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Undecided House Races Determine Size of GOP Majority; Matt Priest is Interviewed about Tariffs Threats; Front Lines of Ukraine with Armed Drone Pilots; Brian Deer is Interviewed about RFK Jr. to Lead HHS; Satellites Look for Methane Leaks. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired November 27, 2024 - 08:30   ET

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

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[08:33:17]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, breaking overnight, I want to show you something that election nerds were all paying attention to last night. This is California's 13th Congressional District. And you can see, last night Adam Gray, the Democrat, went ahead as they are counting votes. He is ahead now by 182 votes over the incumbent, Republican John Duarte.

Now, Republicans are going to control the House of Representatives, but this is sort of one of the only pieces of good news that Democrats have had in this election process. And it's still going on right now. Unclear whether or not Gray, the Democrat, will maintain this lead. They still have a few thousand votes more to count.

But, you know, weeks after the election, when they're still counting, he just inched ahead there.

So, what could this all mean? Because it actually has some pretty major implications.

CNN's senior data reporter and chief Thanksgiving correspondent, which we'll get to later, which actually is true, Harry Enten, is here.

All right, Harry, talk to me about where the numbers are in the House.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: I mean, my, my goodness gracious. Yes, the Republicans are going to control the House of Representatives, but if all the current results hold up, we're looking at a record small majority after the Novembers in the last 90 years. You have to go all the way back since the Herbert Hoover administration to find an even smaller majority after the November elections. We're talking about the Republicans with 220 seats, Democrats with 215, if the current House results hold. And keep in mind that this will drop lower if Stefanik, Waltz or others, like Matt Gaetz, leave the Congress.

BERMAN: Yes, talk to me. This is sort of the best case scenario for Republicans, at least for the next few weeks or months.

[08:35:00]

Where could it go?

ENTEN: Where could it go? It could shrink even - even further. So, let's say Gaetz, Stefanik and Waltz resigns, we could be looking at, get this, Republicans at 217, the Democrats at 215. And I went all the way back that looked - this is - this is crazy. This is crazy, right? Because all it means is, Democrats at 215 plus one GOP seat could take the entire thing because then they'd - both sides would be at 216 seats, John.

BERMAN: One Republican vote for the first few weeks, maybe months of the administration could be enough to sink a measure.

I mean how historically unprecedented is this?

ENTEN: You might have noticed in my last answer, I was so excited, I nearly got ahead of myself. Nearly got ahead of myself.

How historically unprecedented is it? I love history. So, times just one majority member could sink a bill by voting with the minority in the last 100 years plus, this, possibly 2025, with the likely resignations from the House, and that's it. It's literally the only time in the last 100 years assuming, of course, all members vote.

So, the bottom line is, look, the results from the November elections weren't exactly good for Democrats, but this is a shining light for them. They really did hold the Republican majority down. And given the likely resignations that are coming, that House of Representatives - for the Republicans, that House majority is going to be record, record small.

BERMAN: Just to be clear, that only holds until they fill the Gaetz seats, which is safe Republican -

ENTEN: Correct.

BERMAN: Fill the Waltz seat, safe Republican. Stefanik, a matter for another time.

ENTEN: Yes.

BERMAN: We'll talk about what - what could happen there.

ENTEN: Yes.

BERMAN: Harry Enten, great to see you.

ENTEN: Happy Thanksgiving.

BERMAN: Happy Thanksgiving to you as well.

ENTEN: Thank you, John.

BERMAN: Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, gentlemen.

New this morning, the CEO of the company behind Ikea furniture stores now is warning that President-elect Donald Trump's planned tariffs will make it more difficult to keep its prices low. Telling CNN this, "tariffs make it more difficult for us to maintain the low prices and be affordable for many people, which in the end is our goal."

And he's just the latest executive to publicly sound the alarm on what Donald Trump's tariffs will mean for consumers all over the United States.

Joining us right now is Matt Priest. He's the president of - and CEO of Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America, a leading footwear industry trade group. One that represents dozens of companies that everyone knows, like Nike, DSW, Crocs, Under Armour, Walmart, to name a few.

Thanks for coming in, Matt.

You hear 25 percent tariff on all goods from Mexico and Canada and 10 percent on goods from China, and you think what?

MATT PRIEST, CEO, FOOTWEAR DISTRIBUTORS AND RETAILS OF AMERICA: I think, look, we've seen this movie before. We've been paying duties since 1930. Almost 100 years, Kate. And as your chief shoe correspondent, I will tell you that we know how these impact consumers. As costs go up at the border, we pass those costs on to our consumers. That's just how it works in our society. And I can tell you that in any additional tariffs from the president-elect will mean higher prices and inflation.

BOLDUAN: You - I'd seen you say - you said it's going to have a profound impact.

Talk to me - a lot of this can seem abstract for people. They hear tariff. They might not really know what it means. What they know is what the price of their shoe is when they go to the store. If an - if - talk to me about an average price of, I don't know, a Nike sneaker today versus what it could look like in November 2025 if all of this goes in place.

PRIEST: Yes, so if you look at our duty structure, we pay upwards of almost 70 percent on kid's shoes. That's just mind boggling. So, if you think about a kid's shoe making its way across the border, any time costs go up, whether it's for energy or labor or the tariffs that the U.S. government charges at the border, those costs go up for the consumers. It's an inevitable fact.

And so, we even went out and surveyed Trump voters last week and asked them, how are you feeling about tariffs? And they came back and nearly 70 percent of Trump supporters said that they would not support additional tariffs on things like kids shoes.

And so, we want to work with the administration to figure out ways to tamp down on inflation. And we will tell the president-elect and his team on day one, raising tariffs is not how you get that done. BOLDUAN: I want to get to the work with and what you do from here on

out in a second, but I want to play for you a little bit of what president-elect - the president-elect said during the campaign. This, he was talking specifically about car manufacturers, but it applies more broadly. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENT-ELECT: Those plants are going to be built in the United States, and our people are going to man those plants. And if they don't agree with us, we'll put a tariff of approximately 100 to 200 percent on each car and they will be unsellable in the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Matt, will tariffs force more shoes to be made in the United States?

PRIEST: The answer to that is simply, no, it absolutely will not, because it's such a -- we ring in 2.5 billion pairs of shoes every single year.

[08:40:00]

We make shoes in the U.S., but only about 25 million. So, it's a drop in the bucket as to the total amount that's needed to meet the insatiable appetite for footwear that we have here in the United States.

And so, you know, when we hear those kinds of statements, it may work for the auto industry. It may work for chips and for other high tech and aeronautics. Those types of sectors of our economy. But for footwear, it's not going to work. And even with the high tariffs in place for over almost 100 years, we've seen those jobs move overseas. And so we're the poster child for an industry that that simply does not work.

BOLDUAN: You said you want to work with the administration. And you've got to, right.

PRIEST: Yes.

BOLDUAN: But how do you work with the incoming administration on this? I'm having a hard time seeing there being a way that this is a win-win for shoe companies and Trump and the administration, if he - if they just simply don't back down on this threat.

PRIEST: Yes, you know, it's a great question. And we think about that constantly. But we do know that if you look at survey after survey and poll after poll, the American people, and those who voted for the president-elect want him to work on inflation. And he committed to fixing inflation. And so we say to ourselves, we know how to help the president-elect accomplish that goal and to tamp down on prices. And it starts with not making things more expensive as they come across the border, particularly for industries that are not - are not strategic to our national security interests.

And so our hope is that the president-elect and his team will come - will take a more surgical approach. Even if they have these announcements at the outset that create some bluster, that the end result will be more surgical. And we want to help them do that.

BOLDUAN: Bluster on the front end, surgical, maybe, in implementing. We will see because you will be on the front lines.

Matt, we'll check in with you again. Thank you very much for coming on. I really appreciate it.

PRIEST: Thank you, Kate. Appreciate it.

BOLDUAN: John.

BERMAN: All right, this morning, Russia is reporting new casualties as a result from Ukrainian strikes using those American-made longer-range missiles. But Ukraine is still struggling as the war nears its three- year mark. And as CNN's Nick Paton Walsh reports, one of the biggest threats hovers overhead.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR (voice over): They're running out of time, space, and people. Night is killing time for drones.

WALSH: They've switched on the anti-drone device because of the threat around here.

WALSH (voice over): This Ukrainian drone unit of just two hunting, but also hunted.

WALSH: I think I hear a drone. Inside. Inside.

Is it a Russian drone? Is it one of theirs? They don't know. But they have to carry on.

WALSH (voice over): Dogs are not friends. Their heat signals can give their launch spot away to Russia's thermal cameras.

They close in on the target. A house. Jamming hits the signal, but they fire anyway.

Russia advancing too fast here south of Pokrovsk in the east to miss any chances.

The skyline speaks of how Pokrovsk is in Russia's crosshairs. Ukraine is short of manpower, but it is so bad here they say they must rely on drones, not infantry, to slow a brazen Russian daylight assault like this one.

"EAST," UKRAINIAN DRONE COMPANY COMMANDER (through translator): The situation is very critical. We lack infantry to fight and hold out for some time while the attack drones do their job. That's why we often see the enemy uncomfortably penetrating vulnerable areas.

WALSH (voice over): Watch how the first Russian tank here is relentless. A Trump presidency and possible peace talks loom. Do they even have time for that here?

"KOSHEI," UKRAINIAN NATIONAL GUARD (through translator): I cannot say how much time we have. If there is any time at all. Because now they are pushing their troops to the front as much as possible. And then at one point they will go for an assault. They can go very far. In one moment.

WALSH (voice over): Talk here is abnormally negative with weeks of costly and chaotic retreat on film, like these Ukrainians hit when they're mistakenly told this building didn't have any Russians in it. This house has an encircled Ukrainian drone unit without any infantry to help fight advancing Russians. So, they send a drone to fly just 30 meters across the street.

"KOTYA," UKRAINIAN NATIONAL GUARD: I have no men. I'm (EXPLETIVE DELETED) alone. I'm (EXPLETIVE DELETED) tired. I love my job, whatever trash is happening but we need other young people to love this job too. Our county is awake, but people in it are (EXPLETIVE DELETED) not. Guys are dying here. This is trash. Freezing this war is a double-edged sword. Do we give up the land my friends did for or to continue taking it back and lose even more friends?

[08:45:05]

If these two old men," Trump and Putin, "start measuring (EXPLETIVE DELETED), Ukraine will be the middle of it all.

WALSH (voice over): Russian troops savage in the assault. This footage shows a local in orange who's shown Russians where Ukrainians were hiding. They are led out and shot while face down. Part of a pattern of surrendering Ukrainians executed, say prosecutors investigating this incident a fortnight ago. Pokrovsk key site bombed, but so far spared Russia's trademark devastation. It is possible, some say, Moscow is moving so fast it thinks it will spend the winter here.

Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, outside Pokrovsk, Ukraine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: And our thanks to Nick for that story. Grim.

All right, this morning, 28 snakes found at the scene of a car accident. Why were they there? And were they licensed?

And a million-dollar missing treasure has been recovered after being stolen from an 18th century shipwreck.

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BOLDUAN: A new poll is out showing the majority of Americans approve of how President-elect Donald Trump is handling his transition. It also gauges how Americans are feeling about some of his cabinet picks. The CBS/YouGov poll found that 47 percent of people who are familiar with the candidates think that RFK Jr. is a good choice to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. That's a better showing than Pete Hegseth for Defense secretary, Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence, and even Marco Rubio for secretary of State. And Marco Rubio not seen as a controversial choice.

The idea of such a vocal vaccine cynic leading the country's public health department has alarmed many in the medical community who spent their years - their careers, rather, in public health. It also worries people who have covered Kennedy's anti-vax advocacy for years.

Joining us now is Brian Deer, an investigative reporter who has covered the anti-vaccine movement for more than three decades. He's also the author of "The Doctor Who Fooled the World: Science, Deception, and the War on Vaccines."

Brian, thank you so much.

You wrote an op-ed in "The New York Times" and it was titled, "I'll Never Forget what Kennedy did During Samoa's Measles Outbreak." And you wrote in there, "the consequences of his views and those in his orbit are not merely absurd but tragic."

What is it about the measles outbreak in Samoa that you think is so important when it comes to RFK Jr., for people to consider?

BRIAN DEER, AUTHOR, "THE DOCTOR WHO FOOLED THE WORLD": Well, firstly, the important thing to understand is that year, 2019, was a measles year. And there was a tremendous amount of measles around the world. And that was encouraged by Mr. Kennedy and his supporters at the time who were trying to promote fear of vaccines with suggestions that somehow American scientists weren't playing it straight. So, there's that aspect to it.

And the way the measles virus then got to Samoa was by transition through New Zealand, Auckland, where there had been the worst measles outbreak in decades. The virus then got on a plane and got into the Pacific islands of Samoa where it caused the deaths of 80 people, overwhelmingly small children.

And the thing that really moved me was spending a great deal of time, like, I think almost a whole week of the time I was there simply talking to the parents of children who had died. And it was a deeply, deeply shocking experience because here was an example where you could see very, very clearly the fact that vaccination levels had fallen and the disease just exploited that opportunity. It was like a natural experiment, if you like, of what would happen if measles vaccination wasn't taking place in America or anywhere else.

BOLDUAN: RFK Jr. insists that he's not anti-vaccine. On the day after the election, he said that if vaccines are working for someone that he was not going to take them away. Also, though, last year he said very clearly in a podcast, no vaccine is safe and effective.

In all of your reporting, do you have a handle on what RFK really believes here?

DEER: Yes, I do. He - he - he always prefaces his remarks when he's speaking to his supporters by saying, I am not anti-vaccine. I am not anti-vaccine. I am pro-vaccine. But there was one occasion where he was speaking in Ohio at a farm - a farm which wasn't a meeting advertised to the general public, you had to get special permission to go - where he said exactly what he means by a vaccine. And he said his three-point criteria for a vaccine would be, you get one shot, you get lifetime immunity. Secondly, the side effects are 1 in a million. And the third thing is, he says, herd immunity is 70 percent. In other words, 70 percent of the population is protected. So, nobody ever gets the disease again. And then he finished those remarks to his supporters in private, he said, if they came up with that product, I'd be happy to take a look at it. That's what Robert Kennedy thinks about vaccines.

[08:55:00]

He sets criteria that could never be met by vaccine - any vaccine, and nobody has ever said that it has been.

BOLDUAN: Yes, and science doesn't support that it's needed when we're looking at herd immunity. I mean just look at what the measles vaccine has done to measles if - and the polio vaccine. I mean logic and history show that vaccines work. And since he has entered the - Donald Trump's orbit, Brian, RFK, you've - we've seen him trying to shift his focus from talking about vaccines to talking and focusing on chronic diseases, like obesity. And - and he's also made clear that he is not a fan of the now very popular weight loss drugs like Ozempic. He told Fox News that the drug maker was counting on - the drug maker was counting on selling it to Americans because we are so stupid and so addicted to drugs. Also offering this as a solution. Let me play this for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., TRUMP'S HHS SECRETARY PICK: If we spent about one-fifth of that giving good food, three meals a day, to every man, woman and child in our country, we could solve the obesity and diabetes epidemic overnight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Add it all together, Brian. What do you think senators, who are going to be vetting and considering his nomination, what should they be asking him, given your history and knowledge of his claims?

DEER: Well, he - I mean I think people need to go back into the historical record and presumably the Democrats will find stuff from Mr. Kennedy's past which will expose really what he's all about. He's not a man who's campaigned against sugar or against smoking or against other things like alcohol, things that we know affect people's health. He's consistently been an anti-vaccine campaigner going back now for a long, long time, at least 20 years. He's been an anti-vax campaigner. And that's really what he's interested in. So, any questions which really look deeply into his real views and his

real activity and also the fact that he cannot be relied on to tell the truth. I've found time and again people coming forward and saying, well, I was talking to Robert Kennedy and he said this, and they come out with the most fantastic stuff.

One, for example, was Louis Farrakhan, who Mr. Kennedy formed an alliance with. Louis Farrakhan of the nation of Islam, took from his conversation with Mr. Kennedy that the CDC was biologically and genetically altering vaccines in order to kill black and Latino boys. He spoke with Howard Lutnick the other week, and Howard Lutnick said he'd - he'd spent two and a half hours with Mr. Kennedy, and he came away with the idea again that - that - that children were being injured, the autism was linked to vaccines, and the same old Kennedy story. And these - the information he puts out is simply not right.

BOLDUAN: If you want to know much more and the long and honest history of that fraudulent claim about a vaccine - a link between vaccines and autism, I suggest everyone read your book and look at your reporting over the decades.

Thank you so much, Brian Dear. Really appreciate your time. Thank you so much.

John.

BERMAN: All right, this morning, what a satellite can do for you. This one circles the earth about 15 times a day hunting for methane leaks that are warming the planet.

CNN's chief climate correspondent Bill Weir is with us now.

So, it hunts them. It sees them. It videos them. And then it's about accountability.

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: And then it's about calling out countries and super polluters. What if we could see the source of climate change? Would we act differently as people? Well, that is the theory behind this particular experiment.

This is what methane looks like with a special camera. This is 90 percent of natural gas that is marketed to you is methane, which is much more potent of a planet cooking pollution. Eighty-five times more powerful than CO2. If CO2 is a blanket of average thickness, methane, or methane as they say in England, is a blanket that's about as thick as LeBron James is tall. Much more potent. Much easier to see and then capture.

So, the EDF, Environmental Defense Fund, launched this satellite last year. It goes around the earth every couple hours and spots exactly where these leaks are happening.

And now we are finally getting the data on where these things are happening right now. And let me - let me take you around the country a little bit, starting in Appalachia. We talked a lot about Pennsylvania fracking. There it is leaking four times the industry set rate. It turns out the satellite is finding three to five times more than even the Environmental Defense Fund had predicted.

In Uinta Basin in Utah, just outside of Salt Lake City to the east there, 45 times what the industry says is happening there. That's a much smaller basin, so it doesn't produce a lot of oil and gas, but is leaking enormous amounts of methane.

And then when you get to the Permian Basin, that is the beating heart of the Texas oil patch. It goes into New Mexico there.

[09:00:01]

Between nine and 15 times higher than the industry has admitted.

The question now is, what are these companies going to do about it?

BERMAN: Well, first of all, methane,