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Trump May Release Surveillance Video of FBI Search; NYT: Trump Claimed Documents Were His Personal Property; Giuliani Meets with Grand Jury Behind Closed Doors; The Trickle Effect of Climate Crisis; U.S. Retail Sales Fall Flat; CDC Plans Changes to Respond Faster to a Health Crisis. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired August 18, 2022 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello and a warm welcome to our viewers joining us in the United States and all around the world. I'm Christina Macfarlane in for Max Foster here in London. Just ahead --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Pressure from some of his allies who want him to release the CCTV footage from the day that the FBI searched through Mar-a-Lago.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When FBI agents showed up and they asked the Trump team on the ground to turn off the surveillance cameras, they did not do so.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Flashing red lights of warning for the 40 million who depend on this water system to survive.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This will undoubtedly affect U.S. prices for consumers.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): I try to stay positive and it helps me to survive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: It's Thursday, August 18, 9:00 a.m. here in London, 4:00 a.m. on the U.S. East Coast where Donald Trump and his allies are trying to get control of the narrative in at least one of his many legal challenges. The former president is said to be considering releasing surveillance video of the search at his Mar-a-Lago residence. Some want to include it in campaign style ads to fire up Trump's base. Others say it could backfire when the public sees the sheer volume of material seized. Trump has already admitted he did not comply with the FBI's request to turn off the cameras during the search. Here's Trump's son Eric on Fox News.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEAN HANNITY, FOX NEWS: You still have the surveillance tape, is that correct? Are you allowed to share that with the country?

ERIC TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP'S SON: Absolutely, Sean, at the right time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well, while we wait for Trump to make up his mind, the federal magistrate who approved the Mar-a-Lago search warrant will hold a hearing today to decide if the affidavit used to get that warrant should be made public. CNN's Jessica Schneider has that story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Trump's legal team and Justice Department lawyers are gearing up for a court fight Thursday afternoon. And it is all over whether the affidavit that provided the basis for the search at Mar-a-Lago last week should be made public. The federal judge will be able to read over arguments from both sides before the hearing and then this judge will pepper both sides with questions before he deliberates and makes his decision.

Now the Justice Department we know is adamantly opposed to anything being released from the affidavit. The details in the affidavit are what allowed the FBI to secure this search warrant. And the DOJ has said it could potentially derail their ongoing investigation if it is unsealed because it would reveal specific investigative techniques and would reveal highly sensitive information about witnesses that they've already talked to.

So, you can expect that the Justice Department prosecutors will be arguing forcefully against the unsealing of the affidavit in court Thursday afternoon. We expect meanwhile, Trump's team will be arguing for maybe all or at least some of the materials to be released since Trump and his allies they've long been advocating for a full accounting what have they are calling an un unprecedented search at Mar-a-Lago.

Jessica Schneider, CNN, Washington.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACFARLANE: Well, the "New York Times" is reporting that Trump repeatedly told his attorneys that the documents wanted by the National Archives were in fact his, not theirs. And in fact, the Presidential Records Act requires preserving such documents. Trump's claim that the documents are his personal property is just the latest in a string of explanations and excuses.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVE ARONBERG, STATE ATTORNEY, PALM BEACH COUNTY, FLORIDA: He keeps changing his defenses. So yes, first he said the FBI planted it. Then he said, well, he declassified it. Now he's saying it is mine and not yours anyway. Well, it's the government's property, it's not his. And I think that is what led him to this situation.

People are wondering why would he risk all this to keep the documents? Now you see it, he just believes it is his and he never thought that he would get caught. But the fact that he keeps changing his explanations surely raises the eyebrows amongst prosecutors who pay attention to these things because -- at least in my mind -- it shows consciousness of guilt.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Well as for the surveillance footage of the FBI search, an attorney Shan Wu explains what we might learn if that's made public.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[04:05:00]

SHAN WU, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Potentially it would reveal the manner in which the documents were being handled and also perhaps most importantly who had access to them. And given the supposed sensitivity of these documents at the highest levels of classification, there's really no good reason, there's no innocuous explanation for having them there not in a SCIF which is the secure facility where normally they would be viewed.

So, if it's something from surveillance, it probably goes to just how at risk those documents were. And you know, while I understand the department had to cross a lot of Ts, dot a lot of Is to get to the search warrant decision, it also concerns me that they took this long for it. Because frankly the reporting that they were asking a better lock to be put on it really begs the question, I mean, if you think there is something so important that needs to be locked down, you need to get to it quickly.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: And also today, the former chief financial officer of the Trump Organization is expected to plead guilty to a 15 year tax fraud scheme. A source tells CNN Allen Weisselberg is willing to testify in a possible future trial but he won't enter into a cooperation agreement with prosecutors. The case involves an off the books compensation for Weisselberg and other executives including luxury apartments, a pair of Mercedes Benz and private school tuition for family members.

Now Donald Trump's former attorney Rudy Giuliani isn't talking about his appearance before a grand jury in the state of Georgia. They met behind closed doors for about six hours on Wednesday. Prosecutors told Giuliani earlier this week he is a target of their investigation. CNN caught up with him as he arrived at the courthouse.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Mr. Giuliani, when you met with Georgia lawmakers, did you lie to them?

RUDY GIULIANI, FORMER ATTORNEY FOR DONALD TRUMP: We will not talk about this until it's over. It's a grand jury and grand juries as I recall are secret. VALENCIA: Do you believe President Trump is the ultimate target of

this investigation?

GIULIANI: I'm not going to comment on the grand jury investigation.

VALENCIA UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What do you think their ultimate goal is here? What are you expecting to talk about here today?

GIULIANI: Well, they ask the questions and we'll see.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: That was our Nick Valencia you saw there questioning Giuliani and here is his report from Atlanta.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA: CNN asked Giuliani's attorney for details of his testimony but the attorney declined to comment saying that he was going to respect the secrecy of the special grand jury process. We don't know exactly what the line of questioning was, but we do know that Giuliani was inside for roughly six hours.

He spoke before Georgia lawmakers at least three times in the wake of the 2020 election appearing twice in person and once virtually. Enduring those appearances, he spread conspiracy theories about the election and also baseless claims about election fraud. Claims that we now know have been proven to be untrue.

What we also don't know is how cooperative Giuliani was. Prior to his testimony, he seemed to indicate that he was willing to play hard ball, something he said through his attorney. He also said that any conversation he had with the former president, Donald Trump, was protected by attorney/client privilege. But now that Giuliani has been named a target of this criminal investigation, things may not have been that cut and dry.

Nick Valencia, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Meanwhile Trump's former vice president says he would consider testifying before the January 6 committee if he were invited. A source close to Mike Pence warns against reading too much into the remarks but the former vice president says that he will speak out at some point.

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MIKE PENCE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If there was an invitation to participate, I would consider it. It would be unprecedented in history for a vice president to be summoned to testify on Capitol Hill. But as I said, I don't want to pre-judge. If there's ever any formal invitation rendered to us, we'd give it due consideration.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well, Pence was rushed out of the building during the U.S. Capitol riot. The chair of the House committee investigating January 6th has been calling on the former vice president to tell his story.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. BENNIE THOMPSON (D-MS): We would love to have former Vice President Pence's testimony. We have sought it, we've talked to his attorneys in the past.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well, the committee has laid out in detail Donald Trump's pressure on Pence to help overturn the 2020 presidential election.

Now she went from being the number three Republican in the U.S. House to losing her Congressional seat in just a matter of months. But Liz Cheney is not backing down from a battle to keep former President Donald Trump out of the White House. She conceded her Wyoming House seat on Tuesday losing in the Republican primary to a candidate who Trump endorsed. He gloated about the result calling it wonderful for America. As for what is next for Cheney, well she's not ruling out her own run for the Oval Office.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You didn't say yes or no and that is fine if you are thinking about it, but are you thinking about it? Are you thinking about running for president?

REP. LIZ CHENEY (R-WY): It -- that's a decision that I'm going to make in the coming months. And I won't make any announcements here this morning.

[04:10:00]

But it is something that I'm thinking about and I'll make a decision in the coming months.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MACFARLANE: Well, Cheney is still vice chair of the House committee investigating Trump's role in the January 6 insurrection. Her advisers say she doesn't want the panel's findings to be politicized which is any decision about the presidential campaign won't happen until next year.

Now the death toll from a horrific explosion in Kabul, Afghanistan is rising. We've learned at least 21 people are dead and 33 injured after a blast tore through a mosque during evening prayers on Wednesday. That's according to a spokesperson for the city's police chief. The Taliban have condemned Wednesday's blast which happened two days after Afghanistan marked the first anniversary of the Taliban takeover.

Now the Western U.S. has been plagued by wildfires in recent months due to extended periods of hot dry weather. This one north of Los Angeles broke out Wednesday and quickly grew to about 50 acres. Firefighters reportedly stopped the flames from encroaching on an animal shelter.

And as water levels fall to critical levels in rivers and reservoirs across the region, there are genuine fears that massive bodies of water like Lake Mead will disappear. So far neither the U.S. government nor affected states have come up with a plan to conserve water.

And in parts of central Texas including Dallas and Ft. Worth, were under a flood advisory overnight. This comes as isolated flash flooding in the area has been reported and more rainfall is expected through the weekend. Our meteorologist Derek Van Dam is at CNN Weather Center and joins us now with the latest. So, Derek, how much more rain can we expect?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, well the thunderstorm that caused the isolated flash flooding in and around the Dallas region in Texas, has -- it basically dissipated as quickly as it formed, but it was just enough to create that flash flooding event that did occur. And you can see on the latest radar the storm system has dissipated, it's actually moved to the south while weakening at the same time. But not before producing upwards of around 4 inches of rain from this radar estimated total in the southeastern sections of Dallas County. This is outside of the metroplex region.

Nonetheless this area hit hard by heavy rainfall and it's not only central Texas that's dealing with heavy rain, we have flood watches in effect for much of the Great Basin including New Mexico as well as Arizona, even portions of Utah and Colorado.

Now, a rare day three flash flood advisory, a rainfall outlook was actually issued yesterday about, 24 hours ago, so giving plenty of forewarning. The increasing threat for flash flooding from today right through Friday.

But notice that shading of red across southern Arizona, including the Phoenix metropolitan region. That is a moderate risk from the Weather Prediction Center, that's a level three out of a four tiered level. They are anticipating significant amounts of rainfall across this area that could lead to localized flash flooding. So, we're getting this monsoonal moisture surge across the area.

Now we know that these two states and much of the Western U.S. have been plagued by drought. So, this could put a dent in the drought. Is it a drought buster? Well not necessarily. We need a significant amount of rain and snow over the course of a winter season to really end the ongoing mega drought taking place.

Now we do have a stalled out frontal boundary that's going to produce a significant amount of precipitation across the Gulf Coast states from Texas to Georgia in the coming days. In fact, the Climate Prediction Center has above average rainfall for these locations so we're going to monitor the deep south over the course of the next week for the potential of flooding. Another big story we're monitoring is high heat over the Western U.S.

In fact, breaking records for places like Redding, California. Boise, Idaho, temperatures easily in the triple digit figures, that's going to continue today and into the weekend as well as our excessive heat continues -- Christina.

MACFARLANE: Yes, if it's not droughts, it's floods.

VAN DAM: Right.

MACFARLANE: There's no interim there, is there. Derek, thanks very much there.

OK, experts say U.S. consumers are likely to take another hit from higher food prices and this time they'll have the ongoing drought to blame. We'll explain.

Plus, U.S. retail sales fall flat, as stocks dip into the red. A look at the numbers from Wall Street ahead.

And the U.S. CDC plans to overhaul its operations. How the agency hopes the changes will help it stay prepared for another health crisis.

[04:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACFARLANE: We are now just hours away from the start of a new trading day on Wall Street. Here's where U.S. stock futures stand right now. The Dow and Nasdaq and S&P 500 futures all down -- as you can see in the red. A similar picture to Wednesday where a drop in U.S. stocks put an end to an August rally with all three major indexes closing in the red. Investors weighing new economic data, including the census bureau figures that show retail sales were unchanged in July but auto sales were down.

Well meantime, the Federal Reserve is indicating interest rates will continue to climb until the rate of inflation is substantially reduced.

And Americans are of course hit hard by rising prices and are pulling back on spending which has been back news for retailers like Target. The company says its profit plunged by a whopping 90 percent in the second quarter and even though it slashed prices on general merchandise such as clothing, Target said it ended the quarter with 1.5 percent more inventory than it had three months ago.

And like most things, the cost of school supplies has gone up. This year the American average household will spend $864 on back to school shopping, 40 percent more than before the pandemic. Prices of basic items like tape, glue, sneakers and backpacks have all gone up and parents, teachers and store owners are blaming it on inflation.

And if you think inflation is already making food too expensive, brace for more pain at grocery stores. A new report says the ongoing drought is likely to make prices for some food items go up even more.

[04:20:00]

Vanessa Yurkevich explains why.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Hi Christina. Extreme drought conditions through much of the West and Great Plains is wreaking havoc on U.S. farmers and ranchers. Nearly three quarters of U.S. farmers say this year's drought is hurting their harvest according to a new survey by the American Farm Bureau Federation. And this year's drought conditions are taking a harder toll than last year's.

37 percent of farmers say they are plowing through and killing existing crops that won't reach maturity because of these dry conditions and that's a 24 percent jump from last year according to the survey.

And farmers in Texas are being forced to sell off their cattle herds earlier than normal due to the extreme drought as water sources dry out and grass burns up. Farmers in the Lone Star state reported the largest reduction in herd size down 50 percent. Followed by New Mexico and Oregon at 43 percent and 41 percent respectively.

Now access to water for livestock has been a key issue for farmers and ranchers this year. And new water restrictions on the Colorado River announced Tuesday by the U.S. federal government will limit how much water states in the area can take. This will undoubtedly affect food prices for the U.S. consumer.

For example, in California which grows 80 percent of the world's supply of almonds, farmers have been forced to forego planting or destroy their own orchards and that could signal a rise in price down the road. U.S. consumers are already spending 9.3 percent more on fruits and vegetables from a year ago according to the last month's consumer price report -- Christina.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Well meantime, natural gas prices in the U.S. are spiking as well thanks to inflation and climate change. They've skyrocketed to levels not seen since 2008 and are up about 70 percent just since the end of June. Part of the problem is high demand this summer with soaring temperatures forcing many Americans to crank up their air conditioning and experts are warning of sticker shock this winter as well when families turn to natural gas to heat their homes.

And we now have new numbers on the spread of monkeypox. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the U.S. topped 13,000 cases on Wednesday with New York, California, Florida, Texas and Georgia reporting the highest numbers. Meanwhile the World Health Organization says globally monkeypox cases increased by 20 percent last week compared to the week before. More than 35,000 monkeypox cases have been reported from 92 countries so far. Meantime Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is planning to

overall how the agency works so it's better prepared to respond to a public health crisis in future. CNN's Sanjay Gupta has those details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christina, I think that the overarching theme here is the CDC is conceding the fact that they did not rise to the challenge as well as they could as one of the preeminent public health organizations in the world. And as a result, you saw the CDC at times being very slow to act, at times being much more reactive as opposed to proactive. And also, at times being too influenced by politics even more so than public health. And as a result, trust in the organization has fallen.

And if you go back to H1N1 days, trust in the organization was around 80 percent. And now it is in the mid-60 percent range. Still, some of the highest trust among federal government, but when it comes to public health, I mean obviously this is a real concern if a third of the country simply does not believe or trust what is coming out of an organization like this.

Even with some of the most recent CDC guidelines, only about 19 percent of the country say it is really clear what those guidelines are. And so, the CDC is again, their conceding these points and saying they want to make changes specifically in terms of sharing information faster. They want to get that information out quickly. They want to be translated into easy to understand knowledge for people. By their own concession, they say that so much of what they have been putting out was geared for scientists as opposed to the average citizen. That's going to change.

And really prioritizing public health communication. One thing that has been critically important I think is to think about the CDC being an organization where communication is coming from the scientific body itself as opposed to from the White House and starting to untangle some of the politics and public health.

So, this is a part of what the CDC has been focused on now. They are doing a lot of polling within the organization, understanding their position in society and trying to act accordingly.

This will take time. There's a lot of work that needs to be done.

[04:25:00]

But restoring the trust, Christina, into this organization is obviously very important because the last thing that they sort of put on their agenda is getting ready for another public health emergency and as you well know, we are already talking about here in the United States polio and monkeypox as well. So critically important times for the CDC -- Christina.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MACFARLANE: Our thanks to Sanjay for that. All right, still to come, Donald Trump's contentious relationship with

the FBI, it stretches back years before agents searched his Mar-a-Lago estate.

And later, wounded Ukrainian soldiers are refusing to give up even as they battle life-changing injuries. We'll hear from some of them just ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MACFARLANE: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Christina Macfarlane. If you're joining us, let me bring you up-to-date with the our top stories.

In the coming hours the federal judge who approve the Mar-a-Lago search warrant will hold a hearing to decide if the affidavit used to get that warrant should be made public. This comes as Donald Trump's team says he is considering releasing the security footage of the FBI search. Trump has already admitted he did not turn off the cameras during the search despite the Bureau's request to do so. That search which has sparked all sorts threats, is the latest in a series of showdowns between Trump and the FBI.

Now the organization representing thousands of retired special agents is warning political attacks against the agency are dangerous and could incite violence. But Trump has been trashing the FBI for years. CNN's Brian Todd explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump's contentious relationship with the FBI dates back to before he became president.

[04:30:00]