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Early Bird Shoppers Kick Off Black Friday Frenzy; Trump Eyeing Two Billionaires for Cabinet Posts; ISIS Continues Reign of Terror Over Civilians; Melanie Trump and the Role of First Ladies; Aired 9:30-10a ET
Aired November 25, 2016 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:30:00] ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: You know what the got-to-get gift this year is? It is the 4K TV or at this point any TV. Just to give you an idea, Target says last night it had 600 people -- I want to show you the video -- outside the door, waiting to get in. This is after they ate their turkey dinner, after the pumpkin pie, they got in the car and they came to Target. Most of the people ran straight to the electronics area to pick up those TVs.
And guess how well those TVs did? 3200 TVs were sold every minute in the first hour of opening last night. So yes, we do see Black Friday bleeding into Thursday but there's no denying it Black Friday is still very, very special if you're a holiday shopper.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KOSIK (voice-over): This year's Black Friday frenzy kicking off with hundreds jamming the streets outside Macy's flagship store in New York City. Early bird shoppers taking over entire departments in search of steep discounts. It's that time of year when all-out chaos ensues over jumbo-sized TVs. And shoppers battle it out over who gets the biggest deals.
This excited crowd caught clamoring over electronics at a Wal-Mart in Columbus, Mississippi. Even though Wal-Mart is trying to reduce the brawls by handing out wristbands to a limited number of customers for hot items and increasing staffing.
Still, across the country, retailers are welcoming the long lines. Ushering in eager bargain hunters and customers are braving inclement weather. Shoppers at this best buy in Portland standing in the rain for hours.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm soaking wet and I'm still here.
KOSIK: Foregoing Thanksgiving dinner to flood the aisles in search of big-ticket items. Ready with cash in hand.
The National Retail Federation says holiday sales this year are expected to top $650 billion. A 3.6 percent increase from 2015. And on Cyber Monday, at least 36 percent of consumers plan to nab their deals online.
(END VIDEOTAPE) KOSIK: And many doorbusters have already sold out but that's not stopping the crowds from forming already -- Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Alison Kosik, enjoy shopping at Target. Thanks so much.
All right, on to -- on to politics. Donald Trump's outreach to former critics could extend into his new Commerce Department. Sources say the president-elected is likely to pick Todd Rickets to be deputy secretary of the Commerce Department. If that name sounds familiar it's because Ricketts is the co-owner of the Chicago Cubs. He was a supporter of Governor Scott Walker during the primary, actually his mega donor, his family pumped millions into an anti-Trump super PAC although the family came around and supported Trump when it became clear that Trump was the winning candidate.
Ricketts also apparently is not very good at selling hotdogs. Here's a look from "Undercover Boss" and yes, Ricketts was an "Undercover Boss."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hotdogs, hotdogs. Who needs a hotdog?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, hotdog.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hotdogs. Yes. How many you need? OK. Really quick?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Call out the change.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This way they know what they're getting back.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mark was a little slow. He was a little shy. He's handling of the money was sub-par.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: I think Ricketts was actually fired because of his bathroom cleaning skills. They were not up to par. But he's a good sport, right?
There you go.
COSTELLO: Joining me now to talk about this and more, CNN's global economic analyst and assistant managing editor at "TIME" magazine, Rana Faroohar.
Hi, Rana.
RANA FAROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST: Hey, how are you?
COSTELLO: So tell us about --
FAROOHAR: Happy Black Friday.
COSTELLO: Exactly. I can't believe all those people waiting in the rain. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around that.
FAROOHAR: Record sales. Record sales.
COSTELLO: So when people hear the Commerce Department they go, well, what does that department do?
FAROOHAR: Yes. Go sleepy.
COSTELLO: Yes. So why is that important particularly now with Donald Trump in office?
FAROOHAR: Yes. Well, you know, for starters, the people that he's talking about potentially for Commerce are very interesting. I mean, Wilbur Ross, big private equity guy, Ricketts comes from a family of conservative donors, but also his sister, you know, being a Democrat, that's sort of a surprise candidate.
Commerce is really important right now because as we've just seen, you know, we could be at a point where the economy could be starting to take off. The policies that we implement now are going to have a lot to do with what we see in the next four years.
Are companies and consumers going to spend more? And what do we need to do to make that happen?
COSTELLO: So how does the Commerce Department make or not make that happen?
FAROOHAR: Yes. Well, so interestingly, you know, there's sort of two choices right now. Are you going to cut taxes? Are you going to do a fiscal policy that's designed to stimulate growth? Are you going to sort of sit back and depend on monetary policy to keep driving things?
Trump has said very clearly he wants fiscal policy in the form of tax cuts, in the form of infrastructure spending. This is something that, you know, we know that Wilbur Ross is interested in and Todd Ricketts is very interested in, as well.
I have my doubts about whether tax cuts alone are going to support the economy and I think that there's going to be a lot of controversy about both of these candidates.
[09:35:08] You know, because they are very conservative. This is sort of, you know, a playbook of trickle-down economics. Whether or not it's going to stimulate is going to be up to the base.
COSTELLO: And the two men are incredibly wealthy.
FAROOHAR: They are very wealthy. I mean --
COSTELLO: So when Donald Trump during the campaign said, you know, we're going to fix this rigged economy, you know, and Wall Street is rigged against the rest of us. FAROOHAR: Well --
COSTELLO: But there's these two guys who are incredibly wealthy Wall Streeters.
FAROOHAR: Exactly. I mean, it's a great irony that Donald Trump ran as the outsider candidate, the guy who was supposedly outside the system. But you know, he and many of these appointees have -- the system has benefited them more than anybody else. So I think they're going to get a lot of pushback from progressives.
COSTELLO: OK. So Wilbur Ross.
FAROOHAR: Yes.
COSTELLO: He's most well known -- he's sort of like -- critics say he's sort of like Mitt Romney was when he ran. He's like a guy who takes like distressed companies and then --
FAROOHAR: Yes. Yes.
COSTELLO: Makes a lot of money off of them.
FAROOHAR: So, you know, his nickname is the king of bankruptcy. I mean, this is a guy who has gone in for several decades globally and in the U.S., bought up distressed companies. In the U.S. he's bought a lot of textile companies, steel companies, some big coal companies. Mixed records. You know, some people see him as hey, he's coming to rust belt companies and created jobs. Other people say this is a guy who's cut pensions, who's cut benefits, and actually there was a problem at one of the coal mines that he purchased in the mid 2000s --
COSTELLO: The Sago coalmine in West Virginia.
FAROOHAR: That's right. There was a big explosion that killed twelve workers there. There were some concerns about safety at that factory. He said look, we wouldn't have bought a lemon. He didn't feel that there were safety issues. Labor activists don't agree. So I expect that to be a point of controversy, as well.
COSTELLO: All right. Rana Faroohar, thanks so much.
FAROOHAR: OK. Thank you.
COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, as ISIS loses ground in Mosul, they're fighting back at one of the only ways they can. They're targeting innocent civilians.
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[09:40:58] COSTELLO: Every day Iraqi forces are freeing more neighborhoods from the fear of living under ISIS. But even as they are beating back the terrorists they continue to kill Iraqi civilians and their families, from a distance.
ISIS now lobbing mortars into crowded neighborhoods. In all the World Health Organization says 40,000 civilians will need treatment for trauma injuries they received in the Mosul offensive.
CNN international correspondent Phil Black is live in Irbil, Iraq, this morning. Hi, Phil.
PHIL BLACK, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. The citizens inside Mosul have been warned by Iraqi authorities to stay in their homes and hunker down. To not try and leave the city. The Iraqi military forces that are moving through say they're being very careful not to harm those civilians. They're not using heavy weapons. They're not calling in air strikes. We've been inside Mosul and we have seen firsthand that ISIS is not showing the same concern.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BLACK (voice-over): These people have just lived through the horror of urban warfare. They cowered in their homes for days, prayers and white flags their only protection as Iraqi forces fought their way through the neighborhoods of eastern Mosul against fierce ISIS resistance. Now there is little food, water, or medicine. No electricity. But there's much relief.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Like a dark thing on the chest.
BLACK (on camera): ISIS is like a dark thing on your chest.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. Dark thing.
BLACK: And it's gone now?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, Daesh, the dark thing is gone.
BLACK (voice-over): You could hear the fighting in the near distance. It's still dangerously close.
(On camera): ISIS is gone from these streets, but its ability to harm these people hasn't passed. Just 24 hours ago, we're told, a family was sitting here outside their home when a mortar struck a short distance away, and an 18-month-old girl was killed.
Her name was Amira Ali (PH). Her father, Omar, is overwhelmed with grief.
He cries, "What did she do wrong? She was just playing. She's gone from me, and she's my only one."
Every day this makeshift clinic inside Mosul sees the terrible consequences of mortars fired into civilian areas. It's a bloody production line. The wounded are delivered, patched up quickly, and loaded into ambulances to transport to hospital.
At times, it seems endless, as one ambulance pulls away, another military vehicle speeds in carrying more wounded civilians. They're unloaded with great care as the medics work to help the victims of yet another ISIS mortar attack. But they can't save everyone.
This man's 21-year-old son was killed. He says, "A mortar just fell in front of the door, we came, and he was just a piece of meat. Four or five of my neighbors were standing with him, and they're all dead."
Here, another parent falls to the dusty ground before the body of her son.
These people endured two years of living under ISIS only to be killed by the group's desperate military tactics and its total indifference to the lives of the innocent.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLACK: Carol, there are more than a million people inside Mosul. And what we've seen so far is really only the start of the military operation. A very early stages of the effort to push ISIS out of that city. So as that progresses, the fighting intensifies. The logical concern is that the humanitarian cost is going to get higher still -- Carol.
[09:45:04] COSTELLO: Phil Black reporting live from Irbil, Iraq, this morning.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Melania Trump already surprising some people as she gets ready to take on her role as first lady. But will she move into the White House? Some people wonder. And is it time to redefine the role of the first lady anyway?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Donald Trump surprising a lot of people when he said his wife Melania won't be moving into the White House right away. Some wonder if Mrs. Trump will ever move in but she is already bucking tradition. And that led Politico's Jack Schafer to wonder whether it's time to redefine this whole first lady thing.
[09:50:06] He writes, quote, "The president's spouse isn't a specimen of American royalty. By giving her a federal budget and nonstop press coverage, we endorse a pernicious kind of neo-nepotism that says pay special attention to the person not because she's earned it or is inherently worthy of our notice but because of who she's related to by marriage."
Schafer does go on to make clear his beef is not with Melania Trump but rather with the cost of keeping the first lady's office.
With me now is Kate Anderson Brower, she's the author of "First Women: The Grace and Power of America's Modern First Ladies."
Welcome.
KATE ANDERSON BROWER, AUTHOR, "FIRST WOMEN": Thank you, Carol.
COSTELLO: So what do you think about that? Is it time that we redefine the role of first lady and perhaps kind of explore the option of not having one?
BROWER: Well, I mean, I think it is -- he's right about one thing. It's an anachronistic role, I mean, to have a woman who is just there as a figurehead and not doing much, you know, expected to pour tea and be a hostess. But I think he misses the mark that, you know, symbolically it's very important to have somebody in the White House greeting heads of state and taking care of the residence and also doing -- there are so many things, like the Easter Egg roll, White House Christmas parties.
But it's not only the symbolic part of it. I mean, the first lady is also an adviser to her husband. And we've had first ladies like Nancy Reagan who have been incredibly powerful. And I do think that Melania Trump has an incredible opportunity as the first immigrant first lady since Louisa Adams to really lend a voice to immigrants in this country. It's an incredibly opportunity to live in the White House.
COSTELLO: But, Kate, why do first ladies have to adopt a thing? You know, Nancy Reagan was the anti-drug campaign. Michelle Obama was healthy eating and exercise.
BROWER: Right. Yes. I mean, we expect that and ever since Lady Byrd Johnson's beautification program we expect them to adopt an apolitical issue. Right? I don't think there's anything wrong with that. I think the question is whether or not -- the more important question is whether or not they can continue their job. You know, could Michelle Obama have continued to be a lawyer, for instance, with her husband as president. I mean, we ask these women to give up their careers and they are high-powered careers, for their husbands and then to act as though they shouldn't have any role in the White House seems to me to be, you know, belittling them.
And they're very powerful women and intelligent women themselves. And I don't agree with the idea or the argument that we should get rid of it.
COSTELLO: Well, but I think that, you know, when first ladies come up with a cause they try to make it not political, per se, but it kind of becomes that way anyway, doesn't it?
BROWER: It does. I mean, the Let's Move campaign that Michelle Obama took on is actually very controversial, taking on, you know, the food industry, but it has led to some good things happening. The obesity rate for low income preschoolers, for instance, has gone down in recent years.
I mean, don't think there's anything wrong with them taking up a cause that has some controversy. No matter what you do, even the cyber bullying, you know, thing that Melania talked about is controversial, right?
COSTELLO: Absolutely. Do you think that Melania Trump will move into the White House, and make being first lady her full-time job?
BROWER: I think she's going to be one of the most private first ladies we've ever seen. I mean, it's unprecedented that she won't immediately move into the White House. The last time that -- you know, Martha Washington didn't live in the White House, it wasn't built yet. Anna Harrison's husband, William Henry Harrison, passed away shortly after the inauguration. And we have never had a first lady who has not moved into the White House.
I think that she probably will after Barron finishes, you know, the school year. I think it's a strong argument to make that he's there, he's happy in school, keep him there. No one would criticize a mother for that. But to ignore the incredible opportunity and responsibility of being first lady I think would be a mistake.
COSTELLO: All right. Kate Anderson Brower, thanks so much for coming in this morning.
BROWER: Thank you, Carol.
COSTELLO: You're welcome.
Coming up in the next hour of NEWSROOM, a relic of the Cold War with a 21st century upgrade. CNN gets an exclusive look inside the highly secretive missions to spy on ISIS from the edge of space.
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[09:58:21] COSTELLO: Checking some top stories for you at 58 minutes past. An annual Thanksgiving Day youth football game turns deadly in Kentucky. According to our affiliate, WAVE, two men were killed and four other people wounded after gunfire erupted. In all, 19 shots were fired. The shooters escaping the scene. Police say they do not have a motive for this.
The missing California mother who vanished three weeks ago while jogging has been found safe. Authorities say Sherri Pepini flagged down a passing driver yesterday morning nearly 140 miles from her home. A search is now under way to find two armed women who Pepini says abducted her and left her bound on the side of a road. She was reunited with her family after being treated for unspecified injuries.
It's a Thanksgiving dinner that started with an accidental text message. In a text she sent to her family an Arizona grandmother, well, she actually mistakenly sent that text to a stranger to eat at her home on Thanksgiving. Jamal (INAUDIBLE) told Wanda then she had the wrong number, the wrong text but asked if he could still go to her house for Thanksgiving. She said sure. That's what grandmas do.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WANDA DENCH, THANKSGIVING HOSTESS: If you have an opportunity to do something kind for somebody, please, please do. Because it's such a good feeling. It's a good feeling to give kindness and it's a wonderful feeling to receive it as well.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: She invited Jamal's family, too, but they had their own plans for dinner so Jamal was able to enjoy two Thanksgiving Day meals.
Lord Vader, we've been expecting you. And with that, millions of "Star Wars" fans suddenly stopped caring about shopping deals this morning. Lucas Films announcing tickets for the next "Star Wars" movie will go on sale starting Monday. The new movie is both a spinoff and a prequel going back to the story of how plans for the Death Star were stolen.
The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.
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