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Job Market Shows Surprising Growth In Sept: 254,000 Added; Port Workers End Strike, Return To Work Today; People In Asheville Return To Find Homes In Ruins. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired October 04, 2024 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: -- top seller. I'm sure you might have one in your closet.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: I -- I'm going to be getting one, a couple of them for -- for Christmas, I think. I mean this guy is off to an amazing start. Football fans in D.C. have not been this happened -- happy in a very long time, Carolyn. I'm -- I'm so excited about this. But of course, I can't -- I'm not making any predictions. I'm just going to say, go Commanders.

MANNO: OK. OK.

ACOSTA: But great stuff, Carolyn. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

And thank you all of you for joining me this morning. All week long I want to bring in my good friend Pamela Brown. Yes, I -- I -- I'm a sucker for football, Pam. I -- I got to plead guilty to that one. I -- I'll be watching it this weekend.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: I hear you. I -- I hear you. I've been in Washington a long time and I know a lot of Commanders fans. I'm more on the sidelines when it comes to football, more of a college basketball gal having been, you know, I'm from Kentucky.

ACOSTA: Kentucky. That's right.

BROWN: Went to UNC Chapel Hill. I got college basketball in my blood. But hey, go Commanders.

ACOSTA: There you go.

BROWN: I have my favorite team. I got to mention is the Dallas Cowboys. And I think --

ACOSTA: Oh, no.

BROWN: I know.

ACOSTA: That doesn't work.

BROWN: I know. ACOSTA: You got -- you got to pick one. I -- I'll -- we'll work on this.

BROWN: Well -- well, OK. It -- it could be a work in progress. I have family from Texas --

ACOSTA: Exactly.

BROWN: -- grew up watching them.

ACOSTA: Oh, man.

BROWN: It's one of those things, so.

ACOSTA: I hear you. I hear you.

BROWN: But -- but -- but we'll work on it when they play each other, I think later in November we'll have to --

ACOSTA: Sounds good.

BROWN: -- we'll have to come up with something. All right, Jim.

ACOSTA: You got it.

BROWN: Have a good weekend.

ACOSTA: You, too.

BROWN: All right. Thanks so much. Good morning, everyone. You are live in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Pamela Brown here in Washington. And we're following two big stories about the economy this morning. The latest jobs report is out and it blew away expectations. And a tentative deal has ended the port strike that threatened to damage the economy. Thousands of longshoremen are returning to work today. We're going to have more on that in just a moment.

But first, let's get straight to CNN's Matt Egan to break down these latest job numbers for us that the Biden administration is applauding this morning. Matt?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Pamela, it feels rare that we get positive surprises, but yes, we've had two in just the last 18 hours. First, the porch strike ending suddenly, and now these jobs numbers that came in much stronger than expected, 254,000 jobs added in September blowing away forecast.

This is a very healthy number in any environment, but especially now because there's been all these concerns that maybe the jobs market is slowing down. But when we look at the trend, we can see that actually hiring is accelerating. The third straight month of faster hiring, this was actually the most jobs added since March.

Now the unemployment rate was expected to hold steady. Some were bracing for an increase. But look this, it went down to 4.1 percent. That is historically very low. University of Michigan economist Justin Wolfers, he described these numbers to me as, quote, incredible, fantastic, and the kind of numbers we dream about.

When you dig into the report, we can see that hiring was strong across many different sectors, leisures and hospitality, retail, government, all of them adding jobs. The only blemish was manufacturing, which lost jobs. Wages, they accelerated. That shows strong demand for workers. Paychecks are now growing up, are now increasing much faster than prices. That is very good news.

So you put all this together, Pamela, and it paints the picture of a very resilient jobs market, much more resilient than people were expecting.

BROWN: All right, Matt Egan, thanks for bringing us the latest on that front.

We want to turn now to our other economic story this morning. Tens of thousands of dock workers at ports along the East and Gulf Coast are back on the job after a three day strike. If their walkout had continued, it could have had a widespread impact on the economa -- economy. CNN's Beth -- Vanessa Yurkevich joins us now. Vanessa, how did this tentative deal to end the strike come together?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS & POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there were growing economic pressures, growing consumer pressures and growing political pressures to get this deal done. And ultimately yesterday, according to our colleague, Kayla Tausche, President Biden nudged his economic advisers to put pressure on U.S. MX, which represents the ship lines, to put a better offer, a better deal on the table to try to get these workers back on the job.

And one of those economic advisers was Lael Brainard. She spoke last hour about what this deal ultimately entails. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAEL BRAINARD, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL ECONOMIC ADVISER: I think it is important that the companies came forward to make a generous wage commitment. That's important because these workers, for the six previous years, some years they didn't see any wage gains. Other years they saw only $1. And don't forget, these are workers that came out every day during COVID. They risked their lives to keep goods moving for American families and consumers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YURKEVICH: Now, this tentative agreement was reached just on wages alone. Here's what's in the deal. There's a $4 an hour increase for the six years of the contract, but that's all they agreed to. They still have to work everything else out. But in that time, everyone is going back on the job starting today. And their current contract is going to be extended through January 15th. And that's we're going -- they're going to work on a lot of the other details.

[11:05:06]

But ultimately, Pamela, it's the rank and file union members who are going to have the final say. So they're going to keep -- be paying close attention to exactly what ends up coming out in this deal, especially around automation, protecting their jobs to make sure they have jobs to return to when this is all said and done. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, so what does all this mean for the -- the hoarding that we've been seeing, even for toilet paper, which really had nothing to do with this, but that's a side point. You -- you know, could we see any impact from the three-day strike?

YURKEVICH: Likely not. It's interesting because ports often close for days on end because of bad weather. This is just a situation where everyone was paying attention to exactly why these ports were closed. And as you mentioned, the impact that we've seen so far has really been panic buying alone. There have really been no shortages to report. And ultimately things are going to start to get back on track pretty quickly. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, that's good to hear. Some very positive economic news this morning.

YURKEVICH: Yes.

BROWN: Vanessa, thank you so much.

We want to turn now to the struggle in the southeast, one week after Hurricane Helene just changed everything for so many people. This is brand new video that we have gotten from Asheville, North Carolina. It's from Leslie Rowland. She's an artist who fled the storm and has now gone back to see what, if anything, was spared. Like most of us, she just can't believe what she is seeing with her own eyes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's not something you see every day.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look at that. Jesus. Look at that. OK, we're behind a fire truck. The water is still really high. Look at that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Just imagine if this is your hometown and it's just been decimated like this. Leslie and her husband, Wade, join us now. First of all, I -- I just want to ask, how are you doing now a week in, Leslie to you?

LESLIE ROWLAND, ART GALLERY DESTROYED BY HELENE: Yes. I think -- I think reality is still hitting. I think we're all still in shock and in survival mode, doing what we can do to, you know, help the community, but definitely still in shock.

BROWN: You know, for people, we see the video. We see the pictures. We have this -- this video that you shared with us walking into your Asheville gallery on the French Broad River for the first time. Let's -- let's look at that and listen a little bit.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ROWLAND: Do you feel like what we're standing on is safe? It feels solid. There is the gallery. There are the walls. There are the paintings. And then upstairs, total loss. We brought the paintings up here and the water came.

Oh, look, there's one drum stuck in the mud.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, the bat.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Perfect right there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The bat, what's left of the bat.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nice. Pretty. That's pretty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: That was there in Bat Cave, North Carolina. Tell us more, Wade to you, about what you saw, especially, you know, as you hiked to your own house there in Bat Cave and about that journey?

WADE OPPLIGER, STORM SURVIVOR: Well, yes, we tried to prepare for what we might see and were way underestimating how devastating it was and how much the landscape, the geography has changed. I think the riverbed in front of our house is probably three to four times as wide. It basically took back the entire gorge with roads and houses on -- on one side of the river. And I guess the -- the main thing that really hit home is so many of our neighbors are of not in a position to relocate or leave, so they really have to try to make do with what's left and, you know, try to make something rise out of what -- what remains. So it's -- it's -- it's -- we're trying to get people to help.

The Bat Cave Baptist Church is accepting donations to help the people in the local community. It's basically now the central hub of what remains of the -- the community there.

BROWN: Wow. I mean, just thinking about people having to make do with what they have, they are left with so little after Helene. Leslie, tell us about what this was like for you, this hike that you embarked on yesterday to go to your home.

ROWLAND: I think that we had so much adrenaline flowing that we didn't really feel the ground under our feet. It was shocking. I -- I didn't even recognize my own home. I didn't recognize my own streets. I couldn't find my house. A neighbor's house was tipped over in the middle of the road. What was left of it, the road that I usually walked on was now the river. There was complete devastation. It was shocking, and it was -- it was heartbreaking.

BROWN: To follow up on that, you say a neighbor's house was tipped onto the road. Have you been able to talk to that neighbor? And -- and -- and what about the other neighbors?

[11:10:04] ROWLAND: So one of our neighbors, Paula, was trapped in her collapsed house, and we were texting and -- at the time. And she was able to escape alive. Of course, when the water receded, she was medevac'd out. And the neighbor -- another neighbor, Faye (ph), whose house flipped over onto its head, was also medevac'd out. So she got out of her house alive.

BROWN: Wow. How frightening, though, to be trapped in that situation. And, you know, kudos to both of you for trying to help -- help your neighbors, help the community rebuild as you are trying to process everything you're personally going through. Leslie and Wade, we so appreciate it.

ROWLAND: Thank you.

OPPLIGER: Thank you.

BROWN: I want to turn now to Buncombe County, that's where Asheville is. And more than 200 people are still unaccounted for. There are schools that will remain closed for the time being. Mistie Cogbill is a longtime teacher in the area and joins us now. Misty, my understanding is that all the teachers are now accounted for from the school, but several students are still missing since the storm hit, right?

COGBILL, NORTH CAROLINA TEACHER: No. Unfortunately, we still have a teacher. We have 50 out of 51 that we're looking for --

BROWN: OK.

COGBILL: That are in the beginning te -- teacher support program, and she is from Fairview. And it was a very hard hit area. So we have, you know, had amazing communities help us to find teachers. It's very hard right now. It's overwhelming due to the lack of cell phone connection and families that have been evacuated and loss of homes. And so we still have one teacher that we are searching for in the Fairview area.

But you're right. Now, as we are finding teachers, we have all the teachers in Black Mountain Primary school, and we found all the teachers in W.D. Williams Elementary, which is in Swannanoa, which is also a very hard hit area. They are turning to look for the children in their classrooms. Right now, we have teachers that are going door to door. They're trying to take supplies with them so that they can help out.

We have eight complete classrooms at W.D. Williams out of 23. The sweetest janitor, Mr. Jeffrey (ph), is helping. We have Ms. Sisler (ph), who is the ESL teacher, trying to help us around the clock with multilingual families, because that is very difficult to find right now. And especially in some of those areas, they were the hardest hit. And it is very overwhelming.

BROWN: I feel like, I can -- I can just sense the emotion that you're going through just hearing you talk about it. What does it feel like?

COGBILL: I -- I cannot explain this, Pamela, that, you know, it's been one week and it feels like the longest short ever. Like, it feels like years of work we've done. Most people are working 12 to 15 hours a day. You know, people are exhausted.

And luckily, as we're having, you know, these supports come in and as people are trying to help us that have experienced what a hurricane is before, you know, we -- we have not experienced this, es -- especially in this magnitude. But as people are coming in, they're preparing us that this is going to be a very long process. And it is just so emotional.

I mean, we have these highs where we find somebody and we're so excited and -- and, you know, we -- we're able to find them. We found a teacher in Georgia. Her family had rescued her, but she just wasn't able to take any of her things. And she got ahold of -- of family in Raleigh, who I went to high school with, and they got ahold of me through that.

So we, I mean, the community is amazing through teachers. We have a -- a beautiful story of a group of teachers that are getting together the children in Hendersonville right now to start a little football league because, you know, football had just started up and they were so excited. And they -- they don't -- they no longer have any normalcy, Pamela, the normalcy for this, the normal watch way in this hurricane.

BROWN: I have chills from that. We should get them on the show to talk about, you know, their -- their efforts to try to create some of that nor -- normalcy that Helene washed away, as you so aptly put it.

COGBILL: Yes.

BROWN: What about the response? You know, I mean, I hear you talking a lot about the teachers coming together and, you know, the -- the school, the CHED and the administrators. But what about the -- the response from the government, from the state and the federal level, what have you seen on that front?

COGBILL: We are starting to see things come in. We are getting helicopters and supplies. And, you know, we are starting to be able to assess what our teachers need. Some of our teachers have been able to go back to their schools. Some schools do not have access at all, but those that are able to access their buildings, some of their classrooms are completely empty, like they have nothing.

[11:15:13]

So as we begin to start assessing these situations, we'll be able to target. But I will tell you that Kaplan, which is a school supplier here, has reached out to be able to offer their support. We've heard all the way from East Carolina University there, teacher support program there, has reached out to us because they've been through hurricanes. They know what this is like.

So on the state level, we're definitely hearing from, you know, all these communities that can help. And that's what we need to realize is we are very small, tiny communities, but we're all connected and we're all working to share these resources together. And that is a beautiful thing, but it takes time.

BROWN: It certainly does. And we hope that you will continue to get more support and the help that you need. Mistie, thank you. And best of luck as you search for that one teacher you said it's still unaccounted for and the students as well. We'll be thinking about you all.

COGBILL: Thank you, Pamela.

BROWN: And I want to take a moment to fact check a claim that is spreading far and wide about FEMA disaster funding. Let's first listen to what we're hearing from former President Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: They stole the FEMA money just like they stole it from a bank so they could give it to their illegal immigrants that they want to have vote for them this season.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And Republican Congressman Mike Waltz said on this show yesterday about people struggling with Helene's aftermath. This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE WALTZ (R-FL): They're hearing from the DHS secretary. They're out of money to help them, but they still have money to help people who have come to this country illegally. I think that's wrong on the face of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: I want to go through the facts here. One, it is illegal for undocumented immigrants to vote in presidential elections. Two, Congress appropriates funds with intent for specific purposes. The money allocated to DHS for helping states to house migrants is separate, completely separate from the money for disasters. No money is being stolen from disaster relief.

Three, FEMA says it has enough money for disaster relief for Helene, posting this fact check to its website. In fact, before the show, just to make sure I had all the facts right, did some digging, I spoke to a DHS official. That official says as of this morning, $45 million from FEMA that has already been used for Helene disaster relief. The concern is if people hear that money is going elsewhere. They may not even apply for relief. The official says people should know there is money available now to help.

If you or a loved one needs disaster relief help, you should visit disasterassistance.gov or dial 1-800-621-FEMA. I'll also put that on my social media channels at PamelaBrownCNN, in case you didn't catch that.

Coming up, the Justice Department disrupts an alleged Russian hacking operation. Find out who was targeted and how officials stopped it.

Plus, Garth Brooks is accused of sexual assault and battery in a new lawsuit, how he's responding to it in a fiery defense.

[11:18:18]

And later, why Los Angeles prosecutors say they are taking a new look at the infamous Menendez brothers murder case.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: And turning now to the special counsel's case over former President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Part of a new filing looks at the Trump campaign's alleged efforts to create chaos at polling centers around battleground states. Prosecutors allege that the campaign used aggressive tactics like angry protesters claiming voter fraud in places like Philadelphia to force confrontation with election officials and so doubt about the voting and -- and where it was going, which they then used to claim his supporters were denied access to observe the ballot count.

I want to bring in Philadelphia City Commissioner Seth Bluestein. He was the deputy commissioner -- commissioner in 2020. Hi, Seth, thanks for coming on. So these scenes described in the Jack Smith filing that I just laid out of, do they align with what you experienced in Philly in 2020? Bring us into that.

SETH BLUESTEIN (R), PHILADELPHIA CITY COMMISSION: Yes, thanks for having me, Pamela. And they do, unfortunately. I was at the Pennsylvania Convention Center throughout the ballot counting process in 2020, overseeing the staff who were there to count the ballots. And the building was surrounded by protesters that entire week.

BROWN: And tell us more about what that was like with these protesters and how it impacted you guys who were just trying to do your job and count the votes?

BLUESTEIN: When were on the ballot counting floor, it was almost like a casino effect where we couldn't see the outside. We didn't know if it was night or day, what the weather was like. We were just focused on doing our jobs, counting the votes. But outside, there was so much activity that we had to have police barricades protecting the entrance to the Convention Center and ensuring that were safe while were counting the ballots. And there were actually gunmen who drove up to Philadelphia from Virginia who were trying to get into the Convention Center with weapons at that time.

[11:25:02]

BROWN: Well, what about, like, when you had to -- to take a break or leave the Convention Center, how concerned were you about safety during that time?

BLUESTEIN: It was really challenging to leave. We couldn't go out the front e -- front exit to access the street. We had to leave through the back, even when we could get out. I mean, most of the time we didn't leave. Without exaggerating, when I woke up Tuesday morning on Election Day, I actually didn't go back to sleep until Friday night. We just couldn't stop counting the votes because there were so many ballots to count in Philadelphia that we had to do it around the clock for days on end. So it was really a challenge to leave the Convention Center at all.

BROWN: So you didn't sleep from Tuesday to Friday. Wow, that sounds like a -- like Navy SEAL Bud's hell week to be awake for that long because -- but you knew the sense of urgency of getting the vote, and you knew what would happen with, you know, the -- the -- this misinformation that could come about because of the vacuum, right, of -- of counting the vote.

I want to get to what we're expecting for 2024 in terms of the vote in just a second. But -- but how are you preparing for such a scenario in 2024, as Jack Smith laid out in his filing, and -- and what you experienced in 2020?

BLUESTEIN: Well, we've taken our experiences from 2020. And we've learned lessons from them. And we've spent the last three and a half years preparing for this moment. The ballot counting process in Philadelphia is moved -- it has been moved to a new permanent warehouse. It's a little bit more remote than where the Convention Center was, so it's going to be harder to access for a lot of protesters.

We put security around that warehouse a little bit further out than right at the door. And there will still be opportunities for people to exercise their First Amendment rights and have their voices heard. But you'll be in a little bit more of a controlled manner in a safer distance from where the ballots are being counted.

BROWN: I want to ask you, because in Pennsylvania is -- by law, you can't start counting the votes until the morning of the election. What are you expecting in terms of when we're going to find out the results? And what concerns do you have about the vacuum being filled with misinformation leading to potentially dangerous situations against election workers in that time gap?

BLUESTEIN: Everywhere I go, I always start by saying the window of time from when the Election Day closes and the polls are closed until the race can be called. That is the window of opportunity where miss and disinformation can spread the most. And that's when the harassment and the threats begin. So that window, we need to shrink it down as much as possible.

And we've done everything we can in Philadelphia and across the commonwealth to improve our operations so that we can do that even though the law did not change and we will not be allowed to start until Election Day.

BROWN: But how really quickly.

BLUESTEIN: And it takes time to count.

BROWN: Yes, go ahead. BLUESTEIN: So it -- it takes a lot of time to count ballots. You know, there are hundreds of thousands of ballots inside of, you know, two envelopes each, which means you are handling 600,000 to 1 million pieces of paper. And that will take at least a couple days to get through all of those ballots. And whether or not the race can be called will really be dependent on the margin of the election. But we're going to do everything in our power to be as efficient and thorough as possible so that the public can know the results as quickly as possible.

BROWN: All right. Seth Bluestein, thank you so much for coming on the show.

BLUESTEIN: Thanks, Pamela.

BROWN: Well, the Justice Department and Microsoft have seized more than 100 web domains linked to a Russian intelligence agency. It is the latest move by the DOJ to expose alleged cover operations targeting American democracy ahead of the November election.

Joining us now is CNN national security analyst and former deputy director of national intelligence, Beth Sanner. So, Beth, what more can you tell us about this Russian interference and hacking?

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Right. Well, what just happened yesterday, which was a combined operation kind of action by both DOJ and Microsoft to wrap up about 107 individual domains where the Russian Intelligence Service was taking this activity and bringing it right to civil society groups, members of the government, officials of the government, former officials of the government from all different agencies like energy, intelligence organizations, the military, and trying to fish, pretending there's somebody that this person knows or would get to know in order to steal their credentials and then be able to hack into organizations. And in this way, they can disrupt our whole civil process and also steal information.

BROWN: And they were also creating like fake news sites, right?

[11:30:02]

SANNER: Yes. So a month ago, this comes almost exactly a month ago, where the Department of Justice swept up this thing called Doppelganger.