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Congress Passes Bipartisan Bill Protecting Same-Sex Marriage; Gas Prices Dip Further As Jobless Claims Tick Up; "New York Times" Employees On 24-Hour Strike; Police Look For Car Spotted Near Scene On Night Of Stabbings; San Francisco Investigating Bedrooms At Twitter HQ. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired December 08, 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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ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: We're back with a landmark moment on Capitol Hill.
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CABRERA: A bill protecting same-sex marriage just passed in bipartisan fashion. Something that was almost unthinkable a decade ago.
Today's House vote sealed it, passing 258-169. And now it's headed to the president's desk.
CNN's Manu Raju joins us from the Hill.
And, Manu, notably Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy voted against this bill. But 39 Republicans crossed the aisle to protect marriage equality for one of the last bills Nancy Pelosi will shepherd as speaker.
How significant is this?
MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Significant, marking a sea change in ow politicians view this issue of course, we've seen the American public shift rapidly in acceptance of same-sex marriage. Now we are seeing Congress follow behind.
And just this bill, which would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act from 1996. That bill when it was first enacted the Defense of Marriage Act which defined a marriage between a man and a woman, that had just 67 members in the House vote against it.
Today, the vote was 258 in the affirmative, 169 opposed. That means 258 members voted to repeal the law, that a fraction of that opposed just a few decades ago.
Now, among the votes, 39 Republicans voted in the affirmative.
You mentioned Kevin McCarthy. He is the Republican leader, of course, and voted against this.
I did ask him why he voted against it. He would not say and did not respond to the question.
Democrat, however, are hailing this as a historic move. Now they plan to send this the president's desk and should be signed into law within the coming days.
CABRERA: Of course, this bill materialized after the Roe v. Wade reversal. As a fallback should the court return the 205 ruling legalizing gay marriage.
So explain what it does and doesn't do.
RAJU: Yes, it doesn't set a national law. Doesn't say all states must recognize same-sex marriage.
But what it does by repealing the Defense of Marriage Act essentially requires states to recognize another state's legally valid marriage. That means one state cannot deny another state's legally recognized same-sex marriage.
It also gives a religious exemption. If you're in church and don't want to perform a same-sex marriage, you can choose not to and you won't have your tax-exempt status revoked.
That was a compromise struck with Republicans in order to get the 12 Republicans who voted for it in the Senate to agree.
So this bill, it got some criticism from some activists for that exemption and for not setting a national standard.
But I talked to Barney Frank. He is a former Congressman who is gay and who has been pushing for the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act for some time.
He said, quote, "It was a mistake for activists to be criticizing the efforts to put this into law because, at the end of the day. this will protect same-sex marriages."
[13:35:07]
And a lot of same-sex marriage couples were worried about what the Supreme Court would do. He said now they don't have to worry anymore -- Ana?
CABRERA: Manu Raju, live for us on Capitol Hill, thank you.
OK, are you ready for an early Christmas gift? Gas prices are now cheaper than they were a year ago. Look at that. $3.33 per gallon.
Also on the economic front, jobless claims ticked up slightly. If you're the Fed, that could be a good thing.
CNN's Matt Egan is here to sort through it all.
Let's start with the relief at the gas pump. Yay. Is this a trend that should continue and what's behind it to begin with.
MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Ana, gas prices have been on a roller coaster ride this year.
Look at this chart. It is wild. It's hard to imagine right now. But back in 2020, gas prices got to as low as $1.85 a gallon. That was because people weren't driving due to COVID.
President Biden took office, under $2.50 a gallon. And Russia invades Ukraine, gas prices shot up. They peaked at a record 5.02 a gallon.
The fear was Russia's supply was going to get knocked offline. Thankfully, that has not really happened. Oil continues to flow from Russia. So we've seen gas prices come down.
Also because of recession concerns and because U.S. supply has increased, in part, because of record releases of emergency oil. So now we have a situation where gas prices are at 10-month low.
Of course, very good news for consumers. The question is. what happens next? And on that front, the oil market got a bit of a scare today.
The Keystone Pipeline got shut down due to an oil spill. Now, we know that federal regulators are on scene or on their way. They're investigating.
Oil prices initially shot up. WTI got up to $75 a barrel. But look at this. It's come back down. And that shows that, for now, markets are more concerned about the health of the economy than this pipeline.
CABRERA: The latest jobs numbers and what they could mean for the next big Fed decision --
EGAN: Right.
CABRERA: -- which is next week?
EGAN: It is next week. And the Fed is trying to cool this jobs market off because they think that is what needs to happen to get inflation under control. We're getting some signs that may be happening.
Initial claim, new people filing for jobless claims ticked up still at a pretty low level. This number that was getting attention from economists continuing claim, the number of people filing for unemployment, up by 62,000.
Let me show you what this looks like on a chart. This is actually the highest level since February. This is a sign that, even though layoffs remain relatively low, it is taking people longer to get jobs.
That is a sign that the jobs market is slowing down. And we know there's been a series of layoffs including AMC networks, Twitter, Amazon. And just today Blue Apron announcing major layoffs.
So I do think that the jobs market is slowing down. But it's not slowing down enough to convince the Fed to stop slamming the brakes on the economy.
So we are expecting more rate hikes from the fed and probably more signals that they have to do further rate hikes early next year -- Ana?
CABRERA: Matt Egan as always, thank you, sir.
EGAN: Thank you.
CABRERA: Meantime, happening right now, a historic 24-hour strike at "The New York Times." More than 1100 workers have walked off the job after months of tense contract negotiations.
CNN's Oliver Darcy joins us outside "The New York Times."
What are the workers demanding, Oliver?
OLIVER DARCY, CNN SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER: Ana, you can see right behind me that workers here are protesting and they're protesting for higher wages.
They've been negotiating, the union has been negotiating for the last year and a half on a new contract but they have failed to hammer out a deal.
And so now the union is protesting outside "The Times." They've been protesting since midnight really when they walked off their jobs.
This is a 24-hour work stoppage that's occurring at "The New York Times." And something like this hasn't occurred really in decades. Management says that they're disappointed that workers are walking out. Hundreds of workers, 11,000 workers signed this pledge to walk out.
Management is disappointed because they don't believe they've reached an impasse and believe progress is still being made. But clearly the union felt the need to make a point to pressure management and so they're out here.
I should note this work stoppage, it's supposed to stop after 24 hours. So workers will get back to work tomorrow.
But for now, they're on the streets, they're protesting and demanding higher wages -- Ana?
CABRERA: Is this strike impacting the newsroom right now?
DARCY: It is certainly impacting the newsroom. You have more than 1,000 workers who have vowed not to work today. And so management has been preparing for this for some time. They've allocated other resources to "The Times" to keep the news flowing. But for sure when you have this many journalists, this many people protesting, it's affecting what you see on "The New York Times" Web site.
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And they still do plan on putting out a paper today but it's much more difficult as the editor-in-chief or the executive editor acknowledged earlier today.
CABRERA: OK, Oliver Darcy, I'm going to look for your full report in your newsletter "Reliable Sources" later this evening.
Uncle Sam would like to see your Venmo account. The IRS says, if you use third-party payment networks, like Venmo, Cash App or PayPal, you need to report any payments for goods or services once you go over the $600 threshold.
That's due to the new tax reporting rule for this year and this is a massive shift from the previous rule. It's only requiring the previous one only required payments to be reported that went beyond the $20,000 mark. Now, we're talking $600.
There's some good news, though. This does not apply to personal payments to friends or family.
Investigators are now hunting for a white vehicle spotted near the crime scene where four University of Idaho students were brutally killed. Details ahead.
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CABRERA: In Moscow, Idaho, police say they're looking for at least one person who was inside a white sedan, like the one you see there, spotted near the crime scene around the time four college students were brutally stabbed to death.
It's been nearly a month now since that quadruple homicide, and authorities have yet to name a suspect or locate a weapon.
CNN's Veronica Miracle continues to follow this story and is joining us with more on the new development.
Tell us more, Veronica, about why police are interested in this car.
VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, police say tips and leads led them to this car. And they believe that whoever was inside, whether it be the driver offer occupants, may have critical information about this case.
Police also say those tips and leads lead them to the fact that this car may have been in the area on King Street near that house in the early morning hours of those murders. So they want to talk to whoever was inside. Now, Ana, to give you context around where this House is located, it's
off of a main street. It's on a very narrow road where cars are usually parked on both sides.
And it leads to a dead end. So there's not a lot of through traffic, if any, in fact, it's pretty difficult to navigate and the cars that are parked in the area.
They're all of the residents and the students, those University of Idaho students who walk to and from class. So if there was a car there that was out of place, would people have noticed it?
Well, police aren't telling us that right now. All they're say something that they want to speak to whoever was inside that car, whether it be the driver or the occupants of this vehicle.
Police are also asking for more information about the Sigma Chi party where Xana and Ethan were in attendance hours before the murder.
They're hoping more information, tips and leads, can help them get a bigger, better picture of what exactly happened in the hours before their deaths -- Ana?
CABRERA: OK, just little by little piecing this together, not enough information obviously for the families, I'm sure.
Veronica Miracle, thank you so much.
Well, he said he wanted his employees to be, quote, "hard core" and now the city of San Francisco is investigating complaints that Twitter's CEO Elon Musk has turned office space into bedrooms.
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CABRERA: You could say he made his own bed. Twitter CEO Elon Musk is lashing out at the city of San Francisco for investigating the company. Why? Someone complained he converted office space at headquarters into bedrooms. That could violate city codes.
CNN's Tom Foreman joins us to explain what's going on.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The photos that have been smuggled out suggest it to be true. Yes, there are these bedroom things that have been set up inside the Twitter headquarters.
One of which reporting even connected to Musk himself as a place to say while he goes the around-the-clock work trying to keep Twitter relevant and everything since he took over.
We don't know how long they've been in place. I'm not entirely sure how they're working it. They say this converted workspaces or conference rooms? I'm not sure what's going on.
A normal-sized person, you kind of would have this action going on. (LAUGHER)
FOREMAN: So maybe there's truth that they're short staffed.
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CABRERA: You have to be apparently short to work there, by the look of the beds.
Aside from the obvious issues, culture, morale, wanting to people to sleep at the office, what kind of trouble could Musk be in? It sounds like he may be breaking a law or code or something?
FOREMAN: Yes, he could be. It's been reported through Twitter, oddly enough, with the city of San Francisco.
And if you look at the building, there could be zoning concerns, potential building code violations, lease agreement concerns. How much that amounts to, I don't really know.
You know, bear in mind, this is a whole industry. San Francisco, Silicon Valley, has long been built on the notion of we work around the clock, especially the coders.
And this was an earlier picture of someone sleeping on the floor there. But going back decades there, were people talking about sleeping underneath their desk. So they could code until exhaustion, and then wake up and doing it again.
And frankly, you and I have slept at our desks because it was required. Is this a big deal or kerfuffle? It depends on your point of view. Some connected to the industry say, this is how we roll, no-bid deal. Others say too much -- Ana?
CABRERA: Tom Foreman, thanks so much.
FOREMAN: Sure.
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The nation's vulnerable power grid has fallen victim to another attack. This time it wasn't gunfire or cyber hack, but an iguana.
Yes, officials in Lake Worth Beach, Florida, say an iguana affected a shortage that effected about 1,400 customers for about 35 minutes.
The city spokesman says they're a nightmare for every utility agency in Florida. Get this, this is now the first time this year that iguanas have sparked a power outage there in Lake Worth Beach. No comment from the iguana.
That does it for us today. Thank you for joining us. We'll see you back here tomorrow, same time and place.
Stay tuned. Much more after this.
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