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CNN This Morning

Trump Sues E. Jean Carroll; Daniel Penny to Appear in Court; Flight Disruptions Grow; Air Quality Alerts from Midwest to East Coast; Pizza Debate in New York City. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired June 28, 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]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Sexually abused the former columnist and defamed her. Trump now says Carroll defamed him when she appeared on CNN the morning after the jury awarded her $5 million in damages.

Our Kara Scannell is following this and joins us now.

Good morning.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, guys.

Yes, so another round of litigation in this seemingly never-ending storyline.

But -- so Trump filed a counterclaim last night stating that E. Jean Carroll had defamed him when she appeared on this program and spoke to you. Now, that was one day after the jury found that Carroll -- excuse me, that Trump was libel for sexually abusing Carroll and defaming her when he denied her claims of rape.

Here's what she said. Let's take a listen to this first and we can talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: But I just wonder, E. Jean, what went through your head when you heard that?

E. JEAN CARROLL, WON SEXUAL ABUSE AND DEFAMATION CASE AGAINST Donald TRUMP: Well, I just immediately say in my own head, oh, yes, he did. Oh, yes, he did. See, that's my response.

ROBERTA KAPLAN, E. JEAN CARROLL'S ATTORNEY: So, look, New York law on sexual crimes like this is complicated and it's not probably appropriate for morning viewers. But the truth of the matter is, is that sexual abuse, which he was found guilty of, is a very, very serious offense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCANNELL: Right, so it's Carroll's statements that here's saying was defamatory. Now, this is going to be a question for a judge, possibly a jury, to

decide.

But, you know, the issue here is that, when the jury was give this case, they were given a couple of options under the statute for battery, which is what she sued for, and there are different legal standards, one for rape, one for sexual abuse, and the jury checked the box for sexual abuse. You know then - you know, you'll remember just a day after this Trump was on the CNN town hall and he again repeated his statements that he didn't rape Carroll.

And he's been making this argument after the verdict that because they didn't find that he raped Carroll that he should get a new trial, that, you know, this is a defamatory claim.

Now, she is saying, because he repeated these same statements, she wants to be able to get more in punitive damages for this 2019 lawsuit that is still working its way through he courts and is set to go to trial next year. And the judge has agreed to let her amend that lawsuit to seek as much as $10 million in punitive damages if that case moves forward. It's kind of a complicated, circular argument here, but it's just the -- yet another step in this litigation over Carroll's claims that Trump had raped her and his denials of it.

HARLOW: And again, just the reminder that he was found libel for sexual abuse and defamation by that jury here in New York.

Thank you, Kara, very much.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: All right, another legal case we're watching this morning, the man in the - the man in New York accused of choking a homeless man to death on the subway is set to appear in court. Marine veteran Daniel Penny is facing second degree manslaughter charges. Now, last month witnesses said the stream performer, Jordan Neely, boarded a subway train and began acting erratically, saying he didn't care if he died. Penny then put Neely in a chokehold and penned him to the ground. Minutes passed. Eventually Neely died. Penny later claimed he felt Neely posed a threat to the crowd on the subway car.

CNN's Omar Jimenez is live outside the courthouse in Manhattan this morning.

Omar, you've been covering the case from the beginning. What are we expecting from today's hearing?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Phil. So, this will be the first time Daniel Penny is in front of a judge after a grand jury indicted him on second-degree manslaughter charges for the killing of Jordan Neely. Now, lawyers for Penny say they are confident that any jury trial would show that Penny's actions are fully justified.

And we've already been getting a glimpse in some of their defense. Even Penny himself has said that he believed he needed to act that day to save not just himself and others, but he's also said that if he were faced with a similar situation, he would act in a similar way or at least take action.

Again, take a listen - take a listen to some more of what he's had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANIEL PENNY, DEFENDANT: I knew I had to act. And I acted in a way that would protect the other passengers, protect myself, and protect Mr. Neely. I used this hold to restrain him.

I didn't want to be put in that situation, but I couldn't just sit still and let - let him carry out these threats.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMINEZ: Now, as you can imagine, attorneys for Jordan Neely's family disagree with that characterization. For one they say the indict was the right result, but they've also said that the grand jury's decision tells our city and our nation that no one is above the law, no matter how much money they raise, no matter what affiliations they claim, and no matter what distorted stories they tell in interviews.

Now, of course, this all goes back to May 1st where witnesses say Jordan Neely, who entered a New York subway and was acting erratically as one witness described it saying he was hungry, he was thirsty, he didn't care if he died. And while a witness says that he hadn't actually attacked anyone at this point despite passengers appearing to be uncomfortable, it was in those moments, or shortly after, that Penny put Jordan Neely in a minutes-long chokehold.

And so what passengers felt in those moments leading up to this chokehold is what's going to be critical in this case.

[08:35:01]

But another critical part of it is what many protesters have argued, that no matter what perceived threats may have happened leading up to this, this shouldn't have ended in death.

Phil.

MATTINGLY: Omar Jiminez, thanks so much for the reporting.

HARLOW: So, another crushing wave of flight delays and cancellations today. Some people have already been stranded for days, all right ahead of the busy July 4th weekend.

MATTINGLY: And thick smoke from Canadian wildfires, it has returned to the U.S. We'll break down how climate change is impacting, not only our health, but our wallets.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Travel chaos mounting this morning at airports across the country right before the busy July 4th weekend. People have already been stranded for days and now they're getting hit with yet another wave of flight delays and cancellations because of more severe weather and staffing shortages. Thunderstorms forced a ground stop at Boston Logan this morning. Same thing at all three major New York City area airports last night. More than 1,600 flights already delayed or canceled today. At Newark Airport in New Jersey, people have been sleeping on cots on the floor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are people sleeping in cots.

[08:40:00]

There are people like openly weeping at like cafe tables.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, a lot of kids, they didn't have no Pampers. Like I said, long lines. Kids that were crying, sleeping on the floor. Old people, too, sleeping on the floor.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was elderly couples behind me. I'm like, these people can barely walk and now they're standing in lines for ten hours?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Pete Muntean is live at Reagan National Airport, just outside of D.C.

Good morning to you.

You've got a lot of flight cancellations there. Is this - is this just summer thunderstorms or more at play here?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Layer on layer of issues here, Poppy. Thunderstorms, combined with the air traffic controller shortage, according to United's CEO Scott Kirby. We'll get to that in a second.

Already red here on the board here on the cancellations board at Reagan National Airport. I just checked FlightAware. We're about 687 cancellations nationwide today. More than a thousand delays. The day is still pretty young. We're only about a third of the way to what we saw yesterday.

Just want to give you a glimpse of how bad things were at the New York area airports last night. There were ground stops at all three airports last night. At LaGuardia they put into place the ground stop, the FAA says, simply because it was almost grid locked on the taxiways. No place to put places -- planes on the ground.

The cancellations, the worst airports today, look a lot like it did yesterday. Newark, LaGuardia, JFK, Boston Logan and Chicago O'Hare. Although we will see, today is really the test, if airlines can recover.

The deck of cards really came tumbling down starting on Saturday. And that's when United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby says the FAA really failed us, he says, because they simply did not have enough controllers, air traffic controllers, employed by the FAA to handle all of the flights coming in to its huge hub in Newark.

So, the big question here is whether or not the airlines can really pull this out of the dive as we go into the July 4th holiday. The numbers are already pretty big, and the TSA is anticipating 2.8 million people passing through airports on Friday. That will likely be the highest number we have seen since air travel really started its downturn at the start of the pandemic.

So, really, really huge numbers coming. We will see if airlines can really make the test here. It's going to be a hard one for them, Poppy.

HARLOW: Staying grounded for the next few weeks. Thanks, Pete Muntean. We appreciate it.

MATTINGLY: All right, well, you're looking live at images across the country. Notice the difference of what you're seeing on your screen. On your left is Detroit. Very hazy. Hard to see through at this hour. On your right, that's New York. Clear, blue skies for - reason for the smoke in Detroit, like many others in the U.S., it's smoke from the Canadian wildfires. New York was dealing with this a couple weeks ago, putting more than 80 million Americans under air quality alerts.

HARLOW: The White House has called this a stark reminder of the impacts of climate change. It's a problem not just Americans are feeling, and they're feeling it not just with their eyes but their lungs and also their wallets. Analysts say drought, record heat, extreme weather events all impacting buying and spending habits.

With us now two chiefs, chief business correspondent and anchor of "Early Start," and chief climate - Christine Romans, and chief climate correspondent Bill Weir.

Good morning, guys.

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

HARLOW: So when we're doing this sort of more holistic look at all of this. So, Bill, why don't you start us out because there is a severe economic toll from all of this, a financial toll.

WEIR: It ripples through in so many ways. The obvious ways are the folks in Florida or Louisiana or California are seeing their property insurance skyrocket now -

HARLOW: Yes. Sure.

WEIR: As those are the - sort of the canaries in our climate coal mine nationally.

But just look at anything in your day. The blueberries on your cereal this morning were probably pollinated by bees that spend their winters in Florida. Two billion of those bees were wiped out by Hurricane Ian. So that's a - one little sort of cinch in the supply hose of our agriculture. The grains in your cereal may be affected by now the Mississippi River, which is becoming more unpredictable -

HARLOW: That's right.

WEIR: With every tenth of a degree in warming, whether it's not enough water or too much at one time. The Army Corps of Engineers is going crazy trying to keep up with the changes.

HARLOW: Yes.

WEIR: It just ripples through. And then you think about worker productivity. Construction, for example, working in this heat. Texas just lifted a mandatory law that gave water breaks every four hours.

HARLOW: Wow, they lifted it?

WEIR: They lifted it. Yes. And Greg Abbott signed it now. And so, you know, how do you survive in 122-degree temperatures if you're a roofer, you know?

HARLOW: Yes.

WEIR: And so that just trickles through in little ways.

Lumber prices, you know, due to infestations or forest fires. You know, every aspect of our lives. I resisted beat (ph) for a very long time because I didn't want to be pigeonholed. But when they said, we want to create a climate beat, you realize it's everything beat.

HARLOW: Yes.

WEIR: It's everything in our lives is affected by a livable ecosystem that's horribly out of balance.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It really is.

Just like everything is about money. Every story -

WEIR: Exactly.

ROMANS: At the bottom line of every story is money and how things cost more for people or it's harder to make a living or their productivity goes down. I was looking at pictures yesterday outside of Houston of a highway that buckled.

[08:45:02]

One of many Texas highways, by the way, that had buckled, and crews are already trying to repair it. But the lost productivity and the wear and tear on the cars and the -- what it does to actually have your infrastructure affected by these climate events is something that's quite interesting. In Georgia, the peaches need this chill down time, right? They have to have a certain number of hours a day at a certain temperature to ripen properly. They're not getting enough chill time. So that's a problem in growing our food. And so it's something that consumers feel, that workers feel, drivers, commuters feel. It's just a fascinating moment. And when you look at the statistics, the major climate and weather events, you know, we're - we're on track here for another record year of major climate weather events. And that's all very disruptive. And that comes down to money in the end.

WEIR: If you have to build in now a cooling budget in cities, right? When you think about it, Dallas has not gone six days where it didn't dip below 80 degrees Fahrenheit overnight.

HARLOW: Wow. Oh, my (ph).

WEIR: And that just builds up, right? The heat is not released overnight the way it should in those sort of concrete cities that we've built, the heat island affects there. And so the public health aspect of this, you have to think about it in a whole new paradigm.

MATTINGLY: Can insurance markets exist in certain places going forward?

ROMANS: Well, you see -

MATTINGLY: Like the macro analysis that you guys are laying out right now, you can do what people do, banks do, financial institutions have done tons of macro analysis on this.

ROMANS: It's why you've seen some of the big insurers stop writing new policies in some of these states, in California in particular. They're not writing - they're servicing existing clients but they're not writing new policies in many of these -

WEIR: State Farm.

MATTINGLY: That's a big one.

WEIR: Yes.

ROMANS: State Farm is one of them. There are others as well.

And it's because they simply can't see how the math works.

MATTINGLY: Because it doesn't.

ROMANS: In the end, right?

MATTINGLY: Right.

ROMANS: I mean we have -- and you've talked about this, but where we rebuild after we have -- we have disasters.

I grew up along the Mississippi River, by the way. So, flooding is sort of a way of life.

HARLOW: Ditto.

ROMANS: I have never seen the flooding events, you know, of the past 15 years along the Mississippi River that it -- for the whole rest of my life before that, you know. So, there's a tipping point.

WEIR: Yes.

ROMANS: Clearly. Clearly. And the science anecdotally in climate and money and what we pay about it.

WEIR: And as that plays out, think about how that changes communities, right? Somebody who can -- once you have to assume your own risk for living where you want to live, only the rich folks will be in these spots (ph). And where is the support staff? Where do their teachers and cops afford to live?

HARLOW: Yes, that's exactly right.

Guys, come back often.

WEIR: Yes.

ROMANS: OK.

WEIR: You bet.

HARLOW: Thank you both very much.

MATTINGLY: All right, tributes and condolences pouring in this morning for former New England Patriots quarterback Ryan Mallett. An Arkansas superstar. The 35-year-old apparently drowned while swimming off the beach in Destin, Florida. Officials say Mallett was not breathing when he was pulled out of the water, but died later the hospital. The New England Patriots drafted Mallett in 2011. He spent seven years in the NFL with the Patriots, the Houston Texans, the Baltimore Ravens. He had become a high school coach in the last couple of years. Had an amazing arm. He was also very well respected by many of the people he played with, including Tom Brady, paying his respects saying, quote, we lost a great man. Thank you for everything, Ryan. At least 11 people have drowned in the last - in less than two weeks because of the dangerous rip currents on the Gulf Coast.

HARLOW: Tragic.

All right, coming up, a debate for pizza ovens, if you can believe it, is getting political.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:52:20]

MATTINGLY: There's a debate in New York City, a very serious debate, it's over pizza ovens. The city's new plan to slash carbon emissions by 75 percent not going over too well with some residence. It's requiring restaurants with wood or coal-fired ovens installed before May 2016 to put in new devices that would cut down emissions. This man is so upset, threw a pizza at city hall. He's chanting, give us pizza or give us death.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can't have a small business. Can't have pizza. New York City is nothing without pizza.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: I totally agree.

MATTINGLY: That is a - that is a demonstrably true statement.

HARLOW: Well, you're not a New Yorker.

MATTINGLY: I eat pizza here.

HARLOW: D.C. -- how is the pizza in D.C.?

MATTINGLY: I'm not going to get into a food critique debate because I'm going to get myself in trouble.

WEIR: Can we just acknowledge what a great day it is for the rats around city hall.

HARLOW: Pizza rats.

WEIR: Pizza rat is like having a party.

HARLOW: There's pizza rats.

MATTINGLY: Romans, can you break through this for me?

ROMANS: Yes.

MATTINGLY: Like, should somebody be so outraged that they're throwing good pizza over a fence?

ROMANS: If you think that New York City is going to take away your pizza oven, forget about it. That is not going to happen.

What they're asking is that you serious consider adding a device that would reduce emissions if you have one of these pizza ovens before 2016. So, already they've been asking pizza owners, look, there's a scrubber - you know more about this than I do - there's something you can do that can reduce the emissions. They're just asking you to consider that. Your coal-fired pizza oven pizza is not at risk in New York. Our headline at CNN Business, don't worry, pizza heads, NYC is not coming for your pies. But on the right there is like this outrage machine about this that is very loosely based in fact.

HARLOW: But if they'll pay for the scrubber, does it change the way your pizza tastes?

WEIR: This is much more about the people who live upstairs from a - from a coal-fired pizza oven or a wood fired who breathe that smoke than it is about climate change as regulation. I think that's the one thing to think about. ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: I mean we need to figure this out. I mean, if we need to come together on any issue, Republican, Democrat, liberal, conservative, we need to figure this out. And let me just say, if you are a New York City brick-fired oven pizza owner and you feel overregulated, you can hop across the river to Romans and me in New Jersey, we will welcome you.

HARLOW: What - what is the Jersey do?

ROMANS: If you want to debate, is it Chicago deep dish or New York thin crust, that's the real debate here.

ASTEAD HERNDON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: That's not even close.

MATTINGLY: I do think, though - and, Astead, like, this is not happening in a vacuum, these types of issues popping up.

HERNDON: Yes.

MATTINGLY: But the former president talking about washing machines. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Now they want to take away your gas stoves. Does anybody like gas better? You cook a lot more than I do. Because I have a lot of friends that are really into the cooking thing and they say gas is better. So -- but they want to take it away. They want to take away your washing machines and your dryers.

[08:55:03]

They don't want to give you any water for the washing machine either.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HERNDON: This is happening over and over. You see people kind of zero in on something specific. And to the point it's not based in fact. Often simply to drive that type of outrage. But just like the gas stove, and folks aren't coming for the pizza oven, but that's not going to stop the outrage machine from moving.

As a Chicagoan, you know, I'm kind of partial to the way we do pizza around there. But as long as we -

HARLOW: No way.

HERNDON: No, as long as I get my - my plastic straws back, I think I'll take it.

HARLOW: I got one the other day and I felt guilty for using it and also I enjoyed the experience more than the paper. I don't know.

Bill, don't kill me.

WEIR: No, no, I - HARLOW: I was in - I was in Brooklyn, where we live. It was in

Brooklyn.

WEIR: I will make the admission, I agree - I agree with you.

HARLOW: But final word, because a lot of this is based on climate change.

WEIR: This is an idea of change is hard and what's more emotional than the way we cook our food and feed our families, right?

HARLOW: Yes.

WEIR: And we love the primalness of a flame, but there are better ways, and it's just nudging us towards a new, better, cleaner way of living.

HARLOW: A better future for our little ones, right, Bill?

Thank you all very, very much. That was fun. Appreciate it.

Thanks for being with us. We'll see you here tomorrow.

"CNN NEWS CENTRAL" is next.

MATTINGLY: Give me pizza or give me death, Poppy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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