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U.S. Economy Pulls off Soft Landing; Ann Jacobs is Interviewed about Wisconsin Elections; Controversial Art Pops Up in D.C. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired October 30, 2024 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:34:20]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: New this morning, the U.S. economy seems to have pulled off a remarkable and historic achievement. A soft landing to avoid a recession.

CNN's Matt Egan is here. He's been tracking this.

And this is tied to the new GDP data that's out this morning. Walk us through it.

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Kate, this economy just keeps cruising along, right? It is relentless, right? It won't be stopped by high inflation, not by high interest rates, not by this crazy election cycle. It just keeps going and going.

So, these new numbers out measure GDP. That's the broadest measure of economic growth. It's kind of like a quarterly report card for the economy. And it showed that the U.S. economy grew at an annual rate of 2.8 percent during the third quarter.

[09:35:02]

That is very solid growth. And it's being driven by the fact that everyone keeps spending money. The government's still spending money. Businesses are spending money. And perhaps most importantly, consumers are spending money. Because there's been a lot of concern about consumers being under pressure right now. But look, these new numbers show that consumer spent nearly - growth was nearly 4 percent for consumer spending. That's the biggest part of the economy. So, that's huge. RSM economist Joe Brusuelas said that the U.S. economy is firing on all cylinders.

And the timing here is really critical because a lot of people two years ago thought the economy would be in recession right now.

BOLDUAN: Right.

EGAN: Not at all. No signs of recession. In fact, yes, a number of economists are saying they're increasingly confident that the Fed has pulled off what once looked elusive, right, a soft landing. Taming inflation without crashing the jobs market. Former St. Louis Fed James Bullard, he told my colleague, Bryan Mena, we should declare a soft landing right now.

BOLDUAN: At the same time, there's still problems with affordability all over the country. We know that because it's such an issue with the election. So, how does this - how does this square?

EGAN: Yes, Kate, it's a great question. Listen, none of this is to say the economy is perfect, right? There are real challenges, especially on affordability.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

EGAN: Daycare, groceries, rent, car insurance, home insurance. There are real issues there when it comes to affordability. Now the rate of inflation, thankfully, has come down, right?

BOLDUAN: Yes.

EGAN: It was at 9 percent two years ago. It's much closer to that 2 percent target right now. But the problem, of course, is that prices are not going back to those 2019 levels, right? I mean that was never going to happen.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

EGAN: But the good news is, because the economy keeps growing, because the jobs market keeps growing, wages are up. And so now we're in a situation where paychecks are consistently beating prices. And so hopefully, Kate, that helps people catch up to these higher prices and start to feel better her about things.

BOLDUAN: Interesting.

EGAN: Thank you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Thanks for the detail. Great to see you. Thank you.

EGAN: Thanks.

BOLDUAN: John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Pennsylvania officials trying to reassure voters as Donald Trump pushes new, unsubstantiated allegations about election fraud.

And the Yankees not dead. Just mostly dead. Which does mean slightly alive. Trying to grab the momentum. Like literally. And against the rules. And offensively. I'm on team Mookie.

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[09:42:02]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, Donald Trump is doubling down and claiming voter fraud in Pennsylvania. Trump posting on his Truth Social this morning, Pennsylvania is cheating and getting caught at large scale levels rarely seen before. That is despite officials in Lancaster and York County saying they're still looking into potential issues with voter registration applications, and they were the ones that caught it, as they normally would. County and state officials are trying to reassure voters this will be a free and fair election.

Joining us now is the chair of the Wisconsin Elections Commission, Ann Jacobs.

Thank you so much for being here this morning. I know this is an extremely busy time for you and the staff there.

I do want to ask you what you are hearing, what accusations of potential voter fraud are already coming in to you and how are you combating it?

ANN JACOBS, CHAIR, WISCONSIN ELECTIONS COMMISSION: Thank you so much for having me this morning.

You know, some of the concerns are people who really just want more information about how their vote is going to be counted, making sure that their ballot is counted. And some of them are just really bizarre conspiracy theories.

One of my favorites was that in 2020 there was a secret room in the elections offices where an unknown man was sleeping under the desk but printing 60,000 ballots. That's one of my favorites.

Here in Wisconsin, because we process our absentee ballots, because some communities process their absentee ballots at a central location, those numbers won't be reported until very late on election night or early the next morning. And some folks are claiming that's a sign of fraud when actually it's just a sign of how we do things here.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you how long you think it might take to get the ballots counted this year as opposed to 2020, when we saw Biden won by just 20,000 votes, just what you're thinking because - from what you're already seeing with early voting there in Wisconsin?

JACOBS: We have had tremendous early voting turnout. Our early voting is technically early absentee voting. So, when folks in Wisconsin go to vote early, they're actually filling out an absentee ballot at their clerk's office, and it goes directly to the clerk. As a result of that amazing turnout, it looks like we're going to have a lot of absentee ballots to count on election night. I suspect it will not take quite as long as 2020 because we don't have some of the Covid concerns that we did have then. However, I would expect that you're probably not going to see final tallies coming out of Wisconsin until very early in the morning on November 6th.

SIDNER: The next day. OK.

JACOBS: The next day.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you about this. Donald Trump already - you heard he's already accusing Pennsylvania of voter fraud, which officials there say they caught and are looking into.

[09:45:08]

And it was really the registration that they're looking at. And he still insists that he won in Wisconsin in 2020, which played a key role in Donald Trump - his attempts to overturn the 2020 election because its where two attorneys working for him orchestrated the fake electors plan.

Are there guardrails, and what are your concerns about this possibly happening this time around?

JACOBS: Donald Trump's claim that he won Wisconsin in 2020 is pure fantasy. Not only did we have a free and fair election, we had a recount of the two largest counties in the state. And the numbers stayed, for all intents and purposes, exactly the same. He lost Wisconsin in 2020. He won it in 2016, but he lost it in 2020.

The guardrails we have in place is repeating to the voters out there that we know what the process is going to look like on Election Day. We know about the time when results are going to come in. So, rather than indulging in fantasies about bamboo ballots or Italian thermostats controlling our elections, they can go to our state elections website and look up the FAQs we have on some of those topics. We're always happy to explain to voters what to expect in this process.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you, what is it that keeps you up at night when it comes to elections, especially considering what is happening with all these conspiracy theories around the last presidential election?

JACOBS: That one of our election workers is injured or killed.

SIDNER: Do you worry about that happening, judging from the fact that some election workers are afraid and did get threats, like Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss?

JACOBS: I am. And I think that we need to not pretend that that sort of rhetoric of killing or assaulting election officials is OK. Oh, they're just joking, oh, they're not being real, that rhetoric, that willingness to say that these folks should be injured or killed is - is not acceptable and it is a stain on our democracy. And we need to continue to call it out and not tolerated in any circumstance.

SIDNER: These are just Americans trying to do their duty as Americans.

Ann Jacobs, thank you so much and good luck as the election is going to be here in just six days.

JACOBS: Thank you.

SIDNER: Appreciate your time.

Kate. BOLDUAN: So, in Washington, D.C., there is some new artwork, public artwork, that is showing up from here - from - in different places. Here's the thing, the mystery behind it. The message could be pretty clear. The artist, unknown.

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[09:52:40]

BERMAN: So, new this morning, somewhere in D.C. there is either a bronze giant with digestive issues, or an artist trying to make a point.

CNN's Gabe Cohen is with us.

We call it pop-up art, Gabe. I would not be a dad if I did not say perhaps we should call it poop-up art.

GABE COHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, I'm not even going to answer that or react to it, but I will tell you, we don't know who this artist is at this point. Nobody seems to want to take credit publicly. But it's getting a lot of attention, these statues here in the nation's capital, just a week out from Election Day.

So, the one you're seeing on your screen, that was the first statue that suddenly appeared last week. This bronze replica of Nancy Pelosi's desk on the National Mall, right by the Capitol. And you can see on it there that basketball-sized - I'm going to call it a swirl, John. A basketball-sized swirl on it. And there's a plaque at the base of it that says, quote, "this memorial honors the brave men and women who broke into the United States Capitol on January 6th to loot, urinate and defecate throughout those hallowed halls in order to overturn an election. President Trump celebrates these heroes of January 6th as unbelievable patriots and warriors. This monument stands as a testament to their daring sacrifice and lasting legacy."

If it's not clear, it's a sarcastic message, poking fun at the former president.

So then on Monday, another statue pops up. This one at Freedom Plaza across town, right by the White House. And that, as you can see, is of a tiki torch. It is titled "The Donald J. Trump Enduring Flame." And there's a plaque on that one that says, "this monument pays tribute to President Donald Trump and the, quote, very fine people he boldly stood to defend when they marched in Charlottesville, Virginia. While many have called them white supremacists and neo-Nazis, President Trump's voice rang out above the rest to remind all that they were, quote, treated absolutely unfairly."

And, John, a lot of people - we were there yesterday, crowds of people taking photos, getting a lot of enjoyment out of it. The tongue-in- cheek messages really resonating with people as we approach Election Day.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It brought back some of that energy and anger that has, you know, faded over time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think the message couldn't be more clear that, you know, we have to do our part to make sure that another January 6th doesn't happen.

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[09:55:05]

COHEN: And again, we don't know who the artist is, but we were able to obtain a permit from the National Park Service that shows two names Civic Crafted, LLC, and a Julia Jimenez Pizick (ph) who requested and then receive permission, John, to display that art. We've reached out to them for comment, but at this point nobody is claiming it as their own.

BERMAN: But it does need to be approved, Gabe, right? It is interesting. This does need public approval before going out?

COHEN: Yes, so the National Park Service will allow individuals, artists, to put art like this out, expressions of their First Amendment rights, but they do have to get permitted. And we got a statement in from the National Park Service that says for works like this they do not consider the content of the message to be presented. So, people are able to do that.

To be clear though, these works are not even going to make it to Election Day. The desk is scheduled to be removed today and the torch tomorrow, guys.

BERMAN: Got it. Gabe Cohen, thank you very much.

BOLDUAN: I - we're - I looked up best dad jokes. Politicians are like diapers, they need to be changed often and for the same reason.

BERMAN: See.

SIDNER: Wow.

BERMAN: See, that's good. That's good.

SIDNER: Wow. That's a good one. I liked yours.

BOLDUAN: Not as good as yours, John.

SIDNER: Thank you so much for joining us. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL with John Berman, Kate Bolduan, our comedians, and Sara Sidner, the person that laughs at their jokes.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

SIDNER: "CNN NEWSROOM" up next.

BOLDUAN: Don't quit your day jobs.

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