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CNN International: Gaza Ceasefire Talks Due To Resume On Thursday; Israel Bracing For Potential Attacks By Iran & Hezbollah; Russia Caught Off Guard By Ukraine Offensive In Kursk. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired August 12, 2024 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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RAHEL SOLOMON, HOST, "CNN NEWSROOM": Good morning or good evening, depending on where you're watching. I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York.
Ahead on CNN Newsroom, the U.S. is sending a clear message amid rising tensions in the Middle East. This as the Defense Secretary orders a guided missile submarine to the region. We are live in Israel and at the Pentagon with the very latest here. And for the first time, Ukraine admits to operating inside Russia's Kursk region, while also accusing Putin's army of a dangerous escalation at a nuclear power plant. Plus, critical swing state polling shows Kamala Harris' campaign might be rebuilding that blue wall. We'll discuss with my panel.
It's a message of deterrence, a clear warning of what could happen if Israel faces a major attack from Iran or its proxies. U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin took the rare step of revealing the deployment of this nuclear-powered submarine armed with cruise missiles to the Middle East. He also ordered a carrier strike group to speed its arrival to the region, saying that the U.S. is committed to take, quote, "every possible step to defend Israel". Austin spoke to Israel's Defense Minister, Yoav Gallant, yesterday, and according to CNN Political and Foreign Policy Analyst Barak Ravid, Gallant told Austin that Iran appears to be preparing for a large-scale attack. Ravid says that Israel believes that that attack could happen, quote, "within days".
The U.S. and its allies are trying to defuse regional tensions by redoubling efforts to reach a ceasefire deal for Gaza. Talks are set to resume Thursday. According to an Israeli source, mediators say that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar wants a ceasefire deal.
Let's get more now from CNN's Jeremy Diamond in Haifa, northern Israel. We also have Oren Liebermann standing by at the Pentagon.
Jeremy, let's begin with you. What are both sides now saying about the prospects of a deal? JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, Rahel, we ended last week with a lot of hope and possibility in the air, as the United States, Egypt and Qatar are called for this major summit to try and advance a ceasefire deal, hoping that it could provide somewhat of a diplomatic off ramp that would make Iran rethink, recalculate and reconsider whether or not it would actually carry out this retaliatory strike against Israel, or at least delay those plans. And yet, now we begin this week with that summit very much in doubt, as there are multiple reports of a potential Iranian attack by Iran as well as potentially by its proxies as well, in just a matter of days, perhaps even before that Thursday meeting.
And in addition to that, we got a Hamas statement last night casting doubt on its participation in that next round of talks, saying in a statement yesterday that they want to see a deal advanced now, but based on previous rounds of negotiations, rather than moving to yet another round of talks. They cited that strike on Saturday on a school in Gaza that killed more than 90 people as a reason for why they want to push for a deal now, rather than allowing more negotiations that they say provide cover for this ongoing war.
Privately, the Israeli Prime Minister and his allies are indicating that he is willing to go to a deal. He is preparing to send negotiators to that next round of talks on Thursday. But again, if Hamas doesn't attend and also if Iran carries out a major attack on Israel in the days before that summit, all of this, of course, can be thrown into question. Rahel.
SOLOMON: Clearly, a critical few days ahead of us. Jeremy Diamond live for us there. Jeremy, thank you.
Now, let's get over to Oren Liebermann, who is standing by at the Pentagon. Oren, typically, it's pretty rare to see this type of deployment of a submarine be announced publicly. So, what do you make of this? What message does this send?
OREN LIEBERMANN, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. U.S. submarines, both guided missile submarines and ballistic missile submarines, operate in near total secrecy. So, for the Pentagon and for Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to publicly say that a submarine is headed for the Middle East, that's a clear message of deterrence here. The USS Georgia, a guided missile submarine, was already operating the Mediterranean Sea. So, it doesn't have far to go, but it adds to what is already a significant U.S. force in the region.
There is the USS Wasp Amphibious Ready Group that's already in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. There is the USS Theodore Roosevelt carrier strike group in and around the Middle East. And now, the Pentagon also ordered, that is Austin also ordered the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group to speed up in its path to the region. Austin ordered that carrier strike group earlier this month, but several days ago, it was still operating in the Pacific Ocean. Now, it's speeding its way toward the Middle East. This is one of the largest build-up of forces we have seen in the region on the U.S. side since the beginning of the war back in October.
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It's also worth noting that back the beginning of the war, the U.S. also publicly announced the movement of a guided missile submarine, the USS Florida, and that too was a big moment there.
One more point I'll make here, the Pentagon, even as late as last week, said the movement of U.S. forces is, quote, "defensive in nature", but a guided missile submarine is not a defensive asset or a defensive weapon, and has cruise missiles, Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles, anti-ship missiles. Those were clearly offensive weapons. So, the U.S. signaling that it has the forces, it has the capability to carry out strikes, potentially depending on how the next few days plays out and what Iran decides to do over the course of the next few days. We'll obviously be watching this very closely here, as will, of course, the Pentagon.
SOLOMON: OK. Oren Liebermann live for us here at the Pentagon. Oren, thank you.
Well, we are seeing a dangerous escalation in the Russia-Ukraine war with the fire breaking out at a Russian-controlled nuclear plant. It happened on Sunday in a cooling tower at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. This plant is in southern Ukraine. And at this point, there has been no detected spike in radiation levels reported. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy blaming Russian forces for starting the fire. And for the first time, he is also acknowledging Ukraine's one-week long offensive into the Kursk region of Russia.
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VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (Interpreted): Only from the beginning of this summer and only from the Kursk region, our Sumy region suffered almost 2,000 strikes, artillery, mortars, drones. We also monitor every missile strike, and each such strike deserves a fair response.
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SOLOMON: And joining us now is CNN International -- Senior International Correspondent Fred Pleitgen, who is live for us in Berlin. Fred, for the last week or so, this operation had been shrouded in mystery and still remains unclear. I mean, what do we know about where this appears to be heading?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now, it certainly appears to be heading in a direction where the Ukrainians are still trying to make gains. They're still sweeping through that area in the sort of southwestern region of Russia. Some of it is in the Kursk region, and some of it is in the Belgorod region -- regions of Russia, and they're trying to take some of those small, little villages that are right on the border with Ukraine.
Nevertheless, having said that, it appears, though, the Ukrainians have managed to get around 30 kilometers into Russian territory. And some of the numbers, Rahel, that we're getting, and these are numbers that have been confirmed by the Russians, are actually quite staggering. Some of Vladimir Putin's closest advisors have told him that 28 villages at least are now under Ukrainian control, and some 120,000 Russians have had to leave their homes and be evacuated. 180,000 are under evacuation orders, and that is in the Kursk region alone. Again, in the Belgorod region, you also have some people evacuating as well. So, certainly, this seems to be a pretty big problem for the Russians, and a big problem for them to also try and hold up the Ukrainians.
And as you can imagine, Rahel, Vladimir Putin absolutely angry at the situation. He had in a meeting with those advisors earlier today, where he lashed out at the Ukrainians, lashed out also at Ukraine's Western allies, saying there will be a response by the Russians. I want to listen into some of the other things that he had to say there.
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VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (Interpreted): It appears that the enemy, with the help of the Western masters, is fulfilling their will, and the West is fighting us with the hands of the Ukrainians. So, it looks like the enemy seeks to improve its negotiating position in the future.
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PLEITGEN: So, he is speaking there about Ukraine trying to improve its negotiating position, as he put it, obviously meaning that if there are ever peace talks between Ukraine and Russia. But, one of the things that appears as though the Ukrainians are trying to achieve is not just hold this territory, but they've been under a lot of pressure by a massive Russian force in the east of Ukraine that sort of been inching forward, even though the Russians have suffered some pretty big losses as well, and the Ukrainians are hoping that the Russians are going to have to divert some of those forces that are pressing against Ukraine's troops and divert them to those areas of Russia's that the Ukrainians have now invaded. Whether or not that's going to work is still not clear.
There are signs that it is already happening, however. Nevertheless, this continues to be, by all indications, a fairly successful operations by a small but very agile Ukrainian force there, Rahel.
SOLOMON: Fascinating. Fred, what about the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant? I mean, what more can you share with us there, and how worried should we be?
PLEITGEN: Well, I think, pretty worried. I mean, this is the biggest nuclear power plant in all of Europe, with some six nuclear reactors. And some of the video that we've seen from that area, I've been at that vantage point where you overlook the cooling towers of that power plant with that thick smoke billowing out of one of them, that certainly, in itself, appears to be a pretty worrying sign as well.
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We know that that power plant is essentially on the frontline between the Russians and the Ukrainians. It is, of course, in Russian- controlled territory, though. The Ukrainians are saying that they believe that the Russians started the fire, possibly by burning some tires. The Russians themselves are saying that it was a Ukrainian drone attack that targeted that nuclear power plant.
It's interesting because the International Atomic Energy Agency, because this is such a worrying situation, it has been for an extended period of time, they have some observers inside that power plant and those observers say that they had only been told by workers at the plant that some sort of explosion had occurred. They also spoke about a drone attack. But, these are also workers that, of course, are employed by Russia's nuclear energy company. So, really unclear what's going on there.
I think one of the most important things that we've heard, and you already mentioned this, that there has been no spike in radiation just yet. But, this really is another in a string of very worrying events that has happened at that nuclear power plant, which, again, is right on the sort of frontline between Russia and Ukraine's forces.
SOLOMON: Yeah. Certainly something to watch. Keep us posted. Fred Pleitgen live for us there in Berlin. Fred, thank you.
Well, in just three weeks, the 2024 U.S. presidential race appears to have been transformed. Where the new Democratic ticket is making some key gains in the polls? Plus, how is the Trump campaign doing, as it tries to counter its opponent's momentum? We'll pose that question to our panel just after this break.
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SOLOMON: Welcome back. Just one week before the Democratic National Convention and the 2024 race appears to be a tale of two campaigns heading in opposite directions. Vice President Kamala Harris right now super charging her party, still riding a wave of momentum,
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KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S., (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Someone who suggests we should terminate the Constitution of the United States should never again stand behind the seal of President of the United States.
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SOLOMON: Harris spent the weekend in her home state of California, where a San Francisco fundraiser raised $12 million. Meantime, a new poll by The New York Times and Siena College shows a tight presidential race overall with no clear leader, but it also shows Harris leading Donald Trump by four points in the crucial states of Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, Former President Donald Trump, meantime, struggling with how to define Harris, and so far, ignoring calls for many within his own party to focus on the issues.
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DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They said, oh, she had a big crowd, oh, the crowd. The press is talking about the crowd. In New Jersey, I had 107,000 people. The press never even talked about it because they're fake.
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SOLOMON: All right. We are joined from Washington by CNN's Edward- Isaac Dovere and Alayna Treene.
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First to you, Isaac, just give us a sense of how the campaign hopes to keep this momentum moving for Kamala Harris.
EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, look, next week is the start of the Democratic Convention in Chicago. That is always for either party a big way of getting the message out and getting people to pay attention things they want them to be doing. And so, we'll see the build-up to that over the course of this week from the Harris campaign, not as busy of a schedule out on the trail as last week, for what we know so far of her. But, we will see her with Joe Biden on Thursday, talking about things related to the economy, that they are saying will be about bringing prices down, and then, as I said, next week in Chicago, it will have Joe Biden speaking. We'll have the Obamas. We'll have Tim Walz, Kamala Harris, all sorts of other politicians and guest stars.
SOLOMON: And Isaac, as you just mentioned there, part of her campaign message will be about, at least on the economy, bringing prices down. To that end, we'll get some key inflation data on Wednesday on consumer prices. What more do we know, perhaps, about her economic policies and what she plans to speak on in the coming days in that regard?
DOVERE: Yeah. Well, Harris has always been focused on the pragmatic approach to talking about the economy, how it affects people's lives directly. And you see even what she said so far in her time as a candidate, that she is more focused on feeling the struggles that people have been having, rather than talking about how the economy is improving overall, even though it is. But, really looking at that and how it makes a difference in people's lives directly, that's the sorts of things that I think we should expect that we'll see out of her, as she does that event with Biden that I mentioned, and then more of a policy roll out on the economy that we are told by the campaign will be coming this week.
SOLOMON: OK. A lot to watch. Isaac Dovere, thank you very much.
Let's bring back in Alayna. So, Alayna, what do we know about how the Trump campaign is trying to counter the gains made by the Vice President?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, it's clear that it's getting under Donald Trump's skin. We saw over the weekend that Donald Trump was really amplifying these posts from far-right conspiracists about the crowd at one of her rallies in Detroit being fake. Donald Trump had claimed that it was AI, referring to Artificial Intelligence, to create that crowd. And let's just be very clear, that it's not true. We hundreds of people have gone to this. Many media outlets have witnessed this, including CNN. These crowds are real.
But, what I think it comes down to, Rahel, is that crowd size, in particular, is something that Donald Trump cares a lot about. He fixates on it. And it's also been a point of pride for him, the fact that his events draw thousands of people, when over the past several years, Democrats have been unable to really match that, and I think especially when you look at Joe Biden's crowds compared to what Harris is doing now, it just wasn't the same. So, he has been really frustrated by the surge in enthusiasm that Harris is seeing, and that's why he is amplifying these fake posts, trying to claim that they are not real.
But, as it -- to speak to the larger agenda and really ways that Donald Trump and his team are trying to go after Harris, it's been difficult. I think it's no secret, and we've been talking about this for some time now that his campaign has struggled with how to define her, both her and her new running mate, Tim Walz. They really have tried to throw a ton of different attacks at her and see what sticks, but haven't found a real playbook yet to go after her.
Now, one thing that many people, even we just heard from former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy this morning say this, say that he needs to focus more on policy, on the issues where he does better than Democrats, particularly areas like the economy, immigration, crime, all things they want the former President to be focused on. But, he is not a diligent messenger. And as we know, when you go to these rallies, I was at that rally in Montana on Friday, he riffs. He goes off scripts. And when he does that, he tends to attack more personal. He goes after more personal and nasty attacks for his rivals. That's exactly what we're seeing kind of play out now.
What is interesting actually, though, I think, is if you look at how they're deploying J.D. Vance, Donald Trump's running mate, last week in the aftermath of Harris announcing Walz as her Vice Presidential pick, it wasn't Trump who was out there on the campaign trail, following them around and trying to draw the contrast between the two campaigns. It was J.D. Vance who was going to the same cities as them, and he has been really the one now tasked with focusing on the policy and being that messenger for the Trump campaign, because they know that he is more diligent in that messaging than Donald Trump, who, as we know, has been more scatter shot when it comes to trying to do that.
SOLOMON: Yeah. It's interesting, Alayna, as you point out that he is sort of focused more on personality-driven attacks. I mean, in the last few weeks, he has attacked her race, and whether she is black or not. He has attacked her intelligence. He is now attacking these crowd sizes. Does it run the risk of perhaps backfiring and making Trump look like she has gotten under his skin?
TREENE: I think it does. I think it's backfiring, as we speak. I think a lot of people who I talked to, particularly Republicans in Congress, people close to the former President, even sometimes people on his campaign will admit that this is not what they want him to be doing. [11:20:00]
And I think what's interesting is that a lot of Republicans are telling him the same thing, which is, there are areas to undermine her. Her policies are not the policies that Republicans want, and they think they actually have a very strong messaging case to make against Kamala Harris. The problem is, is Donald Trump actually making it? And I think, as we've seen, he is not. I mean, he does talk about policy in some of his rally speeches that there is no question he does that, but it's not a focused messaging -- message delivery, I should say, that he does tend, when people do get under his skin, to make his attacks more personal, more personality driven, and that's exactly the opposite of what his team has been wanting him to do.
And it's been interesting, because I do think -- I mean, Donald Trump has never been a disciplined messenger. It wasn't like he was a disciplined messenger when it was Joe Biden, who he was facing off against, but I think because Harris has had so much enthusiasm and enthusiasm that they didn't necessarily expect her to sustain for this long of a time, that's why you're seeing him kind of do more of this and more acting out and really reverting back to his 2016 playbook and lob the same attacks against her like he did against Hillary Clinton back then. Rahel.
SOLOMON: Really interesting. Alayna Treene live for us there in Washington. Alayna, thank you.
Let's bring in our panel now discuss this further. Democratic Strategist Julie Roginsky, and Republican Strategist Evan Siegfried. Good to see you both. He is the author of "GOP GPS".
Evan, let me start with you. Our reporters, they have both sort of touched on how the Harris campaign is trying to keep this momentum going. If you were advising the Trump campaign, however, how do they respond to this? What should they be doing differently, because Republicans don't appear to be too enthused with how the campaign is responding?
EVAN SIEGFRIED, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST, & AUTHOR, "GOP GPS": I think they need to keep Donald Trump off the campaign trail, first of all, because the more he goes on the campaign trail and does those riffs, he reminds everyone of the chaos goblin he was as President that everybody got tired of and voted him out because of. I think they also need to start highlighting how Kamala Harris, with what little policy she has put out so far, she flip-flops on a lot of these issues. She was for fracking -- or she was against fracking, and now she is for it. She was against taxes on tips, and now she is for it. And there are many different areas in which you can go out and say she has been bad, and they just aren't doing that.
Their campaign message is being overshadowed by the candidate himself, with his crazy conspiracy theories about AI-generated crowds, about Kamala Harris not being black or choosing to be only a few years ago. It doesn't work and it doesn't help. He thinks he is running against Hillary Clinton in 2016, but it's a completely different situation in that the crowd sizes are much different. Hillary Clinton's crowds, you can see a tumbleweed going through. There is a massive crowd every rally for Kamala Harris and Tim Walz.
SOLOMON: Julie, I want to show you some of the latest polling for Kamala Harris. Look, it continues to be a tight race. No question about that. No clear leader. But, on the other hand, the trend seems to be Kamala Harris is front. I mean, numbers appear to be moving in their direction. From your vantage point, what voters does she appear to be picking up?
JULIE ROGINSKY, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST, & COFOUNDER, LIFT OUR VOICES: Well, I think she is bringing together the Democratic coalition that Joe Biden so effectively coalesced, for lack of a better word, back in 2020. Look, Evan makes a very good point, which is, in 2016, Donald Trump was a show man, but he was kind of an unknown quantity. And so, people took a chance on him because they knew Hillary Clinton. They weren't particularly enthusiastic about her, and they said, well, what the hell? We'll try it with Donald Trump to see how it goes.
Since then, the experiment has failed. It failed in the midterms in 2018 and it failed certainly in the 2020 election, and it failed again in the midterms in 2022. And for some reason, Republicans are so enthralled to him, and I think terrified of going against him and against the MAGA base, that they're giving him another shot again this year. It won't work. And the reason it won't work is because voters have repeatedly said in election after election after election since 2016 that they don't want to follow Donald Trump off the cliff.
And as Evan pointed out, I think, incredibly presciently, if he continues to go out there, and of course, he will, because he is an egomaniac, he will not stay home and let Kamala Harris have access to all the media for herself, they're going to see the unhinged behavior that they have rejected time and time and time again. And so, because of that, you see Kamala Harris, those numbers going up, and you see her coalescing the people who may not have been that enthusiastic about Biden, but are basically coming home to the Democratic Party now.
SOLOMON: Well, speaking of things that Trump has said, the sort of out of left field, I want to play for both of you a clip. This is Trump on Friday in Montana. Take a listen.
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TRUMP: You spend -- we spent $100 million fighting crooked Joe Biden, and then all of a sudden, they decide to take them out and put somebody else in. She never got one vote. She was part of the Cabal that got him out. They got him out. They said, we'll do it the nice way. We'll do it the hard way, Joe. It was a coup. We had a coup. That was the first coup in the history of our country, and it was very successful.
[11:25:00]
I hear he is going to make a comeback at the Democrat Convention. He is going to walk into the room, and he is going to say, I want my presidency back. I want another chance to debate Trump. I want another chance. (END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: I mean, Evan, never mind the fact that Biden literally sat down for an interview that aired Sunday, where he explained his thinking behind why he stepped down, why he decided not to run again. But, I just wonder. I mean, as a Republican strategist, you hear that and you think what?
SIEGFRIED: I think he needs to stop talking about it. It's the same thing with him going after Brian Kemp about a week ago, where that just doesn't help things. I know he sees that there is a very thin sliver of the Democratic Party who thinks that Joe Biden was unfairly pushed out. At the same time, I think the party is united, as my friend Julie did say, and I think this party is really looking forward to November, unlike how they were feeling just over three weeks ago.
Donald Trump is flailing. He is trying to find that message that works. But, his messaging, in his mind, should be attacking conspiracy theories because that's what won him the presidency in 2016. Again, this is eight years later, and Americans care more about the border, cost of living, which is related to inflation, and who is going to do the better job for them and protect them, both economically and physically in the next four years. And Donald Trump isn't speaking to that. It's much more grievance-laden. It's much more of the Donald Trump we got to know as President. And it's not helpful when you're going into a campaign or a campaign in earnest in the last 80 some days.
SOLOMON: Julie, what's the biggest risk for Harris right now? You have the DNC a week away. You have a reported interview coming sometime before the end of the month, at least being scheduled before the end of the month. What are you watching? What's the biggest risk for her right now?
ROGINSKY: Saying something dumb, obviously. She has had a very good run in the last couple weeks, and part of that is that it's been very orchestrated, as you see, and you see these huge rallies and these people showing up. But look, something is going to happen. I mean, you cannot continue to run the -- none of us can run a foolproof campaign, as somebody who -- I don't have any campaigns I've been involved in, there is going to be a stumble. And the question is, how large of a stumble is it going to be, and how quickly can she recover from it? And it's going to happen in the next 80 days. And again, a lot of it depends on what happens and how quickly she can recover.
But look, she is also -- again, she is running against -- she is not running in a vacuum. She is running against a chaos agent who is going because he can't help himself. Whatever she does take -- try to take the attention away, even from any mistakes that she might make to bring the attention back onto him, which, as Evan said, may not always be helpful. So, she is -- as much as she is -- has potential challenges ahead of her, she is very blessed to be running against who she is running against, because he is going to try to erase any advantage or challenges she has by trying to bring attention onto him, and saying crazy things, as he is been saying non-stop, even more so than usual, since she got in this race. SOLOMON: Evan, you literally wrote a book offering a road map for Republicans to reach new voters, to reach key groups. We just heard the former President there speaking in Montana. That's obviously a reliably red state. I know you said that he should be speaking less. But, is it a mistake that he is not -- when he is speaking that he is not speaking in swing states, especially when you compare that to his competitor? In the last week alone, Harris has been in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada. I mean, should he be in these places with his message?
SIEGFRIED: I believe Donald Trump has been in five swing states in the last five weeks, whereas Kamala Harris was in seven swing states in five days. I think that's actually -- in a normal political campaign, that's really bad. But, when it's Donald Trump, that's actually good, because when he goes into swing states such as Pennsylvania, Georgia, North Carolina, Wisconsin, Michigan, local news is going to pick up on what he says and play ad nauseam, the crazy stuff he says. They're not going to pick up if he has 30 seconds of a coherent thought on policy. They're going to say he is talking about, let's bring down the tax rates on middle income Americans and make sure that they can get certain tax credits for X, Y and Z. That doesn't -- or that's not going to really hit home.
You're going to have local media playing on a loop, things that are crazy, that Kamala Harris just decided to be black a few years ago, and that's going to remind those swing state voters of why they didn't like him in 2020 and they voted him out. It's better to have J.D. Vance go to those states where he is a much more disciplined messenger, where he can talk about the issues and say these are the reasons why Kamala Harris is bad and why the Trump-Vance ticket is good. So, strategically, it doesn't make sense in a normal campaign, but when it's Donald Trump, everything is upside down, and you need to keep him in the basement, essentially. Let him go play golf every day.
SOLOMON: OK. We will see. A lot to watch, for sure. Julie Roginsky and Evan Siegfried, thank you both so much for your time today.
[11:30:00]
SIEGFRIED: Thank you.
SOLOMON: And Donald Trump, meantime, suing the U.S. Justice Department over the 2022 FBI raid on his Mar-a-Lago resort that uncovered classified documents. His lawyers argue that the raid damaged Trump's reputation and is another example of a Justice Department that is biased against the former President. The claim alleges that the decision to raid the resort by the Attorney General and FBI director was, quote, "inappropriate". That search led to dozens of criminal charges against Trump, including obstruction of justice. The Justice Department has not commented on the lawsuit.
Well, still ahead, all of the victims' bodies have been recovered following Friday's plane crash in Brazil. We're going to have the latest on that devastating incident. Plus, parts of Europe dealing with extreme heat and wildfires threatening at least one capital city. Meteorologist Elisa Raffa will have the details for you. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SOLOMON: Welcome back. You're watching CNN Newsroom. I'm Rahel Solomon live in New York. And here are some of the international headlines we're watching for you.
Today, a helicopter pilot in Australia has died after crashing on the top of a hotel. This happened early in the morning in the northern tourist town of Cairns. The chopper crashed on the roof of a Hilton DoubleTree hotel. Guests were forced to evacuate their rooms. One guest described what it was like.
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ANTHONY VIVIANO, WITNESS: We just heard a bit of a swirling noise like a big whirlwind, and that was long even. I actually thought I was dreaming. And then about two seconds later, there was like a very loud bang, couple bangs, actually, the rooms started rattling, and the doors and everything. And yeah. I quickly ran to the kids. They were up screaming and yelling. What was that? I thought we're under attack or something.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SOLOMON: Officials say that the helicopter was on an unauthorized flight when the crash happened. The pilot was flying alone and has not been identified.
And in Brazil, the bodies of all 62 people from Friday's plane crash have been recovered. There were 34 male and 28 female victims on board. The youngest include a three-year-old girl and a four-year-old boy who was traveling with his pet dog.
Stefano Pozzebon has the latest now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEFANO POZZEBON, JOURNALIST: The process of identifying the bodies of the victims of flight 2283 here in Sao Paulo, Brazil, is still ongoing as of Sunday night. This is the Institute of Forensic Medicine where all the bodies have been taken from the carcass of the plane. And here is where dozens of relatives and family members have arrived on Sunday to participate in this investigation. Only two bodies were possible to have been recognized through facial recognition due to the violence of the impact when the plane crashed to the ground.
[11:35:00]
For all the other bodies, it's necessary to go through DNA identification and other techniques in order to correctly match their identity. And for some of these family members, today was also the opportunity to say goodbye.
FATIMA ALBUQUERQUE, VICTIM'S MOTHER (Interpreted): I had DNA collected for the identification of my daughter, and I don't know what state she would be in. My daughter was 1.7 meters tall, a strong and beautiful woman. You will see her photos on the internet. I saw my daughter burn live on television. A mother seeing the plane on fire with my daughter inside, guys, there is no greater sin, there can't be for a mother. So, I'm going to fight as long as I have life. As long as I have life, I'm going to fight because I know that she would be fighting if I had been killed because this wasn't an accident. Don't label it as an accident. Don't use that narrative.
POZZEBON: Just like that mother, the entire Brazil is still waiting for an answer to the question of what could have happened to cause that plane to fall from the sky and crash onto the ground. On Sunday, investigators from France, where the plane was manufactured in the first place, arrived in Brazil to participate in the investigation. They are analyzing and going through two black boxes that were successfully retrieved from the carcass of the plane to identify a probable motive.
For CNN, this is Stefano Pozzebon, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
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SOLOMON: All right. Our thanks to Stefano there.
Meantime, near the Greek capital of Athens, a wildfire is raging. Fire officials say that it's moving fast, like lightning, and it's spreading between residences. Wednesday weather has been fanning the flames and turning trees, houses and cars into tinder. Greece is calling on the EU to send air and ground assistance.
Meantime, in northeastern Spain, on Sunday, a wildfire broke out, spreading quickly, thanks to windy conditions. Authorities ordered people in a nearby town to stay inside due to heavy smoke.
For more on these conditions, let's bring in now CNN Meteorologist Elisa Raffa. Elisa, what more can you share with us?
ELISA RAFFA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: We are looking at images of these fires spreading rapidly in Greece because of the wind. Look at the pictures of the trees, the way that they are rustling in the wind. What happens with wind and wildfires is it will take the embers of the fire and then spread them faster. They'll flow into the wind into a new fresh spot, and a fire -- a new fire can start there. So, that's really the problem that they're dealing with here in Greece.
Now, we do have an extreme hazard for wildfires, or that fire risk for parts of Greece, as we go through the day today. It comes down a little bit to a very high level going into tomorrow because those winds do start to ease back a little bit. That's been their biggest contender than the last couple of days. And you can see there where the winds try to die off in parts of Athens going into tomorrow, but then they do pick back up later in the week. So, something that we'll have to watch through the next couple of days.
What the winds will also do is drag the smoke across the Mediterranean. You can see the smoke from satellites in space cutting across the sea there. And again, that would also be problems for air quality, smoke inhalation, things that we need to keep in mind. And you can see how heavy this smoke has been around some of the iconic ancient ruins there in Athens. So, something to keep in mind.
It's not just Athens. We're also been looking at some hot spots for wildfires across a lot of Europe and it's because we're dealing with some drought conditions. Drought conditions are either a warning or a high alert for parts of Italy, again, parts of Greece, going into Turkey. And when you have drought conditions, that is the dry fuels on the ground really dry ground that can spark with that fire, it's the food that the fire needs. On top of this, we also have heat alerts in place. You can see some of the medium and high in the oranges and the reds there. What happens with the heat is the heat will dry out those fuels even more, making them even more of a super fuel for some of these fires. So, things to watch in the coming days. Again, thankfully, maybe a little bit of a break with the wind tomorrow, but it comes back later in the week. Rahel.
SOLOMON: OK. Elisa Raffa, thank you.
Well, coming up, Kamala Harris' large crowds appear to be upsetting her political rival. Details ahead on Trump's false claims about Harris' rally in Michigan. Plus, Trump Media dealing with a tough loss after this last quarter. We will take a closer look at the global markets, just ahead.
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[11:40:00]
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SOLOMON: Donald Trump's attention on crowd sizes continues. This time, he is spreading a false claim about the crowd size at a rally for his political rival. The Republican presidential nominee insists that nobody attended Kamala Harris' Michigan rally last week.
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As you can see, thousands of people there packed in airport hangar near Detroit to see the Vice President at her rally. But, Trump demands that she should be, quote, "disqualified from the race" for using what he calls a fake crowd picture. Trump also posted these photos on his Truth Social platform, alleging that Harris' team used artificial intelligence.
Let's bring in CNN's Donie O'Sullivan, tracking the race to the White House. He joins us live from Los Angeles. Donie, always good to see you. So first, if you might just fact track that claim that Harris used -- the campaign use AI to inflate her crowd size despite the video we just watched.
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. I mean, obviously, Rahel, it is absurd. It's false. But, I really think we're seeing -- we've talked for a long time over the past year or two about how artificial intelligence could be used to sow confusion or chaos in this election campaign. And normally, when people have thought about how AI could be used in a way to misinform people, it's been like, oh, somebody will create a fake tape or a fake image. Academics that have been studying this for a long time have come up
with something called a liar's dividend, which means even -- you don't even need to create fake AI content. Just the idea that it's out there, the idea that it's possible, allows for people who want to misinform people to claim that real things haven't happened, and that's exactly what we're seeing here with Trump now. He is using this idea. And by the way. I mean, it is absurd, because there is so many cameras, of course, at these rallies, so much media there. It's so easy to debunk this stuff as being false. But again, it's just planting that seed of doubt in people's minds, and really quite a dystopian. It's like a black mirror episode, using just the idea that this technology is out there to now question what is actually happening.
SOLOMON: Yeah. I do feel like so much of life is a black mirror episode, but that is a conversation for another day in time, Donie. But, what can we make from this, and what does this tell us about his feelings, Trump's feelings about Harris' popularity, and clearly how much it seems to bother him?
O'SULLIVAN: Yeah. Look, I mean, I think it clearly -- it's obviously rattled him, gotten under his skin that Harris has replaced Biden on the ticket, and we can kind of see that and how he is acting out. And look, it's a bit of a shock to the campaign. It's a shock to his supporters. And this is also all playing into this narrative, which we saw in 2020, right, was this false narrative that was being pushed that the only way Trump could lose was if the Democrats cheated, if the election was so-called stolen. Of course, that was false, but that's what people were told after Trump lost, and that led to the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. That's exactly what's happening again.
Trump supporters are being primed. They're being told over and over again on this sort of MAGA media universe online, which is just absolutely huge, by the way.
[11:45:00]
They're being told every single day that the only way, despite the polls being pretty much neck and neck, that the only way Trump could lose is that if this election in November is stolen. Of course, that's false. But look, we saw the danger and the violence that lie caused last time, and I think people might need to be prepared that that could happen all over again.
SOLOMON: Yeah. Really interesting. We heard Biden talk about that this weekend, actually, saying that he too was concerned that if Trump loses, we may see perhaps another unpeaceful transfer of power. Certainly a lot to watch. Donie O'Sullivan, thank you.
O'SULLIVAN: Thanks.
SOLOMON: All right. Well, the owner of Donald Trump's social networking site, Truth Social, is facing a bit of a harsh reality on Wall Street. Trump Media & Technology Group lost more than $16 million last quarter, and its revenue remains low, according to Friday's earnings report. The loss has come as Trump Media plans to launch its new streaming service Truth+.
Let's bring in Matt Egan now, who joins us live from New York. So, Matt, where do things stand now? I mean, you've been reporting on some wild swings for this company. What about right now?
MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: Well, Rahel, it is just remarkable to see a company valued in the billions of dollars, despite generating less than a million dollars in revenue. It's a really bizarre situation, made even weirder by the fact that the majority owner, of course, is the former and potentially future President the United States. And Trump Media, on Friday after the closing bell, revealing that they generated just $837,000 in revenue. Again, thousand dollars (ph) in revenue. That is down 30 percent year-over-year. The losses are piling up. They posted a loss of $16.4 million. The good news is, that's actually an improvement from recent quarters. But, all of this is weighing on the share price, which you can see from that chart, it is well off the spike in late March as the company went public.
And what's notable here is that over the last three weeks, since Vice President Kamala Harris became the de facto nominee for the Democrats, this company has lost a quarter of its value. Now, remember, Trump Media, it's not trading on fundamentals. It's all about hype and momentum. It's really become a way for traders to bet on whether or not former President Trump is going to be back in the White House, making Truth Social the presidential platform for communications. But, this loss, this sell-off today and in recent weeks has wiped out a chunk from the former President's net worth. As recently as three months ago, his shares in this company were valued at over $6 billion, today, just about $3 billion. So, he has lost half of the value of that stake.
And as we saw, the stock is down another four percent as we speak today. Rahel.
SOLOMON: Yeah. That has to hurt. So, Matt, in the meantime, what are they trying to do to turn things around?
EGAN: Well, it's all about streaming. Just last week, Trump Media launched what they're calling Truth+. It is a new streaming platform available on Truth Social, on Android, iOS and the web. They say they're focusing on content that includes news, Christian programming and family programming. They say that they also really want to pay particular attention to content that is, quote, "neglected" by big corporations or at risk of cancellation. They are trying to play upon some of the success we have seen from Fox News and other conservative outlets on the streaming front. And what's also interesting here is they're building their own custom technology here to deliver the streaming content to consumers, and they say that this makes them uncancellable by Big Tech.
Of course, Rahel, you and I know that streaming is not an easy business to get into right now. I mean, anecdotally, I don't know about you, but I've talked a lot of people who are trying to cut down on the number of streaming platforms that they subscribed to, especially as they deal with the high cost of living. And this is a very cost-intensive business. Even some of the biggest media companies on the planet are struggling to make money here. So, this won't be easy.
SOLOMON: Yeah. It's very cost intensive, and might I add, it's very crowded field. So, it's certainly not necessarily just a guaranteed home run. But, we'll see. Matt Egan live for us in New York. Matt, thank you.
EGAN: Thanks, Rahel.
SOLOMON: And the former President Donald Trump will speak with Tesla CEO Elon Musk in a live interview tonight. That is scheduled to take place at eight o'clock Eastern on the X platform. Musk is promising an unscripted event, and says that no topic will be off limits. He endorsed Trump shortly after the assassination attempt on the former President last month.
All right. Let's make a check of the markets. The Dow is off about one third of a percent, about 0.33 percent.
[11:50:00]
We'll call it a third. NASDAQ, quite the opposite, up about one third of a percent, and the S&P just about flat, but fractionally higher. So, we'll take the green.
European markets closed mix, FTSE 100 actually higher, slightly higher. CAC 40 about off a quarter of one percent.
Let's take a look at Asian markets, where it was also a mixed picture. I do believe it's a Japanese holiday or a Japanese market holiday. So, we'll see. But, Hang Seng, meantime, closed up higher. Shanghai Composite closed lower.
All right. Still ahead, the Summer Olympics in Paris has come to a close. We are live in Paris with all the details of that thrilling closing ceremony. We'll be right back.
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SOLOMON: Fireworks illuminating the sky there above the Stade de France, just outside the French capital, a spectacular ending to the Summer Olympics in Paris. Some of those who saw the show in person say that they were overcome with pride for their city and excitement for the games ahead.
Joining us now from Paris with a wrap up of the Olympics is CNN's Melissa Bell. So, Melissa, break it all down for us, but let's start with the elaborate closing ceremony that we saw. What were some of the highlights?
MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It was pretty amazing, Rahel. And remember that we had as compares in the opening ceremony that had been so extraordinary and really dazzled, not just Paris, but beyond. So, a lot of questions and pressure about just what they could reserve for us at this closing ceremony, this time at the Stade de France, just outside of Paris. It began in the center of Paris, made it way -- its way to the Stade de France, and then really an extraordinary night, not just to begin with the athletes being celebrated, but of course all of the many of thousands of volunteers who have allowed these games to go on without a hitch and as fluidly as they had.
I think the French have surprised themselves. It was not only extremely well organized, but joyful, optimistic, really a great deal of kindness being shown throughout by all the people who were there, many of them volunteering. They were at the heart of the ceremony. Then, of course, these amazing performances that went on for several hours. It began with an amazing show of light and sound. The circles of the Olympics brought down in different ways with acrobats, really quite beautiful.
Culminating, of course, and what we'd all been anticipating since there had been rumors about this, Rahel, Tom Cruise abseiling down into the Stade de France to get onto a motorcycle, make his way through the streets of Paris and take that Olympic flame off to Los Angeles. And of course, the next part that people here in Paris were able to watch on that screen inside the Stade de France, taking place in California with Snoop Dogg, who has been such an amazing mascot throughout these games, and Dr. Dre, an incredible performance. And of course, those Olympic rings being put up on the Hollywood side.
So, on one hand, the closing of what have been an extraordinary couple of weeks here in Paris, I think, really defying expectations, not least to the French themselves in terms of how they could get through the terror threats. We talked about the fear that there would be some kind of social disruption movements, the chaos that we'd anticipated. None of that. It was glorious. It was ambitious. It happened in the center the city. The athletes swam in the Seine and no one reported sick. The events took place in the open museum. That is the French capital.
But now, of course, taking over will be LA 2028, with all the promise that that holds, and that's also part of the ceremony that we saw last night.
[11:55:00]
It's what Dr. Jill Biden had said. Look, you may have the Eiffel Tower. We in California have the superstars, Rahel.
SOLOMON: Oh, I love it. Yeah. And just incredible to see Snoop Dogg. I mean, talk about someone who has defied expectations for all of these years, but just incredible, incredible. It's a huge undertaking for Paris and Paris did it. It's just a beautiful, beautiful city.
Melissa Bell, thank you.
All right. Before we go, one more thing. McDonald's France had some Olympic beef with Team USA's Steph Curry after France lost to the Americans in the men's basketball final on Saturday. I watched. It was incredible to watch. And one reason why it was so incredible is because of that man, Steph Curry. He was key to that win, hitting eight three-point shots in just over two minutes in the fourth quarter of the game. McDonald's France shared this post online featuring their classic curry dipping sauce with a message reading quote "For obvious reasons, we are considering removing the sauce." All in good fun, of course. No response yet on social media from Curry. He is probably enjoying some rest. Well deserved.
We know your time is money. So, thank you for spending some time with me. I'm Rahel Solomon in New York. Stick with CNN. One World is coming up next.
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