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Trump Tries Out Attack Lines As Harris Campaign Heats Up; VP Harris Calls GOP Ticket "Plain Weird" At Massachusetts Fundraiser; Israeli Officials Point To Hezbollah For Deadly Rocket Strike; Polls Show Harris, Trump Locked In Tight Race With No Clear Leader; California's Park Fire Now Seventh Largest In State History, El Chapo's Son To Appear In Court Tuesday Following US Arrest, Olympics: First Medals Handed Out On Day One Of Competition. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired July 27, 2024 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:01:25]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. Hi, everyone. I'm Jessica Dean in New York.

And we are about 100 days until election day. Major new polling showing former president Donald Trump's lead is shrinking since Vice President Kamala Harris entered the race. It is now a statistical tie in those nationwide polls.

Both Harris and Trump are out on the campaign trail today. Trump speaking to a crypto convention and now headed to Minnesota for a joint rally with his running mate, Senator J.D. Vance.

CNN's Alayna Treene is in Minnesota.

Alayna, what have we heard from the president? What are we expecting to hear from him?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jessica, I will start with what we've heard from Donald Trump so far because we're not going to be hearing from either Donald Trump or J.D. Vance for another couple of hours. But I did find what he said at that bitcoin conference to be very interesting. He really ramped up his attacks on Kamala Harris as he continues to try and define her, and see which attacks work on her. And we also heard him test lines some new attacks as well. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have a country to run. The problem is that Kamala is worse than Joe, is worse. She is a radical left lunatic, defund the police, all of the different things. And so far we're doing -- she got a little honeymoon going on right now. But when people hear about her and she's against crypto, by the way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, Jessica, I can tell you, I mean, clearly he's trying out all different types of attacks. He's saying she is worse than Joe Biden, that she's more liberal. But what we haven't heard yet that he said in those remarks is that he acknowledged she's having a bit of a honeymoon phase.

Now I can tell you Donald Trump's advisers, as well as his pollsters, have been preparing him and kind of warning him that she was likely to see at least some sort of short-term boost after announcing. And that is what we've seen in the past few days with Democrats, you know, the enthusiasm and fundraising all picking up on the heels of that announcement and he acknowledged that. So I found that pretty noteworthy.

Now, I also just want to explain some of the context of why Donald Trump was there because as someone who has covered him for several years, I know that when he was president and in the White House starting in 2017 he was actually singing a very different tune when it came to crypto. He's called it a scam. He said that it's not real money but now, today, we heard him get on stage and said that he wants crypto to be the future and he wants America to be leading in that.

And I can tell you I know from my conversations with Trump's team that part of the reasoning for that is Donald Trump has really been courted by crypto donors and wealthy people tied to that community for several months now. And then just very quickly, Jessica, about tonight in Minnesota, I think it's very noteworthy that he is coming to this state especially given that Republicans have not won this state in more than 50 years.

So he's going to be making a pitch tonight with his team believing that there is still some sort of pathway for him here in Minnesota -- Jess.

DEAN: All right. Alayna Treene for us in Minnesota. Thank you so much for your reporting.

Meanwhile, Vice President Harris is fighting back against some of Trump's new attacks on her, saying that he's pushing some, quote, "wild lies" about her. She's also calling Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, quote, "plain weird." She did that at a fundraiser today in Massachusetts.

CNN's Eva McKend is joining us now.

And Eva, Trump and Harris now sharpening their attacks against each other as this race begins to take shape.

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: They are, Jess. Harris is eager to prosecute the case against Trump. Today at that fundraiser she talked about her law enforcement background and said she has experienced taking on perpetrators of all kinds, like predators who abused women and fraudsters, before going on to sharply say she knows Donald Trump's type.

[19:05:07]

Now, Harris also giving virtual remarks to young people, Voters of Tomorrow, leaning on them for their support and highlighting the significance of their participation in this election. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: In this election we know that young voters will be key, and we know your vote cannot be taken for granted. It must be earned and that is exactly what we will do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MCKEND: Also chiding Trump for now seeming to back away from the debate, saying today she hopes he reconsiders because the two of them have a lot to talk about -- Jess.

DEAN: All right. Eva McKend with the latest reporting from Vice President Harris' campaign. Thank you so much for that.

And we have breaking news tonight out of the Middle East where Israeli officials are vowing to respond after a deadly strike in the Golan Heights.

Responders saying at least 11 people were killed including children when rockets fired from Lebanon hit a football field. We spoke with former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett last hour. He said both Hezbollah and Lebanon have effectively declared war on Israel. And Israel must now respond accordingly.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NAFTALI BENNETT, FORMER ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: The state of Lebanon essentially shot rocket made in Iran. We know the name of the guy who shot it. His name is Ali Mahmoud Yahyah (PH). These rockets were made in Iran, Iranian rockets, 50 kilograms of a warhead. And it's time that we hit back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Jeremy Diamond is on the ground for us where this strike hit.

Jeremy, we see it behind you there. What are you hearing about all of this?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: You know, Jessica, we arrived on the scene and the mood is very, very heavy here. The Israeli military now says that 12 people were killed and these are all children and young adults between the ages of 10 and 20, several dozen more were injured. Some of them in very serious condition at local hospitals.

But this is the deadliest incident since October 7th on civilians since the beginning of this conflict, according to the Israeli military, and there are now very real concerns that this could trigger a broader escalation in this conflict. But before we get to that, I do want to bring in Taymor here who actually lives right across from this soccer field where this strike actually happened.

Taymor, you were nearby. You heard the sirens and you actually saw this rocket hit right here.

TAYMOR WILL, EYEWITNESS: Yes, I did. I live about 50 meters across from the playground, on the fourth floor, so I have a direct view of what happened here. I was just sitting on my desk. I got my notification and like two seconds later, maybe less, I heard the sirens. I just rushed to the window and not even four to five more seconds, I opened the window. I was just looking straight. I saw it hit.

I thought I saw the kids panicking, running around, and that happened at around 6:18 p.m. Something like that. And I just ran straight here. I got here like two minutes later and that's when I arrived to the scene and I had like a clear vision of the impact and of the crater zone. So that's what I saw.

DIAMOND: And -- so you heard the warning sirens telling you that rockets were coming in, but it was just seconds before the impact?

WILL: No, there's not enough time. It's impossible. If someone tells you otherwise, it's impossible, even though --

DIAMOND: Impossible to get to a shelter.

WILL: No, it's just 45 seconds. What can you do in 45 seconds? You can do nothing. Like I said, I'm saying five seconds, maybe I'm just -- it's too long. I think it's four seconds, maybe less. Like the sirens were still going on. That's when we heard -- I heard the impact and I saw it. And I saw the kids like, you know, you're talking about kids and children here. Like also they have reaction time. They are panicking, they're going into stress. They need much more time than that.

Even if you have five seconds and you're completely aware of the situation, you wouldn't have enough time to react to this.

DIAMOND: And so once you saw that rocket actually hit, you came here.

WILL: Yes, yes, I ran --

DIAMOND: You he came to the scene.

WILL: Yes, I did. I did.

DIAMOND: And what did you see?

WILL: Well, at first I saw the injured, injured children running around. I saw blood. They didn't respond to us. They were panicking. I saw a lot of guys gathering here, most of them didn't go down. I went down here and I saw a lot of things that are way too gruesome to mention out of respect for the families. And we tried to help, but it was beyond our help. There's nothing we can do.

DIAMOND: There were injuries that you saw that were too gruesome, too critical for any medical attention to be given?

WILL: No. There's nothing you can do. No. I'm not going to go into details, but there's nothing you can do.

[19:10:03]

DIAMOND: And this area around 6:00 p.m., you know, it's summer. It must have been full.

WILL: Yes, it's on a Saturday. It's summer. Kids are playing and we've got used to the situation because it's been going on for a while. We heard the sirens all the time and we just -- we just got used to it. And nothing like this ever happened before.

DIAMOND: And tell me about this community. I mean, when we came out here, everyone is around, everyone is still up. It's very late at night, it's 2:00 in the morning, but everyone is still up. Everybody must feel very impacted. It's a very close-knit community.

WILL: Of course. I mean, if you look around, everybody is helping trying to prepare for the ceremony for the funeral tomorrow and -- because everybody knows everybody and everybody is related to someone, and we know the kids, we know the children. All the families as well connected so we stand together in good or in bad. And this is what's happening right now. It's a dark day for our town. It's a tragedy that hit us all.

And this day will be remembered for generations to come, and it will go down in history as this is the most, and not just in our town, in the whole of the country. As you said, it's the deadliest attack since 7th of October. And it's happened in our small village so.

DIAMOND: What is the feeling around here? Obviously there is sadness. Is there anger as well with that? And where's that anger being directed?

WILL: I don't know where the -- I mean, this anger is directed at the war in general, because, you know, in war there is no one is winning. We're all losing, and the longer it goes on, the more we're going to lose. And we're helpless. There's not much that we can do, but I think there should be a response for what happened here today, and we will not go quiet until we get a response for what happened here because these are our children, these are our children., you know.

And what's happened here is unforgettable like just look at it. They're just kids playing soccer, playing football here. I mean, you look at the shelter. It's only about a few meters away, but I'm quite sure they didn't have enough time to get there, even if they were -- they are acted like instantly. There was not enough time.

DIAMOND: Yes. Thank you so much, Taymor.

Jessica, I do want to bring you closer to the scene here because this is where -- you can see this crater right here is where that rocket actually struck. The Israeli military says that this was an Iranian- made rocket that they say is only in Hezbollah's arsenal. Hezbollah has denied responsibility for this attack, but the Israeli military says that they are clear that this was Hezbollah that carried out this attack. They say that the rocket was fired from a village in southern Lebanon,

and they say that this was an Iranian war -- rocket, forgive me, that at a 50-kilo warhead attached to it. You can also see behind here there are bicycles. This scene is effectively frozen in time from the moment when this strike happened. And just to bring you over to this side, have my cameraman Hofset (PH) pan around, you can see how close this is.

That cinderblock building right there is a safe space. That is where you rush to when you hear those sirens. And so just so devastating to see how close these children were to that shelter. But obviously with just a few seconds to be able to try and rush into there, once they heard those sirens, was simply, simply not enough. And the results now 12 people according to the Israeli military, who are dead between the ages of 10 and 20 and an entire community here that is absolutely devastated -- Jessica.

DEAN: It is truly, truly devastating news, Jeremy, and clearly just so heartbreaking for that whole community and these children who are just playing soccer to be targeted in that way. We know that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was still in the U.S. when this happened. He cut his trip short. He's now headed back. We're told he'll be convening with his war cabinet upon his arrival.

What are you hearing about how the government might be responding to this?

DIAMOND: Well, there was a very swift response from a number of government officials, all of them making very clear that there will be a response for this attack. A very serious response at that. The Israeli prime minister himself said that I can say that the state of Israel will not be silent about this. We will not put this off the agenda.

Benny Gantz, former member of the war cabinet, a member of the opposition now, he came to Majdal Shams this evening to meet with community leaders. And he was also making very clear that not only will there be a response, but that the Israeli government will have his support as a member of the opposition for a decisive response in Lebanon. And that really is now the big question.

There have been fears not only in Israel, but also in the U.S. government that an incident like this, one with so many casualties, notably civilian casualties, and in this case, many of them being children, that an incident like this could potentially set off a very dangerous escalation potentially lead to war. And that is certainly the question now is whether or not the escalation, the response from Israel will be so severe that it could lead to that all-out conflict with Hezbollah, that all-out war with Hezbollah that so many have feared.

[19:15:10]

At this hour it is too premature to say whether or not that will happen. What is clear is that we've been hearing the sounds of jets buzzing above us. We are very close to the Lebanese border here. It is clear that the Israeli military will respond to this attack, which they say was carried out by Hezbollah. How severe that response will be will determine the course of things, will determine what the counter reaction from Hezbollah will be, and will determine whether or not we are headed for a very, very dangerous and deadly path -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Jeremy Diamond live from Golan Heights with new reporting there. Thank you so much for that.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:20:29]

DEAN: It's just over 100 days until election day, new polling showing that race within a margin of error across various battleground states. And here to talk about that and a lot more, CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein,

Ron, always good to see you on a Saturday. Thanks for being here.

In several new polls. Vice President Harris is neck and neck with Donald Trump. We are looking right now at "The New York Times"-Sienna College poll. All of these within the margin of error. We see it in the FOX poll. We're looking at these battleground states right here.

When you take this first snapshot of data since she's gotten into this race, what's standing out to you when you're looking at these numbers and then also kind of what might be below the surface in these numbers?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, look, we're in a different race, you know. As Vice President Harris said today, she is still probably the underdog because Donald Trump has more plausible paths to reaching 270 electoral college votes. But just think how different the world is from when we were last together last Saturday.

DEAN: I know.

BROWNSTEIN: You know, Joe Biden, the problem Biden faced is that all evidence was that voters' views about him had cemented and ossified him. His approval rating has been stuck at 40 percent or below since the summer of 2023. You know, we've had years now of two-thirds or more of voters saying they think he's too old to do the job for another four years.

And the real tipoff was that he has spent tens of millions, probably well over 100 million combined in the battleground states on advertising all year virtually unrebutted by Republicans to this point, virtually no offsetting Republican advertising, and his approval rating hadn't improved that he was still trailing in the race.

Harris has lots of challenges but there is now a sense of possibility among Democrats, and she has a much greater chance than Biden of reassembling the coalition of voters who came out in '18, '20, and even '22 to reject the vision of America that Trump and his MAGA movement have put forward.

DEAN: And there's a lot of focus right now on young voters, on voters of color, where Biden had really been slipping. But you say one group in particular could be do or die when it comes to these key states. What are you seeing?

BROWNSTEIN: Right. Well, you know, Biden's biggest problem relative to 2020 was his erosion among younger voters and voters of color, both black and Latino voters. Kamala Harris should be able to improve on that. It's not clear whether she will necessarily get all the way back to where Democrats were in 2020 or 2016 with those voters, but there's every reason to believe, every indication that she's going to improve relative to Biden among young voters, black voters, and probably Latinas. A little less certain about what will happen with Latino men.

Now, you know, even if she does all of that, the question is whether those changes are going to be enough to put her back in play in any of the sunbelt swing states which are younger and more diverse that had drifted away from Biden. That's North Carolina and Georgia in the southeast. Nevada and Arizona in the southwest. If she can put any of those back in play, she can change the electoral calculus.

But if she can't then she is on the same kind of narrow, rickety bridge that he is in the electoral -- he was in the electoral college, which is that you would have to sweep Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, the three former blue wall states, to win. And if that is the situation she's in, the critical group for her is likely going to be white women without a college degree. Those are heavily white states. They're heavily blue-collar states.

The white men are very Republican audience, but white women have moved back and forth more often. And in that FOX polling that came out, she was polling at a level of strength among those women that I think would surprise Republicans if it's sustained in other polling.

DEAN: That's a very, very good point. And now we see her vetting this VP pick in a very condensed timeline, as she is making this first very big decision as it relates to her campaign. What are -- if you were counseling her, what would you be telling her to think about? Because there's all these different cases to be made. Pick someone in a state that you need to win, pick someone that can balance out the ticket. You know, what would you be counseling her?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, I mean, I've talked -- I'll channel what I've heard from a lot of Democratic strategists. You know, going back through history, the basic choice in a vice president is you either balance the ticket as you, you know, noted, try to find someone who offsets your weaknesses or in more rare occasions you doubled down and you try to find someone who magnifies your strengths.

[19:25:09]

And the most famous example of that, of course, was Bill Clinton in 1992. Rather than taking an old Washington hand, he picked another centrist southern baby boomer, Al Gore. The one option on that front for Vice President Harris would be Gretchen Whitmer, the governor of Michigan, an historic all-female ticket, which would obviously have risks but could generate a lot of excitement.

Doesn't seem like either side is that interested in pursuing that idea. So you're left with the balancing choices of essentially white male elected officials who are all going to have a more of a centrist identity than she does. Of those Mark Kelly, the senator from Arizona, is probably the most prepared to step in, not only as vice president, but also, you know, to debate a Republican because he's been dealing with federal issues obviously, as a senator, but, you know, as a Democrat, she can win Arizona and still lose.

Pennsylvania looms as a more important kind of tipping point in the electoral college. In fact, one of the heat Democratic super PACs pick it as the likely tipping point state in a presentation this week. That would argue for Josh Shapiro, the governor of Pennsylvania. I'm not really sure Andy Beshear or Roy Cooper. There may be personal chemistry there, but it's hard to imagine she's going to win North Carolina, even with Cooper on the ticket and she's certainly not going to win Kentucky.

So I would think based on kind of the conventional metrics that people have used historically that Kelly or Shapiro would be the most effective and maybe the most likely pick.

DEAN: It is quite a parlor game that everybody likes to play but we as our colleague Jeff Zeleny has reported should know in the next couple of weeks. It'll be fascinating to watch it all play out. And then of course on to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Ron Brownstein, thanks so much. Always good to see you.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

DEAN: Still ahead, California's fast-moving Park wildfire forcing thousands of people to flee their homes. That fire now bigger than all of Los Angeles. We're live as crews work to get the flames under control.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:31:30]

DEAN: Tonight, firefighters are racing to contain a massive wildfire in Northern California. The Park Fire exploding to 350,000 acres, that is larger than the city of Los Angeles. It was allegedly sparked by an arsonist. It has now more than doubled in size over the last 24 hours.

CNN's Camila Bernal is on the ground in California's Butte County. Tell us more about what you're learning.

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRRESPONDENT: Hey, Jess. This fire has truly exploded in size and in speed. It's been described to me as a fire that has been challenging, a fire that's very active, and a fire that has created its own weather.

It is burning 4,000 to 5,000 acres every single hour and its destroyed so much in its path. Right where I'm standing is an area where I was told were three homes. Three families will have to come back to this. All of their belongings reduced to ash.

And I talked to one of the neighbors that came back for some medicine and what he told me was that he got extremely lucky that the firefighters even left a note telling him that they got here just in time. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Brutal, the wind shifted, everything came this way in a big swoosh. Like anyone else, I was hoping they could stop it, but they had planes going up and down and helicopters and they did a great job saving houses here. It was amazing.

Oh, I'm grateful, the firemen left a note, and they said we got here just in time and the deck was burned, and the back of the house was scorched. The house is there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERNAL: And we know there are more than 2,000 firefighters working around the clock. I was told some of them were working 48-hour shifts. There was another group that got woken up in the middle of the night because of how fast these flames were spreading. But despite those efforts, it's still zero-percent containment. This fire is uncontrollable and as you mentioned, unfortunately, it's a fire that was started by a 42-year-old man who was seen pushing a burning car down an embankment. He is expected to appear in court on Monday.

Now, also really important to point out, we are in Butte County. It is the same county that already saw the deadliest fire in California history. That was in 2018 when 85 people were killed. And CNN spoke to one family that went through that fire and is experiencing this all over again. What they told us was that just the smoke, smelling all of this brings back the trauma, the memories, essentially PTSD.

She said that it has been emotional, that it's been really difficult for these families and it's not just that one. There are many in this community that are experiencing this all over again. But knowing how many people died in 2018, a lot of them also just grateful to be alive tonight -- Jess.

DEAN: All right, we're sending them our best. What a devastating situation, Camila Bernal, thanks so much.

Still ahead, an elaborate FBI sting operation. New details on how the alleged leader of one of the world's most powerful and violent drug cartels was duped into flying directly into the FBI's hands. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:39:14]

DEAN: The son of El Chapo, due to appear in federal court Tuesday following his arrest in the United States. Joaquin Guzman Lopez, there on the right, is the son of the infamous drug kingpin, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. He reportedly lured Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, on the left, onto a plane under the guise of seeing a piece of land in Mexico. But their plane landed in El Paso, Texas where federal agents took them into custody.

Joining us now is Jack Riley, former special agent and deputy administrator at the DEA. He's also the author of "Drug Warrior," it's about the decade's long hunt to bring El Chapo to justice.

Jack, great to have you here. Thanks for being with us on a Saturday night.

Both of these men at the top of that powerful Sinaloa Drug Cartel, El Chapo's son plots to have himself and Zambada arrested, we think. Meantime, the top Mexican security secretary says, there not sure if Zambada was captured or turned himself in. What happened here?

[19:40:12]

JACK RILEY, FORMER DEA SPECIAL AGENT: Well, first of all, its' a great day for the good guys to get these two in custody. Specifically, El Mayo Zambada, he's been on top for nearly 40 years. I spent a great deal of my career the last couple of years leading a hunt for him, as well as Chapo Guzman.

I think what happened here was very common in organized crime, treachery, where you had one individual who was thought to be close to the other actually turned himself in. Now, there is some speculation that El Mayo Zambada may have been in the process of trying to negotiate a surrender. I see that highly unlikely, given where he was in the organization.

But this is a tremendous blow to Sinaloa and I think it's important to understand that this guy has been around -- El Mayo Zambada's been around for 40 years. That's really unheard of for someone in his position. I think that shows his ability and his influence to have corrupted virtually every corner of the Mexican government from the military, the police apparatus, all the way to the presidential palace.

So, this is a big hit. I'm very, very proud of all the agents that did this.

DEAN: The cartel is accused of trafficking, just vast amounts of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, fentanyl into the US. But there's been this rift building between Zambada and Guzman for years it seems like.

RILEY: Yes, there's no doubt about it. I think one of the things that El Mayo Zambada was feeling was his age. He is close to 80 and Chapo Guzman's sons and people within that organization are far younger, far more aggressive, more flamboyant, and it may have been a combination of not paying attention to what the younger Guzman was doing and El Mayo's willingness to try to work something out so he could give himself up for capture.

But make no mistake about it. Both of these guys are mass murderers by grand proportions and while they're still in custody, their organization is still killing US citizens, by shipping fentanyl and other drugs to the US.

So while it's a blow, I think Sinaloa in itself is going to go through a transition which quite frankly could lead to some violence. But it's also an opportunity for law enforcement on both sides of the border to do some damage and I certainly hope and look forward to us continuing to hurt that organization because that's what we really need to do.

DEAN: Yes, on that note, it does seem like Mexico is kind of preparing for this turf war over this power vacuum that might exist now. And you said, it could get violent, but it sounds like you also see this as an opportunity for law enforcement to kind of get a foot in.

RILEY: Absolutely, normally when this happens as it did, when we grabbed El Chapo is the organization itself shutters. Alliances become looser, communication becomes undisciplined, and everybody is looking to the new leader or to form who they're going to work with and how the organization itself is going to operate.

So, this is a time of chaos for both the bad guys and the good guys. And I certainly hope we take advantage of it as we did once we hooked up, finally, El Chapo. Now, Zambada is an interesting guy because he's an old school guy. He preferred to operate in the shadows and was extremely fluid in his movement over the years.

So he was very difficult for us and the Mexicans to try to get a handle on, whereas if you look at Chapo's children and Chapo in his later years, very flamboyant, pretty open in public, and really thought he was untouchable. So, this surprised me, to be quite frank with you, that we were able to hook up Zambada. The younger Guzman really didn't.

DEAN: All right. former DEA special agent, Jack Riley, thanks so much for your context there. We really appreciate it.

RILEY: I appreciate it, thank you. Goodnight.

DEAN: Goodnight. We'll be right.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:44:26]

DEAN: The best of the best tonight, making the podium in the first full day of competition in the Paris Olympic Games.

Australia's dominance in swimming propelling them to the top of the table, but the US is close behind. CNN's Coy Wire is there with more.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: All right. The first medals of these Games have been awarded including host nation France's first gold in an epic upset in rugby sevens. Fiji, chasing a third straight Olympic gold since the Olympic debut for the sport in 2016. These are the only men's champ ever until today.

France pulling off the shocker, breaking Fiji's 17-match Olympic winning streak. Antoine Dupont, the French rugby icon coming off the bench and lifting not just this team, but his entire homeland with two tries, a legendary performance in front of home fans, chef's kiss.

[19:50:19]

In other news, FIFA deducted six points from the Canadian women's soccer team in group play at the games and suspended their head coach and others for one year over the drone incident in which they allegedly spied on their opponent. The defending Olympic champs tied atop group A alongside France, but now face a tough task to advance out of group play with a point deduction, Canada says it will be appealing the decision.

And in the pool, one of the most highly anticipated events of these games. The women's 400-meter free, featuring seven-time Olympic gold medalist American, Katie Ledecky, Canadian teen sensation, Summer McIntosh, and the defending Olympic champ, Australian, Ariarne Titmus, the so-called Terminator, the Australian defending her crown in dominant fashion, winning gold by about a full bodies length at a time of three minutes 57.49 seconds. McIntosh taking the silver, Ledecky the bronze.

The pool party has begun here in Paris, what a first official day for these Games here. More fun to come tomorrow and it looks like sunny skies will return as well.

DEAN: All right, Coy, thank you and congrats to all the medalists.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:56:08]

DEAN: The attempt on former President Donald Trump's life at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania two weeks ago is a stark reminder of how politics can often get bloody throughout American history.

And tonight, "The Whole Story" looks into the ugly side of our nation's history, politically motivated violence throughout American story.

CNN's Sara Sidner has a preview.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHROR AND SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Jessica, former President Donald Trump, of course, the latest victim of political violence. If he had moved his head just a few centimeters to the right, he could have been killed as was one of the men who was in that crowd. A father and firefighter killed trying to protect his family and two other people gravely injured, although they are going to survive.

We look at these incidents. We see this incident and a lot of Americans will say this is not who we are, we heard that from President Biden. But we may have to re-examine those sentiments and that statement, and take a real look at the history of violence in our country.

Political assassination attempts have been with us and assassinations themselves have been with us almost since the beginning of this country's existence. Four US presidents, four have been killed while in office and countless others have been attacked or nearly killed.

We took a real inward look at our country examining our history and looking at the motivations behind those attacks. We also delved into the question, is our country a violent nation at heart? And I had some real heartfelt conversations, Jessica, with members of the family of those who have been assassinated or those who were almost assassinated.

We talked to a family member from President John F. Kennedy's family, from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s family, from Ronald Reagan's family, from George Wallace's family. You'll remember George Wallace was the governor of Alabama, a very, very deep segregationist who stood up in front of the University of Alabama to stop segregation from happening when two Black students tried to enroll in school, there and he had to be dealt with by the federal government.

But he was also running for president when he was shot and injured. He was paralyzed and all of these families talk about what this has meant to them. It's a generational effect on the families. But it also has a great effect on the American psyche and we delve into all that in this hour.

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REPORTER (voice over): Senator Kennedy was involved in a shooting.

REPORTER (voice over): The last report was hit twice in the head, once in the hip.

TIM NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Losing King and Robert Kennedy in the same season was bad enough. But it reminded Americans of JFK's assassination, less than five years before.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was just a baby when my Uncle Bobby was killed, but I just know what a loss it was, not only for their children, my cousins, but a loss for everybody that knew them and knew how much they wanted to change the world. They had so much promise and so much inspiration and hope as part of their whole message.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SIDNER: One thing that really stood out to me as I talked to these family members who had been through this awful pain that the entire country relives over and over again, especially when there is an anniversary of an assassination attempt or an assassination by itself.

One thing that stood out is just how much this has changed people. Sometimes change their hearts and minds, and sometimes, change their policies because of the suffering that they went through when they were leading this country -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Sara Sidner, thanks so much.

The all-new episode of "The Whole Story" with Anderson Cooper, it is one whole hour, one whole topic airs next right here on CNN.

Thanks so much for joining me this evening. I'm Jessica Dean and I'll see you again tomorrow night starting at 5:00 PM Eastern. Have a great night.

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