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Trump-Musk Talk on X Filled With False Claims, Softball Questions; Sources Say, Roger Stone's Email Hacked to Get to Trump Campaign; Trump and Harris Both Promise to End Taxes on Tips. Aired 7- 7:30a ET

Aired August 13, 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: Ready, set, glitch. Donald Trump's ballyhooed re entry to Twitter gets the DeSantis treatment. If you have a big interview to do but are on a tight schedule, it is something to consider.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Or not. Breaking overnight, Russian President Vladimir Putin now vowing to respond to Ukraine's surprise attack, as Ukraine's president says the war is coming home to Russia.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: And scorch. Summer heat is getting turbocharged. We experience the second hottest July in history. The American city is experiencing the most dangerous heat.

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

BERMAN: This morning, the glitch heard around the world. That is, if you believe the new claim from Elon Musk, there have been a billion views of his interview with Donald Trump overnight, and then discussions about it. It is unclear how he got to that number, but whether it was dozens of people, or quadrillions who did tune in, what they heard was a major technical delay followed by relative fawning, then the normal campaign rhetoric. Some people even claim they heard a lisp.

These were some of the attacks on his opponents.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Kamala wouldn't have this conversation. She can't, because she's not smart. You know, she's not a smart person. She is a radical left San Francisco liberal, and now she's trying to protect -- now she's looking like she's -- she wants to be more Trump than Trump, if that's possible. I don't think it's possible, but she wants to be more Trump than Trump. She's terrible, but she's getting a free ride.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Maybe more of a hiss than a lisp there. CNN's Alayna Treene is with us this morning. How did the Trump team think that went, especially for the first 40 minutes or so?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: I mean, look, what was supposed to be Donald Trump's triumphant return to X, formerly known as Twitter, was marred by these technical difficulties. Really, it took them 40 minutes for this to get underway after, you know, the allotted 8:00 P.M. start time.

But once it did, John, we really did hear the two of them were sympathetic partners to each other. They heaped praise on each other. Musk lobbed softball questions at the former president, and it really allowed him to kind of rattle off the same exact talking points we hear at all of his rallies and while Donald Trump is on the campaign trail.

We heard Trump go after Harris, attack her on the border, attack Joe Biden for claiming -- or his claims that he failed to prevent the wars in the Middle East and in Ukraine. And he also, you know, tried to portray that America was better off while Donald Trump was in office.

Now, one interesting thing that I took away is he spent a lot of time attacking Joe Biden, even though Biden is no longer his opponent, even if Donald Trump sometimes wishes he were. I want you to take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: This was a coup. This was a coup of a president of the United States. He didn't want to leave and they said we can do it the nice way or we can do it the hard way.

ELON MUSK, CEO, X: Yes. I mean, they just took him out back behind the shed and basically shot him.

TRUMP: Oh, what they did with this guy, and I'm no fan of his. And he was a horrible president, the worst president in history.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, John, you know, you can hear there, that is something Donald Trump says often on the campaign trail at his rallies. But the underlying thing there and what I hear from my conversations with Trump's advisers, those people close to the former president, is that, you know, he still is holding on to Joe Biden and kind of wishing that that were the man that he was going up against, not Harris. And you can hear some of that in that conversation last night.

But I think, really, you know, my big takeaway was that Musk really allowed Donald Trump to own that space. A lot of people had texted me, some of Donald Trump's allies, being like, this is exactly what the former president sounds like when you're just on a phone conversation with him.

Of course, this lasted over two hours, would be a very lengthy conversation, but it was a very casual setting, partly because Donald Trump is very comfortable with Musk. We know that when it's a friendly interviewer, where the one that he's talking with, that he's a little bit more candid.

But we really didn't learn anything new about his views.

[07:05:02]

We really heard the same exact talking points that Donald Trump often shares. And a lot of times, you actually heard Musk try to steer him toward, you know, making a certain campaign point and Donald Trump instead used it to air the same grievances that he always does. So, we didn't learn a lot that was new, but it was very clear that the two were heaping praise on each other, and we're enjoying just having that time to talk it out.

BERMAN: All right. Alayna Treene, for us, thank you so much for that. Kate?

BOLDUAN: So, the way the Trump campaign had promoted this was that it would be the interview of the century. The Harris campaign, though, billing it as a conversation between, quote, two self-obsessed rich guys, Donald Trump and Elon Musk.

Let's get over to CNN's Isaac Dovere who has more on this side of it. The Harris campaign is trying to have a heyday with this one. What are they doing with it?

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, look, Kate, they are trying their best to mock this, not just the technical problems, which there were many, but the kind of conversation that had there. And it is part and parcel of the Harris campaign's attempt here to continue to make out the Trump campaign and Donald Trump himself and his top supporters as part of like sort of a cynical circus act here, really denigrating them. Making fun of them every which way they can.

There's a statement from the Harris campaign last night, Trump's entire campaign is in service of people, like Elon Musk and himself, self-obsessed rich guys who will sell out the middle class and who cannot run a live stream in the year 2024.

That's the way that this is going from the Harris campaign overall. The vice president herself not really addressing Trump directly at any point so far over the last three weeks except to say, you know, she knows his type, but the campaign to take those digs every which way they can.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Isaac, next week is the Democratic Convention. What more are you learning about the preps and plans for it?

DOVERE: Well, now we know that Barack Obama will be speaking on Tuesday night at the convention. We've got Barack Obama there, along with Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Joe Biden, of course, will be there, and then Tim Walz and Kamala Harris on Thursday night herself.

This is part of the attempt that we will have from the Democratic Party to show that they're about unity, about coming together, especially after that really nightmarish month of July for them as they tried to figure out what to do about Joe Biden. Obviously, many of them pushing Biden to leave the race, but a connected collective message from Democrats that they're trying to move forward as a country.

It is, I will say, a pretty stark contrast to the Republican convention where you did not have previous nominees for president or vice president there in Milwaukee with Donald Trump, as Trump tries to make the Republican Party overall reshaped in his own image. The Democratic Party coming together through all these generations and presidents over the course of the four nights next week in Chicago.

BOLDUAN: Yes, no Mitt Romney, no Paul Ryan, no George W. Bush. You know, that was part of the show at the Republican convention of this is not that Republican Party anymore, for sure. It's good to see you, Isaac. Thank you so much. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Longtime operative Roger Stone at the center of another campaign controversy, why FBI believes Iran hacked into his email.

And no taxes on tips, both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump's campaigns want to eliminate those taxes, but their plans very different.

And remember the studies that said one or two drinks a day might be good for your health? I got some bad news for you. We'll talk about it coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:10:00]

SIDNER: New this morning, multiple sources telling CNN the FBI believes hackers breached longtime Trump ally Roger Stone's personal email account in a cyberattack targeting Donald Trump's campaign. The hackers apparently sought to use Stone's account to try to hack into the emails of a senior Trump campaign official. The campaign is blaming Iran.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz is joining me now. The campaign is blaming Iran. Have we heard anything from officials about, A, what was in the emails, and, B, whether or not and who's behind this attack?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN SENIOR CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: Yes, Sara, we're getting little drips and drabs of what is out there right now, piecing together this story, but it goes back to June. That's when this hacking incident took place. And according to one of the sources that's spoken to CNN about this, Roger Stone, that political adviser around Donald Trump for many years now, his personal email was compromised and it was from a foreign state actor.

And what the attempt there was, was to use Roger Stone's personal email account to get into the account or accounts of other people in the Trump campaign, trying to fish them for information to get in and specifically to get into the account of another unnamed senior Trump campaign official. Now, Roger Stone was contacted by Microsoft and the FBI, and I spoke to an attorney of his last night who said in a statement that he is continuing to cooperate with authorities here. The FBI has been very tight-lipped on exactly what they're saying. But so far we have a statement from them saying they are investigating this matter.

And then this all comes, Sara, at a broader moment where the FBI has been very aware and briefing both campaigns that Iranian hackers are targeting or could be targeting them.

[07:15:04]

And this is a moment where Iran wants to undercut Donald Trump's campaign and sow social discord. Iran has denied the allegations and we're going to continue to follow this story. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Katelyn Polantz, thank you so much for your reporting, John?

BERMAN: All right. This morning, Vice President Harris has publicly adopted one policy that was previously put forth by Donald Trump and he's not too happy about it.

And a huge setback for RFK Jr.'s campaign, what got him banned from one state's ballot.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: So, this morning, one of the few areas of agreement between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, both proposed ending taxes on tips.

[07:15:04]

Trump raised the idea in June, and was not happy after Harris promised she would also end taxing tips at a rally in Nevada over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: No tax on tips and all of a sudden she's making a speech and saying there will be no tax on tips. I said that months ago. And by the way, they had just the opposite.

They had a policy that they were really going to go after you. And we're really harassing people horribly. And then all of a sudden for politics, she says, you know, she comes out with what I said.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: CNN's Matt Egan is with us this morning. So, Matt, what would it look like ending taxes on tips?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, John, first of all, you got to love how the two candidates are arguing, even when they broadly agree on policy kind of reminds me of my two boys at home, including the part over arguing over who said it first. But, listen, the goal here would be simple. They're trying to boost the after tax take home pay of workers, right? Last Monday, Uncle Sam means more workers, more money for bartenders and Uber drivers and waiters and waitresses.

Now, listen to the two candidates pitch this idea to voters at separate campaign rallies starting with former President Trump in June in Las Vegas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: When I get to office, we are going to not charge taxes on tips, people making tips.

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We will continue our fight for working families of America, including to raise the minimum wage, taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

EGAN: Now, Trump and Harris have another thing in common here in that neither of them have released detailed proposals here. But here is what we do know about the Harris plan to eliminate taxes on tips. It would apply to hospitality and service workers. The tips would remain subject to payroll taxes. Harris wants to pair this with a push to raise the minimum wage. And, of course, this would require congressional approval.

Now, this is one of those ideas that politicians love. Economists, they're a little bit more skeptical. One of the concerns is that this would really only apply to a small slice of work, and that raises some fairness questions, right? Like, why should a bartender get to duck taxes on tips but a warehouse worker making the same amount of money have to pay taxes on wages?

Believe it or not, just 2.5 percent of all employees actually get tips, according to Yale University. These tend to be lower wage jobs, like food delivery workers and hotel staffers, and that's important because it means a lot of them, they don't make enough money to even pay federal taxes. Yale estimates just 37 percent of tipped workers in 2022 actually owed federal income taxes. Even fewer restaurant workers did. And all of this explains why Erica York at the tax policy -- that the Tax Foundation told me that this is good politics, but bad policy, John.

BERMAN: So, I did see in the Harris plan. They can find it to service and has hospitality workers. But without those limitations, one thing I know about really wealthy people is they don't like paying taxes. Do you think there'd be some avenue for them to maneuver, maybe, you know, make your salary $1, but you get a million dollars in tips for doing whatever it is you do?

EGAN: Definitely. Of course, that is a major concern because this would essentially incentivize people to reclassify ordinary income as tipped income. And it's easy to see how without guardrails you could have wealthy earners sort of game the system. That's why the Harris campaign says that they would have guardrails.

One, they would have an income limit. Two, they would have requirements to prevent hedge fund managers and lawyers from benefiting. But implementing those requirements is not easy. The devil would really be in the details.

Another concern, though, is the cost here, right, because this would come at a time when we have High deficits, a lot of national debt. And estimates from the committee for responsible federal budget, they say that if you exclude tips from federal income taxes, that would cost at least $107 billion over a decade. If you also include -- if you also exclude tips from the payroll tax, this could spike to as much as $250 billion over a decade.

John, one last point, this does not address the elephant in the room, the expiring 2017 Trump tax cuts, nor the fact that the federal budget is a mess. Hopefully, we'll hear more details on that in the coming days.

BERMAN: I feel like we should be tipping our correspondent, the defense here.

EGAN: Much appreciated.

BERMAN: Tax free. Matt Egan, thank you very much for that. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Donald Trump and Elon Musk, their two hour conversation, and Trump signaling he's willing to offer Musk a role in his next administration if he wins.

And inside Russia, as Ukraine strikes back this morning, Vladimir Putin is vowing to respond.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:25:00]

BOLDUAN: Today, President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden are heading to New Orleans, where the president will be announcing $150 million in new federal funding for cancer research, treatment and prevention. This is part of what has been dubbed Joe Biden's Cancer Moonshot Initiative, and this will be Biden's first official travel since he ended his re-election bid.

CNN's Kevin Liptak is at the White House. He has more on this for us. Kevin, the Cancer Moonshot Initiative, this is personal for President Biden as well.

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, it really is. And this event today really does give you a good indication of how President Biden plans to spend the remainder of his term, really zeroing in on these items that are so important to him.

[07:30:05]

Remember this cancer moonshot, he actually began.