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One World with Zain Asher
Committee Votes to Hold Fauci in Contempt of Congress for Invoking the 5th; Trump Denies Reports Some U.S. Missile Stockpiles are Low; Two Israeli Soldiers Killed in South Lebanon Wednesday; CNN Speaks with Abdul El-Sayed after his Primary Win; Washington State Braces for more Fire Danger; Peru Prepares for Pope Leo's First Visit as Pontiff. Aired 11- 11:30a ET
Aired August 06, 2026 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ZAIN ASHER, CNN HOST, ONE WORLD: All right, coming to you live from New York. I'm Zain Asher. You are watching "One World". The man who helped lead
the U.S. COVID response could potentially face charges. This after the Senate Homeland Security Committee voted along party lines to hold Anthony
Fauci in contempt.
And Committee Chair Republican Rand Paul is vowing to send that recommendation straight to the Justice Department. This after Fauci, who
was the top U.S. infectious disease official during the pandemic, refused to answer the committee's questions last week by invoking his
constitutional right to do just that, the Fifth Amendment. Republican lawmakers say that Fauci's handling of the COVID pandemic caused
unnecessary suffering. Senator Rand Paul explained why he convened the hearing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): Documents tell only part of the story. Many of these questions can be answered only by Dr. Fauci. He answered none of them.
There will be another pandemic. The time to determine which legislative reforms are necessary to ensure that the mistakes of the past are not
repeated is now, not later.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: Annie Grayer joining us live now from Capitol Hill with details. So essentially, he is the Senate actually voted to hold him in contempt of
Congress. The big question is, will the courts uphold this, Annie?
ANNIE GRAYER, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: So, there is a process that now has to play out, and Republicans are trying to create a new precedent here. So
usually, after a committee holds a contempt vote, then it would go to the entire Senate body for a vote on the Senate floor, and then if it passes
there, would be referred out to the Department of Justice.
But Rand Paul is circumventing that step, and told me right after this vote that his committee plans to walk over the contempt referrals on Fauci to
the Attorney General and to the DC District Court today to try and get that process started. Now it will still be up to the Department of Justice about
whether they choose to prosecute.
But as we know, Republicans and President Trump have seen Fauci as a top target of theirs for some time. And they believe that because of how Fauci
handled himself in the hearing last week, where he pled the fifth over 100 times, that now there is a case for the Department of Justice to bring
against him, even though he has received a preemptive pardon from Former President Joe Biden.
But Democrats have argued that not only are Republicans upending the process, that trying to charge somebody for choosing their Fifth Amendment
rights against self-incrimination is fundamental to the parts of this Constitution. So, asking -- so trying to charge somebody over choosing the
fifth doesn't make sense to Democrats.
They also don't understand why Republicans are not -- are circumventing the process here. They tried to delay this vote number of times, but
Republicans pushed forward. So, we are in new territory here, and all eyes are now going to be looking at the Department of Justice of how they handle
this criminal referral on Anthony Fauci.
ASHER: All right, Annie Grayer, live for us there. Thank you so much. U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance says that any negotiations with Iran would be, in
his words, messy and would take some time. This as Iran denies it's even talking with Washington right now. But Iran does say it is closing.
It is close rather to finalizing a proposed framework with Oman to move commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz. This as the U.S. President
takes to social media to insist the U.S. has quote massive amounts of munitions following reports about the Pentagon's depleted stockpile of some
key missile defense systems.
CNN's Alayna Treene joining us live now from the White House. So, two sort of key issues at play here. One, obviously, you have the U.S. President
essentially denying the fact that the U.S. is running low on munitions, which would make battling out this war for a long time very difficult.
But on the other hand, you have this idea that Iran is nearing some kind of a framework deal with Oman. It doesn't necessarily mean that we're any
closer to a full reopening of the Strait, which is what obviously the U.S. President wants. But there has been some progress made on that front,
Alayna.
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's exactly right. I'll start with the president's post, which he posted to social media just
after midnight Zain, trying to defend the stockpiles and you know capabilities that the U.S. military has when it comes to continuing its war
with Iran.
Look, this isn't anything new. We know that for months now there have been warning signs coming from in the Pentagon, from the military, and we know
that the president has been briefed on this in the past.
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This idea that stockpiles are low. We had some great reporting from CNN yesterday, really laying out how the U.S. military has exhausted nearly 80
percent of its interceptors for a key missile defense system. It's known as THAAD. We also know that a good number of Patriot defense systems and
munitions there have also been depleted.
And look, from the conversations I'm having with people here in Washington, Zain, they say that a big part of the reason that this is so concerning is
one, of course, the president has continued to issue these threats that there could be a massive attack on Iran. He's trying to keep that in his
back pocket.
And part of that, of course, is also a threat to force them back to the negotiating table in a meaningful way. So obviously, depleted stockpiles is
one issue, but the other issue is the idea that this is getting coverage. And they do not want the Iranians and others thinking that this is a
struggle for them, particularly at a time when the president wants to have this show of strength, particularly when it comes to the U.S. military.
As for the negotiations, specifically on the Strait of Hormuz, you mentioned it, but Iran is claiming that these are bilateral talks with Oman
to reopen it. And that they would need U.S. guarantees in order for it to be open fully to have free traffic flow through that key waterway. However,
I will say as well that in my conversations with sources here, the U.S. is involved in some level and of course really trying to push for this to
happen.
But we'll have to see. I think the Strait is obviously one issue, and I should note not an issue that really existed before this war began, but
then there's also the issue of getting to the table to negotiate a longer- term nuclear deal. Something that many people, I should note, in the intelligence community are not clear on whether Iran will actually ever do
or ever really honor their commitments on that front.
So, this leaves all of this in a very fragile place, and it's something the vice president he went on Fox News yesterday and called all of this messy,
kind of detailing his thinking here. Listen to what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
J.D. VANCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: I do think that where we will ultimately land, it's going to be messy and it's going to take some time to get there.
Where we will ultimately land, as you see, oil I think was at $79 today. Those oil prices are going to come down and stay down.
Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, and the United States will be in a stronger position. But we're kind of in the middle of the game, and I think
people are trying to prejudge exactly how this is going to go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TREENE: So, Zain, look, he's saying we're kind of in the middle of a game here. Not very encouraging words from I think for a lot of people who you
know we are six months now into this war, it started back in February. Many people here throughout the Trump Administration, but also in other key
departments, did not think it'd go this long, and so they're battling with that problem as well.
All to say, it doesn't seem like they're much further along than they have been in recent weeks when it comes to these key talks. But of course, the
most immediate thing they're looking for is this deal on the Strait. We'll see if that materializes.
ASHER: All right, Alayna Treene, live for us. Thank you. Israeli and Lebanese officials resumed a third round of talks in Rome today, according
to Italian media. This follows two days of intense negotiations in the Italian capital and comes after renewed Israeli strikes across Southern
Lebanon led to a temporary delay in talks.
The IDF said it responded to what it calls violations of the ceasefire. On Wednesday, two Israeli soldiers were killed after an explosive device went
off during an Israeli operation in Southern Lebanon. Jeremy Diamond joins us live now from Tel Aviv.
I mean, we have been seeing these sorts of periodic flare-ups. Both sides, obviously, accusing the other of violating the ceasefire, and then you have
these talks going on. Obviously, there was a pause in these talks, but they're ongoing despite the fact that there are truths that we can't deny.
And that is the fact that Lebanon has very little control over Hezbollah and is unwilling to clash with Hezbollah directly. Based on that, where can
these talks actually go, Jeremy?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen. The fact that the Israeli and Lebanese sides have decided to come back to the table and
resume negotiations today is an indication of the kind of political will on both sides to try and reach some kind of broader solution here.
It's also a signal of American involvement and pressure to keep these two sides at the negotiating table. But obviously, yesterday we saw that these
negotiations were disrupted by what the Israeli military described as the killing of two of its soldiers, four other Israeli soldiers seriously
wounded after an improvised explosive device went off when these soldiers entered a building in Southern Lebanon within Israel's security zone, as
it's being described by the Israeli military.
This is the zone that is currently being occupied by the Israeli military several kilometers deep into Lebanon, where there are thousands of Israeli
soldiers.
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And we have seen over the weeks of this latest version of the ceasefire some incidents of clashes between Israeli forces and Hezbollah militants.
In this case, it's not clear when that explosive device was placed in that building? Whether it was more recently or longer ago?
But the bottom line is that the Israeli military called it a quote blatant violation of the ceasefire and launched a series of air strikes targeting
the Lebanese City of Tyre as well as several other villages near to the area where these Israeli soldiers were killed and wounded, and indeed,
yesterday it led to these negotiations between Israel and Lebanon being cut short.
Today, they have now resumed. The main thing that the Lebanese government is looking for is for the additional withdrawal of more Israeli soldiers,
more Lebanese territory being handed over to the Lebanese armed forces. We know, of course, that there are several pilot zones that have already been
established where Israeli troops have withdrawn, handing over control to the Lebanese armed forces.
With the agreement being that the Lebanese armed forces will prevent Hezbollah from re-entrenching itself in these areas of Southern Lebanon,
where it has had such a strong foothold for so many years. So, we will see whether or not these negotiations can produce additional areas from which
the Israeli military would withdraw. But obviously, yesterday's events a reminder of just how volatile a situation it still remains.
ASHER: All right, Jeremy Diamond. Thank you for that report. All right, still to come, Meta becomes latest company to report a significant testing
breach. Details ahead about the dangers of rogue AI. Plus, a short after a short reprieve, firefighters in Washington State are bracing for dangerous
weather conditions to settle back in. The latest on the forecast for those fires ahead.
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ASHER: All right, President Trump is using vulgar language to lash out at Michigan's new Democratic Senate nominee. Just hours after Abdul El-Sayed's
primary win, the president accused him of being a quote hater of Jews and a hater of Israel. On Wednesday, El-Sayed reached out to Jewish voters,
calling them his sisters and brothers, and promising a commitment to their safety.
The big challenge now for the 41-year-old candidate is to work on uniting the Democratic Party. Michigan is a must-win for Democrats as they battle
to win a Senate majority this November. El-Sayed will be going up against Republican Former Congressman Mike Rogers. CNN's Kaitlan Collins spoke with
Abdul El-Sayed about his narrow primary win and how he plans to ensure victory in November.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: This seat is so critical for your party to win control of the Senate in Washington.
We've heard some Democrats who are worried that you cannot defeat Mike Rogers come November. How do you plan to address those concerns from people
in your own party?
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ABDUL EL-SAYED, MICHIGAN DEMOCRATIC U.S. SENATE NOMINEE: We don't need worry. We need work. You know, we took on $70 million of outside spending
and 11 to 1 funding gap, spending gap on the airwaves, and we took it on because we did the work.
12,000 people knocking nearly 10,000 doors a day. We started this campaign 15 months ago, having conversations in rooms of 5 or 50 people at a time,
and so that's how we're going to beat Mike Rogers the old-fashioned way, brick by brick.
So, if you're worried right now, get to work. That's the work that we need to do, and I can tell you on our campaign, we're going to be out there
knocking doors, having those conversations that are what our democracy is about, but worrying and Democrats worrying is not going to solve the
problem.
You heard Donald Trump at the top of this show. This is a guy who can't even focus on our affordability. He's more interested in saying my name in
an interesting way or calling me a lovely gentleman than he is interested in actually solving our problems. We have to stand up to that, which means
let's go get to work.
Let's go talk to our fellow Michiganders about who we are and who we want to be and what it takes to take on the most corrupt president in American
history and his lackey who licks every boot he possibly can of that man, Mike Rogers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ASHER: Amid warnings that artificial intelligence is more capable than ever, once again an AI agent has gone rogue. This time it involves Meta,
the parent company of Facebook, whose Muse Spark model managed to hack into another company's systems, Meta says the breach occurred because of
inadvertent error during cybersecurity testing.
The hack is similar to recently disclosed incidents with OpenAI and Anthropic as well. Let's discuss all of this with Hadas Gold joining us
live now from New York. I mean, this is the fourth breach of its kind that you and I, I think, have spoken about over the last few days. Just talk to
us about what this means for tougher safeguards and actually more. Obviously, it was during testing, but even more rigorous testing, perhaps,
being needed.
HADAS GOLD, CNN AI CORRESPONDENT: This is the fourth example of AI models going rogue during testing, but as the third example of this specific
scenario, where during cybersecurity testing, an AI model ends up actually hacking into a real organization system.
So, Meta says that what happened is very similar to what happened with Anthropic, for example, what they disclosed just about a week ago. It even
involves the same testing companies. So, these AI companies, they'll contract with third-party services. This one is called a regular to help
them run these evaluations.
Their cybersecurity tests to test the capabilities of their models. And they say that a misconfiguration in a regular system inadvertently gave the
model access to the open internet, which then the model, in trying to complete the cybersecurity evaluation actually went on to hack another
company's internal systems.
We don't know what the company was. We don't know the extent of the hack. We're hoping to get more information about that. But as you noted, this is
just another example of these AI agents, not only their capabilities and just how good they've gotten, but also that there's real questions and
concerns about their own safety and alignment within these models.
Although the safety guard rails within these models are removed, so that they can be tested at their full capability. But also, these testing
environments, these labs. You know, we have lots of rules and regulations when you're testing things, whether you're testing nuclear energy or a
pathogen that you're studying.
There's a lot of rules around how these labs are set up. There's no rules when it comes to testing these AI agents, and we're seeing that they could
have some very real-world effects if things go wrong in these testing situations.
Now, Meta said in a statement that this was a misconfiguration by Irregular, an independent testing company that Meta uses that inadvertently
allowed one of our models accesses to the internet during an evaluation that says that it went on to subsequently exploit a security vulnerability
in a third-party service, noting that it's in a manner similar to previously reported instances with other companies.
Irregular also told me that they noted it was the same error as elsewhere. That there's no current open issues, and that they're working on a white
paper to try and help others with this containment issue because we're at a point now where these AI models are just advancing so quickly that the
testing capabilities just haven't caught up yet.
ASHER: Hadas Gold, thank you for that. All right, turning now to the wildfires raging across parts of Washington State. A short reprieve of
extreme heat gave crews valuable time to make some progress, but hotter temperatures are expected to return, threatening to undo some of that hard
work.
So far, thousands of hectares have been scorched, and hundreds of homes have been destroyed. CNN Meteorologist Allison Chinchar joins us live now.
With the forecast, and the forecast is so important because that directly affects the ability of the firefighters to battle these flames.
I mean, part of the fear is that it's going to be drier and warmer conditions on their way, which is obviously not good for trying to put out
these blazes.
ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Right. So, I mean, and you can note that even with these containment numbers that we have here for much of the
week, containment has been at 0 percent. But thankfully, the last few days, those winds have been incredibly low, allowing the fire crews to make some
advancements in those containment numbers.
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And I know 5 percent and 13 percent may not sound like very big numbers, but when you're going from zero, anything at this point is an improvement,
and that's what they've had. Now, yes, the temperatures are very warm. They are expected to stay warm at least through the first half of the weekend in
a lot of these places.
Spokane's average is 87. They're going to be about 5 to 10 degrees above that over the next few days. But Portland, Boise, Casper, much of the West
is dealing with those temperatures anywhere from 5 to 15 degrees above average. And yes, humidity levels very dry. Again, 17, 18 percent right
around that Spokane area.
Now keep in mind, yesterday it was right around the 12 to 13 percent, so it's actually a little bit better than it was yesterday, albeit not much.
But again, when you're dealing with these conditions, even a little bit of improvement makes a big difference. The biggest concern for the forecast is
really later today and especially Friday.
The winds are expected to pick up, so they've been relatively about zero miles per hour, five miles per hour, maybe 10 at most. Now we're going to
be jumping up to 20 to 25 as we go through the afternoon today, and same thing for Friday. Looking at those winds about 20 to 25 miles per hour.
That may not seem like much, but when you have an ongoing fire, even something simple like 15 or 20 miles per hour can pick those already
existing embers up and spread them very quickly into new areas. Not to mention, it can also trigger additional new fires. So, this is really going
to be the big concern going forward with the fires.
The other thing to note too is the smoke because the wind is shifting direction, so too will the smoke. So, conditions are actually going to
improve smoke-wise for places like Seattle and Portland because of the change in the direction, but it's actually going to get worse for places
like Spokane and much of Idaho, Montana, and even the area around Utah.
ASHER: All right, Allison, thank you for that. Let's keep our fingers crossed that things actually, at some point, do indeed get much better.
FIFA's President is fighting to stay in power after scrapping that massively controversial plan to sell private stakes in future World Cups.
But on Wednesday, Gianni Infantino got a huge show of support from other FIFA Leaders during a crisis meeting. And they issued a statement saying
they intend to restore trust in the organization and proceed in a much more transparent manner.
Many on the outside remain furious in an op-ed published in "The Daily Mail" and obtained by CNN, Portuguese Football Legend Luis Figo called
Infantino's conduct quote the lowest, most deceitful, and cravenly self- interested behavior I have ever witnessed, and adding he should go now. Here's World Sport's, Don Riddell, with more.
DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: Infantino is presenting this as a win, despite this growing chorus of calls for him to step down. It sounds like
he doesn't plan on going anywhere, and he will now continue through until this election in March.
I mean, the last couple of weeks have just been quite extraordinary. Remember, going into the World Cup tournament, it was widely assumed that
he would stroll this election in seven months' time, giving him a fourth term as FIFA President. But everything just turned on its head with that
proposal, which was quickly scuppered when he realized just how much opposition there was to it.
And a statement, or a part of the statement from FIFA, certainly acknowledges that the whole thing was handled rather badly. This is an
excerpt. It was agreed that it was not the intention for the FIFA Council and FIFA member associations to feel excluded from the process, and that
the process should have been handled differently.
It was further acknowledged that errors were also made after the proposal was leaked to the media. So, an acknowledgement of sorts that this was not
the way it should have gone. But when you remember what Figo said, which you've acknowledged, and what many others feel within the game.
I'm not sure they're going to be thrilled with this outcome of this meeting. I mean, Figo didn't pull any punches at all in that op-ed. He
referred to Infantino as a relic of the game, and he said, I could write 10,000 words about Gianni Infantino, but only three of the solution
Infantino must go.
ASHER: All right, Pope Leo has returned to Assisi, Italy, for the second time. The Pontiff is meeting with young people taking part in an
international youth event. Meantime, people in Peru are rejoicing and preparing for Pope Leo's return. His return visit, rather in November,
it'll be his first trip there as Pope.
He served as a missionary teacher and bishop for nearly two decades in Peru, where many see him as one of their own. Leo will also visit Argentina
and Uruguay during that trip as well. As bishop, he was exposed to liberation theology, a Christian approach that prioritizes the church's
concern for the poor and the marginalized.
More than 150 years after publication, a theory Charles Darwin had about certain meat-eating plants has actually been proven true.
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Darwin studied carnivorous plants for years and believed that this, known as Saxifraga, was one of them. Observing that insects were trapped by the
plant's sticky hair-like structures. He couldn't prove it, however, but now scientists in China, using genetic and chemical analysis, have shown that
the plants do digest bugs and actually get nourishment from them as well.
All right, happening now, NASA astronauts are taking a walk in space to give the International Space Station a power boost. They're preparing the
station for new solar panels that will generate more electricity, helping keep critical systems running and support the station through its eventual
return to Earth, scheduled for 2031.
This is Astronaut Jessica Meir's sixth spacewalk. She's working out there with Astronaut Anil Menon, who is an emergency medicine doctor and a former
SpaceX flight surgeon. All right, stay with CNN. There is much more "One World" in about 30 minutes from now, but "CNN Creators" is up next.
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