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White House Briefing Amid Qatar Strikes, Epstein Doc Release, Weak Jobs News; White House Comments on Trump's Federal Crackdown Threats Against Cities; Gigantic Revision Signals U.S. Job Growth Weaker Than Believed. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired September 09, 2025 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: And I think the president has every reason to believe that given the efforts of many reporters in this room who actively seek to undermine the president and what he's doing in our nation's capitol. We all know that deep inside, you all agree with this because you all live here and I'm sure you are very grateful for the administration's efforts to make the city, which we all reside in, much safer for ourselves and our families. Michael?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Karoline. Florida Congressman Randy Fine is calling for judges to face consequences if the violent repeat offenders they release go on to commit new crimes. Is that something the president supports?

LEAVITT: It's not something I've heard the president discuss. You can ask him yourself next time you have the opportunity to. How's that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Karoline, one more question. On Thursday, President Trump will head to the Pentagon and also to New York City in honor of the 24th anniversary of 9/11. Does the president express any interest on creating or having congressmen create a new 9/11 Commission to answer some of the ongoing questions many Americans have about that day?

LEAVITT: I, again, have not heard the president discuss that. You're welcome to ask him yourself, but I do know he very much looks forward to going to both the Pentagon and the Yankees game in New York City on Thursday to commemorate the 24th anniversary. As you know, the president is a New Yorker at heart. He loves the city very much. It is his home. And you'll hear more about that on Thursday when the president speaks on this himself. Kelly (ph)?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Karoline, thank you. I wanted to ask you a question about the president speaking Yesterday before the Religious Liberty Commission. As you know, he's created the White House Faith Office, the task force on anti-Christian bias. And yesterday, he talked about the importance of the Bible in America and the importance of prayer in America. Some people have criticized him for that and stating that he's espousing Christian nationalism. Yet, the president has called on the American people to band together in praying for this nation, for people of all faiths. How important is that to the Trump administration and are there guidelines for implementing that?

LEAVITT: Well, last time I checked, it's not just Christians who pray, it's people of all faith who pray. And that's what the president wants to protect, the religious freedom for Americans of all faith. And he spoke about that yesterday and that's why, he was very proud and excited to announce this new initiative, Pray America, encouraging all Americans to pray for our country and the goodness of our country leading up to America's 250th birthday next year.

Why don't we take some from the sides. Elizabeth, go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you, Karoline. I have two questions.

LEAVITT: Sure.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: First on prayer again, is the Trump administration looking for the forthcoming prayer guidelines to challenge existing court precedent on the right to pray in public schools?

LEAVITT: Well, the president spoke about that yesterday and some of the changes we are making to ensure that the religious liberties of America's students and our youth are respected in public schools. In fact, he had a young student and invited him on stage to share his story about how when this young boy spoke about biological and biblical truth in his classroom, he faced consequences for that and how Americans of faith should not be facing consequences for expressing their religious freedom and their religious views, not in any public school in America should that be happening. You heard the president talk about that yesterday.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sure. Karoline, thank you so much. Regarding Israel attacking Doha, beside the phone call, what was President Trump's involvement in the attack, if any?

LEAVITT: Look, I don't have anything more to read out for you on this other than the very lengthy and thorough statement that I have shared repeatedly now.

Sure, go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you. After the Supreme Court ruling yesterday on the ICE raids in Los Angeles, some particularly non-white U.S. citizens are saying that they're going to begin carrying their U.S. passports with them at all times. What is the White House's response to Americans who are concerned about being swept up as others have been already in these enforcement actions?

LEAVITT: They should not be concerned because this administration is focused on the detention and deportation of illegal alien criminals who broke our nation's immigration laws. And the Supreme Court upheld the Trump administration's right to stop individuals in Los Angeles to briefly question them regarding their legal status because the law allows this, and this has been the practice of the federal government for decades. And the Immigration and Nationality Act states that immigration officers can briefly stop an individual to question them about their immigration status if the officer has reasonable suspicion that the individual is illegally present in the United States.

And reasonable suspicion is not just based on race, it's based on a totality of the circumstances to review. And I will tell you, I spoke to our border czar about this, this morning. When ICE goes out to conduct a targeted operation to deport illegal criminals from our community, they are doing so with intelligence. They are doing so with law enforcement sources. They are doing so, in most cases, with the backing of local law enforcement who know exactly where these illegal alien criminals and drug traffickers and drug dealers are hiding in plain sight in American communities.

And the men and women of ICE are doing everything they can to not only follow the law, but to enforce the law.

[14:05:00]

And it's about time that has happened because we had four years of an administration who completely ignored and evaded our nation's very clear administration, immigration laws, and the Supreme Court has reaffirmed that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Follow up on --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks, Karoline. One of the other documents released by the House Oversight Committee contained a photo of Jeffrey Epstein holding an oversized check that was made out to him in the check from the president for $22,000 for a fully depreciated woman. I wondered if the president has any recollection of that or what you guys make of that photo that was included in those documents.

LEAVITT: Did you see the signature on that check? It is not Donald Trump's signature. It is absolutely not. The president did not sign that check.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But does he recognize --

(CROSSTALK)

LEAVITT: No.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Karoline, on the New York City election?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Karoline, is he considered --

LEAVITT: Well, I'll take both of you. Go ahead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So first, is the president considering offering Mayor Eric Adams a job? If so, why? And does he think Curtis Lee was a serious candidate for New York City mayor?

LEAVITT: Look, the president has made it quite clear he wants this race to move forward in New York City. He does not want a communist to be running New York City. But as for weighing in on other individual candidates, I'll leave that to the president to do himself.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Karoline, and then following up on Reagan's (ph) question, many of these highest crime cities in America, they're led by black mayors, including the three that you mentioned, Jackson, Memphis, Birmingham. So given that, what's your response from the, two, criticism from the black that Trump is targeting black mayors? Isn't he just trying to protect black people?

LEAVITT: The president is trying to protect all Americans from crime, and he wants to make all of our cities in America safe. And the fact is the most dangerous cities in America are run by Democrats overwhelmingly, and according to the FBI crime statistics, 19 of the top-20 cities with the highest murder rate are run by Democrats. And these high-crime, Democrat-run cities are driving up the crime stats in otherwise safe red states. So of course, he wants to address this problem. He's made that quite clear.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mike Johnson came out and said that the president was an FBI informant. Do you know what he meant by that? If it's not true?

LEAVITT: I can affirm that is not true. I think the speaker was referring to the fact that president Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago property for reasons the president has already discussed. John?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, Karoline. First of all, as a Washington, D.C. resident --

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": We've been listening to Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt in the Briefing Room at the White House, answer questions about a slew of issues, most notably on the president's appearance in a book gifted to Jeffrey Epstein on his 50th birthday. His alleged signature in that which the White House denies was his. There, Leavitt again saying that the president did not sign that letter. They invited some handwriting analysts to take a look at it as well. When asked about a page in that book which shows Epstein holding a check, allegedly signed by Donald Trump for a fully depreciated woman, Leavitt dodged completely saying that Trump's signature was not on that check, though it doesn't address the joke that was made at Trump's expense -- that derogatory joke that was made at Trump's expense that's in the book.

Further, she was asked questions about Doha, this Israeli unilateral strike inside a suburban enclave in Qatar. She was asked repeatedly whether Israel directly notified the United States or not, but she deferred on that. She would only say that the U.S. military notified the White House that Israel was launching an attack. She wouldn't say if Israel told the U.S. military or if it was something that the U.S. military detected. She read a statement from the president, part of which says that it is unfortunate that this attack inside a suburb took place. It does not advance U.S. interests, but going after Hamas does, she said.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Yeah. And we learned that President Trump called both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Qatari leaders, the prime minister and the Emir. And we have Kevin Liptak and retired U.S. Army Major Mike Lyons with us, as well as Colin Clarke. He's the Director of Policy and Research at The Soufan Group.

First, I want to go to you, Colin, if we can, because this was a really interesting line that Karoline Leavitt was walking here. She would not say that Israel had not alerted the White House. The line that she was really leaning into was that the Trump administration was notified by the U.S. military that Israel was attacking Hamas and that the White House actually informed Qatar. What did you think of what you heard?

COLIN CLARKE, DIRECTOR OF POLICY AND RESEARCH, THE SOUFAN GROUP: Yeah, I think verbal gymnastics, essentially, and I think the administration is now trying to backtrack and kind of get on the right side of this. You also heard Karoline Leavitt say that the strikes don't serve Israel's interest, which I agree with. But maybe they serve Benjamin Netanyahu's interest, because it's hard to believe that he's looking for a deal right now with these types of actions.

[14:10:00]

I'd say just also briefly, this puts Qatar in a very difficult position because, as a mediator, Qatar has now been attacked by the Iranians and the Israelis on Qatari soil. And so, why would anybody want to go out and try to be a mediator or a negotiator and push for conflict resolution when they end up bearing the brunt of Israeli military strikes? So really kind of precarious moment here in what's been a conflict that has dragged on for almost two years now.

SANCHEZ: Major Lyons, what do you make of Leavitt saying that in his post, the social media post that Trump put up this weekend, saying that this would be Hamas' last warning, last chance to negotiate a ceasefire and hostage deal. She argued that that was not a precursor or a warning about this specific attack. Do you buy the White House's line on that?

MAJ. MIKE LYONS, U.S. ARMY (RET): I probably don't. I think this is the last chance and that's why that statement came out about, this is not in the best interest of Israel to do this. I mean, look, Israel is decapitation strategy is how they operate. This was attack long planned in advance, that they was going to wait for the moment for this to happen. And we saw, again, all the verbal gymnastics when it came to trying to figure out what the United States was going to say.

So the United States now has come out somewhat against it as it's trying to go that route. But I do think that deep down, this is it from the president's perspective. I mean, he promises Qatar they won't be attacked again. Not sure how we can do that, at this point. So again, I think this is from the president's perspective, Israel's last shot if they're going to do anything with regard to going after the leadership, the decapitation strategy they always have in their conflicts.

KEILAR: Yeah. And Kevin, the White House is in a tricky spot. It's so clear. Karoline Leavitt is laying out goals that are now significantly less likely because of this strike. Talking about how maybe there's an opportunity for peace from this strike. Can you explain to us what you know from your reporting about how and who the Trump administration was notified by, and just the sensitivities around that?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah. And I think Karoline Leavitt was pretty explicit that there was no political communication between Israel and the White House ahead of this attack. She was very explicit that the White House received word from the U.S. military that this was in the offing. And she eventually got around to saying that the U.S. military learned just ahead of this attack.

But I think her drawing the distinction there is pretty notable and does betray a degree of frustration. It's not every day that the White House or President Trump or the president's spokespeople come out and say that an Israeli action runs completely counter to what they're trying to accomplish in the region. And certainly, this statement was very carefully worded. It was lengthy, it had a lot of sort of specifics in it. But underneath all of that, I think it's pretty clear that the president is not pleased that this occurred, that he thinks that this could potentially run opposite to what he's trying to achieve.

When Karoline Leavitt says that the president thinks that this could advance peace, it's not precisely clear what exactly she means by that. And I think it's obvious that the White House feels a need to try and sort of assuage the Qatari concerns that this could potentially put them at greater risk. The U.S.-Qatar relationship is such a critical one for the region, the Qataris have been cultivating with President Trump going back several months. He was the first sitting U.S. president to visit Qatar back in May, and there are thousands of troops based at the Al Udeid Air Base there.

And so, I think it was very sort of critical for her to lay out exactly how all of this played out, both on the Israeli side, but on the Qatari side. And I want you to listen to what she said about what the White House did immediately when they learned that this was potentially happening.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEAVITT: President Trump immediately directed Special Envoy Witkoff to inform the Qataris of the impending attack, which he did. The president views Qatar as a strong ally and friend of the United States, and feels very badly about the location of this attack. President Trump wants all of the hostages in Gaza and the bodies of the dead released and this war to end now. President Trump also spoke to Prime Minister Netanyahu after the attack. The prime minister told President Trump that he wants to make peace and quickly. President Trump believes this unfortunate incident could serve as an opportunity for peace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LIPTAK: Now, Leavitt also said that Trump spoke to the Emir and prime minister of Qatar and told them and reassured them that such a thing will not happen again on their soil. But it's not exactly sure how he can provide those assurances. And the events of today just go to show that some of Israel's actions are occurring without a lot of buy-in from the United States. [14:15:00]

SANCHEZ: Notable also that literally just moments ago, a video statement was shared by the IDF saying that the people that they targeted today in Qatar repeatedly sabotaged every attempt at negotiations. This Israeli military chief added that the IDF would continue to carry out its mission and settle accounts with our enemies. I'm curious, Colin, when you hear the White House asked about whether the Abraham Accords are now at risk of falling apart, and you don't hear a direct answer, but rather you hear that President Trump sees this as an opportunity for peace. I mean, are the Abraham Accords now potentially at risk?

CLARKE: I think absolutely. I mean, I was having that conversation earlier today with colleagues when we first learned of the strike. That's one of the first things that came up. And I think the president's right to be frustrated because, frankly, when Israel carries out an attack like this on the sovereign soil of a U.S. ally, it's emasculating to the president. And I think there's few things worse to him than being shown up.

And so there's got to be clear frustration there with Netanyahu and given Trump's kind of obsession, if you will, over a Nobel Peace Prize and holding up the Abraham Accords is this gold standard, with those now potentially in risk -- at risk. You've got to understand that within the kind of upper echelon of the Trump administration, there's probably a lot of frustration with the way that the Israelis are kind of acting with impunity throughout the region, launching strikes in Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Qatar. This is just, what we're seeing now with Israel as a regional hegemon, completely unchecked.

KEILAR: A lot of frustration, we are sensing today in that briefing for sure. Colin Clarke, thank you. Major Mike Lyons, Kevin Liptak, we appreciate your reporting. And still to come, a record-setting revision, corrected numbers now show a much slower job market than previously thought. We're digging into that.

SANCHEZ: And more on the White House response to the Jeffrey Epstein Birthday Book. We have details straight ahead on "CNN News Central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:21:25]

SANCHEZ: Moments ago, the White House seizing on new Jobs numbers. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt responding to the U.S. adding nearly 1 million fewer jobs than what was previously reported, a major revision.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEAVITT: This revision proves two things. Number one, the president was right. And this is why we need new leadership at the Fed. And this makes it very clear that President Trump inherited a much worse economy by the Biden administration than ever reported. And it also proves that the Federal Reserve is holding our monetary policy far too restrictive. Interest rates are too high. The Fed needs to cut the rates because of the mess that we inherited from the Biden administration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: CNN's Matt Egan joins us now with more. Matt, nearly a million jobs. What is behind these revisions and what does it say about the current economic reality?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Boris, believe it or not, this is a routine process that's been going on in one form or another for nearly a century. So each month, we talk to you, Boris, about the monthly Jobs report and that shows how many jobs were added or subtracted in the economy. Now, that report is based on a survey of businesses. Now, those surveys are super timely, but like any survey, they're not perfect. And so that's why once a year, the BLS tries to reconcile those monthly surveys with more comprehensive but less timely quarterly tax reports.

And so, what's unusual though right now, is the size of these revisions, right? This preliminary revision announced today shows that the economy added 911,000 fewer jobs during the 12 months ending in March than we previously expected. Now, if that preliminary revision stands when the final revision comes out in February, this would be the biggest revision since at least 2009, bigger than anything even during COVID. And so, this does show that while the job market was growing, it was growing at a much slower pace than we previously thought. Right?

Before these revisions, we thought the U.S. economy was adding about 146,000 jobs per month. But these revisions imply growth of less than half that pace, right? Just about 70,000 jobs per month. Now, economists say that these revisions are so big for a number of reasons, including COVID, which obviously caused a lot of chaos in the economy. It also caused a lot of chaos and messed with the models that the BLS uses. A number of other factors include sampling errors caused by low response rates from businesses, and also struggles to adjust for shifts in immigration.

So, what does all this mean about where we are right now? I do think it's important to stress that this is very backwards looking, right? This is measuring the level of employment between March -- between April of last year, right, and this past March. In this new cycle, even this past March feels like a lifetime ago. But look, it does show that the job market and the overall economy was growing at a slower pace than we previously realized. In some ways, this would almost be like finding out that your favorite football team won its game's last football season by an average of 10 points per game instead of the 20 that we previously thought, right?

It might make you wonder a little bit about how strong they are coming into this season, but it doesn't really change all that much. And perhaps that's why we're not seeing a major reaction on Wall Street, right? The Dow is up by about a half a percentage point, on pace to close at all-time highs. And while the market is still pricing in an interest rate cut next week from the Federal Reserve, the odds of a jumbo-size interest rate cut have actually gone down a bit in the past 24 hours.

[14:25:00]

So Boris, I do think that shows that investors are not panicking about this latest revision. Back to you.

SANCHEZ: Matt Egan, thank you so much for the update there. Still to come, the release of Jeffrey Epstein's Birthday Book putting new pressure on President Trump to respond. We heard from a White House just moments ago, addressing the issue, again, denying that he wrote a letter despite it having a signature that looks a lot like one Trump has used before. We'll get into the details in just moments.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: The White House is firing back as Democrats launch new attacks in the wake of a document drop in the Jeffrey Epstein case. The House Oversight Committee released thousands of new documents on Tuesday, including this one that shows an allegedly Trump-penned birthday letter to Epstein back in 2003. Here's more on this from Karoline Leavitt moments ago.