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Key Inflation Measures Revealed; Mayor Eric Adams (D-New York City, NY), Border Czar Homan to discuss migrants in New York; U.S. Craft Beers Could Get Crushed By Tariffs. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired February 13, 2025 - 08:30   ET

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

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: How is he doing? What can you tell us what that communication is like with him?

GLENDA GARCIA, MOTHER OF MICHAEL TRAVIS LEAKE, AMERICAN DETAINED IN RUSSIA: Kind of a roller coaster, kind of a roller coaster. He has -- there's times where he's high in spirits because he thought the trial was going good because facts came out that, you know, the person that said he did these things retracted most of her statements and everything sounded like, you know, everything was going his way. Of course, he was forgetting he was -- it was still a Russian judge ruling and and it was still Russia, you know?

So, he has --

BOLDUAN: Still Russia, and that's -- I think that's --

GARCIA: he was elated when he was elated when Trump made president. He really feels President Trump will be able to do something to get him home. And that's my prayer and that's what I'm hoping for.

BOLDUAN: Jonathan, in your experience, do you think does the successful release of Marc Fogel just now just happening, does it make it more likely that Travis will be able to get out, may be able to get out soon? Does it make it more challenging to get Travis out soon?

JONATHAN FRANKS, SPOKESMAN, BRING OUR FAMILIES HOME CAMPAIGN: I think it's definitely more likely that it will happen soon than it was earlier this week, for sure. And I base that on the fact that, again, Secretary Rubio committed the president to seeking the release of all the Americans, which was not the policy under the Biden administration.

So, I think just by -- if that's the omen that I think is providing so much hope from Marc's release, aside from, of course, getting to see him back with his family where he belongs.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Well, we will stay close to this. Glenda, thank you very much for coming on and talking about your son. And, Jon, thanks for coming on again. We will stay close to this case, Travis Leake. Thank you. John?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, this morning one couple is celebrating 72 years of wedded bliss. Joe and Hutch Davis of Phoenix, Arizona, have been married since the year the first color television was sold, although that picture was in black and white. We're talking about 1953. Dwight Eisenhower was president and they say they're looking forward to many more years together.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No challenge. We just did it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I remember a few challenges, Hutch.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Well, happy anniversary. They say their deep friendship is what makes it work. Sara?

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: That reminds me of you and your wife. You're going to be like that, you and your wife.

BERMAN: We've been together basically 72 years.

SIDNER: Look at that. Look at that smile. He's blushing.

BERMAN: It doesn't feel like a day more than 71.

SIDNER: Oh, come on. You are so cute together.

All right, coming up, inflation has risen and prices still high. So, what's the president's plan to keep his promise of bringing prices down? That story and more ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:35:00]

BOLDUAN: The breaking news just in, we have brand new numbers just dropped on a key inflation measure. This is after yesterday showed that inflation unexpectedly rose in January.

Let's get over to CNN's Matt Egan, who has the numbers just walking in with them. What are you learning?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Yes, Kate. This is a mixed report. We're talking about producer prices. This is wholesale inflation before it gets all of us as consumers. Big number here is 3.5 percent year-over- year. That's how much prices were up in January.

So, for some context, we have been hoping for some improvement, but what ended up happening was December was revised higher. So, it stayed at 3.5 percent. That is tied for the highest rate. in almost two years.

Now, month-over-month, this metric did improve slightly to 0.4 percent. So, when you put it together, it's kind of a mixed report, but it's also -- big picture, it's not really what you want to see at this point, right? Because we had been seeing a lot of improvement for producer prices at this point last year, and we've seen that unwind, right? The progress has stalled out. And, in fact, if you look on that on your screen right there, you can see this is the annual rate for producer prices, and it has ticked higher.

In fact, this metric is moving at a higher pace than it was right before COVID-19, obviously much improvement from almost three years ago, right? We're not near that sort of inflation crisis right now. But it's also moving in the wrong direction. This comes after yesterday's report. I mean, yesterday's report on consumer prices, that was a big setback. It did alarm some economists, some investors, and it has sort of given a sense that maybe prices are kind of stuck here, right, that all of this improvement on inflation is kind of stalled out, and it could force the Federal Reserve to just kind of stay where it is right now and not resume cutting interest rates anytime soon, which, of course, would be a disappointment to borrowers.

BOLDUAN: And clearly a disappointment to President Donald Trump, given what he's been -- what he decided to come out and post about that just yesterday.

It's good to see you.

EGAN: Thank you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much. Sara?

SIDNER: Speaking of which, President Trump's promise to improve the economy and bring down prices.

[08:40:03]

Of course, that was his big promise to get into office. But after yesterday's disappointing inflation report, which came in much hotter than expected, surprise, it's harder to bring down prices than the president said it would be. And then there's all this uncertainty about what's going to happen with the tariffs and whether those are going to affect prices as well.

CNN's Harry Enten is joining us now to run the numbers for us. I think that I can guess where you're going with this.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: You think? Sometimes it all comes away, give it away in the title slide. I don't like to make things too difficult for the audience. You know, we'll talk about the focus, where Americans think Trump should be focused on. And not much of a surprise in his first 100 days, they believe, look at that, the top answer, inflation at 34 percent. And then number three, it's the economy in general at 21 percent.

Let me be perfectly clear. Inflation crushed the Joe Biden presidency. It ate it alive. If Donald Trump is not careful, inflation will crush his presidency and eat it alive because that is where Americans want him to be focused. They want him focused on fixing the inflation inflation problem and bringing prices down.

SIDNER: Breaking news, I'm going to do some math here. I just want to point out that inflation in the economy, 55 percent. I mean, that is basically everything when you look at it.

ENTEN: It is the whole kit and caboodle. And it doesn't matter what poll you look at, it is the economy, stupid, although smart, in your case.

SIDNER: Rude. How do you -- how are viewers and how are voters seeing Donald Trump and the work that he's been doing when it comes to the economy?

ENTEN: Yes. You know, there's a lot of things that folks have liked about Donald Trump's first few weeks in office. Inflation is not one of them. They believe that Donald Trump is not keeping his eyes on the prize. Is Trump focused enough on inflation? Not enough. 66 percent, that is two thirds of the country. Just a third of the country say he's focused the right amount. Get this, 48 percent of Republicans say he's not focused enough on the problem of inflation. And he absolutely should be, because it is numero uno in the voters' mindset.

SIDNER: Is there any sign that Americans feel a little bit better about the economy or not?

ENTEN: No. You know, there's perhaps this idea that Donald Trump could come into office, and to borrow my first name, be like Harry Houdini and may wave a magic wand and make the economy all better again. Economy is excellent or good. You go back to November of 2020, right, when Donald Trump lost re election, it was 49 percent. By this past election, it was 32 percent. Look at where we were in a recent Marquette University Law School poll. It was 27 percent. So, no, Donald Trump is not a magician. No president is a magician when it comes to the economy. But be very clear here, if this number does not go up, Donald Trump's approval ratings will go down.

SIDNER: And we should mention, this is when the prior president was in office.

ENTEN: Yes.

SIDNER: And you see the jump there and why he lost. It's lower than that.

ENTEN: It's exactly right. You know, I started this segment by saying that inflation ate the Joe Biden presidency alive. It crushed it. If these numbers remain the same, inflation will do the exact same thing to Donald Trump's second term. It will eat it alive. It will crush it.

SIDNER: All right. Harry Enten, thank you so much.

ENTEN: Thank you. I appreciate it.

SIDNER: And now to you, John.

BERMAN: All right. With us now, CNN Political Commentator, Democratic Strategist Maria Cardona and former White House Spokesperson for President George W. Bush Pete Seat.

And I want to read you both a quote from Donald Trump on the campaign trail, August 9th, 2024, The New York Times put this on their page the other day. It says, starting on day one, we will end inflation and make America affordable again. And I just want to go back to my friend, Vanna White, over at the Magic Wall here. Harry, put up that not enough graphic again. 66 percent of Americans, Pete, think that Donald Trump isn't focused enough on inflation.

I was surprised, frankly, by that number right there, because that's a pretty quick reaction time. But in truth, he hasn't talked about it that much the last few weeks, has he?

PETE SEAT, FORMER WHITE HOUSE SPOKESPERSON FOR PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Presidents have to walk and chew gum at the same time, and Donald Trump came in with a very lengthy to-do list. If you look in that very same CBS poll that was released Sunday, 70 percent of Americans believe Donald Trump is holding to his promises, doing what he said he would do on the campaign trail, and he has a high approval rating of 53 percent.

Yes, it's going to take time for inflation to come down. This is not something that occurs overnight, but the administration is focused on it. I don't think we're going to see deflation, which could be just as bad as inflation, but there is a lot that he is tackling, and he's working on it, and Americans see that he's doing the job.

[08:45:01]

BERMAN: And just, Harry, now, that third graphic you had there, Harry/Vanna, if you can put up about how Americans feel about the economy. Maria, they actually feel worse now than they did after the election. And I understand Pete's point that things take time, and presidents have to do a lot of things, but this has to have an impact on the important discussions on taxes and spending that will take place over the next month.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Absolutely, John. And the problem is that, yes, these things take time. It's what Democrats had been saying for the four years of Joe Biden, and he actually was able to get inflation down. Obviously, voters didn't think it was enough.

Donald Trump thinks he is a magician. Donald Trump thinks that he can, you know, wave the wand and things will happen the way he says. That's why he made these egregious promises during the campaign, and this is why we're now seeing it in the numbers. He's paying for it, and he will continue to pay for it because Hanna, Harry/Vanna, is absolutely right that this is number one, es numero uno, for voters. It's the economy, estupido. And Donald Trump has done nothing to bring down the cost of groceries, gas, and rent, which is what he promised.

And especially to those non-MAGA voters who looked at Donald Trump and said, you know what, he is telling me that he's going to bring down my costs. I'm going to give him my vote. I'm going to trust that he's going to do that. And everything that he has done, from the mass deportations, to the tariffs, to the focus on every single other thing that he is doing has done nothing to bring down those costs. And, in fact, it is making it worse. And this is what Democrats need to focus on in terms of messaging every single day from here on out, every minute of every day, they have to end on what Donald Trump is doing is a huge betrayal of the American people. He's done nothing to bring down the cost of groceries, gas and rent. Inflation is going up and Americans are not going to be happy about it.

BERMAN: Pete, I feel like I should ask if you want to buy a vowel, but I will resist the urge right there and instead I want to quickly shift to Eric Adams here in New York, the mayor of New York City, The New York Times reporting this morning that he was calling senior Republicans about the idea of maybe switching to run in the Republican primary for mayor. Just talk to me about the politics of all that.

SEAT: Well, Eric Adams would not be the first municipal leader in this country to finally see the light and switch from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party. It's happened on quite a few occasions here in my home state of Indiana. It's happened elsewhere across the country.

For as much as Maria thinks Americans dislike Donald Trump and the Trump administration, which was reelected and came back to office, look at all these Democrats who are not just switching, but thinking of switching. And part of it, I do want to tag on to what Maria said, part of it is because the Democratic Party is completely out of touch. Joe Biden could not even recognize and admit it that Americans were struggling to make ends meet. They just kept pointing to all these economic numbers, these macro indicators to tell us that things were fine when we could see it with our very own eyes and feel it in our hearts that it wasn't.

So, don't tell me Democrats know what's happening or know how to get the job done. That's why Trump's there, and that's why Eric Adams is maybe thinking of making the switch.

BERMAN: Well, I will also note, there have been Democrats who switched to the Republican Party and Republicans who switched to the Democrats. This is, I think, the first time I can remember that it's one who had a federal investigation, at least, asked to be dropped or put on pause over a substantial period of time for the administration. Maybe that played in -- I don't know. I don't know.

Pete Seat, Maria Cardona, thanks both so much for being here. And, Harry Enten, and our thanks to you for touching the slides (ph). Sara?

SIDNER: All right, a measles outbreak in West Texas is now growing with most of those cases, this is not going to be a surprise to you, in unvaccinated children.

And President Trump's new tariff on steel and aluminum could deal a major blow to a lot of different things, but that includes craft beers. We'll explain why, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:50:00] BOLDUAN: This morning, a measles outbreak in West Texas is growing. At least 24 cases have been identified in one county there in the past two weeks. And now we're looking at the first case has been detected in a neighboring county in New Mexico.

Health officials say the patients are all unvaccinated against the disease. Most are children between the ages of 5 and 17. Some are suffering from symptoms that are so bad that they've been forced to be hospitalized.

Last year, there were 285 reported measles cases across 33 states. And this is all happening at a time when we know From the CDC that vaccination rates for against measles is falling. A big contributing factor to that, vaccine misinformation.

And all of this starkly back in the spotlight, not only because these illnesses are largely preventable, but also because Donald Trump's picked to be the next HHS secretary, RFK Jr., has for years spread that very same vaccine misinformation about this very same disease. His nomination is set to be voted on by the full Senate today. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Thank you. Kate.

All right, earlier this week, President Trump announced a 25 percent blanket tariff on all steel and aluminum imports, and there was tariffs expected to negatively affect a lot of different industries, including the nation's craft brewers driving up costs when it comes to buying the materials needed to brew, house and serve beer. No, that is not a latte behind me, although I need one.

With me now is Bart Watson, president and CEO of the Brewers Association. All right, Bart, how will these tariffs impact your industry, especially the tariffs on aluminum?

[08:55:04]

BART WATSON, PRESIDENT AND CEO, BREWERS ASSOCIATION: I think they're going to be challenging for a lot of craft brewers. Craft brewers use a lot of steel and a lot of aluminum. Steel is used for brew houses, for fermenters, for kegs. And aluminum is the preferred packaging for many craft brewers. About 75 percent of packaged product goes into cans. We love our cans as Americans. And so any increase in the price of cans is going to be challenging for craft brewers.

SIDNER: I mean, when you think about it, you know, their cans are used for soda as well and a bunch of other things. And so that is going to be an issue not only that you have but that many other folks in the beverage industry have.

I'm curious about the cost for consumers. How do you see that playing out and will they go up significantly?

WATSON: I think there's the potential for prices to rise. Craft brewers have seen the cost of just about everything that they use to make beer go up in recent years. And what I think they've also seen is that consumers are at a breaking point. And so it's tough to raise prices. And so brewers are going to face a really challenging dilemma. Do they raise prices and risk losing sales or do they see their margins get cut at a time that's challenging for the industry?

And small brewers are the least able to push back on these price increases. So, I think a lot of them are expecting that their prices will rise and some of them may have to pass that on to consumers.

SIDNER: I was looking at how large the craft beer industry has gotten with the value of over a hundred billion dollars last year alone, which is a huge number. It means a lot of jobs. It means a lot of potential businesses.

The president has finally said out loud that there is going to be a little pain, as he put it, for Americans as he puts these tariffs in place. Is the industry prepared to deal with that pain or will it be crushing at some point?

WATSON: You know, the industry's dealt with a lot of pain in the last few years. We've seen prices rise for things like CO2. Aluminum has also risen. It's already been up about 25 percent since COVID. So, I think brewers are preparing as well as they can. You know, there's not too much that they can do here. You know, most of our cans are produced domestically, but we do import a fair amount of aluminum. Canada's our primary import partner. And Canada's been exempted from aluminum tariffs up to this point.

So, certainly, we do expect that prices could rise, that brewers will feel that pinch, and that that will be really challenging for some of them who are already seeing a sales slowdown.

SIDNER: It sounds like the smaller ones, as is usual, per usual, always get hit the hardest.

Going forward, what do you expect to happen to the industry if these do go into effect and they are long lasting, and then there's some reciprocal tariffs as well?

WATSON: Yes, I think it's going to be challenging. You know, most brewers don't have the opportunity to readily switch packaging. You know, that's huge capital equipment. You can't just say I'm going to go into bottles instead of cans if you don't have a bottling line. So, brewers are going to have to figure out how they deal with these price increases along with others.

And, you know, we'll see how far tariffs extend, you know, certainly, tariffs on Canada more broadly would impact one of the other raw materials that brewers care about in the form of barley and malt. So, brewers are trying to look at their supply chains, find places where they can save money if possible, find places where they can diversify. But there's only so much you can do, and so some of them may be forced to raise prices.

SIDNER: Well, might be forced to have a drink and complain at a bar somewhere with a glass as opposed to a can. I'm sorry, Bart. It's been a long, long day. Bart Watson, thank you so much for coming on and explaining what this will mean to your industry as these go into effect. I appreciate it. John?

BERMAN: Coming after the craft beer, hitting us where it hurts.

All right, new surveillance video shows the moment a driver avoided a fatal accident, jumped out of his car just as a train was smashing into it.

Really a stunning video. The driver stopped on the track shortly after being rear ended by a pickup truck. It's unclear why the driver did not move forward to avoid the train. But, luckily, no one was hurt in that crash.

What's next? Closing arguments in the trial involving ASAP Rocky. Prosecutors say he fired two gunshots at a former friend in 2021. The defense argues that he fired blanks from a fake weapon. The case could be with the jury as soon as this afternoon. If convicted, he faces up to 24 years in prison.

A new video of the moment a puppy was reunited with its owner after being lost in the snow for more than 34 hours. Aurora is an American bully golden retriever mix, which means she would not be eligible to compete for best in show at Westminster. But I digress.

She went missing from her yard and below freezing temperatures. After a day had gone by, her owners reached out to a pet detective for help. The detective used a drone that found a heat signal in a cornfield almost four miles away.

[09:00:05]

The heat signal, nestled in deep snow, was Aurora. What good news that is. Aurora, we think you're fantastic, even if Westminster doesn't. And pet detectives using drones is, in fact, a sign of the apocalypse.

A new hour of CNN News Central starts now.