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Suspect Identified In Break-In At Trump's Virginia Campaign Office; Gaza Health Ministry: 40,000+ Palestinians Killed In 10 Months Of War; Jury Tampering Appeal Could Get Murdaugh A New Murder Trial. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired August 15, 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]

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: But it is clear that there have been times when the president has been frustrated about those efforts from within his own party to push him out of the 2024 race.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Embittered but frustrated. Not unhappy or holding a grudge there. Interesting distinctions to say the least, Arlette.

Look, what does the president see as his role in the next 80-some days as part of the presidential campaign?

SAENZ: Well, right now for President Biden, one focus will be on burnishing his own legacy. He won't be bogged down by having to campaign day in and day out himself against former President Donald Trump. You've already seen him start to focus on some of those legacy pieces this week, traveling down to New Orleans to talk about cancer.

But another key focus for Biden will be trying to help Vice President Kamala Harris be elected president in November. The two will be appearing for the first time together on a stage today out in the country, traveling to Maryland to talk about lowering prescription drug prices. The expectation is Biden will hit the road in the coming days, weeks, and months in order to support Harris and also do everything he can from here in the White House to ensure she's elected in November.

BERMAN: Yeah. Well, in the spirit of the White House messaging and how the president sees things, thank you and no thank you for this reporting this morning. Arlette Saenz at the White House. Appreciate your time -- Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Joining me now, CNN political commentator Maria Cardona, and former White House spokesperson for George W. Bush, Pete Seat. Thank you both for being here this morning.

Let's talk about this new poll that's come out by Pew Research, finding that Harris' campaign is energizing the Democratic Party in a brand new way. Sixty-two percent of Democratic voters strongly support Harris at the top of the ticket compared to last month, which is really no number. Just 43 percent of Democrats strongly supported Biden in that very same poll.

So, Pete, Trump -- there's the poll there -- has another news conference today hoping to grab the spotlight from Harris as you see these numbers. If his presser is anything like the last one where he spewed a bunch of lies and he went after her personally, is the old adage still the same that all publicity is good publicity for him?

PETE SEAT, FORMER WHITE HOUSE SPOKESPERSON FOR GEORGE W. BUSH (via Webex by Cisco): Well, that's what I tell my clients, so let's stick with that, Sara. All press is good press.

But I think what he has going for him is most Americans are living their lives and not watching his press conferences -- every minute of his press conferences -- and hanging on every word that he says. But I join the chorus that says he needs to scrap the personal attacks and insults and focus on the issues that the American people care about.

We see this in poll after poll. They want to boost the economy. They want to secure the border. They want to cool inflation.

It's not that hard. The roadmap is there. He just needs to stay on the road and not drive right off a cliff.

SIDNER: You know, it's interesting because his vice president J.D. Vance is saying no, stick with it. You've won this way before. You can do it again. So divergent opinions there.

Maria, I do want to ask you about another poll and there have been many. Time and time again Americans have said look, they're unhappy with their own personal economies right now. Trump has the advantage generally in polling on that. And Trump is tying Harris to Biden.

How can Harris separate herself from Biden when the two of them are appearing together today?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Look, I think what Vice President Harris is going to do and what she has already started to do is to focus on the economy in a way that is very relevant and very personal to all of those people that you just mentioned Sara that aren't feeling the massive economic gains because on paper they are massive economic gains. But they're not feeling it perhaps in their own personal economies.

She's going to be talking about lowering costs, which is the number one thing that people feel when they go to the grocery store, right?

And I think if she continues to focus on that -- if she continues to focus on the issues that voters feel on a day-to-day basis, I think that she will be able to bring home the fact that she and Tim Walz are going to be the ones that are going to be fighting for them every single day. She is going to be the one that's going to be fighting to expand the middle class, to help working class voters. To be the one that is going to support them and their families versus Donald Trump who is supporting Project 2025. And many economists have said that if his policies are implemented, inflation is going to skyrocket and families -- those same working class, middle class families -- their economies are going to be in the toilet.

So that is a contrast I think that she can work in her favor, especially as someone who is different on the ticket than Joe Biden was. And she can do it without essentially trying to distance herself too much from President Biden.

[07:35:04]

SIDNER: All right, Pete and -- this is to both of you, really, but I'll start with Pete.

CNN has some reporting that RFK Jr. reached out to the Harris campaign about a possible role in her administration if -- caveat -- he drops out and endorses her. And he made this similar pitch to Trump as well.

Are you surprised there are not takers, Pete, so far?

SEAT: (Laughing). The only reason we're talking about RFK Jr. is because his last name is Kennedy. If he was Robert F. Smith Jr., we wouldn't even be having this conversation. So best of luck to him.

But I have to jump on something -- you know, what Maria was talking about there. Kamala Harris cannot distance herself from Joe Biden. It is Biden-Harris, Biden-Harris, Biden-Harris. It's like saying Beetlejuice three times. It just conjures up bad things when you say that. So whatever economic policies Harris-Walz puts out, that is an implicit admission of the failures of the Biden-Harris administration, plain and simple.

So she will try a new font. She'll try a new color scheme to pretend like it's something fancy and new, but it's not. It's the same failed policies that the American people feel are not working for them.

SIDNER: Maria, do you --

CARDONA: Well, let me -- yes, let me jump in here because I think what Pete is not understanding and Republicans do not understand is that the economic policies that the Biden-Harris administration have put forward are massively popular. They poll off the charts.

Ask voters what they think about $35.00 insulin. Ask voters what they think about capping prescription drug costs at $2,000 per seniors -- for seniors every year. Ask voters how they feel about expanding the Affordable Care Act. Ask voters what they -- how they feel about being able to send their kids to college and not having that burden because a lot of their kids have -- are having their student loans forgiven.

Ask voters how they feel about an administration who has focused on these policies that are massively popular. The infrastructure bill, the PACT Act. You ask voters about those things in polls and in focus groups, they poll off the charts.

And that was what was frustrating, frankly, from Biden's perspective because they were not connecting the two. Well, guess what? Kamala Harris and Tim Walz can absolutely connect the two and take credit for it, and that contrast is going to win them the election in November. SIDNER: Maria Cardona, Pete Seat, we're going to leave it there.

Thank you both -- appreciate it -- Kate.

CARDONA: Thanks.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, Virginia authorities have identified the suspect accused of breaking into one of Donald Trump's campaign offices, though he's not yet caught.

CNN's Zach Cohen has the very latest and he's joining us now. Zach, what more are you learning about this?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yeah, Kate, police are still searching for 39-year-old Toby Shane Kessler who they believe is the one who broke into Donald Trump's Virginia campaign headquarters on Sunday night and spent a "brief" amount of time there before leaving.

And we are learning some new details about who Kessler is. Like I said, he's a 39-year-old man. He has a California driver's license despite appearing to have been in the D.C. area since 2018.

We've also found that he does have a criminal history. And his criminal history spans several states, including a 2019 charge in Maryland for disorderly conduct, and second-degree assault, and resisting arrest, as well as another 2019 charge in Florida for trespassing and giving a fake name to police.

So obviously, as law enforcement continues to search for Kessler and physically bring their suspect into custody, they're also trying to figure out why Kessler or why anyone would have wanted to break into Donald Trump's Virginia campaign headquarters.

It's important to note that there is no evidence at this point to suggest that this break-in was politically motivated. But at the same time, law enforcement has not found any sort of evidence that Kessler left behind at the campaign headquarters. They're also not sure in this early stage of the investigation if Kessler took anything from the campaign headquarters. There are still a lot of questions in determining both motive and finding Kessler himself.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, it sure sounds like it.

And Zach, thank you so much for the latest reporting -- John.

BERMAN: Overnight, a New York Yankee did something, so naturally, it is getting a huge amount of attention -- certainly more that it would had it been a player on any other team.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MLB ANNOUNCER: (INAUDIBLE) deep to left field. History -- number 300.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, Aaron Judge, who is very, very good and deserving of accolades despite my attitude, hit his 300th home run in fewer games than any Major League player in history. He did it in just 955 games. Ralph Kiner -- he beat Ralph Kiner by 132 games. He did it in 400 fewer at-bats than Babe Ruth, although you will remember Ruth was a pitcher in his early glorious years with the Boston Red Sox.

[07:40:11]

This was Judge's take after the game.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AARON JUDGE, NEW YORK YANKEES 6-TIME ALL-STAR: I was hoping it came in a win, you know. We were kind of down early in the game and not really getting much going early on except that Soto homer. But, no, it was great. You know, just throughout the whole game the guys were having great at-bats and having great rallies there to kind of pass the baton to the next guy. So when that opportunity --

(Gatorade Shower)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: He will have to get himself a new uniform. It might be hard for this $50 million a year salary.

One important note. Judge is not the youngest player to hit 300 home runs -- not by a longshot. Alex Rodriguez did it when he was 27. Judge is 32 -- Sara.

SIDNER: How about them Red Sox?

Anyway, I like your face, John. That was a -- that was a good face. You sucked it up. Appreciate it.

All right. Coming up, the high-stakes ceasefire talks -- there he is. There he is ladies and gentlemen -- sooner or later. High-stakes ceasefire talks are going to get underway. Does the U.S. see any progress happening between Israel and Hamas as the war continues there? And how the White House is calculating the risk from an Iranian retaliation on Israel.

Also, we could see one of the biggest murder trials of the last year re-tried. Why a jury tampering appeal could set a whole new stage for Alex Murdaugh who was convicted of murdering his wife and his son.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:45:58]

SIDNER: We have breaking news for you now. The Gaza Health Ministry says more than 40,000 Palestinians now have been killed in the 10 months of war. This immense death toll coming as ceasefire talks are finally happening once again in Doha this morning.

Let's get right to CNN's Jomana Karadsheh in Qatar for us this morning. What are you learning about how these talks will go forward? JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you know, this is happening with the backdrop of a very tense time in the region. And, of course, this grim and horrific milestone Sara as we've heard from Palestinian Health Ministry in Gaza saying that today the death toll -- the 10 months of war has surpassed 40,000 people killed. And they expect that death toll is even higher.

They believe that there are thousands -- possibly up to 10,000 people who are unaccounted for who remain under the rubble. And when we're talking about the 40,000, they say that the majority of them are women and children. Nearly 17,000 children they say have been killed in 10 months of war that the U.N. has described as war on children because of the shear number of children who have lost their life. Children who have been maimed. Children whose lives have been shattered by this war. We're talking about nearly 20,000 children who have lost one or both of their parents in this war, Sara.

Just a few months ago we were here in Doha, and we met with evacuees from Gaza -- children who have lost parents. Children who have lost limbs. Mothers who have lost their babies.

And it gets really harder and harder by the day to try and describe what the people of Gaza -- the civilians are continuing to go through. You know, I speak to people there and they say that they have gotten to a point now here they just wish they would die so they do not have to live through this. So they don't have to live to mourn their loved ones.

And you speak to people right now and they feel that they have been abandoned by the world and they have lost hope. As you have these talks right now with so much riding on these talks -- the lives of civilians in Gaza, the fate of the Israeli hostages. But people are now at a point where they are too afraid to even hope because they have seen these hopes crushed over the past few months, Sara.

SIDNER: The talks so important to see if a ceasefire can be worked out.

Jomana, thank you so much there live for us from Qatar -- John.

BERMAN: Those talks getting underway in Qatar today.

Joining us now from the White House, the spokesperson to the White House National Security Council, John Kirby. Thank you so much for being with us.

I want to read you a quote from The New York Times this morning. It says, "Israel has achieved all that it can militarily in Gaza, according to senior American officials" -- I think we can put this up on the screen -- "who say continued bombings are only increasing risks to civilians while the possibility of further weakening Hamas has diminished."

So how accurate is that -- that U.S. officials believe that Israel has achieved all that it can militarily in Gaza? JOHN KIRBY, SPOKESPERSON, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL: Well, we certainly believe John that they have achieved most of their military objectives without question. I mean, they have decimated Hamas' leadership at various levels -- top levels all the way down to more tactical leaders. They have certainly taken away an awful lot of capability by Hamas from a military perspective, destroying tunnels, getting after their resources and weapons caches.

But, you know, Hamas still exists as a military fighting unit. There's no question about that. They still face legitimate threats from Hamas, and they are still going after them militarily. We are going to continue to make sure they've got the tools to do that as well.

But as you just saw in the previous report, there have been way too many civilian casualties. Too many innocent people caught up in the crossfire because of the violence and because of the combat. And Gaza is still a combat zone.

[07:50:00]

And what we're trying to do here at the White House is work feverishly to get this ceasefire deal in place so we can get, at the very least, six weeks of calm and a chance to get the most at-risk hostages out. Not that they're not all at risk -- they are -- but I'm talking about the women and the elderly, the sick and the injured. Get them home to their families where they belong.

And that's why we're in Doha right now and that's why we're working so hard on this.

BERMAN: What would more fighting, more bombing now by Israel accomplish?

KIRBY: Well, I'll let Israel speak to their military objectives and the military operations. They would probably tell you there are still active Hamas military units and active Hamas leaders that they -- that they want to go after. And again, they have a right to defend themselves against what is still a very viable threat to the Israeli people.

What we're urging is that all sides come to the table, negotiate the implementing details of this deal. Let's get it in place so we can get that ceasefire in place and maybe work towards an end to this conflict in general. Because that's really the best outcome for the people of Gaza where it's not a combat zone.

BERMAN: So there are reports that the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has sort of moved the goal post in terms of these negotiations over the last several months.

How consistent do you feel his position has been?

KIRBY: I'll just tell you because I don't want to negotiate in public, John. I'll just tell you that both sides need to show compromise. Both sides need to show some leadership here. We are now talking about the implementing details of the deal itself.

The smaller gaps that we absolutely believe can be narrowed in terms of how the deal was executed. It's not about a debate in Doha today about the deal itself -- the structure of it. It's now about implementing it. And sometimes, you know, when you get to the end of a negotiation and you're talking about those kinds of details, that's when it gets the hardest and the most gritty.

So hopefully, we'll make some progress here in the coming hours and days. I just don't know where it's going to go, but both sides -- it's really important that both sides be willing to compromise and show some leadership and get to this ceasefire.

BERMAN: What is your current assessment this morning of when and perhaps how strong an Iranian attack on Israel could be?

KIRBY: I don't know the answer to that question. We're watching it real, real close as you might expect, and we've got certainly, additional military capabilities in the region to defend ourselves, our troops, our facilities, and Israel itself if it comes to that. Hopefully, it won't come to that.

We have to assume and the information that we have tells us that Iran has not moved off its threat to do -- to launch some kind of an attack on Israel -- perhaps even using their proxies as well, like Hezbollah or the Houthis. So our assumption is that their thinking is still in the vein. That they're going to do something, and it could happen in the coming days. It could come -- it could come nearly at any time now.

So we're watching it real closely. We're going to make sure we're ready, and we are. But again, hopefully, it doesn't come to that, John.

BERMAN: What have you seen in terms of a Russian response to the Ukrainian incursion into Russian territory? What evidence have you seen that it has changed their fighting posture, particularly in Eastern Ukraine?

KIRBY: Difficult to say with great certainty here in these early days. It is apparent to us that Mr. Putin and the Russian military are diverting some resources -- some units towards the Kursk Oblast to ostensibly counter what the Ukrainians are doing. I won't speak to Ukrainian operations one way or another.

But it's not -- it doesn't mean that Mr. Putin has given up military operations in the northeast part of Ukraine or even down towards the south towards places like Zaporizhzhia. There's still active fighting along that front. They still have a lot of manpower and a lot of resources devoted to trying to take back territory that the Ukrainians have reclaimed in recent months in the last year or two.

But it's an -- it's an active dynamic situation and we're still watching it. But he has -- he has diverted some resources to Kursk. It's not exactly clear with what intent or what effect it's actually going to have on what the Ukrainians are doing. BERMAN: All right, John Kirby. Always great to see you. Thanks so much for being with us this morning -- Sara.

KIRBY: Thank you. Appreciate it.

SIDNER: All right. On our radar this morning, a manhunt is underway in North Carolina for a convicted murderer of a 1-year-old girl. Ramone Alston escaped from a police van when he was being taken to a medical appointment on Tuesday. There's a $25,000 reward for information leading to his captor -- capture. And people in the area are being told to keep their doors, windows, and cars locked.

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy plans to appoint his former chief of staff George Helmy to replace Democratic Sen. Bob Menendez who is stepping down next week. Last month a jury found Menendez guilty of federal corruption charges, including bribery, extortion, and obstruction of justice. He is set to be sentenced in October.

[07:55:00]

And a Russian court just sentenced a Russian American ballerina to 12 years in prison all because of a $51.00 donation she made to a Ukrainian charity. Ksenia Karelina pleaded guilty to treason after she was arrested in February. Her boyfriend tells CNN he had bought her a ticket to visit Russia as a birthday gift. Her lawyer says he will appeal -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: So the South Carolina Supreme Court has now agreed to take up an appeal from convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh -- an appeal that could lead to a new trial. The disgraced attorney was convicted last year of shooting and killing his wife and youngest son in June of 2021. He is currently three years into a life sentence because of those murders.

Murdaugh's legal team says he deserves a new trial, claiming the now former clerk of court tampered with the jury by talking to them about the trial during the trial, and implying Murdaugh was guilty.

Here is how one juror described those comments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOICE OF JUROR Z, ALEX MURDAUGH TRIAL: To me, it felt like she made it seem like he was already guilty.

JUDGE JEAN TOAL, FORMER JUDGE, CHIEF JUSTICE OF SOUTH CAROLINA SUPREME COURT: Did that affect your finding of guilty in this case?

VOICE OF JUROR Z: Yeah, ma'am.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: After that hearing, though, a judge ruled that the clerk was out of line but that her comments did not influence the verdict. But is that about to change? Joining us right now is Eric Bland. He is an attorney who represented the estate of Murdaugh's longtime housekeeper after she died of suspicious circumstances in the Murdaugh family home in 2018. He also has represented six of the jurors on the Murdaugh murder trial.

Even just given your kind of connection to all of it Eric just shows how -- what a mess this all has been surrounding Alex Murdaugh and his family. And now, a mess of -- a mess of a verdict if you will that they are kind of facing.

What do you think of the State Supreme Court agreeing to take this up? Does it suggest he's likely to get a new trial?

ERIC BLAND, ATTORNEY: Good morning, Kate. Thanks for having me.

Alex Murdaugh thinks that he's the organ grinder and the justice system is the monkey. The reality is that this is a normal appeal that anybody who is convicted and doesn't plead guilty and is convicted by a jury of murder always gets an appeal. The difference is that it didn't go through the intermediate Court of Appeals first and the State Supreme Court grabbed the case.

This case is going to be appealed based on evidentiary rulings that Judge Newman made based on the trial was in Walterboro and they felt there should have been a change of venue. But most importantly, as you said, that there was alleged juror interference.

I represented six jurors who testified that not only did they not hear former Clerk of Court Becky Hill say anything that was any more than just ministerial -- like, what do you want for lunch? How do you want to get to and from the courthouse? But nothing that was said or done influenced their verdicts.

The issue before the Supreme Court is going to be the former chief justice who denied the motion for a retrial applied the South Carolina standard for juror interference. The defense argued they should have applied the federal standard pronounced by the United States Supreme Court.

The difference is the South Carolina standard says that you must show, in addition to the inappropriate statements by Becky Hill, that it influenced the jurors' outcome. The federal standard says all you have to do is show that there was inappropriate statements made by the Clerk of Court, and you get a new trial.

It's a very serious issue. For our system to work it has to work for the worst of us, not just the best of us. So I believe that even though Alex Murdaugh was guilty, even though there was significant evidence, these are important issues for any defendant to get a fair and impartial trial.

So we're going to have to see if our Supreme Court agrees with Justice Toal and applies the Supreme Court standard.

Regardless, if he loses, Alex is going to take this up to the United States Supreme Court. He has 30 years. BOLDUAN: Right.

BLAND: -- not just the conviction --

BOLDUAN: Well, and --

BLAND: -- for the double murder --

BOLDUAN: Yeah. He has even -- he has -- he has more.

BLAND: -- but he pled guilty to all the financial crimes.

BOLDUAN: Yeah, he has more.

And kind of getting to all of it because -- do you think there is a chance that Alex Murdaugh will see a day of freedom in his life?

BLAND: Never, never. He's also appealing the 40-year federal sentence that he got because he pled guilty to the financial crimes. But the financial crimes were always a backstop -- the convictions and the sentences -- to this double murder conviction. I don't believe he's ever going to get out, and if he does, he'll be deep into his 70s or early 80s and would be considered older at that time.

[08:00:00]