Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Prosecution Rests in Rittenhouse Trial; Parents Give Birth to Wrong Babies; U.S. Inflation Hits 30-Year High; Mark Penn and Andrew Stein are Interviewed about Learning from Clinton. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired November 10, 2021 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

JOANN FIEDLER, DEFENSE WITNESS: He was pail, shaking, kind of stuttering, stammering his words. He was sweating.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you recall him saying anything?

FIEDLER: And he sat down. And I remember him pulling his hair back and he was pulling it back really hard and just his comment was, my God, my life might be over.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Both Smith and Fiedler say they were guarding the car dealership where Rittenhouse shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum. Fiedler testifying Rosenbaum was taunting the group, using vulgar language toward them.

FIEDLER: You kind of are frozen at the verbiage and the threats coming out of him. I mean the whole night was quite shocking. But we didn't really do anything. We just kind of stood there. And you have to ignore that.

PROKUPECZ: Before the defense called their first witness. The judge dismissing one minor charge against Rittenhouse, saying prosecutors didn't provide enough evidence.

JUDGE BRUCE SCHROEDER, KENOSHA COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT: The seventh count of curfew violation is no longer part of the contest here.

PROKUPECZ: Rittenhouse still faces five felony charges and a misdemeanor, including first degree intentional homicide, first degree reckless homicide, and attempted first degree intentional homicide.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The state formally rests its case.

PROKUPECZ: Prosecutors resting their case Tuesday afternoon, finishing six days of testimony, working to convince jurors Rittenhouse's actions were criminal. The prosecution playing this new drone video showing when Rittenhouse shot and killed Rosenbaum. Jurors also getting a close look at the AR-15 style weapon he used in the deadly shootings. The Milwaukee medical examiner taking the stand as the prosecution's final witness.

DR. DOUGLAS KELLEY, MILWAUKEE COUNTY DEPUTY CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER: Mr. Huber died from a gunshot wound to the chest.

PROKUPECZ: Analyzing autopsy photos, too graphic to show of victim Anthony Huber and of Rosenbaum.

KELLEY: This gunshot wound is the one that would cause death as a result of the injuries to the lungs and the liver with the hemorrhage and the injury to the organs themselves.

PROKUPECZ: Rittenhouse looked away as prosecutors played the images of the two deceased men. Dr. Douglas Kelley says Rosenbaum was shot four times, with a fatal bullet to the back.

JAMES KRAUS, KENOSHA COUNTY ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY: And is it your opinion to a reasonable degree of medical certainty that the back to front shots to the head and then the kill shot to the back would have been while he was falling, or perpendicular to the ground?

KELLEY: The -- the only way that the trajectories of the gunshot wounds to the right side of the head and the back makes sense is if he's more horizontal to the ground, and that is occurring at the time that the last two gunshot wounds are heard on the video.

PROKUPECZ: The defense suggesting Rosenbaum was moving toward Rittenhouse.

MARK RICHARDS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: The head wound goes back to front, and from the top of the head down toward the forehead.

KELLEY: That's right.

RICHARDS: OK. So if I was charging like a bull, and diving, that would be consistent?

KELLEY: It would be.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PROKUPECZ: And so, Brianna, as you said, the big question today, will we find out if Kyle Rittenhouse takes the stand? The defense attorneys not really tipping their hand here. You know, I've asked him several times, will he, in fact, testify. He's indicated in opening statements that the jury was going to hear from Kyle Rittenhouse in some form. So we'll see if that happens today.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we'll be watching with you, Shimon. Thanks for that report.

So, imagine giving birth to a baby girl and then learning that neither you nor your spouse are her biological parents. What that couple now plans to do about this heart-breaking mix-up.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And a new report, just released seconds ago, showing just how much more Americans are paying for just about everything.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [08:38:08]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEXANDER CARDINALE, PLAINTIFF IN LAWSUIT AGAINST FERTILITY CLINIC: Losing the birth of a child that you know for the genetic child that you don't even know yet, it's a truly impossible nightmare.

DAPHNA CARDINALE, PLAINTIFF IN LAWSUIT AGAINST FERTILITY CLINIC: Instead of breastfeeding my own child, I breastfed and bonded with a child I was later forced to give away.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: That is Daphna and Alexander Cardinale, who learned that they were raising a stranger's baby for several months without knowing it because the fertility clinic that they trusted implanted Daphna with the wrong embryo. The Cardinals later switched babies with the couple who had given birth to their biological baby about a week before Daphna gave birth.

Here's the emotional moment when Alexander met his biological daughter for the first time. And now the couple is suing the fertility clinic for this traumatic mistake.

Joining us now is the attorney for the parents, Daphna and Alexander Cardinale, Adam Wolf.

Adam, this -- I mean this truly is an impossible situation. What has been the impact here on the Cardinales?

ADAM WOLF, ATTORNEY FOR DAPHNA AND ALEXANDER CARDINALE: Thanks for having me.

This is unfathomable for the rest of us.

Daphna and Alexander gave birth to a little girl, and, months later, find out that their child is not related to them. This had had disastrous and will have life-long consequences for them. It is traumatic.

KEILAR: And so Alexander said they had to play catch-up. Can you tell me about that?

WOLF: Sure. I mean, I'll tell you, I'm a dad. I was in the delivery room when my wife gave birth to our kids. I knew my child from the second that he or she came out and bonded with that child immediately. Daphna and Alexander didn't have that opportunity. Daphna didn't feel her baby kicking in utero, didn't deliver her baby, didn't breastfeed her baby at first. You know, it's -- what they had, they met their baby at four months old on a picture over a text message.

[08:40:05]

For the rest of us, that is completely unfathomable.

KEILAR: What has it been like for the babies? What was it like for the babies transitioning to their biological, but to them new parents?

WOLF: You know, I don't know what it could be like for the four-month- old doing that. But I'll tell you, for the five-year-old that Daphna and Alexander had, this was traumatic. She bonded with her baby sister. That's the baby sister she knew. And at four months old, for that baby, she was taken away from their older daughter. It -- their older daughter was an energetic, lively, loving five-year-old girl. And as soon as this happened, she changed like that. All of a sudden she was mistrusting. She was angry. She didn't hug or kiss her parents, right. That is the -- that is, I guess, an understandable reaction. But for a five-year-old girl, it is just devastating.

KEILAR: Yes, the severing of a bond.

Can you tell us about the legal action, the course of action here?

WOLF: Sure.

So, we filed a lawsuit on Monday against California Center for Reproductive Health and Dr. Mor (ph), the medical director, for this incredible misconduct. What apparently happened is that CCRH and Dr. Mor mixed up Daphna and Alexander's embryo with the embryo of another couple. They were probably both out at the same time in the lab. And the -- and the clinic was effectively playing three-card monte with people's embryos.

KEILAR: Could this have happened with other embryos then?

WOLF: We're incredibly concerned about that. Every now and again you hear about something like this, and it typically comes out when the birth child is of a different race or doesn't look like the parents at all. But how many times does this happen when it's not of a different race, when you don't immediately recognize it visibly? I am incredibly concerned, on top of the fact that this clinic has a history of allegedly mixing up people's genetic material. It is just shocking.

KEILAR: All right, Adam, we will -- we'll track this case. It is devastating, devastating for a couple in what is supposed to be this wonderful gift, and it is, but it also since isn't. It's -- we really appreciate you talking to us about it.

Adam, thanks.

WOLF: Thanks for having me.

KEILAR: Should President Biden take a page out of the 1990s Bill Clinton playbook? We're going to speak to two Democratic operatives who are making that argument?

BERMAN: And, plus, breaking news, brand-new inflation numbers just out. They're big. Really big. So what happens now?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:47:06]

BERMAN: We do have breaking news. The government just released brand- new numbers on inflation from October. They're big.

Alison Kosik joins us now live.

Tell me about these numbers.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, they're big, but not surprising.

Look, we knew that prices are high. We knew that prices are sticky. But this is a really big jump.

We learned that at the consumer level, the prices we're paying on a host of items jumped 6.2 percent from last year. Just from last month jumping quite a bit as well --

BERMAN: It's 0.9 percent from last months.

KOSIK: It's 0.9 percent.

And here's where we're paying -- and you don't need me to tell you this, right? I mean we're paying more for energy, we're paying more to heat our homes, we're paying more for our housing. When we go to the grocery store, we're paying more for beef, and for eggs, for food. Used cars, new cars, trucks as well. We're seeing these price increases stick and that is what this CPI figure is, the Consumer Price Index, what we're paying at the consumer level.

Interestingly enough, we heard from the Fed just recently. Listen, Fed Chair Jay Powell, he did acknowledge that, you know, inflation may be a little bit stickier than he thought, but he doesn't seem to be on a track to raise interest rates anytime sooner than he's already planned.

This is concerning to some analysts who think, listen, Fed Chair Powell, we need to kind of put the brakes on sooner than you may realize. But it looks like Powell and even Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, they are just believing that it is transitory. Although, in his latest statement, he did take out the word "transitory" from the latest statement.

BERMAN: They had been saying "transitory."

KOSIK: Right.

BERMAN: I'm very curious to see what they say now going forward. It's 6.2 percent on an annualized rate, which is the highest level of annualized inflation --

KOSIK: Since 1990.

BERMAN: So, a long time.

KOSIK: Right.

BERMAN: And if we can put that chart we had just back up a moment ago so we can see that, so people can see, the 0.9 percent growth month- to-month, the reason that's of such high concern is, look at the last three months, it was 0.5, 0.3, 0.4. So not nearly this high. All of a sudden, jumps up again.

So heading in the wrong direction. This will cause concern, I think, for federal regulators and also the economic team at the White House. We're waiting for reaction from them.

Alison Kosik, thank you very much for that.

KOSIK: You got it.

BERMAN: So, not disconnected from this, by the way, as Democratic anxiety mounts, a new op-ed in "The New York Times" argues that President Biden should take a page out of 1990s Bill Clinton playbook. Two former Democratic operatives write, quote, after the 1994 congressional elections, Bill Clinton reoriented his administration to the center and saved his presidency. Mr. Biden should follow his lead, listen to centrists, push back on the left and reorient his policies to address the mounting economic issues people are facing.

Joining me now, the authors of that op-ed, Andrew Stein, former president of the New York City Council, and Mark Penn, former adviser to President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton.

So, Mark, what can President Biden, what can Joe Biden learn from the 1990s? Not that he wasn't there, but what can he learn from the Clinton administration?

[08:50:00]

MARK PENN, FORMER ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: Well, I don't think he'll go back and promise a balanced budget, as we did. That's a -- that ship has sailed. But with today's numbers, you can see that he better give some quick attention here to the bread and butter issues. He can't put in policies that raise gas prices, raise food prices, and break the deficit and not expect suburban voters to flee. He's going to have to back off those policies, understand and put them in the context of the situation and move more step-by-step bringing the public with him.

BERMAN: I'm curious, Andrew, what you think that means specifically. Because some people look back to the Clinton administration, when Bill Clinton recalibrated, and the focus turned to things like school uniforms, which a lot of people think are contrite. But in terms of priorities, what is it you think that Joe Biden should focus on now?

ANDREW STEIN, FORMER PRESIDENT OF NYC COUNCIL: Well, I think Joe Biden has to realize that Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema are not outliers. But Bernie Sanders and AOC are outliers.

The country is divided 40/40 hard core Democrats to Republicans, but the 20 percent in the middle are interested in, you know, table issues, in gas prices and inflation and not being toward, you know, critical race theory in their -- in their schools. They want good education.

BERMAN: Well, Joe Biden's not pushing critical race theory in schools.

STEIN: What?

BERMAN: Joe Biden's not pushing critical race theory being taught in schools.

STEIN: No, he's not, but -- but the -- but the election in Virginia was nationalized. Terry McAuliffe pushed -- brought in Obama and Biden and Terry -- and Glenn Youngkin really just focused on bread and butter issues. His -- and I think that's what the Democrats need to do. And I think that they can't push too much --

BERMAN: Well, let me list -- let me list what they are pushing as part of this Build Back Better agenda right now. Paid maternity leave policy has got 84 percent approval. Government funding for childcare has got 75 percent approval. Boosting the minimum wage, which (INAUDIBLE), has got 60 percent approval.

So a lot of the things, a lot of the agenda items, Mark, I'll put this to you, that they are pushing do seem to be broadly popular.

PENN: Well, and my polling shows that if you just ask, hey, would you like 12 weeks paid leave, of course people say that. And who wouldn't? And I do think it's an incredibly important social policy. Honestly, I mean, we pushed for the FLMA that started this whole thing back then.

But then I ask, do you think we can afford to pay for it now? Then you're divided 50/50.

Then I say, do you want a bill of all of these things that is going to be higher taxes and deficits. Then, almost 60 percent say no.

And that's the problem. If they had taken out one of these things, hey, let's go for true paid family leave now, let's make it, you know, means tested, should it -- should it have a work requirement or not, let's have a public discussion about that, let's pass it, let's have an accomplishment for that, that's far different from the Build Back Better process here that is focused on, shall we spend $3 trillion, $5 trillion, $6 trillion, $2 trillion. That's what has really set the administration back here.

STEIN: And -- and I --

PENN: Because as I say -- as we say in the piece, there are a lot of good things, but you've got to take them step by step.

BERMAN: Go ahead.

STEIN: And I think, John, that, right here in New York City, where we are, Eric Adams really is setting an example for Democrats around the country. He just said the other day, on crime, he's a conservative. He is a bread and butter guy. He is not being captured by the AOCs and the progressives. And I think Eric Adams, who was just elected may your of New York, really sets an example for Democrats.

BERMAN: We've had him on quite a bit. He's a big fan, by the way, of Joe Biden, what the Biden administration is doing.

Mark, just one point and then one question. The point is, we're in a different time vis-a-vis the Clinton administration too. This is -- this would be 1993. Bill Clinton got his shellacking in 1994. So there's still a year left that I think some progressives might rightfully ask, if we're going to lose any way, why not try to pass some of the stuff we can now before we get beaten anyway.

But then this, it might be an uncomfortable question for both of you. You know, Andrew Stein, you endorsed President Trump in 2016. Mark, I know you advised him during impeachment some. So some Democrats might ask --

PENN: No, no, no, no, I didn't advise him.

BERMAN: Did -- did you meet with him?

PENN: I didn't advise him. I met with him once.

BERMAN: OK. Well --

PENN: I met with him once with Andrew --

BERMAN: But then they're asking -- some Democrats might ask, why should we listen to you guys about where to take the Democrat Party now?

[08:55:01]

PENN: Look, you know, listen, you -- first of all, as I was saying, it's a free country, listen or not. The -- obviously, I played a critical part in both restructuring -- helping to restructure that administration and worked closely with Hillary where we almost, you know, I was hopeful that we'd win in 2008 and I have about a 50-year experience -- 40-year experience across hundreds of campaigns.

And, look, what I see here is, you're right, Bill Clinton didn't find out that he needed to retool until after the 1994 elections. Joe Biden knows it now. Bill Clinton couldn't save Congress. It was too late. But he saved the presidency.

Joe Biden, by acting quickly, could save the party, the Congress and the presidency. But now is the time to act. Now is the time to reorient. And these inflation figures underscore the urgency of that.

BERMAN: The inflation figures are something that the White House is going to have to deal with, not just in the next few days, literally in the next few minutes.

Andrew Stein, Mark Penn, thanks so much for being with us. I appreciate it.

STEIN: Thank you so much for having us.

BERMAN: So, there is other breaking news this morning. A sweeping ruling from a federal judge against former President Trump and in favor of the January 6th committee.

KEILAR: And you are looking at live pictures of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, where people are taking a once in a century opportunity.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Time now for "The Good Stuff."

You are looking at live pictures for a truly rare and historic event that we might not ever see again. This morning, the public is allowed to lay flowers at one of the nation's most sacred places, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

This week, Arlington National Cemetery opened the memorial site to visitors for the first time in almost 100 years as part of the tomb's centennial. Tomorrow, President Biden plans to attend the annual Veterans Day wreath laying ceremony at the tomb.

CNN's coverage continues right now.

[09:00:06]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Erica Hill.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto.