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Musk and Trump Claim Google Interfering with Election; Cori Bush Faces Primary Fight; Pelosi and Biden Haven't Spoken Recently; Trump Praises AOC. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired August 06, 2024 - 06:30   ET

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

[06:30:00]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: With deeply controversial video game live streamer.

Plus, the NTSB looking deeper into why that door plug ripped off the Boeing passenger jet.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:35:23]

HUNT: All right, welcome back.

At federal court delivering a major blow to Google, ruling the company is an illegal monopoly. The suit pointing to Google's decades of online search dominance. The Biden administration praised the landmark decision as a, quote, "victory for the American people."

Yesterday, Donald Trump also criticized Google, but for very different reasons. In that interview with the deeply controversial live streamer, Trump suggested that his supporters should abandon the search engine altogether over accusations it's hiding information about the former president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When you put up the word "assassination," it also sent you to Kamala. And people were really angry at - look, something wrong with Google.

It's so illegitimate. They have to do something about it. And I mean the - the - the market speaks. Everybody should maybe just go off Google and not use it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, the panel is back.

So, let's just kind of dig into what this is about, right? So, Elon Musk tweeted about this a couple days ago, I believe, July 28th. And he says, "wow, Google has a search ban on President Donald Trump. Election interference?" So, he shows that, you know, we all know that the - it populates automatically, right, when you start typing in Google, suggesting things that you might want to look for.

Now, Google told CBS in response to this that "the issue is due to 'anomalies' that are causing autocomplete not to work as intended 'for some searches about the names of several past presidents and the current vice president.' Google didn't specify the anomies, but said that they were technical in nature," and that, "we're looking into these anomalies and working on improvements, which we hope to roll out soon."

Let's just put up what our intrepid producer found when she plugged Kamala Harris into the search engine, or - or rather vice president k, which is - you know, mirrors what Elon did with Donald Trump. And here it seems like Kristi Noem might be higher up because you get vice president killed dog, which, of course, she was being considered for Donald Trump's vice president at one point, then there were allegations that she killed her dog. But Vice President Kamala Harris does not appear here.

Bryan Lanza, obviously, Donald Trump complaining about these companies. Often, I think you would say, probably yields a phone call to folks like yourself who might be able to help the company in question.

BRYAN LANZA, PARTNER, MERCURY PUBLIC AFFAIRS: The answer is yes.

HUNT: But what do you make of this controversy that, you know, Musk is sort of ginned up here. This is something that's been percolating on the online right about Google suppressing information. And they've sort of escaped scrutiny that like Facebook and Twitter came into - under when Trump was still president.

LANZA: You know, listen, I would say, if you go back to 2020, you know, during the presidential campaign, and, you know, I hate bring up the word, but sort of Hunter Biden and how social media companies and tech media companies sort of suppressed the information of that going out. Sort of that - that - that - that stood - stands in the back of President Trump's mind. It is social media companies and tech companies putting their thumb on the scale. And he probably viewed it the same thing here. You know, it's - anybody - you know, I - I - I saw that pop up. I went to my phone and I typed - I went to the Google app and typed up and saw the same issue.

And so President Trump and his supporters clearly feel that tech companies are putting their thumb on the scale and trying to either cover up, you know, what took place or hide what took place, similar to what they did in 2020. And you're going to continue to hear that grievance because 2020 is still fresh on everybody's mind of how the media and social companies suppressed valid information towards the election and then claimed that it was - it was Russian misinformation, which adamantly proved false.

HUNT: Stephen Collinson, I mean, I will say, I - they seemed to have fixed the problem. I can't - I can't get it - my Google to do what Elon was able to do with Donald Trump. The issue still seems to persist for Kamala Harris. It's true that these companies have a lot of power. The - the courts are saying Google has too much power because it's directly built in here. Does Trump have a valid complaint or not?

STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, the - the complaint has been one that is very resonant among, as Bryan was saying, Trump's supporters because it plays into this idea that there's this deep state, this liberalist structure in society and in the government that discriminates against conservatives. So, whatever the truth of what was going on with the algorithm and when it's fixed, this is something that's going to carry on living in the Trump campaign because it fulfills so many goals of the former president's political project. It's not just his legal problems, but it's everything else, the cultural sense that there is a force attacking Trump and victimizing him and lots of millions of Americans out in the heartland.

[06:40:09]

So, it's a very powerful political argument.

So, as with many things in the Trump era, it doesn't really matter if it's true. The perception that it's true is the key to its political power.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: And don't give Elon Musk a free pass here. He's got 193 million followers. And he can tweet a baseless statement like, I'm just putting it out there. I think Google's got a search problem. And then, you know, legions of people will pick up on it and run with it.

Now, setting aside whatever grievances conservatives may have had in the past about how algorithms were set up, those have gone to court. Those have been largely resolved to some extent. But what he did there only makes the problem worse, I think.

HUNT: Yes, Elliot, can I ask you about this ruling specifically against Google?

WILLIAMS: Sure.

HUNT: Because I will say, if you wanted to not use Google in your life -

WILLIAMS: Good luck.

HUNT: It would be basically impossible.

WILLIAMS: Right. And I think, just to sum up anti-trust in a sentence, competition, good, monopoly, bad. And what they've done here, and what the court has found, is that Google, in effect, has a monopoly on search engines in phones. They're - they're built into the technology.

And so, this isn't going anywhere anytime soon. There will be appeals. This is months, if not years to sort of sort out the question of, what is the remedy for Google? What will they have to do? Maybe it's allow other people to get into phones. Maybe it's, when you get a new phone, you can decide which search engine is the one, whether it's Google or Bing or Altavista, or Netscape or whatever. Something like that.

HUNT: Wow, you have a better memory than I do.

WILLIAMS: I know - I know.

MEGHAN HAYS, FORMER BIDEN WHITE HOUSE DIRECTOR OF MESSAGE PLANNING: (INAUDIBLE).

WILLIAMS: Gen x right here.

HUNT: Ask Jeeves.

WILLIAMS: Right here. Ask Jeeves. Right, you know, dancing hamsters like we can (INAUDIBLE) but - but needless to say, there will be some remedy, but we're - we're far off from it.

HUNT: Yes, I was - I was an Altavista girl in the late '90s.

WILLIAMS: Oh, I remember - I remember this well.

HUNT: All right, let's go now to this story.

A member of the progressive group called "the squad" fighting off an expensive primary challenge today. Congresswoman Cori Bush has three challengers in her Missouri district. She's become the target for millions and pro-Israeli super PAC spending after her comments criticizing the Israeli military actions in Gaza during their war against Hamas in the wake of October 7th.

In June there was another progressive, Jamaal Bowman, who lost what is the most expensive House primary in history where pro-Israeli groups spent $14 million to try to oust him. Bush says that the money being spent against her is a signal that she's winning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CORI BUSH (D-MO): It tells the strength of this movement because they put millions against us. Millions. If we were so effective and if people didn't like our message, if people didn't like this movement, this movement, this pro-democracy, pro-diplomacy, pro-peace, pro- humanity, pro-love, pro-hope, anti-war movement, if they didn't - if people didn't like it, then they wouldn't have to spend so much money trying to shut it down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, Meghan Hays, obviously, each of these races is unique. Jamaal Bowman's race, in some ways he had sort of come out of step with the district on many things. It was not just Israel that kind of got us there.

In this case, "The St. Louis Post-Dispatch" has actually endorsed Bush's most likely opponent. Most likely to win of the three opponents, saying that even more outrageous has been Bush's stance on the Israel-Hamas War. Israel's conduct of the war has been far from perfect, but it remains a democracy fighting for survival against an evil terrorist organization. Bush's tendency to equate both sides, even side with terrorists, they write, when she cast one of just two House votes against a resolution to bar Hamas members from the U.S. should in itself be disqualifying for re-election.

What are you looking for in this primary?

HAYS: Yes, I think this is why we have primaries. This is why we have elections. When you become out of step with your district, people are able to vote you out. And it seems like she's become out of step with her district. I would say out of step with a lot of Americans I think. I think she also voted against funding for the Iron Dome. I don't think that that's where most Americans would stand in defense of Israel.

So, I think this is why we have elections. I think that, you know, she is saying that people are spending money. It's because people don't agree with her views and don't agree with her policy. So I, you know, this is - she could really lose her seat here.

HUNT: Yes. Well, and then this is what Cori Bush had to say to our Manu Raju back in May when he pressed her on this Israel issue.

Let's watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Do you unequivocally condemn Hamas for October 7th?

REP. CORI BUSH (D-MO): Every time somebody asks me will I condemn Hamas for October 7th, I say, how many times have you not looked at my statements? So, go look at the statement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: I mean, Elliot, that seems to indicate how much pressure she's under here.

WILLIAMS: I think she's under a lot of pressure.

Again, the idea of a person, the knives coming out for a person for falling out of step with their party is nothing new. It's happened in the Democratic Party. It's certainly happened in the Republican Party, particularly the years under Trump. It will be fascinating to see how this plays out.

HUNT: Yes.

All right, coming up next here, a warning from the secretary of state that an attack on Israel could be imminent.

[06:45:03]

Plus, this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She's got a spark. That's pretty amazing, actually. She's got a good spark.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: A compliment from Donald Trump. We'll talk about who he's talking about there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNT: Al right, 48 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTONY BLINKEN, SECRETARY OF STATE: We are engaged in intense diplomacy pretty much around the clock with a very simple message, all parties must refrain from escalation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: The U.S. secretary of state, Antony Blinken, urging calm as Israel's war with Hamas threatens to plunge the region into a wider war. Iran is vowing to retaliate for the killing of a Hamas leader in Tehran, possibly within the next 24 hours.

Happening today, Boeing in the hot seat. The NTSB expected to question Boeing about an incident on an Alaska Airlines flight earlier this year when the door plug blew off and left a gaping hole in the plane midflight.

[06:50:09]

And no joy on the south side of Chicago this morning. The White Sox loosing their 21st consecutive game last night, tying the American League record that was set by my Baltimore Orioles in 1988. The National League record is held by the 1961 Philadelphia Phillies. They lost 23 straight.

All right, let's turn back now to the 2024 race.

Kamala Harris, now the official Democratic nominee, set to name her vice presidential pick in just hours. Just 16 days ago, President Biden was the one presumed to be at the top of that ticket, before ending his re-election bid. One of the figures said to be key in persuading the president to bow out, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, now acknowledging she's yet to speak with Biden, who was, of course, a longtime friend and ally, since that decision.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Have you spoken to President Biden since he dropped out?

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): No. No, I have not.

BASH: Do you hope to?

PELOSI: Yes, when - I hope to. Yes. We're all busy.

BASH: Is everything OK with your relationship?

PELOSI: You'd have to ask him, but I hope so.

BASH: OK.

PELOSI: But he knows. Look, I have loved Joe Biden, respected him for over 40 years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Yikes. Yikes. What do you see -

WILLIAMS: Everybody turned an looked at -

HAYS: (INAUDIBLE).

LANZA: Wow, let's hear this.

HAYS: I mean, I think that the report - I mean I don't know what the conversations were between her and the president during that time, but it seems that they - that all the reporting had been true. It seems that there is some - there's not - there's some bad blood there it appears. So, I see -

WILLIAMS: She's so good too. And I just be - you know, it's hard to imagine that someone who's that disciplined a politician doesn't know exactly what she's winking and nodding at there and dropping the suggestion that they're not speaking, because there was another - there were many other ways to answer the question in that, look, he's the president of the United States and he's a busy man. I haven't had a chance to spoke to him - to speak to him yet, but we will. But she didn't say that.

HAYS: She's also selling a book and I think she's also trying to say that she is very much in power of the Democratic Party. And that - that statement, I think, proves and goes forth with that. By saying that it's - it's very much showing that she is in charge here.

LANZA: I mean she - she knocked him out of the race. I mean 14 million people voted for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris made 1,800 phone calls and she's the nominee for the Democratic Party. It clearly worked.

HAYS: Yes.

HUNT: Stephen.

COLLINSON: She's going to have to write another book and tell us exactly what went on, because presumably it's not in this version of her book. But I - I think it underscores yet again that while we've had several Democratic presidents this century, Nancy Pelosi is the key Democratic figure of the first 25 years of the 21st century. And she has extraordinary power and, once again, she's wielding it there.

WILLIAMS: And, you know, to the point, you know, you'd mentioned, Bryan, a little earlier, the idea of the San Francisco liberal, right? Fair. It's moniker. It's been around in America for - for -

LANZA: They are who they are.

WILLIAMS: Like, well - well, making a different point that, yes, it's a moniker, whatever you want to put behind it. But for someone who comes from that political world, she is still Nancy D'Alesandro from Baltimore. And her ability -

HUNT: Baltimore with a d.

WILLIAMS: From Baltimore. And her - if you look at, number one, winning the House of Representatives in 2006 for the first time in a long time and shepherding that caucus through up and down it's - it - she's just an exceptionally skilled politician and knows what she's doing, even despite coming from this place of almost comical liberal (INAUDIBLE).

LANZA: Yes. I would say yes. But, you know, similar to where we had Newt Gingrich, you could easily characterize Newt. It's been very easy to characterize - characterize the speaker, you know, Speaker Pelosi. We've certainly won some congressional seats by highlighting the fact that the San Francisco liberal wants to bring their values to Michigan, Ohio, and these other states. And - and, you know, they've gone more liberal with Hakeem Jeffries. He certainly is as liberal as Pelosi was. Hakeem's explanation (ph) more liberal and certainly more militant with - with the combativeness of politics. That just goes to show you where we are today.

WILLIAMS: Right. I think militant's a loaded word.

HUNT: Yes, there's a lot there.

HAYS: Yes.

WILLIAMS: So, I -

LANZA: Oh, I -

WILLIAMS: And I think - well, no, it is.

LANZA: Yes, it is. Clearly, yes.

WILLAIMS: But I just think it's a - it's early enough in this tenure that we don't know how he's going to govern as a - as a leader.

LANZA: Correct.

WILLIAMS: I'm just saying, shepherding a diverse caucus over the greater part of a generation, even setting aside what her personal politics deep down might be, and I don't even know what they are because you don't, you know, leaders are able to set aside what they believe and do what's in the best interest of the moderates, the liberals, the whatever.

HUNT: Yes.

HAYS: She clearly has like a very keen way of whipping her caucus. And I think that that was on display with the president. (INAUDIBLE).

HUNT: Yes, I mean, I whatever she may - you know, whatever kind of core values she may have, her demonstration of her sheer political skill has been on very clear display.

HAYS: Yes.

WILLIAMS: Real quick. Real quick.

HUNT: We should make - we should stack that photo of her walking out of that Trump meeting with the sunglasses on because that's, I think, the -

WILLIAMS: The sunglasses -

HAYS: Yes.

HUNT: What really sticks out to me.

WILLIAMS: The other one - the sunglasses at the Trump meeting. The other one, real quick, is after the Democrats impeached Trump, I want to say the first time, and then there was applause in the room.

[06:55:05]

Google this everybody. Look at this. Nancy Pelosi takes an index card and goes, shoo, like that. And it was just this - one, it was mom coming out.

HUNT: Oh, yes.

WILLIAMS: But, two, it was Nancy D'Alesandro from Baltimore. It's, this is how I'm going to run this caucus.

HAYS: Yes.

WILLIAMS: I don't want to hear any of that gloating and dunking on something.

LANZA: Yes.

WILLIAMS: It was a powerful moment as a - as a leader.

HUNT: Yes. I don't have - I don't have time to play her moment. She also said on Sunday that Biden should be on Mount Rushmore in terms of her like trying to get this relationship back on track. As we all are sitting here discussing, I know Meghan's wincing, that we're talking about Pelosi being kind of the key Democratic figure.

Anyway, since we are talking about the House of Representatives, I want to talk about this moment from an interview that Donald Trump did yesterday with that controversial live streamer. The former president played a game in which the host presented him with photos of people and Trump as required to respond. He had a somewhat surprising response about one of his leading critics, New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Fake, but - but, in all fairness, look, but she knows it. She's got a thing going. It's a good thing. She's - a good thing for her. But there's a certain something she's got. She's got a spark that's pretty amazing, actually. She's got a good spark. So, you know, I give her credit.

But she's got a lot of - she's got a lot of sizzle.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Stephen Collinson, is that "The Apprentice" casting director talking there? Like, what is going on?

COLLINSON: Ah, right. I mean, I guess Trump is someone that knows how to use the media and social media and AOC is expert at that. But I'm not sure that's a compliment she is particularly likely to - to welcome. And, you know, what she would say about him, for example, I think probably wouldn't be that he's got a spark.

HUNT: No. Well, he - go ahead.

WILLIAMS: I was going to say, he started calling her fake too.

HUNT: Yes.

WILLIAMS: It's not exactly the highest praise. But.

HUNT: Yes. I mean we'll - so this is what AOC said about Trump in June. She goes - she - she did this interview with Kara Swisher. She says, quote, "it sounds nuts, but like I wouldn't be surprised if this guy threw me in jail. He's out of his mind. I mean he did this whole first campaign around lock her up. That's his moto. It's unequivocal if Donald Trump wins, we're looking at the potential dissolution of democracy in the United States of America. The question about what would happen to me or the Democratic Party is a joke compared to the question what is going to happen to our country."

Clearly, they're not on the same page.

HAYS: No, I think it's - she's probably not happy that he - she was even in the conversation, to be frank. But I think, you know, it's kind of a compliment sandwich that he's giving her. He calls her fake, the says she has a spark. It's all -

LANZA: Well, listen, I was what he's saying is she's authentic, right? You know, you have politicians who sort of shepherd their way up from city council to state assembly to state senate and finally make it to Congress and they sort of filter out what they're going to say because consultants have told him this and that.

You know, she came straight from the bar, right? She was a bartender. She broke into Congress. There's an authenticity to that, that Trump, as this executive producer of television, sees any - you know, he was - he was dismissive at first, but he circled back. He's like, how can you deny that she's a very authentic politician, which is rare. You don't see that these many - these days anymore.

HUNT: All right, well, as we're wrapping up here, we got two-and-a- half minutes left in the show. We've got, I don't know how many hours until we get this apparent video that's coming out of the vice presidential pick. So, quick whip around, who's Kamala Harris' vice presidential pick? It looks like Tim Walz or Josh Shapiro or go with a darker horse.

Stephen, what do you think?

COLLINSON: Certainly one of them. But at the end of the day, it's probably not going to decide the election, whoever it is.

HUNT: But you're not willing to say Walz or Shapiro?

COLLINSON: I'm a reporter, I don't - I don't have to.

HUNT: What does your reporting tell you?

Elliot.

WILLIAMS: It's not going to decide the election. It never does and almost never has except since 1960 with - with - with LBJ. However, 61 percent approval rating in Pennsylvania, electoral votes in Pennsylvania, even setting aside the ground swell of concerns among some of the Democratic base, I don't see how you don't pick Josh Shapiro.

HUNT: All right, we've got one vote from Josh Shapiro.

Meghan.

HAYS: I'm going with Shapiro as well. I think for everything that you're saying, I also think that people aren't tuned into Walz yet and I think that probably came out in a vet that he's probably more progressive than she's willing to lean.

HUNT: Interesting.

LANZA: Yes, listen, I think Shapiro for the sheer chaos it's going to cause in a Democratic Party. I mean they've nicknamed him genocide Josh. You know, there's clearly a faction there that just doesn't want this guy in there, and she's now going to have to put it together.

HUNT: All right, well, we hopefully only have to play this game for another - another - minutes, maybe, guys.

All right, I'll leave you all with this, this morning. A New Hampshire woman is celebrating quite a score. Toni Pappas says

that she found 52 rare baseball cards while renovating her old barn home in Manchester. The cards are from the late 1930s and 1940s. Fittingly enough for the New England home, one of the cards in the collection is a rare Ted Williams rookie card. The legendary slugger played most of his career for the Boston Red Sox, also fought in World War II, and then again in Korea as a fighter pilot. Pappas says that the collection could be worth tens of thousands of dollars, but she's just happy wondering about what her husband must be thinking.

[07:00:09]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TONI PAPPAS: And I think he's smiling down at us. I really think he's laughing and happy that we found them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: That's amazing. It's so cool. I actually had a grandfather who had a Mickey Mantle rookie card that was destroyed in a fire.

LANZA: Oh.

HUNT: I really wish we still had that in the family today.

All right, thanks to all of you for joining us this morning. Thanks to all of you for being with us. I'm Kasie Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.