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Harris Hunkers Down in D.C. With One Week to Democratic National Convention; Trump and Musk to Have Live Conversation on X; Defense Secretary Austin Orders Guided-Missile Submarine to Middle East. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired August 12, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, a race transformed, one candidate surging in the polls, the other flailing on social media, all as we count down to the Democratic convention.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And hacked, Donald Trump's campaign says hostile foreign actors breached its internal communications and stole information from the campaign. What an anonymous source sent to Politico about J.D. Vance.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: The Paris Games are over, but the fight for a medal is not. The new twist in the battle over whether American gymnast Jordan Chiles gets to keep her bronze medal.

I'm Sara Sidner with Kate Bolduan and John Berman. This is CNN News Central.

BERMAN: Exactly one week before the Democratic National Convention and America is waking up to a race transformed completely, at least for now. New polls show Vice President Harris leading Donald Trump among likely voters in three key battleground states. Just weeks ago, Trump was ahead of President Biden there.

You know, and it's not just the numbers, it's the tone and focus of the race. New York Times Columnist Ezra Klein notes, quote, Biden's communication strategy was designed to make Trump bigger. Harris' strategy is to make him smaller. And there are signs it could be working with Trump spouting wild, fantastical lies about crowd size.

CNN's Isaac Dovere is here with the very latest. How does the Harris team view things this morning, Isaac?

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, look, John, they obviously are glad to see good poll numbers following a good couple of weeks for the vice president since you got into this campaign. Remember, we're only talking about three weeks here since Joe Biden dropped out. But they're trying not to get too ahead of themselves. Harris herself was in San Francisco yesterday at a fundraiser, and she said to donors there that she's never been one to really believe in the polls, whether they're up or they're down. What we know is the stakes are so high, and we can't take nothing for granted in this moment.

And what the Harris campaign is focused on here is making sure that people don't get -- feel like the race is done, feel like they don't have to do a lot of the work here. There are very few people who believe that this race won't come down to a couple of hundred thousand voters at most between a couple of states. And that's the sort of thing that could even it doesn't matter where the popular vote goes, could end up swinging the Electoral College.

BERMAN: It's amazing to think about Democrats talking about complacency when just three and a half weeks ago it was Republicans talking about complacency there. So, what is the week have in store in terms of a policy rollout, and I guess the first ever appearance between President Biden and Kamala Harris since he has left the race?

DOVERE: Yes, we saw them briefly on the tarmac when that prisoner exchange happened at Andrews Air Force Base, but this will be an event on Thursday in Maryland, right outside D.C., with the two of them there together.

It is really is a put out as an official government event, not as a campaign event exactly. But they clearly are going to be doing it in the sense of passing the torch. What the White House has told us so far is that it will be focused on lowering costs for Americans. And what that is important is because not only is it Harris and Biden talking about economic issues, but it's the two of them staying very closely connected to each other.

And that is something that we've seen since Harris got into this race, even as the Republicans and the Trump campaign have tried to say that Biden's record is bad and Harris is tied to it in a bad way. That's not the approach that they're taking.

BERMAN: Isaac Dovere, great to see you this morning, always great to have you on in the morning. I appreciate it. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Here we go again, false claims about crowd size from Donald Trump, but even more talk about Kamala Harris's race and childless cat ladies from his running mate, J. D. Vance. Just a few of the new and familiar lines of attack we heard this weekend as Donald Trump sits down for an interview with Elon Musk.

Let's bring in CNN's Steve Contorno. Steve, some Republicans want to see a more disciplined, as you heard from Isaac Dovere, message from Trump going after Harris, but is that what they're getting?

[07:05:02]

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: It certainly doesn't seem so far, Sara. I think scattershot is probably the best word to describe what we saw from the former president over the weekend. He made fun of Senator Jon Tester's weight, the Democrat in Montana. He called Tim Walz, quote, very freakish. He said Harris-Walz supporters were pink haired Marxists, looters, perverts, flag burners, Hamas supporters, drug dealers, gun grabbers, and human traffickers. And he also continued to be fixated on the crowd size of what Vice President Harris is getting versus his own. In fact, in a series of social media posts, he shared debunked footage and claims that Harris was doctoring her crowd size. These were A.I. images that they were sharing. He said that she should be disqualified because they fake their crowd sizes when these, photos were easily debunked.

Meanwhile, his running mate continues to be answering questions about some of his past statements and trying to focus the attacks more on what they say are the anti-family policies of the Harris-Walz ticket. Take a listen to what J.D. Vance told our CNN over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I think that what it is two people, Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, who aren't comfortable in their own skin because they aren't comfortable with their policy positions for the American people. And so their name-calling, instead of actually telling the American people how they're going to make their lives better. I think that's weird, Dana, but, look, they can call me whatever they want to.

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you believe Kamala Harris is black?

VANCE: I believe that Kamala Harris is whatever she says she is, but I believe importantly that President Trump is right, that she's a chameleon. She pretends to be one thing in front of one audience.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: Now, still not much campaign action from Donald Trump this week, though he will, as you said, Sara, speak to Elon Musk later today. J.D. Vance, meanwhile, will be more active on the campaign trail in the coming days.

SIDNER: Steve, just curious what you can tell me about the Trump campaign saying that they have been hacked. What do we know on that front?

CONTORNO: Yes, there's still a lot we're still trying to figure out about this. The Trump campaign claims that a, quote, high ranking official in the campaign was hacked from Microsoft by Iranian hackers. Now, Iran, we should say, has so far denied this and it's unclear if Iran was responsible. Microsoft has so far declined to comment. The U.S. government has sort of not shared any details that his head at this point.

This is all stemming from Politico reporting over the weekend that it had received emails, including internal communications and a research dossier on J.D. Vance that the campaign had put together. The campaign in a statement saying these documents were obtained illegally from foreign sources hostile to the United States, trying to sow chaos throughout our democratic process.

I should note, Sara, that Donald Trump was the recipient of this kind of foreign interference back in 2016. He actually encouraged Russia to go after Senator Clinton's emails and then continue to talk about them well into the race.

SIDNER: We all remember that. Steve Contorno, thank you so much. I appreciate your reporting this morning. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Breaking overnight. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered a guided missile submarine to deploy to the Middle East ahead of a potential strike by Iran.

Plus, a police officer from Ferguson, Missouri, is described as fighting for his life right now after being assaulted during protests marking ten years since the police shooting of Michael Brown.

And USA Gymnastics is now appealing Jordan Chiles. How she was stripped after she was stripped of her bronze medal. The team submitting new video evidence to support their case.

We'll be back.

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BOLDUAN: Breaking news overnight, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has ordered a guided missile submarine to the Middle East and also sped up the arrival of a carrier strike group in anticipation of a potential attack by Iran on Israel. And according to a source, the Israeli defense minister has told Secretary Austin that Iran appears to be preparing for a large scale attack that could come days, and it could be days away now.

CNN's Nic Robertson tracking all of this from Tel Aviv for us. Nick, what's the very latest on this?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: The situation this week, it feels much more tenuous today than it did just a couple of days ago when Iran seemed to be holding back from the possibility of a retaliatory strike into Israel because there was a potential for some momentum on the Gaza ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas and the mediators on that.

Those talks now seem to be on a less certain track, and the sources that I'm talking to now are very concerned that that Israel may be preparing for a larger scale attack. They may try to have an attack like last time that was within the sort of military rules of engagement, not impacting civilians. But the assessment at the moment is Iran may go for a maximalist position.

[07:15:04]

And that's why the hope that was available last week that this situation could be averted seems to be dimmed at the moment. It's not done because those talks, those important talks are scheduled for Thursday. But according to this source I was talking to in the region, time is really running out and not enough pressure is being applied, particularly on the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, here to compromise his negotiating position. BOLDUAN: And that then begs the question, where do these talks head, necause they were thrown into serious question, obviously, as you were noting, with the assassination of Hamas' top political leader when he was in Iran? So, if the urgency is there, but things aren't moving, I mean, what are you hearing from where, from your post?

ROBERTSON: The hope last week was that these important negotiations around Gaza would give Iran a fig leaf to say, look, those negotiations are going forward and therefore we don't want to risk those negotiations and sacrifice the lives of Palestinians inside of Gaza for the sake of our retaliation against Israel. That would be the fig leaf, if you will, that would allow them to walk away.

The assessment right now seems to be what we're hearing from Hamas is they feel that they could go forward on talks if they were on the basis of what President Biden proposed in July. But they feel that the conditions that are being applied by Israel and Prime Minister Netanyahu are not tolerable and are unacceptable, that the strike on the Gaza school over the weekend that killed 90 civilians, according to local officials, that Israel said was targeting Hamas leaders, that sort of escalatory action, in their eyes, means that they're not willing to go to the talks.

And the very real question at the moment and what sources were saying the success of this last week, they were saying the success of these this talks process was going to be predicated on pressure coming on Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from President Biden at the White House and their assessment today, not last week, the assessment is different. They don't think that pressure is coming and therefore these talks aren't going to happen and therefore Iran won't stand by on the sidelines and may even assess that they need to go for a bigger strike than a calculated calibrated one intended not to escalate.

BOLDUAN: Very interesting. Nic, thank you so much for your latest reporting, I really appreciate it. John?

BERMAN: All right. This morning, a police officer is fighting for his life after protests marking the anniversary of the fatal shooting of a black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri. Those protests turned violent.

And voters who refused to support President Biden, but are now on board with Vice President Harris, they explain why they made the switch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As a 23-year-old female, I think it would be nice to see another female. We tried the older gentleman and I think we need a little bit of a change.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She looks presidential.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I switched because J.D. Vance scares the heck out of me.

(END VIDEO CLIP) (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

BERMAN: This morning, officials in Ferguson, Missouri, say a police officer is fighting for his life after he was injured in protests marking ten years since 18-year-old Michael Brown was killed there. Police say the injured officer, Travis Brown, fell and hit his head after someone charged at him.

CNN's Stephanie Elam is with us with the latest on this. What are you learning this morning, Stephanie?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, what we are learning is that this happened Friday night, which was exactly ten years since Michael Brown was shot by a Ferguson police officer and killed. And what was happening is that there are protests throughout the evening that police say were demonstrated for peaceful. But then as the hours got on, they got to get -- they became more violent and there were protestors who were shaking the fence outside of the police station.

And this happened several times, according to the police department, but then when they started to break off parts of the bottom of the fence, that is when the Ferguson police chief sent out a group to go ahead and arrest some of these protesters. And that is when this incident happened where, the officer, Officer Brown was actually knocked to the ground as someone violently is the word that the police chief used, threw his shoulder into him and knocked him to the ground. And he had this brain injury hitting his head.

That individual was arrested. He's 28-year-old Elijah Gant. He's been charged with five charges, but one of them being assault here as well. All of this happening as these tensions rising over something that if you remember, the Black Lives Matter protest movement really took off after this Michael Brown incident here. So, this was the hotbed of it.

But if you listen to the current police chief of Ferguson right now, Troy Doyle, he's saying that many of those officers who work there don't even work there anymore and that this level of protesting is unwarranted. Take a listen to him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TROY DOYLE, FERGUSON POLICE CHIEF: Since 2014, it's been a punching bag for this community. The police department back in '24, we don't even have them officers here anymore. So, what are you protesting? These officers not even here no more.

Ten years late. I got an officer fighting for his life. It's enough, and I'm done with it. We're not doing it here in Ferguson.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELAM: You can hear that the police chief is frustrated and upset in that sound that we just played for you. What we understand is also that Officer Travis Brown was trying to arrest this person because they had broken off and stolen a large chunk of the fence. And the latest update that we've seen, John, is that the officer is still, as the police chief said, fighting for his life.

BERMAN: All right. Stephanie for us, keep us posted on this. Thank you very much. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Still ahead, new polls out today, who's up in the all important battleground states and what does it mean for the state of the race? We'll have that coming up.

And L.A. officially taking the torch. The 2028 Olympic celebration already kicking off, including this tribute to one of L.A.'s greatest athletes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Kobe was an important advocate in bringing the games to Los Angeles.

KOBE BRYANT, FORMER NBA PLAYER: There're so many icons that come from the city of Los Angeles, that live in the city of Los Angeles, in so many different fields, that it makes complete sense to host the Olympics here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We hope this inspires the Mamba Mentality in every aspiring Olympian and Paralympian.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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