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Republican Infighting Over Whether McCarthy Will Lead The House; House GOP Leadership Silent As Santos Faces Growing Condemnation; Crews Clearing Buffalo Roads After Blizzard Leaves At Least 34 Dead; Flood Threats In Northeast As Temperatures Rise, Snow Melts; New Data Shows Housing Market Is Weakest Part Of U. S. Economy; Top 10 Climate Stories Of 2022. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired December 28, 2022 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: Congressman, good morning. You are one of only two House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Trump and still won re-election. You've also said you will support McCarthy, as I mentioned, for speaker. He's got to get to 218, and right now, the math is simply just not adding up.

Are you concerned about any promises he might have to make to these -- to win the support of these hardliners who are demanding a lot, chief among them, that they could have a rule in place that will allow them to call for a vote to oust the speaker at any moment?

REP. DAVID VALADAO (R), CALIFORNIA: Yes. So the rule that they're pushing for is the motion to vacate. But as far as the situation with McCarthy having to make promises, the reality is we all have to vote on those. That will be part of a rules package that will be passed, but they have to negotiate with all of us.

And so, there's a lot of us out there, like myself, who have been very vocal and continue to be vocal. In fact, I'm part of a group right now that has been putting out lots of letters to our colleagues and even putting stuff on social media that we're going to support McCarthy no matter what.

DEAN: Yes. And it's been interesting to kind of see that play out because obviously the small group that's against him has been very vocal publicly. But in the last couple of weeks leading up into Christmas, we saw people like yourself who are for McCarthy become more vocal externally, really trying to get that message out. Do you think he's going to get there? And what makes you think so?

VALADAO: I do believe he's going to get there. Because obviously the pressure isn't on us. The pressure is on the other side. It's a very small group. Easily 85 percent of the members of the conference support McCarthy. They voted for him on a secret ballot.

And when it comes down to the floor fight, you've got everything from the moderates all the way to national Republicans being very vocal that they need to support McCarthy. And I think the pressure falls on those very, very few members of Congress who are saying that they're going to oppose him no matter what.

DEAN: Yes. And he's already said he's going to restore the committee assignments of Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. Are you concerned that he may give her or other far-right members of your party more leadership roles? Do you think that's the appropriate path to take to gain their support?

VALADAO: You know, and Marjorie -- and I do speak once in a while. She's been elected by her district, and there might be some, obviously, policy disagreements and even disagreements on how we handle ourselves. She was elected by her district, and I think she has the right to be able to represent her district on the floor.

Am I concerned with some of the things that she says? Yes. I assume she's concerned with some of the things I do or say as well. But the reality is there's a large group of us that want to see Kevin McCarthy's leader, even though we might disagree on specific policies, on rhetoric, on different things.

But the reality is there's no one that's worked harder to get us to the point where we are today with the Republican majority. There's no one that spent more time traveling around the districts to see what type of district we represent.

In my district and Marjorie's, in my district and other districts around the country are totally different from one another. For me, I mean, as you can see, the pictures behind me, cows and water and almonds, I mean, we're farming districts, and we focus on a lot of different issues than others.

But the reality is, is we need McCarthy, who has spent time traveling the country, getting into all these different districts, to work really hard, to try to build consensus among all of us Republicans, who can be divided at points. But to get him to a point where we can start to negotiate and put our country back on track.

DEAN: And I hear you. And yet he still may not get there. There may be multiple ballots. And I know people like you who are supportive of him are prepared for that and prepared and have been talking about kind of strategy going into that. Are you open to the idea? Do you think it's possible that somebody like Steve Scalise, who, for the record, has said that he supports Kevin McCarthy, but somebody like Steve Scalise emerges as House Speaker, is kind of this compromised person?

VALADAO: Well, Steve Scalise is a good friend of mine, and I serve on his Whip team currently. But he is -- he himself and many others have said that they're supporting McCarthy and they're going to continue to support McCarthy.

Again., the -- there is no plan B here. The plan is to get McCarthy elected as speaker. The pressure does not fall on us, because at the end of the day, we could be there all night. We could be there two, three days. It doesn't really matter. The reality is, is McCarthy has worked harder than anyone else. And the majority of the conference understands that without him, we wouldn't even be having this debate. DEAN: I want to talk to you about incoming New York Congressman George Santos, who's admitted to lying about his work and school history, his family history, his heritage. Democrats have called for him to resign. At least one of your Republican colleagues, who's also an incoming member, is calling for an ethics investigation. Do you believe there should be an ethics investigation? Do you believe he should be seated as a new member?

VALADAO: Well, one, we don't actually have the ability to not seat someone. I know that debate has happened over the years, but I think that decision was made back in the late 60s by the Supreme Court. Speaker -- any speaker doesn't have the ability to make that decision.

Ultimately, like every other member, some that I might disagree with, especially one like himself, who has proven that he's lied, which is absolutely wrong. But we don't have the ability to say no to him being seated.

[10:35:11]

He's going to be seated. I expect him to be seated unless he makes that decision personally. And then what happens from there, I think, will be just like what happened to my opponent that I ran against in 2020. He got in trouble himself. He was seated when he ran in '18, but he lost in '20.

There are people that we don't like, people that lie about themselves who get seated, and ultimately, the law will catch up with them. And I do believe the process will playout.

DEAN: But do you believe -- would you support an Ethics Committee investigation? I mean, he's -- he -- CNN reporting has found that he didn't tell the truth about his grandparents being Holocaust survivors.

VALADAO: Yes, no, he's obviously, not an honest person, and he's admitted to lying. But as far as lying is one thing, but putting himself in a position where the committee -- I mean, the committee has to make that decision themselves, that's not something that falls on people like myself.

His district elected him to Congress, and he's going to be in a position where he's going to have to make those decisions for himself. And we'll see what our colleagues decide to do from that point forward.

DEAN: All right, we're going to leave it there. Congressman David Valadao, thanks so much again for joining us from California this morning. We appreciate it.

VALADAO: Thanks for having me.

DEAN: And up next, warmer weather is moving east towards some of the areas that were hit hardest by that massive deadly winter storm. Some states out west, though, in for another round of snow and possibly severe weather. We'll get a forecast. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:41:12]

DEAN: An update from officials in Erie County, New York, this hour. As the city of Buffalo still digging out from nearly 52 inches of snow, officials now saying at least 34 people have died in Erie County. Authorities continue to check homes and cars for anyone who was stranded in that storm.

The bitter cold is over for most of the country. Warmer temperatures aren't always good news. Meteorologist Chad Myers following the latest in the CNN Weather Center. And Chad, now we're saying everyone wanted warmer temperatures, but now the key is flooding, potential flooding from the melting snow, right?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right, right. Especially with all that snow packed around your house. A lot of those houses around Buffalo and upstate New York all have basements. You know, that water is going to go down toward the sump pump and then hopefully get pumped out the other way.

But there's an awful lot of snow, not just Buffalo, but Watertown on up into Ontario. And temperatures are going to be into the 50s. So a lot of this is going to melt and we just hope it doesn't melt too quickly.

Back out to the west, another storm system all the way through Tuesday will put down nearly record amounts of snow and rain here in places that truly, truly desperately need to break this drought. So one storm came through yesterday, another through tomorrow, and then I can keep pushing this button all the way through Tuesday, and more and more rain comes in.

I've never seen at least in the past three years since the drought really took hold. Seems like 20, but one storm after another after another, really breaking this drought, that is some excellent news out there. You just have to be careful. You get above the past lines, that's all going to be snow.

You get down to the areas around San Francisco, I'm even seeing some spots that could see 5 inches of rainfall and that could also cause problems as well. Jessica.

DEAN: All right, good information there. Chad Myers, thanks so much for that update.

It has been another bad month for the housing market. New data just in this morning on November's pending home sales shows the second lowest monthly reading in two decades. And that's after a year full of aggressive interest rate hikes.

CNN's Matt Egan joining us now. Matt, what are these numbers telling you?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Jessica, these numbers show that housing is by far the weakest part of this U.S. economy. And that makes sense because it's also the part of the economy that is most sensitive to spikes and borrowing costs. And that, of course, is what we've been dealing with.

So these new numbers that are just out show that pending home sales, they fell 4 percent in November, month over month. This is the 6th monthly decline in a row. Year over year, home sales were down by almost 38 percent. That is big.

And as you can see, mortgage rates have spiked, right. We saw mortgage rates go up above 7 percent for the first time in 20 years. They've backed away a little bit, but they still remain very high, more than twice as high as a year ago. And that is a big deal, Jessica, because the higher mortgage rates are, the less home that people can afford. And we are seeing that play out in a big way with these slumping home sales numbers.

DEAN: Right. And then what about home prices? Are they cooling off?

EGAN: Well, you know, some markets remain pretty hot. If you look at the Sunbelt, we're still seeing 20 percent plus gains year over year in Miami, in Tampa, Charlotte, 15 percent. But when you zoom out and you look at the national home price situation, that has cooled off. Home prices in October up by a little over 9 percent year over year. That's according to S&P/Case-Schiller.

But on the chart, you can see that is a big dip from the 20 percent gains that we were seeing previously. That is a significant shift. And it is important to remember that all of this is a feature, not a bug of Fed policy, right? The Federal Reserve is rapidly raising borrowing costs, trying to get inflation under control, and that has driven up borrowing costs. And we can see all of this playing out in a big way in the housing market.

DEAN: Matt Egan breaking it down for us, thanks so much.

[10:45:03]

From volcanic eruptions to deadly flooding and hurricanes, 2022 was the year where the changing climate was on full display. We're going to have the top 10 climate stories of the year. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: This year, widespread heat waves, massive flooding and deadly hurricanes demonstrated the real-life impact of the climate crisis. CNN's Bill Weir takes a look at the top 10 climate stories of 2022.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): I'm Bill Weir with the top 10 climate stories of '22, a year that started with a bang.

[10:50:05]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: A tsunami advisory is now in effect for the entire U.S. West coast and Alaska.

WEIR (voice-over): Undersea volcano near the island nation of Tonga erupted with such force, the ash cloud moved 35 miles into the stratosphere. The boom was heard in Alaska, and tsunami waves took two lives across the Pacific in Peru.

At number nine, some of the world's most important rivers fell to sobering levels, from Italy's Pole to Germany's Rhine, to the not so mighty Mississippi, where the Army Corps of Engineers is still dredging as fast as they can to keep billions worth of goods and grain moving to market.

At number eight, a surprise reversal in coal country gives the U.S. its most ambitious climate laws in history.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But with unwavering conviction, commitment and patience, progress does come.

WEIR (voice-over): The Biden promise to make America greener was all but throttled by West Virginia's Joe Manchin until four days of secret horse trading with Chuck Schumer put the Inflation Reduction Act on the President's desk.

BIDEN: Now a law.

WEIR (voice-over): While environmentalists resent some of the concessions given to big oil, analysts say the rich incentives for people and companies to electrify could get the country most of the way towards Biden's carbon cutting goals.

At number seven, Nicole became the first hurricane to hit the Atlantic coast in the second week of November.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The intensity of the rain and wind have certainly gone up.

WEIR (voice-over): And the unusually late arrival brought a 500 miles wind field during outrageously high king ties. Accommodation cost five lives and almost 2 billion in damages.

At number six, the 27th attempt at world cooperation on climate action went into overtime as poor nations pleaded with rich ones to finally start picking up the tab for loss and damages.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Clearly, this will not be enough.

WEIR (voice-over): In the end, almost 200 nations agreed to setup a fund to help the most vulnerable. But a global pledge to phase out fossil fuels was stonewalled by oil producing nations.

At number five, an increasingly unpredictable water cycle brought the kind of floods seen once every thousand years. From Dallas, where they got a summer's worth of rain in a day, to Death Valley, which set a record with 2 inches of rain in one of the driest spots on earth. 43 lives were lost in flash floods and mudslides across six Kentucky counties. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Where are all these people going to go? Where are they going to live?

WEIR (voice-over): And the combo of heavy rain and rapid snow melt forced 10,000 to evacuate Yellowstone National Park, as walls of water rearranged entire landscapes in hours.

At number four, England, that green and pleasant land turned brown in '22 as thermometers in the U.K. hit 104 degrees Fahrenheit and put an unprecedented toll on firefighters. Temperatures hit 106 in Spain as the European heat wave took thousands of lives. And meanwhile, in China, records were smashed at hundreds of weather stations. The stifling heat lingered for 70 days.

At number three, the western mega drop brought Lake Mead to its lowest levels ever, exposing long lost drowning victims and possible mob hits and triggering the first ever cuts for those last in line to use Colorado river water.

(on-camera): And the lake used to go, used to go half a mile around the corner. And now it starts way back here. I cannot believe this.

(voice-over): While there is hope for a heavy snowpack this winter, it would take years of steady precipitation to refill Lake Mead. It will likely inch closer to dead pool next summer. From not enough water in American west to way too much in Pakistan, where at number two, a monsoon on steroids bought rains 500 percent above average in some places, as well as a dozen or more bursting glaciers.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So you can see there's just a steady stream of vehicles pouring into this area. These are all people who are desperately trying to escape their villages, which are now completely submerged underwater.

WEIR (voice-over): At least 33 million people have been affected. People responsible for less than 1 percent of climate altering pollution.

And the number one, unnatural disaster of '22.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ends here, John, we just felt that marked increase in windspeeds.

WEIR (voice-over): Hurricane Ian, when it roared from a tropical storm to a Category 3 in a day. Hurricane Ian became the new posterchild for so-called rapid intensification. When warm water fueled storms get so strong so fast, evacuation plans fall apart.

(on-camera): This is just unbelievable, the amount of damage in this one neighborhood.

[10:55:03]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was very scary. And I would never want to go through it again. WEIR (voice-over): Ian's wind, storm surge, and freshwater flooding toll is expected to cost over $50 billion, and so far, has taken over 100 lives.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: All right, Bill Weir, thanks so much. And thank you for joining us today. I'm Jessica Dean. "AT THIS HOUR" starts after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)