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V.P. Kamala Harris Secures Enough Delegate Support To Win Nomination; Benjamin Netanyahu In Washington As Ceasefire Talks Drag On; Rare Bipartisan Call For Secret Service Chief To Resign. Aired 2- 3a ET

Aired July 23, 2024 - 02:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:00:30]

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world and to everyone streaming us on CNN Max. I'm Rosemary Church.

Just ahead, a running start to Joe Biden's chosen successor, the Harris for president campaign is collecting endorsements and raking in cash as soon as she secures enough delegates to win the nomination.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle call on the Secret Service director to resign during a hearing on the massive security failure at the Trump rally.

And as a hostage deal remains elusive, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu is in Washington to speak to Congress and meet with the U.S. president and vice president.

ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with Rosemary Church.

CHURCH: Good to have you with us. Well, we are now just 105 days from the U.S. presidential election. And today, the race for the White House looks very different. As Kamala Harris picks up enough delicate support to win the Democratic nomination. That is according to a CNN delegate estimate, coming just one day after President Joe Biden exited the 2024 race and passed the torch to his vice president.

On Monday, Kamala Harris previewed her campaign vision and her strategy for taking on Donald Trump

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I was a courtroom prosecutor. In those roles I took on perpetrators of all kinds. Predators who abused women, fraudsters who ripped off consumers, cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain.

So, hear me when I say, I know Donald Trump's type.

And in this campaign, I will proudly -- I will proudly put my record against his.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: The Harris campaign says she raised $81 million in her first day as a candidate. She is also seeing a wave of critical endorsements including from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Sources say Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and house minority leader Hakeem Jeffries are also set to endorse Harris very soon.

The Trump campaign is already shifting its strategy with a new memo attacking Kamala Harris and calling her dangerously liberal.

On the campaign trail, Donald Trump's running mate J.D. Vance urged voters not to give Harris a shot at becoming president. He also took a swipe at Harris. And what he claimed is a lack of gratitude.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R), U.S. VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When I see her give a speech, and she talks about the history of this country, not with appreciation, but with condemnation. And look, of course, every country just like every family, certainly mine has its pockmarks, right? Not everything's perfect, it's never going to be but you -- if you want to lead this country, you should feel grateful for it. You should feel a sense of gratitude and I never hear that gratitude come through when I listen to Kamala Harris.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Vance also accused Harris and other Democrats of lying about Biden's fitness for office and said it was disgraceful that the president stepped aside in the race.

For more on all of this, I am joined now by Larry Sabato, the director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics. Always a pleasure to have you with us.

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Thank you, Rosemary. Thank you.

CHURCH: So Larry, we are seeing a reenergized campaign for Vice President Kamala Harris in the wake of President Biden dropping out Sunday and endorsing her as the new nominee. She has raised tens of millions of dollars since and now we hear a majority of democratic delegates have pledged to support her as the next presidential nominee. Is that what you're hearing? And does that mean Vice President Harris has locked this in before the August convention?

SABATO: Yes, she has locked it in. It is already certain that she'll be the nominee. We call her the nominee presumptive. And that wasn't certain, it is absolutely amazing that in just one day, you could have Biden step aside. Kamala Harris come in. Biden endorsed Kamala Harris. Harris gets the endorsement of virtually all the senior Democrats as well as a substantial majority of the elected delegates to the Democratic National Convention. She's way over the top, all of this in a day.

[02:05:08]

And Democrats are really energized by it because they can see that Kamala Harris has the energy they know it takes to defeat Donald Trump. She has made a lot of good moves, even in this very short period of time.

And I have to say part of it, it's just relief. It isn't that they turned against Joe Biden, quite the contrary, they appreciate what he's done, they regard him as a significant president. But they saw -- they saw through polls, through their friends and neighbors in every way you could that Biden was slipping and Trump was gaining. And the nightmare of Donald Trump second term for them had become a reality. +

CHURCH: It appears she has injected some element of hope for Democrats, doesn't it? And of course, the big decision to be made now by Vice President Harris is to select a running mate, who would be a smart pick from some of the names of potential options out there and how urgent is it that this gets done now?

SABATO: The top three for me and everybody's got a different list. But the top three for me are Governor Shapiro of Pennsylvania, that's 19 electoral votes. And this is all about electoral votes. Governor Cooper of North Carolina who is just finishing two terms as governor there and it's tough for a Democrat to win in North Carolina. He'd be a good running mate, and that's 16 electoral votes.

And somebody who has a lot more than electoral votes is Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona. That's 11 electoral votes. Arizona has been slipping to Trump.

But beyond that, Kelly is well known as a former astronaut. His brother is also an astronaut. And of course his wife is a former congresswoman who was severely injured in a wounding while she was in office, disturbed young man came into a constituency meeting and shot her, Gabrielle Giffords.

So, this is quite a package. So, I would say any one of these three would be great and I'm sure others would add Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky, though there's no chance at all that Democrats will win Kentucky, so there are no electoral votes there.

CHURCH: Right. And meantime, Republicans are finalizing their strategy to deal with this change at the top of the Democratic ticket. House Speaker Mike Johnson now suggesting Republicans will file lawsuits at the state level if Vice President Kamala Harris becomes the nominee to block her name from the ballot. What is this signal to you about just how worried they might be about Harris?

SABATO: Well, it's a tantrum. To be honest, it's pretty outrageous to try and stop the opposition party from replacing a candidate who is ill and probably in no position to continue the campaign.

These provisions are made in the party rules and also in the laws of most of the states. But it really is revealing that they don't want Joe Biden changed out for Kamala Harris. They're worried that Harris can defeat Trump.

And they had spent millions and millions of dollars preparing nasty ads to use against Biden and their entire campaign plan is aimed at Biden and his administration. They can use some of it against Kamala Harris, but not nearly as much as they had planned.

So, this is a very unpleasant turn of events for Donald Trump and his ticket with J.D. Vance.

CHURCH: Yes, and on that topic, Donald Trump's running mate to J.D. Vance is calling on the cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment against President Biden saying if he can't run for president, then he can't serve as president and calling this a coup stirring the pot. No doubt that House Speaker Mike Johnson saying pretty much the same thing. What is going on here?

SABATO: Well, there's absolutely no coup at work. The coup occurred January 6th 2021, organized by Donald Trump, that is quite literally defined as a coup and insurrection. This is nothing of the sort. It's a natural replacement that comes because of an ill nominee.

So, to me, this is ridiculous. It's illogical. If you remove one of the two full time jobs that Joe Biden has, the second one being running for president, he can spend his remaining energy and time and focus on fulfilling his duties as president for the last six months, which is exactly what he's said he wants to do.

So, this is -- this is an attempt to blow blue smoke and adjust the mirrors so that they can get back to being on the offensive.

But I think to most people, it almost seems cruel. They're going to tell the president who has served faithfully for in many jobs over a 50 year career that he's got to leave early because he's ill and can't be both a full time candidate and a full time president, ridiculous.

[02:10:07]

CHURCH: Larry Sabato, was a pleasure to chat with you, many thanks.

SABATO: Thank you, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington right now. On Wednesday, Netanyahu is scheduled to address a joint session of Congress. And just before leaving Israel, he met with the families of hostages held in Gaza.

At the White House Monday, families of Americans held hostage by Hamas met with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, they say Sullivan expressed positivity about securing a hostage release deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JONATHAN DEKEL-CHEN, SON HELD HOSTAGE BY HAMAS: The time is now, there is no more time for delays, there is no more time for positioning for jockeying. At this moment, at this moment, what is demanded for the wellbeing of Israel, of our loved ones, and for the people of Gaza, is for two leaders. Yahya Sinwar and Hamas aside and Benjamin Netanyahu and Israel side to show true leadership, to show that the sanctity of their own people is what's paramount.

RACHEL GOLDBERG, SON HELD HOSTAGE BY HAMAS: It's 290 days too long. There is horrendous suffering going on, obviously, with the families of the 120 hostages who hail from 24 different nations. They are Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus and Buddhists. And it is time for them and their families to stop suffering and time for the hundreds of thousands of innocent people who are in Gaza who are suffering.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: President Joe Biden will meet Netanyahu on Thursday, the White House is unhappy with the Israeli prime minister over the state of the war in Gaza, as well as ceasefire and hostage release negotiations.

CNN Jerusalem Correspondent Jeremy Diamond has more on the visit and the talks.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hanging over those negotiations as well as over the Israeli prime minister's trip to Washington this week is one key question. Does Netanyahu actually want a ceasefire deal?

If you listen to the conventional wisdom in Israeli media politics even on the streets of Tel Aviv, the answer to that question would be no, that the Israeli prime minister actually has much more to gain by prolonging this war than by ending it.

You know, this war has allowed him to stave off elections that he would likely lose at this moment. His right-wing governing coalition partners have also threatened to collapse his government if he agrees to a deal that stops the fighting.

There's also evidence that the Israeli prime minister has been throwing up 11th hour obstacles to a potential deal, reneging on at least one key Israeli concession and also throwing up a new demand regarding Israeli control of that Philadelphi Corridor along Gaza's border with Egypt.

But the Israeli prime minister is also coming under enormous pressure right here in Israel, as well as in the United States. And he's going to face that pressure directly from President Biden and other top U.S. officials.

The question is, will that pressure actually be effective coming from Biden, who is now effectively a lame duck president?

But at the same time, Netanyahu is now sitting down with a man who is squarely focused on his legacy, untethered from the constraints of electoral politics. So, that will be a fascinating dynamic to watch.

But then there's also this other possibility, which is that Netanyahu will actually be looking to someone else, perhaps, for an answer on which way he should lean regarding striking a ceasefire deal or not, and that man could be former President Donald Trump.

Netanyahu is an avid and very keen watcher of U.S. politics, who will certainly be keeping a close eye on the polls and on Donald Trump's chances to become president.

But it should be noted that their relationship despite Trump's steadfast support for Israel during his presidency, it is far from perfect. It has suffered a lot of turbulence actually over the last couple of years.

And as of now, the Israeli Prime Minister while he will certainly meet with Trump's allies in Washington, there's no meetings scheduled yet for him with Donald Trump.

CHURCH: Jeremy Diamond reporting from Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, at least 70 people are dead and more than 200 others wounded after Israeli strikes near the southern Gaza City of Khan Yunis. Those numbers come from Gaza as Ministry of Health.

Ahead of the strikes, the Israeli military ordered people in parts of Khan Yunis to evacuate to what the IDF calls and adjusted humanitarian zone.

Some people say they were not told to evacuate before the strikes began. Hospital officials say the dead include a number of women and children.

Gaza's health ministry says the Palestinian death toll from the war is now at more than 39,000.

Still to come, the head of U.S. Secret Service angers both Republicans and Democrats at a contentious hearing on Capitol Hill over the attempted assassination of Donald Trump. And now she's facing calls from both parties to resign.

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[02:17:25]

CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Well, the head of the U.S. Secret Service is facing rare bipartisan call to resign over these security failures, which led to the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

It comes after Kimberly Cheatle faced a contentious hearing before the House Oversight Committee on Monday, where she was grilled by both Republicans and Democrats about the shooting at a Trump rally earlier this month.

Cheatle admitted the incident was a colossal failure, but refused to step down.

CNN's Whitney Wild has been following developments, she has this report. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. ANDY BIGGS (R-AZ): I call upon you to resign today, today.

WHITNEY WILD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In a contentious Capitol Hill hearing, United States Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle found few allies. Now bipartisan calls for her to resign as House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, who called her agency --

JAMES COMER (R-KY): The face of competence.

WILD (voice over): And ranking member Jamie Raskin say she must leave as a first step to allowing new leadership to swiftly address this crisis and rebuild the trust.

REP. RO KHANNA (D-CA): I just don't think this is partisan if you have an assassination attempt on a president, a former president, or a candidate you need to resign. In the face of intense scrutiny, Director Cheatle immediately took responsibility for what she called a failure.

KIMBERLY CHEATLE, U.S. Secret Service DIRECTOR: The Secret Service's solemn mission is to protect our nation's leaders, on July 13th, we failed. As a director of the United States Secret Service, I take full responsibility for any security lapse of our agency.

WILD (VOICE OVER): However, for more than four hours, Cheatle refused to answer even the most basic questions nine days after the attempted assassination of Donald Trump.

CHEATLE: I would have to get back to you.

MACE: That is a no. You're full of shit today.

WILD (VOICE OVER): Cheatle was asked multiple times why Secret Service agents were stationed on the roof where a gunman eventually shot Trump from a distance of less than 150 yards.

COMER: Can you answer why the secret of state in place, a single agent on the roof?

CHEATLE: We are still looking into the advanced process and the decisions made.

COMER: OK.

WILD (VOICE OVER): Members of the committee pressed Cheatle for answers about why the former president was allowed to take the stage, even after she admitted the Secret Service had been notified between two and five times, police were looking for a suspicious person.

Cheatle repeatedly said law enforcement didn't immediately determine that person who turned out to be the shooter was a threat.

CHEATLE: If the detail had been passed information that there was a threat, the detail would never have brought the former president out onto stage.

[02:20:03]

WILD (VOICE OVER): The hearing comes as the agency admits it denied at some requests for additional security from the Trump team in the two years leading up to the rally, though Cheatle denied anything was withheld on the day of the shooting.

CHEATLE: For the event in Butler, there were no requests that were denied. As far as requests --

REP. JIM JORDAN (R-OH): Well, maybe they got tired of asking.

WILD (VOICE OVER): The chorus for her resignation has only grown louder and she was confronted at the RNC in Milwaukee.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You owe the people answers.

WILD (VOICE OVER): Still, Cheatle says she has no plans to leave.

CHEATLE: I think that I am the best person to lead the Secret Service at this time.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: CNN's Whitney wild with that report.

Joining me now is CNN Senior National Security Analyst Juliette Kayyem. She was also Assistant Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security and is a Harvard professor. Appreciate you joining us.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Thank you for having me.

CHURCH: U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle refused to answer questions at a congressional hearing Monday on the catastrophic security failure surrounding the attempted assassination of Donald Trump more than 10 days ago now.

And her refusal resulted in bipartisan demands for her to resign. Now, if she doesn't do that, she doesn't seem to want to, should she be fired for full accountability?

KAYYEM: And so, the -- she should offer her resignation and let the White House accept it. This is a -- this committee that I know very well, the Homeland Security Committee never agrees on anything. The idea that the Republican and Democratic ranking members have joined forces to ask for her or demand her resignation is not only about what happened a week ago, Saturday, but also about just this sort of drumbeat of inconsistent statements, statements that that seem to throw others under the bus. And then, now, the promise of a review, or an independent review that will be done only in 60 days, which, you know, sort of brings us up -- straight up to the election.

You know, in my mind, if you run an agency like this, you really do need the support of the committee to the extent that you can get it. And since she's lost the Democrats on the committee, it is hard to say that she is serving the White House, as well as someone who might have the support of at least the Democrats on the committee, but she's lost the Democrats. That's the problem.

CHURCH: And director Cheatle acknowledged that the Secret Service was told about a suspicious individual at that rally before the shooting took place. But she said there are suspicious individuals all the time, but that doesn't mean they constitute a threat. But he clearly was a threat in the end.

So, what would you have asked at that point?

KAYYEM: Yes. So, just basically, the question that I really wanted someone to ask is not so much was there a miscalculation? There clearly was, there was a miscalculation about the threat, there was a miscalculation about whether he was threatening, there was a miscalculation about how to even control the environment, right, that they didn't have that building protected or didn't have the state and locals protecting it.

I think my question that still remains is how could so fundamentally -- such a fundamental miscalculation occur that would allow, essentially, you know, a sort of novice assassin when he wasn't particularly trained, he didn't have military training, he wasn't -- he wasn't representing a foreign entity, take advantage of all of those miscalculations and nearly kill the Republican nominee for president and the -- and the -- and the former president?

That to me, I still can't -- I still can't get my head around that right now. And I don't think that maybe they don't know the answers. But that is certainly something that I am very curious about. And then of course, the subsequent question is, is that cured? Is that miscalculation cure? Do you have confidence leading into this environment with both Trump and Harris now, that that -- that that -- that those gaps are cured?

CHURCH: Yes. I mean, it's a good point, because Cheatle did reveal that she has made adjustments to the security around Vice President Kamala Harris. But how much faith and trust is there remaining in the Secret Service while Cheatle stays in charge?

KAYYEM: Well, so you know, I've been in and around D.C. enough that, you know, I didn't hear a lot of statements of support from the White House, which is obviously preoccupied. You have a lot of people, former government officials coming forward.

[02:25:00]

But honestly, I think the big headline today is really, Jamie Raskin. And for people who don't know who he is, I mean, he is a strong defender of this White House. He is one of the most supportive members of Congress in terms of just basically their policies and their politics. And he's a spokesperson for them.

And so, I can't imagine that he sort of said this without deep thought and deep consideration of what it would mean and probably hopes that the White House is listening.

All I know is there was no ringing endorsement of her today from the White House, which, you know, as you read the tea leaves in Washington, D.C. that says a lot.

CHURCH: Juliette Kayyem, always a pleasure to talk with you, many thanks.

KAYYEM: Thank you.

CHURCH: Sources tell CNN that Kamala Harris's team is vetting possible running mates. Next, a closer look at some of the top candidates and what they might bring to the ticket.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Less than two days after U.S. President Joe Biden bowed out of the race for the White House, his vice president is on the cusp of becoming the Democratic presidential nominee.

According to CNN estimates, Kamala Harris already has enough delegate endorsements, they are non-binding, but she's been backed by more than the 1,976 pledged delegates needed to win the nomination. Harris crossed that threshold after a wave of endorsements from state delegations on Monday.

Sources tell CNN that the Harris campaign has begun vetting possible running mates. Several high profile Democrat governors are thought to be potential candidates for the job, including Michigan's Gretchen Whitmer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Are you prepared to take the vice presidency if it's offered, ma'am?

Gretchen Whitmer GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): No, I'm not planning to go anywhere.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, if they offered, you will not take it?

WHITMER: I am not leaving Michigan. I'm proud to be the governor of Michigan. I've been consistent. I know everyone is always suspicious and asking this question over and over again. I know you're doing your job. I'm not going anywhere.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[02:30:00]

CHURCH: Our Brian Todd has a look at other Democrats who could potentially be Harris' vice presidential pick.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): If Kamala Harris is the Democratic nominee, she has what many regard as a deep bench to choose from for a running mate.

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Now Kamala Harris, it seems like will have a lot of options to choose from as she tries to figure out what kind of balance she wants to put out, what kind of additional arguments she wants on the ticket.

TODD (voice-over): CNN's Jeff Zeleny citing people familiar with the process reports Democratic lawyers are vetting potential vice presidential hopefuls and that Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly or among Democrats have been asked to submit financial information and other personal details.

GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO (D-PA): I'm not going to engage in hypotheticals. This is a deeply personal decision.

TODD (voice-over): The 51-year-old Shapiro has high approval ratings in Pennsylvania and simply benefits from being from that crucial swing state.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: He's very popular. He's very skilled, and maybe most importantly, Pennsylvania is a state that Democrats almost certainly can't win without --

TODD (voice-over): Cooper from North Carolina is also popular analysts say in a state that the Democrats try to win, but rarely do, especially in important national races. He praised Harris on Monday on MSNBC.

GOV. ROY COOPER (D-NC): She's going to bring that excitement to the people that we need to bring to the polls -- the young people, women, suburban women.

TODD (voice-over): Kelly, a military veteran and former astronaut, rose to prominence when his wife, former Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, survived an assassination attempt.

SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): Really nice day here in Washington.

TODD (voice-over): He's well-regarded nationally, but also occupies a Senate seat in Arizona that the Democrats might have trouble holding onto in 2026, if he we're to become vice president.

DOVERE: He has won in a state that Democrats want to keep winning it, makes it maybe a little hard for people to think that they should take him out of that seat.

TODD (voice-over): Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, a youthful 46- years-old, has also been floated as a potential running mate for Harris. On MSNBC, he touted his ability to win multiple elections in a deep red state.

GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D-KY): I was re-elected by my five percentage points. Being a Democrat in Kentucky, that's like 30. Anywhere else --

TODD: Whoever Kamala Harris picks will obviously have to be adept at debating J.D. Vance. But Analyst Edward-Isaac Dovere says, we shouldn't focus too much attention on that because he believes Kamala Harris will likely want her running mate to make this race as much about Donald Trump as possible.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Days after a massive tech outage caused havoc around the world, some users are still struggling to get back to normal, among them, Delta Airlines. The Atlanta-based carrier canceled more than 1,000 flights on Monday, far more than any other but airline, and that's after a rough weekend that grounded thousands of flights around the world, leaving passengers struggling to find a way home.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Look, I don't know how we could have prevented it, truthfully. I think it was just something -- something happened and they weren't prepared for it, and we're just kind of, you know, the guinea pigs to something that was pretty catastrophic. I'm going to get compensated for it because this is out of control. It's not -- it's not OK. So I just -- I want them to take responsibility, accountability, and compensate us where we're due.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Delta says the CrowdStrike outage disrupted its cruise scheduling software, and it will take a few more days to get things back on track.

Young women and girls around the world tell CNN they often face dangerous or harmful situations online, but they have ideas on how to make the internet a safer place. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:35:55]

CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Hundreds of young women and girls across three continents, some as young as 13-years-old, have told CNN they face harm online every month. More than 600 took part in a survey done by "CNN As Equals" and the global NGO Plan International about how their gender affects their experiences online. Many said they regularly suffer harm on social media platforms or in other online spaces, from discrimination, hate speech, bullying, or unwanted sexual images or videos. And overwhelmingly, they say the companies which own those platforms must do more to keep them safe.

CNN's Kristie Lu Stout joins me now, live from Hong Kong with more on this. So Kristie, what does this study reveal about the dangers girls in Asia and around the world are facing online, right now? KRISTIE LU STOUT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Yeah, Rosemary, this study reveals that online only sexual abuse is happening not just in the west, it's happening on a global scale with girls as young as 13 being targeted. This is according to this new exclusive study by "CNN As Equals" and Plan International. They surveyed more than 600 young women and girls from the age of 13 to 24 across South America, across Africa, across here in Asia, across some nine different countries, including here in Asia, Nepal, and the Philippines.

Now, let's bring up some of the key findings for you. According to this study, 75 percent of those surveyed have faced harm online with more than one in ten experiencing it daily or almost daily. Again these are girls, some as young as 13 and almost half of them say that they have seen or received unwanted sexual images or videos, and a quarter have faced discrimination or hate speech online. As a result, one-third of the women and girls surveyed say that they feel anxious, they feel stressed, and depressed. So Rosemary, this is a revealing and distressing report. Back to you.

CHURCH: And Kristie, what do these girls and young women who've faced these threats online want to see happen to ensure a safer future?

LU STOUT: Yeah, they want change, Rosemary. In fact, 61 percent surveyed, they called for digital literacy. They say they want to see more education and awareness programs on online safety. And they say that the burden should not be on the girls and the women, but on the platforms. In fact, one participant and her name is Reyna, she is from the Philippines. She shares this -- she says this. Let's bring it up for you.

"Those who provide digital literacy lessons should be the companies that make the apps. They are responsible for what can happen to us or what we can encounter."

Now, experts say that the world's top social platforms, they may be doing programs addressing this, but they got to do more. We know that earlier this year, Meta, this is the company that oversees Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp -- they announced new restrictions for teenage users and Meta say it is working with experts. In fact, it's working with Plan International to better safeguard women and young girls.

We heard from Cindy Southworth of Meta. She is the Head of Women's Safety there and she tells us that what they are doing "builds on years of developing tools, features, and policies to help keep them safe."

We did reach out to TikTok. TikTok did not provide direct comment, but a spokesperson shared that it prevents users under 18 from seeing sexually suggestive content. It also makes under-16 accounts private with DMs not available, but experts warn that this type of online harm and abuse is just spiraling, it's getting worse. And these platforms, no matter how powerful they are, they are just failing to stay ahead of this problem.

Rosemary, we do want to direct our viewers out there. They can learn more, find out more about this full study as cnn.com/asequals. Rosemary?

CHURCH: Yeah, a very important report. Thanks to Kristie Lu Stout, bringing us that live from Hong Kong. Appreciate it.

Well, France is pulling out all the stops to protect the Olympic Games.

[02:40:00]

With just three days until the spotlight shines on Paris, the country's national terror alert remains at its highest level and roughly 45,000 police officers are expected to keep the opening ceremony secure. CNN's Melissa Bell has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Paris is taking no chances. Hopes of a spectacular Olympic stalked by fears of the worst.

BELL: Part of the problem for French authorities is the sheer ambition that lies at the heart of these games. For the very first time, an Olympic opening ceremony is going to happen not inside a stadium, but actually through the main city (ph) on its main (ph) artery on the Seine River itself.

BELL (voice-over): Despite a terror threat in France that's still at its highest level, some 320,000 people are expected to line the banks of the river over six kilometers to watch, the biggest crowd ever to attend such an event in person.

GEN. ERIC CHASBEOUF, OLYMPIC GAMES MILITARY FORCES: We'll have more than 10,000 soldiers, more than 35,000 policemen. It will be completely secure.

BELL (voice-over): Street patrols leave regularly from the largest military camp erected in France since the end of World War II. And beyond the terror threat, there are also fears linked to crime, social unrest, and cyber attacks.

NICOLAS NORMAN, PARIS DEPUTY MAYOR FOR SECURITY (through translator): There are lots of exercises, crises, simulations, sometimes quite extraordinary events where everyone during an entire day tries to anticipate and then to manage them. And so today, we're ready and we're calm.

BELL (voice-over): The Olympic flame arrived in Paris to welcoming crowds, but nothing compared to what is to come. Officials say that some 10 million to 15 million people are expected, far too many for human eyes only to watch. So AI has been brought in to help monitor CCTV.

MATTHIAS HOULLIER, CO-FOUNDER, WINTICS: They need to detect abnormal situations, like, for example, when there is intrusion of people on railways, when there is unattended item that could be suspicious package, et cetera. We detect them and then the operator gets notified in real time, so that he can decide what should be done.

BELL (voice-over): An unprecedented security operation made up of police, military, foreign forces, and even AI startups that officials hope has made Paris ready for anything.

Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: And thanks so much for joining us. I'm Rosemary Church. "World Sport" is coming up next. Then I will be back in about 15 minutes with more "CNN Newsroom." Do stick around.

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(WORLD SPORT)

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