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House Dem Leader Jeffries Meets with Biden; Biden "Ready to Deal" with Putin and Xi; Trump Hosts Viktor Orban at Mar-a-Lago; 1M Plus Customers Without Power in Texas; AT&T Wireless Data Breach Impacts Millions. Aired 10:30-11a ET
Aired July 12, 2024 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[10:30:00]
BRIAN SCHIMMING, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN PARTY OF WISCONSIN: So, I think we're really in the catbird seat because, well, Donald Trump will be our nominee. The Democrats are in crisis over who their nominee will be, and it may not be the four-year incumbent of the White House that's in their party.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Well, let me ask you, Mr. Chairman seven -- we just mentioned this a few moments ago, seven battleground states, including Wisconsin, are sending fake electors to the convention next week. Do you endorse that?
SCHIMMING: So, our electors, we had folks in Wisconsin, we elect our delegates and alternates kind of half by district and half on a statewide list. And so, these are folks who are good Republicans and they have been for years. And so, we don't see a situation where there's a conflict with that. And I know there are a couple there. I'm not aware of how many are in other states. But these are folks have been Republicans for years or local activists or volunteers. So, they'll be part of the delegation.
ACOSTA: And you yourself were mentioned in Trump's election interference indictment down in Georgia for meeting with Rudy Giuliani and Kenneth Chesebro to allegedly discuss selecting alternate electors in Wisconsin You don't deny that, correct? And let me ask you, Mr. Chairman, do you commit to upholding the will of Wisconsin voters in November?
SCHIMMING: So, you know, as we look at this issue, and I won't get into the elector's issue, but I will say thanks to the election integrity efforts that we have going on here at the Republican Party of Wisconsin, we're confident that we'll be able to trust the results on election day regardless of who the winner is.
One of the things that we've done here at the State Republican Party is that we recruited 5,500 poll workers last year by November. At Wisconsin, by statute, you have to recruit poll workers the year before the election. So, we did that.
ACOSTA: But you're not going to try to overturn the election results then if you come up short, are you?
SCHIMMING: No, we have no anticipation we're going to be in that situation. As I say, we're confident we'll be able to trust the results on election day because of our election integrity effort.
ACOSTA: And I did want to ask, you know, you are mentioned in that indictment down in Georgia and I -- you were saying a few moments ago, you didn't want to talk about the electors, but I mean, can you tell the people of Wisconsin whether or not you regret being involved in that process? Should you have been involved in that process?
SCHIMMING: No, I think the position -- and again, I can't speak to the specifics of it. But I will tell you that the folks that were involved believe they were completely in a good legal place to do that. And based on advice, internal and external. So, I don't think there's any regret about doing that in terms of feeling -- anybody feeling as though they broke the law.
ACOSTA: And why can't you speak about your own involvement? Is there a reason why?
SCHIMMING: Well, no, I just think it's an active situation here in Wisconsin. And I -- you know, that remains to be fleshed out. So, I'm more than happy to willing -- you know, wait and see how that comes.
ACOSTA: And the president -- the former president, Donald Trump, still has not acknowledged that he lost the 2020 election. Would you like to see him do that?
SCHIMMING: I think it's less about that and more, I think -- frankly, that's a distraction at this point. It's a distraction the Democrats are using, frankly, because they're losing everything else. The president -- the fact that the sitting Democrat president of the United States not knowing a candidate who won his primaries and caucuses across the country, we are sitting just days out from when the Democratic Party was going to go online to elect him as the nominee of the Democratic Party.
And we're sitting here in July, Jim, in July, and the Democrats actually don't know who their nominee is going to be, even though he won all the caucuses and primaries. So, we feel as though we're in a really good position. And I will tell you -- for all that gets thrown at Donald Trump, I will tell you he's leading, as you know, in almost all the battleground states, in fact, in all the battleground states, including Wisconsin right now.
The election is held tomorrow, Jim. If Joe Biden wins -- or if Joe Biden loses, and Donald Trump wins, and so, I like the position we're in right now.
ACOSTA: All right. Wisconsin GOP Chairman Brian Schimming, thanks very much for your time this morning. Appreciate it.
SCHIMMING: Jim, good to be on with you.
ACOSTA: All right. Once again, we just brought you the breaking news moments ago. Sources familiar with this meeting that occurred over at the White House. The top Democrat in the House, the minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, did meet with President Biden last night at the White House. We're hearing that Jeffries did express some of the concerns from his entire Democratic caucus to the president.
[10:35:00]
Of course, some of those Democrats concerned about whether or not the President can win re-election. We're getting more details. We'll have that straight ahead. That's next.
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ACOSTA: As President Biden fights to salvage his re-election campaign, he tried to reassure fellow Democrats and U.S. allies at Thursday's NATO news conference, saying he's up to the task of dealing with world leaders like Putin and Xi.
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JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: I'm ready to deal with them now and three years from now. I'm dealing with Xi right now and direct contact with him. I have no good reason to talk to Putin right now. There isn't any world leader. I'm not prepared to deal with.
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ACOSTA: All right. Let's discuss more now with former Trump national security adviser John Bolton. Mr. Ambassador, thanks as always for being with us. I want to talk to you about that in just a moment.
[10:40:00]
I did want to mention, though, that while the president was at NATO, Former President Donald Trump met with the Hungarian prime minister and autocrat Viktor Orban down at Mar-a-Lago. Orban did put out a video after the visit, and I want to show that to our viewers and ask you about it on the other side.
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ACOSTA: Mr. Ambassador, what do you make of that as the president is with the NATO allies here in Washington, Orban is down at Mar-a-Lago with Trump?
JOHN BOLTON, FORMER TRUMP NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER AND FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS: Well, I think it's a pretty good indication of what a Trump NATO policy will look like, that he gets on very well with Orban. Orban can be a conduit to Putin. It's a very disturbing prediction, I think, of troubles for NATO generally and troubles for Ukraine specifically. ACOSTA: And, Mr. Ambassador, Orban is calling his meeting with Trump a "peace mission." It comes just after he met with the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin. Is it possible that Trump is communicating to Putin through Orban? What do you think?
BOLTON: Well, it's possible. It's possible Trump is communicating with him in a lot of different ways. You know, Trump believes that the relations between countries are entirely bound up in the personal relationships between the heads of government. So, he thinks if he has a good relationship with Vladimir Putin, then U.S.-Russia relations are fine. And I think what we're seeing here is he's getting ready for what he expects will be his second term. And I don't see any good news in it.
ACOSTA: Mr. Ambassador, let's talk about the Biden press conference last night at the conclusion of NATO. He took questions for about an hour focusing on NATO and foreign policy. Obviously, he was asked about his re-election campaign and how that's been on shaky ground lately. How did he sound on the issues to you? And do you think that Former President Trump would have handled all of those questions as well?
BOLTON: No, I don't think Trump would have handled him because he doesn't understand most of the issues. But I didn't find Biden's performance very convincing. Notwithstanding, I see a lot of commentary by media reporters that they thought he did well on the substance. I didn't think so.
When he had a question from David Sanger on what the U.S. Could do about China-Russia relations to keep them from growing closer together, which they are at a very rapid rate, Biden responded with an essentially incoherent string of words after some time, and I don't have a transcript in front of me. I haven't found one yet. But after some time, Sanger intervened again and said, well, what about dealing with the Russia-China connection, indicating that that Biden hadn't gotten to the answer. And then there were more words, and it just drifted off. He gave basically, another incoherent answer about Ukraine arms the U.S. was providing and restrictions that were put on the use that Ukraine could make of them.
I mean, I don't -- I think if it were not for the catastrophic debate performance, people would have said this was not another good event for President Biden. And, you know, other comments that I saw about it said, well, this Joe Biden rambles all the time. That's just typical Joe Biden. Which sounds a little bit like Trump supporters who -- when Trump says, I only want to be a dictator on day one, the supporters say, don't worry about that. That's just Trump. Well, that's just Trump's not a good answer. And that's just Biden is not a good answer either.
ACOSTA: And I know you're not usually in the practice of giving Democrats advice on what they should do, but do you -- I mean, you have often said that a second Trump presidency would basically be a disaster. Do you think the Democrats should find another candidate at this point and do you think there's enough time to do that? BOLTON: Yes, I think there are two points here. The message that President Biden basically gave to the Democratic Party yesterday evening was suit up, lemmings, I'm going off the edge of the cliff and you're coming with me. Now, if that's what the Democrats want to do, you know, they will elect Trump. They'll also help elect a lot more Republican senators and House members.
There is nobody who can guarantee that that debate failure or something similar to it will occur in September or October, and everybody knows that. And at that point, the Democrats will not have any option. They will be stuck. They will be tied to the mast of Biden ship as it goes down. This is their last clear chance to do anything. And all I can say is, if they leave Biden as the nominee and Trump wins, I think Trump has an obligation in his victory speech election night to thank Biden and the Democrats for nominating him.
[10:45:00]
ACOSTA: All right. Ambassador Bolton, we'll follow up on some of those thoughts at a later date. But thanks, as always, for coming on. We appreciate it. We'll be right back.
BOLTON: My pleasure. Thanks for having me.
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ACOSTA: Another brutally hot day ahead for thousands of Texans this morning, more than a million customers in the state still don't have electricity after a Beryl hit the coast, and it could be next week before the lights and maybe more importantly, the air conditioning come back on and frustrations are building. CNN's Lucy Kafanov is in Houston for us. Lucy, what's the situation now? Is it getting any better?
LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's not. I mean, slowly, Jim. But the situation right now is it continues to be hot. And for so many Texans, especially in the Houston area, the power is still out. Mounting anger towards the Houston utility that's responsible for restoring the power, CenterPoint Energy. We're in front of their headquarters right now. And mounting questions about why the nation's fourth largest city, the energy capital of the world, as it likes to call itself, it continues to be crippled.
Now, multiple relief sites, cooling centers, food donation areas have been opened up across the city today for those who need a place to escape to. We have seen at least 10 lives now claimed in Texas by the hurricane, as well as this aftermath. Two people dying from carbon monoxide poisoning, one woman dying because her oxygen machine ran out of battery.
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And with hospitals struggling to cope, the NRG Arena Stadium has now been converted into an emergency medical center. CenterPoint, of course, still facing the brunt of this anger. The Texas governor calling for an investigation into the company's handling of the hurricane response, as well as preparation efforts. CenterPoints VP of operations, meanwhile, urgent calm. Take a listen.
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DARIN CARROLL, VICE PRESIDENT OF OPERATIONS, CENTERPOINT ENERGY: The other thing I want customers to know is even if you see yourself in that green on the map, don't worry, we know you're out of power and we are going to get to you.
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KAFANOV: Now, Jim, CenterPoint expects to return 80 -- power to 80 percent of its customers by the end of Sunday. But the big headline is half a million of Texans are expected to swelter in the high temperatures into early next week without power, Jim.
ACOSTA: All right. Lucy Kafanov, hope it gets better soon. Thanks so much.
Coming up, millions of AT&T wireless customers impacted by yet another data breach. What personal information may have been leaked. That's next.
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ACOSTA: New this morning, if you get your cell phone service through AT&T like tens of millions of people do, heads up, the company says nearly all of its wireless customers were exposed to a massive data breach, phone and text records for more than 100 customers were affected by the hack. CNN's Matt Egan joins us now, Matt. What do we do now?
[10:55:00]
MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Yes, Jim. This is just a staggering breach, and it's one that hackers and foreign powers will likely try to use to their advantage. AT&T revealed this morning that it learned in April of an illegal download of data of a third-party platform. The company says they immediately launched an investigation and they learned that a ton of data was exposed, including data on records of calls and text messages on "nearly all cell phone customers between May and the end of October of 2022."
Unfortunately, millions of non-AT&T customers are caught up in this too, because the company says that the stolen data included customers of wireless providers that use its network and people who were called or texted by AT&T customers. So, that is, of course, the wireless network pretty massive.
Now, it's important to note that AT&T says at this time it does not believe this data is publicly available. Emphasis on at this time. Thankfully, AT&T says the content of text messages and calls, that was not stolen here, nor is the name of the customers or their Social Security numbers, but the phone numbers that was exposed here, and the company acknowledges there are publicly available tools that are out there that can link names of customers with phone numbers.
Another really interesting point here is that AT&T says that for a subset of customers, their cell site ID numbers may have been exposed. And that is really important because it can actually reveal where people work or where they live. The FCC, in just the last few moments, put out a tweet saying that they are investigating. They're working with local law enforcement. AT&T promising that they're going to alert customers who were impacted.
But, Jim, look, this feels like just the tip of the iceberg, and we're going to learn a lot more about this in the coming days and weeks.
ACOSTA: Yes, I was going to say if that's just -- if we're talking about just pictures of my dog Duke getting out there, that's OK. But this sounds much more serious than that. I hope they get on top of it. Matt Egan, thanks.
Thanks very much for joining us this morning. I'm Jim Acosta. Next hour of "Newsroom with Wolf Blitzer" starts after a short break. Have a good weekend.
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