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Lawmakers Call on Social Media Firms to Fight Online Threats Against FBI; McConnell Warns GOP May Not Win Senate, Citing "Candidate Quality"; Nearly Half of Cancer Deaths Due to Preventable Risk Factors; Apple: Security Flaw May Allow Hackers to Control Devices. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired August 19, 2022 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:00]

BRITLEY RITZ, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Again, scattered thunderstorms will continue on through the rest of this evening, into the weekend. Your timestamp reading is Saturday morning through the afternoon. Heavy rain remains down on the southern edge of this. So the northern Colorado basin, Lake Mead, right here near Vegas, all of this water remains further south, which is a good thing but we need heavy rain to give us that result of drought ridden areas. Unfortunately, most of that's holding south but continuing on with the heavy flooding.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: Okay. Britley, thank you very much for the update.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: Top of the hour on CNN NEWSROOM, good to have you. I'm Victor Blackwell.

CAMEROTA: And Alisyn Camerota.

BLACKWELL: We begin with a new attempt from Congress to crack down on the violent extreme rhetoric against the FBI after its search for Donald Trump's home in Florida. The House Oversight Committee is going after, not just the trolls, but the tech companies whose platforms these extremists are using.

The Committee sent letters to eight firms including Facebook's parent company Meta, TikTok, Donald Trump's Truth Social, seeking specific information. The deadline is September 2nd.

CAMEROTA: So lawmakers give examples of what law enforcement agents are facing, including this from a Pennsylvania man who was arrested for posting online: "If you work for the FBI, then you deserve to die."

Let's turn now to CNN Washington Correspondent Sunlen Serfaty. So Sunlen, what exactly does the House Oversight Committee want these firms to do?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, they essentially want data, Alisyn, in details and how they're responding to these online threats and very interesting that they certainly use very specific examples that they've seen on social media recently that certainly a powerful effect here of making the point that this has become a problem. And certainly this is in response to the FBI's search at Trump's Mar-A-Lago, saying that there has been an uptick in violent social media threats against law enforcement.

Now, this was sent to the eight executives at some of the top media social media companies in the country, you have Meta, Twitter, TikTok and also you have right-wing social media outlets, notably Trump's Truth Social and also right-wing Gab. And they say, "We are concerned that reckless statements by the former president and Republican members of Congress have unleashed a flood of violent threats on social media that have already led to at least one death and pose a danger to law enforcement officers across the United States."

In here, they're essentially saying in this letter to the social media executives, what are you going to do about it, and they want specifics, they outline. They want to know how companies are responding when these - when users pose threats against law enforcement and they specifically also want to know how they plan to prevent this from happening in the future and they want a quantity here, too.

They say we want to know the data, how many threats have come in, what did you do and where did you go with these threats, Victor and Alisyn?

BLACKWELL: Sunlen Serfaty, thank you.

Michael Zeldin is a former federal prosecutor and Steve Moore is a CNN Law Enforcement Contributor and a retired FBI Supervisory Special Agent. Welcome to you both.

Steve, let me start with you. A couple of these sites on this list. They are the go to platforms for this aggressive political rhetoric. Truth Social was created after the former president was kicked off on other site for risk of inciting violence. So what's the incentive here for them to do any of what Congress is asking them to do?

STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR: Well, their incentive is not to have liability for anything that actually goes on. Another incentive might be common decency. But what's going on here is not unprecedented, it's just the level of it that's unprecedented. You can't go through an FBI career without being threatened, without worrying about somebody before they get released from prison.

But this is really unprecedented as far as the volume. And from where the voices are, that are condemning agents that are really, regardless of your political opinion, these FBI agents who are on the search were just - that was what was on their job list that day. It's not their political decision to do it.

CAMEROTA: Yes, absolutely. And, of course, Donald Trump, at one time in the not distant past was very against classified information being out there and top secret information being out there, as we all know, and that's what they were trying to retrieve.

Michael, what can Congress do legally about these social media platforms that are acting as a conduit for the threats?

MICHAEL ZELDIN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, it depends, Alisyn, on what it is that is being posted. But I have to say, even though I spent a long time in law enforcement and I'm - I cherish that time and I want to make sure that all law enforcement officers are safe, I also cherish the First Amendment.

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And the First Amendment is pretty clear that you can speak in the way that is - these people are speaking on the internet. There's a Supreme Court case law that goes back years and years and years about the importance of protecting speech even if it advocates violence and I think that ...

CAMEROTA: But, Michael, I mean - I really appreciate your making that point, but what can't you say? In other words, you deserve - saying the FBI deserves to die, okay, I understand that's vile, but it's protected. But what - just give us the distinction, what can't they say.

ZELDIN: You have to threaten imminent violence directed against unknown person, in a sense. You can't - you can say, I don't like policemen. All policemen should die. That's protected. If you say, there's a policeman, let's get him, that's not protected.

So it has to be really very targeted before it crosses the line from protected speech to unprotected speech. And so the question is going to be why this speech crossed that line and for lawmakers to not overreact in a way that limits free speech. I know I'm an outlier in this free speech protection of the FBI debate, Alisyn, but I think the principle of protecting free speech is very important and foundational to our nation, and that can't be abridged lightly even in these times that we find ourselves.

BLACKWELL: Steve, you want to weigh in on that before I move on the next topic?

MOORE: I actually agree with that. One of the things the FBI is here for is to defend the Constitution. And if you give up the First Amendment in trying to protect yourself, then you've kind of shot yourself in the foot. So I think what happens here is the push towards this, there's very specific definitions of when a threat becomes a threat as opposed to just a distasteful opinion.

I think what the push should be is protecting the privacy and the records of the agents who are out there on the street.

BLACKWELL: Steve, I got one more for you here. And we know the former president is being advised to and he's considering releasing this surveillance video of the search from last Monday there. Some of his allies say that this would provide a jolt of energy to the Republican Party base, what's your concern if that video goes public?

MOORE: I think if a search is conducted correctly and legally, I don't think there's any problem in showing the search. I think you really have to consider redacting the faces and the identifying information from the agents, not because the agents did anything wrong, but because there are a radical element out there.

And there's always a radical element, whether it's the right or the left, there's a radical element right now that are blaming street agents who had no choice in what they did for what they consider a political decision. That's like blaming the returning Vietnam veterans for the war. It's just a distasteful thing that America occasionally does, but you need to protect the people who are the victims of this.

CAMEROTA: How about that, Michael? How about if their faces are being put out there, if as has been speculated on that former President Trump fundraisers off of it, because we also do know that the names of some agents were being passed around online, so it was more specific than just a general threat as we were discussing earlier?

ZELDIN: That's right. And I agree with Steve. I think that if there's a way to control how that tape is released, then the identifying information about those agents need to be protected for the future of imminent violence that they would face just like judge Reinhart, the magistrate judge who dealt with the search warrant of Mar-A-Lago is receiving all sorts of very serious threats.

The thing about this - releasing of this tape, Alisyn, though, is two things: One is if it shows the volume of documents that were taken from Mar-A-Lago, I think that's a very bad point in Trump's favor. This is not an accidental retention of one document. These are boxes, and boxes and boxes that he was asked for and never returned.

But the thing that worries me about the release of this is that Trump can edit it in ways that make it seem much more nefarious than it really was. And that's where the fundraising and all the other bad acts will come when he edits it and puts ominous music behind it and says, this is the deep state working against it and if it could happen to me, it could happen to you.

CAMEROTA: Oh, prepare yourself.

ZELDIN: Exactly.

CAMEROTA: That is what it will look like. We know that it will be cherry-picked and edited and I appreciate you bringing that to everyone's attention. Michael Zeldin, Steve Moore, thank you both.

ZELDIN: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell acknowledges there is a chance the Republicans will not be able to take back the Senate in November.

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Why the quality of candidates in some key battleground states is of major concern.

CAMEROTA: Plus, a new study finds that almost half of all cancer deaths are linked to preventable factors. What we all need to know, ahead.

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CAMEROTA: Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says it will be tough for Republicans to win the Senate in November.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): I think the - there's probably a greater likelihood the House flips than the Senate. Candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome.

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Right now we have a 50-50 Senate and a 50-50 country, but I think when all is said and done this fall, we're lucky to have an extremely close Senate either our side up slightly or they're side up slightly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: CNN's Melanie Zanona joins us now. So why is he saying this now?

MELANIE ZANONA, CNN CAPITOL HILL REPORTER: Well, I think there are a couple of reasons for that, Victor. The first one being that Mitch McConnell is really trying to light a fire underneath some of these Republican candidates who really struggled in both the fundraising game and also the polls.

A Super PAC aligned with Mitch McConnell has had to come to the rescue of Republican J.D. Vance in Ohio. A state that Joe Biden lost by eight points in 2020. So just a sign of how close that race has become. Meanwhile, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report just shifted its ratings for the Pennsylvania Senate race from a toss up to a lead Democrat and this was already viewed as one of Democrats' best pickup opportunities.

But the Republican candidate there, Mehmet Oz, has really floundered. He's come under criticism for being a new resident to the state. He was mocked for this recent campaign ad that he cut film in a grocery store trying to (inaudible) coup d'etat. And then the Senate GOP's campaign arm has started shifting around and cutting back on spending in order to save resources to help some of these candidates who have struggled, whether it's Herschel Walker in Georgia or Blake Masters in Arizona and so clearly, McConnell is trying to sound an alarm here.

But there is another reason for his bluntness and that is he's frustrated with Donald Trump who intervened in a number of critical Republican primaries. And the GOP wound up with what Democrats say are flawed candidates who are going to be easier to beat in November.

And we should also point out that this debate over Trump's role in the midterm elections, Republicans is not just isolated to the Senate. In fact, I'm told that in the house, the head of the House GOP's campaign arm has been privately counseling some Republicans in battleground districts to avoid Trump talk, to not get distracted and to focus on the issues.

But that advice is going to be really difficult to follow, especially if Trump announces another presidential bid before the midterms. Victor? Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Okay. Really interesting background. Melanie, thank you.

Let's bring in former Republican Congressman Joe Walsh. He joins us now. He's the host of the White Flag podcast. Joe, great to see you. So as we know, Sen. Mitch McConnell chooses his words very carefully. So when he talks about the lack of - or basically, let me be clear, he says when he says that the GOP may not win the Senate because of the candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome, what's he saying in plain English?

JOE WALSH (R-IL), FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: He's saying that the Republicans are in real trouble, Alisyn, in taking back control of the Senate. But look it's, in essence, it's not these candidates' fault, these - they've nominated, the Republican Party has, extremist candidates. But these candidates reflect where Republican voters are today. This is the base. The base of the party is now fully radicalized and extremist, so you're getting candidates like this who just are not going to play well in a general election.

I work with an organization called Center Street PAC and we're trying to defeat some of these extremists, Alisyn. I mean, people like J.D. Vance in Ohio is an election denier. Blake Masters is an - in Arizona - is an election denier. Dr. Oz in Pennsylvania, an election denier. Republicans are nominating - they've nominated election deniers all over the country. These folks shouldn't do well in a general election.

BLACKWELL: Let's remind people that Mitch McConnell endorsed Herschel Walker in Georgia during the primary. Is this a surprise or is this, as Melanie suggests, a strategy to try to get Republicans on board? We know that Super PAC-affiliated with McConnell is going to be pumping some money into some of these races to prop up these candidates.

WALSH: I really do believe he knows they're in trouble. And yes, I can see in a way this is McConnell trying to light a fire under some of these campaigns. But realistically, this is also McConnell trying to distance himself from Trump and where Republican voters are. I think he's trying to sort of set the table for Republicans possibly not taking control of the Senate again this fall because, look, these are extremist candidates. They're not candidates that McConnell would have chosen himself. But McConnell is in a real lurch because this is where Republican voters are.

CAMEROTA: Well, I mean, some election deniers are doing really well. I mean, Kari Lake won.

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So is it their election denialism or are these just lousy candidates for other reasons? WALSH: Well, no they did - that's the point, Alisyn, they did really

well in Republican primaries. I mean, when you look at the map of these Republican candidates running at the state and federal level, one, the vast majority of Republican primaries, election deniers, because 70 percent, 80 percent, 90 percent of Republican voters don't believe Joe Biden won fair and square, so that plays really well among Republicans in a primary.

But you come into a general election where you need to appeal to independents and even moderate Democrats like Kari Lake will have to in Arizona, that's a much tougher sell, because most Americans don't believe it was a stolen election.

CAMEROTA: Okay. Joe Walsh, always great to get your perspective. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Apple tells users to update that software now, after finding some devices may have vulnerabilities that hackers could exploit.

CAMEROTA: I'll do that right now.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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CAMEROTA: New research finds that almost half of all cancer deaths are tied to preventable causes.

BLACKWELL: The study is in the journal The Lancet. It finds that drinking excessive alcohol having, a high body mass index, smoking and other risk factors were responsible for more than 4 million cancer deaths globally in 2019. CNN's Health Reporter Jacqueline Howard joins us now. So listen, we know about the risks that smoking presents, but what about BMI and drinking, what's the impact there?

JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: Right. This study did include those as some of the risk factors being evaluated as well. And often Victor, we talked about the genetic risk factors of cancer. But this study really shows that occupational, behavioral, environmental, metabolic risk factors also play significant roles.

So here's what this study found, it looked at data on global cancer deaths in the year 2019 and it found that 44.4 percent were attributable to preventable risk factors. So that's more than 4 million deaths for that year worldwide. And the top three leading risk factors for both men and women combined were smoking, as you see here on the screen, alcohol use and high BMI, which we know is a measurement for obesity.

And another interesting finding, Victor and Alisyn, this study also showed that these risks attributable cancer deaths appear to be on the rise. They went up 20 percent between 2010 and 2019.

CAMEROTA: And are there certain types of cancer that are more linked to being overweight or drinking too much? HOWARD: Yes, that was another interesting finding in this study. There

were differences between men and women, so I'll start with for men, those cancers were lung, tracheal, bronchial, colorectal, esophageal and stomach. And then for women they cancers were also lung cancer was number one, followed by cervical, colorectal and breast cancers. So those were interesting findings also. Victor and Alisyn?

BLACKWELL: Jacqueline Howard for us, thank you so much.

CAMEROTA: All right. If you own Apple products and who doesn't, listen up, the company is urging customers who update their devices after a security flaw was detected that could allow hackers to take over your iPhone, iPod and Mac.

BLACKWELL: They want you to do it right now.

CNN Brian Fung is following this for us. Brian ...

CAMEROTA: What do I do?

BLACKWELL: ... has Apple said how many customers have been affected?

BRIAN FUNG, CNN TECH REPORTER: It has not. But based on the range of devices that we know to be affected, it's probably safe to say it's in the millions. Let's take a look at some of the devices that are under consideration here. We're talking about iPhones, computers, iPods, Safari, even the seventh gen iPhone touch - iPod Touch are affected by this.

And what is the concern here? The concern is if you don't install this update, the next time you interact with some sort of malicious file or link, it could allow hackers to take over your device and run code that's not supposed to be running on it. And so the - what makes this particularly concerning is that Apple says it believes that this software vulnerability has been actively exploited in devices that have not installed this patch. Meaning, hackers are out there right now taking advantage of this in devices that have not installed this.

So the next time your iPhone or your iPod prompts you to install an update, you should do so and that's just general cybersecurity hygiene good practice.

BLACKWELL: Cybersecurity hygiene. Okay. All right. They're a new term.

CAMEROTA: It's funny that that's a new term, because your iPhone is kind of old.

BLACKWELL: Please don't put my business in the street.

CAMEROTA: He has an iPhone 6, do you like that?

BLACKWELL: Well, so do you.

CAMEROTA: I think I do.

BLACKWELL: I mean ... CAMEROTA: But people make fun of it all the time.

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BLACKWELL: So many of these hackers who are sitting out there, Alisyn just told them what phone I have.

CAMEROTA: Would you like my number?