Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

U.S. Sues TikTok for Allegedly Violation Children's Privacy Law; Dow Plunges After Weak July Jobs Report; Rowe: Secret Service Unaware of Armed Man Before Shots Fired at Trump. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired August 02, 2024 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Just into CNN, the U.S. government is suing TikTok for violating children's privacy laws. This DOJ lawsuit alleges TikTok and its parent company, ByteDance, unlawfully collected children's personal data without parental consent, among other claims.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Let's get straight to CNN's Clare Duffy with the details. Clare, what are you learning?

CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Yes, Boris, Brianna, this lawsuit actually dates back to a 2019 agreement between TikTok and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission that settled allegations that TikTok was in violation of this children's privacy law known as COPPA. As part of that settlement, TikTok agreed to take specific measures to ensure it was in compliance with that law. But this new lawsuit from the DOJ alleges that TikTok continues to be in violation of COPPA as well as that 2019 agreement.

[15:35:00]

It alleges that TikTok allows children to create accounts without their parents' consent. It also claims that the app is collecting children's data, things like email addresses, phone numbers and location data, and that when parents discover these accounts, TikTok is not doing a good enough job removing that children's data from their data storage.

So TikTok told me that it is, of course, disagreeing with these allegations. The company's spokesperson told me that these allegations are related to past events and practices and are factually inaccurate or have been addressed. But I will say this is not the first time that TikTok has faced claims about not protecting children's privacy and about larger data security incidents.

This is, of course, comes as TikTok is fighting this legal battle over a law that could see the app be banned in the United States over data privacy concerns. So just more legal pressure on this company.

KEILAR: Yes, certainly. Clare, thank you so much for tracking this. We do appreciate it.

Still ahead, former President Trump continues to say that immigrants are taking, quote, Black jobs and Hispanic jobs. We're going to look at those claims next.

[15:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: All right, we are watching the Dow, all eyes on it right now. It plunged after a weak July jobs report was released earlier today. 114,000 jobs added last month. That's way below expectations.

At the same time, the unemployment rate climbed to 4.3 percent. We have CNN economics and political commentator and "Washington Post" columnist Catherine Rampell with us on this.

All right, you're looking at the job market slowing. And let's talk about how this is playing out politically. Trump's campaign is hitting on, with a tweet we saw, foreign born versus native born employment numbers.

If you could just explain the difference here and who's included in each group, because it seems like he's kind of, or his campaign is pitting Americans born abroad against Americans born in the U.S.

CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, there are a few things that I would point out here. One is that the data that they're referring to for foreign born Americans, about half of those people are actually U.S. citizens. About half of the foreigners or foreign born people in the United States, immigrants in the United States, are actually citizens at this point.

The vast majority of immigrants are also here. If they're not citizens, they're here illegally. It's a very small share who are undocumented, especially undocumented, without permission to work and stay here. So, you know, not including DACA and things like that. So that's point number one.

Point number two is that if you don't want immigrant workers here, then probably tell your grandma she can never retire. Because the reason why we've had so much job growth among the foreign born population is that the native born population in the United States is disproportionately older and retiring.

So if you are a native born younger worker in the U.S., it's actually not that hard to get a job. There just aren't enough of you in order to fill all of the jobs that are being vacated by boomers, essentially. So you need working age immigrants to kind of fill the gaps.

KEILAR: It's kind of like, I mean, we're looking at this argument. It's sort of like a replacement theory economic argument. But, you know, it's not a zero-sum game.

Can you explain to us why it's not?

RAMPELL: Exactly. Yes, it's not a zero-sum game. So the fact that immigrants, foreign born workers, are getting jobs does not mean that they are getting them at the expense of native born workers. In fact, native born workers have lower unemployment rates than foreign born ones.

And again, that's because if you are a native born American, as I am, there are a lot of job opportunities for you. But the population is aging. I mentioned boomers are retiring.

It's not only that, it's also that fertility rates in the United States have been low for a really long time. So we're not replacing the retiring native born workers with the same number of younger new entrants to the labor force who are also born here. And so there are a lot of jobs that would be going begging if you only had the population of people who were born here in the labor force.

Immigrants tend to be younger. They're much more likely to be working age. The people coming here are often coming here in part because they want the economic opportunities here.

So they're not taking jobs away from native born Americans. In fact, they're taking jobs that would probably otherwise be going begging, particularly in industries with major labor shortages, things like construction, agriculture, health care, etcetera.

KEILAR: OK, so, Catherine, if you're looking and you're looking at this jobs report, you're looking at the state of the economy. What would you actually be concerned about when it comes to the jobs market?

RAMPELL: So I do think it's concerning that the unemployment rate has risen each of the last four consecutive months. Remember that a 4.3 percent unemployment rate in historical terms is actually relatively low. So it's not, you know, the numbers now that I'm concerned about. It's more we don't want them to keep heading in that direction.

[15:45:00]

We don't want the unemployment rate to keep rising or for the number of jobs out of each month to keep slowing. As you pointed out, it has.

So that's the concern. You know, there are a lot of calls on the Federal Reserve to start cutting rates more aggressively. They've paused for a while. There's widespread expectation that the Fed will cut rates in September. The question now is how sharply will they cut rates to stimulate the economy?

KEILAR: All right, Catherine Rampell, always so wonderful at breaking it down for us. We appreciate it. Thank you.

RAMPELL: Thank you.

KEILAR: Still ahead, the acting head of the Secret Service with an update on the Trump rally shooting investigation that failed assassination attempt, including what agents knew about the gunman who was perched on that roof. We'll have more on that when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:50:08] KEILAR: We are learning some new details about last month's failed assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. Last hour, Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe spoke with reporters about the investigation so far, and he detailed a series of errors that nearly cost the former president his life.

SANCHEZ: Rowe now admits that the Secret Service had no idea there was an armed man on a rooftop near the rally until the first shots were fired. Rowe also said that he wouldn't blame local agencies for failings committed by the Secret Service. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RONALD ROWE, ACTING DIRECTOR, U.S. SECRET SERVICE: Every single person within the Secret Service feels the weight of what happened. We are in an unprecedented threat environment and a high operational tempo during this presidential campaign. The men and women of the Secret Service are working incredibly hard and doing their jobs under difficult circumstances.

They need to focus on their work and they need to know that I have their backs, and that is my commitment to them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Let's get some perspective now from retired Secret Service agent Robert McDonald. Robert, thank you so much for being with us. What do you make of what you heard from the acting director this afternoon?

ROBERT MCDONALD, RETIRED SECRET SERVICE AGENT: Well, good afternoon. Thank you for having me. I think it's great that we heard from him. I'm not sure that we heard a whole lot. I think one of the things that we noticed was that he walked back a little bit of the finger pointing with respect to state and local authorities up there in Butler.

I think he's also got a series of issues here now that he's got to regain the confidence of his workforce. I think the men and women of the Secret Service are getting a little bit restless with respect to some either real or perceived lack of leadership here and a lack of asset and personnel allocation for these events. So he's got a little bit of more work to do and getting that message out to his troops and to the American people.

KEILAR: Yes, that's what I was going to ask you about, because there's a whistleblower who's gone to Senator Hawley. And I don't know what you think of what Hawley is alleging about cuts in the Secret Service and pointing to Rowe's role in that. You heard Rowe today saying there was real heroism that day.

He seemed to really be trying to thread the needle of acknowledging the positive things that his agents have done. What do you think, though, about what is being leveled at him from Senator Hawley?

MCDONALD: Well, I think your assertion there is spot on that, look, we're talking about asset allocation and resources that are going to be used for various protective events. If for some reason assets were cut or were not allocated in certain areas, then the Secret Service is going to have to stand up and tell Congress or whoever why they did what they did. They need to articulate the reasons behind the decisions that were made.

I think as we move into the homestretch of the campaign, I think you're going to see every asset available that's in headquarters of the Secret Service or in and around the field. Every asset is going to be utilized now. There is not going to be the cutting or the scrutiny of various assets sent out.

Everything that the Secret Service has now is going to be out and in play because the eyes of the world are going to be on the Secret Service as we move into the Democratic convention. We have the U.N. in New York every year that we take care of all the foreign heads of state that come in. And then you've got the homestretch to November.

So the Secret Service has to make sure that it is rebooting and reworking itself to make sure that it's dotting all of its I's and crossing its T's and spending extra time on that communication factor, because I'm still very concerned about why that information on the ground there didn't get to where it needed to get to.

SANCHEZ: To that point, Robert, Rowe detailed that there was this communication breakdown between Secret Service agents and local agencies on the ground. Also issues getting on the same radio frequency, which is now apparently being worked on. They're trying to make an adjustment to that.

I'm wondering if you're surprised that it's taken until now that it's taken this to make these changes.

MCDONALD: Well, there are many mechanisms in place to avoid those issues in communication, whereby real-time information can be passed between agency to agency and from federal, state and local partners all around that venue. It's not the same radio channel. It's not the same frequencies and things like that.

But the Secret Service over the years has done a very good job in coordinating that communication. I'm a little bit -- it's been a little bit hard to understand why that gap was at this specific location and why there were separate entities in the command post versus the security room that he was talking about in his press conference.

So I think they've really got to spend some time on working to make sure that those pieces of the puzzle are well together during these protective events. Communication is key. Without it, it doesn't do anybody any good.

[15:55:03]

SANCHEZ: Still a lot of questions to answer. Robert McDonald, thank you so much for the analysis.

MCDONALD: Thank you for having me. SANCHEZ: Still to come, a Chinese badminton player just won gold in Paris today, but she'll be leaving the City of Lights with some extra hardware that's probably even more valuable than her medal. We'll explain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: What's better than winning an Olympic gold medal? Well, how about getting a diamond ring, too? Take a look at this. After winning gold in badminton mix doubles China's Huang Ya Qiong was met with a very special surprise. Her fellow badminton player, Liu Yuchen, on one knee asking her to tie the knot.

SANCHEZ: Already holding flowers from the ceremony she quickly said yes, and of course the crowd went wild. A golden moment. One of many at these Olympics. Perhaps none quite as romantic as this.

KEILAR: They really had to get gold. I mean even -- I'm just saying it would have been cool if they got silver or bronze and then did the proposal. But it's cooler that they got gold, isn't it?

SANCHEZ: Yes. Yes a sweet moment. Again, one of many we've seen these Olympics. I'm still not over Simone Biles.

She's Unbelievable.

KEILAR: It is just amazing to see her do this, 27 years old.

SANCHEZ: Speaking of amazing, "THE LEAD" with Jake Tapper starts a bit early today. Thanks for being with us.