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CNN This Morning

U.S. Back on the Moon; Trump and Haley in South Carolina; Nivida's Blockbuster Earnings Help Stock Market. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired February 23, 2024 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:31:54]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Well, a Texas judge's decision is quite a blow for high school student Darryl George and his family this morning after that judge ruled that a Houston school district did not violate a policy on dress codes. George was suspended from school last August over the length of his hair, despite having his locks neatly behind his ears and office his shoulders. His family sued the Barbers Hill Independent School District saying that it was violating the state Crown Act that protects against race-based discrimination.

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CANDICE MATTHEWS, GEORGE FAMILY SPOKESPERSON: This young man should not be punished for his hair. His hair is protected by state law.

DARRYL GEORGE, SUSPENDED OVER HIS HAIR: It feels lonely. Like, very lonely.

You see everybody else walking around, talking, laughing. You can't do that.

It puts pressure on your shoulders.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Yes, and that's Darryl right there, saying the impact on him. Lawyers for George will appeal this.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Well, the Odysseus lander has become the first U.S. spacecraft to touch the moon in more than a half century.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I know this was a nail-biter, but we are on the surface and we are transmitting. And welcome to the moon.

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HARLOW: Odie, that is its nickname, is upright and has been sending back lots of data.

Our Kristin Fisher has more on this really historic journey.

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KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: Intuitive Machines has just made history as the first private company to successfully land a spacecraft on the surface of the moon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Welcome to the moon.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Houston, Odysseus has found his new home.

FISHER: Its Odysseus lunar lander is standing upright, according to the company, and is successfully transmitting data. Although we're still waiting for those first few pictures.

Now, this was really a tense final few moments for this mission. Just a few hours before landing, Intuitive Machines announced that there was an issue with Odysseus' navigation system. It wasn't working. But in a spectacular example of a public/private partnership, it just so happened that one of Odysseus' or Intuitive Machines' paying customers, NASA, had an experimental piece of equipment that did the exact same thing as this broken piece of navigation software. And so engineers on earth were able to patch up a fix and allow Odysseus to safely navigate that treacherous terrain on the south pole of the moon, dodging craters and boulders to find a safe space to land.

And so that is what happened. It took a little bit longer than the company thought to communicate with the spacecraft, but it is sending back data now. And this is now the first time that any American spacecraft has landed on the surface of the moon since the end of the Apollo program back in 1972. So, it's a win for NASA as a sponsor of this mission, but certainly a win for this Texas-based company, Intuitive Machines.

[06:35:04]

They were able to do for about $100 million what NASA was able to do with the Apollo program with a much larger budget. So, some big cheers from that mission control room when the landing happened, and now we get to see what Odysseus can do on the surface of the moon for the next week or so.

Kristin Fisher, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: So -

MATTINGLY: So, our thanks to Kristin.

HARLOW: Our thanks to Kristin. Love her. Watched this with my kids streaming on NASA last night as I'm making dinner, and it was so - at first they didn't want to watch it. They're like, mom.

MATTINGLY: I didn't think I would really -

HARLOW: Did you do it too? Wasn't it great?

MATTINGLY: Yes, I had - I got a lot more sucked in than I expected to.

HARLOW: Totally. It was very exciting. And now they think it's very cool because this next step is to do it with humans again.

MATTINGLY: Yes.

HARLOW: By the way, for the first time in our lifetime too.

MATTINGLY: Yes, I know. No, it's great.

HARLOW: We're not that old, Mattingly.

MATTINGLY: It was great. I was nervous for a period of time. They pulled it off.

HARLOW: Yes, it was great. Congrats to them.

MATTINGLY: Well, Donald Trump and Nikki Haley in South Carolina today ahead of tomorrow's primary. It is a big political weekend. Their final message to voters, that's next.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I've been very busy fighting and, you know, taking the bullets, taking the arrows. I'm taking them for you. And I am so honored to take them. You have no idea. I'm being indicted for you, as I say. I'm being indicted over and over and over.

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[06:40:03]

HARLOW: Donald Trump, Nikki Haley, both, of course, in South Carolina this morning making their final pitches to voters ahead of tomorrow's Republican presidential primary. Haley is far behind Trump still in the polls. She is vowing, though, to stay in this race until, quote, "the last person votes."

Our Alayna Treene joins us now.

Good morning to you.

What - Trump's messaging last night, there was a lot there. Unpack it for us.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: There was. And despite that speech coming just two days before the South Carolina primary, Trump actually spent little time attacking Nikki Haley and instead trained his fire on the rival that both he and his campaign are most concerned about. And that is Joe Biden. And I think his focus on the general election really underscores how the former president and his team view this primary. They see it as Donald Trump's to lose and that Nikki Haley is standing in the way of him being able to unite the full Republican Party behind him and become the presumptive Republican nominee.

But look, he geared his message last night to the crowd before him. He was speaking to a group of religious broadcasters. And he argued that Democrats and Joe Biden are persecuting Christians across the country. He said that the greatest threat to the United States is not from foreign adversaries, but he said it comes from, quote, "within."

Now he also spent a lot of time during that speech talking about abortion, which is very notable because Donald Trump is really refrained from discussing abortion on the campaign trail. He's told many advisors and those close to him that he does not see the issue as a political winner. But I think given the room, given the Christian audience that he was speaking to, he felt comfortable in doing so. He touted his role in overturning Roe versus Wade and his stacking of the Supreme Court with three conservative Supreme Court justices.

Take a listen to that message.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I was able to bring this issue, for the first time in 54 years, back to the states where everybody agrees on both sides, everybody agrees that's where it should be, back in the states. It was so important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, Phil and Poppy, notably Donald Trump did not address the controversial supreme - or Alabama Supreme Court ruling that frozen embryos are children and that those who destroy them could be liable for wrongful death. It's something that I know his campaign has refrained from weighing in on despite our repeated requests for them to do so.

But again, I think very notable that he spent so much of his speech talking about abortion, just given the general election pivot that he's making and his fears that this could hurt him in November.

HARLOW: Yes, it is really notable.

Alayna Treene, thanks very much for the reporting.

MATTINGLY: Let's bring back our panel, Errol Louis, Lee Carter and Basil Smikle.

You picked up on this. It was the first thing you said this morning, he didn't mention the Alabama Supreme Court ruling last night.

LEE CARTER, STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS EXPERT: He didn't.

MATTINGLY: He clearly has the political instincts of knowing that the abortion debate is difficult for Republicans. Also, he has plenty of results to look at over the course of the last couple of years that underscore that. That's a demonstration of, you can't separate what he did in office. He has a record now.

CARTER: Yes.

MATTINGLY: And his record is the Supreme Court justices that struck down Roe versus Wade, and this is all connected to that.

CARTER: There's no question about it. And it is interesting that he would - he - he -- he engaged in the issue at all because he has said this is going to be a political loser for Republicans and he knows it. And now it's going to be even harder for him.

When you look at some of the data Kellyanne Conway presented yesterday, 86 percent of Americans support IVF, 78 percent of pro- lifers support IVF, 83 percent of evangelicals support IVF. This is a political loser. We're talking about Matt Gaetz. We talked about how we talked about, we can't be the party that's against family formation. There's no question about it. And I think Donald Trump going on and even addressing abortion last night will be used against him. That's going to be replayed over and over again.

But I think it was also notable that he didn't just talk about how Democrats looked down on Republicans. He acted like we're at war with -- on religion. He talked about how they shame us, but he also talked about how they're coming for our crosses. He was really, really aggressive in his language and made this an all-out war. And I think it's really, really dangerous language that he used, but it's actually effective in some ways. And that -- that is jarring.

HARLOW: As a Democratic strategy, how does the Biden pain capitalize on this most right now?

BASIL SMIKLE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, there are two things. One, and going back to the, you know, Trump's recent language, he had at one point conflated ethnic nationalism and economic nationalism. He's layered now Christian nationalism on top of that. And I think if you're a Democrat, you're looking at this. I mean there was some language from one of his supporters the other day saying that if -- we can't talk about immigration unless we talk about assimilation. I mean that's really extraordinary language that I think if you're a Democrat you say, look, this is the -- these are the steps towards fascism.

[06:45:01]

If you don't recognize it, recognizes it and be very, very scared of it.

And to the other point about IVF, what we're seeing - and you asked this earlier - but it's personal for so many voters. And that, I think, is - is what has really turned the corner for the Democrats at this point in time. It's no longer an intellectual exercise, what happens if we overturn Roe. You're seeing it play out day to -- day in and day out. It's affecting the average voter now. Not - not just certain segments of the population, the average voter. And I think that's the - that's the line that - that Republicans are going to walk from now until Election Day, that this is -- this is -- if you want good policy and good governance and you don't - you want to stay away from, you know, dramatic policymaking and draconian policymaking, we can still steady the ship here.

MATTINGLY: Errol, the - the lines of the general election have -- have clearly formed or started to harden over the course of the last several weeks, but there's still a primary. And South Carolina was supposed to be the be-all end-all. I know it's been a couple weeks and people might have forgotten that they're still in a Republican primary right now. Nikki Haley's still in. It's her home state. We know what the polling says. What are we watching tomorrow night?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, what I'm going to be watching for is, look, Nikki Haley has a case to make against Donald Trump. Even if she wasn't there, the case would still have to be addressed, which is that he's got a ton of legal problems, he's got a ton of financial problems, not just his personally, but his campaign has been really anemic and is getting blown out by the Democratic adversaries and he's got no ability -- or has shown no ability to expand his base. That's just - that's the problem. Those are the three problems that he's got to deal with, whether Nikki Haley voices them or not.

So, I'm going to be listening for how effectively she voices those concerns, what she says about how far she intends to take it. Does she want to bring those concerns to the convention? Is she going to stop after Super Tuesday? Is she going to stop at all? Does she think that one of those could be -- one or some combination of those problems create a knockout blow, in which case she might step forward.

She's always talking about these polls showing that she does better against Joe Biden than Donald Trump does. And so I'm going to be listening to see how seriously she wants Republicans to take that message and whether or not she's going to take it forward.

HARLOW: And for how long she - well, she says until every last vote is counted. But she said this again last night on CNN, you know, she pointed to a poll, I think it was a Marquette poll, that she's 18 points ahead of Biden in a hypothetical matchup.

CARTER: Yes.

HARLOW: Saying, you're next president's going to be a woman.

CARTER: Yes.

HARLOW: She's talking about her or she's pointing to the vice president, Kamala Harris.

CARTER: Uh-huh. Yes.

HARLOW: I'm not going to get into - into that. But the point is here, she is so sure of this that Donald Trump cannot win in a general, can she convince enough voters to close the gap enough in South Carolina where the polling is wide?

CARTER: No.

HARLOW: No. CARTER: No. I think she's counting on everybody saying she's counting on Donald Trump being convicted. I think she's also counting on this being the foundation for 2028. So much of this, I think, is going to be roll tape 2028. I was the person that fought for you the whole time because she knows that - that voters are looking for a fighter. She's going to be looking back saying, I fought for the Republican Party. I fought for you. I told you all of this was going to happen, whether its Donald Trump who wins -

HARLOW: Or Biden.

CARTER: Or Joe Biden. So, this is actually, I think, a really smart long-term play that I don't think is one that she's as calculated and focused on what's going to happen in the short term with Donald Trump as much as she's saying, you know what, this is going to set me up really well for 2028.

MATTINGLY: And everybody's always in the race in perpetuity until they're not.

CARTER: Exactly right.

MATTINGLY: But she does have money and has made clear she wants to continue through Super Tuesday, and probably longer.

All right, guys, thank you very much. We always appreciate having you.

HARLOW: Thank you.

MATTINGLY: Well, U.S. stocks, they have soar to new highs, and it's thanks to a company being called jet fuel for the stock market. We'll explain, next.

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[06:53:04]

MATTINGLY: Welcome back.

U.S. stock futures, they're flat this morning, but, boy, did they have a day yesterday, soaring to new highs Thursday when chipmaker Nvidia, the third most valuable company on Wall Street, shattered earning expectations. That sent the S&P 500 closing up more than 2 percent. The Dow surpassing 39,000 for the first time ever.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich joins us now.

Nvidia's quarterly results, we knew they'd be good. They've been on fire for a pretty long period of time. Why are they having so much power over the broader market?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just blasting through expectations, even before the earnings came out. Goldman Sachs called Nvidia the most important stock on planet earth. And clearly they have so much power. They're riding this artificial intelligence wave.

HARLOW: Wave.

YURKEVICH: And we saw that in the markets yesterday. S&P closing up on a record. Same thing with the Dow. Nasdaq almost there.

But for folks at home who maybe aren't familiar with Nvidia, this is an AI chipmaker that is used just to train -- train artificial intelligence. The company now valued at $2 trillion. Yes, that's with a "t." And profits for the company alone up 580 percent just in 2023. And they are such a big maker of AI technology. Seventy percent of all of the global AI semiconductor sale come through this one company.

This is a company, though, that's been around since 1993 but has really seen this explosion in just the last year or so. And you can see that enormous rise. You just see it - and in the last day or so you see the stock spike 16 percent, growing by $277 billion in value. That is the largest increase in a single trading session.

What does this mean for all of us? Well, it really signals that -

HARLOW: Who don't have Nvidia stock.

YURKEVICH: Right.

HARLOW: Thank you very much.

MATTINGLY: Yes, I was going to say, it means you should have bought Nvidia stock a couple years ago.

YURKEVICH: Yes, probably should have bought it a year or two ago. But the point is that this is a really signal about the now and the future of artificial intelligence and technology. Also, if you're lucky enough to have a 401(k) -

[06:55:02]

HARLOW: Yes.

YURKEVICH: You're pretty happy right now.

HARLOW: That's good.

I think it's so interesting that Nvidia has spiked like this. I mean you've got big competitors like Intel and AMD.

YURKEVICH: Yes.

HARLOW: And is it just the particular processing power of their chips?

YURKEVICH: Yes, and this -- because this one company, Nvidia, did so well, the companies who are in the similar space -

HARLOW: Yes.

YURKEVICH: They also took a ride on the market yesterday.

HARLOW: Just not a $277 billion ride. YURKEVICH: Not quite there, but they're happy to tag along for the ride.

HARLOW: Yes.

YURKEVICH: And then, of course, you have Microsoft, which uses AI technology, Meta, et cetera, really liking what they're seeing too. They're working on their own technology, but it's great for them to be the same players in the same space.

HARLOW: Yes.

MATTINGLY: A 580 percent revenue increase is good, I think.

HARLOW: Just kind of good.

MATTINGLY: That's my analysis.

YURKEVICH: Just a - just a smidge.

HARLOW: Thanks, Vanessa.

MATTINGLY: Thanks, buddy.

YURKEVICH: Thank you, guys.

HARLOW: Have a great weekend.

YURKEVICH: You too.

An update on the story that was breaking during our show yesterday. AT&T now explaining the cause of that widespread outage that lasted for about 12 hours. Thats ahead.

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