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Four Killed in Chicago Transit Train; Counterfeit Ads Show Eagles Endorsing Harris; Post-Labor Day Sprint for Campaigns; Risks from Mosquito Bites; "Beetlejuice" sequel Hits Theaters This Week. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired September 03, 2024 - 08:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:31:10]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, new this morning, police in Forest Park, Illinois, say a suspect is in custody after four people who appeared to be sleeping were shot and killed on a Chicago transit train.

CNN's Veronica Miracle is in Chicago with the very latest.

Veronica, what are you learning this morning?

VERONICA MIRACLE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, just such a horrific attack. This train was in motion when those victims were shot. They were all passengers who police say were sleeping on that train when the suspect came in and started shooting over two train cars. Three victims were shot and killed in one train car, one victim in another. Absolutely horrific early morning attack on Labor Day.

Here's what police had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEP. CHIEF CHRISTOPHER CHIN, FOREST PARK POLICE: This, you know, obviously is shocking. You know, it is uncommon, you know, to have a mass shooting like this, especially this close to home, you know, that we're actually actively investing on, you know, on a holiday. So, you know, for people to feel unsafe, you know, it's justified.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MIRACLE: Now, in terms of a motive, police are not clear yet. They have not revealed that. But they say the suspect is in custody. They were able to find this individual thanks to surveillance video. They tracked him het off of that train and hop onto another line where he was later apprehended in a different jurisdiction by Chicago police. They believed that this was a random attack, but an isolated incident.

Now, we don't know much about the suspect yet because he hasn't officially been charged yet. They have 48 hours - police have 48 hours since the time of his arrest to make those charges. Once they're filed, we'll know more about his name, who he is, where he is from, and what charges he faces. And then he will eventually - we'll see his first court appearance.

Back to you, John.

BERMAN: All right, Veronica Miracle in Chicago. Veronica, keep us posted as new information comes in.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: So, a shocking double murder confession after a former mayor shot to death. A 10-year-old boy says he did it. We have new details on this.

And the Philadelphia Eagles are trying to clear things up after posters started popping up at bus stops around the city falsely claiming the team had endorsed Kamala Harris for president. What's happening?

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[08:37:55]

BOLDUAN: A new and maybe strange twist on election misinformation. We're now seeing it bleeding into the sports world. Posters popping up at bus stops around Philadelphia falsely claiming the Philadelphia Eagles had endorsed Kamala Harris for president when the team hadn't endorsed anyone.

CNN's Danny Freeman is live in Philadelphia. He's got more on this.

What are the Eagles saying about this?

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, in short, the Eagles are not happy, Kate. But in case you needed any reminder that Philadelphia is going to be the center of the political universe for the next two months, this is your latest and first example perhaps of this wild season.

So, I'll get to what's on top of this bus stop in a second. But underneath you see, this is the poster we've been talking about. It's Kamala Harris wearing an Eagles helmet. You have the Eagles' logo right here. And importantly, down here, it said the official candidate of the Philadelphia Eagles.

Now, the Philadelphia Eagles got on top of this pretty quickly yesterday in the wake of these coming up, tweeting out that, "we're aware counterfeit political ads are being circulated and are working with their advertising partner to have them removed."

Then, last night, some Philadelphia citizen came up and posted that tweet all over this particular bus stop in University City just to make sure people knew that this was not an official endorsement.

So, that's basically what has happened from the Eagles perspective. While we don't know exactly who put up the original poster, we were able to get a statement from the company that is in charge of managing these ads. It's called Intersection Media. They said, quote, "we note that the Eagles and Intersection had nothing to do with the creation or posting of this unauthorized copy and Intersection staff will be removing the ads as soon as possible."

Now, Kate, you mentioned this in your intro. You could ask the question, why is this important? Because this is a relatively small example here of misinformation when it comes to the election space. There were maybe about half - a half dozen bus stops that had this particular signage. But again, it's just to emphasize that this is the sort of stuff that we may see as we go forward in this final sprint towards November.

And take a listen to what some Philadelphia voters had to say when these posters came up.

[08:40:03]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Somebody can't use their logo in a way that the Eagles organization themselves might not want their logo used.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's also encoded in people's brains, this picture of Kamala Harris with the Eagles.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: So, again, this is not the largest example of voter misinformation out there, but again, it's something that we might see as we move forward towards the election.

And I should note, I reached out to the Harris campaign for comment. They have not gotten back to me just yet on this.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: But they say go Eagles!

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

FREEMAN: Well, of course.

BOLDUAN: John.

BERMAN: I mean everyone's just lucky there are no four-letter words if the Eagles are involved at all right now. It was all relatively clean, which is unusual when it comes to Eagles fans (ph). So -

BOLDUAN: That's right. I mean, like, I was like, hmm, this is - this could have been a lot different.

BERMAN: Much.

All right, it is the first day of the post-Labor Day campaign sprint, 63 days to go until the election. One week until the big debate between Vice President Harris and former President Trump.

CNN's senior political commentator David Axelrod is with us now.

David, you've seen a few post-Labor Day sprints. And there's an article in "The Washington Post," you're actually quoted in it, which suggests that the Trump campaign sees a need to go even harder against Vice President Harris now, perhaps because some of the attacks they haven't - they've used so far haven't been working. And there's a blind quote in this article. It says, quote, "if you think this race is going to be decided by likeability, you're making a grave error, because neither one of them is going to be liked at the end of this race."

What do you think of that? Do you think they have to try to muddy it even more?

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think if you live in one of these six battleground states, you should hide your children from the television set for the next eight weeks. I think it's going to be a - a very tough race. And, yes, I think that it is very clear that people have formed an opinion of Donald Trump. And if this race is decided on popularity, he will lose that race.

So, their mission is to try and tear Kamala Harris down. She's relatively new two people, John. The fact is, vice presidents are known, but they're not known. She's done a very good job in the first phase of filling in information about herself, and she's made up a lot of ground. But this is a neck and neck race.

Trump doesn't have the option of selling a new Trump. He doesn't seem interested in selling a new Trump, in fact. One of the problems that campaign has is that he is the old Trump and he can't stay on a message. So, his preferred avenue is to rip down the opponent. That's what he does with great zeal and joy. And I expect that you're going to see that from now until the finish.

BERMAN: Your friend and partner, old partner, David Plouffe, told "Politico" on this subject, he said, "of course people get motivated about voting against somebody. But when they're as motivated or more motivated about voting for somebody, there's magic there." The idea that maybe Vice President Harris, whom he's working for now, is animating the base there, how much faith, if you were running this campaign, would you put in that hope?

AXELROD: Well, look, David and I are veterans of the Obama campaigns and the Obama campaign of 2008. We've seen this dynamic. I do think that's part of what's seized this race in the five weeks since the vice president got into the race. I think people were so despondent about the choice they had, and then here comes this fresh, new choice who has made a very good impression. And there is this sense of possibility, that maybe we don't have to vote our fears but our hopes. And that can have a lot of power.

I agree with David on that, especially juxtaposed with the kind of grinding, negative nature of the Trump campaign, and particularly Trump. I mean, you know, the relentless grinding about how bad the country is and how awful everything is and so on weighs on people. And she - she has presented a counterpoint to that, a different vantage point about, yes, we have problems but we have so much going for us. I think there is a constituency for that.

The question, John, is, this is a very close race and there's a relative handful of people who are going to decide this. What motivates them? And I think that's going to determine the outcome of this race.

BERMAN: Hey, David, who's the incumbent, do you think, in this race? Because when you talk about Donald Trump and his tendency to look toward the past and talk about himself so much, he does play into this role of Vice President Harris maybe trying to paint him as more of the incumbent. Clearly the Trump campaign doesn't want any of that.

[08:45:03]

AXELROD: Yes, I think this has been the dynamic from the moment she emerged as a candidate, John. She is the turn the page candidate in this race. At least that's the way it's been so far. And Trump, as you point out, has played into that.

There is a weariness with Trump and Trumpism and, frankly, a desire to turn the page on this whole era. And she has offered herself as the - as the way to do that, as the vehicle to do that. I think that's been a powerful driver behind her surge that has put her in the race.

Yes, I think that, you know, Trump was changed in a race against Biden. Suddenly Trump is not changed. And when people start chanting, we're not going back, they're talking about Trump. So, this is a problem for them.

And they've tried to link her to Biden. I think that was a reasonable strategy to try and make her a stand-in for Biden, but she has - she has established her own identity in this race and that's a problem for the Trump campaign.

BERMAN: Yes, watch this space. We'll be watching the debate to see who emerges as more of the incumbent in those two hours.

David Axelrod, great to see you. Thanks so much.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, thank you, John.

Mosquito-borne illnesses from West Nile virus to EEE and Dengue Fever have communities pretty worried. Two people are confirmed dead in Wisconsin from mosquito-borne illnesses. The former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, was also hospitalized from West Nile virus. And a dad of four from New Hampshire recently ended up in the hospital after a mosquito bite. He tested positive for three viruses spread by mosquitoes, including EEE.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANGELA BARKER, SISTER-IN-LAW: He was positive for EEE, for West Nile, and St. Louis Encephalitis. But the CDC - or the infectious disease doctors, they don't know which one is making him this sick. Joe is going to have to go to a long care - long-term care inpatient

rehabilitation. That's going to be, you know, 24 hour care.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Of that from a mosquito bite.

CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, is on call to help us break down exactly how concerned we should all be.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

SIDNER: Good morning to you.

I hate mosquitoes. I'm just going to tell you that right now. How widespread, though, are these diseases? Because we're hearing now a lot of different people getting - getting hit with - whether it's West Nile or EEE or Dengue.

GUPTA: Yes. Yes, I feel bad for that gentleman that we just heard from his sister-in-law. You know, that is a rare situation thankfully though. I'm going to show you these maps here to give you an idea of just how widespread this is. But as you look at this, keep in mind that most people are not going to develop symptoms. These are cases that are actually being reported. So, many of the cases are not being reported because people aren't developing significant symptoms. But you can see the darker the color, the more West Nile around the country. Texas, the northeast, that's where you're seeing a lot of these cases primarily.

When it comes to EEE, the other one that you mentioned, you got six cases in five states right now. So, that is much more rare. Again, keeping in mind what I said, whenever you look at these maps, that you have to take into account that there may be many people who don't develop symptoms. They never report it. So, we don't always have clear tracking.

I will say, when it comes to things like Dengue, we are seeing a lot more Dengue overall in the Americas, overall in this continent. One thing, in Puerto Rico, they declared a state of emergency because they had so many cases as well.

So, you are seeing more mosquitoes. August and September are peak mosquito season. And you're seeing more people getting bitten as a result. And more of these diseases.

SIDNER: What is the risk of transmission of these diseases when being bitten by a mosquito?

GUPTA: Yes. You know, it's interesting, because, again, I want to emphasize that it is still rare, what we're talking about here. But at the same time, one mosquito - this question comes up all the time - but one mosquito that's infected can actually transmit the virus. So, it's not a question, like, I got a lot of mosquito bites, therefore I'm more at risk. One mosquito can do it. But I wanted to pull this top number that you see on the screen there. Roughly, if you look in states where you're seeing a lot of spread of these viruses, about one in 500 mosquitoes are actually infected. So, one mosquito can transmit the infection, but most mosquitos don't actually carry the virus. And again, most of the people who get infected are not actually going to have symptoms. So, keep those things in mind.

There are some 200 different types of mosquitoes out there. There are three main ones that are spreading these types of diseases. It's just the female mosquitoes that really are the ones that bite and transmit the disease. So, when you take that all into account, it's rare, but August, September, the biggest seasons for this.

[08:50:02]

And there are certain parts of the country that are going to be worse than others.

SIDNER: Sanjay Gupta, it's always so good to talk to you. I hate mosquitoes, but I love you. And so that's where we're going to leave it this morning. Appreciate you coming on early for us.

GUPTA: (INAUDIBLE).

SIDNER: Who am I tossing it - oh, I'm tossing it to my friend, Dr. Sanjay Gupta again. Don't forget to scan the QR code on your screen and head to cnn.com and submit your questions about the risk of mosquito-borne diseases. Dr. Gupta will be back later this week to answer your questions.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: So, more than 30 million people are facing extreme heat today. Where forecasters are now most concerned and what cities could be hitting record highs, coming up.

And then there's "Beetlejuice" about to be back again. And CNN sits down with some of the stars.

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[08:55:15]

SIDNER: A chilling tragedy out of Louisiana where police say a ten- year-old boy confessed to killing the 82-year-old former mayor of a small town and his adult daughter. The two were found dead inside a home Sunday in Minden, which is east of Shreveport. It's not clear how the boy is connected at all to the victims. And police say they're still trying to figure out why he shot them.

An urgent search is happening in Connecticut right now for three missing boaters. Their boat with nine people on board was going at a high rate of speed when it hit a brake wall. It ripped apart, and everyone aboard fell into the water. Six people have been rescued, but three men are reportedly missing and were not wearing life jackets. Kate.

BOLDUAN: So, over 30 million people are facing heat alerts right now across the southwest and along the West Coast. Los Angeles could see triple digit temperatures by Friday.

CNN's Derek Van Dam tracking this one for us.

Derek, what is happening?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Kate, this is the first time that L.A. has reached 100 degrees, or will reach, since 2022, September of that month. So, the city is opening cooling centers this week. You want to try to avoid some of those power outages. So, reducing your electricity consumption. That's some of the advice that authorities are giving out.

All in all, about 30 million Americans under some sort of heat alert. And this is actually an excessive heat warning for Los Angeles, Las Vegas, as well as Phoenix. So, that's why the population numbers are so high.

Look at these reds on the map behind me. I mean just incredible to see this. And not only is the coloring interesting to see, but also the departure from normal. It should be about 77 in Los Angeles. So, when you're talking temperatures nearing 100 degrees, we're talking over 20 above average for this time of year.

So, the National Weather Service classifies this as extreme heat. Anywhere you see that shading of purple, vulnerable populations will be impacted most significantly from this excessive heat.

Phoenix, look at this, well above average, 114. You have had an unprecedented summer. Hottest summer on record, in fact. Fifty-four days, Kate, of temperatures above 110 degrees.

No, thank you.

BOLDUAN: No, thank you. And more and more examples of just what the climate crisis - how it's setting in and the impacts we're seeing from coast to coast, north to south, everything in between.

VAN DAM: Agreed.

BOLDUAN: It's good to see you, Derek. Thank you.

John.

BERMAN: All right, this week, the highly anticipated sequel to "Beetlejuice" will be in the theaters 36 years after the original.

CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister sat down with three of the stars, Winona Ryder, Catherine O'Hara and Jenna Ortega.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GEENA DAVIS, ACTRESS, "BEETLEJUICE": Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice.

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Three iconic words.

CATHERINE O'HARA, ACTRESS, "BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE": Nobody should say it three times.

WINONA RYDER, ACTRESS, "BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE": I'm like weird about saying it twice.

WAGMEISTER (voice over): Three iconic women returning to that ghostly comedy.

MICHAEL KEATON, ACTOR, "BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE": The juice is loose.

WAGMEISTER (voice over): Thirty-six years after the original.

Catherine O'Hara.

O'HARA: I'm trying to capture the perfect primal scream.

WAGMEISTER (voice over): And Winona Ryder.

RYDER: I can't believe I'm doing this.

WAGMEISTER (voice over): Reprise their roles in the long-awaited sequel to "Beetlejuice."

WAGMEISTER: It took a long time, but why is now the right time for this?

O'HARA: Jenna had to be born and become an actress.

RYDER: Yes.

JENNA ORTEGA, ACTRESS, "BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE": I think I'm going to love it here.

WAGMEISTER (voice over): Fresh off Netflix's monster hit "Wednesday," Jenna Ortega plays Ryder's daughter, and O'Hara's granddaughter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE, ACTOR, "BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE": Is your mom Lydia Deetz?

ORTEGA: Unfortunately.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's a legend.

WAGMEISTER (voice over): All three women sat down with CNN ahead of the film's release.

WAGMEISTER: I love sitting with the three of you, because it's the three generations of women of this film.

Jenna, what did you learn from working with Winona and Catherine?

ORTEGA: First of all, comedy legend.

O'HARA: Yes, that's what I call myself.

ORTEGA: Everything that she does is absolutely perfect.

I feel like Winona has this quality to her that - that's why you're like the perfect Lydia, because you feel like you know her, you feel like you relate to her, but there's still something there that's unattainable and it belongs to just you.

WAGMEISTER (voice over): The sequel finds the Deetz family back home where Beetlejuice first haunted them. When Ortega's Astrid accidentally opened the portal to the afterlife, Michael Keaton's Beetlejuice is unleashed all over again.

O'HARA: I honestly did not know that this movie was so loved. They're at the right age, I guess, that -

RYDER: Yes.

O'HARA: The nostalgic sort of value of it really means something to them.

RYDER: There's just nothing like it. It's in its own genre. That is, I guess, a testament to Tim.

WAGMEISTER (voice over): Tim Burton returns to direct the sequel to the 1988 classic.

TIM BURTON, DIRECTOR, "BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE": It's not a movie that could have been made and like 1989. It - it - it really was the anchor to this to see three generations of the Deetz.

WAGMEISTER (voice over): Burton also made "Wednesday" with Ortega, a natural choice for "Beetlejuice," even though she wasn't born when the original came out. She saw it decades later at age nine.

[09:00:00]

WAGMEISTER: And what do you remember about watching it?

ORTEGA: I remember sweating a lot because I saw a drunk Beetlejuice costume when I was like six-years-old at a Halloween costume.