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Pandemic's Effect on Children's Brains?; Final Day of Early Voting in Georgia; January 6 Committee Preparing Final Report; Strong Jobs Report. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired December 02, 2022 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:02]

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: "Veep"'s Julia Louis-Dreyfus returning to the White House, the singer John Legend, along with his wife, Chrissy Teigen, and also among those dining on butter-poached lobster and caviar, along with the comedian Stephen Colbert.

The presidents and the first ladies posing for photos before the event, Jill Biden in Oscar de la Renta, Brigitte Macron wearing Louis Vuitton.

And the Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, was asked about dining in the same house as Hunter Biden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: How does that feel know that many people in your caucus want to investigate him?

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): Well, I'm at dinner with my mom, so I'm going to have a great time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Thanks for your time. Have a good weekend.

Ana Cabrera picks up our coverage right now.

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Hello, and thank you so much for being here. I'm Ana Cabrera in New York.

Was the good news bad news? It's the U.S. economy, and this week's ping-pong match of conflicting key economic indicators is enough to give you whiplash this Friday.

Let's start with the good; 263,000 jobs were added last month. Unemployment held steady. But the hope was these numbers wouldn't be so strong. And that's because it could lead to more monster rate hikes from the Federal Reserve. It's trying to cool the decades-high inflation hitting so many American families hard, and President Biden this morning talking up the good.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And our economy continues to grow. We're in a position now where we -- things are moving. They're moving in the right direction.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: CNN's Matt Egan leads us off.

Some optimism from the president there. But help us better understand why it's not all good news.

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Ana, we wanted a Goldilocks number here, right, not too hot, because that fuels inflation, not too cold, because that suggests a recession. We didn't get a Goldilocks number.

We got too hot, 263,000 jobs added last month. That is more than expected. There has been a bit of a slowdown. But it's been pretty glacial. As you can see on that chart, you almost need a magnifying glass to see that slowdown the last few months. Some sectors did lose jobs. We had retail, transportation, temporary help, all of them were down.

But, otherwise, there's a lot of demand for workers. We saw strong job gains for leisure and hospitality, health care, government, construction. All of them were up. Now, the part of the jobs report that is really getting the attention of investors and economists is wages.

The hope coming in and the expectation was that wages would cool off, which would actually be seen as good news, because that would take some pressure off of inflation. That did not happen. Wages actually heated up 5.1 percent year over year. Context, that's about twice the pace of pre-COVID. That suggests strong demand for workers.

That is not what the Fed wants. That's actually the opposite of what the Federal Reserve wants. Now...

CABRERA: And, obviously, from that chart, we see that wages are not keeping up with inflation still. There's still a big gap there.

EGAN: Exactly. Right. Even though wages are hot, inflation is still hotter. And so that means our paychecks are getting hit from inflation. And that is obviously not good news.

I think, when we step back, there is some good news and bad news. The bad, this report is going to probably embolden the Federal Reserve to keep raising interest rates, not just at the upcoming meeting this month, but into next year. And that is a concern, because the more the Fed does, the greater the risk that they slow this economy so much that they accidentally cause a recession.

But the good news -- it's a Friday -- let's end on good news -- is that there's really nothing about today's report that speaks of an imminent recession. And, obviously, that is relief. No one wants to see this jobs market fall off a cliff, gets so cold that it's ice cold. And it's not. It's not. So, for now, the jobs market continues to chug along. I think the question is just, when is inflation going to get back in line and what does the Fed have to do to get it there?

CABRERA: Help us understand, that's your role. And you're doing just that. Thank you so much, Matt Egan.

EGAN: Thanks, Ana.

CABRERA: I appreciate it.

And here's some more good news amid the recession fears. This week, the U.S. saw record-breaking holiday shopping. Mortgage rates fell for a third straight week. And prices at the pump, they're way down, a gallon of gas now averaging 30 cents less than last month.

CNN's Pete Muntean is tracking what's behind the gas price drop.

Pete, are these lower prices here to stay, I hope?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is the big question, Ana.

We think it might be short-lived, because OPEC, oil-producing nations are holding a key meeting on Sunday. The latest signals are they will not increase oil production. That means that the price of oil per barrel could go up even more. So the national average for a gallon of regular, don't get used to it, $3.45 according to AAA, nationwide.

Think about where we were back on February 24, though. That's the day that Russia invaded Ukraine. We are now below that point. Then it was $3.54 national average for the gallon of regular back then. There are so many factors at play right now. Think about what is happening with recession fears, also with China COVID lockdown fears.

[13:05:04]

So we could see some shift here. The latest thinking from analysts is that gas prices will stay low for now and these dips will continue. Think about where we were a week ago. We have seen the gas price go down, on average, about 13 cents. It's $3.35 here at this station, this Exxon in Alexandria.

We could see, according to Patrick De Haan of GasBuddy, gas sub-$3 by the end of the year. It would a really good Christmas president for so many folks, Ana. Consumers have been feeling this in a big way. And we think, for now, that the gas price will continue its downward trend, although maybe not for long.

CABRERA: OK, and we will take it as long as it as we can get it. Thank you so much, Pete Muntean.

Let's bring in University of Michigan economics professor Justin Wolfers for his take on all of this.

Justin, great to see you. Big banks and economists, they have been warning about a potential recession, but we keep getting these strong reports. So where are we really?

JUSTIN WOLFERS, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: Well, we're not in a recession. We haven't been in the recession. And things look pretty good right now.

Unemployment is not far off a 50-year low. And, Ana, every time we talk, people keep talking about recessions, yet that labor market just keeps on expanding. People keep getting more jobs. And so things are still looking pretty good right now.

CABRERA: You're always my glass-half-full guest when it comes to all things economy.

There have been these positive signs, but we have also been reporting on layoffs, 53,000 from the tech sector alone, also Amazon cutting 10,000 employees, Lyft axing 13 percent of its work force, DoorDash slashing about 1,200 jobs. And I can't ignore CNN is also going through our own cuts. So this is something that hits really deeply close to home.

If we're not heading towards a recession, why all the layoffs by these big companies?

WOLFERS: Look, these are big companies. And we have tech reporters, and they're interesting to talk about, and they make great water cooler conversation. But, honestly, they're not much -- they're not much when you think about it compared to the U.S. labor market as a whole.

So I think you just reeled off about 50,000 job separations there. Let me just tell you, Ana, in a typical month, in the United States, roughly six million people separate from their employers. This is the natural state of an economy. Some people are getting jobs, some people are losing jobs.

And what normally happens is all that's going on in the less sexy companies. What's happening right now is, they're in big headline- making companies.

Now, let me ask you a question. Do you think we are going to learn a lot from the Twitter layoffs about the state of the macroeconomy? Or maybe we're learning something about an idiosyncratic billionaire and their mood as it fluctuates day to day.

CABRERA: You make a good point that there are specifics to each situation.

But does 2023 look brighter on the jobs front, or could things still get worse?

WOLFERS: Look, there's a lot of gloom and doom from my fellow economists.

I saw a survey the other day in "The Washington" -- sorry -- "The Wall Street Journal." It said six -- that the average economists thought there was a 63 percent chance of a recession next year. I'm not as pessimistic as them, but I also know they're a little bit wise.

But today's job report gives us good news. You can take those pessimistic forecasts as saying, hey, look this impossible headwinds ahead, the Fed raising interest rates, China slowing down, things like that. Well, if you're entering headwinds, the best possible thing you can have is a whole lot of momentum.

And what we learned this morning is, this economy has momentum.

CABRERA: Meantime, you have holiday spending setting new records. How do you square that with the sense that Americans are really struggling right now because of inflation?

WOLFERS: Sometimes, you have to be very careful about how things are measured.

All the stores that are telling us about record sales are telling us about the record number of dollars being spent. But we know a big part of the reason for that, inflation. If you sell the same amount of stuff, but it's got higher price tags, we don't really think of that as suggesting economic growth. That instead suggests an inflation problem.

And that's the reality for many families. So, yes, the good news is, 2022 Christmas should be a little bit more normal than the last couple. And I do hope things are looking good. But, also, yes, families are still struggling, and they're struggling because prices are rising, and, in many cases, rising a little bit faster than their wages.

So it's a -- it's going to be a little harder for many families to afford a few extra Christmas goodies.

CABRERA: And, quickly, if you will, I do want to ask you about the good news on gas prices, now lower on average than the day Russia invaded Ukraine.

But I thought the war in Ukraine was pushing these prices up initially. And the battle, of course, is still ongoing. So help us make sense of this.

WOLFERS: No market is ever determined by one force.

And so Ukraine is a major drag in energy markets, particularly in Europe, but it's had a big impact here in the United States as well. The really good news is, if we want gas prices to stop contributing on inflation, we don't even need them to fall. We just need them to stop rising.

[13:10:00]

And so the fact that the Russia energy shock is somewhat behind us is one of the reasons why so many economists are optimistic that inflation is going to come down over the next year.

CABRERA: Justin Wolfers, Professor, thank you. Good to see you on this Friday. Appreciate it.

WOLFERS: Great pleasure.

CABRERA: Another major defeat for former President Trump in the Mar- a-Lago documents case.

A federal appeals court has now scrapped the special master review. So that means, in about a week, the Justice Department could have its hands on all the documents seized by the FBI. A three-judge panel, all Republican nominees and appointees, by the way, dismantled Trump's arguments, and the judge ruling that -- the first judge in this who set up the review, they overruled that judge.

And here's what this panel wrote: "The law is clear. We cannot write a rule that allows any subject of a search warrant to block government investigations after the execution of the warrant, nor can we write a rule that allows only former presidents to do so."

Trump has until Thursday next week to appeal this to the Supreme Court.

Meantime, today, the January 6 Committee huddled for one of its final meetings. This panel is racing now to tie up the loose ends before Republicans take the House in January. And when you hold 1,000 witness interviews or you have that many people that come before you, there could be a lot of loose ends.

On the agenda today, deciding whether to make criminal referrals to the Justice Department. And they also wanted to iron out their final report.

So, CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig is here to help set the expectations.

Let's start with this issue that's been really hanging over this panel for months, and that is criminal referrals.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Yes.

CABRERA: What would it mean if they were to make even one criminal referral?

HONIG: So, Ana, the legal answer to your question is, a criminal referral means, well, nothing.

Anyone is free to make any criminal referral to any prosecutor at any time. We used to get them all the time when I was a prosecutor. A criminal referral does not require prosecutors to do anything, and they don't need a criminal referral in order to investigate. And, in fact here, we know that DOJ is already investigating Donald Trump. Why?

Because Merrick Garland, two weeks ago, when he appointed the special counsel, Jack Smith, said that's for our Trump investigations. They haven't received a referral yet. That said, the committee might want to make a strong sort of final political statement in its final days. And if they do make a referral, they're going to have to figure out, what does that look like?

Do they name names? Do they specify Donald Trump? Do they specify those around him, John Eastman, Jeffrey Clark, Rudy Giuliani, Roger Stone, Steve Bannon, and Michael Flynn? Do they specify what particular crimes they believe might have been committed?

Also, a really important issue to me, will the committee give all their evidence over to DOJ? DOJ has been asking for that evidence for months now. They have gotten some of it, but not all, we know, because Merrick Garland told us the other day, he said at his press conference, we would like to have all the transcripts and all the other evidence, so that we can use it in the ordinary course of investigations.

Now, the committee members since then have said they will get it. But if they do, Ana, that's going to be really important evidence for the criminal investigations.

CABRERA: So, you still have these lingering things related to subpoenas that haven't been responded to. Essentially, they have been ignored by people like Kevin McCarthy. How could this play out?

HONIG: Yes, at this point, the only practical recourse for the committee is to seek contempt.

Now, that is a three-step process. First, the January 6 Committee itself has to vote for contempt. Then it goes to the full House of Representatives, where you need a majority vote of the House. And, of course, the House will remain under Democratic control for the next month or so.

And if that happens, it goes over to DOJ, and they get to decide whether to prosecute., this has happened four times already. Excuse me. Steve Bannon. He was charged, tried convicted and now he is serving -- or he is he is sentenced to four months. He's not begun serving that yet. Peter Navarro was charged with criminal contempt of Congress. His trial will be next year. But DOJ declined to bring charges against Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino.

So what did they do about their colleagues, Kevin McCarthy and four other Republican House members? Look, they have not sought content thus far. They have had many months to do it. And they're well aware that, a month or so from now, these guys are going to be the majority. They're going to have subpoena power. The committee may not want to pick that particular fight.

And then, finally, what do they do about Donald Trump? Remember, the last thing that committee did at the very last hearing was announce their big subpoena to Donald Trump. Of course, he has fought them. He has gone to court. The committee has come in with some hot rhetoric. They have said: "The truth is that Donald Trump, like several of his closest allies, is hiding from the committee's investigation. He is obligated to provide answers to the American people."

There's no indication they're going to seek contempt on Donald Trump. I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for that. CABRERA: Let's pivot to the final report.

HONIG: Yes.

CABRERA: Set our expectations here. What are you anticipating?

HONIG: Two things we know for sure. First of all, it's coming within the month. Second of all, it's going to be long.

We know this investigation has gone over 18 months. They have talked to over 1,000 witnesses, as you said before. And they have had to go through thousands of phone records, e-mails, texts, and videos. We know the committee is involved in a little bit of discussion about, to what extent do we focus on Donald Trump vs. all the other stuff?

I'm not sure those things are even separable, but that's the kind of thing they're hashing out as we speak.

[13:15:00]

CABRERA: And, of course, we're going to see a change of the guard come January...

HONIG: Yes.

CABRERA: ... with the GOP taking over control of the House.

And Kevin McCarthy has been vowing to hold their own hearings. How could this play out?

HONIG: Yes, Kevin McCarthy and the Republicans are ready to become the majority. And with that comes the subpoena power.

Kevin McCarthy has already sent notice to the committee, saying: "I remind you and your staff on the committee to preserve all records collected and transcripts of testimony taken." McCarthy has said he intends to hold his own hearings or counterhearings focusing on security breaches.

Presumably, they're not going to be focusing on Donald Trump's role so much. And let's also remember they're going to go even farther into this. Kevin McCarthy tweeted on the day of the Mar-a-Lago search warrant: "Attorney General Garland, preserve your documents and clear your calendar."

So I think the new Republican majority is going to try to bring Merrick Garland up, have him answer questions. Now, Congress cannot derail or stop a criminal investigation, but they can sure try to make life difficult by bringing Merrick Garland up, up to Capitol Hill, and asking him questions.

CABRERA: Wow, we got in a lot there. Thank you, Elie Honig.

HONIG: Thanks, Ana.

CABRERA: It's nice to see you. HONIG: Thank you.

CABRERA: It is a big day in the Peach State ahead of the last major contest of the midterm elections. It's the final day of early voting in Georgia for Tuesday's Senate run-off between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker. And we have a new CNN polling on where things stand in this race.

Plus, a new and disturbing study on how the pandemic impacted our kids, specifically their brains. Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here to fill us in.

And you know you have crossed a line when Elon Musk bans you. Kanye West, now known as Ye, banned from Twitter after sharing a Nazi symbol, and the hate doesn't stop there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:21:00]

CABRERA: Today is the last day of early voting in the nation's one undecided Senate race and final election of the 2022 cycle.

Nearly a million-and-a-half Georgians have already voted in this election, as incumbent Democrat Raphael Warnock tries to fend off a challenge from Republican Herschel Walker. The run-off election is this coming Tuesday.

Let's begin with CNN's Eva McKend, who is at a polling place in Atlanta.

What are voters telling you there today, Eva?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: Well, Ana, there's just been a steady stream of folks all throughout the day, but the line moving pretty quickly here, about 35 minutes now.

We have been out on the trail this week at different polling sites during this early vote period. And, sometimes, it's been upwards of two hours for voters, so, all that being said, today, pretty good for voters here.

And what we're hearing is that folks just wanted to get out and do this early. There might be this idea that just because Georgia is not in the position of determining the balance of power in the Senate that people don't care about this election, but that is far from the case. Georgians are very much engaged.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRIS CARTER, GEORGIA VOTER: And I really had to take off work and commit to the hour or longer that this would take today. But I knew, when I went in, you click one election, you're out of there, you're done. But, yes, I mean, it's a commitment. And I admire everybody who has to

come out and take time off again to do it again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: So, certainly, a lot of -- asked of Georgians.

Neither candidate, neither Walker or Warnock, achieved above 50 percent. And that is what prompted this run-off race, Herschel Walker and Senator Warnock busy schedules today, crisscrossing the state making their final arguments, Ana.

CABRERA: And, Eva, CNN has some new polling on this race. What are the big takeaways?

MCKEND: So, Senator Warnock has a narrow lead over Herschel Walker among likely run-off voters. Warnock is at 52 percent, Walker at 48 percent.

What we're seeing is that both -- partisans on both sides are deeply entrenched. If you are a Democratic voter, by and large, you are going to support Senator Warnock. If you are a Republican voter, by and large, you are going to support Herschel Walker.

One of the most interesting parts of the poll, though, is where the independents are showing up. The poll indicates that independents are breaking for Warnock 61 percent to 36 percent. And I think that is so fascinating, because the independents are really the persuadable voters, the voters that these candidates have left to try and capture, Ana.

CABRERA: Interesting. Good to have those insights. Thank you so much, Eva McKend.

Let's talk about some unsettling new research about the pandemic now and the effect it has had on our kids. And new study suggests that the stress of the pandemic caused teenagers brains to age faster than normal.

CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta is joining us now.

Sanjay, we all know the mental toll that -- on everybody, but especially teenagers and those who are younger. It was brutal. But this is one of the first studies to look at the physical changes in the brain that all this stress and anxiety brought.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

Yes, no question. And I can just tell you, from personal experience, I have three teenagers, three teenage girls at home. So when you say brutal, I mean, kids who weren't getting their normal social development by spending time with friends and largely at home, it was hard.

And we saw a lot of those numbers in terms of anxiety and depression and what are called internalizing symptoms, social isolation and loneliness. But, as you point out correctly, this is one of the first studies to really look at the brains, then, of these adolescents as well.

Quick backdrop on that is that this study was ongoing before the pandemic. They were looking at adolescent brains before the pandemic, scanning these kids every couple of years. When the pandemic happened, they continued the study. So now they have scans before the pandemic and then at least a year into the pandemic.

And let me show you quickly, Ana, if I can, a few things that really jumped out in the study. One is that there was sort of a thinning of the -- what's called the cortex, this area of the brain. Think of that as like the bark on a tree, the outermost layers, this area often responsible for your executive reasoning and judgment. Those areas were thinned.

[13:25:16]

But deep in the brain, there was advanced aging of areas of the brain that are responsible for your ability to regulate emotions, for example. So, there was more aging that was happening in those areas of the brain. That type of -- those types of changes do occur just with age of anybody as adults, but to see it in teenagers, that was sort of the concerning finding that came out of that study.

CABRERA: Wow, that is fascinating, very concerning. How long did it take for these changes to happen? And what are the consequences of this?

GUPTA: Yes, that's the thing. These changes happen pretty quickly.

You do expect a certain amount of change to happen in the brain as you age, simply, but within the first year of the pandemic, so this is going to the year 2020, they saw some of these changes happening within that short period of time. And I think that's what got people's attention.

The second part of your question, I mean, the consequences, it's hard to say what they are long term, to be perfectly honest. I mean, we know that these types of changes that they saw in the brain are often associated with the symptoms that you see there on the screen, anxiety and depression, what we call these internalized problems, sadness, low self-esteem, fear, and just challenge regulating emotions.

They did not see, interestingly, in the study, an increase in what are known as externalizing symptoms, where you have rule-breaking behavior, violence, aggression. So what does this mean longer term? We just don't know.

I mean, Ana, we're dealing with something that is sort of unprecedented, both in terms of the fact that it's a pandemic, but also that we have these MRI scans, this sort of technology to look at the brains in the midst of something like this. So what does it mean long term? Hopefully, there will be some of the reversal of those changes and some normalizing of the brain. But, right now, we just can't say for sure.

CABRERA: I always think about how resilient our kids are and how our bodies are just amazing, right?

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, I wish we had more time. I have so many more questions about this as a parent myself. Thank you for sharing your expertise with us.

GUPTA: You will call me. OK.

CABRERA: I know. Seriously, let's make a date to talk later. Thank you.

Kanye, Kanye West, his hate speech, it just hit a new low. He has been kicked off Twitter for sharing a swastika. And just wait until you hear what he said about Hitler.

That's next.

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