Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Sinema Leaves Democratic Party; Key Inflation Metric Released; Griner Lands in U.S.; Jonathan Franks is Interviewed about Griner's Release. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired December 09, 2022 - 09:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:00:04]

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Good Friday morning. I'm Erica Hill.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto.

We are following several major stories this morning, including a CNN exclusive. Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema leaving the Democratic Party, officially now registering as an independent. This is just two days after her now former party secured a narrow majority in the Senate. The White House out with a statement just in the last few minutes saying, in their view this does not change the new Democratic majority control of the Senate. We're going to dive into what this means for Democrats, plus more from Jake Tapper's exclusive interview with Sinema.

HILL: Also this morning, WNBA star Brittney Griner is now back on U.S. soil, landing this morning after spending nearly ten months in a Russian prison. So, what is next for her? We'll talk about that. Plus, new details about that prisoner swap and how the U.S. determined Viktor Bout is no longer a threat to America.

That's all ahead.

First, though, that CNN television exclusive. Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema has now left the Democratic Party, registered as an independent, as she told CNN's Jake Tapper.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KYRSTEN SINEMA (I-AZ): I've registered as an Arizona independent. And I know some people might be a little bit surprised by this, but actually I think it makes a lot of sense. You know, a growing number of Arizonans and people like me just don't feel like we fit neatly into one party's box or the other. And so, like many across the state and the nation, I've decided to leave that partisan process.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: So the -- ever since Raphael Warnock, Senator Warnock was reelected earlier this week, the balance of power right now is 51 Democrats -- or 51 votes for the Democratic Party, that includes two independents, Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont. But that's 51/49. What you're doing today doesn't change that? It's still basically going to be 51/49?

SINEMA: Well, I know you have to ask that question, Jake, but that's kind of a D.C. thing to worry about. What I'm really focused on is just making sure that I'm doing what I think comports with my values and the values of Arizonans. So, when I come to work each day, it will be the same. I'm going to still come to work and hopefully serve on the same committees I've been serving on and continue to work well with my colleagues of both political parties. And I'm not really spending much time worrying about what the mechanics look like for Washington, D.C. And, to be honest, Jake, I don't think anyone in Arizona is caring about that, either.

TAPPER: There's going to be a lot of noise about this from the Democrats, from progressives, from the left. You know this, that because of your position working with Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, to push back on some of the efforts, the legislative efforts, and change them and moderate them, you've already been a target of the left and people have been very critical of you. They're going to call you every name in the book after this comes out. They're going to call you a traitor. They're going to call you an ingrate. What are you going to say?

SINEMA: Well, I think I'll do what I always do, Jake, which is keep doing the work that I know is important for my state. You know, I - I just -- I'm not worried about folks who may not like this approach. What I am worried about is continuing to do what's right for my state.

And there are folks who certainly don't like my approach. We hear about it a lot. But the proof is in the pudding, you know. In the last few years in the Senate, as you and I have just mentioned, I've been honored to lead historic efforts, from infrastructure, to gun violence prevention, to protecting religious liberty and helping LGBT families feel secure, to the chips and science bill, to the work we've done on veterans issues. The list is really long.

And so I think that the results speak for themselves. It's OK if some people aren't comfortable with that approach.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Senator Sinema, we should note, is up for re-election in 2024.

CNN congressional correspondent Lauren Fox covering the story.

Lauren, so the White House is out with a statement saying, in their view this does not change Democratic majority control. You're speaking to Democrats this morning on The Hill. Do they believe that as well?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's really, when you look at the makeup of the Senate, not going to change the composition of committees. And that is really important for a few reasons. This is still going to be a Senate because she is still keeping her committee assignments and getting those committee assignments from Democrats, where Democrats are going to have an edge in their committees, that means they're going to be able to issue subpoenas when they want to, that means they're going to be able to move more quickly to move forward with nominees. That is all practically very important.

But this is still a very important, symbolic move for Sinema. Really an official separation from the Democratic Party that she often has even sparred with some of her colleagues, right? I mean, in the past, she has worked with Republicans, and that is a bipartisan effort that no one in the Democratic Party ever really held against her.

[09:05:01]

But she has also, at times, kept her party from doing things that the rest of them really wanted to do, like getting rid of the filibuster. She and Manchin very clear, time and time again, that was something they weren't willing to do. This announcement doesn't change who she is as a senator, but it really does, you know, just make it the final sever between her and the Democratic Party. So, obviously, a very important move for her. And we should note, she is up for re-election. Does that have some component and was that part of the motivation here? I think that that is going to be really the story moving forward.

HILL: Yes. Certainly those questions already being asked.

Lauren Fox, appreciate it. Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Well, Senator Sinema already out with a video message directly to her constituents this morning. Here's what she said to them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KYRSTEN SINEMA (I-AZ): It's who we are as a people. We don't line up to do what we're told. We do what's right for our state and for our country.

I think Arizonans across the state are going to say, yes, that's the Kyrsten we elected. That's who we sent to D.C. And she's doing exactly what we asked her to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Joining us now, CNN political commentator Van Jones. She's very clear. She thinks this is what Arizonans want. She says this is who she's always been. Not much is going to change.

So, Van, is this move then a political philosophy if nothing is changing or is this about perhaps that 2024 re-election which could be kind of tough?

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, look, I mean, I think that the question is, how much of this is courage, how much of it is cowardice. She's presenting herself as somebody - you know, I've got these strong convictions and that's why I'm doing this. I'm taking this courageous stand. She's been less of an independent, more of an enigma for most people. You know, in the middle of Joe Biden trying to figure out how he was going to govern, she was unlike say a Bernie Sanders or a Joe Manchin. It was just hard to figure out, what did she want? What were her points? What was she trying to get? She just sort of was this confounding presence. That's more of an enigma than an independent.

And then when you think about, is this courage or cowardice, I don't know, but one could argue she is not in a position to win a primary in the Democratic Party right now. She -- there is not a -- if you talk to Democrats in her home state, they are just outraged and feel betrayed. So, this could be an opportunity for her to step out of that primary and to run outside of that system because you have somebody, Ruben Gallego, who is breathing down her neck.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

JONES: He is a 43-year-old Latino progressive. He's a Marine veteran. He's a Harvard graduate.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

JONES: And he was going to primary her. Now she gets to duck out of that. And so, when you look at what's going on, does it affect D.C.? It doesn't affect D.C. that much because it's about, who do you caucus with? She'll caucus with Democrats. It's about, who do you vote with? She votes with Democrats. It's about, who do you support for leadership? She never supported the leadership. So, two and three, it's all the same.

What's different is, she gets to duck out of a primary challenge from Ruben Gallego. I think that's probably more descriptive of what's going on.

SCIUTTO: You know, you talk about her votes there. And even in her interview with Jake, she lists off several pieces of legislation she supported. These were all Biden administration priorities. And they did, many of them, had some bipartisan support, infrastructure, the chips act, et cetera. But she was voting along with the president's agenda. She has voted along with Democrats on, you know, upwards of 90 percent of judicial appointments, et cetera.

I mean, if she's trying to make an argument to independent and even perhaps Republican voters, does she have an argument to win them over that's substantive? And then I wonder what effect that might have on the race here because if you have a Democratic - a Democrat, an independent and a Republican, how does that vote split up in 2024 in Arizona?

JONES: Well, look, I mean that's -- it's really -- she's correct. She says it's not about D.C., it's about Arizona. It is about Arizona but it's about the politics on the ground in Arizona where she's been censured by her own party for not being willing to stand up against the filibuster on behalf of voting rights. So, she's somebody in hot water in her own party. And she's got a serious challenger in Ruben. And so that is a big part of what's going on here.

And, again, we do have independents that caucus with Democrats. That's not a problem.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

JONES: You know, you have Angus King, you have Bernie Sanders.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

JONES: So, that's not at problem.

But the challenge has always been with her. It's not her independence. It's not her bipartisanship. It's just her way of negotiating and dealing. She just won't tell you what she wants. She just tells you what she doesn't want. And that made it very, very difficult in the past two years of the Biden administration to know how to handle her. You know Manchin wants coal. You know Bernie wants, you know, taxing the rich. What does Kyrsten want? It's very, very hard to know.

HILL: Do you think there will be any more clarity with this move in terms of what she does want? Because she doesn't say specifically in this interview, here are all the reasons that I'm leaving, here are all the things that I don't agree with in the Democratic Party. It's more about, you can't put me in a box, which a lot of Americans can relate to. But without those specifics, what changes?

[09:10:00]

JONES: Well, not that much. And I do think, you know, to give her, you know, some credit, again, I'm trying to complicate the narrative here. But to give her some credit, when she says, as she did, I don't feel comfortable in these boxes, I don't feel comfortable in being drug to the extremes, I don't feel comfortable that I have to check every single box on the list or I'm in the doghouse, I don't like that. She's speaking for a lot of Americans who feel that way in both parties. So, she's resonant on that broad theme. It's just when you peel it back, it's very, very difficult to understand what that actually is going to add up to practically beyond getting her out of a primary that she's probably going to lose.

SCIUTTO: Yes, well, just like voters you may not be in a box, legislators, they have to make decision to vote yay or nay on pieces of legislation. And that will be -- I suppose that will be the proof in the pudding going forward.

Van Jones, thanks so much, as always. All of you at home can hear more of the interview with Senator Sinema today on "THE LEAD WITH JAKE TAPPER." Tune in at 4:00 Eastern Time.

There's some other news this morning. Economic news. And some good news. A key inflation metrics show producer prices eased in November. Will consumers see some relief and how does this fit into the boarder trend of where prices are going?

HILL: CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans is here with her magic ball, which is going to tell us what all of this means.

In all seriousness, what does this number tell us about where things at, to Jim's point?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It's just one report, but it's a little hotter than many economists had expected. After all this Fed medicine, a lot of economists thought this number would come down a little bit more.

Let me show you what it looks like. This is producer price inflation, the PPI, 7.4 percent year over year. Month over month it grew 0.3 percent. When you dig into the core rates, when it strips out the volatile food and energy sectors, that was a little hotter than expected.

Let's look at the trend. Jim is so right to mention, the trend is what's important here. One piece of data in a trend - now, I like the looks of that chart, the way it has peaked there, and you see producer prices coming down from the worst, but it's just not coming down as fast as many economists had been hoping. So, this is one of those, yes, but -- pieces of economic news. Yes, it's cooling, but not cooling as much as economists had hoped here. And that's why you have the futures market, stock index futures, the stock market is going to open in about, you know, 26, 27 minutes. Futures are down. And they're down a little bit here because this is telling them the Fed is still going to have to keep going, raising interest rates. The Fed still doesn't have complete control over the inflation story, you guys.

SCIUTTO: Christine, is there typically a lag -- first of all, when I look at that graph, it looks pretty sharply down.

ROMANS: Yes.

SCIUTTO: But I wonder, is there typically a lag in terms of when the Fed acts, raises costs for things, raises costs for borrowing and how that is then reflected in most producer and consumer prices?

ROMANS: Yes. Yes. And it could be - and there's, you know, different measurements, but, generally, you know, six months. So, if you think that we started raising interest rates -- the Fed started raising interest rates back in March. That's why there's a little bit of disappointment among some economists.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

ROMANS: They thought you'd start to be seeing more of that medicine starting to work to cool down, you know, the temperature of the patient, to use kind of a tortured metaphor. But that's what we're talking about here. You're trying to get this inflation under control. It's still - it is - it is peaking. I mean I - I, too, like the looks of that chart. But, you know, the brainiacs who look at this and wonder what the Fed's got to do next are saying, the Fed's got to keep raising interest rates, probably 50 basis points next week when it meets, but they might have to keep interest rates higher for longer than we originally thought to try to get this under control.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

ROMANS: And higher interest rates mean higher borrowing costs for everybody. So. that affects everybody who's watching.

SCIUTTO: Mortgages, credit card rates, you name it.

ROMANS: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Christine Romans, thanks so much.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

SCIUTTO: Well, still to come this hour, welcome home, Brittney Griner. The WNBA star is back on U.S. soil this morning sporting a smile, as you see there. How she's doing. Also what's next for her.

Plus, the DOJ makes a new demand for former President Donald Trump and his legal team after they discovered even more classified documents as a federal judge is now considering today whether to hold Trump in contempt.

HILL: And, countdown to the splash down. The Orion spacecraft set to return to earth this weekend. Big moment here. So, who better to talk about it than the NASA administrator, who's going to be right there in the studio with Jim.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:18:26]

HILL: This morning, WNBA star Brittney Griner arrived back in the U.S. after spending ten months in a Russian prison. The Biden administration securing her release by turning over convicted Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

CNN correspondent Rosa Flores is in San Antonio, where Griner landed just a few hours ago.

So, back on U.S. soil. Not back home yet, Rosa. What's next here?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, we don't know an exact play by play of what's going to happen next, what her schedule is like today. But what we do know from U.S. officials is that she will be taken to a medical facility where she will get a medical evaluation.

Now, we do know more about this process, Erica, because Trevor Reed just went through this and his family, of course, has talked to CNN. Trevor Reed, in fact, he landed at this airfield in San Antonio. And according to his family, the Department of Defense, the military, has one of the best programs for reintegration here in San Antonio. And what that means is, it's a program that helps individuals who have been part of an isolated event, in this case being detained in a foreign prison, to reintegrate into society. And the family of Trevor Reed, their advice for Brittney Griner and her family is for Brittney Griner to actually take advantage of this program to be reintegrated into society and into normal life after that experience over ten months of being detained in a foreign prison. But how did we get here? Let me give you a quick timeline.

[09:20:02]

Brittney Griner was detained on February 17th in Russia on drug charges. In May was when the United States announced that she was wrongfully detained. Then, in June, secret talks began between the U.S. and Russia. And from our -- what our understanding is, is that this was a two for one swap that included Paul Whelan at that point in time. By October, the Russians began to signal that this was not going to include Paul Whelan and that it was a one for one swap that would only include Brittney Griner and only Brittney Griner.

Now, in recent days, now we know that the U.S. and Russia actually came to the agreement and President Biden signed off on this swap.

And, Erica, now we know, of course, that Brittney Griner -- this was successful and that Brittney Griner arrived here in Texas. She's a Texan. She arrived to her lone star state. And we -- from what we know from U.S. officials, right now she is most likely in that medical evaluation.

Erica.

SCIUTTO: Listen, these penal colonies, they're frightful places. They're designed to be. And I can only imagine the treatment necessary when you're coming out of one.

Rosa Flores, thanks so much.

All right, joining us now to speak about this exchange is Jonathan Franks. He's a spokesman for the Bring our Families Home campaign. He was part of the team that worked to help free American Trevor Reed from Russia earlier this year.

Jonathan, good to have you on this morning.

JONATHAN FRANKS, WORKED TO GET TREVOR REED RELEASED FROM RUSSIA: Good morning, Jim. Thanks for having me.

SCIUTTO: So given your involvement in a prior exchange with Russia, prisoner exchange, at perhaps the worst time in decades in terms of broader relations between the U.S. and Russia, tell us how difficult it is and what is involved in making an exchange like this happen.

FRANKS: Well, the exchange is difficult in its own right. The negotiation, I've always said, it serves like a used car negotiation with people involved. And, you know, the actual execution is, you know, a very tightly choreographed endeavor. And, you know, this time, if I may, I would just like to say, I'm extremely frustrated with the gentleman named Marshall Billingsley (ph), who inexplicably and irresponsibly tweeted this out Wednesday night while it was going on and while American personnel were still conducting it and thereby endangering the personnel and Brittney Griner for what, for some ideological view on Viktor Bout. HILL: There has been a lot of pushback, as you know, and a lot of

questions about, to Jim's point about how this went down, how the decisions were made. We have heard from officials, from several officials across the administration, that the choice was Brittney Griner or no one. The Whelan family has said they're understandably disappointed but they agree absolutely with that decision, that someone should come home instead of no one.

So, in terms of that, you know, a little bit more so Jim's point, give us a sense, just how difficult is this? Because, as I look at this as an outsider who is following this, Russia held all the cards here.

FRANKS: Correct. They were -- they definitely walked into the negotiation with leverage, which is the whole point of kidnapping the Americans in the first place. So, you know, there's always a movable target when negotiating with these regimes, but Russia seems to be even more into chaos than the others. So, you know, I think it's without question that President Biden made the right decision in making it one for one. If the choice is one or zero, you make the choice for one, period. And, you know, I -- again, I would just ask people to think a little bit. You know, these people that are pushing back on it. What if it was your loved one, right, I don't think you'd be pushing back.

SCIUTTO: OK, let's look at the exchanges, if we can, to get an indication as to what it may take to get Paul Whelan home. For Trevor Reed the exchange was Konstantin Yaroshenko. He was convicted, spent - convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison for cocaine trafficking, many tens of millions of dollars. We have Griner exchange for Viktor Bout, the merchant of death. I mean she's picked up for 0.7 grams of cannabis oil and he, you know, supplied wars for decades, right, that kind of thing. Not even trades.

If you look at Paul Whelan, do you have any sense of what category of person or exchange that Russia will be looking for here?

FRANKS: Not really in the sense that they could be looking for a spy for symmetry.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

FRANKS: You know, they could be looking for a specific individual. I will say, you know, I - that the United States continues to have custody of several high-profile Russians that are important to the Kremlin for a number of reasons. So, I'm really hopeful that they can redouble efforts, go back to the negotiation table and the other - you know, the second Russian who was originally supposed to be in this deal can be traded for Paul.

HILL: Jonathan, give us a sense of what is happening with Brittney Griner in these moments. Now that she's back on U.S. soil, she's being reacclimated. There are going to be a lot of questions for her about Russia. What are your concerns for her after ten months in Russian custody?

FRANKS: So, just as a general proposition, and, again, I don't know whether this is true of her or not, but generally when these folks come back, right, they've been in an environment where they have no free will and they're not allowed to make a single choice, right?

[09:25:10]

They're told when to wake up, when to sleep, when to eat, when to not, when to go to the bathroom, when to not. And then they get off the airplane and they have completely free will.

So, one of the things about the Army's program, post isolation support activity in San Antonio, is it is the best program in the world for giving people rehabilitation from this particular set of problems. And, you know, even sometimes when these folks come back, it's hard to sleep on a bed again because they're so used to sleeping on the floor in, you know, a foreign hellhole.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Yes. Yes.

HILL: Jonathan Franks, always appreciate you joining us. Appreciate your expertise here. Thank you.

FRANKS: Thank you. Bye.

HILL: And in our next hour, as we continue to cover Brittney Griner's return home, we're actually going to speak with the president of the Phoenix Mercury, her team, as well as State Department Spokesperson Ned Price. So, stay with us for that.

Also ahead here, a federal judge today considering whether Donald Trump should be held in contempt for failing to comply with the DOJ subpoena. What triggered that move by the Justice Department and also what else they're asking for.

That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)