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Senate Panel Votes to Hold Fauci in Contempt of Congress; Meta A.I. Model Hacked Another Company During Testing; Major American Companies Receive Billions in Tariff Refunds. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired August 06, 2026 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:30:00]

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here's one of the first things you're going to see. These are grandstands being built for an IndyCar race downtown. They've been repaving roads, they're putting up barricades, there are even supposed to be some overhead walkways. Maybe it's going to be a lot of fun, but right now, for tourists and commuters alike, it's a headache.

You can still visit the museums of the Smithsonian, but so many of them, like Air and Space here, getting to it is like running through a mini maze. Over at the White House, this fencing is surrounding pretty much the entire complex. You can't see the demolished East Wing, or the ballroom in progress, or signs of the proposed helipad, or the changes to the Rose Garden. None of it.

You do that whole big loop, and you wind up here, next to this park where people used to get a much, much closer view of the White House. But not anymore, because the park is closed for construction.

They're doing work on various statues, some of which are still all covered up, and some of which are apparently done at this point. But no worries, I'm going to go to one of the most iconic photo spots for tourists in all of D.C., right here in front of the Lincoln Memorial. Oh, look at this. After two renovations in the past couple of months, the reflecting pool is still basically empty, and still fenced off, at least at this moment. So, that's a photo op lost.

Sure, plenty of things are open, beautiful to see, and some people really like the improvements. But the construction is a lot to work around if you are a tourist trying to take in the sights.

Now, if you run all the way across the bridge, yes, you can finally wind up here in a field of grass. But this is where the president wants to build his giant, triumphal arch, with construction starting as soon as he possibly can. So, if you're coming to D.C. for a vacation, make sure you bring a hard hat.

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Tom Foreman, he likes to jog.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: He does, he likes to jog. And you just took Ruben around -- your grandson, around all those sites, didn't you? BLITZER: But it's hard to get close to him, as he pointed out.

BROWN: Yes, it is. All right. Just ahead here in the Situation Room, President Trump once again slamming the Supreme Court, despite the fact he appointed a third of the justices. You're in the Situation Room, and we'll be right back.

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[11:35:00]

BROWN: Happening now, UFC's parent company says it took a $30 million hit from June's big fight at the White House. TKO says it expected to lose money from hosting the event. But the spectacle still delivered about 34 million viewers online.

Well, FIFA's leadership is standing behind its president despite growing calls for him to step down. Gianni Infantino recently proposed selling commercial and operational rights to the World Cup. Critics ripped that suggestion before he backed down and then apologized.

And Blue Origin is revealing the suspected cause of a massive rocket explosion on the launch pad.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That is crazy and not normal.

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BROWN: That's probably an appropriate reaction, right? The rocket erupted during a test back in May. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Blue Origin's CEO says it's believed that an oxygen valve in one of the rocket's engines caused this problem.

Well, new this morning, a Republican-led congressional panel has voted to hold Dr. Anthony Fauci in contempt of Congress. And it comes after the longtime health official invoked the Fifth Amendment more than 100 times last week during a hearing about the response to the COVID pandemic.

BLITZER: Joining us now, CNN political commentator Alyssa Farah Griffin. She was the White House communications director in the first Trump administration. Alyssa, thanks so much for joining us.

As you know, new CNN polling showed that a majority of voters say Congress would be better off if most members lost this fall. Big picture. Is this contempt vote that we're now seeing the kind of thing Americans want right now?

ALYSSA FARAH GRIFFIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND FORMER TRUMP WH COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: I mean, it's remarkable. The things that are more popular than Congress right now, I think most people would rather have the flu than support this Congress. And it's remarkable, too, because it's across the board. Republicans have an incredibly low approval rating, but so do congressional Democrats. It is kind of universally disliked.

This is something that I think frustrates the American people right now. Inflation is high. Gas prices continue to be high. And they feel like their members of Congress are just not responsive to their needs. And things like a contempt vote, which are largely meaningless, they're largely symbolic, seem like a distraction from what the American people elected their leaders to do.

Now, listen, there are legitimate questions around COVID origins and things that I think the public may have wanted more answers to out of those hearings. But they're not going to get them. And holding a vote like this simply feels to many like political posturing.

BROWN: What do you see, Alyssa, as Republicans in goal here with Fauci? What is the message they're trying to send?

GRIFFIN: So, listen, I worked with Dr. Fauci in the first Trump administration during COVID. And I would like to remind folks that Dr. Fauci was an adviser. Dr. Fauci had no unilateral authority to put in place policies.

[11:40:00]

So, he made recommendations to the president and he made recommendations to the governors. President or governors decided to implement those policies, those are the people responsible. So, to many of the American public who have vilified Fauci for things like lockdowns or kids being out of school, that truly is an issue and a function of the governor.

So, I take a lot of issue with this sort of vilifying and making him, you know, enemy number one for the COVID response. It was elected officials who decided how they were going to handle it. But listen, Dr. Fauci is somebody who does energize the Republican base. He's seen as a villain.

And so, Rand Paul and others have continued to want to drag him before Congress and kind of use him as somebody that rallies the base as some kind of an enemy. But I would love to see more folks push back and say, if you had issues with the coronavirus response, your issue is either with President Trump's leadership around it or with your governors, not with scientists who merely gave advice but could not unilaterally put in place that policy.

BLITZER: Yes. That's an important point indeed, Alyssa. Thank you. Turning to another story we're following. Yesterday in Michigan, the progressive candidate Abdul El-Sayed beat Congresswoman Haley Stevens in the Democratic Senate primary. He was on CNN's The Source with Kaitlan Collins last night. An important interview. Listen to this clip.

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KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, CNN HOST, THE SOURCE WITH KAITLAN COLLINS: 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?

ABDUL EL-SAYED (D), MICHIGAN SENATE CANDIDATE: We don't need worry. We need work. You know, we took on 70 million dollars of outside spending and 11 to one 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 five 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: After watching Tuesday's election, do you think El-Sayed can win over critical swing voters in that state of Michigan?

GRIFFIN: He's got a massive uphill battle. This was a great interview by Kaitlin. So, listen, El-Sayed did very well with younger voters, white college educated voters. But Haley Stevens overperformed expectations with black voters, with working class voters and with which are a core -- you know, a core part of the Democratic base that you have to be able to get to win in the general election. And the fact that this was really a photo finish so close would say it's folks had been saying he was going to be winning by 10 points. And in this primary, I think shows that he's got a real uphill battle ahead.

And today, the NRC is out with a huge spend across Michigan that's tying El-Sayed to some of the more controversial folks he's associated himself with, like streamer Hasan Piker, who has made comments essentially suggesting that America deserved 9/11. Now, he's since walked those back, but that is going to be blanketing the State of Michigan for the foreseeable future. It's going to be a lot harder now.

The primary is one thing, but to win over general election voters in a swing state is going to be an uphill battle for Democrats.

BROWN: All right. Lastly, I want to ask you about Republican Congressman Max Miller's reelection bid. Despite these abuse allegations from several women, including his ex-wife, he says he is staying in this race. He is denying the accusations. Sources tell CNN that allies of President Trump have pushed the president to encourage Miller to drop out of this race.

But you're not seeing that from the Speaker of the House. I mean, he is saying that this investigation should play out. What do you make of that?

GRIFFIN: I think that Speaker Johnson is taking his cues from the White House. As of now, President Trump has said, you know, this is a personal matter and these are allegations. He is, you know, roughly standing by Max Miller in the sense that he hasn't publicly called for him to drop out. So, I think the speaker is taking his lead from the White House.

It is unusual, though. I mean, Pamela, I was on the Hill for Speaker Ryan, for Speaker Boehner. You would never see this. They would have pulled him into his office and said, you know, you need to get out. This is who we're going to be running in your seat. And you need to not have every member of Congress who's back in their home district getting questions about these horrific allegations against him.

I still think there's a possibility he ultimately does drop out. I've heard from many folks close to the president who want to see that. And I do think that Max Miller, you know, listen, these allegations are incredibly damning. I believe that they're credible. The only thing that I think could make things worse for him is if he ends up being a spoiler for the Republican House majority by staying in this race and then ultimately losing in the general election in November. So, there's a world where he still drops out.

BROWN: And just -- I mean, you have to just take a step back and look at how unusual this is, that Republican Senator Bernie Moreno, who's the father of his ex-wife, and all of the comments he has made against Miller and just saying that it's been a nightmare for his family and that these aren't allegations to him. This is reality. I mean, that's pretty stunning.

[11:45:00]

GRIFFIN: It's completely -- this whole story is just so devastating. And I would also remind folks that former White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, leveled similar accusations against Max Miller when they had previously dated. She was White House press secretary when she faced abuse, which he denies at his hands. These are high-profile women who, you know, were able to speak out and say what happened, but they don't seem to be getting the justice that they deserve at this point.

And I do think it's a bit remarkable that both House and Senate Republican leadership haven't just stood beside Senator Moreno and said Max Miller needs to step down.

BROWN: Alyssa Farah Griffin, always nice to have you on. Thank you. Wolf.

GRIFFIN: Thanks.

BLITZER: And up next, another day, another A.I. model gone rogue. This time, one from Facebook's parent company, Meta, how it broke out of its testing environment. Stay with us.

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[11:50:00]

BLITZER: Happening now, Meta is the latest tech giant with A.I. agents going rogue. The company behind Facebook and Instagram now says one of its A.I. agents hacked into another company's systems during a cybersecurity test.

CNN A.I. correspondent Hadas Gold is joining us right now. Hadas, how did this happen and what is Meta doing about it? HADAS GOLD, CNN A.I. CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf. This was just breaking last night and this happened in many of the same ways as these other incidents we're learning from other big A.I. companies where their A.I. agents are going rogue and escaping or in some ways getting out of their testing environments that were not intended and actually hacking other companies' systems.

So, in this case, Meta was testing its new Spark A.I. model, one of its latest A.I. models, in a cybersecurity evaluation that was run by a company called Irregular. And they say that a misconfiguration by Irregular during this test inadvertently allowed their models to access the internet during evaluation.

In some of these testings, you purposely lower the internal safety guardrails of these models to be able to test their full capability. You might give them some access to some tools, maybe some internet, but not access to the full open internet. And so, Meta is saying in this situation the model, because of a misconfiguration, was inadvertently given a door. They gave it access to the open internet and it went on to hack into a completely different organization's internal systems.

We don't know what the company was, what the changes were, how significant they were, but it is notable and it brings up a lot of questions, of course, about A.I. safety, and especially about the safety of the cybersecurity test. Because it's one thing about A.I. safety, but when you're testing these things out, unlike when we're testing out pathogens or when somebody's working with nuclear material, there's no rules and regulations over how you test A.I. agents.

And I've been speaking to experts who say that the testing situations that we have now, the way that they are set up, they're essentially for A.I. models from 12 months ago. And in the A.I. world, things are advancing so quickly that the testing configurations need to step up.

Now, a lot of these A.I. companies, including OpenAI, they have paused a lot of their testing and their training as they figure out exactly how they can make sure that they are able to continue testing these models, but keep them contained. Because this is now the fourth incident in the last two and a half weeks where we've seen A.I. models behaving in ways that their testers did not intend, taking unsanctioned actions.

We had OpenAI disclosing that its company -- that one of its A.I. agents hacked Hugging Faces. We had Anthropic, a similar situation with its irregular testing, where it hacked three other companies. We had the incident of the A.I. agent taking on fake identities to try and trick people into running malicious code. And now, we have Meta saying that their A.I. agent also hacked a different company.

I expect it's just a matter of time before every major A.I. company reveals, discloses that its A.I. agents went rogue until they get a better handle on how to test these things out safely.

BLITZER: Our CNN A.I. correspondent, Hadas Gold. Thanks very much. Excellent, excellent report, Pamela.

BROWN: Yes, truly scary. Coming up, big-name companies have raked in billions from tariff refunds, but Americans also paid the price for those tariffs, literally. So, where is your piece of the pie? David Goldman will be here to make it make sense after the break.

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[11:55:00]

BLITZER: Happening now, major corporations across the country are now getting billions of dollars in tariff refunds, but American consumers are getting almost nothing back. So, where's your cut?

BROWN: That is the big question. And we're going to bring in CNN senior business reporter David Goldman to try to make it make sense for us. David, where is our tariff refund?

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN SENIOR BUSINESS REPORTER: Yes, I want to know where my tariff refund is, and I think a lot of Americans do, too, because they shelled out $1,000 last year in tax expenses because of all of those tariffs.

But remember, 20 percent of the tariff costs went to consumers. That means the other 80 percent went to corporations. And so, the bad news is that America, you are not owed anything. I'm really sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

The reason is that corporations are the ones who pay the tariffs, not consumers. Although consumers paid some of that in the form of higher prices, they weren't actually going to the Customs and Border Patrol and handing over their tariff check the way that corporations were. But that was a lot of money that was spent on tariffs. $166 billion on the tariff refunds that are coming back to corporations because the Supreme Court declared those illegal.

Well, so I think a lot of folks want to know, am I going to get a cut of that at all? Well, some companies are getting a cut of that. $2.2 billion to Apple alone. Amazon says $600 million has come back to that company. $300 million to Nike. There's real money coming back into those coffers, and some of it will come back to you. Amazon says, yes, when we get those tariff refunds, we will figure out a way to get it to you. Costco says, yes, for those customers who paid higher costs in tariffs, we'll figure out a way to get it back to --

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