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Trump Struggles To Articulate Child Care Plan; Georgia Pastor Honors Teacher Killed At Apalachee High School; Sources: Feds Seize Phones At Homes Of Top Aides To New York City Mayor Adams. Aired 7:30- 8a ET

Aired September 06, 2024 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So this morning, is it a false promise? Despite the U.S. pumping more oil than any country ever, former President Donald Trump is attacking Vice President Kamala Harris on energy policy, and he is vowing to make gas cheaper.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will end Kamala Harris' anti-energy crusade and implement a policy of energy abundance, energy independence, and even energy dominance. My plan will cut energy prices in half or more than that within 12 months of taking office. It will be an economic revival of our country like no one has ever seen before.

Energy was what caused our problem initially. Energy is going to bring us back. That means we're going down and getting gasoline below $2.00 a gallon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, below $2.00 a gallon.

CNN's Matt Egan is with us now. What would it actually take to get gas below $2.00 a gallon?

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, John, this may be one promise that former President Trump hopes he doesn't keep because I know dirt-cheap gas sounds great but to get there you would need demand to crash likely in a global recession.

Veteran analyst Tom Kloza -- he told me that chances are if we see sub $2.00 gasoline it will be because of some awful things taking place in the economy. So, yeah, gas could be cheap, but you might be out of work.

And Trump also bragged about how gas prices were below $1.90 a gallon when he was president, and I went back and looked. He is right. They actually got to as low as $1.77 four-plus years ago. But here's the thing -- no one could take advantage of it because it was during the worst health crisis in a century. I remember driving on the New Jersey Turnpike with my family and there

was no one on the road. It was a weekday during rush hour. So if you've ever driven in New Jersey you know that is not normal.

Another thing that might sound good but in reality it's kind of scary.

One other point here. Trump was talking about regulations here. He falsely claimed that Vice President Harris wants to ban fracking. She has said that she no longer wants to do that.

He also said he's going to end her "anti-energy crusade." That's another claim that just doesn't live up to reality when you look at the numbers because the U.S. is producing more oil right now under Biden-Harris than it ever did under Trump. In fact, more oil than ever before in the history of the country. So that just doesn't live up to his rhetoric.

BERMAN: So more oil than at any point --

EGAN: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- in U.S. -- I think actually in any country in world history.

EGAN: Ever, in world history.

BERMAN: In world history right now.

EGAN: Yeah.

BERMAN: So what does that portend for gas prices going forward?

EGAN: Yeah. Well, that is one reason why we are seeing gas prices fall rapidly. The national average is down to $3.30 a gallon today, down 16 cents in a month. This is a new six-month low and 50 cents cheaper than a year ago.

So we're talking about -- he was talking about $2.00 gas. Well, you know what? Three-dollar gas -- that is actually becoming a reality more and more. Forty-one thousand gas stations across the country right now have below $3.00 gas. That's compared to about 100 a year ago.

BERMAN: Oh, wow.

EGAN: And if you look at the map of the United States, we actually see 10 states right now below $3.00 a gallon, including Texas, Oklahoma, South Carolina.

And GasBuddy's Patrick De Haan -- he told me that by Thanksgiving we could see 35 to 40 states across the country below $3.00 a gallon, including some battleground states like Nevada and Arizona where gas prices are going down very quickly.

Why is this happening? Well, part of it is that supply, but it's also demand -- weak demand in China. The oil market is so weak that OPEC was forced to redo its plans.

BERMAN: Right.

EGAN: The planned to add supply. They've canceled those plans. We have oil prices below $70.00 a barrel for the first time all year.

So you put all this together and it does suggest, John, that we could see gas prices continue to fall.

BERMAN: Also, a light hurricane season. That helps as well.

EGAN: It does.

BERMAN: Matt Egan, we'll let you get back to New Jersey's Turnpike. Get back to the Turnpike fast. Appreciate it -- Sara.

EGAN: Thanks, John.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Ah, cheap gas. Let's go on a trip, guys. What do you think.

BERMAN: Road trip.

SIDNER: Road trip -- ready.

All right. New this morning, Donald Trump and his advisers had envisioned an ambitious electoral map with plans to court what they call blue-tinted states.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We have rallies. What I've done for your upcountry with the iron ore. And those people, they loved us. And then these guys came back and they changed everything, and it's just disgraceful what they did. But I think -- I'm telling you, if we have an honest election we're going to blow it out in Minnesota. We'll blow it out.

We really want to win New Hampshire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: All right. But as the race towards the election tightens -- we're now 60 days away -- the Trump campaign is shifting their strategy and spending time and money on familiar and key battleground states.

CNN's Steve Contorno is in Charlotte, North Carolina where Donald Trump is expected to speak to the Fraternal Order of Police a bit later today.

So we've heard what Trump is saying but what are you learning about this electoral map and where this strategy has changed?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Sara, in the spring and the summer, Donald Trump's campaign had made inroads and laid the groundwork for them to fight for Minnesota, New Hampshire, and Virginia. These are states that in recent elections have voted Democratic in presidential races.

However, they believe that they had a real chance of adding those states to their path to the White House. Well, that has certainly shifted in recent weeks if you take a look at their spending and how they have scheduled Donald Trump's time.

[07:35:05]

Since that rally in St. Cloud, Minnesota in July, Trump hasn't returned to the state nor has J.D. Vance, his running mate. Vance, instead, has been mostly appearing in those key seven battlegrounds. And when you look at where they have reserved airtime for the fall it's almost entirely in those seven states in the Sun Belt and across the Midwest.

Even within those seven states it is clear that they are prioritizing some states more than others. If you take a look at how they are spending in Pennsylvania, they've almost matched the Democrats there dollar for dollar. Same thing with Georgia. But as you get down to Michigan it's a little bit of a discrepancy there. And then you get all the way down to Nevada -- Democrats have spent $24 million to try to win that state and Republicans have spent about $1 million on the presidential race there.

Now, I talked to the Trump campaign and they said, "We are still maintaining an offensive posture in these non-traditional battleground states. Nothing has changed as far as how we view the map."

But when you talked to Republicans in Minnesota, in New Hampshire, in Virginia, they say look, we agree that the Trump campaign had really had a real shot at winning these states back in the summer. But the race has shifted and if the election were held today, Trump would lose all three of those states, Sara.

SIDNER: All right, Steve Contorno. Thank you so much. That differential in Nevada was huge, John.

BERMAN: All right. A lot of talk this morning, Sara, about Donald Trump's answer when he was asked about his plans for making child care more affordable during an economic speech -- listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you commit to prioritizing legislation to make child care affordable? And if so, what specific piece of legislation will you advance?

TRUMP: Well, I would do that. And we're sitting down -- you know, I was somebody -- we had Sen. Marco Rubio, and my daughter Ivanka was so impactful on that issue. It's a very important issue.

But I think when you talk about the kind of numbers that I'm talking about that -- because look, child care is child care. It couldn't -- you know, it's something -- you have to have it. In this country you have to have it. But when you talk about those numbers compared to the kind of numbers

that I'm talking about by taxing foreign nations at levels that they're not used to, but they'll get used to it very quickly. And it's not going to stop them from doing business with us but they'll have a very substantial tax when they send products into our country. Those numbers are so much bigger than any numbers that we're talking about, including child care. It's going to take care -- we're going to have -- I look forward to having no deficits within a fairly short period of time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: We wanted to play the whole thing for you so you could see it in its totality. And remember, the question was your specific plans on child care.

With us now, Republican strategist and former senior presidential campaign adviser Rina Shah. And former White House spokesman for George W. Bush, Pete Seat.

Rina, I want to start with you. Let's -- you know, school is in session here. Give that a grade. Give that answer a grade from A to F.

RINA SHAH, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST, FORMER SENIOR PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN ADVISER (via Webex by Cisco): Oh, John, that was a D-. There was nothing there -- nothing to grip onto to say that he showed any kind of grasp of the issue.

You know, the funny thing is the right and Trump -- they love to talk about how Kamala Harris speaks in word salad. Well, that was the mother of all word salad.

He kept talking about the number. What number did he give us? There was no number. This was a missed opportunity of epic proportions and he's fumbling the ball. That's the candidate who he is nowadays.

And yesterday, as a grandfather, he could have met the moment and talked about this issue. And from a place of strengthening the American family, which is what the Republicans of yesteryear -- people like McCain and Romney and Bush. We always originated with that at the core -- the messaging piece we did, whether it was from Capitol Hill or from a presidential campaign. I'm talking, we Republicans because the American family was central to everything we did.

Nowadays, we have a divorce rate in this country of 42 percent. And single mothers overall earn 56 cents to a dollar that dads make.

He missed that opportunity to speak about the problem and how he would fix it by delivering that word salad.

BERMAN: Pete Seat -- Professor Seat, I should say, in this case -- what grade would you give that? And we're sensitive to the fact that in just a few days he's going to be on a stage being asked questions in a debate.

PETE SEAT, VICE PRESIDENT, BOSE PUBLIC AFFAIRS GROUP, FORMER WHITE HOUSE SPOKESMAN FOR PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH (via Webex by Cisco): Well, I am a professor at the University of Arizona, so thank you for acknowledging that, John. And we don't give Fs. We have Es as the lowest grade. So I would give that an E and also an F for pass-fail because it was a failure of an answer.

Whenever I've advised candidates for governor or U.S. Senate or lower offices, I always tell them if you don't know the answer to the question the smartest thing you can do is say that you don't know and you need to look into it.

[07:40:07]

Donald Trump is incapable of doing that. He does not want to admit that he has no understanding of a particular issue.

And what's most challenging on this one, John, is child care, as was mentioned, is an issue that is being faced by families all across this country. Friends of mine who have children are facing huge bills. They're getting on the list -- the waiting list for months and months -- sometimes before they even know that they have a child on the way.

So it's a problem for Donald Trump that he can't answer this. And he tried to pivot to something that was safe ground, and it just made it even more confusing.

BERMAN: I have to say, if I got an E on a report card I'd tried to convince my parents it meant excellent, but be that as it may.

Professor Seat, we do have this debate coming up in a few days. And The New York Times -- my producer just gave me an article -- lays out this case that this debate is really about Vice President Harris. The people made their minds up about Donald Trump, the article argues. Shane Goldmacher, I think, wrote it. He says they made up their minds about Trump in 2016. Harris -- the jury is still out to some extent.

So, Pete, how does that frame this debate?

SEAT: I think that's absolutely right. The American people are still being introduced to Kamala Harris, which I'm sure some folks watching this are like introduced? She's been vice president. Yes, but she has been behind the scenes. She hasn't been in the spotlight as vice president.

In some ways, that has benefited her in this campaign that she's somewhat of a blank slate, and especially when it comes to the fact that she is trying to run on character. And you look at those character attributes in polls and she outperforms Donald Trump. But (audio gap) she's trying to remain vague. Donald Trump is winning on the policies that are most important to the American people.

So I do think a lot of folks are going to be tuning in. They're going to want to see if Kamala Harris is ready for prime time and if she can stand up to an aggressive man, much like the aggressive men that are leading some of our adversarial nations across this world.

BERMAN: So if you accept the premise that this debate is about how Vice President Harris frames herself, how do you think she approach it, Rina?

SHAH: Well, I think she ought to come out there worrying only about how the public perceives her; not about who she is appearing as in contrast to Donald Trump. Because we've seen people try that before, right?

And Trump wins out when he sees an opening for a weakness. And a weakness is when an opponent responds to him. Because there's no responding to him. You go down this rabbit hole and you dig yourself a hole that you just can't come out of.

And so at the end of the day what she wants to do is essentially reintroduce herself to the public. But what she has to do is drill deeper. She has got to be more detailed in telling how she would be different than Biden. And she's got to do it almost breathlessly because Trump's got nothing else.

We just talked about child care and strengthening the American family -- pro-parent centric policies of which both campaigns frankly haven't done the greatest job of differentiating themselves from one another.

Trump said I did this $6,000 tax credit. Kamala Harris is, like, I want to do that. I'm going to do that. Well, tell me more.

And so this is a 'tell me more' moment in which she can't worry about him. She can't worry about attacking him. She's got to just be about herself in the most substantive way possible because in such a historic moment where she's got such limited time to run in, that's the only thing that can work against a dictator wannabe, which is Donald J. Trump.

BERMAN: Rina Shah, Pete Seat, I give you both an A for this appearance. Thank you so much, both, for being here. I do appreciate it.

SHAH: Hey!

BERMAN: All right.

And this debate comes on Tuesday. Follow CNN for complete coverage and exclusive analysis before and after the "ABC NEWS PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE" simulcast. It begins Tuesday, 9:00 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

SIDNER: All right. This morning we are learning more about the victims of the mass school shooting in Georgia.

Math teacher Cristina Irimie was gunned down in front of her students as they were celebrating with her. The day she was killed was her birthday. Irimie and her husband never had children of their own, so she was known for treating her students as her own.

Joining us now is Father Nicolae Clempus. He is a friend of Cristina Irimie and the pastor at the St. Mary Romanian Orthodox Church. Thank you so much for coming in in your time of grief and as the community grieves all four of those who were gunned down. What should we know about Ms. Irimie?

NICOLAE CLEMPUS, FRIEND OF CRISTINA IRIMIE, PASTOR ST. MARY ROMANIAN ORTHODOX CHURCH (via Webex by Cisco): Hi, good morning, and thank you for having me.

[07:45:00]

Well, Cristina was a dedicated teacher -- a complete whole educator that took the children the way they are and tried to reach them on different levels, not only to the subjects she was teaching.

And I think that's what we should remember her to be -- very dedicated to the children and having all these children around her and trying to help them and take them her own. That's why she actually celebrated her birthday with the whole class, bringing treats and having them as a family around her. And that's something that tells a lot about her and her character.

And she wanted to become a teacher -- very, very hard work, taking her degree to become a teacher and do the -- be around surrounded by the children and students.

SIDNER: It is one of the hardest jobs on the planet, and she was a math teacher. So we know that those teachers work really, really, really hard.

How did you find out about what happened at the school, and eventually what happened to her?

CLEMPUS: Well, I started to receive calls from our people. Our church is very close to the high school. People were concerned. They were watching the news and they would start calling me and asking if we have any victims or anybody that is -- you know, somehow in this -- in this threat.

And later on we started to find out that Cristina was actually one of the teachers that in her classroom something happened. The information was very fluid. We didn't know exactly. So eventually starting in becoming the evening we saw the official release of her picture and her name, and that's when everything started -- devastated. The community and the calls started in and we just -- you know, we were taken by surprise.

It was a normal day at the beginning of the school year. Everybody was planning and this came over our community very sudden and very tragic. And we are still actually recovering from that. And even though this is -- you know, today is a new day and new hopes, but still the tragedy is still with us and we are talking with and trying to go to it.

SIDNER: Yeah, it's so very fresh on the minds of everyone in that community and in the entire country, honestly. These tragedies keep happening again and again at schools.

As person of great faith what advice do you have for all of us as we deal with something like this, especially when dealing with young people where you have a 14-year-old accused in this shooting and then you have two students -- two students who were 14 and two teachers who were greatly loved by this community?

CLEMPUS: Yeah, it's a very difficult situation and it's not the only one that happened this year. We have many, many shootings that actually involve children.

And I wish I had a single advice, but I think it's a -- it's a multiple problem and we should have multiple approaches to it. But definitely we should be more careful how children have access to guns and how easy it is for a child that goes through a difficult (INAUDIBLE). Teenager, like, or adolescents basically to have access to a gun and then create so much pain and the life of so many people that are important to the community and in our educational process.

So my advice is to let children to be children and have them enjoy their young lives, but don't expose them to the dangers that we have today in our society.

SIDNER: Father Clempus, thank you so much for joining us. And I am so sorry for your loss there and for the loss of that entire community. I appreciate you -- John.

BERMAN: All right. Federal agents have raided the homes of several top New York City officials, including top aides to Mayor Eric Adams. We've got new reporting on what they are looking for.

And then football -- it is a game of inches. The first game of the season was decided by even less. Also, Taylor Swift was there.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:53:40]

BERMAN: All right. Overnight, an argument to clip our toenails regularly because that could be all the difference in a football game -- not here -- not seen there but in the last play of the game last night where Kansas City -- the Kansas City Chiefs looking to three- peat.

CNN's Coy Wire with us now. This -- these games can't finish so late for those of us in morning television, first of all.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yeah. I went to bed at 12:00 and, yeah, was up just a few hours later.

The season, though, is back. All is right in the world for NFL fans, John. All sunshine and rainbows, except for Ravens fans because of one big toe.

Baltimore scored first but the Chiefs jabbed right back showing off their new human rocket ship, the fastest man in NFL history. Rookie Xavier Worthy running for a touchdown on their first drive, then catching one. He touched the ball three times, John, and scored twice. Mahomes went 20 for 28, a touchdown and an interception. As for reigning MVP Lamar Jackson, electric. A game-high 122 yards rushing, a passing touchdown, and on the final play setting up the game-tying score. Official says touchdown. Isaiah Likely celebrating.

Coach Harbaugh was going to go for two and the win but look at this -- the Ravens losing the season opener by a long toenail. That black cleat on the white line.

The Chiefs win 27-20. Mahomes now 5-1 against Jackson's Ravens.

[07:55:00]

And the NFL season starts with drama.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAMAR JACKSON, QUARTERBACK, BALTIMORE RAVENS: I thought it was a touchdown. I thought it was a touchdown and I still think it was a touchdown.

ISAIAH LIKELY, TIGHT END, BALTIMORE RAVENS: I'd say this is probably the worst game we're going to play all year. So if this is the best that they got -- I mean, good luck.

PATRICK MAHOMES, QUARTERBACK, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS: That's a great football team and I'm sure we'll see them again at some point in the playoffs. So now we -- we're happy with the win now. And he's got to wear white cleats next time. That's what I -- that's my -- that's my advice for him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Now tonight, NFL melodrama titled "Love Hurts." Jordan Love's Packers and Jalen Hurts Eagles in Sao Paulo -- the NFL's first-ever game in South American on the home field of the soccer club Corinthians. The Eagles are technically the home team nearly 5,000 miles from Philly.

But Packers' quarterback Jordan Love says the players have been feeling nothing but love -- listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JORDAN LOVE, QUARTERBACK, GREEN BAY PACKERS: I know it's going to be rocking, so I'm very excited. I'm glad to hear that the Brazilians are all ready to be Packer fans now, so we're converting everybody. But I'm excited. It's nothing but love since we've been here.

NICK SIRIANNI, HEAD COACH, PHILADELPHIA EAGLES: We came here to do a job, right? And so our job is not to come and sightsee or anything like that. Our job is to come here and to play a football game against a very good opponent in the -- in the Green Bay Packers.

(END VIDEO CLIP) WIRE: Now, coaches Eagles, John -- check this video out. They posted it saying the five (INAUDIBLE) is immaculate, looking like the new central crew on a Friday letting loose and having some fun. So yeah, NFL fans getting ready to kick up their feet and crack open a cold -- and maybe even caipirinha for this first-ever game in South America.

BERMAN: The key to what they're doing is loose hips. You have to -- you have to stretch --

SIDNER: Oh, oh.

BERMAN: -- the hips before trying anything like that. That's the one thing I've learned in all of these years of broadcasting.

SIDNER: Are you --

BERMAN: Coy Wire, thank you very much for that.

SIDNER: Are you going to give us an example?

BERMAN: I haven't stretched. I haven't -- sadly, I haven't stretched. That could send me, like, on the disabled list immediately.

SIDNER: A little samba. I can't do it.

BERMAN: That's what I said.

SIDNER: I can't do it.

BERMAN: This is why -- this is why she's so good.

SIDNER: I stretched.

BERMAN: Yeah.

SIDNER: OK. Thank you, John.

New this morning, there is some devastating news for hopeful families waiting on adoption. China now ending foreign adoptions of its children as the country suffers a sharply declining birth rate there. The only exception will be people adopting or stepchildren of blood relatives who are in China.

The U.S. Embassy in Beijing is seeking clarification on what this means for families currently in the actual adoption process.

All right, tragedy in Kenya. Police say 17 elementary school students have died after fire broke out in a boy's dormitory. Authorities say some of those students were burned beyond recognition. Fourteen others have been injured. Kenya's President William Ruto offering his condolences to the families after hearing the devastating news. The cause of that fire still under investigation.

And Pope Francis is in Papau New Guinea right now for the second leg of his marathon tour of Southeast Asia. While he's there he'll be the first Pope to visit Vanimo located in the northwestern tip of the country -- extremely remote area. He'll meet with Catholic missionaries and charities that help homeless children and people with disabilities. The Pope is also expected to once again urge stronger action to protect the environment, John.

BERMAN: All right, we have new details this morning after federal investigators raided the homes of several top New York City officials seizing cell phones and other electronic devices from the New York police commissioner to deputy mayors, and several top aides to Mayor Eric Adams.

CNN's Brynn Gingras joins us now. Kind of a wow here, Brynn. What do we know about what's going on?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, it's definitely a wow, John. It's significant because this is the first time that we have seen federal investigators really go after Eric Adams' most inner circle -- his top advisers. So that is where the wow factor is certainly here.

Now, what we're learning from sources is that this investigation that's going on -- these search warrants that were executed -- they don't have to do with the probe that is into possible campaign finance violations of Eric Adams. If you remember, his own personal devices and cell phones were taken by the FBI last year with that investigation. So this also shows there's multiple investigations happening here.

But let's go back and repeat who these search warrants were executed against. NYPD top commissioner Edward Caban, the first deputy mayor Sheena Wright, deputy mayor for public safety Philip Banks who is one of Adams' most closest confidants. School chancellor David Banks who is Philip Banks' brother. And a former police inspector who is also a special adviser to Timothy -- his name is Timothy Pearson.

We also know there were other people within the police department who, again, their cell phones, their personal devices were all taken by the FBI in some sort of -- some sort of investigation being conducted out of the Southern District of New York.

Now, let's hear from Eric Adams about this most recent seizure of his top people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ERIC ADAMS, (D) NEW YORK CITY: I think it's important to allow the process to take place. Right now this review is showing that we are complying with it and we're going to continue to do so.