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Family of American Marc Fogel Outraged Over Prison Swap; A Bicycle Violation Leads to a Fugitive Being Captured After Nearly Three Decades on the Run; U.S. Economy Added 114,000 Jobs Last Month. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired August 02, 2024 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CO-ANCHOR, CNN NEWS CENTRAL: Painstaking negotiations and secret meetings and undisclosed locations led to the historic prisoner swap that freed 16 people, including three Americans from Russian detention. President Biden, Vice President Harris, they say it could not have been done without the help from America's allies.

Something they stressed last night. The negotiations involving several countries, including Germany, Poland, Slovenia and Turkey. CNN's Kylie Atwood is at the State Department with much more on this. I mean, talk about a feat of diplomacy, not just getting people out of Russia, but all of the American allies that it took to do so. What are you learning about this?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Kate, and I think it's really interesting to account how this all came together, from talking to sources, with my colleagues, we've learned that effectively, the foundation for this deal started to be built back in January.

That's when President Biden had a phone call with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz. And he said, listen, when you come to the White House later this month, there's something I want to talk to you about. That's Vadim Krasikov. That is the former FSB officer we have been talking about.

He was serving a life prison sentence in Germany for murdering someone in broad daylight. And the U.S. had come to the conclusion because Russia had resisted past proposals to release these Americans that Vadim Krasikov had to be included. The Germans today had rejected any of those offers to try and get them to involve Vadim Krasikov.

But when President Biden met with Olaf Scholz in the White House in the middle of January, we're told according to a senior administration official that Olaf Scholz said to Biden, for you, I will do that -- do this. And that's what really set off the next eight months of trying to put together a deal that included Vadim Krasikov -- but there were fits and starts.

It was not exactly easy when Alexei Navalny died in the middle of February, he was someone that they were thinking about, including as part of this deal. So, they had to go back to the drawing board. It was by late March that U.S. officials came up with a full list that could be included in this massive swap, including Krasikov.

President Biden actually wrote a letter at that time to Olaf Scholz on this topic, and then it was in early June, and I want to bring you to the Summer time months here, Kate, where Germany agreed to include Krasikov, then this list was presented to Russian Intelligence officers in a third country, a Middle Eastern country by CIA officials.

And it wasn't until about two weeks before this swap happened that Russia actually transmitted formal notice to the United States through Intelligence channels that they had actually accepted the deal. And that's what put the wheels churning on all of these efforts to actually, logistically bring this together.

Over the last few hours, 24 hours or so, we have heard the Biden administration, as you said, talk about the importance of alliances in bringing this to fruition. Listen to what the Vice President said last night on the tarmac when those Americans had landed here in the United States.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is just extraordinary testament to the importance of having a President who understands the power of diplomacy, and understands the strength that rests in understanding the significance of diplomacy and strengthening alliances.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ATWOOD: And of course, this comes amid some criticism that the Biden administration has received for trading a number of these Russians, who were Russian spies, who were Russian -- you know, convicts around the world. But the Biden administration is saying that they believe that this was the only deal they could get together.

This is the best deal that they could, and it was worth it to release these Americans, some of whom had been behind bars for years. Kate.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely, Kylie, great reporting. Thank you. Omar?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CO-ANCHOR, CNN NEWS CENTRAL: Now, while the families of the three freed Americans are celebrating the historic prisoner swap that brought their loved ones home, the family of Marc Fogel says they feel betrayed that he wasn't part of the exchange.

Now, Fogel is serving 14 years at a Russian labor camp on drug charges. Here's what his sister told CNN about him not being included in the swap.

[08:35:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNE FOGEL, SISTER OF MARC FOGEL: It's been one of the most frustrating times of my life to not be heard or taken seriously. We don't have the NBA, and we don't have the "Wall Street Journal" backing us. And -- so, we've -- Marc has been largely ignored.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: And I should point out, the National Security administrator Jake Sullivan says they're still working on Marc Fogel's case. But joining me now is founding partner and Washington correspondent for "Puck News", Julia Loffe. Julia, really appreciate you being here. I want to step back a second and look at what President Biden said on this.

Do we have a sense in regards to working with many allies, NATO included to make this happen? Do we have a sense of why Donald Trump wasn't able to secure Paul Whelan's release when he was in the White House?

JULIA LOFFE, FOUNDING PARTNER & WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, PUCK NEWS: Well, we know from the "Wall Street Journal's" reporting actually that the Russians did approach him about freeing Paul Whelan in 2018 after he was arrested in exchange for Viktor Bout and a Russian pilot that had been taken prisoner by the Americans in a few years earlier.

And the Russians had felt that these people had been unjustly imprisoned in third countries, not in the U.S., that the U.S kind of violated all kinds of terms by arresting Russians in third countries, and Donald Trump said no. So, when President Biden yesterday in his press conference with the hostage's families, said, you know, in response to a question, why didn't Donald Trump do this?

He said, you know, he could have done this, but he didn't. And it seems from the "Journal's" own reporting that he was approached with a deal and he said no.

JIMENEZ: And of course, we saw that play out in this case, Viktor Bout was exchanged with Brittney Griner, but Vadim Krasikov was imprisoned in Germany and he was one of the main targets, it seems for Russia here. And in his remarks from the White House earlier today or earlier, I should say I guess last night, it's hard to keep track of time in the overnight hours, but it matters to have relationships is what he said, referencing Germany, Poland, Slovenia. How do you see this exchange in the context of a strong NATO, which Biden has frequently touted here?

LOFFE: Well, I think it's crucial, right? This was a very heavy lift for the Germans. They didn't want to relive -- release Krasikov. Let's recall what he did. He's an FSB hit-man who killed somebody in a Kremlin-ordained hit in a Berlin Park at 2:00 p.m. in the afternoon. There were kids around, there were moms around.

You know, this is pretty graphic stuff. He was arrested and given a life sentence. And you know, there were people inside the German government, including ministers who were against this deal, who were against releasing him and against kind of the precedent it would set, especially in terms of not getting Germans out, but being leaned on by the kind of older brother -- diplomatic older brother, the U.S. to get one of theirs out. And to do that, you need the kind of solid, strong friendships that

President Biden described. If you see -- I've written about this before, if you see alliances as a kind of what have you done for me lately thing, if you treat your allies the way a lone shark would treat somebody who owes them money, there's no way that they're going to do this for you.

I mean, this was a hard lift for the Slovenians, the Norwegians, the Poles, is, there's --

JIMENEZ: Right --

LOFFE: A lot involved. And for our viewers who don't know what it's like to work in government, I mean, the level of coordination required, right? Each of these countries has Intelligence services, a criminal justice system that may be against this, because you know, we've done our process, we've tried and convicted them.

Why should we be releasing them a diplomatic corps that has to be dealt with, right? The level of coordination must have been unbelievable.

JIMENEZ: Yes, and to your point, it's hard to coordinate even within a single government at this point. Now, you're talking about multiple departments --

LOFFE: Correct --

JIMENEZ: Across multiple countries, governments, some who don't have the best relationships --

LOFFE: Seven countries --

JIMENEZ: With each other -- exactly. Julia Loffe, really appreciate you being here. Kate?

BOLDUAN: And breaking news just moments ago. New data in from the U.S. government showing the jobs market cooling off far more than expected last month, adding just 114,000 jobs in July, unemployment rate ticking up. Paula Newton has much more on this. Bring us up to speed, Paula, what do these numbers mean?

PAULA NEWTON, CNN ANCHOR & CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate, this was much lower than expected. Both the overall number, 114,000 jobs created, but also that unemployment rate, 4.3 percent. We have not seen that kind of unemployment rate in the United States since the earlier in 2021, you're talking when we were coming out of the pandemic.

[08:40:00]

What is certain here is that the economy is at a real pivot point. And we had some warnings, Kate, of this when Amazon reported earlier this week, they quoted likely the consumer, right? And that is a good measure. They are saying that consumers are cautious and perhaps we're seeing it in this. Add to that too, broadly, I'll say do want to get to when we look at that unemployment rate, and you can see it sky- high, right?

During the pandemic, starts to come down way below 4 percent Americans feeling good about the jobs that they have and feeling that they could go out and get other jobs, better-paying jobs. Now, it looks like while it's still job growth, which we have to keep in mind is a good thing, that growth is much slower and key here, Kate, much slower than expected.

I also want to show you how many jobs were created, 117, yes, it's not anything to write home about in this Summer jobs campaign, you can see it's almost as low as it was in April. Now, April might have been a blip, but the problem is, the government is also revising down its estimates of how many jobs were created earlier in June as well.

Let's have a look at the futures. Kate, you will guess right? The futures market isn't liking this at all. We are in for a bad day on the markets. I assume what we have to watch now is the Federal Reserve, and if they will continue to lower rates, everyone expects them to lower rates in September, some thought they should have done it earlier like last week when they had their meeting in order to bring it down a quarter point.

They decided -- pardon me, earlier this week, they decided against that. Some thought they should have moved to lower interest rates to kind of really boost that economy a little bit more. They did not, so now, we wait to see what happens. It's September, but more importantly, we wait for new data, and we see if they're going to continue to cut throughout the year. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Yes, and part of what's pushing futures down, what we saw yesterday with the markets is this fear of a rate-cut in September. Is that now too late, given where things are headed? But we will see altogether. Let's see where it goes. It's good to see you, Paula, thank you so much. Omar.

JIMENEZ: Well, Kate, the first female nurse to ever graduate from the Army's toughest course, Ranger School, tells us how being a nurse is exactly what prepared her. And Tom Cruise is on a top secret mission to perform a stunt at the Olympics closing ceremony. We'll explain coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:45:00]

JIMENEZ: All right, this morning, a bicycle violation leads to a fugitive being captured after nearly three decades on the run.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You think you got warrants or anything, do you?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As far as I know, yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Or you committed any crimes? Well, besides --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: That wasn't exactly true. 'KCCI" reports George Hartleroad first gave Des Moines police a fake name. They eventually found out his true identity, and that he had warrants out of Wisconsin. Court records show he's a convicted rapist who escaped the halfway house in the mid '90s.

He's now facing jail time in Wisconsin. Meanwhile, Colorado Governor Jared Polis tells CNN affiliate "KCNC" that the three major wildfires in the state appear to have been caused by people. One person has died and hundreds of people have been evacuated by the Quarry Alexander Mountain and Stone Canyon fires. Investigators haven't yet published though their final report on how the fires started.

And Tom Cruise, Tom Cruise, Tom Cruise. He's gone to the Summer Olympics, according to "Deadline", the actor will perform a stunt during the August 11th closing ceremony. What do we know? We don't know much. Will he hang on to the site of a plane midair? Will he drive a motorcycle off a cliff like we saw in "Mission Impossible"?

Who knows, all things that I would not be doing, but I will be glad to watch him do it. Cruise has been one of several -- here, he's been at several Olympic events, I should say, including gymnastics, swimming, may be starting up, we don't know details of the ceremony being kept a secret. Kate, what's your bet? What are you looking at here?

BOLDUAN: I have no bets. I will not bet on television, but I will definitely think about with you or when you're off it. Donald Trump does not like the new democratic attempt to label him 'weird".

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: If you've ever seen how with a laugh and everything else, that's a weird deal going on. They're the weird ones. Nobody has ever called me weird. I'm a lot of things, but weird, I'm not.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: I am weird though. It's been a strange thing, I have to say, that seem to start with Democratic Governor Tim Walz, talking like Tim Walz does, like there's -- I don't know how he does it, and then it just took off like wildfire. You can't find a Democrat who was talking politics and talking about this presidential race, who isn't leaning in to calling Donald Trump and now J.D. Vance weird.

Is there an expiration date to this stuff? CNN's Harry Enten is here with me now. Do people think that this name-calling is having an impact?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN REPORTER: I'm not the puppet, you're the puppet. All right, let's take a look. This to me, you know, often times, this attack lines in politics that really just don't take hold, but to me it feels like a lot of folks are interested in this attack line. So, this is Google searches for weird.

This is compared to the three -- last three months --

BOLDUAN: Sorry --

ENTEN: Look at this, it's up 22 percent, my God, over the last week. How about over the last three days, searches for weird are up 32 percent. And you, of course, weird gets searched all the time, right? Because, you know, I'm weird, you're weird, et cetera --

BOLDUAN: No, you really are weird.

ENTEN: I really am weird, right? So, when you see these kind of giant jump, you go to yourself, wait a minute, something is definitely driving this.

[08:50:00]

People are interested in the word, "weird", and the question of course, Kate Bolduan is, why are they interested in the word, "weird'?

BOLDUAN: Answer me that question. Can they be searching weird for nonpolitical reasons?

ENTEN: They could be searching weird. They could be searching for me, for example, all right. Topics increasingly searched with weird on Google. These are the things that are increasingly linked to searches with weird. Look at that, Tim Walz, so you mentioned who started --

BOLDUAN: Yes --

ENTEN: That attack line, how about Make America Great Again, how about the GOP, how about J.D. Vance? So, the fact is you're seeing these increases in searches for the word, "weird", and then the topics that are increasingly searched with the word, "weird" are all political, all of which are attack lines.

I don't think Republicans like, but of course, Tim Walz absolutely likes. It shows that it is penetrating the zeitgeist, and it actually shows that it's a rare political attack that people are looking up online. And the fact is, we're still talking about and Tim Walz started this line of like, how long ago? Days ago, days ago --

BOLDUAN: But here's the thing. There's not -- there's no other -- there's no line, direct line yet too, it's being said and it is pushing people to do X. Like it's being said, and now less people are excited about Donald Trump and J.D. Vance. But what are they saying about -- I mean, J.D. Vance is now in this too --

ENTEN: Right, so the original thing, you know, was the idea that J.D. Vance was just a weirdo in the minds of a lot of Democrats. And I want you to --

BOLDUAN: Childless cat ladies --

ENTEN: Childless cat ladies is -- yes, exactly right. Take a look here. J.D. Vance's net favorable ratings. Look, he was already the least-like VP nominee coming out at the convention. You see that AP- NORC earlier this month, mid-July, minus 5 point, the "ABC News", IPSOS poll minus 6 points.

But look at this week, so, we basically have this timeline, we're able to show in very recent polling data, look at J.D. Vance's net favorable rating in AP-NORC dropping by 8 points to minus 13 points. How about "ABC News"-IPSOS dropping to minus 15 points? So, it seems that the attack lines against J.D. Vance are working.

And one of those big attack lines, of course, is the idea that he is weird, and it's definitely being increasingly searched with his name and obviously other things associated with Republicans. And the effect --

BOLDUAN: But stay here --

ENTEN: No --

BOLDUAN: Stay here for one second.

ENTEN: You want to go back to this?

BOLDUAN: No, stay where you are, stay --

ENTEN: Right --

BOLDUAN: Stay where you are --

ENTEN: Stay here.

BOLDUAN: Mid-July, a lot of people didn't know J.D. Vance.

ENTEN: Correct.

BOLDUAN: This week, people do know J.D. Vance.

ENTEN: Bingo.

BOLDUAN: But sometimes isn't it in politics, that just once you get on a ticket, once you are not no longer labeled a contender for, but you are the whatever, your favorability drops.

ENTEN: That may be true if we will go months into advance, right? But if you look at folks like Sarah Palin, you look at folks like Dan Quayle, folks who went on to sort of VP infamy --

BOLDUAN: Yes --

ENTEN: All of them had net favorability ratings at plus 10 or better. The fact that he is so disliked, so early on to me, suggests that there's something unique about J.D. Vance, and it's not just the weird thing, but I think the weird attack line is absolutely having an impact. Folks, just have a visceral dislike for him as we see in these numbers right here.

BOLDUAN: I finally learned something from you, Harry, thank you.

ENTEN: Finally, I would have talked to all these weeks, years, months?

BOLDUAN: Nope.

ENTEN: No, just weird --

BOLDUAN: Definitely not, definitely not. Omar?

JIMENEZ: I'm not going to get in on that conversation. I'm going to move on because look, we've got a lot of news that we've been following, including this historic homecoming, three nightmares over for the three Americans freed from Russian prisons. Now, in Texas, after the massive trade that played out between several countries over the course of many months.

Joining me now is Democratic Congresswoman Grace Meng of New York.

Congresswoman, thanks for being here, really appreciate it. Now, when these Americans came back, Biden touted the importance of allies today. Obviously, this is -- this was a swap involved in multiple countries across NATO and across Europe as well.

Given how Trump has treated some of those allies, again, particularly in NATO, could a swap of this scale have happened if Trump was in office?

REP. GRACE MENG (D-NY): Well, I don't think it would have, and obviously, it didn't. I am so grateful to President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, and the entire administration who got this done. This really does show, as our president said, the importance of allyship around the country.

And I'm so grateful that these Americans are finally home with their loved ones.

JIMENEZ: And you know, just to point out, it's -- in the Trump administration folks came home as well, but this particular deal was historic in nature. Haven't seen an exchange like this since going back to the Cold War days. But also, this is happening in the context of an election year which is already being made clear by Trump's running mate, J.D. Vance, who had this to say about the deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We have to ask ourselves, why are they coming home? And I think it's because bad guys all over the world recognize Donald Trump's about to be back in office, so they're cleaning house. That's a good thing. And I think it's a testament to Donald Trump's strength.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: And I will say, John Kirby over at the White House said there was no evidence of that. But we've also seen Trump react to the news, saying he's gotten back many hostages and given the opposing country, nothing.

[08:55:00]

I mean, my basic question is, what is your reaction to this historic news, this historic prisoner swap already playing into the presidential race?

MENG: Well, this is just yet another example of President Joe Biden not just doing his job but doing an excellent job. Joe Biden was already working on this for months-on-end. And we even heard in the hours before he announced that he was withdrawing from the race, he was making phone calls to world leaders to get this done.

And President Biden is still going to be our president for the remainder of this year, and he is still going to work as hard as he can for the American people.

JIMENEZ: And you know, on the other side of things, a White House official told CNN that Kamala Harris -- Vice President Kamala Harris played a role in the diplomatic efforts to get the most important country in this, I would argue, Germany on the board with the swap -- that she met privately with Olaf Scholz in February at the Munich Security Conference about this, that she spoke with Yulia Navalny.

How exactly -- if we're going to stay within the realm of politics, how exactly do you think this helps her in an election year versus Trump?

MENG: Well, there's a really sharp contrast of two presidential nominees right now, and who can get the job done, and who is qualified? We have seen our Vice President Kamala Harris work side-by- side with President Joe Biden in getting the job done for the American people.

And this is just yet another example of how our relationships and our allies around the world really do matter. When Donald Trump was in office, the way that he led was weird, and also hurt our relationships with so many of our allies around the country. And that's why we were able to see Joe Biden and Kamala Harris get the job done.

JIMENEZ: Congresswoman Grace Meng, really appreciate you taking the time, thanks for being here. Kate?

MENG: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: African-American sororities and fraternities known as the Divine 9, have become a powerful force in the 2024 presidential election. They've been mobilizing for Vice President Kamala Harris, who have -- who has been a member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority since 1986. And CNN's Rene Marsh, she dives in, she takes a look on how the Divine 9 is already shaping this election.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Three, two, one.

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A picture of political power. These are members of the so-called Divine 9. (GROUP SINGING)

MARSH: Nine historically black fraternities and sororities formed more than a century ago when black people couldn't join white organizations. The Divine 9 has been a force and movements, from civil rights to voting rights. And they say their political strength will make history once again this election.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Day one, Kamala Harris kicks off with an army. Look at just this force in this room.

MARSH: Kamala Harris joined Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority in 1986 at Howard University, making her one of the 2.5 million members of the Divine 9. CNN sat down with a room full of Divine 9 members speaking in their own capacity and not on behalf of their organizations.

They're aware of their potential political influence in this election, and they're excited to wield it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Two-point-five million strong, now look at how we can reach out to our families, our friends, our churches.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are the girl scout leaders, we are the boy scout leaders. We represent every facet of black America.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We are credible messengers. We have been in the communities. We have been working with the sub-populations and they trust us.

MARSH: Harris and her campaign understand the value of this built-in political infrastructure, and they're leaning into it. In July alone, Vice President Harris has spoken at the national conventions for three Divine 9 sororities. Harris is poised to leverage this voting bloc at a level we haven't seen from her presidential nominee before.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're not waiting for someone else to tell us what to do and how to do it. We're creating our own playbook.

MARSH (on camera): What is this going to look like in practical terms?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After Church on Sunday, we go downstairs to the fellowship and register people that aren't voting. And for those seniors that can't stroll to the polls, we're going downstairs and we're going to get them absentee ballot.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Knocking on doors, phone calls, texts --

MARSH (voice-over): This coalition is politically sophisticated, digging into strategy for battleground states like Pennsylvania.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We really need turnout in Philadelphia, and we need it in certain pockets.

MARSH: And sharpening the message to motivate voters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And we say things like democracy is on the line, I think low propensity voters, they don't know what that means --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, we have to have very simple talking points.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We also have white male counterparts that we also need to educate on how overly qualified this candidate is.

MARSH (on camera): What I hear you saying is that the reach of the Divine 9 will not be limited to the black community?