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Rep. Mike McCaul (R-TX) is Interviewed about Downed Mysterious Objects; YouTube CEO is Stepping Down; Cathy Engelbert is Interviewed about the WNBA. Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired February 17, 2023 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:30:00]
REP. MIKE MCCAUL (R-TX): From our commander in chief about what happened. And certainly after the other three balloons were shot down, what, in fact, those were. And we still don't know today what the other three were. There are reportings, though, coming out that they are just mere hobbyist balloons that may have been worth as little as $12. And that seems like we missed the big balloon and yet the other three that were not a threat, we shot them down.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, the president said yesterday that those seemed to be pretty benign. They don't seem to have any ties to China's spy balloon program, yet the U.S. is using, you know, F-22 fighter jets, scrambling them and using these sidewinder missiles to take them down. Is there a better way, in your view, to deal with objects like that?
MCCAUL: I just think more accuracy. I mean, look, I think the threat level is -- alert level is high. A keener sense of awareness. But there are a lot of objects in the sky that are not a threat.
The spy balloon is very different. It's huge, massive in size. We know what they look like. It should never have been allowed to enter U.S. airspace where it flew over three major military nuclear installations, from Montana, which was the triad, which is air, land and sea nuclear, to Omaha, Nebraska, where there -- our strategic command is, where President Bush was taken after 9/11, and finally over our B-2 bombers in Missouri, taking images and sending them back to China. We can't allow that to happen.
COLLINS: Do you know that that balloon did take images and sent them back to China? Have you been told that?
MCCAUL: Well, I - I know that it had the capability to do that. I don't want to be the one to confirm that. But it certainly had the capability. And the fact it was not shut down, I -- you know, I question the jamming, whether that was effective or not. And certainly when it was shot down over the Atlantic, it stopped.
But I think even more disturbing, as you pointed out, is a lot of the components in the spy balloon were made in America. So, these were American components, American parts in a Chinese spy balloon. And we've seen this movie before. The hypersonic weapon that circled
the earth with precision and landed, could carry a nuclear payload, is also built on the backbone of American technology. As chairman of Foreign Affairs Committee, I'm going to work to make sure we don't sell this technology to our adversaries.
COLLINS: Yes, and we saw the sanctions from the U.S. yesterday on some of those companies who are making some of those parts.
The president also said yesterday, they want to basically establish new parameters for how to guard American airspace.
You're the chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee. What should that look like, do you think?
MCCAUL: I think if we know it's a threat and it's a spy surveillance balloon, that we should not allow it to enter U.S. airspace. Very plain and simple. And I think, Kaitlan, more importantly here is what this sent -- the message sent to the American people and the embarrassing situation to the world, that we would allow a Chinese spy balloon to go all the way across our country without any action until after it was leaving our airspace in the Atlantic Ocean. I think it - it projected weakness and it was - it was almost comical that we would allow that to happen.
So, I think - I think the president is correct, though, that he needs better rules of engagement here.
COLLINS: He said he's going to also speak with the Chinese president soon. What do you think his message to him should be about this?
MCCAUL: We're not going to tolerate your spying on the United States in plain view of the American people. Short and simple. I mean this was flying at about 60,000 feet altitude. It could take better imagery than a satellite can and it can also be more stationary. We have to send a strong message to Xi Jinping that we will not allow invasion of our airspace with spy satellites or balloons, also that we're going to stop selling him the technology that he's using to build his war machine that could be turned against Taiwan in the near future and ultimately the United States.
COLLINS: And, Chairman, you're on the ground in Munich. I know the topic there is Ukraine. That's the biggest topic that everyone is talking about. The NATO secretary-general said that they believe the new Russian offensive in Ukraine has already started. Do you agree with that?
MCCAUL: Well, I do think it's going to start soon. I know that the new general that Putin put in place is put there to launch a major offensive invasion with 300,000 troops. I think the anniversary -- Putin does look at dates. So, I think February 24th, the one-year anniversary, may be a target date.
We just heard from the supreme allied commander in a private briefing I had with him that it could go -- it could be as late as the springtime, late springtime, for this offensive. [08:35:04]
In the meantime, it was good to hear from him the weapons that are coming in. I also asked, you know, whether we need more air to surface aircraft. He agreed with that assessment, as well as longer range artillery to hit the Iranian drones in Crimea, which currently Ukraine does not have but they desperately need.
COLLINS: And you -- President Zelenskyy is also there. What else are they asking for, the F-16 fighter jets, what else?
MCCAUL: I think in the words of many military and security officials I've talked to here, we need to give them everything they need. And we need do it now. We can't wait. Time is only -- errs on the side of Putin. It's his goal to delay this as long as possible for many reasons. But a delay errs to our disadvantage, to Ukraine's disadvantage. And I would say that the sooner we can bring this to a closing, the better, as we look at the will of the American people and the Congress. I think we need to give them everything they need to win this thing and not to have a slow bleed into the winter and springtime.
COLLINS: And, Congressman, on -- one note on that is skeptical Republicans back in Washington on this. They are saying that the funding you - needs to - to Ukraine needs to stop. That's some of your Republican colleagues. Can you get another funding request passed through this Congress?
MCCAUL: Yes, I believe so. And it would be - it would have to be bipartisan. Just like here in Europe, we talked to our counterparts. You know, there are fridges on the far left and right who disagree with this conflict and assisting and helping Ukraine win this fight for democracy and freedom. But the majority of the majority still support this effort. I think, you know, Zelenskyy gave a very powerful speech just a few minutes ago comparing himself to David against the Russian Goliath and that he needs David's sling and that we are providing that, but we can do more to help them defeat in Goliath. It's not just an enemy to Ukraine, as he pointed out, but he said Russia has their sights on you as well, pointing mainly to Europe, but ultimately the free world.
COLLINS: Yes. Notable that you said you do think you can get another funding request passed.
Chairman Mike McCaul, thank you so much for joining us. Your first time on the program. We really appreciate your insight.
MCCAUL: Yes. Thank you, Kaitlan. Thanks for having me.
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: And, a major shake-up at one of the world's most popular websites. The CEO of YouTube says she's stepping down. So, why is this morning's number two? Harry Enten will explain, next.
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[08:41:41] CORNISH: YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki says she is stepping down, marking the end of a 25-year career at parent company Google.
Joining us now is CNN's senior data reporter, Harry Enten. And, Harry, what's today's number?
HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: All right, this morning's number is, second, it's two, because that's YouTube's ranking in website visits in January of 2023, both worldwide in in the U.S. And I think the big thing about all of this is just what a great job she did as CEO in my mind looking at the numbers.
CORNISH: Wait, but you're not going to say number one?
ENTEN: I'm not. Number one is -- what was number one?
CORNISH: Just for context.
ENTEN: I believe it was Google. Was it Google? I can't actually remember.
CORNISH: Yes, we'll come back to it.
ENTEN: We'll come back to it.
U.S. adults who use -
COLLINS: You stumped Harry.
ENTEN: You stumped me.
COLLINS: That's never happened before.
ENTEN: I -- I know. I don't know. My brain, a little foggy this morning. It's a Friday.
I think this gives you a good idea of what's going on. U.S. adults who use YouTube, in 2022 it was 82 percent. Look at that jump from when Wojcicki took over when it was 51 percent.
And Google was number one, by the way. We have a producer, wonderful, in my ear. I did get it right. You didn't stump me.
Look at this jump. Look at this jump. A 31 point jump. It overtook Facebook, which was number one back in 2013 at 64 percent. It only went up to 70 percent. So, I think that's one of the key things that's going on here is YouTube really accelerated its growth over the last decade.
COLLINS: Yes.
ENTEN: And more than that what I think is really interesting is, if you look at the other organizations that are sort of social media, Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, look at their favorable ratings. Look at this, 52, 40, 38. Very low. The unfavorable of both TikTok and Twitter above the favorable rating. But look at YouTube's, 70 percent favorable versus 17 percent unfavorable. A very popular organization.
CORNISH: Yes, I mean -
COLLINS: Also, you know what it's so popular with is you people because I have a 19-year-old brother and a 16-year-old sister, they're always on YouTube.
ENTEN: It's the number one. Look at this, U.S. teenagers who used these in 2022, YouTube, 95 percent. Look at where Facebook is, all the way down at 32 percent.
CORNISH: Yes.
ENTEN: It's a old person's organization. It's not a young person's organization.
But I got -
CORNISH: So, there's like a whole genre of worker now who is the influencer, and that comes from YouTube.
ENTEN: That's exactly right.
Now, the most watched YouTube video of all time has 12 billion views. Of course, the population on the entire earth is just 8 billion. Do you know what it was?
COLLINS: I was going to say, what is it?
Ooh!
CORNISH: Ooh!
ENTEN: Da, da, da, da, da, da,
CORNISH: Good old -- I needed this. I needed this, this morning.
ENTEN: I thought you needed a little -
CORNISH: I thought it was going to be turned down for what. So, you definitely -
ENTEN: No, it's "Baby Shark."
COLLINS: I mean, I definitely relied on that many times while babysitting my nephews. So, I've contributed to some of those views.
CORNISH: That's 2 billion of the streams.
Thank you, Harry, so much.
ENTEN: Thank you.
CORNISH: So, Poppy is covering the all-star game from Salt Lake City. And you can see her in the bottom left waving.
COLLINS: Squint.
CORNISH: Good morning, Poppy! Good morning!
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Oh, by the way, "Baby Shark" played in my house for three years non-stop. It was not my favorite.
Today marks one year since WNBA star Brittney Griner was detained in Russia. She finally got out in December, plans to play for the W this season.
Coming up, we are joined by the WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:48:58]
HARLOW: The WNBA will be representing here at NBA all-star weekend in Salt Lake City. The W is looking to keep building momentum as it prepares to tip-off its 27th season in May. The league is coming off its best season in 14 years. Ratings were up 17 percent across the board and Brittney Griner has announced plans to be back on the court this summer. Today marks exactly one year since she was wrongly detained in Russia.
Joining me now is WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert.
It's great to have you.
CATHY ENGELBERT, WNBA COMMISSIONER: Great to be here, Poppy.
HARLOW: Let's start on the news. You just met with Brittney Griner. What can you tell me?
ENGELBERT: Yes, met with here in Phoenix. And Brittney's doing remarkably well. And she's starting to train. And, you know, we're so excited to have her back in the league this year after an awful ordeal.
HARLOW: Was it your first time meeting with her since she came back to the U.S.?
ENGELBERT: Yes. Yes.
HARLOW: Wow.
ENGELBERT: We wanted to give her the holidays to be with family and friends and just, again, just a remarkable experience. She has a remarkable story about what she went through. But, again, we're looking forward to having her back in the W.
HARLOW: And she's looking forward to playing again?
ENGELBERT: She is.
HARLOW: Can you tell us anything about who she's going to be playing with? ENGELBERT: She is an unrestricted free agent currently. So, obviously,
she'll - presumably she's expressed she wants to play for Phoenix, the Mercury, and so we'll see what happens in the next couple weeks or so.
[08:50:06]
HARLOW: OK.
So, just -- I was just thinking about this, Cathy, on the plane out here yesterday. It has just been a remarkable year for the WNBA and for you as commissioner. A year you never expected, right? Brittney was detained a year ago today.
ENGELBERT: Yes.
HARLOW: What has this year taught you about the game?
ENGELBERT: Well, it absolutely teaches you that resilience, it teaches you to keep the play -- be very player first. I mean we had the most viewed season in 15 years, the most viewed playoffs in 20 years and we're only 26 years old. So, really, just the momentum around women's sports and to keep the conversation going around what these players stand for.
HARLOW: One of your big focus -- your focus has been profitability and equality and getting these women what they deserve. We'll get to charter flights in a minute, but when it comes to these media deals that you've been negotiating, that's a huge part of this.
ENGELBERT: A huge part of the economic model of any sports league, any sports, is around media rights, corporate sponsorships. And when you look at women's sports, less than 5 percent of all media coverage is women's sports, yet 50 percent of the athletes in this country are women. Less than 1 percent of all corporate sponsorship dollars in sports goes towards women's sports. So, we're trying to move that numerator and move those percentages.
HARLOW: Are those big media companies coming to the table in a media way, do you think, ,for the next round of negotiations?
ENGELBERT: Yes, I think what we're doing is we're trying to build this economic model, market the players more, build household names, build rivalries so that there's more eyes on the game, there's more content, short, medium, long form content. Content is king. Live sports is still kind of keeping, you know, broadcast alive, live broadcast alive. So, I mean, that's -
HARLOW: And we like to say news, too.
ENGELBERT: Yes, news, too.
HARLOW: Yes.
ENGELBERT: News, too.
HARLOW: Let's talk about the charter flights, because this has been a big question, a big issue that you're dealing with that, you know, WNBA players, because of your bargaining agreement with the union, they all got to fly private or none of them can fly private. You said it's going to cost $20 million. We don't have that kind of money right now. Breanna Stewart, you know, tweeted about this with a lot of support from the NBA players, and WNBA. She said, all travel -- deserve to travel in a way that prioritizes player health and safety, and that results in a better product.
What's it going to take for these women to be able to fly private?
ENGELBERT: Yes, I think we're in the midst of a huge business transformation of this league. And we're going to get there. We're chipping away. We funded the finals in the Commissioner Cup last year. We're working on something broader this year. So, there's a lot to think through because you don't - you don't want to jeopardize the financial viability of this league. We're at this like tipping point with this huge momentum, getting a great media deal in our next round of negotiations, having companies step up, and we've had five great companies step up. Our WNBA changemakers.
But we're in the midst of it. We're like in the middle of it. We raised capital about a year ago.
HARLOW: $75 million.
ENGELBERT: $75 million. We're deploying that. You're going to see the W represented here at NBA all-star like we never have.
HARLOW: Great.
ENGELBERT: So, again, and with the viewership we're gaining and the popularity of the NCAA gain as well, and capitalizing on that into our season this year.
HARLOW: And the Seattle Storm, according to "The Wall Street Journal," a record valuation, $151 million. That's 15 times what other teams have been valued at or recently sold at. Do you think that represents what's ahead for the league?
ENGELBERT: It absolutely does. This is part of the strategy, growing fandom, growing viewership, building household names and ultimately growing franchise value our owners. And many of them, like Seattle, have been in it a long time, had a lot of success, four champion - WNBA championships. And so, well-deserved. They opened Climate Pledge Arena last year in Seattle for the first time to professional basketball. So, really just a great story there in Seattle.
HARLOW: Can we talk about history being made here as well. Candace Parker. What's going to happen here with her this weekend?
ENGELBERT: Well, Candace is such an icon in the sport for both men and women. This isn't just about the WNBA and women's basketball. And she was a free agent this year and she's going to play for Las Vegas, you know, moving from Chicago and formerly L.A. So, we're so proud that she'll make history here as the first ever women of color commentary for -- commentator for all-star 2023 here in Utah. HARLOW: And expansion finally. You're going to tip off the 27th
season. People forget how young you guys are compared to the NBA. Twelve teams now.
ENGELBERT: Yes.
HARLOW: What do you think we're looking at in the future? What's your goal?
ENGELBERT: Yes. So, we're certainly looking at a couple in the next couple years, and then a couple after that. So, no exact goal, but we've got a lot of interest from a lot of cities. There used to be a team here in Utah. But we've got Portland and the bay area and a lot of other places around the country, Denver and Austin and Philly. Lots of - lots of interest, which is a -- think about how great. Four years ago we probably weren't even talking about it. Now, we've got a lot of cities interested.
HARLOW: All right, we'll look for it as we go. Thank you for the update on Brittney Griner. We're all so glad to hear she's doing well and look forward to seeing her back on the court.
ENGELBERT: Yes.
HARLOW: I wish - I should have brought that picture up of when we were playing basketball a few months ago.
ENGELBERT: Yes, a few months ago.
HARLOW: She really -- I was -- cannot compete with Cathy.
Guys, back to you.
COLLINS: Poppy, how's your jump shot?
HARLOW: Terrible. Kaitlan, you know me.
[08:55:00]
This is not my strength. This is not my strength.
CORNISH: We saw you wearing sneakers. We thought maybe a little something happened there.
HARLOW: Wait, these are my Kaitlan -- one of the many wonderful things Kaitlan has brought into my life is shoes like this.
COLLINS: Yes. Poppy actually bought me a pair of those shoes.
HARLOW: Kicks (ph).
COLLINS: I will say that when the last NBA game Poppy and I were at, we spent a lot of time trying on clothes at the like merch section.
CORNISH: So, this is -
COLLINS: Though we were watching -
CORNISH: I don't know about the priorities here, but I appreciate it.
HARLOW: You still think you should have got that Knicks jacket.
COLLINS: I know. I know.
HARLOW: I'm buying that - I'm buying that for you. It was so cute.
COLLINS: All right.
HARLOW: All right, guys, this has been fun.
COLLINS: I mean -
CORNISH: We can tell. You're smiling. We love it.
COLLINS: Those interviews have been amazing.
CORNISH: Yes.
COLLINS: And I still can't get over Shaq, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith. I will be watching that again today just to like put me in a good mood.
HARLOW: I know.
COLLINS: And lovely having Audie at the desk with us this morning.
CORNISH: Thank you so much.
COLLINS: Thank you all for joining us this morning for a news-packed show.
CNN "NEWSROOM" starts right after this break.
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