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Fed Hikes Interest Rates For First Time Since 2018; Biden Demands Faster Drop In Gas Prices As Oil Tumbles; Zelenskyy Delivers Direct Appeal To American Lawmakers; Ohio Pastor Travels To Poland/Ukraine Border To Search For 2 Women He Considers Surrogate Daughters. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired March 16, 2022 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[14:34:05]
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: So the Federal Reserve just raised interest rates for the first time since 2018. The quarter of a percent increase marks the end of the Fed's near-zero rates seen during the height of the pandemic.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Let's discuss now with CNN business reporter, Matt Egan, and CNN economic and political commentator, Catherine Rampell.
Matt, you first.
Talk about this decision.
MATT EGAN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: We know inflation is on fire. And the good news is, as of 2:00 p.m. today, the firefighters has arrived on the scene to try to put this blaze out.
The bad news though is that it feels like they're pretty late. Inflation has been really hot for a while now and it's going in the wrong direction.
And the further that inflation gets away from healthy levels, the harder the Fed has to work to try to get it under control.
I mean, by raising rates, they are effectively slowing down the economy. Rates are still low, but they're not as low as they just were, and so they are taking away support for the economy.
[14:35:03]
And I think the question right now is whether or not they're moving with enough urgency, given how hot inflation is right now, 40-year high for consumer prices.
They're signaling they're going to have to raise rates a lot more times. Six more types this year. Raising rates next year as well.
A lot is riding on whether or not they get this right. CAMEROTA: So, Catherine, what's your take? And what does it mean for
all of our pocketbooks?
CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN ECONOMIC & POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think the challenge the Fed has is they want to slow down economic activity just enough to get inflation under control but not so much it topples us into a recession.
Historically, they haven't been able to do the one without the other. It's really challenging goal for them.
So that's part of the reason why, as Matt points out, they've been really cautious about raising rates, probably too cautious, given where inflation is right now.
This was a baby step. This was telegraphed a really long time ago. In fact, interest rates are still ultra, ultra-low. Very expansionary. So this is not going to make a big dent probably either on inflation or on economic activity.
But the real question is, how does the Fed respond in the months ahead, particularly given these enormous shocks we've seen recently because of the Russian/Ukraine war and also because of a lot of lockdowns in China.
BLACKWELL: Matt, can we talk about oil prices and gas prices? Price of oil coming down. Gas prices not as quickly. The president wants to see those gas prices come down.
Is there some correlation or is it just not how this works?
EGAN: It is how it works. But the timing is the key here.
BLACKWELL: OK.
EGAN: The president is pointing out that consumers experience the impact of higher gasoline prices really quickly when oil spikes. Goes up like a rock, gas price, but comes down like a feather.
So the president had tweeted about that this morning, saying that, listen, oil prices have come down. Gas prices need to do the same thing.
And what's interesting is that, in the last eight days, we've seen oil prices go up by more than -- sorry -- come down by more than 20 percent, and yet gasoline prices have actually gone up a little bit.
Now energy experts I've talked to say that's going to change. We should see the national average come down 20, 25 cents a gallon, but it's going to take some time.
I think the fact that the president is tweeting about sort of the intricacies of how energy markets work really says a lot about how closely they are following gas prices, how much frustration they have with this energy issue. And also how important this is to inflation because, the longer that gas prices stay high, the worst it's going to make inflation look in March.
CAMEROTA: All right, Matt Egan, Catherine Rampell, thank you --
BLACKWELL: Thank you.
CAMEROTA: -- very much.
BLACKWELL: There was bipartisan praise of President Zelenskyy's historic speech to Congress, lawmakers on both side of the aisle.
The U.S. has more work, they say, to ensure Ukraine's safety, but there's a divide on how to do that. We'll get into it, next.
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[14:42:34]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: President Zelenskyy issued a plea to Washington this morning and called on the U.S. to strengthen its response to Russia's invasion in Ukraine.
His speech got an enthusiastic response from U.S. lawmakers.
CNN's Manu Raju is on Capitol Hill.
What are you hearing from lawmakers after the president spoke?
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there's been bipartisan praise for what President Zelenskyy said to Congress and also support for the Ukrainian cause against the Russian aggression.
But there's been a division and debate about exactly what policy measures to take.
One on the no-fly zone that he call for, both Republicans and Democrats alike mostly oppose that idea.
And there's a debate between the two parties about the calls to facilitate the transfer of Soviet-era fighter jets over to Ukraine.
The administration has been opposed to going that route. And most Democrats still oppose that idea even after Zelenskyy's appeal.
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SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): Do they not have enough pilots, parts? Maybe they can't get fuel in the planes. Maybe they don't have enough weapons to load onto the aircraft. So that's the big question I have.
And right now, without that information, to take a third of the Polish fighter force and give it to Ukraine, to the Ukraine with no guarantee that they're going to increase their sortie rate, it doesn't seem like right now the right decision. SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): The Ukrainian Air Force still has, in public
disclosure, 54 planes. Some of this is about who controls the air space. I think the much more effective tools right now, anti-tank, anti-aircraft missiles, the Stingers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
RAJU: It's unclear what other action Congress will take in the aftermath of approving $14 billion in aid that was just enacted yesterday.
There were some calls for sanctions that Zelenskyy made to Congress. But a lot of that can be done administratively. So where the Congress needs to act is an open question.
There's discussion though, Anderson, about revoking Russia's trade status. That's something that President Biden announced his support for, as well as imposing that oil embargo on any Russian energy imports.
But additional actions, that's still a debate here on Capitol Hill, as members now are getting briefed on the House side of the capitol, learning more about what Zelenskyy is asking for -- it's going to happen later on the Senate side -- is that it shapes Washington's response to this crisis -- Anderson?
[14:45:00]
COOPER: Manu Raju, appreciate it. Thank so much for the quick reaction.
Let's go back to Victor and Alisyn.
Obviously, there's a lot of desire on the ground here in all parts of Ukraine for as much weaponry as they can possibly get.
Even some of the volunteers in the city, who we've seen training over the last couple of days, you know, a lot of them are trying to buy guns on the open market if they can afford it.
And even those who do have weapon, it's often old ones, and it's hard finding ammunition for them.
CAMEROTA: Yes. We'll see what the appetite is on Capitol Hill for all of that.
Anderson, thank you. We'll check back with you.
So there's this Ohio pastor who traveled to the Poland/Ukraine border last week in a desperate search for his surrogate daughters. We'll tell you what he found, next.
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[14:50:23] BLACKWELL: A Cleveland-area pastor risked his life to travel to Ukraine to find and rescue two young women he calls his surrogates daughters.
CAMEROTA: Trevor Littleton is the pastor of First Church of Christ in Painesville. He was able to locate one of them and safely get her into Poland. His desperate search continues for the second young woman.
And Pastor Littleton joins us now.
Pastor, thank you so much for being here.
You and your wife have nine children, five of whom are adopted from Ukraine.
TREVOR LITTLETON, PASTOR, FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, PAINESVILLE, OHIO: Yes.
CAMEROTA: You also care about their extended family. You have other foster kids who have spent summers in a program with you.
So tells us what happened. A week ago -- I mean, when war began, you panicked obviously. And then what happened?
LITTLETON: Right. So we speak to these girls nearly daily. Really, it's all the time. Obviously, there's a time difference but we speak to them all the time.
When there were rumors of war coming, we would ask them, are you planning on leaving? And they've lived there for quite some time. So when it happened, it was a little alarming. And it was still that nature of, what do we do?
One of the girls lived in Lviv, which is on the western side of Ukraine. The other one, Nastya, she lives in Mariupol where we've lost contact with her for about the last few weeks.
But for the first few days of the war, she would message us and tell us how you're doing. We asked, please send us pictures, we love you. We really tried to communicate this.
Slowly, her messages became more grim, more distant, few and further between, until finally, we lost contact.
BLACKWELL: I know you're still looking for Nastya.
I want to ask about Dasha, who I see the pictures here --
LITTLETON: Yes
BLACKWELL: -- of you hugging. You got her to Poland.
LITTLETON: Yes, yes.
BLACKWELL: As I read from your conversations with our producers, you didn't have an up-to-date passport at the time. How did you pull this off?
LITTLETON: No.
OK, so we had finished our adoptions years ago so we never really had a need to update our passports.
When everything started going down, we were encouraging Dasha, if you can make your way toward the Polish border, I will meet you at the border.
I went to book my plane ticket and then realized my passport was out of date. So I did an overnight trip to Little Rock, Arkansas, to update my passport and then back home.
Then, once I had that in my possession, I was able to book our date. I actually even got a more expedited flight to Poland. It was a crazy week.
But, yes, we had to just up and the first available. I think there were planes in Little Rock, Denver, Honolulu. We were willing to travel anywhere to get this expedited passport so I could go over and see her and make sure she's safe.
CAMEROTA: Pastor, Pastor, your story is incredible. You're saying meet me at the border. That's not the corner of Maple and Elm. That's like chaos.
Somehow you were able to find her. That's remarkable to me that you went on this odyssey and you actually found her.
LITTLETON: Yes. Yes.
CAMEROTA: But I do want to get back to --
LITTLETON: Thank you.
CAMEROTA: -- Nastya, who is missing in Mariupol. And I'm sure you're sick with worry --
Yes.
CAMEROTA: -- because Mariupol has obviously been under bombardment.
When you say you were getting these texts, I have one I can read and share with our viewers.
LITTLETON: Yes.
CAMEROTA: She sends to you, she says, "To be honest, it's very hard because you don't know where to sit, where to go, where to run. I don't sleep well at night. I have almost no sleep. I have nightmares. And I can't video chat because I need silence to understand what's happening outside."
That really captures, I think, the terror.
LITTLETON: Yes. It does. We had tried to communicate with her and we wanted to see if she was OK.
She explained to us she was living in her closet. She's petite. She can fit in there. She had canisters of water. She had one supply run of groceries with her and her backpack.
She explained that, if she needed the flee, she could flee quickly by grabbing her backpack and water and just go.
Her apartment is owned by the orphanage. Part of the issue for Nastya is that the children age out at age 16. When they age out, if they don't have place to go and live, the orphanage owns some apartments that they can go and live.
She was in an orphanage-owned apartment relatively close to the orphanage. She was there trying to be safe.
The proximity to the orphanage wasn't good. We know the orphanage suffered some damage as well.
The sad reality of it was really when the orphanage had taken some children and evacuated. Everybody knows the orphanage is the place to go if your parents are gone or if there's something happening.
We did hear reports before we lost communication with our friends in Mariupol that many children fled to the orphanage looking for help, looking for an adult to help them because their parents were missing as a result of the war.
[14:55:02]
So it was just a lot of confusion. So Nastya in the middle of this and she's stuck in her closet, and if she has to flee. That was the last conversation we had with her.
CAMEROTA: Pastor, we're worried about her as well. Please let us know --
LITTLETON: OK.
CAMEROTA: -- when you reestablish contact with her. We know this is really hard for your family.
Thanks so much for sharing your pictures and --
LITTLETON: We will.
CAMEROTA: -- and your story.
LITTLETON: Thank you.
We're just hoping for a visa so we can bring these girls home.
CAMEROTA: Yes. I understand that. And we'll keep asking those questions as well.
BLACKWELL: Thanks, Pastor. CAMEROTA: Pastor Littleton, thank you.
LITTLETON: Thank you. I appreciate it.
BLACKWELL: The first Ukrainian-born member of Congress was visibly emotional as the images of war were put on display during President Zelenskyy's speech. He joins us to talk about what more the U.S. can do to help other Ukrainians.
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