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Ukraine and Russian Agree on Cease-Fire; Jobs Report Shows Lack of Jobs Created; Europe is Willing to Form Coalition; Remembering Joan Rivers; McDonnell Found Guilty

Aired September 05, 2014 - 10:00   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

We start with breaking news. Ukraine and pro-Russian rebels have signed a cease-fire agreement and it's scheduled to take hold one hour from now. The Ukrainian president says, quote, we must do everything possible and impossible to stop the bloodshed. The United Nations says more than 2,000 people have died in the four-month fight.

CNN's senior international correspondent Matthew Chance is in Moscow. CNN's Diana Magnay is outside Mariupol, Ukraine, in Eastern Ukraine.But I want to start with you, Matthew. What do we know about this cease-fire deal?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The timing of it has been slightly confusing. It's my understanding that the cease- fire is coming into effect on this hour, but maybe Diana will be able to clarify that situation. That's certainly the word we got here in Moscow. Details on the rest of what's been agreed are pretty sketchy. The main point obviously being that hostilities between the various sides in Eastern and Southern Ukraine supposedly coming to an end.

There's also a stipulation in the announcement that's been put out by the Ukrainian president that the international control will be handed over essentially to the OSCE, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. They'll provide a kind of international monitor presence to make sure the cease-fire isn't violated.

Also, President Poroshenko in his statement, and that's the best source of information we have at the the moment in terms of what's actually been agreed, mentioning the liberation of hostages. Talking about an exchange of prisoners on both sides. Certainly that seems to tally with the seven-point peace plan that was issued by Vladimir Putin a few days ago, the Russian president. He put down those seven points as saying this is the pathway to a peace deal, or at least a pathway to a cease-fire in Eastern Ukraine.

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CHANCE (voice-over): He had a telephone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart, Petro Poroshenko, on Wednesday. They both ended that conversation saying that they'd agreed that outline for a peace, or for a cease-fire agreement.

(END VIDEOCLIP)

CHANCE (on camera): So that now seems to be what has happened on the ground in Minsk, the Belorussian capital.

One important thing to look out for is one of the terms of that 7- point Putin plan was that the Ukrainian military move back to positions outside of the firing range. Missile range of population centers to prevent missiles and rocket launches being fired on densely populated areas that's caused so much suffering, so much blood shed over the course of the past several months. If that happens, it could, of course, leave the pro-Russian rebels with vast swaths of territory that they would control and not the central government in Kiev would control. And obviously that would give potentially Moscow a great deal of sway across large areas of Ukraine. Carol.

COSTELLO: Alright, so let's talk a little bit more about that in Eastern Ukraine where Diana Magnay is now, you're in a hot spot. What are the pro-Russian rebels saying to you about this cease-fire?

DIANA MAGNAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, most of the time, we've been tracking the constant shelling that's been going on pretty much all day between the city of Mariupol and the city of Novoazovsk in the Russia border which is over there to the east.

Typically, now that we're live on air there isn't any explosions behind. But in the last hour, that whole horizon has been covered with billowing smoke from explosions that seem to be coming both from the pro-Russian rebel side as they push towards Mariupol and form the Ukrainian side as they try and fight them back.

It would appear as though yesterday the rebels advanced really quite close to Mariupol, has been pushed back somewhat. At the outskirts of the city today, there were significant Ukrainian reinforcements, not just these volunteer battalions, the Azov battalion and the Donbas battalion, that have been called in to assist the National Guard and the Army, but also the Army themselves.

We have driven around this whole area, above the fighting really, and it is a maze of checkpoints, Ukrainian and then pro-Russian rebel. Of course, none of them particularly, in fact, completely forbid you from filming those checkpoints, so it's difficult really to illustrate what's going on here.

But effectively, there was a 10-kilometer stretch of no mans land in between them, and certainly the battle in the 40-killometer stretch between Mariupol and Novoazovsk has been raging all day. It seems to be quiet for now. We believe that the cease-fire is meant to go into effect in an hour's time. Well, we'll have to see it to believe it. It certainly looks as though the rebels were trying to consolidate their gains and certainly to put pressure on the Ukrainians at the negotiating table by showing that they were almost at the door of Mariupol, this country's fourth largest city.

COSTELLO: Alright, Diana Magnay, reporting live for us as well as Matthew Chance. Thanks to both of you. President Obama is scheduled to speak from the NATO summit soon. We're expecting him to comment on the cease-fire in Ukraine as well as efforts to stop ISIS. And at any minute, we're expecting statements from British Prime Minister David Cameron, the French President Francois Hollande, and NATO Secretary General Anders Rasmussen.

In the meantime, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry is talking more about the coalition to stop ISIS. "Reuters" reports that so far nine other countries, besides the United States, are involved in talks for that coalition. They include, Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Turkey, Poland, Canada, and Australia. Kerry said this to their representatives, "We have the technology, we have the know how. What we need is obviously the will power to make sure that we are steady and stay at this." And he continued saying, "Obviously I think that's a red line for everybody here: no boots on the ground." But reports say that some leaders like Britain's prime minister and France's president have privately told Mr. Obama that Washington needs to do more than order air strikes, it needs an overall strategy. CNN's White House correspondent Michelle Kosinksi joins us now from Wales to tell us more about that. Good morning.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Right. One thing we've a lot of during the summit is very tough talk from the U.S., the U.K., but tough action has been a little more elusive. I mean, the U.K. keeps stopping short of saying that they will contribute air strikes and when asked directly, "Are you any closer to air strikes?", the prime minister says vaguely well, we are closer to doing everything we can to squeeze ISIS out of existence.

And of course every country has its own political and financial constraints, but the U.S. is emphasizing that Europe is willing to form a coalition, that they see ISIS as a great enough threat, especially with those foreign fighters that could return home and today we saw that coalition building in action really up close for the first time. Ten nations meeting, forming goals, and the U.S. has said that each nation will have its own commitment.

Some might want to contribute only humanitarian aid or equipment, but for some others it will be military. Here's what Secretary of State Kerry said, "There is no contained policy for ISIS. They're an ambitious, avowed genocidal, territorial-grabbing, Caliphate-desiring quasi state within a regular army. And leaving them in some capacity intact anywhere would leave a cancer in place that will ultimately come back to haunt us. So there is no issue in our minds about our determination to build this coalition, go after this."

And yes, he said defeating ISIS, destroying them is the ultimate goal. But, he mentioned during his address to these other countries that that might well take years. He and the other nations involved now want to form a task force that would try to stop those foreign fighters from traveling, and also track their movements, but this is still in the planning stage and Kerry said let's look at a couple of weeks from now is when we really want to firm up the plans for this coalition, Carol.

COSTELLO: Alright, Michelle Kosinski reporting live for us this morning. Stay with CNN. We'll have special coverage next hour when President Obama is expected to speak at 11:30 a.m. Eastern time.

There is a new snapshot of the economy taking shape this morning and it's not altogether pretty. We've learned that 142,000 jobs were created last month. That's a big disappointment from the 200,000 plus that most experts had predicted. Yet the unemployment rate inches down just a bit from 6.2 percent to 6. Let's break down the numbers with chief business correspondent Christine Romans, and to dig a bit deeper we're joined by Monica Mehta, the Managing Principle at Seventh Capital investment. But Christine, I do want to start with you. Give us the big picture.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: The big picture here is, Carol, that you had a slow down in job creation. That was a disappointment. A lot of people had expected you would have another month of 200,000 plus and you just didn't get it. 142,000 jobs created shows a little more trepidation from employers in the month of August than economists had expected.

It breaks that very nice streak of six months of good job gains. You talked about the unemployment rate, Carol, and that's so interesting as well because 6.1 percent is still, you know, pretty good. 6.1 percent has been coming down pretty dramatically over the past couple of years, right?.

Right here, when you look at that number, 6.1 percent, one of the reasons is because people were dropping out of the labor market. People were discouraged and started to give up work and so that's one of reasons why the jobless rate fell a little bit. So, what we want to know, Carol, is was this one month, was this just a blip after a very nice trend all year, or is it going to continue? A lot of economists this morning are telling me don't worry yet. August is a funny month for hiring, anyway. We saw some broadening out of the jobs created.

This is something that I think is really important, a broadening out of some of the jobs created. Professional business services, these tend to pay more. A lot of growth, a lot of energy happening in health care, but 8,000 retail jobs lost. So closely watching how we're broadening out those job sectors, Carol.

COSTELLO: Okay, so the economy is getting a bit better, its growing very sluggishly. So, Monica, it's hard to believe, Monica, the recession officially ended more than five years ago because for many Americans it doesn't feel like it.

MONICA MEHTA, MANAGING PRINCIPLE SEVENTH CAPITAL INVESTMENT: You are precisely right. It's a very different economy whether you are employed or whether you've been unemployed or underemployed in America. For the people who have been employed, they are probably working more than they were five years ago. They are probably in line of raises. They are seeing their stock portfolio and their housing prices depreciate.

For the people who have had a hard time finding a job, it's a very, very different story. You actually can see through census data, time and use studies, it shows that people who are unemployed actually aren't giving up, the long-term unemployed, aren't actually giving up looking for a job. They are spending more time on average than the short-term unemployed. The difference is they're just not getting the interviews, and so you're having a large group of America, big swath that with 6 million five years ago, it's three million now, these folks are just falling through the cracks and we're just not finding a way to bring them back in.

COSTELLO: Yes, well let's get a little more specific and look at a couple of disconcerting numbers masked by the more positive takeaway for this jobs report. Part-time jobs still remain much higher than in a normal economy. More than 7 million Americans want full-time jobs but they have to settle for part-time work. Freelancers make up 34 percent of the U.S. workforce. That's a full 1/3 of all jobs in our economy. Christine, are these trends on part time jobs and freelance work? Is that the new normal?

ROMANS: Well, sometimes economists say companies are more likely to hire a freelancer, or more likely to hire somebody part-time until the company feels more confident and starts to add workers, but we do know companies have been having record corporate profits without having to add a lot of labor and that is something that they will do as long as they can. They are not going to add people if you can make money without hiring more workers. But at some point, if the economy gets more steam, if you get more confidence as more time passes from the great recession and the crash of 2008, you may start to see hiring pick up again.

One thing I will say, Carol, though is a really a two-speed recovery. There are CEOs who complain to me every day that they can't find the workers they need. Skilled technical workers, engineering, the hard sciences, anything with computer programming. They say that they are not getting the people they need in that area, but there is an abundance of people who can work low-wage jobs in retail and hospitality, at fast food restaurants. So these two extremes in the market, even within health care where I showed you there was job creation. There's even two extremes there. Home health aides, people who don't make a lot of money, huge demand for those jobs. There's also a lot of demand on the top end, physical therapists, occupational therapy, things like that. So everywhere there's these two extremes. And for workers I think you have to try to do whatever you can to put yourself in the place that's growing, but also paying more.

COSTELLO: All right, Christine Romans, Monica Mehta, thanks so much. I appreciate it. If you have questions about this morning's jobs report, Christine is hosting a live Facebook chat with U.S. Labor Secretary Tom Perez . That's in the next hour, 11:30 Eastern at facebook.com/cnnmoney.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Joan Rivers' humor reached far and wide, including the countless female comedians who hoped to follow in her footsteps. How the stars are paying tribute next.

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COSTELLO: Joan Rivers never one to pull any punches was adored by fans worldwide and her take no prisoners approach left us always wanting more.

JOAN RIVERS, COMEDIAN: Can we talk? Do you know what it is like to go in the morning to take off a facial mask and realize you are not wearing one? You don't know.

My hot flashes are so bad, I was hit by a heat seeking missile. You don't know.

If I want to see three people who make tons of money and have no talent. I will not watch you guys, I will watch the Kardashians.

It's no big deal to have a woman in the White House. John F. Kennedy had a thousand of them. I am telling you right now.

Get up and get out of here right now. Right now.

COSTELLO: She's awesome. She was also known as a trailblazer, though, paving the way for many female comedians who followed in her footsteps. Sarah Silverman paid tribute in a way Joan would surely love. She did that on Jimmy Kimmel's show last night.

SARAH SILVERMAN, COMDEIAN: I know that if she was here, she would want us to be here and be funny, and she would probably want me to say, nice tie, who made it, Calvin Clown? I like that shirt. Does it come in men's? Oh my god, Jimmy, I love your hair. You have to tell me where you bought it. That is for you Joan.

COSTELLO: That was perfect, right? E.T.'s, Entertainment Tonight's Brooke Anderson joins me now. Nice to see you.

BROOKE ANDERSON, ANCHOR, ENTERTAINMENT TONIGHT: Good to see you again.

COSTELLO: Under some sad circumstances though.

ANDERSON: I know.

COSTELLO: But , of course, as Joan's daughter Melissa said, Joan would want us to be laughing.

ANDERSON: She would want us to laugh, and as you said she was a trailblazer, a pioneer for women like Sarah Silverman, for woman like Chelsea Handler, Kathy Griffin, and she was always on. That is one thing I remember about her, she was always on, ready for a joke, but at the same time there was a vulnerability to Joan. I remember one of last times I interviewed her, I said Joan what is the biggest challenge you've had to overcome and she said, she paused, she got serious and she said age. She said this is a business that's getting younger and younger and you have to compete with that so that has been hard. So there was a real honesty and vulnerability to her.

COSTELLO: Interesting, I watched the documentary about Joan Rivers, and she talked about why she had so many bouts of plastic surgeries. And she said no one wants to look at an old woman. That's why I did it, people want to look at a pretty woman. ANDERSON: And I told her, I said Joan you don't have to work so hard, why do you work so hard? She said when you have got a lot of people to support you have to work hard. So she cracked a joke, but then she said you know what Brooke I love what I do. I love it and that is who I am and I would not be me without working so hard. And Carol I think that because we are all so stunned Joan is gone is a testament to how hard she work up until the very end and the pace she kept. I saw her on a flight that landed here ion New York at 1 a.m. two nights before this all happened and I was a few rows behind her and I thought it is remarkable how hard this woman works. But she was 81, that was a long full life.

COSTELLO: And she was still so energetic, which I guess makes it even more shocking that she is gone now. You never thought of her as 81 years old.

ANDERSON: No, she did not seem 81 years old. We're learning that her funeral will be here in New York on Sunday at the Temple Emanuel. And it is fitting, she was a New Yorker. So it is fitting that her funeral will be here.

COSTELLO: She joked that she wanted this glamorous funeral.

ANDERSON: Oh yes. Publicists and caterers. In her book, "I Hate Everyone Starting With Me". She said she even wants a fan in the casket so her hair will be blowing like Beyonce. So leave it to Joan to crack jokes and have the best funeral plan ever. And then we are learning that early next week she will be taken back to L.A. for her final resting place.

COSTELLO: Brooke Anderson, thanks for stopping by. I appreciate it. There are also two investigations surrounding Joan Rivers' death. The New York health department is investigating the outpatient clinic where she was undergoing that elective procedure and then suddenly went into cardiac arrest. Also the New York medical examiners office is going now looking into how Rivers died. Alexandra Field has more on that, good morning.

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, there are two separate investigations going on at the same time. The medical examiners office is going to be focusing on the cause and the manner of Joan Rivers' death, but the New York state department of health is going to be looking at the clinic where it happened. That was the Yorkville Endoscopy center. The state health department says that it's inspectors investigated the clinic - Or rather inspected the clinic before it opened back in 2013, there have been no complaints regarding the facility, no violations ever since, but investigators have now been back on site. They are going through a number of steps looking at different documents, medical records, interviewing staff and physicians. What they want to do is see is that this clinic was operating in compliance with all the state's regulations. They want to see if there was any deficiencies in the operations at the time that Joan Rivers was brought in there for that outpatient procedure. It was supposed to be a relatively simple procedure, a procedure on her throat. We know, of course though, that there were complications, the cardiac and respiratory arrest. Joan Rivers leaving that clinic and going right to Mount Sinai in critical condition before dying just a week later, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Alexandra Field, thanks so much. Still to come in THE NEWSROOM, Virginia's former first couple tries and fails a unique legal defense. Their marriage was simply too icy for them to agree on anything, much less breaking the law. We'll take a closer look at the jury's verdict and the politics of divorce, the court of public opinion next.

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COSTELLO: By now you know the former Governor of Virginia is facing prison time. The blame the wife because she's a nut bag strategy did not sway the jury. It found Bob McDonnell and his wife Maureen guilty of wire fraud conspiracy and influence peddling. The couple was charge with illegally accepting gifts for a wealthy donor in exchange for backing his business. McDonnell sobbed in court as the verdict was read out. Understandable as his dreams of higher office will probably die in a jail cell. Suzanne Malveaux has more for you.

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The disgraced former Governor Bob McDonnell fought his way through the crowd following the damning verdict.

BOB MCDONNELL, FORMER GOVERNOR OF VIRGINIA: Thank you all for the way you have handled this, I really appreciate it.

MALVEAUX: The jury found the McDonnell's misused the power of the governor's office by accepting lavish gifts and loans from wealthy Virginia business man Johnny Williams.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When public officials turn to financial gain in exchange for official acts, we have little choice but to prosecute the case.

MALVEAUX: The evidence a treasure trove of gifts and loans, including expensive golf outings, vacations with yachts and spas for the couple. A $19,000 New York City shopping spree for Maureen McDonnell, $15,000 in catering for their daughter's wedding, a $6,000 Rolex watch for the. All in exchange, prosecutors said, for helping promote Williams diet supplement company Star Scientific. McDonnell took the stand himself, testifying for five days telling the jury he didn't need Williams money and he didn't give him any special favors. While McDonnell in front of the cameras professed his love for his wife, his attorneys presented evidence of a relationship so troubled they could not have conspired together. In this email to his wife in 2011, the governor wrote I am completely at a loss as to how to handle the fiery anger and hate from you that has become more and more frequent.

MCDONNELL: I did try to hide or deceive anyone.

RUSS STONE, CNNLEGAL ANALYST: It's kind of a risky strategy, because even if the jury thinks they did have a broken marriage, that doesn't necessarily mean they weren't conspiring to receive these gifts.

MALVEAUX: Personal emails between the two showed In fact the couple were in regular contact and even vacationed together, all things the jury used in handing down their verdict.

The couple's defense strategy to trash their marriage clearly didn't work. During the pretrial hearing, the couple arrived holding hands, but during the trial they arrived in separate vehicles. Now Bob McDonnell has moved out of their Richmond home and lives with his priest. It is an extraordinary downfall for a man who was once being considered to be Mitt Romney's running mate in 2012. He's now headed to prison. Suzanne Malveaux, CNN Washington.

COSTELLO: OK, what struck me about this trial is the McDonnell sham of a marriage. McDonnell ran as a family man in love of his wife. He carried her over the threshold when he was elected governor. She played along publicly. But evidently she hated every moment of it. The couple mutual hate cam e out during the trial when McDonnell blamed his wife for everything that happened. As the University of Virginia's Larry Sabato tweeted even before the verdict quote, no first lady has been treated so badly since Mary Todd Lincoln was committed to an asylum by her own son. My question is why didn't they just divorced? Let's talk about that, CNN political commentators Donna Brazil and Will (PH) join me now. It sounds like an episode of scandal, Will. Why didn't they just get divorced?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because they didn't want to. I think the response to Larry would be I think Maureen McDonnell helped jump herself in front of the bus. The jurors didn't agree with you that this is sham marriage, they thought this was a sham break up. The whole thing - Look in the end the result is politicians are liars, they were just lying about something different then having a good marriage. It was a lie for legal purposes, not political purposes. They were trying to say our marriage is so broken, we could never have conspired for corruption. Instead, Maureen was doing this on her own and she doesn't really have any power. Maureen participated in that. The goal for both of them as to stay out of jail. They were lying, they just weren't lying about having a good marriage, they lied about having a bad marriage.