[Christine Romans, Cnn Chief Business Correspondent:] Closing bell. Stocks closed up after a terrible week. Last week was a terrible week. We still have the S&P 500 down 8.8 percent from its record hit on January 26th. And this morning it looks as though investors want to buy stocks. Maybe a couple 100 points here higher on the Dow Jones Industrial average will pop up there.
[John Berman, Cnn Anchor:] As if as if it was planned.
[Romans:] Yes.
[Berman:] You say, we should get a couple hundred points, then it goes 160 as you're saying it.
[Romans:] Yes, it should pop here. And here's here's why. You've got a big inflation debate happening right now among stock market participants. You have seen the bond market move here. You have seen bond yields rise to the highest they've been in several years because there is a feeling that inflation is finally going to come back into the economy. And we've seen it already in wage inflation. That was what really started this period of volatility in the stock market. But will it continue? Will there be enough inflation maybe to surpass the Fed's inflation targets? We just don't know yet. So I think until you really see a trend established in inflation in the bond market, you're going to see a stock market that's going to be a little bit choppy here.
[Berman:] Two hundred and fifty right now. All right, Christine Romans, the president's going to introduce this infrastructure plan. It's not a highly developed infrastructure plan. Does the market take it seriously?
[Romans:] They don't really take it seriously quite yet. It's because it's $200 billion of federal spending, right, and some of those are new loan guarantees. It's maybe $50 billion directly to rural states. That could be a really great red state advantage. But they're expecting that state and local governments are going to kick in and private investors will kick in.
[Berman:] Right.
[Romans:] And we just don't know what the funding mechanism yet is about. And that's by design. That's for Congress to figure out. We do need some infrastructure improvements. We really do.
[Berman:] Right.
[Romans:] The Chamber of Commerce, interestingly, saying, hey, by the way, we need to keep DACA workers and temporary protected status people and all kinds of classes of immigrants because even if you had a trillion and a half dollars, an easy passage of all of the projects you want to do, we don't have the workers to do it.
[Berman:] I will also note, an infrastructure plan, stimulus inflationary and it adds to this whole thing.
[Romans:] Yes, it does.
[Berman:] Christine Romans, great to have you with us. Thanks so much. The president is set to unveil this infrastructure and budget plan today, as we were just talking about. But, obviously, right now inside the White House there are questions about how it has handled these accusations of domestic abuse. Joining me now to discuss, Nanette Diaz Barragan, a first term Democratic member of Congress from California. Representatives, thank you so much for being with us. Let me just ask you frankly right here at the top, should the president fire John Kelly?
[Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragan , California:] I think there from what we're hearing and what the allegations have been of I think we need more information about what he knew and when he knew it. But I think there are indicators pointing to the fact that this chief of staff should consider resigning. It's very disturbing on how this was handled. It appears that the FBI flagged that there was an issue and there was a problem and it doesn't look like there was any follow-through or any follow-up. That due process that the president was talking about wasn't done in his own White House. Had they done a due process, I think Kelly would have seen those photos. He said he never saw them and here we are. Now at a time he sees them, and there's been so many change of stories, it's kind of hard to follow. I think it's all
[Berman:] You say you say that chief of staff should consider resigning. Again, the question is, the president could ask him to leave. The evidence seems to be that in the fall we were told CNN has been told that he was you know, the chief of staff was told in November that there were some allegations against Rob Porter. And then in the days surrounding the release of this article, it almost definitely seems that he knew something. Is that not enough for the president to take action here?
[Barragan:] Well, I you know, the Congress has actually sent a number of inquiries to the White House to find out more about their security clearance process and we haven't gotten answers to that. I think if it's true, that Kelly knew about what had what was happening here, if he knew about these allegations and he knew as much as we think he knew, then he should resign. This is a real stain, not just on this White House, but on the country and on the Me Too movement.
[Berman:] You brought up the security issue here. Look, there's the there's a very important societal moral issue about domestic abuse, but there's also a security issue here where this guy did not have a full security clearance and there may be a dozen people still inside the White House without said security clearance. Do you have concerns? What are your concerns about the way this White House handles potentially sensitive information?
[Barragan:] Well, it's a huge concern for me. Look, I sit on Homeland Security. I have myself to go into classified briefings. I can't discuss that information with my own chief of staff and other staff members. And it's a crime to be sharing information with people who don't have that clearance. And so here we have a White House that has no great process as we're hearing and they have no follow through in making sure that they're having their own people follow up on these red flags that the FBI is having. Having people have access to classified information and our nation's secrets is a real concern on the way this is being handled by the White House, which I think is why it's so important that Congress be involved and that Congress have oversight on this White House.
[Berman:] Again, he had temporary clearance. I'm not sure anyone's suggesting that a law was broken by him seeing this information. It's more about the long-term implications of the fact that he didn't have the full clearance. Let me just read you an op-ed from Jennie Willoughby, who, of course, was the second wife of Rob Porter, who has accused Porter of domestic abuse. She responded to the fact that the president spoke out in defense of Rob Porter. She says, ultimately this is not a political issue. This is a societal issue. And the tone has just been reset by the White House. If the most powerful people in the nation do not believe my story of abuse in the face of overwhelming evidence, then what hope do others have of being heard? Your reaction to her broader statement here, the effect of this in this country.
[Barragan:] Well, I read it and I have to say it was pretty powerful. And she's absolutely right. This is sending the wrong message. Look, domestic violence is a serious problem in this country. I think the statistics say something like 20 people per minute are suffering physical abuse from their intimate partners. Here is an opportunity to talk about a societal issue, which is huge. And what kind of a signal is this sending to women who are suffering at the hands of domestic abuse and sexual harassment? Look, it reminds me of the letter that was sent out by 200 women in the national security space saying that they were suffering instances within their own agencies of sexual harassment even when there's policies in place. So this is not a political issue. It really is a bipartisan issue and it's one that Congress needs to take up.
[Berman:] Right.
[Barragan:] But it's also one that this president needs to provide some leadership on, which is hard to do when you have one alleged abuser defending another alleged abuser.
[Berman:] Let me just ask you quickly. The Senate's going to take up immigration tonight. Do you think that the Democratic leadership in both the House and the Senate have handled this well? You voted against the spending bill because of your concerns that it did not include any provisions on immigration.
[Barragan:] Well, there's no doubt within our communities we're hearing that the Senate Democratic leadership feels that they've turned their back on our community. I feel that this hasn't been enough of a priority. Look, this is a top issue for me. I have a district that's 70 percent Latino. There's 800,000 dreamers who today are suffering, who are have anxiety, fear, not knowing what's going to happen and so this is an issue really that we need to get back to Congress. We need to make a focus and we need to find a solution. I think it was a real mistake that we didn't use the leverage we had in the last spending bill. We have a couple opportunities coming up, maybe one, and I think we need to continue to use that. And Congress needs to stay there until we get this done.
[Berman:] Right. All right, Representative Nanette Diaz Barragan, thanks so much for being with us. Appreciate it.
[Barragan:] Thank you.
[Berman:] A new twist in the hunt for the world's most wanted terrorist. Sources reveal to CNN that the leader of ISIS was injured in an air strike. We have exclusive new details ahead.