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New Day

Marvin Lewis is Interviewed about Racism in the NFL; Chloe Melas with the "Morning Pop"; Inflation hits 40-Year High; Trump's Attempts to Disappear History. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired February 10, 2022 - 08:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:31:39]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell admits that the NFL has fallen short by a long shot in providing head coaching opportunities for black coaches in a league where 70 percent of the players are black. At his annual news conference before Super Bowl Sunday, Goodell also vowed to re-evaluate certain policies, including the Rooney Rule.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROGER GOODELL, NFL COMMISSIONER: What we want to try to see is the outcomes, right? We want to see black head coaches in the NFL, and coaches of people of color, and eventually gender, that we think is so important. So it's an inclusive process and hopefully an inclusive outcome.

We won't tolerate racism. We won't tolerate discrimination. If there are policies that we need to modify, we're going to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Joining me now is former Cincinnati Bengals Head Coach Marvin Lewis.

Coach, great to see you again.

MARVIN LEWIS, FORMER CINCINNATI BENGALS HEAD COACH: Hi, John.

BERMAN: So you hear the commissioner right there, you see that there have been two coaches of color hired this off season, bringing the grand total to three in the NFL. Do you believe that change is coming?

LEWIS: Hey, John, good morning.

Yes, and I'm very hopeful that things continue to change, change for a more positive outcome. There are many young black coaches that are really -- were disillusioned, you know, disappointed in some of the things that occurred in -- through this hiring cycle once again.

BERMAN: You know, I guess the key question this year, how do you change? You know, what do you do to fix this? And I'm asking you because, you know, you work with Octagon, a spots firm management, and you make diversity and creating opportunities your cause.

So, what can -- what have you done that maybe the NFL could do?

LEWIS: Yes, I'm -- you know, I'm pleased to be a part of Octagon's division that is to help create this career transition, help guys, whether they're making the conversion from playing to coaching, coaching to moving up. So, you know, I think we have to look at maybe some of the ground level opportunities for young black coaches being in the quarterback rooms, being with the offensive coordinator and so forth because that seems to be the trend in NFL owners are hiring and GMs are hiring, that we have to get more people in place that way.

BERMAN: Yes, in order to be an offensive coordinator, maybe you needed to be the quarterback's coach, maybe you needed to be a scout. So you've got to start. You've got to change the system from within there.

I asked you before, and this had to do the accusations Brian Flores made, where he said that he was offered money to tank games. I asked you if you'd ever been told to lose games. You said no.

But I am curious what you think about those --

LEWIS: No.

BERMAN: Right, but I want -- I want to know what you think about those allegations right now and how you think the NFL needs to address them and what if they're true?

LEWIS: Well, that's, obviously, something that approaches and attacks the integrity of the National Football League, which is a concern for all. Commissioner Goodell addressed that yesterday. And so there needs to be further investigation into that. And -- because that -- that affects all 32, it affects the fans, it affects a lot of things right now. The NFL is making a lot of money.

[08:35:00]

BERMAN: Marvin Lewis, Coach, I know you coached the Bengals for a long time. I think I know who you'll be rooting for on Sunday. So, wish you the best of luck heading into the weekend. Thanks so much, Coach.

LEWIS: Thank you very much. Good to be here.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: And it's time for the "Morning Pop."

CNN entertainment reporter Chloe Melas joining us now.

What is on tap here?

CHLOE MELAS, CNN ENTERTAINMENT REPORTER: Oh, I've got it for you this morning.

Well, Adele is sparking rumors that she's engaged to her boyfriend, sports agent Rich Paul. In her first public appearance since postponing her Las Vegas residency, the singer showed up to the BRIT Awards on Tuesday night wearing an enormous pear-shaped diamond ring on her ring finger. The couple had been dating since at least July 2021 and there were recent rumblings that their relationship was on the rocks. But based on that rock, you guys, rumor has it they're going strong.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You shall not pass!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MELAS: A different kind of Hollywood blockbuster. "Lord of the Rings," "The Hobbit " and others J.R.R. Tolkien properties are up for sale. The rights to films, video games, merchandising, live events and theme part attractions are expected to drop $2 billion in auction bids. The timing of the same is not accidental. Amazon is gearing up for its brand-new rendition of "Lord of the Rings" saga. "The Rings of Power" will premiere in September. So, mark your calendars.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOLLY PARTON, MUSICIAN (singing): Nine to five, for service and devotion, you will think that I --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MELAS: You don't even have to work 9 to 5 to get the perks of working for Dolly Parton. The country music legend announced that her Dollywood Parks and Resorts is going to pay all tuition costs, fees and books for employees who pursue higher education. It includes all part-time, full-time and seasonal employees from day one on the job. Dollywood employees already receive health and child care benefits and free meals for every working shift.

Brianna, back to you.

KEILAR: That is unbelievable.

Chloe, thank you for that "Morning Pop."

MELAS: Thank you.

KEILAR: Breaking moments ago, a highly anticipated inflation report was just released. We are crunching the numbers. We'll tell you what's in it.

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[08:41:34]

KEILAR: Breaking just moments ago, we have some brand-new numbers on inflation.

And CNN chief business correspondent Christine Romans is here to help us make sense of them.

What's in here?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Look, you guys, inflation is still running hot. This is the fastest consumer inflation, the fastest rate of price increases we've seen for just about everything since February 1982.

The headline number for you, 7.5 percent. That is the inflation rate year over year. When you look at the month, 0.6 percent. That means how much prices rose from December to January. That is faster than many economists had expected. We thought that these numbers were starting to month over month moderate. Not the case last month. And here's why.

Food, electricity, shelter, you saw a lot of things that were a lot more expensive in January than they were a year ago. Among them, gas, up 40 percent year over year. You saw some moderation on that month to month, but I don't expect that to continue. Used car prices up more than 40 percent year over year. I mean, think of that, if you're trying to buy a used car today compared with last year, that is a huge change.

Food at home, 7.4 percent. Meat, up 13.6 percent. And I've been looking into the electricity and the shelter part of these numbers, also running hot, incredibly important because you can't switch your menu to fix those things, right? You can't switch your heat source necessarily. So that -- your power source necessarily. So those are kind of big problems for American families, especially low-income American families.

So, a new 40-year high on this inflation rate. A lot of folks will be saying what -- what is the administration doing about it? The job of fighting inflation is the Federal Reserve. The Federal Reserve will likely start raising interest rates. This adds more kind of conversation or more -- more evidence to this big debate happening, how quickly will the Fed start raising interest rates and when.

Ironically, the solution to fast inflation is raising interest rates for American consumers, which raises their borrowing cost. So the solution to this is something that Americans will feel in their pocketbook as well.

KEILAR: Yes, and for people on a limited income, it means the thermostat is going to go down, right, or it's going to go up in the summer, and they're going to go without some food. That's a very real possibility.

Christine, thank you so much for taking us through that.

We have some more on our breaking news out of the Olympics. A Russian figure skater, we know that this person is a minor, has failed a drug test. There is only one minor on the team here. So, what is going to happen now?

BERMAN: And the stunning, new report that an engineer, presumably a plumber, had to routinely fix President Trump's White House toilet because it was clogged with wads of printed paper.

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DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: People are flushing toilets ten times, 15 times, as opposed to once.

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[08:48:32]

BERMAN: The National Archives has asked the Department of Justice to investigate former President Trump's handling of White House records after it had to retrieve 15 boxes of records that traveled with Trump to Mar-a-Lago.

John Avlon with a "Reality Check."

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: They just traveled on their own.

Look, history matters. Facts matter. Because they're both essential for reasoning together in a democracy, right? So that's why it's so twisted to see these partisan fights over the basic facts of our recent history.

We all know that the attack on January 6th was not legitimate political discourse. Just anyone who look at the facts knows the 2020 election was free and fair and won by Joe Biden. But Donald Trump can't deal with the truth because he knows it will not set him free. And so he's trying to rewrite history, sometimes by repeating the lie loudly, other times by trying to hide information that belongs to the American people.

For months Trump was suing the National Archives and Records Administration, known as NARA, to stop the release of some 700 pages of documents related to January 6th. Because he wasn't successful, we are starting to hear more direct evidence about the plot to overturn an American election. Now NARA is recommending that the Justice Department investigate Trump's handling of documents after the removal of 15 boxes of presidential documents, some of which included possibly classified information according to "The New York Times."

This is in addition to Trump's known pattern of tearing up Oval Office documents. One White House saying she believes him once chewing the pieces of paper. As Maggie Haberman writes in her new book, that from the White House residence kept finding evidence Trump was trying to flush official papers down the toilet, all of which is, of course, completely normal.

[08:50:07]

Look, no president's been charged with theft of official records from his administration, even though Trump's grab bag makes the Nixon tapes look targeted. And I understand that, yes, the key question here is intent. But when are we going to stop treating the ex-president like a malevolent child? Ignorance can't be an excuse because there's no excuse for being persistently ignorant when you're president, especially because at least two chiefs of staff and a White House counsel reportedly told Trump he was required to protect those documents. And if that's not enough for you, Trump certainly seemed to understand the need to archive documents when he was running against Hillary Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: People who have nothing to hide don't smash phones with hammers. They don't. People who have nothing to hide don't bleach, nobody has ever heard of it, don't bleach their emails or destroy evidence to keep it from being publicly archived as required under federal law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AVLON: Publicly archived under federal law. Yes, people who have nothing to hide don't destroy or conceal evidence. Just like they don't plead the Fifth hundreds of times, as Trump's aides and abettors from lawyers Jeffrey Clark to John Eastman to Alex Jones and Roger Stone have done in front of the Jan. 6th committee.

But pleading the Fifth to avoid self-incrimination is protected by the Constitution. Destroying federal documents is a crime. Yes, the U.S. criminal code starts very clearly, anyone found guilty of willfully and unlawfully removing or mutilating or destroying official government records can be fined and imprisoned for up to three years.

But that's not all. And this is the important point. The law says that anyone holding federal office who is convicted of this crime can lose their position and be disqualified from holding federal office in the future. So, just to be totally clear here, there is an existing law on the books that could disqualify Donald Trump from holding federal office ever again.

Now, look, I know most folks think there's not a chance in hell the former president will be prosecuted from trying to steal or destroy documents. After all, it's small ball compared to conspiring to overturn an election, which, by the way, it also known as seditious conspiracy.

But, here's the thing, laws exist for a reason. And when we stop enforcing them for powerful people who are ignoring the idea of equal justice under law, and don't forget we've seen lots of small fry prosecuted for stealing federal documents. And our website lists a dozen cases, some of which resulted in multiyear jail sentences.

But there's a deeper principle at work here, beyond the idea that even a president can't be permanently above the law. It's about putting the national interest ahead of self-interest. And that's what Donald Trump will never understand, the presidency is a sacred trust, not an ego trip. It's about serving the American people, not yourself. Knowing that history has its eyes on you.

And that's your "Reality Check."

BERMAN: A little revolutionary tip of the cap there, the tri-cornered cap.

AVLON: Well, thank you for noticing.

BERMAN: John Avlon, thank you very much.

All right, coming up, why you should always listen to me. Nathan Chen wins the gold. I told you he would 12 years ago. You should have listened.

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[08:57:41]

KEILAR: After a Texas woman was paralyzed, she worried that people thought her life no longer mattered. So, she took to social media to show them how wrong they were in today's "The Human Factor."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARCELA MARANON, ACCESSIBILITY ADVOCATE: When I was 20 years old, I was involved in a car accident that left me paralyzed from the waist down, and above the knee amputee. After I became disabled, I needed to enter buildings and they weren't wheelchair inaccessible. I feel embarrassed and I feel like I was being rejected for having a disability. And this is why I decided to do something about it.

So, I started like these social media account to bring awareness about my struggles as a disabled person and inspire and empower people to live their life to the fullest.

We can stay healthy by going to the gym and work out.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There you go.

MARANON: Or riding a handcycle.

When I feel like if I share that in social media, they can also see that it doesn't matter if I am disabled or not disabled, you can still accomplish what you want in life.

This is why I travel. This is why I climb mountains. This is why I do extreme sports, because I want to experience that as a disabled person. So my story can make a difference. Your story can make a difference. We just need to speak up. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Oh, that's really nice.

KEILAR: Yes.

BERMAN: I love that story.

All right, so sometimes I told you so doesn't even cut it, right? American figure skater Nathan Chen won gold overnight with a stunning free skate. So, you know who predicted this would happen?

KEILAR: Let me guess.

BERMAN: And I'm talking 12 years ago, right, when Nathan Chen was 10. Ten! I went and did a story in 2010, OK, for ABC News to profile Nathan Chen. There he is. I'm talking to Nathan Chen -- he's 10 years old -- because he was doing really well on the juniors, and, you know, I went and told people in 2010 to keep their eye on that kid.

KEILAR: And what did you say that helped him, you know, win gold?

BERMAN: Don't fall. Skate better than I skate. I mean, first of all, look how bad I'm skating there. It's sort of -- it's sort of embarrassing.

KEILAR: It's more of a shuffle.

[09:00:00]

BERMAN: It's sort of mortifying.

KEILAR: Shuffle on the ice.

BERMAN: But he's being so -- and, look, he has to slow down. He has to like slow down.

KEILAR: This guy on his skates.

BERMAN: He's like, oh, you know, yes.

But he was remarkable at 10 years old and what he did last night was even better. And if I can leave you with one thing, it's just, remember, listen to me.

KEILAR: Hmm (ph).

BERMAN: CNN's coverage continues right now.

KEILAR: That's cute.