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IDF Releases Report on Strike on Aid Workers; White House Reserves Judgement on Israeli Investigation; Mike Lyons is Interviewed about the IDF Report; Trump's Attempts to Derail Cases Face Setbacks; Antony Blinken Speaks about Israel; Julie Su is Interviewed about the March Jobs Report. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired April 05, 2024 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Illinois where they actually got the 2017 eclipse as well. They are also getting geared up and they are selling out. Some - one little boutique doing eclipse cookies. So, you're seeing small companies and large companies getting in on it, Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: I love it. I have to tell you, Stephanie, I remember back in 2017 your reaction to the eclipse. It was the most excited I've ever seen you. I hope you get that chance again.

ELAM: I'm doing it again. I'm going.

SIDNER: I love it.

ELAM: I'm going to be out there. I have to tell you, I lobbied hard. I want to do it, because once you do it, you've got to keep doing it. You want it even more.

SIDNER: You've got to - you've got - agreed.

ELAM: We'll talk on Monday. How about that?

SIDNER: All right. Sounds good.

And be sure to watch, speaking of which, CNN's special coverage of the eclipse across America starting Monday 1:00 p.m. Eastern or stream it on Max.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, breaking news, (INAUDIBLE). New numbers just in from the new jobs report, way higher than expected. The unemployment rate dropped. No recession in sight.

And just in, the Israeli military released its initial findings into the strike that killed seven World Central Kitchen aid workers. Where the IDF is placing the blame.

I'm John Berman, with Kate Bolduan and Sara Sidner. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

All right, breaking news coming in hot, red hot. The economy added 303,000 jobs in March. Way, way higher than expectation.

CNN's Matt Egan is with us now.

Matt, give us a sense of these numbers and what it means.

MATT EGAN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: John, this is another blockbuster jobs report. And I've got to give you credit because about an hour ago off camera you half-jokingly said, well, what if it comes in at 300,000? You almost nailed it, 303,000 jobs added last month. This is 50 percent more than expected. It is an acceleration from what we saw in February. The unemployment rate ticking down to 3.8 percent.

You know, these really are very impressive numbers and this jobs market, it just continues to defy expectations, both in a short-term basis, coming in hotter and hotter than expected, but also when you zoom out. This jobs market is so much better than people thought. A lot of economists reasonably expected that the Fed's war on inflation, spiking interest rates, was going to cause the unemployment rate to go up, was going to cause job loss, and that just has not happened. If anything, this jobs market is heating up. And some economists are already - they're baffled by these numbers, right? One economist just put out a report with the subject line, wow, and writing, quote, "the data leave us border line speechless."

Some context around these numbers. We're now looking at more than three straight years of monthly job gains. That is the fifth longest streak on record. And the unemployment rate is now below 4 percent for 26 months in a row. That is the longest streak since the late '60s and early 1970s under LBJ and Richard Nixon.

So, John, listen, you can't bet a bet - bet against this jobs market because it just continues to defy expectations.

BERMAN: Now look at that graphic that we have right here, that's what you want to see, just the jobs, unemployment going down, down, down, down, job growth, up, up, up and up.

Matt Egan, thank you very much for that.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, mistaken identification and errors in decision-making. Those are two of the findings from the initial investigation into the Israeli airstrike that killed seven aid workers in Gaza. Now, the IDF review also saying that the strike should never have happened, calling it a grave mistake, and have now fired military officers involved in that decision-making in that strike.

The aid workers with World Central Kitchen, we know they were traveling in a convoy of three vehicles, two were armored vehicles. The IDF says some of the aid workers survived the first strike in the first vehicle and that they fled to the second vehicle in the convoy after that and that that one, of course, then was also hit and no one survived.

CNN's Nic Robertson is in Jerusalem. CNN's Arlette Saenz is at the White House for us.

Arlette, stand by for us.

Nic, let me first go to you.

Talk to us more about what we are learning happened from this initial investigation.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, the IDF is calling it a grave mistake, that it happened out with the protocols of the rules of engagement. And here you have to start adding caveats in because we don't know, and the IDF doesn't disclose, their rules of engagement. But what they have said in this report is that they spotted a gunman, a gunman getting on one of the aid trucks, the big trucks carrying the aid. They then saw another somebody they believe to be a gunman.

Now, the trucks and the SUVs carrying the aid workers went to a warehouse.

[09:05:03]

The IDF says when those SUVs came out of the warehouse, they thought that the gunman might be in one of those SUVs, and that's why they were targeted.

Now, the IDF is saying that this was a misidentification of the vehicles by the forces, a miss clarification of the events on the ground. And additional details that the IDF have briefed as well say that they believe that they saw somebody in one of those vehicles who had some things slung over their shoulder, which they later now believed was a bag.

Now, the global central - World Central Kitchen has said very clearly that the fact that the IDF has accepted responsibility and actually disciplined some staff and accepted that the World Central Kitchen were acting along the protocols that they were supposed to follow is - is a small step. But the overall report they describe as cold comfort for these outrageous killings.

BOLDUAN: Nic, standby for me.

Arlette, what are you hearing from the White House about this now?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, the White House, so far, says that they are withholding judgment until they have the time to pour through this initial report. Spokesperson John Kirby said earlier this morning that they want to read through and reach their own conclusions about what the Israelis are saying before they publicly comment on it.

But it does come on the heels of that blunt phone call between President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday. In that call, a senior administration official says that Netanyahu did admit that the IDF was responsible for this strike on that convoy which killed the seven aid workers. The president has said that he wants to see accountability amid this investigation. We will see if the steps and the firing and dismissal of those two IDF - or military personnel by the Israelis is enough.

But earlier today, Secretary of State Antony Blinken also had a bit of a shift in his language in saying that he wanted to see an independent and fully publicized investigation. So, we will see if the U.S. continues to press Israel on that front.

But that called between President Biden and Netanyahu really was quite notable because the president was quite direct in conveying to Netanyahu that things needed to change when it comes to their protection for civilians, protections for aid workers. The president basically saying that the U.S. would potentially be prepared to implement consequences against Israel if they do not change course.

Now, in that conversation, the president laid out a few of the things that he wants to see. He wants to see protections for these humanitarian aid workers. He's - an official said that both he and Netanyahu agreed that more needs to be done to talk about where these aid workers are located. He also wants to see more humanitarian assistance getting into Gaza. The U.S. has welcomed some of these initial steps taken in the hours after that call to open up some of these key crossings and ports. But as Secretary of State Antony Blinken said this morning, the real test will be the metrics. How many trucks are getting in. How much humanitarian assistance is actually being distributed.

But the aftermath of this call will be very closely watched to see what Israel does and whether the U.S. might impose any types of consequences for their actions so far.

BOLDUAN: Arlette Saenz at the White House for us. Another important day there.

Nic Robertson in Jerusalem.

Thank you, guys. Both of you.

John.

BERMAN: All right, with us now is retired U.S. Army Major Mike Lyons.

Major, this is roughly where the strike on the aid workers happened. We've all seen these pictures of the aftermath here with - I'm sorry, I'll put that back up, with just the hole right in the roof of the World Central Kitchen vehicle.

And now with this IDF report, this is a list of the people dismissed. A major dismissed. A colonel in the reserve, dismissed. And a general in charge of southern command, reprimanded.

When you see these consequences, what does that tell you?

MAJOR MIKE LYONS, U.S. ARMY (RET.): It's significant, the fact that the Israelis admitted so much that went wrong here.

So, this major in particular was responsible for all the fire support in that area. He was really responsible for the target. The one that should have made sure that it was not hit. It should - there was multiple rules of engagement that likely Israel thought they followed. And I think that's what's going to change here going forward. The rules of engagement are going to be different now.

If we notice that this - these were based on behaviors. They thought they saw a person with a backpack.

BERMAN: Yes.

LYONS: They thought they saw - they knew gunman went in, in certain areas, but now I think you're going to see much more specific rules of engagement by Israeli soldiers on the ground. Again, that - that person might have been abiding by the rules of engagement at the time, but at this point I think they're going to change.

BERMAN: All right. And Arlette was just talking about this agreement by the Israelis to open the new crossing in northern Gaza, the Erez crossing here, and also have aid come in through the Israeli Port of Ashdod there.

What does that do? What does that open up in terms of getting more aid into Gaza?

LYONS: It's good for the Palestinian citizens there, but it creates a security problem for Israel as they have been putting across a very big, secure border here between them since October 7th, that happened.

[09:10:02]

And this is a significant area because this opens up potentially Hamas to come through that area and get further north into Israel. So, from a security situation, that's changed.

I think Israel has got to do things like put security beacons on these trucks and make sure from a friend and foe perspective they know who's kind of who, who's - what side they're on. And it looks like they've outsourced some of this security to what are Hamas gunmen in some ways. So, they're -

BERMAN: Once they're in to Gaza.

LYONS: Once they're in. So, I think they're going to have to take more responsibility. So - so that - go back to the situation with the Central Kitchen, that if there were Israeli soldiers there protecting that convoy, everything's different.

BERMAN: Of course, Israel can't control what comes in and out of the Erez crossing there. You would think they're going to look at those trucks very, very carefully.

Israel is also, on top of all of this, on high alert today. They have, you know, canceled leave for some of their reservists. They've jammed some GPS signals. Why? It's because of concerns of retaliation from Iran today over the strike, obviously, that took place in Damascus a few days ago. They are taking out what Israel says with several military leaders from Iran and also some militia groups. They're concerned retaliation inside Israel today. What type of retaliation could Iran do?

LYONS: So, that comes from Iran directly. That opens up another front. That's a very significant change in what's going on. Iran appears not to want to escalate. That's, as we understand, they're not attacking U.S. forces as much anymore. But - so, Iran is going to act probably strategically. They want to try to cut off this land bridge at the Persian Gulf here. There's a - there's a land bridge that goes from Israel through Iraq that gets goods and supplies into the Persian Gulf here. Iran will likely start focusing on that and activate militia groups and do - and have its proxies do their dirty work because once they decide to launch a missile from Iran and hits Israel, everything changes at that point. Israel now can attack the Iranian nuclear capability facilities that are there. So, I don't think - I think that would be in escalation that Israel would respond disproportionately to.

BERMAN: All right, Major Mike Lyons, great to see you today. Thank you so much for helping us understand what's happening in that region today.

Sara.

SIDNER: Donald Trump's fight to shut down two of the criminal cases against him fails. Why two judges reject his legal arguments.

Also, a jobs report. Economists did not expect the huge numbers. We will hear from the acting secretary of labor in just a bit.

Plus, one Florida driver lucky to be alive this morning after a massive crane came crashing down right on top of his car.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was driving. And I felt the compression. I looked up. And I saw the blue structure coming down. I slammed on my brakes.

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[09:17:07]

BOLDUAN: This morning, Donald Trump is dealing with double legal setbacks after two judges in two separate cases rejected his attempt to get the criminal cases against him thrown out. The federal judge in the classified documents case rejecting for now Trump's argument that he had a right to keep those classified documents, and the Georgia election interference case, the judge in that just rejected Trump's argument he has immunity, as his speech and conduct were protected under the First Amendment.

Joining us right now is former Manhattan prosecutor Jeremy Saland.

Jeremy, thanks for coming in.

So, these two rejections of motions to dismiss, if you will, what is your takeaway from this? In Georgia - they're two very different criminal cases, obviously. But the fact - the - it feels like this is the week of Donald Trump is not immune from prosecution though is kind of the -- how I ended the week.

JEREMY SALAND, FORMER MANHATTAN PROSECUTOR: You know, I think some of the prosecution won some battles. Whether they win the war proverbially is yet to be seen because -

BOLDUAN: Just important, right?

SALAND: Because - because even - even these - these minor wins doesn't mean these trials are going to happen before the election or any time after - immediately after the election. So, they are wins in the immediate, but when we look at Smith and we look at what's happening in Florida, we say, well, great, this isn't a Presidential Records Act case, this is an Espionage Act case, and the judge says, in the four corners of that superseding indictment, it's fine. It's legally sufficient. But, what does she say? Kind of, I'm leaving that door open to potentially have this to the jury when I have my jury instructions, which is a little bit odd we're having this conversation now considering we don't even have a date.

BOLDUAN: Talk about that because, you know, I don't follow the order of operation in a federal case, a classified documents case, about, you know, when these things happen. This is unusual that there I'm going to say litigating this right now. The judge says, I agree with you, special counsel, in part and for now, but what is she leaving open for still when it comes to the Presidential Records Act portion of this?

SALAND: If you are saying that it's not going to be dismissed because it's not a Presidential Records Act case, that's - that's completely accurate. But then to say, we're going to discuss what the jury instructions might be when you don't have a date yet even for a jury, even to start a trial, and you're opening the door to say, you know what, Donald Trump, you may be able to argue, as an issue of fact before a jury, not necessarily an issue of law for my consideration for a dismissal, about whether you had that same intent and whether you're protected by the Presidential Records Act to say, you know what, if you could have had these personally -

BOLDUAN: Jeremy, hold on one second.

SALAND: Yes.

BOLDUAN: I'm so sorry to interrupt. But Secretary of State Tony Blinken is speaking right now from the tarmac.

Let's listen in.

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: It's very important that Israel is taking full responsibility for this incident. It's also important that it appears to be taking steps to hold those responsible accountable. Even more important is making sure that steps are taken going forward to ensure that something like this can never happen again. Prime Minister Netanyahu indicated to President Biden that Israel - Israel would be making further changes to its procedures, to make sure that those who are providing assistance to people who so desperately need it in Gaza are protected.

[09:20:13]

So, we're going to be looking very carefully at what those steps are, how it achieves better deconfliction, better coordination so that aid workers are protected. At the same time, as Israel pursues any military operations against Hamas, it has to prioritize the protection of civilians. It has to make that job number one. To many people have been caught in this crossfire of Hamas' making. Children, women, men, losing their lives. Their safety has to be a priority and military operations need to be designed around their protection, not the other way around.

So, we'll be looking at all of this in the - in the days to come and we'll be, as I said, assessing fully the report on the World Central Kitchen incident. And looking to see not just what - what steps are being taken, but the results the follow from them.

Thanks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you. Thanks, everybody. Thanks, everyone.

BOLDUAN: An important statement from the secretary of state right there saying that he said it was important that Israel is taking full responsibility for what happened, that grave mistake of a strike, that's how Israel was describing it, on World Central Kitchen aid workers, and also that they're - it's important that they're taking steps to hold people accountable.

The secretary of state's statement this morning is especially important because earlier today he had already said the following, "it's critical we see an independent, through, and fully publicized investigation into the killings of the World Central Kitchen team. Yet to be - it may suggest what we heard right there from the secretary of state that this report satisfies that. But that is not clear. We'll see if he still calls for a second, separate, independent investigation from what the IDF has put out. Very clearly he says, though, the administration is going to be looking through this report and looking to what steps Israel takes going forward.

We'll keep you updated on that.

Back to our legal conversation for a very hard turn now. Jeremy, thank you so much for that.

Let me ask you about the Georgia election case before I let you go because you have - one thing is the attempt to dismiss on First Amendment rights, saying that his speech and conduct around the election and the interference attempts were protected speech. The judge says, I'm not going to dismiss this case on those grounds.

But also in Georgia there's reporting that lawyers for several of the defendants are weighing whether to ask for a gag order to be put on the district attorney in this case. This is after they tried and failed to already get her recused, or taken off the case. Is this normal?

SALAND: It's certainly not normal. And remember, the appellate division, or the court of appeals there, is deciding whether or not to hear Trump's efforts and appeal to see whether she should be removed.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

SALAND: So, it's - I think it's certainly premature. I understand why they want to do it. The train is coming. The things that she said, the concerns that you're going to prejudice a jury, but you're way far out from jury selection, again like we discussed before, and you're waiting to hear from their court to see whether or not she's going to be removed on an appeal. It's premature, it's a little rare, but I think Fani Willis needs really just stick to the courtroom and less to - you know, less to the publicity and out in the public. That's how she should try her case.

BOLDUAN: Definitely seems maybe one of the lessons from how this has gone so far.

SALAND: Absolutely. Absolutely.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much, Jeremy.

SALAND: My pleasure.

BOLDUAN: Thank you for allowing for the interruption and thank you for sticking around.

So, another month of job markets fly - the jobs market flying past expectations. The March jobs report just out. What is the labor secretary saying about it now. She is our guest.

Today marks 30 years since legendary rock star and Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain passed away. How fans are remembering him now.

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[09:28:51]

SIDNER: We began with big news from the markets. A blockbuster jobs report this morning. The economy adding 303,000 jobs last month. Way higher, 100,000 jobs higher than expected. That marks 39 straight months of job growth. The fifth longest streak on record.

Joining me now is Acting Secretary of Labor, Julie Su.

Thank you so much for being here. Look, after seeing this report, I just wanted to get your take on how you would describe the U.S. economy.

JULIE SU, ACTING SECRETARY OF LABOR: Well, the president described it himself. It's the strongest economy in the world. And the numbers certainly tell that story.

You mentioned the 303,000 jobs created. At the same time, unemployment remains under 4 percent. That's for 26 months straight. So, for over two years, we're seeing historically low unemployment rate. At the same time that we see very strong labor force participation rate. And it's worth noting that real wages continue to grow up -- to go up.

So, the idea here is that overall a strong economy is good for everybody. But under President Biden's policy, they're especially good for working people.

[09:30:00]

And that's exactly what we want to see.

SIDNER: It sounds like there's some good construction going on behind you. So, people are hard at work in this economy