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7 U.S. Troops Injured In Raid That Killed 15 ISIS Members In Iraq; CIA: American Intelligence Helped Foil Terror Plot At Taylor Swift Show; Mississippi Bus Crash Kills Seven People, Dozens Injured; NHL Star Johnny Gaudreau, Brother Killed On Bike Ride; Trump Backs FL 6-Week Abortion Ban After Suggesting The Opposite; Threat Of Mosquito- Borne Illnesses On The Rise; Dems Sue To Block GOP-Backed GA Election Certification Rules; First Full Saturday Of College Football Underway; Novak Djokovic Stunned In 3rd Round At U.S. Open. Aired 1-2p ET

Aired August 31, 2024 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00]

CAMILA BERNAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Authorities say he had a rifle and he tried to kill himself, but that rifle misfired so they had a lengthy negotiation with him trying to get him out of the house. They actually used cameras that the city uses for the sewer, and that's the camera that they used to put inside of this bunker to make sure that it was safe for authorities to go in there. You see some of that video and how dramatic it was. He is expected in court on Tuesday, Alex.

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN ANCHOR: A really troubling story.

Camila Bernal in Los Angeles, thanks very much.

BERNAL: Thank you.

MARQUARDT: Hello, thanks for joining me. I'm Alex Marquardt in this weekend for Fredricka Whitfield.

We begin with breaking news. President Biden has been briefed on the raid which injured seven U.S. troops and killed 15 members of the radical group ISIS. The raid happened Thursday in Iraq. Two of the seven U.S. troops were evacuated from the area for further treatment. U.S. Central Command, which manages operations in the Middle East, they said that the operation targeted ISIS leaders in order to disrupt the group's ability to plan for their attacks.

For more, we have CNN's Chief International Security Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh joining us from London. Nick, what do we know about this American operation?

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Alex, more details from the Iraqi military. He referred to the two months that were spent gathering intelligence ahead of this operation and the four hideouts that were targeted that appear to be considered camouflage of some description, which would suggest a sort of camp of some description. This is Anbar province, desert, very sparsely populated the most of times. So we're sort of looking, I think, possibly at some kind of remote hideout here that was hit at 4:00 in the morning local time on Thursday. And those airstrikes followed up by an air raid, essentially soldiers being dropped in there, which left 14 ISIS dead, according to the Iraqis, one less than the 15 spoken off by the Americans, who they also say were heavily equipped with explosive belts, hand grenades, you know, some stills just released, in fact, by the Iraqi military showing the weapons they collected indeed at the site.

But then at 4:00 this morning, local time Saturday, that area was indeed surveyed by the Iraqis who got to the site itself, able to survey the damage and arrested two other individuals on the site there. The American injured you spoke to, this is clearly a sign of an operation that did not go according to plan.

Five injured it seems in the clashes and then two more by a fall. Two of those seven injured requiring further treatment out of theatre, so suggesting more severe injuries. But, Alex, I should point out, you know, this is part of a pattern of raids against ISIS happening in Iraq and Syria over the past years that have often gone unnoticed so much that by the administration's messaging now is that terrorism is no longer really a problem in daily life.

And indeed, outside of some rare singular examples, it isn't the same sort of sense of heightened threat that we saw over 10 years ago. And indeed, in Europe, too, instances pop up, and these appear to be singular actors at times more horrifically in Europe, teenagers.

But it's in places like Iraq and Syria, where there do appear to be legacy groups rebuilding in number. 2,500, according to recent U.S. official statements. And indeed, they've been warning how there appears to be some sort of regrouping devices, purely down to the fact that they appear to be seeing nearly twice as many missions in the first part of this year against ISIS.

And they saw in the same period in the previous year, 96 in the early months of this year, resulting in 44 ISIS operatives being killed and 166 detained. That's in the first six months of this year. So stark numbers here showing the persistent threat.

Now, actually, you've got to ask yourself, why is this still happening? Wasn't this all taken care of? In the defeat of ISIS in 2019, well, look, we are -- we're dealing with a group whose existence wasn't purely based on the sort of warped notions of Islamism.

They often sprung out of parts of the Syrian civil war, the Iraqi resistance against the American military presence in Iraq, and melded into this horrific caliphate that we saw for a number of years. But there's not been the political solution to both of those particular causes now, and clearly the extremist elements have stuck around in the desert and begun to reformulate now into this threat, which today has in its confrontation resulted in seven Americans being injured, Alex.

MARQUARDT: All right, Nick Paton Walsh, I really appreciate all those details. Thank you.

Let's get more analysis on this. With me here is Peter Bergen, a CNN National Security Analyst and host of the podcast, "In the Room with Peter Bergen." Peter, thanks so much for being with us.

Nick was talking about a lot of these operations going unnoticed. And I do agree with him that the presence of American troops in large numbers in both Iraq and Syria is not very well known to the broader American public. How active are these anti-ISIS operations in those two countries?

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, yes, there are 2,500 American soldiers in Iraq and 900 in Syria, and they're, you know, they're there to combat ISIS, but to some degree also they're there because, you know, tensions with Iran are growing and Iran is around the corner.

[13:05:10]

You know, how -- I mean, it's interesting because they're there on an advise and assist. Now, typically that means that you're not necessarily on the front lines. Clearly in this operation, seven people were injured, two, it seems pretty seriously. That implies that you are close to the front lines.

So, you know, I think most Americans when they hear this news will be, I think, you know, a little surprised that Americans are still fighting in Iraq. You know, in -- it wasn't that long ago that the Iraqi Prime Minister was here in Washington, Alex, as you recall, discussing with President Biden about a possible withdrawal of American troops.

That had sort of been on hold now for a bit. And I actually think the Biden administration should leave it to either the Trump administration or the Harris administration to deal with this question, because it's sort of a lame duck at this point where you don't want to be in the situation where you've negotiated withdrawal, and then you're no longer responsible for what ensues.

And the last time Biden negotiated a withdrawal with the Iraqis was in 2011 with then, you know, with Tony Blinken as well. Well, you know, three years later, ISIS was at the gates of Baghdad, and the Obama administration had to, you know, send troops back in. So, you don't want to sort of saddle the next administration with potentially a withdrawal agreement that they, you know, it should be their decision, right?

MARQUARDT: Right. I think the last ISIS leader that most people remember was Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was killed in an American raid during the Trump administration.

BERGEN: Yes.

MARQUARDT: To Nick's point about the resurgence of of ISIS, how worrying is that? BERGEN: I mean, it's worrying the following ways. I mean, in Germany, you recall this -- earlier this month, you had a Syrian stabbed to death, three Germans. Obviously, that's not a -- again, that's a catastrophic terrorist attack. We also had the, you know, the attempt to, you know, kill many people at a Taylor Swift concert in Austria. I don't think those people were members of ISIS. They were just inspired by ISIS.

But, look, if ISIS takes over more territory in Iraq and Syria, they will recruit more people. They will start recruiting foreigners and they will start inspiring people in the West to carry out attacks, even if they haven't been trained in Iraq and Syria. And that's what we saw last time.

I don't think they can replicate what they did in 2014 when they controlled territory the size of Bulgaria and, you know, 8 million people at least. I mean, that would be -- it'd be unlikely that they could ever replicate that again. However, they can -- you know, this clearly is, as Nick said, I mean, there's disaffected people, they also probably get some money. And, you know, they haven't gone away.

MARQUARDT: Earlier this week, we heard the CIA taking some credit for helping stop that terror attack at the Taylor Swift concerts --

BERGEN: Yes.

MARQUARDT: -- in Austria. The U.S. shared intelligence with the Austrians, how much of a priority is this for the U.S. intelligence community and the Europeans as well?

BERGEN: I think, I mean, I think it's a big priority. And, I mean, the fact that, you know, there's the duty to warn that the CIA has, and they obviously felt they had to tell the Austrians that this was a relatively advanced plan. And, look, the guy may have not been that sophisticated who sort of alleged to, you know, want to carry out this attack. He's a 19-year-old.

But, you know, there are 30 -- as I understand it, outside a Taylor Swift concert, there are tens of thousands of fans who aren't in the arena.

MARQUARDT: Right.

BERGEN: And that guy, you know, he had a car, he had some sort of explosive precursors, he had other weapons, and according to the Deputy Director of the CIA, his intent was to kill thousands of people. Now, could he have carried that out if the plot hadn't been interrupted? I mean, I doubt it.

But an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester --

MARQUARDT: Manchester (ph).

BERGEN: -- yes, I mean, 22 people were killed by an ISIS kind of recruit. So, concerts, I mean, we saw in Moscow, 145 people were killed by ISIS, real ISIS -- MARQUARDT: Right.

BERGEN: -- folks in earlier this year. So, you know, it's not -- it's interesting because they -- it seemed like they were utterly defeated and they were but it has -- but now it seems like they're percolating. It's not a resurgence, it's kind of a mini resurgence, I think.

MARQUARDT: Yes, I mean, and to your point, you have ISIS operatives, and then you have the copycats --

BERGEN: Yes.

MARQUARDT: -- the lone wolves, and they can be extremely effective and dangerous as well.

BERGEN: Yes.

MARQUARDT: Peter Bergen, thank you very much.

BERGEN: Alex, thank you.

MARQUARDT: Breaking news from Mississippi this morning, seven people were killed and dozens injured in a bus crash near Jackson, Mississippi. Thirty-seven passengers were transported to nearby hospitals, and the crash is now under investigation.

Let's get straight to CNN Correspondent Rafael Romo with updates. Rafael, what do we know?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alex, we have an update for you and the number of injured passengers. Now we know that 37 of them have been taken to hospitals in both Vicksburg and Jackson with unknown injuries, this is according to the Mississippi Highway Patrol.

CNN affiliate WAPT citing Warren County Sheriff Martin Pace is reporting that it was around 12:30 a.m. local time when the bus traveling westbound on Interstate 20 went off the side of the road.

[13:10:11]

The sheriff also told WAPT, the bus turned over on its side, leading to passengers being trapped. Six passengers were pronounced dead at the scene of the crash that happened near Bovina, over 30 miles west of Jackson. A seventh passenger died in the hospital, according to Highway Patrol.

We have also learned that some of those who died were children, according to the Warren County Coroner. Siblings age six and 16 are among the victims. The driver of the tow truck that helped recover the vehicle and some of the victim's bodies said that it was hard to get to the site of the crash.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEITH ALLISON, TOW TRUCK DRIVER: The traffic was hard to get to it for one because the roads were blocked. But once we got there, it's about 1:00 this morning when we got the call and we had to get the bus stood up to get it -- where the bodies had come through the windows. So there's pretty much a lot of waiting game to recover -- for them to recover everybody and then get the bus out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: Tow truck driver Keith Allison also told WAPT it took a long time for authorities to recover some of the victims because the bus ended up in a ditch and many passengers were rejected.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALLISON: I don't even think about time, but probably a couple of hours by the time they recovered the bodies and some of them were pretty hard to drag up the hill. So we helped with that and get them to the corner. Other than that, it was just a long process of getting the bus, keep it from flipping to get it all the way up. It was down in the ditch.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: Mississippi Highway Patrol told CNN it is investigating the cause of the crash. A highway patrol spokesperson told us that there were several Mexican identification documents that were recovered, but we don't know if they were passports or any other type of identification.

We've also confirmed that the bus belonged to a company called Autobuses Regiomontanos, based in the Mexican city of Monterrey. An employee told me the bus company transports passengers between Mexico and the United States, but specified that all of the passengers go through proper immigration checkpoints and must show their passports or visas to enter either Mexico or the U.S. Alex?

MARQUARDT: Still lots of questions to be answered in this investigation.

Rafael Romo, thanks for that report.

Still ahead, new warnings of mosquito borne illnesses as officials in Massachusetts are now confirming multiple cases of a rare and deadly disease. In the sports world is mourning the loss of NHL star Johnny Gaudreau and his brother. How fans are remembering his life and legacy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:17:24]

MARQUARDT: An unimaginable tragedy. The sports world is in mourning this weekend after NHL star Johnny Gaudreau, also known as Johnny Hockey to his fans, and Gaudreau's brother, Matthew, were both killed by a suspected drunk driver on a bike ride in New Jersey.

Teams across the sports world have been honoring the brothers. They did so on Friday following their tragic death that took place late on Thursday. A spokesman for the Columbus Blue Jackets, where Gaudreau played announced that Matthew's wife is pregnant and a GoFundMe was set up to help his widow Madeline and their unborn son, Tripp. The fundraiser has already raised more than $300,000.

CNN National Correspondent Gloria Pazmino is joining me now more -- with more from New York. Gloria, how are fans remembering the brothers this weekend?

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alex, fans have laid flowers and jerseys and hockey sticks at Nationwide Arena. That is the home of the Columbus Blue Jackets, where Johnny Gaudreau played. And they have talked about how much he meant to them as a community.

We are also hearing from the widow of the player Johnny, Meredith, who posted on Instagram today, sharing photos of the family of them as a couple, talking about everything that Johnny meant to them. She said that Johnny was the best dad in the world. She shared details about their relationship, their love for one another, and said that the years she had spent with Johnny were some of the best years of her life.

Now, Johnny Gaudreau and his brother, as you said his brother Matthew, were killed on Thursday by an alleged drunk driver. Adding to the tragedy of this whole thing, Alex, is that the two brothers had been scheduled to participate as groomsmen in their sister's wedding, which was supposed to take place the following morning.

We are now hearing from the uncle of Johnny, Jim Gaudreau, who issued a statement saying that they had lost two husbands, two sons, two fathers, two brothers, two cousins, two family members and two teammates, two friends, but truly a two amazing humans. He said that they want to let everyone know that they are receiving their messages of love and support. And we appreciate your continued thoughts and prayers.

Now, as you said, Alex Gaudreau had earned the nickname Johnny Hockey, not just because of the way he acted on the ice, but really how he carried himself when he wasn't playing a game.

[13:20:02]

The way that he connected with the community, the people of Columbus, Ohio, who said that they felt like he was just like that. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He loved Columbus, spoke highly of Columbus. He wanted to raise his family. He talked about that all the time. And so, as a community, I felt it was important for him to -- for us to back him up and show him support in his family support.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And Johnny was so important to Columbus and so important to the hockey community. Just wanted to take a walk down here and pay our respects.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAZMINO: He was an incredible talent on the ice and off the ice. He was a seventh time NHL All Star. He scored more than 200 goals, over 500 assists, and he participated in more than -- in 763 games.

Now, Alex, the man who is accused of killing Johnny and his brother is 43-year-old Sean Higgins. He has been charged with two counts of vehicular manslaughter and he is scheduled to appear back in court next week. Higgins admitted to having been drinking the night of the accident and we expect that he will appear in court next week. Alex?

MARQUARDT: Yes, it's just tragedy upon tragedy.

Gloria Pazmino, thanks very much for that reporting.

Former President Donald Trump flip flopping on whether he supports abortion access in Florida, where he's a resident. The Harris campaign is capitalizing on what Trump is calling a mistake.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:25:45]

MARQUARDT: Reproductive rights are taking center stage in the race for the White House. Vice President Kamala Harris is now slamming former President Donald Trump for saying he will vote no an amendment to Florida's abortion law. Now, the amendment is on the ballot this November, and if enough Florida voters vote no, that would pave the way for a six-week abortion ban to stay in effect.

The former president appeared to flip flop on this divisive issue in the past few days. Earlier this week, he seemed to indicate that he would vote to overturn Florida's controversial ban when he cast his ballot as a Florida resident in November.

But, yesterday, he reversed course again after conservative Republicans blasted him for waffling on his anti-abortion stance. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think six weeks, you need more time than six weeks. I've disagreed with that right from the early primaries. When I heard about it, I just disagreed with it. At the same time, the Democrats are radical because the nine months is just a ridiculous situation that where you can do an abortion in the ninth month.

And, you know, some of the states like Minnesota and other states have it where you could actually execute the baby after birth and all of that stuff is unacceptable. So I'll be voting no for that reason.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: And we have to point out that Trump is wrong about that. Nowhere in this country can you execute a baby after birth. Killing a baby after it's born is illegal in every state.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is joining us now. So Priscilla, how is the Trump campaign responding to this inconsistency -- sorry, how is the Harris campaign responding to Trump's inconsistency over the past few days?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're using it to build their own argument and trying to seize on this issue, to galvanize voters, to build on that momentum. So, the Vice President herself putting out a statement yesterday, which said the following, quote, "Donald Trump just made his position on abortion very clear. He will vote to uphold an abortion ban so extreme it applies for any women, even though they are pregnant. And understand, he is not done.

As part of Donald Trump's Project 2025 agenda, he and his allies would limit access to birth control, threaten access to fertility treatments, and ban abortion nationwide, with or without Congress." She goes on to say, "The choice in this election is clear."

Now, the Vice President has been the leading voice for the campaign, even before it was the Harris campaign on this very issue. She kicked off her own reproductive rights tour at the beginning of the year. It was actually during that time that she coined the term Trump abortion ban.

And that is what we're going to hear a lot more of especially next week. That is when the Harris campaign will be launching their own reproductive rights tour. This is going to be mostly surrogates. It kicks off on Tuesday in Florida. So they're clearly putting a big focus on that state as -- especially in light of what former president Donald Trump said.

It'll include at least 50 stops. So that tells you a lot about how much they see this issue really resonating with voters. It's going to include elected officials, celebrities. There's a lot of details that will be trickling out about what exactly this will look like and where they're going.

But clearly, the campaign sees this as a top issue for voters and one where they can really make inroads on, especially among female voters, which is something that both the Harris campaign and Trump campaign are really going to be trying to seize upon.

MARQUARDT: And it'll be really interesting to watch Florida in particular because they have this on the ballot in November. We are less than two weeks away, Priscilla, from this debate, and we've spent the entire week, you and me and others, talking about the debate, about the debate. The rules -- and that appears to still be ongoing. That doesn't seem to be settled.

ALVAREZ: Yes, I'm told that the remaining issue in dispute is the microphones. And we have to rewind a little bit here because these debates were agreed upon when President Joe Biden was the candidate. And at the time, the Biden campaign pushed for the microphones to be turned off when the other candidate was speaking. CNN had those rules for their presidential debate and ABC's rules so far are emulating those rules, which means that the microphones will be turned off as each candidate is speaking. Now, the Harris campaign wants it different. They want the microphones on and they have been needling former president Donald Trump on this because he himself this week said that he didn't really care.

But behind the scenes, the Trump campaign does care, and that's where the disputing is happening as these discussions are ongoing with ABC. Now this morning, the Vice President going on to say on Twitter, quote, "If his own team doesn't have confidence in him, the American people definitely can't." This again, over the issue of microphones.

[13:30:05]

Now, Alex, of course, one of the biggest moments for the vice president in 2020, in her vice-presidential debate with Mike Pence, was when she stopped him and said, "I'm speaking."

So it is those moments that they want to see happen again with the former president. Whether or not that's the case is still unclear. Because, as of today, as of right now, there's no agreement on these rules just yet.

MARQUARDT: It can appear to be a small issue in these rules, but it really would change the dynamic of the conversation, whether you hear one person or two people at a time talking over each other, which creates a bit more chaos.

Priscilla Alvarez, thank you very much. Appreciate it.

A rare and dangerous mosquito-borne illness is spreading, putting states on high alert as health officials work to contain this serious and potentially deadly disease. What you need to know about EEE. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:35:18]

MARQUARDT: There is an escalating threat of mosquito-borne illnesses across the United States.

A 41-year-old from New Hampshire, who was described by his family as healthy with no underlying medical conditions, died earlier this month of Eastern Equine Encephalitis, or EEE, according to state health officials.

And state officials in Massachusetts confirmed at least two human cases of EEE. The state is spraying to kill the mosquitoes who are carrying the illness.

And although EEE is rare, it is a very serious disease. And about 30 percent of people infected by it end up dying.

Joining me now is Dr. Amesh Adalja, who is a senior scholar at Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security.

Doctor, thanks so much for being with me.

When people hear that figure, 30 percent of the people infected with EEE dying, that that is certainly enough to make people panic. How concerned do you think the general public needs to be?

DR. AMESH ADALJA, SENIOR SCHOLAR, JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY CENTER FOR HEALTH SECURITY: It all depends upon where they live. So if you live in an area where there has been cases of Eastern Equine Encephalitis in humans and horses, or mosquito pools have tested positive, you need to be aware of that and you need to take precautions.

Because this is not an infection you want to get because of that 30 percent number. And those who do survive often have disabilities.

So I think if you live in Massachusetts, if you live in New England, some of the gulf states -- also where you see this infection -- or other states like New Jersey or Wisconsin have had cases, you need to be aware of that.

But I think for the general public that the risk is low.

MARQUARDT: And you mentioned precautions. What is -- what is the best way to prevent these mosquito bites from these insects that are carrying the illness?

ADALJA: Well, it's kind the old-fashioned things, mosquito repellants, wearing clothing that covers up your exposed body parts, staying out of the areas of your community where there's known to be a lot of mosquitoes.

And then one thing that everybody can do is to clean up their yards, clean up their community to remove standing water, because that's where mosquitoes lay eggs.

Remember, mosquitoes are the most-deadly animal on the planet. And we have to kind of make our communities inhospitable to them to decrease the rates of EEE and other mosquito-borne illnesses.

MARQUARDT: In terms of response by various communities, we know that some towns are closing parks at dusk. They're rescheduling school sports to be played earlier in the day to avoid those peak mosquito hours. That's getting some pushback. What would you tell the families in those communities?

ADALJA: This is not an infection that you want to toy with. This isn't something like Covid. This isn't something like influenza. This is a pretty serious illness with a mortality rate of 30 percent if someone becomes ill with this.

So public health authorities are trying to give people the best guidance to minimize that risk. We often see about a handful or a dozen or so cases, and many of those are going to be severe. The deaths are not surprising. And if you can do something, just by rescheduling a game to be a

different time and you remove that risk, why not do it? I think it really is important for public health authorities to give people tools to be able to minimize that risk.

So I don't think there should be push back. This is a serious infection and they're giving people valuable information.

MARQUARDT: Yes, it seems like relatively easy things for communities to do.

But EEE, of course, Doctor, not the only threat when it comes to mosquitoes and not the only threat right now.

West Nike Virus is also on the rise. Dr. Anthony Fauci, he's recovering from West Nike Virus that he got earlier this month.

So let's talk about the symptoms here. Common EEE symptoms include headaches, high fever, chills, vomiting, those are common for a lot of illnesses. So at what point do you think a doctor needs to be consulted?

ADALJA: Well, I think anybody that's had a mosquito bite and high fevers, chills, headaches, they need to seek medical attention because it could be West Nike, it could be EEE, it even could be Covid-19.

So I think you have to have a very low threshold when you're developing high fevers with headaches, with this illness, with any type of illness.

And I think it makes it hard because of that overlap you talk about, Covid-19 influenza or RSV. All of them are going to have some of those similar symptoms overlapping.

But they're unremitting fever, the headaches, neck stiffness, the light bothering your eyes, those are things that we worry about with brain infections, which can occur with West Nike and EEE.

MARQUARDT: Very, very concerning.

I appreciate your thoughts and your advice. Dr. Amesh Adalja, thank you for joining us today.

ADALJA: Thanks.

MARQUARDT: Democrats are suing to block new election rules in the battleground state of Georgia. Why they say the rules could lead to post-election chaos.

[13:39:42]

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MARQUARDT: In the race for the White House, Georgia is in the spotlight as we get closer to Election Day. It's a state that flipped blue in 2020 for the first time since 1992.

And now both the Trump and the Harris campaigns see an opportunity to appeal to voters in Georgia. Georgia ranking third overall in presidential ad buys at nearly $175 million in campaign spending.

But the state is also seeing its fair share of controversy. Democrats are now suing to block new election rules put in place by the state's new conservative-leaning Election Board.

Even Republican officials are saying that the new rules could sow chaos on Election Night.

CNN's Brian Todd has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Georgia's Secretary of State exasperated over the latest election controversy there.

BRAD RAFFENSPERGER, GEORGIA SECRETARY OF STATE: The State Election Board is a mess.

TODD: Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, is frustrated with members of his own party who are on the Georgia State Election Board.

[13:45:01]

Three unelected Republicans on that board recently approved measures that would give local officials the power to delay the certification of a county's election results this November.

(SHOUTING)

TODD: Now, top Democrats, with the backing of Kamala Harris's presidential campaign, are suing the Georgia State Election Board trying to block those new rules.

REP. LUCY MCBATH (D-GA): With passing this new rule, they are creating barriers to counting votes and certifying the elections so Donald Trump can once again attempt to throw our country into chaos.

TODD: Former President Trump recently praised those three board members, Janelle King, Rick Jeffares and Dr. Janice Johnston.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Three people are all pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory. They're fighting.

TODD: In an interview with CNN, one of those board members, Janelle King, denied working on behalf of Trump.

JANELLE KING, (R), GEORGIA ELECTION BOARD MEMBER: I'm appreciative of the President's support. I will forever be appreciative of any, you know, support. But I'm not working on behalf of anybody.

TODD: But Democrats and watchdog groups argue that those Republican Election Board members don't have the power to give county officials the power to contest votes.

JAY YOUNG, SENIOR DIRECTOR, VOTING AND DEMOCRACY, COMMON CAUSE: There is not any discretion that is allowed for under Georgia's election law that would permit these unelected officials to inject themselves in between the voters and the certified results.

TODD: Who does have that power?

MICHAEL MOORE, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY, MIDDLE DISTRICT OF GEORGIA: The power is invested in someone who's aggrieved in the election, so, for instance, a candidate. A candidate can say, you know, I think that I have the -- that the votes were not counted properly.

TODD: This is just the latest election controversy to flare up in Georgia since the 2020 campaign. Donald Trump lost the state that year by just over 10,000 votes. And Georgia was at the center of Trump's attempts to overturn the election.

TRUMP (voice-over): All I want to do is this. I just want to find 11,780 votes, which is one more than we have.

TODD: No evidence was ever found to support Trump's claims of voter fraud in Georgia.

(on camera): Now, Georgia Democrats and voting rights advocates are calling on the state's Republican Governor Brian Kemp to investigate take those Republicans on the state Election Board.

And one Democratic State Senator has filed an ethics complaint against those Republicans for pushing to change the rules so close to the election.

Governor Kemp has issued a statement saying he's taking the matter up with the state's attorney general.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MARQUARDT: Thanks to Brian Todd for that report.

And for more on this, let's turn to legal counsel for the Campaign Legal Center, Jonathan Diaz.

Jonathan, thanks so much for joining us on this story.

One of these board members, Republican Janelle King, we saw her in that Brian Todd piece, she was on CNN and earlier today on "FIRST OF ALL," with Victor Blackwell this morning.

She was arguing that the moves being made by the board are nothing new, they're just cleaning up the process.

Let's listen to that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KING: We're not changing anything that has not already been done. We're not creating new laws. So it's already -- it's already on the books. We're just lining everything up.

So asking you to ensure that the number of ballots matches the number of voters, which you should be doing anyway. I'm asking you to ensure that precincts are counting these ballots, which you should be doing anyway.

So we're just cleaning it up, making sure it's uniform.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: How do you see it, Jonathan? You know, there she's making the argument that they're just cleaning it up.

JONATHAN DIAZ, LEGAL COUNSEL, CAMPAIGN LEGAL CENTER: I mean, I think what they're really doing is creating opportunities for the county Boards of Election in Georgia to introduce delays and disruption into what should be a pretty routine and mandatory process of certifying the election results when they're done.

It's not the job of the county Board of Elections in their certification vote to do the things that she described in that clip. That's why we have recounts to make sure that all the ballots are tabulated correctly. Audits to make sure the machines are working properly.

And election contests where a candidate, who thinks the rules weren't followed, can file a judicial action and we can have, you know, evidence and a court presiding over disputes over election rules.

That's not the role of the certifying official. The certifying official's job is to add up the numbers and publish the official count so that all of those other post-election processes can take place.

MARQUARDT: We're also hearing from the Georgia governor, Brian Kemp, a Republican, who's asking the state's attorney general for an advisory opinion on what authority he has as governor to address ethics complaints against the state board.

Do you think that there's some action that Kemp could potentially take here?

DIAZ: It's certainly possible. And I think the fact that Governor Kemp, who is a conservative Republican, has asked his attorney general for an opinion on the scope of his authority to remove these potentially illegally acting members of the state Election Board, shows you just how extreme these last-minute moves by the board are.

And why Secretary of State Raffensperger called them 11th-hour chaos that are going to undermine voter confidence and disrupt election administration.

[13:50:00]

MARQUARDT: Yes, we could see how upset Raffensberger was there.

One decision that the board made was to allow for what's being called a "reasonable inquiry" before certifying an election, if county Election Boards have questions about the results.

Now, critics are saying that that could cause delays and lead to attempts to subvert the outcome. Do you agree?

DIAZ: I think that's entirely possible. Like I said, that's not the role that the county boards are playing at that time. There are other processes that Georgia, like every state, has in place to verify that the election was conducted correctly.

But those processes have to happen on the right timeline. And if county boards are conducting their own reasonable inquiry -- whatever that means, because the regulations don't define it -- that could introduce a lot of delays and a lot of chaos.

And like Ms. King said, the board doesn't have the authority to change Georgia law. And Georgia law is very clear. They have a mandatory deadline set in state statute by which they have to certify those results.

MARQUARDT: And there's one more thing that the board is planning to take up. They've got another rule in just a few weeks, September 20th. It's going to require all counties to conduct hand counts of ballots at the precinct level on Election Night.

Is it common for states to switch up their election rules so close to Election Day?

DIAZ: Absolutely, not. And really, they shouldn't.

And I think it's hard to remember sometimes that the election doesn't start in November. In many ways, we're already in the general election. Early in-person voting starts in September in many of these states. Mail ballots will start being sent out in September, in the next couple of weeks.

Georgia sends its mail ballots out to military and overseas voters in just over two weeks, before that state Elections Board meeting even takes place.

And county boards have to train their staff. They have to print ballots. They have a lot of work to do in the leadup to the election.

And changing the rules at this stage doesn't benefit election administrators. And it certainly doesn't benefit voters.

MARQUARDT: And Georgia is such a critical battleground state that I know all of us will be watching this very, very carefully.

Jonathan Diaz, thanks very much. Appreciate it.

It is time to lace up the cleats and play ball on the grid iron. College football is now fully back with several big games happening today. We'll tell you what games to keep on your radar.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:56:40]

MARQUARDT: Fresh off his gold medal performance with Team USA at the 2024 Paris Olympics, Steph Curry this week signed a massive one-year extension with the Golden State Warriors worth over $62 million.

This new deal locks in around $178 million for Curry over the next three seasons. And when his current contract is up, he will have earned $532 million from NBA deals, putting him second on the all-time list behind LeBron James at $580 million.

The college football season is also fully underway now. Fans are looking forward to dozens of exciting matchups this weekend with many games scheduled today.

And CNN's sports anchor, Patrick Snell, is joining us.

So, Patrick, what are you following?

PATRICK SNELL, CNN WORLD SPORTS ANCHOR: Hi, there, Alex. Yes, so much going on right here in Atlanta this weekend. We've got the $25 million FedEx Cup Gulf finale as well.

But when it comes to college football, so much excitement here in the state this weekend. And I could just say, even on my way into work today, Alex, right here into the heart of the ATL, tons of Georgia and Clemson fans filing in to see their showdown at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, which is underway right now.

The top-ranked Bulldogs are led by Heisman Trophy candidate, Carson Beck, into a match-up with the 14th-ranked Tigers. These two teams have combined for four of the last eight national championships.

So there's a lot on the line in this one, right? And I can tell you the Bulldogs leading 12 to nothing as we speak.

Elsewhere, 8th-ranked Penn State is on the road at West Virginia, leading 20 to six. Later on today, 19th-ranked Miami traveling up north to face their in-state rivals, Florida. And 7th-ranked Notre Dame visiting 20th-ranked Texas A&M.

And, Alex, remember, it's the first year of the 12-team playoff as well, with the title game right here -- guess where -- where else would he be? Right here in Atlanta on January the 20th.

MARQUARDT: That is a busy Saturday.

Patrick, let's head up north to New York. At the U.S. Open, a shocking defeat for Novak Djokovic. What happened there?

SNELL: Well, Carlos Alcaraz out of the tournament. And then a day on, it would be the Serbian superstar, stunning loss for Djokovic.

He now won't win his record and stand alone and 25th grand-slam single crown. Not this year, at least.

On Friday night, Novak taking on Alexei Popyrin. And just a terrific start from the young Australian player, who took immediate control of his third-round match, winning the first two sets by six games to four.

Djokovic did hit back to win the third. But full credit to the Ozzy who dug deep to win the fourth and close out the match. Djokovic trying to get the fans going there, but it wouldn't work in the end. A season without a slam crown for the first time since 2017.

And, Alex, get this. This now the first time since 2002, Novak Djokovic tied to the retired Swiss great, Roger Federer. Well, none of their names associated with the grand slam single victory in the calendar this year. That in itself a special piece of history.

Here's a frustrated Djokovic afterwards.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NOVAK DJOKOVIC, 24-TIME MAJOR WINNER: And I've played some of the worst tennis I've ever played honestly, serving my father worst ever.

So, yes, if you play on a quick surface like this without, you know, we'd all deserve without ability to win three points there, very low for a percentage, many double faults then you can't win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNELL: Wow, he is not holding back at all.

And in the WNBA, another showdown last night between Indiana's Caitlin Clark and Chicago's Angel Reese.