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High-Stakes Michigan Dem Senate Primary Too Early To Call; Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) On Senate Dem Report: Wall Street Banks Enable Epstein Sex Trafficking; Sources: Key U.S. Missiles Stockpiles "Dangerously Low." Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired August 05, 2026 - 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: You can see in Wayne County Haley Stevens is leading Abdul El-Sayed by about 14,000 votes. We don't know exactly how many votes remain in Wayne County. The New York Times says it could be as many as 30,000. You can see that math is hard. The math is hard for Haley Stevens if she wants to overtake Abdul El-Sayed. But at this point not completely impossible, which is why we have not made a call.

One other thing I want to point out here. Again, you can see the margins in the state. Abdul El-Sayed up by 19,000 votes.

There is a third candidate here who dropped out of the race -- we don't even have her on the screen -- Mallory McMorrow. She has received 60,000 votes so far in this primary. You can see the number of people voting for her far outweighs the margin between these two candidates, so her presence on the ballot could have been decisive.

Let's talk about this race. How tight it is. With us now CNN political analyst Zolan Kanno-Youngs of The New York Times.

So we have not made a projection here, Zolan. We are waiting for more votes to come in, particularly as they come in around Wayne County here.

The fact that it's still so close, what do you think this means? What message does it send? Everyone was looking for signs about progressive versus establishment. What have we learned?

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Both sides here can point to this really, really small tight margin and find some things to be enthusiastic about.

If you're the El-Sayed camp you went up against a candidate that had a windfall of donations from outside groups and you have the small margin now.

If you're the Haley Stevens camp you're pointing to the polling in recent weeks that showed El-Sayed with a -- winning by a much larger margin. And you're pointing to that as a point of enthusiasm. As you noted, we're still waiting on Wayne County and specifically,

many of the mail ballots and absentee ballots in Wayne County. This is an area covering much of Detroit. It also includes many Black voters. Haley Stevens has faired well, polls show, with Black voters as well. So we'll have to see how that factors into this race.

But at this point we have an incredibly tight race in one of the more significant primaries for the Democratic Party thus far, one that will say a lot about the Democratic Party's approach to foreign policy. How much electability this issue of does a candidate need to be experienced, do they need to have the vetting, or can you move with an outside candidate who also has experience, yet a different type of experience, who is campaigning in large part by shaking up the Democratic establishment?

BERMAN: Zolan, we've been talking about the results coming in from Michigan but there is another House race -- House contest people are watching -- and that's in Ohio here that involves Congressman Max Miller, the Republican incumbent.

He spoke to Jake Tapper. He has been accused of domestic abuse by an ex-wife. He denies those allegations.

But one of the reasons he says he is not dropping out is really because of the example of Donald Trump. -- listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MAX MILLER (R-OH): In 2016, when President Donald J. Trump faced the most extreme allegations in the world that hit him day after day after day, and people in the media very much like yourself and others said that he would have no shot at winning. That he should not be the President of the United States. But guess what? He stayed in and he was resilient.

And what the American people can see is that they can see that somebody is fighting who is resilient, and that is a quality that the American people cherish.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Now, Max Miller told Jake that Donald Trump spoke to him on the phone and said it would be tough for him to win. And we have our own reporting that Donald Trump doesn't think Max Miller can win. Yet, he has not publicly called for him to leave the race, Zolan.

KANNO-YOUNGS: You know, for months -- really since Donald Trump came into office -- since President Trump came into office for his second term we have talked about the grip that he has on the Republican Party and the influence that he has over the Republican Party.

And you have to think -- in fact, actually, local officials in Ohio believe this as well that President Trump would actually be the person that has the best chance of convincing Max Miller to drop out of the race. And he did call him and he described how tough this -- how tough his chances were of winning given these allegations. But he chose not to call for him to drop out and that is significant when you think about the power that Donald Trump holds over the Republican Party.

BERMAN: Zolan Kanno-Youngs, thank you very much.

And I just want to remind people what we are watching. We are watching the results come in for the Democratic primary -- the Senate primary in Michigan. You can see there's about 95 percent reporting. Abdul El- Sayed up by 19,000 votes.

Most of the vote remaining, we believe, is in Wayne County, the most populous county where you can see only about 84 percent reporting. There could be 10,000, 20,000, 30,000 votes more here so we're waiting for that vote to come in. Stand by for those results -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: We certainly will. Thank you so much, John.

[07:35:00]

This morning the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department confirming an armed man was arrested Sunday outside Trump National Golf Club after federal agents reported a suspicious person walking the property. Deputies apprehended 38-year-old Jeanine Taele finding a 16-round machine containing -- magazine, excuse me, containing hollow point ammunition in his pants pocket, as well as additional weapons in his vehicle and in his home.

President Trump was on his way to California when deputies announced the arrest, enroute to a Republican National Committee dinner at the golf course.

CNN's Alayna Treene live at the White House with us. What is the latest on this particular case this morning?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yeah, there's a lot of different details to get through in this case, Sara.

One, as you mentioned, an armed man was arrested on Sunday outside of the president's National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes just outside L.A. He was found, authorities say, with a loaded firearm and was seen taking photos of the property on multiple occasions.

And as you mentioned, the arrest came just two days before the president traveled to that exact golf club for a fundraising dinner for the RNC.

Now, the man was identified as 38-year-old Jeanine John Taele of Downey, California, and he was charged with multiple weapons violations.

And now we know that Secret Service is trying to investigate. They're investigating and looking into whether or not he actually posed a threat to the president. One federal law enforcement source told CNN that there was no current indication that the person -- the Downey -- that Taele, of Downey, was plotting an attack on the president. But, of course, they note the investigation is still ongoing.

I should note that the president was onboard Air Force One when Taele -- when deputies announced the arrest of Taele. He was first seen at the golf course on Friday. The U.S. Attorney's office for the Central District of California said he was wearing an earpiece and took photos and videos on the grounds of the golf club. He also filmed federal agents and appeared to be monitoring different security preparations ahead of the president's visit.

He was then -- he returned on Sunday. He lied about working for the State Department and he did tell authorities that he had a weapon in his car. That's when they found the ammunition in his pocket and went to his car. They later went to his phone -- to his home and found a cache of more weapons.

So a lot to get into here. Again, we do not know what his motive was. If there was any sort of threat that he wanted to pose to the president, but something Secret Service is continuing to investigate, Sara.

SIDNER: It's certainly strange for lack of a better word.

Alayne Treene, thank you so much for your reporting there from the White House -- Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: A yearslong investigation in the Senate and now the new report just revealed Wall Street -- in revealing that, it says Wall Street failed the victims of Jeffrey Epstein's abuse. It's the culmination of a nearly four-year investigation into Epstein's ties to Wall Street by the Senate Finance Committee spearheaded by Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden.

What he found, they say, financial reports disclose that some of America's biggest banking institutions had concerns for years about money moves made by Jeffrey Epstein. But the report accuses them, the banks, of not doing nearly enough and not -- and not what Wyden says the law requires in reporting those concerns to the government until after Epstein was arrested on sex trafficking charges.

Now, the report names more than a dozen bankers by name at JPMorgan, Bank of America, and Deutsche Bank alleging that they were aware of suspicious transactions that Epstein made as far back as 2002. Saying that the banks themselves "likely violated federal anti-money laundering laws.

And also this from the report. "The bankers who needed to be asking questions didn't ask them. Jeffrey Epstein's crimes were hiding in plain sight." And saying, "If federal prosecutors are serious about preventing the next Jeffrey Epstein, they must hold Wall Street accountable."

Joining us right now is Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance committee. Senator, thank you for being here.

I mentioned this is the culmination of a four-year-ish investigation that you have been spearheading. This -- when you say that Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase likely violated federal anti-money laundering laws I see in this report -- plain and simple, did these banks commit crimes? SEN. RON WYDEN (D-OR): Certainly, there's a lot of evidence to indicate that they did, Kate, and here is the bottom line.

Epstein would not have gotten away with sex trafficking for so long if these bankers had done their job and followed the law. And the reality is they basically just looked the other way. And they knew for a long time that Epstein was dirty, and they just didn't do anything about it -- and primarily because he helped them get more clients.

BOLDUAN: I'm going to get into the responses to this report in just a second.

[07:40:00]

But I have been covering your push for answers on this front for years. You were pushing this investigation to follow the money back in 2022, '23, '24, meaning even during the Biden years. Most of what I have heard from you on this was pushing Treasury to release Epstein's financials.

Did that happen here? Did the Treasury Department help?

WYDEN: The treasury did not. They've been stonewalling, you know, nonstop. We got some information from the Biden administration, but when Trump came in everything stopped and we're staying at it.

You know, one of the reasons this election is so important is we want to get some people, for example, who are going to make the tough decisions so we can get subpoenas with Democrats, and we didn't get that with Republicans.

BOLDUAN: Let's get to the responses of the banks now, Senator.

Deutsche Bank: "The bank takes its legal obligations seriously, including appropriately responding to authorized investigations and proceedings."

Bank of America: "We take our legal and regulatory obligations seriously and, as we have previously said, the bank did not facilitate wrongdoing."

JPMorgan: "We strongly disagree with the report's conclusions," they say. "We began flagging suspicious transactions for the government as early as 202 and throughout our relationship." And they say, "It is disappointing that instead of advancing new facts that would help bring accountability to the men who participated in Epstein's trafficking operation, the report largely recycles allegations that have already been exhaustively examined by courts and the government."

They are saying that there's no new information here that hasn't been released before. What do you say to that?

WYDEN: Kate, that's just false and particularly, for Deutsche Bank to be involved in the whitewashing business is absurd. They failed to promptly report to treasury more than $250 million worth of suspicious transactions that were tied to Epstein. That is brand new information for the public.

BOLDUAN: From the statements, it sounds like the banks seem not inclined to be digging further into the records in past dealings with Epstein to assist in what sounds like your investigation has not culminated since you're saying you want to do subpoenas.

If that's the case, what tangibly do you want to see happen now?

WYDEN: Well, I want to see Treasury, and I want to see the fed step in and look at these matters too because it touches on the credibility of those agencies.

BOLDUAN: Safe to say your investigation is not complete?

WYDEN: We've got a long way to go. There's some accountability that has to be found, particularly because the top people at these agencies -- these weren't the junior people, Kate. The top people were the ones who led the looking away program.

BOLDUAN: If your investigation is not complete -- and this has been going on for years now, as I mentioned. If information is still out there to be uncovered why release this now -- especially, I will say, as you mentioned, the election, Senator. Especially when this is so close to an election.

WYDEN: Because this is exactly what elections are supposed to be all about. The Republicans ducked and bobbed and weaved for months and months on this. We're holding people accountable, so it doesn't happen again. I don't think women and girls in this country should have to go through this again.

BOLDUAN: Why aren't Republicans on this report after so many years, Senator? Why isn't this bipartisan?

WYDEN: I don't think they want to explain why they were ducking, you know. For so long they just passed on these issues and never thought that we would go the distance, and we'd get all this additional information. Now they're going to have to explain that they objected to our getting the information again and again.

BOLDUAN: A big claim is being made throughout this lengthy report. Senator Ron Wyden, much more to come here. Thank you for coming on to talk about it this morning -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right.

BOLDUAN: Thank you.

SIDNER: Thank you so much, Kate.

New this morning, Iranian state media is casting doubt on President Trump's claim that the Strait of Hormuz would be opening soon.

Here's what the president said last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Iran, as an example, will never have a nuclear weapon. They already can't. But it's going to be formal. The strait is going to be open very soon or they're going to get hit very hard and then the strait is going to be open.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Iran says it is continuing negotiations with Oman over safe shipping routes through the strait, but that there is no connection between those talks and the strait reopening.

Meanwhile, sources are telling CNN that the U.S. military has burned through nearly 80 percent of its interceptors for a key missile defense system. And senior U.S. military commanders are warning that the Pentagon's munition stockpile is dangerously low. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, though, calling the reporting "not true."

Joining me now, CNN senior military analyst and former NATO supreme allied commander, retired Adm. James Stavridis. Thank you so much for being here.

[07:45:00]

If, indeed, nearly 80 percent of that and half of our Patriot missile stock is gone since the Iran war began, how would you described that? What does that mean?

ADM. JAMES STAVRIDIS (RET.), CNN SENIOR MILITARY ANALYST, FORMER NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER, VICE CHAIRMAN, THE CARLYLE GROUP: Dangerous in one word. And it's not only dangerous in the context of the Middle East, Sara, it's dangerous in the context of Ukraine and dangerous in the context of Taiwan. Let me explain.

What we're talking about here and you're showing a picture of some of these ground-to-air defense missiles that go up and shoot down incoming ballistic missiles, drones, cruise missiles even.

And if it is true -- and you have to factor into this the denials from the Pentagon that are coming out -- but if it's true that we're down 80 percent we will be unable to fully help our allies in the Gulf -- the Arab countries -- and Israel defend themselves. We will be unable to provide any air defense interceptors to Ukraine, which will mean their war against Russia will go less well. And we will not have interceptors available to deter China.

So bottom line, if this is true -- these numbers -- it's dangerous. And I know the combatant commanders around the world -- which I used to be, both in Europe and in Latin America -- are very concerned.

SIDNER: I do want to ask you about just how long it takes to replenish -- to rebuild some of these munitions, and what that also means. Because in the meantime, Iran is using cheaply-made things like drones to combat very expensive equipment that the United States is having to use. Give us some sense of the timeline of trying to replenish these.

STAVRIDIS: You put your finger on the real problem here. And by the way, it's not just air defense weapons. There are credible

reports that some of our precision strike weapons -- offensive weapons like ATACMS, like Tomahawk missiles, like precision strike missiles. These are also being depleted.

So the problem, as you correctly point out Sara, is not only are they very expensive but they are also long timelines to replenish. So you're not talking weeks, you're not talking months, you're talking years to rebuild these inventories.

Now, the Pentagon is keenly aware of this aspect of this aspect of things and is pushing the defense industrial base very hard to accelerate all this. We've done this before in other conflicts. But that's a challenge. Time is of the essence here.

SIDNER: Not weeks, not months, but years to rebuild is quite a thing.

Admiral, thank you so much for walking us through that and giving us some really important insight into what's going on. I appreciate you -- John.

BERMAN: All right. What happens when a 9,000-pound rocket collides with the moon? We could find out today.

And then a car collides with the side of a bus. You can see it right there literally inside the bus. How the driver -- how both drivers are doing this morning.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:52:50]

BERMAN: The Boston Red Sox won their sixth game in a row last night so naturally we're talking about the Yankees because one of their players hit a home run. Like, four Red Sox hit home runs last night.

Let's get right to CNN's Andy Scholes for the latest of what happened in the Bronx.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: It was a little more special what happened with the Yankees, Berman. You've got to give them some credit.

And, you know, George Lombard Sr., who is a former player and current Tigers bench coach -- he is absolutely living the dream right now. Because as a baseball dad myself, you know, the ultimate dad goal is for your son to make it to the big leagues. To have him homer in his debut and then also have another son homering in his minor league debut -- I mean, I can't imagine that feeling.

And George Lombard Jr. making his much anticipated Yankees debut last night. The 21-year-old shortstop -- he's the Yankees' top prospect. And in his second plate appearance Lombard launched this one to left sending Yankee Stadium into a frenzy. So he's the 14th Yankee ever to homer in his debut joining the likes of Yogi Bearra and Aaron Judge. Lombard's parents were in the stands celebrating. Now an hour earlier, they were watching on their phones as George's younger brother Jacob homered in his pro debut for the Jupiter Hammerheads. So the Lombard family was going to be at Jacob's debut in Florida, but when George got the call up, they switched plans to be in New York. But what a night -- one the whole family is never going to forget.

And here was George afterwards when asked if he had talked to his brother yet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE LOMBARD JR., HIT HOME RUN IN YANKEES DEBUT: I haven't talked to him, but I heard -- I heard. It's pretty awesome. I mean, it's probably awesome for my parents. I would be that they were watching the game on the phone. So yeah, I was very excited for him too.

JACOB LOMBARD, HOMERED IN JUPITER HAMMERHEADS DEBUT: It's hard to put into words. I just found out it was the same exact video and same launch angle. I mean, that was pretty ridiculous. Like, I'm jaw- dropped. I don't even know how that's possible, but it was pretty cool that I was able to have it.

G. LOMBARD: A moment of swing. A day I won't forget forever.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All right. Elsewhere, Tarik Skubal making his debut for the big, bad Dodgers last night. He pitched six innings giving up two runs while striking out six, but that was not enough to end the Dodgers' losing streak. The Cubs would be L.A. 5-1 handing them their season- worst fifth straight loss.

[07:55:05]

The Red Sox, meanwhile, just continue their incredible run. In the first inning last night against the White Sox, bases loaded for Caleb Durbin. He smacks the grand slam over the Green Monster. And then the very next batter, Jarren Duran -- he homers as well. Back-to-back first inning homers was part of a 14-run night. Wilyer Abreu -- he had a big night as well.

The Red Sox win big for their 24th in the last 27 games. They've now won six straight.

So there you go, Berman. I wasn't going to leave your Red Sox out of this sports segment. But I will say I was going to ask you, has there ever been a Red Sox season where you went from just thinking the team was dead to right now where they think they're best team ever?

BERMAN: Full disclosure. Most of us gave up on them. Like, most diehard Red Sox fans were done with the team this year. Wanted them to sell all their players, rebuild.

SCHOLES: Yeah. BERMAN: And then they just won every game for the last month and a half and turned the whole thing around, and now we're back in. So my apologies, officially, to the Boston Red Sox for doubting them.

Andy Scholes, thank you very much.

SIDNER: Uh, can someone please cut that and keep that forever? He's apologizing for giving up on his team.

BERMAN: I didn't -- almost. Like, practically.

SIDNER: Almost. Not really --

BERMAN: Practically.

SIDNER: -- because you were watching them very closely every single minute.

BERMAN: I can never give up on you though, Sara.

SIDNER: Good.

All right. This morning new video showing the moment a car flew into the side of a bus in Australia. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

Car crashing into a bus. (Bleep).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Jeez. Officials say the car driver swerved to avoid another vehicle but ended up jumping over the median and wedging into the side of that bus as you saw. The bus was out of service, thank goodness, at the time and was stopped at a red light.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BUS DRIVER: Hello. Are you OK? Just wait. Just wait.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: That was the bus driver there. He rushed to the car. And the driver managed to survive this. He helped the driver get out of the car. She was taken to the hospital and treated for shock. Police reportedly fined her for driving without due care and attention.

All right. In Poland, cameras capturing the moment a passenger train crashed through a farm trailer that was stopped in the middle of the tracks. You can see the impact right there sending bales of hay flying. Police say the driver of the tractor was intoxicated. The railway says the driver put some 500 people on board in danger. Thankfully, in this incident nobody was injured.

All right. Let's give you some new body camera footage here showing the moment police in Texas rushed to save a man being attacked by a swarm of bees as he was doing yardwork next to his home. Police found him on the ground. He was -- he was unable to get away from bees because he's disabled. They were able to get him into the police car all while the bees swarmed them and stung them as well. The man is in the hospital recovering. The hive was found in an empty lot and was eventually removed -- goodness.

BOLDUAN: Oh, that's horrible.

SIDNER: I know -- awful.

BOLDUAN: You can like -- it almost looks like you can see them flying around in the body camera video. That's --

SIDNER: Yeah.

BOLDUAN: Oh my gosh.

SIDNER: They're just getting stung all over the place.

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

SIDNER: OK, that's making me itch. Kate --

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

SIDNER: -- let's get out of this.

BOLDUAN: Poor thing.

OK, here we go. Let's turn to this. A huge chunk of, well, this space rocket is believed to have just crashed into the moon 5,400 -- at 5,400 miles an hour. That is seven times the speed of sound. We're waiting for confirmation right now from NASA and SpaceX.

What we do know is that this came from the upper section of the Falcon 9 rocket that's been floating in space since launch last year. There's no danger to Earth, they say, but the crash could carve a new 65-foot crater on the moon.

CNN's Pete Muntean is tracking this one. Pete, this is strange and fascinating.

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Space junk hits the Earth all the time and now it's hitting the moon. It really emphasizes the vastness of space, Kate. And this used rocket booster from this launch a year and a half ago has been floating in space ever since -- that is until the moon's gravity got ahold of it setting the stage for its crash into the moon's surface that was supposed to happen early this morning. But right now we're still waiting for official confirmation.

What we're talking about here is the second stage or the upper stage from a Falcon 9 rocket. The first stage or lower stage -- that's the section that dramatically lands back on Earth to be reused. You've probably seen the videos of that. This part is the part up at the top. It usually falls back to Earth, burned up in the atmosphere. This Falcon 9 upper stage weighs about 8,800 pounds. That's roughly the weight of a female African elephant traveling at 5,400 miles per hour, seven times the speed of sound, meaning it was going to hit the moon with the power of three tons of dynamite then create a crate about the size of a basketball court.

But here is the rub this morning, Kate. Unlike a moon lander or manned rocket, this is space junk.