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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Allies Plead For Trump To Stay On Message; Democrats See Big Advantage In New Arizona Abortion Rights Measure On Ballot; FBI Investigating Attempts To Hack Trump, Biden-Harris Campaigns Earlier This Summer; Sources: Suspected Iranian Hackers Breached Roger Stones Personal Email As Part Of Effort To Target Trump Campaign; Workers Allege "Nightmare" Conditions At Kentucky Startup J.D. Vance Helped Fund; At Least One Dead After Massive Wildfires In Greece. Aired: 8-9p ET

Aired August 13, 2024 - 20:00   ET

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

WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Kim Jong-un comes, stands in his train, gives a 5,000-word speech, laying out the priorities of the party, which is number one, distribution of newspapers and televisions so people can keep abreast of the party's intentions. Oh, yes, also food and clean water, also relocating all of the children to the capital, Pyongyang and only nursing mothers allowed to come along. The rest of the parents stay behind and help rebuild -- Erin.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Incredible, all right. Will, thank you very much. And thanks so much as always to all of you. AC360 begins right now.

[20:00:35]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "ANDERSON COOPER: 360": Tonight on 360, as the former president struggles to define Kamala Harris, his campaign war rooms decides to define her with this racially loaded message. We're keeping them honest.

Also, new reporting on political hacking, a break-in and evidence both the Trump and Biden-Harris campaigns were targeted.

Plus the latest from Greece, where fires have been threatening some of the most treasured sites in the world.

Good evening. Thanks for joining us.

We begin tonight with new reporting, including from "The New York Times'," Maggie Haberman, who joins us with her take shortly, that the former president is still struggling with how to campaign against Vice President Harris.

A number of Republicans, members of Congress, pundits, advisers have publicly said they want him to focus on policy, not conspiracy theories and attacks on Harris, particularly involving her race like we heard from him at the National Association of Black Journalists.

Yet today, mixed in with those policy critiques, the Republicans have been asking for his campaign war room posted this, two pictures side- by-side. The left one billed as, "your neighborhood under Trump" and one on the right, "your neighborhood under Kamala".

A flag and whitewash porches on the left, on the right, a sea of black and brown faces, all under texts which reads import the third world, become the third world.

Now, this is nothing new in American politics. It has a long and sad history and it is certainly not anything new for Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R) FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: As we speak, there are hundreds of thousands of Biden migrants invading our city and our country. They're coming from so many places. We don't have any idea.

In many cases, we don't even know what the language. You know, you have languages that people don't even know about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: That was the former president in April and if that wasn't explicit enough here he is last December using a Nazi-era description of what foreigners and back then Jews were accused of doing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They're poisoning the blood of our country, that's what they've done. They're coming into our country from Africa, from Asia, all over the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: So none of what Trump is saying about Harris is really new, including his repeatedly mispronouncing her name.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Ka-mala -- Ka-mila -- Ka-ma-la. They were explaining to me, you can say Kamila, you can say Ka-mala, you can say Ka-ma-la. I said, don't worry about it, it doesn't matter what I say. I couldn't care less if I mispronounce it or not I couldn't care less.

Kamala sometimes referred to as Kamala, she's got about nine different ways of pronouncing the name.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, the former president does what he does and despite urging from Republicans what he continued to do this evening.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Kamala, you know, nobody knows her last name, it's Harris. Everyone thinks of her as Kamala, so it's Kamala Harris. (END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Joining us now, is CNN's senior political correspondent, Maggie Haberman.

So if Trump is in fact rattled by Vice President Harris, is it clear to you what it is specifically that rattles him so?

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think there's two things, Anderson. Number one, she's closed the polling gap with him in a pretty short amount of time and he had gotten very used to running against Joe Biden. That was comfortable for him. He knew what the line of attack was and his campaign had spent a lot of time and money on it. But she is a woman and she is a Black woman and both of those factors to proven pretty challenging for him in the past.

Yes, his allies will say he is an equal opportunity offender and he goes after everybody. And it's certainly true that he insults a wide variety of people, but he has seemed to really struggle with women opponents, women critics, and particularly Black women who are critics.

COOPER: It is also just remarkable how kind of regurgitated many of the messages coming from Trump are. Not just regurgitated by Trump from years past, going after Barack Obama, talking about his name pointing out, his middle name, raising questions about his origins, but regurgitated from dozens of American political races in our history -- calling people Marxists, and communists and demonizing people of color.

HABERMAN: Trump is, a man of few moves and so we have seen him make the same ones over and over. You are correct that he is trying to run against Kamala Harris the same way that he attacked President Obama when Obama was in office and Trump was flirting with the idea of running for president in 2011 and was promoting the birther lie suggesting that the first Black president was not legitimate to serve.

You can see his campaign if you look at the Trump War Room account on Twitter. They are trying pretty hard to bait her and to bait Democrats into a fight about race and that has been something so far that the Harris campaign has not taken the bait on, but this is something that we have seen him do before. It is something that comes up -- has come up in other races.

[20:05:31]

Again, we will see what this race looks like in the fall. But so far the Harris campaign has been pretty focused on what it wants to talk about and it's not what Donald Trump wants to talk about.

COOPER: Is it clear to you? I mean, does he still receive messages from -- does he still talk to all sort of a whole strange cast of misfit toy characters throughout the day? I mean, CNN has been reporting that some Trump allies are concerned that he's more susceptible to fringe conspiracy theories when he's most vulnerable. Who has his ear right now? HABERMAN: Yes, Jonathan Swan and I reported this weekend about the fact that he is so disoriented has left him pretty susceptible to being manipulated. He's actually, we just reported that he has a meeting planned with Miriam Adelson, the widow of the casino magnate, Sheldon Adelson this week at Bedminster. And this comes after he attacked her abruptly out of nowhere over texts, through one of his aides, a couple of weeks ago.

He has a lot of people around him who either support conspiracy theories or don't like what they see as the establishment or are critical of certain kinds of Republicans. And when he is feeling cornered, he tends to the listen to those people. He is clearly feeling cornered right now.

COOPER: He's also -- I mean the fact that he's still talking to crowd sizes, which was from the earliest days of him in the White House. He was -- we all remember the Sean Spicer having to sadly go up and back him up on these crowd size claims.

HABERMAN: Yes. It feels very familiar. Again, man of few moves and again, these are moves that he makes when he is under strain or anxiety or uncertainty and he tends to be at his at his most erratic.

Look, the number of people who we have spoken to, who just say that he seems very on edge is not small.

COOPER: Maggie Haberman, thanks very much.

Perspective now from Natasha Alford, senior correspondent for "TheGrio," also CNN political commentators, Paul Begala and Scott Jennings.

Natasha, we just heard the former president in his Univision interview tonight mocking the vice president's name yet again. He did it with President Obama, of course, as we talked about, Maggie.

I mean, it seems like just the most juvenile and blatant effort to make a person of color seem somehow foreign or different, or somehow untrustworthy, that no one knows their real name was this thing he's saying tonight.

NATASHA ALFORD, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it's an effort to denigrate her as a candidate and a person, right? She's not even worth sort of getting to know her name or having to say her name correctly. He says things like she's not that smart. He does this very intentionally with women of color. He's done it against Maxine Waters questioning her IQ.

So, all of it plays into stereotypes that we've seen before. It's about us versus them. It's about the other that we are supposed to fear. When you look at the meme that was sent out, you notice that the immigrants that were shown, they are immigrants of color, right? Despite the fact that immigrants come from around the world, he wants you to see that there are certain types of immigrants that you should fear. And what he does is he takes very complicated issues, takes away all the nuance and makes it very simple for people who are low information voters to believe that they are somehow protected by him and not on the outside group.

But I think what many of these voters will start to see is that he also doesn't have their interest at heart and that is something that will be evident when many of the policies that he advocates, when you really look at them closely, you see that they don't include all of America.

COOPER: Paul, it certainly brings us back -- the Willie Horton ad that was used decades ago, when the former president -- I mean, if this is happening now at this stage of the race, where does this end up a month from now?

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right, you've got 83 days. He started in the gutter. He's now in the sewer. I don't know what's below that. And this is mean, I does. I mean, it makes Willie Horton look like a Benetton ad, there's nothing subtle there.

I suppose the good news is he recognizes Kamala Harris is Black, which was not the case a few days ago. But it's beyond -- set aside that its racist, which is it's really dumb. It's really dumb, and it's very desperate.

If this is a guy who got eight percent of the Black vote in the last election but was polling at 20 percent in a Black vote before Joe Biden dropped out, 20 percent. That's terrific for a Republican and I don't know much about politics, but it seems to me that memes like this are going to drive away a lot of Black voters, by the way a lot of White voters, a lot of Hispanic voters, a lot of Asian-American voters.

It's a really dumb move as well as desperate, as well as --

[20:10:18]

COOPER: You don't think it works. I mean, you don't think the side-by- side comparison speaks to some furrowed deep part of some people's brains?

BEGALA: It does, but those people are already for Trump. I just don't see an undecided voter looking at this saying, oh, good point. Now, Maggie just used, she's so good, a really important word, baiting.

I will say to the Democrats don't let Mr. Trump bait you into like screaming, oh, racist, racist. Far better I think for Kamala Harris to say let me tell you what your neighborhood will look like. Crime is down under Biden and Harris, it was up under Trump's. So, crime will be lower, but your income will be higher because we're going to raise the minimum wage and the young person working at that grocery store at that McDonald's where I used to work is going to be doing better off, your healthcare will be cheaper, and your rights will be protected, especially if God forbid, you need to go and have an abortion. That's a much better answer because that's actually hitting people where they live rather than telling them what I think people who are already against Trump believe, which is that he panders to prejudice.

COOPER: Scott, CNN is reporting is that the former president ally, Kellyanne Conway, want him remain on message. I want to play what Nikki Haley said on Fox today about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY (R) FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want this campaign to win, but the campaign is not going to win talking about crowd sizes, it's not going to win talking about what race Kamala Harris is, it's not going to win talking about whether she's dumb, it's not -- you can't win on those things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: I know, you've said last night in this program, he needs to focus. They put out this meme today. Is that a good idea?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, the issue is real. I mean, it's provocative and it is unsubtle. I agree with Paul, and the issue is live. Immigration is a live issue. And as I understand it, this was a real photo taken in New York City during the Biden-Harris administration.

I think what he's trying to provoke is a debate over what policies are leading to some of this immigration chaos, both at the border and in some of our larger cities across the United States.

So, you could not like it or like it, but what he's trying to do is provoke some kind of a debate between the campaigns about who's responsible for the immigration chaos.

So that's not all the path of where he need to be

COOPER: To you, does it have echoes of the Willie Horton ad? Is it worse than that as Paul said I mean, not everyone's neighborhood look like that under the Trump years and certainly the idea that everyone's neighborhood is going to look like the other image, it's just -- it's ridiculous.

JENNINGS: I think it is a fair criticism for Trump to make about the Biden-Harris policies that have led to immigration chaos. Now, people are going to go crazy about this meme. I assume it's going to be one of the most viewed posts of the Trump War Room thing because everybody is talking about it tonight.

But you have to admit the immigration debate is one that he has to have with Harris because it is the thing that most ties her to Joe Biden. She did have some hand in the policymaking on it.

And so, he probably can't win the election without provoking some kind of an immigration debate with her, given the level of importance ascribed to it by most American voters and the fact that most people believe this is one of Biden's and Harris' biggest failures in the last four years.

COOPER: Natasha, I mean, her pushback, of course, has been now, there could have been a deal, but Trump put his thumb on the scale and stopped Republican members from Congress from going along with a bipartisan deal that had been negotiated.

ALFORD: Yes, I think that she needs to continue to repeat that, that there was a moment where two parties had actually come together, right? You had members of two parties come together with solutions and for partisan reasons of Donald Trump and Donald Trump has overtaken the Republican Party, they weren't able to actually implement something that could have improved Americans' lives and also the lives of those who were desperately in need who may have been crossing the border.

She has to emphasize that border crossings have gone down for five months straight, right, and that's after Joe Biden put in an executive order because that by bipartisan bill did not go through.

So there are actions that they've taken and as long as she points back to that and she talks about what she's going to do and reminds people that this is a long-term problem, it is not a problem that just started under the Biden-Harris administration, but it's something that we, as Americans of all sides should be invested in fixing, she can seem like the adult in the room.

COOPER: Paul, I mean, Maggie was saying that the Trump campaign is still struggling with a message. From just a campaign perspective with just 83 days left, how problematic is that?

[20:15:10]

BEGALA: Yes, that's kind of a problem. He's an insult comic. That's what he does. And I know some of these people -- Ambassador Haley -- she means well. She is talking about issues. Donald Trump doesn't know issues. He simply knows insults and it worked for a while.

The problem is, he's up against a younger, more dynamic woman who has revitalized the Democratic Party. He does not know what to do. And so, he's falling back on the same kind of insults and denigration and division, and I don't think it's working. I don't think it's going to work, but the Democrats need to be very careful not to fall into that trap. I just don't see that, it's why he so desperate.

Honestly, I feel bad for the woman, Susie Wiles, who is running this campaign. I don't know her, but she seems like a total pro and I can tell when she's in charge they actually seem to be doing well and they talk about issues like Jennings is trying to talk about immigration.

But when Trump is in charge, it's just this nutty, at best, and racist at worst, pure Trump.

COOPER: Scott, I want to play something that Trump said to Elon Musk last night.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP) TRUMP: Youre the greatest cutter. I mean I look at what you do. You walk in, you say, you want to quit? They go on strike, I won't mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, that's okay, you're all gone. You're all gone. So, every one of you is gone.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

COOPER: The UAW Union has now filed federal labor charges against foreign president Musk over those comments. But as a political matter, what does that -- how does that play in Michigan and Pennsylvania?

JENNINGS: Yes, it's interesting because the Republicans and even at the Republican National Convention have made a big deal about trying to court some of these labor unions. Now, I took it as a sort of a shot at the union bosses. But it is a fair question how rank and file union members would take a comment like that?

I mean, we had the head at the Teamsters at the RNC and obviously, a whole bunch of rank and file union workers are planning to vote for Trump this year because they're not particularly fond of the economy are some of the economic policies of the Biden administration. So it's a fair question. I don't know how many of them heard it or well hear it or if this is going to become a focal point.

It's an interesting contrast to the courting of union voters that has gone on in the Trump era of the Republican Party.

COOPER: Everybody stick around more on what Paul mentioned a moment ago, abortion plus what we're hearing or expecting to hear from Donald Trump tomorrow in North Carolina.

Also tonight, CNN investigates a tech startup promoted by JD Vance as a way to help people in Eastern Kentucky. What actually happened to the company, the workers, and the future they were promised, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:21:44]

COOPER: Today, Missouri's attorney general announced that a constitutional amendment on abortion will be on the ballot this November. Yesterday, Arizona made a similar announcement joining six other states, including battleground, Nevada.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny, joins us now from Asheville in North Carolina, another potential battleground where Donald Trump will be speaking tomorrow. So, what more do we know about the ballot measures in Arizona and Missouri?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Anderson, these ballot measures in both Arizona and Missouri are similar to ones we've seen in other states. Think back to Ohio, think back to Michigan. These are states that enshrined abortion rights into their State Constitution, and voters in these states of Missouri and Arizona will be asked the same question in November. But what it means politically likely is to drive an increase in voter turnout in November. There were almost 600,000 signatures in Arizona, some 577,000 or so, almost twice as many as needed to get on the ballot.

The Harris campaign believes that is a sign that there is big interest in this, and that could help her in Arizona, of course, a very key swing state in the presidential race, also a critical Senate race there as well.

Missouri, of course, has long ago stopped being a battleground state in presidential contests, but it could still influence others statewide races there.

So in all seven states we have seen, asked this question of voters in some form since that Dobbs decision, abortion rights groups have prevailed in all of them.

Of course, we will see if Missouri and Arizona follow that pattern, but it matters in this case because Arizona, of course, at the center of this presidential race.

COOPER: And Trump is speaking in North Carolina tomorrow.

ZELENY: He is. He'll be coming here to Asheville, of course, a blue part of North Carolina. But the state of North Carolina is increasingly back in play. Of course, it was one of the seven battleground states at the beginning of his campaign.

As President Biden struggled in the polls in recent months, it sort of fell out of the list of top battlegrounds. It is back now, how do you know? The Trump campaign is beginning to spend money here, like they have not done all year. They're spending money on ads, super PACs supporting the former president also are.

He is coming here tomorrow to talk about the economy specifically highlighting what he says is the economic hardship of the Biden-Harris administration. But the vice president, she is coming too in North Carolina also on Friday to campaign on the economy as well.

So, Anderson, there are so many signs tonight that North Carolina is back in the heap of the top battleground states.

So, yes, the blue wall of Michigan and Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, very important. But since she has joined the race, the battleground has expanded back to its original design -- Anderson.

COOPER: Jeff Zeleny, thanks very much. Back with the panel.

Natasha, so, Jeff was talking about the ballot measures in Arizona and Missouri, similar measures as he said, has gotten voters the polls ever since Roe v. Wade was overturned. Do you think that'll be the case in November?

ALFORD: Yes. I mean, I think that this is one issue that animates people across party lines, even if people aren't vocal or maybe not saying how they feel, it's so deeply personal. It's so emotional for many people.

The stories that we are seeing of, women who are being he denied life- altering medical care due to these laws. And so, I think that you will see people come out. It's been a winning issue for Democrats, and it will continue to be because Kamala Harris is such an effective communicator and advocate for not just abortion rights, but this idea of reproductive freedom.

[20:25:20]

As Tim Walz says, staying out of people's business, letting them live their lives. I think that message is resonating and it will trickle down when you talk about abortion.

COOPER: Paul, are the voters who will come out for abortion access the same voters who are already energized by Harris' candidacy? I mean, does it bring anyone knew into the fold?

BEGALA: I think it does. I think Natasha's right. Particularly younger voters where Democrats before Kamala Harris became the nominee were really, really doing poorly. Animated young voters, lower-propensity young voters, definitely.

It will also, I think help Kamala Harris build a bridge to a lot of suburban Republican women who are really put off by Trump's tone and tenor and really can't stand that his court overturned Roe versus Wade.

You know, this isn't going way. Natasha's right. The American Medical Association issued a study back in January, looked at the 14 states that have the strictest abortion laws, states that have outlawed abortion, even in the case of rape. They found 65,000 women in those states who had become pregnant by rape.

Now they stopped the study in January. But God help us, the rapes haven't stopped, and the pregnancies haven't stopped, and a need for abortion care hasn't stopped. Every single day, this continues as a personal tragedy, but also as a political issue.

COOPER: Scott, how do you think this plays particularly, I mean, the ballot initiative in Arizona, does that make the race there more competitive?

JENNINGS: Well, it's a high turnout election anyway, and if abortion rights are your number one issue, you're already turning out and likely already voting for Harris.

So, these other ballot initiatives like in Kentucky where I am, in Ohio and other states, were an off year, low turnout elections and they absolutely did make a difference.

I do think on this issue its vital that Trump really express his views on this, and he has, and he's going to have to continue to do so. And that is, he has a pretty moderate position in the Republican Party. It's the old Reagan position. He is pro-life, he believes in the three exceptions -- rape, incest, and life of the mother. To Paul's point, he supports abortion rights for people who've been victims of rape. He strongly supports IVF.

I mean, Trump has actually set forth a very center cut set of positions on this topic that a lot of Americans are going to say, yes, that sounds pretty reasonable to me.

It is true his court overturned Roe versus Wade, that didn't do anything except return it to our political process and let states make decisions about local policy. But for Trump's own personal position he's not an extremist on this, he is kind of moderate and I think he ought to make that case that he is

COOPER: Natasha, do you think voters will believe that the former president is a moderate on abortion and won't do anything else once in office, if he gets elected?

ALFORD: All I can say is that I'm -- as a millennial, part of a generation that had rights when I was born. And now when I go to certain states, I don't have those rights.

So we are talking about people who are living through feeling as if they're going backwards and that is not progress for many Americans. So I actually don't think he can downplay it.

I think he's been very clear that he's proud to have played a part in Roe v. Wade being overturned. And so, once you take that credit, you have to take the blowback that comes with that.

And let's be clear, Project 2025 and similar groups are going after medicine abortion. Most abortion takes place via medicine. They want to attack that. They want to attack what many people rely on, what many people are actually in support of.

So, public opinion is not in favor of where Donald Trump stands and where his party stands. And I think we're going to see in November that people will come out for this issue.

COOPER: Paul, what does it say to you that in North Carolina you have an ad buy the Trump campaign and now the former president is going to be there tomorrow?

BEGALA: What a difference three weeks makes. I mean, when the Republicans were having their convention people were -- serious people were talking about Trump winning Minnesota. It hadn't gone Republican in 50 years in a presidential election. We're talking about, Trump winning New York, New Jersey being a swing state. That was catastrophic.

Now, we're right back to Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania in that blue wall. Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia in the south and now North Carolina, again, which Barack Obama did carry, it's not too much of a reach for Democrats.

But the thing that's, I think that's been fundamental is 75 percent of the country think were moving in the wrong direction. So, genius me thinks change would be a very good message.

Well, Democrats couldn't run on change when they had Joe Biden. And frankly Republicans can't run on change when they had Donald Trump.

[20:30:13]

So I'd never seen anything like it. Neither party was running on the obvious message. Democrats are now running on change and they're going to have a convention all about the future versus the past. And that's right where I think North Carolina is.

COOPER: Natasha Alford, Paul Begala, Scott Jennings, thanks so much.

Still ahead, hacking detected within both -- with both presidential campaigns and even a break in at a Trump campaign headquarters in Virginia while the latest in both investigations.

Also a CNN investigation into what was supposed to be a high tech farming startup J.D. Vance once helped to fund, and the allegations of what are called nightmare conditions for workers, many of whom were migrants before it failed.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Tonight, new details on the alleged attempts to hack both the Trump campaign and the then Biden-Harris campaign earlier this summer. Sources tell CNN the suspected Iranian hackers were able to access the Trump campaign network through long time Trump operative Roger Stone's personal email.

[20:35:06]

Plus, we're learning more about the investigation into a break in at a Trump campaign office in Virginia. The sources telling CNN that authorities have not found evidence it was politically motivated.

CNN Senior Justice Correspondent Evan Perez and CNN Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller join me now. So Evan, what are your sources telling you about the FBI investigations into the apparent and attempted hacks of both campaigns?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Anderson, this was a -- an attempt by hackers believed to be connected to the Iranian government. And this was not only targeting the Trump campaign, but also the Biden-Harris campaign.

In June and July, the FBI did some briefings with the Trump campaign and with the Biden campaign about these attempted breaches. Now, in the case of the Trump campaign it appears that this began with successfully phishing Roger Stone or somebody who used to advise the former president. And using that account they were able to refine their targeting, their phishing campaign to be able to get to people inside the campaign. And there is where it appears they were able to get some documents.

Now in the last few days, you heard from news organizations, including the New York Times, Washington Post, saying that they had received outreach from someone who had documents that appeared to come from the campaign. Now, it appears that's what these documents for.

These are campaign documents that they were able to get simply because someone again impersonated Roger Stone's account and was able to get a senior person inside the Trump campaign to click on something and then get access to that -- to those documents.

COOPER: And then separately, Evan, there's this break in at a Trump campaign office in Virginia. What's the latest on that?

PEREZ: Right. The Loudoun County sheriff is investigating this break in which happened on Sunday, Anderson. And what they don't know right now is whether anything actually was taken. You see there the photograph of the person that they're circulating that they believe was involved in this.

And the -- one of the things that they were focused on today was doing a sweep of the office to make sure that there was no surveillance equipment or anything left behind in the office. They said that they've been flooded with tips from the public after circulating this photograph.

You know, right now, again, it doesn't appear to be connected at all to what this hacking operation that happened. This is a Trump campaign office out there in Ashburn, Virginia, but it also serves as a -- an office for the local Republican Party, the district out there in Virginia.

COOPER: John, I mean, I know people do a lot of stupid things when they're committing crimes, but I mean, what do you make aid this break in? Obviously, it seems -- do you think it's at all connected to the Iranian -- alleged Iranian scheme, because, I mean, this guy's not hiding his identity at all?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: No. And, I mean, Anderson, you hit the nail right on the head in terms of investigative theory, because the Iranians went to great lengths and technical prowess was put to work to conceal their hand in these hacking operations and some of the influence operations they have going on online trying to affect the campaign.

This individual is going into a building where the cameras are visible, where the lighting is good. He's got his big backpack on the front and his face clearly visible. You know, if the Watergate burglary, which was committed by pros was supposed to be a third rate burglary, I think this might be a fourth rate burglary because if he's local, they're going to identify him before tomorrow.

They say they've gotten tons of tips. Office burglaries are usually not looking to get into the super-secret campaign strategy. More often looking for laptops, things of value that you can stick in that backpack and sell later.

COOPER: And John, just in terms of the hack, how are investigators able to tell who's behind it and what the goal is? MILLER: This is fascinating. I mean, you know, this is work that's been going on through the intelligence analysts at Microsoft. I mean, think about the times we live in now where Microsoft and Google have to have their own intelligence operations, but those analysts have been following the anomalous activities that looks like hacking, and they've been alerting. The Harris campaign, the Trump campaign, the FBI, who's also been alerting them.

But when you look at the idea that there are four or five news websites that have been constructed by Iranian actors, according to these analysts, where they're mixing in wild propaganda meant to stir controversies about LGBTQ issues, race issues, police, election fraud, so on and so forth, amidst regular news articles that they cull from the internet because they get a lot of traffic.

And then use Generative AI tools to change the phrasing so it doesn't look like they've plagiarized them and then they stick propaganda in between them. So to the average viewer, they think I'm looking at a normal website.

[20:40:05]

In the meantime, they're trying to hack into these campaigns. As Evan reported yesterday, they used Roger Stone with a middleman technique where when he clicked on something, it took them to a domain that allowed them to take control of his account.

And then when somebody else clicked on what they thought he sent, it did the same and they're trying to get things that are controversial out of those campaigns to add to those other sites. The Iranians don't want Donald Trump to get reelected. Remember, he killed Qasem Soleimani and they have, you know, threatened to kill him and others about that.

But they don't want Kamala Harris to get elected either. This is to stir the pot and to try and damage the process and keep Americans at each other's throats as best they can.

COOPER: Yes.

PEREZ: Anderson, real quick, real quick. You know, one of the things that people forget is that they actually did this in 2020. I think a lot of people forget that the Iranians, the Russians and the Chinese, everybody was on guard for them.

In the end, Russia -- I'm sorry, the Iranians were the only ones really that did anything. And that's one of the things that I think the intelligence community has keep -- has been keeping in mind is that they were expecting some more activity from the Iranians.

COOPER: Yes. Evan Perez, John Miller, thank you for the reporting. Appreciate it.

Up next, a CNN investigation into what are called -- what are being called nightmare conditions at a failed farming startup that was promoted and partially funded by Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance.

Plus, a live report near Athens, Greece on the deadly wildfires that quickly have been threatening the ancient capital.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:45:41]

COOPER: Well, as Republican vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance has been touting himself as a champion for the working class, a new CNN investigation finds that before entering politics, Vance was an early investor in a high tech farming startup that promised to provide jobs for local Kentuckians. The company ultimately failed, and workers allege they experienced, quote, "nightmare conditions" and were eventually replaced with foreign migrant workers.

CNN's Kyung Lah has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANTHONY MORGAN, FORMER APPHARVEST EMPLOYEE: A nightmare. It was a nightmare that should have never happened.

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): That nightmare happened here at this nearly empty greenhouse in eastern Kentucky. AppHarvest, a failed high tech startup, promised local workers a future that spiraled into broken promises. Anthony Morgan bought into the company's public pitch that it was for Appalachia, by Appalachians.

MORGAN: We was being told that, hey guys, he's from here.

J.D. VANCE (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you. Wow.

LAH (voice-over): He is J.D. Vance, the Republican nominee for vice president.

VANCE: I will be a vice president who never forgets where he came from.

LAH (voice-over): Leaning on his personal rise out of poverty to reach swing state voters as Donald Trump's running mate.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I chose him because he's for the worker. He's for the people that work so hard and perhaps weren't treated like they should have been.

LAH (voice-over): But before politics, Vance was a venture capitalist, an AppHarvest's first outside investor, eventually steering millions of dollars to the company. Vance was a lead pitchman for the vertical farming startup, tweeting he was a supporter and investor, writing, "I love this company."

VANCE: It's a great business that's making a big difference in the world. LAH (voice-over): The company's investor presentation pledged a commitment to Appalachia, estimating thousands of new jobs to a poverty stricken area.

MORGAN: A major emphasis with them was we want to bring work to Eastern Kentucky. This is why we are here.

LAH (voice-over): Morgan left a stable job to join AppHarvest as a crop care specialist, pruning the greenhouse grown vegetables. A single father with six-year-old twins. The job rapidly turned when production fell behind under what a dozen workers described to CNN as mismanagement, including dangerous conditions.

Employees filed multiple complaints to the state and federal government alleging heat exhaustion, working in extreme temperatures, and lack of water breaks. Though the cases were all closed with no citations.

MORGAN: I think about the hottest that I experienced was around 128 degrees.

LAH: Inside?

MORGAN: Inside. A couple days a week, you'd have ambulance show up, and you've seen people leaving on gurneys to go to the hospital.

LAH (voice-over): The cuts came next to promised worker benefits. And then foreign workers came in to fill those so-called local jobs.

MORGAN: The second round of folks they brought in was folks on work visas and they didn't bring just a van full, they brought bus loads.

LAH (voice-over): Documents show AppHarvest hired contract workers from outside the region. At one point, as many as 500, the majority of its workforce, not locals. But that's not the image AppHarvest wanted the world to see.

This is Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell visiting in 2021.

LAH: Mitch McConnell coming through. Were the migrant workers there at the time? You're laughing. I mean, I look at the video, it doesn't look like there's any --

MORGAN: They hid these guys. They took them out of the plant. They was gone. And then Mitch McConnell was giving a speech about all this work that AppHarvest has brought Eastern Kentuckians.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R), KENTUCKY: I like the idea of taking the tomato market away from the Mexicans. How about that?

LAH: So they were trying to hide the migrant workers?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Specifically, yes.

LAH (voice-over): This worker, who asked not to be identified, says the hiring of migrant workers became part of a mirage that AppHarvest was helping the region. He took this video as his co-workers clapped for visiting investors.

[20:50:03]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And any time they did that, they kept workers off the floor doing our like stationary parade while people come through. And, yes, it was awkward having to stand there and just be a prop.

LAH: A prop for what?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, look at all of these poor folks were employing.

LAH (voice-over): The worker says it's impossible to forget about his time at AppHarvest as J.D. Vance ascends to national politics.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's gotten away with a lot of money and fame for pretending to be one of us.

VANCE: O-H-I-O.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's just another grifter, just another carpetbagger, another tourist who wants to tell us what we are.

LAH (voice-over): Vance left the board in April 2021 to run for the Senate. Shortly after, shareholders filed suit claiming they were misled. By 2023, AppHarvest had filed for bankruptcy a little more than two years after its public launch. But the workers in this failed startup say they are the real people in the Vance story.

LAH: Do you blame J.D. Vance for any of this?

MORGAN: I blame all of the original investors at AppHarvest. The original board of directors know what was coming. You would have had to have been an idiot not to have.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COOPER: Kyung Lah joins me now. So you said that Vance left that board in 2021. Did the problems happen when he was still there?

LAH (on-camera): Well, Anderson, CNN's review of documents and interviews with a dozen former workers show that the problems emerged while Vance was still a member of AppHarvest's board. After he departed, he was still an investor and had more than $100,00 invested in the company, according to disclosures.

Now in a statement that a spokesperson for Vance sent to CNN, it says, "J.D. was not aware of the operational decisions regarding hiring, employee benefits, or other workplace policies which were made after he departed AppHarvest's board. Like all early supporters, J.D. believed in AppHarvest's mission and wishes the company would have succeeded."

Anderson?

COOPER: All right. Kyung Lah, thanks very much. Coming up, the latest on those fast-moving wildfires in Greece that have come dangerously near the capital killed at least one person. We'll have a live report from outside Athens.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:56:50]

COOPER: Firefighters are still battling the worst wildfire of the year in Greece. They began on Sunday, quickly reached areas just outside of Athens. Massive smoke plumes, like the ones you see there, surrounding the Parthenon, darken the skies of Greece's capital. At least one person is known dead. Thousands have been evacuated so far, with new evacuation orders issued for an area near the capital just this morning.

CNN's Eleni Giokos joins us from just outside Athens. What is the latest, Eleni?

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Hi, Anderson. This has been the worst wildfire of the season. One so intense that people were describing as a furnace ripping through suburbs very close to the city center, around 11 miles away. To give you an idea of what's going on right now, you can tell it's not very windy.

This is good news for firefighters. They're still watching it very closely. There's still fire alerts as we speak right now. But if the wind picks up, that is the big risk right now. It is under control and the hope that it will stay that way. It is expected that we'll see more winds come Wednesday, but we saw so many fire trucks all around the affected areas, trying to find spots of potential danger, specifically plumes of smoke around 156 square kilometers of forest has been decimated.

And it's absolutely devastating to see some of it on the ground. You know, a lot of people asking how a fire could move so fast over a 40 kilometer radius.

COOPER: Did they have warning?

GIOKOS: Yes, they had a lot of warnings. I mean, when it started midday Sunday, we saw evacuation orders coming in swiftly. But what many people are complaining about is the fact that they felt that the initial response by air and people on the ground wasn't effective enough. However, authorities have said that they're fighting gale- force winds and it almost becomes impossible.

You know, Anderson, I've been covering fires for the last few years. It is very unpredictable, very difficult to contain specifically in forest areas when you have such strong winds. Speaking to some people on the ground, and this is very concerning, you know, hearing their stories.

And one man said to me, you know, I saw a fire at the top of the hill. I blinked and then suddenly it was in front of me and people had to flee. And these stories continue. But it's one of pain, once of trauma because this keeps on happening in Greece on a yearly basis.

COOPER: And do authorities know what caused this wildfire?

GIOKOS: Yes, I mean, climate change, of course, is to blame. We're seeing heat waves not only hitting Greece, but southern parts of Europe and other parts of the world. I mean, we've been covering these stories for quite some time. It is expected it's going to get worse.

You've got prolonged heat waves. You have very dry areas. You don't have enough rain in the winter season. And then you've got those winds. What is very concerning is when you have forest area like this burnt around a city like Athens, the long term effects, Anderson, are really harrowing.

It's going to change the climate in the city for residents as well as tourists in the long term. They don't know what that's going to look like. But if I think about the fires we did -- we covered last year, in Panitha, which is what was considered the lungs of Athens, a forest area that was completely decimated, that again is just compounding the issue that every year we have these stories and it's affecting livelihoods, it's affecting businesses and homes.

And for the first time ever, we saw fires reaching so close to the city center of Athens. And I think authorities are watching very closely of what that means in the future.

COOPER: Yes. Eleni Giokos, thank you. I'm glad you're there. Appreciate it.

The news continues. The Source with Kaitlan Collins starts now. See you tomorrow.