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U.S. Added 57,000 Jobs in June; Rep. Wesley Bell (D-MO) is Interviewed about the Economy, Trump's Wealth and Democratic Races; Paramedics Called to McConnell's Home; Dangerous Heat Grips U.S.; Rehearsal for Swift Wedding Tonight. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired July 02, 2026 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

ROBIN WENZEL, HEAD OF WELLS FARGO AGRI-FOOD INSTITUTE: Our food supply. We want to make sure that we can continue feeding our people, as well as other parts of the world.

So, it's a -- it's a complex issue and one that gets a lot of attention, deservedly so. But I think we'll continue to support our farmers and ranchers in their efforts, as well as the consumer, to find that balance between quantity and quality and health impact.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. And that's the balance to strike, you're right, between quantity and quality and what that looks like for everyone.

Robin, thanks so much for coming in. I appreciate it. It's an important look at what we're -- at the food supply today.

And don't forget to join CNN for America's 250th birthday and the biggest firework -- with all the biggest fireworks and the stars and plenty of barbecue, I'm sure. Anderson Cooper is hosting CNN's "Fourth In America" this Saturday starting at noon.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, breaking just moments ago, a weaker than expected jobs report. And wages getting eaten by inflation. The new information we're pulling from these brand-new numbers.

And then new details about what first responders were told as they rushed to Senator Mitch McConnell's home the day he was hospitalized. Reports of an unconscious person.

And a rescue mission in space to save a one-of-a-kind telescope at risk of falling out of the sky. How nervous should you be about the debris?

Sara is out today. I'm John Berman, with Kate Bolduan. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BOLDUAN: Let's get to that breaking news. Just moments ago, a cooldown for the U.S. labor market. Far fewer jobs than economists expected last month.

Let's get right over to CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich. She's got much more on this.

You've been digging more into those numbers. What are you seeing?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: So, what I'm seeing is a weaker than expected jobs report, of course. The number coming in, 57,000 jobs added in June. The expectation was closer to 100,000. But that expectation was still a lot lower than what we've seen in the previous few months --

BOLDUAN: OK.

YURKEVICH: When the average was totaling closer to 130,000. So, there was an expected slowdown, but this is a little bit slower than expected.

Looking at the unemployment rate, it actually ticked down. Economists were expecting it to hold steady at 4.3 percent. But the reason it's a bit lower is because the labor force participation rate. So, fewer people in the market looking for a job right now.

What we've seen over the last few months, though, is a solid pace of hiring. And even 57,000 jobs added is considered solid considering that we have an aging workforce and we've had a slowdown in immigration. So, sort of a fewer -- fewer people in the labor market looking for jobs and needing jobs right now.

But as you can see, the trend over the last couple of months is different compared to what we saw last year when it was up and down, low hire, low fire. What we're seeing in terms of where the jobs are being added, health care, that's been the leading hiring sector for about a year now, 22,000 jobs added in the health care sector. Also in professional business services, those are white collar jobs, we saw 36,000 jobs added there.

But look at leisure and hospitality for the month of June. Economists were expecting that the World Cup would actually boost hiring here.

BOLDUAN: Right. Yes.

YURKEVICH: So, what this report is saying that it's unusually lower than expected, actually shedding jobs, 61,000 jobs shed in the month of June. Some of that could be pre-hiring for the summer that a lot of the hiring actually happened in those really robust hiring months of April and May. So, maybe there was a pullback in the month of June.

One thing to keep our eye on, of course, wages. What's been happening with wage growth for everyday Americans. Ticking up slightly to 3.5 percent on an annual basis. But when you compare that to the red line there, inflation, which is now topping four percent, it doesn't feel as good. An increase in wages, of course, is good. But when inflation is outpacing wage growth by that much, it feels uncomfortable.

BOLDUAN: It erases -- you know, it erases the gains. You're going in the wrong direction.

YURKEVICH: Yes, it feels uncomfortable for people. But overall, a solid report given the state of the labor market. But, of course, much less than economists were expecting for the month of June.

BOLDUAN: All right. Thank you so much, Vanessa. It's great to see you.

John.

BERMAN: All right, with us now is Congressman Wesley Bell, a Democrat from Missouri.

Congressman, thank you so much for being with us.

We just got that brand-new jobs report, 57,000 jobs added. About half of what was expected. What are you hearing about jobs in your district?

REP. WESLEY BELL (D-MO): Well, this is what we've been saying over and over. The inconsistency, the up and down with respect to jobs. And let's not forget that if a job report comes out that the president doesn't like, he'll fire -- he'll fire the folks over there like he did with the head of the Department of Labor Statistics.

[09:05:09]

In my district, this is a working-class district. You know, folks are concerned about regional growth and development and awakening the sleeping giant that we call Saint Louis. And so, we need to be attracting industry. We need to be creating jobs. But we need policies in place that are in alignment with that.

BERMAN: This morning, CNN is reporting that the president's revenue at Mar-a-Lago has increased 50 percent in the first year since he's retaken office. Some $77 million he took in from Mar-a-Lago. That's on top of -- or that's part of the sort of $2 billion he's earned in the first year in office. A lot of that from crypto.

What's your impression of how regular citizens feel when they see the president making money like this? How do you feel?

BELL: I think I feel the way most Americans do is that we know a scam when we see one. And I don't think -- I think the biggest thing that surprises me is that a lot of folks are surprised. We knew what this administration, what Donald Trump was going to do. Donald Trump is there to enrich himself. Donald Trump does not care about the rule of law. Donald Trump does not care about regular, everyday Americans. Because while he's cleaning up, making billions of dollars off the presidency, flying in his new jet, Americans are struggling to be able to fill their tanks, to put food on the table, to pay health care costs.

The cost of this unauthorized war in Iran could have paid for -- more than paid for the health care subsidies that we did get passed in the House. And again, I know a scam when I see one. BERMAN: So, Congressman, I woke up this morning to a "New York Times"

article. The headline was, "The Incumbent Democrats at Risk of Losing to Progressive Challengers." And you were one of the people listed. It said, "Mr. Bell," that's you, "was lifted in 2024 by spending by pro- Israel groups. Ms. Bush," Cori Bush, who's running against you, who held the seat previously, "is running this cycle to reclaim the seat, and the race has focused largely on the question of support for Israel. 'AIPAC, I'm coming to tear your kingdom down,' Ms. Bush said."

That was in "The New York Times" this morning. So, what role is Israel playing in your congressional race in Saint Louis?

BELL: See, I think that most folks understand that we got to get past the labels because when I was city councilman in Ferguson and we brought body cameras and community policing to every -- to every single officer, folks called that radical. When I was county prosecutor and we expanded treatment programs and -- to keep 4,500 people who -- low-level nonviolent offenders who would have seen the inside of a jail cell, kept them out and kept our recidivism rates in the single digits. That was called way to the left or what have you.

And so, I think what most folks care about is, what are you doing for them? And folks in this region know that I'm going to show up and support the folks right here in this region. And what we see too often are folks, like my opponent in this -- in this election, who are -- who are trying to make this about a particular issue because they can't talk about the issues that matter to American peoples.

And so, while we got a scam artist in the White House that's enriching himself off the presidency, we got a scam artists in this race who's enriching herself off of her congressional run and being in the Congress formally.

BERMAN: We've seen three Democratic incumbents fall in Democratic primaries in the last two weeks. You saw it in New York Ccity, and we just saw it in Colorado. And in those races, support for Israel ended up being an important factor. Why do you think it has been an important factor in races around the country?

BELL: I think that a lot of folks -- some folks don't quite understand that Israel, Ukraine, Taiwan are on the front lines of our sworn enemies. When we hear those chants coming from Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran of death to -- death to Israel, it's not death to Israel, period, it's death to Israel, comma, death to America. I'm old enough to remember 9/11. And I know the reason why your -- the TSA is so strict is because we're trying to ensure that those types of tragedies don't happen again.

[09:10:04]

And they're coming from our sworn enemies.

And so, you know, we can make issues into political issues, but at the end of the day, what we need to focus on is being reliable partners to our reliable partners and making certain that we're standing with our allies. But also, we got to focus on the issues that actually matter to folks -- matter to Americans. The reason why I'm in this position is because I took out an incumbent at the time. And that individual was not focused on the issues of Saint Louis and the issues of this region, but also working with democracy.

I mean this is the same person that called Kamala Harris and Biden -- and President Biden fascists right before the election. And so, we've got to keep in mind, if we want to fight Trump, fighting Trump is keeping Trump out of office in the first place and not helping his cause.

And so, as Democrats, we're going to -- we're focused on taking the House back, making Hakeem Jeffries the speaker of the House so that we can reform the health care system, that we can work to bring costs down and work in the interest of regular, working-class folks.

BERMAN: Congressman Wesley Bell, thank you for being with us this morning. Appreciate your time, sir.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: This morning, there are new details emerging on the health of Senator Mitch McConnell. Paramedics were reportedly called to his D.C. home on June 14th, the same day his office announced that he was hospitalized. New -- now newly published emergency radio traffic indicates that the call was for an unconscious person and in cardiac arrest, and is also heard on the communication someone saying CPR in progress. McConnell's office never disclosed why he was hospitalized, and certainly didn't mention anything about a cardiac arrest. CNN has not independently confirmed the details of this tape.

Let's get over to CNN's Annie Grayer, though. She's doing some reporting on this.

Annie, what more are you learning here?

ANNIE GRAYER, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Kate, not much because Senator McConnell's office has been so tight-lipped about what McConnell is suffering from and what the status of his condition is. When we presented him with this audio recording, McConnell's office said simply that they were just going to keep reporters updated on the status of McConnell's condition.

But this audio does provide some potential insight here, given that it was -- given that it -- paramedics were called on the same day that we know McConnell to be hospitalized on June 14th, and that the emergency responders were sent to McConnell's home in Washington, D.C.

But McConnell, who is 84 years old, has had a long history of medical conditions. He suffered from polio as a child. In 2023 he suffered numerous falls, including being frozen, apparently, on television. And even earlier this year, he was hospitalized for flu-like symptoms. So, there are a lot of questions surrounding McConnell's health.

He is a giant in the Senate. He's the longest Republican leader in the Senate. And he was the majority leader in the Senate during President Donald Trump's first term, where he worked with Trump to pass a number of key pieces of legislation, enact his agenda, and most notably help reshape the judicial system by confirming so many lower court conservative judges.

But in this second term, now that McConnell is no longer in leadership, he is taking a bit of a more adversarial approach. He did not vote to confirm RFK Jr. to serve as President Trump's Health and Human Services secretary, and he has been an outspoken proponent of U.S. providing more aid to Ukraine, which is in contrast to President Trump and a number of conservatives who are pushing for a more isolationist approach.

So, McConnell, now 84, we are waiting to hear updates from his team about how he is doing, how he's recovering. But we have not gotten a substantial update since June 14th. But this audio, Kate, is really giving us some new insights on how to understand the senator's condition.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

Annie, thank you so much. Keep us updated. And, obviously, we're sending the best to the senator and his family right now.

So, coming up for us, triple digit temperatures will be smothering a big part of the eastern half of the country today, and for days to come. No relief expected as millions are facing what could be a really dangerously hot July 4th weekend. So, we've got more on that.

And also, let the party begin, we think, maybe. The wedding celebration reportedly is to start today for Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce at Madison Square Garden. Everything we know and don't about it.

And Team USA's World Cup dream, still alive. But last night's big win came with a cost. A price. It's it comes with a price.

BERMAN: Both.

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[09:18:53]

BERMAN: All right, happening now, we are in day one of three consecutive days of triple digit temperatures, 100, 100, 100 in some of the country's biggest cities, including right here in New York, culminating on the Fourth of July, when tens of millions of people have plans to be outside. At least now they do. Some 160 million people are under extreme heat risks. We're talking about Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, here in New York, expected to see 100 degrees throughout the Fourth. One of the hottest three-day stretches since the 1930s.

Let's get to CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar for all the latest on this.

Not good.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: It's not good. It's, you know, barely 9:00 in the morning. It's starting to get a little warm out here. And it's only going to get hotter as we go through the day today.

Now, I've got my wet bulb globe thermometer out here. This will give us not only the air temperature but also humidity, wind, solar angle. This is the device that is often used at a lot of sporting events, high school, collegiate, and is likely going to be used this weekend. There are so many outdoor events, including races, five k's, ten k's, half marathons expected to take place for the July 4th holiday.

[09:20:02]

This allows those organizers to know when to add extra water stations or water breaks, and maybe even perhaps shorten some events like you would typically during practice. Now, I turned it on. It's going to beep for us because it's already telling me we've met that threshold for those extra breaks because the temperature itself right now. 85 degrees. But the feels like is already up to 95 degrees where we are.

Now, we've got a little bit of a breeze, which does help at least a little bit, but it's likely going to keep people from coming out. There's a few people kind of milling around outside right now because the temperature is not nearly what it's going to be this afternoon. I imagine we're not going to see too many folks out here later on this afternoon, especially once those temperatures get high.

We've got a lot of places, not just Atlanta, but areas of the southeast, the mid-Atlantic, the northeast, all under those excessive heat alerts because of the fact that those temperatures are going to get well above average. Many of these places, the air temperature is going to be in the mid to upper 90s, even in the triple digits. But then you factor in the humidity, just like we measured with this. In a lot of those places, the feels like temperature will get well into the triple digits.

The big concern here, guys, is that it's not just for today. Many of these areas are going to experience this heat for the next three to four days.

BERMAN: Yes, with the feels like temperature over 100 in these cities, the smells like temperature is even worse.

Allison Chinchar, in Atlanta, thank you very much for that.

BOLDUAN: Unnecessary. Unnecessary.

BERMAN: But true. But true.

BOLDUAN: Do you know what I smell? I smell love in the air.

BERMAN: Yes, that's right.

BOLDUAN: I smell love in the air.

BERMAN: That's right. Which can sometimes also -- well, OK.

BOLDUAN: J.B., keep walking.

BERMAN: All right.

BOLDUAN: Today, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce are expected to welcome guests at Madison Square Garden for their rehearsal dinner. An estimated 100 guests are going to be there for the wedding events that kick off today. And then tomorrow, of course, then you would expect would be the big day, supposedly.

CNN's Mark Morales is outside The Garden this morning with more.

Good morning, Mark.

MARK MORALES, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT REPORTER: Good morning.

So, we're expecting a heavy police presence here. And it's not just because they're the two major celebrities here, but there is some precedent here. If you remember not too long ago in 2024 she was having a concert in Europe, and that was actually the target of a terror plot. So, because of that, the NYPD has really decided to sort of flood this area. So, you'll see a lot of officers doing a lot of different things. So, you'll do -- you'll see a lot of crowd control. So, you'll have officers that are just going to be controlling the amount of people that are going to be coming here to see if they can catch a glimpse of anybody. You're already seeing police put up metal barricades on Seventh Avenue, on Eighth Avenue in preparation for this. But you're also going to see some specialized units. You'll see heavy weapons teams, the emergency service unit, which is basically like their Navy SEALs team for the NYPD. You'll see bomb squad, K-9 units. All this is part of a security plan that's been weeks in development for this event.

Now, the NYPD has been tight-lipped about this event. I mean, they're not even calling it the wedding or the ceremony. They're just calling it that they're going to staff the event. When I asked the police commissioner a question yesterday about this, they did say that they do their security threat assessments and deploy based on that. So, that's why we're seeing the up level that we're seeing.

You're also going to see some street closures, probably on West 31st Street, which is the VIP entrance for Madison Square Garden normally. There's going to be a tent there and it's going to be very tough to see any of these people who are going to be coming for this celebration.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: So, just wait for the photos.

It's great to see you, Mark. Thank you so much.

John.

BERMAN: Well, we do have some breaking news.

These pictures you're looking at right now. These are live pictures from Venezuela, La Guaira, which was the hardest hit city in the dual earthquakes there. And what we're looking at, we think, is a rescue attempt of a man believed to be trapped in a parking garage at a mall. But rescuers are in the process, we believe, of reaching him.

Let's bring in CNN's Stefano Pozzebon, also in Venezuela, who can give us a sense here of what we're seeing and why they're hopeful.

STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR (via telephone): So, we are just about 50 feet away from the entrance to this parking space where a man, a 45-year-old security guard from (INAUDIBLE) had been trapped for more (INAUDIBLE). Now, in the eighth day, John, since then shake (ph) and earthquake that really brought this country to its knees, it was last week (INAUDIBLE).

Currently, Venezuela, of course, in national mourning due to the 20 -- more than 2,200 victims that have been killed by these natural disasters. But the news that we (INAUDIBLE) living through right now here live is one of those stories (INAUDIBLE) hope (INAUDIBLE) fueled (INAUDIBLE) see the (INAUDIBLE).

[09:25:08]

International recue team (INAUDIBLE) from all over the world really. I can see the United States. I can see Portuguese. The people in charge here are the Portuguese, and they were the ones that helped 15 minutes ago came out shouting and hugging each other. You can see smiles. You can read in their eyes. The mission has been successful. (INAUDIBLE) and rescue for her (ph).

BERMAN: All right, we're having a hard time -- we're having a hard time hearing Stefano, obviously, on the phone. Their communication, so very difficult with Venezuela right now.

But let me just continue to tell you what I believe we're seeing right now. A rescue operation for someone who's been trapped in the -- the rubble of a -- of a parking garage at a shopping mall for eight days now. Rescuers say they saw his fingers moving. They've had conversations with him. They've been able to get him electrolyte drinks, which has helped him, I think, while he's been under there. You can see how much hope they have on that scene right now. So many people have their cameras out just waiting for that moment when he emerges.

Now you see authorities pushing people back. Again, we're watching this. Unclear -- wait. Hang on.

(CROSS TALK)

BERMAN: All right, the shot just froze, but you could see there, and Kate was pointing out to me, I mean that was the man in a stretcher being carried out to applause there. We didn't get a view of what condition he was in. But based on the fact there that they were cheering and applauding, it does appear he has been pulled out alive from the rubble some eight days after the dual earthquakes there.

As officials were saying, it would take a miraculous event at this point to save someone.

Do we have more pictures you can take us to? OK, we -- hang on. This is just moments ago. What we saw there. Let's just watch it again.

(VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, it is re-racking there. But that is remarkable to see what appears to have been we think and hope a successful rescue of a man after being trapped for some eight days in the rubble. We'll get more information as it comes in. But again, officials there saying, at this point, it basically only miraculous events like this are taking place.

Stay with us. More just ahead.

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