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Queen's Coffin Departs Edinburgh Airport For London; Biden: Inflation Report Signals Progress, But More Work To Do. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired September 13, 2022 - 12:30   ET

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

[12:30:00]

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: -- of anxiety, trepidation on his face because he didn't know how he was going to be received. You know, he's not his mother, you know, he doesn't have the same level of respect in this country, as his mother does.

But I think he will have been enormously encouraged. And people have said this before, but it's worth saying it again, enormously encouraged by the goodwill that he's experienced so far. Of course, we're in a period of mourning. There's a lot of people coming out and are, you know, welcoming the King, as the son of his mother.

But the real challenge for I think, King Charles and for the monarchy in general this has come through is how they can convert this outpouring of public sympathy that we're seeing now into something more long term, more long term support across the population, for the system of monetary because, you know, opinion polls suggest that there is some difference, some decrease in the level of support in the monarchy's country, particularly if it took between the young and the old, old people with more traditional views tend to be more monarchist. Younger people are much more ambivalent about whether being born to rule the country is the best system for a modern nation, like Britain.

But, you know, look, it's a battle. It's a challenge that King Charles and the rest of the royal family are engaged in right now. And they seemed to be having some success at this early stage.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Matthew Chance for us in London. Our team is standing by as we wait this journey, Queen Elizabeth II, the jet soon will take her from Scotland to London. We're going to take a quick break as he watched the ceremonies unfold. Please stay with us. Our special coverage will continue in just a moment.

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[12:36:12]

KING: Live pictures here Edinburgh, Scotland. That C-17 carrying the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II. See the salute there from the regiment of the tarmac in Edinburgh. The plane beginning to taxi, our 10 minutes or so flight to London. Queen Elizabeth II making her final journey from Scotland to London for the celebration of her life, we continue.

The anthem played as the jet taxis for the Queen's final flight from Scotland to London. Kate Williams, our CNN royal historian is still with us. Kate, as you watch this play out again every second of this carefully choreographed. See the military tribute here. The next phase of this farewell part sad, part celebration of a remarkable life continues in London, where on Monday a remarkable state funeral for the Queen that will bring in leaders from around the globe. The people of the U.K., first in Scotland now in London get to pay their respects first. Then Monday's big event, a global tribute from the global farewell.

KATE WILLIAMS, CNN ROYAL HISTORIAN: Yes, John, we just heard the last rendition I would say of God Save the Queen. Of course the song now is God save the King. But when we were listening to it there, it was to me God Save the Queen, the final time we will hear it. And the world regiment of Scotland there, wishing the Queen farewell, really reminding us of the importance of the armed forces to her. And as you say, she has been, you know, privately with her family in Balmoral.

Now she is going to London, the crowds are waiting to see her from tomorrow afternoon. And then on Monday, we will have this state funeral or the first state funeral we have had in this country since 1965. The first one in Westminster Abbey since the 18th century, there were 70 heads of state, Edward VII, her great grandfather's funeral. And that was seen as huge, 17 representatives of state, 70 war families that was seen as huge. It is going to be much, much bigger there.

Obviously President Biden is coming. There are heads of state coming from all over the world. And there are questions of who's coming and who will not come, which presidents will and won't come. And certainly this is going to be the biggest global event we have ever seen in London.

And I think the biggest event we've seen in the United Kingdom, billions will watch many, many will come from all over the world. There are already people saying that, you know, heads of state can't go in a car. They've got to go in a bus because of the London can't cope with the traffic. It's the biggest moments we have ever seen.

And the farewell to monarch who was on the throne for 70 years and monarch who came into the reign just as which really seemed, they up that she's going on this plane. In the aviation age, she was one of the very first people to go on an airplane in 1949, the first prototype of a commercial jetliner was made the Havilland Comet it was called here in Britain. And she and her mother and sister went on it in 1953 in her VIP flight.

So it's one of the very first people to go on a plane when she was born in an airplane, a commercial airplane seemed an impossible thing and she went round around the world, post due times as we were saying so many times around the world. And her final journey here is by plane, not by Royal train, but by plane, really reflecting how she has been the International Queen.

[12:40:17]

KING: The International Queen in many ways. And Mary Jordan, also an incredibly prominent and powerful woman over those 70 years at a time, global politics have changed dramatically. The U.K. now with its third female prime minister, at that state funeral will be female, women leaders from countries that could not have imagined that 20, 30 or 40 years ago, while Queen Elizabeth was on the throne. So it'll be a remarkable end of an era.

And as we've been discussing, also the beginning of the significant challenges facing the new king, King Charles who I want to note will be at the other end, you see the plane about to taxi and takeoff here on the runway in Edinburgh, it will fly to London where King Charles III is waiting. Mary, he has a key role, obviously in the farewell ceremonies in the state funeral. And he has enormous challenges on the other side of that.

MARY JORDAN, FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT, THE WASHINGTON POST: It's interesting today in Northern Ireland, as he's done, every time he has spoken, he always talks about his mother what and her words, what she told him. And he said to Northern Ireland, you know, my mother prayed for the best of times for Northern Ireland. And you're going to hear him constantly invoke her because, you know, as many people here, they really like her.

And they are very mixed about him. What for one thing, you know, she was not a big talker, right? I mean, she was always there. She was very down to earth. She wasn't fancy. People knew her record what she had done that when many royal family members went to Canada during the war in the bombing, she stayed. You know, she wasn't a fancy person and they loved that.

But her son is very different. He's pretty fancy. He has tons of homes. He has lots of money, he likes fine things. He's outspoken, you know, you can find him talking about just about anything. And so he knows what the head of him. And because you can't separate the person who is the head of the monarchy, and there it goes, the plane. You can sit -- you can bet that he's watching it with a little worry and a lot of hope.

KING: Well put as we watch the C-17 lift off the Queen's final flight from Edinburgh here about an hour, hour 10 minute flight to London. King Charles is there a waiting as his mother makes her final journey. A majestic scene right there, the C-17 leaving Scotland and route to London.

[12:43:42]

We'll be right back.

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KING: A new report today shows inflation cooling a bit last month. But prices did not moderate as much as many economists had expected. The markets don't like the report. You see right there, the Dow down at the moment more than 900 points. And the stubbornly high prices are certain to mean another Fed interest rate hike soon. Let's get to CNN business correspondent Rahel Solomon. She's live to take us inside these numbers, Rahel?

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, this was the last major economic report before the Fed meets next week. And to put it in terms of what economists are saying one economist this morning saying it wasn't pretty. So headline inflation overall on a monthly basis, John, it increased one-tenths of a percent. That's modest, but we were actually expecting a decline on an annual basis. Prices are up about 8.3 percent compared to a year ago, still high.

You can tell when you're looking at the CPI report, still high. But if you compare it to the more recent past, it looks like we are seeing some cooling there, maybe the worst is behind us. What we're seeing here, John, is energy prices really fall quite significantly. But food prices move in the other direction. Food prices continue to accelerate at a historic rate. Overall, food prices are up 11.4 percent. That is the highest yearly increase since 1979.

Even when you remove categories like energy and food, which do tend to be volatile core inflation, underlying inflation that continue to accelerate more than we were expecting. So core inflation increased six-tenths of a percent. That was double what we saw the month prior. That was double what economists were expecting. When you look at core CPI, John, you can see, it actually appears to be on an upswing. So that's not good news.

[12:50:00]

And when you look at the details of where we're seeing the biggest drivers of inflation, well, pick your category, I mean, shelter prices, if you're looking for a home right now, if you're looking for rent right now and apartment you know rent prices are through the roof, shelter prices are up 6.2 percent compared to a year ago, medical care, new cars, furniture all up quite significantly. So that's what people at home are still dealing with.

But John to your point, the Fed heading into its meeting next week, a report like this makes it all but certain. We're going to see another rate hike, significant rate hike up three quarters of a percent. And every time the Fed has to raise rates in that type of magnitude with that type of severity, it increases the likelihood of a policy misstep, it increases the likelihood of a recession and that's why you're seeing the markets react the way they are with the Dow down more than 900 points.

KING: Nervous day on Wall Street, Rahel Solomon grateful for the important numbers and context there. Now, let's get some additional reporting and insights. With me in studio here, CNN's Nia-Malika Henderson, NPR's Franco Ordonez and Leigh Ann Caldwell of The Washington Post. Rahel, very smartly laid out the economics. Eight weeks from today we count votes in a midterm election, where this is politics. Republicans want to make inflation issue number one.

The President wants to make the case that, yes, I know it's tough out there but it's getting better. This is the President's statement on today's report. Overall, prices have been essentially flat in our country these last two months. That is welcome news for American families with more work still to do. That's correct, essentially flat. The President had hoped he could say they're starting to go down.

FRANCO ORDONEZ, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, NPR: Yes, I mean, it was kind of a wrench into his plans to kind of turn this liability of the economy into a positive. I mean, they've been touting gas prices going down for so long. But obviously, so many other prices are going up, electricity, food, et cetera. I mean, I'm very interested to see how this plays out this afternoon, when he talks on the South Lawn about the Inflation Reduction Act. You know, reporters are going to be asking about this. And he doesn't want the focus to be on that. He would rather be talking about so many other things.

KING: So he's had a pretty good streak of late. His approval rating still historically low but trickling up. The economic -- gas price is down, I think 90 days now, somewhere in the ballpark of 90 days in a row, gas price is trending down. This isn't a bad report, but it's just not a great report.

LEIGH ANN CALDWELL, EARLY 202 CO-AUTHOR, THE WASHINGTON POST: Yes, it's not what people especially when expectations were that it was going to be better. So that always makes the news a bit worse as well. But yes, it comes down to the politics of it. Of course, what matters is people's pocketbooks and how they feel and how that translates into votes.

This comes, as you mentioned, the President's approval ratings have been up. Also in the midterm elections, Democratic candidates have been feeling much more positive about their chances in November. And you can be sure today on Capitol Hill Republicans are going to be pounding this inflation issue once again with more confidence that perhaps it'll stick.

KING: Because that's the big competition of the next eight weeks. The last primaries are tonight, then you have an eight week sprint to midterm election. And the challenge, the competition between the two parties is convince you what should be first, right Democrats are hoping people make it about abortion rights, make it about choice, maybe make it about the return of Trump to the scene. Republicans want to make it about Joe Biden is the President.

Inflation is high. Here's one of the things that Republicans will say and if you look at this, one year change in inflation versus the one year change in wages, wages is the lower number. So even though wages have been trending up during the Biden presidency, your paycheck is bigger. It's just not big enough.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: It's not big enough, yes, when you go to the grocery store, you see these price increases, eggs up a 40 percent, flour 23 percent, milk 17 percent, bread 16 percent, a year over year increase that Americans experience when they go to the grocery store, there's a bit of a sticker shock.

Sure, it's been sort of flat over the last two months. And there's -- this is sort of baked into the reality of people's experiences. But it's still a lot if you're living paycheck to paycheck, and you're balancing all sorts of increases and not seeing the wage increase. That is tough for average Americans and Biden has got to figure out a way to message what people are actually feeling and experiencing.

KING: Right. And it's interesting because sometimes people's views because they go to the grocery store every day, they fill up their car at least once a week. Sometimes they're a little behind a day or two even if things are getting better. People just don't feel it yet. It takes a while to settle. And another huge challenge for the President, Franco, is this potential rail strike, 60,000 union rail workers could strike as soon as Friday.

I was talking to some senior administration officials yesterday about how hands on they are here trying to avert this. But that would be a supply chain disruption. It would be an economic jolt, and they're in the wrong direction at the wrong time for the President.

ORDONEZ: Yes, I mean, it could be really tough week for the President this week. The deadline is on Friday, late Friday. As you say, it could disrupt supply chain, so you could have a real problem. We're talking about real freight being crossed across the country. And it could cost billions and billions of dollars. This is a real concern. A major concern that and that's why the White House is so on top of this right now.

[12:55:02]

KING: The question is can you averted it? Can you convince?

CALDWELL: I mean that's what we're all waiting for and that's what the President is hoping and that's what they're, you know, also nurses are talking about going on strike as well, some teachers too. So this is a much bigger issue. Of course, the rail strike impacts the economy and the supply chain, as the supply chain is still backlogged at ports across this country.

KING: It's remarkable. And as you know, we'll hear from the President this afternoon, we'll see if he addresses that as well. I was talking to members of the Cabinet last night, he was working diligently on this potential rail strike. We'll see how that plays out.

Thanks for your time today in Inside Politics. Thanks for your patience throughout the breaking news. Ana Cabrera picks up our coverage after a quick break. Enjoy your afternoon.

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