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UAW Files Labor Complaint Against Must & Trump After Their Chat On X; Walz To Speak To Union Ahead Of Harris' Speech On Economic Policy; Zelenskyy: Ukraine Controls 74 Settlements In Russia's Kursk Region; More Russians Urged To Evacuate Amid Ukraine Incursion. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired August 13, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:00:23]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: A union flex, the United Auto Workers going after Donald Trump and Elon Musk after the former president's comments about firing striking workers. Meantime, Democrats making their pitch to union members with vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, a politician who was a former union member himself.

Plus, a massive embarrassment for Moscow, as Ukrainian troops move deeper into Russia, Vladimir Putin is vowing to kick them out. But can he actually do that? As the Kremlin's war machine faces one of their biggest setbacks in the war.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: And hope for life on Mars. A study finds there could be oceans of water on the red planet, but getting at it could be easier said than done. We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

This hour, Vice President Kamala Harris' running mate makes his first solo campaign stop. Moments from now, Minnesota governor, Tim Walz, will speak to one of the nation's largest unions of public employees. It comes as the United Auto Workers union just filed labor charges against former President Donald Trump and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.

The UAW claims the two men threatened to intimidate workers who go on strike during a rambling conversation last night on X. We're going to have much more on those charges in a moment, but let's start with CNN's Natasha Chen, who's live in Los Angeles at that Walz event.

Natasha, break down this campaign stop for us, what should we expect to hear?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, this is the first time that we're going to hear Tim Walz doing a solo campaign stop. And we're expecting him to show up at that podium in just a few short minutes. This room is full of AFSCME members. This is a union of state, county, municipal, government workers, but also cultural workers, people who are unionized at museums, at zoos, all around the country. It's a total of 1.4 million members around the U.S., 4,000 of them here in this room right now. And you can see they are separated by state. There are actually

delegates from Maryland right behind us. And I spoke to a lady at this table right next to us who is a vocational rehabilitation specialist with the Maryland Department of Education.

And we talked about Musk's conversation with Trump yesterday. She said she was not surprised to hear that UAW is filing charges. She said they should. She also mentioned this idea that Trump has been going out there saying he would cut federal jobs. He would, you know, trim government employee, spending on government employees.

And she said, thinking about her own position, she helps young people on Social Security, on SSI benefits, to get off of these benefits. Some of them have autism, some of them other situation, circumstances that make it difficult for them to work, to help them gain skills and get a job, sometimes part-time, but it helps them feel productive, she said.

And so if her job were to be cut, she said, you could eliminate spending on her salary, but you would then be spending a lot more still offering these federal benefits to the young people that she helps. So that's how she looks at the situation. A very energized room here, again, from a union that has officially endorsed Harris-Walz for the presidential and vice presidential ticket here.

So they are all waiting to hear from Walz. He did speak to UAW last week, in which he said something about how the audience is a friendly audience, as it is today. He said, it may be preaching to the choir, but we need this choir to sing.

And I anticipate that he might echo those sentiments today, because while this is in California, we do have a lot of members here in the room from battleground states, including Pennsylvania, Arizona, Wisconsin. And so he's going to need those people to go out and spread the message of why people should vote for Harris-Walz. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Natasha Chen live in Los Angeles for us. We look forward to those remarks. Thank you so much.

Let's bring in CNN's Kristen Holmes, who's following the Trump campaign.

Kristen, of course, Trump now being criticized for remarks that he made on X last night while talking to Elon Musk. Let's actually listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, you, you're the greatest cutter. I mean, I look at what you do. You walk in and you just say, you want to quit?

[15:05:04]

ELON MUSK: Yes. TRUMP: But they go on strike. They - 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, and you are the greatest. You would be very good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Trump, for some time, and his team had been courting union voters, and now there are these comments that kind of put him at odds with a lot of union members. How is the campaign responding?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Okay. So first, let's just talk a little bit of context here, because you have the United Auto Workers. One, they have endorsed Kamala Harris. They had endorsed President Joe Biden. And on top of that, he has - he being Donald Trump - has a pretty toxic relationship with the head of the UAW, Shawn Fain. They have publicly criticized each other over and over again.

I think Trump is pretty fixated on Fain, if you want my opinion on that, because he continues to bring him up on a regular basis. So now you have, following these remarks, UAW filing these federal labor charges against both Trump and Musk, saying that they were threatening workers who threatened to strike by saying they would get fired, which is illegal. It is illegal to threaten anyone who is threatening to strike or to fire anyone who is threatening to strike.

So now you're hearing the Trump campaign hitting back. And they released this statement saying, "This frivolous lawsuit is a shameless political stunt intended to erode President Trump's overwhelming support among American workers." They go on to say, "Democrat special interest bosses may lie and stoke fear to try and stop President Trump from creating the broadest coalition of any candidate in history, but rank-and-file workers and their families know the truth."

Now, the reason why this is interesting is because there is a dynamic between the leaders of these various unions and the rank-and-file members. When Donald Trump goes to Michigan, they don't have an expectation that the leadership of any of these unions are going to show up. However, what you have seen is this chipping away of these rank-and-file members, and even if you talk to some of the leadership at these unions, they will acknowledge that.

So that is where he's really trying to dig in. Obviously, insulting unions and saying things like you should fire people who are threatening to strike. It's not a great tone, but he believes that the messaging is not about unions, it's about the economy and focusing on inflation, essentially targeting rank-and-file voters by saying we are for the working class. Again, Donald Trump doesn't really have the record to back that up in terms of unions and being pro-worker, but that's part of the reason he also brought on JD Vance, who is somebody who they believe speaks to workers and supporting workers.

SANCHEZ: It is notable that Trump was speaking to Elon Musk ...

HOLMES: Right. SANCHEZ: ... who has fought efforts among Tesla workers to unionize.

Kristen Holmes, thanks so much for the reporting. Jessica?

DEAN: Let's turn now to Robby Mook, who was the campaign manager for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign.

Robby, great to have you on. Thanks for making time today.

ROBBY MOOK, FORMER HILLARY CLINTON 2016 CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Thanks.

DEAN: We just heard the reporting about unions in a number of these battleground states. There is a fight for these union workers. We know that the Vice President has been endorsed by several key unions. But do members - I think this is the big question, do all members of those unions follow leadership? And how does the campaign capitalize on those endorsements and make sure rank-and-file follows that lead?

MOOK: Yes. Well, look, some do, some don't. I think that depends on the quality of the leadership, frankly. But Fain is a great example of a precedent who has won tremendous victories for his membership in these labor negotiations and these contracts. So he's not exactly the best person to be going after, particularly in Michigan, where I just think the UAW has a very special presence there, both proportionally in terms of the number of members they have, but also culturally.

And I think it speaks to a weakness that Donald Trump has had since Joe Biden got in this race, which is he really needs to make this a change election where he's going to make the economy better for people. And all he seems to be doing is swirling controversy around himself. The talking points here are actually pretty simple, and he just can't get over himself to get them out.

So I think this is just another poor strategic choice in terms of where to train his fire and what kind of controversy he wants to create on his campaign.

DEAN: And we're looking ahead to the Democratic convention next week. Obviously, you ran Hillary Clinton's campaign in 2016 against Donald Trump. She's going to be speaking at the convention where Democrats are going to formally nominate the second woman in history to the top of the ticket.

From your experience, from your perspective, how does Secretary Clinton's campaign fit into this historic moment that we're going to see?

MOOK: Yes. Well, I think there's a lot she can bring in her speech at the convention. I think first and foremost, you know, she can really be an advocate for the Vice President.

[15:10:03]

She can talk about the historic nature of her candidacy, how historic her win would be in a way that, you know, it's not as easy for the actual candidate himself to talk about. And let's also remember, you know, Hillary, at that time, got the most

popular - got the biggest popular vote that a Democrat had gotten up to that point. So I do think people around the country are interested in what she has to say. And then, you know, she ran against Donald Trump. She was the only woman in history before Harris to run against Donald Trump.

So I think she is uniquely positioned to make a, you know, a pretty sharp critique of the kind of leader he will be. You know, keep in mind, she repeated over and over again in 2016 to listen to Donald Trump, to listen to what he'd say, because he was telling us exactly what kind of a leader he would be. And it turned out he did do the things he would say, the reckless, irresponsible, harmful things that he did to this country, to people in this country. And so I think she can powerfully lay that out again to people.

You know, the mantra of the Harris campaign has been - let's not go back. I think she's a particularly helpful messenger to say, let's not go back.

DEAN: Yes. And I also want to ask you about another shade of 2016. We know the FBI is investigating this hack of the Trump campaign, also warning the Harris campaign about Iranian hackers potentially targeting that campaign in 2016. Russia successfully hacked the personal email of the Clinton campaign chair, John Podesta.

You lived through all of that. You know what that's like. What do you think the lessons are we should take from that instance in 2016, when Russia was trying to meddle? And for today, with whomever these foreign actors might be that most likely are Iran, but we're not sure yet, are trying to do again?

MOOK: Yes. Well - and it wasn't just John Podesta. They were, you know, trying to get into - they were trying to get into dozens of people's accounts that came out later on, including my own. We saw that - you know, I learned that in retrospect. And we also learned in retrospect that China was very active in 2012, trying to break into the Romney and Obama campaign.

So this is clearly a problem. It's a pervasive problem and what we're seeing is it's dictatorships that do this. And what they're trying to do is get us to fight with each other even more to divide our country so that they - these dictatorships can be more competitive against us on the world stage.

So first and foremost, I'd say this is wrong. We need to condemn it when it happens. I condemn it happening to the Trump campaign, to the Harris campaign. I condemn it happening in the past and any campaign out there, let's keep in mind in 2016, you know, this was happening at the congressional level too.

So every campaign needs to act to protect themselves against this happening. And I think this is here to stay. This is just a fact of our politics now. I appreciate that the media this time has been putting this information in its proper context. It sounds like a lot of outlets refused to take the materials and are reporting that this is in fact the foreign government. We're being told by the FBI that's behind this, it's important that the voters have that context.

DEAN: Right. And for voters to remember, you know, check your sources and know where it's all coming from.

Robby Mook, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

MOOK: Thanks.

DEAN: Ahead this hour on CNN NEWS CENTRAL, Moscow orders new evacuations as Ukrainian soldiers move deeper into Russia. Ukraine says it seized as much land in the last week as Russia has all year.

Also, police are investigating a break-in at one of Donald Trump's campaign offices. Everything we know about that as well as the suspected Iranian hack of his campaign.

Plus new evidence suggesting there is water on Mars. Where is it and what could it mean? Those stories and much more coming up on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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[15:18:31]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Anyway, so ...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, what do you have to say about what's happening in Russia and Ukraine? Have you spoken with anyone in the Ukrainian government?

BIDEN: I've spoken with my staff on a regular basis, probably every four or five hours from the last six or eight days, and it's great and a real dilemma for Putin and I - we've been in direct contact - constant contact with the Ukrainians. That's all I'm going to say about it while it's active, okay?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: On the Middle East, do you think you can still get to a ceasefire deal or is that starting to be a distinct - a distant possibility?

BIDEN: It's getting hard. We'll see what Iran does and we'll see what happens if there's any attack. But I'm not giving up.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are those two things tied together?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: That's President Biden just moments ago on the tarmac in New Orleans, talking about Ukrainians getting into Russian territory. In the meantime, President Zelenskyy says in the last 24 hours, Ukrainian forces have seized another 15 square miles of Russian land in the Kursk region. He also says Ukrainian forces now control 74 Russian communities. That brings the total of the week-long surprise incursion to nearly 400 square miles. And to put that into perspective, that's as much ground as Russia has gained in Ukraine over the last year.

Now Russian officials are ordering new evacuations. We know 10s of thousands have already fled as Ukraine forces continue to push forward. CNN Chief International Security Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh is following the latest from London for us.

[15:20:01]

And Nick, all of this, of course, a massive embarrassment for Vladimir Putin.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Look, make no mistake about this. We're a week into something which Ukraine didn't even accept it was doing for 48 hours, hinting at it only in the middle of last week, around about the time, too, in which Vladimir Putin heard from his top brass that they'd essentially halted the advance.

And now today it continues with the number of settlements under their control, leaping from local Russian officials saying 28 yesterday to now Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying 74.

Now, bear in mind, this is a large swathe of - some relatively sparsely populated border area that presumably Russia thought Ukraine would never try and take, yet they seem to have marched in relatively unimpeded. Yes, there's video of Ukrainian soldiers lost in the fighting here and Russians taken prisoner, too. But ultimately, we have 121,000 from yesterday Russians being evacuated.

The numbers are frankly staggering, as is the speed in which Ukraine has moved and the efficiency, too. And there have been a number of videos we've seen that suggest Western-supplied armor has indeed been used as part of this.

Now, I couldn't quite hear everything President Biden was saying, but it was clear he's being kept abreast of the situation, and rightly so. This is an utterly staggering moment in the war.

And, Jessica, we have to try and work out really what is Ukraine's endgame here. They've already achieved probably their first goal, which is to embarrass Moscow, to make it clear that they're potentially good at those slow, grinding fights over one small town in the winter, losing thousands of men over tiny amounts of territory. But when it comes to responding to large, sweeping mobilizations of Ukrainian troops across large areas of undefended territory, they've proven useless.

They've not sent strong enough forces and the ultimate question, I think, about this is, does Ukraine sustain this long enough to force Vladimir Putin to stem the embarrassment by sending his better troops from parts of the front line where they're fighting in occupied Ukraine or is he willing to just allow this remarkable Ukrainian run across farmlands, border areas that he keeps being told is about to be stopped for that to continue for yet more days.

It's a - not a turning point in the war, I would say, but certainly a moment where Ukraine's strength, mobility and Western supplies are now seeing full use. And one that may give Ukraine a upper hand if indeed we end up seeing something approaching talks in the months ahead.

Bizarrely, during this Ukrainian lightning dash across Russian territory, both sides keep referring to peace talks, distant as they seem now. But I think that's what's potentially in the distance here - maybe guiding Ukraine's moves, along with the possibility that they're just very eager to get some positive military headlines after a bad year of losing ground.

DEAN: Yes, as you note, a key moment that certainly could have implications on the future.

All right, Nick Paton Walsh, thank you so much for that reporting. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Let's get some analysis now on this Ukrainian offensive. With us, retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton.

Colonel Leighton, always great to have you on.

First, explain where this is in Russia. Put it on the map for us.

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Absolutely, Boris. Well, one of the key things here, in fact, let's go to the big map first just to give everybody a bit of an idea. This area right here is what we're talking about. This is where the Ukrainians have made their big incursion, and when you go up here, this is a detailed look at this same area. The town of Sudzha is the first area that the Ukrainians captured, and they're moving basically in this general direction toward things like the capital of the Kursk Oblast, toward this region right here, as well as a nuclear power plant, which just happens to be right there as well.

So the Ukrainians could potentially go in that direction if they wanted to extend themselves and if they have the capability to do that.

SANCHEZ: Is the nuclear power plant the target? Why exactly are they headed in this direction?

LEIGHTON: So we don't know if the nuclear power plant is really the target, but there's several other things that are going on here. First of all, this is the Kursk nuclear power plant. It's right up here where the symbol is. And then we have this pipeline.

This pipeline is the gas pipeline, about 50 percent of Russia's gas exports go through this pipeline to Europe, specifically to countries like Hungary and Slovakia. And that's why that is one of the reasons that the Ukrainians have captured things like this gas meter plant right here. This is actually part of the pipeline. This is what it looked like back in July of '22. This is what it looks like now.

Clearly, we have a bit of damage associated with this, and that is perhaps one of the targets. They can cut off supplies. If they cut this off right here, right now Ukraine gets money from this gas pipeline, but they could also tell the Russians, okay, enough is enough, and we can cut this.

SANCHEZ: And, Colonel, if we could go back to the broader map, I am curious about what this means for the war altogether, because as Nick Paton Walsh noted, over the last year, at best you could say it's been a stalemate. Russia has made some gains.

[15:25:00]

So what does this mean for Ukraine going into Russian territory?

LEIGHTON: So this is really big because nobody has invaded Russian space, Russian territory since the Second World War. So the Ukrainians have done something that really nobody has done, even though this is a very small area right here, only about 2,000 square kilometers, a little less than 400 square miles, it is still a significant thing.

Now, you mentioned the rest of the war.

So let's focus on the Donbas region, because the Donbas region - remember the town of Bakhmut, which was fought over for a really long time, and all the towns that you see listed right here. But one of the problems that the Ukrainians have is basically this line of defense right here is the one that the Russians are contesting right now. And they are advancing along this area, incrementally, but they are advancing. And these advances really mean that there's a lot of pressure on the Ukrainians. If the Russians move forward, they would take all of the Donbas region, which is one of Vladimir Putin's goals.

SANCHEZ: And for the Ukrainians, in terms of their goals for this incursion into Russia, could this be seen as a bargaining chip moving into potential peace talks?

LEIGHTON: That's the one thing that Putin got right, potentially, because when you talk about some of the things that have happened here in this particular area, you see that the Russians really control all of these areas right here. All of this is about 18 percent of Ukraine's territory, internationally recognized territory. The Ukrainians obviously want to get most of this back, if not all of it. And if they get this back, then they will have achieved their major goals. But of course, they would have to do a lot more than just invade this little part of this particular territory of Russia.

SANCHEZ: Sure. Those are probably their long-term goals. But also, what does it mean for the psychology of Russians to have Vladimir Putin embarrassed this way, to have Ukrainian troops on his land, on his territory?

LEIGHTON: Yes, that means a lot, because it's coupled - even though the Russians are advancing a little bit incrementally in this particular area, we have to keep in mind that the Ukrainians have been pretty effective. They sunk this submarine while it was being repaired. They also have taken out the S-400 systems in several locations.

This is a major surface-to-air missile system, in other words, an air defense system that the Russians have that's very effective. But when you take it out, that gives the opportunity for F-16s to go flying, uncontested - potentially uncontested airspace or at least less contested airspace. And for all of these areas right here, this would be a major goal for Ukraine.

And of course, to capture this area right here, those would be the kinds of things that they would absolutely love to have. And if they can get that far, or at least part of this, then they will have the capability to at least sit down at the table with the Russians, whether or not they go that way and whether or not they're effective enough to do this, or whether or not they're going to be stopped, of course, are other questions.

SANCHEZ: Colonel Cedric Leighton, appreciate the insight. Thanks so much for being with us.

LEIGHTON: You bet, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Of course.

Still to come, President Biden is in New Orleans today announcing a critical plan to fight cancer, a key part of what he wants to be his legacy. We'll take you there live.

Plus, we now know who hackers targeted as part of their plot to access Donald Trump's campaign. A live report in just moments.

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