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Iran Condemns Trump's Threat Of An "Economic D-Day"; Analysis: 150+ Polymarket Wallets May Have Traded On Military Secrets; "What We Tell AI" Project Asks Strangers To Reveal Secret AI Uses. Aired 7:30- 8a ET

Aired August 21, 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: Yeah. Lloyd Bentsen is the answer to the trivia question -- the "JEOPARDY!" question on Texas -- the last Democratic senator there.

Alex, I was reading in Politico --

ALEX GANGITANO, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, POLITICO (via Webex by Cisco): Yeah.

JACKIE KUCINICH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE BOSTON GLOBE (via Webex by Cisco): You want John on your team for this.

BERMAN: I was reading, Alex, in Politico this morning that JD Vance, on the subject of Ohio -- on the subject of Ohio, JD Vance, the Vice President of the United States, is going to Ohio today to deliver an economic message there. Interesting for a couple of reasons.

One, Ohio is absolutely a toss-up state in the Senate there. Sherrod Brown, the Democrat, running strong there. The second thing that is interesting here is that this may not be just a Senate campaign for JD Vance. I mean, every time JD Vance goes out -- the vice president -- you wonder if he's campaigning for something else.

GANGITANO: That's right. And, you know, this is his home state of Ohio. It's obviously fascinating whenever he wants to go back there.

He's there to help Jon Husted. That's somebody who, as you mentioned, is in a really vulnerable seat. Is this situation with him and Sherrod Brown going to be one of those seats that flips back and forth? We'll have to see.

But you're right. Every time Vice President Vance makes a big speech like this, especially in a state like Ohio, everybody's watching for what's going to be the focus of this. Can he just talk about what's going on right now or is he looking to the future?

You know, he brings up a lot of these fraud issues. That's one of his big projects going on now. That's something that I think he's looking at as part of his legacy item -- that can he see some successes there that he can bring ahead. It keeps him on the road. He wants to talk in different states about what's going on with these fraud issues that he claims are running rampant. That's something that he can talk about into the future.

So there's always all eyes on Vice President Vance when he travels and what kind of crowd he can bring in, and what kind of members of Congress want to be seen with him.

BERMAN: And Jackie, for his part, the President of the United States is going to South Carolina to campaign for Darline Graham in the Senate race there -- in the Senate runoff against Ralph Norman. This follows this debate performance where she sort of didn't answer a question about Taiwan and said she doesn't know enough about foreign policy yet.

And it comes at a time when the president's sort of perfect record -- or almost perfect record on endorsement in Republican fields is getting a little shaky. Like, how badly do you think he needs this tonight?

KUCINICH: This is probably two-fold. I mean, we know that he was very close to Lindsey Graham. He endorsed his sister as his successor. So I think on the one hand this is personal. And yes, it is -- it is political. This is someone that he has tapped and so he's going to try to boost her across the line. However, neither of these candidates are -- no one is like the anti-Trump. Everyone's pro-Trump in this race to replace Lindsey Graham.

But clearly, he feels like she needs a boost and we'll see if it's enough. Because as you mentioned, that debate performance showed that the Grahams were not interchangeable and that Lindsey Graham is going to be very tough to replace in the Senate.

BERMAN: Yeah. It will be interesting to see. That's a runoff, all of a sudden, that seems much more in play.

Jackie Kucinich, Alex Gangatino, have great weekends, both of you. Thanks so much for being with us --Sara.

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

New this morning, China is responding to President Trump's new threat against Iran, which includes imposing economic penalties on any country doing business with Iran. Beijing's Foreign Ministry spokesperson says sanctions and pressure tactics are not the solution. Iran, for its part, is vowing to prosecute and imprison anyone who carries out President Trump's so-called "Economic D-Day" against Tehran.

It comes after the president vowed to impose "the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country" and demanded that other countries stop doing business with Iran.

Joining me now is CNN senior military analyst, retired Adm. James Stavridis. Thank you so much for being here.

Look, this is part of the president's new strategy to crush Iran financially as opposed to bombing Iran constantly. Is this strategy one that appears to be a better choice?

ADM. JAMES STAVRIDIS (RET.), CNN SENIOR MILITARY ANALYST, FORMER NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER, VICE CHAIRMAN, THE CARLYLE GROUP (via Webex by Cisco): It's the best of a bunch of bad options, Sara, meaning the president could go back to full-blown hostilities, drop lots and lots of bombs. That's very expensive both in terms of finance for the munitions themselves and potentially the cost of our brave men and women in arms. So, bad option.

He could also simply wash his hands of this -- no pun intended given the maritime character -- and walk away from it. Again, really bad option.

So what's he left with? Essentially, what you see right now, which is a blockade along the Iranian coastline. You're showing about 1,000 miles of Iranian coastal ports. They're all under blockade. From all I can see, the Navy is doing a reasonably good job at this. It's putting pressure on Tehran.

[07:35:00]

Final thought brings us to the present moment. It's not enough to make it happen quickly so now he is trying to enlist the rest of the world to step in and be part of this blockade. I think that's going to be problematic, and China is only the first country that's going to decline the honor of being part of the blockade of Iran.

SIDNER: All right.

I do want to ask you about what's happening in the seas there given your expertise. The USS George Washington has arrived to replace the USS Abraham Lincoln in the region. And I know you've seen all this reporting, as we have, of families and sailors saying that they were suffering serious difficulties with food and mental capacity there on the USS Abraham Lincoln. They have dealt with shortages -- supply shortages and endured historically long deployment.

What changes here? Will it still be quite difficult to make sure that this ship doesn't face those same kinds of issues?

STAVRIDIS: This is exactly the issue, Sara, that the Navy is pulling apart right now in terms of the Abraham Lincoln situation. What went wrong? A clearly very stressful deployment for the crew. The crew performed magnificently. I think they'll be recognized for this long, arduous deployment.

But it's not how it's supposed to work. They're supposed to have good food, hot showers, toilets that work. Opportunity to get a break from the front line. None of that happened.

So what happened and why? The Navy looking at it.

Here's something not widely reported. The Iranians were able to take out a big chunk of the logistics that support these big carriers. They struck the central logistic hub in Bahrain very early in the conflict. So what has changed is the Navy has backfilled those logistic chains. And I think our sailors onboard the GW, the George Washington, are going to have a much better cruise. We all ought to salute the Abraham Lincoln as they sail home from a very tough stretch in war.

SIDNER: Admiral, it's always good to have you here to talk us through these things with your expertise. Thank you so much and have a good weekend -- Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Cleaning up and drying out this morning after a line of storms pounded the mid-Atlantic and parts of the northeast Thursday. In New York's Long Island, video shows a massive waterspout coming ashore. Just look at that.

The storms brought flash flooding and at least two tornadoes to the region. In Delaware, video shows one of those tornadoes ripping off -- ripping off the roof of a motel you see right there -- and it slowed down.

Let's get to CNN's Allison Chinchar. She's got much more on this -- on the damage done and what you're watching now for today.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah. I mean, it was quite a last 24 hours. Again, you had damaging winds and in the video behind me showing a tornado where in Pennsylvania. They will go out to survey the damage there later on today to kind of assess the rest of the storms that we had last night.

But again, it wasn't just in Pennsylvania. Take a look at this. We also had incredibly heavy rain in New York City. This video from Queens. Again, you can see kind of covering the entire roadway not just here, but that was a similar scenario that we saw across several states yesterday and could, in turn, see later on today as more storms are expected to fire up.

You take a look at all of the storm reports here. Again, you have a wide swatch here of storms -- everything from damaging wind reports to hail and yes, even a couple of tornado reports.

Very heavy rain across the northeast and the mid-Atlantic. Several of these areas getting about two to four inches. Keep in mind a lot of that was in a very short period of time, which is why you had flooding streets and even some of the water coming into some businesses.

Right now all that is left is just kind of eastern Long Island. Areas like Providence and Newport, Rhode Island. Looking up around Boston still looking at a few light showers. But for the most part the heavier rain is really going to be across the southeast today, particularly across portions of the Carolinas. And then a new wave will slide through the Midwest as we go later today.

Here you can see again a lot of the very heavy showers, even late this evening, right there through both North and South Carolina. That's going to continue to slide eastward. But we also start to see some more developing right there along the Midwest. That's going to continue as we head into the day Saturday. So again, you're going to be looking at multiple days here where we could be getting gusty winds. You also have the potential for flooding.

Here's a look at the greatest risk for today for severe weather. Again, you've got that area of the Carolinas where you saw those strong thunderstorms. That's stretches all the way back along the Gulf Coast. But you also have those areas within the Midwest where you could also see some damaging winds and perhaps even some large hail mixed into some of those storms, especially the ones late into the day. The ones later on this afternoon and the ones that will continue through the evening hours.

Flooding is also going to be a concern for some of these spots, especially across the Carolinas, not just because of those showers that we showed for you earlier but keep in mind some of these areas have had rain the last few days so that ground is already saturated. Now we're going to be adding more rain on top of it.

[07:40:00]

Guys, back to you.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely.

Allison, thank you so much -- John.

BERMAN: All right. New video this morning of a small plane crashing into a State Police helicopter at a Pennsylvania airport. The plane's pilot was killed. Oh, that's terrible. Two state troopers in the helicopter were injured.

And we are learning new details. Investigators say the pilots were communicating before the collision. The helicopter crew was on a training flight hovering above the ground, and the small plane was circling the airport in what officials describe as an unusual flight path.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AARON MCCARTER, NTSB INVESTIGATOR-IN-CHARGE: The Cessna came in straight and level and suddenly increased its pitch -- severe nose up -- did a left turn, leveled off again, and then flew into the back of the helicopter. So, you know, right now we don't know the details about why the pilot was flying in that pattern.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Investigators are planning to move the wreckage to a facility in Delaware as they search for answers -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Oh my goodness.

We also have new information now about a federal investigation into former Democratic Congressman Eric Swalwell who has been facing sexual assault allegations. Sources tell CNN FBI agents seized electronic devices from him when he was at the San Francisco airport on Saturday and also raided his D.C. home. Four women tell CNN they have now been contacted by the FBI as part of this probe. Swalwell has repeatedly denied all allegations of sexual assault. He

resigned from Congress and dropped his gubernatorial bid in April as the allegations came to light in reporting from CNN and the San Francisco Chronicle, including one former staffer saying that Eric Swalwell raped her. Now, neither the FBI nor Swalwell have responded to CNN's request for comment on the latest details -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right. This morning, actress Hayden Panettiere's on again- off again boyfriend is breaking his silence following her death on Sunday in Greenville, South Carolina. Before she died, Panettiere acknowledged that there was domestic abuse in their relationship. She also talked openly about her struggle with addiction.

CNN's Dianne Gallagher has the latest from Greenville.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hayden Panettiere's on again-off again boyfriend, Brian Hickerson, has released a statement through his attorney that reads in part, "Hayden's death remains under investigation, and it is important to allow that investigation to proceed. As has been publicly reported, police confirmed there were no signs of foul play."

And on Thursday, Greenville police did issue their own news statement reiterating that no signs of foul play were there during the initial response and investigation. Of course, that investigation remains ongoing. And according to reporting from The New York Times and ABC News, citing sources familiar, the federal Drug Enforcement Administration is now involved in this investigation.

Now, 36-year-old Hayden Panettiere died in an apartment here in this complex in Greenville, South Carolina. The police basically said they're not going to do interviews about this and they're treating the actress' death like all other death investigations. They work with the coroner's office and then they decide if a criminal investigation is warranted.

But you can see the flowers and notes that are left here by the sign in front of this complex. Again, she was only 36 years old. She spent most of her life in the public eyes. Fans and people in the community want to mourn her.

Now she was found unresponsive by her on again-off again boyfriend, Hickerson, and his brother according to a heavily redacted police report. Authorities have not determined the cause of death at this time pending further testing, including toxicology, which the coroner's office told CNN could take weeks if not longer to come back. But a possible overdose and CPR in progress were mentioned in dispatch audio.

Now, Hickerson showed officers a bag of Panettiere's medication, according to that police report, but the contents that were listed were redacted from there.

Now, Panettiere would have turned 37 years old on Friday. (END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: So a new report finds hundreds of accounts possibly used top secret military intelligence to wager money on Polymarket.

And a fisherman found alive floating on a cooler 150 miles off the coast five days after going missing.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:48:57]

BOLDUAN: A shocking new report on possible insider trading involving top secret U.S. military intelligence. An analysis from a nonprofit group found that more than 100 accounts on the prediction market Polymarket may have traded on insider military data, raising serious security concerns.

This comes after a high-profile indictment already, which a special forces soldier was charged with using classified information to place bets tied to the capture of Venezuela's -- well, now former leader Nicolas Maduro.

CNN's Marshall Cohen has more details on this. Troubling and troubling abound. What are you learning?

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah. This insider trading stuff just keeps coming up, Kate, doesn't it?

So to give you the context here just zoom out before we dive in. War markets like these are illegal in the U.S., so all of these trades occurred on Polymarket's international site. What's cool about that site is it runs on Blockchain, so all the trades are actually public and trackable even though it doesn't tell us who is actually doing the trading, but that data is still valuable.

[07:50:00]

And the folks at the nonpartisan Anti-Corruption Data Collective did a deep dive and they identified more than 150 accounts that showed signs of potential insider trading on these war markets, including markets about Iran. They said many of these accounts placed huge longshot bets and had a stunning win rate of 97 percent and altogether, those accounts profited more than $8 million. Wow, OK.

To be clear, Polymarket itself is not accused of any wrongdoing. And I spoke with a senior Polymarket official about these findings. They said they had already referred dozens of those accounts to the Justice Department, and they said criminal investigations are underway. We have reached out to the DOJ for comment on that as well.

Now, Polymarket says it's investing heavily on internal surveillance to prevent insider trading, and the company's founder and CEO Shayne Coplan actually brought that up yesterday at an event here in D.C. with federal regulators. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHAYNE COPLAN, FOUNDER AND CEO, POLYMARKET: We have someone here right now who is ex-FBI who works full-time at Polymarket and has built custom proprietary surveillance software on Chain. I know this is live-streamed so people are going to be upset to hear that.

But, you know, we talk with our partners, Palantir and Chainalysis, and they're like damn; you guys have this in-house? This is serious. Um, you know, and we're grateful to have that and we continue to invest more in it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: So Kate just looking at the big picture here, situations like these are exactly why so many policymakers are alarmed about these prediction markets.

A bipartisan coalition of 44 state attorneys general is pushing hard for more regulation and there's an increasing number of Democrats and Republicans in Congress who also want to rein in this industry -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yeah. I mean, the fact that they say they've already referred dozens of the accounts that are flagged here to the -- to the federal government for investigation is -- I mean, military secrets, potentially. This is quite something.

Marshall, thank you so much for your reporting. It's great to see you -- Sara.

SIDNER: Disturbing. Thank you so much, Kate.

Images of the desperate will to survive you're looking at. You can see, hopefully, that blue container there that -- it's a large fishing cooler where two fishermen survived inside for five days floating adrift in the sea. They had no food, no water, just floating in the open ocean.

The Mexican Navy launched a huge search by sea and air. Finally, they spotted them. You are seeing their rescue, which was 150 miles off the Pacific coast of Mexico. They were hoisted to safety and finally airlifted to port -- amazing.

All right. Police have finally been able to identify the man wearing this creepy doll mask and terrorizing people in Philly, but so far, they haven't been able to catch him. New video showing him creeping up behind a man there. Investigators say he was chasing people around City Hall. They believe he may be doing all of this to get social media fame. At least 15 people have reported encounters with this man. In one case, a woman says the man asked her, "Are you ready to die?"

He has been identified as 22-year-old Zymire Hughes. Police say an arrest warrant has been issued but they believe he has already fled Pennsylvania.

All right. Nothing says L.A. like a wild car cash or in this case, a bike chase. A man on a stolen dirtbike led police through city streets. Now, this is unusual. He stopped for gas during the chase and after filling up his gas tank he took the pump with him. He later rode through a park where he appeared to retrieve gas that had been left for him. Police eventually found him hiding in a recycling bin and took him into custody. Police say he went on that joy ride as a present for his 19th birthday.

Yeah. Now I have seen a lot of --

BERMAN: Present to whom?

SIDNER: Right. I've seen a lot of chases in L.A. I've never seen anyone stop for gas quite like this.

BERMAN: It's a gift to him. I mean, it's a gift to newscasts so they can run the crazy video.

SIDNER: That's what I'm wondering.

BERMAN: I don't get -- I don't get it.

All right. Thank you very much for that.

SIDNER: You're welcome.

BERMAN: So welcome to the NFL. Fernando Mendoza, the first-round pick had a pretty rough preseason game.

Let's get right to CNN's Andy Scholes. I've got to say I saw this on social media the minute it happened.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yeah. You know, John, Fernando Mendoza -- he had as good as a college season as there is -- an undefeated record, the Heisman Trophy, national championship -- but we knew there were going to be some growing pains now that he is in the NFL.

And the first overall pick -- he got to start for the Raiders against the Texans last night and in the first quarter the player you're talking about, Mendoza, picked off by Wade Woodaz here. And Mendoza is going to try to go chase him down, but he was unsuccessful. It's an 80-yard pick-six. Now, Mendoza didn't make the night's passes, but he finished eight for 15 and 86 yards.

[07:55:00]

But no matter how bad the night, Mendoza remains the most polite football player on the planet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FERNANDO MENDOZA, QUARTERBACK, LAS VEGAS RAIDERS: And please tell Mr. Buck I said hello.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, we love it. There you go. What about Mr. Aikman? MENDOZA: Oh, of course. I mean, he's a legend, you know. I think Mr. Buck needs some more love because, I mean, Mr. Aikman is already, you know.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well said, Fernando. You nailed it.

MENDOZA: Thank you. God bless.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: So good.

Now there was one more preseason game last night, the Niners at the Chargers. L.A. was punting. Jacob Cowing is going to bust it to the outside here for the Niners. Veteran punter JK Scott -- he was right in front of him and could have made a tackle, but I guess made a business decision to just let him go by. It went for an 83-yard touchdown.

Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh said after the game Scott needs to have a plan to make a tackle there and that's something they're going to need to work on.

All right. In the WNBA, meanwhile, Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers getting a little chippy with each other last night. Bueckers fouling Clark here in the second quarter kind of hangs on, and Clark didn't like that. Those two are actually going to be teammates on Team USA for the FIBA World Cup next month.

Now, Kelsey Mitchell, meanwhile, a WNBA record 21st straight game with at least 20 points last night. She went for 37 for Indiana, but it was the Wings who beat the Fever 91-85 to end their five-game winning streak.

And finally, if you thought you were having a bad Thursday, let me introduce you to Reds' centerfielder Dane Myers. Cincinnati was an out away from beating the Cardinals. JJ Wetherholt hits a routine fly ball with two on. Myers calls off TJ Friedl, but then he drops the ball. So St. Louis scores two runs. Instead of the game being over, the Reds were then losing. And there would be a lot more runs in that game after that. The Cardinals ended up winning 10-9.

You know, John, it looked pretty sunny out there. Maybe that's an excuse for Myers. But why is he calling off Friedl there? He ran a long way. He -- you know, rough day for him.

BERMAN: It's the centerfielder's call always, but only if you're going to make the catch.

SCHOLES: Yeah.

BERMAN: If you're going to call it --

SCHOLES: Correct.

BERMAN: -- you've got to catch it. That's the thing. Andy, thank you very much -- Kate.

SCHOLES: All right.

BOLDUAN: I'm blaming the sun and he was like kind of creepy up on him, you know. So, like, it was a little bit maybe a personal space issue. I'm just going to go with that.

What is your secret AI confession? A new art project is documenting hundreds of handwritten notes that reveal what people say they ask AI that they never want anyone else to see. These are very personal details, some of which people say they wouldn't even share with friends or family.

The project aims to show how artificial intelligence is already having a very real impact on the most -- even the most intimate parts of our lives.

CNN's Clare Duffy has much more on this. I am curious and slightly afraid to ask.

CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH REPORTER: I am so fascinated by this. This was created by a researcher and artist Olivia Tai and she set up these physical confession boxes in big cities on college campuses and told people to write about their AI confessions. And people really opened up about how they're using AI for relationships, for companionship, for homework in many cases.

And I'm just going to read to you some of these because I think it is really enlightening in terms of all of our relationship --

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

DUFFY: -- with this technology.

You've got one that said, "Forgive my sin. I talk to AI way more than to all the people in my life combined."

A lot of these people talked about being sort of -- you know, having tension around the use of this technology that they weren't so sure about.

Another one said, "My dad relies so much on AI it's scary. Using it to decide what to do with all of their retirement funds kind of scary."

BOLDUAN: Hmm.

DUFFY: Another says, "I trust AI to tell me the truth more than most of the people around me."

And then we've got one that says --

BOLDUAN: That's a statement -- that's a statement around the world today.

DUFFY: Yeah. Another one says, "I think it's making me dumber. I'm thinking less and less by myself, and it scares me, but I still use it anyways."

BOLDUAN: Hmm.

DUFFY: And it's just so fascinating to see people grappling with the use of this technology.

And the creator, Olivia Tai, wrote about how that was really her goal with this was to create some more contemplation around how we're using this technology.

I think it is true that so often new tech comes into our lives. It's available so we just start using it without really thinking about the role that it's playing in our lives. I think certainly that has been true with how quickly AI has advanced.

BOLDUAN: Yes. You and I talk about how people are so quick to just upload medical records and up --

DUFFY: Absolutely.

BOLDUAN: That was a conversation we had a couple of weeks ago.

DUFFY: Yeah.

And so it is -- I mean, I just encourage people to go and look through this project. It's got -- she's got more than 400 handwritten confessions --

BOLDUAN: Hmm.

DUFFY: -- from people. And I just think it really does say a lot about how this technology is playing a role in our lives.

BOLDUAN: It also is a statement and today I was just thinking I'm kind of loving and marveling seeing people actually -- their actual handwriting. Like, we don't even see that anymore.

DUFFY: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Like, there's that aspect of it that I really love this project.

DUFFY: It's really cool.

BOLDUAN: Thanks for bringing it to us.

DUFFY: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Good to see you. And I won't ask you which one of those was yours.

A new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

BERMAN: A CNN exclusive. The Navy looking to rename a warship that honored a Black hero from World War II. Sources say there have been conversations about naming it after President Trump.

"You are all that matters to me. I don't want to ever let you down." For the first time, the full letters aide Natalie Harp sent to the President of the United States and then-speaker.