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Democrats' Weird Attack Line On J.D. Vance May Be Working; Germany Wins Mixed Relay Triathlon Amid Water Concerns; Fears of Slowing U.S. Growth Spook Investors Worldwide; Nigerian President Urges End to Violence, Room for Dialogue. Aired 4:30-5a ET

Aired August 05, 2024 - 04:30   ET

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

[04:30:00]

CHRISTINA MACFARLANE, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. Here are some of today's top stories.

Debby is now a category 1 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. The storm is nearing landfall in northern Florida and is then expected to slow down significantly, bringing heavy rain to parts of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.

Israel is facing growing threats of retaliation from both Iran and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, days after the assassinations of two senior figures from Hezbollah and Hamas. It's fueling fears of a wider war in the region.

And U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will soon decide who will join her on the Democratic ticket as her running mate. Harris is expected to appear with her choice at the Philadelphia rally on Tuesday.

MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump's running mate J.D. Vance is firing back at Democrats calling him weird. He told Fox News they're merely projecting, but as CNN's senior data reporter Harry Enten explains, there's evidence this line of attack may be working.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Oftentimes in politics, there are attacks that are lobbed from one side to the other and they go up in smoke like nothing else. But sometimes an attack seems to have some holding power, some staying power, you might say. And the attacks on J.D. Vance and Donald Trump from Democrats that they are quote-unquote weird may be one of those examples.

Let's take a look at some Google trends over the past, let's say, 10 days and the last five days. And this is Google searches for the term or word weird. And we're going to compare what we've seen over the last 10 days and the last five days versus the last three months.

And what do we see? We see that over the last 10 days, searches for the word weird on Google are up 20 percent. How about over the last five days? Look at this. They're up 28 percent. So it does seem like more people are searching for the word weird.

The question is why? Because the fact is anything could be weird. In fact, many people might say that I myself am weird.

But interestingly enough, we can actually figure out what are the words or topics that are being searched increasingly with the word weird. And look here. Look at the topics increasingly being searched with the word weird on Google. Look at them. They're all political. Look.

You got Tim Walz over there who was the first one to actually call J.D. Vance and Donald Trump weird. And then look at the rest of them. MAGA, Make American Great Again. How about the Republican Party? And then there's, of course, J.D. Vance.

So what we do in fact see is that more people are searching for the word weird and they're searching for the word weird.

[04:35:00]

Why? Because they're searching for it increasingly with, let's say, some terms and some words that perhaps the Republican Party doesn't really like. But Tim Walz, who, of course, started those attacks on the GOP, really like.

Of course, people might just be searching for the word weird and associating with Republicans. You might not be seeing too much of an impact. So I was very interested in this little nugget here.

Take a look at J.D. Vance's net favorable rating. We're going to look at it mid-July, right around the time of the convention or just thereafter, and then compare it to what we see this week. Look, J.D. Vance has never been exactly popular. In fact, he was the least popular VP nominee coming out of his party's convention on record, going all the way back since 1980. The first one in negative territory. You can see that in the ABC News-Ipsos poll here with a minus six point net favorability rating.

But somehow his net favorable ratings have gotten even worse. Look at it over this past week. Look at this. In the AP-NORC poll, minus 13 points from minus five points. The ABC News-Ipsos poll from minus six points to minus 15 points. And while we don't necessarily know that the quote unquote weird attacks are actually the ones that are driving this, they're certainly not helping.

So it does seem to me that these weird attacks might be having somewhat of an impact, much to the detriment of the GOP.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Harry's not weird. No one should say that.

Still to come, concerns over swimming in the Seine cause one country to pull their team from a triathlon event. The stern message Belgium has for the organizers after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: The competition is well underway on day 10 of the Paris Summer Olympics. It's gone quickly, hasn't it?

MACFARLANE: Yes.

FOSTER: There are 20 gold medals up for grabs today. Here's a look at how the medal count sits right now. Just this hour, China has pulled ahead of Team USA with the most gold medals with 20 overall.

MACFARLANE: And while not in the top six shown here, Germany will take gold for the mixed relay triathlon, which wrapped up just a short time ago. The race was held amid changes in team rosters and concerns about whether it was safe to swim in the Seine.

[04:40:00]

Well, let's go live to CNN's Amanda Davies, joining us now live from Paris. Amanda, talk us through these concerns, because we have had seen some withdrawals ahead of this event due to sickness.

AMANDA DAVIES, CNN WORLD SPORT: Yes, it's fair to say the discussion about water in the Seine has been one that has been present throughout the entirety of this Games. All the buildup dominated by the fact that it was one of the big legacy points of this Olympics. It's been illegal to swim in the Seine for 100 years, but the river was being cleaned up for these Games to then leave for the people of Paris in years to come.

There were the concerns last week after the practice sessions ahead of the men's triathlon were delayed. The race was delayed, but then ultimately did go ahead. I spoke to a couple of the athletes who took part in it.

They said they felt the organizers had done the right thing. But then it emerged on Sunday that not one, but two female triathletes have fallen sick. There have been no direct links as things stand, but it's caused the Belgian team to withdraw from the mixed triathlon, which has taken place this morning.

We wait and see, really, very much. We understand that there's a Swiss athlete and a Belgian athlete who have become poorly. But the race has taken place and it's Germany who have taken home the gold medal.

MACFARLANE: Yes, the France-Paris organizers' worst nightmare come true there.

Thinking about the sports now, Amanda, on Sunday, I mean, I can't get out of my head the photo finish from the men's 100 meters. I think it was, what, 0.05 seconds of a win for Noah Lyles.

DAVIES: Yes, five thousandths. We were trying this morning with our partners at Eurosport to actually quantify that. It's impossible, basically. Yes, I can't do it. We can't compare it to anything. It was that close.

And Noah Lyles is a man who is not short on confidence, I think it's fair to say. But even he, when he crossed the line after the race, the blue ribbon event, of course, as we always call it at this Olympic Games, did not think he had won it. He thought it was Jamaica's youngster, Kishane Thompson, who had taken the gold.

But no, it was Noah Lyles. He did cheekily post on social media in the aftermath. America, I told you I got this.

But he headed into the race. He wasn't the fastest man in the world this year. He wasn't the fastest man on the day in terms of the semifinals.

He said he'd actually had a session with his therapist between the semifinal and the final. Whatever they talked about, whatever they did, it worked. And Noah Lyles now has the Olympic gold medal to add to the World Championship gold, which he has so wanted.

But he's always described the two events, the two sprint events, the hundred as his mistress, the 200 as his wife. And it is his wife who is in action today. He's already going to be heading back onto the track in the next couple of hours in the heat for that one.

There was another massive night in the pool, though, as well. U.S. swimmer Bobby Finke setting a new world record as he successfully defended his 1500 meters freestyle gold. There'd been a lot of pressure on him for this one.

The U.S. men in danger of finishing without an individual gold in the pool for the first time since 1900. He said he took that and he used it. And it certainly paid off becoming the first U.S. man to successfully defend his crown in this event, which is the equivalent really of the marathon for swimmers since the 1970s.

And then just briefly, we often talk about should sports like golf and tennis be in this Olympic Games, given the profile that they get across the rest of the four years. Well, if there was any doubt, you just had to look at the reaction of Scottie Scheffler and Novak Djokovic and what it meant to both of them to be able to say they are now Olympic champions and have those gold medals around their neck.

It's been such a couple of years, a couple of months, hasn't it, for Scottie Scheffler becoming a father for the first time. There was then that arrest ahead of the PGA Championship. He took victory by a single shot from Tommy Fleetwood at Le Golf National, the scene of the Ryder Cup, of course, just a couple of years ago.

And Novak Djokovic, the emotion poured out of him on that court at Roland Garros after taking that victory against Carlos Alcaraz. He's been on tour, as you well know, for 20 odd years. He has won 24 Grand Slam titles, but he has never won Olympic gold before.

[04:45:00]

And he said he thinks this might be the biggest moment of his career so far, completing the Golden Slam, as it's called.

MACFARLANE: Yes, quite a moment. And just so good to see what it means to a tennis player, a more established sportsman like Novak Djokovic, because so many of the tennis players, as we know, skip the Olympics, right? But this clearly a moment for him. Amanda Davies there live form Paris for us. Thanks, Amanda.

FOSTER: Also, Noah Lyles, I mean, he is confident. I mean, definitely.

MACFARLANE: You have to be, right?

FOSTER: Also, you're allowed to be if you win the gold, right? Insane.

MACFARLANE: Yes, but you have to be 100 meters.

Anyway, still ahead, Nigerians defy their president's call to end mass protests over economic hardships. We'll head to Lagos for the latest next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

FOSTER: Really, really grim day for the markets. Fears of a U.S. economic slowdown sending global stock markets into a tailspin today. This is how U.S. futures are looking right now. You can see the Nasdaq down more than 3 percent, so waiting to see what Wall Street does when it opens. But they're all down, you know, around 2 percent.

MACFARLANE: Bleak.

FOSTER: Let's have a look at the other markets, though, because this is why U.S. futures are down.

[04:50:00]

It started with Southern Asia, we'll show you that in a minute, but this is Europe. So they've been open for a couple of hours.

MACFARLANE: Two percent the FTSE.

FOSTER: Yes, a couple of hours, 2 percent down. And it's all on the same theme, that they're worried that the U.S. economy is going to shrink. And this is the really bad news. You'll see the Japanese shares down 12 percent, and by any definition, that's pretty much a crash.

MACFARLANE: Yes, it's a sea of red, actually, isn't it, across the markets worldwide. I mean, Max, is this all to do with that jobs report that came out, that underwhelming U.S. jobs report that came out on Friday? Or are there other factors at play here? I mean, when was the last time we saw something like this?

FOSTER: It's a general fear that the U.S. economy is going to shrink and that the Fed isn't really handling it properly and they should be cutting interest rates sooner. And then things like the jobs report come out and it just speaks to the same story. But it's more the fear that it's, you know, started in Asia, moved on to Europe, and then now to potentially America. And there's this cycle of fear that just drags the markets down, and that's the worry.

MACFARLANE: It does feel like the Federal Reserve are going to have to act quickly and aggressively, doesn't it, to respond to this. Now, Nigeria's president is calling for an end to nationwide protests

that have rocked the West African nation. President Bola Tinubu delivered remarks Sunday for the first time since the demonstration started last week over government policies and the rising cost of living.

FOSTER: Police say at least seven people have been killed in the protests so far, and hundreds of others have been arrested.

MACFARLANE: Well, CNN's Stephanie Busari is tracking developments and joins us live from Lagos. Stephanie, tell us the latest this hour, and if efforts are ongoing here to de-escalate and bring some dialogue into this.

STEPHANIE BUSARI, CNN SENIOR EDITOR, AFRICA: So, Max, the president has spoken, long-awaited speech that Nigerians have been clamoring for. And in it, he asked Nigerians to stop the protests and come to the table for dialogue. He said he felt their pain and understood their frustrations.

But we're now in the fifth day of these planned 10 days of rage, which is against hunger in the country. The economy has taken a huge hit, inflation is at a record high, and Nigerians are buckling under the weight of extreme cost of living. And this all started with the fuel subsidy being taken away last year when the president was inaugurated.

Nigerians were used to buying fuel at a very low price, and that spike increased the cost of everything almost immediately. And since that time, people have been groaning under the weight of this cost of living. And now it's rich boiling point, and they are planning to protest for the next five days, so in total for 10 days.

But the president has said that he is ready to listen and that they should come to the table. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOLA TINUBU, NIGERIAN PRESIDENT: Suspend any further protests and create room for dialogue, which I have always assiduous to at this lightest opportunity. Nigeria requires all arms on deck, and it owes all, regardless of age, party, tribe, religion, or other divides.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BUSARI: So Max, the president's speech has been poorly received in some parts. They felt -- many people felt that it didn't have the total empathy about the current situation that people are really living in. And the president reeled off a series of things that his administration is doing.

But Nigerians are saying that it doesn't go far enough to address the demands that the protesters are clamoring for -- Max.

FOSTER: OK, Stephanie Busari in Lagos. We'll keep across that. Thank you so much indeed. Deadly anti-government protests are also ongoing in Bangladesh. A CNN source on the ground in the capital, Dakar, says protesters have been describing how they were attacked by the military and by the police, with live rounds being fired near a medical college where protesters had gathered and several people were injured.

MACFARLANE: Well, Sunday was the deadliest day yet. In weeks of demonstrations there, with Reuters reporting at least 91 people killed in clashes between protesters and police. What started as a student demonstration against hiring quotas for civil service jobs has grown into a wider protest, with tens of thousands of people calling for the prime minister's resignation.

The government has cut off Internet service and imposed an indefinite nationwide curfew.

FOSTER: With cases of Covid-19 picking up yet again in recent weeks, there are renewed questions and concerns about how to keep up with the current prevention.

[04:55:00]

Our chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta, weighs in.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: This week we asked viewers what questions they had about this summer's Covid-19 wave, and you had a lot of them.

Specifically about the shots and when you should get your next one. So first of all, we don't know exactly when the most updated shots are going to be available, but you can probably expect them sometime this fall.

There's a few things to keep in mind. The new Covid shot is going to target the JN1 variant, which incidentally is a descendant of the Omicron variant. Remember that?

Now the predominant strain that's circulating right now is KP3, which is a descendant of both of those, Omicron and JN1. So the bottom line is the new Covid shot should be pretty protective against the currently circulating strains.

Also, remember this. Immunity, we're learning, lasts around four to six months. So keep that number in the back of your mind. That is probably the reason that we're seeing a summer surge, as the protection wears off from the last set of shots.

Also, there's been a lot of discussion recently about a combination shot, Covid and flu in the same shot. Moderna, the pharma company, had some positive trial results with that combination earlier this summer, but we're learning it's not going to be ready for this fall. You can, however, remember, get both the flu and Covid shots at the same time and try and do that sometime before Halloween.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOSTER: Omicron, Covid, I mean, it gives you flashbacks, doesn't it? But it's still there, isn't it? I mean, I've had loads of friends. I kind of suspect I had it. I tested negative, but I had that. It seems to be going around that symptom of being very lethargic, those horrible temperatures.

MACFARLANE: But without the regular testing we used to have, it's very uncertain, isn't it, at the moment?

FOSTER: People don't test, do they?

MACFARLANE: Whether you had it or not. It's just a feeling now, which is not great. Anyway, not the best note to end on, but there it is.

Thank you for joining us here at CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Christina Macfarlane.

FOSTER: CNN "THIS MORNING" is coming up next with Kasie. Thanks for watching.

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