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Tropical Storm Debby Expected To Grow To Cat 1 Hurricane Tonight; Clock Ticking As Harris Closes In On Critical VP Pick; Israel And Hezbollah Exchange Attacks Across Lebanon Border; Violent Protests In UK After Knife Attack; Black Men In Battleground Georgia Weigh In On Presidential Race; CNN Original Series "1968" Airs Tonight. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired August 04, 2024 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:35]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. Hi, everyone. I'm Jessica Dean in New York.

Breaking news coverage as Tropical Storm Debby approaches Florida's northwest Gulf Coast. Debby is forecast to rapidly strengthen over the next few hours becoming a category one hurricane. That storm is about 125 miles west by southwest off Tampa. It's forecast to make landfall tomorrow morning near the Big Bend region of the state. And flooding has already begun. Officials there urging people to prepare.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAEL BRENNAN, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER: The biggest threat and most widespread threat is going to be the heavy rainfall and the potential for considerable flooding. Flash and urban flooding across portions of Florida and into the coastal southeastern United States from today all the way through Thursday. And there will be the possibility of river flooding in many locations as well as that heavy rainfall falls on drains into river basins.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: CNN meteorologist Chad Myers is tracking Debby in our weather center.

Chad, what are you seeing? What's the latest on the storm?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, the radar presentation is looking much more impressive than it did all day long, which means the storm is likely intensifying right now. There will be a new hurricane hunter aircraft in the storm soon that will probably give us a good update at the 8:00 advisory. We'll have to see what happens there, but the storm still a 65-mile-per-hour storm. But if you look at the radar, you can see the spin and that's the most impressive I've seen this sprint all day long here.

We're already seeing that almost what an eye like feature here that we haven't seen all day. Something else that's going on. The potential for tornadoes, really more like waterspouts coming on shore, but that just happened here, not that far from Treasure Island and moving on up toward Seminole. That rotation is still there on radar and I think some people actually did see that waterspout.

Seeing the water here, Fort Myers Beach, while two to three feet of surge and more to come for the northern part of the state, too, with eight to 10 feet of saltwater surge. And then you just heard the hurricane center talk about how much rain is going to come down with this. It's going to be a very slow mover. This is not going to get out of here. It's still going to be raining Wednesday and Thursday in places here across the southeast and then picking up the moisture off the gulf stream in the Atlantic, causing significant possibilities of flash flooding.

Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and there could be six to 10 inches of rainfall all the way up even toward the I-95 corridor up into the northeast. That's how long this storm is just going to linger around. Everywhere that you see purple on that map, the radar is forecasting, the models are forecasting 10 inches of rain or more. When you put that much rain over that big of an area, you are going to get flooding because it just can't run down someplace else because it's where it would have been running.

It's still raining there, too. So, yes, this is going to be a significant flood event far away from where we're going to have landfall later tonight, tomorrow morning, somewhere could be 82, could be 90-mile-per-hour storm. So certainly I'm forecasting a hurricane before landfall -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right, wishing everyone the best down there.

Chad Myers, thank you so much.

And in just a few minutes we're going to talk live to the director of the National Hurricane Center, Michael Brennan. We'll talk with him in just a little bit.

In the meantime, we are less than 48 hours away from Vice President Kamala Harris introducing her running mate at a campaign event in Philadelphia. She's in the final hours of her decision-making process to select a running mate who she helps can -- hopes can help her defeat Trump and win the White House.

And today, she's meeting with at least three top contenders, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, and Arizona Senator Mark Kelly.

Let's go now to CNN's Eva McKend, who's been keeping an eye on all the movement, the comings and goings outside the vice president's residence there at the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C.

Eva, what have you seen and heard today?

EVA MCKEND, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jessica, I can tell you that we spotted former attorney general Eric Holder. He of course is so significant in this process because he's overseeing this team of Democratic attorneys involved in this rapid vetting process of these top contenders.

We also spotted a Pennsylvania motorcade. It looks similar to the one of Governor Shapiro from earlier today when he departed from Pennsylvania, but not entirely clear if it was him, but we believe so. But listen, in these conversations today, with Shapiro, Kelly and Walz, she is looking for someone, we are learning, that can be a governing partner. She's also looking for someone that's going to help her be competitive in these battleground states.

[18:05:10]

And Jessica, to give you a sense of how dramatically this contest has shifted over the last several days, there's a CBS poll out today and it shows Harris and former president Donald Trump at a statistical time. Her at 50 percent, him at 49 percent. And that really reflects I think the groundswell of energy that we have seen among Democrats in rallying around her -- Jess.

DEAN: And Eva, the Harris campaign also starting Republicans for Harris. What can you tell us about that?

MCKEND: Yes, Jess, this is really interesting to me because I don't see anything sort of similar on the other side. You know, a Democrats for Trump for instance. And so what this tells me is that the Harris campaign is making a concerted effort to try to reach these Republican voters. They see an opening, you know, as a result of the midterms, for instance, in places like Georgia where a Trump-backed candidates did not fare as well.

They think that they can appeal to those voters. And the strategy through this initiative that they rolled out today is essentially to have high-profile Republicans act as surrogates and give other Republicans a permission structure to support the vice president by arguing that this election is principally one about protecting the Constitution and democracy, and they say that they're prepared to make investments on this front.

They have digital ad out now, a unity, and it's aimed to appeal directly to those Nikki Haley voters. So they don't want to leave these Republicans on the table, Jess. They believe that they can appeal to at least some of them.

DEAN: Yes, especially in some of these battleground states where the margins are likely to be so small, every vote certainly counts on both sides.

Eva McKend, thank you so much for that reporting.

And joining us now CNN senior political commentator and former special assistant to President George W. Bush, Scott Jennings, and Democratic strategists and co-founder of Lift Our Voices, Julie Roginsky.

Great to have both of you with us.

Julie, I want to start first with you. Our reporting indicates the three C's is what they're looking for, competency, chemistry, core values. With that in mind, how do you see this playing out in the next 24 to 48 hours? It has been interesting to listen to the chattering class in D.C. First it was, oh, it's definitely going to be Mark Kelly. Then it was definitely going to be Josh Shapiro. Now, there's this last-minute push for Tim Walz. How do you see this all playing out?

JULIE ROGINSKY, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, look, she needs to, first of all, have somebody with whom she's got synergy and who's not going to have any bombshells dropped on her anytime between now and then a very short vetting process. But look, you know, if you want to use alliteration, I would say the alliteration here is she's looking for somebody who could deliver a message. Somebody like a Tim Walz is great doing that. Somebody like Martin Beshear, who Scott I'm sure knows well, is doing very well in that capacity, or she needs somebody who's going to help her expand her map, extend her map, in which case of course Josh Shapiro and Senator Kelly are probably the two who are strongest positioned to do that.

And so from her perspective, we don't know what her own internal polls are showing. But whatever they are, I suspect that's where she's going to hone down because either she needs somebody to help her deliver the strong message against Trump that she's been delivering since she's become the nominee or she needs somebody who's going to just help her shore up those electoral votes in places like Pennsylvania, which she desperately needs to win in order to win this election.

DEAN: Yes. And Scott, again, just this is still -- I want to underscore to everyone, she's still meeting with people as we speak. We've just talked to Eva McKend outside her residence, but in these final hours we're seeing the stories and the storylines shift and evolve. "Politico" is reporting the Pennsylvania Democratic Congressman John Fetterman of Pennsylvania is advising the Harris team not to pick Josh Shapiro, of course, the governor of Pennsylvania. Senator Bernie Sanders coming out for Tim Walz.

What do you make of those moves? And do you think the vice president is taking that advice into account?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I love the interest state or interstate, whichever it is, political rivalries over the Pennsylvania between Shapiro and Fetterman.

DEAN: Yes.

JENNINGS: I think they served on the parole board together at one time, so never underestimate the pettiness of politicians.

Look, Shapiro is objectively the best choice. She has to win Pennsylvania. If she doesn't win Pennsylvania, she probably isn't going to win the election. He helps her more than anyone else in Pennsylvania. He's no guarantee. But it's obvious to everyone, all the pros know that. The problem with Shapiro is he's Jewish and he has said supportive things of Israel and there's a whole bunch of Democrats that can't stand it.

And she's going to have to decide whether she wants to stand up to that part of her base that's effectively awash in antisemitism. That's the issue with Shapiro right now.

[18:10:02]

I think she should choose him because it helps her politically, but also it sends a message that she's not going to be bullied by the -- this part of her base. So it'd be interesting to see what she does, but it's pretty obvious to most people that Shapiro is the right answer. It's just a question whether she can get to the right answer, and sometimes in politics you can't.

DEAN: And Julie, look, there's a lot of talk about what a vice president can bring to a ticket. In the end, it is often that people vote for the top of the ticket. Of course if you can get some benefit out of your vice presidential pick, fantastic. But will they bring a state with them, will they not? Will they bring a group of voters with them, will they not?

But in the end, what do you think that her decision most says about the vice president? Because it really is the first time she's making a big decision and telegraphing to Americans. You know, it does give us some information about how she'll want to govern, why she's choosing a certain person.

ROGINSKY: Well, Scott, first of all, let me just respond to something Scott said. Nobody in our party is sitting down with Nick Fuentes or saying that there are people on both sides who are saying Jews will not replace us were good people in the way that Donald Trump has been, so I want to stoke the talk about antisemitism in my party when you have those standard bearer --

JENNINGS: Nice try. The antisemitism in the United States and around the world is rampant on the left, and you know it.

ROGINSKY: Nothing --

JENNINGS: And you can't talk the way out of it. It's a good try.

ROGINSKY: Nothing can compare -- Scott, nothing, nothing can compare to what Donald Trump has been doing --

JENNINGS: Nice try. It's a good try. But everybody has a TV. Everybody can see what's going on.

ROGINSKY: -- with respect to empowering antisemites. But I will also -- let me just finish my thought here, which is that, look, she -- Josh Shapiro would be a fantastic candidate. I spend a lot of time in Pennsylvania, I can tell you right now, I speak to Republicans all the time in Pennsylvania who may not love Democrats but they love Josh Shapiro, so he's an absolute very strong candidate for her to choose, as is everybody else that she's talking to, as is somebody like a Martin Beshear who may not bring Kentucky with him but nevertheless has a great message to contrast with somebody like a J.D. Vance, as is somebody like Tim Walz in Minnesota, who really is unlike J.D. Vance representative of western values, as is somebody like a Mark Kelly who actually has had a role in the military and as an astronaut that can contrast very well with somebody like a Donald Trump. So I think, look, the beauty of the Democratic Party right now is

there's almost an embarrassment of riches in terms of this next- generation that's been coming up. And I think anyone of the people that we talked about and several more who we aren't talking about would be fantastic candidates.

DEAN: And Scott, I want to ask you about some of the reporting Eva just gave us about this Republicans for Harris arm that's being launched. There isn't a comparable Democrats for Trump. What do you make of the Harris campaign trying to go after some of these disaffected Republicans, perhaps Nikki Haley voters, and trying to make an effort to get them in November?

JENNINGS: Well, of course, there has been disaffected Republicans with Donald Trump since he came on in 2016. There's been a dedicated never Trump wing of the Republican Party. It's, you know, by 10 percent or 12 percent of the party. So they're smart to do that. I just disagree that there aren't Democrats for Trump. Look at the polling. He doesn't have the Democratic elites. I don't think he would want them.

DEAN: Yes, I just was saying like --

JENNINGS: But he has definitely working class Democrats for Trump all over this country.

DEAN: Sure, that have voted before.

JENNINGS: You got to believe me, he's got plenty of Democrats and former Democrats --

DEAN: No, I was just saying like an actual arm and an actual effort by the campaign in kind of a formalized way.

JENNINGS: Yes, look, I don't think you're going to see huge numbers of liberal Democratic elites come out and declare their allegiance to Trump. The Democrats he speaks to are working class Democrats, people in unions, people in the UAW in Michigan, for instance. I know they endorsed Biden and then Harris. But a massive percentage of the UAW people in Michigan are going to vote for Donald Trump, their union boss, Sean Fain, has admitted that in interviews.

So Trump's Democratic coalition, they're not elites. They don't have titles. They get up and go to work every day. And that's what they do. And that's who they're banking on in terms of their Democratic coalition building.

DEAN: And Julie, how do you see it in terms of the Harris campaign? Look, it is -- all of the Biden campaign staffers have stayed in place. They've put some additional people especially at the top of the leadership. But this campaign is different. It has different type of messaging, it has a different style to it. How have you seen it evolve and it's, whatever, two weeks that it's been in existence?

ROGINSKY: Well, first of all, it's much more nimble, right? And it's not sitting on defense or waiting for anybody to punch them. They're going out there and they're taking the message to Trump, which is what the Democratic Party has really been hungering for, for the last, I mean, ever since Trump got into this election, and something that, although I love and respect Joe Biden, I didn't see him doing as well as she's been doing and as well as her campaign has been doing since she's gotten into the race.

Second, I would say that the people that she brought on were, a lot of them, David Plouffe, Stephanie Cutter are former Obama people. And you do see that kind of energy. And I'll say this as somebody who's been around for quite a while, I mean, you do see this kind of energy around her campaign that I haven't seen since 2008 when Barack Obama first ran. It is a joyful campaign.

[18:15:01]

It has an aggressive campaign, but it's also forward-facing campaign. It's not about the past, not about Donald Trump talking about what it was like when he was president. It's not about Joe Biden, who has been around a long time. It's a pretty forward-facing, joyful campaign. And that's something that I really have not seen since Obama was a fresh face on the scene in 2008, even Hillary Clinton, of course, you know, you reminisce quite a bit about the time that her husband was president back in the '90s.

This is much more forward-facing and this is something that I think Generation Z'ers and millennials and those who maybe were not around for the 2008 Obama campaign have not experienced themselves. And I'm so happy they can now, because I think that's what they're seeing right now.

DEAN: It is interesting to see the new polling from those CBS polls that show this race tightening. It is certainly a race and it will be hard fought on both sides.

Scott and Julie, my thanks to both of you for being here. Thanks so much.

ROGINSKY: Thanks.

JENNINGS: Thank you.

DEAN: Still ahead, Tropical Storm Debby headed toward Florida. Rain and wind already hitting parts of the state. We're going to be joined by the director of the National Hurricane Center about what to expect as cities along the East Coast brace for flooding.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:20:50]

DEAN: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is tonight warning Iran that Israel will, quote, "respond and exact a heavy price" against any attacks. Iran has vowed to retaliate following the killing of a top Hamas official in Tehran last week, blaming Israel. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement in that. And happening overnight, Israel and Hezbollah again exchanging attacks

across Israel's northern border with Lebanon. Israel saying it struck a rocket launcher in southern Lebanon after intercepting 30 projectiles.

CNN's Ben Wedeman is joining us now from Beirut.

Ben, what more are you hearing about this expected attack?

BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we really don't know much. Everybody is expecting something because we know that the leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, has vowed to do so, to respond to the Israeli assassination of a senior Hezbollah commander here in Beirut last Tuesday. And of course, Iran is vowing to do this same thing after the killing in Tehran presumably by the Israelis of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh.

And of course, because of this, in waiting for this to happen, foreign embassies here in Beirut are taking measures to try to get their nationals out as quickly as possible. Turkey is the latest country to join the list of those who are calling on their nationals to leave an advising others not to come to Lebanon. Britain has already done so, but now is pulling out the families of its diplomats.

Sweden has moved its entire diplomatic staff to Sweden. And of course France, Jordan, and others, the United States, have all advised their nationals to leave as soon as possible, and it's becoming very difficult to find flights out of here. Most are completely booked. In fact, a couple of days ago the U.S. embassy told people to just book any flight you can get out of here, even if it's not going to where you want to go, just to get out of the country.

Now, today was also the fourth anniversary of the Beirut port blast that killed more than 200 people. Several thousand people came out to mark that dark day, the anniversary of that dark day. But in other parts of town, what we're seeing is that those who don't have foreign passports and can't leave seem to be going on with life as normal. We were on what's known as the Corniche, the Beirut seafront, where we saw people smoking, drinking beer, listening to music and diving into the sea.

They told us that whatever comes, comes. This is a country it went through a 15-year civil war. It's had wars with Israel in 1982, 1993, 1996, 2006, and perhaps 2024 is going to join that grim list -- Jessica.

DEAN: We will see how it unfolds. Ben Wedeman for us live in Beirut. Thank you so much for that reporting.

And let's talk more about this now with CNN military analyst and retired U.S. Army commanding general, Mark Hertling.

Great to have you here with us as we all, Mark, just wait and see what is going to unfold here. We don't know the timing or the scale of a possible Iranian attack as Ben was just laying out. Last time in April when Iran struck Israel, it was telegraphed that we kind of did have a sense of what to expect. But what does it say to you that we don't know as much this time and that there are still a lot of questions?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Jessica, it's going to be very tough this time to understand what Iran could possibly do. There's a spectrum of potentials. You know, in April, as you just mentioned, there were 300 rockets and missiles, and cruise ballistic missiles launched toward Israel. But they were done in a very haphazard and non-synchronous way. And I think it was sending a signal.

[18:25:00]

You know, the question is, is Iran going to send another signal? Or are they really going to try and cause a significant amount of damage inside of Israel? And if so, if it's done correctly, they could certainly do that. They could overwhelm Israeli and Western assistance and air defense systems to get through their air defense shield. That could happen. I don't think Iran is going to do that personally but, you know, General Kurilla, the U.S. commander of CENTCOM, Central Command, is on the scene right now.

He was there the last time this occurred and he helped in terms of that integrated air defense. Again, if it's a planned and synchronized mission, it could be very top or it could be just another sending of a signal, which I think Iran will send something more than just a signal this time, because as has been pointed out there were two specific assassinations of key Hamas and Hezbollah leaders over the last two weeks.

DEAN: Yes. And when you're talking about overwhelming that the air defense systems and the Western alliances that will be there to help Israel as well, what a lot of experts have talked about is, is perhaps at the same time if rockets are incoming, that those Iranian proxies, Hezbollah in the north, you know, others could be firing into Israel as well. Is that what you are kind of getting at, as kind of how they could continue to escalate this beyond what we saw on April?

HERTLING: Yes, that's certainly part of the spectrum, and that would be the worst-case scenario, Jessica, when you're seeing, you know, Hezbollah in Lebanon has a significant number, over 100,000 rockets and missiles that they could launch. You're talking about the PMF forces inside of Iraq and Syria that could contribute, more so coming from the Houthis in Yemen, as well as rockets from western Iraq.

So if those are synchronized in such a way that they all come at different points or simultaneously, it could really suggest how Israel and its Western allies would respond to that and it could be much more difficult than it was in April.

DEAN: OK. And so now that we've set the stage, again, we don't know what this is going to look like, but there are some of the possibilities. We do know, as you mentioned, that the head of CENTCOM is there. The U.S. has sent in additional military assets. It's said it's preparing for every possibility. What more could the U.S. be doing? It sounds like they're at full tilt here trying to be prepared to help an ally. HERTLING: Yes. I mean, we're really looking at primarily aircraft and

naval forces. You know, another carrier battle group has just come into the area. That doesn't just have the aircraft carriers that are launching aircraft that could down some of these missiles or to help defend Israel. It's also the potential for using their destroyers and their cruisers with multiple types of air defense weapon systems on board that are extremely effective.

So when, you know, you ask for allied help in terms of contributing to Israel's defense, you have both air and naval forces doing that. Truthfully, Jessica, I don't see the potential use of ground forces, U.S. ground forces or other allied ground forces in the area. But we certainly could see the use of air and naval assets.

DEAN: And I just, before I let you go, I do want to pivot quickly to Russia's war on Ukraine because we did get this word that Ukraine confirmed that F-16 fighter jets have arrived in the country for the very first time. This of course comes after they say they also were able to get that submarine, that Russian submarine. But what about these jets? What's significant about that?

HERTLING: Well, the initial contributions of F-16s, and there will be more coming, it is a promise to Ukraine and President Zelenskyy that they can upgrade their air forces to become more like a Western air force. The F-16s are very good aircrafts. It's a multi-role fighter. It not only conducts air-to-air missions, but ground-to-air and deep- strike.

The question is, there's so few of them right now. The initial tranche that are going in from the Netherlands, the U.S. and Belgium are actually very few in nature. And you got to continue to remember, Jessica, that frontline of Ukraine, north to south in Ukraine, is about a 750-mile distance from north to south. If you only have a few fighter jets and you have to keep them up to counter air weapons systems coming from Russia, cruise missiles coming from Russia, it's very difficult along that entire front to use just a few to do that.

So whereas President Zelenskyy is certainly messaging this and saying, hey, we're finally getting these after a long wait, after a long training period for the limited number of Ukrainian pilots that they sent to the United States and other Western European countries, he now has some on the ground.

[18:30:09]

But it's not very many. But it does show that there's continued support by Western forces. Will they make a difference? Certainly they could. They could make a difference in air-to-air, to knock down aircraft that are launching these glide bombs or to knock down cruise missiles. I don't see early on these F-16 conducting an area-to-ground role or a close air support role for Ukrainian forces until well into next year.

DEAN: All right. Mark Hertling, always great to have you for your analysis. Thanks so much.

HERTLING: Thanks, Jessica.

DEAN: Dozens arrested in the past 24 hours with a lot more expected as U.K. police struggled to suppress at times violent demonstrations that have erupted in several cities in recent days.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:35:25]

DEAN: Scary scenes out of the U.K. as rioters trying to smash their way into a hotel housing immigrants and asylum seekers. The protesters are also attacking police in Rotherham, England and trying to set two hotels on fire. The prime minister condemning the violence as the work of thugs.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: People in this country have a right to be safe. And yet we've seen Muslim communities targeted, attacks on mosques, other minority communities singled out, Nazi salutes in the street. I won't shy away from calling it what it is. Far-right thuggery.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Journalist Elliott Gotkine is joining us now from London.

Elliott, at this point, what could bring the temperature down?

ELLIOT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: It's hard to see really, Jessica, because let's not forget how this all started, which was with misinformation about the identity of the person that killed those three small girls at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in the seaside town of Southport in Liverpool, in northwest England. So things do seem to have taken on a bit of a life of their own.

We saw protests across cities in the U.K. on Saturday. And it was expected that there would be some more today on Sunday, but they really have degenerated into perhaps even more violence than we saw a day earlier. This is in Tamworth this evening. This is just outside Birmingham, the U.K.'s second city, where as you say the mob there tried to and succeeded in setting fire to a Holiday Inn Extra, which has been housing asylum seekers, people that have come to this country to try to get refugee status.

And I suppose it's -- the timing is perhaps a little embarrassing for the local member of parliament who's from the Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour Party when just last week, she said in parliament that the local people in Tamworth wanted their Holiday Inn back. They didn't want it to continue housing asylum seekers, and some of those people perhaps may have taken those words and taken matters into their own hands.

And this just came a few hours after a mob also managed to set fire to a Holiday Inn Extra in Rotherham, in the north of England, where also the fire was put out. Officers there with riot shields seemingly pinned against the wall of the hotel. There is the rioters threw projectiles at them. They smashed their way into the hotel. They took out furniture and started hurling that at the officers as well. At least 10 officers have been injured.

There have been, what, there's something like 150 arrests after yesterday's violence. No doubt there have been many more today. And there's even reports that the government is going to have to draft an extra lawyers and have courts working kind of overnight to process the large number of people that are going to have to go through the legal system now after being caught on camera and being found to be in breach of the law -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Elliott Gotkine, thank you so much for that reporting. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:43:11]

DEAN: Former president Donald Trump and vice presidential candidate J.D. Vance are leaning in to personal attacks on Kamala Harris including Trump's false attacks suggesting the vice president downplayed her black heritage. Black voters key to winning the White House in November. Harris is set to return to Atlanta next week with her new vice presidential nominee. She's also been speaking to black women at events all across America. But to win Georgia she may need to win black men over.

We have more now from CNN's Ryan Young.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What kind of brother am I being?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In this room, nearly standing room only, more than a hundred black men from all walks of life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't mind sharing the experience.

YOUNG: Doctors, lawyers, business owners, truck drivers, and college students. They are here for the Black Man Lab, a community group that meets every Monday night in Atlanta.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Glad you're here, partner. Thank you.

YOUNG: Sharing mentorship --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mind, body, soul, and spiritual flow.

YOUNG: -- and artistic expression. It's rooms like this that both former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris hope to have some influence in and maybe a chance to earn their votes.

How many people in here intend to vote during this election?

(Voice-over): Nearly every man in this room a registered voter and nearly all say they plan to vote. But right now many don't feel like the candidates are making the case directly to them.

Do you feel like the vice president has tailored her message to black men enough in this election? Raise your hands.

(Voice-over): Some here raising concerns about Harris' record as a prosecutor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you don't say specifically what your agenda is for black people and specifically black men that's incarcerated, you're not getting my vote.

[18:45:01]

HENRY CASLIN, MEMBER, THE BLACK MAN LAB: I want to hear messages from me that's not talking to me through the language of social justice, you know? I would like for her to speak more to black men, you know, because you can't just win on the black women vote.

YOUNG: Georgia is a crucial battleground on the 2024 presidential maps. In 2020, Joe Biden won the state by less than 12,000 votes, becoming the first Democratic nominee to win Georgia in nearly 30 years. Black voters were key to Biden's win then, and for Harris' hopes here in November.

KWANZAA HALL (D), FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FROM GEORGIA: People were disenchanted in our country up until just a week ago, and now we have a new option, an option that brings diversity, brings brilliance, brings excitement.

YOUNG: As Trump faces a new rival, the Republican nominee is sharpening his attacks.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She was a bum, a failed vice president in a failed administration. A dangerous person who's not smart.

YOUNG: Some here have noticed.

WILLIAM K. BODDIE JUNIOR, MEMBER, THE BLACK MAN LAB: Complete distractions on a woman who is highly accomplished, more accomplished than any of the two candidates on their side of the aisle. And for Mr. Trump to call her a bum is disgusting in itself because she's a black woman who's achieved a very high level in politics, in law, and in society.

YOUNG: With less than 100 days until the election, many in the room want to hear more from the candidates before making up their minds.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I think the way it's going now, Trump may actually come out, and even if it's not real, I mean, he lies a lot, but if he comes directly talking to black men, he's going to get our vote. MAWULI DAVIS, CHAIRMAN, THE BLACK MAN LAB: I think that black women

who are out supporting the vice president are also convincing the men who live in their homes, the men who they work with, that supporting her is supporting them.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: All right. Ryan Young for us with a great report there. Thanks so much to him. We'll be right back.

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[18:51:40]

DEAN: Tonight, the four-part CNN Original Series "1968" looks back on a year marked by a seismic shifts in American politics, social movements, global relations, and cultural icons that changed the modern landscape. Using archival footage and contemporary interviews, the series maps the tumultuous events of the entire year. Here's a preview.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Tet Offensive simultaneous attacks on every city and town in South Vietnam shocked the American people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The enemy right very deceitfully has taken advantage of the Tet truce in order to create maximum consternation within South Vietnam, particularly in the populated areas.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Every year there was a ceasefire on the Lunar New Year holidays known as Tet. And they believe that year would be the same thing, but that wasn't what happened.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These are American combat military police and troops from the 101st Airborne Division, half a block from the U.S. embassy inside. Vietcong snipers and suicide commandos were holed up inside the embassy compound and firing from surrounding buildings.

Now, CIA men and MPs have gone into the embassy and are trying to get the snipers out by themselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: CNN presidential historian Tim Naftali is joining me now.

Tim, great to have you on.

TIM NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Thank you.

DEAN: It is so prescient that we have this show because a lot of people have been comparing 1968 to kind of this very tumultuous wild time that we're in right now. How does it compare to our political environment and just our general environment here in 2024?

NAFTALI: It compares in a way to the climate of our political moment. We Americans have just witnessed together a series of unexpected, traumatic political events, and when the midst of deep uncertainty about where our country goes forward, there were some extreme choices ahead of us. And in 1968 Americans, first of all, came to grips with the fact that they were losing a war in Vietnam.

They came to grips with the fact that their government had been lying to them about how the war was going in Vietnam. Then they were shocked when an unpopular president, but a president nonetheless, who controlled his own party, announced that he would not be seeking reelection as everyone expected in 1968, his name was Lyndon Johnson. He was challenged by two Democrats, Eugene McCarthy and Robert F. Kennedy, attorney general to the murdered John F. Kennedy.

Well, LBJ leaves office and he doesn't anoint a successor. And thus the Democratic Party descends into a very big struggle which is then sadly shaken by the assassination of Robert F. Kennedy after winning the California primary. At the same time the world is shaken by the assassination of Martin Luther King Junior.

[18:55:04]

Not only an American hero, but the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and a symbol of nonpartisan, non-violent change, and his murder and later RFK's murder sent a signal that, oh, my gosh, political violence is not only possible, but is accelerating in this country. And then you go to the summer and that Democratic Party has a very difficult time unifying and its convention is raucous and violent.

DEAN: Yes.

NAFTALI: Then we head into an election which becomes closer and closer and is shaped in part by the racist rhetoric of a third party candidate named George Wallace, who at one time gets 21 percent of the vote and his entire campaign is really focused on turning back the civil rights achievements of the 1960s.

It's extraordinarily traumatic period with extraordinarily polarizing figures that results in a very close election won by Richard Nixon. And the only bright spot of the entire year and these two will see at the end of this beautiful documentary is that three of our astronauts on their way to acquiring the technological skill that will make possible landing on the moon in the next year Apollo 11, three of these astronauts from Apollo 8, one of them takes a photograph of our earth from the command module. And our earth looks like this beautiful marble but it also looks like a fragile ecosystem and that photograph --

DEAN: Because it is, right?

NAFTALI: It was and is.

DEAN: Yes. Yes.

NAFTALI: But that photograph would launch an environmental movement and the first Earth Day would be the next year.

DEAN: Wow.

NAFTALI: So that's one good thing that came out of '68.

DEAN: Yes, it is quite a year. Tim, we're out of time, unfortunately, but thank you so much. We look forward to watching it. We really appreciate you.

Be sure to watch those back-to-back episodes of the CNN Original Series, "1968," tonight at 9:00 Eastern right here on CNN.

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