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Trump Weighs Potential Dramatic Shakeup At FBI; How Ultra- Processed Foods Affect Your Health; Bird Flu To Blame For Egg Supply Issues Before Holidays. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired November 22, 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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[13:30:56]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: CNN is learning that President-Elect Trump is considering a dramatic plan to shake up the FBI.
Sources say he intends to fire Director Chris Wray, who he handpicked to head the agency in 2017, and potentially name special agent, Mike Rogers, as FBI director with controversial MAGA loyalist, Kash Patel, as his deputy.
But one of Trump's longest-serving and most-trusted aides disputes that. Dan Scavino, posting on social media, quote, "Just spoke to President Trump regarding Mike Rogers going to the FBI. It's not happening. In his own words, quote, 'I have never even given it a thought.' not happening."
So Rogers does appear to want the job, seeming to pitch himself today on FOX.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE ROGERS, (R), FORMER MICHIGAN CONGRESSMAN: People have lost faith in the FBI and they don't even know it. Not showing up for a Senate hearing, they think, is their -- I mean, that hubris is exactly what people are seeing outside that say, I have lost faith in the FBI.
Somebody like me, I can -- I can restore that faith.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: We're joined now by retired FBI special agent, Daniel Bruner, who is the president of the Bruner Sierra Group.
Daniel, is Mike Rogers correct in his assessment of people losing faith in the FBI?
DANIEL BRUNER, PRESIDENT, THE BRUNER SIERRA GROUP & FORMER FBI SPECIAL AGENT: Thank you for having me on, Brianna.
And you have to understand that, you listen to the people, yes, I think there are people -- there's a -- there's a large voice out there that are they're saying they've lost faith in the FBI. But I think a lot of those -- that loss of faith is based upon
negative conversations. And of course, just like anything else, a lot of the negative things that come out about the FBI, you know is not discussing about a large a lot of the triumphs of the FBI.
Without a doubt, any organization is going to have room for improvement. I think the FBI needs -- has got room for improvement. Of course, I think that there is -- a change in management, a change in leadership, a change in style is a good thing.
And you can always bring in new voices, new ideas. I think under the -- under Director Wray and deputy director, Paul Abbate, I think the FBI has had great direction in the last seven and a half years.
But if the changes are warranted by President-Elect Trump, I think bringing in the right people who can make change, but yet not destroy the institution are good ideas.
KEILAR: Well, let's talk about that because, Daniel, I wonder what you think about this idea of installing a Trump loyalist, like Kash Patel as deputy FBI director, who really does not like the FBI.
And we should note, that's a position that's normally held by a career agent.
BRUNER: Well, the position of the director is a lot of times is -- is somebody who's been both, either at the U.S. attorney's office. And of only the last couple, the last few directors, Louis Freeh was the last agent who was previously -- excuse me -- a director who was previously an agent.
So Director Comey, Director Mueller and Director Wray were never agents, but they we're involved in law enforcement inside the Department of Justice system. So they understand how the FBI works. They understand how the communication works. And they understand the system of the FBI.
But like I said, it's always -- there's always room for improvement and bringing in a new eye to things. But bringing in somebody like Kash Patel, who has -- you know, has vast experience working in the government industry at the Pentagon, at the Department of Justice, but he's never run an organization the size of 35,000 employees.
You have to have an understanding of how the system works, that you come in to change the system, he has to understand how it works. And I think bringing in Kash Patel as the director or the deputy director would be an ill-advised move.
Yet, at the same time, people like myself or other FBI -- former FBI agents were coming on saying that Kash Patel would not be a good idea. Then you have a lot of people out there in the in the Twittersphere saying, yes, then obviously that's the right pick.
And ultimately, it comes down to President-Elect Trump. But the bottom line is, no matter what, I've spoken to a lot of agents that they will follow -- no matter who is put in the leadership position, they will continue to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, and they will follow the lawful orders given to them, no matter who the leader is.
[13:35:12]
KEILAR: Certainly, so ill advised. If that's ill-advised, what kind of damage could someone like Kash Patel, who has, you know -- let's -- let's sort of be generous and say designs in seriously reworking the FBI. What kind of damage, in your view, could someone like that do?
BRUNER: Well, he has already specifically said that he wants to target certain investigations that the -- the FBI led or were involved with.
So you've got these investigations, but you have hundreds if not thousands of other employees that somehow supported those investigations. So he may decide to go after the case agent, who was the leader of that investigation, and then anybody else involved.
You've got thousands of employees, analysts, support staff, other agents, other divisions who may have assisted in that investigation because they we're tasked to do that.
I need you to write this report. I need you to write this intelligence. Those individuals that he has threatened, he will go after anybody that supported those investigations or assisted in those investigations.
He could go after these individuals and revoke their security clearance. That seems to be one of the threats that he's been supporting. And deciding to completely revamp -- you know, completely flatten the FBI institution and rebuild it.
He has no experience in law enforcement. He has no understanding of how a law enforcement agency is to be built.
So that's where I think it's dangerous if he comes in and decides to flatten the organization, in his words, and to rebuild a law enforcement agency how it should be. Those are his words.
I don't think he understands what a law enforcement agency should be. So I think it would be very dangerous.
KEILAR: You don't always know what dominoes fall when you remove one.
Daniel Bruner, thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate your insights.
BRUNER: My pleasure.
KEILAR: Still ahead, these foods make up nearly 70 percent of the American diet, but do you know what's really in ultra-processed foods? We're going to examine that next on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.
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[13:41:37] SANCHEZ: Ultra-processed foods make up nearly 70 percent of the American diet and they've been linked to all sorts of health problems.
Sodas, processed meats, and sugary cereals are just a few examples. But the list also includes things you probably didn't think of, plant milks, packaged breads, for example.
Right now, researchers are studying how these foods may be affecting your health.
Meg Tirrell spoke to people involved in that study, and she joins us now live.
Meg, what did you learn?
MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, we learned that it's really difficult to do studies that actually prove these kinds of things. You can ask people what they ate. You can ask them to remember that. And you can try to derive some linkages based on that information.
But to really prove some sort of causal effect of ultra-processed foods and their ingredients on health or behaviors, you have to keep them in a really controlled environment.
So we went down to the National Institutes of Health to see how they're doing that. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TIRRELL (voice-over): Sam Srisatta has been living in this hospital room at the National Institutes of Health for two weeks.
(on camera): Do you have, like, wearables on? Like, tracking everything?
SAM SRISATTA, PARTICIPANT IN NIH STUDY: Yes. So I do have a couple of these sensors.
TIRRELL (voice-over): He's not sick. He's a participant in a clinical trial, one of the first of its kind, measuring his movement, his blood, his gut microbiome, even the air he breathes, all to try to better understand how our health is affected by ultra-processed foods.
(on camera): Oh, I think your food is coming in.
And we saw the kind of food he got and -- eggs and spinach and yogurt. But we don't know. That could be processed. It could be unprocessed. That's part of the trial.
(voice-over): Ultra-processed foods contain additives and ingredients you wouldn't find in your own kitchen. They were shown in the previous NIH study to drive overeating and weight gain, according to researcher Dr. Kevin Hall.
(on camera): Are ultra-processed foods just junk foods? DR. KEVIN HALL, SENIOR INVESTIGATOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: What we often think of as junk foods probably captures a big chunk of the ultra-processed foods in a kind of a category.
But there's a lot of things that people would be surprised are in the ultra-processed foods category and could potentially be healthy for you.
So things like whole-grain breads that you might buy from the supermarket. Most of those are considered ultra-processed because of some of the additives and preservatives that are in there, as well as how they're manufactured.
But there's a lot of debate about whether or not all ultra-processed foods are bad for you.
TIRRELL (voice-over): And that's what this trial is trying to find out.
HALL: What are the mechanisms? What is it about this category of foods that is driving people to overconsume calories?
TIRRELL: Dr. Hall's team has two ideas about what might be causing people to overeat some ultra-processed foods.
Their energy density or how many calories are in each gram of food, and their hyper-palatability, when foods contain just the right combinations of salt, sugar, fat, and carbs to make us not want to stop eating them.
(on camera): This is where they prepare all of the food. And they don't just prepare it; they weigh it before it goes up and when it comes back after the participant has eaten.
(voice-over): Each day participants in the trial are offered a total of 6,000 calories and researchers measure how much they choose to eat. The trial is a month long and each week has a different diet, minimally processed or different kinds of ultra-processed.
Sam was in an ultra-processed week during our visit but one with foods Dr. Hall doesn't expect will drive him to overeat.
TIRRELL (on camera): How is that ultra-processed?
SARA TURNER, DIETITIAN, NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH: It's all based on the ingredients. So the eggs that we used in that omelet, the egg whites were a liquid-egg product. So it has ingredients in it that make it ultra-processed. It's not just eggs.
[13:45:09]
Our yogurts, the pancake syrup that was in the yogurt, those all have ultra-processed ingredients in terms of added flavors, added sweeteners.
TIRRELL (voice-over): The next day Sam would switch to meals that were more energy dense and hyper-palatable, the ones expected to lead to overeating.
TURNER: So you can see that these are all foods that are ultra- processed. And you can see that the volume compared to this is quite different as well.
TIRRELL (on camera): Wow, that is really illustrative. I mean, just looking, you need two trays of food for this one and one tray of food for this next diet when you're getting the same number -- you're offering, at least, the same number of calories.
TURNER: Correct, yes.
TIRRELL (voice-over): Once a week, Sam spends a full day sealed in this metabolic chamber.
(on camera): Do you know what they're measuring in there?
SRISATTA: I think they're measuring how much O2 I consume and how much carbon dioxide I release.
TIRRELL (voice-over): The air he breathes in and out can tell researchers how many calories he's burning and whether they're coming from carbs or fat, all to help understand what ultra-processed foods really do to our bodies.
HALL: By understanding how the food environment actually does shape our metabolic health, we hope to basically improve the food supply in the future.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TIRRELL: And, Boris, they still hope to enroll a few more people in this trial. And so they're hoping that they may finish it next year and have results by the end of next year or early the year after that.
And what they're hoping is that they can provide this information to the FDA to food policymakers, but also to consumers, so that we can go to the grocery store and feel better equipped to make good choices for ourselves and our families -- Boris?
SANCHEZ: Meg, if they're looking for people to sit around and eat all the time, please put my name in. I'd love to join.
(LAUGHTER)
SANCHEZ: Meg Tirrell, thank you so much.
TIRRELL: I'll pass it along.
SANCHEZ: Appreciate that.
Meg Tirrell, thanks so much.
Brianna?
KEILAR: We can make it a three-hour show. (LAUGHTER)
KEILAR: All right, now to some of the other headlines we're watching this hour.
Starting with those major storms that are slamming both coasts. Torrential rain pummeling the Pacific Northwest. Northern California already swamped with 17 inches of precipitation. It's triggered a rare level-four flood risk and there's more rain on the way.
In the meantime, snow is now piling up in parts of the northeast. And a welcome change after weeks of drought and wildfires, several inches of snow blanketing communities from Pennsylvania through New England.
Also, six tourists, including an American, have died in Laos. Authorities suspect methanol poisoning from tainted alcohol. A hostel manager in Veng Vang (ph), where the victims were staying, has been detained.
This area is a backpacking hotspot. It's known for its nightlife. And the U.S., along with several countries, is now urging travelers to be cautious.
And a major satellite TV deal imploding. DirecTV terminating its agreement to acquire the Dish TV satellite business. The merger would have combined two pay TV giants totaling 20 million subscribers.
DirecTV says the deal wasn't worth the financial risk. Both companies are facing headwinds as fewer customers pay for traditional TV.
And still ahead, some not-so-excellent news. The price of eggs may leave you shellshocked. We'll tell you why they are getting more expensive, next.
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[13:53:04]
SANCHEZ: Bird flu is apparently to blame for some egg supply issues before the big holiday cooking season. You can now expect to pay $3.37 on average for a dozen Grade A large eggs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics in October.
Not sure why the Bureau of Labor Statistics is tracking eggs, though. I didn't know that they did that.
KEILAR: But I bet Vanessa Yurkevich can tell us. And thank goodness she's here, too.
Vanessa, tell us a little bit about this. And just in time for us as we need eggs for our pumpkin pie. We need it for the eggnog. We need it for all kinds of things. And people are getting ready for the holidays.
VANESSA YURKEVICH CNN BUSINESS & POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: This has been described to me as the perfect storm as it relates to eggs. You have egg prices on the rise for the last two years. You have
demand steady over the last two years. You have the avian flu, which has killed millions of egg-laying birds. And then, of course, you have the holiday.
So as you mentioned, eggs, for about a dozen, $3.37. It's going to be higher or lower, depending on where you live around the country. But that is a 30 percent increase from last year.
And egg production has been down 2.6 percent. And that is because of the avian flu, which has killed 75 million egg-laying birds.
Just last month, 2.8 million egg-laying birds died in Utah, Oregon and Washington state. And that is where we produce most of our eggs. So that has created even lower supply ahead of the holidays.
As you said, we use eggs for a lot of things, baking, cooking. For about a month now, we're going to be using those eggs.
What's interesting guys, is though, the generic eggs, the white eggs are now just as expensive as organic eggs. So now people are going to the store, buying more organic eggs because it's about the same price.
So now grocers are telling me, uh, oh, I hope we don't have a problem with organic eggs running out or those prices skyrocketing.
[13:55:00]
Also think about this, how many things on the store shelves actually use eggs? Well, a lot of the grocers telling me that they're seeing price spikes in pasta, mayonnaise because of the last spike with the avian flu.
So there is a ripple effect that happens throughout the year as these avian flu cases spike. The USDA already projecting more of a shortage of eggs in the first quarter of 2025.
And unfortunately, that may mean, with sustained demand, that prices are still going to be a bit high in the beginning of next year -- guys?
SANCHEZ: Pasta? Gosh, how far we've fallen.
KEILAR: Yes, that's your big food group, right?
SANCHEZ: It is the main one.
Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you so much.
We have some breaking news just into CNN, President-Elect Donald Trump is expected to offer Kelly Loeffler the secretary of agriculture job. He is set to meet with her at Mar-a-Lago this afternoon.
You may recall Loeffler briefly represented Georgia in the Senate. She led a failed reelection campaign there. She also co-chaired Trump's inauguration. We have much more on this pick straight ahead on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.
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