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NASA To Attempt Artemis I Launch Again Today; Judge Unveils Full List Of Items Seized At Mar-A-Lago; Mark Meadows Submitted More Records After Mar-A-Lago Search; International Atomic Energy Agency To Have Continuous Presence At Zaporizhzhya; Farewell Ceremony For Former Soviet Leader Mikhail Gorbachev; U.S. Economy Added 315,000 New Jobs In August; Argentinian Vice President Unharmed In Apparent Assassination Attempt; Serena Williams Knocked Out Of Third Round At U.S. Open. Aired 5-6a ET
Aired September 03, 2022 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hello and welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber.
Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM --
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): -- after endless tests, we're hours away from NASA's historic launch of its Artemis mission. We'll look at the weather conditions.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Also, Trump's stash: new details about what the FBI recovered from Mar-a-Lago last month and it includes empty folders marked as classified.
Plus we're live in Moscow as the nation bids farewell to the former Soviet president who played a leading role in bringing the Cold War to a peaceful end.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Live from CNN Center, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Kim Brunhuber.
BRUNHUBER: Well, if at first you don't succeed, try again. It's 5:00 am on Florida's space coast and, after last Monday's scrubbed launch, NASA's Artemis I rocket is ready for liftoff once more.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): Have a look. This is the scene live right now from the Kennedy Space Center. If things go to plan, the unmanned mission will be able to launch this afternoon, going beyond the moon and kicking off a new stage in space exploration.
The Artemis program could see humans return to the lunar surface and set their sights on Mars and beyond. The vibe around the Kennedy Space Center is electric right now. And as NASA chief Bill Nelson explains, that could be one of the challenges. Here he is.
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BILL NELSON, NASA ADMINISTRATOR: The launch team is very confident. They have, to use a Southern term, they have looked at it from izzard to gizzard. And they're very confident.
And the only thing that's going to get in the way, if it does, is summertime in Florida, the rainstorms, the lightning storms. But they're still looking. We have 60 percent chance on the weather that it's good.
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BRUNHUBER: Well, we're now learning startling new details about exactly what FBI agents took from Donald Trump's home in Florida. The full inventory was released on Friday by a federal judge, who is considering Trump's request for a special master.
We get the latest from CNN's Sara Murray.
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SARA MURRAY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A newly unsealed inventory revealing the trove of materials seized from Mar-a-Lago, including thousands of government documents and 103 papers marked classified intermingled with magazines, newspapers, press clippings, photos and articles of clothing.
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: You know, mostly the boxes are pictures and newspapers and shirts and gear and, you know, golf balls and just -- it's a lot of stuff. You know, when you're there for four years, it's a long time.
MURRAY (voice-over): While Trump has downplayed what was recovered by the FBI, a seven-page list ticks through how sensitive the material was, 18 documents marked top secret, 54 documents marked secret and 31 marked confidential.
Investigators also collected dozens of empty folders with a classified banner or labeled return to staff secretary/military aide.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: None of this is going to help Donald Trump.
MURRAY (voice-over): A federal judge in Florida unsealing the inventory and pondering whether to appoint a special master to independently review the seized material.
WILLIAM BARR, FORMER ATTORNEY GENERAL: The whole idea of a special master is a bit of a red herring. At this stage, since they've already gone through the documents, I think it's a waste of time.
MURRAY (voice-over): The investigators' haul, which included more than 11,000 government documents without classified markings, revealed just how much Trump was holding on to, even after more than a year of negotiating the return of documents and 18 months after leaving office.
TRUMP: So what you do is you accumulate a lot of stuff over a term and then all of a sudden you're leaving and stuff gets packed up and sent --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
TRUMP: -- all sorts of stuff.
MURRAY (voice-over): But in Trump's office alone, investigators retrieved a number of boxes, including 27 documents marked classified in some way.
BARR: People say this was unprecedented. Well, it's also unprecedented for a president to take all this classified information and put them in a country club, OK.
MURRAY (voice-over): And investigators found them after Trump's team had assured the government any potentially classified materials had been kept in a more secure storage room and after a representative for Trump signed a document, saying everything with classified markings had been turned over a month before the search.
Meantime in a separate criminal investigation into the January 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol and the events leading up to it, former Trump White House lawyers Pat Cipollone and Patrick Philbin appearing before a grand jury today.
Both men pushed back on efforts to overturn the 2020 election and are key witnesses to the final days of Trump's presidency. CNN reporting they appeared after weeks of discussion with the Justice Department over executive privilege.
MURRAY: Back to that trove of documents that came from Mar-a-Lago, we're only learning all of these details about them, of course, because the former president has sought a special master, this independent reviewer, to oversee these documents.
The judge still has not issued a ruling on whether she will grant that request from the Trump team. But she did suggest she was leaning toward it, asking in a hearing earlier this week, what's the harm of putting forward a special master? -- Sara Murray, CNN, Washington.
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BRUNHUBER: Jamie Raskin is a Democratic member of the January 6th select committee. He spoke with CNN earlier and offered this reaction to the FBI seizures at Mar-a-Lago. Have a listen.
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REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD), JANUARY 6TH SELECT COMMITTEE: Well, as a citizen, I would just ask the question, where are the files?
Where did they go?
And which ones of Donald Trump's friends in the United States or around the world might have them?
But who knows?
That whole investigation is completely apart, of course, from what we're doing in the January 6 select committee, which was impaneled under House resolution 503 to examine the events of January the 6th and what led up to that and what we need to do to fortify American democracy in the future against coups and political violence and insurrections.
And what's interesting to me, just watching from afar, what's going on in that investigation that you've been covering, is that it's all about whether Donald Trump may have exposed our national security secrets to damage and to impairment by hostile forces.
Well, of course, that's what we know he did on January the 6th in unleashing an attempted coup and violent insurrection against the government of the United States in order to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
So it's a factually distinct set of events, potentially criminal, but it's parallel very much to what we're looking at, which is a grave and historic impairment of the national security and a threat to democratic government in our country.
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BRUNHUBER: Sources tell CNN that former Trump chief of staff Mark Meadows sent additional materials to the National Archives days after the search at Mar-a-Lago. The Archives realized they didn't have everything after they saw Meadows' submission to the January 6th committee.
His lawyers ha already arranged a turnover of the text and materials but some wonder if events at Mar-a-Lago sped up the actual transfer. CNN's Kristen Holmes has more.
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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: These are brand new details on the level of engagement between Meadows and the National Archives as well as what Meadows had actually turned over to the agency.
So we are learning that, within the week of the search on Mar-a-Lago, Meadows turned over text messages and emails to the National Archives. Now this was part of an earlier request for all electronic correspondence that was covered by the Presidential Records Act.
Interestingly enough, the Archives only realized it didn't have everything from Meadows when it saw what Meadows had given over to the January 6th committee. And we should be very clear here: this is not the same situation that Trump is in.
The Archives considered Meadows to be cooperating, even if it is slowly. This is not something they are going to refer to the Department of Justice.
But in addition to Meadows' own documents he turned over, we have also learned that he was part of the effort to get Trump to turn over the documents that were down at Mar-a-Lago to the National Archives.
Meadows himself is a designee to the Archives. We're told that in 2021, the summertime, he went down to Mar-a-Lago to try to get Trump to send those documents back to the National Archives.
Now obviously we don't know the details of that conversation. But we do know that Trump never ended up sending them until much later, when there was a subpoena.
So just interesting there are two parallels here. Now when it comes to the timing, we have conflicting sources on this. We have one source that says the search had nothing to do with what Meadows turned over or the fact that he turned it over at this time.
It was going to be scheduled at this time and this decision had nothing to do with the search.
On the other side, we have a source familiar with the matter who says that maybe it is a coincidence but they received far more information, correspondence from Meadows after the search than they ever had before -- Kristen Holmes, CNN, Washington.
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BRUNHUBER: International inspectors say they'll keep an eye on Ukraine's Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant. That's ahead.
And he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in ending the Cold War. Now Mikhail Gorbachev is being honored in Moscow and will soon be laid to rest.
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BRUNHUBER: U.N.'s nuclear watchdog says it will have a long-term presence at the Zaporizhzhya nuclear plant. Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency went there on Thursday for the first time since the war began.
Now its chief says six of the inspectors will stay at the facility for a few more days while two will remain on a long-term basis. The agency plans to release a report next week on what the inspectors found at the plant.
The IAEA chief says they already know much more than they did before their visit. But he also shared his biggest concerns about the plant, which has repeatedly come under artillery fire.
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RAFAEL MARIANO GROSSI, DIRECTOR GENERAL, IAEA: It is clear that those who have these aims, these military aims, know very well that is the way to cripple or to do more damage is not to look into the reactors, which are enormously sturdy and robust, but to hit where it hurts so the plant becomes, you know, very, very problematic.
So my concern would be, you know, the physical integrity, would be the power supply and, of course, the staff.
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BRUNHUBER: Ukrainian President Zelenskyy says he's disappointed that Russia prevented journalists from coming and that the IAEA isn't pushing for demilitarization of the plant but believes the mission in Zaporizhzhya can be fruitful.
After the nuclear inspectors went into the plant, many residents made their way out of the occupied territory next to the facility. Moscow and Kyiv have been blaming each other for the recent shelling of the nuclear plant but some of those refugees now tell CNN they saw where the fire came from. Sam Kiley has the story.
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SAM KILEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Newly arrived refugees from Russian-held territory, their IDs are carefully checked but it's contamination from the Russian side that's most feared, radioactive contamination.
They have come from around Zaporizhzhya nuclear power plant, which has been on the front line of Russia's war in Ukraine. These retirees say they fled in a car with mortars flying over their heads, just as U.N. inspectors arrived after weeks of negotiation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Mortars flying right above us, above the car. Didn't know where to go. And right behind us, there was bang, bang. They let us through because IAEA was on its way and they let us through so there were no queues.
KILEY (voice-over): Russia's defense minister insisted that there are no heavy weapons near the plant.
SERGEI SHOIGU, RUSSIAN DEFENSE MINISTER (through translator): I responsibly say that we don't have heavy weapons on the territory of the nuclear power plant and in the surrounding areas. I hope that IAEA commission will be able to see that.
KILEY (voice-over): On day one, the U.N. inspectors encountered Russian troops and Russian trucks inside nuclear facilities. Ukrainian officials say that they are a fire hazard and may even carry explosives.
Armored personnel carriers, armed with cannon, marked with a Russian invader Z, also visible. During the visit, Russian officials are keen to reinforce their claims of Ukrainian attacks on the plant, pointing out spent rockets.
A local woman shows the chief nuclear inspector a dossier on alleged Ukrainian attacks. Refugees who arrived in Zaporizhzhya from the town next to the plant tell of Russian helicopter gunships and worse.
KILEY: These are the latest refugees to have arrived from Enerhodar. That's the dormitory town for the Zaporizhzhya nuclear power station. We have spoken to a large number of them. None of them want to risk being identified because many of them still have families in the town.
But they all tell us, to a man and a woman, that they have seen the evidence of Russians shelling their own positions.
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KILEY: They say that they hear the flash to bang, the outgoing mortar, then the incoming bomb landing within one or two seconds of each other.
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GROSSI: And I was able to see, myself and my team, impact holes, markings on buildings of shellings.
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KILEY (voice-over): His pledge to keep inspections going is falling short of Ukraine's demands that Russian troops leave the power plant.
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Unfortunately, we haven't heard the main thing from the IAEA ,which is the call for Russia to demilitarize the station.
What can we do without it?
KILEY (voice-over): Ukraine has launched a counteroffensive against Russia this week. So in the long term, Ukraine may not be able to keep its promise not to fire on targets close to Europe's biggest nuclear plant -- Sam Kiley, CNN, Zaporizhzhya.
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BRUNHUBER: Moscow is saying its final farewells to Mikhail Gorbachev, the former Soviet president, who played a key role in bringing the Cold War to a peaceful end. Gorbachev died Tuesday after a long illness. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRUNHUBER (voice-over): You're seeing live pictures now of a public ceremony held at the Hall of Columns at Moscow's historic House of the Unions. Russian president Vladimir Putin isn't in attendance.
After the service, Gorbachev will be buried next to his wife, Raisa, at another historic location in Moscow, Novodevichy cemetery. So for more on all this, senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen joins us now live from Moscow.
Fred, so you were inside at that ceremony. Tell us more about what you saw there, the atmosphere, what kind of people were coming there to pay their respects.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Kim. It was a lot of ordinary Russians to pay their respects.
Just to give you an idea of how many people actually are coming, you can see behind me, there are just scores, lines of people lining up here outside of the House of Unions to try to come in and pay their final respects to Mikhail Gorbachev.
In fact, what's going on is that the police is having to sort of bunch them together in groups to make sure that they ensure a steady flow of people coming through. I see very, very long lines of people looking to pay their final respects.
A lot of people, of course, coming with flowers; a lot of people then holding, at the caskets, crucifying (sic) themselves and then moving on. There have been some dignitaries who have come through as well. The U.S. ambassador to Russia has also just laid flowers at the open casket of Mikhail Gorbachev.
Really a very solemn ceremony and certainly one I would say is very respectful as well, of course, family members of Mikhail Gorbachev also in attendance, sitting by the casket. I saw his daughter, who, of course, also worked at Gorbachev's foundation.
So really you can see that there really is an outpouring of sympathy really coming from a lot of people here in Russia, despite the fact that, as we have been talking about this entire morning, the view on Mikhail Gorbachev here in Russia is often somewhat different than internationally, where, of course, he is revered as one of the great statesmen of the 20th century, who did so much to bring down the Iron Curtain, to unify not just Germany but of course, a lot of Europe and, of course, also bring a lot of country's freedom as well, Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Yes. Fred, let's explore that then. No Vladimir Putin at the funeral. And it won't be a state funeral.
So does this reflect that ambivalence that you're talking about, the way the regime views Gorbachev?
And do many Russians share those -- the way -- the views of the regime? PLEITGEN: Well, first of all, many Russians do, yes. I also think there's a sort of ambivalence there as well.
We know that the relationship between Mikhail Gorbachev and Vladimir Putin was at times testy, that certainly they did not see eye to eye on many issues; like, for instance, personal freedoms, political freedoms as well.
Vladimir Putin has said or the Kremlin has said the reason why Vladimir Putin is not attending the ceremony here today is because he simply is too busy. His schedule is too busy and therefore he won't be able to make it.
It was quite interesting because the Kremlin did say this is not a state funeral but it has elements of a state funeral. They said the authorities are helping to organize the event, as you can see, behind me.
There's police officers, there's also a lot of barriers put up as well, to try to channel the big crowds that are coming here. There's also a guard of honor. But nevertheless, the Kremlin says this is not officially a state funeral, which, of course, is very different.
For instance, when Boris Yeltsin died in 2007, you had a state funeral and day of mourning. You don't have that here. But you have a big outpouring of public sympathy and of many, many people wanting to pay their last respects, Kim.
BRUNHUBER: Great to have you there on the spot, senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen in Moscow. Thanks so much.
Now earlier I spoke with Anne Applebaum, a staff writer for "The Atlantic" and author of the book, "Twilight of Democracy." The fact that Russia's president isn't attending the service.
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BRUNHUBER: How he is viewed inside the Russia today.
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ANNE APPLEBAUM, STAFF WRITER, "THE ATLANTIC": The current historiography in Moscow, promulgated by Putin, says that Gorbachev is to blame for enormous number of ills, for the economic crash of the '90s, for Russia's loss of status.
There are people in Moscow who will be genuinely mourning him and who remember his reign as general secretary and then as president of the Soviet Union, as a moment of great creativity and openness. It was the moment when Russia really finally, after many decades, began to change.
But the official line, the one that supports the current ruling elite and their argument for why they need an autocratic, kleptocratic state is that he brought down the Russian empire.
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BRUNHUBER: The Biden administration has approved more than $1.1 billion in armed sales to Taiwan. The White House formally notified Congress of the proposed sales on Friday, which includes up to 60 anti-ship missiles and 100 air to air missiles.
Mainland China's reaction to the news, in typical fashion, warning the U.S. of potential countermeasures if it doesn't change course. CNN's Will Ripley has more from Taiwan.
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WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It didn't take long after the announcement of this more than $1 billion arms package for the Chinese government to make its displeasure known.
More than half of this package includes a more than $600 million upgrade to an early radar warning system that has been operating here in Taiwan for almost a decade. There is also $330 million plus for anti-warship missiles, $85 million for air to air missiles.
And all of this, the United States says, is to help Taiwan enhance its defenses as tensions continue to soar with Beijing. This comes one day after an unidentified drone was shot down on Taiwan's outlying island, a matter of six miles, 10 kilometers from the coast of Mainland China.
Taiwan's ministry of foreign affairs points out this is the sixth time during the Biden administration and the fifth time this year that arms sales have been approved.
They put out a statement, saying they appreciate the United States honoring its commitments under the Taiwan Relations Act, a series of agreements signed more than 40 years ago where the U.S. agrees to recognize Beijing diplomatically and not recognize Taipei.
But they do agree to provide defensive weapons to the selfgoverning democracy which has had its own government and its own military for more than 70 years, since the end of China's civil war.
All that time Beijing and its Communist rulers say in fact they have sovereignty over Taiwan. So every time the United States and Taiwan engage in an arms sale or some sort of military interaction, Beijing says it is a violation of their One China principle and they have promised counter measures if these weapons sales and military interactions are not revoked.
They also say this severely jeopardizes U.S.-China relations and puts peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait at risk. But the U.S. State Department says these weapons are essential for Taiwan's security and they're continuing to call for a peaceful resolution of the cross-strait tensions that have been escalating very much in recent weeks.
This is now one month or so since the visit of U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi caused China to stage unprecedented military exercises that encircled this island. Of course Taiwan claims that the Pelosi visit was simply an excuse and
the plans for those military exercises, which almost simulated a blockade of Taiwan, Taiwan says, they say those plans were in place for quite some time and China was just looking for a reason to make them happen -- Will Ripley, CNN, Taipei.
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The U.S. labor market remains strong, despite headwinds from inflation and a possible recession. Still ahead, a new government report shows it's a good time to look for a job. Plus, even though the economy is creating jobs, some Americans are passing on the new opportunities. A former U.S. Labor Secretary will explain why. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada and around the world, I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.
New details about the FBI search of Donald Trump's home show the former president appeared to be extremely reckless about handling top secret government documents.
On Friday, a judge released the full list of what was taken from Mar- a-Lago, including classified materials, found stashed among boxes of magazines, clothing and other personal belongings. And dozens of folders marked classified or confidential were empty.
Trump's former attorney general says Trump only has himself to blame for taking the materials in the first place and then failing to give them back.
Trump's legal team has asked for a special master to review the seized materials. But Barr called that "a waste of time" because the Justice Department already done a preliminary review as part of its criminal investigation.
Wall Street went into the Labor Day weekend on the heels of its third straight week of declines. Have a look.
U.S. stocks closed in the red on Friday, as the Fed indicated its interest rate hikes would continue into the next year. Interest rates have been going up in an effort to tame inflation. At the end of the day, the Dow lost more than 300 points or more than 1 percent. Nasdaq and S&P 500 also fell more than 1 percentage point each.
There was a different picture on the U.S. jobs market: another month of job gains in August that beat expectations and that's despite record inflation and concerns about a possible recession. But as Rahel Solomon reports, job creation in August didn't match the blockbuster numbers the month before.
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RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The U.S. jobs market still strong but the pace of hiring slowed last month. The economy added 315,000 jobs in August, which did top economists' expectations. But it's below July's blowout numbers.
The unemployment rate rose to 3.7 percent from 3.5 percent as the labor force participation rate ticked up. And wage growth eased. Average hourly earnings grows rose by 0.3 percent from a month earlier. It's up 5.2 percent from a year ago.
We also saw notable job gains in certain sectors. Professional and business services added 68,000 jobs; health care employment increased by 48,000 and retail trade added 44,000.
This jobs report is one of the key economic data that the Federal Reserve will review, as the central bank is battling the highest inflation in 40 years by raising interest rates.
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SOLOMON: Some economists say that they don't believe the August jobs numbers will change Fed chair Jay Powell's aggressive approach.
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DIANE SWONK, CHIEF ECONOMIST, KPMG: I don't think this report changes that message at all given we're still so out of whack.
Job openings held at the July levels, even with a higher number of people seeking jobs in the month of August, we'd still be at 1.9 job openings per worker when the Fed is looking for a dipping more balanced at 1:1.
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SOLOMON: The focus now turns to the August consumer price report due later this month. That's a big inflation report. And the next Fed meeting is scheduled for September 20th and 21st -- Rahel Solomon, CNN, New York.
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BRUNHUBER: Robert Reich is the former U.S. Labor Secretary and he joins me now from Berkeley, California.
Thank you so much for being here with us. So first on the jobs report.
Does it suggest to you that the Fed's strategy of cooling the economy gently is actually working?
ROBERT REICH, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF LABOR: Well, it seems to be working in the sense that there are still a lot of jobs being created. Wages are slowing in terms of wage growth. The Fed looks like it is trying to achieve -- and indeed may achieve -- a so-called soft landing, which means cutting down inflation without pushing us into a recession.
BRUNHUBER: All right. So companies aren't necessarily hiring at quite the same rate they were. I'm wondering what effect this might have on the workers themselves, who had all the leverage so far, which has led in some parts of this so-called Great Resignation, people quitting their jobs in historic numbers in search of a better work-life balance and confident they can just move on to better paying jobs.
REICH: Undoubtedly a so-called tight labor market, where employers have got to pay a lot of money to workers, more money than usual to attract workers and workers are in great demand, that tight labor market is fading a little bit, because the Fed continues to raise interest rates and slow the economy.
And as the economy slows, that tight labor market becomes looser and looser. This is maybe good for the economy but maybe not good for your typical worker.
BRUNHUBER: So you know, from the worker's perspectives, so many people quit that some labor surveys suggest now that many of them are having second thoughts. A poll by Joblist found a quarter of those who quit their jobs regret it.
And a "USA Today" poll only a quarter of job switchers like their new jobs enough to stay.
So what do those surveys tell you that they're feeling the grass is always greener, is it maybe harder to find a better paying job than they thought?
REICH: Well, that may be the case, Kim, but don't forget we're talking about a relatively small percentage of workers who are disappointed. That means that about 75 percent of workers, that's a very, very large percentage, who quit their jobs to find better jobs are not disappointed.
You know, if you look at the other end of the telescope or, if you pardon my metaphor, if you look at the cup three-quarters full, what you see is a labor market that's actually doing fairly well.
BRUNHUBER: So those -- the quarter that are dissatisfied and all those folks who wanted to sort of -- who thought they may not stay in that new job, I mentioned that sense of regret may be more acute now with that job market tightening.
So that might lead neatly to this compromise that some workers seem to hit upon, this phenomenon people have labeled "quiet quitting." It doesn't actually have much to do with quitting. It's essentially doing your job but doing the bare minimum, no extra hustle, no doing everything it takes to get that promotion.
So is that a real thing, you think or a trendy term to describe what some workers had been doing since time immemorial, goldbricking, phoning it in, et cetera?
REICH: I tend to be skeptical of these trendy terms. I don't think there is a huge change from the long-term trend. Let me just be clear about that long-term trend because, in the United States, in the 1950s, 1960s and even up until the early 1970s, about 30 percent of all workers in the private sector were unionized.
They had a lot of bargaining power. They had enough bargaining power to get very, very good wages and create an expanding middle class.
Since then, we have seen a lower and lower percentage of workers be unionized and express very much power in terms of wages to the extent that, today, only 6 percent of workers in the private sector are unionized and wages have hardly budged, adjusted for inflation over the last 30 years.
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BRUNHUBER: The data is really soft but you do get a sense that the landscape is changing a little bit. We'll have to leave it there but fascinating stuff. Robert Reich, thank you for being with us.
REICH: Thank you, Kim.
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BRUNHUBER: Just hours after Argentina's vice president narrowly escaped an assassination attempt, an outpouring of support on the streets of Buenos Aires. The latest on the investigation.
And more help is on the way for those suffering in Pakistan, where floods have killed more than 1,000 people including hundreds of children. We have the details next.
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BRUNHUBER (voice-over): A sea of people filled central Buenos Aires on Friday to show their support for Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. Investigators have yet to determine the motive for the assassination on Argentina's Vice President. She narrowly escaped being shot outside her home late Thursday night because the gun didn't go off.
But the brazen attempt, caught on live television, has deeply shaken the country. Here is the latest from Stefano Pozzebon.
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STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A near miss, recorded by the cameras of national television shows an attempted assassination attempt directed at Argentinian vice president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.
An armed man was able to push past a crowd of cheering supporters and point a gun at the vice president's face. He pulled the trigger but the firearm apparently jammed and did not go off.
Fernandez de Kirchner then escaped an armed and the suspect was arrested and is now in custody. The most motive behind the failed assassination attempt is still a mystery. Even people that witnessed it could not understand what happened.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): What I saw was that everyone turned around. Even an elderly man, old ordinary people.
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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): They turned around and tried to help. And then security and police got involved and took him that way.
A lot of pain, a lot of helplessness. I say that as a society we're getting last because hate is leading us to demented things, to kill someone.
POZZEBON: Argentina's president, Alberto Fernandez, condemned the attack in a national address late Thursday night.
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ALBERTO FERNANDEZ, ARGENTINA PRESIDENT: Today, a little after 9:00 pm, a man tried to take the life of the vice president of our nation two time former president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner. This is the most serious attack we faced since recovering our democracy.
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POZZEBON: The attack comes at a moment of high political tensions in Argentina, exacerbated by economic crisis and the world's highest inflation rates.
And as Fernandez de Kirchner, one of the most charismatic and controversial figures in South American politics faces corruption charges dating back to a decade ago, during which he was the president of Argentina.
Her supporters say the investigation is politically motivated and held sit-ins in front of her house for day. It was at one such rally that the gunman got cut close to her on camera.
The government declared Friday a holiday to allow the nation to come together, President Fernandez said. Schools closed down. Even national football matches were canceled.
But analysts believe the real test will come now.
How will Fernandez de Kirchner, a firebrand politician who's been accused in the past of throwing fuel to the fire for political profit, come back after this attack?
And how will the nation manage to steer away from political violence just as the pressure is the highest?
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BRUNHUBER: The U.S. is stepping up relief to flood-ravaged Pakistan. A response team from the U.S. Agency for International Development is now on the ground to assess the situation and come up with a plan to provide more resources.
This week, the U.S. said it would give $30 million in humanitarian aid. So far, almost 1,200 people have been killed, including more than 400 children.
Now earlier I spoke with Peter Ophoff, the head of International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies' country office in Pakistan about the gravity of the situation. Here he is.
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PETER OPHOFF, PAKISTAN COUNTRY OFFICE, INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF RED CROSS AND RED CRESCENT SOCIETIES: In my almost three-decade career at present, I've never, ever seen anything like that. The Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Society has classified this disaster as a red emergency.
Red emergency mean that it is the highest classification you can have on an emergency, on any disaster. And it also has to do with the number of people affected, the size of the disaster and the impact of it. So this is really a very, very bad situation for Pakistan.
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BRUNHUBER: And if you want to help those millions of people being affected by the devastating floods in Pakistan, please go to cnn.com/impact.
And Typhoon Hinnamnor is bearing down on Taiwan and the southern Japanese islands, bringing heavy rains and strong winds. The storm had weakened over the past day or so but is expected to regain strength in the next 24 to 48 hours.
It's forecast to continue moving slowly north, making landfall across South Korea on Monday and then on to eastern parts of Russia.
Serena Williams may have just played her last match. Ahead on CNN, what the superstar had to say about her future. Stay with us.
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BRUNHUBER: All right. Now for an update on NASA's Artemis I mission, waiting to take off from Florida, NASA says mission managers and launch director have given the go ahead to proceed with tanking operations.
Tanking means teams will prepare the rocket for launch by fueling it with liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen, starting with the cooldown stage. Today's two-hour launch window begins at 2:17 on the U.S. East Coast. NASA says weather conditions could improve to 80 percent favorable toward the later part of the window.
Serena Williams, one of the greatest tennis players of all time, may have played her last match. Her dream of winning a 24th grand slam title before, quote, "devolving" away from tennis came to a sudden end at the U.S. Open, when she lost in the third round to a tough Australian.
Williams fought back tears and thanked her family. When asked if she would reconsider evolving away from tennis, she said, quote, "I don't think so. You never know." CNN's Don Riddell looks back at her legendary career.
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DON RIDDELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): When you're a tough athlete, the whole world knows your name. When you're one of the best of all time, they'll know you by just one name, Serena.
She's come a long, long way from the bubbly teenager, who burst onto the scene in the late 1990s. Following in the trail of her older sister Venus, Serena was never short on confidence.
SERENA WILLIAMS, U.S. TENNIS PLAYER: I've always expected the best for myself, always expected that I was going to be the best player, I was going to go out there and do good.
RIDDELL: Do you feel ready for all the stardom that's sure to follow if you continue in the way you have so far?
WILLIAMS: I know I'm ready for it, because if I wasn't ready, then maybe I should have stopped a little while back.
RIDDELL (voice-over): Serena played her first professional match at the age of just 14 and was a Grand Slam champion three years later. Her first coach might have been unorthodox but father Richard had created a world-beater.
WILLIAMS: I think my dad was a really innovative coach, I mean, even to the way we hit our strokes. It was something new coming into the tennis scene. And what's interesting about that is, it really developed my hands. Like, I see the ball so fast. Like, when I come to the net you can fire a ball at me, I get it back.
[05:55 :00] RIDDELL: Twice she's held all four major titles at the same time and she's also won four gold medals at the Olympics. She's faced numerous challenges along the way, not least the whiff of racism and she almost died from a pulmonary embolism in 2011. She faced similar complications after the birth of daughter Alexis Olympia.
She began her career in the era of Steffi Graf and Monica Seles and has long outlasted her peers like Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters. Even when talking to us back in 2015, she was able to recognize that her longevity was remarkable.
WILLIAMS: I think it just boils down to me being good at what I do.
Yes, I'm 33 but if you look at it this way and you go to a doctor and you tell your doctor, "Oh, I'm 33," he's like, "Oh, you're really young."
And then you're like in the sport, you're like -- oh, you're -- you know, a vintage.
RIDDELL: But even the great Serena Williams can't outrun Father Time. Olympia's mom would like to have another baby and there is seemingly no longer room for tennis. The 23-time Grand Slam winner has dominated and transcended her sport and is now evolving to the next stage of her life and career.
But whatever happens next nobody would do it quite like her. There will only ever be one Serena Williams -- Don Riddell, CNN.
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BRUNHUBER: Well, that wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. For viewers here in North America, "NEW DAY" is next. For the rest of the world it's "AFRICA AVANT-GARDE"
