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Dead Bodies Litter The Streets Of Bucha In Ukraine; Russian Military Abducted 11 Mayors; Shooting In Downtown Sacramento, Six Dead And 12 Injured; Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) Is Interviewed About Jared Kushner Testifying Before The January 6 Committee; Jobs Recovery And Inflation Worries. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired April 03, 2022 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00]

JIM ACOSTA, CNN HOST: I'm Jim Acosta in Washington and we begin with breaking news. New horrors revealed as Russian troops abandon parts of northern Ukraine. We do warn you, these images were about to show you are graphic and it will hurt to watch, but it is the truth. This is Putin's war.

This is the aftermath of the Russian occupation in Bucha, Ukraine. A massacre. CNN today at the scene of a mass grave where local officials say up to 300 people may be buried there. There is more. Some of the dead have not been buried at all. Bodies just strewn across the streets and I know this is sickening to look at, but please, try not to look away. Here civilians were killed execution-style.

One man found with his hands tied behind his back with a white rag. The Russians unsurprisingly are claiming these atrocities are fake and staged, but our CNN crew has seen it with their own eyes. These were real people with real families and real lives. Ukraine's foreign minister says the Bucha massacre was deliberate and accuses Russia of trying to eliminate as many Ukrainian as they can and Ukrainian President Zelenskyy sums it up with one word. "Genocide."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE (through translation): When we find people with hands tied behind their back and decapitated, such things I don't understand. I don't comprehend. The kids who were killed and tortured. So it wasn't enough just to kill for those criminals. Indeed, this is genocide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Despite the Russian army's campaign of terror around Kyiv, they could not keep control of those areas. So they're shifting their focus. The southern coastal city of Odessa came under new attacks from a missile strike. A CNN team in the city saying a fuel depot was set on fire there.

U.S. Officials say Moscow now aims to take the Donbas region and other regions in eastern Ukraine with a target date of early May, but this deadline could be mostly symbolic allowing Putin to claim a victory. It does not change the reality that Russia appears to be preparing for a longer drawn-out conflict.

Let's begin with CNN's Fred Pleitgen who is in Bucha today. Fred, I know that you saw the mass graves for yourself. It is just awful what you're witnessing there, but the Russians, they're trying to claim this was staged. That this was fake. But you saw it with your own eyes.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you're absolutely right. I mean, it's definitely not fake or not staged. There's a lot of things that the Russians have been claiming that is simply proving not to be true. I mean, they said that their withdrawal from this area was something that they had been planning all the time, so as if they've been doing on purpose that they hadn't really been taking major losses.

But what we've been seeing, Jim, especially the northwestern part of Kyiv is just destroyed Russian armor everywhere. They've certainly taken a lot more losses than anybody would have imagined and certainly the Russians are willing to admit. And then you have the civilian casualties. You know, from having been on the ground there, we saw a lot of dead bodies on the streets. And then we saw that mass grave as well.

So, as more of this is coming to light, we certainly can see that the amount of civilian casualties is a lot higher than anybody would have thought and certainly also a lot higher than the Russians for their part would ever be willing to admit. Here what we witnessed.

(BEGION VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN (voice-over): As Russian forces retreat from the area north of Kyiv, in their wake, scenes of utter destruction. Whole blocks of houses flattened. Ukrainian authorities saying they believe dead bodies are still lying underneath. But here, the dead also lay in the open.

Ukrainian national police showed us this mass grave in Bucha saying they believed up to 150 civilians might be buried here, but no one knows the exact number. People killed while the Russian army occupied this town.

This is what it looks like when the hope is crushed. Vladimir has been searching for his younger brother Dmitri. Now he's convinced Dmitri lies here, even though he can't be 100 percent sure. The neighbor accompanying him with strong words for the Russians.

Why do you hate us so much, she asks? Since the 1930's you've been abusing Ukraine. You just want to destroy us. You want us gone. But we will be, everything will be okay. I believe it.

Video from Bucha shows bodies in the streets after Russian forces left the area. Some images even show bodies with hands tied behind their backs. The Russian defense ministry denies killing civilians and claims images of dead civilians are "fake."

But we met a family just returning to their house in Borodyanka, which they say was occupied by Russian soldiers. They show us the body of a dead man in civilian clothes they had found in the backyard. His hands and feet tied with severe bruises and a shell casing still laying nearby.

[17:05:02]

Russia's military appears to have suffered heavy losses before being driven out of the area around Kyiv. This column of armored vehicles in Bucha completely destroyed.

(On camera): The way the Ukrainians tell us is that the Russians were trying to go towards Kyiv and they were then intercepted by Ukrainian drones, artillery and also the Javelin anti-tank weapons. It's not clear how many Russians were killed here but they say many were and others fled the scene.

(Voice-over): A national police officer says the Russian troops were simply too arrogant. They thought they could drive on the streets and just go through, he says. That they would be greeted as though it's all right. Maybe they think it is normal to drive around looting, to destroy buildings and to mock people, but our people didn't allow it.

And now it appears all the Russians have withdrawn from here. Ukraine says it is now in full control of the entire region around Kyiv. But it is only now that the full extent of the civilian suffering is truly coming to light.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PLEITGEN (on camera): And, of course, Jim, that is the case there in Bucha. But I have to tell you, we were going around large parts of the area north of Kyiv today. In fact, I was in four or five different districts and small villages. In all of them we saw exactly the same sight.

We saw a lot of destruction. We saw buildings where they said that there were still bodies buried underneath. And then of course we also saw bodies on the streets. That body in the backyard as well. So this is certainly something that is awful. Something that is not necessarily unique only to Bucha and certainly something that we believe more of which will come to light as time progresses and as the Ukrainian forces move into more and more areas that were held by the Russians before, Jim.

ACOSTA: Fred, I know you're an experienced war correspondent. You've been to a lot of conflict zones like this and you've just seen this, these atrocities for yourself earlier today, just hours ago. Have you had a chance to process what you've seen and, I mean, what do the people here in the United States, people around the world need to understand about the gravity of the situation that you saw earlier today?

PLEITGEN: Yes. I mean, there's no doubt, it's absolutely awful and obviously it's something that you think about for a very long time. We're obviously also in the process of working and that kind of sort of helps to digest things at least in the short term, but they do always come back to haunt you.

I think for folks in the United States to understand, the important thing that they need to understand is that the Russian military came into these it districts, came into Bucha came into other places as well. The people there were unarmed. They were -- they came with a giant force. They were confronted by the Ukrainian military.

And it's just the case where it seems as though a lot of civilians were opened fire on, you know, without any sort of notice. It seemed as though there were people occupying that place who were very easy handed with their firearms, who fired very, very quickly. And that's something that we hear from people that we speak to. That is something that we hear all around.

At the same time, I think, also that the Russian soldiers, and this is something I hear again and again from Ukrainians, have absolutely no idea what they were walking into. The Ukrainians keep telling me it seems as though the Russians thought they were going to come here. They thought they were going to get greeted as liberators and were just absolutely dumbfounded and surprised that that was not the case.

And that's probably also due to the propaganda that they got back at home and some of the things that they've been hearing out of the Kremlin and from Russian state TV as well.

So, those are two things where you can really see that the Russians seem to have no tactics, no strategy, no clue what they were getting into and also no idea about the situation on the ground. At the same time, you had cities here where you had civilians that were then just caught not even in the cross fire but they were just caught in the wrong place at the wrong time with this giant force here and many of them then came to harm. And I think we're, unfortunately, going to see a lot more of that in the coming days and the coming weeks as well. Jim?

ACOSTA: And it's just unspeakable brutality. All right, Fred Pleitgen, very valuable reporting that you did there. Thank you so much. We appreciate it.

Let's now go to CNN's Brianna Keilar who is in western Ukraine. Brianna, I know you just got on the ground a little while ago and you're in Lviv. But Ukraine south, Russian missile struck the port city of Odessa. Tell us more about what you're learning and picking up on that end of things?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, and Jim, we actually have some video of that because it came from the team attached to our colleague Ed Lavandera. They were there in Odessa when they saw some of these missile strikes that occurred there.

This is a fuel depot we have learned. We know that witnesses told them that they saw six explosions, and the Odessa city council also said that there were some missiles that were intercepted. That were matched by the air defense system, but obviously not all of them. Certainly we're here and so you see this attack here.

[17:09:58]

This is something that we've been seeing a lot of. It's an attack on infrastructure as Russian forces are trying to deprive Ukrainian forces of access to things that they need. Obviously, fuel that make it logistically possible for them to launch counter offensives. We've seen this time and again all across Ukraine.

We've even seen it recently once in Russia in a strike in Belgorod of a fuel depot there that Ukrainians are neither confirming nor denying that they did, Jim.

ACOSTA: And Brianna, Ukraine's deputy prime minister today posted on social media that Russian forces hold 11 Ukrainian mayors captive and killed one in detention. Have any more details come out about that?

KEILAR: This is horrific what we're learning about this, Jim. This is according to the deputy prime minister of Ukraine who says that there are 11 mayors who are held captive and one who has been killed. These are mayors from all over the country. From villages near Kyiv, near Kharkiv, and really across the country. And this is a tactic that the Russians have tried here.

It's sort of the M.O., trying to detain or as we've seen in one case allegedly killing a mayor, and then attempting to put collaborators or Russian friendly officials in in charge of those local governments as they have tried to turn the tide in some of these areas, but that mayor that we learned about was the mayor of Motyzhyn, Olga Sukhenko, which is a little -- it's a village that is outside of Kyiv.

And I'll tell you Jim that CNN cannot independently verify. We cannot confirm the numbers of mayors who have been detained. This is according, again, to the Ukrainian deputy prime minister, but like I said, we know that they have been detained. We've been seeing this tactic used again and again and it really speaks as well to the broader issue of human rights violations that we are starting to see ramp up here in Ukraine.

You just heard Fred reporting on that as well. We know that human rights watch has been interviewing people across the country, and they are hearing just horrific, harrowing stories of repeated rapes, of summary executions. And so the question will be, where is the accountability? It's certainly not going to be coming from the Russians and time and again when we have seen some of these atrocities historically conducted, there hasn't been a lot of accountability, Jim.

ACOSTA: No question about it. And the Russians are up to their old tricks, you know, lying about what has occurred saying that things have been stage and so on. Brianna Keilar, we know you're going to do some terrific reporting there. Please stay safe. Thanks so much.

And just outside of Kyiv, the suburb of Irpin is finally free of Russian troops but the city lies in ruins too dangerous for civilians to return. My next guest made it out of Irpin just before Russian strikes destroyed his apartment building. Since then, he's been recording videos of life inside a war zone all while taking care of his infant son.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX DAYRABEKOV, UKRAINE RESIDENT: Ooh, ooh, yesterday was such an easy game to play. Now I need a place to hide away. Oh, I believe in yesterday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: And Alex Dayrabekov joins me now. Alex, first of all, that was beautiful, what you did there for your son. Your son was born just two weeks before the war started. Tell us about how life is going for you right now? Why has it been important for you to document your daily life for the world to see?

DAYRABEKOV: Well, yesterday is the right song for this situation. You know, I've been singing it to my first son who is 25 years old now, and I sing it to this kid as well. And while I'm singing it now, I really, you know, reflect on it, and I was really shocked and I started crying that, you know, some of the words really are about this situation.

I'm half the man I used to be, you know. There's a shadow hanging over me. This is all about the situation now. We, the life changed completely within this town. Completely.

ACOSTA: Yes. And it makes you think about, if you're a parent, it makes you think about your own kids and how you would be able to handle things going through what you're going through, Alex. And you know, we just reported about these horrific images coming out of Bucha where Ukrainian President Zelenskyy says people including people tortured and killed.

[17:15:03]

Your own city of Irpin lies in ruins. We've seen that. That video, time and again, it's just awful. What is it like for you to see these reports day after day knowing that you're one of the lucky ones?

DAYRABEKOV: Well, yeah. These are the -- my place is in Bucha (inaudible). That's where the war actually started from the north. And you know, my heart is tearing into pieces, but this is -- we were lucky to escape in the first days, but I actually evacuated one family, but three days later it was already impossible to evacuate, and the people who I know, my neighbors, tried to escape in caravans of cars and they were killed.

Civilians with kids, with signs "children" on the cars were killed. You know, there's eyewitnesses. I am now -- I feel like this is my mission to collect those evidences, testimonies and I help them to talk to international lawyers and to give their testimonies and, you know, I'm present at those talks, and I -- I really sometimes just, I can't stop not crying. You know.

ACOSTA: Of course. And what do you have to say to, you know, the Russians who are claiming that, you know, the images that we're seeing of atrocities are staged and fake and so on? I mean, obviously, what they're saying is ludicrous, but from your perspective what is your response when you hear that sort of thing?

DAYRABEKOV: Nothing. I will tell them nothing. I tried for the first week to talk to my relatives, to the ones who I know in Russia, and they are completely silent. They are completely brainwashed. And I don't want to spend my nerves and energy on that. I'm going to collect the evidences. I'm going to help the victims and the eyewitnesses, and I'm going to do everything possible that the international trials will happen, and those who did it will pay. This is what I'm going to do, but I will not talk to them.

ACOSTA: And you shared another video of how your son has gotten so used to hearing the air sirens going off that he barely reacts anymore. We want to show viewers that and we'll talk about it after we play it.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

ACOSTA: Alex what do you think you're going to tell your son about all of this in the future when, you know, when he can, I guess possibly understand what was going on during this terrible, awful time?

DAYRABEKOV: I will tell him that he started his life in the time, in the historic time when the entire country got together against this evil, against this devil, because this is, this is not even a war. It's a massacre. It's a genocide. That they came to erase our nation and everyone is fighting. Everyone is fighting in this country for our country, four our land and for human values, and for freedom. And I'm sure that what is happening now will change the entire history of the country, of Europe, and of the world.

ACOSTA: Alex Dayrabekov, our hearts go out to you and your son and keep singing as best as you can. That was beautiful, what we heard earlier and we appreciate your time. Thank you very much. We appreciate it.

DAYRABEKOV: Thank you, Jim.

ACOSTA: Coming up, chaos inside Russian stores as people feel the effects of sanctions as Putin's propaganda beginning to crack?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[17:20:00]

ACOSTA: Our breaking story this hour. Horrors revealed in a Ukrainian town now abandoned by the Russians after five weeks of firefights against these -- these images are incredibly graphic and disturbing. They show the bodies of civilians strewn in the streets of Bucha. Here they are again. Our CNN crew also saw a sizeable mass grave in the town, destroyed Russian vehicles also lining streets and most houses have been damaged in some way.

And I want to talk about this now with CNN's Fareed Zakaria who is on earlier today. And another great show, Fareed, on just everything that is happening in Ukraine. But the NATO secretary-general described the images as a brutality not seen in Europe for decades. Zelenskyy was calling it a genocide.

Fareed, what is the world going to do about Vladimir Putin? I mean, is this just going to keep going on and on, day after day, week after week? We're just going to see these atrocities unfold before our eyes?

FAREED ZAKARIA, CNN ANCHOR: It's a very, very good and important question, Jim, because it feels to me like when this all began and Putin made his unprovoked aggression, we had a good, strong strategy in place, but we made it very clear that if Putin escalated the west was also going to escalate. And I feel as though we are now in a position where we are seeing these extraordinary images of what are clearly war crimes.

[17:24:56]

We are seeing that the Russian army under Putin obeys no laws of war, obeys no international norms or ethics. And if he can do this, let's keep in mind what this tells us they can do a lot more. There is chemical war, there is weapons of mass destruction. We need to start thinking about how we escalate now.

The west has to come up with some set of measures that really address the issue you are describing because the only thing that's going to deter Vladimir Putin is a sense that there are more and more costs to bear. Otherwise, I fear he thinks he may be able to wait out the west. That, you know, people will tire of sanctions and that people are going to want cheap oil and gas.

And I think this is a moment of truth for the west to show that no, you know, we can't be bought like that. And that -- and when we see horrific violations of every norm, every ethic in the war, there are still measures we can take. We are still buying Russian oil and gas.

ACOSTA: Yes.

ZAKARIA: Why not really put that on the agenda and say we are going to do more. If you do more, we are going to do more.

ACOSTA: And I guess, you know, one of the questions I had -- I want to ask you about this panic buying, what looks like panic buying in Russia. But very quickly just to get your quick take on this. When I was watching Fred Pleitgen's report at the beginning of the show, there seem to be this strange duality or contrast going on at the same time.

And that the Russians appear to be incompetent in the way that they have conducted much of this war on Ukraine, but at the same time there is brutality there that cannot be, you know, overlooked, obviously. I mean, how do those two things go hand in hand? How do you see that?

ZAKRIA: An excellent point and they do go hand in hand because what's happening is the Russian army cannot defeat the Ukrainian army. The Russian army cannot take a single city. It cannot even hold suburbs and therefore, in its rage or perhaps with instructions, it is mercilessly pummeling the innocent civilians, men, women and children.

Remember, it's just that a lot of women and children have fled, Jim. Otherwise, a lot of those dead bodies would have been women and children. People keep saying the Russian army is firing indiscriminately. That is not true. It is firing discriminately at civilians. It is deliberately targeting civilians.

There was no prospect in those apartment buildings that there were any armed force there. They are deliberately attacking civilians to punish them out of maybe a sense of rage, of frustration, to exact something. But what we have to ask ourselves is what are we going to do in response to that?

ACOSTA: And are you seeing these images of panic buying that we're seeing, Fareed, in Russia? These are new images that are just starting to come out. People trying to get their hands on sugar and other items. What do you make of that?

ZAKARIA: The Russian economy is in a greater free fall than it was when communism collapsed. There is absolutely no question that the sanctions are having a huge impact. Now, is it affecting Vladimir Putin and his inner circle? No. But it is surely causing havoc in Russia. Unfortunately, it's important to keep this pressure on. It's important for Russia, the Russian people, to understand that there is a huge price to be paid.

And let's always remember, a large number of the Russian people do not support this. Do not support what Putin is doing. A lot -- a number of them are leaving. You know, I had Mikhail Khodorkovsky on my show this morning, Jim, and he said to me before we went on-air, that they are estimating that 200,000 to 300,000 Russians are trying to flee Russia this year. Were probably trying to flee the next year. And the total may go up to 2 million or 3 million Russians trying to leave.

And these are of course, the most urban, you know, civilized cosmopolitan educated Russians. So things are looking very grim for Russia. The crucial thing is we have to remember that we have to keep the pressure on because we need it to look grim for one man in Russia. This is all about one man and his decision-making.

ACOSTA: No question. And one of his closest allies in the E.U. is Hungary's Viktor Orban. He just won re-election. We're seeing this coming in in just the last several minutes. Orban also, as you know, a hero to some in the far right here in the U.S. What is the significance of Orban declaring victory there in Hungary?

ZAKARIA: Well, it's very disappointing because the opposition had rallied around and tried to unify, but Viktor Orban has essentially fixed Hungarian democracy. There is no independent media. There is no independent civil society.

[17:30:00]

He and his allies have bought it all up. It is the ultimate expression of kind of right-ring populist authoritarianism. Now, even Orban, however, has had to take a somewhat anti-Russian line in this conflict even though prior at this he was very pally with Putin, expressed his admiration for Putin. I know all that sounds familiar.

But in this conflict, he has been constrained because the Hungarians are, of course, outraged by what they're seeing. But it's a sad reminder that if you keep taking steps away from democracy and if you allow into power people who are fundamentally not committed to democracy, you could lose your democracy forever.

Viktor Orban may be able to, with another term in office, fix Hungarian democracy, destroy the norms, the institutions to a point where I don't know, it becomes unrecognizable. It becomes something I've called not liberal democracy but illiberal democracy. They have elections, which are kind of fixed, but nothing else.

No independent courts. No rule of law. No free press. No free, you know, NGO's. And that's a prospect not just in Hungary, Jim, as you well know and you've reported on very, very bravely. This is something we all in every democracy in the world need to think about.

ACOSTA: Yes. It's a cautionary tale for the rest of us. No question about it. All right, Fareed Zakaria, thank you so much. We appreciate it. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:35:00]

ACOSTA:

In Sacramento, California a manhunt is under way after gunfire erupted in a very large crowd earlier this morning. Six people were killed, 12 others were injured. Let's get right to CNN's Josh Campbell in Los Angeles. Josh what are we learning about this senseless act of violence?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jim. Hours later this manhunt is still under way after this deadly night in the California capital. Authorities say shots rang out in downtown Sacramento just around 2:00 a.m. This was two blocks from the state capitol building in an area with several restaurants and bars. AS you mentioned, six people have been confirmed dead, at least 12 injured. The city's police chief spoke about the incident this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KATHERINE LESTER, SACRAMENTO POLICE DEPARTMENT: We had officers in the area that heard shots fired and responded to the area of 10th and K. They found a very large crowd here and they also found that we had a number of people that were shot in the area. Those officers, we know, rendered aid to our victims and called for additional assistance.

Right now we do not have a suspect in custody on this and we're asking for the public's help. If anyone saw anything, has video and can provide any information to the police department, we are asking for their assistance.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CAMPBELL: Now, at this point, authorities don't know whether they're

dealing with one or multiple shooters and they have not yet released a suspected motive. There is a video circulating on social media showing physical altercation involving a group of people just as you hear shots ring out.

That video has not been confirmed by CNN, but the Sacramento Police Department said a short time ago they are aware of it. They are asking for anyone who has additional video to contact authorities. Jim, just a deadly night at the latest mass shooting in America, six dead, 12 injured. The suspect is still at large.

ACOSTA: All right, Josh Campbell, thank you very much.

Coming up, Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, testified for hours before the January 6th committee. So, how valuable was the information he provided? A member of the January 6th Committee joins us, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:40:00]

ACOSTA: For the first time, the House Committee investigating the January 6th attack got to hear from a Trump family member this week. Trump's son-in-law and former senior adviser at the White House, Jared Kushner spent six hours before the committee Thursday voluntarily.

On the day of the insurrection, Kushner was actually traveling back from Saudi Arabia, but the committee's hope was that he could provide information about the events leading up to the violence that day.

And joining me now to talk about this is a member of the January 6 Committee, Democratic Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren of California. Congresswoman, thank you so much for being with us. I know that you're limited in how much you can tell us about Kushner's testimony, but how crucial was it?

REP. ZOE LAOFGREN (D-CA): Well, as you've noted, we can't go into the testimony unless there's been a vote of the committee to release the information which has not occurred in this case. But you can imagine if the interview went on all day long, which it did, that there was information exchanged and we appreciate that Mr. Kushner came in and we're hoping to hear from his wife, the president's daughter. As you know, we sent her a letter asking, and we hope that she will follow the path taken by Mr. Kushner.

ACOSTA: And was Jared Kushner combative? Was he cooperative? I know you can't get into the detail of what he said, but for a session that lasted six hours, how would you describe how he was responding to the questions?

LOFGREN: I -- he was not combative. He was precise and he didn't volunteer anything, but he did answer questions if he remembered the answers. So, it was not a combative or, you know, volatile exchange at all. ACOSTA: And congresswoman, the "New York Times" is reporting that

President Biden told his inner circle that he believed the former president was a threat to democracy and should be prosecuted and that he wanted Attorney General Merrick Garland to act less like a "ponderous" judge, that ponderous use of the word there in a quote, and more like a prosecutor taking decisive action. Are you frustrated with the attorney general? Do you think he's acting too much like a judge and not like an attorney general or a prosecutor?

LOFGREN: Well, I, you know, all I know is what I read in the "New York Times" on that.

[17:45:02]

But when it comes to the referrals that the committee has made for prosecution because the committee is a victim of the crime of contempt, criminal contempt. And we, as the committee and the American people, expect action, and we are -- we did express some frustration at our last public business meeting about -- it just seems that the referrals have dropped into a void, and we think that's problematic.

Obviously, under the system of laws that we have here, the Department of Justice doesn't report to the Congress and they shouldn't, but as victims of the crime of criminal contempt, we're hoping that some action will be taken and frustrated that has not yet occurred.

ACOSTA: And is this process running out of time with the midterms approaching?

LOFGREN: Well, you know, I don't assume that the chamber will change the majority. There's a lot of loose talk, but if you go through district by district, I think it's a mistake to assume that. But every committee is established with a length of the Congress, and so our intention is to finish in this year and I think we have every reason to believe we'll be able to do that.

ACOSTA: And among the thousands of pages of documents turned over by Mark Meadows, the former White House chief of staff under Trump, there were these text messages he received from Ginni Thomas, the wife of the Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas. We could show one them to our viewers.

One of the texts says, "Help the great president stand firm, Mark. You are the leader with him who is standing for America's constitutional governance at the precipice. The majority knows Biden and the left is attempting the greatest heist of our history." Setting to the side the inaccuracies of what is said there in that text, are these texts helpful to the investigation? Do they just shed light on her communications with Mark Meadows?

LOFGREN: Well, we don't know. I mean, obviously, they show that she was pretty far down the conspiracy rabbit hole, which is sad to see. But whether or not she played a key role in the plot is certainly not revealed by the texts that have been in the public domain. So we're looking at everything, trying to get the full picture. Trying not to be diverted by shiny objects. Just get all the facts that are important for understanding the full story.

ACOSTA: And we will see public hearings. We will see some of these pertinent witnesses?

LOFGREN: Yes.

ACOSTA: How soon might that happen?

LOFGREN: Well, the chairman has announced publicly that we will have some hearings this spring. He didn't set a date, but I expect we will in fact have some hearings this spring and we may have another set later in the year. There's a lot of material to go over.

ACOSTA: All right. Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

LOFGREN: Take care.

ACOSTA: All right. We'll be right back. You, too. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:50:00]

ACOSTA: The U.S. economy has now recovered more than 90 percent of the jobs lost during the pandemic. Here is CNN's Christine Romans with your "Before the Bell" report.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Jim. The job market is getting closer to a full recovery. The U.S. economy added 431,000 jobs in March and the unemployment rate fell to 3.6 percent, a new low for the pandemic. Wages also jumped, up 5.6 percent from a year ago. That's great for workers, but also an inflation signal, something the Federal Reserve is watching closely.

The Fed has already started raising interest rates to try to cool the economy to cure inflation. But that cure could have a steep cost.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ETHAN HARRIS, HEAD OF GLOBAL ECONOMICS RESEARCH, BANK OF AMERICA: This year the economy can certainly handle a normalization of Fed policy. The problem becomes next year if inflation hasn't come down below 3 percent, if the Fed can't declare success in getting closer to its inflation target. If they can't do that, they don't stop, and they, as we've seen historically, they risk a recession.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Recession worries have weighed on stocks. During the first three months of the year, the major indices posted their largest quarterly decline in two years. March was a little better, but Russia's war in Ukraine and big swings in oil prices and treasury bonds hint at more rocky patches ahead. In New York, I'm Christine Romans.

ACOSTA: And some sad news out of the entertainment industry. Beloved Seinfeld actress, Estelle Harris has died at the age of 93.

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UNKNOWN: First Kramer and then Elaine?

UNKNOWN: Yes.

UNKNOWN: It's a slap in the face.

UNKNOWN: What did we ever do to them? I want to know what we did to them.

UNKNOWN: What are they, too good for us? A raincoat salesman. I could buy and sell them like that.

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ACOSTA: Her unique voice took her to unforgettable roles. Who can forget George Costanza's mother in Seinfeld and also as Mrs. Potato Head in the "Toy Story" franchise.

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[17:54:59]

UNKNOWN: I'm packing you an extra pair of shoes and your angry eyes just in case. And if you get hungry here's some cheese puffs and a key. I don't know what it's for but you never know.

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ACOSTA: My kids definitely know that one. Estelle Harris would have turned 94 later this month. May she rest in peace. And we'll be right back in just a moment.

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[17:59:59]

ACOSTA: You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jim Acosta in Washington.