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Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-TX) is Interviewed about Airport Staffing Shortages; Biden to Pardon Turkeys; Rich Fettke is Interviewed about High Mortgage Rates. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired November 25, 2024 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Causing these trends? I mean where does the research even start?

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Right, it's still - still unclear what's causing this. Some researchers point to environmental causes. Asbestos. Other researchers point to genetic mutations that may put you at an increased risk. But in Susan Wojcicki's blog post, she did write this. She said, quote, "despite lung cancer being the leading cause of cancer death in the U.S., it's significantly underfunded. Lung cancer receives $4,438 per death in NIH research funding." That's much less than other cancers, Omar. That's the message from Susan Wojcicki.

JIMENEZ: Wow. An important message. Jacqueline Howard, thanks for bringing it to us.

HOWARD: Yes.

JIMENEZ: All right, meanwhile, we're following a lot of other stories, including first winter storms and then now worker shortages. We're going to tell you about the staffing nightmare plaguing airports that could complicate your Thanksgiving travel plans.

And we're talking turkey. Meet Peaches and Blossom, the two birds President Biden will use his presidential powers to pardon. We're going to tell you how they're living a life of luxury this Thanksgiving. Stay with us.

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[09:35:49]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, employees at Charlotte's international airport are now on strike, stopping work and demanding higher pay. This is also just as the busy holiday travel season is beginning. This includes, in this strike, several hundred workers, like the people who clean the cabins, work the ramps and wheelchair attendants.

And this strike comes as the FAA is warning it also may need to slow down air traffic during this holiday season because of a different shortage, the ongoing and almost chronic shortage, it seems, of air traffic controllers. Those shortages have already caused serious issues and delays at airports across the country, including in Austin, Texas. That airport now operating with - reports are about half of the 60 air traffic controllers that are recommended for that airport.

And joining us right now is one member of Congress who has been sounding the alarm on this issue for more than a year now, Democratic Congressman Lloyd Doggett from Texas.

Congressman, thanks for coming in.

You've been asking the FAA to do something about Austin's staffing shortage for more than a year. What answers have you gotten?

REP. LLOYD DOGGETT (D-TX): Not enough answers. There's a real safety issue here. We've had, since really about two years, we've had five near catastrophes here. The most recent one in October when a small plane got within 350 feet of a packed American Airlines flight coming into Austin.

We need additional controllers. It was about a year ago, just about a year and a week today, that the FAA administrator, Whitaker, was in my office in Washington telling me that Austin was as bad as it gets, which I agree it is, and yet we have fewer controllers today than we had when he was in my office, despite repeated requests to prioritize Austin, to give us additional tools.

I fly in and out of this airport, often twice a week, and I'm really concerned about an inadequate margin of safety that we have there, and in many other parts of the country.

BOLDUAN: It seems what's happening in Austin is an example of what is also happening elsewhere, or could be coming.

What we know from CNN reporting about this persistent problem of shortage air traffic controllers is there seems to be several factors. One, from our Pete Muntean telling me, it's burnout in the workforce, looking at these mandatory 12-hour shifts and six days a week, backlogged FAA training process, retirements and - but some of the latest figures from May from the agency is that they're about 3,000 controllers short. In September they announced 1,800 hires for the year. But that doesn't detail how many losses came in the very same time.

How bad is this, Congressman, and how dangerous is this?

DOGGETT: I think it's a serious issue. You know, you referred to these, what they call traffic management measures that they're taking today. And I'm pleased they are because we need that extra safety. It greatly inconveniences many people when they go to the airport and find that the plane is just circling, or it's been delayed coming in, because there's not enough staff there at the airport to - to get those flights in safely.

But I think when you see these traffic safety management measures put into place, it's really an indication of the FAA's failure to provide an adequate number of controllers.

They did have many retirements during the pandemic. They were not prepared to get the training increased, and using more - different facilities instead of just one of their own in Oklahoma to train controllers. But in my case, here in Austin, they could have prioritized us. They failed to do so.

The other thing they can do in some airports is to expand the airspace around the airport that the controllers can see these small private planes. We've been waiting for months just to get approval for our controllers to have that wider angle beyond five miles. It was that kind of inadequacy that led to this plane getting within 350 feet. Think how near that is to a total catastrophe at our airport. And it's about the fifth time it's happened over two years.

[09:40:02]

We just can't keep our controllers working overtime all the time. We will also have a bigger problem next year because the FAA has agreed with the air controllers union to limit the number of these consecutive overtimes that our people have been forced to endure. That's good from a safety standpoint, but how they will get enough controllers to do that remains to be seen.

BOLDUAN: The thing - here's the thing about it is, you call it an FAA failure, but is this a Congress failure as well? I mean, the - I mean, I - the number of FAA reauthorizations I've covered in my time is - is quite a few. And I was just looking, it's been past - a multiyear has been passed earlier this year. And in it the law requires the FAA to hire and train more air traffic controllers to close this gap. But if it's a problem and you can oversee - and there are many - there are many committees to oversee these agencies, why can't Congress do more?

DOGGETT: Well, I think Congress should have moved much more rapidly in getting the FAA reauthorization approved. But I don't think that's at the heart of the problem of the FAA problem. Never has that been raised as a reason why they could not prioritize this airport as bad as it gets, why they could not do better than 50 percent of their target level.

There were some improvements. There was slight increase in funding. We need to move quicker on that in a Congress that's too often stalemated. But I see the principal problem as the Federal Aviation Administration and its inadequacy on training controllers, and then its failure to respond promptly to local concerns.

BOLDUAN: Failure and inadequate coming from the congressman about the FAA. An FAA that's about to face a very big test as we enter this travel - this very busy holiday travel season.

Congressman, thank you so much for highlighting it. Thanks for coming on.

DOGGETT: Thank you. Have a great Thanksgiving and I'll be staying out of the airport.

BOLDUAN: Oh, jeez. Congressman, thank you for that.

You can take it, Omar.

JIMENEZ: All right, I - I'm going to be staying out of the airport too. Yes.

Kate, I just want to say, we've got some real news to get to here because President Biden is now using one of the oldest and oldest uses of presidential pardon. The long-standing Thanksgiving tradition, the turkey pardon. And this year, Peach and Blossom received the ultimate VIP experience with a stay at a Washington hotel just a few blocks from the White House.

CNN's Kayla Tausche joins us now from the White House.

So, Kayla, break it down for us, how - how luxuriously are these turkeys living right now?

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, quite luxuriously, Omar. Two lucky turkeys are going to be spared from your Thanksgiving table, groomed, instead, for a future at petting zoos and perhaps Disney parades, all thanks to the presidential pardon power.

Peaches and Blossom of Northfield, Minnesota, arrived here at the White House in a Volvo earlier today after staying at the Willard Intercontinental for a luxury sleepover just down the road from the White House. It's a collective 81 pounds of bird born in July. And for their four short months of life so far, they've been listening to a steady stream of polka music and AC/DC, according to the chair of the National Turkey Federation.

Now, this is a presidential tradition that goes back centuries. It has folklore dating back to the time of Abraham Lincoln, when reportedly his young son asked the president to spare a pet turkey from their Thanksgiving dinner that year. And then President George H.W. Bush, the first president to officially use his pardon power in this way.

For President Biden, it's the fourth and final time he is going to be participating in the turkey pardon? It's always a moment of levity, especially now after a bruising campaign cycle and against a landscape of rising geopolitical tensions.

We are told that the birds this year were chosen because of their calm temperaments, their ability to withstand a raucous event on the White House South Lawn with big crowds, bright flashbulbs and, of course, always a lot of laughs.

Guys.

JIMENEZ: That's always what I think about, turkeys and calm. I feel like those are two things that go together for me.

Kayla, really appreciate it. The two luckiest turkeys in America.

All right, we got a lot of news we are covering right now, including one person who is dead and three others survived, though, a cargo plane crash that slammed into a house and burst into flames. We're going to have the latest on the investigation with some of the video we got as well.

And then the question, of course, to buy or wait for lower mortgage rates. How long you could be playing the waiting game of home ownership.

Stay with us.

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[09:49:13]

JIMENEZ: All right, so bad news for Americans hoping to become homeowners. Not only are the rare low 2 percent loans of the pandemic way in the rearview, now economists are predicting mortgage rates will stay stuck above 6 percent for at least the next two years. You can see here how rates have climbed since September. You see that dip, good time, and then coming back up.

With me now is the CEO of Real Wealth and author of "The Wise Investor," Rich Fettke.

Good to see you, Rich.

Now, look, you don't really see this as bad news. You must not be buying a home right now. But why don't you see it as bad news?

RICH FETTKE, CEO, REAL WEALTH: Well, it's tough news. It's a really hard time to buy a house right now, no doubt about it. And a lot of it's generational because we got millennials, the largest adult population in the U.S. right now, a huge 73 million millennials, and they're at home buying age.

[09:50:07]

So, they want to get in. They want to buy their first house. And it's a real challenge for them.

Part of it is because of these mortgage rates. You know, in the last two decades, it's - last year it was at the highest it's ever been in the last two decades at 8 percent. Now down to, you know, a little - a little under 7 percent right now. But, you know, a lot of people don't realize that in the U.S. it's the only place where you can get a fixed rate mortgage for 30 years and have the same payment over time.

So, if you can get into a property, then it can really make a big difference in your life. So, helping millennials get into that, that's - that's what we're all about. And I think it's so important to do that. And, honestly, what they need to do is get creative.

JIMENEZ: Well, and, look, you know, one of the things that we've been monitoring as well is total housing inventory has consistently improved this year when you look at the so-called lock-in effect as that's sort of become undone.

What is the lock-in effect, and how could that actually change things long term?

FETTKE: The lock-in effect is, you know, people got these amazing rates after the 2008 crisis and - and Covid and the pandemic, the rates got so low, down in those two, three, 4 percent that a lot of people got those mortgages and are locked into them, so they're staying in their homes. They're like, why would I want to sell them? (INAUDIBLE) starting to unwind a little bit. Now people are getting to the end of their term or things are happening in their lives, like divorce or death, things like that. So, more houses are coming on.

Also, builders are getting very busy. They're getting after it because we do have a massive shortage of homes in the United States.

So, yes, we are starting to see this come back. There's more properties. And, you know, what we've seen is millennials are getting creative. Any first-time homeowner can get creative.

We have an employee at Real Wealth, and she lived in California. She ended up moving to Cleveland, Ohio. She bought a duplex. And then that way she can live in the upstairs with her husband and their new baby, and they can rent out the lower level. And that really helps them with their mortgage payments. So, there's ways to get creative.

My wife and I, back in 1997, bought our first property. It was in the San Francisco Bay area. Way more mortgage than we could afford. So, we house hacked. Basically, a house hack is when you take some of the rooms and you rent those out. We took the lower level of that home and we rented them out and we got - that's when we became landlords. That's how we became real estate investors. And it helped us huge with our mortgage.

So, there's ways to get creative. There's ways that you can get in. And I think one of the most important things you can do, what we told our 24 year old daughter, our millennial, is to go out and see what you qualify for. Just speak to a mortgage broker and find out what could you qualify. And people don't realize that you can get into an FHA loan for 3 percent down.

JIMENEZ: Wow.

FETTKE: So, you know, over time it's so much better to be locked into something. You know, get a 30-year fixed mortgage on something, even if you have to move out of state or whatever it is getting into real estate, because if you think about that, 30 years from now, if you are a lifelong renter, you know your rent is going to go up. It's going to go up every year.

JIMENEZ: For sure.

FETTKE: So, imagine that in 30 years what your rent's going to be. But with a 30-year fixed mortgage, you've got one payment. It's going to be the same today as it is in 30 years. So, the more you can get into real estate -

JIMENEZ: It's - it's good business if you can get it, Rich. It's a great business if you can get it. FETTKE: It is.

JIMENEZ: But to your point, it looks like for now that creativity -

FETTKE: And I know it's hard. I know it's hard.

JIMENEZ: For now it looks like that creativity may rule the day.

Rich Fettke, really appreciate you being here.

BOLDUAN: So overnight, a fatal plane crash in Lithuania and some of it caught on camera. One crew member was killed, several others were wounded after the cargo plane crashed just outside the nearby airport. The plane also ignited a major fire when it crashed in - when it crashed and lit a fire, including a nearby home. No one in the house was injured. The pilot and two other crew members rescued from the wreckage all remain in the hospital.

And a now fired Macy's employee is responsible for an absolutely wild set of accounting errors. The company is now revealing it has to delay tomorrow's quarterly earnings report by two weeks because, as Macy describes it, intentional - this employee intentionally made erroneous accounting accrual entries. Those entries that the company says were made to hide small package delivery expenses. Those errors totaled $154 million over three years. Macy's says the errors, though, had no impact on its cash management activities or vendor payments.

And it doesn't matter which team you're on, Hollywood is seeing green this weekend. "Gladiator II" and "Wicked" hitting the big screen at the same time this weekend, and together raked in an estimated $384 million in tickets worldwide. Heading into the weekend, ticket sales have actually been down about 11 percent from last year in the U.S. and Canada, but maybe not for long after the birth of "Wicked." "Wicked," the adaptation of the wildly popular Broadway musical drove the weekend, getting moviegoers to fork over $114 million in the U.S. That makes it the biggest U.S. opening weekend ever for a musical adaptation.

[09:55:00]

Then there's "Gladiator II." This one brought in almost $56 million domestically, giving it the title of biggest November opening day for an R-rated film. So, there you have it.

Now my question to leave you with today, how many push-ups can you do in a minute? How about an hour? No matter the number you are thinking, it is likely not close to what one woman just pulled off. Meet Donna Jean Wild, 59 years old, from Canada, a grandmother of 12 and a boss having just smashed the Guinness World Record for most push-ups in an hour by a woman, 1575 push-ups in one hour. Her grandchildren were there to cheer her on as she broke the last record with 17 minutes to spare. If that's not enough, she briefly dislocated her shoulder near the end. And if that's still not enough, this is her second Guinness title after setting the record for the longest abdominal plank for a woman, which she held for, get ready for it, four hours, 30 minutes and 11 seconds. I have nothing to add to that other than she's amazing.

JIMENEZ: I know, I was about to like -

BOLDUAN: No, you aren't.

JIMENEZ: Undo my jacket and start doing some push-ups.

BOLDUAN: No, you were not.

JIMENEZ: But seeing that -

BOLDUAN: I mean, America would thank you, but, no.

JIMENEZ: I am not worthy. I don't know if I could ever do a push up again based on what she's done.

BOLDUAN: You are - no - none of us are worthy. Planks and push-ups, I don't even know what to say. It's good stuff though.

JIMENEZ: Thank you for joining us. Everyone, work on your push-ups. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

"CNN NEWSROOM" up next.

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