Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Large Storm Approaching Eastern Canada; Protests Erupt in Russia after President Putin Calls Up Large Numbers of Reservists to Fight in Ukraine; Official Overseeing Transportation of Migrants from Florida Linked to Company Profiting from Florida Immigration Policy; Mortgage Rates Increase as Federal Reserves Expected to Continue Inflation Fighting Measures; Boston Celtics Coach Suspended for Inappropriate Relationship with Staffer; Breyer Warns Justices: Some Opinions "Could Bite You in the Back". Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired September 23, 2022 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: With Canada now bracing for a once in a generation storm. Let's get right to meteorologist Chad Myers. There are serious concerns about this, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Absolutely. This has been in the water a very long time. A lot like Katrina, when you put a storm in the water for a long time, it builds up this storm surge. And this surge missed Bermuda mostly. It was a brush by, but it is not going to miss Atlantic Canada. There's going to slam directly into Nova Scotia and Newfoundland. And that is the bubble of water that is going to come in with this hurricane.

There's going to a lot of rain before it. There are hundreds of thousands of trees here that likely many of them won't come down because the leaves are still on the trees. It's raining right now. The roots are going to be in mud. And look at these winds, 127 miles per hour according to the latest computer model.

Something else that happened overnight, John, tropical depression number nine will likely become Hermine. There's another storm possible out in the eastern Atlantic that could race to that name, but here's where we are now. And it is forecast to get into the very warm waters of the Caribbean and possibly make a turn to the right. This is a much more accurate forecast I think than the computers had any idea of yesterday. Models were here and here. No idea. But now we do have a cone and we do have the potential for a hurricane. There are the models today. A lot different. They look a lot more organized today. We're going to have to see what happens. Hurricane hunters are in the storm right now.

BERMAN: Looking at the map. That's why my eyes are over here, Chad. That's a lot of possibility for U.S. landfall there.

MYER: Oh, sure, sure.

BERMAN: Chad Myers, thank you very much. BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: The Ukrainian president calling on

Russians to revolt as Vladimir Putin faces an uprising from his own people this morning. Hours after Putin shocked his people by announcing a draft, the Russian leader continues to face major turmoil at home. His order has sparked angry protests across the country. It has led to more than 1,300 arrests. The move now causing some Russians to leave. Here you see emotional farewells as this mobilization, as Putin calls it, gets under way. There are Russian men who are leaving behind their families to board military busses for service.

BERMAN: The demand for flights out of Moscow up sharply. Tickets to countries where Russians are not required to have visas are said to be sold out. On Google trends, the term "leaving Russia" saw a steep spike in surges over the last 24 hours. According to a ticket aggregator, one-way tickets out of Moscow to Istanbul are starting at more $2,000 per ticket. Before the announcement from Putin, they cost just $350, so a huge increase there.

And happening now, there is a referendum, referenda in these four areas that Russia now more or less controls with its allies in Ukraine. They're having these votes that the U.S. and the west consider to be staged or sham votes about whether these regions should join Russia. You can see, they're not even under total control by Russia, and the way they're conducting the votes can barely be called a vote. In some cases, they're actually going door to door and collecting ballots, so you can see some of the problems with that, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, very questionable. And CNN is tracking the latest from the front lines.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: I'm Nick Paton Walsh in easter Ukraine where the Kremlin's monumental decision to mobilize hundreds of thousands of troops and send them to the front line for the ordinary population is sending ripples across the country. Protests and dissent possibly like we've not seen before in the 22 years in which Putin has been in power, hard to read because state propaganda and the security services are all over society there. But troubling days ahead.

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Ben Wedeman in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Voting, if you can call it that, has begun in hastily organized referenda in four Russian occupied regions of Ukraine. The vote, backed by Moscow, is over whether these regions should break away from Ukraine and become part of Russia. The referenda will continue until Tuesday. In the Donetsk region, the ballot will only be in the Russian language because, according to the head of the local administration, the state language is Russian. The Ukrainian government is urging residents of the occupied territories to boycott the vote.

SCOTT MCLEAN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Scott McLean in London. A long-serving official with Moscow's aviation institute died in an accident on Wednesday according to a statement from the institute. That same statement said that a commission was being formed to investigate what happened to Anatoly Gerashchenko who worked at the institute for 45 years.

This is the latest in a string of mysterious deaths among Kremlin allies. Last week, a prominent businessman was found dead in Russia's far east, and earlier this month, and oil and gas executive died after apparently falling out of the window on the sixth floor of a Moscow hospital.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:05:09]

KEILAR: The Florida official leading Governor Ron DeSantis's immigration response has been linked to the company that is getting paid for relocating migrants to other states. CNN's Steve Contorno is following this story. He is live for us in St. Petersburg, Florida. Steve, tell us what you've learned here.

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Brianna, this officials name is Lawrence Keefe. He is a former Trump appointed U.S. attorney who was named Governor DeSantis's public safety czar last year. This is a job Governor DeSantis created to oversee Florida's response to the border crisis. Now, Keefe also before he was U.S. attorney was a lawyer for Vertol Systems. That is the Destin, Florida, based company that has received $1.6 million so far from the state of Florida for this migrant relocation program. Before he was a U.S. attorney, he represented him for about seven years from about 2010 to 2017, him and his firm represented them in multiple lawsuits over that stretch. Notably also U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz who once worked for Keefe and was at one time a close ally of Governor DeSantis, he also represented this company back in the day.

Now we are still trying to get a lot of answers as to how this company was picked, what qualifications they have to move people from the border to or states. And, Brianna, we have asked for records, documents, contracts related to, that might shed some light on how this company was picked, and so far we have not received anything back.

KEILAR: And there is a Democratic lawmaker in Florida who is actually suing to block more of these migrant flights. What can you tell us about that?

CONTORNO: Yes, Senator Jason Pizzo last night filed a lawsuit, and he says that these flights are illegal, that they're a misuse of state dollars. And the lawsuit itself is pretty straight forward. It says look, the legislature, no one has objected to the fact that they set aside $12 million for a migrant relocation program. But that money was supposed to be used for, quote, unauthorized aliens from this state, this state being Florida. Now, one, these might not be unauthorized aliens. Most of them seem to be going through the legal asylum process and are waiting to go through the immigration system. And two, they're clearly not from Florida. There were picked up in San Antonio. And Senator Pizzo was actually on CNN and spoke a little bit about his lawsuits. This is what he said. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON PIZZO, (D) FLORIDA STATE SENATE: The Florida Department of Transportation is required to implement a program. That program has to receive at least two bids. We have no indication that there were two bids. And the allocation appropriation of $12 million should be spent, again, very important, on unauthorized aliens. And we can question the immigration status of the individuals that were brought here from Texas. Not all of them are unauthorized, if any, because they were processed and paroled into the system. Nobody originated here in Florida. No dollar can be spent outside of Florida.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: Now, we did get a response from the governor's office for this lawsuit last night. They gave us a statement that said, quote, "Senator Pizzo never misses an opportunity for his 15 minutes of fame and is challenging an action on an appropriation he voted for." Brianna, I should clarify, Senator Pizzo voted for the overall budget, $100 billion document. This is a $12 million allocation. And again, he doesn't dispute that this program exists. He just doesn't like the way the money is being spent.

KEILAR: Steve, thank you so much for taking us through that. So much happening in Florida. We appreciate it.

BERMAN: The 30-year mortgage rates topped six percent this week. that's the highest it has been in 14 years dating back to the 2008 financial crisis. CNN business correspondent Rahel Solomon with me now. So what does this man for people who maybe waited a couple years to buy a home?

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It means that home prices continue to go up, mortgage rates continue to go up, so buying a home becomes less and less affordable, John. A year ago, consumer inflation was 5.4 percent, and the average 30-year mortgage rate was closer to 2.88 percent. What a difference a year makes. Consumer inflation currently at 8.3 percent and mortgage rates are closer to 6.29, the highest since October of 2008, which we pointed out, meaning that someone buying a home now compared to even just six months ago is likely paying hundreds more each month for the very same home.

So how did we get here and what happens now? Well, at the start of the pandemic, the Federal Reserve lowered its benchmark interest rate to practically zero and kept them there for years to try to stimulate the economy and encourage spending. And, boy, did we spend.

[08:10:00]

Remember all those bidding wars for homes, the long lines for open houses? All of that demand drove up home prices. Fast forward to today and prices are still high, as I pointed out, but so are mortgage rates, meaning a lot of people just can't afford to buy a home right now. So sales have been falling for months, and they are down significantly from last month. And usually that would mean prices would start to fall, but that's not

expected at this time. And it's part of the reason why the deputy chief economist of Redfin Taylor Marr says there's been a lot of talk of a new normal, but what's happening in the housing market feels like a new weird. Housing experts say they actually expect prices to fall significantly because of a major inventory problem. We just don't have a lot home on the market right now. For years homebuilders have fallen behind on what's needed to keep up with demand.

So what do you do now? Rent, that also continues to be high in some cities, so it still might make financial sense, if you were looking, to continue to look for a home, because the current rates, though you might have to get a smaller home or something prices lower, which is, of course, tough in this market. And in terms of where rates go from here, we learned this week that the Federal Reserve does intend to keep raising its target interest rate. That doesn't set mortgage rats, but it does impact them. That said, mortgage rates could and should stabilize at some point, John. The question is, how soon?

BERMAN: Who knows? I will say, if you're in the middle of a 30-year fixed mortgage right now, you're feeling pretty good. You're looking around saying, I'm lucky right now.

SOLOMON: You're feeling pretty good, but you're not looking to sell, because why would sell right now and then get a higher mortgage rate? So people are staying put. But yes, you're feeling pretty good.

BERMAN: You make a really good point. What this is affecting is decisions a lot.

SOLOMON: Yes, totally.

BERMAN: Thank you very much.

All right, new this morning, the Boston Celtics suspended their head coach Ime Udoka for the entire season. Reports say Udoka had a consensual relationship with a female staff member that violated team rules. The coach apologized. In a statement he said his actions pull put the team in a difficult situation.

I want to bring in Gary Washburn, national basketball reporter for "The Boston Globe." Gary, longtime Celtics fan, long time fan of your work at "The Globe" so it's great to see you. I think the question people have here is what happened? What exactly happened? Why a year suspension? And if it was so bad to get a year suspension, why have a job at all?

GARY WASHBURN, "BOSTON GLOBE" NATIONAL BASKETBALL WRITER: That's a good point. I just think the organization felt like they had warned Coach Udoka about some of his actions, and he ignored those warnings, and it came to a point where they felt like they had to do something, that they felt like he was kind of violating, obviously, their agreements, the workplace agreements. This could have been something that was in his contract. You're not able to have relationships with members of the organization, especially those who are under you. So, unfortunately for Coach Udoka, he broke those laws, broke those

rules, and now he's not out of a job, but he's as close to out of a job as can you get. He will be suspended for a year. The organization does not promise he'll being back in 2023-24. He said they'll review it then. So he may never coach for the Celtics again.

KEILAR: Gary, as you write out, and you point out, and I'm so glad you point out, the effect that this is having on women in the organization, right, when you look at social media.

WASHBURN: Yes. What happened was ESPN released a tweet saying he was going to be suspended likely for the season because of some violations of the workplace, and then a few hours later "The Athletic" released this week said it was an inappropriate relationship, consensual relationship with a team employee. So what many in the Twitter world did, or some, started to look for the list of Celtics employees and looked at the women on there and said, OK, it could be her. Maybe it's her. Maybe it's her. Including president of development Allison Feaster, who it wasn't. And her picture especially began getting posted on social media about this is the woman that Coach Udoka was with, and it wasn't here.

So she's had a miserable experience through this. She's been dragged through the mud for absolutely no reason. And a lot of the women in the Celtics organization are wondering, like, was the organization going to protect them. What were they going to come out and say? What exactly was going on, because the Twitter world, many in the Twitter world were trying to guess who the woman was.

BERMAN: A lot of questions, Gary, not only about the Celtics but also about policies, why they exist, why they're in place, and it is an important discussion to be having. Keep doing the great work, Gary. Nice to see you.

WASHBURN: Thank you.

BERMAN: Seventeen people have died in the protests in Iran just as Iran deploys an all-female unit of its disciplinary force to help do what they call control the restlessness.

[08:15:00]

BERMAN: And an unruly passenger attacks a flight attendant mid flight. What happened? More on this outburst ahead.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: So who's talking to Chris Wallace?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHANIA TWAIN, SINGER-SONGWRITER: And man I feel like a woman --

(CROSSTALK)

CHRIS WALLACE, WHO'S TALKING TO CHRIS WALLACE HOST: I feel like a woman, bomp, bomp, badada.

TWAIN: Yes, you go the guitar part too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Coming up, we will speak to Chris about this interview, this sing-along. And the others that premiere on his new show this weekend.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: The much anticipated premier of HBO Max's "Who's Talking to Chris Wallace" is finally here. CNN's own Chris Wallace will sit down with a variety of guests over the next 10 weeks; from media moguls to CEOs to Hollywood legends. And the first three episodes are actually out today and they include an interview with the now retired Associated Justice of the Supreme Court Stephen Breyer.

Here's a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: You had a bad final year. Some of the most important cases on the court; abortion, guns, the power of the EPA to regulate the climate; you were on the losing side. Was that frustrating for you to lose important case after important case?

STEPHEN BREYER, RETIRED ASSOCIATE JUSTICE OF SUPREME COURT: Yes.

WALLACE: But how frustrating?

BREYER: Very frustrating.

WALLACE: When the court undoes a right that people have lived with for half a century doesn't that very much shake the authority of the court?

[08:20:07]

BREYER: You think (ph) I like this Dobbs decision, of course I didn't. Of course I didn't. Was I happy about it, not for an instant. Did I do everything I could to persuade people? Of course. Of course. But there we are and now we go on and we try to work to get Dobbs (ph) - I mean it's a little corny what I think. But I do think it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: A little corny what he thinks. Let's bring in CNN Anchor Chris Wallace. What a fascinating perspective from Stephen Breyer at this moment in time. What else should we be looking forward to here?

WALLACE: Well, I've interviewed a lot of Supreme Court Justices and retired Supreme Court Justices. I never heard one talk the way Stephen Breyer did. He was careful, you know, he wasn't going to take shots at some of his former colleagues but, as you can see in that last answer about Dobbs, he was pretty emotional and pretty open. He was on the court for 28 years and he says the first 27 years, and he won cases and he lost cases, but he said the 28th year, this last term, was different. And in effect he was saying that six to three conservative majority in which he lost a gun case and he lost Dobbs on abortion and he lost a question about the EPA and administrative agencies power to regulate was different. And I think he feels the court has turned and he's upset about it.

KEILAR: He's normally pretty reserved as he speaks. One of the things that struck me, just the visual of it, you know, when you set up an interview you obviously have the lights there, he was leaning in so far to emphasize that to you he leaned out of the lights.

WALLACE: Yes, I wasn't particularly happy that he leaned out of the light.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: I thought it was true in effect though.

WALLACE: But you're - but you're - but you're exactly right. He's - well he's a very animated guy anyway. But one of the things that he talked about was why he decided to retire now. He said I miss the court and he clearly thinks he's still up to being on the court. One of the reasons he left the court is because he was worried about the political division between a Democratic President and potentially, after November, a Republican Senate. And he was worried that if you got that kind of a split that the Republican majority in the Senate would not confirm whoever Joe Biden nominated and he could be stuck on the court for another two years or another four years.

And he wanted - he wanted to get off. He didn't want to be held hostage on the court. So it's a very candid interview (inaudible) particularly from a Supreme Court Justice.

KEILAR: You also spoke with actor and I mean just sort of extraordinaire, Tyler Perry. I want to play some of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: When you look at that little boy, that's you at five, what do you think? What do you - what do you say from this vantage point to that about your five-year-old self?

TYLER PERRY, ACTOR: I guess (ph) that's hard for me to look at my - it keeps - I look so much - Jesus, I look so much like my son. The great thing about having a child now, a seven-year-old, is I get to say all those things that I didn't get to say to my younger self. So I feel like it's helping to heal a lot of wounds.

WALLACE: Have you come to terms with the fact that you didn't get that from your father? Or is it still an open wound?

PERRY: I've come to terms with it and - but the beauty of it is having my son, I'm telling you every time I say I love him, I feel - I feel it being said to the little boy in me. My father often - he sent a message to me, a few years ago through my brother, saying, if I had beat your ass one more time you would be Barack Obama. Meaning that he thinks that his abuse brought me to success.

But he totally negates the love of my mother. And the love of my mother is what brought me here. It wasn't the abuse, it wasn't the rage and the anger. It was her love that brought me to this place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: What a powerful moment.

WALLACE: Yes. I mean that's - that frankly is our hope, our ambition for this is that to have these extended, they're not interviews they're conversations, half an hour, 45-minutes. And to have these conversations that at a certain point you get past the publicist scripts and it gets real. And it got real there. I mean just a quick back up, Tyler Perry grows up really poor in New Orleans and his father is very abusive, beats his mother and beats him, beats him, Tyler Perry, so badly. That sweet little boy you saw there that sometimes he would beat the flesh off his bones.

And to imagine that now he's a grown man, an enormously successful, world famous and Tyler Perry's father calls him and says, if I had beaten you more you would have been Barack Obama. I mean, I don't know how you felt but when he said it to me, in the room, I took a gasp. And as he talks about his mother, because his mother - while his father is doing that, his mother is taking him to church and that's where he got his faith and his hope and the strength that has led him to be Tyler Perry.

[08:25:01]

KEILAR: That's the light in the darkness -

(CROSSTALK)

WALLACE: Yes.

KEILAR: -- that he talks about there. You don't just interview, all right -

(CROSSTALK)

WALLACE: Oh, my god.

KEILAR: -- you sing along and you better be -

(CROSSTALK)

WALLACE: I'm a little worried about Berman on this one.

KEILAR: You better believe we're going to play this --

(CROSSTALK)

WALLACE: Can I (inaudible) quickly - can I just quickly, real quick, I was talking to Shania Twain and I tell her that we were on a trip, a family trip, to Yellowstone back in the late 90's and we have a cassette on and it's playing this song and we all sang along.

KEILAR: Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TWAIN: Oh, oh, oh, go totally crazy. Forget I'm a lady. Men's shirts. Short skirts

(CROSSTALK

WALLACE: Yes, I like that part.

TWAIN: Oh, oh, oh, and man, I feel like a woman

(CROSSTALK)

WALLACE: I feel like a woman, bomp, bomp, badada.

TWAIN: Yes, you go the guitar part too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Did you ever think in that road trip that you one day be singing that on T.V. with her?

WALLACE: No and I also didn't necessarily think that my colleagues here at CNN would play that as the one clip from a very good interview. But I do want to say this, Berman, because I know you're going to give me a lot of bologna about this. She says that at her concerts when she does that song; men, women, old, young, they all sing. And honestly, John, have you ever - tell me that you have never felt like a woman.

BERMAN: There's more to that answer than you have time for at this point, Chris. But let me just say, --

(CROSSTALK)

WALLACE: I'm sorry our time is up.

BERMAN: -- let me just say, you have the music inside you and that's what's important.

WALLACE: I do. I do have the music. The music flows through me. Can I just quickly say this is going to be on HBO, it's on HBO right now. You can catch the three separate full, half hour interviews and then Sunday, the best parts of all of them and yes, including the singing song - the song, "I Feel Like A Woman", will be on CNN an hour, The Best of Breyer, Shania Twain and Tyler Perry, 7:00 p.m. eastern.

KEILAR: She's great, I can't wait to see what she has to say. But obviously we had to show you singing, Chris Wallace, obviously. Thank you so much for being here, for being a good sport and for sharing this new project with us. We just can't wait for it to be out.

WALLACE: I'm very excited, I think people will really enjoy it. They'll get to see sides of these people they've never seen before.

KEILAR: Thank you. So how does a four-day work week sound? Well a new survey suggests a shortened work week could actually be beneficial for both workers and employers.

BERMAN: Plus Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis, says he is proud of sending migrants to blue states. We're going to speak to Republic member of Congress, Nancy Mace joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:30:00]