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Trump Spreads Bogus Claim That Harris Used A.I. to Inflate Crowds; Trump Dismisses Harris' Momentum; Harris to Roll Out Economic Policy This Week; Ukrainian Soldiers Raising Flags Inside Russia; Evacuations Underway Along Russia's Border; Infiltrating the KKK; The Spike in Political Violence. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired August 12, 2024 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: By the press, by the media, there's tons of pictures. He's got this kind of red blotches on his hands. You know, whatever they were, it doesn't really matter. But he was later asked about that, he was later asked about these images, what's on his hand, and he denied reality. He said, oh, well, that's A.I. It's deep fake. So, you can see the reflex is there already to use this -- just the idea that this technology is out there to deny the facts.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. We're through the looking glass here because, I mean, you know, the fear has been that A.I. will be used to mislead people. This is the use of the A.I. as an excuse when the reality is they're staring us in the face. And you've been covering the spread of misinformation, disinformation among MAGA loyalists for years now. And you have your special, "Misinfonation," which is a great title, re-airing this Saturday at 8:00 p.m. What -- I mean, what are you picking up on? What are you seeing out there, Donie? What can you tell us?

O'SULLIVAN: Yes. Look, Jim, I mean, I think for as much as we talk about election conspiracy theories and lies and everything else, I think it's really hard to grasp just how ingrained this all is, right? Whereas some of us might have forgotten, most normal people, unlike you and me, Jim, who don't think about Trump and politics and the news all the time, might have forgotten about just how pervasive these conspiracy theories was.

For people who are kind of in this MAGA media universe, it's the only thing they've been hearing every single day for four years. And the conspiracy theories have built and they're snowballed. And Jim, look, last time in 2020, the conspiracy theory was if Trump -- the only way Trump can lose is if it's stolen.

ACOSTA: Right.

O'SULLIVAN: We saw what happened. And now, they're saying the same thing again.

ACOSTA: Yes. And, Donie, we should mention, the birther conspiracy theory. I mean, that thing is more than 10 years old. In 2016 -- O'SULLIVAN: What's old is new, Jim.

ACOSTA: Exactly. In 2016, it was Ted Cruz's father being involved in the JFK assassination. I mean, the list goes on and on. And the 2020 election obviously being another conspiracy theory. That's false. Donie O'Sullivan, thanks a lot. Appreciate it.

O'SULLIVAN: Thank you.

ACOSTA: New this morning, Former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has some advice for how Trump should address Kamala Harris' crowd size, don't.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA), FORMER U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER: You've got to make this race not on personalities. Stop questioning the size of her crowds and start questioning her position when it comes to what did she do as attorney general on crime. Question what did she do when she was supposed to take care of the border as a czar. Question that they brought inflation. And she was the tie breaking vote when it came to inflation, when it came to IRS agents.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Well, let's discuss with CNN Political Commentator Shermichael Singleton and Democratic campaign consultant Tim Hogan. He worked on Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign and Senator Amy Klobuchar's 2020 presidential campaign. Guys, good morning. Thanks for joining us.

Shermichael, I was talking to a Trump adviser earlier this morning and asking him about, you know, Trump harping on this crowd size issue and asked, you know, why is he doing this? And the response I got in the text was, quote, no effing clue.

SHERMICHAEL SINGLETON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: You can't say the words on air, right?

ACOSTA: I can't say it on air, but that's the stage we've reached right now.

SINGLETON: I mean, look, you saw Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy saying that this should be an opportunity where you're focusing on the issues, drawing that contrast. I think the campaign needs to get the former president out there more. We know for a fact he loves being in front of crowds. That really is sort of the way he gauges whether or not he's doing well.

ACOSTA: He was just in Montana last week. That was at Montana.

SINGLETON: Yes, but it's been a while since we've seen sort of consecutive campaign stops. So, I think similar to Harris and Walz, they need to spend a week or two and visit every single battleground state with the former president and J. D. Vance so that he can do exactly what Kevin McCarthy was saying, which is to draw that contrast on policy issues.

ACOSTA: And, Tim, Harris' momentum, it's clearly getting to him. I mean, that seems to be clear. Let's listen to what he said about her crowds in his own in the past week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND REPUBLICAN 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.

I have 10 times, 20 times, 30 times the crowd size in history for any country. Nobody's had crowds like I have. Nobody's spoken to crowds bigger than me. If you look at Martin Luther King, when he did his speech, his great speech, and you look at ours, same real estate, same everything. We actually had more people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: I wish we could turn the cameras around in here and see the thousands of people that we have in the studio watching this program. But anyway, we'll move on. Tim, the Harris campaign is trolling Trump's crowd size on his social media platform. They're doing this, they're engaging as well. What do you think?

TIM HOGAN, DEMOCRATIC CAMPAIGN CONSULTANT AND SPOKESMAN, 2016 CLINTON PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: Yes, they should mock it. This is ridiculous. I mean, it is true that it goes at a perceived strength of Trump, which is that he draws big crowds, that he's a showman. But the reality is, it's just showing another novel way to get under his skin. This is someone who, do you want this person who's obsessed with crowd sites to have the nuclear codes? There are bigger questions that surround the ego that is coming out in answering this type of issue.

[10:35:00]

So, look, he has -- it's easy to get in his head, and I think that is the point. But the Harris campaign, they're going to troll him. They're going to poke him. But she's been doing big rallies. They're going to continue to do big rallies. She's going to draw big crowds. And they're going to live in his head rent free. This is just what happens.

ACOSTA: Yes, I mean, Shermichael, I'm wondering, I mean, does the Trump campaign need some kind of intervention here? Do they need fresh advisers coming in? We've seen some reports that Kellyanne Conway has been making some visits and so on. I mean, it sounds as though he's maybe not listening to people like Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles.

SINGLETON: Yes. I think it is time to do a little reset here, a little fresh reset. I mean, this is a very different race now that Kamala Harris is in compared to the race you would run against someone like Joe Biden, where the numbers were against him because of the age factor. Kamala Harris doesn't have that going against her. And so, this is going to become a race that really will be based on a very small percent of people in the middle and who can draw, I would argue, the greatest contrast with particularly a divided Congress and saying, this is how I will accomplish some legislative feats that may be beneficial to most Americans with a divided Congress. Whoever can make that argument the best, I think, is who's going to win in November.

Which is why I go back to they have to get the former president back out there on the campaign trail, making those cases in those battleground states to voters versus what we're seeing on Truth Social.

ACOSTA: Get him off Truth Social.

SINGLETON: Absolutely.

ACOSTA: Get --

SINGLETON: You got to get him out there.

ACOSTA: And, Tim, I mean, we have a poll showing Harris leading -- and this came out over the weekend, leading in some of those blue wall states by a pretty sizable margin. And also, on the economy as well. There's a Financial Times Michigan raw survey there as well that shows that Kamala Harris leading on the economy. That is within the margin of error, but that is pretty striking in terms of a turnaround. And there's the other blue wall state poll from New York Times and Siena College. I mean, this race has changed.

HOGAN: The race has totally changed. And there's a trajectory now that is in the Harris-Walz campaign's favor. I will also just say about getting Trump out there in the battleground states, it's not like this only happens on Truth Social, though. You put him in front of a podium where he does a press conference, you put him in front of a podium in front of a large crowd, he spreads misinformation. And I think the issue is, and the reason partially why the Harris campaign is rising, is he is struggling to define her. He is not able to throw the same attacks that he did at Joe Biden at Kamala Harris, and he is also obsessed at looking backwards.

So, Kamala Harris has done things like consolidate the Democratic base. We've seen a huge jump in the black vote, in the Latino vote, young voters. We've also seen independent voters and those critical double haters breaking their way in that New York Times/Siena poll. Trump and Vance are like minus seven, minus nine and Harris and Walz are plus two and plus eleven. If people like you, that's a good position to be in when you're running for president. That's where the campaign finds itself.

SINGLETON: I mean, look, I think there's some good points here, but the vice president is still behind with African American voters compared to where she needs to be for a Democrat. She's still behind with Hispanic voters compared to where she needs to be.

ACOSTA: She is making gains -- SINGLETON: She is making gains, but she's still behind. The race is

still statistically speaking, very close. And I do think you have to get the former president out there because like any person running for the highest office in the land, you need to be able to make your argument to the American people why they should vote for you over your opponent.

So, I get the point, but I think he has to get out there. And I think there's not a Republican that's running for office in the House or in the Senate that wouldn't say they don't want to see the former president out there making that contrast against Democratic policies, which I don't think are working for most people compared to Republican policies.

HOGAN: The problem is that's about like 5 percent of his rallies right now and 95 percent of the rallies are a lot of lies, crowd obsession, talking about January 6th, comparing his crowd sizes to Martin Luther King's. I mean, like, if you can get --

SINGLETON: Yes, yes, yes. But --

HOGAN: -- Trump on a script, sure, but like, that is not who he is.

SINGLETON: You know, I understand that point, but I think you're taking one press conference versus a litany of campaign stops across the country over months now. I think a lot of people visiting those rallies would probably disagree. I think some of the Republicans who are running for office where Trump is showing up to sort of give them some fodder for their races would also disagree. You got to go. You got to show up. You got to draw that contrast.

ACOSTA: And I think the Harris folks are saying, yes, get them out of the campaign --

HOGAN: Yes, exactly.

ACOSTA: Yes. All right. Guys, thanks a lot. Appreciate it.

SINGLETON: Thanks, Jim.

ACOSTA: Coming up, Ukrainian troops are now inside Russia planting their flag. That's right. You heard that correct. Next, the latest on. Kyiv's brazen offensive.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:40:00]

ACOSTA: Right now, evacuations are underway along Russia's border with Ukraine and an already volatile situation is dangerously escalating. Look at this latest video from inside Russia, Ukrainian forces -- that's right. Ukrainian forces climbing up a side of a building, raising their flags.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has now confirmed his troops are on the offensive and fighting inside enemy territory. CNN's Fred Pleitgen is in Berlin with the latest reporting. Fred, this is an extraordinary development to see Ukrainian soldiers inside Russia. What can he tell us?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely extraordinary. It certainly seems as though, Jim, the Ukrainians are trying to further advance into Russian territory. The Russians have said that they've managed to hold up some of those advances. It's not a huge Ukrainian force that's doing it, but certainly a very agile one and one that also has a lot of armored vehicles as well.

And the numbers -- and these are numbers that the Russians have given us, they're pretty staggering. The Russians themselves are admitting that the Ukrainians have taken over some 28 at least towns and villages on the Russian side of the border in the southwest of Russia, in an area called Kursk, in an area called Belgorod as well.

And we saw some of those evacuations on our screen just now. The Russians are saying that around 120,000 people on the Russian side of the border have already had to leave their homes, and 180,000 are now under evacuation order. So, certainly a pretty difficult situation for the Russians.

[10:45:00]

As you can imagine, Jim, Vladimir Putin, absolutely irate about this. Has already said there will be a response and that the Russians are going to squeeze the Ukrainians out of their territory, as they put it. But so far it seems as though the Ukrainians remain on the offensive, Jim.

ACOSTA: And, Fred, I mean, is this about getting inside Putin's head? Is this more psychological in terms of what they're trying to do in entering these areas in Russia rather than some kind of strategic goal of taking over Russian territory?

PLEITGEN: Well, I think that some of it is actually a strategic goal for the Ukrainians. I think there's several layers to it. I think one of it is actually probably getting, not just in Vladimir Putin's head, but also trying to destabilize the situation in Russia to a certain degree and sort of show some Russians that there have been military mistakes on the Russian side, like, for instance, not enforcing the border area with Ukraine.

But then, of course, there's also other strategic things that the Ukrainians are trying to achieve as well. The Russians right now are mounting a massive push in the east of Ukraine to try and gain territory from the Ukrainians, and the Ukrainians are hoping with their move into Russian territory that they'll make the Russians move some of those forces that are putting pressure on the Ukrainians in Ukraine's East to that area that the Ukrainians are now sweeping through as well.

There are some signs that is happening, but then, of course, also, this is a huge morale boost for the Ukrainians of as well, who, of course, as we know, we've reported on have been on the defensive for quite an extended period of time, Jim.

ACOSTA: Absolutely. All right. Fred Pleitgen, thanks so much. Really appreciate it.

Still ahead, he infiltrated the KKK not once but twice. And now, he is telling his remarkable story. A former FBI informant and army sniper, Joe Moore, there he is right there. Joe joins me live next. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:50:00]

ACOSTA: With just one week until the Democratic National Convention security officials are preparing for possible retaliatory attacks against Democrats after Former President Donald Trump was shot last month. Let's discuss now with someone who knows the underworld of political violence all too well, former FBI informant Joe Moore. He went undercover inside the KKK and even help stop a planned assassination of Former President Barack Obama. He's recounting these experiences in his new book, "White Robes and Broken Badges." Joe, it's a very important book. Thank you so much for being with us. We appreciate it.

I do want to ask you a little bit about your book in a moment, but a threat assessment released by the FBI and Homeland Security says, quote, individuals in some online communities have threatened, encouraged, or reference acts of violence in response to the attempted assassination.

Obviously, we should note there hasn't been any political motive established for the man who tried to kill Donald Trump at that rally last month. But what do you think is driving this rise in political violence, what we're seeing on the far-right, for example, these days?

JOE MOORE, FORMER FBI INFORMATION WHO INFILTRATED THE KKK AND AUTHOR, "WHITE ROBES AND BROKEN BADGES": There are a lot of online communities that are associating with one another, a sort of cross membership between these organizations. However, it's not all online. There are geographical and generational connections to the hate that many of these groups are part of. And with the advent of social media, and other avenues, they're able to connect with one another. And these organizations are able to grow.

And I guarantee you that it's more than just individuals that are discussing these activities. I am certain that there are organizations that are discussing this sort of violence.

ACOSTA: And your book looks at how the alt-right, as it's been called by some, and white supremacists infiltrate the political and legal worlds to reach their goals. What have you uncovered? How does your life experience, you know, affect your thinking on this? What do you think?

MOORE: I uncovered local, county, and state level law enforcement officers that were active members with the KKK and were essentially using their positions in law enforcement to assist KKK activities. And unfortunately, many officials were not willing to recognize how prevalent and consequential these activities were. And I was able to actually gather the facts for the FBI.

ACOSTA: And when you see Trump dining with white nationalist Nick Fuentes at Mar-a-Lago, questioning the racial identity of Vice President Harris, how much fuel of the fire does that add?

MOORE: That is absolutely a green flag to the alt-right movement and the white nationalist movements. Furthermore, it's not always what you see, it's what you don't see that could certainly indicate what the issue is. What I don't see are the book in statements by the campaign in order to dictate to these organizations that they are not welcome, their activities are not appreciated.

ACOSTA: And how worried are you that we could see some of these white nationalist groups being involved in movements to overturn the election like they did four years ago? I mean, one of the things that we saw on January 6th, the Proud Boys, Oath Keepers, groups like that.

MOORE: In 2015, when I came out to prosecute several cases, the KKK nationally was essentially decimated, and many of those members went to other likeminded organizations. So, I know that a lot of those alt- right organizations contain former Klan members, and there's a lot of ideological similarity between them.

[10:55:00]

Furthermore, in secret, they really do discuss using violence as a method to sort of take over the country. And many of these organizations say publicly that they're simply using their First Amendment rights. However, they have to say that in order to cover for the violence that they truly intend to employ.

ACOSTA: Well, it's chilling stuff. And, Joe, we're going to check out your book to learn more about all this. Joe Moore, thank you very much for your time, the author of "White Robes and Broken Back Badges," very important book from Joe Moore. Thanks so much for your time. We appreciate it.

And thank you for joining us this morning. I'm Jim Acosta. Our next hour of Newsroom with Wolf Blitzer starts right after a quick break. Have a good day.

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[11:00:00]