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Giuliani to Appear Before Grand Jury; Bus Driver Shortage Across Nation; Homebuilders See Housing Recession; NASA Rolls out Artemis 1; FDA Approves Over-The-Counter Hearing Aids. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired August 17, 2022 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:31:04]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Just hours from now, Rudy Giuliani is expected to appear before a special grand jury in Atlanta. Prosecutors in Georgia informed Giuliani and his lawyers that he is a target of a criminal investigation into possible attempts by former president trump and his associates to overturn the 2020 election results there.

CNN's Nick Valencia is live for us on this story in Atlanta.

Nick.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, good morning, Brianna.

After some legal wrangling and much anticipation, Rudy Giuliani is expected to appear before that special purpose grand jury later this morning. He's the biggest name in the former president's inner circle to testify before this investigation and also the first in Trump's orbit to be named as a target of this criminal probe.

District Attorney Fani Willis, who's leading this investigation, wants to know more about what Giuliani said when he appeared before Georgia lawmakers three times in the wake of the 2020 election to spread conspiracy theories and baseless claims about voter election fraud. They want to know what he said, and they want the details of that answered.

Giuliani has said that this probe is politicized and political in nature. In fact, there's already been moves to try to disqualify Fani Willis from this investigation. She's a Democrat.

Most recently, overnight, when 11 of those 16 so-called fake electors asked a judge to dismiss Willis from investigating them. Remember those electors participated in a plan to subvert the electoral college in an attempt to illegitimately certify the former president as the rightful winner in the 2020 election here in the state of Georgia when he was not. Willis has already been disqualified from investigating one of those fake electors, State Senator Bert Jones. She held a fundraiser for his political opponent. All 16 fake electors, just like Giuliani, have been named targets of this criminal investigation. Willis' investigation has been wide- ranging, wide-reaching, broad in scope. And we know that Giuliani is expected to appear just a few hours from now before that special purpose grand jury without an attorney. The contents of which his testimony is secretive.

Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Nick Valencia, live for us in Atlanta, thank you.

A teacher and bus driver shortage is throwing the new school year into a crisis. The districts getting hit the worst, next.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The once hot U.S. housing market now cooling off. What's causing a dip in construction starts ahead.

And new this morning, North Korea firing two cruise missiles into the waters. A new U.S. intelligence warning about the North's nuclear plans. That's ahead.

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[06:37:31]

BERMAN: As kids are headed back to school, school bus driver shortages are creating challenges for districts across the country. So much that in St. Louis, families are being offered $7,500 gas cards to help get students to school.

CNN's Alexandra Field here with the latest on this.

And it's really across the country, Alexandra.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is really a situation of whatever it takes from Connecticut to Alaska to get kids to school and everywhere in between, including St. Louis, where families of young children are getting $75 gas cards in order to offset their driving costs. Older children there will be given metro cards in order to help them get to schools. The problem being felt in Alaska, where just a third of students will be served at a time. They'll then rotate those bus routes until they can come up with more creative solutions and perhaps more resources.

In Arizona, families are already being told they'll need to be a little bit patient. Buses could run on delays of 15 to 20 minutes while drivers do double runs. Districts everywhere really looking at how to consolidate these routes, make them a bit more efficient, but that isn't doing enough to make up for the shortfall entirely.

Georgia starts the school year some 200 bus drivers short. In Connecticut, the number goes up to about 1,000.

This is all coming over years now as more drivers continue to retire and districts have trouble filling those jobs. The problems also bleeding into the classroom where the issues are not just retirement but also retention and recruitment. And, again, we're seeing these shortages, tens of thousands of teacher openings all across the country, everywhere from Delaware to Nevada.

Pennsylvania hit hard. They say they have 22,000 fewer educators in the field than they did back in 2020, and this is forcing a lot of creative solutions all over the country. Florida is looking at plans to put more military veterans into the classroom. They may not have the traditional teaching accreditation, but some there say they have non-traditional experience that could still really benefit students.

In other states like Arizona, you're seeing changes to teacher requirements as well. Some teachers will enter the classroom without having yet obtained their college degrees. And in rural parts of Texas, students going to just four days a week in order to compensate for the shortfall. Now, that might be a solution that's popular among some students. We have to see which of these might be short-term solutions, like bringing more virtual teachers into the classroom, and what the longer term solutions will be. How to address the systemic problems that have led more teachers to leave the field, John.

BERMAN: That puts a lot of pressure on the districts. Also a lot of pressure on parents around the country.

Alexandra Field, thank you very much.

We are going to speak with St. Louis Public School Superintendent Dr. Kelvin Adams, whose district is offering families $7,500 gift cards to help get kids to school.

[06:40:10]

KEILAR: Home builders are pumping the brakes on new houses. The cost of supplies remains high and more prospective buyers are being priced out of the market. After a big drop earlier this spring, new housing starts had been holding relatively steady up until last month, but the number of new homes started in July plunged 9.6 percent month over month.

Joining us now is Vanessa Yurkevich, and business and politics correspondent Rahel Solomon - Rahel Solomon, our business correspondent.

What's happening here, Vanessa, with these housing starts?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, simply there is less new home construction right now. And that's because of consumer demand. We're seeing people pulling back, saying that we're not going to spend money on a new home, and that is because mortgage rates have increased by over 2 percent in just a short amount of time and people are saying affordability is off the charts right now.

You know, the average home price is well over $400,000. And what that is doing is stoking fears of a housing recession. We want to use that word carefully because when you hear recession, that gives people PTSD from the 2008 housing crisis. But I spoke to the chief economist at the National Association of Home

Builders and he said the reason that he is using that term is because he's seeing four things that really point to this. They're seeing eight months of home builder sentiment dropping. They're seeing these slow housing starts. And they're seeing a lack of new building permits. So, they're seeing less incentivized -- the home builders seeing less incentivized ways to build homes, and that is, in his mind, showing a slowing in the housing market, and that's why he's using that delicate word, recession.

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and I think in addition to that, right, all of those things, you also have the cost of making a home continuing to rise. Even as recently as July, right? I mean, 0.4 percent the price of building materials rose in July. And according to the National Association of Home Builders, since January of 2020, prices are surged almost 36 percent. So, when you add the fact that home demand, mortgage demand is falling because prices continue to rise, because there is such limited supply, you have the fact that mortgage rates are going up so you can afford less home, and the cost of making a home is going up. Home builders don't want to be stuck carrying the bag if they start to make a home that you no longer want.

BERMAN: We're expecting the macro big retail sales number a little bit later this morning, but we got a first taste of some earnings reports over the last few days, including Walmart, which is such a huge part of the retail sales ecosphere. And the news seems to be what our friend Christine Romans calls less lousy than it has been, which is improvement. Explain what we're seeing, Rahel.

SOLOMON: Absolutely. It's -- they still expect their profit to fall, but not as much as they had previously warned. So, it's sort of like, not as bad as we were expecting, but not exactly smooth sailing either. So, what Walmart is saying is it saw its sales rise 9 percent but profits continue to soften because folks are traveling to Walmart, not only its current customers, but also newer customers, middle, higher income customers looking for deals. And that's great in terms of its grocery business. But Walmart actually makes less profit on its grocery business. It makes more money, more profit, from things like electronics, home decor, which people aren't shopping for as much because of this high inflation environment. So, it is less bad than they were expecting, but not exactly smooth sailing.

And if you're at home wondering, well, who cares about Walmart's profit. Perhaps, right. But Walmart is a company that employs 2.3 million people around the world. It has 10,500 stores. I mean it is a huge employer and retailer. So, what matters to Walmart, what happens to Walmart, matters, as you said, John, in terms of the larger eco sphere.

YURKEVICH: And this is what we're hearing out in the country, right? I've been reporting for months now about how people are feeling about inflation. I spoke to a mom of three yesterday sending all of her kids to school for the first time and she said, you know what, you know where I'm shopping this year for my lunches, for my snacks? I'm going to Walmart. She's middle class, upper middle class, and she's saying, I need to save somewhere. Walmart is a great place to save. It's a big box retailer. You can get more for less. And Walmart has a little more flexibility with their ability to cut prices. Sometimes, you know, local supermarkets, they don't have that ability.

So, we're hearing it from people, where can we cut? OK, we're going to go to these big box retailers where we can afford to pay a little bit less for still more.

KEILAR: And that change in behavior may be a pattern that explains some of what we're seeing.

Vanessa and Rahel, thank you so much to both of you.

Serena Williams' second stop on her farewell tour ending in another loss. What happened on the court, ahead.

BERMAN: Plus, why hearing aids should get cheaper and better soon. This will affect millions of people.

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[06:49:59]

KEILAR: NASA is finally ready to launch its mega rocket, Artemis 1, to the moon. Kennedy Space Center engineers have been testing this rocket for months before it blasts off for its lunar mission planned for late August. But the rollout to the launch pad began last night, as you can see here.

Let's bring in space correspondent Kristin Fisher.

So slow, so exciting, this move to the launch pad.

KRISTIN FISHER, CNN SPACE AND DEFENSE CORRESPONDENT: It's so slow, Brianna, it takes all night long, about ten hours. This vehicle transporting the rocket to the launch pad it can only go about 0.8 miles per hour. So it may not look like much, but what you're seeing there is about, you know, more than a decade in the making, several billion dollars. It is now arriving at the launch pad.

And we have not seen a NASA-built rocket bound for the moon arriving at a launch pad in about 50 years. This is incredibly historic. NASA targeting an August 29th launch, if all goes according to plan. And, you know, Brianna, it's hard to tell what's more impressive here, the rocket itself or the crawler that got the rocket to the launch pad.

[06:50:06]

Those crawlers were built back in the 1960s, designed to carry the Saturn 5 rocket to the launch pad back during the Apollo program. The difference, though, is, you know, back then the United States was in a space race with Russia to get to the moon. Now NASA's primary competitor in getting astronauts back to the moon is China. They are trying to do the exact same thing. And so a lot of people wonder, hey, didn't we do this back in the '60s? Weren't we doing this back in the '70s? NASA sending astronauts to the moon? The answer is, yes, but they've got to do it again because now China is the primary threat. And so now you see the Artemis rocket, it is just inches away now from the launch pad and just a few short weeks away from a launch on August 29th.

Brianna and John.

KEILAR: And 0.8 miles per hour?

BERMAN: Which is not that fast.

FISHER: Point - no, no, 0.8 miles per hour. Less than one mile per hour.

But, I mean, that rocket, Brianna, is 34 - it's the same height as a 34-story skyscraper. So just think how big that is and how much money is on top of that crawler, and that's why it has to - has to go so slow.

KEILAR: I thought I saw it move there, but, no, I didn't. I didn't, actually.

Kristin, thank you so much.

FISHER: It's like watching paint dry.

KEILAR: I know, it kind of is.

Former President Trump's strong grip over the Republican Party solidified even more after Congresswoman Liz Cheney went down in defeat by a landslide. What she plans to do, next.

BERMAN: And anger this morning after Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas makes a Holocaust comparison to Israel. We are live in Jerusalem.

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[06:55:51]

BERMAN: Of all the news this morning, this might have the greatest effect on the most people. This is good news for millions of Americans with mild to moderate hearing loss. The FDA has cleared the path for hearing aids to be sold over the counter without prescription or a medical exam in an effort to increase access and lower costs. This move is estimated that this could save Americans about $2,800.

Here now CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

So, Sanjay, what does this move mean?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: This means that there could be a lot more people out there who have untreated hearing loss that could finally have access to these sorts of hearing aids. You know, people have been talking about trying to cover dental and vision and hearing for a long time. Dental and vision still are out there, but hearing loss is something that people have focused on because it is so untreated. If you look overall at the population of people, even, you know, since

birth, you have a certain percentage of people who have hearing loss. As you get older, and especially if you get over the age of 75, you find that close that 50 percent of those folks have some degree of hearing loss.

The problem is that if you look at that population, especially older people, only about 30 percent of people are actually getting hearing aids and the biggest limitation typically is cost. They're not typically covered by insurance programs and they are several thousand dollars to get these hearing aids. By making them over the counter, the idea is, and the hope is, that there will be many more people making hearing aids, bringing those costs down and hopefully getting that untreated hearing loss treated.

KEILAR: Does it apply to all groups with hearing loss?

GUPTA: So, for now it's going to be -- let me show you the type of hearing aid that we're talking about. It's the type that sort of fits over the back of the ear. It uses conduction to improve the hearing. It's a specific type of a hearing aid. And it's mainly going to be for people who have mild to moderate hearing loss and adults for the time being. We'll see if that changes over time.

BERMAN: So, hearing loss isn't just about walking around and literally what you hear, it can have a big impact on other aspects of health also, right, Sanjay?

GUPTA: I'm fascinated by this part of it. I was really interested in its association with dementia. And what you find is that it's one of the leading risk factors for dementia for two reasons, one is that people oftentimes become increasingly isolated if they have hearing loss. That can be a risk factor for dementia. Or they're simply not hearing things. People think that they're not remembering. But the truth is, they did not hear things in the first place. This is a common problem, again, especially among the elderly.

Typically, you're hearing things in the 10 to 15 decibel range. Mild to moderate hearing loss, it is -- takes 40 decibels roughly for you to hear things. Let me - let me give you an example of what that sounds like. I'm just going to counts to ten and you're going to hear the difference. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. So, if you could hear that at home, you get a sense of what it's like for someone who has, again, just mild to moderate hearing loss, what their daily life might be like in terms of actually picking up those audio cues.

KEILAR: Yes, that's really help - you're really leaning in to hear that.

Totally unrelated, Sanjay, but yesterday I'm at home watching my not so guilty pleasure, one of my favorite Netflix shows "Never Have I Ever." And just for context, for people who don't know what this is, this is the protagonist is an Indiana-American teenager whose name is Davey (ph). She's from the Fernando Valley, San Fernando Valley in California, and this is an exchange in the show that she's having with her grandmother on a -- like a Hindu holiday.

Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pati, your Golu is so fire. Like, look at this. You got Lord Ganesha, Durga, Lakshmi, you know, all the OGs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's right.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But then you got some straight-up flare, like this little crystal dolphin, or DIY Sanjay Gupta.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hubba-Hubba.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, where should we put Sanjay? If he's in the center, the Golu will be too sexy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Hubba-hubba. Hubba-hubba.

KEILAR: The standard for heart throbs on this show is high, Sanjay, and you've hit it.

GUPTA: I - I -- you know, at this stage of life, I have three teenage girls.

[07:00:00]