is a good time to be a copyright lawyer.

ACOSTA: Yeah. Let's listen to this Tom Brady thing. Let's take a look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're not making this seem as though it was Tom Brady (inaudible) very clearly titled it again, a simulated hour long comedy special, simulated literally means not the real thing. Means an imitation and impression, if you will.

This is exactly like anyone else impersonating or doing an impression of a celebrity.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In this case, an AI is doing the impression.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Yes. I mean, Jon, I mean this kind of reminds me a little bit of like those viral Tom Cruise videos where somebody went into Just took Tom Cruise's likeness and created this video that it looks like he's - I mean, it's just unbelievable where the technology is going.

SARLIN: Well, so U.S. law is very permissive when it comes to parody right. Weird Al Yankovic can - has his entire career to thank over this.

ACOSTA: Yes.

SARLIN: So when the two comedians make a special and they are clearly saying that this is not Tom Brady, the copyright lawyer I spoke said they have a pretty good case on this.

ACOSTA: All right. Jon Sarlin, thanks so much, appreciate it. We'll keep following this one.

[18:55:07]

In the meantime, this weekend on Searching for Mexico, Eva Longoria is exploring Jalisco, the birthplace of modern Mexican culture. Here's a peek.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EVA LONGORIA, CNN HOST, "SEARCHING FOR MEXICO": I've done this work before and it is hard. It is not easy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through interpreter): This is Chepe.

LONGORIA: Hola.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through interpreter): Chepe and his family have been doing this for generations --

LONGORIA: I don't - how does he not have gloves?

CHEPE (through interpreter): Gloves aren't useful here.

LONGORIA: I see.

CHEPE (through interpreter): It has to be rustic --

LONGORIA (through interpreter): Let me see your hands?

CHEPE: (Foreign language).

LONGORIA: Look at the calluses, wow.

(Through interpreter): Do you like tequila?

CHEPE (through interpreter): The truth is yes.

LONGORIA (through interpreter): The truth is yes.

CHEPE (through interpreter): Lots of us love it.

LONGORIA (through interpreter): Everyone?

CHEPE (through interpreter): From the planting to the drinking.

LONGORIA: That's commitment.

CHEPE (through interpreter): Very good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Watch the new Eva Longoria: Searching for Mexico tomorrow night at 9 right here on CNN.

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