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More Jobs Created in October; If Economy Improving, Why Oust Democrats in Election; Actress Keira Knightly Talks Battleground of Women's Bodies; Obama Sending More Troops to Fight ISIS.

Aired November 07, 2014 - 14:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Just past the bottom of the hour. You're watching CNN.

Great news on the job front. 214,000 jobs created in the month of October, putting the nation on track to its best year of job growth since 1999.

Christine Romans has more on this -- Christine?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Brooke, just a couple days ago, the midterm elections, exit polls showed Americans still feel pretty rotten about the jobs market and the economy. These numbers show a trend of a sturdy jobs market. Nine straight months in a row of jobs created. The average month of jobs, 228,000. You can see how that compares with recent years. This is the best year for job creation in several years.

When you look within the sectors, I see them broaden out just a little bit. Business information services was a big driver. These are lawyers, these are architects, these are office jobs that pay more than the average. Retail jobs, you can see hiring up for the holidays. And also healthcare, that's been a strong performer. There are great paying jobs for skilled nurses and for doctors.

Final thought here, Brooke, if you have a college degree, a B.A., 3.1 is the unemployment rate. If you completed high school, 5.7 percent. It shows you that the right skills and education still do matter in this recovery -- Brooke?

BALDWIN: Christine Romans, thank you very much.

The jobless rate isn't the only good word on the economy. You have plummeting price of gas below three bucks a gallon for the first time in four years, GDP, a big third-quarter jump. We heard the president say these are indicators the economy is going in the right direction, which makes you wonder why his party got blown out Tuesday in the midterm elections.

With me from Cincinnati, Senator Rob Portman, a Republican from Ohio.

Senator, nice to have you on. Welcome.

SEN. ROB PORTMAN, (R), OHIO: Thanks for having me on.

BALDWIN: So when the new Congress convenes, you'll be a member of this new Republican majority in the Senate. You have some in your party saying they are definitely glad the Democrats did not do more to trumpet that these positive growth numbers as it pertains to the economy and run-up to the election, are you surprised they didn't do that, sir.

PORTMAN: I think a number of Democrats ran a campaign on issues that were not particularly relevant to most voters, including a lot of undecided voters and that probably helped. I would also make the point that a lot of people don't feel this economic growth you just talked about. And part of the reason is a lot of people are not getting the jobs they are looking for. Right now, if you had the same percentage of people in the workforce that we had before the recession began, in other words more people working, the unemployment rate would be over 10 percent, which is really high.

One thing this doesn't take into account is the fact that 2.5 people have left the workforce for every job that's been added to the workforce over the last six years. And that's part of the problem. Second is wages are flat. Wages are down about 8 percent today compared to what they were before the recession. And costs are up. Gas prices are going down, they're still higher compared to what they were when wages were higher. People feel that middle-class squeeze. You can say a lot of things about how the economy is improving, and that's good. We want the economy to keep moving forward. But we have to do more and jump-start this economy. It's the weakest recovery out of any recession ever. That's what people feel.

BALDWIN: I hear you. I hear you. People feel the disconnect. Some say, why didn't Democrats sort of wave the economic flag, as it were, because the numbers don't lie.

And as we're on the economy, Senator Portman, folks in your party warned and insisted that since the president first took office that the federal government is broke and size of the national debt means that we're in imminent danger of economic collapse. Thus far, knocking on my plastic desk, that hasn't happened. Far from it. Did your party get that wrong and, to be frank, was that a scare tactic?

PORTMAN: No, not at all. Brooke, when you think about it, we're in unchartered territory. We don't know, frankly, what's going to happen. We have $18 trillion of debt and never had those numbers before in nominal terms or as a percent of our economy. That's scary. I know annual deficits are in the $480 billion range, which is way too high, and people are glad it's not still a trillion. The fact is we built up huge debts and, every year, we pay more in interest with relatively low interest rates. So people are concerned when they look at the future because the Congressional Budget Office has said -- that's the nonpartisan group on Capitol Hill -- over the next 10 years, the interest payments on the debt are going to be close to a trillion dollars a year, and so that's when we get into real trouble. I think that trouble is still brewing and people like Bowles and Simpson are raising the red flags, for good reason. This is a real problem. We have to deal with long-term spending problems. And promises we made on mandatory side of the budget for these entitlement programs, which are so necessary and such important safety net programs, we can't keep those promises. They're not sustainable under the current budgeting.

So there's still a big problem there. I hope Republicans will take that on. I know it's a tough issue. But that's one of the issues we ought to address with the Republican majority, is having a budget that makes sense that does deal with this long-term problem of unprecedented amount of debt.

BALDWIN: Let me just move off of money and budgetary issues and onto something else. One could see it as a promise. You have the president -- we saw everyone sitting around the roundtable, leaders of Congress on both sides sitting around the table. And so yesterday we heard Speaker Boehner saying the president is playing with matches and when he says he will consider executive action specifically on immigration laws. Given your party's failure to act, failure to act on that issue, at least on the House side, Senator, why shouldn't the president act alone?

PORTMAN: Well, let's give us a chance to act. We just got the majority. It just happened. People seem to be interested in --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: You had the majority on the House side.

PORTMAN: We did have a majority on the House side but we didn't have a majority in the House that agreed with the majority in the Senate. Now we have two majorities working together. And Speaker Boehner thinks the immigration system is broken and we ought to fix it. Most of us agree with that on the Senate side. Let's give us a chance working with the president to come up with something that deals with the broken and illegal immigration system.

And the other issues I'm excited about are issues like expanding exports. The president wants trade promotion authority. So do Republicans. Let's get that done. Dealing with these companies taking jobs overseas, the president says we need a lower the tax rate because it's the highest in the world among all developed countries now. We say that's a good idea. Let's get that done. There are other things we could do together on regulatory relief where the president may agree with us. A lot of Democrats do. There's some regulations like permanent regulations that could be improved to make it easier for companies to add more jobs and to really get this recovery going in a way that all of us want to see. And then finally, on energy, there's a great opportunity there. So I think this is a new start. In a way, it's a second chance for the president to work on a bipartisan basis, and Republicans as well. It's got to be a two- way street.

BALDWIN: I hear the excitement. I hear the excitement on the issues.

What about you, Senator Portman? Let's talk about you. Let me end with this. I know you have been asked this since the election where you gave an interview saying you could be serious about a possible run for president in the next election. We know that Congressman Paul Ryan, who ran on the last Republican ticket, he has suggested -- he was interviewed recently and he said really other than -- he named Mitt Romney, who he said had zero chance to run, and Mitch Daniels. There are no Republican candidates that excite him very much. This is what Paul Ryan said. Would you bring excitement to the table, to the race?

PORTMAN: You would have to ask Paul. He excites me.

(LAUGHTER)

No, look, I think the country is so polarized right now and we're so divided, and it's time to bring the country together and to focus on a way to find common ground and move forward. I'm worried about the economy. I think --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: OK, that's not a yes or no. With all due respect --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: I can guess where your answer is, but could you name other candidates that would excite you. Let me change the way I'm phrasing the question.

SEN. ROB PORTMAN, (R), OHIO: Well, there are a lot of candidates -- Paul Ryan would be one -- that would be great candidates and help our country to move forward. He would be a great president.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Who is another one, Senator?

PORTMAN: Mitt Romney is another one. I think he would be a good president. I think he would have been a president who would have handled some of these issues we've seen in the last several months much better, whether Ebola or ISIS or how we deal with our economic problems. So I think there's an opportunity here for the right Republican to step forward in 2016.

The first step, Brooke, I believe strongly is for Republicans to show that we can and want to govern. And that's why it's interesting to me to hear what Republican leaders have said over the last couple days because we need to have a very clear, pro-active, positive agenda. If we do that and actually produce, the president may choose not to sign all these bills but let's get them out of the House and out of the Senate and to the president's desk, and show the American people the Republican Party is the party of reform ideas. The Republican Party has ideas that will help you and your family to succeed. And I think if we do that, we'll be in good shape in 2016.

BALDWIN: Senator Rob Portman from Cincinnati, Ohio, with me today.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate the time, sir.

PORTMAN: Thanks, Brooke. Great being on with you again.

BALDWIN: Just ahead, FBI agents right now are removing box after box after box of evidence from the home of this American diplomat whose career has focused on Pakistan. Why is this happening? What are they looking for?

And next, Actress Keira Knightly poses topless out of protest.

Plus, surprising answer to questions posed to adults and to children.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would like to be taller.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The problem is my face.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My ears. I have big ears.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stretch marks after having a baby.

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: I could have teleportation in my body.

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: Extra pointy ears.

UNIDENTIFIED BOY: I want legs like a cheetah so I can run faster like a cheetah.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: You have seen her in hit movies and displayed across glossy magazine covers, but have you really, really seen her? Actress Keira Knightly has been Photoshopped, but now she's saying why she chose to go topless for a photo shoot back in August. Here's what they told the "Times of London," quoting her, "That shoot is one where I'm fine doing the topless shot if you don't make them any bigger or retouched because it does feel important to say it really doesn't matter what shape you are." She goes on to say women's bodies are a battleground and photography is partly to blame.

So super model, Emme, is here with me. She is a self-proclaimed women's advocate for the last two decades.

(LAUGHTER)

Hello.

EMME, SUPER MODEL & NEDA AMBASSADOR: Hi, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Nice to have you back.

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: My question is what took so long for one of these actresses who have been photo shopped forever to finally say, OK, here I am. Don't change?

EMME: I think, Keira Knightly, she had that issue with her poster and her breast being enlarged, which truly wasn't her, and now that she's coming out with more and more work, the Photoshopping at reached a tipping point in her life. If other actresses and actors, which there have been many -- Brad Pitt wants the truthing put out there. A lot of publicists and a lot of people who market films probably don't want that. But the public is being fooled. They truly are.

BALDWIN: We're buying it.

EMME: I know. I know.

BALDWIN: Which means we're complicit.

EMME: The conversation online, a lot of comments that are coming back are saying, wait a minute, you have to be kidding me, this is not how certain actors and actresses look like, and if you put this narrow image of beauty out there, no wonder all of the eating disorder clinics are filled up, no wonder our children are obsessed with their bodies.

BALDWIN: You bring up children. Thank you very much. That's going to get me -- this is what I wanted to talk about. We talk about body image. This got passed my way, this video. We cut it down to you. It's a video taking off online where adults are being posed this question -- this is the Jubilee Project -- if you could change one thing about your body, what would it be?

Here are adults.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would change my forehead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would like to be taller.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Puffiness of my face.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have big ears.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stretch marks after having a baby.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That's only the half of it. This is what the kids said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you could change one thing about your body, what would you change?

UNIDENTIFIED BOY: Hmm.

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: Umm.

UNIDENTIFIED BOY: Hmm.

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: I would have a mermaid tail.

UNIDENTIFIED BOY: Probably like a shark mouth so I could eat a lot of stuff.

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: I could have teleportation in my body.

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: Extra pointy ears.

UNIDENTIFIED BOY: I want legs like a cheetah so I can run fast like a cheetah.

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: I could have wings and fly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: I know. It's precious. It warms your heart. But it gets you thinking, when did we change?

EMME: When does that happen? When do we become absorbers of the mass around us?

BALDWIN: When? Why?

EMME: I think -- well, why, there's a lot of --

(LAUGHTER)

There's a lot of money, billions of dollars put into the pot of how do we make money within the beauty industry and within the financial markets. If we hit kids young, they can make more money longer. And when you run out of women that are feeling low in self-esteem -- we have gotten it for so long -- you go to men. Talk to a lot of men now and they are marketed on not big but not too small.

(CROSSTALK)

EMME: Yeah. You have to be good parents and caregivers to the children and be a media watchdog for your child. On Saturday mornings, whatever they're looking at online, so that you can say, you know what, that's not an appropriate character to watch if the child only sees princesses that are tiny and uber beautiful or characters in TV shows that are only one particular size. There should be diversity, beautiful diverse images of actors, actresses and great roles for those kids. And it's a lot of work.

BALDWIN: Junior high. I feel like that's when it all changed, seventh grade.

(LAUGHTER)

Emme, thank you so much. Nice to have you on.

EMME: Thank you.

BALDWIN: I appreciate it.

Coming up next here, we're getting breaking news. The White House making a major announcement about sending more troops in the war against ISIS. Those details next. Stay right here.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: As we approach the top of the hour, we want to get you breaking news. In the fight against ISIS, the U.S.-led fight, the president has now announced that they will be adding some 1500 additional troops.

I have two voices standing by, Jim Sciutto, our national security correspondent; and Elise Labott, our global affairs correspondent.

Jim, let me begin with you as far as what we do know. Again, not combat roles but how will they support and whom?

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT; This is expanding the role that they have right now which is to train and advise Iraqi security forces in their fight against ISIS. But this is a significant, substantial increase in that number, doubling the number of U.S. forces on the ground so far.

Here's the other significant development here. The statement establishing this. They will no longer be confined -- these are U.S. military advisers -- to Baghdad and Erbil to the north. We reported last week that plans were in development to deploy some of those troops to Anbar, 80 percent controlled by ISIS, a key province close to Baghdad to the West of Baghdad, deploying U.S. military advisers out to assist Iraqi forces there. And the president opening the door here not just there and elsewhere outside of Baghdad and Erbil. And that's significant because Baghdad, they've been confined to Baghdad and Erbil for a reason, because those are safe centers. Pretty well protected in Baghdad by Iraqi security forces. Pretty well protected in Erbil by Peshmerga.

Big headlines here. The number doubling U.S. troops on the ground not as combat troops but as advisers and they will no longer be confined to two main urban centers.

BALDWIN: Springboarding off of what Jim is reporting, why now? Is this a sign of potential vulnerabilities in this part of the world and America feels the need to further boost what's already there or would you see it the other way around?

ELISE LABOTT, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Air strikes that we've seen aren't making a huge dent in what ISIS has done and the territory that it's gaining in. As Jim said, it's a significant increase. I think what we've seen is there's a lot of talk about mission creep. The administration announced the plan, the strategy suddenly, but was sketchy on details it was going to provide and that's because I think they didn't know. A little bit, they are making this up as they go along. They are judging the situation on the ground. The development of the Iraqi National Guard and those Iraqi troops on the ground that could actually make a dent in ISIS, I think, is really important in the U.S. strategy. And I think that's one of the things that the U.S. is going to be doing, along with its partners in terms of trading them. And that can't be done in Erbil or Baghdad. There are problems throughout the whole country. As ISIS continues to take territory, they need to be on the ground with Iraqi troops as they battle is.

(CROSSTALK)

SCIUTTO: Brooke, if I could add, as well, just because we're getting --

BALDWIN: Go ahead.

SCIUTTO: -- some additional news here, and that's that the Obama administration will request an additional $5.6 billion for what's known as OCO, oversea contingency operations, activities to degrade and defeat ISIS. So in addition to troops, the president asking for money he'll need to fund having further U.S. military advisers on the ground there and troops to protect them.

Another point I want to make to your question as to why now.

BALDWIN: Yeah.

SCIUTTO: The White House and military officials have been saying to me in the last couple of weeks that Iraqi security forces are finally, in a limited form, but finally taking the fight to ISIS and making some gains in certain areas. They were able to take back, for instance, a key border crossing between Iraq and Syria at Rabia in the north near the town of Zumar. They were able to retake a town from ISIS just to the south and west of Baghdad.