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New Polling Shows Presidential Race Statistical Tie In Swing States Of Pennsylvania, Michigan, And Wisconsin; Possible Democratic Vice Presidential Candidates Campaigning For Presumptive Democratic Presidential Nominee Kamala Harris; Donald Trump To Give Speech To Bitcoin Convention In Nashville; Israel Blaming Hezbollah For Rocket Attack In Golan Heights That Killed At Least 10 People Including Children; Kamala Harris Comments On Peace Prospects In Gaza After Meeting With Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; Mexican Drug Cartel Leaders Joaquin Guzman Lopez And Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada Garcia Taken Into U.S. Custody; New York State School District No Longer Holding Realistic Active Shooter Drills; Historian Notes Possible Consequences Of Kamala Harris's Shortened Presidential Campaign This Year; Uncontrolled Wild Fire Devastates Parts Of Northern California; Climate Change Likely Leading To Constant Extreme Heat Events. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired July 27, 2024 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:59:55]

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 spring to the 2024 election. There are now just over 100 days until voters head to the polls to pick the next president. Today, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump are both out on the campaign trail. And at any moment now, Harris is set to hold the fundraiser in Massachusetts. Meantime, her political rival will be speaking in the next hour at the Bitcoin Convention in Nashville.

And this comes as new polling shows that two candidates locked in a tight race. According to this FOX News polls, the presidential race is now a statistical dead heat in swing states of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.

CNN's Steve Contorno is covering the Trump campaign from Nashville. Eva McKend is in Washington covering -- or you're not in -- yes, you are. You're in Washington covering the Harris campaign while she's making her way to Massachusetts. So Eva, you first. Set the stage for what this weekend is all about for her.

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER: So Fred, the strategy right now is to really capitalize on the momentum that she's enjoying. There are 100 days until the election, but even less time in some places where voters can take advantage of voting early. So the campaign kicking into high gear, leaning on supporters to knock on doors and work the phones.

And then also several governors who are reported to be on her short lists for vice president, they are out on the campaign trail right now, Governor Walz, Governor Beshear, and Governor Shapiro crisscrossing the country, making their case. Let's take a listen to what Governor Walz said earlier today in Minnesota.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TIM WALZ, (D) MINNESOTA: But he's here today in the state of hockey to complete his trifecta. He lost in 16, he lost in 20, he loses in 24.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: So Walz pretty forcefully there making the case against Donald Trump.

Harris also giving a virtual address today to young voters, Voters of Tomorrow. They're Gen Z led organization with young organizers and activists. The group says they're feeling energized and resolved to restore reproductive rights, deliver climate action, and end the epidemic of gun violence in America. Harris, they say, is uniquely positioned to address those issues, their issues, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Eva, thanks so much.

Steve, let's go to you in Nashville where Trump is expected to speak in the next hour. Why the Bitcoin Convention?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Fred, this is a conference for bitcoin enthusiasts and entrepreneurs, the kind of people that Donald Trump suggested a few years ago were operating a quote, scam. Take a look at this quote that he posted to social media in 2019. He said, "I'm not a fan of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies which are not money and whose value is highly volatile and based on thin air. Unregulated crypto assets can facilitate unlawful behavior, including drug trade and other illegal activity."

Fast forward to 2024, though, Trump is singing a different tune. Listen to what he said about bitcoin earlier this year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. 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, Trump's campaign wouldn't say what exactly caused this 180 degree turn, but I will point out the bitcoin industry has really embraced Donald Trump, especially financially. He has received considerable donations to his campaign from some of the biggest investors in cryptocurrency. He has also been accepting bitcoin to his campaign, and we're told he has received about $4 million in bitcoin so far. And he is promising to be a pro bitcoin president if elected.

WHITFIELD: All right, Steve Contorno, thank you so much there in Nashville. We'll be watching and listening.

Let's talk more about where these campaigns go from here with "The Washington Post" senior critic at large Robin Givhan. Robin, great to see you again. So you wrote an article this week and an op-ed this week about the men committed to Harris's campaign, saying this in part, "The United States has a problem with women, with their ambition and their autonomy. The country lags behind many of it's global counterparts in never having elected a female commander in chief. So it's worth noting the men who have publicly and vociferously positioned themselves in the vice president's corner, it's not simply the who but also the how. They have been met in her life, but also black men at large. They have promised to both protect and to serve."

I mean, it's very profound. Let's spring off that. You were impressed with how President Biden handed her the baton, called her affectionately "kid" on her first appearance at the Delaware campaign headquarters, to Harris's husband, Doug Emhoff, gladly and profoundly saying he has supporting her.

[14:05:11]

So the support from so many any other men, you say, too, they're acting like guardians, as champions of her. So what does this say about America? What does this say about Harris?

ROBIN GIVHAN, SENIOR CRITIC AT LARGE, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Well, I think with President Biden referring to her as "kid" in that sort of, in a very sort of familiar and affectionate way, it just reminded me of the way in which we're so accustomed to seeing power sort of handed down, a baton passed, and typically it's from an older man to a younger man. And in this case, it had that same kind of tenor. It had a similar kind of rapport. But this time it was an older man to his younger vice president.

And I would also just say that the wording that her husband used when he talked about supporting her, he didn't say that he had to support her or he wanted to support her. He said, I get to support her, which was really the words of someone who viewed it as a privilege, as a gift that he got to do this.

WHITFIELD: Wow. Yes, and his excitement, I mean, he really did exude excitement. And we've seen it, too, that kind of excitement conveyed from the former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama in their endorsement of her, which was turned around into an ad. I mean, do you think this is not just giving her momentum and a boost on the campaign trail, but it's sending a very strong message to the country, where there may have been some reticence, reluctance, doubt about a woman rising to that responsibility and that kind of profile, that there is a big change happening suddenly, and we're seeing it by way of this campaign?

GIVHAN: Yes, I mean, I think two things are happening. I think one is that there is a recognition that there are still certainly, in some corners, hesitation and doubt and also a certain degree of attack based solely on, excuse me, gender and race. And so you have this group of black man who gathered on a Zoom call to announce that they were there to protect her and to fight back against that kind of racism and misogyny, and also to fight back against the idea that black men, for whatever reason, are presumed not to necessarily be that supportive of a black woman.

And I think it also demonstrates a shift, that this is, instead of saying, I doubt that people will be ready to vote for a black woman, essentially taking the -- making an affirmative statement and saying the only way to remove that doubt is to essentially get out there and vote. So I think both of those things are going on.

WHITFIELD: We of course, have already seen some of the attacks that Harris could face more of as we get closer to the election. Tennessee Republican Congressman Tim Burchett in saying this week that Harris was a, quote, DEI hire, making that a criticism, something others on the right have echoed. But Speaker Mike Johnson urged Republicans to focus on policy, not these kinds of attacks.

Still, Trump said he doesn't want to be nice. How do you see his usual style as feeding into the Harris campaign? They're turning it around, making him look very outdated and caught up in the past.

GIVHAN: Well, I think they're not necessarily making him look that way. I think he does, in fact, look that way, outdated and stuck in the past. But I, astonishingly, still have the capacity to be shocked by some of the things that come out of the mouths of our politicians. And frankly, it is shocking to me that someone would rely on such old, outdated, and incorrect tropes about black women and their ambition and their successes and their accomplishments.

[14:09:51]

And I also think that so much of the Trump brand is built on personality, that in some ways that it seems to be the only way in which he knows how to confront and deal with his adversaries, which is to go straight to the sort of attack on the self, on their personality, on who they fundamentally are instead of going after and discussing policy issues and policy differences.

WHITFIELD: Well, I encourage people to read your column. It was really enlightening, insightful, and it was lovely to read. Robin Givhan, thank you so much. Good to see you.

All right, this breaking news out of Israel. At least 10 people are dead and nearly 30 injured in a rocket attack in the Golan Heights. What we know next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:15:27]

WHITFIELD: Happening right now, at least 10 people were killed and 29 injured in a rocket attack in the Golan Heights. That's according to Israeli officials. The attack came as CIA Director Bill Burns is preparing to join new Gaza ceasefire talks set for tomorrow in Rome. Journalist Elliott Gotkine has been following these developments. What are you learning about this attack?

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, CNN JOURNALIST: Fredricka, according to the IDF's chief spokesman, Daniel Hagari, he says that those 10 fatalities were all children, as you say, almost around about 30 injured as well. He says that those children were playing football, soccer, on a field in this village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, when multiple rocket, according to him, were fired. And the Israelis, the IDF saying that this, categorically that this was Hezbollah. Hezbollah, in its words, has firmly denied that it was involved. Israel responding to that, saying that Hezbollah is simply lying.

So 10 killed, all of them children, according to the IDF, and around about 30 injured. Multiple rockets according to Israel. And to my mind, Fredricka, this could be the most deadly attack that we've seen in the north of Israel since Hezbollah started firing rockets and drones at Israel on October the 8th, the day after the Hamas-led terrorist attacks of October the 7th. Fred?

WHITFIELD: Do we think this is going to impact the expected or planned ceasefire talks involving the CIA director?

GOTKINE: I mean, I don't think the Hezbollah, assuming it is Hezbollah, that this is likely to have any impact on those talks. But those talks due to resume in Rome with, as you say, the CIA Director Bill Burns, his counterparts from Israel, Egypt, and Qatar as well. Egypt and Qatar, the mediators there. We were getting a bit more all optimistic that we were inching closer to a deal, but I've been checking my notes, and you remember back in February, it was President Biden in Michigan chomping on an ice cream hoping, saying that he expected a hostage deal to come about by that weekend. And we're obviously several months further forward than that. It's obviously good to be optimistic that the two sides could be getting closer towards some kind of deal that would see a ceasefire and the number of hostages released and a number of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails released as well.

But we know from previous experience, the number of times we've been having this conversation about whether we hope these talks are actually going to get a deal over the line. It pays to be cautious when these talks are taking place. There's still much to discuss, everything from the ratio of Palestinian prisoners to hostages being released, if Israel will have vetoes on certain Palestinian prisoners being released, if Israel will retain control over the Philadelphi Corridor which runs between Rafah and the Egyptian border, which Israel has said it must control in order to prevent weapons smuggling to Hamas afterwards.

So there's still a lot of details that needs to be finalized. So although they are still talking, so it's possible that a deal can be done, the likelihood is that if a deal is going to be done, it's still some time away. Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right, Elliott Gotkine, thank you so much. Let's get further analysis now on these developments. Aaron David

Miller is a former State Department Middle East negotiator and senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Great to see you. So what's your response to this attack and what it might mean now?

AARON DAVID MILLER, FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT MIDDLE EAST NEGOTIATOR: Look, the Israeli-Lebanese border since October 8th, Fred, when Hezbollah launched rockets as part of the axis of resistance in the wake of the Hamas terror attack on October 7th, it's been a powder keg. For the last 10 months you've seen a daily exchange of some high trajectory rockets anti-tank missiles.

This is the most deadly incident. Mashtal Shams is in the southern foothills are the Golan. Its primarily or Druze town. I've looked at some of the pictures. The rockets, even though Hezbollah has denied it, they're the likely suspect, seems to have hit a play area, a soccer field, as many as 10 dead. The real question, I think, is how he Israelis choose to respond to this. If they -- I don't think it'll be a massive, massive attack, but it could create, depending on what they do, a Hezbollah response, which could then go up the escalatory ladder. And if that happens, it will in fact affect and undermine any promise of quick progress between Israel and Hamas on the hostage negotiation deal.

WHITFIELD: It would almost seem that it would be expected that there's going to be some sort of response from Israel.

[14:20:01]

But at the same time, there has to be, as you just alluded to, a calculation, at what risk, what are the options of the response? So what might Israel be considering?

MILLER: I mean, I think they could consider a barrage of air and artillery strikes in southern Lebanon. They could even go deeper than that. Ten dead, Mashtal Shams is a Druze town. Druze are Israeli citizens. They serve in the IDF. They've died in the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza. So I think the Israelis will mount a robust response.

Again the escalatory ladder has not yet been climbed to the conclusion that I think neither Israel, Hezbollah, the United States, probably not in Iran wants right now, which is a major escalation that trips into something the Middle East has never seen before, which is a major war, which could involve Israel and Iran, Israel and Hezbollah, and the U.S. and Iran, that could even spread to the Gulf.

So I don't think we're on the cusp of that, but the northern border is really on the cusp, it seems to me, and has been of some sort of escalation.

HARRIS: And we heard this week, both from President Biden and Vice President Harris, about its continued commitment to Israel and support of Israel to defend itself. But there were also comments that the vice president, who is now the presumptive Democratic nominee, comments that she made after her meeting with Netanyahu. This is what she said. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, (D) VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What has happened in Gaza over the past nine months is devastating. The images of dead children and desperate, hungry people fleeing for safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third, or fourth time. We cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. We cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering. And I will not be silent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: In your view, what might Netanyahu be preparing for if she wins the presidency?

MILLER: It'll be a Democratic administration. And Mr. Netanyahu for decades has tethered himself and the Likud party to the Republicans. I mean, if the GOP is the party of Donald Trump, then it's certainly the party of Benjamin Netanyahu. When I think of all the meetings, with the possible exception of the speech that the prime minister delivered, fourth time now, besting Winston Churchill, twice the number of times that Nelson Mandela talked to Congress, I think the most important meeting was his apology tour, the reconciliation with Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago.

So Mr. Netanyahu, if he could vote, I suspect, very little doubt who he would vote for in the upcoming election. It would not be Kamala Harris.

WHITFIELD: Aaron David Miller, we'll leave it there for now. Thanks so much.

MILLER: Thank you, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Coming up, new details into the surprise arrest of two high profile drug cartel leaders.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:27:43]

WHITFIELD: We're learning new details today about the arrest of two alleged drug cartel leaders. The son of infamous kingpin El Chapo, is now being held in a federal prison in Chicago. Joaquin Guzman Lopez and Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada Garcia were taken into custody on Thursday. An official says Guzman Lopez actually organized the arrest, tricking Zambada into a flight that was eventually met by federal agents in El Paso, Texas. CNN's Rafael Romo joining us with the very latest on this. I mean, this is a fascinating tale. It's something out of a book, or movie.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN SENIOR LATIN AMERICAN AFFAIRS EDITOR: It is complicated, and yes, at some point somebody is going to do a series on why happened here. I would not be surprised. And we now know that Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, has been transported to Chicago and is in custody at the Metropolitan Correctional Center. That's a prison for both male and female offenders for the capacity for 490 inmates.

Regarding Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, he is expected to also be transported to Chicago in the coming days. A U.S. law enforcement source told CNN one of the alleged drug lords was lured with the help of the other, while the Mexican government says they don't know whether that was the case or if they turned themselves in. A U.S. official familiar with the investigation told CNN that Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, lured Zambada 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, were federal agents, including some from Homeland Security investigations, arrested the two alleged cartel bosses.

But the top Mexican security secretary said on Friday that they don't know if Zambada was captured or turned himself in, and they're waiting to hear more from U.S. officials. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said that regardless of whether Zambada turned themselves in or was captured, the fact that he's now in custody is an important step forward in the flight -- in the fight, I should say, against drug trafficking.

In a new development, 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.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[14:30:07]

MIKE VIGIL, FORMER DEA AGENT: Normally, when you take out a drug cop or a drug leader, you're going to have infighting because a lot of individuals are going to want to control the cartel. And many times these cartels will splinter, and then all of a sudden you have all these different groups fighting again for territory and drug routes, and that can translate into a very bloody war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: 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. And Fred, 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 see the Sinaloa Cartel is known to smuggle into the United States.

WHITFIELD: Something tells me this is just one chapter. There'll be more.

ROMO: That's right.

WHITFIELD: Rafael Romo, thank you so much.

ROMO: Thank you. WHITFIELD: All right, New York state is the largest school district

in the U.S. And in the upcoming school year, students will no longer have realistic active shooter drills. CNN national correspondent Gloria Pazmino, joining me now with more on this. Gloria how did it come about?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fred, this is a big win for parent advocates and students and teachers who have been pushing for these changes for several years at this point. There's been a very active group of parents here in New York City who have been pushing for legislative changes. And earlier this month, the board of regents here in New York finally adopted some rules banning the use of realistic drills in order to prepare children for the possibility of being exposed to a mass shooting.

Now, I spent some time talking to these parents, and all of them told me the same thing, that they felt that these drills were very realistic and that they were traumatizing their children, creating a lot of anxiety, exposing them to violence, and in a way, normalizing the culture of gun violence here in our country, especially for the youngest, the youngest children that were being exposed to this.

Even though we have been grappling with an epidemic of gun violence here in the United States for so many years now, and we do see instances of mass shootings they actually remain somewhat rare in the grand scheme of how much injuries and deaths we see related to gun violence. So there's been a real push, not just here in New York, but across the entire country to change the way that these drills are done, to make sure that they are trauma informed, to make sure that parents are involved and made aware that these drills are happening before they happen.

And I spoke to one of those student activists earlier today who has been pushing for this change, who has survived gun violence herself, and who spoke to me about what it's been like to be a young person who is frequently exposed to these kinds of drills. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STELLA KAYE, V.P., DENVER EAST HIGH SCHOOL CHAPTER, STUDENTS DEMAND ACTION: These drills may be useful for a day or two or a year or two the school year for preparing students for what it's like. But they're not -- research doesn't show that they're 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 climate that we live in, 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 door and draw the shades, and then we wait until we get released.

It's become a little bit of just like a chore, almost. The last year we did it, I looked around, and I saw everyone scrolling on their phones. And I was just thinking to myself, like, this is not a solution.

(END VIDEO CLIP) PAZMINO: One critical part of this change here in New York, Fred, is that these drills, although they have to happen there will only be a mandated minimum of four, and they now have to be age-appropriate trauma-informed, and the use of actors, depicting of violence, or any sort of prop in these drills will now be banned here in New York. And advocates like the student I spoke to, are hoping that this carries momentum into other schools around the country where these realistic drills are still done. And parents still trying to grapple with the reality of having to make sure that their children are prepared while also making sure that they are not exposed to this violence and to these as sort of very traumatizing and anxious inside their schools.

[14:35:08]

WHITFIELD: Yes, a very difficult juncture in all ways. All right, Gloria Pazmino, thanks so much.

The race to win the White House feels like an ultramarathon and not at all a sprint. My next guest thinks a sprint may be just what we need.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:40:06]

WHITFIELD: Less than a week after President Biden dropped out of the presidential race and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris to be the Democratic nominee, Harris is now at the center of what could be one of the shortest presidential campaigns in modern American history. My next guest believes that could be a good thing, not just for her, but for democracy.

Julian Zelizer is a CNN political analyst and a historian and professor at Princeton University. And he just wrote a new piece for "Foreign Policy" magazine. The headline says, quote, "Why do American presidential campaigns have to be so long?" Zelizer also writes, "With only about three months to win, kamala Harris might prove a shorter election period is healthier for the democracy." Julian, great to see you.

JULIAN ZELIZER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Thanks for having me.

WHITFIELD: So I spoke with earlier, and he says he sees it's an advantage for her. You say overall for democracy, it may be advantageous. Why?

ZELIZER: Well, look, campaigns have gotten longer and longer. They're much longer in the U.S. than other countries. That means they cost more. That means in some ways we're oversaturated with information. And people talk about voter fatigue where they just can't distinguish key moments from unimportant moments. And it leads to a process where essentially one presidential election ends and the next one begins. So these concerns are paramount, instead of governing. And so I think a shorter cycle might change the dynamics of Washington.

WHITFIELD: That's true. I think in recent years it does seem like as soon as you inaugurate a president it's already it's time to start talking about, or somehow there's a positioning in the universe to start talking about the next election. How and why did it come to this? Because you point out in your article that American elections weren't always that way. What changed?

ZELIZER: Yes, I mean, even as late as the 60s, it really started in the summer months. Some of it was the party's move to primaries and caucuses rather than conventions where parties used to pick the nominee. And so that meant a much longer cycle. You wanted to get ready for Iowa, which meant getting ready for Iowa many months earlier. Part of it was the costs of campaigns escalated. And so without public finance or other reforms, there was a constant scramble getting ready for an election to raise money, which is part of the campaign.

And finally, the news industry change. And so there was more channels like ours that were focused on politics all the time, and campaigns really became one of the key stories that the media wanted to follow.

WHITFIELD: And I believe it was during the Obama race for the White House when we started seeing numbers that were just, I mean, superlative, right? We just hadn't seen campaign figures or a need for it like that.

So do you see that perhaps whatever outcome there might be from this 2024 race that already being put in place is a new roadmap for how elections can or should be run?

ZELIZER: It could be. I mean, I argue that some people proposed reforms that might shorten the system, reforms that other countries have in place. But I don't think that's likely. But what might happen, if Vice President Harris is successful, if she can show, yes, in a few months, not only can you pull off a campaign, but you can pull off a successful campaign, that might be an incentive for future candidates and political people to rethink, do we really want to run campaigns as long as we do? And maybe there's a better path towards victory if they're shorter, punchier, and more focused, which I think could have virtues for the country, not just for candidates.

WHITFIELD: All right, Julian Zelizer, we'll leave it there for now. Thanks so much.

ZELIZER: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Still ahead, we just lived through two of the hottest days ever recorded on planet earth.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:48:56]

WHITFIELD: All right, this breaking news out of northern California, where the fast Park fire is now approaching 350,000 acres burned with zero containment. The blaze began just two days ago and is already bigger than the size of the city of Los Angeles. And now the nearby fire weary town of Paradise, California, is under their own evacuation warning. And most of that town was destroyed, if you recall, when the Camp fire swept through back in 2018.

CNN meteorologist Allison Chinchar is here with more on this. So what kind of conditions are we talking about in northern California?

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: All right, so some things are going to get better, some things that are going to get worse. So it's kind of a combination as we head into the weekend.

So let's take a look, because it's not just the only fire. You have over 90 active wildfires across nearly a dozen states in the western portion of the country. Yes, a lot of the focus is really on the Park fire, but a lot of that has to do with how quickly it spread. As Fred mentioned, this is only started about two, two-and-a-half days ago, began late Wednesday, and since then it has already burned over 300,000 acres.

[14:50:00]

So you do the math here, put that in perspective, that is roughly 60 football fields every single minute since it began. So consistently spreading very, very fast. And that's what's made this very difficult.

Now, you've got the red flag warnings in effect for several states out here. These are where we're concerned about those high winds, 30 to 35 miles per hour, possibly even slightly higher gusts as well, that can take a lot of those flames already and continue to spread them. It can also take the smoke too.

So you've got all of these areas in gray here where we have the air quality alerts where that smoke is supposed to be so thick that it could end up causing some respiratory problems for some folks in those particular areas. And you can see that here it really starts to fill in, especially across Nevada, Utah, and then even Idaho, you start to see more of that orange and red color indicating that very, very thick smoke.

Now we've talked about some good news, that is temporarily getting a brief reprieve from those extremely hot temperatures. Take a look at this. Yesterday in Sacramento, topped out at one 102. Today only 82. Similar drop for Redding, Reno, and Fresno. But it is short-lived. We will have it this weekend, but once we get into next week, we start to see those temperatures going back up. Sacramento backup in the upper 90s, maybe even flirting with triple digits, especially by the back end of the week. Even Portland, Oregon, also going to start to see those temperatures rising back up.

So one of the big hopes is that since we have this brief reprieve, Fred, that we can maybe allow the firefighters to make some advancement in those containment numbers before the temperatures start to go back up again.

WHITFIELD: Well, this is indeed a very hot summer. All right it's still July, right? And it's still July.

CHINCHAR: Almost August.

WHITFIELD: Almost, OK, that's right. OK. Still, it's hot. All right, thanks, Allison Chinchar, appreciate it.

For more now on how climate change is making these wildfires so destructive, I'm joined now by CNN chief climate correspondent Bill Weir. Always great to see you, Bill. So is this kind of our new normal now for folks living out west?

BILL WEIR, CNN CHIEF CLIMATE CORRESPONDENT: Unfortunately, it is. It's for folks living everywhere. Really, this is the culmination of 150 years of human progress. All that excess carbon pollution in the sea and the sky warming us up to the point where humanity set a record in terms of the hottest day ever, that is at least as far as records go, which was shattered the next day. But scientists who really study tree rings and ice cores and lakebed sediments say we're living through the hottest period since the birth of Christ, since for thousands of years.

And now all that energy, which a lot of it was sort of hidden because the oceans were absorbing so much of that energy, now is just everywhere, on land and at sea. And hotters are hotter and the wetters are wetter, and you're seeing the result of that fire. I was just in Paradise for the five-year anniversary of the Camp fire, the deadliest in the state's history there, and learning how people who stayed, about a third of the town stayed, learned to rebuild a fire proof community. Well, now that's going to have sadly be tested perhaps with this new one.

WHITFIELD: Right, and they're evacuating. Many people are being asked to evacuate that very community again.

WEIR: Yes. It's just, it's just so hard. I mean, the people who there really want to be there, and they tried to learn from the last one, but your heart breaks if they lose it again.

WHITFIELD: Oh, yes. And OK, you refer to the hottest days. You're talking about Sunday and Monday where the planet set records for the hottest days ever. What is going on?

WEIR: Yes, this is just what science has been warning, and unfortunately these are just sort of milestones. As we tick towards a warmer world now. The last year it was well over 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming, and that of course is the target. Humanity was trying to hold with the Paris accords, decarbonizing our economies because the more pollution goes up there, the hotter things get. That hasn't -- that curve has yet to be bent. And so the more pollution that goes up, the more that is burned, fuel that is burned, the hotter it will get, unfortunately. So the smartest communities are bracing and preparing.

WHITFIELD: Yes, it's not just hot, uncomfortable hot. But we're talking about this is deadly heat. You were just in Arizona, right, where several hundred people are dead because of record heat there.

WEIR: That's right. Last year they set a grim record of nearly 650 heat-related deaths in Maricopa County, which holds Phoenix there. As a result of that, they now have 24-hour cooling centers. They have ice -- body bags full of ice in every ambulance. And so when they find somebody who's organs are literally cooking, they can cool them down as soon as possible. They're trying to reflect paint off of the baking streets with special kind of paints, and have a policy of shade when it comes to construction in how they plan playgrounds and parks. It's just a whole new normal when it stays above 118 degrees for weeks at a time.

And the nighttime temperature sometimes doesn't get below 90, which just puts more stress on the body there as well. So what's happening in Phoenix is a lot of those fatalities are the result of folks living on the street or wrestling with addiction. And those are problems in big cities everywhere year-round. But in a place where it gets to be 115 degrees, those problems turned deadly.

[14:55:00]

WHITFIELD: All right, these are big, big challenges indeed. Bill Weir, thank you so much.

WEIR: You bet.

WHITFIELD: We'll be right back.

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[15:00:00]

WHITFIELD: All right, the U.S. has a long history when it comes to political violence. It has its roots in the American Revolution through the Civil War, the 60s, and the politically polarized atmosphere that we're experiencing today. Former President Donald Trump is just the latest victim of an attack.