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Netflix Shares Tank 20 Percent on Weak Subscriber Outlook; 2021 Homes Prices Rose 16.9 Percent, the Highest on Record; GOP Candidate for Alaska's U.S. House Seat Questioned Election Results; Texas Judge Blocks Biden's Vaccine Mandate for Federal Employee. Aired 3:30-4p ET
Aired January 21, 2022 - 15:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:30:00]
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Netflix's stock price is plunging. It's fallen more than 20 percent today after the company announced its earnings report. Netflix announced fourth-quarter subscriber numbers are slightly below expectations. Waning growth is one reason it announced that it would raise prices in the U.S. and Canada.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: OK, and listen to this, another pandemic power house is also losing speed. Peloton shares are down nearly 25 percent. That's the lowest level in nearly two years. Yesterday the company's CEO announced it may slow production of its bikes and treadmills and lay off workers as demand stalls for those products.
The median home sale price rose last year to $346,900, that's up almost 17 percent from 2020. It's according to the National Association of Realtors, and more than 6 million homes were sold last year. That's the most since 2006.
Vanessa Yurkevich joins us now. So, Vanessa, this is good news for homeowners, bad news for home buyers. So, what are you hearing?
VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, it was a great year to be a seller last year.
[15:35:00]
You were seeing top dollar for your home. You were having bidding wars. But on the flip side, the buyer was also experiencing that, but what made it an attractive to still pay the top dollar was that mortgage rates were so low, under 3 percent last year. But that's all changing, mortgage rates are on the rise.
In just the last month, we have seen mortgage rates jump 1/2 point in the last year, almost 1 point. So, what that means is that what you're paying today on your mortgage is about $120 more per month than you were paying last year. And the reason why these mortgage rates are rising is because the Federal Reserve has said that it plans to raise interest rates.
So, you're going to lose some home buyers, especially in these coastal cities where realize is pricier. People who maybe just qualifying for a mortgage, maybe they're priced out. But for the home buyers that are still in the market right now, realtors give two tips. They say, one, try to get prequalified for a loan now so that if you see a home that you like, you can jump on it. And try to lock in a low mortgage rate now. Some brokers, mortgage rate brokers will let you lock in a rate for about 60 days. So that way you're getting today's price, versus the mortgage rates that are going to be rising throughout the year.
This is a very stressful time for people. If you're a first-time home buyers, buying a home in general is very, very stressful, and it's shaping up to be another competitive year -- Alisyn and Victor.
CAMEROTA: Good to know, Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you.
OK, this just in to CNN. A federal judge in Texas just blocked the Biden administration from enforcing its vaccine mandate for federal employees. We have that ahead.
[15:40:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAMEROTA: Last week I spoke to a candidate running for Alaska's sole U.S. House seat who had just left the Republican Party. Greg Brelsford switched to independent because he said, he was disgusted with the GOP's election lies in threats to democracy.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GREGG BRELSFORD, SWITCHED FROM GOP TO INDEPENDENT IN U.S. HOUSE RACE: Well, today's party is consumed with relitigating past elections and not with resolving real problems of real people and working families, but worse, it's attacking democracy itself.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: I am joined now by one of his primary opponents, Randy Purham. Mr. Purham thank you so much for being here. Looking forward to talking to you. So, you heard one of your primary opponents. He was saying that basically, he's tired of all the relitigating of Donald Trump's election loss. Are you one of the Republicans he was speaking of who believes that Donald Trump did not lose the 2020 presidential election?
RANDY PURHAM, (R) U.S. CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE FOR ALASKA: Good afternoon, Alisyn, thank you for having me. I'm not going to say that he did not lose. But we realize there are some irregularities with the election. So --
CAMEROTA: But do you recognize -- but just to be clear, do you think he lost?
PURHAM: Marginally.
CAMEROTA: OK. So, he did --
PURHAM: Not by as much as they are expressing.
CAMEROTA: OK, so you believe that Donald Trump lost the election, and Joe Biden is the rightful president of the United States.
PURHAM: To a degree.
CAMEROTA: Why is that so hard to answer?
PURHAM: It's not hard to answer. It's, you know, there's a lot of issues that we have seen with the election. And we see how, you know, things have turned out right now with this administration, so --
CAMEROTA: But that's different, Mr. Purham. That's different. I mean, if you don't like certain policies in the administration, it's different than whether or not you can say definitively that Donald Trump lost and Joe Biden won. Can you say that?
PURHAM: I can.
CAMEROTA: OK.
PURHAM: And I have.
CAMEROTA: Thank you. I appreciate that. And so, I know -- I mean, I've read your announcement statement of why you're getting in, and I know that you have issues, obviously, with the policies of the Biden administration. And you say we have subjugated ourselves to a free- falling country enshrining d with a push towards Marxist socialist policies and agendas. And so, what do you mean by that? What do you see that's Marxism?
PURHAM: Well, for one, we can start with the education system that we have right now. You know, the push with critical race theory which is a derivative of Marxist theories. So, that's one item there.
CAMEROTA: Let me just stop you there for one thing because we did look to see if Critical Race Theory was officially being taught in Alaska's public schools. We can't find any evidence of that. But are you saying -- I hear what you're saying, you don't like sort of I think the direction of bringing up racism or slavery? Do you believe that the history of slavery should be taught in public schools?
PURHAM: Absolutely. It should be. Along with everything else that we have come to know throughout humanity. It should be taught, but the thing is, you know, we're looking at the perversion of history through the lens of Critical Race Theory, and that's where I have an issue with. Teach history the way history was transpired. Don't try to add spins to everything else. That's where I have a problem with it.
CAMEROTA: Yes, but where do you think that Critical Race Theory is actually being taught?
PURHAM: There's been push in agendas, especially in Alaska as well. And we have been pushing back and fighting back against that. And so, there's been concerted efforts on behalf of a lot of the school districts throughout the United States and trying to push Critical Race Theory.
[15:45:00] CAMEROTA: Because places like -- you know, Governor Ron DeSantis in Florida is trying to pass a law to prevent anyone from -- any student from feeling uncomfortable, any discomfort or guilt during a lesson. And it just seems as though that's trying to protect people from their own feelings, and sometimes if you teach slavery, people are going to feel uncomfortable.
PURHAM: I understand that. You know, well, you know, that's something that Florida -- that's something the governor wants to implement, that's their right as a state, you know. So, in terms of, you know, protecting people's feelings under education, a lot of people's feelings will be hurt if we try to cater to everybody's feelings based on a subject that's being taught.
So, you know, we have to kind of like look at that from a subjective point of view and perhaps, you know, encourage parents to teach their children not to be so sensitive about issues that they're being taught and take it from a learning standpoint.
CAMEROTA: Yes, great point. Well, Randy Purham, great to have you on, thank you very much for coming on NEWSROOM, and we'll speak again.
PURHAM: Thank you for having me. Appreciate it. Take care.
CAMEROTA: You too.
BLACKWELL: Enlightening.
CAMEROTA: Yes, I mean, I'm interested in talking to all of those folks. Particularly, we don't often talk to lawmakers who are running for office in Alaska.
BLACKWELL: While sitting in Texas. But we'll let that go.
CAMEROTA: OK, OK, yes, but it's just interesting to get their perspectives.
BLACKWELL: Yes, learned a lot there. All right, let's talk about Texas. This judge there just dealt another blow to President Biden's federal COVID vaccine mandate. We'll have more on that.
[15:50:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CAMEROTA: We're just getting this in to CNN. A Texas federal judge has blocked the Biden administration from enforcing that vaccine mandate for federal employees. This is another blow to President Biden's efforts to increase the country's vaccination rate.
BLACKWELL: So, Judge Jeffrey Vincent Brown called the mandate an overstep of presidential authority and he cited last week's Supreme Court decision to strike down the separate vaccine mandate for large businesses.
Let's go to CNN's Jessica Schneider. So, tell us more about this and where the Biden administration goes from here.
JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: So, they've already appealed on this, Victor. But the interesting thing about this is the federal judge blocked this vaccine mandate that had actually already gone into effect. This was one impacting federal workers. It went into effect in November and the Biden administration had said that all federal employees -- that amounts to about 3.5 million workers -- that they must be vaccinated by the end of November 2021. Despite the fact the administration said that they would work with and counsel those employees who refused to get vaccinated rather than fire them.
So, in fact, the government says 97.2 percent of federal employees have gotten vaccinated. That's the compliance rate. But despite that, this Texas federal judge, notably appointed by Donald Trump, he has blocked the mandate. He says it's an overstep of presidential authority and, like you said, guys, he cited last week's Supreme Court decision.
That was a decision that struck down which was a much more expansive mandate that required employees at companies where 100 or more people worked to get vaccinated. So, this Texas judge saying the president just doesn't have the statutory authority to issue this federal worker mandate that applied to federal employees.
As I mentioned, the Biden administration already filing an appeal here and, guys, while this doesn't steam have a lot of practical effects. Since as I said, more than 90 percent of federal workers have already complied here. It took effect in November. This potentially could be another case that gets to the Supreme Court where these justices could ultimately weigh in on this issue about whether the federal government can mandate federal workers as opposed to, you know, all workers get this vaccine.
So, it potentially could be another issue that reaches the Supreme Court, although this affects much less workers, much fewer workers. Many of them, most of them have already gotten vaccinated, and this only does affect federal employees. So, we'll see how this plays out, but this could go high -- guys.
BLACKWELL: Very interesting. Thank you, Jessica Schneider.
SCHNEIDER: Thanks.
BLACKWELL: So, the booster is the best protection. That's according to new data from the CDC. It shows a third shot gives the best protection from getting seriously ill from the Omicron variant.
[15:55:00]
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CAMEROTA: An American airlines flight headed to London from Miami turned around midflight on Wednesday after a female passenger refused to wear a mask.
BLACKWELL: So, according to a flight tracking site FlightAware, the plane landed back in Miami an hour and 48 minutes after it took off. The passenger was escorted off the plane by police. And get this, then the flight was canceled. 128 passengers were on board along with 14 crew members.
CAMEROTA: That must have been very frustrating. A United Airlines flight bound for Tel Aviv from Newark, also turned around midflight yesterday because of disruptive passengers. The FAA says there have been more than 150 unruly passenger reports already this year.
BLACKWELL: All right, now we got something for you. If you've been waiting to just wear a bologna moisturizing face mask --
CAMEROTA: Who hasn't?
BLACKWELL: -- you're going to have to wait unfortunately.
CAMEROTA: OK, Oscar Mayer's bologna face mask sold out less than a day after its release on Amazon because of, quote, unexpectedly incredibly high demand.
BLACKWELL: Unexpected, unexpected demand.
CAMEROTA: Now I want to be clear. This is not actually a piece of meat that you put on your face. And no, Victor, it's not edible. So, don't be tempted. It's a moisturizing face mask designed to promote skin elasticity.
BLACKWELL: Right, and these are descriptions from the website. I've got it up here on Amazon.
[16:00:00]
It says treat yourself, meat yourself. How about this? Better give the gift of bologna bliss to others. Nothing says I love you like a slice of self-care. And this one, remember, you can't spell delightful without deli.
CAMEROTA: That's my favorite. And "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts right now.
