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Erin Burnett Outfront
Biden Digs In, Announces Return To Campaign Trail Next Week; New Details Of Gunman's Steps Before Trump Assassination Attempt; Chaos At Airports After World's Tech Crashes All At Once; WSJ's Evan Gershkovich Sentenced 16 Years In Russia Prison. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired July 19, 2024 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:45]
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:
Biden seething. New reporting tonight on Biden's ire towards Nancy Pelosi as we have new details about Kamala Harris' meeting with mega donors today.
Plus, if Biden drops out, what happens to his delegates? Would it be all-out chaos?
A delegate who supports Biden is OUTFRONT, along with an expert and all the wild scenarios that could lie ahead for America.
And chilling details about Trump's would-be assassin. New details this evening, what he was doing in the hours before that shooting as doctors are raising questions about Trump's injuries.
Let's go OUTFRONT.
And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight: seething. CNN is learning that the president is, quote, seething at Nancy Pelosi as he digs in his heels to stay in the race. This is in the face of 12 additional defections from Congress today, including the latest from the Senate, from Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio, and embattled Democrat fighting for reelection in a red state.
But one source telling CNN it was Nancy Pelosi's longtime ally, Congressman Zoe Lofgren, who's called for Biden to go really got under Biden's skin today, making him even more angry at Pelosi. And at this hour, President Biden, we understand is refusing to give an inch, even as now 34 Democrats in Congress are calling on him to step aside out of, of course, about 200.
Biden is in Delaware after being diagnosed with COVID, and in a new statement today says he will return to the campaign trail next week. The First Lady Jill Biden is scheduled to host a fundraiser in Paris next Thursday. She's there for the Olympics opening ceremony. The price of admission there is between $500 and $25,000.
Meantime, this afternoon, the Vice President Kamala Harris met with major Democratic donors, a call -- a Zoom call reportedly organized by the influential megadonor and LinkedIn founder Reed Hoffman. Hoffman has been pushing very assertively for an alternative ticket, many scenarios which do not even involve Harris. But as Biden digs in, his campaign is dismissing the donors and elected officials who also get money from those same donors who have turned on Biden.
Biden's campaign insisting that they have contact with real voters, including the 14 million of them who democratically chose Biden as their nominee, and that the polls that elected members of Congress are now pointing to, to justify throwing their ticket out after voters picked it are bunk.
In fact, Biden's feelings about polls are not new. Here's what he told me in his most recent interview on CNN.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: When you talk about the economy, of course, it is by far the most important issue for voters. It's also true right now, Mr. President, that voters by a wide margin, trust Trump more on the economy, with less than six months to go to election day. Are you worried that you're running out of time to turn that around?
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've already turned around. Look, look at the Michigan survey, for 65 percent American people think they're in good shape economically. They think the nation's not in good shape, but they're personally good shape. The polling data has been wrong all along.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: The polling data has been wrong all along.
Those are the words the president and anyone who has spent any time with him in the past six months has heard that from him. It was a defiant Biden then, as he appears to be tonight, in the face of more Democrats turning on him.
MJ Lee is OUTFRONT from the White House to begin our coverage.
And, MJ, Biden staying in the race, doubling down tonight, Vice President Kamala Harris getting on that major donor call at a crucial moment. What more are you learning about that call?
MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Erin, at a moment when President Biden is sidelined with COVID and his political future remains so uncertain, we saw the campaign dispatching Vice President Kamala Harris to get on a call with major donors was described as a pep talk of sorts where she said we are going to win. Importantly, she didn't address the chaos that is engulfing the Democratic Party and clearly this was seen as an attempt to turn the attention back to Donald Trump.
But Erin, for all of the talk right now about the growing public calls on President Biden to get out of the race, the campaign's money problems are incredibly serious right now. Many donors have told us that they are simply no longer going to write checks so long as President Biden remains at the top of the ticket, and I was just speaking with a major Democratic donor who summed it up this way.
They said, I don't know how you campaign with a broadening electoral map without money. I don't know what they're doing. I don't know. Ive never seen this strategy where you think you can win without money.
[19:05:02]
Now, Erin, this donor was saying maybe under the current circumstances, you can dig in for a couple more weeks, but anything longer term is going to be extraordinarily difficult. And they also haven't dimension that the emails that you get from the campaign for campaign events and fundraisers have really slowed down in recent weeks. I should just note, you know, the Biden campaign has really taken pride in pointing to the national infrastructure that it has built over the last year or so. The offices they've opened, the staff hires that they've made, the training that they're doing, the voter outreach.
But what the bottom line is, you can have an amazing operation, but you cant keep the lights on if the money is not coming in.
BURNETT: All right. MJ, thank you very much.
And joining us now, Isaac Dovere, who has broken numerous stories about the Biden campaign here. Kate Andersen Brower, who's reported extensively on the Biden family, and CNN "NEWSNIGHT" anchor Abby Philip.
Isaac, let me just start with you, Biden insisting he's not going anywhere, campaign insisting he's not going anywhere, campaign chief giving that interview this morning, despite the list of Democrats calling for him to step aside, obviously getting longer by the hour.
Do think these calls are now backfiring or not, Isaac?
EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, they're backfiring going away and also its important, its been pointed out to me that Joe Biden has experiencing what's happening in a different timeframe than most of the rest of us, he was aware last week that Nancy Pelosi had a tough conversation with him because he was part of it. The rest of us only became aware of it this week with the CNN reporting about it.
So he is factoring that stuff in, not in a way that is as some have made it out that he's just not paying attention to anything. He's paying attention to it. He just thinks that he has a lot of other information and data that's pointing them in a different direction, and also is always coming back to the fact that other people said he couldn't beat Donald Trump, other people said that Hillary Clinton was the one to beat Donald Trump over him in 2016. And he thinks he's proven their arguments wrong before and he can again.
BURNETT: So, Kate, the chaos and uncertainty out there. Obviously, we know the importance of Jill Biden and the first lady's supposed to go to Paris, right, for a fundraiser and the Olympic opening ceremony, right, as part of her role as first lady. Price of the tickets, $500 to $25,000. I'm curious how actually all that is going.
But based on your sources, what is she thinking right now?
KATE ANDERSEN BROWER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, a source inside the White House told me that she's all in because he's all in, and that this caricature of her as sort of Lady Macbeth character, that she's holding on to power and is somehow running things behind the scenes, is absolutely not true. She's not involved politically, but she is involved does it as a wife and a support system to him.
I mean, they've been married for almost five decades. They have been in foxholes together before. She sees this as just another trial that they have to get through and run for president several times. And I think it's really hard for any president to be in there for one term. They -- their wives often want them to stick out -- stick it out and try to win another term.
BURNETT: Well, from a legacy perspective, there's no way to go now to say I consider it. I mean, it's a humiliating. There's no way around it if that's what happens.
I mean, Abby, to that point, Democrats have done a really good job of shooting at their own nominee -- horrible reference, I shouldn't have used those words, but they have been -- they have been. That's where the fire has been coming from.
How much longer can it go on?
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN HOST: Well, if you're one of the Democrats who feels incredibly vulnerable right now electorally in terms of the fundraising, you want this to end in the next couple of days because the clock is ticking to the convention. That's really the timeframe that people who want another nominee, they think that they have to get this done really in the next week in order to have a shot at a process going into the convention.
But if you are Joe Biden, you think you actually need to just hold out until the convention when he becomes -- actually not even then, they're going to have a roll call vote that would make him the official nominee in just a matter of a few days, actually. And I think Biden sees the timeline very differently. He sees between now and the convention as a relatively short period of time where he can push back on these calls.
But for the Democrats who are in these tough races, the Sherrod Browns of the world, they really are putting on the pressure now because really this next week is a crucial window, if it's going to be someone else.
BURNETT: You have, you are talking about some of these donors and it is sort of amazing and conversations I've had with these donors. There's almost a glee, there's a power that they've never had before. It's like fantasy football. What ticket do we want in groups of very, very rich people influencing this?
You've been reporting on texts that are coming from these donors to people up for reelection saying turn on Biden, or else we cut it off for you, too?
PHILLIP: Yeah. I mean, I'm told -- I've seen these messages going from donors and bundlers who are talking to donors, to candidates and to people who are fundraising on behalf of the candidate committees that are basically saying, we told you weeks ago Biden needs to be off the ticket. We want someone else.
Some of the messages are even more explicit. We want to an open process. We don't want Kamala Harris.
[19:10:02]
And so that is a really -- that's an enormous amount of pressure. I'm really not sure we've seen anything quite like that before. I do want to say, Erin, though, these are -- these donors are -- these are people who are dyed in the wool Democrats.
BURNETT: Right.
PHILLIP: They are spending enormous amounts of money to back Democratic causes and candidates. And they don't want to waste their money, but they also believe that because of what they've committed financially, they have influenced and they are using that leverage right now.
BURNETT: You know, Isaac, I want to play again this issue that this is the influence from donors, right? And then with all of this going on, the move in the polls that we've seen -- such that we've seen is something obviously that Biden dismisses.
Let me just play again. Something that I think very fairly reflects what everyone I've heard who's talked to the president has said is his view on polls.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: With less than six months to go to Election Day, are you worried that you're running out of time to turn that around?
BIDEN: We've already turned around. Look, look at the Michigan survey, for 65 percent American people think they're in good shape economically. They think the nation's not in good shape, but they're personally in good shape. The polling data has been wrong all along.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: You know, he truly, Isaac, from, I mean, not just from that I have heard him say it before and anyone as I said, that I've spoken to has said that he said the same thing. He truly doesn't believe the polls.
DOVERE: That's right. And that's not something post post-debate. That's where he's always been. Your interview is at the beginning of May, right?
BURNETT: Yeah. DOVERE: And the issue is that the polls in 2020 showed him ahead at this point and he went on to win. There are -- there's a lot of questions about polls and the sample groups and all the rest of it. But Biden feels like he has a deeper connection to what's going on and he feels like there will be a real recoil against Donald Trump even in the last minutes.
Part of that also is calling the bluff in a way with these donors that Abby is talking about and saying, are you really not going to be there? And importantly, that you have a lot of Democrats who are really uncomfortable at this. One Democratic members said to me about Abigail Disney who said that she would boycott giving donations. I don't really want to live in a country where an heiress gets to pick our president.
Notably she and other people who have called for the boycott had not given money to Joe Biden already in this campaign and so, the Biden campaign looks at them and says, you weren't with us already. So what's the -- what are you threatening us with?
BURNETT: Using their leverage down ticket? I mean, Kate, we have not heard from somebody obviously, who could be incredibly central to this. Certainly would be if he opened his mouth publicly and that's the former President Obama.
So, do you -- how much longer from your reporting? Until he does speak out publicly or does he think that he can stay silent?
BROWER: I think that President Obama's in a very difficult position here. I think that he is someone who wants to operate behind the scenes when it comes to this. I don't know if well ever publicly come out.
He did have a difficult conversation with his former vice president and he sees himself as sort of an adviser, but that he can't -- he can't make this decision for him. We know that whatever Barack Obama said to Joe Biden really annoyed Joe Biden.
And so, and we also know that Obama is someone who looks at polling data. He takes this very seriously and he's also great kind of thoughtful professorial person. And so, you would have to imagine that he's presenting the facts to Biden and Biden probably doesn't want to hear them or doesn't trust them and we've seen reporting where he's getting different polls from Mike Donilon and other Democrats that are showing that he's actually doing just fine.
BURNETT: All right. Well, thank you all very much. Isaac, Kate, and Abby, thanks.
And, of course, Abby is going to have so much more on this with her reporting on news tonight at 10:00 a.m.
In the meantime, OUTFRONT next, one of 12 Democrats in Congress just today to call for Biden to step aside, Congressman Sean Casten of Illinois, he made that plea in a new op-ed titled "It's time for Joe Biden to pass the torch". Congressman. I appreciate your time and I know you may have heard part
of that conversation.
We were talking about the polls and how the president clearly does not believe polls and has been angry about them when they have been pointed out to him for many months prior to this.
And you know, to that point, the polls said there'll be a red wave in the midterms, didn't happen. Biden was written off early in 2020 when he lost Iowa and New Hampshire and Nevada and then he came back South Carolina, he became president.
So do you think that he is justified at this point to dismiss the polls?
REP. SEAN CASTEN (D-IL): Look, we all have different points of data I've come deal with someone who truly loves Joe Biden, who has amazing respect for what he's done over his five decades. And I think I speak for every member of the House Democratic caucus that we fully understand and are frightened by the stakes of this election.
We also are people who are -- who are not polling every week, but we are talking to our constituents. We're talking to supporters, people who voted for us, people who voted against us. And the consistent message were getting is if this election is a referendum on one guy who was the only president to lose jobs during his sister in another guy who created more jobs than any president in history. One guy who was a kind decent person, another guy who was an adjudicated rapist then we win.
[19:15:30]
But the narrative since the debate has been, how is President Biden going to shift the focus onto his record and away from the slips of the tongue. And people are nervous about that. And the polls that folks are doing, that they're seeing that we've seen and I've not seen anything the White House suggests that if were going to put our best foot forward, we need to make a change and that makes us really sad. But this is -- this is out of love for our country and respect for Joe Biden that were at this point.
BURNETT: I'm sure it is. Let me just let me just play the other side of this to try to really understand it. After the debate, there was another scenario where many Democrats could have supported his speech at NATO, supported his press conference, cheered his rally in Detroit on that Friday, then when the horrific events happened on Saturday, moved on and gotten behind him, but that is not what happened, right? That is not what happened.
Do you worry that you're in a position where if he doesn't get out, that his weakness is going to be because of your own party?
CASTEN: No. Look, what makes me sad is that the there is no consensus view in the party of Reagan to stand up to Russia. The Russian ambassador just endorsed J.D. Vance. There is no consensus view in the Republican Party to defend those like Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger, who defended the rule of law, the equal protection clause that the party of Lincoln crafted, right?
And that puts a lot of onus on us to move forward. I think a lot of us after the debate were having myself included are having a lot of private conversations with people in the White House and the comms team of saying, how are you going to make this transition? And there's just been a growing frustration that when we ask how, we are told, well, let me tell you what we have done.
We know that. We love it. We were a part of it. But we need a strategy to get through this. Not -- not just counting on some exogenous circumstance that we can't identify.
BURNETT: Congressman, to the point that Isaac Dovere was just talking about Abigail Disney and how she hadn't donated money to Biden. But was sort of saying she would boycott, not giving money, but she hadn't already, but she was going to stop giving money down ticket and the frustration that some felt at an heiress would be determining who the next president of the United States would be.
I am curious whether you have felt any pressure from donors, whether they have reached out to you to have you felt any pressure from them that they will cut off the funds to you if you don't come out and say what you have said. And I know it comes from your heart, but have said that President Biden needs to go.
CASTEN: So categorically, no, I have not. I also am part of that class that came in in 2018. That was 40 of us who flip seats in 2018 had never of that 40 of us, I think only three of us had ever held public office before, ever run for public office before.
I understand what it looks like when you have a massive grassroots enthusiasm for an election, and what apathy looks like. And this is not about donors, this is about are people going to commit to the stakes of this election because apathy is how democracy dies. And this is not just about donors, but we need that enthusiasm there. And folks certainly understand the stakes of what's out there. And they're using whatever power they have influence.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Congressman Casten, I appreciate your time. Thank you for the conversation.
CASTEN: Thank you.
BURNETT: And next, what do the delegates do if Biden is out? I'm going to talk to one who has been supporting Biden all along.
And then an expert is going to join us, who knows all of the DNC rules to explain exactly what a contested convention would mean and what happens to the delegates.
Plus, Trump describing in detail his attempted assassination.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me really, really hard. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Our Dr. Jonathan Reiner, who was a White House physician under George W. Bush, will be with us OUTFRONT.
And computer systems around the world all crashing at once, thousands of flights grounded, hotels not working, department store is not working. How can one company caused this?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:23:32]
BURNETT: Tonight, vulnerable Democrats are making it clear that their constituents want Biden out. Senator Sherrod Brown, who is running for reelection in the red state of Ohio, just said in a statement, quote, I agree with many Ohioans who have reached out to me. I think the president should end his campaign.
If Biden steps aside, though, it is the delegates who become the kingmakers.
OUTFRONT now, Joanne Chesley, she has a delegate for President Biden and a candidate for the statehouse in North Carolina.
And, Joanne, I really appreciate your time. So, you know, you get more. We just had a congressman on who was talking about his decision to call all in Biden to step aside. Now, Senator Sherrod Brown is making that decision as very high-profile senator.
You though, are sticking by the president. Tell me why.
JOANNE CHESLEY (D), BIDEN DELEGATE: Erin, it's because I see this as a process as a student of leadership out of Chapel Hill has been a leader of schools and organizations. People need time. Organizations need time to make decisions like this.
And so, when I see people quit yet and suggesting that he should step down and then kind of at each others throat sometimes, that's all a part of the organic process. It does not frighten me at all. I'm not surprised by it. I think that's part of our democratic process. So I'm sticking --
BURNETT: Go ahead.
CHESLEY: So I am sticking with my position that the Biden-Harris team should go forward and that's what I believe I believe that is the winning ticket and that we will be just fine even though we've had these three or four weeks where we've exchanged perspectives and its looked a little unsettling to people, but we know some of this chaos is exactly what it takes to get to where we need to be.
[19:25:15]
BURNETT: So just to be clear, when you say Biden-Harris, you mean Biden obviously at the top of the ticket and you really do believe, Joanne, the Democrats can win with him at the top of the ticket after these now, three, four weeks of chaos?
CHESLEY: Erin, I do. And here's what -- here's what I think. I think because Biden has been around a long time doing this work, he spent 55, 60 years of his life in service to our country. He understands these processes. I don't think he is going to let us fail. I really don't think so.
He may have lost some cognitive abilities. We don't know any of that, but I do not think that he's going to forsake the success of this ticket and an hour win. I think he will come to the decision to either stay in the race because he knows he can do it and because he knows that he's got a good team around him, which he does, Kamala Harris as vice president, or he will make the decision to pass the torch and endorse Kamala Harris as the person who should be at the top of the ticket.
In any way, I do believe that he's going to do the right thing for our country. And that's why I'm staying behind the Biden-Harris team.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Joanne, I appreciate your time. And everyone watching. Appreciate it. Thank you very much.
And let's go straight now to Josh Putnam because he's a consultant on delegate rules for Democrats and Republicans.
So, you know, the rules and this is now something that, you know, the whole world needs to understand. So let's just start with where Joanne ended. She said, obviously she believes President Biden and she believes in him at the top of the ticket. However, she said if he steps aside she is very clear, it goes to Harris in her view as a delegate, right? That was very clear. That's what she would want.
And obviously, that's the least messy outcome. So can I just start there with you, Josh? If that is what happens if he steps aside in this hypothetical world and he endorses her, what happens to his delegates? Do they automatically go to her?
JOSH PUTNAM, PROFESSOR: So, then, the key here is talking about the endorsement, right? If Biden is to step aside and endorse the vice president, then that doesn't -- it carries weight with the delegates, right? As your previous guest mentioned, but its not a binding transfer of the delegates over to her, right?
So, again, at that point it would be up to the delegates to decide your previous guests indicated that that she would be behind the vice president in that case.
So, you know, at that point, it really is a function of what the delegates decide, and they would be free to choose a candidate of their choice.
BURNETT: Right. So that it would carry a lot of weight. I would imagine it's very clear what Joanne would go, but it's not -- it's not binding, which is an important point.
Now, what if he steps aside and says, you know, I if something were to happen to me tomorrow, I trust her to be president, but I'm going to allow this to be a process. I'm not going to endorse anyone. What then Josh?
PUTNAM: It's a little more chaotic potentially and in that scenario, right, without that signal from the president or some of the other elected officials and party leaders within the party -- it would be a potential free for all. And despite some of the more rosy pictures that have been painted out there about what an open process would bring, it's not a guarantee that it worked out that way.
I mean, I think what were left with here is one thing in the mind of delegates, and that's, look, a lot of things may not unify them. They maybe disagree on who the candidate should be, who would fill in after the president. But one thing that they do agree on that would be a unifying force is defeating President Trump or former President Trump in the November election. And that would serve to potentially bring them together augur against that sort of chaos scenario. But again, all bets are off.
One thing that I would want to add to this is something that Abby Phillip was brought up in a previous segment when she was talking about this roll call, right? Opening up the process and the tiny timeframe that they have is a really, really tall task.
BURNETT: Yeah, yeah. I mean, it certainly hasn't, Josh. She was talking about just the clock here, that the clock that the President Biden could see it in his favor if he just waits it out, it's too late. They see it as you have to move quickly.
All right, thank you so much, Josh. I appreciate your time.
PUTNAM: Sure thing, Erin.
BURNETT: And next, the Secret Service will not confirm or deny whether Trump was hit by a bullet. Why? It seems like a pretty basic thing.
[19:30:01]
Plus, the world's computers knocked offline, billions of people likely affected and now warnings cyber criminals are taking advantage of the utter meltdown.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BURNETT: Tonight, Thomas Matthew Crooks, the man who tried to assassinate Donald Trump, we are now learning was searching the internet for Michigan mass shooter Ethan Crumbley before his attack on Trump. Investigators finding this mug shot of Crumbley on Crooks cell phone. They also found searches for the date of Trump's rally and major political figures, including President Biden, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, and political events like the Democratic National Convention.
Kyung Lah is OUTFRONT with the latest on the investigation.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hours before the attempted assassination, Thomas Crooks begins his days scoping out the rally site, sources tell CNN.
He arrives mid-morning and stays for 70 minutes and drives more than an hour back home where he picks up an AR type rifle, his father later tells authorities he thought Crooks was going to the shooting range.
Crooks buys ammunition at a local gun shop and travels back to the rally site, 5:10 p.m. local police first spot Crooks. Around the same time, he's seen in this video obtained by CNN affiliate WTAE walking outside the perimeter of the rally in front of the building he would later climb.
At 5:33 p.m., the motorcade for former President Donald Trump arrives as the eager crowd awaits.
[19:35:16]
About 15 minutes later, Pennsylvania state police notified the Secret Service of a suspicious person and share a photo of Crooks, counter snipers are alerted, according to a congressional briefing by law enforcement.
But officers lose sight of him. Moments before Trump walks out. Counter snipers can be seen facing opposite directions. Trump takes the stage at 6:02 p.m. his team was not informed of the suspicious sighting.
Two minutes before the first shot, the counter-sniper on the building closest to the shooters location, adjusts his position.
On the ground outside the perimeter, people start reacting a movement on the roof of a nearby building.
A uniformed officer can be seen walking toward the building.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On top of the roof, look, right there, right there. You see him?
LAH: About ten seconds later, a separate counter sniper team on the southern building turns around 180 degrees to face the shooter's building.
In the ground, people alert law enforcement.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's on the roof, right here, right on the roof.
LAH: Seconds later, another video shows an officer walking backwards, apparently looking up, a man approaches and points to the shooter's location. The officer turns and walks out of frame.
At the same time to counter sniper teams are captured in these photos aiming and the direction of the shooter.
Realizing the danger, the crowd outside the perimeter starts rushing away.
On the other side of the field, a counter-sniper can be seen peering through his scope at the direction of the building where the shooter is.
Shots are fired at 6:11 p.m. Trump is injured. The gunman is taken out seconds later. On his body, law enforcement find a remote transmitter to detonate close-ups that were later discovered in his car, along with a drone, the tactical vest, and more ammo.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAH (on camera): Investigators also found the shooter cell phone on his body. It had a screenshot of the livestream of the rally was taken ten minutes before the shooting. The cell phones search history also showed that he had looked up article polls about U.S. politicians both Democrats and Republicans -- Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Kyung, thank you so much. So many more details there and still so many questions in part about what happened. Trump's campaign refusing to release a medical report or records relating to the assassination attempt, or to make any of the doctors who treated him available for interviews.
Trump did though, describe the shooting in detail for the first time last night in his speech at the Republican convention
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me really, really hard on my right ear. I said to myself, wow, what was that? It can only be a bullet.
In a certain way, I felt very safe because I had God on my side. I felt that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: I want to bring in medical analyst, Dr. Jonathan Reiner. He advised the White House medical team under President George W. Bush.
And, Dr. Reiner, I appreciate your time.
You know, Trump obviously making his most extensive remarks yet about the shooting and I played part of them there. What questions do you still have as a doctor? Of course, noting that we have not gotten any report from them about what happened or any of the doctors involved have not. None of them have spoken.
DR. JONATHAN REINER, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: Well, first of all, as an American and as just a human being, it's fabulous to see the former president looking, looking well. And I think the fact that he could speak last night for what sounds like an hour-and-a-half --
BURNETT: Yeah.
REINER: I think I think really speaks to his recovery and stamina. So that's great -- that's great to see.
But we've been told nothing about the extent of the extent of his injury, the president, former president himself, last night said that at some point when he was under the under the sort of protection of the Secret Service, blood was pouring out of his ear.
And I think it's important that there'll be a full disclosure. What kind of evaluation did the president have? Did he have a CAT scan? There were earlier reports that he might have had a CAT scan which would make -- which would make a lot of sense because you can get concussive energy transmitted by a bullet that close to your head. So was there any injury -- injury to his brain. Doesn't -- doesn't sound like it.
[19:40:01]
How big was the injury to his ear, did it require a surgical repair? Is it going to require more surgery or plastic surgery going forward? Is he getting need to take time off from the campaign to do that? So these are all important questions.
But it speaks to this bigger issue as to you know, I think the public needs to understand that if something happens to one of our leaders, we're going to be told and we know nothing about his health. They have been questions about the current president's health.
And it doesn't cover me with confidence to see the president get an apparent impact from a high velocity projectile. And then we learned nothing about the medical evaluation.
BURNETT: Right. You know, he -- a few hours after the assassination attempt, he posted, I knew immediately something was wrong. I heard a whizzing sound shots and immediately felt the bullet ripping through the skin and he's referred to the bullet hitting him repeatedly.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The assassin's bullet.
It can only be a bullet.
If I had not moved my head at that very last instant, the assassin's bullet would have perfectly hit its mark.
The assassin's bullet came within a quarter of an inch of taking my life.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Dr. Reiner, the Secret Service as of tonight hasn't confirmed or denied whether a bullet hit him.
Obviously, he was hurt. But when you talk about a concussive ener -- concussive energy, the damage it can do to your brain, right? Somebody who wants to be president, you know, what hit him and how hit him and what it did to him is very important. Is it not? REINER: Well, I think the overall status of the foreign president after an injury is important to understand if he had more significant injury, than just the bullet grazing his ear? Does he need to take time off? Maybe, maybe should take some time off, we don't know.
Look, if a candidate suddenly was drenched in sweat and grabbed their chest and then was rushed to a hospital and all that the public was told is, yeah, they're okay. He's back at home. He's okay.
You know, we would say well, you know, what was done to evaluate him? Did he have a heart attack because something else going on? And everyone saw really a large amount of blood on the former president's head. If the injury was mild, that's fabulous. But if it was worth the public really should know that.
BURNETT: Right, right. Just more transparency about it.
All right. Thank you very much, Dr. Reiner.
And next, computer systems across the globe crashing, affecting -- I mean, it was amazing everything, banks, hospitals, airports, stores, hotel check-in, hotel key cards, U.S. Customs and Border Protection now we understand has processing delays.
It is unbelievable and terrible and unacceptable that one company could be this powerful and cause so much chaos.
Plus, "The Wall Street Journal" reporter Evan Gershkovich today sentenced to a shocking 16 years in prison.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:47:20]
BURNETT: Tonight a global meltdown, crashing around the world. Technology potentially impacting billions of people, billions. The outage, seemingly caused by a software update by a cybersecurity company called CrowdStrike. They've never heard of it. Turns out that it's an absolutely everything you do, 2,500 flights canceled.
This is what it looked like the time-lapse. Air travel in the U.S. just slowed to a halt.
I mean, it's unbelievable. Airports still gridlocked and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
Our Josh Campbell reporting U.S. Customs and Border Protection is experiencing processing delays due to the outage now as well.
Tom Foreman is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I feel like I'm being completely screwed over. This is bull crap. TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As airports and trains, hospitals and emergency services, media, retailers, delivery companies, and even the U.S. space program grappled with the global cyber outage. A stunning admission, a single glitch in a software update from the cybersecurity company CrowdStrike triggered the whole mess.
GEORGE KURTZ, FOUNDER & CEO, CROWDSTRIKE: We identify this very quickly and remediate it. The issue and systems come back online as they're rebooted there coming up and they're working.
FOREMAN: This is how it happened. CrowdStrike is a multi-billion- dollar cybersecurity firm, which helps many Fortune 500 companies protect their Microsoft operating systems from hackers and viruses. That requires constant updates and normally when one is deployed --
MIKE DRISCOLL, FORMER FBI AGENT: It will be tested extensively. And they will work why they with the providers like Microsoft and other organizations that run these platforms to make sure it is compatible with these networks.
FOREMAN: But this update was faulty, causing affected computers around the planet to shut down.
Dave DeWalt is a top expert in the field. He was up all night helping get them back online.
DAVE DEWALT, FOUNDER & CEO, NIGHTDRAGON: CrowdStrike was doing everything in its power to stop threats from occurring by doing the updates. But at the same time, the quality control broke down and we ended up with what we had happen.
FOREMAN: Government services as far and wide were affected by the outage including in the U.S. Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, Social Security and even some state 911 systems. At the White House, the fact they could all be affected by one mistake is raising caution flags.
PETE BUTTIGIEG, TRANSPORTATION SECRETARY: This digitization in technology she has brought massive benefits, but every technology has its downsides.
FOREMAN: As it is in New York, one of the famous billboards of Times Square was blanked by the problem. In Paris, final preparation for the Olympics were rattled and all over --
DEWALT: The banking industry and everything else, a couple, a couple more hours, maybe the rest of the day and will be returned.
[19:50:05]
FOREMAN: Disputes about how long it will take to get back to normal.
VICTORIA BAINES, PROF. OF IT, GRESHAM COLLEGE: There are estimates that this is going to take some days, perhaps even weeks to fully recover from the impacts. (END VIDEOTAPE)
FOREMAN (on camera): Analysts say its something of a testament to CrowdStrike that so many governments and transit systems and corporations rely on the company. But they say these events may also let me something of a warning that maybe there should be a few other options when one mistake can cause so many problems -- Erin.
BURNETT: It's absolutely unbelievable.
All right. Thank you so much, Tom.
And let's go to Rob D'Amico now. He's a former FBI supervisory special agent, works in cybersecurity crisis management.
I mean, Rob, this is amazing, CrowdStrike, the company responsible for this, which I feel pretty much on safe ground saying many people, most people would not have heard of it until today and then all of a sudden it turns dot the world stops when CrowdStrike messes up.
They said, quote, today was not a security or cyber incident. We understand the gravity of the situation are deeply sorry for the inconvenience and disruption.
So they immediately came out and said, no, it was a software patch which is kind of amazing that that could bring the world to a halt.
Are you skeptical that CrowdStrike was so quick to say this was not a cyber attack?
ROB D'AMICO, FORMER FBI SUPERVISORY SPECIAL AGENT: I absolutely am. I mean, their existence is cybersecurity. So imagine if they came in and said, we don't know, or if it turns out that it was, who's going to hire him after that? And you're a billion-dollar company, they're very expensive and they claim it's a defect. Will do they know how that defect got there?
Is it that they're cheaply outsourcing the code writing to countries like India? Now, India has great code writers, but they also have very subpar ones. And if you get that sub -- sub-contracting down to the cheaper ones, you're going to get back code writers and not doing quality assurance.
Or a malicious insider that happened with some issues before where someone inside actually purposely put the code in there. So I don't think they have an idea of how that defect out there, but they're very quick front and getting that out there, but its ruining the trust of the other companies, which is going downhill.
BURNETT: I just wonder, I mean but this is a national security thing. It would seem to me and maybe others have the same shock when you think about a company like Nvidia, which a lot of people hadn't heard of. And then it turns out every single item in the world as Nvidia in it.
And now, CrowdStrike, people haven't heard of it and it turns out that he cant go to a department store. You can't get your room key card done. You can't get it at customs. You can't fly because CrowdStrike has an issue -- I mean, what are the -- am I right to think that there could be very serious national security implications of a U.S. company -- the one that could do all this?
D'AMICO: So there's two issues. One, you talked about nation-state. There's nation-state cyber actors that are looking specifically what happened. They might not be involved with how it happened, but they're looking at what happened.
What were the reactions, what the reaction times were, how they fixed it. So that if they look at an offensive a cyber operation against the United States, they can map out what was done. That we found that in Iraq and Afghanistan wars, that they were looking at testing things and the reactions are big.
The other one is the cyber actors, even if they were involved in it, they're now taken advantage of it, they quickly got domain names close to CrowdStrike and they're doing phishing attempts now. There's a list of people who were affected and engineers from CrowdStrike were calling him trying to (AUDIO GAP). So, it's bigger than most people think.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Rob, thank you very much, certainly sobering for everyone to just realize what happened today.
And next "Wall Street Journal" reporter Evan Gershkovich today sentenced in Russia to 16 years in prison.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:58:02]
BURNETT: Tonight, 16 years in a Russian prison. That is the jaw dropping sentence for "The Wall Street Journal" reporter Evan Gershkovich, after being found guilty of espionage charges today for just doing his job and reporting in Moscow.
These are charges that the U.S. calls baseless. Russia has never presented any evidence against Gershkovich, who has already spent 478 days in prison.
Matthew Chance is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Ahead of the verdict in the Russian court, cameras jostled for a glimpse of the U.S. journalist in his glass cage.
After finding him guilty of espionage, the judge asked Evan Gershkovich if he had any questions about the 16-year prison sentence he'd been handed.
Looking thin and tired, "The Wall Street Journal" reporter answered "no". But critics say his guilty verdict was inevitable and underlines how politicized Russia's judicial system has become.
The strongly worded statement from Gershkovich's employers called it a disgraceful and sham conviction that comes after his 478 days in prison, wrongfully detained, and away from his family.
You can see Evan Gershkovich is in there. Hi, Matthew from CNN. Is that -- you holding up all right?
It's been a saga which has seen Evan Gershkovich now 32 to make several tightly controlled court appearances since being detained and accused of gathering secret information on a Russian tank factory for the CIA, allegations denied by Gershkovich and the U.S. government.
There are other us citizens held in Russia, like Paul Whelan, a former marine, sentenced in 2020 to 16 years for spying, and also designated by Washington, has wrongly detained.
Dual citizens Ksenia Karelina, an amateur ballerina from L.A., and journalist Alsu Kurmasheva are also in custody.
As are Gordon Black, a staff sergeant in the U.S. Army, and U.S. school teacher Marc Fogel.
Critics suspect the Kremlin has been collecting U.S. citizens as bargaining chips for a future deal.
But even now, that deal could still be months or perhaps years away.
Matthew Chance, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: Thanks to Matthew and thanks to you.
Anderson starts now.
