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Tornadoes Tear Across Louisiana; November Retail Sales See Sharpest Monthly Decline All Year; House Passes Stopgap Bill to Avert Government Shutdown; House Lawmakers Get Classified, Bipartisan Briefing on Ukraine; Jill Biden All In for Joe's Second Run for the White House; U.S. Border Towns Braces for Title 42 to End Next Week. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired December 15, 2022 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:47]

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

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

A powerful storm crashing through the south overnight. Reports of nearly 50 tornadoes across the region in just the last 48 hours. Those devastating storms leaving destruction in its path in Louisiana and other parts of the southeast. At least three people killed, thousands left without power.

We're going to take you live to the scene as officials are working hard to assess the damage and help those affected.

HILL: Also new data this morning on the U.S. economy. Consumer spending fell in November as inflation took its toll. U.S. retail sales declining by .6 percent. May not sound like a lot. It's important to put it in perspective. It's the sharpest monthly decline we've seen all year.

Also this morning, we're going to head to Washington. The House advancing a short-term stopgap to avoid a shutdown. That bill now headed to the Senate ahead of tomorrow's midnight deadline. We're live on Capitol Hill this morning.

SCIUTTO: We do begin, though, this hour in Louisiana. CNN correspondent Nick Valencia on the ground. There is extensive damage you've been showing us throughout the morning, Nick, where you are. What are you hearing from survivors, from folks who weathered this?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Erica. The damage here in Gretna, Louisiana, is widespread as you mentioned. And you look behind me, you can see some of it here. I just spoke to the resident that lives inside this house just a couple down, Denise Kennedy. She says she was home with her disabled son. She still doesn't have any power, no running water. And she's hoping that authorities are going to come here to help restore that.

You know, these residents had very little time to prepare. And while they knew that there was a threat of severe weather, many of them, you know, they just didn't really expect to take a direct hit. We've been talking about just how rare this large outbreak of tornadoes, it's very rate for this time of year. So a lot of people here, they sort of took it, you know, short of shrugged their shoulders at it, thinking they weren't going to get the, you know, severe weather that meteorologists were talking about.

And you can see the damage here, the tornado came through and ripped through here. The National Weather Service has yet to tell us just how strong the tornado was. They're going to have crews surveying the damage here. But I want you to listen to some of these residents I spoke to. Some have said that it just lasted about 10 to 15 seconds, but still was able to cause all of this damage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALTON JONES, GRETNA, LOUISIANA RESIDENT: The noise that it made, it was unreal. I was looking out the window at first, and I just got out of the window. You know, I mean, I was panicking. You know, and I just started saying my prayers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought it was an explosion, and then my mamma told me to get down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALENCIA: Heartwarming moment with that little boy Jerell (PH) who tells me that he hopes Santa can still find his home despite it being destroyed. You see our cameraman Jonathan Share showing you that roof that was just, you know, almost entirely ripped off this what we believe is maybe a duplex or triplex here.

You know, this community, a lot of people out kind of trying to check out the scene, seeing what's left of their homes. You know, not lost on this community either is that this happened right before Christmas, and they're going to have to pick up a lot of what was destroyed. We understand that the governor here, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards is expected to host a press conference where he will update residents on the extent of the damage -- Erica, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Goodness. You're always reminded of the power of those tornadoes when you see what it leaves in its wake. What they leave in the wake.

Nick Valencia, thanks so much.

Joining us is Guy McInnis, he's the president of Saint Bernard Parish in New Orleans, Louisiana.

Good to have you on, sir. We know you've got a lot on your plate this morning.

GUY MCINNIS, PRESIDENT, ST. BERNARD PARISH: Good morning, Jim. You know, our crews are out this morning. They were out all night actually, along with our sheriff's department and firefighters. So we just want to make sure our residents are going to have a sense of normalcy as soon as possible. This tornado -- just a few months ago in March we had an ef-3 come through and totally demolished 70 structures, affected 350 structures.

This one came through, same path, just a little bit more east. A couple of blocks over. We have about 50 or so structures that are affected, mostly roofs. We will have a few demolitions. But all in all, no injuries. The real time reporting from the local reporters was unbelievable. It saves lives.

[09:05:03]

HILL: It does, because as you know all too well with tornadoes as opposed to a hurricane, there is so little warning. So just to confirm with you, too, everyone is accounted for this morning?

MCINNIS: Yes, ma'am, and thank you for asking about that. We are thinking about the three fatalities here in Louisiana. But in St. Bernard Parish, we had no fatalities, no serious injuries, no one showing up at the hospital. We did have 10 rescues last night, but that was people who were trapped in their homes because the roof either fell in front of their door or people weren't ambulatory and being able to get out of their home.

So all in all, we're OK. We have the resources from our governor. We spoke with him last night. We'll be seeing him today. Speaking with our Congressman Scalise and Senator Kennedy and Cassidy. So we're going to have the resources. And during this holiday season our citizens are very resilient. They're helping each other right now. So we're just trying to do our part to get their lives up and going.

SCIUTTO: You know, it's a relief, first of all, to hear that people are safe because God knows, I mean, these storms are powerful. And when you look at, and we're showing some right now, homes just torn apart, lifted into the air, disappearing. How many folks and do you know at this point lost their homes, are going to need shelter for some time because of this?

MCINNIS: You know, we -- here in St. Bernard Parish, we don't have much of that today. We may even wind up having to demo some homes because of some structural damage. Much different than the tornado that came on this side of the river back in March where we had 70 demolitions and homes destroyed during the storm, where we had to worry about housing. Right now most people I believe are staying with relatives.

We have about 1100 customers out of power. We're blessed with cool weather. So people are able to stay in their home some. But as of right now, Jim, we don't have people that are in need of housing. But we'll find out more about that today.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HILL: You just talked about the folks, too, also without power. We heard from our colleague Nick Valencia water obviously affected in some areas as well. When you look -- when you talk about these two tornadoes, the one in March and then, of course, this one overnight, how concerned are you? I mean, New Orleans, you know a hurricane. But how concerned are you about this potential increase in other types of severe weather, specifically tornadoes?

MCINNIS: You know, we're concerned and we're not educated on why, you know, this has all of a sudden become a tornado alley here in St. Bernard Parish. But, you know, it's tough living here. You know, we have the most exciting city in the world to our west and the most -- the tranquility of the sportsman's paradise to the east and we're right in the middle of that. So it's a little tough to live here with the hurricanes and now tornadoes. But we don't want to live anywhere else.

SCIUTTO: Most exciting city in the world, I think you're probably talking about New Orleans. Let's see. Our heart goes out to you and the people there. We know that, you know, a lot of the hardest work comes after the storm and a tornado. So we wish you the best of luck.

MCINNIS: We're going to get to work today. God bless.

SCIUTTO: All right. Also this morning, some economic news. New retail numbers -- retail sales numbers out just moments ago show that consumer spending saw its sharpest drop of the year. Economists had anticipated a smaller drop for last month. This is worse than they expected. It's actually interesting because we did see some big sales numbers on Black Friday, for instance, Cyber Monday. But the big picture was a slowdown.

HILL: CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans joining us now.

So, Christine, what should we make of these numbers?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: OK. These are not adjusted for inflation. So those big sales you saw over the holiday period, those ticket prices were less so that could be feeding into this number a little bit as well as consumers being a little more cautious about what they're buying. That's the trend there. You see that decline on the far right. It's a reversal of what was a very strong October.

Retail sales were very strong in October. It looks like a deceleration there heading into November. Again the weakest retail sales reading in about a year. We saw declining sales for autos. Also, those prices are starting to come down a little bit. Also gasoline prices are down. So there might be an inflation factor in here as inflation is cooling a little bit. And it might be that consumers are also being very, very, you know, judgmental about what they're buying.

You know, they're making different judgments here and they're spending on necessities and not necessarily things they don't need right away.

I want to give you a quick look at the job market because we got the latest reading on jobless claims. These are first-time unemployment claims. Those are the lowest in 11 weeks, they fell some 20,000 to just 211,000.

[09:10:05]

So you guys, that trend is still intact. It's a very tight labor market. That's what the Fed chief said yesterday. You still have a job market that is pretty strong, although we are seeing these signs and we'll watch it again to see if there's a trend that develops, a sign where the consumer might be starting to back off a little bit, guys.

HILL: All right.

SCIUTTO: Christine, just quickly, isn't this what the Fed wants? Right? I mean, it's always hard to digest because they're raising rates so that it does cool off the economy. And by the way, you raise rates, you know, credit card rates go up and it makes it harder to spend money.

ROMANS: Exactly.

SCIUTTO: I mean, is this intentional to some degree, what they want?

ROMANS: And this is what, you know, the Fed is trying to engineer a slowdown, then a soft landing for an economy that has been running too hot as it's come out of COVID. This also could be those higher borrowing costs starting to catch up to consumers. They're being, as I said, they're making judgments that are a little different today than they did last month or certainly last year. So we'll watch these numbers and see what they say to us.

The auto sales number I think was interesting in there. You know, we've seen, you know, auto sales coming down a little bit, prices are coming down, and people might be saying, hey, wait, those rates to buy a car are a little higher right now, I'm going to back off a bit.

HILL: Also if they're starting to drop, you may continue to wait if you can to see if it's going to go even lower.

ROMANS: That's right. That's right.

HILL: Christine, appreciate it. Thank you.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

HILL: We'll soon hear a stop-gap bill to avert a government shutdown heads to the Senate. This of course after passing in the House overnight. That measure would extend government funding through December 23rd which gives congressional negotiators a little more time to finalize a broader full-year government funding deal.

SCIUTTO: CNN congressional correspondent Lauren Fox is up on Capitol Hill.

So, they're getting this extra time. Does that mean they will get a longer-term deal?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that is the expectation and the hope right now. But we should get -- add some caveats to that, Jim. One of them the fact that yesterday John Thune, the Republican whip in the Senate, told my colleague Manu Raju that he does not know yet if the Republican votes are going to be there, in part because they have not seen any details on this framework agreement that negotiators announced on Tuesday night.

That's significant, right? Because they need to get at least 10 Republican votes. It looks like they're going to need more than that because you have Bernie Sanders, an independent who caucuses with Democrats, saying he would not support the package. Therefore Republicans are going to have to get behind it. Now there are some incentives for Republicans despite the fact that many of them are arguing they don't like how this bill was put together. They don't like how rushed this process has been.

There are projects for people's districts, projects for people's states in this piece of legislation, and there is something to really sweeten the deal for individual lawmakers. That always makes a huge difference. I also want to point out that in the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi just has two Democratic votes that she can lose. That is significant. They are going to have to get some Republicans.

And as we talked about extensively, Kevin McCarthy, the top Republican in the House, is opposed to this larger spending package. He wants to create some kind of scenario where lawmakers in the Republican Party would have more power to negotiate this next year and punt this process. Of course that could lead to a major potential shutdown if you had Republicans in the House and Democrats in the Senate oppose.

So a lot of lawmakers who are dealing with this want this to be handled next week, and the expectation right now is it will be. But again, there are going to be some hiccups along the way.

HILL: All right. So we'll buckle up. Lauren, appreciate it. Thank you.

Happening this morning, a closed-door briefing on Ukraine with House lawmakers and key Biden administration cabinet members. In that room, the secretaries of State, Defense, the director of National Intelligence and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The likely focus, the ground war in Ukraine and how vital the continued support is for that Ukrainian fight.

SCIUTTO: As you'll remember, we reported yesterday the U.S. is preparing to send the Patriot missile system to Ukraine, something the Kremlin says will now make a target for Russian forces, though Ukrainian forces certainly welcoming then.

CNN national security correspondent Kylie Atwood joins us now.

Kylie, this briefing, is there a moment here that's of particular importance in the war, or is this a regular briefing?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, I think the fact that the administration is preparing, as you said, Jim, to send those Patriot missiles is the key factor here. Obviously these senior administration officials will provide sort of a status update for these lawmakers in terms of what's going on on the ground. We're nearing one year of this war. So they'll be able to tell them

what they're seeing, how the Ukrainians are doing on the battlefield. And I also think it's fair to say that this is an opportunity for the Biden administration to explain to these lawmakers what their strategy is going ahead with this war because you will have House lawmakers in that room who have been very blunt in saying they are not for any more support to Ukraine.

Meanwhile, you have the majority of those lawmakers who are on the side of the Biden administration saying we need continued support.

[09:15:06]

But I think what those lawmakers will want to hear is how the administration plans to continue that support next year and what their goal is, what they think the Ukrainians can realistically accomplish. All this of course comes on the heels of those plans to send those Patriot missiles. Those are extremely advanced missile defense systems that the United States is preparing to send to Ukraine.

The Ukrainians have been asking the Biden administration for these for months if not years now. So this is a very significant development that the Biden administration feels at this moment in time it is appropriate to send those over.

And I also think it's important to note that this comes as McCarthy is going to probably be in that room. We don't know exactly who is attending. But he is trying to gin up enough support in his caucus to be the next speaker. So it will be interesting if we hear anything out of that briefing to see what the back and forth is like between him and these Democrats who are the Biden administration officials leading the Ukraine war and the Biden administration strategy to it.

HILL: Kylie, thank you. And just as you were speaking, we actually did hear briefly from Congressman Mike Quigley coming out of that briefing saying the Patriot missile system was, in fact, part of the discussion. So we'll continue to keep everybody updated as we all learn more. Appreciate it. Thank you.

SCIUTTO: New this morning, CNN has learned that the First Lady Jill Biden is now on board with her husband running for a second term. This after she had some early skepticism. When we expect that decision, announcement to come, we'll talk more.

HILL: Plus explosive new allegations from Harry and Meghan in the final installment of their Netflix docuseries. Details on a fight behind closed doors between Harry and William, and the real danger Meghan felt the tabloids put her family in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MEGHAN, DUCHESS OF SUSSEX: You are making me scared, right? And like that night to be up and down in the middle of the night, looking down my hallway, like, are we safe? Are our doors locked? Is security on? Is every -- that's real. Are my babies safe?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Also ahead, disturbing revelations in a court hearing for the man who attacked Paul Pelosi with a hammer including others he planned to target.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:21:28]

HILL: New this morning, CNN has learned Jill Biden is now in favor of President Biden taking on a second term, and that's a major shift from the first lady's position just three months earlier. This as Biden's chief of staff says he does expect the president to make a decision shortly after the holidays.

SCIUTTO: CNN White House correspondent Kate Bennett joins us now with more.

And Kate, this is quite a shift. Your new reporting is that Jill Biden is all in for another term. My understanding, like yours, previously had been that it wasn't just sort of tepid resistance, it was fairly strong resistance. So what changed?

KATE BENNETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, I think she was always in. She always knew a second term was coming. She was down for it. You know, and you don't go into the White House thinking, like, we'll do this for four years. You go in thinking we'll do it for eight. And her saying things like, you know, in the second term or in the reelect, those are all very real things she said. But internally, she's taken the temperature now of the whole thing.

And I think things like the midterms, slight uptick in the economy, even things like Brittney Griner being released, these are all wins for the president. And I think she can see it more holistically that running in 2024 isn't as much of a potential -- you know, sort of a war zone, to --

SCIUTTO: Right.

BENNETT: You know, kind of avoid these things that can come up. Hunter Biden investigations. The issue of the --

SCIUTTO: Hasn't even started.

BENNETT: Hasn't even started. Hunter Biden, the broader family, the president's age which of course is always top of mind for her.

SCIUTTO: Well, that hasn't changed, though, right?

BENNETT: It hasn't. But I think in a legacy sense. Lots of first ladies think about the legacy sense more than the president who is sort of mired in the day to day. I think she does not -- from people I spoke to, she does not want to have every sentence of his legacy lead with the oldest president in the White House or the octogenarian in the White House, or questions about his mental and physical health. And so she's very cognizant of that. But again, I think these wins, the sort of -- the apparatus that is

moving forward, donors, et cetera, you know, hearing things that has really gotten her more concrete in the running section.

SCIUTTO: Is part of this that she recognizes that Joe Biden himself is all in?

BENNETT: Absolutely. I mean, I think the president has not -- you know, they're both bound by restrictions about announcing, but the intention part has always been much stronger on his side than it has with her. I will say the East Wing has pushed back a little bit on this piece, saying she was always all in, she was always for it. But I do think people I spoke to the last few months have really been consequential in that you've got to run, you've got to get all in and get on board mentally, physically and all the rest. So she's in.

SCIUTTO: Here we go. Here we go.

BENNETT: Yes. For sure.

SCIUTTO: Kate Bennett, thanks so much.

BENNETT: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Well, this morning communities at the southern border of the U.S., many of them overwhelmed. The number of migrants crossing only expected to rise when a Trump-era border policy known as Title 42, really a pandemic-era policy, expires next week.

HILL: El Paso, Texas, really feeling the brunt of the border crisis this morning. Some shelters around the city taking in as many as 125 migrants a night. FEMA is now stepping in, sending El Paso $6 million to address that surge.

CNN senior White House correspondent MJ Lee joins us now.

So the administration really feeling the pressure increase now from both sides of the aisle as it prepares for Title 42 to end. Is there more of a plan this morning, MJ?

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you're absolutely right. And there's just been so much talk this week about Title 42. And just quickly for viewers who might not be aware, this is a policy, as you said, that was started in the Trump administration that essentially allows authorities to quickly expel migrants from the U.S. border.

[09:25:05]

And it was designed initially to try to stop the spread of COVID-19. And it is set to expire in the middle of next week. And what this means for the Biden administration is that they are now expecting and clearly already seeing a surge of migrants coming to the U.S. border to try to get across the border, and according to one projection, the southern U.S. border crossings, they're projected to double after this policy goes away essentially.

And you know, we have seen some of these scenes coming out of a place like El Paso, Texas. I know our colleagues have been doing a ton of reporting on the ground. And it has been really concerning to see clearly that resources are very much under strain. There's a lot of pressure for folks who are trying to get a handle on this situation. And to that end, DHS is trying to prepare for this influx of migrants coming across the border. They are talking about things like temporary facilities and upping resources for different kinds of transportation for these migrants, and also increasing referrals for prosecution for repeat border crossers.

But again, guys, these images that we have been seeing at various border points across the country, you know, it has prompted lawmakers to reach out to the administration and express their concern, just asking questions about whether the U.S. is really ready, whether the administration has taken enough action. And then, of course, there is the political conversation as well.

Republicans are eager to go after Democrats as a specific problem for the Democratic Party. So this is going to be a very big conversation for the country, and particularly we'll be keeping a close eye as this expires again next week.

SCIUTTO: MJ Lee, thanks so much.

HILL: Still ahead, new episodes released, the final three episodes of the Harry and Meghan docuseries, and some serious allegations in these new episodes, sibling jealousy, planted stories, confrontations and the impact it has all had on their health they say.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)