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GOP Rep.-Elect George Santos Admits To Lying On Resume; GasBuddy: $4/Gallon Gas Likely To Return By May; Report: Despite Inflation Woes, Holiday Sales Rose 7.6%; Hackers Stole Data From Multiple Electric Utilities; Emergency Pediatric Mental Health Visits Jumped 8% Annually. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired December 27, 2022 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN HOST: That was a mic-drop moment, all the things you just said there.

But all the things you say, looking up the word "fraud" is true. You lie about everything. You embellish.

Generally, Olivia, do you think he has done all this stuff, saying he is Jewish and his grandparents survived the Holocaust, none of which can be corroborated, and now he's saying he's Jew-ish. And he's saying I didn't really work at Goldman Sachs but I sort of did.

It's like he's trying to go around this.

Was it to get votes for different groups of people?

OLIVIA TROYE, FORMER ADVISER TO V.P. MIKE PENCE: It appears he was pandering to different groups and trying to appeal. But also it appears he's just a pathological liar.

And to Alice's point, I think that speaks to his character and lack of integrity and calls into question what he's going to do once in Congress.

And there are questions of what happened in terms of the campaign finance, and what really went on there? I think those are questions he will need to answer to and account for.

But in reality, this is plain sick. I still can't get over the fact that he lied about having friends in the mass shooting. I think that is just heinous to use a personal tragedy for political gain. I don't know what you get from that.

I think just says a lot about who he is at the core.

SIDNER: This is for both of you.

And I will start with you, Olivia.

There's always opposition research, or as we call it, digging up dirt, on either side. Democrats will dig up direct on Republicans. Republicans will dig up dirt on Democrats in any race.

How did Democrats miss this one as he was campaigning?

TROYE: I actually have been wondering that. I don't know how you don't double-check these things and fact check them.

This was very overt, and they really dropped the ball on this one.

I don't necessarily blame them. There's lot going on when you are trying to track down the people running for office. And he's just one charlatan that fits in with the others we are seeing.

SIDNER: Olivia (sic), your take?

ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: We call them the campaign world dumpster diving. When you start a campaign, you do vulnerability research on yourself to see where your vulnerabilities are, and his campaign clearly dropped the ball on that.

As he became the GOP nominee, the Democrats should have had access to the information and done the research on this. We know the DCCC has done that and put some out.

And to the degree and the magnitude that the "New York Times" and media has uncovered the falsehoods, it's shocking it all did not come forward.

And I give credit to his Democratic challenger, Robert Zimmerman, who is really taking the high road on this in regards, saying it's up to the people of the district in terms of what they do.

And to the Nassau GOP chairman, who says, a blanket apology is not enough and people need to know more answers.

SIDNER: Alice Stewart and Olivia Troye, thank you both so much for coming up and being so candid.

Alarming new data shows a rise in emergency room visits at children's hospitals, and this time the reason is not physical but mental health. Ahead, what every parent needs to know.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:37:52]

SIDNER: If you drive, I am sure you have noticed there's relief at the pump. The national price at gas stations is $3.10. It's a relief for many of us.

Some southern states enjoying prices as low as $2.66. But enjoy it while it lasts. Sorry to bring the bad news to you.

Actually, I will make this Matt Egan's problem. And he's here to be the bearer of bad news.

We have seen gas go down from record highs. GasBuddy says reporting that $4 a gallon will return. Why?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: I'm just the messenger. Don't blame me. Blame GasBuddy.

No, I'm just kidding.

(LAUGHTER)

EGAN: Every spring and summer, gas prices tend to go higher. People drive more, enjoy the warm weather. And refineries switch over to summer gasoline, which is cleaner for the air but also more expensive.

The problem we will enter the spring/summer bump from an already elevated level. GasBuddy says the national average will go from $3.10 right now, to as high as 4.05 a gallon in May, and peaking at $4.25 a gallon in August. That's uncomfortably high.

There's some good news here. This is not all gloom and doom. GasBuddy says the national average for next year is going to be $3.49 a gallon. That's down 50 cents from this year. Nothing to sneeze at.

Americans would spend $55 billion less if that forecast comes true. For the average family, that works out to almost $300 less than this year over the course of the year.

Of course, there's a lot of wild cards here. Everything from the war in Ukraine to hurricanes to a potential recession that could drive prices higher or lower.

And hopefully, after this crazy year, Americans get relief at the pump.

SIDNER: Let's talk about inflation. A new report out by MasterCard. It shows, despite the high cost of things because of inflation for consumers, holiday sales actually increased this year?

[14:40:05]

What, are we all just going crazy and saying, forget it, it's been a hard two years. Is that what's going on?

EGAN: Don't bet against Americans willing to spend money around the holidays. Mastercard says the sales were up 7.6 percent over last year. That was led by nearly an 11 percent online. And in-store shopping also went up.

The catch is this report is not adjusted for inflation. It's hard to tell how much is increases in demand versus an increase in prices.

I don't know what you splurged on this holiday season but MasterCard says restaurant sales were up by more than 15 percent.

Apparel and department stores up a bit as well. Electronics and jewelry, normally very popular areas to spend during the holidays, they were down. One thing I would like to know is how much people had to rely in

dipping in savings and credit cards for the holiday season. Because if it was a lot, you have to think about the holiday hangover early next year.

SIDNER: Yes, worry about paying the bills after we have gone a little nuts. Then the pain happens.

Thank you so much, Matt Egan. Both good and bad news. We'll take it.

It's sentencing day for one of the men found guilty of conspiring to kidnap Michigan's governor. We will have the court's decision coming up, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:45:42]

SIDNER: In a Michigan courtroom today, the judge sentenced the convicted ringleader in the plot to kidnap the Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer to 16 years in federal prison.

A jury found Adam Fox guilty in August. Prosecutors described him as the mastermind behind the plot to break into Whitmer's vacation home in 2020 and kidnap her at gunpoint. They had asked for a life sentence.

Still, Michigan's attorney general wrote this about the decision. "Today's sentencing sends a clear message that domestic terrorism will not be tolerated."

Right now, investigators are combing the dark web searching for data stolen from multiple U.S. electric utilities in a recent ransomware attack.

A memo obtained by CNN shows the U.S. government contractor that was targeted handles critical infrastructure projects across the entire country.

CNN's cyber security reporter, Sean Lyngaas, is tracking the story.

It's really scary to think about what can be done. The latest security breach comes amid physical attacks on power substations in Washington State and in North Carolina.

What more can you tell us?

SEAN LYNGAAS, CNN CYBER SECURITY REPORTER: Sara, this is a thing that happens quite a bit. Ransomware attacks occur behind the scenes all the time on critical infrastructure and U.S. companies, whether the public learns about them is another question.

In this case, CNN obtained a memo describing the incident in a bit of detail and about how investigators from the Department of Energy and the FBI and others are trying to determine -- were trying to determine exactly what went down. And it didn't appear to be anything that disrupted business operations

that much for the company. The incident has been contained.

But it gives us a snapshot of why these industries are called critical infrastructure.

Why, for example, President Biden over a year ago met with Vladimir Putin before the war in Ukraine and said, we want you to knock it off in terms of tolerating ransomware attacks emanating from your soil.

This is still a huge national security issue, and one that companies are increasingly on high alert for.

In terms of the recent attacks on substations at utilities in different parts of the country, those are often physical attacks where somebody, like in North Carolina, actually shot a substation and caused a power outage.

But the common thread here is that anybody who is trying to obtain data or inside information on one of these critical infrastructure facilities could use it in a follow-on attack -- Sara?

SIDNER: It shows how vulnerable our critical infrastructure is.

I want to quickly ask you if there is anything else being done from the I.T. perspective and trying to secure things there, and physically?

There are electric stations all over the country in many different parts of many different counties.

LYNGAAS: Yes, absolutely. There's a regular drilling exercises between the federal government and the critical infrastructure companies.

A lot of them invest a lot of money in security. So they take it very seriously.

What's happening now is that you are seeing more of the incidents coming to light, and that's why we are learning about them -- Sara?

SIDNER: Sean Lyngaas, thank you so much for bringing us up-to-date information on that.

[14:49:08]

Now to health officials who are warning that it's highly likely respiratory viruses could spread even more following holiday gatherings. How to keep you and your family safe, up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: A new study that was just published today shows a troubling rise in visits to pediatric emergency rooms for mental health reasons, not physical health.

That's far more than all of the visits to all emergency departments. CNN health reporter, Jacqueline Howard, joins us with more.

This seems stunning, Jacqueline. Can you tell us more and why so many more people, children are seeking mental help?

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: It's absolutely stunning, Sara. And what this study shows not only have emergency department visits for mental health been on the rise but also many of those patients tend to revisit the hospital within six months.

What the researchers did, they looked at more than 200,000 pediatric patients, across 38 hospitals between the years 2015 and 2022, you see on the screen what they found.

Mental health visits increased by 8 percent annually. And among those visits, 13 percent of patients revisited the Emergency Department within six months.

Now, in comparison, when you look at all other Emergency Department visits, those increased by only 1.9 percent annually. You see the difference, 8 percent versus 1.5 percent.

[14:54:58]

Now for mental health visits, some of them were due to self-harm, anxiety disorders. Some parents brought their child in for showing aggressive behavior.

The researchers say that this rise shows there's a need as a nation for us to invest more and support our mental health care services. And for parents, it's important to talk to their child about their mental health.

Seek help from you pediatrician if they do show aggressive behaviors and you don't know how to respond -- Sara?

SIDNER: Yes. It's really important that we treat mental health as we treat physical health.

(CROSSTALK)

SIDNER: That's starting to change finally in this nation.

Thank you so much, Jacqueline Howard. Appreciate your reporting.

The Miami Dolphins quarterback has been placed in the NFL's concussion protocol for the second time this season. The latest injury now raising questions about his future and the league's policies. We'll talk about that ahead.

But first, musical icon, Dionne Warwick, brings her exclusive story to the CNN in a new film, "DON'T MAKE ME OVER." It's premiering News Year's Day at 9:00 p.m.

Let's take a look at the preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Dionne Warwick one of the great female singers of all time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dionne was one of the first African-American women to win a Grammy in the pop category.

(SINGING)

DIONNE WARWICK, SINGER: The music I was singing was nothing like anything that any of them were singing.

(SINGING)

WARWICK: The legacy in my family, music, pure and simple, music.

ANNOUNCER: "DIONNE WARWICK, DON'T MAKE ME OVER," premieres New Year's Day at 9:00 on CNN.

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