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CNN This Morning
Housing Migrants in New York City Schools; Missing Girl Found After Six Years; Threats Against Politicians; Kara Swisher is Interviewed about Elon Musk. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired May 17, 2023 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:30:00]
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Separate buildings and the migrants would not interact with school children.
MAYOR ERIC ADAMS (D-NY): We have the order - almost an order of where we have to go as the crisis continues of -- this is one of the last places we want to look at.
SANDOVAL: Parents argue school gyms are not meant for housing.
SAMANTHA CLARK, PARENT AND PTA CO-PRESIDENT, PS 172: I would like other - other places to be considered. Places that have adult full- size showers, large spaces. Our school is tiny. We can barely fit in it as it is.
SANDOVAL: A source familiar with the planning process telling CNN that so far about 300 migrants have been placed in gyms throughout the city.
RAY DENARO, COMMUNITY ACTIVIST: We have a crisis that's been brought to our country, our state, our city and now it's in our schools, and how soon until it's in our homes? These children deserve better.
SANDOVAL: Some parents feel that schools should be off-limits, while others just fear for the safety of their kids.
ROBIN WILLIAMS, PARENT: We not knowing nothing about these people and where they came from, we want to protect us.
My message for the man, the governor, you all should be ashamed of y'all self.
SANDOVAL: Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso says parents are basing most of their opinions on far and says that the migrants are not increasing crime in New York City.
ANTONIO REYNOSO, PRESIDENT, BROOKLYN BOROUGH: These folks have not caused, in any way, shape or form, an influx or an increase in crime. So this narrative about safety is just one that is being made up right now. These parents, again, I think are misinformed.
(END VIDEOTAPE) SANDOVAL: And amid an ongoing battle between the suburbs and the city of New York, officials in Orange County, New York, a short drive from here, secured a restraining order preventing the Eric Adams administration from voluntarily offering some relocation to some of the migrants here to those communities.
But, look, the reality here, guys, is, whether you're the mayor of some of these towns, the schools here in New York or the mayor himself, they are facing a very difficult reality. And that's regardless of what I witnessed on the border just a few days ago, which is a dramatic decline in apprehensions, there are still hundreds of asylum seekers in transit arriving here by several hundred a day.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, it's really important context.
Polo, thank you for reporting from the border to New York City and how this is affecting everyone.
Also, former New York City Council Speaker Corey Johnson is going to join us live in the 8:00 a.m. hour to talk about what Polo was reporting on there and more.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Also this, a young girl featured in the Netflix series "Unsolved Mysteries" has been found nearly six years after she disappeared. Kayla Unbehaun went missing in Illinois when she was just nine years old. Her dad had full custody, but she was with her mom when she disappeared. On Saturday night, in Asheville, North Carolina, more than 600 miles from her home, a stranger spotted her -- she's now 15 years old, by the way -- in a store and recognized her from this image that aired at the very end of the episode of "Unsolved Mysteries."
Our Jean Casarez has been following all of it and joins us.
Oh, my goodness.
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Oh, it's amazing. It's absolutely amazing. So here are the facts according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
It was July of 2017. It was South Elgin, Illinois, suburb of Chicago. And Kayla's father Ryan had gotten from a judge -- he had ordered full custody. Her mother had supervised visitation.
So, on July 5th, right after Fourth of July, her father goes to pick her up from a camping trip with her mother. She's not there. Her mother's not there.
And so for several weeks they had to have been looking everywhere. Finally, on July 28th, a felony arrest warrant for kidnapping was filed in the court and Kayla was one of America's missing. For six years she was gone.
It was last Saturday night, and someone in a store in Asheville, North Carolina, 600 miles away, they saw her and they went to the store authorities and said, that - that little - that girl, I saw her on Netflix's missing show. They called the police. The police came. The mother was found, arrested on charges, $250,000 bail.
Now, two things. First of all, the Netflix show, "Unsolved Mysteries," she was on for four seconds on that show.
HARLOW: That's it.
CASAREZ: But the mother has made bail. The mother is out. She's free. Told to show up in court on July 11th.
COLLINS: Wow.
HARLOW: So the thinking is that potentially the mother took her.
CASAREZ: The allegation is that.
HARLOW: That's the allegation.
CASAREZ: It's alleged taking of a child and is across state lines.
HARLOW: Yes.
CASAREZ: Kayla united with her father. Her father asked for their privacy. They're getting to know each other again. They're back in Illinois.
COLLINS: Amazing how just those four seconds played such a big role in this.
HARLOW: Made such a difference.
CASAREZ: Isn't it, though.
HARLOW: I remember watching it growing up. It wasn't on Netflix at the time, but, yes.
CASAREZ: Right. Of course.
HARLOW: Jean, thank you very much.
CASAREZ: You're welcome.
HARLOW: Thanks, Jean.
Also, another investigation is underway, this time in Washington, after an intruder broke into the home of President Biden's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, despite the fact that he has 24/7 Secret Service protection.
HARLOW: Yes, we're seeing way too much of this happening.
And the Capitol Police chief warns of a 400 percent spike in threats to members of Congress over just the last six years.
[06:35:04]
Four hundred percent. What is behind this increase and what's being done about it?
COLLINS: That's amazing.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: The Secret Service is investigating how an intruder snuck into the White House - the White House's national security adviser, Jake Sullivan's, home without agents noticing. It happened late last month at his home in Washington, D.C. And we should note, this is particularly concerning since Sullivan has 24/7 security detail. But a source says agents stationed outside didn't notice the intruder. The source also says Sullivan actually found the person inside his home. Can you imagine that, confronting him? And later told investigators he believed that person was drunk. The intruder did not threaten him and apparently left without, again, Secret Service spotting him. An agency spokesperson released a statement saying, quote, we are taking this matter seriously and have opened a comprehensive mission assurance investigation to review all of the facts of what occurred.
[06:40:08]
COLLINS: Yes, the fact that it was Jake Sullivan who had to tell the Secret Service that someone had broken into his home.
HARLOW: And that he had to confront that person.
COLLINS: Yes.
HARLOW: Yes. Terrifying.
COLLINS: Not a shining moment for them at all.
That intrusion comes as not just what's happening there, there are threats against government officials and politicians that we have seen increase on a dramatic scale. The Capitol Police chief told lawmakers yesterday that threats against members of Congress have actually jumped 400 percent in just the last six years alone.
CNN's Lauren Fox took a look at this and reports from Capitol Hill.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Just one day after an attack at Congressman Gerry Connolly's district office, U.S. Capitol Police Chief Tom Manger telling a House committee about the alarming rise in threats against lawmakers.
CHIEF TOM MANGER, U.S. CAPITOL POLICE: It's gone up over 400 percent over the last six years.
FOX: Several lawmakers on Capitol Hill are now reviewing their district security protocols after a man with a bat attacked two staffers Monday at Rep. Gerry Connolly's district office in Fairfax, Virginia.
REP. GERRY CONNOLLY (D-VA): It's a sad commentary if we now have to accept as a price of public service threats to everybody associated with us.
FOX: Some members of Congress now looking toward ways to enhance security at their district offices.
REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): We need to be proactive about these things, not reactive.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just have to be, you know, extra cautious.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no room for political violence in our country.
FOX: Manger's testimony cited recent attacks on members of Congress and their families, like the assault in late October on then House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband. Part of the incident captured on this police body cam video.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Drop the hammer.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Um, nope.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey. Hey, hey, hey.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What is going on right now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoa!
FOX: Other examples that have shaken lawmakers include an attack on former Congressman Lee Zeldin at a campaign event during his run for governor last July. Police say the suspect had a weapon. Zeldin wasn't injured.
And earlier this year, a man attacked Congresswoman Angie Craig in the elevator of her Washington, D.C., apartment building. According to police, Craig tossed her hot coffee on the attacker to defend herself.
Manger believes two things are causing the rise in threats to safety.
MANGER: The proliferation of use of social media, and the -- just the increasingly -- the increasing divide in our country politically has a lot to do with it. And a lot to do with the increase in threats.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOX: And the challenge for lawmakers is they want to be accessible to their constituents. A lot of these district offices are frequently visited by members of Congress. They want to go out and meet with constituents in public. They want to be able to be accessible. And that is the concern that so many of them say they just don't feel like they can ever be truly safe in this job anymore.
Kaitlan and Poppy.
COLLINS: Yes, it's a real concern for them.
Lauren Fox, thanks for taking a look at that. HARLOW: Yes, I'm so glad you did that reporting.
Ahead, this, Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, the company you should know about because they're the company behind ChatGPT, well, he told lawmakers yesterday in his testimony, it's time to regulate artificial intelligence. Will they, and what he says is the worst fear.
COLLINS: Also, Elon Musk also made some big headlines in his latest interview as he weighed in on China and Taiwan and revealed what he really thinks - what he really, really thinks about working from home.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:47:50]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You want to share what you have to say?
ELON MUSK, OWNER AND CEO, TWITTER: I'll say what I want to say and if - if - if - if the consequence of that is losing money, so be it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: That is Elon Musk in just a remarkable, stunning, eye-opening interview. One of the things he said that he didn't care if he loses money over inflammatory tweets that draw the ire of Tesla shareholders or Twitter advertisers. His interview made a lot of headlines from his views on AI, to his recent attacks on George Soros, and insisting that the mass shooter in Texas at that outlet mall who posted photos of large swastika tattoos is not a white supremacist.
Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And you link to somebody who's talking about the guy who killed children in a mall in Allen, Texas. You say something like, it might be a bad cyop (ph). I'm not quite sure what you meant, but - but -
ELON MUSK, OWNER AND CEO, TWITTER: I'm saying that I thought the -- ascribing it to white supremacy was (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's no proof, by the way, that he was not.
MUSK: There's no proof -- I would say that there's no proof that he is.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that's a debate you want to get into on Twitter?
MUSK: Yes. Because we should not be ascribing things to white supremacy if it - if there - if it's false.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You basically - MUSK: I think it reminds me of my (INAUDIBLE). She's like, you know, calm down, people, this is not like (INAUDIBLE) federal case out of it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, you -- you also - (INAUDIBLE). You said he wants to erode the very fabric of civilization and Soros hates you (INAUDIBLE). Like, when you do something like that, do you think about -
MUSK: Yes, I think that's true. That's my opinion.
Really, you're going to work from home and you're going to make everyone else who you're your car come work to the factory - work in the factory? You're going to make the people who make your food that gets delivered, that they can't work from home? The -- you know, the people that come fix your house, they can't work from home, but can you? Does that seem morally right?
I think it's very much a double-edge sword. I think - and it's - there's a - there's a - there's a strong probability that it will make life much better and that we'll have an age of abundance. And there's some chance that it goes wrong and destroys humanity. Hopefully that chance is small, but it's not zero.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Let's bring in Kara Swisher. She has covered Elon Musk extensively since the late '90s, had many in-depth interviews with him.
[06:50:02]
Her podcast is "On with Kara Swisher" and also "Pivot,"
Kara, I just think about your most recent interview.
KARA SWISHER, HOST, "ON WITH KARA SWISHER" AND "PIVOT" PODCASTS: Hey, Poppy.
HARLOW: Hey. With Elon Musk, what was it, a little over a year ago at such a pivotal time. What do you make of this one and those are just some of the key snippets we played for folks.
SWISHER: Well, Dave (ph) did a very good job getting a lot of news out of him, except most of the news was nonsense, unfortunately, especially the stuff about the white supremacist and calling Bellingcat, which does a lot of interesting investigative work, is it fisops (ph) or whatever. It's == it's -
HARLOW: Cyops (ph).
SWISHER: You know, he spewed a lot of conspiracy theories. Fia (ph) -- whatever.
HARLOW: Yes. SWISHER: He - he -- he spewed a lot of conspiracy theories. He made a lot of pronouncements on things, calling staying home morally wrong, although I don't feel like we should be taking moral lessons from Elon, but OK.
You know, essentially the guy who makes cars wants us to commute. Great. Thank you for that.
I don't know, it was just bizarre. And, you know, and sandwiched in between that was, you know, some interesting ideas. But he seems to talk a lot now and spew on things that he doesn't -- we shouldn't really be listening to him about. Although Dave did a great job, as I said.
HARLOW: He did do a great job. I was just -- do you think he gets away with a lot in terms of -- just because so many people have dubbed him a genius. And I wouldn't - I wouldn't argue with that. I think he's brilliant. But, I don't know, I just feel like people don't hold him to the same standards that they hold other -- certainly other CEOs to at all.
SWISHER: They don't. Well, a lot of people do. The companies he's involved with doesn't. he controls most of them, so it doesn't -
HARLOW: Companies, shareholders, boards. Yes.
SWISHER: Yes. Well, they - they - they like being on the gravy train of Elon Musk. And until - and until he doesn't make money for them, until he loses money, not just for himself and his other shareholders who don't seem to care in the private companies, its not going to matter.
And, of course, Tesla's been an enormous financial success for those holding its stock, although it's under a lot of pressure right now. He's still going to - he's still going to be tolerated until that changes. And I don't know why it is with this particular person, because a lot of other people make a lot of money for people and don't behave like this.
HARLOW: Yes.
SWISHER: But until we stop looking, they're going to keep -- he's going keep doing this because he likes the attention.
COLLINS: Well, and, Kara, to your point about what he said about the Texas shooter, which was essentially calling it BS, the links two white supremacy -
SWISHER: Yes.
COLLINS: Even though the shooter had a swastika tattooed on him. The Texas Department of Public Safety has confirmed that he -- he -- they do believe he had these neo-Nazi ideologies that he had at least posted about.
SWISHER: Yes. COLLINS: But you couldn't ignore Elon Musk talking about that, criticizing Bellingcat, which does great investigative journalism, but then his comment in a separate part of the interview that was unrelated where he said, I want to say what I want, even if it loses me money.
SWISHER: Yes, he doesn't care. Well, it's his money when he's losing it. And in regards to Tesla, it's shareholder's money, actually. But he -- that's how he feels. And it is his money. And he -- if he wants to do that, he can certainly do it. He's paying a lot of money for those views.
Of course, he's just hired someone who's good at making money, Linda Yaccarino , and she's going to spend a lot of time pushing back his comments and, you know, slowly diminishing her reputation, unfortunately. She has a terrific reputation in the ad industry.
And so if you're trying to attract ads, you know, saying someone who's wearing obvious Nazi tattoos is not -- doesn't have white supremacist views is unusual, I would say, and unusual for a CEO and leader. But he seems to want to do it and he's willing to pay the price for it. And it's, of course, his money. That we tolerate it. I don't know what we could do, Kaitlan. I don't - I mean what are we -- what are we going to do, tell him not to be so ridiculous? It -- I think we do that. That doesn't really matter.
HARLOW: Actually, I think it's good journalism. I think it's accountability. I think it's like the interview you did.
SWISHER: Yes.
HARLOW: I think Dave Faber did a really good job with that interview. Because then you all people to see who the person is -
SWISHER: Right.
HARLOW: And then they can make their own decision.
SWISHER: On some level.
HARLOW: Yes.
SWISHER: Yes, on some level, although some of this stuff gets, you know, people who really believe it is, you know, you know, go, Elon, say those things about conspiracy theories.
HARLOW: Yes.
SWISHER: There's a lot of arguments to be said that this - that this continues to get into the bloodstream of the public and it becomes, you know - you know, if he converts one person to thinking someone not again wearing swastikas seems to be an indication of white supremacist views in my humble opinion and I think most people would think that, including, as you said, Kaitlan, the Texas Department of Public Safety.
COLLINS: Right.
HARLOW: Thank you very much, Kara. Getting up extra early for us. We appreciate it.
SWISHER: Thank you.
HARLOW: Thank you.
SWISHER: Thanks.
HARLOW: Home Depot had a three-year run of robust sales, right? People did a lot of home improvement during the pandemic. So, why is it now saying people are really pulling back on that? That's next.
COLLINS: Plus, Senator Dianne Feinstein's interview with reporters raises questions and alarm bells, The exchange where she denied her absence from the Senate, which was widely reported. That's ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:59:28]
COLLINS: This morning, Steve Scalise, a top Republican, says that the House could take up a resolution to expel George Santos, the freshman Republican congressman and noted a notorious liar, as soon as tonight. The vote is expected to be on referring the matter to the House Ethics Committee. That is something that House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said last night he wants to happen, quote, rapidly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): I think we can look at this very quickly and come to a conclusion on what George Santos did and did not do through ethics. A safe, bipartisan committee.
[07:00:00]
I would like the Ethics Committee to move rapidly on this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: The Ethics Committee announced an investigation back in March looking into whether George Santos
