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New Day

Gas Prices Will Tumble $3 Soon, Government Forecasts; January 6th Panel Suffers Setbacks as Trump Aides Stonewall; Biden Threatens Putin, We'll Do What We Didn't in 2014. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired December 08, 2021 - 07:00   ET

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

CHRIS CILIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER AND EDITOR AT LARGE: What we are talking about is so many of them particularly in State Department, particularly in national security are being slow walk by Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley and Marco Rubio in the Senate.

[07:00:01]

I want to high light one person, this is Jessica Rosenworcel. She is now the permanent chair of the FCC, the first woman to hold this job. She was confirmed -- wait for this, confirmed by the Senate yesterday, 68-31. You don't see that all that often.

So, there is diversity in who Joe Biden and who is being confirmed. The problem is Cruz and Hawley are slow walking this. Rather than voting by unanimous consent, essentially saying, okay, yes, this person can be the ambassador to wherever. There saying, no, we want to have a full hearing, we want this to go for full debate within the Senate, and that just really slows the process down.

And I'll just go back to where I started, zero Biden administration ambassadors in Africa, zero. Huge amounts of national security and State Department jobs unfilled, appointed but unfilled, unconfirmed. And that just a problem, whether you are a Republican or Democrat, you don't care about politics, that's a problem for our country. Guys?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN NEW DAYS: Also, Chris, you know, overnight, Republican Congresswoman Lauren Boebert decided to copy one of her Republican colleagues and she posted a photo of herself with her children, you know some of them rather young here, holding what appeared to be semiautomatic rifles in front of their Christmas tree.

And I wonder what you think about this. I know she is just kind of trying to troll people who didn't like Congressman Massie's photo. But this is -- you know, this is a statement that can't be ignored.

CILIZZA: Yes. Politics has become -- particularly in the Republican Party, particularly in the Trumpest wing of the Republican Party, sort of performance art rather than anything else. This is just performance art. I think Lauren Boebert views her job as a member of Congress to troll the left.

Most members of Congress see their job as legislating, getting things done pore their district. Unfortunately, Brianna, these sorts of things, Boebert, Matt Gaetz does this quite frequently, Marjorie Taylor Greene, these are the things that animate the base of the Republican Party at the moment, which means you going to see more of it.

But trolling whoever you like is not a part of the job as a member of Congress. We seem to have forgotten that. The main job is to represent your constituents and get things done for the country. This isn't that.

KEILAR: No. I look at that and I see, you know, look, four beautiful kids. But I think of four beautiful kids in Michigan who are not there with their parents --

CILIZZA: Yes.

KEILAR: -- who were on the other end of the gun. And I just wonder about the indecency of a member of Congress putting this out there as they are suffering ahead of not having their kids for the holiday. It's just unbelievable.

CILIZZA: I totally agree.

KEILAR: Chris, thank you.

And New Day continues right now.

KEILAR: I'm Brianna Keilar alongside John Berman on this New Day.

The January 6th committee casting a wide net, issuing subpoenas for the phone records of more than 100 people, also though losing the cooperation of a key witness.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN NEW DAY: President Biden holding a tense two-hour call with Vladimir Putin issuing a strong warning against aggression toward Ukraine. What do we know about whether this call made a difference?

KEILAR: And as the world scientists are tracking the impact of the omicron variant, we have some brand-new data on how effective the Pfizer vaccine and the Pfizer booster is against it.

BERMAN: And a suspect is in custody after a huge Christmas tree in midtown Manhattan is engulfed in flames.

KEILAR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. It is Wednesday, December 8th. And I'm Brianna Keilar with John Berman.

We are beginning with some breaking news, a potential antidote for inflation. Gas prices are going down. I know that is good news to hear, dropping to $3.34 a gallon nationwide. An analyst now expects them to keep falling for months, many of them predicting below $3 a gallon in 2022.

BERMAN: But, wait, there's more. Remember all those warnings about skyrocketing home heating costs this winter, well, those cost are also dropping dramatically. Let's get right to Chief Business Correspondent Christine Romans with all of these. These numbers dropping significantly, Romans.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely. And it's welcomed relief, you guys, for American consumers. The government says prices at the pump should keep dropping, falling below $3 a gallon next year.

The Energy Department predicted Tuesday the national average will fall to $3.01 a gallon in January, eventually averaging $2.88 for 2022. This is based on projections that global oil production will increase faster than demand.

[07:05:00]

That's a reversal of the past 18 months. And the report says the emergence of omicron and new travel restrictions could dent consumption.

The average per gallon is currently at a seven-week low, $3.34 a gallon. As you said, recent drops in crude oil prices are now showing up at the pump finally. Oil prices crashed after Thanksgiving over concerns omicron could derail energy demand.

Meanwhile, those dire predictions of sky-high home heating costs likely may not come true this winter after all. Warm temperatures and rising production there is sending natural gas prices lower, now down 40 percent from the October peak.

Cooling energy costs, if they last, offer critical release for household budgets. Energy sticker shock has been one of the biggest drivers, as you know, of the highest U.S. inflation in decades if, and it is a big if, inflation peaks here, it could set up American consumers up well for next year.

Think of this. 64 million people receiving social security get a cost of living increase next year of 5.9 percent. That's the biggest increase in that check in about 40 years. And wages are rising the most in years. A new conference board survey finds companies are planning the biggest wage increases next year since the 2007 recession.

So, look, there is a lot of discussion about inflation and how sticky it is but these higher wages will mean you will get more money in your paycheck. And for social security recipients, there are cost of living adjustments underway to help cushion the inflation you have been feeling this way.

BERMAN: Romans, were getting some breaking medical news, pretty major making breaking medical news, it also has an economic angle. Pfizer, which has been looking at how its vaccine handles the omicron variant, has just put out some new data which suggest with two doses, the original two dose regimen of Pfizer, that omicron can evade that somewhat. But, and this is what I think is getting the most attention particularly by the markets, that if you're boosted, that may provide nearly full protection against omicron. What are the markets saying here, Romans?

ROMANS: We do know that COVID is the biggest driver in the global economy right now. That is the biggest factor. And vaccines, we know vaccines that work and can evade the variants are the most important protection to getting back to a more normal post-COVID world.

So this is definitely something that would be viewed as welcomed news in global markets.

BERMAN: You can see stock futures rising right now. They popped just after this Pfizer news came out. So you can see what the markets think of all of this. Christine Romans, thanks so much for all of this.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

KEILAR: I'm feeling good about my booster.

BERMAN: Yes. I'm feeling great about my whole weekend. And I'm like that was a good decision.

KEILAR: That was great. All right.

BERMAN: That make a lot of them, but that is a good one.

KEILAR: I'm fully boosted today, two weeks after. So, very exciting.

Okay. Now a CNN exclusive, the January 6th House committee has issued more than 100 subpoenas for phone records, and many of these targeted former Trump officials and associates, this including former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows who just informed the committee that he will no longer cooperate.

Meadows though has already turned over volumes of phone and phone and email records including messages that were sent and received during the Capitol riot.

CNN Law Enforcement Correspondent Whitney Wild is with us now on the very latest here. Whitney?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is basically a roadmap. These 100 subpoenas or so are giving the House select committee a web of communications leading up to, on the day of, and then following the riot. And this is going to be significant, Brianna, as it drives their investigation.

It's important to note that this does not include the content of any messages that went back and forth but instead it is just the meta data, so who was calling whom at what time. And that's really critical as they bring in more people to try to get this colorful testimony as they try to build their case.

There was a significant blow to the House select committee today -- this week, rather, you spoke about it earlier, this about-face from Mark Meadows. Earlier he had said basically, or we had reported at least that he had planned to cooperate. However, now his attorney is telling the house select committee that instead they do not plan to cooperate and they're making a very similar argument to what Steve Bannon has made, Brianna, which is, that they have every intention of working with the committee in this very good-faith effort.

But they're concerned that the committee is going to ask about information that is covered under executive privilege. And so, because of that, they are concern that the committee has no respect for the boundary of executive privilege, so they can't answer any questions in a deposition.

However, Meadows' letter stressed that they are still willing to consider written questions. So take that for what it is worth, Brianna and John. He could very well end up among this list of people who now face a possible -- could possibly face contempt of Congress charges.

But let's go back to the subpoena, because I think this is also important. These phone record subpoenas also include people that the Department of Justice has investigated for their roles in the insurrection, Brianna. Again, even absent of, say, a Steve Bannon testimony or a Mark Meadows testimony, this information is really bringing what happened leading up to the riot, a day of the riot, and afterward into much clearer focus.

[07:10:02]

KEILAR: Yes. Look, worth noting, Meadows was cooperating until Trump got really ticked off about some of the revelations in Meadows new book. Whitney, thank you for that update.

BERMAN: All right. Joining us now, former Chair of the House Intelligence Committee Mike Rogers and former Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee Jane Harman.

I want to warn everyone out there, this Republican and Democrat get along, so brace yourself for something that you don't get to see often. And I do want to sort of relish in this moment of bipartisan comedy with a T.

But, first, Mike, to you, as a former FBI agent, this subpoena for all of these phone records here, how might that be used? What kind of trail could that give investigators?

MIKE ROGERS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY COMMENTATOR: That's an important data set. So what meta data is the to/from. And so what you can do on the day of January 6th, you can start narrowing down the list and then you can compare it to calls that happened prior to that of the same patterns.

And so what they can do is start to narrow down their investigation on things that matter. So, I imagine that he was the chief of staff, he's going to get tons of calls unrelated to this. So, you don't want to try to sift through all that, you want to narrow it down. That meta data will help the investigators narrow this down significantly.

KEILAR: It's kind of a launching pad to find more information, right, because you don't actually have the text messages. But the committee at this point, and they do have people cooperating, they are getting this data, Congresswoman, but what about these headwinds that there facing, Steve Bannon's trial not until July. Mark Meadows no longer cooperating?

FMR. REP. JANE HARMAN (D-CA): Well, clearly, the plot is to slow roll until the fall so that the committee impact will be minimized and I think that's unfortunate for the country. We need to remember that on 9/11, and I think Mike was there too, I surely was there, America was under attack. And what did we do to respond? We formed a bipartisan independent commission led by Lee Hamilton and Tom Kaine, which found out what happened and recommended answers, most of which have been taken. And we haven't been subject to a major attack, foreign attack since.

This time, America was under attack from within. All of these members of Congress were potential victims, all of them, Republicans too. And we need to find out what happened. The Senate rejected an independent commission, unfortunately. The House is doing its best. And I think that if they can find the facts, and I agree with Mike, the meta data is going to be very useful in narrowing down who Meadows spoke to, maybe including the president, maybe including who the president spoke to on this day.

And it is relevant. This was not the normal course of business. And I think it will be interesting to see what happens with an executive privilege claim given where these calls were made and who made them. But at any rate, we have to know what happened and then let voters understand that before they cast their vote.

BERMAN: I do want to -- both of you, what your gut tells you about whether at the end of this, given the headwinds, given with the limitations, what will come of it? Will there be criminal referrals may be to DOJ for things other than contempt of Congress for actual actions here in the insurrection?

ROGERS: Well, certainly, it could be. You have to set up all the facts for the referral, really important. And you can't do it on, you know, press reporting and other things. That's why that meta data is important. If there are five key figures that's kind of come surface to the top about those calls during the actual raiding of Congress, those people -- then they're going to be able to go out with a second round of subpoenas, and saying, okay, we need your phone records, we would like you to talk to us, those kind of things.

Once all of that's done, I think you will have a narrow at least set of recommendations from the committee. And I would be surprised if there weren't some criminal referrals.

Now, I will say, the FBI is being very thorough on its investigation. So, a lot of those arrest, investigations arrests and then criminal trials you already see happening, and that body of information will also be really important for the committee. So, if they're done and the FBI investigation is done, I'm going to guess that the FBI probably had gotten there first and done that charge and made that arrest, this would be my guess.

KEILAR: What do you think?

HARMAN: Could happen. I think the committee is being responsible. And it is bipartisan. The two Republicans on the committee are getting a lot of pressure, but they're not backing down. And I think the FBI is being very responsible. And the FBI, Mike, since you left it, has had a kind of checkered record.

BERMAN: That's what happened. Mike, left the FBI.

ROGERS: It broke when I left. Is that what you're saying?

HARMAN: For my view is that Mike and I left Congress, the same thing happened to Congress. But, seriously, I think that this -- every T will be crossed and I will be dotted before we get to the end of this. And I think everybody's interest is in learning what happened and then making recommendations to prevent it from happening again.

I was just in Europe, and people are questioning our leadership in part because the results of the election last time are questioned and in part because we can't seem to move forward in any coherent way. And yesterday was a great day for President Biden, but I know we're going to discuss that in a moment.

[07:15:00]

KEILAR: Yes, we are. We have --

BERMAN: She helped us with her Ts right there.

KEILAR: Right. We have so much more to discuss with you. We're not going to -- we're so happy to have you. We're not going to let you go just yet. So, Jane Harman and Mike Rogers are going to stick around for us.

But up next, President Biden's warning to Vladimir Putin, expect consequences if Russia invades Ukraine.

Plus, more on our breaking news from Pfizer on how well it works against the new omicron variant. A Pfizer scientist will join us just ahead.

BERMAN: And how supply chain issues could threaten a breakfast staple.

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KEILAR: President Biden is warning Vladimir Putin against invading Ukraine. He says that the consequences of a military escalation would be severe. CNN has reaction from Washington to Ukraine.

[07:20:00]

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kylie Atwood at the State Department. President Biden and President Putin had a high-stakes conversation on Tuesday. The national security adviser describing the conversation as straightforward and useful, also where President Biden made clear what the repercussions were for Russia would be if they chose to invade Ukraine. There would be high-stakes economic measures, the United States would provide more support to Ukraine, more support to NATO allies along the eastern flank.

But the national security adviser also said that the United States still does not believe President Putin has made a decision if he will invade Ukraine or not.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Matthew Chance in Kiev where the Biden/Putin call could make the biggest impact of all. It is Ukraine after all that is facing tens of thousands of Russian troops amassing near its borders, poised, as Vladimir Putin of Russia told President Biden he wants legal guarantees that Ukraine will never join NATO, the western military alliance.

Putin also demanded that sophisticated strike weapons systems, like missiles, never be deployed here either. Ukrainian officials who will be briefed by the White House later this week say they remain uncertain that military tensions in Russia, which has been threatened with U.S. sanctions, if it invades, will now calm down after the call or ratchet even higher.

BERMAN: All right. Back now with the former chair of the House Intelligence Committee, Mike Rogers, and former Ranking Member Jane Harman.

Jane, to you first, because you mentioned you thought that the way the White House and the president handled this yesterday, you have high praise. Why?

HARMAN: Well, I thought it was Biden's finest foreign policy, security policy moment of his presidency. The reason I liked it so much is he called our allies in advance and spoke to them about his strategy for the call. He called in after the call and gave them the download of what occurred. And he was really speaking for the west to a guy who is operating on the chaos theory. I think that Russia is -- doesn't have a good hand but Putin is playing it as well he can. And just staying at the border for a long time keeps him in the news above the fold. And I think that's part of his goal.

What I thought was good about the content is that we do have bigger sticks. And we should put them on the table. One of them is the banking system. I'm sure Mike is going to talk about that, so I won't. But another one is the assets of Putin and his cronies in the west, the real estate assets, their bank accounts and all that which we can freeze, and really embarrass them. I mean, a lot of Russian money is in the west.

And the final thing to say is that this is a big deal. It's not just what happens in Ukraine. It's also how China views what happens in Ukraine, as China is figuring out next moves in Taiwan. And, finally, Germany is standing up a new government. It's a coalition. But guess what? That government is reconsidering the Nord Stream 2 pipeline deal. And so Putin has got a lot to worry about and can't really be too reckless here. KEILAR: How do you assess how this went?

ROGERS: I mean, obviously, the messaging I thought was good. However, it results in a sternly worded memo to Putin. We don't have a lot of options. And when he said we were going to do these things if you invade, there were many on that list we should doing now, more defensive weapons, more exercises in Poland and Czechoslovakia with NATO troops to show the seriousness of the event. All of that was if you do this, we're going to be really mad at you and we're going to come get you with some of these other sanctions.

And they do have teeth, not access to the Swiss system and banking is pretty significant. That means commercial commerce gets much more difficult for Russia in the sense in which they have it now. They have weathered a lot of this. Remember, that calculation is going to fall a little bit down on his decision, his being Putin, about do you do it or not.

The other part of this, the troops being there, accomplishes one very important mission. He did not want Ukraine to move to the west economically, commercially, militarily. He's going to get that. Because no one --

BERMAN: Who is?

ROGERS: Putin is, because nobody is going to invest in Ukraine right now with all the chaos surrounding it. That's a win for Putin.

And so the more we can push back early -- and, again, saying you're going to put in defensive weapons in after you've been invaded is not much of a threat. I would argue that you need to do that today. Announce those weapon shipments. If Putin has casualties coming back across the border, he has got problems at home. He knows it. Anti-air, anti-armor, things that would allow the Ukrainian military to actually put up a fight, we should be giving them today.

[07:25:02]

HARMAN: I actually agree with that. Ukraine is not joining NATO any time soon. It's NATO's decision, not Putin's decision whether it joins -- whether Ukraine will join. But that's not going to happen. But I do think Ukraine is part of the west. This is actually pulling Ukraine closer to the west, not as a member of NATO but certainly as a western country.

And there's plenty of room to reduce the endemic corruption in Ukraine, which has to happen in order for it to be more successful as an investment opportunity.

ROGERS: The one thing to remember is you can't swing a ring of Italian sausages in Ukraine without hitting 15 Russian intelligence officers. They have flooded the zone. And so they have other options, cyber nefarious activities. They have intelligence information operations going on for the separatists in the east. So, he is very clever about how he is trying to set this table. And I think we would do better, I think, to push back on all of the activities we know he's doing now, including cyber, including information operations.

HARMAN: I hope we are. Maybe we are. I don't think everything has to be in the press. With all affection, I think we could do a few things quietly.

BERMAN: Well, we're going to end it right here on that note because we fundamentally disagree on that.

KEILAR: Yes, we do. Thank you so much. We had Ambassador Bill Taylor, former ambassador to Ukraine, yesterday talking with us and he said this is the frontline of a larger war and we have to very much have our eyes trained on it. And your voices are obviously essential to that.

HARMAN: We do. I think we finally do.

KEILAR: Yes. Jane Harman, Mike Rogers, thank you.

Up next, what scientists now say about the vaccines and how well they stand up to this new omicron variant. We're actually going to have Pfizer's head of research joining us to discuss this.

BERMAN: He has got some big news to talk about.

So, Instagram's top boss about to be grilled on Capitol Hill, how the company is already trying to head off some tough questions.

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