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Heat Alerts Span the Country; Trump Hits on Afghanistan Withdrawal; Charlie Dent is Interviewed about Pennsylvania; Zuckerberg Speaks Out. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired August 27, 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: Speaking of weather. More than 90 severe storms reported across the U.S. yesterday. The majority hit Minnesota. A combination of the thunderstorm at sunset producing this stunning visual over Target Field in Minneapolis. That's, of course, the home of the Minnesota Twins.

But this morning, more than 50 million people from the Midwest and mid-Atlantic are waking up under heat alerts.

Let's get to our meteorologist, the weatherman, Derek Van Dam.

Derek, good morning. What are you seeing out there?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Kasie, that was a really nice rainbow you saw. And, you know, that's all because of the storms that move through Minneapolis yesterday. Yes, there it is. What a stunning sight. And we like to see that because, you know, that just means that the weather's only going to get better from here, right?

It's this line of storms that moved through Minneapolis late last evening. And there was several reports of wind and hail. In fact over 120 reports with this swath of thunderstorms that moved across the upper Midwest. There were a few hail reports along the East Coast as well.

So, today's severe weather threat extends across Wisconsin and Michigan and then moves to the mid-Atlantic for the day. Tomorrow, a slight risk of large hail, damaging winds. Can't rule out a tornado as well.

This is what happens with the atmosphere gets too hot, right? And we have heat warnings and heat advisories in effect for over 75 million Americans, stretching from the East Coast through parts of the Midwest, including Chicago. It'll feel like 109 today if you step outside, factor in the humidity.

Grand Rapids, my hometown, also feeling the heat today. But this is dangerous heat. You need to do the precautions that we talk about this time of year because this is just downright dangerous.

Kasie.

HUNT: All right. Good to know. Derek Van Dam for us this morning. Derek, always grateful for you. Thank you.

All right, still ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, three years after the chaotic evacuation from Afghanistan, Donald Trump blames it on the Biden administration.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The humiliation in Afghanistan set off the collapse of American credibility and respect all around the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: But one former Trump officials says his old boss should share some of the responsibility for what happened at the end of America's longest war.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:37:19]

HUNT: Donald Trump is once again going after the Biden administration over the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. On Monday, Trump attended a wreath-laying at Arlington National Cemetery marking the anniversary of the bombing of Abbey Gate at Kabul Airport. It was there three years ago when an ISIS suicide bomber attacked killing 13 American service members and more than 100 Afghan civilians while the evacuation of U.S. forces was coming to an end. Trump pledges to fire top military officials over the incident if he's re-elected.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We'll get the resignations of every single senior official who touched the Afghanistan calamity to be on my desk at noon on Inauguration Day. You know, you have to fire people. You have to fire people when they do a bad job. We never fire anybody. You got to fire them, like on "The Apprentice." You're fired. You did a lousy job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: The White House released a statement from the president honoring the service members who lost their lives. It read in part, quote, "they embodied the very best of who we are as a nation, brave, committed, selfless. And we owe them and their families a sacred debt we will never be able to repay, but will never cease working on to fulfill."

In the past, the Biden administration has partially blamed the Trump administration for the botched evacuation. Something that Trump's own national security adviser, H.R. McMaster, spoke with Anderson Cooper about last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Does Trump bear part of the responsibility for what happened?

LT. GEN. H.R. MCMASTER, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Oh, yes. I mean, so the - the whole premise of talking to the Taliban before you leave Afghanistan, why the heck were even doing that?

What happened in these series of negotiations and concessions to the Taliban is we kind of through the Afghans under the bus on the way out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, panel is back.

Mark Preston, this chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal, I - it - it felt like a political turning point for the Biden administration. When they had come in, of course, we were dealing with Covid, we were starting to emerge from Covid. That felt positive. Obviously, we were coming off of January 6th. That was something that left, you know, a lot of people with a bad taste in their mouth around Donald Trump.

But then this moment happens in - in late August of that first Biden administration year. And it was a devastating event. What impact do you think it had then on - on Biden, and what impact do you think it has now?

MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well - well, if you remember, even like the weeks leading up to that day were chaotic, but they came upon us really quick. And at the time it certainly damaged the Biden administration. Something that he - that he wasn't able to shake.

Now, is it the reason why he got pushed out of the - the Democratic race? No. He got pushed out because of his age and, you know, his slow response to answering questions and some would say his - his meandering.

[06:40:06]

But this Afghan - Afghanistan situation really is a political football. I'll tell you, it's a football though that I don't like to touch because when you start bringing in the deaths of service members and who's responsible, who's not responsible, it's - it's an ugly land that I choose not to - to - to walk on.

HUNT: Brad Todd, how do you look at this here because this - this, of course, comes and, you know, Ameshia, jump in as well. Harris has to show that she's, you know, ready to be commander in chief. That's kind of the key test for any leader. And she obviously was not in charge on this day, but she was part of the administration.

BRAD TODD, PARTNER, ONMESSAGE INC.: She told Dana Bash on this network she was the last one in the room when Joe Biden made that decision, that tragic decision to get out of Kabul. That's a thing she needs to answer for. She also - it's the darkest day of this administration. And it's one that the administration itself has yet to - the administration owes those 13 families an apology for the disastrous decision. They owe really the whole country an apology for not figuring out how to continue to project strength abroad.

HUNT: So, even if that's the case, how do you explain Donald Trump doing things like saying the Presidential Medal of Freedom is better than the Medal of Honor. The suckers and losers comments. I mean the things that he has said about members of our military.

TODD: He - he says plenty of things that are indefensible along that line, and he shouldn't have negotiated with the Taliban. However, he had managed to figure out a way to keep a modest force in Kabul, to keep Afghanistan stable. Joe Biden undid that because Joe Biden is a weak president. And Kamala Harris was the last one in the room to help him.

AMESHIA CROSS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Joe Biden had few choices because of the - the calendar that Donald Trump put in place before he left office. He met with the Taliban without meeting with the Afghan government in terms of consulting with them. He did not talk to our allies about this before moving forward. And that - that calendar that he put in place forced Joe Biden's hand. There was only so much he had to work with.

I think that you're forgetting how - the strength of the Taliban and the fact that they were going to continue to pursue very, very dangerous and very violent wartime efforts against many of the troops who were there had they not been removed by the calendar date that was set by the previous administration. So, you did have Joe Biden having to move quickly. He has admitted to there being some faulty intelligence in terms of needing to get more troops out quickly, ensuring that a lot of those who were working on our behalf were also brought home safely. That has been said. But let's not forget that Donald Trump set this whole thing in motion and now wants to hide his hand.

On top of that, it is hard for me to accept someone criticizing any military - any military move who also makes fun of POWs, who also talks about those who have been disabled who have fought for our country, who is also someone who does not and had himself avoided military service by being wealthy and privileged. This is someone who does not have a leg to stand on when it comes to our military.

HUNT: All right, we'll leave that there for right now.

Straight ahead here on CNN THIS MORNING, Mark Zuckerberg laying out some big regrets. This is really interesting. New details this morning about how he said the Biden administration pressured him around content.

Plus, a closer look at the state of play in one commonwealth that could decide the November election, Pennsylvania.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN FETTERMAN (D-PA): They all understand that the path to the White House comes right through Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania picks the president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:47:47]

HUNT: Forty-seven minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup.

After the classified documents case against Donald Trump was dismissed last night - last month, special counsel Jack Smith is now arguing it should be revived. Smith arguing the judge's decision lacked merit after Judge Aileen Cannon ruled the DOJ didn't have the ability to fund special counsels like Smith.

An American man is dead after an ice cave collapsed in Iceland. A group of tourists were exploring the glacier when it happened. Several people had to be rescued. At least one other American tourist was injured.

SpaceX delaying the launch of its Polaris Dawn mission until tomorrow morning so the teams can examine a helium leak. Polaris Dawn is a private mission that will conduct the first spacewalk by private astronauts and fly at the highest altitude of any crewed space mission since Apollo. Wow.

All right, let's turn now to this.

(VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: It's that great state, well, commonwealth, the brought Joe Biden over the 270 electoral vote threshold, handed him the 2020 election. It is my home state of Pennsylvania, where early voting begins in just 21 days. The most populous battleground state that has been a frequent campaign stop for both candidates. It's viewed as an absolute must win.

While Trump believes he can sway disaffected Democrats across Pennsylvania, the governor there, Josh Shapiro, says voters are curious about the new Democratic ticket.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOSH SHAPIRO (D-PA): When I'm out in rural communities, in those areas around Pennsylvania where maybe a voter voted for Obama, and then Trump, then moved to Biden. Voters who shift around. They're really curious about Kamala Harris. They'll say to me, hey, what do you think of her? What do you think she's going to do on this, that or the other thing? I think, in fact, curiosity is important. It means they're open to casting a vote for Kamala Harris.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, joining me now to discuss, someone who knows this state very well, former Republican Congressman Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania.

Congressman, it's always wonderful to see you. We're going to start doing this on Tuesdays because there's actually only nine of them left until we get to Election Day, which is kind of mind boggling. But it is what it is.

[06:50:08]

And so, look, you - you know the state so well. You also, you know, see all kinds of internal data. You are talking to a lot of people all of the time. I'd really like to know, this race has moved a lot since Biden got out of the race, but who do you see as winning Pennsylvania right now? Who has the upper hand?

CHARLIE DENT, SENIOR ADVISER, "OUR REPUBLICAN LEGACY": Well, today, Kasie - and, by the way, I'm so motivated after hearing the "Rocky" theme song. I'm ready to run up the art museum steps in Philadelphia. So, that said, I think that right now this is still too close to call in Pennsylvania. There's still a lot of questions about Harris. Both Trump and Biden are well-known figures in Pennsylvania. Harris is not.

Frankly, I thought that, you know, Shapiro could have really helped her as her running mate had she selected him because Pennsylvania to Harris is - is do or die. She must win Pennsylvania to win the election. And Trump needs to win it too, but not as much as Harris.

So, bottom line is, I see Pennsylvania right now as a total tossup. A lot of questions about Harris still by a lot of voters. She's probably going to have to explain herself a bit on why she changed her position on fracking, which is going to harm her probably in western Pennsylvania pretty significantly where you have a lot of white, working class voters who work in that industry. That's an issue. But in the Philadelphia suburbs, I think she will be strong. And I suspect that the issue of women's health and reproductive rights will resonate well there.

But bottom line, she's going to have to really perform - overperform in that Philadelphia media market up through the Lehigh Valley and also in the capital region and suburban Pittsburgh if she hopes to prevail. But right now I don't think she has yet closed the deal. I'm not saying she won't, but she hasn't gotten there yet.

HUNT: Yes, it's really interesting.

I mean, Congressman, are you seeing any - if you're the Harris campaign, how are you looking at especially male voters who had actually stuck with Joe Biden regardless of his challenges?

DENT: You know, I - I'm not so sure - look - look, Democrats have a gender problem with white men. Republicans have a gender problem with women. There's no question about that. Each party does suffer a gender gap. So, she is going to need to make inroads, particularly with college educated men, college educated white men, who I think might be more receptive to some of her issues. And particularly that crowd is also, I'd say more college-educated men probably are more disillusioned or dispirited by Trump maybe then say white men without a college degree. So, I think she can make inroads with them on maybe some of these social issues. And she's going to have to come up with some better responses on inflation. I think she did herself and her campaign some damage with that price gouging or price control proposal that the Republicans are having an easy time, you know, swatting.

HUNT: Yes.

Congressman, what do you think is going on, on the undercard in the Senate race in particular? There's kind of a marquee Senate race there. And - and how do you look at coattails, reverse coattails, those kinds of phenomenon going on in Pennsylvania right now?

DENT: Well, what's typically happened, not just in Pennsylvania, but in many other battleground states, is that the - that the Senate race often follows the presidential race. We saw that in 2016 with Pat Toomey, you know, when he - when he won over - over - over Katie McGinty. We saw that in many other states.

But the Senate right now, look, it's a - it's a total - it's up for - it's up for grabs. I mean Republican candidates, frankly, in Ohio and - and - and - and out in Montana, you know, are - are not the strongest candidates they've ever had running against strong incumbents. And so the Republicans need to take one of those seats in order to prevail. But right now, you just watch the Senate. If as goes the presidential race, I suspect that's how the Senate race will go.

McCormick in Pennsylvania is very well capitalized. So is Casey. And that's going to be a real tough race. But right now it's probably a slight lean Democrat situation because Casey will have to run ahead of Harris in order to hold his seat.

HUNT: Yes. All right, former Congressman Charlie Dent, very grateful to have you. Thank you very much for being here.

DENT: Thanks, Kasie.

HUNT: We're going to - we're going to talk about this next story in second, but Brad Todd, I want to get you to weigh in on Pennsylvania just briefly because I know you're working on that Senate race.

TODD: Sure.

HUNT: What do you see? Who is ahead right now, Harris or Trump?

TODD: Well, this is the - perhaps the one battleground state where Kamala Harris as a weaker candidate than Joe Biden. Joe always talked about being the third senator from Pennsylvania. And there was this group of older voters who kind of leaned right on a lot of issues, who were very familiar with Joe Biden. So, I think that's a problem for her.

She also is going to have to defend the fact she wanted to ban fracking. Fracking is 300,000 jobs in Pennsylvania. That's a problem for Bob Casey too. It's one of the big issues looming over the election there. It's - it's the game.

[06:55:00]

It's the whole ballgame. It's Pennsylvania for - in the presidential race. HUNT: Yes. For Harris it absolutely is. Yes.

All right, let's turn now to this. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook's parent company, now says he regrets agreeing to requests from the Biden administration to censor content related to Covid-19. In a letter to the House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, Zuckerberg wrote this, quote, "in 2021, senior officials from the Biden administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our team for months to censor certain Covid-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn't agree. I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it." Zuckerberg went on to say, "Facebook should not have temporarily demoted an article from "The New York Post" reporting on allegations of corruption in the Biden family in the leadup to the 2020 election."

The panel is back. We're also joined by CNN media analyst Sara Fischer.

Sara, good morning. Wonderful to have you.

SARA FISCHER, CNN MEDICA ANALYST: Good morning.

HUNT: Thanks for jumping in on this story.

I think what Zuckerberg has done here is fascinating. It's not something we've heard from him in this kind of direct way before. What is going on here and what does it - what does it mean for - for future elections or issues like this?

FISCHER: This is a huge deal. You'll recall Republicans from two states sued. They went all through a huge court battle basically alleging that the government overreached. They lost that court case, but we never heard from Facebook. We never heard from Meta. So, we didn't know how they felt about the issue. This is the first time now.

And then coming out and saying, look, this was a big deal. We don't agree with these policies. It sets a precedent moving forward that if any government official, if the White House were to pressure them again, we now know where they stand and hopefully they now feel empowered to push back.

HUNT: What do you - what are the politics behind this? I mean clearly Zuckerberg is being influenced by a wide variety of factors. Sending this letter to Jim Jordan, did he feel like he had to do it? Why now?

FISCHER: Because ahead of the election they're going to face a lot of content moderation issues. Even though they don't want to be involved in politics and news anymore, inevitably they are. And so if there is going to be an 11th hour issue, like "The New York Post" story, and Facebook were to make the wrong call, they want everyone in Congress, particularly Republicans, to know that their intent here is not to be picking one side, that they're doing what they think is best for the health of the platform. But if he didn't speak up about the White House pressure now, no one would have believed them then. HUNT: Mark Preston, what do you see here? And if you have a question

for Sara too, I'd be interested in kind of like how you - you spend a lot of your time thinking about how we, as a news organization here at CNN, are going to cover these elections, cover politics. It can be really, really tricky. And Facebook, now Meta, was at the center of this.

PRESTON: I hate walking the center line again, but I agree with Mark Zuckerberg -

HUNT: Go ahead.

PRESTON: No, no, no, no, I agree. I mean the idea that we have to protect free speech is critical to our democracy. No question about that.

We still haven't been able to handle, how do we - how do we slow the disinformation so as people, you know, don't get wrong information. The government clearly didn't do it the right way. And - but there needs to be a way. It's just, we haven't figured it out yet.

FISCHER: The way, by the way, is transparency. And that's what I think a lot of government officials are starting to lean into. Facebook can make all the content moderation decisions in the world. We want to know how their algorithms work and why they're making them. And then we can hold them accountable to the decision, whether it's right or wrong.

We didn't have a lot of those transparency measures in place. It was the 2020 election. And, quite frankly, "The New York Post" story that has now forced a lot of tech companies to be more forthcoming around how they make these decisions.

HUNT: Well, are they telling us more about their algorithm?

FISCHER: They are. I mean now this algorithm is much more like TikTok. It elevates what is going viral as opposed to what your close friends and family think. And that matters, Kasie, because a lot of the political context being shared on Facebook, it came from your close friends and family. So, we know that there's a reduction in political content. We know that there's a reduction to news content. And we know that it's easier for a random person to go viral very quickly.

Now, that's a disinformation problem within itself, but a lot of that disinformation right now, it actually isn't mostly politics. It's a lot of disinformation around consumer harms. Things like, you know, someone hawking a bad drug product that's not good for weight loss but they claim that it is.

HUNT: Yes, well, there's - we just uncorked a whole lot of other issues to dig into.

FISCHER: Yes.

HUNT: But, anyway, a very, very remarkable moment from Mark Zuckerberg here. All right, I'm going to leave you with this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OASIS (singing): And after all, you're my wonderwall.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right, the band behind that epic millennial karaoke classic is getting back together. British rock band Oasis, they just announced a reunion tour happening in the U.K. next year. Did you ever think this was going to happen? Fans never did. I never did. You may remember the nasty break-up they went through in 2009. Noel Gallagher said this about his brother. Remember, they are brothers, Liam, at the time, quote, "it is with some sadness and great relief that I quit Oasis tonight. People will write and say what they like, but I simply could not go on working with Liam a day longer."

And they may have had a song called "Let There be Love," but there's clearly been no love lost between these two brothers over the years. They have squabbled on and off the internet and in interviews. This headline from "The L.A. Weekly" possibly explaining all of it.

[07:00:04]

Quote, "Liam Gallagher on his brother Noel, I would rather eat my own blank than be in a band with him again," end quote.

Yikes.

OK. And in 2021, Noel said he would only get the band back together for 100 million pounds. So, you know, maybe somebody had a bunch of a money lying around, or maybe their other song titled "Don't Look Back in Anger" says it best. Tickets for the sale go on sale - tickets for the show go on sale Saturday morning. I mean, I never thought I'd see it, Sara Fischer. I mean maybe - I - I think, as a millennial, I was most excited about this story. Other people looked at me like why do you care so much. But I care. I care a lot.

PRESTON: Mick Jagger is like 81, 82-years-old and he's still rolling (ph).

HUNT: All right, thanks, guys.

Thanks to all of you for joining us. I'm Kasie Hunt. Don't go anywhere. "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.