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New Day
Tony Blair is Interviewed about Johnson's Scandal, Russia and Ukraine; U.S. Economy Grows at Fast Pace; Janie Deegan Shares her Life-Changing Story; Kristin Urquiza is Interviewed about her Support for Biden; Services for NYPD Officer Jason Rivera. Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired January 27, 2022 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:30:00]
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: But that was like four parties ago and three revelations. So I'm just wondering if you've changed your opinion since then about whether or not you think he should resign.
TONY BLAIR, FORMER BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: Not really. It's not something for me to get into because, frankly, it makes absolutely no difference what I say anyway.
BERMAN: That doesn't stop people from sharing their opinions on cable continue quite often.
BLAIR: Absolutely. You're completely right, John.
But, on this occasion, (INAUDIBLE) really concentrating more on what I think is the big challenge for Britain, which is, you know, we've got Brexit. We've got a massive climate change ambition. We've got a technological revolution, three revolutions and no plan. I think, ultimately, that is a more fundamental problem for the country.
BERMAN: Let me ask you about Ukraine, obviously. And this has a lot to do with when you were prime minister. You dealt a lot with NATO as it was expanding.
How does one get the message to Russia, or is the west in a situation right now where it wants to convey, look, Ukraine's not about to join NATO. However, no one's going to say they can't.
BLAIR: Absolutely. And, look, it's not, I think, a question of conveying the message to Russia. They know the message. They heard the message. But you see their -- their view is that they should be entitled whether or not these countries want to pull them back into the Russian orbit. And, you know, I used to have this conversation when I was in office and Vladimir Putin was, obviously, in office at the time, and I used to say, look, we've got no ambitions in NATO to surround Russia. We don't -- if these countries want to come with NATO, comes with the European Union, that's their decision. And just let them decide. But his view is always, well, it's not their decision. They're within our sphere of influence. And whether they like it or they don't like it, we're entitled to move forward.
I don't think (INAUDIBLE) believe that we're about to put Ukraine in NATO, but I think your president, NATO is absolutely right in saying, we're not going to prevent any sovereign country deciding their own future.
BERMAN: Germany has said it will not send lethal aid to Ukraine. They sent helmets. Obviously, a key member of the NATO alliance. Do you feel Germany's pulling its weight?
BLAIR: The problem that Germany has is their immensely dependent on Russian supplies of gas. And this is a problem.
One of the things I've argued for a long, long time is that Europe's got to create an alternative source of supply for gas because otherwise it's always beholden to Russia for the supplies of gas. And as a result of that, by the way, it means that they have leverage, which they will use in a -- in a pretty brutal fashion. And that's what they're doing now.
So, I think, having said that, I think NATO is pretty united, really, around this. And I think if Russia does invade, there will be very serious consequences. And I think that that will be everything to do with sanctions and also making sure that the rest of Europe is properly protected.
BERMAN: You've been working very hard during this pandemic, since before the pandemic, to build a global health infrastructure. And one of the things you're talking about now is how the world can actually use some of the things that have been developed the last two years going forward.
How so?
BLAIR: So, Covid's been a terrible period, obviously, for the world and many tragic deaths as a result. But one of the other things that's happened is there's been a huge acceleration in medical science and also for the (ph) force during the course of Covid. Governments had to work at a much greater pace and speed than is normal.
Now, as a result of those advances in medical science, we will have vaccines in the next few years, probably for malaria, tuberculosis, dengue, and a whole new set of cancer treatments. So what we've done is set out how you will be able to help ensure that those vaccines as they come on the market are able to be distributed in a much more effective way, able to be developed in a much more effective way. And we suggest that, as it were, the wealthy part of the world has got to be prepared to put the funding in, but the poorer part of the world has got to be prepared to reform their health infrastructure so they can take and absorb these new vaccines.
But it could save, by the way, millions of lives worldwide. We're going to have that possibility in the next few year, which is very exciting.
BERMAN: Yes, it would be wonderful if we would find a way to build off of these tragedies and use some of the things we've learned.
Former Prime Minister Tony Blair, thank you so much for being with us.
BLAIR: Thank you.
BERMAN: So, the answer is, the woman who holds the second longest win streak in "Jeopardy" history. And the question, who is Amy Schneider. How it all ended, next.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: And, just released, the weekly jobless claims report. We're going to break down what it tells us about the speed of the economic recovery.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:39:00]
KEILAR: Just in moments ago, weekly jobless claims. But as CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans, who is here to talk about this will tell us, it's really the GDP number that we should be zeroing in on.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. We got this read on fourth quarter economic growth in the U.S., 6.9 percent. You can see how the crash and the recovery in the economy have distorted that chart there. But 6.9 percent, that is a very good finish to the year. It shows you that omicron did not stop a strong American economy from powering forward here. And for the year, Q1 to Q4, strongest year since 1984, 5.7 percent real GDP growth. That is a strong number and stronger than a lot of economists were even penciling in.
Now, so what does that mean for the first quarter? I mean we're still dealing with omicron, still some concerns there, but it shows you we finished the year very, very strongly here. And this is why the Federal Reserve has said it's going to step in and start raising interest rates.
[08:40:02]
It's got to cool this thing down to make sure inflation doesn't become an even bigger problem. So it's got to fight inflation and it has a backdrop of a strong job market and a strong overall economy. Those jobless claims I was telling you about fell a little bit to 260,000. Here back to that trend right there, that trend is your friend. It shows you that layoffs are back to pre-pandemic levels.
There's such a need to keep and retain good, good workers. You're just not seeing a lot of layoffs in this economy because it is a hot job market too. So, a strong way to finish out the year, I'd say, Brianna. KEILAR: How does the rhetoric about the economy stand up to how people
are actually feeling it? I understand that people may feel the economy differently.
ROMANS: Well, it's inflation exhaustion. Covid exhaustion. You know, like you look at some of these numbers, which pretty legitimately tell you that there is a big economic engine that is firing on all cylinders here. But people feel the day in and the day out grind of higher gas prices, of higher energy prices, of not being able to get the exact product you want at the right time. That's all a function of the virus, the Covid crash, and then reopening. And, also, the healthcare crisis I think just really grinds on psychology.
So, you do have this contradiction in the Covid economy where we can see these numbers. You know, we can see last year there were dozens and dozens of record highs in the stock market. You have a Fed that has to go in and start raising interest rates to make sure it doesn't get too hot. That's how good it is. But people just say they don't feel it.
KEILAR: Yes, it's a very interesting, interesting difference there.
Christine, thank you.
ROMANS: You're welcome.
BERMAN: After an historic run, the winning streak for "Jeopardy" champ Amy Schneider came to an end.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You looked at this for a long time. No response. You're going to lose $8,000. You're going to finish in second place with $19,600.
Amy Schneider, congratulations. What a run. Thank you for the two months you spent with us. It was very special. It was remarkable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Her defeat after 40 straight days, still a huge win. She walks away with nearly $1.4 million. The first woman ever to do that. Schneider tweeted this last night, this "Jeopardy" experience has changed my life. But when I think of 2021, it will always be the year Genevieve and I started dating first and the year I was on "Jeopardy" second.
She will return for the "Tournament of Champions" this fall.
You know, the final "Jeopardy" question she got wrong was a hard one. It was, what's the only country in the world where the English spelling of it, the word ends in an h.
KEILAR: I am not the "Jeopardy" person, Berman. Answer your own question. BERMAN: No, I -- I could never get it. It was -- the answer was
Bangladesh, which in a million, billion, gillion years I never would have thought of. So.
KEILAR: Me neither.
But I will say, look, I really like Amy Schneider and I like how -- I love what she said at the end, she's got her priorities on. You know, she's got her priorities straight, and I love it.
BERMAN: I always tell my wife, it's wife first, Red Sox second, usually.
KEILAR: Wow.
BERMAN: Usually.
KEILAR: You must really love her.
BERMAN: It just, you know, it just depends. It just depends.
Our next guest campaigned for President Biden in 2020. She even spoke at the Democratic Convention. Why she now says that Biden has let her down.
KEILAR: And progressives got what they want, Justice Stephen Breyer to retire, but will they like President Biden's selection to fill his seat?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:46:08]
BERMAN: A woman struggling with addiction found sobriety through baking. Now she's helping others in today's "The Human Factor."
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JANIE DEEGAN, JANIE'S LIFE-CHANGING BAKED GOODS: From the time I was three or four, my mom would let my brother and I experiment in the kitchen and just mix anything we wanted and see how it turned out.
I always made friends easily. Even if I was surrounded by people, I felt like I was all alone. And so when I was introduced to alcohol and drugs, it was a solution for a long time.
I picked up my first drink or drug when I was in my mid-teens. In my early 20s, my alcoholism addiction got progressively worse. That's when I started cycling through rehabs and halfway houses and being homeless.
I got sober when I was 25. And baking, I like to say, it kind of saved my life. I saved up $25 and bought like a little handheld mixer and started baking. It was a form of meditation for me.
In 2015, a friend of mine asked if she could purchase a cake. I ended up selling her a cake for this big event and it was such a success.
I built a career and a business out of people giving me a chance. And I think it's so important that that remains at the center of my business.
Janie's Life-Changing Baked Goods has an open door hiring policy. We make pie crust cookies. A pie crust cookie is the best bites of a pie in a handheld cookie form.
Baking filled me with self-esteem and helped me connect with others and it's still doing that for me.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: A beautiful story.
After her father died of Covid, Kristin Urquiza hit the campaign trail hard. She had hoped that the election of Joe Biden would bring a competent and compassionate approach to dealing with the pandemic. This is what she had to say at the Democratic National Convention in 2020.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KRISTIN URQUIZA, 2020 DNC SPEAKER WHO LOST FATHER TO COVID: We need a leader who will step in on day one and do his job, to care.
One of the last things that my father said to me was that he felt betrayed by the likes of Donald Trump. And so when I cast my vote for Joe Biden, I will do it for my dad.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: And Kristin Urquiza is with us now.
You know, thank you so much for being with us again. I'm so sorry. I know that soon you'll be coming up on two years without your dad. And I know it probably feels like yesterday that you just lost him.
But I wanted to talk to you, Kristin, because you've been so clear about what you expect when it comes to a response to Covid with your personal investment in it. You'd famously said that, in your dad's obituary, his only pre-existing condition was trusting Donald Trump, and that he paid for it with his life. Has Joe Biden earned that vote you cast, though?
KRISTIN URQUIZA, 2020 DNC SPEAKER WHO LOST FATHER TO COVID: Listen, I am grateful that Joe Biden is the president. I know that the response that we are getting from the Biden administration is 80 percent, 100 percent more than what we would have gotten from his competitor. But it's still not the plan that we were promised, yet the plan that we need. And the plan that we have right now has been mostly vaccines only. And as you can tell, that hasn't gotten us the full distance that we need to go to get out of this pandemic, save livelihoods, as well as lives. KEILAR: Clearly there's been a consideration of folks who don't want
as many restrictions, right, as some Democrats do. How do you see how the Biden administration has factored those folks -- and some of them are Democrats -- into the equation versus what you expect?
URQUIZA: Yes, that's a great question. I think that the Biden administration has gotten a lot of curveballs. Some of them were unexpected. But the fact remains that we should have expected things like surges, especially whenever the entire world is not vaccinated. We're going to continue to be vulnerable to this virus until we double down on the things that we know that we can do, such as continuing to supply an ample amount of tests, as well as masks, to people across the country.
[08:50:16]
KEILAR: Can you -- specifically, where do you think, you mentioned masks, you mentioned tests, any other places where specifically you think that he should be doing better?
URQUIZA: Absolutely. The exploration of the OSHA standard for healthcare workers is of grave concern. People who are non-remote workers overall feel as if they're expendable. So I think we need to really zero in on what does worker safety look like given the constraints that we have.
But, overall, one of my biggest concerns is just the person who's in charge of the pandemic response, Jeffrey Zients. He's a large donor, a businessman, a former Facebook board member, who doesn't have a background in public health, let alone health equity. And at this point in time, we really need somebody in that position, or at least more people in that room, that can really bring a health equity lens to ensure our most vulnerable communities, whether it's the disabled community, chronically ill community, people with long Covid are thought of first whenever we're moving forward in this next phase of the pandemic.
KEILAR: Look, we've heard the president say at times, he said in December, he could do better. I know that he'll be listening to folks like you, Kristin. Thank you, again. We're thinking of you and your family. Appreciate it.
URQUIZA: Thanks for having me.
BERMAN: Here's what else to watch today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ON SCREEN TEXT: 10:30 a.m. ET, Education secretary speech.
12:30 p.m. ET, White House briefing.
2:00 p.m. ET, State Department briefing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: A family praising an LAPD officer after saving their toddler from choking to death. The dramatic body cam video, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
KEILAR: Time now for "The Good Stuff."
A Los Angeles police sergeant was in the right place at the right time for a desperate couple whose toddler appeared to suddenly stop breathing.
[08:55:02]
Here's the video.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know what's wrong! Officer, please!
OFFICER: Over here. Over here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's -- please! I don't know what's wrong!
I don't know what's wrong! Officer, please!
Please! Please! Please! Please, please, please, please! Please, officer, please, I don't know what's wrong.
I don't know what's wrong, officer, please.
OFFICER: 2L40, show me on a citizen flagdown, Echo Park, and uh --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mari! Mari!
OFFICER: Echo Park. Just south of it.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please, officer! Please, officer! Please!
OFFICER: Hey, what's that street right there? What's that street?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Echo Park and Echo Park and Bellevue. Echo Park and Bellevue, officer! Echo Park and Bellevue.
OFFICER: Echo Park and Bellevue.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Echo Park and Bellevue. Echo Park and Bellevue. Echo Park and Bellevue.
Can I get an R.A. for a child, three years of age. No conscious, not breathing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please. Officer, please! Officer, please!. Please, please, please.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's going on?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know, baby! I don't know. She was in the car with me! She was in the car with me! I don't know what's (INAUDIBLE). Please, just --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's OK, Mami! It's OK. Mami, it's OK, my love. What does she have? What did you have, Mami? Aahh, open, aahh.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please. Please, please, please. Please.
OFFICER: There, something came out. Something came out.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you have, Mami? What do you have? OK, Mami.
OFFICER: Get off the street. Get off the street.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Right? Oh, my God, that is the best cry that a parent could ever hear. And Sergeant Bumjin Kim was just -- I mean he -- you saw it there. He dislodged something from the little girl's airway. Started breathing again. And once it was determined that she was OK, he got a visit with her dad.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SGT. BUMJIN KIM, LOS ANGELES POLICE: My big thing was, at the time, getting the paramedics there. And it really didn't hit me about what's going on until they got there and there was a -- there was a sigh of relief once the baby started breathing -- or crying.
I spoke to the dad and, you know, he was grateful, you know. We shared a hug. Because I think it was a sigh of relief between both of us as fathers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Sergeant Kim says he's looking forward to giving the little girl a teddy bear with an LAPD vest when he gets to visit her.
BERMAN: That was an amazing hug, I am sure, between those two dads there. What a moment.
All right, from one hero to another.
This morning, a wake will be held honoring fallen NYPD Officer Jason Rivera, who was killed while responding to a domestic call in Harlem last week. Last night, hundreds of people gathered for an emotional vigil outside the 32nd Precinct, where fellow officers mourned the loss of Rivera and his partner officer, Wilbert Mora.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OFFICER CHARLES REYES, NYPD: I'll miss you, my brother.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got you, bro.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're there for you, man.
REYES: I'm still hoping this is only a dream and I'll wake up tomorrow. It's all a nightmare, actually. And I'd like to speak to you one last time and I want to say I'm sorry. I'm sorry for not being there.
OFFICER STERLING MEDINA, NYPD: Your smile lit up a room. Your smile, your laugh changed everyone's mood, and to know that.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's OK. Let it out. Let it out. God got you.
MEDINA: To know that we're not going to get that again, it hurts. And I'm sorry I couldn't be here to hold you. But I'm always going to remember you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: CNN's Shimon Prokupecz is live outside St. Patrick's Cathedral.
This is going to be an emotional day, Shimon.
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, an emotional day, emotional two days. Today is the first day, of course, the wake, which is going to take place here today. Thousands of officers are expected to line the streets here as the coffin of Officer Rivera is brought here around 11:00 a.m. It will be brought inside, of course, the iconic St. Patrick's Cathedral, where he will be memorialized, the hero and honored by many of the people who will come here.
The wake is going to be public. It starts at around 1:00. And the city is asking for people to come. They want people to show their support for this officer, and for the NYPD. The mayor trying to use this as a moment to unite this city.
This officer, of course, just over a year on the job and, you know, John, this sort of has hit this department much different. I've been to other funerals. Of course, sadly, many other officers have died in the line of duty. But given the age of this officer, and everything that has transpired here, certainly going to be a very emotional, emotional day here today.
And then tomorrow we will have the funeral, which is set to begin at 9:00 a.m. And then next week his partner, his partner, the funeral for his partner, Wilbert Mora, here also at St. Patrick's Cathedral.
John.
BERMAN: You know, so young, such a loss, joined the force because he wanted to make a difference, wanted to be able to put smiles on people's faces in this city.
Shimon Prokupecz, we know you're there all day long. It is an emotional day. Thank you so much for being there.
[09:00:02]
PROKUPECZ: Yes.
KEILAR: Just listening, I think, to those police officers, just how -- we've learned a lot about these officers. And I have to say, it's very clear how special they were.
BERMAN: CNN's coverage continues right now.
