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Quest Means Business
Trump Steps Up Attacks In Attempt To Slow Down Harris; US Stocks Rise After Drop In New US Jobless Claims; Taylor Swift Attack Foiled; Trump Defends Recent Absence From Campaign Trail; School Children Help Protect The Great Barrier Reef; Noah Lyles Wins 200-Meter Bronze Despite COVID; Air India Focuses On Rebuilding Its Infrastructure. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired August 08, 2024 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:00]
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, one of the things I love about our country, we are a nation of people who believe in
those ideals that were foundational to what made us so special as a nation. We believe in those ideals, and the sisters and brothers of labor have
always fought for those ideals, always fought for those ideals.
And we know, we are a work in progress. We haven't yet quite reached all of those ideals, but we will die trying because we love our country and we
believe in who we are, and that's what our campaign is about.
We love our country. We believe in our country. We believe in each other.
We believe in the collective. We are not falling for these folks who are trying to divide us, trying to separate us, trying to pull us apart.
That's not where the strength lies and there is that, and so I say to all the members of UAW and Shawn Fain as the first who I talked to about this,
I am so deeply honored as a lifelong supporter of union labor, for Tim and I to have the endorsement of UAW.
(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)
RICHARD QUEST, CNN INTERNATIONAL HOST, "QUEST MEANS BUSINESS": There we have the Vice President Kamala Harris and running mate, Governor Tim Walz
holding a campaign event.
It was the UAW, the United Auto Workers. They are in Detroit in Michigan, and what an extraordinarily busy day it has been on politics.
It comes after Donald Trump wrapped up his first press conference in some months. Mr. Trump lashed out at Kamala Harris' record. He repeated familiar
talking points -- radical liberal, criticized her as the border czar on the southern border. He said his team has agreed to three debates in September,
and it follows the campaign trying to reset the narrative of the race as the US vice president rises in the polls.
Here is what Donald Trump said about the economy, if he is not elected.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have a lot of bad things coming up. You could end up in a depression of the 1929 variety,
which would be a devastating thing. It took many years, it took decades to recover from it, and we are very close to that.
We have a very, very sick country right now. You saw the other day with the stock market crashing, that was just the beginning. That was just the
beginning. It is going to get worse. It is going to get a lot worse in my opinion.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: Before we go any further, it is worth noting that the unemployment rate at 25 percent at the height of the Great Depression; today, it is four
percent, and before we speak to Daniel, I just want to factcheck, to be absolutely clear about this, we are in no shape or form anywhere close to a
Depression, and there is not one serious economist that would suggest that if Donald Trump is not elected, there would be a Depression.
Just straightforward factchecking: Economic growth in the United States is about 2.2 percent on an annual basis, inflation is now down around 2.6
percent. To be sure the economy is slowing and we expect Fed interest rate cuts between now and Christmas, but there is no evidence to support the
idea that there is a Depression around the corner.
Daniel Strauss is in Washington.
Forgive me, Daniel, having to just sort of clarify that -- I've covered it.
DANIEL STRAUSS, CNN REPORTER: It's all good. It's what we do.
QUEST: Well, I've covered economics and business for more decades than is honest or decent.
Okay, tell me, talk me through the day. We had Donald Trump, we've just got Kamala Harris. Talk me through the tick-tock of the day.
STRAUSS: Yes, look, we are seeing something of a split-screen and as much as Trump in Republicans like to say that this is a new more evolved Trump,
that rambling hour-long press conference shows that this is the Trump we know from 2016, from 2018, from 2020, and that is in contrast to Harris and
Tim Walz campaigning in Michigan, a region that both campaigns see is a priority to win this election, and presenting themselves as one that can
win over labor, win over working class voters, and the kinds of voters that Democrats have shed over the past few years and really, really found
themselves worried about losing further.
So what is building in the next few weeks and months is a stark contrast if anything, and one that Trump, under all of those comments during his press
conference seems irked by.
[16:05:04]
It was clear from his comments during this press conference that he felt more comfortable running against Joe Biden.
QUEST: Right. I was also interested in Donald Trump's comments about the size of the crowd at his inauguration and he compared it to Martin Luther
King.
STRAUSS: Yes, it is an unfounded claim and wrong, but Trump has always seen crowd size as an indicator of raw support.
QUEST: Right.
STRAUSS: And look he has drawn large crowds in the past.
QUEST: Sure.
STRAUSS: And those were early indicators of a surge that would lead Trump or carry Trump to the White House. But here, this is not what we are
talking about, and this is not what he is talking about.
It is clear again, too, that Harris in the first few days of her campaign has drawn surprisingly large crowds, and it is something that Trump
himself, wants a contrast with Harris and her campaign.
QUEST: All right, Daniel, I am grateful. Thank you.
Stephen Collinson is with me.
Stephen, I mean, to a large extent, you and I have been over these fences a good few times and there is no point in parsing it because we can parse one
and we can parse the other. It is much better if we take a wider view.
At some point, Kamala Harris is going to have to do a news conference. She seems to have studiously avoided actually putting herself in front of the
press.
STEPHEN COLLINSON, CNN POLITICS SENIOR REPORTER: Definitely, that was one of the rationales behind Trump coming out today, however ineffective he
might have been.
What the Trump campaign is trying to do is build pressure on Harris to try and goad her to go into a much more public, unscripted forum, because in
the past, especially at the beginning of her vice presidency, those kind of interviews and spontaneous moments were the places where she was most
troubled.
She has shown herself in the last few days to be increasingly confident on the big stage. She can give a great speech.
The Trump campaign wants together out there, that's why Trump also came out today and said he had agreed to do three debates. We know that the vice
president has agreed to do one on ABC News. We don't know exactly what will happen, but he wants to get her up there.
Joe Biden went into that first debate and he needed to change the trajectory of the campaign. Trump probably needs to do that right now when
he gets on stage with Harris.
QUEST: But having listened to his news conference and to be fair to Mr. Trump, as indeed, he has on many occasions, he stands there and takes
question after question after question. He does -- I mean, whether it is ego or just he wants to answer all the questions is not really the point.
The fact is he does do very long news conferences, but it is almost impossible when you've got this firehose of inaccuracies and half-truths
and simply wrong facts to factcheck it properly, or for the viewer to know what is right and wrong.
COLLINSON: Right, and Trump doesn't even make the best possible case for his own candidacy. He would have been much better had he come out there,
spoken for half an hour, spoken about how lots of Americans are really struggling.
Yes, the economy is in decent shape, but there are many, many Americans who are having trouble paying for their grocery bills, putting gas in their
car. That's where the election could be decided. Talking about a Great Depression or World War III and that kind of hyperbole doesn't really help
those people.
It is all out there. If you look on the Trump website, there is a very effective ad which basically uses Ronald Reagan's speech from 1984, "Are
you better off now than you were four years ago?" And juxtaposes it against today's headlines. Trump should be making that argument, not the kind of
arguments that he was making, but he is consumed by aggrievement.
He is ill-disciplined. He goes on about his crowd sizes.
So in these forums, he is often his own worst enemy, but it is often worked for him before. It works for the people who really love him, tens of
millions will vote for him. But what about those voters in the middle that will decide the election? What did he give them today?
QUEST: I am grateful, Stephen Collinson. Thank you.
With me is Rina Shah, a Republican strategist and she joins me. Let's go figure --
Just before we get to the detail, just pick up that point that Stephen is saying.
There are many and I know that Julia Chatterley is going to make the same point when she is ready on economics ground. There are many valid
criticisms against this administration, not least of which are you better off now than you were four years ago? But rambling about crowd sizes and
World War Three and the like, I guess, there is a strategy there. You're a strategist, tell me what it is.
[16:10:00]
RINA SHAH, FORMER SENIOR PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN ADVISER: It's a mixed bag strategy. It is a keep them guessing strategy. It is one with the mix of
his own personal animus, as well as the mixture of what the consultants are telling him.
Today in that press conference, what he exhibited was what I call Trump at his worst, unhinged, visibly angry, unable to speak in data points, for
example and just speaking platitudes.
The lack of substance, I believe was a real highlight to what he has always been to the American public. Somebody that feels rather unsophisticated and
able to talk to the common man, but is it going to stick this time now that we are four years past that disastrous pandemic would he didn't handle well
and got kicked out of office for, I believe largely.
QUEST: You see, now, if we look at what has happened on that very point, first of all, you've now got JD Vance criticizing Tim Walz's military
record, whether it is true or not, it doesn't matter. Walz was in the National Guard for nearly three decades. Vance is saying he sidestepped
deployment.
Then you've got Kamala Harris on the border and now, you've got the polls, the recent Marquette Law School poll, the vice president leads the former
president 52 to 48.
So what does what does Donald Trump need to do since what you're saying is the playbook of 2016 will not work in 2024?
SHAH: Well, what we've seen Trump do since 2020 is never stopped litigating the outcome of the 2020 election, right? And that is what he believes keeps
maybe a door open for those undecided voters and I am not sure that's the best strategy, but moving forward into the rest of this month of August
where no doubt, Harris and Walz will get that boost of support from a convention that looks very unified behind them, and we had just seen Trump
and his people do the same at the top of July.
But into September is where it gets really dicey for the Trump-Vance campaign. So I've always been of the opinion that it is Trump who cannot
help himself. It has got to be external factors that help Trump and particularly geopolitical factors.
I also thought that was a missed opportunity for him today. He could have spoken very, very -- I believe in his own way, intelligibly about his
handling of conflicts abroad because the base of support that he has in the Republican Party is aggrieved about the transport of billions of dollars
abroad.
QUEST: Can I suggest to you that the biggest problem here is that he can't change -- not that he won't change. He doesn't know how to change. He can
change, I mean how the strike -- the campaign overarchingly can change the strategy, turn the fire guns from Biden to Harris with a different message,
but he fundamentally, if you read Mary Trump's book of some years ago, that he is not capable of change.
SHAH: In the aftermath of that attempt on his life, we thought him change ever so slightly and I knew it wouldn't stick. I knew it was only a matter
of days until we'd see a return to his gut, because that's what he led with from 2016 onward, and that's what he believes serves him best.
He thinks that how he kept Biden as infirmed and Harris as incompetent and hearing him say today that she is not very smart, and then it relating Walz
to transgender stuff that he called it, he thinks that's a winning playbook, because what he knows is in the mind of these Independent and
centrist voters in particular, those who are center right, of course, and longtime affiliated Republican voters who would have been crossovers in
2020, the talk of the sort of liberal policies that are related to gender affirming care, those are always top and pronoun usage -- those are almost
top of mind with economy, crime, and public safety, as well as immigration.
So, he is trying out a different size shoe right now. The question is, will he keep that size shoe on?
QUEST: We will find out. I am grateful to you. Thank you for joining us.
Julia is with me. Julia Chatterley.
Now, Julia, stay comfortably seated with your seatbelt securely fastened on the table in the upright and stowed position.
So we are on the verge of a Depression says Donald Trump, and yet US stocks had their best day in over a year after weekly jobless claims came in lower
than expected. The market shows us -- there, nearly three percent, 233,000 people filed for unemployment benefits, slightly less the number --
investors taking the numbers as a sign of resilience.
[16:15:10]
Julia, we are -- if Trump does not get elected, we are in for a Depression, yes or no?
JULIA CHATTERLEY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR, "FIRST MOVE": Richard, I just - - I fail to find words to express what I was thinking during that press conference, quite frankly, and you were talking about getting strapped in
for liftoff, he was talking about a crash landing to use your plane analogy.
Not one legitimate economist is saying that, thinking that; none of the data says that. Quite frankly, that was an embarrassment to be honest, and
I could walk you through all the reasons why we nowhere near Depression- level unemployment.
You said it at the top of the show, 25 percent unemployment. Wages were down, one in four workers were remaining out of jobs. For those workers
that were still working, their wages were down 40 percent. Forget all that.
There are legitimate questions about what the Biden administration has achieved. Prices since February 2020 are up 20 percent. That is so painful
for American families. Talk about that.
Gas prices are up just under 40 percent. He did sort of talk about that, but then he got lost in the weeds as he usually does. Don't dwell and focus
on the politics and the policies of fear because you you're getting your behind kicked with that's just not about the economy, that's everything
else.
QUEST: Right, right. All right, You touched me with a cattle prod there. I've launched myself.
CHATTERLEY: Go for it.
QUEST: You say that, Julia, but those people who can't make ends meet.
CHATTERLEY: Yes.
QUEST: Now, even though the way he is putting it might be, they will be attracted to it. They are going to be attracted to somebody who is clearly
angry at everything than somebody who has talked about joy and hope, when basically they can't pay the electricity bill or they are on food stamps
and they are being cut.
CHATTERLEY: Four in ten Americans are saying that if not, always, most of the time, they are worrying about paying their bills.
QUEST: Right.
CHATTERLEY: It is a huge problem. So you're right, but I do think some of the angry messaging is going to the base, not broadening it out quite
frankly, and you know what I want to hear? To your point, what are the fixes?
And you and I know that on inflation there are two major points. There was a monster $1.9 trillion act signed by President Biden that should never
have been done. Hindsight is perfect sight, and it fueled inflation. Who gets inflation under control when that happens? It is the Central Bank in
you rack up interest rates at the speed that we've seen.
Point to that if you want to blame someone, if you're this current administration, and talk about what you can do to help.
I think neither side has got a good message right now on the economy.
QUEST: No. But I did --
CHATTERLEY: Today was a travesty.
QUEST: But I did hear, you know, he did talk about tax policy, he did talk about some of the policies of spending that you would do. He did so the
taxes he would cut, of course, he didn't say how he would then balance the budget of the back of it.
CHATTERLEY: Bingo. How are you going to afford them. Yes.
QUEST: He did say he would reform -- I was particularly fascinated by him saying, we are going to solve Social Security. I mean, as long as I've been
covering the US economy, they have been going to solve Social Security without -- what was it he said? He said, we are going to solve Social
Security without raising the age or costing you more.
CHATTERLEY: I don't know what "solving" meant in that case. It is such an enormous proportion of the spending of the government. Does he mean solving
it by paying people less or paying people more or the people that need it? I mean, there was a lot of nonsense. There was a lot of stuff in that that
I didn't really understand.
But again, I go back to the idea that the politics of fear here, the idea that we are headed -- if he doesn't get elected into a Great Depression, is
complete nonsense, irrespective of the policies that either side at this stage are talking about, and a whole host of tariffs. remember that he is
talking about on his side.
QUEST: One more question.
CHATTERLEY: Yes.
QUEST: Do you feel, as I sometimes do feel uncomfortable having to basically say that the former president is talking absolute rubbish and
nonsense.
I mean, it is -- because I said the same thing. There is not a single shred of evidence, but at the same time, you know, how can I say that the man who
has been in the Oval Office, who aspires to the Oval Office, is talking absolute rubbish.
CHATTERLEY: I am absolutely confident at all times of pointing out when he is talking rubbish, but also calibrating when he does say something that
has an element of truth like the depletion of the petroleum reserves, for example, and that has been very painful.
So there are elements of what he said that had basis at least in fact, and are a concern. At the same time, at least he gets out there and talks, at
least a majority of nonsense.
The other side, let's hear from Kamala Harris on what her policy prescriptions are, because quite frankly, I'd love to come on and talk to
you about what the difference is in their two platforms of economic policies are and I have nothing, Richard.
[16:20:12]
So let's get Kamala Harris out there to answer some questions as well and get some balance into this debate, because right now, I have very little of
policy from either side and a whole host of hot air today from the former president. It is tough to say anything positive, quite frankly about either
side at this point.
QUEST: Ninety days. That's the question of the day. Julia Chatterley, grateful. Thank you. As always.
We continue tonight, this is I think fascinating. The Austrian Police are questioning teenagers suspected of planning an ISIS-inspired suicide
bombing. It is renewing focus on how vulnerable huge concerts can be.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: More details now on the alleged terror plot that target Taylor Swift's concerts in Austria. Police in Vienna are now questioning three
teenagers suspected of planning an ISIS-inspired suicide bombing.
The country's public security chief says the suspects were in touch with others who knew about the plans. Authorities found explosives at the main
suspect's home alone with ISIS propaganda and machetes.
The police say, the 19-year-old was planning to set off an explosive device inside the concert venue.
Salma Abdelaziz is with us from Vienna. So this -- well, from Austria. This is getting more and more intricate and complicated, but we are getting a
better picture.
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, and investigators say, of course very much that their research is still underway. They're looking
into three individuals and I think what is shocking to officials here is the ages of the suspects: 15 years old, 17 years old, 19-years-old, all
three may have been in contact with each other according to authorities, may have been radicalized online according to ISIS -- with ISIS propaganda
rather, and it is the chilling details that are emerging about how close they got to the stadium, Richard, that are absolutely shocking, at Vienna.
Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ABDELAZIZ (voice over): Chilling new details are emerging about the terror plot on a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna. Three Austrian teenagers aged 19,
17, and 15 now detained and facing questions.
[16:25:10]
The head of Austria's as domestic intelligence service telling CNN one of the radicalized teenagers had obtained a job working at the venue he
planned to attack just days prior to his arrest.
OMAR HAIJAWI-PIRCHNER, AUSTRIAN DIRECTOR OF SECURITY SERVICES: One of the suspects got an application a few days ago.
ABDELAZIZ: So, he had applied for a job.
HAIJAWI-PIRCHNER: He had.
ABDELAZIZ (voice over): Officials now investigating what they believe could have been a three-pronged attack targeting one of three sold-out Swift
concerts for an estimated 65,000 fans each night.
Investigators considering the possibility that the suspects planned to run over fans gathered outside the stadium with a vehicle and had even obtained
a blue light similar to what police attached to their cars to force their way through the crowd. Then they planned to attack innocents with knives
and machetes. And in a final stage, detonate explosives at the site.
The 19-year-old suspect who lived in this home an hour outside of Vienna, is the alleged mastermind. Authorities say he has confessed to the terror
plot. Items found inside his home included chemical explosives, detonators, ISIS propaganda, 21,000 euros in counterfeit cash, machetes and knives.
All three suspects were radicalized online by ISIS recruiters.
HAIJAWI-PIRCHNER: It is very worrying. We can see that in Austria, we have very young guys that are radicalized due to the fact that they are using
the online propaganda that is brought out from ISIS. And also ISKP.
ABDELAZIZ: The prime suspect had pledged allegiance to ISIS. Neighbors say his family was always reserved.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): They lived very reclusively. We did not see them in their backyard or their children outside.
(TAYLOR SWIFT FANS singing)
ABDELAZIZ: A depraved plot that could have killed and maimed many.
(TAYLOR SWIFT FANS chanting)
ABDELAZIZ (on camera): The concerts are canceled, but the Swifties have filled the streets of Vienna and they are singing her songs as loud as they
can.
ABDELAZIZ (voice over): Fans are sad, but grateful to be safe.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is what we are all about, it is like we make the best of a bad situation in rain, in sun, like we will be here for hours.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Hours and days, I suspect.
Salama, do we know how they got caught? How this thing came to light?
ABDELAZIZ: Look, a lot of the details are still very much behind closed doors because this investigation is underway, but what we also know,
Richard, is that US officials tipped off the Austrian government to this alleged terror plot. Austrian officials here did tell me that they were
always in touch with their foreign counterparts.
So that tip may have come from the United States, but it is also what they found in this home right behind me here. This is the home of that 19-year-
old suspect that began to build that image of a multipronged attack -- knives, machetes, explosives, potentially a ramming attack -- that really
had investigators shaking and wondering if this was a wider network behind them.
QUEST: Thank you, Salma Abdelaziz, who is in Austria tonight. Thank you.
And in a moment, the top stories, Donald Trump says he is leading by a lot. The polls show him losing ground to Kamala Harris, so we ask him why he
hasn't spent more time on the campaign trail this week.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:32:04]
QUEST: Hello, I'm Richard Quest. Together we'll have more QUEST MEANS BUSINESS.
The chief executive of Air India tells me his ambition to make the carrier a world-class airline once again. And U.S. sprinter Noah Lyles was the
favorite going into the 200-meter race. He won a bronze and then revealed he had COVID.
Before we got to COVID and Air India and everything else in between, this is CNN, and on this network, the news always comes first.
Fighting remains intense in Russia's Kursk Region. Moscow claims to have stopped an incursion by Ukraine into its territory, but the evidence on the
ground suggests otherwise. Ukrainian government and military declined to answer questions from us about the cross-border attack.
Bangladesh has sworn in an interim government which is led by the Nobel Laureate Muhammad Yunus. Its first job is to restore stability after a
month of deadly protests and the prime minister's resignation. Yunus called for calm and told Bangladeshis to get ready to build the country.
U.S. authorities said they're worried Democrats could face a potential attack in response to the attempt on Donald Trump's life. A gunman fired at
the former president just days before the Republican National Convention. Now intelligence says law enforcement fear a copycat attack on the
Democratic convention this month in Chicago.
Our top story, Donald Trump defended his lack of public appearances over the last few days, saying he will have more events after the DNC, the
Democratic National Convention, and that he doesn't need to campaign because he's leading by a lot.
CNN's Kristen Holmes asked Mr. Trump about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You have not had a public campaign event for nearly a week now. Probably in Montana which is not a
swing state. Some of your allies had expressed concern that you're not taking this very seriously particularly at a time --
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What a stupid question.
HOLMES: -- where there's enthusiasm on the other side? Why haven't you been campaigning?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
QUEST: Kristen Holmes is with me.
Well done. You join the growing list of correspondents who can wear with pride, stupid question. And it wasn't, and it's a justifiable question
bearing in mind we haven't seen him for some time and he's not leading in the polls, or at least according to the latest numbers. So enlighten me,
please.
HOLMES: Yes, that's right, Richard. And the big question is, why is he not out there campaigning every single day in swing states when we are seeing
Kamala Harris and now her new vice presidential nominee Tim Walz in these critical states like Michigan, like Wisconsin.
[16:35:05]
The last time we saw Donald Trump was last Saturday. He was in Georgia. And the next thing he's doing is Friday night at 10:00 p.m. in Montana which is
a very red state. He does not have to campaign in Montana. We don't actually have anything on the schedule for the next time he is going to be
in a swing state. And the concern that I'm hearing from allies is that he's not taking this seriously, that they are not recalibrating the campaign,
something that Donald Trump himself said in that press conference, and that this is not the way to effectively run against Kamala Harris.
They are seeing the enthusiasm, the crowds, just the excitement among the Democratic Party that this is not President Joe Biden running anymore. Now
obviously, as you heard him say there, he said it's because he's leading by a lot. Well, senior officials and the campaign acknowledge that that is not
true. That he's not leading by a lot. That this is a very tight race.
Now they do maintain positivity, optimism. They say that fundamentally at the end of the day that this is the exact same race that it was against
President Joe Biden, just with another candidate, because of the fact that Biden's policies are Harris' policies. That goes to crime, inflation, as
well as immigration. All things that Donald Trump pulls ahead of Biden and now Harris on.
So they believe that hammering that message home over the next three months is going to make this race the same as it was against President Joe Biden.
But the facts are clear. It's not the same exact race. It's not the same exact candidate. And Donald Trump, it's not just that we are asking where
he is, his own conservative allies are hoping for him to get out there and reach voters. And again, this is his way of doing it by gathering media and
answering questions.
And one thing I do want to note is, Richard, part of their narrative now is that Kamala Harris won't sit for an interview. She won't take questions
from the press traveling with her, and that's why they held this press conference so that they would show this juxtaposition, the split-screen in
answering questions for roughly an hour.
QUEST: Do we know why she won't? I mean, the woman has done it -- the vice president has done it before. She's answered, you know, in her long
illustrious career, she has. And is it just time and place or do we know why?
HOLMES: I can't answer the question why she won't or even a bit that she won't. It's just that it hasn't happened yet. And that's what they're home
now.
QUEST: Right.
HOLMES: They are under the belief that she -- they're under the belief that she won't do it. That's their narrative. Whether it's she won't or it
hasn't happened yet, but we know for sure it has not happened yet, they want to get out there and say that, look, J.D. Vance is answering
questions. Donald Trump is answering question. And that is true. They are answering questions from reporters.
They are going out there and talking, but this is also playing into a larger narrative, which is the senior officials on the campaign saying that
Kamala Harris' campaign won't let her go out that kind of thing.
QUEST: Right.
HOLMES: So that's really where this is coming from. And this was a way for them to show a split-screen of that.
QUEST: Ninety days to go. Thank you. Happy with you.
As you and I continue tonight, the latest from the Olympics. Botswana's Letsile Tebogo has won the men's 200-meter race, beating the sprinter Noah
Lyles who has COVID.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:40:56]
QUEST: Rising sea temperatures are to blame for the fifth mass bleaching event in eight years at Australia's Great Barrier Reef. Today on CNN's
series "Call to Earth," Lynda Kinkade takes us to a school in Queensland with a unique approach to helping protect the world's largest coral reef
system.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PEARL, ENVIRONMENTAL CAPTAIN: Hi. Welcome to the reefer. I'm Pearl.
MCKENZIE, ENVIRONMENTAL CAPTAIN: I'm McKenzie.
KIARA, ENVIRONMENTAL CAPTAIN: I'm Kiara.
CASSIDY, ENVIRONMENTAL CAPTAIN: And I'm Cassidy.
PEARL: And we're the environmental captains of Belgian Gardens State School.
LYNDA KINKADE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR (voice-over): For these school kids, there is no greater honor than becoming an environmental captain,
growing up and going to class on the Great Barrier Reef. It's cool to care about the unique home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At the moment there's a global warming happening and because the water is getting warmer, most of the corals are dying.
KINKADE: The climate crisis is forcing sea temperatures higher causing mass coral bleaching events around the world. It's meant devastating losses
across reef habitats that support up to a quarter of all sea life. But at this school in Townsville, Australia, young people are tackling the huge
problem of environmental degradation by starting small.
BRETT MURPHY, SCIENCE TEACHER, BELGIAN GARDENS STATE SCHOOL, QUEENSLAND: And we just want to show the kids that if they are passionate about
something that they can be sure and try and make a change.
KINKADE: For over 10 years Belgian Gardens State School has been successfully breeding clownfish.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Here in the reefer we breed clownfish from eggs.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Because every clownfish we breed and trade is one less taken from the reef.
KINKADE: The aim is to protect those that live in the wild.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We breed clownfish because of the success of the Pixar movie, "Finding Nemo."
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm from the ocean.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ah, the ocean.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The ocean. Ah.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everyone wants to like have a clownfish as a pet. And that means that there's more clownfish taken from the reef out of their
natural habitat.
KINKADE: The students here get the clownfish eggs from the nearby Australian Institute of Marine Science. Then when these little Nemos are
old enough, the students give them to pet stores in exchange for aquarium supplies.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Up here in tank eight, you can see that these clownfish have laid eggs just in there.
KINKADE: Science teacher Brett Murphy has won the support and the admiration of parents and marine biologists alike for his innovative
teaching methods.
MURPHY: One big fish, a couple on top, too.
KINKADE: And the passion for the environment he passes on to his students.
MURPHY: I think it's the perfect way to teach. I feel is that real-life, hands-on learning. So they're doing real calculations in mathematics for
the feeding, and they're doing observations what they might do in science. Then the cool benefit at the end is that those fish are not being taken
from the reef.
KINKADE: It's low tide at Rose Bay Beach in Townsville, giving the students an opportunity for a seagrass survey on the edge of a mangrove forest.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So that seeds hatched, so that means that this has produced seagrass.
KINKADE: The data the children will gather will be put to use by the reef authority.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This river over here connects to the Great Barrier Reef. So anything that comes out here will go there.
KINKADE: At that nearby tributary, the children test the water's health and the results are a little disappointing.
MURPHY: It says 375. So that's probably the cloudiest we've seen in the last three years actually. If the water is really cloudy, can a seagrass
get its sunlight? No. it all links together.
KINKADE: The students at Belgian Gardens State School are learning how fragile our world is and are being taught to defend it.
[16:45:05]
MURPHY: I think if those students make a connection and it gets in their heart, that's when you make change.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: Excellent stuff. Now we want to know what you're doing to answering the call. Use the hashtag "Call to Earth."
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: To the Olympics and an upset in the men's 200 meters. Botswana's Letsile Tebogo won the event. It's his country's first ever Olympic gold
medal and the first for an African sprinter. U.S. sprinter Noah Lyles was the favorite going into the race. He won bronze and then revealed that he
tested positive for COVID.
Coy Wire, well, actually, you know me and my duo lingo. Well, here we go. Let's see, let's see. I was going to say it in French, but I think this
nice lady will say --
Coy Wire, (speaking in foreign language), in other words Coy Wire is at the Olympics, joins me now.
Are they going to take away Noah's bronze medal because he raced with COVID?
COY WIRE, CNN WORLD SPORT: A good question and a fair question, but no, they will not take away the medal. What a change, though, Richard, from the
Tokyo Games when you couldn't even show up if you had Covid to now competing with it. USA Track and Field said afterwards that Noal Lyles
tested positive on Tuesday. They followed CDC protocols to prevent the spread. Lyles said he went into quarantine but never considered not racing.
He was wearing a mask in the holding area before the race and in the 100- meter champ finished bronze. He laid down on the track afterwards. Medical personnel took him away in a wheelchair. A stunning turn of events. Stade
de France went from roars of chanting USA to disbelief as Letsile Tebogo of Botswana flew past Lyles and American Kenny Bednarek, who took silver.
Winning time 19.46 seconds, fifth fastest time in history. Letsile Tebogo is the first African ever to win the 200 and he's Botswana's first ever
Olympic gold medalist.
And she has done it again. Sydney Mclaughlin-Levrone breaking her own world record in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 50.37 seconds. She's won
back-to-back Olympic golds. The most dominant in the event we've ever seen. Sydney has broken the world record a mind-boggling six times, Richard.
[16:50:00]
Now, I have had an incredible time with you all week long in this Olympics coverage on your show. I know it's your last day of the week, and you did
promise me that we were going to do a little toast before you went. I'm welcoming you to our WBD House rooftop studios here.
Everyone, say hello to Richard Quest.
CROWD: Hello.
WIRE: The Eurosport Max, the Home of the Olympics. And it just happens that my friend here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How are you?
WIRE: Good to see you. Has something ready for our little toast -- Richard.
QUEST: Hang on. Hang on. That is a massive glass.
WIRE: This is massive? This is normal, no? No. Oh.
(LAUGHTER)
QUEST: I wonder if WBD is --
WIRE: Well, you go big on your show. I figured I'd go big, too.
QUEST: All right. All right. Well, look, I'm afraid --
WIRE: All right, I'm going to leave it to you.
QUEST: I'm afraid I'm just going to have a sort of glass or something appropriate.
Coy, you have been a gentle scholar. It's been wonderful and I'm seeing all our colleagues there on the roof at Eurosport. Their coverage has been
magnificent. You have been magisterial in this. And I wish you well.
Well, thank you, sir.
WIRE: I really appreciate that, and from all of us, with cheers to you. Salud on three, one, two, three, salud. Hey. Lovely.
QUEST: Right. Thank you very much.
WIRE: Has a certain (speaking in foreign language).
QUEST: It's all downhill from here on it. Look at the size of that glass.
WIRE: Yes, it is. Bye-bye.
QUEST: Look at the size --
(LAUGHTER)
QUEST: And then, and with that, he just abandons the lot of them. As I say, no wonder the results were the way they were.
All right. Air India's chief executive Campbell Wilson says he's determined to turn the carrier into world class airline since it was privatized two
years ago. Now Campbell has ordered more than 450 planes. He's refurbished the fleet with new look, new delivery, the whole lot. The (INAUDIBLE) I
asked him what's next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAMPBELL WILSON, CEO, AIR INDIA: It's a complete rebuild. There was 70 years under government ownership and a lack of investment for quite some
decades of that time. So really we've had to rebuild everything, whether it's physical premises, whether it's the technology platform, whether it's
the fleet, resuscitating aircraft back into service that had been grounded for want of spare parts. 9,000 new staff. It really has been a complete
rebuild.
QUEST: And the number of new staff that you've brought in, a younger workforce, more dynamic.
WILSON: Well, under the previous owner the airline didn't recruit and so from a non-flying staff perspective, it didn't recruit anyone since 1999,
which led to an average age of 54 with a retirement age of 58. The consequence is there's a very large hole in the middle of the organization
in terms of succession and capability and people. So we've been able to recruit quite massively to fill that hole.
QUEST: How do you want to balance domestic and international?
WILSON: Well, at the moment, international was about two-thirds of our revenue. Domestic is about one-third. We would like to even that up a
little bit more. The domestic market already the third largest in the world growing at a 10 percent compound annual growth rate. International, when we
took the business private, there were only 43 wide-body aircraft in India for a population of 1.4 billion people.
Contrast that with some city-states in Asia and the Middle East with 150 or 200 wide body aircraft. So the upside opportunity is absolutely huge.
QUEST: IndiGo proved to a large extent that a well-run, well-managed airline can be very successful in India, doesn't it? And it has the large
part of the market and you're in competition with them now.
WILSON: Well, Air India has grown from 8 percent of the domestic market to when you take all of the organic and inorganic growth we've done 30 percent
of the market at the moment. So we've made significant inroads. The market itself has consolidated. So such that the two major players now have about
80 percent of the market share. And Air India now being a private business is no longer a spoiler without a profit motive.
QUEST: You're unashamed in admitting that certain protections for your market have to remain while the restructuring takes place before you can
have a level playing field.
WILSON: I think that's just the nature of evolution that most countries' airlines started off owned by the government. Most countries were very
protectionist until they built the capability and the capacity to compete internationally. I think it's not right to ask India or indeed any other
nation to sacrifice themselves just because other people got there first. So I think it's a matter of timing. It's not a matter of direction, it's a
matter of timing.
QUEST: You want the protections to remain while you build and execute.
WILSON: I think it's only fair. I think others got the protection whilst they build and executed and I think we deserve the same. India has open
skies agreements with North American, Canada and the U.S. It has very liberal traffic rights agreements with the likes of the U.K. And so it's
not as if the nation is philosophically against it. What it is focusing on and what it should focus on is India's aviation hubs should be in India.
[16:55:03]
Presently it's not, and largely it wasn't because Air India was not strong enough to be able to invest in the capacity and build that connectivity
from India to where Indians want to fly.
QUEST: You see that's the core. You've got to get people to actually want to fly you. Can you feel the ship turning?
WILSON: Absolutely. There's a brand new A350 aircraft out there right now.
QUEST: Yes?
WILSON: That represents the best in the world in terms of product or the equal to the best in the world in many respects and it's -- you know, these
are the first six aircraft, we've got 11 other wide bodies that have a similar product. We'll be refitting all of our legacy aircraft with a
similar product over the next couple of years. We have 470 new aircraft on order that are going to also come with that product. We are investing in
what it takes to make this world class.
QUEST: You've only got to get the seats, get the planes and beat the supply chain issues.
WILSON: Look, those things will have their delays and frustrations as they will for every airline. But it's a mechanical process and it will happen.
QUEST: Are you enjoying yourself?
WILSON: Absolutely, it is the most enjoyable job in the world most days.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
QUEST: I like the last bit, most days. We'll have a "Profitable Moment" most days.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
QUEST: Tonight's "Profitable Moment." Whatever else I talk about, I must start by saying that as far as I can see, there's no economist anywhere
that believes that if Donald Trump doesn't get elected, there'll be a great depression, or indeed that we are facing a depression at the moment. It is
simply not on the cards. Could it happen? Of course, theoretically, yes. Is it likely? Absolutely not.
Now, the real "Profitable Moment." I was much taken by seeing the Taylor Swifties singing back in Austria even though that concert had been
canceled, making the best of a bad situation. The concert may have been canceled, but they were determined to enjoy themselves and that's something
that we take forward. In the same way, Noah Lyle was enjoying himself running with COVID. As my producer said, four years ago you wouldn't be
allowed to in the room at the Tokyo Olympics where you wouldn't be allowed to compete without masks and swabs and tests.
Now, a sensible use of a mask and everybody just gets on with their daily lives. Just as it should be. Making the best of a bad situation. And then
you've got the Paris Olympics. Well, they swam in the Seine making the best of that situation. And you've got the rain, that rain that poured on poured
on poured, but it didn't put people off. They were making the best of a bad situation.
You've got Campbell Wilson with Air India, from the very bottom to the top, making the best of a bad situation. And you've got me away for the next two
weeks. I'm ready for a break. It's been a long few months. And so guess what, I'm going to make the best of a bad and good situation because that's
QUEST MEANS BUSINESS for tonight. I'm Richard Quest in New York,
Whatever you're up to in the two weeks ahead, I hope it's profitable.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, she has blazed the trail for her entire career and today we're going one on one with former House speaker Nancy
Pelosi.
END
