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Quest Means Business

Soon: Biden To Call For Major Changes In Supreme Court; Simone Biles Says She Will Compete In All Four Events Tuesday; Maduro And Opposition Both Claim Presidential Bid Election; Two Children Dead, Nine Others Injured In U.K. Knife Attack; Soon: Biden To Call For Major Changes To Supreme Court; McDonald's Reports Weak Sales For Second Quarter. Aired 4- 4:45p ET

Aired July 29, 2024 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:10]

RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST: Closing bell ringing on wall street. Lennox ringing the bell. They are a heating and air conditioning company.

Much in need as we swelter through the summer.

The markets are betwixt and between if you take a look. Let's have a look, oh dear. Well there we are, how you have a gavel or two down just about 49

or 50 points. Fed meeting, therefore, I am guessing a lot of nervousness ahead of that, not exactly a huge -- well, look, the child at the stock

exchange. Start them early and they'll make a fortune.

There is all the headlines -- sorry, those are the markets and now the main news of the day that we are talking about.

Joe Biden this hour is going to be calling for term limits for US Supreme Court judges.

At the Olympics, Simone Biles is still planning to compete in all four gymnastic events on Tuesday, despite a calf injury.

And show me the data. International observers call on Venezuela to release detailed election results.

We are live in New York, start of a new week together, Monday, July the 29th. July is almost gone. I'm Richard Quest and I mean business.

Good evening.

Let's start in the US where President Biden will endorse a dramatic change to the US Supreme Court. The president is due to speak this hour in Texas

when he is going to call for term limits for the justices who otherwise are appointed for life and a binding Code of Conduct for the US Supreme Court.

The vice president, Kamala Harris, also the presidential nominee presumptive, is now backing those ideas as part of her own presidential

campaign.

The political calculus is clear. A Marquette Law School poll shows 61 percent of Americans disapprove of the job that the US Supreme Court is

doing after series of unpopular rulings and controversies. Four years ago, 66 percent approved of the court.

As things stand, the reforms that President Biden is proposing have little chance of being made into law mainly because they are constitutional, they

require amendments to the Constitution.

Arlette Saenz is with us in Austin, Texas.

Probably more chances of raining in Austin, Texas in the middle of summer than getting a constitutional amendment on the Supreme Court passed anytime

soon.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Richard, President Biden is facing the political reality of this moment that these proposals he is

set to unveil in the coming hour are unlikely to go anywhere up on Capitol Hill, especially with the currently divided Congress that he is facing.

But what Democrats are hoping is that this could act as an overture to progressives in their party who have long called for reforms to the Supreme

Court.

As you noted, Vice President Kamala Harris threw her support behind President Biden's proposals in a statement today, saying that the Supreme

Court is facing a crisis of confidence.

Now, Biden is calling for three measures. He wants to see an enforceable Code of Conduct for Supreme Court justices. He is also calling for term

limits to be established with 18-year terms and giving presidents the ability to appoint new justices every two years.

And then the third item relates to that constitutional amendment President Biden is set to call for. He wants to limit the broad presidential immunity

that the conservative majority on the Supreme Court granted earlier this summer in that controversial ruling involving former President Donald

Trump.

Now House Speaker Mike Johnson put it very bluntly, these proposals are dead on arrival up on Capitol Hill, but they do mark a significant change

for Biden himself, a former chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who has long resisted calls from within his own party to make changes to the

Supreme Court.

Now, Biden is set to address these changes here at the LBJ Library in Austin, Texas. Of course, there are some historical parallels between Biden

and president Lyndon B. Johnson, who had also ended his re-election bid back in 1968.

So this will be Biden's first public appearance since bowing out of the 2024 race. We will have to see if he weighs in on that matter today.

QUEST: Yes, I think one other point though, Arlette, there is a political calculus in here, even allowing for the Supreme Court's current

unpopularity, but there is a calculus that putting forward change would be politically popular in a group other than hardened Democrats.

SAENZ: It could potentially be. You have seen the Supreme Court come under recent scrutiny when it pertains to the Ethics Code. There have been some

calls up on Capitol Hill to pass some legislation specifically addressing that, though that has faced some resistance from Republicans.

[16:05:12]

It is unclear what a move like this from President Biden will play with the larger electorate, but Democrats are hoping that it is something that will

invigorate their own base going forward.

QUEST: Thank you. That's Arlette Saenz who is with -- well, waiting for the president to speak and now you can see -- thank you, Arlette.

There you can see President Biden in Austin, Texas. He is greeting various local dignitaries and politicians and the like, and we will hear the

president when he is --

He is due to speak at half past four, which is in 25 minutes' time. We know what the president is like in terms of timekeeping, but let's wait and see

if there is any realistic chance. I'll keep you informed on how that is going to go.

So to the Olympics and the American gymnast, Simone Biles says, she will compete in all four Olympic gymnastics events on Tuesday. The US team says

she is dealing with a calf injury on Sunday. She could be seen walking gingerly and having her ankle taped up after a floor routine.

In the men's tennis singles, Spain's Rafael Nadal says, he is at peace after losing to Serbia's Novak Djokovic. Nadal says he has achieved more

than he could have dreamt on the court, and if that ends up being his last match, he will accept it.

The president of the world triathlon and says, she is confident the men's event will go ahead as planned after training was suspended because of

concerns over water quality in the Seine.

Now testing has determined the river is unsafe for athletes on Sunday and Monday after heavy rainfall.

Melissa is with us in Paris.

You had a dip in The Seine yourself, so you know what they are talking about. Look, this is not -- I mean, it is not dramatically unsafe. It's not

like the thing is pumping raw sewage. But it's all because of this rain that brings so much more stuff down.

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right.

You'll remember, Richard, those scenes of the Paris opening ceremony right here along The Seine drenched by that pouring rain, that deluge continued

into Saturday. And of course, that has an impact on water quality. That was what we saw over the course the weekend, Richard was the water quality

deteriorate with the bacteria levels 10 times what they can be for the athletes to take part in the swimming events that were planned to take

place in that river behind me.

They then improved. We await the tests that were taken today to find out if tomorrow, the men's swimming triathlon event can indeed take place.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BELL (voice over): Uncertainty and worry.

Triathlon swimming training sessions canceled two days in a row at the Paris Olympics on account of the poor water quality levels of the River

Seine after the heavy rain that drenched Friday's opening ceremony.

The gamble to make The Seine swimmable for the Olympics was always a big one with more than $1.5 billion spent trying to clean a river in which

swimming had been illegal for more than a century.

City Mayor Anne Hidalgo even went for a dip earlier this month to show the world what had been achieved. I decided to do the same and see it for

myself.

BELL (on camera): It's actually really not a smelly as I thought it would be and not pretty clean, but certainly swimmable.

BELL (voice over): The mayor later told me that cleaning The Seine was about much more than just the Olympics.

MAYOR ANNE HIDALGO, PARIS, FRANCE: Cleaning The Seine for our generation and next generation live with nature.

BELL (voice over): As for the Games, planners were counting on dry weather to help, but after the weekend rain, it is a race against time with the

men's triathlon scheduled for Tuesday and the women's for Wednesday. Not a problem said the deputy mayor for sports, when I spoke to him earlier this

month

PIERRE RABADAN, DEPUTY PARIS MAYOR, OLYMPIC AND PARALYMPIC GAMES: We don't work on the Plan B because we have contingency days, so we are able to move

the competition for several days.

So we will be able to make the competition in The River. Don't worry about it.

BELL (voice over): But in an interview with CNN's Amanda Davies, the head of World Triathlon sounded slightly more ominous.

MARISOL CASADO, PRESIDENT, WORLD TRIATHLON: I mean, the worst scenario at the very end, if it is needed, this is in our rules and regulations. We

will combat it in duathlon that is run, cycle and ran again.

BELL (voice over): While some athletes CNN has spoken to are worried, others like Bermuda's first ever Olympic champion, Flora Duffy, remain

upbeat.

FLORA DUFFY, OLYMPIC TRIATHLON CHAMPION: I know that there is a lot of protocols in place to ensure that we have proper water quality so that we

can race a triathlon come race day. So for me, I am confident that we will be able to swim.

BELL (voice over): With a hot and sunny weather forecast on the horizon, organizers are hoping once again that the triathlon events will go ahead as

planned, with fingers firmly crossed.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[16:10:09]

BELL (on camera): So bottom line, Richard, the athletes will only get into the river if those levels are safe and there are contingency days, but of

course the question of what happens if those contingency days run out when you go from a triathlon to a biathlon and that, for many athletes will be a

huge disappointment --Richard.

QUEST: Just keep your fingers crossed on everything else, Melissa Bell. I think -- I know, they did a magnificent job. I want to see it in The Seine.

Thank you. Melissa is in Paris tonight for us.

Now broadcasters are seeing an uptick in viewership from previous Olympic Games. Twenty-nine million people watched the opening ceremony in the

United States, that's the highest figure since London 2012.

The previous Summer Games in 2021 in Tokyo drew a multi-decade low, but there were those concerns and all of these sort of issues.

Now, the Olympic Broadcasting Service, the OBS, is trying to make sure we all see as much as possible. Eleven thousand hours of content will be

produced, 11,000 hours, but bearing in mind that's double what was in 2012 and this is all in two weeks. This is more than most people do in a year.

The company distribute its footage to rights holders across the globe. It is 8,000 people, but the fascinating part, dozens of drones and a thousand

cameras.

Also this year, using cinematic lenses or augmented reality and artificial intelligence to improve its project. Yiannis Exarchos is the CEO of the

OBS.

We spoke four years ago. We've got to stop meeting like this. Every four years, we have a chat about this.

Listen, the core point is, this is bigger, more adventurous, using more technology than ever before. Is this the most complex broadcasting

operation you've seen?

YIANNIS EXARCHOS, CEO, OLYMPIC BROADCASTING SERVICE: Richard, first of all, thank you very, very much for having me and good evening.

Actually, when we talked three years ago, because the Games of Tokyo were late by a year because of the pandemic, and you remind me of that night we

spoke right after the opening ceremony of Tokyo, which was in one hand very warm because all of the best athletes of the world came together in years -

-

QUEST: Right.

EXARCHOS: -- but there were no spectators.

Now, coming to Paris, this situation is very, very different on many different fronts.

Yes, by absolute numbers and by the setup, yes, this is the most complex production we have ever done. I believe it is the most complex and the

widest scope coverage -- television coverage that happens anywhere in the world. You've said correctly the numbers, we will produce 11,000 hours of

content during these 17 days in order to feed the digital beast.

The fact that people want to consume content in different ways, different type of content for different demographics. The Olympics is the most

universal event, so we need to do all of that.

QUEST: And the distribution methods using the Cloud, this that and the other, the national rights holders, including our own, of course, Eurosport

and Warner Bros-Discovery, which is a major rights holder this time.

The ability to satisfy all the demands and this new or this growing concept of the athletes' emotion. How difficult is that, to capture the athletes

emotion?

EXARCHOS: It is increasingly easier, I would say and I thank you for including in one question that two fundamental -- technology and the

athletes' emotion. Because what we do in the Olympics is not showcasing technology, we are using technology and sometimes cutting edge technology,

to release and to capture rather the emotions of the athletes because those move the whole world.

Technology is helping us a lot, first of all to address the huge scaling issue of the Games, the compilation of the games, 3,800 hours, and we need

to distribute all of this content to broadcasters, to hundreds of broadcasters around the world and technology is like the Cloud technology

that we adopted, I think that we were among the most aggressive early adopters of that back in 2018, is helping us a lot in scaling this immense

project, in being able to distribute more content in more different formats, to more of our broadcasters, including obviously Warner Bros-

Discovery, who are the major broadcaster across most European territories.

QUEST: So, can I just ask -- can I just ask you though, the AI advantage that you are now integrating along with virtual, I obviously understand

that there are issues and difficulties and it has to be managed, but let's be positive.

[16:15:10]

AI is going to give you the ability and is giving you the ability to do highlights in a much more dramatic fashion.

EXARCHOS: AI is a big enabler in many things. First of all, for things that are directly visible to the viewers, you will see, you have already started

seeing in some of the coverage that we use some 360 degrees replays that or enabled by AI technology, otherwise they would take a very, very long time.

You will in our data, more help for people to understand what is exactly going on, but also huge efficiencies in terms of workflows for the

broadcasters. You mentioned the case of the automated highlights, where which we are doing with our partner, Intel, which provides the broadcasters

the opportunity to customize and produce within seconds highlight based on AI and feed the digital platforms in social and so on.

So AI is a huge enabler. I am not saying that it is a solution to everything, and I'm not saying that it doesn't have very significant

challenges. We're taking a measured approach to that, but of course it's a technology that we fully embrace.

QUEST: In four years, let's hope you and I speak again before four years is up. But in four years, you'll be in the home of Hollywood with a whole new

raft of things in Los Angeles.

Thank you, sir. I am grateful for your time tonight. Good luck in the rest of the Games.

EXARCHOS: Thank you so much, and I hope the world comes closer together with this Olympic Games. We need it in these times.

QUEST: Thank you. A very good evening to you in Paris.

Now, Venezuela has declared Nicolas Maduro the winner of Sunday's presidential election. A number of countries are skeptical about the

results and are calling for more transparency, in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

QUEST: Venezuela has declared Nicolas Maduro, the winner of Sunday's presidential election, despite accusations of fraud and irregularities.

Maduro is calling his re-election of triumph of peace and stability.

The United Nations and the Carter Center are noting its lack of transparency and they want to see a breakdown of the results from

individual voting stations. Several nations have voiced similar skepticism.

The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the world is watching closely.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, US SECRETARY OF STATE: We have serious concerns that the result announced does not reflect the will or the votes for the Venezuelan

people.

[16:20:10]

It is critical that every vote be counted fairly and transparently. That election officials immediately share information with the opposition and

independent observers without delay and that the electoral authorities publish the detailed tabulation of votes.

The international community is watching this very closely and will respond accordingly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

QUEST: Well, Alejandra Oraa is in Venezuela's capital of Caracas and joins me now.

I mean, one of the problems is not counting of the votes, the issue is lot of people didn't actually get to vote because the polling stations were

closed or they weren't allowed in, or there were various difficulties.

And there is no realistic hope that they are going to get that transparency that these countries are seeking, is there?

ALEJANDRA ORAA, ANCHOR, CNN EN ESPANOL: Well, that's the hope. Hello, from Caracas, Richard.

That's actually the hope, to count and audit the ballots. It is very important to understand the reality of the election results and why has

this election been so controversial, Richard?

Well, really, Venezuelans are unable to understand the results of yesterday's election because in comparison to other elections throughout

the world, like for example, the United States is very tough to see the real-time counting of the votes. We don't have here a website or an

institution that allows us to see the counting on real-time.

They do one announcement after the election is over after the voting centers are closed, and they say that those results are irreversible.

What happened last night was that the CNE or El Centro Nacional Electoral, the institution in charge of those votes, of counting those votes announced

Nicolas Maduro as the winner with 51.2 percent of the votes in comparison to 44.2, that it would be the votes of Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia.

No previous poll said that Nicolas Maduro will win by that short margin and that is why people today are asking what happened? Is this transparency? Is

this the real percentage? That's the question that most Venezuelans have today.

QUEST: Alejandra, I am grateful. Thank you very much, in Caracas. You'll report more when there is more.

There is a growing fear this weekend that this weekend's rocket strike in the Golan Heights could trigger a full-scale war between Israel and

Lebanon.

Several airlines have already suspended flights to the capital, Beirut on Monday as a precaution.

The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has visited the soccer field where 12 children were killed. He said the response to Hezbollah will be

severe.

The militant group firmly is denying responsibility.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond reports from the Golan Heights.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(SIREN BLARING)

(UNIDENTIFIED MALE speaking in foreign language.)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Sirens pierced the serenity of this town in the Israeli-controlled Golan Heights. And in

an instant--

(EXPLOSION)

DIAMOND (voice over): -- this explosion will shatter the very soul of the Druze community that lives here. As residents and first responders rushed

to the scene, the horror of this strike becomes clear.

A soccer field, children's bikes, pools of blood between them. Twelve children, the youngest just 10 years old, torn from this life.

DIAMOND (on camera): It was 6:00 PM on a hot summer evening, dozens of children were playing on this soccer field right behind me when suddenly

sirens rang out.

Seconds later, a rocket made impact just right here where, in its place, now stands this black flag of mourning.

But one of the most devastating parts of all of this, as you see this scene frozen in time, is the fact that right behind us was safety, a bomb

shelter, but there simply was not enough time for these children to get inside.

DIAMOND (voice over): It is the deadliest attack on civilians in Israel or Israeli-controlled territory since October 7th, and it is now raising the

specter of all-out war.

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Hezbollah with Iranian backing launched and Iranian missile here which took the lives

of 12 pure souls.

The state of Israel will not and cannot put this to rest. Our response will come and it will be severe.

DIAMOND (voice over): Hezbollah denies responsibility.

The prime minister's visit wasn't welcomed by all in this Syrian Druze community where most are not Israeli citizens.

CNN arrived on the scene just hours after the strike where Taymor Wili was still trying to process what he had seen.

TAYMOR WILI, WITNESS TO MAJDAL SHAMS ROCKET STRIKE: Well, at first, I saw the injured children running around. I saw blood. They didn't respond to

us. They were panicking.

I saw a lot of guys gathering here. Most of them didn't go down.

I went down here, and I saw a lot of things that are way too gruesome to mention out of respect for the families. And we tried to help, but it was

beyond our help. There's nothing we can do.

DIAMOND (voice over): In Majdal Shams, mourning is all that remains.

[16:25:10]

Thousands gathered here to pay their final respects. With each casket, another wave of cries and wails as nightmares turn into crushing reality,

where photos of smiling children, like 11- year-old Alma (ph), can only mean one thing.

(AYMAN FAKHR EL-DIN, daughter killed in attack speaking in foreign language.)

DIAMOND (voice over): "I reached the stadium, and in the corner, I saw dead bodies and body parts," Alma's father says. "When I got closer to one of

them, I saw a bracelet. I knew it was Alma."

Ayman Fakhr El-Din is only just beginning to process the loss of his only daughter.

DIAMOND: She liked soccer, huh?

EL-DIN: Yes. Liked sport, all sport.

DIAMOND: And she played? And she was good.

EL-DIN: Yes. Good.

DIAMOND: Yes?

EL-DIN: Yes.

(AYMAN FAKHR EL-DIN speaking in foreign language)

DIAMOND (voice over): "Alma is a child filled with energy. She loved life. She was special in school and in athletics," he says.

He now calls on his son, Rayyan (ph), for comfort.

DIAMOND: This is her big brother.

(AYMAN FAKHR EL-DIN speaking in foreign language.)

DIAMOND (voice over): Rayyan's grief is all too fresh.

DIAMOND (on camera): Rayyan, what do you remember about your sister? What do you want people to know about your sister?

(AYMAN FAKHR EL-DIN speaking in foreign language.)

(RAYYAN EL-DIN speaking in foreign language.)

DIAMOND (voice over): "Everything about her was lovely," her brother says.

(AYMAN FAKHR EL-DIN speaking in foreign language.)

DIAMOND (voice over): "She liked to play, just like any other kid. In the end, we have a room without Alma."

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Majdal Shams, Golan Heights.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

QUEST: All right, at the beginning of the program, we told you about President Biden who is due to speak in Texas on the Supreme Court.

Well, he is running seriously late. He is meant to be speaking in about four minutes. I think I can safely say that the president is not going to

speak in the next four minutes. You never know. I could be wrong, but when he does speak, we will hear from him and we will certainly get some

analysis on what exactly he has to say.

QUEST MEANS BUSINESS, in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:30:54]

QUEST: We're following disturbing news out of England where two children have been killed and nine injured after a knife attack in Southport near

Liverpool in the northwest of England. Officials say six of the injured children are in critical condition. It happened at a Taylor Swift themed

event at a dance school. A 17-year-old boy has been arrested.

The motive appears to be unclear says the police -- say the police. Although they are not treating the attacker's terrorism related. Anna

Stewart is in London. This is a strange one.

ANNA STEWART, CNN REPORTER: Yes. It's been a horrific day reporting on this story which has been developing through the hours. As you mentioned there,

two young children have died as a result of these attacks. Nine additional children injured and six still in critical condition as are, Richard, two

adults who are thought to have tried to protect the children from the assailant who, according to Merseyside police walked into the Taylor Swift

themed dance class for children of the ages of six to 11 years old with a knife and just started attacking them.

At this moment, there is no real clear idea of what the motive was, as you said, it's not considered to be terror related. The 17-year-old from Banks,

which is a village just outside of the -- of the town has been arrested at this stage but not much known about him. 17 years old.

QUEST: Two -- I mean, things was obviously (INAUDIBLE) but do we know what happens next? I assume he's 17. So, he's over 16. So, will be charged as

necessary.

STEWART: So, at the moment he has been charged with I believe it attempted murder and suspicion of murder. He is currently at a police station. He'll

be answering plenty of questions from detectives. I imagine his parents or whoever looks after him will be there with him to help go through those

questions. That very unclear what happens next. But really, I think everyone's thoughts are also of course, with the families of all of those

children and through this very difficult night with six in critical condition.

And those two adults also in critical condition. An absolutely horrific attack and listening to people today from this seaside town and northwest

of England just as summer holidays have begun for children to hear the shock and the horror that something like this could happen somewhere near

them. Complete shock, I think at this stage, Richard.

QUEST: Part of England I know very well. I mean, holidayed many times in Southport, Blackpool sometimes and all around there. Anna, as you say, at

the school holidays have been just begun. Anna Stewart who is in London, when there's more to report on that please do come back immediately to us.

I'm grateful.

Our top story. Let us continue. President Biden is to speak soon in Austin, Texas, where he's going to call for major reforms the Supreme Court,

including term limits and a binding code of conduct and ethics. The President's will propose a constitutional amendment to limit presidential

immunity. That follows the Supreme Court judgment with or decision with Donald Trump. Vice President Kamala Harris is to take those ideas on the

campaign trail.

The polls show the Supreme Court is becoming less popular with the American public. The court has handed down a few controversial rulings, and some of

the justices have had personal scandals. Hofstra University law professor James Sample is with me. I wonder, Professor, you know, will the Supreme

Court justices themselves even care about that? Maybe the chief justice because of his legacy of the Roberts Court, but the rest of them, will even

care what people think?

JAMES SAMPLE, HOFSTRA UNIVERSITY LAW PROFESSOR: Well, whether or not they care what people think, I think, Richard, these are some common-sense

proposals. If you think about the three proposals that you just outlined. I mean, two of them are common sense. The idea that justice is shouldn't be

making their own recusal decisions in their own cases without any review by anyone else.

That's common sense that they -- that there should be some objective mechanism. And it was just six weeks ago, that we had a country in which no

one was above the law, and no one was immune.

[16:35:06]

So, a constitutional amendment is really not radical at all. It's just going back to the way things were for 240 years. The staggered term limits

idea is a more significant proposal. And there are arguments for and against. But I think that regardless of what the justices think, I think

that what President Biden and Vice President Harris are doing here, Richard, is that they are teeing this up as a way of elevating the Supreme

Court as an issue over the next 100 days.

QUEST: So, how do they answer the point that the Republicans say which oh, you were very happy when the court was hunting down decisions that you

liked? Go back to the decisions of the Warren Court and all of that. You were very happy with all of those decisions of the -- of the more liberal

era? Now you don't like it?

SAMPLE: It's a good question, Richard. And I think that the answer to that question is, we don't know who the President will be in eight years from

now. But that President will get two appointments to the Supreme Court and the President 12 years from now will get two appointments to the Supreme

Court. The idea here is that it's true that there is displeasure on the left with the current Supreme Court and that there have been periods in

American history when there was displeasure on the right with the Supreme Court.

But the idea here is prospective in focus, in the sense that we -- regardless of who you elect will be in charge, you should want a Supreme

Court that's focused on law more than politics.

QUEST: I read the immunity, judgment or decision. And I can sort of see where they came from on that, on the grounds of where it is a

constitutional issue that the President enjoys immunity. But how they got to this idea of official acts immunity. I mean, it does beg a belief.

SAMPLE: It -- I mean, the idea and oral argument that the justices took seriously and then wrote an opinion, which takes seriously, as the

dissenters point out, that a president could order SEAL Team 6 Six to commit a homicide of his or her political opponent. The idea that that's

American or even small d democratic in any sense of the term. That's anathema to the rule of law. And so well, there's never been a question

that there is a category of activity that is official action that a president -- decisions that a president can't be held criminally

accountable for.

One way of thinking about this is that Richard Nixon read that decision from the hands and read it that he was born in the wrong era.

QUEST: I'm grateful to you, sir. The constitutional amendment stands little chance of getting much further than a constitutional amendment in name

only. But there we go. We'll talk about it. If and when it happens. I'm grateful. Thank you.

A big week for the U.S. economy the Fed meets and we have a jobs report as well. We got our first test of the U.S. consumer for the country's largest

fast food chain. McDonald's reported its first sales dropped since the pandemic now. The fascinating part, the company accepts that they've got

their pricing mechanism wrong. It said it had some success luring customers back with a $5.00 value meal.

But overall, they do say they've had to revert -- they're all reviewing the pricing. Nathaniel Meyersohn is with me to tell us why gone. What have they

got wrong here? And what are they going to do about it?

NATHANIEL MEYERSOHN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: Richard, what they got wrong is that their prices have outpaced rivals and grocery stores. So, McDonald's

prices over that since 2019, up about 40 percent. Meanwhile, they're not just competing with other fast food chains but they're competing with

grocery stores as well. And Wal-Mart prices and grocery store prices, only up about 25 percent at that point -- from that point.

So, the prices are out of whack. And you asked what they're doing about it, what they're doing about it is this $5.00 value meal that they've rolled

out. But this $5.00 value meal is just a limited time offer. So, it's really the only -- for a month or two.

QUEST: Right. But can McDonald's and the old idea of teach the old dog new tricks? Can they with that price structure? I mean, I read the CEO's

comments who basically said we know what we have to do and we know how to do it. We are experienced at how to do it. Do you think so? I mean,

obviously not you personally but I mean, is the market saying yes they are?

MEYERSOHN: The big challenge though is that Richard is it's a franchise system. So, it's, you know, it's really about what these franchise owners

can handle. And so, that's why we see kind of the have different price disparities at one location to the other. So, the McDonald's CEO can say

we're focused on price, we're, you know, we're making all these changes. But if the franchisees if they're kind of getting squeezed, and if they're

hot -- if their costs are going up, their labor costs, their food costs, you know, if it were up to McDonald's, McDonald's would run this $5.00

value meal, you know, forever.

[16:40:13]

But the franchise owners, they can't handle it, they're struggling with these higher costs. So, you know, there's kind of this push and pull

between, OK, you know, what is the company want and what are the franchise owners want? So, it's not, you know, it's not easier. It's easier said than

done.

QUEST: All right. But then you have to Chipotles, you have all the other -- the fast food who are sort of even the sweet greens are sort of more in

tune with modern menus.

MEYERSOHN: Well, they're -- it's not that they're more in tune with modern menus, Richard, because people still, you know, there still is a place for

fast food, there still is a place, you know, for comfort food. But it's really more that customers feel like they're getting a bigger bang for

their buck when they go to Chipotle versus McDonald's. So, it's not that, you know, customers are not going to pay, you know, 10.00 or $15.00.

It's how much food are you getting for that 10.00 or $15? Right now, customers feel like they are getting good value when they go to Chipotle.

Chipotle sales up last quarter about 11 percent. Sweet green, you know, sweet green doesn't always give you the most -- the most food, but it has a

higher income customer.

QUEST: All right. I'll buy you (INAUDIBLE) you get to choose. You get to choose where we go. Which fast food, we can probably go to the mall and

compare and see what we get. Thank you.

A quick look at the markets very quickly before I love you and leave you. That's the way the Dow Jones of the (INAUDIBLE) the session for today. We

are just barely changed really overall as waiting for the Fed. And the way things are moving down 49, 50 points for that on the Dow Jones. And that's

QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for today. I'm Richard Quest in New York. Whatever you're up to in the hours ahead, you get two for the price of one. I hope

it's profitable.

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