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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Fidelity: Retirement Savings Hit Record During "Great Resignation"; Men Convicted In Ahmaud Arbery Murder Used Racist Slurs In Texts; Airlines Ask Justice Department To Ban Unruly Passengers. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired February 17, 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: Right.
CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: -- against the family.
Let me ask you about the other big entertainment story we're following this morning and that is vaccine and mask requirements no longer needed for Coachella and Stagecoach.
MELAS: Yes.
ROMANS: They say there are -- this is because of local -- changes in local ordinances.
MELAS: So, these two massive music festivals -- you know, Coachella hasn't taken place for the last two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. No more masks, no vaccine requirement, and no negative testing required.
You have Kanye, Billie Eilish among those that are going to be headlining at Coachella in April -- two different weekends -- Stagecoach. You have Luke Combs, you have Carrie Underwood -- some huge names.
And, yes. I mean, look, I've been to Coachella. You are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with people.
ROMANS: You're outside but you are packed in.
MELAS: You are outside but you are packed in like sardines.
LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: I wonder why get rid of the vaccine requirement? When Lollapalooza did this last year, they had tons of people there and there was -- it wasn't -- there wasn't some massive superspreader outbreak.
MELAS: There's still a massive amount --
JARRETT: Yes.
MELAS: There's still a large amount of the population that is against masks, that is against having to show any sort of vaccine requirement. And this is in an effort to get people to attend, at least from the festivals' standpoint.
JARRETT: Yes.
ROMANS: All right, Chloe Melas. Nice to see you this morning. Thank you.
MELAS: Thank you.
JARRETT: Thanks, Chloe.
ROMANS: So, as you know, the pandemic hit everyone pretty hard in 2021. But even though millions of Americans are quitting their jobs and moving jobs, and reevaluating their lives, they still managed to save for retirement at a record pace.
Take a look at Fidelity's 2021 fourth-quarter analysis. The average IRA balance is now over $135,000. That's up 6%. The average 401(k) balance soared to a record $130,000, up 8%. Those are big year-over- year gains.
Thirty-eight percent of Americans actually raised -- increased their 401(k) contributions last year by an average of over 3%.
All of these records are being set in the midst of the "Great Resignation." Four and a half million Americans quit their jobs last November alone. Fidelity's take -- that despite facing a variety of financial hurdles last year, investors continued to stay focused on the key fundamentals of retirements savings -- Remarkable.
Also, Fidelity found that when people are job-hopping -- oh, they're rolling their 401(k) right over.
JARRETT: Oh.
ROMANS: They're not cashing out on those 401{k)s.
JARRETT: Interesting.
ROMANS: And that's one of the reasons why so many people have been able to take a pause, retire early.
JARRETT: Yes.
ROMANS: A lot of money in their home equity and they've got a lot of money in their 401(k). A record number of 401(k) millionaires, they call them, and that's what the last couple of years has minted.
JARRETT: Very interesting.
Coming up for you, when the text messages say it all. A parade of hate at the federal trial of three white men convicted in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery.
ROMANS: And should airlines be able to ground passengers who get out of hand in the air? Yes.
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JARRETT: Text messages, Facebook posts, memes, all full of racial slurs, threats, and stereotypes, all on full display for the jury Wednesday at the federal hate crimes trial of three white men convicted in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery. Prosecutors continue to build their case that the men were motivated by racism as they chased Arbery down and one of them shot him while he was jogging.
An FBI analyst described in great detail the litany of racist digital evidence she found on the phones of at least two of the men involved. Arbery's parents were in the room while these racist messages were read.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARCUS ARBERY SR., FATHER OF AHMAUD ARBERY: It's just really a shame that they got that much hate in them for African American people. It's just really a shame.
WANDA COOPER-JONES, MOTHER OF AHMAUD ARBERY: What I thought all along was true that Travis killed Ahmaud not because Ahmaud had committed a crime, it's because Ahmaud was Black and because Travis was truly a racist.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JARRETT: Let's bring in now Jared Fishman. He is a former federal prosecutor, and the founder and executive director of Justice Innovation Lab. Jared, so nice to have you this morning.
These text messages -- just the sheer volume at them -- of them seemed to be aimed at showing not only are these guys racist -- not only do they hate Black people, but they actually wanted them dead. They were specific in those messages and the vigilantism really comes through.
JARED FISHMAN, FORMER FEDERAL CIVIL RIGHTS PROSECUTOR, FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, JUSTICE INNOVATION LAB (via Webex by Cisco): Yes. The language that we see in these texts are extreme. They show racist ideology. They show a strong dehumanization of African American people.
The challenge for the prosecution will be taking these texts, which are outside the context of the Arbery killing itself, and showing how that particular killing was motivated by race.
JARRETT: So, how do you make that connection because it's notable some of the messages aren't sent in the days leading up to the killing.? But at least the ones that they've introduced, so far, to the jury -- they don't actually mention Arbery's name. So how do you make that -- how do you make that link in the minds of the jury?
FISHMAN: Well, I think what's helpful about these texts is it shows how the defendants processed and thought about Black people. They dehumanized them. They saw them as criminals. And that was the mindset with which the defendants approached Ahmaud Arbery that day.
And so, when they have those preconceived notions about what he was doing and what he was up to, and it was grounded in race and grounded in that racial hatred, that's what the government is going to try to show motivated the killing.
JARRETT: Now, Jared, prosecutors haven't introduced evidence yet that the man who actually filmed the killing, Roddie Bryan, who was convicted in the state trial and is on trial here -- they haven't introduced evidence that he actually expressed a desire to hurt Black people in the same way as Travis McMichael, the actual shooter. But he's very angry about his daughter's Black boyfriend. Is that enough?
[05:40:12]
FISHMAN: It depends how the jury views it. (Audio gap) prove through text messages or other evidence (audio gap). More that you are relying on belated but not directly (audio gap).
JARRETT: All right, Jared Fishman, former federal prosecutor. Thank you so much, Jared. See you back soon.
Now to this. The FAA reports some 500 incidents of unruly behavior on airline flights in just the first six weeks of this year. We say unruly but that's really putting it mildly. Some of these situations are downright dangerous. Think about people storming a cockpit.
Airlines are now asking the Justice Department to step in and ban these unruly passengers, and that has some Republican lawmakers pushing back.
CNN's Pete Muntean has more on this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION AND TRANSPORTATION CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Faced with a man trying to open the door of an American Airlines flight, court documents say the flight crew turned to a coffee pot to subdue him. Police have now charged 50-year-old Juan Remberto Rivas with interfering with a flight attendant. This, as even more unruly airline passengers are facing federal punishment.
The FAA is now handing 43 cases to the Department of Justice so it can bring charges against those accused of assaulting fellow passengers and flight crews, both physically and, in some cases, sexually. If found guilty, they could face jail time.
SARA NELSON, PRESIDENT, ASSOCIATION OF FLIGHT ATTENDANTS: The flight attendants who are working these flights have been punched, kicked, spit on, disrespected, and constantly under assault.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): Sara Nelson, of the Association of Flight Attendants, says the numbers are off the charts. The now-80 total cases referred to the Justice Department make up only one percent of the 6,480 incidents reported by flight crews since the start of last year.
NELSON: Until we have people actually landing in jail and understanding that there's real consequences for acting out on a flight, we're not going to see these incidents go down.
MUNTEAN (voice-over): Airlines have asked the Justice Department to keep unruly passengers from boarding flights in the first place, a move eight Republican senators say should be up to Congress to decide. In a new letter, they insist most unruly passenger incidents are related to the federal transportation mask mandate. They say, "Creating a federal no-fly list for unruly passengers who are skeptical of this mandate would seemingly equate them to terrorists."
Transportation Sec. Pete Buttigieg says a no-fly list should be considered and more passengers should be put behind bars to keep numbers down.
PETE BUTTIGIEG, SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION: There is no acceptable level of unruly behavior on aircraft, especially when it is not only disrespectful but dangerous toward flight crews and other passengers.
MUNTEAN (on camera): There has not been much movement on an unruly passenger no-fly list from the Justice Department. It says it is still consulting with relevant agencies, which leaves airlines to ban unruly passengers on their own. And the fear is that one airline could ban an unruly passenger who could still fly on a different airline completely unnoticed.
By the way, while there's this push to ratchet up punishment on those who step out of line onboard flights, there is also an effort to relax the restrictions. The Texas attorney general is now suing the Biden administration to end the transportation mask mandate set to expire on March 18th.
Pete Muntean, CNN, Reagan National Airport.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right. Just in to CNN, cleaning up the Great Lakes. Just hours from now, President Biden announcing $1 billion in infrastructure funding to clean up the Great Lakes by 2030, focusing on at least 22 locations the EPA calls areas of concern. The president will travel near Cleveland, overlooking Lake Erie, later today.
JARRETT: You can see the administration trying to highlight the benefits of --
ROMANS: That's right.
JARRETT: -- that bipartisan infrastructure bill, trying to sell it on the road now and highlight their accomplishments.
ROMANS: Showing they're getting something done.
JARRETT: Exactly. So, what's the holdup at the IRS? Lawmakers focus on the huge backlog that could delay your refund.
ROMANS: And it turns out liquor companies -- they don't really mind that dry January.
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[05:48:39]
ROMANS: All right, let's get a check on CNN Business this Thursday morning. Looking at markets around the world, Asian shares closed mixed. Europe has opened mixed. And on Wall Street, leaning a little bit lower here if that holds.
U.S. stocks mostly unchanged after another rocky Wednesday. The Dow finished down just a little bit. The S&P and the Nasdaq both ended up a tiny amount from their open. This is essentially treading water, folks.
Markets reacting to every Russia-Ukraine headline. Crude oil rose almost 2% after the U.S. and NATO said there was no sign of de- escalation.
But stocks rallied from lows after the Federal Reserve's January meeting minutes were released. And those minutes suggest the Fed may not raise interest rates as aggressively as some feared to combat red- hot inflation.
On Wall Street, there's a saying -- don't fight the Fed. How about don't fret the Fed?
Here's analyst Ryan Detrick from LPL Financial.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RYAN DETRICK, CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST, LPL FINANCIAL: We've looked back into history. What do stocks do after the Fed starts hiking, right? The last seven cycles, Christine, when the Fed starts hiking, you know what happens a year after that first hike? Stocks are up -- six of them, OK? We found you have about 37 more months of a bull market after that first hike.
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ROMANS: Despite rising prices, U.S. consumers are still spending, by the way. Look at this. U.S. retail sales, really a shocker yesterday. They jumped 3.8% in January. That is a big rebound from December's decline. It shows that people are still shopping despite higher prices.
[05:50:05]
Inflation watch this morning. Kraft Heinz may raise prices again. It already did it this fall, right? The maker of everything from Oscar Mayer cold cuts and hot dogs to Velveeta cheese and Kool-Aid. This is how it explains it, Laura. It says it will take, quote, "additional pricing actions as appropriate." That means raising prices for you.
This, after sales dropped more than 3% to less than $7 billion in the final quarter of 2021 compared to the same period a year ago.
All right. A lot of Americans haven't heard this sound since New Year's.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
Champagne corks popping.
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ROMANS: Aah, the dry January trend seems like it's growing here. The research firm CGA says -- this really surprised me -- more than a third of legal age adults skipped alcohol for the entire month.
JARRETT: Wow.
ROMANS: The previous high was 21% three years ago before the pandemic.
It's not so bad though for the booze business. Beverage companies -- they're catching on to this trend. They want you to belly up to the bar for their now-new non-alcoholic Buds and Heinekens. Retail sales of non-alcoholic beer, wine, and spirits grew 28% last year to $350 million. That's a drop in the ice bucket -- get it -- for an $88 billion industry.
JARRETT: I'm telling you, that Heineken 0.0 -- it doesn't taste exactly like Heineken but speaking as someone who is dry for the next five months, it is pretty good.
ROMANS: Laura is dry January, February, March, April, May, June, July.
JARRETT: Who's counting?
ROMANS: And then you're not going to want to drink because you're going to have a new baby.
JARRETT: Or a lot.
All right. The U.S. Women's hockey team has to settle for silver after falling to its bitter rival Canada in the gold medal game.
Coy Wire is there and joins us with more in this morning's Bleacher Report. Hey, Coy.
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning to you.
Speaking of ice bucket, I kind of feel like I'm in one here. I was at that arena and it was good energy for this game. In the history of women's Olympic hockey, these two teams have won every gold medal. It's the sports' greatest rivalry.
The last two Olympic finals went past regulation. This one not as close. Canada going undefeated, putting together the most dominant tournament in Olympic history, finishing with a record 57 goals scored.
Thirty-year-old Marie-Philip Poulin, nicknamed "Captain Clutch," showing she's one of the greatest big-game performers in the history of the sport. Two goals in this one. The surefire future hall of famer is now the only hockey player ever to score in four different Olympic gold medal games.
Goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens made 38 saves as Team Canada takes down the defending champs 3-2. Great run. Lots of sacrifice for both teams.
USA's Kendall Coyne Schofield said afterward she hasn't seen her husband for six months. They'll be headed home soon.
All right, women's skiing now. And America's superstar Mikaela Shiffrin has crashed out of another race for a third time at these games. Entering as one of the favorites in the alpine combined, she had one of the best times at the downhill portion. But in prime position to medal -- but she missed a gate and fell in the slalom. She says she doesn't understand it, Laura and Christine, and she can't even explain how frustrated she is.
Expected to contend for multiple medals here, she now has just one shot left to get one, and that's in the mixed team parallel still to come.
American-born, San Francisco-raised Eileen Gu putting on a show for you. Already two medals at these games, now advancing to the freeski halfpipe final, putting up the highest scores in qualifiers.
Eighteen years old, raised by a mom, competing for mom's homeland China, said she was journaling, writing affirmations that she was excited and not tried. But then said it's absolutely not true. She is exhausted. But she's writing to convince herself that she's fresh and it is working.
Finally, Team USA's men's curling team headed into the semi-finals. Team Shuster looking to defend their Olympic gold. They've enjoyed a groundswell of popularity -- a cult-like following after their success four years ago. But the Olympians told us ahead of these games that they are still just a bunch of regular mere mortals. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS PLYS, OLYMPIC GOLD CURLING MEDALIST: I own and run a small food brokerage company here in Duluth, Minnesota. Most of our jobs are spent in restaurants, schools, healthcare facilities, and stuff like that.
MATT HAMILTON, OLYMPIC GOLD CURLING MEDALIST: Another curler and friend of mine -- he hired me for a 6-week gig -- because I owed him money because we were traveling together curling -- to catch up on some of the testing of blenders of all things. And now, eight years later, I'm still at that job helping him do testing. So, long story short, I test blenders.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: Oh, a bunch of fun fellows.
JARRETT: He's honest.
WIRE: They're up in just a few hours here. They're going to be playing some team GB in the semi-finals.
ROMANS: That's what makes their success even that much cooler because these are just regular --
JARRETT: Regular people.
ROMANS: -- folks, right, who then, in their spare time are Olympians. I love it.
Coy, nice to see you.
JARRETT: Thanks, Coy.
ROMANS: All right, thanks for joining us. I'm Christine Romans.
JARRETT: I'm Laura Jarrett. "NEW DAY" is next.
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