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Trump Tests New Lines Of Attack On Harris At Georgia Rally; Harris Plans To Use ABC News Debate Time Even If Trump Doesn't Attend; Harris' Husband Doug Emhoff Acknowledges Affair During First Marriage After Tabloid Report; Senate Sherrod Brown Navigates Reelection In GOP-Leaning Ohio; States Of Emergency Declared In Florida, Georgia Counties; Protests Across Israel Call For Hostage Deal; Harris To Accept Nomination After Delegate Voting Ends Tomorrow. Harris to Accept Democratic Nomination; NTSB Investigating Alaska Airlines Flight; Team USA Proves Their "Medal"; Ledecky's Legend Grows; Tropical Storm Debby Intensifying. Aired 7-8a ET

Aired August 04, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STUART OWEN RANKIN, GRANDSON OF JESSE OWENS: Finally, he wanted to perform well for him and the United States of America. When he returned from the games, it didn't impact his life as we would imagine it would nowadays, because he was returning to 1936 United States of America, which, candidly, was not a very good place for black Americans.

So, my grandfather's accomplishments, I don't think were fully recognized and appreciated until later in his life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN HOST: Top of the hour here on CNN This Morning. And good morning to all of you viewers in Miami. You can see a live view right there. One of the cities we're keeping a close eye on today, of course, this Tropical Storm Debby approaches. Allison's got much more on that coming up.

And welcome back. I'm Danny Freeman in for Victor Blackwell alongside the wonderful Amara Walker.

AMARA WALKER, CNN HOST: Glad you came back.

FREEMAN: Thank you for being here. Thank you.

WALKER: Thanks for being here.

FREEMAN: Here's what's happening this morning. Donald Trump and J.D. Vance were in Georgia yesterday to rally supporters, with the former president telling the crowd he's still trying to figure out how to, quote, "define" Vice President Harris. He also had a few choice words for Georgia's Republican governor.

WALKER: Vice President Harris will meet with at least three more VP contenders today as she narrows down her search for a running mate. Plus, will there be or won't there be another presidential debate? What both campaigns are saying.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And we could be measuring rain in feet from Tropical Storm Debby. It's expected to intensify into a hurricane. We'll take a look at the timeline coming up.

AMANDA DAVIES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Amanda Davies live in Paris.

Saint Lucia's Julien Alfred caused an upset in the women's hundred meters last night. Can Noah Lyles get things back on track for Team USA later on Sunday? Promises to be a fantastic day nine here at the Olympic Games.

FREEMAN: We start this morning with former President Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance packing an Atlanta arena Saturday with supporters. Former President Trump renewed his personal attacks on Vice President Harris at the rally, mocking the pronunciation of her first name, insulting her intelligence and calling her a phony.

And it wasn't just Harris who Trump ridiculed. The former president also went after Georgia Governor Brian Kemp.

WALKER: In the meantime, Harris spent her Saturday meeting with her vetting team to go over potential candidates for vice president. And today she will meet with the finalists in her search for a running mate, with sources telling CNN a renewed focus has been placed on Minnesota Governor Tim Walz.

She will conduct face to face interviews with the final contenders and will likely not announce her final decision before her Tuesday night rally with her running mate in Philadelphia.

FREEMAN: CNN's Alayna Treene is joining us right now. You attended the Trump rally. So lovely to have you here. Tell us -- let's start here, what was the atmosphere like at this rally?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: It was crowded. I mean, that's typical with Donald Trump's events, particularly when they're indoors. It was filled the entire venue, notably, though, same exact venue where Kamala Harris was earlier in the week, which Donald Trump harped on repeatedly during that rally.

He actually -- it seemed that he was really frustrated that she had these celebrity performers because he, you know, continuously throughout his very lengthy speech last night, was criticizing that she had celebrity performers, people like Megan Thee Stallion, earlier in the week when she was at that exact same venue, and he called that phony.

And that's something that we're actually continuously going to hear from Donald Trump's campaign. I'm told when I talk to seniors -- senior advisers, they say that's a new line of attack. That they want to try and paint her as someone who is fake. And he said that last night as well, that she's fake, fake, fake, and I will fight, fight, fight for you. It's a line we've heard Donald Trump use before. He's going to continue to use that.

What I also found interesting was at one point, just talking about the performers, he actually tied Harris to Hillary Clinton. And this is kind of what we're seeing now. Donald Trump has really reverted back to his 2016 playbook. His attacks have become nastier.

He's now has another woman that he's facing off with. And we're seeing kind of the same parallels from then now creep into this current campaign. And he argued that Clinton had Bruce Springsteen perform for her back up in the lead up to 2016. He said that was phony as well.

He also made a comment that he has a, quote, "bad trait," which is that he only likes people who like him. But I do want to actually point your attention to something that I found very interesting, because at one point, Donald Trump kind of admitted that they need to define her. They still are figuring out --

WALKER: Yes.

TREENE: -- how to define her. I want you to take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, four months ago, she was considered grossly incompetent by the fake news. Now they're saying, oh, isn't she wonderful? Isn't she wonderful? No, she's not wonderful.

So we have to work hard to define her. We -- I don't want to even define her. I just want to say who she is. She's a horror show. She'll destroy our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:05:09]

TREENE: So, I mean, a little bit of saying the quiet part out loud there, and he caught himself and said, actually, I don't need to define her. She's horrible. This is something that has come up many times in my conversations with Trump's advisers, which is, you know, for the last several months, really this entire election cycle, they had ignored Harris altogether.

Their entire playbook had been to try and go after an unpopular 81- year-old incumbent. Now they're reimagining the entire campaign, obviously so close to November, and it's been a bit of a struggle. I think you can hear him kind of throwing the kitchen sink of the tax at her because they're trying to figure out what sticks.

WALKER: It's almost like he was repeating something that was told to him by, you know, someone in his campaign. You've got to work really hard to define her.

TREENE: To define here, right.

WALKER: And he kind of caught himself, you know. He all -- I mean, he was all over the map it seemed like in that speech yesterday, but he also mentioned the debate that he's putting his foot down. It's my way. We're going to do it on Fox News or nothing.

We don't know what Kamala Harris is going to do at this point. It doesn't seem likely. I mean, so the question is, will there even be a debate at this point?

TREENE: It's still a question that remains.

WALKER: Yes.

TREENE: I think it's very unclear what's going to happen. You're kind of seeing both, you know, the Trump campaign as well as the Harris campaign dig into their current positions, which is, as you mentioned, Donald Trump made clear that he has agreed to this Fox News debate, which wasn't on the table before. He said it would be held in Pennsylvania and -- on September 4th and that he wants to have a live audience.

Obviously, he thinks -- and I can tell you this from my conversations with his team as well, that it's a friendlier network. There could be friendlier moderators toward him. Harris is team for the -- their part, though, is saying that, look, you had already agreed to this September 10th debate with ABC News. That is the debate that we will be showing up to.

She's also indicated herself and her team said this as well, that regardless of whether or not Donald Trump shows up, she plans to use that time herself. But, you know, Trump has been saying, and his advisers have said this as well, which is that, you know, their agreement to go to that ABC debate on September 10th was with Joe Biden, not with Harris. And so he has no obligation to show up.

But what I found fascinating is taking a step back, you're seeing both sides now attack the other. Trump is saying Harris is too afraid to show up to a Fox News debate. Harris's team is really pointing to his past line of, I will debate you anytime, anywhere, any place. Now she's saying it seems like you have a very specific time and place to show up.

And so all to say --

WALKER: I think he also said that it's kind of an obligation to have a debate.

TREENE: Yes, and he does.

WALKER: That's a point. Yes.

TREENE: He actually, I mean, he actually does want to debate her. I really do believe that in my conversations with his team. I think it's the circumstances around it where that's where the sticking point is. And so, it's very unclear right now if we'll actually even get a debate, but right now they seem very dug in on their positions.

WALKER: I think we sure do.

FREEMAN: Well --

WALKER: Alayna Treene, it's great to have you in studio.

TREENE: Yes, thank you for having me.

WALKER: Thank you.

Well, in a statement to CNN, Vice President Kamala Harris's husband, Doug Emhoff, acknowledged that he had an affair during his first marriage.

FREEMAN: And this all comes after a British tabloid published alleged details of the relationship. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez has that story.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Vice President Kamala Harris's husband, Doug Emhoff, acknowledged to CNN that he had an affair during his first marriage after alleged details of that relationship were published in a British tabloid. In a statement exclusively to CNN, Emhoff said the following, quote, "During my first marriage, Kerstin and I went through some tough times on accounts of my actions. I took responsibility and in the years since we worked through things as a family and have come out stronger on the other side."

Now that tabloid, the Daily Mail, reported that Emhoff had a relationship with his then young daughter's teacher, which resulted in the end of his first marriage. Now, sources tell CNN the relationship and the circumstances were disclosed to Joe Biden's vetting committee four years ago when Kamala Harris was being considered the running mate.

And we were also told by sources that Emhoff had told Harris about the affair before they got married as well. Now, Emhoff's two children are now adults and the family dynamic has been described as a friendly one, with the ex-wife, Kerstin Emhoff, also weighing in on Saturday, saying, quote, "He is a great father to our kids, continues to be a great friend to me, and I'm really proud of the warm and supportive blended family Doug, Kamala and I have built together."

Now, Doug Emhoff has been on the campaign trail and that is expected to pick up over the next few weeks and months.

WALKER: All right, Priscilla Alvarez, thank you.

FREEMAN: Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown says he does not plan to campaign with Kamala Harris during this election cycle, even going as far as skipping the Democratic National Convention. Now, Brown is facing a high stakes reelection campaign in a Republican leaning state, and the battle for his Senate seat is central to the fight for the next Senate majority.

WALKER: And in order to win his seat again, Brown will have to get voters to split their tickets, which is a tough strategy in this modern polarized era.

[07:10:03]

CNN's Manu Raju joining us now with more. Good morning to you, Manu. I mean, that's obviously a very tall order. What is Sherrod Brown's strategy going into this election?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, look, this gives a really a window into how many members, candidates in difficult races and red states in particular are navigating the top of their ticket. And the Republican side, they're trying to nationalize these races.

They're trying to ride Donald Trump's coattails. On the Democratic side, they're trying to essentially avoid talk about the national race, about the presidential race. They're trying to localize and really try to go after the character issues of their Republican opponents. Hopefully that they believe will court some independent voters to come their way.

Now, Sherrod Brown has been a fixture in Ohio politics for decades. But what he has seen is his state trending increasingly Republican, the state of Ohio, Donald Trump carried by eight points in 2020. So how is Sherrod Brown trying to court those Republican voters and try to run ahead Kamala Harris as his party's nominee? He made clear to me he has no plans to align himself with Harris in the thick of this campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: I mean, but it's a fact. I mean, you're a progressive Democrat. The state is becoming Republican. Is it not?

SEN. SHERROD BROWN (D), OHIO: I don't think people think of politics are left or right. They don't think, well, I voted for this guy in another race. People vote for me because I stand up to interest groups. It's going to be making the contrast for with my fight for dignity of work and my opponent's background, where he had to pay $400,000 in back wages to his employees.

So that's the contrast. It's not left or right. It's not who you vote for for president, it's who stands up for people in the state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: So he took a swipe there at Bernie Moreno, his Republican candidate who used to own about 55 car dealerships, had faced a lawsuit and has forced ultimately by a jury to pay out roughly $400 to two former employees. He was also reprimanded in that case by the judge for shredding some documents.

Moreno defended everything that he has done, disagreed with the jury's verdict there. But nevertheless, Moreno is making clear to me that he believes that Kamala Harris on the top of the ticket will actually help the Republican cause in Ohio.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Does she not energize the Democratic base in a way that Biden did not?

BERNIE MORENO (R), OHIO SENATE CANDIDATE: Oh, yes. I mean, for the goofballs in small parts of Ohio that are your ultraliberal progressives that think that we should be more like Venezuela and less like the America that I came to as a kid, sure, it energizes them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: But the challenge for Brown, it will be to try to convince voters to split their tickets. And what we have seen in recent election cycles, the presidential election cycles in the Trump era, that has happened so rarely. In fact, just one time in 2016 and 2020 and all the Senate races that happened there, did voters choose a candidate from a different party than the presidential candidate who carried their state.

So it shows you the challenge that Sherrod Brown has right here. And it's not just him, Jon Tester in Montana, another one in a red state, a Democrat trying to do what Sherrod Brown is doing in Ohio. And there's just very little margin, virtually no margin for error for the Democrats who have a very difficult map in order to simply maintain a 50-50 Senate.

They essentially have to run the table, which means carrying Ohio and Montana. And if not, they'll be in the minority for the next two years.

WALKER: I'm still stuck on Bernie Moreno calling some voters goofballs. But hey, that's the state of our politics right now.

Manu Raju, yes, it is an uphill battle. Thank you so much.

RAJU: Thanks.

WALKER: And don't forget to join Manu on Inside Politics Sunday, starting at 8:00 a.m. Eastern.

Well, Tropical Storm Derby -- or Debby excuse me, gaining strength as it aims for Florida with hurricane warnings issued for the Gulf Coast. And there are new storm watches and storm surge watches for coastal Georgia.

FREEMAN: Mandatory evacuation orders are also in effect for several Florida counties with voluntary notices given for other areas as well. Some cities across Florida opened up free sandbag locations to help residents prepare.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- for the city of Tampa, and I'm grateful for all these guys are doing this for us. I really am grateful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALKER: All right, CNN's Allison Chinchar joining us now with more on what we can expect. Allison?

CHINCHAR: Yes, we can expect a lot of rain, a lot. I cannot even emphasize to you the historic levels of rainfall we could be dealing with here. So let's take a look. Tropical storm Debby right now sustained winds of 50 miles per hour. That is up from the overnight timeline. It's still going to continue to move through very warm waters.

That's why the National Hurricane Center saying this is going to continue to intensify. And pretty quickly as it moves through this area, it is expected to get to hurricane strength before it finally makes landfall early Monday. We're already starting to see some of those outer bands begin to slide across portions of Florida, and that's going to continue throughout the day, then becoming more widespread and more frequent in the rain, also getting heavier.

Storm surge is going to be a big concern. You've got a lot of these areas down through here. Even Tampa, Fort Myers, Naples looking at 2 feet to 4 feet of storm surge, 2 feet to 4 feet along coastal Georgia, 3 feet to 5 feet farther north.

[07:15:08]

But really, the target point is going to be this area right here of the Big Bend 6 feet to 10 feet of storm surge. It's above ground level. You're talking incredibly impressive storm surge amounts there. Again, from here, the storm then makes landfall as a Category 1, but it doesn't weaken that quickly.

Even just east of Tallahassee, this system is still expected to be a Category 1 storm. Then it finally does weaken, but it also slows down incredibly slow. We're talking crawling movement for likely at least a day, and the unfortunate problem with that is, the longer it sticks around, the longer time it has to dump a lot of rain, and that's what we're going to be dealing with.

Even for areas of northern Florida, you look at some of these areas, the swath of that red indicating 6 inches to 12 inches, but also look at all the pinkish purple color. Now you're talking well over a foot of rain. The National Hurricane Center also saying embedded in that there could be some areas that get 20 inches to 30 inches of rain over the next five to seven days.

To put that in perspective, that would be record breaking for places like South Carolina and Georgia in terms of state records rainfall just from a tropical system. We've also got a high risk guys issued for Tuesday for these areas just from the sheer amount of rain that is expected.

FREEMAN: So important to be bracing for it then.

WALKER: Absolutely. Be ready.

FREEMAN: Allison, thank you so much.

Coming up in a moment, anti-government protests are sweeping through Israel. The accusations demonstrators are leveling against Benjamin Netanyahu.

WALKER: And just days from history, Vice President Harris is one step closer to securing the Democratic presidential nomination. We will get a closer look at the process.

FREEMAN: Plus, the NTSB is still investigating how that door plug blew out from an Alaskan Airlines flight earlier this year. Coming up next, what we could learn from this week's hearing.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:21:36]

WALKER: Protesters across Israel rallied on Saturday against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government. The largest protest was in Tel Aviv, where organizers say tens of thousands of people attended. Protesters are calling out the government for delays in securing a hostage deal.

FREEMAN: Over 100 hostages are still being held by Hamas in Gaza and protesters allege Netanyahu has been slow to negotiate their release. CNN's Jeremy Diamond is live in Haifa, Israel. Jeremy, these protests are happening amid high regional tensions and, of course, this threat from Iran and its proxies. What can you tell us?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Danny, this is a moment of extraordinary tension in this region as Israel and the region brace for the potential for Iranian retaliation and/or, we should say, retaliation from Iran's proxies in the region, notably Hezbollah to Israel's north in Lebanon.

What we have witnessed over the course of the last 48 hours or so are increased warnings to citizens from foreign countries in both Israel as well as in Lebanon to either prepare for emergency action, prepare to seek shelter or to even get out of the country, as is the case with U.S., U.K. and other citizens in Lebanon who are being urged to get out of the country right now. We are also watching as multiple airlines are canceling flights into and out of Tel Aviv as well as Beirut's airport as well.

Last night, we witnessed the latest barrage of rocket fire from Hezbollah directed at northern Israel. Approximately 30 projectiles were identified by the Israeli military crossing into northern Israel. At least one of those struck the town of Beit Hillel in the north.

But that was not the retaliation that we are waiting for from Hezbollah to the killing of Hezbollah's senior-most military commander earlier in the week. Instead, this seems to be simply a continuation of that cross-border exchanges of fire between Israel and Hezbollah that have gone on since October 8th, when Hezbollah began firing rockets into northern Israel.

What we are bracing for right now is going to be something much larger, much more significant and potentially much more devastating. We recall that the last time Iran carried out a direct attack on Israel was in April, and now this region is bracing for something similar, perhaps even something larger in scale.

As all of this is happening, the Israeli prime minister is set to hold a security assessment later this evening at the Kiryat in Tel Aviv, Israel's military and defense headquarters. And he is also vowing that Israel will exact, a quote, "heavy price for any act of aggression against us."

But all of this is happening as Israel's security chiefs appear to be increasingly turning against the Israeli prime minister, accusing him in private meetings, according to Israeli media, of not actually being serious about reaching a ceasefire and hostage deal. Those tensions coming, of course, at this very critical, tense moment in the region.

Danny, Amara?

FREEMAN: Jeremy Diamond, thank you very much for that report, and please stay safe.

Kamala Harris has earned enough votes now to win the Democratic presidential nomination. Coming up, we have more on her historic nomination and the specific process to get her there.

WALKER: Plus, Simone Biles making even more history, flying to Olympic gold in vault. We will have all the Olympic action from Paris.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:29:27]

FREEMAN: Democrats naming Kamala Harris as their nominee for president is historic, but so is the process the party is going through to make it official. The Democratic National Convention kicks off on August 19th, but delegates, they're actually voting on her nomination, what's known as the roll call right now.

The party announced Friday that she had already earned enough votes to secure the nomination, but she hasn't officially accepted their nomination yet, and that's because Monday is the deadline for delegates to return their ballots.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Of course, I will officially accept your nomination next week once the virtual voting period is closed, but already I'm happy to know that we have enough delegates to secure the nomination.

And later this month, we will gather in Chicago, united as one party. Where we're going to have an opportunity to celebrate this historic moment together. (END VIDEO CLIP)

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. For more on this, let's bring in Elaine Kamarck to further explain how this works. And I promise you she's the perfect person to talk about this with because she's the author of the book, "Primary Politics: Everything You Need to Know About How America Nominates its Presidential Candidates." Good morning, Elaine. Thank you for being here.

And let's jump right in. Can you explain this particular unique process, the Democrats have been going through to nominate Harris? And really kind of explain to me what's been different about this year?

ELAINE KAMARCK, CNN CONTRIBUTOR, AUTHOR, "PRIMARY POLITICS" AND SENIOR FELLOW, THE BROOKING INSTITUTION: Well, OK. This is -- I'm going to try to do this in television time, even though it's a sort of problem with story.

FREEMAN: I appreciate that. I appreciate that.

KAMARCK: OK. So, Ohio, the State of Ohio has the earliest filing deadline in the country. It's August 7th for presidential candidates to have their name on the ballot. In past years, it was always sort of a routinely given an exception, you know, the legislature passed an exception to the law. Nobody heard about it. Nobody cared about it.

This year, the Republicans in Ohio got into a little bit of a fight over this, and they were at each other's throats and they didn't pass it until very late, after the governor had said, look, I'm going to call you into special session to do this. Along the way, the Republican MAGA party especially started to threaten lawsuits and this and that and the other thing to keep the Democratic candidate off the ballot.

And so, with all this confusion going on, the party decided, you know what, the safest thing would be to nominate our candidate officially before August the 7th. And so, we gave authority, those of us on the Rules Committee, to do this. And right now, there's an electronic vote going on.

I cast my ballot on Friday. The ballots came out on Thursday. I cast my ballot on Friday, and we are voting the roll call vote that you usually see on the floor of the convention. We're voting it right now. And all of this is to make sure that the Democratic candidate, that Harris and whoever she picks for vice president, are on the Ohio ballot.

FREEMAN: Well, and, Elaine, it's fascinating because it really illustrates that it's a bigger deal when you -- it is a big deal when you shift to a different candidate midway through the election. OK. I know that you spoke that you yourself cast your own ballot, but can you explain a little bit more who exactly are these delegates that we're talking about who are playing such an important role this weekend?

FREEMAN: Sure. Delegates in both parties, by the way, this place, both parties are people who get elected, usually in their congressional district. So, what will happen is you have a primary. Let's say Joe Biden wins four delegates in your congressional district. Sometime after the primary usually there's a caucus in the congressional district. And if you want to be a delegate, you file, you declare that you're a Democrat and you're a registered voter and all that stuff, and you get your friends and your family and anybody who is ever -- you've ever been nice to come with you to the caucus and vote for you.

So, the delegates have been elected at the grassroots, the by and large at the grassroots. There are some automatic delegates. They're your senators, your congressman, et cetera. They too have been elected by the voters. So, everybody come -- all these delegates are elected for the purpose of going to the convention, voting for a presidential nominee, and voting for a party platform.

FREEMAN: Well, and it's interesting, you know, we've been seeing a lot of these folks that you're referring to posting actually their ballots over the course of the past couple of days. I think we actually have a copy of one of the ballots, which also says -- yes, you see it right there on your screen. It says they have the option of Kamala Harris or present.

Now, Elaine, I'm curious. One of the big critics that we've heard, a lot from Republicans and others as well, have said that this was a coronation for Kamala Harris and not really a fair nomination fight. What's your response to that?

KAMARCK: My response to that is that, look, we had really 10 days, OK, to put a campaign together. And the party looked around and they said, look, no one else do we know as well as we know the vice president. I can bet you that of these 4,000 some delegates, at least half of them have actually shook -- shaken hands with Kamala Harris. These are -- she has been out there in the way that nobody else has.

[07:35:00]

We have a lot of great candidates, a lot of potential for 2028. If that were to happen. We have a lot of great candidates out there, but only the vice president really had the breadth of the country. And so, what happened, you saw, it was kind of amazing to all of us is that very, very shortly after Joe Biden getting out, delegations started meeting in their states. I believe Tennessee was the first state.

They had a meeting and they asked the delegates, so, who are you for? And everybody said Harris. I know I vote with the Virginia delegation. They sent out a questionnaire to me. I voted Harris. Because guess what? There was no other candidate who got in the race.

FREEMAN: Elaine Kamarck, thank you so much for breaking this all down for us. I appreciate it, especially because it is a historic and unprecedented for the moment time. Thank you so much for your time this morning.

KAMARCK: Yes. AMARA WALKER, CNN ANCHOR: The NTSB is giving us a rare look inside its investigative lab. It comes ahead of a hearing into Alaska Airlines Flight 1282. Well, we can learn about the door plug that blew off mid-flight.

Plus, we're live from the Olympic Games in Paris and that is where our Amanda Davies is this morning. Amanda.

AMANDA DAVIES, CNN INTERNATIONAL SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes, it's a tough job but somebody's got to do it. How many times have we said it? But Katie Ledecky grabs another slice of Olympic history here on Saturday. 12 years after winning her first gold in the 800 meters freestyle. She's already planning what is next. And I'll be here live from Paris to tell you more shortly. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:40:00]

WALKER: Well, this week, investigators will try to get some answers about a mid-flight incident that grabbed headlines this year. In a rare move, the National Transportation Safety Board put the actual door plug that blew off that Boeing jet on display. The agency is holding a two-day hearing this week into why it blew off during an Alaska Airlines flight, causing an emergency landing in January.

The incident happened shortly after the plane took off to California. 16,000 feet in the air. A preliminary report showed that four key bolts were missing from the door. I want to bring in CNN Safety Analyst David Soucie, who is a former FAA safety inspector. Good morning to you, David.

DAVID SOUCIE, CNN SAFETY ANALYST AND FORMER FAA SAFETY INSPECTOR: Good morning, Amara.

WALKER: So, these hearings are about finding about how and why this happened. And of course, making some safety recommendations. It seems like we already know how this happened, right? That these four bolts were never reinstalled onto the door plug.

SOUCIE: Yes, those are the causes that the NTSB looks into what the proximate cause is primarily, what's the last thing that could have prevented it from happening. And yes, we already have those answers. But what they'll be looking at is more in depth of the actual cause with a latent view. A latent view means things that were in place that should have caught it beforehand. So, that's what they'll be focusing on in this hearing as well.

WALKER: OK. So, then what could have caught it? What should have caught it beforehand?

SOUCIE: Well, what should have caught it -- it's kind of funny because what should have caught it is a little different than what caused it. So, we'll talk about that a little bit. But the -- what could have caught it and should have caught it is a safety net. The safety umbrella, which requires inspections on safety, critical items. This was a safety critical item, but it was not identified as such. So, therefore, the inspection team never came back in and looked at it again from eyes from someone who didn't do the work. So, that's what was missing. That's the missing piece here.

WALKER: But why wasn't it identified as a safety critical item? Was that just an oversight?

SOUCIE: Great question. The problem is that unscheduled maintenance. Boeing is a master at the assembly line, putting things together step by step. What needs to be inspected, what doesn't. Where they faltered, in this case and in others as well, is the fact that they -- this is a repair. This is something that came in the door wrong and they had to fix it. So, that's the point that they have to fix. And they actually have taken steps to fix that from happening.

They don't accept nonconforming parts anymore. They used to and then they would fix it on the assembly line. And that's where this fell apart because it's a different set of engineering standards. It's a different set of skills and licensed people that do these repairs than those that do that on the -- on a routine basis. So, that's where this whole system fell apart, was vulnerable, and was not identified. That mechanic doing the repair didn't say, hey, wait a minute. We need to have a second set of eyes on this. And he wasn't qualified to make that decision. Boeing needed to change that.

WALKER: I mean, it just seems like such a simple part of the process. And you would assume, right, as a lay person, that this is what is happening, that they're redundantly checking and checking that, you know, that these doors have plugs on -- or excuse me, the bolts on them.

SOUCIE: Yes. Even as a mechanic myself for years and with the FAA for 17 years, step one is you have laid out what parts you've taken off. And if there's extra parts at the end, you did something wrong. Let's get it fixed. Let's put all the parts back that came off, right. Simple. But it is more than that. There were many people involved in different shifts and different people making these changes. And so, the transition between them is where it really fell apart.

And that's the purpose of this safety umbrella, to make sure that does not happen. So, that's one of the things that Boeing has to fix, and the NTSB will demand that they fix.

[07:45:00]

WALKER: Before we go, David, I do want to ask you about the new CEO, who will start on August 8th of this week. And as we all know, I mean, Boeing is faced with this, if not impossible, very, very difficult task of rebuilding trust with consumers. And also, it's facing multiple investigations, one of which is criminal.

But Robert Kelly Ortberg has been named to replace CEO David -- Dave Calhoun, who stepped down recently amidst, you know, all that's happened. What do you know about Robert Ortberg? What is his reputation in the industry? SOUCIE: Kelly --

WALKER: Ortberg.

SOUCIE: Yes, Kelly Ortberg is -- he's a great choice. He really is. The challenge that he has -- but I'm not sure anyone would have had this, but when he ran Collins Rockwell as a CEO there, he was very involved in the engineering, very involved in the quality and the manufacturing, very good person for this position.

However, Boeing, the -- his position there only had $22 billion in sales and 70,000 employees. Boeing is nearly three times that size. And so, it's a different challenge, and it goes into -- the good thing is he does have the military background as well as the commercial airspace background. So, I don't think they could have found a better choice than this. I think he's the right person to make sure that the employees get what they want on their union contracts, and that their production increases.

WALKER: Good to hear. It doesn't have -- he doesn't have the most enviable job, but we'll watch and see how he turns things around if he does.

SOUCIE: I know.

WALKER: David Soucie, Thank you. Good to see you.

SOUCIE: Thank you, Amara.

FREEMAN: All right. Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky are America's golden girls once again. Plus, Team USA's Clark Kent, aka Stephen Nedoroscik, also added to his Olympic lore. Well, live from Paris coming up next.

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[07:50:00]

WALKER: Team USA has put the pedal to the metal in Paris, racking up 18 of them yesterday, five of them gold.

FREEMAN: So, that puts the U.S. just two behind China for the most first place finishes so far, we have seen. And international sports anchor, Amanda Davies, joining us live now in Paris. Hi, Amanda.

DAVIES: Hi, good morning. Did you know there's a new name for August the 3rd? It is apparently 800 meters freestyle day. That is what Katie Ledecky said dubbed it anyway, and rightly so, after claiming a fourth straight Olympic gold medal in the event here in Paris on Saturday. Incredibly, on the same date, she won her first all the way back in London in 2012.

I was there watching on last night, actually in 2012 as well. It was awesome to see her again in action. The power and the speed holding off Australia's Ariarne Titmus to join the great Michael Phelps as the only athletes, male or female, to have claimed gold in the same event at four straight games. It's her 14th Olympic medal overall.

So, what does she plan to do next? Well, apparently, some ping pong, a visit to her grandma, and take a breather. And why not? I think she absolutely deserves it.

Over in the Athletics Stadium with the rain pouring and historic run and night for St. Lucia, a first ever Olympic medal of any color in any sport for them and Julien Alfred, and what a medal. The women's 100 meters. The world indoor 60 meters champion who's talked about how she used to run barefoot in her school uniform at a rundown track who lost her father the age of 12, moved to Jamaica on her own at the age of 14 to chase her dreams. She took the biggest prize of all. Look at what it meant. She finished ahead of Sha'carri Richardson who took silver. And Noah Lyles will be hoping he can get things back on track for Team USA in the men's race a few hours from now.

No surprises. Guess who took the gold in the gymnastics women's vault? Of course, she did. Simone Biles reigning supreme once again, displaying just a superior level of difficulty to the others and nailing it to take victory ahead of Brazil's Rebeca Andrade and U.S. teammate Jade Carey. So, it's three golds down, potentially still two more to go for her.

And how about this for exciting news? She is not ruling out sticking around for the next games in L.A. in 2028.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIMONE BILES, 7X OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: Never say never. The home games is -- the home -- the next Olympics is at home. So, you just never know. But I am getting really old.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVIES: Definitely not that old. But Clark Kent did it again on the men's pommel horse as well. The Rubik's Cube solving electrical engineer with his dark rimmed glasses. Stephen Nedoroscik claiming his second medal of the game. Following up his team bronze with bronze in the individual event. There had been that criticism that he was brought here just because of those 40 seconds on the pommel horse, but I think it's fair to say he has done his bit, hasn't he? Two bronzes for those performances. Incredible stuff.

WALKER: He sure has. Amanda Davies, great to have you again there in Paris. Enjoy your last few days. Thanks so much.

Well, Tropical Storm Debby is inching its way toward Florida's Gulf Coast.

FREEMAN: Coming up next, a final check of the forecast for this slow- moving storm.

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[07:55:00] FREEMAN: Officials in Florida are holding a press conference right now, urging residents to prepare for Tropical Storm Debby. The storm is intensifying as it moves closer to Florida.

WALKER: All right. CNN's Allison Chinchar here with more, Allison.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, breaking news. Literally, not even two minutes ago, we just got the latest update. It has intensified even more now, up to 60 miles per hour. Still moving north northwest at about 13 miles per hour. The storm is expected to get to a Category 1 hurricane before making landfall in the Big Bend area Monday, and then it's going to continue its way up towards the Atlantic side of the coast.

The problem is it then stalls. We are talking about a tremendous amount of rain expected for some of these, could even be historic levels for states like South Carolina and even Georgia. Widespread totals. You're talking six to 12 inches. There will be some areas, the National Hurricane Center is saying, they could get 10 -- or 22 to 30 inches, excuse me, 20 to 30 inches starting today, going all the way up and through Friday of the upcoming week because it's essentially going to stall out in some of these areas. That would be record breaking for a tropical system for states like South Carolina and Georgia if they end up getting some of those totals.

You've also got a very rare high risk issued for Tuesday for a lot of these same areas, just simply because of the sheer volume of rain that's expected.

WALKER: All right. A lot of concern for the low-lying areas. Thank you so much, Allison. And thank you for hanging with us this weekend. Does get ahead of you, Danny.

FREEMAN: Thanks, Amara. Really appreciate it. Thank you all for having me as well. "Inside Politics Sunday" starts right now.

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