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Harris and Walz Sit for Exclusive Joint Interview with CNN; Trump V. Harris Online War of Wards and Memes Heats Up; Ukrainian Seeks U.S. Go-Ahead for Strikes Deeper Inside Russia. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired August 30, 2024 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[04:30:00]
PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Himself saying that this has to end, and the Palestinian Authority saying that this is an escalation -- Max.
MAX FOSTER, CNN ANCHOR: OK, Paula Hancocks, live in Abu Dhabi, thank you.
After the break, Kamala Harris goes after Donald Trump and his same old tired playbook in her first major interview since clinching her party's nomination.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FOSTER: U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is giving voters a closer look at her plans for the presidency in a high-stakes interview with CNN's Dana Bash. Appearing alongside her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Harris had her first interview with a major media outlet since becoming the Democratic Party's presidential nominee. She discussed economic policy and the Middle East, and she also addressed her rival, Donald Trump, and his divisive influence.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S. (D) AND U.S. PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I think, sadly, in the last decade, we have had in the former president someone who has really been pushing an agenda and an environment that is about diminishing the character and the strength of who we are as Americans. Really dividing our nation, and I think people are ready to turn the page on that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Well, looking for unity, Harris says she is open to a bipartisan presence in her cabinet.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You had a lot of Republican speakers at the convention. Would you appoint a Republican to your cabinet? HARRIS: Yes, I would.
BASH: Anyone in mind?
HARRIS: No one in particular in mind. I've got 68 days to go with this election, so I'm not putting the cart before the horse. But I would.
I think it's really important. I have spent my career inviting diversity of opinion. I think it's important to have people at the table when some of the most important decisions are being made that have different views, different experiences.
And I think it would be to the benefit of the American public to have a member of my cabinet who was a Republican.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Meanwhile, the U.S. Vice President dismissed Trump's attacks on her ethnicity with a short reply.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[04:35:00]
BASH: He suggested that you happened to turn Black recently for political purposes, questioning a core part of your identity.
HARRIS: Yes. Any same old tired playbook. Next question, please.
BASH: That's it?
HARRIS: That's it.
BASH: OK.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Well, Donald Trump campaigned at a town hall event hosted by former Representative Tulsi Gabbard in Wisconsin, and he took the opportunity to go on the attack. The Democratic vice presidential candidate, Tim Walz, has called him weird. Trump countered by saying Walz is weird.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: You know, see, they come up with soundbites. They always have soundbites. And one of the things is that J.D. and I are weird. OK, that guy is so straight. J.D. is so. He's doing a great job. Smart.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Top student. Great guy. And he's not weird and I'm not weird. I mean, we're a lot of things. We're not weird. I will tell you. But that guy is weird. Don't you think?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FOSTER: Trump also called for the government to fund in vitro fertilization treatments or for insurance companies to pay for it. He presented himself as a defender of IVF treatment against Republican threats to ban or curtail it.
Now, the online war of words and means between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris seems to be getting more vicious and outrageous by the day.
CNN's Tom Foreman has more on that story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TRUMP: She is a radical left lunatic.
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Amid biting words, crackling with contempt, bitter online posts, smacking of racism and video ready for sharing.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE, POLITICAL AD: And you know who's waiting behind you, right?
FOREMAN (voice-over): Former President Donald Trump and his allies are ripping into Vice President Kamala Harris.
SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), U.S. REPUBLICAN VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: She can -- she can go to hell.
FOREMAN (voice-over): The latest Trump himself reposting about how top Democrats should be jailed and a blatantly sexist and vulgar attack on Harris and former Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in particular. Team Trump is acting like Democrats started what is becoming an unbridled online war.
JASON MILLER, TRUMP CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISOR: The attacks that have been levied by Kamala Harris is both the campaign by Harris allies against President Trump. Quite frankly, in the case of many left of center, people have been quite horrific.
HARRIS: We choose freedom.
(Song Freedom Played)
FOREMAN (voice-over): To be sure, despite the upbeat tone around the Harris campaign, she and her supporters have been needling Trump online for weeks. With images of pro-Harris messages projected on a Trump high rise, a post on Trump's own Truth Social about how the Democratic Convention drew larger audiences than the Republicans. Even pairing him with chicken noises when he balked at debate terms.
TRUMP: Trump's, you know, not doing the debate.
(CLUCKING CHICKEN)
That's something they're saying now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE, POLITICAL AD: Donald Trump's back and he's out for control.
TRUMP: I would have every right to go after them.
FOREMAN (voice-over): Throw in the tough commercials. Team Harris is rolling out and some political analysts say it is flipping Trump's script. He was the king of the meme against Joe Biden. Now he's getting almost as good as he gives and clearly not happy about it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why insult her intelligence?
TRUMP: Well, I have to do that. Well, I don't think she's a very bright person.
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENOR REPORTER: I think there is a great deal of frustration in the Trump campaign that they have not managed to quell Harris's momentum. That, I think, is motivating some of this. But on a broader sense, this is who Donald Trump is. This is how he's always practiced politics.
FOREMAN: Make no mistake, people on the Trump side are agitated by what Harris posts because it bothers them about their candidate that she says these things. But his own supporters will often say Donald Trump blurts out things, posts things, shares things that are outrageous, often untrue and flat out offensive. And there could be more of them coming as the race continues to heat up.
Tom Foreman, CNN, Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: In Florida, several large book publishers are filing a federal lawsuit against education officials over book bans. The publishers, along with authors and parents, claim a 2023 state law banning books violates free speech. The plaintiffs include Penguin Random House and HarperCollins Publishers.
They're taking aim at the legislation that requires schools to let parents challenge material with sexual content. The law ignited hundreds of book bans in Florida, including Ernest Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls. A Florida Department of Education spokesperson calls the lawsuit a stunt.
The deadline has passed for the social media platform X to shut down in Brazil, but it's unclear if the site is offline in the South American country. On Wednesday, Brazil's Supreme Court threatened to suspend X if owner Elon Musk didn't appoint a new legal representative in Brazil and settle any outstanding daily fines. The judges gave Musk until Thursday evening to respond.
[04:40:00]
It marks the latest in an ongoing feud between Musk and a Supreme Court judge who ordered the company to block several accounts that he said were spreading disinformation. But X's global affairs account says the order amounted to censorship. The European Union says it doesn't recognize the legitimacy of
Venezuela's president, Nicolas Maduro. After a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Thursday, the EU's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said Maduro doesn't have the democratic legitimacy to be president.
Borrell said Maduro will remain de facto president, but denies the democratic legitimacy based on a result that it cannot be verified.
Venezuela's opposition and foreign observers have disputed the result of the election announced by Venezuela's electoral council, which said Maduro won re-election with just over 50 percent of the vote.
Now, Ukraine is making a new push for conducting strikes deeper inside Russia, and it's about to make the case for them face to face in talks in the U.S. That story's just ahead.
Plus, for the first time, a Western-supplied F-16 fighter jet goes down in Ukraine. And takes the life of its star fighter pilot.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FOSTER: Fighting is now within earshot of the Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk. CNN crews went to the city this week and said the gunfire could be heard from the city center. Ukraine's army chief says the fighting is extremely fierce, with Russians throwing everything they can to advance. He says battles are underway as close as 12 kilometers from Pokrovsk.
But as Russia advances on the ground, it's also taking damage at home from Ukraine's aerial strikes. Kyiv says it struck an oil depot in the Rostov region of Russia on Wednesday. That caused a massive fire, as you can see. Ukraine says it also targeted an oil facility in the Kirov region, east of Moscow, for the first time. Russia says there was no damage or casualties in that strike.
And later today, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will meet with his Ukrainian counterpart at the Pentagon. Salma is here with a preview of that. I mean, this feels like the Ukrainians, at least, see this as a potential turning point. This set of meetings may potentially allow them to do more.
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. And you sort of just outlined Ukraine's strategy by reading those headlines, the hitting of oil depots. That is what Ukraine's military is focused on, hitting Russia on Russian territory, on their most important sites that feed Moscow's war machine.
And what Ukraine's defense minister, who's meeting today with the secretary of defense in D.C., the argument he's going to make is we need to continue this and we need to do it deeper into the heart of Russia, using the long range missiles that NATO and the U.S. have provided.
Now, U.S. officials will say, look, we're worried that this could provoke Putin further. We're worried that this could escalate tensions. We are concerned as to whether or not this is a good gamble. [04:45:02]
And I think what the defense minister will point to is Kursk. He's going to say, look, we're not only just inside Russian territory, we have been fighting in it for weeks. We have claimed Russian land.
And guess what? That big beast of Putin has yet to be so angry as for these threats to materialize. So let's keep pushing Russia. Let's keep pushing on those red lines.
But they absolutely have their work cut out for them in convincing U.S. officials. The Ukrainian defense minister is going to come with a list, a priority list of targets and say these are the places we want to hit. And he is absolutely going to have to persuade U.S. officials that that's the path forward.
FOSTER: So that's the story about Ukraine going into Russia. What about the Russian front line into Ukraine and what's happening around Pokrovsk?
ABDELAZIZ: And that's what's important here is this mixed battlefield picture. Yes, we have Ukrainian troops advancing on Russian territory. But at the same time, you have Russian troops deep in Ukraine.
They look very much on the edge of claiming Pokrovsk. In order for Ukraine to invest in that Kursk offensive, it appears to have had to basically soften its lines in other places, making it ever more vulnerable.
This is a gamble. Make no doubt about it. This is a gamble by President Zelenskyy, who is saying I am going to push into Russian territory, even while vulnerable to this Russian advance in the hopes that that's what's going to weaken the war machine and ultimately give me the victory that I need.
FOSTER: What do you think the Russian strategy is here? Is it let's keep going into Ukraine and deal with Kursk later?
ABDELAZIZ: I think the Russian strategy is fundamentally don't play Zelenskyy's game. Right.
If Zelenskyy is pushing into Kursk, if Zelenskyy is trying to distract Russian troops, if Zelenskyy is trying to pull you away from the Donbas --
FOSTER: Don't do that.
ABDELAZIZ: -- don't do that. Continue, push ahead. Pokrovsk is strategically important. You have to remember that it is essentially a logistical hub for Ukrainian forces in that part. If Moscow is able to take Pokrovsk, beyond that, it's almost open space. They could start barreling on through in the Donbas.
It is important. But Russia is going to continue to insist on pushing through the Donbas and maybe putting Kursk to one side and saying, let's deal with that later. Let's not take the bait, if you will. FOSTER: OK, Salma, thank you so much.
Ukraine is appointing a special commission to investigate its first confirmed loss of an F-16 fighter jet donated by the West. The plane went down during a massive Russian aerial attack on Monday.
A Ukrainian source says pilot error is not believed to be behind the crash. But as Fred Pleitgen reports, the loss of that particular pilot is a major blow for Kyiv.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Ukraine called it the largest Russian aerial barrage to date. Moscow's troops launching hundreds of drones and missiles on Monday. Ukraine using U.S.-made F-16 jets to help repel the attack. Now, Kyiv acknowledging one of the F-16s crashed, killing one of Ukraine's top fighter aces, Oleksiy Mes, known by his call sign Moonfish.
Ukraine's general command saying, quote: During the approach to the next target, communication with one of the aircraft was lost. As it turned out later, the plane crashed. The pilot died.
OLEKSIY MES "MOONFISH": UKRAINIAN AIR FORCE PILOT: This war does not appear to end soon. If West will provide us with some additional jets, with some additional SAMs and we're really looking forward to it. I think we will be able to control our sky for a while.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): Moonfish was one of the first Ukrainian pilots instructed on the F-16, around six months of training that normally take years.
MES: It is really super fun jet to fly. I'm not saying that MiG that I flew before is super boring, but the F-16 is definitely more agile. It easily moves. The moment you think of something, it turns.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): Ukraine's President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, had been asking Western allies for the F-16s since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion, warning that Ukraine's air force was becoming more and more depleted and that its old Soviet-era planes couldn't match up against Russia's newer aircraft.
Finally, last year, several European countries agreed to donate the jets, with the green light from the U.S. as the manufacturing country.
Moonfish and another pilot known by the call sign Juice became the faces of the campaign to get the F-16s to Ukraine's skies.
Juice was killed in a plane crash just over a year ago before ever flying the jets.
On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Ukrainian air force used the F-16 to destroy missiles and drones launched by Russia on Monday, the first time any Ukrainian official confirmed the jets were being used in combat. VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: We destroyed already some missiles and drones using F-16. I will not share how many, but we did it.
[04:50:00]
PLEITGEN (voice-over): One of the few pilots trained to fly the jets, Moonfish death is a major blow for Ukraine as Kyiv throws everything it has trying to turn the tide in this war.
MES: We are comparatively small air force and we know each other by names. And, of course, we know well all our Poland friends.
PLEITGEN (voice-over): Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Przemysl, Poland.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: A female lion rescued from war-torn Ukraine has taken her first steps outside a conservation sanctuary here in England. The lioness, known as Una, lived inside a private home in Ukraine. She suffered from shell shock and concussion after explosions near her home when the war broke out.
Una was evacuated in a journey through Poland, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium and even France to her new home in southern England. The big cat sanctuary, says Una, is showing signs of emotional well-being, including playing and exploring her surroundings.
U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan met with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday. It wraps up his three-day visit in Beijing aimed at bolstering fractured lines of communication between the two countries. Xi says he's committed to a stable, healthy relationship with the U.S., while Sullivan hinted at further talks between President Joe Biden and Xi in the coming weeks. He says Biden wants to ensure that, quote, competition does not veer into conflict.
Still to come, Kamala Harris is speaking out about this photo that went viral. It shows her grandniece watching from the audience at the Democratic National Convention.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
FOSTER: Kamala Harris sat down with CNN for her first interview with a major media outlet since becoming the Democratic nominee for president. She was asked about the viral photo of her grandniece watching the Democratic convention. Here's what she told Dana Bash about that touching moment and her historic nomination.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: The photograph that has gone viral, you were speaking, one of your grandnieces that you were just talking about was watching you accept the nomination. You didn't explicitly talk about gender or race in your speech, but it obviously means a lot to a lot of people, and that viral picture really says it. What does it mean to you? HARRIS: You know, I, listen, I am running because I believe that I am the best person to do this job at this moment for all Americans, regardless of race and gender. But I did see that photograph, and I was deeply touched by it. And you're right, it's the back of her head, her two little braids, and then I'm in the front of the photograph, obviously speaking.
And it's very humbling. It's very humbling in many ways.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Well, Harris was joined by her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz. He also reflected on an emotional moment from the convention.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BASH: Governor, a moment that you shared, that the world shared with your son, Gus, you were speaking, the camera caught him, so incredibly proud of you, so emotional, saying, that's my dad.
GOV. TIM WALZ, D-MI, VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Yes, I don't know as a father I could have ever imagined that. I'm grateful for so many reasons to be on this ticket.
[04:55:00]
But that moment, to understand what was really important, to have my son feel a sense of pride in me, that I was trying to do the right thing. And it was, you know, you try and protect your kids, you know, it brings, it brings notoriety and things, but it was just such a visceral, emotional moment that I'm just, I'm grateful I got to experience it, and I'm so proud of him.
I'm proud of him. I'm proud of Hope. I'm proud of Gwen. She's a wonderful mother, and these are great kids.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: Here's something you don't see every day, an airport departure board being written by hand. That's been the situation at Seattle- Tacoma International Airport, where a cyberattack continues to disrupt operations there. System outages have now gone on for almost a week.
The airport is warning Labor Day passengers to expect blank information screens and to only bring carry-on bags if possible, but flights are continuing as normal.
Boeing's troubled Starliner spacecraft is finally set to return home from the International Space Station, although without its crew. NASA announced the spacecraft will return to Earth on September 6th and land in New Mexico's White Sands Space Harbor if all goes according to plan.
The astronauts who rode aboard Starliner on June 5th will remain on the International Space Station. They will return to Earth in a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule in 2025.
Now, the worst drought on record for Ohio and West Virginia is affecting water levels for at least one major U.S. river. Both states are experiencing a Level 4 exceptional drought designation for the first time in the U.S. drought monitor's history. And now the Ohio River is at a critically low level, which could impact Labor Day weekend boating. There are also downstream concerns for the Mississippi River as well.
Now, sorry fall lovers, but this record-breaking summer isn't going down without a fight. The Climate Prediction Center says above-average temperatures in the U.S. are expected to continue through to November, especially in the northeast and southwest.
The Atlantic hurricane activity is expected to ramp up again soon. The peak of hurricane season is usually a couple of weeks away, but the most active parts of the season will last well into October, we're hearing.
A stunning spectacle was caught on camera in northeastern Mississippi on Thursday. It's a fire whirl, otherwise referred to as a firenado. The state's forestry team captured this video in Monroe County. Officials explained that a firenado is a spinning vortex of flames, heat, and smoke. They said it was sparked by a controlled burn, not a wildfire.
Thanks for joining me here on CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Max Foster in London. CNN "THIS MORNING" is up next after a quick break.
