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John Kirby is Interviewed about Slain Journalist; Murder or Self-Defense at Bodega; Peloton Stops Making Bikes; Senate Seats to Flip in November; Wildfire at Yosemite Spreads. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired July 12, 2022 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

JOHN KIRBY, NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL COORDINATOR FOR STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS AT THE WHITE HOUSE: We have shared that desire for answers. That's why we wanted this to be completely fully thoroughly transparently investigated.

We know that the - that - that they still have concerns. And we have stayed in touch with the family. I mean Secretary Blinken has as well.

So, again, I don't have any meetings to discuss today, but I can tell you that the president is staying laser focused on her case and on making sure that we continue to stay in touch with the family and we continue to try to find and get answers for them.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Can you tell us what the goal is of Governor Bill Richardson's visit that is coming up to Russia. What's he hoping to achieve?

KIRBY: Well, I'll let the governor speak for himself. As you heard Jake Sullivan say yesterday, we are in frequent communication with Governor Richardson. And I would just tell you, that as Jake said yesterday, we definitely are interested in government to government contact here with Russia to try to secure the release of Brittney Greiner, Paul Whelan, and, frankly, all Americans that are unjustly detained around the world.

KEILAR: John, we appreciate you being with us this morning. John Kirby, with us from the White House, thank you.

KIRBY: You bet.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Growing calls this morning in New York from the Manhattan district attorney to drop a murder charge against a bodega clerk after police say he fatally stabbed a man who went behind his counter and pushed him.

CNN's Erica Hill joins us with the details of this.

Erica.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR AND NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, those calls are growing louder too, John, in the wake of surveillance video, which we're now seeing as it plays out and as we learn more about this event.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HILL (voice over): A deadly stabbing captured on surveillance video. Jose Alba was working at an upper Manhattan bodega on July 1st when police say he got into a fight with another man. According to a criminal complaint, a woman tried to buy a snack for her daughter. Her payment card was declined. She told police Alba reached over the counter and grabbed her daughters hand to get the item back. "The New York Post" obtained surveillance video of the incident and reported the woman is heard saying, quote, my n-word is going to come down here right now and f you up.

The unidentified woman then left, but later returned to the store with her boyfriend, Austin Simon. A criminal complaint says Simon went behind the counter and pushed the bodega clerk. Alba told an investigator, Simon wanted him to apologize to the girl. Surveillance video shows Simon attempting to steer the clerk out of the area behind the counter. The complaint states Alba, quote, picked up a kitchen knife that was stashed behind the counter and stabbed Mr. Simon in the neck and chest at least five times. It goes on to say, Simon's girlfriend took a knife from her purse and stabbed Alba, who suffered a wound to his arm.

Police say Simon died later that evening of stab wounds to his neck and torso. Officers arrested Alba on July 2nd. He is charged with one count of second-degree murder and has been released on $50,000 bond, partially secured by the owners of the bodega.

The case reigniting the debate over self-defense laws in New York. On Sunday, the United Bodegas of America announced the organization is expected to meet with the Manhattan District Attorney's Office to urge prosecutors to drop Alba's murder charge.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams has voiced support for Alba as well.

MAYOR ERIC ADAMS, NEW YORK CITY: My heart goes out for that hard- working, honest New Yorker that was doing his job in his place of business, where a person came in and went behind the counter and attacked him. My heart goes out to that employee who was in the store doing his job. And so I am hoping that we take all of that into consideration as this hard-working New Yorker was doing his job, and someone aggressively went behind the counter to attack him. So, the DA has his job.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HILL: So, we are expected to hear more from the DA later today. I do want to point out, CNN has reached out to Jose Alba, trying to get some more information from him. But we know at this point is he has not yet, according to his attorney's spokeswoman (ph), has not entered a plea. He is next scheduled to be in court on July 20th.

John. Brianna.

BERMAN: All right, Erica Hill, thank you so much for that report. So, it looks like the sky does have its limits. Why the U.K.'s biggest

airport is now telling airlines to stop selling tickets.

KEILAR: And did China take our good air and swap it with their bad air? The confounding new claim by Republican Senate Candidate Herschel Walker.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:38:47]

KEILAR: New this morning, a dramatic step from Peloton. The company is slimming down, saying it will stop making its own bikes and treadmills.

Let's bring in CNN business correspondent Rahel Solomon.

This is a big move.

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It is a big move, and Pelton has been struggling for quite some time. Peloton was a pandemic darling. It saw its stock soar to about $170 at one point, as it's now closer to $9.

Of course, during the pandemic, a lot of us, I mean look at this stock performance this year, during the pandemic a lot of us were stuck in the house, a lot of us, guilty as charged, bought a Peloton. But as the world reopened, we went back to the gyms. And so it's seeing its sales fall. Last quarter the company reporting that sales tumbled 15 percent from a year ago and that quarter had lost $157 million.

So, the company is trying to turn itself around but it's clearly proving to be quite difficult. The CEO saying that, look, turnarounds are hard work. That we believe, however, that this - this, along with other initiatives, will enable us to continue reducing the cash burden on the business.

It is a tough right, no pun intended, for Peloton.

BERMAN: What are they then? I mean they're just - they're going to be the videos and the subscriptions?

SOLOMON: Yes, the subscriptions. So, they do make a lot of their money from the subscriptions, the monthly fee that you pay to continue doing it.

[08:40:01]

But apparently it's too expensive for them to also continue making the hardware, the equipment. And so they're going to sort of outsource that and hopefully be able to bring in enough for subscriptions. And their trainers are celebrities, and so there is that draw, there is that alure to Peloton, the celebrity trainers, but it's unclear if this is going to be enough to stop the hemorrhaging of cash. And investors don't seem pleased. I mean the stock is at $9. Compare that to - it's 95 percent off of its high. KEILAR: Yes, I'm -

SOLOMON: It is shocking.

KEILAR: I'm still addicted to mine, though, I will tell you that.

BERMAN: All right. I don't think I've ever heard anything like this before, which is Heathrow, which is, you know, the big airport in London, is telling airlines not to sell any more tickets?

SOLOMON: For a time period and for a specific reason.

So, Heathrow Airport essentially saying that from July 11th to about September 11th they have a maximum capacity of about 100,000 passengers departing from its airport, essentially saying to the airlines, we are putting you on notice, we can handle 100,000 passengers, essentially saying that they have tried to recruit and they have tried to hire a batch (ph) of ground handlers, but especially for ground handlers, they don't have the capacity, that it is taking time to get people back up to speed.

And so right now they're sort of trailing at about 4,000 excess each day, so they're at about 104,000 seats per day. So they have to figure out what to do about that 4,000 figure. About 1,500 daily seats have been sold of that. So they're saying, to the airlines, figure it out. We can only get 100,000 people out of this airport. Do not sell any more tickets until at least September 11th.

But, guys, we talk about it a lot on this show. A lot of the issues we have been dealing with here, as Americans trying to fly, our European counterparts are dealing with as well, and it sounds like a lot worse.

KEILAR: Increased flight prices then, you would expect, right?

SOLOMON: Well, I mean, I don't know because, at least until September 11th, they just don't want them to get more people out of the airport. They -- they are trying to get through this summer travel season, sort of as much as they can without any more frustration for passengers.

BERMAN: You can't walk - you can't walk to England from here I'm told. So there's a -

KEILAR: You can - you can row yourself.

SOLOMON: No, sadly.

BERMAN: Yes.

SOLOMON: You can row, maybe.

BERMAN: Rahel, thank you.

KEILAR: Rahel, thank you.

All right, ahead, a real head-scratcher from Georgia Senate Candidate Herschel Walker on climate change and air quality. It's really interesting.

BERMAN: And which states are most likely to flip in the November midterm elections and which party is most likely to control the Senate?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:46:35]

KEILAR: A new claim from Republican Georgia Senate candidate Herschel Walker about climate change and air quality in an argument opposing the green new deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HERSHEL WALKER: Since we don't control the air, our good air decided to float over to China's bad air. So, when China gets our good air, their bad air got to move. So it moves over to our good air space. Then now we got to clean that back up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: So a report issued by IQ Air, a company that tracks global air quality, earlier this year showed that U.S. air pollution - U.S. air pollution exceeded WHO guidelines by two to three times, but Walker's argument is that since our good air decides to float over to China, then it's pointless for the U.S. to do more to reduce air pollution.

BERMAN: So, the Senate race that Herschel Walker is in the middle of is one of the most closely watched in the country.

Joining us now is CNN political director and host of the CNN political briefing podcast, our friend, David Chalian.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Good morning.

BERMAN: Sir, the Georgia Senate race. Where do things stand right now?

CHALIAN: Well, yes, this is one of the marquee matchups of the cycle. Raphael Warnock, the incumbent Democratic senator, versus Herschel Walker. The latest polls there showed Warnock actually has a significant lead over Walker, but there's very little polling there. This is going to be a close contest. The question is, is Walker ready for prime time, John. Just yesterday's his campaign announced an entire revamping of the strategic team around him. They realize things aren't going quite as they had hoped to take advantage of this political environment.

But, John, broaden out beyond Georgia. I just want to show you here the Senate map. These ratings are courtesy of our friend Nathan Gonzalez (ph) at Inside Elections. And here is something I think is very important for folks to pay attention to. If you just look at the tossup races, or the lightly shaded pink and blue, the sort of next tier of races, you've got Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and, of course, Georgia, one of those true tossup's, and New Hampshire, these are your - your main races, and they are almost all playing on Democratic turf. Only North Carolina of all those states is a state that Donald Trump won in 2020. So, while the political environment is bad for Democrats, John, clearly the Senate map is not as bad as just the political environment may suggest for that.

KEILAR: So, nationally, the president's approval ratings are, you know, they're not very good, right? They're pretty dismal right now. How is that playing into this?

CHALIAN: Dismal really is the right word, Brianna. Take a look at our latest poll of polls of Joe Biden's approval rating. He is down at 38 percent job approval. This is an average of a bunch of recent, high- quality polls. And 57 percent disapprove. This is a number that's just pure danger territory for Democrats on the ballot, even though Joe Biden is not on the ballot.

And I want you to look at this, according to "The New York Times"/Sienna (ph) poll that came out just yesterday. I want you to take a look at what it breaks down by party, Brianna, because if you look here among Democrats and add together the strongly and somewhat, he's only at 70 percent approval among his own party. That is a treacherous warning sign for Democrats.

[08:50:00]

That is something that is making this environment so tricky.

And if you look at that right track/wrong track number by party, massive majorities of Democrats, Republicans and independents all say that the country is going on the wrong track. Sixty-three percent of Democrats say so.

Now, they're going to vote for Democrats, a lot of them. They think it's on the wrong track because o things like the Roe v. Wade decision being overturned by the Supreme Court. This doesn't necessarily mean that that's a bad sign for Democrats.

But what I think is a bad sign is that across the board the entire electorate is just in a toxic mood, and that's never good for the party in power.

BERMAN: You know, David, you had the map up showing where the Senate races will play this fall, and a lot of it is Democratic turf. But Democrats are having to play defense on some of that turf. Which races do you see as most vulnerable for Democrats?

CHALIAN: Well, there's no doubt about that. Here are the four incumbent vulnerable Democrats. Warnock of Georgia, we talked about. Mark Kelly of Arizona. Maggie Hassan in New Hampshire and Catherine Cortez Masto in Nevada. Take a look here at their matchups against the Republicans, John. We have had the primaries in Nevada, Adam Laxalt against Cortez Masto. And we mentioned Herschel Walker.

In New Hampshire and Arizona, Mitch McConnell didn't get his top tier recruit, the incumbent governors in those states, Chris Sununu in New Hampshire and Doug Ducey in Arizona, proven Republican winners. So we're waiting to see which Republicans emerge.

But I think one thing to notice here is that folks like Catherine Cortez Masto and Maggie Hassan, since that decision in the Dobbs case overturning Roe v. Wade came out, have leaned heavily into abortion rights as sort of a calling card to try and rally the Democratic base in these blue leaning states. They see that as one path forward to withstand the overall environment.

KEILAR: And what Republican incumbents are you watching?

CHALIAN: Well, these two Republican held seats, Ron Johnson, an incumbent in Wisconsin running for re-election. We don't know which Democrat's going to emerge in the primary there yet. And in Pennsylvania, Pat Toomey's retiring, Brianna, but this is a currently Republican held state. Mehmet Oz versus John Fetterman. This, too, is going to be a marquee matchup to watch throughout this cycle. Again, two states that Joe Biden won. This is an opportunity that Democrats see that they may be able to flip a couple of seats. But in this environment, the idea of Democrats winning Republican held seats is no easy task.

BERMAN: So, David, you mentioned this "New York Times"/Sienna (ph) poll in the numbers for Joe Biden, for President Biden on it. "The Times" just released some new numbers this morning. And we put it up on the screen so people can see. And this shows former President Trump in a Republican primary against Ron DeSantis.

There are two ways of looking at this, David, correct?

CHALIAN: There are. I mean I think that we are going to spend the next several months, John, trying to figure out just how much power does Donald Trump still have inside his party. How much saw with Republican primary voters.

What we see here, what we saw in the CNN polling earlier this year, we asked folks, should he be the nominee or not? Half the Republican Party said yes, half the Republican Party said no.

What we see here, Donald Trump, clear leader in this Republican hypothetical horse race, and Ron DeSantis clearly the threat who's in double digits there, you look at half -- more than half of Republicans in this poll don't want Donald Trump. But I just want to remind you one thing, John, the way in which you win a Republican presidential nomination is through a primary system that is winner takes all. Donald Trump doesn't need to be at 70 percent to win these primaries. If there's a crowded Republican field, remember 2015, 2016, he can win with a plurality and scoop up all the delegates. So it's not clear yet if Donald Trump has taken on so much damage with the party that he won't be a factor should he actually choose to run. He will be.

BERMAN: Yes, I know. Exactly. I mean stunning - or interesting that he's not at 50 percent, but also a reminder he doesn't necessarily need to be.

David Chalian, always an education, thank you so much.

CHALIAN: Thanks.

BERMAN: So this huge wildfire spreading in Yosemite National Park. Crews racing to protect the legendary giant sequoias. CNN live on the ground.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:58:26]

KEILAR: Happening now, fire crews in Yosemite National Park are racing to control a wildfire that has increased to more than 2,700 acres and is threatening more than 500 giant sequoia trees. As you can see here, fire crews have installed a sprinkler system in an attempt to protect them.

CNN's Nick Watt is joining us live now from Yosemite.

We can see all of that smoke behind you, Nick. What is the latest on this fire?

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now, Brianna, they are dealing with a slow-moving fire that's kicking off intense heat and a lot of smoke. How hot? Well, over the weekend, a branch got lifted so high up into the air by the updraft that when it fell back down to earth it narrowly missed hitting two aircraft that were involved in fighting this fire.

How much smoke? Well, there is now an air quality advisory in the San Francisco Bay area, which is more than 200 miles away.

So, this time a day, this is when the fire activity is about at the lowest. Between now and this afternoon, the temperature is going to pick up by about 30 degrees and the fire becomes much more intense.

The other issue they're dealing with, the humidity here is very, very low right now. So that means that the intense burning continues after dark and into the night.

Now, the numbers right now they are saying it is 22 percent contained, that's down a little bit from yesterday afternoon. They're dealing with some issues out to the east of the fire. But the key number in this fight is 545. That is how many firefighters they have on the ground here.

[09:00:02]

They have been able to flood the zone with firefighters because there isn't much other fire activity in California. And those firefighters have managed to do a great job. They are saying they are confident of the plan to save those trees. They say they're in a very good place. They do not expect those trees to come under any danger again from this fire.

So, Brianna, fingers crossed. Back to you.

KEILAR: Fingers crossed. They are a national treasure. Nick Watt, thank you so much.

CNN's coverage continues right now.