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Harris Veepstakes Reaches Critical Final Hours; Trump And Vance Hold Rally In Downtown Atlanta; Trump Rallies In Battleground GA, Harris VP Pick Expected Soon; Trump Congratulates Putin For "A Great Deal" After Prisoner Swap; U.S. Sending Aircraft Carrier, Warships & Fighter Squadron To Middle East Amid Escalation Fears; Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI) Discusses About Paul Whelan And The Release Of Russian Prisoners; July's Jobs Report Fuels Concerns Over Economy. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired August 03, 2024 - 18:00   ET

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

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. Hi, everyone. I'm Jessica Dean in New York.

At any minute now, former President Donald Trump will be speaking to supporters at a rally in the battleground state of Georgia. The Trump Campaign hoping to match the energy seen at Kamala Harris' rally in Atlanta holding its own event at the same venue were Harris greeted nearly 10,000 supporters four days ago, just days after Trump accused Harris of "turning Black" and after JD Vance called Harris a chameleon, Trump participated in a roundtable with Black business owners in Atlanta just before the rally.

Let's go now to CNN's Alayna Treene, who is there in Atlanta.

Alayna, what are we expecting to hear from Trump as they now try to sharpen their message against Vice President Kamala Harris.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, Jessica, we are going to see Donald Trump take the stage any minute now, I am told.

And, look, I think we are going to hear some new lines of attacks from him tonight. I know from my conversations with several of Donald Trump's senior advisers that they are still working their playbook and trying to figure out the best to define Harris, and you really have heard a plethora of attacks from Trump over the last several days.

Oh look, he is actually coming out right now behind me, so it is going to get a little bit loud, so bear with me.

But what I think, I want to point out here is that two weeks ago, it was just after the Republican National Convention. It like a lifetime ago, but it was only two weeks ago and Donald Trump in his party had a very different message and they had an entirely different opponent.

Donald Trump had been urged at that point to really focus on policy and to continue to try to share a message that was more about uniting the party. That has completely changed now that we are two weeks later. We've seen Donald Trump really got to delve back to that 2016 playbook he used when he was attacking Hillary Clinton, when he was being so much more personal and nasty with his attacks.

We saw that this week at the NABJ conference, Donald Trump has notched tried to walk back those remarks, instead he is leaning in.

And you've heard him as well as other people this evening, lean into those attacks as well. And so I think you can expect some of that on the stage tonight -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Alayna Treene is there in Georgia for us. Thank you so much for that reporting.

And we are going to keep an eye on that rally as well once the former president comes out.

Tonight, the Harris Campaign closing in on a pick for vice president. Of course, a critical choice that is probably one of the most consequential decisions so far of Kamala Harris' political career.

Harris is expected to narrow down this list of top VP contenders before making the big announcement ahead of a planned rally in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is tracking the Harris Campaign during the tail end of what has been a very intensive process really happening in a condensed timeline.

Priscilla, the campaign moving quickly, and we're hearing some new details this evening. What can you tell us?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, we are learning more about her face-to-face meetings with some of these VP contenders, which tells us that they are starting to close this process. Of course, this could continue over the course of the weekend and we are still -- the timeline here has always been that Tuesday rally when they want to unveil the running mate.

But they are working against the clock here and what we are learning from a source is that Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor, will be meeting tomorrow, or at least will have an interview tomorrow with the vice president.

He has been one of the people on the shortlist as she also weighs others. You see pictures of them there, including, for example Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly.

Now, we got to this moment after days of team pouring over documents as they worked this accelerated timeline to vet her potential running mate picks that was led by former attorney general, Eric Holder, who has been working with the team.

[18:05:07]

He was seen going into the Naval Observatory, the vice president's residence earlier today, and the plan for today was to present presentations. So 60 to 90 minutes of walking through each of the contenders.

Now of course, that could go long or short. The vice president is known over the course of her political career to ask a lot of questions and to drill down on the details. So that was expected today and the follow-up has been that there will be interviews formally conducted by the vice president.

So we are inching closer to that, especially learning now that Tim Walz will be one of the people she interviews tomorrow.

But of course, one of the top considerations for the vice president has been electability, so who could strengthen her chances and help Democrats across the electoral map? But then two, is what chemistry she has with them? Of course she does not have a personal or close relationship with these contenders, so that is also part of the calculus and something that the team has been working on in addition to the focus groups and the polling done on all of these candidates.

So the vice president and working around the clock here. She knows what the office entails. She holds it now and that is going to partially inform how she makes her decision moving forward.

But again, going back to the new detail here is that she is going to interview Tim Walz tomorrow. He is expect to be one of among others who will be interviewed after they had a day hunkering down on these presentations on each of those on her shortlist.

But certainly, a very tight deadline -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right, and Priscilla, we are also hearing some new details about Harris' husband. Second Gentleman, Doug Emhoff, regarding an affair in his previous marriage.

What can you tell us about that?

ALVAREZ: CNN exclusively obtained a statement from Doug Emhoff about that affair. Of course, this was after alleged details of that relationship were published by a British tabloid, and in his statement, he says: "During my first marriage, Kerstin and I went through some tough times on account of my actions. I took responsibility and in the years since, we worked through things as a family and have come out stronger on the other side."

Now that British tabloid, "The Daily Mail" had reported that Emhoff had a relationship with his then young daughter's teacher, which resulted in the end of his first marriage.

Now, four years ago, sources tell us, this came up in the vetting process for President Biden when he was searching for his running mate and considering Vice President Kamala Harris, who we are also told that this relationship ended years before he started dating his now wife, and that he was also told about -- told her before they got married. Now, we should also note that we did get a statement from his ex-wife, and in that statement today, she says that, "He is a great father to our kids, continues to be a great friend," and she goes on to say that "She is proud of the warm and supportive blended family Doug, Kamala and I have built together," and on that front, we should note that his ex-wife has supported and defended the vice president in recent days.

And that too, the Second Gentleman, Doug Emhoff, has been on the campaign trail and increasing the pace of his fundraising and campaigning.

DEAN: All right, Priscilla Alvarez for us there in Washington, DC, thank you so much.

I want to go back now to Atlanta, Georgia, where former President Donald Trump is speaking at a rally. Let's listen.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- but the school administration stopped us from getting another 500, 600, or even thousand people in.

Thousands of people were told no and that was okay, but we could have fit another 600 people.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: So I don't know anything about the school. I don't know anything about this school, but they could have allowed more people. We've got people standing outside, look at all of the people outside, they could have come in. They could have come in.

So we are not happy. Hello out there.

And then they actually pushed the people very far away from the building where we have beautiful cameras set up for the overflow crowds, the administration of the school, so I am not sure if I am going to be sending anybody to this school, I am not happy about it.

If they're going to stand in the way of admitting people to our rally, just imagine what they're going to do on election day. We are not going to let that happen.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Ninety-four days from now, we are going to win the great state of Georgia in an epic landslide.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And we are going to defeat Crazy Kamala. Kamala, you know, there is about 19 different ways of saying it, she only likes three.

Biden never even came close. Kamala, Kamala -- no, it is Kamala.

[18:10:04] We're going to evict this radical incompetent administration from the White House. They are destroying our country. We are going to save our country.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: We're going to save our country.

Yesterday, it was announced that unemployment is surging with 350,000 Americans joining the unemployment rolls just last month. We could end up in a depression. We could end up in World War Three and a depression. How about that?

(BOOING)

TRUMP: It could happen, too.

Under Harris-Biden policies, we now have the highest unemployment rate in three years.

(BOOING)

TRUMP: It just came out yesterday, you know, I was surprised, those numbers were terrible.

If Harris wins this election, you will quickly have a Kamala economic crash. You're going to have a crash. You could also have a crash like in 1929, more specifically, because that is where we are heading.

When we when, you will rapidly see a brand new Trump economic boom. It is going to be booming.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Like it was four years ago.

With your vote, inflation will stop, the illegal aliens will be turned back. They are not coming in, we've got to stop them.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Did you see where she is now saying, oh, we had a very good border. Oh, great.

They had the worst border in the history of the world. It is all misinformation, that's all they are good at; that and cheating on elections. They are very good at that.

The cartels will be crushed, crime will plummet, incomes will soar, the wars will end and the American Dream will come roaring back bigger, better, and stronger than ever before, right?

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Yes. Thank you. But with four more years of Kamala, the California socialist, you know, she destroyed San Francisco, then she destroyed the whole state. Look at what's going on in California.

With your family and our country, it will never recover. If you have any more time with these people. It is already -- I am worried about the next three months if you think about it.

These people are grossly incompetent. You'll end up in World War Three. I will tell you, and I hope I am not right about that.

Do you know -- do you ever see the hats? Trump is right about everything. I don't want to be right about that.

Her policies of open borders and double-digit inflation and inflation like we've never seen before, it is destroying middle-income families, working families, all families. It will demolish your life savings.

Forty or fifty million illegal aliens will invade our country during the next four years if they are in, 40 or 50 million.

(BOOING)

TRUMP: Medicare and Social Security, you know, she said she wants to put everybody on healthcare. You know, that's wonderful. It is a wonderful.

First of all, they shouldn't be told to come here. Many of them were fine where they were, but no country can sustain this, Social Security will buckle and collapse. The suburbs will be overrun with violent crime and savage foreign gangs. That's what they are doing.

You know, they're sending all their gangs into the United States, right?

Look this Front Row Joes, you didn't get into the front row. What happened to you? Oh, what happened? Thank you.

We have Front Row Joes. They been to 229 rallies.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And then -- look at these people. These -- I call them the beautiful ladies and you're not allowed to say that anymore, it is the end of your political career. You say beautiful.

You're barely allowed to say "ladies, " right? Because that could also be destructive, but they are beautiful, they are ladies, and they are great and they've been to 216 rallies from North Carolina.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: They look great.

Happily married, I've got to talk to their husbands. I don't know. Way over 200 rallies and they're incredible people. Thank you very much by the way. Thank you. Appreciate it.

Together, we will stop Kamala Harris' nation wrecking -- I will tell you what, when you see what she has done to our nations, she is wrecking our nation. The radicalism will take back our country from the worst administration in American history.

Biden was the worst president in the history of our country. She is acknowledged to be the worst vice president in the history of our country. She doesn't have a clue.

You know, if she doesn't have a teleprompter, she can't even speak. Did you see hear the other night? They put a camera in her face, she can't even talk.

We just went through four years, let's not go through another four years.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

[18:15:08]

TRUMP: Can't talk. No, it was terrible. You know, there we go --

By the way, I'd like to congratulate Vladimir Putin for having made yet another great deal. Did you just see the deal we've made?

Now look, we want to get people in, you know, we've got 59 hostages, I never paid anything. They released some of the greatest killers anywhere in the world, some of the most evil killers they got, and we got our people back. But boy, we make some horrible, horrible deals and it is nice to say we got them back, but does that set a bad precedent? Burt, right? Does that set a bad --

Does that set a bad precedent, Burt?

Harris says the most ultra-left wing agenda of any presidential candidate ever in history. There has never been anybody like this.

She is considered more left-wing than crazy Bernie Sanders. Look at her.

She is worse than Bernie, and she happens to be really a low IQ individual. She really is. She has a very low IQ. We don't need a low IQ.

President Xi of China said, oh, good, we have another one, a low IQ individual. They love dealing with low IQ. They love dealing with low IQ people and they got them here, I'll tell you. We've got them all. She is terrible.

She is worse than -- I think she is worse than him. By the way, they really took it away from the guy, right? I don't feel sorry for him because he is a bad guy.

You know, he has weaponized the whole thing and nobody has ever done that in this country, but he is a bad guy. But people feel sorry for him. They did a coup. He just doesn't know it.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: But actually he does know it, you know that. They said Joe, you've got 14 million votes. It is yours, but you're going to give it up. You're going to give it up right now, Joe, you're giving it up right now. No, I am not. I was elected democratically. I was elected. No, you're giving it up, Joe.

We're either going to do it the nice way or the hard way, Joe. You're getting the hell out.

And it was debate performance, so here is what happened in the debate. You know, we went there. It was the highest rated debate ever, which is a great complement and as I left the debate stage. I took off because other people were entering the stage. You understand?

I said, I don't want to confront other people. So we had a great debate. But as I left CNN, I won't say who, but they said that was the single greatest debate performance I've ever seen. And this went on for two days. They were saying how great I was.

On the third day, that didn't mention that anymore. They said he was terrible. I liked it the first way better. I made him choke. Don't kid yourself. We made him choke.

He was choking like a dog. He was choking. He was choking like a dog, and that was the end of him. I mean, that was the end from that. Then they said, okay, this was a disaster.

So then they started doing interviews with people that are, you know, 100 percent bought -- the media, the fake news media. They had some people interviewing him like George Slapapadopoulos.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: ABC they are -- ABC is one of the worst by the way, they're all sort of bad when you get right down. But ABC is bad. And they are asking him hardball questions like where did you stay last night?

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: Did you think you did well in the debate? Even though you could -- did you ever see a guy in the debate, you know, they give you like two minutes to answer and you want to use them. You've got so much fertility in there. You want to use up every second and he would answer a question. You have 92 seconds left.

And I kept saying, I will take them, and he said, oh, you have 92 seconds left. He goes, oh. This is not what he wanted. He left a lot of time on the board, but I went right down to the last second. I didn't want to go a little bit over because I know they'd cut me.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE) TRUMP: They would have cut me. But they were very fair Actually, CNN, shockingly, honestly. They were very fair. They want to do another one, you know.

We are doing one with Fox, if she shows up, I don't think she is going to show up. She can't talk. She could read a teleprompter. I would give her about a six on a scale of 10, a six. For talking, I'd give her less than a one.

(LAUGHTER)

TRUMP: We need people that can talk.

[18:20:05 ]

Kamala pledged to give free taxpayer funded healthcare to all illegal aliens. How do you like that idea?

(BOOING)

TRUMP: Which will destroy Social Security. She called for the abolition of ICE.

Listen, ICE, I know some people here, two of them are really tough guys. They are fighters. They are vicious people. They are good, tough people. They don't want to work for ICE. ICE will go into a pack of MS-13 killers and thugs and for about two minutes, you just see fists falling back and forth, back -- and then they stand up and they win.

And they grabbed them, they throw them in a paddy wagon. They get them the hell out of the country, and she is calling them -- she is calling them the equivalent of KKK, okay?

(BOOING)

TRUMP: And she loves deadly sanctuary cities.

By the way, all of the things you are hearing now she is now denying. But you know, the one good thing about the internet, you press a button and you've got it, although they are trying to delete everything.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

(BOOING)

TRUMP: You know, they changed the picture of me from a couple of weeks ago and they really radicalized it, they changed it using AI. They changed it. They had all the people on the stage who are angry and they were smart and sharp and very brave and they had them all big smiles on their face. Can you believe that?

They put the agents, who I have to tell you, say what you want, those people were brave. They were running to me and the bullets were flying.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: The Secret Service, they were very brave. They were very brave, I can say. They were very brave. They were running at me and they knew the bullets were going right over my head at that point, the first one was not a good situation. Not a good situation.

That was really -- that was really something incredible. That was from God. That was from God.

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Because the chances -- yes, that was -- no -- that was from God.

For all of you nonbelievers, that one was from God, right?

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: That was a close one.

DEAN: Okay, you're listening to former President Donald Trump who is rallying with supporters there in the battleground state of Georgia, worth factchecking a few things that he said that are simply not true, President Joe Biden has not weaponized the Justice Department against him. There is no proof of Democrats cheating in the last election or stealing that election. Also, the prisoner swap was not a financial situation as he implied.

So again, just a few of the falsehoods that we did hear there. I want to bring in our panel. Let's talk more with Republican strategists, Maura Gillespie and Pete Seat. We also, I believe have Priscilla Alvarez with us in Washington, DC that we can go to as well.

Maura, let's start first with you.

I thought it was interesting. He said Kamala's name right, and it has been a long time since he has been able to do that. Kamala Harris, the vice president. He said, there are 19 wasted to say it, although I think we can all agree all of our names only have one pronunciation that our parents gave us.

What do you make of their continued evolution on trying to message against the vice president who is now at the top of the ticket?

MAURA GILLESPIE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Surely, when I look at this and hearing all the tangents that he just went on in his opening remarks, that were an hour late, I will point out, to me, it just sounds like he is really rattled by Kamala Harris and by the situation that he is now presented with, because a few weeks ago he thought he had this in the bag and this past week, he has really seemed to kind of go off the deep end with a lot of things and he is pulling out the 2016 Donald Trump that is going for personal and petty and really juvenile attacks that are big turnoff to a majority of the country.

But yet his, you know, people are echoing it and JD Vance is echoing it. People at this rally have been echoing it today before he got on stage.

To me, it just really does seem as though he is woefully unprepared to go after the policy issues because he is not comfortable doing that, and so for him, his comfort zone is to be a bully and to make juvenile comments, and to me, I think that's a disservice to the people he is supposed to be out there supporting and defending and standing up for in policy issues. He is not talking policy.

DEAN: And Pete, look, if you look at the numbers. Yes, the vice president getting in, she does have some momentum. She has been able to tighten this race, but it is still a very tight race.

The former president could absolutely win in November and knowing that we -- you look to see what his strategy might be as he continues to try to build a coalition that would be a winning coalition that is going to involve some Independent swing voters that he has been trying to court. What do you make of his messaging as we see him revert back a lot of people who have followed him a long time to essentially 2016 Donald Trump, is that the effective message for someone that needs to bring in additional voters to win?

[18:25:30]

PETE SEAT, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: He is adapting to this new race the way I adapt to a flight cancellation, and that is with pure rage, but I will give him some grace here.

Three weeks ago, at this almost this exact minute, he was the target of an assassination attempt. Two weeks ago, tomorrow, his presumed opponent dropped out of the race, a lot of twists and turns unexpectedly have come our way in just a short amount of time. They're still trying to feel this out, they're still trying to figure out exactly what the message should be.

Now Kamala Harris is an opposition researcher's dream because of all the very left positions that she took in 2019 when she was running for the Democratic nomination for president, and now that she is flip flopping and being inconsistent on those positions, but there is one quote that trump said in this rally, and I will paraphrase it. I may not get it verbatim, but it was -- we've been through enough in the last four years. We can't take it for another four years.

That I think is a powerful message. If he can be disciplined and remained disciplined enough to keep reminding the American people what we've gone through -- the prices of groceries and gas and travel and everything skyrocketing and continuing to be high, that could be a very, very strong framing of who Kamala Harris is and what four years of her presidency would look like.

DEAN: And Priscilla, Pete mentioned it, but we did hear it from the former president as well, Republicans continue to seize upon the vice president's policy positions during that 2019 primary leading into the 2020 race. Has the campaign -- what do you know? What are you learning about how the campaign is going to be taking that on to combat the narrative that she is too liberal? ALVAREZ: There are certainly a lot of questions still in terms of how she approaches these policy positions where there is daylight with where she has been, where there may be changes and that is part of why we saw her policy shop, the campaign's policy shop also beef up over the course of the last week and we still have a lot of questions and those will likely be answered soon in terms of where she stands on these various policies, of course, remember that she became the lead of the party's ticket in short order, so a lot but of these things are still being worked out.

What the campaign is aware of though, is that the former president and Republicans will continue their line of attack on border security that has been a political vulnerability for the Biden-Harris administration over the last three years, it was going to be a liability for President Biden as candidate, and that extends now to the vice president. Only minutes after opening up this rally, the former president talked about the US-Mexico border.

What was notable this week, however, is that the vice president put out a campaign video where she went toe-to-toe with former President Donald Trump, where they compared his policies and her policies leaning on, for example, her time as attorney general when she tackled transnational criminal organizations, and then also talking about that failed border security bill, that was something that Democrats have seized upon over the last several months because it was scuttled by the former president that was an interesting and notable decision by the campaign because up until this point, Democrats have tried to keep that at a distance. She also mentioned it in her remarks.

So clearly, they are also polishing their line of attack on immigration against former President Donald Trump, given that they know that that's a place where they will be or he will be.

I'll also note that the vice president has given us a glimpse on and how she is going to handle some of the more racist attacks and this week after the former president said at that NABJ panel that she had turned Black, she had an event shortly after that where she called it the same old show and moved on to policies, essentially trying not to give it any air.

And that too maybe what we see from her in the weeks and months to come and lastly, I will just note that the debate did come up in the course of the former president's rally, particularly the ABC debate that has become the debate about the debate over the last 24 hours, and he said that he agreed to a Fox debate and will not be going to that ABC debate.

I will note there that the Harris Campaign has said that she will be showing up to that September ABC debate that was previously agreed upon between then President Biden, who was the candidate and former President Donald Trump.

The campaign's understanding is that she will still get the air time, so that may turn perhaps into more of an interview than a debate. That remains to be seen. But that is clearly going to be something that the former president needles the vice president on over the next few weeks and vice versa.

[18:30:23]

In fact, today the Harris campaign essentially using the former president's own words about any place, anywhere, on - or anytime, anywhere on the debate, to make the point that he should debate her in September as was planned.

DEAN: And, Maura, Priscilla makes a good point in kind of assessing where we are in this race and how Harris is going to respond to these attacks, because Trump gets very personal. What we just heard from him was - were deeply personal attacks, calling her a low-IQ individual, among other things. And yet, as Priscilla noted, she telegraphed what appears to be their strategy, which is - the same old show. She turned it back and said America deserves better earlier this week, and then moved on. It wasn't this - not giving it so much oxygen, not really overreacting to it, trying to bring the focus back to the race. Do you think this is the right strategy?

GILLESPIE: She has a short time to really show herself to the American people. And I do think that not playing or stooping low to what Donald Trump is doing here as he sort of navigates how he's going to handle, you know, the debate cycle and the next few months of the election. Yes, I mean, she needs to focus on how to, one, address her record, because that is going to be a - once Republicans actually get back to policy issues, that will be a problem for her and a weakness for her. But she still has to focus on a VP pick and then solidify the ticket and campaign as the names that she's going to be on the ticket with.

So yes, I think ignoring some of the stuff that Trump is saying serves her, because she's rising above it, but I also think that both candidates need to be looking at how to appeal to the moderate voters that are undecided on both tickets and how to reach them. And for Republicans, I'll say the big tent party is supposed to be more inviting and more encompassing. And unfortunately, we're not seeing that - you know, it's really taken a drastic shift since the convention, where it was this idea of unity.

And I think that Kamala Harris has an opportunity to target where Donald Trump has largely abandoned by recently today making comments saying that he's going to purge the party of those who don't support him, his - you know, the Republican leader. So I think that there's an opportunity there to capitalize. And I think they need to be strategic in how they do that. You can't obviously respond to every single thing that Donald Trump says. That'd be a full-time job, I know. When he was president, it was really hard to do that with his outlandish tweets and things of that nature.

But for Kamala Harris's team, they should be strategic in pointing out some of the things that he does say and how best they can capitalize on it.

DEAN: And then, Pete, just lastly before we go, hearing the former president essentially praise Putin, congratulate him on the prisoner swap, really criticize what was, you know, a triumph in getting these Americans home, and really what was like an encapsulation of President Biden's view of how foreign relations and work with your allies should work versus Trump's view, which is a very, very different approach.

But what do you think about how he is characterizing this prisoner swap that we saw this week?

SEAT: He's certainly trying to politicize it and I think that is a mistake. The presidency is about weighing pros and cons and sometimes choosing from a menu of all bad options. This prisoner swap was a victory for the American presidency, for the institution of the presidency, for multilateral alliances, for diplomacy, all the things that we should stand for, for the values of America.

We are the only country on Earth that could bring six others - six other countries together to make this historic agreement possible and to bring Americans home. We should all be celebrating that.

DEAN: All right. Priscilla Alvarez, Maura Gillespie, Pete Seat, my thanks to all of you. Have a great Saturday.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:38:56]

DEAN: Tonight, the U.S. is positioning fresh military power in the Middle East, including a carrier strike group, warships and a fighter squadron. The region is bracing for a potential escalation of hostilities as Iran vows retaliation for the killing of a senior Hamas leader in Tehran earlier this week. Iran has blamed Israel for the attack. Israel has not said that it was responsible.

The U.S. embassy in Beirut is telling Americans who want to get out of the country to book, quote, "Any ticket available." Joining me now, CNN Political and Global Affairs Analyst Barak Ravid. He's also an Axios politics and foreign policy reporter.

Barak, thanks so much for being here with us. I think everyone is watching this play out, wondering what this retaliation might look like and how imminent it might be. What does your reporting indicate?

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL AND GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Hi, Jessica.

I think that if you went back a day or two, there was a feeling both in the Israeli intelligence community and in the U.S. Intelligence Community that we will see this Iranian/Hezbollah response sometime during the weekend.

[18:40:07]

It wasn't clear whether it's going to be a combined response or going to be two separate ones. But I think that now, at least from the last I heard, the feeling is that there's still no decision in Iran and in Hezbollah exactly what to do. Therefore, I think the time frame moves more for early next week than this weekend.

DEAN: And so what is - do you think Iran might be struggling with here? Is it about calibration? It is - is it - as the additional military power from the U.S., is that factoring into their decision making?

RAVID: You know, somebody in the Biden administration told me that a lot of time people in America think that the U.S. interagency process is complicated and it takes too long and that in other countries, especially countries in the Middle East, everything is much faster. Well, apparently this official told me that's not the case. And the Iranians also have a planning process to go through and at least at that point, the final plans for the response have not been approved by Supreme Leader Khamenei. Therefore, I think we still have, I think, something like 24 to 48 hours before that's going to happen.

DEAN: And I also want to ask you about some new reporting you have on what you kind of categorize as a tough call between President Biden and Israeli president - or Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday. What have you learned about that phone call?

RAVID: So this was a very tough call, maybe even very, very, very tough call, maybe the toughest call between Netanyahu and Biden since October 7th with the president telling Netanyahu three things. First, you just - you were just here at the Oval Office for the first time in four years and you told me that you're going to move towards a hostage deal. Two days later, you go and you assassinate the Hamas political leader in Tehran.

Second thing Biden tells Netanyahu, we're going to help you now to defeat the Iranian response. But right after, my expectation is that you will move immediately to a hostage deal.

And the third thing that Biden said, don't take us for granted. If you escalate another time after we defeat the Iranian response, you do not - you shouldn't count on me, Joe Biden, to bail you out once more.

DEAN: And from your reporting, do you - is your takeaway that President Biden or the - and/or the administration views that assassination as an escalation?

RAVID: No doubt. Nobody mourns - nobody in the White House, especially not Joe Biden and I heard it from at least five White House officials. They were all very happy that Ismail Haniyeh is not with us anymore because the Biden administration said from day one that all of those responsible to the October 7th massacres should be brought to justice this way or another.

But I think that the timing when it seemed that we're at a critical point of about the hostage deal and the way it was done and the place it was done in the middle of Tehran. I think the president and his top advisers thought that this was an escalatory move that pushes further away a hostage deal and makes a regional war much more likely.

DEAN: All right. Barak Ravid, always great to have you. Thank you so much for your reporting. We appreciate it.

RAVID: Thank you, Jessica. DEAN: Still ahead, three Americans back in the U.S. after being freed from Russian prisons, including Paul Whelan. We're joined by the congresswoman for Whelan's Michigan hometown to talk about his release when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:48:25]

DEAN: It has been a joyous past few days for the three Americans released from Russian prisons, including Paul Whelan, who had been detained for nearly six years, accused of spying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL WHELAN, FREED AMERICAN PRISONER: I went on a two-week vacation, you know? The FSB grabbed me and said I was a spy. I'm apparently a general in the Army, a secret agent for DIA. This is the nonsense narrative they came up with and they just - they wouldn't let it go. So - now, this is how Putin runs his government. This is how Putin runs his country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Joining us now is Michigan Congresswoman Haley Stevens.

Congresswoman, thanks so much for being here with us. Paul Whelan is your constituent. You know his sister well. You have been by her side through a lot of this process. How are they doing now that he's back?

REP. HALEY STEVENS (D-MI): Look, this is a transition, to be honest with you. As you just heard the amazing Paul Whelan say. He was on a two-week vacation in Russia. They framed him, put him through a sham trial, and five and a half years, he is now back in the United States, a free man. But he doesn't have a house. He lost his dog. He doesn't have a job. He's receiving medical care in San Antonio and it's a transition. It's a big adjustment.

So we're certainly giving the family space, but also planning for what's next. A lot of times with these wrongful detentions, the individuals, they get hit with tax bills, surprise bills that just accrued while they were gone. And then how do you go back to the credit bureau and say, hey, I was falsely held in a Russian labor camp prison for the last five years.

[18:50:05]

DEAN: Right.

STEVENS: So we're - we plan to be doing a lot for Paul, you know, as needed going forward.

DEAN: And so what does that look like? What role does government play in this situation? Because it is, you're right, it's unique to go back to a credit bureau and say, hey, I was in a Russian prison camp wrongfully detained. STEVENS: Look, I think Paul Whelan has changed the world. And certainly we can look back to our defense appropriation from last year, a big package that got passed and included in that was designating March 9th as hostage and wrongful detention day. The hostage flag that was flown over the White House the day Paul, Alsu and Evan returned, that's now a national designated flag. We have resources for families as they're navigating these complex negotiations, coordinating between government agencies, like we saw Elizabeth Whelan do year-over-year, week after week, exhausting personal resources.

And then thinking forward, we do have more legislating to do. We do have a task force formed on hostages and wrongful detentions. It's bipartisan. This is something that brings together our Congress and we want to take the temperature down, Jessica, right? We want to make sure that these don't continue to happen, because Putin taking Paul Whelan, this was the canary in the coal mine to the lawlessness that we've seen him embark on at the global stage now with the illegal war in Russia - Russia started with Ukraine.

DEAN: Yes. And Congresswoman Haley Stevens, thank you so much for being here. We ran a little short on time because we had our live event, so we hope to have you back and we can talk a little bit more. Thank you so much.

STEVENS: And still ahead, a weak jobs report sent a shudder of fear through Wall Street Friday why the new jobs numbers are sparking some fears about the possibility of a recession. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:56:35]

DEAN: Questions about the economy, U.S. markets down sharply on Friday after that disappointing jobs report. The U.S. adding only 114,000 jobs last month. That's less than expected. Unemployment raising - rising to its highest in three years. It's something that former President Trump seized on in his rally that is currently ongoing in Georgia. Joining us now, Mark Zandi, the Chief Economist at Moody's Analytics.

Mark, thanks so much for being here with us. We appreciate it.

What do you think about this data that we are getting from this new jobs report?

MARK ZANDI, CHIEF ECONOMIST, MOODY'S ANALYTICS: Well, it's disappointing. You know, the job market is still very good by any historical measure, but it's weakening. You can see that in the decline in the number of hires. You can see it in hours worked per week, temp jobs are down, businesses tend to cut back on temp workers before they cut back on full-time workers.

Probably most disconcerting was the increase in unemployment. You know, 4.3 percent, that's where we are today. That's still very, very low by any historical standard, so that's good, but it is up a lot. It's up almost a percentage point over the past year, particularly for folks that have less than a high school degree. So, you know, the job market is good, but the trend lines are a bit disconcerting.

Now, some of that is by design. The Federal Reserve has been working to slow things down and cool things off. But I suspect things are cooling off more than they would hope for at this point.

DEAN: And the way I kind of understood it is it's the push and pull between when to cut rates and doing that so you don't get this jobs - you don't get bad jobs reports and that it's a very delicate balance that those two, as you were just alluding to, kind of go together and they have to balance it and they're looking to September for the next rate cut if they were to do that.

Is that kind of what we're seeing play out is how they're trying to kind of stick the landing in a way?

ZANDI: Yes, you know, they're trying to balance things, Jessica. I mean, they've been working really hard to get inflation back in the bottle and at the same time not push the economy into recession. So they've raised interest rates in an effort to do all that. And so it's a real balance, it's a judgment call.

You know, my sense is if the folks at the Federal Reserve - they met this past week and they decided not to cut interest rates. I suspect if they had this jobs number before they actually met, they probably would have cut interest rates. They're low - they're slow to this. You know, in my view, they should be cutting - they've been cutting already. But I think, you know, after today - yesterday's jobs numbers, given the good inflation statistics, the balance - the judgment they're making here is now pointing to some rate cuts.

So, you know, when they meet again in September, almost surely they're going to cut rates. It's really now a question of how much they're going to cut rates.

DEAN: And is that too late? Will this be something that throws everything off balance by September? Or is that going to be okay as they try to balance all of this?

ZANDI: I think it'll be okay. You know, the economy is very resilient. It's really been quite strong. The 4.3 percent unemployment rate is, you know, very good. You know, the key to keeping out of recession is consumers keep spending, particularly middle - high-income consumers that, you know, do most of the spending.

And, you know, when you think about it, they're doing quite well. They have a job. Their wages are rising faster than inflation. They've got any debt. It's a mortgage loan and they locked in at a low interest rate.