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The Source with Kaitlan Collins
Trump Casts Aside Blame For Second Straight Weak Jobs Report; 475 Detained In Massive Immigration Raid At Georgia Hyundai Plant; WSJ: HHS To Link Autism To Tylenol Use In Pregnancy. Aired 9-10p ET
Aired September 05, 2025 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CHRISTOPHER LAMB, CNN VATICAN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): He also stood up for pupils being bullied at school.
Antonio believed his message can resonate with young people today.
ANTONIO SALZANO, MOTHER, CARLO ACUTIS: It's a message of hope, because Carlos say, yes, you have to use for the good. This is the way -- the body -- why Pope Francis called Carlo, Influencer of God.
POPE FRANCIS: (FOREIGN LANGUAGE) Carlo Acutis.
LAMB (voice-over): Acutis' canonization comes as the Church is still reeling from the damage done by the scandals of clerical sexual abuse of children. But also when research shows a rise in interest in Catholicism among Gen Z, many of whom are expected in Rome to witness this video-gaming teenager being declared a saint.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, ANDERSON COOPER 360: That was CNN's Christopher Lamb.
The news continues. "THE SOURCE" starts now.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST, THE SOURCE WITH KAITLAN COLLINS: Tonight, Trump and his team playing the blame game, after a new report shows flashing red lights for the jobs market and the U.S. economy.
I'm Jim Sciutto, in for Kaitlan Collins. And this is THE SOURCE.
Good evening from Washington, where it was just a month ago that the nation's jobs report landed with a thud, showing a steep decline in hiring.
And President Trump, unhappy with those numbers, responded, you'll recall, by declaring them, rigged, and then firing the person in charge of doing the counting. He then moved to install a loyalist to count the numbers instead.
But today's numbers, it turns out, were even worse. Just 22,000 jobs added in August, a potentially ominous sign about what's to come for the U.S. economy. The unemployment rate ticked up slightly. But don't look at the President for blame. He says it's not his fault. It's not the trade war. Instead, he's pointing the finger at a frequent target of his wrath. Fed Chair, Jerome Powell.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Mr. President, we learned this morning that you lost 78,000 manufacturing jobs this year. How do you explain that?
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, one thing we have is, you know, we have the interest rates are too high. That was, you know, matter of the Fed. But the other thing is, so many different -- so many different elements aren't included yet.
And one of the things we've learned, and we learned that the hard way, watching over the last few months, are the corrections that people have been making. They'll say, You're losing jobs, and then they'll say, By the way, we have a correction. A month later, you know, a 100,000 jobs are missing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: In fact, there were revisions today in the jobs numbers from previous months. That's not unusual. But what the President did not mention there is that the numbers for June were actually revised down. A loss of 13,000 jobs. That's the first time that has happened, negative growth, since the end of Trump's first term, at the height of the pandemic.
The President's top economic adviser, put on the spot in the Oval Office, tap-danced his way around the bad news.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEVIN HASSETT, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ECONOMIC COUNCIL: All the indicators are saying that things are really strong. And what we've also seen is that Goldman Sachs put out a study yesterday, that said that the August number tends to be really messed up because of seasonal adjustment things, and they tend to be revised way up. And so, I think if they were revised up, which has happened on average over the last 15 years, by about 60,000, then everything else would make sense.
But right now, we're puzzled about the BLS numbers, and looking forward for new leadership there to make it, so that the numbers are more reliable.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: The top economic adviser, at the White House, says he's downright puzzled by the numbers, but promising that Trump's new leadership, his words, will ensure the numbers are more reliable.
And the President himself was asked last night, while at a dinner with the nation's tech titans, about whether he would believe the data in today's report. Here's how he responded.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I don't know. They come out tomorrow. But the real numbers that I'm talking about are going to be whatever it is, but will be in a year from now, when these monstrous, huge, beautiful places, they're palaces of genius, and when they start opening up, you're seeing -- I think you'll see job numbers that are going to be absolutely incredible.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: So apparently, the real numbers won't be coming out until next year, the President says. I mean, he could be right, things could be booming. But he's already had command of the economy for nearly eight months, and the consequences are very real, right now, for people facing the prospect of being out of work or already losing their jobs.
We begin tonight with some of our inside sources.
Reuters' White House correspondent, Jeff Mason.
AP White House reporter, Seung Min Kim.
And an economic adviser to Donald Trump's 2016 campaign, Arthur Laffer.
Good to have all of you here tonight. Thanks so much for joining.
Art, if I could begin with you. Because the fact is this -- these job numbers are not isolated. We've seen some bad jobs reports prior. We've also seen some signs of economic weakness, manufacturing job losses.
[21:05:00]
How much of this is a direct result of the President's two big economic policies, high tariffs, as well as mass deportations?
ART LAFFER, ECONOMIC ADVISER TO TRUMP'S 2016 CAMPAIGN, FORMER REAGAN ECONOMIC ADVISER, FOUNDER AND CHAIRMAN, LAFFER ASSOCIATES: I don't think that's the tariffs, for sure. I do think the deportations have had an enormous effect. I mean, we've got -- the immigration was coming in very rapidly. Now it's zero, with a lot of deportations, and that will affect these numbers.
If you look at these numbers, Jim -- and thank you, by the way, for having me on the show. I love being on it. If you look at the Household Survey, you find one set of numbers. If you look at the Establishment Survey, you find another. For example, the Household Survey -- the Establishment Surveys has 288,000 increase this month, which is way above the norm. This one, which is 22,000 is way below the norm.
So, you do have conflicting numbers in there, and Kevin Hassett's right about the seasonal adjustments. But the last four months have been soft. And that happens from time to time, and I wouldn't take them all that seriously yet. They're not disastrous by any means.
SCIUTTO: OK.
Jeff, the President, he's made buying stuff more expensive. I mean, tariffs do have an impact. We're beginning to see more of that. He's deported a lot of workers and that--
JEFF MASON, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, REUTERS: Yes.
SCIUTTO: --for a lot of industries that depend on workers, immigrants. This was him, however, in Oval Office today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The tariffs are bringing countries in. I mean, it's so vital to our countries -- and it's just vital for the country, vital. Absolutely. We're at a level that we've never thought we'd be at, and it's because of the tariffs.
We're taking thousands and thousands of criminals out every month, out of our country, some of them murderers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: So, there's clearly a Dear Leader phenomenon in the White House today, where everyone has to confirm the President is always right about everything, and any negative indicator must be wrong in some way.
But does anybody in the White House that you speak with, do they make or see a connection between the President's economic moves, even perhaps a short-term one, short-term pain for long-term gain, and what we're seeing in the economy right now?
MASON: Oh, I think you'd be hard-pressed to find somebody at the White House, who would say that the tariffs are not having an amazing impact on the country, in the way that the President just did.
But unlike Art's comments, and I enjoyed hearing his analysis of it, the economists who we quoted in Reuters' stories today about this, cited three things. The two things that you've already mentioned, the tariffs and immigration, and also the mass sort of firings in the public sector--
SCIUTTO: Yes.
MASON: --that the President has presided over, during the first few months of his second term with DOGE. So, all of those things, of course, are going to affect the jobs numbers, and then they're going to lead to this unemployment tick going up a little -- or ticking up a little bit.
SCIUTTO: And let's be frank, they're not alone. This network, my show, others, my colleagues, we speak to small and big businessowners all the time, who talk about the direct--
MASON: Right.
SCIUTTO: --quite direct impact on their business, and the difficulty of planning going forward, given--
SEUNG MIN KIM, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, ASSOCIATED PRESS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Exactly.
SCIUTTO: --uncertainty about where the tariffs will be tomorrow.
Seung Min, as you know, watching this closely, the administration can't quite decide who to blame for this.
MIN KIM: Right.
SCIUTTO: They weren't on the same page today. Have a listen to the various explanations they offered.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOWARD LUTNICK, COMMERCE SECRETARY: 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, and that's got to end.
HASSETT: This jobs number was certainly a little bit of a disappointment right now. But one of the things, there was a Goldman Sachs study that came out yesterday that showed that, because the BLS hasn't really done a good job on its seasonal adjustment in August, that they tend to revise this number up by almost 70,000 jobs, would give you the revised number a month later.
LORI CHAVEZ-DEREMER, SECRETARY OF LABOR: Jerome Powell should be embarrassed by this report, because he has not done his job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: Lots of blame to go around.
It's interesting when they mentioned Goldman Sachs, because just a few days ago, the President attacked Goldman Sachs when they had a report out showing negative economic consequences. I mean, there's obvious cherry-picking going on here.
MIN KIM: Right.
SCIUTTO: But is there -- was the messaging strategy deliberately, today, to blame everybody else? Are they zeroing in on Jerome Powell, as the sort of cause of all of this?
MIN KIM: Well, I think the President consistently himself zeroes in on Jerome Powell, and his role in keeping the interest rates where they is. And now, the Fed chairman has telegraphed that, perhaps in the next meeting, that that benchmark rate could be cut.
But for Trump, whenever you -- for the President, whenever you ask him a critical question about the economy, it almost always does go back to the Fed, which is why -- which is in part, why you've seen such an aggressive effort, from the administration, on basically what the President says, reshaping the Fed board in his image.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
MIN KIM: He kind of came out right and said it, saying that soon he will have a Fed majority -- he will have a majority on the Fed board. I can't recall a president that's kind of talked about the Fed in those terms, almost like a, judicial court, if you will.
[21:10:00]
But we have several -- you know, we have -- we have a few nominees. We have, obviously, that legal fight over Lisa Cook's seat. You have the constant -- even though the President's kind of backed off it, the constant threat that's kind of looming over Jerome Powell's head about his job. And so, that's why, for the President, the Fed has been a really consistent target, throughout his tenure.
SCIUTTO: Listen, every president would love the Fed to cut interest rates when the economy is having trouble, because it makes it easier for them, right? I mean, it takes it -- takes the heat off them.
But Art, as you know, inflation is still not at the Fed's typical target here. And by the way, it was inflation concerns that might very well have helped get this president elected. And also, the markets do not seem to like it when the independence of the Fed is challenged. I mean, he wants lower interest rates. Is that actually going to solve all his problems?
LAFFER: No, I don't think it's going to solve all these problems. And by the way, the Fed has been the target for presidents.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
LAFFER: I was the chief economist back as George Shultz's righthand person in 1970, in the White House with Nixon. And I remember John Ehrlichman taking me over, so that he could yell at Arthur Burns, and tell him what to do and all that. It was Arthur Burns that then came back and did wage and price control. This battle between the administration and the Fed has been ongoing for a long, long, long time.
Now, do I think the Fed should be independent? No, I don't. I really don't think so. I mean, the President is blamed for inflation, for interest rates, what have you. And if he is blamed for it, if he's held responsible for it? He should have authority over it. I've always believed--
SCIUTTO: You don't want the Fed to be making--
LAFFER: --that on both sides of Republican--
SCIUTTO: --economics decisions based on hard numbers and the overall health of the economy? You prefer to follow political cycles? LAFFER: I would love them to do it on hard numbers, Jim. Of course I would. But you know, you have different ideologies there, different views of how the Fed should operate.
And as long as the President is going to be blamed for the inflation and high interest rates, he should have authority over. It's like, would you like to have an independent Defense Department, or independent Department of State, or HHS? No, of course not. This should -- this is part of the responsibility of the administration.
And these people, whatever party it is, they're not held responsible for their actions, and I think they should be no longer independent.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
LAFFER: But that's just me.
SCIUTTO: Historically, it was by design--
LAFFER: But they've always blamed the Fed for a long time.
SCIUTTO: Jeff, the polling numbers--
LAFFER: Sorry.
SCIUTTO: --on the economy are not going in a good direction, for this President, his ratings down into the 30s, worse than even Biden at some of the -- in the last year of his administration. Any worry in the White House about those kinds of numbers?
MASON: I think they're dismissing any kinds of numbers like that. He's very confident. He looks at the stock market, he sees that as an indicator, and the stock market is doing very well.
I would like to just add something, though, to the comments that Art just made. It is not apples for apples to say an independent central bank versus an independent State Department or a Defense Department. Those are Cabinet members of the--
SCIUTTO: Right.
MASON: --and agencies of an administration. The Fed is a -- is the central bank.
SCIUTTO: It was designed to be so.
MASON: Yes.
SCIUTTO: Folks, thanks so much. Hope you have a great weekend.
LAFFER: Thank you.
SCIUTTO: More breaking news tonight, involving the President and the New York City Mayor's race. President Trump today denied that he offered New York Mayor Eric Adams an ambassadorship. Here's why that matters. Sources have told CNN, the top aides in the administration approached Mayor Adams about the possibility of making him Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, in exchange for ending his reelection bid.
Trump made it clear, in the Oval Office, that he believes former New York Governor, Andrew Cuomo, has a better chance of winning, against the frontrunner, Zohran Mamdani.
Mayor Adams went before cameras, this afternoon, to say this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR ERIC ADAMS (D-NYC, NY): Andrew Cuomo is a snake and a liar. I am in this race, and I'm the only one that can beat Mamdani.
This polo shirt that I'm wearing that says Eric Adams, Mayor of the City of New York, I'm going to wear that for another four years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: We'll see. Polling number's not quite there yet.
The Anchor of "Newsnight," CNN's Abby Phillip just spoke with the aforementioned frontrunner, Zohran Mamdani.
Abby, I wonder how he's feeling. What did he have to say?
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN HOST, CNN NEWSNIGHT WITH ABBY PHILLIP: Well, Jim, look, he's feeling pretty confident. And he's actually taken Trump on, pretty directly, as a result of Trump kind of involving himself in this mayoral race.
I asked him why he thought Eric Adams decided to stay ultimately, and what the impact of Donald Trump's involvement has been for him. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIP: Eric Adams is staying in the race. He announced that he is not going to take some other position he was reportedly being offered by Trump. Why do you think he's staying?
ZOHRAN MAMDANI, (D) NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL CANDIDATE: You know, I cannot speak to Eric Adams' motivations or his interests.
[21:15:00]
I can just tell you that it's been a lot of noise these last few weeks, and we've seen that this is the specialty of Donald Trump and his puppets. A lot of noise, few results, and all of it distracts from the fact that one in four New Yorkers are living in poverty, in this city. And so often, their concerns, their welfare, has been secondary to the interests of these so-called leaders in trying to figure out their own futures.
PHILLIP: Do you think Trump's involvement in this race, at this point, is helping you?
MAMDANI: I think it's showcasing what's at stake, which is the fact that we have a vision to actually help New Yorkers afford their city, and Donald Trump has a vision to try and rip apart the very fabric of the city. He has passed legislation that will throw millions of New Yorkers off of their health care, ran a campaign on cheaper groceries, is now cutting SNAP for hungry New Yorkers across the five boroughs.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PHILLIP: So Jim, as you can see there, he is really leaning into this conflict with Donald Trump.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
PHILLIP: I mean, he's running for New York City Mayor, but he's more than happy to have a conversation about the President of the United States.
And the other thing I asked him about was what he's expecting if he is elected, that Trump will do. Trump's threatened to send the National Guard into cities, like New York, and Baltimore, and Chicago. And he said he'll take a page from Gavin Newsom, the Governor of California, and file suit to stop it. So look, the fight against Trump is part of this campaign, there's no question about it.
SCIUTTO: Right.
PHILLIP: And Mamdani is leaning into it.
SCIUTTO: It's interesting, both Trump and Mamdani ran and -- are running on an affordability platform, right?
PHILLIP: That's true.
SCIUTTO: I mean, they are, from different angles, but that's what they share.
PHILLIP: And -- and actually Mamdani talked about that.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
PHILLIP: He talked about that in the interview, so. And we talked about those similarities, not just in what they're running on, but in their appeal to voters, which--
SCIUTTO: Yes.
PHILLIP: --a lot of people include -- in both of their parties, make those comparisons. So, that's part of our conversation as well, Jim.
SCIUTTO: Well, Abby, thanks so much. The full interview airs at the top of the hour on "NEWSNIGHT WITH ABBY PHILLIP." Good to have you on tonight.
Coming up next, more breaking news. President Trump now weighing military strikes, targeting drug cartels inside Venezuela, as the U.S. deploys fighter jets, some of its most advanced jets, to Puerto Rico, all part of its broader effort, targeting drug cartels. Reaction from my source, a congressional source tonight.
[21:20:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCIUTTO: Tonight, sources tell CNN that the President of the United States is weighing strikes on cartels, inside Venezuela. This, in addition to promising to take out more drug vessels at sea.
In the Oval Office, he told the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff that the U.S. military can respond however they want to aggression from Maduro's military.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I would say, General, if they do that, you have a choice of doing anything you want. OK? If they fly in a dangerous position, I would say that you can -- you or your captains can make the decision as to what they want to do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: It's relevant because just yesterday, two Venezuelan military aircraft flew near a U.S. naval vessel in international waters. The DOD called the move, quote, Highly provocative.
And today, we're learning the Trump administration is moving more military assets into the Caribbean, 10 F-35 fighter jets, very advanced, sent to Puerto Rico. The move will bolster the U.S. military operation in the region already large.
All this, after a deadly U.S. military strike on, and you see it here, an alleged drug boat tied to the Tren de Aragua cartel. The Defense Department abruptly canceled classified briefings on that strike that were to set to take place today, with several key House and Senate committees.
I'm joined now by a Democrat who sits on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Pennsylvania congresswoman, Madeleine Dean.
Congresswoman, thanks so much for taking time tonight.
REP. MADELEINE DEAN (D-PA): Good evening, Jim. Good to be with you.
SCIUTTO: So, in your view, is a strike on this vessel legal? And if so, would a strike inside Venezuelan territory be legal against drug cartels?
DEAN: Jim, let me start by just setting the table that what you just showed, and what we are covering tonight, is not normal. A President responding to that set of questions in the Oval Office, or wherever that meeting happened to take place today, that is not normal. Saying, Generals, or maybe your captains-- SCIUTTO: Yes.
DEAN: --you can do what you want, if you find that action provocative. It's just not normal, and we must not get accustomed to this, and act as though it is.
My concern is our national security. And I know you're an expert in this area. I'm concerned for our national security. I am concerned for the security, the safety of our military men and women, and this buildup, the flotilla going into the Caribbean, the strike on the Venezuelan boat, that Congress, that we know nothing about.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
DEAN: We had no advance notice. There was no evidence provided. This is not normal. It is not constitutional. It is a President, chaotically claiming power--
SCIUTTO: Yes.
DEAN: --eager to strike, to go to war, eager to rename the Department of Defense, the Department of War. And it's not as though we're in the best hands with the Secretary of Defense, Mr. Hegseth.
So, I just want to start by saying this is not normal. And I want to also have some empathy for you, journalists.
SCIUTTO: Well--
DEAN: What we're talking about tonight, I -- I spent my day in the district talking to people who are serving the hungry, and are trying to come up with extra resources for hungry people in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. 85,000 people a night struggle with hunger here, in this relatively affluent place. I come home, and this is what we're covering?
SCIUTTO: Yes.
[21:25:00]
DEAN: It's stunning. It is a chaotic, distracting administration--
SCIUTTO: Well--
DEAN: --and I fear, a deadly one.
SCIUTTO: To your point, you're absolutely right that typically, when military action takes place abroad, there is an obligation from the White House to keep relevant committees informed.
When I heard the President give that leeway to military commanders, it struck me that the danger of escalation is real, right? Because I imagine you shoot down aircraft. Obviously, if they are threatening U.S. ships, that's a judgment that presidents have often given commanders, the leeway to do so. But there's a risk of escalation, because I imagine Venezuela would look at that as an act of war. DEAN: Yes.
SCIUTTO: Are you concerned that, with all this military hardware off the coast there, that that's where this could be headed?
DEAN: Of course, that is the great risk. And to go back to the original strike, just this week, on that Venezuelan ship, we had no notice. Allegedly, a 11 people were killed. Allegedly, it was connected to drug cartels.
And Jim, you know me, I have no sympathy for drug cartels. I am with the President, when he wants to interdict drugs.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
DEAN: But with no evidence and then no transparency, after the fact, and then the canceled classified briefing for Senate leaders that took place today.
SCIUTTO: Yes. Yes.
DEAN: Everything that this administration does, they do in the dark, and that is very, very dangerous.
To your point, it will be extraordinarily provocative if somehow a Venezuelan plane is shot down, it will be extraordinarily provocative. And Congress has the power, and the President cares nothing about the Constitution, but -- or doesn't seem to understand it, frankly. Congress has the power--
SCIUTTO: Right.
DEAN: --to declare that kind of a military action.
SCIUTTO: Traditionally, yes.
DEAN: Not the President.
SCIUTTO: Now, to your point, you've been very public about your struggle to save your own son from drug addiction.
The argument that the administration is making, and I want to play a brief sound from the Deputy Chief of Staff, Stephen Miller, is that these are terrorists in effect, and you hear this term, narco- terrorists getting used quite regularly now.
Have a listen to Stephen Miller, because I want to get your reaction on the other side.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN MILLER, DEPUTY WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: We used our military to engage in action against terrorists in the Middle East and in Africa, while leaving unharmed the terrorists in our own hemisphere who are responsible for so much more American deaths, so many more American deaths, who have spilled so much blood across the Western Hemisphere.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: The Trump administration is categorizing these cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. Do you believe he has that authority? And do you believe there is cause to do so?
DEAN: Well, Stephen Miller was elected representative of nothing, and for him to declare that this is a terrorist group. There are reasons and evidence to declare a terrorist group.
Thank you for mentioning my son, Harry--
SCIUTTO: Yes.
DEAN: --because my family is not alone in tackling the struggle of addiction. It is a disease.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
DEAN: And I'm happy to report, and you know this, my son is thriving, and so many others, millions of others, in America, are in recovery.
But for Stephen Miller, as I said, elected expert of nothing, to come out of the shadows and say, We've declared them terrorists? Show us the evidence.
Jim, you know this probably much better than I, even though I am on Foreign Affairs, there are protocols to go through this.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
DEAN: And what would normally happen is we have a talented Coast Guard who would interdict first--
SCIUTTO: Yes.
DEAN: --and find out what's going on there. What evidence did we lose, for example, as a result of taking that boat, that ship, that vessel, down with whatever evidence was on there. Because if we had interdicted and done this professionally, the way our military knows how to do it, we probably would have gotten greater evidence. But the fact that the administration and Stephen Miller, in the shadows, doesn't want to share that information with Congress is very suspicious.
And can I mention something else?
SCIUTTO: Sure.
DEAN: Is it a distraction? Is a distraction from the lousy economic numbers? Is it a distraction from what we just were facing on the Hill, the courageous survivors of the Epstein scandals? Is it a distraction, to go after this military buildup, and, of course, as is so typical of this administration, so unconstitutional of this administration, offer zero transparency. SCIUTTO: Yes. Well, Congresswoman Dean, it's good to have you on, and the story of your son, and your struggle along with him, is inspiring. We're glad that he came out well on the other side. Thanks so much for joining.
DEAN: Thank you. The same for so many other families, please.
SCIUTTO: No question.
[21:30:00]
Coming up. One of the largest raids yet in Trump's ongoing immigration crackdown, hundreds taken into custody at a Hyundai mega plant in Georgia. Now South Korea speaking out about the operation. My political sources join me next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:35:00]
SCIUTTO: A small Georgia community, is now the epicenter of President Trump's escalating crackdown on undocumented immigrants. On Thursday, hundreds of federal officers raided a Hyundai plant, in the largest immigration sweep we have seen in President Trump's second term. 475 people taken into custody, most of them Korean nationals.
But while Hyundai, a South Korean company, says it does not believe that any of those detained were its direct employees. The South Korean Foreign Ministry quickly expressed concern, stating, quote, The economic activities of our companies investing in the U.S. and the interests of our citizens must not be unduly violated during the course of U.S. law enforcement.
Violated.
President Trump reacted to the raid in the Oval Office tonight.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REPORTER: Are you concerned at all about, you know, your immigration agenda potentially clashing with these economic goals?
TRUMP: Well, we want to get along with other countries, and we want to have a great, stable workforce. And we had, as I understand it, a lot of illegal aliens, some not the best of people, but we had a lot of illegal aliens working there. So, you know, look, they're doing their job. That's what they have to do. These are people that came through with Biden. They came through, illegally, they came into our country. So we have to do our job.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: My political sources are here.
Democratic strategist, Maria Cardona.
And Republican strategist, Shermichael Singleton.
Good to have you both.
MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Hey, Jim.
SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Yes, thanks to be here.
SCIUTTO: So Hyundai plant, right? I mean, Trump has deliberately touted big investments from companies--
SINGLETON: Yes.
SCIUTTO: --such as Hyundai in the state. And here's one. It's under construction. And now, 475 people get taken up. Are we seeing a conflict of two competing interests here? He wants big investments by foreign partners--
SINGLETON: Yes, sure.
SCIUTTO: --but he's willing to lock up 500 employees?
SINGLETON: Yes, but keep in mind, a part of attracting these big multinational corporations into the United States, they get significant subsidies on the back of American taxpayers. And a part of the expectation is, Yes, we want you to bring your companies and your plants to the United States, but we would also like you to prioritize hiring American workers first.
And so, I don't know the specifics in terms of what the legal status is of some of those workers. But if Hyundai indeed violated American laws, and I think we need to have a conversation with Hyundai about, Hey, we got to change some things.
I remember when President Obama ran the first time around, he was very, very, very draconian in some ways, on the importance of E-Verify for big companies.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
SINGLETON: And he talked a lot on the campaign trail about how big companies, it's not the smaller guys--
SCIUTTO: Right.
SINGLETON: --it's the big guys that really violate immigration laws. And so, if we're going to put a focus on anybody, it should be the guys that's making billions and billions of dollars.
SCIUTTO: Makes sense. But what we have heard this President be flexible on farm workers, on hospitality workers, when he hears it undoubtedly, from the owners--
SINGLETON: Sure.
SCIUTTO: --of those farms, or those hospitality companies. So, I mean, he will listen--
CARDONA: Well--
SCIUTTO: --and he will bend the rules, as you might say.
CARDONA: Flexible.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
CARDONA: He hasn't really done anything for farm workers or hospitality workers. And in fact, what you're seeing across the board is the cruelty and the terror that now exists in immigrant communities--
SCIUTTO: Yes.
CARDONA: --because of what's going on.
Here in D.C., I see it all the time. As you know, Jim, I am an immigrant. I work in the Latino community. I work in the immigrant community. I get calls every single day--
SCIUTTO: Yes.
CARDONA: --every hour of every day, from a family who says, They just took my husband. They just took my uncle.
This person was not a criminal. In fact, Jim, 93 percent of the immigrants that have been detained, that have been snatched off the streets, have no criminal record whatsoever.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
CARDONA: So, what this President and this administration is doing is not to keep us safe. It is not to focus on the criminal, violent undocumented immigrants. It is to induce terror into these immigrant communities.
And in fact, what it's doing, it is having a backlash. Look at the President's numbers on immigration. He is completely underwater on one of the issues that he won on. His overall approval rating, 38 percent. This is going to be, I think, a backlash, not just for the President, because he's not on the ballot in two years, in 2026, but for Republicans, because this is not what the majority of Americans voted for.
SCIUTTO: I'm going to tell a story about this in just a couple of minutes.
What you hear consistently, Shermichael, is that the targets that Trump has set for ICE are so ambitious that it's really impossible for them, really, to meet those targets.
SINGLETON: Numerically speaking.
SCIUTTO: Numerically speaking. CARDONA: Yes.
SCIUTTO: They want like, 3,000 arrests a day. I think they're arresting between 1,000 and 2,000 based on CNN analysis of the data here.
But to try to boost those numbers, they go for easy targets, right? They're not, I mean--
CARDONA: Yes.
SCIUTTO: --to Maria's point, it's not like they're -- Trump says they're all murderers.
They're not.
CARDONA: They are not.
SCIUTTO: We know that. We know that.
CARDONA: Absolutely they are not.
SCIUTTO: They're people who are looking for jobs outside of Walmart, right?
CARDONA: The majority are not.
SINGLETON: I mean, so I'm looking at this from two different perspectives.
[21:40:00]
The American people, for the most part, say, Look, we want a tougher immigration process, but we also want immigration to be reformed. We want efficiencies.
And people are also saying, if you look at the same polling, Yes, we don't want to arrest people who may be doing the right thing. Maybe they did come illegally. There should be a process to grant them citizenship.
CARDONA: That's right.
SINGLETON: And I think we got to figure out that process. Maybe, if you've been here a set number of years, maybe there's an associated fine based on the amount of time, you get X number of years--
SCIUTTO: You mean comprehensive immigration reform?
CARDONA: That--
SINGLETON: Well, look, I'm being--
CARDONA: Guess what?
SINGLETON: --I'm being wise about this. CARDONA: I have the billing (ph) that's perfect to show you, so that can happen.
(CROSSTALK)
SINGLETON: So, I think -- I think there is a process to doing this the right way, and I think the President would get a lot of support, and I think ultimately he's probably going to want to push Republicans in some way to that point.
SCIUTTO: Do you think so?
SINGLETON: I think so. Because--
SCIUTTO: Because that would be hard for--
CARDONA: Yes.
SINGLETON: No, no, no, it would be hard work.
SCIUTTO: Right.
SINGLETON: But I think at some point it would be a win for the President if he can successfully do something that no other president has been able to do, in modern times.
SCIUTTO: Maria, do you see any circumstances?
CARDONA: No.
SCIUTTO: Because it would have to be bipartisan.
CARDONA: Yes.
SCIUTTO: It would have to be.
CARDONA: Absolutely.
SCIUTTO: Do you see any circumstances--
CARDONA: No.
SCIUTTO: --where there's a negotiation?
CARDONA: And I -- and can I--
SINGLETON: So Democrats wouldn't work with?
CARDONA: No, no, no, no, not--
SINGLETON: OK.
CARDONA: Not Democrats. Democrats are not the problem. You know this.
SINGLETON: So, you're going to say, we're the problem?
CARDONA: Stephen Miller. Stephen Miller is the problem.
SINGLETON: Oh, OK. OK. Well, I wasn't expecting that one.
CARDONA: And look, Stephen Miller is the problem.
And in fact, I agree with you. I said this before. This president could be transformational on immigration.
SINGLETON: Yes, he can. He can.
CARDONA: He could have been transformational on immigration in the--
SCIUTTO: Yes.
CARDONA: --in his first term. But then who gets in his ear? Somebody like Stephen Miller.
And when you have somebody like Stephen Miller, who is focused on, again, just the cruelty of this, giving IRS the ability to give over to ICE, tax records, so they can go find them? That, again, is not, to your point, not what Americans voted for. Americans want fairness. Americans want to see an immigration system that actually works. This is not it.
SCIUTTO: Shermichael. Maria. Thanks so much to both of you.
SINGLETON: Thank you.
CARDONA: Thank you.
SCIUTTO: Thank you. Have a good weekend.
SINGLETON: You too.
CARDONA: You too.
SCIUTTO: So, what does it look and feel like to be the target of one of these raids? The circumstances follow a pattern. Armed agents, often wearing masks and bearing no insignia, and presenting no IDs, approach people, sometimes in public, demanding proof of legal residency. If the target fails to do so, they are taken away, often by force.
This past weekend, someone I happen to know experienced the same. We won't to identify him for his safety. But we can say, he was parked outside the house of a client for a small business, when officers approached him from behind and demanded his documents.
He tells me, the officers claimed this was a traffic stop, saying his van's blinkers were out, which he insists were not. And he says, they did not ask for his vehicle registration or his insurance card. The officers did not identify themselves, or their agency.
Their vehicle, despite the blinking lights, you see there, was not marked. And as you can see on the video, one officer pulled up a mask when he saw that he was being recorded. The officers took his license, checked it, and then let him go. To this day, he still does not know who they were, or why they targeted him. We should note, he is Latino, and a legal U.S. resident.
We first reached out to ICE, yesterday, on the incident and the videos, but are still awaiting a comment or response.
CNN estimates that ICE has made between 1,000 and 2,000 arrests a day, short of the White House goal of 3,000 a day.
Still ahead. A new report on how HHS Secretary, RFK Jr., plans to link autism to a common pain reliever during pregnancy. We're going to discuss with my medical source, next.
[21:45:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCIUTTO: New tonight. An upcoming report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is expected to link the development of autism in children to Tylenol. That's according to The Wall Street Journal.
The Department's chief, Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has previously promoted debunked theories, linking vaccines to autism.
And he told CNN's Kaitlan Collins back in May that he could have answers on what causes autism, actually, by this month.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, CNN HOST, THE SOURCE WITH KAITLAN COLLINS: You said, By September, we will know what has caused the autism epidemic, and we'll be able to eliminate those exposures.
ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., HHS SECRETARY: Well, we'll have some of the information to get -- the most solid information, it will probably take us another six months.
COLLINS: OK. So, parents should not expect to know what causes autism by September anymore?
KENNEDY JR.: Well, we'll see. We're going to -- as I said, we're going to replicate some of the studies that have already been done that look like sound studies, and we'll know a lot from those, and then we'll know a lot more afterwards.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: My source tonight is Dr. Chris Pernell. She's a public health and preventative medicine physician, and Director of the NAACP Center for Health Equity.
Thanks so much for joining. DR. CHRIS PERNELL, PUBLIC HEALTH AND PREVENTIVE MEDICINE PHYSICIAN, FELLOW, AMERICAN COLLEGE OF PREVENTIVE MEDICINE, DIRECTOR, NAACP CENTER FOR HEALTH EQUITY: Glad to be here, Jim.
SCIUTTO: So, this report is expected to claim that Tylenol, when taken during pregnancy, along with low levels of folate, which is important for neurological development, could be potential causes for autism.
I should point out, for our viewers, that autism links to pain relievers have been studied before, and experts have found there is no link.
What have you seen in the science?
PERNELL: Jim, let me double down on this, and help Americans to understand how the research process unfolds.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
PERNELL: First and foremost, RFK is polluting healthcare and public health, elevating already-debunked theories such as this.
[21:50:00]
There were some observational studies that were small in nature, that suggested an association between acetaminophen or Tylenol, and perhaps the development of autism spectrum disorder.
But in more recent times, exactly a year ago, there was a large, robust study out of Sweden that looked at over 2 million children, sibling-controlled, and said there was no definitive causal link between acetaminophen and autism.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
PERNELL: Meaning, anything in the past research that people were looking at was most likely due to other confounding factors. Whether that's genetics, whether that's environment, or whether that's whatever the root cause of what led the pregnant person to take the Tylenol in the first place.
SCIUTTO: To your point, I mean, it was only yesterday, Kennedy reserviced another controversy that young black kids, specifically boys, who get the MMR vaccine, measles, mumps, rubella, were at a higher risk of autism. Have a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KENNEDY JR.: In 2002, CDC did an internal study of Atlanta -- Fulton County, Georgia children, and looked at children who got the MMR vaccine on time, and compared those to kids who got them later.
The data from that study showed that black boys who got the vaccine on time had a 260 percent greater chance of getting an autism diagnosis than children who waited.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: The thing is, that's been disproven too, as you know. But this is the top health official in the country. What is happening here, and what's the impact of this, as he resurfaces these things that have already been debunked?
PERNELL: He's a runaway train. And as I said earlier, he is polluting health care and public health. He's causing mass confusion.
And actually, that's medical racism, to continue to purport things about a particular group, especially black or African Americans, who are historically marginalized in the United States, that could then impair the uptake of that vaccine. That's deadly, that's dangerous.
SCIUTTO: Yes.
PERNELL: We're already experiencing the largest measles outbreak in the United States in 30 years. RFK needs to be fired or resigned. And if that doesn't happen, there needs to be pressure on Congress to continue to do their due justice and diligence, and demand accountability around the things that he is doing.
We can only rely on those proven medical associations, and rely on your personal physician, or primary provider, to give you good medical information.
SCIUTTO: Dr. Chris Pernell, well-said. Thanks so much for joining tonight.
PERNELL: Thank you.
SCIUTTO: Coming up next. A behind-the-scenes look at another consequential week at the White House.
[21:55:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCIUTTO: Before we go tonight. Another busy week on THE SOURCE at the White House. Here's a behind-the-scenes look.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ON SCREEN TEXT: September 2.
REPORTER: How did you find out over the weekend that you were dead?
TRUMP: I've been very active, actually, over the weekend. I didn't hear that one. That's pretty serious stuff.
COLLINS: According to a CNN review of the President's daily schedule, this was actually the longest stretch that he has gone without speaking to reporters, on camera, since he took office again, back in January.
We're talking about the pomp and the circumstance around this elaborate parade. But the real question, here in Washington, is whether or not there are deeper concerns. The President is very much trying to get that war in Ukraine brought to an end, one that is being assisted, in part, by several of the leaders that you're seeing here.
ON SCREEN TEXT: September 3.
REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): We are demanding today that all of the files be released.
ANOUSKA DE GEORGIOU, EPSTEIN SURVIVOR: President Trump, you have so much influence and power. Please use that influence and power to help us.
COLLINS: Will you take a few questions from us?
One of the most conservative federal appeals courts has just said the President cannot use the Alien Enemies Act to quickly deport Venezuela migrants. What's the administration's reaction to that?
TOM HOMAN, WHITE HOUSE BORDER CZAR: They got it wrong. We'll win on appeal.
COLLINS: That flag behind me that you see on the Blair House signifies that a world leader is here at the White House. This time, it's the Polish president who President Trump was greeting inside the Oval Office today.
Another meeting happening on the other side of the world between other world leaders is what had President Trump's attention. The military parade that President Xi Jinping of China was hosting last night, having North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, and Russian President Vladimir Putin, by his side. He accused those three leaders of conspiring against the United States.
ON SCREEN TEXT: September 4.
KENNEDY JR.: We are the sickest country in the world. That's why we have to fire people at the CDC. They did not do their job.
COLLINS: Have you heard from your former colleagues today, who were watching the incredibly combative hearing, what they have to say about it?
[22:00:00]
DR. DEMETRE DASKALAKIS, FORMER DIR., NATL. CENTER FOR IMMUNIZATION & RESPIRATORY DISEASES AT CDC: We can't believe the state of our country, that the head of the health agency is actually standing before Congress, continually making things up. He did not tell the truth.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SCIUTTO: All that in one week.
Thanks so much for joining us tonight. "CNN NEWSNIGHT WITH ABBY PHILLIP" starts right now.
