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223,000 Jobs Added, Unemployment Down to 5.4 Percent; David Cameron Remains in Power; DOJ to Investigate Baltimore Police Dept.; Tom Brady Dodges on Deflategate; Brady: No Time to "Digest" NFL Report; 30,000 Gather to Remember Brian Moore. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired May 08, 2015 - 09:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[09:00:19] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Happening now in the NEWSROOM, Tom Brady dodges on Deflategate.

TOM BRADY, NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS QUARTERBACK: I haven't had much time to digest it fully. When I do, I'll be sure to let you know how I feel about it.

COSTELLO: No time to read the report? It's the off-season. Wonder if he still stands by these comments.

BRADY: I would never do anything to break the rules.

COSTELLO: And why is his agent calling it a sting?

Also --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An absolute politic earthquake.

COSTELLO: British Prime Minister David Cameron will remain in power. What does this mean for America's relations with the UK? We're live in London.

Plus, the FBI issues a serious warning that hundreds, maybe thousands, of ISIS's followers are inside the United States. How does law enforcement handle those threats?

Let's talk live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO (on camera): And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. We do start this hour with breaking news on the economy. A major sigh of relief on Wall Street today as we learned just moments ago that 223,000 jobs were added last month, a much needed boost after disappointing numbers back in March. Now the unemployment rate ticked down one notch to 5.4 percent. That is the lowest level in seven years.

Our chief business correspondent, Christine Romans, is following the numbers as always. So tell us what it means. CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: A sigh of relief

on Wall Street and a sigh of relief on Main Street, Carol. And that's what's really important here, because in March we saw that jobs were not created very briskly, only 85,000 jobs created. That was a real worry but it was temporary. A strong recovery in the month of April, 223,000 jobs created.

You can see that trend here is what is important here, that you're creating jobs again and again. The unemployment rate here falling to the lowest in seven years, 5.4 percent, the lowest in seven years. That's again what's important here, that the trend has been going down, down, down.

Let me personalize this for you. Nurses were hired, hospital workers were hired. People who work at clinics and those ambulatory centers, those health care centers away from hospitals, lots of hiring there. Computer system design, management consultants, tech consultants, construction, you get my drift. There were a lot of different kinds of jobs created and some of them higher paid. We saw wages go up 2.2 percent. That's an incredibly important number there as well.

African-American male unemployment, this is a number we've been watching and talking about very aggressively, really, since Baltimore and over the past year or so -- 9.2 percent, Carol. The first time since 2008 it's below double digits. Again, a drop in the black male unemployment rate. We want to see that continue as the job market gets stronger.

Now I'm going to all the way back to 1975 for you. Why am I going back that far? Because this is a really important chart you will be hearing more about as the 2016 presidential race gets underway in full swing. This is the labor force participation rate. This is the percentage of the American population considered in the labor market -- either they have a job, they're looking for a job, or they're unemployed. They haven't dropped out. This number is still too low. This number is the lowest it's been in decades. Some people say that means there are too many people who aren't included in this labor market who have to be pulled back in, have to find a place still, that this is still a weak spot of the recovery overall.

But again I like what I see on the overall job creation. I like what I see on the trend. I like what I see on the unemployment rate, and I like that there are broad based jobs created here, Carol, some that pay more than just retail workers and people who work for hire.

COSTELLO: But tell me that number again. You say that 65 percent of the population today -- less than 65 percent are not working?

ROMANS: No, this is 65 percent of the population, less than that, in the mid-60s are considered part of the labor market. You want to see that number much, much bigger.

COSTELLO: And today is it?

ROMANS: Today, it's right down here in the mid-60s the way it was back in the '70s. This number is still too low; this needs to be higher. If this number gets higher, it will suggest more people are in the labor market, are involved in the labor market.

Now I'm going to tell you, you're going to be hearing this a lot over the next few months as we go through the 2016 presidential election.

COSTELLO: All right, Christine Romans, thanks as always. I appreciate it

Celebrations today for Prime Minister David Cameron. In a landslide, he's holding on to power, proving every poll wrong. The Conservative Party wins a resounding victory. Earlier today Cameron tweeted this picture with the caption, quote, "Here's to a brighter future for everyone." Moments ago, we heard from the Prime Minister outside of 10 Downing Street.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID CAMERON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: I've just been to see Her Majesty the Queen, and I will now form a majority Conservative government. I've been proud to lead the first coalition government in 70 years, and I want to thank all of those who worked so hard to make it a success.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:05:04] COSTELLO: The Scottish National Party also earning big gains, winning a staggering 56 out of 59 seats. Richard Quest has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Carol, Big Ben, Westminster, the heart of British government, and today the entire landscape of UK politics littered with the casualties of political leaders who failed to get any support. Instead, David Cameron on the big red bus remains standing with his tiny majority, but absolutely unexpected, Cameron and his Conservatives. We thought it was going to be a hung parliament, horse trading, lots of deals to be done.

In the end, none of it. The electorate clearly decided Cameron should be given a further chance to rule. And in Scotland, a complete wipeout for all the other parties, with the Scottish National Party ruling the roost.

An extraordinary night in British politics. And some major issues, particularly the UK's role in Europe. Cameron has promised a referendum in the future. That has to happen by 2017. All of that's in the future. For now, Carol, an extraordinary day when the British public have woken up and wondered what on earth did we do?

Richard Quest, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: OK, thank you, Richard Quest. So what does this mean for America and its relationship with the UK? Let's bring in our CNN international correspondent Nic Robertson who's not on a double-decker bus. I'm kind of bummed about that for you, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm at 10 Downing Street, that's pretty cool. I'm happy.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: So what does this -- what does David Cameron's re-election mean for America's relationship with Britain?

ROBERTSON: You know, one thing that's going to trouble American diplomats is they're going to look at the vote in Scotland and they're going to see Scotland is heading for the exit doors of the United Kingdom, and that's going to be worrisome? Why? Because they believe Britain is stronger united. The United States, one of its principal allies over here in Europe, is the United Kingdom. Scotland has very socialist leanings. It wants to get rid of the nuclear deterrence (ph), the nuclear submarines that are based in Scotland. That's worrisome because they're part of the NATO defenses, which is so sort of needed now when we see Vladimir Putin behaving in a way that Russian leaders haven't for 25 years.

So if Scotland breaks out of Britain, and that sends a bad signal to the other separatists inside Europe, at least a weaker Europe. The United States would rather see a stronger Europe, and I think that's one of the concerns. There are others. We could talk about defense, defense spending; that would be another one as well. And we can talk about Britain's position in Europe, David Cameron's promise that there will be a referendum where Britain will get the opportunity to vote to leave the European Union. That will be in a couple of years' time. That will be a concern as well. A weak Europe means a weak alliance across the Atlantic for the United States.

So there's a lot that's going to come out. It's a change -- as Richard has said, there's a changing face of politics in Britain. It's radically different. Maybe it will reset after a number of years. Right now it's different and there are some big, new, and no one knows how to tackle them, challenges on the horizon, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Nic Robertson, reporting live in London this morning. Thank you.

Coming up in our next hour, Fareed Zakaria will join me to talk about the impact of the UK election. He'll be with me here in the NEWSROOM.

Breaking news this morning, at least it's going to break very soon. We're learning the Justice Department will launch an investigation of the Baltimore Police Department. We're expecting an announcement in the next hour from the Attorney General, Loretta Lynch. This comes, of course, after the death of Freddie Gray last month after he suffered that spinal cord injury while in police custody. Six officers now facing charges.

CNN justice reporter Evan Perez joins us from Washington to tell us more about Loretta Lynch's coming announcement. Good morning.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE REPORTER: Good morning, Carol. This is an announcement that the city leaders in Baltimore had asked the Justice Department to make. This is something that obviously the police department knows that they have a problem with the community that they're serving there in Baltimore. We heard from the police commissioner, Anthony Batts, in my interview with him just a couple of days ago.

The Justice Department says that they're going out -- they're going to announce at 10:00. We expect that they are going to investigate a pattern and practice of discriminatory policing, whether or not the police there are using excessive force in carrying out their work there. This is probably, I believe, more than two dozen of these types of investigations now around the country during the Obama administration.

[09:10:05] So there's a lot of scrutiny on police all over the country, but Baltimore is front and center now, Carol.

COSTELLO: Evan Perez, I know you're going to keep an eye on things for us this morning. Thanks so much.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Tom Brady breaks his silence on the NFL report. Why he's sidelining Deflategate, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Tom Brady may be talking but he's not exactly tackling the Deflategate report. The Boss, or just like the Boss, Brady arrived at the Salem University last night, you know, via helicopter. He came out like a rock star. Super Bowl champ went on to address an adoring crowd, saying he hasn't had, quote, "time to digest the report". Apparently 30 hours is not enough.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you that slow a reader?

BRADY: Well, my athletic career has been better than my academic career, so I -- usually I'm used to reading Xs and Os. I'll certainly want to be very comfortable in how I feel about the statements that I make.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Of course the tabloids have been relentless, slamming Brady, demanding hefty punishments and maybe fines. And we're finally putting faces to names, pictures now surfacing of the so-called deflators, the two men behind thise infamous texts.

So let's head to CNN Sports' Coy Wire for the latest on this. Good morning.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS: Good morning, Carol. Yes, those comment you just played from Brady were his first since the Wells report was released. That's the report that said Brady was at least generally aware of the deflation of footballs in last season's AFC title game. And, Carol, as you mentioned, the auditorium at Salem State University was full of adoring fans, and Brady made sure to play to the crowd. He was having fun with it.

[09:15:05] Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CROWD CHANTING)

TOM BRADY, PATRIOTS QUARTERBACK: This is like a Patriot pep rally.

(LAUGHTER)

JIM GRAY, SPORTSCASTER: It looks like you picked a pretty friendly place to reappear.

BRADY: I don't have really any reaction. Our owner commented on it yesterday and it's only been 30 hours so I have not had time to digest it fully. But when I do, I will let you know how I feel about it.

(CHEERS)

GRAY: Was the Super Bowl tainted?

BRADY: What do you guys think?

(BOOS)

BRADY: Neither do I.

GRAY: Has this, however, detracted from your joy of winning the Super Bowl?

BRADY: Absolutely not.

(CHEERS)

GRAY: Why not?

BRADY: Because we earned and achieved everything that we got this year as team, and I'm very proud of that and our fans should be, too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Now, well, Brady was playing with the crowd. He has been floating like a butterfly with the topic, but his agent Don Yee has been stinging like a bee. He reaffirmed to CNN last night that Brady didn't have any knowledge of the footballs being deflated and this is after he released a statement earlier in the day, calling the Wells report a terrible disappointment, saying it had tragic flaws.

So, Carol, what's next? We are waiting to see how or even if the NFL is going to hand out punishments. Will Brady get some sort of fine? Will the Patriots lose draft picks? Will they fine as well? So, the NFL hasn't given a timeline for, Carol, for when this happened. But I'm thinking in the next few days we should get some answers -- Carol.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: I hope so. Coy Wire, many thanks to you. WIRE: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: Joe Theismann is on the phone right now, the great quarterback for the Washington Redskins.

Hi, Joe.

JOE THEISMANN, FORMER NFL QUARTERBACK (via telephone): Hi, Carol.

COSTELLO: Do you think Tom cheated?

THEISMANN: I never have thought he's cheated. It's a very gray area when it comes to inflation or deflation of a football. Every quarterback has the way they like it to feel. After all, it's the tool of our trade. And everybody has different hand sizes, everybody has different grips, weather plays into it, climate plays into it, altitude plays into it, the inflation or deflation of the ball.

Listening to Tom last night and looking at him last night, he doesn't seem like a very concerned individual when it comes to this particular situation.

COSTELLO: No, he seemed very at least and of course he was in a friendly crowd, so I guess that would be easier, right?

THEISMANN: Yes, it would. Absolutely. If you are around friendly faces, I think it's a lot easier to deal with trials and tribulations and turmoil. But it has really placed the National Football League in a very difficult situation based upon some of the punishments that we have seen for executives and teams over the last year and a half or so. The NFL in its statement -- or I should say the Wells report in its statement where it says and I quote, that Brady was at least generally aware of the inappropriate activities of these two gentlemen.

It doesn't really say he did anything. He said that he was aware that the balls were, you know, as far as something happened. But he doesn't say Tom instructed any individual to do anything else. So, it places the NFL in a situation where they have to make a determination based upon what took place, if the balls were deflated in any way, there has to be some kind of punishment. To what degree and who winds up getting it, that's the big question.

COSTELLO: Exactly.

THEISMANN: And like I say, based on some of the history and the way things have gone for the NFL, they have to get this right, because of the punishment that's been dealt out has been appealed and reduced. So, you know, how do you please the court of public opinion?

COSTELLO: Let me ask you this, Joe -- some say Brady could settle this once and for all if he would just release his text messages, right?

This is what his agents says about that, quote, "If we would have provided the phone or text messages, you have to understand, Tom is a member of the union. The commissioner's office does not have subpoena power. If the prominent player were to provide their private communication absent a subpoena, that sets a precedent for all players."

Does the agent have a point?

THEISMANN: I think he does a point. I think he has a point when it comes to privacy, also.

The other thing, too, is when you look at the text messages that were cited in the Wells report, one of the guys basically says that he noticed that the balls were at 16. Well, the National Football League has a variance of 12.5 psi to 13.5 psi, that the balls are legally able to be inflated to, and they referenced one at 16. So, obviously there had to be air to come out of that to get it down to an acceptable level.

So, I see contradictions through the text messaging. And, by the way, with text messaging, you and I could send a three-minute text to one another, and anybody could take an excerpt and interpret it any way they want.

[09:20:09] So, to me, this situation is more confusing than it is cleared up.

COSTELLO: I think you're right about that. Joe Theismann, thanks so much for your insight. I do appreciate you being with me this morning.

THEISMANN: Thank you.

COSTELLO: You're welcome.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM: a young police officer is gunned down, a massive gathering of law enforcement coming together.

CNN's Jean Casarez is on Long Island for the funeral of Officer Brian Moore.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, 30,000 officers from around the country are expected here at the funeral of Officer Brian Moore. We'll tell you more about this young officer right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Just outside of New York City, a massive crowd of 30,000 mourners streaming towards a Long Island church to remember Brian Moore, the 25-year-old New York City police officer died on Monday, two days after stopping a suspect because he was fidgeting with a suspicious object in his waistband. The gunman whipped out a firearm and shot Moore in the face as he sat in an unmarked squad car. The suspect was arrested a short time later.

Moore was barely out of his teens when he joined the force, and his accomplishments are exceptional. More than 150 arrests under his belt and two exceptional members medals recognizing his dedication. [09:25:04] CNN's Jean Casarez is standing outside the church now to tell us more.

Good morning.

CASAREZ: We're here on Long Island's St. James Roman Catholic Church. More and more officers are arriving here. They are expecting 30,000 police officers from around the country. JetBlue Airlines, as they have with other fallen officers, have offered free flights to any officer in the country that wants to come here to honor one of NYPD's fallen officers.

I want to show you busloads of officers have already arrived. You can see over there. They're coming. That helps to alleviate the parking situation. And as far as extra security, on the rooftops, you have the emergency services division of the NYPD, because this obviously a high security risk when you have so many officers in one location altogether.

Now, we haven't seen yet the funeral procession, the casket coming from the funeral home and that should happen before the funeral begins at 11:00. There will be a camera inside the church so the broadcast of that service will be able to be shown live.

Now, a little bit about Officer Brian Moore. As you said, he was young, 25 years old, and it was just a week ago that he and his partner were on the anti-crime task force. They were in their unmarked patrol car, and they noticed a man that was looking for something, or changing something at his waist level.

And that's when Officer Moore from inside the car asked him, so, what's going on? What are you doing at your waist, and then allegedly this man Demetrius Blackwell turned, took the gun out of his waistband, and fired three shots in the car, hitting and killing Officer Moore in the head. Now, ironically, that gun was one of 23 guns in 2011 that was stolen out of a Perry, Georgia, bait and tackle shop, also a gun shop, nine of those guns have been located in New York City and one of them is allegedly what shot Brian Moore.

But we are here today to honor the officers and the officer that was killed, this young 25-year-odl, almost five years on the force of NYPD -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Jean Casarez, reporting live for us this morning, thank you.

As Jean said, Moore was a special guy, a young officer, and he was the fifth New York police after shot in the line of duty since December, and that's when two officers were gunned in their parked car. The killer ambushed them apparently for no other reason that they were wearing police uniforms.

The attacks on cops, of course, come at a time of nationwide tension between police and communities that often see them more as enemies than protectors. Anger over the recent police killings of unarmed black men has boiled over from Ferguson to Baltimore and beyond. With me now to talk about his and more is Gil Alba, former NYPD

detective and founder of Alba Investigations.

Good morning.

GIL ALBA, FORMER NYPD DETECTIVE: Thank you for having me. Thank you.

COSTELLO: Thirty thousand police officers are going to attend the funeral of this young officer. Is that more than normal?

ALBA: It sounds a lot more than normal. Usually, it's 10,000, but 30,000 seems like a major number. And why are they coming? I mean, there is a reason for that. I guess because of social media and what's happening to police officers and what -- you know, the rhetoric against them is at this point.

So, I think they come and showing unity. And, you know, when you go to a funeral like this, you have 30,000 police officers and you are a police officer, you feel so good when you see all the lines of blue, and you feel like you are part of something.

COSTELLO: So this is about more than Brian Moore's death, as tragic as it is?

ALBA: Yes, because we had two other officers assassinated, and almost as similar aspect. So, I think it's more than that. And it's really sticking up for each other, you know. So, you know, they are all basically one.

COSTELLO: Yes, you know, it is perhaps ironic that Officer Moore was actually a Baltimore Orioles fan. In fact, the manager Buck sent him a Jersey signed by his favorite player, sent his family signed by the officer's favorite player, Chris Davis.

ALBA: Yes.

COSTELLO: Which I thought was a really touching gesture. But it's just sort of ironic, isn't it?

ALBA: Yes. Well, he had three tickets to go to that game. So, that's why they honored him in that game. So, he is 25 years old, his father was a cop, his uncle was a cop. And, you know, if you asked him what was the greatest job in the word, I am sure he would say, I have the greatest job in the world.

COSTELLO: And we were talking before about, you know, I asked you whether young people are eager to become police officers -- as eager to become police officers today as they once were?

ALBA: I don't really think so. I think there is something lacking as far as being a police officer. I don't know if it's the money. I don't know, you know, what the reason is for that. Maybe what kind of gratitude and what you are up against and now you see Baltimore and what is going on with that, you know? So why -- you know, the young kids throwing rocks at you and you are backing up, so why do you want to be a cop? COSTELLO: So, you were saying that used to be there was a waiting

list to become a New York City police officer, not so much today?

ALBA: Now, in New York City, you can just walk in and take the test every day.