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Genoa's Five-Decade Bridge Collapsed; Former White House Aide Keeps Controversial Tapes; A Tooth for a Tooth Between Turkey and U.S.; Israel on Alert of Possible Iran's Presence at Golan Heights. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired August 15, 2018 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN HOST: Dozens of drivers were a busy highway bridge when it came crashing down, now the desperate search and rescue efforts are ongoing.
We are live in the Italian city of Genoa.
Fighting tariffs with tariffs, we are live in Turkey, where the president is hitting back at the U.S. over new sanctions.
Plus, a P.R. headache for the White House. Donald Trump calls his former aide a dog as Omarosa continues to release secret recordings.
Hello and welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. I'm Rosemary Church. And this is CNN Newsroom.
The mayor of Genoa, Italy has declared two days of mourning following a bridge collapse which killed at least 26 people. A large section of the Morandi Bridge crumbled during a strong storm on Tuesday, sending vehicles plunging to the ground.
And authorities believe more victims will be found as the rubble is removed. The bridge is 50 years old and was undergoing maintenance when it collapsed.
Italy's prime minister points to a structural failure.
And our Ian Lee is near that bridge collapse. He joins us now live from Genoa. Ian, it's just incredible to look at the images here. What is the latest information that you are getting on all of these efforts to find survivors still under that rubble?
IAN LEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Believe it or not, Rosemary, there's still hope that people could be found alive underneath that rubble. I'm going to step aside so you can kind of see right now where that main search area operation is going on.
You can see, that there are these huge cranes trying to pick apart this puzzle of concrete, huge slabs of concrete, some, three, four stories high that just fall and collapsed on to the ground. Thirty cars were on the bridge when it happened. You can see, on other parts of the bridge, trucks and cars that barely
were able to stop in time before plunging off. Rescue workers say that, you know, dozens of people, two dozen -- a little over two dozen people have been killed and that that death toll is likely to rise.
But I did speak to the chief of the fire rescue operation. And what he told me, he said this is exactly like if it were an earthquake, picking through the rubble, trying to find people alive.
He said, though, that the last time they were able to pull someone out alive was yesterday. So, we are going on about nine hours now. At least nine hours where they haven't found anyone alive. They haven't heard anything. They say, that they have hope. But as time progresses there is this fear that it's just going to turn into a body recovery, Rosemary.
CHURCH: It's just a nightmare for those who have lost loved ones in this bridge collapse. And of course, authorities are saying that there were structural problems here, they do think that the weather contributed in some way, the bridge has been up since 1968. It still is hard to believe that the combination of structural issues and weather have resulted in this.
LEE: That's right, and when we look at the just dramatic video of that storm that hit this region yesterday, it is, you can see, just driving rain. You can see high winds where we are seeing up to about 60 kilometers an hour, there's lightning. And locals say that the weather did have an effect on this bridge. This is an area known for somewhat extreme weather.
One of the first responders I spoke to last night who was one of the first people on scene said that it was just horrific. The rain, you know, hearing people screaming for help.
And one thing that stood out to him and stands out to me, is coming across a car of a family, where the mother and the father in the front seats are crushed to death, and there was a child in the back seat and the rescue workers thought that maybe the child was alive. When they pulled him out, the body was limp, the child was dead.
Just a number of the people who have been killed in this incident, 15 people were injured. They are at the hospital. Nine of them are in serious condition.
But, Rosemary, as these rescue workers continue their operation, they are in danger as well. That chief of fire rescue said that this is still a very unstable site they are dealing with a large chunks of concrete that are just thrown around that could collapse further. That bridge isn't safe either.
[03:05:00] And the local authorities evacuated 440 people to a center because they could still have it collapse further. So, there's a lot of danger involved in this rescue operation of a bridge that locals have said for decades need real structural work. Structural repair, Rosemary. CHURCH: They are disturbing details coming from our Ian Lee with that
live report in Genoa, Italy at the site of that bridge collapse. Many thanks to you, Ian.
Well, before and after images show the scale of this bridge disaster. You get a sense of how large the section was that collapsed, the area below is densely populated with a lot of homes and businesses directly underneath.
Many of which had to be evacuated. The bridge is just over a kilometer long and 100 meters tall at its the highest point. Search and rescue is expected to take several days.
We turn now to our meteorologist Pedram Javaheri who joins us with more on the weather conditions of the time of that collapse. And Pedram, have we ever seen a bridge collapse of this scale?
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: You know, we have. Absolutely have. And a lot of times when you look through the course of history, weather certainly can play a role, we've seen bridges come down because of gusty winds and of course a lot of it has to do with the compromisation of the bridge itself. The structural and sound nature of it.
And the construction was being done on this, certainly that place were all into it. The amount of traffic there factored in with the strong wind and factored in with the condition of the bridge itself.
All of it can play a role. You go back to the year 1940. It was the 7th of November in 1940 where the Tacoma Narrows Bridge in the Western United States there came down, 42 kilometer per hour winds. Structure unsound bridge. A video of it exist there really incredible footage that shows you how things played out.
And then we see how things played across this region. And a 50-year- old bridge, certainly it shouldn't be much reason for it if it's properly maintained to come down with such winds. But winds gust three kilometers away were observed at 57 kilometers per hour.
Now if you look at how things played out with the strong thunderstorms. Severe weather was in the forecast around this region over the past4 or so hours. In fact, 140 million people were under the risk of severe weather.
And notice, just west of this, just west of Genoa that is the highest risk zone over the entire continent of Europe for severe weather. So certainly the storm across this region takes up quite a bit of intensity as it works this way around the area.
And we know storm reports show in three water spouts west of town as well. So, again supports the environmental conditions being very unstable. Very unsettled here as conditions went downhill across the region.
And we know over the next couple of days, some showers are possible. But, you look at the forecast and it will remain hot, it should remain dry. Maybe a few pop up storms here and there. Bu what we saw in the past 24 hours does not look to happen again at least in the foreseeable future in the forecast here, Rosemary.
CHURCH: Pedram, thank you so much for keeping a very close eye on that. We do appreciate it.
JAVAHERI: Thanks for having me.
CHURCH: Well, British police are investigating what they are calling a terror attack. The second one outside parliament in less than 18 months. Once again, a car was used as a weapon.
The police say the driver who is under arrest is a British citizen, but originally from another country. Officers searched three properties in Central England as they tried to find a motive.
Erin McLaughlin has more.
ERIN MCLAUGHLIN, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Chilling surveillance footage shows the moment a suspect plows his car into a security barrier outside the houses of the parliament, injuring two. The car mounts the curb and crashes.
Police are treating it as a terrorist incident. London's latest. It happened just after 7.30 in the morning as people were making their way to work.
Surveillance footage shows the suspect driving his car down this road. Now initially it looks as though he is going to turn right of parliament square, but he suddenly veers this way. The crash happened just beyond the screens. Immediately after the crash, the suspect was arrested at gunpoint.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In my opinion, it was deliberate. It wasn't -- there was no -- it didn't swerve into it. It was a direct hit.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCLAUGHLIN: Police agree with that assessment, given the iconic target, the way the suspect was driving the weaponized vehicle, it seemed to have a good idea how it happened but they still don't know exactly why.
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NEIL BASU, ASSISTANT COMMISSIONER, LONDON METROPOLITAN POLICE: Given this appears to be a deliberate act. The method, and this being an iconic site, we are treating it as a terrorist incident. Our priority now is to formally establish the identity of the suspect and establish his motivation if we can. He is not currently cooperating.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MCLAUGHLIN: Tuesday, there was an increased police presence throughout the capitol, although no intelligence to suggest another attack is eminent. People went about their daily lives.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SADIQ KHAN, MAYOR OF LONDON: I think all of us are angry at these acts of terror are being committed. The British parliament, Prime Minister Theresa May works closely with me as the mayor to make sure we do all that we can do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[03:10:04] MCLAUGHLIN: This is not the first time this London land mark has been targeted. In March last year, 52-year-old Briton Khalid Masood drove into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, killing five, and injured more than 50.
London continues to remain on high alert. And there's a sense here that things could have been much worse.
Erin McLaughlin, CNN, London.
CHURCH: In Washington, the feud between the president and a fired aide is playing out in public and it's ugly. Allegations of racism are met with personal insults.
Kaitlan Collins has more now on the escalating controversy.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: The White House in an all- out war today with one of its own. Sarah Sanders painting Omarosa Manigault-Newman as nothing more than a disgruntled former employee.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARAH HUCKABEE-SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president is certainly voicing his frustration with the fact that this person has shown a complete lack of integrity particularly by the actions following her time here at the White House.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: President Trump escalating the messy fight with his former reality star, praising his chief of staff for quickly firing that dog.
Omarosa responding to the president's insult by releasing more recordings. This time of Trump (TECHNICAL PROBLEM).
COLLINS: -- say that denied that he had used that word, saying it wasn't in his vocabulary, but Sarah wouldn't guarantee when directly asked if the president had ever used that racial slur and if it would ever appear on any kind of recording. She could not guarantee that, she said.
She also said that the president's insult for Omarosa on Twitter that she was a dog was not a racial insult, because the president insults people of all races.
Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House. CHURCH: And Scott Lucas joins us now from England. He is a professor of International politics at the University of Birmingham.
Good to have you back with us again.
SCOTT LUCAS, POLITICS PROFESSOR, UNIVERSITY OF BIRMINGHAM: Thank you.
CHURCH: So, before we get to that heated exchange of insults between the president and Omarosa, let's start with her explosive claim that she has been interviewed by special counsel Robert Mueller's team, how might these many tapes that she has in her possession change the direction of that investigation?
LUCAS: Well, they are evidence, I mean, as the fundamental whatever you think of Omarosa as a person, you know, these tapes are of or appear to be of actual conversations.
Now, one way that it could affect the Mueller investigation as Omarosa claimed last night that Donald Trump knew in advance in June 2016 about the meetings with Russian's envoy that was held with his son, Donald Trump, Jr., campaign manager Paul Manafort, and son-in-law Jared Kushner.
Now, Donald Trump, Sr. has denied repeatedly that he knew that meeting which some see as possible evidence of conspiracy with the Russians. If there is a tape that exists where Omarosa can back up that indeed Donald Sr. did know about this, then that of course would be I think considered with great interest by the Mueller investigation.
[03:15:06] CHURCH: Right, and let's go back to that tweet from the president where he refers to Omarosa as a crazed crying low-life, and a dog. His press secretary, Sarah Sanders insist his comments are not racist. She says the president is an equal opportunity person and fights fire with fire. Is anyone buying that explanation?
LUCAS: I think a lot of people would probably agree that Donald Trump insults a lot of people. But to say that this doesn't mean that he's racially challenged that's been difficult.
Remember in the past week, he has insulted LeBron James, the African- American basketball star. He has insulted African-American journalist Don Lemon of CNN, he has insulted African-American politician Maxine Waters. He has insulted many people of color, including immigrants, calling them animals and vermin.
In other words, you don't need a tape from Omarosa with the n-word to establish a pattern of Donald Trump's behaviors and actions. Because all the way back to the 1970s when he was accused of racial discrimination in the way that he operated his housing in New York City.
CHURCH: All right. Well, as you mentioned, Omarosa has said that there is a tape out there with Donald Trump using the n-word, and Sarah Sanders says she can't guarantee that such a tape doesn't exist. What does that tell us about him as a leader and what impact would such a tape have anyway, given what we've already learned and other tapes that have been disclosed.
LUCAS: I might say something surprising here. And that is, I'm not actually personally, the breaking point to me is not whether that tape exists. You can go back to the president and Richard Nixon, who used that number of epithets about racial -- about people of race, about other minorities including Jews and wasn't very much about them.
Come back to the point that it's what a man says in a moment and uses a racial epithet that's bad. But what a man does over years and what a man does over many months as leader of the United States when he has, and let me just be clear about this, appeared to endorse white supremacy.
When he has appeared to target Muslims, immigrants, Hispanic- Americans, Chinese-Americans, and African-Americans, and when he has treated them as basically lower than the rest of us, that's what I'm concerned about.
And Omarosa's tape is merely window dressing on what is a much wider issue for me and one that actually raises questions about this man's, whether he should actually be president of the United States.
CHURCH: Scott Lucas, thank you so much for your analysis. We always appreciate it.
LUCAS: Thank you.
CHURCH: And we'll take a very short break here. Turkey fires back at U.S. sanctions, slapping heavy new tariffs on a wide variety of U.S. imports, everything from fruit to cars.
And concern over a possible new flash point, this time, the Israel's border as the Syrian civil war winds down.
And millions of American voters may have had their confidential information exposed online. We'll take a look at that on the other side of the break. Stay with us.
[03:20:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: Welcome back, everywhere,
Well, Turkey is retaliating against U.S. sanctions. It has slapped heavy new tariffs on American imports, including cars, alcohol and tobacco. It comes just days after President Trump said he would double U.S. tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminum.
Ankara and Washington are locked in a showdown over an American pastor detained in Turkey, and neither side is budging.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RECEP TAYYIP ERDOGAN, TURKISH PRESIDENT (through translator): We will produce every product we are importing from abroad with foreign currency here and we will be the ones exporting these products. We will impose a boycott on U.S. electronic products. If they have iPhones, there's Samsung on the other side.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: CNN's John Defterios joins us now from Istanbul with more on this. Good to see you, John. So, where all of this going? And what could possibly stop this from spiraling out of control?
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: That is the key question, Rosemary. Instead of turning down the heat on bilateral relations between Turkey and the United States, President Erdogan actually double down on the tariffs that were introduced back in June when President Trump introduced the tariffs on aluminum and steel that were doubled up on Friday.
As you can see this is all tit for tat. he even added coal knowing it's a very sensitive product when it comes to President Trump. The comments you have there about the boycott on the electronics came from the 17th anniversary of the AK Party, a party that President Erdogan actually founded.
They have make-up on that list as well. Rice again, very politically sensitive products when it comes to farm products. Make-up very popular in this economy of better than 80 million consumers. In fact, popular throughout the Middle East and North Africa.
But there are concerns on the ground that this is going too far. Here is a high school teacher talking about the fact that he thinks it's too tense between the United States and Turkey.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I think Turkish government does not know about economy, because there are no real economists within the government. The administration is based on family issues. I don't not understand economy. But even me, I can run economy better than they are.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEFTERIOS: This again a high school teacher that didn't want to share his last name because of the political sensitivities of his comments. He is making reference to the son-in-law, now the super minister for finance and treasury, Berat Albayrak who has a Ph.D., renewable resources, but does not have a Ph.D. in economics.
And this unorthodox approach of not raising interest rates and watching the currency under pressure, in fact the finance minister said yesterday, the U.S. dollar is starting to lose its status as a reserve currency of the world. It's actually the opposite.
The dollar has been rising, because U.S. interest rates are rising and that's sucking capitol out of markets like Turkey. Under pressure still today.
CHURCH: And John, as we look at these tit for tat tariffs, how much of these measures have to do with Pastor Andrew Brunson? DEFTERIOS: Well, you know, there's a lot of discussion around Andrew
Brunson who's down in Izmir. The charge d'affaires with U.S. embassy in Ankara visited him yesterday and said, we're looking for his release.
But this went up a notch again with John Bolton, the national security adviser to the president, briefing reporters after his meeting with the Turkish ambassador to Washington saying this is our red line. He has to be released.
President Erdogan has made it very clear, Rosemary, he doesn't like to respond to pressure. And when another signal coming from Ankara today, they released two prisoners, Greek soldiers that have been held since March sending the sign that we can negotiate behind the scenes.
This is a breakthrough between Turkish/Greek relations, but this is not what we are not seeing from the U.S. We had a relief rally in the lira the day before on talks that perhaps, there was a breakthrough with Brunson, but it turned the other way after the comments coming from Washington overnight.
CHURCH: Many thanks to our John Defterios joining us there from Istanbul in Turkey, where it is nearly 10.30 in the morning.
Well, Syria's seven years civil war appears to be winding down, but there are fears a new conflict could erupt in an area recently reclaimed by Syrian government forces. Israel is worried that Iran could establish a presence in the Golan, the buffer at its border.
[03:25:03] As Fred Pleitgen reports Israel is looking to Russia for help.
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This valley could be vital in the next phase of a Syrian conflict. Quneitra at the foot of the Golan heights, the buffer zone between Israel and Syria.
On a Russian organized visit, Colonel Viktor Zaitsev shows me the area that Syrian military with Russian help recently retook.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
VIKTOR ZAITSEV, RUSSIAN MILITARY (through translator): On the right, you can see the demilitarized zone. And further down is the Israeli border. Behind us is the bravo line, further along there is the post of the Russian military police which serves as the guarantor of peace in the province of Quneitra.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PLEITGEN: The U.N. observer mission abandoned its post here when rebels took over the area in 2014. Now Russia says it wants to bring the observers back, also to mitigate Israel's anxiety over Iran's possible presence.
Ousting rebels from this area was a huge achievement for the forces of Bashar al-Assad and their Russian backers. But it's also led the huge concerns among the Israelis. They fear Iran could gain a foothold here.
Israel has expanded its cross border air strikes on Iranian positions in Syria and says it wants Russia to keep Iran away from its borders. Russia and ally of Iran in the Syrian war says it's conducting joint patrols with the Syrian police in the demilitarized zone.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Currently, our plan is, and we are already implementing it, it's to set up check points of the Russian military police along the bravo line and I stress that in the demilitarized zone itself, there are no Russian checkpoints. But in total, we have four checkpoints operating.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PLEITGEN: The Syrian army, with Russian support, swept through most of southern Syria about a month ago. Now, that the anti-Assad rebels have been ousted, the danger of a larger Israeli Iranian confrontation here looms.
Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Quneitra, Syria.
CHURCH: It is supposed to be one of the most secure locations in the White House. But serious concerns are being raised about security in the situation room. The other fall-out from Omarosa Manigault-Newman's tell-all.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Georgia's election systems should not be trusted.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHURCH: A stark warning, just months before millions of voters across the U.S. cast ballots in a pivotal midterm election. We'll have the details for you after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: Welcome back, everyone. I'm Rosemary Church.
I want to update you now on the main stories we're following this hour.
[03:30:01] Two days of mourning have been declared in Genoa, Italy after a bridge collapse killed at least 26 people. A large section of the Morandi Bridge came down during a strong storm on Tuesday, sending vehicles plunging to the ground. And a number of homes and businesses below the bridge were evacuated. The cause of that collapse, is under investigation.
British police are trying figure out why a man drove a car in to pedestrians before crashing in to the barriers outside of parliament in London. The driver was arrested, but police say he is not cooperating. Police searched three addresses in central England and officials said that the suspect is a British citizen, who originally came from another country.
Turkey is firing back at U.S. sanctions. The government has slap heavy new tariffs on American imports including alcohol, cars and tobacco and the Turkish President has called for a boycott of U.S. electronic. Washington and Ankara are at odds over an American pastor detained in Turkey.
Well aside from the allegations, a nasty insult is swirling in the feud between President Trump and Omarosa Manigault Newman, there is a separate concern about security. Brian Todd reports, it has to do with where the White House aide was fired and her recording of it.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's the heavily secured vaulted operation center where President Obama watched the killing of Osama bin laden and where George W. Bush commanded the invasion of Iran. And where Omarosa was fired.
OMAROSA MANIGAULT NEWMAN, FORMER ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: Can I ask you a couple of question. Does the President aware of what is going on?
JOHN KELLY, SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Let's not go down that road. This is a non-negotiable discussion.
TODD: Tonight, some former U.S. officials are aghast that former Trump aide Omarosa Manigault Newman secretly recorded her firing by Chief of Staff, John Kelly in the White House situation room.
JAMES CLAPPER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: You are kind of an honor system, where everyone knows not to do that. That is a very serious security violation. It's just unthinkable that it would happen.
TODD: Larry Pfeiffer agrees.
LARRY PFEIFFER, WHITE HOUSE SITUATION ROOM: It's absolutely a violation of security.
It is the most sensitive and most secret and most protected place in the White House.
TODD: Pfeiffer ran the White House situation room for two years under President Obama. He was there when the Benghazi attack unfolded, when the President monitored and commanded operations during hurricane sandy. Pfeiffer said that White House, staffers understand that this cluster of actually three rooms is where the most crucial national security decisions are made, and before they enter, they have to leave their phones in led lined lockers outside.
PFEIFFER: Because of the concern that they could be used as a recording devices or worse yet, and they could be used as transmission devices and they could actually be picking up conversations that are taking place in the room or even perhaps picking up data streams that are in the area as well.
TODD: Pfeiffer says that the people who run the situation room watch staffers to make sure they don't pull out phones. And he hints there are devices monitoring them.
PFEIFFER: We have eyeballs on the situation room meetings as they are going on to make sure that nothing is being brought out from a pocket or being brought out from a binder. And then there's other means I am not at liberty to get in to discussion of the details of other means, but there are other means and capabilities that assist the situation room in that job.
TODD: Pfeiffer says, staffers have to have clearance beforehand. After swipe badges or be buzzed through thick doors in to the room and are greeted by situation room staffers when they enter. Omarosa defends her recording in the room.
MANIGAULT: No one would believe if I did not have that recording.
TODD: And John Kelly himself is being criticized, Washington Post calling it, misuse of the situation room to isolate and fire an employee.
Pfeiffer wont criticized Kelly's specifically, but regrets what happens.
PFEIFFER: It the one thing a situation room Director fears the most, is that the situation room will get sucked in to the politics of the day.
TODD: Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEO)
CHURCH: An update now, on our top story, officials now tell us at least 36 people are confirmed dead after that bridge collapse in the Italian City of Genoa, and that number could still rise further as the search and rescue is expected to continue for days. As of now, the Prime Minister says that early signs point to structural failure for that collapse, we will of course, bring you any new developments on this story as they come in to us here at CNN.
Well, U.S. Congressional elections are just under three months away, and hacking remains a key concern, so much so, election officials went to Las Vegas for one of the world's largest hacking conventions. The event was intended to show how vulnerable America's voting machines are.
[03:35:00] And it did, hackers were able to change vote tallies and names on mock election websites. One are report said that an 11-year- old was able to get into a replica of Florida's website and change the election result in just ten minutes. Now, all of it is under scored in the U.S. State of Georgia, the man who wants to be the next governor is accused of failing to secure the state's voting system. A federal lawsuits says Republican Brian Kemp allowed the personal information of millions of voters to be exposed online, but he is calls the claim, fake news. CNN's Drew Griffin reports.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right around the same time Russians were trying penetrate state voting systems in the summer of 2016, cybersecurity expert and part time hacker Logan Lamb decided to check out how Georgia's centralized voter system was holding up. What he found was an open window.
LOGAN LAMB, CYBERSECURITY EXPERT: There were documents with Election Day supervisor passwords. There was a voter registration data base, with 6.3 million records of all of Georgia's voters.
GRIFFIN: Including full names, dates of birth, even driver's license and partial social security numbers, all wide open to anyone snooping around and now we know during the same time, Russians were snooping around. According to the Justice Department's special council investigation, that included snooping around websites of certain counties in Georgia to identify vulnerabilities.
Lamb did not know about the Russians, but he did know that having voter records so easily accessible was a problem. So he emailed and then he called Georgia's center for election systems, runout of this house on the campus of Kennesaw State University to warn them. Six months later, all that Georgia voter data was still unprotected.
LAMB: All of the passwords, everything was still available to anybody who wanted it. Right. Yes.
GRIFFIN: What does it tell you about the secure election of the state of Georgia?
LAMB: Georgia's election systems, they should not be trusted.
GRIFFIN: Eventually, Kennesaw State closed the security loophole and notified the state, a lawsuit was filed challenging the security of Georgia's elections and then shockingly evidence of what took place, vanished. I.T. workers at Kennesaw State University wiped the elections systems computer hard drives clean. Deleting any potential evidence of tampering.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I blow up government spending.
GRIFFIN: The person in charge of Georgia' elections is Georgia's Secretary of State, Brian Kemp. He is the Trump styled Republican, now running for governor and the voting mess under his watch has turned in to a mild campaign issue? Kemp's office said that the Secretary of State had no idea Georgia's voter information system was so vulnerable to attack, until months after Logan Lamb's warning.
Kemp blame the Kennesaw State center for elections systems for the entire debacle ended the state's long running contract with the center and shut it down. On Facebook, he called the actions of the election center employee's reckless, inexcusable and showing undeniable inaptitude. And then he hired the Director of the center to work with him at the Secretary of State Office. And to assure everyone all these did not mean anything, he posted Georgia's elections are safe and our system remains secure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How can he possibly say that?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He cannot possibly say that with a straight face.
GRIFFIN: Marilyn Marks, a self-funded advocate for improving election integrity is part of a group that has sued Georgia. She said that the state system is easily penetrable and if the system fails, if it has hacked or infected with malware, there would be no way for Georgia to double check the votes. In part, she wants a paper ballot back up for the upcoming midterm's elections. The state's said no.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When told, that you have been exposed to bad guys, you had been exposed to viruses, you had been exposed every known bad thing that could happen into an election system. They just, OK, next election.
GRIFFIN: And that pretty much sums up what Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp is saying, we will take care of this in 2020, after he becomes Georgia's next governor.
The Georgia Secretary of State's office said it's too late to switch to another system of voting before the next election. Saying it would lead to voter confusion and possibly suppress the vote in and Trump like style, Brian Kemp is blaming the press for over hyping Georgia's voting problem, saying any report like the one you just saw is fake news.
Drew Griffin, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEO)
CHURCH: Closing arguments are set for Wednesday in the trial of former Trump campaign chairman, Paul Manafort. The defense rested its case without calling a single witness. Manafort spoke for the first time in court Tuesday. Telling the Judge, he would not be testifying. We heard from CNN legal analyst, Areva Martin earlier about the case.
(BEGIN VIDEO)
[03:40:10] AREVA MARTIN, CNN LEGAL CONTRIBUTOR: There was no way that Paul Manafort could take the stand. The cross examination would have been too brutal. He would have done more harm to his case, which is hard to imagine when you say that, given the mound of evidence that was presented by the prosecution. This was a paper case. And the prosecution put on lots of evidence from e-mails to bank records to other documents, to prove their case of fraud, and tax evasion.
And the best that they can hope for is that the jurors believe their argument that I expect they will make, which is that Rick Gates lied to the FBI. He lied to the Special Counsel and he came in to the courtroom and he lied to the judge, and he lied to the jurors. And if one juror believes that Rick Gates' testimony is non-believable. That he was the architect of all of these crimes, that one juror could cause there to be a hung jury, or perhaps even an acquittal in the case.
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CHURCH: Manafort has pleaded not guilty to 18 charges of tax and bank fraud crimes. Well, is tesla going private? There has been a number of conflicting and confusing statements that the automakers board tried to clear up on Tuesday. CNN's Clare Sebastian reports on that.
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CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: After a week of sporadic and confusing statements from Elon Musk that taking tesla private, finally and official documents was filed Tuesday with U.S. regulators. And it was worth revealing and their take at the same time. In that filing tesla board just form a special committee of independent directors to oversee the process of taking tesla private. That is traditional protocol in this situation.
The committee has full authority to decide on any potential transactions to take tesla private. They made it clear, nothing else has been decided. The statement said that the special committee has not yet received a formal proposal from Mr. Musk, regarding any going private transaction, nor has it reached any conclusion as the availability of feasibility of such a transaction.
Well, it's been pretty clear for Musk's previous statement that there was no formal proposal. In a blog first on Monday, he explained that he believed he had the backing of the Saudi private investment fund to take the company private and he was still talking to them and to other potential investors about options. Now the board is not even sure going private is a good idea. This could be a long drawn out negotiation.
And meanwhile, Musk has continued to drip feed the public information on his Twitter feed, tweeting late Monday night, he had retained top advisers including Goldman Sachs and Silver Lake to aid in the transaction. Neither firm has commented whether it's true. And it certainly seems investors are a little less confident today that a good deal can be done. Tesla's stock closed about 2.5 percent lower Tuesday in New York.
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CHURCH: Clare Sebastian with that report. Roaming group of vandal's burn and smash dozens of cars in Sweden, and it's unclear what led to their rampage. We will have reaction ahead.
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CHURCH: Police in Sweden are investigating a string of arson attacks where dozens of cars were torched and vandalized. They say the level of damaged is unprecedented. Robyn Curnow has more.
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ROBYN CURNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Firefighters desperately try to put out the flames. Police say after 100 cars were set on fire or vandalized on Monday night. It happened in Guttenberg, Sweden's second largest city as well as several surrounding towns. Authorities believe it is a work of young people and it appears the perpetrators plans destruction.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I looked out of the window and I saw the fire engines and the foam and rushed out to see what it looked like, it was devastating.
CURNOW: Another eyewitness said she saw eight to 10 masked men smashing car windows with baseball bat and had a grocery cart filled with Molotov cocktails that they threw in to cars. The rise in violence in recent years in areas with high unemployment and other social problems. Mounting concern about violence is a top issue in next month's national elections.
This latest incident is reminisce into the 2013 Stockholm riots which took place in a suburb dominated by immigrants. Those disturbances were reportedly in response to shooting death by police of an elderly man that involves 50-60 young people. The Swedish Prime Minister called Monday's arson attacks completely unacceptable and announced an investigation is under way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE (TRANSLATOR): As I said earlier today, I get angry. And the question has to be asked to these people, what the hell are do you doing? Who do you think you are? You are destroying the things for the whole area, for the neighbor, for the children that have to go to nursery school in the morning and see cars that have been burned.
CURNOW: Robyn Curnow, CNN.
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CHURCH: A new scathing report about the Catholic Church, sexual abuse and cover ups was unveiled in Pennsylvania. More than 300 priests are accused of sex crimes against more than a thousand children. Here's CNN's Jean Casarez.
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JEAN CASAREZ, CNN PRIMETIME JUSTICE SHOW GUEST HOST: This 884 page report took two years to put together and there are many redactions. The Attorney General's office is going to court next month to fight for those redactions to be revealed saying quote, every redaction represents an incomplete story of abuse. That deserves to be told. This massive investigation involve law enforcement agents, prosecutors within the office of the Attorney General and of course the grand jurors.
Officials say this report, written by 23 Pennsylvania grand jurors is the largest most comprehensive of child sexual abuse in the Catholic Church that has ever been produced in the United States. The grand jurors listened to testimony from dozens of witnesses, and studied half a million pages of internal documents about alleged child sex abuse in six diocese which involved 54 of Pennsylvania 67 counties. The reports states there was credible allegations found against over 300 priests and over 1,000 child victims were identifiable from the church's own records, but they believe the real number of children whose records were lost or afraid to come forward is actually in the thousands.
The report states that most of the victims were boys, but girls were also victims. Some were teens and some much younger and some victims were manipulated with alcohol or pornography and grand jurors found that church leaders in every parts of the states preferred to protect the abusers and quote their institutions above all.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These petitioners and for a time, some of the diocese sought to prevent the entire report from ever seen the light of day. In effect, they wanted to cover up, the cover up. They sought to do the same thing that the senior church leaders in the diocese we investigated have done for decades. Bury the sexual abused by priest upon children and covert it up forever.
CASAREZ: Because of the cover up, almost all of the abuse is too old to be prosecuted. The grand jury has issued resentments against two priests who allegedly assaulted children within the statute of limitation limitations, and there are also may be more indictments in the future, because the investigation is continuing.
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[03:50:10] CHURCH: Jean Casarez with that report. And some church leaders apologize late Tuesdays and said, they are praying for the victims.
Well, if Donald Trump was an employee in your workplace, would he still have a job after everything he said in Twitter. CNN's Chris Cillizza revisit the President's most controversial statements which would probably constitute serious H.R. offenses if Trump were not Trump.
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CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump loves to fire people. Just ask him.
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I fired many people. Especially on the apprentice.
CILLIZZA: But he is not exactly a model employee. Many of the things he does in a daily basis might get you or I fired, like take for starters the fact that he said seven things that are not accurate on average a day. Honestly, there's one big moment that would have kept most of us from getting hired in the first place.
TRUMP: (Inaudible) -- I just start kissing them. It is like a magnet.
CILLIZZA: Yes. That is the Access Hollywood tape where Trump talks very, very (inaudible) about women. Can you imagine trying to convince a perspective employer why that should not be something that keeps you from getting a job? Your average job description talks about the need to be a team player in which Donald Trump is not. Now, that alone may not get him fired from a job, but attacking co-workers like say, your co-equal branch of government in congress, would.
TRUMP: Pocahontas. Glam-the sham, right. A low I.Q. individual.
CILLIZZA: And Trump doesn't limit his bullying to current co-workers, but also does it to his former staffers as well. He recently called Omarosa Manigault Newman, who has written a tell-all book about her time in the White House and a dog. Donald Trump has even said, jokingly that he could win a physical fight with Joe Biden. Try explaining that one to someone who wants to hire you. Yes, Joe Biden played along with this and he should not have.
But only one of the two actors in this drama is the President of the United States.
Another thing that can get people like you and me in trouble is our social media presence, imagine sending out half as many tweets as trump does during the course of your work day. The White House argues that twitter is a way for trump to get his message out to the American people, but some days it is less message and more stream of consciousness. And then there's a whole releasing of company secret publicly. Back in June, Donald Trump tweeted about the monthly jobs report before it was even publicly release.
Trump said, he was looking forward to the release of the jobs which he had clearly been given early access to and the markets responded. But the truth of matter is, the presidency is a unique job. But Donald Trump does have bosses, they are the American people and he does have evaluations of his progress. Those are called elections and its coming up in the not too decent future.
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CHURCH: Chris Cillizza with that report. And next here on CNN Newsroom, it is the name on everyone's lips, but at the White House, it's the word no one wants to say. Omarosa.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is there even a little piece of you that is worried about your safety?
MANIGAULT: Trevor, I would say this, if you see me in a fight with a bear, pray for the bear.
(LAUGHTER)
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[03:55:04] CHURCH: And that of course was the person Donald Trump loves to hate with comedian Trevor Noah. Her name is on everyone's lips. Even the White House press secretary was forced to talk about her on Tuesday, but she would not use the "o" word. Here is Jeanne Moos, who has no problem saying, Omarosa.
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JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: She is inescapable --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Omarosa Manigault Newman.
MOOS: -- better known as --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Omarosa.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Omarosa.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Omarosa.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you feel betrayed by Omarosa?
MOOS: But you know who will not betray the President by even speaking Omarosa's name?
SARAH SANDERS, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: It was not until this individual started to negatively attack.
MOOS: Omarosa was on practically every reporter's lips in the White House briefing room.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Omarosa.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We would like the President to stop tweeting about Omarosa?
MOOS: Even the President uses her name, whacky Omarosa, wacky and derange Omarosa, but when Sarah Sanders was asked about.
SANDERS: His attacks on Omarosa.
MOOS: She did everything to avoid saying her name.
SANDERS: With the individual, with the fact that this person like the author of the book.
MOOS: Her favorite formulation for evading the o word.
SANDERS: This individual, the lack of integrity of this individual.
MOOS: But I guess, this individual beats being called --
TRUMP: Low life. She is a low life.
MOOS: Sarah Sanders finally broke down and said it. One time.
SANDERS: Respect to Omarosa.
MOOS: This individual reminds us of that woman.
BILL CLINTON, FORMER UNITED STATES OF AMERICA PRESIDENT: I did not have sexual relations with that woman.
MOOS: This is Manigault Newman's famous first name may have plastered on the screen, but it was screened out by the press secretary.
SANDERS: This individual.
MOOS: Jeanne Moos, CNN --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That woman.
SANDERS: This person.
MOOS: New York.
(END VIDEO)
CHURCH: And before we go, we have a list of the top five most liveable cities in the world. Vienna, Austria tops the annual list by the economist intelligence unit. Melbourne, Australia was at number two this year. And number three, Osaka, Japan. Based on factors like stability, health care and culture. Number four is Cadbury, Canada, one of three Canadian cities in the top ten along with Vancouver and Toronto and Sydney, Australia is at number five.
So, there's your pick. Thanks for joining us this hour. I am Rosemary Church, remember to connect with me any time on Twitter. The news continues now with Hannah Vaughan Jones in London. You are watching CNN, have a great day.
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