Return to Transcripts main page
Quest Means Business
Final Hour Of Voting In UK General Election; Biden Vows To Stay In Race Despite Pressure From Some Democrats; Former Manager: Scrap Parts Ended Up On Assembly Lines; Group Of Business Leaders Calls For Biden To Step Aside; Empty Seats At Tournament Highlight Concerns For Hosts U.S.; Dodgers Superstar Ohtani Delivering On And Off Field. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired July 04, 2024 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:26]
PAULA NEWTON, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: US markets are closed today for the Independence Day holiday. The European market though, finished broadly
higher in a week marked by not one, but two elections, perhaps in both France and the UK, some election a relief to come.
Those are the markets and these are the main events: Just one hour to go before the polls close in the UK.
US President Biden tells Democratic governors he needs more sleep and will stop scheduling events after 8:00 PM. Argentina set for a Copa America
quarterfinal. Now it's unclear yet whether Lionel Messi will be fit enough to play.
Live from New York, it is Thursday, July Fourth. I'm Paula Newton, in for Richard Quest and this is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.
And good evening, in one hour's time, polls closed in the UK General Election. The exit polls will be released shortly after and that will give
us a snapshot of what to expect nationally. Now the actual vote count gets underway overnight.
Earlier today, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his wife voted in his Yorkshire constituency that's in the north of England. Labour leader Keir
Starmer and his wife cast their ballots in London.
Richard Quest joins me now from London.
Richard, we have a UK election on the US Independence Day. I think that's unprecedented. But you'll correct me if it is not, and of course always
have a concern in Britain, the weather, did it cooperate?
RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS": Well, to use that -- well, first of all, it is unprecedented and eyebrows were
raised. I'll caveat whatever I'm going to say next the reporting restrictions, at least for another hour, I mean, I'm very limited in what I
can tell you.
So I shall use the time honored phrase, voting has been described as brisk ahead of the election. We have seen dogs, horses, cats, even a snake I
believe at one polling booth, and the weather has cooperated. It has been a spectacularly lovely day throughout for voting.
Now, where are we going to go -- there you are, you all see, voting is brisk. Brisk right the way through. In one hour's time, in fact, by now we
will have the exit poll, which will tell us exactly how the tens of millions of people in the UK and this is where you're going to see it all
in our election.
It is quiet at the moment, but do not be fooled. In the next hour, Isa Soares will join me. We will have Anna Stewart, who will be at the wall and
this wall will fill in as the constituencies are reported, and this other wall will absolutely give you -- this gives you the global picture in a
sense of where we are, the seats that have been won and the seats that have been lost throughout the course of the night.
Paula, the night will be long, I promise you that. We will expect, I would say the first results about an hour-and-a-half after 10 o'clock and then,
it is Helter Skelter right the way through tonight, until maybe, I don't know, until maybe four or five in the morning.
NEWTON: I know you're good for it, Richard and I do want to ask you, unlike here in the United States, if there is the same government or a new
government, things happen very quickly once the official vote is in.
QUEST: It is brutal. I mean, it always has been.
Depending on how people have voted, if there is to be a change of government, then on Friday, the outgoing prime minister will go to
Buckingham Palace and will tell the king that he has basically lost the confidence of the nation. Thank him, the King will say thank you, have a
nice day, off you go.
And as he has -- when he is in with the King, the next prime minister will already have arrived and he will go. And the phrase is known as kissing
hands, and the prime minister designate will be invited by His Majesty to create the next government.
NEWTON: Richard, I love the ceremony of it all. Also approved that apparently people could bring their pets to the polling booth. I'll have
you know the last time I voted, I had to leave my dog outside with a neighbor.
QUEST: Here is an interesting thing, here is an interesting thing, which I know you probably have no wish to know, but I'm going to tell you anyway.
[16:05:10]
You're a Canadian, aren't you?
NEWTON: I am indeed.
QUEST: Yes --
NEWTON: Still today.
QUEST: Well, if you were living in -- if you were living in the UK at the time, you'd be able to vote because Commonwealth citizens can vote in UK
elections.
QUEST: So I have voted once in the UK and there was shock and awe among people like you, among the British. Really? You can vote? Indeed we did.
Listen, I would have been there with a pet. It makes it all the better. We are going to leave it there, Richard, but I cannot wait. I will be watching
in less than an hour from now. Thanks so much.
Our Richard Quest for us.
Now, as Richard mentioned, you can see all of this coming up very, very soon. 4:55 PM Eastern, 9:55 PM local London time.
Now moving on to politics here: President Biden apparently told Democratic governors that he needs more sleep and needs to work less at night. We're
told he made those comments while trying to reassure them about his struggling campaign.
The White House now says Biden went to see a doctor after last week's debate just to check on his cold. Now, earlier this week, we were told
Biden's last medical exam took place in February. The president is facing growing questions about his age and health.
In a radio interview this morning, Biden said he'll keep moving forward.
Priscilla Alvarez has our report.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Tonight, a White House on cleanup duty, as President Joe Biden struggles to convince
Democrats that he's staying in the race.
REP. JARED HUFFMAN (D-CA): We've got to be honest about that. So we need a reset. We need a course correction. We've got to acknowledge that this was
not just one bad night.
ALVAREZ (voice over): Biden even telling Democratic governors gathered at the White House Wednesday, his plan is to stop scheduling events after 8:00
PM, so he can get more sleep. That comment according to sources, leaving some governors privately frustrated despite public support.
GOV. WES MOORE (D-MD): The president is our nominee. The president is our party leader, and the president has told us, I mean, he was very clear back
there that he is in this to win this.
ALVAREZ (voice over): The White House's evolving reasons for Biden's bad debate is also raising eyebrows. Officials now contradicting the White
House press secretary saying Biden was seen by his doctor days after the debate.
KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: He did not get checked out by the doctor. It's a cold, guys. It's a cold and I know that it affects
everybody differently. We've all had colds, and so, though he was not checked by the doctor.
ALVAREZ (voice over): A White House official tells CNN, Biden had a "brief check, not a physical" after the debate.
In private, Biden has acknowledged that the next few days are critical, packed with a high profile interview and two stops in battleground states,
now, appealing directly to Black voters in a pair of new interviews.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I had a bad night. The fact of the matter is that, you know, it was -- I screwed up, I made a mistake.
That's 90 minutes on stage. Look at what I've done in 3.5 years.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: Priscilla Alvarez is at the White House for us. And Priscilla, I mean, no holiday, right, from this story, at least and not for the Biden
White House. We do expect to see him shortly for these festivities.
What is his inner circle saying now about how they intend to convince voters that he can make it, not through this campaign, but through the next
term as president.
ALVAREZ: Well, they are simply trying to show that by putting the president on the road, trying perhaps to have more unscripted moments that has been
an ask by his allies to show an energized president and one that could win a second term.
So today, we will see him of course for the July 4th celebrations over the course of the afternoon and evening before he jets off to battleground
Wisconsin tomorrow, that primetime interview to follow and then to a trip to Pennsylvania.
Now, over the course of all of this, the vice president has stayed close to him, as she has shown support for him and vice versa. Sources tell me that
the mandate in her camp has been to stay the course, to dispel any type of replacement theories and to make it clear that it is the Biden-Harris
ticket.
And so they are still trying to project confidence even as they field multiple questions from even their closest allies about what it's like --
what it's going to look like moving forward and what it all means for the trajectory of the race.
NEWTON: There are still so many questions, Priscilla Alvarez for us at the White House. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.
Now should Biden leave the race, a senior campaign adviser says he will throw -- immediately throw his support behind his vice president. Kamala
Harris' polling within striking distance of former President Donald Trump. You'll see it there.
The latest CNN survey has her at 45 percent, that's compared to Trump's 47. And as you can see that is slightly better than the other Democratic
alternatives.
Now Mr. Trump, meanwhile, is laying low at his New Jersey Golf Club this Fourth of July. The campaign wants to keep the fallout from Biden's debate
in the spotlight with a person close to Trump saying "chaos is our friend."
[16:10:11]
Ron Brownstein is senior editor at "The Atlantic" and a senior political analyst for CNN.
No doubt, Ron, right? The former president playing it straight and understanding that it's just to let the Biden campaign spin this at the
moment.
Now, I have to go back to what Biden told Democratic governors, right, during a meeting at the White House yesterday that he was going to stop
scheduling events after 8:00 PM so he could get more sleep?
I mean, sources tell CNN that that left the governors, some of them anyway in the room incredibly frustrated. What do you think voters are going to
think of this line?
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, first of all, the Trump comments remind me of "Game of Thrones," chaos is a ladder, and in this
case, it certainly is. It certainly is for -- it certainly is for him.
Look, I mean, those comments are indicative of the problem Democrats face given the determination, at least at this point of Biden and his team to go
forward.
The debate mattered so much because he fell into really the most difficult trap in politics here, or probably in any democracy, which is to confirm a
preexisting concern of the voters.
You know, it wasn't like the first time voters were concerned about Joe Biden's age was at the debate. This is something that has been brewing for
many months, the White House has been kind of pooh-poohing the findings in polls, but after those 90 minutes, he really underscored that.
And now, you're looking at polls, like in the New York Times-Siena poll this week, 74 percent of voters saying that he's too old to do the job,
that rises to 84 percent among people under 50 and 84 -- roughly the same number among people now voting for third parties.
So once that perception is so solidified, anything -- you know, almost anything can reconfirm it, it can harden it further. And for Joe Biden to
say to governors, well, you know, I really shouldn't be doing much after 8:00 PM, you remember in 2008, Hillary Clinton ran an ad? Who do you want
answering the phone at 3:00 AM as president?
And so, it just to me, it's just like the first example of many of how things that can happen between now and the election have the potential to
feed into and compound the judgment, the negative judgment that Biden is facing about his capacity.
NEWTON: Yes, absolutely, Ron, I will note that it's July and we're already at the "Game of Thrones" reference.
Thank you, Ron.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
NEWTON: And it is only July, and look, I mean, to state the obvious, I know it's a taunt, but for years, Donald Trump has called Joe Biden, Sleepy Joe.
So even if it were true, why give into something like that? It's not going to console governors.
Now look, we have to get to what the Biden campaign is trying to do here. We have an ABC interview tomorrow, one-on-one, no script, more events like
this apparently to follow. A NATO Summit next week.
You know, you were right, that one Democrat told you this in "The Atlantic" that he needs to see, relentless, relentless, speaking to the public.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
NEWTON: If he does that, do you think in two or three weeks, it can change the narrative?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, I think, first of all, what he is doing is not remotely, right? Doing a rally on stage is very different from what many people in
the Democratic Party are calling for, which is to do town halls, where you're standing there in the middle of the room like John McCain did or
Barack Obama did at various points and you're answering questions on the fly from voters, and obviously presenting yourself to the media in a much
more concentrated way, in a single interview with George.
Look, once voters have seen this performance, I don't think they can unsee it. I don't think you can ever -- you know, as I said, there was the
concern going into the debate that he was too old, the debate gave a lot of evidence to the people who worried about that, but they were right to worry
about that.
And even if he has good days going forward, it I don't think it can erase what they saw, which leaves many people, you know, worried or confident
that there are going to be bad days going forward as well.
And so look, I don't think you can erase this. I mean, you might be able to ameliorate it a little bit. But I think, you know, you never get a second
chance to make a first impression and I think he has created an indelible concern among voters that even if every day isn't like what they saw at the
debate, there are going to be days that are like it, and many Americans are just not willing to take that risk for a president.
NEWTON: Yes. And as you point out, it was kind of like the first impression of what the second term could be like.
Ron, we'll leave it there for now. Happy Fourth to you, if I hadn't already said it. I really appreciate your insights here.
BROWNSTEIN: Thank you, Paula.
NEWTON: Ron Brownstein for us. Thanks.
Now next, scenes of destruction from Jamaica after Hurricane Beryl dumps months' worth of rain on the country. More on where the storm is moving
next, in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:17:38]
NEWTON: A former quality control manager of Boeing is speaking out alleging that the plane manufacturer routinely took parts from a scrap yard and used
them on factory assembly lines.
Now in his first network TV interview, the 30-year veteran of the company told CNN an elaborate off-the-books practice was used to meet production
deadlines.
CNN's Pete Muntean has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (voice over): If Everett, Washington is a Boeing company town, then Merle Meyers was a company man. A
30-year veteran of Boeing, Meyers says his job as a quality control manager put his kids through college.
It is a family tradition. His late mother was a Boeing inspector, able to unilaterally decide if a new airplane just off the factory line was fit to
fly.
MUNTEAN: What would she think about what is happening at Boeing?
MERLE MEYERS, BOEING WHISTLEBLOWER: She'd be absolutely livid.
MUNTEAN (voice over): Meyers new allegations detail an elaborate off-the- books practice centering on parts deemed not safe to put in new airplanes. He is the latest whistleblower to come forward with claims of quality
control lapses at Boeing. This is his first TV interview inspired by the January 5th door plug blowout on an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9.
Spray painted red, bad parts deemed not up to Boeing's standards are taken from Boeing's Everett plant and sent to its scrap facility in Auburn. But
then one day in 2015, Meyers says a crate of bad parts were improperly sent back from Auburn to Boeing's Everett factory. Meyers alleges the practice
continued for years, telling that more than 50,000 parts escaped Boeing quality control.
MUNTEAN (on camera): Fifty thousand parts?
MEYERS: That's what we counted at the time.
MUNTEAN: It seems like a heck of a lot.
MEYERS: It is a heck of a lot indeed.
MUNTEAN: What does that say to you?
MEYERS: Well, that says it puts people's lives at risk, not just passengers, but flight crews. And a lot of these are flight-critical parts
that made it back into the production system.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): Company e-mails show Meyers repeatedly flagged the issue to Boeing's corporate investigations team, pointing out what he says
were repeat violations of Boeing's safety rules. But Meyers insists investigators routinely failed to enforce those rules.
In a 2022 e-mail, he wrote that Boeing investigators ignored eyewitness observations and the hard work done to ensure the safety of future
passengers and crew.
[16:20:06]
MUNTEAN: Why would they do this?
MEYERS: Schedule. The schedule.
MUNTEAN: To get planes out the door, to make money.
MEYERS: Mm-hmm.
MUNTEAN: To make money.
MEYERS: Yes.
MUNTEAN (voice over): Meyers believes he was forced out of Boeing last year and is concerned there are still problems at the company.
MEYERS: Well, I think they need to punish, they need to fire people that blatantly violate the process and endanger the flying public. That's a huge
problem. And a core requirement of a quality system is to keep bad parts and good parts apart.
MUNTEAN (voice over): In a statement, Boeing says it encourages employees to speak up and that to ensure the safety, quality, and conformance of our
products, we investigate all allegations of improper behavior such as unauthorized movement of parts or mishandling of documents. We then work
diligently to address them and make improvements.
Meyers says he is coming forward now because of the pride he has in Boeing. He goes so far as to call it a wonderful company, one he says has been
going astray and is in desperate need of change.
MEYERS: But you have to care, leadership has to care to do that. But if you can't even keep parts segregated from good parts, what else aren't you
doing right?
MUNTEAN (on camera): The mystery here is that we do not have an exact accounting of where these parts are. They range from the superficial like
fasteners to the critical wing flaps used for landing. If these parts weren't returned to the scrapyard, our whistleblowers worry that they ended
up on new planes delivered to airlines and other customers in the last decade or so.
How big a deal is that? Also hard to know since we don't know exactly how or where they were used. But there is no question that these scrap parts
should not have been put on planes.
Pete Muntean, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
NEWTON: In other news, now spared from the worst. That's the assessment of Jamaica's prime minister after Hurricane Beryl tore through his country and
other parts of the Caribbean.
Right now, the storm is pulling away from the Cayman Islands and heading for Mexico. And while it is losing strength, it is now a Category Two, of
course it remains dangerous. At least nine people have been killed by the hurricane including two in Jamaica.
More than a month's worth of rain fell in just hours. The Jamaican prime minister told CNN that things could have been much worse, but serious
damage was still caused.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDREW HOLNESS, JAMAICA PRIME MINISTER: Based upon the category of hurricane that hit us, it was at a Category Four. The damage was not what
we had expected, and so we're very grateful for that. But there was damage nonetheless.
We had damage to some coastal infrastructure in the southern parishes. We had damage to agriculture and housing in two parishes, Manchester, and St.
Elizabeth.
We have had some roads cut off or blocked. But outside of that, I think Jamaica was spared the worst.
NEWTON: Rafael Romo is still in Kingston, Jamaica for us, where there is a huge cleanup job. And I know Rafael that you actually saw a lot of this
damage up close.
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we did see a lot of damage up close and the prime minister was saying it, Paula, this population of the
Jamaican population is breathing a collective sigh of relief because yes, it is true, it could have been much worse.
But again, this storm is one for the history books. It spent some more than four days of its life, 102 hours to be precise as a major category
hurricane meaning three or higher.
If we wanted to compare it to any other hurricane, we would have to go back to 2005 when Emily did the same and with a caveat, this will happen before
the month of August. It is still early in the season and it has already happened.
But yes, earlier today we visited different communities around the Kingston area. We visited the Dallas community just east of the Capitol, where we
saw some roads that were blocked. A lot of debris, people working together trying to begin the cleanup effort.
And we also went to the West. We went to a fishing village where people were just trying to do the same and because of the way the hurricane came,
they not only got the winds and the rain, but also the trash and the debris that got pulled from this part of Kingston to their location, but they have
a lot of hope while at the same time, one villager told us that we should all learn a lesson from what just happened here. Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TALEST CHIN, BUSINESS OWNER: I watched what is it? I said, it is Category One now, because it can be Category One and then in a blink of an eye, it
goes to Category Five, so you have to always prepared for any disaster.
We have life, that's the most important thing, and I mean it's going to be expensive to re-build back everything, but in time it will be done.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[16:25:18]
ROMO: And Paula, Hurricane Beryl has prompted a regional conversation about why a storm this powerful formed in the Atlantic so early in the season.
Again, we're only at the beginning of July. It is the first month of the season and we already saw a storm that got to be a Category Five storm, and
some people believe that it may not be the last.
Normally people here in Jamaica and other parts of the Caribbean are used to seeing hurricanes, but they don't happen until maybe late August
September, October, not this early in the season -- Paula.
NEWTON: Yes, and a reminder, this is a storm that is still going. It's just pulled away from the Cayman Islands and is now headed to Mexico and
possibly the United States.
Rafael Romo for us in Jamaica, thanks so much.
Now US President Joe Biden is set to speak at an Independence Day event in the next hour. It has, of course, been a rough week for his campaign. Now a
group of business leaders is calling for him to step aside. We'll have that, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NEWTON: Hello, I'm Paula Newton. There's more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS in a moment when the US President Biden weighs his future. We will speak to the
CEO of a pro-democracy business group who says, it is time for him to step aside.
And World Cup Champions, Argentina are now setting their sights on the Copa America. They might have to do it without their star player, Lionel Messi.
[16:30:01]
Before that, though, these are your headlines this hour.
There's 30 minutes left until polls close in the U.K. general election. The exit poll will be released shortly after giving us a snapshot of what to
expect nationally. Now the actual vote count gets underway overnight.
For the first time in weeks, real progress is reported in efforts to reach a ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas. An Israeli source
says the two sides appear on the brink of a framework agreement. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is sending a negotiating team to discuss the
details. Now he spoke with President Biden about the apparent progress during a half-hour phone call earlier today.
The Nathan's Hot Dog Eating Contest has, yes, a new man's champion. Patrick Bertoletti downed 58, count them, 58 hot dogs and buns -- and buns in 10
minutes. 18 less than the record set by former champion Joey Chestnut, who was missing from this year's event. Now Chestnut has signed a deal with
Impossible Foods, a plant based competitor to Nathan's.
So we are expecting to hear from President Joe Biden in the next hour. He's hosting an independent state barbecue at the White House for active duty
troops. Then he set to attend a fireworks show this evening. It's a trying time, of course, for the Biden campaign. He's defying calls to drop out of
the race after his terrible debate performance last week.
Now, a group of business leaders is among those calling for Biden to step aside. The Leadership Now Project is a left-leaning organization aimed at
protecting democracy. 400 current and former executives are a part of it. The group's CEO says the vast majority of them want a new candidate at the
top of the Democratic ticket.
Daniella Ballou-Aares is the head of that leadership, the Leadership Now Project, and she joins us.
Thanks so much for coming on here as we try and parse exactly what's happening with the president and his campaign. So 80 percent of your
members say Joe Biden needs to step aside. Why?
DANIELLA BALLOU-AARES, CEO, LEADERSHIP NOW PROJECT: Thank you, first of all, for having me and Happy July 4th. First and foremost, I want to say
our number one concern is the risk that former President Trump presents to the economy, to national security and the risk that he undermines rule of
law.
So our major concern is that Trump does not return to the presidency, and we are deeply concerned, however, that President Biden will not be able to
make effectively the case against the former president and that is just too risky for our nation right now. And for that reason, we have respectfully
encouraged President Biden to pass the torch to a new Democratic leader.
NEWTON: And what levers do you believe your organization has? Is it money? Is it just influence? If you want him to step aside, it doesn't seem like
he or his family are inclined to right now.
BALLOU-AARES: Look, we think in a democracy, in America's democracy that both the voices of private leaders, whether it's in business and civic
leaders, is really an important factor. We are also engaging with members of Congress and the House and the Senate making our concerns heard. And
sharing those of course also with the White House and the administration. So we know that we alone will not drive this decision, but we believe that
adding our voice to it and encouraging others to come forward and recognize the severity and risk of the situation is our obligation, frankly, to this
country.
NEWTON: Is there anything that the president could do at this point, though? And I don't mean today, I mean in the next few weeks, that could
change your mind.
BALLOU-AARES: Unfortunately, I think there has been noticeable decline in the president's ability to make a robust case in not only this debate, but
in other contexts. I think the debate was so severe that it reinforced concerns that had been there for some time. Of course, the polls now are
showing very worrying signs about the president's viability. So it's really hard to see anything that would change that dynamic.
[16:35:03]
NEWTON: I understand you're speaking for yourself and to some extent for your members, but I have to ask, if Joe Biden does not step aside, what can
your organization do to try and help him win or do you believe some in your organization would either not vote or vote for Donald Trump?
BALLOU-AARES: Look, if President Biden remains the Democratic nominee, I am certain all of our members will support him. We will continue to make the
case that former President Trump presents a profound risk to American democracy. So we will do that but we will be very concerned at the risk
that President Biden loses the election. So we're -- none of us are going to switch to supporting the other candidate. But we want to do everything
we can to have the strongest candidate we can and we believe there is a very strong bench in the Democratic Party, and it is sad that we're not
having the opportunity to have an alternative given they exist.
NEWTON: Now I only have 10 seconds left. One Democrat we've written about has said that, look, nobody thinks Joe Biden can win. Do you believe that,
that he absolutely can't win now?
BALLOU-AARES: I don't think we can say anything that definitively, but I think the chances are unfortunately that he is far more likely to lose than
win.
NEWTON: OK. Daniella Ballou-Aares, we will leave it there, but we really thank you for voicing this on CNN. Appreciate it.
BALLOU-AARES: Thank you for having me.
NEWTON: Now still to come, Argentina and Ecuador are set to clash at the Copa America quarter finals. The big question, will an injured Lionel Messi
fit enough to play? Stay tuned.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
NEWTON: To the Copa America now and world champions Argentina are looking to book their place in the last four of the competition. They'll take on
Ecuador in the quarter finals later today, but it remains unclear if captain Lionel Messi will join his team. He's been nursing a sore
hamstring.
Meantime, there have been low attendances at several matches in the tournament, which is being held in the United States. And with the country
set to co-host the World Cup in 2026, swatches, pardon me, swaths of empty seats may be concerning to organizers.
Paul Tenorio is a senior writer at "The Athletic." He's in Houston for the match and joins me now.
Messi, listen, we've got to start there.
[16:40:02]
If he can't play, is that a big blow to Argentina for this match? And what does he mean in general to Copa America, the whole tournament?
PAUL TENORIO, SENIOR WRITER, THE ATLANTIC: Yes, certainly anytime Messi is not on the field, it impacts the way Argentina plays. They showed at the
group finale that they are capable of course of winning without him. I do think Messi will play. I do think Messi will start I think sitting out the
group stage. The finale was just a chance for him to rest that hamstring and be ready for the knockouts.
And I think especially with the United States national team out of the Copa America now, Lionel Messi takes an even bigger role for this tournament in
terms of marketing and growing the game within this country. People tune in to watch Messi play all around the world. Certainly that's the case here in
the United States as well. So right now, Messi is the biggest draw in this tournament.
He will continue to be so. And if he is in Argentina or out of the tournament, I think some of the challenges of marketing these games,
pushing these games ahead of the World Cup in two years becomes a little bit more challenging for sure.
NEWTON: Yes, you make such a good point that it's a branding issue right now for Copa America, meaning, will Messi play, won't he, and watching him
play in the U.S.
Now how would you rate this tournament so far and what does it tell you about the World Cup? What's that going to look like in 2026 from what you
can tell now?
TENORIO: Yes. I mean, I'm not too concerned about the crowd sizes in the Copa America as it compares to the World Cup. For one, there'll be a
completely different marketing arm around that tournament in two years' time. People will run the marketing. It is the biggest tournament in the
world. Millions of people will apply for tickets from all around the world to come to the United States to watch the games be played here.
And so I think we're going to see absolutely filled stadiums around the country for the World Cup. That being said, certainly we see the challenges
of an organization like CONMEBOL, which is based in South America, coming to the U.S. and trying to put on a tournament here. To some degree with
some stars and some teams, you don't have to do much in the form of advertising to bring those fans into the stadium.
As I mentioned before, I think anytime Argentina plays, you're going to have a sold-out crowd. The United States had some decent crowds. But when
you see the ticket pricing, the lack of dynamic pricing, I'm trying to kind of push really, really high ticket prices to put revenue in front of
everything else. When you see, for example, a non-sold out stadium here in Houston for a Mexico national team match, that's a rarity. Usually anytime
Mexico plays it's a sold-out crowd.
Now their national team is on a downturn and like I said those prices were very high. But I think it's indicative of the fact that there are still
some savvy soccer fans out here who want to make sure that they're getting the product that they're paying for and hopefully there are some lessons
learned by FIFA, by other organizers about how to market prices and what is the best way to try to increase the popularity of the sport by opening it
up to more people and making tickets more accessible.
NEWTON: Yes. Like you said, dynamic pricing, right? If you're not filling the seats early on, what can you do to try and get people there to actually
watch the game and drive enthusiasm. So in terms of those stadiums which are amazing for things like football, do you have any concerns here?
There's talk about the grass on the pitch. You know, there's talk about how it's all going to be organized in terms of who gets the tickets when.
I mean, what are your concerns right now going into the World Cup, if any, from what you've seen from this tournament?
TENORIO: I think the biggest lesson learned is CONMEBOL decided to have a standardized field sites across all of the stadiums here in the United
States and because some of the games are being played in football stadiums that are made for American football and have more narrow fields, they are
playing with the absolute minimum size needed for international soccer, which means that the game can't be as expansive as we've seen, for example,
in the Euros.
I don't think that will be the case from the World Cup. There are some of these stadiums who are retrofitting their stadiums to be able to play those
wider fields. There's a minimum size required for the World Cup. But we see some of the challenges that exist with putting on a tournament here in the
United States, when you play it at stadiums like in Las Vegas or in Los Angeles, where for some the reason they made those stadiums not be able to
fit soccer fields.
So that for me is the bigger concern. The temporary grass, certainly some lessons learned there. I think ahead of the World Cup, you'll see teams
putting those grass fields down on top of turf much earlier in the process.
NEWTON: Yes. And we might start to hear again some more complaints about that.
Paulson Tenorio, thank you so much for our primer on Copa America. Really appreciate it.
TENORIO: Thanks so much for having me.
NEWTON: Still to come for us, Japan's biggest baseball exports. How the Dodgers superstar is impacting the sport and his community.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:47:05]
NEWTON: The Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team plays tonight against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Dodgers are at the top of their division and
Japanese megastar Shohei Ohtani is a big reason for that. He's only been a Dodger for a few months now and clearly having a big impact. Ohtani's
broader impact on the community is just as large as the one on the field.
Natasha Chen has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Baseball is America's pastime. But here in one of the country's oldest baseball
stadiums, you'll see a celebration of Japanese heritage and hear Japanese language tours four days a week, all because of six-foot-four --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is a superhero.
CHEN: -- star hitter and pitcher.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are proud of him.
CHEN: New Dodger Shohei Ohtani.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He is a good baseball player and so cute.
CHEN: After a record-breaking contract with the Dodgers, Ohtani is drawing fans from across the Pacific Ocean in waves.
STAN KASTEN, PRESIDENT AND CEO, LOS ANGELES DODGERS: We're expecting a spike, but truly nothing like this.
CHEN: The team has a dozen new Japanese sponsors this year and added six new Japanese-speaking tour guides. Dodger Stadium food now goes beyond the
Dodger Dog to the Kurobuta pork sausage dog, sushi, chicken katsu, and Takoyaki, which are round fritters filled with octopus. You can get the
original or --
It's got a kick. Salsa and cheese, and guacamole and cheese.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: American taste.
CHEN: The Los Angeles Tourism and Convention Board says 80 percent to 90 percent of visitors from Japan come to Dodger Stadium at least once during
their trip to LA. And many of them end up here in LA's Little Tokyo to find the mural they've heard about all the way from Japan.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The painting is moving he said.
ROBERT VARGAS, ARTIST: They scan the QR code at the base of the mural, point your camera phone and they can see Shohei actually swing and see him
pitch, and you hear Vin Scully say --
VIN SCULLY, AMERICAN SPORTSCASTER: It's time for Dodger baseball.
CHEN (voice-over): Artist Robert Vargas says he painted this mural to bring everyone together in the city's crossroads of Asian and Latin American
communities.
VARGAS: The city has been hard hit during COVID and I really felt like as a longtime resident of downtown L.A., I wanted to be able to contribute to
the AAPI community.
CHEN: Little Tokyo businesses say they have doubled the customers they normally get this time of year. And with the weak Japanese yen, it's a
costly trip for travelers from Japan spending U.S. dollars, but they'll find a few local deals.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After he hit a homerun, next day, it will be 50 percent off.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If Shohei hits a home run, we automatically pass out Shohei's shot.
CHEN: You hope this goes on for 10 years.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
CHEN: Yes.
(Voice-over): The Miyako Hotel general manager says rooms are fully booked during home games.
Takayo Hizume says her son also played baseball and she feels as if Ohtani is Japan's son.
[16:50:03]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And wait until he starts pitching for us, I'm just like, my gosh.
CHEN: Whether fans are from his home country, second-generation Japanese American, or have no connection to Japan at all, it's a unifying moment.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's amazing.
CHEN: A moment as American as a hot dog on the Fourth of July and a Takoyaki covered in guac.
KASTEN: This is good for everyone. This is good for all of baseball.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHEN (on-camera): It's not just the fans. It's also Japanese media following Ohtanis so much so that the media signs at the stadium are
translated into Japanese.
Now the fans tell me they're making a trip out of this. Also seeing classic L.A. sites, which is what the tourism board wants to see. I'm told that
they're seeing Santa Monica Beach. They're seeing Hollywood. And now experiencing an American Fourth of July.
NEWTON: Our thanks to Natasha Chen there.
Now here in New York, the Fourth of July fireworks over the Hudson River are just hours away. Around the world U.S. troops and their families have
already been celebrating the Independence Day holiday. There were -- these were the skies over Camp Humphreys in South Korea. U.S. forces there have
celebrations planned throughout the weekend.
That is QUEST MEANS BUSINESS. I am Paula Newton. Our special coverage of the U.K. election begins right after this break. Richard Quest, Isa Soares
and Anna Stewart will bring you all the latest exit polls, analysis and more. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: A CNN exclusive report revealing damning documents and hearing from a key whistleblower for the first time on television.
[16:55:01]
So this centers on Boeing at a critical time for the aviation giant and highlights concerns over the safety of airplane parts.
Pete Muntean reports now that the whistleblower claims Boeing employees actually pulled plane parts from the scrap heap, potentially endangering
passengers and flight staff's safety to meet the tight production schedules and turn higher profits.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MUNTEAN (voiceover): If Everett, Washington, is a Boeing company town, then Merle Meyers was a company man. A 30-year veteran of Boeing, Meyers says
his job as a quality control manager put his kids through college. It's a family tradition. His late mother was a Boeing inspector, able to
unilaterally decide if a new airplane just off the factory line was fit to fly.
What would she think about what is happening at Boeing?
MERLE MEYERS, BOEING WHISTLEBLOWER: She'd be absolutely livid.
MUNTEAN (voiceover): Meyers' new allegations detail an elaborate off-the- books practice centering on parts deemed not safe to put in new airplanes. He is the latest whistleblower to come forward with claims of quality
control lapses at Boeing. This is his first TV interview inspired by the January 5th door plug blowout on an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX-9.
Spray-painted red, bad parts deemed not up to Boeing standards are taken from Boeing's Everett plant and sent to its scrap facility in Auburn. But
then one day in 2015, Meyers says a crate of bad parts were improperly sent back from Auburn to Boeing's Everett factory.
Meyers alleges the practice continued for years, telling that more than 50,000 parts escaped Boeing quality control.
Fifty thousand parts?
MEYERS: That's what we counted at the time.
MUNTEAN: It seems like a heck of a lot.
MEYERS: It's a heck of a lot indeed.
MUNTEAN: What does that say to you?
MEYERS: Well, that says it puts people's lives at risk. Not just passengers but flight crews. And a lot of these are flight critical parts that made it
back into the production system.
MUNTEAN (voiceover): Company e-mails show Meyers repeatedly flagged the issue to Boeing's corporate investigations team pointing out what he says
were repeat violations of Boeing safety rules. But Meyers insists investigators routinely failed to enforce those rules. In a 2022 e-mail, he
wrote that Boeing investigators ignored eyewitness observations and the hard work done to ensure the safety of future passengers and crew.
Why would they do this?
MEYERS: The schedule. The schedule.
MUNTEAN: To get planes out the door?
MEYERS: Yes.
MUNTEAN: To make money?
MEYERS: Yes.
MUNTEAN (voiceover): Meyers believes he was forced out of Boeing last year and is concerned there are still problems at the company.
MEYERS: Well, I think they need to punish. They need to fire people that blatantly violate the process and endanger the flying public. It's a huge
problem. And a core requirement of a quality system is to keep bad parts and good parts apart.
MUNTEAN: In a statement, Boeing says it encourages employees to speak up and that to ensure the safety, quality, and conformance of our products, we
investigate all allegations of improper behavior such as unauthorized movement of parts or mishandling of documents. We then work diligently to
address them and make improvements.
Meyers says he is coming forward now because of the pride he has in Boeing. He goes so far as to call it a wonderful company, one, he says, has been
going astray and is in desperate need of change.
MEYERS: But you have to care. Leadership has to care to do that. But if you can't even keep parts segregated from good parts, what else aren't you
doing right?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MUNTEAN (on-camera): Now CNN has not been able to independently verify the allegations made by Meyers. In a statement, Boeing did not address his
claims specifically. One mystery here is that we do not have an exact accounting of where these parts may have ended up. Meyers says they ranged
from superficial to safety critical. All the way to the wing flaps required for landing.
Our whistleblower worries that those junk parts ended up on new planes that were delivered to airlines over the last decade or so. That and the recent
issues at Boeing is why our whistleblower is speaking up now -- Erica.
HILL: Yes. That is really something. Pete, appreciate the reporting. Thank you.
Well, on a much lighter note for you, there's a new hot dog eating champ this July 4th. Patrick Bertoletti won the annual Nathan's contest at Coney
Island, scarfing down 58 hot dogs and buns in just 10 minutes. This is Bertoletti's first win in nine tries. May have been helped perhaps by the
absence of the 16-time champ Joey Chestnut who of course is barred from competing this year after he signed a deal with a plant based foods company
Impossible Foods.
On the women side today, Miki Sudo won setting a new world record, eating 51 hot dogs and buns.
END
