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Source Says, Suspected Gilgo Beach Killer is Believed to Have Lured and Murdered Victims Inside His Own Home; Deadline Passes for Trump Response to Target Letter; Expected Blockbusters Hit Theaters Today. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired July 21, 2023 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR: CNN This Morning continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The investigators think the suspected Gilgo Beach serial killer may have committed the murders in his own home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Now that we have actual DNA, we can compare it to other crime scenes that may have occurred in other locations.

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: In each instance of those three cases, his family was out of town and that he would have control.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Special counsel has been scheduling additional witness interviews with people they've never spoken with before.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They are absolutely worried about the fact that no one else has received a target letter.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: You always have an ongoing investigation. This indictment could come at any moment.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are we now closer to finding out who killed Tupac Shakur?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Las Vegas Police have executed a search warrant at a home in Henderson, Nevada.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was asking him what happened, and he responded to me with the now infamous words, F you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This theory hasn't been looked into for 27 years. Why?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: A conspiracy theorist taking center stage, RFK Jr. denying he said what we've heard him say.

ROBERT F. KENNEDY, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In my entire life, I have never uttered a phrase that was either racist or anti- Semitic.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I can't think of someone who's espoused such anti- Semitic ideas getting this kind of a platform.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the movie event of the year, the twin premier of Barbie and Oppenheimer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're so happy we've made like a big summer blockbuster.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll be going to go see Barbie 100 percent. I can't wait to see it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Barbie first, Oppenheimer for lunch and then a Barbie chaser.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If I could gift any audience member something you are doing great because you are you and that is enough. That's what I would do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIP: And a very good Friday morning to you. A Barbie chaser actually sounds great. It is Friday. So we are ready for that.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Can we contextualize this day real quick before we get into the hard news of things? It's Friday. The theaters matter are important. It's a summer blockbuster with no comparison. U.S. Women's National Team plays in the World Cup tonight.

PHILLIP: Messi is here.

MATTINGLY: Messi later tonight as well. Guys, it is a good day.

PHILLIP: A lot of great stuff going on, but we have lot of news as well.

We're going to start, though, with a disturbing story developing overnight. That is the Gilgo Beach serial killer investigation. A source telling CNN that investigators now believe that the suspect actually murdered those victims inside of his own home, luring them there. And the reason they think that is because the women disappeared when his wife and children were out of town.

MATTINGLY: Now, crime scene investigators dressed in white jumpsuits and blue rubber gloves, you can them there, have been scouring the house on Long Island in New York. We're told they've been meticulously combing for any trace of evidence that may be linked to the victims.

CNN's Jean Casarez is here with the new details. Jean, what are we learning this morning?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We've got a lot of information. First of all, investigators were able to put together the travel records of his wife during those years, 2009, 2010, and they found that she was out of town every time one of those girls went missing. And so it was believed that -- and it's been a working theory for quite a while now that he committed the murders in the home because they say he would have control there.

Remember, they were bound with duct tape and belts in burlap, and he would have the ability to do all of that. It also explains the four from his wife that are found on the victims or on the duct tape, because that is highly unusual right there.

Now, they didn't have this ability in 2009, 2010, but there's even more. They were able to find out his burner phone number, his personal cell number and the victims' cell number. And in recent years, they've been able to triangulate through the cell phone tower data those three numbers on the days and before the days, even after the days they went missing. And they found that the burner phones were used to contact victims' phones in New York City and then the burner phones and the victims' phones together with the same cell tower data went to Massapequa where he lived, and that when the girls went missing, their cell phones were in the Massapequa area, and they were triangulating all of this in recent years. And that comes to this working theory.

Now, we want you to listen last night with Erin Burnett, the Suffolk County sheriff spoke out on the home and the search they're doing for over a week now for forensics, here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHERIFF ERROL D. TOULON JR., SUFFOLK COUNTY, NEW YORK: Every piece of evidence that could be gathered, whether it's from the storage containers or from his home, could be valuable not only to the murders that he's currently being charged with, but more importantly if we can connect him to other murders, whether they were in New York or other locations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CASAREZ: Now here's the reality that you have to remember. This is 2009, 2010. They're searching that home for forensics. And, you know, they have to search every nook and cranny. They've got to lift up the carpeting.

[07:05:00]

They've got to look at the crevices of the mattresses. Normally, you look in the drains for something. But I think for the duration of time, that may be difficult.

But while this is going on, the wife of Rex Heuermann has filed for divorce. Asa Ellerup filed for divorce on Thursday. We want to read a statement from her attorney. He says, as you can imagine, our client and her family are going through a devastating time in their lives. The sensitive nature of her husband's arrest is taking an emotional toll on the immediate and extended family, especially their elderly family members.

And, remember, the whole family is out in Long Island, and the home that is possibly the primary crime scene is the home that Rex Heuermann was raised in. That's the home he was raising his family in. And there were two children at that time in 2009, 2010, may have been out of town also with their mother.

PHILLIP: I mean, the secrets seem to be really piling up. I mean, we should remind folks, they found that trove of weapons in a hidden part of the home. There's just so much there that they are now potentially discovering.

CASAREZ: And Rex Heuermann is pleading not guilty. His attorney is saying, look, this is a circumstantial case and they're saying it's not weak. So, we have to see how it develops.

PHILLIP: Jean Casarez, really fascinating reporting on all of that. Thank you.

CASAREZ: Thank you.

MATTINGLY: Well, also this morning, that deadline, that has come and gone for Donald Trump to respond to the special counsel's January 6th target letter. The grand jury in D.C. did convene yesterday and heard from Trump Aide Will Russell. We're told he was asked about interactions he had with Trump while in office.

Now, Trump and his team are waiting to see if and when a potential indictment will come over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. In the meantime, CNN has learned that the special counsel is still lining up witness interviews.

Let's bring in CNN's Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig. Why? Why are they still lining up witness interviews if it seems like or appears like an indictment may be coming soon?

HONIG: Because, to use a phrase that prosecutors love, the investigation is ongoing. You are allowed to continue calling witnesses, to continue using a grand jury, even after you return an indictment, so long as there's some other aspect outside the scope of that indictment, so long as you're still investigating some other person or some other charge. And so even if there's witness testimony scheduled for mid-August, late August, we are on the clock right now. This indictment could come at any moment.

PHILLIP: What do you make of this reporting that we talked about that at a hearing just yesterday, it was basically revealed that the questioning in the special counsel's grand jury was touching on special -- things that might have been construed to be executive privilege, at this late stage in the investigation that they're pressing a witness close to Trump about things that that witness' lawyer thinks might be executive privilege? What does that tell you?

HONIG: So, it tells us for sure that they were asking the witness, Mr. Russell, about his conversations with Donald Trump. That's the only thing that executive privilege could even arguably apply to.

Now, it sounds like the witness tried to invoke executive privilege, saying those were my conversations as a White House staffer with Donald Trump, he will lose that given the track record. Donald Trump and everyone around him who has tried to invoke executive privilege throughout this case has lost, because, generally speaking, executive privilege is not going to take precedence in a criminal case.

PHILLIP: But would that have to be litigated? And was there --

HONIG: So, there was reporting that it actually went this front of a judge yesterday. This is all grand jury, so it would be secret, off the record. But our excellent reporters did a report that this was a dispute in front of the judge. We don't know how it came out.

But, really, what's important here is this is another person who was well-placed in the White House, not a well-known name, but you can have a witness who's super important who's maybe a lower level aide as long as they saw something and heard something, you're a witness and your information could be invaluable to prosecutors.

MATTINGLY: I think that's the piece of this that I've been struck by. The January 6th committee did a voluminous investigation talking to so many people and a very significant report to go along with the hearings themselves. They never spoke to Will Russell, and yet the special counsel has. What does that tell you about where the investigation is?

HONIG: So, it's interesting. It tells me -- this is the first real indication, I think that's a great point, that DOJ has gone beyond the January 6th committee. And it's not at all surprising, by the way, because they've had way more time. And, remember, prosecutors have way more powerful enforcement tools than the committee did. The committee did an outstanding job putting the base in place. And it's clear now that Jack Smith has gone beyond that.

PHILLIP: Remember, I mean, this is why Congress at the time, they were pretty frustrated because they felt like DOJ wasn't pursuing this investigation with those investigative tools that they have at their disposal. Elie, thanks again as always.

MATTINGLY: Right. Another day of extreme heat is shaping up this Friday. About 100 million Americans will be urn heat alerts, facing oppressive record high temperatures from the southwest into the Deep South. Powerful winds in North Georgia knocked out this gym wall on Thursday. Storms in multiple states brought some relief from the heat but thousands of people remain without power or air-conditioning this morning.

Let's go to Meteorologist Derek Van Dam.

[07:10:00]

And, Derek, let's talk about the cooling, primarily through the lane of when are we going to see some.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well f, if you're in Dallas or Oklahoma City or Little Rock this morning, today is your day. You're living it in real-time. But like a puff of smoke in the wind, it's gone, just like that. The below average temperatures evaporate literally before your eyes and get replaced with a lot of oranges and reds, we all know what that means, above average temperatures.

So, today, enjoy it while you can. Dallas 94, Oklahoma City, 87. You're below your average high. It's the middle of July, so it's still warm. But the heat returns by the end of the weekend and into the early parts of next week. As long as this very stubborn heat dome that we've been talking about is firmly entrenched across the Deep South and into southwest, we will continue to talk about the record-breaking temperatures.

100 million Americans under some sort of heat alert stretching from Florida all the way to the southwest. Look at the triple-digit heat from Vegas to Bakersfield, Palm Springs and Death Valley and Phoenix, you continue with your record-breaking streak with temperatures above 110. And this extended forecast well into next week calls for above average temperatures. But look where it builds across the upper plains and portions of the Midwest.

Now, transitioning to those storms that Phil mentioned a moment ago, check out what happened across middle Tennessee yesterday. Trees knocked down. We had power lines snapped like twigs, and that is amongst several dozen reports of wind that just created a swath of damage across portions of the Southeastern U.S.

We have another line of thunderstorms that continues to roll through. We have a thunderstorm watch across Northeastern Oklahoma. But focusing in on what's happening right now throughout Memphis and Southwestern Tennessee, we have a flood warning in place and there's our flood threat for today. Can't mention -- forget to mention the northeast, of course, they've been dealing with heavy rain the past couple of weeks. More chances of flash flooding across Vermont, New Hampshire today as well.

MATTINGLY: All right. Derek, I feel like we pulled a sliver of good news out of you at the beginning, which is a shift from the week. I appreciate that.

PHILLIP: This never ends.

MATTINGLY: Derek Van Dam, thanks, man.

PHILLIP: Thanks, Derek.

VAN DAM: A pleasure.

PHILLIP: Americans from coast to coast, they're now bracing for Barbenheimer mania this weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is the best day ever.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is the best day ever, so was yesterday and so is tomorrow and every day from now until forever.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Principal among them, Phil Mattingly.

MATTINGLY: We're bracing -- like we're bracing for it. Like, no, you're bracing for the heat and storms. Now, we're bracing for Barbenheimer.

PHILLIP: These two potential blockbusters hit the box office today, Barbie and Oppenheimer, could not be more different movies, by the way. Analysts predict that they could rake in more than $200 million this weekend. That would make it the highest grossing movie weekend of the year.

CNN's Jason Carroll is live outside of a movie theater here in New York City. Jason, there's a lot of hype around Barbenheimer and the return to theaters after years of COVID. People are really itching to go back, it seems like.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely, a lot of hype, and also a lot of hope, as you say. A lot of hope that these two films can really do something to help an industry that's really, really been ailing.

The only question that a lot of fans that we've been talking to are having is which one to see first.

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CARROLL (voice over): Probably not much of a surprise when one hears something odd has come out of Hollywood, but now there's this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The world will remember this day.

CARROLL: That's not a clip from a real movie. It it's a fan-driven mash-up of two, and it's the answer to anyone out there trying to figure out what to do when two potentially blockbuster films open on the same day. Barbie --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Barbie.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Barbie.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Barbie.

CARROLL: -- and Oppenheimer. The internet's answer is to see both, Barbenheimer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I saw Barbie in the morning. I saw Oppenheimer in the afternoon.

MARGOT ROBBIE, ACTRESS, BARBIE: How did that go?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was the right way to do it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think you see Barbie afterwards as well.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A Barbie chaser.

CARROLL: There are TikToks, tweets and T-shirts, even a Barbenheimer Wikipedia page promoting what has become a viral marketing phenomenon pushing moviegoers to try both.

So, I see you've got your Barbie pink on. So, the question is will you see Barbie and Oppenheimer or just one?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, yes, both.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, we kind of like the idea of walking into Oppenheimer with full pink, so --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's the Barbenheimer experience.

CARROLL: Both films are worlds apart.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you guys ever think about dying?

CARROLL: On the one hand, you have director Greta Gerwig's fantasy comedy about a doll experiencing an existential crisis and has to go to the real world to resolve it. The company behind it, Warner Brothers Discovery, parent company of CNN.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's happening, isn't it?

CARROLL: And on the other, you have Christopher Nolan's biographical thriller for Universal about a physicist credited for creating -- well, you know.

[07:15:08]

CILLIAN MURPHY, ACTOR, OPPENHEIMER: I mean, I'll be going to see Barbie 100 percent. I can't wait to see it. I think it's just great for the industry and for audiences that we have two amazing films by amazing filmmakers coming out the same day.

ROBBIE: It's the perfect double build. I think actually start your day with Barbie, then go straight into Oppenheimer and then Barbie chaser.

CARROLL: Could a double feature about a plastic boll and a so-called father of the atomic bomb breathe much needed life back into a movie industry hit hard by streaming, disappointing post-pandemic box office and now actors and writers on strike?

REBECCA RUBIN, FILM AND MEDIA REPORTER, VARIETY: I think this is the best thing that's happened to movie theaters in a really long time because it's happening really organically.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CARROLL (on camera): Also, according to Variety, AMC has reported $40,000 in ticket sales so far. The big test is going to be whether or not fans do a one and done, in other words see these films once or will there be repeat viewing. If that's the case, that's the real test of a blockbuster and, of course, how well these films do on the international market. That remains to be seen. But, so far, Barbenheimer off to a pretty good start. Guys, back to you.

PHILLIP: I don't know about these repeat double features. That seems like quite the commitment. But someone out there is going to do it. I promise you. Jason, thank you.

And new this morning, the White House is announcing a major agreement with tech companies as concerns rise over the dangers of artificial intelligence. That's coming up.

MATTINGLY: And breaking overnight, Russia continuing its attacks on Ukraine's southern ports, devastating grain warehouses that are crucial to keeping people fed in developing nations. We're going to discuss with the White House's John Kirby, coming up ahead.

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[07:20:00]

MATTINGLY: Well, brand new this morning, Vice President Kamala Harris adding a last minute trip to Jacksonville, Florida, to her itinerary today. It's in direct response to the state's newly approved standards for teaching black history.

One of the new requirements for middle school students is to include, quote, how slaves developed skills which in some instances could be applied for their personal benefit. Well, Harris forcefully condemned the new curriculum on Thursday. Listen.

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KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: Just yesterday in the state of Florida, they decided middle school students will be taught that enslaved people benefited from slavery. They insult us in an attempt to gaslight us and we will not stand for it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Well, joining us now is CNN Chief Political Correspondent and host of Inside Politics Weekday, the one and only Dana Bash. Dana, we're going to get -- I'm noticing some pink, which may be thematic to some degree. We're going to get to that in a little bit. But I do want to start with the vice president's trip.

Abby made a great point earlier. This level of agility is not normal for a White House, but it's something that she has done before. She did it in Tennessee with the Tennessee Three lawmakers, doing it again here. What do you make of this, both, I think, broadly for the Vice President and on this issue specifically?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you both know, because you are excellent reporters, that there is a very deliberate effort that has been going on inside the White House to make sure that there are moments, to find moments for the vice president to shine and to make an impact and to stand out when it comes to just the pure politics going forward in the 2024 campaign.

And it is incredibly agile and spur of the moment to be able to turn on a dime and get all of the mechanics of the vice presidency up and running and get her down to Florida to make a speech. But it is true that this was one of the -- you could just hear it in the sound bite that you played. You could hear the passion understandably and the anger.

And whether it's this issue, which unquestionably she's going to continue on, or the issue of abortion rights, which is one that she's already been deployed on and has for more than a year since the Dobbs decision, these are the moments that the White House is genuinely trying to find for her, to help her find her footing in some ways, but also to be the asset that they need her to be in the 2024 campaign.

PHILLIP: Yes, I think that's exactly right. And on top of that, there's also the added need for them to start pivoting to the Republican field here. I mean, this is really also about Ron DeSantis and these culture war kind of laws that he has supported in his state of Florida.

He also doubled down yesterday on Bud Light, saying that he would basically use the state's pension funds to try to put more pressure on Bud Light over their use of a trans influencer in an ad campaign.

Ron DeSantis is starting to get much more spotlight on some of these things that used to be centered on Florida but are now becoming national issues and are controversial for real reasons, just like the school African-American teaching requirements.

BASH: Yes. I mean, and if you sort of take it up a level and just look at it philosophically what we're used to with regard to Republican ideology, it is still fascinating to me that you have a very prominent governor, obviously, somebody who wants to be president of the United States who continues to use the levers of government to impose ideology and philosophy that he believes is important and that he believes will be sort of vote-generating and illuminating and exciting for Republican voters.

You have that and then you have other candidates in the race who say, you know what, this is not where Republicans should be.

[07:25:05]

They're the more libertarian, saying you shouldn't use the government to push what you want to do. You should bring government out and kind of live and let live. And they are really, really different points of view from within the Republican Party.

MATTINGLY: Dana, can I ask you just because I know you have a ton of reporting on this always. The most fascinating relationship in Washington, in my view, at least personally, is the former president and the current speaker of the House.

You know, there was some reporting yesterday about what McCarthy may or may not have committed to do related to expunging impeachments. Our amazing Hill team went and basically talked to Republican members yesterday. I want to pull up a full screen where they're saying, you know, Michael Lawler, I don't really see the purpose, Garret Graves, I'm not going to take a petition. Andy Harris, I'm concentrating on appropriations. Chip Roy, this is a new body, so I'd say onward. Tim Burchett, I don't care about that, it doesn't amount to anything. That is a wide array of the ideological sides of that Republican conference, which makes me more interested in the dynamic between McCarthy and Trump, behind the scenes, how it works, how transactional it is. What's your sense of things?

BASH: Transactional is the perfect word. First of all, that is fascinating. I haven't seen it set up like that, like you just did. Michael Lawler that you just put up there, he's one of the more moderate members. He helped Republicans get the majority being elected from New York. And then, of course, you have among the most conservative on the right there. And that tells you everything you need to know.

They don't want to deal with what happened in the past. Even those who are among the most fervent of supporters of Donald Trump, maybe the most fervent are like, okay, let's do this because it will make him happy.

But for the most part, no, and there's so many reasons why they don't want to do it. Not the least of which is it doesn't do anything. You can't -- you both know this, you can't expunge an impeachment. It would just be effectively a sense of Congress, which would be putting everybody on record with their opinion about what happened. And you're putting the moderates in a tough position.

And so that's a long way of answering your question, which is that Kevin McCarthy has, from the beginning of Trump and Trumpism, had a very complicated relationship with him, because, certainly, when Donald Trump was president, he needed him very badly when Kevin McCarthy was the minority leader and needed him even more when he was in that 15-vote race to become the speaker of the House. And, you know, he has continued to embrace Donald Trump and they have very much a classic, symbiotic relationship.

And at this point, probably it seems as though McCarthy might need Trump even more than the reverse. And that is pretty evident in our reporting about these conversations that they're having.

PHILLIP: Well, we'll say it a little louder for the people in the back. Expungement is not a thing.

BASH: It is not a thing.

MATTINGLY: We can go down the procedural rabbit hole if you want. Nobody in the control room does, but --

PHILLIP: But it's just not a thing. But, Dana, before you go, though, are you going to see Barbie tonight? Are you heading to the theaters?

MATTINGLY: She knows, Dana.

PHILLIP: Let's see them.

BASH: Does it look like I'm going to see Barbie? Can you see? Okay, right? I mean, this was -- I'm so excited for Barbie. I might have to change before Inside Politics. I might have to change my dress because I may or may not have spilled something while eating in the car on the way here.

But don't worry. I have other pink dresses here because I was worried about that.

PHILLIP: She's ready.

MATTINGLY: You told us that during the break and we weren't going to bring it up. And you're just going to go ahead and do it yourself.

BASH: I need to be prepared to be full Barbie all day. I just want to say that.

PHILLIP: Dana, we know that you're always going to be there for Barbie. Thank you so much for being there for us.

MATTINGLY: Thanks, buddy. I appreciate it.

BASH: Nice to see you both.

PHILLIP: And you guys be sure to watch Dana today on Inside Politics at noon Eastern time. You don't ever want to miss that show.

MATTINGLY: And maybe a new pink dress.

PHILLIP: All right. Coming up next for us, record heat from Florida to California, some areas are seeing the highest hospitalization rates since the pandemic. We'll talk to a doctor in Phoenix about just how bad it is, next.

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