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Crowley Narrowly Defeats Dem Socialist Hong In Wisconsin Governor Primary; Civil Rights Groups Challenge New Birthright Citizenship Order; Fever Coach Blasts Those "Trying To Hijack Our League." Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired August 12, 2026 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:33:32]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So the breaking news in the wee hours of the morning. CNN projected that David Crowley, a Milwaukee City Councilman, will be the Democratic nominee for governor in Wisconsin, defeating democratic socialist Francesca Hong. But you can see the margin here -- a razor-thin -- 3,200 votes. That's it. And this was a big upset.

Francesca Hong was leading in most of the polls -- almost all of the polls leading up to Election Day, in some cases by a substantial margin. And she was seen as being on the far left of the party -- so controversial even Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez -- they did not endorse here. So this was a stunning result and one that might cause a little bit of a sigh of relief for national Democrats -- establishment Democrats around the country.

I want to go to Andrew Desiderio, senior congressional reporter for Punchbowl News. Again, an unexpected result -- sort of an establishment strikes back.

What's the significance of this, do you think, going forward?

ANDREW DESIDERIO, SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER, PUNCHBOWL NEWS: Well look, Republicans were certainly hoping to be able to run against Francesca Hong. The Republican nominee for governor in that race is Congressman Tom Tiffany, and they were openly talking about it as such.

And I think it just further underscores and highlights some of the polling misses we've seen so far throughout these primaries.

[07:35:00]

I mean, just look at the Michigan Senate race, for example. Abdul El- Sayed was up by around 10 points, according to the polling average. He only ended up winning by a few points.

And so, you know, we have to I think take a lot of these polls going forward -- BERMAN: Um-hum.

DESIDERIO: -- with a grain of salt, especially when there's so much fervor surrounding this moderate versus progressive fight that's ongoing within the Democratic Party.

BERMAN: Look, it's also possible that David Crowley closed the gap substantially in the last few days when there was much more national focus on this race.

I want to talk about your area of expertise.

DESIDERIO: Absolutely.

BERMAN: I want to home in on Connecticut here if I can and scroll up and look at the House races here because there was an incumbent to go down -- John Larson, right here who has been in Congress since, what, 1999. He was defeated by Luke Bronin.

DESIDERIO: Yeah.

BERMAN: Tell me about the significance of another Democratic incumbent going down in a primary.

DESIDERIO: Well, this is the seventh House Democrat to lose a primary this cycle and it was another example of the sort of generational change that we're seeing from Democratic voters, from the Democratic base -- a desire for that generational change.

John Larson has been in office since, as you mentioned, 1999. There have been questions surrounding his health as well. He had a freezing incident on the House floor actually that was similar to what we saw from Mitch McConnell. He froze up essentially as he was in the middle of speaking. And Luke Bronin and other Democrats who were looking for that generational change used that and other health issues --

BERMAN: Um-hum.

DESIDERIO: -- that John Larson has had over the years to try to -- to try to oust him from office.

BERMAN: And one other notable thing here. This was not close. This was a blowout. So a challenger defeating an incumbent.

One more race I want to point out here. Again, your area of expertise. I want to go down to South Carolina -- the special primary there to long-term replace the seat held by Lindsey Graham, the deceased senator. His sister is currently serving in a temporary role.

The first two people progress here. You can see Darline Graham did lead the field but just at 32 percent of the vote. She and Ralph Norman now progress to a runoff. The significance of that?

DESIDERIO: Well look, I think this is going to be a major test of the sort of value of the Trump endorsement going forward. Usually, it's the golden ticket in the Republican -- in a Republican primary, especially in a red state like South Carolina.

But Ralph Norman is someone who has those House Freedom Caucus bona fides and he's someone who has been running for governor for the past year as well. Of course, he didn't win the nomination for governor. But he's someone who has been on the airwaves for a long time in South Carolina.

He is a MAGA conservative. And President Trump even acknowledged that last night when he was asked by reporters about it as he came off of Air Force One. And he also essentially said -- I thought this was really fascinating, John. He said that he only really endorsed her because of her brother, Lindsey Graham. And a lot of Senate Republicans, I've been told, believe that it was kind of careless on the part of the president to push her into this race knowing that she was, of course, grieving the death of her brother and also just the fact that folks didn't know much about her.

BERMAN: Um-hum.

DESIDERIO: And so this is going to be a really interesting runoff. It's only a two-week runoff and the president indicated that he's going to go campaign for her. So we'll see if he can overcome all of that.

BERMAN: Yeah. This will be a race or could very well be a race over the next two weeks. And I will note she is technically an incumbent in the sense that she is currently the sitting senator. She has the same name. Obviously, the last name as Lindsey Graham. Just 32 percent of the vote in the elections last night.

DESIDERIO: Yeah.

BERMAN: Andrew Desiderio, thank you so much for being with us. Much more to come here and in other races still in this primary season -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Thank you so much, John.

To keep this conversation going, joining me now is Congressman Mike Quigley, a Democrat from Illinois. He serves on the House Intelligence committee.

Lots of questions for you this morning, but let's start with what happened in Wisconsin. What lessons are you taking away from the Wisconsin primary compared to, say, the Michigan Senate primary -- both close, both with different results? One giving a more moderate candidate the win; the other giving a more progressive candidate a win.

What are you taking away from this? What do you learn from this?

REP. MIKE QUIGLEY (D-IL) (via Webex by Cisco): Look, this is the Democratic Party. It's not monolithic, you know. It has sections of it. I'm not pundit but I recognize it and always have. And at critical times I think they've bound together to do the right thing to win in general elections. We saw that in 2020 when Biden became the nominee. Labels become elusive as well. I'm viewed as progressive on social issues and a fiscal moderate -- fiscal responsibility.

But when we compare it to Republicans there's a party that has lost its soul. It is the party of Trump. I remember serving with Rep. Flake from Arizona and he still believes the Republicans need to move in that direction.

[07:40:07]

So I get the conflict that exists within our parties. I'd like to think the Democrats will always in the end do the right thing. But as we've always said, it's a big tent and it has a lot of people with voices to be heard. I'm not the one to tell voters that they're making the wrong decision. That's up to them.

SIDNER: Look, along this vein, you are running for mayor in Chicago as a moderate versus someone who is considered much more progressive. Are you running because you have a problem with the agenda of progressives like Mayor Brandon Johnson?

QUIGLEY: You know, I think the mayor is sincere. I don't have a problem with the mayor in that vein, but I'll say this. The number one issue in Chicago is the number one issue nationwide -- it's affordability and it begins with housing. Chicago's probably 100,000 units short. I disagree with the mayor on how we get that done.

Is that a progressive agenda? No. I think it's a pragmatic one. This is about accomplishing things. It's about governing well. And there's a lot of things we could do to move in the right direction.

SIDNER: Look, I want to talk to you about some of the new reporting that we've gotten this morning, and I'm sure some of which you have heard.

The president is essentially admitting there was this cloak and dagger ruse to get him to safety after threats at the NATO summit. We've not confirmed what The New York Times first reported -- that there was someone spotted with a shoulder-fired missile near that summit. So the president gets on another plane to keep him safe as is protocol. But the cabinet members -- some of this staff, the journalists that fly on Air Force One unknowingly were on the plane that could have been the target for Iran to try and assassinate the president.

So what questions do you have about how all this went down, and do you think that Congress should be briefed on all this?

QUIGLEY: Congress should absolutely be briefed on this. I mean, here's the question. What the hell? Who thought it would be a good idea to use one of the Air Force One's cabinet members, members of the press, and other staff as what, decoys?

I was in Turkey shortly after the failed coup that took place there several years ago. When I landed there were security concerns and my trip was shortened and where I went to in the country was shortened. I get how security concerns can come about in a quick period of time. But even in a short period of time, reasonableness, sense of mutual

respect for cabinet members and members of the press, and other staff should have at least told somebody this plane doesn't take off. If we're going to divert where the president goes or how this moves forward, we should treat everyone the same thing. Their security is as important, at least in terms of the respect we hold for them.

SIDNER: I do want to lastly ask you about this former marine who was held in Russia for four years. He was taken into custody in 2022. There are accusations that he was psychologically and physically beaten and that he is going through a tough time. But the president managed to get him back to the United States with negotiation with Russia.

Are you giving the president credit for that this morning?

QUIGLEY: Look, I give anyone credit for using diplomatic means to a positive end. Putin is a monster. I think the president needs to recognize this is what Putin is like, right? He has kidnapped tens of thousands of Ukrainian kids and taken them to Russia.

So look, you can commend the president for this, but I think he has to recognize the bigger picture -- that Putin is a war criminal and treating Ukraine and Russia as somehow moral equivalents in this conflict is wrong.

I stood on the ground Bucha, where there were 500 bodies beneath me in a mass grave.

I just think, you know, this is fine, Mr. President, but let's look at Putin in the bigger picture and recognize what he's done and hold him accountable for what he's done in Ukraine and to many others in his -- of his own citizens.

SIDNER: Yeah. Bringing up Bucha, I was there myself and witnessed some of that as well. Extremely disturbing.

And there are a lot of questions about what the president is planning to do vis-a-vis Ukraine when it comes to, for example, Patriot missiles and the like, where he has been a bit wishy-washy on whether or not the United States is going to hand over some of that technology to Ukraine that they've been asking for.

Congressman Mike Quigley, it is a pleasure to speak to you this morning. Thank you so much for coming on bright and early because I know it's an hour earlier there in Illinois, one of my favorite states. I appreciate you -- John.

[07:45:05]

BERMAN: All right. Happening now, recovery teams in Colombia searching for survivors after the worst earthquake there in decades. More than 220 deaths have been confirmed so far but again, that death toll is rising. Still, this morning there have been signs of hope.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) Woman pulled alive from quake rubble after 36 hours.

(Cheering)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Rescue crews saved a woman trapped beneath the collapsed hotel. She'd been there for more than 36 hours.

Then in the city of Cali, a baby was pulled from the wreckage of a destroyed apartment building. Workers say it was the faint whispers of a man also trapped under the debris that helped located the child -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. Thank you so much, John.

New this morning, lawyers with several civil rights groups are asking a federal judge to block President Trump's new birthright citizenship orders. In the court papers filed in New Hampshire the American Civil Liberties Union -- the ACLU as it's known -- said Trump's latest attempt to curb the right is unlawful.

The attorneys wrote, "...the court should underscore that the government may not strip away class members' citizenship through any executive orders or other similarly flawed assertions of executive power over birthright citizenship."

This marks the first direct challenge to the new executive order since it was signed last week by the president.

Joining me now is former U.S. attorney Michael Moore. He's much more than a former U.S. attorney. He does a lot of things.

All right. So look, the Supreme Court rejected this idea in the first place of changing --

MICHAEL MOORE, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY, PARTNER, MOORE HALL: Um-hum.

SIDNER: -- the -- I guess the meaning of the 14th Amendment and who gets this right. If you were born in this country, they were clear, you belong to this country.

MOORE: Right.

SIDNER: You are a citizen.

So give me some sense -- we know this was going to end up in court.

MOORE: Sure.

SIDNER: Give me some sense about what the president has done in these executive orders and if you see any path for him to potentially end up back at the Supreme Court.

MOORE: Sure, sure. Well, it's good to be with you in Atlanta on set.

SIDNER: It's good to see you in person.

MOORE: This is really just another effort by Trump to exert authority where he doesn't have it. Remember, he had a really resounding loss just a few months ago in the Supreme Court when the court came out and said look, if you're born here, the children have a right to be here and we're not going to let you do this.

Well now we're getting close to an election. His numbers are taking. He needs to revive an issue to campaign on. So this is just another order to put out there.

What he did in this last and most recent executive order is he sort of expanded what the court had said would be permissible. So he now says, you know, we're going to limit the categories of people but I'm also going to save folks coming in who may be guilty of birthright tourism.

SIDNER: Tourism, right.

MOORE: And that's such a subjective --

SIDNER: Right.

MOORE: -- definition that he can tell his minions out there in the State Department and otherwise to just look at people and say well, we think maybe since you're coming here that you intend to have a baby and try to bound. This is -- that's going nowhere.

SIDNER: Yeah.

MOORE: And I think this is really more about politics than it is about real law. And he's known for trying to exert his king-like authority by signing a piece of paper and putting his wax seal on it, I guess. But I think the court is going to make, you know, short work of this.

SIDNER: Well, and it was no surprise that as soon as this was signed that some group --

MOORE: Sure.

SIDNER: -- and the ACLU being the one that you would expect --

MOORE: Right.

SIDNER: -- would go up against this and say hold on a second. He's trying to mess with this again. Is this right? The courts will end up deciding in the end, right?

MOORE: But they will. They'll decide again, but it keeps the issue for him alive for the next 90 days while he -- while he campaigns.

SIDNER: That's correct.

All right. So he's also using his executive power to try to reshape the childhood vaccine schedule. And I was really wondering -- I was sort of listening to him go through what he said was -- he was giving some medical advice which, you know, a lot of doctors are, rightfully so --

MOORE: Right.

SIDNER: -- upset with.

What power does the president have to exert his rules in this instance? Does he have it?

MOORE: He doesn't -- he doesn't have any. There's a vaccine policy that goes through the vaccine advisory panel and then it goes through the CDC, and so there's this recommendation process and this implementation process that's already built in.

I mean, the fact that we could just say well, tell us what vaccine the Trump children have and what their process was --

SIDNER: Right.

MOORE: -- and maybe we'll be fine letting every child in America have that, you know.

But it's shocking to me that he comes out and claims to be a doctor, and maybe plays one on TV, and gives this idea that somehow he's got a better way to do it --

SIDNER: Yeah.

MOORE: -- in the midst of a measles outbreak and otherwise. So he really has no authority to implement this at all. This is just another campaign issue, it's another sort of promise that he talked about in talking point, and I think it'll go nowhere. And it's not something that could be implemented quickly regardless because of the things that would have to happen to change the vaccines and do that kind of thing.

SIDNER: Yeah.

MOORE: We're starting back to school. I mean, it's --

SIDNER: Yeah.

MOORE: These parents are, like, playing ping-pong in a hurricane, right? They don't know which way to go. They're getting direction and it comes through. So, you know, here we are again.

SIDNER: Those southern sayings, I miss them so much. Playing ping-pong in a hurricane.

MOORE: That's what it feels like.

SIDNER: I'm keeping that one if you don't mind.

MOORE: I think that's what it feels like to me, so that's really great.

SIDNER: All right. Thank you so much. MOORE: It's great to be with you.

SIDNER: It's great to see you.

MOORE: Great seeing you.

[07:50:00]

SIDNER: All right -- John.

BERMAN: All right. New this morning, Spotify announced a new way to identify AI on its platform. They say they're going to add a badge to accounts that appear to be AI-generated on the profiles and the search tab, and next to the names of the playlists. Profiles with the AI Persona label will not be included in Spotify's algorithmic recommendations. They said, "True artist-fan connection can only be built on a foundation of trust and authenticity."

So the badge is going to be based on the artist's public identity, as in is it a human or is it a computer; not how the music was made. So AI could be used to help a human make the music.

A powerful storm flips a car on a highway. Which areas are under threat this morning.

And strange noises coming from the trunk. Police recover a pair of baby goats from a stolen car.

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[07:55:40]

SIDNER: The Indiana Fever on a win streak despite some controversy. And their coach has had plenty of y'all talking smack today, about 2 1/2 minutes ahead of the Fever's win over the New York Liberty to blast outsiders for trying to bring divisiveness to the WNBA.

The British in me came out. Divisiveness is how we say it here.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: You can say it however you want.

SIDNER: CNN's Andy Scholes is here with us to discuss. She was hot sauce.

SCHOLES: Yeah. She was hot, yeah.

SIDNER: Whew!

SCHOLES: Sara, the discourse around the WNBA these days -- it's been about everything other than basketball, right? You know, you've got former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White. They declared for the WNBA draft. And then you had the whole DiJonai Carrington hard foul and Sophie Cunningham controversy from over the weekend.

Well, many Fever fans took some issue --

SIDNER: (Pointing at Andy).

SCHOLES: What are you pointing at me for? Really, oh.

SIDNER: That's me pointing. I just wanted to try it.

SCHOLES: Many Fever fans took some issue with how Fever head coach Stephanie White handled that situation. They were not happy that she didn't stick up more for Cunningham. They actually booed White during pregame introductions. Now, Caitlin Clark said she hated that the fans booed White and she loves playing for her.

Now before all of that, White gave an impassioned statement to reporters about people trying to hijack the WNBA.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHANIE WHITE, HEAD COACH, INDIANA FEVER: The hate, the fearmongering, the divisiveness, the stuff that's trying to hijack our league will not win. When they go low, we go high. Love will win, grace will win, humility will win, and kindness will win. I stand by them. I will always stand by them. Everybody else can go to hell.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All right.

Well, as for the actual Fever game, Caitlin Clark put up 22 points to go with 10 assists. Indiana beat New York in that one 106-92.

Meanwhile in baseball, it was Pope Leo Night in Chicago, so the White Sox gave out 40,000 pope hats. Pope Leo, of course, from Chicago -- a big Sox fan. Sister Mary Jo -- she was on hand to throw out the first pitch and check her out. She fires that one in there.

SIDNER: Yay!

SCHOLES: She put a little heat on that.

And then the first batter of the game for the White Sox, Brenton Doyle -- he went yard. Doyle then went and got himself a pope hate to celebrate in the dugout. A fun night there. The White Sox were up 4-0 on the Reds, but Cincinnati rallied a comeback to win that game 5-4 in extras.

Finally, a new fear unlocked. A high school player in Arkansas --

SIDNER: Oh, shoot!

SCHOLES: -- practiced football for nearly an hour with a viper in his helmet. The player said he felt unusual movements going on in his helmet and then following warm-ups he brought it to an assistant coach for inspection. That's when they found a two-foot cottonmouth viper in there behind some of the padding.

SIDNER: Uh-uh. SCHOLES: Cottonmouth is the second-most venomous snakes found in Arkansas. They got it out of the helmet, Sara, and then threw it -- went and threw it in the woods. But kids, check your helmets before you put them on. You never know if there's going to be a viper in there.

SIDNER: I'm too scared to move. Like, are you serious? No!

SCHOLES: My son plays football and I couldn't imagine.

SIDNER: My dad's viper. OK, first of all, a cottonmouth. I'm afraid of it all.

SCHOLES: Man.

SIDNER: That's not OK. And I'm from Florida. I'm used to seeing those darn things, but not in a helmet.

Andy Scholes, it is a pleasure.

SCHOLES: All right.

SIDNER: No helmets on set -- John.

BERMAN: All right. That's messed up.

New this morning, deadly, relentless storms slamming the Midwest with the potential for more flooding ahead. At least two people have been killed. A funnel cloud there somewhere -- there it is. A funnel cloud spotted on the road in Ohio.

Also in Ohio, high winds flipped a car. You can see barely visible there. You can see those lights. There's the car going over. That happened near Columbus. There were wind gusts of more than 90 miles per hour. The region is expecting more storms today.

The Powerball jackpot is now the eighth largest in history, about $1 billion. The odds of winning are about one in 292 million, which means you won't -- Sara.

SIDNER: John! Darn it. But guess what you will see? This is so cool. Space enthusiasts, get ready. You've got a rare chance to see a meteor shower and an eclipse this week. Today, if you're in the northern hemisphere, you could see either a total or partial solar eclipse.

CNN's Allison Chinchar here with me now. She's got on her eclipse outfit, which she doesn't get to wear all the time.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: We do not get to wear this all the time, so this is a very special occasion.