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CNN Tonight
Nancy Pelosi's Husband Attacked By Hammer; Elon Musk Takes Over Twitter; Tom Brady And Gisele Bundchen Announce Their Divorce; A Dad's TikTok Video Goes Viral. Aired 11p-12a ET
Aired October 28, 2022 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[23:00:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: The midterms are just 11 days away and conspiracy theories, misinformation, and lies are flourishing. On the same day as the attack on Nancy Pelosi's husband -- the alleged attacker, as you know, was shouting "where is Nancy?" -- federal officials warning that domestic violent extremists are growing threat to the midterm elections and beyond.
Here to talk about all of this, we have CNN political commentator Errol Louis with us, also Kara Swisher, host of the "On with Kara Swisher" and "Pivot" podcasts, and CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller. Great to see all of you, guys.
John, I know you have some great reporting on what happened with this attack, how it went down. How did the did the attacker get into the Pelosi home? Do we know that yet?
JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: So, he entered through the rear yard where they have the large French doors. They are still reviewing the videotapes, but there is an assumption that the hammer was also used as an entry tool.
CAMEROTA: He came in, do you think, with a hammer?
MILLER: Yeah. And, again, they are going back over the videotapes, but I have asked a few times, was the hammer in the house and something that got picked or do we believe he brought the hammer? They believe he brought the hammer. The really -- the part of this that, you know, is kind of the movie version is how police get summoned.
CAMEROTA: Agreed, because, as I understand it, and I think this is from your reporting, Paul Pelosi had the presence of mind to dial 911 and then just not talk, just leave it sort of an open call?
MILLER: I learned a little more about that, which is, he actually engages in a conversation with the operator, which is very stilted. There is this person in the house, so on and so forth, and the operator is trying to glean this about where we are going here. And at one point, Heather Grimes, the 911 dispatcher, says, sir, are you okay? And he says, no, I'm not. And the training these operators have -- a lot of this comes from domestic violence where the offender is there and, you know, somebody is calling and they are trying to get the message across that I really need somebody.
So, she takes that call, makes it a category A with a code 3 response, puts out on the MDT so those cops are reading the job exactly what was said, which doesn't make a lot sense but they are getting a sense that something is not right here and that this is the residence of Nancy Pelosi.
So, when they come through the door, there are these two men holding the hammer. They're basically saying, okay, to both of them, put down the hammer. And Mr. Pelosi, Paul, lets go of the hammer. The other guy strikes him immediately, the suspect, and then they crossed the room and tackle the suspect. The rest is history.
That phone call, he was very cool and managed to get the message across to save his own life. The 911 operator was very intuitive to figure out this is worse than it sounds.
CAMEROTA: Yes. The police chief, in fact, credited her today in the press conference, saying that he felt that her actions were lifesaving --
MILLER: Yeah.
CAMEROTA: -- that she was so intuitive about all of that. (INAUDIBLE), I know you have been to that home. I know that you know the Pelosis. I'm sure this is shocking.
KARA SWISHER, PODCAST HOST: It is shocking. Paul is a cool customer. He really is. He is a lovely guy. He is a big man. He is also a big man and very fit. I can see him being very calm in a situation like that.
The house, I'm also (INAUDIBLE) San Francisco that is quite protected, near the presidio. It is pretty surprising. It is a very quiet area. It is a wealthy area. I could only imagine that to get around back, there is a lot of woods back there for the presidio and things like that.
CAMEROTA: This is shocking on every level.
SWISHER: Absolutely.
CAMEROTA: Although, Errol, that said, maybe we should not be shocked since we are, you know, 11 days away from the midterms. Things could not be hotter and more overheated. There is so much vile political rhetoric that we have seen that has led to political violence.
ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That is exactly right. We have a system that allows for and encourages even through algorithm this kind of hatred to just sort of feed on itself and spread virally and end up everywhere.
[23:05:00]
So, it is no surprise, sadly, to find out that this person has been posting conspiracy rants and all kinds of stuff for 15 years. And for Facebook to finally pull down the page today, literally too late.
We are in commercial media right now. If somebody comes on, whether it is your podcast or my show or your show, you give them a little bit of room, and then you either shut them down or you go to a commercial. I mean, you do not let this stuff just fester and spread.
It is an important question that Facebook has never answered and for which they really have to be held accountable.
CAMEROTA: How about that, Kara?
SWISHER: Well, you know, it takes one person to jump off the page. That's it. This is constant rhetoric of hate that keeps escalating. It has been encouraged by leaders by not saying anything. The political leaders have not set up the way they should by condemning things. We saw what Glenn Youngkin, the Virginia governor, did.
CAMEROTA: He had about two seconds (INAUDIBLE), and then reverted to political rhetoric.
SWISHER: It was heinous. I don't know how else to say it. It was appalling to do, especially in the moment. So, it only takes one person to go down these highways of amplification and weaponization of all disinformation and then move into the real world. You do not need more than one. You saw on January 6th the same cry, where is Nancy. It was during the insurrection.
CAMEROTA: Oh, absolutely, verbatim. But when we see his social media, what we believe to be the suspect's social media, he has Mike Lindell, you know, famous Trump ally, pillow salesman spouting complete garbage and nonsense about the election. He has January 6th. He has all of the usual suspects. Yeah, all the usual suspects. And so, can Facebook shut something like that back down? I mean, he wasn't making direct threats.
SWISHER: I would not necessarily blame Facebook. I think you can say, I mean, it should not be up there, right? It just is allowed to fester. I think what happens is some people actively now believe this. They become -- it is propaganda. We should stop using anything about propaganda, as what is happening here. It is effective. History has shown us that propaganda can lead to deadly results.
CAMEROTA: And radicalization. Basically, that is what it is, John, as you well know. Would leaders speaking out more of this, in your experience of dealing with crime for all of these decades, would that help shut it down?
MILLER: It is an interesting question because the question is, is the audience waiting for cues? One lesson we learned is, we saw Donald Trump tweet out on January 6th, okay, pack up and go home. We saw the films of everybody looking at their social media and said, he says to go home, and they all went home. So, we know they are waiting for cues. The question is, how many people have the moral authority within the genre people who think this way to give those cues?
You noticed that the NYPD put out an intelligence bulletin the day before -- actually, yesterday, it came out publicly, but it went out last week to police agencies saying, expect violence, expect trouble and be on guard for it, but here is why.
They pointed to a lot of things, but including the 261-page "The Hard Reset" document that went down on the site "Terrorgram," which is a right-wing extremist chat room, that said, attack political meetings, attack political leaders, attack law enforcement on multiple levels, including violence, shootings and so on.
So, you know, Facebook is nothing. I mean, there are places out there where they are getting cues.
LOUIS: And what unites all of this is that something has to be done, right? I mean, pretending that maybe it will go away or we will wait until there is an overact, that does not work. If we know where this is heading and we have seen it happen over and over and over again in a lot of different context, it is up to the leadership to try and figure out what it is to say to take away some of those cues.
I mean, one thing that would certainly work -- it would've work even, I think, a little bit on January 6th -- is if they knew that they would be met with (INAUDIBLE) across the board, that everyone from the left to the right, everybody in between, every commercial broadcaster would say, this is beyond the pale, this is disgusting, we are all united in saying that this has no place.
Instead, you have a sitting governor who turns it into a big joke, right, and says, oh, we are going to send her back home, ha-ha-ha. The wrong signal at the wrong time.
CAMEROTA: Beyond Donald Trump, who we know will not intervene to try to tap it down, who else would be effective in stepping up and saying something?
LOUIS: To me, it is everyone. I mean, if you look across the board, who came out with statements today? Were they grudging? Were they printed? Were they --
CAMEROTA: They were tweeted. I mean, some of them were tweeted. Does that work? Is that good enough?
LOUIS: That is not how it works. I mean, you know, you line up on the steps of the Capitol, you know, and you alternate Republican, Democrat, Republican, Democrat, people who oppose each other, everybody does it, and you say it clearly and you say it forcefully and you say it meaningfully, we do not support violence, it has no place, we will unite around this, and we will take any steps necessary to prevent this from continuing.
[23:10:05]
CAMEROTA: Is that the answer? SWISHER: No. I'm sorry. I think we've gone way too far because online
-- I think there is so much information desert for so many people. That have been flooded with that information. People that didn't use any of the mainstream media have found a place. You can see it happening at the very early days of the internet as they finally found people that agreed with them and started to join and trade things.
When you live in these information bubbles, it is very dangerous because you don't get other points of view. I think all of us have relatives that have moved into that information bubble and it is very hard to get them out of it.
And so, that is the difficulty. When it is constantly being reinforced to you and this is the news to you, it is the news, and therefore, in some sick, twisted way, they think they are doing something good and they must act. Listen, it happened in Pizzagate, it happened at the Capitol, and it happened here.
WALLACE: John, are police ready for the midterms?
MILLER: Certainly in New York, they are. We talked about the planning yesterday with over a thousand election sites but there are places that don't have those kinds of resources. You know, that is going to be a challenge.
But I think the intel is out there, I think the NYPD message yesterday that went out the week before. I also think that the federal government, DHS, FBI messages that are going out today are going to underline that.
As we learned from January 6th, that is something that needs to -- the big picture threat needs to be in the hands of law enforcement so that chiefs and sheriffs across the country know what they are dealing with.
CAMEROTA: Guys, thank you all very much. Really insightful. We want to know what you think about this. Are conspiracy theories and election lies fueling all of this fire or even political violence days before the midterms? You can tweet me at @alisyncamerota.
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[23:15:00]
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CAMEROTA: Well, $44 billion later, Elon Musk now owns Twitter. Musk announcing today he will form a content moderation counsel with diverse viewpoints and no major content or reinstatement decisions will happen before that counsel convenes.
Errol Louis and Kara Swisher are back with us. We also have CNN contributor Cari Champion joining us. Great to have all of you. Well, in the 24 hours since Elon Musk has owned Twitter, racist tweets have proliferated. Here are some choice and revolting examples to read for you. Elon now controls Twitter, unleash the racial slurs, K-words, N-words, said one account, using slur for Jews and Black people. Next, I can freely express how much I hate N-words now, thank you Elon.
Another tweet showing a video montage glorifying Nazi Germany with the comment, I hear that there have been some changes around here, was liked more than 400 times. One tweet showing a single racial slur in all capital letters, was retweeted more than 700 times and liked more than 5,000 times.
What is that about?
SWISHER: They like Elon. I don't know what to say.
CAMEROTA: They think that Elon is going --
SWISHER: They think -- yeah. He really said, the bird is free, right? A second later, he said, we are having a content moderator thing which is probably because advertisers are, like, see you. If the bird is that free, it becomes -- it turns into this. Nobody wants to be that as a business. So, it is a very difficult walk he is going to have to walk here.
LOUIS: I think one major advertiser, GM, said, you know, we are going to take a wait-and-see approach. There will be others. There has even been talk, saw it on Twitter, about some mass resignation campaign that people are considering, just walking away from the platform.
If it is going to be that kind of a sewer (ph), no responsible person. And look, frankly, it was mostly news people, politicians and so forth who are using that platform as opposed to some of the other ones. But no one is going to put any quality content in that sewer (ph). If Elon Musk wants to run a sewer (ph), good luck to him.
CAMEROTA: I am so glad you're pointing that out. I do want to get to what our personal responsibility is here in a minute. But first, Cari, you were on last night telling us about that it is already a cesspool at times for you. When you tweet certain content or at certain people, it is already happening.
CARI CHAMPION, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I said here last night that if I go decide that I want to support Brittney Griner or anyone that is in a marginalized community, the responses are vile. It depends on where we are at.
And what was interesting, last night after I said that, I also got these responses. You are such a liar, no one uses those types of words, that's ridiculous. And here we are less than 24 hours later and exactly, exactly what I said what happened has happened.
Here is the thing. Twitter can be a good place. It is a good place to aggregate news. It is a good place to laugh and discover voices. I am not kidding, it is how you use it. But it is very irresponsible in a sense that we allow him to decide what free speech is. I knew that would happen. I knew people would come out of the woodwork. They are waiting for that.
Here is what is the sad part. We are going to have to decide how we want to give our intelligence, our information on social media. I told you, I was a fan of yours. I watch you, I listen, I pay attention. This is great. This is what Twitter is really for. Unfortunately, we live in a time that is polarizing. Everyone feels entitled to an opinion.
And whether it is bot or whether it is someone that is actually at home and miserable and does not want to hear about Brittney Griner or the election or who you think you should support, there are people out there who are determined to let us know that we are not welcome.
When I say we, I'm saying marginalize, it is so targeted. I do not have the time to go on Twitter and block everybody.
[23:20:00]
I don't have the energy force.
SWISHER: The problem that he has really is a business problem. That is what the heart of it is. He is going to owe a big debt. He has paid (INAUDIBLE) about three times more than it is actually worth.
CAMEROTA: Yeah.
SWISHER: The very big companies, Meta and Google, Alphabet, had a terrible quarter. They are good at making money at this stuff. The question is, if he does not make it into a good business, it does not matter how rich he is. Ultimately, it will fail as a business. Then, it is what it is. He can keep it going if he feels like it or he can lose billions of dollars.
LOUIS: The easiest way to clean it up and even maybe even make some money at it is to do what they do for the blue check members. Make sure that everyone has a name and an address and that the anonymous hate that people can do by proliferating all kinds of -- you know, automated process and send swarms of anonymous fake accounts.
SWISHER: Very difficult to do. I think the issue is, look, TikTok is eating everybody's lunch. It doesn't really matter.
CHAMPION: Yeah.
SWISHER: And people are over there because they enjoy it. There are problems on TikTok. But the issue is, can he come up with ideas? A subscription. What is he is going to do with subscription? Do I really want to like kept people yell at me while I pay up subscription? It is like going to a restaurant and someone vomit on your shoes. Can he do that for me? Can he bring the enjoyable parts out?
CAMEROTA: But can't he -- can't he clean up the garbage now? Does he need --
CHAMPION: No.
CAMEROTA: Why? Why can't we clean up the garbage?
CHAMPION: It is impossible. It is impossible to try to referee that. You don't know where it is. It is too -- it is bigger -- it is actually bigger than what he can actually control. It is extremely difficult to navigate through that.
CAMEROTA: If that is true, the content, whatever, he is assigning up the content to decisionmakers, is that going to work?
SWISHER: It took Facebook two years to put together the thing and it is still pretty ineffective. It is the oversight board. You have to do it with great thoughtfulness. And even then, it does not work.
CHAMPION: Yeah.
SWISHER: And so, I mean, it is fine, but it is not -- this is -- this is a tsunami of hatred.
CHAMPION: Meta, as they say, they created the bulletins to combat what people are saying, what they call was hate speech. They asked me to start writing to basically try to I guess mediate what they already had on there, which was hate speech. They went to a group of marginalized writers, people from different communities to get different voices on Meta, and it still did not work. They had to stop it. It did not work.
SWISHER: Yeah.
CAMEROTA: And so, that leads me to the question that I alluded to earlier, which is, what is our personal responsibility? If there is all of this garbage and vulgar, vile stuff, at what point do those of us who use Twitter need to say, no, Musk, we are not going to do this anymore, we are going to leave the site? I think a lot of people are saying that right now.
LOUIS: I think that is where we are headed. After this last event of the last 24 hours, I'm thinking to myself, why would I put anything in the middle of this garbage?
If they don't take it seriously, they don't have a serious approach, if there is going to be a wink and a smile and a bogus talk about free speech as a cover for all of this and there will be more of these swarms of anonymous bots that are attacking democracy itself, there is no way I want to be a part of that.
CAMEROTA: How long are you going to give it?
LOUIS: You know, I'm going to take wait-and-see approach.
SWISHER: Here is the irony, of all the people that could do something interesting with this, it is Elon Musk. Big user, loves the product, use it for marketing, et cetera, et cetera. And when he is funny, he is funny.
CHAMPION: (INAUDIBLE). SWISHER: But then, he is not sometimes. That is the way he is. He should be able to do what he wants. He has not necessarily crossed lines. Tasteless.
CHAMPION: I don't know. I think he is, and this is not -- it is not a disrespectful thing, but I think he is someone who is trying to poke the bear, whatever. He just wants to be that way. I do not think there are people who create great content and they give it away for free on Twitter. If someone can actually find a new platform for them to give a great content -- because I am a genius --
(LAUGHTER)
CHAMPION: -- and when I tweet, I don't know if I should give it to Twitter. I don't think they deserve it. I think there are people who are being funny, obviously. But there are people who legitimately feel that way.
If there is another platform where they can go and give their content without harassment, without feeling like this is an issue, without the feeling as if they glorify his product that he doesn't necessarily take seriously, they will do that.
SWISHER: Absolutely. TikTok.
CHAMPION: Yes.
SWISHER: It is a beautiful product in that regard. And there is problem solving (ph).
CHAMPION: Are you on TikTok? Are you dancing?
SWISHER: No.
CHAMPION: Are you doing --
SWISHER: Yes, I'm dancing.
(CROSSTALK)
(LAUGHTER)
SWISHER: I'm not in TikTok. I feel like age --
CHAMPION: I get it. I get it.
CAMEROTA: I disagree. If you have the audience for that, you'll be dancing. All right, they will come.
SWISHER: Right.
CAMEROTA: I'm going to follow all your leads. You guys tell me --
SWISHER: He just bought the company. So, perhaps, we will see what he does.
CHAMPION: Wait and see.
SWISHER: He spent a lot of money on it. So, we will see.
CAMEROTA: We will see if he is emotionally invested in it. All right, thank you, guys, for the great conversation. One of the highest profile celebrity couples announcing that they are ending their marriage.
[23:25:00]
We talked about where it went wrong, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAMEROTA: It is official. Tom Brady and Gisele Bundchen announcing today that they've finalized their divorce after 13 years of marriage. Supermodel Bundchen says she and Brady have grown apart. In an interview with Elle magazine last month, she talked about Brady's decision to unretire as a star quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers after announcing his retirement last winter.
We are back again with Errol Louis, Juliette Kayyem, and Cari Champion. Cari, give us the real scoop. Is this really about that he just chose football over his family?
[23:30:00]
I think for years, I think Gisele has been very patient, and I think that she has been probably more subdued than she has wanted to be in terms of her personality.
There has been history of her being very vocal about what Tom is up to. There is the time in which she went on CBS and said, he suffers from concussions all the time. That was breaking new. You're not supposed to say that. He has never been on the report list for concussion. There were times when she has complained about other people complaining about him, and she was overheard.
My point being is that she has been exhausted being his wife in terms of this football career. He retired because he promised her, from my understanding, that this was it. When he unretired, she said, your family or me? This is what we are hearing.
And by the way, people like Tom Brady, this is not a subjective opinion. He is the greatest in football. He is a goat. People like Tom Brady are in love with what they do. Nothing gives them more pleasure. Nothing can give them that adrenaline rush. You love your family but you love what you do.
I remember Michael Jordan once said, I love my wife, this is when he is at the peak of his career, but my wife really, truly is basketball. I'm paraphrasing. And people know that.
When you are with these people who have an innate ability unlike any other and they are generational talents, you have to understand the sacrifices that they are making. Sometimes, they can't even walk away from that. Tom does not think he can retire. He is 45 years old, not to mention I am on my high horse right now.
CAMEROTA: Keep going, girl.
(LAUGHTER)
JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: I'm so enjoying this whole thing.
CHAMPION: Let me tell you something. Tom -- I casually joked with my friends today. I was, like, what do you think Gisele's group chat is like? Because he has not won a game and he hasn't had this bad of a start since the beginning of his career. So, you're thinking --
CAMEROTA: You think she is taking a victory lap?
CHAMPION: Yes, she is like, I told you.
CAMEROTA: Yup.
CHAMPION: You should have stayed your butt at home.
(LAUGHTER)
CAMEROTA: Well, the other thing is there are so many pictures of her on the field after a win. She was so supportive of his football career. We will get to them in a second. But, you know, they are kissing after every one of his Super Bowl wins. And then at some point, enough is enough, I guess.
I think she is vocal about it. She said here in the Elle magazine, she said, I've done my part, which is to be there for Tom. I moved to Boston, and I focused on creating a cocoon and a loving environment for my children to be grow up in and to be there supporting him and his dreams. Seeing my children succeed and become the beautiful little humans that they are, seeing him succeed, and being filled in his career, it makes me happy. At this point in my life, I feel like I've done a good job at that.
KAYYEM: Yeah.
LOUIS: Yeah. By the way, he is not the only one in the relationship who is hard-charging and married to the work, right?
KAYYEM: Yeah.
LOUIS: This is someone who has been working since she was 13 years old. If you believe any of the celebrity stuff that you can find online, they are worth combined something like three quarters of a billion dollars, billion with a B, and she has more than he does.
CAMEROTA: Is that right?
CHAMPION: Yeah.
LOUIS: This is someone who has been extremely patient. That probably factors into this a little bit.
CAMEROTA: I also thought, Juliette, that it was interesting what he said on Howard Stern. He said, there was a couple years ago that she didn't feel like I was doing my part for the family. She felt like I would play football all season, and she would take care of the house.
And then all of a sudden, a season would end, and I's be like, great, let me get into all of my other business activities. Let me get into my football training. And she's sitting there going, well, when are you going to do things for the house? When are you going to take the kids to school?
That was a big part of our marriage that I had to check myself, because she is like, I have goals and dreams, too, and you better start taking care of things at the house.
That was in 2020.
KAYYEM: Yeah.
CAMEROTA: Two years later, he did not fulfill that side of the bargain.
KAYYEM: I take issues with her comment, I had to move to Boston. That is where I live. It is not that bad. It is a great city. I am so sorry, I get it.
It is so fun being here, by the way. Being from New England, I am team Gisele on this one even though everyone will hate me back at home because he is so popular.
Look, he said in the last two weeks, playing for the NFL, which he makes more money than God, is like going to war. Something is wrong here. His sense of sort of appropriate -- inappropriate (ph) exit. You know? You want to leave at a certain time. Here we are with people dying in Ukraine and our military going to war, Crimea. Divorce is sad, there are children involved, and so the pity party is a little bit much.
CAMEROTA: I think, to Cari's point, that it is his identity. He can't leave it.
KAYYEM: His career is his identity.
CHAMPION: Anyone who knows him, I remember, many times, we interview people who play with him or played for him. Tom is competitive at anything. We're play ping-pong and he has got to win. If we are playing cards, I have to win. He is the ultimate competitor. He does not see anything wrong. If he still feels like he is upright, he can throw that ball, he wants to play.
[23:35:00]
It is an obsession that -- I mean, I can't even understand it. We can't get inside of his mind. And, I think, for her, she tried. As she said, she tried. You talked about how much they are worth. Yes, it is mostly her money. We do not need your little change, honey.
(LAUGHTER)
LOUIS: Where is my million-dollar contract?
KAYYEM: You think about it, he could've stayed retired, the marriage would have not imploded so publicly, and everyone would've remembered it. Everyone remembers your last day. You know? You sort of think about this season for him and what is imploding publicly.
CAMEROTA: Why is he doing it?
CHAMPION: I could easily say that it is because of what he is dealing with. That is an easy thing. I think Tom is not in a good place in terms of his teammates and who he has in his support system. He needs more help. It is not easy to do what he has been able to do. That is why there are only 16 games in the regular season.
It is difficult to go in Sunday or Monday and win each single time you have the ball. It is the hardest thing to do in football because it is taxing on your body. They implement it where he does not have to. He gets two days off as opposed to one day off because he is older. They are making many changes for this man.
But I want you to understand how obsessed he is. When there was the idea that he was retiring, he got the biggest contract ever in broadcast history. He went to the head of the class. Never has he been on television. He is not doing what you do. You deserve $40 million.
CAMEROTA: Yeah.
(LAUGHTER)
CHAMPION: Yes. It was not that much, but she deserves it.
CAMEROTA: Yeah.
CHAMPION: Tom, I have never seen you even talk on the camera like that. Give this money to Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: Never mind that I don't know a single thing about sports.
(LAUGHTER)
LOUIS: Details. Details.
KAYYEM: Yeah, all details.
CAMEROTA: All right, guys, thank you very much. Stick around because up next, there is a dad who post a TikTok video and it was of his daughters in beautiful dresses, and then people started commenting. We are going to talk about his response, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:40:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAMEROTA: One Florida dad posted a lovely photo of his daughters for their homecoming dance on Facebook. He did not expect all the nasty comments that followed. Here is his TikTok video that has gone viral in response.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN: I put up what I thought was a pretty innocuous post about my daughters looking beautiful for homecoming. But you would be shocked at some of the comments. Take a look. I would not let them go anywhere dressed like that. They should have respect for themselves. So sad that parents think it is okay to send young ladies out with everything showing.
So, one thing that has always pissed me off as a father of girls is when people say things like, oh, these girls need to dress so they don't distract the boys, or even worse, they are dressed in a way in which they are asking for it.
Let's get something crystal clear now. It is not my daughter's job to make sure your son is focused in school. Also not her job to dress hideous enough to where your son doesn't assault her.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: Errol Louis, Juliette Kayyem, and Cari Champion are back. Errol, what is wrong with people?
(LAUGHTER)
LOUIS: What is wrong with people is it is the great American pastime -- judging other people's parenting is like the great American pastime. And people do it all day, every day. They can't even help themselves. Most people have at least enough etiquette to sort of keep their thoughts to themselves. In this world of social media, time to start tweeting, time to responding, time to start saying really, really, really damn things, you know.
CAMEROTA: Really dumb things. This man is a news anchor in Florida. You are a news anchor here in New York. Do you -- what is your policy on your kids on social media? Do you have post photos?
LOUIS: I have tried not to. I have tried to sort of -- my son is playing a lot of rock guitar. He is doing concerts. I can't help it. I am like, look at this kid! But, you know, we have all had conversations with security people when they say, listen, you have to assume that there are some people out there who have an unhealthy interest in your life.
KAYYEM: Yeah.
LOUIS: You just have to keep that in mind. So, I try to sort of keep it a little bit muted as well as the larger question of telling a 17- year- old, you know what, some of the stuff you're putting out there is really kind of strange. CAMEROTA: It may come back to haunt you.
LOUIS: It is a lot of fun --
KAYYEM: Can you follow my kids?
(LAUGHTER)
LOUIS: You might want to take a look at it. You know, what they think is funny now, it can go into some pretty strange places pretty quickly. Whenever there is a story like that, I show him. Here is a kid whose college acceptance was revoked based on something that he thought was pretty funny. I bet he doesn't think it is funny now.
CAMEROTA: Those girls, by the way, are not dressed that provocatively. That is how teenage girls dress. They wear short dresses. They looked great to his daughters. The idea that he has to -- I like what he said. Why is it my daughter's responsibility about your sons?
KAYYEM: That is exactly right. The idea that everything is going to depend on how we -- what and how we teach our girls is ridiculous. There is another gender here, the boys, who need to also be taught and listened to.
I have to say, though, I am pretty hard-core about this and anyone who might have strange people following them or whatever.
[23:45:03]
Never put your kids up in real-time.
CAMEROTA: As a national security expert.
KAYYEM: I advise people, do not put your kids up. If you want to put your kids up, do not put them in real-time. Do not say where you are. People think -- I can't believe that people who I know have, like, enemies. Oh, here we are in Hawaii. I was, like, don't tell us where you are.
CAMEROTA: Don't tell people where you are because they will break into your home when you are not home or they will find you.
KAYYEM: If you say, I am here at the beach, here I am with my kids and here is what my kids look like. Look, everyone has a tolerance level. This seems to me something that if you are a reporter or something, you are being advised at some stage, he is a semi-public figure, but that does not go to the stupidness that people respond to. People were just being mean to him and his daughters.
CAMEROTA: I think your advice is great.
CHAMPION: Yeah, that is great.
KAYYEM: Yeah. It is a little bit hard-core and I get it, but like -- I just -- LOUIS: You are a national security expert.
CAMERORA: Yeah.
KAYYEM: Look at me, I ended up here, I am so happy.
(LAUGHTER)
CAMEROTA: Giving advice. Do not put your kids in social media.
CHAMPION: These are all things that I hear often, too. But what you said was best, what is wrong with people? And that was so eloquently put into the point. I remember my friend, just the other day, posted something that her seven-year-old daughter wrote to her. Why are people so dumb? I thought that was so funny. Something happened to her at school. She said mommy, why are things so dumb? She is a child who understands what this world is about.
I think it is unfortunate that women in general are criticized. I think, especially in the world that I come from in sports, you know this being on television, we wear anything, we say anything, we are criticized for who we are and we can't just be. In a world where there is so much pressure, there is so much going on. I don't feel like we should be policing people.
I love what he said. I hope my children never grow up to be an adult to criticize children. Why are adults criticizing children? Really? They can't wear that? Is that a problem? And I was really glad that that father stood up. He said, yes, is it my choice to have them dresssed like this? No, they would be in snuggies. They would be in snuggies.
CAMEROTA: They would go out in snuggies.
CHAMPION: Yeah. But I can't put them in snuggies or a paper bag from head to toe. Control your child, your male child. Teach them to respect women. That is the message here. Still respect us. We matter.
CAMEROTA: Yes, for sure. I am still surprised. I mean, I find that when we put up pictures, it is generally incredibly nice. People are complementary. People are, you look great. People are so supportive. He must've put it up on like a stationed Facebook or something because no friends of yours on Facebook would respond that way. They must've been strangers.
LOUIS: That is exactly right. Also, right, in his own peer group, I'm sure there are other people who have teenage daughters. You know, the skirts are short, the heels are tall, that is how they dress, and that is what it is, right? If they are not -- so they're scandalizing their parents a little bit, they are not being good teenagers, right?
CAMEROTA: That's right.
LOUIS: I think everybody in his circle understands that. There is a larger circle of judgment that is out there waiting to condemn any parent who is not doing exactly what I or somebody else is doing. CHAMPION: They are probably jealous, too, because the little girls are great. They look great. The ladies are great. Don't be jealous. I think they're cute. Stop your hate.
CAMEROTA: Yeah. Have a great Friday night, you guys. This has been a wonderful Friday night to spend with you, guys. Thanks so much.
All right, it is time for all of you to sound off. I'm going to read your tweets to me, next. Oh!
(LAUGHTER)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:50:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAMEROTA: Okay, it is time for you to sound off. Let's see what you're all saying tonight. So, Christina is tweeting about the Paul Pelosi attack. She says, I'm sorry to hear what happened today. Need to stop the conspiracy theories. Everyone needs to vote. Agreed, Christina, for sure.
And then is about -- we were talking about how maybe social media is contributing to some of this violence. So, John's idea was it wouldn't be popular but what if all of social media was shut down at some time before the election? Cell phones, PCs, iPod and laptops would still have internet connection. Okay, interesting idea.
And Chaola tweets, perhaps Brady retired because his marriage was in trouble but found out when he got home it didn't fix things, so he went back to work and that's the story.
You know where to find me, at @alisyncamerota. Okay, so, next week, we will be announcing this year's top 10 CNN heroes, one of whom will be the next CNN hero of the year. Last year, you chose an incredible woman named Shirley Raines for that top honor. She (INAUDIBLE) and serves people living with homelessness on L.A. Skid Row.
So, before we kick off voting for this year's CNN hero of the year, we wanted to check on last year and give you a peek inside her big win night, the reaction from her Skid Row community, and what she has been up to.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNKNOWN: Shirley Raines.
(APPLAUSE)
SHIRLEY RAINES, CNN HERO OF THE YEAR: As much as you want to live in the moment and say it doesn't really matter, let's be real, I wanted to bring that prize money, that recognition to the community. I really wanted them to have that platform.
Good morning, you guys.
UNKNOWN: Congratulations, Shirley.
UNKNOWN: Congratulations to you.
RAINES: The world had an opportunity to vote for 10 amazing organizations. Then they chose one that dealt with homelessness, which I think to them might say, oh, my God, people really are paying attention.
[23:55:04]
People really are looking at it. People really do care. I'm hoping that this win will bring more eyes down here. There's a massive need for blankets. There is a massive need for tents. I always said this from the beginning, I don't do hero stuff. You know, I mean, I do human stuff.
UNKNOWN: I knew there was something about you.
RAINES: I knew something about you, too.
Honestly, all the stuff I'm doing with my personal life, I think it is amazing to have gotten this far because I came from, oh, my God, the bottom. I am the CNN hero. It definitely should give hope to other people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: To see Shirley in full action and catch up with the community that shares her honor, you can go to cnnheroes.com right now, and then get ready because next week, we will be announcing the top 10 CNN heroes of 2022.
Thanks so much for watching tonight, everybody. Have a great weekend. Our coverage continues.
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