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Inside Politics

Markets Shrug Off Government Shutdown; Shutdown to Delay Key Economic Data at a Critical Time; Private Employers Unexpectedly Cut 32,000 Jobs in September; Jane Fonda Says Hollywood is Facing a Powerful Assault on Speech, Launches 'committee to Protect the First Amendment'; Apple Postpones Series About Domestic Extremism; Pope Leo Says Being Pro-life is About More Than Just Abortion. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired October 01, 2025 - 12:30   ET

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

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DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT AND ANCHOR OF 'INSIDE POLITICS': Uncertainty is not a word investors love, but it is a key feature of government shutdowns. And right now, the market's reaction, it's a shrug. You can see everything lightly in the green there. History shows though that stock markets tend to be largely unfazed by government shutdowns. Economists, they do worry there could be an impact on the broader economy.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich is here now to explain how the economic sources, the sources who work on Wall Street and the broader economy are seeing this. Vanessa?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Dana, the last government shutdown was in 2018-2019 under President Trump's first term. And we know from the Congressional Budget Office that the economy took a hit of $3 billion. And the Congressional Budget Office is also projecting for this government shutdown, if it does drag out, there will be impacts to consumer confidence and ultimately, consumer spending if you have workers who are not getting paid.

Also, the CBO is projecting that there could be furloughs of 750,000 workers daily, which would be a loss of $400 million in wages each day. President Trump has suggested that there may be mass firings of federal employees because of the shutdown. And then this is really critical here, Dana, there will be delayed data on jobs and consumer and producer prices because the Bureau of Labor Statistics on the Commerce Department puts out key data that we ultimately will probably not be getting, including the key Jobs Report that we were expecting this Friday, which looks back at September.

And if you can see over the last couple months, we've been tracking this closely because there has been a slowdown in hiring, and we want to see if that is continuing into the month of September. What we did get this morning, Dana, was a report from ADP. This is a private payroll provider and it showed that in the month of September, there was a loss of 32,000 jobs, and there was also a revision to the month of August, going down -- going -- revising downwards by 3,000 jobs.

Now, investors, as you mentioned, on Wall Street largely unfazed by this. However, they are concerned about the lack of data that may be coming because the Federal Reserve looks at this data very closely and that is how they make decisions. They waited nine months until they saw that the data warranted a rate cut. The next rate cut from the Federal Reserve will be later this month. If they don't have that key economic data, like the Jobs Report, like Consumer Prices, like Producer Prices, they're going to have to go on what they have, which is this private payroll data and anything else they can get their hands on to make a decision though.

[12:35:00]

Investors do believe, though, Dana, still that they are going to go ahead with that 25-basis point rate cut. But of course, flying a little blind, if this government shut down continues and we don't get those key government reports.

BASH: Yeah. Well, let's hope that whatever is happening in those discussions on the Senate floor right now, produce some fruit, let's say. Appreciate it, Vanessa. Thank you so much. Nice to see you as always.

Up next on "Inside Politics," like father, like daughter. Jane Fonda, there she is. She's picking up where her legendary actor father left off on the critical issue of free speech. Standby for my discussion with Jane Fonda live.

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[12:40:14]

BASH: In 1947, the biggest Hollywood stars of the day formed the Committee for the First Amendment to fight a sweeping political crackdown on movie making during the McCarthy era. One of the founders was legendary actor, Henry Fonda. Nearly 80 years later, Jane Fonda says those forces are back and she's picking up her father's torch. The actress and activist just announced a new committee with the same name to defend Hollywood free speech amid growing fears of government censorship and intimidation.

More than 500 movie stars, producers, directors, and entertainers have signed on to join her. And here with me now is Jane Fonda. Thank you so much for being here. I do want to talk about something that you start with, what you wrote in this letter, because it's really striking. You wrote, "I'm 87-years-old. I've seen war, repression, protest, and backlash. I've been celebrated and I've been branded an enemy of the state. But I can tell you this, this is the most frightening moment of my life." That's pretty chilling.

JANE FONDA, AWARD-WINNING ACTRESS AND ACTIVIST: This is a very chilling time. We've faced attempts at autocracy before in the '20s and '30s, and you've cited the example of McCarthyism. That was Jim Crow. This is different and we should all be very scared, and the key is solidarity. And so, that's why I thought to resurrect the spirit of the committee that was started in the '50s, and it included my father, within the entertainment industry. This is contained within -- we want to work cross sectorally with other people because, obviously, a lot of other people are affected by what's happening.

But our statement is when they come for one of us, they come from all of us. We're going to stand -- oh, I thought of this last night. We're going to engage in creative, non-violent, non cooperation -- CNN.

BASH: We'll take it. I'm good.

FONDA: I knew you would.

(LAUGH)

BASH: You have been in the political cross hairs of presidents before. One was Richard Nixon. I want you -- I'm sure you've -- I know you've heard this, but I want our viewers to hear something that Nixon said. It came from the Nixon tapes, September 1971.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICHARD NIXON, (R) 37TH U.S. PRESIDENT: What in the world is the matter with Jane Fonda? I feel -- I feel so sorry for Henry Fonda, who's a nice man. Yeah, well, she really is. She's a -- she's a great actress and she looks pretty. But boy, she's often on the wrong track.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FONDA: Look what happened to him and I'm still here.

(LAUGH)

BASH: Yes, you are. He was talking about your anti-Vietnam war activism. You were on his enemies list, I believe. And so, listening to that, knowing that history, living that history as you did, and you're still saying this is different, what makes this time so different?

FONDA: No president has ever sent troops into the democratic cities across the country, saying full force. No president, as far as I know, has tried to control the Federal Reserve, the Central Bank. He is amassing power in a way that will destroy our democracy. And so, we're going to stand up. We're creatives, we're storytellers. We can do it creatively. We can have a good time while we do it, but we want to push back and we want to model what creative, non-violent, non- cooperation looks like.

That doesn't mean just showing up for people who are under attack, like Jimmy Kimmel. A lot of us signed that ACLU statement protesting what happened to Jimmy Kimmel. But, we want to also -- we want to be proactive and we want to show what that can look like. And we want to -- violence is not -- we will not tolerate violence. We don't want any of that. But we want to -- we want to move forward with love, with unity, with solidarity, and we want to encourage everybody else and all the other sectors of this country to do the same. We don't want to be a pillar of support to this regime that's forming. BASH: You have obviously been politically active for a very long time. You've spent a significant amount of time in Washington and known all kinds of leaders. How do you think the Democratic leaders are doing right now?

[12:45:00]

FONDA: Not good enough. So along with this committee that has been launched today -- and by the way, what is so exciting is that there's an exponential grow -- people are signing up the minute they hear about it. Sally Field, Jon Hamm, and others are signing up. So, I think we're going to have -- we're going to have a good group and we're going to have fun doing it. But, I also have a PAC, a Climate PAC that elects people all over the country because I don't feel that our leaders are doing what they need to do. And if you can't change the people, change the people. That's what we're doing.

BASH: So I just -- and back to that, I just want to make sure I understand. So you're saying, obviously, you have these incredible people who have signed onto this and we just showed a little bit of a scroll from -- it's a cross-section of age and of the entertainment industry. Are you saying that you want to use your creativity and use the platforms that you have to push back? And if that's the case, what do you think about what has happened recently at Apple TV, with this show, "The Savant" which was indefinitely put on hold. Jessica Chastain plays a woman infiltrating online hate groups to stop extremist violence. Is that -- seems like that's the antithesis of what you're trying to do.

FONDA: Yes. That's very recent, right? I'm not as up on that as I should be. I've been in France, as you pointed out.

BASH: Yes.

FONDA: I just got back this morning. But, yes, whenever our freedoms, our rights, our right to freedom of speech, freedom to protest, freedom to assemble, our constitutional rights are attacked, we will stand up and we'll stand up in solidarity. There is strength in numbers. And those in our industry, who acquiesce to what's happening, they'll hear from us as well.

BASH: And what else are you hoping to do? I mean, just having this committee exist is a statement in and of itself. What else do you hope to do with the power?

FONDA: This is our first statement. Well, this is a work in progress. This is our first statement. We've issued the statement. We're going to have webinars. We're going to learn about what is autocracy, how does it rise, and how do we defeat it? We're going to learn about the First Amendment and really understand what it is. There are certain times when freedom of speech is not allowed, like, the classic example is you can't shout fire in a dark theater.

We have to really understand the ecology, the ecology of what it is we're dealing with. And so, we're going to be educating ourselves and we're going to be coming up with creative ideas. We're good at that. BASH: Yeah. Well, that is for sure. Speaking of -- I can't have you and not give you my condolences for the loss of Robert Redford.

FONDA: Yeah.

BASH: I have to say, "Our Souls at Night," if people haven't seen that, please go see it. It was just a fantastic movie --

FONDA: Yeah.

BASH: -- that you did with him and he would be --

FONDA: I still can't believe it.

BASH: He would be definitely signed onto this letter if he were here.

FONDA: Oh, he'd be the first to sign on. Yeah.

BASH: Yeah. Jane Fonda, thank you so much for being here.

FONDA: Thanks, Dana.

BASH: Really appreciate it. And up next, what does it mean to be pro- life? Well, Pope Leo says it's not just about abortion. You want to hear what the first American Pope means by that, next.

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[12:52:55]

BASH: What does it mean to be pro-life? The first American Pope is weighing in on that. He was asked yesterday about the backlash to Chicago, the Chicago Archdiocese's decision to give a Lifetime Achievement Award to Illinois Senator Dick Durbin who supports abortion rights.

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POPE LEO XIV, SOVEREIGN OF VATICAN CITY STATE: It's important to look at many issues that are related to what is the teaching of the church. Someone who says I'm against abortion, but since I'm in favor of the death penalty is not really pro-life. So someone who says that I'm against abortion, but I am in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants who are in the United States, I don't know if that's pro- life. So they're very complex issues. I don't know if anyone has all the truth on them.

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BASH: Despite that qualified support, Durbin decided yesterday to decline the award which was in recognition of his work on immigration. We're back at the table. I don't know what's more fascinating, the content of what he was saying or just the reminder that we have an American Pope.

MARIANNA SOTOMAYOR, CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Yes, I know. Even just hearing his accent --

BASH: Exactly.

SOTOMAYOR: You know, you don't hear that all the time. I mean, you said the right word. It's fascinating. That's what I was thinking even just hearing him say that, because you don't ever really hear Popes weighing in, in such a way. Especially when it comes to an issue that has more or less plagued many Democrats who are Catholic. We think of Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi at different points in their careers, they were not able to receive the Eucharist because of these -- their own positions on abortion access.

BASH: Yeah.

SOTOMAYOR: So, the fact that he is talking about this and willing to engage on this issue --

BASH: Yeah.

SOTOMAYOR: -- and more or less, pointing out the hypocrisy is interesting.

BASH: Yeah. And Durbin is his -- I mean, he was Durbin's constituent.

JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Right.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Right. And the fact that he is talking about pro-life in a broader context than we normally hear politically speaking about the death penalty and the human treatment of immigrants, that is what I think is so extraordinary. The church is very clear on its anti-abortion teaching, but it speaks in a much softer voice on the death penalty and immigration. That is what I think is so striking, particularly given what is happening in Chicago now, the Pope's hometown.

[12:55:00]

GANGEL: So can I just add?

BASH: Yeah.

GANGEL: We were surprised about an American Pope, as I still call him, Pope Bob, but let's remember the name he picked.

(LAUGH)

Leo, known for social reform. Immigration, he has spoken out on that before. I'm actually not surprised he took the opportunity to talk about -- to bring in immigration and migrants again.

BASH: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he certainly weighed on, on something very, very political given the fact that Dick Durbin, (inaudible) longtime Senator and all of the issues that he espouses, as you mentioned. Thank you all, appreciate it. Thank you for joining "Inside Politics." "CNN News Central" starts after a quick break.

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