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Elsa to Make Landfall Soon; FBI Infiltrates Group that Wanted to Test Bombs, Surveil the Capitol; Russian Hackers Target RNC as 1,500+ Businesses Breached; GOP Candidates Embrace Big Lie for 2022 Midterm Elections. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired July 07, 2021 - 06:00   ET

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

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Brianna Keilar alongside John Berman. Good morning to viewers here in the United States and around the world. It is Wednesday, July 7.

[06:00:20]

And happening now, Tropical Storm Elsa bearing down on the Gulf Coast of Florida, expected to make landfall here in the next few hours. The storm is weakening slightly, but it's still capable of causing a lot of destruction.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Elsa is packaging damaging winds and life- threatening rain. Residents in Tampa urged to stay indoors and off the streets until the threat passes.

This morning, the Coast Guard is searching for nine people who are still missing off the coast of Key West. Fifteen others were rescued. Let's get right to Randi Kaye, live in Clearwater Beach with a sense of how things are going this morning. Windy, Randi.

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, certainly. Good morning to both of you.

It's been windy and rainy throughout the night. We're just at the edge of Clearwater harbor. Last night before we went to sleep, there were a couple boats anchored out there. We haven't seen them this morning, and we'll see what daylight brings.

But the worst of it came through around 2 a.m., so just a few hours ago. But we're still feeling these heavy winds and quite a bit of rain. The winds and the rain were certainly pounding our hotel. So certainly didn't make for a great night of sleep.

But there was a hurricane warning here in Pinellas County where we are. Thirty-three other counties. We are expecting about 50- to 70 mile-per-hour winds, and that's certainly what we got.

There was also concerns about tornadoes coming into this area there. There was still a watch for that this morning.

But as the rain continues, that really was the story. They were expecting 4 to 6 inches of rain here. We are told by Clearwater Police this morning that there is some minor flooding in the streets. There's also some trees down and a few power outages, as well.

But the other concern, of course, was this storm surge, because the worst of it came through, as I said, about 2 a.m. High tide was at 3 a.m., so there was concern that the two of them would coincide and create quite a bit of water, pushing water into the streets here in Clearwater, which it did in some cases and also around the area of Tampa Bay.

So that was an issue. But the National Guard, I can tell you they are ready. They have high-water vehicles. They're ready to do search and rescue if needed. Also, the governor had about 6,000 people, utility workers on stand-by this morning in case there were major power outages.

So we will see what -- what the morning brings. But for now, things are just continuing as they were for the last few hours, just on and off bands of rain and some heavy winds here -- John, Brianna.

BERMAN: Randi Kaye, stay dry for us there. We'll check in with you in a little bit.

Where is Elsa headed? Who might be in harm's way? Chad Myers joins us now with the forecast -- Chad.

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: John, 65 mile-per-hour storm right now. It was a hurricane yesterday, but it really lost a lot of power because of wind coming in from the southwest called sheer, and that wind was very dry. Relative humidity in that wind was under 30 percent, if you can believe that, in the Gulf of Mexico, but it happened. So that -- that's what tore this storm apart.

Right now it is a rainmaker. And the winds will still be 50 to 60 as it comes onshore somewhere north of Cedar Key.

But that's not the real problem. The issue is that this is going to continue to move toward Jacksonville and Gainesville and then on up towards Brunswick and on up towards Savannah with winds still at 40.

It's a very saturated area. We've had a lot of rainfall this past month. If you get winds 40 or 50 some of these trees are going to fall down. We know that power companies are stationed there, waiting for -- These crews are waiting for the power to go out so they can put it right back up. But they have to wait for the winds to die off.

So as we move you ahead, this storm does get into Florida by tomorrow afternoon. It starts to move on up toward Charleston. For tonight, we're still looking at wind at Tybee (ph).

And then up here tomorrow, probably Murrells Inlet, pushing water up into the marsh there, into Myrtle Beach and then finally up on toward Hampton Roads as this finally does go away.

We still have hurricane warnings north of Tampa, but not for Tampa proper. And we haven't had any hurricane gusts in a long time, in many, many hours. So that is something there that we're looking forward to. The storm did fall apart a lot. Still going to get a lot of rain. Some

places are still going to get four to six more inches of rainfall. And we're even seeing some very heavy rain even in Orlando.

Mild, hundreds of miles away all the way down into Cape Coral still seeing very heavy rainfall. That surge that I'm seeing this morning, about 2 feet. So that's not too bad.

BERMAN: All right. Chad Myers, keep us posted throughout the morning. Thank you very much.

MYERS: You bet.

BERMAN: So the weather expected to be less of a concern today in Surfside on the east coast of Florida, where search-and-rescue efforts continue. Four more bodies were recovered Tuesday, bringing the death toll in the Champlain Towers collapse to 36. One hundred and nine people are still unaccounted for.

This new video from Miami-Dade Rescue shows the painstaking task of digging through the rubble. And for the first time, CNN was granted closer access to the wreckage.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[06:05:06]

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Just being here so up close, you see the twisted metal, the pile so high of concrete. You can't even see the ocean, and it's on the other side. But of course, it's what's underneath that has torn apart this community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Our Leyla Santiago on the scene. We're going to have much more of this brand-new tour, ahead on NEW DAY.

KEILAR: And we have some breaking news. Unsealed court records show that after the attack on the Capitol, the FBI infiltrated a Bible study group in Northern Virginia, where members discussed surveying -- surveilling the Capitol, testing homemade bombs and even seceding from the U.S.

CNN's Whitney Wild is joining us with the details. You know, this -- this reporting is alarming, and it's fascinating. And it really speaks to not only what happened on January 6 but the continued threat, Whitney.

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Exactly. This comes on the heels of the U.S. Capitol Police Department saying they're making changes to try to shore up what was obviously an extremely soft target that day because of training and a lack of equipment.

This newly-disclosed criminal case against a Virginia man, Fi Duong, arose after he interacted with undercover law enforcement officers after participating in the insurrection. In February, an agent attended one of Duong's so-called Bible study

meetings, where group members discussed secession and taking part in weapons training.

Duong and his associates used encrypted messages to discuss surveillance on the restricted zone that the National Guard had established around the Capitol.

Here's just a quote from this case. One wrote, "How do we feel about an intel run around the Capitol tonight? Fewer of them out there? Posture may be lowered. Good opportunity to expose weaknesses."

Prosecutors say Duong had compiled a stash of weapons at his home in Alexandria. And that included an AK-47 and five boxes full of materials to make and test Molotov cocktails.

At a meeting between Duong and two undercover FBI agents just last month, he told them this about plans for testing the homemade bombs: "We're not at a point where people are out in the street rioting. It's coming soon. I give it about another six weeks. Whatever supplies you can get, get them now."

Duong was arrested last week and is charged with four federal crimes related to the Capitol insurrection. These charges are actually minor compared with some members of other extremist groups have faced for their roles in the insurrection.

He has not been formally indicted or entered a plea. He has also not been charged with any crimes related to any post-January 6 conduct, and that includes the alleged bomb making.

Duong's attorney declined to comment on Tuesday, Brianna.

KEILAR: Thank you so much. Such important reporting here, Whitney. Really appreciate it.

I want to bring in Andrew McCabe, who is a CNN senior law enforcement analyst and also former deputy director of the FBI. He investigated organized crime, counterterrorism and extremism and ran a terror task force focused specifically on D.C. and Northern Virginia where this Bible study was located.

And I say that with air quotes, "Bible study," because that's not obviously, Andy, what this really was. But what does this tell you about not just the threat we have seen of extremist groups but of the continued threat?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, Brianna, it tells you that -- it's a great view into the type of people that are drawn to these fantastic and ridiculous conspiracies, but who can take that belief and turn it into a desire to actually commit violence.

You know, as I was reading the documents in this case, it reads just like many, many of the cases I was involved in during my time in the FBI in which we were investigating people who tried to conceal their activities with bogus claims of being prayer groups or religious, you know, Bible study meetings, but who were actually plotting individual acts of violence.

No matter what, you know, philosophy or group they were -- were inspired by or following, whether that's al Qaeda or a domestic extremist group, whatever that might be, these folks continue to amass weapons. They plan violent activities.

And the FBI is in a very tough position to try to understand when it has gone on too long and when an arrest has to be made in order to prevent an act of violence.

KEILAR: It is really putting it into context when you're comparing this to cases that the FBI built against radicalized followers of al Qaeda.

In this -- in these documents, what we see is an intent to stoke a second civil war. That is certainly the goal. I wonder what you think about how susceptible the U.S. is to, you know, this kind of attempt. I don't know if it's being successful, but to the damage that trying to push through with something like that would bring?

MCCABE; Well, it's -- that is the million-dollar question, right? That's at the heart of every one of these very sensitive cases.

[06:10:01]

In this case, they had a -- the ability to charge this individual based on the criminal activity or laws that he broke on January 6. They had that ability to disrupt this plot, or whatever he was involved in, from the beginning.

So they -- with that kind of in your back pocket, they let the case go and tried to understand, is this just someone who is, you know, boasting and engaged in kind of fantastic nonsense that will never amount to anything? Or is there really a legitimate threat to violence here? It is a -- you are balanced on the razor's edge as you try to investigate these cases to make that decision of when has it gone too far?

So, seeing this one, tiny, isolated example of a small group of individuals right here in the Northern Virginia area, you have to wonder how many other groups or people just like this who were inspired by the events on January 6, who've been listening to the dog whistles that they've been hearing from -- from people in leadership positions and politicians both here in Washington and around the country.

Where are these radicalized individuals, and how far are they down this path to radicalization that ultimately ends in violence? It's a very, very concerning subject.

KEILAR: Yes, that's the question. Is this the tip of the iceberg? Andrew, thank you so much for being with us this morning.

We do have some breaking news. We're actually getting word that Russian hackers also targeted the RNC as it breached more than 1,500 businesses. BERMAN: Plus, even after a year of scrutiny on police, a former police

captain now projected to win the Democratic primary for New York City's mayor.

And hear Dr. Anthony Fauci's stern warning about the Delta variant, which now makes up half of all new infections in the United States.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:15:52]

BERMAN: Developing this morning, a contractor for the Republican National Committee says that Russian cyber criminals attempted to hack into their computer systems last week. This breach comes just days after a major attack on an American software company which has affected an estimated 800 to 1,500 businesses in the U.S. and globally.

Later this morning, the president will be meeting with key leaders to discuss the administration's efforts to counter these ransomware attacks. This is a 9:30 meeting in the White House that I think has taken on new importance.

Joining us now with his new reporting on all this, CNN political and national security analyst David Sanger. He's a White House and national security correspondent for "The New York Times." David, great to see you.

First, explain to me the details, quickly, of this hack on the RNC contractor.

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, we're still learning about it, John. But the -- the key is that they had a contractor who was servicing their computer systems and giving them storage up on the cloud where most people, you know, put their data. And they -- somehow, the contractor got hacked, and we're still trying to figure out how. And it may have been through this wider ransomware attack that you referred to.

So it's possible that the Russian group that did this wasn't necessarily aiming at the RNC. It's also possible that they were, because you may remember that in 2015 and 2016 when the Democrats got hacked, the Republicans also got hacked. Not badly but they got hacked.

BERMAN: There seems to be a great deal of concern or consternation about this ransomware attack on this software company that affects 800 to 1,500 businesses. The White House convening a meeting with the president at 9:30.

President Biden -- and you were there. You were asking about this at the news conference when he was overseas meeting with Putin. He says he told Vladimir Putin there are these 16 areas that are off-limits to attack, period, he says. So, these attacks, is it possible RNC contractor and the ransomware attack affecting this software company, where does this fall into the areas that Joe Biden says off limits period, and what's he going to do about it?

SANGER: Well, it does look like it falls into these critical infrastructure areas. You know, some infrastructure is obvious, right? The power grid, the communications grid and all that.

But if you read through this list -- and it's on the DHS website, so it's not exactly a secret listing out here -- the operations of the Internet are considered critical infrastructure, because we're moving as much commerce over that as you are over, you know, bridges and tunnels and so forth.

The question of what you do about it is a much harder one. The U.S. has tried many different things. We've tried sanctions. Clearly, those aren't working. The biggest Russian hack we'd seen so far was SolarWinds, which hit the federal government and many of America's largest corporations.

The president sanctioned Russia for that several months ago. Clearly, that message didn't get across.

So now the question is, is he going to do what he said he would in response to my question in Geneva, which is have a counter- cyberattack, which risks escalation? Is he going to try to do sanctions against their oil exports, which is the only thing that would really hurt them? Is he going to issue another warning? We don't know.

BERMAN: What's your hunch tell you? Look, I bet his 9:30 meeting at the White House all of a sudden is a big deal.

SANGER: Yes.

BERMAN: I mean, where's his gut in this? He clearly was trying to defuse some tensions overall with Vladimir Putin when he met with him.

SANGER: That's right. And, you know, the whole tone of that was actually a little bit better than we thought it was going to be. Not warm but certainly business-like.

It strikes me that President Biden's instinct is to do a cyber-for- cyberattack. He threatened that during the transition, during SolarWinds, and again in Geneva.

However, every time an American president comes up with that is usually a row of strategists or lawyers who step in and say, Well, sir, I understand the temptation, but you know, we live in the glassiest house here. It's a lot easier for the Russians to go after our banks and our water systems and our critical infrastructure than it is for us to go after them.

[06:20:07]

BERMAN: Is the U.S. good at it? If it wants to launch a counter- cyberattack, is this something the U.S. can do well?

SANGER: Yes, we can do it very well. The problem is what happens next? Because the Russians really have more targets here in the United States to go counter against than we have in Russia.

BERMAN: All right. I know you'll be watching this meeting very carefully. I'm not sure they're going to tell us outright --

SANGER: I'm not sure. I doubt it myself.

BERMAN: -- what after. But I look forward to reading your reporting tomorrow to get a sense of what's really happened inside.

David Sanger, thanks so much for being with us. I appreciate it.

SANGER: Great to be with you.

KEILAR: As the pivotal midterm elections approach, Republican candidates running for local, state and federal office across the country are campaigning on the baseless claim that fraud was a rampant problem in the 2020 election and that former President Trump was robbed of a victory.

In Arizona, state Representative Mark Finchem is running for secretary of state on the claim that the Arizona audit could upend Biden's victory in the state.

In Michigan, Kristina Karamo, a Republican candidate for secretary of state, is also running on claims that Trump won the state, even though Biden won Michigan by more than 154,000 votes. She, too, is calling for an Arizona-style audit for her battleground state.

Joining us now is Natasha Alford, CNN political analyst and V.P. of digital content and senior correspondent at "TheGrio."

And also with us is CNN political commentator Scott Jennings. He is a former special assistant to President George W. Bush and former senior adviser to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Great to have you both on this morning.

Natasha, I wonder what do you think of this: echoing Trump's false election claim as a strategy for winning?

NATASHA ALFORD, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think people are doing exactly what has worked for Donald Trump. Right?

Poll after poll has shown that, even with this big lie being proven and disproven, that people still believe Donald Trump is the rightful president. And so, in the same way that folks have chosen the media that echoes exactly what they want to hear, these candidates are banking on people choosing them for echoing this message.

And it's not even a matter of whether the candidates believe in the big lie themselves, but they are incentivized to lie. And we've seen that those who actually are bold enough to tell the truth, they're punished and they're pushed out.

And so that is a big concern for the GOP in terms of what the future of the party is going to look like if this is what is rewarded. KEILAR: It does seem very much, Scott, that it is rewarded.

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, in these Republican primaries for local office and in some of the big Senate primaries going on, the candidates are all trying to outdo each other to loyalty to Donald Trump and all he cares about right now is relitigating the 2020 election. And so that's what they're trying to do.

They're trying to signal to people, Hey, I'm going to support Trump on this.

Where I -- I really think the party is going to have a major issue is over the next four years, I think about the White House race in 2024. Remember, we have no platform right now. We forwent a platform in 2020. The platform was Trump.

And in 2024, if Donald Trump is the nominee, then he is going to want to relitigate the 2020 election. There will be no platform.

And if we have a different nominee, Trump's going to push that person to do the same thing, relitigate 2020 above all else.

If we go back to the American people in '24 and say, We need to have the White House again, but by the way, January 6 was justified, because the election was stolen, we're going to lose the election again. Just like we lost it in 2020.

And so, you know, what's going on now, I think, depending on your jurisdiction, it may or may not have an impact on the outcome of your race. The real impact for the Republican Party is national, and it will manifest itself in '24 if we want any chance of taking back the White House.

KEILAR: I wanted to see what you both think about a -- an article "The New York Times" that has garnered a lot of attention titled "A Fourth of July Symbol of Unity that May No Longer Unite."

This is about, of course, the American flag. And the author writes, "Today flying the flag from the back of a pickup truck or over a lawn is increasingly seen as a clue, albeit an imperfect one, to a person's political affiliation in a deeply divided nation."

The idea here -- and there are moments that are documented in this story -- of people, liberals, making an assumption, seeing an American flag, that maybe the person flying it is actually a Trump supporter or is a conservative.

There's also examples of conservatives who have said, despite even friends pressuring them to fly Trump flags alongside their American flags, say, in their yard, there's one man who said, No, I don't want to politicize the flag. I'm not going to do that.

Scott, I wonder what you -- what you think about this debate.

[06:25:00] JENNINGS: Well, I'm first of all, outraged that there are people out there who would make commerce judgments based on whether somebody was flying a flag.

In that story you referenced, there was a lady who didn't want to buy from the farm, because she thought the guy was a "flag raising so and so," I think the story said.

I mean, think about that for a minute. How deranged, how crazy have we gotten over our national politics that, if you see someone flying an American flag, you run the other direction, because you assume that you all don't agree on politics? It's crazy.

Here are the flags that matter: the ones that our soldiers wear on their uniforms, the one on the moon, the ones that we revere as school children and say a Pledge of Allegiance to. We're not taking a pledge to any political party. We are taking a pledge to our country, and that's how we ought to view the flag.

And so, I really hate this viewpoint, to be honest. I think it's crazy. I think it's another symptom of the last several years when, you know, I mean, let's be honest, there's only two political parties in this country. One of them says they love the flag, and one right now is coddling a viewpoint of people who say I think it's divisive.

It's the Trump years. Trump said he loved the flag, so now they say they've got to be against it. It's nutty. It's reflexive partisanship, and it's awful; and it ought to stop.

KEILAR: Natasha.

ALFORD: Well, I'm actually surprised that this is news, that people are surprised that the flag -- the flag is being politicized.

So, I come from a proud military family. My father served in the military. My uncle served. My aunt served. And they all fly the flag with pride.

But at the same time, I know that there's a history in this country of certain groups using the flag, the American flag, to intimidate marginalized groups and people of color.

Think of 1976. There's a famous photo called "The Soiling of Old Glory," where a black man looks as if he's being stabbed with the American flag, because he's attacked by anti-bussing protesters in Boston.

You know, when the KKK assembled, they often used the American flag as part of their gatherings.

And so it's this idea that it's not the flag that is the problem. Right? There are people who proudly serve and honor the -- the values that the flag represents.

But there are people who manipulate. And they act as if they have a monopoly over the flag, over patriotism. And -- and when they show up to intimidate and to abuse and to try to inject fear into certain communities, they use that -- that flag along with other flags and symbols.

You saw this -- this white supremacist march in Philadelphia just recently. There was a version of the American flag that's represented there.

So, I think what's -- what's scary for me is this idea of people who -- who try to take away that message that America is for all and basically assert that America is just for them.

KEILAR: Yes. I wonder what you think about that, Scott. Because Patriot Front, the white supremacist group -- you know, this is a more recent example of this -- they did fly this flag when they were marching this weekend in Philadelphia.

I think one of the more recent images that we might think of, of the American flag being very visible, was people on January 6, who were storming the Capitol, beating police officers with it.

There certainly is an attempt by extremists to create an association between themselves and the flags -- and the flag. And I wonder what you think about that and if that's working, and if, you know, people need to be as outspoken about that as they do about what is extremely troubling, that people are making this association.

JENNINGS: Anyone who uses the American flag as a symbol of violence, as a symbol of hate, anyone who uses a physical American flag to beat police officers at the U.S. Capitol are reprehensible. They're terrible. They're awful. They don't stand for what's good about America and her

flag. They don't. They don't represent us.

They are saying -- by doing those kinds of things, they are saying they don't believe in America. They don't believe in the promise of America or the equality of America. That's what they're signaling.

And so their views ought to be discounted. And I think most of us do discount their views.

So I strongly reject the idea that they are going to be able to appropriate the American flag and take it away from those of us who revere the flag and everything that it stands for.

So I -- you know, look, I -- I think there are people out there who -- who live on division. You know, they live on -- their politics depends on division. Their politics depends on us hating each other.

And I think, frankly, there are people that live on both sides of the political extreme spectrum here that love that we're out here debating whether the American flag is divisive, because it furthers their ends.

The American flag is a unifying symbol. It is a unifying symbol for me. It is a unifying symbol for people around the world who see it as a beacon of hope and freedom. And we have to stand up and reclaim it. Anybody using it for violence and hate and division is wrong. And

anybody who wants to stand and wave the flag and say here's what it really stands for, in my opinion, is right. It's not political. It's not partisan.