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U.S. Added 20,000 Jobs in February; Accused Kidnapper of Jayme Closs Details Planned Guilty Plea in Letter Sent to Local Television Station; Rise in Anti-Semitic Hate Crimes Across America; In CBS Interview, Martha McSally States There is Work to Do in Addressing Sexual Assault in the Military. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired March 8, 2019 - 10:30   ET

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


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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN, the most trusted name in news.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Some big and possibly worrisome economic news this morning, the U.S. adding just 20,000 jobs in February. That is the fewest since September 2017, much, much lower than expected. Much, much lower than last month as well.

The unemployment rate's still dropping to 3.8 percent from four percent in January. CNN business correspondent Alison Kosik and CNN business anchor Julia Chatterley joining me now.

First, let's focus on these numbers if we can, Alison. Because I asked Stephen Moore, former Trump economic advisor at the very top of this program, if this was possibly a sign of an economic slowdown. And he said, without hesitation, "Yes." What do we see in these numbers?

ALISON KOSIK, CNN GENERAL ASSIGNMENT CORRESPONDENT: It could be an indication, especially if you couple this report along with maybe the ISM Manufacturing Report that we -- that we received a week or so ago. It could be signs of a slowdown, or it could be a situation where one report doesn't make a trend.

So we were all shocked when we saw this number because it certainly doesn't go with the trend that we've seen. It really bucks the trend of the huge job gains that we've seen in recent months. But it's not completely unexpected because you're going to see these kinds of reports in a tight labor market, and that's what we have here.

If you look at the big picture of the past 12 months for job gains, they're averaging out to about 180,000 a year. Economists say, look, this is not sustainable. This is a red-hot jobs market that is just not -- it's an unreasonable expectation for the economy.

You look at the unemployment rate, it's at 3.8 percent. We are near full employment, so it is really hard to keep up those triple-digit job gains, you know, over and over and over. So what you could wind up seeing is a bounce for March, just not at the levels that we've gotten used to. Now, the bright spot for this jobs report is wage growth. We are

seeing wages 3.4 percent higher than last year. It's the biggest annual percentage gain since 2009. That was -- you know, we haven't seen wage gains since the recession. It's been that missing link, it's been that missing piece of the puzzle.

We started seeing wages start to edge up in August. Now we are seeing big wage gains, so that's good news for American workers -- Jim.

SCIUTTO: So, Julia, some stock analysts beyond these numbers, they've been pointing to other potential signs of an economic slowdown. Yield curve. Not to get into too much detail, but I wonder, what's the reaction on the floor today? Do they agree with Stephen Moore and say, "Huh, this could be a canary in the coal mine"?

JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It may or it may not. I'd agree with everything Alison just said there, Jim. I mean, we do see stocks down some seven-tenths of one percent right now, but they were already weaker before this number.

I think a lot of people looking at this and saying, exactly to Alison's point, it may get revised higher. We saw the strong numbers from the prior two months get revised higher, so who knows here. There's more questions, perhaps, than answers.

Yes, the wage growth was strong here as well, but people were working fewer hours. So that artificially lifted this number. So you can kind of read into this one of many ways.

If you take a step back as far as these stock markets are concerned, we are up 10 percent. We have had a bumper start to this year. So for a lot of investors out there, I think they're looking at the data here, they're looking for catalysts to drive stocks higher at this moment.

And there's a big cloud out there, of course, and it's the trade deal. So treading water, we've had a tough week for stocks but we're looking for the catalyst right now to take us higher, and it certainly wasn't in this data, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Is their thought that -- or maybe even some wishful thinking, that the Fed rethinks -- I mean, it's already, we think, tightening. But to turn rates in the opposite direction, we know folks in the administration have been pushing that for some time. I mean, moving to rate cuts. Or is that premature -- Julia.

[10:35:05] CHATTERLEY: That's a great question. Right now, investors don't believe that the federal reserve is going to raise rates again. In fact, they think that the most likely outcome is the Fed starts cutting next year, in 2020.

And the market hasn't really changed over the last month or so, as far as that's concerned. Right now, we're in a Goldilocks scenario where the data's weakening but it's not that bad. And the Fed, they think, is just going to sit on its hands. So the question is, what does the data do and does that force the Fed's hand here? We'll see. SCIUTTO: Julia Chatterley, Alison Kosik, thanks very much. We know

you're going to keep on top of it.

We are now hearing from a man accused of kidnapping a 13-year-old girl and killing her parents in Wisconsin. I mean, this is just a horrible story. What he is saying about his alleged crimes in a new letter? We'll have that next.

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[10:40:25] SCIUTTO: The man accused of kidnapping 13-year-old Jayme Closs in Wisconsin, after murdering both of her parents in front of her, has written a letter saying he plans to plead guilty to the charges against him.

In that letter, which was mailed to a local reporter, Jake Patterson, the accused, talks about his remorse for what he did. Prosecutors say that he held Jayme Closs for 88 days, inside his cabin. That until she escaped herself in January.

CNN correspondent Jean Casarez has been following this story.

This is quite an admission of guilt.

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, it's fascinating to read this letter. It was sent to the local station, KARE, which is the Minneapolis local station.

And I spoke with the Barron County sheriff this morning, that said that he could confirm that a letter was sent by Jake Patterson to a local television station.

But Jake Patterson, you might remember, gave immense detail in the probable cause affidavit, saying that he saw the school bus, saw her get on, saw the house she came from and was determined that was who he was going to kidnap and kill anyone that got in his way.

But in this letter, he talks about getting caught. And he says, "I knew when I was caught -- which I thought would happen a lot sooner -- I wouldn't fight anything. I tried to give them everything so they didn't have to interview Jayme. They did anyways, and hurt her more for no reason."

TEXT: Letter From Closs' Alleged Kidnapper: "I knew when I was caught (which I thought would happen a lot sooner), I wouldn't fight anything... I tried to give them everything... so they didn't have to interview Jayme. They did anyways and hurt her more for no reason." Addressed to KARE-TV Reporter Lou Raguse

CASAREZ: Of course, so much empathy for Jayme but nothing in this letter about his own confession of murdering, in cold blood, her two parents. But he goes on to say that he is going to plead guilty at the next hearing, which is the arraignment on March 27th.

And also in relation to that, he talks about, "I want Jayme and her relatives to know that. I don't want them to worry about a trial. I can't believe I did this. It was really stupid, though, looking back."

TEXT: Letter From Closs' Alleged Kidnapper: "I want Jayme and her relatives to know that. I don't want them to worry about a trial. I can't believe I did this. It was really stupid, though, looking back." Addressed to KARE-TV Reporter Lou Raguse

CASAREZ: He also says that he is -- does not have the mind of a serial killer. That it was all done on impulse. And he's a little upset at police because they detailed, in the probable cause affidavit, his words, saying that he planned everything so meticulously.

Going to Walmart, getting a mask, cleaning off the gun -- his father's gun -- cleaning off the bullet so no DNA would be left. He said it was just sporadic.

And, Jim, he also says that he won't say what he was going to do with Jayme in the future, but it was really stupid. Which, in a sense, is chilling, right?

SCIUTTO: I mean, far more than stupid. I mean, this is a premeditated murder and kidnapping. Remarkable. Jean Casarez, thank you for following this story.

Still ahead, the House overwhelmingly just passed a broad resolution condemning all forms of hate, but bigotry and intolerance seem to be on the rise among high schoolers and college students as well. The stunning report on that rise is next.

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[10:47:39] SCIUTTO: With alumni such as Chelsea Clinton, Malia and Sasha Obama as well as President Nixon's daughter Tricia, Sidwell Friends school here in Washington is one of the nation's most prestigious private schools.

But the elite academy is the latest institution where students are accused of displaying symbols of hate, the school apologizing after students showed swastikas during a school assembly. CNN's Sara Sidner reports on behavior that has become far too familiar -- surprisingly so -- in America's schools today.

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, experts are telling us that they are seeing a disturbing trend among America's youth: their attraction to Nazi and racist symbolism. But you're going to meet one woman who survived the death camps, who says she's trying to solve the problem and steer them away from hate, one community at a time.

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SIDNER (voice-over): High school students in Alabama, spouting violent racist and anti-Semitic comments and enjoying every minute of it. Then posting it on social media.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Without the Holocaust what would the world be like? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We would have white people still. Basically not

--

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jews would run the world without the Holocaust.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) Niggers, (INAUDIBLE) Jews.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Jews are fine because they are white.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: If the Holocaust never happened, Jews would be running the world right now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's fine, we just need (INAUDIBLE) gone, so it's half mixed Oreos. What are you going to do with them?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You stick them in concentration camps and (INAUDIBLE) them.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, you have to wait till they die off.

SIDNER (voice-over): The girl you hear repeatedly saying the N-word sent out a statement on her father's car dealership Facebook page.

"The horrible, horrible things I said were a terrible attempt to be funny. I'm sorry to anyone that had to listen to the video. I will do everything in my power to be better, each and every day."

But this is just one example of a rising tide of hate among youth.

The same week, thousands of miles away in upscale Newport Beach, California, high school students do a Nazi salute above a red-cup swastika they created. Parties with a side of Nazi rhetoric seem to be popular with some teenagers these days.

BRIAN LEVIN, PROFESSOR, CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY SAN BERNARDINO: What I saw was, how the combination of ignorance, evil, shock and peer validation can come together at a time when the social, political landscape is about othering and polarization.

And what happens is, there's a race to the bottom because we don't have civic moral leadership in this country that sets a standard as to what's acceptable communally.

[10:50:06] SIDNER (voice-over): Brian Levin is a professor at Cal State San Bernardino, and runs the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism. He and other experts on the subject say there has been heavy recruiting by white nationalist groups in recent years, on college campuses and grade schools.

The Anti-Defamation League found, in 2017, anti-Semitic incidents in K-12 schools increased by an astounding 94 percent, after nearly doubling the year prior.

And the FBI says between 2016 and 2017, reports of hate crimes against Jews skyrocketed, up 37 percent. Overall hate crimes reported, up 17 percent.

While several white nationalist, KKK and neo-Nazi groups are trying to disguise their hateful messages to make it more attractive to the mainstream, Levin says the youth are looking for shock and awe. That's popular on social media.

The behavior isn't just appearing at parties. Last month in New York, it appeared on a playground. And a new Nazi way to ask for a date to a dance in Minnetonka, Minnesota.

TEXT: Sweethearts would be a Hit(ler) w/you, and I could Nazi myself going w/anyone else, be mein? Yes - Nein

SIDNER (voice-over): She later apologized.

Eva Schloss hopes she's an antidote to anti-Semitism among the youth. She is a Holocaust survivor, the stepsister of Anne Frank, whose story of surviving the Holocaust has haunted and inspired the world for more than 70 years.

Schloss traveled to a Newport Beach high school just days after some of its students took part in the incident. She sat down privately with the offending students and their parents.

EVA SCHLOSS, HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR: I just told them that the Nazis did really horrible, horrible things. Not just gassing Jewish people, but even their own disabled people. That was the first experiment with gassing children or people.

SIDNER (voice-over): Schloss survived Auschwitz Concentration Camp at 16, but most of her family were annihilated by the Nazis, along with 6 million Jews.

And now, more than 70 years after the attempt to exterminate so many human beings, she is faced with young people who think Nazi symbolism is all the rage.

SCHLOSS: How hurtful it was for many, many survivors of the Holocaust who have lost millions of their families, all over the world, really. You know? I mean, it is -- it is an insult to those people.

SIDNER: Insult to you?

SCHLOSS: Yes, insult to me as well.

SIDNER: And lastly, are you afraid, now that you've seen young people doing this over and over and over again, here in America, are you afraid for the next generations of people?

SCHLOSS: Well, there's so much education going on now. And it's going to improved. It's going to be more and more. And I hope that eventually, they will see the light. That it is not any more acceptable.

I'm still an optimist, you know? I think it can't go on, that people will (ph) do such evil acts. I don't -- it must not happen and it will not happen.

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SIDNER: Eva Schloss did tell us that she was indeed shocked that in 2019 in a well-educated town with highly educated students, that incidents like this still occur.

But when you speak to experts, they say that it will continue to occur across this country and abroad unless there is a strong push for education, not just by the school system but by parents themselves and politicians as well. Back to you.

SCIUTTO: Education and leadership. Sara Sidner, thanks very much.

Well, President Trump is speaking out. This after a federal judge sends his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, to prison. But for a lot less time than prosecutors had requested. Stay with CNN.

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[10:58:20] SCIUTTO: Senator Martha McSally says that she felt like she just had to, quote, "suck it up" after she says she was raped by a superior officer while she served in the Air Force.

The Arizona Republicans revealed, during an Armed Services Committee hearing earlier this week, that she had been assaulted. She says she felt victimized a second time, when she reported the attack to her superior officers.

This morning, here is what she told CBS when asked whether current service members who are assaulted should come forward now as well.

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SEN. MARTHA MCSALLY (R), ARIZONA: Each person has to make their own decision as best they're --

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NORAH O'DONNELL, CBS REPORTER: But you are a sitting United States senator.

MCSALLY: I'm not going to compel anybody.

O'DONNELL: No, but I know. And you're on the Armed Services Committee, and you're a former fighter pilot.

MCSALLY: Right.

O'DONNELL: To not be able to say, "Yes, we will protect you."

MCSALLY: Of course I would want them to report it. Of course I would want the opportunity for -- immediately, there to be an investigation, that they can then quickly find justice for that victim. Of course that's what I want.

O'DONNELL: But how can -- how can we --

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MCSALLY: I'm just saying, I'm (ph) not going to tell a victim what to do, just to clarify.

O'DONNELL: Yes, but can you say that you have confidence in the system right now?

MCSALLY: Look, we have a lot of work to do. We do. We've got to stop the next assault from happening right now.

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SCIUTTO: McSally, she spent 26 years in the Air Force. She was the first female fighter pilot to fly combat missions. She has not said when or where her assault happened. And, crucially, she has not yet identified who her attacker was. It's a remarkable story, and remarkable courage shown by her.

Thanks so much for joining us today. I'm Jim Sciutto. "AT THIS HOUR WITH" my colleague, "KATE BOLDUAN," starts right now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR, "AT THIS HOUR WITH KATE BOLDUAN": Hello everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. President Trump, in the air and on the way to Alabama right now, to survey the damage of this week's deadly tornadoes there.