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Trump Takeover Shifts from Florida to Washington; Sir Richard Roberts is Interviewed about RFK Jr.; Inflation Headed up in November; Questions about Bird Flu and the Milk Supply. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired December 11, 2024 - 08:30   ET

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

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SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration plan in full swing as the epicenter of the operation shifts from south Florida to Washington, D.C. Trump allies are ushering his cabinet picks through meetings and scrutiny as they move towards confirmation hearings. One of the latest job announcements, former Fox News host, who has also been engaged to Donald Trump Jr., Kimberly Guilfoyle, has been nominated to be the next U.S. ambassador to Greece.

CNN's Steve Contorno tracking it all.

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Sara, for most of the past four years and up until recently, most of Donald Trump's political operation has operated out of Palm Beach and his estate at Mar-a-Lago. Well, that is starting to change. We have seen the epicenter of his transition shift from south Florida to Washington, D.C. He has allies on Capitol Hill walking his nominees through these Senate confirmation meetings with lawmakers on The Hill. He has seen his advance team move from Florida to Washington, where they are starting to scout out space for inaugural balls and ancillary events around his inauguration. We have also seen people from his incoming administration start to meet with their counterparts in the Biden administration. Groups that are close to Trump are renting office space near Washington, D.C., and many of those aides that have lived within a stone's throw of Mar-a-Lago for the past two plus years are now looking for housing in Washington, D.C.

And this is all happening on a faster timeline than we saw eight years ago. In fact, we talked to one Trump adviser who told us, quote, "part of the reason we're all descending on D.C. so early is because the nominees were landed quicker, the sub-cabinet is starting to form, policy teams are in place, and so what's left is figuring out where the hell we're going to live and staffing up.

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Everything is oriented to being as ready as humanly possible."

And that is with the hope that they can hit the ground running on day one. Of course, there's one person who remains in south Florida, and that

is Donald Trump. He continues to hold court at Mar-a-Lago, welcoming world leaders to his estate. He is also continuing to put out policy proposals from south Florida, including yesterday when he, on Truth Social, wrote that he intended to make it easier for companies that invest at least $1 billion of capital in the United States to get their permitting streamlined, including environmental permits.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, our thanks to Steve Contorno there.

Over to you, Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: This just in to CNN. We are learning that RFK Jr.. is headed to Capitol Hill next week to begin meetings with senators to try and shore up support for his nomination to be the next secretary of Health and Human Services. His nomination facing a lot of questions. His selection to head up the country's sprawling public health agency that oversees 13 different departments, controversial.

And in a rare move ahead of all of this, more than 75 Nobel Prize winners have banded together, now urging senators to oppose RFK's nomination. The group writing in a letter to senators this in part, "placing Mr. Kennedy in charge of the department would put the public's health in jeopardy and undermine America's global leadership in health sciences."

Joining me right now is one of the Nobel laureates who helped draft that letter, Sir Richard Roberts, a biochemist who won a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Sir. Richard, thank you for coming in.

How did this letter come about? What made you decide to speak up in a way that we really haven't seen in recent memory?

SIR RICHARD ROBERTS, CHIEF SCIENTIFIC OFFICER, NEW ENGLAND BIOLABS: Well, I was concerned about the nomination as soon as I heard about it. And a number of Nobel laureates wrote to me and suggested that it might be a good idea to see how the Nobel laureates felt about this. And particularly Harold Varmus, who used to be director of (INAUDIBLE) expressed great concern. But many others did, too.

And so, I drafted a letter. Harold helped me tailor it, make it a little better, and I sent it around to the laureates, and we got 77 who replied and said that they too were very concerned about this particular nomination.

BOLDUAN: Were you surprised by the reaction or surprised by the level of support for speaking up in a public way that you - that you heard back?

ROBERTS: I was a little surprised that so many people were prepared to go public with this, because typically Nobel laureates don't get engaged in politics. We try to avoid it whenever we can. But this has caused such concern, not just among us individually, but among the people we know, among our friends, among particularly friends in the medical community who are very concerned about this.

BOLDUAN: So, Richard, we have reported for some time about the long history of RFK. He has, as a vaccine cynic, his penchant for pushing debunked conspiracy theories with regard to medicine, his disdain for scientific research and for - really for public health agencies and entities he would oversee.

What aspect of his views, which to remind everyone also includes him saying that there's no vaccine that's safe and effective, which aspect of his views troubles you most?

ROBERTS: Well, I think for me it's the vaccine skepticism that I find absolutely appalling. Vaccines are probably the best medicine that man has ever invented. They've saved so many lives.

You know, I grew up in England when polio was rampant. One of my friends died from polio. Another one was crippled for life. You don't see that now because of the polio vaccine, which has been incredibly successful.

Now we see measles is spreading within the U.S., and there is the danger of a big flu epidemic. And my feeling has always been that when we elect members to the Senate or to the House, that their duty is to really protect the citizens who voted for them.

This is a key part of their job. And what is more important than health? Well, as far as I'm concerned, nothing is more important than health. And I think if Kennedy gets elected - gets nominated, rather, to - and, you know, it becomes the secretary, he's going to spread a message of anti-vaccination around the U.S. and perhaps even around the world.

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And that is not a good message. People should get vaccinated. This is the cheapest, most effective medicine that we have.

BOLDUAN: "The New York Times" got a - in a report - it was first report about your letter and got this statement I want to read in part from the Trump transition team about the letter you drafted. "Americans are sick and tired of the elites telling them what to do and how to do it. Our healthcare system in this country is broken. Mr. Kennedy will enact President Trump's agenda to restore the integrity of our healthcare."

How do you respond to that?

ROBERTS: Well, unfortunately, of course, I am a member of an elite, being a Nobel Prize winner. But many of the elites that are spoken about are the doctors and surgeons and medical professionals who take care of the health of our country. They don't need shaking up in the way that I think RFK Jr. would want to shake them up. We need to make sure that they are listened to. If politicians don't listen to experts, who are they going to listen to? In order to get good, factual, scientific information, you need to talk and listen to the medical community.

BOLDUAN: We have heard RFK say since Trump's election really that - he says he's not anti-vaccine, which obviously put that in connection with his entire history, that doesn't - that doesn't seem generally believable.

ROBERTS: Right.

BOLDUAN: What do you hope in these meetings that senators are asking him, in private meetings or in public meetings, or what do you hope these senators are considering when they sit down?

ROBERTS: Well, I think they need to consider his full record. And as I - my understanding is, that this is what the nomination process and procedures involve, really finding out everything about his record. But, in particular, ask him about what happened in Samoa. Ask him why he is so vaccine hesitant. Why does he follow all of these conspiracy theories and feel that they're accurate? If he wants to get some accurate information, perhaps he should consult with the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine and see what they have to say. I just don't think it's appropriate for a politician to try to use these anti-establishment rules or whatever the arguments against the current establishment is a good way of making good policy going forward. And I really fear, if he gets to be secretary, he's going to tell the country, well, don't get vaccinated. Don't worry about it.

And this will be a disaster. This - this will lead to deaths in the population. And I don't believe senators or Republican congressmen for that matter really want the citizens who voted for them to die as a result of this policy.

BOLDUAN: Sir Richard Roberts, thank you so much for coming on. I really appreciate your time.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, how do Americans feel about healthcare, their healthcare, the country's healthcare in general? It's certainly been in the news lately.

With us now, CNN's senior data reporter Harry Enten.

It's actually a fairly complicated question, depending on which one you ask.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yes, it's a nuanced question with a nuanced answer. Maybe it's an easy question with a nuanced answer.

All right, we talk about the healthcare system in this country. Look, the bottom line is, Americans really don't like it. Some might even say they hate it.

Talk about, is the quality of the healthcare in this country excellent or good? Just 44 percent say it's excellent or good.

Look at the coverage. Look at the coverage. Twenty-eight percent say that the coverage is excellent or good. The quality is the lowest this century. This 44 percent, the lowest this century. Viewpoints on healthcare in this country going downward.

How about the cost? Just 19 percent. Just 19 percent of Americans are satisfied with the cost of healthcare in this country.

So, the bottom line is, when you're talking about the healthcare system overall, Americans really don't like it, John.

BERMAN: But there is a difference between the healthcare and their healthcare. Two letters can make all the difference in the world.

ENTEN: Can make all the difference in the world. You know, sometimes you talk about approval of Congress versus approval of your own congressman. People don't like Congress, but they like their own congressman.

Something similar is going on here when you talk about the nation's healthcare system, or the healthcare in the nation, versus your own healthcare. Your own healthcare. Look at this, excellent or good, the quality of it, 71 percent say it's excellent or good.

How about the coverage of it? Sixty-five percent say that their coverage is excellent or good. How about satisfied with the cost? A majority, 58 percent, say that they're satisfied with the cost.

So, the bottom line is this, you wonder why the healthcare system in this country stays the same, it's because people don't like healthcare in sort of the abstract. But when it comes to their own healthcare, a lot of Americans actually are pretty gosh darn satisfied with it.

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BERMAN: Again, I just want to show people - again, this is the healthcare.

ENTEN: Yes.

BERMAN: Their healthcare. The healthcare. Their healthcare. It turns out people like their healthcare, a majority do. And in some cases, a vast majority.

ENTEN: That's exactly right, which is why, you know, we've seen these sort of movements to change the health care system in this country. And you say, oh, you look at that first slide and say, oh, wow, yes, there should definitely be a lot of movement for it. But then all of a sudden, like, when it came to Obamacare, there was that real hill that people ran into. And it's because people actually like their own health care and afraid that's going to get changed.

BERMAN: Well, you talked about Obamacare. What about lower income people in general? ENTEN: Yes, what about lower income people in general when it comes to

their own healthcare? Look at this. I mean, many adults, even in the lower income bracket, those who make less than $50,000 a year, say the quality of their healthcare is excellent or good, the coverage is excellent or good, 56 percent, and satisfied with the cost, which you might expect to be significantly lower among the lower income brackets, actually it's slightly higher at 63 percent.

So, the bottom line is this. Yes, Americans don't like the healthcare in this country in the abstract. But when it comes specifically to their healthcare, they're far more satisfied.

BERMAN: Right. There - again, this, to me, just is instructive about how we talk about this. We can't just say Americans hate healthcare. No, they like their health care.

ENTEN: They like - exactly right.

BERMAN: They just have this notion they don't like the healthcare system. I suppose you can hold those two views at once, but it is complicated.

ENTEN: It is complicated. Many times viewpoints are complicated, Mr. Berman.

BERMAN: Harry Enten, thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BERMAN: Sara.

SIDNER: All right, breaking just moments ago, consumer prices headed back up in November.

CNN's Matt Egan joins me now to break down the latest inflation report.

This is not the way that anyone wanted to see this going.

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: That's right, Sara, this is more evidence that the war on inflation has hit a bit of a wall. After all of that progress, now we've seen inflation move in the wrong direction. So, today's numbers show that consumer prices were up by 2.7 percent year over year in November. This is the second month in a row where the rate of inflation has heated up. We wanted to, obviously, cool down. That is not happening right now.

Two big reasons why. One, it's - part of this is the calendar. A year ago inflation was cooling rapidly. So that's tough to live up to on a year over year basis.

SIDNER: Right.

EGAN: But it's also because of shelter, right? The cost of rent has been stubbornly high. It's also worth noting that month over month prices were up by 0.3 percent. That is not alarmingly high. But again, that is also moving in the wrong direction.

Now, when we look at the trend to really see where we are right now, annual inflation is nowhere near the nightmare of two and a half years ago, right? That's when we had 9 percent inflation.

SIDNER: Right.

EGAN: Gas prices were at $5 a gallon nationally. Thankfully, nowhere near that. But it's also clear that some of the progress has stalled out, that that last mile of trying to get back to 2 percent, that's considered healthy, that's been a bumpy ride.

A few items that I want to call out from today's report that are moving in the wrong direction. Supermarket prices. They really accelerated. And, obviously, that's something that people care and feel so much. We also saw acceleration for gas prices, clothing, new cars.

Now, I know that economists and fed officials and business reporters sometimes like to look at the rate of inflation. But our viewers, they care about the level of prices, how much everyone is spending. And it's true, I mean, life has just gotten so much more expensive, right? Supermarket, insurance, all of it has gone up. Moody's has found that the typical household is spending more than $1,100 more per month than they were back in early 2021 for the same goods and services.

And, listen, Sara, wages are up too, but not for everyone. And sometimes by just enough for people to tread water. And that is why a lot of people just, they're frustrated because they feel like they can't get ahead right now.

SIDNER: Yes, especially you mentioned the grocery stores. I mean that is a huge one that you hear over and over and over again. People frustrated with those prices, as they should be.

EGAN: They should be.

SIDNER: That's $1,100 more a month.

Matt Eagan, thank you.

EGAN: Thank you, Sara.

SIDNER: I appreciate it.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: So, a shocking explosion caught on camera.

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BOLDUAN: It was just huge. The investigation now into what caused a garbage truck to blow up.

And a man known as the Tiger Woods of Scrabble takes home first prize in the Spanish championship. And you're going to want to hear why his win left his fellow competitors stunned.

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BERMAN: All right, this morning, Dr. Sanjay Gupta on call to answer your questions about the bird flu outbreak in dairy cattle and how it could affect milk supply.

So, Sanjay, Vinod from Houston asks, "is there a vaccine for bird flu?"

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, the answer is yes. Short answer is yes. Theres about 5 million doses. So, not - not much of it. That's been sort of stockpiled for H5N1 specifically, but it's not commercially available to everybody.

There has been some discussion about maybe vaccinating farm workers who seem to be the most at risk given this association with dairy farms. They did that, incidentally, in Finland, John, where they just said, hey, let's at least take care of the farm workers.

So, two things to point out. There is a seasonal flu virus, a seasonal flu vaccine, that may offer some cross-protection against H5N1. It's not specifically directed at H5N1, but may offer some protection. And there's lots of discussions to go ahead and ramp up the supply of the H5N1 vaccine, possibly even using mRNA technology, something we talked a lot about during Covid, which can, you know, accelerate vaccine development into months versus years.

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That has not been done yet, but that may be coming over the next couple months, John.

BERMAN: So, Sanjay, on this subject, we've been talking a lot about unpasteurized milk, raw milk.

GUPTA: Yes.

BERMAN: Gail from California asks, "we've been buying unpasteurized cheese at Whole Foods. So, is that safe to eat?"

GUPTA: Yes, really interesting question. So, in the United States, and it's different in other countries, but in the United States, if you're buying raw milk cheese or unpasteurized milk cheese in the United States, it has to have been aged for at least 60 days before you can purchase it. And the thinking is that during that 60 days many of the pathogens that we talk about E.Coli, listeria, salmonella, they will sort of be aged out. In addition to that, there's certain ingredients that are added to raw milk cheese, certain salts, certain acids, which also do a pretty good job of taking care of any potential pathogens.

So, the answer is, yes, you can buy unpasteurized cheese in the United States, but it does have pretty strict regulatory framework around it. I actually attended a raw cheese festival in Italy, a place called Bra, Italy, where it did not need to be aged like that. They did not need to add acids and salts, and people came from all over believing that that truly raw milk cheese offered some health benefits. Can't get that in the United States, though, John.

BERMAN: So, how fun was the raw cheese festival? Was it like a renaissance fair?

GUPTA: It was amazing. Yes, I wish I had - I wanted to pull some images. I'll try and find some images to show you. It was amazing. It smelled great. The cheeses tasted so well. People were really into it.

It's part of this whole slow food movement as opposed to the fast food movement in the United States. They call it the slow food movement in Italy. It's amazing. You should visit.

BERMAN: A raw cheese festival. I always knew you knew how to party.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta, thank you very much.

Kate.

GUPTA: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: The headlines we're watching right now.

A Las Vegas man who jumped over a judge's bench - yes, that - to attack her during a sentencing, he has now been sent - sentenced and sent behind bars for quite some time. Courtroom video from January shows that man leaping the bench, grabbing the judge. And here is how he explains that now.

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DEOBRA REDDEN, SENTENCED FOR ATTACKING NEVADA JUDGE: I saw nothing but red, and I don't remember doing anything except for jumping on top of her and doing this to her. I was like, why are you doing this to me.

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BOLDUAN: He pleaded guilty but mentally ill to attempted murder charges. He told the court Tuesday he was not trying to kill the judge. His lawyer attributed his outburst to untreated schizophrenia. He will now serve between 26 and 65 years in prison and will not be eligible for parole until after 2050.

Five years after retiring from the sport, Olympic gold medalist and downhill skiing rock star Lindsey Vonn is back. And this is just months after undergoing a partial knee replacement surgery. She has now qualified to compete in the World Cup circuit.

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LINDSEY VONN, OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: I honestly never thought it was going to happen. So, I'm - I'm just as surprised as everyone else. I'm really enjoying this journey. You know, no one's ever done this with a knee replacement before, so I honestly don't know how far I can take it. But so far it's been incredible. The response has been incredible. And I can tell you, I am having so much fun going fast again.

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BOLDUAN: So much - and fast she does go. Her record to this point speaks for itself. She's won three Olympic medals and 82 World Cup races.

There is new body cam video showing the moment a garbage truck literally explodes in a Chicago suburb. Police and firefighters were at the scene responding to reports of a truck on fire, and that is when it suddenly blew up, sending debris just everywhere. The blast was apparently so strong that parts of a nearby roof and siding were ripped off. Two officers and a firefighter, they were injured at the scene, but thankfully are said to now be OK.

So, there's a man who does not speak Spanish who has just won the Spanish World Scrabble Championships. Nigel Richards, he beat more than 145 people in 22 consecutive tournaments. Richards is already known to his fellow competitors as the Tiger Woods of Scrabble. He did something similar nine years ago, winning the French language national title, even though he admitted not knowing much French beyond bonjour. So, there you have that. That's pretty remarkable because I am clearly bad at it, even in my native English language.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

SIDNER: All right, breaking news. New evidence authorities have against the man suspected of killing the CEO of United Healthcare. We are just learning fingerprints, a match between Mangione and prints found at the scene of Brian Thompson's shooting.

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Police say they have those. We will discuss.

And a CNN exclusive.