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DOJ To Tell Court It's Still Exploring Ways To Add Census Citizenship Question; Head: Trump Considering Executive Order On Census Question; Trump: Today's Jobs Number Were "Unexpectedly Good"; Economy Adds 224,000 Jobs In June; Unemployment At 3.7%; 224,000 Jobs Added To The U.S. Economy In June; Key 2020 States See Big Dips In Unemployment Since 2017; Trump: Economy Would Be "A Rocket Ship" If Fed Lowered Rates; Buttigieg To Voter: "Racism Has No Place" Here; Last Day For CPB Acting Chief John Sanders; Second Secret Border Patrol-Connected Facebook Group Exposed; Buttigieg: Racism Has No Place In Politics, Law Enforcement; Harris: Trump Is A "Predator"; Sen. Harris Campaigns In Iowa Amid Clash With Biden; Sen. Harris: We Don't Need A "Predator" In The White House. Aired: 12:30-1p ET

Aired July 05, 2019 - 12:30   ET

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

ARIANE DE VOGUE, CNN U.S. SUPREME COURT REPORTER: ... will say, "No, we want to keep our options open." So what that will mean now is daunting legal challenges because this Maryland judge is likely to set a scheduling order for over the summer to look at new discovery and new depositions. Another judge is also in New York. We'll be looking at sanctions motions. So these legal challenges are going to continue while this plays out, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Ariane, thank you so much. On top of it, as always appreciate it. I mean, this is so fascinating because the Supreme Court decided not necessarily that it's unconstitutional, but that the information that the administration provided was insufficient. The issue that the administration has had is that they're up against a clock that they have to get the census printed and out because that is in the Constitution, they have to figure it out.

And so that's why earlier this week, the President apparently signed off on saying, "OK, go ahead and do the census without question about citizenship." He got a lot of blowback from conservatives. Tweeted his change of heart. Force his justice department to go back, pre holiday, to the judge and here we are, they're trying another bite at the apple.

And so the question is whether or not this is going to suffice, whether the executive action is going to work or whether they're just buying time so that the President can show his political supporters that he's trying?

JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: I mean I think that is a big part of this, is just the President being

able to show that he's still fighting for this.

BASH: Yes. DAVIS: The problem that he has and that the administration has and

they know this very well, is the court didn't just say there isn't enough information here. They actually said that the rationale that the administration offered for adding this question was contrived, made up, essentially. And there was a lot of evidence presented during this legal challenge that suggested that the real reason that they wanted to add this question had to do with essentially solidifying Republican dominance of congressional districts.

BASH: Of course.

DAVIS: And so until the administration can produce, I mean, they'd have to basically turn back the clock and say, "No, actually, that wasn't why. Here's why." Unless they can produce that, it doesn't seem likely that they would be able to persuade a court that this was actually appropriate and so then the question is, can he do an executive order. And I really do think that he would rather have this as an issue than a resolved question.

And just the way he put it in that in that sort of veil with reporters where he said, "What's wrong with asking if people are citizen?" To most people that does sound like, "Yes, what's wrong with that?" And so I think he wants to be able to keep on saying that.

BASH: We're so understandably in the weeds, because this is such a fast moving thing and there's so many legal questions and procedural questions about whether or not this can move forward. But you mentioned something, Julie, that's so important which is the core of why this is even an issue at all and why there's a fight at all and it is a political fight. The people who are battling this in the courts are saying, "Wait a minute, you're trying to suppress a certain population that we need to know about."

MARGARET TALEV, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: He seemed to even indicate in his comments that he thought that that would affect reapportionment and all kinds of stuff. So it's not clear that he has a consistent like policy rationale for wanting to do this, but I do think that the way he talks about it is effective and good because it sounds like a common sense kind of thing.

And for the section of voters that he's trying to reach, I think he's tapping into a real feeling but if you just look at the calendar and the way things work, it seems very unlikely that this is going to change the dynamic at least for the 2020 census if he were successful if they were to rebuild a case or rationale for doing this, it could in theory affect the 2030 census long after somebody else's in office.

BASH: All right. Everybody standby, because it is the first Friday of the month which means it is jobs report day. The President had some thoughts on that as well as how the Fed Chairman should do his job. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:38:15] DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We had great numbers this morning. I think it was 224,000 jobs. Those were really unexpectedly good and our country continues to do really well, really, really well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Welcome back. That was President Trump this morning touting the latest unemployment report. The U.S. economy is seeing a strong comeback, adding 224,000 jobs in June after a disappointing May. June did see a rise in unemployment to 3.7%, but that's still historically low. CNN Alison Kosik breaks down the numbers.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Dana. A definite surprise to the upside for the June jobs report showing that 224,000 jobs were added to the economy. So many were questioning whether or not May was a fluke or the beginning of a downward trend in the jobs market.

I think you can say that it certainly was a fluke. What about the unemployment rate? The unemployment rate did move up just a bit from 3.6% to 3.7%, but it did go up for good reasons, 335,000 people did enter the workforce. Much of that may have to do with students who got out of school and went ahead and took jobs for the summer. Needless to say 3.7% for the jobless rate for June.

Where do people take jobs? Business, 51,000 jobs added there. Those are good paying jobs. Construction, 21,000 additions there. That's good to see because we do know the housing market is slowing down. It is under pressure. Same with manufacturing, 17,000 jobs added there. Another good sign because the manufacturing sector has been under pressure for about four months so we are seeing an upside surprise there of 17,000 jobs.

Otherwise, a bottom line with this report, the June jobs reports, surprising to the upside, putting to rest at least for today that we could be seeing a slowdown in the jobs market, Dana.

[12:40:07] BASH: Alison, thank you so much. And here at the table Jeanna Smialek with The New York Times joins our conversation. So, look, I think big picture here, everybody, as Allison talked about, was concerned looking at the economy, the main numbers were not good and that that was the beginning of a downturn, whether it was temporary because of the trade war or other issues going on and this jobs report suggests it was a fluke. What do you see?

JEANNA SMIALEK, FEDERAL RESERVE & ECONOMY REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Absolutely. I think what we saw this month was a real solid jobs gain. Paired with a lot of other positive things happening sort of underneath the surface. So what we saw in that slight increase in the unemployment rate, as she mentioned, happen as people flow back into the workforce, and as people left their jobs to find new ones, which is a real sign that people are feeling confident about this job outlook.

The one soft point, if there was anything, is that wages are only accelerating at 3.1% on year-over-year basis, which is not a bad number, but it isn't what you would expect at this point in this cycle with strong productivity in a tight labor market. And so if anything is worth paying attention to, it might be that. BASH: That's so fascinating. Let's look at what this means

specifically. This is inside politics for some of the more important political states, especially for President Trump. If you look back in 2016, he is President because of some of the of the industrial states in the Midwest and also in the Rust Belt. So let's look at this, Wisconsin, he won this state more than any other. It was a surprise any other state.

People thought that definitely Hillary Clinton was going to win. He won. Then, look at the state of Ohio. There, 5.1, when he became President, now it is 4.1, which is considerably better. Michigan, it's about the same 4.8 and now 4.2.

So you look at those numbers, they're all better for these states. But the question is whether or not, you mentioned this and Alison did as well, whether or not these numbers tell the whole story about how people feel. President Trump is president because people might have seen the economy getting better, but they didn't feel it at home or in their pocketbooks and does this tell that story?

DAVIS: Well, I mean, and that sort of plays off of what Jeanna was just saying that if they're not feeling like they're having better wages, if they don't feel economically, where they want to be, even if they have jobs, it's not necessarily going to be an upside. And I think all of us have watched presidential races unfold and certainly re-election races understand how important the state of the economy is to the incumbent President and President Trump understands that too.

But it's one of the reasons you're seeing him really hammer on this jobs, jobs, jobs he just tweeted and the White House is putting out big releases celebrating these numbers, because they want to bake into the cake for people in their minds. "You're doing better. The country is doing better." Because only if they feel it will that actually translate into votes for him.

If you're being told everything is better and you're not feeling it in your own pocketbook, in your own household, in your own economic picture, it's not going to matter.

TALEV: He also needs someone to blame because they always have someone to shadowbox with and in this case, it's the Fed. So he's like laying the ground work to have someone to blame. If the numbers drop off, the air comes out of the balloon or people don't feel satisfied, he's been punching away at Jay Powell for months, is he going to fire him or not --

BASH: Well, let's hear what he said about the Fed this morning and we'll talk more about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: But we're paying a lot of interest and it's unnecessary, but we don't have a Fed that knows what they're doing, so it's one of those little things. But if we had a Fed that would lower rates, you would have a rocket ship. When Obama, President Obama was here, he paid close to zero interest rates. I'm paying real interest. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Conti.

TALEV: Right. And so here's the Bloomberg story from this morning shortly after President spoke, here's the head headline, Fed Debate Shifts From Half-Point Cut To Whether to Cut at All. Ironically, this jobs report is so good that now they're like, "Maybe we don't cut interest rates." And that drives President Trump bananas and so you're going to see this fight continue.

But there is a correlation. Every time you hear him talk about the Fed, part of what he's doing is hedging. That's not a technical term. That's a political term. Hedging against the idea that if the economy stops helping him as much as it has been helping him that he has someone else lined up to blame.

SMIALEK: which is not totally unusual for presidents to do. It is unusual in recent history, but since the Clinton administration, presidents have avoided placing the blame on the Fed even in the deepest downturn since the Great Depression, even in the Great Recession no one blamed the Fed. But President Trump has really started this train sort of actually almost exactly a year ago now and has steadily been blaming the Fed for the last year. So I think he's kind of bringing this into the public consciousness in an important way.

BASH: Yes.

[12:44:53] ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: And what it always seems that what's different about what President Trump is doing is that it seems almost purely for political reasons. There doesn't seem to be a real economic rationale for cutting the rates. He keeps bringing up President Obama suggesting that Obama got an unfair advantage because the rates were low during his term and he wants that same kind of advantage to help him as he's trying to make an economic case going into 2020.

That's not an economic argument, given the strength of the economy in this report. So that in and of itself is different and his advisors are backing him up on it for different reasons of their own. But the Fed is looking at that and they're saying we can't justify this. We're supposed to be an independent entity here that's not moving based on the President's political whims and his desire to compete with his predecessor.

BASH: Yes. And let me just say as we go to break, you mentioned that the President is in an unprecedented way going after the Fed. The guy who he nominated calling him loco. I mean I don't think we need to say anything more than that. Up next, presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg rebukes a voter on July 4. We're going to have that in a moment, stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:50:45] BASH: Tapping our political radar today is the last day for Customs and Border Protection Acting Chief John Sanders. He announced he was resigning earlier this week and this all comes amid controversy over the treatment of migrant children in detention facilities. Acting Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Mark Morgan is expected to take over in the interim.

Meantime, a second secret Customs and Border Protection Facebook group has been revealed with images mocking migrant families and demeaning means of Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez earlier this week. ProPublica exposed another secret Facebook group that reportedly joked about migrant deaths and made derogatory comments about Latina lawmakers.

And a man at a July 4th BBQ told presidential candidate in South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg he should, quote, tell the black people there to stop committing crime and doing drugs. This was the Mayor's response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR PETE BUTTIGIEG (D-IN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Sir, I think that racism is not going to help us get out of this problem. The fact that a black person is four times as likely as a white person to be incarcerated for the exact same crime is evidence of systemic racism. It is evidence of systemic racism and with all due respect, sir, racism makes it harder for good police officers to do their job too. Racism has no place in American politics or in American law enforcement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And up next, Senator Kamala Harris' new strategy to take on President Trump.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:56:59] BASH: Welcome back. You're looking at live pictures of Senator Kamala Harris on the campaign trail right now in Sioux City, Iowa. Harris is still in the spotlight since last week's debate where she went after Joe Biden's record on racial justice. Now, moments ago Harris turned her attention back to her main target, President Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Make America great again? Does that mean back before the Voting Rights Act, back before the Civil Rights Act, back before Roe v. Wade? What's he talking about make America great again?

There is such greatness in who we are right now and so let's agree that we're not going to turn back the clock. We're not going back. We are not going back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: And she's also leaning into a new attack line she debuted this week, saying the President is a predator. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: He has predatory instincts and a predatory nature. And the thing about predators is this, predators by their nature identify and then prey on the vulnerable. Predators are cowards and we don't need a predator in the White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: It's a good thing we don't have a predator drinking game going on, because that was just the one sound bite and she said it so many times. But it is noteworthy and is interesting particularly after the week that she had last night how she is focusing so much on President Trump in that way.

ELANA SCHOR, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: Well, certainly this is a candidate who had faced some early knocks for her prosecutorial record from the left and now she seems to be leaning into it right, but playing the prosecutor towards the President.

BASH: Yes.

SCHOR: And if she stays this direct, I think this could really pay off for her strategically.

PHILLIP: I think this is also coming after Biden holding on to this place in the Democratic primary where Democrats think that Biden can take on Trump. She has to now convince them that she can take on Trump and she has to do that by actually doing it. For a long time, these candidates have been trying to avoid talking about Trump directly because that's really not what Democratic voters want to talk about but at the same time, this is about taking away the mantle of inevitability from Joe Biden and convincing voters that she can do it too.

Those voters who want to be moved more by their heads than by their hearts, that she is not a gamble for them if they were to trust her with the nomination going up against Trump in the general.

DAVIS: The other thing that I thought was fascinating about this is when I heard that word predator, the first place my brain went was to sexual predator and it sounded to me like she was talking at least in part to women ...

BASH: Absolutely.

DAVIS: ... who had a real issue with President Trump, many who voted for him and are now we see in the polls reevaluating and I think that's going to be a consistent theme of this line of attack if she keeps that.

TALEV: She's also ...

BASH: It is not settle at all. I'm sorry about that Margaret. We'll get you next time. Thank you all. Have a great weekend.

[13:00:00]