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CNN International: Harris To Unveil Small-Business Tax Breaks Today; Harris & Trump Are Preparing For Next Week's Debate; Trump Hits Campaign Trail With Town Hall In Pennsylvania. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired September 04, 2024 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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RAHEL SOLOMON, HOST, "CNN NEWSROOM": Good morning or good evening, depending on where you're watching. I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York.
Ahead on CNN Newsroom, as the race for the White House moves up a gear, fresh CNN polls shows a dead heat in critical battleground states. Plus, we now know that the U.S. Justice Department filed criminal charges against Hamas leaders earlier this year over October 7, as a new report indicates Benjamin Netanyahu spiked an early hostage deal. And a shakeup in Ukraine's cabinet with Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba handing in his resignation. We are live in Kyiv with the very latest here.
Well, we e begin with brand new CNN polling that shows the U.S. presidential race could not be closer with just two months until Election Day. It is a virtual dead heat in critical battleground states. Among likely voters, Kamala Harris leads Donald Trump in the swing states of Michigan and Wisconsin by amounts that are just outside of the margin of error. But, in Pennsylvania, Georgia and Nevada, the two are statistically deadlocked, while the former President holds an advantage in Arizona.
The economy is clearly issue number one driving likely voters, especially those supporting Donald Trump. An average of 39 percent say that the economy is their top concern with protecting democracy next at an average of 25 percent. More voters right now trust Trump when it comes to handling the economy. Now, Vice President Kamala Harris, she has made up some ground on that front since replacing President Biden at the top of the ticket, but it does appear that her campaign still has work to do.
And Kamala Harris will be in New Hampshire today to unveil another part of her economic plan. This one is aimed at helping small businesses and entrepreneurs. Proposals will include a $50,000 tax break for business startups. Her campaign says that that could help 25 million small businesses get off the ground if she is elected. Meanwhile, Donald Trump is back on the campaign trail, answering questions at a town hall in Harrisburg, in the battleground state of Pennsylvania. His running mate, J.D. Vance, well, he is set to speak in Arizona, also a very important state. The campaign put out a new memo overnight, arguing, it's they who have the momentum in the presidential race.
Lots to discuss here. So, let's bring in CNN's Kevin Liptak and Alayna Treene.
But, Kevin, let's start with you. So, what more can we expect to hear from Harris today when she speaks in New Hampshire?
KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, she is very much trying to regain the initiative on the issue of the economy, that issue you were just talking about, that is at top of mind for so many voters. And what you'll see her doing today, she is going to a brewery outside of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, really trying to focus on the issues of small businesses and entrepreneurship. And what she'll announce is a proposal that would increase by tenfold the small business tax deduction, businesses able to deduct $50,000 in startup expenses, and her goal is to really dramatically increase the number of small business applications under her administration, her prospective administration.
She is also planning to propose cutting various red tapes and regulatory burdens, really in the hopes of demonstrating that she is pro-business, specifically pro-small business. And of course, this comes after she unveiled the first part of her economic plan a few weeks ago, focused on price gouging, bringing down costs for Americans. That came under some intensive criticism from Republicans, who said it amounted to price fixing, said it was overly populist. And I think, taken together, today's proposals and the proposals from a few weeks ago give you sort of a fuller sense of the type of economy that a President Harris would try and oversee. And so, what you'll see her to do today is to try and really sort of focus on that.
I think it is something of an open question of why she is doing this in New Hampshire. That's not traditionally one of the battleground states that we're talking about. It's voted for the Democratic nominee for President for the past 20 years. It had been slipping somewhat when Joe Biden was atop the Democratic ticket. Polls show it's somewhat firmer now. I do think it demonstrates that she is not taking any electoral votes for granted heading into November.
SOLOMON: Yeah. That's an interesting point, Kevin. We know it's just a few days before the first presidential debate between Harris and Trump. That's going to happen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. What do we know about how her campaign is preparing for this debate?
LIPTAK: Yeah. And it's going to be such an interesting dynamic. This is the first time that Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are actually in the same room together, at least at close range.
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They have never met each other, and it's something that, at least on the Harris side, they have been thinking a lot about, and they have started these debate preparations. She has got a small team of advisors with her, working on some of the policy points, trying to come up with some attack lines against Donald Trump, all with the objective not to lose their cool, but find ways to get under Donald Trump's skin. And it's interesting, when you look at the people who are helping her, there is no overlap with the team that helped Joe Biden prepare for that disastrous debate that ultimately precipitated his withdrawal from the Democratic ticket.
Now, we do know, starting tomorrow, she'll be out in Pittsburgh. She is taking her debate camp on the road. We will see her somewhat over the weekend, she'll be doing some local campaign stops, but really the focus is on the debate prep. And she has enlisted someone to stand in as Donald Trump in her mock debates. His name is Philippe Reines. He is a former aide to Hillary Clinton, and he actually played that role in the debates -- the mock debates with Hillary Clinton back in 2016.
But, when you talk to Harris advisors, they do believe she is entering this as the underdog. They make the point that no person in American history has participated in more general election debates than Donald Trump. It will be his seventh on Tuesday. He has been the Republican nominee for the last three cycles. And so, they do very much believe they are entering this at a disadvantage, at least that's what they want people to think.
SOLOMON: Really interesting. Kevin Liptak with a bit of history there, as we wait for this big debate, all eyes going to be watching that. Kevin, thank you.
Let me bring in Alayna Treene now, who is covering the Trump campaign for us. So, Alayna, talk to us a little bit more about what the campaign said about how they believe actually momentum is on their side.
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, Rahel, I think the big part of this and the big picture to keep in mind is that, at this point, when I talk to Donald Trump's advisors, they believe that the race is finally setting -- settling, and that, of course, comes after several weeks, about two months of a very tumultuous period, particularly for the Trump campaign, when Biden had ended his campaign and Harris became the presumptive Democratic nominee and then officially the Democratic nominee at the convention last month.
They have recognized and have been frustrated with the enthusiasm and the surge kind of around Kamala Harris ever since she became the person at the top of the ticket. They have noted that she had a lot of momentum behind her. But now, they're arguing that that has changed, that her quote, unquote "honeymoon phase", as the Trump campaign refers to it, is over, and now it really is go time for these two candidates.
I do want to read you some of what they said. This memo was written by Donald Trump's co-campaign managers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles. They wrote, quote, "The state of the race is clear. With just nine weeks until the most consequential election in American history, the Trump-Vance campaign has the momentum." It went on to say, "Do the Democrats and voters realize this? Or does the mainstream media, in its attempt to manage public opinion and continue the quote 'Harris honeymoon' report a version of reality that is at odds with the facts? So, not only are they trying to argue that they have the momentum
here, but that also they believe that the media isn't doing right by Donald Trump. Of course, a frequent gripe that we hear from the Trump campaign. But, really, I think when you pair it all back, their argument is really that they are -- this election is very close, and that Donald Trump has a lot of momentum behind him too. And for his part, I mean, you walk through all the polling at the top of this hour, this race is very close, yes, but also it is pretty stunning how Donald Trump has been able to sustain and endure his support throughout this entire election cycle, particularly when you saw that change from Biden no longer being his opponent, and a lot of that momentum going behind Harris.
So, they laid that all out in his memo, and I think you'll see some of that. He is going to have a town hall later tonight in Pennsylvania. You'll hear Trump talk about that, and you will also see that on the debate stage next week.
SOLOMON: All right. Alayna Treene live for us in Washington. Alayna, thank you.
Let's discuss this further and bring in our panel. We have Molly Ball. She is a Senior Political Correspondent for The Wall Street Journal, and Tyler Pager, White House Reporter for The Washington Post. Good to see you both.
Molly, let me start with you, because one of the things that I thought was so surprising by this new polling is the number and the percentage of likely voters who are still undecided, about 15 percent. Molly, what do you think that tells us about the candidates and just how Americans are still feeling right now?
MOLLY BALL, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: I think it makes perfect sense, honestly. I mean, we've had the Democratic ticket change a matter of weeks ago, and voters still feel like they're getting to know Kamala Harris. I think there are a lot of voters who -- I think there are very few voters who don't know what they think of Donald Trump, but they're not necessarily willing to commit to a new Democratic candidate who they may not feel that they know that much about. I think that is why there is so much riding on this debate, why the stakes are so high for this debate, because there is a significant faction of the American public that is holding out to hear more from Kamala Harris, wants to hear what her positions are, wants to hear what her plans are for the country, what her goals are, and until they hear that, they may or may not be willing to commit to her.
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So, I think she has got a lot to do, as she prepares for next week.
SOLOMON: And then, Tyler, just sort of bouncing off of what Molly said there, is that number of undecideds, is that more concerning for one campaign versus the other? On the one hand, Trump has been a known political quantity for a decade, a celebrity even longer. It's Harris who is relatively newer. Are these voters that she perhaps is uniquely situated to capture because she is newer, and perhaps voters still don't really know a lot about her?
TYLER PAGER, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: I think both campaigns see these voters as an opportunity and the opportunity to win this election. They are the ones that are going to decide this. Both campaigns have made it clear this election is going to be very close. It was close last time, and the same sort of voters in states are going to ultimately decide this election, likely by smaller margins than we saw in 2020.
And so, I think Trump, the campaign, his aides and allies, see this as an opportunity to define Kamala Harris, as Molly was just talking about. They see this as their project for the next several weeks, to focus on Kamala Harris' record in California, paint her, in their view, as a part of the left wing of the party, whereas Harris and her team see this as an opportunity to define her using some of the popular elements of Joe Biden's accomplishments and legacy and reposition her as the heir to Biden's administration and policies that are overwhelmingly popular in many of these states.
And so, I think both campaigns are trying to sort of navigate this very unique moment that we're in, whereas Molly said, there has been this monumental change at the top of the ticket, that is, changing the way that voters think about this election. But, I also think part a lot of these voters fall into the category that pollsters use to describe them as double haters. These were the voters that did not like Joe Biden and did not like Donald Trump, and they were trying to look for an alternative or maybe sit this election out. Now that there has been this shakeup, this is an opportunity to recalculate and recalibrate their view of the election heading into the next final few weeks of the campaign.
SOLOMON: So, Molly, how do these campaigns recalculate and recalibrate it, to borrow a phrase, without alienating their base? So, how do you reach sort of the independents, the moderates, the undecideds, without at the same time moderating your own base?
BALL: Well, I think the campaigns have a different theory of the case about who and how these independent voters are, and how they can reach them. The Trump campaign has clearly made a bet that there are a lot of younger male voters sitting on the sidelines, and you saw a lot of the messaging at the Republican Convention aimed at that type of voter, hoping that someone like the Vice Presidential nominee J.D. Vance has an ability to speak to those voters, hoping that this sort of testosterone-fueled display that we saw with Hulk Hogan at the RNC does something to arouse those voters.
There is -- we do have some data indicating, though, that a lot of these undecided voters are younger and female, and they may be down on the Biden administration for its handling of the economy, but they may also tend more toward the Democrats' position on abortion rights. That's certainly the theory of the Harris campaign that is working very hard to make the abortion issue as salient as possible, launching a reproductive freedom bus tour this week, for example, hoping that some of those undecided voters will come off the sidelines if they see that there is one campaign that is working very hard to protect abortion rights. SOLOMON: Tyler, let me let you have the last word here, and talk to me a little bit about the -- what appear to be these differing strategies from the campaign. So, you had James Carville, the famed Democratic strategist, who said in The New York Times yesterday that Harris can win if she does three things, and among them is let Trump be Trump, and casts -- continue to cast his insults at same old tired playbook, obviously her words, and that if she can convince voters that she is the breath of fresh air, she might be able to win. Trump has said he thinks he actually needs to fight back. Listen to what he said.
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LEX FRIDMAN, PODCAST HOST: I think you are at your best when you're talking about a positive vision of the future versus criticizing the other side.
DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yeah. I think you have to criticize, though. I think they're nasty. They came up with a story that I looked down and I called soldiers that died in World War I suckers and losers. It was a made up story.
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SOLOMON: Tyler, it sounds like very different strategies here.
PAGER: Yeah. I mean, I think there is two parts of this. One is, one of the big criticisms about Joe Biden's performance at the debate, and there were many from Democrats, were that -- was that he did not take the fight to Donald Trump. He struggled throughout the debate to complete sentences, to finish his thoughts. But, more than that, they felt he did not show he could debate and argue against Donald Trump, and really attack him in a way that they felt it was necessary. And so, that's one thing I think we will see Kamala Harris be much more aggressive in painting this contrast between her vision for the United States and Donald Trump's.
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But, secondly, on those double hater voters that I was talking about a little bit earlier, that is somewhere where Kamala Harris is trying to lean in somewhat to this idea of a change candidate. I think a lot of voters in polls and interviews, it became very clear, were not interested in either Trump or Biden, were exhausted by this rematch between these two elderly men. And so, that's something that we see a little bit in the slogan that Harris has adopted, this idea of a new way forward. She isn't fully fleshed out exactly what that means, because, in part, she is running on the accomplishments and very much tying herself to Joe Biden in the Biden-Harris administration, but also trying to separate herself as a different figure, obviously a woman, a woman of color, someone that's much younger than Joe Biden.
So, bringing a lot of differences to the ticket, but trying to thread the needle between keeping his base of political support while also trying to appeal to voters that have been disaffected by the two candidates that were running for President for the last year. SOLOMON: Yeah. It's been interesting, a lot of threading of needles on
both sides.
Molly Ball, Tyler Pager, thanks so much for being here.
BALL: Thank you.
SOLOMON: All right. A CNN exclusive now. Multiple sources are telling us that the Biden administration today will accuse Russia of a sustained effort to influence the 2024 U.S. election. The White House is expected to address what it says are Kremlin efforts to target American voters with disinformation. A major focus of the accusations is the Russian state media network RT. The sources say that the Justice Department will announce actions in response to the alleged Russian operation. In the past, Russia has denied similar allegations of election meddling.
All right. We want to get to some breaking news just into CNN. Official U.S. sources say that an American service member has been detained in Venezuela since last week. They add that the American was not on official travel or approved leave in Venezuela. The U.S. State Department does warn against traveling to Venezuela because there is a high risk of wrongful detention.
I want to get to Stefano Pozzebon, who is in Bogota, Colombia. Stefano, what more are you learning about this, and can you share with us?
STEFANO POZZEBON, JOURNALIST: Yes, Rahel. Well, this is a news that is literally breaking in front of our eyes here at CNN. It's an active duty sailor who was arrested in Caracas on the 30th of August. So, really a few days ago. And of course, what is caused most concern for U.S. administrators and officials who spoke with us is that he is an active duty. Like we have in the past, there are several cases of U.S. citizens detained in Venezuela. Two of them were, for example, former Green Beret. But, this is the first time at least in the last few years that an active duty member of the U.S. military has been detained in Caracas. And we know that they're going to try to do all they can to bring him home as quickly as possible.
This, of course, is happening in the meantime -- amid growing confrontation between Maduro and -- the Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro, and the White House. Just this week, the U.S. seized Maduro's personal plane in the Dominican Republic as a measure of retaliation for the crimes that Maduro has allegedly committed, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Clearly, the fact that Maduro now holds in his power a U.S. service member, makes everything more and more complicated. But, this is a story that we're trying -- we got confirmed both from here in Bogota and in Washington, D.C., and there is visual (ph) in front of our eyes, and we'll come back to you, Rahel, as soon as we hear more from our sources.
SOLOMON: Yeah. We appreciate you hopping on so quickly, as these details continue to trickle in.
Stefano Pozzebon, thank you. Keep us posted. Well, several months ago, the U.S. Justice Department charged six
Hamas officials in connection with the October 7th attacks. Coming up next, why those charges were sealed until now? Plus, a barrage of Russian attacks overnight leaves seven dead and dozens hurt in western Ukraine. We'll bring you that, plus new details about the strike on a central Ukraine educational facility. And Ukraine's President says that it is time for a change. We have got details of a major cabinet shakeup, and the latest ministers to hand in their resignations.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (Interpreted): We need to strengthen some areas of the government, and we have prepared personnel decisions. There will also be changes in the office. I'm also counting on a slightly different weight for certain areas of our foreign and domestic policy.
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SOLOMON: Welcome back. And now to the latest in the Israel-Hamas war. There is new reporting that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu effectively put an end to a draft hostage and ceasefire deal in late July. A document obtained by an Israeli newspaper shows that the Israeli Prime Minister introduced new 11th hour demands. The document now confirming what CNN has reported that those demands included Israeli control of the Philadelphi Corridor. That is still a key sticking point in the negotiations. A diplomatic source said Wednesday that there will be no deal as long as Israel and Hamas do not settle the dispute.
Meantime, the U.S. Justice Department has filed criminal charges against six high-level Hamas officials over the October 7th attacks. Now, the charges were originally filed in February. However, they were kept under seal in case the U.S. had an opportunity to arrest any of the six. An official said that with half of the Hamas leaders charged now dead, it was no longer necessary to wait.
Let me bring in CNN's Nic Robertson, who is live for us in Tel Aviv. Nic, let's just start with this new reporting on Netanyahu effectively adding these new demands to a deal.
NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yeah. This really adds detail to what we've been reporting all along, that there were things that came up and after the end of July when Israel had put forward a proposal. Israel had denied this. Hamas said that Israel's proposals were the thing that was now tripping everything up that Hamas say that they pretty much agreed to a plan that was put forward at the end of May. Israel had agreed to it. It went to the UN Security Council. There was a vote on it. President Biden spoke about it. That's what Hamas agreed to. But, after all of that, this is when the Prime Minister here put
forward to his negotiators these additional conditions, these additional points, and one of them is the Philadelphi Corridor, and having troops on that border between Gaza and Egypt, also determining, it appears, that some of the Palestinian prisoners, senior Palestinian prisoners who might be released as part of a hostage release deal. Some of those may have to go into exile. There were other things, like the Rafah crossing, like the Netzarim line, if you will, area of control that Israel wanted a controlled movement of Palestinians, displaced people from the south of Gaza to the north.
So, now we have all that detail. But, I think what this really informs us and what crystallizes in this moment is that it was the Prime Minister putting that to his negotiating team after a deal was pretty much agreed, and saying, go with this, and now he is sticking to it. And the main sticking point seems to be the Philadelphi Corridor. And as you quoted that diplomat saying, as long as that remains an issue, and Hamas has said they're not going to agree to what Prime Minister Netanyahu is proposing, there is no way that these talks are going forward.
Again, the point being, this crystallizes and informs us what the hostage families have been saying, what members of the defense and intelligence institutions here have been saying publicly and privately in Israel, that it is the Prime Minister and his plans, specifically his plans, his responsibility, that have caused this deal to found and not go ahead and result in the death of those six hostages over the weekend.
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SOLOMON: And Nic, talk to me a little bit about this news, of these charges against these Hamas leaders. How is that being received, and the significance of that news where you are?
ROBERTSON: Yeah. We're trying to get some clarity from the -- some of the Hamas leaders who are named and still alive, because, as you said, half of them are dead. There were six names, and three of them are dead. It's very hard to get information from Hamas how they believe it will affect them. But look, Yahya Sinwar, who is on that list, the head of Hamas, the guy who came up with the October 7th plot -- plan and execution, he is in a tunnel in Gaza. So, this doesn't reach him. Khaled Meshaal is a very senior figure. He was a sort of international spokesman -- well, international leader, if you will, of Hamas for many years. I've interviewed him many times, and he is pretty much domiciled in Qatar. He has been looking at Turkey as an option. And the other person listed who is alive is based in Beirut for Hamas.
What this potentially does is shut down senior leadership figures of Hamas having free movement and possibly bank accounts that are associated with them. But, it -- what it does is it prevents Hamas having its ability to project its voice internationally by having people based outside of Gaza, and this was something that was discussed behind the scenes and very early after October 7, a way of sort of neutralizing a neutering Hamas by telling them that they could no longer live in these cities like Doha, in Qatar, and Beirut and other places. That was actively being worked on. But, of course, as many parts of deals fell apart, that didn't happen.
SOLOMON: All right. Nic Robertson live for us there in Tel Aviv. Nic, thank you.
Well, overnight, new Russian airstrikes killed several people in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. Among the victims, a 14-year-old girl.
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You can hear in this video the sirens and the gunfire ringing across the city. Officials say that at least seven people died, including three children. The destruction has also injured dozens of others. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy once again appealing for more support and air defenses. This comes just a day after one of Russia's deadliest attacks of the war. The death toll from that strike on Poltava has risen to 53 people.
Meanwhile, Ukraine's Foreign Minister has handed in his resignation. This is ahead of an expected major cabinet reshuffle. And while we keep a close eye on Ukraine's parliament, because we're waiting for them to vote on that resignation, I actually want to bring in CNN's Fred Pleitgen, who is tracking this story from Kyiv, Ukraine. And Fred, talk to me a little bit first about this cabinet reshuffle. It's pretty significant.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is. It is pretty significant, but it's certainly not unexpected. It's something that the Ukrainian leadership actually has been telegraphing, really, for the past couple of days that a big reshuffle was going to happen. More than 50 percent of the personnel in the cabinet was going to be replaced, the leadership of this country has said. Dmytro Kuleba, of course, by far the most prominent so far to have tendered his resignation.
But, if we look at in total what's been going on just over the past, I would say, 24 to 48 hours, there has been three government ministers who have set in -- who have put in their resignation, two deputy Prime Ministers as well, and the head of the property fund of Ukraine. Now, one of the things that is still going to happen, Rahel, is that the Parliament of Ukraine is going to decide on the actual resignations. There has already been two of these ministers where it's been denied for them to resign. On the Foreign Minister, no decision has yet been made, but essentially, what Volodymyr Zelenskyy is saying that he is trying to do is strengthen the team around him for what he believes are going to be key weeks and months ahead.
I want to listen in to some of what he had say.
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ZELENSKYY (Interpreted): I'm very grateful to the ministers and the whole government team that worked for Ukraine and the Ukrainians for four and a half years, and some for five years. We need new energy today, and these steps are related only to the strengthening of our state in different directions. International policy, diplomacy is not an exception. I cannot forecast what each minister will be doing in the future. There will be answers when they will be offered new positions.
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PLEITGEN: So there, he talks a little bit about that reshuffling, also saying that he wants to possibly go in a new direction as far as international relations are concerned. This, of course, coming at a key time, as President Zelenskyy is set to possibly travel to the United States in the coming weeks for the UN General Assembly, but also, of course, to meet with President Biden on the sidelines of that, where he wants to present a plan that the Ukrainians call their plan for victory, where they essentially want to force the Russians to the negotiating table. And the Ukrainians have said that there is four parts to that plan. One of them is the current incursion that they currently have going on into Russian territory.
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But, as part of that, the Ukrainians are also expected to ask for a substantial weapons package from the United States and for the lifting of restrictions on longer distance weapons to strike into Russian territory. That way, the Ukrainians hope they can really make a battle -- a difference on the battlefield as right now, of course, on many of the fronts here inside the country. Things still pretty difficult for the Ukrainians, Rahel.
SOLOMON: Yeah. And I mean, Fred, to that point, I mean, overnight, there was that Russian missile strike in Lviv, which hard to miss how close that is to the Polish border. What's the latest with that attack?
PLEITGEN: Yeah. It is pretty close to the Polish border, obviously, in western Ukraine, the city of Lviv, one of the biggest in Ukraine, and really deadly strikes that happened there. It was fairly close to the city center, but sort of on the western side of the city where these missiles impacted, killing seven people, wounding dozens of others, of course, and the search and rescue and cleanup operation was going on for a very long time there. The mayor of Lviv coming out and saying that 70 houses and apartments had been damaged by these missiles.
But, of course, the fact that Russia is also striking in the west of Ukraine is definitely something that has NATO, of course, watching very closely. The Poles in the past have scrambled fighter jets when there were strikes in the western part of the country. Recently, there was a drone that somehow appeared to have gotten lost on a Polish territory, of course, also very concerning for that country as well. The Romanians in the past have said that Russian missiles have actually traversed parts of their territory, as has Moldova. And so, definitely, this is something that is seen as being quite dangerous because, of course, it is so close to NATO's eastern flank, but definitely also something that rattles the population on the ground there, and certainly the Ukrainians say, make it even more obvious that they need more and better air defense weapons, Rahel.
SOLOMON: Yeah, as they continue to ask for those needs. Fred Pleitgen live for us there. Fred, thank you. All right. Still ahead, we will check on the level of hiring and
firing, because a new report is out with a look at U.S. job openings. We'll tell you what the data shows for the overall economic outlook. We'll be right back.
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SOLOMON: Welcome back. You're watching CNN Newsroom. I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York.
Job openings in the U.S. fell in July for the second consecutive month. Official figures came out a short time ago, about an hour and a half ago, 90 minutes ago, and an estimated 7.67 million jobs are available. That is below the number for June, surprising economists. I want to say it's the lightest number since January of 2021. Wall Street opened lower today, with new worries surfacing over the strength of the U.S. economy.
Let's get more perspective on these results. We're joined now by Mark Hamrick. He is a Bankrate Senior Economic Analyst. Good to see you, Mark. Let me just get your first top line reaction to this report.
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MARK HAMRICK, SENIOR ECONOMIC ANALYST, BANKRATE: It's disappointing, and it really is consistent, Rahel, with further cooling of the job market. Of course, we're coming out of a second quarter where GDP was revised up recently to an annualized gain of three percent. So, it might feel like there are some disconnects here. But, we think about what Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said recently, to paraphrase, that further cooling of the job market is not welcomed. That's exactly what we got in the JOLTS report, not only with the shortfall with respect to expectations in job openings, but also a downward revision in the previous month.
Now, we should also sort of level set here that we're really talking about a data that is fresh as of the end of July. So, that's why the forthcoming August employment report due Friday is all the more important. It was important already.
SOLOMON: And Mark, what are you looking for in that Friday job report, and what do you think it would take in that report to convince the Fed that maybe a larger rate cut is appropriate at the next meeting?
HAMRICK: I think it would take a lot. It would take a substantially disappointing report for that August read that we do have coming in just a few days. And so, to your question, what we're expecting, essentially, is a slight improvement in the unemployment rate, back down to 4.2 percent. Remember, we rose two tenths of one percent to 4.3 percent, and we had a significant shortfall in the number of jobs added, with just 114,000 jobs added to payrolls in that reading. And so, the consensus, along with what I just mentioned with the unemployment rate, is that we get a bit of a bounce back with respect to payroll gains, probably something on the order, at least in terms of the expectation, about 150,000 to 175,000 jobs added. But, of course, the average so far this year has been slightly above
that. And we also think about the fact that we had the benchmark downward revision with the number of jobs added over a 12-month period recently where we paired 800,000 jobs out of what had earlier been reported. So, all of this does mark further, I would say, normalization of the U.S. economy. We have to acknowledge the enormous disruptions and distortions that occurred, leaving the health and aspects related to lives from the COVID pandemic. There was the shutdown of the U.S. economy that took the nation's unemployment rate up to close to 15 percent in April of 2020 and then we had the unemployment rate fall to 3.4 percent in April of last year.
So, this does mark further balancing of supply and demand of labor. But, of course, workers want to have the strongest hand possible. And so, for those that are thinking about job security, for those who are looking for work, there is reason for a concern here, because we are seeing further cooling in the job market.
SOLOMON: Yeah. And I mean, to that point, Mark, I mean, the reason why I like talking to you guys at Bankrate is because you also do these surveys where you're talking to people. You get a real sense of sort of how people are feeling. So, it's the data, but it's also sort of this more, not anecdotal, but actually sort of survey results. And I'm curious how the data --
HAMRICK: Yeah.
SOLOMON: -- does square with your bank rate surveys on how Americans are feeling, not just about their current job status, but about the outlook, about the prospect of the labor market.
HAMRICK: Thank you so much for asking about that because that's something we're very proud of at Bankrate. It's the proprietary surveys we do, and we did a Labor Day survey about the state of the job market where 70 percent of workers expressed some concern, some level of worry, about their job security. We hadn't asked that question before. So, we don't have a benchmark to sort of align that with, but that feels high to me, and it was a majority of members of Generation Z as well as millennials who indicated they plan to look for a new job in the next 12 months. Will the jobs be there for them to take? We will see. I doubt that we'll be able to have every person who would like to have a new job find one, even if we just sort of hold the line on where the unemployment rate is right now. And that might be optimistic.
I think it's all reflective of the historically high inflation we experience, which essentially stole buying power out of workers' pockets. Rahel, you probably, I think, reported on the fact that wage gains over the last 15 months have actually exceeded the recent rate of inflation. So, we are sort of recapturing some of that buying power, but the damage was done. And so, that improvement is obviously a welcome and will take some time to fully restore, if it does.
SOLOMON: Yeah. It's interesting, Mark, and I'm curious sort of what you watch. I mean, the consumer spending and then consumers have continued to buy in a way that I think has surprised a lot of people, considering high inflation. But, I think one of the concerns with the weakening labor market is that consumers could start to pull back.
[11:40:00]
Say, for example, you're concerned about your job prospects. Maybe you don't go on that vacation, or maybe you don't buy that refrigerator. And I'm curious what you're watching for there in terms of when some of the weakness we're seeing in the labor market actually starts to spill into broader economic concerns.
HAMRICK: Well, first of all, when we talk about, let's say, a 4.3 percent unemployment rate, that is not high. But, for any individual who is unemployed or underemployed, they're not focused on what the macro picture is. They're focused on their own personal finances. And so, that's incredibly relevant and important. I think more broadly, it's quite clear that the narrative we're hearing from Corporate America is that consumers are pulling back from where they can. When it's a situation where the likes of both Starbucks and McDonald's are talking about seeing lower sales, lower foot traffic, that's pretty instructive with respect to the overall health of the consumer.
But, it's very much a K-shaped economy, and that really speaks to the division of wealth and income, and that continues to be the case. But, even luxury has begun to show some signs of not throwing in the towel, but cooling. And of course, at the same time, we have incredible gains in the assets that are associated with home ownership. The stock market, yes, going through some ups and downs lately, but the major averages are still near record highs. And so, we are adding a lot to assets, but that assumes that people have those assets to begin with, and not everybody does. Not everybody has the savings account to draw from.
SOLOMON: Yeah. It's a really interesting point, Mark, and we'll leave it here. But, what it sounds like to me is sort of trying to find this balance between cooling versus distress, whether you're talking about consumer spending, whether you're talking about the labor market, and the Fed, of course, trying to just get it just right, just right, not distress, but perhaps a little bit cooler from the red hot labor market we saw, and obviously prices.
Mark Hamrick, great to see you. Thank you.
HAMRICK: Thank you.
SOLOMON: And we'll be right back.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.
SOLOMON: All right. We want to bring you this breaking news from the state of Georgia. These are live pictures from above Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. That's about 40 miles from the city of Atlanta. Winder, Georgia, excuse me. Local media showing students there assembling on the football field, as we can see, and at least one person being put into a helicopter on a stretcher. A source at a local hospital telling CNN that these are receiving patients, that they are receiving patients with gunshot wounds related to the incident. Unclear at this point exactly when this shooting happened. Obviously, this is very early into us learning more information, as we wait to hear information from police. But, it is 11:45 Eastern Time in Winder, Georgia. It is before lunchtime, evidently or presumably.
[11:45:00]
And so, you imagine that students may have been preparing for lunch, perhaps maybe the first few sessions in lunch. A lot of details still unknown, including the culprit, the suspect, as we continue to wait for information. But, as we see here, these students, what it appears to be students sitting on the grass there outside of their high school, according to sources, the scene of yet another shooting in the U.S. Awaiting more information. Local hospital officials saying that they have received victims.
Of course, we are going to continue to follow the very latest here, continue to watch these live pictures, and you see in the lower right hand corner there, someone hugging what looks like an emergency service personnel or a paramedic of some sort. Yet another disturbing, distressing incident for these folks there in Winder, Georgia, as we take a broader look at the school again. This is about an hour away from the city of Atlanta, in Georgia. As we wait for more information from police, we're going to turn our attention to other news, but as soon as we get new details, we will bring that to you.
Well, when it comes to the U.S. presidential race, the Trump and Harris campaigns will fight all the way over the battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, sometimes called the Democrats' blue wall. But, even winning those states would not guarantee victory for Kamala Harris without Nebraska's blue dot.
CNN's Jeff Zeleny takes a look at the quirky campaign that's all over the lawns of Omaha.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF ZELENY, CNN U.S. CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): These blue dots are popping up on lawns across Omaha, signs of a campaign where not only every vote counts, but where every electoral vote is critical.
JASON BROWN, NEBRASKA DEMOCRATIC VOTER: We debated back and forth, and we went for it and said, well, I think the mystery is kind of cool, and it turned out to be a huge win because --
RUTH HUEBNER-BROWN, NEBRASKA DEMOCRATIC VOTER: Because it's starting conversation.
J. BROWN: Exactly. We had no idea the conversations we build.
HUEBNER-BROWN: Like what's the blue dots? And then -- and that's the important part, because as soon as you start the conversation, you have a full conversation.
ZELENY (voice-over): Ruth Huebner-Brown and her husband, Jason, are suddenly having more conversations about the blue dot, symbolizing a Democratic island in a sea of Nebraska red and the state's unique way of dividing electoral votes.
J. BROWN: It's plausible that we could have a tie, and that whole notion of, oh, my vote doesn't matter, kind of gets really tossed out the window, because this could be it. This could be the deciding factor.
ZELENY (voice-over): For all of the pathways for Kamala Harris and Donald Trump to reach the White House, the race for 270 electoral votes could come down to Nebraska's sprawling Second District. And here is why. If Harris carries the three blue wall battleground states and Trump wins the swing states across the Sun Belt, a single electoral vote surrounding Omaha could keep the race from becoming a 269-269 tie, decided by the House of Representatives.
GOVERNOR TIM WALZ (D-MN), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, hello, Nebraska.
ZELENY (voice-over): A not so secret weapon for Democrats could be Tim Walz, who was born and raised here before moving two states away to Minnesota.
Tony Vargas believes the Harris-Walz ticket will also help Democrats win control of Congress, starting with his race here, which is among the country's most competitive.
TONY VARGAS, NEBRASKA STATE SENATE DEMOCRAT: We have suburban. We have rural. We have urban. We have all different walks of life, all different races, ethnicities, socioeconomic, but really this is a truly independent place.
ZELENY (voice-over): Republican Congressman Don Bacon has thrived and survived politically because of that independent streak of the district. Trump won here in 2016 but lost in 2020. Bacon said Trump runs the risk of losing again if he doesn't focus on inflation and immigration.
DON BACON, NEBRASKA STATE SENATE REPUBLICAN: When you talk about DEI, race, coming up with nicknames, it doesn't play well in this district. They want to talk about the issues. This is an issue district.
ZELENY (voice-over): For months, Trump and his allies have sought to change Nebraska's election law and award all electoral votes to the statewide winner, rather than by congressional district, a process shared only by Maine.
TRUMP: You better get me Omaha. Do you understand that?
ZELENY (voice-over): For now, Republicans are working to defeat Harris here in a district that extends through Omaha's western suburbs to rural towns like Wahoo, where Stephen and Sonja Peetz are ready for change.
STEPHEN PEETZ, NEBRASKA REPUBLICAN VOTER: I would like just to see some hope. I don't see it now. ZELENY: Which of those candidates do you think gets the closest to
bringing you hope?
STEPHEN PEETZ: I would say Trump.
SONJA PEETZ, NEBRASKA REPUBLICAN VOTER: Absolutely Trump. I have a feeling that he is a person who sticks to his word. He means what he says.
ZELENY (voice-over): They question what Harris stands for and are not sold on Walz no matter where he grew up.
J. BROWN: Well, it doesn't mean, oh, my God, I become a Democrat. No. You're voting for what you feel is right for the future.
[11:50:00]
ZELENY: So, for all the talk of blue wall states of Pennsylvania and Michigan and Wisconsin, and it is clear from our new poll today, those states are as close as ever and as important as ever. Vice President Harris cannot win the White House without this blue dot of Omaha. So, for her, it is blue wall plus blue dot, and of course, the Trump campaign also focusing on this district and focusing on Sun Belt states as well.
Rahel, one thing is clear, two months before election, if the race is as tight as it seems, this one district could make all the difference. Rahel.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SOLOMON: Really interesting. Jeff Zeleny, thank you for that. And we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SOLOMON: All right. We want to bring you back to our breaking news from the state of Georgia. These are live pictures you see here from above Apalachee High School in Winder, Georgia. That's about 40 miles from Atlanta. Local media showing students assembling on the football field, as we see here, and at least one person being put into a helicopter on a stretcher. Now, a source at a local hospital tells CNN that they are receiving patients with gunshot wounds related to the incident. But again, at this point, state police only telling us that they are actively at the scene, as we learn just how large the police presence there is, and it looks like students on the football field there joining hands in a circle, perhaps, comforting one another, perhaps, in this moment.
Let me now bring in from Los Angeles, Steve Moore. He is the CNN Law Enforcement Contributor and retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent. Steve, good to have you. Just walk me through some of your initial questions. Obviously, there are many, because there is a lot that we still don't know.
STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR, & RETIRED SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT, FBI: Right. Law enforcement and FBI agent responding, police officer responding, is going to want to know where the shooting took place, if it took place in a -- an office, say, or a teacher's room, something like that, as opposed to a classroom. The targeting of the location is important. What I want to know right this second is, do they have the shooter in custody? I would make the assumption that they do, because they wouldn't have students milling about on the field if somebody was out there with a firearm that they didn't know the location of. I'd also want to know -- go ahead.
SOLOMON: I'm sorry. Finish your thought.
MOORE: No. That was -- that's fine. I'd want to know, how many were injured and what type of weapon we're looking at?
SOLOMON: Yeah. And Steve, I just want to read something for you, just picking up on something you just said in terms of what we may be able to glean about the culprit here. What we have heard and our reporting suggests is that the county's school system says that students are being cleared to leave the building and that parents have been notified to pick them up.
Steve, when you hear that, that tells you what?
MOORE: That tells me that they know a lot, not just about -- I mean, the shooter is either in custody or unable to shoot anybody anymore, and they know a lot about the situation, because one thing you can't let people do, say you have a school shooting and the shooter has disappeared, and then you have all those students out on the field, how do you know that shooter's not milling among them trying to hide and pretend that they are just one of the victim students?
[11:55:00]
That is a very strong likelihood in some cases. So, you would -- you wouldn't want the students just leaving on mass like that without checking each one and determining whether they saw anybody. See, you want not only to find out whether the shooter is among them, you also want to interview them and find out what they know about the shooter or who it was. So, this tells me that they have a really good grasp on who the shooter is, that the shooter was alone, and that that shooter is in a controlled situation for whatever that means.
SOLOMON: Steve Moore, we know it's not easy in these early moments to try to sort of understand exactly what's happening when all we have are these pictures and very little information, but we appreciate you helping us understand helping us understand what exactly appears to be happening, at least in Winder, Georgia. Steve, thank you.
And thank you for joining us today. We know your time is money. So, thank you for spending some time with me, as we continue to watch these images. CNN, of course, will continue to follow this very active situation in Winder, Georgia. Stick with CNN. I'm Rahel Solomon in New York. One World is coming up next.
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