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CNN This Morning

Nor'easter on the Move as Storms Move Across U.S.; Elon Musk Bans Twitter Accounts of Prominent Journalists; Investigators Troubled by Actions of 2 Officials in Response to Uvalde Shooting; Stocks Take Tumble as Wall Street Fears a Recession. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired December 16, 2022 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:04]

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes, it certainly had to be tough. You know, he played basketball probably every day of his life for years to get to the NBA, and then to walk away from the game. It had to be just an amazingly tough decision.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Absolutely. All right. Well, we wish him -- we wish him the best and wish you a great weekend. Nice to see you, Andy.

Thanks for joining me. I'm Christine Romans. CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ELON MUSK, OWNER OF TWITTER: You dox, you get suspended. End of story.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Well, good morning, everyone. We're going to explain the madness that is going on with Twitter. That was Elon Musk trying to justify why he's banned journalists from Twitter.

It's crazy. So what does this mean for free speech on a platform in a battle with one of the world's richest men?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, a winter storm, heavy snow and ice, it is expected to bombard millions today. We are live in the severe weather center with your update.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Also, the stock market closing at its worst day in months. Look at the selloff yesterday. We're going to talk about what is spooking investors.

LEMON: But first, we're going to begin with a developing nor'easter, just as many Americans are planning to travel for the holidays. The storm expected to bring ice and snow from Pennsylvania all the way through New England.

Now some areas are already getting slammed this morning, like in North Dakota where there's widespread outages from frozen power lines; and parts of Minnesota getting almost two and a half feet of snow. Poppy, check on your relatives there.

HARLOW: Mom already called.

LEMON: All right. Good. Hope everything is OK.

We get straight to Chad Myers now in the CNN Severe Weather Center. Can we expect -- Good morning to you. What can we expect heading -- expect with a "T" -- heading into the weekend, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Good morning, Don. This has been a doozy.

Snowing right now upstate, all the way through interior New England, and that snow is not going to stop. Winter storm warnings in effect.

This is great news for ski areas but not so great news for skiers that can't get there. This is going to be a tough storm today.

Around noon, we're still going to see snow. Later on this afternoon, still seeing snow. And by tomorrow, yes. That's the broken record.

It is still snowing in parts of New England. And there is going to be a lot of accumulation. We're talking 2 to 3 feet of snow in these higher elevations.

Now, the big cities all to get rain and, at times today, a lot of rain. And then behind this, it is going to get cold.

And for the Friends of Poppy Facebook page, Minnesota next Thursday, Minneapolis, you don't get above zero for a high temperature -- Don.

LEMON: Chad, it's Minnesota.

HARLOW: Don't ya know? Get it right, guys.

MYERS: I was born in Buffalo. I got the "R," get in the car.

LEMON: Thank you, Chad, Poppy.

MYERS: You bet.

HARLOW: All right. Really turning the page here to very serious news overnight missile attacks reported across Ukraine, police warning residents to shelter in place.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

GRAPHIC: Air raid alert. Everyone please go to the nearest shelter. Stay in the shelter until the threat ends. The police of Kyiv region takes care of your safety.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: I mean, think about hearing that as you're trying to go about your day.

This is new video showing the moment civilians sheltered inside a Kyiv metro station. We're told critical infrastructures were hit. Two people have been killed, both children.

Meanwhile, on the border of Ukraine in Belarus, CNN joined Ukrainian soldiers as they actively work on solidifying their trenches in the event of a Russian ground association.

Earlier this month, Belarus announced that it was moving troops and military equipment, citing, quote, "counterterrorism threats." Ukraine's defense minister expressed his concern in a new interview with our very own Will Ripley.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OLEKSII REZNIKOV, UKRAINE DEFENSE MINISTER: We have to be concerned, because we have a not friendly neighbor. But we have 2,500 kilometers not-friendly borders: Belarus, Russia, and temporarily occupied territories. We have to be ready here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: That's right. This comes as the head of Ukraine's military tells "The Economist," Russians are regrouping -- Russian forces are regrouping for a new offensive, saying, quote, "The Russians are preparing some 200,000 fresh troops. I have no doubt that they will have another go at Kyiv."

Our Will Ripley will join us next hour, live from Kyiv.

COLLINS: All right. Also overnight, Twitter has abruptly suspended the accounts of half a dozen prominent journalists, claiming they violated Twitter's rules without really providing many details.

Elon Musk, who as you know, bought the platform for $44 billion, accused reporters of posting, basically, assassination coordinates for him and his family, even though there is no evidence that any of them did that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MUSK: You dox, you get suspended, end of story. So and ban evasion -- or like, trying to be clever about it, like, Oh, I posted a link to the real-time information, is obviously a -- that is obviously simply trying to evade the meaning. That is -- that is no different from actually sharing real-time information.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: The reporters, including CNN's Donie O'Sullivan and others from "The New York Times," "Washington Post" and other outlets, said the suspensions happened without any warning or real explanation afterward.

They were suspended one day after Twitter changed its policy on sharing live location information, mainly in part to justify suspending an account that tracked flight data and shared the location of Elon's private jet, despite how he once pledged to keep that account online.

Our colleague, Donie O'Sullivan, did not share Elon Musk's location, and others say they didn't either.

Musk once said that his purchase of Twitter would actually expand free speech on the platform. And he wrote earlier this year, quote, "I hope that even my worst critics remain on Twitter, because that is what free speech means."

Here's Musk in his own words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MUSK: I think it's very important for there to be an inclusive arena for free speech, where -- yes. Twitter has become kind of the de facto town square.

Is someone you don't like allowed to say something you don't like? And if that is the case, then we have free speech.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COLLINS: Joining us now to discuss is CNN senior media reporter Oliver Darcy and CNN media analyst Sara Fischer, who's also a media reporter at Axios. Olive.

OLIVER DARCY, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: What happened to that Elon we just heard?

COLLINS: Just a few months ago.

DARCY: Yes. I mean, I think this has really exposed his lack of commitment to free speech. I don't know how you can claim to support free speech and then ban journalists from "The New York Times," CNN, "The Washington Post" and others yesterday.

And I also think this does raise a big question about what the future of free speech looks like on Twitter. Are news organizations going to stay on Twitter?

News organizations have been the life-blood of Twitter for some time. I mean, that's what Twitter is. People go there for real-time information, and they look for credible information from journalists at major news organizations.

I think it's going to be interesting to see whether news orgs stand for this.

I think CNN, in its statement, even pointed out that it was going to evaluate its future with the platform depending on how Twitter responds.

And so far, Twitter has responded -- or Elon Musk has responded, because it's really him at this point, by smearing the journalists who he banned, saying that they posted effective assassination coordinates on him.

That is, you know, not true. And it's, I don't think, a valid answer to what he's done here.

LEMON: This is just -- probably a combination of lack of a plan -- I think it's poor planning; there is no plan, and thin skin is basically what it is. And just making you know what up as he goes.

SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: Yes, and I think to Oliver's point, journalists are willing to listen to rules if they really are consistent. The challenge is there is no consistency. And he said that those journalists were banned because they doxed him. This isn't what doxing is. Doxing is posting --

COLLINS: Can you explain doxing?

FISCHER: Yes. Doxing is posting someone's personally identifiable information, such as --

HARLOW: Like an address. Right?

FISCHER: Their address, their email address, their phone number with mal intent, basically, to ensure that person gets harassed.

What these journalists were doing is they were posting links to an account that was actually moved to a different social media site, because Elon Musk banned it from Twitter, that had publicly-available information about Elon Musk's jet location. And they were aggregating it and posting it.

And I should remind the audience this is not some unique thing to Elon Musk. In the past, people have done this with celebrities all the time, tracking Taylor Swift's jet, Kim Kardashian's jet. Oliver and I were talking about the fact that Elon Musk has tried to ban all of those accounts.

But to equate that with doxing is not consistent at all with the principles that he said, and it makes it hard for us as journalists to figure out how we even abide by the new Elon Musk rules when they're not so consistent.

DARCY: I think this is going to have a major chilling effect, actually, on Twitter. Because now, there are no rules. It's clear there are no rules. If you irritate Elon Musk, you can get banned from the platform.

LEMON: However, we're talking about it.

DARCY: Yes.

LEMON: We were talking about, is this what he wants? That we're talking about it? It doesn't matter. And all of a sudden, Donie and everybody is going to be reinstated, and it's a whole Trump thing where you own the news cycle for the next 24 hours. And then you do something else that is hyperbolic and outrageous, and

then you own the news cycle. Why are we doing it?

DARCY: I think -- well, it's important. It's one of these cases where it's difficult, right? You don't want to give someone attention if they're just looking for attention.

But I think it's also important to talk about what's happening on this platform, because it is such a crucial information platform. This is how a lot of the world communicates. I mean, world leaders are on this platform.

HARLOW: Can we talk about that? Like, let's get outside of the United States for a -- for a moment. This is a show that airs around the world. And there are many other countries, not democracies like the United States, that are so reliant on Twitter for information, and for having their voices heard outside of the country.

[06:10:11]

How does something like this potentially affect that? In a much more grave situation.

FISCHER: Yes, absolutely. A couple ways.

One, Twitter's user base is mostly international, and other world leaders look to leaders in America, whether they're politicians or business leaders, to implement tactics that go against the free press to hold their power. That's where this is going to have the most chilling effect.

Other world leaders are going to look at social media platforms in their countries and say, Well, you know, Elon Musk is targeting journalists, creating ad hoc policies. We can do the same thing.

And I think where it has the most chilling effect is that Twitter journalists in the United States are also leveraged around the world. People around the world rely on us to tell them what's happening here, because it impacts their democracies and it impacts their countries.

And if journalists here have a chilling effect, don't feel comfortable posting on Twitter, it impacts not just our democracy and the people here but people around the world.

HARLOW: You're not kicked off yet.

FISCHER: I'm not kicked off.

HARLOW: Are you -- are you nervous? Does it make you think twice about what you post in a way you wouldn't have thought yesterday at this time?

FISCHER: I'm not changing my behavior whatsoever. I'm reporting the truth, and if that gets me banned, then that gets me banned. But I do think that I'm going to have to invest a lot more in Instagram and LinkedIn and other platforms, just in case. LEMON: What does this mean, though, for Kaitlan's dad, or my mom, or

Poppy's mom? Like, what does it -- for the average --

HARLOW: Who are not on Twitter. Mine aren't.

LEMON: My mom's on Twitter somewhat. Like recipes. She wants to see what people are saying about the show, you know, make little comments about -- what does this mean for them?

FISCHER: You know, earlier this year Spotify's CEO, Daniel Ek, said something that really stuck with me. I asked -- or an investor asked him -- it was investor day -- what does Elon Musk's purchase of Twitter mean for the future of free speech.

And Ek said it sets a new precedent for how all global leaders, in terms of tech leaders or anyone who runs the media, think about how they do content moderation. Because now that Elon is rolling this back, every other platform owner feels that they can roll their content moderation policies back.

COLLINS: I also think looking at it in the bigger picture of everything he said he was going to do, versus what he's actually done. It's been really inconsistent since he bought the platform.

So even if you're just judging him by his own standards, he's not meeting those standards.

DARCY: I think it just shows that he doesn't know what he wants to do with this platform, and he's just making it up as he goes along. And the real guiding principle doesn't seem to be toward free speech. It seems to be toward whatever is best for Elon Musk.

And so even this rule that he says the journalists, you know, violated he just made this rule up out of thin air.

COLLINS: The day before.

DARCY: And it wasn't announced. It's not like all Twitter users got an email saying, The rules have been updated. You know, you can no longer do this. Journalists noticed that this page had been quietly updated with this rule change.

And so, you know, there's a number of things he's done that has really shown that he is not committed toward what he says in public. What he does --

LEMON: What he's doing --

DARCY -- is totally different.

LEMON: He knows if he bans journalists, we're going to talk about it. He needs attention, because he needs eyes on Twitter. He is accomplishing exactly what he wants to accomplish. That's all this is. That's it.

HARLOW: Unless the advertisers pull. LEMON: They're not.

FISCHER: I'm waiting to see where that threshold is, though. Because for now, user engagement is going up. Third-party analysis will show that. But when does it start to go down? When do users start to get Fed up with this?

DARCY: And when do companies like Apple or Amazon that advertise on Twitter say, Hey, we do not want to be associated with a platform that censors the press?

FISCHER: And news companies. New companies are some of the biggest biggest advertisers on Twitter. How are they supposed to promote those stories and spend money on this platform when the leader of it is banning their journalists?

HARLOW: Yes. All right.

COLLINS: Oliver, Sara, thank you both for joining us on this. We'll be talking about it all morning.

We're also going to talk to Donie O'Sullivan himself. Obviously, he is one of the reporters who was banned. We'll talk about what he has to say about Musk banning him.

LEMON: I want to hear what Donie has to say.

Meantime, a new defense bill passed by Congress and awaiting President Biden's signature calls for an end to the military's COVID vaccine mandate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This vote, the yeas are 83; the nays are 11. The 60-vote threshold achieved, the motion to concur --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: The measure also includes $800 million in aid to Ukraine; an increase in basic pay for service members; and up to $10 billion for defense moderation [SIC] -- modernization, I should say, program for Taiwan to deter aggression by China.

The bill does not reinstate service members who were discharged for refusing to get vaccinated. Some military officials fear ending the mandate could adversely affect troop readiness.

HARLOW: Well, CNN has learned two police officials are coming under intense scrutiny in connection with the botched response to the shooting -- botched to say the least -- the lack of response to the shooting at the school in Uvalde, Texas, that ended with 19 children murdered, as well as two teachers.

These revelations coming to light as state officials attempt to wrap up their investigation.

[06:15:00]

Our Shimon Prokupecz joins us live in the Texas capital for CNN this morning. Good morning to you, Shimon. What can you tell us?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN LAW AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so those two officials, of course, much of our attention in the last several months our reporting has been focused on them -- was the school police chief, Pete Arredondo.

And the other person who has come under intense scrutiny is Mariano Pargas. He was also just recently the subject of our own investigation into his actions that day: the fact that he didn't take command; the fact that he knew that there was a 911 call but yet, still didn't lead, didn't use a team of law enforcement officials to break through that door and save some of those kids who were inside that room.

All of this is happening as we've now learned -- basically, we caught up with the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, which is leading this investigation. Their investigation is wrapping up. We spoke to the leader of that agency yesterday. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COL. STEVEN MCCRAW, DIRECTOR, TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY: One thing is -- is important, is -- I know people have talked about what investigation? It can't be a criminal investigation, the subject is dead. Well, she's looking at criminal culpability for law enforcement officers. Why should we not be judicious and as thorough investigating law enforcement officers as we are the subjects that aren't?

PROKUPECZ: You think you've done that? Your rangers, your investigators, you think, have been doing that?

MCCRAW: Absolutely. And we'll continue to do so.

PROKUPECZ: so she's going to -- the district attorney will be receiving your information within days or so. But look, for all intents and purposes, besides some follow-ups that may come down the line, you believe it's basically the investigation --

MCCRAW: That's correct. That's correct.

PROKUPECZ: So now it will be in her --

MCCRAW: Yes. And if she finds gaps or finds additional things we need to do, we'll continue to do those particular things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PROKUPECZ: And so now the district attorney there in Uvalde, Christina Busbee Mitchell, will decide whether or not this case goes before a grand jury and whether or not any of those officers that the Texas Rangers and the Texas Department of Public Safety have been investigating whether or not they're going to face charges.

Just quickly, one note on the internal investigation that's been going on by the inspector general at the Texas Department of Public Safety. Seven officers have been under investigation. That is still ongoing.

The head of the agency wouldn't talk to us about that. But he said that investigation is still ongoing.

So of course, as I say after every story here, there's still a lot more to come. We are still digging in on a lot of our own stories and our own investigation. So the next several months are going to be important here.

HARLOW: We know you will stay on it, as you always have, pressing for answers. Shimon, thank you.

COLLINS: All right. Recession fears rocking the markets. Is the Fed going too far with its rate hikes?

LEMON: And new reporting, black voter turnout down in 2022, and Democrats are already panicking.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:22:21]

COLLINS: We're just nine days away from Christmas. But there's not really a lot of holiday spirit on Wall Street this morning. The stock market taking another tumble on Thursday as investors are fretting over the Federal Reserve's interest rates hikes as they are cooling the economy into a recession. That's their concern.

On Wednesday, the Fed raised rates by, quote, "just half a point." The seventh rate hike this year. The Fed chair indicating more rate hikes are coming.

And further stoking those recession fears, a much bigger drop in retail sales for November than was expected.

Joining us now is CNN's chief business correspondent and anchor of "EARLY START," Christine Romans, and CNN's business correspondent, Rahel Solomon.

Not really the end of the year rally people were hoping for.

ROMANS: No. Santa Claus rallies, sometimes you get that. But this year for perspective for stock investors, that's really all of us, right, in a 401(k), you're probably looking at 18 percent loss in the S&P 500 this year. And that really hurts. That's the biggest loss since 2008, when the stock market lost 38 percent.

But perspective: it rallied 26 percent last year. It rallied 16 percent the year before. It rallied 28 percent in 2019. So we have had a really big run here.

The stock market, the S&P, is up 45 percent over the past five years. So that's the important perspective about this step back we've seen.

And the step-back is for a really good reason. The economy is transitioning from this post-pandemic boom into what it's going to look like next. High inflation, still a very strong job market and consumers that have a lot of money still in their pockets from all that pandemic spending, an extra trillion and a half dollars in consumer fire powers there.

So we're transitioning to something new here.

HARLOW: That's what Jamie Dimon at JPMorgan said he was worried about, is when that one and a half trillion runs out.

LEMON: Suze Orman said so.

ROMANS: Yes. That money will eventually run out. And we don't know what's going to happen, how consumers are going to handle it.

We do know in those retail sales numbers we saw this week you're starting to see a change in behavior.

HARLOW: They were not good for November.

ROMANS: Not good for November. A lot of that was auto sales. For two reasons. Used car prices are falling finally. That's a good thing. And also, people can't get the car they want, and they're worried about if there's a recession next year, do I need to buy an optional auto purchase? Maybe I shouldn't do that.

And that's actually a good thing for people's, you know, personal budgets.

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I think you're absolutely seeing inflation start to shift how people spend. So in addition to all those sales falling, as Christine points out, we saw falls in furniture, in electronics, in sporting goods.

So part of this is, you know, if you bought a TV over the last year, maybe you don't need another TV. But part of this is also, maybe you're holding off on buying a TV, because you're hearing all these recession warnings. You're seeing the higher interest rates, and you're thinking I'll just sit this out.

ROMANS: And also price cuts. You saw those huge price cuts. So all those price cuts for sporting goods, and for TVs, apparel, and appliances. Well, that means the sales number is less, because the price tag is less. These are not adjusted for inflation.

[06:25:08]

LEMON: We need more TVs.

HARLOW: No, we don't.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: You need more TVs to look at us.

ROMANS: They want experiences. Who wants stuff? People want experiences not stuff. LEMON: Well, hello. This is an experience right here. On the TV.

COLLINS: So the concern is that also the economy is not going to grow in 2023, is what the Fed is saying now.

SOLOMON: Yes. The projection, I think, was 0.4, 0.5 percent exactly for 2023. Which is --

COLLINS: What does that mean?

SOLOMON: Minor growth. What it means is that we're probably going to see consumer spending slow. Right? I mean, we already saw it in retail sales. Now we start looking transition team GDP reports to see if we start to see it slow.

I think the main takeaway for people at home who are seeing the stock market, have these really volatile moves this year is we're probably going to see more of that into 2023 until Jay Powell and the Fed finally pauses.

HARLOW: We were talking about this debate in the commercial. And there is the camp, which is the Fed and I'd say a majority right now are saying the pain of more job losses, right, Powell is predicting about a million job losses in the next year, is worth it to get inflation down.

But, but, but, all these rates are not as meaningfully bringing inflation down as they wanted.

ROMANS: Not yet. Right? So the question is, when does this wall of tightening hit?

We've just seen the beginning of the tightening, probably. Started raising interest rates in March. That was a little 25-basis-point nibble.

Then you saw four, then a 50, and then four big 75 in a row. That big wall of tightening is going to hit at some point next year. And so that could really start to bring inflation down.

But you're right. There's this tradeoff that we're trying to figure out. Inflation hurts every family. Everybody gets slammed by inflation.

The trade-off here is that, if you slow the economy to kill that inflation, you might kill a million jobs. So now you're balancing a million jobs in exchange for 320 million Americans, 308 million Americans who suffer from inflation and that's the trade-off they're trying to do.

HARLOW: Elizabeth Warren is one saying it's not worth it.

SOLOMON: But I think one interesting way to think about what Christine is saying is the Fed used inflation and this inflation problem sort of like a leak in your roof. If you don't treat it now, you're not sure that you have treated it now on the front end, it could potentially become a bigger problem to solve.

So that's Powell and the Fed's whole -- whole point. We have to tame it now, because the risk of not taming inflation means that it lingers higher for longer and hurts everyone .

LEMON: I'm dealing with that right now with the furnace.

COLLINS: With your furnace?

LEMON: I just had my furnace checked for winter.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: The guy comes in, and he says, we can patch it, but you know, it's 20 years old. And -- yes.

ROMANS: I have a leaky water heater. Same thing.

LEMON: You know. Thank you, Rahel. Bringing us back to reality.

COLLINS: I love how you just made that relatable.

LEMON: It is relatable. I can get a new furnace, and I'm good for 15, 20 years.

COLLINS: Get this man a furnace please.

ROMANS: Live -- we don't know what's going to happen next year. Live below your means. Don't add to credit card debt. Do not take out a store credit card. You know, you've got to have your burn rate less than your earn rate. And that is how you survive.

HARLOW: Thanks to your dad. Right?

ROMANS: My dad always says that. He is -- yes.

LEMON: Before you get a leaky roof analogy, and I was just going to say deep breaths. We've gone through this before. And I think we're going to be OK.

ROMANS: Yes. We're in better shape than 2000 and 2008.

HARLOW: Thank you, guys, both.

COLLINS: Thank you, Christine.

Thank you, Rahel. Appreciate it.

Democrats are taking a look in the mirror and acknowledging a new challenge heading into 2024. The midterms revealing a significant drop in black voter turnout.

Plus this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I swear to God, I hate you. I swear to God, I hate you. You're the worst teacher ever. You're getting me taken out of here?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: You've got to see the video and hear the entire story. This is Winston Salem State University, now responding to the arrest of a student in the classroom after apparently arguing with the teacher. What went down? Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)