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First of All with Victor Blackwell
Unemployment Among Black Women Hits Highest Rate Since 2021; Job Growth Stalls: U.S. Adds Just 22K Jobs In August; Black Unemployment Rate Surges Higher In August Jobs Report; Trump's Former Surgeon General Reacts To Health Agency Turmoil; RFK Jr.: CDC Changes "Were Absolutely Necessary Adjustment"; Sen. Warnock: RFK Jr. Is A "Hazard" To Americans' Health; Top Health Official In Florida Explains Decision To Drop State Vaccine Mandates: "Drips With Disdain And Slavery"; Residents Still Cleaning Up After Roseland Explosion; Teens Slay University Opens To Empower Young Girls Through Hair Braiding. Aired 8-9a ET
Aired September 06, 2025 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:00:55]
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: First of all, if you want to know the direction of the jobs market, pay attention to the Black unemployment numbers. That's not my guidance, that's the guidance from economists and experts who know much more about this than I. But let me explain, right now, the U.S. unemployment rate is at 4.3 percent. We just learned that very few jobs were added in August, about 22,000. That's not good.
If you were to describe this via text, you send a red alarm emoji. Now for Black workers, the data is worse. For now another month the unemployment rate is going up. It's now 7.5 percent. That's the highest it's been since October of 2021, and it's a number we've been watching ever since it was 6.8 percent in June.
Two alarm emojis. You dig even deeper and you'll find that Black women are disproportionately struggling right now. The jobless rate for Black women is at 6.7 percent. The last time it was that high, September of 2021, back during the pandemic. Add one more red alarm emoji.
Why is this happening? Economists have told us that when we see the unemployment rate going up for Black people, it's a sign that it could soon go up for all people. And as our CNN business team explains, "Black workers are disproportionately employed in frontline and lower- wage industries as well as the government workforce." So what comes for Black people first often comes for everyone. And, you know, those good government jobs have been a tool for Black people to build stable livelihoods, especially for Black women.
But the federal workforce has been a target of this administration, along with immigrants and diversity initiatives. We have a lot to talk about.
So joining me this morning, LaTosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter Fund, Stephanie Donegan, a former Republican candidate for the Georgia Senate and founder of Your Rich Life media and the Stillwell Society. And Dalila Paul is the national editor of the news site Capital B. Welcome to you all.
Stephanie, let me start with you, 22,000 jobs --
STEPHANIE DONEGAN, (R) FORMER GEORGIA STATE SENATE CANDIDATE: Yes.
BLACKWELL: -- in August. June revised down now, the first month of job losses in five years. The president promised the golden era for America. Where is it?
DONEGAN: I mean, ultimately we have to just be honest and say it doesn't look good, which I know people don't expect me to say. But the reality is right now, because of all the cutbacks in the federal government, it is going to hit Black women disproportionately right now because of how much we are employed. That being said, I do believe that it is going to bounce back with the new businesses and new jobs that will be coming. But I think we need to give it time. I don't think we've given it enough time.
BLACKWELL: That's something we heard from the Commerce secretary as well. Let's play what Howard Lutnick said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOWARD LUTNICK, COMMERCE SECRETARY: We've seen that in all sorts of agencies throughout this government. If the people, the holdovers from the Biden administration, which is they're just bent against the president's success, they're rooting against America and against Donald Trump and that's got to end. So he can't replace somebody, you know, two weeks ago. And you expect fundamental change.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: LaTosha, he says give it time.
LATOSHA BROWN, CO-FOUNDER, BLACK VOTERS MATTER FUND: You know, the challenge with this is that when you look at Black women, Black women, we particularly in terms of women, we over -- we are, in terms of participation in the labor market, we're 60 percent more than all of our women counterparts of the labor market. But what's interesting interested in federal jobs, we're about 11.7 percent, which means that's imperative of our population, right? But when you look in the private sector, we're less than 1.8 percent when you look at higher management jobs. So what we have seen is that federal jobs have actually created a pathway and opportunity that Black women -- it demonstrates that when Black women are given an opportunity that there are federal protections that allow us to matriculate that what you see is that we're able to get representation. What he's saying around that we're supposed to just play on the market.
But what we're seeing is an underrepresentation in the market that oftentimes we're underpaid in the market. When entry level jobs, you do not see the same kind of economic stability that we've seen with federal employment.
BLACKWELL: I saw your facial expression.
[08:05:00]
DONEGAN: Because ultimately a lot of the hiring I feel that's happened within the federal government was to check boxes for DEI, not necessarily because this was just perfect for them. And I only say that because of how many Black women have been employed. And I think that's part of the reason were seeing the layoffs that we're seeing in the unemployment, because that's how they got hired in the first place.
BROWN: You know, I think the interesting thing about that is that in terms of federal jobs, that is merit based, that people actually are able to keep their jobs or even to literally ascend based on being merit based. You don't see that in the private sector. So I think it's really to say that, to say that Black women working in these jobs is to check a box, it ignores the fact that is a merit base.
DONEGAN: Well, to a degree, because I do know for federal government, depending on what your history is, if you have worked in the military, if you're Black, you do get extra points when it comes to hiring. And so being Black in general will push people up when it comes to hiring. Being a Black woman will push people up when it comes to hiring.
DALILA PAUL, NATIONAL EDITOR, CAPITAL B: Can I pause? I think we have to think about the impact, I mean the fact that you have hundreds, thousands of Black women who are out of jobs, women from the age of 40 something, 50 something, who are caregivers for their families. We've had reports -- I mean, we've -- I mean we have interviewed women who are struggling right now. So I hear what you're saying about the checking of the boxes, but like, I think we're losing sight of the human --
BROWN: That's right.
PAUL: -- impact of this.
DONEGAN: Actually, I agree with you on that. I actually feel that it's quite unfortunate that that has to happen. But we cannot continue to keep people in jobs to keep a payroll going. I think that's unfortunate.
PAUL: But that's not -- I mean, again, I have to disagree with you. I think a lot of the women who have been losing their jobs have played critical roles in government.
DONEGAN: But if it was really critical --
PAUL: And it's beyond DEI.
DONEGAN: If it was really critical --
PAUL: It's beyond DEI.
DONEGAN: -- they would still have their job. It wasn't that critical.
BROWN: No, they don't have their jobs because now there's a policy in place that really has been racialized. It's not -- it's -- we're looking at a space at how were they able to ascend. It wasn't about the checking the box, it was hard work. It was -- we know that in a culture as in America, when a Black women ever been given something just because we're checking a box. The women, we are the cornerstone of this economy all across state.
DONEGAN: Well, I hear you, but I can also say that one my first jobs was for the federal government and I was very clear that I got pushed up ahead of people because I was Black and I checked about.
BLACKWELL: Well, let me ask you this, because there's a gender economist, Katica Roy, who calculated between February and July that 319,000 Black women lost their jobs --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's right.
BLACKWELL: -- in the private and public sector. In that same period, job increases for white men was 365,000. There were 176,000 job gains for Hispanic women. There were 142,000 job gains for white women. And so when you suggest that these Black women were in jobs to check a box --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's right.
BLACKWELL: -- explain -- reconcile that with the increases for these other demographics and communities.
DONEGAN: Well, I specifically --
BLACKWELL: Those jobs were earned and they deserved better jobs and deserved to have more jobs, while the hundreds of thousands of Black women were just there to be pushed along and check a box?
DONEGAN: Well, no, that's not what I'm saying.
BLACKWELL: OK.
DONEGAN: Because ultimately, I think we all can agree that DEI has not just helped Black women. So that's in the first place. DEI has helped minorities, women, white women. DEI has helped not just Black women. But when it comes to the conversation of federal workers, with us being such a large percentage of federal workers.
BROWN: It's deeply insulting to say that. It's deeply insulting that when you're looking at federal workers, we make what, 11.7 percent? That's just in parity of our population. And so that there -- you have 80 percent, you know, of -- more of people that represent different segments of society. So to suggest that Black women in some way, that our presence in the federal government has come from just somehow we are checking the box really undermines the fact that we have been the cornerstone of the labor market in this country. DONEGAN: No, it doesn't. It just looks -- that's the way you want to see it. It doesn't. Ultimately, Black women were not the only people who were laid off. It's just that the conversation we're having today is around a large percentage of Black women, and that is because of how many Black women are employed federally.
But ultimately, when we talk about people who have still been employed, who have been hired, of other ethnicities of other races. I know for sure, I've seen the conversation on social media, people saying that they're not going back to work yet. I've seen the conversation of people saying that they're going to sit on unemployment. I've seen the conversation of people saying they're going to start businesses. And so ultimately, I don't even think the numbers are completely correct yet.
And I don't know if we're going to know that for a few months.
BLACKWELL: Dalila, let me get you in here and I'll bring this, that Black women bore the brunt of the job losses during the pandemic. They bore the brunt of the job losses of DOGE. And so as we look at this continue in private sector as well, what's that mean on a community economic level, on a home economic level with Black women disproportionately being head of household in many homes?
[08:10:18]
PAUL: Yes. I mean, it's the ripple effect. It's the fact that people can't pay their mortgages, people can't afford to take care of their parents who are sick. They have kids in college. But I want to also mention how, just back to her point about the jobs, the Department of Education had a large amount of Black women who were laid off.
Many of these women worked in the civil rights divisions. These offices investigated discrimination against Black students. There are these real consequential ripple effects that are happening professionally and personally, and we have to keep that in mind.
DONEGAN: So do we not think that these jobs will come as this coming to the state, the Department of Education coming to the states --
BLACKWELL: Yes.
DONEGAN: -- will -- are we not looking at it as though the jobs will open back up? Are we not looking at it as though it stopped on a federal level, but it will move to a state level? Are we just ignoring that fact?
BROWN: No, what we're looking at is we're looking at that households are being impacted.
DONEGAN: So --
BLACKWELL: Yes.
BROWN: what we're looking is --
DONEGAN: -- are we going to continue paying people just because we feel bad for them when those show that these divisions --
BROWN: No, no, this isn't about feeling bad for them. We're saying that there are credible workers who have actually contributed and continues to contribute to this (inaudible).
DONEGAN: But in departments in which we've shown waste, so we can't keep proven ways.
PAUL: But how --
BLACKWELL: We --
BROWN: How ways? That's not been proven.
BLACKWELL: We've got to pause here. LaTosha, Delila, Stephanie, thank you all for staying with me.
I will say here where I started this conversation is where I want to put some ex -- an exclamation point on the end. What has come for Black workers and specifically Black women economists say, will be coming for everyone. So this will be a conversation over the next months and years that could expand.
All right, we should be listening to right now the question of who leads the conversation on health. President Trump's Health secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is facing scrutiny after new comments downplaying vaccines, including for COVID. Dr. Jerome Adams, President Trump's surgeon general during the pandemic is here. Plus, we'll tell you about a Black community in Louisiana struggling to clean up after an explosion at a factory.
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[08:17:04]
BLACKWELL: Is our nation's public health at risk under the leadership of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.? That's a question that even some Republicans are asking after several controversial decisions and a chaotic Senate hearing this week, Secretary Kennedy plans to add new people to an influential CDC vaccine advisory panel just weeks after booting every sitting member off of it. And he recently fired the head of the CDC after just a few weeks on the job. These announcements are unwinding years of work to reassure people, especially people of color, that the government knows what it's doing on public health, in particular that vaccines are safe, which was crucial during the pandemic.
In 2020, health officials put a number of plans in motion to increase vaccine trust through accessible vaccination stations, virtual town halls, written educational materials. But while RFK Jr. stressed that President Trump deserved a Nobel Prize for the COVID shots, he's also expressing skepticism on how effective they were.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARK WARNER (D-VA): Do you think the vaccine did anything to prevent additional deaths? ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., U.S. HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: Again, I would like to see the data and talk about the data. I'm not --
WARNER: You had this job for eight months and you don't know the data about whether the vaccine --
KENNEDY: No. And that's the problem --
WARNER: -- save lives?
KENNEDY: -- is that they didn't have the data. The data by the Biden administration absolutely dismal. It was chaos.
WARNER: Who is politicizing? You're saying the Biden administration politicize all the data? Go back to what Senator Cantwell just said --
KENNEDY: They fired Dr. Grubb.
WARNER: -- go to the Trump surgeon general.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: And so we will. Let's go now to President Trump's surgeon general during his first term and the pandemic, Dr. Jerome Adams is with us.
Sir, good morning to you. So before we get into the broader questions, let's start with that one and I'll put the question to you as Senator Warner put it to the secretary, did the COVID-19 vaccine do anything to prevent additional deaths?
DR. JEROME ADAMS, SERVED AS U.S. SURGEON GENERAL DURING 1ST TRUMP ADMIN.: Well, I have no clue what Secretary Kennedy is talking about here because it's very clear that the COVID vaccine saved lives. If you just look at last year, 95 percent of the people who were hospitalized from COVID in the '23, '24 winter season were unvaccinated. So speaking to you as a father, a doctor who still cares for patients, I was in the operating room yesterday and a former U.S. surgeon General, I'm deeply concerned about the health and safety of our nation under RFK's current leadership.
BLACKWELL: Well, let's get to that in just a moment because you co- authored an op-ed published this week in USA Today accusing Secretary Kennedy of jeopardizing the integrity of the CDC and public health. This is with doctors Joycelyn Elders, Richard Carmona, you wrote this, "As former surgeons general, we took an oath to protect the health of the American people. This includes speaking out when the public's health is in danger, even when doing so is uncomfortable or politically charged. We see that danger now in the current turmoil at the CDC.
[08:20:09]
Here's the secretary on the firings and the changes so far.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KENNEDY: These changes were absolutely necessary adjustments to restore the agency to its role as the world's gold standard public health agency.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: He says he's fixing it, not undermining it. You say what?
ADAMS: Well, the CDC isn't just a federal agency. It's a lifeline for millions of people. And he is, quite frankly, undermining it objectively. Objectively, we've seen organizations like the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the American Medical Association under Kennedy's leadership in the last six months, say that we can no longer trust the CDC, that we can no longer trust their recommendations. All of those groups have put out their own vaccine recommendations.
And that shows you that he's not actually lifting up the CDC, he's pulling it down, he's destroying it. And he's putting lives at risk by doing so.
BLACKWELL: I want you to listen to Georgia Senator Raphael Warnock and what he had to say about the secretary.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RAPHAEL WARNOCK (D-GA): Hazard to the health of the American people. I think that you ought to resign. And if you don't resign, the President of the United States who put forward Operation Warp Speed, which worked, should fire you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: He also said that he was a hazard to the health of Americans. Do you believe that the secretary himself is a hazard to the health of Americans?
ADAMS: Well, I absolutely believe he is uniquely damaging the credibility of federal agencies like the CDC, NIH, FDA, and he's putting us at risk.
And one of the most important things I want to highlight in the short time we have left is that we're using a dangerously narrow definition of high risk under this new FDA guidance that RFK put up for COVID vaccines both public discourse and in our federal agencies. Three quarters of U.S. adults have one underlying condition like obesity, high blood pressure or diabetes that significantly increases their risk of severe illness from COVID-19. And he's deemphasizing, limiting access to vaccines, which is going to disproportionately hurt communities of color who bear the brunt of these decisions.
So, to answer your question, not only is he endangering America at large, he's specifically endangering Black, Hispanic, and Native American communities who experienced death rates during the pandemic twice as high as White Americans. BLACKWELL: Should he resign?
ADAMS: Well, he's not going to resign. So really --
BLACKWELL: Should the president fire him?
ADAMS: -- who we're talking to here is President Trump. And I'm just flabbergasted, to be honest, that he seems to have President Trump in a thrall. President Trump is clearly the leader on foreign policy, clearly the leader on the economy and tariffs, but when it comes to health, he's doing whatever RFK says. And it just blows me away when I think about all that we accomplished with Operation Warp Speed. But I still am hopeful that President Trump will begin to see the danger that is being presented not just to America, but to his own legacy by continuing to have RFK in this -- in this position making these horrific decisions.
BLACKWELL: I've got one more question here, but before I get to that, should the president fire the secretary?
ADAMS: I absolutely believe that he should for the sake of the nation and the sake of his legacy.
BLACKWELL: Let me ask you here the announcement from the Florida surgeon general on the future of vaccination mandates in Florida. Let's play it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. JOSEPH LADAPO, FLORIDA SURGEON GENERAL: The Florida Department of Health, in partnership with the governor, is going to be working to end all vaccine mandates in Florida law. All of them. All of them.
Every last one of them. Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Vaccine mandates equated to slavery. What's your reaction to this proposal out of Florida?
ADAMS: Well, we know clearly that states with lower vaccination rates, which are often rural under resourced minority communities, have seen measles outbreaks reemerge in recent years, again saw negative outcomes from COVID and this disproportionately affects communities with poor access to health care. So this decision is dangerous. That's not guided by the science. And again, it's going to hurt the least among us.
What I would say to people in Florida right now is talk to your doctor, talk to your pharmacist, talk to your nurse practitioner, because it's clear that you can't trust the people who are in charge from a governmental perspective to protect your health.
BLACKWELL: Striking statements this morning, but I appreciate your time. Dr. Jerome Adams, former surgeon general during Trump's first term, thank you so much.
[08:25:05]
Our reaction to that interview and more on the state of health in America with our guests here on set next.
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BLACKWELL: All right, you just heard my conversation with Dr. Jerome Adams, the surgeon general during the pandemic President Trump's first term. He's worried about the state of public health and says that President Trump should absolutely fire Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for the sake of the nation. LaTosha Brown, Stephanie Donegan, Dalila Paul are back with us.
[08:30:00
LaTosha, let me start with you, what's your reaction to what you heard there from the former surgeon general?
BROWN: Yes, I think he's right on point. I think he should be fired. We have to recognize that there is a crisis, that playing with our health is not. That's not up for what your ideological position is. It has to be evidence based.
What we're also seeing is him gutting the CDC. Do we not believe that the CDC has been on the front lines of really, in terms of tracking diseases and in terms of health care in this country giving us health care information? And so here we've got someone who is in this high position that is going off theories, not necessarily of evidence, and what impact that's going to have on our children.
We're seeing the highest rate of measles since the elimination of the disease, essentially. So I think it's really problematic that we are -- we need to sound the alarms. And I think that there are. Both Republicans and Democrats are saying that there's a problem, y'all.
BLACKWELL: Stephanie, do you count yourself in the MAHA Movement?
DONEGAN: Well, let me. I'm not really in a movement at all.
BLACKWELL: OK.
DONEGAN: Let me start that. I'm not really in a movie.
BLACKWELL: What's your reaction to the call for the firing of the secretary?
DONEGAN: I don't think he should be fired.
BLACKWELL: OK.
DONEGAN: I don't agree with that necessarily. But that being said, I want to kind of comment on the measles conversation, because that is a vaccination that is already included, and we are seeing an increase in measles, and yet it is a vaccination. BLACKWELL: But you're seeing the increase in communities that do not
have their children vaccinated, that do not have these vaccinations.
DONEGAN: I actually looked that up. It's not only those communities, though. And so people who do have vaccinations are still getting measles, people in these communities. And so ultimately, this is my entire thought on it is people should have the choice to vaccinate their children, but it should not necessarily be mandatory.
I should not be forced to give my child a specific vaccination, just like the COVID vaccination. They didn't do enough research on that. And I know you guys will totally. I know the crowd I'm sitting with you would totally disagree. But the reality is there is a reason that a large percentage of people who did get the vaccination did go on to be sicker than ever more. These are literally data that has come up around that we've had more illnesses.
BLACKWELL: That's not accurate. That's not accurate. And I try to stay.
DONEGAN: But, you know, there's data to --
BLACKWELL: I try to stay out of the conversation and let you all have a conversation, but that is simply not accurate. And the vast majority of people who were hospitalized and died from COVID in recent years were those who were unvaccinated.
So the -- I'm trying to prevent myself from saying lie, but it just is what it is that people who got the vaccine were more likely to get sick is simply is not true.
DONEGAN: But the data has shown. And I'm not saying and I was saying vaccines across the board, but the data has shown that people will get the vaccine and then end up with COVID, it has shown that since the COVID vaccination.
BLACKWELL: The vaccine was not to prevent people from getting COVID. It was to prevent them from getting severely sick and getting in dying.
DONEGAN: We understand that, but since then, they've also -- we have higher levels of upper respiratory infections and all sorts of upper respiratory issues that have come more in people who have had vaccinations than people who did not soil.
BLACKWELL: Let me got you. Yes.
PAUL: Just for the bigger picture, I think you're getting very, very granular here. But from the bigger picture, thousands of people died also for, you know, for some of us who have other conditions, if someone wasn't vaccinated, like, that puts my health at risk.
And so I think when you talk about these studies that I'm not sure what you're referring to. I'm just confused. Because to me, it's like, look at the evidence but all -- DONEGAN: But if you're -- why -- why are you -- if you're vaccinated, why are you worried? It's the people who aren't vaccinated who you should worry about, not you if you're vaccinated.
PAUL: But it's a combination.
DONEGAN: And that's a conversation I keep hearing is the vaccinated person saying, oh, you're putting my life at risk. You're the one vaccinated.
BLACKWELL: Delila, this is also a thing that I think because this show focuses unapologetically on the impact of communities of color. When America catches a cold, black people get pneumonia.
PAUL: We get it worse.
BLACKWELL: We get it worse. And so we just went through a national emergency where we saw the disparities as it relates to COVID frontline workers, those who have access to health care. And so the changes in the recommendations for COVID vaccines have forced CVS and Walgreens to say, we can't give it to you in these places without a prescription.
Black people, brown people are less likely to have a primary care physician to get that prescription. They over disproportionately relied upon those pharmacies to get the COVID vaccine. And so talk about that, about how the impact is greater on communities of color.
PAUL: Exactly. And that's why the fact that science has been politicized is just appalling to me.
[08:35:03]
Like, we know that when we get sick, it's a sign that it's going to get worse. We know the impact that we've seen in our families, how people have died. And I just, again, I'm sorry, I try not to get too emotional about this, but I'm just dumbfounded by what's happening here and how, like, we can ignore the reality of, like, what we've seen --
DONEGAN: But why is --
PAUL: -- in our communities, like, I don't understand. But how --
DONEGAN: So listen to who was speaking. The reason it's higher is because you would have one of other illnesses like obesity or high blood pressure or diabetes. Why aren't we talking about getting our communities healthier?
PAUL: But we are. But I think you are --
DONEGAN: But we are not having that.
PAUL: No, I think that you are putting the onus on us where these policies that impact us. The onus has to be on those of us who -- I'm sorry, people who are doing these policies. Like, I don't understand. I'm like, I don't understand your perspective.
DONEGAN: Well, I don't want to be yours either, because ultimately, how can you, if it's up to the parents, if I don't believe in taking vaccinations away altogether. I think parents should have the right to vaccinate their children or not, if that's what they want to do.
We should have the freedom. We should have medical freedom in that way. Ultimately, even if you're saying COVID-19, they went to CVS or Walgreens. What did they do before that? They went to their pediatrician for these things that they need in order to get their immunization record.
PAUL: We just told you.
BROWN: OK, so you know what I think is getting lost in this process? What is getting lost? And I think the Republicans do a -- this is part of their strategy. Their strategy is to get you to focus on some granular issue at the expense of a larger conversation or discussion to be taking place.
Right now what we're saying is, in this discussion, we weren't just talking about vaccines. We're talking about -- and his position on vaccines. We're talking about the full gutting of CDC. We're talking about the challenge of taking basically science based evidence out to inform and really go in terms of some ideology that you have. There's a larger issue at scale, at the core of this, beyond the policy. It's people.
DONEGNA: But do you also recognize --
BLACKWELL: We got to wrap it there. This has been a robust conversation. I appreciate it. LoTasha, Stephanie, Delila. Thank you all.
I also want to save some time to talk about this town in Louisiana. It is struggling to clean up after an explosion at a factory nearby. A reporter who spoke with this majority black town here joining us next. And we'll talk about why the crisis in Roseland is an early test of the Trump administration's environmental policies.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:42:32]
BLACKWELL: The town of Roseland, Louisiana, it's at the beginning of what will be a long and complicated cleanup weeks after an explosion at a lubricant manufacturing plant. Now, when this blast happened on August 22, Smitty's Supply had a 15 acre complex that housed half a million gallons of flammable materials. As some of that landed on homes and playgrounds 20 miles away.
A week later, the Environmental Protection Agency confirmed toxic substances were in the water and the soil but that there's not an imminent threat to the community. Smitty has released a statement last week saying in part that Smitty's Service is cooperating with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency as they take over the response and needed cleanup. We will support the EPA and all other agencies to ensure that this next phase proceeds safely and efficiently.
But people who live in this majority black city, they have concerns about the cleanup and whether it will get cleaned up at all. My next guest talked to Smitty's employees and the Roseland residents who don't trust the government or the plant officials to help them.
Adam Mahoney is the climate and environmental reporter for Capital B News. Adam, thanks for your time here. Can we start just with what is in the water and soil? What are these chemicals and the dangers they pose?
ADAM MAHONEY, CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL REPORTER, CAPITAL B NEWS: Yes. So a week after the disaster happened on August 29, the EPA did release test results. It was actually only from water sampling. They did not conduct soil sampling around properties, but in the water they found chemicals like lead, arsenic and even cancer causing nitrobenzene. So these are all chemicals a part of the processing when you turning refined oil into motor oil or lubricants for engines and vehicles.
BLACKWELL: And so they've told the residents there that yes, they are present, but they're not a threat to health or the environment. What's been the reaction from people there and are they seeing any symptoms? Are they feeling sick at all?
MAHONEY: Yes, I mean, residents are just straight out exhausted. This has been a really rare process to say the least. Typically in an instance like this, the Environmental Protection Agency would oversee actual cleanup on folks' properties. But because the EPA is saying, you know, there is no imminent threat, they're forcing residents to do all the cleanup themselves. So that means folks are out there scrubbing their homes and digging through their soil with actually, you know, not knowing what chemicals are on their properties.
[08:45:04]
I talked to folks who, you know, for the last two weeks have been lightheaded, have been coughing, sneezing, not being able to stand outside for more than 10 minutes. And really they don't have any answers from the Environmental Protection Agency, from the city or the county, and, you know, not from the state either.
BLACKWELL: I know you know this and I'm sure the viewer has heard of it as well, this legacy of the impact of chemicals on communities around some of these factories. In Louisiana, most people have heard of Cancer Alley as well because of some of the carcinogens that have been released into the air.
And so I wonder, what are the changes in this administration that are impacting this decision or impacting what happens next after this explosion? Because we've talked about this being the first test.
MAHONEY: Yes, I mean, pretty much at every level, the Environmental Protection Agency today looks nothing like it did under the Biden administration just a year ago when we think about this specific case. So at the top line, the Trump administration has put forth a plan to kind of pause and repeal the nation's risk management plan, which is basically a governing body that looks after the 13,000 chemical plants that we have in the United States.
So it's focused on, you know, prevention of disasters and the work in the aftermath to make sure that communities are taken care of. That's something that's been paused. We've seen, you know, the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act be attacked and gutted. So that means, you know, allowing polluters to dump more chemicals both into our water, into our air, some even without having to apply for a specific permits.
And I think the really ironic thing, you know, at the day of the explosion on August 22, a national years long study found that in the United states more than 90,000 people die prematurely every year because of oil and gas production. So that's looking at air and soil and water pollution.
And the study found that black folks were most likely to feel these adverse effects from the oil and gas industry, specifically in Texas and Louisiana.
BLACKWELL: Listen, I'd advise people to go and check out your full reporting here because what we didn't have time to get to was the economic impact. This factory was an employer, major employer for people who lived around. And now those jobs are gone or at least on pause. Adam Mahoney of Capital B News, thanks so much for your time and your reporting.
MAHONEY: Thanks.
BLACKWELL: All right, coming up, turning braiding into a business. Meet the founder of a braid salon aiming to put teens to work in a positive way.
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[08:52:11]
BLACKWELL: So I started the show this morning talking about black women struggling to find jobs. Well, I want to end our show with a shout out to someone who is trying to create jobs for Black teen girls, "Teen Slay U." It's a braid shop in Memphis and I spoke with owner and founder Donna Carroll. She says it started as a braiding summer camp, but it turns out braiders in Tennessee can get certified and start at the age of 14.
So, Donna took some of the teens who wanted to turn this into a job over the summer and created what she calls a Christian based business.
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DONNA CAROL, OWNER AND FOUNDER, "TEENS SLAY U": For me to see these young ladies come in every day with the zeal, with the you know, excitement to work. And you don't have to tell them to come. They just pop up. I'm cool with it. Why? Because it keeps them off the street and it keeps them operating in their purpose. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Donna says she had 76 girls with her this summer. And "Teens Slay U" is not about just making money. Donna says it's about living for purpose versus prosperity.
All right, jot this down. Teenbraidbar.square.com. Now, that's the site to book appointments if you're in the area. And Donna has started a GoFundMe page as well. And she says she wants to expand and potentially turn this into a nonprofit.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAROL: We need more space. You know, we need more space. More girls want to work, more girls want to be hired. "Teens Slay U" is universal. It can be in Atlanta, it can be in New York, it can be in Chicago, Ohio. Wherever God says for it to be, that's where it will be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Listen, there are a lot of people Donna says currently help her with "Teens Slay U." She specifically shouted out instructor Regina Fox manager Carolyn Walker. So everybody at "Teens Slay U" and especially Donna Carol, I see you.
If you see something or someone I should see, tell me. I'm on Instagram and TikTok at X and Bluesky. And if you missed a conversation or a story, you could check it out on our website and you can listen to our show as a podcast.
A new season of have "I Got News For You" premieres tonight. Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett, comedian Dave Foley join Roy Wood Jr., Amber Ruffin and Michael Ian Black. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ROY WOOD JR., COMEDIAN: Here's Florida Surgeon General Joseph Ladapo.
LADAPO: The Florida Department of Health, in partnership with the governor, is going to be working to end all vaccine mandates in Florida law. All of them. All of them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's an argument that can be made that people, adults should have the right to make their own decisions and they have the intelligence to make those decisions. But clearly that doesn't apply to Florida.
WOOD: What did he compare giving your kid a life-saving measles shot to?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Roy.
WOOD: What did he compare vaccination?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Roy. I don't know this news story, but if the answer is slavery, I'll kill us all.
WOOD: Play the clip.
LADAPO: All vaccine mandates in Florida law. All of them. All of them. Every last one of them is wrong and drips with disdain and slavery.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Knives. Dead. You're dead. You're dead. You're dead. I'm dead. I got to start watching news before it. Come here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: "Have I Got News For You" premieres tonight at 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific only on CNN. Thank you so much for joining me today. I'll see you back here next Saturday at 8:00 a.m. Eastern. Smerconish is up next.
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