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CNN This Morning
Michigan Man Posted Threats to Jewish Officials; Salima Koroma is Interviewed about the CNN Film "Glitch." Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired March 03, 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]
MARK NEJAME, ATTORNEY FOR LYONS FAMILY, FIANCE AND MAJOR FAMILY: Seemingly political vendetta going on by Senator Rick Scott and Governor DeSantis against a local prosecutor, Monique Worrell, and claiming that it was because of her that he was on the streets.
Well, as we understand it, any of his prior juvenile offenses, none of which in Florida are considered convictions, all took place before her administration. And the only case that took place during her administration was 4.6 grams of marijuana, a misdemeanor, which had nothing to do with this case.
And for them so seize and exploit this -- these families' pain and misery, and avoid the real issue, and that is sane and responsible gun legislation in America, which we do not have. And we see those like DeSantis and those like Scott promoting -- I mean, they're talking about open carry laws now in Florida, which is only going to lead to more misery and death.
And this is the face of - of the victims who get routinely murdered in the United States. What -- this doesn't happen anywhere else in the world. We've got to do something more than we're doing. And part of the reason that we're here is so that America can see the face of grieving families who have lost their loved ones. And - and we just have to stop this insanity and stop using children and victims as political pawns as these self-serving politicians seem to be doing.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Well, listen --
GARY LYONS, FATHER OF DYLAN LYONS: Don, can I say something?
LEMON: Yes, go on, please.
LYONS: It's just that, you know, we've heard from politicians, we've heard from the sheriff, we've heard from so many people, but yet we haven't heard from our governor or our senator, who seemed to want to publicize it for their own ambitions or for their affiliations. They're fathers. They have children. How could they be so callous as to not even call us and extend their sympathy that we've lost -- regardless if you're a Democrat, Republican, white or black, it doesn't make a difference, we've lost our children, and not even to call us or have anybody reach out to say, we're sorry I thought was so cold. NEJAME: And, in fact, if I could? The comments have been no comment.
And they had a lot to say previously until they were called out. So, we're just hoping that these - these lost souls, these children of these beautiful people who I've gotten to know and - they're just amazing. They are America. And we have to stop this. And they are brave enough to come forward and share their stories with the country and with the world. And, hopefully, more sanity will start taking over where we've got to stop this love we have of guns.
LEMON: Well, Mark, thank you. I know that there's -- you know, you mentioned the children and, Casey, you're trying to carry on, as I mentioned. You know, you want to have a kid without your loved one and you are able to secure that. And so, hopefully, that works out.
And, Mark, you said there is a GoFundMe, right?
NEJAME: Yes. What's happened is Casey is - is beyond broken up. They were able to harvest Dylan's semen. They had the presence of mind after he was killed. And so it's being preserved and she wants to have their baby together. So, she has gone ahead - it's Casey Fite on GoFundMe to secure funds so that that - that miracle can continue and his legacy can live on and of the families have - have GoFundMe accounts under the names of their children. And so we ask the public to consider because they have to move forward. So, they -- each one has a GoFundMe account under their name, under T'yonna and under Dylan and now Casey. So, thank you for allowing us that.
LEMON: Mark, thank you so much. Thank you, Tokiyo, Brandi, Beth, Gary, Casey. Be well. I'm so sorry for your loss but we -- I can't even imagine doing what you just did and what you're going through, but thank you so much. God bless you.
BRANDI MAJOR: You're welcome.
LYONS: Thank you.
NEJAME: Thank you.
TOKIYO MAJOR: (INAUDIBLE).
B. MAJOR: Yes, that's what I'm saying.
LEMON: Thank you, very one.
T. MAJOR: I wanted to do that.
LEMON: We'll be right back.
LYONS: Thank you.
NEJAME: Thank you.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:38:54] KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: The man who has been accused of threatening to kill Jewish state officials in Michigan is making his first court appearance in just a matter of moments. Federal authorities say that Jack Carpenter first made these threats online and had plans to go to Michigan to carry them out. The FBI also says that he wrote posts supporting an anti-government extremist movement. It's been classified as domestic terrorism.
CNN's Omar Jimenez has this report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
OMAR JIMENEZ CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The threats were allegedly posted on the internet from out of state by suspect Jack Eugene Carpenter III. I'm heading back to Michigan now, threatening to carry out the punishment of death to anyone that is Jewish in the Michigan government if they don't leave or confess, and now. Later adding, any attempt to subdue me will be met with deadly force in self-defense.
Court documents show his mother told investigators he had three handguns, a 12-gauge shotgun and two rifles. A law enforcement source tells CNN, among those specifically targeted, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel. She says, the FBI has confirmed I was a target of the heavily armed defendant in this matter. She's the second high- ranking Michigan official to be targeted in recent years, after a plot to kidnap Governor Gretchen Whitmer was foiled in 2020.
[08:40:08]
This time it was allegedly about more than one official.
ANDREW MCCABE, CN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: This is right in the wheelhouse of what the FBI and Director Wray have told us they think is the most dangerous, the most concerning threat that they face on the counter terror side.
JIMENEZ: The suspect allegedly posted a declaration of sovereignty, claiming a country he called "new Israel" according to the FBI, encompassing a nine mile radius around his home. The FBI says he believe because of this no one in the government or law enforcement had authority over him. Tweeting, any crime that's been claimed I committed I am, one, immune from prosecution anyway, two, all the evidence is fake. This isn't the first time law enforcement has seen a claim like this.
JAVED ALI, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL, SENIOR DIRECTOR ON COUNTER-TERRORISM: It seems to fit the profile of a lone wolf.
JIMENEZ: Javed Ali is a former senior counterterrorism official for the U.S. government.
ALI: Whether this threat gets manifested by single individuals posting online, like in this particular case, or larger groups coming together, like they did here in Michigan with the plot to kidnap Governor Whitmer, to the extreme end with the insurrection January 6th. So, we've seen all these different models of what this threat can look like. And this isn't going away anytime soon.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COLLINS: And that's the concern that officials have.
Thank you, Omar, for that report.
We'll be following that court appearance today closely.
We'll be right back right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:45:43]
LEMON: Oh, wait. It isn't just me. They're doing it, too.
HARLOW: We were dancing too.
COLLINS: No, we're not.
LEMON: All right, Poppy was doing it.
HARLOW: I was.
LEMON: Before Wordle or Spelling Bee, everyone with a phone was playing HQ Trivia. Now the new CNN film "Glitch: The Rise and Fall of HQ Trivia" reveals the crazy story behind the revolutionary game show app and how it crashed and burned in record time.
Here's a preview.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is HQ. I'm Scott, the host.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: HQ Trivia was everywhere.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You could actually win real money.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It just got so popular. The app is not ready to work.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And, it crashes.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that's when the cracks started showing.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Russ and Colin were polar opposites.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There was jealousy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It leads to chaos.
(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: So, joining us now, the director of "Glitch," Salima Koroma.
Good morning.
SALIMA KOROMA, DIRECTOR, "GLITCH: THE RISE AND FALL OF HQ TRIVIA": Good morning.
LEMON: Good to see you.
HARLOW: Good morning.
LEMON: It's important really -- you can't really overstate how popular this app was. I mean it went from just a couple hundred players to -
KOROMA: Yes.
LEMON: Like, hundreds of thousands of players. You could -
KOROMA: Millions. Millions.
LEMON: Millions. Money in real time. So what - what happened?
KOROMA: That is the point of this film is to figure out, how did this thing that was the most popular app in America, and some even overseas, how -- why did this crash and burn, right? This was a game that you played twice a day and you had these great hosts, specifically one named Scott Rogowsky, who was funny. It felt like he was talking to you, right? You know, you watch "Jeopardy!" and imagine if it's like "Jeopardy!" on your phone and, you know, Alex Trebek on your phone talking to you as you're answering the questions, right?
You get to be a game show contestant in real time. And so I think that's something that people were obsessed with and having it right in your hand.
COLLINS: So, what happened? I mean, I know that you, like, dissected that in an entire film and it's hard to sum up, but it is one of things, you're like, oh, yes -
KOROMA: What - what did happen?
COLLINS: We were all obsessed with it and then it's just gone.
KOROMA: Right. OK, so, I don't know if you guys remember Vine, right?
COLLINS: Yes.
LEMON: Yes.
KOROMA: Vine, which was the precursor to TikTok. The guys who created HQ, they created Vine. And there's a whole story there about why Vine imploded. And it's a very similar reason to why HQ Trivia imploded. One, you know, it's this huge rise and the tech is not ready for that, right? They're not expecting it. And then for me what was interesting was, the two founders who founded Vine were really brilliant, but ultimately couldn't get along. And when you can't get along making the biggest app in the world, it begins to crumble and you see it in the technology.
HARLOW: Were even you shocked making this - making this film?
KOROMA: I'll tell you what I was shocked by. I was shocked by how -- I was shocked by the fact that this was supposed to revolutionize TV, right? This was supposed to revolutionize the way that we watch TV. And these guys, like, were -- they got close to the sun. What's the thing, you get too close to the sun you burn -
HARLOW: Icarus. Icarus.
LEMON: You fly to close to the sun you'll burn, yes.
KOROMA: Right, the Icarus thing?
HARLOW: Yes.
KOROMA: And so, for me, I loved - you know, I'm from the TV world. I want to see. I love "Jeopardy!" I would love to see a revolutionized kind of "Jeopardy!." And what's shocking is that they got too close to the sun and it didn't happen.
HARLOW: Yes.
LEMON: (INAUDIBLE) is like a rock band story.
HARLOW: Totally.
LEMON: They created a rock band and then all of sudden nobody gets along.
KOROMA: Yes.
HARLOW: Totally. And wait till people see the ending. I hear that.
COLLINS: I can't wait to watch this.
LEMON: Dun, dun, dun.
HARLOW: Thank you.
KOROMA: Thanks, guys.
LEMON: Salima Koroma, thank you. Good to see you.
HARLOW: And congrats.
LEMON: "Glitch: The Rise and Fall of HQ Trivia" premiers Sunday, 9:00 p.m., right here on CNN.
COLLINS: Also, it is the story that everyone has been talking about this morning, but also just for weeks now. In about half an hour, the disgraced South Carolina attorney, Alex Murdaugh, is going to be sentenced after a jury convicted him last night after three hours of murdering his wife and his son. We're going to take you into the courtroom. That's next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:54:33]
COLLINS: All right, we are kicking off this year's CNN Heroes campaign by catching up with one of last year's top ten honorees, the Alaskan nurse, you all remember, Teresa Gray. Her non-profit, Mobile Medics International, has responded to dozens of humanitarian disasters, not just in the U.S., worldwide. When the devastating earthquake hit Turkey and Syria, guess what, she mobilized.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TERESA GRAY, MOBILE MEDICS INTERNATIONAL: I need some 10 cc syringes.
It's pretty frantic leading up to a mission.
[08:55:02]
OK, so this bag is ready to go.
Making sure we have the right equipment, the right medications.
We have enough for hundreds of patients.
We're going to be sleeping in a tent, eating MREs.
This is not going to be a good time.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): Three days after the earthquake, Teresa landed in Turkey. She and her team soon headed to Hatay province.
GRAY: And this is apocalyptic.
I'm here on the streets of Semadon (ph). We're doing mobile clinics. And all the people are living here in these tents now because the buildings have either fallen down or about to fall down. So we go street to street to street and we stop at these little tent cities. We're seeing earthquake injuries, lacerations.
Did something fall on him in the earthquake?
We saw a child who had been trapped in the rubble for well over 12 hours. We're seeing coughs, colds, flus, from living together. Whatever it is they need us to look at, we will. Then we go back, sleep in our car, get up the next morning and do it again.
COOPER: They treated hundreds of people. And one family adopted Theresa's group as their own.
GRAY: This is my new Turkish mama. And these people have taken us in and they've allowed us to stay on their property and they've given us tea.
Tell her that we are so grateful for her.
COOPER: Another reminder that even in desperate times -
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're welcome.
COOPER: Humanity can shine through.
GRAY: I know. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. It's OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: She is quite the force.
To nominate your own CNN Hero, just go to cnnheroes.com.
HARLOW: We are so glad you're with us all week. We'll see you Monday.
But just minutes from now, Alex Murdaugh will learn his sentence after he was found guilty of murdering his wife and son. Stay with CNN for that live right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
