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Interview With Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg; City Official: 7 More Memphis Police Officers To Face Discipline In Wake Of Tyre Nichols' Death; Evacuees Near Site Of Toxic Train Wreck Still Can't Go Home; Fed Chair: Taming Inflation To Take Significant Amount Of Time. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired February 07, 2023 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

PETE BUTTIGIEG, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: It did lead to about, I believe, about 55 flights being delayed. But ultimately, that our most important goal, which, of course, is safety.

And while I can't speak to every element of everything that goes on the national security side, I can tell you that when it comes to protecting civil aviation, we're going to continue our pattern of excellent cooperation and coordination between the military side and the civilian side to protect Americans.

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN HOST: And in just a few hours, President Biden is going to be on Capitol Hill delivering his State of the Union address. You and other administration officials have said this administration has delivered historic results.

But the polling, as I'm sure you've seen, on the economy tells a different story. Just six in 10 American adults say that President Biden hasn't accomplished anything.

What's behind that, do you think? Is it just a communications issue or could it be that the policies are not reaching people where they need it the most?

BUTTIGIEG: Well, look, we have the lowest unemployment since well before I was born right now.

We have the numbers are in, and it's very clear, that in terms of Americans every day being able to find work, we have the highest rate of job creation, just in the first two years of this administration of any president ever.

Now, it's true that there are still headwinds and issues affecting our economy. It's also true that there's frankly an enormous well- resourced noise machine that doesn't always make it easy to tell our story through some of the online negativity and partisanship that's there.

That's why the State of the Union is a great opportunity to lay out in very direct, factual terms what has been achieved and what is going to continue. Remember, some of the most important achievements of this president

and this administration are quite new. I'll point to the $35 insulin cap for any senior, anyone on Medicare.

And, of course, the president continues to push for that to happen for every single American. That's something that's only been a reality for a matter of weeks. Same is true for other economic wins.

We recognize it's going to take a while to flow through. But the point is we need to keep up this economic vision that's based on building the economy, as the president often says, from the bottom up and middle out.

Instead of lurching back towards the policies that are more about things like tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations that many House Republicans appear to be pushing.

The American people already agree with the president on each of these major steps, whether it's letting Medicare negotiate prescription drug prices, whether it's having fair taxation that asks the wealthiest pay their fair share.

Which, by the way, is a big part of the way we're paying the deficits, something else that many Republicans and Democrats agree on, if not around the country, if not always on Capitol Hill.

(CROSSTALK)

BUTTIGIEG: And you know, the president's put forward a year ago a unity agenda that we'll hear more about tonight, things like fighting cancer, fighting the opioid epidemic, supporting Americans' health and supporting our veterans.

That means so much to so many Americans. And that's an example that, even in today's Washington, we should be able to come together and get done, to say nothing about the infrastructure bill, which we're very, very proud of and very at hard work delivering.

PHILLIP: Secretary Buttigieg, thank you for joining us today on all of that.

BUTTIGIEG: Thank you. Good to be with you.

[13:33:20]

PHILLIP: And the threat of exposing chemicals and flying shrapnel may have passed, but people who live near the site of that toxic train wreck still cannot go home. We'll have more on that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:38:12]

PHILLIP: Just into CNN, we are now learning that seven more Memphis police officers soon will be face disciplinary action over Tyre Nichols' death. CNN's Nick Valencia is live in Memphis.

Nick, so what are we learning about this announcement that came just a short time ago?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Abby, a major development here from this city council meeting with the city of Memphis. With the city attorney of Memphis telling me that, in addition to the six officers who have already been terminated in their role in the Tyre Nichols' stop, we should expect an additional seven officers to receive some sort of discipline.

These officers have not been identified nor have any details been given as to their involvement in the Tyre Nichols' stop.

The city attorney her, Jennifer Sink, telling me this is separate from the TBI's criminal investigation. So these are not criminal charges or any criminal sort of action, but that administrative discipline.

The city council meeting, which got under way earlier this morning, has been tense at times. It has been emotional with the chairwoman of the city council saying that the year is barely under way and it's already been a deeply emotional time for the city of Memphis and beyond.

They're proposing about 12 reforms for public safety here. And it was a well-attended event by the public here.

And organizers and activists, they're very clear about the three things they want. Saying they want to pass data transparency, an ordinance that they say will give better clarity about why people are pulled over and what happens to them after pulled over.

They also want the end of the use of unmarked cars and plain-clothed officers during traffic stops, as well as the end to pretextual stops.

This city council meeting is still going on as I'm giving this report. And we expect members of the public to be given an opportunity to make comments later this afternoon -- Abby?

PHILLIP: All right. Nick, thank you for keeping us up to date on all of that.

Evacuees who live near the toxic train derailment in eastern Ohio are waiting for the all-clear to go home.

[13:40:06]

Crews completed what is called a controlled release of a toxic chemical in some of the tanks on Monday. That prevented an explosion that could have fired shrapnel up to a mile away.

CNN's Jason Carroll is in Palestine, Ohio.

Jason, walk us through that controlled detonation, and what happens next. JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, first, in terms of what

happens next, let me give you an update, Abby, because state and city officials just gave us their update.

And a few headlines here. First and foremost, they say now that the fire pit is out, those five cars that have been burning that toxic material, that vinyl chloride, those cars are no longer burning.

In fact, four of the cars have been taken from the site and NTSB will be inspecting the cars.

They also tell us, as a result of the controlled detonation, no significant injury because of that detonation or the derailment.

The next thing a lot of folks were worried about, air quality, inside and outside the evacuation zone. They are still doing testing, as you can imagine. The EPA doing testing there inside the zone, outside the zone they've done testing as well and have not discovered anything significant.

Finally, you brought it up, in terms of the evacuation, as you know, many people evacuated from their homes in this area in East Palestine. Wondering when they're able to return home. They're telling us, it's just too soon to give that type of estimate -- Abby?

PHILLIP: All right, Jason Carroll, thank you.

And when he talks, world markets listen and so does your credit card. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell just spoke moments ago. What it means for you, coming up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:46:13]

PHILLIP: Just hours before President Biden's State of the Union address, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is giving a key speech on inflation right now.

And it comes on the heels of the Fed's smallest interest rate hike since March. That most recent hike suggests that the Fed likes the progress in the fight against inflation.

But -- and this is a big but -- there's a stunning number, the blockbuster jobs report that saw 517,000 jobs created in January. And that could potentially create a real headache for the Fed.

Here's what Powell just said moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEROME POWELL, CHAIRMAN, FEDERAL RESERVE: We didn't expect it to be this strong. But I would say, it kind of shows you why we think that this will be a process that takes a significant period of time.

(END VIDEO CLIP) PHILLIP: All right. Let's sort all of this out with Justin Wilford. He's a professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan.

So, Justin, when the head of Federal Reserve speaks, markets listen. Did they hear what they were looking for today?

JUSTIN WILFORD, PROFESSOR OF ECONOMICS & PUBLIC POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: So, in some sense, it's important that your viewers understand what's good for them is something that causes Jerome Powell a headache.

The good news is the economy is doing well. Unemployment is at a 50- year low. And the reasons that worries Jerome Powell is -- with lots of people with jobs and lots of spending power, you might worry that would cause inflation down the track.

But right now, the reality is inflation is falling. And the most recent numbers have been all good news.

So Chairman Powell is a little confused because economists aren't used to hearing good news coupled with good news.

PHILLIP: He also said it's not going to take just this year to bring inflation down but also next year. So what does that mean for consumers in terms of rates, in terms of prices? Two years of this?

WILFORD: Yes, inflation is 7%, 7%, maybe 9%, depending how you count it. If you look at the most recent numbers, they suggest inflation is 2-point-something percent or 3-point-something percent.

So that real sense of urgency, that sense of crisis over the best part of the past year, that's really disappearing.

Now, it still makes the Fed's job a little difficult because the Fed is trying to get inflation down to 2%. That's 2.0, not 2-point- something. And it may be a little bit down from 2-point-something to 3-point-something to sweep that last little bit of inflation out.

The most important, the crisis that affects you and I at the weekly shop, that's going to be down.

PHILLIP: And what he said today, did you get any indication that the Fed chairman is more optimistic now that this elusive soft landing could be happening sometime in the future?

And for viewers, this is where we're talking about reducing inflation without causing a recession.

WILFORD: This is really an interesting interplay right now. And Wall Street is quite convinced that inflation is coming down and we're going to see really good numbers in the next few months.

The Fed's job is to worry. And they seem unconvinced by all of this. We've seen data, sometimes, you think you have it and realize it turned out to be statistical noise. At the moment, Chairman Powell is sort of the grumpiest guy around.

So, he's not yet convinced.

And really this, are the markets right and inflation is on the way down or is the Fed right? We're going to learn more about that in the next couple of months.

PHILLIP: Yes, we'll all have to wait and see over the next couple of months. But you're right, it is his job to be the Negative Nancy is this situation.

[13:50:02]

Justin Wilford, thank you so much for all of that.

And LeBron James is on the brink of NBA history. Is tonight going to be the night that he breaks the league's all-time scoring record? We'll tell you next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:54:54]

PHILLIP: Tonight, the king of basketball could make history. LeBron James needs 36 points to set the NBA's all-time scoring record. And he's right on the heels of fellow Lakers legend, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who has held that top spot since he retired 34 years ago with 38,387,000 total points.

It's worth noting, this season, James scored at least 36 points nine times. If he does it tonight against the Oklahoma City Thunder, he'll be that much closer to snatching the title of GOAT.

That does it for me. CNN's NEWSROOM starts right after this.

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