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U.S. Economy Added 22,000 Jobs in August, Unemployment at Nearly Four-Year High; Escalating Tensions Between United States and Venezuela; Hundreds Detained in ICE Raid at Massive Hyundai Plant in Georgia. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired September 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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PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Massive raid, 450 undocumented immigrants apprehended at a Hyundai plant in Georgia. It is one of the largest ICE raids at a single site in 22 years.

Who wants to be the world's first trillionaire? The generous pay package from Tesla that could make it a reality for Elon Musk.

And highway flyover, shocking video of a car going airborne across a highway.

Welcome to our viewers of the United States and around the world. I'm Pamela Brown. Wolf Blitzer is off today, and you are in The Situation Room.

And we began with breaking news on the U.S. economy. A disappointing jobs report just released this morning, shows employers added just 22,000 jobs last month, raising fears that U.S. job growth is stalling out. This report also reveals a rising unemployment rate taking up to 4.3 percent, the highest in nearly four years.

CNN's Vanessa Yurkevich is in New York and CNN's Alayna Treene is at the White House.

So, Vanessa, put this in perspective for us. These numbers that were lower than what economists had expected. Help us understand.

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is just a sign that the jobs market is slowing and starting to stall. The estimate from economists was that we were going to be seeing an ad of 77,000 jobs in the month of August. You can see there on your screen just 22,000 jobs added and the unemployment rate ticking up to 4.3 percent. That was expected. But as you note, that is the highest employment rate we've seen since October of 2021.

Also worth noting that there were revisions in this report. Revisions are normal, but there was much to do about this in the last jobs report looking at significant revisions, smaller revisions in this report. July revised up by about 6,000 jobs. But look at that on your screen. If you look at the lower right hand corner there, you can see that the month of June was actually revised down into negative territory, so 13,000 jobs lost from the U.S. economy in the month of June. That breaks a historic streak of jobs growth since December of 2020.

Also in this report, just five sectors gained jobs. Let's look at some of them. You have healthcare, which gained 31,000 jobs, social services, 16,000, but then you had losses in the federal government. That is some of that trickledown effect from the DOGE cuts.

But then if you look at wholesale trade and manufacturing job losses of 12,000 in each category, that is something that is problematic, because the cornerstone of President Trump's tariff policy is actually to bring those types of jobs back to the United States, losses in those two categories.

For the average employer out there, what I'm hearing from economists and analysts is that they're in a no hire, no fire state of mind, meaning that they're sort of paralyzed right now, not really making any significant decisions because they just don't know the long-term tariff impact that it's going to have on their businesses. And for the average American out there, a job seeker, there are simply fewer jobs to choose from than there are people looking for jobs.

Take a look at your screen there. Markets though up in the green. That is because investors do believe that a rate cut is coming from the Federal Reserve later this month, Pamela, though, not because inflation is coming down but because the unemployment rate is heating up and there is a slowing of the jobs market.

Investors really starting to price in this rate cut more seriously, even some considering a half a point cut to interest rates would be -- which would be significant, and which we know is what President Trump has been calling for for months now. Pamela?

BROWN: Absolutely, important context there. Thank you so much, Vanessa.

I'm going to go over to Alayna Treene at the White House. So, last month, Alayna, the president we know, fired the person who oversees the reporting of numbers. He basically claimed that they were manipulated because they were anti-Trump. How is the administration responding to this job's report?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, I think it's clear that these are not the numbers that the Trump administration or the president wanted, Pamela. We have not yet heard from the president directly, often posts about these jobs reports.

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I'll, you know, keep a close eye on social media.

We did hear from Kevin Hassett, though. He did some interview shortly after the report came out. He's the White House's director of the Economic Council. He essentially said that he's expecting this jobs report to be revised up in the future. We'll see if that actually happens.

And I do just want to touch on something Vanessa said because I do anticipate when we do hear from the president, he'll likely call on Powell once again to lower interest rates. And as Vanessa said, I mean, this could have the unintended effect of giving Trump exactly what he wants and seeing those interest rates ultimately come down.

But I do want to get to your point as well about how this is the first report that is out ever since the president fired the former commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. I know that the Trump administration, the president, they always look at these numbers very carefully, but they're looking at them even more carefully today and scrutinizing even more so because of that firing.

We did hear from the Commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, on this this morning actually before the report came out, but he mentioned the firing of Erika McEntarfer. I want you to take a listen to what he said.

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HOWARD LUTNICK, COMMERCE SECRETARY: If the leader is bent against Donald Trump, then they're going to have, you know, such errors and those things are bent, we've seen that in all sorts of agencies throughout this government. If the people, 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. He can't replace somebody, you know, two weeks ago, and you expect fundamental change. But what you will get is an agency that's on side, just trying to do the best and put out the correct numbers.

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TREENE: So, Pamela, a few things there, I think, to unpack. One is that this was before, again, the jobs numbers came out. He was clearly trying to already set the scene for potentially disappointing numbers, but also still blaming the former head of the BLS for potentially these disappointing numbers. We do have to be clear, though, there is no evidence despite their claims that there was any manipulation of this data by the commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. And actually, you know, from experts and other economists, they say she wouldn't have even had an opportunity to go into the data before it was released. So, just keep that in mind as we listen to all of this.

BROWN: All right. Alayna Treene, Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you both.

And new this morning, unanswered questions about why two Venezuelan military aircraft flew near a U.S Navy vessel in international waters yesterday. The Defense Department calls the move highly provocative and designed to interfere with our counter narco-terror operations. And it's the latest sign of growing tensions between the U.S. and Venezuela.

And on Tuesday, the U.S. carried out a lethal military strike against a suspected drug vessel tied to a Venezuelan cartel. Let's go live now to CNN National Security Correspondent Natasha Bertrand at the Pentagon. Natasha, what else is the Trump administration saying about this?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, things are escalating extremely quickly in the Caribbean, especially as the U.S. military has deployed a small armada of warships and other military assets as part of its new counter cartel drug mission in the waters around Venezuela and around Latin America.

But as far as we know about this incident in which these two Venezuelan military aircraft appeared to have buzzed a Navy ship in those waters and international waters, we should note, really, what we know is the of the extent of it is what the Defense Department put out last night, which is that today, yesterday, two Maduro regime military aircraft flew near a U.S. Navy vessel in international waters. And the DOD called this move highly provocative, and they said it was designed to interfere with our counter narco-terror operations. They added that the cartel running Venezuela, a hit on Maduro there, is strongly advised not to pursue any further effort to obstruct, deter, or interfere with counter-narcotics and counter terror operations carried out by the U.S. military.

And that's a really key part of this statement, because according to Secretary of Defense Hegseth, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, these counter-drug counter cartel missions like the one that we saw earlier this week that killed 11 people on a, quote, drug boat that had departed Venezuela, they're going to continue. And this is a large reason why the U.S. has deployed so many military assets to the waters of U.S. Southern Command, which is right around Venezuela there.

And so we are expecting to see more of these kinds of operations carried out by the U.S. military, but on the same -- on the other hand, Maduro, the president of Venezuela, he has also vowed that he is going to be deploying troops more frequently, and he has, in fact, called on Venezuelans to join the military in larger numbers.

And so tensions are really escalating very quickly down in U.S. Southern Command area of responsibility. Pam?

BROWN: Yes, they certainly are. Natasha Bertrand, thank you so much.

And new this morning, officials say about 450 people were apprehended at the Hyundai mega plant site in Georgia, about 25 miles west of Savannah.

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Joining us now is CNN's Isabel Rosales. So, Isabel, how does this compare to some of the other recent ICE raids we've seen carried out since the Trump administration's immigration crackdown began?

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Pam, good morning. With around 450 people apprehended, this marks what appears to be one of the largest ICE raids at a single site in the agency's 22-year history. Now, according to the Associated Press, this raid stopped construction of this, what's being built as a battery plant here, a battery for electric vehicles, the same site that the governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, once touted as the largest economic development site in the state's history.

We have brand new video just obtained by CNN that shows a portion of what happened during that raid. Take a look.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need construction to cease immediately. We need all work to end on the site right now.

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ROSALES: Yes. And you can see there's a federal agent telling people to stop work as they're executing this criminal search warrant. Onsite was ICE, Georgia State Patrol, the FBI, the DEA, the ATF. And here's why they say that they were there. DHS telling us in a statement, allegations of unlawful employment practices is the reason that they were there, and also investigating other serious federal crimes.

I want you to listen now to the special agent in charge recapping what happened. And I'm sorry we don't have that sound bite, but he mentioned that he had made several arrests of different individuals. They also apprehended people who were citizens and released them there at the site.

And we have also this from Hyundai saying that they are cooperating with law enforcement, telling CNN that they were committed to abiding by all labor and immigration regulations.

Pam, I also want to mention that on this same day, hundreds of miles away in Upper New York Upper State New York, there was another work site ICE immigration raid at a family-owned plant, a plant that makes nutritional bars. This drew the ire of New York's governor who said, this does not lead to safer streets. And also the owner of that plant that said his workers had legal documentation to work in the U.S., calling the raid, describing it as, quote, overkill. Pam?

BROWN: All right. Isabel Rosales, thank you so much.

Well, could Elon Musk be the world's first trillionaire? It's possible. Tesla shareholders are considering a new pay package that would give him an unprecedented amount of money if the company reaches certain milestones.

Joining us now is CNN Media Correspondent Hadas Gold. Hadas, what would have to happen for Elon Musk to actually get that amount of money that would make him a trillionaire?

HADAS GOLD, CNN MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it wouldn't just make him the world's first trillionaire. It's the biggest corporate pay package in essentially like modern history. And so what this pay package includes would be $423.7 million shares of Tesla stock. Now, if those shares then increase in value, according to what he needs to do for the conditions, that could mean $900 billion in value. Add that to his current $400 billion net worth there, you've got the world's first trillionaire.

But the conditions here, they're quite far-reaching. First of all, Tesla value has to reach $8.5 trillion. That's a massive eightfold increase from its current value that's around $1.1 trillion. And remember, this has been kind of a rough year for Tesla. The stock price has suffered. The shares have slumped, all usually connected to Elon Musk's involvement in politics, as well as some competition from other electric vehicle makers.

The other conditions, he has to stay with Tesla for seven and a half years to even cash some of these shares, ten years to cash all of them. He also has to help produce things, like 20 million Teslas have to be delivered. 1 million of those robot taxis have to be delivered, and 1 million of those autonomous optimist robots have to be delivered for him to be able to cash out all of these shares.

The most notable thing to me, though, in this pay package is that there was no restrictions and any sort outside activities. He can continue working at his other companies and there are no political restrictions. He can continue getting involved in politics. But Tesla's chair -- board chair, Robyn Denholm, she defended this pay package. Take a listen.

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ROBYN DENHOLM, CHAIR, TESLA BOARD OF DIRECTORS: The plan is super ambitious and that is what motivates Elon. So, in coming up with a plan that will incent, motivate, have his time, focus and attention on Tesla. We needed to come up with a plan that was super ambitious.

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GOLD: Now shareholders will get a chance to vote on this pay package on November 6th. Pam?

BROWN: All right. Hadas Gold, thanks so much.

And still ahead right here on The Situation Room, new CNN reporting, the Justice Department is looking into ways to limit transgender Americans right to own guns. What officials are telling us.

And up next, a Situation Room special report, my look into why boys and men are falling behind in society. Today, we dive into the important role of fathers.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've come to believe that fatherhood is a load- bearing wall for our society. (END VIDEO CLIP)

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BROWN: Well, he has been dubbed the Cable Cowboy. In fact, he helped launch CNN 45 years ago. He is a powerful media mogul who usually works behind the scenes. But now, John Malone is stepping into the spotlight with a memoir about his storied career, (INAUDIBLE) media companies through periods of intense transformation and with some pointed criticism about the industry he helped shape.

Joining us now to discuss is John Malone. He is the chairman of Liberty Media and the author of the new book, Born to Be Wired, lessons from a Lifetime Transforming Television, Wiring America for the Internet and Growing Formula One, Discovery, Sirius X.M. and the Atlanta Braves. Quite a career you have had.

I also want to note he is the chair emeritus of the Warner Brothers Discovery Board and a company stockholder.

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WBD is CNN's parent company. But CNN operates as an editorially independent news organization.

Nice to have you on, John. I know you've been very busy. You've been on your book tour. I know you've been critical of CNN in your recent interviews. We're going to get to that in just a moment.

But, first, just. Looking at the media world at large, you are hugely influential, but most Americans have never heard of you. You've called yourself reclusive. You prefer to work behind the scenes. Why are you speaking out now with your book?

JOHN MALONE, CHAIR EMERITUS, WARNER BROS. DISCOVERY: Well, I think it's at an age, I'm approaching 85 years old, it's time for me to put it down, to try and correct the record, let's call it, and to explain myself because I am somewhat reclusive and private. So, I thought it was a good time and a good age for me to talk about myself, my career, the businesses I've been involved in, and the evolution of media generally.

BROWN: So, let's talk about that evolution of media, because you write in your book that America has lost the certainty of one consistent version of the truth, and you recall a time in broadcast news where only a limited number of voices were on air, and that people were engaging on issues based on the same basic information.

You say you want to get back to that ideal, but is that even possible in this era of social media, A.I. and people turning to echo chambers for every belief they have?

MALONE: No, and I understand that diversity, which I always believe maximum diversity in voice was probably a benefit to the country and the society, but there is an opposite opinion. In fact, I still feel guilty. Walter Cronkite many years ago in his career, I had a lovely dinner with him and he was asking me that very question. Did I feel guilty that I was a very divisive element within America because we were launching at the time multiple news services of various descriptions? And did I feel that was going to be socially positive or negative? And I still don't know. So, you know, it's controversial, I think.

But, clearly, we need more unification, united voices when it comes to our country and our politics and our solution to problems.

BROWN: So, let's talk a little bit more about your point of view with the news landscape and specifically in CNN, you called CNN a, quote, left-leaning anti-Trump News service. To be clear, CNN Chairman and CEO Mark Thompson, who I know you have praised in the past, says he believes in the CNN that is fair-minded and biased and favor of the facts, rather than any political party or interest. So, what do you think being fair and impartial actually means in today's media environment?

MALONE: That's really tough. I think that CNN, first of all, has a terrific and probably the largest group of real journalists on the planet, which is a big plus.

BROWN: I agree with that.

MALONE: And for anything breaking news anywhere in the world, most people would turn to CNN, okay? So, from that perspective, I agree.

I think because of a prior period of time, CNN took on a very anti- Trump perspective. And they did it admittedly so, I have to say. So the broad perception of CNN today is that it is coming at news with a leftist or left of center bias. And, obviously, Fox deliberately, even when it launched, was deliberately trying to come at news from a right wing bias, clearly right-wing bias. And so that was the early two. And then MSNBC came in with a left wing bias. And then people have tried to further narrow down the audience and find a position in television news. All at the same time, when CNN was being distributed as part of linear television bundles, okay?

So, what's happened, I think, is that to watch CNN right now, you have to buy a large bundle.

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And for the public, these large video bundles are too expensive for a big percentage of the public, rather than being able to buy a narrow service like Netflix or whatever you know, with the bundle pricing in many markets being over a hundred dollars a month. And so this is a very real problem in terms of reach. People can't watch CNN if it's not available to them.

BROWN: Right. And I know our leadership is working on that with our streaming coming out soon.

But just to pick up on, on what you said earlier in your answer, I first want to say, look, you are entitled to your opinion, news organizations are not above scrutiny or criticism. I would be remiss not to say I am incredibly proud to work at CNN among so many dedicated journalists who are really dedicated to the truth and facts no matter who they favor. I see it every day here. And I understand your point. You think news organizations focus too much on politics in general, but you also warn about our loss of a shared objective truth as Americans at a time when the president of the United States attacks news organizations as, quote, fake news. Do you think these attacks play a role in undermining public trust and truth in journalism?

MALONE: Absolutely, absolutely. And, you know, for news organizations to present, let's say, a slanted or one-sided view in order to gain audience or favor from one political perspective is very divisive. Yes, they get a bigger audience from -- in their choir, but they lose audience from the other choir. And meanwhile, most people in the U.S. report getting their news from social networks instead of from the traditional sources. And so this is a very real problem for the economics of television news and particularly CNN that I'm quickly interested in.

BROWN: Certainly, it's rapidly changing when it comes to the economics, but it brings me to my next question. How do you consume your news? And how much CNN do you actually consume?

MALONE: I watch CNN a lot. I watch Fox News a lot. I frequently switch back and forth to see how a particular news story is being covered by the two different organizations. And so I find that informative.

I think in the book, I kind of suggested that it was important that if it's a news program, it should be defined as a news program. I always thought the model for news was what the newspapers did, which is you have the news which is supposed to be factual reporting on stories. Then you had an editorial page, which was the opinion of the organization with respect to the news, and then you would have perhaps a guest editorial section where you had descending opinions from various parties, that that model would be helpful in terms of making people feel comfortable that they were getting actual, factual news. And then when they were listening to dissenting opinions or arguments about facts or the news, they could count it.

It's very, very difficult for the general public to understand actually what is going on. Because when there's different version of the facts, you know, it becomes it becomes very confusing.

BROWN: But, you know, the goal of journalists is a focus on the facts and the truth, no matter who they favor. And I understand your point about delineating between the new side and the opinion side. I'm just curious, do you think that viewers make that distinction, for example, at Fox News?

MALONE: I think they should, but they probably don't. But I think, you know, this all goes to credibility, and the fact that the public's belief in any institution in America is drastically down from what it was historically when I was growing up, and we have such a divided society.

And, look, if you can't agree on fundamental values or fundamental facts, it's very difficult to make a democratic country succeed.

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It really almost leads to totalitarian leadership because people just give up and they say.