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Today: UAW President To Give Update On Negotiations With Big Three; Beloved Social Justice Advocate Killed On Streets Of New York; FTX Co-Founder Admits He And Sam Bankman-Fried Committed Fraud. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired October 06, 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]

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: What we don't know is will he expand any strikes against the Big Three.

We know that General Motors and Ford put new offers on the table this week, but the benchmark for Fain is whether or not there's been significant progress from week to week with the Big Three and the union.

And we know from one of our sources that General Motors and the union has made significant progress on key issues. And that's important because over the last three weeks, General Motors has been struck three times while the other two, Ford and Stellantis, have been struck twice.

Is it enough to avert another targeted strike against General Motors and the rest of the Big Three? We'll see. But we'll only know at 2:00 p.m. today.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: The surprise strategy on a weekly basis --

YURKEVICH: Yeah.

MATTINGLY: -- I think has been confounding, certainly, to the automakers.

How much -- do we have any sense right now in terms of how much the strike has cost the Big Three?

YURKEVICH: Yeah. General Motors tells us that in the first two weeks, they lost $200 million. But then a step back, looking at the broader economy and Ford, Stellantis, and GM, estimates put losses at nearly $4 billion. So that is losses to the automakers. That is lost wages. That is losses to dealerships and consumers.

But the number $4 billion really encompasses just the first two weeks. Remember, we are already in the third week. There have been additional plants that have been targeted to strike. But we know that General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis say that they're all putting record deals on the table -- record offers to the Big Three -- but apparently, not enough quite yet to avert a strike or expand targeted strikes.

On the wage issue, though, it's important to note that folks who are on the picket lines -- the 25,000 that are on the picket lines, as well as the more than 3,000 that have been laid off because of the ripple effect -- they're eligible for strike pay from the union, but that's only $500 a week. That is not really what their wages normally are.

So a good, sort of, stopgap for now but these folks, at the end of the day, want to get off the picket lines. We'll see at 2:00 p.m. if there's enough progress for any closeness to a deal.

MATTINGLY: Yeah. Also, a finite amount of money, too. That pot of money that's being unified.

YURKEVICH: It's only $850 million --

MATTINGLY: Yeah.

YURKEVICH: -- and that's running out.

MATTINGLY: This is a fascinating -- a very important story. You've been doing great work on it.

YURKEVICH: Thank you.

MATTINGLY: Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: New this morning, Las Vegas police releasing bodycam video showing the arrest of Duane "Keefe D" Davis. He's the man accused of killing rapper Tupac Shakur in 1996. Once Davis and the officer in the car, they begin talking. Here's part of that conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAS VEGAS POLICE OFFICER: So, what they got you for, man?

DUANE "KEEFE D" DAVIS, ARRESTED FOR MURDER OF RAPPER TUPAC SHAKUR: Uh, oh man, the biggest case in Las Vegas history.

LAS VEGAS POLICE OFFICER: Oh, yeah?

DAVIS: Yeah.

LAS VEGAS POLICE OFFICER: Quite recent?

DAVIS: Yeah, September 7, 1996.

LAS VEGAS POLICE OFFICER: Oh, no (bleep)? Wow. That's a long time -- that's a long time away.

DAVIS: You know what I'm talking about?

LAS VEGAS POLICE OFFICER: Hmm?

DAVIS: You know what I'm talking about?

LAS VEGAS POLICE OFFICER: Yeah. I'm not a detective quite yet but, yeah.

DAVIS: I ain't worried about it. I ain't did (bleep). So --

LAS VEGAS POLICE OFFICER: Well, I mean, that's what court is for, right?

DAVIS: Yeah.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: The 60-year-old suspect appeared in court for the first time this week on a charge of murder with a deadly weapon. The judge has delayed his arraignment for at least two weeks.

Tupac's murder was the subject of a decades-long investigation.

MATTINGLY: Well, a beloved community activist attacked and killed on the streets of Brooklyn right in front of his girlfriend. Ryan Carson's boss joins us to talk about the man he worked closely with over the last several years.

HILL: A group of medical students in Chicago going beyond the call of duty to voluntarily treat more than 2,000 migrants living on the streets outside a police station. We have their story ahead.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:37:42]

HILL: A beloved community activist stabbed to death on the streets of New York this week. His name was Ryan Carson. We'll tell you more about what happened, but as we get to that I do want to warn you that the video you are about to see is disturbing.

Police say Carson and his girlfriend were waiting a Brooklyn bus stop just before four in the morning on Monday when a man in a dark hoodie walked past them. The couple, as you see here, then got up to walk home. That is when the suspect kicked mopeds and scooters that were parked on the street and ultimately, confronted Carson, asking "What are you looking at?"

Carson reportedly tried to de-escalate the situation. The suspect, though, at one point, slaps him, pulls a knife. And then when Carson tripped, stabbed him three times; once in the heart.

Police have identified the suspect as 18-year-old Brian Dowling. He was arrested yesterday and is now facing charges of murder with depraved indifference and criminal possession of a weapon.

MATTINGLY: Now, Carson, a social justice advocate who spent a decade working with the nonprofit New York Public Interest Research Group, was well known in New York political circles. New York City Mayor Eric Adams remembered him in a post on X writing,

quote, "Ryan Carson turned his passion into purpose. He advocated tirelessly for others and his giving spirit was a buoy to all."

Senate majority leader and New York Sen. Chuck Schumer called Carson, quote, "A rising talent and an extraordinary activist." He wrote, "Ryan Carson threw himself into everything he did with passion and humanity."

Joining us now is the executive director of the New York Public Interest Group and Ryan Carson's boss, Blair Horner. Very sorry for your loss. How are you -- how is the staff doing right now?

BLAIR HORNER, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NEW YORK PUBLIC INTEREST RESEARCH GROUP, RYAN CARSON'S BOSS AT NYPIRG: Well, we sort of -- you know, it's brutal. It's a devastating thing to have happen. The staff are -- and we've organized grief counseling. We're trying as best as we can to sort of make it through the week. And it's tough. It's very tough.

This is a -- Ryan was a beloved member of the team. And we're a relatively small not-for-profit, and so people have close personal relationships outside of work.

HILL: I read, too, in describing him, people have mentioned his big laugh, his big smile. How well-liked he was.

He also, having been there for 10 years and starting as a student volunteer -- these are pivotal moments in a person's development as they're moving into adulthood. That, too, must have really left an impression.

[07:40:06]

HORNER: Yeah, you're right. I mean, as a -- as a staff member, he -- Ryan was known to be hardworking, smart, creative, and paid attention to detail. And at a personal level he was one of the people that lit up the room. Had a big smile. Always very friendly. Willing to give the shirt off his back if you needed it.

And his work reflected that. I mean, he was involved in our organization. He was involved in lots of activities outside of our organization. He was a very caring person. He cared about people on an individual basis as well as society at large.

MATTINGLY: You mention his work. The outpouring of, I think, grief but also things that people have been saying in the wake of this tragedy -- it is very noteworthy.

What was it -- what was it about him and what was it about his work that connected with so many?

HORNER: Well, again, I think it's just the force of his personality. It was hard not to like the guy. I mean, he really was very much a wonderful person and genuinely cared enough that connected with people. And so, he was always willing to do the hard work and he was always willing to help people out. And that's the kind of thing that -- human interaction is the kind of thing that people respond to very positively.

And so, given his hard work and sort of broad scope of interests, and his passion, people reacted very positively to it and loved the guy -- and we did, too.

HILL: State Assemblymember Emily Gallagher told the Gothamist, "I'm absolutely positive he would immediately see this was a person who was suffering from a lack of resources in our community, who probably needs better mental health support, possibly housing, possibly drug support, drug treatment. What he would want to avenge his death is for us to fix how broken this city is."

How much of that was a focus for him? I mean, you talk about his passion for the city and for those around him, but also on a broader social level. Do you believe if there were similar circumstances he was aware of he would have, in fact, been talking about the very real needs that need to be met in the city?

HORNER: Well, you know, it's very -- this is a very raw experience for me personally and for everybody who works with us and so it's -- you know, it's hard to sort of tease out the reactions.

Obviously, anything that can be done in society to make the place a safer place for everyone in terms of their abilities to work their way through school, to get good jobs -- all of those things are important policy issues that should be addressed. I mean, there's no doubt about it. And my guess is that Ryan would have seen this individual as a troubled person.

And so -- but, you know, from sort of the narrow perspective of where I sit now I'm more concerned about the colleagues, his friends, his family to the extent that I can be helpful --

HILL: Yeah.

HORNER: -- to sort of help people work their way through this terrible circumstance.

MATTINGLY: Yeah. We certainly are thinking about you and your team -- condolences -- and hope that you guys figure out a way to deal with this, certainly focused on the legacy as well.

Blair Horner, we appreciate your time. Thank you.

HILL: A group of medical students are going beyond the call of duty voluntarily treating migrants in need. They're seeing a range of cases with migrants who have been bused from Texas to Chicago. Many of them have nowhere to sleep but on the floor.

Whitney Wild has their story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right. So it's going to be a busy day --

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They start early and visit often. Medical students and doctors from the Chicago area treating patients at Chicago police stations where more than 2,000 migrants live, waiting to move into shelters.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just kind of let them know that we will get to them. Everyone will be seen but they have to be patient.

WILD (voice-over): They spend hours here all on their own time. This is entirely volunteer-run and donation-funded -- the idea of second- year medical student Sara Izquierdo.

SARA IZQUIERDO, UIC MEDICAL STUDENT: I think baby has a current fever going on right now. It's been overwhelming. Every time I feel that we can scale up and we catch up, the number of people in the police station doubles.

WILD (voice-over): Sara started the mobile migrant health team in May and says she now regularly sees more than 100 people per visit. The team pays for medical supplies to treat patients on the street, over- the-counter medicine, and even prescriptions like antibiotics.

IZQUIERDO: Someone that has a migraine that just wants ibuprofen because she can't afford it.

WILD (voice-over): Sara's mentor, Dr. Evelyn Figueroa, helped her build the project and calls her simply, a force.

DR. EVELYN FIGUEROA, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS COLLEGE OF MEDICINE: They have built this with bubblegum and toothpicks, and been able to just really bring a lot of wonderful services.

IZQUIERDO: (Speaking foreign language).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Speaking foreign language).

IZQUIERDO: Si. OK.

WILD (voice-over): The migrants' journeys to the U.S. are long and dangerous. Sara says she's seen a range of cases, including women suffering complications from miscarriages.

[07:45:02]

IZQUIERDO: There's sometimes I go home and I can't sleep just because my patients are still here. I'm in a bed; they're on the floor. And then also, it's just the worry.

WILD (voice-over): Concerns she took to Chicago's City Council.

IZQUIERDO: We are seeing children who have been cut up by the barbed wire in rivers, sloppily stitched up in Texas, put on a bus by Texas, and then dropped off and deposited into Chicago police stations with their cuts infected.

WILD (voice-over): Migrants are pulling into the city in record numbers. The impact of Sara and her team is immeasurable.

IZQUIERDO: I listened to baby's lungs. The baby's lungs sound really good.

I do think we're saving lives. There have been situations where I got home and I feel good just because I know if we hadn't been there something really dangerous could have happened.

WILD (voice-over): Whitney Wild, CNN, Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: Well, the co-founder of the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX testifying in court that he and Sam Bankman-Fried committed multiple financial crimes. Ben McKenzie was in the room and has interviewed Bankman-Fried in the past. He's going to join us next.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:51:01]

MATTINGLY: Well, he deliberately lied to the world, leading one of the biggest financial fraud cases in American history. That's what federal prosecutors said this week at the start of the criminal trial of Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of the now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX.

Yesterday, one of its co-founders at FTX told prosecutors that both and he Bankman-Fried committed multiple financial crimes. The co- founder's testimony a crucial component of the government's case. Prosecutors say SBF stole billions and cheated customers out of illegally -- by illegally diverting massive sums of their money from FTX to his own personal piggy bank of sorts.

HILL: The 31-year-old has pleaded not guilty to seven counts of fraud and conspiracy. If convicted, SBF, who was once called the richest man under 30, could spend the rest of his life in prison.

Our next guest, Ben McKenzie, was in the courtroom yesterday as an observer. He interviewed SBF last July for his New York Times bestselling book "Easy Money: Cryptocurrency, Casino Capitalism, and the Golden Age of Fraud." And also testified last December at a Senate hearing focused on the collapse of FTX.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN MCKENZIE, ACTOR, AUTHOR, "EASY MONEY: CRYPTOCURRENCY, CASINO CAPITALISM, AND THE GOLDEN AGE OF FRAUD"; TESTIFIED AGAINST CRYPTO AT 2022 SENATE HEARING, WAS IN COURTROOM THURSDAY AT SAM BANKMAN-FRIED TRIAL: In my opinion, the cryptocurrency industry represents the largest Ponzi scheme in history. In fact, by the time the dust settles, crypto may well represent a fraud at least 10 times bigger than Madoff.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Ben McKenzie joins us now. You may also know him as the star of shows like "THE O.C." and "Gotham." So good to have you with us.

You were actually in court for part of the day yesterday, there as an observer. Take us inside that courtroom if you would.

MCKENZIE: Well, there's a lot of media interest. Of course, Trump's trial is next door so --

HILL: Yeah.

MCKENZIE: -- it's getting a little --

HILL: It's a little busy downtown.

MCKENZIE: It's a little busy downtown. But a lot of reporters. I was in the overflow room and there were probably 30 or 40 of us in there watching on a closed-circuit monitor.

And as you mentioned in the intro, Gary Wang, the co-founder of FTX, testified that Sam Bankman-Fried instructed him to write a secret backdoor code, which would basically allow them to steal their customers' money. Borrow the money that was put on FTX but really have it in Alameda Research, which is Sam's other company. So it was pretty explosive stuff.

MATTINGLY: And just to be clear, that's not something you're supposed to be doing?

MCKENZIE: You are not supposed to do that, no. Even in the Bahamas, I don't think you're supposed to.

MATTINGLY: That's why I like the description of Alameda is like his personal piggy bank. That's not legal --

MCKENZIE: No.

MATTINGLY: -- and that's why he is where he is, to some degree.

MCKENZIE: No. You can't borrow someone's money if they don't know that they're lending it to you. That's called stealing.

HILL: Yeah, it is. It's sort of a technical term.

MCKENZIE: Yes, technical.

HILL: But yeah, it is -- it is fascinating to watch this downfall and I think so many people were just struck by how quickly it happened. We heard from you in your testimony there just the size and the scope of it.

But the renewed interest now as this -- as this trial is going on I think reminds people of that. And it also brings up a lot of questions of why should I be so invested in this.

MCKENZIE: Um-hum.

HILL: What is the broader concern for Americans as you look at this trial and we look at some of these details coming out just yesterday?

MCKENZIE: Well, I mean, cryptocurrency has really heretofore existed in a more or less unregulated form, right? I mean, FTX was run out of the Bahamas. The biggest crypto exchange is Binance, which says it has no headquarters.

So we're really dealing with sort of the Wild West of unregulated finance. And as regulators and law enforcement officials sort of are playing catch-up, and I think doing a decent job at this point, I think we'll see more of this to come.

Alex Mashinsky, another guy that I interviewed in the book -- his fraud trial is set for next year. The CFTC and SEC have sued Binance. So, I think there's more to come.

MATTINGLY: I have to ask because we were talking about it beforehand -- my frustration with Michael Lewis just happening to be profiling this individual in the middle of the biggest financial collapse. The guy doesn't need luck in terms of --

MCKENZIE: That's true.

MATTINGLY: -- his past work, which has always been extraordinary.

[07:55:00]

It's been really interesting as his book about Sam Bankman-Fried comes out. The critiques of it. How people are viewing it.

You wrote a review of this book in Slate, I believe. What -- you read the whole thing. What do you -- what's your take on it?

MCKENZIE: Well, it's very interesting. Michael Lewis spent a year with Sam Bankman-Fried and seems to believe that he's innocent, or at least the charges are flawed.

I spent one hour with Sam last year and I thought Sam Bankman-Fried was full of it.

MATTINGLY: Why?

MCKENZIE: He couldn't give me straight answers to basic questions. One of the questions was what does cryptocurrency do? What is one thing that it can do better than anything else that already -- and he couldn't answer that question. He couldn't answer give me one crypto project that has any real utility. The project he named, he happened to own a lot of it. I thought that was awfully self-serving.

And then, at the end of our interview when he thought the cameras weren't rolling -- and this was all recorded -- he started slagging the other players in crypto, talking trash about, including one of his biggest business partners, Tether.

I just -- it gave me the chills. I thought if this is the king of crypto, is this a kingdom of sand? This is not a real business. What are we talking about here? And then, sure enough, about three or four months later it all fell apart.

I don't really know what to make of Michael Lewis' book but let's just say we have very different takes on Sam Bankman-Fried.

HILL: It's something.

Really, it's great to have you here this morning.

MCKENZIE: Great to be here.

HILL: Thank you for coming in.

MATTINGLY: Yeah, do come back.

HILL: Yeah.

MATTINGLY: I mean, as the trial goes on I feel like there's --

HILL: Yeah.

MATTINGLY: -- going to be more days like yesterday.

MCKENZIE: It would be my pleasure. I'm going to run down there now, but I'd be happy to come back.

MATTINGLY: Be careful of the other trial --

MCKENZIE: Yes.

MATTINGLY: -- as well.

Ben McKenzie, we appreciate it. Thank you.

Well, Donald Trump is not running for House Speaker but he is throwing his weight behind Congressman Jim Jordan. The big question: will the endorsement push the Ohio representative closer to the vote threshold he needs? We're going to dive in, next.

(COMMERCIAL)