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CNN This Morning

NWS Confirms Tornado in Little Rock, State of Emergency Declared; Trump Expected to Surrender Voluntarily on Tuesday; Bragg Facing High Pressure, Increased Threats Following Indictment; Russia Takes Chair Of U.N. Security Council Today; U.S. Markets Bounced Back This Quarter Despite Banking Crisis; Consumer Spending, Personal Incomes Both Grew In February; Iowa And LSU Play For Women's National Title. Aired 8-9 am ET

Aired April 01, 2023 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:09]

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Good morning. Welcome to Saturday. This is April 1, April Fool's Day. And I'm Victor Blackwell.

AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: I'm not a prankster Victor and I'm not that creative, so you've got nothing to worry about. I was just kidding earlier.

BLACKWELL: Good to know. I am both.

WALKER: Oh, well, you get to be with you, everyone. I'm Amara Walker and thank you so much for spending part of your Saturday with us.

Here is what we're watching this morning. At least five people are dead after a tornado outbreak across several states overnight, homes have been flattened, hundreds of thousands are without power and our Derek Van Dam standing by in a hard-hit town in Arkansas with the latest.

BLACKWELL: Former President Trump will appear in court Tuesday after being indicted by a Manhattan grand jury. What we know about the charges he's facing and how we expect that court appearance to play out.

WALKER: There are some much needed good news when it comes to the economy, the trends that show inflation may be moving in the right direction.

BLACKWELL: Well, it's an undefeated season comes to an end and one team mounts an epic comeback. Coy Wire standing by live in Houston with the highlights.

We're starting, though, with the severe weather ripping through the middle part of the country. This was the scene across seven states Friday afternoon. At least five people are dead, dozens more injured. There were over 50 sightings of tornadoes including 22 in Illinois, 12 in Arkansas, 8 in Iowa. And Illinois, 200 people were inside the Apollo Theater in Belvidere when the roof collapsed. First responders arrived in minutes to what they called absolute

chaos. One person was killed there, dozens of people had to be pulled to safety.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHIEF SHANE WOODY, BELVIDERE POLICE: When officers are first on the scene, when the fire department first responders get here, they do the best they can to control the chaos as much as possible. But ultimately, you know, we go in and ultimately try and find people and save as many people as we possibly can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: Another person is dead 100 miles west in North Little Rock. The damage is extensive after a twist or touchdown there. We spoke to the mayor of Little Rock last hour. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR FRANK SCOTT, JR. LITTLE ROCK ARKANSAS: There complete neighborhoods that had been flattened, as well as commercial businesses. It just came out of nowhere. Clear, we know it was coming. And everyone took cover as relates to the emergency response from that standpoint. But just to see the devastation of the impact of the flattening of homes, the flattening of businesses in a matter of minutes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: And the threat is not over yet. Tornado watches are in effect for parts of the southeast. We have live team coverage as people begin to assess the damage and others brace for the storm heading their way. Let's begin in that small town of Wynne, Arkansas which was basically cut in half by damage that is according to the town's mayor. Meteorologist Derek Van Dam is there with more. Derek?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, Amara, and we can echo exactly what you just said and what the mayor described about the town of Wynne, Arkansas. We are literally in the middle of that path that separated parts of the town and caused this incredible destruction that you see behind me.

I just want to take note that is a living room. You can see how it's opened up to the elements. There's a grand piano there, just waiting to be played. But it's not making any music. This morning, this house has been obviously completely vacated.

Now there were injuries in Wynne, Arkansas, and unfortunately two fatalities as well. Look at the sheer power of what a tornado can do. That is a massive, massive tree. And what we have behind me is called the Wynne High School. It's the Home of the Yellowjackets.

And I want you to see this aerial drone footage that we received, showing you the path of this destruction and how indiscriminate the nature of a tornado actually is, some areas getting absolutely devastated while others remain untouched.

But what I saw just a few moments ago, walking on their home football field literally standing on the 50-yard line is the power of this updraft of a tornado how it literally peeled back almost like the skin of an orange and sucked the artificial turf right up from it, removed it and revealed that path of the tornado. Hopefully you can see that.

I also talked to some of the initial search and recovery teams, the first responders, they were going door to door to door, marking green x's on the side confirming that no one was trapped. No one need assistance. Unfortunately, there were people who had to be rescued.

It was a terrifying moment, Friday evening as the storm rolled through. And we're getting there first light just getting the incredible scope and magnitude of the devastation here. You can see the sunrise coming over here. It's just amazing to this meteorologist that sometimes the best weather occurs after the worst weather. Amara, Victor?

[08:05:15]

BLACKWELL: Such a stark contrast, considering all that's ahead for the people who live there in Wynne and when and the people who in the other states are dealing with these tornadoes. Derek Van Dam, thank you for the reporting.

Let's look ahead now because the threat is ongoing. CNN Meteorologist Britley Ritz tracking it from the Weather Center. Who is under the gun today.

BRITLEY RITZ, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Victor, we're talking about the southeast and the Northeast, two areas that are going to be dealing with unfortunately the same threats that we had over the last 24 hours. Not nearly as bad or as many expected but still the same threats nonetheless, over the last 24 hours stretching from Texas, two Minnesota. We had over 450 storm reports, 57 of them tornado reports over the same areas. And again for an outbreak is 6 to 10 tornadoes for the same system 57 in 24 hours.

Unfortunately that threat holds across the Northeast and across the southeast already dealing with severe weather this morning. Across parts of the southeast, we still have tornado watches up until nine o'clock Eastern time. Eight o'clock central time for parts of Georgia back into Alabama. We've had several Severe Thunderstorm Warnings this morning capable of producing wind gusts near 60 miles per hour in small hail.

We're still watching the storms continue to track off to the north and east, holding that threaten areas in yellow. That includes places like Philadelphia, up into Syracuse back into Pittsburgh, these are areas that are most vulnerable for that tornado threat later this afternoon.

The greatest threats however, wind and hail, and that will stretch down into parts of the southeast rolling into northern Florida later this afternoon as well. So that's that red hashed area that you're seeing that whole line ahead of the cold front moves in. That's round one for the Northeast.

We're waiting until the afternoon. And that's five, six o'clock late afternoon, early evening when the storms really start to ramp up. And we can expect that to bring in some of the stronger storms for the Northeast. We'll watch that closely. Victor, Amara.

WALKER: All right, Britley Ritz, thank you very much.

Donald Trump is expected to travel to New York on Monday and then voluntarily surrender the next day to the Manhattan district attorney. It will be a first in U.S. history for a former president.

WALKER: Security is tight in and around the courthouse ahead of Tuesday's arraignment. That's when we expect the lengthy indictment against Trump will be unsealed. CNN's Katelyn Polantz joins us now. Tell us more about what we should expect.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Well, what we should expect is what any criminal defendant would be going through except this is Donald Trump. So there are many, many things on Tuesday when he has that big day at court that may be -- that may look different and potentially chaotic and potentially not depending on how much security is around him.

We already know that the courtroom area where he's going to be going into there will there will be cameras in the hallway watching him walk inside that courtroom. But it's not clear just yet if there will be cameras allowed inside the courtroom itself to see Donald Trump faces charges for the first time.

We also know that even on Friday, there was heavy security and lockdowns inside of the courthouse. Some of the areas were cleared out. And it's very likely that the courthouse itself will have a lot of restrictions and many restrictions particularly around Trump himself, to protect him as he's going through this process.

On Tuesday, he is going to be read his charges. Once he's processed once he's arrested formally, and he's fingerprinted and photographed when he appears before the judge. He's going to learn for the first time what he's charged with and get the opportunity to enter his initial plea, which at this stage is almost always not guilty. And we absolutely expect Donald Trump to take that position as well. He has said he's fighting these charges.

WALKER: Right. And what we also expect is him to try to continually delay, right? And Trump's attorney one of them says that they're going to file a motion to get these charges dismissed. Oh, what can we make of that?

POLANTZ: Well, that's also fairly expected whenever you have a criminal defendant that wants to fight their charges. So yes, they're saying they're going to have to file that. But at this point in time, we don't know what charges Donald Trump is facing. His he and his lawyers don't either. We do know that there's 30 potentially more, and it's very likely that there would be felony charges within that group. That's a lot of charges to only be misdemeanor, so it's very likely you could be facing some serious charges.

But at the end of the day, the whole process leading up to the trial is mediated by the judge, the judge will look at the charges and look at the legal arguments Donald Trump's team ultimately makes and decide whether or not this indictment that is so hot anticipated to be read right now whether it's worthy to go to trial before a jury.

[08:10:06]

BLACKWELL: Katelyn Polantz with the reporting thanks so much. Now, let's get some analysis from defense attorney and former Federal Prosecutor Shan Wu, and CNN Senior Political Analyst and Senior Editor at The Atlantic Ron Brownstein.

Gentlemen, good to see you. Shan, let me start with you where Katelyn left off, this motion to dismiss, I guess we'd expect any competent defense attorney to file this. Do you think this goes anywhere?

SHAN WU, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Probably not. And it's actually not that common to follow the motion to dismiss the entire indictment? I mean, you need some kind of basis for that. It depends on what the indictment actually charges.

And I think the big question here is, what are they going to try to pair the misdemeanor falsification of business documents with in terms of another felony? So one question is, will they try to pair it with the federal campaign violation idea, which is what Michael Cohen was found guilty for, and was went to prison for all they based on other state charges.

And when you hear all the debate about there being a novel legal theory, that's really the novel aspect is whether they'll try to pair the New York State charge with the federal campaign violation charge. And so that's what we'll be looking forward to see whether they have any hate to make on the motion to dismiss.

BLACKWELL: All right, Ron, I've been watching some of this video from the Waco rally. And we see the people behind them holding up the signs. It's a witch hunt, which really they could have printed in 2016. Because Trump has been saying that about everything. The Mueller investigation.

The New York Attorney General, the impeachment, but this is different in a way. This is obviously a criminal case focused on him not a political case from Congress, or one focused on his corporation, the Trump Organization. Can he use the same playbook here over the next several weeks, months as this plays out?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, one, Victor -- good to be with you. You know, one can argue -- I think he will use the same playbook. Obviously, it's quite different when you're in court facing an actual legal proceeding. But politically, he will use the same playbook and he could have basically the same effect.

I mean, these arguments have been very persuasive for Republican voters all the way through, they have not been that persuasive for voters outside of the circle of the Republican coalition, all the way through.

And, you know, you can see the GOP dilemma or conundrum very much in one single poll result, which is NPR, PBS Marist last week, 80% of Republicans agreed that this is a witch hunt. 56% of the country overall disagreed that the investigations broadly into Trump are a witch hunt and consider them a fair -- a fair probe and fair inquiry.

And that is the dilemma facing the Republican Party, that the mounting legal troubles for Donald Trump are improving his position as a candidate for the nomination, and may be simultaneously weakened him as a potential general election nominee.

BLACKWELL: So maybe the playbook works politically, Shan, but if this judge issues a gag order, how does that change the landscape here? And do we really believe that I know you're the legal analyst, but I'm going to ask you a question that maybe gets into Ron's area, that Trump can maintain that silence if it's ordered?

WU: Well, I don't think you need to be a political analyst to answer no on that. I think you'll have a very hard time maintaining his silence. I do think that the judge will be very careful in what kind of gag order if they do issue one, while it's certainly within their authority to do so. And it's certainly, you know, questionable for Trump to be making threats, intimidating witnesses, which might actually be the basis for other charges.

The judge is going to be cognizant of his first amendment rights, and particularly the rights of someone who's trying to campaign just how broad of a gag order they might issue.

Now, we might look to the Roger Stone example where he had posted a threatening image of the judge there. And she basically said he couldn't post anymore. So I would be looking for the judge to do things incrementally rather than the sort of standard, you know, comprehensive gag order. I'd suspect the judge will probably be telling the lawyers don't be talking on the courtroom steps doing a press conference after every hearing to try and keep the integrity of the proceeding proper.

BLACKWELL: Ron, I mentioned this to Michael Smerconish this morning. We heard from Lindsey Graham, Senator Graham said there would be riots in the streets if there's a prosecution of Donald Trump. Donald Trump said there would be violence.

[08:15:04]

Now New York is preparing for Tuesday, of course, we want everything to stay nonviolent. But that's far we've not seen from his supporters, these massive shows of support on the street, they're donating money for sure going into the Trump campaign. What do you make of the reaction of the Trump base, the Trump voters to what was announced on Thursday?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, I mean, look, you know, there's no question in polling, as I said, that the vast majority of Republicans voters believe that this is illegitimate, you know, politically motivated, all the arguments Trump has been making.

And as before, as for six years, one of the reasons that consensus is so strong in the Republican coalition among Trump voters is because they are not hearing a contrary view from any voices that they truly trust.

I mean, you know, the dynamic as Victor's throughout his presidency, was whenever Trump would do something outrageous or inappropriate or crashing through norms, a chorus of Republican leaders would rise up to defend him and the most, that those who are critical of him in the party would do is stay silent.

And that's what we are seeing again. I mean, you know, the most you get from Mitch McConnell is strategic silence while you get all of these voices getting up and saying that this is unfair to him. And that kind of drives the party in that direction.

But again, it's important to remember that when you get out of kind of the conservative media, you know, bubble or distortion field, there -- that is not the dominant opinion among Americans overall. And this is only the beginning of this process. I mean, Republican leaders have gone to these extraordinary lengths to try to discredit and impede this investigation.

They may have to do this two or three more times before anybody votes as other investigations reach their conclusion. And you do wonder about the cumulative effect of that not only on -- on Trump, but on kind of the public perception of the party's willingness to uphold any kind of standards and set any kind of limits on him if he is elected again.

BLACKWELL: Yeah, the impact beyond Trump himself but on the broader Republican Party. Shan, one quick to you. The President has said in the past, that only members of the mob, plead the Fifth. And then he did it hundreds of times. He said that he would sue all the women who accused him of sexual assault. And then he didn't. There's a long list of these. His attorneys say that he's going to fight this. Do you think there's any scenario in which there will be a plea deal here?

WU: I don't think so. There's no upside for Trump to take the plea deal here. Not politically, not legally assuming that they do successfully pair this with a felony. The max he's looking at is probably a four-year felony. He's not going to be held pretrial big question whether even if he gets convicted of that he'd actually go to jail or not. So there's really zero upside to him taking a plea deal and a lot of upside to him fighting it very vocally.

BLACKWELL: All right, Shan Wu, Ron Brownstein, thank you.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

WALKER: The historic indictment of former President Trump has thrust the Manhattan District Attorney into the national spotlight.

Coming up, a look at how DA Alvin Bragg became such a central figure in Trump's case. Plus, strong reaction pouring in from several countries as Russia gets

its turn as head of the U.N. Security Council, despite the fact that Putin is accused of war crimes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:22:47]

BLACKWELL: Who is the man behind the indictment of former President Donald Trump?

WALKER: Well CNN's Brian Todd shows us how Alvin Bragg got the job as Manhattan DA and his prior run ins with the Trump Organization.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Bragg, is there any significance of yesterday's indictment?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alvin Bragg keeps his eyes straight ahead focused on the task at hand, which now happens to involve a significant amount of history surrounding the 49-year-old prosecutor.

WU: Not only is he the first ever prosecutor to bring charges against a former president in the United States. He is also the first black prosecutor to lead the Manhattan DA's office.

TODD: In February, Bragg spoke to CNN about his approach to the Trump hush money case.

ALVIN BRAGG, MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEY: The same type of rigor and professionalism, ethics that was on display in that public courtroom is at work. You know behind the scenes.

TODD: Former President Donald Trump and his supporters are now attacking Bragg at a blistering pace.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Prosecutorial misconduct is their new tool.

TODD: But Bragg's whether Trump's storms before, successfully getting convictions in a major tax fraud case last year against the Trump Organization. He's also claimed to have helped sue the Trump administration more than 100 times. But one former prosecutor who worked with Bragg says his judgment will not be clouded.

DANYA PERRY, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR, WORKED WITH ALVIN BRAGG: I imagine Alvin to be putting his head down and just looking very carefully and methodically at all the facts of the case.

TODD: And Alvin Bragg graduated from Harvard Law School, worked as a federal prosecutor in New York and as a civil rights attorney. He represented the family of Eric Garner, who died after being placed in an unauthorized chokehold by New York City police in 2014. But what Bragg seems to be very in touch with is his upbringing in Harlem, where he recently spoke at an event. BRAGG: I grew up not too far from here, ducking from gunboats.

TODD: In a victory speech after he was elected, Bragg said, "I think I'll probably be the first district attorney who's had police point a gun at him." What kind of pressure is Bragg under now?

WU: For Bragg personally, this is really a tremendous amount of pressure for him. Because in that office, right intern once the day- to-day work is just crushing. And he's already He taken a lot of flack, by being labeled more of a progressive prosecutor.

[08:25:04]

TODD: One example of the pressure Alvin Bragg is facing sources have told CNN the New York Police and the FBI had begun focusing on the possibility of increased threats against Bragg and his staff in the wake of the Trump indictment. Bragg told his staff recently that his office won't tolerate any attempts to intimidate them or to threaten the rule of law. Victor, Amara?

BLACKWELL: Brian Todd with the reporting, thank you Brian.

Coming up, Russia takes the presidency of the United Nations Security Council today, even as it wages war on Ukraine. Ukraine's Foreign Minister calls it the worst April Fool's joke ever.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WALKER: As Russia wages an unprovoked war against Ukraine, and its President Vladimir Putin faces an arrest warrant for war crimes, today Russia is set to take the presidency of the United Nations Security Council.

Now, the seat rotates among the 15 members of the council and Russia like the U.S. is a permanent member. The White House says, it urges Russia to act professionally but that's clear on what it expects.

[08:30:07]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We expect Russia to continue to use its seat on the council to spread disinformation and to try to distract from the attempt to justify its actions in Ukraine. And the war crimes members of its forces are committing and it's outrageous violations of the U.N. Charter, a country that flagrantly violates the U.N. Charter and invades its neighbor. It has no place on the U.N. Security Council.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: Joining me now to discuss this is Thomas Graham. He's a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and the co-founder of the Russian East European and Eurasian Studies Program at Yale University. Welcome. Thank you so much for joining me, Thomas. Look, this is I would say worse than rubbing salt in Ukraine's wound. I mean, what you have here is the aggressor Russia assuming the presidency of the United Nations Security Council. Is there any mechanism to block Russia from doing so?

THOMAS GRAHAM, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: No, there's really no mechanism to block Russia from doing so. As you've already mentioned, the presidency of the U.N. Security Council rotates among the 15 council members, in English alphabetical order. Thrushes turn now, they'll have it for a month, and then it will pass on to Switzerland.

But let me know that Russia did have the council last time in February of last year, the month when it launched this unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, that did not prevent the United Nations, the members of the Security Council from roundly denouncing Russia for its actions.

WALKER: So what powers or, you know, what role does the presidency of the U.N. Security Council play that?

GRAHAM: Basically, what the the President does is chair that this session of the Council, he will be the face of the Council for the month of April, will read statements that are agreed by the council. And the presidency, also has the right to the whole council sessions on two or so thematic issues. The Russians this time have chosen multilateralism and the Middle East as the topics that they would like to focus one or two Council sessions on.

WALKER: Yes, you know, I think, you know, a lot of people see the irony in this right, I got to point it out, again, that you have a country that invaded Ukraine unprovoked triggering this brutal war for which its leader Vladimir Putin is wanted by the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes is now leading this council, which is tasked with maintaining international peace and security of clearly Russia hasn't done that. And is now the face of the U.N. Security Council, but doesn't that just on its own undermine the U.N.'s credibility?

GRAHAM: Well, this has been a problem throughout history. There have been aggressor states on the Security Council that have had chaired the council, the Soviet Union, and now Russia. This is simply the way that council functions. This is the way the U.N. has set this up from the very beginning.

It is I think, problematic, obviously, from the standpoint of optics. But I think the important point to remember is that there's a limited amount of what Russia can do from this position to convey its disinformation about the war, and there's much that the other council members can do to push back.

WALKER: Yes, that's it. OK. Just want to ask and follow up on if there's any danger or issues with Moscow having this platform even if it's just for a month?

GRAHAM: No, not really. I mean, the Council President does have the right to determine who can speak at the council beyond the council members, and Russian may try to get someone who's supportive of their position to speak at the council or try to prevent a country that is opposed from speaking at the Council.

The important point to remember here is that if you have nine votes on the council, you can override the presidency on procedural issues. The West has a solid seven votes on the council. What it has to do to get the nine is to pick up an African country or Latin American country, and over the past year, the West has generally been able to do that.

WALKER: But the Security Council can pass a resolution without all five of its permanent members, correct?

GRAHAM: No, absolutely. So the United States retains its veto, but in many cases is not necessary for the United States to use its veto because on resolutions that are backed by Russia, generally the United States can get the blocking nine on the Security Council. So it worse comes to worse. The United States can veto, it will prevent Russia from trying to push through the council resolutions that are favorable to its position.

[08:35:23]

WALKER: Yes, but obviously can understand Ukraine's position on this and its outrage.

Thomas Graham, appreciate you joining us. Thank you so much.

BLACKWELL: Coming up, encouraging news for the economy. The feds favorite inflation gauge showing signs of a cooldown raises hopes that the central banks tightening cycle will soon be over.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:40:07]

BLACKWELL: New this morning, U.S. markets bounced back this quarter in a show of resilience despite a banking crisis and lingering fears of a coming recession. The Nasdaq made a remarkable resurgence or nearly 17 percent and its best quarterly gains since 2020. The S&P 500 ended the quarter up about 7 percent and the Dow rose about point 4 percent.

WALKER: But inflation remains stubbornly high and rising prices continue to keep Wall Street investors on edge. CNN's Matt Egan has more on where the U.S. economy is heading.

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Victor and Amara, this is some much needed good news on the inflation front. And it comes from the inflation gauge that the Federal Reserve watches most closely. That's the PCE index. It showed that prices were up by 0.3 percent between January and February, that is a significant cooldown from the month before.

Over the prior 12 months, prices were up by 5 percent. Now, normally 5 percent inflation is nothing to celebrate, it's more than twice as hot as what is considered healthy inflation. But we of course are not in normal times. And if you look at the trend, you can see that it is moving in the right direction. Inflation is cooling off.

This is actually the coolest annual inflation rating for this metric since September of 2021. And that does suggest that some of the Feds tough medicine is starting to work. Though it may not be working quick, fast enough for many Americans who are dealing with a high cost of living right now, especially at the grocery store.

And we did just learn that the mood of consumers darkened in March, consumer sentiment falling to a four month low. That's according to the University of Michigan, which interestingly enough, found just a limited impact from the bank failures, the biggest bank failure since 2008.

Now while consumers may not be overly concerned at this point about the bank crisis, some economists are worried about the risk of a credit crunch, which would make it more expensive and harder for all of us to borrow. It would potentially slow the economy and might even raise the risk of a recession.

The big question at this point is whether or not the Federal Reserve is worried enough about a credit crunch and satisfied enough about cooling inflation that it decides to pause its interest rate hiking campaign. Victor and Amara?

BLACKWELL: Matt Egan. Thank you, Matt.

And for more on the health of the U.S. economy, here with me now is Federal Reserve and Economy Reporter for the New York Times, Jeanna Smialek. Jeanna, good to have you. So let's walk through some of the indicators, some of the variables that we learned this week.

The personal consumption expenditures Price Index, something that we only talk about once a month, excluding food and energy increased 0.3 percent down from the 0.5 percent, from the earlier report, how important of a single metric is this to the Fed? And what do you make of that number 0.3 percent from January?

JEANNA SMIALEK, FEDERAL RESERVE AND ECONOMY REPORTER, NEW YORK TIMES: So this is very important number for the Fed in the sense that this is their favorite measure of inflation. And so I think it is good news that it's slow down. That said, I think it's important to note that we have a long time before the Feds next meeting. It doesn't happen until May. We'll get more information on inflation before that.

And so I think the real key here is to see whether this slowdown is sustained. You know, whether this is a signal that really, things are starting to turn the corner and continuing to turn the corner and that we're on this sort of path toward cooler and more comfortable inflation. And, you know, like Matt just said, we're still at a pretty high annual rate. So I think we're going to need to continue to see progress like this for the Fed to really feel comfortable taking their foot off the brake here.

BLACKWELL: Consumer sentiment in March down to the lowest level in several months. We've got strong jobs, numbers, inflation numbers, as we saw, they're coming down. What is dragging down confidence?

SMIALEK: Yes, so consumers have a lot to worry about when it comes from sort of the inflation side of the scale here, just because I think it's important to note that inflation slowing down means that prices are increasing less rapidly, but they're still increasing. And we've seen a lot of run up in prices over the last couple of years.

Groceries in particular have gotten a lot more expensive. Rent has gotten a lot more expensive. Some of those things that people just pay for every day that are really salient and really just sort of hit you in the wallet. I think that's really affecting consumers. That said, you know, like you mentioned, it is a very strong labor market. This is one of the better labor markets we've seen, certainly in the time that I've been covering the economy.

And I think that that is helping people to feel a little bit more confident when it comes to spending, when it comes to sort of some of their household financial decisions.

[08:45:07]

BLACKWELL: Jeanna, are we at a point where there can even be a projection of when the Fed will hold off on increases? They've gone now from 75 basis points a few times, those historic increases, then to 50 now to 25. Is there a point at soon where Jay Powell will say, let's just hold off on another pump of the brakes and see if this car is slowing based on the what nine increases we've already made?

SMIALEK: Yes, I think based on what the Fed is telling us at this stage, that moment is coming. They projected in their last economic estimates that they were likely to make one more rate increase this year, and just a small one, one more quarter point move.

I think that the big question is whether they'll even do that, you know, it could be the case that they look around at the world and say, the banking turmoil has slowed down, the economy is likely to slow down the economy enough that we don't even need to do that the banking crisis did it for us.

And so I think the big unanswered question that's going to be looming ahead of all of us between now and that May decision is just how profound that impact is. And whether it's enough to stop the Fed from raising rates again, at all.

BLACKWELL: It's being a banking, the White House wants federal regulators to increase regulations on banks to try to mitigate the risk of future bank failures. This does not require congressional action. One, what's the likelihood of that happening. Is this something that the big banks want, because to save First Republic, they had to pony up billions of dollars. They can't -- I can't imagine they want to do that over and over again.

SMIALEK: Yes, so this is a really interesting question. And I think it will be fascinating to watch how this story plays out. So the Biden administration is basically asking regulators to step up some of their oversight of not necessarily the biggest things, but sort of those mid-sized ones, very big, big enough as it -- as we've seen in the last couple of weeks to really cause tremors throughout the whole financial system, but not sort of those global systemic things that we think of when we think of, you know, giant banks, the Bank of America's and Goldman Sachs's of the world.

This is less about them, and more about sort of the banks like First Republic, like Silicon Valley Bank, that are in that sort of slightly smaller rain. And, you know, I think we will have to see if the Fed implement these harder policies.

BLACKWELL: All right, Jeanna Smialek always good to have you. Thank you.

SMIALEK: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Still to come, a big time upset in the women's final four. Caitlin Clark and Iowa knock off defending champion South Carolina to advance to the national title game. Highlights, ahead.

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[08:52:00]

WALKER: It's championship weekend in college hoops and only one state is big enough to handle it all, Texas.

BLACKWELL: Coy Wire is in Houston ahead of the men's final four and a Texas sized upset in the women's bracket last night.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Come tomorrow either Iowa or LSU will be calling themselves national champs. For the first time, LSU taken out Virginia Tech in the early game. And then Iowa and South Carolina clashing in epic fashion. Iowa facing Dawn Staley's defending champs 36 and best defense in the nation, didn't matter.

You cannot contain Caitlin Clark, a stone cold conqueror making shots from the center court logo showing why she's a national player of the year. A national semifinal record, 41 points for Clark for a sold out crowd in Dallas. She was so spent afterwards that she cramped up while celebrating. South Carolina incredible run. Hadn't lost since March 6 of last year, but the Hawkeyes are headed to the national title game for the first time ever.

Now it'll be Miami, Yukon, Florida, Atlantic and San Diego State in the men's Final Four. Tonight, I talked to Miami 73 year old coach Jim Larranaga who leads his canes with passion and dancing.

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JIM LARRANAGA, MIAMI HEAD COACH: No, I'm not Michael Jackson, you know, you might have noticed that. And so the players laugh. They have fun. Sometimes they get up and dance with me. But, you know, March Madness is called the big dance for a reason. Everybody loves dancing.

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WIRE: Maybe the wildest, most unthinkable final four ever. For the first time, there isn't a one, two or three seed in the final four. We have three first timers that will be battling out tonight, including those canes. And after tonight, we'll find out who will be dancing their way into the final.

WALKER: Victor, I know you're really impressed by that Miami coach's jerky moves.

BLACKWELL: Yes, I don't even know if we needed a beat, it probably wouldn't have made a difference.

WALKER: Exactly.

BLACKWELL: Wouldn't have made a difference.

WALKER: Coy, thank you for that. And thank you so much for being with us this morning. We'll be back in about an hour.

BLACKWELL: Smerconish is up next. But before we go in this week, staying well, we explore how weight training can lead to stronger lives.

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ERNESTINE SHEPHERD, BODYBUILDER: When people tell me that they're too old to get in shape, I always tell them age is nothing but a number.

Looking good.

I am a coach and a trainer. I am 86 years of age.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She came to me at the age of 71 and she wanted to be a bodybuilder, and she did it in seven months.

SHEPHERD: Strength training has helped me tremendously. It has helped me to feel good about myself. One, two, three, four, five.

DR. JOHN P. DIFIORI, HOSPITAL FOR SPECIAL SURGERY: Strength training is the program of gradually introducing resistance to muscle groups in order to stimulate strength and performance. Most studies would say that we reach our peak muscle mass around age 30 to 40. Then there is a very slow decline until you hit about age 60.

[08:55:09]

Once we hit age 60, there is a steeper decline of about 1 percent per year with strength training and mitigate that. You can get stronger almost no matter how old you are. Step number one is to talk to your physician.

SHEPHERD: It takes a while to really see a change. So you have to have the patience and not give up. Keep hanging in there.

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