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Fed Lifts Rates By 0.5 Percent, Acknowledge That Inflation Is Easing; Most Democrats, Republicans Want New Nominees In 2024. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired December 14, 2022 - 15:00   ET

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

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BIANNA GOLODRYGA, CNN SENIOR GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: It is the top of the hour on CNN NEWSROOM. Hello, everyone. I'm Bianna Golodryga.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you.

The Federal Reserve just gave a major sign that its fight against high inflation may be working. The Central Bank only hiked interest rates by half point, 50 basis points, the smallest increase since June. Now, this last - the last four times rather, the Board has opted for 75 basis point jump.

Since the decision, though, stocks had been falling. Take a look.

GOLODRYGA: Here there you see down over 200 points, the Chairman of the Fed explained this decision just moments ago.

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JEROME POWELL, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIRMAN: Despite elevated inflation, longer term inflation expectations appeared to remain well anchored as reflected in a broad range of surveys of Households, businesses and forecasters as well as measures from financial markets. But that is not grounds for complacency. The longer the current bout of high inflation continues, the greater the chance that expectations of higher inflation will become entrenched.

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GOLODRYGA: CNN's Matt Egan is at the Federal Reserve. So Matt, I think that investors there are reacting to news that the Federal Reserve is not done with rate hikes and thus we're seeing the selloff.

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Yes, I think that's right, Victor and Bianna. The Fed is saying that there's more work to be done here. It's interesting because even though the White House and Wall Street have been celebrating the signs of cooling inflation, the Fed Chair took a bit of a different approach. He said, "It will take substantially more evidence to gain confidence that inflation is on a sustained downward path." In other words, they're not declaring victory anytime soon. And Powell, he also stressed that the jobs market remains hot. He said that the labor market is "very, very strong." He said we haven't seen much softening. He said wages are high and all of that, of course, supports inflation.

So the Fed is now penciling in another 75 basis points of rate increases next year. That is more than the Fed had previously been penciling in. It means higher borrowing costs for everyone mortgage rates, credit cards, car loans, it does mean more downward pressure on the economy and so Fed officials are also projecting some more negatives for the economy.

They put out a new round of economic projections and they were downgraded across the board. The Fed now sees at near zero growth next year in terms of GDP, that forecast was cut in half. They bumped up their unemployment forecast. They now see unemployment going from 3.7 percent today to 4.6 percent next year. That translates to the loss of millions of jobs and they also bumped up their forecast for inflation.

So I think if you put all of it together, the Fed is really trying to drive home this message that more work is going to be needed to get inflation back towards healthy levels.

BLACKWELL: All right. Matt Egan for us there at the Federal Reserve. Thank you, Matt.

GOLODRYGA: Thanks, Matt. All right, now, millions of people in the southeast are at risk for tornadoes as a massive storm system continues to move east. Police say rescue efforts are underway in southern Louisiana, after a tornado touchdown in New Iberia, damaging several homes with people still inside. This video of the storm was captured by our affiliate in Lafayette.

A medical center in the area also suffered significant damage. Officials say a shelter has been set up for anyone who has been displaced.

The same storm system tore through the northern part of the state yesterday, a boy and his mother died after a tornado destroyed their home near Shreveport. And about 100 miles away in the town of Farmerville, where tornado ripped through a mobile home community, 20 people injured there. New drone video shows the extent of the damage, look at that.

CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam is in Farmerville for us. Show us around and tell us what you're seeing in here.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Okay. Well, what you're seeing now is the first time that residents have been allowed to come back to assess the damage to almost look over to see the extent of what took place here and it's been riveting to see people pulling out just bags of clothes, any kind of things that they can.

But I also heard one of the insurance adjusters that appeared talking to the residents saying that they're not allowed back into some of the homes here because the structures are not necessarily safe. You can see the cars behind me have been thrown around like toys. You can see some of the almost debris just plastered onto the sides of these vehicles. We've seen literally some of pieces of roof that was wedged into the sides of vehicles and you can just see the power of what a tornado can do.

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But I want to bring in a survivor from this horrific tornado. This is Tawana Wayne. And this, I believe, is your home.

TAWANA WAYNE, HOME DAMAGED BY TORNADO: Yes.

VAN DAM: Were you here during the tornado?

WAYNE: Yes. Yes.

VAN DAM: What was it like for you?

WAYNE: Oh, my God, it was terrifying. The wind just blow me through the hallway, along with the glass, it was everywhere. I was - my husband was asleep on the couch and I was hollering for him. And when I found him, he got up and he had fallen from the debris. And we grabbed each other and the House was shaking, though, everything, debris was coming in the home, it was just devastating.

VAN DAM: Did you have any warning?

WAYNE: Yes. We had warning. The warning had came off and that's why I went out of the bedroom. But as soon as I got in the bed room, it's like the wind and the glass just pushed me all the way through the hallway and it was just traumatizing.

VAN DAM: That must have been absolutely terrifying. But what was going through your mind when that - I'm assuming that couldn't have lasted longer than a couple of minutes, what was going on through your mind?

WAYNE: Yes. I just felt we were dying. I felt like it was over. It happened so fast. We just kept hearing boom, boom, boom all throughout the home and it was just traumatizing. I thought we were going. I thought the House is just going to be lifted up and we were just going to be taken away.

VAN DAM: We are so happy that you are here today to tell the story and to share this with us and we're glad that your husband - he's okay?

WAYNE: Yes, he's okay. He had falling - he had a stroke previously and he's okay.

VAN DAM: I'm glad to hear that. So I hope that you're able to retrieve as much of your personal belongings and I'm - my heartbreaks for you guys and everything you went through.

WAYNE: The only thing I have was the clothes on my back. We were unable to retrieve anything, because everything was so damaged and my father passed away Sunday and so I'm dealing with that along with losing my home.

This is just a combination of one disaster after another for people here in the south including, Tawana. Thank you for sharing your story and it's going to be a long road to recovery for people as you can see as my cameraman pivots behind those used to be mobile homes directly over my right shoulder now just a pile of memories left on the ground. Bianna and Victor, back to you.

GOLODRYGA: Just at a loss for words when you hear Tawana story about her husband recovering from a stroke, her father recently passing away and then surviving miraculously this tornado. And one thing we keep hearing is how quickly the speed with which these storms (inaudible) ...

BLACKWELL: She got the notification, it was coming and then the wind and glass pushed her down that hall. A vivid story, I'm glad that she and her husband survived. Derek, thank you so much.

GOLODRYGA: Thanks, Derek. Well, it is not just the tornadoes. This storm system is pounding Middle America with heavy snow and blizzard conditions.

BLACKWELL: Visibility is down to almost nothing in some areas.

Of course, the travel is a mess. CNN Meteorologist Jennifer Gray is tracking the storm.

So we were there in Louisiana with Derek, which areas are facing the biggest concern right now.

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN WEATHER CORRESPONDENT: I still think it's that tornado threat. It hasn't gone away. It's lasted throughout the overnight hours and still continuing as we speak. We do have that snowy side and the wintry side of this, but I think the biggest threat right now, as you're mentioning is this tornado threat.

We still have a Tornado watch in effect for Southeast Louisiana, Mississippi portions of Alabama. These are all tornado warnings. All these hot pink boxes are tornado warnings, which means there could be a tornado in progress and people in these areas have got to get to their safe spot.

These are now pushing into portions of Alabama, so this is still a huge threat. This is ongoing. This is going to last throughout the afternoon and evening hours. Here are all the tornado reports so far. We know this began yesterday evening, as we were reporting.

So as we go forward in time, these storms will finally start to move to the east. They're going to push through Alabama, Georgia on into the Carolinas off the East Coast in the coming days. And, of course, the wintery side, as you were mentioning, Duluth down to half a mile visibility, the snow is still continuing for this area, guys. We still are under those blizzard warnings as we have been since yesterday, guys.

BLACKWELL: All right. Jennifer Gray watching it for us. Thank you, Jennifer.

GRAY: Thanks.

BLACKWELL: The House January 6 Committee is set to release its final report next week and when it does, it will not include phone records that the Committee has been seeking for more than a year.

GOLODRYGA: This week, the committee withdrew multiple subpoenas for phone records. CNN's Katelyn Polantz joins us now with details. So Katelyn, what more have you learned?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, Victor and Bianna whenever the House Select Committee embarked upon this unprecedented investigation around January 6th they sent lots and lots of subpoena into the hundreds.

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Some of those subpoenas were for phone records, so they sent them to phone companies like Verizon, AT&T and T Mobile and a couple handful, a couple of dozen people sued the House Select Committee, largely people who were very closely allied with Donald Trump after the election.

And when those particular people sued, it put on hold the ability of the House to get their phone records. And so what was happening was there was a waiting game happening in court. All of those people were waiting to see whether any courts would challenge the committee or allow their challengers to move forward. The lawsuits really hadn't gone very far.

And so now with one week left to go of this House Select Committee, the House is essentially dropping these disputes that they had in court, they're withdrawing the subpoenas. They're just not going to get those records from maybe a few dozen people.

We've already seen about six or so notices in court this week, where the House Select Committee is telling people, we're not going to be seeking your phone records anymore. We haven't been able to get them.

BLACKWELL: So this is all happening, Katelyn, as the Special Counsel is trying to get access to Republican Congressman Scott Perry's text messages. Tell us about that.

POLANTZ: Right. Well, one of the things that the House Select Committee was trying to do was they really wanted to get phone records for people that were very close to the president after January 6th or around the election. One of those people was Mark Meadows, the White House Chief of Staff at the time. Meadows was in touch with lots of people and publicly we have seen Meadows was in touch with people like Rep. Scott Perry, a Republican from Pennsylvania.

We know the Justice Department investigation took an interest into Scott Perry and his phone, particularly this summer. There was a search and seizure done around him and then after that, CNN has been able to confirm that there was a confidential proceeding in court in this fall, where the Justice Department was pursuing data from Scott Perry's phone.

Now we know he was the type of person around Trump who was not just in touch with Meadows, but he was interested in getting in touch with lots of people to push forward this idea that there may have been - there should be not trust in the elections or that there may be election fraud. And so we know that the Justice Department is trying to get a handle on who else Perry may have been in touch with.

BLACKWELL: Katelyn Polantz in Washington for us. Thank you, Katelyn.

The 2024 presidential race may feel a little deja vu, but new CNN polling shows voters have little appetite for another Biden-Trump race. We'll discuss.

GOLODRYGA: Meantime on Capitol Hill, the Republican leadership are locking horns over the spending bill, we'll have details straight ahead.

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BLACKWELL: New CNN polls out today reveal what voters are thinking about when it comes to the 2024 presidential race. Former President Trump has already declared his candidacy and President Biden says he intends to run for reelection.

GOLODRYGA: But these early numbers indicate that America doesn't necessarily want this rematch. CNN's Senior Data Reporter, Harry Enten is here with more. So Harry, what are you seeing in these poll results?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yes. Let's just start off on the Republican side should trump be the GOP's 2024 presidential nominee. Back in January, February it was basically a mixed bag, 50 percent to 49 percent, 50 percent saying yes. Look at Trump's numbers, though, the trend line.

That, yes, dropped to 44 percent in July, now it's just 38 percent. The clear majority 62 percent of Republicans say, no Trump should not be the Republican nominee. But it's also interesting when we look at the favorable ratings among Republican voters.

Look at this, the favorable rating of Ron DeSantis, who obviously has not declared, but there's a lot of whispering that he will run in 2024. Look at that, a 77 percent approval rating, Donald Trump among Republicans just a 62 percent approval rating.

BLACKWELL: So Donald Trump losing momentum among Republicans.

ENTEN: Yes, he is absolutely losing momentum among Republicans at this point. And I want to just sort of compare that to the Democratic side at this particular point, right? There's not really momentum here. Should Joe Biden be the Democrats' 2024 presidential nominee, what do we see here? We see that back in January and February, 45 percent said yes, in July, it's at all the way down, my goodness, to 25 percent.

Now, it's back up to 40 percent. Still, the majority say, no, Joe Biden should not be the Democratic nominee at 59 percent. But the big difference between the Democratic and Republican side is Joe Biden is still the most well-liked Democrat at this point, his favorable rating 82 percent, some other potential 2024 nominees among Democrats, Kamala Harris 62 percent favorable rating, Gavin Newsom with just 47 percent of favorable rating.

So even though a lot of Democrats maybe don't want Joe Biden to be the Democratic nominee, he's still the most well liked, unlike Donald Trump on the Republican side.

GOLODRYGA: So that really is the difference between where both stand is that while Americans may not like, Democrats may not like having Joe Biden, again, and Republicans may not like having Trump, it looks like the alternative in terms of what Democrats want, they still prefer Biden over where we're seeing Trump headed.

ENTEN: That's exactly right. That's exactly right. And one last thing that I just want to kind of note here is among the general electorate, right, because obviously when looking sort of at the primaries, if we look here, I think this kind of gives you a keen idea of why Republicans wanted Donald Trump to stay away in Georgia, views in policies of Joe Biden generally mainstream 63 percent of Americans say, yes, his views are generally mainstream. Well compare that to Donald Trump just 32 percent say that, look at the too extreme column. Look at that, 68 percent of Americans nationwide say that Donald Trump's views are too extreme and that may be part of the reason why Donald Trump is losing momentum among Republicans.

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BLACKWELL: And the only declared candidate so far, Harry Enten, thank you.

ENTEN: Thank you.

GOLODRYGA: Joining us now CNN Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash and CNN Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger.

So Dana, as you listen to these numbers and listen, we've got a long time and President Biden hasn't even confirmed whether he will run again, though, we expect him too. How much is the White House digesting numbers like this at this point?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I don't know how much they're digesting these particular numbers. The numbers that they're mostly looking at, I think, are things like the interest rate only going - bumping up half a point

The CPI which, Bianna, you've been looking at those numbers on the on the regular for years. I think most Americans are tuning into it now, because inflation is affecting them in their everyday lives. Those are the numbers and another number that goes without saying, which is 80, which is the President's age. I think those are the key numbers that they are looking at more than how he is faring in the Democratic field, because I've not talked to anybody and I'm - I would love to know if Gloria agrees with me. I'm not talking to anybody in the Democratic Party, up and down, who does not think that if Joe Biden runs, he's not going to get a real challenger.

BLACKWELL: Gloria, let's look at the Republicans and the question of if not Trump, who should be the nominee.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.

BLACKWELL: So in the latest numbers, just out today, 53 percent say they want someone other than Trump, 38 percent of those folks want - the people want someone else, they want Ron DeSantis. If we look at the same question, from January of this year, Ron DeSantis is the only person who's shown any progress, any improvement everyone else who's at 1 percent was it 1 percent at the start of this year, I mean, we're still far out from Iowa, but this is essentially people that are in this conversation so far.

BORGER: Well, yes, I think one of the reasons you've seen the numbers peak on whether or not Republicans want somebody else other than Trump to run is that they think they have an alternative here. And the alternative, they believe, obviously, according to our poll and the numbers you just showed is Ron DeSantis.

Personally, I think he's peaked just a little too early. People don't know a lot about him. He hasn't been out on the campaign trail. They knew that he won overwhelmingly in Florida. Republicans overwhelmingly believe he did a good job there, but obviously, they have an alternative.

And that, again, is another difference with the Democrats, because while the Democrats may say, okay, we want someone other than Joe Biden to run. When you ask that same question to them, they really have no idea who their favorite is.

I mean, according our poll, 72 percent of Democrats say they have no particular favorite. So it's really different in the parties. If the Democrats had someone else to point to, Dana suggests and I agree with her, that if Biden decides to run, somebody might decide to challenge him, then they'll have a choice.

But at this point, they're kind of going, okay, as opposed to whom and we don't know the answer to that.

GOLODRYGA: So we talked about what could happen in the future. Let's talk about the numbers that both parties are focusing on right now and that is perhaps finding common ground here in an omnibus bill and not seeing another government shutdown.

Dana, I'm curious to get your response to what we're seeing behind the scenes versus what's happening in front of cameras, specifically on the Republican side, with Kevin McCarthy, clearly still wanting to grasp hold in that speaker ship position and appealing to the far right by saying publicly that he doesn't want to deal, but privately he's saying something else. Where do you see this headed?

BASH: It is - there's so much performance happening here, understandable performance. Because he, Kevin McCarthy, is - it's go time for him. He needs every single one of the Republican votes that he can get and if he did anything other than what he is doing now, which is getting out there and being so forward leaning into the idea that he hates the idea of this year long spending bill, hell no, even criticizing Mitch McConnell, that is all for one goal and that is to shore up the votes that he knew - he needs in January - on January 3rd on the floor of the House to become Speaker of the House.

The McConnell, part of it is really fascinating, because I've spoken to a number of Republicans who are very much in touch with, even part of the base who say that that Mitch McConnell right now is sort of persona non grata among Republican voters, those who are the staunchest. And so the idea that McCarthy is going against him or at least seeming to in public, that is very much part of his campaign to be Speaker of the House.

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BORGER: I spoke with someone who is an ally of McConnell's who said that actually McConnell has not very much of a relationship with Kevin McCarthy at all to begin with. This isn't going to make it any better. When you look back to the Ryan - Speaker Ryan days, Speaker Boehner days, McConnell had a much better relationship.

I think now, it's frayed, and it'll get even more frayed, because the feeling among the McConnell folks is that McCarthy is being held hostage to a fringe of a minority and I bet in his heart of hearts, that is what McCarthy believes to himself, but he wants to be speaker as Dana said and so there is very little he can do.

GOLODRYGA: All right. Dana Bash, Gloria Borger, thank you.

BORGER: Sure.

BASH: Thank you.

GOLODRYGA: The widow of sports journalist, Grant Wahl, is speaking out for the first time since he died at the World Cup. What we're learning about his cause of death up next.

BLACKWELL: And today marks 10 years since the Sandy Hook Elementary shooting forever changed this country, CNN Special Report tonight.

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