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One Hour Until Texas Governor's Deadline For Dem Lawmakers To Return For Vote; White House Defends Trump's Firing Of Labor Stats Chief; More Than Half Of U.S. Adults Stressed Over Grocery Prices; United Airlines Flight Declares Mayday, Makes Emergency Landing. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired August 04, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:01:30]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Up Against the Clock: The Texas governor says Democratic lawmakers who left the state have one hour to return or face the consequences, but those lawmakers say this fight is bigger than them and is about preserving American democracy.

And New Math: President Trump offering no evidence as he insists last week's job report was rigged. Economists say not only is that not true, but there's a much bigger concern when it comes to the labor market.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: The Deadline for a Deal: Russia has until Friday to reach a peace deal with Ukraine or face President Trump's threatened consequences. Now, the Kremlin says a meeting between Vladimir Putin and the White House envoy could happen as soon as Wednesday. We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KEILAR: Happening now, a showdown in the Lone Star State is igniting a political firestorm across the nation. Dozens of Democrats overnight fleeing the state all in an effort to block something the Republicans are hoping to do roughly 60 minutes from now. Texas state Republicans backed by President Trump want to vote on a redistricting plan that would significantly favor them in next year's midterm elections. But if enough Democrats don't show up to the Capitol today, they can't pass it. Let's go right to CNN's Ed Lavandera, who's there at the state Capitol in Texas.

Ed, Gov. Greg Abbott has been clear about the timeline here. These lawmakers need to show up or lose their jobs, he says, in the next hour. What are you seeing?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, everything is coming to a head here in about an hour, Brianna. The Texas House is supposed to convene at three o'clock Central Time, and that's when we'll have a clear indication as to whether or not there will be a quorum. We have been told by Democrats that more than 51 Democrats have left the state, so there would not be enough representatives in the chamber to conduct business, which would bring everything to a grinding halt. And that would set off another round of fireworks, political fireworks here in the state.

And we've already seen the Governor making those threats of not only threatening to remove these Texas Democrats from their offices, but also suggesting that they would be guilty of bribery if they were to accept donations to cover the costs of the fines for not showing up to the legislative session, as well as traveling away from the state.

Democrats say both of those ideas and threats from the Governor are just simply that - that they - the Governor and the state do not have the ability to enforce what the Governor is talking about. But, you know, the question is just how long Democrats will be able to stay away. We're about halfway through this special legislative session that the Governor called. It lasts 30 days. There's about two weeks left. And we spoke with Representative Ramon Romero, a Democrat from Fort Worth who has left the state, of what exactly is the goal here for Democrats and what they're trying to achieve at this moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. RAMON ROMERO (D-TX): Everyone across our nation know what's actually their goal. And their goal is to take away the voices of black and brown people, especially Latinos in Texas that now make up 40 percent of the population of Texas.

LAVANDERA: How long are you and the Democratic caucus able to stay away from Texas?

[15:05:04]

ROMERO: Look, I don't want to stay away from my business and my family for one day. So, this is really in Gov. Abbott's hands right now to understand that he needs to be a governor of Texas, not Donald Trump's boy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: And that's what Democrats continue to say, that all of this is happening because the Republicans in Texas are not able to stand up to Donald Trump, that he called for state lawmakers to change the congressional maps to give him five more seats, and that is what they continue to hammer away at.

Meanwhile, Republicans say Democrats are simply cowards for running away from this political fight here in the state, and it all comes to a head here in about an hour. Brianna?

KEILAR: All right. We'll be watching there. Ed Lavandera, thank you. Boris?

SANCHEZ: President Trump and one of his top aides are speaking out following Friday's stunning dismissal of the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner. Erika McEntarfer was removed from the post at President Trump's directive just a few hours after a new jobs report showed major downward revisions to previous months, May and June, to the tune of more than 200,000 jobs.

Today, the White House's chief economist suggested that those numbers may have been manipulated for political reasons.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN HASSETT, DIRECTOR, WHITE HOUSE ECONOMIC COUNCIL: They could be politically manipulated because they're so untransparent. There's a black box system out there making the jobs numbers that needs to be improved.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Let's go to the White House with CNN's Kristen Holmes. Kristen, what else are you hearing from officials about this?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, every White House official that I've spoken to say that it is well within President Trump's right to dismiss the commissioner. They point to the fact that these revisions, they say that that shows, and this again is a claim, that this commissioner wasn't good at her job because she had to make these revisions.

Now, to be very clear, we have spoken to a number of experts who say this kind of revisions are normal in this practice as more data comes out. But President Trump himself has maintained that these jobs numbers were rigged. And here's what he posted today on Truth Social. He said, "Last weeks Job's Report was RIGGED, just like the numbers prior to the Presidential Election were Rigged. That's why, in both cases, there was a massive, record setting revisions, in favor of the Radical Left Democrats. Those big adjustments were made to cover up, and level out, the FAKE political numbers that were CONCOCTED in order to make a great Republican Success look less stellar."

Again, there is no evidence to back this up that this was in any way rigged. And in fact, a number of these experts that we have been talking to say that this position is generally apolitical, that this is just based on the numbers.

Now, President Trump himself has said that within this week he will name a new commissioner to that department. But the thing to keep in mind here, what everyone is watching from Wall Street, really throughout the administration, is what kind of a person that President Trump is going to choose. Is he going to choose a loyalist? And how is that going to impact the way that the American public takes in this information?

There is a lot of risk if the American public doesn't trust this number - these numbers because they believe it to be political, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Kristen Holmes live for us at the White House, thank you so much. Brianna?

KEILAR: Let's talk a little bit more about this now with former senior economist for the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Ron Hetrick. He is now the principal economist at Lightcast.

All right, thank you so much for being with us to give us a little bit of an inside perspective here. You heard the director of the National Economic Council, Kevin Hassett, saying this morning that the jobs data could be politically manipulated because it's so untransparent. Can you just react to that, the veracity of it first, and then we'll talk about the effect of those words?

RON HETRICK, FORMER SENIOR ECONOMIST, BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS: Yes, I don't want to get into the political side of it as much as just say that there's a reason why these things exist kind of in the quiet. And I think reason number one is that it's actually fairly complicated and probably even more boring to the average person. Data's coming in all the time. Analysts receive this in various systems. Different analysts are touching different industries. They produce the data, they get more sample and then they have to make adjustments to that data.

Unfortunately, there are times when all of those industries come in, in the past couple months and they all kind of move together in a negative way. So, it ends up creating an appearance that something looks overinflated when it's actually just gaining more idea of what's actually happening for more people just kind of giving their data.

KEILAR: You said you don't want to get into the politics of it. I mean, that's not really the wheelhouse of the BLS, right? Just to be clear about how the BLS operates. Explain that.

HETRICK: Yes, you know, I served - when I was in the BLS, there were several administrations that went through and when we were there, it's - really you're kind of oblivious to everything that's kind of happening outside your walls. Like I always say, it's a little bit more boring than a lot of people want to imagine. You are just simply receiving data.

[15:10:00]

At the end of the day, each analyst kind of contributes their piece and the numbers go out. Now, there are times when you look at this together with maybe your supervisors and say, hey, I'm not so sure. Am I seeing a trend here or not?

And only until you receive additional data do you kind of confirm that trend. It's hard to imagine that at any point in there, somebody could say, well, I'd like this to be a better number. I'd like this to be a worse number. You know, you're taking the best guess you can, especially with those first estimates because you don't have all of your sample in.

And I think when we look at this particular situation, one thing everybody has to understand is when you do a second and third revision, you have a lot more sample to look at. This is a lot more reflective of what's actually happening, and it does all click together. An important thing to note is that none of this data exists in a vacuum, you can confirm it with everything going on around you. We know in the household survey, we've seen a drop in the labor force of about 800,000 since March, about 1.6 million drop in foreign-born workers since March.

These were people that were working. They only have a 4 percent unemployment rate. If they disappear, if they're not here, if their labor force is declining, you would expect to see a very significant drop in payroll employment. So, nothing really here is surprising when you triangulate it with all kinds of other data points.

KEILAR: So, when you're looking at a revision or revisions, as you explain them, it seems like it's almost the picture kind of coming more sharply into focus. So, when you hear criticism from people saying these are huge downward revisions, we've never seen things like this, you, as someone who has seen what BLS does, you've been in it, what do you say to that, that this is some kind of - when people who are criticizing the numbers right now seem to indicate that there's a bigger problem right now than we've ever seen, what do you say?

HETRICK: Well, first off, we lose - I think we have a lot of (INAUDIBLE) if we go back through all of history's revisions happen, there have been some that are larger than this. Unfortunately, sometimes they string themselves along in a couple months. But I think part of this is actually fair in that there isn't a whole lot of explanation.

So, in this report that went out, basically it was just said in the report, numbers revised down because we have more sample. And I think in a case like that, it would be nice to have more detail. However, at the end of the day, it's - the data is what matters, and the data is just getting more accurate in that time.

So, whether there is believed to be different perceptions about why things may happen, at the end of the day, the data will tell the truth. And like I said, I think that data, you can look around. We can look at stable unemployment claims. We can look at job postings data that are outside of the JOLTS data, and you see a very consistent story.

So, I think for people to kind of say certain things about the Bureau or to question the integrity, all I've been saying to these people is triangulate it. There are other data sets out there that you can look at, and you'll find that they all confirm the same story. Things in the labor market have been slowing down. I think we've all certainly felt it, and I don't think that the numbers as revised feel different, right? There's not a whole lot of cognitive dissonance going on here when we hear these things. I think, we all kind of say, well, yes, this feels about right.

So, I think that's the important thing to matter, is when you question something, also question like, but does it fit what you're seeing with your own eyes?

KEILAR: Yes, it's interesting. And as you sort of say this idea of sort of showing your work, right, something we've all learned in math throughout time, it would be interesting, certainly, to see that. Ron, it's great to get your perspective on this. Thank you so much for being with us.

HETRICK: Thanks for having me. Appreciate it.

KEILAR: Boris? SANCHEZ: Financial stress, that's what a new poll says most American

adults are feeling when they head to the store to buy groceries. A new Associated Press survey found more than half of those polled say grocery prices are a major source of stress, even more stressful than health care costs or credit card debt. CNN's Matt Egan joins us now with the numbers.

Matt, break them down for us.

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Boris, this survey underscores this underlying anxiety and frustration with the cost of living right now. Prices are no longer skyrocketing like they were a few years ago, but it remains a very expensive time to go to the grocery store or to go out to dinner. So, this AP poll found that 53 percent, a majority of American adults, say that the price of groceries is a major source of stress for them, 53 percent. And another 33 percent say that it is a minor source of stress.

You put it together and you're looking at 86 percent of Americans who say they are stressed out about the cost of groceries. And look, they're not imagining it. There's no doubt that it's a lot more expensive to go to the grocery store than it was. Just a few years ago. And we know that inflation skyrocketed three years ago. This was a major source of frustration for Americans heading into the polls last fall.

In fact, the cost of living was arguably one of the biggest things that got President Trump elected again.

[15:15:04]

And he promised to tackle it. He promised to focus on it and get prices down. Take a listen to what Trump said last fall on the campaign trail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Grocery prices have skyrocketed. They're all through the roof. The milk, everything is bad. And we're going to straighten it out. We're going to bring prices way down and we'll get it to get it done fast.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EGAN: Of course, the idea of getting prices way down, I mean, that was never realistic. Typically, prices don't collapse unless you're in some sort of a crisis or a recession. But it's understandable that a lot of people, they miss those pre-COVID prices at the grocery store. Let me just give you a few examples.

Back in June of 2019, before the pandemic, egg prices were, per dozen, about $1.20. And then largely because of bird flu, they skyrocketed. They're below their all-time highs, but still you're looking at almost $4 per dozen eggs, depending upon where you're buying it across the country. Same thing with steak per pound is just about $8 before COVID. And now it's nearly $13. Now, the good news is that paychecks, paychecks are growing, right?

Wages are going up generally faster than prices. Even in that pretty ugly July jobs report, we did see another steady increase in prices. Still though, I think that these findings, they do suggest that the cost of living remains a major problem. And we know inflation really haunted the Biden presidency. And clearly it remains very much a top of the mind issue during this second Trump administration. Boris.

SANCHEZ: Matt Egan, thank you so much for taking us through that.

Still to come, new details on a United Airlines flight that made an emergency landing at Dulles Airport after the pilot reported engine failure.

Plus, an intense manhunt is underway in Tennessee for this man accused of killing four people, including two young parents.

And later, Steve Witkoff is traveling to Russia this week, just days before President Trump's deadline for the Kremlin to reach a peace deal with Ukraine. That and much more coming your way in just moments.

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KEILAR: New details today after a United Airlines flight traveling from Washington, Dulles International Airport had to make an emergency landing shortly after taking off last month. This was a plane that was carrying 230 people. It was bound for Munich when it was forced to return to Dulles and it declared a mayday call over suspected engine failure. Just take a listen to this audio from air traffic control as the United crew declares the emergency.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Failure. Engine failure, left engine, United 108 declaring an emergency. Mayday, mayday, mayday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: United 108 Heavy. Roger that, sir. Are you able to make your way back in to the field at this time? You can turn right heading 100, if able.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Watch this flight tracking video shortly after takeoff. You see the plane making a couple of turns in a holding pattern before it makes it safely back on the ground. United canceled the flight to Munich, but says it was able to get passengers onto different flights. We're joined now by CNN Aviation Analyst Miles O'Brien. He's also a science correspondent for the PBS NewsHour. Miles, great to see you as always.

It seems like the United crew and air traffic control have dealt with this emergency as smoothly as they could. What kind of protocols go into place when a pilot realizes that an engine has failed? MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, the thing to keep in mind

here, Boris, is that flight crews train for this kind of scenario repeatedly in simulators. The idea of losing an engine just as you depart is obviously a very critical time, and you want to make sure you drill this in a way where you have all the procedures, all the radio calls, all the buttons to push memorized. You don't have time necessarily to be going through a checklist.

And it sounds like this crew pretty much did everything by the playbook. They did issue a Mayday call, as you heard, which usually implies a very urgent need to get back to the airport. In this case, as you saw, they flew around for in excess of an hour. Why, you ask? Well, they depart at a weight that exceeds the recommended arrival weight, and so they were burning off fuel to avoid that.

So, it's an emergency, but once you've leveled off on one engine, this aircraft is actually certified to fly five and a half hours on one engine across the ocean. So, it's hair-raising, it's critical, but it also stabilized pretty quickly.

KEILAR: So, if you're inside the plane as a passenger, Miles, can you get a sense? I mean, is the pilot - are they trying to compensate because the - one engine is out, and can you see the fuel being dumped? Can you actually see that?

O'BRIEN: Well, the 787, Brianna, does not have dumping capacity. That was actually taken out of its design to save on the amount of weight, the amount of plumbing, it's not the point of failure. And so, it is certified to land at its takeoff weight if need be. You have to go through a series of inspections. So, if you can avoid it, you do, which is what this crew did. So, they went around and just flew - burned some fuel off.

Now, as for what passengers might have seen, depends on how that engine failed. If it did - if there was an engine fire, which we didn't hear them report, but if there was a fire, that would definitely get your attention.

[15:25:07]

There's a fire extinguisher system on the engine inside it to douse those things pretty quickly. But when it's burning, you're going to pay attention.

SANCHEZ: Yes. I'm definitely closing the window as soon as I see that. I would rather just leave it in the pilot's hands.

KEILAR: I would open it. I would certainly open the window.

SANCHEZ: (INAUDIBLE) trust the pilot. Miles, talk to us - stepping back, talk to us about why engines fail. Like, what is it that causes them to fail? Are they usable after they fail? How common is it?

O'BRIEN: Yes. They'll have to break this one down, and it all depends. Some portion of it might be recoverable. Maybe it's a total loss. But when you think about the temperature and pressures and all the things that happen inside these GE engines, which is what United flies with, it's kind of amazing they work at all, frankly, in my view, just as a layperson, because it is an extraordinary juxtaposition of speed, force, high temperatures, low temperatures. And the fact that they work so reliably is kind of amazing. Every now and then they do fail. This is why there are two engines, and this is why the engines are reliable enough and powerful enough for the aircraft to fly for quite long distances on one engine. So, there's an element of safety here.

You know, back in the old days, engines had - there were four engines on the aircraft. They weren't as reliable. Today it does happen, clearly, but it's not anything we should worry about too much. Just shut the shade and return to reruns of the office.

SANCHEZ: Vodka soda, please.

KEILAR: You guys are so Jesus-take-the-wheel about this. Like, I can't --

O'BRIEN: A double - I'll have a double.

SANCHEZ: Good call. If you leave it open, I feel like other people around you might start to panic. You never know how people - so, I just lean back, double vodka soda for me and Miles.

Appreciate you, Miles O'Brien.

O'BRIEN: Yes, there you go. All right, take care.

KEILAR: I'm down with a drink, though.

SANCHEZ: Still to come, the clock is ticking for Texas Democrats who left the state to block a Republican effort to redraw the state's congressional map. Gov. Greg Abbott says if they don't show up at the Capitol in the next 30 minutes, they're going to face removal from office. Stay with us.

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