Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Interview With Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo About Latest Jobless Report; Rural Georgia County Weighs Closing All But One Polling Place; Team USA Unveils Opening Ceremony Outfits For Beijing Olympics. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired January 20, 2022 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

GINA RAIMONDO, COMMERCE SECRETARY: We're the only economy in the world that is stronger now than pre-pandemic. And the unemployment rate has fallen like a rock over the past year. So we look at those numbers. I mean, you know, week to week, month to month, there are small variations, but it's a strong employment picture. We know wages are up, jobs are up.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: OK.

RAIMONDO: Growth is up. As you say, you know, obviously we have inflation and that is what we have to deal with.

SCIUTTO: Yes. I want to talk to you about inflation because the president, while acknowledging it will be difficult and is difficult for people today, he said he's optimistic things will improve. As you know, the Fed is preparing a months-long effort of interest rate rises. They look at this as a lasting problem, as do many of the investment banks.

What gives the administration confidence that inflation will not be a lasting challenge?

RAIMONDO: I think a few things. First of all, the Fed does have tools to deal with inflation. And we have confidence in the Fed. They're professionals. They're independent, apolitical. And, you know, they're aware of it and I think they'll use their significant tools. Secondly, we in the administration under President Biden's leadership, we're doing everything we can including working on the supply chain issues.

We've seen really excellent results reducing congestion at the ports. We're training more truck drivers. The president tapped into the petroleum reserve trying to stabilize gas prices. So it's a whole, you know, every day get up and attack it.

I will say this, Congress has to do its part. And by that I mean Congress has to pass the CHIPS Act. You know, so -- the inflation numbers that came out a week ago, a third of those numbers were driven by increases in car prices. That is almost exclusively due to the lack of semiconductor chips. There's 2,000 chips in an electric vehicle.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

RAIMONDO: So if you really want to drive inflation down, pass the CHIPS Act, make more chips, increase supply, and prices will go down.

SCIUTTO: OK. I do want to talk about chips. But before we get to, though, the president said last night that he will have to break up Build Back Better into chunks, which he's confident he can get passed. Commerce, part of your job, right, is to keep economic growth going. And it's the administration's argument that this will help.

Which chunks exactly and which come first?

RAIMONDO: So, early on when this began, people asked me that question. And I said here's the one prediction I will make. The Build Back Better bill that the president signs will look different than what was introduced, which is to say, we don't know. This is how our democracy works. We're going to work with Congress, you know, we're going to figure it out. We're going to compromise.

But the president is committed to these investments. By the way, these are job-creating investments. If you want inflation to go down, let's help women get back to work, expand the labor pool. How do we do that? Provide universal pre-K, provide a hand with child care. So I don't know. You know, this is a negotiation and we're just doing to do our job.

SCIUTTO: Right.

RAIMONDO: And stay at the table until it passes.

SCIUTTO: A specific piece of it of course is the child tax credit. And that's something the administration has argued is necessary for many families to fight inflation. It's ending right now, as we speak, for many Americans around the country, concerns that it might contribute to a resurgence of child care poverty. But you don't have Manchin on this. I mean, effectively, as a practical matter, is the child tax credit dead?

RAIMONDO: Again, I'm -- you know, I'm not going to negotiate in public. Manchin has been clear. It's not something that he's for. We believe -- we're going to do everything we can to get as much of this package in the final version as possible, but I will also say we know we need to compromise and we're going to do that.

SCIUTTO: OK. We'll be watching you. We'll look for those compromises where it brings you.

On the chip funding, can you describe specifically to folks at home what this consists of? I mean, as you mentioned, chips go into cars. I mean, cars are basically computers with four wheels now. And this is affecting the prices of cars. How will they see this and how quickly?

RAIMONDO: So, first of all, Congress needs to pass the bill. There's a bill weaving its way through Congress. It's kind of stuck in the House right now which allows us, the Department of Commerce, the tools we need to provide incentives for companies to make chips in America. Like that's number one. We have to make this stuff in America and make more of it.

But it's pretty simple, you know, economics 101, which is to say last year the auto companies in America made about eight million fewer cars than they thought they would. Supply is down, prices go through the roof. The number one reason they couldn't make those cars, they didn't have enough computer chips. And so we need more chips, equals more cars, equals lower prices.

[10:35:05]

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you bigger picture before we go. You heard the president. Describe him and his administration as outperforming, which was an interesting argument for some to hear given that two of the biggest pieces of his agenda, Build Back Better and voting rights, did not pass, and voting rights at least by itself is not going anywhere.

Did the president overstate the administration's successes so far? And what folks at home appreciate an acknowledgment that, hey, you know, some things didn't work out?

RAIMONDO: Yes. I don't think he did. I will tell you I think he is overperforming. Things aren't perfect. I know folks are dealing with inflation, and we're on that. But I'll give you like a personal perspective. I was a governor and a state official in a state 2010 to last year. It was brutal. It took us almost a decade to crawl out of the last recession, right. But after the last recession, the bottom fell out of pension funds, states had to do horrible cuts to schools and aid to the developmentally disabled, to hospitals.

That's not happening now. You know, I remember as a governor in the middle of this pandemic, we had 12 percent, 15 percent unemployment. I never -- if you had told me then that by January of 2022 we would have a stronger economy than when we went into the pandemic, I never would have believed you. And we do. We've created -- the president created more jobs last year than any president ever in the first year of office.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

RAIMONDO: So, yes, do we have more work to do? Yes. But I do believe we've overperformed.

SCIUTTO: Well, we'll keep up that conversation. Secretary Gina Raimondo, thanks for joining us this morning.

RAIMONDO: Thank you.

GOLODRYGA: And still ahead, one rural Georgia county faces a possible consolidation of voting sites, leaving 250 square miles with only one voting precinct. How officials are responding to critics calling it voter suppression. That's up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:41:47] SCIUTTO: Voters in a rural Georgia county may go from having seven polling places to just one in the entire county next year. This after changes made by the state legislature.

GOLODRYGA: Lincoln County is about 250 square miles and doesn't have public transportation. Officials there said consolidating polling places would be more efficient. The Board of Elections was set to hold a vote yesterday but local activists delayed it.

CNN's Dianne Gallagher has more details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REV. DENISE FREEMAN, CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST: Hi.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Reverend Denise Freeman is on a mission.

FREEMAN: How you all doing?

GALLAGHER: Going door to door.

FREEMAN: I didn't know you stayed here.

GALLAGHER: Gathering signatures, from voters.

FREEMAN: Have you signed the petitions?

GALLAGHER: In an effort to stop the new Lincoln County Board of Elections from replacing all seven of the county's voting precincts with just one voting center. The Colvin Curry Recreation Complex in Lincolnton for the entire rural county.

FREEMAN: This is a huge county. People live so far away. We don't have public transportation. We don't have access of calling Lyft or Uber or a taxi cab. We have nothing.

GALLAGHER: Just about 7700 people live in the east Georgia County, where Donald Trump won more than 68 percent of the vote in 2020. Notices for a public hearings went out last September advertising a move to make voting, quote, "easier and more accessible."

LILVENDER BOLTON, DIRECTOR OF VOTER REGISTRATION AND ELECTIONS, LINCOLN COUNTY COMMISSION: Well, we probably had about 15 to 20 people, at each public hearing.

GALLAGHER: Election director Lilvender Bolton says the board pitched the rec center as being big enough to support social distancing and voting equipment while also allowing the county to reduce staffing and travel needs.

BOLTON: I mean, I don't see how making things better is such a bad thing.

GALLAGHER: But Freeman, a former school board member, says most of the people she meets knocking on doors didn't know about the proposal until last month. She and other voting rights activists believe eliminating all but one precinct in a 250 square mile county, that's nearly 30 percent black in an election year is just another example of voter suppression in Georgia.

FREEMAN: I think it's meant to disenfranchise people of color. I think it's meant to disenfranchise the poor. This is about good old boys, their power, and their will to stay in control. This is not what fair elections are about.

WALKER T. NORMAN, COMMISSION CHAIR, LINCOLN COUNTY, GEORGIA BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS: I don't want to disenfranchise anybody, nobody, from being able to vote.

GALLAGHER: County commission chairman, Walker Norman, in Lincoln County politics since he was 18, says more than half the county votes early or by mail, though mail-in voting now has new deadlines and ID requirements under the state election law. Still, he doesn't think the change will affect most voters.

NORMAN: You got some of these little precincts on election day. You don't have 30 people voting.

GALLAGHER (on camera): Do you think that by closing those precincts, though, those 30 people may not bother?

NORMAN: No. I think anybody that wants to vote is going to vote anyway.

GALLAGHER (voice-over): But, for some voters, it'd take a lot longer to do it. We made the drive ourselves, from the Northeast Lincoln County community of Broad River to the proposed new voting center. Midday, midweek, it took us 26 minutes to get there. To their original precinct? Less than 10 minutes.

[10:45:08]

FREEMAN: And the people who are doing this need to sit and think. Is this going to hurt us in the long run or if it's going to help us? And I'm here, looking at you, talking to you, telling you that it's going to hurt them.

GALLAGHER: Director Bolton took us around the county from precinct to precinct. She says the main issue is old, tiny, inefficient buildings that don't adequately support the election needs. And she can't find new ones.

BOLTON: If I had the structures, yes, it would be more than one. But the structures are not there. That is the reality of Lincoln County.

GALLAGHER: Like election departments across the country, she's struggling to find poll workers to staff multiple locations.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT: They left me a mess.

GALLAGHER (voice-over): And claims the toxic nature of American politics has prevented churches and even fire departments from stepping up to offer larger spaces.

BOLTON: They don't want to be associated with anything political.

GALLAGHER (on-camera): Including the democratic act of voting.

BOLTON: That's right.

GALLAGHER (voice-over): But adding to the suspicion for many is the board itself. Last year, after Georgia's controversial election overhaul law was signed by the governor, the Republican-controlled state legislature passed laws reorganizing six county election boards. Lincoln County was one of them.

AUNNA DENNIS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, COMMON CAUSE GEORGIA: Particularly in Georgia, we know that folks wanted to believe the big lie. But we do know there's a coordinated effort to close the margin of the 11,000 votes across the state. And how this is happening is that they want to cherry-pick these smaller rural counties that definitely don't have the same advocacy, the same agency, the same empowerment tools, as other bigger counties to really get this strategy done.

GALLAGHER: State Senator Lee Anderson, who sponsored bills that dissolved and reappointed the board, didn't respond to our interview requests. Norman says the Republican and Democratic Party used to each nominate a board member but the state told them last year that wasn't allowed.

NORMAN: That's when they abolished the old board and just started all over.

GALLAGHER: Now Norman's all-Republican commission nominates three of the five board members. Bolton says the state played no role in the consolidation proposal.

BOLTON: We had no influence from anybody.

GALLAGHER: Before a Supreme Court ruling gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013, closing polling places in Georgia would have required federal approval to ensure it would not hurt minority voters. Now the five- person Lincoln County Board of Elections can make the decision with a simple majority vote.

FREEMAN: The petition we are submitting meets the 20 percent threshold.

GALLAGHER: But due to Reverend Freeman's efforts, the vote's been tabled, at least for now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will not vote tonight.

GALLAGHER: Reverend Freeman says she's not giving up.

FREEMAN: Get off the fence.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right. All right. All right.

FREEMAN: Do the right thing.

GALLAGHER: And warns that people should pay attention to election- related decisions in small counties.

(On-camera): Do you think that this is a test run for bigger counties?

FREEMAN: I think this is a test run for the entire country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GALLAGHER: Now those 600 signatures on those petitions are actually in the building behind me here, being gone through by the election director name by name, cross-checking them to see if they're valid registered voters. After that happened, they'll likely consult attorneys, she said that they're going to take into consideration comments from people in the community during a pretty bombastic meeting last night. And then they potentially could try to come up with a new plan.

But, Jim and Bianna, there's no guarantee there. Technically, they shouldn't be able to shut down the precincts from the people who they got those signatures from and petition, but, again, they're going to consult attorneys and see what that might mean for them going forward here.

SCIUTTO: It's great reporting, Dianne Gallagher. Important reporting. Thanks so much. And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:53:55]

SCIUTTO: The opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics is just about two weeks away, and Team USA all importantly just revealed this year's look.

GOLODRYGA: Yes. CNN sports anchor Coy Wire joins us with a visual, a real-life preview.

Coy, you're wearing what we can expect to see in a couple of weeks. Not subtle. Team USA there in the red, white, and blue. How is it feeling? What do you think?

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Hey, put me on the podium. I feel like this is gold medal worthy. This is the gear that's going to be worn by Team USA when they walk out onto that very special opening ceremony 15 days from now.

Ralph Lauren is going to keep these athletes warm in Beijing where it's going to be frigid. This is innovative first to market technology called intelligent insulation. Ralph Lauren is not using wires, batteries or heated coils like they did for Pyeongchang. This fabric adapts -- Jim, it's like a transformer, depending on the temperature. When it's warm, it's breathable. When it's cold, these two separate materials morph and create an extra layer of insulation. No need for multiple layers. You wear it inside, outside. And the Olympians, they love it.

[10:55:04]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AJA EVANS, TWO-TIME OLYMPIC BOBSLEDDER: I love just the overall vibe, and I think that the sustainability factor is really important. You know, it's made from recycled products, so that helps me to feel good, like I'm, you know, it's good for the environment.

DAVID LAUREN, CHIEF BRANDING AND INNOVATION OFFICER, RALPH LAUREN: We all need optimism. We all need heroes. We all need to come together as a planet. And to see Team USA walk out there, it just makes you feel so proud and it makes you hopeful for a world coming together.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: About 3,000 athletes from around the world, 90 different nations respected there in Beijing. And I know I'll be warm when I come back to my sport. So you got the snack pocket. Can't wait for that.

SCIUTTO: It looks good.

GOLODRYGA: Just need some gloves and you'll be set.

SCIUTTO: Yes, I mean, the Italians got Armani, but it looks good. It looks good.

Coy Wire, you wear it well. Thanks so much.

WIRE: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: And thanks so much to all of you for joining us today. I'm Jim Sciutto.

GOLODRYGA: And I'm Bianna Golodryga. "AT THIS HOUR" with Kate Bolduan starts after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)