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Michigan Dems Vote In Contentious Senate Primary Tuesday; Interview With Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI); Thousands Of Families Evacuated Following Spokane Wildfires; Interview With Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown; Trump Claims He Calls Off Iran Strikes To Pursue Talks; South Carolina Republicans Quietly Stewing Over Late Senator Graham's Seat; A.I. Influencers And Questionable Health Advice. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired August 02, 2026 - 18:00   ET

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

TIM NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: In the case of football, you see television deals of 1961 for the NFL or later for the NFL ultimately leading to a merger of the two and the creation of nationally known celebrities like Joe Namath. Television changed everything.

BRIAN ABEL, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we will see that play out in tonight's episode.

Tim Naftali, thank you.

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And a new hour of NEWSROOM starts right now.

You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Brian Abel in Atlanta tonight.

All eyes on Michigan as Democrats in the Wolverine State gear up for Tuesday's highly anticipated Senate primary election. The race has turned into a proxy battle for the future of the Democratic Party. Establishment backed Congresswoman Haley Stevens, facing off against progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed.

It's a critical seat for Democrats as they try to flip control of the Senate in November, raising the question, can El-Sayed, a progressive candidate in the vein of Bernie Sanders running on Medicare-for-all, win in a purple state general election?

CNN chief national affairs correspondent Jeff Zeleny has the latest from the ground in Michigan.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: And, Brian, we are in the final hours of campaigning here for the Democratic Senate primary in Michigan. This is a marquee Senate primary contest. And here is why Democrats must hold on to this Senate seat in Michigan to fill the seat of retiring Senator Gary Peters. And they must flip four Republican seats as well, if they want to have the chance to claim the Senate majority. But all eyes are on this primary because it is a very hard fought

contest between Congresswoman Haley Stevens and progressive insurgent Abdul El-Sayed. We've been following the candidates around to events like this all day long today. Haley Stevens will be here in Oakland County, which, as you know well, is a critical area for Democratic votes as well as Republican votes later in the year.

But this has been a (INAUDIBLE) fierce contest between Stevens and El- Sayed into the final hours. I mean, Stevens is being propelled by the Democratic establishment. She has the endorsement of, of course, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, but also here in Michigan, of Governor Gretchen Whitmer and many other elected officials as well.

El-Sayed has been traveling around Detroit today campaigning with a few other members of Congress, like Ayanna Pressley from Massachusetts and some others. He is making the case that it is time for change.

Now, this has really been a referendum. As we've seen throughout the year, progressive wins in New York and other deep blue areas are being tested anew here in Michigan, a critical battleground. And a question is, which one of these candidates is the strongest, most electable candidate to take on Mike Rogers, a former member of Congress here in Michigan in November? And the question of electability has been a central one, there's no doubt about it.

We've caught up with El-Sayed earlier today, and he said voters know electability. They will decide that. He said that pundits and analysts should not be making claims of electability. There's no doubt that he has some energy and momentum on his side.

But the Democratic establishment is on the side of Haley Stevens. That's why this test here in Michigan is going to be such a central one on Tuesday in this primary, testing whether this insurgency we've seen, this deep blue progressive insurgency can play in a statewide contest here in Michigan.

ABEL: All right, Jeff Zeleny in Michigan for us. Jeff, thank you.

And here to discuss this race further, I want to bring in Michigan Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Dingell.

Congresswoman, great to be talking with you. You have chosen not to endorse any candidate in this primary race. And I'm curious, knowing how connected you are to your constituents, why you are choosing not to try and push this primary race in one direction or the other, given the stakes when this turns to the general.

REP. DEBBIE DINGELL (D-MI): Brian, it's good to be with you. And I did it for a very deliberate reason. We've got to pull together when this election is over, and I am one of the only people in Michigan that has stayed truly neutral. I know both candidates. I've worked with both candidates. I agree with both candidates on many things and disagree with each of them on a thing or two. But, you know what I really hate is that label. You know, what do these labels mean?

And I'm going to start out with, I am the leader of Medicare-for-all in the U.S. House. It is my bill with Pramila Jayapal that is fighting hard for this. I actually believe that if you're sick in this country, you should be able to go to the doctor when you need to go to the doctor and get the medicine that you need.

[18:05:03]

I don't call that a progressive label or a Democratic socialist. I call that a human value. So, you know, and some people, I don't even know what label people put on me because I do what I think is right. So, these labels right now and everybody trying to scare everybody about everybody are useless. On Wednesday, we got to pull together and remember what this election is about. And that's making sure that this seat stays a Democratic seat so we can win the House and the Senate back, and be someone that will stop some of this awful legislation that we have seen passed in the last two years.

ABEL: Congresswoman, I think I might be hearing you say, and I know that you've been on the Hill for a term or two, let's just say, is that the --

DINGELL: But not as long as -- some people think I've been there forever. I haven't.

ABEL: Right.

DINGELL: I worked in the auto industry for a long time.

ABEL: Fair. You understand how the process, you know, how the sausage is made. And it sounds like you're saying that, you know, some of the people that are viewed as the leaders of the current Democratic Party could take on Medicare-for-all or some of these issues that are being considered more progressive.

And I do want to bring in this poll that we talked about that we have out this week. It's a new CNN poll that shows most Americans who consider themselves Democrats say the party needs major changes or complete reform. Do you think the Democratic Party is listening to its base when they say that that is what they want?

DINGELL: Again, who is the base? You know, for a long time, union households supported the Democratic Party. And you'll remember in 2016, long before you've seen everybody that's saying what they're saying this time, I said that Hillary Clinton was going to lose because I am in those union halls and Democrats -- they didn't feel like Democrats were working for them. They were worried about trade policies that had shipped their jobs overseas.

I'm in those union halls right now. And those members are worried. They're worried about the cost of groceries, the cost of gasoline, the cost of housing. They are worried about just their living expenses and getting by. Many of these union households, they used to have health care benefits and pension benefits guaranteed. What you used to see 20 years ago isn't there now.

I don't put labels on these. I put this on -- I fight for the working men and women in this country. I think both of the candidates in the Senate race do, and I agree with most of what they both say, disagree with some of what each says, but what we're going to be as Democrats who are going to pull ourselves together and fight for what working men and women across this country care about.

ABEL: And, Congresswoman, I hear you. I hear your hesitancy to create labels. I do as I know that you know, this looking back on some of the previous statewide races in Michigan, when we look, for example, to Elissa Slotkin, former rep turned Senator Slotkin, who had to flip or at least compete in these split districts, these purple counties and then across the state. And yes, Representative Stevens has flipped a congressional district. But that's not a statewide race.

Do you feel if it is Abdul El-Sayed that ends up winning this primary, that he can compete at the statewide purple level given his policies?

DINGELL: This is what I'm going to say to you. We can compete with either of these candidates, and we have no choice but to do that. My district is a mini-America. I've got Downriver, which is Mega. I've got Western Washtenaw that used to be represented by Tim Walberg, Western Wayne, and I have very progressive Ann Arbor and Ypsi. And I say the same thing, talking to everybody in my district.

And what I want to remind people, look, I'm seasoned. I haven't been there forever. My family has served. My father-in-law introduced Social Security, was one of the authors of it. There in the FDR picture when it was signed, he was called a communist when that legislation was introduced. Does anybody call Social Security communism in this country now? What we need to be doing as elected officials is understand what working men and women are struggling with, what they want and how we're going to address the issues that they care about.

I think either one of these Senate candidates will. I don't think that the president is or is doing that. Instead of reducing costs, he's increased costs. And that's why all Democrats, the big tent that we have, are fighting for an affordable America.

ABEL: So when you're making that example, the communism reference, are you suggesting that some of these policies that are viewed as more progressive right now, when we use a historical lens may not be and that Michigan doesn't necessarily need to have a more moderate candidate in order to be successful in the general?

DINGELL: I think you vote for the person and what they're fighting for. So I'm telling you that the candidate, whichever candidate wins on Tuesday, is going to go out and talk about the issues that matter to working men and women. You know, and I'll tell you some of those other issues that now, I mean, they've already cut Medicaid and Medicare. They've already cut the Affordable Care Act and extending the affordable care tax credit. They've cut SNAP.

These are things that everyday working Americans are worried about. How many millions of Americans have lost their health insurance. We have a broken health care system. And we need to talk about the broken health care system. Forget these labels that the media loves to put on people. When you talk directly to the voter and talk about the issues that matter to them, they want to see you deliver. And that's what we've got to do.

ABEL: Congresswoman, I do want to go back to your very first point of staying on the sidelines or at least not endorsing either one of these candidates until the general election. How does -- how do you, how does the party bring these different viewpoints together and end up winning in November?

DINGELL: We have to remind people about what the November election is about and in the House, we want to win the House back, but we want to flip the Senate as well so that there are institutions that are not rubber stamps for what this president is doing. A war in Iran that is threatening our young people because there might be military troops on the ground, let alone what it's doing to the cost of gasoline, how much it has raised the price, and what it's doing, the threat to world peace.

We have seen gasoline prices have gone up because of the Iran war, but the tariffs, which have been just implemented in a crazy way. I'm someone that believes tariffs are a tool in the toolbox, but the way that they've been done in the last two years has increased the cost to all consumers. And I could go on and a list of bills that we have voted on that we've got to say no to. We cannot be rubber stamps. Our job is to fight for the people that we represent.

ABEL: Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, we're going to have to leave it there. Thank you so much for taking the time to join us today.

DINGELL: Thank you.

ABEL: Signs of progress in the Middle East, as President Trump says he's calling off new attacks against Iran. Plus, thousands of families evacuated, hundreds of structures destroyed. Three major wildfires are burning right now around Spokane, Washington.

You're on the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:17:35]

ABEL: President Donald Trump says he called off planned attacks on Iran to pursue talks to open the Strait of Hormuz. But Iranian state media is giving no indication that its government has changed its position on the strait. Trump warned that the pause in attacks would only continue if there is quick progress in negotiations. Trump wants the strait, a critical shipping route for oil tankers, to be reopened and a, quote, "end to Iran's nuclear threat."

CNN's Clare Sebastian has more on how Iran and the U.S. got to this point.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Donald Trump claims in his Truth Social post that he backed off his threats of escalation in Iran because the outlines of a deal have been reached. And because of that, he had been asked, he said, by Iran and other Middle Eastern countries to hold off on major new strikes to give diplomacy a chance. But Iran's state media reacted with glee and derision, giving no indication that the country had asked for the attacks to be called off.

But Trump also didn't mention which other Middle Eastern countries had asked for a delay, but that decision came just hours after he had spoken on the phone to the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, clearly alarmed at both Trump's rhetoric and Iranian threats of retaliation, particularly when it comes to energy sites in the region. The crown prince urged Trump to, quote, "prioritize dialogue to reduce escalation," according to a readout of the call published by Saudi Arabia's state news agency.

Well, the other part of this is that the U.S. may also be concerned about Iranian retaliation. Well, the U.S. is still clearly the stronger power militarily. This war, now in its sixth month, has left it somewhat drained of military stockpiles. Its reserves of Patriot interceptors, for example, a critical defensive weapon, are down to about a third of their prewar level, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

And given the expansion of the war that we've seen over the past week, strikes on the Red Sea by the Houthis, a drone strike on an Egyptian port, Trump may be looking to avoid a cycle of escalation that risks getting out of control. Well, the halt in attacks is, as Trump says, contingent on a deal being made, quote, "rapidly." No specific timeline has been set. But this pattern of threats and then backing down has been repeated many times. And for the ultimatum to work, Iran has to believe that the U.S. is willing and able to follow through.

Clare Sebastian, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL: Clare, thank you.

CNN national security analyst Alex Plitsas is joining us now.

[18:20:02]

And Alex, Trump says they're making progress on this deal, though we haven't had any confirmation from Iran. And we've had progress before. Two steps forward, a step back. What do you make of this current situation at this moment?

ALEX PLITSAS, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So were still back to a disagreement over the 14-point memorandum of understanding that was reached with Iran, and it was over 0.5, in which the Iranians believe that that gave them the ability to control traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. And when ships deviated from its declared patterns, they then fired on that. We entered this escalatory pattern of violence.

And so that was the real disagreement. And so over the last, you know, couple of weeks, the Omanis and as we see there, the map that's up on the right hand side on the -- if you see that tip that's jutting out in the water, we see a whole bunch of red dots next to it. The tip of that is actually Oman, it's not the UAE, and that's the Strait of Hormuz. And so it became a question of, you know, can the Omanis control the southern half, the Iranians the northern half? And that's where negotiations were left.

What came out of that meeting was that the Iranian foreign minister was going to go back to Iran and see if he could get consensus to that plan, where the shipping routes in the south would be controlled by the Omanis and Iran in the north. Iran responded a few hours later with missile strikes on boats, and then they fired on the GCC states nearby.

Now they got back to the table and there's a potential that the Omanis and the Iranians have now come to some sort of understanding. And then it becomes a question of tolling, because tolls are not going to be acceptable by anybody who's involved.

ABEL: OK. So let's talk about that. How likely is it to get Iran to a point where tolling is not something that's on the table, and they give up control in that fashion of the Strait of Hormuz? How much pressure is on them to get them to the table, and what would be needed to make them relinquish control?

PLITSAS: So there's really two points that have to be dealt with here. So the first is why they wanted potential tolls in the first place. So the -- what I'm told by multiple sources in the region and from speaking to U.S. officials and others, is that the blockade on Iranian oil was, in fact, working, and that we combine that with the damage from the war that said about 70 percent of the economy, plus the prewar sanctions, they were being squeezed economically.

And I was in Syria at the end of the year -- at the end of August last year, when the sanctions were being lifted. It takes a while to reintegrate the banks and everything else. So Iran needs a short-term cash solution to its problems. Tolls was one way to bring some money in right away. And then obviously potentially to have that money go to the IRGC where we wouldn't want it to go.

The second piece is then, how do you convince them not to do that? Well, there's economic incentives and things that are in the MOU that have worked out would provide them with liquidity and with cash. But the disagreement has been between the civilian negotiators and the some of the security apparatus. When I spoke to some of the mediators in the last couple of days, they said, look, the double PhDs who understand international relations are the ones in the room who are doing the negotiations.

They've then got to go back to Tehran and get a bunch of disparate groups of people from the IRGC, the Supreme National Security Council, who have different interests, to agree to the terms that are being proposed. And many of them didn't want to return the strait to pre-war conditions. They wanted -- they wanted to hurt President Trump in that way politically, and they wanted to hang on, thinking that they could extract more concessions from the U.S.

That's where the disagreement lay. And President Trump had threatened military action if they didn't reach a consensus.

ABEL: So, Alex, you're hitting on this a little bit. But when it comes to Iran negotiating, just how large is the gap, is the disconnect between what is happening with its people due to this conflict, the social, economic, the domestic issues and its desire to inflict harm on the U.S.? How strong is that disconnect where they are or are not weighing on the economic policies?

PLITSAS: So that's the issue, is that the Iranian regime is responding to an existential threat, because let's not forget, the war opened with strikes on their entire leadership structure taking out 80 something of the top people, including the late supreme leader. So they're still responding from an existential threat where their government is at risk. And until they get confirmation in their minds that this war is going to end, the regime isn't going to be continue to be targeted, they're going to continue to respond in that fashion.

And that's been part of the problem in terms of how they've been structuring their responses. And then they also -- they've got a four -- there's four lines of effort as part of their asymmetric strategy to combat the United States after speaking to regional sources. So one is to try to maximize U.S. casualties in the region. The second is to try to drive up the cost of goods, oil and gas by choking off the Strait of Hormuz to put economic pressure on the United States.

The third then is to go after the Gulf allies that they've been firing missiles and drones at to try to get them to put pressure on the United States. We did see a phone call from the Saudi crown prince that went to President Trump that may have contributed to the decision because President Trump had threatened to attack energy infrastructure, or at least infrastructure inside of Iran. Iran had threatened to retaliate against Gulf oil and gas. So there's a potential that that was part of it.

The last piece of the fourth was then to try to divide the presidents base politically, going into the midterm elections, because Iran knows it's that military overmatch. And so its pressing on each one of those levers. And what we're witnessing now is part of that strategy.

[18:25:04]

ABEL: OK. You just talked about oil there a little bit. OPEC and its allies agreed to pump more oil in the coming months. Does that change the pressure, the levers of negotiations here on either side, whether it be Trump's calculations or Iran's if gas prices and oil prices start changing as a result?

PLITSAS: Yes. So it's not just the money in that sense as well, because if there's a blockade and Iran is not getting any money, right? If that's not coming out and they can't receive cash because their oil is being blocked from leaving, and they may get trace amounts out, you know, on the ground via Pakistan or other places if they have some illicit trade.

It really is to satisfy the global markets because if we can't get oil coming out of the Arabian Gulf, there's been an uptick in production around the world to try to make up for that in drips and drabs, a couple hundred thousand barrels here or there to try to make up for that 20 million barrels that was coming out of the AG as well as pipelines that were then redirected to move some of it over to the Red Sea.

So it's really meant to try to satisfy, you know, global demand. And because oil prices have been kept artificially low, especially in the beginning of the conflict by President Trump's reassurances to the markets, if you think about it, if gas got super expensive, that would sort of, you know, quell demand. People wouldn't be consuming as much. But because prices were kept low, the demand was still there but the supply wasn't. And that was the problem with the ripple effect with oil and gas not leaving, a little bit comes out and it stops again. So OPEC is trying to increase production.

ABEL: OK. President Trump said in his post that, quote, "Israel joins me in this commitment." Why haven't we heard anything from Israel or Prime Minister Netanyahu on this yet?

PLITSAS: So that's the open question. And so far, the Iranians have chosen not to strike at Israel in response to the last round of escalations. They went after the Gulf states again, and they went after U.S. bases in the region, but they didn't go after the Israelis. I think, you know, Prime Minister Netanyahu has made it clear he would prefer a stronger response. The Israeli political establishment, certainly not the IDF, from what I'm hearing, would prefer to see this war through to its conclusion in their minds because they think unless the Iranian regime is gone, this is not really ever going to end.

But to do that is a very tall order. It's easier said than done. And so it becomes a question, do you want to stir that hornet's nest? But we are hearing, you know, that what was put on pause was a potential joint strike between the United States and Israel, which would then start potentially another round of escalations. And if they fire ballistic missiles at Israel again, that could, you know, again spark another round of escalations. And then it may not stop, which is the real risk that, you know, that we would run.

You mentioned earlier in the run-up correctly about the Patriot and other interceptor stocks being low. So there's a whole bunch of factors that go into that. Additionally, a lot of the Gulf states have been running offensive missions against Iran. Some of that has leaked out. There's been videos. So you can't deny it when you see it, but it hasn't been public. And what I'm told is that part of that is because they didn't want to be seen siding with Israel during this.

So if the Israelis were then to open another round of conflict, I think that would largely keep the GCC on the sidelines and any retaliation for attacking their countries would continue to be done quietly.

ABEL: All right. Alex Plitsas, appreciate your analysis, sir, as always, thank you.

PLITSAS: You, too. Thank you. ABEL: Days after South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham suddenly passed

away, President Trump endorsing Graham's sister to take his place. And that has South Carolina Republicans stewing.

You're on the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:32:46]

ABEL: Breaking news, Washington is under a state of emergency amid some of the most destructive fires in the state's history. In Spokane County, three wildfires are devastating the area and forcing thousands to evacuate. The flames, fueled by extreme heat, have burned more than 5,000 acres. More than 600 structures have already been destroyed. Washington officials say many have already lost everything they own, as crews race to control the flames. A little over an hour ago, they confirmed extensive federal aid is on the way.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARIA CANTWELL (D-WA): This is the most risk and resourced fire in the United States today. It is the top fire in our nation. That means they are going to give us the resources that we need here on the ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ABEL: Julia Vargas Jones is on the ground in Spokane for us now.

Julia, we spoke to you about an hour ago. We see that what's behind you here, your scenery has changed quite a bit. What have you been able to see?

And, Julia, it looks like your IFB just dropped.

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brian, I'm not sure what you just asked me. We are having some communications issues. As we learned there are so many people out here. About 10,000 residents still without power. Some of the cell towers may have been affected as well. We've been having cell issues for the past couple hours.

I just want to show you a little bit of what's going on here. We just moved a little bit up the block from the location we were in the last hour, just we're able to get a little bit closer. You can feel the heat emanating from these structures. The air here is so thick with smoke, just almost impossible to breathe without a mask out here.

As you mentioned, just three different fires in this county alone. In the whole state, 15 major wildfires. This means about 250,000 acres of just land already burned. For you to have an idea, I just looked this up real quick. It's about nine times the size of Washington, D.C..

[18:35:02]

In order to contain these fires, Brian, about 4,000 people from all over. We heard at this press conference coming from Florida to Alaska, about a dozen different states contributing to this, as well as people from Australia.

Now, that means not only just crews, that means other kinds of equipment. We heard from the commissioner of public lands here, Dave McGrove, about aircraft engines, bulldozers, as well as hand crews. Why do we need bulldozers? Well, there's a lot of cleanup that's going to need to happen before people can go back to their homes.

We're still in this moment of uncertainty. People don't know if any of their loved ones that may still be missing have been injured or were killed in these fires. That's still a question that officials are saying it might take a little bit of time to answer. Right now, they're directing people to different kinds of shelters that were set up here in the city.

We heard there from the mayor, Lisa Brown, her main message is that the hearts of all people around Washington, the Pacific Northwest, going out to those living in that uncertainty, but asking people to go out and help if they can those who are left without a home or who had to evacuate and don't know yet if they will be returning to a home at all in the coming days.

Oregon and Washington both have been hit so hard. This is one of the worst seasons of wildfires in history in the last 30 years at least. More than 2.1 million acres, Brian, burned as of July 30th.

ABEL: 2.1 million acres. Julia Vargas Jones for us in Washington. Julia, thank you.

And we are now joined by Spokane Mayor Lisa Brown.

And Madam Mayor, thank you so much for taking the time. And I know that your city is experiencing quite a traumatic event. You mentioned earlier in your press conference hundreds of homes and structures lost. And you also said that you're still assessing the potential of lives lost. Is that still the case right now, or are you in the clear to say that there have been no casualties as a result of these fires so far?

MAYOR LISA BROWN, SPOKANE, WASHINGTON: It is still too early to say that. We had over 14,000 structures in the evacuation area. We know over 60,000 people evacuated. We are encouraging people who have still not been able to contact someone from the evacuation area to call law enforcement, so we can do welfare checks and we'll have more information soon. But fortunately, no injuries or deaths reported at this time. But we still have a long way to go before we know whether or not that's going to change.

ABEL: We are very much hoping that that does not change. We know that also federal aid is on the way. What does your city need right now?

BROWN: We are very pleased at the cooperation at the city, county, state and federal level and that federal assistance has been requested. We need support with securing private property. Fortunately, the National Guard is available to help with that, but we are going to need help with housing, housing assistance and debris removal. Those are going to be two top priorities until people can get back to check on their property. We have ongoing support needed for just the basics, food, shelter and water.

ABEL: I know you're a mayor. You're a human first, and you're a neighbor of the people in your community. What are you hearing from the people in your community in the aftermath of this?

BROWN: Well, I'm hearing an outpouring of support. People want to know how they can help. And we have set up on our city Web site an opportunity for them to do that for the Spokane Complex Fires and at the regional level as well. But I'm also hearing stories. In fact, this morning I was at the evacuation center and I talked with a woman who initially resisted evacuating, and her son left, but she didn't.

Fortunately, someone came from law enforcement and encouraged her vigorously to leave, which she agreed to do with her four cats. And she and her cats are now safe in our evacuation center. And that is our most important message to people. Please be vigilant, follow the evacuation Web sites. And if you are level three, please leave. If you are level two, please prepare to leave because it's a fast-moving, evolving weather situation and fire situation still.

ABEL: Fires are not over yet. A reminder of that.

Mayor Lisa Brown, we are thinking of you and your community. Thank you for joining us.

[18:40:03]

BROWN: Thank you so much. Really appreciate bringing awareness to this issue.

ABEL: You're welcome. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ABEL: Tomorrow night in South Carolina, five Republicans vying for the Senate seat of late Senator Lindsey Graham will hold a debate. And it comes just days before early voting ahead of the primary election a week from Tuesday.

[18:45:02]

The candidates include Darline Graham, who is filling out the remaining months of her brother's term, as well as former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford. This weekend, Darline Graham said she's never had any desire to be a politician, but she has quickly become one after replacing her brother. President Trump has endorsed Graham to be the Republican candidate for a new six-year term following her brother's passing, and that has irritated other Republicans in South Carolina.

CNN's Patrick Svitek is joining us now.

And, Patrick, you've been looking at the fallout in South Carolina. Tell us about it.

PATRICK SVITEK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, in some corners of the South Carolina Republican Party Trump's decision to back Darline Graham for the full term in the Senate seat -- she's currently serving on an interim basis -- has not been popular. And I think that's reflected in the fact that she still faces a number of prominent opponents in this August 11th primary.

As you mentioned, that's just a little over a week away. So it's a very fast race. So her opponents still include two congressmen from the state, Russell Fry and Ralph Norman. You also have former South Carolina governor and congressman Mark Sanford running in this race, and they are all off to a very spirited start. A number of these candidates have already raised hundreds of thousands of dollars.

They have outside groups supporting them, spending over $1 million in some cases for these candidates, their super PACs are ready. And so this race is really off to a very spirited start. And of course, you know, you don't have a lot of direct criticism of Darline Graham. You know, these candidates are trying to make a positive case for themselves as they run against her, but they are making indirect, you know, I would say contrast with her talking about how they have a more proven record in Republican politics, or that there are more proven conservative.

And that, of course, is an allusion to the fact that just not much is known about Darline Graham's politics in this race. And that's one of the reasons why I think it's remained so competitive, despite the fact that President Trump has endorsed her. And so we had their first real joint campaign appearance yesterday, and we started hearing kind of Darline Graham's pitch, as you pointed out at the top of our conversation here.

You know, she said she never had a desire to be involved in politics, but she was answering President Trump's call. And I think you're going to hear that a lot. She's going to lean heavily on the fact that she, you know, that she in her account, President Trump asked her to do this and that she's answering his call to public service.

ABEL: All right. Patrick Svitek, thank you very much for that reporting.

SVITEK: Thank you.

ABEL: Still to come, A.I. driven health influencers getting millions of views while pushing questionable products and medical advice. The details next.

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[18:52:22]

ABEL: If you've been on social media, chances are you've come across your share of health influencers giving all kinds of advice. Well, it turns out many of these doctors or herbalists might not even be human. Fake A.I. health influencers are flooding social media feeds, and some are getting millions of views while promoting unverified claims and products.

CNN's Clare Duffy has more.

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CLARE DUFFY, CNN TECH CORRESPONDENT: There has always been wacky health information online, but A.I. has now made it so much easier to create really realistic looking, potentially credible looking figures like doctors or herbalists, to promote sham products or false health information online. In some cases, we are even seeing real doctors having their likeness used without their consent to push questionable health products. And we are seeing these videos show up across social media.

I want to show you just two videos that I found on Facebook Reels that fall into this category. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If your blood sugar is high, listen. Six food combinations drop your blood sugar fast. Number six was proven in a real clinical trial. You should watch this video two more times. Like it, save it, and share it with someone who needs it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have one more trick to enhance the effect of this drink 10 times more. And I always recommend this to my patients here in California for over a decade now. Follow me and comment the word true and I'll send it to you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DUFFY: Now if you watch closely, you might see some red flags there in the background. One of the doctors, he's got a degree that says University of Harvard, but you really have to be paying close attention. I plugged those videos into an A.I. detection tool from the company Get Real Labs, and it turns out that they have a hidden watermark showing that they were made with Google's A.I., and yet they were running on Facebook Reels with thousands of views.

There were also associated account profiles where those same A.I. characters were posting repeated videos with questionable health information. I asked Meta about this, and they said that they removed those videos and accounts for violating their spam policy, and they are working to improve their technology to detect and label this kind of A.I. content.

But it really does show you how careful you have to be and how skeptical you have to be when you are scrolling through your feeds. I spoke to experts about who might be behind this, why they might be doing this, and largely, it is likely financially motivated. They are either linking out to supplements that people could purchase online. Unclear if those are legitimate, or they're trying to drive traffic to websites that are monetizing ad dollars.

One expert I spoke to said that we could also be seeing some of this coming from state-sponsored actors who want to sow distrust in American institutions. Many of these videos, you hear them saying, your doctor won't tell you this. Don't trust your doctor.

[18:55:04]

I spoke with David Evan Harris. He is an A.I. researcher and ethics adviser. He teaches at Berkeley. He told me eyeballs have value. American eyeballs have value. So if you're a person with a computer anywhere in the world finding ways to produce any content you can think of, getting them into a place where they can click on a thing. People can turn that into a livelihood and they will. And of course, this could be very dangerous if people are using this online health advice and information, rather than talking to their human doctor. So very important to be skeptical of these videos.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ABEL: Clare Duffy, thank you.

President Trump says negotiations will start tomorrow to reopen the Strait of Hormuz after he said he called off strikes that he threatened against the country. Could that help you pay less at the pump? We'll tell you how oil prices are reacting.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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