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Trump Comments on Crypto; Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) is Interviewed about Crypto; Spirit Airlines Files for Bankruptcy. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired November 18, 2024 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Have on the battlefield.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Yes. It's - it's - oh, on the battlefield it could have a significant impact because, you know, the trouble Ukraine has, right, is it - it fires back against Russia, including inside Russian territory. Russia can strike those firing positions. Ukraine has not been able to use western - well, U.S.-supplied weapons to strike firing positions inside Russia. So, presumably, it will impact Russia's ability to lay waste to large parts of Ukraine. Not stop it, but at least impact it.

The question is, does this lead to escalation, right? And that's always been the question since the start of the war.

SIDNER: Right.

SCIUTTO: And that's what's held back the Biden administration with each new weapons system, not just long-range missiles, but tanks, you name it. And each time it's supplied them, and the war has not expanded beyond Ukraine, which has been the real fear. So, there are a lot of folks in Europe who've said that that risk and that threat from Russia has always been exaggerated.

Listen, we're going to test it again here.

SIDNER: Yes, certainly that has been one of the big conversations as to whether or not escalation happens. But it has hamstrung, you know, what Ukraine can do.

I want to ask you about what Russia's strategy is at this point because, as you just mentioned, they have been targeting major infrastructure, mostly electricity, in Ukraine.

SCIUTTO: They want to freeze the Ukrainians. You know, I mean it's such an obvious strategy. Winter is coming to Ukraine and every year of this war, and this is - now we're, you know, close to three years into it, Russia amps up attacks on energy infrastructure before the winter because they want to inflict pain on the Ukrainian people. It's an obvious strategy. It gets cold there in the winter. And this is forgotten on this.

So, it's rich of the Kremlin spokesperson to talk about throwing fuel on the fire when Russia does that literally every day, right, since it invaded the country by its own choice in February of 2022. The trouble is, you have Americans that echo those arguments. So, when the Biden administration made this decision, I was looking for it, and it happened right away, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Donald Trump Jr., they immediately attacked the Biden administration with no mention of what Russia was up to the very same weekend.

SIDNER: We have been seeing this over and over and over again.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

SIDNER: And we will see what happens when the president-elect ends up in power again.

Jim Sciutto, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, cryptocurrency stocks have skyrocketed since Trump won the election. And the president-elect is surrounded by people with a stake in the industry. CNN has new reporting now on how the country could be looking at the, quote, "the most pro-crypto Congress ever."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:37:23]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, happening now, bitcoin has just skyrocketed since Election Day after the crypto industry poured tens of millions into campaigns to help elect pro-crypto lawmakers and Donald Trump. And now it does seem they expect something in return. This is what now President-elect Trump promised.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENT-ELECT: This afternoon I'm laying out my plan to ensure that the United States will be the crypto capital of the planet.

They want to choke you. They want to choke you out of business. We're not going to let that happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, CNN's Vanessa Yurkovich is here.

And with big money comes big expectations.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: It certainly does. But look at that big money, $90,000 U.S. dollars per bitcoin. That crossed 90,000 for the first time just after the election.

But you have these crypto super PAC groups who poured millions of dollars into congressional races. $131 million into the House and Senate races. And it seemed to have paid off. In the Senate you have about 20 members who are now crypto friendly members, 274 House members that are pro-crypto.

Now, Trump originally was a little bit skeptical about crypto. He said it was based on thin air. He has come around though. He is - he accepted crypto donations for his campaign. He attended a bitcoin conference in July. And he's surrounding himself with crypto friendly advisers. Elon Musk, well known, Howard Lutnick, who is actually being considered for Treasury secretary, and then some other big people in the crypto world.

He's also helped create a crypto company, along with his family. World Liberty Financial. So, he has been promoting that on the campaign trail.

And I actually spoke to the U.S. policy vice president at Coinbase. They're the biggest cryptocurrency exchange platform. I asked her what she thought about President Trump in office. Here's what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KARA CALVERT, HEAD OF U.S. POLICY, COINBASE: I think what President Trump did was lay out a very robust and a very clear vision. And that, I think, was something we had not seen. So, it was a very stark choice from the previous administration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YURKEVICH: And I think there's a little bit of a misconception that the crypto industry doesn't want any regulation. They do want regulation. But obviously, regulation that works for them. Crypto is very, very volatile. And so they're going to want something that works with their industry, but is not totally overregulated as it has been in many ways with the Biden administration.

BERMAN: So, they want regulation they like.

YURKEVICH: Yes.

BERMAN: What else do they want?

[09:40:01]

YURKEVICH: They want regulation that fits into sort of the U.S. framework. But we know a lot of banking CEOs, like Jamie Dimon, says that he opposes crypto. He doesn't think the federal government should get involved at all. He also wants to replace this gentleman - or the crypto industry wants to replace this gentleman, Gary Gensler, who has been very critical in taking down the crypto industry. As we know, FTX's Sam Bankman-Fried. He helped bring Sam Bankman-Fried down, who was really swindling people out of millions of dollars. And ultimately, President Trump wants to basically pick - put these two guys up for the SEC chair. These previously two gentlemen have been SEC commissioners, but the chair, obviously, oversees the exchange. And these gentlemen are being considered right now. One of them actually was there under Obama. So, we have a little bit of a bipartisanship going on right now.

BERMAN: Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you so much for that.

YURKEVICH: Yes.

BERMAN: Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right, thanks, guys.

Joining us right now is Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna of California. His district includes much of Silicon Valley.

It's good to see you, Congressman. Thanks for coming in.

And what John and Vanessa were talking about there is just, one, just noting how crypto stocks have just skyrocketed since the election, and also what - that this could - we could - we could be looking at the most pro-crypto Congress ever going forward.

You've been pushing Democrats to be more supportive of cryptocurrency for some time now. If this does become the most crypto - pro-crypto Congress ever, is that a good thing? Is less regulation on this industry really an answer?

REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): Well, what we need is smart regulation. But here's what crypto does. There are three fundamental value aspects to it. One, it allows a store of value. It's a modern digital gold for a lot of young people. Two, it allows cross-border payments and a lot of the rest of the world transacts with it. So, with stablecoin (ph) it actually helps the dollar gain more adoption in the rest of the world. And third, if companies succeed to reduce merchant costs, it can eliminate some of the 3 percent middleman fee.

So, my view is, it's an innovation. It has use cases. It needs to be properly regulated. But we shouldn't just reflexively be against it.

BOLDUAN: You've been asked a few times since the election, how did Democrats lose the big names of Silicon Valley in terms of the support, like Elon Musk. And in your - and you've given reasons for it. But my question is, going forward, do you - do Democrats need the big names like Elon Musk to win? Like what it was of the Democratic message that lost these prominent tech names - these tech names?

KHANNA: No. I mean we certainly need more blue collar workers. And I'd rather have people who are working at factory towns and want those to come back. But I do believe we need innovators and entrepreneurs. And we can get them on - just last night it was Elon and I were tweeting back at each other because he's saying that he wants to cut defense spending and go after some of the contractors and figure out how we make defense spending more efficient. So, where there are areas that there may be agreement, the Democrats should say, OK, let's work together. Where we have strong disagreements, we should stand up.

But overall, the Democratic Party needs to embrace innovation and entrepreneurship because that's what's going to help reindustrialize America and create high paying jobs across this country.

BOLDUAN: When you're talking about efficiencies, you know, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, they are chairing up this project to find government - to kind of root out government waste and find government efficiencies. This project that Donald Trump has given them. And this weekend Vivek Ramaswamy said that certain agencies should expect to be deleted outright as part of this project that he has now with Elon Musk.

One of the agencies that people are saying could potentially be deleted outright is the Department of Education. What would it look like if that happened? I mean, what do you say to that declaration from Ramaswamy?

KHANNA: Well, it's horrifying. And I think it doesn't understand history.

First of all, look at the real world impact that that would have. It would mean kids who are getting Pell grants to be able to go to college, that would be in jeopardy. It would mean a lot of schools, Title One schools that get federal funding, that would be in jeopardy. If you have a child who has autism or special needs, your education, if your child, if they go to public school, would be in jeopardy.

So, as a student of public schools, and as someone who took out over $100,000 of loans to have a shot in America, I'm deeply concerned. And it was our investment in education from 1910 to 1940 where we went to high school first before Europe that made the American dream possible, and the GI bill, and made America a superpower. So I'm deeply concerned with just this kind of blanket, let's cut education.

BOLDUAN: Congressman, Donald Trump has also selected Brendan Carr to be Federal Communications Commission chairman. Carr's vowed to take on what he has called - the way he's put it is a censorship cartel, including Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft.

[09:45:04]

Do you think he's good for the role?

KHANNA: I have deep concerns. There was a testimony that he had in my committee after the debate on ABC where I asked him, would you commit not to taking away the license from ABC? And he was ambiguous. He wasn't even willing to commit there. So, my concern is, how is he talking about censorship where, on the other hand, he's not condemning Trump going after networks or cable news in threatening their license. Isn't that censorship?

BOLDUAN: Does it matter to you if the House Ethics Committee releases or doesn't release the report that they've compiled on Matt Gaetz ahead of his confirmation hearing to be AG?

KHANNA: I think they should release it. And look, people know I've worked with Representative Gaetz to help stop the war in Yemen. We worked on the war powers resolution together.

But there should be a committee hearing and all the information should be there and there should be transparency. I mean he's - he's always said that he's for transparency. So, we'll have the report come out. He has every opportunity then to make the case to the committee.

But I don't understand why you wouldn't want that information out there so that people can decide.

BOLDUAN: You've - quickly, you've mentioned you've worked with him on certain issues. Do you think he'd be - do you think he is the right man to be attorney general?

KHANNA: Well, I have deep concerns. But I - here's my point. I think every person who the president has nominated has a right to have a process. They have a right to be questioned. And I think what the Democrats should do is ask the important questions of Robert Kennedy, that they should ask about his views on vaccines and does he believe schools should still be able to give kids a vaccine. Tulsi Gabbard, they should ask the views on Ukraine. On Representative Gaetz, they should ask questions about the politicization of the Justice Department and what is he - what is his views and make sure that the ethics report comes out.

I think that if the Democrats approach this - these hearings factually with questions, it will allow the American people and the senators to decide. So, I don't think we should prejudge the issue, but we should ask very difficult questions in these hearings, and pointed, factual questions.

BOLDUAN: Congressman Ro Khanna, thanks for your time.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, new this morning, Spirit Airlines says its filing for bankruptcy. So, what does that mean if you're already booked and you've got a ticket on one of their flights. We will discuss that ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:51:52]

SIDNER: Spirit Airlines, the bare bones ultra-low cost airline, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this morning. The announcement coming just ten days before some of the busiest travel days of the year, the Thanksgiving holiday.

CNN aviation correspondent Pete Muntean is joining us now.

I mean the first thing that travelers are going to want to know is, if it's going to potentially affect their travel plans, especially if they have tickets on Spirit.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Here's the fun thing, Sara, we have a Spirit credit in my family right now. And so now we're considering having to spend it before the holiday travel rush.

You know, people really love to hate on Spirit, but I really want to tell you why you should care about this, even if you don't fly on Spirit, because it is an airline that really changed the industry, ushered in that term ultra-low-cost carrier. And that forced the major airlines to introduce the notorious basic economy fare. So, this really could have seismic implications for every other U.S.-based airline. It's a competitive industry, so this maybe could lead to ticket prices going up industry wide.

Here is the good news, if you have a ticket or a credit on Spirit Airlines, you will not notice any change for now. Spirit insists in a statement this morning that guests can continue to book and fly without interruption, and can use all tickets, credits and loyalty points as normal.

Also, no impact to workers. We're hearing from Spirit's flight attendants' union that they will remain on the job, their contract is in place, no changes to pay or benefits. So, no immediate furloughs like we saw airlines begin to implement during the pandemic.

Also, Spirit underscores that its vendors will continue to get paid.

Big questions now about what will happen to Spirit Airlines in the long run. Remember, Frontier Airlines tried to merge with Spirit back in 2022. Just a few months later, JetBlue topped that offer. But it's the acquisition of Spirit that was blocked by the Justice Department on antitrust grounds. And then Frontier ended its merger plans with Spirit earlier this month. So, no apparent lifeboats right now for Spirit Airlines, saddled with $3 billion in debt.

Now it is really on passengers to pay attention. A top airline consumer advocate tells me that routes could begin to be eliminated in the coming months. It's really important for passengers to stay proactive, sign up for the alerts, check your flight status online obsessively.

One silver lining here, no real impact on Thanksgiving or holiday travel, this consumer advocate tells me, with the Thanksgiving rush just days away. Kind of hard to believe, Sara, that we're already here.

SIDNER: Yes, I know. And speaking of that rush, what are you hearing? AAA always does their forecast for how many people are going to travel. What do you think? Is it going to be bananas?

MUNTEAN: Eighty million is the big number this time around that's bigger than 2023, last year, bigger than 2019, before the pandemic. The really interesting thing here is that this number is driven up in some ways because AAA has sort of expanded the period in which it considers the Thanksgiving travel rush. It used to be a five-day period, starting with Wednesday and ending with the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Now it is a seven-day period, driven largely by the fact that a lot of people can work from home and a lot of people are waiting until after the Thanksgiving rush, the typical Thanksgiving rush, to begin to come home.

So, 71 million people will drive 50 miles or more.

[09:55:03] And the good news here is that the price of gas is pretty darn low. It's about $3 a gallon for an average price of regular nationwide right now.

SIDNER: I'm jumping in your car.

BERMAN: Well, I just -

SIDNER: To relax.

BERMAN: AAA can just unilaterally decide, like, the travel thing is seven days?

BOLDUAN: That's what I was -

BERMAN: Why not (INAUDIBLE) - why not eight days.

MUNTEAN: I don't know, John. I pushed back on this a little bit.

BOLDUAN: Have they talked to employers, Pete? I mean -

MUNTEAN: I - I felt like it was a little too - a little too late. No offense to my friends at AAA. You know, people were already doing this.

BERMAN: Yes.

MUNTEAN: Because so many people were able to utilize work from home and flexible schedules. The real rub comes in for folks with little kids, sometimes school days, like in Montgomery County, Maryland, not too far from here, Monday and Tuesday are half days, so, a lot of people can't travel on those days. They're just waiting until Wednesday. That's the biggest day of the rush. That's the hardest day to travel.

BERMAN: I think they're drunk with power. AAA is drunk with power. Just extending days, willy nilly, all over the place.

SIDNER: Who cares?

BOLDUAN: Holidays are weeks long now.

SIDNER: Sounds good.

BOLDUAN: Yes, exactly.

SIDNER: Pete Muntean, thank you so much.

BERMAN: Thank you all for joining us. This has been CNN NEWS CENTRAL, drunk with power. I'm John Berman. Kate Bolduan and Sara Sidner -

BOLDUAN: Oh, I like that sub header for us.

BERMAN: Right, that's a good slogan.

"CNN NEWSROOM," up next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)