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Trump, Vance Escalate Heated Attacks Against Harris; Protests Erupt Venezuela Streets Denouncing the Election Results. 43 Killed in the Southern India Landslide; Teen Arrested for Killing Two Children in Southport Knife Attack; Blinken, Austin Held Talks in Manila with the Philippine President. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired July 30, 2024 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us here in the United States and all around the world. You are watching CNN NEWSROOM and I'm Rosemary Church.

Just ahead. Will Donald Trump debate Kamala Harris? He says he's game. Details just ahead.

Anti-government protesters flood the streets in Venezuela amid doubts over the legitimacy of the presidential election results.

And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promises a severe response to a suspected Hezbollah rocket attack as fears of a wider conflict escalate.

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

CHURCH: Thanks so much for joining us. Well, we begin in the United States where the clock is ticking down until the November presidential election and the presumed face-off between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

Both of their campaigns have trips to swing states booked this week. The U.S. vice president will hold an event here in Georgia today and has more appearances scheduled in Texas later this week. Trump and his running mate, J.D. Vance, will make several stops of their own in the battleground states of Pennsylvania, Arizona and Nevada.

During an interview with Fox News, the former president said he would most likely end up debating Vice President Harris at some point, but believes he could also make the case for not doing it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to do a debate, but I also can say this. Everybody knows who I am and now people know who she is. She's a radical left lunatic. She'll destroy our country. She wants open borders.

LAURA INGRAHAM, "THE INGRAHAM ANGLE" HOST: Why not debate her?

TRUMP: But because they already know everything. The answer is, yes, I'll probably end up debating. I think actually the debate should take place before the votes start being cast.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: The Trump campaign is ramping up attacks on Kamala Harris after being forced to pivot from plans to face President Joe Biden in November.

CNN's Alayna Treene has details on those efforts.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: With roughly a week since it became clear that Kamala Harris will be the one to face-off with the former president in November, the Trump campaign is still workshopping the best way to define her. And remember, they spent an entire campaign, including pouring millions of dollars into data and modeling and ads designed to go after an unpopular 81-year-old incumbent.

Now, with less than just 100 days until the election, they have to shift gears. Now, I was at their rally in Minnesota Saturday night and the attacks felt a bit like Trump was throwing the kitchen sink at Harris. But the overarching message in the attacks from both Trump and Vance on the trail thus far have been to paint her as someone who was worse and far more radically liberal than Joe Biden, ripping into her time as the attorney general of California and arguing that she is just as responsible for the Biden administration's record as Joe Biden himself. Take a listen to some of those attacks.

TRUMP: She will be the worst president we've ever had. She will be worse than crooked Joe Biden.

J.D. VANCE (R), U.S. VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We've got to give some credit to our Democrat friends because they were right in 2020. The American people are never going to elect a wacky, out of touch San Francisco liberal like Kamala Harris.

TREENE: Now, you've also heard Trump himself argue that Harris has been somewhat of a mastermind behind many of Biden's policies, a theme we've seen him repeat in his speeches since Biden ended his campaign. And that's by design. When I talk to Trump's advisers, they argue that much of their 2024 election strategy will remain the same and that they'll apply the same playbook that they had to go after Biden on Harris.

That means focusing on the issues they believe Trump pulls better, namely immigration, crime, inflation. But privately, Trump's advisers and those close to the former president acknowledge that they're still figuring out the best way to define her, a task made harder by the Democratic enthusiasm we've seen around her since her announcement. Now, you can expect Trump to continue trust driving new lines of attack in the coming weeks while his team continues to monitor what is sticking and playing well with the voters that they view as crucial to November.

Alayna Treene, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: President Joe Biden is proposing longshot radical changes to the U.S. Supreme Court, including term limits for justices.

[03:05:03]

Right now, justices serve for a lifetime. Mr. Biden's plan would let a president appoint a new justice every two years for an 18-year term. He's also proposing a binding conduct and ethics code for justices mandating they disclose gifts, abstain from public political activity and recuse themselves when there's a conflict of interest. President Biden says these actions are needed to protect democracy and the rule of law.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: Of course, being used to weaponize an extreme and unchecked agenda. This decision is a total affront to the basic expectations we have for those who wield the power in this nation. That they are expected to be wholly accountable under the law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Joe Biden is also proposing a constitutional amendment that would strip the president of immunity for crimes committed in office. All of this would require congressional approval. And Republicans have already called the plan dead on arrival.

Larry Sabato is the director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics. He joins me now from Charlottesville, Virginia. Appreciate you being with us.

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

CHURCH: So with 98 days to go before the country votes in U.S. presidential elections, we have seen Vice President Kamala Harris supercharged Democratic hopes of taking the House. Can she do it and also take the presidency? How varied are her paths to victory, do you think?

SABATO: She actually has more paths than President Biden. That's for sure. President Biden had one narrow path. And the loss of even one state that he had to count on would have defeated him.

And the odds were he would lose more than one state. So I think that Kamala Harris has the northern route through the key states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. But she also has a southern route, Georgia, Arizona, Nevada, which

enables her to trade off a bit in case she loses one of those usually Democratic northern blue wall states. So, well, you know, we'll see. She's -- she's doing reasonably well. And that is a big plus for Democrats. They really didn't think they would be in this good a position just a couple of weeks ago.

CHURCH: And today, Tuesday, Harris is campaigning in the battleground state of Georgia. What does she need to do to win this state, do you think?

SABATO: It's extremely important that she do what Biden did and what President Obama tried to do and did succeed to a certain degree. Increase the level of black vote. And in her case, she's got to give special emphasis to black male voters in Georgia. She's doing very well with black female voters in Georgia and elsewhere. But it's black men while she's carrying them. She's not carrying them by nearly the percentage that she's winning black women.

CHURCH: And Larry, President Joe Biden is calling for three bold reforms to restore trust in the US Supreme Court and American democracy. Speaker Mike Johnson says these proposals are dead on arrival. How risky are reforms of this magnitude just a few months before a critical election or is this exactly the time to raise this?

SABATO: Well, I strongly support reforms. In fact, I've proposed similar things in a book that was published in 2007. It's way past time that we reform the judiciary, not just the ethics code, but also giving some reasonable term limit, as the president suggested, 18 years. That's a long time for anybody to be on the Supreme Court.

And we've had some justices serve 30 or 40 years. You get a little out of touch when you're behind that big black curtain in the Supreme Court.

So he's got a great idea. And there's zero chance that this will actually happen. There's no way to get it passed. Speaker Johnson is the least of the problems. Some of this would require a constitutional amendment. And I don't think we could get a constitutional amendment passed in America that hailed motherhood, that we'd argue about what motherhood was. So we're very divided. And that means we can't do the things that we once could do.

CHURCH: And on the other side of the political spectrum, Donald Trump's running mate, J.D. Vance, told donors in Minnesota over the weekend that Kamala Harris's campaign is a sucker punch, according to The "Washington Post", because she doesn't have the same baggage as Joe Biden. He and Donald Trump do appear to be struggling, don't they, with the switch to Harris at the top of the Democratic ticket. Why are they having so much trouble with this, do you think?

[03:09:58]

SABATO: Amazingly, they really didn't calculate that Biden would actually be removed. They knew it was a possibility, but they assumed that Biden was stubborn, which he is, and they assumed that he would insist upon trying this one last time for another four years in the White House. And they were wrong about that. He really did yield to the popular impression within his party that he was going to lose.

So he did his party a great favor, but he did disfavor to Trump and Vance. So they don't have an alternate plan. There is no plan B for them. They're working on the nasty nicknames and all the other things that Trump is famous for on the fly. This should have been done in advance.

It will be done and we'll be listening to it for the rest of the campaign, for the 98 days to go.

CHURCH: And on those nicknames, we've got Trump calling Harris a bum and more radical than Biden. The Democrats are calling Trump and Vance weird. They keep repeating over and over whoever's out there on the stump. So how does all this name calling sit with voters, particularly independents, do you think?

SABATO: It would have turned them off prior to the coming of Donald Trump, beginning in 2015 for the 2016 campaign. He made this the norm. So, you know, what's good for the goose is good for the gander. Both sides are going to do it, though. I doubt that the Democrats get around to calling Donald Trump some of the names that he's used already for Kamala Harris, including just pure evil. He said she was pure evil. Well, OK.

CHURCH: Yes, we'll see. We'll continue to watch and listen, of course. Larry Sabato, many thanks for joining us. I Appreciate it.

SABATO: Thank you very much.

CHURCH: In Venezuela, protesters are voicing their anger after Nicolas Maduro is declared the winner of a presidential race that's been marred by accusations of election fraud and disputed by the opposition. Large crowds hit the streets in several cities, blocking roads and even toppling a statue of the late leader, Hugo Chavez. Maduro responded Monday night, saying the government knows how to, quote, "defeat those who are violent." Demonstrators have denounced the election results, which would see Maduro head to a third term as president.

The U.S. and regional leaders are also raising questions about the validity of the result and calling for election data to be released. Maduro had this to say after the vote.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICOLAS MADURO, VENEZUELAN PRESIDENT (through translator): How do you call this democracy, constitution, terrorism? We have told the militants of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela not to fall for provocations because their goal is by assaulting the headquarters to clash and have, well, bloodshed. Now it's clear what I was saying, that I have avoided a bloodshed in Venezuela.

(END VIDEO CLIP) CHURCH: Venezuela's opposition says its own candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, is the actual winner. Opposition leaders claim they have gathered enough tally sheets to prove it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIA CORINA MACHADO, VENEZUELAN OPPOSITION LEADER (through translator): Today we have great news to share with all Venezuelans. It's a miracle. It's a miracle. But today I want to tell all Venezuelans, both inside and outside the country, all believers in democracy around the world, that we now have the means to prove truth of what happened yesterday in Venezuela.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHURCH: Journalist Stefano Pozzebon is following developments from Caracas.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEFANO POZZEBON, JOURNALIST: Protests have erupted in the city center of Caracas less than 24 hours after the government-controlled electoral authority proclaimed Nicolas Maduro as the winner of last Sunday's presidential election.

An election whose results were disputed by many countries in the region. And as you can see, those results have triggered widespread anger in the city of Caracas. Nobody has called for these protests to be organized.

The opposition leadership is yet to make a statement in reaction to that announcement by the electoral authorities. But these people have taken to the streets by themselves.

About 50 meters from where I am, you can see the tear gas at the bottom of this road, of this avenue, because there are intense clashes with the forces of the government, security forces of Nicolas Maduro.

You can see there a semi-armored vehicle. I can see that from the bottom. People around me are shouting on a microphone that they want freedom and that they won't leave the street until Nicolas Maduro is ousted.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHURCH: Stefano Pozzebon reporting from Caracas.

Julie Turkewitz is the "New York Times" Andes Bureau chief covering Venezuela and other countries in South America. She joins me now from Bogota in Colombia. A pleasure to have you with us.

JULIE TURKEWITZ, ANDES BUREAU CHIEF, "NEW YORK TIMES": Thanks so much.

[03:15:09]

CHURCH: Nicolas Maduro has formally declared victory in the wake of Venezuela's election, but the opposition coalition rejects his win, saying their records show their candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez, received 70 percent of the vote compared to Maduro's 30 percent. What's been the reaction inside and outside of the country to that?

TURKEWITZ: Sure, there was a lot of energy behind Edmundo Gonzalez and Maria Corina Machado, who is the opposition leader, who is backing him. And so, when the results came in very late last night, early morning, Monday, there was a lot of frustration, a lot of voter frustration, a lot of anger, a lot of people who wanted to see the government produce some kind of receipts, produce evidence that it had in fact won in the way that it claims it has, which it has not done.

And what we're seeing today is a lot of protests inside, in Caracas, in the capital, as well as other parts of the country.

CHURCH: And what about outside of the country? What has been the reaction? What's being said?

TURKEWITZ: Sure, you have the U.S. and other countries, Colombia, Brazil, who have asked the Venezuelan government to again produce these receipts to show that it in fact has won an election again. I think it's pretty common to hear from the U.S. some concern about lack of democratic norms inside of Venezuela. But I think what is more notable is voices like Lula in Brazil, the president, and Pedro, the president of Colombia, their governments also saying, hey, you should produce these results.

CHURCH: And how likely is it that we will see a mass exodus from Venezuela if Maduro remains in power and how could that impact the migrant situation in Colombia, Peru, the U.S. and elsewhere, of course?

TURKEWITZ: Sure. We at the "New York Times" have done a lot of reporting about Venezuelan migration towards the United States. What several polls show inside Venezuela ahead of the election was that there was high interest in leaving the country if Maduro decided to stay in power.

And so what I think a lot of people inside of Venezuela are doing right now is making calculations. Are they going to stay? Are they going to go? Those polls showed as high as 30 percent of the country was interested in leaving if Maduro stays in power. And so I think we're really just watching and waiting to see if that happens. And you'll see people go to neighboring Colombia. Some people go to Brazil. And you'll see some people go further to the United States.

CHURCH: And if that happens, what does the future hold for Venezuela's economy?

TURKEWITZ: Well, right now, one of the big questions is whether the U.S. will impose more sanctions following this election announcement. And the other thing to think about is the fact that, you know, with so many people gone from the country, you've seen this enormous brain drain. And so, you know, the doctors, the teachers, the nurses, the engineers, the architects, they have left, which makes it really hard to rebuild a country. CHURCH: And would you ever expect people in Venezuela to rise up against Maduro? Would there be any appetite for that?

TURKEWITZ: There have been protests just, you know, one day after the election. We'll see if those protests become significant, if they become large, if the opposition leaders, Edmundo Gonzalez and Maria Corina Machado, call people to the streets. I think that there's a lot of worriness to protests right now. People have protested in the past, and hundreds of people have been killed inside the country during these protests as sort of security forces crack down.

And so there's a lot of fear. And I think the big question in the country right now is, is the outpouring of emotion and anger and frustration over this electoral announcement going to manifest itself in the streets of Venezuela? Or is it going to manifest itself in a mass migration, in another mass migration?

CHURCH: And your sense is that Maduro will remain in power for the foreseeable future.

TURKEWITZ: I think it really depends on what happens in the next couple of days. I think that that is the most likely outcome. He's been in power for many years, 10 years. His party has been in power for 25 years. He has very, very, very little incentive to leave power.

[03:20:03]

And I think this election result shows that. And so barring some change in the storyline, barring huge protests or something else, I think that we should expect that he is going to stay in power. But you never know.

CHURCH: Indeed. Julie Turkewitz, thank you so much for joining us. I Appreciate it.

TURKEWITZ: Thank you.

CHURCH: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is vowing a severe response to the deadly attack in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights over the weekend. Israel has blamed the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah for the strike.

The warning came as Netanyahu visited the site of the attack on Monday. Israel's Defense Minister Yoav Galant also spoke with his U.S. counterpart, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, on Monday and pledged to hold Hezbollah responsible for Saturday's rocket attack, which killed 12 children and injured more than 40 people. Hezbollah has denied responsibility.

Meantime, Iran's newly elected president is warning Israel that any attack on Lebanon, quote, "could backfire and have severe consequences."

Well, for more, we want to go to CNN's Paula Hancocks, who joins us live from Abu Dhabi. Good to see you again, Paula. So what is the latest on this and how likely is it that we will see a wider conflict in the region in the days ahead?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, it's been a concern for months that this conflict could expand. And those fears have really intensified since that deadly rocket attack on Saturday.

Now, what we know at this point is that the emergency security cabinet in Israel has given the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his defense minister, Yoav Galant, the decision to decide on the nature and the timing of the response to this deadly attack. We don't know what shape or form that will take at this point. We have heard from Netanyahu himself saying that it will be a severe attack.

And we've also heard that, as you say, the defense minister has spoken to his U.S. counterpart discussing this. And also we understand outlying Israeli evidence that Hezbollah was behind the attack. Hezbollah itself has denied responsibility.

Let's first hear from the Israeli prime minister.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): Hezbollah, backed by Iran, fired an Iranian missile that took the lives of 12 pure souls, 12 children that were playing soccer here and unfortunately couldn't make it to the bomb shelter. Our heart is torn by the heavy disaster. We embrace the families that are going through an indescribable suffering. These are our children, the children of all of us. And the state of Israel will not and cannot ignore this. Our response will come and it will be harsh.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANCOCKS: Now, the U.S. has backed Israel's assessment at this point. The White House saying that Israel has the right to respond. We've also heard from the Biden administration that they are believing and hoping that there's still space and time to try and hammer out a diplomatic solution to this situation. And we also heard on Monday from the National Security Council communications director, John Kirby.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

JOHN KIRBY, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COMMUNICATIONS ADVISER: Look, Israel has every right to respond. It's Hezbollah that started firing on Israel way back in October. And I think we need to keep that in mind. But nobody wants a broader war. And I'm confident that we'll be able to avoid such an outcome.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

HANCOCKS: So the key question is, what will that response be? We've heard from Lebanon's acting foreign minister speaking to CNN, saying that he has been given assurances from third-party countries that the response would be limited, hinting that France and the United States were two of those countries. The way that the Lebanese government is interpreting this at this point, as we understand it, is that that means potentially that the Beirut airport will not be hit, that southern Lebanon, a Hezbollah stronghold, would not be hit. So the key is what this response would look like. But we have already heard many countries urging their citizens to leave Lebanon. The United States, European countries have been saying this over the last day or two.

We've heard from the U.S. side, for example, that if U.S. citizens decide to stay in the country, then if the situation deteriorates, they may have to be prepared to shelter in place. They haven't yet, though, said that they are going to start evacuating citizens. And they also say that when it comes to the U.S. embassy, the staffing and the security status is unchanged at this point.

[03:24:57]

But we have been hearing a number of other European countries, really from last month, urging its citizens to move out of Lebanon if possible, saying that the situation could deteriorate very quickly. And the concerns are, as we saw back in 2006 with that war with Israel, the airport was hit very early on, making travel out of the country almost impossible. Rosemary?

CHURCH: Paula Hancocks in Abu Dhabi, many thanks for that live report.

Israeli authorities say two military compounds were breached on Monday by right-wing protesters, angry over an investigation into nearly a dozen IDF soldiers accused of abusing a Hamas prisoner. Israeli civilians, as well as far-right members of parliament, were among the protesters, arguing the soldiers were being treated like criminals. The protesters were eventually dispersed, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and members of his cabinet have since denounced the break- ins at those facilities.

Coming up, a horrifying knife attack on children in a dance class in northern England. We'll have the details.

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CHURCH: A man arrested in connection with California's Park Fire has been charged with arson, according to court documents filed Monday. The district attorney says Ronnie Stout was arrested just hours after the fire started, with alcohol in his system above the legal limit.

But it's unclear if he was intoxicated when the fire ignited. The Park Fire has now become the sixth largest fire in California history. It's destroyed more than 100 structures and is only 14 percent contained, that's according to local authorities. Stout has not entered a plea yet, but will be arraigned on Thursday.

A landslide in southern India has killed 43 people, according to state media. Officials say rescue and relief operations are underway, but it's unclear how many people are trapped. The landslide occurred after heavy rain in the state of Kerala. CNN's Hanako Montgomery is tracking this story for us. She joins us live from Tokyo. So, Hanako, what more are you learning about this deadly landslide?

HANAKO MONTGOMERY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Rosemary, we know that at least 43 people have died, and authorities fear that hundreds more are still stranded or trapped due to these massive landslides that took place earlier Tuesday morning.

We also know that at least 250 people have been rescued, but emergency operators are currently facing a couple of hurdles when trying to get access to those remaining survivors.

One hurdle is that a crucial bridge that connects to a couple of remote Indian villages has completely collapsed, making it just that much more difficult to actually get access to these villages, and meaning those families are currently stranded and they can't get any access to aid or help. Electricity is also down, so they physically cannot call for any help.

I want you to take a look at this video, Rosemary, that shows just the extent of devastation near that crucial collapsed bridge. Take a look.

(VIDEO PLAYING)

Just really, really horrifying footage there, Rosemary.

We also know that some of these roads that lead to these remote Indian villages have either completely collapsed or been destroyed due to fallen debris and fallen trees, making it, again, just that much more difficult to get access to those remaining survivors.

Now, members of the Army and other emergency health care services and workers have been deployed to Wayanad to try to rescue those remaining survivors. They're also using a couple of helicopters in an attempt to airlift some of those survivors.

But because the weather continues to be very bad in this part of India, some of those helicopters have just not been able to fly and they can't, again, get access to those survivors.

Now, one thing I also do want to note is that it's currently monsoon season in India right now. It lasts until about September.

And in hilly places like Wayanad, where they're particularly prone to landslides, this, of course, can be very fatal and you see that sort of devastation. But for the entire country, for India as a whole, that just means they're going to have to contend with several more weeks of very extreme and very fatal devastating weather. Rosemary.

CHURCH: All right. Hanako Montgomery, joining us live from Tokyo with that report. I Appreciate it.

In northern England, a teenager has been arrested by police after two children were killed and nine wounded in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the town of Southport. The motive for the attack remains unclear.

CNN's Salma Abdelaziz is live in London. She joins us now. So Salma, a truly horrifying crime. What more are you learning about this?

SALMA ABDELZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Not much, Rosemary. And I think that adds to the sense of shock and disbelief that is absolutely reverberating across this country this morning.

We do know, of course, that this 17-year-old attacker is in police custody, but his motives remain unclear. An investigation is underway and police have deemed there are no further threats at this time and that terror is not related, which indicates potentially that it is a lone wolf attack.

But beyond that, that question that every family is asking this morning, why, why were two children killed? Why did this happen? Why was this senseless attack occur in this very quiet neighborhood?

I think every parent is relating to that mom-and-baby class this morning, including, of course, the Prince and Princess of Wales, parents to three children themselves. I want to read you their statement, their outpouring of support.

As parents, we cannot begin to imagine what the families, friends, and loved ones of those killed and injured in Southport today are going through. We send our love, thoughts, and prayers to all those involved in this horrid and heinous attack. Thank you also to the emergency responders who, despite being met with the most horrific scenes, demonstrated compassion and professionalism when your community needed you most.

[03:35:05]

And those scenes that they described, the eyewitness accounts, those are circulating this morning. Those continue to add to that shock and horror and the outpouring of support for this quiet community that is now reckoning with what happened and, of course, praying and wishing and hoping that those nine children who are injured get to safety.

CHURCH: Yeah, it's just a nightmare for those families. Salma Abdelaziz, joining us live from London with that report. Many thanks.

Still to come, Team USA brings home a rare medal in men's team gymnastics. We will have the latest on the summer games live from Paris.

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CHURCH: The Paris Olympics are heating up quite literally. France is experiencing its first major heat wave of the year and today will likely be the hottest day of the year so far in the French capital. More than two dozen sports will hold competitions in the day ahead with medals up for grabs in eight of them.

Looking at the medal count, Japan is on top right now with six gold. Four countries are tied with five each, including host country France. Team USA is in sixth place with three gold, but the most medals overall with 20.

So let's go live now to Paris and World Sport's Amanda Davis. Great to see you, Amanda. So a night to remember for Team USA in the gymnastics and for one unlikely hero in particular. Tell us all about it.

AMANDA DAVIS, CNN WORLD SPORT: Yeah, absolutely, Rosemary. We should have learnt the lesson from Clark Kent, shouldn't we? That not all superheroes wear capes. Some wear thick black-rimmed glasses and can complete a Rubik's Cube in 8.68 seconds, which I'm told is incredibly fast.

[03:40:07]

Yeah, 25-year-old Stephen Nedoroscik, who has an electrical engineering degree from Penn State University, has become something of an unlikely figurehead from Team USA's gymnastics squad. There was some controversy when he was picked because the only discipline he focuses on is the pommel horse. He doesn't do the other exercises.

And whilst everybody else was doing their bit in the team competition, he was sat on the side, as he put it, visualizing his routine 100 times over. When it came to his moment, the pommel horse, he calmly walked up, took off his glasses, and for that 40 seconds, put in the performance of his life. He did exactly what he needed to do to help Team USA to their first gymnastics medal of bronze in 19 years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN NEDOROSCIK, AMERICAN GYMNAST: Went up there, did my routine, and during that dismount, I was just, like, already smiling, I think. I slew to the judges and looked at these guys, and they were jumping up and down. I mean, it was just the greatest moment of my life, I think. So happy to have been there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVIS: I should have said 16 years, apologies. He's obviously much better at the maths and the sums than I am. But Simone Biles congratulated the men's gymnastics team because, of course, it's over to her and her women's counterparts today, a very big moment. And they've done their best, Team USA, to allay any fears about the injury that Simone Biles was struggling, the knee, the ankle, and the calf. She's competing in all four disciplines very much with Team USA, the favorites to reclaim gold.

CHURCH: Yes, most definitely. And Amanda, the River Seine is causing further disruption to the triathlon. What more do we know about this?

DAVIS: Yeah, can you imagine, for the athletes who've been training for the last three years, if not longer than that, to wake up this morning to be told that your big day has been postponed?

We knew there were concerns about pollution levels in the River Seine. It's being told by World Triathlon after canceling the training sessions on Sunday and Monday. They had another water pollution test at 3:30 this morning and the levels are just too high. They're blaming it's ironic, given the sunshine and the heat today, they're blaming the rain that we had on Friday and Saturday here.

They've said, as things stand, they are still hoping that the event will take place tomorrow, after the women's triathlon, but there will be more testing before that happens. I spoke to the president of World Triathlon yesterday and she said there is a contingency plan if the pollution levels do not improve, because the priority is, of course, the health and the safety of the athletes, that the triathlon will become more of a duathlon. The swimming element will be removed from the program altogether.

It could just become running and cycling, but obviously that provides a whole different discussion, because many of the athletes, their best discipline out of the three is the swimming, so they would be massively impacted by that taking place. But the president of World Triathlon said this is what we're dealing with in this current climate situation and it's better to get medals round athletes' necks than not.

It definitely would create a serious discussion. But as things stand, not happening today, but the men's and women's triathlon will take place on Wednesday. Pollution permitting.

CHURCH: So frustrating for those athletes. We'll watch to see what happens in the end. Amanda Davis, a pleasure to have you with us live from Paris. Many thanks.

Well damage control for the U.S. Secret Service. Up next, what they're promising to do after they failed to stop an assassination attempt on Donald Trump this month. We'll take a look.

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[03:45:00]

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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. Donald Trump will give a victim interview to the FBI more than two weeks after surviving an assassination attempt. The FBI says it's looking for Trump's perspective on what he observed that day as they investigate the would-be assassin's motive. U.S. Secret Service officials are testifying to Congress about the security failure. The acting director is set to tell lawmakers on Tuesday about the agency's new measures for approving security plans for events and for protectees. Meanwhile, Trump says he will continue to hold outdoor rallies.

Well the U.S. Secretary of State and Defense Secretary have met their Philippine counterparts and President Ferdinand Bongbong Marcos Jr. in Manila. Beijing's growing assertiveness in the South China Sea is expected to dominate the talks. Antony Blinken and Lloyd Austin are touring Asia to shore up alliances as Washington tries to counter China's growing influence.

CNN's Mike Valerio is in Seoul. He joins us now live. Good to see you, Mike. So what is the significance of this visit and what do we expect to come out of it? MIKE VALERIO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Rosemary, the significance is

really in the geography that we're talking about here. The South China Sea, which is one of the most valuable waterways, bodies of water, in the entire Earth when we're talking about global trade. If you have a phone, a computer, from the room that you're watching this broadcast from, you know, chances are that it came through the South China Sea.

And the Philippines, what do they want? They want help from the United States to keep those sea lanes free, from their perspective, of Chinese control and interference. So it all comes down to the map, besides this pageantry that we're seeing on the screen. When we go to the map and look at the South China Sea, we see this nine-dash line, which has been on Chinese maps since the time of Mao in 1952. And this is essentially what China claims as its own for centuries.

It's saying that this is its ancestral territory, but there are all these countries, from the Philippines to Malaysia to Vietnam, that vehemently reject that, saying that they have up to 200 nautical miles away from their coastline, be it the mainland or islands, of control of waters that are within its exclusive economic zone. They're rejecting this map entirely. So what the Philippines want, Rosemary, they're looking for help from the United States to keep Chinese control out of their sphere, their exclusive economic zone.

Let's listen to the president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos, from earlier today. Here's what he said.

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FERDINAND MARCOS JR., PHILIPPINE PRESIDENT: I am always very happy that these communication lines are very open so that all the things that we are doing together in terms of our alliance, in terms of the specific context of our situation here in the West Philippine Sea and in the Indo-Pacific are continuously examined and reexamined. So we are agile in terms of our responses.

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VALERIO: So bottom line, Blinken and Austin, Rosemary, are announcing $500 million in U.S. aid to the Philippines for military assistance. The question that we are looking at as we go forward, will this deter China's behavior? Will it push Chinese influence back further?

You know, it remains to be seen, and global analysts who we speak to say it seems doubtful that China will pull back on its claims because they are certainly playing the long game here, they think in terms of decades, centuries, millennia. The United States, though, is saying they have kept these sea lanes open for decades and they're not going to stop now, Rosemary.

CHURCH: Mike Valero in Seoul, many thanks for that report. And we'll be right back.

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CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. In one of the more memorable and controversial Olympic opening ceremonies, one performer in particular has been raising eyebrows. CNN's Saskya Vandoorne spoke to the French performer known as the semi-naked blue guy.

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SASKYA VANDOORNE, CNN SR. PRODUCER: Millions of people watched the opening ceremony and they all had the same question. What is up with this man in blue?

PHILLIPPE KATERINE, MUSICIAN AND ACTOR (translated): I was singing my song called "Nu," "Naked."

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It's basically a song that says a very simple thing, would there have been wars if we have stayed naked? Maybe the answer is no, because you can't hide a gun or hide a revolver when you're naked.

VANDOORNE: Some said it was blasphemous. What did you think of those who criticized it, who were offended?

KATERINE (translated): I'm deeply sorry if it shocked some people, because this wasn't the intention at all. I was brought up as a Christian, and the best thing about Christianity is forgiveness. So I ask for forgiveness if I have offended anyone, and the Christians of the world will grant me that I'm sure, and will understand that it was mostly a misunderstanding. There was never any question of religion or of "The Last Supper." No, it's always been about Dionysus.

VANDOORNE: Let's talk a little bit more about the color blue. Why were you blue? How long did it take to get ready?

KATERINE (translated): My mom always told me, "Phillippe, It's better for you to wear blue rather than yellow. It makes your eyes stand out. Blue is for you." It took three hours to get this glittery blue body. And also three hours to remove all of it.

VANDOORNE: Were you able to wash all the blue paint off after the performance?

KATERINE (translated): It is impossible. There are still traces of the past. I keep them in my belly button.

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CHURCH: There you go. Thanks for your company. I'm Rosemary Church. Have yourselves a wonderful day. CNN NEWSROOM continues next with Max Foster and Christina Macfarlane in London.

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