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Weekend Weather Outlook; Holiday Store Deals; Mississippi Senate Runoff. Aired 6:30-7a ET
Aired November 23, 2018 - 06:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[06:33:21] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We have two breaking stories out of Pakistan.
A bomb blast at a market in the northern part of the country has left more than 30 people dead. Police say the blast came from an improvised explosive device. It is unclear who was responsible.
And armed attackers tried to storm the Chinese consulate in Karachi. Authorities are reporting seven people were killed, including three attackers, but no Chinese nationals were reported among the victims. A Pakistan separatist group has claimed responsibility there.
JOHN AVLON, CNN ANCHOR: And a frightening scene on an ice-covered highway in Washington state. A bus carrying the University of Washington marching band rolled over on to its side. State police say nearly 40 people were injured in the crash, but remarkable none of the injuries were serious. The bus was one of three taking the banned to today's Apple Cup football game against rival Washington State.
CAMEROTA: All right, Whisky the Whippet winning best in show at the prestigious National Dog Show in Philadelphia. Whisky whipped more than two thousand other dogs for the title. And if you're not familiar with Whippets, hold your thought, John, they're like Greyhounds but smaller. The National Dog Show has been held since 1933 and helps raise money for canine causes.
Is that your favorite dog right there?
AVLON: Whisky the Whippet?
CAMEROTA: Yes.
AVLON: I, you know, it does sound like a parking lot at a Grateful Dead show, that name.
No, I like the harrier breed there they had.
CAMEROTA: Me too. I want to pull that.
AVLON: Yes, there you go.
CAMEROTA: Look at this thing. AVLON: Wow.
CAMEROTA: This is like a stuffed animal zapped to life. What's happening here?
AVLON: I think a bunny rabbit ate a wig.
Or it's a Donald Trump homage. That's possible too.
[06:35:00] CAMEROTA: Do you -- are you seeing a resemblance here between this -- this adorable dog and our president?
AVLON: Only in the comb over.
CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh. That -- that dog is amazing looking.
AVLON: It -- they're all amazing.
CAMEROTA: Pekinese.
AVLON: Also the movie best in show.
CAMEROTA: Amazing.
AVLON: That's amazing stuff.
Anyway, after one of the coldest Thanksgivings on record, it will be another day of frigid temperatures for people in the Northeast. And that's not all, another storm is coming.
Chad Myers has your forecast.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: John, you know that dog -- you know what that dog does?
CAMEROTA: What?
MYERS: It gives our follicles hope, you know.
AVLON: We all need that.
MYERS: We can all push -- keep that in mind for right now.
It was a cold one, 19 degrees yesterday morning, and it was the coldest tide for the record here on Thanksgiving morning. You can see the dates of different because Thanksgiving falls on different days of the week -- dates of the week.
Thankful for Jared. Dare to be devoted. This weather is brought to you by Jared. Don't forget to get out there and get something for your loved ones there.
And, here we go, 15 in Boston, one degree below windchill. Sixteen in New York, 4 is the windchill. So, yes, cold all across the Northeast. But it gets better. It won't be this cold in New York for another 20 days at least, so
that's good news. If you're traveling back on Saturday, though, there may be some travel delays, especially at the airports with all of this rainfall coming in. Low clouds. Rainfall could also slow you down here across parts of the deep south.
Snow, though, across parts of the Midwest. We'll get some snow in Chicago across and across all of Iowa as we work our way into the middle of the weekend.
Highs, though, for the next couple of days, New York, 49, 54, no complaints about shopping with that kind of weather. Down to the south, slightly warmer. Atlanta tomorrow gets all the way to 60.
Have a great day, guys.
CAMEROTA: You too, Chad.
AVLON: You too, Chad.
CAMEROTA: OK, so our hair and makeup people think that there's a different similarity with the Pekingese. This is what I look like when I come in, in the morning. That's exactly what my hair looks like before they -- the magicians get to work. But if you had -- if you saw me this morning coming off the elevator, do you not see a similarity right there?
AVLON: I mean, I think you're being a little hard on yourself, but there's certainly -- I mean, you know, there's an '80s hair band element to the hound that I know is near and dear to your heart too.
CAMEROTA: Yes, it is.
AVLON: So.
CAMEROTA: Put that dog in a leopard skin body suit and now we're talking.
AVLON: Now we're talking creepy.
CAMEROTA: Yes. All right. OK. Fantastic.
All right, retailers are hoping for a big start to the holiday season. What are some of the hot ticket items that you'll be looking for this Black Friday? Where are the best deals? We have all of those answers, next.
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[06:41:27] CAMEROTA: OK, the holiday shopping season is here. Many stores opened their doors last night, of course, to kick off the Black Friday frenzy. So let's get some tips on getting the best deals and talk about this year's hot items.
Joining us now is Hitha Herzog. She is a consumer spending analyst and chief research officer for H Squared. Hitha, great to have you here. Congratulations on your twins.
HITHA HERZOG, CONSUMER SPENDING ANALYST: Thanks for having me. Oh, thank you very much.
AVLON: Amazing.
CAMEROTA: Two -- oh my gosh.
HERZOG: Oh, my gosh, yes. I'm going bananas.
CAMEROTA: Yes, You'll never sleep again, but enjoy.
HERZOG: I feel that way already.
AVLON: It gets better.
CAMEROTA: OK, so this has been a record breaker already for online sales. What are you seeing?
HERZOG: Right, I was looking at some statistics from Adobe Analytics and PayPal. So as of 5:00 p.m. Thanksgiving night, $1.75 billion had been spent online and PayPal came out with a study that said 48 percent of American consumers are going to be spending online via -- and via their mobile devices. That's up from 41 percent last year. So people really are -- even though the stores want people to kind of stick around and go in and shop, people are just shopping online, I mean from the comfort of their homes and their sofas and beds, you know. A lot of that came from, you know, online purchases last night.
AVLON: And one of the things that's extraordinary is just the increase in that Thanksgiving spend online, it's a three-fold increase from just five years ago. And now that nearly 50 percent on your mobile phone. I mean this is from folks on a couch. This is about as low --
CAMEROTA: Their commute, whatever.
HERZOG: Exactly. I mean years ago I would go out and, you know, do these channel checks and spend all night at Walmart and hangout at target and eat McDonald's at, you know, odd hours of the night. Now it's all about getting these data dumps all night long of like what people have been buying on Amazon, on walmart.com, on target.com.
But stores are also trying to get people into -- into the stores to shop. So we're seeing this thing called Omni Channel Retailing, and it's all about experiencial (ph) shopping. So, for example, Nordstrom has this men's store and they have, you know, flat screen TVs and a bar set up so guys can just chill and watch the game and drink while they buy suits.
AVLON: That's very merciful.
HERZOG: Right. And there's -- there's stories like Under Armour and Neiman Marcus that have this -- I was reading up this thing called Charge It Spot, which is free and safe, secure charging spot where you can just charge your phone because you -- obviously if your phone dies, you don't want to shop anymore because everything is done on your mobile device. So you charge your phone. And the spend has gone up 47 percent when people go and pay for things because they're just hanging out spending more money waiting for their phones to charge.
CAMEROTA: Are you and your buddies like, hey, you want to go grab a beer at Nordstrom?
AVLON: Never.
CAMEROTA: No, I know that. I can't imagine --
AVLON: I know. But -- but if that were an option --
HERZOG: Isn't it right over here?
AVLON: If it were an option, that would be increasingly important.
But so one of the things I'm interested in, though, is just, you know, the kids of it. You know, this is the first Black Friday without Toys R Us.
HERZOG: Right.
AVLON: (INAUDIBLE) one out for Geoffrey the Giraffe. But there are some significant hot items that, you know, I, frankly, am a terrible parent because I had not heard of.
HERZOG: Right. So we were talking -- I think we just were kind of going through it, right? Fingerling Hugs, Little Live Pets, and L.O.L. Surprises on the toy side.
CAMEROTA: I don't know any of those.
HERZOG: There's Nintendo Switches, Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 on the gaming side.
AVLON: Heard of those.
HERZOG: And obviously electronics. People go out a lot during Black Friday to get those electronics, TVs, but we're looking at like Game Boys and, you know, Nintendo sets.
AVLON: And it's -- obviously this is all about Christmas shopping. I was amazed, 3 percent of people have completed their Christmas shopping. They are --
CAMEROTA: Who are these people?
AVLON: I know.
HERZOG: Definitely not me.
AVLON: Better than us.
CAMEROTA: OK, but, for our viewers, what are the best deals to be had this weekend? AVLON: Yes.
HERZOG: So, there are a lot of deals going on.
[06:45:00] Walmart, for example, has $100 off Xbox Ones. Target is -- I think has a -- almost -- I have it written down here, $600 on a Vizio --
CAMEROTA: Smart TV.
HERZOG: Smart TV, right.
And then Best Buy has a $400 LG 70-inch television. And Samsung -- I think it's a Samsung --
CAMEROTA: Galaxy Note 9.
AVLON: Galaxy Note 9.
HERZOG: $300 off of that.
And Amazon, of course if you want to go to Amazon and get an Echo Dot, you get 50 percent off that.
CAMEROTA: Fascinating.
So just, last, is this -- what does this say about the economy? Are -- is there a lot of consumer confidence? Is this as frothy as we've seen it? What bigger message can we take from this weekend?
HERZOG: Well, it's interesting. If you look at the Bureau of Labor Statistics and the economic statistics that come out of that same department, disposable income has gone up $29.1 billion. So people are certainly spending more because they feel better about the economy.
And I've talked about this a lot over the years. It's called frugal fatigue. I think people have been feeling a pent-up demand. They haven't really been buying big ticket items. So, over the years, they buy small items. Now they have this money. They feel better about the economy. They're going out and spending more, especially on luxury items.
AVLON: Interesting. Frugal fatigue.
CAMEROTA: Right.
HERZOG: Frugal Fatigue.
CAMEROTA: We know it.
AVLON: Santa supplement.
CAMEROTA: Yes.
HERZOG: There you go. I like Santa supplement.
CAMEROTA: Hitha Herzog, thank you very much.
HERZOG: Thanks so much.
CAMEROTA: Great to have you here in studio.
AVLON: Now, the midterm elections are not over. We have a Senate runoff this Tuesday and there's still some races undecided. Harry Enten with his forecast, up next.
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[06:50:33] AVLON: All eyes are on Mississippi, where Tuesday voters head back to the polls for a Senate runoff between Republican Incumbent Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith and Democrat Mike Espy. Hyde-Smith keeps landing herself in hot water, but are the scandals enough to turn her deep red seat blue.
There's something about Harry. He'll tell us all about it.
Harry, how was your Thanksgiving, first of all.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN POLITICS SENIOR WRITER AND ANALYST: Siloam to both of you, (INAUDIBLE). And it was OK. Look, I had some Popeye's chicken. I went there -- I got there just before the restaurant closed --
AVLON: Well, that's lucky.
ENTEN: So I had a mixture of spicy and mild, but I was able to get it.
AVLON: So, two questions. Is there a turkey option at Popeye's on Thanksgiving and, two, were you alone?
ENTEN: OK, first off, there is a Cajun turkey option on Thanksgiving. I did not have that because I wanted my chicken fried and they don't offer a fried turkey, so that was automatically out. And then I was picking up for me and one other person who decided it was too cold in New York.
CAMEROTA: Oh, tell us more about that, Harry?
ENTEN: It was a very -- we saw "Widows" beforehand, which was too scary for me, but there was a cute little dog named Olivia in there and I just wanted to pet her so much.
CAMEROTA: What's happening right now?
AVLON: Wow, that's just -- I just -- you know what, awesomeness is happening. That's just about as real as it gets and about as unpilgrimy (ph) as your Thanksgiving gets. So I get it.
ENTEN: Look, it was a Jewish Thanksgiving.
AVLON: All right. Well, OK, putting Jewish Thanksgiving aside --
ENTEN: Yes.
AVLON: Let's talk about Mississippi --
ENTEN: Yes.
AVLON: Where they do not generally celebrate Jewish Thanksgiving.
We've got a fascinating race. This Tuesday --
ENTEN: Yes.
AVLON: Mike Espy, in a runoff, potentially the first African-American who could be a senator since reconstruction, against a female incumbent, who keeps getting herself in hot water. What's the state of the race?
ENTEN: Yes, so, let's just get a little background here, right? They had a first round on Election Day. We had a pretty close race between the two top vote getters there. Hyde-Smith running slightly ahead of Espy, but you'll notice all the candidates, regardless of party identification, ran in this jungle primary. And what's key here is the 16.4 percent for Chris McDaniel, the other Republican, because it's really the cumulative vote that I think tells us more here. There are a lot more Republicans in Mississippi than there are Democrats. So Hyde-Smith plus McDaniel ran 16 points ahead of Espy and the other Democrat. And so this is kind of the uphill battle that Espy will be facing heading into Tuesday's vote.
CAMEROTA: Is there any way that her unfortunate remarks can close that?
ENTEN: I mean, look, it could potentially. And this is one of the things that I should point out here is 37 -- let's see if I can get it right.
AVLON: There you go.
ENTEN: There we go. Thirty-seven percent of registered voters in Mississippi are African-Americans. What Mike Espy needs is a large turnout from African-Americans. What he really needs this electorate to look like on Tuesday is what it would be in say the special elections we saw earlier this year. Remember, and we saw, in those special elections, Democrats were running well ahead of President Trump's numbers in the state. I believe it was 12 points on average in the average special election. And given -- let's go up here to this uphill battle. Trump won the state by 18 points. So this is a very red state, as we keep pointing out. But if you can run 12 points ahead of where Trump was, like a special election turnout, and then you add on those comments that Hyde-Smith made, maybe you can close that gap even further.
AVLON: But it's a big gap he's got to close. Even if -- the president and Doug Jones in Alabama, let's not -- and see what happens on Tuesday, but a tough road for Mike Espy potentially.
ENTEN: Yes.
AVLON: I just want to go ahead, because we still have open House races folks may not fully appreciate. Tell us about those.
ENTEN: Yes. So there are still a few House races that we have that CNN hasn't called. Here Ben McAdams in Utah's 4th district is ahead of Mia Love, the incumbent Republican.
CAMEROTA: Look how close that is.
ENTEN: That is a very, very close race. It should be said that Love was pretty much conceding this race. She said she was going to call McAdams and concede this race. I think she wanted Thanksgiving to think it over a little bit.
There's one more in New Mexico 2 that we haven't called. Here the Democrat is running ahead of the Republican. This is Steve Pearce's district, the Republican incumbent. Right now this is a fairly wide margin, so I would say Small is favored over Herrell. But we still haven't quite called that race yet.
I will say that the Democrat net gain, when all is said and done, we're looking at 39 or 40 seats where Democrats net gain. And, you know, we've been talking about whether or not it's a wave. I think if you get to 40, that's pretty clearly a wave.
AVLON: Well, I think there are two ways to measure it, right? We know that 37 seats is the average number of House seats lost by Republican -- by a president's party in the first midterms. Already we're ahead of that threshold.
ENTEN: Yes.
AVLON: The other is the overall percentage of the popular vote and where that's averaged out. So you've got the net gains, but how's that looking?
ENTEN: Yes. So right now Democrats are up by eight percentage points in the House popular vote. For a minority party heading into an election -- remember, Democrats were in the minority -- if they get up to 9 points, which is very conceivable, even 8.6, that would be the largest ever win for a minority party heading into the election at least 1942. So that's a huge wave by that measure.
[06:55:16] AVLON: Extraordinary stuff.
Harry, there's always something about you.
ENTEN: Well, there's always something. Maybe we'll all head to Popeye's after this.
AVLON: Yes.
CAMEROTA: Does it serve breakfast? Does Popeye's serve breakfast?
ENTEN: I'm not -- I'm not quite sure. I know Bojangles serves breakfast and sometimes I get that down when I'm in the D.C. bureau.
CAMEROTA: Wow. There's a -- you're revealing a lot to us. Maybe possibly too much.
AVLON: There's nothing wrong with that.
ENTEN: Fried food, maybe we can mix it with Jewish deli, get some pastrami and some corned beef in there.
CAMEROTA: Now you're talking.
ENTEN: That would be a true --
AVLON: And Popeye's.
CAMEROTA: Thank you.
ENTEN: Yes, a true Jewish Thanksgiving.
AVLON: Done.
CAMEROTA: All right, meanwhile, we have to get to this story. This is our breaking news because Thanksgiving night turned deadly at an Alabama mall. Holiday shoppers were forced to run for their lives. We have all of the breaking details for you, next.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I heard six to seven gunshots and everybody freaked and screamed.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Police shoot and kill a man who opened fire in an Alabama mall on Black Friday.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just started praying. Praying that God would protect the victims.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a sad day in Hoover. Shoppers come out to have a good time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Traditionally, presidents just wish them a Happy Thanksgiving.
[07:00:02] DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A lot of bad court decisions from the Ninth Circuit, which has become a bad thorn in our side.
