Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

"Rust" Armorer Faces New Allegations; Producer Prices Fell Sharply in May; Front Lines of Ukraine's Counteroffensive; Fulton County's Preparation for Trump Charges; New York City Sets New Minimum Wage. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired June 14, 2023 - 08:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:33:19]

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: New this morning, a court filing reveals witnesses to the "Rust" movie set shooting will testify that armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed was, quote, "Drinking heavily and smoking marijuana during filming". Special prosecutors say she was likely hungover when she inserted a live bullet into a gun that she knew was going to be used by an actor. Alec Baldwin then accidentally shot and killed a cinematographer.

CNN's Chloe Melas joins us now.

Chloe, wow, what else do we know here?

CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: Well, you know, there is this criminal trial that is looming, and the charges of manslaughter against Alec Baldwin were dismissed in April. But in the filing they also say that they have the right to bring charges back against Alec Baldwin depending on what they find out about the gun.

Now, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who is going to be facing this trial in this new filing from Friday, I'm going to read to you a little bit of what the special prosecutors have written here. They say, witnesses in the current case will testify that defendant Gutierrez was drinking heavily and smoking marijuana in the evenings during the shooting of "Rust." It is likely that defendant Gutierrez was hung over when she inserted a live bullet into a gun that she knew was going to be used at some point by an actor while filming a scene with other actors and crew members.

So, what's significant about this is that all along the way, for the last two years, almost two years, when we've been trying to figure out, how did a live bullet get on the set.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Right.

MELAS: There was never supposed to be live bullets. It was always supposed to be dummy rounds. And there have been all these questions about the chain of command because the assistant director and Hannah Gutierrez-Reed have both maintained that they did not load the gun and that they did not hand the gun to Alec Baldwin.

[08:35:06]

So, these are things that hopefully will be -- become clearer when this all goes to trial.

And, again, I've reached out to Alec Baldwin's legal team to ask them what they think about the fact that criminal charges could actually come back and they're not commenting.

HARLOW: What about her legal team?

MATTINGLY: Right.

MELAS: So her legal team has come out swinging against this. They have said that, you know, this is not true. They have maintained Hannah Gutierrez-Reed's innocence and that they will fight these charges. They say that the prosecution has abandoned the idea of doing justice and getting to the actual truth apparently.

So, more to come on this. And, again, this criminal trial is looming.

MATTINGLY: All right, Chloe, great reporting, as always. Keep us posted.

HARLOW: Obviously we can't forget the life lost in all of this.

MELAS: Exactly.

MATTINGLY: Yes.

HARLOW: This just in, some key data on inflation. Our chief business correspondent Christine Romans here with more.

Why are you shaking your head?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It's a really good number, you guys.

HARLOW: OK.

ROMANS: This is factory level inflation. So, this is before you get the goods in the grocery store or at the big box store, this is the factory floor where it's made.

Over the past 12 months, inflation there on the factory floor, 1.1 percent. That is below pre-pandemic levels, guys. That is below pre- pandemic levels.

HARLOW: Wow.

ROMANS: And month-over-month, inflation fell. Prices fell 0.3 percent.

Overall, that annual number is the slowest inflation growth since December 2020. And you can see there, 11 months in a row now of cooling factory-level inflation. So, this is a sign that all that work from the Federal Reserve is working. And I think this is another data point that would suggest that the Fed doesn't have to pause today. So, no news from the Fed today will be big -

MATTINGLY: Like, doesn't have to pause or does have to pause?

ROMANS: Doesn't - does have to pause.

HARLOW: Does pause.

ROMANS: Thank you, sir. But this is a no news from the Fed today will be big news indeed. It will show that the Fed thinks inflation's cooling.

MATTINGLY: Pa (ph) pause.

ROMANS: Pa (ph) pause. Pa (ph) pause.

MATTINGLY: (INAUDIBLE).

HARLOW: How good is this for the Biden White House though? It might not have been transitory, but it's coming down.

MATTINGLY: I mean the speed with which it's happening after it felt like it was never actually happening in a tangible way, this is - this is huge.

HARLOW: Yes.

ROMANS: I mean there's some who are looking -

MATTINGLY: People care about the economy.

ROMANS: Yes. And - but people look at some of these core numbers that are still elevated, right, especially in core CPI yesterday.

HARLOW: Yes.

ROMANS: But that's not troubling the White House very much here because they're looking at their numbers that sees, you know, used cars and shelter prices coming down in the fall and so they're thinking that we're on the right track here, stabling in the economy and cooling inflation. That's what - that what everybody wants to see here.

HARLOW: Thank you, Romans, very much.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

HARLOW: Ahead, CNN crews are on the front lines of Ukraine's counteroffensive.

It is stunning. The moment our crews duck for cover as the fight against Russia intensifies.

MATTINGLY: We'll take you there live.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:40:58]

MATTINGLY: We've got some new reporting this morning. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will officially head to Beijing this weekend. A significant trip that comes as the Biden administration navigates its tense and complicated relationship with China. He was slated to head there in early February, but rescheduled because of that infamous surveillance balloon incident. A State Department spokesperson says, quote, Secretary Blinken will meet with senior Chinese officials where he will discuss the importance of maintaining open lines of communication to responsibly manage the U.S. PRC relationship.

HARLOW: In the meantime, Ukraine has now launched its much-anticipated counteroffensive against Russian forces. And CNN is the first American network to get access to Ukraine's front line troops in this opening stage of that offensive.

Our senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen joins us live in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine.

And you can't imagine, unless you were you and your team, what it is like to be on the front lines of this and what happened when you were filming.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you're absolutely right, Poppy, it certainly is pretty tough going for the Ukrainians here. They do say that they are making advances on those front lines. By the way, in part also because of the modern western weapons and U.S. weapons that they've been receiving. But there is also really fierce Russian resistance with the Russians pelting the Ukrainians with artillery but also using combat jets as well.

Here's what we witnessed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN (voice over): Ukrainian forces firing at Russian troops holed up in Blagodatnoye (ph) in south Ukraine. This video, the brigade says, shows the Russians making a final stand here.

Much of the area near the front lines deeply scarred by combat.

PLEITGEN (on camera): This is the area of Ukraine where the heaviest fighting is currently taking place. And you can see what it's done to a lot of the buildings in the cities and villages around this area. And that fighting is set to get even worse.

PLEITGEN (voice over): We're with the 68th Jaeger brigade which has been making important gains here. The soldiers, confident and grateful for U.S. supply gear.

A lot of the times it saved my life, he says. It saves our life every day from shrapnel, shelling and bullets. But some of the vehicles have already been lost and the Russians

continue to fire back. Constant artillery shelling and even air strikes too close for comfort as our crew had to duck for cover.

Still, the deputy brigade commander says his soldiers are just getting started.

Our counterattack will definitely be successful, he says. We believe in victory. We are moving forward towards our goal. We are advancing.

On this part of the frontline, the Ukrainians believe they have the gear, the manpower and the determines to advance far into Russian-held territory.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN: So you can see there, Poppy, that's the situation on one part of this very large front line. Of course, there's other areas where the going is equally tough for the Ukrainians. One of the things that we've seen is they do have those initial successes, though they've managed to push into a couple of villages south of the area where we were there.

However, they are also still facing some pretty tough Russian defenses. Those are layered defenses. And so the Ukrainians say they know, if anything for them, the going is going to get even tougher.

Poppy.

HARLOW: Really remarkable reporting to be here. Fred, thank you to you and your team.

MATTINGLY: All right, coming up ahead, our coverage of the former president's arraignment and arrest continues. What's next? Most importantly, what precedent could this set.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: I hadn't had a chance to go through all the boxes. It's a long, tedious job. It takes a long time. Which I was prepared to do. But I have a very busy life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:48:31]

MATTINGLY: You are looking at --

HARLOW: How beautiful that is.

MATTINGLY: New York, Atlanta, Miami. These three things are connected -

HARLOW: Well, I'm glad they didn't make - yes. MATTINGLY: One, because they are places where investigations have either brought indictments or could bring indictments to the former president, but also they have been places where the law enforcement based in Atlanta, Fulton County, has visited these other two places to get a sense of things.

HARLOW: So interesting.

MATTINGLY: I want to bring back our panel in and start with that, John Miller, because I do think it's fascinating. We saw this reporting from our team that they're on the ground. They're on the ground in New York. I wasn't aware of that. They're on the ground in Miami learning, trying to put together kind of a playbook for something where there is none, to some degree, at this point.

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, now there's two. And that's to their benefit.

But this is a relatively common process. When the pope came to New York, his next stop was Philadelphia. I invited my Philadelphia PD colleagues to New York to ride with us literally through the entire event, to pick up whatever they could pick up that could be useful. In this case, the questions are, how do you get a president, a former president, in and out of a courthouse. What are the things you do that are different. In this case, the answer is, yes, you mag everybody coming in the front door, but then you re-mag them on the floor before they go into that courtroom in case something was missed.

How do you use motorcycles as outriders to, you know, cover the route? They - they studded what New York did with the barrier configuration. They're look -- they looked at what Miami did without the same barrier configuration by using cars.

[08:50:01]

And this is because the district attorney running the Georgia case that President Trump is one of the targets of sent a letter out to the sheriff saying, in the next term, the next court term, between July 11th and September 1st, we're likely to have charging decisions. So, they know that clock is ticking.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Let me just sound a note of appreciation here for the authorities, law enforcement officers, cops, court security officers in New York and Miami, two very difficult situations, and both of them went exactly as they should. People exercised their First Amendment rights, at times loudly in colorful ways, but peacefully and lawfully and everyone was kept safe and secure, and especially court security officers, Laura knows how important they are, and they often get underappreciated. So, a note of gratitude to them.

LAURA COATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. Also, why am I so much shorter than you in this camera right now? I just saw it for a second, but I'm going to -- I'm going to scoot (ph) my posture up -

HARLOW: Raise that chair. HONIG: In real life you're six inches taller than me.

COATES: I'm going to scoop my posture up for a second and say the next thing.

This is really more than just a dry run. I mean they -- this is now -- it might be the third time. They're also looking at the notion of what the crowd was like. What was the fervor. Was there a propensity for violence. Don't forget, there's online chatter to consider ever since January 6th as well. The coordinated event. What you saw on January 6th, for example, compared to what you see for our sort of ad hoc protest. What coordination might be looming on these issues -- notions.

It's also the reason why we're going to hear less and less information from people who might be in the courtroom in the sense of, we didn't know that Jack Smith was going to be there till the very last minute inside the court. There's safety considerations for that as well. As the rhetoric becomes increasingly more toxic, watch for the prosecutors to be more on guard about the divulging of information, the appearances and whatnot, which really is a problem for not only the sunshine laws but also what we, as the public, would like to hear about an open and transparent court proceeding. That's one way to get due process, you have to be able to have information. And so the more there is security risk, the more that we are at risk of not getting the information.

HONIG: This is -- I'm sorry, I've got to do my high horse again, which Laura and I were just talking about.

COATES: It's high. It's high. Look at this (INAUDIBLE) right now. Are you kidding me?

HONIG: Well, literally high horse, but - but also my figurative high horse about courtroom access, right? Court proceedings are public. Anyone can walk into a courtroom. Our high school interns had to wait on line. We live in 2023. There is no reason on earth why court proceedings should not be at least broadcast audio-wise. And the federal courts --

HARLOW: The Supreme Court has audio.

HONIG: The Supreme Court.

COATES: Right.

HONIG: The only federal court that allows any kind of live feed is the Supreme Court and they were only because they were forced into it by Covid. The federal courts --

HARLOW: Yes. I would argue cameras maybe should be allowed in there, but that's another fight.

HONIG: I think they - let us see this. We need to see this. Exactly the reasons Laura said is, we can see it and they're just so old- fashioned they won't let us. COATES: And when we don't see it, though, that's where you've got the

opportunities to create a narrative and say what was really said. And it's so hard, as we all know, to disprove the negative, as in, well, that's what really happened. And so the prosecutors also want to hear the information. They're in the room where it happens. But these different events campaign-wise are also a moment for us to hear what might be being said, just not on the record.

HONIG: For sure. And, by the way, this is good times for courtroom sketch artists. There was the sketch yesterday, I don't know if we have that, but we're going to be covering this like it's 1920 because we're going to get a typed up transcript at the end of the day, just hundreds of pages per day that we're going to have to go through, and -- so this is the only visual we're going to - want to get to say, and I have to say a word about a sketches. This is the most generous sketch artist in the history of sketches because I have been sketched.

MATTINGLY: OK. OK.

HONIG: I'm not talking about Donald Trump. Let me be clear. I've been sketched, and it ain't good. Maybe that's my fault. But the other people on here, I know some of them, those are very generous sketches. I want that sketch artist next time I go into court.

HARLOW: OK. You do.

COATES: (INAUDIBLE).

HARLOW: Go ahead.

MATTINGLY: We've got ten seconds left. What should we be looking for now? One thing that you're looking for going forward right now?

MILLER: Is, how do they coordinate these cases, because if this becomes a chain reaction crash where, you know, everybody puts on the brakes and this stretches out forever and ever, one of these - one of these cases has to be selected to go first.

HARLOW: First.

MATTINGLY: Yes, that's -- it's a really interesting point I hadn't thought of.

Laura, Elie, John, thank you, guys, for hanging out and making us smarter. I appreciate it.

HARLOW: Thank you. Amen to that.

New York City is setting a minimum wage for food delivery workers. What's driving this decision. Harry Enten here with the morning's number on a beautiful day here in New York City.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:58:08]

HARLOW: All right. So, New York City is now setting a minimum wage for food delivery workers.

CNN's senior data reporter Harry Enten has this morning's number.

Good morning.

What is it?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Good morning.

All right, this morning's number is $17.96. That's New York City's minimum wage starting on July 12th for app-based delivery workers, not counting tips. So, why are they boosting it up to $17.96 per hour?

Here's the reason why. So, this is the math behind New York City's decision. These delivery workers were only making $11 on average per hour after you take into account both tips and expenses. It's quite expensive to be a food delivery driver, right, in the city. And that, of course, is well south of the $15 minimum wage for the city's non- tip workers. So, they're boosting it up to actually get people up to the minimum wage.

MATTINGLY: You're talking about the $11 includes tips.

ENTEN: Yes.

MATTINGLY: I'm sorry, are people like not tipping? That -

ENTEN: No, it's - it's -- it includes tips but it's also the expenses, right? So, you know, you -

MATTINGLY: Right. But what's the - what I'm asking is, are people just not tipping that much?

ENTEN: Yes.

MATTINGLY: OK. OK.

ENTEN: So, here's the situation. Look at this. Americans who are always tipping on their food deliveries, look at this, back in August of 2019 it was 63 percent. Look at where we are today, it's 50 percent. We've seen a steady decline. And this is part of an environment in which Americans are tipping less. So this is average tipping across five different categories. Back in August of 2019 it was 48 percent.

HARLOW: Totally.

ENTEN: Look at where we are today, 41 percent are always tipping.

Of course, there is the tipping conundrum, right? Sixty-six percent of Americans hold a negative view of tipping, but just 16 percent of Americans are willing to pay more to end tipping.

You've got to -

MATTINGLY: How many of those 66 percent work jobs where you make tips is (INAUDIBLE).

HARLOW: Yes, exactly.

ENTEN: That's exactly right. These are people who make -

MATTINGLY: (INAUDIBLE).

ENTEN: Who don't recognize that these folks need the tips based upon what they're paid underlying (ph).

HARLOW: You heard me say totally because our friend in the control room just said, they were our heroes during Covid.

[09:00:01]

And that's true. They were on the front lines during all this.

True story, I decided that I loved my husband when, like 20 years ago, he gave a 50 percent tip on the bill on like the first night we went out and he was not making a lot of money. Good heart, right?

MATTINGLY: Yes.

HARLOW: He does that too.

MATTINGLY: Hey, 66 percent. You wanted (ph) advice (ph) from Poppy.

Thank you, Harry.

HARLOW: Good job, babe.

MATTINGLY: I think that was the (INAUDIBLE) with that.

Harry, appreciate it.

ENTEN: Thank you.

HARLOW: Thank you very much.

MATTINGLY: And "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.

HARLOW: True story. True story.