Donald trumps legal team is prepared to go back to court later this month, and the many deflections they are testing out in public. A dramatic attack in a russian port overnight. It shows an unmanned drone seriously damaging a russian warship. And the update of the gilgo killings. Sara is off today. Im kate bolduan with john berman, and this is cnn news central. A new month of job growth extending Employment Strength in the u. S. Economy. 187,000 jobs were added in july and the Unemployment Rate ticked down to 3. 5 , and now the 187,000 jobs added were lower than what economists were expecting. Joined now by acting labor secretary julie sue, and thank you for joining us, and economists were expecting more jobs added and what do you think of that . Well, this is the stable steady growth that the president predicted a year ago. We were hopeful that we would go from the recordbreaking numbers of jobs created on the numbers created coming out of the pandemic, and now over 13. 4 million jobs created since the president came into office, and it is the fastest job growth ever, and ten years ago in 2008, it took ten years to get that recovery, and now we are transitioning into the stable and steady growth that is the characteristic of the strong economy. Why do you think it is not meeting expectations though . Well, i think that it is, and basically what the president has said and part of the economic plan, right, the bidenomics is making sure that we are creating an economy from the bottom up, and creating jobs in all economies and keep the Unemployment Rate low which is less than 4 now for a year and a half, and that is the longest stretch since the 1960s all while the Labor Force Participation rate is at alltime highs, and all of those things together are signs of, and characteristics of strong and stable growth which is really what we want, and many people said earlier on, it is too hot, and is there going to be a soft landing, and these numbers are consistent with what that soft landing looked like. And looking at the Glass Half Full perspective which you are promoting, and many, many months of consistent job growth, and jobs, jobs, jobs added every month, and the economy is still growing, and inflation is coming down, and all of these in a vacuum you would think would be very positive signs that the American People would be feeling and would be thrilled about and yet in our brandnew cnn poll, 51 of americans say that the economy is getting worse. 20 saying better. How do you explain that . Yeah, i mean, americans have been through a lot, right. It has been a hard several years. We got through a global pandemic, and people experienced loss and, you know, destabi destabilization. But when i travel around the country, i see the people feeling optimistic, and it is reflected in the numbers and the people coming back to the market in record rates, and women coming back to the market, and the numbers of the past month that we are seeing nonresidential construction, and so we are building things, and building the factories to help to help this industrial policy of bringing manufacturing back to the united states, and Health Care Jobs and life in normal to health and personal services. People are getting the haircut, and going to the nail salon and areas of growth. As i am talking to americans across the country, and as the numbers reflect, there is a sense in which you build an economy, and everyone is included, it is going to be different this time, and an important characteristic of bidenomics delivers for the American People. And not mistaken, you did Go Out To West Coast to help to mediate the port strike taking place there some time ago, and there is a another strike hitting hollywood, and not to mention new york and other places where they make the scripted television, and talking about the Writers Strike and the actors strike, and why arent you involved there . Right. So another characteristic of the economy is the tight labor market. So we have more jobs, and it is creating a situation where the working people have the ability to make different choices. Leave jobs that dont provide them with the wages, the security, and the Health Benefits or the retirement that they want and need and deserve, and that is increasing unions bargaining power. We are seeing it right, at the ports where the parties came together, and over 13 months, and negotiated a tentative agreement, and we saw it with u. P. S. And teamsters, and many people were worried about how that would land, but they reached a tentative agreement, and that means that the workers will strike if they are not getting what they believe in at the table. It is what the president and i believe in, and that is collective bargaining, and building in resiliencies for the long term, and some of that is the ability to strike. Acting Secretary Of Labor julie su. Kate. Donald trump is headed to alabama to hit the campaign trail, and some say that trump was irked and pissed off after the Court Appearance yesterday. Right now, the attorneys are working on fighting the criminal charges stemming from the effort to remain in power. A judge has scheduled the next hearing for august 28th, and at this point, a trial date is set, and a next hearing is going to be five days after the first president ial debate underscoring the historical debate of this case. Now, walk us through what is next here for donald trump. Well, kate, the august 28th date is not just circled on the calendar, because it is the date that donald trump and the prosecutors in the case are going before the judge for the first time, and loft reason to watch how the judge handles this case. She is a tough case, and moves fast. She is familiar with trump as a litigant before, and she has had a donald trump case before her before on the civil side, and the documents and inquiry that she wanted to hold back, and she has made it clear that she is ready to set a trial date whenever that hearing happens on august 28th. Right now, we are going be seeing how the arguments may be done before then, and how fast the initial parts of the case moves, and this is what trumps lawyer john lauro had to say on fox, and some sentiments he said in court also. They are attacking other parts of the constitution, also, because they want to take President Trump to trial in a few months, and deny him the sixth amendment rights to counsel to give me and my cocounsel todd blanche a chance to prepare and deny him Due Process Rights to look at the documents, and to get the witnesses and use our subpoena power. They want to deny him all of those rights in a russia judgment for one political purpose which is to uphold the biden administration. So the Justice Department does want this case to be moving fast and they said as much in court yesterday, but they have also said that there is a way to do this case to hand over the evidence starting very fast, and ready to go, and the magistrate case before her, and she said directly, that this court, this case is going to be fair, and trump said that he wants things to go to the Supreme Court, and that is not how it works either. You cant just snap your fingers and expect things to go to Supreme Court on appeals. Thank you syou, katelyn pola so, joining us now is elie honig, and lets talk about the strategy that they are laying out in this political prosecution, as they called it, saying that the special counsels team is trying to deny trump all of these rights as they are pushing this trial forward, and what do you think of what he said . I reject the claim that it is politically motivated. First, there is no evidence of that. We appointed a special counsel, and there is reason to blanket the prosecutors to have a special process to prepare for trial. I know there is a great appetite to make sure that donald trump is tried before the election, and maybe there is well an opportunity to get one of the soon to be four trial in a because of the part of the conundrum is because the doj Merrick Garland wait sod long to appoint jack smith. He got his job done very fast, and so there is some legitimacy to that part of the argument. And elie, i wanted to play Something Else that john lauro responded to, and some of what former attorney bill barr said, that free speech does not give you the right to engage in a fraudulent conspiracy. This is what he said. Laughable. Laughable. What is the fraud . Tell me what the fraud is . Tell me what is the fraudable speech . He was out in the open pet petitioning the state legislatures, the courts, and there was nothing fraudulent going to on, and this is absolutely protected First Amendment speech. For mr. Barr to say that is a complete and utter ignorance of what the basic law is with respect to the freedom of speech. Step away from the p. R. Element of it, if you will, and what he getting at is something that we started to discuss which is the boundaries of the First Amendment protections, and what does the prosecution think that they need to prove, and he doesnt think they can. Speech and conduct is what is lawful and protected and what is unlawful. And john lauros conduct is that donald trump is engaging a in aggressive conduct, and they are first of all going to say on the prosecution, yes, they did, and they had them sign forms and sent them in to the archives and to the senate, and they will say this conduct kcrossed the line from speech to Crossing Line to criminal conduct. And now, your former boss mike pence could be central to this case, and speaking last hour with pences former Chief Of Staff mark short about all of this, and how he is so central in the indictment. If he remains a central piece of the case made against donald trump, what does it mean for mike pence . Look, i believed that mike pence has been the key witness in this entire situation. You know, in terms of the indictment for trump, this is about the obstruction of the peaceful transfer of power, and that is what it is coming down to. The intimidation of others, and comes down to using false claims to defraud the American People, and to pence was in the middle of that blaming him, and intimidating him. So it is important for mike pence to be honest with the American People as we go forward and he and his team, and e watched that interview with mark short, and i was very frustrated, because it is not hard to say that joe biden won the election, and not that hard to say that the process will play out with the department of justice instead of undermining the department and going along with the spin of lets focus on hunter biden and make it about Something Else, and the what aboutism is needing to stop, because you are leading to what led to violence on january 6th when it comes to mike pence. It is going to and if he wants to gain the public trust again who are never coming back to him. They see him as a traitor, and i am talking about the rest of the moderate republicans and the americans and other people who are watching his demeanor and believe that he showed courage on january 6th, but wondering where has he been for the last two years, and he could be sort of the Security Blanket that he is looking for and hopefully he is going to stay down that course. One thing on the mark short interview to clarify, and i know that you know that, mark short is not questioning legitimacy of joe bidens win and even though there is a lot of back and forth of the bias they do see in the Justice Department. Elie, one more thing because we talked about it last hour, trump wants to use the trial to relitigate the 2020 election, and whether there was fraud. As a defense, is that is going to how does that work . So, the judges like to give the defendants very broad attitude to deand is this legally relevant to anything . Is this factual . I would expect the judge to moderate this, because we have to investigate seven states, and you to give me a proffer, and as a member of the court, you have to give me a good basis of fact to argue why this election was stolen. I dont believe they can do that, because the judge can shut it down and protect her record for appeal. Olivia, thank youp. Today, the grand jury is set to meet in fulton county, georgia, and they are to meet to overturn trumps efforts there. They are to meet monday in anticipation of a decision by the grand jury soon. How long they have that road closed for Unclearment Fani Willis says that trumps latest indictment is not going to impact her case. I took a oath, and i follow the law, and if someone broke the law in fulton county, georgia, i have to prosecute, and that is what i intend to do. Again, the road to the courthouse is closed monday, and we will be watching that closely. Kate . 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This is just into cnn, Alexei Navalny has been sentenced to 19 years in prison according to russian state prison. Navalny was already in sentence serving 11 years charged with creation of an extremist community. Navalny called the charges absurd, and he said that he was preparing to what he called the stalinist verdict. To see the 19 years piled on the 11 already there, and you can see what dissidents are up against there in russia, nic. This is a point of navalnys tweet earlier today before the verdict was handed down, and he said, look, if you can, and essentially, if you are supporter, think about it, and show some support for us, and the political prisoners, and why such a huge sben tense, it is not meant to intimidate me, but you, and this is the point that navalny is taking the case against him to push the platform, and remind people what putin is trying to do here which is to silence any kind of d dissent and remember remember that putin tried to poison him, and silence him forever. That is what we are getting out of the courthouse, and navalny says that these charges are absolutely bogus. It is designed to send him away for a long time to a place where he cannot speak or challenge president putin, and he is going to be sent to a special regime colony, and we knew that he was having harsh treatment, and kept awake at night, and given coughs and colds while in jail. He had lost weight in jail. And another 19 on top of the 11 he is serving. Putin appears to put him away on time, and this is a test of nerves here of navalny here. It is showing. Navalny is giving away his life or decades of it to make a stand in the fight for speech and human rights. Nic, it is saying that ukraine is able to reach this seaport of russia with an unmanned sea drone, and what are you learning about this . We are learning that the unmanned sea drone is targeted at a longer range than any previous ukrainian sea drone. It is a massive target, and a huge warship. We understand there were about 1,000 pounds of explosives in this marine drone, and you see the video of it here. It is moving in on the massive warship, and now the russians are saying that they repelled it, and they were clearly not prepared for it, and the ship is hit at port such a long way from ukraine, and the video we are seeing this morning appears to be the same ship towed into port, and ing heavily and taking on a lot of water, and the ship is ripped below the water line, and very important russian ship, and it was a year or so that the ukrainians took out one of the prized warships in the russian fleet. The ukrainians in perpetrating this attack apparently used a number of aerial drones rather than the sea drones to draw the attention away from what is happening here, and a real sneak attack, but the reality is that the russians are going to be get dialed in for what the ukrainians are capable of, but it is a major embarrassment for putin. And you can see the giant Warship Listing there below the water line. Remarkable. Thank you, nic robertson, as always. And coming up, a Ron Desantis Appointee is in trouble over comments made while tea