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U.S. Inflation Rises 7.5 Percent in Last Year, a 40-Year High; Hip-Hop Takes Center Stage at Super Bowl Halftime Show; Bob Saget's Family Says He Died from Head Trauma; Senate Passes Sweeping Overhaul of Workplace Sexual Misconduct Law; Congresswoman Greene Mistakes Gestapo for Gazpacho . Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired February 10, 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]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Almost everything costs a lot more. And today we got some numbers to put in stark relief. Over the past 12 months inflation in the U.S. soared to its highest level in 40 years. Driving consumer prices 7.5 percent higher than the same time last year. That's the steepest annual hike since 1982.

CNN business reporter Matt Egan joins us now to break down the new inflation numbers. Matt, was this a surprise how high these are?

MATT EGAN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: Well, Alisyn, we knew inflation was high. Today we found out it's getting worse and that means your paycheck is not going as far as it used to. This 7.5 percent jump in consumer prices that's an acceleration from 7 percent in December. It's going in the wrong direction. In May inflation was at 5 percent. We thought that was bad. It's way above that now. Not only that, but there was an expectation that month over month prices might cool off a bit. The opposite happened.

If you zoom out -- we have a chart showing inflation for the last 40 some odd years. And you can see that for a very long-time inflation was very low. But as can you can see on the right the chart shows that prices are going basically straight up. The last time we saw a number like this was 1982, that was a long time ago. "E.T." was the top movie then. I was not alive yet. What is starting about --

CAMEROTA: That tells me a lot.

EGAN: So, if I was, I would have been looking at the inflation report, of course. What's startling about this report is that it just shows that inflation is really widespread. I mean, we saw record price spikes on new cars and trucks, fresh fish, restaurant meals, appliances, furniture prices up 17 percent. New cars and trucks up, and that was before these disruptions being caused by the protests on the border with Canada. We do have to put this into context. There's a lot of positives, right. GDP was up by the most last year since 1984. Unemployment down to 4 percent. But, Alisyn, the high cost of living continues to be a sore spot.

CAMEROTA: Does this change the fed's plan?

EGAN: It might. There's a growing sense that the fed is late, that it was slow to acknowledge inflation wasn't going to be transitory, it was slow to shift into inflation fighting mode. And so, now the fed has to catch up. There's a growing expectation on Wall Street that the fed is going to have to raise interest rates multiple times.

A few months ago, the debate was maybe two times, three times, now the debate is four, five, six, maybe seven times. There's even -- investors are even starting to price in the growing chance the fed may raise interest rates by half a percentage point in March's meeting. We haven't seen that, anything like that since the year 2000. It would be a way for the fed to show that it really means business on inflation.

This is not sitting well with investors, though. We see the Dow is down sharply today. Initially it took the inflation report in stride but now down 540 points, 1.5 percent. You've got to remember, rock bottom interest rates were great for the stock market. Essentially forced people to bet on stocks. Higher rates will be a challenge and we could see some more turbulence in the stock market going forward.

CAMEROTA: OK Matt, thank you very much for all of that. And I'm going to take to you see "E.T." at some point.

EGAN: Please do.

CAMEROTA: OK.

Meanwhile, let's discuss all of this with Austan Goolsbee. He was the chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers under Barack Obama. He's now an economics professor at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business. Austan great to see you. OK, so in December President Biden said that he felt that inflation was at its peak. That was wrong. Today we got these, you know, incredibly striking numbers. The highest inflation since 1982. Is there a way to know when inflation will be at its peak and when do you think that is?

AUSTAN GOOLSBEE, FORMER CHAIRMAN, WHITE HOUSE COUNCIL OF ECONOMIC ADVISORS: Well, there is one sense in which the way we quote inflation is different than the way we quote jobs numbers. Which is you get one month of new inflation and you staple it to the previous 11 months of inflation, so it's a trailing measure of inflation. The month to month is still high but it didn't go up from last month. It's just remained at this high level.

CAMEROTA: Oh, I thought it went from 7 percent to 7.5 percent.

GOOLSBEE: You want to see those new months coming down. That's how you know when you're at the peak. They'll start coming down.

CAMEROTA: OK, and when will that happen?

GOOLSBEE: The side that thinks this is mostly coming from supply chain interruptions and a supply jock think by the summer. And the people who think this is coming from too much demand say it depends when the fed tightens interest rates and by how much. But hopefully over this year. If you think that everybody starts expecting that inflation is going to stay at these kind of rates, then it can be very hard to get out of that chain.

You get in a spiral. That's like what happened in the 1970s. So far, the markets don't seem to show that. And the market measures of inflation expectations, it looks like they think that within a few years we will be back to 2 percent. So, now we're trying to figure out who's right. You know, some people think it's going away and some people think it will last.

[15:35:00]

And the economic timetable that says, hey, let's just sit and wait for six months and figure out who's right. That doesn't really comport unfortunately for the White House with the political timetable that people are getting madder and madder.

CAMEROTA: Speaking of the politics of it, Senator Manchin was basically saying that this is the reason that he wouldn't support a big program like Build Back Better. I'll read it to you.

As inflation and our $30 trillion in national debt continue a historic climb, only in Washington, D.C. do people seem to think that spending trillions more of taxpayers' money will cure our problems let alone inflation.

What do you think of that logic?

GOOLSBEE: Well, I mean I think Build Back Later is largely dormant. It's build back later or build back never, you know, at this point. I wasn't a fan of evaluating the Build Back Better Policies by their impact on inflation because I think it was mostly irrelevant, up or down. Because it was almost entirely paid for and it was spread out over ten years. This is a matter that would be from things that aren't paid for and whatever happens in the next 12 months.

CAMEROTA: This is an aside. But just I wonder what you think. You know that big trucker blockade on the bridge between Michigan and Canada, that is impacting the supply chain. I mean, that's having a big impact. Do you think that is -- what do you think the impact of that is? I mean, People see it as a protest about vaccines but it seems as though the ripple effect is so much bigger in terms of the economy and jobs and everything.

GOOLSBEE: Yes, look, it could be bigger, you know. And people are going to have to drive around different ways. That's not unlike what happened in the ports that everyone knows about, though there's been some relief on that side.

But in an environment that we have been in where there was an unprecedented shift toward buying physical goods and not buying services. Because you couldn't spend money on that -- a bunch of services shut down because of the virus. The supply chain just could not handle such an increase in demand and 90 percent of what we buy, physical goods that we buy come here via ships and then they get put on trucks and trains. And so, if they block that, if they block a lot of the pinch points on the supply chain, you will see that show up. That's not in these numbers because these predate that. But the more you see of things like that, the more headache we're going to have for the coming months.

CAMEROTA: Austan Goolsbee thank you. I really appreciate getting your analysis.

GOOLSBEE: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: OK, so moments ago iconic hip-hop artists performing in the Super Bowl halftime show called out the NFL for not embracing the musical genre until now. We'll tell you what they said next.

[15:40:00]

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CAMEROTA: The musical megastars playing the Super Bowl halftime show are sending a message to the NFL. Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige and Snoop Dogg talked to reporters today and said it's long pastime for the NFL to have hip-hop center stage at the Super Bowl. CNN's Chloe Melas joins me with more. So, Chloe, does this tell us anything about what their performances will be like at the Super Bowl?

CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: Well, Alisyn, I'll tell you, Dr. Dre, Snoop and Mary J., they said that this is going to be unlike anything we all have ever seen and they're so happy that hip-hop is finally going to take center stage, and they really had strong words for the NFL saying that it's long overdue. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. DRE, RAP ARTIST: We're going to open more doors for hip-hop artists in the future and making sure the NFL understands that is what it should have been a long time ago. Hip-hop is the biggest music, the biggest genre of music on the planet right now. So, it's crazy that it took all of this and all of this time for us to be recognized, you know. So, I think we're going to go on and do a fantastic show and we're going to do it so big that they can't deny us any more in the future.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MELAS: Alisyn, if you look at the last ten years the performers at the Super Bowl halftime show, sure, you have had Missy Elliott, Travis Scott take the stage but not as the main performers. They have been guests of other performers, whether they're pop stars or rock musicians. But they have not ever had headliners from the hip-hop genre and that is what they are saying. And this comes in the midst of this racial reckoning within the NFL. And you know, when it comes to the Miami Dolphins, Brian Flores' lawsuit, and also when you look at Colin Kaepernick and all the things he has said over the past couple of years.

CAMEROTA: Yes, Dr. Dre makes such a good point. I mean, when you put it in that context, it does feel long overdue.

Let's talk about the news about Bob Saget today. So, his cause of death was finally revealed. And it's stunning. I mean, he had a head injury, his family says. And so, what do they want us to know? What's his family saying?

MELAS: Yes, so, Alisyn, I've looked at the autopsy report and the conclusion is, is that Bob Saget must have fallen backwards, hit his head, gone to bed and thought nothing of it. So, he died of blunt force head trauma but no foul play, no drugs, no alcohol in the system. I've seen the autopsy myself. The family has said, look, please remember Bob for the love, the laughter that he brought to this world, and they are happy that they have some sort of closure, but it's traumatic.

[15:45:02]

It's a sad situation, you know, to know that that is how he spent his final moments. Only 65 years old, and, otherwise in good health according to this autopsy report.

But, again, it's very reminiscent of Liam Neeson with his wife Natasha Richardson who tragically died after hitting her head during a ski accident. My own father had a subdural hematoma several years ago and luckily, he was OK and he didn't actually realize he had a brain bleed until several months later. You have to be so careful when it comes to brain injuries and, unfortunately, he was alone in that hotel room.

CAMEROTA: And I guess the lesson is just when you hit your head, get it checked out.

MELAS: Exactly.

CAMEROTA: Choe Melas, thank you very much for all of that.

MELAS: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Well, the freshman Republican Congresswoman from Georgia is making headlines again, this time for confusing the Nazi police with a cold soup.

[15:40:00]

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CAMEROTA: The Senate just passed one of the largest workplace reforms in decades. It will end the use of forced arbitration clauses for sexual harassment and assault claims. It means victims will be able to seek justice in court instead of undergoing closed, often secretive legal proceedings. According to lawmakers, more than 60 million Americans are currently

subjected to these arbitration clauses in employment contracts. This bipartisan bill already passed the House by an overwhelming majority and it is headed to President Biden for his signature.

All right, well, as you know, Marjorie Taylor Greene is a fan of Nazi analogies and this one, like so many of hers, went horribly wrong.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): Not only do we have the D.C. jail, which is the D.C. gulag but now we have Nancy Pelosi's gazpacho police spying on members of Congress, spying on the legislative work we do, spying on our staff and spying on American citizens that want to come talk to their representatives.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Yes, she said "gazpacho," a delicious cold soup. CNN politics reporter Chris Cillizza is here with more.

CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Sorry.

CAMEROTA: Chris, she owes an apology to gazpacho as I think we all.

CILLIZZA: It's delicious. It's chilled tomato soup, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: I know, I love it. I love it.

CILLIZZA: All right, let's go through. I think we have some full screens here that we can run.

Let's go through some of the reaction to this because it's worth doing. Let's say Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: At least she leads by example, she clearly banned all books from her house all years ago.

OK, yes, it's solid. So, let's keep going. Now, this is my favorite one. Mostly because I love Berman.

A police force that only handles cold cases.

The gazpacho, that's brilliant.

CAMEROTA: It is brilliant.

CILLIZZA: Judy Chu, Congresswoman from California.

The problem isn't that she doesn't know the difference between gazpacho and gestapo. The problem is that she doesn't know the difference between the holocaust and a public health campaign.

A little reference to COVID-19 there. Let's keep going.

It's Jose Andres. I love this one.

The gazpacho police was created by me in 1993 to make sure that no one will add Tabasco or jalapeno or strange things to my beloved soup!

And I think we have one last one. Republican Accountability Project, just to clear things up. Gazpacho, a vegetable based Spanish cold soup. Gestapo, Nazi Germany's secret police.

There were roughly one billion more tweets that we could have pulled from but we've narrowed it down to those. But Berman, congrats on that good one.

CAMEROTA: Now that's the perfect, perfect smattering.

CILLIZZA: He's funny.

CAMEROTA: He is funny. And she's unintentionally funny, constantly providing comedy gold. And I guess it would all be -- look, it is funny. But the problem is, hasn't she already vowed not to use Nazi analogies? Hasn't she already learned this teachable moment? Hasn't she already been sort of publicly revealed for someone who's constantly beating this sort of holocaust drum? And it never goes right. People are always offended, but she's back at it.

CILLIZZA: Yes. It's Q-tip, one of the rappers in "A Tribe Called Quest" has a great line where he says I really don't know, I guess I laugh to keep from crying. And I think this is a situation exactly what you're talking about, Alisyn. Which is she's done -- this isn't one -- a one off. She's done stuff like this over and over again. She said at times that she's sorry-ish. She said at other times that she's not. The thing that I think that is important to remember with her is see is on zero committees.

[15:55:00]

She was removed from Congressional committees just a few months after she came to Congress in 2021. So, there's just not a lot that she can do for her constituents.

This is whether you agree with her or disagree with her, her ability to influence her district, bring back money to her district, represent her constituents in her district is just very, very limited. By the fact that she has both during her time in Congress and prior to coming to Congress said and done lots and lots and lots of controversial things for which she has been banned from committees from. So, it's not just her popping off. I think it's more than that. She's not representing the people that she was sent to represent.

[15:55:00]

CAMEROTA: Yes, I hear you. I mean this isn't about legislation. This is about, I guess what, getting more dollars? Just getting more infamy. What?

CILLIZZA: Just more attention. I mean I think what you have to realize there's a new crop of politicians, particularly on the Republican side -- Marjorie Taylor Greene, Matt Gaetz, Madison Cawthorn. These are people who are primarily focused on getting media attention and getting on Fox. That is their win. It is not about working in committees. It is not about crafting legislation. It's not about any of that stuff.

CAMEROTA: Gotcha, Chris Cillizza, great to talk to you.

CILLIZZA: Thank you, good to see you.

CAMEROTA: You too. "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts after a short break.

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