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Southwest Airlines Drops Open Seating; Biden Delivers Emotional Speech; Biden First President Since Johnson to Bow Out of Presidential Race; Heat May Impact Olympic Games. Aired 9:30-10a ET
Aired July 25, 2024 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[09:33:08]
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, new this morning, Southwest Airlines announced it is dropping open seating. For the first time in history, the airline will shift to assigned seats.
CNN's Athena Jones is here.
Athena, I have to confess, I found it to be like a battle royale. Like, stressful and awful. Since I said that on TV a few minutes ago, there have been people tweeting me saying, oh, no, we love it, we love it.
ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Some people love it. They have it all planned out. They get there when they need to get there. This open seating policy, you know, first come best seats approach is something that Southwest has been known for, for all of its 50 years. So, this is a big change for the low-cost airline. And it's all about making more money.
Southwest has been under pressure from activist investors who want to see changes in management and higher profitability. They used to be the U.S.' most profitable airline, but that's not the case anymore. In fact, they just posted a roughly 50 percent drop in profits. So, these changes will hopefully, they think, allow them to make more money on premium seating. So, assigned seating allows them to make some seats premium. This is something that their competitors, like United, American, Delta have been doing for a while now. Now Southwest will be able to do that.
They're also going to be offering overnight red-eye flights for the first time. They say this will increase efficiency. They'll be using the planes more. And they hope that - you know, they say that customers have been clamoring for these issues and that when people switch to another airline, the number one reason they give is open seating. So, they hope that this will attract more fliers, newer flyers, and more flying from the people who are already customers.
BERMAN: I get that. I mean, see, when I go to the airport I want certainty about something. There's so much uncertainty around seating (ph). But I do understand people saying that they did like it. So, I stand a little bit corrected there.
When - when might we see this?
JONES: Well, those who like it will still have a few more months because when it comes to the more leg room, that's going to take until 2025. They have to reconfigure the planes, give more space for those premium seats. Otherwise, for the rest of the changes, Southwest said we'll hear more about them in September. So, we don't yet know exactly when they'll take place.
[09:35:02]
We also don't know if they're going to change their fees for baggage and for - for changing - for changing a flight.
BERMAN: Yes. But lest you think this is about altruism, this is about money, as most things are.
Athena Jones, great to see you. Thank you very much.
Kate.
BOLDUAN: Certainty shmertainty (ph) when it comes to fly these days, John. Hahaha, you're so cute.
Coming up for us, President Biden says he's passing the torch in an emotional address. How he plans to try and lock in his legacy in his now final six months in the White House.
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[09:40:13]
SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we are taking a look there at Jill Biden, who has traveled to Paris for the Olympics. You see her there on the left-hand side of your screen. Now they're zooming in to the speaker there. After her husband passed the torch, Jill Biden there at the Olympics. It's been a very emotional time for the Bidens.
All right, this is just in, President Biden very proud of something that's happened just now, touting new GDP numbers, saying they, quote, "make it clear we now have the strongest economy in the entire world."
And he also name-dropped Vice President Kamala Harris. The economy grew 2.8 percent in the second quarter, more than expected. President Biden added in a statement, "the vice president and I will keep fighting for America's future."
Joining us now, former chief of staff to then Senator Joe Biden, Susan Platt. Also, presidential historian and Rice University professor, Douglas Brinkley.
Thank you to both of you for coming on this morning.
Susan, I just want to get to - you know Biden. You have spent time with him. How hard this was for him to give up the race for the presidency, surrounded by his family, having to make those remarks?
SUSAN PLATT, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO THEN-SEN. JOE BIDEN: Well, I think it shows the character of this man, you know, the legacy of this president will be long. His love of family and selfless - selfless service to this country and never give up spirit is unsurpassed. His perseverance was never failing and the opportunities he created, as we've just heard, throughout his legislative achievements in the last 50 years, will not be forgotten.
And he's told us he's not done yet. It was an emotionally powerful speech. And one of great political self-sacrifice to set the stage for the next generation of leaders to choose hope over hate, as he told us.
The contrast yesterday between Joe Biden and Donald Trump was so stark. Biden has always had such pride in this country. It's not a stupid country like Donald Trump would suggest. By saying that, Donald Trump insults all Americans. And I know we all feel that.
And, of course, I have layers of feelings about him leaving the race. He's a man who has set such a high standard, an example of statesmanship for me personally and for our nation. And he proves character does still matter. And he told us now we have a choice between yesterday and tomorrow. The gift of the future.
I think his ability to get back up and stay the (ph) course through extraordinary personal tragedy has inspired me, particularly in the last two years, as I grieve the loss of my own husband after nearly 40 years. So, I think he thought of that, continuing to unite his party with the endorsement of Kamala Harris. That was a - that was big in his mind. The threat that this country faces. He has a history of giving qualified women a platform, as he did with me, opening the proverbial door for talented women. And, you know, it was not normal to have a woman chief of staff in the Senate in the '90s. And he gave me that opportunity. And I think he thinks that if he recognizes it's time to - to step out of the doorway for his vice president to walk through. And she has. And I think what he has done is really -
SIDNER: Right. And - he has certainly passed the torch to Kamala Harris.
Douglas, I want to ask you, you are a fabulous historian and have been watching all of this happen. And I know you know this, but I want to remind our viewers of a last time a president decided not to run for a second term, the year was - it was in the 1960s, the president was LBJ.
Let's listen to what he said and how he did it.
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LYNDON B. JOHNSON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT (March 31, 1968): Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president.
(END VIDEO CLIP) SIDNER: So, you saw that there. That was from March 31, 1968. The result is the same, but the - can you speak to just how remarkably different the reasons are for these two presidents to step down.
DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, of course.
Lyndon Johnson stepped down because of the Vietnam War. That year began, 1968, with the Tet Offensive. It showed that there was no light at the end of the tunnel in Vietnam. As General William Westmoreland had promised, that we were going to be in for a long slog. And his health was deteriorating, Lyndon Johnson's. Also, he had heart attacks, high blood pressure, hypertension, and his wife, Lady Bird Johnson, wanted him out. They felt - she felt she had done her time and he had done his in Washington. Best to get back to the Texas hill country. And alas, with Eugene McCarty running for president against the war, senator from Minnesota, and Robert F. Kennedy about to jump into the race, he just thought, I'm going to get out of this thing and manage the war.
[09:45:10]
He got rave reviews for doing so for a few weeks, but then in short order Dr. Martin Luther King Junior was murdered, and then Bobby Kennedy was murdered, and then there was chaos at the Chicago Democratic Convention. And out of all of that ended up being Richard Nixon, the conservative two-term Eisenhower vice president, a once failed, you know, presidential nominee, he became the man of the year, Nixon.
So, there's always this fear of what - of we're repeating '68. What could Joe Biden do to avoid that? He - Johnson and Humphrey stayed too linked together I think Kamala Harris has to distance herself from President Biden. Take 75 percent of the policies they shared, their Biden-Harris policies, their big wins, as we just heard, and grab onto those and be proud, but deviate where she feels she needs to deviate in the way she talks about women's reproductive rights, or the way that she wants to do it - say something with more nuanced about the - the protesters on campuses or the Gaza-Israel war in general.
SIDNER: Yes, I - you know, it's interesting you say - talk about the repeat of 1968 and the Democratic National Convention is going to be held in Chicago, a coincidence that nobody could have counted on.
I do want to ask you, Doug, just quickly, how you think President Biden's legacy is going to be remembered?
BRINKLEY: Well, you know, he's now a one-term president. And when you assess him, he reminds me of, in some ways, Jimmy Carter and George Herbert Walker Bush. Both at this stage in time they were running for re-election and had about a 38 percent approval rating. Very much like Biden's. But those two presidents, we pull back now, decades later, and we rave about how good they were. We look at George Herbert Walker Bush, a deal with the breakup of the Soviet Union and German reunification and handling loose nukes and liberating Kuwait and apprehending General Manuel Noriega. And you look at Jimmy Carter, and they start piling up, you know, Camp David, human rights, Panama Canal Treaty, first president to recognize the Peoples Republic of China, creation of superfund sites. The list is long, saving more of - so much land in Alaska for preservation, so much that it's the size of California.
But both Bush and Carter couldn't - couldn't finish out because the public didn't understand that they were doing so well. And I think that's what's with President Biden.
SIDNER: All right, Jimmy Carter perhaps the most prolific post- presidency than anyone has ever had.
Douglas Brinkley, Susan Platt, thank you both so much for taking the time with us this morning.
John.
BERMAN: So, this morning, will extreme heat threatened the Paris Olympics? New concerns that these high temperatures could hold up the opening ceremonies.
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[09:52:40]
BOLDUAN: This morning, the mayor of Paris is keeping an eye to the sky, talking about her concerns that possible rain in the forecast could seriously impact the opening game - the opening ceremony of the Olympic games. Though, she says, she still is optimistic that the weather will cooperate.
CNN's Derek Van Dam has more.
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DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST (voice over): The Olympics are about to kick off in Europe's most vulnerable city to heat. Extreme weather fueled by increasing temperatures may be one of the event organizers toughest challenges.
VAN DAM: While rain could postponing the events, he waves threaten spectators and athletes in the city.
This device detects heat using infrared. The yellows are the hottest. The purples are the coolest. Something meteorologists will be watching closely.
VAN DAM (voice over): CNN spoke exclusively with a meteorologist responsible for monitoring incoming severe weather and advising the Olympic committee on potential impacts.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, we have something I can show you here. We have really hot summers that we never had before the 21st centuries in Paris.
VAN DAM (voice over): This year's games will take place around the same period of the year as France's most lethal heat wave in 2003.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was worst event we had in France overall and especially in Paris here. Paris is vulnerable because we have very big urban heat effect.
VAN DAM (voice over): Because Paris is such a densely populated city, heat is amplified by various surfaces, like asphalt, concrete, and even buildings. While Olympic athletes strive to break records, our own planet is breaking records too. As 2023 was earth's hottest year ever with 2024 on track to be even warmer.
VAN DAM: And what I see is a concerning trend of more frequent -
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
VAN DAM: Extreme heat.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
VAN DAM: And longer lasting heat.
VAN DAM (voice over): While extreme heat is just one element monitored here, forecasters from Meteo-France will use an arsenal of tools to warn of any incoming severe weather.
ALEXIS DECALONNE, HEAD OF METEO-FRANCE SPORTS: It's like rain detection at street level.
VAN DAM: This little-known device could determine whether or not an Olympic event is postponed or canceled. It is the mobile radar that measures rain in real time. So, Meteo-France forecasters can advise the Olympic committee.
DECALONNE: If a threshold for a given sports is exceeded, postponement or (INAUDIBLE) adaptation or the worst, cancellation, could - could happen.
[09:25:08]
VAN DAM (voice over): Heavy rain already postponed and opening ceremony rehearsal on the Seine as the river was flowing too quickly.
The last time Paris hosted the Olympics in 1924, the French capital was 5.5 degrees cooler than it is today, helping fuel the climate with more extreme weather. 2024 is certainly on track to rewrite both the climate and Olympic history books.
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VAN DAM (on camera): A lot has changed with our earth's climate since Paris last hosted the Olympics. And namely, with all of that additional warming in our atmosphere fueling extreme weather events, that's why we went to talk to the forecasters responsible for keeping spectators and athletes safe.
Now we do expect the heat to return to Paris by early next week. But in terms of the ceremony tomorrow, we do anticipate cool weather, but the potential of light showers.
Kate.
BOLDUAN: All right. Fingers crossed, no rain.
Thank you, Derek. Appreciate it.
VAN DAM: Right.
SIDNER: Au revoir, mona mi.
BERMAN: Au revoir.
SIDNER: Au revoir.
BOLDUAN: You're so fancy. You are so fancy.
SIDNER: Thank you so much for joining us. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "CNN NEWSROOM" with Jim Acosta, au revoir, is up next.
BOLDUAN: Who was that?
BERMAN: That's my friend. Merci beaucoup.
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