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Trump Fuels Speculation He May Skip Debate, If There is One; Special Counsel Fights to Revive Classified Documents Case Against Trump; Zelenskyy Says, Ukraine Will Respond After Deadly Russian Strikes. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired August 27, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

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[07:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Will a debate about the debate be the only debate Americans see between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris? The answer this morning, maybe.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: The major new appeal to get Trump back in court ASAP. Special Counsel Jack Smith makes a move to try and revive Donald Trump's classified documents charges.

And vacation tragedy in Iceland, new details in the deadly ice cave collapse that killed an American tourist.

I'm Sara Sidner with John Berman. Kate Bolduan is out today. CNN News Central starts right now.

BERMAN: All right, breaking overnight, the if heard round the world. The scheduled debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris is supposed to be exactly two weeks from today. We say, supposed to, because Trump seems to be injecting new doubt into whether it will happen at all. Listen to the if, not when.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I shouldn't say this, because if there's a debate, it would be nice to surprise you with that one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: If, he said. So, this is how the Harris campaign is responding to the doubt this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why not debate her?

TRUMP: We'll wait, but because they already know everything. They'll say, oh Trump's, you know, not doing the debate. It's the same thing they say now. I mean, right now I say, why should I do a debate? I'm leading in the polls.

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: There's not much left.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The sound effects added by the Harris team.

CNN's Alayna Treene is here with the latest. Alayna, so what is the Trump campaign saying about all this morning? Well, look, it's obviously right now this whole question of will they or won't they debate? I will say from my conversations with Donald Trump's team, they recognize that they need to have a debate before the election. The question is really about the rules.

And I know this is such a processy question and that, you know, it sounds like we're getting in the weeds a bit, which we are. It's the question of whether or not microphones will be on for the entire length of the debate or shut off for one of certain -- when a candidate is finished speaking.

But I think the key thing to take away from this discussion in this debate over the debate, John, is that it shows how important both campaigns view this debate. They recognize it could be a defining moment ahead of the election, just like it was in June for President Joe Biden. And so they want to do whatever they can to have their candidate get an edge.

And right now we are seeing this jockeying over the rules, trying to see which side can get, you know, maybe a better advantage or can get an edge in that September 10th debate. That is what this is all about. And it really does come down to that they recognize that this is going to be a big moment at one for Harris to really try and define herself on a grander stage than we've seen apart from last week at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. This is a moment where she can go head to head with Donald Trump on the debate stage. And so they recognize the stakes of this. And I know from my conversations with Trump's senior advisors as well, that they also recognize how important of a moment this is for Donald Trump.

And, remember, we talked about this in the lead up to the CNN debate in June, but they also recognize that Donald Trump's demeanor, his rhetoric, his tone whether or not he is being very aggressive toward Harris, that could potentially be even more important for the debate and for some of the prep that they are doing than actually some of the substance. They recognize that he needs to look presidential. He cannot come off looking like a bully.

And so that's where a lot of this is coming down to. And I know, despite all of this talk behind the scenes that both sides are prepping. Donald Trump is doing more informal policy sessions, but he is preparing for this because they recognize how important a debate is for these -- both of these campaigns.

BERMAN: So, Robert Kennedy, obviously days ago, endorsed Donald Trump, but the K-File, a friend, Andrew Kaczynski and his team has dug up a whole bunch of pretty unflattering stuff that Kennedy has said about Trump in the past.

[07:05:03]

TREENE: That's right. Despite all of the praise we heard RFK Junior heap on Donald Trump on Friday, I'll note Donald Trump also put his own praise on RFK Jr. as well last week. That is not really the history that we've seen between these two men.

RFK Jr., and this was great reporting from our K-File team, had really criticized Donald Trump very heavily. He had a history of calling him a bully, someone who appealed to bigotry and hatred, even tried to argue that Donald Trump was corrupt. And some of these attacks we heard as recently as early July.

Take a listen to one of these interviews that RFK Jr. did on July 2nd.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT F. KENNEDY (I), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Oh, you know, I think Donald Trump was a terrible president. He wasn't training this one. He was a terrible president. He was turning the government over to corporate pirates.

I think the problem is, number one, he's a bully. And, you know, I don't like bullies, and I don't think America M.O. (ph). That's part of America's tradition.

The easiest thing for a political leader to do is to appeal to our bigotry and our hatred and xenophobia and prejudice and point to people who are unlike us and say they're the ones who are damaging our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: So John, there's a lot there, as you can see. But, look, I mean, not only now is RFK Jr. having had endorsed Donald Trump, he's going to be campaigning for him. And as late as yesterday, he was actually on with Tucker Carlson in an interview saying that Donald Trump had asked him to be a part of his transition team and that they're having discussions about what role he could have in a future Trump administration, so a complete 180, really.

And for Donald Trump's part. And I think that's a really important part. He also criticized RFK Jr. very heavily, but when it comes down to it, I think. When I talked to the Trump campaign, they say we want to have any edge weekend and this election and bringing him onto our side could potentially help them on the margins and some of those really important battleground states. John?

BERMAN: Alayna Treene, thanks so much. I appreciate it. Sara?

SIDNER: Politics is fickle friend, isn't it?

BERMAN: Fickle indeed.

SIDNER: All right, Vice President Kamala Harris has promised she will do an interview this month, there's just a few days left. But in the meantime, her campaign just dropped a new ad on the economy pitching her plan to voters.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez joining us now. Priscilla, how is she laying out her economic agenda?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Sara, of course, the economy is a key issue for voters heading into November and the campaign is fine-tuning its message on this issue, an issue that up until this point had been talked about in quite vague terms and the administration sort of saying that it was headed in the right direction. But something that the campaign and that allies of the vice president tell me is that she wants to talk more to the individual experience, recognizing what people are facing.

And so there is this new wave of ads that the campaign is releasing. They released one last Friday on economic opportunity, one yesterday on lowering prices and acknowledging that prices are too high. And I'll tell you that over just the last seven minutes, I got another release from the campaign about yet another economic ad that talks about her growing up in the middle class. So, clearly taken together, they are trying to do a couple things here and talking about the issues that affect people while also her talking about her background and why she is a candidate that understands it best.

But take a listen to a clip from an ad released just yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRIS: When I am elected president, I will make it a top priority to bring down costs. We should be doing everything we can to make it more affordable to buy a home.

Under my plan, more than 100 million Americans will get a tax cut.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: Now, all of this is part of a $150 million August paid media buy. That's going to run on T.V. and battleground states, one of which the vice president will be visiting tomorrow with her vice presidential nominee. But, again, I think what we can expect here from her campaign is that she's going to be trying to speak to the individual experiences of how people are feeling with this economy.

SIDNER: We're looking at the Harris-Walz bus tour, but there is a question about when this interview is supposed to happen. What are you hearing about that?

ALVAREZ: Well, we have a little more clarity on that from a campaign official who was on CNN yesterday evening saying that they still intend to schedule a sit down interview by the end of the month. Take a listen

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

IAN SAMS, SPOKESMAN, HARRIS CAMPAIGN: As the vice president said, and I think you all know, she said that she's going to schedule an interview by the end of the month. I think everybody can look at a calendar. But I think it's also important, I know it's lost sometimes in the discussion about an interview. The vice president's been taking questions from reporters who are covering her on the campaign trail.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: Now, the key there, of course, is schedule an interview. It does not mean that it has to happen by the end of the month, but certainly a lot of observers are wanting to see her in an unscripted moment in an interview. And so that is what many are waiting to get more clarity on.

SIDNER: All right. Priscilla Alvarez there for us from Washington, I appreciate it.

Special Counsel Jack Smith is making an aggressive attempt to bring back the classified documents case that was thrown out against Donald Trump. Will it work?

And a Latina voting rights group is calling for a federal investigation after they say the Texas attorney general launched raids targeting their homes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They came in and two of them went into my bedroom and started searching everything. They searched all my house, my storeroom, my refrigerator, my kitchen cabinets, everything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: And there's more. It's Trump versus the Foo Fighters. How his use of their song could give cash to the Kamala Harris campaign. That's ahead.

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[07:15:00]

BERMAN: This morning, Special Counsel Jack Smith is fighting to revive the classified documents case against Donald Trump. He is arguing Judge Aileen Cannon's decision to dismiss the case, because she said the prosecutor's office lacked constitutional authority was, quote, novel and lacked merit.

CNN Senior Justice Correspondent Evan Perez is with us now. How will this work, Evan?

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, right now, the Justice Department is asking for the 11th Circuit to reinstitute this case, restart it, essentially, and send it back to Judge Aileen Cannon. And what they're pointing is to the fact that, over the course of decades, more than a hundred years, the Justice Department attorney general has had the power to provide these powers to an outside prosecutor to do cases and limit whatever jurisdiction they have. And until now, every other court has found that this is completely legal until they ran into Judge Aileen Cannon.

And I'll read you just a part of what the filing says before the 11th Circuit. It says, if the attorney general lacks the power to appoint inferior officers, that conclusion would invalidate the appointment of every member of the department who exercises significant authority and occupies a continuing office. And then it says, you know, other than, you know, some of the offices that are specifically mentioned in statute or the constitution, the Defense Department, State Department, Treasury and Labor Department. And so that's what they're fighting for.

Look, we were looking, John, this summer, we thought for sure, that this was going to be a summer where Donald Trump was going to be defending himself, instead, because they ran into Judge Cannon down in Fort Pierce, Florida, the department is now fighting essentially for its very basic power to do these types of prosecutions with a special counsel.

I should note that Hunter Biden has appealed, has tried to use this very reasoning to try to get his case dismissed. He has failed. A number of other people have failed. And so now we expect the 11th Circuit to take this up. No chance, it seems, for this to be resolved before the November election. John?

BERMAN: All right. Evan Perez in Washington, great to see you. Thank you very much.

So, breaking overnight, several people are dead after Russia launches new missile strikes in Ukraine, this time hitting a hotel.

And then a popular tourist attraction, an ice cave, collapses, killing one American. We have new information this morning.

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[07:20:00]

SIDNER: This morning, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy vowed his country will retaliate after the latest barrage of Russian strikes killed at least five people in Ukraine overnight. This follows the major missile and drone strike Monday described as one of the largest It's the first time in the history of Ukraine that we have seen such a large number of blackouts, and it's the first to date that targeted power facilities in cities across Ukraine. Rolling blackouts are now in effect for many areas in the country.

CNN's Salma Abdelaziz is joining me now with more on what is happening there. What else are you learning about this latest attack and the retaliation that Volodymyr Zelenskyy has promised?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara. So, Ukraine is now for a second day waking up to yet another air assault from Russia. We do have images to show you of these rescue workers just in the middle of the night, trying to help people trying to dig under the rubble in Kryvyi Rih, where a hotel was struck and several people were killed. We understand that parts of the country are experiencing rolling blackouts, families yet again are being sent into bomb shelters. And President Zelenskyy has vowed a revenge, a retaliation of some form for these Russian attacks.

But he's absolutely in a tight place, Sara, because this is part of Russia's strategy, has been so since the beginning of the war, to attack civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, making it difficult to just get water or turn the light on or exist and leave in Ukraine. That's why President Zelenskyy is pleading with western allies, is pleading with the United States to lift restrictions on the use of weapons.

He asked for two things specifically. He wants to be able to use his long range missiles inside Russian territory to target that war machine at its heart. And he also wants to be able to activate air defense systems near or up to air space that is Russian. Now, both of those things, of course, to western officials, to officials in D.C., will concern them. It will worry them about a potential escalation with President Putin. But President Zelenskyy says without this help, without lifting these restrictions, his people will continue to be vulnerable to these types of Russian attacks.

SIDNER: Yes, it's really awful looking at these pictures because there are hotels, there are schools there are hospitals. Russia does not care what infrastructure it hits, only that it is extremely damaging to the population there, not just the military.

Salma Abdelaziz, thank you so much for your reporting for us from London there.

[07:25:01]

All right, outraged Democrats in Texas are demanding a federal investigation now after the state's Republican A.G. ordered raids that they say targeted their homes.

And researchers from a new study say, quote, our brains today are 99.5 percent brain and the rest is plastic, the shocking number of tiny shards of plastic that are now inside our heads.

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[07:30:00]

BERMAN: New this morning, a Latino civil rights group is calling on the Justice Department to open an investigation into.