Return to Transcripts main page

CNN This Morning

Uvalde Gunman's Cousin Arrested; Thousands Strike in Los Angeles; American's Support for Labor Unions; Biden to Designate Monument Around Grand Canyon. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired August 08, 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]

MARY MACCARTHY, SUING SOUTHWEST AIRLINES FOR RACIAL DISCRIMINATION: And I want to build awareness around all of that.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: And as I understand you said you travel with the birth certificate of your daughter and you were not even asked to present that as proof.

Just before we go, your daughter's 12 now. We hear her tears in that video. How is she today?

MACCARTHY: Fortunately, she's doing great. She's a blossoming 12-year- old going into seventh grade. But when it comes to this incident, just after it, and up until now, about a year and a half later, she clams up and doesn't want to talk about it. Of course, I did what any responsible mom would do. I made sure that she got a therapist to talk to about this because it was also the day that we were traveling to my brother's funeral, so she could deal with the grief of that. And, fortunately, she is doing great.

She knows that I'm speaking to the media. She supports that. But, of course, she, herself, is doing the things that a 12-year-old girl is supposed to do and not have to worry about stuff like this on a daily basis.

HARLOW: Yes.

MACCARTHY: And, hopefully, moving forward, less and less for kids like her. They -- children of color have enough challenges in their day-to- day life. Let's not add to it.

HARLOW: Yes. Well, we appreciate you sharing your story. I'm sorry also for the loss of your brother. And we welcome anyone from Southwest Airlines, of course, on the program to join us as well.

Mary, thank you.

MACCARTHY: Thanks, Poppy.

HARLOW: Yes.

Victor. VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Well, new overnight, the teenage cousin

of the Uvalde shooter arrested now for allegedly threatening to, quote, "do the same thing" to a school. We have those details ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:35:24]

BLACKWELL: This morning court documents show a teenaged cousin of the Uvalde school shooter has been arrested ever he allegedly made threats to do the same thing. Seventeen-year-old Nathan James Cruz faces two charges of making terroristic threats to a public place and to a family member. San Antonio Police tell "The New York Times" that he's the cousin of the gunman who killed 19 children, two teachers at Robb Elementary in May of last year.

CNN's Ed Lavandera joins us live from Dallas.

So, authorities, obviously, as they should, take this seriously. Tell us what happened.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And, more importantly, it was the family members who took this extremely serious. According to the arrest warrant affidavit for Nathan James Cruz, San Antonio Police were called by his mother yesterday morning where she went on to describe that her son had, quote, "planned to do the same thing as his cousin," who carried out the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, which is just west of San Antonio, where 19 children and two teachers were killed in May of 2022. And in the conversation that the mother and sister had with police, that was documented in this arrest warrant affidavit.

Investigators also say that the sister had been driving with Cruz in a car and that he threatened her, saying that he would shoot the school.

Now, this family and the mother were concerned because she says her son is on probation, lived near a school, although the documents do not identify which school it is there in San Antonio. And that she had also overheard a conversation that her son had with someone as he was trying to make an illegal purchase for an AR-15 firearm.

Now, investigators took Nathan James Cruz into custody. In these court documents, Cruz denied making these threats. But investigators there in San Antonio have charged the 17-year-old with a felony count of making terroristic threats to a public place, as well as a misdemeanor charge for making terroristic threats of his family. And right now he's being held on a $160,000 bond in the Bexar County Jail in San Antonio.

BLACKWELL: Good the family and police are being proactive about this.

Ed Lavandera for us there. Thanks.

HARLOW: First the writers, then the actors, and now thousands of Los Angeles public workers are striking today. We'll take you live to the picket line. BLACKWELL: So, how do Americans feel about these strikes? Harry Enten

is here with this morning's number.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:40:52]

HARLOW: Happening right now, more than 11,000 Los Angeles city workers are on strike. Picket lines already forming in the front of city hall, also at LAX International Airport. You've got sanitation workers, traffic officers, engineers and others walking off the job. And this adds to the strikes already taking place in California by the actors and writers and other strikes across the U.S. this summer.

Lucy Kafanov joins us from the picket lines at LAX.

Lucy, good morning. What are they asking for?

LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Poppy.

It is being referred to as the hot labor summer here at LAX Airport. The workers, the union workers, are taking a much-deserved breakfast break. Everyone's got to eat. But earlier they were marching up and down sort of this area. The picket lines going up way before dawn, both here at LAX Airport and also at city hall, where we are expecting a rally later in the day.

The SEIU Local 721 union said its members voted to authorize this walkout because they say the city has failed to bargained in good faith and also, they say, engaged in unfair labor practices that restricted employee and union rights.

Here is the union president, David Green. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID GREEN, PRESIDENT, SEIU LOCAL 721: Angelenos can't go about their daily life without our workers, right? Whether you're flying in and out of LAX, or it's animal services or street services or filling in potholes, that's the work that our members do.

We're the fabric of the community. We effect your life on a day-to-day basis. So I think people, not just 721 - that we've reached the breaking point where people are saying, look, I'm not going to be taken for granted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KAFANOV: Now, the Los Angeles mayor, Karen Bass, pushed back against this notion that the city has not been willing to bargain. She said in a statement that an array of services will still continue today during this one-day streak. She said, and I quote, "the city of Los Angeles is not going to shut down. My office is implementing a plan to ensure -- ensuring no public safety or housing and homelessness emergency operations are impacted by this action. Like I said over the weekend, the city will always be available to make progress with SEIU 721 and we will continue bargaining in good faith."

And this is, Poppy, as you pointed out, just the latest strike to take over Los Angeles. We saw Hollywood writers protesting, striking since May, actors joining them last month. Los Angeles hotel workers have been staging walk-outs all summer. A lot of these cumulatively are in response to wages that haven't kept up with inflation. Also the sky- high cost of living here in Los Angeles.

But in terms of folks who are going to be directly impacted by these strikes today, at least here at LAX Airport, you know, when they say to get to the airport early, definitely something you want to take seriously on a day like this.

Poppy.

HARLOW: That's a great point.

Lucy, thank you very much for the reporting.

BLACKWELL: All right, with more now on how Americans feel about these recent strikes and labor unions, we are joined now by CNN's senior data reporter Harry Enten.

All right, what's the big number?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: All right, this morning's number is 323,000 plus. Over 323,000 plus workers have gone on strike this year already. That is the third highest figure this century.

And keep in mind, it's only August. As this strike summer continues on, as we go into fall, don't be surprised if this member does, in fact, go higher. And it could be the most workers on strike in a year this entire century.

And, you know, you mentioned how Americans are feeling about labor unions. And one thing that's really interesting is the Americans who approve of labor unions, look at where we are in 2022, last year, the latest figure available, 71 percent. That is significantly higher than where we were back in 2012 a decade ago when it was just 52 percent. And, in fact, this 71 percent, get this, you go back to 2002, 1991, 1981, it is the highest figure of labor approval in this country since 1965. So, the American public is on the side of unions more so than it's been at any point in recent history.

HARLOW: And what share of workers now are in a union? That's so interesting, I think, this spike in, like, support for them, but what share are in them?

[08:45:03]

ENTEN: Yes, so we sort of have this inverse action going on here, Poppy. As unions have become more popular, fewer and fewer U.S. workers are, in fact, in a union. Look at this, in 2022, it was just 10 percent. That's down from 2012 when it was 11 percent. At the beginning of this century it was 14 percent. You just see this trend line where it's going down, down, down. Look at where we were 51 years ago, 27 percent of U.S. workers were in

a union. We are down 17 points. Nearly only about a third of as many U.S. workers are in a union.

And more than that, look at the face of unions. Who are the people who are in our unions? How many workers are in a union? We have seen a significant shift in this number. So, high school graduates or less. In the 1970s, it was 24 percent. Look at that, it's just a third.

HARLOW: Yes.

ENTEN: It's now 8 percent. While we really haven't seen much of a change in the post-graduates, it was 22 percent in the 1970s. It's still 18 percent. So, unions now are much more white collar than they are blue collar. That is a significant shift from where we were say 50 years ago when it was much more blue collar than white collar.

HARLOW: Yes.

BLACKWELL: Yes, some dramatic shifts there.

Harry Enten, thank you.

ENTEN: Thank you.

HARLOW: So, President Biden waking up today in Arizona, where he will announce a new national monument surrounding the Grand Canyon. We'll tell you what's behind the move ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:50:28]

HARLOW: President Biden in Arizona this morning. He's going to designate nearly a million acres of land near the Grand Canyon as a new national monument. The area is considered sacred to native tribes and indigenous people. Biden is taking this step in order to prevent uranium extraction on that land.

BLACKWELL: In 2012, former President Obama banned new uranium extraction, but the ban is expire - is set to expire later this year. By Biden designating the land a national monument, it will make the ban permanent. Now, Biden also plans to announce a $44 million investment to, quote, strengthen climate resistance across our national park system.

Joining us now is CNN's chief climate correspondent Bill Weir.

Bill, the significance of this announcement and protecting these lands.

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: It's something native tribes have been calling for and environmentalists have been calling for, for generations now. It was largely off limits to uranium mining. Now, nuclear power is having a bit of a resurgence, but it's not as popular as it was in the '50s when there were -- people were clamoring for it.

There's a big Native American voting bloc in the west, obviously, in Arizona. That's a key swing vote for him there as well. So, this makes good on promises.

Deb Haaland, the first Native American interior secretary, says they finally have a seat at the table.

What's interesting is, there's other fights over other lands around minerals needed for electrification. Thacker Pass, up on the Nevada- Oregon border. A lot of lithium there. Tribes are resistant to exploiting that. There's a big copper mine in Arizona that's meeting some tribal resistance. So, it's sort of where you look in the west is this tension between sacred lands, protecting wilderness and demands for a new kind of mineral to fuel this new economy.

HARLOW: One of the things Biden is going to do today also is designate more money to protect these lands against climate change. You spent a lot of time there. You were at one point rafting down the Colorado River. Talk about what they are seeing, the impact.

WEIR: Well, the drought is the most obvious one. This record snowfall in the Sierras is a nice relief. And this - in the Rockies as well. It takes some of that pressure off.

But the west has lost the equivalent of what Lake Meade holds, you know, in less than our lifetimes.

HARLOW: Wow.

WEIR: And that's not being fixed any time soon. So, water is the big resiliency part of that. They're actually paying one tribe around the Gilla Bend (ph) tribal area to not use their water rights in order to preserve more as well there.

But then there's jut the incredible heat that we've seen now. This year we're seeing more deaths in national parks than any other year before. It's about five right now just due to extreme heat. That's something that's going to play into our public lands going forward.

But, yes, there's this great tension now that we have -- Biden ran on a promise not to exploit, not to drill or frack on national lands and federal lands. He had to break that promise. Upset a lot of his climate supporters. So, there's some tension there as well.

HARLOW: In Alaska.

WEIR: In Alaska, exactly.

HARLOW: Yes.

WEIR: Yes.

BLACKWELL: Can we turn back to the heat?

WEIR: Sure. BLACKWELL: I mean it has been stifling this summer, especially July.

HARLOW: It is.

BLACKWELL: I read July, officially the hottest month on record. Average global temperature 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than the threshold scientists have warned against.

The consequences of this, not just the discomfort, not just - I mean it's dangerous. People have been burned on sidewalks. But for the environment, for our globe, the impact.

WEIR: Well, you've got to think about, everything that we take for granted, our migrating birds in our backyards, the - you know, the pollinating bugs, our crop cycles, the rainfall patterns, all of this came to be in a Goldilocks sweet spot of temperature on planet earth.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

HARLOW: Yes.

WEIR: And we've moved beyond that. Copernicus, the European space agency, is reporting now July hit 1.5. That is the target we were hoping to avoid with the Paris Accords now. And so there will be overshoot (ph), they'll be - they'll be back as that average temperature fluctuates. But this is the new world we've created for ourselves. We have to adapt to it.

HARLOW: Well, what you said, we've created for ourselves is key.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

WEIR: And we can control how bad it gets going forward.

HARLOW: Yes. That's exactly right.

Bill Weir, thank you very much.

WEIR: You bet.

BLACKWELL: All right, a golden retriever in San Diego has proven that dogs are indeed man's best friend. Even if the man is stealing from you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love you, too. I love you too, buddy guy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:59:05]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because you're the coolest dog I've ever known. I love you, too. You're - you're a sweetheart. I love you, too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: The laugh gets me every time.

So, this dog is not with its owner. This is a dog and a man allegedly stealing from the dog's owner. This golden retriever in California proving that you can be friends with anybody, even a suspected thief.

San Diego Police shared this video of the theft from last month. Just as the suspect was about to ride off with this $1,300 ebike, he put it on its kickstands and offered some belly rubs to the dog, along with some unsolicited advice for its owner.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where's your dad? Because you dad should know enough not to leave your garage open.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: No arrests have been made. Police are asking the public to call if they know anything that could identify the suspect.

We watched that about ten times in the break.

[09:00:02]

BLACKWELL: You know what, I think we're reading this wrong.

HARLOW: What?

BLACKWELL: Everybody thinks this dog is playing with the guy. He's trying to get every angle of that face for the camera.

HARLOW: There you go, giving him more time. Smart.

BLACKWELL: I want you to stay here until dad gets home. And, if not, I want to see every angle of that face.

HARLOW: That's one smart pooch.

BLACKWELL: Yes, it was smart. What?

HARLOW: Pooch.

BLACKWELL: Pooch.

HARLOW: That's what you call a dog.

BLACKWELL: All right. I don't have a dog.

HARLOW: Also -- I do.

OK, see you tomorrow. "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" is now.

[09:00:00]