Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Nicole Hits Florida; Key Inflation Data Released; McCarthy Says He has the Votes; Russia Observed Preparing for Test; Biden Heads to Climate Meeting. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired November 10, 2022 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Can certainly feel that this is far from over.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, a lot of homes there in danger on the coastline.

Chad, I imagine, we don't see them often in November because the water is not warm enough to generate this kind of stuff, but there's that point, but where do we expect it to hit next?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it's still going to hit Florida for a long time, but we're getting flooding in Charleston from this right now. And that's a long way from where the storm is.

And Leyla really hit on an important part. Our coverage of Ian and especially the aftermath focused on Ft. Myers, Sanibel, and all of those places that got devastated there. But the east coast dunes and beaches were completely eroded as well with the onshore flow. Even though Ian tracked this way, there was so much onshore flow, it ate away at those dunes, at that beach. And so now what we're seeing with these high tides, almost six feet above where they should have been for a time, went down a little bit at high tide, only three feet above high tide, but that eroded the buildings, that eroded a lot. And we know of a lot of structural damage that is there.

Winds are still gusting to 52 in Daytona, even 43 over there in Tampa. Surge warnings going on here. We know there's about eight to eight and a half feet in Charleston. Now, not above the roads, but certainly on the roads in much of Charleston. That happens when you get an east wind and a high tide.

There we just had the full moon. That means that these high tides are larger than they would be at other times of the month. And there's Cocoa Beach at 59-mile-per-hour wind gusts there.

So, it's a large area of wind. Everywhere that you see yellow here, that is still tropical storm force winds. Those numbers go down, the size goes down as the storm decreases in intensity tonight.

And eventually it even hooks up with this cold front and gets shoved back out to the ocean. But there's going to be a lot of rain and wind. And there are still leaves on the trees across parts of the deep south. And with winds of 35 or 40, some of those trees could come down. We could have power outages through the Carolinas, through Georgia and even on up toward the northeast.

It does eventually get out of here. Three to four inches of rainfall possible. That's good for the water that gets into the Ohio River because that will eventually get into the Mississippi. But many areas here don't need any more rainfall. The Carolinas and Georgia does.

But 60 miles per hour right now. The storm did decrease from a landfall of 75.

Guys.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Oh. Leyla, Chad, appreciate it. Thank you both.

SCIUTTO: All right, some news, good news, it seems, on prices. Key inflation data just released shows that inflation cooled more than expected as consumer prices in the U.S. rose 7.7 percent in the most recent period. Markets here in the U.S. are just opening and, boy, they're up 800 points, nearly 3 percent.

HILL: That is a - that is a nice thing to see on your Thursday eve morning. CNN's Thursday eve -- Friday eve.

CNN's Matt Egan following this closely for us. Tough to keep track on an election week.

So, when we look at that inflation number, Matt, what's the takeaway there?

MATT EGAN, CNN BUSINESS AND ECONOMY REPORTER: Well, this is a big relief. I mean inflation isn't gone but it's cooling off, perhaps more than we expected. Month-over-month prices up by 0.4 percent. That was flat. It was actually supposed to get worse. So that is the good -

HILL: That's a good thing.

EGAN: It's a good thing.

Year over year, 7.7 percent increase in prices. You know, at any other point in the last four decades, this would be an alarming, terrible number. But we're, obviously, not in normal times. This is actually a nine-month low and is a big improvement from the 9 percent inflation that we saw over the summer.

Within the realm of what was possible, this is probably about as good as we could have hoped for. None of this means sticker shock is gone, right? People are still feeling these price hikes. We still see big year over year price increases in gasoline, food, rent. But there also has been some improvement, right? Month-over-month we saw prices decline for apparel, used cars, airlines, medical care. That is all encouraging. Now, Wall Street, as you mentioned, is loving this news. You know,

within seconds of this number coming out, Dow futures spiked 600 points, up almost 800 points, 2.4 percent right now. The Nasdaq is up more than 4 percent. An even bigger move over there. These are pretty significant moves. And I think it reflects optimism. Some hope on Wall Street that maybe the Federal Reserve can stop slamming the brakes on the economy with these monster interest rates. Which, you know, of course are raising the risk of recession and it's also raising borrowing costs for all of us, right?

HILL: Yes.

EGAN: Mortgage rates at 20-year highs. The credit card rates just hit an all-time high. All of that is creating some real pain on main street.

I would caution, though, this is one month.

HILL: Right.

EGAN: The Fed is going to want to see multiple months of consistent improvement before they back off from these rate hikes. But, still, this is a step in the right direction.

HILL: Yes. It is interesting too that among the items you highlighted, used cars, which we saw skyrocket, of course, during the pandemic, and airline tickets, too, which have been really high, a lot of folks looking at that as the holidays come up. So interesting those two that went down.

Matt, appreciate it. Thank you.

EGAN: Thanks, Erica.

Thanks, Jim,

HILL: Still to come here, Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy just needs Republicans to win nine more House seats for him to possibly become speaker.

[09:35:05]

How he's trying to lock down that position, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy saying he now has the votes to win the House majority and, therefore, to become speaker.

HILL: CNN's Melanie Zanona is on Capitol Hill with more here.

So, Melanie, we still don't have a clear answer on who will take control of Congress, but McCarthy isn't wasting any time in his preparations.

[09:40:05] MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: No, that's right. Kevin McCarthy has launched an aggressive campaign to lock down the votes for speaker. I'm told that he has been working the phones ever since yesterday, calling members, asking for their support, making the argument that he is on the verge of delivering them the majority, that Republicans have picked up seats under his watch two cycles in a row. And he's also been hearing from potential holdouts and critics, hearing what their demands are, listening to them, but not making any promises just yet.

I'm also told that he tapped a team of allies to help fan out across the party and make these calls and try to whip the support for the speakership. And we also have seen him meeting with both allies and potential critics in his Capitol Hill office here. That includes Marjorie Taylor Greene, someone who has been critical of him in the past. She did not say leaving the meeting whether she would support him for speaker, but sources tell me that there are about two dozen members of the pro-Trump House Freedom Caucus who are threatening to vote against McCarthy. They say that they have some leverage here with a slimer than expected majority and they want to extract concessions from Kevin McCarthy in exchange for their speaker vote. And the things that they are demanding are everything from more representation on committees, more power, those -- promises related to investigations and impeachment.

So, we'll see what Kevin McCarthy agrees to. Like I said, he's in listening mode right now. Some of his allies are saying that they're reluctant about the idea of him giving in to these demands because it's a slippery slope. But Kevin McCarthy might have no choice in the matter if he wants to become speaker.

Erica. Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes. The House Freedom Caucus has made those demands before. He's refused. Does he have the votes to refuse this time? Melanie Zanona, on Capitol Hill, thanks so much.

Still ahead, new, exclusive CNN reporting on Russia's latest military moves. The U.S. observed a potential test of a new nuclear-powered torpedo, preparations for such a test. What I'm learning from a senior U.S. official and why they believe Russia may have run into some technical difficulties. That's coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:46:29]

SCIUTTO: Now, a CNN exclusive. The U.S. observed Russian naval vessels preparing for a possible test of a new nuclear-powered torpedo in recent weeks a senior official with direct knowledge tells me. Among the vessels that took part in those preparations was the Belgorod. It's a cruise missile submarine modified for special operations, including launching unmanned, underwater vehicles. That includes the Poseidon torpedo, as it's known, seen here. It is a nuclear-powered, unmanned, underwater vehicle capable of carrying both conventional and nuclear munitions with a nuclear propulsion system that gives it virtually limitless range.

In the last week, those Russian vessels observed leaving the testing area in the arctic sea heading back to port without carrying out a test. The U.S. believes the Russians may have encountered technical difficulties.

Joining me now to discuss this and other Russia/Ukraine news, retired Major General Mark Hertling, former commanding general of the U.S. Army Europe and the Seventh Army.

General, good to have you on.

MAJOR GEN. MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good to be with you, Jim. It's interesting items we're talking about this morning, isn't it?

SCIUTTO: No question. This nuclear torpedo, or really underwater unmanned vehicle here, it's something that Putin himself touted in his state of the union address in 2018. How significant a weapon is this and how significant, in your view, that they wanted, it seems, to carry out a test here but weren't able to?

HERTLING: Yes, well, it's - it's -- we're calling it the Poseidon.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HERTLING: The Russians call it and NATO calls it the status six. As you've been showing pictures, it's about four feet in diameter, about 14 feet long. But, interestingly enough, it has the capability to go literally a couple of thousand miles, first at a slow pace, then at a larger pace - or a faster pace, I'm sorry. It is designed to loiter off of major cities and carry a thermonuclear weapon.

SCIUTTO: Jesus.

HERTLING: Now, what I think we're hearing from the intelligence community is seeing this being loaded up on that Belgorod class submarine tells me that it was part of the nuclear exercise that Russia so transparently advertised over the last couple of weeks. Coming back into port again, they may just be transporting it, see what it was like, part of an exercise. Right now I don't think I would put anything more into it than that. It's not like Russia, in my view, is preparing for a nuclear strike.

SCIUTTO: Understood. And that's to be clear here. A test, very different from a nuclear strike. And we want to be clear about that.

Let's talk about - and, by the way, a test without a nuclear detonation device attached to it.

Let's talk about the battlefield now in Ukraine. Russian forces significantly withdrawing from Kherson, the only provincial capital that they were able to capture in this ongoing invasion here. How significant a loss is that for Russia and victory for the Ukrainians?

HERTLING: It's pretty big, Jim. We've been talking about this for weeks. As the Ukrainian forces have been attempting to surround those forces that are on the western bank of the Dnipro River, that is where the Russian decided, interestingly enough, to take up defensive positions with a large river and a wide river at their back. They have attempted now to get across that river onto the eastern side of Kherson province, and setting up multiple layers of defensive positions across that.

What you've got to understand is, it will certainly allow the Ukrainian forces to liberate some of those cities on the western bank of the Dnipro.

[09:50:01]

But, at the same time, it would be very difficult right now for the Ukrainian forces to conduct what would be the equivalent of an amphibious assault to get across that river. \\

At the same time, there's fighting going on elsewhere. And all of it seems to be in the momentum of the Ukraine forces.

SCIUTTO: We have heard some public discussion now of the potential for talks to end this war. Responding to those talks, you hear Ukrainian officials, once again, saying the condition for settlement is that Russia leaves all occupied territories. They're not willing to trade land in effect for peace here.

Do you see a change in the attitude towards negotiations, particularly from western partners and the U.S., and do you see any sort of unstated pressure here on Ukraine to think about talking?

HERTLING: I do not, Jim. And I've been reading the reports in a lot of journals and magazines and newspapers as well. And I think these are a lot of pundits saying, hey, there's an opportunity here. As winter is coming up. The Russia forces have been beaten in several battlefield fronts. It's time for Ukraine to take a look at that.

I think the Biden administration has been perfectly clear from the very beginning, that they will take Ukraine's lead in terms of negotiation.

Now, Mr. Zelenskyy has made it very clear, he wants to regain the sovereignty of his territory, interestingly including Crimea. Something that will certainly put Mr. Putin in the defensive position.

But I've got to tell you, Russia has not been very good in terms of any of the operations they have conducted. They have continued to fail in even attempting to regenerate and move their forces around. So, there could be a potential opportunity for negotiations. But, again, I believe the United States is going to stand firmly behind President Zelenskyy in what he and the Ukrainian people want to do.

SCIUTTO: OK. There had been some concern among Democrats, and frankly Republicans that I've spoken with, that a Republican win in this election here in the U.S. would, if not put an end to, make it far more difficult to get new money, new weapons systems to the Ukrainians. At least get the votes to do so, to spend that kind of money. It does appear still, though, Republicans will take the House here. Do you think that this puts in jeopardy future financial and military assistance for Ukraine from the U.S.?

HERTLING: It's certainly going to put a different --

SCIUTTO: We may - we may have lost -

HERTLING: In terms of funding operation. (INAUDIBLE) -

SCIUTTO: Oh, there he is. Sorry, finish your thought, Mark, you disappeared for a moment. Just quickly.

HERTLING: Yes, sorry. We have seen that politics always play a part in funding combat. Funding operations. With a new political body, there may be additional discussions about that. And, truthfully, Jim, as we all know, all of the western forces have dedicated a lot of equipment, training personnel, as well as ammunition to this fight. So, I'm sure that a new group of politicians believing they're in charge will have more debates about this.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HERTLING: But we have been pretty clear about saying, we need to defend this from a values based perspective and a sovereignty of another country.

SCIUTTO: Major General Mark Hertling, glad you rode out Hurricane Nicole. Thanks so much for joining us.

HERTLING: Quite welcome, Jim. Thank you.

HILL: Still to come here, President Biden heading overseas today for a high stakes summit with global implications. We'll take a look at what's on that agenda.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:57:45]

SCIUTTO: Later tonight, President Biden will head to Egypt for the United Nations convention on climate change.

HILL: Now, much of the focus during the COP 27 summit, as it's known, will be those suspended climate talks between the U.S. and China.

CNN's chief climate correspondent Bill Weir following all this for us.

So, you know, Biden is arriving at this time, having passed some substantial domestic legislation. There's still a lot at stake here though.

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: A lot. Levels of CO2 in the atmosphere are at all-time highs. Temperatures on earth, the average ones, are now at all-time highs. And it's interesting to point out the Paris Accords would not have happened without the U.S. and China getting together beforehand and saying, look, the U.S. says we're the historic number one emitter of this planet cooking pollution. China, you're number one currently. We get it. We're on it. The rest of the world comes along.

Since Nancy Pelosi went to Taiwan, they're not talking to each other anymore. And there's a sense among economists, especially with this semiconductor war, that they might be pulling back and saying we don't need this partnership the way they did. And that's inconvenient because solar prices have come down 90 percent in the last decade thanks in large part to Chinese manufacturing. So, if the whole supply chain is going to change, President Biden expected to announce he's going to make sure all U.S. contractors now adhere to the Paris Accord goals and decarbonize. That's going to be really hard if you can't buy cheap Chinese solar panels.

HILL: Yes.

WEIR: I the near term anyway. So there's a lot going on. He's able to go there and say to the world, you know, America's back. We passed this Inflation Reduction Act. But, again, it's a lot of incentives to pull clean energy along and spread it out, which, up until now, has depended on a U.S./Chinese relationship.

SCIUTTO: Bill, can the U.S. and China do it independently of each other or must it be together, be some sort of agreement?

WEIR: I mean it just -- the two biggest economies, you know, if they're - if they are collaborating, it just makes things that much easier. If they're competitors and are pushing markets along and the smartest ideas are winning and scaling on a massive scale. But now if we have to set up a relationship with Vietnam or other countries, it just sort of delays things.

And what you see at these COPs is when there's frustration because the whole world can't come to the same ideas. These little alliances break off. The U.S. just joined like the OPEC of wind with Holland and some other countries to help ramp up wind production.

[10:00:00]