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Major Tech Malfunctions Ground Flights in U.S. and Worldwide; Trump Accepts GOP Nomination; Gershkovich Convicted of Espionage; Keisha Lance Bottoms is Interviewed about the Biden Campaign. Aired 9- 9:30a ET
Aired July 19, 2024 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:00]
DANIEL DALE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: National FBI figures. And then another 15 percent in the first quarter of 2024. So, we're talking steep declines. Even steeper declines in murder in particular. And now both murder and violent crime overall are at lower levels than in 2020, Trump's own last final calendar year in office.
KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Daniel, inflation is a huge issue for both campaigns and the country. Let's play what Donald Trump said about that last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You can go back to any country that suffered great inflation. We've suffered the worst inflation we've ever had. Our current administration, groceries are up 57%.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: How does this check out?
DALE: Those are two false claims. We are - we have not experienced nearly the worst inflation that we've ever had. We are currently at 3 percent inflation. The U.S. record is 23.7 percent inflation.
Now, we did have a four decade high in June 2022 when we got up to 9.1 percent. But even that was not an all-time record. And, of course, it's since plummeted. And then this grocery claim is a gross exaggeration. Yes, grocery prices are up substantially under President Biden, but it's about 21 percent, not 57 percent. So, a typical Donald Trump exaggeration.
BOLDUAN: Still, inflation still a problem. It's just the degree to which it is described.
DALE: Yes.
BOLDUAN: It's good to see you, Daniel. Thank you so much.
DALE: Thank you.
BOLDUAN: And new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, the breaking news, a huge tech outage grounds thousands of passengers, maybe tens of thousands of passengers all around the world. Airline saying, do not even bother going to the airport unless you know for sure that your flight is leaving.
After a convention that largely wowed, Donald Trump's acceptance speech gives a new glimmer of hope to Democrats. The long, rambling speech and the after effects this morning.
And the very latest on the state of President Biden's campaign. We are getting new updates by the minute on whether he will continue his candidacy.
I'm John Berman, with Sara Sidner in New York. Kate Bolduan out in Milwaukee. And this is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: We've been following it all morning for you, and I'm sure you've been following it as well. Airlines, hospitals, businesses around the world, banks as well, reeling from a massive tech outage. Just minutes ago, Charlotte-Douglas International Airport, an American Airlines hub, told flyers, do not come to the airport unless you have already confirmed your flight is going to take off.
You can see here just how backed up airports are right now. Look at those crowds, all waiting for their flights. Cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike says, this is partly due to a software update, not a hack. But this is what has happened because of it. It's all about crippling its Microsoft Windows customers after this issue happened in tech.
We have team coverage around the world, as you might imagine. Isabel Rosales is at the world's busiest airport, Atlanta's Hartsfield Jackson International Airport, and Anna Stewart in Heathrow Airport in the U.K.
Let's start, though, with CNN's Tom Foreman, who is in Washington, D.C.
Tom, what is going on with the systems? They're saying that they are back working, but the crowds indicate that it's not helping them much.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: CrowdStrike is saying the key issue has been identified. We have a quote from the CEO where he talked about the notion that basically we've identified this one thing. It wasn't terrorism, it wasn't a security incident or a cyberattack, but they've identified and they have isolated this one thing that they have to deal with here. And that's being updated around the world right now.
That hasn't prevented the fact that over in the U.K. they had to have an emergency meeting about this. The White House is tracking it. Our Whitney Wild was told that both Department of Homeland Security and Department of Justice have been affected by this, their computer systems. Transit, shipping, trains, planes, banks, retail, emergency services all over the world, there are problems. So, even if they fix the core problem, this is like a leak in your basement. Even when you cut the water off, you've still got a big mess down there to deal with.
And in places like the Pittsburgh airport, some of the passengers really unhappy about how they're stranded.
Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am so upset right now. There are eight people in my party. Eight people.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's 13 in ours.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: $456 a ticket, and they're giving me $100 back. That is it. And we're screwed.
This man is getting married. We have reservations, we have cars that we paid for. I paid $380 in a shuttle - to shuttle everyone here this morning. They have been here since before me with three kids. I've been here since 3:00 in the morning. $100 is unacceptable.
[09:05:02]
I am a good - I am a good customer for Allegiant and I feel like I'm being completely screwed over. This is bull crap.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOREMAN: Yes, we all know what that feeling is like. Everything is so dependent upon computers, that when that breaks down, there just aren't enough people to answer your questions. That's where we stand at the moment.
BERMAN: All right, we will see how quickly it resolves itself.
In the meantime, let's go to Atlanta. A bit of a swap of an airport as it is. But add in this tech outage.
Isabel Rosales, tell us what's happening.
ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, John, it is a mess out here. There's no other way to describe this. And your experience really depends on which airline you have chosen to fly with.
Delta, the other side of the terminal over there, they have paused all flights. So, people are just standing around there. They don't - tell me that they don't have answers as to their next steps.
Southwest, for example, they say that they've not been impacted at all. Here is the line for Spirit. Just moments ago I heard an airline
worker telling people that the flight to Philadelphia had been canceled, giving them a card with a QR code. So, understandably, people are very, very frustrated here.
An airport official told us that 300,000 travelers are expected to go through this airport today. So, this is a huge headache with real life consequences.
Let me introduce you to Paradise Mussa, who's trying to make a flight to Las Vegas to then go to L.A. for a wedding. And you're not just anybody, you're a bridesmaid.
PARADISE MUSSA, PASSENGER TRYING TO MAKE A WEDDING: Yes. It's my first cousin's wedding. Shout our, Mariame (ph). It's really stressful right now because if you guys know anything about being African or foreign, everything. You know, I'm from - my family's originally from Eritrea. And my mom, right here, has all the cultural attire for her and, you know, the jewelry and everything that goes into it. And the wedding is three days long. So, we're really stressed. We've been here for about like five hours now. So, it's just - we're waiting for nothing now.
ROSALES: Yes.
MUSSA: We're just - yes, it's up in the air.
ROSALES: And actually, what do you have in that luggage right there, that white luggage?
MUSSA: We have like all the cultural attire. It's called a zodia (ph), which is like very - a very pretty Eritrean -
ROSALES: And the bride's actual jewelry, right? She's depending on you, right?
MUSSA: Yes. The bride's actual dress too. Yes.
ROSALES: And you're just waiting on them to call your flight.
MUSSA: Yes.
ROSALES: You've been waiting in this line for hours.
MUSSA: We've been waiting for a long time. So, we're just waiting for them to call our flight. But every time we get to the front, we just get right back to the back. Because I know you saw me in the front earlier and now I'm all the way back here.
ROSALES: Yes. I'm - I am wishing you the best of luck, Paradise.
MUSSA: Thank you.
ROSALES: Clearly a lot of folks dealing with a lot today. Hopefully they make their flights.
Guys. SIDNER: Isabel, tell her not to tell anybody about where her jewelry
is. Like, no!
All right.
ROSALES: I'll tell you right -
SIDNER: John's like, whatever.
All right, let's go now to Anna Stewart. She's at Heathrow Airport.
I've been in that airport when there wasn't a problem and it's alive.
BERMAN: Yes.
SIDNER: It can be a bit rough. What are they dealing with right now?
ANNA STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I mean, Heathrow has its - yes, Heathrow has its problems on a good day, right? But today, of course, it's also experiencing outages. And really I think you'd be hard pushed to find an airport, particularly around Europe right now, that isn't impacted in some way. Some airlines more than others. Some airports more than others.
But at this stage we're looking at around 1,400 flights globally that have been canceled. The number that are delayed by many, many hours at this stage, of course, much, much more.
So, in terms of a global IT outage, having disruption on flights, I think it's fair to say this is probably the biggest we have ever seen at this stage. This is impacting so many people. Airports like Heathrow are just telling passengers at this stage, contact your airline, check your flight is not canceled, check it isn't delayed before you even head to the airport to experience what clearly many folks are in Atlanta.
Guys.
BERMAN: All right, good luck to all of you out there watching us from the airports right now. We will keep you all posted. And thank you to Tom Foreman, Isabel Rosales, and Anna Stewart.
Let's get back to Kate in Milwaukee.
BOLDUAN: So, people may not be able to leave Milwaukee right now because of all of this, guys, but they are definitely going to try. And here is why. As the balloons have dropped, the speeches have speeched, and the Republican Party officially, they have their presidential ticket. The Republican National Convention closing out with Donald Trump taking center - taking the stage. And in the more than 90 minutes of Trump's speech, he hit on the theme of message of unity. Something that he promised after his near death experience.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The discord and division in our society must be healed. We must heal it quickly. As Americans, we are bound together by a single fate and a shared destiny. We rise together or we fall apart.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: But that unifying message quickly and within the same speech morphed into kind of a classic Trump campaign hit list, drawing divisions, pointing fingers, airing grievances, decidedly not unifying.
CNN's Alayna Treene has much more on this.
[09:10:02]
After watching it all, and this entire week if you want to add it up, Alayna, what are you hearing from Trump's team about last night and where they are today?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, look, Kate, last night, but also this entire week, I think Donald Trump's team is very pleased with how this convention went.
They did want to stress this message of unity. Something we heard Donald Trump reference, of course, repeatedly last night. But that's also what we saw throughout the week from many of the other speakers, including some of Donald Trump's political foes, like Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis.
And part of that is because one of the big goals of this week I was told by the Trump campaign was to try and paint the state and the party around Donald Trump, the Republican Party, in stark contrast with the Democratic Party and all of the hand-wringing we're seeing around Joe Biden and questions and calls for him to step aside.
Now, you are totally right, Kate, that last night it really was a tale of two speeches. We saw two entirely different Donald Trump's up on that stage. And that's because, you know, I had been hearing from Donald Trump's advisers, and his allies, in the days leading up to his remarks, that final day last night, that he was going to be throwing out and tearing up his original speech, which was really throwing raw meat to the base, and instead opt for a more softer version of Donald Trump, one where he recounted the harrowing experience that he went through during that failed assassination attempt.
And we did hear, you know, the latter at the start of the evening. Donald Trump, in a remarkably, I'd argue, vulnerable moment for him. He walked through what happened to him in detail.
I do want you to take a listen to some of what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I heard a loud whizzing sound and felt something hit me really, really hard on my right ear. I said to myself, wow, what was that? It can only be a bullet. And moved my right hand to my ear, brought it down. My hand was covered with blood.
There was blood pouring everywhere, and yet, in a certain way, I felt very safe because I had God on my side.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TREENE: Now, Kate, you heard him just say there he had God on his side. That is something, I'm told, Donald Trump has been feeling all week. He has been very spiritual for someone who is not that religious and often remarking that he does believe divine intervention was at work over the weekend.
But look, he has another rally tomorrow in Michigan. He'll be joined by his running mate, JD Vance. It will be interesting to see whether we'll see that version of Donald Trump that you just heard, or the one we heard later in his speech where he really, you know, rifted, rambled, went off script and aired some of his grievances and painted a dark picture of America.
If I were a betting woman, Kate, I would argue it'd be the latter, but we'll see what happens tomorrow.
Kate.
BOLDUAN: Going into the category of can't help himself, but it's a good question of which of the messages, now that we know there can be two messages, more than one, which one applies best in the various campaign stops that they make will be very interesting.
Alayna, great to see you. Thank you.
John.
BERMAN: All right, It is 9:00 a.m. - 9:12 a.m., actually. Do you know where your presidential campaign is?
President Biden's re-election bid in limbo as high ranking Democrat join calls for him to step aside.
And just in, "The Wall Street Journal" is slamming Russia's conviction of reporter Evan Gershkovich as disgraceful and a sham. They say they will not rest until he is released.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:17:55]
SIDNER: This morning, outrage growing after U.S. journalist Evan Gershkovich was just convicted by a Russian court of espionage for doing his job. "The Wall Street Journal" saying this journalism is not a crime, and we will not rest until he is released.
"The Wall Street Journal" reporter had been sentenced to 16 years in a maximum security penal colony in Russia. You will see him there in that glass case during the trial. This - last year he had been accused of espionage and has been detained ever since. Detention the U.S. State Department, by the way, designated as wrongful detention. His trial denounced as a sham.
We turn now to CNN's chief global affairs correspondent, Matthew Chance, who's been following this from the very beginning.
What was Gershkovich's reaction when that verdict was read?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, you can see the very shaky television pictures that we've had come through to us. It's very difficult to get a sense of the expression on his face.
But look, he pleaded not guilty. And the prosecution asked for 18 years in prison for the crime of espionage. The court decided on 16 years.
But I think what's remarkable about this - this whole episode, this latest sort of installment of this saga, is that it happened so quickly. The trial for espionage. Obviously, an incredibly serious offense. Nearly began, you know, formerly three weeks ago. And the fact that the - the Russian court was able to reach a verdict so quickly, you know, gives the impression, doesn't it, that due process possibly wasn't followed, that there is a politicization of the Russian legal system. We all knew, let's face it, that this was going to be a guilty verdict.
I think on the bright side, if you can draw any sort of positives from this, it's that now that a verdict has been reached, even though it's a guilty verdict, it does remove, Sara, a bureaucratic obstacle that the Russians put in place, put in the way of a prisoner swap or a prisoner exchange. They said from the outset that even though there are discussions underway for that, that they - they wouldn't consider an exchange until a verdict had been reached.
[09:20:10]
And now that's out of the way. But, you know, that could still be months away. It could still be years away. It may never happen. And so a very stressful times for Evan Gershkovich and his family, of course.
SIDNER: Still terrifying to be put in that position. His family fighting for his release, as well as the U.S.
Matthew Chance, thank you so much for all your reporting on this case.
John.
BERMAN: All right, this morning, President Biden is in Covid isolation and probably in a state of contemplation as he decides what his next steps will be for his political future. Top Democratic donors are threatening to pull donations to down-ballot races as long as the president remains the party nominee. Until a decision is made, there is still a campaign to run though. And this morning, a brand new ad from the Biden-Harris campaign is out that hits Donald Trump on abortion access and the impact on black maternal health. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHAWANA MOORE: I'm Shawana Moore. I'm a women's health nurse practitioner. Overturning Roe was just the beginning.
I think that spirit (ph) uncertainty.
My heart ached for patients needing care because we have to understand the legal landscape when it comes to providing reproductive health care, which includes abortion care.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: With us now is senior adviser to the Biden-Harris campaign, former mayor of Atlanta, Keisha Lance Bottoms.
Mayor, thank you so much for being with us this morning.
A new Democratic member of Congress came out this morning saying he would like to see President Biden step aside as the party nomination. Sean Casten of Illinois. He writes, "at the end of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln said he never doubted the union would prevail because there was always just enough virtue in the republic to save it, sometimes none to spare, but still enough to meet the emergency. We need a messenger at the top of the ticket who can make that case. It breaks my heart to say it, but Biden is no longer up for that job."
Your reaction to hearing that?
KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS, SENIOR ADVISER, BIDEN CAMPAIGN: Well, the beauty of our party is that we get to agree to disagree. And we aren't banished. We aren't emasculated. And we aren't put out of the party. Unlike the MAGA Republican Party.
So, I don't agree with the senator. President Biden has said that he's staying in this race. He is still our nominee. But the senator, of course, has the ability to express his opinion. But as I'm talking to people outside of Washington, D.C., talking to everyday people, I joined 1,400 other African American women in signing a letter supporting the Biden-Harris ticket. I believe that the 14 million people who cast their votes for President Biden are still with President Biden.
So, I'm going to put my money on the 14 million voters and not the handful of people in our party who've decided that our president, who earn this nomination, shouldn't be our nominee.
BERMAN: What's the feeling inside the campaign right now with all these - and that was a congressman, Sean Casten of Illinois, who came out, but other people have come out too, including Senator Jon Tester last night of Montana.
What's the feeling inside the campaign when more and more officials go public? BOTTOMS: The feeling inside the campaign is that we've got to take it
directly to the people. That's what campaigns do. And we are pushing full steam ahead until President Biden tells us something differently. And as of now, he's not said that he will not continue to be our nominee.
What you do when you are running races, successful races, you continue to talk to the people. I know something about being down in polls. Going into the race for mayor, when I ran a few years ago, I was seven points down going into the election, and I prevailed. So, no one said that this would be easy or this would be pretty, but this is what our democracy is all about. So, right now, we're keeping our heads down. We're continuing to do work. We're continuing to talk directly to voters. And that's what you see in that ad, reminding people that Donald Trump has now doubled down on these extreme position related to abortion by putting JD Vance on his ticket.
BERMAN: You said until President Biden tells us differently. Is there a contemplation going on right now that you're aware of?
BOTTOMS: No. What I mean is that President Biden is our nominee. I've not gotten any signal from the president, anyone close to the president, who's in touch with him on a daily basis, that he is changing his mind. He is our nominee. He earned the nomination with the votes of 14 million people. I was one of them who took the time to go to the polls and vote on Election Day. And I want to make sure that my vote matters.
[09:25:00]
So, President Biden has said he's our nominee. There are discussions about what should be done, but there was ample opportunity during the primary season for someone to raise their hand, put their name on the ballot, and we saw that nobody was successful in defeating Joe Biden. He is the only person who has beaten Donald Trump. And I believe that he will do it again.
BERMAN: There is new reporting this morning donors have been upset and some of the fundraising has backed off a little bit. But now there are donors threatening to withhold donations to down-ballot Democrats if President Biden doesn't step aside. What do you think the impact of that could be?
BOTTOMS: Well, obviously, it - you know, it's not for me to decide what donors do with their money. It's their money. They have an opportunity to do with it what they please.
But what I would say is, we aren't doing ourselves any favors by weakening our party as a whole. There will still be an election in November. And when Joe Biden is still our nominee, the question that I've asked repeatedly is, what's the plan to get our voters back to the polls, to get people to believe that defeating Donald Trump has to be our number one priority.
And so I hope that we will trust the person that 14 million of us elected to be our nominee. That we will trust that he will lead us to victory in November. And, of course, you need resources and dollars to do that. People get to decide what they want to do with their money. But if we want to preserve our country and the success that we've had over the past several years under the Biden administration, we're going to need financial support to do that.
BERMAN: Based on what you saw last night, do you feel that Donald Trump is beatable, and how?
BOTTOMS: Donald Trump couldn't even last 30 minutes pretending to act as if he had good sense. Donald Trump is still Donald Trump. And that's what we should expect.
I had PTSD watching Donald Trump give that speech last night because I was mayor while Donald Trump was in the Oval Office, and it was a disaster trying to govern a city with the instability that was coming outside of the White House.
So, I do believe that Donald Trump is beatable. I do believe that we can hold on to the Senate. I do believe that we can hold on to the House. There was this red wave that was expected during the midterms. It didn't happen. People thought that Joe Biden wouldn't be our nominee in 2020. It happened.
So, I would just encourage people to keep our eye on - eyes on the prize. That is to defeat Donald Trump. And the Donald Trump that we will expect to see, if he, God forbid, is elected president again, is the one that we saw last night.
BERMAN: Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, great to talk to you. Thanks so much for being with us this morning. We appreciate your time.
BOTTOMS: Thank you.
BERMAN: Sara.
SIDNER: All right, just days after calling for unity, as you heard there from the mayor, former President Trump takes the stage at the RNC with a speech that no one would say was particularly unifying.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
