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Southern Airlines Cancels Thousands More Holiday Flights; Buffalo Blizzard Death Toll Now 27; Transcript: Trump Press Secretary Learned of January 6 Attack at Lunch; Biggest U.S. Business Stories of the Year. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired December 27, 2022 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[05:00:24]
WHITNEY WILD, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. I'm Whitney Wild.
More airport chaos today for people trying to get home after Christmas. Thousands more flights have been canceled as airlines struggle to recover from the massive holiday winter storm. No airline hit harder than Southwest. Of about 2,800 U.S. flights already canceled today, 2,500, about 90 percent are southwest.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Challenge for our flight crews being stuck in locations, not where they need to be along with the aircraft. You know, at this point, we're working to accommodate our customers as best we can and offer the most options that we can to get folks back home or to their vacation spots or holiday celebration spot at this point.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILD: CNN's Lucy Kafanov is in Denver, one of the worst hit hubs in the country.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I wasn't anticipating a nightmare but it became a nightmare, it did.
LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Christmas may over but for thousands of passengers, the travel nightmare goes on.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They canceled our flight and they said they can't help us. So, we don't know what to do.
KAFANOV: Southwest Airlines at the top of the list for cancelations. The airlines ticketing counter at Baltimore's BWI Airport a zoo, Denver Airport's lines for the Southwest ticket counter even longer.
JESSICA SOKOLOWSKI, SOUTHWEST PASSENGER: And we have to wait in a line that was four hours and we're still in line and nobody is giving us any direction on what line to get in. It's a total you know what show here.
KAFANOV: And for those trying to call to rebook, well, good luck getting through.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Calling Southwest, calling the airlines, they're nowhere to be found. I actually got hung up on multiple times.
DAVID CANUT, SOUTHWEST PASSENGER: The problem is that Southwest, they don't give any answer, they don't answer the phone.
JASON FRIEDE, SOUTHWEST PASSENGER: There's no option to rebook anything online. Oh, I've also been on hold for 5 hours and 43 minutes.
KAFANOV: Passenger Jason Friede, shows us the proof.
In a statement to CNN, Southwest Airlines said it is experiencing disruptions across our network as a result of the winter storm's lingering effects on the totality of our operation.
In the wake of dangerously cold temperatures and winter weather across the nation, airlines canceling thousands of flights on Monday --
MICHAEL JUSTICE, FAMILY'S FLIGHT WAS CANCELED: They were scheduled to fly out on Saturday and canceled flight after canceled flight until this morning now it's stand by hoping they'll get on to get home.
KAFANOV: -- thousands more flights delayed.
MANOMAY MALATHIP, FLIGHT CANCELED: Just delay, delay, delay, rinse and repeat.
KAFANOV: At airports across the nation, long lines, chaos, frustrated passengers and luggage piling up.
AZIZA MUSTEFA, FLIGHT CANCELED: There is a lack of communication. There is no transparency. There's no honesty.
I don't know what is going on. There's no staff. It's okay if there is no staff but we just want them to be honest with us and I could just go home. But we can't go home because we don't know where luggage is. Is it here in Atlanta, is it in Chicago? We have no idea.
KAFANOV: Some passengers choosing to look at the bright side.
JESSICA GRAY, FLIGHT CANCELED: It was like super stressful. But, I mean, just happy I got to see my family for Christmas, and, hey, I'm off this week, so I'll be good.
KAFANOV: Others finding creative solutions for their journeys home.
JOHN MCCONVILLE, FLIGHT CANCELED: Instead of waiting on a maybe flight and paying through my proverbial nose for a rental car, if I'm able to get one, I called a friend of mine. I'm driving a rental cargo van down to Nashville, Tennessee.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KAFANOV (on camera): Southwest Airlines issuing a statement on Monday saying, quote, with consecutive days of extreme winter weather across our network behind us, continuing challenges are impacting our customers and employees in a significant way that is unacceptable. The airline adding, quote, we recognize falling short and sincerely apologize but that is cold comfort for the hundreds stranded here in Denver and across the nation.
Lucy Kafanov, CNN, Denver.
WILD: Nothing like ending your holiday like that.
President Biden has now approved an emergency declaration for western New York and what was seen there was the worst blizzard in a generation. There were 49 deaths across the country as a result of this coast-to-coast storm and 27 of them were in Erie County, New York.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK POLONCARZ, COUNTY EXECUTIVE, ERIE CO., NEW YORK: I am aware of additional bodies that have been recovered and are being brought to our temporary morgue. We've had so many bodies and various hospitals are full, and we're just having to go through and determine that if the individuals had died from a blizzard-related death, we unfortunately expect that many of them will.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WILD: Buffalo now facing the daunting task of digging out from the 40-plus inches of snow that accumulated over the past week.
[05:05:01]
CNN's Miguel Marquez has more from western New York.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An unprecedented storm, devastating and deadly, hitting western New York.
GOV. KATHY HOCHUL (D), NEW YORK: We now have what'll be talked about not just today but for generations, the blizzard of '22.
MARQUEZ: Parts of Buffalo pummeled with up to 43 inches of snow and hurricane-force winds. And the death toll of at least two dozen people in the area.
SHERIFF JOHN GARCIA, ERIE COUNTY, NY: There's going to be a lot of welfare checks. And unfortunately, I have a bad feeling about that. I think that that toll is going to go up. It's just gut-wrenching.
MARQUEZ: Erie County, New York, brought to a literal standstill with people trapped in their homes and cars. POLONCARZ: This was the first time in Buffalo fire history that they
could not respond to emergency calls because of how severe the conditions were.
MARQUEZ: County officials sending in specialized trucks to rescue the rescuers.
GARCIA: I couldn't see two feet in front of my vehicle. And we had to rescue deputies. We had -- so, we brought in snow mobiles, UTVs, ATVs.
When fire rigs are getting stuck, the heavy equipment, you can imagine what happens to the public.
MARQUEZ: While most major highways have at least one lane clear for emergency traffic, many residential roads are still impassable with vehicles abandoned in the middle of the street.
HOCHUL: We have had snowplows, major snowplows and rescue vehicles. I saw them myself in ditches buried in snow.
MARQUEZ: Officials urging residents, stay home.
HOCHUL: Stay off the roads so we can continue to rescue people, get them safe, and make sure that the roads are clear so that we can reopen our community as soon as humanly possible.
MARQUEZ: Buffalo under a driving ban, but that hasn't stopped some from taking advantage of the situation. Police have made arrests for looting. Videos on social media shows looters at work, merchandise being carried out on foot.
MAYOR BYRON BROWN, BUFFALO, NY: People who are out looting when people are losing their lives in this harsh winter storm is just absolutely reprehensible.
MARQUEZ: All while thousands of homes and businesses are still without power. One family who lost their heat tried to make it to a hotel on Christmas.
DANIELLE TISDALE, SPENT CHRISTMAS AT BUFFALO FIREHOUSE: You couldn't see anything. You couldn't see a stoplight. You kind of just had to drive through the intersection praying basically.
MARQUEZ: Their prayers answered by airport firefighters who were able to rescue the Tisdales along with dozens of other trapped drivers.
DEMETRICE TISDALE, SPENT CHRISTMAS AT BUFFALO FIREHOUSE: Those guys were amazing at the fire house. They treated us with nothing but love and they welcomed us with open arms.
MARQUEZ: Miguel Marquez, CNN, Western New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WILD: Travel remains treacherous on the roads in the northeast and upper Midwest. But the conditions are expected to get a little bit better over the next few days.
CNN meteorologist Chad Myers is live in the weather center.
So, Chad, it's going to warm up. But here's what I worry about -- I worry about a warm-up during the day and dropping below freezing overnight, which is so dangerous. The ice with a little bit of water on top, that is just -- you can't even stand on that.
CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You stole my lead, Whitney. That was exactly where I was going with this.
WILD: I'm from Michigan. I've lived there. I've seen this movie too many times.
MYERS: Absolutely, it's the freeze-thaw, freeze-thaw thing. Even as I was driving in to work, we are only down to 1. Things are frozen up. Water on the roads, froze up. That's what's going to happen from the Deep South to the Northeast. You get sun, it melts the snow, a puddle on the ground. At night the sun sets and it freezes.
Something else that was going on, too. When the sun hits your roof, the snow drips down. Well, the air is still 20, that drip turns into an icicle. If those icicles are two-stories high and long and big, they can also be dangerous.
Right now, New York is up to 99 inches of snow so far this winter. That's more than we should have for the entire season and in a top five for Decembers altogether. The big number that we had last week or a couple of weeks ago was in Thursday and the break before Thanksgiving. That counted as November. We're top 5 for December in Buffalo.
It is still snowing in some spots although that will quickly end. Something else that's happening in this thaw? Pipes are breaking. Why? Not because it's 32 or lower, because it's 32 or higher. The snow here insulating the ground, you're not going to get to 32 or higher in Buffalo.
But even in my apartment, there were waterlines breaking all day yesterday because the pipes were frozen, cracks were there, no water was coming out because the pipes were clogged with ice.
Now that the ice is melting and those pipes -- pipes are leaking. So, get ready for that.
It's almost a filling meant of your imagination. Here comes the warmer air across the Great Lakes, across the Northeast, temperatures do warm in Buffalo, all the way into the 40s, 46 will be the high there.
The next storm systems, two of them, coming into the Pacific Coast. If you have not gone to sleep yet out to the Pacific Northwest, here comes your rain.
[05:10:03]
An awful lot of it in some spots, flash flood watches. Also we could see with the next two systems, Whitney, we could see 6
feet of snow in the Sierra. Now, don't get me wrong, they need it but you don't need it that fast.
WILD: All right. The hits keep coming. Chad Myers, thank you.
MYERS: You're welcome.
WILD: All right. Turning now to the border. The number of people seeking asylum by one estimate has never been higher. Researchers at Syracuse University find that there are nearly 1.6 million asylum applications pending in U.S. immigration courts.
CNN has learned there are about 22,000 migrants in northern Mexico hoping to be let into the U.S. Officials think that number is going to get bigger if the Supreme Court lifts the temporary hold and title 42. That is the Trump area immigration policy used to keep migrants out as a pandemic control measure. The Biden administration has asked the court to keep Title 42 in place until at least today.
New York Congressman-elect George Santos has admitted he stretched the truth on his resume. The Republican is it apologizing for the first time since "The New York Times" raised questions about his background. In a pair of interviews, Santos admits he never graduated from college and be never worked at Goldman Sachs or Citibank.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
CONGRESSMAN-ELECT GEORGE SANTOS: I'm not a fraud. I'm not a criminal who defrauded the entire country and made up this fictional character and ran for Congress. I've been around a long time.
I mean, a lot of people know me. They know who I am. They've done businesses for me. I'm not going to make excuses for this but a lot of people overstate their resumes or twist a little bit. I'm not saying I'm not guilty of that.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
WILD: Santos also says that he's going to go ahead and take the House seat. CNN has reached out to the House GOP leadership as well as the national Republican congressional committee. So, more on that. Stay tuned.
Still ahead on EARLY START: New revelations about the press release the White House drafted but did not sent out in the wake of the 2020 election.
Plus, Vladimir Putin says he's ready to talk about peace but will Ukraine listen?
And the changing face of restaurants. Are people ever going to get their appetite back for eating out after the pandemic? More on that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [05:15:24]
WILD: Welcome back to EARLY START.
New details are coming to light in how and when Trump aides first learned of the January 6 attack on the Capitol. In a batch of transcripts newly released by the January 6 Committee, then Press Secretary Kaylee McEnany says she learned the extent of the siege while she was grabbing some lunch.
CNN's Sara Murray brings us details from these highly anticipated interviews.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, TRUMP WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Of the entire White House --
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump's former White House press secretary -
MCENANY: The violence we saw yesterday at our nation's capitol was appalling.
MURRAY: Didn't realize the full extent of the violence at the Capitol until she settled in to eat a turkey sandwich for lunch on January 6th. Kayleigh McEnany telling the January 6th committee: I initially went back to my office to eat lunch but I eventually turned up the volume on Fox News.
McEnany saying she was piecing together what was playing out at the Capitol, not merely sitting by as the attack unfolded.
I in no way, shape or form would eat a turkey sandwich if I thought the Capitol Hill was being sieged.
How White House officials learned of rioters storming the Capitol on January 6 just one of the details emerging as the House Select Committee releases new batches of transcripts from roughly a thousand witness interviews.
REP. BENNIE THOMPSON (D-MS): The Select Committee intends to make public the bulk of its non-sensitive records before the end of the year.
MURRAY: A separate transcript revealing how the White House crafted a press release in December 2020 calling for the firing of anyone who accepted the election results. Hours earlier, then-Attorney General Bill Barr had told the "Associated Press" there was no widespread voter fraud.
According to the draft press release: Anybody that thinks there wasn't massive fraud in 2020 election should be fired. The press release was never sent and Barr resigned from the White House later that month. Since then, he hasn't held back in criticizing Trump's election lies. WILLIAM BARR, FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL: I was somewhat demoralized
because I thought, boy, if he really believes this stuff he has, you know, lost contact with -- with -- he's become detached from reality. And I went into this and would, you know, tell him how crazy some of these allegations were. There was never -- there was never an indication of interest in what the actual facts were.
MURRAY: The trickle of transcript revelations coming after the committee recommended that the Justice Department bring criminal charges against former President Trump.
REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): There was a conspiracy to defraud the United States, to exchange an honest to goodness presidential election for a counterfeit election.
MURRAY: Trump's legal team downplaying the committee's findings.
TIM PARLATORE, TRUMP LAWYER: The report itself is not of much value. You know, it's written by politicians for political purpose.
MURRAY: And dismissing its criminal referrals, even as Trump faces scrutiny from a DOJ special counsel that is now investigating his attempts to overturn the 2020 election.
PARLATORE: The referral itself is pretty much worthless. The Department of Justice doesn't have to follow it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MURRAY (on camera): Now, when it comes to the committee, they've released criminal referrals and their final report. But so far, they have only scratched the surface when it comes to releasing all that underlying evidence. They released fewer than 100 transcripts, and interviewed roughly 1,000 witnesses. So, we have many more days of transcript revelations ahead of us.
Sara Murray, CNN, Washington.
WILD: Sara Murray, thank you.
All right. Some quick headline from across the country now.
Fire officials in Cumberland County, Tennessee, believe for adults and two children died after a house fire Monday. Sheriff's office is investigating. They don't think any foul by happened here. Jackson, Mississippi, is struggling to get water pressure back after cold weather triggered breaks and water lines. The citywide boil water notice remains in place there.
Arizona's Democratic Governor-elect Katie Hobbs and Maricopa County are asking a court to impose financial penalties on Republican Kari Lake after a judge ruled against Lake's efforts to overturn the election. Hobbs and the county want $25,000 basically as punishment. Hobbs is also seeking more than $600,000 in attorney fees.
Now, CNN's Christine Romans with the biggest business stories of 2022. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Crypto crash and streaming slowed, the recession debate raged, Elon Musk chaotic Twitter takeover and the energy market turmoil raise the prices at the pump.
These are the top business stories of 2022.
Number 10: Crypto crashed amid the downfall of its biggest exchange. Even flashy Super Bowl ads --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think so.
[05:20:01]
ROMANS: Couldn't hold off the shill of a crypto winter as investors ditched risky assets.
PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Has the bitcoin bubble finally burst? Part of a crash that is cost investors more than a trillion dollars.
ROMANS: A downturn made worse by the implosion of the world's largest crypto exchange, FTX, over claims that it missed used customer money.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: The $32 billion company that plunged into bankruptcy basically overnight.
ROMANS: Leaving millions of customers scrambling to recover funds. A class action suit for celebs who endorsed FTX --
TOM BRADY, NFL PLAYER: I'm getting into crypto.
ROMANS: And attracting government scrutiny.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: FTX is prompting investigation by federal prosecutors now.
ROMANS: Disgraced FTX founder, Samuel Bankman-Fried or SBF saw his multi billion dollar fortune evaporate.
SAMUEL BANKMAN-FRIED, FTX FOUNDER: I think that there may be $100,000 or something like that.
ROMANS: Before being arrested on fraud and conspiracy charges, SBF's legal team says it's considering all options.
Number nine: America faces a housing crisis.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Americans are struggling to keep up with rising home prices.
ROMANS: The pandemic altered the housing market, delayed construction, kept supply low, while demand spike, creating a crisis of affordability.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: Housing prices hit a record high in April.
MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Prices are going up.
ROMANS: Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve's inflation fight more than doubled mortgage rates.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Mortgage rates, now topping 7 percent, a 20 year high.
ROMANS: Pricing out many Americans.
REPORTER: How many properties do you think you've explored?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thousands, thousands.
ROMANS: Home sales dropped, while rental cars hit rented highs.
Number eight, Wall Street soured on streaming amid a slowdown. 2022 ushered in a new era for streaming services.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Netflix lost 200,000 global subscribers. The last time Netflix lost subscribers was October 2011.
EGAN: Growing losses at Disney Plus.
ROMANS: Streaming stocks tanked as the days of meteoric growth seem to be over.
So, Netflix introduced ads, a move it had resisted and will crackdown on password sharing.
While Disney saw a leadership shakeup.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Disney has ousted chief executive Bob Chapek after only two years on the, job replaced him with a familiar name. His predecessor, Bob Iger.
ROMANS: But all of the major players revised plans, cutting cost to creating profitable business models instead of relying on subscriber growth.
Number seven, a nationwide rail strike looms and is averted, not once but twice. The first came in September.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN HOST: Some 60,000 engineers are trying to walk off the job as soon as Friday.
TAPPER: It wouldn't be the first nationwide rail strike in 30 years.
ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: Nearly one third of the nation's freight could come to a standstill.
ROMANS: Rail workers, working nonstop through the pandemic demanded better conditions as freight companies rigged in record profits. Negotiations dragged on threatening a fragile supply chain so the White House stepped in with the labor secretary, brokering at 11th hour deal.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Labor unions and rail lines reaching a tentative last minute deal.
VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS & POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: But, now the steel does go to the union members.
ROMANS: But rank and file workers want a paid sick, time not included in the agreement.
COLLINS: Workers at the biggest and most powerful royal union have voted down a kind of contract deal.
YURKEVICH: And now you have four real unions who have voted it down altogether.
ROMANS: This time, Congress stepped in, passing a bill, forcing workers to accept the deal.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The joint resolution has passed.
ROMANS: And stay on the job.
Number six, Americans returned to the skies in record number but airlines couldn't handle the influx.
REPORTER: Huge lines are greeting travelers at airports across the United States.
REPORTER: Experts are warning that it's going to be a summer of travel health.
ROMANS: Some days saw thousands of flights delayed.
CABRERA: More than 2,100 are delayed.
ROMANS: Or canceled, especially over holiday weekend.
PETE MUNTEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Forty-five thousand flight cancellations nationwide since the first of June.
ROMANS: One major reason, not enough crew members. Airlines trim staff during the pandemic, so any disruption like bad weather sparked chaos.
Number five, a rough year for Wall Street amid a tech wreck. The breathless post-COVID rally ended this year.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: The S&P 500 has fallen into what investors call a bear market.
RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: This was the worst day for the Dow since June, up 2020.
ROMANS: Investors reacted to rising prices and the Feds aggressive campaign to fight them. Raising the specter of a recession, while also hurting high growth stocks like tech.
RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS HOST: Tech stocks have plunged since the start of this year.
ROMANS: 2022 was an awful year for tech companies. After years of unstoppable growth, profits declined, leading to hiring freezes and an alarming number of job cuts, laying off thousands of tech workers.
Number four, the recession debate raged amid economic whiplash.
[05:25:01]
COVID broke the economy, leading to a recovery full of conflicting signals.
GDP shrank.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Alarm bells are ringing for the U.S. economy tonight.
TAPPER: The U.S. economy shrank for the second quarter in the row. That is the common definition of a recession.
ROMANS: While big business voices offered dire warnings.
JEFF BEZOS, AMAZON FOUNDER: If we're not in a recession right now, we are likely to be in one very soon.
DOUG MCMILLION, WALMART PRES. & CEO: Customers are more budget conscious that have been under inflation pressure now for months.
JAMIE DIMON, JPMORGAN CEO: I think policy makers should be prepared for the worst.
ROMANS: But, despite the gloom of hot inflation and higher rates, the U.S. economy was resilient. With the labor market so strong, companies were fighting for workers.
SOLOMON: There are 1.9 open jobs for every unemployed person.
ROMANS: And, people kept shopping, driving growth.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Recession fears don't deter U.S. shoppers in a record setting Black Friday.
CABRERA: American shoppers shelled out an all-time high, $11.3 billion.
ROMANS: Wrapping up 2022 with the recession of questions still unanswered.
Number three, Elon Musk chaotic Twitter takeover. The billionaire began building his stake in January, becoming the largest twitter shareholder before offering to buy the whole thing.
QUEST: Elon Musk makes a $41 billion hostile bid for Twitter. ROMANS: Musk wanted to unlock Twitter's potential. Twitter eventually
agreed to sell itself before Musk did an about-face in May.
POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Musk is trying to back out of buying the social media giant, saying that Twitter's withholding vital information.
ROMANS: Then came months of legal maneuvering, complicated by revelations from a whistleblower.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The company cybersecurity failures make it vulnerable to exploitation.
ROMANS: Still, Musk eventually completed the deal instead of heading to trial. He immediately slashed jobs.
JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Only have the company's employees, now, out of jobs.
ROMANS: While rolling out other changes, including trying to launch paid verification and reinstating controversial figures including former President Trump.
Number two, energy market turmoil raised prices at the pump. Russia's war on Ukraine threatened oil supplies, sending global prices soaring.
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN HOST: That's a seven-year hike. U.S. crude, in the meantime, multi year hike too.
ROMANS: That affected gas prices.
BERMAN: Gas prices here in the United States, reached record highs.
CABRERA: And that's up by a staggering 60 cents in just one week.
BERMAN: Many Americans couldn't afford to fill up the tank. So, President Biden released oil from the strategic reserve and blasted U.S. oil companies.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Their profits are a windfall of war.
ROMANS: While also asking them to pump more oil.
He did the same with Saudi Arabia during the controversial visit in July. But OPEC plus did the opposite, slashing production in October. And, an attempt to boost oil prices finally weighed down by concerns over a global slowdown. Gas prices also fell and, in the, year cheaper than before Russia invaded Ukraine.
Number one, the Fed's aggressive fights to team decade height inflation. Americans paid high prices again this year.
BOLDUAN: Inflation in the United States, soaring to a new 40-year high.
CABRERA: Across the board, you're paying way more for just about everything.
ROMANS: So, the Central Bank jacked up interest rates, seven times to help even rolling out bumper three quarter point hikes four times in a row. And the Fed isn't finished.
JEROME POWELL, FEDERAL RESERVE CHAIR: We continue to anticipate that ongoing increases will be appropriate.
ROMANS: Some worried the Fed's higher rates will spark a recession. They're already shaking markets and raising credit mortgage payments. But, have they lowered consumer prices? There is no clear signal yet. One thing is for sure, the effects will continue to work their way through the economy into next year.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WILD: Yeah, it's that Fed story that might well be one of the biggest stories of 2023, too. So, we'll see. Christine Romans, thank you so much for that.
Just ahead, Americans spending more money in the run up for the holidays. Big part of that was inflation.
And Vladimir Putin says that he wants to negotiate on Ukraine. But what does that mean and what does Ukraine say?
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[05:30:00]
