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How to Stay Safe in Heat?; Donald Trump to Speak to National Association of Black Journalists; Olympic Doping Scandal; Zoom Calls Raise Over $15 Million For Harris Campaign. Aired 11:30a-12:00p ET

Aired July 31, 2024 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: It's interesting that that's an issue for you that's really galvanizing.

You are no stranger to this campaign. You have met Vice President Harris. You worked with second gentleman Doug Emhoff, right?

BRADLEY WHITFORD, ACTOR: Yes.

BROWN: Tell us more about that.

WHITFORD: Yes, I met Kamala at "The Late Show," Stephen Colbert's show. She was delightful. She was wonderful. She did a beautiful interview with Ady Barkan, who was a health care advocate and a dear friend of mine, talking about when her mother was diagnosed with cancer and how important the access to health care is and how dangerous it is that the Republicans are trying to reduce our access to health care.

The second gentleman is a blast. He's hilarious. And I got to talk with him a little bit about just Democratic engagement, which I think is so important, and just getting out there and reminding people, especially now, we don't just get a democracy. We have got to make it every day.

And what I'm really concerned about is I want all of this energy to focus on the swing states. Joe Biden -- we look at these polls every day. Joe Biden won the last election by five points. He won the Electoral College by 40,000 votes in the swing states.

In my home state of Wisconsin, it was below 20,000. And so we really need to focus this energy for the long term on those swing states.

BROWN: I'm wondering, going back to that call that you were on, what are your thoughts on the reports of the White Dudes for Harris X account being temporarily suspended following this call and also some of the criticism?

FOX News called this call the most beta gathering in history. What do you say?

WHITFORD: The most what? Data?

BROWN: Beta. Beta. The most beta gathering in history.

WHITFORD: Oh. Oh.

(LAUGHTER)

WHITFORD: Well, FOX News thinks that -- they were talking, I believe, yesterday about their -- if you vote for a woman, if a man votes for a woman, it's like you're transitioning. I mean, it's insane. It's gobbledygook.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFORD: I was thrilled to have -- yes, yes, yes. Check it out.

I was just thrilled to have another group that was enthusiastic about supporting this ticket, as enthusiastic as I am, as -- you know, Elon Musk doesn't care about free speech, obviously. That was all a lie. And Elon Musk is an example of, the Republicans will reward the rich in this.

And I think that's basically where Elon's coming from. So any threat to that, he will try and shut down.

BROWN: I'm wondering what you think, though, just as you take a step back and look all the craziness around what's been happening on politics, with politics, right?

I mean, this is something that -- it's almost like you can't make this stuff up. I'm wondering if it's giving you any nostalgia for when you were on the "West Wing."

WHITFORD: Yes. I mean, it's -- obviously, the last week has been crazy, crazy writing. If this was on a show, no one would ever believe it.

But I have always said the fakest thing about the "West Wing" was that we had rational Republicans. They weren't trying to drag us back and take our freedoms away. If I walked into the writers room of the West Wing and pitched Project 2025 for a Republican to be running on, I would be kicked out of the room for being condescending to Republicans.

So that's the thing that strikes me most, is the radical Christian right agenda that is being pushed by the Republicans. It's alarming. It's bad writing.

BROWN: I want to --

(CROSSTALK)

BROWN: Really, really quick before you go, you weighed in on J.D. Vance's latest awkward moment, speaking of weird. So what do you think about that? You weighed on in Twitter.

WHITFORD: Yes, I probably made some pejorative joke, and I'm probably not proud of it. I think he's a huge hypocrite who clearly doesn't stand for anything.

He referred to Donald Trump as Hitler, as an American -- as an American Hitler. Now he's his running mate.

I -- his attacks on childless people deeply offend me. That's an attack, by the way, not just on people who believe in what I believe. That's an attack on Ginni Thomas. It's cruel. And I am blessed with glorious children because -- because of IVF. And I know the heartbreak of that process.

[11:35:09]

And I think it's absolutely disgusting. It's all about division. That's the difference in this race. Trump is trying to fuel division and separateness. And I think Kamala is trying to bring us together. And that is the spectacular, unfulfilled promise of this country. And that's why I'm so excited about her candidacy.

BROWN: All right, Bradley Whitford, thank you for coming on to share your view of all of this taking place on the presidential race. We really appreciate your time.

We will be right back.

WHITFORD: Thank you, Pamela.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:40:17]

BROWN: Well, new developments in the doping scandal that is rocking the Olympics.

"The New York Times" reports the World Anti-Doping Agency is now investigating China and other countries using the excuse that tainted food is why multiple athletes tested positive for performance- enhancing drugs. Chinese swimmers are under an intense microscope in Paris after a previous "New York Times" report revealed several of their swimmers tested positive for a banned drug and then went on to win gold at the Tokyo Games in 2021.

One of those swimmers could be competing tomorrow in the 4x200 meter relay.

Joining us now from Paris is one of the reporters breaking these stories, "New York Times" global sports correspondent Tariq Panja.

Tariq, what more can you tell us about this latest investigation?

TARIQ PANJA, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Well, this comes after -- you mentioned we have written three stories, separate stories now, involving Chinese swimmers since April.

The first one involved the 23 positive cases linked to trimetazidine, TMZ, a prescription-only heart drug that the Chinese said was found in a hotel kitchen where these athletes were staying while in competition. The second one related to a type -- well, not exactly a steroid, but a steroid-like substance called clenbuterol, involved three of those 23 swimmers a few years earlier.

And this latest one involves a mail-in female swimmer, one of those from the 23, a man and another young female swimmer called Tang Muhan. She is the swimmer you mentioned there who we expect to be lining up in the relay to defend China's gold.

What they're saying is, while in training camp, Ms. Muhan and this male swimmer left the camp to go on a day of eating hamburgers, shopping, cakes and coffee. And it was in that period at a restaurant called the Blue Frog that they believe they ate this hamburger that had a powerful steroid in it that they tested positive for.

And there's so many questions here. It's taken us again to reveal these positive cases. This was another secret case involving Chinese swimmers. And now WADA, the World Anti-Doping Agency, after these stories, has finally said, hang on. Yes, we think we have a problem with contamination, and we are looking into this and seeing if things need to change.

BROWN: Right.

I mean, so basically they're saying too, why are these -- why were these athletes left off -- how did they get off the hook for saying, oh, it's because I ate this food that contained these steroids, right? I mean, that -- they're examining why that could have happened because of your reporting.

PANJA: Oh, essentially, yes.

Look, contamination is -- has been in a real thing. In the United States, there have been several cases, in Europe and here and elsewhere. The thing that is striking in these Chinese cases is that they have never found the source of how, if this contaminant was in there, got there.

So in the case of the heart drug, they never found the cook or whoever had this supposed heart drug with them and it dropped it into various parts of the kitchen. And these burgers that -- they produced these very elaborate reports, scientific tests. They use the equivalent of whatever Chinese state security is to help them investigate this stuff, but they never actually find the source of what has happened.

They then send this report to the World Anti-Doping Agency, privately and in secret, and says, look, this is what we have done. And then the World Anti-Doping Agency has said, oh, we can't -- even if we're not sure about this, even if this story feels a bit fishy, we can't disprove your hypothesis, so carry on.

What's different is that, in the United States and elsewhere, this -- there's a greater degree of transparency. I think it's this secrecy, the lack of transparency in these cases that has rattled global swimming, that is concerning swimmers on the pool deck here in Paris and in championships in the last few months. This is a really uncomfortable place to be. These athletes, including

the Chinese, we're not saying that they're intentionally taking drugs. We don't know. But they train their lives for these moments. Some athletes, most athletes will only be at one Olympics. And if you don't know that when you're looking across the line that the person next to you and the person next to them is clean, that is a very difficult place to be.

[11:45:00]

BROWN: Right.

And one of those athletes, this Chinese swimmer in question, is expected to compete on China's relay team tomorrow.

What are we hearing from athletes of other countries who will be going against that team?

PANJA: Well, we were talking to some of the athletes, my colleagues were, yesterday and other journalists here in Paris.

And it is this -- it's a bit of -- I guess at this point, it's a bit of eye roll as well, if you know what I mean. These cases, these stories just keep coming up. We were told just before the Olympics that the Chinese have been tested more than any other team coming into Paris.

That might be the case, but it's very hard, given the way sophisticated doping works, to be caught doping at an Olympics. You have had to have done something really silly. And I was talking to anti-doping experts. If you -- blanket testing, just doing thousands of random tests, that really isn't the way to catch cheaters these days.

It has to be sophisticated, intelligence-led, the right time for the right drugs. Now, a lot of the way this works is, it's up to each nation -- in the case of the United States, you saw the United States Anti-Doping Agency, in the case of China, CHINADA, to basically test their own athletes.

So it's nations. We're trusting these nations to essentially mark their own athletes. And, look, you -- I don't know if you have been to an Olympics, Paris -- Pamela, but the Olympics is a bragging right for a nation.

BROWN: Right.

PANJA: And some nations take that extremely seriously and might go over the edge.

BROWN: Right. Well --

PANJA: So there's an issue of trust here and the whole system is under question.

BROWN: Right. And thank you to you and your colleagues' reporting for shining a spotlight on this.

Tariq, we appreciate it. Thanks for coming on.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:51:14]

BROWN: Donald Trump will hold a rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania this, evening, not far from the site where a would-be assassin shot him more than two weeks ago.

But, first, the former president will attend a question-and-answer session at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in Chicago. Well, some members of the organization are angry that Trump was invited in the first place, and protests are expected outside that hotel where he's set to speak.

CNN's Sara Sidner is at the NABJ conference.

Sara, how is the Trump campaign responding to all of this backlash?

SARA SIDNER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: With something that we have certainly seen before. He is attacking Kamala Harris.

And there -- the sort of controversy surrounding this has a lot to do with the fact that she is not here, that they have these two candidates who are the -- one, the presumptive nominee for the Democrats and one who is now the nominee for the Republicans. But only one of them is showing up at the National Association of Black Journalists.

According to NABJ, they reached out to these candidates, as they have done since 1976, trying to get them to come to the convention to sit down for interviews in front of the crowd here. And Donald Trump ended up doing it in person. Kamala Harris' team said, look, they had a lot of things scheduled. They could not make it in person or virtually at the time of the conference.

You might imagine she was quite busy with what has been going on since Joe Biden stepped down from the campaign. But they went ahead and said yes to Donald Trump. That has been some of the consternation, Donald Trump responding to this, though, now.

And this is why some people are quite annoyed about it. He is, of course, using this against Kamala Harris. And here's what he put on TRUTH Social earlier. He called her crazy Kamala Harris disrespecting the National Association of Black Journalists by not showing up.

She has now agreed to do a virtual setting -- sitting with the NABJ, so that people can listen to her views. People are able to ask her questions, but after the conference.

All of this happening at a time when, of course, everything is heightened, and the whole campaign has changed because Kamala Harris is now at the top of the ticket. And Donald Trump is reaching out to black voters, who he is seeing in some small way growing for the Donald Trump campaign.

He's trying to reach out to them. And one of the ways to do that is to come to this conference.

I do want to let you hear from the president of National Association of Black Journalists, who put his foot down and said, look, we are journalists. It is the last name in the moniker that we have. And we have to talk to someone who could potentially be president. Here is how he addressed this controversy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEN LEMON, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BLACK JOURNALISTS: It is our jobs as journalists to have those uncomfortable conversations, so that the people who count on us to inform them get the information from the source.

And I hope, as a journalism organization, National Association of Black Journalists, we take that portion seriously.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Now, you might be wondering why some black journalists are concerned about Donald Trump being here. Some of it is his rhetoric.

Some of it is that when it comes to black journalists, he has gone after them calling them names like stupid and dumb, including some of our journalists. Our very intelligent Abby Phillip has faced this sort of thing.

So there is some concern about how he's going to address this crowd. But the crowd is here. The journalists are going to interview him. And we will see what he says and have much more on that when he does so at 1:30 local time -- Pam.

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

And thank you for joining us in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Pamela Brown.

Stay with CNN. "INSIDE POLITICS WITH DANA BASH" starts right after a short break.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm Dr. Sanjay Gupta, host of CNN's "Chasing Life" podcast.

(voice-over): Extreme heat is the number one weather-related killer. It's more than hurricanes and tornadoes combined, and it's getting worse.

[11:55:03]

In 2023, hospital visits for heat-related illness increased 20 percent over the previous five years. Our bodies normally cool down by sweating, but, in extreme heat, excessive loss of water and salt from sweating can lead to heat exhaustion.

If the body's temperature gets too high, that means typically 104 degrees or above, heatstroke can occur. The body's stopped sweating, can no longer cool itself, and that can be damaging to all the vital organs, including the brain.

So to stay safe and to stay cool, limit your time outdoors. When working outside in the heat, drink a cup of water every 20 minutes, as opposed to chugging a bunch of water all at once.

And, most importantly, if you're feeling thirsty, you have probably already waited too long. Finally, pay attention to the signs of heat illness, dizziness, confusion, nausea, fast pulse. Sometimes, you may notice them in someone else, even before they do.

You can hear more about how to optimize your health and chase life wherever you get your podcasts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)