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Trump Administration Tries to Rebuild Election Security; Rep. Suhas Subramanyam (D-VA) is Interviewed about Allegations against Rep. Max Miller; Trump's Low Approval Numbers; Temps Above Normal from California to Canada; Fake A.I. Influencers Medical Advice. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired July 31, 2026 - 08:30   ET

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

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[08:32:22]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: There is new reporting into CNN this morning, with less than 100 days until midterms, the Trump administration says it's planning to rebuild the federal system designed to protect U.S. elections. A system they dismantled when President Trump returned to the White House. But some election officials say it may simply just be too late. That they've been getting by with, quote/unquote, "duct tape."

CNN's Sean Lyngaas joins us now with his new reporting on this. Duct tape when it comes to election systems, that does not sound like the correct combination. What are you learning, Sean?

SEAN LYNGAAS, CNN CYBERSECURITY REPORTER: Yes, that's right, Kate. They're using a sort of all hands on deck approach, right? This is ironic because in the first Trump administration, the U.S. government actually built up this large federal apparatus for supporting election officials. We're talking about cybersecurity support, physical security assessments of facilities, intelligence sharing from the intelligence community on the latest threats. And then when Trump returned to office, he was still mad at the DHS cyber agency for saying the 2020 election was secure. And so, he fired most of the election security experts in that agency.

And now, in the wake of the recent disclosures the White House has made to try to make the claim that China interfered in the 2020 election, the Trump administration says they're rebuilding this cyber agency. So, it's kind of starting from scratch. And they make the point that they want to rebuild trust with election officials, trust that has been severely damaged by their actions in the last year election officials will tell you on the record.

And I think we have a quote we want to share here about some of what we've been seeing -- hearing from former CISA officials basically saying that this is -- this is something that, you know, you can't start on Election Day. We're 100 days from the -- from the midterms. And foreign adversaries, you know, we were well into the election cycle. This is what one election security official told us. "We are well into the election cycle. It is not simply about Election Day. Election Day is not when the Russians started in 2016. It is not when the Iranians started in 2020. People should be realizing we have a gap of information of 14 to 18 months."

So, this whole federal bureaucracy has been dormant, Kate, not really connecting with election officials. And now they're scrambling to do so with less than 100 days to go to the midterm elections.

BOLDUAN: Yes, quite a conundrum.

Sean, thank you for your reporting. Appreciate it.

Fred.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thanks so much, Kate.

This morning, there are growing calls on Capitol Hill for the House Ethics Committee to open an investigation into Ohio Republican Congressman Max Miller over allegations of domestic abuse from his ex- wife.

[08:35:06]

Congressman Miller is a former Trump adviser and up for re-election this fall.

For months now his ex-wife, Emily Moreno, daughter of Ohio Senator Bernie Moreno, has made a series of allegations against him. Among them, that he shoved her into a wall and held a gun to her head while she was changing her infant daughter's diaper. She talked about that in a February police interview recently obtained by CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OFFICER: So when does the gun come into play?

EMILY MORENO, EX-WIFE OF REP. MAX MILLER (R-OH): When I'm changing (AUDIO REDACTED).

OFFICER: And what does he do?

MORENO: Holds it on me.

OFFICER: Holds it on you? OK, can you show me where he held it to you?

No, hey, it's -- it's OK. That's fine. That's fine. Like I said, I -- that's a hard thing to talk about.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: And it's important to say that Congressman Miller denies all allegations against him and he is suing his ex-wife for defamation.

Here's what he told CNN's Lauren Fox earlier last month.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MAX MILLER (R-OH): I don't have a weapon that's even easily accessible in my home like that. What we're dealing with, unfortunately, is something that many families go through, Lauren, which is a very nasty divorce. And in the process, allegations get made that are completely fabricated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, with me now is Democratic congressman from Virginia, Suhas Subramanyam. He sits on both the House Ethics and Oversight Committees.

Good to see you, Congressman.

REP. SUHAS SUBRAMANYAM (D-VA): Thank you. Thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: So, does the committee plan on opening an investigation into Representative Miller?

SUBRAMANYAM: Well, I can't speak specifically to any one case. I'll say generally, when these types of complaints are out there and someone takes it to the committee, then it would be something that gets referred to us, and then we would look into it. And part of the process would be, we have investigators on the committee who would get everyone's side of the story, and we would look at all the facts we have before us, and we'd have to make a decision and a recommendation based on that.

And so, it certainly is a process where we, you know, have to make sure that everyone is able to have a chance to tell their side of the story, and then we'll have to go from there. But this has been a Congress where we've had several folks resign. We've had a lot of, you know, issues come before our committee. And so, it's going to follow the same process as all those other ones.

WHITFIELD: He's an elected official. He is a public, you know, official. I'm wondering what should the public expect on how the ethics committee goes about trying to determine when allegations like this against a sitting member are serious enough to warrant an investigation.

SUBRAMANYAM: Well, we're in unprecedented times now. The Ethics Committee has started really, you know, taking the lead on referring these types of things to the body and making, you know, decisions based on all the facts. And we've had a record number of people resign in recent -- in the past year. And I think part of that is because the committee has taken these types of allegations very seriously. We've made sure that we protect anyone who comes forward, and that we make sure that, you know, while people have the due process that they are afforded through this committee, that they are held accountable, because the American people want their elected leaders to be held to a high standard.

And so when you see, you know, allegations like we've had over the past year, you know, that's unbecoming of Congress. It doesn't reflect well on anyone in Congress or on the country as a whole. So, we're certainly going to take every allegation seriously, and we're going to make sure there's accountability.

WHITFIELD: Well, what more information would you need for any next steps?

SUBRAMANYAM: Well, you know, we need a referral to the committee and certainly we would need to make sure that, you know, we reach out to all the folks involved and then once they're, you know, telling their sides of the story, then we make a recommendation to the entire Congress and they can determine whether they want to expel someone. They can determine whether they want to simply censure them or reprimand them in some ways. There's definitely different options. Our process isn't as fast as the news cycle, and that frustrates people sometimes, but we do have to give people due process.

WHITFIELD: All right. All right, let me shift gears now. As you heard from my colleague, Sean Lyngaas in his reporting, President Trump has been accusing, you know, the U.S. election systems for a while now to be flawed.

[08:40:02]

The Trump administration says it now has a plan to rebuild it less than 100 days before Election Day. What are your concerns?

SUBRAMANYAM: Well, I'm concerned that the president is worried that he's going to lose the midterms in November. And so, he's trying to essentially stack the deck against Democrats and trying to make sure that he makes it as hard as possible for voters to come out and vote. He thinks that if this is a fair election, that if we're on an even playing field, that he's going to lose. And so, he feels like he has to make the playing field as uneven as possible.

The reality is, if we win in November, we're going to start holding this administration accountable. And so, he's using every lever possible to try to make sure that this is as hard as possible for the American people to come out and make their voice heard.

WHITFIELD: As Sean was reporting, a key federal cyber agency, you know, claims that it will actually reassign staff to help build trusted relationships, particularly with state and local elected officials, according to this information obtained by CNN. So, trust is pretty thin between the administration and some local and state election officials.

What do you think is going on here and how do you see this rebuilding effort going about?

SUBRAMANYAM: The problem that President Trump has run into when he's made these kinds of accusations is he tries to pressure the state and local leaders into bending to his will. But the state and local leaders have not done so. Georgia is a great example of that. And they're the ones who administer the elections in the end.

And so, the president is going to try to continue to bully them. He's going to try to continue to put pressure on them in different ways. And, you know, I hope and I expect that they will not follow suit and that they will make sure this is a free and fair election in November.

WHITFIELD: All right, we'll leave it there.

Congressman Suhas Subramanyam, thank you so much.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: So, the new poll -- new CNN polling out this week shows that President Trump has hit some historic lows. Underwater on just about everything. His overall approval rating has slipped to 34 percent, matching his career low, which came just after January 6th, which has led to a question now being asked, which is, where exactly is the floor for the president's polling?

CNN's Harry Enten running the numbers for you on this one.

What do these polls say about the president?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yes, is there a bottom? And, to me, it does not appear that there is a bottom. Trump is heading towards an electoral black hole. I feel like this is like one of those magician's tricks, right, where the floor just falls out underneath -- beneath you. And that is exactly what is happening with President Trump. Kate off on the side laughing there.

Trump's approval hits record -- term two lows. All out this week -- you know you mentioned the CNN poll, 34 percent. You think that's all. How about AP-NORC, 33 percent. You think that's all. How about Quinnipiac University, 32 percent.

So, you look at it and you get three different pollsters all saying that Trump is hitting term two lows this week. In fact, Quinnipiac, I believe that is an all-time low for him. And the CNN poll, as you were mentioning, Kate, that is tied for an all-time low for him.

So, is there a bottom? It does not appear to be to me that there is a bottom for President Trump.

BOLDUAN: Put -- compare this to history for me, please.

ENTEN: Yes. OK. So, we'll compare it to history. Let's compare it to the other presidents who got a term two in the 21st century. You could see it right here. And I'm averaging CNN, Quinnipiac and the AP. Look at this, approval, 21st century presidents. At this point in term two, you average them out, you average out CNN, Quinnipiac, AP, you get 33 percent for Trump. Obama wasn't too hot to trot, but he was at least at 41 percent. How about George W. Bush? The Iraq War was raging on back then during the 2006 electoral cycle. He was still at 38 percent. Trump is at the lowest of any president at this point in term two for a 21st century president. You have to go all the way back to Richard Nixon to find a lower approval rating at this point in term two. And, of course, Richard Nixon was resigning in about a few weeks at this point in 1974. Not the comparison you want to be making if you're Donald John Trump. BOLDUAN: What is behind his historic low? What's driving it so low?

ENTEN: Yes, what is driving it so low? Well, what was the reason that President Trump got a second term in the White House? It's the economy. We just keep going back to the economy. I feel, you know, like we're on antenna TV. We're playing back the oldies. Playing back the repeats.

Economic approval. OK, take a look here. Where's President Trump at this point in term two. Just 30 percent. Just 30 percent approve of the job he's doing on the economy. Obama was at 38 percent. George W. Bush was at 38 percent. These guys were doing terribly. But he's doing terrible, terrible, terrible. You know, trying to do my best Charles Barkley here. I can't really do it this early in the morning. But it's just absolutely awful at this point. No wonder President Trump is at historic lows for a term two president at this point. And matching, if not exceeding, his term too low already. It, simply put, because people are not pleased with the economy.

[08:45:01]

And when you're not pleased with the economy, you get the good old- fashioned boot as far as the American people are concerned.

BOLDUAN: And we will see. Less than 100 days away.

ENTEN: We shall see. Thanks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: It's good to see you. Thank you. Well, I mean, not -- a little while for him, but --

ENTEN: Yes.

BOLDUAN: But moving on.

ENTEN: Anyway.

BOLDUAN: We all know -- we all know the intention.

ENTEN: Fred.

BOLDUAN: Fred, take. Fred, take.

WHITFIELD: OK. Thank you. I don't know if I can deliver and, you know, follow that, but here we go.

An unusually strong heat dome is set to bake much of the western United States this weekend, from California to Canada. Millions of Americans could see the hottest temperatures so far this year. Dozens of record highs could be set in multiple states.

Let's go straight to CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam.

Oh my gosh, this has been an incredibly hot summer no matter where you are and you're going to tell me it's going to get even hotter in places? DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, get this Fredricka, 10 percent of the continental U.S. population will experience their hottest temperature of 2026 so far. And much of that is going to be centered over the western U.S. If you're looking to get to the coastline in southern California, be aware there's large rip current risk along the beaches and shorelines there, extending as far north as central coastal California. That's because of the departing Hurricane Genevieve way out in the Pacific. But nonetheless, it's kicking up some serious surf.

Look at these temperatures. We're topping 115 degrees in many locations, including phoenix. It's all thanks to the heat dome. Lots of reds, magentas, and oranges. But notice how far and expansive this is, all the way to the border of Canada. And that means places like Billings, Montana, Salt Lake City, Utah, you could be breaking and setting yet another monthly all-time record. Just like we did in the month of July, we could be repeating that here as we head into August.

By the way, with all of this heat, the dried-out vegetation, last week's wildfires across Washington and parts of Idaho, guess what, this Saturday we have a critical fire danger for eastern Washington state. That is going to be a difficult day considering that there's still the embers that are burning from the wildfires that are ongoing across that area.

Taking you through the weekend. Las Vegas, 116, 115 on Sunday. Phoenix gets this repetitive, consecutive days at 115 or above. That's only happened ten times since records began. And that s about 130 years ago. So, that's really saying something. Climatologically speaking, this is a problem.

Now, we've got a lot of excessive heat risk, and that puts vulnerable people at risk of heat-related illnesses. But not just people who don't have adequate means to cool themselves. All populations, when you see that dark shading of purple, those areas across the desert southwest, that puts a large population under threat of heat-related illnesses, heat sicknesses.

Recognize the differences between heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Heat stroke is a medical emergency. Seek emergency care as quickly as possible.

WHITFIELD: Oh, no, got to be careful.

VAN DAM: Back to you, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, thank you so much. Really cannot be too cautious because it's hot and getting hotter.

VAN DAM: Right.

WHITFIELD: Derek Van Dam, thank you so much.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: So, this morning, Seattle has a new interim police chief after Police Chief Shon Barnes resigned. It follows criticism over Barnes' response to last weekend's deadly shooting at that Seattle food festival. Mayor Katie Wilson asked Barnes to step down, saying that he was slow to communicate key information in the aftermath of the shooting. Two bystanders were killed in the shootout. One of the suspects was also killed. Four others were injured, including a two- year-old boy. Now a 15-year-old suspect has surrendered to police. Police are still searching for at least one other person.

Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, now to a remarkable story of conservation and community. This week's CNN Hero is a true trailblazer in environmental protection. She became the very first wildlife veterinarian in her home country of Uganda, devoting her career to protecting endangered mountain gorillas. But when she realized their survival was deeply connected with conditions in the local communities, she took action. Today, her groundbreaking mission is helping both the gorillas and their human neighbors to thrive together.

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GLADYS KALEMA-ZIKUSOKA, CNN HERO: The mountain gorillas used to be one of the most critically endangered species on earth. When I first came out here as a vet student, I realized how intelligent they were. And, you know, I felt a really deep connection. And I was like, wow, I felt it was so important that they're protected.

Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is home to 43 percent of the world's endangered mountain gorillas. Bwindi was threatened by a lot of high human population growth. There are a lot of interaction between the gorillas and the people. We used to find that people were not hygienic. Gorillas are picking up preventable diseases, basically. And this made me realize that you couldn't protect the gorillas without improving the health of their human neighbors.

We started the village health and conservation team approach in 2007.

[08:50:02]

They do a lot of good work promoting health and hygiene practices. And now we're reaching over 10,000 households.

You can make each other sick. But we're not making each other sick because you're clean.

Over time, we have seen huge changes. Having a clean toilet. A hand washing station. A separate animal house. But at the same time we want to make sure that they're less dependent on the forest by finding them sustainable livelihoods. You cannot keep the gorillas healthy when people next to them are poor, hungry. It just can't work.

We found out that the coffee farmers were not getting a fair market price and were still entering the forest to poach. So, then we started to sell the coffee. We give them an above market price and a donation from every bag goes to support community health, gorilla health and conservation education. This is showing people that we care about not just the gorillas, but we also care about them.

Gorilla tourism has completely transformed the lives of the people here. And engaging local communities is our way of making sure that gorillas are being protected.

I always get very excited when I hear that baby mountain gorilla has been born. And as long as the communities see the gorillas as their future, the numbers are going to keep growing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Wow. Amazing, conservation and preservation.

All right, straight ahead, the urgent search for missing climbers, including a world-renowned mountaineer, after an avalanche.

And a new warning as you scroll social media today. The surge of A.I. health influencers.

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[08:55:36]

WHITFIELD: All right, right now, a search is underway for at least six mountain climbers, including world renowned climber Nirmal Purja, after a devastating avalanche swept through a mountain range in Pakistan. Purja made history in 2019 by climbing 14 of the world's tallest peaks in just over six months. So far, the bodies of four mountain climbers have been recovered.

And on the heels of the most lucrative World Cup of all time, FIFA is now locked in a standoff with European football's top authority. The Europeans have threatened to boycott all future World Cups because they're angry over a new FIFA proposal to sell a significant stake in its biggest competitions. The message from the Europeans, some things -- I'm quoting now, "Some things are simply too important to sell. The FIFA World Cup belongs to football," end quote.

FIFA fired back saying this, quote, "nobody is selling football. This is not something FIFA would ever entertain," end quote. But FIFA added that it is moving forward with its controversial plan to launch a subsidiary in which private investors would get about 20 percent stake.

All right, and then take a look at this. Mexico City sets the world record for the largest serving of sandwiches, served in a continuous line. The giant torta stretched 328 feet. Are you hungry now or have you lost your appetite? Which is it? More than one and a half tons of meat. Dozens of cooks assembled the more than 50 varieties of fillings into a single, continuous torta. And once the record was declared, the sandwich was divided and distributed for free among thousands of festival goers.

Kate, are you hungry or have you lost your appetite?

BOLDUAN: No, every -- no. Every time we do one of these things, I'm like, come on, guys, I still have an hour of the show left. You can't do food stories.

Thanks so much.

Let's turn to this.

When you're looking at your socials today, you may want to look with an extra critical eye because those doctors or herbalists promoting new and novel health solutions and products, they might not even be human.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Blood sugar through the roof and nothing is bringing it down? Stop what you're doing right now. Your kitchen already has the fix big pharma doesn't want you to know about, baby.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Fake A.I. health influencers are flooding social media feeds. Some are getting millions of views and promoting unverified claims and products.

CNN's Clare Duffy has been combing through it to try to understand kind of the scope of this.

What are you learning?

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: Yes, Kate, I mean, look, there has always been wacky health information online, but we are starting to see A.I. make it so much easier to create these realistic-looking, potentially credible figures, like doctors or herbalists, spreading false health information, pushing scam products. In some cases, we are also seeing real doctors, without their consent, have their image used, their likeness used to create A.I. fakes that are pushing these fake health products. That actually happened to CNN's own Sanjay Gupta.

I want to show you just two other examples of this that I found on Facebook Reels. Watch these.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is high blood sugar. This is high blood sugar. And this is also high blood sugar too. Try this one simple drink every morning for two weeks and you don't have to spend thousands of dollars on insulin or metformin every year.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've put together everything I've learned about reversing high blood sugar naturally. The foods, the herbs, the daily habits that keep insulin steady after 45. Comment "yes" and I'll send it to you personally. You must be following me otherwise I can't message you.

(END VIDEO CLIP) DUFFY: Now. I plugged those videos into an A.I. detection tool from the company GetReal Labs. I also talked to their co-founder, Hany Farid. And those videos had a hidden watermark showing that they were created with Google's A.I., and yet they were running on Facebook Reels, had thousands of views. They also had attached A.I. influencer profiles that were posting repeated videos, spreading fake health information without Meta's label that shows "these videos were made with A.I."

Now, Facebook said that they removed those reels after I flagged them, including the one in the intro. Also removed these accounts for violating the spam policy. And the company said that it's working to improve its systems to detect A.I.-generated information like this and videos like this.

[09:00:03]

But, of course, this could be really dangerous if people are using this as a replacement for real human medical advice.

BOLDUAN: Well