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U.S. Economy Added 130,000 Jobs; Numbers on Trump and Canada; Alex Murdaugh's Conviction Appeal. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired February 11, 2026 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

REP. STEVE COHEN (D-TN): Going to try to bail out now. They've got a dead man who they want to avoid. But during life they were all -- they were all his minions.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Congressman Steve Cohen, thanks for being with us this morning. Appreciate it.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Breaking news this morning.

We just learned that the U.S. economy added more jobs than expected last month. Some good news also in that jobs report showing unemployment rate ticked down lower in January. We are literally seconds away from the opening bell, there it begins, on Wall Street. Futures have been pointing higher this morning. Treasury yields also jumping higher on the news of this jobs report. Economists were expecting employers would add just about 75,000 jobs in January. The actual number coming out from this new report, 130,000 jobs. Really blowing past that expectation.

We've got much more news coming up after this.

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[09:35:21]

BOLDUAN: We continue to follow the breaking news this morning. The new data and a fresh look at the state of the U.S. labor market. And what we learned this morning, it blew past expectations, showing 130,000 jobs were added in January, much more than they thought.

Matt Egan back with us, taking a deeper dive into what you learned.

Tell us.

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Kate, look, this is a relief for everyone out there hunting for jobs. Terrible 2025 for the job market.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

EGAN: But we just learned that things really did stabilize to start 2026. So, the U.S. economy adding 130,000 jobs last month. That's almost twice as many as had been expected. In fact, to get a stronger number than this, you got to go all the way back to December of 2024. So, this is the most jobs added of the second Trump administration.

BOLDUAN: Wow.

EGAN: Now, the unemployment rate was expected to stay at 4.4. But look, it didn't stay there. It went down for a second month in a row. This is encouraging because there had been this uptick last summer, last fall. It was starting to raise some concerns. But the fact that it's going down, that signals this is not a job market that is imploding. If it was, you would see that unemployment keep going up.

So, where are the jobs? Well, every month we see a large number of jobs added in health care. And that continues to be the trend. Another 82,000 there. But some of the cyclical economically sensitive sectors, the blue-collar sectors, like construction, adding 33,000, manufacturing, breaking a streak of eight straight months of job loss, gaining 5,000. Finance and government, though, they did lose some jobs. So, we got to keep an eye on that as well.

Now, we also did get some revisions to prior months.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

EGAN: And what that showed was that job growth was overstated by 862,000 jobs between April 2024 and March of 2025. That's the biggest revision since 2009. This is routine. It's nothing nefarious. It's just as more complete information comes in. But it does mean that job growth last year was even weaker than we realized.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

EGAN: We knew it was a bad year, but it was even worse. But thankfully, again, we are learning that it is stabilizing, at least in January. And hopefully that trend continues, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Thank you so much, Matt, for bringing that to us.

EGAN: Thanks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Good to see which sectors saw gains and losses there.

John

BERMAN: All right, new developments for Alex Murdaugh, the South Carolina lawyer convicted of killing his wife and son. This morning, he's making a new bid for his freedom.

And new reports that Britney Spears has sold her entire song catalog. What we're learning about why and how much she's making.

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[09:42:14] BERMAN: This morning, President Trump threatening to block the opening of a brand new bridge between Canada and the U.S. A bridge that Canada paid for. He is demanding full compensation and fairness and respect from Canada he says. This only highlights the tensions -- a lot of the one-way tensions between President Trump and Canada.

CNN's Harry Enten, chief data analyst is here to explain what the impact of all of this is.

So, what do Canadians think of the U.S. president?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: They think he's a giant, big hoser, to quote the Canadian language. Of course, language there is English and French. But, you know, they have their own special little dialect going on there.

Canadians grade of Trump's first term. Look at this. First year of his second term, 66 percent -- 66 percent give him a giant big F. F as in failure. Compared to just six percent who give him an A. And keep in mind that this 66 percent includes a plurality of members of every single party in Canada. It doesn't matter if you're on the left or the right, you do not like Donald Trump if you are a Canadian.

BERMAN: So, if he did make Canada the 51st state and ran for a third term, it seems unlikely he would get Canada's electoral votes.

ENTEN: It would seem extremely unlikely that he would get Canadians' electoral votes. And I will note that they really don't want to become the 51st state. The polling also shows that.

BERMAN: No.

OK, how about the other direction, U.S. views of Canada?

ENTEN: OK. So, if Canadians really don't like Donald Trump, how do Americans feel about Canada? Well, they actually like Canada. Look at this. The net popularity rating of Canada among Americans, among all adults, it's plus 46 Democrats, plus 64 independents, plus 46. And even among Republicans, it's plus 30. Candidate was the most popular country tested by this latest poll from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

And I will note, of course, that this plus 46 is significantly higher than Donald Trump's own net popularity rating here in America. So, Canada, more popular than Donald Trump in Donald Trump's own country.

BERMAN: Well, that's something.

All right, how has tourism been affected by all of this?

ENTEN: Yes. OK. So, you know, it had the tariffs. You know then, of course, there's this whole bridge situation. But here's the thing, which is, there are real tourist dollars at stake. And take a look here. Tourism in 2025 versus 2024, Canadians to America. Look at that. Down, down way down, down 25 percent. Americans to Canada, just down about two percent. Basically steady. Canadians really taking their anger out by not coming to the country of the United States of America, not spending their tourist dollars, while Americans are basically going to Canada in the same numbers.

BERMAN: And this, of course, matters because my sources tell me that Canadians represent the biggest number of visitors to the United States of any country.

ENTEN: Correct.

BERMAN: On all of planet earth.

[09:45:00]

All right, you mentioned tariffs. There is a big Supreme Court decision we are waiting on, and have been waiting on, on whether many of the president's tariffs are legal. What are the prediction market saying about that?

ENTEN: Yes, OK. So, all this may be for naught, because just take a look here, the chance the Supreme Court rules against Trump's tariffs, 70 percent according to the Kalshi prediction market. A 70 percent chance. So, all of this political angst, all of this money lost to tourism. And it may all be for naught because chances are, at least according to those who are putting their money where their mouth is, that the Supreme Court is going to rule against Trump's tariffs.

BERMAN: Someday. Eventually. Eventually one day.

ENTEN: Eventually. We don't know when it's going to be.

BERMAN: All right, Harry Enten, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BERMAN: A lot of news this morning. We'll be right back.

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[09:50:12]

BOLDUAN: This morning, the saga of convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh continues. He's taking his fight against his double murder conviction from 2023 now to the South Carolina State Supreme Court. We're showing you live pictures from the Supreme Court there.

Murdaugh is currently serving life in prison for the shooting deaths of his wife and youngest son. His legal team, though, is now expected to try to argue that jury tampering impacted the outcome of that trial. And they also plan to challenge the use of his other financial crimes as evidence in that trial.

Joining me right now is Elliot Williams, CNN legal analyst and former federal prosecutor, for more on this.

I was saying to Dianne Gallagher, who's on the ground, I mean this has been such a saga, and it continues. ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Oh, yes.

BOLDUAN: This is a case of two appeals, right? Let's start with one of them. The question of whether or not the county clerk of court influenced jurors in their decision in that original trial. What do you think of this?

WILLIAMS: Yes. She might have. Now, the question is, did she influence them enough to warrant taking a big action, throwing the whole thing out?

BOLDUAN: How do you measure influence enough, Elliot?

WILLIAMS: That's the thing, it's all so subjective.

Now, here's the thing. This individual, this clerk of court, did make comments to a number of jurors to the effect of, hey, you got to watch this guy. That's really what she said. And moreover, she got into some trouble because she wrote a book about the case. So, there's this idea that this individual was trying to engineer a conviction and was trying to get into jurors' heads.

Now, look, there was a lot of evidence against Brian (ph) Murdaugh. It was a pretty clear conviction. And so, you know, an appeals court might be skeptical about throwing it out on this basis. But look, the Sixth Amendment to the Constitution is big. It's a big deal. We don't mess around with juries, as this woman clearly might have done.

BOLDUAN: And she pleaded guilty to perjury and such later on.

WILLIAMS: Yes. Yes.

BOLDUAN: The second appeal. This has to do with evidence. I mentioned his attorneys -- his previous financial crimes that he's also serving time for.

WILLIAMS: Yes.

BOLDUAN: And his attorneys say that those crimes, they should not have been included in trial. You say this one's a minefield. Why?

WILLIAMS: It is a minefield, only because there's this word of prejudice, not in the sense that we think of it in common conversation. But in the court, prejudice is evidence that comes in at trial that serves to taint a jury's opinions about a person negatively that have nothing to do with the case.

Now, he's on trial for murdering his son and his wife, full stop. He had a lot of bad financial drama and also, you know, was convicted of a series of financial crimes. Now the question is, how much evidence of those could come into court as proof of a motive? He was killing his wife and son to cover up his financial crimes. Yes, it's kind of relevant. Yes, it's a motive, but it's risky because you're putting in evidence that this really is just a rotten guy, that's why you should convict him. And that's what the appeals court's going to be looking at, how much evidence of these financial crimes was too much, and did it get in the way of his fair trial?

BOLDUAN: So, the way this South Carolina State Supreme Court works is, it's not going to be like, you know, a decision from the bench. It could be a bit before they -- they decide what happens here. How -- is there an indication of how you think they're going to lean?

WILLIAMS: Oh, gosh, look, it's South Carolina. It is a traditionally pro-prosecution judiciary and state.

BOLDUAN: OK.

WILLIAMS: So, hard -- you know, it's hard to see how they're going to -- what they'll do.

BOLDUAN: Right.

WILLIAMS: Now, there's a few different ways they could do it. They could just say, hey, look, no harm, no foul on either of these. The guy's convicted. He stays in prison, where he already is for at least, I think, two life sentences and 40 years in the financial crimes.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

WILLIAMS: They could send it back down to the lower court and say, hey, look, there's an open question about either of these things, and you just have to have another hearing to unpack it. Or they could say, look, this was so bad, throw it all out. If you want to give him a new trial, you can. But the errors were so grave at trial, you have to throw the thing out. Who knows what they're going to do.

BOLDUAN: But he still remains in prison.

WILLIAMS: On the financial crimes. It's a 40 year sentence on -- or I think more than 40 on the financial crimes.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

WILLIAMS: So, even if the life sentences are thrown out, he's still going to be in prison. Now, he's saying he wants his name cleared because he did not kill his wife and son. So, needless to say, it's a reputation building exercise as much as it is anything else.

BOLDUAN: I mean this thing, the twists and turns that have gone on with this have been quite something.

WILLIAMS: Nuts. Yes.

BOLDUAN: Thanks for coming in.

WILLIAMS: (INAUDIBLE).

BOLDUAN: It was great to see you.

WILLIAMS: Yes, good to see you.

BOLDUAN: John. BERMAN: Elliot Williams, my favorite new author, author of "Five

Bullets." A great new book on Bernie Goetz.

BOLDUAN: Thank you. I apologize.

BERMAN: All right, happening this hour, 19 Buddhist monks and their rescue dog wrap up their 2,300-mile march for peace at the Lincoln Memorial. This was just a few seconds ago. The journey started in Fort Worth, Texas, in October. They walked ten states to spread a message of peace and unity that took them 108 days to do it.

NBC says Super Bowl LX was the most watched program in NBC's history, with about 125 million people in the U.S. tuning in.

[09:55:05]

The game ranked as the second most watched show in U.S. history behind last year's Super Bowl on Fox. Bad Bunny's halftime show is now the fourth watched halftime ever, behind Kendrick Lamar, Michael Jackson and Usher. And you're going to think I'm biased here. I'm not. But this is actually really, really good numbers considering how bad the game actually was.

All right, pop star Britney Spears has sold off her music catalog. According to multiple reports she sold it to Primary Wave. Not clear how much she was paid. Top artists including Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Justin Bieber have received hundreds of millions of dollars for their catalogs.

Kate Bolduan, when will you sell your music catalog?

BOLDUAN: Oh, you know, it's just worth so much that I just need to hold out a little bit longer.

BERMAN: Kate Bolduan sings "The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round."

BOLDUAN: Like a master.

BERMAN: Exactly.

BOLDUAN: Like a master.

We survived today.

BERMAN: Barely. (INAUDIBLE).

BOLDUAN: Yes. Thank you, sir.

Thank you so much for joining us. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "THE SITUATION ROOM" up next.

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