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Erin Burnett Outfront
Job Market Crumbling, Trump Team: "Amazing" Numbers Coming In A Year; KFILE Unearths Sexist, Bigoted Twitter Account Run By Trump Pick; WSJ: RFK Jr. Will Link Tylenol Use In Pregnancy To Autism In Report. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired September 05, 2025 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:21]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
Trump's economy in big trouble tonight as one top economist says, the president's own policies get some of the blame. He's OUTFRONT.
Plus, exclusive CNN reporting you'll see first OUTFRONT. KFILE has uncovered a Twitter account belonging to a top Trump nominee with sexually explicit comments about women, including Kamala Harris.
And "The Wall Street Journal" reporting tonight that RFK, Jr.'s health agency will link autism to Tylenol use during pregnancy. What does the science say?
Let's go OUTFRONT.
And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett, on this Friday.
And OUTFRONT tonight, a big jobs problem in America. America barely creating any jobs last month and falling massively short of expectations. And on top of that, the government now says jobs were lost in June, which is the first net loss since the height of COVID.
It's a big deal. It's not good. And the core of why economists say it's Trump policies, from tariffs to immigration. The numbers are preliminary, 22,000 jobs added in August.
Just to put that in perspective, not only was the expectation for triple that, but the U.S. economy needs to create 100,000 jobs every month just to keep up with population growth. So, you can see the problem.
And on top of that, revised numbers for the month of June saw 13,000 jobs were lost. And that's the month I was just mentioning is the first actual decline since the height of COVID in December 2020. And the unemployment numbers were particularly bad for two key groups Black workers, unemployment rose last month to 7.5 percent, and that is the highest level since October of 2021.
Again, you're going back into COVID and the unemployment rate for younger people, 16 to 24 climbed to 10.5 percent. And that's the highest level also in nearly four years. So, look at this chart that economist Torsten Slok shared with us.
He's going to join us in just a moment to talk more about it. But the bottom line is jobs impacted by tariffs. And you'll see the vertical line where Trump's trade war began. What Trump called liberation day.
And then you see the drop off in job growth in tariff impacted sectors, which is now in negative territory, right? That's where you're seeing losses.
Now tonight, what is team Trump saying? Well, as these job numbers were coming out, they said, just give us another year.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOWARD LUTNICK, COMMERCE SECRETARY: Wait until a year from today. Wow. It will be amazing numbers.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The real numbers that I'm talking about are going to be whatever it is. But we'll be in a year from now.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Just wait a year, they say. That is a really interesting timeline, because actually, just about a year ago, not quite a year ago, Trump said the best jobs and the biggest paychecks were only four days away. In fact, starting on the day that he won the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You are four days away from the best jobs, the biggest paychecks, and the brightest economic future the world has ever seen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Of course, reality now is quite different. Here we are with the first overall decline in jobs since COVID, jobs missing expectations. And so tonight, team Trump is blaming the bureaucrats at the Bureau of Labor Statistics who compile the data. Apparently, it wasn't enough to fire the head of the BLS last month when Trump didn't like the numbers then.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LUTNICK: If the leader is bent in a in against Donald Trump, then they're going to have, you know, such errors. And those things are bent. The holdovers from the Biden administration were just they're just bent against the president's success. They're rooting against America and against Donald Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: So, basically, a case of when the numbers aren't good, say there is cheating and when they are good, of course, it's a different story.
Here's Trump when the jobs numbers under the very same person he just fired were good.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: In three months, we have created 350,000 jobs.
Weve created over half a million new jobs in a short period of time.
Jobs are at an all time high.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: But tonight, Trump's team says the same people who compiled the numbers are hell-bent, right? Hell-bent to make Trump look bad.
Now, this, of course, is just objectively false. Thousands of people work to compile these numbers. And the idea that any group like that, or that an entire government agency filled with so many people who spent their careers, you know, doing these numbers, administrations on both sides of the aisle, they've worked for would now be coordinating under the table with no one knowing about it, just to make Trump look bad is simply farcical.
[19:05:00]
In fact, the BLS boss that Trump fired, Erika McEntarfer, actually served in government for two decades under Republican and Democratic presidents. But unlike the person Trump has nominated to replace her, that's unlike him. His name is E.J. Antoni, and we have an explosive KFILE report coming up on the Twitter account Antoni used to run, filled with sexually degrading and bigoted attacks. That's coming up.
But McEntarfer, right, who was running the BLS, the woman that Trump fired was actually confirmed as BLS commissioner on a bipartisan Senate vote, 86 to 8. That included a vote from now vice president, then Senator J.D. Vance.
And perhaps most importantly, Trump has provided zero evidence at all that McEntarfer did anything to, as Trump put it, rig the jobs numbers. In fact, Erica Groshen, another former commissioner of the BLS, tells OUTFRONT that the process itself is not flawed. This is what she told us today. It's constructed to be impervious to political manipulation. So, of course, it's not going to change when the commissioner leaves because the commissioner doesn't interfere, intervene when the numbers are produced. There's still the gold standard of current economic indicators.
So, OUTFRONT now, I want to go to Torsten Slok, partner and chief economist at Apollo Global Management.
And, Torsten, you know you've got team Trump coming out, you know, saying it's the career. People who compile the numbers. They're hellbent to make us look bad. They want to hurt Trump.
So, basically, the implication being that somehow the numbers are cooked or made up, which, of course, is false. The chart I mentioned a moment ago, your chart that shows what's really happening. What does it tell us?
TORSTEN SLOK, PARTNER & CHIEF ECONOMIST, APOLLO: Well, it tells us that the economy is facing some different headwinds. Some of these headwinds have to do with uncertainty associated with tariffs. Theres uncertainty for business planning. Theres uncertainty for consumers. But some of the headwinds are also coming from immigration restrictions and deportations.
When the number of workers coming into the country goes down, you naturally also have a decline in the number of jobs that are created. So, combined together, these two forces of trade uncertainty, tariffs and at the same time also restrictions on immigration and deportations. That's why the economy is gradually slowing down. And that's why job growth has been weaker in the last few months.
BURNETT: Okay. So you know, we have seen it over the past few months, right? But a couple of things stood out. I mentioned to them, one of them, African American unemployment. I mean, that was a real jump, right? It went up. So it's -- you know, it's one thing to kind of see something coming and sometimes, it's another when you see it go up, like very quickly.
You know, are we at the beginning of something much worse when you're seeing deltas changes that abrupt?
SLOK: Well, the risk, of course, is that when the labor market faces some headwinds, it is the more vulnerable groups in the labor market, namely new entrants, as you also mentioned, namely young people who were just graduated, who can't find a job. It is people with less education, lower skills, generally lower income, who are at more at risk of being on the fringes of the labor market. They are generally the ones that historically, when you have slowdowns that begin to lose their jobs.
So that's why we are seeing a pattern that does play out normally when the labor market begins to slow down.
So, this is why the issue over the next several months is, well, if this is still headwinds that are intensifying and begin to push back on the economic outlook, then the risk is, of course, that the labor market could deteriorate.
BIRNETT: Right, and some of these decisions things are snowballs, right? It takes a while to build up. And then sometimes very difficult.
SLOK: Because the problem is if I start losing my job and suddenly I don't go and eat and I don't shop, and then I hold back my consumption. And you could have therefore a scenario where things begin to slow down much faster. That's not the expectation. That's not our expectation, that's not the expectation. But it is, of course, very important. When you begin to see a slowdown, like the way were seeing in the data more recently, especially in the labor market, which is very critical, it becomes very important to monitor the speed with which that's happening. BURNETT: So, you know, I mean, I pointed out I mean, it's an absurd
thing to say, you're going to end a war on day one or four days. You know, in the first four days of your -- you know, administration or since you win, you're going to have the greatest economy ever, right? Of course, those things were never to be taken seriously.
But now, they're saying, okay, forget all this, all those things that are happening, whether it be with tariffs or immigration, all of this is going to come together, it's going to gel. And in a year things are going to be great. I played a little bit of that. Here's the commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, laying it out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LUTNICK: Look, a year from today you're going to see unemployment numbers that you never imagined because it's -- what it's going to do is its going to take the 6.9 million Americans who are capable of working, who are sitting on the sidelines now because they just haven't had the jobs they were looking for, they're all going to come into the workplace because we're going to train them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Six-point-nine million Americans capable of working. So he's saying 6.9 million Americans who aren't working are going to be working again. Unemployment numbers we've never imagined.
Is that in your outlook?
SLOK: Well, today, the number of unemployed that came out this morning was 7.4 million. And earlier this week, we found out that the number of job openings was 7.2 million. So, today, we actually have for the first time since 2021 more unemployed than we have job openings.
And that's, of course, not a good trend. If you do look forward, because the risk is, of course, if these trends continue, that there will just not be enough jobs. The issue, of course, now becomes, well, what about the outlook going into 2026? Well, there is some support coming from the fiscal stimulus. The One Big, Beautiful Bill will give some support next year.
[19:10:03]
BURNETT: Yeah.
SLOK: We do still have very high stock market. We still have tailwinds coming from a lower dollar, but in aggregate, in the near term, the risks are still not a recession, but a continued slowdown in the labor market.
BURNETT: Right, right. Of course, all these numbers, as you're saying, you know, going back these years, it does put us back in. You've got to go back to COVID when you did see weakness, obviously, not of this magnitude.
But all right, Torsten, thank you very much. And Van Jones and Gretchen Carlson are here with me now.
So, Van, you know, just to go in to were talking about the groups, young people, African Americans, where you saw a big jump, a big jump in unemployment. So Black unemployment now 7.5 percent, the highest since October of 2021. Right? So you're going right back into COVID to see numbers like that.
And sometimes that can be a canary in the coal mine --
VAN JONES, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Absolutely.
BURNETT: -- where you see that. What are you hearing is driving it?
JONES: Well, I mean, first of all, you have to remember that there are a lot of African American women who have college degrees, sometimes multiple advanced degrees. They're homeowners or voters or churchgoers. They work in the public sector.
If you're in my age group, in your 50s, when you're 20 years old, the corporate sector was not big in hiring African-American women. So, what do they do? They all went into the public sector to help America's government.
BURNETT: Where you're seeing all the cuts.
JONES: And all those cuts, devastating DOGE cuts, smashing -- smashing the backbone of the Black middle class, all those women who did the right things, who paid their taxes, who went to school, who work hard every day getting wiped out. That is a big chunk here.
And those people are the least likely to be able to jump into some new tech sector job.
BURNETT: Right.
JONES: So, this is a real problem.
BURNETT: So, I mean, are there political -- I mean, obviously, we don't know, you know, things -- things change. But at this moment, Gretchen, are there political implications to that? I mean, if you take African -- African Americans, for example, a group Trump did resoundingly better with, including African-American women.
JONES: And young people.
BURNETT: Yes, yes.
GRETCHEN CARLSON, FORMER FOX NEWS ANCHOR: And young people.
If you're asking if it's going to be a political problem, could be because Trump, his biggest strength was the economy. I mean, that's how he got so many independents to vote for him the first time. And the last time. And you have other policies over the last eight months that people are not that fond of. So, you have the DOGE cuts. They're not fond of that. You have the
big, beautiful bill. A lot of people are not fond of that. You have the tariff increases. A lot of people don't like that.
They don't like the way in which immigration is being enforced. They like immigration reform, but not the way it's happening now. You add in that they might not be happy with the economy. You have a big problem politically.
And in fact, Gallup did a poll earlier this week before this job announcement today, 37 percent, only 37 percent support Trump on the economy. Think he's doing a good job? Only 27 percent of independents keep an eye on that, midterms just a year away.
BURNETT: I know you've been focused so much on that.
So, Van, you know, Trump is seizing on any chance to say, okay, don't look at the jobs numbers. Definitely don't look at anything to do with Epstein.
JONES: Right.
BURNETT: Right? So what else could he put out there? Well, the bright and shiny item today was to sign an executive order to change the name of the Department of Defense to the Department of War, which, by the way, you got to go back to the end of World War II --
JONES: Yeah.
BURNETT: -- when changing that name mattered to go back to when the U.S. called it the Department of War.
JONES: Right. Look, I think it's -- if he wants to play his little word games, it's fine. But I think if you are a Republican voter and your main argument was he's going to keep us out of wars, he's going to get us out of wars, he's going to be a peacetime candidate. It seems like that would be a little bit weird that suddenly this guy who's, you know, has not delivered on any of his promises, he was going to end the Ukraine war in half an hour.
He -- nothing, nothing. In fact, he's way over his skis when it comes to dealing with Putin. Why is this peacetime president wanting to name it the Department of War? I have no idea.
BURNETT: So I'm just trying to look up here exactly what the quote was, Gretchen. But Trump had said that the move to call the department of war sends a message of victory. A message of victory.
Gavin Newsom --
JONES: Where are we winning?
BURNETT: Right, right. I mean, as in, you know.
CARLSON: Well --
BURNETT: A wartime, they say DHS is saying we're in a wartime world.
CARLSON: Well, he has said many times over the last few days that he has solved seven wars since he came into office --
BURNETT: Right.
CARLSON: But look, he's the master deflector.
BURNETT: I'm not saying that's true. I'm saying you're right. He said that. Just to be clear.
CARLSON: I mean, let's give him credit for what happened with Iran. Okay? But yes, he has said it's a total of seven. But he's a master deflector. And so, if it's -- maybe it's because he doesn't want to talk about Epstein, he's now going to change the name of the Department of Defense. What strikes me to bring it full circle is that this is going to cost by an estimate today, billions of dollars just to change the name.
So, now, we're back to the economy and talking about, wait a minute --
BURNETT: Wait a minute. I thought waste, fraud, abuse and stupid stuff were supposed to go away.
CARLSON: Well, that was chaos with DOGE, speaking of people who lost their jobs, but Congress only approved $9 billion of those cuts. Why? Because they didn't want to hear from their constituents about all of those cuts.
[19:15:02]
BURNETT: Yeah.
CARLSON: So, it comes back full circle from distraction deflection. But ironically to the economy.
BURNETT: Gavin Newsom, of course, quick to point out, just a few moments ago that in January of 2025. So, as he took office, Trump said, my proudest legacy will be that of a peacemaker.
JONES: Right, exactly. So, aged well.
BURNETT: Right.
JONES: Yeah. I got -- I got to tell you, I'm a -- I'm a California Democrat. Gavin Newsom has been doing an extraordinary job of really channeling a lot of the frustration --
BURNETT: I mean, DHS' tweet there, by the way, was wartime president.
JONES: It's like --
BURNETT: I mean, people, do you know? Wartime president, what are we saying here?
JONES: Exactly. CARLSON: Exactly what MAGA did not want.
JONES: Yes.
CARLSON: They did not want to get involved in any more wars, which is another reason why -- why would you change the name to Department of War?
JONES: And unfortunately, the only, troops he's really deploying. And the troops. Troops against American citizens, in places like Detroit. And he's threatening Chicago. So --
BURNETT: It's actually the only place he's ever deployed American troops is to American cities.
JONES: Yeah. And so that -- that is -- so if you -- if you take him seriously, Department of War, he's definitely not doing any wars overseas. He's kind of playing footsie with Putin and jumping on American mayors. So that's not so great.
CARLSON: And let me bring it back to the economy once again with that every day in D.C., with the National Guard being there, it's $1 million. And yet they were supposed to be making all of these cuts. And the reports are that they're picking up garbage there. I mean, I hope crime goes down. I hope so, but it costs --
BURNETT: A million taxpayer dollars a day.
CARLSON: A million taxpayer dollars a day.
JONES: The most expensive trash removal.
BURNETT: Plus, the logo and changes and all those things, which, I mean, I'm not even laughing about it for the Department of War is real money --
JONES: Yeah.
BURNETT: Instead of American jobs.
JONES: Making America great.
BURNETT: Thank you both. I appreciate it.
CARLSON: Sure.
BURNETT: And next exclusive, KFILE reporting I mentioned it, but this is really something, uncovering a Twitter account linked to Trump's choice to lead the Bureau of Labor Statistics, sexually degrading attacks on women, including Kamala Harris. And as the Trump administration contemplates taking guns away from transgender Americans, J.D. Vance's former friend, Yale classmate Sofia Nelson, who is transgender, sends us this image of her. She's our guest.
And a week of meals for ten bucks. How two Tennessee sisters living on a major budget have become internet sensations. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Today's video is more broke meals, meals to make when you're broke.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:21:49]
BURNETT: Tonight, a CNN exclusive k reporting the man President Trump wants to run the Bureau of Labor Statistics, right? The agency that gets all those jobs numbers together. We were just talking about that.
This person has a digital trail that suggested Kamala Harris got to where she got, advanced her career through sexual favors. He engaged in conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and COVID as well. Tip of the iceberg. Apparently, E.J. Antoni is his name handpicked by Trump to lead the agency after Trump fired the longtime agency chief because he didn't like the jobs numbers.
Antoni, an economist with the conservative think tank Heritage Foundation, does not have any government experience, ran a Twitter account that posted sexually degrading attacks and bigoted remarks. Attacks like this one that he posted numerous times about then Senator Kamala Harris saying you can't run a race on your knees.
Now we put up the statement there. We are choosing not to show the illustration that that post was replying to. It was frankly too graphic and degrading for us to show it. Our KFILE team traced the post back to Antoni.
And KFILE's Andrew Kaczynski is OUTFRONT now.
So, Andrew, this -- this is the person, the man that Trump wants to lead. One of the most important agencies in the United States, one that produces jobs, numbers and measures the economy. What more did you find out about him?
ANDREW KACZYNSKI, CNN KFILE SENIOR EDITOR: Well, look, Erin, what we found was that series of highly disturbing posts, sexually graphic, degrading, misogynistic comments about Kamala Harris. We found anti- gay slurs. We also found that he spread a lot of conspiracy theories about COVID, about the 2020 election. And just like taking a step back from this all -- this is one of the most important jobs in the government.
The numbers that the BLS puts out are supposed to be able to be trusted. They're very vital to the U.S. economy. They're very vital to the global economy.
It's not typically something that would -- a job that would go to a highly partisan person like E.J. Antoni --
BURNETT: It goes to career bureaucrats for a reason. This is about cranking the numbers.
KACZYNSKI: Yeah, exactly. Exactly.
And I want to walk people through just a few of the tweets that we uncovered just starting off with that Kamala one that you mentioned, he tweeted that not once, but five separate times. We found he had posts that mocked Christine Blasey Ford, who accused Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault. You can see right there he called her miss piggy, commenting on her appearance.
In early 2020, he shared a post that was basically advice for women land a great guy. Be in shape, grow your hair, be sweet, learn to cook. Don't be annoying.
This one from 20 --
BURNETT: Angry feminists.
KACZYNSKI: Angry -- yeah. So, look, this one from 2018. I don't know if we have it. He posted when John McCain passed away, he posted under his actual name to -- I like a senator who doesn't die playing on when Trump made said of McCain, you know, I like people who weren't captured. There were other posts, anti-gay slurs that he directed at various people, politicians, Trump's opponents.
And then, as I mentioned, he promoted baseless conspiracy theories. He said that COVID 19 was a hoax.
[19:25:01]
He repeatedly attacked Pope Francis which I thought was a little bit odd. And then he also, he said the 2020 election suppressed the Jesuits. I don't -- I don't -- I think that's like a callback to something in Catholic history. I should probably know that because I'm Catholic, but there was a lot of this type of content that we found on, on both under his real name and under a pseudonym that he used.
BURNETT: Okay. So, I mean, its pretty incredible because it's not like you went and found and it would be fine if you had it still be bad enough that a few. Right? This was a lot.
KACZYNSKI: A lot, yeah.
BURNETT: A plethora.
KACZYNSKI: It was a lot of stuff.
BURNETT: Okay. So -- and it's stunning stuff and it's hateful much of it. How did you figure out -- because I'm looking at that account, right? We're looking at this guy named E.J. Antoni. How did you figure out this was him?
KACZYNSKI: Okay. First off, as we saw the account originally used the name Erwin John Antoni, which -- that's his name. And then his display name was Erwin John Antoni III. That's his full name. So, you know, that's what we call strong evidence in the news business. He then switched his handle and made it anonymous. And he made it this
handle, PHD Bombs Away. And we know this because we were able to trace that the two accounts had the same number. So actually, on Twitter --
BURNETT: So, he thought that he switched it, but the trail connects one to the other.
KACZYNSKI: You have a number assigned to your Twitter account. A lot of people don't know this. And if you change your handle, like let's say go from KFILE to just be like, I don't know, make a fake account or an anonymous account, my number stays the same. So, you can always track that that came from the same number.
BURNETT: Jesuit Andy.
KACZYNSKI: Exactly. Whatever -- whatever I want to do.
BURNETT: Yeah.
KACZYNSKI: All right. So, he switches it to PHD of Bombs Away. And then he makes the name Dr. Curtis Lemay, which is this Cold War general who ran on the 1968 ticket with George Wallace for president. His name -- nickname was Bombs Away Lemay, which I just learned, actually, and that's where we found most of the inflammatory tweets.
Then he changes -- he keeps the name, changes it back to his real name, PHD of bombs away, but makes it Erwin John Antoni again.
And, you know, besides the various using his real name, right? There were other clues that we found that showed the account was his. He was tagged by a conservative think tank in 2020. Under that account, it posted that he was an Eagles fan. He's from Philadelphia. And so, yeah, all of this really --
BURNETT: Like preponderance of evidence. It seems pretty obvious.
KACZYNSKI: Showed that it was him. He used the same phrases. He uses this phrase, reap the whirlwind on both the anonymous account and this account. So, like we were able to very thoroughly, you know --
BURNETT: To very, very thoroughly and, and these things you talk about right, reap the whirlwind and very, very hateful things. The image that he was responding to of Kamala Harris was absolutely disgusting. We can't even show it. I would think that would be it'd be a bad thing. It was beyond pornographic. It was disgusting. So what are -- what's the White House saying? What's -- what's --
what's Antoni saying about all this? I mean, is this something like, hey, you know, you're tough way to go. They're happy or no?
KACZYNSKI: Well, you know, I did get some of those responses on Twitter when I posted the story. It was like a mixture of people, anonymous accounts with Twitter blue accounts who were like, he's great. And then people were totally disgusted.
But the White House, the White House, first off, he didn't respond to our request for comment at all. The White House defended him. They didn't address any of the stuff that we brought up, but they did give us a statement that said President Trump has nominated Dr. E.J. Antoni to fix the issues of the BLS and restore trust in the jobs reports. Dr. Antoni has experience and credentials needed to restore solutions- oriented, leadership at BLS, solutions that will prioritize increasing survey response rates and modernizing data collection methods to improve the BLS accuracy. So that's what they told us.
BURNETT: All right. Standing by their man.
Thank you very much, Andrew Kaczynski. Really, really incredible stuff. And of course, please go read the full report.
And should you want to see some of those absolutely disgusting, degrading things that were not going to shove in front of your face unless you choose to see them, you can do that.
OUTFRONT next, RFK, Jr.'s health agency expected to link Tylenol use during pregnancy to autism, according to "The Wall Street Journal".
Are these claims based on science and the NRA in a rare break with Trump tonight? And we'll explain why.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:33:51]
BURNETT: Breaking news this Friday, "The Wall Street Journal" reporting tonight that an upcoming report from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.'s HHS will link Tylenol use during pregnancy to autism and children. Perhaps that's the intervention RFK was referring to at Trump's cabinet meeting last week. Obviously, this is an earth- shattering claim, but to be clear, the science so far does not support a link of causality.
The report already sending Tylenol, the company that makes Tylenol their stock, plunged 10 percent. So, an immediate and sharp impact by this report. An HHS spokesperson says tonight that the agency is, quote, using gold standard science to get to the bottom of Americas unprecedented rise in autism rates until we release the final report, any claims about its contents are nothing more than speculation.
OUTFRONT now, Alycia Halladay. She's the chief science officer at the Autism Science Foundation.
OK, I can't think of anybody with a -- with a more appropriate title to know the facts. The chief science officer at the Autism Science Foundation. Okay?
So, I guess this just go to this basic thing. Is there a "there" there on what "The Wall Street Journal" is reporting, Kennedy is about to claim?
ALYCIA HALLADAY, CHIEF SCIENCE OFFICER, AUTISM SCIENCE FOUNDATION: So, there's really no evidence of a link, right?
[19:35:03] This has been circulating around for many, many years now. There's been small studies that have shown a little bit of a link, but when you increase the sample size or increase the number of people in those studies and control for things like maternal health and background genetics, there is no longer an association.
So, it's not --
BURNETT: So, it's not even that there's a causality.
HALLADAY: No, it's absolutely not causative at all.
BURNETT: I mean, there are a correlation. Theres not even necessarily a correlation.
HALLADAY: There isn't a correlation with the right study. The right study design will show that there is no association.
BURNETT: Okay. Which I think is pretty stunning. Thats what I'm saying, some people say, okay, it's correlated but it's not causality. You're saying, actually, it doesn't even meet the mark on correlation. But just, you know, as you point out, this has been out there for a while. I mean, this isn't one that that Kennedy just plucked out of the ether.
HALLADAY: Right.
BURNETT: There was a Harvard study with the headline using acetaminophen during pregnancy, which is Tylenol.
HALLADAY: Yeah.
BURNETT: And Benadryl and things like that may increase children's autism and ADHD risk. So, I mean, the headline kind of takes you there, but one of the doctors who conducted that study told "The New York Times", we can't answer the question about causation. Ice cream sales go up in the summer. And also violent crime increases during the summer.
They're associated. But that does not mean that the ice cream is causing violent crime, or vice versa, right? Both increase because of the hot weather, right? That its the underlying condition that causes two completely unrelated things to go up.
HALLADAY: Yes. Right. I mean, is that essentially it sounds like what you're saying. I mean, by the way, Tylenol has been around since the 1800s.
BURNETT: Yes.
HALLADAY: If this were that simple, I don't think it'd be coming out like this, would it?
BURNETT: No, I mean, it isn't simple. Autism is a very complex disorder. Everybody who works in autism knows that there is not going to be a single environmental factor that results in an autism diagnosis. And anyone who says otherwise is not aware of how complex and what a spectrum it is.
HALLADAY: So, you know, obviously say the we saw the Tylenol stock went down. Right. Okay. Immediate reaction. So, some women may opt not to take Tylenol while pregnant.
Now of all things that you could do, that one doesn't seem to be the biggest one that would cause earth-shattering consequences in most cases. But the nation's top health official, top health official, with all the gravitas and credibility that that should imply in the most prestigious health agency in the world, confusing science.
That is something that's much bigger on whether -- than whether or not to take a Tylenol.
BURNETT: Absolutely. I mean, the bell has been rung, right? So, now, Tylenol has been linked with autism by the HHS director. So, of course, people are going to listen and people are going to be careful.
However, the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology has even pointed out that they agree that you shouldn't take a ton of Tylenol during pregnancy, that, in fact, if you are in pain or there is a reason that you need Tylenol, that you should consult your doctor.
And some of the studies that were included in that report showed that if it's done, if Tylenol is given for a fever for a short period of time, it can actually be protective against neurodevelopmental disorders.
BURNETT: So, there is a risk. So, so, well -- a fever. So, fever and illness has been linked to neurodevelopmental disorders. People may be taking Tylenol to mitigate that.
So, in fact, it could be protective. But even ACOG says don't take it for a month. Don't take ten a day for a month, because it does have effects on your liver.
So, it's not as if ACOG is giving everybody the green light to take as much Tylenol as they want. Talk to your doctor, talk about why you need to take Tylenol in the first place.
BURNETT: Right, right.
All right. Well, thank you very much. And by the way, I misspoke when I said that it was an active ingredient in Benadryl. So, I want to make sure -- I want to make sure that everyone knows that. That was -- that was a misspeak by me.
Thank you very much. I really appreciate your time.
HALLADAY: Thank you.
BURNETT: And next, Trump contemplating banning transgender Americans from owning guns. Sofia Nelson, you see in this video here, J.D. Vance's former Yale classmate, friend, transgender going to weigh in next.
And the videos helping families eat on a dollar a day. Two sisters going viral.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Most of the time growing up, it felt like it was me and Brooke against the world. I would try not to cry. Why does I?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:43:58]
BURNETT: The NRA tonight breaking with Trump. The powerful gun rights group coming out against a potential ban on guns for transgender Americans. After CNN reported that Trump's DOJ is contemplating the idea.
Now, the NRA, which is one of Trump's top supporters, spent more than $51 million to support his campaign, $51 million posting this, quote, NRA does not and will not support any policy proposals that implement sweeping gun bans that arbitrarily strip law-abiding citizens of their Second Amendment rights without due process.
It's not just guns and transgender Americans. Within hours of his inauguration, Trump began signing a series of executive orders limiting the rights of transgender people, targeting transgender students and banning trans Americans from military service.
Sofia Nelson is OUTFRONT now, former close friend and Yale Law School classmate of Vice President J.D. Vance.
And, of course, Sophia. I know you and I have spoken at length about your friendship with Vance and how he supported you during your gender affirming surgery in 2012.
[19:40:03]
So, Sofia, on this issue, guns, you're an expert. You're an expert, a professional expert. You're about to teach a course on the right to bear arms at the University of Michigan Law School. And today, you shared a video with us. I'm going to show it.
This is you attending on safety courses, using guns. You're no stranger to guns. So what's your reaction to this ban the Trump DOJ is considering on transgender Americans?
SOFIA NELSON, JD VANCE'S FORMER YALE CLASSMATE AND FRIEND: Well, good evening, Erin. And thank you for having me.
This is just the latest in the Trump administration's effort to demonize and in this instance, criminalize transgender Americans exercising their fundamental constitutional rights. I think it's important to note how this mechanism would actually work. It would label transgender Americans as mentally deficient and therefore, make it a ten-year felony for them to possess a firearm. It's blatantly unconstitutional, and it's incredibly dangerous. I think when we look to history, Erin, it's really important. When in
history have categories of people been disarmed? Well, in the colonial United States, dating back to the 1600s, some of the first gun restrictions placed on people living in the colonies were to deprive native Americans of the right to own and possess firearms.
We also have the history, unfortunately, of the tragic and quite scary history of Jewish people being disarmed and Nazi Germany in the 1930s. So, I don't pretend to know what's next. But if history is any indication, what's coming is not good.
BURNETT: And what you're pointing out is that the -- just to be clear here, that the way this could be done is to say that by definition, if you're transgender, you're mentally deficient. Thats why you can't have a gun.
NELSON: Correct.
BURNETT: So I know --
NELSON: I mean, it's preposterous and its dehumanizing, but that would be the legal mechanism. Yes.
BURNETT: So I know you actually sent the video of yourself at the gun safety course to J.D. Vance. I'm showing here again when you're practicing, this is in 2020, right? So, you just sent it now to show him, right? 2020, you're -- you were still -- you were still friends at the time.
So, what more do you remember about that exchange and why you decided to send that video to him?
NELSON: Well, I just thought he would be amused. And he was, you know, I think the stereotype is that progressive people don't possess or use guns. And obviously, that's not true. I'm sure somewhere around 30 percent of transgender Americans, just like 30 percent of Americans, possess firearms. It is an enumerated constitutional right. And, it's important that every American have access to their constitutional rights. And those rights be protected.
BURNETT: So I know, Sofia, you -- while you were practicing there, I believe you're not currently a gun owner, but that -- this proposal, will it -- will it make you actually become a gun owner?
NELSON: I'm considering it. And I think a lot of people are. When you feel like the government is not protecting you, and rather its actually demonizing you and using dehumanizing language about your community, it becomes scary, and you feel like you can't count on the institutions to protect you and keep you safe.
We know that transgender people are far more likely, four times more likely than non-transgender people to be the victims of violent crime.
So the statistics don't bear out that there's any relationship to being trans and being disproportionately violent. What we do know is that transgender people are targeted for violence. And the language coming out of the Trump administration perpetuates that.
BURNETT: So, you've spoken -- you know, you and I have spoken about how much J.D. Vance has changed since you two were close friends. And at one point, you know, you had called him a chameleon in terms of his ability to change. What he said and what he says he believes.
Yesterday, he posted -- I'll show it a second. Something attacking Democrats after RFK, Jr.'s testimony. And he posted this. You all support off label, untested and irreversible hormonal therapies for children mutilating our kids and enriching big pharma. You're full of shit, and everybody knows it. I just am reading his post in full there. So, my apologies for the word choice there.
But, Sofia, when you transitioned in 2012, J.D. Vance was there for you. You've talked about how he brought you homemade food. He and his wife, Usha, and they were there for you. But now he's saying things like that, mutilating. He's calling, mutilating our kids.
What do you think is happening?
NELSON: Well, I think it's opportunist. I think he's trying to be -- curry Trump's favor and fuel this moral panic that were going through. We -- every authoritarian regime in history has needed a scapegoat.
[19:50:01]
And for whatever reason, the Trump administration has chosen transgender people and migrants as their scapegoat.
And it's incredibly dangerous language. It's not true. It's misinformation. We know that hormone replacement therapy, puberty blockers, they're reversible. They're not permanent. And we need to trust families and individuals to work with their doctors to make personal medical decisions. It's not the business of the government.
Everyone should be free to make those decisions for themselves. And I -- this current issue around the right to bear arms is just an extension of the Trump administration weaponizing the criminal legal system to go after trans people and trans health care providers.
They've also issued subpoenas to trans healthcare providers under the guise of a criminal investigation, which has resulted in a lot and a lot of fear and a lot of clinics shutting down. So, they don't even have to be arresting people to successfully limit access to care.
BURNETT: Sofia, thank you so much. I appreciate seeing you again.
NELSON: Thank you so much for having me. And good night.
BURNETT: All right. Good night.
And next, the high price of groceries hitting home across the United States.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my gosh, that is $43.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Elle Reeve with a special report only here, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:55:33]
BURNETT: Tonight. Two sisters from Tennessee going viral. Their must- see videos about eating for as little as a dollar a day. Striking a nationwide nerve.
Elle Reeve is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BROOKE SOUTHERLAND, YOUTUBER: Today's video is more broke meals, meals to make when you're broke.
ELLE REEVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): These YouTuber sisters are a different kind of momfluencer.
EMILY ANDERSON, YOUTUBER: We're going into the Dollar General market first.
REEVE: Making super low budget food videos for people who are broke.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They have a clearance event? What?
REEVE: How to eat on a dollar a day, a week of meals for $10.
These videos are in demand as a growing number of people are struggling to afford rising food, power, and rent bills.
SOUTHERLAND: It doesn't look like inflation's going anywhere, except up.
REEVE: Since last year, eggs are up more than 16 percent, coffee 14 percent and beef 11 percent.
SOUTHERLAND: Oh, my gosh, that is $43.
REEVE: There are fears tariffs could raise food prices more in the future. Electricity prices have grown more than twice as fast as the cost of living. And Central Services, a food bank here in Morristown, Tennessee, says it's seen 22 percent more new families this year than last.
Brooke Southerland and Emily Anderson have expertise in how to make something from nothing because they did it as kids.
ANDERSON: Most of the time growing up, it felt like it was me and Brooke against the world. I'm going to try not to cry.
REEVE: Southerland says she wanted to start making these videos after their older sister died.
SOUTHERLAND: When my sister passed away, me and my mother were going through her purse, and I got this little card out and it was from the food bank, and it said her next available date to pick up a box of food.
She had never told anybody that she was struggling like that. And that just made me sad that she thought she couldn't talk to family about her food insecurity.
REEVE: The sisters say they want viewers to feel less shame about having to make tough choices.
ANDERSON: You all taking one, take away the extra pack of franks, hot dogs.
SOUTHERLAND: And get a bit.
There are some viewers that think that vegetables are the most important choice. And, to me, that just shows that they have never had to really struggle. Fresh vegetables are really a luxury in some instances, and that -- it shouldn't be that way at all.
REEVE: Sometimes, you have to go to a whole bunch of Dollar Generals?
SOUTHERLAND: Yes, everybody in our area wants to save money, and they take everything off the shelves before we can get to it.
No.
REEVE: How many hours a week do you think you put into this?
SOUTHERLAND: Eight, 10 hours.
REEVE: We talked to more than a dozen people in downtown Morristown. Everyone was mad about prices.
LINDA BRADLEY, TENNESSEE RESIDENT: Sometimes, things is four times what they was a year ago. A roast I used to get for $12, $15 is $35. It's awful.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everything just keeps going up.
TONY MAYES, TENNESSEE RESIDENT: I used to spend $40 a week now. Now it's $140 or something like that. I just don't think it's going to go down for a long time. They're not concerned with people like us.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They said these tariffs that they have got on, it's going to bring prices down. They're not, because it's going to have to charge more to make up for them having to pay to bring it in. I just see everything's going downhill.
REEVE: Did you vote for Trump this last time?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, I didn't. I didn't see no choice of a good president. No choice, I'm not choosing. Maybe we will get somebody good in the office and it'll change, not before I'm gone, though.
(LAUGHTER)
REEVE: For Southerland, she says she wants to keep the conversation positive. And to do that, she bans certain words from her Facebook page.
SOUTHERLAND: The banned words I can give you a list as long as my leg, Republican, Democrat, liberal, conservative, tariffs, Trump, Biden.
REEVE: So I was looking for videos kind of like yours on TikTok, and the nasty comment I saw the most -- and maybe that's just my algorithm -- was: "Well, this is what you voted for. That's what you get."
Did you get -- do you see stuff like that?
SOUTHERLAND: Yes, the politicians are politicians, and they're doing a job. They're making money. But we are here together. We are real people. And we need to help each other get through this, get through these hard times, because they're not seeing us on a personal level. But we can see each other on a personal level.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
REEVE: So we also visited the local food bank, and they told us that in the last six months, they've seen more and more two income families coming in who've been spending down their savings, and they just can't make ends meet anymore.
Another thing they hear over and over again is, oh, this is my second job. Like that's normal. Like I have a second job to buy groceries or get gas money. And they worry who's watching the kids?
BURNETT: It's unbelievable.
Elle, thank you so much. Such a powerful report.
And thanks so much to all of you.
Anderson starts now.
