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CNN This Morning

Suspect Identified In Shooting Death Of Store Owner Over Pride Flag; U.S. Government Relies On Elon Musk; Pandemic-Era Saving Dwindle As Child Care Costs Soar; Biden Admin Launches New Income-Driven Student Loan Repayment Program. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired August 22, 2023 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

MATTHEW CLEVENGER, ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, LAKE ARROWHEAD LGBTQ PLUS: We still haven't had any issues with that up here outside have some side remarks and hand gestures. But 99 percent of the folks up here wonderful. And no matter what their political affiliation or how they worship, most people appear just get along well, but there are these folks that are not so keen to the changes that are happening up here and have been changing for years -- have been happening for years.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: I read that businesses already are putting up rainbow flags around the community and that you've said that something good has to come out of this. Hopefully, there is more of that not just the flags, but also the support for the entire community there at Lake Arrowhead. Matthew Clevenger, thank you so much for your time. And again, we're sorry for your community's loss.

CLEVENGER: And the support is going to come from what Laurie wanted which we are going to continue to support the community through Laurie's efforts that are going to be based on what Laurie wanted us to do.

BLACKWEL: Thank you.

CLEVENGER: Her work well is not done.

BLACKWEL: Thank you.

CLEVENGER: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: There's a new report that finds that Elon Musk's influence over the U.S. government is so widespread that the government has become quote, reliant on Musk. Ronan Farrow wrote that piece for The New Yorker and he joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:35:17]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: If you haven't read this, you need to a new deep dive in the New Yorker painting a stunning portrait of Elon Musk stunning in multiple ways the focus on the billionaires growing influence in both the war on Ukraine and the U.S. government at large. According to the new report, on a call with Pentagon officials about

his company's satellite based internet that Ukrainian troops have been really relying on the battlefield he mentioned that he had a conversation. He spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin was previously denied speaking to Putin, but the former undersecretary for defense of policy told the magazine that Musk said that he had spoken to the Russian president.

At the same time U.S. defense officials were worried he might suddenly decide to pull Starlink internet out of Ukraine. The Undersecretary also told the reporter the journalist who wrote all of this Ronan Farrow that Musk appeared anxious that Russia might see his company's involvement as enabling the war to prolong on Ukraine.

BLACKWLEL: Farrow reports that Musk's influence within the U.S. government is widespread, and that over the last two decades, quote, Musk has sought out business opportunities in crucial areas where after decades of privatization, the state has receded. The government is now reliant on him but struggles to respond to his risk taking brinkmanship and caprice.

The New Yorker contributing writer Ronan Farrow joins us now on his latest article, "Elon Musk's Shadow Rule" how the US government came to rely on the tech billionaire, and is now struggling to rein him in.

This is a fascinating piece, and I was talking to you during the break about there's a line here, where you are, you know, trying to get some questions from the Pentagon about Elon Musk. And the spokesman says that, and this is a quote here, we'll talk to you if Elon wants us to. I mean, there seems to be a degree of deference here from the Pentagon.

RONAN FARROW, CONTRIBUTING WRITER, THE NEW YORKER: I mean, that's a small manifestation of the balance of power we're talking about between this private individual who has become so wealthy and so powerful in different fields, and the government, the actual state, and we were talking about this in the break a little bit. That is a complicated dynamic, that is something that has some pros, right. This is a person who has advanced various fields in meaningful ways.

There was a reason the U.S. government is so reliant on him in all of these ways. But at the same time, he is someone who has behaved erratically. And the fact that we're getting that kind of communication from the government, as journalists, like we'll go through this private individual.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

FARROW: That's pretty unusual. And it is a small but significant sign of just how beholden they are.

HARLOW: And one thing I thought was so interesting is how you highlight in the piece you write national security officials I spoke with meaning you had a wide range of views on the government's balance of power with Musk, a supporter of his is General Mark Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs who spoke to you sort of glowingly about him.

FARROW: Yes, absolutely. And, you know, the, the framework for several of those conversations with people who were so supportive of him was that all the conversations in advance and with their teams were about, OK, but we want to make sure we're making clear to Elon, that we're supportive of him.

So you really get a little glimpse into just the texture of the relationships. There is nothing wrong with those kinds of warm relationships, obviously, between a private individual and significant government leadership, even in the context of a military contractor relationship.

But this is something more and different. And, you know, I talked to a lot of historians to get a sense of how new this is. The fact that we can only put crew into space that NASA has to go through Elon Musk and no one else. The only alternative we have right now at this moment, probably for the next year, is sending people up via Russian launches.

The fact that if we want to advance green energy policies around electric vehicles, we got to go through Elon in his charging stations because he's got 60 percent of the stations in the country.

HARLOW: Right.

FARROW: Historians told me that is a new extreme and a newly political dimension to this kind of private power.

BLACKWELL: Specifically on the Russia's war in Ukraine, I think the most obvious example for most people at home is when he decided to end the internet service through Starlink that he exclusively offers to the Ukrainian military. And that's how they communicate obviously. He then reverse that is bemoan the cost.

But is the Pentagon is the government attempting to unravel this at all now that everyone knows the dependents?

FARROW: Well. Two things happened. One is at the end of this story that is one of the many stories told in this profile of a standoff over internet access in Ukraine where it appears he was talking to Vladimir Putin. He was telling multiple people that at the time though as you point out he has since tried to deny that.

[08:40:00]

And then he was curtailing access specifically in areas that Russia was contesting. At the end of that one of the things that happened was the Pentagon did pay up, they just said, you know, we're going to get a deal in place to make sure this doesn't shut off entirely.

But you know, the other thing that happened is people on the ground in Ukraine, people on the frontlines remained spooked, right.

HARLOW: Right.

FARROW: We bought his services, apparently at a very generous rate. This is a situation where metaphorically, he had the U.S. government and the Ukrainians at gunpoint, and to this day, they do fear that he is going to curtail service more. It's very hard to get people to talk in that context. And I'm glad that some did.

HARLOW: One to get in to the sort of middle of the peace you back into his life and you go to his childhood, his first marriage, losing his first child, all of these things that created the Musk that we know.

Can you speak about the Musk that we know now via X, formerly Twitter, and you talk at the end about him taking on a AI, and the way that we've seen him operate and conduct himself both with Twitter and now with AI because you quote Sam Altman, a huge figure in AI, saying Elon desperately wants the world to be saved, but only if he can be the one to save it.

FARROW: This was a common sentiment amongst Elon Musk's peers, that he does this very significant work that at times, in my mind, there's no doubt it's a net positive for all of us, right. Even in some of these spaces where there have been problems. The Ukrainians needed that access to satellite internet, it created a bulwark against Russia's cyber attacks.

In the case of launchers through NASA, we are now no longer reliant on the Russians to do that. NASA officials told me we're moving faster, in some of these cases.

HARLOW: The Twitter things different.

FARROW: The Twitter thing is different, right. And we were seeing in these recent years that Elon Musk has behaved erratically at times that the biographical facts that you mentioned, that have led to him at times talking about his loneliness, his sadness, the fact that there have been questions about his psychopharmacology and public reports about, you know, the Tesla board being concerned about his Ambien use --

HARLOW: Ketamine.

FARROW: The ketamine use that I write about. These are all things that can be used in a legal unhealthy way. However, there is concern that this is a human being that we're giving all of this power to. And there are very few checks on that power right now.

BLACKWELL: I should say that, in the story, you say that you reached out to Elon Musk, he did not respond. Has there been any response since it's been published?

FARROW: Well, he actually declined to answer questions for the piece, which is a subtle but significant difference from not responding.

BLACKWELL: Sure. Sure.

FARROW: And, you know, it's his prerogative to do that. The interesting thing about Elon Musk is he's been the subject of so many books, so many biographies, so many profiles. And he's a rare case where like, the mystery is not him. He is engaged in a stream of consciousness, you know, a monologue

about himself through a huge swath of public life. He is tweeting now Xing (ph), I guess we would say, because he renamed that company all the time. So we know a lot about him. And I felt like, what we weren't hearing was, what is it like for the other people on the other side of the table from him and all these sectors?

HARLOW: I just think this is such a brilliant framing. Because we don't often talk about what he means for us, what he means for society in the world and America. And what did you write you said, the private power is the word you use is just really important, so.

FARROW: Yes, I appreciate you all having a thoughtful conversation about that. It's a little heady to get into, you know, historical economic policy on it on a morning show like this. But it is important and it does resonate with all of us, everyone we know, right? How much power we're putting in the hands of private people, individuals who can be dangerous or erratic, right, under some circumstances for all the good they do. That's something we want to think and talk about.

And there's a quote from a former NASA administrator in this piece, Jim Bridenstine, a Trump appointee, you know, a conservative in the new vein and politician very about protecting economic progress and not exalting government power.

However, he says such a powerful thing, we have to understand that too much deregulation can also present dangers and that if we're putting our eggs in one basket, the Elon basket that could present some dangers. So the fact that even conservatives are saying that in this piece is meaningful.

BLACKWELL: It is a fascinating piece. Ronan Farrow, thank you for coming in to talk with us about it.

FARROW: Thank you guys. Good to be here.

BLACKWELL: And we also reached out to Tesla, SpaceX and Musk himself for comment and did not receive a response.

HARLOW: So we do have new reporting this morning on the Biden administration's student loan repayment program, those details ahead.

BLACKWELL: And as families burn through the money they saved during the pandemic.

[08:45:00]

The cost of childcare continues to soar. But just how bad is it? Harry Enten is here with This Morning's number.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Childcare is expensive. I don't have to tell you that but now we've got the data to prove it. New data from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco shows families across the country are not only facing dwindling pandemic era savings. Child care costs are soaring Child Care Aware of America that organization found the average cost for child care is $11,000 a year. Our senior data reporter Harry Enten here with This Morning's number.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Oh that is a lot of money for a lot of families. And what I want to point out here is that the 2023 child care costs versus a year ago is up 6 percent while inflation overall is just up 3.2 percent.

[08:50:00]

So childcare is costing significantly more even when you take into account the normal inflation. I think the question is why is that? Well, one reason why is remote only working is down so that is driving up childcare demand. Look at the people who are only working at home. That is not 15 percent. You go back a year ago, 20 percent. You go back two years ago, 29 percent. So we have seen the number of people who are solely working at home dropped by about half from where we were just two years ago.

HARLOW: But it's not just about demand. It's about more, right?

ENTEN: It's about more, you know, about demand, it's about supply. So take a look here 2020 --

HARLOW: Thanks for economics 101, Harry.

ENTEN: I know, right? I did actually take economics in college. Look at the 2023 workers versus February of 2020. There are fewer workers and childcare down 4 percent versus all jobs, which is actually up 3 percent. So childcare people are not wanting to go into childcare. Why? I'll give you one reason why.

Take a look at the average hourly wages for childcare. It's just $20, just $20 versus all jobs $34. So a lot of workers are saying, hey, why should I go into childcare? There are a lot better jobs out there, especially in this job market, which has been so good over the last year.

HARLOW: One of the hardest jobs.

ENTEN: It's absolutely one of the hardest.

HARLOW: And most important job, Harry.

ENTEN: Yes. Very much so. Very much so not a job I want to get into anytime soon.

HARLOW: Thank you.

ENTEN: Thank you.

HARLOW: Appreciate it. Victor.

BLACKWELL: New this morning, the Biden administration is officially launched save the income-driven student loan repayment plan is SAVE stands for, it's Saving on Valuable Education and it could reduce overall loan costs. It pegs the borrower's monthly payments to what they make regardless of what is owed. In a pre-recorded message President Biden had this to say about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: It's the most affordable student loan plan ever. As long as you pay what you owe under this plan, you'll no longer see your loan balance grow because of unpaid interest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: CNN's Jeremy Diamond joins us live from the White House. So how does this work?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Victor, this program is officially launching today people can go and apply now and it changes a previous income driven repayment plan in several significant ways. Rather than 10 percent of your discretionary income as your minimum monthly payment, that is now down to 5 percent.

Also, no additional interest accruing as long as you make those monthly payments. And in addition to that more discretionary income is protected under this plan up to $32,000 a year which means that individuals earning less than $32,800 a year they will owe $0 per month and the White House says that that equates to millions of people who will see their payments reduced to zero.

Now the typical borrower according to the White House, they will save about $1,000 a year.

This, Victor, is one of a number of alternatives that the White House and the President have pursued since the Supreme Court struck down his effort to forgive about $400 billion of student loans. That happened back in June.

The White House is still pursuing alternative plans to broadly forgive student loan payments, but in the meantime, they're working on plans like this one right here.

Now, student loan repayments that were paused during the pandemic, those are set to begin again in October and White House officials are urging borrowers to go right now and then start applying for this in time for those repayments in October. People looking to apply can go to studentaid.gov/save. Victor.

BLACKWELL: Jeremy Diamond for us at the White House. Thank you, Jeremy.

HARLOW: Well, two years after her Olympic dream was derailed, Sha'Carri Richardson is now a world champ. What she said after the big win her historic run is next.

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[08:58:06] HARLOW: Love this story. American Sha'Carri Richardson already in a Olympic form two years after a positive marijuana test derailed her Olympic dream.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Women's 100th World Final. The Jamaicans get out loud at Shericka Jackson, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Ta Lou. Here come Sha'Carri Richardson. Sha'Carro --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Richardson winning the gold medal in the 100 meters finishing in just 10.65 seconds. That is the World Championship record. By the way after the race, she talks about how the last two years got her to this moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHA'CARRI RICHARDSON, WOMEN'S 100 METER WORLD CHAMPION: I feel amazing. I feel like heartbreak pays off. I've been dedicating myself. I'm in keeping my head strong this season. And just believing and knowing whatever you practice is what you put for. And I'm grateful.

When I celebrate it, it was because I felt like I did my best no matter what the result was going to be. I felt like I did my best.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: By the way, don't call it a comeback. Richardson was clear when she said I'm not back. I'm better. She is considered a favorite to win at the Paris Olympics, which start less than a year from now.

BLACKWEL: So good to see her back.

HARLOW: Absolutely.

BLACKWELL: All right. Everybody remembers this.

The hours of my life I spent playing --

HARLOW: Right.

BLACKWELL: -- this game of course this is the iconic Super Mario of the back when the game was released. Mario didn't have a voice. It wasn't until the 90s when Charles Martinet created the voice of the Italian plumber. And he's been the voice ever since until now because after nearly 30 years, he's retiring. But Mario wasn't the only character he voiced. Is it stepping away entirely? Though martinet will become a Mario ambassador for Nintendo.

HARLOW: I love it so much. Duck Hunt. Do you play Duck Hunt?

BLACKWELL: Oh, I played Duck Hunt, yes.

HARLOW: I know.