STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
We have new information today about an altercation at Arlington National Cemetery.
A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Yeah, this is the incident where staff for former President Donald Trump had a verbal and physical confrontation with a cemetery employee. The employee was trying to enforce the rules about photography on hallowed ground. Now, until recently, it seemed this incident is over. NPR first reported it, then both the U.S. Army and the Trump campaign acknowledged it. But this week, Trump began saying it never happened. Now NPR has identified the names of the two Trump aides who were involved.
INSKEEP: NPR's Stephen Fowler joins us now. Stephen, good morning.
STEPHEN FOWLER, BYLINE: Good morning.
INSKEEP: OK, what are the names?
FOWLER: So according to two NPR sources familiar with the incident, Trump deputy campaign manager Justin Caporale and advanced staffer Michel Picard are the ones who got into that verbal and physical altercation with the Arlington Cemetery staffer. That staffer was trying to stop campaign photographers from accompanying Trump to the gravesites in Section 60 because the campaign was told ahead of time that only cemetery photography was allowed by an official photographer, and federal law prevents using cemeteries as any sort of campaign tool. The Army says that staffer did not want to escalate the situation at the time out of respect for grieving families and has declined to press charges. We're putting those names out there because of the conflicting answers that the campaign has given about what happened.
INSKEEP: Oh, yeah. I'm remembering that at the beginning, they acknowledged that something happened, although they disputed exactly what. They made accusations about the cemetery employee. And they claimed, the campaign did, that they were going to release video evidence to prove their side of the story. Haven't seen the video.
FOWLER: Well, they still haven't released it, Steve. When our colleagues Quil Lawrence and Tom Bowman first broke the story, they reported the campaign made antagonistic remarks about the staffer. They accused the staffer of having a mental health episode, the campaign did. When the Army statement said it happened and considered the matter closed, the campaign said they did, too - until Trump started posting. Earlier this week, he said on his Truth Social site that, quote, "there was no conflict or fighting at Arlington National Cemetery last week. It was a made-up story." He also went on Sean Hannity's radio show to reiterate that false assertion that nothing happened. He questioned the motives of that cemetery employee and downplayed the accusations as attacks over, quote, "publicity."
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DONALD TRUMP: Do you notice that the person represented now doesn't want to talk, he doesn't want to speak or talk? Now, the nice thing, the beautiful thing was all the parents and relatives got together and they said, that's a false story. It was totally false.
FOWLER: It's not false. And it's also not a one-off of this conflict between reality and the reality that Trump creates.
INSKEEP: OK. Well, what is the broader context, then, of Trump saying something that just contradicts all the facts?
FOWLER: Well, there's been several examples of Trump going rogue and saying something that then is different than the campaign's official stance. Take Florida's abortion measure last week where it seemed like Trump supported it, then the campaign said Trump had no position on it and Trump quickly did an interview to say he actually opposed it. Even next week's debate, which his campaign agreed to, he now says it won't be fair and that Vice President Harris is somehow going to cheat. This story isn't likely to sway any voters' opinions on Trump, but it does tell us something important. In a time when voters are about to cast ballots, Harris has erased Trump's summer polling lead and every headline and every day counts, stuff like this muddies the water and shows that the campaign might not be rowing in the same direction as Trump.
INSKEEP: NPR's Stephen Fowler. Thanks for the update.
FOWLER: Thank you.
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INSKEEP: Some other news now. The father of a 14-year-old charged with killing four people at a Georgia High School now faces criminal charges of his own.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, let's hear from Georgia Bureau of Investigations Director Chris Hosey, who made the announcement last night.
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CHRIS HOSEY: Four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children. These charges stem from Mr. Gray knowingly allowing his son to possess a weapon.
MARTÍNEZ: Fifty-four-year-old Colin Gray has been arrested and his son is scheduled to appear in court today.
INSKEEP: Sam Gringlas, the politics reporter at WABE in Atlanta is following this. Sam, good morning.
SAM GRINGLAS, BYLINE: Hey, Steve.
INSKEEP: I got to tell you, it's like a fresh wave of pain when you hear that a parent was charged in this situation. What makes authorities say the father was responsible?
GRINGLAS: Investigators announced these charges as a vigil went on around the school flagpole nearby, but they've offered few details. These charges against the father for knowingly allowing his son to possess a weapon suggest investigators are homing in on whether the 14-year-old should've had access to a firearm. This is a significant development because earlier this year, juries found the parents of a school shooter in Michigan guilty on four counts of involuntary manslaughter, a ruling, Steve, that's thought to be unprecedented.
INSKEEP: And now that same thinking seems to be applied here from the limited evidence that we know. We did have some information about weapons and what people said about weapons. I'm remembering, earlier this week, we found out that in 2023 law enforcement visited the family home. They noticed guns were there, but the father told them then the son didn't have unsupervised access. So those are the facts as we know them. How is that influencing the debate over guns in Georgia?
GRINGLAS: Well, weeks ago, lawmakers had scheduled a hearing on safe firearm storage. And yesterday, it went on as planned the day after this shooting. And, Steve, the testimony got pretty emotional as a police chief, a pediatric nurse and a tearful parent encouraged lawmakers to take action, action like incentivizing the use of gun safes, but also making it a criminal offense when adults don't lock up weapons that kids get ahold of. But these proposals stalled in the Republican-controlled legislature this year, and Democratic State Rep Michelle Au wonders if legislation could've stopped this tragedy.
MICHELLE AU: To see a preventable harm that we had an opportunity to act on and we didn't is really something that doesn't just keep me up at night, but I wonder if it keeps my colleagues up at night.
INSKEEP: OK, what are her colleagues saying?
GRINGLAS: In recent years, Georgia Republicans have proudly loosened gun laws, but they did pass a law this year mandating school safety plans and active shooter drills. Republican State Senator Frank Ginn's district includes Apalachee High School, and like other Republicans, he's prioritized hardening schools and mental health over changing gun laws.
FRANK GINN: This hits closer to me than anything in the world. This is in my Senate district. The nut that I haven't been able to crack is, how do we get to these youngsters that are going into schools and shooting them up?
GRINGLAS: So the question now, will a tragedy so close to home shift how Georgia deals with gun violence?
INSKEEP: Sam Gringlas of WABE in Georgia. Thanks so much for your reporting.
GRINGLAS: Thanks, Steve.
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INSKEEP: OK, a lot of investors and economists will be holding their breath this morning when the August jobs numbers are released.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, that monthly report is always closely watched. But today the stakes are particularly high at a time when both the economy and the Federal Reserve are shifting gears.
INSKEEP: Which we're going to find out about from NPR's Scott Horsley. Scott, good morning.
SCOTT HORSLEY, BYLINE: Good morning, Steve.
INSKEEP: Thanks for joining us early. What's so special about today's jobs number?
HORSLEY: Well, you might remember July's jobs report came in weaker than expected.
INSKEEP: Yeah.
HORSLEY: Hiring slowed sharply. The unemployment rate jumped to 4.3%. That rattled people. Some took it as a warning sign the recession might be around the corner. There was a temporary sell-off in the stock market. So with today's report, we're going to be looking to see, was that a fluke or the beginning of a more ominous trend? Most observers do think the job market is slowing down, but maybe not quite as much as that weak July report would've suggested. Forecasters are projecting a little bit of a rebound in hiring in August with about 160,000 jobs added during the month. That would be respectable, but certainly slower job growth than we were seeing earlier in the year.
INSKEEP: OK, what's behind that slowdown, assuming it is a slowdown?
HORSLEY: Well, part of it is the high interest rates that the Federal Reserve has imposed in order to get control over inflation. Those high rates make it more expensive to borrow money for big ticket items, and so that's weighed on some parts of the economy, like manufacturing. A survey of factory managers out this week also found a fair amount of uncertainty over the upcoming election. And when businesses are uncertain, they might be less likely to bring on new workers. The good news is, so far, we're not seeing a lot of layoffs. For the most part, employers are holding on to the workers they already have. And most workers are also staying put, unlike a few years ago when people were quitting jobs in droves, often in search of better jobs. Today, economist Nela Richardson, who's at the payroll processing company ADP, says there's just a lot less churn in the job market.
NELA RICHARDSON: Turnover is quite low. What does that mean? People are staying in their jobs. They're not quitting. We're not in the great resignation, and so there's less need to hire.
HORSLEY: So this is still a pretty good job market for people who already have jobs. For those who are just coming into the workforce, though, it might take longer to find a job. There aren't as many help wanted signs out there, and in fact, the number of job openings has dropped back to the lowest level in more than 3 1/2 years.
INSKEEP: Really interesting. So the great resignation is over, and I guess people have gone back to quiet quitting (laughter).
HORSLEY: It's the great hunker down.
INSKEEP: Exactly, just stay in the job a little bit longer, see how it works out. How does this news, whatever it turns out to be, affect the Fed's thinking?
HORSLEY: Fed policymakers are set to meet the week after next, and they've signaled pretty clearly that they're going to start cutting interest rates at that time. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell says he and his colleagues are no longer as worried as they had been about rising prices. Inflation looks like it's settling down. Now they're more concerned about rising unemployment, and they'd like to head that off.
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JEROME POWELL: We do not seek or welcome further cooling in labor market conditions.
HORSLEY: What we don't know yet is whether the Fed's going to start small with a quarter point rate cut or go big and cut rates by half a percentage point. And a lot is riding on today's jobs report. If, as expected, the unemployment rate ticks down a little bit, that might give the Fed leeway to go with a smaller rate cut in a couple of weeks. On the other hand, if today's report shows more weakness in the job market, then look for the Fed to be more aggressive and perhaps go with the larger rate cut.
INSKEEP: I'm enjoying Jerome Powell's phrasing there, Scott. We do not seek or welcome further cooling. It's like, I really don't need this guest to come over right now.
HORSLEY: (Laughter) Exactly.
INSKEEP: NPR's Scott Horsley. Thanks.
HORSLEY: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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