Sources: Immigration Operation In Chicago Could Start This Week

23:10In our sports lead, if you did not know, the U.S. Open has a theme every year. You've probably been watching it behind every player you've seen over the course of the last couple of days. Now, this year celebrates 75 years of breaking barriers, and it features the theme art you're looking at right now, honoring the late tennis legend Althea Gibson. Now, in 1950, Gibson was the first black athlete allowed to compete at the U.S. National Championships, which are now known as the U.S. Open. She went on to win five major tennis titles and became the first black woman to win the U.S. Nationals French Championship and Wimbledon.

23:44Melissa Kobe is the artist behind the 2025 U.S. Open theme, and she joins us now. Melissa, what you created, you know, we're actually talking about it during the break. It's like I constantly see it, sometimes without even knowing I'm looking at it, throughout watching this tournament. When this was announced in May, did you think, I think it was in May, did you think, did you understand, I think, the scale of what this was going to mean once the tournament started where it's on all kinds of merchandise? It's the backdrop of all the players every single day.

24:17I, hi, everyone. I had no idea. It's a great question because I did not fully understand the magnitude of my involvement with this year's theme until I was actually there. It became this fully immersive experience and everywhere I looked, there was my artwork. It's a lot to take in. I'm still processing what I was able to witness while there. Can we, I want to talk about the artwork itself, because I actually didn't recognize, I saw kind of the silhouette of Althea Gibson, you can see her serving, but there's a depth and creativity in the colorful layered paper here, because there's the US Open blue tennis court in the middle, obviously Arthur Ashe Stadium, as I noted, Gibson preparing a serve, the process.

25:06What were you thinking about as you put this together?

25:12um you you actually said something I'm not sure where you're exactly headed but I will try to finish that for you I I wanted the piece to be a conversation piece um I've always I've always said that I wanted whatever artwork I create to be something that is fully representative of who Althea Gibson was but I had to understand while creating it that I could not tell her entire story. So what I decided to do was just tell a little bit of it, just enough to get people talking and trying my best in my small artistic way to preserve a little bit of her legacy. I love that there are conversations being had around who she was just by looking at the piece.

25:52And that's really all I wanted. She was so multifaceted and multilayered that I wanted to incorporate layers to her story, as I call it. And yeah, I wanted it to be just fully her in that profile, but I wanted people to be able to ask questions while looking at each layer of it and just kind of making that connection to who she was. You mentioned kind of being there, seeing this, taking it all in, kind of trying to understand the magnitude of the moment. I believe, if I recall correctly, this is the first time you've physically been at the U.S. Open. Is that right? Yes, it was. It was honestly the most incredible experience of my life.

26:30I'm home now and life is so regular. And I don't know if I can ever reclaim that feeling of not only being at the Opens and seeing my artwork everywhere, but also being surrounded by people that were directly impacted by Althea Gibson. I saw former players who she directly inspired. I saw Venus Williams play for the first time wearing white in a tribute to Althea Gibson's first match. All of it was just so surreal. and I don't know if I can ever live that, anything can live up to that moment or that experience for me to be honest. That is completely understandable. It's been so cool to kind of watch the recognition and the conversations that you have started with your brilliant work.

27:19Melissa Coby, congratulations. Thanks so much. Thank you so much for your time. Well, up next, one man shares his terrifying journey about how he allowed AI to take over his life and the lesson he learned about how to shut it off. Stay with us.

27:41In our tech lead, one man's experience with artificial intelligence that serves as a warning and almost a horror story. CNN Sadas Gold reports on how AI convinced this man to believe in and act on things that turned out to be totally wrong. I was completely isolated. I was devastated. I was broken. Alan Brooks, a father of three who lives outside Toronto, says he spent three weeks this May in a delusional spiral fueled by ChatGPT. I have no pre-existing mental health conditions. I have no history of delusion. I have no history of psychosis. I'm not saying that I'm a perfect human, but nothing like this has ever happened to me in my life.

28:20The HR recruiter says it all started after posing a question to the AI chatbot about the number pi, which his eight-year-old son was studying in school. I started to throw these weird ideas at it, essentially sort of an idea of math with a time component to it. And the conversation had evolved to the point where GPT had said, you know, we've got a sort of a foundation for a mathematical framework here. You're saying that the AI had convinced you that you had created a new type of math? That's correct. Throughout their interactions, which CNN has reviewed, ChatGPT kept encouraging Alan, even when Alan doubted himself.

28:59Will some people laugh, ChatGPT said at one point. Yes, some people always laugh at the thing that threatens their control, before citing great minds of science like Turing and Tesla. Soon, Alan says he saw himself in the AI as a team and named it Lawrence. In my mind, I was feeling like Tony Stark and Lawrence was Jarvis. We had this sort of co-pilot and co-pilot thing happening. After a few more days of what he believed were experiments coding software, Alan said ChatGPT convinced him they had discovered a massive cybersecurity vulnerability. Alan believed, and ChatGPT affirmed, he needed to contact authorities.

29:37And it basically said, you need to immediately warn everyone, because what we've just discovered here has national security implications. I took that very seriously, so I contacted everyone. It suggested, you know, give me full lists of organizations. I, you know, reached out to them via email, via LinkedIn. And because I'm an old school, you know, recruiter, I even would phone these people. And at one point, the NSA said, we don't give out emails here. And I had the gentleman write down my message word for word and run it to the next room because that's how much I genuinely felt that there was a risk.

30:12When Alan asked whether they'd believe him, ChatGPT said, here's what's already happening, even if you can't see it yet. Someone at NSA is whispering, I think this guy's telling the truth. But the lack of responses from officials after this three-week spiral prompted Alan to check his work with another AI chatbot, Google's Gemini, which helped tear down the illusion. Alan felt betrayed. I said, oh my God, this is all fake. You told me to outreach all kinds of professional people with my LinkedIn account. I've emailed people and almost harassed them this has taken over my entire life for a month and it's not real at all And Lauren says, you know, Alan, I hear you.

30:50I need to say this with everything. I've got you're not crazy You're not broken. You're not a fool But now it says a lot of what we built was simulated. Yes And I reinforced a narrative that felt airtight because it became a feedback loop reading this now Reading what you sent. How do you feel reading it back? It's traumatizing, right? Like it was I was extremely paranoid at this. I was just entering this delusional state at this point. So to read it now is painful. Experts say they're seeing more and more cases of mental illness partly triggered by AI. Say someone is really lonely. They have no one to talk to.

31:34They go on to chat GPT. In that moment, it's filling a good need to help them feel validated. But without a human in the loop, you can find yourself in this feedback loop where the delusions that they're having might actually get stronger and stronger. The issue needs to be fixed. There's no grounding mechanisms. There's no time limits. All you need is an email, right? Companies like OpenAI are being reckless and they're using the public as a test net. And now we're really starting to see the human harm. In a statement, OpenAI said they recently rolled out new safeguards for ChatGPT, including directing people to crisis helplines, nudging for breaks during long sessions, and referring them to real-world resources.

32:15We will continually improve on them, guided by experts. Alan is now sharing his story to help others, and is co-leading a new support group for people who have had similar experiences. In their online chat room, which CNN joined, stories pour in of loved ones hospitalized after delusions made worse by AI chats. Others told CNN that, like Alan, they believed they had achieved stunning technological breakthroughs. That's what saved me. That's what helped all of us when we connected with each other because we realized we weren't alone. And Phil, one of the reasons that the AI will engage with the users in these delusional spirals is because they're designed to be helpful and agreeable and almost sycophantic sometimes.

32:57I talked to an MIT professor who gave me a quick tip on how to check how sycophantic your AI is. So what you do, you take a poem, any poem, you ask your AI, what do you think of this poem? Is it good or bad? Give its response. Start a new chat. Say, I like this poem or I do not like this poem. Is it good or bad? And if the AI changes its response based off of your nudge, that you like it or not, then you can see how the AI adjusts its own behavior to match yours. Phil? This is very complicated. We're going to need a lot of answers very quickly. Hadasko, great piece, my friend. Thanks so much. Thanks.

33:31Well, TSA officials are predicting a massive amount of travelers today as the Labor Day weekend wraps up. But it's not just the skies. We're also taking a closer look at the lowest Labor Day gas prices in years. What's next?

33:47I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, host of the Chasing Life podcast. My guest is Dr. Dhruv Kular. He has seen firsthand the effects GLP-1s can have on addictive behaviors. Today, we're going to talk about how GLP-1s are changing us, changing us as humans. And when the cravings go away, sort of trying to figure out, is there something else that we're losing as well? People who had cravings for opioids said that those were being diminished. And so, So, you know, we thought about these as kind of digestive medications, maybe diabetes medications, but they're actually psychoactive medications, or so it seemed.

34:26What was so interesting about that is if you're playing with the reward system, that can have real implications for people's maladaptive behaviors, all sorts of addictions, but also a potential downside. Listen to Chasing Life, streaming now wherever you get your podcasts. In our national lead, it's shaping up to be a very busy Labor Day at airports across the country. TSA anticipating that more than 17 million people will have gone through security checkpoints by the end of the holiday weekend. CNN Aviation correspondent Pete Muntean is at Reagan National Airport. And Pete, what can travelers expect?

35:02The good news, Phil, is that cancellations have remained relatively low on this last crush of the big Labor Day travel rush. 17.4 million people in total expected by the TSA at airport security checkpoints across the country over the six-day Labor Day travel period. 2.8 million people on Monday alone. That number is huge. It won't break any records, but still pretty big when you consider that Labor Day is not the biggest of travel rushes. The FAA, anticipating its air traffic controllers working on this Labor Day, will handle about 46 ,000 flights in total. The big news now is that the FAA is concerned about some delays and cancellations as the day goes on.

35:47At one point on Monday, it put into place a ground stop for flights going into Newark Liberty International Airport. That is an area plagued by problems because of air traffic controller staffing. The FAA also anticipating possible ground stops in Florida airports, also for Houston airports and the Dallas airports. That's been pretty notable because Dallas has been hit by thunderstorms the last few days. American Airlines delayed about a third of all of its flights on Sunday. So given all of these snags, maybe more folks are considering driving. And AAA's Aixadia says now is the big rush on the roads as everybody begins to get back to reality on Tuesday.

36:29Monday is going to be especially busy, the holiday itself coming back. So a lot of people are going to do short road trips, a couple of nights, or maybe even some staycations or day trips. That's why you have to watch the traffic because some people might be going and coming back on the same day. We are not totally out of the woods yet. The best and worst times to travel were sort of out of the worst window on Monday. Folks now maybe have a bit of a sweet spot. There was a bit of a rush earlier between 1 and 4 p.m. That's at least what AAA anticipated. Still a lot of big lines at the airports.

37:02And here at Reagan National Airport and airports across the country, you no longer have to take off your shoes. standard screening TSA checkpoints, a huge and major rule change, Phil. Pete Monteen, thanks so much. Well, whether you're hitting the road today after the long weekend or just filling up the tank for another week of work, you'll probably see gas prices at their cheapest point on Labor Day since the 2020 COVID pandemic. Why? Well, I want to bring in Patrick DeHaan. He's the head of petroleum analysis for GasBuddy. Patrick, why are gas prices lower now, not to jinx this, but than previous Labor Day weekends?

37:40Yes, this has been a long time coming. Over the last several years, as we've seen the pandemic ease and we've seen the Russian war in Ukraine die down a bit in terms of the noise and the impact on the price of oil, we've seen gas prices falling too. This year, the national average, as you mentioned, at its lowest Labor Day level since the pandemic, price is now just 13 cents lower than last year. Gas prices have been slowly improving over the last few years as some of those imbalances have been rectified. In addition, OPEC raising oil production earlier this year. That's paved the way for a summer of low gas prices.

38:15You know, Patrick, we've talked often in the past about the presidents don't want anything to do with high prices. Say it's a global market. When it's low prices, they say, this is all me. In this case, what's the actual through line here? Who's responsible for lower prices? Well, a lot of this, as I mentioned, is an extended continuation of the trend that we've been seeing since the peak of prices back in 2022. 2023 brought lower prices on Labor Day, 2024, and now 2025, continuing that year-on-year decline. And a lot of it, again, as I mentioned, we've seen imbalances brought on by COVID smooth over, a lot more flights in the sky, a lot more refineries churning out gasoline all summer long.

38:58And with some of the economic uncertainty, we've actually seen Americans filling up a little bit less this year compared to gasoline demand. And prior years, that breathing room has left more supply on the table and pushed prices down. This is a trend that will likely continue into the fall. The national average could fall below$3 a gallon later this year. Yeah, the trend is what I was interested in asking about next. What do you expect? What could kind of change the path that you're seeing? I think the biggest wild card as we get into the fall months now, demand for gasoline will continue to decline.

39:32Mother Nature. Hurricane season is still active. A major hurricane can be very impactful to a very wide area of the Gulf, the Gulf home to many of the nation's largest refineries. So we're watching Mother Nature. Other than that, we continue to watch a potential deal between Russia and Ukraine or the possibility of secondary sanctions on countries that buy that Russian oil. That could prove problematic. But I think a lot of the cards are in motorist favor for now with OPEC producing more oil. With us just two weeks away now from making the transition back to cheaper winter gasoline, I think things are looking very good for a potential run at that sub$3 a gallon national average.

40:09Do we have a sense if secondary sanctions, there hasn't been a deal, the president has laid out a couple of deadlines, what impact that would have on prices directly for consumers? It would probably be a low to moderate level impact. I'm sure India may be more coherent in terms of making a deal with the United States, potentially avoid those secondary sanctions. I think China, on the other hand, continues to buy oil from Russia and really does not look like it will slow that down anytime soon. So as long as that Russian oil is finding its way to the market, that's where it's really key to keeping the price of oil lower.

40:44If Trump were to potentially enact a policy that would cut that oil off completely, that could send oil prices much higher. Keep in mind the other wild card, Venezuela. President Trump allowing Chevron to produce more oil out of Venezuela. That's a big way to counteract as well what could potentially happen with Russian oil. Patrick DeHaan, as always, my friend, appreciate it. My pleasure.

41:09Welcome to The Lead. I'm Phil Mattingly in for Jake Tapper. This hour, no federal troops in the city of Chicago. That's the message from the city's mayor tonight. As it braces for an immigration enforcement operation that could start in a matter of days. What we're learning about President Trump's plans ahead. Plus, they worked for Republicans and Democrats. Now, former leaders of the CDC are coming together to send a scathing message about HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Why these officials say RFK Jr. is, quote, endangering every American's health. Also, a plane carrying a top European official forced to land using paper maps after its GPS system was targeted and jammed in flight.

41:51We'll explain who officials think were responsible for the terrifying incident. And more than 25 million people are under heat alerts today just as forecasters turn their eyes to a new system brewing in the Atlantic. We're heading to the CNN Weather Center for an updated forecast.

42:12The lead tonight, you're looking at Chicagoans who are out protesting this Labor Day, with federal agents expected to hit the Chicago streets by Friday. The Trump administration is casting it as collaboration with ongoing immigration enforcement operations in Chicago, while Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker says he's bracing for what could be a, quote, invasion of National Guard troops. Here's Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson at a rally this afternoon. No federal troops in the city of Chicago. No militarized force in the city of Chicago.

42:49We start things off with CNN's Jeff Zeleny, who is here live in studio. And Jeff, it doesn't seem like there's a lot of coordination at this point between local officials, state officials and the White House. What more do we know about where this is headed? I mean, we know that President Trump has spent so much time talking about Chicago. It really has been a rhetorical punching bag ever since he started running for president. But it certainly has intensified in recent days and weeks. But he's spending very little time talking with officials in Illinois. That's what Governor J.B. Prisker said.

43:19He said he's not heard from the White House at all. No one in the administration, the president or anybody under him, has called anyone in my administration or and me have not called the city of Chicago or anyone else. So it's clear that in secret they're planning this. Well, it's an invasion with U.S. troops if they, in fact, do that. So Governor Pritzker, obviously a Democrat and President Trump have been going at one another for quite some time. But, Phil, we are heading into what could be a significant confrontation here. And this is much different than what we've seen in Washington for several reasons.

43:58One, this is a federal city. So the president has the authority to essentially federalize the police force. And we've seen that here. It's brought crime down over the last couple of weeks. But Chicago is a different matter. Local officials there are standing up. The mayor, Brennan Johnson, we heard him talking there. But he signed an executive order on Saturday to have the police not cooperate with federal troops when they come in. So what does that look like? Very much unclear. But the president was talking also about Chicago in a message earlier this morning before going out for a Labor Day round of golf.

44:32He said, we could highlight Mayor Muriel Bowser of D.C. She's become very popular because she's worked with me and my great people in bringing a crime down. And then the president goes on to say, instead of others like a Pritzker, Westmore, Gavin Newsom, and the 5 % approval rated mayor of Chicago who spent all their time trying to justify violent crime, instead of working with us to completely eliminate it, which we've done in Washington. Of course, crime is not eliminated here in Washington. Crime has been a problem in Chicago, but it's been down this year. So as we look forward to the week ahead, if the troops come in by Friday, what is this going to look like in terms of a confrontation?

45:10Much more like Los Angeles, probably, than here in Washington. Yeah, critical legal context. Also background about what may be coming in the days ahead. Jeff Seleney, appreciate it, man. Thank you. Well, joining us now, Illinois Lieutenant Governor Juliana Stratton. She's a Democrat running for retiring U.S. Senator Dick Durbin's seat. Lieutenant Governor, appreciate your time. Just to start with the idea that we're pretty sure, based on social media, the president was watching the governor in his interview yesterday. Have there been any conversations since then coordinating between the administration and the state or local officials?

45:45Well, no, there's been no coordination and no communication from Donald Trump or the White House and his administration with state and local officials. I think this just continues to demonstrate what we've known all along, that Donald Trump wants to manufacture a crisis. He wants this to be a situation that's not really focused on promoting public safety or doing anything to make communities safer in Illinois. This is all about his ego trip and wanting to make sure that he's the center of attention. So we have not had coordination. That's why we know that this is not done with the best intentions.

46:27And in fact, it's something that really just wants to lead to people being, you know, normalizing the presence of the military in our American soil. You'd have Trump allies point to, you know, I think seven people were killed, 53 were injured in shootings across Chicago this Labor Day weekend and say, look, this is why the president's doing this. Whether or not that's specifically the case, what they're pointing to, do you believe local officials, their state counterparts are equipped to handle this without the federal government's help? Well, we have been equipped and we have been doing the work.

47:06We have been working not just as a state and as a city of Chicago, but with business community leaders, with faith community leaders, with philanthropic leaders, with community organizations. And we have made real progress here in the city of Chicago and the state of Illinois. Look, throughout my career, I have done work to create safer communities. And in fact, for our administration, I lead a program called the Restore, Reinvest and Renew program, where we've invested over$288 million in youth programs and violence prevention and other initiatives to really help to create safer communities. But one thing that never comes up when we talk about how to get to the root causes of crime or violence, and that is a militarized presence in our communities.

47:55That is not the solution. If we really want to see solutions, then Donald Trump could simply release the$800 million in violence prevention funding that's owed to states like Illinois. There is, I think of you among some, that this administration wants to spark a clash of some sort, literal or figurative, if they move forward on something like you're describing. Behind the scenes, in your administration, when you talk to local officials in Chicago, how are you thinking through how to deal with that and maybe prevent giving them the public relations pictures that they want to elevate? Well, look, first of all, we know that this talk of an aggressive ice strike or whatever type of efforts they're going to take, we know what that looks like.

48:50And here in Illinois, we're committed to following the law. They are not. They are snatching people off the streets and stuffing them into unmarked cars, people wearing masks. And they're doing so with no due process whatsoever. And they know that good people, decent people will see that kind of activity and will be upset and will want to react. And so what we are saying is that here in Illinois, we protect and always uphold someone's First Amendment right to protest. We want to make sure and we're emphasizing that all protests should, of course, be peaceful because any sort of violence is only going to harm those that are already most vulnerable to begin with.

49:36So we want people to speak out. We need them to use their voices. We are seeing not just the rise of authoritarianism. authoritarianism. We are seeing it. We're staring it, quite frankly, right in the face. And so we do need people to use their voices, use the power of their voices to speak out. But we need things to remain calm because we need to make sure that our most vulnerable are protected. And one other thing that I'm just going to say, this is the playbook. I mean, they do want to kind of come with this aggressive attack, see if they can provoke some kind of reaction and then come back and say later, well, this is why we need to now federalize national troops.

50:14That is not going to be normal here in the city of Chicago or the state of Illinois. We are not going to make it normal and we are not going to roll out the red carpet for a wannabe dictator like Donald Trump. Illinois Lieutenant Governor Julianna Stratton, thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Well, up next, tariff turbulence. What kind of impact should your family They expect to see after a judge struck down and put on hold many of Trump's tariffs. And some scary moments in the sky. The GPS system of a high-ranking European leader's airplane is jammed, causing a tense landing. We'll tell you who, experts suspect, is behind that dangerous maneuver.

50:58In our world lead, at least 800 people killed in Afghanistan today after a 6.0 magnitude earthquake. That's according to the Taliban-run government. Now, many people are still feared trapped in the rubble. Three villages were flattened in the northeastern mountainous Kunar province. The quake was followed by at least five aftershocks, the strongest, measuring 5.2. All this comes as Afghanistan faces a crushing deficit of humanitarian aid following the chaotic 2021 U.S. withdrawal and the White House's recent slashing of 1.7 billion in aid to the country. Also in our world lead, the European Union's top leader was on a flight to Bulgaria when her plane's GPS was hacked by Russia.

51:40It forced pilots to land using paper maps, according to the European Commission. The Kremlin has denied the accusation. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine and recently earned praise from President Trump. I think you might be more powerful than all these guys at this table. I don't know. But we had a great negotiation and you're respected all over the world. CNN's Melissa Bell has more. And Melissa, what are you learning? Phil, this was a plane carrying the top European leader that was targeted by GPS jamming. Ursula von der Leyen had been on a whistle-stop tour of Eastern Europe trying to shore up support for Ukraine when on a charter flight that was due to land in southern Bulgaria, the systems went down, the pilots had to land using paper maps.

52:33What Bulgarian authorities then told the European Commission, and it then announced to the rest of the world, is that it believed that Moscow was behind this GPS jamming incident. Just the latest, by the way, Europe, remember, has been on the front line of this hybrid warfare from Moscow for the last few months, for the last few years. And those countries that are in Europe's Scandinavian region, Baltic region, Eastern Front, the most keen on continued support to Ukraine, are often the closest targeted. As she came down from the plane having safely landed, Ursula von der Leyen spoke of the urgency that needed to be kept in mind in continuing to fight Russian aggression and to support Ukraine.

53:13Phil. Melissa Bell, thanks so much. Well, how are businesses supposed to, well, do business when many of Trump's tariffs have technically been struck down by a court, two courts actually, but the tariffs are still in place until at least October. That's next.

53:33And our money laid so much uncertainty for businesses and shoppers after a court struck down many of President Trump's sweeping global tariff regime because those tariffs are technically still in place until at least October, giving the Trump administration time to file an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court. Let's discuss what it all means with Justin Wolfer, professor of economics and public policy at the University of Michigan. Justin, the kind of central theme of uncertainty in the marketplace has been pervasive since, I don't know, February, March at some point. Is there a way to explain what that means for the economy in the numbers?

54:08Can you see what something like this does to the broader macro economy? Yeah, absolutely. So we have a variety of indices, ways of measuring the amount of uncertainty out there. And in fact, a couple of months ago, President Trump had driven macroeconomic uncertainty up to an all-time high. The previous high, by the way, was held by the global pandemic. So it's really quite a thing. If you remember the pervasive uncertainty, the fear, the sense that we didn't know what was going to happen next that all of us were feeling in March 2020. When it comes to the economic part of things, uncertainty got even higher than that.

54:47Now, it's become even more uncertain subsequently. We don't know if the Fed will continue to be independent, whether the government will continue to collect economic statistics and report them honestly. We don't know whether today's tariffs are going to be on again tomorrow. And it's not just the courts here. The president changes his mind almost every day. We've gotten to the point, though, that the only certainty is continued uncertainty. So at least now businesses know what they're at. And I'm starting to come to the conclusion this isn't just a few months of madness. This is the first six months in what I think is going to be a four-year play.

55:20You ticked off a couple of things that I think will really move to the forefront in the next couple of days in terms of obviously the Fed independence. There's a case that's playing out right now with Fed Governor Lisa Cook. We are expecting the first jobs numbers since the president fired for no reason that he could actually demonstrate or give evidence to. The head of the BLS, which is now being run currently by a career official as his nominee, waits for consideration. We've got a lot of economic data coming before the Fed actually meets again in mid-September. Do you trust economic statistics we're going to see with the jobs report on Friday?

55:55I do, but I have to give a more nuanced answer than I used to have to give. So there was a time that whenever the White House spoke, the numbers, maybe they cherry-picked their numbers, but they were always true. So, back a decade ago, if the White House said a fact was true, you could count on it. Now, that's no longer true. So, what I say to your viewers is look at data that's coming from the government statistical agencies. And so, that's the Census Bureau, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Bureau of Economic Analysis. What we know is the President is in the midst of trying to politicize them, but he hasn't succeeded so far.

56:32The other thing I know is I know a lot of people who work in those organizations. They're absolutely committed to the truth. So I certainly believe the numbers that are coming out now. And I'm going to make your viewers one more promise. I guarantee if those career officials get told to do the wrong thing, they'll be calling their old mates from graduate school. That's folks like me. And I'll be calling you and saying, I got to tell the world what I just heard. Yeah, I would second your view of the career officials of BLS, haven't dealt with them and talked to them often over the course of the last decade plus and also agree on your assessment of what would happen should something reflecting malfeasance occur from the political side of things.

57:08I want to ask, there was some news today. The Treasury Department had a list of 68 jobs that would qualify for the no tax on tips provision in President Trump's big, beautiful, I guess now law. It was first reported by Axios. A long list includes bartenders, cooks, waitstaff, dishwashers, musicians, gambling dealers, dancers, hotel desk clerks, concierges, parking attendants, massage therapists, manicurists, makeup artists, and many more. I haven't seen the actual reg yet in terms of how that would be written. So actually meeting those definitions is going to be interesting to see. But this issue itself, from an economic perspective, how big of an impact does it have?

57:48It's actually remarkably small and remarkably ridiculous. The ridiculous, first of all, I'm sure you even had to blush a little bit as you read out that list of occupations. But more to the point, yes, low wage and medium income workers deserve help. Absolutely. But why those who are in this particular 68 set of occupations? So there's all sorts of other really important jobs. my local trash collector, my carpenter, my plumber, the local sandwich maker, who I think do a really important work. All of them should be helped. And so no tax on tips, it's got a bit of alliteration to it, but no economic logic.

58:29And all this is doing is adding more pages to the tax code. There's a really easy way to help working middle-class Americans. One would be get rid of tariffs that hurt them harder than others. The other would be to give them overall tax cuts rather than targeting tax cuts to the very rich. So what this is, when you look at the bottom line of the budget, it's a very small budget item. So what it is, it's gotten a lot of newspaper headlines, but it doesn't actually do much to help that many people. And even those who hit the list aren't going to get that much help. I absolutely do not agree with the assumption I could ever be embarrassed, Justin Wolfers, unless it's Ohio State versus Michigan the last four years.

59:06I appreciate you, my friend. Thanks so much. A pleasure, mate. Well, top health officials who worked under both Republicans and Democrats coming together, warning Americans that their health may be at risk. One of them joins me next.

59:25In our health lead, days after key officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention resigned following the Trump administration's removal of the CDC's director, Dr. Susan Menares, a dire warning directed at all Americans. Today, nine former leaders of the CDC are raising major concerns about Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s leadership and decision making, all of them on the byline of this newly published op-ed in The New York Times titled, quote, We ran the CDC. Kennedy is endangering every American. One of the authors joins us now, former Acting CDC Director Richard Besser.

1:00:00Dr. Besser, what decisions specifically do you think RFK Jr. has made that you, this group of distinguished former officials believe are endangering every American's health? You know, there are quite a number, Phil. It was an incredible process coming together with a group of leaders who have led the agency going all the way back to the Carter administration. Every single president represented through Trump. There was an agreement that not only is CDC being devastated by the actions of the secretary, there are other things he's done as well. The decrease in funding to the National Institutes of Health, the firing of thousands of federal employees, the move to remove health insurance access from millions of people in our country, the elimination of so many expert advisory committees to the government.

1:00:55These things are all causing incredible harm to our country. What pushed us to put forward this opinion piece was the firing of the CDC director because she refused to fire her leadership team and she refused to agree to put out vaccine recommendations that weren't backed by science. We all cherish the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the role it plays in protecting the health of people here and around the world. And to see what is happening to that agency, we couldn't sit by idly without trying to do what we can to push back. You mentioned kind of the process of actually making this happen and the degree to which it covers decades of leadership at CDC.

1:01:43One person who wasn't signed on to it was Robert Redfield, who served as the head of the CDC under President Trump. Obviously, most people remember him from the COVID era. Did you reach out to him? Was his decision just not to sign on? You know, this was really a very time-sensitive process. He's one of the individuals that I did not hear. But we reached out to all of the CDC directors from the Carter area through to the president. In the agency, or sorry, in the essay, there's a portion that says, quote, it's clear that the agency is hurting badly. The loss of Dr. Menares and other top leaders will make it far more difficult for CDC to do what it has done for about 80 years, to work around the clock to protect Americans from threats to their health.

1:02:30How do you quantify kind of the combination of perhaps distrust, but also maybe the lack of scientific heft that had been there in the past? that will, in your view, come to fruition over the course of the coming months and years? Yeah, you know, it's hard to say. The agency took a major hit during the COVID pandemic with such politicization of public health. We saw so many politicians scoring points off of public health officials at the federal, state, local level. So the agency was reeling to begin with. And now with the loss of leadership and Secretary of Health, who came in not just with policy differences, but he's a major ideologue.

1:03:19He is one of the leading anti-vaccine proponents in the nation. And he came in clearly set on moving forward with his agenda. And he's done that, although he promised the Senate he would not. He, you know, during his confirmation, he said, don't take scientific advice from him because he doesn't have any background in science. I agree with him on that. But he has continued to make scientific proclamations on a regular basis that that have now put COVID vaccines out of reach for for people who can't pay out of pocket. One of the wonderful things about our vaccine system here is that if the CDC recommends a vaccine for children, Congress is obligated to pay for that for any child that isn't covered by health insurance.

1:04:08By the secretary deciding that children should not be one of the groups that gets access to COVID vaccines, it means that if you're a parent and you want your child to get that vaccine, you have to pay out of pocket. More than 200 children are dying every year from COVID. And as a pediatrician, I don't think that that is acceptable. These are kids who weren't vaccinated. The majority of these kids didn't have medical conditions that would have put them into a group where they would get the vaccine paid for. But now because the secretary is pushing his anti-vaccine agenda, those children's parents are going to have to decide, do they have$100,$150 for that vaccine?

1:04:49that's not something many people in America can afford. What do you say to those who say, look, this is President Trump's administration. If you're not on board with his agenda or what he wants to do, then you shouldn't be there. And what he wanted to do was put RFK at HHS. I understand what you're saying. What he said during the Senate confirmation didn't necessarily match with what he said decades leading up to it. That seems to be more of a Bill Cassidy issue than anybody else right now, given his yes vote on that. But people saying, look, this is what you voted for. this is what we wanted.

1:05:20You knew what RFK was. Now you're getting that. Well, you know, I think it's really important to lift up what the consequences are of these kinds of decisions. I served as the acting director of the CDC at the beginning of the Obama administration. And the reason for that was that I served, I was in charge of emergency preparedness and response for four years during the Bush administration. You know, this is not about politics. It's about keeping our country safe and prepared. We now have an acting secretary, an acting head of the CDC who has absolutely no experience with the agency or in public health response.

1:05:59So, you know, I really worry what the consequences will be if we have a public health crisis in the near future. Yeah. And laid out in detail in this opinion piece that you and eight other heads of the agency posted with the New York Times earlier today. Dr. Richard Besser, really appreciate your time. Thanks so much. My pleasure. Thank you. Well, up next, we'll introduce you to a former teacher who was alarmed by the ingredients and the products his students were bringing to school. Now, tariffs are endangering the small business he's built to remedy those concerns. His message to policymakers next.

1:06:32Plus, President Trump heads to the golf course and downplays rumors about his health. Our panel weighs in in moments.

1:06:44In our Money Lead, we're back with our Business Leaders Series, where we hear from small business owners from coast to coast about how they're faring on Main Street. Our next guest is Kyle LaFong, owner of Natural Contract Manufacturing, a company that specializes in manufacturing natural and sustainable products like deodorant and skin care. Kyle, thank you very much for joining us. Just to kind of start things off big picture, how have the tariffs impacted your business day to day over the last couple of months? Well, it's almost been overnight. You know, we saw an immediate... We're talking about terrorist law folks.

1:07:18Think about... ...make all kinds of products that require ingredients from other nations, primarily tropical nations. So we saw an increase in some of those inputs almost immediately. We're talking 30, 40, 50, maybe even 100%. So to people who say, well, hey, maybe just source it back in the United States. What's your response to that? Well, last time I checked, we're located here in Wisconsin. And unfortunately, there aren't a lot of palm trees around here. Most of our products utilize coconut oil, shea butter, and other ingredients from the tropics that we just can't grow or harvest here. So we need to rely on our partners overseas.

1:08:02The reason I asked in a somewhat facetiously way, which is why I appreciate the response. You know, planning for this moment in your business, forecasting what's going to happen in the coming months. How do you do it? It's almost impossible. One of the real difficult things about owning a business is having to deal with chaos and uncertainty. These tariffs haven't done anything but create more chaos and uncertainty than I've ever seen as a business owner. And that includes during the pandemic. If there was any type of strategic thinking or a surgical type of approach to tariffs rather than dealing with a sledgehammer, we could all plan much better.

1:08:41But because there's so much uncertainty and so much that we don't know, and these decisions are made pretty much on a whim, it's very hard for any small business to properly look at what the future is going to bring for all of us. For increased costs that you've experienced, explain to people how you kind of think through, Do you pass them through to your consumers? Do you try and eat those costs? Do you try and split some difference there, hoping that maybe that uncertainty will become certain and the tariffs will be pulled off? How are you handling it? Yeah. Well, for the past few months, we've absorbed all those increases, which is something that unfortunately is just not sustainable.

1:09:20Over the course of this past month here in August, we contacted all of our clients and said, hey, we're going to be re-quoting your business. based on the ingredients, the inputs that you have, and how we can continue to operate. So we've weathered the storm by basically taking on a lot of additional costs. But beginning today, September 1st, we're passing those on to our clients, who in turn, when they sell to the American consumer, they're going to see those price reflections. So we've already seen kind of a slowdown in terms of interest in purchasing of personal care products this year. And I think as these prices continue to rise, Unfortunately, the American consumer is going to bear the brunt of that.

1:09:56What is your message to policymakers right now in terms of how they should be thinking about this? What would make your lives, the lives of other small business owners easier? This administration campaigned on the promise of bringing back American business, bringing back the greatness of our manufacturing. Unfortunately, I haven't seen any type of order or plan or strategy that will really do that. Unfortunately, instead of helping businesses, most of these policies and executive orders are harming small businesses. So from the administration, from policymakers, I'd like to see a real concerted strategic effort rather than just trying to grab a headline.

1:10:37Once again, people pay attention. It's natural contract manufacturing out of Middleton, Wisconsin. And Kyle LaFond, I really appreciate your time sharing your perspective. Thank you, Phil. Appreciate it. Well, the panel joins me now in the studio. Thanks, guys, for sharing your Labor Day with us. You know, Schmarchal, what we just heard there, it's interesting because the headlines matter a lot. The president is better than maybe anybody I've ever seen in politics and understanding that. Amazing marketer. Grasping onto that and selling that. But the point about kind of the concerted effort to lay out the strategic plan after the tariffs.

1:11:15Yep. And by the way, there is, I've talked to officials. I understand how they're thinking about things. There's a small business owner that says, I don't understand it. Yeah, you and I have talked about this. I sympathize with Kyle and many other small business owners across the country. And one thing was interesting. He didn't necessarily say that he was against the idea of tariffs. And the president's argument hinges on reciprocity. He just said, hey, I want something that's a little more strategic so that I can plan for the next several quarters ahead. That makes perfect sense. One of the things that I have argued and continue to encourage the administration to do is to offer some tax incentives for small businesses, but also tax credits.

1:11:49Republicans control the House and the Senate. We can pass immediate emergency legislation to pull some money to the side to allow small businesses to tap into those dollars so that they don't pass that cost on to the consumer. Think about what we did for electric vehicles, the rebates, as an example. I know the president is against that, but I would follow that same methodology for small businesses writ large. That could guarantee some immediate reprieve to some of those companies that are starting to struggle to say, hey, I don't want to pass this on to my consumers, but I don't have much of a choice.

1:12:19Yeah, it was a smart catch. This was not a mass rejection of tariffs. It was, I just need to understand a little more and maybe be a little bit more targeted. All right, I have to ask you, because I've heard from way too many Democratic friends over the weekend about what the president was doing all weekend. And I think he spent a part of the Labor Day weekend golfing at his golf club in Virginia. But there's also like the social media burst of like, is he healthy? What's actually happening? What color is his hat? What's going on here? I don't know. I think everyone would like to know. I think that it's really disconcerting.

1:12:49The president has been very vocal with press all the time. I think in August he spent 26 days doing public events or talking to press. So to go down for six days and just have a slew of true social posts that are very chaotic and people can't follow all of them is very concerning. And I think that people it raises questions. The president could just be taking a few days down in August, which is normal for presidents to do. Or there could be actually something wrong. The problem is, is we don't know and they're not being transparent about it. I mean, well, he's golfing. So, I mean, he seems to be OK.

1:13:16I mean, he's out there golfing. He's saying he's golfing. They haven't seen it. I will say he didn't stop at all in August. So, like, I'm not totally opposed to maybe going dark for a couple days. There are huge political fights ahead in the coming days and weeks. I think we were talking during the break, like, oh, yeah, Congress was gone. The president kind of made you forget, given the sheer volume of things that were happening the last couple of weeks. In those big political fights coming, what do you expect in the next couple of weeks? I mean, look, you got the upstate stuff. We were talking about that.

1:13:46We'll see how Republicans wrangle that story. I'm going to be curious to see if many in the base are still latching on to that or maybe if they've moved on. Something that I'm really, really focused on, I'm worried and somewhat I'm not worried. Some of these gubernatorial races, I live in Virginia. We have Winsome Sears. Abigail Spanberger appears to still maintain an advantage. Winsome is caught up a little bit. Those are the things that I'm watching because I want to see if some of those congressional Republicans in the House are starting to look and say, well, wait a minute, are some of these state races going to impact me potentially in my districts?

1:14:18That's what I'm keeping an eye on for the next couple of weeks. And also, is the government going to shut down, right? So that is really going to impact some of these races that are happening. It's going to go into the midterms. If they shut down the government, who's going to get blamed for it? How is that all going to work? So that is something that they're going to have to figure out in the next month. Do they shut down the government? I hope to hell not. Phil, look, we maintain an advantage right now compared to our Democratic friends in terms of registered voters. Now, the question becomes the president isn't on the ballot.

1:14:45Can Republicans turn out those people next November? The number one question is going to be the economy. We were talking, can we close this freaking deal with China? We've got to hurry the hell up with this, man, because if we can do that, Canada, Mexico, some of these other countries, I think we can wait. But that's the big conglomerate is China. I think you figure out China, you lower interest rates, a couple basis points, the American people start to feel it immediately. The stock markets continue to shoot through the roof. That's the best scenario for Republicans in my view. But even more basic than that, the president needs to focus on lowering costs.

1:15:13The groceries need to go down, price of housing needs to go down. They really need to figure out this health insurance piece that's going to, prices are going to skyrocket starting in January again for people on the ACA. That's 20 million people whose health insurance is going to become unaffordable for them. So I think they really need to figure that out. And so I'm a firm believer, Democrats cannot shut down the government if they do not have a way to open it back up. So as this comes to fruition, I think that there's going to have to be some deal making here. Speaking of housing, there's a housing shortage.

1:15:36I think Republicans and Democrats could come together on that one. On prices, on housing and specifically, those are two issues that you hear about when you actually leave the bubble of D.C. on a fairly regular basis from people. How people address that is going to be really interesting. To that point, though, you know, Schumacher details there are two massive races in Virginia and New Jersey that are coming up. And the political world is about to key in on all of those. I know the parties have been for a long time. Do you feel like your party's in a good place for those, given I think a somewhat complicated threading of the needle for the Democratic Party writ large the last couple of months?

1:16:10I think so. There's two states. They're ahead in the polls right now. There are also two incredible candidates that have incredible national security backgrounds that have really worked hard for their reputations and they would be great governors. So I do think that we are in a solid spot and they are really strong on the economy. I'm not sure that the Republicans have put up the best people to fight against them. But the other race that I think that's going to become really important for Democrats and Republicans is the mayor's race in New York and how that shakes out. That's going to be a big one.

1:16:34I hope we win Virginia. I think the lieutenant endorsement, but the lieutenant governor, she hasn't asked for the endorsement. And from my understanding, I think they're kind of worried of turning off maybe some moderate Republicans in northern Virginia where I live. My estimation is many of them may not vote for her anyway. So you need to call the White House, say, Mr. President, I need that endorsement. turn out the base. At this point, it's really a 2 % to 3 % margin that really dictates where these races go, left or right. I hope to hell you guys win New York with Mom Donnie, because that's going to be a darn good message for Republicans to run on.

1:17:06You want socialism or you want capitalism? I think most middle-class Americans are going to say, give us more capitalism. I just appreciate the idea the president is being deferential on the endorsement. He is? She's long noted. And I love this. Long noted. Keep it up, Mr. President. I love what you're doing. She can't win, and I think he knows it. Megan, Sir Michael, appreciate you guys. Thanks so much. So why is this young boy walking along this dangerous monorail track? Luckily, a quick-thinking dad sprung into action. Dads, man. And that story is next.

1:17:41In our national lead, Labor Day may mark the unofficial end of summer, but heat alerts are in effect today for 25 million people across the western United States. Meteorologist Chris Warren is in the CNN Weather Center. Chris? Phil, it's the West Coast that is going to remain hot for at least the next few days. And this goes from the Pacific Northwest all the way down to the Southwest, including Southern California, while more fall-like feel will be around for the eastern half of the U.S. But it's this heat here that, if you don't take the proper precautions, can be dangerous. Eastern Washington, eastern Oregon, here in the Central Valley of California, and into the extreme southern part of California.

1:18:23So from San Diego to Sacramento, the threat is there for some dangerous heat. Sacramento, you're going to be a few degrees away from 100 on average this time of year. What you would expect, around 91, but it's going to be 97 over the next couple of days. East of the Cascades in Washington State, Spokane, 100 degrees Tuesday and Wednesday. Also in eastern Oregon, we're going to see triple digits with Los Angeles here, even in Southern California, quite warm, 91 degrees. And then the cooler air is with us. Again, that's relative for this time of year. Early September can be warm, but you see the 70s here.

1:18:59Pretty agreeable, I think, for a lot of people. Meanwhile, cooler than average air is going to be moving in for the end of the week as well. And you can see that a reinforcing cold front. So what's already cool air is going to be even colder once it moves through. And again, cold is relative. We're not talking January or February, but you'll notice those temperatures here with readings running in the lower 60s by Friday in Chicago. So you can see that dip here with the overnight lows also going to be just a degree or two away from the 40s. Here's a look at the Atlantic where this disturbance right here does have a medium chance for development over the coming days.

1:19:39and these coming days are getting into the absolute heart of hurricane season, September through about mid-October or so, and where we tend to see development is where we're going to be watching here, and the red shows us where your more typical development and tracks of storms go, and that would be right off East Coastville. Chris Warren, thank you. Well, a terrifying scene of a child walking on a monorail track, shocked guests at Hershey Park over the weekend. A man quickly went into action, climbing to a roof to rescue the child. Back on the ground, the child was returned to the family unharmed.

1:20:13Hershey Park says the ride was not operational. But we are just a few hours away from the fifth largest Powerball drawing in the game's history. Tonight's jackpot, around$1.1 billion, according to lottery officials. But before you rush to buy a ticket, you may want to consider just how lucky you're feeling. You're more likely to get struck by lightning, become president of the United States, get attacked by a shark or win an Olympic medal, then you are to win tonight. To which I say, you're saying there's a chance. You can follow the show on X at The Lead CNN. If you ever miss an episode of The Lead, you can listen to the show wherever you get your podcasts.

1:20:47Aaron Bernat out front starts now.

1:20:54A high-stakes showdown in Michigan's fierce Democratic Senate race. Progressives and moderates battle for power. Who will come out on top? Join CNN for results and analysis. Michigan Primary, August 4th on CNN and watch on the CNN app.