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Massive Flight Disruptions; House Seeking Biden Family Financials; Student Loan Forgiveness Plan Looming; Childhood Asthma Tied to Gas Stoves. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired January 11, 2023 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:31:04]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: More now on our breaking news, perhaps some relief for travelers. The FAA has lifted a ground stop after a system outage forced it to stop all departures in the U.S. for hours this morning, causing headaches for, gosh, a whole bunch of travelers.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: A whole bunch of travelers. So, the good news here, flights are now starting to take off. But, of course, all of those headaches could mean thousands more delays across the country.

CNN national correspondent Athena Jones is at Newark Liberty International Airport, which did, you know, start moving some flight just a short time ago. And I know you're getting a better sense of what this could mean for passengers, what that ripple effect is throughout the day, Athena.

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Erica.

You know, there are still a lot of delays listed on the board, but things are getting back to normal. You can see the activity behind me. This is a pretty long check-in line here at Spirit Airlines. And I just spoke to this family you're seeing over here. They're going to Miami.

People are being able to check-in. They may be -- at check-in may be made aware of a delay. We spoke to a young man named Carlos just a few minutes ago just as he was finished checking in here.

Here's what he had to say about his experience.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CARLOS OQUENDO, TRAVELER AT NEWARK LIBERTY INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT: We're going to Miami. Our experience has been a little hectic just because, you know, we got here a little late. So, we should have gotten here a little earlier to get everything, you know what I mean, situated. But hopefully there's no delays and hopefully we'll get to where we've got to go. Takeoff at 10:05 and we've been able to check in. So hopefully everything here from now on is good.

(END VIDEO CLIP) JONES: And their flight -- that flight was not listed as delayed. In fact, they needed to hurry because that was only a few minutes ago. But just a sign of things beginning to get back to normal.

We've also heard from United Airlines. This is a hub for United, saying that their customers may continue to see delays because of this ripple effect. You can't have problems with planes taking off for the first few hours of the day and not have a ripple effect. So, some delays and cancellations United is warning its passengers they'll see as they work to restore their schedule. And they said United has also activated a travel waiver for any customers who need to change their plans, including offering refunds. So, they're doing the best they can to try to make sure that this is as painless as possible for the travelers affected.

But, bottom line, here at Newark Airport, and nationally, no more ground stop. Flights are resuming. There's going to be some ripple effects. But at least people are going to eventually get to their destination.

Erica. Jim.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HILL: All right, that's the good news, we'll get there eventually.

Athena, appreciate it. Thank you. And we hope Carlos made his flight.

This just into CNN, new House Oversight Chairman Republican James Comer is requesting information about the Biden family's financial transactions, requesting that information from the Treasury Department, also calling on several former Twitter executives to testify at a public hearing.

SCIUTTO: It comes as Republicans have accused the social media company of suppressing the Hunter Biden laptop story in the lead up to the 2020 presidential election.

CNN's Sara Murray joins us now.

Sara, this is, of course, your reporting here. What specific financial -- family financial documents are Republicans asking for?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, they are looking for a raft of stuff. So they are looking for these bank activity reports, the Switch (ph) bank activity reports, known as SARS. They're looking at those for Hunter Biden. They're looking at those for James Biden, whose Hunter Biden's brother, as well as a variety of companies and associates. They also want any communications between the White House and the Treasury Department. And they're also looking for public testimony from a trio of former Twitter officials, again, as you pointed out, about sort of the Hunter Biden laptop story, what they say is this effort to suppress information around the 2020 election.

Now, in a statement that went along with this James Comer said, now the Democrats no longer have one-party rule in Washington. Oversight and accountability are coming. And as we know, a top priority, as he says in this statement, for them is this Hunter Biden investigation. And, you know, they hope it's going to lead to Joe Biden, who's sitting in the White House.

SCIUTTO: Specific to what allegation, about dealings with China or just a sort of general --

[09:35:01]

MURRAY: So the sort of theory that James Comer is going on is this notion that there is some sort of compromising activity that the Biden family was engaged in, that there may have been some kind of foreign influence that is now impacting the sitting president.

Again, these are allegations.

SCIUTTO: OK.

MURRAY: They have not proved this. These are based on SARS, which are these reports that banks file, and there are millions that are filed a year and very few of them lead to law enforcement activity. So, just because there may be some of these suspicious activity reports does not mean that that's an indication of wrongdoing.

SCIUTTO: Understood. OK. Sara Murray, thanks so much.

MURRAY: Thanks.

HILL: Joining us now to discuss, CNN political analyst and senior contributor for "Axios," Margaret Talev, and Julie Grohovsky, former federal prosecutor.

Good to have you both with us this morning.

So, Julie, I just what to pick up where Jim left off there. What potentially, in requesting these records, what could be in there?

JULIE GROHOVSKY, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Hi, Erica. The records -- I'm sorry, which records are you talking about?

HILL: Sorry, I wasn't sure if you were able to hear Sara Murray's reporting. So Sara Murry just reporting that the new House Oversight Chair James Comer was saying he is going to be requesting information about bank activity specifically for the Biden family from the Treasury Department, these SARS reports.

GROHOVSKY: Well, they're look to see whether or not the Bidens had any foreign influence during the election, whether they have any contact with foreign entities. Especially in the Hunter Biden case, they're interested in China.

SCIUTTO: OK. Margaret Talev, when we - when we look at the targets, right, of Republican investigators now that they have the House under their control, another one of their targets already of course is going to be Biden's handling of classified documents. And I want to just play James Comer, given that he's at the forefront of the financial investigation here, what he said when he was asked by our Pam Brown in November about Republicans' interest in Trump's handling of classified documents. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY): So, I don't know much about that. That's not something that we've requested information just to see what was going on because I don't know what documents were at Mar-a-Lago. So, you know, that's something we're just waiting to see what comes out on that.

PAM BROWN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: But is it fair to say that investigation won't be a priority?

COMER: That will not be a priority.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Somewhat of a different tune from what we're hearing now given the disclosures about Biden's handling of documents. Is there consistency there in the way Republicans have handled these two cases?

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, you picked up on that subtle difference, right?

I mean, look, Comer and Republicans have sort of couched their disinterest in the massive investigation into classified documents at Mar-a-Lago because Trump was no longer in office, saying they're not that interested in a former president.

SCIUTTO: Right.

TALEV: Of course, these documents now relate to when Joe Biden's time as a former vice president. We know the differences based on current reporting very well. It's a fraction of the number. He and his legal team were immediately disclosing of these. They came forward with them. They've not resisted. So, we know they're tremendously different cases.

The Republicans are kind of testing two approaches here. And one approach is to try to equate the two and say, look, all presidents somehow end up with classified documents they shouldn't have, and the other is to say, Biden must be investigated.

SCIUTTO: Right.

TALEV: So, I think there's going to need to be some kind of a reckoning here. But what's - here's the potential problem for President Biden, we don't know what is in these ten or so documents. They're reporting -- CNN's own reporting says that they touch on Ukraine. Republicans hear Ukraine, they think, ah-ha, Hunter Biden. We don't know that. But if - if there is any connection, obviously that takes this into a completely different political realm. Iran, the U.K. It's important to know. It's important for Merrick Garland to know what's in those documents. He may already have been briefed by the prosecutors. But we don't know. It doesn't mean that Republicans will not target this politically, and they're already starting to.

HILL: So, Julie, there's both the contents, right, which we're just hearing about that is important in those documents. It could also, as we're hearing so much outrage, right, from Republicans about what happened with these documents, and they're pointing as to what had happened with former President Trump and we're talking about obstruction, these are not exactly apples to apples. But what will be very important here, and in both cases frankly, is intent, Julie. Whether there was some intent to take those documents when Joe Biden was the former vice president and to have them. How do you prove that?

GROHOVSKY: Well, the prosecutors would look at the actions of each camp basically when they found the documents. And, you know, if the reports are true, and we have no reason to think they're not, the Biden documents were found in a locked closet. They were found by lawyers who immediately notified the White House and, on the same day, the White House notified the National Archives.

[09:40:02]

And, you know, these cases do happen. People do mistakenly take documents.

SCIUTTO: Right.

GROHOVSKY: It has a lot to do with how they respond. And, you know, you compare that with just the slog that the National Archives had to go through, including getting a subpoena and then a search warrant to get the documents from Mar-a-Lago. They're very different factually.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

Let me ask you this, though, Julie, because with the Trump case you had two investigative paths, right? One was the fact that he had the documents. The other was his lack of cooperation with handing them back and a potential obstruction charge there, which some lawyers have said was the more likely path for indictment.

Is that - is that your view as well and would that -- is that fundamentally different, right, from Biden's handling of this?

GROHOVSKY: Yes. And I think the reason they're looking at obstruction is, they really don't have to get into as much of what the classifications were and what was in the documents, but just the fact that they were repeatedly requested and then not -- and then not given over, sure.

SCIUTTO: Right.

GROHOVSKY: I do think one issue that's still outstanding is whether or not the Republicans are going to demand that there be searches or investigations with regard to other locations where the -- where President Biden may have had documents.

SCIUTTO: Yes, good point.

HILL: Julie, Margaret, great to see you both this morning. Appreciate it. Thank you.

GROHOVSKY: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Still ahead, confusion in the new year as the Biden administration unveils a new proposal to lower student loan payments even as the forgiveness program remains up in the air. We're going to try to clear up some of that confusion, particularly if you fall into one of these categories. That's coming up.

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[09:45:58]

SCIUTTO: You're looking at live pictures now out of the airport in Los Angeles. The FAA says flights have resumed this hour after a massive system outage. But, boy, a lot of planes still parked there. Hope more are taking off soon.

HILL: Looks - looks a little quiet.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HILL: Yes, I don't see a lot of activity there at LAX, but I do see a lot of planes.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HILL: More than 4,000 trips already delayed, and the airlines say likely more to come because, of course, they have to try to get back on track.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HILL: Now, we still don't know the cause of the outage, but we will, of course, update you on that as soon as we hear more.

SCIUTTO: Well, the Biden administration is unveiling a new student loan proposal that would lower federal payments for some Americans, as well as pause payments completely for others. But it comes at a time when there's still confusion about Biden's previous student debt relief plan.

HILL: There's also, of course, the case before the Supreme Court that could really just torpedo that plan entirely. So, where do things stand this morning? We're going to go to the smartest woman we know, CNN's chief business correspondent Christine Romans to answer some of these questions.

So, Christine, starting off with this, this case, the Supreme Court is set to hear it in February. In the meantime, though, payments were paused, we know.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Right.

HILL: Where does all of that stand this morning? ROMANS: So, this is a lot of limbo for people, right? I mean you've

got 45 million student loan borrowers this this country, $1.6 trillion in student loan debt and a president who made a promise that he was going to relieve some of that debt, $20,000 in student loan forgiveness for low and middle income borrowers. A decision is expected in these Supreme Court cases by June. Until then, borrowers' payments are on hold.

How long will that last, right? This is something that started in March 2020 because of the Covid -- the Covid pandemic. But borrower balances have essentially been frozen since March 2020. Payments were set to resume in January but now they are paused again.

So, here's what we know. We know that the pause will last either until 60 days after that court case is decided, guys, or 60 days after June 30th, whichever comes first.

SCIUTTO: All right, so now you have this new way to ease payments, introduced yesterday. Can you explain the difference between them and how they would interact?

ROMANS: Sure. I mean this is essentially the White House trying to relieve the burden of two big student loan payments for people when they -- so the proposed changes are just something called the income- based repayment problem. It would lower student loan payments for everybody and for some people it would wipe away their need to pay them back. It's roughly 8 million people this would impact.

So, what does it do. It caps payments at 5 percent of the borrower's discretionary income. Right now that's at 10 percent. So that means you've have to pay less every month. And for singer borrowers making less than $30,600 a year, you don't need to make any payments under the proposal. Right now that threshold is at $24,000.

And it forgives the remaining balances after ten years of repayment instead of 20 or 25 years. So, essentially, these are ways to tweak the income-based repayment system to get borrowers out from under these big, heavy debt burdens so they can live their life, right? They can invest in their retirement. They can try to buy a house. It's not just this student loan burden that is holding them back from the middle class.

SCIUTTO: Yes. Yes, look at those changes there. I mean that adds up to real money for a lot of earners in this country if they come to effect.

HILL: Yes.

SCIUTTO: Christine Romans, thanks so much.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

HILL: Still to come here, is your gas stove set to become a thing of the past. Up next, why the government is considering regulating the appliance and the pollutants that studies show that burner is bringing into your home. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:53:18]

SCIUTTO: Gas stoves could soon get 86'd from kitchens across the country going forward. The U.S. Consumers Products Safety commissioner is considering a ban on the appliances for new builds. It says those appliances can be a source of indoor pollution sometimes linked to childhood asthma.

HILL: So there was a study out last month which found indoor gas stove use and the pollutants that come with is are tied to an increased risk of asthma in children.

CNN's chief climate correspondent Bill Weir is here.

So, people are up in arms over this. There seems to be this sense that I am going to take that stove out of your kitchen, which is not exactly what's happening.

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: No, but it speaks to the emotion -

HILL: Yes.

WEIR: Of food, how we prepare it, and certain styles. And this is 100 years of advertising. You know, you're cooking with gas now was a deliberate campaign from the American Gas Association when they were up against wood and coal back in the '30s. Even today, a couple years ago, it was found that they were sort of paying influencers to cook on their gas stoves because electric, frankly, is so superior just in terms of, it's much more efficient, it's safer, the new induction stoves are safer and all of that.

And this has created sort of gas wars in different parts of the country. They've banned it in new construction in New York City, out west in California, in Washington state. But a lot of states have preemptively banned gas bans. And you can imagine they're usually red states, and Texas leading the way. They want to stop this because it's an existential threat to that business. But, yes, it's, you know, the science is showing us that having a gas stove, in a small apartment, especially with bad ventilation, it's like having a car idling there.

HILL: Wow.

WEIR: And you have young kids, it can affect cognitive abilities and - as well as asthma.

[09:55:01]

SCIUTTO: So, Bill, let me ask you a question, because New York is now considering doing the same for gas heating because you've often heard that gas heating is at least a better option that heating oil, right, as kind of an interim step here. So, I wonder, where does that go, and does it - I mean all of this is about, what, I suppose, what you can do now, right, versus what you might be able to do in the future. But is this going to affect that, you know, states trying to transition away from gas heating as well?

WEIR: Right. I think the regulation, the requests around the stoves is more about ventilation, warning, shut-off valves so you don't have accident. You just make them safer. You don't really end them.

But it's the kind of thing -- I did this story at a place right outside of Denver. They tried to create a net-zero community, no gas. But half of the development got sold to a new developer who insisted on putting it in. So, all zoning really is kind of local.

And you've got to think about this. Is the decision you're making on that is a 20 or 30-year decision. A lot of times on a new construction, you put the oven in there, you hope it lasts a generation or so.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

WEIR: And the - you know, the technology now is so much advanced beyond that, but is really setting up more of an ideological fight right now.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

WEIR: But the more people are aware of the costs of these things, the better.

HILL: Yes. Can I --

SCIUTTO: I mean just look -

HILL: We're out of time, but really - oh, sorry. I was going to say, in New York City --

SCIUTTO: No, I was just going to say, look at -- look at Trump's reaction to incandescent light bulbs. You know, the ban on incandescent light bulbs.

HILL: Yes.

WEIR: Exactly.

SCIUTTO: It was like this is almost a religious issue, you know. Yes.

WEIR: Or low-flow shower heads or any of those sorts of things.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

WEIR: It's - it's personal freedom at question.

HILL: But also the gas -- no gas lines in new construction. Is it about fossil fuels or is it about - sorry, I'm getting in trouble. I -

WEIR: No. Well, no, that's -

HILL: OK.

WEIR: That's - short answer, it's about climate change.

HILL: OK. All right.

WEIR: Because methane is 80 times more powerful than CO2 when it comes to heating up the planet.

HILL: All right.

WEIR: So, big time. But in small spaces, it's personal health.

HILL: OK. Appreciate it, Bill. Thank you.

WEIR: You bet.

SCIUTTO: All right, still ahead, almost 5,000 flights canceled in the U.S. Ouch. The FAA now is lifting, though, the ground stop from this morning. Hope those impacts are solved in the coming hours. We're going to have the latest from the FAA.

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