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Factory Workers Swept Away in Tennessee; Hoyt Johnson is Interviewed about Providing Safe Haven for Stranded Residents; Julie Su is Interviewed about the September Jobs Report; Trump Casts Doubt on 2024 Election; Lawsuit Against Garth Brooks. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired October 04, 2024 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

GUSTAVO VALDES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In which he explained the side of the story from their point of view.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GERALD O'CONNOR, PRESIDENT AND CEO, IMPACT PLASTICS: That employees were told to leave the plant at least 45 minutes before the gigantic force of the flood hit the industrial park. There was time to escape. Employees were not told at any time that they would be fired if they left the plant.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VALDES: He also released a timeline that starts at 10:35 a.m. when they said the water started to pool in the parking lot. A minute later, the power outage - the power goes out at the - at the plant. And at 10:40 there are the public warnings on cell phones. At 10:50 the employees were directed to leave the plant in English and Spanish. I'm being told that about 50 percent of the employees are Hispanic. And at 11:35, senior managers did a walkthrough and departure of the plant. They also say they have video showing that some of the victims stayed in the parking lot up to 45 minutes after these warnings were issued and people had left. This is part of the investigation.

The people I've talked to on the ground, they said that they felt like they were not allowed to freely leave the plant when they wanted to. In fact, they point to that power outage as the point when everybody was trying to leave and they were not allowed. And some of the video shows that they were trying to hold on because it was too late for them to departure at that time. So, the investigation continues.

Now, last night there was a candlelight vigil. The community came around to celebrate the life of these six people, four of them missing, four dead. They said this shows the unity that exists in this small town.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And now very serious investigations underway to figure out exactly what happened.

Gustavo, thank you very much. Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, this is what you hope would happen with your neighbors if you were stranded by a monster storm. Hoyt Johnson opened up his lodge in Little Switzerland, North Carolina, when people in his community were left devastated by Hurricane Helene. He is joining us now.

Good morning to you.

I know that communications are very difficult. We are going to hear from you on the phone. Can you tell me what you're hearing from people who are showing up at your lodge for help?

HOYT JOHNSON, OWNER, BIG LYNN LODGE (via telephone): Just everybody is working together and happy that they can get a hot meal, a hot shower. It's the only place in Mitchell County that you can get wi-fi service. We just trying to do what we can do and everybody come together and start trying to rebuild. So many of my neighbors and friends have lost everything. My (INAUDIBLE) have lost everything. But we will - we'll - we're up and running. We have the generators. We're cooking 503 meals - breakfasts yesterday to feed them.

SIDNER: Wow.

JOHNSON: We have breakfast going on now. It looks like it's going to be 600 this morning. So, we just (INAUDIBLE).

SIDNER: Mr. Johnson, it is such a beautiful gift and such a community - uplifting community thing to do, to say, look, if I'm the only one that has the capability of all of this, then I'm opening my doors. You come in here and we'll take care of you. And you're talking about 500 breakfasts yesterday, 600 today.

We are also looking at some of the pictures and video that you have been taking from your community of people sort of going out in Jeeps and trying to - to help.

Can you tell me what it was like when you first realized that you were the only place where people could have any communication at all, and you had running water and hot water to boot.

JOHNSON: I was shocked. And - and to see, you know, half of the highway of 226A (ph) is - is gone. And it's - it's like a half a lane open. And - and they were risking their lives to get here so they can get cell service to tell people they're OK.

We're having four to five helicopters land right on the property every day to bring more supplies and water to everybody. And we have a - a first aid tent set up for people. But it's just - it's amazing, you know, we have water stacked up and food for them to give them to take to their home. And they take one case. We say, no, take two. They say, no, just give us one. The other one's for somebody else. So, you know, there's no greed here, no panic. Everybody's just working together.

SIDNER: It's - listening to you, it's literally exactly where people want to live. It's a place like that where your neighbors really care about you.

You are in a situation where just the roads - we're looking at your pictures. I mean, the roads are gone in some places.

JOHNSON: Yes.

SIDNER: Homes are precariously, you know, sort of lilting on the edge. Can you describe what it is you have been seeing in your community and how difficult this is going to be to rebuild?

[09:35:07]

JOHNSON: It definitely will take years. Part of the Blue Ridge Parkway is gone in sections. You know, I've not been able to leave the property much, we're staying busy, but people have brought me in pictures. You know, where there used to be whole houses, nothing. My kitchen help and housekeepers stay here through the storm and made them vacuum - back away, excuse me. And then, you know, a couple of days, they were able to get to their house and they came back crying, you know, no house. It - you couldn't even tell that there used to be a house there. It's just gone.

It's just -

SIDNER: It's -

JOHNSON: I mean, I've lived on the coast of North Carolina all my life and I've never seen anything like this.

SIDNER: Yes, the devastation is just so vast and it hurts so much to see people suffering like that.

But I wish I could give you a big old bear hug, Mr. Johnson, because you are doing wonderful work for your community and now they are paying it forward as well.

Thank you so much for talking to us in this really, really difficult time for you and the community there. Appreciate you.

JOHNSON: Thank you. And have a - have a wonderful day.

SIDNER: You too.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, new allegations of sexual assault against Garth Brooks. What he is saying this morning.

And the new election denialism from Donald Trump. Listen closely to what he is saying on the campaign trail, and why.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:40:56]

BOLDUAN: Breaking this morning, a whopper of a jobs report. President Biden just now putting out a statement about it, calling it, quote, "good news for American workers and families."

The September jobs numbers blew past expectations, showing the economy added 254,000 jobs last month, the unemployment rate ticking down from 4.2 to 4.1 percent.

Let's get an assessment on this from the administration. Joining us right now is the acting secretary of labor, Julie Su.

Secretary, thank you for coming in.

What is your big takeaway from this-this jobs report?

JULIE SU, ACTING SECRETARY OF LABOR: This is the same story we've been telling month after month under the Biden-Harris administration. It is a very strong economy. We've continued to see job growth. Last month was a big one. And as you already mentioned, you know, we - our philosophy is that when workers do well, the economy is stronger, the nation is stronger. And this jobs report is an example of that. Unemployment remains historically low. It's now been at or four - at or near 4 percent or below 4 percent for the longest stretch since before many of us were born. Real wages continue to be up. Inflation rate and the interest rates are going down. And all of this is a sign of a historic and unprecedented economic recovery and also just continued really steady and stable growth.

BOLDUAN: This is the second to last jobs report before the election. Many analysts say this one is likely last kind of clean reading of the labor market for a while because the next report could be distorted or more complicated because it'll show impacts of Hurricane Helene and more.

What do you think the message to Americans should be about the state of job - the jobs today? I know it's not your - I know it's not your concern in terms of electorally as a cabinet secretary, but this could be the last jobs reading before a lot of people start voting.

SU: I mean this is a story of how much leadership matters and how, when you put workers first, everybody does better.

Let's just remember, four years ago, you know, September was back-to- school month and most kids were going back to Zoom. There was no national strategy to address a global pandemic. Four years ago, in October, kids were being told trick-or-treating was canceled. It is an entirely different world right now. And that is, in large part, because of historic investments made by the Biden-Harris investing in America agenda, and the job growth that's come with it.

And when I travel the country, I see just the impact of that, right? We want to see higher wages. We want to see, you know, more security. We want to see more money in the pockets of working families, more breathing room. We want people to be able to relax, you know, feel some joy, not have to work all the time, and we want them to be able to retire with dignity. All of these things are happening. We are not done by any stretch of the imagination. This is not a declaration of victory, but it is a declaration of progress. And this month's jobs report really just drives that point home.

BOLDUAN: You're getting to this. If the affordability crisis remains, and it does for so many people, the - it still is very hard for them to afford the things to keep their lives going. And if there, as we've seen in some - in past polling, that that is one of the reasons that they are - they - they are not - they are supporting Donald Trump because - they say they're going to support Donald Trump because they do not trust Kamala Harris on the economy.

What do you say to them after seeing these reports?

SU: I mean, look, we have to live in a world of facts. But just about every single measure, what we are seeing with the economic recovery we have had, since what we inherited from the last administration, is a success story. Again, job creation, wages are up. You know, obviously, the price of things remains a challenge, and we are continuing to combat it, right? The inflation rate is down to its pre-pandemic levels. And we have called on companies who have made record profits to make sure that they're not taking advantage of the situation to say, oh, somehow inflation was like a - you know, a force of nature. There are choices that are being made and monopolistic behavior by companies who can say, look, I can do whatever I want because consumers have no choice, is part of the problem.

[09:45:06]

We are also combating that.

And so, leadership matters. You need people who understand, you know, what needs to be done to grow jobs, to bring manufacturing home, to build factories, to - you know, we've seen recovery in health care, in local government, right? That means potholes are being filled. People going for a city permit have to wait in line less. All of these things are - they all go hand-in-hand. And having an actual strategy to grow jobs, to bring jobs that have been exported home is what - is what we're seeing. And to build our clean energy. It's a lot of pieces to it because we understand that the economy, you know, it fits together as a whole. And we'll - we'll continue to keep doing the work to keep up the progress and we cannot go back to policies that drove jobs overseas, decreased wages and worker power and shrunk the economy.

BOLDUAN: Secretary Julie Su, thank you very much for your time.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, an avalanche of pre-election lawsuits, false claims about voting and lies that the election will be stolen. We're hearing it again. Election officials and voting rights advocates say Donald Trump and his allies in battleground states are ready to use the same playbook they used in 2020 if Trump loses this election.

CNN's Sara Murray is following this story for us.

What are the parallels - and we're hearing some of them already - but what are some of the parallels that are being seen that are very similar to 2020? SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, Sara, I think when you look back at that filing, we saw this blockbuster filing from Jack Smith, a lot of the tactics that were laid out in that filing around 2020 are very much back in play for 2024.

A couple of them are these sort of widespread claims that there are non-citizens who are going to vote in federal elections. Something that experts say is very rare.

Another one is lawsuits challenging voter rolls all over battleground states saying that states aren't maintaining the voter rolls, there are dead people on the roles, there are people who have moved. We saw a lot of these kinds of claims after the 2020 election that were thrown out in court.

And another thing that just popped up in one place in 2020 in Michigan was an election board that was refusing to certify the results that ultimately backtracked. That has become so much more widespread in the time since 2020. We've seen it happen in 2022 in the midterms. We've seen it already happening this year. And ultimately these boards haven't been successful. But it's a big concern for election workers.

And I think another piece of this is just a continuing climate of misinformation around elections, the way that that can whip up citizens, lead them to believe things are happening that aren't actually happening, and potentially inspire them to take action, to show up at election offices, to show up at counting centers. This is something that, of course, election workers are worried about this time around.

And, you know, you're seeing this sort of groundwork being laid in lawsuits across the country led by Republicans, these lawsuits. Places like Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Wisconsin, all of these big battlegrounds have faced an avalanche really of lawsuits from Republican groups that voting rights activists and Democrats say they view as kind of a pretext for efforts to try to overturn the results if Donald Trump does not win this time around.

SIDNER: It is a lot to think about as we are just, as John likes to say, a month and a day away from Election Day.

MURRAY: Very close.

SIDNER: Sara Murray, thank you so much.

John.

Oh, wait, there's John.

BERMAN: That is an exact quote. Thank you very much.

All right, Garth Brooks responding this morning to the allegations of sexual assault in a lawsuit filed against him by a hair and makeup artist.

Jurors reach a mixed verdict in the federal trial of three former Memphis police officers accused in the beating death the Tyre Nichols.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:53:14]

BERMAN: All right, this morning, country music star Garth Brooks is calling a sexual assault lawsuit against him full of lies and an extortion attempt.

CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister here with the very latest.

Elizabeth, what are you learning?

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Hi, John.

So, this lawsuit, filed yesterday, coming against country superstar Garth Brooks from a woman who says that she was formerly a hair and makeup artist for him and his superstar wife, Trisha Yearwood.

In this lawsuit, she alleges that she was raped in 2019 in a Los Angeles hotel room where they were traveling for business because he was pre-taping a Grammy tribute performance. But that is not the only alleged incident that this accuser lays out in her suit. She says that one time also in 2019 Garth Brooks allegedly walked out of the shower completely naked and forced her hand onto him. She says that he sent her sexually explicit text messages. He regularly changed in front of her, regularly exposed himself in front of her.

Now, Garth Brooks is denying this and coming out very strongly against this accuser. I want to read you part of a statement, John, that I received from his publicist. Here is what he has to say. Quote, "I have been hassled to no end with threats, lies and tragic tales of what my future would be if I did not write a check for many millions of dollars. It has been like having a loaded gun waved in my face. I trust the system. I do not fear the truth. And I am not the man they have painted me to be."

Now, as you see there, he references money in that statement. He claims that he was being extorted. In fact, where things get really interesting is, hours before this lawsuit broke, John, I reported on a lawsuit that came from an anonymous celebrity plaintiff who filed as a John Doe.

[09:55:02]

We now know that John Doe is and was Garth Brooks. And he was asking the court to prevent this lawsuit from ever coming out because he said that he was being defamed and extorted.

Now, I have asked his team, were there any offers to settle? They have not gotten back to me yet. But last night Garth Brooks was on stage. He has a residency in Las Vegas. So, this was a pre-planned concert, of course. And he posted about it. From the photo that he posted, it looks like it was a full house. Of course, he has millions of fans around the world from his storied career. He wrote, "if there was ever a night that I really needed this, tonight was that night. Thank you for my life, love G."

Now, I want to note that his wife, Trisha Yearwood, has not commented on this at all yet, but both Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood have appeared to turn off comments on their social media accounts after this lawsuit came out.

BERMAN: All right, a lot going on here.

Elizabeth Wagmeister, thank you so much for your reporting on this.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, this is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. And all month long we're going to be highlighting some stories here on CNN NEWS CENTRAL. The numbers of people diagnosed with breast cancer are on the rise in people under the age of 50. So, it's imperative that you get checked so at the very least you can catch it early. Y'all are probably sick of it. I'm sick of talking about it that I am dealing with breast cancer.

BOLDUAN: We are sick of cancer.

SIDNER: Oh, I'm sick of cancer. So, it does steal a lot from you, though. But it also gives you something. And I just learned of this today. It reminds you really of how wonderful people are, including , my lovely co-anchors here. But I learned of this today. Look at what Joe Sutton did. This is my colleague and friend, Joe Sutton, back in Atlanta, went behind my back, didn't tell me he was doing this, and made this happen at our CNN headquarters in Atlanta. He managed to get that building that you're seeing there, which is known as the mansion, lit up in pink for Breast Cancer Awareness Month to honor all of us here at CNN, Warner Brothers Discovery. Anyone who is going through this know that it's a long journey. And, what a cutie. What a sweetheart.

BOLDUAN: Beautiful.

SIDNER: That he did this for us.

BOLDUAN: Beautiful.

SIDNER: It is beautiful.

BERMAN: You deserve it. Good for you. We honor you.

SIDNER: I want to stay in the mansion now. Joe, can you hook me up there?

BOLDUAN: I was like - does that -

BERMAN: It's pink.

SIDNER: I'm going to call (INAUDIBLE).

BERMAN: And company (ph) rooms (ph).

SIDNER: Fair enough.

All right, thank you so much for joining us today. We really had a very nice time together this Friday, and we're so glad to be separated for the week.

BOLDUAN: I feel like there's a lot in that.

BERMAN: I was going to say - Sara's like, we've had a great time, but, boy, do I need to get away from you this weekend.

SIDNER: I'm excited (ph) for break.

BOLDUAN: (INAUDIBLE).

BERMAN: And we're gone.

SIDNER: Kindness (ph).

BOLDUAN: You can be done with us, but don't leave CNN, please.

"CNN NEWSROOM" is up next.

SIDNER: I thought you were talking to me, don't leave you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)