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Apple To Up U.S. Investment, Adding 20,000 New Jobs In U.S. Over Next Five Years; Washington Post Reports Man Accused Of Threatening Democrats Is Nazi Sympathizer; New Op-Ed On Florida Governor: "The Rise Of Ron DeSantis." Aired 7:30-8a ET
Aired April 26, 2021 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[07:30:00]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Richer in our reality check, next.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, big news from Apple. Christine Romans with the announcement after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: Just in, a new announcement on American jobs from Apple. Let's get that from chief business correspondent Christine Romans. What is Tim Cook saying this morning, Christine?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT, ANCHOR, "EARLY START": Good morning, Brianna. He's promising to double down on investing in the U.S. and create new jobs. It's what he calls generational investment in all 50 states, expanding Apple's U.S. operations.
Cook noting this moment of recovery and rebuilding, as he called it, and he says, "We're creating jobs in cutting-edge fields -- from 5G to Silicon engineering to artificial intelligence -- investing in the next generation of innovative new businesses, and in all our work, building toward a greener and more equitable future."
It's essentially a new $80 billion investment in its U.S. footprint, accelerating now to a total $430 billion investment in the U.S. It includes more than 9,000 suppliers in all 50 states resulting in, they say, 20,000 new jobs over the next five years.
[07:35:00]
Now, Apple says it's expanding its teams across Colorado, Massachusetts, Texas, Washington, New York, and Southern California. Employees are expected to move into Apple's billion-dollar Austin campus next year. We knew that was coming.
Key here though is a new billion-dollar campus and engineering hub in the research triangle in North Carolina. That will create 3,000 new jobs there.
Apple also making investments in schools in North Carolina, contributing $110 million in infrastructure spending to the 80 North Carolina counties with the greatest need. Guys, these are investments in broadband, roads, bridges, and public schools.
Now, this announcement comes as the Biden administration is pushing for major infrastructure investments and tax increases to pay for them.
Super-profitable Apple, by the way, is sitting on a huge pile of cash. Its stock has nearly doubled over the past year. It reports earnings Wednesday and many analysts say it could raise its dividend and buy back even more stock. Those are both big wins for Apple investors.
Brianna, the company, though, this morning, pointing out that it is making investments in America at the same time, in domestic manufacturing.
BERMAN: Romans, I've got to say it's some big moves there from Apple. Good for a lot of workers, I imagine.
All right. It's no surprise that economically, some people did better in the pandemic than others, but just how much better is shocking.
John Avlon here with a reality check -- John.
JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: This year's Oscar for Best Picture went to "Nomadland," which is not exactly a feel-good movie about how anyone can make it in America. Instead, it's a look at the resilience of decent people who've been left for roadkill by life in the sometimes remorseless calculus of corporate America. It fit the times.
After a COVID year, a claustrophobic sense of the fundamentally unequal playing field between Main Street and Wall Street has never felt closer for many folks. And that's why it was stunning to learn of the massive and perhaps unparalleled pay disparities between CEOs and their workers that came out in the last few weeks.
For example, Boeing had a rough year. Its 737 MAX planes were grounded after deadly crashes, compounded by the near halt of travel during the height of the COVID. The company reported a $12 billion loss and announced the layoffs of 30,000 workers. But its CEO made more than $21 million in compensation, even as he voluntarily declined his $1.4 million salary.
The cruise industry also had a brutal year with the shutdown of operations and Norwegian Cruise Lines lost $4 billion, furloughing around 20 percent of its staff. But its CEO had his compensation more than doubled to $36.4 million.
And to complete the trifecta highlighted by "The New York Times," Hilton Hotels lost $720 million last year as travel slowed to a crawl, but its CEO still pulled in some $56.9 million.
Look, I don't begrudge anyone the opportunity to get rich in America and some CEOs are worth it, but let's put this in perspective. The ratios of CEO pay to average employee salary was 21 to one in
1965. That's according to the Economic Policy Institute. It was 31 to one by 1978, 61 to one in 1989, 118 to one by 1995, and 320 to one in 2019 -- all while median middle-class incomes grew less than 50 percent from 58,000 to 86,000 between 1970 and 2018.
This isn't simply an issue of the growing gap between the rich and poor with the middle-class getting squeezed in between but most of the top one percent in America -- what might be called the working wealthy -- cleared an average of $507,000 in 2018. But the top .1 percent made an average of $2.8 million, and that's just base salaries.
Look, many of the wealthiest in our country do a lot of good with that money. We are by most measures the most charitable nation on earth. But there's something seriously wrong beneath these statistics. Liberal capitalist democracy is a great force for good in the world but its moral legitimacy depends on whether a rising tide lifts all boats.
This isn't simply an issue of raising taxes or increasing social spending. We need to rebuild a strong middle-class with robust opportunities for social mobility. We need to incentive profit sharing and long-term value creation that benefits local communities. What we can't do is ignore the growing income gap or treat it as inevitable.
As President Theodore Roosevelt once said, "This country will not permanently be a good place for any of us to live in unless we make it a reasonably good place for all of us to live in."
And that's your reality check.
BERMAN: Thanks so much for that, John -- appreciate it.
A Trump supporter charged with threatening to kill top Democrats in the days after the Capitol riot. Now federal prosecutors are revealing what else he was promoting.
And yes, you can still eat burgers, but that's not stopping right-wing media from devouring this red meat. Daniel Dale will join us with an important fact-check about President Biden's climate plan.
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[07:44:05]
BERMAN: "The Washington Post" reports a Trump supporter is on trial for threatening to assault and murder top Democrats is also a Nazi sympathizer. Prosecutors say Brendan Hunt has called for deadly violence against lawmakers, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and wanted the former president to be like Hitler.
CNN's Shimon Prokupecz joins us now live with this. This just sounds incredible, Shimon.
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it really is, and this is a trial that is now ongoing in Brooklyn in federal court.
He's charged with making these threats against members of Congress back in December, but he really didn't get on the radar of officials until after the insurrection on January sixth. Two days after that, he posted other threats against members of Congress and Senators, saying that people should go and attack them.
[07:45:00]
Some of the evidence is really chilling and some of the evidence they're giving to the jury are text messages that Hunt sent to his father back in December where he says, quote, "Trump should just declare martial law, cancel the transfer of power, and round up the domestic enemies of our Republic. The military and the American people," he goes on to write to his father, "will back him."
This is all obviously because he's upset, prosecutors say, over the results of the election. They also say that he espouses Nazi views and that's he's also a conspiracy theorist, according to prosecutors who have filed documents in this case.
He also, according to "The Washington Post," said that the president -- then-former president should declare the U.S. a dictatorship, as Hitler did with the Germans. And he also said, according to prosecutors there in court, that he wanted to see Pence get a bullet to the head.
This is all ongoing now in Brooklyn federal court. The case -- in terms of for the prosecutors, their case is supposed to wrap up today.
KEILAR: All right, Shimon, we'll be watching. Thank you.
Despite his controversial handling of the pandemic and a controversial anti-riot bill targeting protesters, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is seen by many Republicans as a potential 2024 presidential contender -- that is if former President Trump decides not to run. But how did he get to this point?
In a new piece in "The Atlantic," "The Rise of Ron DeSantis," breaking down how the first-term governor got to where he is now, David Frum writes this for us, staff writer for "The Atlantic." He's also a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush.
You met DeSantis in 2016 and he was, at that point, a second-term House member with greater aspirations. You sort of talk about his evolution.
But you give three reasons behind the rise of Gov. DeSantis. You say DeSantis' rise is partly a story about him. It's partly a story about his critics. But perhaps above all, it is a story about his state.
So let's talk about here the first point, his approach to the pandemic. You say that at least one of his decisions will be a political superweapon in 2024.
DAVID FRUM, STAFF WRITER, THE ATLANTIC, FORMER SPEECHWRITER FOR PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH (via Cisco Webex): Right.
As you say, I met Ron DeSantis in 2016. I was -- I assumed, like so many people, that President Trump or Donald Trump would lose the election and I was interested in post-Trump talent. And I had a number of candidates to look at and I did not look at him so closely. And so this piece, in a way, is my self-correction for having underestimated DeSantis' potential in 2016 and determining not to make that mistake again as a political observer after 2020.
So he's got two superweapons.
The first superweapon is he got the schools to reopen for most children in Florida in August. When -- as the pandemic fades, believe it or not, a lot -- a lot of the memories will fade. But one thing will stay with so many people -- the impact of disrupting schooling.
And DeSantis will be able to, unlike governors in other states, I didn't panic. I opened the schools. Whatever other mistakes I made, forget those. Remember that I got the kids in school before other states.
BERMAN: You also say that the governor owes a lot to his critics. What do you mean?
FRUM: Yes. Well, we have seen through -- in the aftermath of the terrible police shootings of 2020 and the disruptions, a tremendous emphasis on racial reckoning. Now, many people have rallied to that and many people have been inspired by that, but many people have also rejected it.
And not all of them are conservative rural whites. In fact, many of them are Latino voters. And so you can see a swing to the Republicans among Latinos, and nowhere stronger than in the state of Florida.
Ron DeSantis now is generally a popular governor. He's got an approval rate among Latinos of almost 50 percent and that is very -- that is a remarkable place for a Republican to be. And the way he gets there is by doing little provocations that excite people who are highly engaged in politics, liberal and conservative. The liberals hate it, the conservatives like it.
He wins points among Republican primary voters, he alienates highly engaged liberals, but the general public doesn't care. So you get the -- you get -- you secure the Republican base now and then you can pivot later to the general election audience.
KEILAR: And you say that his rise is a story about his Republican- trending state as well.
FRUM: Yes. Florida has become a more and more important Republican state and it's become more and more Republican state because Florida Republicans are doing a better and better job winning Latinos. And that is going to be a real welcome sound to a national Republican Party that faces declines of support among suburban whites, its historic base.
KEILAR: It's a very interesting look into these three prongs, as you put it in your piece.
David, thank you for being with us.
FRUM: Thank you.
KEILAR: Is Alexey Navalny the head of a terrorist organization? How the Kremlin is trying to neutralize its top critic.
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[07:54:06]
KEILAR: For decades, Congress and music have been like Kanye and Taylor -- one trying to steal the mic from the other. It used to be musicians going after the suits on Capitol Hill, taking on racism and civil rights --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOB DYLAN, SINGER-SONGWRITER: Singing "Blowin' in the Wind."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: -- protesting unpopular wars --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL: Singing "Fortunate Son."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: -- warning of nuclear annihilation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARRY MCGUIRE, SINGER-SONGWRITER: Singing "Eve of Destruction."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Then years later, the tables -- they turned. Congress went after the songwriters. It was 1985 and Tipper Gore, who had song lyrics in her sights.
[07:55:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Much has changed since Elvis' seemingly innocent times. Subtleties, suggestions, and innuendo have given way to overt expressions and descriptions of often violent sexual acts, drug- taking, and flirtations with the occult. The record album covers, to me, are self-explanatory.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Now, in that same hearing, a country boy and a twisted sister appeared before Congress to testify that no, they're not going to take it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN DENVER, SINGER-SONGWRITER: And I'll be very clear that I'm strongly opposed to censorship of any kind in our society or anywhere else in the world. My song, "Rocky Mountain High," was banned from many radio stations as a drug-related song. This was obviously done by people who'd never seen or been to the Rocky Mountains.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Snider, what is the name of your fan club?
DEE SNIDER, SINGER-SONGWRITER, LEAD SINGER, TWISTED SISTER: The fan club is called the SMF Friends of Twisted Sister.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what does SMF stand for when it's spelled out?
SNIDER: It stands for the Sick (Bleep) Friends of Twisted Sister.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Now in the 90s, Congress took aim at Marilyn Manson and gangster rap. Then-Democratic Sen. Carol Moseley Braun decided to hold a hearing after listening to a song glorifying violence. Quote, "That's not artistic expression. If we feed them garbage, it's garbage in, garbage out."
Then the congressionally-proclaimed garbage came from Detroit, a guy whose palms were sweaty, knees weak, arms heavy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LYNNE CHENEY, FORMER SECOND LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: He is a violent misogynist.
EMINEM, RAPPER: Rapping "Without Me."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Well, Eminem rapped all the way to the bank.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
EMINEM: Rapping "White America."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: In 2007, rap was under scrutiny yet again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DAVID BANNER, HIP-HOP ARTIST: Gang violence was here before rap music. I can admit that there are some problems in hip-hop but it is only a reflection of what's taking place in our society. Hip-hop is sick because America is sick.
REP. BOBBY RUSH (D-IL): This hearing is not anti-hip-hop. (END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: After the insurrection in January, the ensuing whataboutism on the House floor even enveloped the material girl.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. KEN BUCK (R-CO): The socialists in Hollywood joined their allies in Congress. Robert DeNiro said that he wanted to punch the president in the face. Madonna thought about blowing up the White House.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: And most recently, a Republican congressman took to the floor to rail against a Grammy performance that had happened six full weeks beforehand. It was a performance by Cardi B.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. GLENN GROTHMAN (R-WI): As a practical matter, broadcast T.V. affects the moral norms of the nation. I received complaints in my office, and rightfully so, about Cardi B and the Grammys.
They wonder why we are paying the FCC if they feel that this should be in living rooms across the nation. I assure the FCC that millions of Americans would view her performance as inconsistent with basic decency. Wake up, FCC, and begin to do your job. The moral decline of America is partly due to your utter complacency.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Now, the song at issue is, indeed, explicit. It is not for the faint of heart. And it's not the first time that a conservative has taken aim at it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BEN SHAPIRO, CONSERVATIVE POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, MEDIA HOST: Whores in this house. There's some whores in this house. There's some whores in this house. There's some whores in this house -- hold up. I said certified freak seven days a week.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: The thing is "Cardi rockin' it, go buy stock in it" -- it never goes that well for the guys who target her. And, Cardi B fired back at the congressman, calling him an idiot. And yes, she also called him a dumbass who should be worried more about police brutality.
This was quite a moment but it was far from the peak of the long and complicated relationship between politicians and songwriters. Okurrr, as Cardi B would say. That would have been when the House floor once hosted what's perhaps the most divisive debate in all of music, the topic of which will be discussed, unfortunately, for generations to come. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MARK POCAN (D-WI): Seventy-seven thousand people did comment. Only four wanted to keep this provision. Everyone else wanted to change this of the 77,000. That's probably about the percent of people who think Nickelback is their favorite band in this country. It's pretty low.
REP. RODNEY DAVIS (R-IL): Why would you criticize one of the greatest bands of the 90s?
POCAN: Wow.
DAVID: I actually do have a Nickelback song on my running playlist that I listen to on a regular basis. I know he did not mean to offend the many thousands upon thousands of Nickelback fans in his district in Wisconsin.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: You know, say what you want about Nickelback, but this is how you remind me they have a better success rate than Congress.
BERMAN: By the way, Rodney Davis has been censured by Congress for his fandom of Nickelback after that.
KEILAR: That was a -- do you like Nickelback?
BERMAN: It burns. I can't listen to Nickelback.
KEILAR: Yes, I know. It burns my ears. You can't admit it --
BERMAN: It hurts.
KEILAR: -- although I have.
