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Biden Prepares for Migrant Surge Ahead of Trump-Era Policy Ending; Ukraine Says, All 13 Drones Shot Down in Kyiv Attacks; Documents Show FTX Founder Diverted Customer Funds to Political Campaigns. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired December 14, 2022 - 07:00   ET

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

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STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT: Sam Bankman-Fried was the CEO of crypto exchange FTX, which recently went belly up and cost investors $1.8 billion. What has this world come to when you can't trust the guy selling imaginary computer coins whose name is almost exactly Bankman Fraud? What's next don't get your annual checkup from Dr. Guy Deth-Kauser?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. I mean, it's funny though. A lot of people lost some dough, though, a lot of people, and that is very serious.

Good morning, everybody. It is Wednesday, December 14th, it's 7:00 A.M. on the nose. And you heard Stephen Colbert there talking about accused crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried denied bail in the Bahamas after his high-profile arrest. We're going to tell you what some U.S. politicians are doing with the money he donated to them.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Also, there is a bipartisan agreement on the framework of a one-year spending plan that sets the top two Republicans in Congress on a collision course.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: And a CNN exclusive report for you this morning, the Biden administration finalizing plans to ship Patriot defense missiles to Ukraine. This is a move that could alter the outcome of Putin's war.

Plus then this --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAY LENO, COMEDIAN: My face caught on fire. And I said to my friend, I said, Dave, I'm on fire. And then, oh, my God, Dave, my friend, pulled me out and jumped on top of me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Well, that's part of Jay Leno's first interview since suffering those serious burns. You're going to hear more, straight ahead.

HARLOW: Wow.

We begin, though, with Democrats and Republicans agreeing on a framework of a budget that will fund the government for a full year. But it's the top two Republicans in Congress who do not agree with each other. Mitch McConnell is on board with this spending plan, but so far it's a, and this is a quote, hell no from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

Melanie Zanona is live for on Capitol Hill for us this morning. Melanie, good morning. You're the one who interviewed him, right? And so is this hell now, I'm going to say it, but I really need this thing to pass?

MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: Yes, absolutely. That is what Republicans really think McCarthy is doing here, that he is privately rooting for this to pass and that he's going to publicly vote no. And the reason for that is because he does not want to have to deal with the prospect of a government shutdown upon immediately becoming speaker, if he becomes speaker.

But at the same time, he's been struggling to lockdown the votes for the speakership and his conservatives and hard liners have been pressing him to take a harder line on spending issues, to stand up to Mitch McConnell. And so that is why you are seeing this dynamic playing out on Capitol Hill.

But sources are telling us that McConnell was really blindsided the other when Kevin McCarthy when on Fox News and took a public swipe at McConnell. Republicans feel like McConnell sort of jumping on the grenade here in getting this done, and that McCarthy is taking these swipes in order to really shore up support from his conservative base for the speakership. Poppy?

HARLOW: You're reporting on sort of how the two of them are colliding on this and they've collided on so much over the last two months was the first thing I read this morning, and it's fascinating. Melanie, thanks very much.

ZANONA: Thank you.

HARLOW: Don?

LEMON: So, the Biden administration facing a big challenge this morning at the southern border. It is sending more agents to El Paso, Texas, as illegal crossings surge with even more migrants waiting their chance to enter the United States.

This all comes as Title 42 is set to expire a week from today, a Trump-era public health policy allowed the U.S. to quickly expel migrants. El Paso officials sending this warning. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIO D'AGOSTINO, EL PASO DEPUTY CITY MANAGER: Title 42 going away with the numbers we're seeing today is a true emergency for the community. It's a federal crisis that's happening within the border of El Paso.

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LEMON: Well, the homeland security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, visited El Paso on Tuesday meeting with officials and the Customs and Border Protection workforce. There's a lot to explain here.

With me now, CNN Espanol Anchor and Correspondent Maria Santana. Good morning to you. Lots of questions. Can you explain how Title 42 works, what's the process and how things will change if it expires?

MARIA SANTANA, CNN ESPANOL ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Well, Title 42 is a public health policy. It was issued under the Trump administration. The CDC issued the order to try to prevent the spread of COVID-19. And what the order allowed officials at the border to do was to swiftly expel migrants either back to Mexico or back to their home country without allowing asylum seekers to request asylum in the United States, as our law states. So, it actually suspended the asylum law under this health emergency order.

And what officials have said is that it has been used 2.5 million times in the years that it has been in place. Although that number is a little inflated, some critics say, because it actually encourages people to try to cross more times.

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So, this actually includes that numbers, multiple crossings by the same individual.

LEMON: So, take us to the ground now. What does it look like right now on the ground? What are we seeing in El Paso?

SANTANA: What we're seeing in El Paso, from what a border official said, is that 2,400 -- more than 2,400 migrants tried to cross every day this weekend, and that he called it a significant increase in illegal border crossings.

Now, this, we have to point out, has nothing to do with the lifting of Title 42 because it's still in place. It's not supposed to end until next week, December 21st, per court order, and DHS officials are saying that this is actually a result of criminal smuggling organizations. But, of course, local officials, state officials are pointing to this surge in order to pressure the administration about lifting Title 42.

LEMON: So, the question is, where do these migrants want to go and where do they go after they get deported?

SANTANA: Well, sadly, many of them just stay in Mexico. There's hundreds of migrants living in Ciudad Juarez, on the border with the United States. They've been there for months, some even for years, waiting for the opportunity to cross into Mexico. They don't want to go back to their home countries. They're fleeing dangerous condition, poverty, the deterioration of the social and political systems in their country. So, they actually feel they're better off just waiting on the Mexican border in tents, in these camps, and that has actually created a serious humanitarian crisis as well at our borders.

If Title 42 is lifted, what would happen is we would have to go back to how things were before, which is people come in, they get processed, they determine whether they have an actual asylum claim, and they can either stay in the country or they're deported.

LEMON: The question is if do we have the infrastructure to be able to do that and how to improve that. It is urgent. Thank you very much for that. I appreciate that.

Poppy?

HARLOW: All right. This morning, a top Ukrainian military official has confirmed 13 drones aimed at Kyiv were shot down with some fragments from the weapons hitting buildings below. A Kyiv military official suggests the attacks were aimed at critical infrastructure in that capital city.

Ukrainian television showed video of a drone fragment with the inscription, For Ryazan, a reference to a previous drone strike in Russia that Moscow blamed on Ukraine.

Also this morning, new signs of the growing frustrations among some Russian soldiers on the frontlines in Ukrainian. A Ukrainian defense official has released audio of what they say is an intercepted call between two Russian soldiers reportedly calling home in Eastern Russian. Listen to this.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hi, how are you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, we're here at the shooting grounds. We're freezing, really. We're training digging foxholes. It's minus 15 degrees Celsius, damn it. About 60 percent of us are (BLEEP) helpless, going around the shooting grounds, for (BLEEP) sake, losing their weapons, (BLEEP) helmets and their ammo cartridges.

We all have to take a hazmat suit with us. What the (BLEEP) do we need that for? It's minus 15 degrees Celsius, damn it. We had to use the gas masks yesterday. It was minus 12 degrees. We tried our best, damn it. They wanted us to (BLEEP), damn it, they forced us to put on our gas masks outdoors, damn it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: So, CNN has not been able to verify that audio but it is very consistent with previous reporting about the complaints of Russian troops. Also this morning, the United States is planning to finalizing plans to honor Ukraine's long running request, very long range air defense system. CNN has learned advanced discussions are under way to send Patriot missiles to Kyiv. You've heard a lot about those.

So, what would this mean? Our Barbara Starr is live at the Pentagon this morning with this CNN exclusive reporting.

Barbara, what does it mean and why is U.S. deciding to do this now?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, the U.S. apparently changing its mind, haven't wanting to do it, saw it as escalatory. But it's that barrage, ongoing day after day barrage of Russian attacks against civilian infrastructure, power plants, the people of Ukraine, that has caused so much misery and damage, that now the Biden administration finalizing plans to send the Patriot system.

What is the Patriot? It's been in war zones for decades now. It's a missile system where the radar locks on to an incoming ballistic missile, most likely in this case, and then fires its own missile to be able to target the Russian missile and bring it down. The key is it can target it at a high altitude and a long distance. So, the result is the Russian missile is destroyed at some distance before it even gets to a civilian area. That's the whole idea.

You know, but make no mistake, this is going to be a very complex undertaking. The system is very difficult. Ukrainian troops have to be trained on it, most likely in Germany.

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They will have to learn maintenance and repair. So, this may be a long process while the winter sets in and while those Russian attacks continue, Poppy.

HARLOW: Barbara, quickly, given that this could be something that could dramatically change the outcome of the war in Ukraine's favor, can you help us understand the administration's thinking why previously they were hesitant because they thought it would be escalatory and not now?

STARR: Well, I think it is they're now seeing this week after week pounding that Russian missile forces are inflicting on Ukraine and they're looking for a way to try and minimize that, let the Ukrainians get a better jump ahead.

And, again, Ukrainians have other air defense systems. So, if they can network it all together and use it in a more comprehensive way on the battlefield, communicating back and forth, able to target the Russians very quickly, that could be a game changer down the road.

HARLOW: Barbara Starr with exclusive reporting from the Pentagon, Barbara, thank you very much.

STARR: Sure.

HARLOW: Kaitlan?

COLLINS: Before a sudden downfall that culminated in a court appearance in the Bahamas, Sam Bankman-Fried was viewed as kind of this political darling in Washington. With a large campaign checkbook, SBF, as he is known, could be seen in the White House, the halls of Congress.

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SAM BANKMAN-FRIED, FOUNDER AND FORMER CEO, FTX: My goal has been to find ways to have positive impact on the world and to maximize that and to do so by supporting some really fantastic organizations.

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COLLINS: All of that has changed now that the cryptocurrency mogul has been indicted on eight criminal charges and is facing up to 118 years in prison if he's convicted on all counts.

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DAMIAN WILLIAMS, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR THE SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF NEW YORK: This is one of the biggest financial frauds in American history.

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COLLINS: In addition to the fraud charges against Sam Bankman-Fried, federal officials say that he conspired to commit multiple violations of campaign finance laws involving donations in the tens of millions of dollars.

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WILLIAMS: These contributions were disguised to look like they were coming from wealthy co-conspirators, when, in fact, the contributions were funded by Alameda Research with stolen customer money. And all of this dirty money was used in service of Sam Bankman-Fried's desire to buy bipartisan influence and impact the direction of public policy in Washington.

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COLLINS: Federal records showed that in the two years leading up to last month's midterm elections, SBF donated more than $40 million to candidates and campaign groups, including $5.6 million to President Biden's 2020 election effort. According to Federal Election Commission data, Bankman-Fried publicly made 193 donations in the 2021 to 2022 election cycle.

Now, a lot of it went to Democrats but also some Republicans. SBF claimed that to be the second or third biggest donor this year for Republicans. But he was able to shield some of those donations from the public. Earlier this year, he also boasted about how much money he expected to spend in 2024.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: More than 100 million sort of spread across many races, organizations, but toward the 2024 election. So, if that's the floor, what's the ceiling? Like a billion? Might you give a billion?

BANKMAN-FRIED (voice over): Yes. I think that's a decent like thing to look at.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Now, many of the lawmakers who benefitted from SBF's donations are facing questions of their own about returning those donations, as the powerful chairwoman of the House Financial Services Committee, Maxine Waters, says she wants answers.

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REP. MAXINE WATERS (D-CA): I'm troubled to learn how common it was for Bankman-Fried and FTX employees to steal from the cookie jar of customer funds to finance their lavish lifestyles.

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COLLINS: Some lawmakers are giving their donations to from SBF to charity, like Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, who is the new House Democratic leader. He says he already donated the $5,800 to the American Diabetes Association. Michigan Senator Debbie Stabenow says that she'll also donate the funds to a local charity.

But many of the lawmakers have not said what they'll do. Two of SBF's biggest beneficiaries for the House majority PAC and the Senate majority PAC, which helped elect Democrats and got about $7 million from him. The Washington Post says that neither group has said whether they plan to return the money.

Joining me now to talk about this and the influence that SBF's downfall has had on Washington is Ari Redbord, he's the host of Legal Affairs at TRM. He also has investigated financial criminal. He's formerly served 11 years in nonpartisan roles at the Department of Justice and at the treasury department under the Bush, Obama and Trump administrations. That is a track record.

But I want to start with what we're talking about, the Washington aspect of this, and whether or not you believe, based on what you heard yesterday, that SBF has committed -- that he's violated these campaign finance laws.

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ARI REDBORD, HEAD OF LEGAL AND GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS, TRM LABS: Yes. What's really interesting -- and, first, Kaitlan, thanks so much for having me. What's really interesting about this case, particularly the campaign finance angle, is oftentimes someone will be indicted or charged and, reputationally, members will want to return donations or contributions.

Here, it's very different. These contributions are part of a large, as the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York said, an indictment around one of the largest fraud cases in U.S. history. So, really, what we have here is these contributions are part of a broader criminal case.

And what that indictment essentially says is that the defendant used these co-mingled funds, used funds that were taken from users, from customers of FTX, and used it to make these donations. So, it's really part of a broader criminal case here as opposed to sort of the usual thing that happens on Capitol Hill, where someone commits a crime or something else and members want to return the funds.

One thing to sort of point out at the beginning of all of this is really it's an extraordinary case for a number of reasons, but really the speed of the indictment is something that really stands out to me. I mean, here, it seems like forever ago, but really it was only a month ago that we saw the collapse of FTX.

And, really, over the course of that month, we saw agents and investigators and prosecutors obviously climb through a mountain of evidence, millions of transactions or more and end really up packaging that evidence and presenting it to a grand jury and having an indictment essentially yesterday, plus a detention hearing in the Bahamas. And we'll sort of see what's next here. But the speed of the indictment is really something that stands out for me in what is a relatively complicated criminal investigation.

COLLINS: And what you said about this being different when it comes to these political donations, I was reading, FEC regulations require that committees have to refund illegal contributions, including those improperly made in the name of another donor. That is exactly what he is accused of doing. So, does that mean that they have to give this money back or what is your understanding of that?

REDBORD: Yes. Look, I think that's right. And I think that's one thing that's really important is, obviously, these are just allegations and these charges are going to play out and this is all going to take some time. Even as we saw yesterday in the detention hearing in the Bahamas, at which point Mr. Bankman-Fried was held pending an extradition or pending an extradition hearing, which will likely be in February. And we'll see a few nights in the Bahamas may speed up that process. He may want to move more quickly. We'll see.

But I think what we're seeing right now is the very, very early stages. But, yes, certainly, I think if these charges play out, if they are proven, if he pleads guilty or is convicted at trial. I imagine there's a world in which these donations would have to be returned.

COLLINS: Yes. Well, that's big news for lawmakers on Capitol Hill. Ari, thank you so much for joining us this morning.

REDBORD: Thanks for having me.

LEMON: Comedian Jay Leno giving his first interview since the November accident that left him with severe burns to his face and body. Leno, an avid car collector, spoke with NBC Today Show and spoke about working underneath an antique car when the accident happened. Watch this.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Tell me what happened.

LENO: Well, I was -- it was a 1907 white steam car. The fuel line was clogged, so I was underneath it, trying to unclog it. And I said, blow some air through the line, and suddenly, boom, I got a face full of gas and then the pilot light jumped and my face got on fire. And I said to my friend, I said, Dave, I'm on fire. And then, oh, my God, Dave, my friend, pulled me out and jumped on top of me and kind of smothered the fire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Listen, it seems like it just happened. A quick recovery there. Leno was treated at the Grossman Burn Center in Los Angeles, where the doctors said his injuries were a mix of second and possibly third degree burns. He's expected to make a full recovery. We're all glad for that.

COLLINS: Absolutely.

LEMON: Yes. And, of course, Jay Leno, it's a 1907 steam car, white --

HARLOW: His passion.

LEMON: I know.

HARLOW: He looks great and he's had his humor through all of it.

LEMON: I bought an old car and I got Jay Leno's advice. I sent him like --

HARLOW: Really?

LEMON: Yes. I sent him links, and he's like, don't buy this one, something is wrong, cost is too low, the price too low, this is one is not great, this one, rust. If you engage him on cars, he loves it.

HARLOW: Seems like the best.

LEMON: He's a good guy.

A big announcement from the Fed in just hours. We know another rate hike is coming. But with inflation showing, will it be less severe?

COLLINS: Also out of Florida, the governor, Ron DeSantis, is casting doubt on COVID vaccines, questioning what they look like, what's behind him. We'll fact-check his claims ahead.

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COLLINS: The Federal Reserve preparing to wrap up its latest two-day policy meeting in Washington with a highly anticipated decision on interest rates. We're all watching this. Economists are saying that they predict just half a point rate increase as part of the central bank's efforts to rein in inflation. That's down a little bit from the last four three quarter point hikes that we saw.

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The expected boost does mark the seventh time that the Fed has raised interest rates just this year.

HARLOW: He is the governor of America's third largest state by population, also a potential candidate for president in 2024, but Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is pushing anti-vaccine rhetoric and starting what he calls an alternative to the CDC. DeSantis has asked Florida's Supreme Court to investigate COVID vaccines, he has dismissed the health advice from federal agents he dislike, the CDC, the FDA and the NIH.

The governor has been critical of Dr. Fauci. He has cast doubt on the effectiveness and safety of vaccines. And all of this, ironically, comes as a new study shows that those vaccines saved more than 3 million lives and kept more than 18 million Americans out of the hospital. But DeSantis and the surgeon general in Florida made claims still like this.

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DR. JOSEPH LADAPO, FLORIDA SURGEON GENERAL: We are initiating a program here in Florida where we will be studying the incidents in surveillance of myocarditis within a few weeks of COVID-19 vaccination for people who die. We will answer this question. It is a question that I'm sure keeps the CEOs of Pfizer and Moderna up late at night hoping no one ever looks but we're going to look here in Florida.

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HARLOW: CNN's Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is with us this morning with the facts and with the science.

So, that was Dr. Ladapo, who is the Florida surgeon general, saying that this issue of myocarditis, Sanjay, in people who are vaccinated is under investigation. What are the facts? What do we know?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: All that, you know, there was a lot in there from Governor DeSantis and the surgeon general there, pretty toxic stuff, really casting a lot of doubt on federal governments but also all of the independent studies that had been done looking at these issues.

One of the things that was brought up there was this idea of myocarditis, which is inflammation of the heart after the vaccine versus after the infection itself. And sort of across the board, the headline is that you're more likely to develop a complication like that after an infections versus the vaccine.

And let me show you some of the numbers there. I think this is the study that they must be talking about, because this just came out a couple of months ago, but this is ages people 5 to 39, 224 cases of myocarditis out of about 7 million.

I'm putting up these numbers here because I want to give you some context of what we're talking about here, 0.0005 percent likelihood after the first doze, 0.0033 percent after the second dose, that was the highest, and then there was an increase after the booster as well. But, again, risk across the board of myocarditis higher after the infection versus the vaccine. That's what's important. I mean, these vaccines are to prevent, you know, complications.

So, one thing that they did find was that men younger than 40, specifically with the Moderna vaccine, they did have a higher rates of myocarditis, about 97 million cases per million, 0.00097 percent. So, that's obviously still a low percent, but that was the highest. And that was higher in that particular age group with Moderna than people who got the infection. So, that is, I think, been the source of a lot of this controversy, Moderna, specifically men under that age, higher incidents of myocarditis.

And there have been suggestions that men of that age should get a different vaccine other than the Moderna vaccine or they should spread out their doses even further. But what I've just laid out there, and, again, I know a lot of numbers, I think, has been the genesis of this controversy over vaccines and myocarditis specifically.

LEMON: Yes. Listen, over the three years that we've been doing -- it is three years. Because in China, it started like in November or December of '19, right? So, it's been three years. But it's the two- year anniversary of the vaccine.

And I know you like to clear up misinformation. There's been a lot of misinformation surrounding all of this. We seem to see data that more people seem to be dying who have been vaccinated versus unvaccinated. You've written an essay about this. Why would that be? Explain.

GUPTA: Yes. This is really important. Because if you just look at the raw data, you say, okay, how many people have died in a particular month of COVID, and of those people, how many were vaccinated versus unvaccinated. And if you look at the data, what you will see is that, for example, 13,000 people died roughly in September, you see 7,800 people were vaccinated, 5,200 unvaccinated. And you say, well, look the vaccines seem to be the problem there.

The statistical error that people are making is something known as a base rate fallacy. You don't need to remember that. Just remember, you have got to look at the denominator, okay? That's the key. How many people in that vaccinated group were there? And there was about 203 million.

[07:30:00]

Let's just put that back up for a second. 203 million were in that vaccinated group, that's 7,800 who died. And the unvaccinated group there was 5,200 people.