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2021 Economy Grew at Fastest Pace Since 1984; North Carolina Divers See Gas Price Highs; Moderna Begins Clinical Trial of Omicron- Specific Booster; Florida Radio Host Meets with Investigators in Gaetz Case. Aired 9:30-10a ET
Aired January 27, 2022 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:30:00]
NED PRICE, SPOKESPERSON, STATE DEPARTMENT: About a thousand in August. And that processing continues.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: OK.
PRICE: And, as you indicated, just yesterday there was another charter flight that had Americans and others on board, and our commitment to help these individuals leave the country, if they choose to do so, that is enduring.
SCIUTTO: All right, we will continue to keep tabs on that.
Ned Price, we appreciate you joining the show this morning.
PRICE: Thanks so much, Jim.
BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN ANCHOR: Couldn't have been more clear than he was there, right, Jim, Nord Stream 2 will not move forward if Russia does invade Ukraine.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
GOLODRYGA: Really sharp words there.
SCIUTTO: A clear, short statement there, and worth listening to.
GOLODRYGA: Yes.
Well, up next, gas prices up nearly a dollar from where they were a year go. And CNN has a look at how it's hitting the already strained trucking industry.
And, we are moments away from the opening bell on Wall Street. U.S. stock futures are up this morning after the GDP report shows the economy grew at a strong 6.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021. Investors are also responding to comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell that they're getting ready to raise interest rates, but will wait at least until mid-March at their meeting there to do so.
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[09:36:04]
SCIUTTO: Minutes after the opening bell on Wall Street, markets are up, nearly 300 points there. Great news on the U.S. economy, part of that. The latest GDP report says that last year the economy grew at the fastest rate since 1984.
And, Bianna, also key in these numbers, a big uptick in the fourth quarter from the third quarter when we saw the delta variant tampering down economic growth.
GOLODRYGA: Yes, it's as if the economy just plowed through the delta wave.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
GOLODRYGA: Really impressive numbers here.
CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans is following all of this.
So, Christine, break down these numbers. However you want to interpret it, even if there is a slowdown following omicron, that this is proving to be a pretty resilient economy.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, impressive, resilient, all of these adjectives are exactly the right tone here. You know, 6.9 percent at the end of the year, despite omicron, that shows you just how strong the overall economy was. Powering back after delta held it back to something like 2.3 percent in the third quarter. And for the full year, 5.7 percent, you guys, this is something, I mean, you haven't seen since 1984. That is a strong, strong performance for the full year, no question there.
And when you look within these numbers, it's just about every single category of the economy was powering ahead, powering ahead in the year. This is why the Fed has said it's time to go ahead and start raising interest rates, right, because it's against the backdrop of a strong job market and a strong economy overall.
We did see jobless claims fall again, 260,000 first time jobless claims. That's another decent number, showing you that bosses don't want to be laying people off in this environment. They're having trouble finding workers. They're having trouble meeting the demand for their products and their services. And so they're not laying people off in this economy.
Again, this is why the Fed is confident enough to start raising interest rates multiple times this year to draw down its very big balance sheet of all of those asserts that it purchased during the crisis to try to, you know, support the American economy.
For all of us, that means higher borrowing costs for our -- for credit cards, for home loans, for mortgages. All that's coming down the pike here. A whole new era in 2022 than the last couple of year.
SCIUTTO: Yes, Powell's words were, the economy doesn't need that same juice anymore.
ROMANS: Yes.
SCIUTTO: Perhaps these economic numbers back that up.
Christine Romans, thanks so much.
ROMANS: You're welcome.
SCIUTTO: Well, the tough side of all of this, of course, inflation. Gas prices, they're rising yet again. According to AAA, the national average price for a gallon of gas is up more than five cents a gallon from a month ago.
ROMANS: Yes, consumers are really feeling this pinch.
In North Carolina this spike is the biggest annual increase in gas prices in seven years. And that is hitting driver and small businesses pretty hard.
CNN business and politics correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich takes a look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT (voice over): The price of gas on the rise again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Through the week, use a whole lot of fuel.
YURKEVICH: And when you're filling up 500 trucks a week, it gets expensive.
SHAWN BROWN, VICE PRESIDENT OF SAFETY, CARGO TRANSPORTERS INC.: Steve (ph), how you doing?
Diesel fuel is one of our single biggest expenses to run these trucks.
YURKEVICH: Shawn Brown is mayor of Claremont, North Carolina, and works for his family's 50-year-old trucking company.
BROWN: Each truck has 200 gallon total capacity in their fuel tanks. Drivers run on average, you know, around 2,000 miles a week, some more, some less. You do the math on that.
YURKEVICH: We did. And with diesel up more than a dollar a gallon on average in the last year, that's about $736 each time one of these fills up. $200 more per truck on average from a year ago.
BROWN: Any cost that goes up will hurt your profitability.
YURKEVICH: In North Carolina, prices have seen the biggest annual increase in seven years, up five cents a gallon for regular fuel in just the last month, in line with national increases.
TIFFANY WRIGHT, DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS, AAA CAROLINAS: Gas prices really have been a roller coaster ride. These are places where gas prices don't tend to drop as they do in other places around the country because they are year-round destinations.
[09:40:01]
YURKEVICH: And with the price of crude oil, which makes fuel, jumping 30 percent since December due to increased demand but less product on the market, the cost to fill up could continue to rise.
ELLIS HUNTER, NORTH CAROLINA DRIVER: It's like the necessity of food. It's not something that you can put down. Gas is a must. You cannot get from here to there without the gas. So, there's no way of getting by it.
YURKEVICH: But some drivers have found a way.
YURKEVICH (on camera): We're here in South Carolina.
I saw you have North Carolina plates.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, looking to save some money. For 10 minutes I can save 20 cents.
YURKEVICH (voice over): Just a short drive from Charlotte, North Carolina, into South Carolina, can save drivers 10 to 20 cents a gallon on average.
CHRISTINE CARDELL, NORTH CAROLINA DRIVER: If we're working over here, we always get gas over here on this side.
YURKEVICH: Christine Cardell works for a landscaping company that services North and South Carolina. She says the price of gas in any state is too much.
CARDELL: It's cost me well into, you know, $140, $150 just to fill up.
YURKEVICH (on camera): When you look at that price, what do you think?
CARDELL: I think it sucks. It can put me out of business. There are some jobs that I don't even take now because it costs me too much to get there.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
YURKEVICH: Now, about half the drivers we spoke to say that they see the gas prices, they pay it, they don't think anyone has any control over it. The other half of drivers we spoke to say that they think that the federal government and President Joe Biden can and should do something about these high prices. The president authorized the release of 50 million barrels of oil from the country's Strategic Petroleum Reserve. So that may help a little bit. But beyond that, there's nothing that he really can do except to maybe pressure the world's biggest oil producing nations, that's OPEC, to release more oil into the global marketplace.
But, Jim and Bianna, OPEC says they don't plan to do that and that directly affects these high prices we're seeing around the country right now, and right here at the pump in North Carolina.
Jim, Bianna.
SCIUTTO: Yes, U.S. presidents have for years been trying to pressure OPEC. OPEC does what it wants.
Vanessa Yurkevich there, thanks very much.
YURKEVICH: Yes.
SCIUTTO: Still ahead, CNN speaks with the lead Moderna researcher developing booster shots in the age of omicron. What you should be taking into account as you consider vaccinations.
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[09:46:41]
GOLODRYGA: Moderna is entering the next phase of its omicron specific booster clinical trial. Now, this comes as new research shows that a booster dose of their vaccine remains durable against the omicron variant for at least six months. But it did show some signs of waning antibody protection.
SCIUTTO: CNN's senior medical correspondent Elizabeth Cohen following the story.
So, Elizabeth, you spoke with the lead researcher who is heading up this work. What did he say about the importance of boosters in the age of omicron? I've -- frankly, I've been following this as close as I can and I'm a little confused as to where folks are coming down on it.
ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN SENIOR MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Jim, I'll give you the bottom line then. I spoke with Dr. David Montefiore, he's a researcher out of Duke University, the senior author on this "New England Journal of Medicine" paper, and he said boosters are even more important in the age of omicron than in the age of delta or before then. That they are so important. And take a look at this data and you will see why.
So, they looked at blood samples from about 20 people. And of those who got two shots, one month after their second shot, for most of them neutralizing antibodies against omicron were very low or even undetectable. But then the folks, after they got a third shot about a month later, within a month later, their neutralizing antibodies were up 20 times.
The reason for this is that these vaccines weren't designed to fight omicron. Omicron didn't exist when these vaccines were designed. And omicron is a big shift. It's quite different from the original version of the coronavirus. So, he said third dose is so important in the age of omicron.
Now, you mentioned that there was some waning, so is it possible that six months from now, say, we're going to be told, you know what, you should get a fourth dose. That's certainly the direction they're heading in, in Israel. It's possible, but we don't know for sure. We have to see how this plays out in real life, because, of course, this study was done in the lab.
Jim. Bianna.
GOLODRYGA: Yes, and many experts, health experts around the world say that we're just not going to just continue to booster our way out of this vaccine as well. So, a lot of questions to be asked and remain, obviously, as we're getting more and more research out of this.
Elizabeth Cohen, thank you, as always.
Well, still ahead, a third witness cooperates with the Justice Department's investigation into Congressman Matt Gaetz. Why investigators would want to hear from a Florida radio host.
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[09:53:30]
GOLODRYGA: A Florida radio host has met with federal investigators to share what he knows about allegations of sex trafficking and sex with a minor against Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz.
SCIUTTO: The attorney for Joseph "Big Joe" Ellicott says his client was able to, quote, shed light on some issues. Ellicott's cooperation comes after he pleaded guilty in a separate bribery case.
CNN's Whitney Wild has been following this.
Whitney, tell us how this witness fit into the overall case here. And I'm also curious about timeline, frankly, right, because this has been going on for months.
WHITNEY WILD, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. I mean it's been going on for more than a year.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
WILD: So, we had this timeline up to bring everybody up to speed. I mean this has been a really slow drip of information and, you know, both that's being released publicly, as well as information that the Department of Justice has been able to collect as they pursue this case against Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz.
The reality here is that this testimony in whatever form it takes could be very significant. Ellicott's attorney tells CNN his client has met with federal investigators to share what he knows about allegations against Gaetz, including sexual contact with a minor, sex trafficking and obstruction of justice.
Ellicott is cooperating with investigators again after he pleaded guilty in a separate bribery scheme. He's also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and pleaded guilty to distribution of a controlled substance.
It should be noted that Ellicott has not been called to testify yet, but he -- his information could serve to corroborate some of the testimony of a man named Joel Greenberg. He's a one-time close friend of Gaetz's.
[09:55:01]
He's a former Florida tax official who has also been cooperating with authorities after pleading guilty to several charges last year. Some of those charges include that he knowingly solicited and paid a minor for sex.
An ex-girlfriend of the congressman also testified earlier this month before a grand jury.
Gaetz, for his part, has denied any wrongdoing. He has not been charged with a crime. His office sent us this statement and it reads, after nearly a year after false rumors, not a shred of evidence has implicated Congressman Gaetz in wrongdoing. We remain focused on our work representing Floridians.
Back to you.
SCIUTTO: Whitney Wild, stay on top of it. Thanks so much.
Still ahead, President Biden and Supreme Court Justice Breyer expected to appear together at the White House today as Breyer announces his retirement. How quickly we expect the nomination process to begin and end.
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