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CNN This Morning

Parts of Southwest See Triple Digit Temperatures; Michal Cotler-Wurish is Interviewed about Israel; Harris Campaign Launches Reproductive Rights Bus Tour; Israeli Protesters Demand Hostage Release Deal; AI-Generated Fake Images and the 2024 Race. Aired 6:30- 7a ET

Aired September 03, 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]

PAULA REID, CNN ANCHOR: While the eastern U.S. is experiencing an early dose of fall.

Let's go to meteorologist Derek Van Dam.

Quite the contrast across the country today.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, that's right. And the heat that's going to build across the southwest will be dangerous heat.

So, let's talk about Los Angeles first, because they could reach their first 100-degree day since September of 2022. There are going to be cooling centers open this week. And this is just oppressive heat.

In fact, excessive heat warnings starting Wednesday for Los Angeles and, of course, the Coachella Valley, some of the hotter areas of southern California. The central valley of California under advisories. We have many locations, including Las Vegas and Phoenix, also within these heat warnings as we speak because this will be excessive. And we're talking about 15 to 20 degrees above average for Los Angeles as we approach the end of the work week.

So, this heat risk map from NOAA shows a lot of purple and red in here. That is indicating the locations where we anticipate this extreme heat that could impact the more vulnerable communities out there.

The eastern half of the country, a completely different scenario unfolding for the first week of September. Below average, very fall- like temperatures for many locations. We'll take it while we can because we know that summer isn't quite done just yet. Cooler air for the time being, but things will change as we start to get into next week as well.

Pamela.

REID: Derek Van Dam, thank you.

And straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, Benjamin Netanyahu reaching out to the families of six slain hostages.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): I am asking for your forgiveness, that we didn't manage to bring them back alive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: The Israeli prime minister reeling as protests in the streets intensify.

Plus, how Kamala Harris plans to win the messaging war on reproductive rights.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:36:15]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JON POLIN, HERSH GOLDBERG-POLIN'S FATHER: Hersh, we failed you. We all failed you. Maybe, just maybe, your death is the stone (ph), the fuel that will bring home the remaining 101 hostages.

RACHEL GOLDBERG-POLIN, HERSH GOLDBERG-POLIN'S MOTHER: Finally, my sweet boy, finally, finally, finally, finally you're free.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: Those are the heartbroken parents of murdered hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin, burying their son. As demonstrations swell in Israel, protesters are outside the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, demanding he negotiate a ceasefire deal with Hamas and bring the remaining hostages home.

And President Biden turning up the pressure on the prime minister, insisting he's not doing enough to secure an agreement with Hamas. Here's Netanyahu's response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): What happened over the last five days? One thing happened. They murdered six of our hostages in cold blood. So, after this horrible murder, I can't believe that any serious person will come and say - would come and say, now compromise more, you're not serious. Hamas is serious. I don't - I don't believe something like that or anyone like that, anyone thinks that. And I don't believe that Biden really said that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: Let's bring in Michal Cotler Wurish, Israel's special envoy for combating anti-Semitism and a former member of Israel's parliament.

Thank you for being here with us. First, I want to talk about President Biden. He - yesterday, he also said that he expects to speak to the prime minister, quote, eventually. How important is it for Biden and Netanyahu to get on the same page right now?

MICHAL COTLER-WURISH, ISRAEL'S SPECIAL ENVOY FOR COMBATTING ANTISEMITISM: I think it's actually critically important for both of our democracies, in fact, for civilization as we know it. I want to remind us that on 10/7, just like on 9/11, the attack of barbarism on civilization raped and pillaged and burned alive and murdered and abducted hundreds of Israelis. Twelve hundred were murdered on that day in all kinds of terrible ways. And hundreds, 251 actually, were taken hostage on 10/7. We are now 11 months on in what is a continued multi-front war on our shared civilization, and we have to be very clear that what happened yesterday with the execution of six Israelis that have been held hostage for 11 months is bad news for democracies everywhere if we do not understand that just like with ISIS, we did not ask to be made concessions. We asked there to be consequences for the genocidal terror that intends to commit, in our case 10/7 again and again, but in civilizations case is openly intent to build on the rubble of our civilization an alternate reality in which none of us want to live.

So, yes, its critically important that the greatest leader of the free world, President Biden, and the president of the state of Israel, just the front lines of this attack on our shared civilization are on the same page.

REID: You were Israels' special envoy for combating anti-Semitism. We've, of course, sadly seen a rise in anti-Semitism around the world in the nearly one year since Hamas' brutal terror attack on Israel. So, what do you want people to know about the global fight against anti-Semitism?

COTLER-WURISH: So, thank you for asking that question because what we've seen is not just a rise. We have seen a tsunami of anti-Semitism around the world.

[06:40:02]

And I want to be very clear. The very same anti-Semitism that fueled the atrocities, the war crimes, the crimes against humanity, perpetrated not just on 10/7, but since 10/7, because holding hostages, and there are still 101 hostages held by that Hamas genocidal terror proxy of an Islamic regime in Iran, but one proxy, by the way, holding those hostages is considered a standing violation of international law. With every second, of every minute, of every hour, of every day of the 330 plus days that they have been held, another actual human rights violation.

And what's really critically important is that the same anti-Semitism that fueled those atrocities and continues to fuel those atrocities is the anti-Semitism that fuels the responses to those atrocities that we have seen since 10/7 and since the execution of six Israelis yesterday. The responses of silence, of denial, of justification, of support for Hamas, for that genocidal terror entity and other terror proxies. And finally, for the attack of Jews around the world in response to the worst attack of Jews since the Holocaust.

And so, in fact, this is an existential moment for all of the spaces and places of which anti-Semitism is just predicting there collapse. Historically, and we have to know this, when anti-Semitism, an ever mutating virus, is allowed to fester, to permeate, and spreads, it not only impacts the Jews, obviously it does. And in this case, the Zionists, because the new strain of anti-Semitism is anti-Zionism, denying Israel's right to exist. But it impacts all of the spaces and places in which it is allowed to infect, fester and spread.

REID: I want to get your reaction to something said by the cousin of one of the murdered hostages, who's speaking out against Netanyahu. He's not buying the prime minister's request for forgiveness. So, let's take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GIL DICKMANN, COUSIN OF HOSTAGE KILLED BY HAMAS: He's going to go with his media circus and say that he apologized to us. So, we didn't want to be a part of this horrible charade. He is going to use the murder of my cousin in order to keep the war going. And this is exactly - I'm -- I'm - I'm - I'm - I'm furious.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: Strong words. So, how does Netanyahu overcome something like this?

COTLER-WURISH: Look, Israel is a democracy. And in all democracies, not only is criticism of government, of policies, of whatever it is that's happening on regular, in regular times, legitimate, it is necessary for democracies to thrive.

I have to be very, very open and honest with you. For the last 11 months, all of us, all Israelis, have been grieving, have been impacted by not only that day on 10/7, which, as I said, murdered and maimed and burned alive, and raped, and abducted hundreds of our fellow citizens, brothers and sisters, friends, family members, and so on. But there has been a war raging on the state of Israel since 10/7 with thousands of rockets, barrages targeting Israelis by Hezbollah in the north, by Hamas from Gaza, by the Houthis from the south, and by Iran itself on October 14th, with hundreds and hundreds of rockets.

Israel is in a state of war. We have buried more than 700 of our children. That's - and fathers and brothers and sisters. That's our soldiers. That's our army. And Israel is in a state of deep grief.

But Israel is a democracy. And there is nothing more poignant than even the demonstrations that we have seen in the last few days, that not only express that grief, but express Israel's being a democracy that will eventually have elections and replace, if necessary, the seated government.

What I do want to say in parallel is what we've seen in the rest of the world. You know, if after 10/7, at least for a day, we saw some displays of sadness, of remorse, of grief, of overwhelming, unbelievable shock at what it was that occurred on 10/7 in the worst attack of Jews since the Holocaust. What we saw yesterday, after the execution of six Israeli hostages, just like executions by ISIS, is not only no sadness and no remorse and no support, but what we saw was anti-Israel demonstrations right here on the streets of New York City with thousands of anti-Israel protesters chanting the Hamas genocidal charter, from the river to the sea, which is a call to annihilate the state of Israel, glory to our martyrs and, when all means are justified. all those means include not only what we saw happen on 10/7, but include the execution of six Israelis, one of them, an American, Hersh Polin-Goldberg, even as he was being buried yesterday.

[06:45:17]

And so when we have that kind of a double standard, when we know that Americans would not just rally if there was such an attack, as there was by ISIS, but demand that there be consequences with the understanding that when we actually negotiate with terrorists, genocidal terrorists openly intent to annihilate our spaces, our places, our societies, we not only enable them, we embolden them to continue on the level playing field of a false moral equivalence between a democracy and the genocidal terror proxies of an Islamic regime in Iran that funds them and fuels them and trains them, that is intent, again, to destroy and built on the rubble of our civilization an alternate reality.

That is what we're facing.

REID: Yes.

COTLER-WURISH: In that sense, this existential moment, with all of the challenges that Israel faces, is just the frontlines of what all of our democracies face. And we are indeed at that existential moment, not only for the state of Israel, the nation state of the Jewish people, not only Jews around the world being attacked for the very attack on that nation state, but, in fact, for democracies and societies that cherish life and liberty everywhere. And that's what this moment is for us all.

REID: Michal Cotler-Wurish, thank you.

COTLER-WURISH: Thank you for having me on.

REID: The Harris campaign is looking to keep the issue of abortion and reproductive rights at the top of voter's minds. In just a few hours, a bus tour focused on the issue in critical states gets underway, in where, Palm Beach, Florida. Florida is one of several states voting on an abortion ballot measure in November.

In total, the bus tour is expected to make 50 stops and will include women like Anya Cook, who shared her story at the Democratic National Convention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANYA COOK, MISCARRIAGE SURVIVOR: Two years ago a miscarriage nearly killed me. At 16 weeks, my doctors told me to prepare for a stillbirth. I needed care. But my state's abortion restrictions kept it from me. I miscarried in a bathroom.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: All right, our panel is back.

We're going to go around really quickly.

This bus tour, do you think it can make an impact?

ANNIE LINSKEY, REPORTER, "WALL STREET JOURNAL": Yes, if - of course it's going to make an impact, but it's not quite sure in which direction it will make an impact.

Abortion is an issue that motivates some Democrats, it motivates the base, but it's not, you know, a mass issue. There are many people who find it - who are not motivated by it and, in fact, don't like it. And what you did see in North Carolina, Kamala Harris was in North Carolina recently. She was there on the anniversary of Dobbs. She was talking about abortion. When she left, the phone bankers were not talking abortion - about abortion when they were talking to voters. So, it's a - it's a tricky issue.

REID: But can - there's a few thousand votes could make or break this states.

BRAD WOODHOUSE, SENIOR DNC ADVISER: This will - this will - this will definitely make a difference. Abortion, we saw, has made - made a difference ever since - ever since the Dobbs decision. There is a large and growing gender gap. Donald Trump just doubled down saying he's for a six-week abortion ban. He did it in the same statement as (INAUDIBLE). So, this is very timely.

REID: Trump has not been consistent in recent weeks on his messaging when it comes to reproductive rights, but what does he need to do going forward?

ERIN PERRINE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, for one, I think it's very funny that Kamala is in Florida because, traditionally speaking, when you look at ballot measures, like the abortion one that's on the ballot in Florida, that can help motivate voters. But Florida is an anomaly, and generally their ballot initiatives don't reflect up ballot or outside of that ticket. So, this Florida play here is still not there for Democrats.

Donald Trump needs to be consistent and needs to point where he wants to be. He's always been against the six-week measure in Florida. He was against it in the primary and hit DeSantis on it over and over again. Where are you? And this is a huge issue for Republicans. State definitively what you believe your state should do if that is what you're going to continue to point to and be unequivocal that you support IVF and that the federal government has no place in setting up a federal ban on abortion.

REID: All right, panel, stick with us. We'll be right back after this break. Straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, AI and the election. How Elon Musk is once again pushing fake images to help his ally, Donald Trump.

Plus, it might be the weirdest ten minutes in television. Joey Chestnut devours his own world record in a brand new hot dog eating contest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOEY CHESTNUT: I've - I've been trying to hit 80 hot dogs for years, and without Kobayashi. I was never able to do it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:53:55]

REID: Chaos on the streets of Israel. Protesters breaking through barriers near the home of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, demanding a ceasefire deal with Hamas after the murder of six hostages.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK ADURIAN, PROTESTER: We want this government to cease to exist. We want elections. And first and foremost, we want them to sign an agreement to release the hostages.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: Well, let's go live to Tel Aviv and bring in CNN's Jeremy Diamond.

Jeremy, what is the latest there on the ground?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Paula, these past two days we have seen extraordinary protests, not only here in Tel Aviv, but across Israel, as hundreds of thousands of people across this country have demanded that the Israeli prime minister and his government prioritize reaching a hostage deal above all else as this war now approaches the one-year mark.

But what we saw last night as the Israeli prime minister held a press conference addressing the Israeli public, is that he was choosing to double down rather than listen to the voices of dissent that have been marching in the streets.

[06:55:10]

The Israeli prime minister, despite the enormous mounting pressure that he has faced in the wake of this six bodies of hostages being returned to Israel over the weekend, what we have seen from him is him doubling down on his previous positions. And it's very hard to see where those hostage and ceasefire negotiations go from here. And that's because Hamas has been insisting that Israel withdraw from the Gaza-Egypt border. A critical stretch of land known as the Philadelphi Corridor. And last night, the Israeli prime minister going into extensive explanations for why he believes that Israel must remain along that corridor for its safety and security.

We should note though that his insistence on remaining along that corridor as a core demand for any hostage deal to go forward goes against what his defense and security establishment has been saying, including his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, who believes that a hostage deal should be prioritized over the Philadelphi Corridor, that Israel could always return to that Philadelphi Corridor later on.

And there is also now more concern for the lives of the hostages as Hamas admits that it executed those six hostages and warns that should Israel try and rescue more of those hostages militarily, they will return to Israel in coffins rather than alive through a hostage deal.

Paula.

REID: Jeremy Diamond, thank you.

And it is 55 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup.

Two U.S. Marines assaulted in the Turkish city of Izmir on Monday. A small crowd of attackers chanting "yankee, go home," as they put a bag over the head of one of the Marines. Both Marines escaped uninjured.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SGT. JOELLE HARRELL, SAN FRANCISCO POLICE DEPT.: I used my right hand, because this is my strong hand, to seal the wound, because he was like, am I - am I going to die? And I told him, I go, remember, you're going to be OK. You're strong, right? Because I had told him out there, be strong like you are on the field.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: And a San Francisco police officer there recalling the moment she helped a wounded Ricky Pearsall. The San Francisco 49ers' rookie wide shot - wide receiver was shot in the chest over the weekend during an attempted robbery. The 49ers placing him now on the injury list after he was released from the hospital Sunday.

And Joey Chestnut ending his beef against longtime rival Kobayashi, and setting a new world record in the process. In a Netflix special, Chestnut devoured 83 hot dogs and buns in just ten minutes. Kobayashi ate 66.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOEY CHESTNUT, HOT DOG EATING CHAMPION: I've been trying to hit 80 hot dogs for years and, without Kobayashi. I was never able to do it. And he - he drives me. And we - we - we weren't always nice to each other, but I - I love what he - we push each other to be our best. A real race to see who's better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

REID: Chestnut's previous record was 76 hot dogs in ten minutes.

And turning now to this. Allies of Donald Trump are once again boosting fake AI generated images to support his campaign. Just yesterday, Elon Musk posted this image with the caption, "Kamala vows to be a communist dictator on day one. Can you believe she wears that outfit?"

Now, my panel is back.

Erin, given that Musk has just endorsed Trump, how does this campaign likely feel about this kind of AI image?

PERRINE: The Trump campaign probably finds this image hilarious, if you're going to talk about how they feel about it. They're not going to use it widely. It's not a messaging tactic. But what is, is the nickname comrade (ph) Kamala. That does evoke images of the Soviet era, of the Cold War era, and that is actually when it comes to like how he's going to find Kamala and what actually sticks, that messaging is one that has caught on and is sticking at this point for her.

REID: It feels a bit dated, no?

WOODHOUSE: I mean -

PERRINE: I did say Soviet era. So -

REID: Yes, I mean, I guess you're appealing to a certain demographic.

WOODHOUSE: I mean - I mean, first of all, we're not living in the 1950s, the red scare, the McCarthy hearings.

REID: Yes.

WOODHOUSE: I mean that - that is a very ineffective message. But if they are smearing you with something, if Donald Trump or Republicans are smearing you with something, you can bet it's projection. Donald Trump's the one that embraces Vladimir Putin. He's the one that exchanges love letters with the dictator - communist dictator of North Korea. So, Donald Trump's got a problem here. Kamala Harris doesn't. That is so ineffective.

REID: What is your take on this? Because this is going to continue to be an issue throughout the campaign, right?

LINSKEY: Yes.

REID: AI, it permeates all aspects of life. But in the campaign, it can push misinformation, disinformation. I mean this - they might argue is an attempted at branding. What do you say?

LINSKEY: Look, I think in this particular example, this is almost kind of like, you know, the modern example, the 2024 example of a political cartoon. It's clearly parody.

But I think what becomes a more serious issue is when it's not clearly parody and when AI is used in a manner which is not obviously, that there's some fakery going on and that did - you did see that happening in the Democratic primary in New Hampshire when there was a robocall that went out that was supposedly Biden's voice.

[07:00:11]

And so I think that's where it becomes a little scarier. But this, to me, it seems like a - almost like a political cartoon.

REID: Well, thank you so much to our panel. I'm sorry we didn't have time to discuss the hot dog eating contest, because I think there's a lot of content there. It's a lot of Americana.

PERRINE: Oh, well, good. That's all right.

REID: Thank you so much for joining us. I'm Paula Reid. And "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.