Return to Transcripts main page
Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Biden Acknowledges Inflation Pain After Record 7.5% Jump; Hip- Hop Takes Center Stage At Super Bowl Halftime Show; Putin Kept Macron Yards Away For Snubbing COVID Testing Demands. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired February 11, 2022 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:33:43]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Inflation is up -- it's up. And coming from a family when the price of gas went up you felt it in the household -- you knew what it was like -- it matters.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: All right. President Biden in Virginia Thursday acknowledging the bite Americans are feeling from inflation after a key inflation index showed consumer prices up 7.5% over the past year. That's the biggest annual increase since February 1982.
OK, so that means it's time for a historian -- CNN political analyst Julian Zelizer, historian and professor at Princeton University, and the author of the great book "Fault Lines: A History of the U.S. Since 1974."
Julian, the president seems to be recalling the inflation he experienced as a young father in the 1970s. What lessons should he be drawing from the '70s here?
JULIAN ZELIZER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, HISTORIAN AND PROFESSOR, PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, AUTHOR, "FAULT LINE: A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES SINCE 1974" (via Webex by Cisco): Well, that inflation can be incredibly damaging. That a president really has to be as aggressive as possible in offering policies to contain it, but that this is an issue that really -- politically, at least -- could damage the president's standing in pretty immense ways.
LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Julian, past presidents typically rely on the Fed to raise rates but that also comes with risks.
How do you expect President Biden to fight this? What do you think the plan will be going forward?
[05:35:00]
ZELIZER: Well, I don't think he wants to recreate what Presidents Carter and Reagan did, relying on Paul Volcker to basically crush the economy to stop inflation as the chairman of the Fed. I think he's going to try some other things, continuing to make sure that courts are running fully. Maybe efforts to increase the labor force --
ROMANS: Sure.
ZELIZER: -- through changes in immigration policy and policies of that sort as well.
ROMANS: You know, it's a big jump, 7.5% inflation, but it's not a record. Fourteen percent was what we really experienced in the -- in the 1970s. It's not a really good strategy though for the White House to say it's not as bad as it could be or it's not as bad as it has been, right?
ZELIZER: Yes.
ROMANS: You have an awful lot more choices now than you did in the '70s or the early '80s as well. I mean, consumers have a little more leverage to get -- to -- you know, to get around some of these higher prices -- not electricity, though.
So, from a strategy standpoint, how do the Democrats handle this heading into the midterms without sounding tone deaf?
ZELIZER: One other difference. In the '70s, you had very high unemployment, which you don't have today, but you can't just talk about that.
ROMANS: Right.
ZELIZER: I think the president has to address the real pain that some Americans feel even if jobs are plentiful with prices rising. And I think he has to outline a plan in addition to what the Federal Reserve might do of how he will get the nation through the next few months to try to contain the prices when they very well might start to ease at that point.
ROMANS: Yes. It certainly is a very challenging messaging moment I think when the Fed is the one that really has all the power. There are things the president can try to do around the edges --
JARRETT: But you can't say it's not on me, right?
ROMANS: Right, exactly.
JARRETT: That doesn't work.
ROMANS: That's dangerous.
All right, Julian --
JARRETT: Julian, thank you. Nice to see you.
ZELIZER: Thank you. ROMANS: All right, two days away from Super Bowl LVI and the heat is on. Literally, the heat is on in Los Angeles. The Bengals and the Rams bracing for what could be the hottest Super Bowl ever.
Let's bring in meteorologist Tyler Mauldin. Wow, this is going to be a real scorcher.
TYLER MAULDIN, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, it could be. The warmest Super Bowl ever played was back in 1973 in Los Angeles. The temperature on that day was 84 degrees.
There's a heat advisory in effect for South Florida, including Los Angeles all the way down to San Diego for temperatures nearing 90 degrees. And this will last through Super Bowl Sunday.
So what are we looking at in terms of the temperature this Super Bowl weekend? On Friday, 84. Then we climb up to 86 on Saturday. And then on Sunday, 86 degrees for a high.
Looking at it from an hour-by-hour standpoint, you can see right around kickoff the temperature -- the temperature will be around 84 to 85 degrees. So this could be rewriting the record books for us come Super Bowl Sunday of 2022.
Now, you zoom out the image here and you can see that it's not just temperatures that are above average for us. We are looking at record- breaking temperatures across Southern California, Northern California, and even some of the surrounding states as well.
This is going to last right on into early next week -- guys.
ROMANS: All right. Thank you so much for that, Tyler. We know you'll be watching.
JARRETT: All right. Hip-hop will take center stage Sunday at the Super Bowl halftime show. The show features Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Mary J. Blige, Kendrick Lamar, and Eminem.
And CNN's Chloe Melas joins us here on set to discuss. Chloe, I feel like my '90s mixtapes are back.
ROMANS: Yes.
JARRETT: I'm having such nostalgia. I love it.
ROMANS: I love it.
JARRETT: What are the stars saying about the show?
CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: I'm going to have to ask you, guys, what your first C.D.-ever was. Mine was Ace of Base, actually --
JARRETT: Oh.
MELAS: -- and I just realized that the other day. So, this is going to be the ultimate '90s lovefest and it's like the
biggest names in hip-hop descending upon the arena, and they're going to have so many surprises. And what I loved and what I love every year is the halftime show. The commercials, which we talked --
JARRETT: Of course.
MELAS: -- about the other day.
But they do a press conference in the days leading up. So you had Dr. Dre, you had Snoop, and you had Mary J. Blige. Unfortunately, Kendrick Lamar and Eminem -- they weren't there for some reason. But they were talking about how the time has finally come for hip-hop to take center stage and that it's long overdue. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SNOOP DOGG, SONGWRITER-RAPPER: This is what it's about. This is what hip-hop and the NFL is supposed to be about, representing about change, about moving forward. So we appreciate the NFL for even entertaining hip-hop.
DR. DRE, RAPPER: We're going to open more doors for hip-hop artists in the future and making sure that the NFL understands that this is what it should have been a long time ago. You understand what I'm saying? So, yes, we're going to show exactly how professional we can be, how dope we can be on stage, and how exciting we're going to be to the fans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MELAS: So this is all coming amidst turmoil within the NFL --
JARRETT: Right, of course.
MELAS: -- Colin Kaepernick, Brian Flores' lawsuit with the Miami Dolphins. And I --
ROMANS: Do you think they'll say something, or do you think --
MELAS: Yes.
ROMANS: -- that the music -- you think they use --
MELAS: I don't --
ROMANS: -- the platform?
[05:40:00]
MELAS: Maybe they'll say something in their lyrics -- maybe change something of their lyrics. I don't necessarily know. It's not like an awards show where you kind of get up there and you start --
ROMANS: Right.
MELAS: -- maybe opining about the election or future election.
But here is something though. I looked back at the last decade-plus of halftime performances and although we have had some hip-hop stars like Travis Scott take the stage, they've always been like additional guests.
ROMANS: Right.
MELAS: They've never been the main headliners, which have usually been pop stars like The Weeknd or Katie Perry, or Beyonce, or a big rock group like Aerosmith or Maroon 5. So they do have a point.
And this is a massive moment and you have five stars, all who have some pretty intense lyrics so there's going to be a lot of bleeping -- censorship this weekend. But it's one of those moments where I think anything could happen.
JARRETT: Yes.
MELAS: I think it's going to be a very charged moment and very unpredictable, so --
ROMANS: All right, Ace of Base is your first C.D. My first C.D. was an actual record.
(Laughter)
I'm older than you guys are. What was your first one?
JARRETT: I think it had to be like a Mariah Carey album --
MELAS: Yes -- oh, yes.
JARRETT: -- right?
MELAS: I would sit in my room with the stereo and I would, like, blast my music. And I had a dresser in front of my bed -- this is TMI -- with a big mirror and I would just dance --
JARRETT: Practice.
MELAS: -- for hours and practice dancing for hours.
JARRETT: True confessions from Chloe Melas.
MELAS: Meanwhile, like, what is my mom doing --
JARRETT: I know.
MELAS: -- when I was staying upstairs for, like, hours?
JARRETT: Thank you, Chloe.
MELAS: Why can't my children leave me alone for hours?
ROMANS: I'm a classic -- I'm a classic rock girl to the -- to the core, so that wasn't me.
JARRETT: Thanks, Chloe.
ROMANS: All right, just ahead --
JARRETT: Appreciate it.
ROMANS: -- what France's Emmanuel Macron would not do for Russia's Vladimir Putin.
JARRETT: And how the high cost of -- price of coffee hurts your neighborhood coffee shop. We will take you to one to see what they say.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:45:58]
JARRETT: All right.
Six feet apart during a pandemic is one thing, but this -- did you notice how far apart French President Emmanuel Macron was sitting from Vladimir Putin this week when the two leaders met in Moscow? Well, that was done by design after Macron refused to honor a request from the Kremlin.
CNN's Jim Bittermann is in Paris with all of the details. Jim, I'm so intrigued by this. What more can you tell us?
JIM BITTERMANN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think the internet was intrigued by it, too, Laura. There were a lot of people out there who were sort of retweeting pictures and making fun of the --
JARRETT: Yes.
BITTERMANN: -- distance between the two. The Kremlin confirmed this morning with 20 feet between the two presidents.
Basically, one of the few things that the -- Mr. Putin and Mr. Macron did agree on was the fact that it was Macron who refused to take a PCR test. Elysee Palace here, the presidential palace, says that's because it was not compatible with the president's agenda. And apparently, the palace told some reporters here that it would require to get three hours to get the return on that PCR test from the Kremlin. That was just too much, kind of, given the impositions of the presidential agenda.
Now, the last -- the Kremlin says that this is just normal procedure. There are no politics in this. Everyone treats it with full understanding, is what they said. This does not interfere with the negotiations in any way.
So that's the latest on the "Tablegate," Laura.
JARRETT: "Tablegate." We have a name for everything. Jim, thank you -- appreciate it.
All right. Nathan Chen says his gold medal wouldn't be possible without one person -- his mom.
Coy Wire just spoke with the American skating star in Beijing and joins us with more. Coy, I love this. I always like to think the moms get credit.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Oh, Laura, this is great. My crew and I just drove five hours roundtrip from these mountains down to Beijing to meet with the quad king. He hadn't slept much.
As a kid, Laura, he predicted he'd be an Olympian one day. When he was 10, born and raised in Salt Lake, his current coach was in California, but mom found a way to help Nathan pursue his passion.
I talked with him not just 24 hours after his gold medal performance -- listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NATHAN CHEN, MEN'S FIGURE SKATING GOLD MEDALIST: She'd still scrape together as many dollars as she could and would drive me from Utah to California, back to Utah to California, back to Utah to California over and over and over. Racked up like hundreds of thousands of miles on her Prius. But we made it back and forth. And it just goes to show she didn't -- you know, any hour of the day, whether it's 3:00 a.m., she's just trudging along in the car and getting me to my training sessions.
For her to just like completely -- not a second thought. Just immediately, you need to go? Let's go, OK. Hop in the car. Let's go to California. It's just like unreal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: Unreal, indeed.
All right, the ride of a lifetime. Snowboarding legend Shaun White's final Olympic run, putting a bow on a historic, iconic, and revolutionary career. At 35 years old in his fifth Olympics, White put up a score in the halfpipe good enough for fourth. That's 16 years after his Olympic debut. And he teared up afterwards and look almost as if he wasn't fully prepared for how it was going to hit him.
Shaun White finishes with three gold medals and GOAT status next to his name and says he's grateful for the legacy he's leaving for the next generation.
American skiing sensation Mikaela Shiffrin back competing, this time in the Super-G. She says she had a repeating dream all night. Kept waking up thinking that she was going to ski out of this race like she had in her first two at these winter games, but she did not. She finished ninth.
She said afterwards she's been -- there have been a lot of emotions -- a sense of dullness. But she says that she felt better today and it's a relief just being able to get out there and put up a good run.
Shiffrin's plans to medal in all five alpine events, Laura and Christine, now come down to just two chances left. And next up for her will be the downhill early next week.
JARRETT: All right, very exciting, Coy. Thank you.
ROMANS: All right, that's your sports. Here's some business to round out your workweek. Let's get a check on the numbers.
Looking at markets around the world, Asian shares have closed for the week mixed. Europe has opened down. And on Wall Street, stock index futures leaning lower after a tough day yesterday. Stocks fell Thursday after that key inflation report rose at the fastest pace in four decades.
[05:50:08]
January consumer prices, up 7.5% from last year -- biggest annual increase since February 1982.
Wall Street is concerned that this red-hot inflation will mean more aggressive interest rate hikes from the Federal Reserve. That would hurt high-value stocks. The Fed already plans to hike rates several times this year to combat rising prices.
And rates are -- in the market, are already on the rise. The 10-year Treasury yield jumped about 2% Thursday for the first time since 2019.
All right, not to kill your caffeine buzz, but you're getting fewer beans for your buck when you buy coffee. Coffee futures, a 10-year high this week. Arabica prices more than doubled in 2021. Now, you can blame a drought in Brazil, supply chain chaos, and soaring freight costs.
Joining us now, Ryan Zins, general manager of New Harvest Coffee Roasters -- a shop in Providence, Rhode Island. A coffee guy can always get up early for us in the morning, I've got to tell you, because we get up early, those of us here. Nice to see you this morning.
Let's talk a little bit --
RYAN ZINS, GENERAL MANAGER, NEW HARVEST COFFEE ROASTERS (via Webex by Cisco): Happy to be here.
ROMANS: -- about your costs. Everything -- is everything going up for you? What is it looking like for you?
ZINS: Yes -- I mean, most things across the board. I think where it hits us the hardest is definitely the cost of just raw coffee beans in general. But then it's just small things, like all the paper products we're buying, whether it's cups, straws, lids, glassware, you name it.
ROMANS: Now, are you eating these costs? Do you have -- or are you going to have to pass them on to the consumer at some point? ZINS: We eat most of it. And as a small company here in Rhode Island,
we try not to scare the consumer as much as possible. I mean, we love our consumers. We love our customer base and we want to keep these costs low as much as possible. But eventually, it has to happen so --
ROMANS: Sure, of course.
ZINS: It's going to be small but it's -- we take it day by day.
ROMANS: So, the supply chain is sort of making it harder to buy essentials -- everything -- sugar -- you mentioned cups. How are you managing?
ZINS: You try to be -- you find creative ways to make it work. I mean, it's a great community here in Providence. If that means leaning on your other -- your other partners in the coffee industry, that's what you have to do. Luckily, it's a great community here in Providence, especially in the coffee culture and we try to just help each other out.
So, yes, you've got to stay -- you've got to stay creative.
ROMANS: Let's talk about this labor shortage. We know that there are way more jobs available than people to fill them. And especially for low-wage jobs and hourly jobs, wages are rising.
Have you had problems finding and keeping employees? What is the situation for you in terms of getting people to work?
ZINS: Sure. I mean, I have to say we've been pretty blessed for the most part as far as a loyal staff that has kind of carried out throughout the pandemic with us. Luckily, we're able to keep our staff low. I think with this pandemic and with shortages across the board, especially in the service industry, you kind of think small is better and less is more. So what we're able to do is keep a small staff, keep a loyal staff, and luckily, we haven't seen a huge shift from that like our friends in the restaurant or bar industries.
ROMANS: Let me ask you about how to keep them loyal because one of the big complaints for a lot of -- a lot of workers -- frontline workers -- people who serve customers is their schedules are bad or their hours are bad.
Are you sensitive to scheduling and, sort of, work-life balance? Is that what keeps them loyal?
ZINS: Yes. I mean, the buck stops with the management. I mean, that can be said for a lot of things. So you've got -- it's all about transparency, whether that's with the consumer or especially with your employees.
I mean, you have to be real with them. You have to -- you know, I try to talk to them as much as possible and make sure things work for them. As a company, I can speak towards their -- how they get back to each employee here.
ROMANS: Sure.
ZINS: It speaks volumes, so --
ROMANS: All right, Ryan Zins, New Harvest Coffee Roasters, up bright and early for us this morning. Thank you so much for shedding a little light on your business for us. Thank you.
ZINS: Of course.
ROMANS: Have a great weekend.
ZINS: Happy to be here.
ROMANS: Yes.
ZINS: You, too.
JARRETT: Finally this morning, Sting becoming the latest rocker to cash in, selling his entire songwriting catalog to Universal Music.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
THE POLICE, ROCK BAND: Singing "Roxanne."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: The deal includes hits like "Roxanne" and more of both his solo work and songs he wrote as frontman for The Police. It's reportedly worth $300 million.
ROMANS: An incredible trend that you've seen --
JARRETT: They're all doing it.
ROMANS: -- selling his catalogs -- yes.
JARRETT: Everyone.
ROMANS: All right, thanks for joining us, everybody. Have a great rest of your day and a great weekend. I'm Christine Romans.
JARRETT: Our weekend starts now, or soon.
ROMANS: Yes, now. Let's start it now, now, now.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:59:32]
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, good morning here to viewers in the United States and all around the world. It is Friday, February 11th.
And we do have breaking news on the process that will deal with the fate of the Russian figure skating sensation. Right now, we don't know what's going to happen with her. It was revealed that she did fail a drug test before her Olympic performance in a team event. And know we knew that Russia knew. Russia knew she failed a drug test.
Russia's superstar figure skater, 15-year-old Kamila Valieva, competing in the Winter Games.
