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Trump Says No Regrets On VP Pick, Vance Doing "Fantastic Job"; U.S. Economy Speeds Up In Second Quarter; NORAD Jets Intercept Russian, Chinese Bombers Off Alaska; More Russian Naval Ships To Visit Cuba This Weekend; CDC: U.S. Infant Mortality Rate Rose In 2022, First Jump In 20 Years. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired July 25, 2024 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: These comments by J.D. Vance about "childless cat people" and the sort of blowback that he's gotten on social media and elsewhere from women, notably, a subset of voters that Republicans haven't had the most success with?

ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: What made Vice President Mike Pence successful as vice presidential

candidate is he understood President Trump's personality.

He took a back seat. And his attitude was do no harm, say nothing that could be overly advantageous or disadvantageous.

J.D. Vance is a different beast. He's 39-years-old. He's very ambitious. He has a very high opinion of himself. He sees this as a moment for him to shine as opposed to a moment to take a backseat to Donald Trump.

Remember, when Donald Trump has somebody in his field of vision that's getting attention, he usually blows them to smithereens. He did it on "The Apprentice" with that blonde woman in the first two seasons.

There was a joke inside the administration, if you're getting too much attention and Trump leans over to it, says, oh, what are you, President Bannon now, or you're getting more popular than me, it was time to book a trip to Antarctica and to go into hiding.

So Vance doesn't get that. He thinks he's actually a vice-presidential candidate, but he's a deep subordinate to Donald Trump.

And you just watch how this plays out, Boris. You'll -- you'll invite me back. I'll give you more color commentary that you can then use to do these Malpass props and bloopers.

SANCHEZ: I look forward to that.

I did want to ask you about any predictions or suggestions that you might have for Vice President Harris as she's now looking for a vice - presidential nominee of her own?

SCARAMUCCI: Well, I would say three things, all of which are well- known. Make sure it's super vetted. You've got to make sure nobody has any problems with their taxes or anything like that. I would say be bold. When Democrats are bold, they do better.

I think, I think Vice President Harris has to also let the American people know there are some opinions of hers that are going to be modulated. She's running for president. It is the only election, frankly, that all of us get a chance to vote on in the United States.

And so she has to modulate some of these views. She can't be for a national ban on fracking and expect to win the state of Pennsylvania.

So I think she has to tell help people, listen, I want to be president for all people. I'm a practical person. I'm certainly socially progressive. But the business of America is still business. And I'm going to make sure the Biden economy, which is quite strong, extends into my term.

If she does that and she picks a good vice president, she'll beat Donald Trump.

And, boy, will he -- he'll be -- I mean, Boris, he'll be super upset about that. Trust me. You -- I mean, if you think he's upset now, watch the smoke come out of his ears when he loses on Election Night.

SANCHEZ: Anthony Scaramucci, always great to have you on. Look forward to next time.

SCARAMUCCI: Any time. Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Thanks.

So we were just talking about the economy. Has the Fed managed to tame inflation without knocking the whole thing into a recession? We have brand-new numbers to break down in just moments.

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[14:37:58]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: A new report shows the U.S. economy coming in much stronger in the latest quarter than Wall Street was expecting. And that could mean the Fed may have successfully completed a high wire act, getting inflation back under control without knocking the economy into a recession.

CNN Business anchor, Richard Quest, is joining us now with more on this.

Richard?

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: It does start to look like they've managed to do the three-card trick and end up with the Goldilocks scenario, not too hot and not too cold.

Because this number, at 2.8, when taken with the Feds core inflation level, do -- does suggest the Fed can reasonably safely cut interest rates in September as the market now expects them to do.

That is the consensus, that the first of the rate cutting cycle will begin in September and then will be followed by probably two more cuts before the end of the year.

But don't get too excited. We are not, not going back to nearly .012 percent interest rates. That's not going to happen. But things are much more cheerful, if you will.

And that's why the market I think is so resilient today and is reversing the losses of yesterday.

KEILAR: Yes. What does this mean? I mean, you put it there, people hoping that they could get low, low interest rates again. Not going to happen anytime soon.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: What does it mean for Americans when you're looking at, you know, credit, you're looking at buying a car or house.

QUEST: What it means is we're back to the old days, the days of 2 percent, 3 percent interest rates. That we're back to the days before the pandemic and, indeed, before the great financial crisis of 2008.

For those of us of a certain age, normal interest rates were 2 percent, 3 percent, 4 percent. That was what you expected to pay.

And if the Fed has done it's work right -- and it's starting to look very much as if it has -- then those are the sorts of rates we will see.

[14:40:04]

The difficulty, I think, is those, an entire generation of people who've only ever known just about zero interest rates, for whom this whole thing has been a horrific experience.

They are going to learn that the norm is 2.5 percent to 3.5 percent rates, that they will adjust accordingly.

And if inflation comes -- the rate of inflation comes down -- and this is key. If the rate of inflation comes down, then your money goes further. And there is a sort of, you're not having this frantic, I can't afford the groceries, when you go shopping.

KEILAR: Yes, they are mighty expensive still.

Richard Quest --

QUEST: Yes.

KEILAR: -- thank you so much.

QUEST: Thank you.

KEILAR: Next, what U.S. officials are revealing after both Russian and Chinese bombers were intercepted near Alaska.

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[14:45:28]

SANCHEZ: In an apparent first, NORAD was intercepted bombers from China and Russia operating together near Alaska.

Let's get the latest from the Pentagon with CNN's Natasha Bertrand.

Natasha, walk us through the details of this story.

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Boris, this was a very significant event because, as you said, it's the first time that Russian and Chinese bombers have actually entered this area known as the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone, together.

And the U.S. did scramble fighter jets, F-15s and F-35s, to intercept these bombers. But it is still a very, very concerning sign of just how closely these two militaries are working together at this point.

Now, in a statement, NORAD, did say that, at no point did these jets -- actually these bombers, I should say -- actually pose a threat to the United States.

And it is very routine, every time foreign entities enter this air defense identification zone, which is technically international airspace, for the U.S. to scramble jets to intercept and monitor and track their flight.

But still, it is obviously a signed by the Russians and the Chinese that they are capable of doing this and that their relationship in terms of their military partnership is getting closer and stronger. And they're clearly trying to send a message to the U.S. here.

Now, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, he did speak to this as well a little bit earlier. And he reiterated that is not surprising to the U.S. that this happened because they we're pretty much monitoring these bombers right from the time that they actually departed.

So the whole way, they we're sort of looking at where they we're going. And so it wasn't shocking really to the U.S. that this was happening.

But at the same time, you know, clearly, over the last couple of years, particularly since the war in Ukraine erupted with Russia invading Ukraine, that Chinese-Russian relationship has grown stronger with Chinas supporting Russia's military. And this is just yet another sign of that -- Boris?

SANCHEZ: So, Natasha, as this is happening in the Pacific, in the Atlantic, you have Russia for the second time in about a month, sending naval ships to Cuba.

Tell us about that. BERTRAND: Yes, Boris, so we do expect three Russian vessels to arrive in Havana in the coming days. As you said, it is just over a month after a Russian warship and a Russian submarine, nuclear powered submarine arrived in Cuba to kind of have these meetings with Cuban defense officials.

Kind of show off the Russian military strength in that sense. And the fact that they could really, you know, obviously get very close to the United States.

But still, again, Northern Command has told us that they have been tracking these movements of these Russian vessels very closely. And they say that, at this point, there is no sign that these Russian vessels pose any kind of threat to the United States.

So again, you know, they're watching and seeing what they can really learn about the Russian military activity there -- Boris?

SANCHEZ: A lot to keep an eye on across the world.

Natasha Bertrand, from the Pentagon, thank you so much.

So for the first time in decades, the U.S. infant mortality rate has increased. It's gone up. What doctors think is behind this worrying increase.

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[14:52:54]

KEILAR: New data from the CDC reveals something pretty alarming, that infant deaths are up in the U.S., and it is the biggest hike that we've seen in 20 years.

More than 20,000 babies died before reaching the age of one in 2022, which was the last full year of accounting. The mortality rate was highest among black infants.

We have CNN medical correspondent, Meg Tirrell, here with more on this data.

This is awful, Meg. Tell us what we're seeing.

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brianna, it's really startling to see this kind of spike. And public health researchers say that this is a metric in the infant mortality rate that really is reflective of the strength of the health care system of a whole nation.

And for the United States, this is a rate that is worse than the average rate for other wealthy nations.

And so to see an increase like this -- this number is 3 percent higher than we saw in 2021, both in terms of the absolute number of deaths and also the death rate, which is now up to 5.6 per 1,000 live births. Now that has generally been coming down since 1995, but the CDC, which compiled these data, says that this is the first statistically significant increase that we have seen since 2002.

So we've seen trends in a higher direction, including the year before 2022, but this is the biggest one that we've seen.

There's also a lot of variability in the data, by geography, by race, and by age. As you pointed out, babies born to black mothers have the highest infant mortality rate at about -- approaching a 11 per 1,000 births. That compares with 3.5 for Asian mothers and 4.5 for white mothers.

Also by age, you see teen mothers had the highest infant mortality rates. In terms of location, states like Mississippi had much higher rates than the lower states like Massachusetts for example -- Brianna?

KEILAR: What is driving the increase?

TIRRELL: Yes, you know, researchers are looking into this. This was 2022. And we know, of course, midway through that year, Roe v. Wade was overturned and several states put into place abortion bans.

[14:55:01]

But researchers say, on a national level, that's probably not the main driver of this, even though we have seen data from Texas suggesting that there was a spike in infant mortality in that state after it implemented its abortion ban in 2021.

They're also noting that the main difference in terms of the cause of deaths, the one that increased the most significantly among the top five, was from maternal complications. That is the only one of the top five that increased.

And one researcher suggested this could be related to Covid infections, perhaps, for moms who were pregnant in 2021. We also know it was a bad respiratory year in 2022, Brianna.

So this is something that researchers are going to continue to dig into. And of course, everybody hopes the trend turns in the other direction.

KEILAR: Yes, you're very curious about what's behind that.

Meg Tirrell, thank you so much.

Coming up, new court documents revealing a secret battle within the Murdoch family over of the world's most influential media empires. And the feud runs so deep, it's as if it could inspire an award-winning show.

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