Candidates Soar Across Kenya For Votes
GORANI: President Donald Trump is about to leave the White House for a 17-day working vacation at his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey. But, it will be difficult to leave the troubling headlines behind on the golf course. The Russian investigation, the president calls a witch hunt is escalating. Justice Department Special Counsel Robert Mueller has issued a grand jury subpoenas related to Donald Jr.'s 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer. Let's talk more about the significance of a grand jury and all of these. CNN Legal Analyst Paul Callan joins me from New York. What is the role of a grand jury in this case, Paul?</s>PAUL CALLAN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, a grand jury can be used very effectively as an investigative tool for the prosecutor. They issue subpoenas, they have powers to force witnesses to come forward and testify and turn over documents. It really enables a prosecutor to get a lot more information in an investigation than the FBI or other federal law enforcement officials can normally get.</s>GORANI: So if they're expanding the probe into financial matters for instance, could they subpoena the president's tax records? Could they compel the president to testify?</s>CALLAN: They absolutely would have the right to subpoena his tax records, and yes, I think the answer is they could compel him to testify. There's president for that happening. Bill Clinton was coerced by subpoena into testifying in a court case. So certainly the president could be forced to do that. The -- you know, it's interesting you raised the issue of the financial records. This of course is something the president has been very fearful of. I mean, he said that this is the red line, if they cross the red line and start looking into financial records concerning the Trump financial empire, he is going to be of the view that this is an improper and excessive investigation. Now, we'll see how he reacts to it when it happens.</s>GORANI: But were still years away from any conclusion right?</s>CALLAN: Most of these investigations of this complexity do take years. The prosecutor -- Mueller has recently expanded the size of his staff to I think he's got 16 lawyers, FBI agents and other professionals poring over financial records and other records. So with that large staff, you can imagine that there is an enormous amount of information involved. So I think you will see -- I do not know that three years would be the case. I would expect in one year we'll probably have an answer as to whether there is going to be an indictment or whether it'll be closed out with nothing happening.</s>GORANI: And timelines, I mean, usually there could be indictments but not of a sitting president. That's not how it works in the</s>U.S. CALLAN: Well, the majority of legal scholars feel that a sitting president cannot be indicted criminally while he is in office. He can be impeached and then he can be charged criminally after he's been removed from the presidency. The Constitution -- the U.S. Constitution is actually silent on it. So there is a minority view among lawyers that he could in fact be criminally charged. But no American president has ever been criminally charged while sitting in office.</s>GORANI: All right Paul. I guess I should ask you one last question. Were you surprised there that the -- there was the convening or the formation of a grand jury and that subpoenas were issued this quick? I mean, I know it's a year-end but at this moment in time, do that surprise you?</s>CALLAN: No, I wasn't surprised. I mean, I expected there probably would be a grand jury. You know, I think that the hope for those who support the president was, that this was an unusual situation with a new prosecutor inheriting a lot of investigation that had been done by the FBI already. Remember, they've been investigating this case since last summer. He might have looked at the material and said, you know, there's no case here, no reason for a grand jury but he is going with a grand jury. So it's an ominous sign for the Trump administration, I think.</s>GORANI: Paul Callan, thanks very much as always, appreciate your time. Here's a one headline that Donald Trump definitely wants you to see. The latest jobs report, at 4.3%, unemployment in America is now at its lowest level in 16 years. Something the president jumped on the chance to celebrate, tweeting, "Excellent jobs' numbers just released and I have only just begun." But hold on a minute, if these numbers are so great, why did Mr. Trump say this just a few months ago?</s>DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Growing in an average of probably 1% to 2%, nobody even knows and nobody believes the numbers anyway. And the numbers they put a phony</s>GORANI: This was in November of last year when there were good numbers under the Obama administration. As far as President Trump was concerned, they were phony. Let's dissect these figures though. Let's bring in Diane Swonk, she is joining me now live. Thanks for being with us. Diane, I want to ask you first about these jobless numbers. How -- we're seeing a trend that is definitely positive. How long does it take for numbers like this to -- I should say, how long do policies have to trickle down for them to be reflected in jobless numbers as positive as this, generally speaking?</s>DIANE SWONK, FOUNDER AND CEO, D.S. ECONOMICS: We are already on a continuum. We've seen job gains actually a little bit slowly this year than they were last year on a monthly basis but from a higher -- a lower base. So we're getting closer and closer to sort of digging into a broader pool of people. This issue is we're still not engaging as many people as we'd like. The participation right kicked up a little bit and that's because women are participating in the labor force of quarters of the job gains that we saw this month alone. Little over part of them were in food services, and those are jobs that often are very female-dependent or certainly dominated. I think that's one of the things we're seeing. It's also important to remember that we've seem leisure and hospitality food services, that sector really expand as millenials are spending more money -- discretionary money on experiences and eating out. And that's good news if there's that money being spent out, their professional hires were also up. But this is really a trend that we saw last year and it continued into this year. The good news is, we do seem to be on boost control. The bad news is, that cruise control is a little less than 1% between in the first half of 2017.</s>GORANI: Yes. And speaking of GDP growth, obviously, we had a better than expected Q2, second quarter and annualized terms. And there were many quarters during the Obama administration where we saw more than 3% growth as well. Is this a continuation of the trend set over the last few years, or is this the results of measures taken in the last six months?</s>SWONK: It's certainly not a result of measures taken the last six months. That will take some time to show up in the economy. In terms of deregulation, there is a few steps forward and few steps backward. The president has engaged on a deregulation but of course as you deregulate, you also undo entire industries that were built up regulation. And so, there's actually -- the initial is a little bit disruptive. So you -- the past to it take time, not just months or quarters but often years. On the flip side of it, there are some very destructive policies in terms of -- worry people, immigration has slowed. There is an effort to slow legal immigration to half its current pace. That accounts for half of all job growth in the United States. So, to take that away, you're actually taking</s>GORANI: Yes.</s>SWONK: A rate that it hasn't for the second goes destructive.</s>GORANI: The administration Diane would say, well, this is giving jobs to people already in the country and it will push the unemployment rate down even more. The fact that --</s>SWONK: Well, the economic format of that --</s>GORANI: -- of immigration controls job.</s>SWONK: The economic formats of that is not very good and I would love to see this administration embrace more economists because probably they don't have a lot. But I think what's important is, if we look at the larger picture, we know, for instance, when within a year of when they said, you know, we can't have more tomato growers coming in from outside the country, or tomato pickers coming in to California to pick tomatoes within one year. We automated these jobs away. In the height of the great recession in Alabama, farmers, they had lost on paper laws where a lot of immigrants did not show up to pick the crops and instead of locals picking the crops, none of the crops got picked. And so, we know as there are some jobs that just do not get taken by native born and that's very important in factoring in. And when it comes to growth -- growth is a very simple equation. Labor force growth plus productivity growth. Right now, we're low on both and you're taking even more of the premise of growing your labor force when you lock out other people from coming in.</s>GORANI: The president talks a lot about the stock market but it's the historic high that is actually indisputable. The Dow Jones hit 22,000 a couple days ago. It's still hovering around that number. Is a high stock market the sign of a healthy economy?</s>SWONK: It can be and I certainly hope it is. It's right now, more reflective of growth abroad and growth at home because were seen other economies, most notably in the Euro zone actually picking up more rapidly than ours is in your own backyard. And if you look at many of the big numbers that have been pushing the stock market, moving out of the tech sector, it's no longer that post election trade that we saw. The numbers that are really pushing now our multinationals who are making more money and bringing profits home by production that they have actually located in foreign economies. So it's by facilities abroad, not via exports -- yes, well, we like to see some exports pick up as well.</s>GORANI: All right, Diane Swonk, the founder and CEO of D.S. Economics. Thanks so much for joining us from Chicago. We appreciate it.</s>SWONK: My pleasure.</s>GORANI: Quick live look at Air Force One. As we mentioned the president is going on an extended vacation, 17 days. They're calling it a working vacation in Bedminster, New Jersey, one of his properties there. I understand that the flight is due to take off any minute now. Now, the new Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has weighted into the Brexit debate, urging North Irish unionists</s>FARAI SEVENZO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As politicians hoping to pull in a crowd in this Kenyan election, a helicopter may just be the thing. At this opposition campaign rally in the middle of Kenya's</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's not something normally here so we're very happy to see it's coming here.</s>SEVENZO (voice-over): Kenya's 2017 general election is approaching the final stretch and the race is tight. Helicopter after helicopter carrying politicians across the political divide lift off into the</s>GILBERT KIBE, KENYA CIVIL AVIATION AUTHORITY: The James Bond is a figure of speech, the individual who decides that he wants a free ride in a helicopter and they think that it would be fun.</s>SEVENZO (voice-over): One James Bond chopper-grabber told CNN that he hang on to the chopper because others had been given something and he'd missed out. Kenya's Civil Aviation Authority noted the number of these stunts rises and made a public service announcement.</s>KIBE: We shall not accept to see ever again a James Bond. If you see something that looks dangerous, please inform us.</s>SEVENZO (voice-over): One by one, the metal birds lifts off, leaving the voters bemused. As they waved the politicians away, beneath the departing choppers there is no sign of James Bond, for now. Farai Sevenzo, CNN, Nairobi.</s>GORANI: Coming up next on the program, we catch up with Brazilian superstar Neymar's $263 million move to Paris. An interview with the player is coming up.