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Biden Commits To Nominating Nation's First Black Female Supreme Court Justice; Biden To Pittsburgh To Tout $1.2 Trillion Infrastructure Plan; Bud Light's First Zero-Carb Beer Hits Shelves Next Week. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired January 28, 2022 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:30:00]

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back.

Retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer is leaving the bench concerned but still optimistic about the great American experiment known as democracy.

Speaking at the White House, Breyer called the United States a complicated country.

JUSTICE STEPHEN BREYER, U.S. SUPREME COURT: I'll tell you what Lincoln thought, what Washington thought, and what people today still think -- it's an experiment. It's an experiment. That's what they said.

And Joanna paid each of our grandchildren a certain amount of money to memorize the Gettysburg Address. And the reason -- the reason that -- what we want them to pick up there and what I want those students to pick up -- if I can remember the first two lines -- is that four score and seven years ago our fathers brought -- created upon this -- here a new country. A country that was dedicated to liberty and the proposition that all men are created equal. Conceived in liberty -- those are his words -- and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. He meant women, too.

And we are now engaged in a great civil war to determine whether that nation or any nation so conceived and so dedicated can long endure. See, those are the words I want -- to see and experiment -- and that's what he thought. It's an experiment --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: It's just so cool to hear him, right, sort of talking about all this stuff.

Let's bring in Jasmine Wright. The president says he has not made a decision on Justice Breyer's successor yet but he plans to move very quickly. Where does the process, Jasmine, go from here?

JASMINE WRIGHT, CNN REPORTER: That's right, Christine. Look, the president was really clear in his message yesterday. He reconfirmed that he would nominate a Black woman to the Supreme Court who, if confirmed, would be the first Black woman in the nation to ever sit on that bench. And he said he would do so by the end of February, AKA the end of Black History Month.

And now, while the president, as you said, hasn't decided on who that person is, he wants a person of character, integrity, experience. And he says that to find that person he's going to lean on lawmakers on both sides for advice, as well as internal and external advisors. And, of course, Vice President Kamala Harris, the first Black woman in that role and, of course, former attorney general.

Now, the president has already taken some incoming for that decision with minority leader Mitch McConnell really saying he should not outsource this decision to the radical left. But the White House is standing firm in this decision.

So when we talk about what it looks like -- what the next steps are -- we know a few things. First, we know that sources have told CNN that candidates could start meeting with White House staff as early as next week, really laying the groundwork to win. They would potentially meet with President Biden.

And that they'll be working on a list of 10 or fewer. Here we see on the screen some potential candidates -- those thought to be the top 10 Black women around the country that the president could choose from. So a list of 10 or fewer, really trying to go down that list narrowing it down.

And now while Justice Breyer says that he will not retire until the end of the term, that gives the president a little bit of breathing room when it comes to one of the most important decisions that the president can make in this role. But, of course, they want to move quickly, utilizing the time that they have still in the majority. And by they, I mean, the Democrats --

ROMANS: Yes.

WRIGHT: -- because, of course, we know that they'll need all 50 votes for this, Christine.

ROMANS: They sure will.

All right, Jasmine Wright. Nice to see you this morning. Have a good weekend -- thank you.

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, without the votes to block President Biden's Supreme Court pick, Senate Republicans are hoping to at least slow down the process a bit.

CNN's Daniella Diaz is live on Capitol Hill with this angle. So, Daniella, some in the GOP are also clearly uncomfortable with the explicit role that race is playing in the president's decision.

DANIELLA DIAZ, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: Laura, that's right. They are -- they don't think that the fact that President Joe Biden wants to nominate a Black woman is enough for them to get behind supporting, and any sort of nominee President Joe Biden nominates to replace Justice Breyer to the Supreme Court.

And the other problem is -- really, the bigger picture is they believe whoever President Joe Biden nominates will be much too far left for them to get behind. And this is the majority -- where the majority of Republicans are with any sort of choice President Joe Biden makes -- as Jasmine said, by the end of February -- to nominate someone to replace Justice Breyer.

And I really think Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell sums it up in a statement. This is what he said. He said, "The president must not outsource this important decision to the radical left. The American people deserve a nominee with demonstrated reverence for the written text of our laws and our Constitution."

You know, Laura, it's exactly as you said. They're hoping to slow down this process. They think that the timeline that Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer wants to take to confirm whoever President Joe Biden nominates will be too quickly.

[05:35:01]

Now, remember, Republicans only took about a month to confirm Justice Amy Coney Barrett when then-President Joe -- Donald Trump -- excuse me -- nominated her. And that is the same timeline that President Joe Biden and Democratic leaders want to take to confirm whoever ends up being nominated.

But the bottom line really is as you said, Laura. They can't really obstruct any sort of nominee that President Joe Biden chooses, but they can slow down the process as much as they can. But in the end, with this 50-50 split, if every single Democrat gets behind who President Joe Biden nominates, they will ultimately still be confirmed to the bench.

JARRETT: That's the key -- getting every single Democrat in sync there.

Daniella, thank you -- appreciate it.

OK, let's bring in U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer from the Northern District of California. He also happens to be the younger brother of retiring justice Stephen Breyer. Judge, so nice to see you this morning. Appreciate you getting up bright and early there in California.

I know you've just --

JUDGE CHARLES BREYER, U.S. DISTRICT COURT, NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA, BROTHER OF RETIRING JUSTICE STEPHEN BREYER (via Webex by Cisco): Good morning.

JARRETT: Good morning.

I know you've described your brother as an extreme pragmatist. That was certainly his reputation -- is his reputation on the court.

What do you think led your brother to make this decision now?

C. BREYER: Well, I think that he's been weighing it for about a year. And I think that he took a number of factors into consideration. The fact, first, he didn't want to die on the bench. He didn't -- that was an appropriate exit. He also felt a responsibility that the work that he has had continues.

And I think to some extent, to be honest, of course, there are political considerations. I don't think it was politics that motivated him but I think that was one of the considerations that he had in deciding now would be an appropriate time. And when I say now I'm really saying at the end of the term. When this term's work is completed.

JARRETT: Say more about that. When you say political considerations -- like what?

C. BREYER: Well, of course, the obvious, which is he was appointed by a Democrat, President Clinton, and his successor will be appointed by a Democrat, President Biden. And that's not unusual. It's not unusual that justices who do retire, in greater numbers, actually retire at the time that the president of the same party is the president who appointed that justice are in the White House. So it's not unusual.

JARRETT: And what -- and what do you make of President Biden's decision to be so upfront -- so explicit about his choice for the high court being the first Black woman? What do you make of that?

C. BREYER: Well, first, I applaud diversity. I think in large part, that's what the -- that's what my brother has stood for not just in theory but as somebody remarked recently, if you looked at a class of his law clerks -- and he's had now -- over 27 years he's had, oh, maybe 100-150 law clerks.

That class of law clerks looks like America -- looks like the country. There are white, Black, brown, men, women -- men and women in equal numbers. It looks like this country. And that's what Steve did in his practice as being a justice and that it would be continued or enhanced.

It's a -- it's a wonderful decision of the president's.

JARRETT: Well -- and, of course, one of those former clerks, Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, one of the frontrunners it appears now. I'm going to ask you to weigh in on that but obviously, it would be amazing to have one of former (sic) Justice Breyer's former clerks then taking his spot.

I also want to ask you about something your brother said at the White House yesterday. He talked a lot about the great American experiment. It was almost a sermon. He was up there preaching, talking about how much he enjoys talking to college students, talking to the younger generation.

What do you think gives him hope at such a divided point in our country? C. BREYER: I think two things.

First, I think he certainly enjoys talking to students. His students are the hope -- the people -- the next generation -- our children, our grandchildren, our children of our grandchildren. They are the hope. They are the continuum of this American experiment.

And I also think that he sees that in the past we've gone through some terrible situations and we've come out of them a stronger country. I mean, you look at the Civil War, you look at the Depression, you look at World War II, you look at the era of the civil rights movement, and we have actually come out better at the end.

[05:40:03]

And, you know, an experiment can fail and an experiment can succeed. But Steve is -- he's an optimist. They call him a pragmatist but he is also a realist. And all of those qualities I think are embodied in his -- in his jurisprudence.

JARRETT: Well, Judge Breyer, it has been such a pleasure to talk to you, sir. I appreciate you, again, getting up so early for us. But this is --

C. BREYER: Well, now I'm -- now I'm going back to bed.

JARRETT: Well, you're certainly entitled to that at 2:30 in the morning. We do appreciate you getting up with us. It's so helpful to have your insights as only you can speak to your brother. I really appreciate it. Thank you.

C. BREYER: Well, thank you, and it's been a pleasure.

ROMANS: All right, what a great conversation.

Let's talk about the economy quickly. The U.S. economy bounced back from the depths of the pandemic last year with the strongest full-year growth in decades. The economy expanded at an annualized rate of 6.9 percent in the final quarter, a strong finish from the year. It's a surge from the third quarter when the Delta variant held back the recovery.

For the full year, the numbers are in. The economy grew 5.7 percent. That is the fastest pace since 1984.

Now, the strong reading on the economy joins a growing list of positive economic indicators. You can see them there. December's unemployment rate, 3.9 percent. A record 4 1/2 million Americans quit their jobs in November -- many people trading up for better jobs and better pay. And wages grew 4.7 percent in December from the year before.

But there's a big disconnect between the numbers and how Americans feel. Call it the COVID contradiction -- an economy roaring ahead and Americans exhausted by the pandemic and exhausted by the higher inflation they are dealing with because of the recovery. December's consumer prices up seven percent from the year before. That's the highest level in almost four decades. GasBuddy predicts gas prices will hit $4.00 a gallon by Memorial Day. The cost of rent last year was more than 10 percent higher than 2020.

And higher interest rates are coming, meaning increased borrowing costs for things like mortgages, credit cards, and car loans. Those higher interest rates coming because the Fed needs to tamp down the inflation that so many Americans are feeling and the polls are reflecting.

This morning, President Biden promised to get out of the unfriendly D.C. bubble and he will. He will take his vision on the economy directly to the people. He's headed to Pittsburgh. He'll talk about what his $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan will accomplish -- how it will strengthen supply chains.

Let's bring in CNN political analyst and managing editor at Axios, Margaret Talev. Margaret, so nice to see you here bright and early this Friday morning.

The president, I suppose here, is going to put the focus on the historic infrastructure when he's going to try to show the people how they will feel it, and focus less on what hasn't been accomplished yet and more on what has. Is that the plan?

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, MANAGING EDITOR, AXIOS (via Webex by Cisco): Yes. I mean, Christine, I think you're going to see President Biden lean into the numbers that suit his argument -- those GDP numbers. Fourth-quarter numbers are real and helpful.

And you look at the messaging that you'll see he'll be in an old steel mill, which is now kind of a manufacturing innovation, A.I. robotics center. And so, the message there is obviously going to be sort of worker-focused -- like, I'm not going to leave you behind if you're a displaced worker. I'm going to take you into the 21st century.

Of course, he would lean into those messages. The question is how well will it work?

ROMANS: Yes, that is the big question here. And they did lean in yesterday to those numbers -- you know, the economy -- that best growth since 1984, 5.7 percent. It's impressive.

They sent out this chart celebrating it and then right away, smart alecks on Twitter were all over it. The scale on the left side exaggerated the trend, right?

They went from I think four percent-five percent, then 5.5 percent. It's to make it look a little better. That's an unforced error. They cleaned it up right away but kind of an unforced error.

But it sort of plays into this notion that they just can't get credit for anything that's going well and they just get blamed for things they can't control. TALEV: I think they're looking for the rosiest interpretation of the statistics. I think any president would do that.

But look, there are -- for every good news sign there is a contradicting bad news sign. And you put up against those 6.9 or those 5.7 numbers inflation, labor shortages, trade. Incomes actually decreasing when you adjust for the inflation factor.

Gas prices, of course, have been bad. In Pennsylvania, (audio gap) has reported there it's the most expensive state east of the Rockies. If Russia invades the Ukraine gas prices could further go up.

So, President Biden may have a narrow window. He may have a longer ramp-up to deliver sort of good news messages on the economy. But for every good news statistic that he can cite and that is real, there are a lot of drag factors moving in the opposite direction for him.

[05:45:07]

ROMANS: And you can see that in the polls. I mean, new research from polls show the majority of Americans unhappy with the current economy. Biden even has work to do to get Democrats back on his side in these poll numbers.

I mean, I guess -- it's interesting to me. Donald Trump was elected because there was this contradiction in the economy where it was doing fine but people didn't believe it. Here we are again -- the economy doing well and people don't feel it.

Does he use that disconnect to try to sell pieces of Build Back Better? To say hey look, you're worried about inflation? How about we talk about free childcare. You're worried about inflation? How about we lower your drug costs.

I mean, can he -- can he try to use this disconnect and this concern about the economy to try to sell what he still needs to do?

TALEV: He's certainly going to try and he has been trying. The problem for President Biden is that his approval numbers are already so low. We were seeing them in the low 40s and now in the 30s in some places.

And those numbers that you just mentioned -- I mean, how would you rate the U.S. economy? You've got more than like -- you've got a third of Democrats saying it's good.

So that's a terrible position from which to be making the argument and this is an issue where he's having trouble rallying his party behind him because the Democrats standing for election for the Senate and the governor's races understand that his numbers could be dragging their numbers down.

We are reporting those sort of frontline Democrats all over the country -- many are keeping their distance from him on Twitter, not begging him to come to their states. In fact, in Pennsylvania, A.P. are reporting a couple of those pretty high-profile Senate and gubernatorial candidates saying sorry, I have a schedule conflict. I'm not going to be able to make it to Pittsburgh today.

ROMANS: Interesting.

All right, Margaret Talev. Nice to see you this morning. Thank you so much -- Laura.

TALEV: Thank you.

JARRETT: Now to Houston where three police officers were wounded in a shoot-out after an hours' long standoff there. This all began Thursday afternoon as officers were responding to a disturbance call and the suspect took off, then crashed a car. A surveillance camera video -- you can see in just a second -- caught the intense exchange of gunfire that came next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

Houston officers in shoot-out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: The suspect later barricaded himself in a house for hours before he finally surrendered. Police say none of the officers' injuries are life-threatening.

This shooting just four days after a Harris County deputy constable was killed during a traffic stop.

All right, just in time for the Super Bowl. A healthier beer, you say? But will it pass the taste test?

ROMANS: Are we having a taste test, Laura?

JARRETT: Let's do it.

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[05:52:01]

ROMANS: All right, let's get a check on CNN Business this Friday morning.

Looking at markets around the world, you can see Asian shares closed mixed, although Tokyo bounced back. Europe has opened lower. And on Wall Street, stock index futures at this hour are narrowly mixed.

It was another nailbiter on Wall Street. Please, let's end this week soon. Big gains early and then a fizzle to close mostly lower.

The Nasdaq bearing the worst of it, and the S&P 500 slipping enough to now be down 10 percent from its recent high. That is technically a correction. The Nasdaq still there, down nearly 18 percent from its peak.

Stocks started the day higher after that strong GDP data distracted from what is a hawkish tone coming from the Federal Reserve. What do I mean by hawkish tone? Well, we're entering a new era of higher interest rates. That's how the Fed is going to try to combat persistent inflation.

The U.S. economy grew at an annualized rate of 6.9 percent in the final quarter of the year. That's a big surge from the third quarter. The full year -- the economy grew 5.7 percent. That's the fastest pace since 1984.

All right, a cold one without the carbs. Take a look at the latest offering from Anheuser-Busch. It's Bud Light NEXT, the company's first zero-carb beer. It hits store shelves February seventh, about a week before the Super Bowl, which is traditionally one of the most popular days of the year for beer consumption.

Anheuser-Busch is using the big game to launch it. The company confirms there will be a Super Bowl commercial that will demonstrate what's possible when there's zero in the way, Laura. No taste test for us this morning, however.

JARRETT: Well, you know, some of those 0.0 beers are actually not so bad. Heineken's is pretty good. So, we'll see.

ROMANS: Oh.

JARRETT: Yes, I know.

ROMANS: Laura Jarrett, beer tester. I like it.

JARRETT: All right.

Tennis superstar Rafael Nadal is now just one win away from making grand slam history.

Andy Scholes has this morning's Bleacher Report. Hey, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Laura.

So, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, and Novak Djokovic all tied for the most grand slam titles in men's history with 20, but Nadal now one win away from taking the lead. The 35-year-old beating Italy's Matteo Berrettini in four sets this morning to advance to the Aussie Open final. Nadal hasn't won a grand slam since the 2020 French Open.

He awaits the winner between Daniil Medvedev and Stefano Tsitsipas. That match going on right now.

The men's final, Sunday morning.

The U.S. men's national team, meanwhile, is taking their quest to qualify for the World Cup in a very cold Columbus, Ohio. The kickoff temp was 30 degrees.

A slow start against El Salvador, but in the second half Antonee Robinson going to get the U.S. on the board right here. Robinson then with a pretty acrobatic celebration as the crowd just went nuts. That would be the difference as the U.S. would win 1-0. They have two more cold-weather matches in the next week with winds. They could be on the verge of clinching the spot in the World Cup.

All right, to the NBA. The Lakers falling to the Sixers in Philly last night with LeBron sitting out with a sore knee.

In the fourth quarter, Carmelo Anthony took exception to something a Sixers fan said to him. He went over to confront him with the refs having to hold him back. Anthony said after the game the fan crossed the line and kept calling him boy.

[05:55:09]

The Sixers say one fan was ejected and that the Wells Fargo Center would be in charge of any further discipline.

And Laura, you know, this is another perfect example of how fans just think they can say whatever they want to the players. You know, fans should act like players are just normal people on the street.

JARRETT: Get it together, people.

SCHOLES: Yes.

JARRETT: Andy, thank you.

SCHOLES: Yes.

ROMANS: All right. Finally, breaking news from the White House this morning. This was embargoed (ph) until 5:30. There's a new cat.

Its name is Willow -- joining -- she's two years old I'm told -- a shorthaired grey tabby with green eyes named after the first lady's hometown, Willow Grove, Pennsylvania.

JARRETT: You want a friend in Washington, get a pet.

ROMANS: Bipartisanship in the White House. Look at that -- cats and dogs living together.

Thanks for joining us. Have a great weekend, everyone. I'm Christine Romans.

JARRETT: I'm Laura Jarrett. "NEW DAY" is next.

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