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Report: Potential Attack On Israel By Iran Days Away; Tonight: Elon Musk To Interview Trump On X; U.S. To Appeal After Gymnast Chiles Stripped Of Bronze. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired August 12, 2024 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:30:00]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: All right, 5:28 here in Washington. A live look at New York City on this Monday morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

Donald Trump and Kamala Harris both reporting massive fundraising numbers from their respective campaign events over the weekend. Trump posting on Truth Social he says he raised $28 million during a two-day swing through Wyoming, Montana, and Colorado.

Kamala Harris was also out West. Her campaign announcing a San Francisco fundraiser that Harris was set to speak at brought in $12 million. They said this the day before the event. Harris also traveled to the swing state of Nevada. She is expected to roll out an economic platform in the coming weeks.

She shared her support for this policy during a Las Vegas rally over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When I am president, we will continue our fight for working families of America, including the raise the minimum wage and eliminate taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So that might sound familiar. Certainly, Republicans want to remind you that it might.

Here was Donald Trump almost a month ago at the Republican National Convention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: At the center of our plan for economic relief are massive tax cuts for workers that include something else that's turned out to be very popular. It's called no tax on tips.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Trump now accusing Harris of stealing his idea.

Joining me now, Washington correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle, Shira Stein. And political reporter for NOTUS, Reese Gorman. Welcome to both of you. Thank you so much for being here.

Shira, on these numbers in the Kamala Harris fundraising, I mean, this is kind of one of the impacts of President Biden dropping out of the race, particularly how tech money seems to be opening back up to Harris in a way that it wasn't quite there for Biden.

What do you know about this shift?

SHIRA STEIN, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE: I think a big part of this is largely attributed to the fact that she's a California person. They know her as attorney general.

They know how she's going to prosecute or not prosecute tech companies and so they feel maybe a little bit more open. I've seen some hope from tech people and folks in Silicon Valley that maybe she will be a little bit more tech friendly than President Biden has been.

So I think we'll expect to see a lot more of --

HUNT: Yeah.

STEIN: -- those folks wanting to come out for her.

HUNT: Yeah. So big picture, Reese Gorman. We got this new polling from The New York Times over the weekend that showed her widening lead in some of these battleground states. Still within the margin of error but she's above -- she's at 50 percent.

The -- one of the things that also stood out to me is that she seems to be closing the gap on the economy, in particular. Voters still saying Donald Trump -- you know, 52 percent of voters saying he would hand the economy better than Kamala Harris at 46 percent. But that's a stronger position than President Biden had against Donald Trump.

And there's also new polling, NEFT, that shows Harris leading Trump on the economy -- in a sharp sentiment shift is how they write it.

This is all clearing getting under Donald Trump's skin. He had quite a weekend. He was posting things on Truth Social yesterday alluding to and talking about the news media and leakers, and all of the various other things that are swirling here.

What are you focusing on as we head into this week before the convention?

REESE GORMAN, POLITICAL REPORTER, NOTUS: Yeah, definitely looking at just -- I mean, how Trump is dealing with this whole thing. This is kind of why his campaign and him, especially, were so upset that Biden dropped out of the race. They were really -- they felt like they had a good game plan against Biden, and they felt like they were beating him.

HUNT: They did -- they were winning.

GORMAN: There were showing all the polls. I mean, they were doing -- like, it was looking really good for them.

And then with Harris, it's showing that voters -- on the economy front, voters aren't necessarily blaming her for Biden's economy like they were Joe Biden, which shows those narrowing gaps right now. And that's one reason why they're just really upset, and Trump is just kind of spiraling on Truth Social right now with these kind of just out-of-pocket, just rants.

And I think the good thing for him is that, like, they don't necessarily have as big a reach as they did on Twitter but they're still just there and people -- reporters, such as myself and others, are reporting on them.

HUNT: Right.

GORMAN: And so they're definitely getting out there, for sure.

HUNT: So we saw J.D. Vance over the weekend. He's continuing to try to contrast with the Harris campaign. He sat down with a number -- I believe three Sunday show hosts. It's, in part, trying to, of course, defend the remarks that he's made but also to highlight the fact that he is sitting down with reporters. This has become a line of attack against the Harris-Walz ticket.

Here was how Vance answered the question about Kamala Harris' racial identity and, of course, the Trump comments that -- to the NABJ questioning her Black identity -- watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), U.S. VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I believe that Kamala Harris is whatever she says she is. But I believe, importantly, that President Trump is right that she's a chameleon. She pretends to be one thing in front of one audience and she pretends to be something different in front of another audience.

Look, Dana, she's not running a political campaign, she's running a movie. She only speaks to voters behind a teleprompter. Everything is scripted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So, Shira, this is one of the kind of ways they're trying to talk about Kamala Harris as a chameleon and the New York Post picked up on that this morning. It says "Kama Kameleon." It seems that's how Murdoch would have them attack her. But the reality is the messaging has not been consistent on this out of the Trump campaign.

[05:35:03]

STEIN: They're really struggling to find a good attack line on her. I really thought they were going to stick with her being a San Francisco liberal. I feel like that's something that plays really well to their base and to moderate voters. But they've sort of gone back and forth on different areas.

I mean, on the chameleon thing, isn't every politician a little bit of a chameleon? J.D. Vance has changed positions as well. I think we've seen that from President Biden over his long career. So it's an odd criticism of her when we see that from all politicians.

HUNT: Well, I mean, look, there are some -- certainly, the flip- flopping label has sunk some people -- those who have tried to push back against that will argue, hey, we've learned from our mistakes, and we've evolved.

But, Reese, one of the other things that, of course, has been out there is this -- these questions about Tim Walz and his military service that Republicans have tried to kind of hammer on. They -- over the weekend, the Harris team said he misspoke.

This was Vance talking a little bit with our Dana Bash about Walz's military record. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VANCE: Well, of course, Dana, I honor his service, and I've never criticized what Tim Walz did when he was in the military. I criticized his retirement decision. And most importantly, Dana, I criticized his lying about his own record, OK?

This is a guy who was captured on video saying, "I carried a gun in war." He never went to war. This is a guy who has been captured on video as other people say he's an Afghanistan veteran -- he's a veteran of a war -- nodding along in agreement instead of saying no, no, no. I did serve my country, and I did it honorably, but I never went to a war zone.

I'm not criticizing Tim Walz's service; I'm criticizing the fact that he lied about his service for political gain.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Reese, what was your read on how he answered that question?

GORMAN: I think he was answering it in a way that kind of -- that the campaign wants him to. The campaign wants him out there being an attack dog. I mean, Vance, himself, was deployed and I think that they view him as kind of the perfect kind of attack dog on this issue for Walz.

And again, I think a part -- a lot of this of Vance going on these Sunday shows and doing all these interviews is a kind of -- kind of be like goad them out into the public and to talk to the press.

I mean, a lot of what Walz has done -- I mean, him answering and saying they misspoke through a spokesperson of the campaign. Harris is changing positions through spokespeople on campaigns.

And so this is why you're seeing Vance do all these interviews is to try to get them out and try to talk to them publicly and go on to be interviewed and kind of answer these questions that voters have.

HUNT: All right, Reese Gorman, Shira Stein. Thank you both very much for being here this morning. I appreciate it.

STEIN: Thank you.

HUNT: All right. In the Middle East, an attack on Israel by Iran could be just days away. That's the latest intelligence assessment from the Israelis, according to Axios. President Biden concerned any attack would further jeopardize hopes for peace in Gaza.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT COSTA, CBS NEWS CHIEF ELECTION AND CAMPAIGN CORRESPONDENT: Is a ceasefire possible --

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yes --

COSTA: -- before the end of your service?

BIDEN: -- still possible. The plan I put together, endorsed by the G7, endorsed by the U.N. Security Council, et cetera is still viable. And I'm working literally every single day to -- and my whole team -- to see to it that it doesn't escalate into a regional war, but it easily can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Hamas showing little interest in returning to the negotiating table. They want mediators to compel Israel to accept a July second proposal that President Biden and the U.N. Security Council support.

The former U.S. Defense Sec. William Cohen telling CNN Biden needs to make his position a little bit more clear.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM COHEN, FORMER DEFENSE SECRETARY: What we are not I think eager to do is to have our men and women come under attack when there is an opportunity for a peaceful resolution or a path to peace and our allies fail to take that, putting our lives on the line -- our men and women in uniform on the line when there was a path to peace.

So I'm hoping that the Israelis understand that we are with them, but we are not going to be with them to the extent when they have an element in their government that says we don't any peace.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Overnight, Hezbollah fired a barrage of rockets toward Northern Israel. No one was injured.

Israel also facing international outrage after the IDF struck a school and a mosque housing displaced people in Gaza, killing at least 90 Palestinians.

Let's bring in CNN global affairs analyst Kim Dozier. Kim, good morning. Always good to see you.

KIMBERLY DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Good to see you.

HUNT: So if we do actually get this attack from Iran, what does that look like? And kind of, what's your read on how this is played out because we have been waiting for it now for some time?

[05:40:00]

DOZIER: We have. We saw another statement coming out this morning from Britain, and Germany, and France saying to Iran do not attack right now. Do not upend the potential of ceasefire talks on Thursday. And we're even seeing Hamas now sort of modifying its position ahead of potential Thursday talks, saying well, you can't bring any new things to the table. It's got to all be just the modalities of the July second agreement.

So we're seeing some softening and calls to Iran don't do this now, but you're also seeing the Pentagon rush more assets to the region that would be crucial in knocking missiles out of the sky.

Iran also put out some sort of strange no-fly notice saying that it might be carrying out exercises in the next three or four days. The picture that we get is they could be preparing for another multiple missile attack on Israel, possibly together in coordination with Hezbollah, which could overwhelm Israeli air defenses. And yet, they could also be posturing to put the pressure on Israel to make some compromises at the end of the week when negotiators meet.

HUNT: You mentioned that additional assets -- CNN is reporting that the Defense Department is sending a submarine to the Middle East. "Austin ordering the submarine into the waters of the Middle East." The Pentagon said, "The movement of U.S. missile submarines rarely revealed publicly, and the nuclear-powered vessels operate in near complete secrecy." It's described as "a clear message of deterrence to Iran and its proxies, who the U.S. and Israel believe are preparing for a potential largescale attack."

How do you understand this move and the fact that we learned about it?

DOZIER: The fact that they announced it is a clear message we are bringing all of these resources to bear. So if you launch another 300- some-odd missiles and drones like you did last April, it's going to be another humiliating defeat in that we'll knock most of them out of the sky and they won't reach their targets in Israel. Do you want to do that again? That's the message the Pentagon is sending to Iran.

HUNT: All right, Kim Dozier for us this morning. Kim, thank you. So grateful to have you. Thank you.

All right. Still ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, Donald Trump and Elon Musk sitting down for a one-on-one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Elon is a very different kind of a guy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: We will dive into the political alliance between these two men.

Plus, the Olympics are in the books with some good news for Team USA.

(COMMERCIAL)

[05:46:44]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Elon, more than almost anybody I know -- I mean, he loves this country. He loves the concept of the country. But like me, he says this country is in big trouble. It's in big -- it's in tremendous danger.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Donald Trump finding a new ally this election, billionaire Elon Musk. The two men are set to appear on the platform formerly known as Twitter, now X, later tonight for what Musk is promising will be an "unscripted and no-limits conversation."

Trump is now getting used to the fact that Musk endorsed him shortly after the assassination attempt even though he's been critical of SpaceX and the Tesla CEO in the past.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: And I'm for electric because I have to be, you know, because Elon endorsed me very strongly -- Elon -- so I have no choice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Musk's rise as a Trump backer comes as X has turned into a haven for the spread of misinformation. Since buying the site almost two years ago, Musk's site has struggled to control it on topics ranging from the election to the assassination attempt against Trump. Sometimes, the bad information has been boosted by Musk himself, who posted a conspiracy regarding the attack on Paul Pelosi in October of 2022 before deleting it.

Joining me now to discuss is Sara Fischer. She's CNN senior media analyst and senior media reporter for Axios. Sara, good morning. How are you?

SARA FISCHER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA ANALYST, SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER, AXIOS: I'm good.

HUNT: So, look, these two have not necessarily gotten along in the past. Here was Trump at a rally in Alaska in 2022 criticizing him -- let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: Elon -- Elon is not going to buy Twitter. Where did you hear that before? From me. From me. Fake account -- she says fake -- a lot of them. Nah, he's got himself a mess.

You know, he said the other day oh, I've never voted for a Republican. I said I didn't know that. He told me he voted for me. So he's another (bleep).

But he's not going to be buying it. He's not going to be buying it, although he might later. Who the hell knows what's going to happen? He's got a pretty rotten contract. I look at his contract -- not a good contract.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So, obviously, this has evolved since then. What happened?

FISCHER: Well, for one, at that point in time, Donald Trump was trying to build his own social platform, Truth Social, right? So he didn't like the idea that some billionaire was going to come in and buy up Twitter and potentially be competitive to what he was building.

But then also, Elon Musk has made a full 180. I mean, he -- you know, back in the day he came to America as a citizen in 2002 and was really voting for Democrats. Supported their policies. And over the past two years that's really shifted. And now it's gone just full right after Donald Trump's assassination attempt, actually endorsing the president was a huge step because you'll recall he endorsed his former rival Ron DeSantis just a few months before.

So I think this is a shift on how Donald Trump is thinking but Trump is actually following Musk. Because Musk has shifted towards his camp, Trump's now inviting him.

HUNT: So what's going on with the money? Because there was also this point where Musk pledged -- I think it was like $45 billion a month between now and then. And then he sort of backed away from that in the wake of the switch at the top of the Democratic ticket. What is the actual plan?

[05:50:00]

FISCHER: Yes. So it was reported that Elon Musk was going to be investing $45 million a month to the Trump campaign. What we know is happening is that Elon Musk, along with some other tech billionaire investors, have created a PAC -- a political action committee that supports Trump. But he doesn't necessarily confirm the reports that say it's $45 million in.

If I had to guess, Kasie, I think a lot of it is semantics. He's probably putting money into the PAC, which isn't going to the campaign itself, which is why he's able to say that those reports are incorrect. But that's my assumption here.

HUNT: Yeah.

What do you expect out of this conversation that we're going to see tonight on Twitter?

FISCHER: Well, for one, I think it's going to be a very light-hearted conversation. Because Elon Musk has come out and endorsed Donald Trump, I expect this be like a bromance type of an interview where they're supporting each other.

I think that Elon Musk will let Donald Trump speak all the falsehoods and misinformation that he wants. And he's not a journalist and it's not his job necessarily -- does he want to be fact-checking all of the information. So I think it's just a platform for Donald Trump to come out and say whatever he wants.

But the thing to remember, Kasie, is like the interview audience here is what Donald Trump needs. You see J.D. Vance going on FACE THE NATION, right -- Sunday shows -- traditional media. Because it gets his name out there.

HUNT: Um-hum.

FISCHER: Donald Trump is going the opposite route, right? He's talking to streamers and podcasters. He's going on X. He wants to rally up that sort of fringe online base. That's what Donald Trump is doing here tonight.

HUNT: While he's, meanwhile, threatening to sue establishment media --

FISCHER: Yeah.

HUNT: -- like The New York Times, et cetera.

Sara Fisher for us this morning. Sara, thank you. I appreciate your time.

FISCHER: Thank you.

HUNT: All right, time now for sports. The Paris Olympics may be over but the controversy over the gymnastics floor exercise bronze medal remains.

Andy Scholes joins with more now with this morning's Bleacher Report. Andy, good morning.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yeah, good morning, Kasie.

So USA Gymnastics says they are going to appeal the decision to strip gymnast Jordan Chiles of her bronze medal.

So to give you a little background, Chiles originally placed fifth in the floor exercise last week before Team USA challenged the result, arguing one of the elements of her routine was not properly scored. That challenge was successful. They gave Chiles an extra .1, which moved her ahead of Romania's Ana Barbosu into third.

But then on Saturday, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the USA's challenge came four seconds after the one-minute deadline and therefore, does not count.

Now, USA Gymnastics, though, says that it has new video evidence showing that the inquiry was submitted before that one-minute deadline was up and they have requested to reinstate Chiles' score and allow her to keep that bronze medal. We'll just have to wait and see how this controversy plays itself out.

Now, the U.S. Women's Basketball Team, meanwhile -- they get gold again, but it was not easy against host France. The U.S. was down 10 in the third, but they rallied to take the lead by 21 points from A'Ja Wilson. Then France was down three in the final seconds of this game. Gabby Williams shot banks in, but her foot was on the line.

The U.S. wins 67-66 to capture a record eighth-straight gold. It's their 61st-straight win at the Olympics.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BREANNA STEWART, 3-TIME OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: We've all taken time away from our teams to do something really, really hard. And the fact that this is eight-straight golds is insane, honestly, but each one is so, so different and so, so special, and so hard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: And Team USA's basketball gold there sealed a tie with China atop the gold medal standings with 40 apiece. It's the first time in Summer Olympics history that the gold medal count finished in a tie. But the Americans certainly ran away with the total medal count with 126. It's the most since the 2016 Rio Games where the final tally was 121 for Team USA. China finished well behind in second overall with 91.

Host nation France -- they finished with 64 total medals. That was their best Summer Olympics performance since they first hosted the Games back in 1900.

All right. So now the Summer Games is going to move to Los Angeles for 2028. And Tom Cruise -- well, he helped deliver the Olympic flag and jumped into the stadium as only Tom Cruise can. Then he took the flag from Simone Biles, hopped on a motorcycle, and then the broadcast cut to a prerecorded video of Cruise combing the Olympic rings and the Hollywood sign, which certainly looks pretty cool. Let's see if they end up doing that in four years there, Kasie.

But I'll tell you what, it kind of -- it's always kind of a sad day, right, when the -- when the Summer Olympics is over. You know, it was a fun two weeks watching all the competition.

What was your favorite out of all of them?

HUNT: Yeah. No -- I mean, look, Simone Biles is just like the story of a lifetime, right?

SCHOLES: Yeah. HUNT: It was amazing to get to watch her. My son is about to turn five and I think watching it with him -- he was so into it for the first time. And I can't wait until next time. It's great it's going to be here in the U.S.

And I have to say I enjoyed Tom Cruise parachute --

SCHOLES: Right.

HUNT: -- into the stadium. And the Chili Peppers -- that concert afterwards --

SCHOLES: Yeah, yeah.

HUNT: -- and Snoop Dogg shows up.

SCHOLES: Yeah.

HUNT: It's great.

[05:55:00]

SCHOLES: And Snoop Dogg. That concert was pretty cool that they had. And I'm sure Los Angeles is going to be great when it gets here.

HUNT: It's going to be amazing.

SCHOLES: Yeah.

HUNT: All right, Andy. Thank you.

SCHOLES: All right.

HUNT: Hope to see you.

All right, coming up next in our next hour on CNN THIS MORNING, they are three of the most important states in the 2024 election. We refer to them as the blue wall. New polling shows the Harris campaign taking a crucial lead.

Plus, Celine Dion calling out Donald Trump for this moment at a recent rally. She's not the first performing artist to do so.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP RALLY: Celine Dion's song "My Heart Will Go On" playing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL)

HUNT: It's Monday, August 12.

Right now on CNN THIS MORNING new polls show Kamala Harris making significant gains on Trump in critical battleground states.

And --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: No tax on tips. Do we like that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Donald Trump trying to go on offense against Harris accusing her of stealing one of his critical policy positions.