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Putin Says Russia Hit Ukraine With New Mid-Range Ballistic Missile; DOJ Seeks To Break Up Google, Force Sale Of Chrome; Comcast To Spin-Off Cable Channels, Including MSNBC & CNBC; Most Adults Say They'll Rely On Social Security In Retirement. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired November 21, 2024 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:33:56]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Just moments ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that a Russian strike in Ukraine was carried out by, quote, "an experimental non-nuclear ballistic missile, which has a medium range."

A U.S. official made a similar assessment earlier today after Ukraine accused the Kremlin of firing an intercontinental ballistic missile, a weapon designed to deliver long-distance nuclear warheads.

These are new photos obtained exclusively by CNN, showing the missile debris and the Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

We want to get a military perspective now. Joining us is retired Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, former commander of U.S. Army forces in Europe.

Sir, thank you so much for being with us.

I do wonder about this distinction. The Kremlin saying this is an experimental medium-range ballistic missile. How is that different from an intercontinental ballistic missile?

LT. GEN. BEN HODGES, FORMER COMMANDER, U.S. ARMY FORCES IN EUROPE: Well, Boris, first, the ICBM air intercontinental ballistic missile, that name evokes something that makes people think of the Holocaust, World War III -- nuclear Holocaust or World War III. And I think that that got out and got people overly excited.

[13:35:11]

Which, of course, is exactly what the Russians wanted in the beginning. Now they're saying, oh, well, it's this medium-range, not an intercontinental ballistic missile.

And also it looks to be -- I mean, it's been labeled as experimental. I think that's because it looks like it was not very effective. It clearly was not carrying a nuclear warhead.

And when I've looked at the video of these pieces or the warheads that did impact around the Dnipropetrovsk, it did not cause much damage. So it's hard to say how effective this weapon is.

The point is, we should allow our intelligence agencies to do their assessment, don't take the bait. This is Russian scaremongering to try and get us to stop supporting Ukraine.

SANCHEZ: And, General, there is also -- excuse me. There's also something specific about this kind of technology that does hint at some of Moscow's threats over nuclear weapons, right?

HODGES: Well, the fact that there was confusion about what it was, I think the -- and obviously, this is a dangerous weapon. There's no doubt about that.

But they have been using nuclear-capable weapons against Ukraine from the very beginning. There's four or five 5 different types of missiles and other weapons that are delivered by various means that are all capable of carrying a nuclear warhead.

So again, I think that we should not make too much out of this. And in fact, it strikes me a little bit of Russian -- they're worried.

I mean, they're worried because they see that Ukraine already is achieving very good effect with the ATACMs and also with the Storm Shadows, which they can now use against headquarters, against logistics.

And so the Russians are going to do what they can to try and (TECHNICAL ISSUES) decision on doing this.

SANCHEZ: General, I also want to ask you about the closure of U.S., Greek and Spanish embassies in Kyiv. How do you read those closures? Is it a sign that there's concern within those countries of Russia targeting those facilities?

HODGES: Well, I think there were indications here over the last couple of days -- and this this points to the excellence of our intelligence and our early warning systems.

There were indicators that something like this was going to happen. They -- they may not have known the target, obviously. But you know, if you're going to launch a weapon like an ICBM or, in this case, this medium-range weapon, there are a lot of things that happen that can be detected.

So I don't know this, but my guess is that they decided to alert the various embassies that there could be something coming towards Kyiv. And so the different nations took different steps to deal with that.

So again, I think that this was appropriate. We'll probably see our great diplomats back at work. And in fact, I'm pretty sure some of them never left. They'll be back at work tomorrow.

SANCHEZ: Lieutenant General Ben Hodges, great to get your analysis. Thanks so much for being with us.

HODGES: Thanks for the privilege. SANCHEZ: Up next, we're going to explain why the Justice Department

wants Google to break up with Chrome and what this all means for our web surfing experience. We'll be right back.

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[13:43:01]

SANCHEZ: So the Department of Justice is proposing a way to bust up Google's illegal monopoly when it comes to searching the web, by forcing the company to spin off its popular web browser, Chrome.

Billions of people use it, which comes bundled with the company's search engine.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: They may not have known there was another choice, right? But in a new filing, the DOJ urges a federal judge to force Google to sell Chrome.

We have a lot to talk about now with CNN chief media analyst, Brian Stelter.

So, Brian, why is the DOJ looking to break Google up? And what does it mean for everyone out there who uses these products?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Yes, including yours truly. It's how I'm coming to you live right now.

Well, this follows the landmark ruling earlier this year, finding that Google had violated U.S. antitrust law with its search business. The question now is, what to do about that finding? OK?

The court says that Google is acting illegally. So what to do about it?

Overnight, the Justice Department filed its proposal. It wants the government to, in this case, the court, to force Google to spin off Chrome, to break the Chrome browser off from the rest of Google.

And that's part of a broader effort to break up some of the tight integrations of Google products. But it's those integrations of products that Google says makes everything work so well.

So Google's chief legal officer, Kent Walker, came out saying the DOJ is being overly broad here with this proposal, pushing a radical interventionist agenda that would harm Americans. That's the Google position.

What you can tell from that statement is that they will clearly appeal this. In other words, this is going to take months, probably years to play out.

But if this does go through, if the court does order Google to break up in this way it would be the most significant antitrust penalty for any tech company in a generation.

SANCHEZ: Yes, and I'd be curious to see who might be interested in actually purchasing that browser.

There's also potentially some cable news networks that might be on the market soon, Brian. What's going on over at Comcast?

[13:45:00]

STELTER: Yes, this news rattling the television industry this week. Comcast saying it's going to spin off most of its cable channels, including MSNBC and CNBC, into a separate private -- a separate publicly traded company. This process is going to take about a year.

And there's lots of opinions about why Comcast might be doing it. Are they trying to come up with a growth opportunity for the industry, as they say, or are they trying to get rid of assets that are declining in value in the streaming era?

I would say the Google story and the cable story are connected in the following way. With the incoming Trump administration, there may be a much more beneficial environment for mergers and acquisitions.

The DOJ, actually, when Trump takes over, might decide to punish Google, not to follow through with the penalties that we just talked about.

Conversely, the incoming Trump administration might decide that MSNBC or CNBC is not friendly enough, particularly MSNBC, and try to slow down any deal or try to stop any deal.

So there's so much uncertainty right now in the marketplace, whether it's big tech or media. And a lot of that uncertainty has to do with the change in administrations.

KEILAR: Certainly.

Brian Stelter, thank you so much.

And still ahead, safety net threat. A new survey shows most Americans expect to rely on Social Security in their retirement. But should they? Why the future of this critical benefit is uncertain.

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[13:50:53]

SANCHEZ: Social Security is critical for retiring Americans. And a new report is shining a light on just how critical. More than half of working-age Americans say they expect to use their benefits to pay the bills when they retire. This is according to a Bank Rate survey.

KEILAR: And that's a red flag because Social Security is projected to receive less money in the future. And many people are worried that their benefits could shrink.

Let's talk about this now with personal finance expert, George Kamel.

And, George, is this level of fear warranted for the future of the Social Security program?

GEORGE KAMEL, PERSONAL FINANCE EXPERT: Absolutely. America will become the land of the free, home of the broke if we're not careful here. We're going to see a 27 percent reduction in these Social Security benefits by 2034.

And here's why. It's a simple solution. You know, we have more people that are 65 or older than we do people who are 18 and under. And so that's going to be more people that are withdrawing, less people contributing.

SANCHEZ: So, George, is the solution, looking forward, essentially a choice between two options, either raising revenue through raising income taxes or cutting benefits, cutting costs essentially by reducing the amount of benefits that folks get?

Is that -- I mean, both of those sound like a headache and potentially politically perilous for anybody that tries to put that in place,

KAMEL: Absolutely. Its already fragile. And what we're seeing is the average Social Security benefit right now is about 1,900 bucks a month. So we're talking poverty level.

Whether we do some cutting here or adding here, it's never going to be enough for someone to retire. So you need to be your own retirement plan. Do not rely on the government.

Instead, rely on the U.S. economy. We've seen the stock market double over the past seven years. So if you've been putting money in that 401K or that Roth IRA, you're going to do far better than these measly Social Security benefits that we call Social Insecurity.

KEILAR: And so we talked earlier about people who are still working age, but among people who have already retired, an even higher percentage relying on their Social Security, more than three quarters. How concerning is that?

KAMEL: Well, we take these calls on the Ramsey show right next door. And they call in and they say, we're retired, we are retired at 63, and we're living off of Social Security, and it's not enough to cover the bills, what do we do?

And we have to give them the hard call and say, you've got to go back to work. There's no other place you're going to find random income. Otherwise, you have your kids trying to support you.

That's what we're seeing. They're called Silver Squatters now, where they go, hey, kids, we got to move back in with you because we didn't prepare for retirement. So the only option here is to continue working to bring in that extra income.

And there's a simple solution here. It's called margin. You've got to spend less or make more. So we've got to cut your lifestyle down, which means getting rid of those debt payments before we retire, getting rid of the mortgage before we retire so that we can lower our monthly expenses and retire with dignity. And it's very much possible, even for those that are getting started

later. If you're 40 with nothing in retirement and you invest 15 percent of the average household income, that's 80 grand, you'll be a millionaire by 63, $1.3,000,000 in that nest egg.

SANCHEZ: It sounds like folks should listen to that advice.

George, I do wonder, outside of trying to command personal expenses and the expenditures that people have every day, prices have gone up dramatically in the last few years.

Is there anything on the policy front that you foresee with an incoming administration that might change that would alleviate some of those pressures, perhaps?

KAMEL: Well, we know the tax cuts will continue to help Americans but the tariffs might actually increase prices.

So there might be a -- you know, a net wash here. And that's why it's so important to focus on your own house instead of what's happening in the White House.

So let's just pretend that prices will continue to go up. What are you going to do about it? Well, that likely means getting on a written budget, living on less than you make, not getting more payments in our life, but instead, getting rid of those payments.

Because we know retirement is not an age. It's a financial number. So you've got to start calculating. You've got to start investing. Because if you invest nothing, you'll have nothing.

And every kid with a piggy bank knows that. You've got to put some money in to have some later.

And the good news is we want to help people with this. We created a free investing guide at Ramseysolutions.com/guide to help people understand all the lingo and what they need to do to get on track.

[13:55:07]

KEILAR: It's really good advice.

George, thank you so much for being with us.

KAMEL: Thank you, guys. Appreciate it.

KEILAR: And on this week's "HOMEFRONT," a taste of home for the holidays for American servicemembers. The Defense Logistics Agency's Troop Support ships nearly 700,000 pounds of food across the globe, just in time for troops to enjoy a traditional Thanksgiving meal.

So what kind of trimmings are we talking about here? Get this, more than 139,000 pounds of turkey, more than 176,000 pounds of beef, 98,000 pounds of ham, 49,000 pounds of shrimp. Who doesn't love a shrimp cocktail?

More than 46,000 pounds of sweet potato, 9,000-plus cases of pies and cakes, and 1,000 cases of that delicious eggnog.

DLA Troop Support calls this operation their Super Bowl. And they start gathering all those ingredients for meals as early as April. That's right. They've been doing this since April.

Stay with CNN. We'll be right back.

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