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CNN Tonight

Pence Testifies Before Grand Jury; Carolyn Bryant Donham Dies At 88; Fed Chair Pranked Into Chat; Owning A Home Is Out Of Reach For Americans; Barack Obama Hosts "Working: What We Do All Day" Docuseries; "CNN Tonight" Presents "On The Lookout." Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired April 27, 2023 - 23:00   ET

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

[23:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Hi, everyone. Thanks for tuning in to this hour where we bring you "Tomorrow's News Tonight." We have our great lineup of reporters to share their scoops. Here with me tonight are Harry Enten, Priscilla Alvarez, Ryan Young, and Vanessa Yurkevich. Great to have all of you, guys, here.

Okay, so, we start with Vice President Mike Pence testifying today before a federal grand jury that is investigating the aftermath of the 2020 election and the actions of former President Donald Trump.

This is the first time in modern history that a vice president has been compelled to testify about his former boss, the president of the United States. Priscilla has been working the story. Priscilla, before we get to what is going to happen next, I am interested in that, five hours, that's a long time. Do we know what he said?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: It is a long time, and he was poised to talk about the conversations that he had with former President Donald Trump, then the president, before January 6th. So, sources tell our colleagues that, as you said, this went on for five hours and it is notable for this investigation, and also, Alisyn, because we are talking this week about the 2024 election, but yet this investigation is still looking at the aftermath of 2020.

Now, what we know about what Pence has shared so far is through his memoir and through his public comments. And he has said that he refused to do the bidding of Trump on January 6th, going so far as to say that Trump said that he would not have followers if he didn't -- he was too honest to try to overturn the election.

So, do we know what happened in the room? No. But can we get a sense based off what Pence has already said publicly? A little bit. Of course, investigators have been interested in what he had to say because of his proximity to the White House.

Now, we should know that the day of January 6th, Pence was in the Capitol. He nearly escaped. You remember the footage of him leaving the Senate floor when the attack happened. And so, this is very much focused on the conversation leading up to that date and the day of, from our understanding, he was not talking to Trump.

CAMEROTA: Okay. And so, what's going to happen next? Now that Pence has testified for five hours, what's the next step here?

ALVAREZ: This investigation is moving quickly and it's going to continue to unfold, and we will continue to learn more about where it is heading and what Pence may have said. I think that's the question, right? It's exactly what he shared with investigators during this five-hour sit down.

But it is just one more sort of development in a case that is still critically important when we are looking at the aftermath of the 2020 election and we are looking at January 6th in 2021, and really when we still see to this day people who believe in election conspiracy.

CAMEROTA: And basically, with five hours, we can assume he answered questions. He did not say pass.

(LAUGHTER)

There would be a lot of passes if he did.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: I wonder how -- I haven't checked Truth Social today, but have we heard from President Trump about Pence sitting for this today?

ALVAREZ: I have -- I am, like you, have not seen any comments from Trump yet. Does that mean he won't weigh in? We will see. And recall, too, that we are waiting to see whether Pence does launch a bit and whether he decides to run himself in 2024. And what happens --

CAMEROTA: What is he waiting for?

ALVAREZ: Well, that's a question for his team.

(LAUGHTER)

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: I think -- I think the six percent or the seven percent of the polls, that's what he's waiting for. Right? I mean --

CAMEROTA: Is that where he is right now?

ENTEN: That is where he is. I mean, for a former vice president of the United States, I think the last former vice president who was polling that poorly was probably Dan Quayle who, of course, was the vice president through early 1993 and when he was trying on for president in 2000 and had to basically back out because he had no support at this point.

And it is so interesting to me that we have Pence -- we have Trump who is actually running right now, running away with the republican nomination when we have someone like Pence who, from everything I can see he did what he was supposed to do on January 6th, and the republican base has said, no, we are good, thanks. RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There seems to be a reason why you call him Teflon Don. Right? And at this point, it seems like nothing injures him at all in the public eye. I live in Georgia. I live in Atlanta. Of course, there's that whole idea of maybe this investigation is going to happen. And there are still people who are going to support him no matter what.

And when you think about the vice president, he did the right thing. He brought that up. And people said, hey, you do the right thing on that day, but that has not moved the needle at all so far. No one is even talking about the book anymore.

CAMEROTA: Really interesting.

ALVAREZ: And to your point, I was watching a congressional hearing this week about immigration (INAUDIBLE). One of the Republican witnesses was at January 6th in 2021.

[23:05:03]

In fact, Democratic Representative Eric Swalwell flagged the tweet and said, you were at this protest, insurrection. She said she had not gone to the Capitol. But as she defended herself, it was I was there peacefully, it was I was on the Supreme Court steps, I was praying, and I did not see violence.

And so, we still see sort of the conversation about what did or didn't happen. There is still discord about what occurred on that day despite the footage that is so widely distributed at this point.

CAMEROTA: Okay, let's move on to talk about immigration. So, this Trump era policy is coming to an end. And there's a surge at the border. And so, what is President Biden's plan?

ALVAREZ: So, the big day we are all looking at is May 11th. The reason why is because the coronavirus public health emergency expires on that day. What that means is that this authority, known as Title 42, ends.

What it has allowed authorities to do up until this point is to expel certain migrants back into Mexico or to their origin country. This is something that was started in March of 2020 under Trump.

So, with this going away, there is concern within the administration, I have been talking to officials on a regular basis about this, that there is going to be a surge. One senior Customs and Border Protection official told me they know of several thousand migrants who are already in northern Mexico waiting to cross on that date.

Now, look, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, he knows this, he talked about it today, he said that it's going to be a challenge in those first few weeks as they go back to the protocols we have been using for decades.

But the problem is that we are going back to protocols at a moment of mass migration in the western hemisphere. And so, how do you use protocols that, by all accounts, are outdated for a problem that is of the century?

And so, that is what they are -- their focus is right now. They are opening regional processing centers for migrants who are currently coming up to the U.S.-Mexico border so that they can apply for legal pathways. They are imposing consequences.

They are also taking measures that even Biden's allies are not happy with. For example, they are going to release a new asylum rule that would largely bar migrants who have come up through other countries from seeking asylum in the United States.

This is notable because we have never done that before. These are steps that they are having to take that don't often sit well, even with Democrats, with immigrant advocates, and it is a democratic administration having to do them when they are nervous about a surge only weeks away from when Biden just announces his candidacy.

YURKEVICH: This is where you go back to the decade-old problem of immigration reform, something that has not been solved by either party. And through my reporting with businesses, what I hear so much about is we wish there was a pathway for folks who want to come to this country that can end up legally working in this country because we are seeing worker shortages across all industries. There are farmers, restaurant workers, hotel workers.

These business owners want people to come to this country, want them to be able to legally work, but they don't know how to make it happen. And neither does Congress, honestly.

ALVAREZ: Yeah. And I've talked to members of Congress in the halls of Congress. I've asked them these questions. And there is -- they all agree that the system is broken. Everybody will tell you that. Democrats, Republicans, whoever you ask, the president of the United States.

But nobody wants to agree on how to solve it moving forward because every time we talk about reform, we start small, it might be border security, and then we add legal immigration, we add the worker visas. It starts to sort of snowball, and by then, nobody can agree on what is in the package.

ENTEN: I would just say, you know, I was looking at some of the latest poll data, which has essentially -- which party do you trust more on immigration. Republicans were favored by 10 points. So, I think there's obviously some politics that are going on here.

But, you know, one thing as we were just discussing this that just sort of goes through my head is that Americans have very complicated views on all of this. Right? So, you know, if you say, if someone is in the country illegally, should we deport them? Yes. Do you think there should be a pathway to citizenship for people who are here illegally? They say, yes.

Those two almost seem contradictory in some sense, and I think this sort of gets at what we are talking about. We keep trying to come up with a solution, we've been doing it now for decades upon decades upon decades, and the needle just does not move at all. It is kind of nuts.

YOUNG: I think it is kind of funny because it's almost about where you live. If you live in California, you live in Texas, you live in Florida --

CAMEROTA: Border state.

YOUNG: Right. You understand immigration from a different perspective. You grow up with it all the time. People in the middle of the country are sometimes not impacted the same way. You see some of these border cities being crushed by just needing to do services for people. And that is just the basics.

CAMEROTA: Yeah.

YOUNG: And then you come with education or health care, and then it just compounds. Who is paying for all that?

CAMEROTA: Such a great point. Even in the northeast, it's hard to have the visceral experience of living it like they do in the border states. Thank you very much for all of that reporting.

[23:09:58]

Okay, so, next, his murder brought nationwide attention to the civil rights movement. And now, 68 years later, the white woman whose accusation led to the lynching of Emmett Till, has died. Has his family lost their chance to get justice?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Carolyn Bryant Donham, the woman -- the white woman whose accusation led to the lynching of Emmett Till, has died at 88 years old. In August of 1955, 14-year-old Emmett Till was taken from his bed, brutally beaten, shot to death, and horrible other things after she accused him of whistling at her. Till's grief-stricken mother made the decision to open his casket at his funeral, shocking the conscience of the nation.

Bryant Donham's husband and his half-brother confessed to the murder after the -- after they were acquitted by an all-white jury.

[23:15:00]

Her role in the brutal death has been investigated several times and was reconsidered by a grand jury as recently as last year. Ryan Young is covering the story for us. So, Ryan, it has been more than 67 years that Emmett Till's family has been looking for justice. So, what happens now?

YOUNG: You think about, one, how shocking this was for the nation. Just last year, a movie came out talking about what happened with Emmett. It was very powerful.

But when you put the pieces together, the family discovered an arrest warrant just last year in the basement for this woman of a closed courthouse, and they were pushing for her to be arrested. And people were, like, well, she's older, she's sick. And they were, like, no, we need justice.

And you understand, when you follow all the other cases across this country, why this case sticks out to you. It was Jet magazine that put those photos out there, which was a very big, popular, Black magazine at the time. And this really spurred the civil rights movement.

I want you to listen to the family of Emmett Till years later talk about why they thought an arrest was important and why they wanted this warrant to move forward.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: There can be an execution of this warrant. And that's what we want. We are doing this without hate, malice or vengeance against Carolyn Bryant. We just want justice served. Justice has been denied for 67 years and it needs to be served. So, like anyone else, even though it was 67 years ago, Carolyn Bryant has never answered to her role and her culpability in the murder and kidnapping of Emmett Till.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: And you think about the fact that it was her own words that really spurred all this talk about -- maybe we should look back at this.

CAMEROTA: Because she wrote a memoir, is that what happened?

YOUNG: Absolutely. You wonder, is it going to get released now that she is dead? I know there were some really advanced copies.

CAMEROTA: So, it's an unpublished memoir in which she basically confessed to lying?

YOUNG: She confessed to lying. And she never went on camera to apologize for her role in all this, which I think makes people said, -- look, we've covered stories together before, we covered Ahmaud Arbery together before. You think about his mother and then Crump pushing for answers, especially when there was video of what happened.

Now, take it back to 1955. This kid was 14 years old. He did not whistle. He did not make any sexual advances towards this woman. And then the next thing you know, he goes through some of the most painful acts that anyone could ever imagine. His face was transformed, based upon what was done to him. And then he surfaced in a river.

I say this to you guys in the break. My family members have never gotten over the images of what we have seen here. And this is the push. And you were taught early on to be very careful with how you interact with people from other races, especially people in the south. There's a powerful moment in the movie where he lived in Chicago, he goes down in Mississippi, mom tells him the south is different.

And you understand how this sort of grasp all of us now because even to this day, you wanted something to happen where there was some sort of justice. The FBI looked at it in 2018. It didn't change anything. The image --

CAMEROTA: Why didn't they? She confessed in her memoir. Why wasn't there more traction with this?

YOUNG: I think that is probably the most frustrating thing for the public at large. Right? Because then, when they talked to her, she said, maybe I didn't say that, and it became --

UNKNOWN: She retracted it.

YOUNG: Absolutely. And it becomes inconclusive. So, no one ever got the justice that they wanted. You think about the Emmett Till's sign in the city that has gotten shot up several different times to the point where they replaced it with a bullet-proof sign because people would ride by and shoot at the sign. It's just the impact of this case that has been longstanding for this country.

ALVAREZ: All the way to last year, too. I mean, President Biden signed legislation called the Emmett Till Antilynching Act of 2022 that makes lynching a federal hate crime. I mean, it took it until 2022 for that to happen. He signed it. He called it at the time, lynching -- quote -- "pure terror."

The White House press secretary with this news said that they are going to continue to honor his legacy and that they will also continue to tackle what she called racial hatred in this country. So, really, the aftermath is still felt today.

YOUNG: Yeah. Two things stand out to me. If you ever get a chance to go to the National African American Museum in D.C., you can go into a room and they have the Emmett Till room. It is set up with the coffin, with the picture of his face. If you walk through there, it grabs your heart because you understand what that must have been like. Thousands of people lined up to see that. And then six months after this happened, you had Rosa Parks basically saying, I'm not getting out of the seat.

This was a big moment for this country. We've moved so far. But you would think that somebody somewhere would have found a way to sort of make this right. Let's say that memoir comes out. Who gets the money? What happens now? I mean, there's so many questions for that family. I would love to know what Emmett Till's family feels like today. You heard that soundbite. No ill will. But at the same time, they deserve something.

ENTEN: A thought and a question. The thought is it's amazing to me how short ago this actually was, right?

[23:20:01]

It's less than 70 years ago. You know, my mother was alive for this. I don't know if she remembers. She was a young girl at the point. But it is so close to where we are now. We can't forget it.

My question would be, what if -- Emmett Till did not do anything wrong, obviously. Why did she decide to say anything about him? What is going on?

YOUNG: That is, I think, the scary part of how this works sometimes. Right? We are never going to know her motivation. We never get a chance to grill her in the way that we would probably ask her some simple questions. Right? Maybe she wanted some attention from her husband. They acted. Not only did they act and they were acquitted, they sat down for an interview and admitted to killing him, which makes you say, like, who does that?

CAMEROTA: And also, of course, that even heightens the -- Emmett Till's family's desire, deep desire for justice because there is just injustice after injustice.

YURKEVICH: And I write in our reporting today about this stuff. Emmett Till's cousin, actually, after this woman's death, said today that he has sympathy for her family because her family lost a life, this woman, because of what he went through. And I believe he was somewhat of a witness during the time that Emmett Till was taken -- is that correct -- that he's reliving a lot of this.

YOUNG: And you think about the impact. Like you said a short time ago --

YURKEVICH: Yeah.

YOUNG: -- you have so many people who remember parts of this, and you're still trying to put the pieces together. Even racially, we are not even having the conversation around race that we should always have. But then you move the bar forward and see how much has been done since then. You would hope that something like that could never happen.

But again, you have to have all the pieces here. Not only did this happen and the woman never was charged. But what is the justice for this family moving forward? What can be done? Money can't replace him. There is trauma generationally for the entire country. How do you move forward? And that is the big question.

I think we have done a good job in a lot of places in this country with the conversation around Emmett Till. Obviously, to this day, we are still talking about 67 years later.

CAMEROTA: Have we heard from his family today?

YOUNG: I have not seen any reports of them talking today. Maybe they're doing it out of respect.

CAMEROTA: Yeah.

YOUNG: But at the same time, you understand, when they found that warrant last year, this might be a closing of a chapter that they did not even expect, right? So, we have to see how this plays out.

CAMEROTA: Ryan, thanks for all that.

YOUNG: Absolutely. CAMEROTA: All right, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell tricked reportedly by Russian pranksters into holding a video chat with someone he believed was Ukraine's President Zelenskyy. Vanessa is going to fill us in on this very peculiar development.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell allegedly pranked during a phone call with someone he thought was Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. "The New York Times" reports that Powell was tricked by two supporters of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Here's how this call began.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEROME POWELL, CHAIR, UNITED STATES FEDERAL RESERVE: Let me just say, it's a great honor to speak to you today. I'm glad you've made time to speak to me. And it's just great to be with you today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Vanessa Yurkevich is covering this. Vanessa, it's so sad because he is so gracious there. Clearly, he is so happy to be speaking to President Zelenskyy. So, how did the fed figure this out and what are they doing about it?

YURKEVICH: Okay. So, the fed has already referred this specific situation to law enforcement to try to figure out exactly how this happened, but what the fed is saying is that fed Chief Powel had a call with who he thought was President Zelenskyy in January. This call happens but it seems like later they found out that it wasn't actually President Zelenskyy on the line. It was these two Russian pranksters.

He did not reveal -- fed Powel did not -- Chair Powell did not reveal any sensitive information. It was a talk about the economy. And the authenticity of this video, though, is coming into question by the Federal Reserve because it has been edited and there's also just some questions about whether or not this is a real video.

However, the fed is saying that there was a conversation that happened between Chair Powell and someone who he thought was President Zelenskyy.

CAMEROTA: Hold on. Let me just understand this. It wasn't a -- like Face Time. He could not see somebody while he is speaking.

YURKEVICH: Only heard the person who we thought was President Zelenskyy but it wasn't President Zelenskyy.

CAMEROTA: Can we hear that? Do we have any of that?

YURKEVICH: We do. We have some sound. This is an exchange of this fake Zelenskyy asking him a question about the economy. And here's how that went down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Are the sanctions working or something wrong -- Russia's GDP has grown and it is now the -- if I'm not wrong, the ninth in the world. So, how do you assess the policies of the Central Bank of Russia, for example? So, they managed to save the ruble, why?

POWELL: Yeah. So, I should say that in our system, in our governmental system, it's really the administration, which is to say -- we are not part of the administration. We are an independent Central Bank.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: I don't think that sounded like Zelenskyy. Do you?

(LAUGHTER)

YURKEVICH: I mean, I've heard him a couple times but it doesn't sound like Zelenskyy. But this was a call that was set up somehow between Chair Powell and who he thought was President Zelenskyy.

[23:29:57]

But Chair Powell goes on to talk about the economy, inflation, the rate hikes that he is looking to make in 2023, and the possibility of a recession. A lot of these things he said publicly, but he definitely gets into the nitty-gritty about the U.S. economy, what he feels about the Russian economy, and also what he feels about Ukraine. But remember, these are Russians that he is talking to, not the Ukrainian president.

ALVAREZ: On a serious note, the question here is, how did this call get through? Right? And also, when you zoom out and you look at the context that we are learning about this in, we are just coming off of Pentagon leaks. And that classified material was also about Ukraine, about the U.S. assessment of what was happening in Ukraine, about their defensive.

So, it is interesting to see this happen now against the backdrop of the administration trying to wrap their arms around, to this day, how much information was released.

Now, of course, the case is ongoing. Prosecutors are working specifically with the Air National guardsman who released this trove of information. But it was interesting seeing this story come out and thinking about this administration is working through, already, some concerns regarding their security.

YURKEVICH: And it raises concerns about how does one of the most powerful men in the country, in the U.S. right now, get duped? I mean, the Federal Reserve is so tightly run. It is so secure. When they make these inflation hikes throughout the year, it is such a closed-door meeting. Our reporters have to use code words with the control room in order to kind of signal what might be happening because when the Federal Reserve speaks and makes decision, it can move markets.

CAMEROTA: But wait a second. So, when you are listening -- what are the code words that you have to use?

YURKEVICH: Oh, I don't know if can repeat the code words.

(LAUGHTER)

But essentially, you try to communicate with the control room. You know what is happening. They tell you just minutes before what the rate hike is going to be. But you can't say it to the control room because in case it gets out, I mean, it can move global markets. That's how --

CAMEROTA: That's fascinating.

YURKEVICH: So, you're like how does -- how does the chair get on a zoom call, presumably, with pranksters?

CAMEROTA: And who -- do we know anything about these pranksters? Who they are?

YURKEVICH: So, there are reportedly, from "The New York Times," they report that these are two well-known pranksters in Russia with close ties to Vladimir Putin. They have done this before.

They have pranked Angela Merkel, chancellor of Germany. They have pranked Christine Lagarde, the former head of the IMF. And apparently, they do this a lot. And it just a question of, how are they getting through to these world leaders? I don't know. The fed has not said. We don't know much more than that.

YOUNG: I thought it was A.I. at first.

ENTEN: Yeah, that was --

YOUNG: I was, like, there is no way this is real. Now, they're saying it is real.

YURKEVICH: We'll, the authenticity of the video is in question. And I think A.I. comes into this because it is so easy right now to create deepfakes. And deepfakes are essentially fake videos of people. Like Jerome Powell, you could create a video of him from speaking. It sounds like him. It looks like him.

And I think that's why the fed is playing a little bit of defense saying, yes, a conversation happens, but we haven't really been able to watch this video in its totality, and we don't quite believe that it's completely him. But obviously, the conversation happened.

ENTEN: I guess my question is, if it's A.I., why was the Zelenskyy voice so much not like him? Right? If you can take one, why not take the other one?

YOUNG: Right. ENTEN: Any my other question would just be, why are they pranking Jerome Powell? That's like, you know, calling up and like pranking a librarian. I would think they want to prank somebody a lot more fun than that.

YURKEVICH: He makes the point that he's now out of the Biden administration. They are a separate entity. The Central Bank is separate from the Biden administration. A lot of what these pranksters were asking were actually questions that probably should have been directed at the treasury, not at Jerome Powell.

But it was truly remarkable to listen to the entire conversation. It was edited. But it was about 16 minutes. And these pranksters, they do ask smart questions, and they are trying to clearly get information. But Jerome Powell is just -- he is really sweet in this interview. He is so grateful to be talking to the president of Ukraine. And he does not say anything that goes against U.S. policy. He does not reveal any information.

CAMEROTA: Thank goodness.

YURKEVICH: Thank goodness.

YOUNG: I wonder what the security conversation was like after that.

CAMEROTA: I know!

YOUNG: Does someone get in trouble? What happened? Did the number change? What happened?

YURKEVICH: The dial in password changed, I'm sure. No report yet on who is at fault for this. But we will see.

CAMEROTA: All right, Vanessa, thank you very much for that. Okay, now, this, it is a key part of the American dream, owning your own home. So, why is it now out of reach for millions of young Americans?

[23:34:58]

Harry has the raw numbers. Because it is late night, it is raw --

ENTEN: Raw.

CAMEROTA: -- it is raw, when we come back.

(LAUGHTER)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: Bad news for home buyers. Mortgage rates ticking up the second week in a row, the 30-year fixed average, 6.43% this week. Harry should explain what that means. Mortgage rates are expected to decline slightly later this year as inflation continues to ease. But as Harry tells us, that's not fast enough for people struggling to buy a home now. So, Harry, explain this, because mortgage rates always fluctuate. [23:40:01]

ENTEN: Yeah.

CAMEROTA: And so why is the American dream now becoming out of reach?

ENTEN: So, why don't we walk over the wall or I will walk over the wall and there goes my --

CAMEROTA: Microphone.

ENTEN: There it goes. Everything is falling down.

CAMEROTA: Oh, my God. Harry, are you kidding?

(LAUGHTER)

ENTEN: Here we go. I think I got it here.

CAMEROTA: That will teach us --

(CROSSTALK)

ENTEN: -- for doing a walk. But why don't we just step over here and we'll get an idea of the average monthly mortgage payments on a 30- year fixed rate with 10% down. So, it is up about 93% from two years ago to $3,176 for new homes. What exactly is going on here, Alisyn? There are two things.

Number one, we mentioned some mortgage rates are going up. But it also turns out the construction for new homes is also going up. So, we have these two things combining to make this mortgage rate payment so really, really high at this particular point, way up from where we were two years ago.

You know, what I will also point out is that this comes at the same time that we've been seeing a trend, right? Twenty-give to 34-year- olds still living at home with at least one parent at their parents' house. In 1981, look, it was just 8%. Look where we were in 2021. Jumped to 17%.

I'd be very interested to see the new numbers that come out over the next few and over the next few years to see if this number comes -- this percentage grows even higher because the fact of the matter is it just becomes more and more difficult for young Americans, especially where we are right now with how expensive things are, to afford to live on their own.

But, you know, we're talking about the American dream, right? Life goals, extremely are very important to you, look at this, owning a home, 70% say that is extremely or very important for their life goals. Compare that to raising a family at 68%, a successful career at 63%. So, owning a home is right up there on the things that American hope and dream that will happen but, of course, now, it is harder basically than it's been for a really long period of time, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Come back now, Harry, but try not to hurt yourself.

ENTEN: I didn't.

CAMEROTA: So professional. So professional. Please.

ALVAREZ: I was going to ask -- I mean, in forecasting for what happens moving forward, with so many people living at home or at least a higher percentage than before, is there any calculus that with perhaps savings that would get to a point if rates drop just enough where we would see an influx of buyers in the market?

ENTEN: I mean, look, you know, I have learned forecasting elections is hard enough. The idea of forecasting the housing market to me is basically -- forecasting the economy, forecasting the housing market are things that I don't want to get in to if only because they're just so difficult to sort of do. But, you know, something that I will point out is renting, right? We obviously know that one-third of this country rents at this point. And, I mean, look at the rent inflation we are seeing.

YURKEVICH: I just -- I'm moving in like a month. The rental market, I have never seen it like this ever. Buying a home right now is so incredibly expensive. So, people are sitting on the sidelines. They're deciding that they're not going to pull the trigger on that right now. So, they're renting.

So, now, everybody is just shuffling around the rental market, sending prices absolutely sky-high. Here in Manhattan, there is a new median average that has hit a record here in Manhattan. About $5,000 for one bedroom. I mean --

CAMEROTA: Five thousand dollars a month for a one bedroom in Manhattan?

YURKEVICH: Is the median, yeah, in New York City. And that for the rest of the country is astronomical. I mean, people are absolutely not paying those kinds of prices. In New York City, when you talk about a one-bedroom, you're probably talking about 500 square feet.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely.

YURKEVICH: If that. But it's amazing how the housing market is so tied to the rental market. And you're right, it has done just crazy things to the rental market across the country, but I think particularly on the coast.

ENTEN: Yes. Again, I'll point out that we have a pretty good measure of that for inflation. It's the highest year over year inflation on rental prices in 40 years. So, you can't win. That's really what's going on here. I'm not going to buy. I'm going to rent. Well, you know, now, I'm moving into a new apartment right now, and I'm just thinking back to what the rental prices were during the pandemic in New York City.

YURKEVICH: Yeah.

ENTEN: And I go, oh, it's a dream. The dream.

(LAUGHTER)

And now, I'm not going to be dreaming. I'm going to be taking my wallet over here. You can see, I need a very fat wallet.

CAMEROTA: You do. You must have a lot of cash in there. It's the (INAUDIBLE).

ENTEN: It's (INAUDIBLE) wallet.

CAMEROTA: I think it also like kicked your mic off of your pocket.

ENTEN: It might have been -- that might have been why the mic went down.

CAMEROTA: Yeah. So much cash in there.

ENTEN: Do you think they take $2 bills, though?

(LAUGHTER)

UNKNOWN: I'll take that.

YOUNG: During the pandemic, you got to think people were actually giving rent --

CAMEROTA: Concession.

YURKEVICH: That's right.

YOUNG: -- concession. You could get away when moving in for two months for free (ph).

CAMEROTA: I know. But I'd rather not have a pandemic, you know, if --

YOUNG: Absolutely.

CAMEROTA: But let's talk about the nature of work and how it's changing.

[23:44:56]

I bring it up because former President Obama has this new Netflix docuseries called "Working: What We Do All Day," and he explores the question of what makes a good job. So, let's watch a minute of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What if people from three different industries, from the service entrance to the C- suite, invited us into their lives and told us, what makes a good job good?

UNKNOWN: I just want to be at home, my refrigerator is full, my bills are paid. That's peace. UNKNOWN: This job is the money supply for my actual passion.

UNKNOWN: You are never going to make a living in the arts.

UNKNOWN: When I see father (INAUDIBLE), it makes me feel like I missed a lot.

OBAMA (voice-over): What does it take to feel satisfied?

UNKNOWN (voice-over): I have the privilege of building something that will hopefully mean something in the world.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): I grew up watching my dad defines himself to his look. He always tells me look isn't your only identity.

OBAMA: She seems more well-rounded than you.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: I think that that's a good question. What makes a good job good? What is our answer?

YURKEVICH: Happiness, hopefully?

YOUNG: Maybe passion.

UNKNOWN: Yeah.

CAMEROTA: Joy, passion, yup. What else?

ALVAREZ: Look, I come at this looking at both of my parents. Work is like -- I come from an immigrant experience working -- my dad worked on a tarmac and made his way up, and he was providing. And now, I have the privilege of saying it's my passion. So, that's true.

CAMEROTA: It has changed.

ALVAREZ: Generationally.

CAMEROTA: I agree, from provider to purpose, yeah. And passion, I guess.

ENTEN: I guess, for me, you know, do you enjoy going to work or at least not hate it? And can you afford your rent or your mortgage payment and put food on the table and provide for your family? If you can do those things, that, to me, is an enjoyable job.

CAMEROTA: Harry, you never leave work. I mean, you live here as far as I can tell.

ENTEN: I --

CAMEROTA: You live, you sleep here, you eat here, you're sometimes barely dressed. ALVAREZ: Have you seen the mortgage rates?

(LAUGHTER)

CAMEROTA: I guess that's it. I guess it is the rent --

ALVAREZ: And the rentals.

CAMEROTA: -- and mortgage rates, yeah.

ENTEN: I will say I have been here with the exception of leaving for a little dinner earlier since about 8:30 this morning.

CAMEROTA: That's what I mean.

ENTEN: Yeah.

CAMEROTA: Okay. Yeah.

YOUNG: When you think about inflation, though, it really comes down to the fact that there are people who are working hard, they love their jobs. Now, a lot of people are adding second jobs. And that's the part that is crazy. When you think about egg prices alone, that is the barometer for a lot of people. You can't just scramble three eggs anymore. It's different.

CAMEROTA: That's a great point. Yes. Okay, up next, "On the Lookout," our reporters tell us what stories they are on the lookout for on the horizon.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: We are back with our fabulous panel of reporters to tell us what stories they are keeping an eye on. We call it "On the Lookout." Okay, Harry, what is on your radar?

ENTEN: The White House correspondents' dinner is this weekend. And can you believe that CNN, for some reason, is putting me on the red carpet? So, I will be interviewing folks out there. Who knows what I might ask? You will have to tune in to find out.

CAMEROTA: That sounds fantastic. Is this your first one or you've been on this before?

ENTEN: This is the first time I will be covering the red carpet. Usually, I'm kept in the back, in studio, with Mr. John Berman. But this time, I am breaking free. I'll be on that red carpet asking all the important questions, including who are you and why are you here?

YOUNG: What are you going to wear?

CAMEROTA: What are you wearing?

ENTEN: Yes. I actually have rented a tuxedo.

YOUNG: Oh.

ENTEN: And I will be going black tie at this particular event. So, I will be up to fashion. It will be the rare chance for folks to see me in a tie because normally, I'm quite casual.

CAMEROTA: We can't wait. Okay, Priscilla, what are you looking?

ALVAREZ: Well, I will be there because Harry stole mine. I will be attending this dinner. Also, I'm going to add a little history it. So, this is a tradition that started in 1921 by journalists who are covering the White House. white house. Presidents started attending in 1924. President Biden will be in attendance. The only exception is Donald Trump, who did not attend, but had attended previous White House correspondents' dinners as a guest. So --

CAMEROTA: Some say that is why he ran for president because he attended it. Jon Stewart, I guess, was the -- was it Jon Stewart or Seth Meyers?

YOUNG: President Obama.

ALVAREZ: Yes, President Obama.

YOUNG: Yeah.

CAMEROTA: Yes, it was President Obama. But wasn't there also --

ENTEN: Seth Meyers.

CAMEROTA: Seth Meyers. Yeah. Okay. Excellent. How fun you, guys. That sounds great. Okay, Ryan?

YOUNG: Mine is easier. I saw this online somewhere. It said that McDonald's is worried about the economy because people are ordering less French fries. So, they are getting hamburgers, but they're not ordering the fries which, first of all, is criminal.

CAMEROTA: Yes. They go together.

YOUNG: Got to have a milkshake, too, if you can. But the idea that people are sort of holding on to their money and they're moving just to the burgers kind of shows you that people are tightening their budget.

CAMEROTA: Wow! So, we are sure that this is an economic thing and not a health thing.

YOUNG: Can you really call -- you are eating McDonald's. You've got to get the fries.

CAMEROTA: Yeah. I got to get the fries. All right, go ahead, Vanessa.

YURKEVICH: I am looking forward to waking up in four hours and being on "CNN This Morning" with my new story. It is about a company that is an artificial intelligence company that scans through thousands of hours of police body cam footage. It can scan through hours in just seconds. And what it's looking for is both good behavior of police officers, but also problematic behavior of police officers.

The founder of the company said that he believes that this technology could have prevented a death-like Tyre Nichols because it would have caught what these officers were doing in the years leading up to Tyre Nichols's death. He believes that this technology is lifesaving.

[23:54:57]

It is also a great recruiting tool for police departments because it basically gives them credibility in the sergeants and the chiefs basically paying attention to what their officers are doing. It is amazing technology, how it works. Basically, every day, an email pops into a sergeant's inbox at 6:00 p.m. and flags all these different good things that happened to officers, bad things.

It could be a game-changer for policing. But only 20 departments are using it now. There are 18,000 departments in the country. But A.I. is some incredible things. This could be one thing.

YOUNG: Body cameras have been a game-changer.

YURKEVICH: Yeah.

YOUNG: Add that technology --

YURKEVICH: Artificial intelligence to go through those hundreds of thousands of hours could be a game-changer.

CAMEROTA: That is really fascinating. And thank you for staying up late with us. I can't believe you have to be reporting tomorrow in four hours.

YURKEVICH: Same for you, Alisyn (ph).

CAMEROTA: Thank you so much. It has been wonderful. So, in addition to what we just heard from Vanessa, tomorrow on "CNN THIS MORNING," comedian Roy Wood, Jr. gives us a preview of some of his jokes for the White House correspondents' dinner. It all starts at 6:00 a.m. Eastern. Thanks so much for watching tonight. Our coverage continues now.

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[00:00:00]

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