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Cuban-American Business Owner Uses His Cafe to Help Create Opportunities for Migrants and Students in His Community; White House Again Blasts Democrats Over Jeffrey Epstein Hoax; Gigantic Revision Signals U.S. Job Growth Much Weaker than Believed. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired September 09, 2025 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Every year, CNN's "CHAMPIONS FOR CHANGE" shines a spotlight on innovators and pioneers who help improve the lives of others. This year, my champion is Adam San Miguel, a New Jersey entrepreneur and fellow Cuban-American who's used his growing business to support migrants and help students reconnect with their roots. I met up with Adam in New Jersey at his business, Cortaditos, where he serves a special blend of cafecito and community.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ADAM SAN MIGUEL, EWO, CORADITOS: I would equate the Cuban culture to the coffee, which has elements of joy. The strength and perseverance and resilience, just like the coffee, is very strong. And they're very passionate people about what they care about. I'm very proud of Coraditos, a five-store, going to be six soon, Cuban coffee shop chain. We're building careers and pathways to resettling and growing in this country, and to support specifically Cuban-American students.

SANCHEZ: I am a Cuban-American immigrant, and my family came to the United States the day that I turned three. I feel very connected to Adam, in part because of our shared background and the idea that our families fled our homeland in order to create a new life.

[15:35:00]

Coming to Cortaditos feels like a slice of home. It feels like I'm back in Miami, sharing cafecito and talking about the events of the day.

SANCHEZ: You hire a lot of Cuban migrants.

SAN MIGUEL: We are very purposeful about it. So we work with refugee resettlement agencies, and we go specifically to their job fairs, and we recruit. And so I always tell them, I want you to have a career with us or a career without us, and we're going to help you get there.

IVONNE BENITEZ, CORTADITOS MANAGER: (through translator): As a young girl, I always wanted to leave Cuba. I came to achieve a dream, to be a professional.

SANCHEZ (translated text): What would be your goal now for yourself? BENITEZ (through translator): My first goal is to learn English and improve myself a little more, because I really would like to know a little more about business.

SANCHEZ: It can be extremely intimidating as a new arrival in the United States to try to carve a path for yourself and your family, especially if you don't speak English. What Adam is doing at Cortaditos is giving an express lane to these folks to assimilate and to pursue their dreams.

LIZA FIS, CORTADITOS BARISTA: I was born in Havana, Cuba, and I immigrated to the United States when I was 8 years old. I absolutely love working at Cortaditos. I get to work with other Cubans whom I can identify with. And the chemistry is just there because we get each other.

SANCHEZ: Something that Adam and I share, and certainly other Cuban Americans and immigrants across this country, is that, from a very early age, Our parents instilled us with the idea that you have to work hard, you have to study. Adam has not only made good on the American dream for himself and for his family, he's now turned around and offered a helping hand to the next generation.

SAN MIGUEL: When I say welcome, you say, CAALE. Welcome.

GROUP: Calle.

SAN MIGUEL: I founded CAALE in 2013, the Cuban-American Alliance for Leadership and Education. Our mission is to build leadership capacity in the next generation of Cuban-American leaders. We give out three $10,000 scholarships a year, and the goal of the program is to build a professional, one that is successful in their career, has a spirit of service, and they know and care about their cultural identity, which is Cuba.

FIS: I am proud to be a scholarship recipient and to work at Cortaditos. CAALE has been such a resource. It's helped me find out what career I want to continue in so that I know what options I can have for my future.

SAN MIGUEL: My grandfather always marveled at how big and how great this country was, and he always knew the opportunity was there. If he would have saw, you know --

SANCHEZ: Of course.

SAN MIGUEL: -- not just what I've accomplished, because I don't think owning a coffee shop is so special, but I know he would be very, very proud of how I did it. He will be proud because I did it helping people.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ (on camera): I have to note that Adam's service extends beyond what he's doing at Cortaditos. We actually had a very limited time to shoot this with him because he had to ship off to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy to attend a reserve officer candidate indoctrination. He was an enlisted soldier. Now he's an officer in the U.S. Coast Guard. And he's so enthusiastic about giving back to this country, which is obviously given his family and many others, including mine, so much.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: You know, that is not the first time that you have made someone cry in your "CHAMPIONS FOR CHANGE" stories, which I think kind of reflects how meaningful they are. I love when you talk about your heritage and you connect with someone about that. It really just -- it's so important and it just drives home how hard it has been for his family, everything he's accomplished, how he's bringing people along with him. It's beautiful.

SANCHEZ: I was really glad that we found him when I first walked into Cortaditos, it was like the Spiderman meme. I looked at him and I was like, bro --

KEILAR: You were twinning a little.

SANCHEZ: We had so much twinning, but we also had so much in common. I do have the beard. That's the only way you can tell us apart. But Adam truly is a champion and we're grateful for him hosting us. Truly a champion.

KEILAR: It is a great story.

SANCHEZ: Be sure to tune in Saturday at 10 p.m. Eastern for the "CHAMPIONS FOR CHANGE" one-hour special. Stay with CNN. We'll be right back.

[15:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: President Trump, just a short time ago, gave his first public reaction to the release of the Jeffrey Epstein birthday book. When asked about a letter sent to Epstein in 2003 that includes his alleged signature, the president called it a, quote, dead issue, and then refused to make another comment.

[15:45:00]

The president has denied writing this letter, though you see a signature that looks very much like one Trump has used in the past, right in the center of it.

Today, Republican House Oversight Chair James Comer said that he believes the president and is taking him at his word. Comer saying that his Oversight Committee will not investigate it further.

CNN's Kristen Holmes is live for us at the White House right now. So Kristen, what more is the White House saying about the Epstein case?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the press secretary was asked a lot of questions about this and really pushed on the issue. She doubled down on this idea that President Trump did not sign that paper, that he did not write that note. At one point, she said that his signature was one of the most famous signatures of all time, and so it could have been forged. She also even said that she and the White House would support a handwriting analysis if the oversight committee was to do one to see if the signature actually matched Donald Trump's.

The really actually interesting part, though, of her question and answer session that she did during this briefing in regards to Epstein was about this idea of a Democratic hoax. We know that President Trump has called her a Democratic hoax. We obviously also know that the Epstein case is not a hoax. And one of the things we've heard from the victims themselves is that they've pleaded with the White House, with the administration, to stop using those terms, and Leavitt sought to explain what they meant when they used that term. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The hoax is the Democrats pretending to care about victims of crime when they do not care about victims of crime, when they have done nothing to solve crimes, when they have done nothing to lock up child pedophiles and child rapists across the country. And when they are now using victims as political props to try and again smear the President of the United States and drag on this bad story about him. It is a distraction. The Democrats view this story as nothing more than an attempt to distract from the accomplishments and the achievements of this administration. And that is what we mean when we call it a hoax.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, Boris, there was also a question about a check that was seen in those documents that looked like it was to Jeffrey Epstein by Donald Trump. She was asked about that check. She said that Donald Trump did not sign it, that signature didn't match his. So clearly, again, they are doubling down on these claims that he had nothing to do with anything that was found in those documents.

SANCHEZ: And Kristen, what about these updated jobs numbers? We got some new revisions from the Bureau of Labor Statistics today that showed nearly a million fewer jobs were actually created up to March of this year, going back to April of last year. What is the White House response to that.

HOLMES: Well, look, they think that this adds to their case that these statistics have been wrong. They actually said that this helps them in some way, essentially saying that they inherited a worse economy from Biden than was previously known. As you mentioned, these revisions that were done were for a year ending in March. They now say, look at this, this is the Biden administration that was their economy, and now these are revisions that show it's actually it was worse when we got into office.

One other thing they're pointing out here is that they're kind of equating this to what they've said before that these statistics are wrong, that this data analysis is wrong, that comes from the Bureau on Labor and Statistics. And when you talk to experts about this, I think it should be made clear that these are revisions. This means that they got new data sets, new information, and then they revised the previous numbers. It's not as though they were flat-out wrong. They didn't have all the data when they put out their preliminary report. This, of course, is the revisions once they have all that collective data -- Boris.

SANCHEZ: Kristen Holmes live from the White House. Thank you so much.

Still to come, South Korean leaders furious over their citizens being detained in last week's raid on a Hyundai plant in Georgia. What they're saying about it and the status of those in custody.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: We are right now monitoring this press conference coming from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Qatar addressing those Israeli strikes on Hamas negotiators and leadership in Doha earlier today. We are keeping our eye on this. We will bring you any headlines as they are made.

In the meantime, a South Korean plane will be heading to the U.S. as soon as tomorrow to bring home workers who were detained in a U.S. immigration raid in southeast Georgia. The top diplomat from Seoul is holding tense talks in Washington right now, hoping to secure the release of more than 300 South Korean citizens. They were detained last week when federal and state agents raided a Hyundai factory near Savannah. Some were taken away in handcuffs and leg chains. South Korea's president is blasting this immigration sweep, calling it an unjust infringement on his country's people and businesses.

We have CNN's Priscilla Alvarez with us now on this story. What more do we know about the status of these detainees and what appears to be a very testy situation having to do with them.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there has been immense blowback from South Korea over the detention of the South Korean nationals at that raid in Georgia last week. Now, their statuses vary. There were visa overstays, so they were in the U.S. illegally. There were also, though, people here on visa waivers. That means that they were allowed to come to the United States for a period of time, either for tourism or business, and their immigration attorneys who have made the point in all of this, that there are so few visa opportunities at times for foreign nationals to come to the U.S. or, say, business, that it has sort of mucked this all up.

[15:55:00]

And now we're in a situation where some of those who were detained were here legally, even if they were prohibited from working, as well as those who were, again, visa overseas and would have been here illegally.

But the images have been striking, of course, and they have been on South Korean media of these nationals being shackled and taken into detention to be processed. What we know now of where things are headed is that there has been an

effort by the South Korean government to send a chartered flight as soon as tomorrow to Atlanta where these 300 or so citizens can be sent back to their home country.

But Brianna, this has very much crystallized how two of the president's priorities can come head to head with each other. He has talked about investment and about manufacturing and bringing more foreign investment to the United States. But there's also an immigration crackdown underway, and the two things can sometimes conflict, as happened in Georgia last week at this Hyundai plant, which has been a major investment opportunity for the state of Georgia.

The White House press secretary weighing in on it today, saying that these companies should invest, but they to also hire American workers. But again, it's just yet another example of how all of this can become very complicated. And this case involved high-level diplomatic talks after South Korea was just fiercely opposed to what happened on the ground a few days ago.

KEILAR: Yes, certainly. Priscilla, thank you so much for that report.

And just into CNN, the man accused of stabbing a Ukrainian refugee to death in Charlotte is now facing federal charge. We'll have details just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: This just in. The suspect in a deadly stabbing attack on Charlotte's light rail is now facing a federal charge. 34-year-old Decarlos Brown has been charged with one count of committing an act of causing death on a mass transportation system. The DOJ official overseeing this case, where a woman was killed, became emotional while announcing the charge moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUSS FERGUSON, U.S. ATTORNEY: This is obviously a horrible, horrible situation. But this is why federal statutes exist. They exist to take care of situations like this because no one should sit in fear when they sit on the light rail.

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We built a city that people want to live in, but we can lose that all if we allow violent crime like this to go on in our streets. And I'm here to tell you the federal government is going to save our city from that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: The victim, Iryna Zarutska, was a Ukrainian immigrant who fled to the U.S. for her safety. Officials say the attack was completely unprovoked and that Brown has a lengthy criminal history. Brown's family members tell CNN he also has a history of mental health struggles, and he is also, we should note, being charged at the state level with first-degree murder.

Thanks so much for joining us this afternoon. "THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts right now.

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