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Prices Up 7.5 Percent Versus Last Year; Biggest Increase In 40 Years; Biden: Using "Every Tool At Our Disposal" To Fight High Price; 7.5 Percent Jump In Inflation Worse Than Economists Expected; CNN Poll: 75 Percent Of Americans Say They Feel Burned Out From COVID-19; GOP Candidates Attack Dr. Fauci In Campaign Ads. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired February 10, 2022 - 12:00   ET

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

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JOHN KING, CNN HOST, INSIDE POLITICS: Hello, and welcome to Inside Politics. I'm John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing your very, very busy news day with us. This startling January 6 committee finding. Multiple sources telling CNN, there is a giant gap in the White House record of calls to and from the former president. That gap covers the hours, the insurrectionists stormed the Capitol.

Today, confirmation of your everyday reality. New numbers say, inflation drove prices 7.5 percent higher over the past year. Plus, a brand-new CNN poll releasing right now, shows the depth of the president's midterm challenge. Americans see little or no good happening in Washington, and they increasingly doubt the president's handling of the pandemic and the economy.

Up first, that new evidence, your life keeps getting more expensive because of inflation. The cost of goods is rising at the fastest pace since 1982. Ronald Reagan was president back then, E.T. and Porky's were the big hits in theaters. This is how inflation at a 40 year high translates to your daily math and your daily stress.

Take a look, gas 40 percent more now than a year ago, used cars 40 percent more, groceries nearly 7.5 percent more, electricity up 11 percent, nearly 11 percent more expensive. That everything costs more is a giant political problem for President Biden. In a moment, we will release some brand-new poll numbers detailing his enormous midterm election your challenge.

In the statement this morning, the president acknowledged the pain, these higher prices caused most American families. And he promises "he is using every tool at our disposal to make things better." Let's get to CNN Business reporter Matt Egan, inside the numbers. Matt, kicking the teeth every single day. MATT EGAN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: Yes, John. You know, we keep waiting for inflation to level out and it just hasn't happened. In fact, today's report shows that the trend keeps going in the wrong direction. Look at this chart, I think two things stand out. One inflation is going almost straight up. That is not good. Two, we haven't seen a jump like this in a really long time, for many of us in our entire lives.

As you mentioned 1982, the year that E.T. came out. Now I had fully expected that the White House was going to be able to trump it. Some good news in today's report that maybe month over month, prices would have cooled off, that did not happen, prices got hotter. We've also seen a broadening out of inflation. We saw record price spikes and everything from new cars and trucks to restaurant meals.

Now, none of this raises the fact that by many metrics, this is a strong economy. GDP rose last year, the fastest pace since Ronald Reagan, and the unemployment rate is down to four percent. But John, this is clearly a setback. And it's a disappointment for everyday families, dealing with the high cost of living, and also for a White House trying to boost the president's approval numbers.

KING: In the president's statement, he asked everybody hang in there. He did cite some of the positive economic news you just met. He said there is some good out there, but he said, hang in there, inflation will get better. Is there an easing insight?

EGAN: Well, John, this report clearly puts the pressure on the Federal Reserve to speed up its interest rate hikes. Many people argue that the Fed has been slow to move into inflation fighting mode. But it's important to remember that this is not going to go away overnight. It takes time. Even once the Fed raises rates, it's going to take months, maybe six months before that trickles down into the real economy.

In the meantime, we need to see improvement on the supply chain front, supply chains remain scrambled because of COVID. This trucker protest in Canada is not going to help the situation either. Also, it's worth pointing out that, today's report does not capture the fact that gas prices keep going up, up to a fresh seven year high today.

So, you know, this is not going to go away overnight. And John, it's also important remember, no one can really say precisely when inflation is going to get back to healthy levels. And that's partially because there's no playbook for what happens to inflation in a modern economy after a once in a century pandemic.

KING: Which means continued pain and uncertainty for American families and continued uncertainty for the president, of course, in this midterm year. Matt Egan, appreciate your kicking us up. Let's get to our new CNN poll numbers, now brand-new numbers. And you're going to see how inflation and broader doubts about the COVID recovery are dragging down the president standing.

Let's just go first to the threshold number. You always focus on the midterm election year. Do you approve of President Biden's job performance? We'll look at how bad these numbers are for the president. Only four in 10 Americans, 41 percent at the moment approve of his job performance. Nearly six in 10, 58 percent disapprove. That's a tough number early in a midterm election year for the president of United States.

Now why is this happening? This is fascinating. We asked people, what is President Biden done for you that you approve of? 56 percent of Americans, nearly six in 10 Americans. That means, a decent amount of Democrats said nothing, they disapprove of everything that has happened. Now, yes, the president would say, we passed the rescue plan. We passed the bipartisan infrastructure plan. It is not sinking in out in America. 56 percent of Americans say nothing. They disapprove of everything that has happened so far.

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15 percent say the president has helped with the economy. 6 percent say that Coronavirus is taught, see here his personal traits, foreign policy, other issues but that is a stunning number of the failure to communicate the legitimate successes of the Biden administration. And without a doubt, the COVID pandemic is dragging the president down. His standing on COVID is underwater. Why? Look at this.

75 percent of Americans say, they are burned out. 60 percent say they are angry. 58 percent say they are worried. Half 49 percent say they're confused, 47 percent do say they're optimistic. So, as the numbers come down, maybe the president can turn this dynamic. But right now, you just have a burned-out angry country, it's hard for the president to break through, even if things are getting better.

And to the inflation and the economy. Just look at the line here. The president's approval rating on the economy was 49 percent back in March, it is down 12 points to 37 percent. Disapproval in the economy, 44 percent in March, 62 percent. That is the total of inflation right there.

The unemployment rate is down. The president did create a record number of jobs. 62 percent of Americans disapprove of the president's handling of the economy because they are paying more at the grocery store and at the pump every day.

Let's bring in to share their reporting and their insights. Our chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins, Alex Burns of The New York Times, and Seung Min Kim of The Washington Post. And Kaitlan Collins to you first. The president and his team had hoped, the economic numbers like inflation would get better early in the election year. They had hoped that would then bring his numbers up early in the election year, not yet.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No. And President Biden told me in December that he thought that was the peak of the crisis when it came to inflation. Yes, it was a bumpy road. Yes, it was painful. He was hoping that they were moving on from it. And of course, these numbers today are worse than economists expected. And so, this is a very unpleasant surprise for the White House.

And I think the challenge for President Biden is, they often want to talk about the strong labor market, they want to talk about wage growth, but this completely nullifies it in voters' minds. That's what the polls are showing of their competence levels, and what's going on with the economy. And I think that's the struggle for the White House. Because these are things you can't ignore that your prices of food is going up, rent, electricity, gas, those are things that people live with and function with every single day.

KING: And it's striking, Seung Min, when you look at it, that 56 percent say nothing, they disapprove of all. You know, whether you're a Democrat, Republican independent, they pass the American rescue plan, which had a lot of help for American families in it. They passed the bipartisan infrastructure plan, which is still just starting to kick in, but that was an enormous, big deal. And yet Americans don't feel it yet.

Democrats are fighting in Washington, but more of it, I think, is the COVID funk. Look at this in the midterm election year. Do you have a lot of confidence in President Biden's ability to deal with the economy, right? In March, 67 percent of Democrats did in his own party, that is down to 44 percent.

Independence is those who have confidence in his ability and economy is dropped from 20 to 10. Republicans were never on board, but this number right here, this in a midterm election year, you're when your own party, you're starting to have doubts about issue number one, that's a warning sign.

SEUNG MIN KIM, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER. THE WASHINGTON POST & CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. And it's such an indictment because so much of then candidate Joe Biden's pitch to voters in 2020 was his and his team's competence to turn around the pandemic, to shut down the pandemic. And now we're seeing this debate within the White House as to how do you, you know, pivot to a point where we kind of just live with the virus as it exists.

And one data point that I found, it really interesting from the CNN poll was, 51 percent of voters saying they want to learn to live with COVID, 48 percent saying their highest priority should be spreading - or stopping the spread of COVID. And you see that internal debate playing out at the White House kind of in real time, because you have the president, you have his top spokeswoman saying, you know, we don't think COVID is going to exist in this format for much longer.

But at the same time, they are being almost left behind by Democratic governors, other democratic elected officials, in terms of lifting mitigation restrictions, with you know, Jen Psaki stressing this week that they're abiding by science, not politics. So, you know, how much politics moves ahead, and others and the party move ahead. That's going to be a real challenge for the administration in the coming week.

KING: And so, you heard Matt Egan, Alex, it's going to take couple months. Even if the Fed gets this right, it's going to take a couple months. The question is, at what point does the psychology the voter kick in? But OK, president was dealt a tough hand. It is getting better. Let me turn, change my mind and give him some credit because the numbers right now and where the intensity is in the electorate.

Look at this, how is the president handling his job. 15 percent of Americans say they approve strongly, 27 percent say they approve moderately. Look at that disapprove strongly, 41 percent. Again, a midterm election year, it's all about energy. And sometimes anger drives midterm politics. Right now, the president's critics, they feel very strongly, and the president's supporters have met.

ALEX BURNS, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT. THE NEW YORK TIMES: And John, this is a pattern that we're all pretty familiar with in covering Joe Biden going back in a period of years. As Seung Min mentioned, his approach to the campaign, what he sort of put before the country is the Joe Biden value proposition.

Being an electrifying leader who would inspire passionate support from his base was never really part of the Joe Biden formula right, that he was out there as, I'm going to bring people together. I'm going to restore normalcy, and yes, I'm going to crush COVID and rebuild the economy in better shape than it was before.

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He never had the level of intense support that Donald Trump had in the election or that some of his rivals had in the Democratic primary and he never had a particularly a deep, a strong level of credibility on the economy. He was not a sort of an economic restructuring candidate or an economic manager candidate. I think what you see now is those dynamics all coming to a head at the same time.

If I were the White House, I'll be looking at the inflation numbers, and looking at the other dynamics in the economy that Kaitlan mentioned. And hoping that you can persuade voters at some point in the next couple of months, not necessarily to look past inflation, but to embrace just a sort of more optimistic mood that look for all the hassles you have in your daily life. There is a lot that's trending in a better direction.

KING: I think you make a key point about, how do you get people in a more optimistic mood, that is to convince them they can come out of the COVID funk? I mean, there's no question that COVID funk is having an economic impact, the supply chain issues are part of inflation. And it's just having an impact on people's just ability to trust anybody, including the president of United States.

Look at this as back to these numbers among Democrats. Do you have a lot of confidence in Biden's ability to lead us out of the COVID pandemic? 82 percent of Democrats said that back in March, only 53 percent, only half of the president's own party today have confidence right now and to lead us out of the pandemic.

And again, in a midterm election year, you're not going to get the Republicans. If you're the president, you need to keep the Democrats and hope you do well with independence. Back in March, 35 percent of independence, now that's down to 19 percent, which is one reason, I just want to play these ads. Republicans understand the politics of this. Mitch McConnell on the Senate floor today, blaming Joe Biden for inflation, blaming the Democrats for inflation. Republicans in their ads, the COVID numbers are getting better. The president might be in better shape, weeks from now, but alone months from now could be in much better shape when it comes to COVID. Republicans are trying to convince you now on the airwaves, don't believe it.

So, part of your challenge in the midterm environment is you got your opponents out there too, in the sense that, you know, the president needs the inflation numbers to get better, so that people pay attention to the other good economic numbers. He hopes the COVID numbers come down, and people think, OK, again. Delta, tough hand, things are getting better. Republicans are trying to reinforce Americans voters' opinions now, so that if the numbers get better, maybe they don't believe them.

COLLINS: And that's the issue for the White House. And the president's political team is once that is solidified, it's really hard to change people's minds because they look at their wallet and they know what they're feeling. And I think the other issue for the White House is, that you could say we are in unprecedented times, is a difficult challenge for any president who would have been in office over the last year. But the White House also repeatedly used the word transitory, transitory, transitory to describe inflation.

So, when you keep telling people, it's going to go down and this is going to change, and it doesn't change. People feel misled. And of the numbers 57 percent to 41 percent think that his first year in office was more of a failure than a success. I think the inflation numbers, the Omicron variant, all of these issues that have completely persisted is what really is going to be the challenge ahead for them.

KING: All right. We'll continue the conversation. Up next for us more breaking news, important breaking news. White House call records now in possession of the January 6 committee. Well, they don't include any calls to and from the former president, as the violence unfolded at the Capitol.

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KING: Some new and important breaking news today, reporting on the January 6 committee investigation. Multiple sources now tell CNN, there are hour's long gaps in presidential records turned over to the panel. Sources say, the White House call logs, phone call logs from insurrection day are blank. From the time the president returned from his speech on the lips, until he gave Rose Garden speech hours later in between of course, prior to storm, the U.S. Capitol.

Let's get straight into Capitol Hill to Ryan Nobles. Ryan, walk us through what we know now and what the big controversy is?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, these are important records that are a key part of the investigation by the January 6 select committee. And you'll remember, this is information that they fought in court to obtain. It was a court case that went all the way to the Supreme Court. And it was something that the former president and his lawyers desperately wanted to keep secret.

Well, we're not being told by multiple sources that have reviewed this initial tranche of records that the phone records from the day of January 6 and also a supplemental diary that outlines the president's movements on that day, show a period of time from around the time he came back from the White House until the time that he gave that speech from the Rose Garden where he does not take or receive any phone calls.

Now, that doesn't necessarily mean he didn't take phone calls. In fact, there are reported examples of phone calls that he either made or took during that period of time. One to the House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, another to Senator Tommy Tuberville that came through Senator Mike Lee. But the point here is, on these official White House records, which are supposed to be the keeper of this information during his administration, that period of time shows no record of any calls.

So, that does make the work of the January 6 committee just a little bit more complicated. They now have to figure out what the president was up to during that period of time as they try and paint the picture of this piece of history and exactly the role that the president played at that time.

Now, the committee sources that I've talked to are insistent that these records are not the end or be all of their investigation. It is certainly a roadblock, but they feel that they can find more information from a wide range of sources.

First, they haven't yet to receive all the documents from the national archives. That information is still coming in. There could be pieces of information within these other tranches that reveal. Something having to do with the president's communications at that time and they are also casting a wide net in terms of interviews and depositions that they are holding, which are also providing insight into who the president was talking at that time.

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And we actually have a specific example of that. There is a record of before the president leaves the White House to go to give that speech at the rally, where it indicates in the log that the president attempted to reach out to the former Vice President Mike Pence, and that Pence was not available to take the call. The record does not reflect that Pence return that call and that they talked.

However, the committee interviewed Keith Kellogg, who was the national security advisor to Mike Pence at that time, and Kellogg and his deposition to the committee recounted a phone call that took place from the Oval Office to Mike Pence, where he was in the Oval Office listening in on the president's end of that conversation. We know of that because the committee made reference in it in their letter to Ivanka Trump.

So, the big point here, John, is that there are significant gaps in information that are not part of the official record, that the committee is now going to have to put the pieces together to figure out exactly what happened and when. And it also raises serious questions about the keeping of records for the Trump administration. This is one example. We've seen multiple other examples of that and the reporting that has come out this week. John?

KING: Ryan Nobles' important reporting, appreciate a lot, hit from Capitol Hill. Let's bring it back into the room with our reporters. Kaitlan, you covered the Trump White House at this time. We're going to get in a moment. Ryan makes a key point. Phone logs missing or not complete, pick your word for it. One issue, documents missing, document shredded, that's another one, we'll get to the documents. Seung Min, you covered the White House at that time.

And I remember in those days, President Trump didn't like to use the official lines because he was paranoid, didn't know who was listening. And so, he used to use his own personal cell phone and sometimes borrow cell phones from AIDs. Is that right?

COLLINS: Also, he didn't like people knowing who he was calling. When John Kelly was the Chief of Staff, he tried to be much more rigorous than the other ones. He would review the call logs to see who Trump was talking to and tried to get Trump to only use the White House switchboard to make calls to people. The White House switchboard calls people and puts you in touch with the person that the president is trying to get in touch with.

Trump like to use his phone. And he liked that because he didn't want everyone always knowing who he was speaking to. He just thought it was easier. Sometimes I remember when John Kelly was Chief of Staff, Trump would say, I'll call you later from the residents on my phone, so that it's not a log of this conversation that we had, just because that was how he operated.

So, when the January 6 committee trying to get these phone records and right away, I knew that all of these are not going to be in the call logs because Trump did use his personal phone a lot. I do think it's actually a huge roadblock for the January 6 committee because they're trying to paint a picture of what Trump was doing in those hours between when the insurrection and the riot happened. And when he issued that video later on that night, which we know there were several iterations.

We know of people who the president spoke with, but we've also seen that a lot of people we're trying to get in touch with, Mark Meadows, his Chief of Staff, other people inside the West Wing to try to deliver messages to Trump that day.

KING: Because you don't have the written log, you're supposed to have, presidential supposed to be supposed to keep a log of all that. This is why they went all the metadata. Calls into the White House, calls out of the White House in a piece, whose phone was it to or even if it's an AIDs phone. Was the AID talking or the president talking, that's part of it.

The documents are another part of it. The national archives, the agency which protects the declaration of Independence. It protects the constitution. It keeps historical presidential records for archivists and for historians down the line. It has asked the Trump Justice Department to answer - I mean, the Biden Justice Department answer a question. Did Trump break the law? I mean, did Trump break the law?

And this is in the New York Times today, Alex. The national archives and records administration discovered what it believed was classified information and documents Donald J. Trump had taken with him from the White House as he left office, according to a person briefed on the matter. And your colleague Maggie Haberman is working on a new book about Trump.

And she writes this according to Axios. While President Trump was in office, staff in the White House residents periodically discovered wads of printed paper clogging a toilet and believe the presidents had flushed pieces of paper, believe the president had flushed pieces of paper. It's vivid.

But it is just stunning the idea that, you know, not keeping records according to norms in the Presidential Records Act. And at least the suggestion there that the foreign press of the United States was knew what he was doing, was trying to destroy records.

BURNS: Right. And look, I think that during Trump's presidency, a lot of people may be including our present company got used to this sort of mode of operating where there are really no consequences for behaving like this because it was his Justice Department for much of his presidency. It was his Congress too, right. And so, there was a limited accountability for this kind of loose or irresponsible behavior.

Now we're looking at a very, very different situation. The January 6 committee has shown that they're willing to really swing an axe with people who they see as flouting their responsibilities to the committee and the Congress and the Justice Department is run by other people now.

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So, I think everything Kaitlan said is absolutely right, about what a significant roadblock this could be to the committee. Those are test of the committee and a test of the Justice Department, whether they're going to let Donald Trump get away with this or whether they're prepared to bring down the hammer in a different way.

KING: And at moments like this sometimes you say, you know, these should be a question. I'm a coffee mug in my office what would Nixon do. You know, people ask, what would Jesus do? People have their own trains. Well, let's put into this context. What would Trump do?

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DONALD TRUMP, 45TH U.S. PRESIDENT: People who have nothing to hide, don't smash phones with hammers, they don't. People who have nothing to hide, don't bleach. Nobody's ever heard of it, don't bleach their emails or destroy evidence to keep it from being publicly archived, as required under federal law.

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KING: Or shred documents or flush them down the toilet.

KIM: Right, right. And it is just all the more striking because so much of his unorthodox presidential campaign was going after Hillary Clinton for her handling of classified information, classified servers, but just kind of broadening the scope here.

It is just so remarkable that there is this big hurdle for the January 6 commission at this point, because we have to remember, not only is Donald Trump the leader - effective leader of the Republican Party right now, but he is very likely going to run again. And the public should have this information as they make their decision as a primary goes on, and as a general election goes forth, about what this president did in his Oval Office.

And I'm assuming some of the extensive interviews, the hundreds of interviews that the commission has had with members of Trump's inner circle, his administration will help kind of paint the - can't paint the picture a little bit better. But the ultimate function of the commission right now, considering they're not the ones kind of doling out the legal consequences is history and Trump's kind of painting this picture of what happened and there is a large black hole. Right now, we'll see what the committee can do to make of that.

KING: And in addition to that, whether the Biden Justice Department decides at least it needs to investigate what the archive sent them, maybe you don't get to the decision, is it a crime. Maybe you do some work on it, which could turn up some more records we shall see. Coming up for us the latest COVID numbers and why Washington and your governor might be saying different things about wearing a mask.

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