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U.S. Economy Added 57,000 Jobs in June, Below Expectations; Rescuers Pull Man from Rubble Eight Days After Earthquakes; Ukraine Says, 21 Dead, 85 Injured in Massive Russian Attack on Kyiv. Aired 10- 10:30a ET

Aired July 02, 2026 - 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: Happening now, below expectations. 57,000 jobs added for the month of June. What it means about the U.S. job market and the overall economy.

Plus, incredible rescue from the rubble, a man is free just moments ago after being buried alive under debris from a nine-storey building that collapsed during the deadly Venezuela earthquakes eight days ago. We are live on the scene.

And first, the rehearsal, then the ceremony, we are live at Madison Square Garden with new details about Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's wedding celebration.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And breaking overnight, massive attack. Nearly 500 Russian drones and dozens of Russian missiles light up the night sky as Russia launches deadly strikes against Ukraine's capital city of Kyiv.

Plus, resort revenue. New details emerging on just how much more President Trump has made at his Florida properties since taking office.

And historic win, truly historic, the U.S. men's soccer team scores their first knockout win in the World Cup in more than 20 years.

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 this hour with the breaking news, the United States adding 57,000 jobs in the month of June, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That's well below economist expectations, which predicted the economy would add some 100,000 jobs. Some welcome news at the same time, the unemployment rate ticking down slightly, coming in at 4.2 percent.

Let's go live right now to CNN Business Senior Reporter David Goldman. David, help us break down these latest numbers. What do they tell us? DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR REPORTER: It's really important that we don't make too much out of one month. It is not a trend. But, Wolf, this is not the number that economists wanted to see. 57,000 jobs, as you mentioned, is well below the 100 that were expected in the previous month.

4.2 percent unemployment, now that looks pretty good because that was down from 4.3 percent in the previous month. But this came down for the wrong reasons. It's because people left the labor force. There were over 700,000 people who left the labor force in the past month. That is a concern. That's one of the reasons why that number came down.

I have more bad news for you. Healthcare, this is a number that we have seen support the economy, but this is normally around 38,000 jobs over the past 12 months. This is now down to 22,000 jobs created. There's an aging population in this country, and a lot of people need to be hired to take care of them. This has been supporting the economy for a long time. This is something that we need to watch as well, if that's going to go down.

But look at this. This is the number that surprised me more than anything, 61,000 lost jobs in leisure and hospitality. Now, every economist thought that the World Cup and the summer festival season was going to boost this, so this is a big shock that we had such a huge number of lost jobs in this sector.

Again, not a trend yet, it's one month, but something that we definitely need to keep our eyes on. But the thing is, look at these revisions. So, we thought that there were all of these jobs being created, but look at this. Over the past two months, this is May and April, we actually created 74,000 fewer jobs than we thought that we had.

This is something that we actually thought was a positive for the economy, that we were adding all of these jobs. Now, we have a very different view of what happened over the past two months.

And then this is the key. This is what everyone wants to know, right, is, how far is my paycheck going? Now, it's a little hard to see. You kind of need your microscope for this. But that is the most important line that I'm going to show you all day. Because when the wage growth is lower than inflation, well, that means that inflation is eating your paycheck, and that's what's been happening for the past three months.

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Now, wages did grow by 3.5 percent, and that is higher than we had in the past couple months. But what's inflation right now? Inflation is at 4.2 percent. And so that means that we aren't quite making up for that inflation gap. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. David Goldman reporting for us, David, thank you very, very much. And there's more important news that we're following right now. Rescuers have just pulled a man from the rubble who was trapped for eight days after the earthquakes in Venezuela. They located him in a collapsed nine-storey building using sonar and kept him alive with water and liquid nutrition.

Let's go live right now to CNN's Isa Soares. She's on the scene for us. What can you tell us, Isa?

ISA SOARES, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, it is an incredible scene here. After so many days of loss and so much sadness here in this country, I have witnessed a moment of incredible joy, a moment that really is made for the movies. After more than 100 hours, rescue teams from around the world have been able to free 44-year-old Hernan Gil (ph).

He was a security guard -- is a security guard (INAUDIBLE) of this shopping mall. And for more than 100 hours, they've been working tirelessly, a herculean effort to really try to free him.

And, you know, I spoke to the Red Cross today. They were saying to me they heard a noise around 1:00 P.M. on Sunday, Wolf, as they screamed into what is left of pancake building, building, and he responded. That's what started off then these countries from all over the world to try and get him free.

Now, he has been able -- for all these hours, they've been able to give him food, they've been able to give him liquid medicine, all through a straw. They have tried different ways in, but they did it today. He is well, and he is on his way to hospital.

I've got one of the rescue workers here. He's from Chile, the Chile Fire Brigades. Congratulations, Felicio Castro (ph). How difficult was it?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, this rescue is by far the most difficult rescue the USAR (ph) Bomberos Chile has made ever.

SOARES: What, what's, what was so complex about it? I know more than 100 hours. Speak to the complexity here.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, we have eight floors building collapsed on the basement where the person was trapped.

So, when we tried to get the person, we have secondary collapses. So, it was very, very difficult, very, very dangerous. But two days ago, at the day five after the earthquake, our medical team got the space to give water by tube. So, this gave us some time to work, slow but very safe.

SOARES: (INAUDIBLE)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE). So, many others (INAUDIBLE) today more safe.

SOARES: Thank you very much. And a true herculean task from rescue workers from all over the world.

BLITZER: Our Isa Soares on the scene for us in Venezuela. Isa, thank you very much. Pamela?

BROWN: Incredible rescue there. Breaking news, Wolf, rescue crews in Ukraine's capital have spent much of the day putting out fires and searching for people buried under the rubble of a massive Russian attack

According to Ukrainian Emergency Services, 21 people are confirmed dead and at least 85 injured in widespread drone and missile strikes in Kyiv. Russia says it was in retaliation for Ukrainian attacks on civilian targets right inside Russian territory.

CNN Correspondent Nada Bashir is following all of the latest developments for us. So, Nada, what more are you learning?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is being described by Ukrainian military officials as a massive combined attack on Ukraine's capital, Kyiv. Nearly 500 drones, more than 70 missiles launched as part of this overnight attack.

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And according to Ukrainian military officials, the majority of them were intercepted, but 33 at least are said to have made impact.

And the result of that has proven deadly, as you mentioned. At least 21 people killed, dozens more wounded in this attack. And rescue workers have been working throughout the day to pull casualties out of the rubble, some of them victims, but some of them also survivors.

Now, we have been hearing from officials in Ukraine condemning this latest attack, which we have seen in video emerging from Ukraine targeted residential apartment buildings across the city.

But this is an attack which came with some warning. We heard from the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on Wednesday telling civilians in Kyiv to take shelter. And according to transport officials, more than 50,000 Kyiv residents actually did take shelter in metro stations overnight, and we saw images of those metro stations really packed out full of civilians preparing for a very long night as those sirens continued to sound into the early hours of this morning.

And, of course, this comes as part of a series of overnight attacks that Russia has carried out. The Russian Defense Ministry says they were targeting military and energy infrastructure in Ukraine, but, clearly, as we can see, this is civilian infrastructure that has been impacted. And, of course, as we've said, the effects of this have proven deadly.

BROWN: Yes, 21 dead, 85 injured as of now. Nada Bashir, thank you very much.

And still ahead here in The Situation Room, we're learning more about the medical emergency involving Senator Mitch McConnell. Newly released dispatch audio paints a more serious picture of what happened before he was hospitalized.

And a marriage proposal right at the top of one of America's most iconic landmarks. How a daring climb up the Empire State Building ended with a dramatic rescue and arrest. The couple is due in court later today.

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

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BLITZER: New questions are being raised right now as details emerge about Senator Mitch McConnell's recent hospitalization. EMS audio reveals paramedics were dispatched last month to the 84-year-old Republican's home for a person who was, quote, unconscious. In the recording, which was obtained by an independent journalist and doesn't mention McConnell's name, paramedics responded to a report of a cardiac arrest and performed CPR upon arriving.

CNN Senior Reporter Annie Grayer has been digging into all of this for us. She's here with me in The Situation Room. How is McConnell's office, first of all, responding to this?

ANNIE GRAYER, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Wolf, they've been pretty tight-lipped. They haven't disclosed what McConnell's condition is, if he is still hospitalized. When presented with this audio recording specifically, all they've told reporters is that, we will keep you updated.

But this audio recording that you mentioned gives us a lot of insight, because we were really having no information other than that McConnell was hospitalized on June 14th. These emergency responders came to McConnell's known D.C. address on the same day that he was hospitalized. And even though the recording doesn't list who they are going to retrieve, it does give us a lot of insight that we were really having no information on.

And, McConnell, who's 84 years old, has had a history of serious medical conditions. He was -- he had polio as a child. He has suffered numerous falls. In 2023, he was seen frozen on camera. Earlier this year, he was hospitalized for flu-like symptoms. And so now he was hospitalized on June 14th, and this is the first major update and insight into what could be going on now, and we're waiting to learn more.

And he has been a giant in the Senate. As 84, he is the longest- serving Republican leader in the Senate. He was the majority leader during Trump's first term, where he most notably helped reshape the judicial system by nominating and pushing through so many conservative judges.

But in this second term, McConnell, no longer in leadership, has taken a more adversarial approach with the Trump administration. He voted against RFK Jr. to serve as President Trump's Health and Human Services secretary, and he has been very outspoken on the need for U.S. to provide aid to Ukraine, which is against a lot of what President Trump and his allies believe as they become more isolationist in their approach to foreign aid.

BLITZER: And we, of course, wish him a recovery -- a full recovery. Let's hope that happens.

Annie Grayer, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: All right. Coming up, Wolf, Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift's expected wedding celebration at New York's Madison Square Garden is wrapped in extraordinary security, as you might imagine. Why officials are treating it like one of New York's biggest security operations.

We'll be right back.

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BROWN: So, here's the moment two daredevils stunned New York City, breaching security and climbing to the very top of the Empire State Building. Once on top of the iconic landmark spire, the duo unfurled a banner while one of them appeared to propose to the other. Even air traffic control was left shocked by the incident.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, what's all the hoopla going on over there?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Two geniuses climbed to the top of the Empire State Building, the top of the spire. It's a male, female, dressed in black. They had some flag they were waving when they were up at the top, and he just proposed to her.

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BROWN: So, the two ended up in police custody after making their way back down.

Let's go live now to CNN Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller. John, you're learning some new information about how these climbers managed to climb up to the top of the building to carry out this stunt. What do you know?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, they arrived at the Empire State Building as visitors. They bought tickets to the observatory. They went upstairs with other tourists. It is probably not their first time there. They probably did a reconnaissance visit on one or more occasions to scope out the place and look for vulnerabilities.

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But as Tuesday night turned into Wednesday, when it closed at 11:00, they were already hidden somewhere in the complex. Police and the Empire State Building don't yet know where they hid. But at 5:04 A.M., security video reviewed by the Empire State security team shows them popping out of a hatch in the floor and emerging back into the observatory area. They get to the 102nd floor, where a stairway that goes up to the spire is blocked by a series of metal cables that don't allow you to pass up the stairs.

He takes out tools and then loosens the brackets that hold the cables, according to the video, and then it's loose enough that there's slack so she can slip through. They go up to the 104th floor, where access is guarded, and they cut the locks on that door, and that is how they got up there.

Now, they also remained until 12:00 noon, knowing that that would be the middle of the day, probably the time to get maximum attention, and then they pulled the stunt that you're looking at right here. So, that required a lot of planning.

BROWN: Yes. I know we were all just glued to the T.V. watching this play out and wondering how the heck that happened, and you're giving us some clarity on that.

I want to turn to another major story in New York City that we're following, and that would be, of course, Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's reported wedding that sources say is set to take place at Madison Square Garden this weekend. What kind of security is expected to be in place for this?

MILLER: Well, it's going to be like a hermetically sealed environment. One of the reasons they chose Madison Square Garden is because it's, they are hoping, impervious to paparazzi and other stalkers. There's no windows, the roof is covered, you can't fly over it with a helicopter or a drone. And what they were looking for was privacy, control, and security.

They will have 31st Street on the south side of the Garden and 33rd Street on the north side of the Garden closed to traffic. Vehicles will enter through a controlled checkpoint at either one and go into a tent where there a flap will come down, and then they will enter a special entrance that will take them to the place where the reception is going to be the rehearsal reception.

And then the next day, when we expect there is going to be a wedding, that guest list will surge from 100 close friends to 1,000 close friends, and they will repeat on both sides of the building, these cars coming in, tinted windows minibuses, garage entrances. So, even if fans show up, even if the press shows up, I'm sure we'll be there, they're not going to see much except cars coming and cars going.

BROWN: And we're still waiting for those invitations in the mail, right, Wolf?

BLITZER: I didn't get mine. Did you get yours?

BROWN: Still waiting, still hoping.

All right, John Miller, thanks so much. BLITZER: And just ahead, a new warning about the Strait of Hormuz as Iran prepares days of funeral ceremonies for its slain supreme leader.

You're in The Situation Room.

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