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September Jobs Numbers; Obama to Hit Campaign Trail; Trump Joins Kemp for Appearance; Iran's Supreme Leaders Speaks about Israel; Factory Workers Swept Away in Tennessee. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired October 04, 2024 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

DAVID JONES, WALKED 17 MILES AFTER HELENE TO REACH DAUGHTER'S WEDDING: And - and sure enough, I was able to get my right leg out, but the mud sucked my shoe off. And I thought, well, I'm not going to be able to do this without shoes. So, I found a place to set my cellphone down. I dug my shoe out. I was able to get out very slowly and work my way back to the - to the road - roadway. And I found a path where I could actually crawl under a tree trunk and then through the pile and out the other side. I put my shoe back on and off I went. That was probably the worst part.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: I mean that - I would have - that would have stopped lesser men than you.

Real quick, I know that you didn't even tell your daughter - you made it. You walked her down the aisle. You didn't even tell your daughter until the reception, the entire story, so she had no clue until then. What did she say when she found out and how was the wedding?

JONES: The wedding was beautiful. There was no power at the church, so it was candlelight service for her friends and family came together and really pulled off a beautiful ceremony. It was very well done. And then we went to - and the reason I didn't want her to know was, you know, I didn't want to upset my daughter on her wedding day. This is her special day. We don't need to cause any trouble and give her something else to think about.

So, we got to the reception. They did have power there. And a nice - it was a restaurant. They had a nice setup for us. And they had - Daniel and Elizabeth had asked me to say a few words and say that blessing over the food. And I had something prepared, but it - it changed because of the moment. And I have to go back a little bit to, as I was completing sort of like a second half of the walk, after I got through the - the real devastation, I grabbed a reflector, one of those reflectors on a stick, off the side of the road. And I apologize to whoever's reflector I swiped. Reach out and I'll - I'll replace it for you. But I used it because there was a little bit of traffic on the road, the backroad that I was hiking. And I wanted to make sure they saw me.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

JONES: So, I present - I told the story at the reception. And that's when she heard it first.

BOLDUAN: That's amazing.

JONES: And it was a lot of tears, a lot of hugs. And I presented them with the reflector.

BOLDUAN: I mean it's a lot of like - and - and they get the reflector as their wedding gift. I mean, David, it is wonderful to meet you. You have officially set the bar pretty high for many dads, especially your poor son-in-law. I hope he knows what he's gotten into and how high the dad bar has now been set.

It's wonderful to meet you and congratulations to your daughter. Thank you so much.

JONES: You too, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Thank you.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, breaking just moments ago, new jobs numbers shattering expectations and a drop in the unemployment rate, all one month and one day before the election.

This morning, new plans for Barack Obama to hit the campaign trail.

And new allegations against Garth Brooks. We've got brand new reporting on that.

I'm John Berman, with Sara Sidner and Kate Bolduan. It is Friday. And this is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BOLDUAN: The breaking news this morning, a whopper of a jobs report. The September jobs report just released and it blew past expectations. These numbers, the second to last look at the labor market before Election Day. A big factor to discuss here. And with Americans already voting, it all matters.

Julia Chatterley is here with the details.

Tell us what's inside.

JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The technical term for this report I think is hot. We were expecting around 140,000 to 150,000 jobs added in September net. Take a look at that number, 254,000 jobs added. It also resulted in an unemployment rate that fell. We were perhaps looking for that to even rise to 4.3 percent.

Not only that, and I've already had a number of texts from people saying, hang on a second, this is going to be revised. We have to watch and see what happens next month. And that is a very valid point.

But what we did get was revisions to the prior two months.

BOLDUAN: Oh, yes. What did they do? CHATTERLEY: That also lifted us by a furthest 72,000 jobs.

BOLDUAN: Wow.

CHATTERLEY: So, if you look at what we've got now for June, July, August and September, you could kind of argue that we're seeing a bit of an acceleration perhaps in the jobs market.

In terms of the sectors that we're adding jobs for, we've got government jobs added, which was a strong one, around 31,000 jobs. We had construction, 25,000 jobs. That was actually a detractor in the last month. I mentioned that health care, another big gainer up 45,000 jobs as well.

The real whopper here, though, was food.

[09:05:00]

BOLDUAN: Really?

CHATTERLEY: And sort of eating out places.

BOLDUAN: In hospitality.

CHATTERLEY: Yes, hospitality, which I was saying earlier with Sara, perhaps we're all sort of getting a bit excited ahead of the presidential election. Maybe also to do with inflation and prices at least slowing to some degree. People feeling that they can go out there.

Now there's going to be a number of people out there saying, hang on a second, but it feels to me tough. I'm looking for a job in it feels tough. And that's right too. In fact, the data this week that we got showed that the level of hiring, the hiring rate is at the lowest level it's been in 11 years. The quit rate, people willing to give up their job and look for another one at a nine-year low.

So, there's still softness within that, but I can't take away from what is a h-o-t report. And it's great news for the White House and the Harris campaign. Can't escape that.

BOLDUAN: I mean it's - regardless, it's data and it's important for everybody to be seeing it.

CHATTERLEY: It's good data.

BOLDUAN: It's good to see you. Thank you.

CHATTERLEY: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, and just in a bit we're going to hear from the acting labor secretary as well.

All right, former President Barack Obama is now on the campaign trail with Kamala Harris for a highly critical battleground blitz. This big push happening as new data finds more than a million people have already cast pre-election votes with just over a month left to go until Election Day.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is closely watching team Harris as Harris begins her day in Michigan.

Priscilla, what more are you hearing about all this and how this will all work together? PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Look, Harris advisers keenly

aware. We're in the final stretch now to Election Day. So, they will take all the help they can get. And that includes former President Barack Obama, who is one of the most popular figures in the Democratic Party.

So, next week he's going to be in Pittsburgh. This will be his first public campaign appearance since the Democratic National Convention. Now, what this is going to look like over the next 20 plus days is rallies in battleground states recorded as, as well as lending his name to email solicitations for campaign cash. Aides saying that this is a, quote, all hands on deck moment.

Let me also read you a statement from Obama's senior advisor, Eric Schultz. He said, quote, "now that voting has begun, our focus is on persuading and mobilizing voters, especially in states with key races. Many of these races are likely to go down to the wire and nothing should be taken for granted."

So, the former president not only helping here with the presidential race, but also with those down ballot races. And again, this is just one part of a big strategy by the Harris campaign.

I also talked to aides who told me what we saw yesterday in Ripon, Wisconsin, we're going to see more of that. The vice president going to these red rural counties, maybe because she can't win them, but she can lose them by less. And when you have a race that is going to be this close, that might just be enough.

Today, though, she will be in Michigan. She will be in Flint, where she's going to have a rally. So certainly there is a play here to continue to focus on the Democratic areas, mobilize those voters, but also try to get some of those undecideds away from former President Donald Trump.

SIDNER: Yes, and there is also this issue of Latino voters crucial to this gaming (ph), just as independents and everyone else is because it's going to be so close.

What is the Harris campaign doing right now to try to bring in Latino voters?

ALVAREZ: Well, they're certainly launching an aggressive push to shore up those voters. If you look at the polls, the vice president is ahead of former President Donald Trump among this growing electorate. But she still lags behind other Democratic nominees in recent history. And when you look down at the numbers in those polls, you go a little

deeper. She has an advantage with Hispanic women, but she's about evenly split with Hispanic men. And I have talked to multiple sources who say, that's an area that they really need to focus on.

So, they are launching a new ad today. Take a listen to that.

Oh, it doesn't seem like we have the sound, but that ad is going to be focused on the vice president and the fight that she brings, not to lowering costs and housing affordability among other issues. Also part of a $3 million investment into Spanish-language radio. So, all of this to say that clearly big focus on Latino voters in this final stretch.

SIDNER: Yes, every single vote counts in what could be an unprecedently close election.

Priscilla Alvarez, thank you so much for your reporting.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: And today Donald Trump with something of a Republican reunion when he hits the campaign trail. For the first time since 2020, he will stand side-by-side with Georgia's Republican Governor Brian Kemp, as both seem to be ready to move past their long simmering feud.

CNN's Alayna Treene is with us now.

I mean, Alayna, there was a long time when there was no love lost between these men. What do you - what do you make of this moment?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: I mean, its politics, Kate. It's pretty stunning politics today. I mean as someone who has covered what had happened between these two men very closely, particularly following, of course, the 2020 election when - I mean Donald Trump had incredibly sharp words for Brian Kemp after the 2020 election when Kemp refused to overturn the results in his state.

[09:10:11]

I mean it got very bitter between these two men. We have seen Donald Trump demean Brian Kemp over the last four years. But that has changed in recent months. I mean even as recently, I will say, as August, Donald Trump was saying that Brian Kemp, of course, Georgia's Republican governor, was not a true Republican, that he was a bad governor, criticized his wife. I mean, again, very sharp language toward him.

However, Donald Trump recognizes, as does his campaign, that Brian Kemp is an incredibly popular Republican governor. A lot of voters in the state are big fans of his. And also, Georgia is, of course, so crucial to them finding that 270 electoral votes come November. So, that's part of this.

But the two are going to be, as you said, appearing for the first time since 2020 in Evans, Georgia. They're going to be getting a briefing from local officials on the ground about the recovery efforts following the hurricane devastation.

And one thing I also just want to make clear is, to just give you another sense of this relationship between the two men. In - shortly after the 2020 election, after Donald Trump had been infuriated with Kemp for not doing what he wanted regarding the election results in Georgia, Donald Trump had recruited someone else to replace him, former Senator David Perdue. Kemp went on, of course, to win his race, get a second term. He won that by actually 50 points, I think showing how much support Kemp has. So, that's what this all really comes down to.

Kemp, for his part though, I mean, he had not endorsed Donald Trump early in the Republican primary. He waited until after Donald Trump had became the nominee. But he always said that he would support whoever the Republican nominee was. So, we'll see that later today.

BOLDUAN: Alayna Treene, thank you.

John.

BERMAN: All right, with us now, CNN political commentator Paul Begala.

Paul, very nice to see you.

As you well know, today marks an important milestone in this election. Exactly one month and one day before Election Day.

Look, you've been in the room at this moment before. What's the one thing that each campaign needs to do in this remaining month and day?

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it's actually two things. You - you need to fire up your base. You can't win without your base. But then you also have to reach out to those voters you don't yet have.

Now, the way to do that is with what President Clinton used to say, they have wedge issues. We need web issues that stitch together our base and those swing voters.

Look at what Kamala Harris is doing. She's - she has electrified her base. I mean they were very depressed when Biden was a candidate. They're very excited now that Kamala is. And she's reaching out - even getting Liz Cheney, for goodness sakes. She's holding together a coalition from AOC to Liz Cheney.

Meanwhile, Mr. Trump, well, he fires up the base. But the things he does that fire up his base alienates those voters he does not yet have. I mean, I haven't met a single swing voter who said, you know, I'm really concerned about those people in Ohio eating each others cats. You know, I mean, he's just so off putting. And so he's, I think, not doing what he needs to do, candidly. He's fired up his base. We always talk about that. But, you know, nothing moves Trump's vote down because that base is so solid. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. He was convicted of 34 felonies and he went up one point. OK. I mean, and by the way, nothing moves it up very much. Thank God he survived an assassination attempt. He moved up 1.2 percent. So, he trades in such a narrow band. This is a race for Trump where

everything has happened and nothing has changed his vote.

BERMAN: So, interesting you brought up Bill Clinton, because, of course, on the 1992 Clinton campaign, you famously worked with James Carville to help get Bill Clinton elected. And there just happens to be a new CNN documentary coming out this weekend called "Carville: Winning Is Everything, Stupid." You feature prominently in this documentary, and wonderfully, by the way. I want to play a short clip of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARY MATALIN, JAMES CARVILLE'S WIFE: Cheeno (ph) is now my travel dog. She uses our pictures of her.

BEGALA: They both passionately love their country. They both passionately love politics. They're both really expert and they're students of the game.

But they're on different sides.