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Rep. Jake Auchincloss (D-MA) is Interviewed about Middle East Tensions; Trump Says He'll Be Women's Protector; Dana Milbank is Interviewed about His Book. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired September 25, 2024 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:33:33]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hezbollah, unprovoked, joined the October 7th attack, launching rockets into Israel. Almost a year later, to many on each side of the Israeli-Lebanon border remain displaced. Full-scale war is not in anyone's interest.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: In his farewell address to the United Nations yesterday, President Biden urging restraint as Israel and Hezbollah remain on the brink.

Earlier this morning, Israel intercepting a Hezbollah rocket fired from Lebanon. The first time a Hezbollah missile came this close to Tel Aviv.

And this comes after Israeli strikes killed more than 500 people yesterday. The deadliest day in Lebanon in nearly two decades.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, not ruling out a ground offensive in Lebanon, delivering this message to the people who live there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: Israel's war is not with you. It's with Hezbollah. For too long, Hezbollah has been using you as human shields. It placed rockets in your living rooms and missiles in your garage. Those rockets and missiles are aimed directly at our cities, directly at our citizens. To defend our people against Hezbollah strikes, we must take out those weapons.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Joining us now, Democratic Congressman Jake Auchincloss of Massachusetts.

[06:35:01] Congressman, good morning to you. Thank you for being here.

REP. JAKE AUCHINCLOSS (D-MA): Good morning.

HUNT: How concerned are you about an escalation here, and what do you think U.S. posture should be towards Israel as they navigate this?

AUCHINCLOSS: I'm concerned because the Middle East is violence and volatile right now. The U.S. posture should be to support Israel as it seeks to protect itself.

The core problem that Israel has is, Hezbollah has more than 100,000 precision guided munitions, which can overwhelm Iron Dome, which is the air defense system that Israel uses to protect its major cities. So, Prime Minister Netanyahu cannot promise the Israeli people that they can live peaceably, not just in the north of Israel, which had to be depopulated, but actually in Tel Aviv, in Jerusalem, as well. And no leader of any democratic nation would ever allowed that position to be sustained. They have to remove that capability from southern Lebanon.

Now, if the United Nations had done its job and preserved the 2006 accord, this would not have been necessary. But the U.N. peacekeepers fail to prevent Hezbollah from encroaching upon Israeli territory. So now Israel's going to need to respond.

HUNT: How much goodwill do you think is left for Israel, and how much of a potential challenge, considering the war in Gaza, the way it sparked international backlash. Now they're opening this additional front. How much support do they need from Western nations? And do you think it's going to be there if this continues?

AUCHINCLOSS: Yes, if Israel had taken lectures from the United Nations and '48 or '67, or '73, it wouldn't exist as a nation. Israel's going to have to pursue its own security and self-interest here. And these politicians at the United Nations need to remember that they only have jobs because ultimately the United States was willing to fight for civilization when words failed during World War II. And Israel now similarly will fight for civilization against terrorists like Sinwar and Nasrallah, who hold no value of human life.

HUNT: Let's talk for - about Ukraine for a moment because Volodymyr Zelenskyy is - he has been here in the U.S. trying to advocate for his country because, obviously, a lot on the line for him in the presidential election. And he actually seemed to weigh in a little bit on the presidential election. He was asked about J.D. Vance in an interview with "The New Yorker." And Zelenskyy said that Vance is too radical. The interviewer was asking about an interview Vance gave where he outlined a plan that would give some of this territory that has - Russia has forcibly taken to Russia, created demilitarized zone. Zelenskyy seemed to be well aware of it and critical of Vance here.

What do you make of what Zelenskyy has said here, and what are the stakes for Ukraine right now?

AUCHINCLOSS: I have much less polite things to say about J.D. Vance than that.

President Biden gave a fine speech at the United Nations, but he needs to now follow up those words with actions today in his meetings with Zelenskyy. And what that means is authorizing Ukraine to strike inside Russian territory with U.S. made weapons, the F-16s, the ATACMS. Hit those Russian oil refining sites. Hit troop staging sites. Hit missile-launching sites. And then, to complement those strikes, tighten up the sanctions on Russian oil exports.

I don't know what's inside the victory plan, but I can almost guarantee you that strikes and sanctions are a critical part of preparing Ukraine for success. And unlike the Middle East, Kasie, President Biden has a tremendous amount of agency to get this done. He doesn't need congressional approval. He doesn't need allies buy-in. With his own pen, he can set up Ukraine to win this war.

HUNT: Finally, I also want to ask you, as - as a member of Congress, and as we head into the final six weeks this election, there has been this kind of broad escalation in threats, rhetoric. We've, obviously, seen two assassination attempts against Donald Trump. Members of Congress, like yourselves, facing additional security challenges. Mike Gallagher, a prominent conservative, who is very well respected, leaving Congress after - in no small part we learned from - from a David Ignatius column because his family home was swatted, putting his family in danger.

And Mitt Romney spoke with his biographer, McKay Coppins, recently about whether he would be a target for retribution if Donald Trump were to get re-elected. And he said, well, he's got 25 grandchildren. He's wondering, how am I going to protect 25 grandkids, two great- grandkids. I've got five sons, five daughters-in-law. We're a big group. And he says of Trump, "I think he's shown by his prior actions you can take him at his word, he told me. So, I would take him at his word."

I mean there's a couple things in here. One of them is the potential for attributions from a Trump administration or a Donald Trump presidency against Mitt Romney himself. Another about security considerations for family members from the political discourse that we have.

What do you - what do you make of it? And are you concerned about Trump taking out retribution on his political adversaries?

AUCHINCLOSS: I am concerned because, as Romney said, when he says something, believe it. And he has called for military tribunals to execute his rivals. He has said that if he loses, it's the Jews fault. And scapegoating Jews as a time-honored tactic of totalitarians. And we know that mentally ill people will follow through on those threats.

[06:40:03]

So, the political - the prospects for political violence in this country, unfortunately, are heightened. And it's entirely due to Donald Trump and his enablers, like J.D. Vance, which is why this election is so critical and why it's also so critical that we pass gun safety legislation that takes these weapons of war out of the hands of those who should not have them.

You know, we were able to vote for more Secrets Service protection for Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, which I was happy to do. But third grade teachers and their students don't get Secret Service protection. And there are mad men out there who want to walk into those classrooms and shoot them up. And we are putting those weapons in their hands with a complete lax gun safety policy in this country.

HUNT: All right, Congressman Jake Auchincloss, thank you so much for being here. I appreciate your time today.

AUCHINCLOSS: Thanks for having me on.

HUNT: All right, straight ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, a potential government shutdown, just five days away. We're going to talk about the chaos in Congress with Dana Milbank, who's the author of the new book "Fools on the Hill."

Plus, do you want fries with that? Donald Trump's fixation on Mickey Ds leading to a job?

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DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm going to a McDonald's over the next day (ph), right (ph), and I'm going to stand over the French fries.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[06:45:11]

HUNT: All right, welcome back.

We're going to turn now to this, controversial comments from Bernie Moreno. He is the Republican Senate candidate in Ohio running against Sherrod Brown.

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BERNIE MORENO (R), OHIO SENATE CANDIDATE: Sadly, by the way, there's a lot of suburban women - a lot of suburban women that are like, listen, abortion's it. If I can't have an abortion in this country whenever I want, I will vote for anybody else. OK. A little crazy by the way, but - especially for women that are like past 50. I'm thinking to myself, I don't think that's an issue for you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Especially for women who are past 50. I don't think it's an issue for you, he says. That was Moreno questioning suburban women and accusing them of being single issue voters on abortion.

His spokesperson defended the remarks in a statement. Quote, "Bernie was clearly making a tongue-in-cheek joke about how Sherrod Brown and members of the left-wing media likes to pretend that the only issue that matters to women voters is abortion."

Former presidential candidate Nikki Haley reactants simply this way, "are you trying to lose the election? Asking for a friend."

Donald Trump has been backing Moreno. These comments come as Trump, of course, tries to win over women and close the considerable gender gap in polling.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I always thought women liked me. I never thought I had a problem. But the fake news keeps saying women don't like me. I don't believe it.

You will no longer be abandoned, lonely or scared. You will no longer be in danger.

You will be protected. And I will be your protector.

Women will be happy, healthy, confident, and free.

You will no longer be thinking about abortion.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Our panel has returned.

Kate Bedingfield -

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.

HUNT: Where would you like to start?

BEDINGFIELD: Oh, my God. Where? There are so many places.

OK, first of all, I think Trump has no understanding of why he has a problem with women. First of all, this is like creepy - like bizarre messaging. But its - he's like talking at women, not to them, which is a problem that I think Republicans have across the board. It's like they think of women as this sort of other entity, and they don't - he's not - that's not a message to women. That's talking at women, which I actually think this is a message for men, not for women. I think what Trump is doing here is saying what he thinks men want to hear. It's - you know, he's trying to like double down on this idea of like alpha strength. So, I actually think this is not intended to be a message for women. I think, you know, the Trump campaign has made clear that, you know, winning men is a huge piece - a huge pillar of their strategy. And I think that's actually who this message is for. I can't imagine a world where women hear that and say, this is a guy who understands things that I'm going through and would be a president with empathy for me.

So, I - I think that's him like tripling down on trying to win men.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: An that's - to the point about the Bernie Moreno quote that we played at the top, it's actually not that controversial when you consider that that's largely the messaging that has come out of J.D. Vance and Donald Trump in some ways.

Now, Moreno used coarser language and claimed it was a joke. But there's nothing remarkable at this point about how they are bungling their approach to talking (INAUDIBLE).

HUNT: Well, I don't think we have heard regularly that, you know, if you're over 50 because you're like - you're done with having babies that you shouldn't care about abortion.

WILLIAMS: Sure. Sure.

BEDINGFIELD: Yes.

HUNT: I mean that was the piece of that, that really -

DANA MILBANK, AUTHOR, "FOOLS ON THE HILL": Yes, no, no. And we've seen this in focus groups. There are women who are well over 50 saying, I don't want the government telling me what to do with my body. Why is that such an unusual or extraordinary thing to say?

It seems to me that - I mean it's almost like this is an experiment, right, to see how large we can make this gender gap.

HUNT: Yes. In both directions, by the way.

BEDINGFIELD: Well, yes. And to -

HUNT: With men and women, you know.

MILBANK: I think so. But I - and I agree - I agree with Kate, it's not clear to me that they're picking up any male votes either because who wants - you know, there are only a certain type of men -

HUNT: Well, the polling shows that men are breaking for Trump in a big way.

MILBANK: Right. But only a certain type of men really wants to see that sort of patronizing speech there. And guess what? They're - they're probably -

WILLIAMS: There's a lot of men that want to see that patronizing speech (INAUDIBLE). It's working.

MILBANK: Yes, no, no, no. But guess what? He's - he's probably already got those voters.

WILLIAMS: Right.

MATT GORMAN, FORMER TIM SCOTT PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISER: I will say - right, the gender gaps is going to be the story of this election. We've talked about it kind of endlessly. Obviously, Republicans struggle with women. Democrats struggle with men.

And what I've kind of found is like, some of the most off-brand things on both sides are when each side tries to appeal to that. So you have lines like that. You have the Harris-Walz doing camo hats. It's very, like, what can we do to close this gap on each side because I think both know that - I'll speak for Republican - if we lose women by - more than Biden by more than we win men we lose. And the same is true for Democrats on the other side.

So, you're - they're trying to climb out of this hole. And doing it in just odd ways.

HUNT: Yes, the Moreno thing, do you think that is going to impact that race? I mean I think it's also worth noting that when abortion was on the ballot in Ohio, it was a - it was a majority, 58 percent voted to protect it.

GORMAN: Yes, you're right. Look, we haven't seen at least the correlation directly a one-to-one where if there's an abortion referendum on the ballot, it brings up the Democratic candidate or anti-Republican to that exact level.

[06:50:08]

People - Republicans out run this to a certain extent.

I think Moreno gets over the line. Certainly, it's not as good a shape say as Montana, where Republicans feel really optimistic about that Senate race. I think Republicans feel more optimistic than they have in the last month about Ohio.

HUNT: Interesting.

BEDINGFIELD: It is part and parcel, though, to - kind of to Elliot's point, of a message that comes from Vance, comes from Trump, comes from other Republicans, including Sarah Huckabee Sanders, by the way, that women who are either past childbearing age or don't have children are somehow less - less of a participant in society.

And so, yes, it is about abortion, which obviously has been a huge motivator for - for independents, for Democrats, for moderate Republicans in some of these races, but this is also for women across the board, they are painting a picture of this idea that, you know, a huge chunk of the - the female population is somehow less than or not human.

HUNT: It's so personal, right?

BEDINGFIELD: And it is. It's personal.

HUNT: It's - yes.

BEDINGFIELD: And - and that - that is a - that is a problem.

HUNT: Yes. All right, 50 minutes past the hour. Here is your morning roundup.

New this morning, a damning report from the FAA. Boeing factory workers saying they felt pressured to put speed over quality in the run-up to January's door plug blowout. Other workers saying that they felt inadequately trained to do their jobs properly. In just a few hours, the FAA administrator will testify about Boeing at a Senate committee hearing.

A Democratic campaign office in Arizona littered with bullet holes. When staffer showed up to work yesterday morning, they noticed the holes in the windows of the building. Police are investigating. This is the second time that this has happened in Tempe in a week. Police believe the other office was shot by a bb or pellet gun.

And this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRETT FAVRE, NFL HALL OF FAME QUARTERBACK: Well, it's too late for me because I've recently been diagnosed with Parkinsons. This is also a cause dear to my heart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Brett Favre announcing he's been diagnosed with Parkinsons disease. The 54-year-old confirmed the news while testifying before Congress. Favre played for 20 years, winning one Super Bowl, two MVP awards, but also suffering dozens of head injuries over the course of his career. His diagnosis raising new concerns about the long-term effects of repeated head injuries in football.

We wish him the best.

All right, let's turn now to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. TIM BURCHETT (R-TN): I got elbowed in the back and it kind of caught me off guard because it was a clean shot to the kidneys. And I turned back and there was - there was Kevin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARKWAYNE MULLIN (R-OK): Stand your butt up then.

SEAN O'BRIEN, PRESIDENT, INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOOD OF TEAMSTERS: You stand your butt up, big guy.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): Oh, hold on. Hold - stop it.

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): I think your fake eyelashes are messing up what you're reading.

JASMINE CROCKETT (D-TX): No, ain't nothing - listen -

REP. JAMES COMER (R-KY): Hold on. Hold on.

GEORGE SANTOS, FORMER NEW YORK CONGRESSMAN: Sue me for having a life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Since Republicans took control of the House in the 2022 midterm elections, their majority has brought us those memorable moments, among others.

And now with Congress back in session, as House Speaker Mike Johnson attempts to wrangle his party's support for a short-term funding bill, all the drama's back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JARED MOSKOWITZ (D-FL): That Hunter Biden is going to be sentenced on December 6th.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hunter Biden's not the president.

MOSKOWITZ: And I bet you money he's going to -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE). You need to take your medication and leave.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: (INAUDIBLE). Why not now?

REP. THOMAS MASSIE (R-KY): Because I'm not part of this theater. It's all (EXPLETIVE DELETED). So, I'm just not part of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: One of our panelists, Dana Milbank, has just written a new book about all of this. It is called "Fools on the Hill: The Hooligans, Saboteurs, Conspiracy Theorists, and Dunces who Burned Down the House."

Dana, of course, has been on our panel all morning.

Dana, tell us about the book. Why you wrote it. I think hopefully we set you up well.

MILBANK: Right. Yes. Yes.

HUNT: With some examples of perhaps why this book sold. But what do you dig into? What should we be paying attention to?

MILBANK: Right. I was joking with Manu Raju, who's in a couple of those clips, yesterday. Basically my job was to follow him around Capitol Hill for a year and a half and just watch - watch all of this -

HUNT: It's smart. You want to go where the action is, just attach yourself to Manu.

MILBANK: Right, watch all of this stuff happen. You know, I mean, we've all seen the zany moments, you know, the 15 ballots to get McCarthy in, the 22-day shutdown of the House. They kicked out McCarthy. The ludicrous attempt to impeach Biden. And then all of the day-to-day silliness.

But what I've tried to do is make sort of a compendium of all the crazy, just so you really get everything in here, from the fistfights in the basement, to the investigations of, you know, space aliens running our government.

What it all amounts to is this Congress is on course to be the least productive since 1860, when the - when the union was actually unraveling and falling apart. Now, so that is extraordinary and it's historic.

I mean it's funny in the sense that, you know, we can't - can't even pass sort of basic things. You know, took a six-week summer break, came back to pass - to fund the government. Well, they couldn't quite do that. So, couldn't get their plan through. They had to have - bring on Democratic votes, which presumably they will do today.

HUNT: Right.

MILBANK: Only to punt it for another six months so they can go on vacation again and now we can have a showdown in September.

[06:55:03]

But it's not just a joke because this is actually our government.

HUNT: Right.

MILBANK: And there's all - you know, I mean, they have been, you know, pretty good about, you know, down the line voting to keep confederate names on military basis, abolish the Department of Education, you know, a nationwide abortion ban. All this stuff you hear about in Project 2025.

HUNT: Right. You're -

MILBANK: It's actually happening in the House.

HUNT: Yes, well you're - yes, you're talking about the conservative priorities since they control it. And - and in fairness, I mean we get so-called messaging bills depending on who's controlling the congressman.

MILBANK: Absolutely.

HUNT: When government is split, they don't end up becoming law.

But, Dana, the one thing that I think I keep coming back to - I mean I covered Congress for over a decade. It's a place I've actually come to really love. Like, I think it's, you know, it should be really the best - represent the best of our democracy. I think the challenge is how much it seems to have changed in the time that I've covered it. MILBANK: That's right.

HUNT: I mean when I - when I was first up there, I mean, there were giants, especially in the Senate. I mean you had Ted Kennedy and John Warner and John McCain, right? All these people that had led, in many cases, great storied American lives and coming to Congress was something that was treated as a great honor. Sometimes after, you know, after all of these years of service.

And we've seen it become harder and harder for good people to convince themselves to come up and serve. I mean how did you find that dynamic as you were reporting out this book? I think what's -- it - there have been - you know, it's iterative, right? Every two years we seem to get more and more of what I'd call the crazies in there. And it's not just me calling them crazy. Like Tom Massie, one of the House Republicans said, the way it just seems to work in Republican primaries is they're voting for the craziest SOB in the race, which he identified himself with being.

But, you know, there is no longer a John Boehner. There's no longer even a Paul Ryan. You know, there used to be sort of a nucleus of grown-ups there. And it really feels like it's now a situation where the lunatics are running the asylum. There's nobody to push back against them.

WILLIAMS: Well, you know, whenever we hear that American politics is at its worse now, it's at its craziest and so on. If you look at American history, you realize, it's kind of been crazy for a long time. 1856, a guy literally got caned on the floor -

MILBANK: Right. And now we're back to that.

WILLIAMS: Right. So, my question is, how much crazier is it now than it's been before? Is this really the time?

MILBANK: Well, the Civil War was bad.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

HUNT: (INAUDIBLE).

WILLIAMS: Touche.

MILBANK: We're - we've -

HUNT: Inarguably the worst statement period, full stop.

MILBANK: We've - we've had - we've had our moments. We've - we've - we've had our moments in the past before.

Yes, I mean, you can't - it's hard to make an historical argument. But, you know, other than - I mean we can conclusively say now this is the least productive in 165 years.

WILLIAMS: All right.

MILBANK: So, it gives you some perspective.

But just the sheer array of characters. I mean this was the Congress of George Santos, let's not forget. And, I mean, he was delightfully entertaining. You know, I remember him running down the hall carrying some unidentified baby or going over to sing karaoke at a restaurant. Now he's tweeting obscene tweets at Desposito with the latest scandal in the House.

HUNT: Yes.

MILBANK: And that was just one character. But, you know, the leadership actually had to stick with him because they've only got three, four, or five vote majority. And, OK, so he's a fabulist who's made up everything in his whole life, but we need his vote.

WILLIAMS: These are fabulist (INAUDIBLE).

MILBANK: (INAUDIBLE).

HUNT: Right. That's what you get when you get such a narrow majority.

All right, don't forget to get your copy of "Fools on the Hill" by Dana Milbank. We're grateful to have him today.

All right, let's turn now to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In college I worked at McDonald's to earn spending money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So, apparently, one in eight Americans have worked at McDonald's. That is according to the fast food giant. Count Kamala Harris among them. Although Donald Trump doesn't believe she actually flipped burgers and served up those golden fries.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm going to a McDonald's over the next two weeks (ph) and I'm going to stand over the french fries because I want to see what her job really wasn't like because she never - I stood over the french fries and that was tough. It was hot outside, and it was hot over - she never worked there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: The former president is, of course, known for his love of fast food. Just remember the time he honored Clemson's national championship football team in the White House in 2019.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have pizzas. We have 300 hamburgers. Many, many french fries. All of our favorite foods.

I think we're going to serve McDonald's, Wendy's, and Burger King with some pizza. I really mean it. It will be interesting. And I would think that's their favorite food.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: I mean -

GORMAN: Don't come at Trump when it comes to McDonald's. it is very personal. He loves McDonald's more than anybody else. I think it's - it hit - it hit home for him.

BEDINGFIELD: He does seem to be a little personally triggered by this. But also, OK, don't forget, everything with Trump is about projection, right? Like, the guy accuses other people of lying because he's an inveterate liar.

[07:00:01]

So, to me, that's what's happening here.

WILLIAMS: And it's also, what do you gain from attacking someone's high school or college job? No, I'm dead serious though.

BEDINGFIELD: Yes.

WILLIAMS: Every one of us who's been a waiter or worked in fast food, and I think many Americans know, you learn a lot in those jobs and gain incredibly valuable experience.

HUNT: Mine was at Staples, by the way.

WILLIAMS: I was a waiter. And you take it through the rest of your life. It's an immensely valuable experience. Just let it.

HUNT: OK.

MILBANK: It is a conspiracy theory for everything. But probably one guy who didn't have a job like this was Donald Trump. And I love the Tim Walz line about Trump trying to work the McFlurry machine. I mean it's a great - it's a great image.

HUNT: OK, I -

GORMAN: No one can work the McFlurry machine. That's (INAUDIBLE).

HUNT: I couldn't work the McFlurry machine. I will definitely acknowledge that.

All right, we're over the top of 7:00 a.m. here, guys. Thank you very much for being here.

Thanks to all of you for joining us. I'm Kasie Hunt. Don't go anywhere. "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.