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New Day

"Reality Check" on Nunes Leaving Congress; Peter McGinn is Interviewed about Having the Omicron Variant; Wealth Soared During Covid. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired December 08, 2021 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Attended the games in Beijing, along with the First Lady and even his dad, who was the honorary captain of the U.S. Olympic team. What a difference 14 years makes.

Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: What a difference it makes indeed. Ivan, thank you so much for that report.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, weather -- whiter (ph), I should say, Devin Nunes, the avid Trump supporter, just announced he's leaving Congress to work for Donald Trump. What should that tell you?

John Avlon with a "Reality Check."

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Lemmings in suicide vests. That's what Congressman Devin Nunes once called right wing House Republicans for lining up to jump off the cliff of a 2013 government shutdown over Obamacare. At the time, he decried there, if you're not with us, you're against us, mob mentality. Well, what a difference eight years and Donald Trump makes because the same guy who warned against the crazy in his party ended up enabling him as one of Trump's chief congressional defenders.

And so a man, whose leadership of the House Intelligence Committee provided a portrait of hyper-partisan hackery, a man known for filing frivolous lawsuits against critics, including a parody Twitter account purporting to be his cow, is now going on to his great reward.

Not the chairmanship of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee, no, for which he'd be next in line if Republicans won the midterms But, instead, abruptly resigning to serve as CEO of Trump's phantom social media business, which is already under federal investigation by the Securities and Exchange Commission.

But the absurd arc of Devin Nunes' career is actually instructive because it shows us how Trump's cult of personality has perverted the spirit of public service inside the GOP, replacing governing with grandstanding and grift.

Now, Nunes' decision to bail on Congress after nearly 20 years reflects his bet that the real power inside the GOP is being in Trump's orbit, not doing pesky things like legislating. From this perspective, public policy is a distant third behind propaganda and profit. But it also reveals the real electoral weaknesses of being a Trump toady.

Get this, so the first time Nunes won his Republican-heavy district in California's Central Valley, he did it by over 70 percent. He'd then repeat it three times more before Trump was president. But he just squeaked by with 52 percent of the vote in the 2018 midterms, 54 percent in 2020, despite raising millions of dollars. And so faced with redistricting, which looks likely to bring more Democrats into his district, Nunes', Trump's suck-up act, was going to be a tough sell to swing voters. Though in a very real sense he probably jumped before he was pushed.

But just how big a prize is being CEO of Trump's new social media platform really? Well, it definitely brings in his more right-wing celebrity and at least the promise of c suite cash.

The fact that Nunes, who was elected to Congress before he was 30, has never run a tech company or any business of any kind beyond having a hand in his family dairy, doesn't seem to be a downside for The Donald. But, hey, only the best people, am I right?

That's one of several absurdities behind the Trump platform, which is not at all ironically called Trump Social. The company currently has a market valuation of $1.6 billion, despite having no product, users or revenue. The company's business plan projects 81 million users and 3.6 billion in revenue by 2026, right? Sound legit, huh? Totally.

But their mission is almost as revealing. As Nunes said in a statement, the time has come to reopen the Internet and allow for the free flow of ideas and expression without censorship. Now, that's not -- that is at odds not just with the reality of the Internet today, but with Truth Social's own terms of service, which, get this, states that users cannot disparage, tarnish or otherwise harm, in our opinion, us and/or the site.

Now, a perfect summation of the Trump (INAUDIBLE) free speech, right, anything goes as long as you don't disrupt The Donald. Exhibit A is Trump's long advocacy for more expansive British style libel laws. Exhibit B is Trump's own impulse to sue anyone he sees as a critic. So, yes, the same guy who tried to sue Twitter for $250 million over a parody cow account will now be helping (ph) a social media platform that will depend on broad, First Amendment arguments, as well as Section 230 for legal protection and profits.

Don't strain yourself looking for consistency of principles here. But do recognize the Trumpist (ph) rallying cry of free speech is a self- serving fig leaf to cover up their own inner snowflake. And they can look to Trump lawyer Sydney Powell's group, which raised $14 million while spreading election lies according to "The Washington Post" and see that there are still plenty of superfans left to fleece.

Hypocrisy and greed, grift and grandstanding, they all go together. But there's a tragedy in here somewhere as well. Because the descent of Devin Nunes shows how corrupting the current incentive structure can be, inside a political party that has become a cult of personality. The man who once decried lemmings in suicide vests ended up becoming one himself.

And that's your "Reality Check."

BERMAN: The circle of life.

John Avlon, thank you very much for that.

AVLON: You got it.

BERMAN: Here's what else to watch today.

[08:35:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ON SCREEN TEXT: 10:15 a.m. ET, Smollett Closing Arguments.

2:30 p.m. ET, Instagram on Capitol Hill.

3:30 p.m. ET, Biden speaks in Kansas City.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So we're going to be joined by the first person identified in the United States with a case of the omicron variant. What does it feel like? How's he doing now? And what is it about anime that captivates him so much?

KEILAR: And, relief at the pump in a major way. This is good news. It's right around the corner. What forecasters are now saying about the price of gas.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: The Centers for Disease Control now conducting a huge contact tracing effort to alert people who went to an anime convention last month in New York City about infections with the new omicron Covid variant.

[08:40:07]

Joining me now is Peter McGinn. He attended that convention in Manhattan back in November and is the first person to be identified, named as a confirmed case of the omicron variant in the United States.

Peter, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

Look, we haven't spoken to anyone who had omicron. So just tell us, what did it feel like?

PETER MCGINN, FIRST IDENTIFIED PERSON IN U.S. WITH NEW OMICRON VARIANT: Yes, it honestly felt like a mild cold for about a day. I had light fatigue, a runny nose and a sore throat. And after a day, those symptoms went away.

BERMAN: So, really, just a cold.

How'd you not -- how did you -- how were you notified or alerted to the concern over omicron?

MCGINN: Yes, by the Department of Health conducted a Covid interview with me on November 29th and two days later they gave me a call back saying not only did I have Covid, but I'm the first person in Minnesota (ph) to have the variant. And we went from there with contact tracing and just trying to conduct -- and trying to get as much info as we can about the variant that I was feeling and my symptoms and stuff like that.

BERMAN: So you say mild case, runny nose. Would you have ever been tested had there not been this concern surrounding the convention?

MCGINN: Honestly, I -- I honestly felt that I probably would not have gotten tested just because of how light my symptoms were. And I'm very glad that I did. And I'm glad I'm able to be here and talk about it to people who have questions and concerns about the new variant.

BERMAN: You were vaccinated.

MCGINN: Correct.

BERMAN: With?

MCGINN: I had the Johnson & Johnson one dose in early April and the Moderna booster in early November.

BERMAN: So boosted in early November, which is not uninteresting. There's new data out just this morning from Pfizer that people with three doses of their vaccine have pretty solid protection against infection from omicron. So you were vaccinated, boosted and you still were infected. And just so people know, that's a vast difference being infected but -- and getting seriously ill.

MCGINN: Yes.

BERMAN: But, still, your doses didn't keep you from the infection, correct?

MCGINN: That -- that is correct. Yes.

BERMAN: How many other people you were with at this point have been infected?

MCGINN: I was with a party of 30 people and 15 tested positive.

BERMAN: Fifteen tested positive. Now, I understand it isn't clear if all 15 have omicron, but that may be just because they haven't been sequenced, correct?

MCGINN: That is correct. As of right now, confirmed one has the -- had the variant until the -- their PCR samples are tested by their respective states. I can't confirm that. When I was talking with my department of health, it was overwhelmingly likely that they also had the variant.

BERMAN: So, you know, that's 15 out of 30, and most of them vaccinated?

MCGINN: All vaccinated, majority of them had the booster.

BERMAN: So that's interesting. So the infection does seem that may be, if they all have omicron, evidence that -- that this can spread pretty quickly. But of that group, anyone seriously sick?

MCGINN: No. Everybody had mild to no symptoms.

BERMAN: Mild to no symptoms if you are vaccinated.

Peter, finally, I think maybe the most important question here, did you have fun at the anime conference?

MCGINN: I had -- I had an absolute blast. I had the time of my life.

BERMAN: Well, good. We're glad that it was fun. You had a going away gift, a parting gift, I'm not sure you were anticipating or wanted, but we're glad that you're healthy, no adverse consequences here. And everyone around you healthy too? I mean you -- it's not that you -- you haven't affected anyone that's doing badly, right?

MCGINN: Everybody around me is doing great and I'm glad that everybody's in good health.

BERMAN: All right, Peter McGinn, we appreciate you talking to us. Thank you so much.

MCGINN: Thank you.

KEILAR: Time now for "5 Things to Know for Your New Day."

The January 6th House committee issuing more than 100 subpoenas for phone records. Many of those targeted are former Trump officials and associates. The list includes former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who just informed the committee that he will no longer be cooperating.

BERMAN: Relief for the United States as energy costs dropped significantly. Warmer temperatures and increasing production have sent prices lower about 40 percent since October for home heating oil, actually for natural gas. Meanwhile, prices at the pump are also stabilizing. Recent drops in crude oil are showing up in gas costs. The average is now at a seven-week low, $3.34 per gallon.

KEILAR: And new this morning, Pfizer announcing that two of its Covid vaccine doses may not be enough to protect against infection from omicron. But the booster shot, the third dose, they say, does neutralize it.

BERMAN: Breaking overnight, the NYPD has arrested a man after a large Christmas tree just outside Fox headquarters in midtown Manhattan went up in flames. Look at that. A police source says he faces at least eight charges, including arson, reckless endangerment and criminal mischief.

KEILAR: And Germany's new chancellor sworn in overnight beginning a new era for Europe's largest democracy.

[08:45:02]

Olaf Scholz succeeding Angela Merkel, who led the country for the past 16 years. Merkel received a standing ovation in Germany's parliament.

BERMAN: It's the end of an era and a beginning of a significant new era and it has implications for what's going on in Ukraine right now.

Those are "5 Things to Know on Your New Day." More on these stories all day on CNN and cnn.com. And don't forget to download the "5 Things" podcast every morning. Go to cnn.com/5things. You can also find it wherever you get your podcasts.

KEILAR: And we have some new numbers this morning showing the wealth of billionaires soaring during the pandemic while millions of Americans fell into poverty. And corporate profits are surging as consumers see price increases. So how do we square all of this? We'll have Scott Galloway joining us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:50:07]

KEILAR: The wealth of billionaires skyrocketing during the pandemic while millions of Americans fell into poverty. The wealth of corporations also rising as Americans deal with higher prices. So, how do you square all of this?

Let's talk about it with Scott Galloway. He is a professor of marketing at the NYU Stearns School of Business, and he is the host of a new show focusing on business and technology on CNN Plus.

OK, Scott, so just explain this to us, why -- why are we seeing this happen?

SCOTT GALLOWAY, CNN PLUS HOST: Well, first off, good to be with you, Brianna.

A lot of it is compensation that's driven by stock awards. And we've had a record run-up and a continued record run-up in the markets. So what you have is, over the last year, despite all the headline news of strike-tober and the labor shortage, geo-compensation (ph) increasing 18 percent, whereas a typical worker compensation increased 4 percent.

And through the pandemic you've seen billionaires increase their wealth by, get this, 70 percent, or $2 trillion. So they'd added the GDP of Brazil to their net worth. But when the billionaire next door is 70 percent wealthier, you don't really feel it, whereas if you don't -- if it takes you forever to get your coffee, it's in the news. So, a lot of it is media coverage. But there's just no getting around

it. In good times billionaires have done well and in bad times they've done crazy well.

KEILAR: So then why are corporations complaining if their profits are soaring?

GALLOWAY: Because it's never enough. I mean, corporate -- look, corporation profits -- corporate profits are at record highs. The multiples they're getting in the stock market are record highs. Their compensation -- CEO compensation, as a percentage of average worker compensation, has gone from 25 to one, to 350 to one over the last 40 years. And corporate profits have never been higher. So it, you know, when you're faced -- you're never going to go on media or stand in front of Congress and go, you know what, we're killing it and likely we should have our tax rates go up.

So, I would argue, we've kind of been overrun when there are more paid lobbyists from Amazon living in D.C. than there are sitting U.S. senators when the PR and communications group of Facebook is greater than the newsroom at "The Washington Post." You know, you could argue that media and journalists and government has been overrun by corporate interests.

KEILAR: Yes, and the more money, the more lobbyists, right? So there's also this evidence that we're seeing that companies, you know, they aren't just raising prices to cover their costs from inflation. They're actually padding their margins as well.

Are they taking advantage of inflation to do that?

GALLOWAY: Yes, and, I mean, the words there -- we have to be careful around the words, because we're living in a capitalist society and every CEO and board is there to return to -- to create returns for their shareholders. It's their job to try and raise prices when they can.

Now, whether they're gouging or not, I wouldn't say so. The reality is, and I sit on a bunch of corporate boards, we've had a very deflationary environment the last 30 or 40 years, so it's been difficult to raise prices. And all of a sudden you can raise prices. It's striking. Used car prices up 27 percent. The price of bacon up 20 percent, which really hurts everybody.

But corporations' power to raise money because of one supply side that is fewer products because of supply chain slowdowns and also on the demand side consumers have more money in their pockets, the result is more pricing power on behalf of consumers than ever before, which, unfortunately, have wiped out labor or wage gains among lower and middle income workers, but have increased corporate profits and who owns 90 percent of the shares that benefit from this margin or pricing power, the top 1 percent.

So it's sort of, again, the perfect storm of good things for the exceptionally wealthy.

KEILAR: Well, Scott, thank you. It is wonderful to have you this morning it walk us through all of this. Really appreciate it.

GALLOWAY: Thank you, Brianna.

KEILAR: President Biden issuing a stark warning to Vladimir Putin about Russian aggression with Ukraine, but did it make a difference?

BERMAN: And the breaking news this morning, Pfizer now says that getting a booster dose of its vaccine does protect against infection from the omicron Covid variant.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:58:43]

BERMAN: It is time for "The Good Stuff."

A reunion 73 years in the making. That is Linda Hoffman, waiting at the Denver airport, to meet her older biological sister for the first time. Linda and Harriet Carter found each other when both signed up for ancestry.com and found they were a 100 percent genetic match. Their face to face meeting was delayed nearly two years by Covid until yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You do look like me.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I do?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. I can't believe how much you look like -- like mom.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your mom? Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our mom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Linda's sister Harriet, biological sister, was put up for adoption at birth. Their biological parents died decades ago, taking the secret of their sisterhood with them. But, again, they found out by Ancestry they were related. Then, finally, finally had this chance for a hug.

They look alike.

KEILAR: Oh, they do. And I love this. Look, I'm one of two girls. I think there's nothing better than, like, sisterhood. And I think that's just a beautiful they're going to have that. It's why I wanted girl children and I only have boys, but --

BERMAN: Do you say that -- do you say that to your boys, I wanted girl children?

KEILAR: I know, please, let's not save this tape. Actually, I just like having that they're -- it's very fun to have, like, two boys. But do you have any friends who have been reunited or who know --

[09:00:01]

BERMAN: So you're just -- you're cleaning that up right there.

KEILAR: My children better not be watching.

BERMAN: No, no. I'm sure you love them both equally.

KEILAR: Obviously.