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FBI Investigating Russian Hack; Italy Earthquake; Dow Edges Lower; Laid-Off Workers Not Backing Trump; Melania Trump Threatens Lawsuit. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired August 24, 2016 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:30:24] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

The FBI says Russian hackers have a brand new target. U.S. officials are right now investigating a series of cyber breaches hitting reporters at "The New York Times" and other news organizations.

CNN's Evan Perez broke the story. He's live in Washington with more.

Good morning.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

Some U.S. officials say what's going on here is a type of undeclared cyber war. Law enforcement says that suspected Russian hackers have been targeting reporters at "The New York Times" and other news organizations. U.S. investigators believe that this is part of a broader Russian intelligence operation. A spokeswoman for "The New York Times" tells us that the paper hasn't found any evidence of a breach of its internal systems, but that there was a successful attempt to breach in systems in its Moscow bureau. Now, U.S. intelligence officials believe that these hacks are similar to other recent ones that includes the cyberattacks against the Democratic National Committee and other Democratic Party organizations, as well as think tanks here in Washington.

Of course, Carol, the concern about these hacking of reporters is that Russian spies could obtain not only information about who reporters are talking to in the government, but also details of their communication and stories that they haven't yet published yet. The issue is, you know, what to do about this. There are some people who want to name and shame the Russians. Others say they're afraid of escalating the situation.

Carol.

COSTELLO: So it's now sort of a three-pronged attack. So what will Russia - I know you said that, you know, sensitive information, and I get all of that, but what does Russia want to do with this information, if the Russian government is indeed behind this hack? PEREZ: Well, one of the things that intelligence officials believe is

that the Russians are simply trying to go after every organization that they think has a window into the U.S. political system. They're very, very interested in this election, as we are. And the other - the other issue appears to be that the Russians are convinced that the United States is doing this and more to them and so they're retaliating. So some of that might be true. Some of it may not be.

COSTELLO: All right, Evan Perez reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

PEREZ: Thanks.

COSTELLO: All right, back to our breaking news in central Italy where rescue workers are digging through rubble with their bare hands, searchers for anyone who is still alive after a deadly earthquake hit overnight. An entire town, gone, demolished. Others also in ruins. At least 63 people have died, but that number could rise.

The area is extremely popular with vacationing Italians and tourists. And, right now, it is the height of the summer holiday season. This area is about 100 miles away from Rome. Wolf Achtner was almost knocked off his chair by the earthquake. He's about 50 miles away. He's a retired journalist and he joins us now on the phone.

Good morning, sir.

WOLF ACHTNER, RETIRED JOURNALIST (via telephone): Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Good morning. Well, first of all, tell us what it felt like.

ACHTNER: Well, to tell you the truth, it was really weird. I had been working in the night when the Aquila (ph) earthquake happened in 2009. And that was pretty strong. But this time it felt much stronger here. So that led me - imagine that either the quake was stronger or it was closer. And, in fact, it turned out that it was the same strength but closer.

But what happened this time also was I even turned around for a moment, because it felt as though someone was trying to play a joke on me and pull me off - out of my chair. So I turned around but then I realized the house was shaking and it was an earthquake.

COSTELLO: Oh.

ACHTNER: And what I can tell you, I've been following this since early this morning. There have been several other quakes, actually many dozens of aftershocks, but a couple of big ones. One just about an hour ago. And rescuers now luckily have equipment, the army is arriving, civil protection, in most places, but, of course, there's so many little towns that survivors are expected to be still under buildings, but organized rescue teams have not yet managed to arrive.

And, in fact, this leads us here to believe that the number of victims in the end may be over 100. Because, as you said, the area was packed full of tourists. Also because this weekend there is a big festival to celebrate the 50th anniversary. They are celebrating of spaghetti amuchiano (ph), which is a typical Italian recipe, which is tomato sauce, cured pork cheek (ph), and pecorino (ph), that is sheep cheese. So the area was really packed with tourists and locals who were back at home for their vacation.

[09:35:07] Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, we're glad you're safe and thank you for sharing information. We do appreciate. Wolf Achtner live from Italy.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a lifesaving drug at a very steep price. Some allergy sufferers left suffering from sticker shock over the rising cost of EpiPens.

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COSTELLO: the opening bell ringing just moments ago on Wall Street. One year ago to the day since the Dow plunged nearly 11,000 points. Right now the Dow down almost 15 points.

Alison Kosik is at the New York Stock Exchange.

Good morning.

ALISON KOSIK, CNN MONEY BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

You know, pressure is mounting on the pharmaceutical company, Mylan, because of what it's charging for the EpiPen. That's actually the portable medicine used to treat a severe allergic reaction. Now, several senators are calling for an explanation why there's a huge price hike on the popular medicine.

[09:40:12] Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar is calling for a hearing. She wants an investigation into the company which bought the device in 2007 and has since increased its price several times. In fact, Klobuchar's own daughter is an EpiPen user.

Earlier this week, Connecticut Senator Richard Blumenthal demanded lower prices for the drug, and Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley sent a letter to the company's CEO asking for an explanation. But look at this, in 2009, a two-pack of EpiPens, it cost about $100. Well, now that same two-pack is around $600 depending on where you buy it and what state you live in.

Now, Mylan is telling us that the changing health care insurance landscape is partly to blame for these rising costs for consumers, especially for those who have to pay those high deductibles. But you know what, it still is major sticker shock when you hear that you can buy epinephrine, that's the actual medicine in the portable injector, for just a few dollars.

Very quickly, you mentioned it, a year ago, Carol, a year ago today, the Dow fell a jaw-dropping 11,000 points at the beginning of the trading day. Now we're just seeing it Dow down 17 points. Whoo, what a difference a year makes.

COSTELLO: A good difference. Thanks so much, Alison Kosik.

All right, it's been a central part of Donald Trump's speeches on trade and his promise to bring America's job back. For months Mr. Trump has relentlessly attacked a move by Carrier, a company that makes heating and cooling equipment, to shut down its Indiana factory and ship those jobs to Mexico. But as CNN found, many of Carrier's workers aren't necessarily buying into Trump's message. Cristina Alesci visited with them. She sat down and talked with them and she's here to tell us what they had to say.

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN MONEY CORRESPONDENT: This story is a little bit counter intuitive, Carol, because you'd expect these workers to support Trump at the very least because he's drawing attention to their cause, right? But this just underscores how complicated trade really is, the issue of trade. And the story really starts in February, when the workers got some pretty awful news, news that no one really wants to hear. Take a listen.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It became clear that the best way to stay competitive and protect the business for the long term is to move production from our facility in Indianapolis to Monterey, Mexico.

TJ BRAY, PRODUCTION ASSOCIATE, CARRIER: And you're taking our livelihoods away. Just shock. Shock and awe and confusion and just upset. I mean I've been here 14 years.

ALESCI: TJ works for Carrier, which makes heating and cooling equipment. The company announced it was moving jobs to Mexico, where minimum wage is about $4 a day.

CHUCK JONES, PRESIDENT, UNITED STEELWORKERS LOCAL 1999: The trade bill that has directly influenced on this Carrier move is NAFTA, which was put in by President Bill Clinton.

ALESCI (on camera): But why do you think Carrier make the decision now?

JONES: The shareholders were having a hard time with the profits that they were getting.

ALESCI: This is all driven by what?

JONES: Corporate greed and unfair trade.

ALESCI (voice-over): Let's take those one at a time. First, unfair trade, a rallying cry of Donald Trump's campaign.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: The single worst trade deal ever done. It's called NAFTA.

ALESCI: But business researcher Carol Rogers says it's not that simple.

ALESCI (on camera): Can we blame the free-trade agreements? CAROL ROGERS: I don't think so. I view that as kind of cutting off

your nose to spite your face because then we're not going to be able to sell our stuff outside of the United States.

ALESCI: So Trump is wrong?

ROGERS: I think so, yes.

ALESCI (voice-over): She points to the numbers. Exports from Indiana have doubled in 20 years, even when adjusting for inflation. That's more than 10 percent of the state's economy, plus all those jobs the exporters support. Indiana's biggest customers, Canada and Mexico. Free trade advocates argue that you want to be selling to billions of people around the world, not just the 320 million customers in the U.S.

JENNIFER RUMSEY, CHIEF TECHNICAL OFFICER, CUMMINS: International business is actually an important part of American businesses being successful.

ALESCI: Jennifer Rumsey is an executive at Cummins, a major manufacturer and employer in the state.

DARREN WILDMAN, SEYMOUR CUMMINS PLANT MANAGER: Labor is only one element of any manufacturing cost. So what is your quality, what is your efficiency rate? We can't compete with that hourly rate. No point suggesting that we could.

ALESCI: Bottom line, America has to be innovative. The country can't compete on wages alone. That means giving up certain jobs. The benefit should be cheaper goods.

JONES: Well, I haven't seen where it makes the goods cheaper. The companies are - they're making more profit.

ALESCI: So is it the trade deals or corporate greed that's behind Carrier's moving jobs to Mexico. The business unit that includes Carrier had an operating profit of just under $3 billion in 2015. And when CNN Money asked Carrier about the move, the company provided this statement. "We must continue to protect our business in a relentlessly competitive global marketplace." And to soften the blow, the company plans to support a slew of retraining and education opportunities for the employees losing their job. Chuck is not convinced.

[09:45:22] JONES: What they ain't telling you is one of the qualifications on some of these jobs they're creating is you gotta be able to say, do you want french fries with that?

ALESCI: And that's what a lot of this comes down to, wages. How will working people in America make more money? And how does America ensure that everyone gets some benefit out of globalization?

ROBERT JAMES, FORKLIFT OPERATOR, CARRIER: When we vote, and we take - when we go out and we vote, we have to vote for our jobs.

JONES: People get caught up on issues, guns, God and gays. TRUMP Believing in God, so important.

ALESCI: These guys are voting with their wallets.

BRAY: And he said, oh, I'm going to do this. I'm going to do that. You didn't really tell me how. I mean you say all this stuff about jobs, but, I mean, this guy is an entertainer. He's a clown.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: So what exactly was he saying? Is he going to vote for Hillary Clinton?

ALESCI: That's an excellent question. So the national union is supporting Hillary Clinton officially. And that's not too much of a surprise because -

COSTELLO: But we've always heard that some of the workers are supporting Donald Trump.

ALESCI: And some of the workers are supporting Donald Trump, or they're really truly undecided, which is interesting in and of itself. But those three guys seem to be leaning at the very least towards Clinton for now, although they're still torn.

COSTELLO: And it's because they want to - they want a plan from Mr. Trump about how he's going to create jobs for them. How they're -

ALESCI: They believe that it's rhetoric. He's actually not going to do anything for them.

COSTELLO: And the other side, they're just not sure?

ALESCI: They still are hung up on the NAFTA thing because of Bill Clinton. So it's - they're caught in the middle.

COSTELLO: So they're in agony, just like so many other voters in America are today.

ALESCI: Exactly.

COSTELLO: Cristina Alesci, that was a great story. Thanks so much.

ALESCI: Thank you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Donald Trump signals he's softening up on immigration. What will his running mate, Mike Pence, have to say? Well, Pence is visiting the key swing state of North Carolina moments from now. We'll take you there, next.

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[09:51:46] COSTELLO: Melania Trump is battling the tabloids for alleging Mrs. Trump worked for a modeling agency that doubled at an escort service when she was a young woman. Mrs. Trump is now threatening to sue. She says that's absolutely untrue. Let's talk about that. With me now, Anita McBride. He's the former

chief of staff for First Lady Laura Bush and now works for the American University Center for Congressional and Presidential Studies.

Welcome.

ANITA MCBRIDE, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF TO FIRST LADY LAURA BUSH: Good morning. Thank you.

COSTELLO: Good morning and thank you for being here.

You wanted to come on and talk about this issue, about Melania Trump and the tabloids. Why? What should voters know about this?

MCBRIDE: Well, I think - well, I think, you know, obviously, politics is a very tough business. And when the family gets involved, you know, it's hard on them. and I think, you know, if - that she has the right (INAUDIBLE) in America to defend (INAUDIBLE) something is false. Now, clearly, though, if this is true, this is a problem for the campaign and they're going to have to deal with it. But I think it is important just to recognize this, that we have the right to defend ourselves if these allegations are false.

COSTELLO: Should Melania Trump come out and perhaps to talk to voters about it?

MCBRIDE: Well, I think this is one of the important things to remember about a campaign and to remember about having important surrogates in you campaign, and that the spouse is one of them. And what I hope that doesn't happen for her is to be a turtle in her shell and to not be out there talking, connecting with voters. It's an important role for the spouse. But the other thing to remember is that the campaign has to give the spouse proper support to be able to do the job, to help the candidate reach every potential voter in this electoral map, which is going to be very difficult.

COSTELLO: Do you think - do you think the Trump campaign is giving the proper support to Melania Trump?

MCBRIDE: Well, here's the thing, we saw an example of that at the convention in Cleveland where clearly it wasn't. Here's someone who's very reticent about getting out there to give speeches anyway, did a very good delivery, heartfelt delivery of a speech, and then, you know, went to bed thinking it was a victory and the next morning woke up and it's swirling in controversy because the proper support was not there to clear and vet that speech. So I think that's an example of not having supported her. And I hope that they have learned from that, for her sake as well as for the campaigns.

COSTELLO: I know that all women are different and we ought to celebrate that. We should celebrate that. But -

MCBRIDE: Sure.

COSTELLO: It's difficult since you worked for Laura Bush that Melania Trump is so unlike Mrs. Bush in so many ways. MCBRIDE: Sure.

COSTELLO: And I ask you that question because there was this ABC/"Washington Post" poll that came out that showed just 39 percent of adults have a favorable view of Melania Trump. And, as you know, Mrs. Bush was incredibly popular. Why do you think this poll is showing this about Melania Trump?

MCBRIDE: Well, because they don't know her. And, clearly, we can't obviously make comparisons here. All the women through history that have faced this role, you know, have all had to deal with scrutiny and criticism and have had to tell the American people who they are. And they oftentimes come to this role very reluctantly. But it is - there's no two ways about it and no getting around it. This is a team effort in politics and you have to do your job and get out there and talk about who you are and why the person you're married to should be the president of the United States.

[09:55:09] COSTELLO: Well, it's interesting you say that because I know when President Bush's campaign was lagging in 2004, Laura Bush hit the trail for her husband, even though it wasn't her favorite thing, right?

MCBRIDE: Absolutely. No, it wasn't, and she made that, you know, very famous pledge or had her husband commit to her that she never had to give a political speech when she got out into this in 2000. So she came about very slowly, but was an excellent advocate and surrogate for her husband in 2004, was definitely an inflection point and she was the secret weapon, no doubt about it.

COSTELLO: I'm just curious, do you support Donald Trump?

MCBRIDE: Well, you know what, I have to say, I am a Republican and there are a lot of people in our party that I am going to support on the down ballot. I, like a lot of people, feel, listening, watching and waiting. But I am a Republican.

COSTELLO: OK, but you're undecided as of yet?

MCBRIDE: And I believe in the principles of the Republican Party. And that's what I want to see. And I am -

COSTELLO: All right. Anita McBride -

MCBRIDE: I'll be voting, let's just say that.

COSTELLO: That's a good thing. Anita McBride, thanks so much.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM after a break.

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