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CNN International: New Poll Shows Harris Gaining Ground In 3 Key Battleground States; Trump & Musk To Have Live Conversation On X Tonight; Putin Tells Russian Military To "Squeeze Out" Invaders; Hamas Says It's Killed One Israeli Hostage, Injured Two Others. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired August 12, 2024 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[15:00:55]
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: It is 8:00 p.m. in London, 10:00 p.m. in Kyiv, 3:00 p.m. here in Washington. I'm Jim Sciutto. Thanks so much for joining me today on CNN NEWSROOM. And let's get right to the news.
We begin with the race for the White House. The newly energized campaign on the left now feeling the polls are behind them. New polling has Vice President Kamala Harris tightening the race in three crucial swing states.
She's preparing to roll out an economic plan this week and drawing thousands to events that have her opponent, the former President Donald Trump, retreating to an old debate over crowd size.
Here he is on Truth Social claiming something that is demonstrably untrue that Harris use artificial intelligence to inflate the images of her rally crowds. Again, we have the video and the reality speaks for itself -- sad truth.
We'll see if he continues that baseless line tonight in an interview on X with the CEO of X, Elon Musk, who promises that no topic in their conversation is off off-limits.
CNN's Isaac Dovere joining me now to discuss the campaign.
All right, so next week is the DNC, how was the Harris campaign trying to keep this string of positive energy together?
EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, as the theme of the week is going to be unity. She's got an event on Thursday with Joe Biden and the other theme of the week is going to be talking about the economy.
We don't know exactly what it is that they're going to talk about at this event. The White House has said to us, it's going to being keeping costs down -- costs down for Americans, and we're going to see that come in tandem with the campaign, rolling out some more economic policy.
The way that Harris has approached this different from Biden is not to say the economy is getting better, which it is, but to say people are still feeling pain and she wants to speak to that pain and do what she can to help that.
SCIUTTO: So, she -- and that's been a criticism of Biden going back a number of months that, you know, whatever you think the economic numbers show, people are clearly feeling pain. So what are her -- do we have a sense of what specific proposals they're going to be, yeah.
DOVERE: We don't. So far, look, she has always favored a more pragmatic down to the kitchen table approach. This than the Bidenomics or obstruct talk about the economy that not just Joe Biden, but other Democrats often talk about, we'll see what that comes to.
We are in this weird space for Kamala Harris, where she's been a candidate for three weeks. She has, according to her aides, changed her positions on a lot of things that you did stand for, but we're not so far have a clear sense of what she does stand for, what she is running on in terms of policy, and maybe we are going to start to get that this week.
SCIUTTO: Understood. Isaac Dovere, thanks so much.
Let's go now to the Trump campaign. Today, Donald Trump returned to the social media platform that originally fueled his political rise, and at times defined his presidency, posting a campaign ad on what was Twitter now, X, for the first time in almost a year, that ahead of Trump's plan appearance on X's live chat coming up tonight with the platform's CEO, Elon Musk.
CNN political reporter Alayna Treene, has all the details for us.
I want to know, Alayna, what the thinking is behind this, because we often say on this program, as do others, that the Twitter verse is its own little universe separate from a large portion of America -- of the American population. So, who is his target audience here?
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Oh, I think it's more of just the amount of people who are on Twitter, who are, you know, when I feel like this was a long time coming, I'll put it this way.
When I talked to Donald Trump's allies, particularly those not on the campaign, but outside of the campaign, they had been pushing Trump to rejoin X, formerly known as twitter for some time now. They really did believe that he was missing out on a key opportunity to continue amplifying his message to a key number of people. I don't know if there's a specific target audience per se when I'd asked the campaign about this, but it's more so that he can appeal to a wide swath of voters, many of who are on X.
Now there's a couple of reasons why Donald Trump was off of X for so long. Part of it as of course, because he was kicked off of Twitter initially in the aftermath of January 6. Elon Musk when he took over the company, renamed it X, allowed Donald Trump to be back on.
[15:05:But Trump instead continued to post on his own version of the site, Truth Social.
Now, Truth Social, Donald Trump has a stake in. He does have some sort of business agreement where he has to continue posting on there and mainly posting their first. That's part of why he hasn't really returned to X. But the other part, when I talk to Trump's campaign as they were very hesitant in recent months to have him come back on X and part of that is because you see him sharing and a lot of outlandish and some of the conspiracies like we saw him share this weekend about the crowd size as it related to Harris's event in Detroit.
They kind of wanted those to remain on Truth Social. That was his platform and really geared toward his own base. Twitter is a very different place or X I should say is a very different place. And so that's what we're going to see with these posts. But you will see more of that in the sprint to November.
And then just very quickly about his interview tonight with Elon Musk. It's going to be interesting. It's going to be a friendly interview. We know that musk has endorsed Donald Trump and Trump has been very enamored with Musk for the past several months, but specifically since that endorsement in the aftermath of the assassination attempt on his life.
SCIUTTO: So he's endorsed Trump. Is he also donating to his campaign because it had been a lot of back-and-forth about quite sizable donations from Musk to Trump?
TREENE: He has been donating. I know that. I don't want have off the top of my head from my conversations with his team about the exact number. But he has been donating and I think this is also just it's the way of further amplifying Donald Trump to a lot of voters and a lot of people.
You know, Elon Musk is a controversial figure in himself but he does get a lot of attention and I think this interview particularly between the former president and someone who really is a celebrity in his own right, Elon Musk, that's really the goal with this. And again, it is going to be a more friendly interview. I'm actually really interested in it because you know that when Donald Trump is comfortable, he actually is far more candid.
SCIUTTO: Yeah.
TREENE: And so I think we will be watching that very closely, this evening.
SCIUTTO: I mean, yeah, stretches the definition of a journalistic interview, given that he's endorsed him and donated money to his campaign. But we shall see --
TREENE: And he's not a journalist, we should say.
SCIUTTO: Well, exactly. Alayna Treene, thanks so much.
Let's go to our panel now, CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings, and Harris surrogate and mayor of Montgomery, Alabama, Steven Reed.
Good to have you both on.
So, Scott Jennings, I want to ask you the point of going on X both in terms of one, what audience does he reach here? Do you think he reaches a valuable audience? But two, doesn't this also get into a space where I know you have cautioned the former president from staying away from which is sort of the Trump unbridled space where he tends to say things that either aren't true or could be offensive? Is this a good idea in general for both those reasons?
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think reaching as many people as you can is generally a good idea. And while Trump is using the X platform, I expect Kamala Harris to do the same thing and use different social platforms as well. That's smart, generally.
Of course, all of these platforms are what you make of them and you're only as good as the content that you deliver. And so I think it's a smart idea. I think getting back out there and talking to as many people as you can as a good idea. And I'll wait and see tonight to see how he performs to give you a judgment on ultimately whether this was a home run or just a solid double, or something else?
But basically, Trump needs to talk to people and he's got to break through the mainstream press right now, which is all over Harris. He's got to find a way to regain some of the attention in this race. So this is what he's choosing to do generally.
SCIUTTO: OK.
JENNINGS: (AUDIO GAP) tonight.
SCIUTTO: Well, let's look at one way that he attempt to draw attention to himself over this weekend and that is making a bizarre and false claim about Harris manufacturing images of her crowd size. It was interesting that the former Speaker Kevin McCarthy, was critical of Trump's decision to do this. Have a listen and Mayor Reed, I want to get your thoughts.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEVIN MCCARTHY (R), FORMER 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's supposed to take care of the border as 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)
SCIUTTO: It's interesting to see the Harris campaign respond on their own side because they've been trolling Trump on Truth Social comparing crowd sizes, which strikes me Steven Reed as being part of a broader Harris approach to Trump including the kind of weird attack -- attack line. They're looking to undermine him and poke funded him as to be distinguished from Biden, who was more likely to say threat to democracy. I mean, do you notice a marked change there? And do you think that's a good idea?
STEVEN L. REED, MAYOR OF MONTGOMERY, ALABAM: Certainly, I think it's indicative of where the opponent is something that the Harris-Walz campaign feels like it's an advantage for them.
[15:10:07]
They believe that there's a messaging advantage from the standpoint of Vice President Harris running as someone new with new ideas and new energy focused on tomorrow. And not talking about taking us back to a different time. And I think that what they are doing in place to communication is excellent because you have to meet your opposition where you had to be willing to go toe to toe with them in the middle of the ring, if that's what it takes, and that's what the campaign has been doing this.
So far, they've been winning.
SCIUTTO: Scott, you heard Kevin McCarthy there say share a piece of advice to Trump that I've heard for 100 years, right? Which is say get back on message, focus on policy, you know, be more presidential, et cetera, which you and I know has been something that the president often has not done.
And I just wonder does he listen this time? I mean, because we've seen the last few weeks have beyond the crowd size, questioning Kamala Harris's race. I mean, a whole long line of things that the strike me and many others as being a feature, not a bug of a Trump candidacy, a Trump run for office.
JENNINGS: Well, it is not really a question of being presidential or not in my mind, he was the president and in a lot of national polls of people look back on his presidency now, given pretty high marks in one reason --
(CROSSTALK)
SCIUTTO: But not for questioning her racial -- a presidential candidate's racial identity, not for jumping onto a social media conspiracy theory about A.I.-generated photos. I mean, you've been a critic of that as much as anyone.
JENNINGS: So the question is, can he focus? And take the goodwill that people have now imputed on him for his term in office and focus and prosecute and it's going to be better under me than it was under her and getting off track and taking the bait.
I mean, ultimately, these debates with Harris about crowd size and every 24 hour period that he goes, letting the Harris campaign dictate or bait him into these things it's a lost day and there's not that many days left. This is the benefit that Harris had. She's running a very short campaign. She's not terribly well-defined in the way Biden was.
So Trump can't really afford to bleed too many news cycles on debating crowd sizes when he needs to be winning those news cycles on define her as something outside of the mainstream. So I were in her shoes, I would do the same thing because every day you've got him off track on crowds is another day you've avoided questions about your own record, and another day you've avoided questions about what you did or did not help Joe Biden do in your perch as vice president.
SCIUTTO: Steven Reed, Harris economic message is going to be part of the news cycle this week. What are you hoping to hear from her, and how do you hope that she distinguishes herself from the Biden economic message?
REED: I expect the vice president to address the elephant in the room, and that is certainly that consumers are feeling the pinch where they go to the grocery store, when they go to the gas pump, and while we see good economic numbers, it's not translating as much American.
I expect her to put forth her plan of what she will do and how she will address that as president. And I think that's what people want to know. They want to know, what are you going to do for me today and tomorrow not what you did yesterday and not what he did for me years ago?
So I expect her to address that really resonate with average Americans in some of the challenges they face around purchasing power health care, and around just the things that they need just to get back from day-to-day way, week to week, and month to month. I'm looking forward to her message. I don't look forward to the plan being rolled out.
SCIUTTO: And listen, on the issue of taxing tips, for instance, in the state of Nevada, which was an idea Trump first put forward, she's now agreeing on that one as well. You can see perhaps get a sense of what the larger picture will be.
Mayor Steven Reed, Scott Jennings, thanks so much to both you.
Still ahead, Ukraine's offensive inside Russia. The country's forces are moving deeper into Russian territory, with Vladimir Putin urging his troops to, quote, squeezed is out the enemy. Ukrainians, as you can see here, raising their country's flag on seized ground.
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SCIUTTO: Welcome back.
Vladimir Putin is ordering his troops to force back the Ukrainian military, which is making an offensive deeper into Russian territory. Russian officials are also evacuating thousands of civilians from more areas along the border as Ukraine pushes further in, Ukrainian military chief announced today, that troops have taken control of about 1,000 square kilometers of Russia's Kursk region.
Both sides are blaming each other for starting a fire at a nuclear plant in southern Ukraine. You can see the smoke rising there. Dangerous, dangerous development.
For more now, I want to bring in CNN international correspondent Fred Pleitgen.
First to that fire there, we've seen military activity around that camp. We've seen Ukrainians accused Russians and there being evidenced frankly of Russia taking shots at it, right, in a threatening way. Do we know what's happening there now and how big a threat it is?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's not exactly sure what is happening there right now, but certainly a dangerous development. You're right. We have talked about it so much, the fact that its nuclear power plant, the biggest in Europe, is essentially right on the frontline between the Russians and the Ukrainians in Russian controlled Ukrainian territory.
The Ukrainians are blaming the Russians for the Russians claim it was Ukrainian drone attack. All of this, of course, coming as the Ukrainians further push their offensive into Russian territory.
Here's what we're learning.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PLEITGEN (voice-over): Ukrainian troops sweeping through Russian territory.
Dear Ukrainians, this soldier starts, and then says his forces went into a Russian supermarket, but that Ukrainian stores have a better selection.
Videos released of several areas inside Russia showing Ukraine soldiers taking down Russian flags and raising Ukraine's and while the Kremlin claims its forces have held up Ukraine's advances in some areas, posting videos of bombed out alleged Ukrainian vehicles. The numbers the Kremlin does admit are staggering.
Almost 30 villages under Ukrainian control, more than 120,000 Russian civilians evacuated in the Kursk region alone and more under evacuation orders in Belgorod region to the south.
Russian President Vladimir Putin irate, vowing to respond while ripping into Ukraine and its Western allies.
VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): It appears that the enemy, with the help of its Western masters is fulfilling their will. And the West is fighting us with the hands of the Ukrainians. So it looks like the enemy is seeking to improve its negotiating position for the future.
The enemy will certainly receive a worthy response and all our objectives will undoubtedly be achieved.
PLEITGEN: All this as Russia and Ukraine blame each other for what appears to be a major fire at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant southern Ukraine, an area under Russian control. So far, no increased radiation levels have been detected.
Kyiv has published little information about its offensive into Russian territory, but Ukraine's president justifying the incursion.
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRIANIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): 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 search strikes deserves a fair response.
PLEITGEN: And it seems Ukraine's response is not over yet, even as Moscow scrambled to prevent further loss of territory.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PLEITGEN (on camera): And, Jim, just a couple of minutes ago, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, he came out in his nightly address and there he said one of the reasons for this offensive into Russian territory is that the Ukrainians wanted to creates something like a buffer zone between themselves and the Russian military. But, of course, all of this already a big morale boost to the Ukrainians.
SCIUTTO: No question in an embarrassment to Russian forces as well.
Fred Pleitgen, thanks so much.
For more now, I want to bring in Andriy Zagorodnyuk. He's a former Ukrainian defense minister, chairman for the Center of Defense Strategies.
Andriy, thanks so much for taking the time.
ANDRIY ZAGORODNYUK, FORMER UKRAINIAN DEFENSE MINISTER, CHAIRMAN FOR THE CENTER OF DEFENSE STRATEGIES: Thanks.
SCIUTTO: First, I'd like to ask you big picture what you believe the goal of this offensive is. I know the part of the offensive seems to be to draw Russian forces away from the front in the east but is there an intent here to hold to keep and hold Russian territory?
ZAGORODNYUK: Yeah, that's clearly not the raid operation which has done for a short period of time. That's clearly the operation to hold the territory.
Strategically, of course, Ukraine never planned. Nobody in Ukraine ever plan to hold Russian territory is like for -- for indefinite period, like forever. So I believe that our leadership idea is to -- is to create the instability in Russia itself, to show that to Russians and to Russian leadership and Russian people, that they actually cannot support that war in Ukraine because they cannot actually wage it effectively, and that they abandoned the plans and returned to their homes.
And I don't believe we need their land. We need them to fail at our territory, at our land, and we need them to stay there. That's the goal.
SCIUTTO: So, you're saying no intent to annex by any means Russian territory. But if it's not a raid, do you believe Ukraine intends to keep its forces this is there for some time?
ZAGORODNYUK: In the Ukrainian culture, Ukrainian people that never been any sentiments of annexing any Russian territory whatsoever. So that was completely out of our, you know, our vision of the future. What we need, we need to keep our -- our area intact and our land in peace and we can do -- to do to achieve that, what I believe the troops have done is basically uncovered the massive area and instability in Russia itself because they, they focus all their forces, everything they had just in order to defeat us in east, and basically like collected everybody who they can throw it on us.
At the same time, they had their back unprotected and that's what the Ukrainian military used.
SCIUTTO: As you remember, I'm sure in the fall of 2022, when Russian forces were losing ground around Kherson in the south, the U.S. and its allies became very concerned that Russia might use a tactical nuclear weapon in response due to a loss of Russian-held territory there, are you concerned at all that Russia might resort to a battlefield nuclear tactical nuclear strike in response to this incursion?
ZAGORODNYUK: Not so much because we see them. First of all, it's not going to gain any -- any benefit to Russia at all. Secondly, as you could see right now, even among analysts, even among politicians, even among U.S. administration, there are now fears of escalation right now in that, in that sort of sense of escalation. Clearly, we're past that point.
And I believe to be honest, the fears of escalation back then were wrong. I don't think the Russians are close to using that Russia, which just losing the war. And we had to continue and not to stop but actually continue releasing liberating Ukrainian territory back in the fall of 2022.
Right now, I think they just all -- all the Russians need to do is to start to reconsidering their plan of Ukrainian invasion because that plan is clearly failing.
SCIUTTO: Yeah, how -- how did Ukrainian forces manage this because I said earlier today on the air that no one I speak to who follows this war closely, had I spoken to them two weeks ago was predicting an opera such as this with such access inside Russian territory.
[15:25:04]
So how did you Ukraine manage this?
ZAGORODNYUK: First of all, Ukraine managed to keep this all in secret, which was a great deal, because if we remember from the counteroffensive, the whole world was discussing the directions of counteroffensive and the preparation for the counteroffensive and that itself was a problem. So, this time, obviously, Ukraine can learn lessons and this time, it was kept in a complete secrecy.
And secondly, Ukraine did investigation and intelligence like study of where Russians were the most week. And the fact that we found out that they had no reserves were actually been saying this for a while, that Russia keeps no reserves because they -- they're not doing that well in, even in a main lines of attack in Ukraine. So that actually putting their, whoever they can.
And so, after the careful study of the intelligence, I believe that the direction was chosen as the most possibly successful and it was a complete surprise for Russians.
SCIUTTO: Yeah, clearly, and it seems that the Ukrainians are still making progress.
Andriy Zagorodnyuk, we appreciate having you on and hope you remain safe.
ZAGORODNYUK: Thank you.
SCIUTTO: Coming up, a projected dramatic rise in cancer cases and deaths among men. We're going to speak about the estimates, but also what steps can be taken to prevent this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
SCIUTTO: Some sobering news on the health front, cancer cases and deaths among men are expected to surge by 2050. That's according to a study published today with a large increase, specifically among those 65 years and older.
CNN medical correspondent Meg Tirrell has more on the study.
So, Meg, what specific cancers are we talking about here? And do they have any idea why?
MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, Jim, a lot of this is driven by population growth and particularly population growth among older people.
So, for cancer deaths, they're expected to grow by 93 percent by 2050 among men worldwide to more than 10 million from about 5.5 million. Now, for cases, they're expected to grow 84 percent to 19 million by then. And this is going to be most pronounced in people over the age of 65 where the rate of death is going to double. This is also going to be more pronounced in lower income countries.
So the researchers made these projections by taking current rates of cancer in 2022 and applying population projections from growth to those. So that's how were getting to these numbers.
Now in terms of the specific kinds of cancer, lung cancer is expected to continue to be the biggest cause of cancer cases and deaths. But the biggest growth were going to see in mesothelioma for cases and for deaths in prostate cancer.
And didn't we already knew that meant and have a higher risk both of getting cancer and dying from cancer than women do? And that's particularly why they looked at men in this study. And that's because men have higher rates of smoking, of drinking alcohol, and also have having workplace exposures to carcinogens or cancer-causing things as well. And, Jim, they don't get screened for cancer as much as women do.
SCIUTTO: So do researchers have recommendations for how to address this? I imagined smoking -- stopping smoking has to be one of them.
TIRRELL: Well, that's a huge thing. One of the crazy factoids in this piece is they point out smoking rates for men worldwide are above 30 percent for women, there are 6.5 percent. So that's something we can do both on a population level to try to help people quit smoking and on a personal level to stop smoking.
They also really focused on the fact that we need to beef up our health care infrastructure, including the health care workforce, and make health care more accessible to people, they advocate through a universal health care systems globally.
On a personal level, we do know not smoking limiting, our alcohol intake, eating fruits and veggies, protecting ourselves from the sun and getting out and exercising. All of those things can reduce our cancer risk as well.
SCIUTTO: As the same old rules seemed always apply.
Meg Tirrell, thanks so much.
Coming up next, overseas, the U.S. and Israel bracing for potential attack from Iran as mediators are urging both Israel and Hamas to return to the negotiating table. Can a deal be struck to avert a wider regional war? That remains the question.
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[15:35:32]
SCIUTTO: New battleground state polling shows how the switch up at the top of the Democratic ticket has dramatically reshape this race for the White House and given Democrats much more optimism than we had just a couple of weeks ago. In Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Michigan, the so-called blue wall, Harris has 50 percent of likely voters to Trump's 46 percent. This in "The New York Times"/Siena College polls, still within the margin of error, but Harris, improving on Biden standing in each of those must-win states by noticeable number.
Here to break down what it means is pollster and communication strategist Frank Luntz.
Good to have you on, Frank.
FRANK LUNTZ, POLLSTER AND COMMUNICATION STRATEGIST: Yeah, I apologize for wearing this shirt because it's a little bit too pro-American, but I'm actually up at West Point. They just had their March Back Day, which is when they're freshmen, their plebes return to the barracks and start through education. So I -- this is why I dressed the way that I am. SCIUTTO: You don't have to apologize. It's just after the Olympics,
too. It's all good.
All right. Politics -- I'm just start with the big picture question because we speak regularly about this race. And if we were talking a few weeks ago, you were very pessimistic on Democratic chances under Biden.
Where does the race stand today? Big picture?
LUNTZ: It's completely changed. And the reason why it's changed is both intensity and likely turn out. Younger women did not want to vote for either Trump or Biden are embracing Harris overwhelmingly. That's changing the electorate. And, by the way, that's going to have an impact on Senate and House races as well.
Second, is that its stopped being about immigration and inflation, which is Donald Trump strongest issues, and instead it's about leadership. It's about who you want to see. The individually you want to see as president.
And third, Trump has gone off the rails, and that instead of focusing on the issues, he's been making personal attacks against Harris that simply are not landing.
SCIUTTO: Yeah, that's a remarkable combination of things. Now, to that point, her polling specifically on handling the economy is way better than Joe Biden's was. She's going to be rolling out an economic plan this week in the lead-up to the DNC next week, a battleground poll asked voters who they trust more on a number of issues including the economy, Harris closing in the gap -- closing the gap on that question.
Without his big advantage that he had -- I mean, how does Trump overcome that, right? Because that's central to his message. Yes, but it's actually very simple and there's the issue of inflation, or the most -- people like us call it inflation, the average American calls it an affordability or crisis or costs. And the fact is costs have gone up considerably over the last four years.
And there are four areas that voters care about, housing and health care, which are very expensive.
Food and fuel, which are less so but inflation has been dramatic there. It has gone down over the last year. So Democrats are correct to make that claim. But prices are still considerably higher than what they were under Donald Trump.
And the public still believes that the Republicans are better able to handle inflation and the Democrats.
Now, the other issues -- immigration and expand that to crime and safety and security once again, it wasn't a things were perfect under Trump, but they see a significant difference between his policies and the Biden-Harris policies. I emphasize this because those are the focal points of the debates or debate and between now and the election, Trump absolutely has a chance, but if it's about the persona of the candidates, then Harris continues to gain as the public says I like her better than I like him.
SCIUTTO: Yeah, and we've talked about that frequently, how likely -- likability matters.
I mean, all the economic issue, it does seem and again, they're going to -- they're going to roll out their plan, but that Harris aware of that affordability problem is at least tweaking and possibly significantly changing the Biden economic message to focus on those kinds of issues, even things like taking taxes off of tips for instance, which was a Trump idea. But now, Harris is also going down that path. But things like family leave, expected to be part of it, minimum wage expected to be part of it.
Is that an economic message based on the focus groups you do that might land?
LUNTZ: It definitely will land. And that's why Trump has offered no taxation on Social Security benefits.
[15:40:03]
SCIUTTO: Yeah.
LUNTZ: Benefits are like that. He understands that for day-to-day quality of life, these charges, these costs have become unaffordable to so many Americans. And I want to emphasize, this is not about blue collar voters.
This is not about working class voters because the people who fit into that category don't like that labeling. This is our people live paycheck to paycheck. And that's the language, frankly, that CNN should be using.
And among those people, they tend to vote Democrat by two to one. Trump pulled it to maybe 55, 45 versus Joe Biden. There were an awful lot of them in Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin. She's trying to win them back.
A lot of them are organized labor. A lot of them are within the Latino communities. So there's certain voter groups that we are studying.
In the end, the election isn't over yet. But make no mistake, the intensity of support for Harris is significant and then the percentage that's going to turn out because that's the key in the end, not who you support. But who actually vote for.
There was a meaningful, measurable difference right now between the Harris vote and the Trump vote. And that's why you see the polling changing significantly.
SCIUTTO: But before we go, you know, you have this do no harm rule as relates to vice presidential choices. At this point, does Walz for the Democrats or Vance for the Republicans help or hurt either of those tickets? LUNTZ: Well, it sounds like I'm trying to be a pox on all your houses. I would not have chosen Walz because he's too left-wing. I would have chosen someone like Josh Shapiro who would have brought Pennsylvania. On the Republican side, I would not have chosen J.D. Vance because he's from Ohio and you already a winning Ohio. I would have gone with Marco Rubio or Tim Scott, someone who has an appeal to a community that adds votes.
In the end, I don't think either candidates, vice presidential pick is going to make much difference, if any at all. And in the end, everyone is going to be watching that debate on September 10.
SCIUTTO: Yeah.
LUNTZ: Because that's what's going to determine the election.
SCIUTTO: Frank Luntz, good to have you on. Thanks so much.
LUNTZ: Thank you.
SCIUTTO: We do want to turn now to the Middle East with some breaking news. Hamas says that two of its soldiers shot and killed one Israeli hostage and injured two others in two separate incidents. This comes as the White House is voicing concerns that an attack by Iran on Israel could possibly be imminent and threaten any negotiations. U.S. officials continue though to urge Hamas leaders to show up to ceasefire talks on Thursday.
Jeremy Diamond is in Haifa, Israel, with the latest.
Jeremy, tell us what we're hearing about the shooting incident?
JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, this is a claim by Hamas. We should first note, it hasn't yet been verified by these really military or anyone else for that matter. And Hamas hasn't provided any evidence for this claim.
But here is what Hamas's military wing, the Qassam Brigade, says. They say that in two separate incidents, two Hamas guards shot and killed one hostage and seriously wounded two female hostages. They did not detail the nature of the injuries or there condition, but they say that, quote, attempts are being made to save their lives.
They also say that they have now formed a committee to investigate and look into how this actually happens to find out additional details. The Israeli military for its part, says that it can neither confirm nor refute this claim by Hamas but that it is looking into it, and if anything, Jim, I mean, this -- you know, bring -- makes clear the risks to these -- the lives of these hostages, and that is what the families of these hostages have been trying to hammer home for ten months now, but increasingly over the course of the last few weeks and months, to try and build pressure on the Israeli governments on Hamas as well, to actually reach a deal for the release of these hostages, and that would also result in a ceasefire in Gaza.
Late last week, the United States, Egypt, and Qatar put together a new letter calling for a new round of negotiations. Those talks were set to happen this coming Thursday, but there were major questions around whether or not those talks will actually happen.
First of all, because yesterday, Hamas said in a statement, casting doubt effectively on whether or not they would participate in these talks, saying that they wanted a deal based on previous rounds of negotiations and not engage in another new round of talks. And then, of course, there is what is happening in this region and that is the extraordinarily tense situation that we now find ourselves in.
And, increasingly, it appears likely that Iran and Hezbollah will move forward with retaliatory strikes against Israel over the assassination of Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas's political leader, as well as the killing of a senior Hezbollah commander just hours before that assassin the nation. And now, both Israeli and U.S. intelligence are indicating that that attack could come in a matter of days or even hours.
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And so, if it comes before that next round of negotiations set for Thursday, that could really put everything up in the air a very tense moment, a very uncertain moment, Jim, and concerns, of course, from the families of hostages about what that means.
SCIUTTO: Jeremy, help me understand what's happening here with Hamas.
So Hamas is saying its own soldiers shot and killed in Israeli hostage, injured two others. Is Hamas saying that this was a mistake? I mean, why are they revealing this now?
DIAMOND: It's not clear. And, you know, there are a few different scenarios. I think that could emerge. I think it seems clear from the statement, at least that this wasn't something that was ordered top- down from Hamas. This wasn't the execution of Israeli hostages as for kind of political purposes or motives, or to try and an alter the circumstances of negotiations. You know, could these hostages have been trying to escape? Could this have been a revenge attack? Carried out by these Hamas guards?
You know, there are a number of scenarios and I don't want to put my finger on any one of them at this point. It's very uncertain, but the Israeli military says there looking into it.
SCIUTTO: Jeremy Diamond, thanks so much.
Well, as the U.S., Egypt and Qatar try to rescue ceasefire talks, the humanitarian crisis in Gaza just gets worse and worse.
Our next guest is in Gaza right now and its a rare view. We don't often get that view from outsiders.
Deepmala Mahla is the chief humanitarian officer for CARE.
It's good to have you on. We appreciate the risk you're taking there. We know its extremely dangerous territory.
We rarely get a look inside Gaza. Can you tell us what you've been seeing?
DEEPMALA MAHLA, CHIEF HUMANITARIAN OFFICER, CARE: Thank you, Jim. What I have been seeing is unimaginable levels of suffering, pain, disease, hunger, piles and piles of rubbish, because there is no garbage system, empty hospitals little walking all the time, all the time because of the evacuation orders. It seems that almost all of Gaza is reduced to rubble. And even in the rubble in those dangerous conditions, some people are still living.
I mean, those buildings and walls could fall any time, but people are saying this is better than living in a tent. And I have been to many of tents 10, 15 kilometers across the coastline, desperate people have just put in tents without poles, plastic tarpaulin, or cloth. It's so hot, over 40 degrees on big sand. And just next, just next to the tent is sewage, open garbage and their desperation which you see in people's eyes and faces.
It's -- I've seen war zones as a humanitarian. We have delivered aid in many difficult contexts, but I had never imagined, I will see suffering to this level. You see children with so much skin infection and pregnant women -- there's so many, so much imagery, Jim, which I don't think I'll ever be able to forget.
The other day, there were this woman sitting in the sun, under the sand, alone with a little baby and just crying and crying and crying. And when we asked her what happened, she said she's been evacuated the seventh time now, she doesn't know where to go. It's colossal humanitarian needs. We are trying our best, but it's a drop in the ocean because the supply chain is broken and we do not have humanitarian access.
SCIUTTO: Just two weeks ago, the Israeli prime minister came here to Washington and before Congress, he blamed Hamas entirely for the shortage of food and aid getting in excepted no responsibility on the part of Israel and the IDF. Is that an accurate portrayal of the reality on the ground?
MAHLA: As a humanitarian, as an organization which deals in supplies and distributions along with many others, what we can say that bringing supplies is hugely complicated because there's a lot of bureaucracy. There is a dual use list according to which many items are not allowed, but it is also often open to interpretation.
There is informal instruction given to humanitarians that we cannot bring this, for example, things like toilet paper. So, shampoo, shower gel, these are in short supply because there is too much restriction. We know of many examples where the entire humanitarian convoy has not been in allowed because it had some small medical equipment like a scissor.
So this is a situation which definitely can be improved, but it is very, very difficult. And CARE, my organization, we've set up a clinic but we are so short of supplies in the lab, consumables, medicines, because of the restrictions which have been rotting and bearing in mind, only one border crossing is open, Kerem Shalom. Yes, north, it is boarding some little aid is trickling in. We have many land border crossing and they can be opened, but they are
not open.
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So just pretty much one functional crossing with so many restrictions. Supplies are in huge shortage, which -- which hampers us being to be able to scale up our humanitarian response.
SCIUTTO: As you know, aid workers themselves have been targets, or will they certainly paid the price for their presence there. It's been a number of weeks since several World Central Kitchen staffers were killed.
Has the IDF made any changes to make it safer for aid workers to operate inside Gaza since that attack? They promised to do exactly that.
MAHLA: We have a system which has called the humanitarian notification system, in which we can inform about our locations, about our movements, so that, you know, humanitarians can be deconflicted. But the system is not perfect and still there are examples about humanitarians being targeted. So, some progress has been made, but given the scale and given the complexity, definitely, there's an urgent need to protect aid workers.
And also the aid workers themselves are affected. I don't know a single humanitarian worker who is not dealing with personal loss, as well as displacement. I met some of my colleagues today, one of them took a donkey, donkey cart for 90 minutes journey to reach the office, which could have been a five-minute drive.
I was in a displacement site the other day with my colleagues, unlivable conditions, pretty much unlivable conditions. And my colleague who is in charge of sanitation were showing me around, and then he stopped near a tent and he said, I live here with my extended family 12 or 13 people.
So definitely the conditions have to be improved for aid workers because, Jim, aid by definition cannot be delivered without aid workers.
SCIUTTO: Yeah.
MAHLA: We are bleeding 1,000 cuts.
SCIUTTO: Well, listen, Deepmala, we appreciate the work you're doing there and we hope you and your team remains safe. Thanks so much for joining.
MAHLA: Thank you, and thanks for having me.
SCIUTTO: We do have some breaking news just in, this from Los Angeles. A 4.4 magnitude earthquake struck southern California, this just moments ago. It's relatively minor quake, but it was centered just four miles east of Los Angeles near South Pasadena, so was widely felt in one of the biggest cities in the country, most populated cities in the country. We're going to continue to watch the area for updates on any potential aftershocks or damage. None reported so far.
And we'll be back after the break. And the 2024 Olympics may be over, but some controversy is still looms. Now we must wait to see if U.S. gymnast Jordan Chiles will be forced to return her bronze medal.
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SCIUTTO: The 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, they're over, but there are still some controversies lingering. One of them, Team USA is now appealing a decision to strip the gymnast Jordan Chiles of her bronze medal in the individual floor routine.
The IOC is reinstating the medal to Romania's Ana Barbosu, who scored lower only after Team USA filed a score inquiry on Child's behalf. The court of arbitration for sport ruled that inquiry was filed, get this, four seconds too late, just passed what is a one-minute deadline.
The U.S. countered claiming evidence shows the inquiry was submitted 47 seconds after Chiles score was published. This decision could play out over months, possibly even years, but they are appealing. We can only wish her the best.
Thanks so much for joining me today. I'm Jim Sciutto in Washington.
"QUEST MEANS BUSINESS" is up next.
