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Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) Apologizes For Calling Israel A "Racist State"; New Yorkers Facing Health Alerts Due to Canada Wildfire Smoke; Musk Reports Ad Revenue Down 50 Percent, Negative Cash Flow. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired July 17, 2023 - 07:30   ET

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

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[07:30:09]

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REP. PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-WA): We have been fighting to make it clear that Israel is a racist state. That the Palestinian people deserve self-determination and autonomy.

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PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, this morning, Democratic Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal is facing backlash from within her own party after -- you say it there -- calling Israel a, quote, "racist state." The congresswoman was speaking to pro-Palestinian protesters who crashed a conference she was speaking at in Chicago.

Yesterday, she walked back those comments, and in a statement she wrote, quote, "Words do matter and so it is important that I clarify my statement. I do not believe the idea of Israel as a nation is racist."

Now at least seven of her Democratic colleagues have signed on to a draft letter saying they accept her retraction, writing, in part, "Israel is the legitimate homeland of the Jewish people and efforts to delegitimize and demonize it are not only dangerous and antisemitic, but they also undermine America's national security."

Democratic Congressman Greg Landsman of Ohio is here with me now. He is one of the lawmakers who signed on to that letter to the congresswoman.

I want to start with do you kind of accept where the congresswoman has gone in terms of the statement she put out after the fact as, I think, this letter was circulating last night?

REP. GREG LANDSMAN (D-OH): Yes, it certainly helps. One of the reasons why the leadership of the caucus -- Democratic Caucus and many of us -- it'll be a significant number of members have put out statements or will join this statement as to ensure that we set the record straight and make sure that everyone knows the facts that Israel is one of our strongest and most strategic partners. That's for our national security and, quite frankly, the security of the region.

And it is a strong democracy. More than 70 percent of people voted in the last election in Israel. They have a diverse legislature or Knesset. And pride in Israel, in Tel Aviv, is one of the biggest prides in the world. So it is a vibrant, inclusive democracy.

And as it relates to the West Bank and the Palestinians, a lot of folks don't know this but I believe almost 180,000 -- nearly 200,000 Palestinians come into Israel to work.

And so, it is a very strategic partnership and relationship and we want to make sure that folks know where Congress stands.

MATTINGLY: I think the issue -- I think there are deep issues and divides inside your caucus to some degree, and it's not as wide- ranging in terms of numbers as people may think but there has very clearly been a shift amongst some of the more progressive members of your caucus over the course of the last couple of years.

But the Netanyahu government and some of the directions it has taken recently has certainly kind of exacerbated that divide.

Do you have concerns with the direction that the -- Netanyahu's leadership has taken things in terms of settlements and in terms of the judicial overhaul that they proposed?

LANDSMAN: Yes, a couple of things. One is something like 95 percent of Congress, including the vast majority of Democrats, support Israel. So that's really important.

MATTINGLY: Yes.

LANDSMAN: Two, the issue I believe is how do you get to a place where we can have security and ultimately, two states? And to continue to focus on Israel, which we've done for decades and decades and decades, hasn't got us where we want to be.

What we need is a legitimate governing authority in the West Bank, first and foremost, and that is going to require Europe and Arab nations to come together to work with the Palestinians to establish a legitimate governing authority in the West Bank to get rid of all of the bad stuff -- the terrorism -- mostly driven by Iran at which point we will have a secure West Bank and a partner in peace. And then we're off to the races in terms of getting to a place where we have a secure, stable Israel and Palestine, and two states.

MATTINGLY: But you don't have any specific deep direction, particularly in terms of settlements. You don't think that exacerbates particularly the weakness on the leadership side of the Palestinian Authority -- kind of where things stand right now.

LANDSMAN: Yes. I mean, I think there are questions -- concerns -- legitimate concerns about any number of issues, including this one, but a couple of things to keep in mind.

[07:35:08] One is with judicial reform. There are hundreds of thousands of Israelis that are protesting peacefully every week. I mean, it's something like 25 percent and maybe as much as 30 percent of Israelis are protesting peacefully every week. And the president of Israel, who is coming to speak --

MATTINGLY: Yes.

LANDSMAN: -- to Congress this week, has convened everybody -- different parts of leadership in Israel to come up with a viable option in terms of judicial reform. Israel doesn't have a constitution --

MATTINGLY: Right.

LANDSMAN: -- so this is going to be really important.

MATTINGLY: I do want to ask you really quick before we go -- not that there is a quick way to answer this, but the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. --

LANDSMAN: Yes.

MATTINGLY: -- kind of video that's circulating where he talks. We've seen high-profile Jewish groups denouncing the kind of false comments on COVID being ethnically targeted.

What do you think when you see it? I mean, this guy is pulling like 18 percent in your party right now.

TEXT: "COVID-19 is targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people. The people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese." Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (D), presidential candidate.

LANDSMAN: Yes. It's terrible and, hopefully, that number goes down dramatically because the more you learn about certain people the more you like them. The more you learn about certain people the less you like them.

With this guy, the more you learn about him the less people like him. And it was a very dangerous and untrue set of comments and so denouncing it is really important. But also, rescinding his invitation to come speak to Congress is going to be very important.

MATTINGLY: Yes. All right, Congressman Greg Landsman. It's good to have an Ohio person on the set.

LANDSMAN: Yes.

MATTINGLY: Appreciate your time, sir. Thank you for coming in.

LANDSMAN: Thank you.

MATTINGLY: All right.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR: All right. The Canadian wildfires -- they're not letting up and they've already burned areas that are larger than most countries on the planet. How hundreds of American and international firefighters are working now to contain that blaze.

MATTINGLY: And Jason Aldean ending a concert early this weekend because of heat exhaustion. An update on his condition coming up next.

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[07:41:04]

MATTINGLY: Well, this morning, New Yorkers are once again being urged to prepare for smoke from the wildfires burning in western Canada. Air quality health advisories are being issued for the entire state as winds are expected to carry a smokey haze to the Northeast yet again this week. Now it comes as Canada is experiencing its worst fire season on record. About 25 million acres have burned so far this year and there's no end in sight.

CNN's Paula Newton live in Chibougamau, Canada with more. Paula, I guess the biggest question right now is are firefighters actually making progress against these wildfires?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No. Progress is not the way you put it. All they can do, they tell us, is protect communities like the one we're in. They've already been evacuated once -- and protect -- try and protect (audio gap) when you're up here.

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NEWTON (voice-over): They've come all the way from America's Southwest --

ZAC KROHN, U.S. FOREST SERVICE FIRE MANAGEMENT OFFICER SUPPORTING CANADIANS: Welcome to Quebec.

NEWTON (voice-over): -- now here in northern Quebec's scorched lands joining hundreds of other American and international firefighters doing what they can to slow wildfires that just won't quit.

KROHN: At this point, we're just trying to secure the edge and make sure that the communities are safe.

NEWTON (voice-over): The Silver State Hotshot crew is looking for hotspots. They are firefighting crews specially trained and skilled now taking on Canada's record-breaking wildfires.

NEWTON (on camera): I know you're from Montana, Big Sky Country, but this was a big fire.

KROHN: Yes.

NEWTON (on camera): It was a big territory.

KROHN: In the scope for us, in the states, this would be one of the largest fires ever to occur in the United States. So, yes, it's a giga-fire.

NEWTON (voice-over): The total area burned in Canada already has shattered records -- now 10 million hectares. That's almost 25 million acres -- an area nearly as large as the state of Ohio -- and still burning.

MATT RAU, INCIDENT COMMANDER, SOUTHWEST ARE INCIDENT MANAGEMENT TEAM: And when they burn like this there's no way to even put people in front of it to even stop the fire. There's no amount of resources on the ground or from the sky that's going to be able to stop one of these fires when they -- when they get the momentum.

NEWTON (on camera): As shocking and, frankly, unsettling as it is, this fire is just far too large to extinguish. In fact, the area already burned is larger than most countries on the planet. It means that not only does the fire burn but there is going to be a lot of smoke.

NEWTON (voice-over): And that means many American cities could be shrouded in smoke on any given day for weeks or months to come.

RAU: Don't be surprised if it continues. And secondly, this is -- this is a problem that is going to go on into the future. When it's the year to burn and the conditions are right it's just going to continue to burn.

NEWTON (voice-over): Here in Quebec, many were evacuated within minutes as the flames threatened towns and fires burned with raging speed.

JIMMY SEABURN (PH), RESIDENT: (Speaking foreign language).

NEWTON (voice-over): Jimmy Seaburn is grateful to see American help. He says he had minutes to leave in June and was upset to leave behind the family pets. They were fine when he returned six days later but he fears his home will be threatened again.

NEWTON (on camera): (Speaking foreign language).

It's incredible but it's not normal.

SEABURN: (Speaking foreign language).

NEWTON (voice-over): He says it's not normal but cautions we should all learn to expect the worst from the weather now.

The rain helps. It has finally arrived in some places. But in the words of one Canadian official, it's like a drop in an otherwise empty bucket.

The mayor of this town, Chibougamau, says the rain is an answered prayer. She may not have to evacuate her town again. But they have to adapt, she says. No one imagined so much would burn so quickly.

NEWTON (on camera): Were you scared?

MANON CYR, MAYOR OF CHIBOUGAMAU, CANADA: Currently (PH) I wasn't scared. I was mad. And then I have to come down and say Manon, you have a job to do. And that's why I just -- I stayed calm and I said to my people let's be patient. Let's do it and keep it Zen.

[07:45:05]

NEWTON (voice-over): It may be difficult to stay calm as Mother Nature rages. The cliche applies here in every way possible. Canada is burning and it's out of the woods yet.

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NEWTON: You know, it's so incredible to think of there are fires burning right through this country from one end to the other. And two that end, the Canadian government called in the Canadian military, this time in Canada's west, to help deal with those wildfires.

You cannot put too fine a point of it, Abby and Phil. We are a little more than halfway through the fire season. So have a look at those air quality indexes. We will be watching them for weeks and maybe months to come.

MATTINGLY: Yes, no end in sight.

Paula Newton, great reporting. Thank you.

PHILLIP: All right. Jason Aldean -- he was back on stage performing in Saratoga Springs, New York last night. The country superstar shaking off his bout with heat exhaustion over the weekend, which forced him to end his concert early in Connecticut.

A fan caught this moment as Aldean ran off the stage.

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Aldean leaving the stage due to heat exhaustion.

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PHILLIP: Aldean taking to social media on Sunday saying that he suffered from a combination of dehydration and heat exhaustion. But he stopped short of staying that he suffered from an actual heat stroke. He added that he didn't think it was that serious. Aldean did say, though, that he was treated with I.V. fluids following that incident.

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JASON ALDEAN, COUNTRY SINGER-SONGWRITER: Again, I apologize for cutting the show short but we'll come back and make it up to you. And I'm feeling a lot, lot better, so thank you, guys, for checking in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: The rest of the tour will continue as scheduled and he plans to return to Connecticut to make up for that shortened show. Just more evidence, Phil, this heat is extremely, extremely dangerous out there.

MATTINGLY: Yes. You've got to take care of yourself, that's for sure. Well, also this morning, Elon Musk is revealing on Twitter that the company's ad revenue is down a 50 percent cash flow. It's negative. So what does the future of Twitter look like now? We'll dig in, coming up next.

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[07:51:40]

PHILLIP: Elon Musk is now revealing that Twitter has lost about half of its advertising revenue and it still has a negative cash flow. The billionaire tweeting in response to business advice from a follower, quote, "Need to reach positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else." The tweet is a far cry from his tone in April when he told the BBC that the platform is, quote, "roughly breaking even" and that most of its advertisers have returned.

Joining us now is CNN senior media analyst, Sara Fischer. She's also the senior media reporter at Axios.

So, Sara, this is a real problem for Twitter and it's just evidenced by the fact that the CEO of Twitter who, believe it or not, is not Elon Musk anymore -- it's Linda Yaccarino -- she has an advertising background.

What does this mean for the job that she has ahead to get this platform in the green?

SARA FISCHER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA ANALYST, SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER, AXIOS: Abby, it's a great question. It signals that she has a very tough road ahead. Look, Twitter can cut all of the expenses it wants. Elon Musk went in and slashed expenditures. He hasn't been paying bills. But the fact that it's still not making money means that it definitely has an advertising problem.

Now, he said earlier this year that many advertisers have returned. There have been many third-party estimates that suggest that that's not necessarily the case, especially because even those that have returned, Abby, are just not spending as much. The reason being they don't want to be called out by Elon Musk for pulling all of their spend -- so their spend has just been dramatically reduced.

But for the viewers of CNN -- for people like you and me who are on Twitter and who use it, this is just another signal that this platform continues to be slightly unstable. Even though Linda Yaccarino is a major hire, if they can't afford to bring in their money to pay the bills, that means the product is not going to be good for folks like you and me.

MATTINGLY: Sara, can I -- the first thing I think when I see this stuff -- and apparently, it's a reply so maybe I'm overthinking it to some degree. But you confront things on Twitter. You can utilize Twitter from a business perspective and from a messaging perspective. And I often think if any high-ranking executive is being too candid there's likely a reason behind it.

Is that the case here or am I perhaps providing too much credit to the thought process of a Twitter reply?

FISCHER: No. I think Elon Musk is looking to be transparent. He wants to signal both to the userbase but also to potential advertisers that we have work to do. That we're still trying to get to a place where we're cash flow-positive.

But Phil, the problem here is the inconsistency. If you're going to come out in March and say most of our advertisers have returned and we'll be cash flow-positive by June, and then you come out in July and you say well, we're still not cash flow-positive and 50 percent of our advertising revenue is still down, I think it leads to a very confusing and mixed message.

Now, the thing that I'm going to be watching is can we get to this place of an equilibrium where Linda Yaccarino can bring advertising revenue back up. That can continue to cut expenses and become cash flow-positive by the end of the year. Unfortunately, I'm a little bit skeptical, in part, because they still have so many outstanding payments.

Even just the other day --

MATTINGLY: Right.

FISCHER: -- we had an employee -- a former employee wage a lawsuit saying that the company owes $500 million in backlog severance payments to former employees. That's going to make it tough for them to ever become profitable.

PHILLIP: Yes. I mean, we have so much to talk about on this. And to that point, we have some reporting on CNN that says Twitter Africa employees haven't even received their severance payments.

[07:55:00]

But before you go, Sara, I do want to touch on something that you have some new reporting on. It has to do with Tucker Carlson who also floated maybe working with Twitter about some kind of new platform. Now we are learning a little bit more about what's next for the former fired Fox News host.

FISCHER: Yes. So he is going to be launching his own media venture. Axios and others have reported that he's raising money to do so. But the big news Abby that we reported last night, as did CNBC, is that he's landed a seven-figure advertising deal around his Twitter show. And that's a big deal because it's the first major commercial partner that he has brought in since leaving Fox. As many of your viewers know, he is currently in a legal battle with Fox about forming is own venture.

The thing that I'm going to be watching for, too, is he going to be able to lure investors. You know, he's a rich guy because he's starting his own media platform, which I've reported will be mostly video-based that will require resources. And I have reported that there is investor interest. In fact, one of the executives who is leading the company who is taking the advertising deal company public is going to invest seven to eight figures in Tucker Carlson's new media company.

PHILLIP: That's really amazing to hear, especially considering that Twitter and Tucker Carlson probably have the same problem, which is that advertisers may not want to be next to that content.

MATTINGLY: That's true.

PHILLIP: Exactly.

MATTINGLY: Sara Fischer, it's great reporting. You can check that out on Axios. Appreciate it.

FISCHER: Thank you.

MATTINGLY: Well, airlines are trying to get back on track after yet another brutal weekend. More than 1,700 flights canceled yesterday. We're going to tell you how things are looking today.

And breaking overnight, Ukraine attacks a crucial bridge connecting Russia to the Crimean Peninsula. What it means for Russia's ability to move supplies for its war in Ukraine. That's coming up.

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