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White House Cautiously Optimistic as Gas Prices Fall for 34 Straight Days; Amos Hochstein, State Department Senior Adviser for Global Energy Security, Discusses Gas Prices, Biden's Saudi Trip; Russia's Campaign of Long-Distance Violence with Missiles, Rockets; Woman Wakes Up After 2-Year Coma, Names Attacker. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired July 18, 2022 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[13:32:27]
ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Americans are finally experiencing some moderate relief at the gas pump. The price of a gallon has gone down 34 days in a row.
The national average is currently at $4.52 a gallon. Still high, yes, but we are beginning to hear an optimistic refrain from the Biden administration about a $4 future.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIAN DEESE, DIRECTOR, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: We should continue to see retail gas prices at the pump fall through the rest of the month. And hopefully, we'll get down closer to that $4 a gallon number nationwide.
AMOS HOCHSTEIN, SENIOR ADVISER FOR GLOBAL ENERGY SECURITY, U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT: I expect it to come down more towards $4. And we already have many gas stations around the country that are below $4.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CABRERA: I'm joined now by that key Biden energy adviser you just saw, State Department senior adviser for global energy security, Amos Hochstein.
Thanks so much, Amos, for coming in.
For perspective, a year ago, we were averaging $3.17 a gallon. So is that a realistic expectation for us? Is $4 as good as it gets?
HOCHSTEIN: Well, first, thank you for having me. It's good to be here in person.
Look, last year was before we had a war in Ukraine, before the amassing of troops, and including the third-largest oil producer, Russia, as a player in a war. So clearly we have come through some very difficult times in the energy markets as a result of that. And the president took a lot of steps over the last six months to alleviate the price. And to do that, we have to bring down the price of oil itself.
Just a month ago, oil prices were over $120 a barrel. That was before we announced our trip to the Middle East. Today, prices are at about $100, $101 a barrel so that's a 20 percent drop.
The president put a lot of pressure on the refineries, on the companies, on the gas stations to say, when the oil prices go down, make the gasoline at the pump go down as fast as the oil prices have come down. And so that's what we've seen.
I'll tell you, you're right, the average is about $4.52, so 50 cents lower than it was a few weeks ago. But most Americans, the most common price today in America is already below $4.
And I expect that to go down a little bit further as a result of the actions that we're taking.
CABRERA: How quickly will we see, I guess, what could become the low?
HOCHSTEIN: That's very difficult to tell. I don't want to make a prediction on dates.
We're going to continue to take action. That is to make sure that in the United States there's enough production of resources so we have enough oil on the market.
[13:34:59]
That our allies around the world are doing what they have to do, producers around the world do what they have to do and meet the responsibility of a producer during a time of war in Europe.
And then to make sure that domestically that we have gasoline prices that reflect those true prices and to bring them down as much as we can.
Look at the steps that we've taken already. The president has released a million barrels a day from the Strategic Petroleum Oil Reserve. That's the most anyone has ever done.
And we've done that in order to give breathing room to the industry, to bring that up.
But we're holding the industry accountable. We've sent them a letter, we've met with them, we've told them we want them to bring down these prices. So far that's working.
Now, we have to do some things on the domestic side inside the United States. But you can't just do that. You have to act internationally as well --
CABRERA: Right.
HOCHSTEIN: -- with producers and our allies.
CABRERA: And so before we talk about the international piece there, I do want to just follow up, though.
Because there are some energy analysts who believe that gas prices could start going back up come the fall. Even around the midterms, which would be bad timing politically for the Biden administration and for Democrats in particular.
But I just wonder what makes you confident those gas prices are going to keep going down?
HOCHSTEIN: Well, I don't make prediction long term of where things are going. I never know what's going to happen in the world and in the market.
We're going to keep doing -- the president wants us to keep doing whatever we can to, on a day-to-day basis, make sure that there's prices that are lower and lower for the American consumer.
While taking the fight to Putin and making sure he doesn't have the revenues to execute a war of more horrific consequences in Ukraine. We have to do both of those things at the same time.
Our confidence comes from the fact that I think our -- the work that the president is doing internationally, combined with the work that he's doing domestically, I think, is answering that need. That's why we're seeing these low prices.
Just remember, Ana, just a few weeks ago, we had banks in the United States predicting gas prices would go to $6 this summer and $7. They were predicting $300 or $180 for oil this summer or the end of the year.
Now those same analysts are saying, well, prices are down but they're going to go up later. It's always trying to scare the American public.
Instead, let's just focus on the achievements that we have made as a country and be more confident with where we're going.
And $4 is not good enough --
CABRERA: Yes.
HOCHSTEIN: -- but it's a lot better than where it was a few weeks ago.
CABRERA: It is. It is better.
You were just with the president in Saudi Arabia where he had that meeting with the crown prince, MbS. I know oil and energy prices and supply specifically was on the agenda to talk about.
Did the president walk away with any new promises from Saudi Arabia when it comes to all things energy?
HOCHSTEIN: Look, the trip was about a lot of things. This was a very strategically important trip to make sure we don't leave a vacuum in the Middle East for China and Russia to come into the Middle East.
This was a trip that achieved -- we took a historic flight just arriving in Saudi Arabia, where the president was the first president to fly directly from Israel to Saudi Arabia. That has never been done.
Announcing the opening of the skies to Israeli aircraft over Saudi Arabia has never been done before.
And importantly, that a cease-fire in Yemen after seven years and thousands of people dying -- this is the longest cease-fire we've seen -- and announcing that the Saudis agreed to extend that.
So these are really important issues as we confront a nuclear Iran even.
But clearly in an energy crisis that we're facing in Europe, high prices in the United States and a war in Europe that Russia -- since the invasion of Russia in Ukraine, clearly energy comes up in these conversations.
And before the president even agreed, announced his trip to Saudi Arabia and to the Middle East, days before, a week or two before, we saw OPEC already then taking a critical step for the first time in nine months to change their attitude --
CABRERA: Right.
HOCHSTEIN: -- and to say we're going to increase production.
CABRERA: Right. And they have.
HOCHSTEIN: And they have.
CABRERA: They were going to increase for July and August.
HOCHSTEIN: That's right.
CABRERA: But that's why I'm wondering if that meeting pushed things forward, not from what they already said, but did he secure any new promises?
HOCHSTEIN: I think as -- we met with Saudi Arabia, we met with the gulf countries. We didn't meet with OPEC. Let's give it a few weeks and see in a few -- over the next several weeks and months.
I believe that we have a common understanding now between the president of the United States and producers in OPEC that we have to make sure that the U.S. and the global economy has enough oil to supply us with what we need, to make sure the global economy continues to grow and the U.S. economy continues to grow.
I believe that we have reached those understandings. And I think that I have every confidence that we'll see actions taken over the next several weeks and months that are now in accordance.
And that's why we have to do this kind of work. Sometimes it's very difficult but we've got to do this work. It doesn't always yield results on the same day or the day after, but it does yield results.
CABRERA: I appreciate you coming in, thank you so much --
HOCHSTEIN: Glad to be here.
CABRERA: -- Amos Hochstein. Good to have you here. I hope we can continue the conversation.
[13:39:57]
A major political shakeup in the Ukrainian government. President Zelenskyy suspends two key officials while their staff members are being investigated for collaborating with the enemy, Russia. That's next.
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[13:45:00]
CABRERA: Now to a concerning trend. COVID-19 hospitalizations are back to levels we last saw in March. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the number of hospitalizations has surpassed 40,000 for the first time in four months.
And the number of COVID-19 deaths is also expected to rise. The CDC predicts we will see an average of 403 deaths per day over the next four weeks.
More than half of the U.S. population now lives in a zone with a high community COVID level. You see the red there all over the map. The CDC does recommend indoor masking in all of those areas.
Dozens of members of Ukraine's intelligence agency and the prosecutor's office are under investigation, accused of treason and collaborating with Russia. President Zelenskyy has suspended the heads of those agencies to prevent them from interfering with the investigation.
Meanwhile, on the eastern front, the shelling is relentless.
Here's CNN's senior international correspondent, Ivan Watson.
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(SIREN)
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IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Russia is raining rockets and missiles down on Ukrainian cities --
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WATSON: -- a campaign of long-distance violence carried out daily.
In just the last week, the Russian military hurled deadly weapons at Dnipro, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Odessa, Vinnytsia, and many cities and towns in between.
The July 14 h strike on the central city of Vinnytsia took place mid- morning on a Thursday. The attack killed at least 24 people, including children, and wounded many more.
But the Russian military is also firing near-daily salvos at places like the frontline city of Mykolaiv.
(on camera): Scenes like this are becoming common place across Ukraine. And the reality is, any time, any place, a deadly Russian missile could come crashing into your building.
(voice-over): The governor here accuses the Russian military of firing repurposed S-300 surface-to-air missiles at his city.
VITALII KIM, MYKOLAIV REGION, UKRAINE GOVERNOR: It's terrorism. And that's it. Because this is like a strategy of Russian to scare civilian people to make panic.
WATSON: In recent days, missiles hit a hotel, a hospital, two universities, and this elementary school.
DUCHANA (ph), DEPUTY PRINCIPAL: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
WATSON (on camera): (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
DUCHANA (ph): (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
WATSON: Duchana (ph), who's the deputy principal here, she says that this part of the school was actually built more than a century ago. Look what's left of it.
(GUNFIRE)
(voice-over): The missile war is different from the furious artillery duels --
(GUNFIRE)
WATSON: -- being fought along front lines. Because the missile strikes hit far from zones of active combat, in communities like the Southern port city of Odessa, that can otherwise sometimes feel relatively safe.
There was no obvious sign of a Ukrainian military presence at the National University of Ship Building in Mykolaiv, targeted by at least four missiles on Friday.
OLEG OBRYOKHA, MYKOLAIV RESIDENT: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)
WATSON: "If they want to scare us with terrorism, it won't work," this resident says. "Some people will leave for their safety," he adds, "but those who are ready to sacrifice everything for the defense of our country will stay."
(GUNFIRE) WATSON: Ukraine is carrying out its own devastating long-distance strikes with the help of long-range weapons systems provided by the U.S. and other Western allies.
Repeatedly pounding what Kyiv claims was a Russian ammunition depot in the Russian-occupied town of Nova Kakhovka this month, an attack that Moscow claimed killed at least six and wounded many more.
Those lucky to survive left to pick up the pieces, victims of a vicious war with no end in sight.
Ivan Watson, CNN, Mykolaiv, Ukraine.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[13:48:59]
CABRERA: All right. After spending the last two years in a coma, police say the victim of a vicious attack is finally awake and has identified the person who tried to kill her. This unbelievable story is next.
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[13:53:40]
CABRERA: Two years after police say she was attacked, hacked, and left for dead, a West Virginia woman suddenly woke up from a coma and identified the man who tried to kill her. She says it was her own brother.
CNN's Jean Casarez is following the developments.
Jean, this woman, Wanda Palmer, apparently still can't speak in full sentences. How did she identify her attacker?
JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That is the story. It really is. And let's start at the beginning. Because it was two years ago, Wanda Palmer is home -- she's on her sofa, she's just
sitting there, an attacker came in and started to -- blunt force trauma. They believe it was a hatchet or an ax. They've never found this weapon. But just absolutely took her unaware.
When law enforcement finally arrived, she was just bloody. They thought she was dead. But then somebody noticed this shallow breathing.
So law enforcement summoned the emergency medical professionals. They take her to the hospital, she's alive.
But they had nothing to go on. They didn't have eyewitnesses or phone records or surveillance videos, nothing. One person said she thought they saw her brother on the porch, but that was it.
And Wanda was in a coma. For two years she's been in this coma. Two weeks ago, the care facility called law enforcement and said she woke up after two years.
[13:55:04]
Law enforcement went there. They spoke with her. And there's the answer to your question. She cannot give long sentences. But she told law enforcement in answer to a yes-or-no question that it was her brother, that her brother was the attacker.
Now there's her brother, Daniel Palmer III. He has been arrested, charged with attempted murder, malicious beating of her. He is held on $500,000 bail.
I just got off the phone with the clerk's office. He does not have an attorney because he's refusing to sign the paperwork -- Ana?
CABRERA: Wow. There's so much about the story that's really unbelievable.
Jean Casarez, thank you for your reporting.
That does it for me today. I'll see you back here tomorrow, same time and place as always. Until then, you can follow me on Twitter, @AnaCabrera.
The news continues with Victor and Alisyn right after this.
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