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VP Harris Preps For DNC; Trump Campaigns In Pennsylvania; Israeli Airstrike Kills Two Hamas Commanders; Blinken Heads To Israel To Push Israel-Hamas Ceasefire And Hostage Deal; Biden: Two Sides In Gaza Talks Are Closer Than Ever To Agreement; What Trump's Financial Forms Reveal; CNN Returns To Border Hotspots, Finds Migrant Encounters Down; What You See When You Stumble On North Korean State TV. Aired 7- 8p ET

Aired August 17, 2024 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:00]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN Newsroom. I'm Jessica Dean in New York.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Jim Sciutto in Tel Aviv, Israel.

Developing now, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to Israel tonight in an urgent push to hopefully finalize a ceasefire hostage deal between Israel and Hamas. And as a reminder of the stakes, there are currently 115 hostages alive, some sadly dead, still held in Gaza. So, many moving parts, so many questions remain. President Biden says a deal is closer now than ever. We'll have much more ahead, Jessica.

DEAN: We will talk to you soon, Jim. But, first tonight, with just 80 days until the election, Vice President Kamala Harris is gearing up for arguably the most consequential week of her political career thus far, the Democratic National Convention kicking off in Chicago Monday.

And tonight, Former President Donald Trump is in Battleground, Pennsylvania, where he spoke to a rally for nearly two hours. This as we have new polling. Showing Harris gaining ground on Trump in some key Sun Belt states. CNN Senior Data Reporter Harry Enten is running the numbers for us. And, Harry, we've got some new numbers out today. What do you make of them?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Tight, tight, tight. That's what I make of it. Let's -- we'll take a look at the four states that The New York Times Siena College Poll polled over the past week, and I want you to take a look at the key in the yellow. All within the margin of error.

So, we've got Kamala Harris up by five points in Arizona, Georgia Trump up by four, Nevada Trump up by one, and in North Carolina, where Democrats want to play, you see Kamala Harris up two there. Bottom line is, two states where Trump is ahead, two states where Harris is ahead, but all within the margin of error. Tight, tight, tight.

Now, what's key here is, who would you rather be in this situation? Who has the momentum? And I want you to take a look at these states in the aggregate, all right? This is the Democrat versus Donald Trump, Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and North Carolina. You go back to November of 2020, across these four states, Biden and Trump were essentially tied. But in May of 2024, look at that. Look at that advantage that Donald Trump held in these states. He was up by nine points over Joe Biden. Now, in August of 2024, we've got that tied race again.

So, what we have right now is essentially the same picture in aggregate that we had back in November of 2020. And of course, Joe Biden won that year. So, the bottom line is Kamala Harris with momentum. You'd rather be her than Donald Trump if we're projecting this out nationally, but it is way too close to call in the Sun Belt states, Jessica.

DEAN: And, Harry, what groups are helping Harris close the deficit that Biden had and close this gap?

ENTEN: Yes. What are the groups? Well, if you know anything about the Sun Belt, you know that Georgia and North Carolina have a lot of black voters in them. Arizona and Nevada have a lot of Hispanic voters in them.

All right. So, this is the vote choice across the Sun Belt swing states among likely voters. Look at how much better Kamala Harris is doing now than Joe Biden was doing back in May. She's getting 84 percent of the black vote. Joe Biden was just getting 74 percent of it back in May. How about Hispanics? It's basically the same story. Look at this. Kamala Harris is getting 54 percent of that vote now compared to Joe Biden just getting 47 percent back in May.

I will note that Harris is still actually somewhat underperforming what Joe Biden did with these two groups back in 2020, but she's doing significantly better than he was doing back in May.

DEAN: And what does the poll tell you about the different ways that Harris and Trump are talking about the economy, which, of course, is the issue Americans say they care about the most?

ENTEN: Yes. Economy, economy, economy. So, this is rather interesting, all right? So, this is the Harris vs. Trump margin in Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and North Carolina. Look at this, Donald Trump holds an advantage on who voters trust more in the economy. Look at that. He leads Harris by 12 points. But interestingly enough, this is a question that I really don't think pollsters ask nearly enough, which is, who cares about people more like you? Look at this. Harris holds a five-point advantage on that.

You go back to 2012, Mitt Romney won on the economy, but Barack Obama won that election because he won on this question, cares about people like you, and Harris right now is leading on this. Less of a lead than Trump has on the economy. But right now, I think voters are balancing these two thoughts in their head, and that's why we have such a close race across the Sunbelt battlegrounds.

DEAN: All right. So, let's zoom out, now that we have this new data. Where does the race to the 270 electoral college votes stand? ENTEN: Right. So, you know, last week The New York Times released polls from the northern battleground states and the Great Lakes and this weekend they released them across the Sunbelt. If The New York Times polls are exactly right, exactly right, of course, there's a margin of error, and we'll get to that in a second, Kamala Harris would get 297 electoral votes, more than the 270 she needs to win, because she'd win up here in the Great Lake battleground states. She'd also win down here in North Carolina and Arizona, lose in Nevada and in Georgia.

[19:05:00]

So, if the polls are exactly right, she's ahead. But, of course, these polls come with a margin of error, and this race, in my opinion, is very too much close to call. Why is that? Because, if we look within The New York Times poll's margin of error, you could actually find that Donald Trump could get 312 electoral votes, winning up here in the Great Lakes, winning in North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada.

So, bottom line is, as we head into the Democratic National Convention, yes, you'd rather be Kamala Harris than you would be Donald Trump. As you see here, this is sort of the median projection, but the bottom line is, a Donald Trump victory is well within the margin of error, Jessica.

DEAN: All right. Harry Enten, as always, breaking the numbers down for us. Thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you.

DEAN: And joining me now, CNN political analyst and White House correspondent for PBS NewsHour, Laura Baron-Lopez, and Stuart Stevens, he's the senior adviser to the Lincoln Project, and also author of the book, "The Conspiracy to End America: Five Ways My Old Party is Driving Our Democracy to Autocracy." Thanks to both of you for being here on a Saturday night with us.

Stuart, let's start first with you. Harry just walked us through these numbers. It is a very tight race as we look at those key swing states. We're heading into the DNC next week. What do you think the Harris campaign needs to do to keep their momentum?

STUART STEVENS, SENIOR ADVISER TO THE LINCOLN PROJECT AND AUTHOR, "THE CONSPIRACY TO END AMERICA": Well, look, just one note about this as far as the African American vote. That's showing an 84 percent for Harris. Harris is going to get 92 percent of that vote. In 1964, Goldwater got 7 percent of the black vote. In 2020 Trump got 8 percent. That's one point every 56 years. That's not going to change.

So, when you're projecting out these numbers, you really need to factor that in. I've seen this so many times in polling. I can't tell you how many times I've seen my candidates, Republicans doing better with African Americans before the election, but I can tell you how many times we got north of 9 percent, and that was never. I think, you know, this race right now, I -- is -- the trend is your friend, and you want to be Harris in this race, and Trump doesn't have a message. I think the major challenge for the Harris campaign is not to run this like a normal campaign. Donald Trump is a criminal. Donald Trump is a sexual predator. You need to run against him. You can't roll it, run against him on the economy or something like this was a rematch of Obama-Romney. You have to frame this race.

Now, you need to talk about the economy, but this isn't going to be a race about the economy, I think. I think it's going to be a referendum on Donald Trump and who you could look to and with pride in the White House, and it's not going to be a guy who's a criminal.

DEAN: And, Laura, we know that the former president will be holding counter programming next week during the DNC with he's going to have these rallies in Pennsylvania and Michigan, of course, two very key battleground states. How do you think that will go for him? And what do you think the campaign is going to be trying to achieve? What's the best-case scenario for them as the Democrats have their big week next week?

STEVENS: You know --

LAURA BARON-LOPEZ, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST AND WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, PBS NEWSHOUR: Well, look --

DEAN: Sorry, Stuart. I'm going to let Laura answer that one.

STEVENS: Yes. Please go ahead.

DEAN: We'll come back to you.

BARON-LOPEZ: Yes, I'm curious to see what Stuart has to say on this as well. But ultimately, Trump's campaign is trying to blunt Harris' momentum, find anything that they can do to stop it. Because right now, Democrats and the Harris campaign are expecting that coming out of the DNC, they will have another little boost that it'll just add to the momentum that she has.

And I'm on the ground here in Chicago already, and, you know, a lot of the voters that I've talked to, yes, they're in Illinois, and it's not a swing state, but they just talk all the time about how much the vibes of this election have shifted. And it already felt like a vibes election before now, especially since voters didn't really respond to some of the good economic numbers previously. And so, it felt like a vibe session to voters, and that's why they were more leaning Trump prior to President Biden dropping out of the race. And so, Harris is trying to add to the, to add to the momentum that she has right now.

And Trump, you know, after not being out on the campaign trail for about a week ago, for a whole week, he's now trying to really get out there in those battleground states and siphon off voters at the margins, whether it is black voters or whether it is Latino voters. And I take Stuart's point that, historically, black voters vote Democratic, a vast majority of them, more than 80 percent. But there is some concern among some of the Democrats that I'm talking to about just at the margins, whether or not black men specifically will -- are still curious about Trump or if Harris is actually helping bring some of them home.

DEAN: And, Stuart, let's get your thoughts on all of that.

STEVENS: Look, if I was advising Donald Trump, God forbid, I would say just stay out of the way next week. I've been in a situation where it's the other team's convention. I don't think there's anything you can do that's going to break through that. You're going to have -- whatever you create is going to be a bad split screen for you. You can't be in any kind of audience like they're going to have at the convention, any kind of setup like that.

[19:10:00]

And you know, Trump is not helping himself when he campaigns now. He has these speeches that are supposed to be about the economy and it goes into these attacks and it goes on and on. I mean, this guy is like Fidel Castro. And that's the problem inside this campaign, that you can come up with all the good strategies, you look at the speech that they wrote for him to give us his acceptance speech, then look at the speech that he actually gave. And that is the problem with the Trump campaign, and it's the candidate.

And J. D. Vance only reinforced the worst aspects of Donald Trump, he's the ultimate MAGA candidate. And I think that this is a problem they have that they have no idea how to deal with.

DEAN: And, Laura, to Stuart's point, during the rally tonight, the one in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, he launched into these attacks against Harris, focusing on her looks. I want to play everyone a clip of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm a better-looking person than Kamala. No, I couldn't believe it. She said -- you know, I had never heard that one. They said, no, her biggest advantage is that she's a beautiful woman. I'm going, huh? I never thought of that. I'm better looking than she is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Laura, one of the key demographics would be female voters in the suburbs. I'm thinking about the collar counties, you know, outside of Philadelphia, for example. This is -- look, this is President Trump as we know him. He does this sort of thing for years and years going back to when he first ran in 2016, attacking people personally. But how do you think this is playing with different voters that he needs to win in November?

BARON-LOPEZ: Well, I think that already a number of those swing women, suburban voters regardless of race or ethnicity, were looking at the abortion issue, were looking at reproductive rights and women's health care issues, and we saw that in 2022, that drove a number of women towards Democrats, including some that hadn't necessarily previously voted Democratic.

And so, you add on top of that, abortion is still going to be an issue. Reproductive rights are still going to be an issue this election cycle, including in some of those key swing states, it's going to be on the ballot, in states like Arizona. Also, it sounds like in states like Nevada.

And then you add on top of it these very specific attacks on Harris, be it about her gender, about her race. And some of the women voters that I've spoken to so far, don't really like that kind of rhetoric. They don't respond well to it. It reminds them of issues regarding Trump's temperament that maybe turned them away from him in 2020. And it's going to only potentially push them further away from him.

And ultimately, it's difficult to see --

DEAN: I think we might've lost Laura for a second. Stuart, while we wait to get her back, I want to ask you -- do we still have Stuart here with us? All right. Stuart, I'm going to ask you just on the issue of reproductive rights. Obviously, that was -- that really lifted Democrats in the midterms in 2022. And then in all of this kind of one-off elections that we've seen, you know, between when Roe was overturned and now, do you think, what is your sense of how pressing is that issue? How much of that is going to be still galvanizing voters to go -- to vote Democratic this time?

STEVENS: You know, what I think is underappreciated about this is how this reaches traditionally conservative voters. So, for a long time, those of us in the Republican Party attacked Obamacare and national health care programs because we said, you don't want the government to come between you and your doctor. So, that is exactly what has happened now in -- since Roe v. Wade has been overturned.

And that same argument that resonated with more conservative voters about Obamacare or national health insurance resonates with these voters when it comes to the question of having the right to make your own decisions about your own medical situation.

And, you know, in the Lincoln Project, the way that we go after this is talk about rights and talk about the heavy hand of government, and there's other groups to come in and they talk about abortion rights specifically. And these are complimentary. And I think that the complete sort of picture of this is a world in which we thought that for two generations there was a constitutional right that's been taken away. And no one likes the situation in which rights are taken away from them. And it's only going to get worse with Donald Trump.

And you know, with J. D. Vance, they just seem to be on this mission that, is there any group of women in this country that they can't offend? I mean, what Trump is saying about beauty, you wouldn't say that like in a high school class president race. I mean, it is just so insulting and they're daring women not to vote for him, and I think they're going to take him up on it.

[19:15:00]

DEAN: All right. We're going to leave it there. Stuart Stevens, thank you. Laura Barone-Lopez, our thanks to you as well. We're sorry that we missed you there at the end. But thanks to both of you for your time.

BARON-LOPEZ: Thank you.

DEAN: We have more to come in the CNN Newsroom tonight, including Jim Sciutto, who is live in Tel Aviv. Jim.

SCIUTTO: Thank you, Jessica. Talks to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and a hostage deal they wrapped up in until next week, but the Israeli prime minister offices is saying this evening their negotiators have cautious optimism. We're going to speak to the former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. about the moving parts of the deal.

Plus, Former President Trump has been repeatedly talking about a crisis at the U.S. border. But just how bad is it actually today? We went to the border to find out. You may be surprised what CNN uncovered.

And hear how one man stumbled upon the wild propaganda that North Koreans watch on television day in and day out. It's pretty remarkable. You're in the CNN Newsroom.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:20:00]

SCIUTTO: Breaking news, new video of an Israeli airstrike which killed two Hamas commanders, this in the West Bank, you could see it there, the footage you're watching released by the IDF, Hamas confirmed those killings, the deaths of those commanders earlier this evening. The war continues.

Also, tonight, cautiously optimistic. That is how Israeli diplomats are describing their outlook as they and others try to reach a deal on a ceasefire with Hamas, as well as the release of remaining Israeli hostages. The secretary of state, Antony Blinken, is heading back to Israel. His hope that this is the week when those talks finally succeed. President Biden said yesterday negotiators are as close to a deal as they've been ever before.

Michael Oren is a former Israeli ambassador to the U.S. He joins us now to discuss. Good to have you on. Ambassador, thanks so much for joining.

MICHAEL OREN, FORMER ISRAELI AMBASSADOR TO THE U.S.: Always good to be with you, Jim. Hi.

SCIUTTO: So, as you know, there are legitimate questions about how interested Hamas leaders are in making this deal. But there are questions inside this country about whether the Israeli prime minister is serious about coming to an agreement here. What is your view? Do you believe that Netanyahu is ready to make a deal? OREN: Well, I think he'd be willing to make a deal if the deal meets sort of his minimum requirements. And I can't speak to his political interests. I'm not his adviser. I'm not even in the government anymore. But it's this, he doesn't want a deal that's going to enable Hamas to come out of the tunnels and declare victory. They'll go up and do the V sign and proceed to take over Gaza again, rearm, reorganize, and mount another October 7th. This is his fear.

And the way he feels that could be prevented is if the ceasefire is not open-ended, it's not permanent, but it's time limited, six, seven weeks. And with giving the Israel the option to renew fighting, should Hamas come us come out of those tunnels and start shooting again.

Another big issue is the control of what's known as the Philadelphi route. That's the 16-kilometer border between Gaza and Sinai. Under that route, just this week, Israel discovered 50 smuggling tunnels. Those are the tunnels to which all those armaments, all those explosives reach into Gaza. (INAUDIBLE) wants to stay on that route. Hamas wants it back quite obviously.

SCIUTTO: Let me ask you this, though, because to get to this deal, Israel would have to acknowledge that its stated goal of eliminating Hamas is a failure, because Hamas has not been liberated -- eliminated, rather. Many Hamas commanders and fighters have been killed, perhaps numbering in the thousands, but their leader remains alive somewhere in those tunnels. Is the Israeli prime minister ready to grant that reality that Hamas has not been eliminated?

OREN: Well, he'll say is, yes, the goal hasn't been achieved yet, but it still might be achieved in the future, and he's still committed to it. That's why he wants a temporary ceasefire that will enable Israel to renew the fighting should Hamas break that ceasefire.

Keep in mind, Hamas has broken every single ceasefire in history, including the ceasefire of October 7th. You can almost rely on them to break the ceasefire. That's what I think Netanyahu is hoping for, is counting on, and that a permanent ceasefire won't be imposed.

Certainly, a permanent ceasefire means, indeed, as you say, Jim, means Hamas wins. And that would be very difficult for a large number of Israelis, but not all Israelis. There's a significant number of Israelis who say, listen, the major thing is to get the hostages back. Get the hostages back. If Hamas wants to declare victory, we will rearm. We will get ready for the next battle. And next time, we'll know better and we'll do better without getting hostages taken.

SCIUTTO: As you know, there are many Israelis who've grown quite impatient with these negotiations and frankly, quite impatient with the Israeli prime minister. There was another protest tonight here in Tel Aviv and they questioned his motives. They -- and you've heard this even from senior Israeli officials, as you know, questioning whether he's putting his political interests above the interests of the hostages and the possibility of getting a deal. Do you believe that Netanyahu is placing his political interests first?

[19:25:00] OREN: I have no evidence to substantiate that. I don't. It's a highly political issue. I think that we're looking -- Netanyahu is looking at the strategic picture if Hamas wins, what does it mean for our regional deterrence? What does it mean for our peace relationships with the Gulf states? They've made peace with us, not because they love us, but because we're strong, because we're standing up against both Sunni extremism in the form of Hamas, ISIS, Al-Qaeda, the Muslim Brotherhood, and Shiite extremism in the form of Iran and Hezbollah. If we show weakness, people in the Gulf may not want to make peace with us so quickly. So, there's a very big picture here.

The big question about whether Sinwar, the commander of Hamas, even wants a ceasefire, he hasn't showed up for these talks yet, I think what he really wants is a war between Israel, Hezbollah, and Iran, which would draw all of Israeli forces out of Gaza to fight in the north and tremendous international pressure on Israel, weaken Israel economically, strategically, and get a better deal.

You have to think about sometimes, not just from the Israeli perspective, but from the Hamas perspective. And meanwhile, there is a war in the north. The north is being trolled (ph).

SCIUTTO: Right.

OREN: Every single day and night, all the rockets.

SCIUTTO: But you know that this constant search, quest for showing strength, establishing deterrence, which by the way, both sides, or the many sides in this conflict are constantly communicating they must do so. Iran is communicating that now, following the strike on Haniyeh, that that cycle is an endless one. And it's one you and I have witnessed for decades here.

Like my question is, is the Israeli government willing to discuss the outlines of a way forward in Gaza, and by the way, Hamas as well, that is not purely force for force, that there is some peace process going forward, but also system of governance in Gaza going forward that involves power sharing and not just at gunpoint, right, you know, that that's the only solution?

OREN: It's not a black and white situation, Jim. It's not a zero-sum game. I'm strong of the opinion, after being involved in this for many, many years, that the way to get to peace is by showing strength. Iran is behind all of this instability in the Middle East, all this violence. If no one stands up to Iran and stops it right away, the violence is going to continue.

So, someone's got to stop and zap (ph) up an exact price from Iran. So, far, Iran hasn't paid any price whatsoever. In order to de- escalate against Iran, you have to escalate against Iran. And I hope the United States would take that leadership role.

On the other hand, I would like Israel to take gestures, more than just gestures, concrete measures to try to advance the peace process. The Saudis say they want to talk about a pathway to a Palestinian State. I think Israel should talk about a pathway. Pathway doesn't obligate Israel in any way. I think showing a diplomatic horizon for the Palestinians would open such a pathway.

SCIUTTO: Yes. And as you know, pose political dangers for Netanyahu with his right-wing. We'll see how that end of this is resolved. Ambassador Michael Oren, thanks so much as always for joining.

OREN: Be well, be safe, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Will do. And back to you, Jessica, in New York.

DEAN: A great interview there, Jim. Thank you so much. Still ahead, we're going to take you inside Donald Trump's finances. There is new information on how he's making millions, even as he faces costly civil lawsuits. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:32:47]

DEAN: New financial disclosures are giving a new window into how Donald Trump is making millions of dollars and where he owes millions of dollars. CNN's Brian Todd has more.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R) FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have a lot of money. I have a lot -- I built a great company.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): And newly revealed documents showed Donald Trump made a lot of money over the past several months from a lot of different sources.

The former president's latest financial disclosure put out by the Federal Election Commission covers all of last year and part of this year and shows that among his biggest sources of income earning hundreds of millions of dollars were his resort properties like the Bedminster Club in New Jersey, the Trump Ruffin Tower near Las Vegas, and Mar-a-Lago. His Palm Beach, Florida Resort earned him about $57 million, how?

MARK FISHER, CO-AUTHOR, "TRUMP REVEALED": Mar-a-Lago, it operates as essentially a country club and a meeting space. It is a place where all of the MAGA world or at least the richer members of the MAGA world come together and it's a place where they can show their support for Donald Trump by renting space there, by having meetings there, and so on.

TODD (voice over): But Trump also had other interesting sources of income. Despite once calling Bitcoin a scam, he held more than a million dollars in cryptocurrency, has a six-figure investment in gold bars.

He reported making more than $5 million, largely in royalties from his books, "Letters to Trump", and "Our journey Together" and he made $300,000.00 for endorsing a Bible with country singer, Lee Greenwood.

His name is on and Trump realized early on in his life that if you can attach his name to lots of different products, get his name out there, people would see that as impressive.

TODD (voice over): But there's one enormous financial albatross for Trump that's also reflected in this report.

JEFFREY JACOBVITZ, WHITE COLLAR CRIMINAL ATTORNEY, ARNALL GOLDEN GREGORY: This income has weighed down by legal debt. He owes E. Jean Carroll money. He owes the Court for the fraud case in New York. Those are up on appeal. He's unlikely to prevail on appeal.

TODD (voice over): Those judgments against Trump for defamation in the case of columnist, E. Jean Carroll and a civil fraud case in New York amount to more than $100 million in financial liabilities according to this disclosure. That doesn't count legal fees, he owes his attorneys and possible other cases on the horizon.

JACOBVITZ: And so, the mountain of money owed will increase if he's not elected.

TODD (voice over): And Trump's actual overall wealth, including over $2 billion worth of shares in his social media platform, Truth Social is a bit of a house of cards according to one biographer.

[19:35:19]

DAVID CAY JOHNSON, ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY PROFESSOR: Donald has always been desperate for cash because he's not a wealth builder, he is a wealth extractor.

TODD (voice over): Will this financial disclosure hurt Trump politically as his race against Kamala Harris tightens?

FISHER: Anytime we have discussion is about how rich Donald Trump is, it probably helps him with his base. It gives them the idea that this is a man who knows how to run things.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

TODD: These filings also show that former First Lady, Melania Trump, earned significant income of her own in 2023 and part of this year. She took in more than $230,000.00 for one speaking engagement with the log cabin Republicans and more than $330,000.00 for a licensing agreement for the sale of digital trading cards.

CNN reached out to the Trump campaign for comment on the overall Trump financial disclosure report. We haven't heard back -- Jessica

DEAN: Brian Todd, thank you very much.

Former President Trump back talking about one of his favorite subjects this week, that would be crowd size. After bragging about his own large crowds, Trump has been downplaying Harris' crowds by falsely saying artificial intelligence must have been why Vice President Kamala Harris has large crowds.

And Elon Musk, who owns Twitter now, X has a new tool that can be used to have AI create fake images of Biden-Harris and Trump. CNN's Donie O'Sullivan joins us now.

Donie, we have seen the amount of misinformation ballooning online and it just keeps coming. Break down what we're seeing

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and Jess, real fire hose of misinformation. I mean, just this week alone, the week started with Trump pushing these lies, misinformation, disinformation about the crowd size at Harris rallies.

Look, we've spoken for a while now over the past year or two about the role that artificial intelligence could play in this election, especially when it comes to misinformation. And a lot of that conversation has focused around what if somebody creates a fake video or a fake image, or a fake piece of audio?

But what's interesting here and what is happening is something that experts refer to as the liar's dividend. It's basically what Trump is doing here. It is just the idea that this technology is out there, you don't even have to do anything with us. You can just use the fact that it's out there and that it's possible to deny reality and that's what you're seeing here.

Trump is saying with these crowd size images does that they are AI- generated as a way to cast doubt even though of course that is totally false. He also did a pretty, recently when he was seen coming out of a courthouse in New York.

He was seen waving and on his hands had some kind of red blotches on his hands. They had been captured by multiple press photographers and when he was asked about that a few weeks later he also tried to claim that that was AI-generated, which of course it wasn't.

And then of course, as you mentioned, he was live this week, with Elon Musk on X and that platform, we shouldn't pretend that X or Twitter as it was formerly known, was ever this place of only facts and only truth and no hate, but really that platform has just gone totally downhill under Musk.

He has obviously re-platformed a lot of election deniers, but also a lot of White supremacist and hate figures as well on the platform and really just created a space as we saw on that X conversation this week as space for lies to really just flourish.

DEAN: And we also have new CNN reporting this week on how Trump made $300,000.00 from his Trump Bible. What more can you tell us about that?

O'SULLIVAN: Yes. So, it says a lot. Look, we saw a few months ago that Trump was selling the said Trump endorsed Bible, basically with Lee Greenwood -- basically a Bible that just says, God bless the USA on it. And we were at the RNC a few weeks ago, where we saw people well buying that Bible and forking out money. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

O'SULLIVAN: Are you looking or are you buying?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm buying.

O'SULLIVAN: What are you buying?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm buying Lee Greenwood's Bible, I want Trump to sign it and -- Lee Greenwood $75.00.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'SULLIVAN: Look, I mean, this just -- I think really and what you'll see next coming up after this show our episode of misinfonation on "The Whole Story," just really shows that there is this whole industry behind pushing misinformation and very much of it as a grift.

There is all these products, basically a whole economy to support all the people who are peddling misinformation.

[19:40:03]

DEAN: Whoo, boy. All right. Donie O'Sullivan, it makes my brain hurt sometimes. Thank you for tracking this all for us, we appreciate it.

In the next hour, Donie O'Sullivan dives back into the world of misinformation, will it cause chaos in November's election."The Whole Story" -- "Misinfonation Part 2" airing at 8:00 PM Eastern right here on CNN.

Still ahead tonight, Former President Trump has been repeatedly talking about a crisis at the border, but how bad is it?

CNN returns to migrant hotspots and finds that encounters are now down. This after President Biden's executive action. Our full report next. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[19:45:05]

DEAN: The Southern Border is a major focus of the Trump campaign as the former president accuses the Biden White House of not doing enough to counter the migrant crossings But CNN's Rosa Flores shows us officials there are seeing a significant drop in crossings.

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ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): I've spent so much time and El Paso during prior migrant surges that just by driving to certain spots, I can tell that migrant apprehensions are low right now. Just take a look beyond the border fence.

FLORES (voice over): In this hotspot south of the border wall, you see rows of razor wire and piles of fencing. A huge difference from when I was here more than a year ago, when hundreds of migrants in a makeshift camp are waiting to turn themselves into Border Patrol. During another migrant surges, migrant families with children slept at the airport. And large groups of migrants rushed the International Bridge towards El Paso. Some of them in tears about the cumbersome asylum process.

FLORES (on camera): This is Segundo Bario or second rural. One of the biggest indicators that migrant apprehensions are low, are the streets around this church, take a look. You don't see large migrant camps on sidewalks and on the streets. But during migrant surges, hundreds of migrant families called the street home.

FLORES (voice over): Father Rafael Garcia, the priest has seen the cycles of migration before.

RAFAEL GARCIA, PRIEST: It has become a big political issue.

Garcia, says migrants stopped showing up in large numbers in June when President Joe Biden's executive order barred asylum for those who cross illegally and ahead of the election, he doesn't expect the Democrats to let up..

GARCIA: Politically, it's not good thing to do. The humanitarian thing to do, but it's not politically.

FLORES (on camera): The drop in migrant apprehensions is not just happening in El Paso. It's happening all along the US Southern Border.

I wanted to show you this spot because this is one of the illegal crossing hotspots. We're actually in New Mexico. And sometimes when you look beyond the border wall, you can see smugglers on the other side.

I talked to a source familiar with the government data who says that last month, about 57,000 migrants were apprehended at the US Southern Border. Compare that to 250,000 in December of 2023. Does that mean that the migrant flow has stopped? Absolutely not.

Rafael Velasquez Garcia from the International Rescue Committee says, another reason for the drop in migrant crossings is that more than one million migrants are stuck in Mexico as they wait to enter the US in what he calls a carousel where Mexican authorities busing migrants to Southern Mexico over and over again.

RAFAEL VELASQUEZ GARCIA, INTERNATIONAL RESCUE COMMITTEE: New more aggressive policies by the Mexican Government.

FLORES (voice over): CNN has reached out to Mexico's Foreign Ministry for comment and did not hear back

FLORES (on camera): So, the days when hundreds of migrants were camped outside Sacred Heart Church are a thing of the past, at least for now. Take a look at the empty ally the around me. But if covering the border has taught me anything, it's that the situation can change very quickly.

FLORES (voice over): Rosa Flores, CNN, El Paso, Texas. (END VIDEO TAPE)

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[19:52:49]

DEAN: A rare glimpse inside North Korea's propaganda machine coming from an unusual source. CNN's Will Ripley has the story.

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WILL RIPLEY, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Using his backyard satellite dish, Peter Fairly was just scanning for sports channels.

PETER FAIRLY, CANADIAN ENGINEER: There we go. We have a signal.

RIPLEY (voice over): But the Canadian engineer from outside Toronto stumbled upon something he never expected.

FAIRLY: And that's when I saw the color bars, and the test card, and the Pyongyang. Right now, that triggered my curiosity like, was this really coming from North Korea?

RIPLEY (voice over): True enough, it was a live satellite feed of North Korean state television, from daily dancersize to cooking programs, to patriotic propaganda.

FAIRLY: It's very kind of 1980s too. It's very MTV, their videos.

RIPLEY (voice over): Broadcasting mass games, military parades, and yes, missile launches to some 26 million people who call Kim Jong-Un's secret state home.

FAIRLY: The video is all of Kim, how great he is and everybody crying and loving him.

RIPLEY (voice over): Peter began recording.

RIPLEY (on camera): Do you feel like these programs do have power to influence people's minds?

FAIRLY: Absolutely. After watching one full day of the North Korean content, for two nights in a row, I just had a lot of very bizarre dreams as if I was there.

RIPLEY (voice over): Posting an edited version on his YouTube channel.

RIPLEY (on camera): Did you think this was going to go viral?

FAIRLY: No, absolutely not.

RIPLEY (voice over): Go viral, he did. Peter's videos racking up almost two million views in less than two months.

FAIRLY: People were basically giving comments that were all over the spectrum from they loved it to they were terrified by it.

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RIPLEY (voice over): Viewers called the content surreal, almost like going back in time. Some of the most popular clips, Kim Jong-un visiting hot springs, opening a dinosaur park.

FAIRLY: Because of Kim, it's become kind of a cult following. Whenever Kim comes out everybody goes crazy. It's like the funny part, that's probably corkiest part.

People kept saying, "Give me more, give me more. I want to see more."

RIPLEY (voice over): Peter's Pirated Pyongyang Propaganda, a window into what the North Korean state wants its people to see and believe.

RIPLEY (on camera): One of the top priorities of the North Korean government is to have a television in every single home. That's because of the power of having this propaganda on 24/7 day in day out.

It really does help keep the Kims in power. Peter says he watched this for just one full day and had dreams about it two nights in a row. He's in Canada. Imagine what it's like if you're living inside North Korea.

Will Ripley, CNN, Taipei.

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DEAN: What a story. Well, thank you so much for joining us. I'm going to see you again tomorrow night, live from Chicago, starting at five Eastern for special coverage of the Democratic National Convention, we will see you then. Have a great night.

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