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Tempered Expectations on Black Friday Amid Inflation, High Prices; Coast Guard Rescues Cruise Ship Passenger Who Went Overboard; Biden Renews Call for Assault Weapons Ban After Mass Shootings; Warrant Issued for Friend of American Woman Who Died in Mexico. Aired 9-9:30a ET
Aired November 25, 2022 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:00]
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cuisine to Los Angeles in a way that hasn't been done before. And it's a way to highlight chefs who all share some form of displacement.
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COLLINS: That's so cool and so special for them to be able to share that and keep that up. Go to CNNHeroes.com right now. You can vote for her or any of your top 10 favorites this morning.
LEMON: And just in case you are wondering, we did not plan these outfits. I walked into the studio and I said, are you kidding me? We're wearing the exact same thing.
COLLINS: Great minds dress alike.
LEMON: Hope you had a great Thanksgiving. We'll see you on Monday. Enjoy your weekend.
COLLINS: All right. "CNN NEWSROOM" starts now.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: A good Friday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto.
Happening right now, sales across the country today as Americans look to score some Black Friday deals amid high inflation. The National Retail Federation estimates that more than 166 million Americans will shop this weekend. That's actually up by almost eight million people from last year. I'm going to speak to the CEO and president of the National Retail Federation in just a moment for his perspective.
Plus, he spent more than 12 hours floating in the Gulf of Mexico. This after going overboard from a Carnival cruise ship. Ahead details about the U.S. Coast Guard's incredible rescue mission.
Let's begin this morning with CNN Business correspondent Alison Kosik. She is inside the Herald Square Macy's in New York City. Alison, you know, the predictions for today actually despite inflation
are for a busy shopping day. Folks out looking for deals I imagine. What are you seeing there on the ground?
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, definitely seeing lots of people in store here at Macy's in Herald Square shopping for deals. And not to mention they've been shopping online, too, just about everywhere. Adobe Analytics saying that 64 million people in the first three weeks of November have shopped online and that doesn't include what's happening here in the store.
So let's talk about Black Friday. 115 million people just today Black Friday across the country are expected to get out and shop. More than half are expected to be in store. Once again, prove here at Macy's that in-store shopping is happening. I was here way before they opened doors and there were a couple hundred people waiting outside in the dark in the cold to get in here. Why? I talked to shoppers because they wanted to get those discounts.
They also want to come in the store and touch things again. You know, we were stuck inside during the pandemic. Many still didn't come out and shop last year so getting to -- you know, come into stores and actually touch the products, Jim, it's a big deal. It gets you into the holiday shopping spirit.
SCIUTTO: Alison, I did notice you parked yourself next to the handbag section there. Was that a strategic choice on your part?
KOSIK: Kind of. A little bit. Looking for a cross body bag, but who's asking for a gift? Not me.
SCIUTTO: Fair enough. We want to give you time to do that. What impact is inflation having on holiday shopping as a whole this year?
KOSIK: Yes. It's good that you mentioned that because inflation really is the big elephant in the room, isn't it, this holiday shopping season? And it is impacting the spending power of so many consumers. And I talked with shoppers who told me what they're doing to fend off the higher cost of buying those holiday gifts. Listen.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the problems is inflation. Price is high so we have to make some adjustment, what we're going to buy this year. So yes, it is a little bit downsizing in terms of buying gifts, not like last year. So yes, inflation is affecting us.
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KOSIK: So I guess the main thing that people are going for this year, Jim, is just looking for those bargains. You know, something like this, 60 percent off the original price. This is kind of what they're going for -- Jim.
SCIUTTO: Understood. Might be out there with my family later today, as well. Alison Kosik, thanks so much.
KOSIK: Have fun.
SCIUTTO: All right. Joining me now to talk about all this, Matthew Shay. He's the CEO and president of the National Retail Federation.
Matthew, thanks so much for joining us this morning.
MATTHEW SHAY, CEO AND PRESIDENT, NATIONAL RETAIL FEDERATION: Jim, nice to be with you. Thanks.
SCIUTTO: All right. So you look at the numbers, 166.3 million people planning to shop from Thanksgiving Day this actually through cyber Monday this year. That's eight million more than last year. Big picture, is that a positive sign for the direction of the economy?
SHAY: I think it's a positive sign, Jim. I think it's also a reflection of the way the economy has changed from last year and from two years ago. The health environment is obviously much better so we're all out there doing things socially and gathering and traveling and doing the kind of activities we couldn't do in 2020 and 2021.
Also, I think the supply chain and inventory levels have improved dramatically from last year. Still a bit changed and a bit uneven from company to company, segment to segment, from earlier this year but overall I think retailers have inventory they need in place, not too much, not too little. But you see consumers out changing the behavior as Alison was saying. Big crowds at that store in New York and I think we're going to see big crowds throughout the weekend.
[09:05:05]
SCIUTTO: OK. You look at inflation. Granted the pace of inflation down a little bit from a peak in June of 9.1 percent year-on-year down to 7.7 percent, you know, still significant but a bit slower. Why are we not seeing that I'm impact sales as much as some might have expected?
SHAY: Well, I think a couple of reasons. One of course is that consumers have enormous amount of spending power still in the form of savings in excess of the pre-pandemic levels so we're probably close to a trillion and a half dollars in excess savings that all of us in America households have accumulated over the past two and a half years, so people are relying on that increasingly at the lower income levels to meet the difference between their monthly spending and their monthly expenses.
That's part of what continues to power the economy. Now we've had 31 consecutive months of retail sales growth even in October. Sales were up 8 percent relative to October of 2021 so a lot of resilience there. I think that's part of it. I think the other thing that we're seeing and you heard it in the previous segment with Alison's conversations, people are aware of price increases, inflation is making a difference in the way they behave and spend.
They're more intentional looking for the right gifts. I think that's also a reason we'll see this feeling more like a pre-pandemic holiday. People waiting until later in the holiday not doing as much early shopping looking for the deal as we get closer to the December holiday season.
SCIUTTO: You and I were talking before going on air and you were making the point about what this means for interest rates, right, because if people still have a lot of those savings to buy off of it, then the interest rate rises won't hem in their buying as much as might be expected. Can you explain to folks what you mean by that?
SHAY: Yes. Well, I thought you asked a really interesting question which was, you know, what can we learn about the broader economy from what we're seeing this weekend and specifically today. And I think that's a bit of the challenge and the conundrum for the Federal Reserve thinking about how to set interest rates and how to diminish demand without slowing the economy so much that we have a real downturn.
And the challenge is that because we have all this excess savings, this $1.5 trillion, might be a little more, might be a little less, but that's allowing all of us to rely on that savings to continue to consume. And so as long as we consume, we're going to see prices, you know, maybe sustain at slightly higher levels. We're going to see sustained demand and that puts pressure on wages. That puts pressure on the labor market, makes it a little more challenging for the Federal Reserve.
SCIUTTO: OK. Final question before we go. Are there actually any deals today on Black Friday or is that an illusion?
SHAY: I think there are great deals, Jim, but I think it's like asking someone what's the best stock or what's the best job for me? There's a great deal for you depending upon what you need and what you want. And every family, every household if you've got kids, if you're buying for a spouse or a loved one, or family member, friend, do they need a gift in electronics? Do they need apparel? Do they need something for the home? Do they need something they can take with them on a travel or a special occasion?
So I think there are a lot of great opportunities out there but it's got to be something that works for you and your family, and I hope you get out there this afternoon.
SCIUTTO: It might be my kids dragging me out there. I might not have a choice.
Matthew Shay, thanks so much for coming on and Happy Thanksgiving.
SHAY: Thanks, Jim. Same to you.
SCIUTTO: Well, a cruise ship passenger may have been floating in the Gulf of Mexico for up to 15 hours. This after falling overboard from a Carnival cruise ship sometime late Wednesday night. But he's alive, and that's because of an incredible rescue mission by the U.S. Coast Guard.
CNN's Nick Valencia joins us now. Nick, first of all, how did this happen? How did they manage to find him?
NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, Jim, this is the story of the day and this guy is probably going to have a story for the rest of his life. The Coast Guard says that he was a passenger on the Carnival cruise ship the Carnival Valor, and it was set to sail from New Orleans to Cozumel, Mexico for a five-day cruise on Wednesday. It was at Wednesday night that he and his sister were at the bar and at about 11:00 p.m. he told his sister he was on his way to the restroom but he never came back.
She goes to bed. She wakes up the next morning at about noon, reports him missing. At this point the Carnival cruise ship they contact the Coast Guard and about 2:30 a search and rescue operation is launched. The cruise ship actually stopped and back tracked, retracing the route to try to help find this individual who was, you know, evidently floating in the water for more than 12, perhaps up to 15 hours.
He was eventually spotted by members of a different crew vessel. He was airlifted and transported to a medical -- to get medical procedure. Just listen to the Coast Guard talk about this rescue and describe it as only they can. You know, this is, they say, a holiday miracle.
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LT. SETH GROSS, SEARCH AND RESCUE MISSION COORDINATOR, U.S. COAST GUARD: I'll be honest with you, you know, 17-year career this case is unlike anything I've been part of. So, you know, I think it kind of blows the norm, the normalcy out of the water here and really just shows the will to live is something that you need to account for in every search and rescue case.
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[09:10:05]
VALENCIA: Just a wild story. The man is said to be in stable condition. The cruise ship as of Thursday night was back on its way to Cozumel, Mexico.
What a wild story, Jim.
SCIUTTO: Incredible survival story. So happy for him and his family. Nick Valencia, thanks so much.
VALENCIA: You bet.
SCIUTTO: Still ahead, authorities in Mexico have issued an arrest warrant for the friend of a North Carolina woman who died while on vacation in Cabo. Her parents say the autopsy shows her neck was broken but that's not the story they got at the beginning. We'll have more.
Plus, President Biden renews his call for an assault weapons ban after the latest series of mass shootings in this country but what can he get through Congress in a lame-duck session? Does he have the votes even then? We'll discuss.
And we're just a few hours away from the U.S. men's national team taking on England. It's a big day for this team, a big test. They haven't met each other in a World Cup for more than decade. Details on what's at stake, who to watch for, who's going to come out ahead.
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[09:15:06]
SCIUTTO: The city of Chesapeake, Virginia, will hold a vigil next week for the victims of the Walmart shooting. The city announced Monday's events through a series of tweets. A Walmart manager, you may remember opened fire inside the break room Tuesday and killed six co-workers then killed himself. Two people remain hospitalized, one in critical condition, the other in fair condition.
On to another mass shooting in Colorado Springs, the community rallies now around Club Q owners and patrons after the deadly shooting there. The LGBTQ clubs' annual Thanksgiving dinner might not have happened yesterday were it not for a local church, which stepped in to help.
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JOSEPH SHELTON, PRESIDENT, UNITED COURT OF THE PIKES PEAK EMPIRE: So many people are coming together because they care about this community. They care about what's coming out of this community. They're not looking at it as black, white, gay, straight. They are looking at it as this is my community.
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SCIUTTO: Volunteers and donations from area businesses helped keep that long-time tradition going after last weekend's tragedy. You may remember in this shooting a killer killed five people, injured 17 others. The suspect is now being held without bond.
After President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden called Thursday to offer their condolences to the owners of Club Q, the president once again renewed his push for an assault weapons ban. Have a listen.
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JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The idea we still allow semiautomatic weapons to be purchased is sick, just sick. It has no, no social value, zero, none. Not a single solitary rationale for it except profit for the gun manufacturer.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Can you do anything about gun laws during a lame duck, sir?
BIDEN: I'm going to try.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What will you try to --
BIDEN: I'm going to try to get rid of assault weapons. (END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: CNN's Jeremy Diamond from the White House. He says he's going to try, try to count votes, including during the lame-duck session. We saw bipartisan gun legislation in the last Congress but much less ambitious than an assault weapons ban. Does he have -- does he believe he could have the votes in a lame-duck Congress?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jim. I mean, you heard the president saying that he's going to try but he didn't have the votes when he was trying to push through that bipartisan gun legislation. He got something far slimmer, though, still, the most comprehensive gun reform regulation in decades, but the votes have not changed. And those prospects will certainly dim even more when the president loses the House come January.
The president also is contending with a lot more in this lame-duck session. He's trying to get a government funding bill to avert a government shutdown. That will include if the White House gets its way funding for COVID, also funding for Ukraine. There's no question that the president is sincere in his desire to try and get this assault weapons ban passed, but the White House is very clear-eyed about the prospects of that whether in the lame-duck right now or in the next Congress when they lose the House.
The president, though, isn't doing himself any favors when he uses this language of semiautomatic weapons. That would include pistols, as well. Semiautomatic pistols. The president in the past has made clear that what he's seeking is simply to ban assault weapons. We've asked the White House for comment to try and clarify those comments but they have yet to respond.
There is no question, though, that the president has a lot on his plate in the coming weeks, and he is set to meet with the congressional leaders in the next several weeks to go over the agenda for the lame-duck session and see exactly what can actually get passed -- Jim.
SCIUTTO: Yes. Many mass shootings involve semiautomatic pistols as well as long rifles.
Jeremy Diamond, thanks so much.
Joining me now, Jackie Kucinich, Washington bureau chief for the "Boston Globe."
Jackie, Happy Thanksgiving. Thanks for joining.
JACKIE KUCINICH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE BOSTON GLOBE: Happy Thanksgiving, Jim. Thank you.
SCIUTTO: So play maybe handicapper here or devil's advocate. Is there a path to something? I mean, after the latest spate of gun violence here that perhaps wouldn't be expected or is this a pie in the sky effort by the president? KUCINICH: You know, I've got to agree with Jeremy, what he said. It
really is -- to say unlikely I think is being kind that this is something that could get through a lame-duck Congress, considering the makeup and the political will with some members of Congress going forward, not to mention they already have, and I don't mean to be callous but there's already so many things that this Congress already has to do that they want to do.
Things like funding the government. Things like the National Defense Authorization bill that has to pass. These are things that, you know, they're very focused on. They've been working on, so throwing something in there that's a contentious issue like an assault weapons ban is just extremely unlikely to get any traction inside this Congress and the next one even less so.
SCIUTTO: OK. So let's talk about what's doable here, starting with government funding.
KUCINICH: Right.
SCIUTTO: I mean, to avoid that kind of, you know, albatross that would happen once Republicans take control of Congress. Is that going to get through?
[09:20:09]
KUCINICH: I mean, no one wants to see a government shutdown around the holidays in particular. December 16th is when the government runs out of funding and there seems to be (INAUDIBLE) seem to be indicating that they are going to be able to do something by the time Congress adjourns.
SCIUTTO: OK.
KUCINICH: Now they are also contending with whether they want to raise the debt limit which Republicans have promised to make an issue in the next Congress.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
KUCINICH: And try to extract -- getting spending levels down through that. Whether that's going to happen or not, Jim, we're just going to have to see if they can see eye to eye on that.
SCIUTTO: Yes. It's a good point because the immediate one government funding and then the other one sort of hanging over the head of the debt limit. How about other ones that are really more ambitious one, the inter-racial marriage, gay marriage protection act which seems to have the Republican votes, but also the possibility of Electoral Count Act reform?
KUCINICH: Right. Those are two other things that you're seeing some traction on. But it does remain open whether this is actually going to happen. There seems to be -- Schumer has promised to bring up the same-sex marriage bill that would codify same-sex marriage. Whether or not when that's going to happen, he said he's going to do it before -- excuse me, after Thanksgiving in the session. We'll see when that happens.
That -- I believe the bill is slightly different than the one in the House as is the Electoral Reform Act. We would have to see that go back. Again, time is running short. There is some optimism on both of these issues you just mentioned. However, only time will tell, which I know is in my crystal ball is broken here.
SCIUTTO: Yes. Final thing and this is of course --
KUCINICH: Going to ask for a new one.
SCIUTTO: Well, it falls -- and it falls on the same category but where does the race stand between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker in Georgia? Because while Democrats will maintain a majority in the Senate, the difference between 50-50 and 51-49 is significant.
KUCINICH: Absolutely. And right now you're seeing both of those campaigns really go for split ticket voters for example. They're going for making sure that their bases turn out, making sure that at every single person that because they can't add to it because of the new Georgia law, they're not allowed to add, they're not allowed to register any more voters so they have the pool that they're working with, and the money, Jim, that is flowing into this race as we expected is just going to be astronomical.
They're having their various heavy hitters from the parties come in. But I will say, former President Trump not among them. So Warnock is really leaning more -- excuse me, Walker is leaning much more on the incumbent Governor Brian Kemp who just won reelection by a wide margin to try to get him over the line, which is new. They were not campaigning together throughout the midterm.
SCIUTTO: It is notable. Jackie Kucinich, thanks so much.
Well, almost one month after the death of 25-year-old North Carolina woman in Mexico, prosecutors have now issued an arrest warrant for one of her friends. We're going to have the latest on the investigation as her parents fight for justice for their daughter.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Through the grace of God, I think I'm going to get to the bottom of this, sir. God not going to fail me.
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[09:28:06]
SCIUTTO: Mexican prosecutors have obtained an arrest warrant for the friend of an American woman who was killed while on vacation in Mexico. 25-year-old Shanquella Robinson of North Carolina was found dead last month during a trip with several college friends but prosecutors say her death was no accident. Instead, they say it was the result of an alleged attack. CNN's Ryan Young has been following the details for us.
Ryan, I wonder what else have we learned from Mexican authorities? It's been a number of weeks since this woman's killing.
RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jim, we can actually give the internet some credit for this because they've been keeping the story out there on social media trying to get anyone to listen. And we know the FBI is now also involved in this case but really all the video that we see on social media you must wonder why it took so long for authorities to make this move. And the big question right now is, which person are they looking for? Because the name hasn't been given at all.
Those six friends who went down there to Mexico all returned back to America after she died. And in fact, our affiliate WBTV is saying the mom was told by the friends that she died from alcohol poisoning. And we know from the death certificate that apparently she died from a severe injury to her spinal cord. So there are so many questions involved in this. And I've watched the video that's online.
Jim, there is a video that lasts for more than 30 seconds of someone being beat inside a hotel room. We've talked to the father of Shanquella Robinson. And he says that's his daughter. She's not fighting back. So you understand the pain that's involved in this case. In fact, take a listen to her mother talking about all the twists and turns involved in her daughter.
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SALAMONDRA ROBINSON, MOTHER OF SHANQUELLA ROBINSON: Saturday evening they called and said she wasn't feeling well, and they was going to call a doctor but when they called, the doctor hadn't arrived yet but they said she had alcohol poisoning. We received the autopsy report on Thursday and it said that her neck had been broke.
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YOUNG: You can obviously see those two things didn't line up from the very beginning, Jim, but now you have a video online.
