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U.S. Job Growth Soars in September, 336,000 Jobs Added; Trump Endorses Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) for House Speaker; Officials Say, 52 Killed in Hroza After Russian Strike. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired October 06, 2023 - 09:00   ET

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

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Like last time.

[09:00:00]

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, not going to happen. And also the 2 percent, like be better, Harry. It's zero. It was always zero.

ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Is the margin of error, plus or minus 2 percent?

ENTEN: I never say never.

HILL: I can tell.

MATTINGLLY: I know. That's why you're good at your job.

ENTEN: By the way, way to dress like me today.

MATTINGLY: Obviously as my idol both in fashion and in life, generally, Harry, I'm always trying to be you.

ENTEN: It's so beautiful.

MATTINGLY: Harry Enten, thanks, brother.

ENTEN: Thank you.

MATTINGLY: I appreciate it. It's great to see you.

HILL: Always a pleasure.

MATTINGLY: Have a great weekend. CNN News Central starts right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news on the economy, a genuine wow. A huge number of jobs added last month, almost double economists' expectations.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump a throwing his support behind a candidate for House speaker and it is not himself. What Trump's complete and total support means for the future of Republicans in the House.

BERMAN: National secrets exposed, the new reporting that Trump allegedly disclosed details about nuclear subs to a Mar-a-Lago club member.

Sara is off, I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan. This is CNN News Central.

BOLDUAN: And the breaking news this morning, big numbers are coming out, a soaring jobs report. Now, 33 consecutive months of job growth, the United States added 336,000 jobs last month, unemployment rate holding at 3.8 percent. The report is far better than what economists were expecting, almost double what the expectation was out there.

The new data also comes as tens of thousands of auto union workers continue their massive and growing strike against the big three U.S. automakers. And we are going to be hearing from President Joe Biden himself speaking about the economy and this jobs report a little later this morning.

Let me bring in CNN's Rahel Solomon. Looking at the numbers for us, you helped break the news this morning, Rahel, once the report came out. Take us inside what's inside this top line.

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. As John said, it was a wow, it was a shocker, this was a lot stronger than most people were expecting, as you pointed out, twice what economists were expecting.

Put another way, over the last year or so, Kate, the average monthly job gain was about 271,000. So, we are talking about even stronger than what we have seen. And over the last week, I can tell you, Kate, that we have been getting different labor reports about whether the market was cooling, whether it was heating back up. This seems to indicate that it's continuing to increase, she said.

So, 336 for the month of September but what's also important to note is that both July and August were revised higher to the tune of about 119,000 jobs. So, the labor market even stronger than what we had been expecting.

When we are looking at industries in terms of where you might see this most, we are talking about leisure and hospitality, that industry added about 100,000 jobs, 96,000, we'll call it government added 73,000 and health care 41,000.

Now, there is a silver lining in terms of -- this is good news, make no mistake, for the labor market, for the American worker. But in terms of inflation it's a little bit more complicated. But there was a silver lining in terms of the inflationary impact and that was wage growth. Wage growth cooled to 0.2 percent on a monthly basis. The markets, if you look at the markets right now, they are not necessarily happy with this report. They are -- it is red across the screen.

BOLDUAN: Yes. But what then -- and it is then a complicated picture and a complicated question continues for the Federal Reserve and chairman and what they do now and the continued efforts to try to reel in inflation. What does this do now?

SOLOMON: Yes. So, the markets are in the red because of the inflationary impact, because of the Fed. So, just really quickly, unemployment stayed at 3.8 percent, remained at 3.8 percent. So, Kate, we've been in this range of about 3.4 to 3.7, 3.8 for about 18 months, for about a year-and-a-half.

This is a very tight labor market, but in terms of what it means for the fed when we hear from Jay Powell at the end of this month, November 1st, is this suggests that we might see another rate hike. And they have already done so much. They have already hiked rates 11 meetings since March of 2022. So, this indicates that there still might be room to go because the labor market, the economy is still looking red hot.

BOLDUAN: Yes, there're still forces that they are battling against. Thanks for jumping on. I relaly appreciate it, Rahel. John?

BERMAN: It's just a lot of jobs. It's a lot of jobs, and a lot more than people were expecting.

Meanwhile, we're getting new reporting in this morning on the impact that Donald Trump's overnight endorsement of Jim Jordan is having on the speaker race. Trump says he is throwing his complete and total support behind the House Judiciary chair over House Majority Leader Steve Scalise.

[09:05:02]

This is how Jordan reacted to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did Donald Trump call you and say, hey, sorry about it --

REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): I appreciate the president's endorsement, he is a leader of the party. He is going to be our presidential nominee and I think he is going to be our next president. So, I appreciate that. But we're focused also on -- the key thing is our colleagues. And I'm talking with -- we got from Freedom Caucus to people in the middle to committee chairs, to Jeff Van Drew, who was Democrat four years ago. We have all kinds of across the board support and we are just going to keep working.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right. CNN's Kristen Holmes following Donald Trump, Lauren Fox up on Capitol Hill. Kristen, first to you. How did this happen and why?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, I mean, this came after a very chaotic day in which former President Trump inserted himself into an already tumultuous situation with the Republican caucus on Capitol Hill. He was floating the idea that he was going to travel to Capitol Hill to speak to Republicans, which had a lot of GOP House lawmakers, including some of his allies, a little bit concerned. They didn't think that was a good idea. He also did an interview in which he floated the idea that he would serve as interim speaker, not mentioning the fact that he would actually have to get the votes to do so.

And on that interview, I'm told that some of his top advisers didn't know he was doing that. It's the same advisers that have been telling me and my colleagues all week that Trump was never seriously considering these ideas of him serving as interim speaker.

So, late last night, he did go on Truth Social, he posted about Jim Jordan, saying he is strong on crime, borders, our military vet and Second Amendment. Jim, his wife, Polly, and family are outstanding. He will be a great speaker of the House and has my complete and total endorsement.

Now, obviously, we know that he does -- Donald Trump does have power over a certain sect of House Republicans, but I did speak to some Trump allies this morning who were a little bit confused as to why exactly Trump got out there with Jordan, essentially because they believe that anyone who Trump could sway was already behind Jim Jordan.

But he wanted to get out there. It's no surprise Trump endorsed Jordan. Jordan has led investigations into Joe Biden. He has been a staunch ally of Donald Trump. And unlike Steve Scalise, he has endorsed him for president in 2024.

BERMAN: So, let's find out what, if any, impact this is having up on Capitol Hill. Let's go to Lauren Fox. Lauren, there you go. Lauren, tell us.

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: To some extent, John, obviously those Republicans and conservatives who would be looking at a Trump endorsement as a potential reason to get behind a candidate, many of them were eyeing Jim Jordan to begin with because of Jordan's staunch commitment to Donald Trump, because he has worked so closely with the former president and because he's then leading some of those key investigations on Capitol Hill, also fighting to open that impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden.

Now, there is a question about how Jim Jordan is going to appeal to some of those more moderate Republican members and members running in swing states that Joe Biden carried in the last presidential election. And he's making a pitch that he is the guy that can unite the Republican conference because he's friendly with the eight rebels who voted to oust House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. He's also arguing that he is the guy who can message most effectively in terms of making clear what the Republican and conservative message is going into the next election.

Now, for his part, Steve Scalise is also arguing that he's a unifier. Here he was this morning on Fox News.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did Donald Trump call you and say, hey, sorry about it. This time, I'm going with J.J.?

REP. STEVE SCALISE (R-LA): Yes, we spoke, obviously, a lot of friendships in this race, a lot of folks that have been talking to other folks on the outside to bring in to this race.

The problems that we have internally, they don't go away with a new speaker. But the real question the members have is how do we get things back on track. And the reason I've been able to build such a strong base of support over these last few days, that's been growing, is that I have a long proven record as somebody known how to unify Republicans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOX: And the race is obviously already heating up. But things are going to intensify next week when lawmakers return to Capitol Hill. On Monday night, the Republican conference will have a meeting to discuss this issue. We also know that Bret Baier will interview some of the candidates. On Tuesday, there is going to be a candidate forum, and on Wednesday, a potential vote behind closed doors for the Republican conference.

Now, whether or not they actually go to the floor next week, that remains an open question. Obviously, right now, the fight is to get 218 Republicans, something neither of these candidates have locked down yet. John?

BERMAN: It will be three days of extraordinary interest, three days at least. We will see if it goes beyond that. Lauren fox on Capitol Hill, our thanks to Kristen Holmes as well. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Joining us now for more, former Republican Congresswoman Barbara Comstock of Virginia.

[09:10:00]

It's great to see you.

How much of a boost do you think a Trump endorsement is of Jim Jordan in this speaker's race now?

FMR. REP. BARBARA COMSTOCK (R-VA): Well, listen, we know Donald Trump always endorses the person who sucks up the most to them. We also know from last year that the people who Trump endorses had a pretty bad track record, so, you know, in terms of a general election. So, it doesn't mean you can't get the nomination, certainly, you know, in terms of a nomination in getting the role, you might get it, but then your performance might not be very good, as we saw last year in the elections.

So, in terms of performance, I think if you are Steve Scalise, you can sort of be the Brian Kemp in this race and point out things like Steve Scalise has raised $53 million just in the last cycle for his colleagues and has been generous across the whole party, versus, you know, Jim Jordan, who usually wasn't a fundraiser, you know, I think over the past ten years, he's raised a fraction of that and only recently has given money, but it's usually just to those far right people. So, it hasn't been that prolific fundraiser.

Jim Jordan was very involved in January 6, you know, trying to shut down the elections and probably was one of the closest people involved in that. And who knows, he could be involved in some of those cases with Donald Trump. He's never -- Jim Jordan has never passed a bill. Steve Scalise has been very involved as a legislator in helping his colleagues pass bills. So, I think when you -- you know, it's notable in the endorsement that Donald Trump mostly just talked about, you know, how he's helped him.

So, I think Steve Scalise has a record he can run on and these things are very internal, probably not good for Trump to have gotten involved. And so I think people will look at overall how this is going to help their elections and Donald Trump has been sucking up all the money and using it as his defense fund and people are very concerned about next year's elections and say if you are one of those 18 Biden seats, those swing seats, Jim Jordan, who has been on the far right, is not going to be helping you and helping the party face when he is the person who even Matt Gaetz said his impeachment hearings were a disaster. He said that the other day on the floor.

So, you know, this is probably not the best face for the party. He's a very small section of the party. And he also, as we're facing a shutdown, was the person who was involved in sort of authoring and driving the biggest shutdown with Donald Trump back in 2019. So, we're facing a lot of serious things, things like Ukraine, things where we need to bring people together, work with the Senate, and since Jim Jordan has never passed bills, he doesn't have those relationships --

BOLDUAN: I want to ask you about the bringing people together bit of this, bringing people together, because that's what Steve Scalise was kind of getting at in that sound bite, how do we get things back on track. I want to play for you something that Jim Jordan actually told Manu Raju just this morning. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JORDAN: I think that this race comes down to two questions, I said this yesterday, who can unite the conference, who can also unite -- I guess three questions, who can unite the conference, who can unite conservative Republicans in our party around the country and then who can go tell the country what we're doing and why it's important to them, to their family, to their business, to their community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: This would be maybe the same question even if Kevin McCarthy still had the gavel, Barbara, but do you think anyone can do that in the Republican conference right now?

COMSTOCK: Well, no. It's going to be a huge challenge and it may be -- we don't even have a speaker next week and it may have -- you know, you have these eight people who have held the party hostage. So, the idea that, oh, you have to pick Jim Jordan or these eight guys are still -- and gals are going to hold the party hostage, I think you have to break through that and say, no, we can't have -- you know, you have to pick this person or you will have these eight people hold the party hostage. That's unacceptable. So, I think you have to, you know, have somebody who is going to, you know, move past that and I think Steve Scalise is somebody who is trusted. But if it's going to be somebody else, it can't be somebody -- we can't say let's further drill down on having a far right person who, you know, doesn't know the full conference, who hasn't, you know, been in leadership and hasn't worked across the aisle and doesn't have relationships with the Senate or, you know, on the full breadth of issues that you have to deal within leadership, things like Ukraine, which Jim Jordan has already said he won't consider, something that Senate Republicans are very strongly in support of.

[09:15:11]

And somebody who usually has said it's my way or the highway, someone who has never, you know, if ever, supported a budget, somebody who hasn't worked collaboratively with colleagues. I mean, I think that would be a big problem.

And I think when you look at the election denialism that Jim Jordan engaged in, it sends a very dangerous message that the party is going to be full-on MAGA and not have, you know, any place for anybody who is not an election denier, and that pretty much would -- you know, I mean, for people who, you know, I think if you are a Democrat who would like to see the demise of the Republicans for next year, this would probably send a pretty strong message that the party is going far right and --

BOLDUAN: Well, the big question is, and we've heard that from Republicans even in the House right now, which is the hangover and fallout from Kevin McCarthy being ousted, what does that mean for the Republican majority and how much does it put it at risk come next year?

It's good to see you, thank you so much, Barbara Comstock.

COMSTOCK: It will be very dangerous.

BOLDUAN: Yes. John? Thanks.

COMSTOCK: Thank you.

BERMAN: All right, new reporting this morning that Donald Trump disclosed sensitive information about nuclear submarines to a member of his Mar-a-Lago resort.

A Russian drone attack hits apartment buildings in Ukraine overnight, one of the deadliest 24-hour stretches in months as more and more Republicans are now refusing to provide more aid to Ukraine.

And a Wisconsin man arrested after showing up at the state capitol with a handgun demanding to see the governor and then coming back the same day with an assault rifle.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:20:00] BOLDUAN: A new round of deadly Russian attacks in Ukraine, the latest killing a ten-year-old child and his grandmother. Dozens more people were wounded. The missile attack hit residential buildings in Kharkiv early this morning. Just look at that.

It also follows a massive drone attack overnight on the port of Odessa. Ukraine says several trucks caught fire when a grain storage facility was hit there.

We've also learned more about the massive death toll that is rising once again in one of the deadliest attacks against civilians since the invasion began. More than 50 people were killed in the missile attack in Hroza. That's one of every six residents living there. Dozens were at a cafe to mourn a local soldier, actually, when the building was attacked and you can see it, I mean, just absolutely destroyed.

The anguish can be seen everywhere there. You can see it even in this man's face. And we're told that he's mourning over his wife's body near the side of the road.

CNN's Fred Pleitgen, he is live there for us and joins us now. Fred, what are you seeing there? The pictures are just so saddening, but what are you hearing and learning about this attack and what comes now?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's absolutely tragic, Kate. And we were here yesterday shortly after this attack actually happened. And it was a scene of absolute carnage. There was debris everywhere, there were bodies still strewn everywhere and obviously the first responders were trying to come to terms with the situation.

But I can show you now as we are sort of a day after this attack took place. You can see that this building has pretty much been reduced to just the sort of the supporting walls. There really isn't very much left of it. We can also see that the first responders who we saw here yesterday, the search and rescue crews, they quickly realized that there was just no hope of finding anybody alive under all of this. So, this very quickly turned from a search and rescue to a recovery operation, then obviously, as you can see, clearing operation as well.

If you look over there, that's pretty much what's left of what used to be this cafe and supermarket. I would say it was less a cafe, more sort of a little events venue because they did have that funeral wake for that soldier that was going on. But if you look on top there you can see what seems to have been a refrigerator for ice cream, so, pretty clear that this wasn't any sort of military facility.

And that's also what the folks who are talking to us are telling us as well. They say at that funeral wake it was for a soldier, but that soldier had been killed more than a year ago and his body was being repatriated to here and so the local folks were coming to see and were coming to take part in that funeral wake, and that's when this happened.

I've been speaking to folks here on the ground, people who live here, and they say pretty much everyone in this village have lost someone in the attack that happened last night. I was speaking to people who were breaking down and crying because they lost so many of their friends. There is a list going around with people who have been killed and pretty much everybody who lives here has found someone who was killed in here.

You can see also on the other side over there, there is still a car and that was badly damaged. There is a sort of makeshift memorial back there that's been set up. So, this entire village completely devastated.

And, obviously, the Ukrainian government also extremely angry about all of this. The president of this country, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he was in Spain yesterday and, of course, the Ukrainians right now are dealing with some of that uncertainty coming from the United States about the future of weapons deliveries or whether or not there could be delays.

And one of the things that Zelenskyy says is that, look, look at this and he says one thing that the Ukrainians need more of and can't have enough of is air defense systems. Let's listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: : I believe that today it is impossible to protect people, especially during the winter, except by air defense, to protect people who died absolutely tragically because of this inhuman terrorist attack. 50 civilians were killed during the funeral.

[09:25:01]

Russia does this every day in the Kharkiv region and only air defense can help. And so Europe has a lot of its own issues, different challenges, but from Ukraine's point of view, the key topic was air defense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: So, there you have Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, talking specifically about how important air defense was. And, of course, he said that something like this happens every day. And we are in that same region, we had this attack that happened on Thursday and then obviously overnight that attack that happened there in Kharkiv. So, certainly, the Ukrainians very concerned about their air defense capabilities, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Fred, thank you so much for the reporting, as always. John?

BERMAN: All right. With us now, CNN Military Analyst, retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. Colonel, I appreciate you being with us.

I want to talk about the timing of this attack on Hroza. Here is some of video right here, dozens and dozens of civilians killed, an attack on a grocery store, the timing of this at the very moment when Republicans in the U.S. are talking about blocking new aid to Ukraine. What does that tell you about how much Vladimir Putin fears or, frankly, does not fear now international outrage over his actions?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, I think, John, good morning. I think he's looking at this basically as if he's really in control of the stage right now. He is thinking that he can act with impunity. He thinks that he can make any decision, a tactical or strategic, without fear of any consequences from the west. And right now he's gambling that the dysfunction in the U.S. Congress is going to carry over into our ability to provide aid to Ukraine. And if we don't provide the air defenses that Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been asking for, that's going to create a real problem for the people of Ukraine, especially during the winter time.

BERMAN: It is really interesting to think about that basically the impact here at Hroza, what we're seeing here might be the impact of what's happening in Washington right now, some of the dysfunction in Congress.

I want to ask about another development that hasn't received quite as much attention over the last few days, which is that the Russians have pulled most, if not all of their Black Sea fleet from Sevastopol right here, all the way back here across the Black Sea there. We have satellite imagery where you can see this is the new port -- not the new port, but this is where they are now, all of these ships lined up in port here.

And the effect of this is basically this whole side of the Black Sea, which includes the straits in Turkey, the (INAUDIBLE) right now, ceding it in a way to Ukraine, allowing Ukraine to have free passage there. Has Ukraine won this stage of the battle for the Black Sea?

LEIGHTON: Temporarily, yes. And it's really interesting. You're pointing out exactly correctly, John, that this allows for a de facto corridor for Ukraine to export its grain to the rest of the world, should those third world countries or sub-Saharan countries that require a lot of Ukrainian food stuffs.

And this is a major deal because what's going to happen here is that it's going to be far more difficult for the Russians to interdict, to interrupt those kinds of shipments. It's also going to be more difficult for the Russians to mount attacks. It's still possible for them to do that, as demonstrated last night, but they will find it more difficult to mount attacks against places like Odessa and other southern port cities on the Ukrainian coast.

BERMAN: It is interesting, and you can look at the map here again what this allows the Ukrainians to do, and what they have been doing is they've been using these shipping lanes all the way here hugging the coast and going down through the straits there, and now easier for them with the Russian fleet all the way on that side.

I want to bring up one other development that we've seen reportedly over the last few weeks. This is the southern front, the so-called southern front in Ukraine. And it's being discussed that the Russians are employing what's called an elastic defense. They have all these lines of trenches around here. What is an elastic defense, Cedric?

LEIGHTON: So, basically it's flexible defense. What it allows the Russians to do is to pull back forces to a predetermined line, then they can use that line to mount even greater defensive operations than they had before. It also allows them to give ground tactically in the hopes that they will regain that ground or be able to potentially even encircle the advancing Ukrainian forces.

So, it allows the Russians to do several different things, among them, in essence, conserve some of their artillery forces and some of their manpower and personnel.

Now, on the other hand, they don't seem to be very good at executing that last part of it but it does give them the opportunity to, in essence, fight the Ukrainians in a greater war of attrition than they have so far.

[09:30:01]

BERMAN: Colonel Cedric Leighton, always great to have you on. Thank you so much for your help this morning. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, did Donald Trump share nuclear.