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Trump Says Elon Musk Will Head New Commission If He Wins; DOJ: Russia Funneled Millions Into U.S. Media Company; Chiefs Hang On By A Toe To Edge Ravens In NFL Season Opener. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired September 06, 2024 - 05:30   ET

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

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[05:30:07]

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: All right, it is 5:29 a.m. here on the East Coast. A live look at Philadelphia on this Friday morning. Good morning, everyone. We made it to Friday. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

It may be hard to believe but the election now 60 days away and ballots are scheduled to start going out in North Carolina later on today. In poll after poll the economy, of course, remains the leading priority for voters.

Donald Trump was trying to focus in on pocketbook concerns. He gave a speech at The Economic Club of New York and here's what he said about the cost of childcare.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have to stay with childcare. I want to stay with childcare. But those numbers are small relative to the kind of economic numbers that I'm talking about, including growth, but growth also headed up by what the plan is that I just -- that I just told you about. We're going to be taking in trillions of dollars. And as much as childcare is talked about as being expensive it's, relatively speaking, not very expensive compared to the kind of numbers we'll be taking in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Hmm.

President Biden, meanwhile, was on a battleground blitz in support of his vice president, Kamala Harris. The president making a stop in Wisconsin arguing that his administration has made considerable progress on the economy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Hello, hello, hello. Just think about how far we've come. We have more to go. We have more to go. Too many people are still in trouble. But nearly four years that we've been president and vice president we've had one of the most extraordinary periods of progress in American history.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: The latest fundraising numbers underscore just how much money we're going to see spent before these 60 days are up. The Harris campaign reporting just this morning they raised $361 million in August. That is triple the amount -- nearly triple the amount that the Trump campaign raised in the same period of time.

So you better brace yourself if you live in a battleground state. If you turn on your TV, you're going to be seeing political ads from here on out.

Joining us now to talk about all of this, Stef Kight, political reporter for Axios; Stephanie Lai, political reporter for Bloomberg; and Gabby Birenbaum, D.C. correspondent for The Nevada Independent. Welcome to all of you. Thank you so much for being here on this Friday as we are heading into this sprint here.

I want to circle back to what Donald Trump said and -- about childcare there, Gabby, because I think there were a lot of people that were kind of scratching their heads about exactly what he was saying. He seemed to be implying that he was going to change -- he was going to impose tariffs and that we're going to save money, and therefore we were going to pay for childcare.

Do you -- the reaction to that was a little bit head-scratching. The Harris campaign posted it all by itself without even commenting on it or anything like that.

What did you hear in that, and what has the reaction been?

GABBY BIRENBAUM, D.C. CORRESPONDENT, THE NEVADA INDEPENDENT: Yeah, it's really hard to pull out any, I think, coherent piece of policy. That was a long and rambling answer. He seems to think if we improve the economy through tariffs and through cutting regulations then the price of things, including childcare, would go down.

The Harris campaign obviously has talked about this care economy in a more robust way about sort of the need for childcare and the need for the federal government to sort of come in and subsidize those costs on some level.

And so, yeah, I think posting without any comment from the Harris campaign really kind of says it all.

HUNT: Yeah.

Stephanie, I mean, when you kind of look at this issue -- and this is something that historically, conservatives have looked at differently. J.D. Vance was also asked about this on the campaign trail and he seemed to say well, family members could step up and help people with childcare needs.

This is one area where Democrats do feel, I think, that they have an advantage. STEPHANIE LAI, POLITICS REPORTER, BLOOMBERG: Certainly, and I think we've seen that on the Hill as well. When it comes to the discussions that are being had it's mainly led by Democratic lawmakers. And so when it comes to the topic of childcare that's something that Republicans, especially this Republican ticket, hasn't really touched on very significantly.

And if you listen back to the question that was asked at the Economic Club it was very specifically asking what sort of legislation would you propose, and he didn't have an answer for that.

HUNT: Yeah. Tariffs, he said, right? We're going to bring in so much money from tariffs and it's going to cover all of our childcare costs. We'll see.

Stef Kight, I want to play a little bit -- obviously, the -- everyone has been out because this is the final sprint. Harris, herself, is deep in debate preps. We haven't seen her, but we did see her vice presidential pick, Tim Walz. He was in Erie, Pennsylvania yesterday. And he picked up on a phrase that the governor of Pennsylvania sometimes uses in trying to frame and continue to make this argument that they are the more joyful set of campaigners.

Here's what he had to say on the trail. Let's watch.

[05:35:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TIM WALZ, (D) VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's very clear that our opponents in this race see the world differently. Now, I'm going to quote -- which I think is a brilliant quote by your great governor, Josh Shapiro. He often says and I hear him say this: Whenever Donald Trump is talking about America, he (bleep) talking America. He does not believe in the promise of America, and he continues to put this country down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So this is part of -- I mean, we also saw them use the convention to try to make the argument that Democrats were the patriotic party here. Try to take some of that back from Republicans.

Is it working?

STEF KIGHT, POLITICS REPORTER, AXIOS: I mean, we've seen a lot of energy so far. We continue to see -- I mean, look at his fundraising numbers we just saw in August. That's a pretty monstrous number. So it's something that they seem to think is working.

And we really have seen the Harris campaign focus their campaign on this kind of vibe of joy and optimism and moving forward. They're trying to make the case that Harris is the person to lead the country into a new era. To move on from Trump. To move on from Biden. And that's the pitch they're making. And they're not going deep in policy because of that, and that's something Axios has been covering closely. Instead of really delving into the detailed policy proposals that Republicans want to fight about in these next 60 days, the Harris campaign is really continuing to focus on their vision for America. This broader idea of joy and contrasting what they are offering the U.S. to Donald Trump. And again, to your point, saying that we're the real patriotic party.

HUNT: Right. Well, and also making the argument -- hey, those guys are being real negative and we're not.

All right. So as the election nears both campaigns already have begun to think about their possible administration appointees.

For Trump, that apparently includes Elon Musk. The Tesla CEO and owner of X already served on two advisory councils during Trump's first term, but he left after Trump announced that he was pulling the U.S. out of the Paris climate agreement.

Musk wrote this on what was then still known as Twitter back in 2017. "Am departing presidential councils. Climate change is real. Leaving Paris is not good for America or the world."

But the tech titan has formally endorsed Trump for a second term, and he did that shortly after the assassination attempt against Trump in July. And now he's apparently willing to return to working with Trump if he wins again in November, specifically to lead a new commission that Trump embraced yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I will create a government efficiency commission tasked with conducting a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government and making recommendations for drastic reforms. We need to do it. We can't go on the way we are now.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And Elon, because he's not very busy, has agreed to head that task force.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: "Because he's not very busy."

Gabby, Elon Musk has clearly inserted himself into lots of these conversations. He's landed on the front page of all -- many of these newspapers that are spread out here.

I'm flashing back a little bit to what it was like to cover Donald Trump's 2017 -- you know, when he came into office in 2017 and he would kind of put these ideas out there, and then they would end up coming to fruition even though it seemed a little bit questionable perhaps at the time.

I mean, what do you think is going on here with Trump and Elon Musk? BIRENBAUM: Yeah. I mean, I think this is the latest step in what's been a real bromance this summer between the two of them, right?

I think, look, it's pretty typical for politicians -- particularly Republicans, right -- to talk about waste, fraud, and abuse -- and that's what this is -- and say if I'm a candidate -- you know, if I'm elected, I'm going to cut down on waste in the government. We're going to cut spending. I think this is just sort of a flashy way to dress it up with a rich and famous man.

Obviously, I think you highlighted with that tweet the irony between their partnership is that Musk is the famous producer of electric vehicles, which Trump has sort of ideologically railed against. And so there are obviously ideological fault lines between them that I think the image and the bromance is sort of papered over at the moment. But I really think it's just sort of a celebrity way to dress up what's typical waste, fraud, and abuse promise.

HUNT: Right. Well -- and, of course, when you have a billionaire friend, they can send you money, right? So perhaps there's -- that's underneath this. Because look, here was Donald Trump back in July of 2022 saying what, at the time - this was back when Elon's money did not seem to be available to Donald Trump -- calling him basically a B.S. artist -- let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Elon -- Elon is not going to buy Twitter. 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) artist. But he's not going to be buying it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[05:40:00]

HUNT: Obviously, Trump was wrong about Musk not buying X, and things have evolved since that moment.

KIGHT: Yeah, certainly. They've evolved rapidly. It's been fascinating to watch their relationship change over the past few months because they've had such a rocky history between the two of them. They have real differences, especially when it comes to energy and climate change -- something that when they -- when they spoke together on X, they kind of touched on briefly but never really delved into.

But it's clear that Trump sees Elon Musk as a powerful ally and something that he's going to continue to lean on and leverage. And they do have that kind of businessman mentality between them. And you see Trump look at Elon Musk and see a successful businessman -- someone who can come in and cut waste, cut fraud. It's a very Trumpian choice and kind of a Trumpian style of addressing this problem.

HUNT: Yeah. Stephanie, this also sort of speaks to the sort of broader push online that is really aimed at young men as well. You've seen Elon Musk participate in that.

LAI: Yeah. I mean, I think he caters to that meme side in the audience on Twitter -- you know, across all these platforms and social media. And we've seen Trump do a ton of interviews with podcasters. These unusual outlets that we don't necessarily think of when you're thinking of, like, mainstream media. And so he really is targeting a certain audience that isn't necessarily the news watchers.

HUNT: All right, stand by for me.

In just four days, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will meet in Philadelphia for the debate everyone's been waiting for. Follow CNN for complete coverage and exclusive analysis before and after the debate. The "ABC NEWS PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE" simulcast, Tuesday at 9:00 Eastern right here on CNN.

And coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, the Super Bowl champion Chiefs hanging on by a toe in their season opener. The Bleacher Report up next.

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[05:46:20]

HUNT: All right, welcome back.

Russia is at it again. Last night, YouTube took down multiple right- wing media accounts following a federal indictment alleging a scheme by Moscow to influence the 2024 election. The Department of Justice charging that American media company knowingly received nearly $10 million from the Kremlin in exchange for promoting pro-Russian narratives on a host of issues, especially the war in Ukraine.

CNN has independently identified that company as Tenet Media. Tenet is linked to numerous popular right-wing commentators with millions of subscribers on YouTube and X. Among those figures, Dave Rubin, Benny Johnson, and Tim Pool. They've all released statements saying they were victims in this scheme, maintaining that they had total editorial control over their own content.

Pool actually interviewed Donald Trump earlier this year.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TIM POOL, RIGHT WING PODCASTER: It's kind of scary to think about but you take a look at the weakness we have now with Ukraine and the money that we are wasting.

TRUMP: Yeah. We're spending hundreds of billions of dollars all around the world. But when you look at Ukraine, we're giving all of this money to Europe, which is much more affected by that war than us, is spending just a tiny fraction of what we're spending. And you say does anybody at least get involved in this? But more importantly, I will end that war. I'll get it ended.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: The allegations in the DOJ indictment are just one piece of a larger ongoing effort by the Russian government to influence the 2024 election and sow misinformation in American media.

Joining me now to discuss is Peter Pomerantsev, a fellow at the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins. He's the co-host of the new podcast "Autocracy in America." Peter, good morning. I'm so grateful to have you on the program. You are, of course, in Kyiv right now.

And before we start our conversation, I just want to give our viewers a little taste of your podcast and kind of how you are looking at the world -- the lens through which they can expect to hear and understand you, and how it relates to what we're talking about here with Russian influence in the election.

Let's listen to a little bit of it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER POMERANTSEV, CO-HOST, "AUTOCRACY IN AMERICA" PODCAST: When we look at America today -- right now -- we see a place where the slide to autocracy has already begun.

ANNE APPLEBAUM, CO-HOST, "AUTOCRACY IN AMERICA" PODCAST: It's not some distant future. It's the present. The evidence can be found in the tightening grip of conspiracy theories.

STEPHEN RICHER, REPUBLICAN ELECTION OFFICIAL, ARIZONA: Never in a million years would I have thought that somebody would have accused me of shredding ballots from the 2020 election, feeding to chickens, and then burning the chickens to cover the evidence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Wow. So, Peter, this podcast is out today. Explain a little bit more about what you want to do with it and what we're seeing in -- it's especially enabled by our media, as we just outlined.

POMERANTSEV (via Webex by Cisco): So not just our media but look, what makes this podcast special is that both myself and Anne have reported extensively from actual autocracies from Russia and other places.

And there's a lot of discussion in America about how democracy is in danger, democracy is on the ballot, but what does that actually mean? How do you lose democracy?

I think people sometimes have a vision of, I don't know, goose stepping, Nazi stormtroopers, but that's not how it happens in today's world. It happens by slow degrees, and it happens through things that we normalize, like the powerful using lies and conspiracy theories, and then forcing them onto people. I mean, that -- we had a little bit of a story there from Stephen

Richer who is a Republican election official in Arizona who was basically attacked by very powerful political forces who were sort of squeezing and suffocating him and the population with their crazy conspiracy theories about how the last election was stolen from Donald Trump.

[05:50:19]

But when you have the powerful forcing lies onto people that is how a lot of authoritarian regimes start.

HUNT: How would you advise everyday citizens to both look at this but also push back against some of it? I will say in the 2022 elections we saw some evidence people were willing to do it. There were quite a few election officials -- there were races that we were watching in these states where voters seemed to say no, no, we don't want this. We want to pick someone who doesn't go down this road.

POMERANTSEV: Totally. Look, I think it's very important for a lot of people to start actually with their own feelings. That feeling of apathy, of confusion. That sense that democracy just isn't working anymore. That's actually a very, very dangerous moment. I've seen it in country after country.

That's been put there partly by propaganda, which is telling you to give up on democracy, and that's been put there by institutions not working properly. We look at that a lot in our series.

But if you start noticing that feeling in yourself and the people around you, that is already a very, very dangerous moment and you've got to ask yourself why is that happening? How can we fix that?

American democracy can definitely be improved upon, saved, and so on, but we've got understand the danger. And actually, the danger comes from a sort of very, very vulnerable moment when people start to give up on democracy.

HUNT: Hmm.

All right, Peter Pomerantsev. Very grateful to have you on the show today. Looking forward to listening to the podcast. I hope you'll come back.

POMERANTSEV: My pleasure.

HUNT: All right, cheers.

Time now for sports.

The Kansas City Chiefs hang on a literal toe for a thrilling last- second win over the Baltimore Ravens in the NFL season opener.

Coy Wire has this morning's Bleacher Report. Coy, good morning.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Oh -- HUNT: Great to see you.

WIRE: -- Kasie, we are so back, and so is NFL football, and it's back with a bang. Fans around the world all sunshine and rainbows except maybe the Ravens fans because of that one big toe, Kasie.

The Chiefs wasting no time marching right down the field and showing off their new human rocket ship, rookie Xavier Worthy, the fastest man in NFL history. Twenty-one yard rushing touchdown. He touched the ball three times Kasie -- he scored twice. He caught a touchdown later.

Mahomes went 20 for 28 -- that touchdown and an interception.

As for the reigning league MVP Lamar Jackson, a game-high 122 yards rushing, one passing touchdown, and with less than a minute to go, appearing to set up the game-tying score.

It's Isaiah Likely. Official signals touchdown. Raven Coach Harbaugh going for two for the win, but this -- Ravens losing by a toe. Likely does not likey. Chiefs win 27-20. I know you don't either, Kasie, as a Ravens fan.

Lamar Jackson now 1-5 against Mahomes's Chiefs. And their quest to three-peat in the NFL season starts off with drama.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PATRICK MAHOMES, QUARTERBACK, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS: Yeah. I mean, obviously, it was nerve-wracking. It's a game of inches, so they say. And that's a great football team. And to come out here and get a win in Arrowhead, it's the way to start off the season.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Now tonight, NFL melodrama titled "Love Hurts." Jordan Love's Packers, Jalen Hurts Eagles going at it in Sao Paulo, Brazil -- the first-ever NFL game in South America. They'll square off on the field of the soccer club Corinthians. The Eagles are technically the home team, nearly 5,000 miles away from Philly.

The players have been soaking up the experience.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JORDAN LOVE, QUARTERBACK, GREEN BAY PACKERS: I know it's going to be rocking, so I'm very excited. I'm glad to hear that the Brazilians are all ready to be Packer fans now, so we're converting everybody. But I'm excited. It's nothing but love since we've been here.

NICK SIRIANNI, HEAD COACH, PHILADELPHIA EAGLES: We came here to do a job, right? And so our job is not to come and sightsee or anything like that. Our job is to come here and to play a football game against a very good opponent in the Green Bay Packers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Let's go, Buffalo.

American Jess Pegula has booked her spot in the final of the U.S. Open. Battling back from a set and a break down to take down six-seed Karolina Muchova in three sets. Pegula has won 15 of her last 16 matches in her -- to her first-ever final appearance at a Major.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESSICA PEGULA, ADVANCES TO FIRST CAREER MAJOR FINAL: I was able to find a way, find some adrenalin, and find my legs. And then at the end of the second set into the third set I started to play, like, how I wanted to play. And it just -- I -- yeah, it took a while, but I don't know how I turned that around, honestly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Pegula will face world number two Aryna Sabalenka who beat Emma Navarro in straight sets in the other semi.

Tomorrow, it will be a rematch of last month's Cincinnati Open final, which Sabalenka won. It's the only loss on Pegula's post-Olympic record.

[05:55:05]

Arthur Ashe Stadium is going to be rocking tonight for the first All- American U.S. Open semi in 19 years. Frances Tiafoe and Taylor Fritz guaranteeing that one of them is going to reach their first-ever Grand Slam final. Fritz is 6-1 all-time against his buddy. They've one -- been close friends and playing against each other since they were 14 years old.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FRANCES TIAFOE, 2-TIME U.S. OPEN SEMIFINALIST: I'm happy for him and I know he's happy for me. So may the best man win come Friday, man. It's going to be -- it's going to be epic. So, you know, eat your popcorn and do what you got to do. It's going to be -- it's going to be a fun one come Friday.

TAYLOR FRITZ, FIRST CAREER MAJOR SEMIFINAL: It's going to be just electric. And, you know, I think that would be -- that would be awesome for the fans, as well, to be guaranteed that one of us is going to be going to the finals.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Guaranteed to be awesome.

And Kasie, I am so sorry about your Ravens. I mean, I hated to be the bearer of bad news.

HUNT: So I hate to correct you, Coy. I am an Orioles fan. My sports loyalties are super --

WIRE: Oh. HUNT: -- confusing.

WIRE: Oh, you're --

HUNT: My dad's a Ravens fan, but I grew up outside Philly and the only team --

WIRE: Oh.

HUNT: -- I didn't -- I didn't have an NFL team because the Colts had left Baltimore. So I grew up --

WIRE: Can we get a full screen for this --

HUNT: -- hating --

WIRE: -- for Kasie's allegiances?

HUNT: Yeah, we -- I know. We kind of do need one. I'm sorry. I'm a Michigan college football fan. It's -- I -- so I really don't like the Indianapolis Colts. I never have. But the Ravens weren't around --

WIRE: Well --

HUNT: -- when I became an Eagles Fan, so --

WIRE: Well, sorry to Pops for his Ravens, but good luck to you tonight for those Eagles. Let's go, Philly.

HUNT: Thank you. I appreciate it.

Coy, I really -- have a great weekend.

WIRE: You, too.

HUNT: Thank you so much.

All right. Coming up next here on CNN THIS MORNING, a surprising announcement from the president's son. Hunter Biden pleads guilty to avoid a federal trial just as it was about to get started.

Plus, we're going to have more on the steps being taken to hold the parent of the suspected Georgia school shooting suspect accountable.

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