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Julie Su is Interviewed about the March Jobs Report; Nebraska Considers Electoral College Change; Niagara Region Declares State of Emergency. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired April 05, 2024 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

JULIE SU, ACTING SECRETARY OF LABOR: And that's exactly what we want to see.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: It sounds like there's some good construction going on behind you. So, people are hard at work in this economy with all those jobs. GDP growth smashing market expectations in the fourth quarter. The U.S. economy is by all accounts doing really well.

But in one of the latest surveys, just one quarter of registered voters in seven key swing states say that the economy has improved in the past two years. Why do you think there's this disconnect between the data and what we keep seeing and how Americans actually feel about their personal economies?

SU: So, I think some of it is just, you know, we've come through a lot as a country, right? Try to remember where we were three years ago when the president came into office. But, you know, COVID was raging. The unemployment rate was sky high. People weren't sure that they could get toilet paper or baby formula. And now 15.2 million jobs have been created since the president came into office.

Again, there's historic low levels of unemployment. We're seeing industry grow. I did not set up that construction noise. But construction is one area in which we saw tremendous growth over this last month. That's not by accident. That's because this president has said, we're going to invest in America. We're going to create jobs in America. And that is changing. And at the same time, you know, we're seeing prices steadily go down.

And so, I think that consumer sentiment is also changing. But, you know, we also take it as a sign that we have more work to do. And we'll continue to do it until every American feels that sense of security that the President talks about. We want a good job not just to be a good, you know, paycheck, but also to provide some breathing room.

SIDNER: Are you frustrated by the fact that the people aren't giving the Biden administration credit for this? That Americans don't -- don't feel that things are better?

SU: I mean, I will say so. I've been traveling quite a bit. I just got back from Nevada. I was in Wisconsin and Michigan. When I meet with people who are in an apprenticeship program that they -- they didn't know existed, preparing for a job that was not just going to be a short-term job, but a career that's going to put them, you know, squarely in the middle class, all -- there's a tremendous amount of hope, optimism. You know, when I talk to people, they say they feel a security they haven't felt in some time.

So that is certainly, you know, the experience of many. It's a noisy day here in D.C.

SIDNER: It is.

SU: But the experience of many -- many working people and families. And we want to continue to see that.

SIDNER: I know you are pleased with seeing this unexpectedly high report yet again. Thank you for your time. And thank you to the folks that are out there working really hard. We hear them behind you. Secretary Su, I appreciate it.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And what produce allowed all that construction to go on during a live shot?

All right, Donald Trump's plan to change the rules in one state to win just one extra electoral vote. How that could swing the entire election.

And then new legal filings from Angelina Jolie, accused her ex- husband, Brad Pitt, of physical abuse. We have the latest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:37:30]

BERMAN: All right, today, Donald Trump and his allies are continuing to push to change the rules in Nebraska for how they apportion their Electoral College votes in the presidential election. Nebraska and Maine are the only two states in the country that apportion their electoral votes by congressional district in presidential elections. Why does that matter? Well, one single vote in the case of Nebraska could swing the entire election. Let me show you how.

This is what the Electoral College would look like if Donald Trump and Joe Biden won exactly the same states in exactly the same places they won in 2020. You'll note the total is different than 2020. Biden won 306 electoral votes in 2020, but there's been a census. Some of those electoral college votes have been reapportionment. So, it would be 303 to 235.

OK, so, what if President Biden were to lose in Arizona? This is a state that Republicans often win. In Nevada, this is a state that Democrats have been struggling for the last year or so. What if President Trump, for President Trump, wins in Nevada? And what if Donald Trump wins in Georgia as well? Then what you see, the race is 270 electoral votes for President Biden, 268 for Donald Trump.

But then let's go to Nebraska. Remember, they apportioned their electoral votes by congressional district. Donald Trump won the state easily, but he lost the first congressional district right around Omaha. Switch that to red, if it becomes winner-take-all, it's 269, 269.

Then the election goes to the House of Representatives. Each state, each state delegation, gets to cast one vote for president. Republicans hold more states. Donald Trump almost definitely would be the winner there. So, that one electoral vote in Nebraska could swing the whole thing.

This is not an implausible scenario.

With me now to discuss, CNN political commentator Errol Louis, and national politics reporter for "Axios," Alex Thompson.

I will just meander over here. And you can see it's almost transparent, Alex, what Donald Trump and his allies are trying to do there. This one vote could mean everything.

ALEX THOMPSON, NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, "AXIOS": Oh, absolutely, which is why they're pressuring, before the legislative session ends, to change the law so that - so that way it's winner take all for the entire state to basically get rid of that Democratic advantage in Omaha.

And the Biden team knows this too. Even before Trump's recent push, it was not a coincidence that second gentleman, Doug Emhoff, just happened to stop by in Omaha.

[09:40:02]

And, you know, you go back to 2020, the Biden campaign was up with lots of ads in the Omaha market, you know, to win that congressional district, like they did last time. So, this could be - I mean because of the crazy system that our founders gave us of this Electoral College where every state can do it differently, we are now in this crazy scenario where we are fighting over the end of the state legislative session in Nebraska.

BERMAN: It is just one Electoral College vote. And the way to get it passed in Nebraska, it turns out it's not going to be super easy for the Republicans to do it, Errol. But, boy, when you see Donald Trump and Republican candidate starting to play with the Electoral College, a system that already, at least right now, seems to advantage them, it is interesting.

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, it is interesting. And this is a candidate who, every time he's involved in a - either a campaign rally or one of his court appearances, he comes out and talks about voter suppression, about how unfair it is, about how they're changing the rules on him. And, lo and behold, here they are trying to change the rules. Not in a nefarious kind of a way. You know, it's perfectly acceptable to go and try and persuade this unusual legislature. I mean Nebraska, among other things, is the only unicameral legislature.

BERMAN: Right.

LOUIS: They don't have an assembly and a Senate. They have just the one legislature. So, yes, they can - they can try and they can push, but it really would be a matter of disenfranchising a number of people who went into this election season expecting it to be like all of the other ones where their votes would count in the Omaha area.

BERMAN: And midstream. And, of course, then Maine could try to change its rules and that would benefit the Democrats, but we will take that as it comes.

Donald Trump did an interview with Hugh Hewitt. And he said some wild things here. He talked about President Biden's performance during the State of the Union Address. And I want to play a little bit of that. This is sound number two, guys.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know that - that white stuff that they happened to find, which happened to be cocaine, in the White House. I don't know. I think, I think something's going on there because I watched his State of the Union and he was all jacked up at the beginning. By the end, he was fading fast. There's something going on there. I want a debate and I think debates, with him at least, should be drug tested. I want him drug tested.

HUGH HEWITT, HOST, "THE HUGH HEWITT SHOW": Mr. President, are you suggesting President Biden is using cocaine?

TRUMP: I don't know what he's using, but that was not - hey, he was higher than a kite.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: I suppose you could look at that any number of ways. One of the ways is Donald Trump actually thought that President Biden's performance during the State of the Union, at least the first part, was quite good it seems. He seemed to think he did well.

THOMPSON: Yes, he's like, you know, it was all fake, you know. He was - it was just a temporary high.

But this is also very classic Trump of, I'm just asking questions in order to - because now look at us, we're on TV talking, well, was Biden high on cocaine during the State of the Union? I mean this is like a classic Trump example of just putting it into the media bloodstream so that people keep talking about it. I mean it reminds me back in 2016 when, you know, was Ted Cruz's dad involved in the JFK assassination? Well, I just - you know, it's out there.

BERMAN: Errol.

LOUIS: Yes, confusion, chaos, deception. It's - it is certainly unworthy of a former president of the United States, unworthy of a candidate for that same office. But apparently this is what we're going to get. That - those are the words of somebody who is stuck in the polls, can't figure out how to build his base and, in fact, is going to just try and juice up his base with wild conspiracy theories and just try and put a shot of pure conspiracy theory energy out there to attract as many people as possible. It doesn't sound like a winning strategy to me.

BERMAN: No, I mean, if - President Biden could just say, I'm just high on the state of the union too. I mean he could say, look, this is just -

LOUIS: I mean, look, the problem was they made it sound as if he was a doddering old man.

BERMAN: Yes.

LOUIS: And he came out and just gave a speech like the practice politician that he is. Now they have to sort of explain it. And there's - they can't quite accept that he's a vigorous man who happens to be in his late 70s.

BERMAN: That's what I was getting at. I mean it's a sort of admission from Donald Trump that he thinks that the State of the Union Address was good, or at least was something that needs to be dealt with.

THOMPSON: Absolutely. They're a victim of their own setting of low expectations. You saw this in 2020 too when, you know, Joe Biden gets on the debate stage with Trump and everyone was like, oh, he can like commit - he can finish a sentence. And it's not like Joe Biden's speech was perfect. You know, he - he mistakenly said Russia instead of Canada. Like he - he had his flubs. But like I think it's more probably coffee than cocaine.

BERMAN: Very quickly, I want to play what Donald Trump said about Richard Nixon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They went after him like they've never gone after anybody. He made some mistakes, to put it mildly. The firings were a mistake. You notice the way I kept people that I couldn't stand?

HUGH HEWITT, HOST, "THE HUGH HEWITT SHOW": Yes.

TRUMP: I learned that from Nixon.

I was a fan of his in many respects, OK, and so were you. But in many ways he was his own worst enemy. And he did things that were - he didn't treat people - some people well. And those people ended up coming back to get him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Learned his lessons from Richard Nixon. LOUIS: Well, you know, I think we all if we - those of us who remember

it and those of it who have learned about it through history books, we can all learn a lot from Richard Nixon and his presidency.

[09:45:00]

I drew very different conclusions than Donald Trump did about what that presidency was about. This was not a personnel dispute when he tried to - when he fired the attorney general of the United States, fired the special counsel and tried to upend an investigation of his doomed corrupt presidency. It was a little bit more than that.

BERMAN: Errol Louis, we should mention, you, of course, are the host of "The Big Deal with Errol Louis" on Spectrum News. Thank you very much for being with us.

Alex Thompson, thank you as well.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: OK, so John has been having fun with it all week, so I'm going to try this one on for size, because I will always win because I always do. Depending on where you live, your view of the solar eclipse on Monday may totality rock.

BERMAN: Wow.

BOLDUAN: Yes, thank you.

Where the clear skies are expected and where cloudy skies may ruin everything. We'll bring that to you.

The new CNN original series "Space Shuttle Columbia: The Final Flight" premiers this weekend. You can watch it. You can watch the first two episodes this Sunday, 9:00 p.m., right here on CNN.

Here is a preview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: These guys have trained, you know, forever for this mission. And the last thing they want is for them to catch something and be sick. That just would be catastrophic for the - for the mission. So, they - they put them in quarantine a week prior. The children weren't allowed to be around them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I had to say goodbye to him before he went to quarantine. And I remember hugging his waist because that's where I came to him when - when I was 12. That moment, actually right here in the kitchen, I remember crying and just knowing how much I would miss him.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I remember we drove him to quarantine and we all said goodbye and like had hugs and kisses. And it was a really sweet moment. And it was just us and that was it. He was off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:51:18]

BOLDUAN: A Florida construction worker was killed yesterday when part of a crane broke off a building and fell onto a bridge in Fort Lauderdale. It crushed two cars. Three other people were hurt in this whole thing. The impact nearly split one of those cars in half. And the driver of one of the car said this, I'm going to play it for you, about the terrifying close call that he had.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARK CEREZIN, DRIVER OF CAR CRUSHED BY FALLEN CRANE: I was driving and I felt a compression. I looked up and I saw the blue structure coming down. I slammed on my brakes. It sheared off the front of my Tesla, the car. And all the airbags went off. And I'm very, very lucky to be alive. So, that's it. I saw the structure after it hit my car, bounced in the air, and then land on the car next to me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: It's like a matter of inches of that man wasn't in a very different situation. Officials say that the bridge will remain closed indefinitely until repairs are completed.

It's a days so many Gen Xers, and some super awesome millennials, remember oh so well, the day they first heard "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Now, today, Nirvana fans are remembering the legendary grunge music icon Kurt Cobain. He passed away on this day 30 years ago.

Also today, never before seen photos are being released of Cobain, his wife, Courtney Love, and baby Frances Bean. You can check them out on cnn.com. These were taken a year after the album "Nevermind" was released and are in the soon to be released book, "Family Values: Kurt, Courtney and Frances Bean." It's always amazing to remember that Kurt Cobain only released three studio albums before he died that clearly had such a huge impact on music and pop culture.

Sara.

SIDNER: It is so true. We're going from Kurt Cobain to Pink Floyd this morning.

BOLDUAN: Very nice.

SIDNER: See you on the dark side of the moon. One of America's - one of America's national parks is preparing for more than a million visitors coming to Niagara Falls for the eclipse, just three days away. While in Canada's Niagara region, officials there have proactively declared a state of emergency, have an expected surge of visitors for Monday's big event. But there's always the weather that could be a problem.

CNN's senior data reporter Harry Enten for some reason is out at Niagara Falls with quite an outfit on.

Harry, that dark side of the moon song written by Pink Floyd, it was about insanity and I'm a little concerned. What are you seeing out there?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: I mean, it is freaking freezing. That's the only thing I can really say. I got the eclipse glasses on. I'll take them off so I can actually see the camera.

This morning we've had a buffet, a smorgasbord of whether. It is currently, though you can't see it on camera, lightly snowing. We have the sun out over there. There was a rainbow forming over Niagara Falls. It's been absolute lunacy.

Now, the good news is, it's supposed to warm up as we head into the weekend. It could be in the mid-50s by Monday. It's currently in the low 30s. But the big question is whether or not there will be clouds and whether or not there will be showers.

Now, at this particular point, the forecast is partly sunny to mostly cloudy. Now, if it's partly sunny, we just get those cirrus clouds up above. I think we're going to be OK because I was trying it on myself with these guys glasses over here and you can still see the sun pretty well. But the fact is, the old saying is, you know, at Niagara Falls, if you don't like the weather, just wait five minutes.

[09:55:04]

That has definitely been the case this morning. That could be the case this Monday.

So, we don't know what's going to happen. I'm just going to try and put on my weather camp shoes. I was looking at the model outputs, the statistic data, earlier on. And it does seem like the forecast is getting a little bit better. But the truth of the matter is, Sara, we're just going to have to wait and see. It's going to be a game-time decision here.

BERMAN: You know, it's a great honeymoon location, Niagara Falls, Harry. What have you been hearing from the lovers there (INAUDIBLE).

ENTEN: I spoke with a number of lovers. We had a lovely couple out here earlier. They were with their dog, who, in fact, was celebrating his third birthday. He had a nice little handkerchief on celebrating his birthday.

But the real thing that I'm hearing from them is that it's a rip-off. It's a rip-off to be here come Monday. The hotels are going from let's say right now $100. They may charge upwards of $800 for Monday. And the planes, the plane rides, I was trying to book a plane. It went from one $100 to $500.

SIDNER: Harry, I think one of the people saying rip-off was you. I'm just going to put that out there. Thank you so much.

BOLDUAN: And, Harry, when we're live on TV doing this, you should make it a little less angry. Oh, wait, we are live. I've never seen someone so excited to be angry about something cool.

Thanks, Harry.

SIDNER: All right, be sure to catch CNN's special coverage of the eclipse.

ENTEN: I'm happy and I'm -

SIDNER: He's still going. He's still going.

BERMAN: Trust us, he's -

BOLDUAN: I'm sorry. I'm sorry, that was Harry's happy.

BERMAN: Yes, even though you can't see him anymore, he's still happy.

SIDNER: He's still happy. He's smiling.

But you can watch the eclipse happen on Monday, 1:00 p.m. We'll have people in all the right places.

BERMAN: Here and streaming on Max, we should say.

Thank you all so much for being with us. We better go. This has been CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BOLDUAN: I think we've done enough.

BERMAN: "NEWSROOM" with Jim Acosta is up next.

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