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Unemployment Crisis; Voting Begins in the U.S. Today; Trump Angrily Denies Report he Denigrated U.S. Service Members. Aired 8:30- 9a ET

Aired September 04, 2020 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: I just think I've got to do it.

So, it's a career that any way is just sort to come full circle. And he understands that if he grabs that brass ring and gets it, there are going to be a lot of strings attached. Because as president-elect, there are a lot of problems facing this country as you have been talking about all morning.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: But it's there -- when you talk to him, Gloria, is there some -

BORGER: Yes.

CAMEROTA: -- does he recognize sort of the irony -

BORGER: Yes.

CAMEROTA: -- of I had to be 78 -- I've lost track if he's 77 or 78. I know he'll be 78 if he were to win. Is there irony of how did it take me this long?

BORGER: Yes. He kind of -- look, he's tried twice before and he's very willing to talk about what went wrong in all of those -- in all of those other races. You know in 1988 he wasn't quite ready. He was handling the Bork hearings. There were charges of plagiarism and he had to kind of - he had to kind of give that up. In 2008 he was running up against Barack Obama.

And so, now he is kind of saying, whoa, wait a minute. Yes, I am old, but I'm qualified and I'm -- I believe I'm the one for the job right now and he believes as do his allies that he's the man for the moment and sometimes these things work in kind of a karmic way, his friends say. And they believe that his empathy and his - his ability to relate to people, understand government and how government works, in terms of COVID really, really is a moment when the man will meet the moment even if he is going to be 78 years old, should he take the oath of office.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Yes.

CAMEROTA: Gloria, thank you very much for that.

BORGER: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: CNN is going to bring you the stories of Joe Biden as well as one on President Trump and their fight for the White House. So, don't miss the back-to-back new CNN documentaries. They will be Monday night at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

All right. The Labor Department just released the August jobs report. Is the unemployment crisis improving? We're going to bring you the breaking numbers next.

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[08:35:28]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

SCIUTTO: The breaking news, the Labor Department just released the August jobs reports. CNN's chief business correspondent Christine Romans has the details. Tell us what we learned from this snapshot in July and where that leaves us on the overall accounting of jobs lost since the start of the pandemic?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, because it's been quite a ride. Hasn't it?

So, 1.4 million jobs added back into the economy. So, adding jobs back into the economy but at a slower pace than we have seen earlier this summer. So now we have added about 10.5 million jobs back in. 22 -- about 22.2 million evaporated as you know when the whole country went on lockdown.

So, in March and April, you lost 22.2. Now from May to August you have added back about half of that. The unemployment rate falling here, Jim, to 8.4 percent. That is still a historically high number. But now at least it's not quite as bad as it was at the worst of the great recession. So now we've got about 8.4 percent on that jobless rate. So, coming down here. But you can see what a spike that was there.

Third of the increase in hiring was from government workers for census hiring. So, you saw -- almost 400,000 government workers hired so that helped here. You saw retail trade coming back, general merchandise stores, and also car dealerships and appliance - appliance stores - some hiring coming back too.

So, watching these numbers, the trend not as strong hiring that we saw earlier in the summer, but 1.4 million jobs added.

SCIUTTO: Good news, no question. Also, good to keep account of the broader accounting here, of course, total losses.

CNN White House correspondent John Harwood here. John, the president likes to tweet about these kinds of things. Any reaction from the White House yet? JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Not from the White House yet, but we have heard from the president's campaign. An all caps tweet jobs, jobs, jobs. It is good news that the unemployment rate has fall on the 8.4 percent. And, of course, the Labor Department included the technical note it's used for several months during the pandemic, saying that because of some measurement problems, how do you classify people who are not working because -- but they're still counted as employed. That the unemployment rate would be almost a point higher than that.

The unemployment rate also to keep perspective is more than double what it was at the beginning of this year. The economy is still in bad shape and the rate of jobs being added back to the economy has slowed. That is a reflection of the wobbly nature of the recovery especially as fiscal support from Congress has waned. So, there's some limited good news for the president to talk about in that top line unemployment rate number but the American people are still living through a very difficult economic environment.

SCIUTTO: Christine, help me and maybe some of our viewers understand the math because yesterday you had in one week close to a million new first-time unemployment filers, right now for the month of July, 1.4 million new jobs. Where does that tell us exactly as to how many people -- how many more people are suffering each week as opposed to finding jobs?

ROMANS: When you look at the labor market what the -- what the government says is that if you look at February, you're down 11.5 million jobs from February. The employment level in this country is down 11.5 million from February.

SCIUTTO: Right.

ROMANS: That's a big hole. When we see every week these unemployment benefits filings, those are just shocking numbers. I mean, even as they're trending lower, they are just so big. It tells you that people are still getting laid off every week. Big companies are downsizing. They want a smaller footprint for the post-COVID world. And at the same time, you have some people who are being hired back as car dealerships open, and as appliance repair stores open up again, right? So, you're seeing parts of the economy kind of thawing (ph) and hiring there and layoffs elsewhere.

SCIUTTO: No question, that's good news. The question of course is how many of these are lasting job losses and we'll be watching closely. Christine Romans, John Harwood, thanks as always.

CAMEROTA: OK, Jim, the presidential election starts today. This morning, Americans start casting their ballots. North Carolina goes first. Officials there are sending out hundreds of thousands of mailed-in ballots. CNN's Dianne Gallagher has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Let the voting begin. MICHAEL DICKERSON, MECKLENBURG COUNTY ELECTIONS DIRECTOR: That's the excitement for us. We're going to give you that opportunity to vote sooner than anybody else.

[08:40:00]

GALLAGHER (voice-over): But with that excitement comes a healthy dose of concern with Election Day 60 days out, voters in North Carolina today can start casting their ballots in an election like no other. Including a massive change in the way people will vote.

KAREN BRINSON BELL, DIRECTOR, NCSBE: This is unprecedented, the number of absentee, by mail requests that we have received.

GALLAGHER (voice-over): More than 618,000 ballots already requested. Over 16 times the number at this point in 2016. Due to the pandemic, many of them first time absentee voters like Joe and Ann Maher.

ANN MAHER, CHARLOTTE RESIDENT: And I do like to do it in person. But I don't want to take a chance this year.

GALLAGHER (voice-over): The spring and summer primary elections already gave us a glimpse of the potential problems. Long lines, shortage of poll workers and the president of the United States making shocking suggestions.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So, let them send it in and let them go vote.

GALLAGHER (voice-over): The president suggesting to intentionally vote twice. Something election officials say is a felony. The White House says he was not encouraging people to commit crimes.

TRUMP: Thank you very much.

GALLAGHER (voice-over): Another concern -- when the election will end. The sheer number of mail-in ballots is going to dwarf years past. By law, some states like Michigan can't even process mail-in votes until November 3rd. Meaning, election night 2020 could be election week.

MICHAEL BITZER, CATAWBA COLLEGE PROFESSOR POLITICAL SCIENCE: The likelihood is some candidates are going to declare a win, when maybe they shouldn't. I think this year, the voters and the candidates need to realize this maybe 24, 48, 72 hours in the making.

GALLAGHER (voice-over): And there is a very real chance that the candidate in the lead on election night might not be the next president of the United States. One possible scenario -- Trump begins on top but his lead slips as more mail-in votes come in. Giving Trump time to question the results. He's already questioned whether the postal service can deliver.

TRUMP: Mail-in voting it's going to be the greatest fraud in the history of elections.

GALLAGHER (voice-over): The postal service says it can handle the volume but here in controversial Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's home state, the concerns about delivering ballots in time are real.

A. MAHER: I want to make sure it doesn't get lost. I've had so much concern over the postage system and so forth. I don't want to take any chances. This election to me is very important. And it's essential. I may have one vote, but I want that vote to count.

JOE MAHER, CHARLOTTE RESIDENT: What she said.

GALLAGHER (voice-over): The solution from election officials, get your ballots in early.

DICKERSON: Do it early. Don't wait until the last weekend to mail it back.

GALLAGHER (voice-over): With so many questions, worries of a return to the chaos of 20 years ago. When hanging chads led to a presidential election decided by the Supreme Court.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GALLAGHER: And look, nobody wants a repeat of the year 2,000 election. But here in North Carolina, we talked about that scenario where potentially President Trump is ahead on election night but doesn't end up being the eventual winner because of mail-in ballots to give you an idea of those more than 600,000 absentee ballot requests in the states so far. More than 50 percent of them are from registered Democrats.

Alisyn, Jim, in years past, Republicans actually outpaced Democrats when it came to requesting absentee ballots. Right now, only 16 percent of the requests come from Republicans.

CAMEROTA: That's really interesting. OK, Dianne, thank you very much for reporting from the ground there.

So, President Trump is angrily denying a new report that says he insulted U.S. Service Members. Up next, the journalist who broke this story tells us what he learned.

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[08:47:50]

SCIUTTO: Developing right now, President Trump is now denying a blistering report in "The Atlantic" magazine that says, the president called dead American soldiers, quote, "losers" and "suckers" during a visit to France in 2018.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Willing to swear on anything that I never said that about our fallen heroes. There is nobody that respects them more. So, I just think it's a horrible, horrible thing. We made a great evening into frankly a very sad evening when I see a statement like that. No animal, nobody, what animal would say such a thing?

(END VIDEO CLIP) SCIUTTO: We should note that CNN itself has not independently confirmed this report. We are joined now by the reporter behind it, Jeffrey Goldberg. He's the editor-in-chief of "The Atlantic" and he broke this story. Jeffrey, the president has also tweeted this morning that he never called John McCain a loser, another part of your story. We know that's not true. We played his comments calling -- McCain exactly that in 2015.

But let me ask you your response to his denial of this story regarding the visit to the Belleau Wood battle scene outside of Paris in 2018. How do you answer those denials?

JEFFREY GOLDBERG, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, "THE ATLANTIC": I stand by my reporting. I have multiple sources telling me this is what happened. And so, I stand by it.

CAMEROTA: Let me read some of that reporting that you are putting out in "The Atlantic." You know, there were so many questions, Jeffrey, as you'll remember when that trip to the cemetery at Belleau Wood was canceled. And so, back here, everyone was struggling to figure out what happened, was it weather related? Did he just want to come home?

So, your reporting says, "In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, 'Why should I go to that cemetery? It's filled with losers.' In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Bealleau Wood as 'suckers' for getting killed. Trump, on that same trip, asked aides, 'Who were the good guys in this war?' He also said he didn't understand why the United States would intervene on the side of the allies."

[08:50:00]

And, Jeffrey, I mean, obviously that's -- you know, pretty jaw dropping stuff but I do want to challenge your version of events or your reporting version of the events because John Bolton in his tell- all book which was no love letter to President Trump had a very different version. So, let me read to you how he, who was there, said that day unfolded.

He said, the weather was bad. Marine One's crew was saying that bad visibility could make it imprudent to chopper to the cemetery. The ceiling was not too low for Marines to fly in combat but flying POTUS was obviously something very different. If a motorcade were necessary, it would take between 90 and 120 minutes each way along roads that were not exactly freeways posing an unacceptable risk that we could not get the president out of France quickly enough in the case of emergency. What's your response?

GOLDBERG: My response is I'm sure all of those things are true. I have heard from people at the Pentagon who -- Marines who are a bit insulted that the idea that the Marines couldn't fly a helicopter in the rain. But the larger point is, is that Donald Trump expressed directly to senior aides his lack of desire to go to the cemetery and not to risk 90 minutes in traffic because he doesn't understand why one would go pay that level of respect to fallen American soldiers. He also, by the way, expressed directly fear that the rain which was quite heavy at times would mess with his hair.

SCIUTTO: Jeffrey, listen, I have reported stories that I know to be true based on first-hand knowledge and they have been denied by the White House, so, you know, they have often denied stories that --

GOLDBERG: Yes, they have. We're aware of that, yes. Yes.

SCIUTTO: -- point of order. But let me ask you this. Because these are remarkable accounts here of a commander in chief stating the most disrespectful things you can imagine about fallen Service Members, amputees. The president, you know in your story, did not want amputees in the military parade because people don't want to see them.

I'm curious why these people didn't want to go on the record. We're two months from the election and these are horrible insults to Service Members. Did they explain their thinking as to why they wouldn't put their names to these accounts?

GOLDBERG: Well, like, you know, like you, when you're faced with the same situation, you ask for people to go on the record.

SCIUTTO: Sure.

GOLDBERG: Then ultimately you have to make -- when they don't want to go, and we have both experienced why people don't want to go. They don't want to be inundated with angry tweets and all the rest. And we pushed hard and that's why you have to sort of do this reporting with even more belt and suspenders approach. You know, dotted I's and crossed T's and find multiple sources for it.

But ultimately, you each time this is a judgment call, right? You know does the public's interest in needing this information outweigh the ambiguities or the difficulties of anonymous sourcing. And in this case, I decided that I felt I knew this information well enough from high enough sources and multiple sources that I thought we should put it out.

I do hope obviously, and I try as you do to get various people to say things on the record. And I hope that there's an effort to you know, I hope there's an effort on the part of reporters and I'll be continuing to make that effort to move this material directly on to the record.

CAMEROTA: The White House is responding really strongly -- I mean, more strongly. Their refusal, rebuttal, rejection I guess of this reporting is stronger than other negative stories than we remember in recent days, weeks. Here's what they say.

"This report is patently false. President Trump holds the military in the highest regard. He's demonstrated his commitment to them at every turn: delivering on his promise to give our troops a much needed pay raise, increasing military spending, signing critical veterans reforms, and supporting military spouses. This has no basis in fact and is offensive left wing fiction."

For what that's worth -- GOLDBERG: I would point out that -- I would point out that "The Washington Post" in following my story not only confirmed details of the story, but added a new detail that I did not know, which is that Donald Trump has openly asked the question, why should the U.S. military go search for soldiers who are captured or missing? And the theory as he expressed it according to "The Washington Post" is that they have failed at their jobs so why do we make that kind of effort?

And so, what you see in all of these comments, going all the way back to 2015 when he disparaged John McCain for getting captured.

[08:55:01]

What you see is a lack of understanding about why soldiers serve and what constitutes heroism. That's the part that's very interesting to me. And that's sort of the through line from those McCain comments right up to today.

CAMEROTA: Jeffrey --

SCIUTTO: Very quickly I should note, the former DHS chief of staff under Trump who resigned recently, he tweeted out confirming and detailing your story and that is the president did not want flags lowered to half-staff after John McCain -- and he says, I would know because your staff - that is president's staff - have called and told me. Just notable. That's a public comment this morning in support of your reporting, Jeffrey Goldberg.

CAMEROTA: Jeffrey Goldberg, we have to go. Thank you very much. Everybody can read the article themselves. It's the newest piece in "The Atlantic," "Trump: Americans Who Died in War are 'Losers' and 'Suckers.'" Thank you very much for being on. Thanks for being with us. And CNN's coverage continues, next.

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[09:00:00]