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Harris, Trump Hit Campaign Trail In 100 Plus Day Sprint To Election; Trump Once Trashed Bitcoin As "Based On Thin Air"; Now, He's Addressing Crypto's Largest Convention; J.D. Vance Clarifies "Childless Cat Ladies" Remark; Largest CA Wildfire Of The Year Scorches 305,000 Plus Acres; 0 Percent Contained; U.S. Arrests Alleged Cartel Leaders In Texas; Mexico Sends 200 Special Forces To Reinforce Security After Arrests; Securing The Games With Lessons From Past Olympics; NY Bans Realistic Shooter Drills For Upcoming School Year. Aired 12-1p ET
Aired July 27, 2024 - 12:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[12:00:24]
FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.
And we begin this hour with the final sprint to the 2024 election. There are now just over 100 days until voters head to the polls and pick the next president. Today, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are both out on the campaign trail.
Harris soon heads to Massachusetts for a fundraiser as her campaign looks to add to an already impressive cash haul. The Harris campaign says it raised $126 million in just the first three days after President Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed her. The campaign also says it has seen an explosion in grassroots support with more than 100,000 people signing up to volunteer for her presidential bid and more than 2,000 applying for campaign jobs.
According to a new Fox News poll, the presidential race is now a statistical dead heat in three swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
CNN's Eva McKend is joining us right now. Eva, set the stage for us on what this weekend is looking like for the Harris campaign.
EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Fred, the strategy is to capitalize on the momentum that she's enjoying right now. There are 100 days until the election, but even less time in some places where voters can take advantage of voting early. So this is a campaign kicking into high gear, leaning on supporters to knock on doors and work the phones. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Your enthusiasm and grassroots support have made history. That is why we are kicking off a weekend of action to donate, make calls, and knock on doors. And we need you, every one of you, because we are a people powered campaign.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCKEND: Harris putting that out just this morning. She is in Pittsfield, Massachusetts at a big donor event featuring James Taylor and Yo-Yo Ma, author and historian Heather Cox Richardson also in the mix, and many of the governors she's reportedly considering to be her running mate. They're also out on the campaign trail too. Governor Walz, Governor Beshear, and Governor Shapiro out making the case on her behalf.
Fred?
WHITFIELD: All right, Eva McKend, thank you so much.
All right, former President Trump, well, he's also out on the campaign trail today. In just a few hours, in fact, from now, he will speak in Nashville at the world's largest Bitcoin convention. And tonight, he will attend a rally in Minnesota.
CNN's Steve Contorno is covering the Trump campaign for us. Steve, good to see you again. What can we expect to hear from Trump at that Bitcoin convention?
STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Well, he is going to try to convince this audience that he is truthful in his advocacy and support for Bitcoin policies. And that'll be a tall task because five years ago, take a look at this tweet he posted on social media where he said he was, quote, "not a fan of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies." He said it was, not money. He said it was highly volatile and based on thin air.
And he also raised concerns that Bitcoin could, quote, "facilitate unlawful behavior, including the drug trade." We'll fast forward to five years from then, and Donald Trump has now become a supporter of Bitcoin. His campaign, in fact, actually accepts Bitcoin donations. We're told they've taken about $4 million worth so far. He is advocating for cryptocurrency policies.
Take a listen to what he said earlier this summer in Wisconsin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will end Joe Biden's war on crypto. We will ensure that the future of crypto and the future of Bitcoin will be made in America. Otherwise, other countries are going to have it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CONTORNO: Now, the Trump campaign won't tell us what caused this 180 degree turn, but he has received significant financial support from the Bitcoin industry, many of its investors and founders. They've met with them at Mar-a-Lago, they've hosted fundraisers for him, the Winklevoss twins that you might know from the Facebook saga, they each said they would give a million dollars worth of Bitcoin to Donald Trump.
So they are rallying around Donald Trump and he is rallying behind them as well, Fred.
WHITFIELD: OK. And then after this Nashville speech Steve, Trump will be in Minnesota at a rally there with his running mate J.D. Vance. What are the expectations there?
CONTORNO: Well, this will be the second time they are on stage together. They were in Michigan together last week. And this is obviously also coming off of J.D. Vance's rollout as vice president, where he has spent an inordinate amount of time explaining some of his past comments.
Yesterday, he was on Megan Kelly's podcast, where he tried to explain what he was doing several years ago when he complained about childless cat ladies. Take a listen to what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[12:05:11]
J.D. VANCE, UNITED STATES SENATOR: The simple point that I made is that having children, becoming a father, becoming a mother. I really do think it changes your perspective in a pretty profound way that this is not about criticizing people who for various reasons didn't have kids. This is about criticizing the Democratic Party for becoming anti-family and anti-child.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CONTORNO: There's an old adage in politics that if you're explaining you're losing and J.D. Vance has been doing a lot of explaining in recent days, Fred.
WHITFIELD: Oh, interesting. All right, Steve Contorno, thanks so much for that.
All right. This breaking news right now, California's Park wildfire has exploded in size, becoming the state's largest fire of the year. It's burning an area bigger than the size of Los Angeles. More than 300,000 acres so far with zero containment.
CNN's Camila Bernal has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): California's largest wildfire of the year is on the move.
CPT. DAN COLLINS, CAL FIRE BUTTE UNIT: This year, we're kind of starting off with a bang.
BERNAL (voice-over): Scorching hillsides, decimating homes and buildings, forcing residents to flee. Firefighters battling the fast moving flames in rugged remote terrain amid wind gusts of 20 miles to 30 miles an hour in what officials call critically low humidities.
COLLINS: It is concerning that we're having these larger fires earlier in the season. If we're having big fires like this in July and August, we may have bigger fires come the fall as the fuels get drier and the wind start to pick up.
JULIA YARBOUGH, LOST HOME IN PARK FIRE: Our house gone, their house OK, house next to it, you can see it's gone.
BERNAL (voice-over): Flames flattened Julia Yarbough's home. She called the experience surreal as she walked through the rubble, surveying the destruction.
YARBOUGH: It puts a finality to it of just going, wow, this chapter over here.
TIM FURGUSON, EVACUEE: Here we go again. Yes.
BERNAL (voice-over): The park fire brings back haunting memories for residents in Butte County. It's the same county where the 2018 campfire killed 85 people and destroyed thousands of homes. It remains the deadliest wildfire in California history.
FURGUSON: It is painful. I lost my dad in the campfire. We've got our home and we've been working on it a lot lately, fixing it up. And it's just -- we're at the verge of maybe losing all that.
COLLINS: Talking to some of the evacuees yesterday, there's a big concern. This county has been tested time and time again. Unfortunately, you know, some of our folks that are evacuated now from these fires lost their home during the campfire.
BERNAL (voice-over): And with the state's wildfire season already underway, it's a test this community may be forced to live with for months.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERNAL (on-camera): So first of all -- and this fire is moving so quickly that what we know now is that it started spreading at about 50 football fields a minute, making it really challenging for firefighters. They have now more people, more resources, but unfortunately the fire has already destroyed at least 100 structures.
That includes this. It used to be someone's home and the only thing standing now is the chimney. That's how devastating it is going to be for families that then come back to this area. Unfortunately, authorities also saying that a 42-year-old man is responsible for this fire. They say that he pushed a burning car into an embarkment, and it was an area that it was really hard to reach.
And so, that also helped the spread of the flames. Right now, officials also saying that the fire isn't very steep terrain. So it's hard to get to those areas. So you have the difficult terrain, you have the high temperatures, you have winds, and it continues to just explode, Fred. And right now, the fire is 0 percent contained.
WHITFIELD: All right, Camila Bernal, thank you so much.
Coming up, new details on the high profile arrest of two accused drug cartel leaders, both of them now in the U.S. And growing concerns about the possibility of a new drug war.
Plus, medals won already at the Olympics in Paris. We'll tell you who has just clinched some hardware, and we'll fill you in on all the other exciting events happening today.
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[12:14:05]
WHITFIELD: Right now, the son of infamous cartel boss El Chapo is being held in a federal prison in Chicago. He's one of two alleged kingpins arrested this week. Joaquin Guzman Lopez and El Mayo Zambada Garcia were taken into custody on Thursday.
An official says Guzman Lopez actually organized the arrest, luring Zambada into a flight that was met by federal agents in El Paso, Texas. Fearing an outbreak of violence now, authorities in Mexico have been beefing up security, reinforcing the state of Sinaloa with some 200 elite Special Forces soldiers.
CNN's Rafael Romo joining me now with the latest. I mean, it's remarkable, but it's also confusing that one of the people arrested would also be a party to helping the other kingpin get arrested.
RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And it is confusing also because we are hearing two different versions from two different countries.
[12:15:07]
For example, an official familiar with the investigation told CNN that Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, lured Ismael El Mayo Zambada, as you previously said on a flight to examine a piece of land he thought was in Mexico. But the plane flew straight into the U.S. landing near El Paso, Texas, where federal agents, including from Homeland Security investigations, arrested the two alleged cartel bosses.
Now, Mexican Security Secretary Rosa Icela Rodriguez said on Friday that they don't know if Zambada was captured, listen to this, or turn himself in and they're waiting to hear more from U.S. officials. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that regardless of whether somebody turned himself in or was captured, the fact that he's now in custody is an important step forward in the fight against drug trafficking.
In a new development, Fred, Mexico sent 200 members of its elite Special Forces Corps, part of the Mexican army to the state of Sinaloa on Friday to reinforce security. Security analysts fear that regardless of how Mayo Zambada ended up in U.S. custody, there's a potential for bloodshed in Sinaloa and elsewhere in Mexico.
I spoke with former Drug Enforcement Administration Agent Mike Vigil about this case, he told me even before they were taken into custody, there was already a power struggle between Zambada and the sons of El Chapo known as the Chapitos.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE VIGIL, FORMER DEA AGENT: And the Chapitos for quite some time, they've been trying to take the reins of power away from Mayo Zambada because when Chapo's mom was extradited their father, you know, they felt that, you know, they were the heirs of parent to the cartel. But the most of the cartel didn't really respect them because they were given everything by their father and they didn't get their hands dirty, like most of the cartel members.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMO: And Fred, Vigil also explained the significance of taking Mayo Zambada into custody, not only for Mexico, but also the United States.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VIGIL: -- of Carlo Gambino. And Mayo Zambada, prior to yesterday, and over 50 years of involvement in the drug trade, had never been captured, never, you know, serve any time, so he is highly respected by even his rivals.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMO: And there's a reaction from the White House in a statement. President Biden commended the work of U.S. law enforcement who arrested Zambada and Guzman Lopez, whom he called "two of the most notorious leaders of the Sinaloa cartel, one of the deadliest enterprises in the world."
The President also added that too many of our citizens have lost their lives to the scourge of fentanyl. One of the legal drugs officials say the Sinaloa cartel is known to smuggle into the United States. Very confusing indeed, but the thing here that everybody agrees on is that these two alleged cartel bosses are now in custody here in the United States.
WHITFIELD: Yes, you clarified it brilliantly. I wonder, though, while the heads of these cartels, you know, symbolically may have been eliminated, they're still the body. I mean, you know, it is still a -- an operation. These are two still operations --
ROMO: Right.
WHITFIELD: -- that continue to work. There are lieutenants.
ROMO: Somebody else will take over. And what the former agent was telling me is that as long as the infrastructure is intact for the cartel, there's still going to be the same problem with smuggling of drugs into the United States. And that's really the challenge there. WHITFIELD: Yes. Rafael Rom, thanks so much. Appreciate it.
All right, still, a lot of enthusiasm among Democrats right now. We're talking about the campaign trail surrounding Kamala Harris campaign for president. As new state polls show, this race is up for grabs. That's next.
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[12:23:28]
WHITFIELD: All right, new polls in some key battleground states show it's a toss-up in the presidential race. A Fox News poll now shows no clear winner between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump in three battleground states.
And in a Wall Street Journal poll, Harris is ahead in Minnesota. The Vice President has been in the race for less than a week, and already she's energizing her base of support. CNN's John King spoke with some senior voters in the key swing state of Pennsylvania. Some say they're excited by a Harris run, while others are still on the fence.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here we go.
JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: (voice-over): Mahjong requires focus, patience, a clear strategy to build matching sets of tiles. Changing course deep into the game is risky, but sometimes even experienced players see no choice but to try.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can I have your joker, please?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK. Heads up.
KING: See how easy it is to swap out a candidate in the middle of the game?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
KING (voice-over): This game ends in a draw.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nobody wins.
KING: Nobody wins?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nobody wins.
KING (voice-over): And a visitor brings up another big change.
KING: Show of hands if you think Harris can win Pennsylvania. So you're more optimistic now than you were with President Biden leading the ticket. There's a head shake.
PAMELA ALTA, PENNSYLVANIA VOTER: No.
KING: Tell me why.
ALTA: No. I don't think a lot of men will vote for Harris. I just don't. Whether you're Democrat, Republican, whatever, I just don't think the majority of men are ready for a female president.
[12:25:07]
KING: These three hands went up pretty quickly. So do you have more energy and enthusiasm about the campaign now?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God, yes.
KING: One more time, show of hands. Who wants to see them debate?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh yes.
KING (voice-over): Suddenly, Democrats like retiree and Mahjong instructor Darrell Ann Murphy are bursting with energy. Suddenly, they see at least a chance to win battleground Pennsylvania and keep Donald Trump out of the White House.
DARRELL ANN MURPHY, PENNSYLVANIA VOTER: I don't even like to hear the word Trump.
KING: What do you call him?
MURPHY: The monster.
KING (voice-over): At this same table five months ago, three of the four thought President Biden was up to the job, and they called criticism of his age unfair. But they began to see things that worried them. Biden's debate debacle left no doubt.
MURPHY: From experience, I know how quickly things can go downhill when you are an older person.
KING (voice-over): Now a new challenge.
MURPHY: You know, she's at the perfect age. She's committed. She's vigorous. And I overwhelmingly, the women I talk to are, let's go, let's go.
KING (voice-over): Civil rights activist Marvin Boyer organized the black history display at this museum in downtown Easton. The debate changed his mind, too. And in Harris, Boyer sees what was missing in Biden.
MARVIN BOYER, PENNSYLVANIA VOTER: You have to be aggressive because he's coming after you. And I think she's up to the challenge in that regard.
KING (voice-over): The winner here in Northampton County tends to be the winner statewide. Every vote matters.
BOYER: It also reenergizes a strong constituency of the Democratic Party, meaning black females. So I think it's a good thing in that regard.
KING: Do you think America is ready to elect a woman of color its president?
BOYER: There's still racism, misogyny in this country in 2024. No question. Well, can we overcome it with this election enough that she can be elected? I hope so.
KING (voice-over): Geology professor Lawrence Malinconico changed his mind after the debate, too. His wife donated to Harris as soon as the news broke. And Malinconico believes students will be much more energized now.
LARRY MALINCONICO, PENNSYLVANIA VOTER: There is an acceptable choice now when -- before I think there was real skepticism about the viability of President Biden for another four years.
KING: Do you think she could win Pennsylvania?
MALINCONICO: I hope so. I think part of it will depend on her choice of vice president.
KING: Do you think the country's ready for that, a woman of color as president?
MALINCONICO: I hope so. I'm a little nervous about that.
KING: Are you looking forward to Harris debating Trump?
MALINCONICO: Absolutely.
KING: Why?
MALINCONICO: I'm hoping she'll just eat him alive.
KING (voice-over): Pat Levin became politically active in the 1940s during FDR's third term.
PAT LEVIN, PENNSYLVANIA VOTER: So, you know, I've never seen anything like this.
KING (voice-over): She's just a few weeks from 95. Performance, not age, is Levin's test. And she sadly came to see President Biden couldn't pass it anymore.
LEVIN: I love him. I think he has been just wonderful. But he is definitely impaired in terms of his thinking, in terms of his presentation, in terms of his energy.
KING (voice-over): Simple advice for Harris.
LEVIN: Get into those swing states and show her enthusiasm and her stamina and her strength and be able to communicate strongly.
KING (voice-over): And one defining issue, if anyone, seeks her wisdom. LEVIN: It's democracy. It's -- actually, this might be our last free and fair election if we don't win it. We cannot afford to lose this election for the American people.
KING (voice-over): A big twist at crunch time in what for Pat Levin will be presidential vote number 19.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: John King, thank you so much.
All right, lots to talk about with this fast moving election. I'm joined now by Coleman Hughes, a CNN Political Analyst. Also with me is Lee Carter, a former Republican strategist and a strategic communications expert. Great to see you both.
LEE CARTER, STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS EXPERT: Thanks for having us.
WHITFIELD: All right, Lee, let me begin with you. This new polling, which shows a tightening race in the critical battleground states of Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin. Polls can shift, of course, almost daily. And as a former Republican strategist, you know, how concerned should the Trump campaign be at this stage of the race when they kind of had the wind at their sails thinking that they should be confident, but not so much now.
CARTER: Yes, I think they should be very concerned. I think that we're sort of going back in time. You look at the polls now, they're more looking like they are April than you would expect them to be looking post-RNC and post-assassination attempt. You would think that that Trump would be surging in this moment and yet he's not.
I think the most troubling thing for Republicans that poll is the voter enthusiasm shift. Only 37 percent of Democrats were enthusiastic about voting for Joe Biden. And now they're saying 81 percent are enthusiastic about voting for Harris. This translates to turnout. This translates to momentum. This translates to a lot of things. And so I think that Republicans are -- are right to be concerned in this moment. And Democrats should be excited.
[12:30:18]
WHITFIELD: Yes, call them. And meantime, there's a lot of momentum, you know, with the -- the Harris campaign, you've got grassroots organizations that are now saying, you know, we want to be a part of it. You've got people who are applying for campaign positions, they're volunteering. I mean, how -- how do they and can they maintain this kind of momentum for another 100 days?
COLEMAN HUGHES, HOST, CONVERSATION WITH COLEMAN PODCAST: Yes, so that remains to be seen, really, where Harris is doing so much better than Biden was doing just last week is with two groups, non-white voters and voters under 30. Those are the groups that Biden was really struggling with. And of course, those are, you know, in -- in our lifetimes, those are key Democratic constituents. The question is, I mean, there's two problems. One is that even with Harris doing so much better in those demographics than Biden was doing, Democrats are still not even close to where they were with those constituencies in 2020. They've lost around 10 points with -- with those -- those groups since 2020. And so obviously, I think what these polls show is that Democrats absolutely made the right decision by pressuring Biden to step down.
This -- this race now goes from basically a foregone conclusion in favor of Republicans, to now Democrats have a fighting chance, they're still the underdogs, but they absolutely have a chance to win this. If they can gain ground in the key battle battleground states. And what will be key to that is energizing and trying to get those numbers with non-white and -- and under 30 voters back to where they were in 2020.
WHITFIELD: Lee, it's a real fight to the finish. I mean, the Trump campaign, however, you know, seems to be struggling, you know, to try to define Harris in the way it wants to, since she rose to the top of the ticket. Democrats seem to be, you know, seizing on opportunities, however, to attack Trump's vice presidential pick J.D. Vance, starting with his, you know, cat lady comment. Take a listen to his attempt now to try to clean that up.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The simple point that I made is that having children becoming a father, becoming a mother, I really do think it changes your perspective in a pretty profound way that this is not about criticizing people who for various reasons didn't have kids. This is about criticizing the Democratic Party for becoming anti-family and anti-child.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WHITFIELD: All right, so Lee, how much of a liability is this for him not just the comments, but in his efforts to offer clarity?
CARTER: I don't think that he really cleaned up the mess that he's made here. When you look at this kind of a -- a comment and you try to say, is this going to be like Trump's Access Hollywood tape? Or is this going to be more like Hillary's basket full of deplorables moment? I really feel like this is one of those more like the basketful of deplorables moments. And that there's so many people out there, so many women who feel absolutely slighted by what he said.
You know, I didn't have children until later in life. I am a stepmother. And I always considered myself invested in the future of this country. I always was invested in my family. I always felt like I had children when I had it -- when I was -- when I was a stepmom. And I think it's just really insulting. And there are so many Americans out there who look at this and think, wow, how can he fight for us if he doesn't even like people like us?
And I think that's a real problem that he's got. The thing that's interesting about J.D. Vance is when you look at him, he's not -- there's so many dimensions to him. He probably could have a much better way to address this, but he just isn't. And I think it's going to be a liability.
WHITFIELD: Coleman, you know, there were supposed to be another debate, you know, in September. And already, you know, Trump has said, well, he's -- he's ready to not carry through his commitment to be part of that "ABC" presidential debate. He gave a condition, not until the Obamas were or former President Obama were to endorse Kamala Harris. Well, now that happened this week. Does he have a legitimate excuse to not show up for that debate?
HUGHES: Look, I mean, I'm not exactly sure what his cold feet are about. I mean, he has said that he absolutely wants to debate Kamala maybe even multiple times. But he said he has reservations about "ABC," which he considers to be a biased news organization. So at the end of the day, I don't see Trump backing out of a debate with Kamala. That would just to -- to me, that would signal a kind of weakness that someone like him really would not be comfortable with.
This might be his -- his attempt to try to get it on a channel that's more friendly to him, like "Fox," for example. So I don't really see this as him backing out. I think this is a negotiation tactic perhaps to get a more favorable debate.
[12:35:01]
WHITFIELD: OK. We'll leave it there Coleman Hughes, Lee Carter, we'll have you back. Thanks so much. We'll have so much more to talk about because again, you know, 100 days still. Thank you.
All right up next, some of the younger players on Team USA basketball are thrilled now to be sharing the court with those that they grew up watching. Live to Paris, next.
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[12:40:06]
WHITFIELD: All right, host nation, France, just earned its first metal of the 2024 Paris Summer Olympic Games. It comes after China took home the first two gold earlier today. Team USA also when it gets first metal, a silver and women's synchronized three meter springboard diving. It's an opening day full of exciting events in cycling, judo, and more. Let's discuss what's ahead with CNN sports anchor, Coy Wire, who's joining us live from Paris so what else is happening today?
COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: All right, welcome to rainy yet still beautiful Paris, Fredricka, Team USA has snagged their first medals of these Olympic Games, thanks to Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook who won the silver in the women's diving synchronized three-meter Springboard competition. It's the first Olympic medals for both divers and first American medal won in the event since 2012.
Kassidy Cook, Sarah Bacon, their longtime friends, and their nickname is Cooking Bacon. It doesn't get much better than that, right, after this chat with you, Fred. I'm going to go interview them at Team USA house so they can show off America's first medals of these games. Now last night's opening ceremony, Fredricka, was pouring down rain along the River Seine, but the show went on. Team USA were led by flagbearers Coco Gauff and LeBron James. And LeBron's hoops team is the new dream team. One of them, Jayson Tatum, the newly crowned NBA champion caught up with CNN. And it seems like even he is in awe of all the talent on this star studded roster. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JAYSON TATUM, TEAM USA BASKETBALL FORWARD: I literally grew up watching LeBron James and watching Kevin Durant and watching Steph Curry and now to see those guys every day and see how they work and prepare for shooting arounds in practice in the game, you know, I'm in awe sometimes that, you know they've accomplished so much and it means so much to the game of basketball. They mean so much to guys like myself that grew up watching them play.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WIRE: Fredricka, I was at a press conference with Steph Curry and Kevin Durant this week and they were talking about how excited they are to be teammates with guys like Jayson Tatum. And they, you know, they were asked, are you going to help Jayson Tatum, you know, now he's a teammate of yours, learn how to stay at the top, maybe be a repeat reigning champion. They said, oh, hell no. No, we don't like him that much. They're enjoying playing together. But they still --
WHITFIELD: Colleagues but still competitors.
WIRE: That's exactly right. Yes, Team USA led the medal count at the last summer Olympics. And the hoops team they're going to be hoping to do their part once again, Fredricka, chasing a fifth straight Olympic gold.
WHITFIELD: Nice. So exciting. OK. And just buckle your seatbelts because it's going to be a wild very fun, exciting ride. Love it. All right, Coy Wire in Paris, thanks so much.
All right, one of the biggest challenges of these games is keeping athletes safe. Twenty-eight years ago, terror struck the Olympics when a pipe bomb exploded in Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park throwing the 1996 games into chaos. The act of terror left to dead and injured more than 100. And now with the Paris Olympic Games starting, CNN national correspondent Isabel Rosales looks back at the lessons learned and the immense security challenges in France as more than 10 million visitors are expected to be in the capital city. But first a warning, you may find some of the images in this story disturbing.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ISABEL ROSALES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Summer 1996, the eyes of the world are fixed on Atlanta, Georgia. A backpack is stowed under a bench at Centennial Olympic Park. And at 1:20 in the morning, a 40-pound homemade pipe bomb filled with nails and screws explodes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have had word now of an explosion at the Centennial Olympic Park.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was just, boom. It was so loud it rang my ear.
ROSALES (voice over): Paul Merritt, now a security consultant with more than 30 years of experience in law enforcement, was on duty that night.
ROSALES: What was Atlanta like after that bomb went off?
PAUL MERRITT, SECURITY CONSULTANT: It was chaos.
ROSALES: Munich, 1972. Atlanta, 1996. Beijing, 2008. They all had issues of violence, of terrorism. What is it about an event like the Olympics that draws in this violence?
MERRITT: I think it's because you just have a lot of eyes looking at you. If someone's going to want to do that, they want to draw attention to their cause.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because everybody was speculating that the --0
ROSALES (voice over): In North Carolina, FBI special agent in charge, Chris Swecker, lead the manhunt for the Centennial Olympic Park bomber.
CHRIS SWECKER, FORMER FBI ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIVE DIVISION: The after action on the -- on the Atlanta Olympics was pretty harsh, very poor coordination.
ROSALES (voice over): So poor police on the ground were told too late about this crucial 911 call.
[12:45:00]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is a bomb in Centennial Park.
ROSALES: Nearly 30 years later, you can still see the imprints of that nail-filled bomb. And the lessons learned from this act of terror would extend far beyond Centennial Park and the city of Atlanta.
ROSALES (voice-over): Swecker says since then law enforcement has harnessed new techniques and technology to better guard the games, like bomb detecting equipment, drones, cameras, and AI.
SWECKER: I'd venture to say that -- that in 1996 we were in the stone ages when it comes to prevention of a -- of an incident.
ROSALES (voice over): Looking ahead to security at the upcoming Paris games, French authorities say they will restrict public access to the perimeter around the games, employ an anti-drone protocol, and have already slashed attendance capacity to the ambitious opening ceremony on the Seine, the first ever held by a river, by half for security reasons.
AMAUD BOURGUIGNON, IN CHARGE OF AIR AND ANTI-DRONE PROTECTION, PARIS 2024 OLYMPIC GAMES: (Speaking in foreign language). ROSALES: What are some red flags that law enforcement would be looking out for?
MERRITT: We're looking for things that don't fit the environment, that don't hit -- match the baseline.
For example, a backpack that's put in the bushes, like we see right here. But this would even raise more red flags because clearly somebody put it here to where other people wouldn't see it.
ROSALES (voice over): With stakes so high, prevention and vigilance are more important than ever.
Isabel Rosales, CNN, Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WHITFIELD: And tune in to How It Really Happened the Atlanta Olympic Bombing tonight at 9:00 p.m.
When the new school year began, students will take part in familiar drills like what to do in a tornado or a school shooting. But in New York, those drills to prepare for a possible shooter are about to change.
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[12:51:28]
WHITFIELD: New York State has the largest school district in the U.S. and in the upcoming school year, students will no longer have realistic active shooter drills. The new ban follows a multiyear effort by parents and lawmakers who say the drills traumatize children and normalize violence. It's a major win for advocates as the new rules also require schools to notify staff, students and parents about planned drills ahead of time. CNN national correspondent Gloria Pazmino joining me now with details on this. Gloria, tell us more.
GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, as you said, this is a huge win for parents and student activists who have been trying to bring attention to this issue. And, you know, Fred, I spoke to many of the parents over the last several days and many of them repeated the same thing to me that they walked away feeling like these drills were really just traumatizing their children, exposing them to violence from a young age, and really not doing much to prepare them, even though New York has some of the strongest gun laws in the country.
Now these drills have become a part of normal life in many of America's schools, more than 44 states practice these kinds of realistic drills. Even though gun violence is so prevalent in our country today, school shootings specifically still are relatively rare. In fact, they only account for 1 percent of the more than 44,000 annual U.S. gun related debts.
Now, I wanted to talk to one of these students. Her name is Stella Kaye, she's an incredible young activist. She's 17 years old. She lives in Denver. And she spoke to me about what it's been like for her to go through school having to experience these drills. Take a listen.
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STELLA KAYE, VP, DENVER EAST HIGH SCHOOL CHAPTER, STUDENTS DEMAND ACTION: You know, these drills, you know, maybe useful for a day or two or a year to the school year for preparing students for what it's like. But you know, they're not research, it doesn't show that they're, you know, useful or prevent school shootings at all. And that alarm is one of the worst things you can hear. It's just kind of a reminder of the -- the climate that we -- that we live in, the -- the normalization of gun violence, and the alarm goes off and you go into a corner and you turn the lights off, and my teacher will lock the door and draw the shades.
And then we wait until we get released. It's -- it's become a little bit of just like a -- a chore almost. I -- last year we did, I looked around and I saw everyone's scrolling on their phones. And I was just thinking to myself like this is not a solution.
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PAZMINO: Now Stella is actually a survivor of gun violence at her school. So imagine what it's like for her to kind of have to really relive these drills over and over. Another thing that really struck me speaking to some of the parents was how young some of the students are when they are exposed to this. So talk -- let's talk about the changes that are coming to New York because they are significant.
And as you mentioned in the beginning, Fred, parents will now be required to be notified ahead of time, the drills will have to be age appropriate and most importantly, the use of props or actors or any sort of depiction of violence as part of the drill will now be banned. And parents and activists are not done quite yet they are still required to drill a minimum of four times a year across state schools. But parents want to bring that minimum down to two and to have an opt out option. They say that that's what they're focusing their energy on in the next legislative session. Fred?
[12:55:22]
WHITFIELD: Yes. Very fascinating. All right, Gloria Pazmino, thank you so much.
All right, we're following breaking news in California where a wildfire bigger than the size of Los Angeles is burning out of control. After the break hear from a man who lost his home in this fast moving blaze.
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