Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Biden On New Jobs Report: This Is The Progress We Need To See; White House Says Biden's "Armageddon" Remark Not Based On New Intel, Claims Its Consistent Messaging; Uvalde School District Suspends Its Police Department. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired October 07, 2022 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Hello everyone, I'm Alisyn Camerota. Welcome to "CNN NEWSROOM."

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: I'm Victor Blackwell, good to be with you.

President Biden just moments ago delivered remarks on today's jobs report, inflation, and where the economy is right now. His message, America is on the right track.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're proving that our best days are ahead of us not behind us. We created 263,000 jobs last month. That's 10 million jobs since I come into the office. That's the fastest job growth at any point of any president. And our job market continues to show resilience as we navigate through this economic transition we're in. For some time, I've been saying that what we need to do in this transition, we have to move from a historically strong economic recovery to a more steady stable recovery.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: All right, you heard the president there. The U.S. added 263,000 jobs in September just slightly beating expectations.

CAMEROTA: The unemployment rate fell to 3.5 percent, back to where it was just before the pandemic hit. Employers are hiring but the labor market is slowing down. This is the lowest monthly job increase since April of last year. Today's report may not be enough to keep the Fed from raising interest rates again next month, all in an effort to try to squash inflation. Investors are not happy today, the Dow, S&P500, and NASDAQ, all down.

BLACKWELL: All right, with us now, CNN senior White House correspondent Phil Mattingly, CNN reporter Matt Egan, and CNN Economics and Political commentator Catherine Rampell. She's also a Washington Post opinion columnist. Phil, let's start with you at the White House. The president talked job, he taught the economy, but he pushed a lot of politics into that too.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's almost like there's a midterm election coming in at 30-plus days there, Victor.

BLACKWELL: You don't say.

MATTINGLY: Well, but look, this is the reality of this moment for this White House on this issue in particular. All of the polling, whether public or internal, both parties are looking at still has the economy and inflation, high above everything else in terms of the most important issues for voters, particularly voters that both parties are trying to get on their side in the course of these next four weeks. And the Biden administration has made clear. They believe they have a very real story to tell of the success of economic recovery. And particularly on the employment picture, as Matt knows far better than I do, what has been an almost jarring and robust effort over the course of the last 19 months. However, when you have inflation, when you have the realities of kind of a disjointed economy that creates major problems, the president is saying Republicans only want to focus on those problems.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Many of my Republican friends are basically arguing that good news for the economy is bad news -- is bad news for America, as if they're rooting for fewer jobs and lower wages. It's all part of this trickle-down mentality that says it doesn't matter what's happening in the mainstream, what really matters is what's happening on Wall Street. If Wall Street is doing well, everybody's doing well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: You know, it's one of the key elements of the contrast the White House and Democrats have been trying to lay out over the course of the last several weeks as they try and prevent major Republican gains in those midterms to be determined whether or not it's going to work. The job number today was right around where the White House wanted it to be. Maybe we wanted it to be a little bit lower. The jobs recovery is still very robust and solid. Inflation, however, is still a very real political problem that shows no signs of ending at least in a major way before those elections, guys.

CAMEROTA: So, Catherine, this jobs report, as Phil was saying solid but slower. Does that mean that the moves the Feds have been making are working?

CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think this is about what the Fed wants to see. They want to see the number of jobs being added sort of moderating. They want to see actually wage growth moderating. So in that sense, yes, this is sort of part of the plan. However, if the inflation numbers, which we will get next week, are still likely to be much higher than wage growth, we still see many more vacancies relative to the number of workers are -- who are available to fill those vacancies.

And in fact, there were some numbers in this report that the Fed doesn't want to see, including the fact that a lot of people dropped out of the labor force. If we want to address those labor shortages, we need more people into the labor force. So, for the most part, I think this is -- this is a portrait of an economy that the -- that the Fed is looking for, but doesn't quite fix all of the issues that they're worried about.

BLACKWELL: So, it doesn't fix all of the issues but job growth is cooling. Matt, explain why the Dow is down close to 600 points right now.

[14:05:08]

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, it's because we're stuck in this really weird economic moment where the jobs market and the economy got so hot that we actually needed to cool down otherwise, inflation is going to keep crashing families and businesses, and our retirement accounts. And so, I think directionally, this report is going in the right way, right? 263,000 jobs, that is a slowdown, but this is really just a baby step.

I think that the way that markets are anticipating this is that there's nothing about today's jobs report that's going to prevent the Federal Reserve from keep throwing these monster interest rate hikes at the economy. And eventually, those rate hikes in a credit-sensitive economy could cause a recession. So that's the concern on Wall Street. That's why the Dow was down 600 points, 1.8 percent, giving back most of this week's big gains.

I think the good news, though, is that if you're a worker and you want a better job, companies are hiring, right? It is still a good time to look for jobs. And there's nothing about today's report that suggests an ongoing or imminent recession.

CAMEROTA: Catherine, yesterday, it was interesting in the managing director of the IMF talked about her concerns about a global recession and the signs that she's seeing. Is there a way for the U.S. to insulate itself against what is happening in the world?

RAMPELL: Well, the fact that we do produce more of our own energy is helpful. I mean, energy is a global market. Yes, but we are not as reliant on Russia, for example, that does insulate us to some extent. But we are not completely shielded from the -- you know, the winds battering the rest of the global economy because of disruptions in energy markets, because of disruptions in commodity markets. So that, plus the fact that you have central banks around the world sort of doing a synchronized but not coordinated tightening, where you have financial conditions tightening, interest rates rising here, in the UK, in the EU, elsewhere.

All of that means that pressures on the global economy are increasing. The risk of a global recession is up. The risk of a recession here is up even if as Matt says, we don't see the evidence of it just yet it's that that sort of forward-looking. Look at what's happening to interest rates, what's happening to financial conditions, that present the greater risk for the United States.

CAMEROTA: Catherine, Matt, Phil, thank you all very much for helping us analyze this.

BLACKWELL: All right, minutes ago, the White House clarified President Biden's dire warning about the nuclear threat posed by Vladimir Putin. At a fundraiser last night, the president said we have not faced the prospect of Armageddon since Kennedy and the Cuban Missile Crisis. I don't think there's any such thing as the ability to easily use a tactical nuclear weapon and not end up with Armageddon.

CAMEROTA: So moments ago, the White House press secretary said this about the president's ominous warning.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

KARINE JEAN-PIERRE, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We have not seen any reason to adjust our own strategic nuclear posture, nor do we have indications that Russia is preparing to imminently use nuclear weapons.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK, let's bring in CNN Alex Marquardt. Alex, the president's comments seem to have caught U.S. officials and the Intel community off guard. So what's the response today?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, the White House is saying that the president has been very consistent on this. And he has been reinforcing -- was reinforcing the arguments that they've been making, that they're taking this threat of Russia using nuclear weapons very seriously. And we have heard the administration say repeatedly that they are taking this threat very seriously, but we have not heard them warning of nuclear Armageddon. That is new is certainly caught some people by surprise.

One White House official did tell our colleague, Jeremy Diamond, that President Biden was speaking frankly in response to what they called Putin's irresponsible and reckless rhetoric. Let's take a listen to a little bit more of what the press secretary had to say earlier today.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

JEAN-PIERRE: The president's comments has been very consistent. He was reinforcing what we have been saying which is how seriously we have take -- we take these threats about nuclear weapons as we have done when the Russians have made these threats throughout the conflict. So, the kind of irresponsible rhetoric we have seen is no way for the leader of a nuclear-armed state to speak. And that's what the president was making very clear about.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: So, the reason this was surprising was because there is no new intelligence to indicate that the threat is any higher today. There is no new intelligence assessment. There's no indication that President Putin is moving nuclear forces or about to fire tactical nuclear weapons. In fact, what officials have been saying is that the risk of Russia using nuclear weapons is quite low. At the same time, it is the highest that it has been in years.

Alisyn and Victor, you may remember back in February, President Putin actually put his nuclear forces on high alert and that rattled everyone significantly at the time. Now fast forward seven months, and Russia certainly is not where they thought they were going to be. They're on their heels.

[14:10:01]

You have the Ukrainians pushing forward making significant gains. That is why there is a real fear that President Putin could go down that road and eventually use tactical nuclear weapons The White House says that they have made clear they've spelled out the repercussions to Russia should they go down that road, Alisyn and Victor.

BLACKWELL: Alex Marquardt, for us in Washington. Thank you. Andrea Kendall-Taylor is a former Deputy National Intelligence Officer of Russia/Eurasia, and Susan Glasser is a CNN Global Affairs analyst and staff writer for The New Yorker. Welcome to you both. Susan, let me start with you. The president's use of Armageddon, is certainly jarring, but is he wrong? Is his assessment off base?

SUSAN GLASSER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, look, if the president of the United States warns us about Armageddon, we're duty- bound to take that seriously. And it is indicative of where the president's mind is at, his concerns at the moment, and the fact that he is clearly working through with his advisors, what kind of, you know, escalatory steps are possible by Vladimir Putin given his rhetoric and also, what kind of U.S. responses are possible.

So, to me, what that indicates is the president is concerned that we don't have good options short of escalating into all-out nuclear conflict were Putin to follow through on his threats. But I'm very struck by the tone of this walk back today because there is the fear that in speaking out like that yesterday, President Biden, in a way, you know, gave in to Putin's nuclear blackmail by suggesting that he's got a so rattle that perhaps it might be more advantageous for Putin as he seeks to go to the bargaining table because he's doing so terribly on the battlefield.

CAMEROTA: Andrea, how do you see it that the president used, you know, such apocalyptic language?

ANDREA KENDALL-TAYLOR, FORMER DEPUTY NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE OFFICER FOR RUSSIA/EURASIA: I think we probably would have preferred more precise and less emotional language. But I think the sentiment that the president is communicating is really critically important for all Americans to understand. Yes, the risk of Putin using a nuclear weapon remains low, but it is higher than it has been in a very long time. So, you know, that's kind of the unfortunate reality.

I think it was very important that the White House came out today to say that the United States will not back down in the face of these nuclear threats. We also know that the Ukrainians will not be intimidated. And so the unfortunate reality, and what I think the president was responding and reacting to, is the reality that the better that the Ukrainians do on the battlefield, the higher the risk is. The United States will not change course. But then I think Americans have to understand that when Putin gets to the point where he feels like he has no other options, it is a plausible outcome that he could cross the nuclear threshold. And I think we need to be prepared for that.

BLACKWELL: Andrea, the Ukrainian president says that, all right, U.S., if you believe that this is the closest to potential Armageddon in 60 years, supply more resources, supply more weapons, you should offer more, is he right? Should there be an escalation in support that matches the president, if not the administration's view of this moment?

KENDALL-TAYLOR: I think it is critically important that the United States and Europeans stay the course. And I think it would be additionally important to show President Putin that we are not being intimidated by the nuclear threats by continuing with sustained military support, perhaps even giving additional weapons that we have previously withheld. I mean, I think we all understand the stakes that we have to demonstrate that the nuclear threat is not successful and effective.

Because if we back down, what's to say that President Putin doesn't claim the Baltics or Warsaw, for that matter, as now a part of Russian territory and under the nuclear umbrella? It would also communicate to other leaders that the nuclear saber-rattling is effective. And so the stakes are extremely high. And so yes, it is important that the United States stay the course and continue to provide the aid that the Ukrainians are asking for so that they can be effective on the battlefield and reclaim the territory that Russia has taken.

CAMEROTA: Susan, what are we to make of the fact that so many, and by that I mean, a handful but still significant military leaders in Russia? I mean, pro-Putin, pro-Kremlin leaders are speaking out against the defense minister and basically saying that the war has been, you know, an abject failure and that there's incompetence. I didn't know they were allowed to do that. And the fact that they're doing that, what does that mean?

GLASSER: Well, look, Alisyn, there's a long tradition of scapegoating inside the Russian and the Soviet system before that. (INAUDIBLE) is an old Soviet question. And I think we are seeing clearly, you know, the recriminate -- the recriminations for Russia's poor performance on the battlefield and especially in a system where Putin needs to maintain his own primacy, there's got to be someone who is available to take the fall.

[14:15:05]

Now interestingly, the defense minister, Sergei Shoigu, has been a longtime loyalist. He was a senior figure in the government back two decades ago when I was a correspondent in Moscow. So he's a survivor inside that system. We're seeing, you know, just the sort of shadow boxing, part of which is evident to us publicly. And the rest is not evident to us inside a very opaque Kremlin.

But I do think, you know, Putin has destabilized his own system with this disastrous war on his neighbor. You know, you're looking at an incredible spectacle of more than 200,000 apparently, Russian men who fled the country rather than serve in Putin's mobilization for the war in Ukraine. This is -- this is a major own goal that Putin has performed. And I do think that the system is being shaken to the core by the reverses on the battlefield.

CAMEROTA: Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Susan Glasser, thank you both very much for all the expertise.

BLACKWELL: Some stunning new developments out of Uvalde. The school district announces it suspending its police force after its response to the Robb Elementary School shooting.

CAMEROTA: And the DOJ believes that Donald Trump is still hanging on to sensitive government records. Does the FBI need to pay another visit?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:20:46]

CAMEROTA: Four months after 19 children and two adults were murdered in that mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, that school district is now suspending its entire police force. CNN crime and justice correspondent Shimon Prokopenko is with us now. This is what the family wanted.

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. But I have to tell you, I've been on the phone with some of the representatives for the families, they're actually shocked.

BLACKWELL: Yes?

PROKUPECZ: They didn't believe that this would even happen because it's been so long. They've been asking for accountability. They've been asking that these officers be removed from the school. There's no trust right now in this community. So they didn't believe it. You know, when the news first broke, they just couldn't believe it.

You know the fact that they're removing these officers from the school is certainly significant. But you know, all of this comes really after reporting that we here at CNN did. And it seemed to really sort of be the final straw for many of the family members and the community members and even the teachers, I'm told are really upset. They've kind of stayed neutral.

But given what we've learned and what we've uncovered regarding this officer that they hired, an officer who was under investigation, she was a former DPS, Department of Public Safety, under investigation for her failed response to the school. She was there within minutes and took basically no action. And then the school turnaround, she resigned from DPS and then they hire her. And it's the vetting process, a lot of concern over how they came to hire her. And so, one of the other things that happened here today was that the lieutenant Miguel Hernandez, he was really -- he's been in charge of this police department since the Chief, Arredondo was fired. He was in charge of vetting her. We have a letter that the DPS sent him saying, listen, she's under investigation. They asked for a background check. The school police asked for a background check. They sent him a letter saying she's under investigation.

The other individual is a man by the name of Ken Mueller. He's an administrator at the building. I actually had a moment with Ken Mueller when I -- when I was digging in on this story on this former police officer Elizondo. Mueller showed up at the school to find out why I was there and what was going on. And I actually had a moment with him where I tried to ask him questions. I -- and I think we have that here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PROKUPECZ: I actually have some questions for you now.

CRIMSON ELIZONDO, FORMER TEXAS TROOPER: I'm not going to answer any questions.

PROKUPECZ: Officer Elizondo, I'm doing a story about you and your time at DPS. I'd like to ask you some questions if possible.

Sir, do you know this officer who you have recently hired? Are you aware that she's under investigation for her actions on the day of the shooting? But do you think she's fit to serve you considering the options out there under investigation? Mr. Mueller, you don't want to respond to that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PROKUPECZ: And so there you go. He just shuts the door on me and drives away. He was also -- what I'm told is -- was involved in the hiring of Officer Elizondo who you see there, I try to question. She was fired yesterday after our report. And so there's going to be more fallout. This is I think, just the start of it.

Now, Mr. Mueller and I have had other interactions. At school board meetings, I've had interactions with him. He was pretty close to the former chief, Chief Arredondo. When I confronted chief Arredondo he was standing behind Chief Arredondo at the school administration building. And he's someone that the families were not very happy with.

But I have to tell you. For them, this is a day where they can take some pride in the fight -- in their fight. This community -- this is certainly very shocking for them. They did not expect this. They have had no accountability. And to see this happen finally is such a relief for them.

And you know it's moving. I got a chance to talk to some of them today and you know, they're just -- finally, they feel like somebody's listening to them. Their concerns are being heard in after so long when people have ignored them and not listened to them. And I think this sends a message now to the other authorities who have resisted providing information. It's going to get -- it's going to come out.

And this is why they don't want this coming out because then you're going to have fallout like this. Because when you get down into what really happened here, it's far worse than what anyone can imagine. And I think it's going to come out. It's just going to take some more time. And we're going to see more fallout like this, so. They can keep hiding but they're going to have to come out at some point.

[14:25:03]

CAMEROTA: If the whole school police force has disbanded, who's going to protect the school?

PROKUPECZ: The DPS. The Department of Public Safety which is raising some concerns, certainly, but they've been in the community. There are some assurances from the state police and other officers that it's going to be OK. So for now, the community is saying, OK, well, we'll take that and we'll see. But they're not stopping. I mean, these family members are digging in.

BLACKWELL: Nor should they.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

BLACKWELL: Shimon Prokupecz, thank you for the reporting.

CAMEROTA: Thanks to you, Shimon.

Does Donald Trump still have more classified government documents at his home? CNN has learned that in recent weeks, DOJ officials demanded that former President Trump return any classified documents he may still have. A sure sign, they do not believe he has returned all of the materials that he took.

BLACKWELL: CNN's Katelyn Polantz is in Washington. So, what do they think he still has?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Victor and Alisyn, in these exchanges that the lawyers for Donald Trump are having with the Justice Department, the Justice Department is making clear that it believes that the investigators there don't have all of the records that would belong to the federal government. And specifically, they're looking for national security records still, the documents that would be marked as classified that may be in Trump's possession. So, this question, it's loomed over this investigation for a long time, are there more national security records that weren't seized in that search at Mar-a-Lago and that Donald Trump's team had not turned over in their many interactions with investigators this year?

And this new reporting from Kaitlan Collins last night is that the Justice Department, even in recent weeks, has continued to tell Trump's attorneys that they need to give back federal records that they have, classified records if Donald Trump still has them around him, or in his possession. We've also seen the Justice Department show a lot of concern about this in recent court filings. A few -- a few weeks ago, they did that search at Mar-a-Lago in August, and then prosecutors were temporarily blocked by a judge in Florida from touching a hundred documents that they found that were marked as classified. And they were telling the courts when that happened, that not being able to go through those documents prevented them from figuring out if anything else was missing. So that question is persisting, the struggle is continuing, and investigators keep communicating their needs to Trump's team, Victor and Alisyn.

BLACKWELL: Katelyn Polantz, thank you.

Frustration is growing over recovery efforts after Hurricane Ian. Families are saying not enough is being done on the state or the federal level. We have lived with their claims from Florida.

CAMEROTA: And New York City's Mayor declares a state of emergency over the influx of asylum seekers. How much she says the city will have to pay to manage the crisis?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)