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CNN International: Biden Announces Major Federal Investment In Computer Chips; Fed Keeps Rates Unchanged At March Meeting; Today: Israeli PM Netanyahu Senate Republicans; U.N. Delivering Aid In Haiti Despite Continuing Violence; Texas Immigration Law Goes Back To Appeals Court; Georgia Judge Allows Trump To Appeal Fani Willis Ruling; Aviation Summit Dominated By Boeing, Strikes & Climate Change. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired March 20, 2024 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:00:36]
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: It is 7:00 p.m. in London, 3:00 p.m. here in Washington. I'm Jim Sciutto. Thanks so much for joining me today on CNN NEWSROOM and let's get right to the news.
President Joe Biden flexing the power of the president on the campaign trail today, using the battleground state of Arizona as the backdrop for a major economic announcement.
The Biden administration is awarding Intel, the chipmaker, $8.5 billion, plus up to $11 billion in loans to expand manufacturing here in the U.S. The president marking that announcement by touring an Intel plant in Maricopa County. It is one of the largest federal investments ever in high-tech manufacturing, crucial step towards competing with China, that the White House says could create tens of thousands of jobs here in the U.S.
For more on the news, I want to bring in CNN White House reporter Kevin Liptak.
Kevin, of course, the Biden administration has been doing its best to tout the strength of the overall jobs market. This is the case of the government juicing the market in effect.
Tell us what the intent is here and how long this will play out over.
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah. And he's really trying to take credit for some of these key accomplishments when it comes to the economy and particularly in a battleground state like Arizona, which will prove critical in November's election, President Biden really does want to emphasize some of these steps that he says are building on this record of boosting manufacturing, bringing jobs back to the United States.
And when it comes to chips specifically, he's also trying to make that national security argument as well, trying to say that if we can separate these critical components for many factoring in China, our own national security will be strengthened. And so, that's part of what you'll see him do today. One of the problems that President Biden is confronting is that a lot of these steps have just taken a very long time to come into effect. The Chips Act, which is where this money is coming from past in 2022, but some of these grants are just coming into effect now.
And you have heard from some of these chipmakers including Intel, where he's here, where he'll speak today, saying that it is taking too long for some of this money to come to fruition. But certainly, today, he will want to tout those billions and billions of dollars that he is providing to this company that he says will bring 30,000 jobs to Arizona. There are also a number of other states that Intel says that its building plants in Ohio, New Mexico, Oregon.
And so, certainly, President Biden very much wanting to take credit as he is on this major swing through battleground states -- Jim.
SCIUTTO: Big, big chips, plant manufacturing underway outside of Columbus.
Let me ask you this, because the numbers in polling on Biden's effect on the economy have been sticky. They're not good for him, stronger for Trump.
Has the administration as it goes around the country, selling the economic message? Do they say they've seen any movement and approval of his economic handling?
LIPTAK: Yeah. I don't think that they have seen that quite yet and their argument for a long time has been that this is just going to take time for things like the Chips Act to take effect on the ground. Also, for projects under the infrastructure bill to start being built.
And I think as we get closer and closer to the election, that argument is going to become more and more critical for President Biden to make because, you know, it's true many Americans, even though the general economy in the country, all indicators say that it's getting better, a lot of Americans at their own kitchen table say that they don't necessarily feel it yet.
So this is sort of the number one imperative for President Biden, as he's touting his record, is to show people that he is doing things that have made their own lives better. But that's sometimes a hard argument to make. You know, it's a balance that he has to strike. He doesn't necessarily want to be seen as telling people that the economy is better than they think it is. Obviously, they have their own impressions and those impressions will certainly play out at the ballot box -- Jim.
SCIUTTO: No question. Eight months to go.
Kevin Liptak, thanks so much.
Well, the president of course, on the trail selling his economic vision and record, but we know the independent Federal Reserve plays an enormous role in the strength of the economy, especially in tackling inflation. Today, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell announced as expected, the Fed would hold interest rates steady. CNN's Rahel Solomon is here with me for more.
[15:05:00]
So, Rahel, we expected this. I wonder, was there any communication about their footing for future rate cuts?
RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: There was. And so, Jay Powell, the chairman, did continue to say that we will see rate cuts in 2024. And so in that way, the message continues, but we'll have to wait. And so, in that way, the message continuous, because that's sort of where we've been in this sort of waiting, holding pattern for the first rate cut of 2024.
It's the fifth meeting in a row, Jim, where the Fed has kept rates steady, have -- has held rate steady. We've been at this range since July of last year.
A few things we learned this meeting, Jim, a few things. So, on unemployment, the Fed actually revised lower its expectation for the year. So keeping it at that 4 percent range, very low, we'd been there for years.
On GDP, on economic growth, it actually so you revise those numbers higher. So expecting a stronger U.S. economy in 2024, then even just a few months ago, they had projected.
And then on their federal funds, the target rate, the rate that we're talking about right now, they expect they continue to expect those rate cuts about three rate cuts in 2024.
So, again, on a lot of ways, Jim, this was sort of a copy and paste from the last meeting were really in this holding period in terms of when is the right time to start cutting rates, you put it all together though, and you have an economy that's certainly not at least according to these projections showing signs of a recession, and you have an outlook that remains the same in the sense of interest rate cuts.
It's a message that Wall Street certainly liked. But, but what about Main Street? You were just talking to Kevin about how Americans really feel. And Jay Powell was just asked a short time ago, sort of what is the timeline for the first rate cut? What are you looking for?
And, Jim, here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEROME POWELL, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIR: The committee wants to see more data that gives us higher confidence that inflation is moving down sustainably toward 2 percent. I also mentioned and we don't see this in the data right now. But if there were a significant weakening in the data, particularly in the labor market, that could also be a reason for us to begin the process of reducing rates. Again, I don't. There's nothing in the data pointing at that, but those are the things that we'll be looking at at coming meetings. (END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: So, Jim, the Fed in this sort of delicate period where they're trying to strike just the right balance, right? If you cut rates too soon and you stimulate the economy, perhaps you make it harder to solve inflation once and for all. Ultimately, however, if you keep rates too high for too long and you run the risk of damaging the economy. You run the risk of triggering a recession.
So, they're trying to strike just the right balance, but at least for now they say the time is not right, right now.
SCIUTTO: And they seem to have got it right to some degree, right? The long expected recession hasn't happened. Inflation seems to be coming down. We'll see if that continues.
Rahel Solomon, thanks so much.
SOLOMON: Uh-huh.
SCIUTTO: So how will President Biden's announcements on jobs as well as other news on the overall state of the economy influence voters in November's election. Is that narrative that we talked about so much, is that changing?
To discuss, I'm joined now by CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings, Democratic strategist Basil Smikle.
Good to have you both on. Thanks so much.
BASIL SMIKLE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Thank you.
SCIUTTO: So, Scott, you look at these numbers and a Republican president or Congress would be cheering them. Unemployment stands at 3.9 percent, 25th consecutive month that the jobless rate has been below four, longer stretch in more than 50 years. Economic growth remaining strong, no recession and prices do appear to be coming down, not down, certainly as much as many Americans would like.
I just wonder, what does the GOP answer to that strong job market and strong economy?
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think it matters less what the Republican answer to it is, than what the voters answer is, which is that they are still feeling the effects of the record inflation that they faced over the last three years. So I don't think a lot of people are worried about losing their job. They're just worried that what they're making it their job isn't enough to keep their head above water.
That feeling persists and so, I think if you're the Republican Party and you're challenging an incumbent president, your real message, Jim, is just this guy and his party brought your record inflation. They've got no plan to really do anything about it. They may do it to you again in the future. That's the nature of being a challenger in a political campaign. SCIUTTO: No question, Basil. So what -- what's your answer to that? I mean, the overall economic numbers are strong. Even the market is strong
That said, the most tactile way that people experienced the economy beyond their job. And that piece seems to be strong and wages are rising is what they pay for stuff, right? So, what's -- what's the president's answer to that? And can he push back against that over the next eight months?
SMIKLE: Well, I think he can push back on that. I do feel strongly that eventually those that you've referenced will start to hit home and will start to encourage voters to think better about the economy.
But there is one thing that he's doing now that I do think well work and it's not just that its about talking about the economic numbers, but it's actually having his cabinet members go out and be surrogates for the campaign. Why is that important to me? Because when you take someone like Pete Buttigieg, who actually spoke here at Hunter College.
[15:10:04]
And I got an opportunity to interview him about these infrastructure projects that we've been Democrats have been talking about for so long. And he even acknowledged the fact which was evident in your earlier reporting that some of these projects take time. So it's hard to be able to communicate to the voter that you got to -- you know, you'll be able to take advantage of now for a project that's going to take a year or two down the road.
But what you can do is start talking about union apprenticeships, for example, that helped put people in jobs. You can talk about ways in which you can contract with minority women owned businesses to be able to get some of that month funding and support to trickle down into small businesses which can hire individuals. So I think there are ways in which Democrats can have this conversation, if not just hitting the numbers head but talking how eventually voters, more voters can take advantage of what's coming down the pike.
SCIUTTO: Yeah, I mean, you look at the chips investments, right? Those takes many years to build up those high-tech facilities. I was near one in Columbus, Ohio, where they're building one.
It's got to be years. It's going to be lots of jobs, but it doesn't start tomorrow. And I think that's one of the issues.
I want to talk about another issue because this is becomes central to this race. Not only President Biden's framing of it, but President Trump's. At a rally for his Senate endorsed candidate just yesterday, Trump called the people in prison for attacking the Capitol and assaulting police patriots and not for the first time he played an anthem sung by those convicted of crimes before.
Have a listen and I want to get your thoughts on the significance of this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, please rise for the horribly and unfairly treated January 6 hostages.
(NATIONAL ANTHEM)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT & 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The spirit from the hostages, and that's what they are, as hostages, they'd been treated terribly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: It strikes me, Scott, that his message has gone from downplaying January 6 to effectively running on him. He's promising to pardon them. I mean, you know, these are folks who attacked -- you had Republican lawmakers as well hiding in their offices behind Capitol police officers at the time, and some of them now endorsing him.
What does mean for the Republican Party and more broadly, for the country in your view?
JENNINGS: Well, I personally think its one of the worst features of this campaign. I think they're not hostages. They are people who went, broke the law, went through a legal process and got convicted. Some are still in the middle of a legal process, but it's because of the decisions they made and because they were misled about where they were on a particular day -- I mean, you're ultimately responsible for yourself and they did things they shouldn't have done. And now they're paying the legal consequences for it.
So to call them hostages while we have actual hostages being held by Hamas, some Americans, I think -- I think there's no comparison between the two and we ought to reserve that word for people who are actually hostages. I think this whole issue for him is a limiting issue and it's going -- it's going to be a difficult thing for some voters to get over. Maybe it's a small sliver of the electorate, but we're talking about a handful of people that may decide the outcome in this election.
So I personally continue to think its one of the worst features of this campaign.
SCIUTTO: Basil, President Biden is making this central to his campaign message, right? And I wonder, is there evidence that it is working. One phenomenon and it seems clear to me in this country is that information bubbles will work. And you have a portion of the country lives in a right-wing information bubble portion of the country that lives in a left-wing one, and the folks in-between, often the information doesn't -- you know, doesn't penetrate beyond that.
But for folks in the middle or folks not so cloistered if that's the right word, is this message resonating for Biden in this campaign?
SMIKLE: Well, I think -- I think it is resonating to just layer something on top of Scott's point. It's not just a terrible day for, or terrible thread in the campaign. It's a terrible thread for our country and I think a lot of voters just feel differently about who -- what our country is and the direction that it should -- it should go.
And, you know, former President Trump has talked about or implicated that he would pardon individuals were arrested or convicted on January 6. And I'm not just worried about who he -- who he would the pardon. I'm worried about who he would arrest. I'm worried about who he and his supporters would criminalize, whether it's librarians or teachers or women seeking to take advantage of their reproductive rights.
That is what really concerns me and I think that message is getting -- getting to the voter. And I should say very quickly, I was -- I was -- I was one of the million Black men that marched in 1995 for the Million Man March. And I guarantee you, if any one of us had stormed the Capitol, we would never be considered hostages or patriots in this country.
[15:15:02]
We actually cleaned after -- cleaned up after ourselves, after that march. So it just really does show you the dichotomy and the difference in perception of different people and constituencies in this country. And frankly, as the country becomes more and more diverse, that message is resonating.
SCIUTTO: Scott, before we go, beyond the principal issue, right? There's a politics issue here and you saw in Iowa, Trump's endorsed candidate Bernie Moreno, who usually won in the GOP primary over a more traditional candidate. We've seen this pattern before, and where that further right, Republican candidate can lose, right, where a candidate more down the middle might actually win. I think Doug Mastriano, you know, in the state of Pennsylvania.
From a purely political perspective, are these the best choices for the Republican Party this fall?
JENNINGS: Well, we'll find out, I mean, in some cases, they've won. In some cases, they haven't. We certainly saw some people in '22 and the midterm lose I think very winnable races. I think in Ohio, Trump is destined to win by a large amount. It's one of his best states. Moreno is going to have a really good chance.
Running against a well-funded incumbent in this country right now, whether they're Democrat or Republican is a difficult proposition. Most incumbents are winning in the Senate for governors races. So I think while that Senate race is going to be at the top of the board for Republicans, it's not a slam dunk and Moreno's got his work cut out for him. I think he's got a great chance and I wish them well, and I certainly hope Republicans take the Senate.
But it's not a layup. It has to be earned and you have to run the kind of a campaign that earn is it and we saw some people in the last cycle run subpar campaigns. And, of course, they lost in a year that we should have won some races.
SCIUTTO: We should note, Moreno also called the January 6 rioters political prisoners.
Scott Jennings, Basil Smikle, good to have you on. I know we'll be talking about this again in the coming months.
SMIKLE: Thank you.
SCIUTTO: Coming up, is it a sign of the partisanship creeping into the Israel-Hamas War and the U.S. relationship with Israel. House Speaker Mike Johnson is now considering inviting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress. It would be first-time amid rising tensions between President Biden, the Democrats, and the Israeli government.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCIUTTO: Welcome back.
Today, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed Senate Republicans via video conference at a closed door lunch. Republicans are rallying around Netanyahu after the Senate Majority Leader, Democrat Chuck Schumer, called him an obstacle to peace. This as Netanyahu says his government will soon approve a plan for the evacuation of civilians from Rafah in Gaza.
President Biden has pressured Netanyahu to send a group of top Israeli officials to Washington to discuss tactics in any military offensive in Rafah.
CNN's Jeremy Diamond is following this from Jerusalem.
And, Jeremy, I wonder, as Netanyahu throws his lot in more with Republicans and Republicans with him, is there any upset or hesitation among Israeli politicians or the public given how thoroughly Joe Biden embraced Israel following the October 7 attacks and all the support he offered? Or is the Israeli public behind Netanyahu on this?
[15:20:21]
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, I think as you know, well, this is a dance that Prime Minister Netanyahu has played over the years repeatedly, on the one hand, kind of cozying up to Republicans and on the other hand, insisting that he, you know, would work with a Republican or a Democratic president.
There is certainly a lot of support in Israel for President Biden. I've had Israelis, you know, as I'm in the field, talk -- talk to me repeatedly about how much they appreciated his support, but there's also no question that Israelis, both in governments and those outside of governments are increasingly feeling the pressure from the United States and feeling like the -- like President Biden is forgetting how this war started. That is the Israeli sentiment.
Now, in terms of what this pressure is actually amounting to the Israeli prime minister has agreed to now send this delegation of Israeli officials, two of his closest advisers to Washington, likely early next week to discuss what Americans, what the American administration would like to present as alternatives to this major ground offensive in Rafah.
But even as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is willing to show that he's able to listen that he's going to listen to what the Americans are presenting. On the other hand, he's also making very clear that he intends to very soon approve plans to move into Rafah, indicating that there's nothing really that can change his mind in terms of his view that only a ground offensive can eliminate what he has described as Hamas's last bastion in Rafah.
I think at this stage, what the only thing that could likely avert that ground operation is if indeed there is a truce, which, of course, we know there are intense negotiations happening to try and make that happen as we speak.
SCIUTTO: Another issue we've been following closely, the Israeli Supreme Court has issued a temporary injunction to prevent the Israeli government from sending a group of Palestinian patients treated in East Jerusalem hospitals back into Gaza. Despite, of course, the enormous shortages there, the tremendous danger even the people in hospitals there. What's happening?
DIAMOND: Yeah, Jim, and this is an issue that my team and I were able to bring to light yesterday. We visited earlier this week with groups of Palestinian patients. There are mothers and their babies who were brought to Israel and then to east Jerusalem before October 7 because they had high-risk pregnancies to deliver their babies here. There were also cancer patients who came here for treatment before October 7 and they have been here since.
Now, these patients, the Israeli government now wants to send them back to Gaza, saying that they have completed their treatments. We were able to bring this to light in our report yesterday. And following that, several Israeli human rights organizations filed a petition with the Israeli Supreme Court today, asking the Israeli government to stop these, what are effectively deportations back to Gaza.
The Israeli Supreme Court says that the Israeli government must respond to these petitions by tomorrow. And in the meantime, it is issuing a temporary injunction preventing the government from sending these Gazan some two dozen Gazans back to Rafah where they would face a very, very uncertain future.
And we've also learned that COGAT, which is the Israeli military agency responsible for coordinating this departure, they have now told the hospitals that they will not be leaving until at least Monday.
So this process is still going to play out, but for the moment, at least, those mothers, their babies who are terrified of going back to Gaza as the war is still ongoing will at least have several more days before the possibility of going back.
SCIUTTO: Not like it's going to be any much safer in a few days time.
Jeremy Diamond, thanks so much.
Joining me now to discuss, big picture, CNN global affairs analyst, Kimberly Dozier.
Good to have you on, Kim.
KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Good to be here.
SCIUTTO: So, let's talk about Netanyahu for a moment. It's been a number of years where he's more and more thrown in his lot with Republicans in this country over Democrats after what has been really a decades-old Israeli, I don't know, policy is the right word, but practice of keeping a bipartisan relationship with the U.S. government.
I just wonder what are the strategic risks of Netanyahu in this case on the Rafah operation, define a U.S. president who just a few months ago embraced Israel in the wake of this horrible attack.
Is this strategically sustainable, strategically smart for him in Israel?
DOZIER: Well, Netanyahu is nothing if not, in astute political animal. He can see the writing on the wall that if Biden wants to secure the left flank of the Democratic Party and also wants to answer the call across the international community to deliver more aid in Gaza, he's got to start getting tough on Bibi.
[15:25:09]
Netanyahu is doing a couple of things here. By aligning with the GOP, he's possibly clearing the way to securing some of the weapons aid that is hung up in Congress over border issues, by giving the GOP the gift of his attention.
But he's also looking ahead to the binary choice of the next U.S. presidential election, which looks like its going to be Biden and Trump, and therefore, you know, he had a good relationship with the Trump administration. So why not start currying favor now, especially if you thinks that's the way this one is going to go.
SCIUTTO: I want to play comments from the former president's son-in- law, Jared Kushner, yesterday -- well, describing the situation in Gaza in quite alarming ways. Let -- let me play it and I don't want to get your thoughts about the significance of it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JERED KUSHNER, FORMER SENIOR ADVISOR TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And Gaza's waterfront property, it could be very valuable to -- if people would focus on building up, you know, livelihoods -- you think that all the money that's gotten into this tunnel network and do all the munitions, if that would have gone into education or innovation, what could have been done? And so, I think that it's a little bit of an unfortunate situation there, but I think from Israel's perspective, I would do my best to move the people out and then clean it up.
(END VIDEO CLIP) SCIUTTO: Move the people out of Gaza. He seems to be endorsing expelling Palestinians from internationally recognized under international law, Palestinian territory. Is that a signal as to what the policy could be of a second Trump administration?
DOZIER: Absolutely. And that's -- that's the fear of some of the Arab officials that I'm speaking to that having the Trump administration come back would be, look, they're the ones who decided Jerusalem was the capital of Israel and decided not to wait but the final resolution of a Palestinian-Israeli peace deal to declare that.
So it's the kind of thinking that I used to hear from Trump administration officials about the Middle East. And, you know, I have to add, it's also really insulting to those who used to live in Gaza before everything fell apart with the Hamas onslaught in that it did have beautiful beachfront property. They did have -- you know, in the evenings, people would stroll along the beaches and go to restaurants. They had high-tech factories and they had a lot of intellectual property resident inside Gaza.
So there was the part of the Palestinian people within Gaza that didn't want a Hamas or a radical religious future. They wanted the same modernity that Jared Kushner is positing.
SCIUTTO: The trouble is it seems that Kushner, and some of the Israeli public, are blaming all residents of Gaza for the actions of Hamas.
DOZIER: Yeah. It depends on who he and others in the Trump administration are talking to on the Israeli side, because you can certainly find that point of view expressed publicly by members of Netanyahu's current government that has a right-wing settler flank that wants to recapture Israel and just about any part of the country where Palestinians live.
So, you know, you've got to be talking to a wider scope of people. They seem to be ignoring the fact, and the Trump side of the House that Canada just decided to (INAUDIBLE) arms shipments to Israel. And it looks like that's going to be permanent for awhile. And that Josep Borrell of the E.U. just said that Israel is using famine as a weapon of war.
That means that the majority of the international community is coming to a very different conclusion than, you know, Kushner's "let's move everybody out" idea.
SCIUTTO: Yeah. I mean, you see U.S. allies voting for U.N. Security Council resolutions that the U.S. has rejected, including some of Americas closest allies in Europe.
Kim Dozier, thanks so much.
DOZIER: Thanks.
SCIUTTO: Turning now to the deepening crisis in Haiti, the U.S. is now evacuating American citizens from Haiti via chartered helicopters to the Dominican Republic. That's going to start today, according to the State Department.
Gangs in Port-au-Prince have cut off the supply of food, fuel, and water across the city. Despite those severe challenges, the U.N. says they have been able to deliver more than 242,000 gallons of water since early March. The World Food Programme has been able to provide more than 146,000 hot meals. But the situation there is deteriorating.
Joining me now to discuss, Jean-Martin Bauer. He's the country director for Haiti at the U.N. World Food Programme. He is in Port-au- Prince.
[15:30:01]
It's good to have you on. Thank you for taking the time.
JEAN-MARTIN BAUER, COUNTRY DIRECTOR HAITI, U.N. WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME: Hi, Jim
SCIUTTO: First, I wonder if you could give us a scene from there on the conditions right now. How bad are there?
BAUER: Jim, the political and security crisis in Haiti has turned into a humanitarian emergency. It's that simple. Even today, getting in and out of this neighborhood has been difficult. My colleagues and I were woken up by shooting last night. The situation here is dire and time is running out.
SCIUTTO: Time is running out. People are starving.
Who should be attempting to reinstitute law and order there? Who? Who's going to come to the rescue in effect?
BAUER: Well, there's the valiant efforts of the patient police and there's also been quite a lot of talk about bringing in a security force in Haiti. What I'd like to emphasize is that security is a big part of the problem, is an essential part of the problem. But the debate can't be only about responding to this with security. Boots on the ground alone won't resolve the multi-layered problem that we have in this country. It's lasted for years, and it requires security, but also focused on humanitarian issues.
Humanitarian issues have been on the back burner in this country. As I speak, the United Nations humanitarian response plan for Haiti is only 6 percent funded. That shows that were really focusing on some issues, but not at all the issues that are needed to bring more stability to Haiti.
SCIUTTO: What is the most urgent step that needs to be taken to get just food, just get the basics, food and water people to people in need there right now?
BAUER: Well, security is the number one issue. Today, my team was ready to distribute 14,000 hot meals to the displaced population of Port-au-Prince. We had to cut that down to 11,000 because some of the sites where we do the distributions have been cut off by roadblocks. We need security to improve access to populations and humanitarian needs.
We also need our donors to stop up with the funding that's needed to ensure these programs continue to run. The World Food Program alone needs US$95 million to keep our operation in this country running for the next six months. So we need security, we need donor support.
SCIUTTO: It is -- I mean, we've been showing pictures of just the needy there, including children. It's a human tragedy and I -- and I know you're very close to it. You're experiencing and every day what should the U.N.'s role, I mean, your role at the U.N. is to get food to people in need, but you need help, right? You need security so that you could distribute those hot meals and the other -- the other basics. What should the U.N.'s role in -- be and providing security?
BAUER: Look, what we need to do is ensure that the conditions are (INAUDIBLE), for everyone who works on humanitarian issues to get to those who are in highest need. We're being very creative right now to find a way of continuing to deliver in spite of the very real difficulties we're facing right now.
I mean, at the World Food Programme, what we do is work with local charities, local NGOs that help us get into these very difficult neighborhoods. We work with local farming organizations. We're able, thanks to these organizations, to shorten or supply chain and not be as vulnerable to a foreclosure or a roadblock.
I'm purchasing our food locally from local farmers. We're boosting the local economy as well. And thanks to them, we're feeding 250,000 schoolchildren every single day. Were also using local providers at technology to send mobile money to people all over Haiti and allow them to continue -- and have some -- at least a basic amount of income. So we're here to try to ensure that these mechanisms continue.
But, of course, we need to work on the longer-term. An emergency response in Haiti is not. Adequate food security problems in Haiti of lasted for decades. There have been more than 4 million food and secure people in this country since 2020, year in and year out. And then personally quite concerned about what mass hunger, what protracted mass hunger means for this society.
SCIUTTO: Yeah, 4 million food insecure people its such a great point because it shows that this need didn't just start yesterday, right? It's been a long-term problem.
Jean-Martin Bauer, we wish you good luck in all the work you're doing there.
BAUER: Thanks, Jim.
SCIUTTO: Still to come this tower, the legal whiplash over Texas's draconian immigration law. A panel of U.S. federal appeals court judges signal they may allow just to enforce parts of that law. It's been a confusing 24 hours.
We're going to have details and answer some of your questions, coming up. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:36:53]
SCIUTTO: Today, lawyers for the DOJ and Texas are back in court. Judges again, weighing whether a tough new Texas immigration law can go into effect. That law would give state officials and law enforcement the power to arrest and detain people they suspect of crossing the border illegally
Immigration, typically, a job for the federal government.
CNN senior Supreme Court analyst, Joan Biskupic, she joins me now to make sense of this all.
First on the timing of this because the Supreme Court briefly allowed the law to take effect until the court of appeals halted the state from enforcing it. What happens now and who decides and when?
JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN SENIOR SUPREME COURT ANALYST: Okay. Good. Just -- just to recap briefly, were talking about this law that Governor Abbott signed back in December. A district court judge, who has been the only judge to actually take a look at this in a serious way, put it on hold, saying it was unconstitutional. It's effectively nullified federal law.
But the Fifth Circuit -- which will be the topic of our conversation here -- Fifth Circuit said that that law actually could take effect while all the appeals were pending. Yesterday, the Supreme Court, just about 24 hours ago, Jim, it essentially endorsed that and said the law could take effect. But it was based -- based on kind of what the Fifth Circuit had done to that point. And last night, the Appeals Court essentially lifted the original order that opened the door for it and just said, wait a second.
So, right now, the law is it is not in effect, but we already had this green light from the Supreme Court raising the stakes and I just want to read a comment from Justice Sotomayor, who was one of three justices of the nine who dissented yesterday. It was very heavily weighted conservative majority that sided with Texas here.
But this is what Justice Sotomayor said: Today, the court invites further chaos and crisis in immigration enforcement. Texas passed a law that directly regulates the entry and removal of noncitizens and explicitly instructs its state courts to disregard any ongoing federal immigration proceedings. That law upends the federal-state balance of power that has existed for over a century.
And the only reason I want to stress that is so the people understand the legal stakes here. They've seen all the great very compelling pictures of what's happening at the border. But this is -- this is what the issue is and what that three-judge panel heard today were arguments on just a very early slice of the case, and that involves which side would be more harmed if the law were to take effect.
And Texas is saying the law should take effect because if it doesn't, while appeals play out, it would be harmed. Obviously, the federal government and immigration rights advocates say the opposite.
SCIUTTO: But the big issue here, right, is that immigration law is typically and has been for -- I understand that -- more than 100 years run by the federal government. So, here's a state say, no, you're not good enough for your jobs. We're going to pass our own law to do it.
The Fifth Circuit, notably conservative Supreme Court, has a big, conservative majority. Do we have a sense from these courts how this is going to end up?
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Are they going to give Texas what would be a pretty groundbreaking, unprecedented state capability?
BISKUPIC: Right. Okay. So let's just talk about this first phase of whether the law will be able to take effect on a temporary basis. I think the fact that the majority of the appellate panel that we've been talking about, the Fifth Circuit oversees Texas, that a majority of the appellate panel last night negated in an original decision there and said the law should be blocked. It was a two-to-one vote. And the one Trump appointee on the bench said, no, that law should go into effect.
But I think that was an early signal, Jim, that we could get a permanent order just keeping the status quo, keeping the law on hold while the constitutional challenge plays out. So I would say that could happen. If that doesn't, then were just going to have lots more turmoil. But even if it does, Texas might come right back to the Supreme Court and say to the Supreme Court justices, no, let that law to take effect while the merits play out.
And then your other larger question, Jim, on the merits of this, if the Supreme Court rules on its -- based on its own precedent and federal law over decades and decades, it would strike down this law.
SCIUTTO: Yeah, but precedent, we've seen with this court -- just ask the people behind the Roe v. Wade decision, the Dobbs decision.
Joan Biskupic --
BISKUPIC: OK.
SCIUTTO: -- thanks so much for helping walk us through it.
Well, border communities are, of course, now caught in this legal confusion, deep confusion.
Joining me now to discuss what this all means, next steps for law enforcement, how the people see it is someone in one of the border towns, Dr. Victor Trevino. He is the mayor of Laredo, Texas, which is right on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Mayor, Doctor, thanks for joining us this afternoon.
MAYOR VICTOR TREVINO, LAREDO, TEXAS: Yes. Thank you for having me SCIUTTO: All right. The law, it's currently blocked, but for eight
hours yesterday was in effect. I'm just curious. What kind of confusion and fear if that this is caused in your community
TREVINO: Yes. But, first of all, we're seeing some challenging times ahead of us as border mayors, because this is an enormous amount of confusion because I said over 150 years, border patrol has been in charge of immigration.
SCIUTTO: Yeah.
TREVINO: There are the subject matter experts and our local law enforcement officers are good at what they do locally involving community policing. But as a local doctor, now, as a mayor, I know this is one thing that -- to visit the border or see it on TV is one thing. It's completely different to actually work and live here. So these are the things that we see and hear.
SCIUTTO: So, let me ask you this -- is there is there support in your community for this law to allow state officials to arrest on suspicion that someone has entered the country illegally?
TREVINO: No, there's no support for that. This is no practical application of the law. Who will pay for the huge cost of arresting, imprisoning, and deporting these individuals when it is a typical federal responsibility? And number two, we're the number one port of entry trade relationship with Mexico, the biggest trade partner. It is very important.
And Mexico has already said that there not accept deportation from, from local municipality, and the state of Texas. They're going to leave stuck at the bridge because most of them are not Mexican citizens. They come from South America or other parts of the world. So that is also another challenge.
SCIUTTO: No question. If -- I believe 40 percent of the state of Texas is Latino background, I know a large percentage of your community as well. Are residents their who were legal residents or even citizens, do they fear that they or their family members might be stopped on suspicion of being in the country illegally if this were to take effect?
TREVINO: That is also a concern. It could happen that way. As a matter of fact, any of us could be stopped at any point in Texas and we'd have to produce our documents, and we don't have them with us, then we could be detained and that would cause very serious problems.
SCIUTTO: But before we go, I wonder you have former President Trump running for office. He has vowed mass deportations if he's reelected. Do you see here an effort by a state such as Texas to lay the legal groundwork in effect to allow for mass deportations if Trump were to return to the White House?
TREVINO: Well, we need to leave politics out of this. Remember, we're all Americans. We have to make solutions that are practical. We have to -- we have to talk partners and other countries to make immigration reform work. It can't just be a band-aid, can't be a border wall. Things have to be done and thought out and a more superior way than what had been happening recently.
[15:45:02]
SCIUTTO: Well, Dr. Victor Trevino, the mayor of Laredo, Texas, on the border -- thanks for joining us today.
TREVINO: All right. Thank you. Glad to do it.
SCIUTTO: Now, another story we have been following, that is Fulton County, Georgia, where a judge is now allowing an effort by former President Donald Trump and his co-defendants to appeal that same judge's decision to allow the district attorney prosecuting the case to continue the prosecution. You remember the long hearings over that, the decision last week, but now he is allowing the Trump team to appeal his decision.
CNN's Zach Cohen, he's been following this from the start.
So, Zach, what happens now during the appeal? I mean, is the prosecution on hold while that appeal is underway?
ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yeah. Jim, it's really interesting because the Georgia Court of Appeals now has to decide whether or not it wants to take up this review of McAfee's order which obviously he allowed Fani Willis to stay on the case, but did say that Nathan Wade, the top prosecutor, who she was alleged, that romantic relationship with, had to go. And so, obviously he's resigned and McAfee says, okay, you can stay on the case.
The court of appeals can say no, but it will have 45 days after the petition is formally submitted to make a decision on whether or not its going to review the case and then a decision will come shortly after.
But to your question, look, McAfee made very clear in his order today that the case will not be put on and hold. In fact, that he's going to continue to work through this giant stack of other matters of other motions that have already been filed in this case. It's going to work on addressing those while this appeals process plays out.
So you have the cloud of potential disqualification continuing to hang over Fani Willis at least 45 more days, but the same time, Judge McAfee indicating he wants to move things forward and we know now that he's not set a trial date yet, prosecutors have asked for one to start in August, but the judge is moving forward, even with this potential of disqualification still out there.
SCIUTTO: Understood. One more wrinkle.
Zach Cohen, thanks so much for covering.
All right. In Europe now, at an aviation summit there. Boeing, the talk of the town, after -- well, a bunch of in-flight mishaps, including that door plug -- it looks like a door to me -- blow out mid-flight. But are airliners still confident in the plane manufacturer? We're going to be live from Brussels, next.
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SCIUTTO: Welcome back.
Boeing is expected to report big losses in the first quarter stemming from the Alaska Airlines door plug, which is a door and a section around it, flew out of the plane midair. The company continues to face increased scrutiny from federal regulators in the U.S. over a number of quality and safety concerns.
Meanwhile, in Europe, airline CEOs are meeting today in an aviation conference in Brussels, Belgium. Boeing's troubles are top of mind.
CNN business editor-at-large and anchor of "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS", Richard Quest is at that conference.
And I wonder, Richard, when you speak to those airlines CEOs, are they wary or warier of Boeing products now?
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RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: No. Wary is a good word but they're not so much wary as pissed off, if you will, my vernacular language.
The reality is that, first of all, they are concerned at what happened in Alaska and they're concerned about quality control issues at Boeing, which they perceived to have been bad since the pandemic. But the fundamental aircraft, they have no problem with -- its fuel efficiency, its economy, its environmental credentials. What they're really annoyed about is they can't get their hands on them because onward delays and delays and delays.
Take a listen to Michael O'Leary. He runs Ryanair, which is actually Europe's largest airline by passenger numbers. It's, if you will, Europe's Southwest.
He has a huge 737 fleet. He's got 400 MAXes on order, and he's very forthright in what he says.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL O'LEARY, CEO, RYANAIR: We're in daily dialogue with Dave Calhoun, Brian West, the CFO, I have confidence in those guys. I think they're getting their arms around this, Boeing at the most senior levels. We've been saying for 18 months, both publicly and privately, to Boeing, but that quality control post-COVID since they got back making aircraft has not been acceptable and it needs to be improved.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: And that's the message. They've got confidence, whether it's Lufthansa, IAG, Norwegian, all the major European carriers, they're absolutely confident that Boeing can do it and get on with it. But they want them to just start putting these problems right. There is no doubting the quality of the actual aircraft in terms of its design and execution.
SCIUTTO: Is there an expectation that Boeing's troubles, including those delays, might impact ticket prices this summer?
QUEST: Oh, yes, in Europe, Michael O'Leary again says that prices could go up by five to 10 percent. Simple law of economics, supply and demand. We know that we're starting to get back 2019 numbers of passengers, even beyond that, in some cases.
So, Jim, yes, very much a Ryanair expects higher prices. All the other carriers likewise, will push up prices simply because its nearly summer in Europe and people want to get out, they want to see, they want to travel and there's only so many seats that are available, expect prices to go up. And by the way, there's a very strong argument that says that same argument holds in the United States.
SCIUTTO: No question planes, airports always full when I travel. Another topic of the meeting and you mentioned that -- you mentioned the fuel efficiency of Boeing aircraft, topic there on climate change. What are airline leaders speaking about in terms of how they're going to reduce their footprint over time?
QUEST: Look, they say that spending billions on new aircraft, they've got all the right policies. They actually blame this slot in the building behind. This is the European Commission headquarters on what they say is, for instance, you want to fly from A to B over Europe, while you may have to take a circuitous route, it's called single European skies.
Jim, you know, the U.S. flies in direct lines, best possible route. Here, you go round, you go up, you go down, you turn left, you turn right, all because of national sovereignty in terms of that airspace. They are furious about it. It is low-hanging fruit according to the airlines, 10 to 15 percent could be saved almost immediately in terms of fuel, if -- if this lot, the nations, the sovereigns of the E.U. could agree single European skies.
SCIUTTO: Interesting, I didn't know that. I didn't know -- you didn't fly as sort of the shortest point, but to its first distance between two points is a straight line. We were taught that a long time ago.
But before we go, I wondered as the Airbus see an opportunity here with Boeing's troubles?
QUEST: Yes.
SCIUTTO: Yeah.
QUEST: You know, schadenfreude as one might say, the discomfort at the misfortune of others. Yeah, they've got their own problems. The Pratt and Whitney engines on the -- on the A320s. Some airlines like Wizz Air have 30, 40 aircraft on the ground because the Pratt and Whitney engines have got mega, mega problems.
And then secondly, even, look, Jim, if Sciutto Quest airlines was to start-up tomorrow, got out the passengers, but if you and I started an airline tomorrow and decided we wanted to buy 150 planes, whether Boeing or Airbus, we simply couldn't get the orders. They are absolutely full to the brim with order books.
SCIUTTO: Well, let's check our checkbooks and see if we got the money for those 150 planes. So I'll get back to you right after this broadcast.
QUEST: I think -- I think I left mine at home.
SCIUTTO: Yeah, thank you.
[15:55:01]
Thank you, Richard.
And you can see more of his reporting from the airline summit next hour on "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS".
Still to come this hour, who is happier than we are? Apparently, a lot of people like a lot. For the first time, the United States did not make the cut for the top 20 happiest countries in the world.
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SCIUTTO: Before we go, today is International Day of Happiness, not everywhere though. The United States not so happy. For the first time since that ranking began, the U.S. fell out of the top 20 countries in the world, dropping from the 15th happiest last year to the 23rd, downgraded in part because young people are reporting a sharp decrease in happiness.
So where are the happiest people in the world? It turns out it's Finland. The country came in number one for the seventh year in a row. People there say they trust the government. They have a good work-life balance. They enjoy access to nature and have low stress. That all sounds really nice.
Thanks so much for joining me today. I'm Jim Sciutto back here in Washington, part of number 23 on that ranking. I'm Jim Sciutto.
"QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" is up next
