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Democrats Winning in Polls; U.S. Economy Added 178,000 Jobs; Money Madness in College Basketball. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired April 03, 2026 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

REP. NANCY MACE (R-SC): Very important. I put out names. I know Chairman Comer has put out a list of people that are going to be coming in. This isn't going away. And I applaud members of Congress on both sides of the aisle that are with me and are pushing back to make sure that the American people get the truth.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Do you think that her being fired helps your effort or hurts it in terms of getting the truth out about the Epstein files, in your view?

MACE: I don't think it really matters because the subpoena was for her, not her position. You know, so she is still compelled legally to come before the Oversight Committee in Congress. So, I don't think it really plays one way or the other because the subpoena still stands.

BOLDUAN: Do you -- are you glad that she got fired?

MACE: I am, actually. And I -- and I -- you know, I've communicated with the president on potential names of replacements. I hope that it will be someone who will ensure that people are investigated, that they are indicted, that they're arrested, that there are trials, regardless of the politics. There are investigations. My understanding, for people that are -- that are -- it's not politically connected, that they're going after the right and the left for those who are criminals, potentially, and done potential criminal wrongdoing. And I think it's really important that the DOJ communicate that with the American people.

But also, people want -- I mean the American people want to know that there's not a two-tiered system of justice. Like, if you broke the law and you're rich and powerful, you go to jail. But no one's seeing that right now. They've not seen that in years, maybe decades. And then they see a broken and corrupt justice system at the state level, or at the federal level. I mean we've seen cases where murderers walk free or they're let out.

I mean I spend half my time as a leading candidate for governor in South Carolina, sitting in court hearings, making sure that I understand what judges are doing and how victims are really traumatized in a broken court system, whether it's rape victims, families of murder victims, domestic violence victims. I mean, the whole system is corrupt and broken from the top on down. BOLDUAN: Also noteworthy, and you're saying you've been -- you say you

can -- have been communicating with the president on potential names for who will be the next attorney general that he will be nominating.

I -- you have been very outspoken about the U.S. operation and war with Iran. You've been very outspoken about your -- how you do not want to see ground troops going in. There is new reporting coming in of Iran claiming that it has -- its forces have downed a U.S. military fighter jet over Iran. State media released a series of photos of supposed proof of that. CNN's reached out to CENTCOM to confirm or fact check it and, you know, what has actually happened here. If this turns out to be true, what does it mean for this war?

MACE: Well, number one, I have not been briefed on a potentially downed F-15e. I am skeptical of Iran. They put out a lot of propaganda and they don't tell the truth, number one. But, number two, I've seen some of the footage of helicopters refueling in southern Iran, allegedly. So, first off, my thoughts and obviously prayers are for those pilots, if they are downed, if they are stranded in Iran, that the rescue mission, if that's what's going on, is successful. I'm deeply concerned. I'm concerned about escalation. I've been very vocal about that. If there's going to be conventional troops on the ground, a mainland invasion, for example, this is a different phase of the war or conflict that we would be entering into. And Congress needs to be briefed. Congress needs to have a say.

And I've said this before, when we were bombed by the Japanese at Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt came to Congress to declare war. I was against invading Iraq, but Bush still came to Congress to get an AUMF.

And so, I think that we need to be very clear if they're going to be troops on the ground, that's different. Now, if we're doing very specialized raids and the president is using Title 50 or Title 10, like what happened with Osama bin Laden, very different if we're using special operations forces.

So, I am concerned about escalation. I'm concerned about loss of life and casualties and casualty projections potentially for ground troops, et cetera. And Congress should be briefed on that before any action is taken.

BOLDUAN: Congresswoman Nancy Mace, thank you for coming in.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, just ahead, multiple people are facing federal charges, accused of kidnaping and robbing rapper Gucci Mane. How a contract dispute led to guns being pulled.

And new this morning, which jobs artificial intelligence are really impacting as a jobs report shows this morning gangbuster numbers.

Those stories and more ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [09:39:22]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We've got brand new CNN poll numbers out this morning showing that Democrats enjoy a six point lead over Republicans in the race for Congress. That's despite having only a 28 percent favorability rating.

So, how can both things be true? One man knows the answer. CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Oh, I'm the man.

BERMAN: You are that man.

ENTEN: Yes.

BERMAN: So, how can they be up by six but have such a lousy favorability rating?

ENTEN: Yes, you see Democrats up by six and only 28 percent favorable rating. How is that possible? It is because of the double headers. The most important one quarter of the electorate you have ever seen. Take a look here.

[09:40:01]

Who double headers prefer among the 26 percent who dislike not just the Democrats but the Republicans as well. Look at this, Democrats up by a 55 percent to 24 percent margin. That's a 31-point lead among that key quarter of the electorate who can't stand either party, they are, in fact, the Democrats, the lesser of two evils.

BERMAN: This is the, you know, pox on both their houses caucus, basically.

ENTEN: Yes.

BERMAN: So, what has this group told us in the past?

ENTEN: What has this group told us in the past? This is the biggest movement that we've seen in the electorate versus the 2022 midterms when, of course, Republicans took back the House of Representatives.

Take a look here. OK, we talked about that 20 -- 31-point lead that Democrats have right now. But take a look among the double headers back in 2022. Republicans won that group by 17 points. And with that we're able to take back the House of Representatives. Who wins double headers is the party that goes on to win the election.

Of course, this all had a genesis back in 2016 when, of course, Donald Trump was able to beat Hillary Clinton on the backs of double headers. Republicans repeated that feat in the 2022 midterms. And now Democrats look to be in the driver's seat among the voters who dislike both parties, those double haters.

BERMAN: What are Democrats feeling right now? OK, what are Democrats feeling right now? You know, yesterday we did a

segment about how even Democrats don't like their own leaders. And a lot of Democrats don't even like their own party.

BERMAN: By the way, the Republicans, the Republican Party, put that segment out like in two seconds.

ENTEN: Two seconds. Two seconds.

What are we talking about here? But this is the key thing. What is driving Democrats' votes? How voters who are Democrats feel. Disapprove of Trump, 99 percent of them. Look at how close this plan to vote Dem in 2026 is, 96 percent. This, Donald John Trump, is the key motivating factor at this point for Democrats and who they're going to vote for, despite the fact that only 63 percent of Democrats view their own party favorably, that is not what is driving them. What is driving them is Donald John Trump. They would go over hot coals, they would literally crawl over hot coals to vote against Donald John Trump, even if there are a lot of them who don't like their own party.

BERMAN: Yes, they're mad at themselves. It doesn't mean that they're not going to go out there and vote for the Democrats.

ENTEN: They dislike themselves. They hate, hate, hate Donald Trump.

BERMAN: All right, so what might this mean for Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, right now?

ENTEN: OK, what might this mean for Hakeem Jeffries? How about the chance that Jeffries is the next House speaker? Look at this. Three months ago, according to Kalshi prediction market, it was a 66 percent chance. Now, today, we're talking about a 79 percent chance. You look at those double haters, and you know what you get, you climb the mountain any way you can. And at this point it looks like Hakeem Jeffries is going to climb that mountain and become the House speaker, the next House speaker, if the polling data holds on the backs of double haters. But you know what? Whatever way you can get there, you get there. And I think Democrats will take it even if they don't love it.

BERMAN: Double haters, they seem like such cheery people.

Harry Enten, thank you very much.

ENTEN: We're double lovers.

BERMAN: All right. Got to go. We got to go to break. A lot of news. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:47:41]

SIDNER: Breaking this morning, the labor market added a stronger than expected -- a much stronger than expected 178,000 jobs last month. That's a rebound after a surprising swing negative in February where 133 jobs were lost. That report comes after new data from Challenger, Gray and Christmas showed that layoffs rose about 25 percent last month, with the technology, transportation and health care sectors taking the biggest hit. Artificial intelligence accounted for 25 percent of those cuts. The outplacement firm said industries are testing the limits of A.I. And while it can't replace jobs completely, it is costing jobs.

Joining me now is Madison Mills, senior reporter with "Axios."

Let's start first with this report, 178,000 jobs. I mean they revised February down. It was 90,000 jobs lost to 133. But still, 178 is a big number. How surprising was this to you to see these numbers?

MADISON MILLS, SENIOR REPORTER, "AXIOS": It was a big upside surprise. And also the unemployment rate ticked down just a touch from 4.4 percent down to 4.3 percent. That's, obviously, a number that economists want to see when you're looking at an economy that you want to see continuing to grow.

But part of this is a correction from last month. We had this health care strike that made that number look a lot worse than it might actually be in terms of an indication of the health of this labor market. So, a little bit of a correction there.

Also interesting to see, though, that we have had this downturn in that unemployment rate. If that were to continue, that could be a positive. But I already was texting with some economists this morning who were saying that number was really good until the Iran War started. So, it's going to be a challenge to see whether or not that growth can continue now that you have different headwinds in our economy.

SIDNER: Yes, we were talking to a small business owner who runs a trucking company who was saying, I don't know how much longer I can keep my trucks on the road, right, because the gas prices are so high.

MILLS: Right.

SIDNER: Let me ask you about what you're hearing about tech giant Oracle. You have some reporting on Oracle. Staff there getting an email they did not want early in the morning. What are you learning?

MILLS: Yes, layoffs at Oracle this week. And we're hearing that the company is signaling that this is related to A.I. And you had mentioned that there's this stat this week about 25 percent of job cuts coming from A.I. I would push back on that a little bit. It's very easy for companies to signal that they're laying people off because of A.I. It makes your executive team look awesome that you've got this incredible A.I. strategy where you can save money by deploying A.I., cutting back on staff.

[09:50:01]

Not necessarily always true. When I talk to people on the boards of these companies, former employees who have been laid off, sometimes that's a good signal, an excuse, to be able to cut back on people who were over hired, in some cases, coming out of the pandemic. We saw massive hiring in the tech sector.

SIDNER: Right.

MILLS: It is true that at a company like Oracle, very ripe for displacement. Jobs like software, engineering, even product management. A lot of the jobs at that company are the exact type of jobs that we're seeing A.I. being able to really disrupt.

SIDNER: I was going to ask you what jobs are really in danger, and you just mentioned a few of them, sort of software engineers. You know, they were all telling us when we were in school, like learn to code.

MILLS: Yes.

SIDNER: But now, not so much.

MILLS: It's such a tough time in terms of the things we were promised growing up that would protect us and help us to be able to make money.

SIDNER: Yes.

MILLS: I just was spending years covering finance, and that's a sector that is going to be very disrupted.

SIDNER: Huge.

MILLS: Financial analysts, the second largest field that could be disrupted after engineers, according to data from Stanford. So, a lot of disruption to come.

SIDNER: All right, well, we'll have to wait and see, but so far we're leaving on a -- on a high note with the number of jobs much more than expected this month.

Madison Mills, thank you so much. I do appreciate it.

John.

BERMAN: All right, this morning, rapper Pooh Shiesty is facing armed robbery and kidnaping charges in connection to a contract dispute with rapper Gucci Manes' label. Authorities searched Pooh Shiesty's Tennessee home after identifying him as an alleged ringleader. Investigators say he and eight others kidnaped then robbed three men at gunpoint. One of the alleged victims, identified by the initials R.D., is described as the record company owner. The same record label owned by Gucci Mane. Hope you followed all that.

New Jersey state police rescue a lone bear cub in a roadside ditch along the interstate. Good thing it doesn't look too cute. Troopers brought the bear back to their barracks before later releasing it to the Department of Environmental Protection. I guess it's out on parole, you might say.

And a Georgia couple had to break up a fight between a raccoon and their pug. This happened in the backyard. This was pretty serious stuff. The raccoon latched onto the pug's tail. And after that struggle you see there, and some effort, the raccoon finally let go. The pug is expected to recover.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: I mean, I don't know what to say about that. That was wild. Did you see -- did you look at the video when you were talking about it?

BERMAN: Yes. I mean, you know, it looked like the raccoon had a good grip. Very good grip strength, which is something you want as you get on in years.

BOLDUAN: Well said, J.B. Well said.

Let's move here now.

It was a wild FBI investigation that resulted in a sweeping federal indictment uncovering an alleged gambling scheme tied to college basketball. It involved numerous NCAA Division One basketball players who allegedly conspired with gamblers to fix games for betting purposes. Now, a new CNN Flashdoc offers a closer look at how this happened and is happening, and what's at stake.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: It's really easy in basketball to fake a bad game because everybody has real bad games all the time.

JOON LEE, SPORTS JOURNALIST: The fixers were basically asking the players to hit the unders on their point totals.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was a lot of, I'm going to pull myself out. I'm not going to score as much as I should. And with that came payouts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: U.S. attorneys allege that these athletes took bribes between $10,000 and $30,000 across multiple games to shave points.

JIMENEZ: If there was one game where a player didn't quite live up to what they were supposed to do, the player would say something like, sorry, this team was so bad, I couldn't help it. I was trying, but they're so bad. And then the response would be something like, it's all good. You did what you needed to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Here with us now is that man, Omar Jimenez.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Hello. How are you?

BOLDUAN: How many bets have you taken, Omar? Just kidding.

JIMENEZ: Zero.

SIDNER: Nope. Zero.

JIMENEZ: Actually zero.

BOLDUAN: Well, that's kind of point, right?

JIMENEZ: I've got everything -- I've got everything scared out of me when I was playing.

BOLDUAN: Omar is here. You played basketball in college. How much of -- in covering this and bringing this all together, how much do you see how the game has changed for everybody?

JIMENEZ: Yes. Well, played is a very generous word. I was on the team. You know, I got my minutes where I could.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

SIDNER: You played.

(CROSS TALK)

JIMENEZ: Yes. Yes. I scored -- I scored, you know, every once in a while.

But, no, I mean it's changed tremendously. I mean when I was in school, it's about ten years ago when I was playing, NIL wasn't around. The sports betting infrastructure was nowhere near what it is to this point. And every year, of course, there's so much more money that goes into the NCAA and that sports betting industry just becomes more normalized. I mean everybody has it on their phone and just the culture and climate and the way that people watch and consume sports has changed completely from when I was playing.

BERMAN: But it's everywhere.

JIMENEZ: It's everywhere.

BERMAN: That's what is so different. And I do wonder, and I'm sure you're going to get into this in this documentary, how much are these players, these students warned about it.

JIMENEZ: Yes.

BERMAN: Because it's on your phone.

SIDNER: It's on your phone.

BERMAN: It's on your friend's phone. It's every advertisement. Every game is sponsored by one of these betting apps.

[09:55:03]

JIMENEZ: Yes. You know what's interesting is when I was playing before this, it was -- we -- I was joking about it was scared out of me not to bet ever.

SIDNER: Yes.

JIMENEZ: And that's really -- those -- that was really the conversation back then.

SIDNER: That was the rule.

JIMENEZ: I mean, yes, you play volleyball as well.

SIDNER: Yes.

JIMENEZ: Like, you know -- you know the deal. But then now, one of the things that NCAA President Charlie Baker has talked about is that education on this is so important for these players. I think the more difficult thing is, you know, we've all been in college. If you're not betting, your friends might, you know?

SIDNER: Yes.

JIMENEZ: You're going to class with these people all the time who feel like they have a relationship with you. They feel like, hey, they might know this or that. And now you're getting yourself in a weird situation. So, a lot of new factors.

BERMAN: Yes, Omar's sick today. He's not going to score.

JIMENEZ: Yes. Yes.

BERMAN: You know, I'm going to -- I mean, honestly, that's the kind of --

SIDNER: Are you giving him a hint because some of us at this table do use a little sports betting. We're into it. Some of us in this entire room do a little -- have a little fun. But not you.

JIMENEZ: No one at this table. No one at this table.

BOLDUAN: But also reminding people how relevant this really is, Omar.

BERMAN: Yes.

SIDNER: Yes, it is.

JIMENEZ: It really is.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much.

"Money Madness: College Basketball at a Crossroads" airs Sunday night at 8:00 on CNN, or watch on the CNN app.

SIDNER: "SIT ROOM" up next. Have a great weekend.

BERMAN: You can bet on that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)