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Trump Defends Firing Labor Stats Chief Over Jobs Report; Soon, Texas Democrats Hold News Conference, State House to Reconvene; Angry Voters Rip into GOP Rep at Tense Town Hall. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired August 05, 2025 - 10:00   ET

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

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[10:00:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, no longer under consideration, a big name, taking himself out of the running for Federal Reserve chair, the new comments moments ago from President Trump.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Also Texas Democrats speaking out this morning as the fight over redistricting crosses state lines.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in The Situation Room.

And we begin with the breaking news. Just moments ago, President Trump is defending his decision to fire the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Erika McEntarfer was let go Friday after the president accused her without any evidence of rigging the monthly jobs report.

CNN Business and Politics Correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich is joining us right now. Vanessa, the president also talked about potential replacements for the Federal Reserve chairman, Jerome Powell. Tell our viewers what he said.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes. President Trump is taking Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent off the short list to replace Jerome Powell next year. He says that he has four candidates in mind. He mentioned a few, one being Kevin Hassett, his economic adviser, but also saying that he spoke to the secretary of the treasury, Scott Bessent, last night and asked him again, did he want to be the head of the Federal Reserve. Listen to what he said just moments ago on CNBC.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: The two Kevins are doing well and I have two other people that are doing well. You know, look, it's in the end, there are numerous people that are qualified.

I love Scott, but he wants to stay where he is. I'll take him off the, because I asked him just last night, is this something you want? Nope. I want to stay where I am.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YURKEVICH: So, Scott Bessent saying that he wants to stay on as treasury secretary, he does not want that high profile position of the Fed chair.

So, there are really about four candidates that President Trump is considering. Three that we know of are Kevin Hassett. He's the economic adviser to the president. You also have Kevin Warsh. He's a former Fed governor. And there are two other candidates that he is looking at. One name that's been floated is Christopher Waller. He is currently on the board of the Federal Reserve. He has been highly critical of the Federal Reserve not cutting interest rates. He was pushing for an interest rate cut as soon as this month in July -- excuse me, last month in July.

Also worth noting that the president has the ability now to make an appointment to the Federal Reserve for a governor that said she was leaving just last week. That is Adriana Kugler. She said that she's resigning and President Trump saying that he will be announcing a new appointment soon. This is one of the 12 people that make decisions about interest rate cuts. President Trump saying he's going to appoint someone.

But for just four months, Wolf, that could also, he says, pave the way for the person he puts in place to ultimately become the next Fed chair, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. Vanessa, stand by. I want to go to Alayna over at the White House right now.

Alayna, the president, defended his decision to fire the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. What exactly did he say?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: That's right. We heard him this morning on CNBC, Wolf, talking more about this decision. And what he really brought up was that, you know, that this is something that he has been annoyed with since even before the election. He talked about how he felt that this was political. I'd argue that he didn't provide any evidence of that, but he said that the fact that it was revised before the election, some of these job reports and the economic data, and then that had bothered him then. And that's exactly what I was told in my conversations with people here at the White House, which is what really annoyed him about Friday's job report.

I'd remind you, Wolf, that that job report that came out on Friday, it was worse than expected. But what one official told me is that, essentially, what set the president off was the idea that the previous months, May and June, which had showed the economy doing well, jobs being added, that that was actually revised down, and that it actually -- the economy added less jobs than it had previously set.

And one thing I think is important to note here that in my conversations with people here at the White House is that the president had brought up the fact that Dr. Erika McEntarfer, of course, the head of -- the former head before she was fired by the president of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, was a Biden appointee. [10:05:11]

He had talked about that before. But there was really no reason to try and oust her from her position because a lot of the jobs reports we saw in the start of this year were actually good. We saw the president himself, but also a lot of people here at the White House, including some of his top economic officials saying that the jobs reports were actually supportive of this idea that the president's policies were growing the economy. Of course, that's not what we saw on Friday. And it was actually Sergio Gor, he's the head of the White House Personnel Office, who reminded the president in that moment that McEntarfer was a Biden appointee.

Now, I also know that a lot of people had tried to tell the president, you know, this is why we might be seeing an economic slowdown, but, ultimately, he decided he wanted to oust her, and that he was told by officials around him that it was in his -- it was his prerogative to do so. She serves at the pleasure of the president, very different from conversations I know he's had with his officials here about Jerome Powell, for example, the Fed chair, of course, who many people urged him not to try and oust.

All to say the president has said that he's going to try and name her replacement by midweek coming in the next day or so. At the latest conversations I had, Wolf, with people here at the White House is that they have not yet picked exactly who that is going to be just yet.

BLITZER: All right. Alayna Treene at the White House, Vanessa Yurkevich in New York, thanks to both of you very much, Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. Happening now, we are watching for two big developments in the Texas redistricting saga. In Chicago, Democrats who left Texas in protests are set to hold a news conference later this hour. And 1,100 miles away in Austin, the Texas State House is set to reconvene early this afternoon. All of this comes after Republican Governor Greg Abbott ordered those Democrats who left the state to be arrested. They left to deny Republicans the number of lawmakers needed to pass new Congressional maps that could eliminate five Democratic-held U.S. House seats and next year's midterm elections.

The protesting Democrats seem undeterred, at least for now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STATE REP. JAMES TALARICO (D-TX): We are leaving the state, breaking quorum and preventing Republicans from silencing our voices and rigging the next election.

STATE REP. ANN JOHNSON (D-TX): We are standing up and we are saying we're not going to give Trump the opportunity to steal five seats and steal your voice in this next election cycle.

STATE REP. RON REYNOLDS (D-TX): We're going to continue to fight. We're going to continue to speak the truth of power, doing everything it takes to save and protect our democracy. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Democrats in other states are in talks to retaliate and redraw house maps for their own party's benefit and response to this.

CNN Senior National Correspondent Ed Lavenders in Austin. Ed, what do we expect when the Texas House comes back into session today?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're not expecting to see Democrats here once again today. So, this session, once it gavels in, will probably only last a few minutes, enough to establish that a quorum is once again not met. It will be day two, and that will grind everything to a halt. The day will be over essentially on the side of the Texas House of Representatives during this special le legislative session where this redistricting bill is being considered.

And one of the things that Democrats have been saying as one of the reasons for leaving is to try to garner attention for what they describe as this threat to democracy and the redistricting efforts here in Texas. And there's the idea of going to places like Illinois and New York is because they wanted to ratchet up pressure and also convince other states to follow suit if Texas Republicans were going to redistrict here mid decade the way they are doing now. And when you hear Governor Gavin Newsom from California talking, they seem to be open to that possibility.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): And I think that should be absorbed by those in the Texas delegation. Whatever they are doing will be neutered here in the state of California, and they will pay that price.

We're not drawing lines to draw lines. We're holding the line on democracy, on the rule of law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: But, Pamela, as we go into day two now, it is clear that the political rhetoric continues to escalate. You saw the governor threaten an arrest, threatening investigations for criminal bribery as well. So, this has really intensified. And there are still more, about two weeks left, in this special legislative session.

BROWN: All right. Ed Lavender in Austin, thank you. Wolf?

BLITZER: Pamela New this morning. A Republican congressman gets an angry earful from his constituents. Mike Flood held a town hall last night in Lincoln, Nebraska, and voters there tore into him over President Trump's so-called big, beautiful bill and the Epstein files controversy.

[10:10:00]

Just listen to this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE FLOOD (R-NE): From where I sit, there's been a lot of misinformation out there about the bill. Okay.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The question is this.

FLOOD: To your first point there --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When are you going to stand up --

FLOOD: The bill is actually called the one big, beautiful bill, and I'm not going to tiptoe around what the answers are because that's the bill to passed.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: How much does it cost for fascism? How much do the taxpayers have to pay?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why are you covering up the Epstein files?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to ask, why does it seem like when you make your voting decisions, they're based on capital rather than the working class? Billionaires and corporations got their tax issues enshrined into the law forever, but the working class gets a no tax on tips or overtime, that only applies to some of us. And now we wind up in a situation where we are.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And this is not about partisan, this is about issues because we're about to lose our democracy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Very strong words there at that town hall, Congressman Flood said he plans to sponsor a resolution to release the Epstein files. Pamela?

BROWN: Happening now, Wolf, manhunts in two different parts of the country. In West Tennessee, the man accusing -- accused of killing four people last week has been spotted on surveillance camera. You just saw it there. This footage in Jackson shows the suspect, Austin Robert Drummond, Sunday night with a rifle.

Drummond is accused of killing the parents and two relatives of a seven-month-old baby who was found alive. Three people have been arrested on suspicion of helping him.

And in Montana, authorities are searching a national park for Army Veteran Michael Paul Brown. This is an image of him fleeing a bar wearing just underwear in the town of Anaconda where four people were shot and killed Friday morning. Police, say that they don't know what led to the killings. Authorities warned that Brown is armed and dangerous.

And new this morning, the state of Tennessee is due to carry out a controversial execution just minutes from now. Byron Black faces lethal injection at the top of the hour for the 1988 murders of his girlfriend and her two young daughters. But the execution could be complicated. Black has a heart defibrillator that delivers electric shocks to correct abnormal rhythms. His attorneys say it could repeatedly shock him as he's put to death and needs to be deactivated. The state officials deny he will suffer.

I spoke to one of his attorneys a couple of weeks ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KELLEY HENRY, ATTORNEY FOR BYRON BLACK: We came to them and told them that this defibrillator would go off during the execution, almost like something out of a horror movie causing Mr. Black to regain life, regain consciousness, and delay his execution perhaps up to 30 minutes while he was shocked over and over again. And their response was that they had no responsibility to do anything about the situation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Black's attorney also argued that he has an intellectual disability that should make him ineligible for execution. That was part of the denied request for a stay of execution. Wolf?

BLITZER: Also happening now a wildfire exploding in Southern California, just northwest of Los Angeles. At one point, the Gifford Fire grew about the size of a football field every two seconds. So far, it's burned more than 72,000 acres since Friday, and fire crews have contained very little of it.

CNN Meteorologist Derek Van Dam is following all of this for us. Derek, why has this fire grown so quickly?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Okay, Wolf. We got a combination of very dry vegetation on the ground. We have low relative humidity, increasing winds and increasing temperatures as well. So, that's actually going to make firefighting conditions on the ground worse before they get better, unfortunately.

So, talk about explosive growth of the Gifford Fire, here it is from space. You could see it just blowing up in size this weekend, lots of smoke associated with this system. It is quickly approaching the largest in terms of acreage burned wildfire in California so far this year. It's at 7 percent containment. So, we've got some new numbers to pass along to you, the viewer. This is new. It was at 3 percent containment this morning. So, it does appear that there's starting to get some advanced ground on this wildfire.

But nonetheless, there's a lot of degraded air quality across Southern California because of the Gifford Fire and as far east as Las Vegas. They're starting to see the smoke infiltrate the Las Vegas Valley. Here's a look at a time lapse showing you that thick haze just surrounding and basically suffocating the surrounding air throughout that region.

So, right now, the winds have relaxed. But going forward into the rest of the week, that's when they pick up, the temperatures warm up and the conditions continue to dry out. Look at the daytime highs warming up across Southern California as well, does not bode well for firefighters. Wolf?

BLITZER: Awful situation, indeed. Derek Van Dam, our meteorologist, thank you very, very much.

[10:15:00]

Pamela?

VAN DAM: You got it.

BROWN: Happening right now, Wolf, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to ask his security cabinet to support an expansion of the war in Gaza with his goal now nothing short of, quote, full conquest over the enclave and Hamas.

Let's go to CNN Senior International Correspondent Ben Wedeman. Ben, how much more of Gaza will Israel have to take for full control here?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, certainly, Israel, Pamela controls the sea, controls the air above Gaza and controls much of the strip already. So, if we're talking about full conquest, that sounds an awful lot like full reoccupation of Gaza, a home to more than 2 million Palestinians, most of whom have lost their homes.

Now, this meeting of the Security Council is scheduled to take place within two hours, but it comes against a backdrop of growing reservations about this proposed so-called full re-conquest of Gaza. We know that Eyal Zamir, the chief of staff of the Israeli Army, is not enthusiastic about this idea. For one thing, the Israeli army, after 22 months of this war, is exhausted. We've seen within the month of July alone, seven soldiers have committed suicide. The families of the hostages are very concerned that military action could endanger the lives of the roughly 20 hostages, who, of course, are still believed to be alive.

And then there's the question of those Palestinians in Gaza that will be on the receiving end of such an Israeli military operation. The death toll in Gaza has already topped 61,000. The fear is that a full- on Israeli operation, the likes of which we haven't seen in months, could send that death toll soaring. Pamela?

BROWN: Ben Wedeman, thank you so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: And still ahead breaking news, new CNN reporting, the Trump administration debates releasing the transcript of Ghislaine Maxwell's interview with the U.S. Justice Department, what we're learning. We have details, that's coming up next.

Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

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[10:20:00]

BROWN: Breaking news sources tell CNN that the Trump administration is considering whether to make an audio recording and transcripts of Ghislaine Maxwell's interview with the Justice Department public.

CNN's Alayna Treene is back with us from the White House. What can you tell us, Alayna?

TREENE: Yes, that's right. Well, first, I would point out Pamela, that it wasn't previously known that they actually had made an audio recording of the Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche's interview with Ghislaine Maxwell, which we know occurred over the period of two days a couple weeks ago, last month. And, essentially, from what we're hearing from both sources within the Justice Department and here at the White House, you know, three senior administration officials told us that what's currently being discussed is whether or not they want to make the audio and the transcripts of that meeting public.

Now, we know that they are going through and digitizing some of the audio. We were told by one official that the interviews were more than ten hours, and also going through transcribing it and, of course, redacting parts of it where maybe victims' names who have not been previously made public, trying to redact those if, if they do ultimately release this information.

Now, I think a big question, of course, is we all knew that Blanche went to Florida to have a sit-down with Maxwell, one of Epstein's associates who is currently serving a 20-year term for some sex crimes that she was engaged in along with Epstein. And the question was, are you even going to share any of that information?

Now, we're learning that that is, of course, a big topic of conversation between people here at the White House and the Justice Department. Some of the people we spoke with said that they want to release this information sooner rather than later. They believe that the Trump administration needs to be more in control of the optics of all of this.

Others said, you know, they believe that the Epstein story has largely died down right now, and they would prefer not to resurface that at this moment. But all to say it's a big topic of conversation. We could see some of this information come to light shortly.

I would also note that we did hear from White House Communications director Steven Cheung, who essentially said that he believed that this is nothing more than CNN trying to desperately to create news out of old news. He was pointing to a Newsmax interview the president did last week where he essentially said that he would like to release everything, but that we don't want people to get hurt, that shouldn't be hurt. He also argued that he hadn't, at this point, this interview was done Friday, that the president argued he hadn't spoken directly with Blanche about this.

So, all to say this is new information that we, of course, had not known before. The fact that there is an auto recording of this and that perhaps the White House is going to release this transcript of all -- everyone kind of staying by to see what ultimately they will do. Pamela?

BROWN: All right. Alayna, thanks so much. BLITZER: And coming up, we're watching and we're waiting for new comments from Texas Democrats as the redistricting drama in their state is becoming a nationwide issue.

We'll be right back.

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[10:25:00]

BLITZER: We're standing by is Texas State Democrats who are now in Chicago are set to hold a news conference any minute now as they boycott Republican efforts to redraw Congressional districts in their state.

Back in Austin, Republican Governor Greg Abbott pushes for their arrest while President Trump keeps up the pressure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: It's all gerrymandering, and we have an opportunity in Texas to pick up five seats. We have a really good governor and we have good people in Texas. And I won Texas. I got the highest vote in the history of Texas, as you probably know. And we are entitled to five more seats.

In Illinois, what's happened is terrible what they're doing. And they -- you notice they go to Illinois for safety, but that's all gerrymandered. California's gerrymandered. We should have many more seats in Congress in California. It's all gerrymandered.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And joining us now, GOP Congresswoman Lisa McClain of Michigan. She's the Republican conference chair representative. Thanks so much for joining.