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New Day

Historic Decline in Math and Reading; Trump Subpoenaed by January 6th Committee; Kraft CEO on Recession; Astros and Phillies Face Off in World Series. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired October 24, 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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[06:30:33]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: There's a new report out this morning that shows the devastating toll of learning setbacks in America's children caused by the pandemic. Across the country, fourth and eighth graders fell behind in reading and they saw their largest ever decreases in math.

CNN's Gabe Cohen is joining us now on this.

I mean these decreases, especially the math, are just eye-popping.

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and we've talked a lot about the growing crises that students are dealing with right now, mental health issues, absenteeism, bullying. Well, this test is giving us a much clearer picture of the students' struggle in the classroom. And the results show that millions of these students are way behind.

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COHEN (voice over): An alarming snapshot of learning loss from the pandemic. New test results from the nation's report card show in most states fourth and eighth graders are falling behind in reading and math.

The math scores are historic, the worst decline ever recorded, with roughly 25 percent of fourth graders and 38 percent of eighth graders performing below the basic level. The lowest of the three achievement levels for the test.

Students who were already struggling in school showed the most dramatic drop off. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona calling the results appalling and unacceptable.

MICHELLE BURKE, EIGHTH GRADE TEACHER AND MOTHER: They were isolated for a year and a half to two years. That's a huge, huge problem.

COHEN: Michelle Burke is an eighth grade teacher on Long Island and has a daughter in eighth grade.

BURKE: My daughter is struggling in math exponentially. A lot of the things that we're seeing emotionally, behaviorally are it putting a huge strain on what you're seeing in the classroom. A huge strain.

COHEN: The findings come more than a month after similar results showing math and reading scores for nine-year-old fell by a level not seen in decades.

The federal government is pumping billions in relief funds into districts, requiring them to spend at least 20 percent on learning loss. Schools nationwide have been trying to hire more staff, but with teacher burnout and fewer new teachers, many schools face a teacher shortage, especially in rural areas and those with more low income families and students of color.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good afternoon. IDs, please.

COHEN: At Casa Grande Union High School in Arizona, some classes have more than 70 students. And in other rooms, pra-educators (ph) are teaching lessons prepared by a certified teacher.

STACY BRADY, BIOLOGY TEACHER, CASA GRANDE UNION HIGH SCHOOL: I think of myself. I struggled with math. And if I was sitting in that classroom, I needed help, I had questions, I need somebody to break it down a different way. If there's nobody who has the content knowledge to do that, I'm going to shut down. And I'm thinking many of our students might be shutting down as well.

BRADY: OK, last couple seconds.

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COHEN: And what makes these math scores particularly tricky is that many parents often feel much more comfortable teaching reading than a math equation. So, teachers here are critical. And those STEM subjects, Brianna, are some of the ones that are facing the worst teacher shortages. And so districts here, they're trying to recover, but some experts have told me it could take years and it's going to take major structural changes and a lot of money.

KEILAR: Seventy kids in a math class. I mean that is -- that is - it's just --

COHEN: It's baffling. And it's exhausting for the teachers. Terrible for the students. And it's just making these problems worse. It's just adding to it. Adding to that teacher burnout.

KEILAR: Not good enough.

Gabe Cohen, thank you so much for that.

Ahead, we're going to speak with Education Secretary Miguel Cardona here on NEW DAY.

So, what is next now that the January 6th select committee has subpoenaed former President Trump. We have CNN's senior legal analyst Elie Honig here to break it all down.

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KEILAR: The House select committee investigating the January 6th insurrection is now waiting for a response from former President Donald Trump. The committee unanimously voted to subpoena Trump, demanding that he turn over documents relevant to the attack and testify under oath. So, how long will the committee have to wait?

CNN's senior legal analyst and former federal prosecutor Elie Honig is with us now to walk us through all of this.

So what exactly does the subpoena call for, Elie, and what options does Donald Trump have now?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, Brianna, this is the most aggressive subpoena I've ever seen. Usually, a subpoena is just basically a worksheet you fill out. This one reads more like a prosecutor's closing argument.

The committee writes to Donald Trump, and really to all of us, quote, you personally orchestrated and oversaw a multipart effort to overturn the 2020 presidential election and to obstruct the peaceful transition of power. You knew this activity was illegal and unconstitutional. You knew it was illegal.

Now, the subpoena requires Donald Trump to do a couple things. First of all, to produce documents by November 4th, which is next Friday. The committee says we want your communications in particular with this group of the usual suspects, Stone, Bannon, Flynn, Clark, Eastman, and Rudy Giuliani.

The subpoena then calls for Donald Trump to come in and give deposition testimony on November 14th. Deposition. That means they're not giving him an open mic. They're not giving him a camera. He's not going to be testifying live. That means come in, we'll ask you questions behind closed doors. The committee does know some of the people who may be questioning you are former federal prosecutors.

And then the committee says, if you're going to invoke any privilege, Fifth Amendment or executive privilege, tell us now, potentially because they want to litigate it. So, Trump really has three options here.

[06:40:02]

He can comply. He can do what the subpoena tells him to do, He can negotiate. That happens a lot with subpoenas. Maybe he'll answer questions about some topics but not others. And, third, if he wants to be difficult, he can challenge it. He can go to court and argue that the subpoena is illegal. Or, more likely, just ignore it and put the burden on the committee to go to court if they want to enforce it.

KEILAR: So, if he refuses to cooperate, what legal options does the committee have?

HONIG: Yes, so DOJ really has two paths available if they choose to try to enforce this. They can go into a federal court, bring a civil lawsuit and ask a judge to issue an order requiring Donald Trump to testify. The problem with that though is the calendar. The key date to watch here is January 3, 2023. That is when a new Congress takes over. If that's a Republican Congress, of course the committee is done. But even if not, this committee has shown that they understand they have to be done by then. The fact of the matter is, they just don't have enough time to get a civil lawsuit done by January of 2023.

The other option is criminal contempt. The committee, and then the House of Representatives, can vote to hold Trump in contempt if he defies them. Timing is not as much of a problem here because, again, focusing on that key date of January 3rd, they don't have to go through the courts. As long as they vote contempt before them, and they have plenty of time, then the case goes over to DOJ, which will have to decide, do we bring criminal charges.

Now, we've seen this four times already. DOJ is two for four. They charged Steve Bannon, of course, who was convicted and just sentenced on Friday to four months in jail. Peter Navarro was charged. He has trial next month. But DOJ opted not to charge Mark Meadows and Dan Scavino. So, what would DOJ do? They're 50/50 so far. We'd have to wait and see.

KEILAR: Trump's lawyers, of course, they've said that this move by the committee is unprecedented. Just put that into historical perspective for us. Is that right?

HONIG: Well, no, it's not quite unprecedented, but it is rare. We have seen former presidents and presidents testify in front of Congress. No less than George Washington, Abe Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt. The committee, actually, in their subpoena, mentions Theodore Roosevelt and quotes him saying that a former president is just a private citizen, has an obligation to testify if called by Congress. And most recently Gerald Ford, who testified as president in 19754 about his pardon of Richard Nixon. And then again in 1983, in a more ceremonial capacity. But none of them were subpoenaed.

There have, however, been congressional subpoenas on presidents and former presidents. Back in 1848, Harry Truman was subpoenaed about the red scare. He refused to testify. Most recent, Richard Nixon was subpoenaed by Congress for those infamous White House tapes. He actually fought that in the courts and won. But then he got a criminal grand jury subpoena, fought that in the courts and lost, and then resigned a couple weeks later.

So, we will have a major legal battle ahead here.

KEILAR: All right. We'll be watching with you. Elie, thank you.

HONIG: Thanks, Bri.

KEILAR: Ahead, why Boris Johnson dropped out of the race to once again be Britain's prime minister.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And a new recession warning from a top CEO.

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CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: How do you prepare for the possibility of a recession?

MIGUEL PATRICIO, CEO, KRAFT HEINZ: We need to prepare for the worst and hope for the better.

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[06:46:50]

BERMAN: Mixed signals from the U.S. economy. Companies and CEOs warning of a recession, but corporate earnings suggest maybe business as usual, begging the question, does anyone really know where the economy is headed? The CEO of Kraft Heinz, Miguel Patricio, sat down with our own Christine Romans for CNN's "Risk Takers" special. This is his take on inflation and a possible recession.

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MIGUEL PATRICIO, CEO, KRAFT HEINZ: We try to minimize inflation on everything we do. I mean it's - it -- it would be very easy just to pass the price to consumers, but that has consequence. So, I think that, as an organization, as a food company, we have to try to do everything we can to keep the final cost of our products as low as possible. To do that, we have to be much more efficient in our factories. We have to buy better. And so it's a constant fight to try to minimize price increases.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Will you be raising prices this fall?

PATRICIO: We've already increased the prices that we were expecting this year, but I'm predicting that next year, you know, inflation will continue. And as a consequence, it will have other rounds of price increases.

ROMANS: How do you prepare for the possibility of a recession?

PATRICIO: We need to prepare for the worst and hope for the better, right?

ROMANS: Yes.

PATRICIO: And so adapting portfolios, working with multipacks, thinking about promotions, launching new products, accepting the inflation and trying to predict faster and adapt faster. It has to be an obsessive mentality every day.

Every day we have a new problem. It's the new normal. At the beginning we thought it was a crisis. Now we know it's a new normal, and we have to adapt to that.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: CNN chief business correspondent, Christine Romans is here. Also with us, CNN business correspondent Rahel Solomon.

Romans, this interview was for your "Risk Takers" series -

ROMANS: Yes.

BERMAN: Which is wonderful, by the way.

ROMANS: Thank you.

BERMAN: What else did he say about the economy?

ROMANS: You know, it's a new supply chain shortage every single week. You know, you fix one and another one pops up. You know, now we're talking about tomato shortages, which they predicted. Potato shortages. Just all up and down the line there are - there are problems.

He also talked about global food insecurity is a big issue for him. He's concerned about the war in Ukraine and the kinds of knock on effect that will have already with the high global inflation situation. That's going to mean, you know, poverty and foot insecurity around the world. And that's something the Kraft Heinz CEO is concerned about. People, in this high inflation environment, some people doing fine in this economy, others not fine at all.

BERMAN: So, Rahel, there's also, in conjunction with this, this new survey from the National Association for Business Economics, NABE as people know it. What does that say? What is it finding?

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's finding what we really know across the economy, right, which is that sales are starting to slow. Which is not necessarily totally unexpected, right? We are transitioning. Inflation has been with us for quite some time and interest rates continue to go up.

That said, one thing I found, which was really interesting in this report, is that nearly half of respondents actually said that they're not facing major delays as we talk about supply chains. They're not facing major delays or major shortages in terms of getting supplies and getting materials.

And the reason why that's key is because a huge part of this inflation story, certainly early on, was the supply chain.

[06:50:05]

And so when you start to hear companies saying that, OK, we're actually getting what we need, that should spell good news down the road for inflation in terms of prices.

BERMAN: And help me wrap my head around this, which is, we're getting new GDP numbers this week, which might be positive, which might show the economy growing for the first quarter in three quarters.

SOLOMON: Expected to be.

BERMAN: How does that jive with what we're seeing here with recessionary concerns?

SOLOMON: Well, I mean, this is part of the reason why after the two negative quarters we saw, there were many economists saying, wait a minute, hold on, that is not necessarily the definition of a recession. So, we're going to see on Thursday. But the number, as you pointed out, is expected to be positive as consumers continue to spend, although at a slower pace.

Now, how much you're spending obviously depends on how much discretionary income you have because some CEOs, we heard from the banks last week who said they're still seeing a strong consumers, right? I mean if you have it, you're spending.

ROMANS: Yes.

SOLOMON: If you don't, you're suffering and you're starting to price down and you're starting to figure out where you can save.

ROMANS: I think it's a real income inequality story here too. I mean you look at United's quarter. United Airlines. It said that with hybrid work now, every weekend is a holiday weekend. It had its third best September in history.

So, if you're flying - if you're going to Disney, you're paying $1,000 for a family of four per day, and people are paying it. You know, you're seeing travel and leisure is just really booming. But then this grinding inflation is a real problem for people who are living paycheck to paycheck. So you're seeing almost two Americas here.

And these CEOs, who warn about their worries and they're preparing for a recession, at the same time they say in their earnings reports that things are fine right now. We're worried about what's going to happen next year, but things are fine right now.

SOLOMON: Right, including, I think, Jamie Dimon said that.

ROMANS: Yes.

SOLOMON: You know, that comment he made last week about the recession, six to nine months from now I believe was the estimate he gave. What didn't get as much attention is that he said, things are fine right now.

ROMANS: Yes.

SOLOMON: And so it's both of those things.

ROMANS: There was an analyst on that call that really - really was like - was really, you know, challenging him on that.

BERMAN: Right.

ROMANS: Saying, you keep saying that you're so worried, but, Jamie, things look really good. And he said, yes, you're right.

BERMAN: All right, well, I have a felling I'm going to be seeing both of you a lot more this week.

Christine Romans, Rahel Solomon, thank you both very much.

ROMANS: You're welcome.

BERMAN: Opening statements get underway in Harvey Weinstein's sexual assault trial in Los Angeles. We are live with a preview.

KEILAR: And a search is underway this morning for this man who was seen pushing someone onto New York City's subway tracks. How the city's mayor plans to curb the rise in crime.

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[06:58:09]

BERMAN: This morning, the Boston Red Sox are the only Major League Baseball team to comeback down 3-0 in a series because the Yankees lost.

Andy Scholes has more in this morning's "Bleacher Report."

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

BERMAN: Just to reiterate -

SCHOLES: Yes.

BERMAN: The Yankees did lose.

SCHOLES: They did. I was there for this game, John. I tell you --

BERMAN: To see them lose.

SCHOLES: To see them lose. I tell you what, Yankees fans are down bad. The Houston Astros just owned them. Pedro Martinez, after the game, said the Astros are the new daddy of the New York Yankees. They beat them the last four times they've seen them in the post-season. This time it was a clean sweep.

I'm going to go to Philadelphia first, though, meanwhile, because it was an incredible scene there. You know, they gave Bryce Harper $330 million in free agency a few years ago hoping he'd get them back to the World Series. Did just that. Down one, runner on, bottom of the eight, just crushed that ball. The 43,000 fans there just going bonkers. The bullpen even jumping around like they were little kids when Harper hit that ball.

Phillies win 4-3, beating the Padres. They now head to their first World Series since 2009.

Philly fans taking that celebration to the streets too. Police actually had to grease up those streetlamps to try to prevent fans from climbing them, but no grease is stopping an excited Phillies fan, as you can see right there.

Meanwhile, the Astros heading to their fourth World Series in the past six years as they completed that sweep of the Yankees. Short stop -- rookie short stop Jeremy Pena once again coming through. A huge three run blast. That tied the game in the fourth. He was your ALCS MVP. Seventh inning, this was a tie game. Alex Bregman coming through with the RBI single. Pena's score. That put the Astros up 6-5. That would be your final.

The Yankees crowd that was chanting, we want Houston, less than a week ago, just stunned as they lost all four games of this series.

Jose Altuve getting carried around.

John, what do you think, is this the last time we saw Aaron Judge in pinstripes, because he's a free agent now.

BERMAN: He is going to be so expensive for the Yankees. I think they almost have to sign him. But he made the last out in the World Series. It was a little bit of a - a little Casey at bat moment right there.

SCHOLES: Yes, it was a little poetic right there, right?

[07:00:03]

BERMAN: Andy Scholes, congratulations. Nice to see the Astros go through.

SCHOLES: See how they do.

BERMAN: NEW DAY continues right now.