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White House Reeling From "The Atlantic" Report; Portland Police Declare Riot During 100th Night Of Protests; Coronavirus Vaccine Makers Plan Unusual Pledge Against Seeking Premature FDA Approval; Canceled Events Could Cost Atlanta $640-Plus Million; Trump's False Claims About Mail-in Voting Fraud; Typhoon Haishen Batters Japan During Pandemic; Americans Desperate For Economic Help. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired September 06, 2020 - 04:00   ET

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

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KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN HOST (voice-over): No shortage of controversy as Donald Trump fights to control the impact of a damning report. New allegations about derogatory remarks he reportedly made about Vietnam veterans.

One hundred days and counting. Protesters in Portland vow to stand firm demanding racial justice.

And we're tracking Typhoon Haishen as fierce winds and rain batter Japan.

Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to you, our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

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BRUNHUBER: A former senior Trump official confirms to CNN that U.S. president Donald Trump spoke in crude and derogatory terms of American Marines who died in World War I and are buried near Paris. That shocking allegation about the president's trip to France in 2018 was first reported by "The Atlantic" magazine.

The president and his allies have insisted the story is false but other news organizations have also corroborated some of the details. Now we get more from CNN's Jeremy Diamond at the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: While the White House is still reeling from this report in "The Atlantic" magazine that President Trump referred to American soldiers who lost lives in a critical battle in World War I as losers and suckers as he was deciding not to attend a ceremony at a cemetery where some of those war dead were buried.

And now, a former senior administration official is confirming to my colleague, Jim Acosta, that the president did indeed refer those American war dead in crude and derogatory terms.

Now, of course, President Trump and the White House have vehemently denied the story insisting that the president has the utmost respect for veterans and service members. And the president even said what kind of animal would refer to a dead American service members in such a fashion?

But nonetheless, a former senior administration official confirms to CNN that the president did indeed make those comments. And another source familiar with his remarks has now told CNN that the president has also repeatedly questioned why Vietnam war veterans would've served in that war, suggesting that those service members did not know how to get out of the draft, how to work the system, much in the way that the president himself.

We know that president Trump received multiple educational deferments to avoid serving in the Vietnam War and he ultimately received a medical deferment after he got a doctor's note claiming that the president had bone spurs, making him ineligible for military service -- Jeremy Diamond CNN, the. White House

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: There were more demonstrations in the U.S. on Saturday against the police killings of Black Americans. In Rochester, New York, protesters are calling for justice for Daniel Prude. He was a Black man who died in police custody in March.

And in Kentucky, activists in Louisville are demanding the police officers who shot and killed Breonna Taylor be arrested and charged. We will have more on those demonstrations in a moment.

First, let's go to Portland, Oregon. Police there have declared a riot during the 100th straight night of protests. Police accused the protesters of throwing Molotov cocktails and engaging in violent conduct. Portland has become an epicenter for the movement against racial injustice and police brutality. CNN's Lucy Kafanov is there for us.

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LUCY KAFANOV, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's the 100th night of protests here in downtown Portland. We're near Ventura Park, where sort of the largest gathering took place in the evening. There were two, maybe 300 people, some demonstrators throwing Molotov cocktails.

That prompted the police to declare the gathering a riot. They came in with flashbangs and tear gas, the crowd dispersed. Now we're seeing a different group here, trying to march back down possibly towards the park, possibly towards the police precinct.

It's a repeat of what we've seen night after night, although with this being the 100th night, it's somewhat of a larger gathering than what we have seen in previous evenings. There have been smaller gatherings across the city. Those have been largely peaceful, including a car caravan of folks supporting Black Lives Matter that rolled through the streets.

The demands of the protesters fairly consistent. They want change to the policing system here.

[04:05:00]

KAFANOV: They want racial justice and racial equality. They also want things like $50 million to be diverted from the police budget and reinvested into community programs, housing, education, things of that sort.

We also saw on Saturday a rally in memorial of Aaron Jay Danielson, the far right supporter of President Trump, killed by an activist who supported anti-fascism. That activist, Michael Reinoehl, was killed in a confrontation with police on Thursday when authorities moved in to arrest him.

Again, the 100th night of protests here. The clashes, the gatherings still continuing -- Lucy Kafanov, CNN, Portland.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: And activists marched outside Churchill Downs race track during Saturday's running of the Kentucky Derby. Protesters are demanding justice for Breonna Taylor. Police killed her in a raid on her home in Louisville, in March. The demonstrations aim to shift attention from America's most famous horse race to Taylor's case. CNN's Jason Carroll was there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the demonstration ended where it began, at a park had just about a mile away from Churchill Downs. At one point their numbers were in the thousands.

As they got to Churchill Downs, marched around the perimeter. And then just as the race got underway, they stood and they shouted and they voiced all of their concerns. They voiced their message, which is trying to get justice for Breonna Taylor.

There were some concerns about whether or not this protest would be peaceful, whether or not it would be nonviolent. We spoke to one of the organizers, who said this was a protest that went off just the way it should have.

TIMOTHY FINDLEY JR., PROTEST ORGANIZER: Me talking to you right now was a part of our plan. We wanted the world to see, we wanted everyone to see and understand that we are not happy, we are not satisfied with what the attorney general is doing, what the mayor is doing.

We want justice for Breonna Taylor. While that race was going on, people were forced to pay attention to what was going on outside of Churchill Downs. We did so nonviolently but we're going to continue to do. This

CARROLL: The Derby ran without fans so you didn't have the thousands upon thousands of fans who would normally be at the Derby as they were leaving. But no matter to the demonstrators who are out here today.

They feel as though their point still got across, which is to make sure that they are not going to let up on the demonstrations until they see justice for Breonna Taylor -- Jason Carroll, CNN, Louisville, Kentucky.

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BRUNHUBER: And another night of unrest is gripping the city of Rochester, New York. After hours of peaceful protests, demonstrators and law enforcement clashed for a fourth straight night. Police deployed pepper balls and tear gas on the crowd.

Thousands flooded the streets, demanding accountability for Daniel Prude, a Black man who died in police custody back in March. Now earlier on Saturday, the New York attorney general announced that her office will call a grand jury to investigate Prude's death.

The man who was the subject of massive racial justice protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, has released a new video message to his supporters. Jacob Blake was shot seven times in the back by police officers and is unable to walk. In the video, he talks about the devastating effects of his injuries.

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JACOB BLAKE, POLICE SHOOTING VICTIM: I just want to say, man, to all the young cats out there and even the older ones older than me, there is a lot more life to live out here, man. Your life and not only just your life, your legs, something that you need to move around and move forward in life can be taken from you like this, man.

And I promise you, the type of shit that you will go through, staples, I got staples into my back, staples into my damn stomach, you do not want to have to deal with this shit, man.

Every 24 hours, it's pain. It's nothing but pain. It hurts to breathe. It hurts to sleep. It hurts to move from side to side. It hurts to eat. Please, I'm telling you, change your lives out there. We can stick together, make some money, make everything easier for our people out there, man, because there is so much time that has been wasted.

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BRUNHUBER: For more now on how this is playing into the race for the White House, let's bring in Natasha Lindstaedt, professor of government at the University of Essex.

Thank you very much for coming on to speak with us about this.

The president's reelection campaign is relying in large part on creating anxiety about urban unrest.

Does the violence that we're seeing have the transitive properties he is hoping for? That the blame for the violence in Democratic cities will fall sort of indirectly on Biden instead of himself as president in the here and now?

[04:10:00]

NATASHA LINDSTAEDT, PROFESSOR OF GOVERNMENT, UNIVERSITY OF ESSEX: I think there's an interesting thing going on here. When we look at some of the most recent polls on how well Trump is handling the protests, how he is handling race relations and whether or not racism is a problem, on one hand, he is actually not doing very well on these questions.

There are more Americans that think he's not doing a good job, he's not making the situation better. In fact, only 13 percent of Americans, according to a recent Ipsos poll, say that his rhetoric is actually helping matters.

And the poll asks a number of questions, whether or not he's able to make you feel safe, make the country feel safer.

And Biden scored better on every single question compared to Trump. But we're also seeing a recent CNN poll that indicated that more Republicans feel that racism is not as big of a problem as it was in June. And more Republicans approve of the way that Trump is handling the situation.

I think it's also important to note that, if Trump is able to make the election about protests, about violence, about unrest, about chaos in our cities, that's going to be a lot better for him in the 2020 election than if the focus is on COVID, on the economy, on this recent story about denigrating people who served in battle.

So he really wants the narrative of this election to be that the country is so unsafe right now, if Joe Biden takes over, it's going to make it worse and the Democratic leaders and governors are the problem and that he is the only one that can resolve it.

BRUNHUBER: And you know, Trump really seems to be moving the needle in terms of voters' concerns. Law and order seems to have risen quite dramatically in terms of the rankings of people's concerns compared to 2016 and people's favorable views of Black Lives Matter movement has dropped considerably since June.

So I'm wondering if painting Joe Biden as a captive to the violence loving Left -- you know, Joe Biden condemned the violence on both sides. I'm wondering, is it worth the capital for Biden to distance himself further from all of this violence?

Or is that just basically a waste of time?

LINDSTAEDT: Well, I think Biden does need to keep coming in and urging for unity and trying to project an image of strength, trying to appear to be presidential and trying to convey to the American public that he is the leader that can heal the nation. And it's important for our morality that we have been lost under

Trump. The country has become increasingly polarized and we need a leader to give us messages of unity rather than messages of division.

But he doesn't want to focus on this so much that it loses the attention on some of the other things that Democrats want to be emphasizing, which is the COVID-19 situation, of course, and the economy and how Democrats feel that they can get the country out of this mess rather than if Trump is leading.

BRUNHUBER: But do you think, you cited some of those polls, is that reflective of the fact that Trump may be paying a price for being so obvious and clear about stating that a rise in urban violence basically translates into more votes for him, as though he had an incentive to help stoke unrest rather than resolve it?

LINDSTAEDT: I don't think it's going to be a winning strategy for him. However, this is the only strategy that he has had. He had come into the election in 2016, he came into the campaign really trying to stoke fires, to create divisions, to sow chaos. That worked.

He just barely won in 2016 and it was really by very small margins in some of these states in the Midwest that he was able to pull out a victory. He's convinced that he needs to remain loyal to this base and continue to stoke these fires because it does resonate really well with his base.

What he thinks is going to happen is he can ensure that there'll be full voter turnout amongst his base and that he can depress voter turnout amongst people who might be likely to vote for the. Democrats

BRUNHUBER: But beyond that, I wonder if there's a power in images -- we're just showing some of the images now -- that transcends rhetoric. You can imagine maybe white suburban voters not being thrilled at the idea of being screamed at by Black Lives Matter protesters while they're trying to eat with their family.

Do you think that these images will have a visceral power to change minds in ways that maybe the political discourse can't?

LINDSTAEDT: Well, the question is whether it has power to change minds of people who are undecided, independents, people in the middle.

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LINDSTAEDT: I think it only really strengthens the feelings of those in the base, that they definitely have to get out and vote, that things are getting, worse and Trump is really their only savior.

The question on how this is playing out amongst those in the middle and I think amongst those who lean Republican, they are really questioning whether or not these movements and protests have gotten out of control and whether or not the Democrats are going to respond strongly enough to that.

But I don't think that's going to be enough to win the election for the Republicans. They're going to have to offer something else other than fear. Tactics

BRUNHUBER: Very interesting to see how this plays out in the coming weeks. Thank you so much for joining us, Natasha Lindstaedt, we appreciate it.

LINDSTAEDT: Thanks for having me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Police in Birmingham, England, have declared a major incident after reports of multiple stabbings in the city center. A witness tells the BBC Radio 5 that it appeared to begin as several people arguing outside a nightclub. She says they were yelling racial slurs and then the situation escalated into an all-out brawl among a large group of people.

At this point we don't know how many people have been injured or how serious those injuries are.

Pharmaceutical companies the world over are racing to find a vaccine that works condition COVID. Now several companies have come together to make an unusual promise aimed at keeping customers safe.

Plus this holiday weekend is going to look very different in a lot of cities in the U.S., including right here in Atlanta. We will explain why after a short break. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Since the coronavirus pandemic gripped the U.S., there have been more than 188,000 deaths and some 6.2 million infections, according to Johns Hopkins University.

Now amid hopes for a vaccine that would get our lives back to normal, at least three pharmaceutical companies are making an unusual joint pledge. They say they won't seek approval for any treatment unless it has been proven to be safe and effective.

According to "The Wall Street Journal," Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson signed the pledge aimed at soothing concerns that a vaccine might be pushed through too early and undermine public confidence in it.

But some wonder whether Americans will trust a treatment that seems rushed to the market. CNN's Dana Bash asked Kamala Harris about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN SR. U.S. CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you trust that, in the situation we're in now, that the public health experts and the scientists will get the last word on the efficacy of a vaccine?

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If past is prologue that they will not, they will be muzzled. They'll be suppressed, they will be sidelined because he is looking at an election coming up in less than 60 days. And he's grasping for whatever he can get, to pretend that he has been a leader on this issue when he has not.

BASH: Let's just say there is a vaccine that is approved and even distributed before the election.

Would you get? It

HARRIS: Well, I think that's going to be an issue for all of us. I will say that I would not trust Donald Trump. And it would have to be a credible source of information that talks about the efficacy and the reliability of whatever he's talking about. I will not take his word for it.

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BRUNHUBER: Now you can watch that entire interview with Kamala Harris on "STATE OF THE UNION," 9:00 am on Sunday in New York, 2:00 pm in London.

Well, here in Atlanta, the city's estimating it will lose more than $640 million from canceled or postponed events this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. This Labor Day weekend is typically busy with conventions and major sports events, making it one of the busiest and most profitable times of the year.

But obviously, not this year. CNN's Natasha Chen reports on the economic fallout of the virus.

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CARRIE BURNS, ATLANTA MOVIE TOURS: This entire Walton Street (ph) is just a hotbed of film.

NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: On Labor Day weekend Carrie Burns (ph) would usually be booked. Solid.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).

CHEN (voice-over): Giving tours of iconic spots in Atlanta, where magic blockbusters and TV shows were. Filmed

BURNS: Right behind us is the tank scene from "The Walking Dead."

CHEN (voice-over): The post-apocalyptic Atlanta of "The Walking Dead" may be a thing of fiction but the reality of 2020 can be bleak. Nearly 6,000 people in Georgia have died, about 280,000 people have tested positive for coronavirus and businesses like Atlanta Movie Tours closed. For good

BURNS: It is emotional but I think you come to a point where you know that you made the right decision.

CHEN (voice-over): The Atlanta Convention and Visitors Bureau says this Labor Day weekend would've seen nearly a quarter of 1 million visitors and businesses would've made more than $151 million just off of Dragon Con and two college football kickoff games at Mercedes Benz Stadium.

Instead, Dragon Con is virtual. The Atlanta Black Pride Festival is still happening in person but the annual PGA tour championship at East Lake Golf Club is being played to no fans. The two kick off games plus a third one next weekend were canceled.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're talking about $100 million over the three games and $7.5 million of that would've translated back into tax revenue into the city of Atlanta. So certainly the hotels, restaurants, the bars, the city itself is losing a great economic impact.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: As you see when you walk, when you guys came in, there's nobody on the streets. There's no businessman, there's no lawyers in the offices or the high-rises.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Entre vous.

CHEN (voice-over): The Red Phone Booth, a speakeasy in downtown Atlanta, opened exactly 5 years ago with the Dragon Con Cigar Club as their first guests.

CHEN: And so this would be packed during Labor Day weekend?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely. Absolutely.

[04:25:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They're all dressed up, some in steampunk, some in the 1920s theme with Charlie Chaplin stuff.

CHEN (voice-over): Instead, they will still have local supporters coming by this weekend at a reduced capacity per state rules. More than half of the company's furloughed staff are back but business has not recovered enough to bring back all of them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There have been many sleepless nights.

CHEN (voice-over): And he knows some businesses, like his friend, Carrie Burns, Atlanta Movie Tours, will not make it on the other side of this pandemic.

BURNS: I think that we could have done better to stop this or slow this early on with some -- between mask wearing and physical distancing early, early stages. When we got to the point where we were just a little too late.

CHEN (voice-over): All the owners of businesses that are emptier this weekend know that the sooner the virus is stopped, the sooner they can see friendly faces again. That requires people not to gather en masse this holiday weekend.

GOV. BRIAN KEMP (R-GA): I understand that many, many of us are tired and ready to move on but we have to hunker down and keep chopping against COVID-19.

CHEN (voice-over): Natasha Chen, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Still ahead on CNN NEWSROOM, President Trump keeps telling his supporters to vote twice, which, of course, is illegal. We'll explain how he appears to be creating a big election problem where one doesn't exist.

Also coming up:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACK DELANEY, FREELANCE WRITER: It's embarrassing, right. Like I wrote for a foreign government and I had no idea.

BRUNHUBER (voice-over): A freelance American writer is enlisted into Russia's propaganda machine without realizing it. We will explain how it happened. Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to you, our viewers in the United States, Canada and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber and you are watching CNN NEWSROOM.

The U.S. presidential election is a little more than eight weeks away and President Trump is again telling his supporters to try to vote twice, once by mail and then in person, even though doing so would obviously be illegal. Take a listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: On Election Day or early voting go to your polling place, even though you have mailed it in, go to your polling place to see whether or not your mail-in vote has been tabulated or counted.

If it has, you will not be able to vote because it's going to be counted. You will not be able to vote and the mail-in system worked properly, as it should. But there is a big chance that it won't work properly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Election officials say there is no reason for anyone to try to vote in person if they have already mailed in a ballot. Even though mail-in voting has been used successfully for many years, the Trump campaign is framing it as an insidious ploy by Democrats.

The campaign released the statement. The president is now drawing attention to reckless election law tampering Democrats are doing in states across the country creating the very real opportunity for people to vote twice.

Trump encourages supporters to vote absentee by mail early and then show up in person at the polls or at the local registrar to verify that their vote has already been counted.

Well, as our Drew Griffin explains, the Trump campaign appears to be trying to create a problem where there isn't one.

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DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SR. INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This statement from the president of the United States is a lie.

TRUMP: The ballots are lost, there is fraud, there is theft, it's happening all over the place.

GRIFFIN: It's not.

What is happening all over the place is the spreading of the lie. Even somewhat formally reasonable politicians like White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows are fueling the voter fraud myth with unreasonable logic.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST, "STATE OF THE UNION": But there's no shred of evidence of widespread voter fraud.

MARK MEADOWS, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: There is no evidence that there's not, either. That's the definition of fraud, Jake.

GRIFFIN: No, there is no widespread voter fraud. It has been proven, over and over again. And yes, that includes mail-in ballots.

And if you don't believe me because I'm from CNN, believe the right wing conservative Heritage Foundation, which keeps this running election fraud database. Prominently displayed, on this dashboard, 1296 cases, it says, of proven voter fraud. It sounds like a lot, until you realize, it covers every election for nearly four decades, billions of votes.

To say the number is infinitesimally small would be overstating it.

TRUMP: The only way we can lose this election is if the election is rigged.

GRIFFIN: President Trump is setting the stage to explain his possible election loss, with lies.

Case in point, California. TRUMP: When they send out, like in California, millions and millions of ballots to anybody that's breathing, anybody in California that's breathing gets a ballot.

GRIFFIN: Wrong. California sending ballots to registered voters, the same people who would be eligible to vote at the ballot box. Facts don't seem to matter.

This is the president last Monday, saying, 80 million bail-in ballots will somehow litter the country.

TRUMP: They will be sending them. They'll be dumping them in neighborhoods, people will be picking them up, they'll be bribing, they will be paying off people to grab some.

GRIFFIN: No. This seems completely made up. As are the president's tweets that people will print thousands of forgeries and forced people to sign. Or, this tweet in August, attacking the Nevada governor's plan to use universal mail-in ballots. President Trump, calling it a coup, adding that the post office could never handle the traffic of mail-in votes without preparation.

Weeks later, his own postmaster general, testifies, yes we can.

LOUIS DEJOY, POSTMASTER GENERAL: The Postal Service is fully capable and committed, to delivering the nation's ballots securely and on time.

GRIFFIN: Two recent cases of election crimes have made headlines lately. One in Paterson, New Jersey, a city council election and one aimed at helping Republican congressional candidate in North Carolina. A Republican campaign operative has been charged with ballot harvesting, conspiracy and possession of absentee ballots.

Experts tell CNN these were insider crimes, not voter fraud and both caught, showing the system worked and both leading to new elections. Mail-in voting takes place in almost every state, in some way, or another. Five states have all mail-in voting. It's the main way people cast their ballots, including Colorado, where election officials tell CNN, the president is just wrong about fraud.

[04:35:00]

GEORGE STERN, JEFFERSON COUNTY CLERK, COLORADO: We've been doing universal may vote by mail in Colorado for 7 years and we can say with certainty that that is not the case.

GRIFFIN: That's not to say mail-in voting is without risk, it's why Colorado and other states, pay attention to signatures, bar codes and verifying ballots are not counterfeit. It is why the very rare examples of mail-in fraud are local and small and caught.

(on camera): This seems like deja vu all over again.

MYRNA PEREZ, BRENNAN CENTER FOR JUSTICE: Indeed. GRIFFIN (voice-over): The last time I interviewed Myrna Perez from the Brennan Center, it was about President Trump's lies about voter fraud back in the 2018 midterms. Now, Perez says, the lies put the entire system on U.S. government at risk, because of a pandemic, protests and a shaky economy.

PEREZ: All of these things are just an attack to try and discredit the idea of a free, fair, accessible election. We should reject these ideas, every time we hear them.

GRIFFITHS: The National Association of Secretaries of State, the people who actually oversee elections in the States and who debunk the president's 2016 claims of widespread voter fraud, have recently come out with another statement, ensuring voters that their votes are going to be counted this election and that they are prepared for any kind of interference.

Still, the president insists on pushing this myth, this false myth, that there is widespread voter fraud -- Drew Griffin, CNN, Durham, North Carolina.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Well, it seemed like a miracle or at least good luck. Aspiring writer Jack Delaney jumped at the chance to write for a new online publication after losing his job due to the pandemic.

Now what he didn't know is that, according to the FBI, he was being tricked, duped by a Russian propaganda operation aimed at interfering in the 2020 election. Donie O'Sullivan has this exclusive report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DELANEY: I mean, this is not the way I wanted to be getting media attention or getting notoriety, this -- I mean, it's embarrassing, right, like it's -- I wrote for a foreign government when I had no idea.

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN TECH CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Jack Delaney is an 26 year old aspiring writer who lost his day job at a restaurant because of COVID-19. So he was delighted when someone calling himself Alex Lacusta messaged him on Twitter offering him a job writing for Peace Data, a left-wing news website.

DELANEY: The message was, you know, saying we like your work, would you like to write for us?

Would you like to be part of our publication?

We can offer you about $200-$250 per article and, at that time, I was like, this sounds like a good opportunity for me, I can make money, get my work published.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): Everything seemed to look normal to Delaney.

DELANEY: I looked at all the editors or a few of the editors. Saw that there was LinkedIn accounts matched to their names, their pictures were popping up on Google Image searches. So at a glance, it looked legitimate.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): But Lacusta wasn't who he said he was. In fact, he didn't exist at all and Peace Data wasn't an independent left wing site. It is, according to Facebook acting on a tip from the FBI, a Russian influence operation. Peace Data says the accusations are baseless. The Russian government has not. Commented

DELANEY: I'm obviously no fan of Putin or the Russian government. So it was concerning. Obviously I don't want to have any association with an authoritarian regime so, it was -- it was -- I mean, I can't put it in any other words. But it was like one of the strangest experiences of my life.

O'SULLIVAN: It must be quite surreal to hear about this and say, oh, my God, I'm -- am I part of a Russian disinformation campaign?

DELANEY: Totally surreal. I was completely unwittingly doing it. I had no idea that they were linked to the Kremlin or anything. Obviously, if I had known, I wouldn't have done that. It seemed like -- it seemed legitimate from what I saw.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): The whole thing apparently a Russian con, even the profile picture of Delaney's editor not a picture of a real person but an image of a face generated by a computer through artificial intelligence.

O'SULLIVAN: You know, I was looking at that picture and there is no way that I could've told that there was anything off about it, that it was a fake image. It looks so. Real

DELANEY: It looks like a head shot, looks like a standard head shot of an editor I've seen in other places. Didn't tip me off as being a fake image, obviously. I had no way to tell.

O'SULLIVAN (voice-over): And Jack was not alone. CNN spoke to 3 other Americans who were also co-opted, all paid online and it was all done by people linked to the Internet Research Agency, according to Facebook. That's the same Russian troll group that interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

DELANEY: I'm more mad at myself for letting this happen than at Vladimir Putin or Russia or. Anything I should have my guard up a little bit more.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: That report from our Donie O'Sullivan.

[04:40:00]

BRUNHUBER: After the break, live to a storm chaser in Japan with the latest on Typhoon Haishen, where hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated as the storm moves towards the Japanese mainland. Stay with us. (MUSIC PLAYING)

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BRUNHUBER: Typhoon Haishen is battering parts of southwestern Japan. What you are seeing was the scene on Amami Oshima Island a bit earlier. Winds have topped 120 mph, that's close to 200 kilometers per hour and equivalent to a category 3 hurricane.

Officials are concerned residents won't evacuate due to the threat of the coronavirus. This is the third major storm to hit the region in less than two weeks. Joining us now is James Reynolds, a storm chaser who took the video we just saw there.

Tell us what it was like to be out there in that and whether things have improved since then.

JAMES REYNOLDS, STORM CHASER: It's been a really long and rough day here on Imami Island, basically since the sun came up this morning, through to about 1:00 in the afternoon. It was just relentless wind and torrential rain ripping off the sea.

Thankfully, over the last three or four hours, the conditions have really improved since the typhoon is moving away. Unfortunately, that means the people in Kyushu are next in the firing line.

BRUNHUBER: As it moves through, weather experts are saying some areas are expecting winds strong enough to topple homes, rain so fierce it would be like pouring buckets of water on your head.

How are people reacting to those warnings?

And tell us how COVID is complicating evacuations.

REYNOLDS: Yes, the local people here are taking this typhoon really seriously. I have been filming typhoons in Japan for almost 15 years and I have never seen such widespread preparations taking place ahead of the storm. The island I'm on, a lot of the locals have been evacuating to hotels.

[04:45:00]

REYNOLDS: I don't know for sure whether this is due to the COVID situation. But it would make sense that a hotel would probably be a, you know, potentially safer place to be than a crowded evacuation center.

BRUNHUBER: I am wondering whether you have been able to survey the damage now that it's kind of passed through.

REYNOLDS: Yes, I have driven across a large swath of the northern part of the island which was hit hardest. Power is out in most areas but, thankfully, because the island is built very tough and solid, there was no major damage I saw, just some minor trees down on one or two routes. But that was about it, thankfully.

BRUNHUBER: All right, James Reynolds, thank you very much for speaking with us.

(WEATHER REPORT)

BRUNHUBER: Well, hopes for a miracle were dashed Saturday in Lebanon. Rescuers have declared there is no sign of life after all beneath a building that collapsed in last month's huge Beirut explosion. They now say that the breathing that sensors detected in the rubble actually came from their own crew.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Unfortunately, today we can say that, technically speaking, there are no signs of life inside the building. However, according to our protocol, the operation must continue in order to leave the entire site secure and keep looking for any remains underneath.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: At least 190 people were killed in the massive explosion just over a month ago. Several people are still missing.

The world is reeling from the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic and women are especially affected since they are overrepresented in hardhit industries. We will have more on that coming up ahead. Please stay with us.

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[04:50:00]

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BRUNHUBER: When schools began to shut down around the world, many women were forced to leave their jobs to stay home with their children. Now with job opportunities drying up in sectors like the service industry and sales, women are finding it hard to get back to work as this pandemic drags on. Isa Soares reports.

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ISA SOARES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Like many others, Alpana Chakravarti's career hit the wrong note in 2020. Jolted by lockdown and the financial whiplash of COVID-19.

ALPANA CHAKRAVARTI, FURLOUGHED WORKER: We were working from home for just under a month and then furloughed to the end of July and then, yes, of course, got very scared. SOARES (voice-over): But furlough came and went and now the single

mother of 2 has been made redundant, with no income and bills that just keep piling up.

CHAKRAVARTI: My rental bill is just going up and up, doesn't matter what I'm trying to do. Everywhere else is going up. So I'm fighting a losing. Battle

SOARES (voice-over): She's not fighting it alone. According to the International Labour Organization, women have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. With almost 510 million of all employed women worldwide working in the four most affected sectors.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Now there is a real risk of a two-tier (ph) return to work so you're going to see large numbers of women not able to return to work because the sectors that they are working in are not really financially viable.

[04:55:00]

CHAKRAVARTI: That's great but so typical what (ph).

SOARES (voice-over): For Alpana, this has meant 6 months of single parenting, cooking, cleaning, home schooling and entertaining.

CHAKRAVARTI: (INAUDIBLE)? It should be (ph).

SHUBERT (voice-over): Ultimately, less time focusing on getting her career and her finances back on track.

CHAKRAVARTI: I'm very worried. I'm still trying. The more agencies I talk to the more worried I get.

SOARES: How emotional has this whole experience been for you?

Have you had moments of self-doubt?

CHAKRAVARTI: I've been wavering. I've been wavering. I've been trying to put on a brave, face. I always have done that for my kids. However, that's probably not teaching them true life. But it's OK to see Mom humble at times.

SOARES (voice-over): The damage from COVID-19 will be felt by future generations of women, with the IMF warning gender gaps are widening despite 30 years of progress

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think it's actually made things worse. So it's not just that it's shone a light on those pre-existing inequalities, it's actually exacerbating them. So prior to the pandemic, women in the U.K. were more likely to be low paid and there was a significant gender pay gap.

They were more likely to be in insecure employment or zero hours contract and so on. And they were more likely to take home the majority of unpaid work. What the pandemic has done has increased. That SOARES (voice-over): A disheartening message for Alpana, her 11-year-

old daughter and all women, who have to finally chip away at that impenetrable glass ceiling -- Isa Soares, CNN, Berkshire, Southeast England.

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BRUNHUBER: Well, that wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. I'll have the privilege of being back in a moment with more news. Stay with us.