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Hurricane Erin Creates Life-Threatening Conditions Along East Coast; Unsealed Video Reveals TikTok Employees Warned Internally About App's Impact on Teenagers; Scheffler Sheds Light on Dominance Ahead of East Lake. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired August 21, 2025 - 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: All right. Breaking right now, Hurricane Erin makes his closest approach to the East Coast, threats of huge waves and deadly tides. Officials practically screaming, one major warning, stay out of the water.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And you never want to leave. That was the goal, is the goal from a top TikTok executive on how addictive they want the platform to be, this all coming to light now because of a lawsuit against the social media platform.

And back to school season is in full swing, and this year it is sadly, of course, coming with higher prices, paying more for everything from sneakers to all of those school supplies thanks to tariffs.

Sara is out. I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman. This is CNN News Central.

BERMAN: And the breaking news this morning, state of emergency, new flooding in fury from Hurricane Erin making its closest approach yet to the East Coast and bringing its greatest threat to North Carolina's outer banks at this moment, right at high tide. Erin is producing waves of 20 feet or higher and life-threatening surf and rip currents. The latest track shows that it's now a Category 2 storm with maximum sustained winds of 105 miles per hour.

You might say, oh, Category 2, not so strong. The problem is it's an unusually large storm. And even though it's not expected to make landfall, it is pushing huge amounts of water on shore. Erin underwent one of the fastest intensifications on record in the Atlantic. A 3D model from NASA shows the storm in the Caribbean strengthened coming from a Category 1 to a Category 5 in just about 24 hours.

Beaches are now closed up and down the East Coast, and too many people are doing exactly what authorities say not to do, that's go in the water. This is not the time to surf, they say. They've had to rescue dozens of people from the rip currents already.

Let's get right to CNN's Dianne Gallagher and Kill Devil Hills, right along North Carolina's outer banks. It looks a little bit wet and windy there, Dianne. DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, it, for the first time, feels like there's a hurricane. I know it's not hitting, but we are experiencing these winds. We've got some angry seas out here. The waves don't look as big as they were looking earlier, but, again, you can see it's churning up those intense rip currents that we've been talking about all week long. Again, you mentioned people don't need to be in the ocean. I don't think we're going to have a problem with that right now.

The big factor here in the outer banks right now is now that the sun is up, we are in high tide, we are feeling the effects of Hurricane Erin as it passes by is what's happening a little further south of here. They shut down the only thoroughfare that connects all of these barrier islands, which is NC-12, about 50 plus miles of it yesterday because the conditions had worsened so badly. We're not able to get down to the areas we've been reporting on all week. Rodanthe, Hatteras Village, Ocracoke Island, those are areas that had mandatory evacuations in effect.

Now, look, they did say that they evacuated more than 2,200 people on the ferry. They felt good about a lot of that situation, but the governor still said they're going to be looking at flooding and they're going to be worried about what damage the water may do to that roadway, making it hard to get back to people. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOSH STEIN (D-NC): We are anticipating coastal flooding from massive waves, tropical storm force winds, and tidal and storm surge for much of the state shoreline.

Life-threatening rip currents for most of the week, no one should be in the ocean.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GALLAGHER: So, again, this is a water event that we're looking at. Here we are in high tide. One more time, out here in the ocean, you can see we expect this, it's just now beginning here, so it may get a little bit worse before it gets better. Once it gets a little bit better for us, we are going to attempt to make our way south to see how far we can get on Highway 12.

Again, John, I feel like I have belabored this point, but talking to locals, that is their predominant concern.

[07:05:04]

They say, look, we're barrier islands. We're used to hurricanes. We are used to nor'easters, but you cannot beat Mother Nature. Mother Nature is undefeated. So, there's a sense of respect there if you can't get to people to help them though. And that is what Highway 12 does for them. So, they need to make sure those areas, we have seen some overwash already in parts of those on Hatteras Island. And so we just -- we're waiting. The sun is up now. The tide is high, the hurricane is passing. The question is going to be how badly that roadway may have been damaged.

BERMAN: Yes. And I know people who have been caught, reporters who've been caught on NC-12 in hurricanes before, really caught, there's just nothing you can do.

GALLAGHER: That's why we're not there.

BERMAN: The water goes in and out, right.

GALLAGHER: Yes.

BERMAN: So, be careful as you go there. And, Dianne, don't go in the water. If you don't have your camera, push back on the water again, I have to say that surf just looks menacing.

GALLAGHER: Yes, you want to see the water?

BERMAN: It looks menacing back there. And you say the ways we've been higher before, so this is not the time to get in the water.

Dianne Gallagher, thank you very much. Kate.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely not. All right, let's get over to Derek Van Dam, CNN's Derek Van Dam in the CNN Weather Center for much more now on what we're seeing and where this is headed. What are you tracking right now?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: All right, Kate. So, Hurricane Erin making its closest approach to the North Carolina shoreline and it's looking very impressive on satellite. This is Ghost 19 taken just a few moments ago. Look at the spiraling bands around the outer periphery. Those are the outer bands of the hurricane. A lot of lightning associated with that, but not much across the center of the storm where the strongest winds are located.

And speaking of winds, this thing is huge. The diameter of tropical storm force winds stretches over 550 miles. That's the equivalent as the crow flies from D.C. to Atlanta. This thing is massive and that is why the tropical storm force winds are scraping the coastline right where Dianne's live shot was just a few moments ago, and it'll continue to do so.

So, we're coinciding these tropical storm force winds, the closest approach of Hurricane Erin with the highest tides of the month, and that just occurred about a half an hour ago. So, we're going to have overwash problems right along the outer banks. Highway 12, it is going to be next to impossible to travel any distance for about 50 miles there.

Going forward for the day, really, here's the storm system just kind of lumbering along. And right now, it's just about 200 miles off the North Carolina coastline. The center of the storm staying well offshore. But it is these outer bands that bring the changing conditions and the tropical storm force gusts. That's what we've experienced. It's pushed up so much water. Remember, hurricanes are massive, massive wave-makers. So, what this will do is continue to churn up, create the rip currents for nearly 2,000 miles of coastline over the eastern seaboard. It will not be safe to go back in the water until after the storm passes Friday into Saturday because of this ripple effect. Think about it. You throw a stone into the water, it ripples for several moments. That's really what's happening with this hurricane as it continues to turn up the Western Atlantic. Kate?

BOLDUAN: All right. Derek, thank you so much. That is such a huge storm. That is why we're feeling it, even though it's remaining offshore.

Coming up for us, the algorithm, al algorithm is so good that kids will stay on it at the expense of sleep and eating and moving around the room. Newly unsealed videos presented as evidence in a lawsuit against TikTok shows employees raising concerns about their own company.

And new video shows federal agents in D.C. tackling and detaining a man on the National Mall. What happened in the lead up to this moment?

And a close call caught on video and a piece of heavy construction equipment barreling into a busy intersection? Oh my God. Police say it's a miracle that no one was killed.

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[07:10:00]

BERMAN: New this morning, a tense moment at the National Mall in Washington. Video shows officers from D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department and federal law enforcement detaining a man who was sitting in his car. They throw him to the ground as he tries to run.

He was heard screaming in Spanish, I came for work. I am not a criminal. DHS Spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin says that the man was a, quote, illegal alien from Mexico who was previously arrested in January 2024 for aggravated sexual assault of a child under 13. Those charges were dropped without prosecution last year.

New this morning, a U.S. Navy sailor has been convicted of spying for China. Jinchao Wei confessed that he used his security clearance to sell technical and mechanical manuals of the USS assault ship where he was a machinist mate. He also sold photos of videos and the locations of other ships at a San Diego naval base. He was recruited over social media and was paid more than $12,000 over 18 months for his role in this espionage. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Also new this morning, newly unsealed video presented as evidence in a lawsuit against TikTok is offering a startling window into internal conversations at the company. The evidence shows clips from internal video meetings at TikTok and shows employees at times raising concerns about the app's impact on mental health, especially among teenagers.

[07:15:00]

One top TikTok executive is heard admitting that the goal is to make people, quote, never want to leave.

CNN's Clare Duffy tracking all of this for us, she's here with me now. Clare, what are you learning here? What's coming out in this?

CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS TECH WRITER: Yes. So, this video was attached to a North Carolina lawsuit that was filed last year accusing TikTok, essentially of designing its app to be, quote, highly addictive to young people, and then deceiving parents and children about the safety of the platform. This video is initially filed under seal and a judge ruled on Tuesday to unseal it, saying that the public should have access to the comments made here.

And I want to play for you a portion of this video that shows a few of these employees talking about their concerns about the platform. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRETT PETERS, GLOBAL HEAD OF CREATOR ADVOCACY AND REPUTATION, TIKTOK: We all have these really lofty goals of getting people to be on the app longer, like literally, like that's like why we're all here is to help continue to diversify the content ecosystem, to make TikTok a place where you can get so much different types of content that you never want to leave.

NICHOLAS CHNG, FORMER ISSUES PROGRAM MANAGER TIKTOK: Unfortunately, some of the stuff that people find interesting are not always the most healthy. So, I think we do have -- we do, in a way, encourage some of this content being put up.

ALLY MANN, CREATOR LEAD MARKETING, TIKTOK: We obviously wanted people to spend as much time as possible on TikTok, which is -- can be in contrast to what is best for your mental health.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DUFFY: Now, we should say that we don't know exactly when those conversations were had. Some of those employees have since left the company and it's not totally unusual for internal safety teams to talk about how a platform should be improved. But North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson told me that he thinks this underscores the claims that they're making in this lawsuit. He tells me these videos prove what we've argued in court. Social media companies are keeping kids hooked to maximize profits even at the expense of their health, and, you know, a really striking evidence here and just one of a number of similar cases against TikTok that are in court right now.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Even though -- well, how has TikTok responding? Because we have discussed some of the measures that TikTok, at least in recent years, has tried to put in place, but how are they responding to this?

DUFFY: That's right. So, TikTok hasn't responded to my request for comment about this video being unsealed here, but the company previously called the lawsuit inaccurate and misleading. And as you said, TikTok has rolled out a number of safety measures, you know, everything from parental control tools to, you know, a meditation feature that was recently rolled out to try to get kids scrolling less on the platform.

But I do think that this video is potentially going to add fuel to the fire to the critics who say the platform still hasn't done enough.

BOLDUAN: Well, there's a lot going on here, right, Clare, because at the same time you have Congress having an approved a nationwide ban on TikTok. The president has pushed that off that deadline multiple times. And then didn't we just report that the White House then just joined TikTok?

DUFFY: The White House has visually launched its own TikTok, which, of course, is funny because it is just a few weeks away from now, potentially being banned. September 17th is the latest date if the platform is not sold off by its China-based owner.

So, yes, a lot of mixed messaging here, especially from the White House in terms of how they're thinking about TikTok.

BOLDUAN: Parents, families, kids, all stuck in the middle of it. Thanks, Clare.

DUFFY: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, one of America's most popular tourist destinations now with a confirmed case of the plague. We've got details on that.

And a man with a hammer goes on a rampage at a busy airport, even lighting a fire inside the terminal.

We'll be right back.

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[07:20:00]

MAN: We are on the precipice of golf history, and by we, I mean Scottie Scheffler, because we're all on his team.

Let's get right to CNN's Andy Scholes for the latest on that. Good morning, sir.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes, good morning John. So, you know, we know everyone out on the PGA Tour is awesome at golf, but Scheffler, he says the key is to be awesome all the time.

Not an easy thing to do, but he's certainly doing that right now. Scheffer has posted 17 straight rounds under par. He is the first player since Tiger Woods in 2007 with back-to-back five win seasons on the PGA Tour. And starting today, he's looking to become the first player to defend his FedEx Cup title here in Atlanta. Now, Scheffler is the biggest favorite to win the Tour Championship since Tiger back in 2009. So, what's his secret right now?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTTIE SCHEFFLER, WORLD #1: I don't hit the ball the furthest, like the things that I do on the golf course other people can do. I think it's just the amount of consistency and the intensity that I bring to each round of golf is not taking shots off, not taking rounds off, not taking tournaments off. Like when I show up at a tournament, I'm here for a purpose and that's to compete hard and you compete hard on every shot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All right. So, can anyone beat Scheffler this weekend? He tees off with Rory McIlroy at 2:00 Eastern this afternoon in round one at the Tour Championship. No starting strokes lead anymore for the FedEx title. All 30 guys are going to be starting even par going for that big prize.

All right, in baseball meanwhile, the Yankees remaining red hot. They hit five more home runs last night, big one coming from Giancarlo Stanton. His two-run pinch hit homer in the tent put the Yankees ahead. They would win 6-4 for their fifth straight victory. The Bronx Bombers have now hit 14 home runs in the last two games, signed a Major League record that was set by the 1999 Reds.

Elsewhere, Paige Buecker's with a career night in la. The first overall pick made 17 of her 21 shots. She scored a career-high 44 points. But it wasn't enough because Kelsey Plum coming through in the clutch for the Sparks. Her floater right here at the buzzer, wins it for L.A.

[07:25:02]

Plum's teammates mob her as they win 81-80.

Finally, Inter Miami Coach Javier Mascherano was shown a red card for arguing with a referee last night and was kicked out of the game. Well, Mascherano didn't go far. He went into the stands and set in the front row midfield, and then look at him.

Later in the match, he has his phone out yelling and giving directions. And on the other end of the phone it appears it was the assistant coach on the field.

John, I'm not sure that's how an ejection is supposed to work. Miami ended up winning 2-1. Mascherano, he could face a three-game suspension for trying to coach there from the stands.

BERMAN: That's kind of awesome. I don't know that I've seen that exactly. I have seen soccer coaches go to the stands and sort of disappear and baseball managers, they go back to the dugout, watch the game on T.V. and send signals, you know, down the runway. So, stuff happens here, but that was pretty like flaunting it right there. SCHOLES: Pretty bold doing it front row. And I love the assistant coach just with his phone, like, oh, yes, okay, yes.

BERMAN: All right. Andy Scholes, fantastic. It's not cheating if you don't get caught, but if you do, hey, all right.

All right, happening now, it's high tide along the North Carolina Coast. The moment of greatest danger for the beach communities expecting waves as high as 20 feet. We are getting reports back from the scene.

And the redistricting effort in Texas steps forward, but not without some drama inside the bathroom.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sorry, I have to leave. They said it's a felony for me to do this. Apparently I can't be on the floor or in the bathroom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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