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Inflation Falls Below 3 Percent; Polls on Donald Trump's Age; Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) is Interviewed about Inflation, Trump and Haley; Ferguson Police Release Assault Footage. Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired August 14, 2024 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:30:00]
SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Iran is going to strike, which it has said it will at some point.
Nic Robertson, thank you so much for your reporting there in Tel Aviv for us.
John.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, in 28 seconds we are going to get brand-new data on inflation. We will pour through the numbers at the break and tell you what it all says about the future of the economy.
Plus, Katy Perry under investigation - really - for a music video.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:35:10]
BERMAN: All right, we do have breaking news. New inflation data just in. The Consumer Price Index.
CNN business anchor Julia Chatterley, you were backstage leading an army of people pouring over this over the last few minutes. Explain what these numbers mean and if we should be happy about it.
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN BUSINESS ANCHOR: We should be moderately happy. We were expecting inflation to come in at 3 percent year over year. You can see it, 2.9 percent. It's a touch below that. So, prices are still rising, but those rises are slowing in pace, which is important. So, 0.2 percent exactly as expected. So, we didn't expect or hope for any surprises. We didn't get them. We would have liked it lower, but it's not there.
What's driving this? We were expecting to see some pressure from energy prices. We didn't get them. In fact, they were changed on the month. I think we can perhaps - we'll come to that in a second because this is important.
Housing, shelter, putting a roof over your head, that has been hurting us for a while. This actually rose double what we saw in June. So, there's a bit of cautiousness there because we would like to see that continuing to come down. It didn't. It rose slightly. So, we'll watch that.
The real question, John, is, what does this mean for the Federal Reserve? I think this number is consistent with them being able to cut a quarter of a percentage point in September. Yes, we've got a lot of other data to come. We've got another inflation print. We've got jobs. But at least for now, pouring over this data, the important thing is the Fed can cut.
But I do want to show you this, because I'm sure there's a lot of people look - listening to me and saying, OK, you're telling me it's good news. Why does it still hurt? This is why. This doesn't include an update for this data, but these are the price increases since June of 2022. You're paying 13 percent more for your rent, 10 percent more for your electricity. Food prices, we know, have been an enormous pain point, even as we start to see consumer companies like McDonald's, Starbucks cutting prices. Transportation up 18 percent.
So, I'm sort of giving you good news and telling you the Fed can cut. But this is why it still hurts.
BERMAN: Right. Right. But - but generally speaking, no surprises, which I think that investors and the economy will generally like.
CHATTERLEY: Yes.
BERMAN: And inflation year to year a little bit down.
CHATTERLEY: Yes.
BERMAN: You are seeing markets tick down a little bit. This could be because maybe they were hoping to be surprised on the positive end.
CHATTERLEY: Also, look at the bumper gains that we got yesterday.
BERMAN: Yes.
CHATTERLEY: I mean on that PPI number, you would never normally see the gains that we saw yesterday based on that data point. So -
BERMAN: This is flat.
CHATTERLEY: This is -
BERMAN: I mean, basically this is flat, which is no surprises.
CHATTERLEY: Exactly.
BERMAN: No surprises.
CHATTERLEY: Yes.
BERMAN: All right, Julia Chatterley -
CHATTERLEY: We'll see.
BERMAN: Thank you for helping us understand it. At least so far. SIDNER: You know who's never flat, senior data reporter Harry Enten.
HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Oh, ho, ho. I agree.
SIDNER: He's here with me now.
Voters are looking at the age old question, how old is too old to be president, or even run for president? Trump's 78. I think three years younger than President Biden, who was getting all the flack at the beginning, and 19 years older than Kamala Harris. What are voters saying about Trump's age now?
ENTEN: All right, so the age issue - the age issue was one that was working for Donald Trump earlier on in this campaign when his opponent was Joe Biden. Why? Too old to be president. Look at this, 78 percent of voters said in May that Joe Biden was too old to be president.
But now the age issue is working against Donald Trump. Why? Because Kamala Harris is now the Democratic nominee. Look at this, just 11 percent of likely voters say Kamala Harris is too old to be president.
Now if we come onto the other side of the board, look at that difference with Donald Trump. Look at this now, 58 percent of likely voters say Donald Trump is too old to be president. Now, that's up a little bit from May when it was 53 percent. But that 53 percent compared to 78 percent looked pretty gosh darn good. But now that 58 percent compared to the 11 percent for Kamala Harris, very bad news for Donald Trump. The messaging that Donald Trump and his campaign have been putting forward earlier on this campaign has been flipped upside down.
SIDNER: She's only 59, but OK.
ENTEN: You can get 11 percent to agree on anything. Eleven percent of people believe the moon landing was faked.
SIDNER: OK, there you go.
Is it just about the age or is this about the message, the change that this might bring it?
ENTEN: Yes. All right. So, you know what, we talk about age, but I think age is also a stand in for change. And this is a change election.
Look at this, political or economic system in this country needs at least major change. Look at this, two-thirds of likely voters in the key battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin believe that, in fact, the political and economic system in this country needs at least major change. Just 33 percent believe that it needs minor or no change. So, the key nugget in this campaign is to be the candidate of change. If you are the candidate of change, you will win.
SIDNER: And who is leading on that front, the candidate of change? ENTEN: Yes. Right. Exactly. The age issue, it's working against Donald
Trump. The change issue is now working against Donald Trump. Will bring the right kind of change. Again, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, among likely voters, look at this, Kamala Harris at 51 percent. Close by is Donald Trump at 47 percent.
[08:39:59]
What I will note, Sara, is these numbers look identical basically to what we see in the horse race, which was Harris ahead by four points. And you're seeing that right here on, will bring the right kind of change, Harris ahead again by four points.
So, all of a sudden, in this campaign, a campaign that has been about age and a bit about change, it was working for Donald Trump and now it is working against him. And that is why Kamala Harris has all this momentum.
SIDNER: Very interesting.
Harry Enten, thank you so much. Appreciate it.
ENTEN: Thank you.
SIDNER: Kate.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, much to discuss.
Joining us right now is Republican congressman from Florida, Byron Donalds.
Congressman, thank you so much.
I want to talk about issue number one, the economy, especially with what John and Julia Chatterley were just talking about, the CPI just out this morning. This is the first time that overall inflation measured on a year-over-year basis has come in below 3 percent since March of 2021. A trend that you could say would be good for the Harris campaign, maybe fueling the Fed to begin to cut interest rates in the fall.
What's your reaction to it?
REP. BYRON DONALDS (R-FL): My reaction to it is, is that Kamala Harris' administration, with Joe Biden, crippled families across our entire country. There was a video of a - of a black woman being interviewed, I think by MSNBC, talking about how prices have gone up massively. A bell pepper that was $2 is now $5. And she was able to get through it. But what about a single mom with two kids, three kids, doing everything to make ends meet?
Well, the reason why those prices have been massively expensive is because Kamala Harris was the tie-breaking vote on Joe Biden's American Rescue Plan in 2021. She was the tie-breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act. All that did was create massive government spending, which created massive inflation on the backs of the American people. Overall, prices are up well over 20 percent, especially when you start getting into food and other areas like that.
So, Kamala Harris' record has been one of leaving working families behind. When Donald Trump was president, we didn't have a massive inflation. Our economy was growing massively at the same time. Working families were getting ahead. Middle-income families getting ahead. Everybody was thriving.
I think so the key issue is what was just brought up about which candidate is the candidate of political and economic change. It's without question that candidate is Donald J. Trump, because Kamala Harris was sitting there shotgun with Joe Biden creating one of the worst economic situations for working families in the last 40 years in the United States of America.
BOLDUAN: The idea of change, though, is all about perception, right? I mean it could be change from now or change from Trump or change from, you know, left to right and where I was just yesterday. So, change is a percept is up - that is in the eye of the voter. And what Harry Enten was getting at on the issue of age is that in the analysis you can see that it's flipped for Donald Trump. That now more voters are seeing him as too old to be president compared to what voters thought back in May. This was a Democratic problem. Is this now a Republican problem?
DONALDS: Well, first of all, with the polling that you're talking about, I'm not totally surprised because if you look at Kamala Harris over the last 24 days, what have we seen? She won't answer questions. She won't talk to your network or any other network.
BOLDUAN: That has nothing to do with this question, though.
DONALDS: She has no specific policy -
BOLDUAN: That has nothing to do with this question.
DONALDS: No, no, but this does matter. It does matter. And let me explain. If she won't answer questions, hard-hitting questions about her record and what she's going to do, not the fluff about joy and moving forward and freedom. We're talking about the real political and policy issues that are going to affect the American people. She's nowhere to be seen. She will not answer questions. She has not talked to the American people. On her own website, there are no policies.
BOLDUAN: But you think - you think if - you think when - no, but when you think - you think when she answers questions, people are going to -
DONALDS: So, it's easy to run as if you're a Hollywood starlet, but we're running for president.
BOLDUAN: But you think when people - when she is - sits for interviews, lays out policy, you think that's going to lead with more people thinking she is too old to be president? I'm trying to follow the line here.
DONALDS: No, it's not about her age, it's about her ability and her competency to lead our country going forward. What's going to be her economic agenda? Is that going to be different from Joe Biden? I don't think so. Because Susan Rice is on the record now saying that Kamala Harris was integral in the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris agenda. I just laid out for you that she voted and she broke the ties in the Senate to push Joe Biden's economic agenda. So, she has to answer for that. What is she going to say? Oh, I just want to move forward?
And let's go back to another one when she ran for president in 2020, when she was in the United States Senate, she said supported the massive green new deal. She supported Medicare for all, a co-sponsor. She ran on that in 2020. Now, she's trying to throw out staffers to run away from that.
So, what I am saying is not about age, about being a candidate for political and economic change to help our country thrive, whether you're black or white, rich or poor, middle income, it doesn't matter.
[08:45:09]
That person is Donald J. Trump. It is not Kamala Harris. And that is why Kamala Harris will not answer the questions.
BOLDUAN: My - my point was I was asking about age, which is why I was - which is why I was - and you brought up her not answering questions. You've also called her not competent in - and I - on that, Nikki Haley has some advice for - well, her advice was for Donald Trump, but I guess it would apply to all Republicans, including yourself, her speaking on Fox and how you guys talk about Kamala Harris.
Let me play this from Nikki Haley.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NIKKI HALEY (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Quit whining about her. The campaign is not going to win talking about crowd sizes. It's not going to win talking about what race Kamala Harris is. It's not going to win talking about whether she's dumb. It's not - you can't win on those things. The American people are smart. Treat them like they're smart.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: And she also said, it's not going to win talking about how she's not answering questions.
Do you agree?
DONALDS: Well, look, I like I said in this entire interview, I've not talked about Kamala Harris' crowd sizes or anything like that. I am talking about her competency to lead this country.
BOLDUAN: You talked - no, you said that - but, Congressman, you - you said her competency and you said that she's not doing interviews, and those are two of the things that Nikki Haley said.
DONALDS: Hold on. But I want to be clear because competency - competency is -
BOLDUAN: One second. This is what - those are two of the things that Nikki Haley said you guys should not be talking about because it's not going to win you voters. What do you say to Nikki Haley?
DONALDS: Well, first of all, what I am talking about is about her competency to lead our country. And competency is based upon decision- making and policies that you support. That's what it's always based upon. And if you look at her record in the U.S. Senate, if you look at the fact that she was there as a partner with Joe Biden leading to one of the great economic collapses for working families in our country, because when you have massive weight - massive inflation, when wages are down adjusted for inflation, when people are having to make decisions between the light bill and food, or housing and other things, that's a catastrophe for working families. It's devastating to middle-income Americans. Kamala Harris, that is her record.
And so all I'm saying is, is that, yes, she has to answer for her record. If she's going to choose to answer any questions at all. Right now she's choosing not to answer questions. It is being done on purpose. Because when you examine her record, it demonstrates that her record would lead us to truly believe that she doesn't have the competency to lead the United States of America going forward.
BOLDUAN: I was going to say -
DONALDS: We know that Donald Trump has the competency to do so because he's already done it.
BOLDUAN: I take that as you disagree with Nikki Haley on her take on strategy here.
I want to play for you what Donald Trump said in his conversation. Some - one part of what Donald Trump said in his conversation with Elon Musk about firing striking employees.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You're the greatest cutter. I mean I look at what you do. You walk in, you just say, you want to quit?
ELON MUSK, CEO, X: Yes.
TRUMP: They go on strike. They - I won't mention the name of the company, but they go on strike. And you say, that's OK, you're all gone. You're all gone. So, every one of you is gone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: The UAW has filed an unfair labor practice charge against Trump over that. The head of the Teamsters, though, Sean O'Brien, said this about what - about what Trump told Elon Musk there. "Firing workers for organizing, striking and exercising their rights as Americans is economic terrorism." Sean O'Brien spoke at the RNC last month. You and I talked about it
after the speech because you were sitting with Trump during his remarks.
DONALDS: Yes.
BOLDUAN: It was a big deal because it was the first Teamsters president to ever do that. And now he's saying he's having to respond to Donald Trump saying - saying economic terrorism. Do you guys have a problem on your hands now?
DONALDS: No, we don't have a problem. I think what they were talking about during that conversation was about when - when Elon took over Twitter. Right now, obviously, it's named X. But when he took over Twitter, yes, Elon went in there and he cleaned house.
But, yes, look, Twitter was a - was a mess at the time when he took it over. They had a massive amount of people working at Twitter, but it wasn't actually generating income. At the end of the day, people need to remember in our country, businesses, whether they are large or small, they have to generate income. When they generate income, it gives you an ability to hire workers, pay workers, and exchange their labor for money. That's how our economic system works. Not everybody's going to be able to just keep their job just because they worked at the company. It's an unfortunate reality. But if you're going to have successful businesses, every now and again, not all the time, but sometime, yes, people have to - people are let go. It's very unfortunate.
BOLDUAN: Yes, but people are let go, it's (ph) the circumstances.
DONALDS: And I think the situation with - what's being talked about with Mr. O'Brien is talking about an economic terrorism, that's simply not - that's not really an issue at all. The key issue in his campaign is, who's going to get our economy back on track? We don't even know what Kamala Harris' plans are. We know what Donald Trump's plans are to get our country roaring again.
[08:50:03]
That's what matters.
BOLDUAN: But, Congressman, you - so, to Sean O'Brien, you say he is wrong?
DONALDS: And we have many other issues, like border security, like foreign policy as well.
BOLDUAN: Your - your reaction to Sean O'Brien there is he's wrong?
DONALDS: It's not about him being wrong or right. He's talking - he's talking about a comment made in that X - in that X space. There were many other issues talking about economic policies in that X space. If Elon Musk, when he bought Twitter, made a determination that the company was bloated and that he had to cut workforce, that's a decision he made as a business owner. It's an unfortunate one, but it's one that does occur. Just like, as he's running X now, if he decides -
BOLDUAN: They're talking about specifically the circumstances of employees striking.
DONALDS: I'm talking about what they're - I'm talking about what they were talking about in that conversation.
BOLDUAN: Right, about employees striking.
DONALDS: I believe they were talking about Twitter, X. That's what he was talking about.
BOLDUAN: Uh-huh. Exactly. Employees striking.
DONALDS: No, no, is - nobody even - was there even a conversation about - stop, see, now this is the problem because we're talking about a specific business. Do we want to talk about what Elon Musk did at X, or do we want to talk about the economic policies facing America? Because at the end of the day, whether Elon Musk fired employees at X, that doesn't matter to the future of our country going forward. What matters to the future of our country going forward is, who has the better prescription for our economy, Donald Trump or Kamala Harris? I already know that's Donald Trump because he's run our economy before and everybody was thriving.
BOLDUAN: It's - no, but what it speaks to - no, but, seriously, it speaks to the approach of a candidate -
DONALDS: Union workers were thriving.
BOLDUAN: Congressman, it speaks to - it speaks to the approach that a president has towards labor practices, which is what they are talking - what they were talking about, Donald Trump complimenting Elon Musk on the handling of how it was dealt with, with striking workers there.
Let's play the sound bite again.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You're the greatest cutter. I mean I look at what you do. You walk in, you just say, you want to quit?
ELON MUSK, CEO, X: Yes.
TRUMP: They go on strike. They - I won't mention the name of the company, but they go on strike. And you say, that's OK, you're all gone. You're all gone. So, every one of you is gone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: But, I mean it, Sean O'Brien of the Teamsters was asked by "Politico" to react to that. We have - our show confirmed the statement from Sean O'Brien reacting to that part of the conversation saying, "firing workers for organizing, for striking and exercising their rights as Americans is economic terrorism." That is what I was asking you about. I think it's an important statement coming from a very important union president.
DONALDS: And I'm telling you, I think the thing that matters most in this campaign is who has the economic policies for our country going forward. You can talk about the situation at X. We can play the tape from that one, what, two minutes of a two-hour conversation. But what's going to matter is, what is energy policy for our country going forward? What is going to be economic policy for our country going forward? What is going to be regulatory policy for our country going forward?
If you want workers to succeed in America, the regulatory burden of the federal government does need to be reduced so businesses can thrive. In that environment, it makes it simpler and easier to retain employees, keep employees, and that's the stuff that matters going forward.
At the core of it all, is living in America going to be affordable for the American people? And we have already seen that with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, Kamala Harris being vice president, being integral with the policy decisions of Joe Biden, that working families have fallen behind in the United States of America. You can talk about what Elon Musk does at his companies all you want, but at the end of the day, it is about our entire country, whether they happen to be union workers or non-union workers.
And I will also add that union workers in our country actually disagree with union leadership in our country. Of course you could talk about (INAUDIBLE) or the teachers unions. But if you talk about the skilled trade workers of America, people who have to do the hard work day in and day out, a large portion of them are voting for Donald Trump this election because they remember the economy when Donald Trump was president of the United States. They were thriving. Under Joe Biden-Kamala Harris -
BOLDUAN: OK.
DONALDS: They have fallen behind. And Kamala Harris has now put out any policies that demonstrates that they're going to succeed going forward.
BOLDUAN: Congressman Byron Donalds, thank you for your time. Thank you.
Sara.
SIDNER: All right, thank you, Kate.
We're tracking Ernesto. Hundreds of thousands of people have lost power in Puerto Rico. And the storm is getting stronger. We're tracking that for you.
And a new heart health warning this morning about a common sugar substitute. What you need to know, ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:57:42]
BERMAN: This morning, a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, is fighting for his life after suffering a severe brain injury. New video appears to show a man running at Officer Travis Brown and knocking him to the ground. This happened during protests marking the tenth anniversary of the killing of Michael Brown. Video from two angles shows Officer Brown slamming his head into the sidewalk.
CNN's Ed Lavandera is with us now with the latest on this.
Ed, what are you learning?
ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, as you mentioned there, that officer, Travis Brown, we are told remains in critical condition, suffering this major or severe brain injury. As those videos that were released by the Ferguson Police Department on Tuesday show officers trying to take this suspect, 28-year-old Elijah Gantt into custody when he barrels through the officer. The officer falling backwards, presumably hitting his head very hard against the concrete ground there.
So, there was a vigil outside the Ferguson Police Department honoring Officer Travis Brown. But these were part of protests last week that were marking the ten years since Michael Brown was shot and killed by a Ferguson police officer. The protests that were sparked by that shooting kind of galvanized the Black Lives - movement - Matter across the country and protests against police violence across the country that lasted for several years.
Officers - the Ferguson Police Department says that demonstrations were peaceful until last Friday. There were a number of demonstrators who were trying to shake and break down a metal fence that lead into a parking lot of the Ferguson Police Department. And those were the suspects that Ferguson police say they were trying to take into custody.
Last night at this vigil outside the police department, the police chief talked about how he doesn't understand why his officers are suffering from what happened - because of what happened ten years ago. He pointed out that most of the police department is totally different from the department that existed ten years ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHIEF TROY DOYLE, FERGUSON POLICE DEPARTMENT: This community has gone through a lot over the past ten years. Again, recognizing what took place 10 years ago and, you know, and I think many of us would agree, policing needed to change. We need it reformed. You know, there were some good things that came out of this.
[09:00:02]
But the Ferguson Police Department is doing everything that everybody is asking us to do.
