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New Day

21 Afghan Soldiers Executed; Jack Murphy is Interviewed about the Taliban; Fitch Warns Hurt to U.S. Credit; Considering Emergency Hotline to China; Russian Hackers Disappear; Baseball's Stars Shine at All-Stars. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired July 14, 2021 - 06:30   ET

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

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JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Anna Coren live in Kabul this morning.

So what's the Taliban saying, Anna, about what we just saw there?

ANNA COREN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, the Taliban is on a PR offensive to try to discredit our reporting, saying that the footage is fake, that this is government propaganda.

We contacted them before the report went to air, but after our story was published, they said that this was just false. They issued a statement in various languages saying that they have never executed commandos who had surrendered.

Now, for the record, CNN spoke to five eyewitnesses on camera about what they saw in that market, in that province, and all of them said that they saw the Taliban pointing their guns at these commandos as they were surrendering, walking out with arms in the air and then the Taliban shot them.

These are people, John, who didn't have to speak to us. They are risking their lives by talking to us, speaking out against the Taliban.

The ministry of defense has said that these are war crimes, but it's not the first time that the Taliban has executed the military or innocent civilians.

Amnesty International has weighed into this, also describing it as war crimes and cold-blooded murder.

Let me read you something that the Amnesty International said. This evidence suggests that the Taliban's persistent claim to have changed their ways are predicated on a lie and completely undermines their claims that they will respect human rights in the peace process. I mean the fact of the matter is, this is a PR nightmare for the

Taliban. You have the political wing in Doha that is about to hold peace talks with a high-level delegation from the Afghan government in Doha, Qatar, in the coming days. You have a Taliban that is trying to present itself as this alternative, legitimate governing body when in actual fact what this video shows is that it is still the same brutal, violent, prime evil group that it has always been.

John.

BERMAN: That may be a PR nightmare for the Taliban, but an actual nightmare for the families of those who apparently were executed and maybe the people in Afghanistan.

Anna Coren, thank you so much for that reporting.

BIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: And let's talk now with Jack Murphy. He is a former -- he is an Army Ranger and Green Beret retired who has been deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan and he is also the author of "Murphy's Law: My Journey from Army Ranger and Green Beret to Investigative Journalist."

Jack, thanks so much for being with us. I know that as you served in Afghanistan, one of the realities of that was working with Afghan soldiers. And I wonder how you are reacting to seeing this video.

JACK MURPHY, AUTHOR, "MURPHY'S LAW": Yes, it's incredibly painful to watch. As I see that, it really reminded me of the experience I had in Iraq and in 2014 and 2015 how we saw ISIS sweep across that country and the areas we fought for and the soldiers we trained were sort of just swept away, seemingly almost overnight. So it's extremely painful to watch for a second time essentially.

KEILAR: You expected this?

MURPHY: Frankly yes. I'm sad to say. It's not unexpected.

KEILAR: It's not unexpected.

And, you know, one of the things you've said is that the central premise of the American invasion in Iraq was wrong and that this shows that. That, you know, it isn't necessarily that Afghans think the Taliban is illegitimate, as America does, and that the local and regional governments are legitimate.

So, you know, how do you look at that flaw with what we're seeing now?

MURPHY: Well, I think that's the basic premise that we go into these counterinsurgency campaigns with, the assumption that the government that we're trying to prop up is legitimate while the insurgents are not. And yet we have to contend with the reality that government troops, for the most part, are not standing up and fighting for their country, whereas the Taliban is certainly willing to fight.

And why is that? We have to ask ourselves some really painful questions about why we were fighting for a country that so many in Afghanistan themselves seem like they're not willing to fight for.

KEILAR: What was your experience with Afghan forces and how does that inform what you are seeing now about their commitment to the fight?

MURPHY: Well, to be clear, I served in Afghanistan what seems like a million years, in 2004, and the situation has undoubtedly changed.

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But were training local troops in Afghanistan down in Khost (ph) province and it was a challenge but we were all incredibly hopeful that they would be able to stand on their own two feet eventually.

KEILAR: And certainly we're seeing the challenges with that.

Jack, thanks so much for being with us. Jack Murphy, we appreciate it.

MURPHY: Thank you.

KEILAR: America's perfect credit rating on the line thanks to the ongoing assault on democracy and the worsening political polarization.

BERMAN: Plus, the Chamber of Commerce expressing alarm over inflation as prices keep soaring. New warnings about the U.S. economy, next.

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BERMAN: Developing this morning, Fitch ratings warns that the perfect credit rating enjoyed by the U.S. is in jeopardy because of the ongoing assault on democracy and worsening state of politics.

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CNN's Matt Egan and Christine Romans join me now.

Matt, it turns out that an assault on democracy is bad business?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

MATT EGAN, CNN BUSINESS LEAD WRITER: Yes, exactly. I mean this is a big deal.

Listen, it's no secret that America has racked up a mountain of debt under both Republicans and Democrats. But what's so critical here is that Fitch ratings isn't just worried about the financial health of the United States, they're sounding the alarm about the political health of the world's largest economy. And not just talking about the political polarization and gridlock that has gripped Washington for the past dozen years or so. They specifically said that governance is a weakness in the United States. They cited the January 6th insurrection and the chaos around the 2020 election.

Let me read you a key line here. They said the failure of the former president to concede the elections and the events surrounding the certification of the results of the presidential election in Congress in January have no parallels in other very highly rated sovereigns. In other words, countries that have perfect credit ratings don't do that kind of stuff.

Fitch also warned that these redrafting the election laws in U.S. states could also weaken the political system. And, listen, here's why it matters, a credit downgrade could set off turbulence in financial markets.

ROMANS: Yes.

EGAN: That's what we saw in 2011. It could also raise borrowing costs, making it harder to refinance that mountain of debt.

ROMANS: It just looks bad. It just looks bad, too, you know.

EGAN: It looks terrible.

BERMAN: And, look, when you're buying emerging market bonds, one of the things you're concerned about is the stability of the emerging market in that government. Now people are worried about U.S. stability because of what they're seeing.

ROMANS: We're supposed to be the grown-up and acting like children basically.

BERMAN: Romans, in addition to that, inflation. I mean we just got some really eye-popping numbers yesterday.

ROMANS: Yes, look, essentially inflation means your dollar is not going as far. And I think everybody has felt this. At the gas tank -- I mean every time you go to fill up, you're noticing that it costs a little bit more.

I want to show you some of these numbers. Used car prices up 45 percent in one year. Gas up 45 percent. Even washing machines, you know, laundry machines up 30 percent. Air fares, hotels, all of these are rising and you feel it.

But they're rising because last year at the same time it was utter catastrophe, right? It was the lost summer of 2020 and now you're bouncing back. For some perspective, if you look at air fares and hotels, yes, they're a lot more expensive. They're still less than they were in June 2019. So some perspective there.

The question is, how long will this last? Is it something to freak out about? People are feeling it every day, every time they go to the grocery store, but we're still hearing that this could be temporary as the economy sort of evens out after this big bounce back.

It is a challenge, though, I think for the White House and messaging because, you know, you look at the front page of "The New York Post" today, it's this big black, you know, incredible shrinking dollar and you listen to CPAC this weekend and it was our reporting -- straight reporting about inflation that was, you know, all ominous and this is Biden's fault.

It's not Joe Biden's fault. The economy has reopened here. It's what policymakers do from here on out that I think is important. BERMAN: Look, and fears about inflation can be a self-fulfilling

prophesy.

ROMANS: Absolutely.

BERMAN: How people feel about inflation literally can drive inflation. And that's what I think the White House is most concerned about.

ROMANS: I think so, too.

And something important to -- I mean, look, if you bought a used -- a new car last year, you could probably sell it for maybe even a little bit more this year. That never happens.

BERMAN: Right.

ROMANS: Used car prices, $26,000. Are you kidding me? A used car price, $26,000. So you can see that actually the auto part of this is a big part of the inflation story. A third of this gain in inflation was just used cars. That's going to work itself out.

EGAN: We also have to remember that high inflation hurts low income Americans the hardest.

ROMANS: Yes.

EGAN: And those are, of course, are the same ones really hurt by the pandemic.

BERMAN: Got to keep our eye on the wage numbers, though. I think a lot of Americans will be willing to take some inflation if it means that finally their wages appreciably increase.

ROMANS: It's why some of the, you know, eating out numbers are higher because, you know, restaurants have to pay more to get their workers back.

BERMAN: Christine Romans, Matt Egan, great to see you both. Thank you.

EGAN: Thank you.

BERMAN: Coming up, we have brand new reporting about an emergency hotline the White House is considering setting up with China.

KEILAR: Plus, a hacking gang that attacked U.S. companies has mysteriously vanished from the Internet. So where did they go? And who might have gotten rid of them?

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KEILAR: New this morning, sources tell CNN that the Biden administration is considering setting up an emergency hotline with the Chinese government. This would be similar to the so-called red phone that was established between the U.S. and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.

And Kylie Atwood is with us now to talk about her brand new reporting.

That red phone was to avert nuclear calamity.

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Right.

KEILAR: What is this one for?

ATWOOD: Well, I think it's -- same idea, generally speaking, right? We have seen the Chinese military be more aggressive in recent years. This has caught U.S. officials and Chinese experts kind of on their back feet right now. There isn't a way to get into direct contact immediately with the top levels of the Chinese government in the same way that we have that capability between the U.S. and Russia. As you said, that was established during the Cold War.

So what the Biden administration officials are doing right now is examining this possibility. It's in the early stages. And the reason for that is because this has been discussed for years. The discussions date back to the Obama administration. But this idea wasn't really formalized until it was put into a national security memo during the Trump administration in the final year. And that's what launched U.S. officials to start looking at the technicalities here. Could this actually happen?

Now, my understanding is that the Biden administration would only really use this if they developed it as part of a grander risk reduction strategy between the U.S. and China. But the problem here, of course, would be, is China actually going to engage because there have been problems in getting in touch with China at multiple levels from the U.S. side.

And there's actually already a hotline -- a few hotlines that are established at different levels of government. One is at the Pentagon. And a senior official at the NSC, Kurt Campbell, actually, earlier this year, said that that phone line is known to ring for hours and hours in an empty room in China when the U.S. tries to use it.

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So, there could be issues here. But the bottom line is that this tool would actually allow President Biden to get in touch with President Xi or those around him in an encrypted way that was immediate.

Brianna.

KEILAR: Sounds like some kind of hotline over there at the Pentagon.

I also want, if you can just stand by for us, I want to talk about another story that we're tracking this morning, which is the intrigue growing around the sudden disappearance of one of the biggest online hacking gangs. Cyber security experts say the ransomware group that hit a U.S. meat supplier this spring, poof, it just went dark on Tuesday.

Brian Fung is with us on this story.

So what happened? Was this -- you know, did Putin intervene? Did the U.S. go after them? What seems to be the case?

BRIAN FUNG, CNN TECH REPORTER: Look, it's certainly a possibility, but right now cyber security experts are still just guessing at what may -- might have happened.

You know, overnight these -- all the websites that this particular group, REvil, uses to communicate with its victims, to list the victims that it's hacked. All of them went down and now has gone completely dark, as you said.

It's certainly a possibility that the U.S. government may have been involved, but the FBI, U.S. Cyber Command aren't commenting at the moment. Other cyber security experts have said, you know, it's possible that there may have been some sort of planned maintenance going on.

Let me just read you a little bit of, you know, some of what other cyber security experts are saying here. You know, cyber security experts from Exabeam said, this outage could be criminal maintenance, planned retirement or more likely the result of an offensive response to the criminal enterprise, but we don't know.

And that's what's so troubling right now and what cyber security experts are really scrambling to figure out is what are the -- you know, what -- what happened behind the scenes?

Let's remember here now, REvil is a group that had gone after JBS Foods, the meat packing company.

KEILAR: Right.

FUNG: One of the biggest meat packing companies in the world. REvil has collected some $11 million in ransomware payments over the course of its history. And so this is one of the most ruthless ransomware gangs, you know, ever -- ever to have, you know, walked the earth, so to speak.

KEILAR: You say this possibility of a planned retirement. I'm picturing the 401(k) that a cyber gang might offer. Maybe not, right? Maybe that's not it. But this is, obviously, of huge significance, Kylie, to the U.S. government.

ATWOOD: Yes, and we've heard warnings from the Biden White House in recent days, just as recently as late last week, saying that if Russia didn't act on these criminal groups that were partaking in these attacks on the U.S., that the U.S. was prepared to do so. So there have been some signals in recent days saying that, yes, we're looking at this possibility.

And they also said notably, a senior administration official said, that they may take action that is visible and in the public or they may take action that is less visible. So they may or may not actually claim responsibility for this, which is an interesting concept to consider.

KEILAR: It's a very interesting story. We know that you'll both continue to dig on it.

Kylie and Brian, thank you so much.

Rhetoric that kills. We're going to take a close look at the deadly escalation of anti-vaccine messaging in politics, on television and online.

BERMAN: Plus, Liz Cheney speaking out for the first time since becoming the only Republican named to the select panel investigating the insurrection. What she says now about House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

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BERMAN: Baseball's all-star game back after being cancelled last season because of the pandemic.

Andy Scholes with this morning's "Bleacher Report."

This was really, Andy, we can all agree, the Red Sox show last night.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, maybe so, John, but, you know, last night's midsummer classic was originally supposed to be in Atlanta, but was moved by Major League Baseball because of the new voting laws in the state of Georgia. So, instead, the fans in Denver getting to enjoy this year's all-star game.

And instead of all the players wearing their own uniforms for the game, they wore special all-star unis. And I tell you what, fans were not very fond of these. Some on social media saying they were the worst uniforms they'd ever seen and this was just an awful idea.

As for the game, Shohei Ohtani, he continued his record-breaking season by becoming the first ever to start the game on the mound and bat leadoff for the American League. He did go 0 for 2 at the plate, but he pitched a perfect first inning and ended up getting the win in the game. So, Ohtani, once again, impressing everyone who was watching this one.

The third inning was when we got some explosive action in this one. Vlad Guerrero Jr., a massive home run to left. He ended up being named the game's MVP. Twenty-two-years old, youngest ever to win the award. The American League won for an eighth straight time, 5-2.

All right, so after back-to-back losses, Team USA finally getting a win against Argentina last night in Las Vegas. Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal each got 17 points in the 108-80 blowout. Team USA only playing with eight members of the Olympic team. Jayson Tatum was sitting this one out with some knee soreness while Chris Middleton, Drew Holiday and Devin Booker all still playing in the NBA finals.

Game four of the finals tonight in Milwaukee. The Bucks trying to even that series at two games apiece.

All right, NEW DAY continues right now.

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KEILAR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. It is Wednesday, July 14th.

And we begin with a deadly escalation of anti-vaccine.