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CNN This Morning
Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D-IL) is Interviewed about New Action on Abortion; U.S. Economy Adds Jobs in July; NFL Pre-Season Kicks Off. Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired August 04, 2023 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: So, abortion clinics across the state of Indiana have suspended their services this week. This is as a legal challenge to the state's near total abortion ban moves through the courts, meaning the law is not technically in effect but concerns over when the court might rule and how it might rule is causing those clinics to basically stop providing that abortion care. And this ongoing legal battle means those seeking an abortion are looking to neighboring states, and that includes, of course, Illinois, where the governor and the state legislature have continued to expanded abortion accesses after Roe v. Wade was overturned.
I'm joined this morning by the Democratic governor of Illinois, J.B. Pritzker.
And, Governor, good morning to you.
You actually just signed a law on Monday that expands access across your state. What does it change?
GOV. J.B. PRITZKER (D-IL): Well, a couple of things. First, we've created hotlines for both providers and for patients. If you're a patient coming from another state, you may not know where you can go. You may not know where you can stay overnight. You may not know what to do with your children while you're having a procedure done or seeking health care from a doctor in Illinois. So, we've got hotlines that are available for people to find out, and also for those who can't afford an abortion, whether it's a medication abortion or a procedure, we even have non-profit organizations that will support your effort to seek out your reproductive rights.
And, unfortunately, we're seeing thousands pour across the border from just our neighboring states, and tens of thousands from across the country.
HARLOW: Yes, Planned Parenthood released data from one of their clinics in your state. They saw a 35 percent increase in total abortion patients, 40 percent of those coming from out of states.
Do you believe that what you have set up in terms of infrastructure for that can handle the influx without delays to others?
PRITZKER: Not yet. And the answer is, we've got to increase capacity. We're doing everything that we can, though. Frankly, we've got to build out facilities. We've got to make sure that we're giving people the, you know, proper procedures to follow. And, of course, we want people to know that their rights are protected in the state of Illinois, whether they're here in Illinois or coming from another state.
HARLOW: I also thought it was interesting that last week you signed a different bill. And I read through it. And what it does is it - it penalizes anti-abortion centers for using what you deem deceptive practices or misinformation. You're basing this legally on a consumer fraud act that you have in the state of Illinois. You were sued immediately by a law firm in your state that calls it a blatant attempt to chill and silent pro-lifer speech essentially. And yesterday a federal judge upheld that. Upheld that. Put an injunction in and said, let this play out in the courts.
Are you confident that this bill is going to survive the courts?
PRITZKER: I'm - I'm confident this is constitutional. It's legal. Remember what they're doing. They're putting their crisis pregnancy centers next door to abortion rights centers. And they're directing people to go in their front door or telling the things that aren't true often. And when that's the case, they ought to be held liable. They - there ought to be a private right of action for anybody that's dissuaded or told, you know, something that's false. That's the important thing.
What they say to people, that's fine, as long as what they're doing isn't deceptive. And we have laws against that. It's fraud in our state, and we're going to prosecute people for that.
HARLOW: Just one beat on that before we move on. It's largely -- their claim to have this right is largely based on RFRA, right, on religious freedom and making their argument from a religious perspective.
How do you counter that free speech argument? I mean you're basing yours on a consumer fraud act, I understand that, but as you face this First Amendment question?
PRITZKER: Well, it's just like the case against President Trump. You have a right to free speech, but you don't have a right to lie. You don't have a right to use those lies to push people into situations in which they, frankly, are breaking the law, or where they are unaware of what their full rights are. So, you know, we need to make sure that people know their rights are.
Remember, this came about in part because the attorney general of the state of Illinois was driving into a Planned Parenthood and actually one of these people stopped the car, you know, acting as if they belonged to the Planned Parenthood organization, and started directing them towards the crisis pregnancy center and telling them things that weren't true.
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And the attorney general couldn't believe that that was happening. And after he realized it, you know, came to the legislature and said, we shouldn't allow this to happen.
HARLOW: Finally, on the Biden administration, you told my colleague Jake Tapper last year the federal government should be doing more to protect abortion rights. New York magazine has a really interesting profile of you out this week and it recounts last year, this is post the leak of the Dobbs decision before it was official, and you're with Biden in this motorcade and you say to the president, you need to be out there. You can't have the vice president doing all the talking. Is President Biden out there enough on this?
PRITZKER: Look, you can't be out there enough. But the president has done a lot, I have to say, and he is protecting women across the country. We need to make sure that he gets re-elected. Every one of the people on the Republican side running wants to take away women's rights. And it is President Biden who is protecting them.
So I'm pleased about the messaging coming out of the White House and the work that he's done to protect women's rights. There's more to do. Unfortunately, we now have 15 or 16 states that have literally just cut off a woman's right to protect herself, to have reproductive rights exercised. And in Illinois, we are an oasis. If you look at the map, every state around us has outlawed abortion, and we're the ones who are protecting it. That's why we're seeing an influx of patients.
HARLOW: On Biden, it's always the economy. Whether it's only the economy that people vote on is to be seen, but it's often right up there. He's just not resonating with voters on the economy. We have this new CNN polling out this week, 63 percent of folks disapprove of how he's handling the economy, 70 percent disapprove of how he's handling inflation. Why? Why do you think that is? Because the numbers across the board are getting better on the economy.
PRITZKER: Well, I think you just made the point, that things are getting better. It does take a while, though, for people who have been feeling the ill effects of, frankly, the - the Trump-era, the last year of the Trump administration in which he did absolutely nothing to protect people from coronavirus. And it is President Biden that rescued the country, its health, and its economy.
We're seeing the benefits of that now. There's literally full employment across the nation. We're seeing that wages have gone up in real terms for people. But it does take a while for that to sink in.
HARLOW: Yes.
PRITZKER: And, of course, you've got to fight off the false rhetoric coming from the Republicans, who are, you know, pushing Facebook fakery.
HARLOW: Facebook fakery.
The vaccine, I'll say, did come under the Trump administration. But I appreciate your time this morning, Governor, very much, especially talking about this really important issue. You're welcome back anytime.
PRITZKER: Thank you.
HARLOW: Yes.
MATTINGLY: Well, the Labor Department just released the July jobs numbers. We're going to break them all down, coming up next.
HARLOW: Also this just in, Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie, look at that, he's in Ukraine. This is a surprise visit. What we're learning about his trip, next.
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HARLOW: All right, this just in to CNN. The Labor Department out with the July jobs report. The U.S. economy added 187,000 new jobs last month.
Let's get right to CNN business correspondent, anchor of "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS," Richard Quest, here with the numbers.
What do they tell us?
RICHARD QUEST, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I'm going to try very hard not to do on the one hand on the other hand. On the firsthand, on --
MATTINGLY: Wait, you're talking about the economy. This is what most people do.
QUEST: Exactly. So, if we take this number in isolation, it's really good.
HARLOW: Yes.
QUEST: It's lower than what was expected. Over -- just over 200k. It is -- shows that job creation is slowing, which is what you want. Cooling of the economy.
I think we have to, on the other hand, take it with a pinch of salt because July, we have to -- the heatwave. We've got this very hot temperatures. We don't really know the full implications of that.
But on the other hand, the revisions of May and June, they are interesting. No, I promise you, they are. They are interesting because they are down. That --
HARLOW: Which is good for the inflation picture?
QUEST: That bumper number that we saw last month was good, but not as good as we first thought. Therefore, from the Fed's point of view, you are seeing job creation slow. You're not really seeing an uptick in unemployment. That number stayed steady. Which means the -- arguably, the interest rate rises. The medicine is working. And it's working well.
MATTINGLY: OK, I'll, on the other, other hand you. I think wages came in a little hot. Not as hot as would have been severely problematic. Does that change any dynamic here? I think -- no one has a good read on what the Fed does next. And every -
HARLOW: That's true.
MATTINGLY: To your point, there's -- all the data is so noisy and doesn't necessarily correlate with what we've seen for decades. So, tell me what it means.
QUEST: Picky, picky, picky.
MATTINGLY: Tell me what it means.
HARLOW: Can you believe it?
QUEST: You have to - can you believe it.
HARLOW: Every day! Every day!
QUEST: He has - he has to dive in and pick out the bad --
MATTINGLY: No, because I know you know the answer. What is Jerome Powell going to do?
QUEST: Right. Right. No, you're right. That average hourly earnings number is too high. 4.4 percent year on year. But the hope is that as the number -- as the - as the number of jobs created slows, therefore there's clearly a cooling in the work force, that -- and inflation's coming down anyway, that will moderate and will break the spiral of wage inflation.
I would say the Fed will look at this report and be very smug about the way things are moving forward. It suggests the soft landing, despite what Fitch said earlier in the work. It suggests the soft landing. What they will be worried about is that it - this fall doesn't accelerate into job losses.
HARLOW: What president said he wants a one-handed economist? Do you know?
MATTINGLY: Was it Clinton?
HARLOW: I don't know. We're going to Google it in the break. Because, you know, economists always say, on the one hand, on the other hand and it's all --
QUEST: Oh, I'm on to feet by now.
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HARLOW: Thank you, Richard.
MATTINGLY: Thanks, Richard. HARLOW: What a delight to have you here with us in the morning. Thank you.
QUEST: Yes, there's not even a cup of coffee.
HARLOW: Come back. I'll get you a coffee.
QUEST: Not even a coffee.
MATTINGLY: We can fix that.
HARLOW: Come back for more.
QUEST: Cheap skates.
HARLOW: This just in, Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie, an unannounced visit to Ukraine. You see a picture of him there meeting with President Zelenskyy. He also visited sites near Kyiv, which were devastated in the first couple months of the Russian invasion. He also visited Bucha, where Russian soldiers killed more than 400 people, you'll remember those mass graves in April. Christie says he wants Americans to see what he sees so their resolve to support Ukraine becomes even greater.
And this comes when we have notable new CNN poll numbers that shows only 45 percent of Americans think Congress should reauthorize more funding to support Ukraine's fight against Russia. Christie, the second Republican hopeful to visit Ukraine. Former Vice President Mike Pence went there in June. You'll remember when he spoke to Erin from there.
MATTINGLY: We also have something that just came in moments ago from the former president. Obviously, he was arraigned yesterday. And he has now called on the Supreme Court, in a social media post, to, quote, "intercede" in his legal fights. Again, he said this on Truth Social. He complained about the time and money being spent on these lawsuits. Should note that the money is coming from his donors and is being transferred to pay for his legal bills and those of his associates. He says, in part, quote, "my political opponent has hit me with a barrage of weak lawsuits, including the DA, AG, and others, which require massive amount of time and money to adjudicate. Resources that would have gone into ads and rallies." I'm going to skip some parts and just say, "the Supreme Court must intercede."
HARLOW: On what grounds?
MATTINGLY: Yes, we didn't get quite there.
HARLOW: All right.
MATTINGLY: I'm sure that's coming though.
HARLOW: We'll see. We will see. We'll track that. That's going to be a big story today.
MATTINGLY: We're going to keep tracking this. Yes, this is -- feels like the four years where he's president, when I was on Capitol Hill and he'd tweet something and you'd go ask lawmaker who were actually responsible for that something, and they'd be like, dude, we have no idea what you're talking about. So -
HARLOW: They didn't know. Did they say dude?
MATTINGLY: No. Well, I may have adlibbed that.
We're going to keep checking on that. We'll keep you posted if there's actual, tangible news going forward.
HARLOW: Yes, that's significant.
MATTINGLY: But it's a new element in the wake of his third arraignment with a potential fourth coming in the weeks ahead.
HARLOW: Meantime, preseason football officially kicking off. The regular season just 34 days away. Who's counting? Harry Enten is. He's here with our favorite teams. Yes, the Vikings, Super Bowl odds.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And a lot more scrambling out of that quarterback.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Johnson, Robinson, a strike for the touchdown to Austin Watkins Jr.
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MATTINGLY: Our long national nightmare is over, Poppy. The NFL pre- season is officially underway. Sorry, I was actually watching the game. I was like, this is great. I love football.
HARLOW: I was like -
MATTINGLY: Last night the Jets, the Browns, they squared off in beautiful Canton, Ohio, in the Hall of Fame game.
HARLOW: Awe.
MATTINGLY: The Browns ultimately came out on top with the go ahead touchdown you just saw, and I really just wanted to watch again. Had us thinking, who is going to win the Super Bowl this season? So, naturally, we asked our senior data reporter, Harry Enten, to tell us exactly that.
What's the number, Harry?
HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: This morning's number is 10 percent. Phillip. And why is it 10 percent?
HARLOW: Phillip. ENTEN: It - that - yes. I like being formal here in the morning.
MATTINGLY: I appreciate that.
ENTEN: Because that is the Buffalo Bills chance of winning the Super Bowl. We've never won one. I'm just asking for one. Not more than one. Just one.
MATTINGLY: We - Harry Enten, are you playing this year?
ENTEN: I am actually playing this year. I'm the 12th man. I will be at every game, of course, cheering them on. No, I'll be watching them here in New York.
But just one. Wolf Blitzer and I are praying and hoping.
MATTINGLY: And San Fernando (ph).
ENTEN: And San Fernando, of course, who's in my ear right now giving me these time cues. And what I will note though is, I don't want to be selfish in this segment. I want to know what the 49ers, your favorite team, Phillip.
MATTINGLY: Thank you.
ENTEN: And Poppy's Minnesota Vikings, their chances of winning the Super Bowl.
HARLOW: What are they?
ENTEN: And they are 9 percent for Phil's San Francisco 49ers and they're 2 percent for Poppy's Minnesota Vikings.
HARLOW: Two?
MATTINGLY: That's disrespectful.
HARLOW: What?
MATTINGLY: That's disrespectful.
HARLOW: Why is it two?
ENTEN: Because that's just where it is.
MATTINGLY: Why are you so upset? That's not like reality.
ENTEN: Maybe if you put together a better team.
HARLOW: I'm so upset because I get very - have you - (INAUDIBLE) Vikings. It's a huge deal in Minneapolis when we go to the games and they did pretty well last year.
MATTINGLY: I know. Nobody's doubting that.
HARLOW: And I just think that that's really unfortunate. MATTINGLY: Now you can be the underdog story.
ENTEN: Well, I - you know, you mentioned how much do the fans care. And we actually have the local TV ratings popping up here. And what I can tell you is, number one, the number one local market is Buffalo for television ratings. Look at that, a 44.8 the household share. Minnesota not too far behind at 28.5 of households tuning in.
HARLOW: Yes.
ENTEN: San Francisco lacking, 16.0. The Jets, terrible, at 32nd place.
MATTINGLY: Love that.
HARLOW: That's like the crew are -- a lot of our team love the Jets here. There's that.
ENTEN: Well, they're one of a few.
HARLOW: Harry, thank you.
ENTEN: Thank you.
MATTINGLY: Thank you.
HARLOW: Have a good weekend.
Still ahead on CNN, what to expect in former President Trump's next court hearing as moments ago he just called on the Supreme Court to intercede in these legal battles.
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[08:57:59]
HARLOW: All right, now to this. The ocean's unprecedented high temperatures have conservationists racing to try to save coral reefs, especially off the coast of Florida. This includes this week's CNN hero who has been working for years to try to restore reefs in the Florida Keys, mobilizing the dive community to help. Meet Mike Goldberg.
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MIKE GOLDBERG, CNN HERO: Coral reefs, without them nothing is here. Simply put, they are what it is that brings the ecosystem together.
Sadly, I've watched us lose that coral reef and the disappearance of that diverse marine ecosystem.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE). Are we ready?
CROWD: Yes!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All right. Let's go down.
GOLDBERG: But then, I said, you know what, I'm going to do something.
I truly believe we're going to be successful with this restoration work.
It's amazing how fast this coral is growing.
I see things every time I go in the water that give me hope.
I love being a part of it. I wake up every day and say, look what I get to do.
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HARLOW: I love that. For the full story to see Mike's group in action, go to cnnheroes.com.
MATTINGLY: Well, he's one of the greatest song writers in music history and now Freddie Mercury's baby grand piano is about to be up for auction at Sotheby's in London next month. Those keys are where Queen front man wrote a lot of his hits, including this classic.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (singing): Mama, ooh, didn't mean to make you cry.
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MATTINGLY: That, of course, is "Bohemian Rhapsody." The piano is expected to sell for as much as $3.8 million.
HARLOW: More than 1,400 of Freddie Mercury's personal items also up for auction, including original drafts of Queen's biggest hits like "Don't Stop Me Now," "We Are the Champions," and "Somebody to Love." And Mercury's iconic silver sequin cat suit, that he wore on tour in the late '70s, also his famous red cape and crown from his last performance with the band in 1986.
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MATTINGLY: Can I say one thing?
HARLOW: Sure.
MATTINGLY: To our team, thank you.
HARLOW: Yes.
