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Trump Doubts Voter Turnout For GOP When He's Not On Ballot; 3 Teachers, 3 Students Dead In Thailand School Shooting; Scientists Use AI To Create 16 New Viruses From Scratch. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired August 07, 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]

ANDREW DESIDERIO, SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, PUNCHBOWL NEWS: And because Republicans simply do not have the votes to get rid of the filibuster, right?

So naturally, that leaves Republican voters -- the -- you know, the MAGA base, if you will, to get pretty demoralized and upset with Republicans in Congress and have this sentiment that they're -- that they're not doing enough. That they're -- that they're not carrying out the will of sort of, you know -- or the mandate of President Trump. And with him not on the ballot that makes it even worse.

So I found it quite ironic that the president said that but then said he doesn't know the reason why.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Right, exactly.

Notable, he sort of dodged a question about whether he would support John Thune to lead Republicans in the Senate during the next Congress.

And then he also gave -- I think, again, something I haven't heard before -- a notable answer on what it would be like to work with Hakeem Jeffries if he became Speaker of the House -- listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think he's a nice guy. I mean, I did -- he was here.

JAKE SHERMAN, FOUNDER, PUNCHBOWL NEWS: Yeah.

TRUMP: We had a good meeting. I was in -- you know, look --

SHERMAN: He's harsh on you. He says -- I mean, he --

TRUMP: Well, he's harsh because I'm harsher than him, you know. I'm sure he wouldn't be so harsh. I've said bad things about him.

SHERMAN: Could you do business with him, you think?

TRUMP: Yeah, I think so. Look, the people that are harsh on me, I'm harsh on them. It's part of the world. You cover it very well. You cover specifically, Congress. You see a strange group of people.

SHERMAN: (Laughing).

TRUMP: But I'd probably get along with him very well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: What do you think about that? Again, it's just not the type of language that you might have expected about the person who is going to lead the Democrats -- who does right now -- in the House but could be the speaker soon.

DESIDERIO: Well, he's right about the "strange group of people" remark, I will say from personal experience.

But look, you saw how the president worked with Nancy Pelosi, for example, when she was Speaker of the House during the last two years of his first presidency, and they did not work well together at all, obviously. They were at odds over everything. They impeached him twice, right?

There's -- you know, there's going to be a push from progressives, in particular, in the House next year if they -- if they do regain power to impeach the president for a third time. And Hakeem Jeffries is going to have to deal with those internal challenges as well as confronting the president on all of this. And frankly, look, he's going to have to work with the president on funding the government -- the very basics, right?

So you can kind of separate out those two things -- fighting the president and some things -- on most things and then working together on other things.

But as we've seen throughout this Congress in a Republican trifecta, Democrats have still, you know -- egged on by their voters in the progressive base, they've still wanted their leadership to fight, fight, fight. And that's what we're seeing in these primaries throughout the country where progressives are winning out.

BERMAN: I will say if I'm trying to get Republicans elected to Congress I do not think I would like sound that the president saying that voters are angry at Republicans and I can work with Hakeem Jeffries. Those might not be the campaign messages Republicans running for Congress were hoping for this morning.

Andrew Desiderio, great to see you. Our compliments to you and Jake Sherman for a really newsmaking interview. Appreciate it.

All right. This morning a new move by Congressman Max Miller to save his campaign in the face of domestic abuse allegations, which he denies.

He told The Wall Street Journal he's putting a million dollars of his own money into the campaign. "I am invested in this election in every way, and I will invest the resources into my campaign to win." Miller is facing growing calls from Republicans now in Congress to step aside. Republican Sen. Tim Sheehy, of Montana, called Miller a "degenerate sociopath" and said he should step aside and seek help. Fellow Republican Sen. Jon Husted posted "I believe Max would be making the right decision to step aside as a candidate and resign from Congress to focus on what is in the best interest of his daughter."

That makes both Republican senators from Ohio calling for him to step aside, including Sen. Bernie Moreno who is the father of Miller's ex- wife. He says he sent his daughter and granddaughter out of state to secure -- to a secure place amid the allegations.

So far, President Trump has dodged questions about Miller and whether he should leave the race.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: The deadline for Rep. Max Miller to withdraw from his race is coming up next week.

TRUMP: Uh-huh.

REPORTER: Do you believe he should withdraw?

TRUMP: Well, I'm not going to get involved and that's a very sad situation. And I know Max very well. But it's very, very sad that a situation like that takes place.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Ohio's 7th Congressional District is pretty solidly Republican. President Trump won it by 11 points in 2024. Voters there are now weighing in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMY SMOYER, REPUBLICAN VOTER: I want to know the facts and hopefully we can hear the facts before voting comes up.

TERRY PENROSE, REPUBLICAN VOTER: I haven't seen any actual facts or video, or anything that would support her allegations, but I don't want to say that she's lying, you know. And I also -- we support Moreno. So it's really kind of a challenging situation.

[07:35:10]

MARTIN KERR, REPUBLICAN VOTER: Running for Congress while you're being accused of this stuff -- no, man. Just set it down. If you're really innocent, then be innocent. Take a few years off. You can afford it as you can afford all the attorneys for your divorce and everything else. Take a couple of years off and come back if you're truly innocent. If not, well then, deal with it and go get a real job.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: So the deadline is more or less Monday to get Miller's name off the ballot. So watch this space for activity the next few days -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: There is a lot going on with that case.

All right. This morning Iranian lawmakers are at work on a bill that would bar vessels from the U.S., Israel and other countries Tehran considers hostile from sailing through the Strait of Hormuz.

We are also learning that senior U.S. officials say President Trump is furious over reports that some U.S. munitions are being depleted in the war with Iran, and that he has privately complained that this is making the U.S. look weak in negotiations.

Joining me now to discuss, CNN national security analyst Beth Sanner, and CNN military analyst, retired Col. Cedric Leighton.

Cedric, to you first. Look, the Center for Strategic and International Studies has done an analysis of this. We are also hearing from our own sources saying that these stockpiles, especially of things like Patriot missiles, have been depleted. In that case, for the Patriots, by two-thirds.

So when the president says it makes America look weak and he's frustrated with it, how big of a problem is this in your estimation?

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST, U.S. AIR FORCE (RET.) (via Webex by Cisco): Yeah, good morning, Sara.

It is a big problem. I mean, when you look at the figures it's -- you now, to deplete two-thirds of our Patriot resources for a conflict with Iran when there are other conflicts going on, including Ukraine, that becomes a big issue. And we also have to keep in mind we might end up having to defend a country like Taiwan in the face of Chinese aggression -- potential Chinese aggression.

So these are the kinds of things that, you know, should keep military planners up at night and they certainly seem to be keeping up the president at night.

And when you look at all the different things that are going on in terms of the need for these kinds of munitions, it really shows the need to revamp the defense industrial base -- and that, of course, is a -- is a very serious issue.

The president and the Department of Defense have started to work on that. The president invoked the Defense Production Act this past month and that's certainly a start in fixing things. But in addition to fixing these areas, what they also need to do is develop more innovative weapons that are cost effective. They're starting to do that and that is one of the things that, of course, should be part of the Defense Department's agenda at this point.

SIDNER: Beth, I am curious. We've talked about this before that, sort of, Iran has this new tool to needle countries that it finds to be hostile towards it, and that the Strait of Hormuz. It used to be the nuclear program. Now the strait has become sort of its favorite child.

When you look at what they are doing now by kind of bypassing talks with the United States and going to Oman and making these demands, what does this all mean for where we are in this war and how long this could go on, and what this is going to mean, for example, to the world economy?

BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST, FORMER DEPUTY DIRECTION, NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE FOR MISSION INTEGRATION (via Webex by Cisco): Right. I mean, there's a lot there.

And I think that, you know, the big picture here is that Iran is very emboldened right now. They are in a different place strategically with the IRGC in control as we have said for many, many months. And they're really playing hardball. I mean, after we bombed them for 13 days straight, they turned around after we ended that and they preemptively surprised the president by sending ballistic missiles into our troops in Jordan.

And, you know -- so they are not going to be willing to give up this option. And what they're doing right now with this bilateral negotiation with Oman is definitely trying to set up a permanent structure where they will control the strait and what traffic goes into the strait. And that means if an empty tanker wants to go in and fill up oil from Kuwait or Bahrain or whatever they could stop that from happening.

And so, you know, over the long term this would chance not just the structure of the Middle East and kind of who can wield power there. Iran wants to do this to protect themselves. But we have to think about all the other maritime chokepoints in the world, and this could set a cascading effect of other areas where countries say hey, you know, we want to exert more control.

[07:40:05]

SIDNER: Right.

SANNER: And so I think it puts the United States in a huge bind.

SIDNER: Yeah. I mean, there could be this domino effect, right? And obviously the countries in the Middle East who are watching this very closely are worrying about how they're going to navigate this as well on a larger scale.

Beth, I gave you a lot. I gave you a mouthful of things to try and sort out for us all at once at 7:30 in the morning. It is quite unfair, but as usual, you brought us through it, as did you, Col. Cedric Leighton. Thank you to both of you on this Friday. I do appreciate it. I hope you have a wonderful weekend -- John.

BERMAN: All right, we do have breaking news. Police in Thailand say a 14-year-old suspect killed six people at a school north of Bangkok -- three teachers and three students. The shooter allegedly stormed the secondary school after allegedly killing his grandparents in the home that he shared with them. Twenty-two people wounded, at least nine of them critically. The youngest victim we are told is just 12 years old.

CNN producer Karla Cripps was on the scene.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KARLA CRIPPS, CNN TRAVEL SENIOR DIGITAL PRODUCER: Yes. Well, first off, I'll start by saying I have a personal connection. My son actually attends this school. He's 17 years old so he's in his senior year but he's away in Japan this week. So it's been a really surreal day for myself and all the parents.

Everything kicked off just after 10:00 a.m. this morning. My son called me saying he heard a rumor from another student that there was an active shooter. And immediately -- and, of course, the parent chat groups -- the parents are talking about receiving these messages. And the uncertainty, the fear, it was palpable in that chat. It was just really difficult to go to.

When I arrived here today there was still ambulances pouring in. Just everybody looking really stunned -- parents, students. My own son -- I'm sorry to say he said one of the casualties was one of his own favorite teachers. So it's been a really hard day for all of us.

It's a wonderful school. They have a really lively community. They're very supportive of the students.

A lot of parents now are just asking what comes next. Right now they're still -- the place is swarming with police. Yeah, there's just a lot going on so they haven't really communicated what comes next just yet. So we're all waiting to see.

As I said, it is just so -- a really surreal atmosphere here at the school. Everyone is -- it's unbelievable.

BERMAN: Oh, our heart goes out to Karla Cripps. We're thinking of her and her family and all the people inside that community. That is just so hard to hear -- Sara.

SIDNER: And unusual for this to happen -- a school shooting in Thailand. It's a horrific scene there. Thank you, John.

All right. New this morning, for the first time, scientists have used artificial intelligence to create 16 brand-new viruses that up until now didn't exist in nature. A medical breakthrough that is being called a "very significant" turning point for science. But it doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that this could be dangerous as hell.

The group trained AI models on entire libraries of DNA and then used that genetic data to create the viruses. This is important. The viruses do not pose a threat to humans. They were created only to infect bacteria. But experts are warning that this technology could, of course, be used by bad actors to create deadly bioweapons, even trigger pandemics. But the researchers behind the project say the technology could be used as well to "massively improve human health."

You have these two things and, John, you know and I both know human nature often leans -- well, to the dark side -- John.

BERMAN: Yeah. And so as this is happening the man known as the "Godfather of AI" warning that the smarter artificial intelligence gets the harder it will be for humans to control it.

Nobel Prize-winning computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton says he is alarmed by the recent incidents of AI agents escaping their test environments -- listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEOFFREY HINTON, "GODFATHER OF AI": We're actually making new kinds of beings. They have goals. We give them goals. And from those goals they derive other goals. And we don't necessarily know what other goals they'll derive. And so we're creating a new kind of being and I think it's very scary.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So do you believe that AI is intelligent?

HINTON: Oh, it's absolutely intelligent. I think sometime between five and 20 years they'll be better than us at more or less any intellectual task. And then they could easily crush us if they wanted to.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: "They could easily crush us if they wanted to."

[07:45:00]

With us now is Madison Mills, senior AI reporter for Axios.

And I just want to put this on the news over the last 24 hours, which is AI being used to create these viruses. And we're told oh, it's this bacteria that can't affect humans. And we're told oh, the scientists were in control all the time.

But how comfortable should we be given what else we've been hearing about AI?

MADISON MILLS, SENIOR AI REPORTER, AXIOS (via Webex by Cisco): Well, I think OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman said it himself last week. He said that he was surprised that there wasn't more public backlash about -- and frankly, concern in general about the fact that we were hearing about agents from these AI labs essentially thinking and growing two feet and breaking out of their sandboxes to act nefariously. And now Sam Altman got his wish, right?

We've got plenty of people -- including, like you said, John, the Godfather of AI -- coming out and saying yeah, this is concerning.

Couple that with the fact that Meta now is coming forward and saying they had a similar problem with one of their agents. So it's kind of like every major AI lab gets an agent hack these days.

And then you've got this virus story as well. I could list 10 other examples of stories that we've covered at Axios over the last couple of weeks indicating that AI is getting so exponentially more powerful at any second that it is creating a lot of concern among the experts that I talk to about who is going to control all of this as we get towards this idea of artificial general intelligence, which some people say we're already there. And that's when the AI agents and chatbots can sort of act on their own accord, and that's the thing that people are understandably concerned about.

BERMAN: Yeah. They don't need humans to be asking the questions, like in a chat. They just do it themselves.

And one of the things you hear --

MILLS: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- especially from these -- when these genetic AI is trying to attack other AI companies, which is what's been happening. Oh, but we caught it. There -- you know, there are humans who thought this was all in a test environment. There are humans in the loop. That's the phrase we hear.

Who's to say that this AI won't be able to get around those humans in the loop, and who are these humans? Can they be trusted?

MILLS: This is something that I've been thinking about a lot in our reporting. You know, I was asked recently in another interview what -- how it could work that AI could lead to serious physical harm among humans. It's part of your computer, right?

Unfortunately, we're already seeing evidence that AI can convince humans to cause harm. Unfortunately, the clearest evidence we have of that is humans harming themselves, and you have a lot of evidence of that. So it's not that far of a reach to think about some of these instances that could happen where someone using a chatbot could be convinced by that chatbot to do something nefarious to other living humans.

And one of the other things, John, to your great question that's really been interesting is that there's some concern that some of these hacks are happening because of a human in the loop. Because a human made a mistake. And what does that world start to look like where you have to have agents that are acting as the protectors against agents that are the ones doing the bad acting.

This is why we talk a lot about the concept of alignment, making sure that these models are sort of having a moral compass that is similar to that of humanity. But that's a very difficult thing to ensure, again, as they get closer and closer to being able to act on their own.

BERMAN: Yeah, especially when you have questions sometimes about the moral compass of humans.

Madison Mills, thank you for sharing your reporting on this. Appreciate it.

So what happens when there is an earthquake during a delicate surgery? Look at this dramatic new video. It has the answer.

And you're not going to like this. Mosquitoes are getting smarter. They're learning how to avoid people who swat at them.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:53:05]

SIDNER: Wait for it. Here's the hint -- da-da-da-da-da-da. Let's just get onto Andy Scholes because we got a short amount of time and I think it's important for you to say you like my singing.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Sara, I love your singing for one, but I want to say we made it, right? We're now going to have some sort of football on our TVs on Thursday night for the rest of the year.

And it was the Cardinals and Panthers kicking things off in the Hall of Fame game to start the preseason. No starters playing in this one, but the rookie QBs were impressive. Carson Beck, who was a third-round pick for the Cardinals, looking really good. He went 15 for 19, 188 yards, and a touchdown.

Carolina -- they were down 30-27 in the final seconds and then Haynes King calls his own number. Last year's ACC Player of the Year out of Georgia Tech who went undrafted gets in for the game-winning touchdown as time expires.

The Panthers celebrate. They win the preseason opener 33-30.

Now we also had a thriller in the WNBA last night. The Fever up three in the closing seconds when Caitlin Clark gets fouled, but she misses both free throws. So the Aces are going to get one more chance and off the deflection here Vegas gets it to Chelsea Gray. She nails the clutch three at the buzzer to send the game to overtime.

Then in the extra period, A'ja Wilson guarding Clark. She's going to steal it from her. So here comes the Aces down by one. Time winding down. Gray gets it again going for the win -- it's good.

Clark had eight turnovers in this one as the Aces get the thrilling win 86-84.

We also had one of the best baseball games of the year last night. In the bottom of the ninth the Red Sox down to their final strike. Wilyer Abreu comes through with the RBI single to tie the game. So we go to extras tied at seven. The Red Sox would then rally to tie the game again in the 10th, the 11th, and the 12th. Finally, Caleb Durbin, the hero for Boston -- his single to center here wins the game.

[07:55:00]

Red Sox win 12-11, their eighth-straight victory. They've now won an incredible 31 out of their last 36 games.

Meanwhile in Philly, the Phillies had second and third in the first. Alec Bohm -- he's going to crush this one to right. So Luis Arraez was on second. He's going to try to come in to score and watch what he does. He jumps over the initial tag, then thought about making some moves but then just cut his losses and headed right back to the dugout. Probably smart, yeah. You don't want to tweak something doing with the catcher.

Meanwhile in Atlanta, this may be the most gifted home run of all time. Ronald Acuna Jr. hits this ball deep to left center but the Marlins' leftfielder and centerfielder collide, and the ball bounces off of them and then over the fence. Acuna didn't even know it happened. And look -- take another look. That ball wasn't even going to be close to a home run, but it goes over the fence.

The Braves won that game 11-3. They've now eight games in a row just like the Red Sox.

But Sara, I mean, I felt bad for those Marlins outfielders. They were like we've run into each other and what just happened?

SIDNER: I don't feel bad for them. Communicate. That's what the coach always tells you. Hello?

SCHOLES: Right. You know, I got it.

SIDNER: All right. Speaking of communication, I'm ending ours, Andy Scholes. Love ya -- mean it.

SCHOLES All right.

SIDNER: Bye.

BERMAN: I got it. I got it.

SIDNER: You take it.

BERMAN: See what I did there?

SIDNER: Yeah, exactly.

BERMAN: I got it, which is what those outfielders should have done. I got it.

All right. New this morning, the mosquitoes are adapting, so what are we going to do about it?

CNN's Meg Tirrell has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MEG TIRRELL CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: So it turns out mosquitoes are a lot smarter than we've been giving them credit for.

CLEMENT VINAUGER, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, VIRGINIA TECH There's also the -- that notion of mosquitoes adapting their behavior in response to the things we do. After many, many years of using the bed nets, the mosquitoes started shifting the time at which they look for the humans to bite. So we saw rebounds in malaria transmission for that. So there's a lot plasticity in their behavior.

TIRRELL: And they're also really gross. Whoa, ew, bluck. I really don't like bugs.

We've come down to the labs of a scientist here at Virginia Tech who has been studying the brains and behavior of the world's deadliest animals. Let's go check it out.

VINAUGER: And when they bite you, they actually inject some saliva in your bloodstream and that saliva might contain some pathogens.

TIRRELL: They, of course, cause hundreds of thousands of deaths every year from malaria, spreading viruses like dengue, yellow fever, chikungunya, Zika. We're also off to an early and ominous West Nile virus season here in the United States. So the news is not good when it comes to mosquitoes.

VINAUGER: For the past 150 years we've had tools to fight back. We had our insecticides. The problem is that they've started developing some resistance.

TIRRELL: They also will remember people who try to swat at them and potentially avoid them in the future.

So they get whacked --

VINAUGER: Yeah.

TIRRELL: -- swatted.

VINAUGER: Yeah, exactly.

TIRRELL: And they don't like it.

VINAUGER: Yeah. And we have a publication showing that they actually can learn and make mechanical perturbations like that, that mimic swats.

TIRRELL: They're doing work here to try to get ahead of the bugs once again. They're doing this in some really incredibly fascinating ways.

VINAUGER: So we can sample people's body odor and using a technique that separates, you know, hundreds of chemicals into individual ones. And the machine is going to separate all the chemicals from the blend and send them to the mosquito, one at a time. And if we recall from the antenna of the mosquito, you can tell which one is detected by the mosquito.

TIRRELL: What could we do with that information?

VINAUGER: So, different things. You know, once you understand how they smell us, you can either use that information to create bait and lures to attract them towards traps. Or you can start thinking about engineering some repellents.

TIRRELL: All of this, the researchers tell us, will help us better understand how to protect ourselves against a threat that's only growing in its geographic distribution as climates warm.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: If you haven't seen this yet on our radar you need to stop and watch. This video capturing a moment an earthquake in Japan shook an operating room during a surgery. At the moment of the quake you can see the lights flickering and the equipment swayed violently, some of it even crashing to the ground.

Look at the medical staff here. They are heroes. They rush in to secure the patient first who was undergoing abdominal surgery.

A local news outlier -- outlet shows four surgeries were going on at the same time. The hospital said all four procedures were fricking completed somehow, adding they are incredibly proud. John is laughing a me but I'm freaking out here. They're proud of the surgeons and everyone involved.

How did they finish this successfully? They did, and they did it four different times in four different cases. I'm in awe of these medical professionals.

All right. In England, a 97-year-old woman is proving that age doesn't really matter. Tell that to my knees. This is Betty, the woman strapped to the wing of a plane breaking her own Guinness World Record as the world's oldest female wing walker. She first set the record just four years ago when she was -- I don't know. What is the math there, 93? And she decided to do it again this week -- amazing.

The flight raised money for the stroke unit that helped her recover after a stroke last year -- John.