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New Day

Florida Governor Defends Moving Migrants as Blue States Consider Legal Action; Judge Blocks DOJ From Continuing Trump Criminal Probe for Now; Mortgage Rates Jump Above 6 Percent for the First Time Since 2008. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired September 16, 2022 - 07:00   ET

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

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Including where you can watch the entire field with advanced stats.

[07:00:04]

Now, at the third quarter, Chiefs were down ten. Patrick Mahomes buying some time here, eventually finds Jaylen Watson for a 41 yard touchdown. Then the game tied in the fourth quarter, Justin Herbert is going to get picked off at the goal line by Jaylen Watson, the seventh round pick. That's NFL record going 99 yards for the longest go ahead fourth quarter touchdown by a rookie in history. Chiefs scored 20 straight. They'd hold on to win 27-24.

But, John, a pretty successful first game for Amazon on Thursday night, I'll tell you what. For me at least, it's going to take a little while to get used to Kirk Herbstreit calling NFL games. So, you used to know him doing it in college.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Look, I just thought the teams were so good. I watched a lot of football last week. This is a different football than I saw when I watched the Patriots play.

SCHOLES: Hard to fail with Chiefs and Chargers.

BERMAN: All right. Andy Scholes, thank you very much.

New Day continues now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): Every community in America should be sharing in the burdens. It shouldn't all fall on a handful of red states.

We are not a sanctuary state and it's better to be able to go to a sanctuary jurisdiction. And, yes, we will help facilitate that transport for you to be able to go to greener pastures.

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: Instead of working with us on solutions, Republicans are play playing publics with human beings using them as props. What they're doing is simply wrong, it's un-American and it's reckless. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: President Biden ripping the governors of Florida and Texas for busing and flying migrants to areas run by Democrats.

I'm John Berman with Brianna Keilar.

Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis took credit for sending two planes of migrants to Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Texas governor Greg Abbott sent two buses of migrants to the vice president's resident in Washington. Now, the Democratic governor of Illinois sounding off, J.B. Pritzker says Abbott is not telling officials how many migrants are being to Chicago or even when they're arriving.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. J.B. PRITZKER (D-IL): The NGOs don't who is on buses. And governor of Texas is choosing not to tell them to tell Chicago how many people are on the buses before they arrive. They won't tell us how many infants, children, seniors or families are on board.

We have tried to direct the buses to reception centers in Chicago that we have prepared for the arrivals. But the state of Texas instead chooses to send them to Union Station, dumping these human beings off in the dead of night.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: CNN has reporters on the ground in those cities that are being targeted by Republican governors. Here's what they're finding.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Miguel Marquez in Martha's Vineyard. And this is the location. This is the one homeless shelter that they have on the entire island. There are five different towns here, St. Andrews Parish house can usually handle ten, they had to increase the number to 50 of immigrants who will be here after they were sort of unceremoniously dropped off on planes, two different planes, in Martha's Vineyard, seven different families, four children between the ages of three and eight.

And this is some of the work that the town is doing. The towns here on Martha's Vineyard have come together and are collecting everything, from clothing to cash to food and even lawyers. Right now, there are lawyers speaking who were talking to immigrants throughout the day, kind of getting a sense of why they came here and what their situation is, trying to figure out the road ahead for them.

The concern that officials have here is that this might not be the end of it. They may see more planes coming in with migrants in the days and weeks ahead. They are preparing for that possibility. At the same time, they say the 50 that are here now, they expect in the days ahead most, if not all of them, will move on to new locations.

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NEWSOURCE NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Gloria Pazmino in New York where thousands of asylum seekers have been arriving as part of an effort by Texas Governor Greg Abbott to bus migrants out of his state.

Here in New York, the Department of Homeland Services have processed 11,000 asylum seekers so far. And a source tells CNN 1,700 of them are children. For now, the city is using emergency hotels as shelters. The mayor says they are reaching a breaking point. He's asking the federal government to step in and help.

In the meantime, the city has opened up an intake center here in Manhattan. It's one of the first stops migrants must take before entering the homeless shelter system.

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm Gabe Cohen in Washington, where yesterday, more than 100 migrants were dropped off outside the home of Vice President Kamala Harris after they were bused in from Texas at the direction of Governor Greg Abbott. The group, a mix of families and young men mostly from Venezuela were left stranded on the sidewalk, some carrying garbage bags with their few belongings, as nonprofits scrambled to make arrangements.

[07:05:11]

Since April, Governor Abbott has been sending these buses to D.C. and New York, drawing sharp criticism that he's using vulnerable people as political pawns.

KEILAR: Joining us now is Reverend Chip Seadale. He is a rector St. Andrew's Episcopal Church there in Martha's Vineyard, which welcomed those migrants who arrived there unexpectedly. He's joining us actually from a conference where he's been directing some of these efforts.

Reverend, can you just -- because we're hearing about how there's no notice coming to these cities and to these institutions. Can you tell us how you first learned that there were migrants who needed the help of your church community?

REV. CHIP SEADALE, RECTOR, ST. ANDREW'S EPISCOPAL CHURCH MARTHA'S VINEYARD: I got a phone call a couple days ago, late in the afternoon that a plane had arrived at little Martha's Vineyard airport, and the migrants -- a few miles down the -- social services agency on the island.

BERMAN: And you have got translators, I know. You have got people who have been talking to the migrants who arrived there. What are they telling you?

SEADALE: Pretty much what you -- on the air. From my understanding, the migrants were really not told what was going on. They were on a plane, ended up at Martha's Vineyard. I think one of them said through a translator that they thought they were going to Boston. So, I don't know what they thought they knew. I do knew they were pretty much in the dark. And when they got off on Martha's Vineyard, they really didn't know what to do or where to go. KEILAR: You heard what Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said about this, and he's taken credit for this move. What is your reaction to what he said and also just the spirit of what he said?

SEADALE: I'm in a church, so my job is to help everybody heal. I know it's kind of difficult these days to find somebody who doesn't really want to go there, but I -- you know, we really can't be playing that game in the church anyway. I know everybody has their opinions. As Americans, we should know what our opinions on are on these matters and try to dig deeply for the answers. These are complex questions.

But our job in the church, really, and I know people of faith all around the world probably feel the same way, whatever faith or denomination tradition they come from, is that in their hearts, they're telling them, we need to try to help heal each other. And so I know it doesn't make for great news perhaps, but I can tell you what happened. And it's just really so gratifying for me to see what transpired.

When the migrants made their way down to the church, I made a few phone calls. We decided almost immediately that we would take them in no matter what, they had nowhere to go. And then the whole island community of Martha's Vineyard really pretty much turned out, whatever political stripe they were, to help these people who had been so traumatized by their incredible journey in so many different ways and facets and places, women, children, men.

And so, to me that's where most all of us in America right now should be paying our attention. I know the politicians have very hard jobs. I don't think any of them out there has a bad heart. I do know sometimes these things look very political and people get footballed around and are exploited. I understand that. But I think what we're being called to do is really to address these questions, really dig deeply for the truth and the answers and then to work together and decide to work together in order to address these problems because these are real people. These young children are going to be traumatized for the rest of their lives. And for me to find phone calls from physicians and dentists and translators and people willing to bring food, it's just been really the silver lining to this very difficult and troubling situation.

KEILAR: Yes. Look, Reverend, I think that's refreshing to hear. It has been something to witness the faith community there on Martha's Vineyard come together, rally around, and just meet the need, as we're seeing it there for these folks, and we appreciate your time this morning. Reverend Chip Seadale, thank you.

BERMAN: Not for nothing with that shirt, Reverend, I want to hang out in your church. Your church is the kind of place where I want to spend some time.

SEADALE: Any time, John.

KEILAR: This just in, CNN is learning that senior U.S. officials are disappointed that American-led global sanctions against Russia have not had the impact on the country's economy they were hoping for, so far anyways.

[07:10:09]

In part that's thanks to soaring energy prices generating a huge influx of extra cash for Russia, Russian exports of oil, gas, coal, earning a record 93 billion euros.

CNN's Katie Bo Lillis joining us now with her reporting. Understandable that they're frustrated here, Katie Bo.

KATIE BO LILLIS, CNN REPORTER: Oh, yes, no, absolutely. Look, the Russian economy shrank by 4 percent in between April and June of this year, compared to the same period last year. But that's still nowhere near the 15 percent that some officials were anticipating earlier in the year. Some senior Biden administration officials as well as western intelligence officials had expected that the decline in the overall Russian economy was going to be far steeper than it's actually been.

As one senior U.S. official put it to us, we were expecting that things like SWIFT and all the blocking sanctions on Russia's banks would totally crater the Russian economy and that by now, going into September, we'd be dealing with an economically much more weakened Russia than the one we're dealing with.

So, of course, Brianna, we know that what actually happened is that record setting energy prices allowed Russia to effectively prop up its economy, at least in the short term. And some sources are telling us that some Biden administration officials, and some western officials, underestimated the degree to which Russia was going to be able to take advantage of those high prices. And now, what we're hearing from our sources is they don't anticipate the worst bite of these western sanctions is going to actually hit the broader Russian economy and Russian society until early next year, like Q1, Q2.

Now, important to understand, there have been some immediate impacts, right. Certainly, some western export controls and targeted sanctions have allowed the west to effectively choke off Russia from purchasing some of the tech technological components that it needs to build some of the weapons that it wants to field in Ukraine, things like semiconductors and microchips, aircraft parts, that kind of thing. But in the long run, U.S. officials still believe that this is going to do punishing damage to the overall Russian economy.

KEILAR: Yes, if they can keep everyone together, all their allies together, Q1, Q2, that's a ways off here. Katie Bo, great reporting, thank you so much.

BERMAN: So, a federal judge rejected the Justice Department's bid to continue with its criminal investigation into the content of the classified documents seized at Mar-a-Lago, and that judge has also appointed a special master to review those documents and set a November 30th deadline to complete that review.

With me now is the publisher of the blog Law Fair and former CIA Officer David Priess. And, David, as part of this ruling, Judge Cannon says that she doesn't accept the government's argument that, look, these were classified documents, therefore, Donald Trump doesn't have any right to hold onto them. And what Judge Cannon wrote here, and I want to read this, she said the court does not find it appropriate to accept the government's conclusion on these important and disputed issues without further review by a neutral third party, disputed issues would seem to suggest that she considers it a disputed issue whether these were classified documents.

DAVID PRIESS, FORMER CIA OFFICER: And to be clear, Trump's legal team did not dispute some of those core facts. They did not assert that these were declassified or unclassified documents. So, the judge essentially is creating the dispute by saying the government is asserting in the affidavit that these are classified materials. There are classified cover sheets that we have seen. We have not seen the actual documents because that's the classified information they don't want to show to the public and to our adversaries. But, presumably, these are top secret, secret, and confidential documents.

She is saying, I don't trust you that they're actually classified. Who do I trust? A designee of the court, a special master who's going to determine, more than the executive branch, which handles classification issues, what is classified and what isn't. It's a silly ruling, and I hate to use that adjective because it actually does have an impact on intelligence collection and it has an impact on national security. But the ruling itself is just nonsensical.

BERMAN: I also want to note in the, the documents to go execute this search warrant, the language is marked as classified, right? In a way, legally, it doesn't matter. It only matters that they were marked as classified. I guess I don't understand why it would be disputed. What could the dispute could possibly be?

PRIESS: There really isn't one. I think it was an excuse to delay this process. The judge wanted to delay this process. That was clear from the beginning. And she's looking for something to grab onto to do that. This is actually a very weak one to grab onto. It's not going to hold up on appeal if it goes to that, which I expect it will because there's no real precedent for this, for a judge asserting that something might not be classified.

[07:15:00]

I know there are lots of people who were prosecuted in cases of mishandling classified information who would love to go before a judge who did not have the defense attorneys saying these really aren't classified documents, but the judge unilaterally says, but maybe they're not classified, so let's not worry about it right now.

BERMAN: One thing that is interesting, in no legal documents or a statement out loud in court has a representative of Donald Trump affirmatively said that Donald Trump declassified these documents. It hasn't happened in a courtroom or a document. One of the reasons why could be it carries more weight if it's actually in a document than if it's said out loud in a political setting. Donald Trump did an interview with Hugh Hewitt yesterday where he talked about this. Listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Patel said he witnessed you giving verbal orders to declassify the papers that ended up at Mar-a-Lago. Do you remember making those orders?

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: That's correct. And not only that, I think it was other people also were there, but I have the absolute right to declassify. A president has that absolute right, and a lot of people aren't even challenging that anymore.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Well, first of all, does anyone challenge that a sitting president has a right to declassify?

PRIESS: No.

BERMAN: That's a moot issue because we're talking about a former president here. And it's interesting, he says that Kash Patel witnessed him declassifying everything, other people did too. But the lawyers, as I said before, they're not making that case in court, are they?

PRIESS: No, because they didn't execute the process. So, let's say, hypothetically, that the president in the presence of Kash Patel and a few other people did say, I want to declassify everything. Great. He can say that. But if nobody executed that, if nobody told the agency originating the information that this was declassified, there's still a bunch of declassified documents out there in his mind that really are still classified and you can't retroactively do it.

A former president can't say that really I meant to put in the process to declassify these. Otherwise, every president upon leaving office would be able to later say that he or she had done X, Y, Z, including classification and declassification decisions and ruin the entire national security classification system.

BERMAN: I also want to note, Jamie Gangel and others, including me, have talked to any number of former Trump officials none of whom say that they ever heard some kind of blanket declassification. And many people use language to the effect that such a notion is absurd.

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

KEILAR: We have some new CNN reporting this morning on Senator Lindsey Graham's proposed ban on abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, a national ban. A source tells CNN that the proposal was intended to arm Republicans with a policy issue they could rally around ahead of the midterm elections. Senator Graham's current stance is a reversal from his previous position.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): I've been consistent. I think states should decide the issue of marriage and states should decide the issue of abortion.

I think we should have a law at the federal level that would say, after 15 weeks, no abortion on demand, except in cases of rape, incest, to save the life of another.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Consistent, no.

Joining us now is CNN Capitol Hill Reporter Melanie Zanona and CNN Senior Reporter Isaac Dovere.

Why, Mel, did the senator do this?

MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: Yes. I know a lot of people have been scratching their heads over this move. And so I talked to some Republicans about exactly why is Lindsey Graham doing this. And, really, it boils down to this. Republicans privately acknowledge that their messaging on abortion has not worked. Their attempts to run away from the issue have not worked. And so there are some in the party, including Lindsey Graham, who think it's better to address the issue head on and show the American people what they do stand for on abortion, which in Graham's proposal would be banning abortion at 15 weeks, not a wholesale, and trying to put Democrats on the defense and trying to get them to say, okay, at what week do you support restricting abortion.

But, of course, not everyone in the party agrees that this is a good strategy right before the midterms, especially because it's not a popular position in some of these key battleground, suburban swing districts, and, in fact, even House conservatives are divided over this. I reported that earlier this week. There was a heated meeting behind closed doors where you had a conservative, some of them saying this goes too far, others saying it doesn't go far enough. House Republicans are rolling out an agenda next week that doesn't even really mention abortion, just in passing, says we're going to protect the lives of unborn child and mothers. And so, clearly, there is this divide in the party, and, really, the effect that this has had is only exposing those divisions even further.

KEILAR: And it really just throws the midterms into question. How is this going to impact the results there? Another issue that is raising, Isaac, is the fate of Nancy Pelosi as the leader of House Democrats. And I know that you have some new reporting about where that stands.

ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Some of our colleagues and I spoke with a number of officials on Capitol Hill, members of Congress, staffers who are looking at the situation and saying, look, things seem like they're going better for Democrats these days than they were, and so they're feeling positive about.

[07:20:03]

But they're looking toward the future and they're saying, if we manage to hold on the majority, hey, maybe Nancy Pelosi would want her to stick around. But if we don't, then her time is done. And we're going to want to move past her for a number of reasons, including generational reasons. Of course, that leaves a lot of drama in her wake, trying to figure out who would possibly replace her.

This decision is going to come down to Speaker Pelosi herself. Everybody knows that. And she has indicated to people one way, some people think one way, some people think another, but most believe that she also sees that November the end of this year probably the end of her time in Congress.

KEILAR: Let's about the drama. What is the drums (ph) here on who might replace her?

ZANONA: Well, I mean, that is the great question. One of the reasons why Pelosi hasn't announced earlier that whether she's leaving or not is because she would create a lame duck situation where she's less powerful, it can raise less money. But the other reason is then it creates this open jockeying for who's going to replace here. But even in the absence of that, we're starting to see some of that quietly behind the scenes. Hakeem Jeffries, he's already member of leadership, he is considered likely the frontrunner. He has been fundraising, so is Adam Schiff, he's been going all around the country raising money, trying to win support in case he can get there for speaker.

But it raises a billion open questions. You have this situation where we have three leaders of Democratic leadership who have been there for a very long time, and so there's a lot of interest coming up the ranks.

KEILAR: Any women?

DOVERE: There are women in consideration for other posts but the top job is probably going to not be a woman at this point. We'll see. It's too early to tell where this will go. We don't even know if Nancy Pelosi is actually leaving.

KEILAR: Interesting. All right, we'll be watching this. Isaac, Mel, thank you so much.

A devastating discovery made in Izium, Ukraine, hundreds of unmarked graves found after Russian forces fled the city. What we're learning this morning.

BERMAN: Mortgage rates reaching the highest levels since 2008. Why some experts do fear a housing crash.

And King Charles on the road this morning, attending events to honor the queen as mourners wait hours to say their final goodbyes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:25:00]

BERMAN: All right. New this morning, mortgage rates jumped above 6 percent for the first time since 2008. That's more than double what they were just nine months ago. That's a big change. With me now, CNN Chief Business Correspondent Christine Romans and Bess Freedman, CEO of Brown Harris Stevens, a real estate company with 3,000 agents in Florida, New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Romans, first, just lay the groundwork for this increase.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: The Fed is raising interest rates aggressively and mortgage rates are tied to that benchmark interest rate, and they are going up aggressively as well. So, you can afford less today than you could last year. People are really having to adjust their expectations.

6 percent, that chart makes it look like so ominous. 6 percent is still post-World War II era, still relatively low. Like our parents got their mortgages at 18 or 20 percent in the '80s. But it is a big change in a short period of time and people are feeling it.

BERMAN: Look, I don't know if my father is up early enough to watch right now, but he always says, when I bought a house, it was X interest rate. You don't even know what that's like.

ROMANS: Complainers. Gen X complainers complaining about 6 percent mortgage rate, but it's a big change in a short period of time.

BERMAN: So, yes, the big change in a short period of time. Does it make it harder? Does it affect the overall real estate market?

BESS FREEDMAN, CEO, BROWN HARRIS STEVENS: It does. I mean, things will start to slow down. And just practically speaking, two years ago, the average home price was $405,000 and the rates were -- a 30-year was less than 3 percent. So, today, two years later, the average home price is $540,000, and rates are at 6 percent. So, that's real money. That's double for people. That's $30,000 for your down payment, assuming 20 percent down. That's double your monthly mortgage payment. So, that's real money for people.

But as you said, John, it's all contextual. It used to be in the double digits. So, it's not horrible and people are sort of adjusting to it.

BERMAN: I mean, you're paying more for the house already and then you're paying more in the mortgage as well. the question is do the higher rates -- at what point do the higher rates drive the market down, create a reduction in the overall home prices, or at what point does this upend the real estate market? What are your concerns there?

FREEDMAN: I mean, I don't think upend. I don't think it's going to crash. I mean, some people are saying that we're in for a housing crash. I think of the last 12 recessions, nine were preceded by a housing slowdown. I think we're seeing a slow down and a reset. And I think prices, as we said last time, Christine, have to capitulate a little bit. We have to see them come down a bit. They're not coming down fast enough.

ROMANS: Sales have come down for five months in a row but prices really haven't, and that's because there's just not a lot of inventory, especially around here in the northeast, around Chicago and other places. There just aren't a lot of homes for sale. And you always say that people make a home purchase decision not on the price but on their life.

FREEDMAN: Under circumstance. So, I always it's the best investment. You can't live in your stock portfolio, you can live in your home, it serves another purpose and it's a great investment over time.

BERMAN: You can't get a Lazy Boy in the stock portfolio. Believe me, I've tried.

FedEx, the head of FedEx is talking about basically what he sees right now in the environment. Let's play the sound?

ROMANS: Yes, play the sound.

BERMAN: Let's play the sound.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are we going into a worldwide recession?

RAJ SUBRAMANIAM, PRESIDENT AND CEO, FEDEX: Well, I'm not an economist but --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know more than an economist. Come on, they just push papers. You actually look at papers.

SUBRAMANIAM: Well, I think so.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You think we are going into a worldwide recession?

SUBRAMANIAM: I think so.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Global recession, and here's why. He's looking at his business in Europe, his business in Asia, and he has seen volumes drop dramatically and very quickly. So, they've actually removed their sales guidance from Wall Street. The stock was down about 20 percent right now.

Talking about how quickly the environment has changed for FedEx. If you think about FedEx, they move stuff around the world, global company. They have got their thumb on the pulse of the global economy. So, that was an ominous warning from FedEx that got everyone's attention yesterday, just another data point to put in the whole mix of conflicting information about economy that the FedEx weren't getting a lot of attraction this morning.

[07:30:03]

BERMAN: Bess, anything you're seeing in the real estate world that makes you think there will be larger economic implications?

FREEDMAN: I mean, I think what you just said about FedEx.