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Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Estimates Costs of Children Not Receiving Routine Vaccination in U.S. between 1994 and 2023; Presidential Candidates Donald Trump and Kamala Harris Agree to Debate; Republican Vice President Nominee J.D. Vance Questions Military Record of Democratic Vice President Nominee Tim Walz; Microsoft: Iran Creating Fake News Sites to Influence US Election; Interview with Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI). Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired August 09, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: 500 million illnesses and prevented a million deaths in the United States since 1994, some of the very same vaccinations that dropped during the pandemic.

CNN's Jacqueline Howard has much more on this. She's joining us now. So Jacqueline, what more are you learning?

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Yes, Kate, well, this report from the CDC looked at nine common childhood vaccinations, and they specifically looked among children born between 1994 and 2023. And that's where they a found that these routine childhood vaccinations like the measles, mumps, and rubella vaccine, or like the polio virus vaccine, these will have prevented, like you said, more than 500 million illnesses, about 32 million hospitalizations, and more than 1 million deaths. This is all within a child's lifetime.

And the researchers even took their analysis further to say with these prevented hospitalizations, illnesses, and deaths, that would have resulted in a direct cost savings of about $540 billion in medical costs and even more than $2 trillion in indirect savings like societal impacts, like if a parent has to stay home from work to take care of a sick child.

So the researchers say this shows the benefits of routine vaccinations. And right now, we're heading back to school. This is a good reminder for parents to make sure their children are up-to-date on their routine vaccinations.

BOLDUAN: Yes, very interesting data. Good to see you, Jacqueline. Thank you so much for that.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: All right, both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, as you might imagine, hitting the campaign trail after both finally agreeing to debate. And Trump trying to steal some attention from Harris with a meandering and salt filled news conference. New this morning, a warning from Microsoft about foreign interference

in U.S. elections once again. Why they say Iran is trying to influence the presidential race.

And remember the 2013 movie "Her" where Joaquin Phoenix falls in love with his A.I. voice assistant? Well, there are now fears real life could imitate art. Could humans get emotionally entangled with artificial intelligence? Yikes.

I'm Sara Sidner with Kate Bolduan. John Berman off today. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: This is one of the mornings with the headlines are kind of doing all the talking. Everything seems different now, the map has shifted in favor of Democrats for the moment, and Donald Trump is playing defense. This morning the race for the White House is a far cry from the picture painted of the presidential battle just three weeks ago. And now a new moment that could shift the race once again. A Harris-Trump debate is officially on the books, something that Donald Trump spoke about at the press conference that the Harris campaign is calling a public meltdown yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The other side has to agree to the terms. They may or may not agree. I don't know if they're going to agree. She hasn't done an interview. She can't do an interview. She's barely competent, and she can't do an interview. But I look forward to the debates because I think we have to set the record straight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Kamala Harris did agree to the debate. She never disagreed. It was Donald Trump who had disagreed doing the debate. But I digress.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, (D) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm glad that he's finally agreed to a debate on September 10th. I'm looking forward to it, and hope he shows up.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you open to more debate?

HARRIS: I'm happy to have that conversation about an additional debate for after September 10th.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: So where are we? Squarely in the middle of this race, are we ready to start calling in a final sprint? September 10th falls just 12 days after the DNC, just 56 days before the election. You decide this morning. It's a Friday.

CNN's Isaac Dovere is leading us off this hour. And the Harris campaign is, take a look at the map. The Harris campaign headed out west. Donald Trump heading to Montana today. What can you -- what are you expecting more to hear from the Harris campaign, Isaac?

ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, the Harris campaign is going to continue to try to introduce her and Tim Walz, her new running mate, to the race, to the country. Look, this race has changed so quickly that we have a different presidential candidate and a different race as the Olympics closing ceremony comes today from when the Olympics opening ceremony was just three weeks ago. And that is what's on their mind.

But also, the Harris campaign is trying to figure out what to say in response to the building pressure for her to sit for an interview to discuss why she is running, what her positions are, and how they have changed. She has not done an interview for weeks now, certainly not since she became a presidential candidate here.

[08:05:00]

And this is something that Donald Trump has tried to now put the focus on. He's not the only one asking that question. A lot of reporters are, too. Here's what Kamala Harris herself had to say about it yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's been a lot of questions about when you're going to sit down for your first interview since being the nominee.

HARRIS: I talked to my team. I want us to get an interview scheduled before the end of the month.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DOVERE: And so look, that's not an answer, exactly. She's talked to her team. They want to get an interview scheduled. We don't know if it'll happen, when it'll happen. Of course, we've got next week with Harris doing more campaigning and the week after that is the Democratic convention. Theres not a lot left in the month to do, but we have still not clear when we're going to get those answers.

BOLDUAN: But by the end of the month, there will be some answer of some sort. We shall see. This goes into the category of a standby to standby Isaac, which is just kind of stasis for us here on CNN NEWS CENTRAL. It's good to see you. Thank you so much.

DOVERE: I guess. Stay tuned.

BOLDUAN: Exactly. Sara.

SIDNER: Truer words have never been said, Kate.

All right, President Trump's return to the campaign trail to day comes after that fiery, meandering news conference yesterday where he talked about a lot. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have somebody that, in my opinion, is more incompetent. She couldn't pass her bar exam course.

Of course there will be a peaceful transfer, and there was last time. And there'll be a peaceful transfer. Nobody was killed on January 6th. But I think that the people of January 6th were treated very unfairly.

With Hillary Clinton, I could have done things to her that would have made your head spin. They used to say "lock her up, lock her up," and I'd say just relax, please.

If you look at Martin Luther King, when he did his speech, his great speech, and you look at ours, same real estate, same everything, same number of people, if not, we had more.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: The facts were missing there. CNN's Daniel Strauss joins me now for more. Daniel, this news conference came after President Trump really had been out of the spotlight for a little bit. Did this do him any favors? I mean, the things that you're hearing from him are just wild accusations, many of them last untrue.

DANIEL STRAUSS, CNN REPORTER: Yes, but that's really not the point. The point clearly is that Trump and the Trump campaign want to shift the narrative and attention away from Kamala Harris and her campaign. And add me to the list of people who have been surprised with how positive the rollout of both her V.P. and the switch from Biden at the top of the ticket to Harris at the top of the ticket has been. It's really sucked the oxygen out of the room for the Trump campaign.

So this is a classic move that Trump would do in 2016, which is first reclaim the focus, reclaim the national spotlight, and then massage the narrative that they want to take. And so here we are.

SIDNER: You know, Trump, again, just like in 2016 and 2020, focusing on crowd size over and over and over again. And one of the things that I think took people's breath away is when he compared rallies with his audience right before the Capitol was attacked two Dr. Martin Luther King's famous "I Have a Dream" speech. What did you make of that?

STRAUSS: It's clear that president -- former President Trump feels some kind of threat from the reported crowd sizes that the Harris campaign has been enjoying. And look, that -- no one knows this better than Trump that crowd sizes are an imperfect indicator of support, but they do indicate something. And they did indicate in 2016 a level of support that polls were not picking up. It's clear now that he is worried that, despite polls showing this to be a very close race, tied or Harris slightly ahead nationally, that there might be a larger swell of support that modern-day polling is not picking up. And so Trump is trying to embellish his previous crowd sizes to, I guess, challenge that narrative.

SIDNER: All right, Isaac Dovere, thank you so much for your reporting this morning.

STRAUSS: Well, Daniel Strauss.

SIDNER: Oh, Daniel. Lord have mercy, my brain just glitched. Now I need to fact check. Daniel Strauss, I owe you a draw.

STRAUSS: All good. Isaac is much more handsome.

(LAUGHTER)

SIDNER: And maybe I need one. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Maybe we've already had too many. I'm just saying.

Let's do this. Republicans are welcoming Harris' new running mate into the race by immediately going after his military record. We have seen this over the course of the last week. The charge being led by Donald Trump's running mate, J.D. Vance, who also served in the military. Vance claiming that Tim Walz sidestepped his deployment to Iraq by retiring from the National Guard in order to run for Congress. To be clear, Walz retired from the army two months before his squad received deployment papers and then they weren't actually deployed to Iraq until the following year. But still calls for clarity, accusations that he can't be trusted coming from the Trump campaign against the now new running mate for Kamala Harris.

[08:10:07]

Joining me now to discuss is Democratic senator from Rhode Island, Jack Reed. Senator, it's great to see you. You are the chairman of the powerful Senate Armed Services Committee. You have a deep understanding of military affairs. You served in the 82nd Airborne division as an infantry platoon leader, a company commander, a battalion staff officer, you served in the U.S. Army Reserves until 91. I list all of this out to ask you, do you think Governor Walz needs to clarify, explain, or correct any of what he said and his past campaigns have said about his military service?

SEN. JACK REED, (D-RI): I think Governor Walz has been very clear about his service as a member of the Minnesota National Guard. I think what has happened is that the Republicans have seized upon anecdotal evidence to attack the record of someone who served with distinction. Anyone who serves honorably in the U.S. military deserve respect. That goes to J.D. Vance also.

But what they've done is they've exaggerated, mischaracterized several things. One, he retired from the military long before his unit was alerted to go to Iraq. He was not avoiding Iraq. In fact, what he was doing was preparing to run for Congress to assume another public spirited, another public service obligation that is consistent with his whole life as a National Guardsman, as a teacher, as someone who is a community leader.

So this is not unique also. We can all recall when they went after John Kerry, who won the Silver Star, the Bronze Star, and multiple Purple Hearts in Vietnam. And they tried to characterize him as less than heroic. It's a Republican tactic, and it's demeaning, I think, to their campaign to try to insinuate that the governor is less than a patriotic and dedicated, selfless servant in the military and in the Congress.

BOLDUAN: When you bring up John Kerry, it worked-ish back in 2004. How do you think you help or the campaign, the Harris campaign prevents it from working and having an impact at this time?

REED: Well, I think we have to step up as we are and just point it out, is that you have a gentleman who served 24 years in the National Guard. That's a great deal of sacrifice, personal and otherwise, that he deployed with his unit to Italy in support of troops in the Balkans. He didn't try to get out of that. That was his job. Twenty- four years of service is significant. It's way beyond the point at which you get your retirement benefits at 20.

And he left not to vacation or because he wanted to pursue some business angle. He went back to public service. In fact, his example, his lifetime example is one that is inspiring, in my view. And this deprecation of his military service, first of all, it's unfounded. And second, it is really demeaning to everyone who has served. He's being accused of things that he should be commended for.

BOLDUAN: Also, I've seen just on Wednesday, that "Axios" has reported that Democrats, some Democrats are now pointing to use, Senator, as a top candidate to potentially lead a defense department, lead the Defense Department if Kamala Harris would win in November? Would you consider it.

REED: No. Actually, that has come up before. President Biden and then Vice President -- excuse me, President Obama and Vice President Biden were talking about that. But no, I think I can serve the nation in my state of Rhode Island more effectively as a member of the United States Senate and as a member of the Armed Services Committee. And I continue to intend to do that.

BOLDUAN: A period -- a point of, a point of business, then, the very important post that you hold as the chairman of Senate Armed Services. Israel and the United States, they're waiting still for a potential retaliatory strike by Iran over the assassination of the Hamas leader on Iranian soil. President Biden had promised Netanyahu in a call that the U.S. would support Israel's defenses against threats, which would include new defensive U.S. military deployments, that's what was said according to the readout. I spoke to John Kirby about it last week. He didn't have more detail.

[08:15:00]

Do you have an understanding yet of what that could or would include?

REED: Well, I assume based on the public folks that I've seen, that it is making sure we have sufficient carrier groups in the area to launch aircraft and also to resist any missiles that are fired at Israel. It does not represent, I think, any commitment of ground forces at all or in any way, shape, or form. It is essentially the same structure of defence and assistance that we've given to the Israelis since the beginning of this terrible episode on October 7th. It also involves the coordination led by General Kurilla in Central Command of different elements that all cooperate together and make the defence of Israel much more feasible and also much more difficult to overcome.

BOLDUAN: Mr. Chairman. It's always good to have you. Thank you for coming in -- Sara.

SIDNER: New this morning, Microsoft warning Iran is ramping up efforts to interfere in the 2024 American presidential race. New details on how they're doing it.

Now, you will get a look and be able to scrutinize never before seen moment when local police first spotted the gunman who tried to assassinate Donald Trump and killed and injured rally goers.

And the incredible moment that three children clinging to a tree are saved from flood in a fast-moving creek. That's ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:21:23]

BOLDUAN: New this morning, Microsoft now saying Iran is creating fake news websites in an effort to target American voters and interfere in the November election.

It was just last month that US intelligence have revealed that Iran was using covert social media accounts to undermine Donald Trump's campaign. So, what is going on here and what's being done to stop it?

Katie Bo Lillis has the reporting for us from Washington. What are you learning about these fake news websites?

KATIE BO LILLIS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Kate. So, according to the intelligence community, what Iran is trying to do here is run a covert influence campaign to do two things. They want to try to undermine the campaign of former President Donald Trump and they want to try to sort of generally sow social discord within the United States and what Microsoft has done here in this report is give us two concrete examples of how they're doing this.

What we have seen from Microsoft is that there are at least two fake websites made by -- allegedly made by Iranian operatives, one of which is sort of targeting more conservative leaning voters and one of which is targeting sort of more Democratic leaning voters.

One of these fake news websites calls an out directly, calls and I will quote directly, calls former President Donald Trump an "opioid- pilled elephant in the MAGA China shop" and a "raving mad litigiosaur." Another fake Iran created website targeting more conservative-leaning voters, claims to be a news site out of Savannah, Georgia that is a "trusted source for Conservative news" and it really focuses on LGBTQ issues and gender reassignment. Microsoft has also, in this report, revealed an attempt by Iranian operatives to try to hack the email account of a senior campaign official with an unnamed campaign. We don't know which campaign this is. CNN has reached out to the Harris campaign, they have said that they have not been notified of any effort to target them in this way. The Trump campaign hasn't responded to requests from comment from CNN.

But Kate, I really think what this report demonstrates is really the proliferation of foreign actors that have kind of taken a leaf out of Russia's playbook in the 2016 election to try to use social media and the internet to try to influence American voters and to try to just sort of generally amplify discord inside the United States and weaken America that way.

Now, we should note that Microsoft has emphasized that neither of these websites appear to have gained any traction, but that could change. Microsoft officials saying that this is Iran really kind of laying the groundwork with contentious issues to sort of ramp up their efforts to meddle in the election going into November.

And important to note also that intelligence officials have long said that while they contract the efforts and the intent behind foreign governments who are attempting to interfere in American politics in this way, including Iran, China, and of course Russia, what they can't measure is the influence on American voters. Does it actually change any votes -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Katie Bo, really quick, are these websites still up online?

LILLIS: There is a sort of proliferation of these websites sort of -- oh, I'm sorry, I'm getting a flash --

BOLDUAN: Probably a weather alert, yes.

LILLIS: That because we are in the middle of a hurricane.

BOLDUAN: On that note, Iran is telling us that you no longer can speak to me. No, I'm kidding, I'm very much kidding there -- I'm just kidding.

But no, my point is it's wild that these websites are often -- just the way the internet is, allowed to stay up, despite what we know about them and despite what intel reveals about them, but we'll continue talking about it more later.

Thank you so much, Katie Bo.

Still ahead for us, new security concerns of a possible violent attack against Democrats at the DNC. We have new details for you.

And Fulton County, Georgia DA Fani Willis is renewing her push to take Donald Trump to trial. Why she says she should be allowed to continue her election subversion case now.

[08:29:08] SIDNER: This morning, we're getting a stunning new look at the exact moment a Pennsylvania police officer spotted a gunman on the rooftop overlooking Donald Trump's rally right before the shooter tried to assassinate the former president.

The body cam video was obtained by CNN. You can see the officer being hoisted onto the roof of that building. He quickly sees the gunman and drops back down to the ground there and begins alerting other officers around him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Watch out because he can (bleep) come right down on you over there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's got a book bag; he's got (bleep), AR laying down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's got a book bag?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, he's got (bleep). He's laying down, proned out, book bag next to him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: While the gunman fires eight shots at the former president. Trump and two other men were injured, another man at that rally, a father, a fire fighter, he was killed.

CNN senior law enforcement analyst and former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is joining me now.

[08:30:23]