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"I Made NATO Strong," Says Trump in Defense of Handling NATO; "Completely Preventable Horror", Says Shooter's Mother-in-Law; Fear and Confusion Captured on Camera During Megachurch Shooting; January 2024 Report Shows a Decline in Inflation; CDC Poised to Shift COVID Isolation Guidance, According to "Washington Post". Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired February 13, 2024 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

MAJOR MIKE LYONS, U.S. ARMY (RET.): Well, it's concerning when we have a presidential candidate make that kind of comment, especially given what's currently happening in Europe right now.

You know, he -- when he was president, he did get some of those countries to say and increase some of their budgets. This has gone on since 2008, frankly, the Obama administration under Secretary Gates had some increases in NATO, but they are unhelpful. And I think that from the military perspective, NATO continues to be the strength and the pillar of what needs to be from an overall European security. I'd like to think that he now knows that he's propagating something that's not true.

This is not about paying the United States or paying bills or like it's a country club. He knows full well that this is just not how it works. We could -- we would like to see, though -- Germany, we would like to see France and some other countries increase their defense spending. And in some ways, the success of the Ukraine military has hurt that because I think Germany looks back and says, you know, maybe Russia isn't a threat, it really is. But the bottom line is, I'd like to see the NATO alliance stay strong. I'd like to see us support the Ukraine and continue to, you know, kind of, move forward with regard to the overall security of Europe.

SARA SIDNER, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: I can tell you that Poland really does think that Russia is the threat even though it has not. It has faltered in ways that people didn't expect.

I just -- quickly, Kim Dozier, your thoughts on the comments by Donald Trump, which by the way he has doubled down on.

KIM DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST AND SENIOR MANAGING EDITOR, THE MILITARY TIMES: Some pro-Trump European leaders have seen this as, this is just more of Donald Trump talking to his domestic audience but also, they point to the fact that it did encourage some NATO members to step up their internal spending to put up to two percent of their internal funding towards defense spending. But other European leaders are scared. They see this as pro-Russia and a signal that is music to the ears of Moscow. SIDNER: Especially when we're in a war right now that we are seeing play out in Ukraine with Russia invading that country. Thank you both so much for coming on. Mike Lyons and Kim Dozier appreciate the time.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEWS CENTRAL CO-ANCHOR: All right. A family member says the Texas church shooter showed signs of mental illness. And we have new video from inside the church.

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[10:35:00]

BERMAN: New details coming in about the suspect in the Houston megachurch shooting. This morning, the alleged shooter's mother-in-law says it was, "A completely preventable horror." And that the suspect, a 36-year-old mother, should never have been allowed to own firearms. We're also seeing new video this morning shows the panic and confusion from inside the church when it all began.

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BERMAN: You really do get a sense of the fear and confusion there. CNN's Ed Lavandera in Houston outside the church. Ed, what is the latest this morning?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, when investigators spoke with reporters yesterday, it was a -- you know, much more details were offered at exactly what the motive might have been behind of all this, but it was a complex picture.

Investigators said that there is a long-documented history of mental health that the police department had documented. There was also the detail of the Palestine sticker that was on the AR-15 rifle that was used in the shooting. And there was also talk of a dispute between Genesse Moreno and her former husband's family that involved possibly Jewish family members.

But as you mentioned this -- received a Facebook post from the former mother-in-law of Genesse Moreno who described this as a completely preventable horror. But in her view, she says that this has much more to do with the failure of being able -- for Genesse Moreno to be able to get help for mental health issues.

In this Facebook post, John, she says that Moreno suffered from a form of schizophrenia that made her violent, that they tried multiple times to reach out to Child Protective Services to get the child removed from her and also to get mental health help for her as well, but none of those calls were answered. Child Protective Services here in Texas says that they are investigating but cannot comment because of privacy matters. But this is more of what the mother-in-law had to say who spoke with CNN affiliate KHOU last night.

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WALLI CARRANZA, SHOOTER'S MOTHER-IN-LAW: She threatened her husband's life. She threatened mine. She threatened to kill her own son. And we still couldn't get intervention. Asked for help from CPS or Child Protective Services, family services. We've asked for help from police and received it many times. But she was still allowed to own guns.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: And that was the one thing that, John, that the mother-in- law says that despite that history of mental health issues and calls, she doesn't understand how she was still able to legally purchase these weapons used in the shooting here at Lakewood Church. John.

BERMAN: So many questions that are often similar to the ones that we ask after shootings like this. Ed Lavandera. Great to have you there. Thank you very much.

Sara.

SIDNER: OK. Could the cost of your groceries and everything else finally cost you less? A new report out this morning on inflation. Is it enough to make an impact? We'll have the details.

And new COVID guidelines expected from the CDC that will change the way you go to work, school, and the way you live. We'll explain.

[10:40:00]

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SIDNER: This morning, another sign the economy is getting better and better. The first big inflation report of 2024 spelled some good news for consumers. Prices rose by 3.1 percent for the last 12 months. That's a slight pullback from December's rate, but not as much as economists had expected. Remember, prices surged after the pandemic. We all felt it peaking at 9.1 percent in June of 2022.

[10:45:00]

The Federal Reserve introduced 11 aggressive rate hikes in its battle to try to bring down those inflation numbers. Joining me now to discuss Jared Bernstein, chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisors.

First, to you, what do you think of this -- these new numbers that have just come out in the last couple of hours?

JARED BERNSTEIN, CHAIRMAN, WHITE HOUSE COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISERS: Well, what you just described was very accurate. The trend is our friend. We had inflation peak at over nine percent in mid-2022. It is down to 3.1 percent in January, that's a six-percentage point or two- thirds decline off its peak.

Now, that's occurred while labor markets have remained very tight, very strong, and that is a recipe for rising inflation adjusted paychecks. Wages are beating prices at a nice clip, 1.6 percent over the past year, that's real buying power for middle wage workers. And again, that's the combination of easing price pressures amidst a strong job market.

SIDNER: I like it when you recognize that we are accurate here on this show. I appreciate that. I do want to talk about the good signs that we're seeing here and why it doesn't seem to be translating as much. Job market robust, you just mentioned. We saw huge job, increases. Consumers are spending again. No matter what they may think, they are spending money, that's what the numbers show, inflation is coming down.

But the public is still not shifting their sentiment. They still feel like things are too high. And of course, President Biden is trying to get a bump from this. If the economy is good, he looks good. Why do you think the message has not quite trickled down to the consumer?

BERNSTEIN: In fact, I think the consumer is responding more positively than he or she has in the past. In the past few months, we've seen what some of these survey takers -- not us, this is their word, have called a surge in consumer confidence. So, the University of Michigan survey, which is a survey for the whole country. They take it at the university there, is up about 30 percent in two months.

And our theory of the case, Sara, has long been that if we can maintain the tight job mark, we're easing off on prices so that real that is inflation adjusted incomes can grow, increasing people's buying power while doing everything we can to actually lower the cost of food, of eggs, of milk, of airfares, of used cars, appliances. Things that, you know, really matter to everyday folks for families like the one the president grew up in, it should start showing up in consumer confidence, and in fact it has.

Now, a couple of months is not a deep or long trend yet. But moving in the right direction and very much related to the gains that you and I have been discussing.

SIDNER: Sir, thank you so much for coming on and discussing these numbers. They are good, not as great as some people had hoped, some economists had hoped, but they are good. And consumers are really worried about those numbers, especially at the grocery store. So, we'll talk to you more about that when we get some new things. We hope you'll join us again.

John.

BERMAN: Brand new details this morning about the surprising number of people battling long-term COVID symptoms.

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[10:50:00]

BERMAN: New this morning, the CDC is poised to shift its COVID isolation guidance this spring, that is according to "The Washington Post". CNN Health Reporter Jacqueline Howard is with us now. Pretty interesting stuff here, Jacqueline.

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: It is interesting. This shift that we might see is that the CDC this spring possibly could make the isolation recommendations, more so around your symptoms, than giving a blanket number of days in which you have to stay home.

So, the current guidelines are that if you test positive for COVID-19, you should stay home for at least five days. Isolate for five days if you continue to have symptoms, you should continue to isolate. But what we're hearing is that possibly this spring, there could be new recommendations that if you test positive for COVID-19, you can stop your isolation if you no longer have a fever for at least 24 hours without medication, and if your symptoms are generally mild or they're improving.

So, we could see this possible shift in guidance. It's similar to, on the state level, we've seen similar relaxation of guidelines in California and Oregon. And we do know that if you have other respiratory illnesses like flu or RSV, the recommendations are generally around if you have fever and what your symptoms are. So, as we continue to live with this virus, John, we could see a similar evolution and how we approach isolation guidelines and treatment approaches with COVID-19.

BERMAN: Yes, it really is interesting as more and more people have become vaccinated and more and more people have had COVID once or twice. It is becoming --

HOWARD: Exactly.

BERMAN: -- just as they said all along, it would be ultimately just like another one of the things that we have to deal with every winter. All right. Jacqueline, something else really, truly interesting that we're learning this morning. The studies about long COVID and just how much of it there is.

HOWARD: That's right, and we do know that children, even patients who were pregnant while they had COVID-19, can still develop long COVID. There was new research, John, that was presented just yesterday, showing that among patients who were pregnant while they had COVID-19, about 9.3 percent, or one in 10, went on to develop long COVID.

[10:55:00]

Now, I will say that proportion is similar to some data that's out there around the general population. We know that adults who have tested positive for COVID-19, in general, about one in 10 will go on to develop long COVID. But having this new research, specifically around pregnancy, is interesting.

And long COVID itself, it's when your symptoms persist for weeks, months or even years. We're still learning about this. There's no definitive timeline, but those symptoms could be fever, fatigue, malaise, respiratory, neurological symptoms or even digestive issues. John.

BERMAN: All right, Jacqueline Howard. I know, the long COVID is so frustrating for so many -- the people who have been going through it that any information about it, I think, at least knowing what's happening here is helpful to them. Thank you so much.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Thank you, John.

The Senate has passed a $95 billion foreign aid package. So, what's going to happen in the House? We will discuss, coming up.

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[11:00:00]