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Trump Continues False Attacks On Harris' Racial Identity; Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) On 3 Americans Back In U.S. After Historic Prisoner Swap With Russia; Funeral Underway In Qatar For Assassinated Hamas Political Leader. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired August 02, 2024 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

JOHN KIRBY, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COMMUNICATIONS ADVISER: But I will say this, Kate, and I said the same thing after we got Brittney Griner home and we couldn't get Paul home at that time. Every time you do these negotiations you learn. You gain some knowledge and perspective about what the other side will or won't trade for and where their headspace is. And that was the case in this case.

So even though we weren't able to get Mr. Fogel, we learned a lot about the Russian perspective on him and his case, and we're going to hopefully be able to apply that in the conversations that we're having right now with them, and we are having those conversations now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: In the midst of this, this is an election year. I need to play for you what Donald Trump and his running mate said about this historic prisoner exchange -- listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I heard he said this, "Why didn't Trump get him out?" And he was taken during their time. You know, I got out 59 different people -- 59 -- and I didn't pay money. And they allowed some really rough people out. You know that, right?

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), U.S. VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have to ask ourselves why are they coming home, and I think it's because bad guys all over the world recognize Donald Trump's about to be back in office, so they're cleaning house. That's a good thing and I think it's a testament to Donald Trump's strength.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: How do you respond to that?

KIRBY: Well, on the last comment, I don't -- I don't know what to say. There's absolutely zero evidence at all that this deal was brought about because of some potential fear of who might be the next president.

This deal was brought about because the president had -- President Biden had alliances, and partnerships, and trust he could build on, particularly with the German chancellor who had made a brave, courageous decision to let Mr. Krasikov go. That's what -- that's what brought these guys home was really solid relationships and trusting confidence that the president has built up over years with foreign leaders, and a lot of hard work and some tough decisions by some very strong leaders here in the United States and around the world.

As for the previous comments by the previous president, Trevor Reed was taken in the previous administration's time in office. Mr. Biden got him home. Paul Whelan was taken in the previous administration's time in office. President Biden got Paul home.

And I would stress that zero dollars were exchanged in this deal that brought these people home last night. It was all about people-to- people exchanges.

And the last thing I'll say Kate is that the previous administration also conducted prisoner exchanges. The previous administration also had to make tough decisions to get Americans home. And I can't dispute Mr. Trump's number there, 59, but I can just tell you President Biden has gotten more than 70 Americans home. That's what you have to do when you have people in harm's way over there. You've got to make these tough decisions.

It's not easy. Sometimes it's gut-wrenching and sometimes you have to look the other way while somebody really bad, like Krasikov, becomes a free man. But in the balance -- in the end, it's better to bring innocent people home and not let them rot in a Russian jail than to take the risk that somebody bad, like Mr. Krasikov, is going to go back to his ways. And look, if he does, we'll be ready for him.

BOLDUAN: John Kirby from the White House. Thank you.

KIRBY: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: It is 2024 and we're talking about birth certificates again. The latest twist as President -- as former President Trump is not giving up on attacking Kamala Harris' race and identity.

And she is blowing away the competition in her Olympic debut. The must-see shot of Sha'Carri Richardson's highly anticipated -- highly anticipated first race this morning.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:37:57]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump casted doubt over the historic prisoner swap by speculating in a radio interview over what the U.S. gave up in exchange and called the negotiators "an embarrassment." Now look, there's no evidence that the U.S. paid for the prisoner swap in any way.

The former president also doubled down with his false attacks on Kamala Harris' racial identity.

CNN's Alayna Treene joins us from Washington with more. So it doesn't appear that he's running away from this and other things as well. What's the thinking here?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Yeah, he's definitely not running away from it. In fact, he's doubling and tripling down on these comments and continuing to repeat them.

And look, I can tell you Omar that this wasn't anticipated when Donald Trump showed up in Chicago on Wednesday that he was going to make these types of comments. But now that he did and that this is out there, we know that this is often the case with Donald Trump. He will just further -- rather than apologize or try to walk it back, he is just further putting this out there and amplifying it.

And we have seen him in the days since -- even hours after that appearance at the NABJ conference, he reiterated that she was -- you know, the false claims that she is lying about her heritage.

He's also been amplifying - we saw this in the last 24 hours -- amplifying posts from far-right activist Laura Loomer where she shared a photo of what she claimed was Harris' birth certificate, saying that she was lying about being Black. Very reminiscent of kind of the birther conspiracy -- the racist birther conspiracy, I should say, that he had shared around Barack Obama and questioning his birth certificate and whether he was actually American.

So we've seen this before. This is the 2016 playbook that Donald Trump is reverting back to.

And I think it's worth noting as well that less than two weeks ago, Donald Trump was in a very different place. He was just coming off of the Republican Convention. He had been really trying to stick to policy. You had seen the entire Republican Party really unite behind him.

[07:40:00]

And now, he is back to the same old Donald Trump that we all know very well. And we're seeing people in the Republican Party, including on Capitol Hill, feeling very uncomfortable with these comments.

Now, I do want you to take a listen because we've actually heard his running mate J.D. Vance trying to defend Donald Trump on this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), U.S. VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They don't give me pause at all. Look, all he said is that Kamala Harris is a chameleon. She goes to Georgia two days ago. She was raised in Canada. She puts on a fake southern accent. She is everything to everybody and she pretends to be somebody different depending on which audience she's in front of. I think it's totally reasonable for the president to call that out, and that's all he did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: So, Omar, the fact that J.D. Vance is saying this and defending Donald Trump, when I talk to Donald Trump's advisers they say this is going to be a line of attack moving forward, particularly, this idea that she is "phony" and that she tries to do different things to different audiences. And so you'll -- I think you should expect to hear a lot more of this in the future -- Omar.

JIMENEZ: We will see. Alayna Treene, appreciate the reporting as always -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: So, from Russian prison cells back to U.S. soil. Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, and Russian U.S. journalist Alsu Kurmasheva walking off a plane at Joint Base Andrews just before midnight last night. And then, in the wee hours of this morning, landing in Texas for medical checks.

Joining me right now is Democratic Congresswoman from Michigan, Debbie Dingell.

And Congresswoman, Paul Whelan is from Michigan. His parents still live in your district. You've become friends with them and his siblings. You've been working on this with them for these past horrible five years.

What did you think when you saw this video of his first moments of freedom?

REP. DEBBIE DINGELL (D-MI) (via Skype): So, I mean, I cried again.

Yesterday, obviously, we had known that this was coming or that the work was being done. I had talked to Jake Sullivan about two weeks ago right after Evan had been convicted, and he was like, Debbie, we're getting it done. And I told Elizabeth, his sister, right after that I've never seen Jake so committed.

But I wouldn't say anything -- people were asking me for comments -- until we know -- knew he was in American hands and knew it was real. Everybody was superstitious because there have been so many other false hopes.

Joe Biden worked hard on this. I can't tell you the number of times I talked to him about Paul, and his parents, and his siblings. And he kept saying to me, Debbie, tell them we're not giving up. I'm going to get it done. And Joe Biden and his team -- I'm going to start to cry -- they got it done. They brought him home.

BOLDUAN: It's an amazing moment. It's so -- it is -- I -- what broke me was seeing -- was seeing those two little girls running to their mom and the tarmac. That was --

DINGELL: Oh.

BOLDUAN: -- broke me in half when I saw that. It's one thing -- and it is one time that everyone can say it is good things. No matter the debate over hostage diplomacy, as it is called, when you see them, you can celebrate that they are back on American soil.

The fact that this is all happening in an election year I think is just like an added oh, my God. You know, 2024 is such a wild year. And add to the oh, my God, Kamala Harris' team, Congresswoman, just

announced that its fundraising haul for the month of July is $310 million. It's more than double what the Trump campaign raised. A majority, they say, of that $310 million was raised in the first week of Harris' candidacy, and she just got in on July 21.

That money means what?

DINGELL: So what I want to say is I'm -- everybody calls me "Debbie Downer." I'm going to go to "Debbie Realist." Everybody's on a sugar high right now. There's new energy. The canvases and the walks that we did last weekend was on double the number of volunteers. People are excited.

But Michigan -- let me give you a reality check. Michigan is still a purple state. You are seeing people I think helping us through the contrast between what we could go back to or what we want to keep working towards. How much Joe Biden has gotten done as president. But this election is not over.

So, yes, it's wonderful to see that kind of money come in because -- and a lot of it is grassroots donors. People who have never given before. So people are engaged.

But the base on the other side is engaged, too. Our base wasn't as energized as they are now. But we've got to roll up our sleeves and have a lot of work to do. Nobody can think this election is over because it's not.

BOLDUAN: Yeah. And I -- and I know we talk about this all the time, but the Democrats need to listen. You were the canary in the coal mine in 2016 and you always have your ear to the ground when it comes to how things are looking and how people are really feeling.

It's good to see you, Congresswoman. Thank you so much.

[07:45:00]

DINGELL: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Omar.

JIMENEZ: All right. She thought she'd never step foot on the gymnastics floor again and now, that new GOAT necklace -- it was just up there a second ago, I promise -- it says it all. We're going to tell you what we're watching for from Simone Biles, next.

But first, this week's CNN hero has lived a nightmare familiar to many Americans. Her daughter died from a fentanyl overdose at 26 and now she's turning that pain into healing for women struggling with addiction in her hometown of Johnson, Vermont.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAWN TATRO, DAUGHTER DIED FROM FENTANYL OVERDOSE: Johnson always had a lot of life and community, and I was seeing that just go away. This whole street was one of the hardest hit places for gangs moving in and drug dealing.

I don't think a lot of people realize it's here. It's embedded in your community. But with Jenna being so involved in it, I really learned so much about the places.

We did everything that we were supposed to do as a family, but it doesn't matter who you are because that drug basically owns you. So many of the struggles that Jenna went through I realized there were gaps. So we started building Jenna's Promise, helping women that are struggling with addiction.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:50:47]

BOLDUAN: Right now, the funeral is underway in Doha for assassinated Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh. He is third high-profile figure of Iranian proxies to be killed in a matter of weeks, pushing the Middle East into a dangerous new level of uncertainty now. And CNN is also now learning new details about how he was killed.

CNN's Ivan Watson is in Beirut following all of this for us. There have been so -- there's twists and turns on this and more claims of assassination even as we wake up this morning. Ivan, what are you learning?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, we have a source that has told CNN that Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas political leader, was actually killed at his guest residence in Tehran earlier this week by a bomb that had been planted there weeks ahead of time. And if that is, in fact, true -- and it's also been reported by The New York Times using a number of sources -- then it would indicate an incredible lapse of security on the part of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which was reportedly in charge of security at that official residence.

You combine that with the fact a senior Hezbollah commander was killed in a building just to the south of Beirut Tuesday evening here in Lebanon -- and that was, in fact, claimed by Israel as an airstrike -- it shows two serious lapses of security on the part of Iran and its close ally, the Hezbollah militant group here in Lebanon.

Of course, Ismail Haniyeh -- he's being awarded the highest honors with his funeral underway at the National Mosque in the Qatari capital.

The president of Turkey, a NATO ally, has declared a day of mourning for his assassination.

And there are, of course, calls of retribution from Iran, from the Hezbollah movement here in Lebanon -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Ivan, thank you so much for your reporting -- Omar.

JIMENEZ: Well, The Wall Street Journal -- their newsroom erupted in celebration. I'm going to play some of that now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

Cheers from journalists in The Wall Street Journal newsroom upon learning of Evan Gershkovich's release.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: That was The Wall Street Journal's newsroom and celebration when Evan Gershkovich's colleagues learned he'd been freed from Russia and was finally coming home.

And even as details of his release were being finalized, he showed his dedication as a journalist, requesting a one-on-one interview with Vladimir Putin.

Here's what President Biden said when asked if journalists should be afraid when reporting abroad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: (INAUDIBLE).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: Here with me now is Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

And Jodie, according to your organization, there were over 300 journalists imprisoned in just 2023 alone. And look, in this prisoner swap there were two journalists, Evan Gershkovich and Alsu Kurmasheva.

And when journalists are taken in a country like Russia, it obviously sends a message to the individual families affected in their home countries. But what sort of message does it send globally when something like this happens?

JODIE GINSBERG, CEO, COMMITTEE TO PROTECT JOURNALISTS: Well, it sends a message to put essentially, newsrooms and journalists on notice that they could be next. It has a chilling effect and we saw that with Evan's arrest. In fact, we saw journalists pull back. We saw newsrooms pull back.

So it doesn't have just an effect on the individual, it doesn't have just an effect on that individual newsroom. It has a much broader effect on the journalistic community. And then, of course, on our right to know because we get less information because we have fewer journalists reporting the facts.

JIMENEZ: And that, of course, is the critical piece of this.

[07:55:00]

And look, you wrote as part of your statement at the Committee to Protect Journalists that, of course, you welcome their releases but also that it doesn't change the fact that Russia continues to suppress a free press.

How would you assess the state of reporting in a place like Russia?

GINSBERG: It's really challenging. We've seen a serious uptick in arrests of domestic journalists and hundreds of Russian journalists have gone into exile. And in recent months, what we've seen is an uptick from Russia in going after journalists in exile. So we've seen people being arrested in absentia, charged in absentia. And that's disturbing as well because if you get a charge, it can often mean that it's more challenging for you to travel and so on.

So it's extraordinarily challenging to report inside Russia. It's even more challenging increasingly to reporting on Russia from outside of Russia. And again, what that means is the amount of information that's available to Russians in Russia but also internationally is more and more limited.

JIMENEZ: And at a critical time as well with the war in Ukraine --

GINSBERG: Absolutely.

JIMENEZ: -- where information could make a difference in someone's life or death.

I want you to contextualize this moment because one thing I'm struck by whenever I work with your organization or see data from your organization is the shear amount of reporters across the world that your organization follows -- not just in places like Russia but in Vietnam. In Gaza, we've seen significantly, an amount of effect over the past year.

How would you assess the state of global press freedom right now -- again, outside of countries like Russia?

GINSBERG: Perilous, I would say. Last year, we saw 320 journalists in jail at the end of 2023. That was a near record high. Twenty-twenty- two was a record high. We saw near record high numbers of journalists killed last year.

But what I really want to stress is those threats are not just in war zones. They're not just in autocratic regimes. Increasingly, we're seeing those threats against journalists here in the United States -- in the U.S. You, yourself, were arrested here in the United States.

We're seeing increased amounts of threats against journalists online. Rising amounts of harassment. And that's particularly the case as you go into highly charged political events like we're seeing with the U.S. election.

Almost inevitably, as soon as you start to move into these political events you start to see an uptick in the levels of online harassment against journalists. That often feeds into physical harassment of journalists. And that particularly affects women journalists and journalists from marginalized communities. And we're really looking for that as we head into the election and making sure that we're doing everything to ensure journalists have the safety information they need and the protection they need to do their job.

JIMENEZ: Yeah.

And just to put it into perspective for the folks watching that your data shows that in 2023 alone, you saw the highest number of journalists and media workers killed worldwide than any other year. And I believe you started tracking data back in 1992. So clearly, a concerning picture around the world.

Jodie Ginsberg, I really appreciate you being here.

GINSBERG: Thank you.

JIMENEZ: Kate.

BOLDUAN: A big day on tap as Team USA is looking to add to its -- to its medal count once again at the Paris Olympics. The United States has the most medals of any country so far, 38 and counting. And we're going to be seeing some big names take to the track today, including Sha'Carri Richardson.

CNN's Coy Wire is in Paris. I'm just going to stop there. CNN's Coy Wire is in Paris. That's all you need to know.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: 'Nuff said, 'nuff said. I got you covered, girl.

I want to start with Simone Biles because the GOAT has captured an historic gold in the all-around competition last night. It's the sixth gold of her career -- more than any American in this ever. You're going to hang that one in the Louvre, Kate.

This was the first-ever Olympic final where two former all-around champs were battling it out alongside her teammate Suni Lee. Suni took the bronze. Rebeca Andrade of Brazil took the silver.

Simone has five moves named after her, Kate, because no one else can do them. She's the Greatest of all Time. And she has a shot at three more golds in Paris.

Here she was after the win.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIMONE BILES, 6-TIME OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: Three years ago, I never thought I'd step foot on the gymnastics floor again just because of everything that had happened. I got back in the gym and worked really hard mentally and physically. Even this morning, at 7:00 a.m., I saw my therapist. So just making sure I'm mentally well. I think you see that out on the competition floor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Now, winning the 200-meter freestyle relay last night was Australia. But with the silver medal, Katie Ledecky is now the most decorated female American Olympian of all time -- 13 in all. She's already won three medals here in Paris and she will have a shot at some more.

And check this out. What a shot. Kate Douglass winning her first-ever Olympic gold, winning the 200-meter breaststroke by breaking her own American record. She had scoliosis as a kid, Kate, and wore a back brace for two years. But she persevered, stayed focused, and just made her Olympic dreams come true.

The fastest woman on the planet, sprint star Sha'Carri Richardson, crushing the opening heat of the 100 meters here in Paris, finishing in 10:94 seconds -- about two meters ahead of the next closest competitor.