Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Biggest Shakeup In A Century To Hit Real Estate Agents This Week; Trump Unleashes Attacks On Harris And Walz At Campaign Stop; Trump Falsely Claims Photos Of Harris Big Crowd Created With AI; Harris Expected To Roll Out Her Economic Policy This Week; Why Tablets May Be Making Your Toddler Angrier. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired August 12, 2024 - 14:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:30:14]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: New rules kick in this week overhauling the way that realtors get paid.

So if you are ready to buy or sell, this may be great timing for you. But if you're a real estate agent, the new rules could mean your commission takes a huge cut.

CNN business writer, Samantha Delouya, is here with us.

Samantha, you described this as a seismic shift. I know certainly realtors are feeling that and they're very apprehensive about this. Explain the changes.

SAMANTHA DELOUYA, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Yes, Brianna. So basically, some big changes are coming to the way that buyers and sellers basically transact in the U.S.

This rule change affects 1.5 million real estate professionals. who are members of the powerful trade association, the National Association of Realtors.

These rules are kind of designed to shake up that traditional 5 percent or 6 percent commission that was usually paid out by a home seller when their home was sold.

So that meant that if you sold a million-dollar home, you could be on the hook to pay about $60,000 in commission payments. Those payments were usually split between the agent that represented the seller and the agent of represented the buyer.

But these new rules are designed to kind of shake that up. And they go into effect on August 17th.

The first rule prohibits offers of buyer compensation or buyer agent compensation to be advertised on the centralized databases that realtors used to look up listings.

The second rule affects the relationship between a home buyer and their real estate agent. It requires homebuyers basically to sign a legally binding representation agreement before even going to tour a house with their representation.

Now, these changes, it remains to be seen what's actually going to come of them and how this is actually going to affect transactions. But many experts say that this could ultimately lower the cost that home buyers and sellers pay when they transact.

And it's unclear, basically, what's going to happen, but it could be the biggest change in a generation. At least that's what experts are saying -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Yes, how are realtors preparing for this?

DELOUYA: Yes, so I spoke to a number of realtors. And you know, there are varying degrees of, you know, in panic mode and many are also looking at this pretty calmly.

They say that real estate is a tough business and people are dropping out at all times anyway. And so the ones that aren't willing to adapt to changes, they're going to be the ones that maybe don't survive this.

But ultimately, you know, some say that they don't think that changes are going to affect them that much at all.

I spoke to one of the CEOs of the biggest brokerages in America, and he said, you know, this is basically, Brianna, going to be a grand experiment and it remains to be seen.

KEILAR: All right, we will see. It is a really seismic shift, as you say.

Samantha, thank you for that.

Well, it is mudslinging season for politics. But will Donald Trump's personal attacks on Kamala Harris wins him votes or could it cost him in November? We'll have that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:32:56]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: Donald Trump taking on Kamala Harris, not just on a policy level, but on a very personal one.

Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Kamala is grossly incompetent and, in my opinion, has a very low I.Q.

If Comrade Walz and Comrade Harris win this November, the people cheering will be the pink-haired Marxists, the looters, the perverts, the flag burners, Hamas supporters, drug dealers, gun grabbers -- (CHEERING)

TRUMP: -- and human traffickers.

I didn't know she was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black. And now she wants to be known as black.

(BOOING)

TRUMP: So I don't know. Is she Indian or is she black?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Let's talk more about this with Tia Mitchell, Washington correspondent for "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution," and Margaret Talev, senior contributor at Axios.

It's great to have both of you here.

Tia, let's actually start first with you.

Do you see these attacks as a strategy or a lack of discipline on the part of the former president?

TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, "THE ATLANTA JOURNAL- CONSTITUTION": Well, I think they are part of a strategy, but they're part of a strategy that a lot of Republicans have warned him against, have said is misguided, have said it won't work.

And therefore, it also is a sign of a lack of discipline that he's not listening to people who are telling him this is not the way to go.

But I think what he's trying to do is, A, you know, just plain old insult the vice president's intelligence. B, you know, a well-worn conservative notebook of painting Democrats as these, you know, Communists Marxists, far-left liberals that are out of touch with a lot of voters.

And then the third thing that's probably the most controversial is he's trying to signal to certain voters that Harris is not one of you. Harris is a pretender. Harris is not someone you can trust.

So that's it's a lot of, you know, talking to black voters and saying, well, she just now started claiming she's a black. Before that, she didn't claim her black heritage.

[14:39:59]

That is a strategy. Again, I don't think it's a working strategy. We're not seeing black voters respond to it at all. But it does appear that that's a message he's trying to portray to certain voters.

DEAN: Yes, it is -- it is certainly interesting -- an interesting tack to take.

Margaret, I want to ask you about the -- yet again, we're talking about the former president and conspiracy theories that he is trafficking in. The latest being that he's claiming, falsely, that the vice president used AI to boost the crowd size in photos of her Michigan rally.

Her headquarters responding to that accusation by calling out the former president for not campaigning in a swing state in over a week.

Which I think is interesting, too, to keep seeing how they're responding to his attacks like this. They're not getting down with him going tit for tat. They bring it back to people and also to what he's doing in his spare time.

But more broadly, Margaret, what does it say to you that someone who is running for president, who has been president, continues to traffic in these conspiracy theories?

MARGARET TALEV, SENIOR CONTRIBUTOR, AXIOS: Well, Jessica, right now, I would say follow the numbers. Because what we've seen coming out of the weekend is new polling, including that "New York Times"/Sienna poll that does show Harris -- Vice President Harris overtaking former President Trump.

Not just nationally, but in three really crucial states -- crucial battleground states. Michigan -- (AUDIO PROBLEM) -- august. Yes, the election is not until November but that suggests a changing of the graph (AUDIO PROBLEM) -- found strategy versus discipline.

It certainly is the strategy. But there are many Republicans who are telling the former president, either behind closed doors or in public settings, that he should set a more focused and disciplined strategy on going after areas where she is it has been weakest, including the border and the economy.

One of the emerging challenges for him seems to be, in this most recent polling, that even on the economy, President Biden's decision not to seek reelection and her ascent as the Democratic nominee, has given a bit of a fresh start or a reset button to the Democratic ticket.

And there are now voters who are more confident that she has the ability to both tackle the economy and sort of be honest or be a change or be reliable.

He's needing to shake up his whole playbook. And so he's going back to some of the things that worked in 2016. The landscape has changed dramatically since 2016, including who votes.

So this is obviously a period of a trial and error for the former president. He's back on Twitter. That definitely tells you something as well. And we're going to see his efforts with X and this Elon Musk interview to try to shake up a narrative that has turned against him in recent weeks.

DEAN: Right, absolutely. There's no question about it.

And, Tia, Harris is expected to roll out her economic policy platform this week. It is interesting those put out polls that Margaret notes, she doesn't seem to be getting tied to what Biden was on the economy.

A poll, though, still finding that Americans trust Trump over Harris to handle the economy. But you see it's not a huge split there. What -- what do you make of all of this? I mean, we saw her adopt.

We don't know much about her economic policy yet. We just heard over the weekend say she's on board with not taxing tips.

But what do you expect to hear from her and what do you think can be effective in convincing some of these Americans who might be skeptical that she can handle the economy?

MITCHELL: Yes, she did tell reporters today that part of her agenda will be coming out soon, and that that will include her economic agenda.

I think, right now -- she's right now been able to navigate kind of having her cake and eating it, too. So she's benefiting in -- she's able to say, I'm lockstep with President Biden. We've done great things. We've been working hard for three-and-a-half years.

But she hasn't necessarily been blamed the same way Biden has been blamed for some of the ways the economy has kind of had fits and starts with the rising cost of goods most prominent in people's minds.

That being said, I do think people want to hear what parts of the Biden economic agenda would she continue, where would she pivot?

You mentioned her somewhat echoing former President Trump on wanting to not tax tips. That is notable. You know, that's a real policy strategy that she can discuss and give the -- give her reasoning behind it. And we're going to be looking for more.

She has talked about the Fed and she has contrasted herself with former President Trump in saying that the Federal Reserve should remain independent. So that's a small piece, but more -- she says more is to come. I do think people are going to be looking at that.

[14:44:58]

But to your bigger point, she's benefiting from the fact that the enthusiasm around her campaign is kind of separate from the policy. This is --she's getting good vibes. She's getting good energy. She's getting people who are behind her because they don't want Trump back.

And for them, it's less about policy than it is about just her showing a hopeful and positive campaign. But I think that could run out if she doesn't back it up with policy.

DEAN: All right. Well, unfortunately, we are out of time. So much more to discuss because it is such an interesting time.

Tia Mitchell and Margaret Talev, thank you both very much.

If you have a toddler at home, there's one thing a lot of parents do that could be making those tantrums even worse. We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:50:08]

KEILAR: Well, we all know about the terrible twos. We've all heard about them. But a new study examines why some toddlers may have a higher tendency to explode into those angry temper tantrums and it may be their tablet screen time.

A new study surveyed hundreds of parents of preschool-age kids and the parents self-reported their kids tablet use from ages 3.5 up to age 5.5. They then assessed their children's behavior.

DEAN: So here's what they found. The earlier the child's tablet use, the higher number of expressions of anger and frustration after one year.

Also a child's proneness to anger and frustration at age 4.5 was associated with more use of tablets by age 5.5.

Dr. Scott Hadland is a pediatrician at Mass General for Children.

Doctor, thanks so much for being here with us.

This is the interesting stuff. What's your take on this study?

DR. SCOTT HADLAND, PEDIATRICIAN, MASS GENERAL FOR CHILDREN: Yes, thanks so much for having me.

I was really fascinated by the study. I think it's really important and impactful because it showed kind of that cycle that you just described.

The fact that you know, more tablet use when you're younger, a year later, when you're 4, leads to just these issues with anger and frustration, which then feeds into, when you're 5, more issues looking at tablets all the time.

And so it seems like there is kind of this cycle that's going on that we really need to try to break.

KEILAR: Yes, and what is it about -- you know, talk to us about the correlation versus causation here, what it is about tablet usage that could be problematic.

And I always think of the things that kids are not doing. Of course, when they're on a tablet, they're not learning how to use their words and doing a lot of things that might help their sort of like emotional growth.

HADLAND: Right. Yes, I think that that's really key here, right? Is what's not happening when a child is in front of a tablet.

And I'm not just a pediatrician, I'm also a dad and I'm a parent of a 6-year-old and a 3-year-old. And so I understand how hard it can be when your child is having frustrations, when they're angry.

And it's really easy to hand them a screen, right, to put them in front of a movie, to hand them an iPad, give them your phone as a way to kind of distract them, right?

But when that is happening, your child is not learning the right way to deal with their frustrations. And so they're sort of being soothed by-- by a device. And we really want them to learn healthier coping skills.

I guess the other thing I would say is that we're now coming up on many years of research where they're showing that the more time that children spend in front of screens, the more at risk they are of having changes to their brain development, right?

And so we also can't rule out that one thing that we might be seeing in this study is that the tablets themselves are sort of changing brain development in children in a way that's showing up in their emotions.

DEAN: That is so interesting. Why is that? What is it about the two that are connected, the tablet and their emotions?

HADLAND: Right. Well, again, when you're -- when you're in front of a tablet, you're not really learning the right way to take on life's frustrations, right?

So a healthy way, when you're frustrated as a child to cope, is to seek comfort from a parent or to find a book or a toy to play with. And I think that tablets really just sort of give this -- this very easy sort of escape for families.

And so, you know, it's no surprise then that we, as pediatricians, always recommend that, for as long as possible, parents are delaying the first time that they're introducing tablets and other screens to children.

Because we're really trying to push back the age at which kids start to turn to tablets as a way to be distracted. And even then, we want to try to minimize as much as possible the amount of time that kids are spending with tablets.

So we really say you know -- and I think these are actually kind of high limits -- that when a child is -- it's a work week for a child, sort of Monday to Friday, that they should be spending no more than an hour in front of a tablet or other screens.

And then on the weekends, no more than three hours. I try for less than this as a parent. It's really tough to do. But I think it's really important to do.

KEILAR: What -- what about the kind of thing they're watching? I mean, you have a 3-year-old. I have a 6-year-old and an 8-year-old. And I just noticed how different the content can be in terms of quality.

For instance, if my kids watch, you know, something stupid on YouTube, like a video that has no narrative arc, versus if they watch something like "Bluey," I actually see it kind of almost revolutionize their imaginative play.

These are very different kinds of things that they're watching. How does that play in to this, what they may be watching or may not be watching?

HADLAND: I think that's really critical. So this study was really looking at time on a tablet, just sort of all time spent on a tablet. But the truth is, you're right, there's an enormous amount of variability of what kids can watch.

And we tend to think of shows like "Sesame Street," for example, which has been around for decades, as producing really high-quality educational content. That actually in studies has been shown to teach kids things and actually to improve educational outcomes for children.

[14:55:06]

And shows like "Sesame Street" and other educational shows actually can be beneficial and very different from -- as you said, there are other shows that are really flashy. You have a lot of action.

You know, again, as a dad, just watch one of my kids see these shows. You can sort of see them rev up. You can see their energy level rising, which is very different from the sort of calm educational time that they get from other programming.

KEILAR: Yes, you really can see the difference. I think that's the key is you're watching your child. I know parents everywhere will stop in their tracks for a story like this.

So, Dr. Hadland, thank you so much for taking us through the research. We really appreciate it.

HADLAND: Thank you.

KEILAR: With one week until the Democratic National Convention, the race for the White House is heating up. Ahead, how former President Trump is trying to find his footing against a surging Harris campaign and the potential impact of his interview tonight with Elon Musk.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)