>> new hampshire was so yesterday, and already this morning, in fact, since we've been on the air, a slew of new developments in the presidential race. nikki haley is on her way home to south carolina, we're waiting to hear from her when she lands. her campaign just released two new commercials there, that doesn't sound like someone dropping out but the chair of the republican party, the national party, is questioning her ability to continue. and new this morning, the georgia republican party chair and the rnc delegates from there, are calling for haley to drop out. the question there is, will other party officials from around the country join this call? cnn's dianne gallagher is in summerville, south carolina, where nikki haley is scheduled to speak tonight. give us a sense of the scene, if this looks like it's all going to happen, what you're hearing on the ground there, diane? >> reporter: nikki haley will speak not too far from here in

summerville, in north charleston tonight, all just down the road. i've been talking to voters at a coffee shop here today about their former governor, of course, nikki haley, twice elected governor here in the state of south carolina, but in speaking with republicans here, they tell me firmly that they believe that this is still trump country, still last night after coming in second in new hampshire, haley said that she was heading back to her sweet state of south carolina, where voters were not interested in a coronation, and instead she says they want an election, and her campaign plans to give it to them. you mentioned those commercials that haley campaigned up with ads today in south carolina, highlighting her record as governor here, but also a refrain that we have heard frequently from nikki haley on the campaign trail, that no one really wants a rematch of joe biden and donald trump. >> biden, too old. trump, too much chaos. a rematch no one wants. there's a better choice for a better america. her story started right here,

america's youngest governor, a conservative republican, and boy did she deliver. >> reporter: now, i anticipate you'll hear much of that tonight at her rally in north charleston. but look, john, in talking to voters here in summerville today, awe of them who intend to vote in that primary one month from today, they tell me that while they supported her as governor, they, for the most part, are on, in their words, the trump train, and they say that there's really not much that can deter them from that. i did speak with some haley supporters, but unlike what we may have seen with voters in new hampshire, so far i haven't heard anybody say that they are, you know, quote, never trump. that if trump is the nominee. they do plan to vote for him. and several of them tell me what gave them that confidence, to cast that ballot, if, in fact, nikki haley is not the nominee, is their south carolina senator, tim scott, endorsing donald trump, and the hope that scott may have some role in a

potential trump cabinet if he is elected president again, tim scott previewing what they believe their south carolina strategy will be earlier today. >> you know, diane, the republican campaigns that i've covered, george w. bush, john mccain, and mitt romney, after new hampshire, south carolina, it's like they shoot out of a rocket ship. they wake up in south carolina. south carolina is happening the minute new hampshire is over, i'm curious, nikki haley doesn't speak until tonight. i don't know when donald trump is next there. does it feel like there's a campaign frenzy in south carolina this morning? >> reporter: to be very honest, no, it does not at this point. now, part of that may be because we are looking at a primary that is still one month away. but, some of it may also be, because look, nikki haley finished third in iowa, she finished second in new hampshire, and it wasn't necessarily as close as perhaps some of the polls were predicting, and that is something that voters did talk to me about this morning, saying

that they are afraid that this is just, perhaps, prolonging the inevitable. i had several haley fans tell me they were concerned about what staying in the race might mean for her political future in, in fact, it is a trump landslide, one month from now, and now, look, many of them telling me they hope that's not the case. they do still plan to vote for their former governor. but, look, i talked to the chair of the dorchester county republican party this morning and he can't tell me who he's voting for, he wants to remain neutral, he did tell me it does look increasingly like the writing is on the wall in south carolina, despite her history in this state. >> all right, dianne gallagher, in south carolina, thank you so much, as i said, new hampshire was so yesterday. but this morning, kind of want to frame the questions that we have coming out of new hampshire. you want to win, any race you enter, donald trump won, and won big, and that margin, that number 54% is the highest number for any nonincumbent in a republican primary but one big

question is, is donald trump really a nonincumbent? not suggesting he's president. he's not, but he was recently, and has a grip on the party, much like an incumbent, and if you judge him through that prism, a little bit more like an incumbent, this margin looks a little bit different. look at incumbent president george h.w. bush in 1992 against pat buchanan, these numbers seem a lot like these numbers, and this result right here was seen as awful for bush in '92, and it wounded him, going forward, into the general election. so, just think about that. in a general election, there are more than just conservative republican voters, there are moderate voters, donald trump, again, he won in new hampshire, he did badly with moderates, he lost by more than 50 points among moderates there, also independents, those are the undeclared voters, that we've been talking about in new hampshire, he also lost badly there, by about 30 points, now, he did win with republicans. registered republicans absolutely did very, very well,

and that's a problem from nikki haley, today, in south carolina, in every day, if she stays in this race, you can't win a republican nomination by losing by 50 points among republican voters. i want to show you one number, though, that absolutely does weigh on the trump campaign, and may be an issue in the general election. if trump is the nominee, this was among new hampshire primary voters, if trump is the nominee, nearly 20% of republican primary voters said they would not support him, 66% of independents said they would not support him. that is a huge issue for that campaign going forward. want to bring in patrick griffin, a campaign strategist in media consultant, let me put one thing up here, patrick, so people can see what we're looking at right now as well. give myself a drawing tool here, this is the rest of the month in january, a lot of empty days there, and these are all the

days before the south carolina primary. yes, there's a nevada contest in the u.s. virgin islands. nikki haley not competing in nevada. what happens in all these days if nikki haley stays in the race? >> well, look, john, this is going to be a long time, and that's a good point. nevada's clearly going to be donald trump. he owns that party mechanism. he's -- that's a primary, as you know, as well, it's sort of a two-sided thing. he'll win that very, very easily. the question is, what happens to money? that's my question. it looks like afp and the coke backed pact that has funded nikki haley so far stays in, she's got money. she's got a fair amount of cash on hand. they've started the campaign in south carolina. i think that's where they stay. they may be raising money in other places, but there's a lot of time between now and the end of the time in south carolina, and that's one of the reasons, john, we saw such an apoplectic

donald trump last night. he wants this thing done and over and as long as she's in, she's in. there's a lot of mischief to be made particularly with those numbers you pointed out at the beginning of the piece. >> talk to me more about that. it's the flipside of the coin here, nikki haley stays in and even if you don't think she has a chance, put that off to the side for a second, but if she stays in until south carolina, or maybe even beyond, what does that mean for donald trump? what does that mean for the general election? >> well, the problem here, john, is that 43% of the people who came out and pulled a republican ballot yesterday voted against donald trump. the question is, in a general election, after these primaries, does donald trump's floor become his ceiling. how do you expand voters in even a race against somebody as inept as joe biden, at least from the republican standpoint? the fact of the matter is, these

races are about addition and multiplication, not subtraction and division. i don't know that donald trump can allow himself to be successful in this race without drawing in more independent voters. you and i both know, a handful of swing states, very similar to new hampshire, as a matter of fact, in their behavior, are going to decide this race. and without those independents, this is looking like a very close nail-biting contest. nikki haley will continue to say, i think, this is not so close a race, it's a stronger annuity for republicans, if i'm the nominee, then he is. but this remains to be one of those races we've seen before, high drama, probably right to the end. i don't know how many republicans can take that heartburn again. >> again, i just put the independent numbers up here so people could see what they were in new hampshire. they're called undeclared voters there who can vote in either the republican or democratic primary, nikki haley won by 30 points, new hampshire independents may be different than independents around the country but you get the idea. i mean, donald trump is not

winning among independent voters in republican primaries right now, at least not based what we saw in new hampshire. how do you think independents view donald trump's behavior on stage last night? there's reporting that nikki haley intentionally poked the bear, intentionally tried to provoke him to mouth off, which he did on that stage, how will that be perceived? again, maybe not in a republican primary contest, but for voters who will vote in the general election. >> yeah, so that's the question. again, donald trump listens to donald trump. the difference in this campaign, here in new hampshire, i think in iowa is, they've run a real campaign, john, this has been highly organized, highly choreographed, very, very smart politics. i'm not sure they're going for those voters yet. i think they feel, in a binary choice between trump and biden, they can make that choice, and that trump is more tolerable than an inept biden. you make a good point, nikki haley did purposely, i think, poke the bear last night and boy

did she poke him. if you think she's out at some point why not extend the hand a little bit? it looks like donald trump is on his way to this nomination, but it doesn't make sense, even if he gets poked, to poke her back because he's going to need those voters, and he's ultimately going to need nikki haley. >> boy, we will wait and see what she says on that stage tonight if she goes on with the south carolina event, or if she speaks before that, we'll also wait to see the next thing out of donald trump's mouth. while i have you, one of the obsessions i have here, and one of the questions that's been asked so many times, you know, how should donald trump be judged? is he judged as any other normal first time republican presidential candidate? or, as a quasi incumbent. i know he's not president, but he was recently, this is the comparison to george h.w. bush in '92, what do you think about that? >> right. f trump wasn't the incumbent before iowa and new hampshire, he sure is now. trump owns the party, it's his party mechanism, he's won two contests but remember, john, the interesting thing about donald trump is, he's both the

incumbent and the protest candidate, very few times have we seen that in american politics, he's got an interesting dichotomy going on but he is the incumbent more than anything else and he's going to have to bring the party together and bring independent voters to the republican side if he wants to win this general election, even against joe biden. >> we've got our bookers trying to line up grover cleveland, perhaps the only man who's been through anything like this before. we'll let you know how that goes. patrick griffin, thank you for being with us. >> that was really interesting. the incumbent and the protest candidate all in one, so throw it all out. >> no, it's true, it's really interesting, he's trying to figure out exactly what he represents right now, and how he should be judged. >> but do not poke the bear. >> do not poke the bear. i learned that with you. moving on, the ceo of boeing doing damage control on capitol hill after that terrifying alaska airlines incident, and that airline's ceo making a new

startling statement about more troubling findings on quote/unquote many of the same boeing planes. new video also, we have, showing a moment of russian military plane crashes, and goes up into a ball of flames, you will see it right there. . but who or what may have been on board? a lot of conflicting information coming in. and back in south carolina. how conservatives are hoping to use menthol cigarettes now to go after joe biden.

all those on board died, that is a statement this morning from a russian governor about a russian military plane that crashed near the ukrainian border and burst into flames. russia says dozens of ukrainian prisoners of war were on board, being flown to a prisoner swap. but ukraine says that russian air defense missiles were actually on the plane, cnn has not independently verified these conflicting claims. let's get over to cnn's matthew chance who has more on this. matthew, what are you learning? >> reporter: kate, it's going to be very difficult in this sort of like very closely controlled war zone, while there's an information war under way as well, between russia and

ukraine, to actually sort of get some really firm facts on what exactly happened, and indeed, what was even on board that plane. the ukrainians are saying at this stage that they believe, from their intelligence, that this was line line craft carrying missiles. if that's a case it would have been a high profile target for ukrainian air defenses to try and take out. and recently, there have been lots of incidents, or several incidents where ukraine forces have pushed forward close to the border with russia to try and deny russian aircraft the kind of freedom in their own air space that they've enjoyed up until now. that's been a quite successful strategy. there was a takedown of a russian plane, just a couple of weeks ago which had a big impact inside russia on their ability to control the backing field. but of course the other version of events is the one the russians are talking about is, in fact, this plane was carrying

65 ukrainian prisoners of war on the way to a prisoner exchange, on their way back home and they were taken out by two ukrainian missiles before they landed in that city of belgorod, or close to it anyway. if so, that would obviously be a tragic miscalculation on the part of the ukrainians, but again, at the moment, we don't know which version of events is true. >> very difficult for both of them, obviously, to be true at the very same time, working through it though, great to see you, matthew, thank you so much. boeing's ceo is meeting with lawmakers as the ceo of several airlines say they're disappointed and angry with the aircraft maker. of course, the door plug blew off an alaska airlines boeing 737 max 9 yet mid-flight a few weeks ago, this is what the alaska airlines ceo said. >> we found, you know, some loose bolts on many of our max 9s.

>> many? >> yeah. so those are things that are going to be rectified through the inspection process. >> boeing is better than this. and flight 1282 should never have happened. >> all right, cnn aviation correspondent pete munteen is with us, you've got this first interview with the head of the faa since the whole alaska airlines incident. what have you learned? >> we heard from the ceo of boeing, dave calhoun. on capitol hill meeting with lawmakers, he will not support flying the grounded boeing 737 max 9 until it's deemed those planes are 100% safe. the comments from alaska's ceo are just further confirmation of possible quality control issues at boeing when it comes to the max 9. and the head of the faa just told me that quality control is where that investigation is now focused, remember, the faa grounded the max 9 in the u.s. as it figures out exactly how airlines should inspect these planes for problems.

faa administrator mike whitaker told me in this one on one interview that the max 9 door plug is a good design, but only when it's properly executed. that's the big caveat. the bolts that hold the door plug on the plane are key. there are four of them. and if they are not installed, then the door can essentially shimmy out of its retaining grooves and shoot off with explosive force like we saw back on january 5th on alaska 1282. here is the sound bite saying quality control is now the focus of the investigation. >> we know this particular design has been in many other aircraft that are not the max. that have met millions of hours of operations. so there's a fair amount of comfort around the design and everything that we are seeing, confirming that. so it really takes us to production manufacturing, maintenance, those types of issues, and ensuring that the pieces are where they need to be, and all the bolts are in place. >> the faa now also has

inspectors on site at the boeing plant in renton, washington, the goal the faa administrator says is to increase the scrutiny on production problems and where they might be occurring the faa has a sampling of data from the max 9s in the u.s., and unground those planes. >> pete muntean, thank you. what's going on in one of the trials against donald trump here in new york, or not going on today, i should say.

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no trial proceedings today in the damages part of e. jean carroll's civil defamation trial against donald trump, trying is scheduled to pick up again tomorrow morning, judge louis kaplan, adjourned trial monday, after sending a sick juror home, but it is not clear if that is the same reason for today's delay. well now cnn chief legal affairs correspondent paula reid, and senior legal analyst, elie honig, what's happening here, paula, and is the trial going to start again tomorrow? >> unclear, we're getting these day by day extensions, went into court on monday, there was a sick juror, so they had to adjourn court for the day, and it was expected that they would come back on tuesday, trump's

lawyer, though, alina hobba asked for an adjournment on tuesday as well because trump was in new hampshire. the judge was not terribly happy about this request, it was clear, but he said to her, cryptically, you may get your wish based on sort of the larger circumstances. we have not been told specifically why they continued to extend this. all we know is there was a sick juror and so far we have had two different extensions of this adjournment and it's unclear if we will be back in court tomorrow or if they will extend the pause another day. >> elie honig, a sick juror, the flu, covid, something that clears up quickly. what if it doesn't? >> if there's issues with health with a juror, you can wait it out. depends on what the diagnosis is, covid, you're talking a week or so. not an expert. or in a case like this you can drop the juror. this is a civil case. they have nine jurors here, you just need six in order to proceed. so, at a certain point, i think the judge will come back, if it's a serious illness or something that's going to side

track this for weeks, and say, we've dropped that juror and now we're going to proceed with eight or seven. >> is that something that one side can object to? >> i want to note on monday the judge gave both sides the option. he said, look, we can continue, we're down one juror, we still have eight, do you want to keep going? e. jean carroll's lawyer said, okay, but alina hobba, trump's lawyer, objected to that. what was amazing is the spin in the pro-trump circles was that somehow the biden administration was forcing trump back into court on tuesday when, again, he could have continued with the case and really probably gotten through a significant amount of the work they still have to do on monday. but as of now it's unclear if the judge continued to offer that option to the lawyers, or if he's just unilaterally extending this. >> what are things -- >> ultimately, that is up to the judge. he does not need both sides to say, okay, we're okay with it. the judge can say you want to wait for the juror, you don't, here's what we're doing. >> it may be something if trump's lawyers do not object,

they do in the c o opinion, which is what this is all about. make ago campaign event out of it, one interesting number, pointing to the magic wall over there, see the poll number that we put up there, so people can see, we asked in our exit poll of the new hampshire republican primary voters, is trump fit for the presidency if convicted of a crime? 54% said, yes. 42%, no, which is a very high number among republican primary voters. you guys are the law. not asking about the politics, on the law, elie, and on the law scheduling, what trial is there a possibility that he would be convicted of a crime, and at this point, in this election year? >> the calendar is so crucial here. there's four pending criminal indictments. in terms of which ones are going to get tried before the election. forget about the fulton county das, they don't have a trial date yet, they're asking for an august trial date. i assure you that will not happen. we're getting really close to the start of jack smith's d.c.

case, the 2020 election subversion case, the scheduled start date there is march 4th, about 40 days from now and they have to start picking a injury a couple weeks before that, of course that case is currently hung up in the court of appeals on the immunity question, we don't have a ruling, that could come at any moment, could be going to the supreme court next. so, if that case gets moved, guess which one's left standing as the one that would be going first? the manhattan hush money case, which is the least serious a case, and i don't know if those numbers even reflect the manhattan hush money case. >> not sure people remember that. >> yeah. >> paula, any sense if your reporting on donald trump's various lawyers and various places, which one they're preparing for, first, which one they think might be first? >> he's very broad team of lawyers, so there is some overlap but they've always been most concerned about the georgia case because there's a conviction there, that would be outside the pardon power. in terms of the seriousness of the charges and things that might actually resonate with voters the mar-a-lago classified documents case has always been

of the utmost concern, even though that is tentatively scheduled for may it is widely considered that that date will be pushed. they are certainly concerned about going up against jack smith in any court of law but they're increasingly optimistic the longer it takes to get this answer from the appellate court on immunity, the longer it takes to get to the supreme court and get an answer for them and the closer you get to the election, the harder it get to bring a trial. i will note, my colleague evan perez tried to pressmer rirk garland on how close to the election you're comfortable starting one of these federal trials. historically they have not taken investigative steps in any case that could impact the election 60 days outside the election. this is an investigation now. this is a trial, similar, but different, merrick garland would not commit. >> a lot of unanswered questions. >> so many unanswered questions. i can't book a vacation, i'm sure you can't either. we have no idea. >> we're on call, on call just like it's meant to be. paula reid, elie honig, thank you very much. conservatives test driving a new campaign strategy in south

carolina. how they are hoping to use menthol cigarettes to take on joe biden. and, life imitating art in wild fashion, the oscars, the blockbuster, the snubs that have ryan gosling speak out now. >> what have you done? what are you wearing?

new this morning, a conservative group is using south carolina as a testing ground for its message, opposing the fda's proposed ban on menthol cigarettes. cnn's rene marsh joins us now. what's the goal here?

who is this directed at? >> john, only in a world where the incumbent president is facing this, enthusiasm problem, from his base, can menthol cigarettes of all topics be seen as this political effective wedge issue in a presidential election, and that's where we're at. we're talking about liberty policy foundation, this is a conservative advocacy group, they launched this digital ad campaign in south carolina, just this morning, you're looking at video of it there. and within the ad, it says -- and i'm quoting, president biden keeps talking about uniting americans, bringing us together, so why is he pushing policies that continue to divide us, like his proposal to criminalize menthol cigarettes. the ad also goes on to show headlines related to eric garner, garner, if you remember, died after police held him in an illegal choke hold for allegedly selling cigarettes illegally. now, president biden has not yet decided whether to approve the fda's proposal on menthol

cigarettes, which health advocates have said would save hundreds of thousands of black lives, but the republicans see this could be unpopular, as far as this ban goes, among some black voters, it's worth noting that menthol cigarettes are the preferred cigarette among many black smokers because tobacco industry has heavily marketed menthols within the black community for decades, so what this conservative group is doing is, it's using south carolina in this democratic primary to test whether this is an issue that can effectively chip away from some of those biden democrats, specifically african americans. john? >> great explanation, there is a lot going on here. interesting to watch. rene marsh, thank you. kate. so new hampshire's in the rear view. south carolina, you're now on the clock, multi-more dollar ad buy, a big campaign stop tonight, nikki haley is refusing to back down after donald trump's big win last night. just as south carolina senator,

now a possible vp pick for donald trump, tim scott, he says trump strategy in south carolina is to finish it. >> what we have to do is focus on south carolina, make the margins so wide, so devastating, that the race is over, the donors start turning their attention on donald trump. >> five weeks. >> i think it's the next two or three weeks. the margins are going to get wider over the next three weeks, we're going home to south carolina to finish this race, and start focusing on joe biden. >> let's talk about south carolina, joining us right now is danielle vincent, a professor of politics in international affairs at furman university in south carolina, danielle, thank you for the time. do you think, first and foremost, south carolina republicans take anything or learn anything from new hampshire republicans last night? who are south carolina republicans? >> south carolina republicans are going to be a bit more like

iowa republicans in that we've got a really large evangelical population that is very supportive of trump. but you also do have a strong segment of more business -- what we have typically considered traditional conservative republicans in past elections, and that's the group, i think, nikki haley's probably going to be focused on the most in trying to convince them that donald trump is not the best answer for them come november. >> and they have, you know, three -- three -- a month, essentially, that there's -- that south carolina is going to be the laser focus of both of these campaigns now. i want to play for you what south carolina senator lindsey graham told my colleague manu raju this morning, reacting to trump's win last night, and haley's -- and haley's speech as well, after the polls closed. >> do you think that it's time for nikki haley to drop out? >> well, i'll leave that up to her, but trump is in a

commanding position in south carolina, and i think for all practical purposes, the primary is over. she's done better than anybody in the history of south carolina, she has a lot to be proud of. but her assessment last night of president trump, i don't think, would be widely shared in south carolina. >> and what graham's talking about there is her assessment, or haley's statement, that donald trump is not fit to be president. do you agree with graham's assessment on that? >> i'm not sure, because i honestly don't think most of the candidates in this primary have been making that argument very clearly until the last week when haley started doing so. and so voters haven't really heard it very much. chris christie tried, but he was very low down in the polls for most of that, and you were competing with all these other candidates. and all these other messages, and also what was going on with trump, and his court appearances and things like that. i think she's got one month to get voters focused on that

message, and south carolina's a good place to figure out, will it work or not? it's an uphill climb. i don't know that it will work, but i think it's her best shot at trying to -- to close that gap with trump and overtake him in south carolina. >> and danielle, let's also talk about the other senator from south carolina, tim scott, who we played a bit from just then, i mean, this is also for context purposes, and a reminder, nikki haley made tim scott a senator when she appointed him to fill a vacancy in 2012, just showing some of the history there. but tim scott saying that his/their/trump strategy is to make south carolina do or die for nikki haley. do you think it is? >> oh, absolutely. she knows this electorate very well. she's won this electorate twice before when she was governor. if she cannot persuade this group of people which are very typical of a lot of the southern

states where the campaign is taking off to next, if she can't persuade this group of people there is no path forward. so, yes, i think scott is absolutely right that this is make or break for her. if she cannot get to either neck and neck with trump, or beat him in south carolina, there is no rationale for continuing. >> and another thing that we saw last night is that nikki haley has gotten under donald trump's skin in a new way and he's now stepping up his personal attacks against her. you say there's a history in south carolina, a strategy like that might not work, has backfired before. do you think donald trump needs to be careful here? >> i think this is going to be really interesting to watch and yes, trump probably should be careful here. the first time nikki haley ran for governor she endured some incredibly personal and ugly attacks from competitors and others in the state, establishment, and that --

voters decided the attacks were over the top, they were uncalled for, and they just didn't like it. now, they're used to donald trump making these kinds of attacks so it may not have as much impact this time around. but south carolina voters have not always reacted well to personal attacks, and there could be a backlash, i think particularly among suburban women who already know haley, and they may not need a whole lot of persuasion on that front to shift their support to her. >> there's a lot to watch, a lot of focus coming right your way. great to meet you, danielle, thank you so much for coming in. john? obamacare hits a record for new sign-ups as donald trump promises to repeal, and replace it if he returns to the white house. it's as oscar voters live only in the mojo dojo casa house, life imitating art,

imitating life, voters watch barbie, and reward ken, ken reacts this morning. >> but somehow we're always doing it wrong.

all right. also on our radar this hour, rack condemning u.s. air strikes -- iraq condemning u.s. strikes on iran-based militias in iraq. defense secretary lloyd austin says the strikes were in direct response to escalating attacks against american coalition personnel in iraq and syria. u.s. forces in iraq and syria have come under attack at least 151 times since october 17th. a new york man was found guilty tuesday in the murder of

20-year-old caylin gillis. gillis was shot and killed after the car that she was riding in accidentally turned into kevin monahan's driveway in rural new york. now the woman's father said the best possible outcome short of her still being alive. monahan maintained that he killed her on accident after he stumbled and his shotgun went off. a record 21.3 million americans have signed up for the "affordable care act" -- for "affordable care act" coverage this year. that is five million more people who signed up compared to 2023. former president trump has vowed to repeal obamacare saying it, quote, sucks, promising to replace it with a better plan that he has yet to unveil, and despite his plans with the republican house and senate and was not able to do it when he was mt. there is no ken without barbie, and there is no barbie

without great -- greta gerwig. kos sling and americana ferrera were nominated for their roles. margot robbie and director greta gerwig were left out of the best actress and best director categories. the snubs, they knew the premise, the patriarchy baked into our culture and exhaustingly hard for women to get a fair shake. cnn is "barbie" producer. stocks on their way to record highs. gas prices falling, mortgage rates at their lowest level since last spring. jon stewart going back to "the daily show." but not everyone is feeling so great about the economy. matt egan is with us now. this is something that the u.s. treasury secretary, janet yellen is aaaware of. >> she is.

she's giving a major speech tomorrow in chicago. excerpts of the speech shared with cnn shows yellen will focus in part on how the administration wants to lift up middle-class families who are dealing with real-world financial problems right now. key line from the speech, yellen's going to say, i'm quoting, it is still too hard to be a working parent. we need to get american families access to affordable childcare and other support for their children. now on that point about childcare, care.com has a study out that shows that parents spend on average 24% of their household income on childcare. 24%. and almost half the parents who responded to the survey say they're spending more than $18,000 a year, again, just on childcare. yellen plans to talk about other areas that they can focus on to help the middle class including housing, education, and she's going to note that the expanded child tax credit, which went

away, plunged millions of children back into poverty. now all this i think shows how biden officials are trying to thread the needle here, right. on the one hand they want to take credit for historically low unemployment. for high gdp. for the fact that inflation is cooling. on the other hand, they know that if they only focus on those positives they're going to come off as tone deaf. kind of like ceos who go viral for the wrong reasons when they fire people on zoom. so they've got to acknowledge the elephant in the room which is that it is hard right now for working families. parents that i talked to, they do voice frustration about the cost of housing, of childcare, of getting a car. and so all of these issues are going to continue to be major issues in the race for 2024 in the white house. >> i know you're an avid "cnn news central" viewer. it was here that janet yellen said what's happening now is the definition of a soft landing in the economy. it is happening, but at the same time, she was also super careful not to declare victory. >> right.

absolutely. both things can be true at the same time. the fact that a recession fears have gone down and a soft landing may happen, that's certainly true. at the same time, there are real affordability challenges out there. >> great to see you. thank you very much. and thank you all so much for joining us today. this is "cnn news central." "inside politics" up next.