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1/6 Committee Subpoenas Secret Service For Missing Text Messages; Atlanta-Area D.A. Warns G.A. GOP Chair He Could Be Indicted In Probe; Biden Heads Back To U.S. After Meeting With Key Leaders; Truckers, Who Transport 70 Percent Of Good In U.S., Struggling Amid Inflation, High Gas Prices; Inflation Hits Highest Level In 40-Plus Years, With Highest Gas Prices & Rising Mortgage Rates; U.S. Seeing Major Spike In Monkeypox Cases. Aired 1-2p ET

Aired July 16, 2022 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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WHITFIELD: All right. Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me this Saturday, I'm Fredricka Whitfield. All right. The U.S. Secret Service is pledging to respond swiftly to a subpoena from the January 6 Committee. The House Committee probing the insurrection issued that subpoena to the Secret Service on Friday for text messages sent on January 5th and 6th of 2021. This comes after the Homeland Security's inspector general accused the Secret Service of erasing those texts after his office requested them.

The Secret Service denies deleting any texts maliciously. CNN's Katelyn Polantz joining us now. So Katelyn, what more can you tell us?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, Fred, this story has been really fast moving. It's only 72 hours or so since we first learned that there was a problem at the Secret Service where text messages from January 5th and 6th on agents' phones were erased or lost because of some sort of data migration tech process that that agency had ongoing around the 6th, this pivotal event.

But here's the story of how this played out over the past couple of days. So the Department of Homeland Security inspector general, a watchdog that would look into issues that the Secret Service related to January 6 was frustrated about not being able to get information from them in this investigation. And that included that the I.G. learning that there were erased text messages. This I.G. at DHS notified Capitol Hill three days ago that this was a problem. That is how the public and the news organizations covering the story first learned about it. And then the inspector general went and briefed all nine members of the House Select Committee yesterday. The members emerged from that briefing, quite concerned about what they learned because they still believe that there are very many unanswered questions here. Here's Representative Zoe Lofgren yesterday after that briefing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ZOE LOFGREN (D-CA): The Secret Service was aware that this was one of the signature events of our country, and that there would be a need to preserve all of the evidence because of that. And also, there's an obligation for federal agencies to retain records.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POLANTZ: So, the House Select Committee has been looking into the Secret Service, has been wanting information out of them. And Lofgren there mentioned this need for agencies to keep records of their business. That's what led to this subpoena late last night from the House Select Committee. They're asking now for the text messages at issue here, the ones that may be erased and any after-action reports. Things that could explain what may have happened here.

We did get a statement from the Secret Service chief of communications this morning. He said that the committee has had our full and unwavering cooperation in their investigation. That does not change. We have voluntarily provided dozens of hours of formal testimony from special agents and over 790,000 unredacted e-mails, radio transmissions, operational and planning records.

We plan to continue that cooperation by responding swiftly to the committee's subpoena. So we'll have to be watching to see what the Secret Service does do to respond, what they turn over and what else the House Select Committee does learn out of that agency about what happened around the president leading up to and on January 6. Something they're keenly interested in. Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right. Katelyn Polantz, thank you so much. And a Georgia County district attorney has told the state Republican Party Chairman that he could be indicted as part of her investigation into Trump and his allies efforts to overturn the 2020 election. CNN's Sara Murray has details.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: The investigation into Donald Trump and his allies' efforts to overturn the 2020 election in Georgia appears to be escalating. We are learning that David Shafer who is the chairman of the Georgia Republican Party received what is known as a target letter. This is essentially a letter saying you are now considered a target in this investigation. You could perhaps face an indictment.

Now this is interesting because it's the first target letter we are learning of in this case. So the first time that she has worn someone that we know of that they may face an indictment. It's also interesting because Schaefer had been cooperating with prosecutors. He was under the impression. He was a witness in this investigation. He's someone who served as a pro-Trump elector, a fake elector.

He worked with the Trump campaign to sort of organize this fake slate of electors. People around him and said he was talking publicly about it at the time that. It was only in case Donald Trump somehow won one of his court challenges but it's very clear from this letter that he could face some legal exposure.

[13:05:08]

What's not clear is if he is actually going to be indicted, or if this is somehow a warning because the district attorney wants something else from him. But we can see it clearly she is chugging ahead with her investigation down in Georgia. Back to you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Sara Murray. Thanks so much. All right. Joining us now to talk more about all this Michael Moore. He is a former U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia and current partner at Moore Hall in Atlanta. Michael, good to see you.

MICHAEL MOORE, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY, MIDDLE DISTRICT OF GEORGIA: It's good to see. Love to be with you.

WHITFIELD: OK. So, legally speaking, how big of a deal are these target letters warning of possible indictments?

MOORE: Well, I mean, I'm glad to be with you today. Let me tell you. Target letters themselves are sort of routine. And they're a matter of course, as you're investigating a case and you have somebody who may in fact find themselves on the wrong side of the versus mark in an indictment. I really think that the problem here for the Fulton County D.A. is that she's -- she might be given the argument to the defendants or the potential defendants that this is in fact, political.

And, you know, realize that we're in the middle of a special grand jury, a grand jury that does not have the power to indict anyway. And so, you know, my question for the night she's prepared another grand jury, is she -- is there one going oh, we don't know about, has there been something else, it's that -- she has actually prepared an indictment to present. But there are some politics play too.

And some of the people that she's identified. We're coming up on an election season. There'll be arguments that, you know, she might be a favorite of one candidate. And she's looking at maybe now announcing that she might charge somebody else this. This puts it into a real mess. And I think the morass, and what happens when you -- when you fish, were too big and that is you often get tangled up in.

And that may be what we're seeing here. This investigation went from something that was fairly streamlined to something now that maybe overcomplicating itself and causing problems down the road for her.

WHITFIELD: Interesting. But then you say like this type of target letter is customary. So, what are the conditions in which you want to execute that as opposed to just waiting until you have all the goods, you know, to actually indict someone?

MOORE: You typically send a target letter if your investigation is moving forward, and you think there might be evidence that would implicate someone in the grand jury or to actually become a defendant as opposed to a witness. But you also generally do not call people who will claim the faith who've been told, you've been advised by counsel that they're going to take the fifth and then anyway which any competent lawyer would do.

What's a target letters issued to the client, right? I mean, you're not going to put them in there and let them go under oath, left and right, you'd say, well, fine, you know, prove the case. We'll fight another day. But right now we're going to take the 5th. You don't typically bring them in, in front of the grand jury and make them take the fifth question my question, you know, in that scenario. He or she might serve an overbroad statement saying, yes, well, we may be investigating Lindsey Graham.

We may be looking at the GOP people. We may be looking at Trump and may be looking at this. So, there's this number of people who are out there that she might get good information from about what happened, actually, as it related to the vote and Brad Raffensperger. But yet, we're finding people who are -- who are all now being identified as targets. They may have had good information. Now, she has the ability to offer immunity, use immunity.

She can do things like that as we go forward. But it complicates the process and drags the process out. It means negotiation limitations on what testimony may come in. And that's, you know, that's the issue for her if she goes forward.

WHITFIELD: Do you see any advantages to casting the net wide, so that perhaps you do end up getting more cooperative witnesses who are willing to reveal share more information, especially as you're trying to pursue the bigger fish?

MOORE: Well, I think she had information at the front end of the case where she could have looked at the bigger fish. I mean, we had a tape recording of a phone call, which by all accounts is sort of what's the basis of this claim. And that is an attempt to influence the election here. That to me would have been a case that you could have just put into a regular grand jury. And you could have asked him, you know, you sandwiched in between a carjacking case and a drug case.

And you put the former president in the middle of that. You said you asked the grand jury, do you want to indict him or not based on this information? When you cast it big, when you -- when you cast a broad net, you also expose yourself to different legal arguments to different delays, to defenses, to challenges up to the appellate court system. I'm not -- again, she knows what she has and I'm not going to armchair quarterback everything that she's doing because I haven't seen all that evidence.

But I do think sometimes there's a value to sort of the keeping it simple method, especially when you were talking about charges that involve a former president for conduct that occurred while he was president of the United States. And so that to me, has to be considered as you think about which way to go and whatever else you want to put forward. Again, I --she's a good lawyer, the good people there -- I just think that there are now -- we're now getting to the area where you're going to hear potential target said.

[13:10:05]

But wait a minute, why is she telling me I'm a target all over the newspaper here and every news channel in the state of Georgia. And I'm a candidate, and she's supporting somebody else. And that that is, I think, probably something that was (INAUDIBLE) to do at this point.

WHITFIELD: All right. Let me shift gears a bit now. Let's talk about, you know, the January 6 House Committee and now a subpoena of the U.S. Secret Service, you know, these mysterious messages where they go, you know, for January 5th and 6th. What -- which direction do you see this House Committee being able to go with this subpoena?

MOORE: I think -- I think the fact that the text messages were erased is indefensible. And my guess is whoever made that call and Secret Services go find themselves stationed at an outpost somewhere, you know, in Alaska and some place. Because it -- there's absolutely no reason at all. And this would be like having, you know, the photographer, the photo journalist raising their camera after Pearl Harbor. I mean, there's absolutely no way --

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: Yes. Why would you not protect data for any kind of migrating of a system.

MOORE: That's exactly right. And so, this idea that somehow we're in the, you know, we're in a bureaucracy that where we change out our cell phones, or we migrate this, and we change that or upgrade it, nobody in their right mind especially at that level of government had any expectation that this was going to be anything other than extraordinary and spectacular in its scope.

And so, you know, the fact that you bring somebody in and they may testify, that's fine. But that's a lot different than being able to look at a screen and say a direct order or direct command from somebody who may have been closer to the -- to the inner circle there, you know, don't do this, do this. Let these people in, we know this is happening. But don't say that. These are things that you can't replicate.

I mean, it's -- and that's why written evidence is so important in a trial. So, I'm not at all surprised if the committee is upset by it, I would be. And I'm not upset. I'm not surprised that the OIG is upset by it.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

MOORE: And so, this is something that's going to have to be answered, it's a speed bump for the committee because they do have other witnesses, they do have other evidence, they have a lot of photographs. But this could have been important corroborating testimony that they've now won't have access to and are going to have to rely on the memories of these agents. And let me tell you what the argument is about memories. And that is that memories fade over time.

WHITFIELD: Yes.

MOORE: We hear that in every (INAUDIBLE) so somebody's going to say, well, they don't remember exactly. But, you know, this is what we think it was.

WHITFIELD: Right. Unless some of these texts derived from elsewhere, and there are still possibility to retrieve some of those. But that's part of the big mystery. Right? Michael Moore.

MOORE: Right.

WHITFIELD: Thank you so much. Good to see you. Appreciate it.

MOORE: Glad to be with you. Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Coming up. A desperate search for a missing college student. He was last seen over a week ago. And now his family is pleading for help. We'll bring you details next.

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[13:17:04]

WHITFIELD: All right. This search continues for college student who disappeared over a week ago. Jimmy Jay Lee was last seen leaving an apartment complex near the University of Mississippi on July 8th. Nadia Romero is following the developments for us. So, are they getting any clues? And what are the family members now saying?

NADIA ROMERO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. The family is distraught. We've heard from his father, from his sister very upset. Just want him to be found. But we know that this is very much an active police investigation. So, Oxford police says that they have executed some dozen search warrants on physical and digital assets. So you think digital, think about they found his laptop and iPad.

They're able to go through that. See who he was communicating with, who was in some of the photos on his social media. Try to get an idea of his life. The people he knew, the people he was connected with and to put together a timeline as well as they go through his car that has been recovered now that is now at the Mississippi State Crime Lab looking for forensics evidence like fingerprints or DNA.

His or someone else's who may have been in the car. And all of this is happening in a very small area in Oxford, Mississippi near the campus of Ole Miss. So you'll see at the bottom of your screen, campus walk apartments. That is where Jimmy Jay Lee was last seen last Friday morning, headed out and then his car was gross recovered on Monday morning there at Molly Barr Trails. A different apartment complex.

Police believe he was on his way there to meet someone. But we don't have a clear timeline. Did he stop somewhere along the way, was even driving his car when it showed up at that second apartment complex. We just don't know. And that uncertainty has his family pleading for answers. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAMIE LEE SR., FATHER OF MISSING STUDENT: I'm asking that if anyone knows anything or sees anything, say something, call, contact the law enforcement. Just tell them what you know. This is my plea that you have find my child.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMERPO: And this has been so emotional and so hard for that family looking for Jimmy Jay Lee. Fred, this has also impacted the campus community so much so that the university sent out a statement to their students telling them if you need support services, you just need to talk to someone. Here's a list -- a list of resources. Wow.

WHITFIELD: Well, I hope -- we're all hoping that someone knows something and leads to this young man. Thank you so much, Nadia Romero.

All right, coming up. President Biden trying to turn the page on U.S.- Saudi relations. And reassert the US leadership role in the Middle East. We're live in Saudi Arabia next.

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[13:24:06]

WHITFIELD: All right. President Biden is heading back to Washington after spending his last day in the Middle East meeting with Arab leaders and laying out his strategy for building alliances there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Let me say clearly, that the United States is going to remain an active engaged partner in the Middle East. As the world grows more competitive and the challenges we face more complex is only becoming clear to me that how closely interwoven America's interests are with the successes of the Middle East. We will not walk away and leave a vacuum to be filled by China, Russia or Iran.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: The president is facing harsh criticism for his controversial meeting with the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman who was believed to be behind the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. And given the Crown Prince, right there, that fist bump when they greeted each other.

[13:25:03]

CNN's Phil Mattingly is in Jeddah for the president's trip. All right. So Phil, how was the trip being seen for Biden, from the White House perspective.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You know, when you talk -- Fred, when you talk to White House officials, they make clear that today was a very critical moment. The president using those remarks to really lay out a multi-step new strategic framework for the region. A very dynamic region. A region that has changed dramatically, just in the time since Biden was vice president and one that has been very concerned over the course of the first 18 months about the U.S. role or at least how the U.S. perceives its role in the region.

Biden making clear the U.S. is engaged, will continue to be engaged and believes both diplomatically and through the alliances they can help as that region continues to transition. And it's an interesting point when you listen to how the president frame this is not allowing a vacuum for China, the lens through which Biden sees so much of his foreign policy right now or Russia to be able to fill.

That is exactly what they've seen start to happen over the course of the last several months and something that they're moving very quickly to blunt, both on the policy side of things, but also through those alliances. And it also underscores the rationale, perhaps more than any other for the decision to -- in the cold shoulder of the Saudi crown prince and have that meeting with them.

Fred, what does officials knew? They were going to face fierce criticism, they knew the picture of the fist bump was not going to go away anytime soon, it would likely be an indelible and historic image. However, they calculated strategically that the long-term gains they can have from maintaining a relationship with Saudi Arabia was worth more than the very real short term criticism.

The president obviously brought up human rights behind closed doors and that the meeting reiterated that moment after the meeting. And again today, U.S. officials, while they look at things certainly through the idea of the necessity of more oil, that is part of the relationship here. There's a broader context. And that was the context the president laid out today before he left for Washington. Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right, Phil Mattingly, thank you so much. All right. Among those most critical of President Biden's meeting with the crown prince was Jamal Khashoggi's former fiancee who called the visit to Saudi Arabia heartbreaking and warned that Biden could end up with blood on his hands. This was the president's response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I'm sorry if she feels that way. I was straightforward back then. I was straightforward today. What I -- this is a meeting not -- I didn't come here to meet with the crown prince. I came here to meet with the GCC and nine nations to deal with the security and the needs of the free world and particularly the United States and not leave a vacuum here which was happening as it has in other parts of the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Khashoggi's former newspaper, The Washington Post issued a statement that called Biden's fist bump in Saudi Arabia, shameful, and saying it gave the crown prince the unwarranted redemption that he has been seeking. Joining me right now is Mohammed Alyahya. He is a senior fellow with Hudson Institute and he's also a fellow at the Belfer Center's Middle East initiative at the Harvard Kennedy School. So good to see you.

So I wonder, in your view, you know, why was that --

(CROSSTALK)

MOHAMMED ALYAHYA, SENIOR FELLOW, HUDSON INSTITUTE: Thank you for having me.

WHITFIELD: You know, absolutely. Why was that photo op of the fist bump and the meeting with the crown prince so important inside Saudi Arabia?

ALYAHYA: Well, because the past couple of years, I think, I saw a lot of turmoil in terms of the relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia. Many young people in the country, hundreds of thousands in fact went to school in the United States. They spent their formative years in the United States and they look back on those memories in a very warm way. Over the past three years, the relationship has probably been at its slowest, despite, you know, other episodes where strain has occurred.

And that photo, I think, marked the beginning of a reset in relations and turning of a page of sorts.

WHITFIELD: Do you think it was planned on the part of Saudi Arabia that they were hoping a moment like this could be created and resonate the way it did?

ALYAHYA: I don't know, frankly. I mean, I saw the video, it didn't seem planned, it seemed, you know, very quick and haphazard.

WHITFIELD: All right. President Biden, he framed his decision to meet with the crown prince as a decision about the future. He says, I wasn't here to meet with, you know, the crown prince, I'm here to meet with the GCC. Is the brutal murder of Khashoggi in your view, now going to fade? I mean, globally and particularly for the family of Khashoggi, they want accountability coming from Saudi Arabia.

[13:30:00]

But does that moment, the fist bump, there kind of meeting and summit, does it now diminish the importance of Saudi Arabia claiming responsibility, being held accountable for the murder of Khashoggi?

ALYAHYA: Right. I think people in the United States and perhaps elsewhere in the world and in Europe, for example, underestimate the extent to which people in Saudi Arabia were outraged by the murder of Jamal Khashoggi.

This is not something that is commonplace in Saudi Arabia. It is not part of Saudi tradition. It is something that really took the country by storm. People were shocked by it.

And it had a very -- a very powerful impact on people inside of the country. So, you know, the trial that occurred happened at a quick rate.

And Saudi officials have always been quick to send messages of reassurance that nothing like this could ever happen again. And so it is a matter of time before a certain recovery from something as gruesome of that were to happen.

And another thing that people tend to overlook outside of Saudi Arabia is the extent to which the reforms have changed people's lives. Young women could now seek education and find jobs and travel, all without the permission of male guardians.

So when you look at people's lives and how their affected on a day-to- day basis, there are reforms happening in the country that have changed their lives.

And that is not something that is reflected or properly explained if the Western press in the last few years.

WHITFIELD: Still on the issue of Khashoggi, President Biden said he raised the issue of Khashoggi's murder with the crown prince at the top of his meeting.

You spoke with an official present at that meeting. And what was the interpretation from them?

ALYAHYA: So, yes, at the beginning of the meeting. this was mentioned from the official that I spoke to, the crown prince and Biden that there was a full trial prosecuted and people that were held accountable. Their sentences have been implemented.

But then they moved on to discuss, you know, issues that are more forward-looking, to the future, which is the feature of the summit that happened the day after.

Dwelling on the issues of the past wasn't the theme of the summit that happened. It was undergoing a massive transformation. And there are two models in the region and a model in Iran and Saudi Arabia.

And in Iran, the model utilized backwards reactionary to crush the aspirations of young people. Whereas in Saudi Arabia, the United Emirates and other gulf countries, it the exact opposite.

It is the power and energy of young people that is being drawn on by authorities in those countries to -- to crush these backwards reactions that has happened in the region and abroad.

So essentially, this summit was about the future. And the question for the United States and other actors around the world is which model should the rest of the West invest? And I think the answer is clear.

And I think that is something that is shared by the U.S. leadership that was present at that meeting after meeting the gulf country's plus Egypt and Jordan.

WHITFIELD: Mohammed Alyahya, thank you so much. Appreciate you joining us.

All right. They are the Americans who deliver goods across the country, every single day. Our nation's truckers, the men and women who have a very unique perspective on just how badly inflation is hitting our country.

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[13:37:57]

WHITFIELD: All right, in the U.S., just about everything that gets delivered arrives on a truck. And trucks, of course, run on diesel, which is skyrocketing in price. And that means our nation's truckers know all too well just how hard inflation is hitting the country.

Here is CNN's Ryan Young.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just off I-80 in Iowa, it's hard to miss. Park festival, park convention, park job fair, it's the largest gathering of American Truck drivers in the country.

Drivers here are telling us they are facing challenge after challenge from loss of friends to COVID to supply chain shortages to higher and higher fuel prices, yet they continue to deliver for the American consumer.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's been tough, especially now with the fuel prices the way they are.

YOUNG: Diesel prices have risen more than 50 percent so far this year.

SCOTT ANDERSON, TRUCK DRIVER: You know, you can't expect the people and keep paying and paying and paying. They're going to run out of money eventually. Then what you are going to do?

YOUNG: Prices are going up across the board. And many truckers here said orders are getting canceled and demand is slowing.

For some, the outlook for the next few months is grim.

RALPH BANKS, OWNER, ROADWORKS CUSTOM: I think there's a fear out there that that is being placed. We got to figure out a way to get these fuel prices back and get back to business.

YOUNG (on camera): And the economic impact of these big rigs is tremendous. You think about almost 72 percent of all goods in this country are moved by truck. And that has a real ripple effect. It's about $12.7 trillion dollars of goods move throughout this country by truck alone.

BILL ABBOTT, IOWA TRUCK JAMBOREE ATTENDEE: I can't say I can blame one person for it all.

YOUNG (voice-over): Bill Abbott owns a farm and travels across the country with his vintage truck to shows like this one. He believes change is needed.

ABBOTT: It takes a leader that can grab the bull by the horns. But the economy is such now, we need a leader that's going to grab the bull by the balls.

I've never seen anything like it. Before I've used to my savings, I made money. We went on trips and I didn't spend much. Now, I'm spending a lot and I'm losing back all my savings.

[13:40:00]

YOUNG: There's also a can-do attitude that reverberates all around here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just keep right on going.

YOUNG: Jerry and Adam Wurzer own a small company that makes products for semi-trucks, and they say there's no choice but to push through the tough times.

ADAM WURZER, CO-OWNER, IOWA CUSTOMS: People especially around here they, you know, just because times get tough, they still work hard and they still fight their way out of the hole and they keep going.

YOUNG (voice-over): The Biden administration says it sees and hears the plight of truckers and is aware of the driver shortage and plans to help make it easier for those wanting to get their commercial driver's license while also hoping to address concerns ranging from poor road conditions to wait times at delivery points.

For some, they say that can't happen soon enough.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The other administration wasn't like this. Was that a false economy? No, I think maybe this is. Hopefully, things will cycle out. Don't know.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

WHITFIELD: Ryan Young, thank you so much.

All right, well, let's talk about the housing market because it, too, is suffering as inflation rises.

Joining us right now, is senior economist and manager of economic research for realtor.com, George Ratiu.

So good to see you.

GEORGE RATIU, SENIOR ECONOMIST & MANAGER OF ECONOMIC RESEARCH, REALTOR.COM: Good to see you, Fredricka, as well.

WHITFIELD: All right. So customarily, summer is buying season for real estate, is it the best time to be buying a new home in the current economic climate?

RATIU: Fredricka, that is a question on top of the minds of many Americans. Especially this summer, as you pointed out, the peak of home buying activity as people feel hemmed in from all sides by rising inflation and high interest rates, rent and home prices at record high.

From my perspective, looking at the data, realtor.com, we're seeing the market is already changing.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: In what way?

RATIU: The summers market is already different from the feverish hyper-competitive pace of 2021.

Number one, we have more homeowners putting their homes for sale, really ready to move forward with the pandemic delayed plans and take advantage of course of the high prices.

On the other hand, the demand is cooling. Think about the fact that interest rates have surged over 200 basis points since last year. That is brought the payment for a medium-priced home from $2,000 from $1,300 a year ago.

That combination is showing up in market dynamics. Homes are spread spending longer on the market and we're seeing price cuts return.

And, in fact, in June, 50 percent of listings across the country had price reductions. That share was only 7 percent a year ago.

WHITFIELD: Wow. So what does this tell you then long-term?

I mean, If people are wanting or needing to put their homes on the market, they are not going to get the price that they wanted to, they're having to reduce the prices, and you just said that means real estate is staying on the market longer?

I guess this sounds good if you're the buyer. But certainly not if you're the seller.

RATIU: I think that the market remains in -- right now in a good position for both.

On one hand sellers are still in good position. The one thing that I urge and remind home sellers is that today's market is not the same as six months ago. Buyers expect to have contingency and they expect negotiations.

And let's remember, a healthy mark just four or five years ago had a lot of that going on. So we're just seeing a return to that.

For buyers, I would say this is a good time to take a look at your finances and number two your plans. Do you want to be in your home in the neighborhood for at least five years? Locking in a fixed rate could be a good way to hedge against inflation.

On the other hand, if you are younger, you might move. It might pay off to wait and have patience and see the markets change in the local neighborhood where you're looking to buy.

WHITFIELD: And then we didn't even talk about for renters. Because in so many parts of the country, rents have just soared. And exorbitantly.

So if you're a renter and not in a position to buy a home, what are the options, what is the advice that you give to renters who could anticipate then their rents to go up?

RATIU: So, rents have certainly gone up by a strong pace. The good news, for me, is we've actually seen a tapering of the strong rents of growth. Rents are moderating.

So looking forward, as see new construction come online and some vacancies, which are extremely tight begin to abate, I do see in the next six to eight months the rent of marketing improve.

However, I'll say for the time being, it is going to be a hot summer, both literally and figuratively, as a lot of expenses are putting the squeeze on so many Americans.

[13:45:03]

WHITFIELD: Wow.

All right. George Ratiu, a pleasure. Thank you so much for being with us.

RATIU: Thank you, Fredricka. Good to be with you.

WHITFIELD: All right. And supply is quickly outpacing demand for the monkeypox vaccine. The U.S. saw a big spike in cases just this week. Everything you need to know about the disease is next.

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[13:50:07]

WHITFIELD: All right, it you didn't buy a Mega-Millions lottery ticket yesterday, no worries. You still have a chance to strike it rich potentially. There were no winners in last night's $480 million jackpot drawing.

The next one is Tuesday and will now be an estimated $530 million pot. Lottery officials say what makes next week's drawing so spectacular, it'll the eighth largest Mega-Millions jackpot.

All right, the U.S. is seeing a major spike in monkeypox with nearly 1,500 cases showing up in 42 states. And this week, the administration announced a plan to deliver 700,000 vaccine doses to help stem the outbreak.

Here is CNN's Sanjay Gupta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATT FORD, HAD MONKEYPOX: It started off with just a few lesions. I got intense flu-like symptoms. As the flu-like symptom abated, the lesions will, A, more of them start to appear, and, B, they became, at worst, excruciatingly painful and at best mildly irritating.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Knowing exactly what it feels like to have monkeypox, Matt Ford has taken to social media to now warn people about the virus.

FORD: This (EXPLETIVE DELETED) sucks and you don't want it.

I've got these on my arms.

GUPTA: But now his frustration is that even as awareness grows, those who need it might have a hard time finding a vaccine.

FORD: Supply is so low that there's not that much to go around.

GUPTA: Since May, the number of cases in the United States has continued to grow quickly. But the two-dose Jynneos monkeypox vaccine has been rolling out slowly.

DR. DAVID HOLLAND, CHIEF CLINICAL OFFICER, FULTON COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH: We got an allotment of 200 vaccines. And the appointments for that went in about an hour and a half.

GUPTA: New York City Mayor Eric Adams has reached out to the White House to underscore his state's unmet demand.

The two doses are usually given four weeks apart, but Mayor Adams wants the White House to consider a longer interval in between the doses so more first doses could be administered immediately.

Right now, the CDC recommends the vaccine for high-risk individuals, people who have been diagnosed with or exposed to monkeypox and people who are at higher risk of being exposed to monkeypox. That means not for the general population's prevention.

DR. CARLOS DEL RIO, EXECUTIVE ASSOCIATE DEAN, EMORY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: The problem is, we simply don't have enough vaccine. So we're trying to play catch-up. We need to get vaccination to people because we know that it -- you know, vaccinating people may not necessarily prevent the infection, but it will certainly decrease the severity of the disease.

GUPTA: The CDC estimates this vaccine is at least 85 percent effective. Giving it within four days of exposure is best to prevent the onset of disease. And even if given within 14 days of exposure, it may still reduce the symptoms.

GUPTA (on camera): I'm looking at something that I've never seen before as a doctor.

I want to introduce you to Kori (ph). She's 22 years old. And what she has is an active case of monkeypox.

GUPTA (voice-over): But this is not necessarily what monkeypox always looks like.

For Matt Ford, the lesions started smaller and not as obvious.

FORD: I maybe would have suspected that they were like the herpes simplex virus or some other skin condition.

GUPTA: Right now, public health officials are sounding the loudest alarms in the LGBTQ community. That's due to most cases being reported in men who have sex with men.

But experts warn the outbreak could still expand.

DEL RIO: It's very reminiscent of the early days of HIV, right, in which it was impacting, you know, men have sex with men, the gay community in the United States.

And it's almost like the general public were not paying attention. And then HIV became a disease that affected other people. It affected everybody. And then all of a sudden people got interested.

GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And still ahead, more than half the U.S. population lives in a county with high enough COVID levels that the CDC would recommend indoor masking. Will they be mandated again? We'll discuss, next.

But first, today's "SMART SMALL, THINK BIG."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHELLE HUIE, VIM & VIGR: I was doing pharmaceutical sales, driving in my car for hours on end throughout Montana and Idaho, and just noticed my legs were really tired and achy at the end of the day.

I talked to a friend and he's like, you should wear compression socks. The only thing I could find were these nude-colored compression socks or really athletic. They didn't fit my sense of style. I thought other people must have a need for stylish compression stocks.

What I'm doing now with Vim & Vigr is we will elevate fabrics and designs and creating something that came be work every day in a mainstream way.

Compression socks help increase circulation in the legs. There's tons of benefits for people who sit for long periods of time. But with Covid and more people working from home, noticing more of those types of customers, who want to be more proactive with their health but notice they're not moving around that much during the day.

[13:55:07] All of our products are listed with the Food and Drug Administration. They're technically a medical device. To date, we've sold probably 1.2 million pairs.

Since the pandemic, we gave about $200,000 worth of Vim & Vigr compression socks to frontline workers.

Our customers sometimes have to wear them, sometimes they want to wear them. But bottom line is they want to show them off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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