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CNN This Morning
Trump Confirms He Will Skip First GOP Presidential Debate; Hilary Tearing Through Southwest After Slamming California With Flooding And Mudslides; Legendary Gambler Billy Walters Joins CNN This Morning. Aired 7:30-8a ET
Aired August 21, 2023 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[07:30:00]
SHELBY TALCOTT, POLITICS REPORTER, SEMAFOR: Frontrunner as of now.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: And not to discount Iowa, but let's say DeSantis performs strongly there. I mean, if we look at 2016, Ted Cruz won Iowa and --
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: There you go.
BLACKWELL: -- Donald Trump ran away with the nomination.
I want to talk about this Truth Social post where he says he's not doing the debates plural, right? So maybe he's talking about the two that have been announced -- this one coming Wednesday and on the 27th.
But is it plausible that he could just say I'm not doing primary debates because I'm so far ahead of you -- that would be -- probably be legally problematic anyway with all the cases -- and still go on to win this nomination?
MARIO PARKER, NATIONAL POLITICS TEAM LEADER, BLOOMBERG: Yes. What Donald Trump wants to do essentially with this entire campaign is cast himself as the de facto incumbent, right? He's a former president. It's unprecedented as a former president that's coming -- trying to make a comeback White House bid, essentially. Very popular with the base, as Shelby said, as well.
So he's trying to give the sense that this is evitable, right? That his nomination -- this is all inevitable. The primary is essentially over. It's time for him to pivot to Joe Biden, and that's what he's trying to give off with these -- with saying that he -- debates, plural, essentially.
TALCOTT: And it's really interesting, too, because even though Trump's not going to be at the debate he's still going to have a strong presence.
So he's having a bunch of surrogates show up to Milwaukee on Wednesday. There's going to be Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Kari Lake. And then even Trump's own advisers are planning to show up. So, Chris LaCivita, Jason Miller, Steven Cheung. And so, even though Trump himself is not going to be there you can expect his team to be all over the airwaves after the fact.
BLACKWELL: And some defenders may be on the stage, too --
TALCOTT: Yes.
BLACKWELL: -- if you look at some of the memos coming out about these --
HARLOW: That's a good point.
BLACKWELL: -- suggestions for candidates.
HARLOW: The DeSantis strategy -- so, CNN's reporting yesterday on this is that DeSantis, according to his new campaign manager James Uthmeier, said he's going to -- he expects to be the quote, "center of attacks and he is fully prepared to be on the receiving end of all of that." They think this is their biggest opportunity. Others call it their biggest risk on the stage. But he's going to be there. He's going to be a focus.
And you've got Chris Christie. You've got bulldogs, also -- at least one bulldog on that stage that are going to go after him.
What do you expect from DeSantis who has largely been defensive defending Trump?
PARKER: You know -- well, for DeSantis, this is a make-or-break moment, right? He came -- he entered the campaign season essentially as the darling of donors, right? And we've seen he's been bedeviled for the last several months on just the campaign missteps that they've had, laying off staff. Donors coming --
HARLOW: I mean, the announcement on X, you couldn't hear it.
PARKER: It started off -- I mean, it started off on the wrong foot.
BLACKWELL: It was a glitch.
PARKER: Yes, it was a glitch -- right -- exactly.
BLACKWELL: It was a glitch.
PARKER: And it's been glitching ever since, right?
So they've had layoffs. They've essentially had donors coming out publicly saying that they're souring on them as well. So for him, he does have to make this statement, at least to say to his donors hey, come on back into the fold with me. I'm the alternative to Trump. I'm the best suited to be the standard-bearer going forward.
So this is a make-or-break moment for him. And he's been known to be not that great of a debater.
BLACKWELL: Yes. DeSantis is the only candidate on the stage consistently in double-digits. But right on his heels in some of these polls is Vivek Ramaswamy who is ahead -- still in single digits but ahead of a former ambassador, several governors.
HARLOW: It is so interesting.
BLACKWELL: It is remarkable.
How much incoming does he take?
TALCOTT: I think he's going to take some incoming. I think he's made -- he's done so much media, which is partially why he's starting to poll higher, but it also opens him up to attacks on past comments where he said one thing and then a few weeks later or a few months later he said another thing. So I expect him to also take on attacks.
What I think is really interesting though is -- going back to the DeSantis strategy -- is his campaign seems to be taking a very different approach than that super PAC memo we saw be put out where his campaign told donors he's going to be above the fray, which is the exact opposite of what the super PAC wants him to do, which is take a sledgehammer to Vivek and defend Trump, and do all of these kind of spicey things.
And so I think that's interesting that there's such a disconnect --
HARLOW: Yes.
TALCOTT: -- when the super PAC is taking such a big role in his presidential run.
HARLOW: Yes.
BLACKWELL: All right. Thank you so much, Shelby, Mario.
HARLOW: Thanks, guys.
BLACKWELL: Americans are burning through the cash that everyone accumulated during the pandemic -- something the Fed has said kept the economy rolling in the face of high inflation. So with that money expected to dry up this quarter what kind of impact will it have on the economy?
HARLOW: Also this morning, widespread reports of flooding and mudslides as Hilary lashes California. Next, we'll get an update on conditions on the ground when we speak to the mayor of Palm Springs. That's ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:38:09]
BLACKWELL: Post-tropical cyclone Hilary is barreling through the Southwest this morning and bringing with it historic rainfall and flooding into Southern California. In Palm Springs, the storm has left roads flooded, cars stranded, and people in need of rescue.
Joining us now is Mayor Grace Garner of Palm Springs. Madam Mayor, thank you for your time. First, just give me an idea of the conditions right now in your city.
MAYOR GRACE GARNER, PALM SPRINGS, CALIFORNIA (via Webex by Cisco): Right now, we have flooding on all of our roads. There is no way in or out of Palm Springs, and that's the case for the majority of the Coachella Valley. We're all stuck. Our major freeway to I-10 is also closed in both directions. So this is a very extreme situation at the moment.
Our 911 lines are also down. Any resident that needs 911 can text 911 in the city of Palm Springs or they can call a non-emergency number. And they should check with their city because there are other cities in the Coachella Valley whose lines are also down and they are recommending to call their non-emergency number to get 911 services. That is really critical information for our residents.
It is 4:37 in the morning Pacific time, so things could change. If anyone is watching this at a later time, please check your city's website for the most up-to-date information.
BLACKWELL: That sounds especially dire that the roads are closed, 911 is down, and they're only accepting text messages.
Are you getting messages requiring rescue? Are there active rescue attempts right now?
GARNER: We have our fire and police that have been doing extra patrols to make sure that they're seeing what's going on. We have had three swiftwater rescues and other rescues that have occurred but so far, we have not had any fatalities that we are aware of.
[07:40:05]
And our officers are reporting that things are moving quite well despite the fact that our roads are closed. Residents have really been heeding our advice to stay home and stay off the roads.
I just drove into City Hall about an hour ago and the roads were completely empty. And thankfully, some of the floodwater in the inner streets here in Palm Springs -- the water has started to recede, so that's very good news. We are expecting a sun-filled day today and that will really help.
BLACKWELL: If the roads are closed, how tough is it for first responders to get to any of these calls? Are they able to navigate the roads?
GARNER: They are able to navigate the roads but there are certain areas that are difficult. Thankfully, we have swiftwater rescue available. We also have swiftwater rescue for (INAUDIBLE) that's here assisting. So we have the resources that we need to evacuate anyone or to rescue them if that's necessary.
BLACKWELL: How long has the 911 system been out of service?
GARNER: Since about maybe 10:30 last night. BLACKWELL: Ten-thirty last night.
And again, you're -- I just want to say this again. That people who are there who need response from police or fire, or some type of rescue to text to get them. Do they just text 911?
GARNER: They can --
BLACKWELL: What do they text?
GARNER: Yes. They can text 911 -- just the same number.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
GARNER: They can also call our non-emergency number. And I -- but the non-emergency numbers are different for each city --
BLACKWELL: OK.
GARNER: -- so they need to check that. But everyone's social media that I have looked at has been full of that information. In all of the cities, the police departments, the fire departments, the information is heavily being pushed out, as well as emergency notifications, which I highly encourage to sign up for emergency notifications from their city.
BLACKWELL: Any impact of that earthquake -- the 5.1 that hit in the afternoon?
GARNER: No, we couldn't feel it out here.
BLACKWELL: All right.
Mayor Grace Garner, the best to you. You've got a lot of work to do there in the city of Palm Springs. Thanks so much for your time.
GARNER: Thank you.
HARLOW: All right, to the economy now. Americans have burned through nearly all the savings they built up during the pandemic and now, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco is warning that a lack of available cash could hurt the economy.
Julia Chatterley with us again at the table for more of it. A lot of the banks were waiting, sort of, for this day to come, saying watch out. All of this excess cash or liquidity for someone at home is going to --
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR, FIRST MOVE: Two trillion dollars worth.
HARLOW: Yes -- is going to dry up. And then what? So the "then what" is what the San Francisco Fed is addressing.
CHATTERLEY: Yes. They're saying that we could burn through this cash as early as this quarter. So this day of reckoning that we've all been talking about could be upon us because the consumer has been such a fundamental part of keeping the U.S. economy out of recession --
HARLOW: Yes.
CHATTERLEY: -- with all the spending that we're doing. So there is expected to be an impact.
The question is what do consumers do once this cash runs out? The backstop then is that weekly paychecks and monthly paychecks, of course, all debt. And that's especially true for lower-income families, of course, because they've got less ability to adjust their spending.
Now, as usual with economists, we can't really decide on what the impact is going to be. There's good and there's bad news in this.
The downsides, and I can give them to you -- obviously, that this cash cushion is running out. There's also the kicker, of course, of student loan payments kicking in, in October, and that's expected to pull $70 billion worth out to the U.S. economy -- not negligible. And then, of course, with rising interest rates, the cost of credit -- credit cards, loans are all rising.
Now, net (PH) delinquencies are actually back to where we were pre- pandemic, but it's low because the labor market has been so strong. People have kept their jobs and wages are high.
And that takes us to the upsides here, of course. Inflation is coming down. The labor market is strong. Wages are high. In fact, we're actually to the point now where wages are rising faster than prices are, so that should actually be --
HARLOW: Good.
CHATTERLEY: -- a positive kicker for people's incomes. It just depends, of course, how they're spending it. But that is a good one.
The best place to look, at least for now, is retail -- the retail sector. Retail spending is holding up. It has done for the last four months, in particular. The retail earnings were strong.
But some of the CEOs in these recent earnings are warning about what the outlook is. You'll remember, Poppy, especially, they warned in the first quarter and they were wrong.
HARLOW: Yes.
CHATTERLEY: The economy defies expectations. But it does set us up for a robust debate, I think, at Jackson Hole --
HARLOW: (INAUDIBLE).
CHATTERLEY: -- this week.
HARLOW: Yes.
BLACKWELL: All right. So let's talk about Jackson Hole this week. Top economists and Federal Reserve officials are going to be meeting. What do we expect or should we expect?
CHATTERLEY: Yes, a robust debate. Remember last year when Jay Powell came out with a nine-minute speech, scared everyone, and said look, we're hiking rates -- we've got no choice. You know, get over it.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
CHATTERLEY: Far more calibrated this time around. Investors -- the market thinks that they're done as far as rate hikes are concerned. But the data is strong so watch for the push and pull over that.
What I can promise you, Victor --
BLACKWELL: All right.
CHATTERLEY: -- no conversation about rate cuts, really.
[07:45:02]
BLACKWELL: Oh.
CHATTERLEY: They're not coming anytime soon.
HARLOW: Yes.
CHATTERLEY: Sorry.
BLACKWELL: Thank you.
HARLOW: Good to have you, Julia, as always.
BLACKWELL: Well, in his new book, renowned gambler Billy Walters makes some serious allegations against his former betting partner, pro golfer Phil Mickelson. Mickelson is now responding. Billy Walters joins us in studio, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[07:49:01]
HARLOW: He has been called the greatest and the most controversial sports gambler ever. Billy Walters has amassed a fortune by placing hundreds of millions of dollars a year in bets. He once wagered 3 1/2 million bucks on a Super Bowl and won.
"60 MINUTES" profiled him in 2011.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILLY WALTERS, AUTHOR, "GAMBLER: SECRETS FROM A LIFE AT RISK": Hey, 132, where do you say the Cowboy total? Fifty-one and a half only for up to 30,000.
LARA LOGAN, THEN-CBS REPORTER, "60 MINUTES": How much money did you just bet?
WALTERS: Let's see -- it's a million, 370,000, plus 10 percent. That's how much I risk.
LOGAN: Average Sunday morning of football?
WALTERS: Yeah.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: It was around that time that he had a partnership with one of golf's most successful and popular players, Phil Mickelson.
Walters writes in his new book, quote, "My gambling relationship with Phil is a complicated saga. I was a mentor, a confidant, a loyal friend, a golfing buddy, and a betting partner."
Walters makes stunning allegations that Mickelson wagered more than a billion dollars over the last three decades and, notably, that Mickelson wanted to place a $400,000 be on the 2012 Ryder Cup while Mickelson was playing for Team USA.
[07:50:09]
Mickelson responded to that allegation earlier this month, saying, "I never bet on the Ryder Cup. I would never undermine the integrity of the game. I have also been very open about my gambling addiction. I have previously conveyed my remorse, took responsibility, and gotten help."
BLACKWELL: In 2017, Walters was convicted of insider trading charges in a federal court in New York. The prosecutor said he made more than $43 million by making trades on inside information about Dean Foods. He was sentenced to five years in prison, but he still maintained his innocence. Now, in 2021, former President Trump commuted Walters' sentence.
In his book, Walters suggests that Mickelson was to blame for the prison sentence. He writes, "Phil Mickelson refused to tell a simple truth -- that I never told him I had inside information about stocks, and he knows it. All Phil had to do was publicly say it."
Now, we reached out to Michelson's representatives. They pointed to a statement his lawyer gave to The Wall Street Journal that, quote, "...any testimony wouldn't have made any difference in whether Walters was convicted. The lawyer noted that Walters was convicted on multiple counts and none of those pertained to his relationship with Mickelson."
Joining us now is Billy Walters, author of "Gambler: Secrets from a Life at Risk." Thank you for being in. The book is -- I mean, wow.
HARLOW: A page-burner.
BLACKWELL: I mean, you go through it. And let me say that we don't really get into the Mickelson element of it until we're like 200 pages in.
HARLOW: Yes. BLACKWELL: It is your story. Why'd you write it?
WALTERS: Well, it's a lot of biography of my life. I wanted to help people who were dealing with addiction and adversity in their life.
Sports gambling has become legal in a majority of the United States. That's a dream that's come true for me. I wanted to -- I wanted to share something with sports fans and sports betters. So I wrote everything in -- that I know about sports betting and handicapping is in the book.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
WALTERS: Phil is a small part of the book. He's two chapters of 28. In order to tell the story, I couldn't tell the story unless I included my relationship with Phil in there. It also tells the story about me being convicted and going to prison -- the experience that I had in prison. So that's what the book's all about.
And my relationship with Phil -- very simply, we had a business relationship. And from my perspective, as I said in the book, we became friends. And we both got tangled up into an insider trading case and he could have came forward and testified and done nothing but told the truth and I firmly believe I would never have gone to prison.
You know, the statement that you artfully read in regards to my conviction -- I was convicted of 10 counts. If there'd been 30, I would have been convicted of 30. Because no one -- I made -- the biggest mistake I made in the case was I didn't testify, OK? I should have testified --
HARLOW: Yes.
WALTERS: -- in retrospect. I had 31 months to think about that.
HARLOW: OK --
WALTERS: I'm sorry.
HARLOW: You just -- you talk about that in the book that you regret not testifying.
WALTERS: Yes.
HARLOW: And yet, you still believe that Phil Mickelson should have taken the stand and testified in your defense. But yet, you didn't take the stand to testify in your defense. Can you hold that against him because his lawyers told him don't?
WALTERS: Yes, I can because there was only witness who testified against me in the case. Prior to the trial, this gentleman had given a voluntary interview two years prior to that. He denied emphatically he'd never given any insider information. Later, they learned that he'd embezzled money from a battered women's charity. He had filed a fraudulent tax return. He had given someone else insider information.
Two years later, he went in and changed his story. That was the only witness against me.
My lawyers and I also believe during the trial they destroyed his credibility. I mean, we caught him in a minimum of 25 lies and he had no credibility whatsoever. He was the only person who testified against me.
So if Phil had came forward and testified that I -- that I gave -- I never gave him insider information -- to answer your question, Poppy, no -- I don't think I want to be convicted.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
WALTERS: Now, you're right. I could have came forward. My lawyers said we had the trial won. They said no one can believe this guy and our advice is -- we had 23 witnesses -- 23 witnesses left to call.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
WALTERS: We put on five witnesses and wrapped up our case. We'd been in a 3 1/2-week trial in the Southern District of New York. Jurors were going to sleep. The judge had to stop the trial on multiple occasions because jurors were going to sleep.
My attorneys believed that we needed to wrap the case up and get it out of there because the only witness against me had no credibility.
BLACKWELL: You know, you write here in -- the lefty in me, in which you write about Phil Mickelson. We -- I did not know -- maybe others do -- about the extent of the gambling over the 2010 to 2014 period. You were his partner.
[07:55:03]
More than 7,000 wagers on football, basketball, and baseball. In 2011 alone, he made more than 3,100 bets -- an average of nearly nine a day. On one day in 2011, he made 43 bets on Major League Baseball games. That is staggering that he even had time still to play golf, and so well.
WALTERS: He's a busy fellow.
BLACKWELL: Yeah. I mean, this is -- this is remarkable.
You write here also you are watching -- and this is after you are out of prison -- you say you're watching him in the Ocean Course in South Carolina. "After the final putt falls and Phil gets swept away in a joyful celebration, I think to myself that people would never shower this man with so much affection if they knew him the way I did."
You don't write about him personally here, but what's the Phil Mickelson you want people to know that you talk about here?
WALTERS: Well look, there are a lot of things about Phil I didn't put in the book.
BLACKWELL: Yes. WALTERS: His personal life, I left completely out of the book. The only thing I put in the book were the things that involved mine and his business relationship -- nothing more, nothing less. That's why -- that's why he's in the book.
HARLOW: I want to talk to you a little bit about this journey. Because chapter two, here's how it begins. "I was born into rural poverty in Munfordville, Kentucky -- a place where even today time crawls and potluck dinners and front porch gatherings remain a local pastime." It sounds like a place I'd love to spend some time.
But really, born poor, and then you just make all of this money and then you go to prison. And now a lot of your time is actually dedicated to preventing recidivism and prison reform.
WALTERS: Yes.
HARLOW: That's quite a journey.
WALTERS: Well, Poppy, as you noted in the book, I had a lot of ups and a lot of downs. I went through a lot of dark days in my life. The book isn't a vanity book; it's my entire life story.
And you're right. When I went to prison I thought I understood what prison was --
HARLOW: Yes.
WALTERS: -- like most people do, but I didn't understand prison at all.
HARLOW: What did you learn?
WALTERS: Well, when I -- when I -- when I got into prison I really realized what freedom meant. But more importantly, the only positive thing that came out of prison was I mentored two dozen men. And when I mentored these men and I got to know them individually, and I learned their stories and I learned how they'd gotten in prison, the effect it had on them and their families -- it was actually -- it was the most eye-opening thing that I'd ever experienced in my life.
I met -- I spent time with men who had been in prison 20-25 years. Not one of the men that I interviewed wanted to go back to prison, but they were all concerned they were going to go back because they had no job skillset at all -- none -- zero. Look, a lot of them didn't even know -- didn't even know how to use a cell phone.
And I could see these people going out in society. They've got no job skillset at all and the likelihood of them coming back to prison was very high.
So when I got out, Harry Reid was a really good friend of mine -- Sen. Harry Reid. I came back. He and I were working on putting vocational schools in the federal prisons. I offered to put up the first million dollars. Unfortunately, Sen. Reid passed away from pancreatic cancer. And then I got introduced to an organization in Las Vegas called Hope for Prisoners. And the former sheriff there, Bill Young, had introduced me to it. It's the best reentry program in the United States. It's been there since 2012. They only have a seven percent recidivism rate -- people who go through this program.
So I got involved with Jon Ponder who runs that --
BLACKWELL: Yes.
WALTERS: -- and my wife had gotten involved, and we made some resources available. We just now -- we're putting vocational school into the -- into Nevada state prisons.
BLACKWELL: Yes.
WALTERS: We worked that out with Gov. Joe Lombardo. The inmates who qualify -- they're going to get job training --
BLACKWELL: Yes.
WALTERS: -- an electrician, plumbing, truck driving, and things such as that. So when they come out prison, Poppy --
BLACKWELL: They now have the --
WALTERS: Where I think the real generational change is here --
BLACKWELL: Yes.
WALTERS: -- the parent is no longer a career criminal. So when a child looks up and their parent is an electrician or a plumber, or something such as that, I think there's --
BLACKWELL: They have a role model --
WALTERS: Yes. I think --
BLACKWELL: -- which is important.
WALTERS: Yes.
BLACKWELL: And that is the work now.
WALTERS: Right.
BLACKWELL: Billy Walters, this is a fantastic book.
HARLOW: Yes.
BLACKWELL: You call them bets, but the things that you looked through to try to get an advantage, I think it underrates them -- the wagers -- they're elevated in some way.
Billy Walters --
HARLOW: Yes.
BLACKWELL: The book is "Gambler: Secrets from a Life at Risk." Thank you so much.
WALTERS: Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
HARLOW: Yes.
BLACKWELL: Thank you.
HARLOW: Congratulations on the book. I know it was years of work.
WALTERS: Yes, it was.
BLACKWELL: Thank you.
WALTERS: Thank you very much.
BLACKWELL: Thank you.
HARLOW: Well, millions under flash flood warnings after Hilary slams into the Southern California coast. Flooding, mudslides, and rescues. We're live in California. We'll bring you an update on the conditions this morning.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
