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Part of SpaceX Rocket on Collision Course with the Moon; Interview with Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI): El-Sayed, Stevens Locked in Tight Michigan Democrat Senate Primary; GOP Rep. Miller Defiant Amid Abuse Allegations from 3 Women; Armed Man Arrested at Trump's California Golf Course. Aired 8:00-8:30a ET

Aired August 05, 2026 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: ... might, then create a crater 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. There are no cameras on board, no data being sent live, so now this is a bit of a needle in a haystack, and you have to find it with eyeball.

People around the world looking through telescopes for craters to confirm that it hit the moon as expected, but that's going to take some time because the moon, after all, is about 230,000 miles away, it's no small object, and it's important for scientists to study this because they'll provide key data, it'll get key data. As NASA prepares to head back to the moon, Artemis 4 mission, maybe in 2028, set up a moon base there, that's the overarching goal, and NASA wants to know how to best protect astronauts and these future missions from space junk like this, and there'll be a lot more of it and a lot more concern with more of these moon missions coming up, Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: I mean, I'm ending where I began, strange and fascinating, this entire thing, and maybe possibly helpful for the future of space exploration, oddly enough. It's great to see you, Pete. Thank you so much for actually helping it make sense.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: We are watching the numbers roll in. High stakes race still too close to call this morning. The winner of Michigan's Democratic Senate primary is still up in the air with outstanding ballots in the state's largest county known for its notoriously slow vote count.

All right, this morning, also defiance from Congressman Max Miller after his ex-wife and two other women have accused him of domestic abuse. The pressure from his own party growing to drop his reelection bid, but he's vowing to fight. Our Jake Tapper is here with more on his exclusive interview with Miller.

And a nasty crash leads to an all out brawl on the highway and ends -- we'll tell you how this actually ends up.

And I'm Sara Sidner with Kate Bolduan and John Berman. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, the breaking news this morning, this is the situation in Michigan where they are still counting the votes for the hotly contested Democratic primary for Senate there. Abdul Al-Sayed, seen as the more progressive candidate, is hanging on to a slim lead, very slim, about 19,000 votes over Haley Stevens, seen as the more establishment candidate there. That is with 95 percent of the vote reporting at this point.

So where is there still vote? We can actually get a sense of where they are still counting. We can take it down, say, hey, where in the state has less than, say, 90 percent.

It's just one place. There's only one place in the state right now where there is significant vote. That is Wayne County.

That is where Detroit is. It is the most populous county in the state, about 18 percent, not just Detroit, but Dearborn as well. You can see in Wayne County, Haley Stevens is leading by about 14,000 votes.

We don't know exactly how much vote is still remaining in Wayne County. The New York Times suggests it could be 30,000. Look, you can see the math would still be hard for Haley Stevens.

She would have to win an overwhelming amount of the outstanding vote in Wayne County, which appears to be still absentee mail-in vote. But it is still possible. That is why we have not made a projection in this race.

The situation is it's very close. They're still counting. It's been at 84 percent in Wayne County since about 6 a.m. I haven't seen new vote come in from Wayne County. Likewise, in Michigan writ large, it has still been about a 19,000 vote lead for Abdul Al-Sayed since about 6 o'clock. That hasn't changed. So, we are waiting and watching for more vote for Michigan to report.

In the meantime, with us is Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, a Democrat from Michigan who knows a little something about this state. Congresswoman, good to see you this morning. Can you think of anyone, anyone at all who said this race was going to be close?

DINGELL: REP. DEBBIE DINGELL (D-MI): Me, so I predicted to people yesterday it was going to be tighter than people thought that it was going to be. I just when you looked at the last couple -- I wasn't sure, you know, I wondered if my gut meter was off. You know, I'm pretty good at calling races and actually did say yesterday that I thought a couple of media outlets that this race would be tighter than people thought it would be.

[08:05:00]

But I think we got to, you know, the polls were way off. You all thought I was crazy and people did think I was crazy a decade ago when I said that Hillary Clinton was going to lose Michigan. And I was right. And I think this was closer than that race was. But if you're on the ground, you would talk, literally, and I had some of your colleagues with me. You know me, I just go out. I go around.

I went to FedFest, the back to school, numerous places. I would talk to couples, UAW couples, where actually the UAW member was voting for Haley Stevens and the wife was voting for Abdul. I can't -- that probably happened 20 times.

There are a lot of complex feelings right now. And what we got to do today is we're going to figure out who won this race and we got to pull together, and we got to win in November.

BERMAN: One of the things that we are seeing, and it's pretty subtle is, look, we can look back in at Wayne County again. This is seen as more working class, much more heavily African-American is where Detroit is. And then we go next door to Washtenaw County.

That is where Ann Arbor is. Both of these, by the way, you represent Washtenaw County and a little part of Wayne County. Washtenaw County is where Ann Arbor is, the University of Michigan.

In Ann Arbor, in Washtenaw, Abdul Al-Sayed has a huge, huge lead, right? So, you have more highly educated, maybe more suburban, college-educated voters. And then when you go in the areas that may be more working class, you see Haley Stevens with a little bit of a lead there.

So how do you heal what might be that rift there?

DINGELL: So, you got to bring people together and you got to talk about the issues. I live in Washtenaw County, I live in Ann Arbor, and I'm going to make an observation that Haley spent very little time here to start with. But Abdul was very good at meeting with people, talking to people.

He started his campaign in this area. Mallory was here often. And we didn't see Haley that much, quite frankly, in Washtenaw County.

So, I wasn't surprised to see her. Western Washtenaw County has traditionally been more Republican than Democratic. Tim Wahlberg represented it until I picked it up four years ago.

So, but Abdul talks to people and listens to people. What I think that all of us are going to have to do, and I went and pulled an op-ed I wrote a decade ago after the Hillary loss. We got to listen to working men and women.

We got to listen to what they're telling us, what they're scared about. And we got to show that we understand the issues that they're talking about. At the kitchen table, that's what I said a decade ago, and it's still real.

They don't want a lot. They want to have a job that they know is going to be secure, make enough money to buy a house. Nobody can afford to buy a house now.

And the kids can't even afford to rent. And the kids that are graduating can't find jobs. That's a problem.

They want to make enough money to put food on the table, go to the grocery store. They can't. You know, so both, we're going to -- whoever wins this is going to have to go out and talk to everybody.

And all of us have a responsibility to pull people together and remind them what's at stake in November. We cannot elect someone that is going to be a rubber stamp to this White House.

BERMAN: Congresswoman, I want to shift, if I can, for a moment from Michigan where we're watching here and talk briefly about a representative from Ohio, and that's Max Miller, who represents the 7th District Republican. His ex-wife is accusing him of domestic abuse, which he denies. There have been two other women in the past who've accused him of abusive behavior.

He did an interview with Jake Tapper yesterday where he said he's staying in his race and denied all the allegations. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Are all three of these women who don't know each other, are all three of them lying?

REP. MAX MILLER (R-OH): Yes, it's very easy, and I can tell you why. Every single time -- and people have asked me, you know, what are you going to do?

Are you going to drop out of this race? Are you going to resign? You know, are you going to get out before the deadline?

And my answer to you, Jake, is no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, Congresswoman, your thoughts on what you heard and your thoughts about the fact he says he's staying in the race.

DINGELL: You know, this is an issue that I care very deeply about, John, and I didn't talk about it for years, and I do talk about it very openly and honestly. I lived in a home where I know what it's like to hide in a closet, to not sure if you're going to live through the night, to be in a situation where guns are being held at each other, actually had to grab a gun and keep my father from killing my mother, my father taking knobs off doors and the kids not able to leave, and nobody believed us. And you didn't know, you couldn't go anywhere.

There was nobody to help you. Person I'm most worried about right now is that two-year-old child.

[08:10:00]

And I'm going to be one, I think when you see these kinds of allegations and the pictures of a gun in the situation that we saw is worrisome. And I am not going to sit down and be quiet when there are domestic abuse allegations. People are entitled to due process, but that two-year-old has been traumatized and no one is ever an advocate for the kids.

And I'm going to be an advocate for that daughter. I'm going to be an advocate for that woman. And we've got to understand that domestic violence happens in too many situations, all kinds of situations.

And when you're in a privileged background, people don't want to believe you. They give you passes. They do, we cannot do that.

BERMAN: Congresswoman Debbie Dingell from Michigan, thank you for talking about several subjects with us this morning. We always appreciate your insight.

And I should note, we're going to have Jake on in just a little bit to talk about this remarkable interview with Max Miller -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes, the Congresswoman speaks from experience that she has only really recently started to talk much more about in order to offer strength to others. And it is a harrowing story.

Up ahead, an armed man arrested at President Trump's golf club, the same club that the president was flying to last night, what we are learning this morning about the suspect.

And a convicted felon has been charged now with first-degree arson in connection to one of those massive wildfires burning still out in Washington State. Well, we're learning about him and also how the fight is going now to try to contain those flames.

And a teenager dressed as a clown is arrested in a bizarre death investigation. We have new details coming in.

[08:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SIDNER: Embattled Congressman Max Miller says he's not going anywhere, despite allegations of domestic abuse from his ex-wife and two other women, including a former communications director of the White House. Miller is refusing to drop his reelection bid, even as he faces growing pressure to step aside for members of his own party.

The Ohio congressman spoke exclusively with our Jake Tapper. Here's what Miller said about his conversation with President Trump about him staying or leaving the race.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: You spoke with the president yesterday. Did he tell you what he is telling aides privately that he does not think you can win?

MILLER: Look, the conversation I had with him yesterday at 9 a.m. And I've gotten a million phone calls about this. And this is what's so troubling. Look, he called me and he said, Max, he said, Maxie, it's going to be a tough race. And he said, I don't know if you're going to be able to pull this one out. And, you know what, Jake? I reminded him of the same resilience that he had when people told him that he was going to struggle in 2016.

And he became the 45th president of the United States. And I have the utmost confidence that my constituents back home know me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: All right, CNN anchor Jake Tapper joining us now. Jake, you're one of the best doing these interviews.

And you asked him a very simple, important question about these allegations. What did he tell you?

TAPPER (on camera): Well, he seems to be -- as he suggested in the clip you just ran -- following the Trump model, which is full steam ahead, deny everything, and make himself out to be the victim in this situation. And I pointed out several times that his ex-wife, Emily Marino, is not the only one who has accused him of abuse. That there was the previous relationship he had with White House communications director Stephanie Grisham in which she made allegations.

And then there's this woman who says in high school he pushed her down the stairs. And I said, is it true? All three of these women are lying?

They don't know each other? You think all three of them are lying? And he said, yes, as you heard.

And that was the interview. And, you know, we were pretty well steeped in the case and asked him a lot of detailed questions about a lot of things that happened, including the fact that when he went and did a live stream on Sunday to defend himself and released a tranche of information in a Dropbox that supposedly was proving that he was a good father to the two-and-a-half-year-old daughter that he and his ex-wife have, that in that file, in that Dropbox, was a nude photo of his daughter that his lawyer later apologized for including. It's a photo that his ex-wife's attorneys suggest could be considered child sexual abuse material.

And he acknowledged it but said that it was being taken out of context and that her genitalia was not visible. It was really quite a stunning interview.

SIDNER: It was very, very stunning. Jake, you talked to Miller about his baby, his two-year-old daughter, who reportedly said that she didn't feel safe at his home. How did he respond to this?

TAPPER: He denied that she was even capable of speaking in sentences like the ones his ex-wife had reported to Child Protective Services, I believe, as in their custody battle and in complaints about him. He said that she's not even capable of doing that. But at a different time, he described his daughter as saying something that was as complicated and complex a sentence. So it didn't really make a lot of sense. I think we have that clip.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[08:20:00]

MILLER: I then played Lauren Fox three separate audio videos, three separate audio videos of my daughter saying, three separate audio videos of my daughter saying, I do not want to go to mommy's.

I do not want mommy's and I do not feel safe.

TAPPER: Your ex-wife stated to police that your child told her in the days leading up to the discovery of the injury, quote, Daddy, kill you. She can't string together sentences like that. She's two and a half years old.

TAPPER: He just told me that she had said that she was scared to go to mommy's house.

MILLER: She is, and I have video of it.

TAPPER: But now you're saying that she's not capable of saying, daddy, kill you. I mean, it seems like she's either able to say one but not the other. That doesn't make sense.

MILLER: Jake, to be very direct, this is incredibly disturbing. I am not going to my child to say, daddy, kill you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER (on camera): So it is disturbing. He's right about that. And there are a lot of questions that I think people probably left after watching the interview, having in their head that he didn't fully answer.

SIDNER: Yes, I mean, there's one question that is not in people's heads. When you see that back-to-back, he contradicts himself when it comes to his two year old and what she is capable of. But there's just so many disturbing details here.

And there's, of course, the political background of all of this. And I know you'll be watching all of this. But the interview was extraordinary.

Jake Tapper, thank you so much for waking up early for us this morning. And we'll see you this evening between 5 and 7. Appreciate it -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes, a lot of questions coming out of that conversation, for sure.

SIDNER: Very much.

BOLDUAN: Breaking overnight, the FAA is investigating an air traffic safety incident involving President Trump aboard Marine One. There is new video coming in this morning. We're going to bring that to you.

And we're also standing by for official word, perhaps coming from NASA anytime now, about whether a piece of a SpaceX rocket crashed into the moon overnight. How it could impact space missions in the future.

[08:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: A man arrested outside the president's golf course in Southern California is expected to be in court today. This all happened Sunday, but we're really only learning about it now. The suspect is 38-year-old Jeanine John Taele.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said that he was arrested after federal agents reported a suspicious person walking the property and he was found wearing an earpiece and taking photos and videos of the grounds. They say they later found a loaded pistol, ammo, and binoculars in his truck. President Trump was on his way to California last night to speak at an RNC event when this arrest was announced.

Joining me right now is CNN senior law enforcement analyst Andrew McCabe for much more on this. He's going to be back in court. It seems that they have a lot of investigative material under their belt already, though.

What questions do you have, Andy?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, Kate, well, the big question here is what was this guy doing, right? So he's been arrested on firearms violations both at the federal and state level. Those charges seem to be very strong.

They've got great evidence to work with, the prosecutors do, but the bigger question is here is did this person -- were they intending to bring any harm to the President of the United States? And in order to answer that question, you can see from the complaint that's been released about Mr. Taele, he's being subjected to what is undoubtedly a full-field investigation by the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force in the Los Angeles area. So they are going to look deeply at everything they can find associated with him.

They've already searched his residence. They'll search any other place that's associated with him. They'll look for electronics devices.

They'll look for his social media accounts, for his telephone numbers, e-mail accounts, things like that to find statements and anything that would shed light on what his intent ultimately was. But there are, Kate, a couple of things here that kind of cut against the idea that this guy was some sort of an advanced operational planner.

BOLDUAN: Tell me what cuts against it.

MCCABE: Well, simply the fact that he was first observed on the golf course, I think on Friday afternoon, he was seen acting suspiciously, taking photographs, videos, had an earpiece in, all the accoutrement, as it were, of an actual security detail person. He then appears again on Sunday at the golf course, and on that day, he actually precipitated the interaction with law enforcement. He approached law enforcement and very readily answered questions.

That's not the kind of thing that you would see a terrorist do or someone who was at the golf course conducting operational surveillance or planning an attack. They would flee. Certainly, once they'd already been seen by law enforcement, once they would go out of their way not to be seen again.

So that's a little bit odd. He also had false indicators of affiliations with law enforcement. He had fake badges in his car.

He had more fake badges in his house. So it's really questionable, I think, at this point, whether this guy is a serious threat or whether he is a disturbed person that was engaged in some activity. Either way, it's got to be investigated.

The simple fact that he could present a threat to the president of the United States means you have to get to the bottom of this.

BOLDUAN: Yes, but you really kind of lay out some of the interesting, complicating contours of what they've uncovered so far. And clearly, they're in the midst of an investigation now, and he will be in court today. Andy, it's great to see you.

Thank you so much. Go pick up that text message now. Appreciate it -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, this is just into CNN. Just a few minutes in, the race for Michigan's Democratic Senate primary, we have just learned, is getting even closer.

[08:30:00]