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New Poll Shows Voters' Enthusiasm For Harris Over Biden; Georgia Election Rules Changed With 85 Days Until Presidential Election; Uvalde Shooter's Uncle Begged Police To Let Him Intervene. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired August 12, 2024 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:15]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: The 2024 Paris Olympics closed out with a leap from the stadium roof by another athlete of sorts, actor and stunt man Tom Cruise, and the final fight from Team USA. The American gymnastics team is defending Jordan Chiles who was stripped of her bronze medal.

Joining me now is CNN's Andy Scholes. The IOC talking about this today. What is happening with this really emotional moment for Chiles?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yeah. Well -- so, Sara, so U.S. Gymnastics says not so fast -- we're not giving that medal back just yet. It's going to appeal the decision to strip gymnast Jordan Chiles of that bronze medal.

So I'll give you a little background. Chiles -- she originally placed fifth in the floor exercise last week before Team USA challenged the result, arguing one of the elements of her routine was not scored properly. And that challenge -- it was successful in the moment. They gave Chiles an extra .1, which moved her ahead of Romania's Ana Barbosu into third place.

But on Saturday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the USA's challenge came four seconds after the one-minute deadline and, therefore, does not count. Now, USA Gymnastics says well, it has new video evidence showing that the inquiry was submitted before the deadline and has requested to reinstate Chiles' score and allow her to keep that bronze medal. So we're just going to have to wait and see how that controversy ends up playing itself out.

Now, the U.S. Women's Basketball Team, meanwhile -- they got gold again, but it was not easy, against France yesterday. The U.S. was down 10 in the third, but they rallied to take the lead by 21 points. And their star A'ja Wilson -- she was fantastic again. France was then down three in the final seconds and look at this. Gabby Williams banks in a shot at the buzzer, but her foot was on the line.

So the U.S. wins 67-66 to capture a record eight-straight gold medal and it was their 61st-straight win at the Olympics. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

A'JA WILSON, 3-TIME OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: It was just a surreal moment, but it was just a -- I love the environment. I love the atmosphere. Paris was great. Just having a lot of fun. We went -- we battled, we faced some adversity, but we came out on top and kept doing the main thing.

BREANNA STEWART, 3-TIME OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: We've all taken time away from our teams to do something really, really hard. And the fact that this is eight-straight golds is insane, honestly. But each one is so, so different and so, so special, and so hard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: I love Wilson's glasses there.

Now, Team USA's basketball gold there -- it sealed the tie with China atop the gold medal standings -- 40 apiece. The first time in Summer Olympics history that the gold medal count finished in a tie. But the Americans did certainly run away with that total medal count -- 126 -- their most since the 2016 Rio Games when had 121.

Host nation France -- they finished with 64 medals. That was their best Summer Olympics performance since they first hosted the Games back in 1900.

But now, the Summer Games moving on to Los Angeles for 2028, and Tom Cruise helped deliver that Olympic flag. He jumped down in the stadium in Paris yesterday during the closing ceremony as only Tom Cruise can, right? Then he took the flag from Simon Biles and hopped on a motorcycle.

And then the broadcast cut to a prerecorded video of Cruise then in L.A. combing the Olympic rings and the Hollywood sign. That, Sara, looks pretty cool right there. I wonder if they're going to end up doing that for the -- for the Games?

But I will say the Paris Olympics -- I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing. I thought it was fantastic. I would say my favorite moment, Steph Curry in that gold medal basketball game because that was some of the best shooting the game of basketball has ever seen.

What do you think? What was your favorite moment, Sara?

SIDNER: It was amazing, but it's got to be Biles, Biles, Biles. Sorry, buddy. Like, I just can't stop thinking about her and watching her. That was my jam.

This is funny though because he's definitely jumping us all into La La Land. This makes sense. I get it. I get the idea, you know?

Andy Scholes, thank you so much. Appreciate it -- Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Simone Biles was like can you just hand me the flag? Can we just move on? But anyway, I'm a huge Simone Biles fan but Steph Curry on the court was --

SIDNER: Amazing.

BOLDUAN: -- bananas.

We get into something else that is bananas is Harry Enten and polls these days.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: I'm jumping down from the ceiling for this segment, like Cruise.

BOLDUAN: Maybe --

SIDNER: Let's see it.

BOLDUAN: -- never.

The enthusiasm around the Harris-Walz campaign is seen at their rallies no doubt. It's also showing up in new polling that we want to bring to you today showing the Democratic ticket has made some gains in some battleground states.

What does momentum look like in the polls? Harry Enten is here. What are you seeing?

ENTEN: What am I seeing? So these were these New York Times-Sienna College polls that came out over the weekend. And look, this is Democrat versus Trump margin. This is May, Biden versus Trump. You see plenty of red on this side of your screen -- Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, of course -- that "blue wall".

[07:35:00]

This was back in May. You saw Trump up by three and Trump up by one in Wisconsin. Biden up by a single point in Michigan. The trendline here is what's so important.

So let's jump ahead from May to August. We go from some red on this side of the screen. Look at all this blue on this side of the screen. Pennsylvania, Harris by four. Wisconsin, Harris by four. Michigan, Harris by four.

So if you're seeing those comments on Trump on social media kind of going bananas and you're wondering why, it's because he's looking at polling data like this, which shows clear momentum from Donald Trump to Kamala Harris since Joe Biden has gotten out of the race.

I'll note still no clear leader up here.

BOLDUAN: Right.

ENTEN: But you would much rather be Kamala Harris up by four within the margin of error than Joe Biden down by three in Pennsylvania, down one in Wisconsin, and only up by one in Michigan within the margin of error.

These are three- to five-point movements towards the Democratic ticket. Clear momentum and it's clearly angering Donald Trump.

BOLDUAN: But take us inside the numbers. Who is Harris appealing to that Joe Biden was not when we had these numbers?

ENTEN: Yeah. So, OK, is it that Harris is getting Republican voters? No. It's not that she's getting Donald Trump voters from 2020. What is she doing? Number one, she's coalescing the Democratic base.

So look, in Biden, in spring, he was getting only 90 percent of the voters who voted for him back in the spring -- back in 2020. Look at it now. What do we see? We see Kamala Harris is getting 93 percent of those voters. So we see that momentum.

The other thing that we see is those untraditional voters. Those voters -- there's all this talk that Donald Trump was going to get these voters off the sidelines and get them to vote for him who didn't vote in 2020.

Back in the spring -- look at that -- Joe Biden was only getting 28 percent of the 2020 non-voters. Look at where Kamala Harris is now. She's getting 43 percent of those voters -- a 15-point jump.

So Kamala Harris is doing two things here. Number one, she's getting more of those untraditional voters; and number two, she's coalescing that Democratic base.

BOLDUAN: Are other -- are you seeing signs in other polling of the Harris momentum as well?

ENTEN: Yeah. OK, so if it's just one poll, I'm not that interested. But take a look here. This is among those certain to vote. This is the Democratic versus Trump in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. This is an IPSOS poll that came out last week.

Look at this. The June margin, Biden versus Trump. We see Trump was up by two -- very similar to what we saw in those New York Times-Sienna College polls.

Look at where we are now in this August margin. Look at that. Plus two for Harris. So again, a four-point movement towards Harris. Again, within the margin of error.

And the last thing I'll note, look at this. If Harris just wins up in the Great Lakes -- Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin -- she can lose Arizona, Nevada, and Georgia and she gets to exactly 270 electoral votes.

BOLDUAN: All right. So momentum it is today.

ENTEN: Momentum it is.

BOLDUAN: Thank you, Harry.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: John. JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. So if you want a visual representation of what Harry is talking about, pollster and communications strategist Frank Luntz just held a focus group. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANK LUNTZ, POLLSTER, COMMUNICATION STRATEGIST: How many of you were supporting Joe Biden 14 days ago? Raise your hands. None of you.

How many of you, if the election were today, would vote for the Democratic nominee, Kamala Harris?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would.

LUNTZ: OK, that's all of you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: None of you to all of you.

And Frank Luntz is with us now. Frank, so -- thank you so much for being with us.

Let me just ask you if the election were held today, who would win?

LUNTZ (via Skype): She would win. And I want to emphasize it's not just about momentum. And I thought that your comments there just before this was dead on. It's also about passion. It's about commitment.

Harris voters are even more eager to vote for her than Donald Trump voters are to him. We have not seen that in the entire campaign -- all that intensity. And her campaign is generating the intensity.

And another key component is exactly why this is happening. She's talking and emphasizing her persona, her attributes, her character traits, and that's what Donald Trump has been commenting on. And the fact is the American people do want to hear the same kind of negativity and the same kind of attacks that he's been delivering.

His strength is on issues, most particularly the two issues that matter most, inflation and immigration. But instead of speaking about those two issues and talking about the failures of the Biden administration, he's been making these personal attacks. And it's, frankly, turning the voters off that he needs to reach.

BERMAN: Right.

LUNTZ: Now, I want to emphasize one more thing.

BERMAN: Hang on -- hang on, Frank.

LUNTZ: A focus group was --

BERMAN: I want to -- I want to break down -- I want to actually break down some of the things you just said there into pieces. And before we get that, though -- again, if the election were held today, you say that Harris would win. If the election were held four weeks ago, who would win? Who would have won?

LUNTZ: Donald Trump would have won. And I was very careful when I said it.

And the reason why is three-fold. Number one, he was winning those three states -- Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin. Number two, he had the intensity so he would have done actually a percent better than his polling showed. And number three, frankly, he was on the issues that people cared about.

[07:40:00]

BERMAN: Let's talk about the Harris side of a second because you talk about the excitement and enthusiasm. One of the things that she and her running mate are leaning into is this idea of joy.

How does joy rate in your focus groups? Is there anything you can see where that's having an impact?

LUNTZ: It's not joy, it's the absence of meanness. And I want to be specific about this. It's not that she's so energetic and so -- which is part of it. The people in the focus groups appreciate that. It's that they've stopped appreciating the same kind of attacks again and again, year after year, that Donald Trump delivers.

Frankly, and now let me upset everyone here, it's not that she's winning this campaign; it's that Donald Trump is losing the campaign. And I'm starting to wonder how does he not see this? How does he not see the polling decline that he's had? How did he not read and understand that people were fed up with the 93-minute convention speech that was really great for the first 30 minutes and got really awful at the end?

We are different people than we were when he was first elected. We are a different country in 2024 than we were in 2016. And I don't think that he understands it.

Last point: I don't think it's his campaign because I see the stuff that they put out. I think it's actually the candidate that's responsible for this.

BERMAN: Look, and all the reporting over the last three days has seemed to indicate that. The leaks, the likes of which we've seen, generally speaking, are to send the candidate a message. You've got to see this. You've got to see the problem you're in.

Ezra Klein -- this wasn't an article; this was a column in The New York Times. He's an opinion writer.

But he writes, "Biden's communications strategy was designed to make Trump bigger. Harris' strategy is to make him smaller." And then Klein continues, "The result is that Trump is starved for the resource he craves most: attention. And is often the case when he loses control of the headlines, he's making loonier and more self-destructive arguments."

How do you feel about that?

LUNTZ: I think he's -- I never thought I would say this because Ezra and I have disagreed on a lot. I think he's dead on.

But let's talk about the impact on democracy in the end. The key moment here is going to be the debates when Harris and Trump stand side-by-side and give the alternative points of view. I still think he has a reasonable chance of winning --

BERMAN: Oh, sure.

LUNTZ: -- because in the end, the issue agenda favors him. But not if you're so angry that you stop reflecting the people you're trying to reach.

BERMAN: Frank Luntz, great to speak with you this morning. Thanks so much for your time, as always -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. This morning, a little bit of good stuff for you.

You know how the saying goes. If at first you don't succeed, try, try, again. That was the case for a Michigan lottery player. He was able to, at 53 years old -- he was off by just one number for matching all five winning numbers in the state's Fantasy Five jackpot. The next day, though, he was like, you know, I'm going to try this again and see what happens, and it paid off big-time. His winning lottery ticket, $800,000, just about.

He said when he got an email telling him to log into his account and accept his prize he thought it was a scam. But reality set in when he went to the lottery office to claim the money -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Just what I'm doing today.

SIDNER: Is that what you're filling out right now?

BOLDUAN: I'm filling it out today. All the hopes. All the hopes.

Coming up for us, Donald Trump's media company is pushing out a new strategy to try and turn around major revenue losses. How it hopes streaming is the answer to its big losses so far.

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[07:47:57]

BOLDUAN: With 85 days left until Election Day and just two months until early voting begins in Georgia, that state's election board has now passed a rule giving county officials new authority over the election certification process, allowing local officials, essentially, to conduct what's being described as "reasonable inquiry" before certifying any election results.

The Republicans pushing this change say it's to make sure every vote is county. Critics, including the top election official in the state, though, say this could create chaos come Election Day.

Joining me right now, CNN political commentator and former Republican lieutenant governor of Georgia, Geoff Duncan, who has endorsed Kamala Harris in this election. It's good to see you again.

So this rule passed 3-2 and while the people on this board -- they're not household names to oh, so many. You are more familiar with them. Who are the Republicans who are pushing this, and what do you think they're doing here?

GEOFF DUNCAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, (R) FORMER GEORGIA LIEUTNANT GOVERNOR (via Webex by Cisco): Well, I think it's important to start with what this board really has done historically, and it's just to handle small administrative functions and literally serve as a liaison between the legislature and the counties. Because in a majority of these elections the work is done at the county level.

And so, come 2020, Brad Raffensberger was kind of the poster boy of the state elections board as our Secretary of State and he just became an instant lightning rod for Donald Trump and those around him.

So this board has really shifted over time and has been hyper- politicized. And so, really, what you see is our state GOP is owned and operated by Donald J. Trump solely, and they have used this board as a function to plant seeds of doubt in future elections. And it really didn't seem like it was even possible. But now, watching them just kind of ankle-bite at worthless issues just to create doubt amongst the election, it's really scary to think about what could -- what could eventually happen.

BOLDUAN: You know, Donald Trump actually name-checked the Republican members on this board during his recent rally in Georgia. Listen to this.

[07:50:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Three members -- Janice Johnson, Rick Jeffries, and Janelle King -- three people are all pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency, and victory. We have some that aren't so good but these three are really doing the job because they don't want to see this happen. That will destroy our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: You know, one of them, Janelle King, actually told CNN that the changes that they voted on were done in good faith. And here is -- here is her statement. "This is about protecting all voters," King told CNN. "I am making sure I am doing the right thing. I am appreciative of the president's support, but I am not working on behalf of anyone."

What do you say to that, Geoff?

DUNCAN: Well, it's false. She works on behalf of Donald Trump because just -- let's follow this lineage backwards. Janelle King was appointed by the state GOP. The state GOP has paid millions and millions of their -- of their -- of their donated dollars to defend these cases against Donald Trump and against those that were indicted, including their former chairman. So look, this is just a big circus environment that's wrapped around this.

But look, at the end of the day, my hope is that Donald Trump gets beat by a big enough margin that folks are not willing to take the bait again. We cannot believe a tweet that comes out from Donald Trump that this election was rigged because if we go back in time what we did realize was the 2020 election here in Georgia was the safest, legal, most fairest election in the country, and it was the most scrutinized, too.

BOLDUAN: I also want to ask you while I've got you. Donald Trump's running mate has done a round of interviews this weekend.

In speaking with Dana Bash, J.D. Vance -- Dana Bash asked J.D. Vance about the past comments that have gotten so much attention. Him calling out Democrats as childless cat ladies and more. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), U.S. VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I criticize Kamala Harris for being part of a set of ideas that exist in American leadership that is anti-family. I never, Dana, criticize people for not having kids. I criticize people for being anti-child. And I do think that Kamala Harris --

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Do you think she's anti-child?

VANCE: -- has made some bizarre statements. She has said things like it's reasonable not to have children over climate change. I think it's the exact opposite message we should be sending to our young families.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Look, he's defending his past remarks here.

You've said, though, that you think he's going to be a drag on the Republican ticket. What do you see?

DUNCAN: Yeah, I see a weird individual that doesn't connect with America. He makes statements that just are foolish and don't make sense. But that's -- you know, Donald Trump wanted what he wanted, and he wanted a sock puppet that just followed in his shadow, and that's what he got. And instead, it's not a drag. And you're watching this play out over and over again.

This is really the perfect storm. I mean, the perfect storm showed up as Joe Biden having a horrible debate and then this perfect storm flipped and you've got Donald Trump who is running out of energy, making bad decisions, and acting like a fool again. The Donald Trump that got smoked in 2020 is back again in full force.

BOLDUAN: And 80-plus days to go.

It's good to see you. Thank you so much for coming in, Geoff -- John.

BERMAN: All right. This morning, it's not just his poll numbers that are sagging, Donald Trump. Truth -- Trump Media, which owns Truth Social, is reporting second-quarter revenue dropping 30 percent from a year earlier.

CNN's Matt Egan is here with that.

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Yeah, John, it's so remarkable to see what's going on with this company. We're talking about generating less than a million dollars in revenue and yet it's worth billions of dollars. It's a really bizarre situation made even weirder by the fact that the majority owner is the former and possibly future President of the United States.

Look at this. Revenue down 30 percent to $837,000. Yes, thousand dollars. That is a very tiny number. Normally a company with that kind of revenue would be valued in the millions of dollars, not billions.

And look, the losses are piling up for Trump Media, the owner of Truth Social. We're talking about a loss of $16.4 million. That's despite the fact that this is a quarter where, of course, it's an election year and normally, you would expect they'd be doing a little bit better. The good news is this is actually an improvement because they had even larger losses in the past.

Let's look at the share price because it's been a rough stretch. It spiked in the spring around the time that they went public. It's been coming back. And what's really interesting here is that in the three weeks since Vice President Harris entered the race for the White House, this stock has lost a quarter of its value.

Remember, it's not trading on fundamentals. It's all hype, it's all momentum, and it's become a way for traders to bet on whether or not Trump gets returned to the White House. And obviously, polls show that this is a much tougher race than it was a month ago for Trump.

And this loss in the share price has shrank Trump's net worth. Just three months ago, his net worth because --

BERMAN: Oh, wow.

EGAN: -- he is the dominant shareholder -- his stake in this company was worth over $6 billion. It's been cut in half to about $3 billion today, although the share price is down about one percent premarket.

[07:55:00]

BERMAN: It's still a good amount of money.

EGAN: It's a good amount of money.

BERMAN: He's still making money off this. But it is interesting, as you say, if this is a bet on whether people think he's going to get in the White House. Over the last three weeks, we saw that line going down, down, down.

EGAN: Yeah.

BERMAN: Matt Egan, great to see you.

EGAN: Thank you.

BERMAN: Thank you very much -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. This morning, a newly released 911 recording reveals a man claiming to be the uncle of the Uvalde school shooter tried to intervene during the massacre that left 19 children and two teachers dead. The recording released by city officials more than two years after the school massacre reveals how the shooter's alleged family member begged dispatchers to connect him with his nephew inside the school.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNCLE OF UVALDE SHOOTER: The thing that's happening at Robb right now --

911 DISPATCHER: OK.

UNCLE OF UVALDE SHOOTER: -- he's my nephew.

911 DISPATCHER: Who is your nephew, sir?

UNCLE OF UVALDE SHOOTER: I was wondering, maybe he could -- he could listen to me because he does listen to me. Everything I tell him, he does listen to me. Maybe he could stand down or do something to turn himself in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: But that call came too late. The call took place seven minutes after the gunman had already been shot dead by law enforcement.

Texas State Sen. Roland Gutierrez is with us now to discuss some of this newly released information.

First of all, can you explain why it has taken two years to make these documents public, to make that recording public, when the family members have been demanding transparency from the very beginning?

ROLAND GUTIERREZ, (D) TEXAS STATE SENATOR (via Webex by Cisco): Well, thank you, Sara, for having me on.

Essentially, we filed a -- I filed a lawsuit against the state of Texas. I lost that lawsuit. Simultaneously, CNN, along with a lot of other media networks, filed a lawsuit. And luckily, it took this long to be able to get the information. But let's be clear. You only have obtained the information from the city of Uvalde, not the state officials or the county officials.

You had the Department of Public Safety, which is the State Police who had the largest presence on the scene. And yet, we still have zero transparency from the Department of Public Safety from their director, Steve McCraw. Zero accountability from a governor who refuses to ask for any accountability. They had over 95 officers present and yet, here we are 2 1/2 years later with very little information, quite frankly.

What you have is the city of Uvalde police department. And so, we do have their body cams. We do have their audio and their -- and their 911 calls, as you just heard.

We have to continue to fight for transparency here. But quite honestly, the families are tired. They're tired of not getting their answers from a government that truly failed them every step of the way and continues to fail them still.

SIDNER: Tired and heartbroken.

I do want to let you listen to an extraordinary interview our Ed Lavandera did with the former police -- Uvalde School District police chief who is now criminally charged with child endangerment in that shooting. His officers were first on the scene. He was giving commands inside the school. We see the body camera video of that, and telling officers that they had time on their hands, at one point.

Here is what he said about the case against him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE ARREDONDO, FORMER UVALDE SCHOOL POLICE CHIEF: I strongly disagree. And again, opinions vary, sir, and they're going to. But I can tell you that probably 100 percent of those people hadn't been in a situation like that before.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you feel like you guys are being singled out -- scapegoated?

ARREDONDO: Oh, by all means, since the very beginning, sir. I've been scapegoated from the very beginning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: What do you think of that response?

GUTIERREZ: Yeah -- no, I don't think he's being scapegoated. I think that he should be indicted, but so should so many others. So I guess it depends how you define scapegoating.

You have a Texas Ranger that walked around that building and inside that hallway for 50 minutes on the phone with a supervisor and yet, nobody told him what to do or he didn't do anything that he was supposed to do, including set up an incident command outside of that building. You had countless other DPS captains outside of that building that did nothing. Arredondo absolutely failed those children and should be held to account for that, but so should about 10 other people in that space.

I think that Mr. Arredondo is wholly lacking in his empathy for those families because it was also in that -- in that footage that you just describe that he refused to look at his failure. He refused to look at the videos that were presented to him.

SIDNER: Yeah. He said it would hurt him too much and he tries not to look at them.

And you do mention there were eventually, what, 376 law enforcement officers that took 77 minutes to confront and kill the gunman from the time that he entered the school through that unlocked door.

How are answers going to be gotten? What can be done next from your perspective, from the perspective of lawmakers to try and get this information to the families that they need and want, and to get some justice?

GUTIERREZ: We tried over 21 bills in the last legislative session. We'll go back in January and we'll reiterate many of those bills. But you have a Republican-controlled legislature in Texas that simply doesn't want to move forward on even the most common sensical things from accountability to transparency, or even raising an age limit, which is all the families truly asked for, to 21.