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Biden on Campaign Trail After Trying to Calm Fears About Candidacy; World Leaders Closely Watch Biden's NATO Press Conference; Nearly All of AT&T Customers' Calls, Texts Leaked in Breach. Aired 7- 7:30a ET

Aired July 12, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, the dam hasn't broken but there are more and more cracks. Now, 17 congressional Democrats are joining the chorus calling for President Biden to drop out of the race, after the president's high-stakes news conference aimed at quelling fears about his candidacy. And we now have new exclusive reporting on what the President Obama and Nancy Pelosi are now saying about Biden's re-election.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: There's also breaking news this morning of a massive data breach at AT&T. Text messages and call records for nearly all of their customers may have been leaked in what they're calling an illegal download. We have new details.

And nearly a million people in Texas still do not have power, now days and days after Hurricane Beryl. And just as deadly heat is settling in, the Texas governor calling for an investigation out of the power company.

I'm Kate Bolduan with Sara Sidner. John Berman is out today. This is CNN News Central.

SIDNER: Happening today, a defiant President Biden back on the trail as our colleague, Stephen Collinson, this morning sums up where his campaign is right now, quote, Biden's critical news conference didn't end his re-election but it showed why it will be so hard for him to save it. As soon as Biden finished speaking last night, three more Democratic lawmakers called for him to step aside, including the top Democrat on the House Intel Committee, Congressman Jim Himes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JIM HIMES (D-CT): Imagine that three months from now we get another performance like there was in the debate right before the election. Do you want to take that risk? I don't.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Well, overnight, CNN exclusively learned former President Obama and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi have now expressed concerns with one another about Biden's ability to win in November. More on this in just a bit.

But first, let's bring in CNN Senior White House Correspondent Kayla Tausche. How is Biden himself feeling about his performance last night in that press conference?

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Sara, I spoke with several White House officials and campaign officials last night in the wake of the president's press conference and the feeling was one of relief and they were pleased by what he did. They felt like he hit the marks that were set for him. But when I spoke to other Democrats in the party, they indicated that, yes, he hit those marks and he did better. In the words of one Democrat, he did great, but that the bar was much higher for him given what has already happened and the pressure that is already mounted up until this point.

That being said the president's team believes that he was able to exhibit a little bit of charisma, that he had a few gaffes, and that even where he did have one gaffe, where he called Vice President Harris, Vice President Trump, that he was able to spin that moment and did something that ended up working for him, and he was able to make a joke out of it. He even put a tweet out immediately after the debate tagging on some criticism from former President Donald Trump, where he called out that gaffe and said, I know the difference, one's a prosecutor. One's a felon.

He acknowledged some of his shortfalls, and he acknowledged that his age might make some things difficult for him, but he tried to clarify a comment that was reported to some that he said to some Democratic governors that he shouldn't hold events after 8:00 P.M., by saying that he didn't mean exactly that, he's up for the task in the 24/7 job of the presidency, but perhaps his staff overschedules him. Here's how the president explained it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: What I said was, instead of my every day starting at 7:00 and going to bed at midnight, it'd be smarter for me to pace myself a little more.

I just got to just pace myself a little more, pace myself. And the next debate, I'm not going to be traveling into 15 time zones a week before. Anyway, that's what it was about. That's what it was about. And, by the way, even with that, I love my staff. But they add things, add things all the time at the very end.

[07:05:01]

I'm catching hell for my wife.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAUSCHE: So, that was Biden's explanation for why he has been tired at some events. But the tide has been mounting against him, and it continues to. You mentioned the three additional Democrats who have since come out against the president. And it's not just elected officials. It's also some of his critical constituencies. Right before that press conference, it was reported that the United Auto Workers were having second thoughts about endorsing Biden, whom they endorsed last fall after he joined them on the picket lines, because they had doubts about his ability to beat Trump. But when a reporter asked Biden about that possibility and about the potential to lose the support of the UAW, Biden appeared to be learning that for the first time and appeared surprised and said the UAW endorsed me. That's going to be a key question when he goes to Michigan today. He's been trying to shore up support among labor leaders this week, but, of course, that is critical for him to deliver the state of Michigan.

SIDNER: All right. Kayla Tausche, thank you so much for your reporting. We know there is some new polling coming out when it comes to Michigan and where he stands in that state vis-a-vis Trump as well. We will get to that in a bit. Thank you so much. I appreciate your time this morning. Kate?

BOLDUAN: So, now to the reporting on former President Obama and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi. CNN has exclusively learned that the two have talked privately to discuss concerns they have over Biden and how much harder they think it's become for Biden to beat Donald Trump. Neither sure what to do about it.

CNN's Isaac Dovere broke this story, has all of this reporting. Isaac, thanks for coming in. What more are you learning? And has there been any reaction from Biden or those around him on this?

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yes, good morning, Kate. Look, President Obama and former Speaker Pelosi have been -- they have talked. They are worried about what they are seeing. They are not sure quite what to do about it. Nancy Pelosi has made pretty clear publicly that she doesn't think Biden should keep running. Barack Obama taking a very hands-off, so far, approach dealing with Biden, trying to figure out how to manage that dynamic.

And that is coming at a point when a lot of Democrats feel like no matter what happens here, they need to get to an end point of this discussion and put the focus back on trying to beat Donald Trump. They think that these two are the people who might be able to get to that end point, a lot of them hoping that that end point would be Biden leaving the race. Someone who speaks to Obama regularly saying to me that his approach to it will be that he's going to be all in for the Democratic ticket. No matter who our nominee is, he will be busting his, you know what, it's morning television, helping to make sure that person wins in November.

I think, Kate, to note there, that is not someone saying he will be doing that necessarily for Joe Biden, whoever the nominee is. And these sorts of comments fall on Biden loyalists as betrayals, to an extent, and is not the kind of thing that they are hoping to hear from people that Joe Biden has been friends and partners with for many years.

BOLDUAN: And remind people, Isaac, because this is part of your reporting as well, of, I don't know if we call it the delicate nature of this and having Obama step back into conversations about running or not running with Biden given past history. How much is that factoring into how comfortable Obama is in getting involved, how comfortable Pelosi is in weighing in and all behind the scenes, obviously?

DOVERE: Well, look, with Barack Obama, a lot of this tracks back to their long and complicated relationship. Part of the reason why Obama chose him for the ticket in 2008 is because Obama didn't think he would run for president ever. Then in 2015, in the summer after Beau Biden, the president's son, died there, Biden was looking at jumping into the race at the last minute. At that point, he has written -- Biden has written since then that he felt like Barack Obama was not encouraging of him running.

Obama's view of what happened there I'm told is different from that. That he was more saying to Biden, focus on your grieving, think about how hard this race would be. But that means, to a lot of people who know Joe Biden, that they think that his reaction if Barack Obama comes to him and says, you've got to step out of the race, would be something, as one person put it to me, that it would be like saying that Biden's response would be, well, Mr. President, you used that chip in 2015, you got me not to run them, and that's what brought us Donald Trump. So, really, that might lead to him digging in more.

BOLDUAN: There are a lot of dynamics at play showing how still complicated and more complicated even this is becoming as the days go on. Isaac, great reporting, as always. Thank you so much. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Breaking overnight details about a massive at and t breach, exposing the calls and text messages of millions of its customers. How do you know if your text messages and calls have been breached?

And it's day five and still blistering hot in Texas, where half a million people may not have their power restored until next week.

[07:10:06]

An actual royalty joins sports royalty to honor top athletes and heroes in the world of sport. That's ahead.

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SIDNER: President Biden's press conference last night didn't just have the attention of American voters. Leaders around the world were closely watching the president's performance with all eyes towards November and big questions about who will be sitting in the Oval Office next year.

[07:15:03]

CNN International Diplomatic Editor Nic Robertson is joining us now. It's good to have you this morning here. I know it's afternoon there in London. What are you hearing after this press conference as so many people watch this? NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, and remembering as well, these leaders, some of them in fact had an opportunity to be one-on-one with President Biden and the new British prime minister actually got a lot of that one-on-one time. He said they had a meeting that was scheduled for about 45 minutes and it ran almost an hour.

And he was pressed by British media. Keir Starmer, the British prime minister, was pressed by British media. Okay, what was your takeaway? Was this guy really on top of it? Are you losing confidence in him? Look, and I think the big caveat when you're talking about all this has to be -- it would be super strange to have any of those other 31 leaders at the NATO summit actually come out and criticize President Biden, not just because that's not what you do as a leader to another leader of another country. Bottom line the Democrats are better in the White House for NATO than Republicans. I think everyone gets that at the moment.

But what did Keir Starmer say? He had that most time with Biden. He said, look, here was a guy that I was talking to. We were racing through a number of foreign policy issues at pace, Keir Starmer's words, and he said, Biden was on top of it all. We heard the same lines coming from President Macron of France saying, yes, Biden was in charge, on top of the detail. And they all kind of point to the same thing that President Biden had been pointing to as well that he'd managed to organize or get through complex issues with NATO and deliver on some really substantial points for NATO.

SIDNER: Yes, Biden was asked in the press conference about the NATO summit and he pushed back and said it was a great summit. Ask any one of the leaders what they thought and they will tell you the same. Nic Robertson, I appreciate your reporting this morning. Thank you so much.

All right, breaking news, nearly all of AT&T's cell phone customers data has been exposed in a massive breach. What you need to know about your data.

And are tampons toxic? This morning a new study found that many popular brands contain dangerous ingredients, like lead and arsenic. That's ahead.

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[07:20:00]

BOLDUAN: And we do have breaking news this morning, a massive data breach affecting almost every customer of AT&T. This is the definition of massive. The company is now saying call and text message records for tens of millions of people may have been exposed in what they are calling an illegal download.

CNN's Matt Egan is gathering much more on this. We're hearing some more from the company. This is crazy.

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Yes. Kate, this is another alarming data breach, and it's one that impacts millions and millions of Americans. So, just this morning, AT&T disclosed that back in April, it learned of an illegal download of data. The company says they immediately launched an investigation, and that investigation has determined that the incident exposed the call and text message records of, quote, nearly all of its cellular customers and the customers of other wireless networks that use its network. This was between May 1st of 2022 and the end of October 2022.

Now, landline customers who interacted with those cell numbers also impacted here. Now, it's really important to note. That's what we're going to talk AT&T says that at this point, it does not believe that the data is publicly available. But, of course, that could change --

BOLDUAN: Yes, they're going to heavy lean on the at this point.

EGAN: At this point, right. Now, let's talk about what is and is not included. Thankfully, AT&T says that the content of calls and text messages is not included in this breach, nor are the Social Security numbers or the names of the accounts.

Now, that, of course, is good because that would be really even more disastrous. But what is included is the phone numbers, and AT&T acknowledges that there are publicly available tools that can link phone numbers to names of people.

So, let me just give you an example. This would not show, let's say, that you called me at 6:00 P.M. last night, if that were the case, right? It would not say that we talked for 90 minutes or anything like that. But it could show that my number and your number connected dozens of times over the last few months and for a total of three hours. And, obviously, that could be potentially sensitive information.

Look, this impacts a lot of people. At the end of 2022, AT&T listed about 110 million wireless subscribers just for that company alone. Again, that doesn't include the landline customers and other cell phone customers. AT&T, they're promising to notify current and former customers who were impacted and provide them support. The company says in a statement, quote, we sincerely regret this incident occurred and remain committed to protecting the information in our care.

Another thing here that's interesting here, Kate, is the timing. Remember, I said AT&T actually learned about this back in April, but they're only disclosing this now. The company explained that back in May and again in June, the Justice Department determined that a delay in disclosing this was warranted. We don't know exactly why that is. We're going to reach out to the Justice Department and find out more information there.

But we do know that AT&T says it's cooperating with law enforcement. And the company understands that at least one person believed to be involved in this incident has been apprehended.

BOLDUAN: Has been apprehended?

EGAN: Has been apprehended, at least one person. BOLDUAN: Oh, that's almost seems like a whole new wrinkle that we've got to learn about, because, normally, that sounds like could be in the United States maybe even.

EGAN: It could be. We don't know the location yet.

BOLDUAN: Wow, okay. There's a lot more to learn. Yes. And what illegal download? It really does mean how it happened, how they patched it up, how they prevented from happening again, all the things.

EGAN: A lot of questions.

BOLDUAN: Okay, we'll get to it when we get it. Thank you so much, Matt.

All right, so as calls grow for President Biden to step aside, we are talking with the co-chair of his re-election campaign, one of his most vocal supporters in the United States Senate, that's coming up next.

[07:25:03]

And the Beastie Boys are suing Chili's, as in the restaurant chain.

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[07:30:00]

SIDNER: Some of the biggest names in sports and entertainment were in Los Angeles last night.