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Holiday Shopping Season Kicks Off With Black Friday; Millions Could See Arctic Cold Blast This Weekend; Democratic Lawmakers Targets of Thanksgiving Day Bomb Threats. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired November 29, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: The holiday shopping season, it is officially here. A record number of Americans expected to hit the stores on this Black Friday, many of them hoping to score the best deals, of course, as retailers hope to really kick things off with a strong start.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR: And at least four Democratic lawmakers targeted with bomb threats as they spent Thanksgiving with their families. The incidents coming just a day after several of president elect Donald Trump's cabinet picks face similar threats.

And Costco shoppers in multiple states put on notice this morning, thousands of organic eggs are being recalled over salmonella concerns.

I'm Omar Jimenez with Erica Hill. This is CNN News Central.

HILL: It's here the moment you've been waiting for it the race to the register officially on. More than a hundred and eighty three million people are expected to hit the stores both in person and online at some point over the weekend, and that would actually set a new record, according to the National Retail Federation. About two-thirds of Black Friday shoppers say they're actually going into the store today.

CNN's Meena Duerson joining us now. So, Meena, this actually feels to me like a big jump in terms of the number of people who are actually going into a store.

MEENA DUERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I think, you know, shopping has recovered in person. You know, it's come up a lot since the last few years when people were really doing the bulk of their shopping online. Now we have 65 percent of shoppers saying they're planning to hit the mall in person.

You know, we have lines in the mall behind us. Shoppers are waiting for these stores to open. A huge amount of shoppers, you know, 89 percent of young adults said that they were planning on shopping on Black Friday this year. So, it's shaping up to be a pretty healthy holiday season. Adults are expected to spend around $900 this holiday season. So, it's not extravagant spending this year, but it's supposed to be, you know, rebounding from years prior.

HILL: A little rebound. I'm sure retailers will take anything you can get at this point. There's been a lot of back and forth about these tariffs. It's not clear whether they're going to be put into place. But later on next year, they could impact some bigger ticket items. Are retailers trying to capitalize on that at all and trying to maybe convince people to buy now?

DUERSON: Yes. Well, Erica, experts are saying that there are a few major categories of items that, you know, if you're in the market for these items, perhaps you should be looking at these deals today as an opportunity to save some money in case these tariffs do take effect. You know, some of these bigger ticket items could go up in price upwards of 20 percent if these tariffs do hit consumers, you know, as they're expected to.

Those items include, you know, big household appliances. If you're in the market for a fridge or let's say a washer dryer, those are the kinds of things that if you stock up on now, you know, if those items do go up in price, you know, when those tariffs do take effect, you could be saving, you know, potentially 20 percent.

Other big categories include, you know, laptops or tablets. These are items typically, you know, maybe imported from China, maybe Canada, Mexico, things like video game consoles. You know, we're seeing, experts telling us, those could be going potentially upwards of 40 percent of what they cost today if these tariffs do take effect, smart phones and even ebikes.

So, those are things, if those are items are in the market for, potentially items to maybe keep an eye out for a deal today, and, you know, maybe that's something that could save you down the line.

HILL: Yes. Set an alert for when they go on sale. Meena, I appreciate it. Thank you. Omar?

JIMENEZ: I'm always setting alerts for those sales, Erica.

Look, all right, we're talking Thanksgiving. You probably saw some of the parades. Pies have been eaten, time for millions of people to pack up their Thanksgiving leftovers and head home, in theory. But wintry weather could make it a bit challenging for some travelers.

CNN Meteorologist Allison Chinchar is tracking the weather conditions for us. I really would have liked some wintry weather yesterday. I got a lot of rain here in New York. But how cold could it get now moving forward?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right, pretty cold. I mean, here's the thing. Like for a lot of these years, you are going to be well below where you should be this time of year.

Now, what that means for air travel, if you've got plans today or tomorrow, the skies really aren't going to be much of an issue today. The concern is going to be on the roadways, especially around the Great Lakes region.

So, we take a look right here on the map. You can see it's because of lake effect snow. That's where the concern is really going to be. And, again, both you're talking about the Midwestern states as well as the northeastern states where there's going to be a concern.

But the rest of the country, not necessarily too bad, but look at how much snow already fell just in the last 24 hours, portions of Vermont, New York, and even Maine, picking up at least a foot of snow. Some of these areas are now going to get even more snow on top of it. You've got the Great Lakes. They are very warm right now, but now we're going to add some very cold air on top of it. That is fuel to create a lot of this lake effect snow.

[07:05:00]

And it's going to occur in portions of Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York, where you're really going to see those ramp up as we go through the next 24 to 48 hours, but already starting to see some of those bands begin to take shape.

Here's all of the alerts that you have, the winter storm warnings, the lake effect snow warnings. And, again, you're talking Buffalo stretching back through the Eastern Cleveland suburbs. That's where you're really going to see some of the higher numbers. Same thing for Watertown, New York, these areas are going to be measuring the snow in feet. It is not out of the question, especially near Watertown, three to five feet of snow could fall in the next 48 to 72 hours.

And that cold air we talked about, it's already starting to surge into the northern tier of the country. Look at this. The temperatures combined with the wind giving you that wind chill, it feels like a very balmy minus 26 and Minot, North Dakota, minus 15 in Fargo, even Minneapolis feeling like minus four as this at this very moment, that cold air is going to continue to dip south though.

So, it's not expected to stay in the extreme northern states. In fact, some states, even as far south as the Gulf Coast are looking at freeze alerts in effect, not only for this morning, but even tomorrow morning. So, as we go into the weekend, those temperatures we talked about, look at this, Chicago, they're normal, maybe right around 29, 30 degrees, there'll be half of that, Saturday and Sunday, those low temperatures looking at only 15 degrees on Saturday morning. St. Louis, Atlanta, D.C., New York, all looking at those temperatures at least 5 to 15 degrees below where they normally would be this time of year. And it's going to stay that way, Atlanta, for the rest of this week, highs and low temperatures well below average.

JIMENEZ: Also, I always look at the temperatures in Fargo, North Dakota, this time of year to make me feel better about wherever I am. This week, it's going to be no different.

Allison Chinchar, thank you so much.

All right, look, we're doing a lot of shopping this week. A lot of you do it at Costco. And this morning, thousands of eggs sold are under recall because of salmonella concerns. And we're talking about Kirkland Signature organic pasture-raised 24 count eggs. It probably looks something a little similar to what you're seeing on the screen there. Almost 11,000 cartons were sent last week to stores in Alabama, Georgia, the Carolinas and Tennessee. The supplier issued the recall after realizing the eggs were distributed by mistake and not meant for retail sales. So, keep an eye out if you've got a package similar to those.

All right, still ahead, a holiday scare for several Democratic lawmakers who became targets of Thanksgiving Day bomb threats.

Plus, a first look inside the newly restored Notre Dame Cathedral five years after it was destroyed by fire.

And find out how Vito the Pug just made history at the national dog show competition. All the best stuff for you and more coming up.

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[07:10:00]

HILL: New this morning, bomb threats targeting at least four Democratic lawmakers from Connecticut, including Congressman Jim Himes and Joe Courtney. Those threats coming on Thanksgiving Day while the officials were home celebrating with family. Law enforcement determined there was no evidence of any bombs and the members report their families are safe.

These threats, though, come just a day after some of President-elect Donald Trump's cabinet picks were also targeted with bomb threats and swatting incidents.

CNN's Zachary Cohen joining us now with the very latest from Washington. So, what more do we know about these threats, this new round of threats?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, Erica, four House lawmakers, all Democrats, all from Connecticut, saying that they were the targets of bomb threats while they were home with their families celebrating the Thanksgiving holiday. And these lawmakers include Representatives Joe Courtney, Representatives Jim Himes, John Larson, and Jahana Hayes.

And as you mentioned, law enforcement responding to each of these threats and ultimately finding that there was no evidence of an actual bomb. But this is a part of a pattern and an increasing pattern of these kind of threats, in particular ones targeting members of Congress. We've seen members of Congress on both sides of the aisle receive bomb threats or these swatting incidents, be the targets of these swatting incidents, which is where law enforcement is essentially called to respond to a certain location despite in sort of a hoax type of way this is just the latest in a series of these kind of incidents that's increased over the last several years.

And law enforcement officials tell us that these can often involve people overseas using a script of some kind and for various reasons and various motives. It's not clear what was behind or who was behind this latest round of incidents, but as you mentioned, it comes one day after several of Donald Trump's cabinet picks and top appointees were also targeted. So, law enforcement looking closely at this. And at the day, you know, 90 percent or so of these incidents are ultimately baseless. There's no real threat there, but law enforcement having to respond on the off chance that one of them is legitimate.

HILL: Which is so important. You know, Andy McCabe had told me last week that there were, just a couple of days ago, something like 90 percent of them they know are false, but the fact that they do have to continue investigating them, that also takes away law enforcement manpower from other issues as well, which is a concern.

COHEN: Absolutely. And, look, I want to go through to some of these Trump appointees and Trump picks who were targeted because it does speak to the level of concern that those being targeted also feel despite the fact that most of these threats are baseless. People like Pete Hegseth, Trump's pick to lead the Department of Defense, people like John Ratcliffe, who's going to be nominated for the CIA director position, these are serious national security officials who are being targeted with this kind of hoax bomb threat.

[07:15:04]

But, again, as you mentioned, it does divert law enforcement resources away from, you know, whatever law enforcement, or whatever holiday security planning that they had in the works previously.

So, these lawmakers and these members, politicians, equally concerned about these threats. Fortunately, though, in this case, both cases recently, no evidence that there was any sort of legitimate threat at hand.

HILL: Yes, but definitely concerning that we do see this uptick.

Zachary Cohen, I appreciate it. Thank you.

A second batch of raw milk testing positive for bird flu, the new warning from California officials.

And which country just passed the world's first social media ban for kids under 16?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

JIMENEZ: Welcome back, everyone. New this morning, health officials in California say a second batch of raw milk has tested positive for the bird flu virus, and it's reportedly from the same farm in Fresno.

CNN Health Reporter Jacqueline Howard is following this for us. So, Jacqueline, I mean, what is the latest here?

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Omar, the latest here is that we now have two lots of whole raw milk that have been voluntarily recalled. Both of these slots come from the same company called Raw Farm based in Fresno, California. And because these two lots have tested positive for bird flu, they have been voluntarily recalled. They have the lot numbers that you see on the screen here. The previous recall included a lot that had the best by date of November 27th. But now this second recall has a best by date of December 7th.

And, Omar, no illnesses have been reported so far as part of this recall. It really is out of an abundance of caution because these lots have tested positive for bird flu. But this recall is part of this overall bird flu outbreak that we have seen sweep the country impacting dairy cattle in different states. And so far, as part of that overall outbreak, there have been 55 human cases of bird flu reported. But, again, Omar, this is really testing for the virus and looking for the virus in dairy cattle products.

The human cases that have been reported so far, most of them were farm workers having direct impact with the cows, so they did have direct exposures. But, again, this testing is continuing out of an abundance of caution.

JIMENEZ: I mean, are there other dairy products to worry about here? I mean, even including pasteurized milk, for example?

HOWARD: Well, pasteurized milk, health officials say, is still safe because the pasteurization process is effective in killing harmful bacteria and viruses, like the bird flu virus. The pasteurization process is a heating process. So, that's why pasteurized milk is still safe to consume. It's really the raw milk. And because there is this risk of exposure to pathogens in unpasteurized milk, some states even prohibit the sale of unpasteurized milk because of that concern.

So, Omar, again, the real concern here is the raw milk. So far, health officials say pasteurized milk is still safe to consume.

JIMENEZ: All right. Jacqueline Howard, I really appreciate it. Thanks for being here.

All right, coming up, he said, she said, presidential version. Mexico's president has a different version of how her phone call went with Donald Trump. We're going to tell you what she had to say about his suggestion of closing the southern border.

And Boise State's volleyball team doubles down on its position against San Jose State after reports of a transgender player on their roster. Why it may cost them a spot in the NCAA tournament, coming up.

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[07:25:00]

HILL: Okay. One call, two different takes. Mexico's president responding to President elect Donald Trump's claim that she agreed to shut down the border in a call between the two earlier this week. Trump boasting on Truth Social about what he called a productive conversation with President Claudia Sheinbaum, in which she made those commitments. Sheinbaum though clarifying her comments following that Truth Social post. CNN's Steve Contorno joining us now from West Palm Beach, Florida. So, a different summary of the call from Mexico's president, walk us through the different takes, if you will.

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Yes. Both sides, Erica, saying that it was a productive conversation, and it seemed like they both walked away from it with a good sense of where the relationship is at, excuse me. But Trump on social media described it very differently than she described it yesterday.

Let me read you what Trump had to say. He claimed that she has agreed to stop migration through Mexico and into the United States, effectively closing our southern border. We also talked about what can be done to stop the massive drug inflow into the United States and also the U.S. consumption of these drugs.

Now, when she was asked about these remarks that she had promised to close the border, she said that's not even something that she can do. Listen to what she said. She said, everyone has their own way of communicating. But I can assure you, I give you the certainty that we would never, and we will be incapable of it, propose that we would close the border. It has never been our approach, and, of course, we don't agree with that.

Now the disconnect, of course, is stemming from Donald Trump's threat to put a 25 percent tariff on Mexican goods if they don't do more to stop the flow of migrants and drugs across the U.S. southern border. However, what's not clear is what policy concessions Trump believes he has won, where the status quo is and also whether or not enough has been done for Trump to eliminate that threat of a 25 percent tariff.

I asked Trump's transition team in the past 48 hours that that is something that he would consider after this call and have yet to get a response. But it's one of the many uncertainties entering this sort of weird phase where Donald Trump is conducting foreign policy and engaging in trade disputes before he has even taken office.

HILL: So, I also want to ask you about Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who met with Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago over the holiday. What does this say, or what do we know, I guess, about how the president-elect is planning to deal with social media companies in his second term?

CONTORNO: It's one of the major questions coming into this second term because, Erica, he has been all over the map on social media companies.

[07:30:05]

You remember, he was previously someone who said that TikTok should be banned --