Return to Transcripts main page

The Situation Room

U.S. Economy Lost 23,000 Jobs in July, Unemployment Down to 4.1 Percent; Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) to Oppose Todd Blanche's Nomination as A.G.; Trump Tries New Executive Order to Limit Birthright Citizenship. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired August 07, 2026 - 10:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:00:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, shocking slowdown. The U.S. unexpectedly lost 23,000 jobs last month, stunning economists. So, what's behind this drop and what this signals about the overall economy, basically, what it means for you?

Plus, down to the wire, GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski says she will vote against Todd Blanche's attorney general nomination, meaning his entire confirmation now hinges on Trump critic Senator Bill Cassidy, who I'm told by his spokesperson will announce his decision at 10:40 this morning on the Senate floor. Of course, we will carry that live.

And then later, Meta's $500 million fine, a New Mexico judge orders the text giant -- tech giant to put that money into a child mental health fund after a jury found the company liable for unfair and deceptive trade practices in a child safety case. New Mexico's attorney general will join us just ahead.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And there's more breaking news, deadly school shooting, a truly shocking attack in Thailand. It leaves at least five people dead and another 30 people injured. What we're now learning about the 14-year-old gunman.

Plus, is A.I. out of control? From hacking other companies to creating 16 new viruses not found in nature, concerns are growing big time right now about whether artificial intelligence has outgrown its guardrails. We'll speak to an expert who advises companies on using A.I. That's coming up.

And later, Lake Mead water crisis. The largest reservoir in the United States has fallen to a record low, and experts are warning it's likely to go even lower. Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world.

I'm Wolf Blitzer with Pamela Brown, and you're in The Situation Room.

And we begin this morning with the breaking news. The U.S. economy losing 23,000 jobs last month, a major departure from what economists had expected. The unemployment rate, however, dropped from 4.2 percent to 4.1 percent.

CNN Business Senior Reporter David Goldman has more.

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Pam, we did not have a good month for the jobs market. We lost 23,000 jobs in the month of July, the unemployment rate falling to 4.1 percent. That's down from 4.2 percent. But the reason it's falling is not good because people are just so fed up looking for a job. They're leaving the job force. That is not what you want to see.

We had some pretty robust hiring in this country for years, but then look at this. Over the past few years, it's kind of been alternating between gaining jobs and losing jobs. This is what we call the low hire, low fire jobs market that we're in right now. We're not really hiring. There's not a ton of evidence for that. We're also not firing. Remember, in the last week, we had the lowest number of unemployment claims since 1969. So, if you have a job, you're likely to be able to stay in it. But if you're looking for a job, this is not the market for you.

It's also not good news that we have now gained 3.2 percent on average over the last year in our paychecks. Why is that bad news? Because inflation is higher. It's 3.5 percent. Now, we have lost ground in the last few months to inflation after three years of outpacing inflation. And this is why so many people say that they have affordability problems in this country.

What about that World Cup bump that we were supposed to get? It didn't exist. We lost 19,000 retail jobs and 40,000 leisure and hospitality jobs. All those people staying in hotels, well, I guess they weren't really hiring there. We lost 43,000 jobs in that sector in the month prior.

Healthcare was a bright spot, 22,000 added jobs, but this is much lower than we've seen in previous months, and it's just not enough to sustain the economy when you're losing all of those other jobs.

Wolf, Pam, this is not a great report. It is saying that we're not really hiring that much in this country. Your paycheck's not keeping up with inflation. And if you don't have a job, it's going to be hard to find one.

[10:05:01]

Back to you.

BLITZER: All right. David Goldman, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. We're also following some breaking news from Washington. The nomination of Todd Blanche for attorney general will come down to the wire after Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski announced she plans to vote against him. One more no from Republicans could sink his confirmation.

Maine Senator Susan Collins previously said she would oppose Blanche, and Senator Mitch McConnell is absent due to health issues. So, Blanche's fate comes down to Trump critic Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, who the president helped oust by endorsing his Republican primary challenger. A Cassidy spokesperson tells me just before the show started that Cassidy will announce his decision about Blanche at 10:40 Eastern Time from the Senate floor. Of course, we will take it live when he does.

So, Blanche needs 51 votes to be confirmed, and Republicans currently hold 53 seats. Democrats hold 47, including two independents. All of the Democrats are expected to vote no.

Let's go live now to CNN Senior Reporter Annie Grayer on Capitol Hill. Annie, what more do we know about this vote ahead of Senator Cassidy's announcement?

ANNIE GRAYER, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, Pamela, this vote isn't even officially scheduled yet because it really hinges on what Senator Cassidy is going to say on the Senate floor at 10:40. Republicans are waiting to see if they can even schedule this vote at this time. It's certainly not on the calendar yet because this morning, Senator Lisa Murkowski came out against her -- against nominating Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, listing a whole host of reasons.

She said she's concerned about the politicization at the Department of Justice, that the Department of Justice is targeting former administration officials and even current U.S. sitting senators. She says she doesn't like how Blanche handled the release of the Epstein files, where millions of files have still not been released, and there was a ton of issues with the redaction process. And she really zeroes in on the weaponization fund.

Now, this was a big sticking point for Senators John Cornyn and Thom Tillis, and they went back and forth with Blanche for days on this issue because there are a lot of Republican senators who don't want this fund to exist. They don't want to see funding go towards any January 6th rioters specifically, and the agreement that Blanche, Tillis, and Cornyn reached was not ironclad enough for Lisa Murkowski. She thinks it still can be resurrected.

So, she says in a statement this morning laying out all of this, she says, quote, the country needs an attorney general who will check the worst impulses of this administration. I hope Mr. Blanche is able to achieve that if confirmed, but I simply do not have confidence that will be the case.

Now, Blanche tried to appeal directly to Murkowski. He met with her on the Hill. He visited her in Alaska. The White House is disappointed on Murkowski's views, touting all of the things the Department of Justice has done for Murkowski. Clearly -- and Alaska. Clearly, that wasn't enough. But we will be all eyes on Cassidy later this morning. Pamela?

BROWN: All right. And, again, we'll carry all of this live. Annie Grayer, thank you so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: We'll see what happens.

And still ahead, breaking overnight, a teen gunman walked into a school in Thailand and killed five teachers. What officials say he did just before the shooting.

BROWN: And nearly one month after the Supreme Court strikes it down, President Trump takes another go at curbing birthright citizenship.

You're in the Situation Room, and we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:10:00]

BROWN: Happening now, President Trump targets birthright citizenship once again, just weeks after the Supreme Court struck down his last efforts as unconstitutional.

He issued two new executive orders. The first limits those who can be automatically granted citizenship by being born on U.S. soil, and then the second one bans birth tourism, even though there is already a law against pregnant foreigners coming to the U.S. to give birth for that citizenship.

So, let's go live now to CNN's Alayna Treene at the White House. Tell us more about these executive orders, Alayna.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Look, Pamela this is clearly an issue that the president cares a lot about. I'd remind you that this is actually something he tried to do unsuccessfully during his first term. The second time around, this time, he has more -- you know, people who are telling him, go for it, try to get this birthright citizenship order passed. Obviously, his first attempt to do so, though, was struck down less than six weeks ago by the Supreme Court. They cited the 14th Amendment, which essentially says children born on U.S. soil are U.S. citizens.

But these new E.O.s are a little bit different. They appear more limited in scope and more so designed to largely tighten laws already in place and narrow some of the recognized exceptions.

I just want to walk you through some of what we know from the orders issued yesterday. They would restrict those, Pamela, who would qualify for birthright citizenship excluding children of staff for foreign governments but serving in the United States the babies of mothers who they argue would lie about their intentions for visiting the country while pregnant, and then there's a third category for babies born in U.S. territories, but that would first require Congressional action. Then there's the other order, and that one is for children whose parents are tagged by the government as being part of known terrorist groups or who are, quote, alien enemies.

Look, we'll have to see what this actually could look like in practice. I think it's not immediately clear how these would actually be used realistically in place, and we have heard from expert who argue a lot of this seems like these are kind of reiterating laws that the U.S. already has on the books, specifically, as you mentioned, Pamela, for the so-called birth tourism idea as part of this.

[10:15:02] But, again, this has really become a core tenet of the president's immigration crackdown. You've heard from Stephen Miller, really the architect of the president's immigration agenda, pushing for this as well.

When we start seeing some cases around this, though, there could be more litigation, so stay tuned for all that.

BROWN: So, stay tuned on that, and stay tuned for this upcoming announcement from Senator Cassidy on the Senate floor about Todd Blanche. I mean, this is really down to the wire, Alayna, on whether he will get confirmed or not. What -- where is the White House on its thinking on Todd Blanche's nomination to become attorney general?

TREENE: Yes. Look, they've known for weeks now that this could be a potentially uphill battle. I know from my conversations with officials earlier this week that they were hopeful that he would be able to get through Blanche after we saw him put in writing, the acting attorney general, that he was withdrawing that very controversial $1.8 billion weaponization fund.

Once he got Cornyn and Tillis, senators who had previously opposed him, on board, they thought that this would be in good shape. Well, obviously with Lisa Murkowski saying today that she will oppose his nomination, it's more in jeopardy.

The White House -- I spoke with the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt. She gave me a statement essentially saying that they aren't totally surprised by Murkowski's decision, but that they are disappointed in it.

All to say, this is something that has been very, very important to the president specifically. He doesn't want to keep Blanche in an acting role, though he said he would if his nomination fails. He really wants him to be there in the role permanently.

But Cassidy's going to be a tall order as well. They know that, you know, the president came out and essentially ousted him from the Senate by rejecting to endorse him and, and endorsing one of Cassidy's opponents in his primary. So, there's a lot of bad blood between those two men, so we'll have to see what he says.

BROWN: Yes, we will have to see. I'm told that he will lay out his reasoning and then at the end announce his decision per, per his spokesperson.

Alayna Treene, thank you so much. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Let's bring in Democratic Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois. Congressman, I know you're a child of immigrants yourself. What's your response to these latest moves by President Trump to limit what's called birthright citizenship and so- called birth tourism?

REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI (D-IL): Slight correction, I'm an immigrant myself. And so this is a personal issue to me. Look, I think that these executive orders are again unconstitutional. They fly in the face of the plain language of the Constitution. And I think that, you know, basically, the American people see this doubling and tripling down on this particular issue as basically, A, kind of going against not just these individual categories of people, but immigrants in general, and then, B, it's not a priority for the American people right now when they see their economy tanking, they see $4 gas, and they see a war that is illegal and unconstitutional that is creating chaos both for our military, but also for our economy.

BLITZER: On another sensitive issue that's unfolding right now, we just laid out that Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski announced she will oppose Todd Blanche's confirmation to become the Attorney General of the United States. Blanche's nomination now hinges on Republican Senator Bill Cassidy, who's expected to announce his decision on the Senate floor later this hour.

As someone who has opposed Blanche's handling of the Epstein files, for example, what's your message to Senator Cassidy?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, look I, I believe Bill Cassidy's a good man, and I think that he's going to do what is right here. I believe that opposing the Blanche nomination is absolutely critical. And one of the reasons is because of his handling of the Epstein files. He's the chief architect of the cover-up with regard to the Epstein files.

Just to level set for your viewers, thousands of then girls, now middle-aged women, have yet to receive a single measure of justice for the abuse that they suffered at the hands of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, among others. And in return or in response, Todd Blanche, after he was commanded by Congress to turn over millions of files, has yet to do so, he's yet to prosecute a single person or announce an investigation of a single additional person, he's dismissive of the whole situation. And he is acting more as the president's personal attorney than the, the attorney of the American people.

In addition, the anti-weaponization fund still exists in concept. The president has not let it go. And I think Todd Blanche does not deserve to be the attorney general.

BLITZER: On the Iran war, Congressman, President Trump is pushing back on reports of the Pentagon's dwindling munitions stockpile, but he acknowledged that some weapon supplies are, quote, tighter, his word, tighter.

As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, I know you're well briefed on all of this, how worried should Americans be right now?

[10:20:03]

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Very worried. So, published reports have now indicated that we are, quote, virtually all out of ATACMS, these are long range precision fires, not to mention Tomahawk missiles. And, crucially, we're dangerously low on SM-3 interceptors, Patriots, and THAAD interceptors. Those are the only known interceptors for ballistic missiles in our arsenal. And so as a consequence, we're lowering our deterrence, we're inviting aggression by other adversaries, including potentially the Chinese Communist Party in the Indo-Pacific region, as well as in Europe by the Russians. They are actively measuring our magazine depth, in other words, the number of munitions that we have at any given time. And when it goes dangerously low, that is a time of vulnerability for us to potentially aggression by our adversaries.

BLITZER: On another issue I want to get to your Republican colleague, Ohio Congressman Max Miller, is resisting calls from fellow lawmakers to end his re-election campaign amid allegations of domestic abuse by multiple women, including his ex-wife. Miller denies those claims strongly and says he welcomes an ethics committee investigation in the House of Representatives. Do you believe Miller should resign?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: I believe so. I think that John Husted, the senator from Ohio, has now called for his resignation as well, in addition to, of course, his father-in-law, Bernie Moreno. It's just a horrible, terrible situation.

And I think he should, you know, resign to deal with the law enforcement situation that's also developing. And, you know, basically, it's one of those things where, unfortunately, I think that the people's business is not being attended to and instead he's kind of having to deal with other issues.

BLITZER: Democratic Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi of Illinois, thanks so much for joining us.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Thank you.

BLITZER: Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. Coming up here in The Situation Room, a rare visit, HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. will be at the CDC headquarters to mark one year since a gunman targeted the agency. We are live from Atlanta, up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:25:00]

BROWN: And we are following some breaking news. In about 15 minutes from now, GOP Senator Bill Cassidy will announce his decision on whether he will support Todd Blanche for attorney general. Blanche's path comes down to Cassidy's vote after Republican Senator Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski both said they will vote no. It's unclear whether Senator Mitch McConnell will be able to vote due to health issues. We, of course, will bring you the speech to you live when it begins.

And happening now, breaking news, a gunman killed at least five teachers in a mass shooting at a school in Thailand, according to officials there.

Dozens more have been injured. It is the country's deadliest school shooting in several years. Thailand's prime minister says the attacker died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We started hearing some noise in building five, and we had no idea what happened after that. At first, I thought they were sounds of firecrackers or someone banging onto something loudly, but then we started realizing they were not.

And then it started getting more frequent, like bang, bang, bang, and then it went quiet at one point, and the shooting started again.

I didn't think it was the sound of a gun. After that, we went to the toilet. We thought it was over. I walked over there when a teacher shouted, quickly, run here. He's gone to building four. So, we had to run here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: All right. Let's go live now to CNN Senior International Correspondent Ivan Watson. What more are you learning about this horrific shooting, Ivan?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, devastating. This was a public school, a high school, with some 3,000 students. At least five teachers killed, dozens of people injured, including nine that are believed to be in serious condition.

And when police went to the home of the alleged gunman, a 14-year-old who they say killed himself after opening fire in the school, they found the boy's grandparents had been shot dead in their home. They believe it happened around 4:00 o'clock in the morning, and then the school shooting happened hours later at around 9:30 in the morning at the school.

Now, the police have seized at least nine computers and electronic devices. They say that they have evidence that the alleged gunman was researching mass killings before this happened, that the gun was legally registered to the now-deceased grandfather, and that the boy was seen in possession of that weapon, according to an Instagram photo that he had posted at some point in the past.

Our own producer, Karla Cripps, her 17-year-old son goes to this same high school. So, you can imagine how terrifying this was for her family and how she could share how devastating this is for the broader community. Fortunately for her 17-year-old, he was away at a sports event.

[10:30:04]

And we have spoken, another one of our producers, to the father of the son.