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CNN NEWSROOM

Wall Street Reacts to Jobs Report and Trade Fight; Reunification Deadline Extensions; Pompeo Arrives in Pyongyang; Cohen Hires New Attorney. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired July 6, 2018 - 09:30   ET

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


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[09:30:05] ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: Seconds to go until the opening bell there, here we are, after this jobs report. Of course, earlier this morning, major trade tensions.

Alison Kosik joining us now from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

Good morning.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Erica.

So we are watching stocks begin in the red, but not as bad as we expected. That's after a positive jobs report came out for June showing that 213,000 jobs were created in June. The unemployment rate rose from 3.8 percent to 4 percent. And that is not actually bad. That's actually a good thing because about a half million people jumped back into the labor force. So that's what caused that unemployment rate to rise.

And having all those people jump into the labor force is a good thing because a lot of companies, a lot of employers are finding it hard to actually find people to fill their jobs. And hopefully those looking for work are skilled in the jobs they're looking for. That's part of the reason we aren't seeing wages rise fast enough. Wages in this report showed year over year a rise of 2.7 percent. That's OK, but certainly not where analysts expected wages to be for June.

Where are those jobs created? We saw jobs created in high-paying sectors, like health care, professional services and manufacturing. Also, Erica, in that area of manufacturing, we did see job rises for the sector of mining as well, 5,000 jobs created there.

Erica.

HILL: Alison Kosik with the latest for us from the floor. Thank you.

We'll be right back.

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HILL: Breaking this morning, the administration says it now may need to extend the reunification deadlines for immigrants. All this on the first of those three deadlines. Parents separated from their children must be able to speak with their kids on the phone today.

We're about 20 days away from that deadline to reunite these families in person. Keep in mind, that's for the older children. Children under five were supposed to be reunited in 14 days.

[09:35:04] This Guatemalan mother and daughter were brought together after being apart for two months.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): Love you, my love. You know that I love you, right? You know that I missed you. I told you that you (INAUDIBLE) the most beautiful in the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Two months.

It's still unclear, though, this morning just how many separated children are actually in the government's care. Health and Human Services says there are less than 3,000 children who have been separated from their parents in their custody, but that number is far higher than the one they have given us previously.

CNN correspondent Nick Valencia joins us now from one call center in Texas.

So, Nick, tell us not only about this deadline, but also this new number of sorts.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is a deadline that was ordered by a California judge. It's one of three deadlines that the Trump administration has to meet. Today is the day, Erica, that all parents must have some sort of phone contact with their children.

We're at an organization called RAICES. Come with me here. I'll walk you through here. This is where there's going to be a phone bank set up here later this morning and that's what this organization is going to do here. They're going to be use cell phones to contact detainees, make sure that parents have contact with their kids.

It was yesterday that we were on a call with Health and Human Services and they mentioned that there was two phone calls per week being given to these detainees. But it was a much different story from what I heard from a detainee at the Port of Isabel Detention Center. She said not only is she not getting those calls, she doesn't exactly know where her child is. These parents desperately trying to get in touch with their loved ones.

Erica.

HILL: As they're trying to get in touch with them, there's also a question about just how many children are actually in the government's care. So they also revised some of those numbers, Nick. VALENCIA: Yes. And this speaks to the lack of transparency that we've

seen as we've covered this story over the last several weeks. It was just about nine days ago that we heard from the federal government there was 2,047 separated children still in their care. I think most of the journalists on that phone call yesterday with the HHS secretary were shocked when he said it was less than 3,000. We don't know where that number is coming from. He only said that he's using more of an inclusive set of data. They didn't want to underestimate how many children were in their care.

But it goes without saying, Erica, it was last week or within the last couple of weeks that that same Secretary Azar said that he had a system that he could track specifically children to their parents. That begs the question, if he was able to track every child with their parent, why the estimation? Why not give us actual fact, hard numbers? We're still asking for those breakdown in numbers and we're still not getting them.

Erica.

HILL: We know you'll continue to keep on it, though, Nick. Appreciate it, as always. Thank you.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo back in North Korea for the third time to hammer out details on the denuclearization deal. Will Kim Jong-un promise, though, to take specific steps to give up his nukes or will Pompeo leave empty handed?

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[09:42:10] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I got along very well with Chairman Kim. I got along very well. That's a good thing that I got along well.

It was a very smart deal for North Korea. Good will is very important. But we signed a wonderful paper saying they're going denuclearize their whole thing. It's going to all happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: President Trump in Montana there, apparently not concerned about reports that North Korea has been upgrading its nuclear facility in the weeks since the president's historic summit with leader Kim Jong- un. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in North Korea right now to meet with Kim, although there is no word on exactly when that will happen. He did wrap up meets with senior North Korean officials this morning after arriving in Pyongyang a few hours earlier.

CNN's Asia Pacific Editor Andrew Stevens joins us now live from Seoul.

Andrew, critics skeptical that Secretary Pompeo will be able to convince North Korea to commit to these specific steps or even a timeline to dismantle their nukes. ANDREW STEVENS, CNN ASIA PACIFIC EDITOR: Well, absolutely right. And

Mike Pompeo himself seems to be dialing back on that. I mean he said a few days ago in an exclusive interview with CNN that he didn't expect North Koreans to come up with a timeline, a schedule for denuclearization. And Mike Pompeo keeps on going back to this January (ph) 12th summit between Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un and the document that was signed. We just heard Donald Trump described it as a great deal. Basically it is a commitment on both sides to a denuclearized North Korea with no timeline, with no specifics, with no concrete steps. And that's where we still are at the moment.

So what Mike Pompeo can get out of this is still difficult to say. I mean there are suggestions that at least he will get some movement on the return of U.S. soldiers who were killed in the Korean War back in the 1950s. But as far as concrete steps, it's very difficult to say, Erica. We know that Mike Pompeo met the number two person to Kim Jong- un for a 2.75 hour meeting today. We expect Pompeo to meet with Kim Jong-un tomorrow. We don't know whether Kim is actually going to give any timeline. As you say, the skeptics are circling because there has been a lot of evidence put forward and a lot of talk from the intelligence community in the U.S. that Kim, as you say, is actually ramping up its nuclear operations, its enriching of uranium for fissile material. It's expanding a ballistic missile manufacturing site and so on.

There is, though, one perhaps piece of leverage that Mike Pompeo can use, and that is these suspended military drills between the U.S. and South America (ph) and other nations as well. Now, they were due to take place in August, Erica. They were suspended -- you remember Donald Trump told Kim Jong-un that he would suspend those drills. He called them provocative, Donald Trump did, echoing Pyongyang's words on those drills. But if Mike Pompeo comes away empty handed and if Donald Trump can be convinced that this isn't, at this stage, the great deal he hopes it will be, those military exercises could come back on the table, could be threatened as a way of leveraging for Kim Jong-un. But at this stage we just don't know, Erica.

[09:45:24] HILL: A lot of unknowns. Andrew Stevens, appreciate it. Thank you.

President Trump's one-time personal attorney Michael Cohen now has a new attorney of his own with very close ties to the Clintons.

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[09:50:05] HILL: Michael Cohen does not believe his former boss, President Trump, would offer him a pardon if he needed it. And that's according to a friend of Cohen's who told CNN.

All this coming as we learn Cohen has hired an attorney who once worked as special counsel for President Bill Clinton.

Let's dive a little deeper with CNN legal analyst and defense attorney Shan Wu.

Shan, good to see you this morning. So Lanny Davis saying here that he decided to join Michael Cohen's legal time after that interview that he gave with ABC earlier this week, which was dissected a number of ways for its potential messaging to the president. There's also a message in the hiring of Lanny Davis, isn't there?

SHAN WU, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Oh, absolutely, Erica. I mean I think the Michael Cohen team gets a two for with the hiring of Lanny Davis. First, they certainly send a strong message to the president that they're hiring someone who's been a critic of his and a staunch Clinton defender. But they also get the benefit of the experience of somebody who has obviously worked in a very beleaguered White House in the past. So they may get some good insight into how the Trump team's actually thinking as well.

HILL: Well, what does it tell you about what the Michael Cohen legal team is thinking?

WU: I think they are clearly at a pivotal point here. I mean the special master has released all of these documents at this point. They know what the prosecutor can see. And I think that the addition of Davis is Guy Patrillo is a very good addition because Patrillo's going to be the real criminal defense focused lower. And Lanny, who these days is really more of a communications or a crisis specialist, can be the person really focusing on the message.

In fact, we may have seen some hints of that in the interview on ABC which was very carefully controlled for Cohen in terms of what he said. So there might be a little bit of the handy work of the communications folks already being seen there.

HILL: So you think that was already in there?

WU: Quite possibly. I think in the --

HILL: So which part specifically really stood out to you?

WU: I think his message was very carefully scripted in terms of putting his family, big code word for I'm in trouble, pressure financially, and putting the country first, meaning above the person, meaning the president. I think that was pretty carefully well controlled. That was good messaging.

HILL: What about the messaging of, I'm not commenting on the payment to Stormy Daniels?

WU: Right. Well, that certainly sends a strong signal that he could comment at some point. And, again, it's very important from a criminal defense standpoint. In interviews like that, you want to keep your client from really delving into the facts of the case, which could get him in trouble later.

HILL: It's interesting, too, we do know he's under criminal investigation. He hasn't been charged with anything at this point. But we do have this friend, right, who told CNN that he is concerned the president will not pardon him. How does that all come into play with this?

WU: Well, I think that he has been continuously sending up signals that he's feeling abandoned. He's hoping for the pardon. I don't know that, from a legal analytical standpoint, that pardon really would make any realistic sense at the moment. I mean he actually hasn't been charged with anything yet. But I think he is trying to communicate to the president in the best way to communicate to him, which is through the media.

HILL: It will be interesting to see how this all shakes out. Never a dull moment, that's for sure.

Shan Wu, appreciate it. Thank you.

WU: Good to be here.

HILL: Mom versus carjacker. This is something else here. A Texas woman finds a man trying to take off in her car with her children inside.

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[09:57:55] HILL: A stunning headline out of Texas. A mother stopped an alleged car thief by shooting that man in the head, get this, with her two toddlers in the back seat. The mother was leaving a convenience store when she saw the suspect starting to drive away. Police say that is when she jumped into the car -- into a car, pulled a gun out of the glove compartment and shot him. The car then crashed. Right now we know the suspected car thief is in serious but stable condition and is facing charges. No charges have been filed against the mother. We're told the children were not hurt.

Chris Brown is out of jail after being arrested last night in Palm Beach County, Florida. The singer was taken into custody at a concert venue on an outstanding warrant issued last year from a battery charge. Brown was booked and released from jail an hour later after posting bail. And just moments ago, Brown sent out a message on social media saying his concert tonight in Tampa is still on.

It will be tough to miss. President Trump, next week, in London as the real thing arrives for a three-day visit steeped in controversy. But this rather unflattering 19 foot tall balloon will be bobbing in the skies above Parliament Square Garden, that is whether police and aviation officials permit it. London's mayor has given his approval. Yesterday, after thousands of Brits signed a petition and a crowd funding campaign brought in some 16,000 pounds, that's more than $20,000.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM begins right now.

Good morning. I'm Erica Hill, in for Poppy Harlow today.

We are following multiple breaking stories this morning.

A strong June jobs report showing employers added 213,000 jobs last month, more than expected. It comes, though, as the U.S. imposes steep new tariffs on Chinese goods and China responds in kind. Beijing calling this the start of the largest trade war in economic history.

And facing a looming deadline to reunite families, the government telling a judge, it is facing challenges and may need more time to get migrant children back to their parents.

CNN's Abby Phillip joins us live from New Jersey. She's just down the road from where President Trump is spending the weekend.

[10:00:03] So, Abby, the Department of Justice says it might need an extension on one of these deadlines, correct?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Erica.