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White House Says, Trump Did Not Draw This Picture, and He Did Not Sign It; Gov. Wes Moore (D-MD) Runs for Reelection Amid Speculation on White House Bid; Tariff-Exposed Industries are Losing Jobs. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired September 09, 2025 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The Epstein birthday book is out. The signature forensics have begun. Big questions now, what does this show, and what does this do to the president's insistent denials and the defamation lawsuit he brought declaring that the note doesn't exist?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The Trump administration threatens to pull funds from Charlotte, North Carolina after a horrific murder there.

And talk about a precarious situation, a Texas deputy dangling from a highway overpass rescued in the nick of time.

Sara is out. I'm John Berman with Kate Bolduan, and this is CNN News Central.

BOLDUAN: So, this morning, the note is out and the president and the White House are not backing down. The president is yet to respond himself publicly after the House Oversight Committee finally released something that has been talked about for months, the letter that the president allegedly wrote that was included in a book for Jeffrey Epstein's 50th birthday back in 2003, a note that was complete with a suggestive drawing of a woman and allegedly the future president's signature.

This is part of a batch of documents from Epstein's estate released by the committee of Democrats on the committee, a letter that the president has denied and pushed back against over and over again.

Here he is in July.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I don't do drawings. I'm not a drawing person.

REPORTER: Do you think it was fraudulent --

TRUMP: I don't do drawings. Sometimes people would say, would you draw a building and I'll draw four lines and a little roof, you know, for a charity stuff. But I'm not a drawing person. I don't do drawings of women, that I can tell you.

REPORTER: Do you maintain you did not write a letter for Jeffrey Epstein's birthday?

TRUMP: I don't even know what they're talking about. Now, somebody could have written a letter and used my name, but that's happened a lot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: The White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, following the release of this image, responded to it saying that this wasn't President Trump's drawing and he did not sign it, which has launched a million side by side analyses comparing the signature in the Epstein book to these bottom left of the signatures released by the White House that it says do not match what was provided in the book. But at the bottom right, there's also this 1996 letter that he wrote to Rudy Giuliani. That looks quite similar. You be the judge.

But also the existence of this note does not prove any wrongdoing. The president has not been accused of wrongdoing. So, why go so deep in the denial.

Also released another page from the birthday book showing Epstein and a longtime Mar-a-Lago member joking about selling a woman to Donald Trump and a giant -- with a -- along with a giant mocked up check.

CNN's Kevin Liptak is at the White House. Sometimes it is amazing the things that we are expected and have to say on television part 75. Kevin, what -- are you expecting to actually hear from the president today on this?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. We'll see him at 4:30 in the Oval Office. He's due to sign a proclamation. So, that'll be his first chance to kind of explain how he thinks this letter came about. But what we've seen so far is really kind of the classic deny, deny, deny playbook coming out of the White House. You saw it very quickly the White House deputy chief of staff posting those images of current signatures from the president saying it's not his signature, and then Karoline Leavitt saying, as I've said all along, it's very clear President Trump did not draw this picture and he did not sign it.

Now, I think when you look at the signatures side by side, you can judge for yourself. The glaring difference here is that the White House put out signatures of the president's first name and last name. The alleged signature on the birthday book is just his first name, and when you compare it to other times that the president has signed just Donald, it does look pretty similar. So, how much those denials -- how much water they carry among the American people, I think, remains to be seen.

One place that is sort of backing up the president is the MAGA echo chamber. You saw conservative influencers like Charlie Kirk, Benny Johnson, all sort of backing up the White House's denials here, which I think gives you a sense of just how much the president and his allies really want to move on. You know, the president had tried very arduously over the last several months to try and tamp down the furor here in the sense in this building had been that they were successful in some ways, that they weren't feeling the same kind of heat that they were feeling from the get-go in sort of providing more information about Jeffrey Epstein, but also answering more questions about the president's relationship with him.

[07:05:12]

The fact of this letter now, seeing it in black and white, has the effect of kind of rekindling those questions, even if it doesn't necessarily provide all of the answers.

And so it also puts into sharper focus some of the administration's credibility here. You remember when this drawing was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, the vice president, J.D. Vance, called it complete and under utter B.S. Last night, he stopped short of saying that the letter didn't exist, but he did say that it was another fake scandal to smear Trump.

So, the White House press secretary does say that the president plans to continue his $10 billion lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal. He said in that lawsuit in the court filings that no authentic letter or drawing exists. We'll hear from Karoline Leavitt at 1:00 P.M. We'll hear from the president a few hours after that, really his first chance to provide his own explanation for how this drawing may have come about.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Great to see you, Kevin, thank you so much. John?

BERMAN: All right. New this morning, it's never too early. The governor of Maryland, Democrat Wes Moore formally announced he's running for a second term in 2026. His national profile has been rising after events, including the Baltimore Bridge collapse and the back and forth with President Trump over crime. And now the question is, though, this announcement is nominally about 2026, does he have his eye on 2028?

Let's get right to CNN's Eva McKend for the very latest. Good morning to you.

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, John. Look, he says he's not running in 2028, but many of his actions suggest he has his eye on the national stage. Right now, he's trying to communicate to Maryland voters. He remains excited about what's happening under his leadership and that he's committed to the job that he currently has for the duration.

But Governor Moore spoke at the Democratic National Convention last year. Earlier this summer, he visited the critical presidential primary state of South Carolina. He also takes to the national platforms frequently to openly criticize the Trump administration, yet he maintains he's not running in 2028. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you rule out a run for president, Governor?

GOV. WES MOORE (D-MD): Yes, I'm not running for president.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You rule it out?

MOORE: Yes. I'm not running for president.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You completely rule it out?

MOORE: I'm so excited about what we're doing, that we've gone from 43rd in the country in unemployment to now one of the lowest unemployment rates. We've had amongst the fastest drops in violent crime anywhere in the United States of America. Our population is growing. Maryland is moving. And so I'm really excited about going back in front of the people of my state and asking for another term.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: At 46 years old, Governor Moore is the first black governor of Maryland. He was elected in 2022. He's a Johns Hopkins graduate and is an Army combat veteran who served in Afghanistan. As you heard, he touts that fast dropping violent crime rate as one of his accomplishments and the effort to increase affordable housing.

But, John, I think it's fair to stay that we should stay tuned.

BERMAN: Yes. Look, it's fun with verb tenses, isn't it? Because saying, I'm not running for president is like saying, I'm not having lunch, which is true right now, but it's very different than saying I won't have lunch. So, stay tuned very closely.

Eva McKend, thank you very much.

All right, developing this morning the transportation secretary threatens to pull federal funding from the Charlotte Transit System after a horrific murder on board a train.

And we're standing by for what could be more gloomy jobs news, a major revision this morning with some predicting 800,000 fewer jobs added than initially thought.

And then wild boar on the lam, inside a house? This cannot end well.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:10:00]

BERMAN: New this morning, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy and FBI Director Kash Patel have announced their departments are investigating the unprovoked stabbing attack on Charlotte's light rail system that left 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska dead. Secretary Duffy threatened to pull funding from the transit system there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN DUFFY, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: I can't pull money today from their transit system. I actually have to do an investigation. That's what the law requires.

I guarantee all your viewers that if I find what I think I'm going to find, they're not going to have your federal tax dollars going to their public transportation system, zero, none, nada.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Decarlos Brown has been charged with first-degree murder. He was homeless at the time of the stabbing. Court records show he has a lengthy history of arrests and mental health problems. His sister tells CNN he was diagnosed with schizophrenia and suffered hallucinations. Brown reportedly told his sister just days ago that he carried out the stabbing because the victim was, quote, reading his mind.

The victim, Iryna Zarutska, fled war-torn Ukraine with her mother in 2022. Her obituary says she loves sculpting and designing, quote, unique eclectic clothing that reflected her vibrant spirit. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Also new this morning, President Trump's trade war, not inspiring a jobs boom. In fact, it seems to be doing the opposite. Last week's dismal jobs report showed hiring is weak, just 22,000 jobs added last month. The unemployment rate rose to the highest level in four years. And the industry's most exposed to tariffs, like manufacturing, are shedding jobs not adding.

A deep dive now into all of this and what this means about the economy right now. Matt Egan's been taking a look. What are you finding?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, Kate. Well, you're right. That was a dismal jobs report on Friday, but it was especially grim for those industries most exposed to tariffs, right? So, look at mining and logging, lost 6,000 jobs in August alone, 7,000 lost in construction, manufacturing, and wholesale trade losing 12,000 jobs a piece in one month.

And this month was not an anomaly.

[07:15:00]

Apollo Global Management has found that if you look at those tariff- exposed industries, they started losing jobs shortly after this trade war started, and it's continued. For example, U.S. manufacturing, it's lost jobs four months in a row. You go back to April, that was the month that those sky-high tariffs really were first announced, employment was unchanged during that month.

So, this is, of course, the exact opposite of what the White House is looking for, right? They're trying to engineer this American manufacturing renaissance. They're trying to cause a jobs boom. That is not happening, right? Economists say, at best, that effort is off to a slow start. At worst, it's actually backfiring completely, that it's been counterproductive. Because, first of all, you're causing a lot of uncertainty, right? A lot of businesses, they don't know where tariffs are going to be, and so they're kind of paralyzed. They're not hiring at all. BOLDUAN: But what about short-term pain, long-term gain argument that we've heard over and over again from the White House?

EGAN: We have definitely heard that. And one of the points there is a valid one that they can't just make factories overnight, right?

BOLDUAN: That's what companies have been saying all along.

EGAN: Right. But they're saying it's going to take some time. And, look, I reached out to the White House and they said that, look, that this administration has embarked on the most pro-growth economic agenda in modern history. And they said that as these policies and the trade deals really kick in that the best is yet to come.

But, look, surveys of manufacturers show that this is having some real problems, right? The Texas Federal Reserve Bank, they asked manufacturers in that state how tariffs have impacted their business. 4 percent, only 4 percent, Kate, say that tariffs have had a positive impact. The vast majority, 72 percent say that it's been a negative.

And it's not just the uncertainty, it's also the tariffs on steel, on aluminum, on copper and other critical inputs. Those tariffs are actually making life more expensive for American manufacturing, right? It's making it more expensive to make goods in the United States. And there's some polls that show that voters are getting more concerned about the economy and the labor market in particular.

This is the New York Fed just yesterday put this survey out showing that consumers think that there's just, on average, a 45 percent chance of getting a new job if they lose their current one, 45 percent. That is significantly lower than in July, lower than at any point during the Biden administration, lower than at any point during the first Trump administration, and, yes, the lowest since 2013.

So, look, bottom line, the job market does seem to be in a significant slump, and tariffs appear to be part of the problem.

BOLDUAN: Yes. And if the best is yet to come, it's how long is it, how long do consumers and anyone looking for a job and industries and manufacturers, how long do they have to wait in order to feel it?

EGAN: And voters.

BOLDUAN: And voters. Thanks, Matt.

Thanks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: The nation's report card is in and it's not good. High school test scores dropping to their lowest levels in decades, where the most trouble is seen seems to be evident, and what is driving this. We've got that ahead.

And what to expect with Apple's biggest announcement of the year. Apple is hinting at it this way. It will be awe-dropping.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [07:20:00]

BERMAN: All right. Let's do this again. When I fell asleep last night, late in the third quarter, I thought, surely, there is no way the Minnesota Vikings could win. Well, J.J. McCarthy says, not so fast, and don't call me Shirley.

Let's get right to CNN's Coy Wire for the latest on this two nights in a row.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Oh, J.J. McCarthy would've said, well, Mr. Berman, you can call me, surely, you remember I won a national title at Michigan. Surely, you remember this team got rid of Sam Darnold, even after the Vikings won 14 games last season because they trust in me, and, surely, now you know why.

Incredible matchup between two second year quarterbacks drafted in the first round last year, Caleb Williams of the Bears, number one overall. He started off hot, John, going ten for ten, leading Chicago to a touchdown on their 31st drive. Bears looking in total control. I, like John, thinking this one's going to be a wrap.

But J.J. McCarthy says, my turn. Youngest starter in the league, missed last season due to injury. After throwing a 74-yard pick six to Nashon Wright. He serves Justin Jefferson his first gritty of the season after that touchdown pass. Then McCarthy hits Aaron Jones for the 27-yard touchdown pass to give the Vikings the lead.

And then nailing the coffin, time ticking down, I'm going to do it myself. Naked, bootleg for the touchdown, Vikings win 27-24. Here's McCarthy on the field after the win.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.J. MCCARTHY, VIKINGS Q.B. MISSED 2024 SEASON WITH INJURY: It's surreal, you know, your first NFL win and you know, I just can't be more proud of the guys up front. The defense, they were -- you know, it was struggling the first half for us offensively and they had our back, you know, in the kicking game, punts and all that. So, I just want to say my thanks to my team right there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Now, did you know there has not been a no-hitter in the Majors this year? Dodgers came so close again. Over the weekend, Yoshinobu Yamamoto was one out shy. Last night, Tyler Glasgow threw seven no-hit innings. Relievers Blake Treinen and Tanner Scott kept the bid alive through eight. But in the ninth, Rockies' Ryan Ritter got Ritter their no hitter with a leadoff double, only team on record to lose a no hit bid in the ninth twice in a three-game span. Dodgers won 3-1.

Finally, did the Twins crush the Angels, 12-3 yesterday? Yes. Are the Angels one of the worst teams in MLB this year? Yes. But did Angels' Zach Neto make the catch of the day? 100 percent, yes.

[07:25:00] It actually took him about four attempts to make it, but he inevitably did haul it in. It's like tracking down that bar of soap in the shower. That was a greased pig grab right there, Berman. And, surely, you would've made that catch, right?

BERMAN: Yes, absolutely. Surely, I would never give up, never give up. That's the lesson there, perseverance. It's going to turn the whole Angels season around right now, right? The run starts now. If they win every game, they'll still be like 25 games under 500. All right.

WIRE: Facts.

BERMAN: Coy Wire, great to see you. Thank you very much.

WIRE: You too.

BERMAN: All right. The signature moment, the White House says President Trump did not sign this birthday letter, Jeffrey Epstein. But the signature looks a lot like this one and a lot of other ones.

Wild boar on the lam. Not clear whether it was a housebroken wild boar, but it definitely was inside a house.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: So, the Jeffrey Epstein saga with a new chapter this morning.

[07:30:03]

The House Oversight Committee released a trove of documents with Democrats highlighting this.