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The Situation Room

Revised Jobs Numbers Show Labor Market Much Weaker Than Reported; Israel Targets Hamas Leaders in Qatar Attack; Trump's D.C. Crime Emergency Declaration Set to Expire. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired September 09, 2025 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS AND POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: -- this is accurate, but significant downward revisions for that 12-month period. 911,000 jobs, fewer than we expected, a record, Pamela.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, so let's just put this in the context for our viewers because it's a lot to keep up with. I want to take a step back. So, you have nearly a million jobs with this revision downward, right? There is an acting commissioner right now with BLS who is a career civil servant. Back in July, President Trump fired the BLS commissioner saying without evidence that she manipulated the data when at that time she had revised it down to 250,000 jobs. If you would, put this in perspective how this fits into the labor market data that we got on Friday and what this means.

YURKEVICH: Well, what this does is this is looking at data and the jobs well before what we've seen over the summer. So, this is backwards looking, but it is significant because it does show that revisions are such a big part of the Bureau of Labor Statistics reporting. They do the best they can with the initial survey data that businesses give them about how many jobs they're adding. But ultimately, this is a preliminary revision. And then, Pamela, in February of next year, we get a final revision looking at this time period.

So, as you can see, revisions are a big part of the labor market. The concern is from some economists and from the administration is, does it really paint an accurate picture in the beginning if it's changing so much over time? There's a lot of reasons why these numbers start to change over the course of a year. The BLS gets more data. They get more information that better paints the picture. But President Trump was upset about the July jobs report, which showed a weaker jobs market. And he was upset about the revisions.

But as you can see, revisions are a part of this whole process, it just takes some time before we can try to settle on the exact number of jobs added each month and jobs added on an annual basis, Pamela.

BROWN: All right. Vanessa Yurkevich, thanks so much. Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And we'll see if President Trump decides to do now to the Bureau of Labor Statistics what he did in July. He fired the director of the commissioner at that time. He didn't like the numbers. And these numbers are even worse.

BROWN: And this is an acting commissioner that's in place now, a career civil servant. The person that he nominated to take over BLS has not been confirmed yet. So, we'll see.

BLITZER: We'll see what happens and how he reacts to all of this. We'll stand by for that. And just ahead, we'll get back to the other breaking news. We're following Israel striking various targets in Doha, Qatar. What does that mean for negotiations to release the remaining hostages? The family of hostage Evyatar David standing by to join us live. That's coming up.

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[10:35:00]

BLITZER: I want to get back to the breaking news right. Israel carrying out a major attack against Hamas leadership in Doha, Qatar.

Hamas leaders have used that city as a headquarters outside of Gaza for years. One Israeli source says a chief Hamas negotiator was targeted. This attack marks the first time Israel has launched an operation in Doha, Qatar. Qatar is calling this, and I'm quoting now, "a criminal assault."

The timing of today's strikes is truly extraordinary, coming amid negotiations, very critically important negotiations, over the U.S. framework for a new ceasefire deal. And it calls for the release of all the remaining Israeli hostages on the very first day of a ceasefire.

Evyatar David has been held hostage by Hamas for nearly two long years, agonizing years. We should say the 24-year-old Israeli man was kidnapped from the Nova Music Festival during that October 7th terror attack by Hamas. His brother Ilay David is joining us here in the Situation Room right now. Ilay, thanks very much for joining us.

So, this major breaking news, this Israeli airstrike against what they say were Hamas targets in Doha, Qatar, residential buildings there, how are you reacting to this? Are you concerned this will further undermine the hostage and ceasefire negotiations and potentially could further endanger the remaining hostages, including your brother?

ILAY DAVID, BROTHER OF HAMAS HOSTAGE EVYATAR DAVID: Yes, we're very worried. Very, very worried. We don't know who will be now negotiating with Israel about the remaining hostages. Still hostages suffering there. I believe that taking military actions on Hamas leaders can wait. And right now, what we need to be focused on is saving the hostages.

BLITZER: Because a lot of hostage families over these past several weeks and months have been calling on the Israeli government to work out a hostage freedom deal to end this war, achieve a ceasefire, and then some sort of agreement to save the lives of the remaining hostages and to allow the remains of hostages who have been killed to at least come back to Israel and be buried properly. DAVID: Correct. Evyatar is -- as we saw last month, is in a critical condition. He looked like skin and bones.

BLITZER: You brought a picture?

DAVID: Yes. Skin and bones. Pictures that we saw eight years ago in the Holocaust. And in that picture, you can see the guard, well-fed hen, reaching to Evyatar, giving him some kind of a treat. And it's triple the size of my brother's hand.

[10:40:00]

And Evyatar was -- you saw the pictures, he was healthy, masculine, and seeing him like this breaks my heart, but also understanding that his life is on the brink. If he will not get the aid he needs right now, the food, the medical treatment, the right vitamins, he may die very, very soon.

BLITZER: And in that picture, we see him sitting there in one of those tunnels underground in Gaza, right?

DAVID: Yes. As we understand, this tunnel is his home for the last year, to be honest, even more than a year. He was sent there in June 2024, and he's been held in that tunnel since. It's a very small tunnel, three feet wide, on a 30-feet-long tunnel, 100 feet underground, with intentional starving conditions, and with abusive captors that are enjoying just torturing him at every chance they have. And this was the peak of cruelty, to see Evyatar as a tool in Hamas' cruel propaganda. It was really something else, and it broke my family to pieces.

BLITZER: And you're here with your younger sister, Yaela (ph), and you're meeting with U.S. officials, is that right?

DAVID: That's right.

BLITZER: Can you tell us who you're meeting with and what you hope to achieve?

DAVID: We meet several Congress members and also with several American officials here in the White House. We hope to first advocate for them. Evyatar and the other hostages, they need to be heard. Their voice must be heard from the tunnels of Gaza. And they cannot speak right now, and we have to speak for them and make it -- we have to make them visible as much as we can. And second, we are trying to bring again the ceasefire deal to top priority, to the top agenda. That's what we're trying to do.

BLITZER: So, what's your basic message to members of Congress and to U.S. officials?

DAVID: We understand that this administration is very determined to bring back the hostages, and we trust the president to do it as well and to keep his promise. He promised us. As he rescued -- as he managed to save the lives of dozens of hostages in January, February, we believe he can do it again. He promised to do it again. That's why we're here for.

BLITZER: And you think you're achieving anything right now in these talks with these American officials?

DAVID: I hope so. I really hope so. They are, again, as we see, very connected to this issue. And I think they're honest and decent people in this administration. I just want -- I want them to see my brother as a person, not only as a poster, as a skinny skeleton underground. He's a person. He's my younger brother. He's 24. He went to a festival to celebrate. He has dreams. He has hopes. He wants to travel the world because that's what people in his age do. He wants to study music production. He wants to come back and play music with me, as we used to do every week. And everyone should know him.

BLITZER: How old is Evyatar?

DAVID: He's 24. He was kidnapped 22. Now, he's 24.

BLITZER: 24 years old. And he was at that music festival because he loved music?

DAVID: That's right. He went to this -- it was not only a music festival. It was a peace festival. And people from all over the world came to celebrate. People from all religions came to celebrate, Arabs and Jews and Christians. And he and his friend, Guy Gilboa-Dalal, were kidnapped from there, brutally. They were broadcasted by Hamas in Telegram in that day. And it's so sad, so tragic that they are still being held there for almost two years. It's so, so tragic and horrible, horrifying conditions underground. And they can die.

And right now, the urgent thing is to make sure that they will be here. That they will survive until they will be released. That they will be released.

BLITZER: But your concern right now with the breaking news is that this Israeli strike against Hamas targets, that they say are Hamas targets in Doha, Qatar, could further undermine the release of your brother?

DAVID: Again, we're just so confused, so confused. I don't know if it's good or bad, to be honest. I have no idea. I hope it will bring something good. But again, those were the people that, as I understand, were the people that Qatar used in the negotiations. So, right now, I don't know who Israel is going to negotiate with.

[10:45:00]

BLITZER: Yes. All right. Well, we're hoping for the release of your brother, Evyatar, soon. And we will stay in very close. Ilay David, thank you very much for joining us. Good luck to you and your family.

DAVID: Thank you very, very much for having me.

BLITZER: And just a note to our viewers, there are 48 hostages still being held in Gaza. We believe that 20 of them are still alive. We're, of course, all hoping for their return. And we hope that happens soon. We'll be right back.

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BROWN: We are continuing to follow the breaking news out of the Middle East where Israel says it's targeting Hamas leadership in Qatar. We will bring you the very latest information as soon as we get it.

[10:50:00]

Also, this morning, President Trump's 30-day crime emergency declaration for Washington, D.C. will soon expire, according to D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser's office. The National Guard has been deployed in the nation's capital since August 12th, surrounding national monuments and Humvees, and carrying firearms after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed a directive later in the month. When the emergency declaration expires, it does not necessarily mean the law enforcement surge will end. We do expect there will still be a federal law enforcement presence on the streets of Washington, D.C.

BLITZER: And there are more cities now bracing for an immigration crackdown, including the potential deployment of U.S. military National Guard troops. Joining us now to discuss what's going on, the lieutenant governor of Illinois, Julianna Stratton. Lieutenant Governor, thanks so much for joining us. I know this is a busy day for you.

Your state, the State of Illinois, a great state, is at the center of a new wave of immigration enforcement. What are you hearing from your constituents, and what are you prepared to do about all of this?

LT. GOV. JULIANA STRATTON (D-IL): Well, I think that there's two distinct actions that are happening. We're not getting much information, if any, from official sources in the White House or the Trump administration. But when it comes to what we are hearing from our constituents, people are understandably afraid. People are thinking about how to alter their plans, how to make decisions about whether they will attend celebrations, such as the Mexican Independence Day parade and other types of events that are happening across the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois. And they are also very much so interested in knowing what their rights are under these circumstances, because we have two distinct actions happening.

First of all, this sort of midway blitz that is about a more aggressive ICE enforcement action. And then, after people are protesting and people are raising their voices, we see that the Trump administration is also threatening to federalize the National Guard, and people are wondering what that will look like as well.

So, ultimately, what is clear is that the cruelty is the point. The goal of this administration is to instill fear. This is not about public safety. This is about going after hardworking people who have contributed so much to our communities. And we as leaders here in Illinois will stand with the people of Illinois. We will make sure we do everything that we can to protect them and to keep them safe.

BLITZER: Has anyone, Lieutenant Governor, from your administration heard directly from anyone at the White House about all of this?

STRATTON: We have not heard anything directly from the White House. And I think that underscores my point that this is not about public safety. I mean, anytime that you want to focus on public safety, you would certainly reach out to the governor of our state, to the leaders in our administration. You would coordinate efforts with the State of Illinois. And certainly, you would take every possible action to make sure that we knew what was going to happen, how it was going to happen, when it was going to happen.

All we know is the name of this sick reality show, Midway Blitz, but we don't have any other details about when it will begin, what it will look like, and how far they will go. And so, it just leads to chaos and confusion. And we're doing our best to communicate what we know, but quite frankly, there's not much that we -- if anything, that we've gotten that's official.

BLITZER: President Trump, as you know, is zeroing in right now on Chicago. He posted this image to social media saying Chicago would soon find out why it's called the Department of War. The president says he's not declaring war on Chicago, but how do you interpret that message?

STRATTON: Well, I interpret it as exactly he put it out. He is, in fact, in so many ways, declaring war on the City of Chicago and the State of Illinois. And quite frankly, he's going after all -- so many blue states, Democratic-led states, especially those that have made it very clear that we're not going to bow down to a wannabe dictator.

So, this is an act of retaliation. And it's also dangerous. You know, that kind of image is not a joke. It's not funny. Real people's lives are at stake. And this is an American president threatening American citizens. And we have to be very clear about what this is. This is the rise, if not even the rise. We are staring authoritarianism in its face, and it's up to us to speak out.

The governor and I are encouraging people to use their voices as powerful tools of peace and to make sure that Washington and the president is very clear that this is not wanted here in the State of Illinois, in the City of Chicago.

[10:55:00]

There is no emergency, and there's no need to threaten war ever against American citizens, and we will not normalize the presence of the military on American soil.

BLITZER: The Illinois lieutenant governor, Juliana Stratton, thanks so much for joining us. Good luck to you. Good luck to all the people of Chicago right now. Appreciate it very much.

STRATTON: Thank you so much.

BLITZER: Pamela.

BROWN: All right. coming up next hour, Wolf, why Gen Z boys and young men are turning more to religion. My latest Situation Room special report is just ahead.

BLITZER: Also, this, the historic lows. A shocking new report shows just how much our children are slipping behind in math, reading, and science.

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