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Milk Supply and Bird Flu; The Onion Blocked From Buying Infowars; Bill Belichick Heading to College?; Wisconsin Kayaker Who Faked Death Now in Custody. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired December 11, 2024 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:15]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: Breaking news right now on our top story, a major new development in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Two law enforcement officials telling CNN that fingerprints found at the murder scene match the suspect, Luigi Mangione. Also new, we're also told that, when Mangione was arrested, he was carrying a spiral notebook. The handwritten notes inside allegedly had lists on how to facilitate a killing.

The source says one chilling entry muses about killing -- quote -- "the CEO at his own bean-counting conference." New images also capture Mangione eating a hash brown at the McDonald's where an employee alerted police, where he was also taken into custody. This is the latest mug shot of the 26-year-old suspect. He's being held in Pennsylvania, where he faces five charges, including second-degree murder.

He's fighting extradition back to New York while he is being denied bail.

In the meantime, this morning, we're expecting new information about the Wisconsin kayaker who faked his own drowning, then took off for Europe, leaving his wife and kids behind. The 45-year-old suspect is now in custody after police say he did return from overseas.

CNN law enforcement correspondent Whitney Wild is following all of this.

Whitney, what's the latest?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, that press conference explaining what happened just wrapped up, Jim.

And let me just take you back for our viewers who are not super familiar with the story. Basically, what happened was in August this man Ryan Borgwardt went to a place called Green Lake, Wisconsin. It is the deepest lake in Wisconsin. It's about an hour north of his home.

He went on a fishing trip, supposedly. But while he was there, he dumped his kayak. He used an inflatable boat to paddle to shore, hopped on an e-bike, later hopped on a bus, hopped on a plane to Europe. And so there was this big search for weeks, Jim, looking for him, because the suspicion had been that he had drowned.

But when -- through using high-tech technology and just a long list of deputies and volunteers, they never found his body, that's when the Green Lake Sheriff's Office realized, OK this is a different story and that's when they figured out that he had fled to Europe. So that -- again, that was in August.

They said that they were able to establish communication with him in November. And so for the last month, Jim, they have been talking to him pretty regularly. There on your screen was a video that they shared with us where he was saying that he was safe, that he was alive, which had been also the central question, where was he?

And so deputies with the Green Lake Sheriff's Office were able to establish this rapport over the last month. And, Jim, they did something incredible. They convinced him to come home. He got on a plane out of his own volition. He turned himself in to the sheriff's office yesterday. Here's how the Green Lake Sheriff's -- the Green Lake sheriff, Mark Podoll, described what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RYAN BORGWARDT, DEFENDANT: I'm in my apartment. I am safe, secure, no problem.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WILD: Well, I'm sorry, that -- that was my mistake, Jim. That was the -- that was the sound of Ryan Borgwardt earlier this year saying that he was alive and well.

The Green Lake Sheriff's Office had this press conference today. And here's what they kept saying, Jim. They kept saying they were trying to get him to come home so that he could be with his family over Christmas, Jim. And it's a really incredible feat, when you consider that this man very likely knew he would face charges when he came back.

And still they were able to convince him to get on that plane in Europe, come home and turn himself in. There are a lot of details we don't know at this point, Jim. We don't know why he went. The sheriff's office would not say. They wouldn't say if he's spoken with his wife and kids. They wouldn't say really much about where he came from, where he landed in the U.S.

But, right now, they're saying that the central point here is that they were able to convince him to come home and his family will be able to see him around Christmas, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right, Whitney Wild, thank you very much.

In the meantime, a judge has blocked The Onion from buying Alex Jones' conspiracy theory-driven Web site Infowars. The Onion had the winning bid for the conspiracy platform last month. It was sold off in Jones' defamation settlement with Sandy Hook families. But a bankruptcy judge says he has a problem with how it all went down. CNN media correspondent Hadas Gold joins us now.

Hadas, a few weeks ago, when we heard about this, it sounded like this was going to happen. But now there's been a hiccup. What can you tell us?

HADAS GOLD, CNN MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

No matter what would have happened, a judge would have had to say that this was OK. But Jones and his allies sued to stop this. And Judge Lopez said he didn't have a problem with who won this auction, but he had a problem with how it was conducted.

Now, there was a court-appointed trustee that was put in charge of this auction. And, initially, this auction was going to be a live bidding round. People could have bid for everything from Infowars, from the microphones to the domain names down to an armored truck and a Winnebago.

[11:35:05]

But then what happened was after the initial bids came in, the court- appointed trustee changed it, which she had the discretion to do so, to a sealed and secret best and final bids. And at the end of that, The Onion came out to be the winner in a very unique arrangement, where they teamed up with some of these families who are owed that nearly $1.5 billion defamation settlement from Jones, where they would forgo whatever they would have earned from this sale to help bolster The Onion's bid.

So The Onion put out $1.75 million. Plus, the credit you could call it from the Sandy Hook families made it $7 million. Then a company affiliated with Alex Jones that would have kept it all going as it is, they put up around $3.5 million in cash.

Now, Jones and his allies sued. They call this a Frankenstein bid. They accused the trustee of collusion, and then there was a two-day trial. It went late into the night last night with 10 hours of witness testimony, and the judge at the end said, he's actually OK with the winning bid and its credit arrangement.

What he doesn't like was how the auction took place, that it was sealed in secret final bids, because he actually believes that the trustee could have gotten a higher price and could have gotten more money out of this that would have gone ultimately to the creditors, to the families had it been held in a different way.

Now, The Onion in a statement said that they are deeply disappointed with this outcome, but they also said: "We will also continue to seek a path towards purchasing Infowars in the coming weeks. It is part of our larger mission to make a better, funnier Internet, regardless of the outcome of this case."

Jones, for his part, celebrated on his show last night, saying the judge was doing the right thing. But no matter what happens, Jim, no matter what happens to Infowars, Jones will likely continue owing these families for the rest of his life, considering it's a very high bill, more than $1 billion he owes them after being found guilty of defamation for claiming that the Sandy Hook massacre was a hoax.

ACOSTA: Yes, I mean, Hadas, I don't want you to predict the future, I mean, but do we think there's a chance that Alex Jones may be able to hang on to Infowars?

What do you think?

GOLD: Yes, I mean, there's definitely a chance. So the judge told the court-appointed trustee, go away for 30 days and try to figure out something else, some sort of alternative, but he didn't seem like he wanted it to go up for another round of bidding. And so there is the possibility that it could stay in Alex Jones' hands.

There's a possibility there could be some other sale set up in some way.And I should also remind you that no matter what had happened with this, even if The Onion had successfully bought Infowars and taken it out of Alex Jones' hands, there was nothing preventing Alex Jones from continuing to spread his dangerous lies.

And he had already set up all these other new handles and domains and was directing people that way and he could continue having his show. There's nothing preventing him from doing that. He has his still First Amendment rights. But the Infowars domain, that would have gone into the hands of The Onion had they been successful.

And they still might be.There still might be other steps to this and The Onion says they're going to still continue to pursue this and try to buy Infowars.

ACOSTA: Fascinating. All right, we will be following it. We know you will we will be doing that as well.

Hadas Gold, as always, thanks so much. Really appreciate it.

Still ahead: He's got six Super Bowl rings as a head coach, but still no coaching contract. That might be changing. We will look into reports that Bill Belichick might be close to a deal to go to college football. That's right, college football.

We will talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:42:52]

ACOSTA: Former New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick might be flipping the script on his football career. After decades of coaching in the pros, he may be moving on to the college ranks.

The six-time Super Bowl winner now confirming he spoke with the University of North Carolina about an open coaching position with the Tar Heels.

We are joined by Stan Becton. He's the NCAA sports reporter for TNT Sports.

Stan, what do you think about all this?

STAN BECTON, TNT SPORTS: It's very crazy that Bill Belichick is going from potentially an NFL coach to potentially a college coach, especially considering he was trying to get an NFL job just as recently as last year and he has six Super Bowls at the NFL level.

So him going to the college ranks is very surprising.

ACOSTA: Yes, but what could this mean for the UNC program? To me, it could really turn around a program that has sort of fallen on hard times. I don't want to put out a plug for my alma mater, but they did lose to my alma mater, JMU, this past football season.

And it was a blowout. And I just thought to myself, at the time, I was like, OK, what has happened to UNC? I mean, they're more of a basketball school than a football school, but that would definitely change with Bill Belichick.

BECTON: Yes, for sure. I think if Bill Belichick takes this UNC job, that then kind of changes and gives that program a face-lift.

They have an NFL guy in there and they can run that program like an NFL kind of program. And Bill Belichick already mentioned something like that earlier this week when discussing potentially taking this job. So I think, if he comes in there, he will be able to run it like an NFL program. And I know there's questions about how will he deal with the transfer portal, how will he deal with NIL and things of that nature?

But if you look at a Bill Belichick, he can delegate those jobs to a G.M. that a lot of these coaches are hiring. If you look at a school like Stanford, a school with a similar academic prestige at that Power Four level two, a school like UNC, that's one of the higher rated academic schools in the Power Four.

Stanford just hired Andrew Luck to be the general manager and he's not even a coach.

ACOSTA: Wow.

BECTON: So Bill Belichick can just focus on football if he takes that UNC job, something that they said was a problem with him when he was in his last years at New England.

[11:45:00]

ACOSTA: Yes, and college football is basically a semi pro league right now anyway with the transfer portal and everything else that's going on and all the big money that can be made.

I mean, look at Kirby Smart at Georgia. Look at Nick Saban at Alabama. I mean, they essentially -- they ran or did run what are essentially professional football programs. So Belichick, I guess in a certain way, makes sense for a place like UNC, if they want to take it to that kind of level.

BECTON: Yes, and all these college guys are trying to get to the NFL as well. So who better to get you to the NFL than the greatest NFL coach of all time? So I think that will bring some of that allure back to the Tar Heels.

And then you have a school that's been heavily focused on basketball, a basketball blue blood, but now they can kind of get some of that same energy on that football program when you get a guy like Belichick in the building.

ACOSTA: Yes. Wait a minute, is this mean Tom Brady can go back to college? Is that what's going on here, Stan? Is that...

BECTON: I'm not sure if he has eligibility left. I think he might be able to. I don't know. I know he was trying to come back and play at one point. He came out of retirement once, so he could do it again. Who knows?

ACOSTA: Can he get his master's or something in Chapel Hill and suit up?

BECTON: Hey, these players are doing six, seven, eight years of college now. So Brady could be the next one to join that list.

ACOSTA: But it does tell you where college football is now. I mean, it is changing. And you hear coaches leave college sports. The UVA coach recently left the college basketball team there, saying, I don't want to deal with all this stuff.

But it does tell us what college sports has become.

BECTON: And Coach Belichick, he has been around college these last few years. So he's been able to see that from his son, Steve Belichick, who coaches defense at Washington. And he can just rely on him some and maybe even bring him on staff to a UNC team, where his Washington defense would rank near the top in pass defense if they were in the ACC this past year.

So Belichick can rely on a lot of his close sources he's been able to build up over this last year, not necessarily being in the NFL. So if he can do that, then he might be able to hit the ground running when he comes into the building down in Carolina.

ACOSTA: Yes, no question.

We were just showing some images of the football stadium there in Chapel Hill and there weren't a whole lot of people sitting in those seats. You get Bill Belichick coaching the Tar Heels football program, it is going to sell out immediately.

Stan Becton, thanks, as always. Really appreciate it.

BECTON: Thank you.

ACOSTA: We will be right back. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:53:13]

ACOSTA: Our Dr. Sanjay Gupta is back to answer your questions about how a bird flu outbreak in dairy cows could affect the milk that we all drink.

Sanjay, the first question comes from Vinod from Houston, who asks: "Is there a vaccine for bird flu?"

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, the short answer is yes. There is a vaccine for H5N1.

But it's not really commercially available. There's only about five million doses. There have been some discussions about using those doses to vaccinate farmworkers. As you know, Jim, farmworkers are sort of the front line here because of how much this virus has been associated with dairy farms in particular.

In fact, in Finland, that was the recommendation, that farmworkers get vaccinated with a small supply. Two points, Jim. First of all, the seasonal flu vaccine may offer some cross-protection against this. It's not directed at H5N1, but it may offer some cross protection in terms of symptoms.

The second thing is, there is a discussion about various vaccine candidates to try and amp up production, possibly even using mRNA technology, something that people have become familiar with from the COVID pandemic, possibly creating these vaccines in months versus years, as it's typically taken in the past.

So we will see how that sort of unfolds. But, again, right now there's a small supply of vaccines.

We got another question, Jim, as well, this one coming from Gail. I know we have been talking a lot about unpasteurized milk, but she asks, "We have been buying unpasteurized cheese at Whole Foods in Monterey, California. Is it safe to eat?"

This is such an interesting question from Gail, because we have been talking a lot about raw milk. And people will say, well, hey, I'm already buying raw milk cheese. The United States has pretty strict regulations around this.

[11:55:02]

So if you're buying unpasteurized cheese, raw milk cheese, it has to have been aged 60 days in the United States. And the thinking is that, if you age it for 60 days, it is likely to sort of really mitigate or completely eliminate these pathogens that we're concerned about, salmonella, E. coli, listeria.

In addition, many of these cheeses have certain salts and acids added to it as well to also help control some of those pathogens. It's different in different places around the world, Jim. I actually attended this raw cheese festival in Italy, in Bra, Italy, where the whole focus was on just selling these raw cheeses that were very, very fresh.

So, different in different places in the world, but in the United States, even if you're buying raw milk cheese, it has to have been aged and probably really reduce the likelihood of getting an infection, Jim.

ACOSTA: All right, good advice. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thanks so much.

Finally this hour, take a look at the big winner of Nikon's Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards. The squirrel that got stuck in the tree hole probably didn't think it was all that funny. This photo comes from more than 9,000 entries. Take a look at this poor little guy right there.

The photographer says, every time he shows it at his local photography club, people explode with laughter. It's kind of a good image that sums up 2024, does it not? We all kind of feel like that squirrel stuck in the tree right there.

All right, thanks, everybody, for joining me this morning. I'm Jim Acosta.

Stay with us. "INSIDE POLITICS WITH DANA BASH" -- she's never stuck in a tree. She starts after a short break.

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