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President Biden Urges Congress on Act on Gun Reform; Huge Air Travel Demand; Strong Jobs Report; Peter Navarro Indicted For Contempt of Congress. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired June 03, 2022 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:25]

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Hello on this Friday. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York.

A federal grand jury just indicted former Trump adviser Peter Navarro for contempt of Congress. It comes after Navarro refused to cooperate with the January 6 Select Committee's investigation. And we have just learned Navarro was arrested by the FBI earlier today and is in custody right now. He's set to appear in court now within the next 90 minutes.

I'm going to bring in CNN's Evan Perez and Paula Reid, who are following this story.

Evan, he's facing two counts. Lay them out for us.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Ana, two counts, one each for not appearing for his deposition and failing to -- and a second count for failing to turn over documents that the January 6 Committee had demanded that he turned over.

But one of the interesting things that happened today, not only obviously was this -- was he indicted by the grand jury, but this was initially -- prosecutors initially asked for this to be sealed, because they felt that there was a risk of either flight or for him to tamper with other witnesses.

We learned just a little while ago that what happened today was he was actually arrested by the FBI. In most of these cases, most cases like this, the FBI allows people to self-surrender to show up at the courthouse and surrender at the courthouse. In this case, Peter Navarro was arrested.

He lives just a couple of blocks away from FBI headquarters. And when I talked to him earlier this week, he was really angry that when they served him his subpoena from the U.S. attorney last week, that they knocked on his door. He said they pounded on his door early morning.

So this is -- shows you where Peter Navarro is right now in relation to the FBI, in relation to prosecutors. They're going to take this very, very seriously as this case proceeds.

CABRERA: Navarro was close to the president. He was a White House trade adviser.

Paula, remind us what information he may have and how we got to this place.

PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, back in February, he was subpoenaed by the House select committee. They wanted testimony and documents, not necessarily related to January 6 itself, but related to a plan that he allegedly was hatching with another Trump adviser, Steve Bannon, to delay the congressional certification of the election results.

Navarro actually wrote about this plan in a book that he recently published. He referred to it as the Green Bay Sweep. So when he refused to comply with that subpoena, the House select committee rightfully pointed out, well, look, if you will speak about this publicly, you will write about it in the book, why can't you come and answer questions from us?

Now, he repeatedly cited executive privilege, but the committee was skeptical about whether he had directly negotiated any privilege claims with former President Trump or his lawyers. In April, the House voted to refer him to the Justice Department for criminal contempt of Congress.

But it wasn't clear at that point if they were actually going to move on this. They have received several referrals like this for former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, for Steve Bannon, which they are moving ahead with the prosecution, and for another top Trump adviser, Dan Scavino.

But we got a sign that they were at least looking into it when, as Evan just reported, they knocked on Navarro's door last week, served him with a subpoena asking for documents related to his refusal to comply, related to any communications he had had with the former president.

It was clear the Justice Department was at least looking into this. And here we see he has now been indicted by a grand jury.

CABRERA: Evan, Navarro has tried to fight all of this. He actually went on offense at one point. He filed a civil suit against the committee.

Explain what that's about.

PEREZ: Yes, on Tuesday, Ana, he went -- he walked down to the courthouse personally to file his lawsuit that he said he himself had written, he had prepared himself. He was representing himself.

A judge very quickly slapped his wrist and said this is not the proper way to file this lawsuit. But in this lawsuit, he was largely just -- it was a meandering complaint about how he's being treated. He called the January 6 Committee a kangaroo committee.

I ran into him outside of the courthouse. Paula was on the phone with him at the time, actually. And one of the -- the focus of his complaints was really how the FBI pounded on his door last week to deliver the subpoena and how, essentially, if Republicans take over in the fall, he expects that Republicans will do to Democrats what the Democrats he says are doing to him right now -- Ana.

CABRERA: Paula, do you think more indictments against others are coming?

REID: The big question is, what is the Justice Department going to do about former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows?

The committee has expressed frustration that the Justice Department has not acted on that referral, but these are two very distinct individuals in terms of the strength of the case that they would be able to bring against either one.

With Peter Navarro, he was not chief of staff. He was a senior adviser at the White House, but not -- again, not the White House counsel, not chief of staff, does not enjoy some of the same protections. He also did not engage at all with the committee. He's not provided them with anything, whereas Mark Meadows did for a time cooperate, provided the committee with a lot of very valuable evidence, until he stopped.

[13:05:24]

So, at this point, it does not look like the Justice Department is going to pursue former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in the same way they have Steve Bannon and Peter Navarro.

CABRERA: OK, Paula Reid and Evan Perez, thank you both for your recording.

I want to bring in now CNN legal analyst Jennifer Rodgers, former federal prosecutor.

Jennifer, first, your reaction to this indictment?

JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it's important, Ana.

It's big news, because they have acted. DOJ now has acted on this referral and charged someone else with contempt of Congress, which is important. I think what Paula said about the distinction between this case and the Mark Meadows case is a big one for DOJ.

But they did go ahead and charge someone, despite that person having been part of the executive branch at the time of the events in question. So I think that's a big step forward, and has a lot to do with the fact that, of course, this was a complete thumbing of the nose at Congress here. I mean, Peter Navarro didn't even attempt to cooperate. He didn't even get himself a lawyer.

He didn't ask for extensions. He didn't file a privilege log. He did nothing. And that makes it fairly easy for DOJ to bring this case, and should impact, by the way, any cooperation that Navarro may decide to bring to this grand jury subpoena that he received from DOJ. That may now encourage him to not thumb his nose at that subpoena as well.

CABRERA: So you said it was a pretty easy case for them to bring against Navarro. How quickly then could it move?

RODGERS: I think it'll move fairly quickly. They have to have him, obviously, arraigned today. He will have a judge wheeled out. The judge will set the schedule for any motions and trial.

But these are fairly simple cases factually. So, like the Bannon case, which moved fairly quickly, especially given the court delays that are system-wide because of COVID, I would expect him to get a trial date certainly within the year, if not a few months from now.

CABRERA: OK. And, obviously, it's all relative when we're talking about how quickly justice works and the judicial system.

We know Bannon was indicted back in November, and his trial hasn't even happened yet. That's set for July 18. So, certainly, Navarro's would come later.

What is at stake if Navarro is convicted?

RODGERS: Well, these contempt cases are only for punishment. It has nothing to do with trying to force him to actually cooperate, to testify, to provide his documents.

This is punishment for his refusal to do so. But it does send a strong message of deterrence. Now that he's been charged, he's going to be in the justice system working his way through it as a criminal defendant. I think other people sit up and take notice of that. And as the committee continues its work, as DOJ continues its work in a criminal investigation of perhaps the January 6 events, I think people will think long and hard about whether they want to also thumb their noses at this process, because it could have serious results for them.

CABRERA: And we should note that prison time is one of the punishments here, up to a year behind bars.

Jennifer Rodgers, thank you very much for your expertise.

We turn now to Uvalde, Texas. Emotions are still extremely raw as we wait for that detailed report of what exactly happened inside the school. And there are more funerals today for victims of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary.

CNN has just obtained new documents detailing their injuries.

CNN's Nick Valencia is in Uvalde with more -- Nick.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Ana.

We just got our hands on these documents, which are inquest findings the local judge here in Uvalde county used to prepare the death certificates here. It's about 60 pages of documents detailing how these victims died, 20 of the 21 victims died, including the shooter.

In each case, the victims died of multiple gunshot wounds. From our count, at least two of the victims were cremated. These are very sad details to read and really underscore just how tragic of a situation those children were going through, knowing that several of them died from multiple gunshot wounds across their bodies -- Ana.

CABRERA: It's so, so horrific.

Thank you, Nick Valencia. And I know you're going to go through those documents and report out as you learn more.

We're going to talk a lot more about the president's calls for action in a few minutes as well.

There is some good news today on the economy. We're going to break down the numbers in just a moment.

Plus: Vladimir Putin thought his war on Ukraine would last just a few days. One hundred days later, losses on both sides are mounting. We're live and in Kyiv for you.

And it is a moment plenty of parents have been waiting for in this pandemic.

[13:10:00]

Vaccines for the very youngest children could be just days away.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: There's a new measure of the economy out today. And so now we know employers in the U.S. added 390,000 jobs last month. That's slightly better than expected. The unemployment rate holds steady at 3.6 percent.

Let's break this down more now with Jeanna Smialek, a Federal Reserve and economy reporter for "The New York Times," and CNN business reporter Matt Egan.

Matt, first, let's talk more about what else this report shines light on. What about the sectors that added jobs? What do we know about wage growth, et cetera?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Ana, first of all, nothing about today's report supports that idea of an imminent recession.

[13:15:02]

Remember that that was what was gripping financial markets earlier. That was just last month. People were really worried about imminent recession. No sign of that. The jobs market still look strong. We're seeing broad-based hiring a bunch of different sectors, leisure and hospitality, professional services, transportation and construction, all of them adding jobs.

Retail lost jobs, which we should keep an eye on. The unemployment rate remains at a COVID low of 3.6 percent. That is down dramatically from almost 15 percent in April 2020. But you got to remember we are in this weird moment where inflation is high and the jobs market has been overheating. It actually needs to cool off to get prices under control. Economists I'm talking to, they do see some signs of a healthy cooldown. They're noting the fact that payrolls have slowed down a bit. The unemployment rate has leveled out, 3.6 percent for the third month in a row. And this is a big one, wages. Wages remain hot at 5.2 percent year over year, but that is also slowing down.

You put it together, some economists they do grow a little bit more hopeful about the idea of a soft landing, where the Fed can tame inflation without causing a recession.

CABRERA: OK, let's get your thoughts on this, Jeanna.

When it comes to those recession fears, when it comes to inflation issues, are these numbers today good or bad?

JEANNA SMIALEK, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": You know, I think it's a challenging time to read these data.

But I would say this is maybe still a little too strong for comfort, if what you care about is bringing inflation down. I think, as Matt noted, we did see a nice slowdown in the headline jobs numbers, but it wasn't anything like the slowdown we were expecting; 390,000 is still a really big number.

For context, in the year before the pandemic started, a typical month, we would see 160,000 job gains. So we're still about more than twice that level. And I think...

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: But, Jeanna, explain why, for the average person who's not as into the financial expertise as you, why a lot more job gains aren't necessarily a good thing?

SMIALEK: Right. It's so counterintuitive, and it just sort of underscores what an unusual moment we are in, in this economy right now.

It really all boils down to inflation. So when you see really strong job gains, that tends to mean that the labor market remains really hot, that employers are trying very hard to hire workers. And they're likely to be raising wages to do that. As they're raising wages, as that sort of strong growth persists, it's likely to sort of feed into prices.

And so, in order to bring prices down a little bit, the Federal Reserve and the White House and all these economic policymakers are really hoping to see some moderation in the pace of job increases. That doesn't mean no job growth, and it doesn't necessarily mean a big increase in unemployment.

But what it does mean is sort of a slowdown from what is really a breakneck pace of progress right now.

CABRERA: OK, Matt, news this week that OPEC is going to increase oil supply more than expected. That sounds like good news. Does that mean gas prices will drop?

EGAN: Unfortunately, probably not.

In fact, oil prices are trading higher right now than they were before OPEC announced this.

CABRERA: Why?

EGAN: It's because the message from the market is that this just isn't enough, that the problems caused by the war in Ukraine have set off so many disruptions in the energy market that maybe not even OPEC can solve this problem.

And that means, unfortunately, gas prices may stay high or even go higher, the national average, $4.76 a gallon, that's a fresh record, up 56 cents in the past month alone. It's 35 percent more expensive to fill up your tank than it was on the day before Russia invaded Ukraine.

And we need to watch what happens next very closely, because Moody's economist Mark Zandi, he told me today he's actually getting more optimistic about the economy. But the one catch, he said, is oil. He said, if oil goes to $150 a barrel, all bets are off, because that would mean that we probably are going into a recession.

CABRERA: So we will watch that oil price number.

Meantime, Jeanna, prices aren't the only thing rising. Any relief in sight for rising food prices?

SMIALEK: I think we're probably sort of still seeing the beginning of that story, rather than the end of that story.

Food prices are seriously being impacted by the war in Ukraine. That is obviously persisting. And so that is likely to remain a challenge. And we're likely to continue to see some of the moves up we have seen at a global stage feed through into U.S. numbers in the months ahead.

So it is going to be a tough time at the grocery store and at the pump for American consumers.

CABRERA: Don't shoot the messengers. We're just the messengers here.

But thanks for helping us make sense of this, Jeanna.

And, Matt, the richest man in the world today signaling he has worries about where things are headed in the economy. And he plans to take action, right?

EGAN: That's right, Elon Musk.

And we are hearing from CEOs. Earlier this week, it was Jamie Dimon with an economic warning. Now it's the Tesla CEO.

In this e-mail, Musk, according to Reuters, he wrote that he has a -- quote -- "super bad feeling" about the economy. I think that's a technical term.

(LAUGHTER)

EGAN: And he said that he wants to cut about 10 percent of Tesla's work force. That is a big deal.

[13:20:01]

And this actually came up during the president's press conference. And he was asked about this. President Biden was. And President Biden pointed out that, while Tesla might be talking about layoffs, other companies are adding jobs. He talked about how Ford and how Chrysler and Intel are actually hiring people.

He also pointed out that those are union jobs, and Tesla's are not. And the president also had this interesting remark where he said, lots of luck on his trip to the moon, referring to Elon Musk in his SpaceX adventure. I think his message might have been to sort of stay in your lane to Elon Musk, but a lot of back and forth we're seeing between political leaders and business leaders who are getting concerned about the economy,

CABRERA: Matt Egan and Jeanna Smialek, thank you both so much.

The tight labor market is putting the squeeze on the travel industry, and airlines are battling staff shortages that we saw force thousands of flight cancellations over the Memorial Day weekend.

CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean joins us now from Reagan National Airport outside Washington.

Pete, what can we expect this summer when it comes to traveling?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, remember that airlines received $50 billion in pandemic aid over the -- from the federal government.

But airlines got a lot smaller over the pandemic in terms of their work forces. Now they're really being put to the test because people are packing back into planes. Look at the numbers from the TSA. It's been screening about two million people at airports nationwide for the last few days. These numbers are about 87 percent of where we were back in 2019, before the pandemic.

They could go even higher. But look at the cancellation numbers. Bad weather hit the East Coast just yesterday, 1,600 flights canceled nationwide yesterday, according to FlightAware, about 600 flights so far today.

Wanted to visit American Airlines and see how they're fighting this off. They're hoping to avoid cancellations as the summer goes on. I went to their integrated operations center in Dallas. We actually saw a thunderstorm pop up over America's largest hub in Dallas.

They're adding staff, trying to make sure that this is not a problem. And I want you to listen now to what they say. They say they're not totally out of the weeds just yet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: How confident are you that this summer will be a smooth one when it comes to travel?

DAVID SEYMOUR, COO, AMERICAN AIRLINES: I'm confident. I think that my team is confident. But we're not overconfident.

We know that we're going to have to work each and every day to deliver a reliable operation. But we're committed to doing that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: Remember that airlines did get smaller over the pandemic, but the latest data from the federal government says air transportation, that sector, grew by about 5.7 percent over the month of April.

We will see, Ana, whether or not that is enough to try and avoid these cancellations as summer travel is just getting now ramped up.

CABRERA: Fingers crossed.

Pete Muntean, thank you, sir.

Congress, your move. The president is calling for lawmakers to take action against gun violence, but will they budge?

We will see.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:27:56]

CABRERA: In a televised address last night following three weeks of repeated mass shootings with dozens of innocent Americans killed, President Biden laid out what he thinks could help reduce gun violence and specifically mass shootings.

First, he's calling on Congress to ban assault-style weapons. Here's why. These firearms have been the weapon of choice in nine of the 10 deadliest mass shootings in the last 10 years. Now, the gun lobby said the idea of a ban is based on these guns only looking scarier than other guns.

But an AR-15-style rifle shoots bullets more rapidly, meaning it can strike more people in less time. And it shoots ammunition at a much higher velocity, making the injuries much more catastrophic.

One doctor says the bullet causes a ripple wave of destruction to arteries, veins and soft tissues. Organs that experience high-velocity gun injury are left eviscerated. That is why some parents in Uvalde had to identify their children by DNA.

The president says, if there's not an outright ban on those assault- style weapons, at least raise the age to purchase them to 21. Here are the facts. And follow me here. From 1949 to 2017, just two of the deadliest mass shootings involved gunman younger than 21, according to "The New York Times," those two, Columbine and Sandy Hook.

But since 2018, we have seen a shift. The majority of the deadliest mass shootings in the last few years have been carried out by people who were 21 or younger. President Biden also called for stronger background checks. "The New York Times" found that, through 2019, three out of every four mass shooters used a gun that was purchased legally, meaning too many people are getting access to weapons who shouldn't be.

And keep in mind legally doesn't always mean the gunman passed a background check. Buying from a gun show, no check needed. Private seller, usually no check needed.

The president also wants a national red flag law to get guns out of the hands of the people deemed an immediate danger. The research on states with red flag laws indicates they have averted suicides. They have contributed to a decrease in intimate partner homicides.