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Col. Mark Cancian is Interviewed about the U.S. Weapons Stockpiles; Democratic Socialists Wave and the Democratic Party; Hugging Face CEO Clement Delangue is Interviewed about the A.I. Breach. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired July 31, 2026 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: That before the war began, the U.S. interceptor inventory was at 452. Less than two months into the war, on April 8th, during the first ceasefire, that inventory had dropped all the way to between 232 and 262 available. Nearly four months into this war, the stockpile appears to be struggling to get replenished, as you can see. The report finding now there are between 234 and 278 interceptors.

But then there's the Patriot interceptor, the U.S. Army's primary air and missile defense system. You've heard a lot of talk about this when it comes to Ukraine, of course. Its main objective is to be -- is to shoot down ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, aircraft. One of the -- one of these is roughly $4 million. Runs at roughly $4 million. A full battery costing, again, around $1 billion.

The prewar inventory in the U.S. stockpile of the Patriots was over 2,300. By the ceasefire, that had dwindled by more than 50 percent to just over a thousand. And now the inventory sits somewhere between 759 and 827 Patriots left.

Joining me now to discuss is the man who helped compile and write this report that has been cited now by so many is retired Colonel Mark Cancian, a senior advisor for the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Thank you for being here.

Your meticulous tracking of this stockpile is something that so many -- well, in journalism, in media and beyond has been relying on to really understand the state of affairs. These levels. How depleted the stockpile appears to be.

Give me some perspective on this from your view. What does this mean for the U.S. military?

COL. MARK CANCIAN (RET.), SENIOR ADVISER, CENTER FOR STRATEGIC AND INTERNATIONAL STUDIES: Sure. First, I'll say that we went through the numbers very carefully, what was publicly published, and then calculations. So, we believe that these numbers are close enough that decision makers can use them for making decisions. Here, with the missile defense inventories, of course they are greatly

depleted. And that's been driven by the Iranian attacks on U.S. bases and our allies and partners in the region. The longer the war goes on, the more of these systems we're going to be using. We also looked at ground attack munitions. Some of those have been greatly reduced also.

BOLDUAN: The president was asked about this because it's really become a really central focus in the past week as the reporting was that there was concern over the stockpile, and that was driving some of his decision making on whether to escalate or not with the Iran War.

The president was asked about the stockpile, and he -- his view was, the way he talked about it with reporters is, he said it was in very good shape. And he told reporters this, "we have a lot of the mid- level stuff but would like to have more of the sophisticated stuff." Is that accurate in that description?

CANCIAN: Well, it is accurate in the sense that these are the sophisticated missiles that can handle Iranian missile attacks or missile attacks by Russia against Ukraine, for example. We do have more of short range and medium range munitions, ground attack munitions. The problem with those is that platforms like aircraft have to get much closer to the target. That makes them much more vulnerable. Losses will go up. And that's why we've used so many of the longer range ground attack missiles.

BOLDUAN: One of the big things, as you talked about, as the war drags on, then becomes, how quickly can these -- this inventory, especially with these sophisticated defense systems, how quickly they can be replenished and built back up. What's the kind of general understanding of that and how quickly these things -- these stockpiles could get back to their, you know, original levels, if you will?

CANCIAN: It's going to take about three years for the Patriots to get -- to get back at their original level. And, of course, many analysts believe that that was not high enough, that we needed more for a conflict in the western pacific, for example.

The Pentagon has been putting a lot of money against these requirements that began in the Biden administration. It accelerated with the reconciliation bill under the Trump administration, and will get even larger if the 2027 budget is passed. But it takes time. Right now the missiles that are being delivered were funded in '23 and 2024. If you bought one today, it would take probably three to four years for that missile to arrive. So, the problem now isn't money, it's time.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

Colonel, thank you so much for your work on this. It's very nice to meet you. Thank you for coming in.

[09:35:02]

Coming up for us, HHS Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. launching a cooking show now. What will be on the menu? What's going on here? We've got some details.

And we're also standing by and waiting for President Trump to be heading out of the White House. He's going to be heading to Camp David to hold a cabinet meeting there. Got all the details coming up.

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BOLDUAN: A new CNN poll finds one in three Democrats now identify as Democratic socialist. Progressive candidates are seeing and have been seeing some big wins across the country, knocking out incumbent Democrats in several primaries already this cycle, which has a lot of people asking and wondering how this is going to play out across the political map.

[09:40:06]

Harry Enten is here, and he's looking at that.

And you're looking specifically, at least first, at Wisconsin. What do you see?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Yes, what do we see? You know, we've seen those Democratic socialists really thrive in big, urban areas, right? New York, Pennsylvania. You go out to Colorado. Well, it's no longer just in the urban areas anymore, at least according to the Kalshi prediction markets. We got a Wisconsin Democratic primary going on. We got Hong, who is running, who is now, in my opinion, the clear favorite to win that Democratic nomination. She's a Democratic socialist. Her chances, up like a rocket. On June 30th it was just 41 percent. Now a 96 percent chance to be the Democratic nominee in Wisconsin. A Democratic socialist, according to the Kalshi prediction markets. So, this is not just happening now in New York, Philadelphia, Denver. It looks to me like it's going to be happening in a place like Wisconsin, which, of course, is a very purple state.

BOLDUAN: Which it all kind of -- it all works with each other, right? You've got the -- this -- you've got the wins in various places. You've got this chance of winning here in Wisconsin. You have the polling then on how many people identify as Democratic socialists. It seems just like there are wins for Democratic socialists all over the place. What do you see in it?

ENTEN: Yes, what do I see? You know, I think there's this idea perhaps in Democratic circles, oh, they're coming in from the outside. No, no, the call is coming from inside the house. It's your own voters.

I mean, just take a look here. Voters identifying as Democratic socialists. When you look at self-identified Democrats, and we're talking about voters, we're talking about 41 percent -- 41 percent of self-identified Democratic voters. It's not coming from outside the tent because just 20 percent of Dem leaning independents actually identify as Democratic socialists. These are Democratic voters. These are people who voted for Kamala Harris. These are people now, where we're talking about a little bit more than two in five Democratic voters who identify as Democratic socialists.

BOLDUAN: And what -- and are they voting? Like, what about turnout?

ENTEN: Yes, what about turnout? Motivated to vote? Just take a look here. OK. Dem/Dem leaning voters voting in 2026, extremely motivated. Sixty-six percent of Democratic socialists self-identified, say they're extremely motivated to turn out and vote. That is higher than the 57 percent of all others of Dem and Democratic leaning voters. So, these are people who turned out in 2024, and they are extremely motivated to turn out in 2026. These irregular voters, they come from inside the tent. These are not infiltrators. These are Democrats who have been voting Democratic for a long period of time.

BOLDUAN: And this isn't just about a label you think either.

ENTEN: No, its not just about a label. Just take a look nationally. OK, net favorable among Democratic voters. Zohran Mamdani, I'm not sure there's a better known Democratic socialist nationwide besides Bernie Sanders, plus 56 points. Look at that, Chuck Schumer at just plus 14 points. Democratic socialism is the name of the game right now in Democratic primaries. And you see, Zohran Mamdani quite popular, especially compared to Chuck Schumer.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much, Harry.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: A lot of news. We'll be right back.

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[09:47:50]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right, on our radar this morning, or should I say on the menu today, Health Secretary Robert Kennedy Jr. is launching a cooking show.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR., HHS SECRETARY: I'm traveling across America, connecting with renowned chefs to show families how to cook delicious, nutritious meals with real ingredients, all at affordable prices. America, it's time to eat real food. Let's get cooking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: OK, the first episode is out now on his YouTube channel. And as Kennedy referenced there, the show will feature budget friendly recipes that highlight that flipped food pyramid, the updated dietary guidelines the Trump administration released earlier this year.

All right, an incredible rescue caught on video in California. An air rescue team helping to find a woman who was clinging to rocks as raging rapids swirled around her. A park ranger had alerted authorities that the woman had fallen into the Kern River and was swept downstream. I mean, close call. With the air rescue helicopter hovering above, ground crews were able to climb down the rocks, throw her a life vest and rescue rope, and pull her to safety. She's lucky. All right, thrill seekers, there's a new roller coaster promising to

be the world's fastest and tallest spinning ride around. Oh, God, it just upsets my stomach just thinking about it. It launches upside down according to Six Flags Great Adventure. The Bakunawa roller coaster launches three times, spins to a spiral 382 feet high before plunging back down. Why would anybody ever want to do this? And did we mention that it's actually floorless? Yes. The two minute, 17 second ride debuts next spring at Six Flags Great Adventure in New Jersey. Don't sign me up.

All right, and what is life like today for the virgin who couldn't drive a car back in the 1990s? We're about to find out because the movie "Clueless" is getting a TV series sequel.

[09:50:01]

Yes, Alicia Silverstone will be back as Cher Horowitz. Cher is now raising her own teenager and balancing business and family. Paramount Plus has greenlit six episodes, and it is scheduled to start shooting next year. No word on if any of the other stars from the original movie will be in the series.

Kate, I know you cannot wait.

BOLDUAN: I mean that is like -- that outfit and that movie defined a large part of my life. I'll just have to break that outfit out once again.

All right, let's turn --

WHITFIELD: (INAUDIBLE) flashbacks.

BOLDUAN: Let's turn to this.

It happened again. A.I. tech giant Anthropic just revealed some of its most powerful A.I. models were able to access the open internet and hacked into three separate organizations during a routine cyber training. One where the models weren't supposed to access the internet but clearly did.

This comes just a week after OpenAI disclosed a strikingly similar incident. Its own A.I. model escaped a test, essentially, and hacked an A.I. builder platform, a company called Hugging Face. Think of this as like a virtual lab leak. That's what happened. In both cases, safety guard rails were removed because it was supposed to be a contained and safe environment to test the models capabilities. They proved far more advanced and accidentally led the A.I. to break out and then exploit weaknesses to infiltrate real world servers.

So, joining me now on what this all means for his first interview since the breach last week is Hugging Face CEO Clem Delangue.

It's very nice to meet you. Thank you for being here.

I'm curious, just first --

CLEMENT DELANGUE, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, HUGGING FACE: Well, thanks for having me.

BOLDUAN: How you learned this happened initially to you guys and what your first reaction and thought was when you -- when you did.

DELANGUE: Yes. You talked a little bit about a roller coaster before, right? That's kind of like what it felt like to us. First it kind of felt like just detecting what we think has been kind of like the first publicly disclosed autonomous A.I. cyberattack. And then realizing that it was from OpenAI.

Fortunately, we are an A.I. platform, so we managed to defend ourselves. Interestingly, with an open model coming from China. But it felt like very incredible development for the field and for us.

BOLDUAN: Yes, I would say that.

On -- I was fascinated to hear about how you detected and how you manage the breach because, as you said, you used a Chinese open source model to contain it. One of your executives told CNBC that you went that route only after you tried to use Anthropic's Fable Five model, but that didn't work because of the model's guardrails.

DELANGUE: Yes.

BOLDUAN: This all matters just in general, but also matters because the Trump administration, right now, is reportedly considering banning access to Chinese models. With your very unique perspective on this now, should they?

DELANGUE: No, of course not. That would -- that would be terrible because that would remove capabilities for the defenders, right? What we realized during this attack is, using a model on our own infrastructure, because all of that was private data, was mandatory. And you can only do that with open models. So, having access to these open weights, wherever they come from, was incredibly useful to us.

And the interesting thing is that we didn't use kind of like the direct Chinese version. We used the version from Nvidia, which kind of like shows the beauty of open models, which is that everyone can customize, remix them, host them themselves. So, even if they come from China, they are safe to use in the U.S.

BOLDUAN: I think what you're hitting on is something that's really important that people need to understand, which is, your whole -- kind of the whole premise of Hugging Face, and what you guys promote and push for is for transparency and collaboration in this new A.I. world.

You -- I saw you were very transparent about with -- on your -- on X and talking about what you're now trying to discuss with OpenAI in the aftermath of this incident. You're asking OpenAI, as part of it, for them to commit $100 million in compute to help hugging -- the Hugging Face community build powerful cyber defenses you wrote. Has OpenAI responded to that?

DELANGUE: We have -- are having good conversations with them. Good discussions. They've been kind of like good partners, not only during this incident, but in the past. And I truly think that, you know, they realized that there was a very unprecedented event, right? Like everyone has to remember that this cyberattack is a crime. This is illegal. And we have to find a way to make sure these things don't happen more regularly. And so, I think they understood kind of like the seriousness of this event and are trying to take measures that are aligned with the seriousness of this event.

[09:55:04]

BOLDUAN: Well, and, Clem, you raised something that's really important. Like, a cyberattack is a crime. This is an unprecedented, a new, you know, avenue of it. But let's -- if you don't get a $100 million commitment and OpenAI, I don't know, bulks or doesn't play ball here, would you consider taking legal action?

DELANGUE: We don't want to. I think -- I think the world and A.I. needs more collaboration than kind of like adversarial (ph), you know, kind of like actions. Obviously, we're a tiny startup with like 200 people and we don't necessarily have kind of like the legal resources or the will to spend of our time on legal avenues, you know. But I think, I think, in general, because now we're not talking only about OpenAI, but also about Anthropic, apparently, because it happened to them too.

I think -- I think we have to make sure that the legal frameworks, you know, keep these events really illegal, keep the companies that are doing some mistakes leading to that accountable. Otherwise, you know, we're going to end up in a, in a very different world. We don't want to end up in a world where doing cyberattacks on other companies is normalized.

BOLDUAN: Exactly. I mean as one cyber expert put it, like he -- that people shouldn't think of this as, oh, this is just now something that happens. The way he described it, one cyber expert was like, this is negligence. This needs to be addressed.

Clem, it is great to have you on. Thank you so much for coming in and talking about what your company has now faced and dealt with and managing quite well in this unprecedented incident. Thanks so much.

DELANGUE: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Thank you all so much for being here. Thanks for being here.

WHITFIELD: A whole new world.

BOLDUAN: When we're so busy on these days, it's like, hello, my name is, it's nice to see you.

WHITFIELD: Absolutely. It's great to meet you. Thank you. Hi.

BOLDUAN: "THE SITUATION ROOM" is up next.

WHITFIELD: And, bye.

BOLDUAN: Exactly. WHITFIELD: All at once.

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