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Soon: Biden Speaks After U.S. Added Just 235,000 Jobs In August; At Least 48 Dead After Floods Wreak Havoc Across Northeast; Manchin Calls For Pause On Democrats' $3.5T Reconciliation Bill. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired September 03, 2021 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: So much during the mornings that we've been here. And thanks to Brianna for letting me sit in for her.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We had an historic storm. We're still feeling the after effects, no shortage in news, you were great. We look forward to speaking to you. Good having you on from the White House.

COLLINS: Yes, I'll be back in my perch.

BERMAN: CNN's coverage continues right now with Jim Sciutto.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Very good Friday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto. The devastating aftermath of a storm, this morning, at least 48 people across six states are confirmed dead, others are missing. This after the powerful remnants of Hurricane Ida just thrashed and flooded parts of the Northeast.

Listen to this reality, many of those people who died, drowned in their own homes, in their own cars. Right now, the threat from rising rivers is expected to continue throughout the weekend. In New York, officials rescued more than 500 people from flooded buildings, streets, even subway stations. In Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and New Jersey at least eight tornadoes destroyed dozens of homes and buildings. While the Northeast assesses the damage, more than 800,000 still remain without power in Louisiana, of course were Ida first hit several days ago. Millions are at risk as the sweltering heat stretches into the weekend.

Today, President Biden is heading to Louisiana to tour the damage there. Before that, he is expected to speak about the latest jobs report which was a huge disappointment, frankly, a huge surprise, the economy added just 235,000 jobs that missed projections by half a million. Let's begin with Christine Romans. Christine projection estimates had this above 700,000. I mean, that's 485,000 jobs short. How? Why?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN BUSINESS CHIEF CORRESPONDENT: And even the whisper number was 400,000 or 500,000 if you thought this was going to be a disappointment. So economists really undershot this or overshot this. You know, here's why. Delta drag, the Delta variant unleashed in the American economy in August, and when you look at these numbers, you can see that hiring slowed dramatically.

We had a very strong summer of hiring. June and July were actually revised higher, more than a million, almost 1.1 million jobs added in July. And then the brakes were just slammed on that recovery. When you look within the sectors, you can definitely see why. Leisure and hospitality didn't net add any jobs honestly. Food and drinking lost jobs there.

The jobs added were in manufacturing, transportation, in office buildings, and frankly, in education. But the very sector that has been the energy behind the jobs recovery which has been leisure and hospitality getting us all out there and trying to get back to normal, the job growth there stopped. And that's because of the Delta variant.

Let me give you one piece of good news here. That other headline number, the jobless rate, 5.2 percent that's the lowest of the pandemic. And that's important here. That's a different survey that measures households. Households were more optimistic, 509,000 jobs created according to households. They're saying they're starting their own businesses. They are going back to work. So businesses reporting less hiring or less robust hiring, but households are still seeing a better picture there.

SCIUTTO: Christine is there a regional variance here, right? Because of course the Delta outbreak is worst in low vaccination states. Are you seeing that in the jobs figures as well that there was less jobs recovery where the outbreak is worse?

ROMANS: So we'll know for sure next week when they do the state by state numbers. But I will tell you this. This weekend, Jim, 7.5 million people will lose their extended unemployment benefits. That expires as Congress designed. But we now know the verdict is in. The states that ended those benefits early saw no increased employment gain than states that kept those extra payments on.

So we know that it wasn't an extra bit of money that kept people from getting into the job market.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

ROMANS: It's COVID and childcare. Jim, COVID and childcare, those are the two most important things here.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

ROMANS: Maybe in September when kids get back to school, we can see a resumption of hiring again.

SCIUTTO: We'll be watching closely. Christine Romans, thanks for breaking it down.

President Biden has now approved an emergency declaration for both New York and New Jersey, this in the wake of just deadly flooding there, historic flooding. CNN's Polo Sandoval is in Manville, New Jersey this morning. Polo, you know, the records being set, you know, every day with storms like this. Tell us what you're seeing in the aftermath there.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And on that, we just heard Mayor Bill de Blasio recently saying that this should be a wakeup call when you look at the intensity of these storms and also how often we've been seeing them lately. Now in terms of where we are, as you mentioned there, in Mandeville, here in Manville, New Jersey and everywhere, you see reminders that the devastation and the heartache even though Ida has come and gone still remains.

[09:05:03]

And behind me just past this yellow police tape is actually what's left of what was described to me by neighbors is a beautiful home before. You can see it's basically been leveled here. And now all you see here is just a pile of just smoldering rubble. This was somebody's home. A neighbor told me just now, a woman who lives nearby told me that yesterday when this was all still surrounded by floodwater that she heard a loud explosion that her -- she felt her house shake, walked down in this house was in the state that you see it here.

Now in terms of what could directly be to blame, I've actually reached out to fire investigators, I haven't heard back, we're going to continue to try to find out exactly where the investigation stands here, especially amid reports of several other similar explosions yesterday. But all of this was underwater Jim. So what this really speaks to is how, yes, the floodwaters have come and gone. But now you see door -- just house after house where the people who live there are basically going through their belongings, see what if anything can still be saved.

And at the same time, we're also told by the New Jersey Governor's Office that now the death count in New Jersey alone, is now at least 25 people with at least six people still considered missing in other communities, not here, where we are right now. But again, this is just days after the storm has swept through the region. People are just now beginning to pick up the pieces. And for so many people what little they had is gone.

SCIUTTO: My goodness, you have a fire in the midst of a flood. Polo Sandoval there, thanks very much.

Another hard hit area is Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. Joining me now is Dr. Val Arkoosh, the Chair of the Board of Commissioners there. Dr. Arkoosh thanks so much for joining us this morning. Tell us about the aftermath where you are, how many people lost their lives, and are they still in danger?

DR. VAL ARKOOSH, CHAIR, MONTGOMERY COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS: Good morning, Jim. Thank you so much for having me today. Well, things are slowly improving here in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania but it has been a very busy 36 hours. My team participated in 467 water rescue incidents since the storm came. And of course those incidents often involve many, many more people than just one person so, they had been extremely busy. The highest number we've ever had before in conjunction with the storm was 135. So you can see that this is just dramatically more.

Sadly, we have had for individuals who have lost their lives just from this county in this storm. Three of those are from drowning. One of those was due to structural damage from an EF2 tornado that hit two of our municipalities, Upper Dublin and Horsham with winds up to 130 miles an hour.

SCIUTTO: Goodness.

ARKOOSH: So a lot of damage here still being assessed.

SCIUTTO: It's that double blow, right? I mean that the flooding plus a touchdown of a tornado in the midst of it. I wonder I mean, you did the immediate thing, right, which is save lives. What about rebuilding now? What's the level of damage in the wake of this?

ARKOOSH: Well, that assessment is still ongoing. And part of the reason why we don't have a clear answer yet is that one of our rivers, the Schuylkill River is still above flood stage. Thankfully, just minor flood stage but it's still above flood stage. Two of our major rivers in the county broke historic records yesterday and we're a foot above the historic high flood stages. So the waters are coming down but it will take a while to know for sure.

So far, we've received 665 reports from businesses and homeowners about damage. And, you know, it's just heartbreaking for our businesses. So many of them were just getting back on their feet after this pandemic and now here they are again, kind of back at square one so we're going to do everything that we can to help them.

SCIUTTO: I was thinking about that yesterday, right? Got through one crisis over the last several months and now faced with this. I wonder, you know, we call these events 100 year floods or, you know, in some instances 1,000 year floods. But the fact is they're happening more and more often. I wonder what lessons your community can take from this? What have you learned from this that you need, right, to save lives the next time you see flooding like this?

ARKOOSH: Yes. Well, we are very fortunate that we have incredible urban water rescue team that made up of professionals that largely volunteer for this work and they did an extraordinary job yesterday. They responded to these over 460 incidents, no one -- there was no loss of life involved in any of those rescues or no serious injuries. So we're so grateful for our first responders. And I think we all need to continue to work to address issues around climate change.

We know that our infrastructure needs to be made more resilient and we need to be doing a lot of planning for the future to make sure that we can withstand these storms. Several of our communities have reduced water or unboil water advisories because the water treatment plants were inundated or lost power.

[09:10:10]

So again, we have to look at hardening all of these really critical pieces of infrastructure and I look forward to working with the Biden administration to get some of that work done.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you, because we've heard that from a number of local leaders in the midst of this saying, this is why we need infrastructure. Can you give an example in your area in Montgomery County, what you would need first? Well, what is the first piece or pieces of infrastructure that you consider most critical?

ARKOOSH: Well, right now we have 14 County owned bridges that are damaged by this storm and are currently closed.

SCIUTTO: Wow.

ARKOOSH: So it is, you know, sometimes the most basic thing like roads and bridges that need that hardening and that ability to withstand storms of this magnitude.

SCIUTTO: Well, we wish you the best of luck. We know you have a lot of recovery work still to do to you and the residents in the area. Dr. Val Arkoosh thanks very much.

ARKOOSH: Thanks, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well, next hour, President Biden will head to Louisiana to survey damage there from Hurricane Ida. This morning, more than 800,000 people remain without power and it's hot there. Fuel shortages also having a major impact on recovery efforts across the state, all those first responders they need fuel. About two-thirds of gas stations in New Orleans and Baton Rouge are completely out of gas, tough on the residents there, you see them lining up.

CNN's Adrienne Broaddus joins me now from New Orleans. What's the state of the recovery there now?

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, here in New Orleans, people are learning how to wait whether they like it or not. Right now, these are folks waiting in line to get gas. They've been here for hours. The first person in line showed up just before our first New Day live shot which was around 5:30 local time. And people we've heard from say they want President Biden to know they are hurting.

You can see this line stretches along this street and it wraps around the block. And in just a moment, I'm going to walk you up to the gas station so you can see what's happening there.

The hurting part can't be expressed enough. People don't have power. Those who are fortunate are getting gas for not only their vehicles but their generators at home. And there are some signs of hope. In some parts of the city here in New Orleans, power has been restored. But across the state, there are still more than 800,000 outages, that's across the state. And that's not the only thing people are waiting for. They're waiting for the power to come on, but they're waiting for some form of relief because the death toll here in Louisiana is rising and some folks I talked to this morning said that's frightening.

Right now the Department of Health is reporting at least nine deaths linked to Hurricane Ida. And as you can imagine, Jim, no power means no A.C., and it's impacting everyone.

SCIUTTO: He's now promising an investigation this after four nursing home residents they died after being transferred, evacuated to another facility ahead of the storm. What more do we know about that case?

BROADDUS: Well, the details about that case are still coming out. We know that it happened in Independence, Louisiana. And for perspective, that's about 75 miles north of New Orleans. The chief of police in Independence mentioned he initially thought about 300 to 350 people were going to be evacuated to that facility which has been described as a warehouse but there were more than double there. And they showed up from nursing homes across the state. Jim?

SCIUTTO: Adrienne Broaddus thanks so much.

The most pivotal Democratic swing vote in the Senate, Senator Joe Manchin, he says he wants to hit the pause button on the Democrats of the President's $3.5 trillion budget plan. Is President Biden's domestic agenda on thin ice once again?

Plus, the Supreme Court's refusal to step in and block the Texas Abortion Law has now emboldened other conservative governors to follow Texas's lead. We're going to have much more on the fallout.

[09:14:22]

And Richard Branson's trip to the edge of space is now being investigated by the FAA. What went wrong? We'll have the details coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Right now a key part perhaps, the biggest part of President Biden's domestic legislative agenda is in trouble after West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin called for a pause on that $3.5 trillion spending bill.

The legislation, you may remember includes initiatives to expand the social safety net, tackle the climate crisis, make further investments in infrastructure. Democrats hope to pass the plan through reconciliation which would require the support of every single Democratic senator, though no Republican votes. CNN's Melanie Zanona joins me now. All right, so Joe Manchin flexing his political muscle once again here, given progressives interest in this. And by the way, Democrats have no margin for error here. Does this put the whole plan in danger?

MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: Potentially, I mean, it certainly complicates what is already a very complicated strategy for Democrats. They are pursuing the simultaneous two track process for both the reconciliation bill and the bipartisan infrastructure bill. And Speaker Nancy Pelosi has promised a vote on that Senate passed bipartisan infrastructure bill by September 27th.

The problem there is that progressives are not going to vote for that unless they also get their vote on the reconciliation bill, so it is imperative that they do finish work on that reconciliation bill before that date.

[09:20:05]

Now, Manchin has said that he wants them to take a pause. I mean just listen to what he had to say yesterday about all of this speaking at the West Virginia Chamber of Commerce.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): I would ask my colleagues and all of the Senate to hit the pause button on the 3.5. Hit the pause button. Let's sit back, let's see what happens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZANONA: So potentially he could blow this all up. Now, it's important to note the House Committees are plowing ahead and they are going to spend the next few weeks actually writing the bill. They're trying to finish that by September 15th and they're not taking their marching orders for Manchin when it comes to timing. But a potential wrinkle here is the price tag because Manchin has made clear him and Kyrsten Sinema both have said they are not comfortable with that 3.5 trillion price tag.

The House isn't going to want to pass something that doesn't have the votes in the Senate. And so it's probably inevitable that that price tag is going to have to come down which is going to tip a massive fight with the left.

SCIUTTO: So, the other piece of the two track, of course is the bipartisan infrastructure bill. You know, you can't have one without the other in effect --

ZANONA: Right.

SCIUTTO: -- by doing this. Is he putting that long negotiated deal in the danger as well?

ZANONA: Absolutely. These things are tied together. And progressives are also furious with Manchin. They are just coming out swinging. They feel like they've already compromised with the reconciliation package. Remember, they wanted 6 trillion.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

ZANONA: The budget resolution allows for up to 3.5 trillion. They also feel like they wasted a lot of time this summer, letting these negotiations on the infrastructure package dragged out. And so you've seen some of the members of the squad come out pretty forcefully against Manchin yesterday. AOC saying maybe we should hit the cancel button on this bill. Ayanna Pressley and other squad members saying maybe we should hit the mute button on Manchin.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

ZANONA: So you're just seeing these two wings of the party in open warfare and they're really going to need to trust each other in this process. So you see the work cut out for Democratic leaders here.

SCIUTTO: OK, other topic. The ongoing investigation, the House Select Committee, we now know that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's phone records have been asked to be preserved as well.

ZANONA: Right.

SCIUTTO: That's key because it's believed he spoke to the President that day.

ZANONA: Right.

SCIUTTO: Tell us what happens next.

ZANONA: Well, McCarthy is making clear he has no plans to cooperate with the Select Committee investigation even though he has said in the past that he has nothing to hide and that he would be willing to come testify. Here's what he told a local news station yesterday about CNN's reporting on the Select Committee moves. He said, it's purely political, so it's like this, I have nothing to hide, but I have nothing to add. When I spoke to the President was after people broke in. What did I do at that moment? I went on national television, and talked about what we talked about.

So essentially, what he's saying here --

SCIUTTO: Right.

ZANONA: -- is I've already divulged everything that happened in that call. But actually, there are conflicting accounts out there about what Trump actually said.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

ZANONA: And so having Kevin McCarthy come testify under oath could shed light on what was said, shed light on the insights of his thinking that day, what the President's conduct was like on that day. But look, I think the big picture here is what we're seeing Republicans do, which is escalate their attempts to derail this investigation.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

ZANONA: Right as it's heating up and right as it's potentially touching close to home. Remember earlier this week, Kevin McCarthy also threatened telecom companies --

SCIUTTO: Yes.

ZANONA: -- who comply with the request for document preservation. And so you're really starting to see the GOP effort underway to derail and muddy the waters as much as possible.

SCIUTTO: Melanie Zanona thanks very much.

ZANONA: Thanks. SCIUTTO: Well, this morning, one of the most recognizable faces from the Capitol riot is set to enter a guilty plea. Jacob Chansley, you may know him as the QAnon Shaman wearing that famous hat there, faces six federal charges in connection with the insurrection. It is not clear yet what the terms of his plea deal are or how much time he may be sentenced to. But he has been in jail ever since he was arrested in January. His lawyer said he will distance himself from the conspiracy group as part of that deal.

Earlier this week, the Justice Department secured the 50th guilty plea in the insurrection. Nearly 600 people now from 44 states and Washington, D.C. have now been charged in federal court.

[09:24:05]

All right, in about an hour President Biden will head to storm ravaged Louisiana as more than 800,000 customers there remain without power as the heat is rising. The former mayor of New Orleans will join me live, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: In the next hour, President Biden will head to Louisiana to meet with state and local officials and survey damage there from Hurricane Ida. It is severe. The cleanup efforts have only just begun. Thousands of people running low on the most basic things, clean water, fuel, even food as well. CNN's count at this point is 14 deaths connected to Hurricane Ida in Louisiana and Mississippi.

Joining me now is former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu. Mitch, thanks so much for taking the time this morning.

MITCH LANDRIEU (D), FORMER NEW ORLEANS MAYOR: Good morning. Sure, thanks for having me.

SCIUTTO: In a CNN op-ed titled from Katrina to Ida, what has Louisiana learned? You note. You note that Hurricane Ida, along with too many other disasters battered our most vulnerable populations the worst. I wonder how you're seeing that play out there right now and who's most in need right now?

LANDRIEU: Well, first of all, I mean, my thoughts and prayers go out to the people in the northeast as well who got battered by Ida. The devastation down here you can see from the pictures is just dramatic. All of the parishes in Southeast Louisiana have gotten devastated. Also last year more devastated Southwestern Louisiana and on top of that, we have COVID.

[09:30:04]

So, I mean we're underneath it, there's no question about it.