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Millions to Travel This Weekend; Holiday Weather Forecast; Tech Sell-off Erases Gains; CDC Issues Widespread Warning. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired November 21, 2018 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:30:56] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: The Thanksgiving travel rush is on. According to AAA, today could be the busiest day for travel in more than a decade.
CNN's Rene Marsh is live at Reagan National Airport in Virginia with more.
How's it looking, Rene?
RENE MARSH, CNN TRANSPORTATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, I can tell you, most people will probably travel by car. Some 48 million more than that. But we are expecting record air travel. More than 30 million people were here at Reagan National Airport, just right outside of Washington, D.C. And you said the rush is on. You're absolutely right. You see all these folks. They're lined up here to go through the TSA checkpoint.
When we talk about record breaking here, more than 6 percent compared to 2017, as far as travelers. We know that U.S. airports are probably going to be the busiest when it comes to Thanksgiving travel season. Airlines are going to cope with all of this by adding more than 150,000 seats. They're going to do that by adding more flights, as well as using large aircraft.
TSA, which is back there, they are also adding staff. We know that the K-9s are going to be used here at airports across the country as well. That's a way to expedite screening.
As far as delays and cancelations, good news for people so far, things look good across the board here in the United States. No issues as far as cancelations. There is going to be your only issue, just everyone lined up, everyone trying to get to their destination. This one of the busier travel days of the Thanksgiving travel season.
Back to you, John.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I have to say, Rene, that's actually a pretty serious line for Reagan National Airport, even at this hour.
MARSH: Yes, but it's moving. BERMAN: Rene Marsh live at the airport. And for all the reporters out
there doing travel live shots today, as a consolation, I'll tell you, it's two days until Black Friday. So you'll be out on Friday covering shopping.
CAMEROTA: Back in the cold. So enjoy being inside there.
BERMAN: Enjoy being inside.
All right, so if you live in the Northeast, don't forget your parka tomorrow. This Thanksgiving expected to be brutally cold, like the coldest in a century cold.
CAMEROTA: I get it. I get it.
BERMAN: CNN's meteorologist Chad Myers with your forecast.
Chad, I understand it's going to be cold.
CAMEROTA: Oh, boy.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is. Windchill factor probably for the parade in New York City somewhere around six. So -- and then you think about the buildings and the windchill with the wind tunnels and it could be like zero.
It's already snowing upstate New York, so some travel problems there along the throughway.
But this weather is brought to you by the Shark Ion Robot Cleaning System. One dock, two Sharks.
And you may need some snow shovels around parts of upstate New York today. Temperatures still good for today. This is the best travel day so far we've seen for early Thanksgiving. May not saying the same thing on Sunday as you go home. But tomorrow and Friday will be the cold coldest days of the year so far. That arctic air is moving in. So is the wind. It warms up by Saturday and Sunday, but it's the wind that's going to be the problem. At least 20 record lows for tomorrow and windchills are going to be in the single digits for most -- and even well below that if you're standing in line in Syracuse.
So for the parade, here we go. I know you're going to be out there anyway likely. Seventeen will be the morning low. That is a new record low. You never forecast a record low, but there it is. And there's Snoopy. So don't go too far. The winds are going to be 20 miles per hour. John and Alisyn, the cutoff if they fly or not is 23. So we are still game time decision with that. (INAUDIBLE).
CAMEROTA: Sounds dicey. Keep us posted. Yes, fingers crossed. Chad, thank you very much.
MYERS: You're welcome.
CAMEROTA: As text stocks go, so go the markets.
BERMAN: As they say.
CAMEROTA: Yesterday we saw a huge drop erasing the gains for the year. Is this a blip or a bigger trend?
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[06:38:49] BERMAN: So the Dow lost more than 500 points yesterday, wiping out all the gains for the year. The S&P 500 is also now down for the year. Investigators are worried. The days of record profits might be near an end and tech stocks are taking the biggest hit.
Look at your screen. These five big tech names have lost more than $800 billion, a combined market value since August. $800 billion seems like a lot of money.
Joining us now, Stephen Moore, former Trump economic advisers and distinguished fellow at the Heritage Foundation, and Rana Foroohar, global business columnist and associate editor for "The Financial Times."
And I graduated, I have a PhD from the Christine Romans school of business reporting.
RANA FOROOHAR, CNN GLOBAL ECONOMIC ANALYST: That's pretty good.
STEVE MOORE, CNN SENIOR ECONOMICS ANALYST: That's (INAUDIBLE).
BERMAN: It's not bad, right? And she constantly tells me that the stock market is not the economy. I get that.
FOROOHAR: Yes.
BERMAN: However, these companies are part of the economy. So what's going on, Rana? What is the concern? Why has the market taken such a hit over the last six weeks?
FOROOHAR: Well, I think that you have to look at which companies are leading this. And as you point out, it's being led by the big tech companies. Now, they were the ones that were leading the market over the last few years. They led it up. They're now leading it down.
The rise of these companies was predicated on the fact that they're very loosely regulated, right? I mean they've been allowed to kind of get away with a lot of things that other companies haven't. They've also been very global. I mean these are the most global companies.
[06:40:10] We are now in a situation where trade is becoming an issue. There's a U.S./China trade war. It's very much a tech war. These companies are really in the front lines of that. So all the things that led them going up are now in question.
BERMAN: It's fears of the future to an extent.
FOROOHAR: Yes.
BERMAN: Which is also beginning to happen a little bit in retail, right? Thanksgiving is tomorrow which means the Christmas rush is on. And Target lowered its sales forecast, which caused a lot of people, I think, to raise their eyebrows and say, hey, what's going on here?
MOORE: Yes, well, look, I only have a master's degree in the Christine Roman's School of Economics. But, look, you made a key point, there is a difference between the real economy and the financial economy. And the -- one of the most important points I think is if you look at the real economy, things still look really good to me. I mean construction is really good. Manufacturing is good. Industrial production is good. Consumer confidence is good.
Now you mentioned a good point, the market got spooked yesterday and the day before by some, you know, preliminary bad news on consumer spending. This -- this next two weeks for retailers is everything, right? And Black Friday is huge. And so some of the big, big retail companies were reporting some disappointing numbers. But we'll know much better --
BERMAN: Right.
MOORE: You know, a week from now about how -- but, look, I went to the mall on Friday.
BERMAN: Yes.
MOORE: I couldn't find a parking space, you know. So people are going out there. Maybe they're just not buying.
BERMAN: There we go. Every economics' PhD is like go -- putting their head in their face right now and saying, no, that's not research. But just to be clear, the Target news, you're absolutely right about -- about the economy until this point over the last several years, but that's why that news from Target doesn't fly in the face of it, but it -- but it --
MOORE: It's true. It's confounding.
BERMAN: Right.
MOORE: But, you know, the one piece -- I'm not a stock picker, I'm not a stock analyst, but I always, you know, tell people, if you're in the stock market for the long term, you know, five years, 10 years, don't even -- my wife looks at these returns every day, but don't do that.
FOROOHAR: Oh, my gosh. A disaster. You cannot do that.
MOORE: And when you get a -- when you get a dip in the market, that's not a bad time -- I'm actually kind of bullish on (INAUDIBLE).
FOROOHAR: Yes.
MOORE: That's the other thing that's kind of confounding about this dip in the stock market. Earnings for the companies, which is, as Larry Kudlow likes to say, earnings are the mother's milk in the stock market, those have been pretty good.
FOROOHAR: Well, some of it has to do with interest rates too, right?
MOORE: That's true.
FOROOHAR: You know, I mean we're --
MOORE: Yes.
FOROOHAR: We're about to go through a turn. And we knew that's been coming. Christine Romans School of -- PhD. And if that happens, stocks are probably going to correct, right, because the stock markets like low interest rates. Companies can do more business. They can borrow and buy back their own shares and that raises prices. But if rates go up, that could change things.
MOORE: But that's, by the way, a big bone -- we've had this discussion on this show many times. You know, I happen to agree with Trump, I think that the Fed has been too tight on interest rates. And if you kind of trace -- because this bear market, it kind of started actually about six weeks ago. And it really did kind of start with when the Fed started raising rates. And, you know, I don't see a lot of inflation out there. I think that the Fed is kind of afraid of growth. And I think that's tied to this bearish market.
BERMAN: There are two other things, though that are connected to it. And, Rana, you alluded to the first one, which is the idea of a trade war.
FOROOHAR: Yes.
BERMAN: Which, again, investors are looking long term and saying, you know what, this may start to bite soon.
FOROOHAR: Yes.
BERMAN: This might start to cut into profits. It might start to hurt the real economy.
FOROOHAR: For sure. And it's going to depend on which sector you're talking about. I mean I think tech stocks are really going to be quite vulnerable. I think some of the most global companies will be very vulnerable. Things like health care, retail, maybe not so much. Things that are U.S.-based not so much.
But, yes, there's a lot in the market. I mean most Fortune 500 companies today make most of their profits overseas. So if you start getting into a situation where it's not business as usual, then these companies are going to take a hit.
BERMAN: And right now the United States is doing better than the rest of the economies around the world largely --
FOROOHAR: Right.
BERMAN: So we're a safe haven, we're an island of stability. But sometimes that can just flip on a moment's notice and we can get dragged down. FOROOHAR: Well, it can. And, you know, I mean -- we were talking
earlier about how the real economy and the stock market are separate, but I'm really interested to see how much affect a fall in the market, which, you know, a lot of people have a lot of money in the market right now, how is that going to affect the real economy? I mean, you know, some people think that if you see a big correction, it could really affect consumer spending.
MOORE: There's a wealth effect.
FOROOHAR: Yes.
MOORE: There's a wealth effect.
Now, on this issue of the trade, I mean this is a great point.
BERMAN: Yes.
MOORE: I mean the -- the investors are watching like every day what's happening with these negotiations between Trump and Beijing on China. I'm not one who thinks that there's going to be an immediate resolution to this.
FOROOHAR: I agree with that.
MOORE: It's a long-term. You know, but I will say this, if Trump can pull this off, and he can get a deal with China, then it's just going to be, shew (ph), the stock market's going to go through the roof.
BERMAN: Yes.
MOORE: Now when that's going to happen, none of us know.
BERMAN: Right.
FOROOHAR: Yes.
MOORE: Whether it's going to happen in six months, or three months or a year. But I do think in the end, there will be a deal. And when that happens, I think people are going to feel -- investors are going to feel very relieved.
BERMAN: Me time. Me time. We could even talk about the budget deficit, which is whole other issue, which we can talk about soon because it's just going to go up.
[06:45:00] MOORE: We don't want to depress people the day before Thanksgiving.
FOROOHAR: Yes, another (INAUDIBLE).
BERMAN: But that's the point, it's just going to go up, and I think that's hanging over peoples' heads, too, as they think about long term.
FOROOHAR: Let them digest Thanksgiving dinner and then we'll come back to it.
BERMAN: Rana Foroohar, Stephen Moore, great to have you with us.
FOROOHAR: Thank you.
BERMAN: Happy Thanksgiving to both of you.
MOORE: You too. Thanks.
CAMEROTA: I hope Christine Romans was watching. I'm going to alert her.
OK, meanwhile, to this story. After a year of apologizing for FaceBook's missteps, CEO Mark Zuckerberg is sounding more defiant. A "New York Times" report claims that FaceBook was not transparent about Russian interference in the 2016 election. It also revealed the company hired a PR firm to dig up dirt on its competition. Now, in an exclusive interview with CNN's Laurie Segall, Zuckerberg dismissed questions about his own performance and about the leadership of COO Sheryl Sandberg.
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LAURIE SEGALL, CNN SENIOR TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT: There are a lot of questions now about Sheryl Sandberg's role in the latest controversy. Can you definitively say Sheryl will stay in her same role?
MARK ZUCKERBERG, FACEBOOK CEO: Yes, look, Sheryl is a really important part of this company and is leading a lot of the efforts to address a lot of the biggest efforts that -- the biggest issues that we have. So when you look at a lot of the progress that we've made over the last 12 to 18 months on issued around elections or content or security, Sheryl was leading a lot of that work. And she's been an important partner for me for ten years. And, you know, I'm really proud of the work that we've done together. And I hope that we work together for decades more to come.
SEGALL: You are CEO and chairman of FaceBook. That's an extraordinary amount of power given that you rule a kingdom of 2 billion people digitally. Shouldn't your power be checked?
ZUCKERBERG: Yes. I think that ultimately the issues that we're working on here, you know, things like preventing interference in elections from other countries, finding the balance between giving people a voice and keeping people safe, these are not issues that any one company can address.
SEGALL: So you are not stepping down as chairman?
ZUCKERBERG: That's not the plan.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: Zuckerberg also says FaceBook has a different world view than some of the people who cover the company. What does that mean? A lot more of our CNN exclusive interview with Mark Zuckerberg ahead on NEW DAY.
BERMAN: So what was with that answer, that's not the plan?
CAMEROTA: I don't know.
BERMAN: When a no -- a no would work.
CAMEROTA: What was with the Cheshire grin?
BERMAN: I don't know.
CAMEROTA: Let's find out.
BERMAN: Much more next hour.
So you're going to want to check your refrigerator after this next segment. You may have something in there the CDC now says is not safe to eat. We have the details, next.
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[06:51:06] CAMEROTA: A surprise decision overnight. The international police agency, Interpol, elected acting president Kim Jong-yang to permanently take the role. Members of the agency rejected a Russian official who was expected to get this job. U.S. and European critics had opposed the Russian official's candidacy over concerns that he would use the position to target the Kremlin's political foes.
BERMAN: The death toll from the so-called Camp Fire in California has now risen again to 81 people, 870 people are still unaccounted for. And that number, that is very high. Sheriff deputies say they are still trying to get a backlog of voicemails. The Camp Fire is now 75 percent contained. Heavy rain is predicted in northern California into Saturday. That could help with air quality but authorities are worried about mudslides.
CAMEROTA: New financial disclosures filed by Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker, reveal close to $1 million in payments from a conservative group that he founded in 2014. The group was known, ironically, as FACT, and it received almost all of its funding from a dark money organization which got at least some of its funding from major Republican donor Charles Koch. Most of Whitaker's income in the past few years came from that conservative group, although CNN also paid him $15,000 as a legal commentator in 2017. The disclosure's magnify the concerns over whether the Senate would ever confirm Whitaker if the president nominated him as permanent attorney general.
BERMAN: Of course there is no confirmation hearing on this because he's only been nominated or selected as an acting attorney general, which is the issue. Which is the issue. All this kind of stuff would come up in a confirmation hearing which will not exist.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued a statement, issuing a major food warning just before Thanksgiving. It says do not eat romaine lettuce at all because it could be contaminated with E. Coli. CNN's senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen joins u now. This is a big, widespread warning, Elizabeth.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, absolutely, John.
Usually you see these things for a particular brand or a particular lot of food, but this is just all romaine lettuce. And let's take a look at the map to see how widespread this is. There have been cases in 11 states going all the way from Massachusetts to California, 32 people sick and the culprit is not just E. Coli, it's E. Coli 015787, a particularly vicious strain of E. Coli that can cause your kidneys to really basically shut down. Of the 32 people who have been sick, 13 have been hospitalized, one of them has had kidney damage.
John.
BERMAN: And, Elizabeth, how close are investigators to pinpointing the source of all this contamination?
COHEN: You know what, John, they are not close at all. All they can say is just it's romaine lettuce from somewhere. And you may remember that exactly a year ago there was also an outbreak of E. Coli in romaine lettuce, and a year later they still don't know where that came from. The best they can say is that it's from multiple outlets in Arizona, California and Mexico. So even a year later, with the outbreak last year, they still don't know where it came from.
BERMAN: All right, Elizabeth Cohen for us. Thank you very much.
In the meantime, you know, be careful. Be careful what's in your refrigerator.
Thanks, Elizabeth.
CAMEROTA: OK, John, another case of President Trump attempting to abuse his power. He wanted the Justice Department to prosecute Hillary Clinton and James Comey. What stopped him?
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[06:58:39] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's just awfully good Donald Trump is not in charge of the law in our country.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Because you'd be in jail.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He was told he could face impeachment if he went ahead with this.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the sort of stuff of a banana republic. This is what an autocrat does.
TRUMP: Maybe he did. Maybe he didn't.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president needs to say it's unacceptable and wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are seeing our moral standing in the world eroded.
What is becoming of America?
MARK ZUCKERBERG, FACEBOOK CEO: It is not clear to me at all that the report is right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: FaceBook downplayed Russia's involvement. They took advantage of user's data.
ZUCKERBERG: A lot of the criticism has been fair, but we have a different world view than some of the folks who are covering this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman.
CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY.
CNN has learned that President Trump repeatedly wanted to order the Justice Department to go after his political rivals. A source tells CNN the president wanted to have Hillary Clinton prosecuted and repeatedly pressed then White House Counsel Don McGahn, to lean on the Justice Department to do so. This source says on multiple occasions the president raised investigating Clinton with his deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, and Matt Whitaker, who is now acting attorney general.
[06:59:56] "The New York Times" reports the president also wanted to prosecute former FBI Director James Comey, but Don McGahn, then White House counsel, told him he had no authority to order any prosecution.
