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Barack and Michelle Obama Endorse Harris for President in New Video; French Train Lines Hit by Arson, Sabotage as Olympics Begin; Alleged Sinaloa Cartel Leaders Nabbed in Texas Sting Operation. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired July 26, 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]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news, Obamas on board. The big, maybe biggest endorsement Vice President Harris could get.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: And captured, two alleged Mexican drug kingpins lured to the U.S. and arrested, both accused of leading operations that flooded deadly fentanyl into the country. How agents tricked them into crossing the border.

Plus, breaking news out of Paris, attacks on major railways just hours before the opening Olympic ceremonies. Hundreds of thousands of travelers there affected. We are there live for you to give you an update.

I'm Sara Sidner with John Berman who is here and Kate Baldwin who is taking a minute off. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BERMAN: That music you just heard? Emmy nominated. Come for the journalism, stay for the music. The breaking news, just moments ago, Vice President Kamala Harris picked up the formal endorsement of former President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama as well. Here is the brand new video.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Kamala.

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT, PRESUMPTIVE DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Yes? Hi.

MICHELLE OBAMA, FORMER U.S. FIRST LADY: Hey there.

HARRIS: Hi, you're both together. Oh, it's good to hear you both.

M. OBAMA: I can't have this phone call without saying to my girl, Kamala, I am proud of you. This is going to be historic.

B. OBAMA: We call to say Michelle and I couldn't be prouder to endorse you and to do everything we can to get you through this election and into the Oval Office.

HARRIS: Oh my goodness. Michelle, Barack, this means so much to me. I'm looking forward to doing this with the two of you, Doug and I both. And getting out there, being on the road, but most of all, I just want to tell you that the words you have spoken and the friendship that you have given over all these years mean more than I can express.

So, thank you both. It means so much. And we're going to have some fun with this too, aren't we?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, this is not unexpected, but could be a bit awkward for Donald Trump this morning. Overnight, his campaign said it would not commit to debating Harris, in part because she had not been endorsed by Obama. Well, now she has.

With us now, CNN Senior White House Correspondent Kayla Tausche. Kayla, again, not unexpected, but kind of shows this tight rollout that Harris has had over the last, now, this is, what, the sixth day?

KAYLA TAUSCHE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, highly choreographed, even though all of this came together in the 11th hour over just the last week.

This was a critical piece for Vice President Harris to get the endorsement from a party leader who still has influential sway across the entirety of the Democratic Party. It was it -- it's not -- it shouldn't be understated the fact that this came on several days after her candidacy became official, but also after the official process to clinch those delegates came through. Sources have said that the Obamas didn't want to be seen as anointing Vice President Harris or is seen as part of a coronation, in the words of one, choosing instead to wait until after some of those processes have played out.

But, certainly, it is going to provide quite a bit more momentum for a campaign that is already seen quite a bit of that, $126 million raised as of Tuesday. The campaign has not provided an updated number, even though several days have followed that. And even though several major organizing calls have taken place, including one last night with white women, where 164,000 women participated in that.

And Harris is going to be trying to use that momentum across the battlegrounds in the coming days. The campaign saying that just today, it will be holding events in Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, following on dozens of events taking place across other battleground states leading up to this point.

Of course, the calendar is very crunched at this point. There are a lot of deadlines coming up in August alone. We have learned from sources that Vice President Harris and her team are expected to lock in a running mate by August 7th. That would be a process that would be just about two weeks from start to finish.

[07:05:00]

August 1st is the earliest date that the rules committee has decided that early voting could begin. And then, of course, there is the convention, the 19th through the 22nd, less than a month away at this point. So, certainly, there is a lot to do in just the next few weeks, guys.

BERMAN: Yes, not a lot of real estate left on that calendar. Kayla Tausche, great to have you on in the mornings, thanks so much for being with us. I Appreciate it. Sara?

SIDNER: The presidential campaign getting curiouser and curiouser. Donald Trump hitting the pause button on a debate with Kamala Harris after originally agreeing to one with President Biden that was supposed to be on September 10th. Harris wasted no time accusing Trump of backpedaling, posting on X, quote, what happened to anytime, anyplace?

CNN's Alayna Treene is with me now. She certainly trolled Donald Trump there with that tweet. Why is Trump failing to commit to this debate with Kamala Harris?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Look, I mean, there's a number of things happening behind the scenes, but their official statement is that there's still so much chaos happening within the Democratic Party.

But, look, as you said, Sara, they are refusing, Donald Trump and his team, refusing to commit to another debate with Kamala Harris. Of course, as you mentioned, they had agreed months ago to two debates. The first of which, of course, was on June 27th with CNN and set off that distinct chain of events that led to Biden ending his campaign and Harris now becoming the likely Democratic nominee, but they also agreed two months ago this September 10th debate with ABC News.

Now, I think we all know we've watched this over the last several weeks. You know, several days that within 48 hours of biting ending his campaign, Kamala Harris has seen a surge of support from Democratic fundraising, enthusiasm on the ground, and, of course, with high level endorsements from essentially every Democratic leader, the last holdout was really the Obamas. And we saw that as Kayla just laid out.

I want to read for you some of what Stephen Cheung, one of Donald Trump's top advisors said in this statement. He said, quote, given the continued political chaos surrounding Crooked Joe Biden and the Democrat Party, general election debate details cannot be finalized until Democrats formally decide on their nominee.

It went on to say it would be inappropriate to schedule things with Harris because Democrats very well could still change their minds.

Now, again, they are saying this despite it being very clear that Harris does seem like the likely person he is going to face off in the fall.

Now, Trump himself actually addressed this with reporters earlier this week. He said that he agreed to a debate with Joe Biden, not with Harris, but also argued he still wants to debate. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I haven't agreed to anything. I agreed to a debate with Joe Biden. But I want to debate her and she'll be no different because they have the same policies. I think debating is important for a presidential race. I really do. I think that you have to get -- you sort of have an obligation to debate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now, Sara, just to give you some sense of what I'm hearing from Trump's advisers, they do tell me that they believe there will be another debate, that they do want Donald Trump to debate. Of course, they are far less eager now than they were with Joe Biden and having Donald Trump face off an entirely new opponent. But right now, when I talk to him, they're really in a wait and see moment. And, of course, this is a departure from what they had committed to in the past.

SIDNER: And we should be clear that Donald Trump was not the official nominee when he debated Joe Biden. So, it's an interesting reason given for not wanting to debate Kamala Harris. All right, we will see what happens. A debate will probably happen. We hope.

All right, Alayna Treene, thank you so much. I'm going to toss it over to myself.

Breaking overnight, criminal sabotage, widespread coordinated attacks on France's train system. You know that opening statements for the Olympics are supposed to happen today. It is causing chaos.

Also, police in California have arrested a man, they say, started this raging wildfire that you're seeing there behind me by pushing a burning car into a canyon. So far, 160,000 acres have burned.

And an eight-day mission has turned into a 50-day staycation for two astronauts stuck in space. And there's still no date set for them to return.

We'll talk about all that and more coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:10:00]

BERMAN: Breaking news, just hours before the Olympic opening ceremonies, coordinated attacks including arson targeting France's high speed train lines. Officials say it is sabotage. It's impacting some 800,000 people. Many station facilities are damaged.

CNN Senior International Correspondent Melissa Bell is in Paris. But we're told, Melissa, the opening ceremonies are still on, correct?

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. That's going ahead on the sand. Spectacular as it promises to be, John. But this is one thing the organizers of Paris 2024 couldn't possibly have prepared for. What we're talking about is a coordinated sabotage attacks at 4:00 A.M. across the country. They cut cables. They used arson to take out installations that would essentially cripple France's rail network pretty effectively, it turns out.

This is La Gare Montparnasse, one of Paris' main train stations. They're just closing it down right now and warning people that they're probably not going to be able to travel until Monday.

[07:15:00]

Now, it isn't just the many tens of thousands of people who are hoping to get into Paris for the opening ceremony and to be here to sort of soak up the vibe of the city. It is also the many hundreds of thousands of French people and their families who are hoping to get out of the country, around the country for their start of their summer holidays.

So, a great deal of disruption again. Paris 2024 had thought they'd planned for everything, but this level of chaos, of course very difficult to prevent. We don't know who's behind it. We have heard from an intelligence source here, John, in France, who says that it is the tactics that have been used by the far left before, although there is nothing to link them to this particular series of sabotage acts, again, across the country that have achieved their aim of crippling France's rail networks just hours ahead of the opening ceremony.

What the rail authorities are warning now is that 800,000 travelers are likely to be impacted over the course of the weekend. So, whilst Paris 2024 organizers felt they'd prepared for everything, they're really facing a great deal of chaos, even as they attempt to keep Paris safe for this ceremony and the events beyond. John?

BERMAN: No one hurt at this point in any of these?

BELL: For the time being, we don't believe anybody has been hurt. These are attacks that happened at 4:00 A.M. Again, arson, cable theft targeted at installations, signal boxes to cripple the network. No one appears to have been hurt. But, of course, what's happening across France now is workers are desperately trying to fix those train lines in order to get the country going again.

This will impact, of course, the summer games that begin here in Paris tonight, but, of course, the travel plans of hundreds and thousands in and outside France, people hoping to leave, people hoping to come in. And you can see those images coming into us now of the workers trying to get the rail up and running again, but it's likely to take, John, several days.

BERMAN: It's kind of mess that Paris was hoping to avoid. All right, thank you so much. Melissa Bell. I appreciate it.

So, a CNN exclusive, election officials in 48 states, both Republicans and Democrats, say there's nothing stopping the vice president, Kamala Harris, from getting on the ballot.

And breaking overnight, a major sting operation, how the son of drug kingpin, El Chapo, was tricked into custody. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:00]

SIDNER: Breaking overnight, they got him. U.S. authorities say they have captured two Mexican drug kingpins, including former cartel boss El Chapo's son. The two were arrested in the U.S. after evading law enforcement for decades. Officials say Ismael Zambada, known as El Mayo, and Joaquin Guzman Lopez, the son of El Chapo, were taken into custody after boarding a plane under the pretense of inspecting a property in Mexico when they got a surprise of their lives.

Let's get straight to CNN's Polo Sandoval with the details. So, what happened? They got him on this plane and then?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, we can't overstate this enough. This is a massive victory for the U.S. government, Sara. You have one of the most wanted cartel bosses, at least wanted by the federal government, a multimillion dollar price on his head, who, together with Joaquin Guzman, we all know him as El Chapo, helped actually establish the Sinaloa Cartel, was essentially tricked to fly into the waiting arms of U.S. law enforcement. It really reads out of a Narcos episode, but it's reality here.

A little bit about Ismael Zambada, who's known by authorities as El Mayo, he oversaw, according to federal prosecutors, the manufacturing and distribution of narcotics going all the way back to 1989 and up until this year, according to federal prosecutors.

El Mayo in his mid-70s, this is an old school kind of cartel boss, right? He kept a low profile, unlike his partner, probably one of the reasons why, up until now, he hadn't actually set foot in a cell. In fact, it's very difficult, even finding recent photographs of this individual. But some of those pictures that you saw a short while ago, those were actually taken not far from El Paso, about 20 miles away from El Paso, according to what I've heard, as well as some of my other colleagues heard from some of those investigators, so those sources close to the investigation.

He stepped aboard this airplane yesterday under false pretenses that he would be flying to see a property potentially to buy it, and he had no idea that this plane would eventually land near El Paso, where U.S. authorities were waiting. As you can see in that footage, you see some of those federal investigators on the ground. They even actually attach a chain to the propeller of the plane that is believed to have been the one that actually flew El Mayo, as well as Joaquin Guzman Lopez, one of Chapo's sons, who's accused of also running the Sinaloa Crime Syndicate.

While his whereabouts, El Mayo's whereabouts are still unclear, I can tell you, Sara, that a U.S. DOJ Aircraft that's frequently used for extraditions of fugitives and of suspects traveled from El Paso to the Chicago area this morning. And that is important because El Mayo actually has an outstanding indictment, one of several there in that district. One of the big questions, will this actually reshaped the cartel landscape? Is the Sinaloa Cartel no more? I can tell you, absolutely not. If anything, what I've seen in the past, this only leads to infighting, friction and a power struggle to fill a void. And what a void this is, especially for this sort of elder cartel boss that is now in U.S. custody

And then the final and perhaps the most key question here, who actually betrayed him. There is some reporting out there and several leads that were following that suggested possibly was from within the Sinaloa Cartel Syndicate, but not yet ready to actually go there.

Finally, I do want you to hear directly from the U.S. attorney general that was ultimately the one who fired I'm going to finally confirm this hours after we started hearing about this yesterday afternoon about the significance of this arrest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MERRICK GARLAND, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Fentanyl is the deadliest drug threat our country has ever faced. The Justice Department will not rest until every single cartel leader, member and associate responsible for poisoning our communities is held accountable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: Garland really sort of punctuating the significance of this because the Sinaloa Cartel, according to the D.A., is believed to have provided or at least manufacturing distributed a majority of the fentanyl that has ended up here in the United States, killing many, many Americans.

SIDNER: Yes, thousands and thousands of Americans. It is an incredible get and it will be interesting to see what happens with the cartel. Like you said, the infighting sometimes helps bring more people to justice as well. So, we will see.

Polo Sandoval, thank you for your reporting. I appreciate it.

All right, coming up next exclusive, Vice President Harris should face no legal obstacles and getting on the ballot despite what you have been hearing from some Republicans.

[07:25:08]

And a devastating wildfire in California exploding overnight, scorching an area larger than the city of Chicago. Now, police have a suspect in custody who they believe set that fire.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right. This morning, a CNN Exclusive, we've reached out to all 50 states and found that Vice President Kamala Harris should have no problem getting on the ballots for November.

[07:30:03] Now, this kind of contradicts claims from House Speaker Mike Johnson who said there would be legal impediments.