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One Dead, Two Still Missing after Explosion at an Illinois Plant; Boeing 737 Skids Off Runway into River; Israeli Officials: Gaza Militants Fire 150 Rockets Toward Israel; North Korea Launches Short- Range Projectiles; Crisis in Venezuela; U.S. Adds 263,000 Jobs in April, Unemployment Rate Falls to 3.6 percent; Cities Along Flooded Mississippi River Brace for Mores Rain. Aired 11a-12p ET

Aired May 04, 2019 - 11:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:59:25]FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone.

It's 11:00 on the East Coast. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Thank you so much for joining me this Saturday.

We begin with this breaking news.

Right now a search-and-rescue operation is on hold in Waukegan, Illinois after a massive explosion at a silicone plant. We are just learning that one person was found dead and two other people are missing. The search has been called off for now due to dangerous conditions.

Meanwhile four people are hospitalized with injuries. The blast, we are told, could be felt for miles, shaking the ground as far as Wisconsin.

CNN's Ryan Young joins me on the phone right now. So what more can you tell us about this explosion?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Yes, Fred --when you look at this video, you can see just how powerful this explosion was. And of course, we've just had the new information about that one individual being found dead inside this plant.

And they've now just decided to suspend the rest of this search and rescue effort because of the structural integrity of that building. If you look at it right there you can tell that this blast pretty much leveled this building. So fire and rescue crews who are working to knock the fire out and they knew that three people were still missing.

They were able to find one person, but unfortunately they still can't search for the other two people person. It's no longer a search and rescue, now it's sort of a search and recovery.

Four people were taken to the hospital as well. This is probably pretty much what happen (ph) in sort of industrial areas. So there were no homes that seemed to be affected by the blast. But when you're looking at these aerials you really get an idea of

just how powerful this explosion was. Look at the top part and that roof structure. I think it would be quite difficult to put firefighters into that building and try to have them search around at this point to see if they can find the other two people who were involved in this.

We know this silicone plant maybe had one fire back maybe ten years ago, but it seemed like beyond that, there have been no safety concerns that anybody knows about as of right now.

Of course, at least the hot spots have been put out in terms of this fire, but at this point you really have to think about those three lives that have probably been lost, and that is probably the focus at this point -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: So Ryan -- as we look at this kind of aerial, you know, pulled-out picture of the damage, it's hard to tell whether this was like a campus of buildings at this silicone plant or is that building that exploded, you know, the singular building of this silicone plant? And what do we know, you know, what may have been contained in that plant building?

YOUNG: Yes. And I think that's the big question right now. You know, investigators are probably -- if they get a chance to ever go in there, you almost think that with heavy equipment they're going to probably have to knock down certain portions of this.

I'm sure the owner of that silicone plant is apparently on the way there. I'm not sure what kind of material they would have in there to create this sort of explosion. What we've been told though this is an industrial area, so when it did explode, it did damage some of the buildings nearby.

You look at the large debris field that is also encompassing this area. Luckily it seems like this campus was sort of self contained so there wasn't anything nearby in terms of homes or any kind of schools or anything like that.

But then again, this happened late at night. There were apparently I think nine workers there. And some of the folks were able to get away. Be we know four people went to the hospital but three others, of course, were missing. And like I said, that one individual has been found dead.

As far as the silicone plant. The background of it right now, that's all stuff, of course, we're working on. I'm sure like a lot of things, these things aren't kind of just there, you don't know about it until there's some sort of action on like this one where you start digging into the background of it.

We're not even sure what they produce at this point. So that's some of the stuff that we'll have to work on as the hours kind of go on with this -- Fred. But when you look at this explosion, look the power of it and just what firefighters were dealing with last night, you know just how dangerous this was. WHITFIELD: Ryan Young - thank you so much. Keep us posted as you learn more information.

Meantime, joining me on the phone right now, Waukegan Fire Marshal Steven Lenzi. So Marshal Lenzi -- please give us an update on what you believe may have sparked this explosion?

STEVEN LENZI, FIRE MARSHAL, WAUKEGAN, ILLINOIS: Certainly. At this point it would be really premature to comment on any type of update on the investigative end of the incident. We are still on the scene investigating the incident along with an investigator from the office of the Illinois State Fire Marshal.

We are concentrating our investigation into one area of the building more so than the other area. I heard earlier you were talking about the taller portion. That is actually an area that at this point we are leaning towards ruling out as an area involved.

We did, as also noted, recover one of the victims at this point. One of the deceased victim was turned over to our Lake County Coroner's Office. And we are still out there actively conducting a little investigation, doing some interviews, and working to secure the scene, so that when we do get the heavy equipment in, we can again begin some removal of the top debris so we can focus our efforts a little more.

WHITFIELD: And fire departments customarily have some sort of working knowledge perhaps of chemicals or agents that may be involved when you talk about an industrial fire or, you know, a chemical fire. So what did you know upon arrival?

LENZI: Upon arrival in the evening there really was not very good information that we are obtaining. It takes a while to gather some of that. And we're still in the process of really gathering what went wrong and what chemicals may have been involved.

When we are dealing with it, we are looking at, a -- treating the victims; b -- putting out a very active fire still at that point.

[11:05:00] Throughout the process of any plant fire, you do have different levels of flammable liquids involved. The flammables were stored in a different area of the building, so when the fire reached them, then we had another concern. So the firefighters -- we had well over 100 working here throughout the evening in some dark dreary conditions. And we didn't suffer any injuries. And we're still -- everything is contained at this point. We're just working on that last victim search and removal whenever we can.

WHITFIELD: And you heard our reporter Ryan Young saying there may have been about nine workers there working in that building at night at the time of this explosion. Some people, as you just noted, were taken to the hospital.

Is it your feeling that you have a pretty good head count of how many may have been in the building? How many are being treated?

LENZI: Yes. The plant management that's not on location, has been very cooperative with us. We have very, very good confirmation of the numbers of what we are looking at. They've been checked and double- checked, and everybody else has been accounted for, except for the three subjects who were missing.

WHITFIELD: Ok. And what is next?

LENZI: What is next is to entirely secure the scene and then work with the insurance for the building ownership to obtain the heavy equipment needed to systematically remove some of the debris so we can search safely underneath.

WHITFIELD: All right. Waukegan Fire Marshal Steven Lenzi -- thank you so much for your time.

LENZI: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: We're also following more breaking news.

Right now investigators making their ways to Jacksonville, Florida to figure out why a Boeing 737 skidded off the runway, crashing into a river.

And a new escalation of violence in the Middle East where more than 150 rockets are fired by militants in Gaza toward Israel. We'll get the latest from Jerusalem.

[11:06:54] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: We're following breaking news out of Jacksonville, Florida where at any moment now NTSB investigators will arrive on the scene to determine how a plane slid off a runway into a nearby river. The commercial flight with 143 people had left the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base in Cuba and then went into shallow water off the Naval Air station in Jacksonville. Only a few minor injuries are being reported and officials are saying it could have been so much worse.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CAPTAIN MICHAEL CONNOR, COMMANDING OFFICER, NAVAL AIR STATION JACKSONVILLE. I think it's a miracle. It could have ended -- we could be talking about a different story this evening, so I think there's a lot to say about, you know, the professionalism of the folks that helped the passengers off the airplane. There is a lot to say about that because it very well could be worse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN national correspondent Natasha Chen is live for us in Jacksonville this morning. So Natasha -- what will the NTSB investigative team be zeroing in on first?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Reporter: Right. Well, I just found out a few minutes ago from someone on the NTSB staff, that the people -- the investigators who left D.C. this morning at about 9:00 a.m. should be arriving within the hour now to this Naval Air Station Jacksonville. There are other investigators from other parts of the country arriving at different points in the day.

They are going to be looking at that plane that is still sitting in shallow water right now. That cannot be moved until they get there and document what they see, document what potentially happened here.

They will be looking at potentially three factors -- human factor, the machine itself, the aircraft, and environmental factors.

So with the human factor, they're looking to see the track record and history of the pilot and the crew members. What their last 72 hours of activity were like, if that gives us any clues.

And they're also going to be looking at this aircraft and seeing if it was well maintained, if there was something wrong mechanically.

Then of course, the environmental factor involves the weather last night. We do know there was some weather pattern here, a thunderstorm, lightning strikes.

One of the passengers on board described that severe weather as they were flying in. And here's what that passenger had to say to us about that really harsh landing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHERYL BORMANN, DEFENSE ATTORNEY WHO WAS ON THE PLANE: As we went down, we had a really hard landing. And then the plane bounced, and screeched, and bounced some more. And it listed to the right and then it listed to the left. And then it sort of swerved. And then came to a complete like -- like a crash stop.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN: She said that everybody was really helping everyone else. It was a team effort here and they were all very lucky to come away from this with just a few minor injuries -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: Natasha Chen -- keep us posted. Thank you so much.

All right. Up next, North Korea launches a volley of projectiles overnight sparking new concerns about diplomatic headwinds to come.

[11:13:31] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Breaking news out of the Middle East where Israeli officials say more than 150 rockets have been fired from Gaza towards Israel in the span of just one hour, injuring two Israelis. The Palestinian ministry of health says one person is dead and three others are wounded after Israel retaliated with airstrikes.

Oren Liebermann is in Jerusalem. Oren -- bring us up to speed. What's happening?

OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka -- I should point out that I'm essentially on the Israel-Gaza border. That's Gaza there behind me. And as we stood here over the last few hours, we've seen not only

interceptions of Israel's Iron Dome aerial defense system from rockets launched from Gaza into Israel here, but also air strikes carried out by Israel. And we've heard artillery fire as well as tank fire from Israel in the area where we are here.

Where do things stand right now. Well, this has escalated sharply since this morning. This morning most of the rockets coming out of Gaza were towards the Gaza periphery, short-range rockets. Well, that has escalated to longer-range rockets hitting communities some 20, 25 miles away from the Gaza border.

A couple of Israelis have been injured there because of that rocket fire and because of shrapnel. Meanwhile Israel said it's hit more than 30 targets inside of Gaza -- targets of Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad -- the two main militant factions in Gaza.

As you pointed out the ministry of health there, the Palestinian ministry of health says one Palestinian has been killed in those air strikes and a number of others wounded.

One of the questions is, where does it go at this point? This has escalated sharply and shattered what had been a few weeks of relative calm over the last month or so as Israel and Hamas tried to work toward some sort of long-term agreement with Egypt and the U.N. mediating.

Well, that all ended on Friday afternoon when a sniper from Gaza injured two Israeli soldiers. Israel responded with an air strike that killed two Hamas militants and that has led us to this tense, volatile situation that we're in right now -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And is the expectation that this will only escalate?

LIEBERMANN: It's still too early to answer that definitively. Both Israel and Hamas are interested in some sort of long-term ceasefire, a long term agreement. And it's Egypt that's been working to try to put that in place over the course of the last few weeks and I'll even go as far to say as the last few months, perhaps up to a year.

And that's the situation that Egypt and the U.N. will be trying to return this to. A cease-fire where those sort of negotiations can continue.

But interestingly in a conference call with the Israeli military a short time ago, they said that it's Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a more extremist group inside of Gaza that's trying to derail all of that and to destabilize the situation. We'll see where this goes from here.

We're on the Gaza border and monitoring the latest on this tense, volatile situation.

WHITFIELD: Oren Liebermann -- thank you so much from Jerusalem.

All right. [11:19:56] Now to North Korea and the overnight launch of a barrage of short-range projectiles. According to South Korean officials the unidentified projectiles came from the eastern shore. And right now they're trying to determine if those projectiles included any missiles.

In the last hour President Trump tweeting in part, "Kim Jong-un knows that I am with him and does not want to break his promise to me. Deal will happen."

CNN's Andrew Stevens is following developments. So are we any closer to knowing what these projectiles were?

ANDREW STEVENS, CNN ASIA PACIFIC EDITOR: At this stage Fredricka -- no, we're not. All we're being told is that the South Koreans newest (ph)-- looking at the information they have available, and still not giving anything out as to what was actually fired by the North Koreans about 14 hours ago now.

It was short range. So they only traveled a maximum of maybe 140 miles or so into the East China Sea. So at this stage we're still waiting for further information, but it does -- at least it's being interpreted by many experts in this part of the world, Fredricka, as really a calculated move by North Korea to try and force the issue of denuclearization, in particular, for North Korea to try and force some letup in sanctions.

At the moment there seems to be something of a stalemate on negotiations between the U.S. and North Korea following the failure of the summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un in Hanoi in February. Not much has happened since then.

The North has been making noises about their dissatisfaction over nothing happening. They've been -- the slammed a recent aerial drill carried out by the U.S. and South Korea. So they seems to be getting increasingly frustrated. And this is being interpreted, at least, as a move to try and move things along a bit.

As you said, Donald Trump putting that tweet out, saying that, you know, he's still close to Kim Jong-un. The two leaders certainly seem to like each other if the reports are to be believed and if Donald Trump is to be believed, Fredricka. But certainly, as far as the negotiation team goes, they're not making any headway at all at this stage.

WHITFIELD: Andrew Stevens -- thank you so much.

Samantha Vinograd is with me now. She is a former senior adviser to the national security advisor under President Obama. So this launch, you know, coming just days after Kim Jong-un met with Vladimir Putin -- what do you read into this?

SAMANTHA VINOGRAD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, it looks like Little Rocketman is trying to show that he's all grown up. This is a message to the United States certainly. We have not agreed to give him the sanctions relief that he wants, but in the past Russia and China, North Korea's two biggest patrons, have exercised some kind of control against Kim Jong-un. Let's remember that they have been lauding the fact that Kim Jong-un has not been a provocateur of late. They pointed to the fact that he has had this missile moratorium.

And based upon that have really pushed the United States to engage in step by step sanctions relief under which would agree to let sanctions for various steps that Kim Jong-un takes.

Kim Jong-un just met with Vladimir Putin in Russia a few days ago. And yet days later, he goes ahead and does this test. What this really signals to me, Fredricka, is that Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and President Trump are not able to contain or constrain Kim Jong-un.

He's testing the waters and showing that he's frustrated. And that he has a deadline. His patience is running out with this process, even if President Trump's is not.

WHITFIELD: And then how do you interpret the President's tweet, where he says Kim Jong-un knows, you know, that I am with him and does not want to break his promise to me, deal will happen.

VINOGRAD: Well, having worked on a lot of these official statements, I can tell you that the President is putting the cart before the horse, and under 280 characters on Twitter.

Typically these statements come after the national security team goes through a pretty standard process. They review the intelligence about what kind of projectiles-- what the issue actually was. Have an assessment of what actually happened.

Second, they review Kim Jong-un's motivations.

And then third, they come up with a response. Part of that response often is a presidential statement that's coordinated with our allies, and scrubbed by the intelligence community to make sure that it doesn't look like President Trump is condoning -- or any president -- illegal behave.

It's obvious that none of that happened. We have no indication that the principals' committee had met today to review response options.

And what the President said is factually untrue. Kim Jong-un has broken his promise to the United States. He launched projectiles. He's also broken his promise to President Moon of South Korea because he pledged to end animosity on the Korean Peninsula.

So it's clear that the President is doing what he does best. He's operating based upon a hunch that he has, and his sense of a love affair with Kim Jong-un. And frankly, Fredricka -- he's undermining his own home team in doing so.

[11:25:00] WHITFIELD: And how concerned are you that the launching of projectiles is a precursor to launching something else? Missiles in, you know, the short term.

VINOGRAD: Well, we don't yet know whether these projectiles were missile-capable or missile-ready. So we'll have to wait and see what the official statement is on that.

But I think a lot of what happens next depends on the U.S. response. This is not a black and white scenario. Having a tough a response or taking some kind of reciprocal measure to tell Kim Jong-un that he cannot get away with illegal activities is not necessarily paving the way to go to war with North Korea. There's a way to publicly and privately communicate to the North Koreans that this behavior won't stand, that we will reciprocate in kind, but that our ultimate goal remains the peaceful denuclearization process.

Any intelligence assessment or any basic Google search will show that Kim Jong-un does not respond to flattery. He does not respond to niceties like President Trump does. He came to the negotiating table with President Trump originally, and perhaps disingenuously because of the historic pressure campaign that President Trump levied.

The failure to have a reciprocal response with Kim Jong-un at this juncture is in my opinion going to pave the way for him to do more of these tests.

WHITFIELD: What would his advisors likely, in your view, be advising him to -- you know, on how he would respond to something like this?

VINOGRAD: Well I think they probably advise him to stop tweeting until the principals committee can meet. And that they -- until they can give him analytically driven options for how to respond both with words and with actions and they would likely tell him that continuing to tell Kim Jong-un that he can get away with this kind of behavior just signals to Kim Jong-un again that he can do whatever he wants whenever he wants and that President Trump will stay invested in this process.

I think they would also urge him to try to multi-lateralize any kind of response. I'd like to remind everyone that Russia and China voted with the United States at the United Nations on three occasions under the Trump administration to implement historically onerous sanctions on North Korea. They fell down a little bit on the implementation side, but they voted with us.

And having North Korea's patrons stand with us at the United Nations on those three resolutions made them even more impactful.

WHITFIELD: Samantha Vinograd -- thanks so much.

VINOGRAD: Thanks -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Up next, President Trump says Russia wasn't looking to get involved with Venezuela, but today Russia says its foreign minister will meet with his Venezuelan counterpart. So who should you believe? And what should the U.S. role in the region be?

[11:27:43] (COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido is vowing to take his protests back to the country's military bases and he says the deaths of protesters will not be in vain. Meanwhile Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov will meet with Venezuela's foreign minister in Moscow tomorrow. The talks will take place ahead of an anticipated meeting between Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo in Finland. .

The former NSC director of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Dan Restrepo joining us right now from Washington. Dan -- good to see you. So how does all of this sit with you?

DAN RESTREPO, FORMER NSC DIRECTOR OF WESTERN HEMISPHERE AFFAIRS: Not particularly well. We have another instance of Donald Trump believing Vladimir Putin rather than believing reality in terms of the Russians have been involved in Venezuela for quite some time.

Even in the last couple of months, they have made a show of deploying troops there, ostensibly as technical advisers to help with electricity blackouts. You've had significant Russian investment. They own a 49 percent share in Citgo, the U.S. subsidiary of the Venezuelan oil company.

You've got Mike Pompeo -- Secretary Pompeo just this week telling us that it was the Russians who talked Nicolas Maduro out of leaving Venezuela during the uprising on Tuesday morning.

And so you have all of this going on. You have plenty of evidence that the Russians have been involved and will remain involved and then you have the President coming out and saying that Putin told him that -- that he has no interest in Venezuela. There's a lot of contradictions there.

WHITFIELD: And so now you've got the foreign ministers of, you know, Russia and Venezuela, meeting tomorrow. But just to underscore it, you just said, you know, Trump, you know, contradicting his own secretary, you know of state, saying Vladimir Putin doesn't want to get involved in Venezuela. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I had a very good talk with President Putin, probably over an hour, and we talked about many things. Venezuela was one of the topics. He is not looking at all to get involved in Venezuela, other than he'd like to see something positive happen for Venezuela.

And I feel the same way. We want to get some humanitarian aid. Right now people are starving. They have no water. They have no food. This is, Mr. Prime Minister, one of the richest countries in the world 20 years ago, and now they don't have food and they don't have water for their people. So we want to help on a humanitarian basis.

And I thought it was a very positive conversation I had with President Putin on Venezuela.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: So that's one message. But then what do you believe the, you know, content of discussions will be when Pompeo, you know, goes to Russia and actually has meetings. I mean Venezuela is going to come up.

RESTREPO: Absolutely. It should come up.

WHITFIELD: Will they be talking about humanitarian aid solely?

RESTREPO: I doubt it. Hopefully the Secretary of State is going with the message to make clear to the Russians that the Russians shouldn't be supporting Nicolas Maduro.

The one thing the President got right in that clip we just saw is that there's an enormous humanitarian disaster going on in Venezuela. It is the fault of Nicolas Maduro and the corrupt gang of folks around him. And for Venezuela to get out of the humanitarian crisis and kind of the spiral that the country is in, it needs a return to democracy.

The Russians are one of the things that's standing in the way of that. Hopefully the Secretary of State makes a very clear representation, but again, a hard case to make when the President is undercutting that.

(CROSSTALKING)

WHITFIELD: Do you believe that? Right. So do you believe that, you know, Pompeo will go there and say to Russia, no, you shouldn't be involved?

[11:35:01] RESTREPO: Hard to say. Again, Mike Pompeo this week was out multiple times criticizing the Russians, and then the President cut him off at the knees in the comments that we just saw.

It's unclear if the Secretary of State has the ability to try unringing that bell, to go to Lavrov and say no, no, no, you know. Don't pay attention to what my President said. Here's our message. He doesn't know what he's talking about. That puts the Secretary of State in an impossible position, unfortunately.

WHITFIELD: And then Guaido, who the U.S. wants to recognize, you know, as the leader of Venezuela, you know, he is pushing for more protests today outside military bases in Venezuela. So what do you see potentially evolving with that kind of scenario?

RESTREPO: So Juan Guaido has been recognized by the United States and 50 other countries as the legitimate interim president of the country. He's trying to do his best to convince the military to switch sides. The thing that this week left abundantly clear, it had been clear for a long time to those of us who follow Venezuela, is the keys to the kingdom here are in the hands of the Venezuelan military. They are -- they've been behind Nicolas Maduro and until they decide that Nicolas Maduro is no longer useful to them, they will remain behind Nicolas Maduro. What Juan Guaido is trying to do is to use people power -- to use peaceful protests to encourage the Venezuelan military to recognize that this doesn't work. That what is going on in Venezuela today is to the detriment of the Venezuelan people.

And I think he's trying to appeal to the troops directly in a sense that these aren't folks who live apart from Venezuela. These are folks who have family who are living through this nightmare that has been created by Nicolas Maduro and his folks.

WHITFIELD: And if they're suffering, right, then that could make all the difference.

RESTREPO: Right. It could make -- absolutely make all the difference in the world. The challenge is the high command, the military high command, the folks who apparently were in secret negotiations with Juan Guaido and his team. Whether they were legit or not is an entirely different question.

Those folks are still prospering. Those folks are still making money off of the hardship of the Venezuelan people. And so that tension between the rank-and-file troops and the military leadership, is one of the many variables here that we've all got to watch very carefully to see which way this is going to go. Because again, the military holds the key to the long-term durability of Nicolas Maduro or not.

WHITFIELD: All right. Dan Restrepo, thanks so much.

RESTREPO: Thank you very much.

WHITFIELD: All right. Coming up, the economy -- the U.S. economy booming by all accounts but President Trump isn't seeing any bump in his approval rating that he may expect. We'll talk about that next.

[11:37:40] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: A hiring surge is giving a major boost to the American economy and good news for President Trump. Employers added 263,000 jobs and unemployment is at its lowest level since December 1969. Here is CNN's Alison Kosik with the big number.

ALISON KOSIK, CNNMONEY CORRESPONDENT: Hi Fredricka -- the April jobs report crushing expectations. Employers added 263,000 jobs last month as job creation remains a real bright spot in the economy.

The unemployment rate falling to its lowest level in almost 50 years -- that was 1969. The last time we saw a number like this, astronauts walked the moon for the first time.

We're seeing notable job gains in good paying sectors like business and information systems, construction, and health care. There was only a small gain for manufacturing jobs, but that's after two years of explosive growth.

Still, this is 103 months in a row of job creation; 31 months with an unemployment rate of 5 percent or below. That shows a strong market for job hunters and those looking for a raise.

Wages grew at a decent clip but not as fast as they have in the past when unemployment had been this low. Higher wage growth had been a welcome change in recent months after years of stagnant paychecks. This is being seen as a Goldilocks moment in the economy where there's low inflation, decent wages and we're almost at full employment.

Stocks rallied on Friday on the backs of the jobs report as the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq get closer to all-time highs. So far this year all of the major averages are higher by the double digits. The Dow is up 14 percent, the S&P 500 up 17 percent, and the Nasdaq is 22 percent higher for the year -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Thank you so much -- Alison.

All right. Let's talk now with Art Laffer, who is an economist and a former economic adviser for President Reagan. Good go see you -- Art.

ART LAFFER, FORMER ECONOMIC ADVISER FOR PRESIDENT REAGAN: Good to see you -- Fred. How are you doing?

WHITFIELD: I'm doing just great.

LAFFER: Isn't it wonderful to be a messenger of good news?

WHITFIELD: it is.

LAFFER: I mean, all these other stories -- this is just such a wonderful, bright shining light. It's lovely.

WHITFIELD: So what are all the things that you like about these numbers?

LAFFER: Everything. We have a good job growth, good GDP growth, good wage growth, good growth in areas that have been traditionally very underemployed. The poor, the minority, the disenfranchised are all gaining a lot and really getting their unemployment rates down to levels that are normal -- I mean good levels.

It's just -- all the benefits that come from economic growth, Fred, come throughout everything in the economy. They come into all factors of life. And it's just lovely seeing it happen. And realize that it's all --

WHITFIELD: You are happy.

LAFFER: Well -- but it's all supply-side economics. Everyone of the other economists form the other side had said this stuff wouldn't work. The my economics isn't wright. It doesn't work. It never worked with Reagan.

Well, of course it worked with Reagan, It worked with Kennedy. And now it's working beautifully with Trump. Trump's just done wonderful job on the economy.

WHITFIELD: And then there have been some skeptics however who say -- LAFFER: No.

WHITFIELD: -- that they unemployment numbers don't necessarily represent the people who have stopped looking.

LAFFER: That's true. I mean we still have a good way to go on the participation rate. We have people who have dropped out of the labor force during the last 10, 12 years and these people should be coming back and you know, with higher wages they'll be attracted out of the sitting there at home and coming back into the labor force.

[11:45:00] I mean that's what's really so wonderful. Now that's from the high at the end of Bill Clinton. Bill Clinton did a great job as president and a phenomenal economy during his administration. And, you know, we can get those heights again. Average hours, we can increase that as well. You know, that's just part-time/full-time ratio. And we can increase productivity. We've got productivity this quarter was 2.3 percent, which is good, but under Clinton, it was 3.4 percent, I believe.

So we have room to go there, too. So I don't think this is a moment in history. I think this is a long period in history that we're going to have really good economy as long as these policies don't change.

WHITFIELD: So President Trump, you know, says that he does plan, you know, to run in his reelection campaign on the economy. And this recent CNN poll, you know, shows most Americans approved of his handling of the economy.

But as we have seen in the past the President tends to talk more about immigration, the Russian investigation still being under his skin and other, you know, rather divisive or less popular issues. So is he missing out on an opportunity to really boast this economy?

LAFFER: I'm an economist, and that's really all I ever talk about. But this is the best economy ever. And when James Carville said, I think the most prescient comment ever "it's the economy stupid," that's what does it all and you know, when you look at this, it's really pressure tit's the economy stupid, that's what does it all.

And you know, when you look at this, it's really true. I mean that's what propelled Bill Clinton. That's what propelled Jack Kennedy. That's what propelled Ron Reagan. In '84, Fred, we won the election in '84 only 49 to 1. I mean Kennedy did such a great job.

Bill Clinton won reelection amid all of this pallor of being investigated and everything. He won because the economy was great.

And I think the same thing is true for President Trump. He's just done a great job on regulations, taxes. He's done a great job and I think he's doing it on trade. I mean he's done a great job all the way across the board.

And if it keeps going, I just don't see how people won't like it and want to stay with it.

WHITFIELD: Ok. So let me ask you about some, you know, potential red flags. You know, despite the booming --

LAFFER: Sure. Sure, of course.

WHITFIELD: -- economy, you know, the deficit under President Trump continues to rise. It is expected to top more than $1 trillion this year alone following the GOP's big tax cut. I know you, you know, are heralding them. But that deficit is sizable.

LAFFER: Yes, but it's not the tax cuts that did the deficit. If I may be very serious with you for a second, the deficits are coming down because of extra growth. And that is exactly what's happening because of the tax cuts. The tax cuts led to the extra growth, which these people if you'll remember were forecasted between 1.5 and 2 percent growth.

Now we've had one year of 3 percent and the next year is looking like it's going to be pretty much in that range as well. That adds a huge amount. I mean just an additional 1 or 2 percent adds between, you know, $200 billion and $400 billion in extra income for Americans. You know, that's a lot of money.

And those people pay taxes. If you look at state and local budgets, they're greatly improved by the economy. You look at the U.S., by the way it is. I mean the whole federal government -- we're getting some revenues pouring in now they're really, really nice. And I think shortly it will pay for itself.

WHITFIELD: You are very rosy about everything here.

(CROSSTALKING)

LAFFER: I am. I thought that's why you asked me. It's great.

WHITFIELD: Well, I love the rosiness. I like the optimism here.

LAFFER: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: But you know, you mentioned trade, you know. And these trade wars that the President continues to be in the midst of with China, you know, he does continue to impose tariffs on imports from around the globe.

LAFFER: Yes, he does.

WHITFIELD: Is there any real danger in your view here that these trade wars could start impacting the economy?

LAFFER: Yes, a real trade war would be disastrous. I mean if you look at the Great Depression which was caused by the Smoot-Hawley tariff, the stock market fell by more than 90 percent, the economy collapsed -- 32 percent unemployment, 10 years of the Great Depression. I believe all precipitated by a trade war.

I was in the White House from 1970 to 1972 under Nixon. And that was a trade war where he put the 10 percent import surcharge. It devalued the dollar. He had the job development credit, which excluded foreign-made products from the investment tax credit.

It was trade, and we had a huge drop in the market. We had the worst economy since the Great Depression in that time. So trade wars really are bad for the economy.

What I think is happening with Trump right now, and it's still a work in progress, by the way, but I think he and Mnuchin and Kudlow and Lighthizer are doing a great job on getting the Chinese to negotiate really truly free trade.

When he was in the G-7 meeting, I mean when he left the G-7 go to meet with Kim Jong-un, I mean he looked at the other six members and said, look it, the U.S. is prepared to get rid of tariffs and non-tariff barriers if you guys are. Let's do it. And they all just looked twizzled (ph) out, looking out the windows.

But I think he's making a lot of progress in this. And I'm very hopeful. But again, a trade war is not a good answer for anything. It really leads to a bad economy. And I am worried about that but much less so than I was a year ago.

WHITFIELD: Ok. Well, your worries are dwarfed by your optimism and your rosiness and happiness today -- Art.

[01:49:57] LAFFER: It's a great day but I mean the economy is such a bright spot in all of this dark news, I mean. And it is dark news. I mean that plane in the river. You've got all this stuff and here you've got a great economy. Isn't it fun?

WHITFIELD: All right. Art Laffer -- always a pleasure. Thank you so much.

LAFFER: Thanks -- Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Still ahead, bracing for more as historic floods plagued towns along the Mississippi River. More than 10 million people are now preparing for even more rain today.

An update on the devastation, next.

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WHITFIELD: This morning more than 40 million Americans face a severe weather threat as a pair of systems moves across the U.S. On Friday, tornadoes in Texas carved a path of destruction demolishing buildings, and turning trucks on their sides. There were at least four reported twisters across that state and at least seven people have died from flooding across the U.S. this week, including three people in Missouri and one in Texas.

And then, in Iowa, record flooding along the Mississippi River is taking its toll on nearby communities there. In Davenport, Iowa water levels are the highest they have been in 157 years. This weekend, much of the city remains under water and there could be more rain on the way next week.

Here is CNN's Ryan Young with an up close look at the impact of these rising waters.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

YOUNG: We're here in Davenport, Iowa where the impact has been quite, tremendous. In fact as you look around, that's River Drive right there and the water has really crushed the banks.

You can see the cars that are submerged. This has had a lot of impact in the businesses throughout the area. They have been under water for more than 30 days at this point in some parts of the area.

[11:55:04] And this is really having an impact on them trying to get businesses back open, trying to get streets open. And they are worried about what could happen next because on Thursday, there could be more rain. In fact they're thinking between Sunday and Thursday next week you could be talking about anywhere from two to three more inches of rain.

Steven -- as you guide this boat -- have you ever seen anything like this in the area.

STEVE BRISKE, DAVENPORT RESIDENT: In '93 -- that's when me and my family moved here from Florida. And it was this bad. We actually lived on the river in Muscatine and we were out of our house for almost a month.

YOUNG: And he's actually told me the business that he worked in had its generator on for more than 24 hours. So you can understand this impact as the river -- just like there are people using kayaks to get around.

It will be a tough few hours as emergency management continues to try to help businesses along the area. They say right now they have enough sandbags.

Ryan Young, CNN -- Davenport, Iowa.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Thank you, Ryan.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta voyages through one of the darkest, coldest country -- Norway. And he finds some of the happiest people.

What's their secret? Watch "CHASING LIFE WITH DR. SANJAY GUPTA" tonight 9:00 Eastern only on CNN.

Also coming up, a live report on that massive explosion at a silicone plant in Illinois. One person killed, two others missing. Why the search has been called off for now.

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