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Trump Slams Law Enforcement Leaders; January Jobs Report; Aflac Socks Bring Back Memories; Super Bowl Ad Buzz. Aired 8:30-9:00a ET
Aired February 02, 2018 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:30:00] MIKE ROGERS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY COMMENTATOR: Of the bureau. And so to condemn all of those folks who are making decisions on, you know, organized crime cases in New York City and Chicago and Miami and other places, or -- or counterintelligence cases all across the country, or terrorist cases all across the country, those are the leadership positions of the FBI. And I would be -- I just wish the president would hold his fire on that because you're condemning the lot of them. And I think that's really unproductive.
CAMEROTA: What do you think Chris Wray does, the current FBI director, when he reads that this morning? Does this make him -- does this steel his spine or does this make him think, you know, I don't feel like being besieged for the next months?
ROGERS: I hope not. He needs to stay. He needs -- the FBI needs some consistency at the top. And, you know what, there's going to be other disagreements along the way. And it just happens. And it's OK.
Not every instance is we take our toys and go home when it comes to quitting. I know there was a rumor he was going to quit over something else a month ago about the Andy McCabe deal a month ago. You know, I would start -- stop saying we're going to quit and start saying, hey, I'm going to stay here. I'm going to make my commitment to the FBI to make sure it's the finest law enforcement agency -- it continues to be the finest law enforcement agency in the world.
BERMAN: And the issue might be the Christopher Wray taking his toys and going home. It might be the president sending Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein home with no toys at all, right? I mean this tweet, this message could be directed squarely at him. We know the president has been complaining about the deputy attorney general, the person who appointed the special counsel and who has oversight over the special counsel's investigation. Jerry Nadler, ranking member of the House Judiciary, said he's read the memo and his biggest concern is it will be used to push him out (INAUDIBLE).
ROGERS: Well, I mean, this is a concern. So if you really believe that there is something that -- that a group of agents conspired with the Department of Justice to purposely mislead the judge in a FISA court, that is a serious charge and -- including and up to perjury. You can perjure yourself on an application for a warrant in the FISA court. That's pretty serious.
My argument would be, then let's find the right venue for that to be investigated. Twitter is probably not the best place to do that. And that -- and a memo that doesn't have all of the information for people to make a good decision is probably the other place I wouldn't do it.
CAMEROTA: You were the House Intel chair. The current House Intel chair is Devin Nunes. What is Devin Nunes doing? I mean would you have put together a memo based on your talking points, based on classified intelligence?
ROGERS: Boy, look at the time. Isn't there a commercial break we're supposed to do?
CAMEROTA: No, you have to answer this. I mean you are the perfect person. You've lived in his shoes. You've walked in his shoes.
ROGERS: Yes.
CAMEROTA: So what's happening?
ROGERS: Well, you know, I really -- I'm not exactly sure why they would pick this route. There are other ways that you can make your point if you're worried about this.
And, again, my point here is, if you're really worried that there was some bad behavior or may -- matter of fact, maybe even criminal behavior in the application of the FISA warrant, there are other ways to do it. And a -- at least by all appearances a partisan investigation and release of selective information is not the way to do it. If you really want to conduct oversight of the community, then it has to be joint and it has to be thorough and it has to be accurate.
Remember, you know, I'm always -- always suspect, even as an FBI guy, of government abuse, right? I can take your liberty and I can take your character if I'm not careful. And I think the FBI can do some bad things and has along the way. I mean for the vast majority of cases and the agents, they're the best really the world has to offer. So they -- every once in a while, one screws up. OK, got it. So let's make sure that doesn't happen again.
But same with Congress. If you're going to go after someone's character or liberty, you better be right. And you don't do it by parsing out a political argument in a memo that clearly, I think by the intelligence services and the FBI and other members are saying doesn't reflect the whole picture.
So I'm not exactly sure what they want to accomplish. If they want to accomplish oversight in a committee that's designed to be classified and be able to get all of that classified information, I would argue this is not the way to do it.
BERMAN: Look, you're clearly uncomfortable criticizing directly a successor to you. I understand that all. I think if you read what you just said very, very carefully, it's clear where you stand in that. You call it a partisan effort.
What about Paul Ryan here, though, the speaker of the House? Doesn't he have a role, if what you're saying is true, should not he have put a stop to this?
ROGERS: Well, I mean I -- normally, I think the speaker gives lots of latitude to their -- to his chairman. And I think that's the right way to do it.
You know, the Congress is a chairman -- supposedly a chairman-driven body because that's where the details on legislation and other things are designed and hammered out and hopefully work -- you know, you can work that out with the other team.
[08:35:12] But I would just be cautious to all of them to use this as the -- as a club to say that all of the FBI or all of FBI leadership is somehow corrupt or they lead for one party or the other party. You know, they're using little bits and pieces and jumping to conclusions. I mean I'm starting to believe that's the only exercise we're getting around here is leaping to conclusions.
OK, I couldn't resist. Sorry.
BERMAN: Get to the quads. You still need to do a floor workout (INAUDIBLE).
CAMEROTA: On that note --
ROGERS: I'll be here all week. So don't forget to tip the waitresses.
CAMEROTA: Mike Rogers, thank you. Great to talk to you.
ROGERS: Thanks, guys.
BERMAN: All right, the January jobs report out. So did the president's tax cuts have any impact? We have the new numbers, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: All right, we do have some breaking news. The Labor Department releasing the January jobs report. Alison Kosik joins us here with the numbers.
ALISON KOSIK, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
And since Chris isn't here, let's get at it. The number of jobs added in January, 200,000. So that's a strong start to 2018 and beats what we saw in December.
[08:40:05] Unemployment holding steady at 1.4 percent. That's a 17 year low. And many economists think that that's a level that marks full employment. And many economists have been saying, look, at this point we should be seeing a rise in wages, in what Americans are taking home in their pocketbooks. And that's exactly what they're seeing because we learned in this report that wage growth jumped from 2.5 percent to 2.9 percent. That's a huge jump.
And you can attribute that for a couple of reasons. For one, the tax plan. We saw dozen of companies hand out raises and bonuses to their employees in January. We also heard that 18 states across the country raised their minimum wages. So all of that helping to raise that overall wage growth from 2.5 to 2.9 percent.
But at this point, Wall Street not liking this news. This is a situation where good news is bad news because the way Wall Street interprets this is that this is great news, but it means that the economy is heating up, wages are going up. So we can see more interest rate hikes to try to calm things down. So the worry now, Alisyn and John, is that we could see interest rates kind of step up, not just be raised once or twice, but maybe the Fed would pick that up a little bit more.
Futures right now down significantly, almost 1 percent. That's 242 points on the Dow for futures.
BERMAN: Inflation worries is what that is.
KOSIK: Right.
BERMAN: But the wages number is very good. Something that --
CAMEROTA: Absolutely. Oh, yes, that's great news. But the stock market is confusing. Thank goodness you're here, Alisyn, to explain it all to us. Thank you for that.
So, President Trump given a pair of socks from Aflac. It turns out it brought up a very fond memory about the first lady and even himself. CNN's Jeanne Moos is going to explain all of this that I just said.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): When an employee from the insurance company Aflac --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Socks.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: All right.
MOOS: Handed the president socks adorn with the Aflac duck, it triggered a memory.
D. TRUMP: A long time ago hired my wife to do a big commercial. You know that, right? An Aflac commercial. And I think it was a successful commercial, too.
MOOS: Little did they know they were taking the voice of a future first lady and swapping it with the voice of a duck.
MELANIA TRUMP, FIRST LADY: If you're hurt and can't work, Aflac can help pay your bills with cash.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Genius.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aflac.
MOOS: Imagine her squawking that at the swearing in. D. TRUMP: So help me God.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aflac!
MOOS: The Trumps were newlyweds when the spot was made and Donald described to Larry King what the ad folks told Aflac's CEO.
D. TRUMP: Now we're going to supply you with like 25 women and you can choose the one you want. He said, no, I don't want to look at anybody. I want Trump's wife.
MOOS: She came, too, with webbed feet.
M. TRUMP: It was great success. Had a great time to shoot it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aflac.
MOOS (on camera): But a flak is something Donald Trump has also been. He's flaked products in lots of commercials.
D. TRUMP: So we (INAUDIBLE) for it right here.
The remarkable convenience of the Visa check card.
A big and tasty for just a dollar?
You've got to be losing money on this.
IVANA TRUMP, PRESIDENT TRUMP'S EX-WIFE: May I have the last bite?
D. TRUMP: Actually, you're only entitled to half.
MOOS: Ivana and Donald shared that pie three years after their divorce. His current wife, or at least someone pretending to be her, was hocking something else on "The Late Show."
STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": How are you feeling, madam first lady?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My life is ocean of loneliness.
COLBERT: What? I'm sorry, what?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I was just promoting my new fragrance, ocean of loneliness.
MOOS: For Melania, it seems like life's been a roller coaster lately --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aflac.
MOOS: Given what's been reported about Donald. And we don't mean the duck.
Jeanne Moos, CNN --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Aflac.
MOOS: New York.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CAMEROTA: That's crazy. I had no idea that she was in an Aflac ad. That is -- Jeanne Moos teaches me something every single week.
BERMAN: It's an education. That's the point here.
All right, you saw some of it there. Forget the football. Millions of Americans looking forward to the other reason to watch the Super Bowl, the commercials. We'll look at the most buzzed about ads, next.
CAMEROTA: And we're not forgetting about that other bowl, the puppy bowl -- what's happening in our green room -- the puppy bowl.
BERMAN: That's indecent.
CAMEROTA: To -- that is. Wow. Two of these star players are on our set and chilling out. Our show has gone to the dogs. That's ahead. Oh, boy.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:48:21] CAMEROTA: All right, so for John Berman, the Super Bowl is all about football and Tom Brady's dreaminess.
BERMAN: In the reverse order.
CAMEROTA: For the rest of us --
BERMAN: Just to be clear.
CAMEROTA: It's all about the ads and the nachos in reverse order.
Let's get a preview of some of the most buzzed about ads with CNN's senior media correspondent Brian Stelter.
Brian, looking forward to some of these ads.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: It's the one thing we can all agree on this polarized time, the Patriots versus the Eagles, obviously, but also in this polarized time of politics, the commercials are the one thing we can all agree on.
CAMEROTA: All right, let's tease some up.
So this one is probably the most buzzed about. This is the Doritos and Dinclich (ph) ad. Let's watch this.
STELTER: Yes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm feeling like (INAUDIBLE) feeling like I got to get away, get away, get away (INAUDIBLE) know that I don't and I won't ever stop because you know I've got to win every day day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why (INAUDIBLE). Hush your mouth. I saw your mother (ph). You all can stop me now. Listen to me now. I'm laughing (INAUDIBLE). And that's (INAUDIBLE). Then come on get me now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: That's awesome.
BERMAN: That is really good.
CAMEROTA: Need we see any more. That's fantastic.
STELTER: It's hard for Doritos. Doritos almost always ranks in the very high sort of list of top Super Bowl ads. They have to top themselves every year. So this year it's Doritos and Mountain Dew together, both owned by the same big company, so they're promoting two products in one there.
And, of course, they always put the ad out several days early to get all the attention ahead of time, which works. It works.
BERMAN: So Alisyn was lamenting that it's been a long time since we had a feel-good ad. We need a feel-good ad, she says. And I guess Coke has something that tries to do it here.
STELTER: Yes. What we're seeing are some of these big companies, big advertisers, with messages about inclusiveness and diversity and about what unites us. These messages are sometimes subtle because they're trying not to cause a political reaction or a backlash.
CAMEROTA: Offense.
[08:50:09] STELTER: But this is a Coke ad promoting inclusiveness and diversity. There's also a Budweiser ad that you think is going to be about beer, that ends up being about water for natural disaster victims. You know, we often time see those big donations after hurricanes and disasters where these companies are shipping in water. And this Bud ad promotes that. You know, Budweiser's always the single biggest adviser, spends the most money on the Super Bowl. And there will be lots of beer ads as well. But this one in particular is about contributions from the company.
CAMEROTA: Yes, you can't be against water. So that's a -- that's a position you cannot argue with.
STELTER: Right. Exactly. But, you know, for the most part, we're not seeing advertisers talk about politics or talk about the Me Too movement. There was speculation, maybe there would be some references to some of the ongoing debates in the country. No, for the most part, what we've seen so far in the Super Bowl ad previews, companies trying to be -- not boring, but trying to be funny and silly as opposed to provocative.
BERMAN: But there is controversy, thankfully.
STELTER: Thankfully.
BERMAN: Which is I guess that, what, Wendy's going, you know, full contact against McDonald?
CAMEROTA: Yes.
STELTER: Right. Right. We're seeing -- we're seeing big ads. We're seeing big ads by Wendy's, calling out McDonald's. You know, that's what you do, right? When you're the underdog, you try to call out the bigger company. It makes a lot of sense.
But, you know, all of these ads, the through line, is what almost always works for advertisers. It's a lesson they have to learn over and over again, basic comedy, basic humor.
You know, I don't know about you, John. I'm pretty tense about the game. Big Eagles fan. We were in Philly for the championship game. It's going to be a stressful four quarters giving your Patriots. So we can all use some humor during the commercial breaks.
BERMAN: Honestly I don't even watch -- I breathe. The commercials are when I breathe. I haven't breathed for all the game, then I finally breathe.
STELTER: Right.
CAMEROTA: Oh, my God.
STELTER: Right. Exactly. That's a relief. And Amazon has it as well with Alexa. That's a funny one as well.
CAMEROTA: OK, so let's watch this. So Alexa -- so the premise is that Alexa loses her voice, right? So she needs other celebrities to step in and use their voices.
STELTER: Right.
CAMEROTA: So here it is.
STELTER: Oh, good.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alexa, set the mood.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now setting the mood. You're in the bush and you're just so dirty and so sweaty because it's hot in that bush.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's rebush, reboot.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alexa, play some country music.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't dance now. I make money move (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No. No, Alexa, country music.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I be in the (INAUDIBLE) part of me --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Alexa, call Brandon.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm afraid Brandon is a little tied up. But do let me know if there's anything I can help you with, Jessica. Good boy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thanks, guys, but I'll take it from here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: I don't know what's happening, but I'm scared.
BERMAN: Anthony Hopkins is the best actor -- I mean even in a Super Bowl commercial, he like gets an Academy Award. That was phenomenal. That was like the best performance ever.
STELTER: Totally. Totally. I mean Amazon threw money at the screen. And Jeff Bezos, the CEO, even has a cameo in the ad. And this is promoting Alexa. It gets you to talk about whether you should buy an Alexa in the middle of the half-time show.
You know, NFL, still, despite the ratings concerns this year, the biggest show in America on Sunday night. More than 100 million people will watch. That's why these ads are worth $500 million apiece.
CAMEROTA: Justin Timberlake, half time show. Just wanted to get that in there.
STELTER: That's right. How -- get more nachos during the half-time show.
CAMEROTA: Yes, we will.
All right, Brian, thank you very much for all that preview.
STELTER: Thanks.
CAMEROTA: OK, up next, some of the cutest players in this weekend's big game, the puppy bowl. They are really getting some rest before their big game.
BERMAN: They actually -- they were really into that last segment, though. They were riveted. They just took the nap right at the end.
CAMEROTA: Wow.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:57:59] CAMEROTA: Oh, boy. All right, who -- who needs the Super Bowl when you have these guys? Meet Esmerelda and Ruby. They're three- month-old lab/beagle mixed sisters.
BERMAN: And they're necking, by the way.
CAMEROTA: They are or they're -- or they're biting each other. OK.
BERMAN: Oh.
CAMEROTA: They've been rescued from Puerto Rico by the Sado Project (ph).
Uh-oh.
BERMAN: They're just playing.
CAMEROTA: OK.
For this year's puppy bowl, Animal Planet is using puppies rescued from areas hit by natural disasters in 2017, such as Houston, Puerto Rico and Florida. The channel worked with 48 different animal shelters and rescue organizations from 24 U.S. states and territories to fill out the rosters of team Ruff and team Fluff, John.
BERMAN: As if it wasn't cute enough they had to name the teams, team Ruff and team Fluff. Ninety adoptable players for the puppy pileup here. Instead of being bored.
CAMEROTA: OK.
BERMAN: But who would be bored watching the Patriots or Eagles.
CAMEROTA: Oh, oh, oh, boy.
BERMAN: But if you don't want football, you can watch these guys. This alternative. They're going to do this on the 14th Annual Puppy Bowl. You can catch these and other adorable Patriots and B-eagles.
CAMEROTA: No, no, no, Puptriats.
BERMAN: Puptriats and b-eagles, get it, b-eagles, on Animal Planet this Sunday at 3:00 p.m. Eastern.
And, you know, we read this -- you don't need to add any cute to this. These guys are simply adorable. And they come from even --
CAMEROTA: I thought they were cuter when they were sleeping. Now they're like gnawing on things.
BERMAN: They're adorable. And Alisyn's allergic to dogs. Just so you know. So this is a great hardship. The things you see on TV. But the dogs like me more anyway. Let's just be honest about this.
CAMEROTA: What's happening here?
Do you -- it would help -- be helpful if they had a hypoallergenic one. But next year we'll do that. But in the meantime, yes, OK, I see that they are very adorable, and I see that my magnetism to animals is not working right now.
BERMAN: See, now you'll believe me when I say I'm loveable, this is -- this is why. CAMEROTA: They do have -- wow. OK, I'll be watching this -- OK. All
right. Time now for CNN "NEWSROOM" with Poppy Harlow. Have a great weekend.
[09:00:03] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good Friday morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow in New York.
At any moment the president could green light the release of a highly controversial Republican memo alleging FBI abuses.
