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Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) Says, Damn Proud Of Military Service Record Amid GOP Attacks; Trump With Musk On X, Two Hours Of Attacks, Falsehoods, Glitches; U.S. Officials Say, Iran Has Not Yet Decided on Action Against Israel; Deadly Wildfire Chars Thousands Of Acres Near Athens, Greece; George Santos In Court Today Ahead Of Fraud Trial. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired August 13, 2024 - 18:00   ET

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

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, Democratic Vice Presidential Nominee Tim Walz is defending his military record in the face of Republican attacks, as he holds his first solo appearance since being tapped as Kamala Harris running mate.

[18:00:11]

This as Harris is readying a rollout of her economic plan just days before the Democratic Convention in Chicago.

Also tonight, we'll take you inside the wild two-hour exchange between Donald Trump and Elon Musk. What it revealed about both men, and what we know about the technical glitches that nearly derailed the entire conversation.

And evacuations are ordered near Athens, Greece, right now as deadly wildfires leave a path of destruction dangerously close to some of the world's most famous ancient landmarks.

Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Tel Aviv, and you're in The Situation Room.

We begin this hour with the race for the White House. The Democrats' choice for V.P. is fighting back tonight against Republican efforts to undermine his U.S. military service record.

CNN's Natasha Chen is in Los Angeles covering Tim Walz on his first solo campaign appearance since being tapped by Kamala Harris. Natasha Walz addressing criticism head on, tell our viewers what he said.

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Walz was addressing comments by his opponent, Republican Vice Presidential Candidate J. D. Vance, when Vance said that Walz had retired from his battalion just a couple months before they got an alert that they would be mobilizing to Iraq. Here's how Walz addressed that issue in front of a crowd of 4,000 union members.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. TIM WALZ (D-MN), U.S. VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: These guys have are even attacking me for my record of service. And I just want to say, I'm proud to serve my country, and I always will be.

I firmly believe you should never denigrate another person's service record. Is anyone brave enough to put on that uniform for our great country, including my opponent? I just have a few simple words. Thank you for your service and sacrifice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN: And I did see a lot of people get up off their feet in the audience at that moment and applaud him. I spoke to a member afterward from Minnesota actually, a member of this union asked me full of federal, state, county local employees and she said this idea of service and respect for service is extremely important, that she also believes that anyone who has volunteered to serve this country should be respected. Wolf?

BLITZER: And, Natasha, what is the Walz's message when it comes to American workers?

CHEN: Yes, he definitely went strong on his union history. He was a teacher before, a member of a union, and he reminded this audience that he is the first person on a presidential ticket to have been a union member since Ronald Reagan. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WALZ: Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, they see the world very differently than we do. The only thing those two guys knows about working people is how to work to take advantage of them. That's what they know about it. Every single chance they've gotten, they've waged war on workers, and their ability to collectively bargain, to take that away from them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN: Now I talked to a member of this union from Ohio after the fact. She's a psychiatric nurse in a hospital. And she told me that a lot of people back home in Ohio, which is obviously a swing state, are having trouble with either candidate, Trump or Harris, and that some people wish there was a third option. I asked her what she would say to people when she went home after this speech, after this convention, and she said she would tell people what kind of a man Tim Walz is. She said that he came across as very working class, which resonates with people like her, that she feels like he's experienced a blue collar life, and she feels that will definitely resonate with Ohioans. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Natasha, thank you, Natasha Chen in Los Angeles for us, we appreciate it.

I want to go to Donald Trump's highly touted interview with Elon Musk right now. His campaign says it helped raise a million dollars. But even some Trump allies are questioning why it happened, and why it almost didn't happen.

CNN's Brian Todd is taking a closer look at all of this for us. Brian, how big of an impact did this have? BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, according to data from X, more than a million X accounts listened to this conversation. What they got was a 40-plus minute delay, a lot of gushing, and not a lot of fact-checking.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TODD (voice over): The two men did what many analysts expected, playing to each other's egos. X owner Elon Musk, for more than two hours, never asking Donald Trump tough questions, allowing Trump's false claims, at least 20 by CNN's count, to go unchecked, including this one on what led President Biden to drop out of this year's race.

[18:05:10]

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: This was a coup. This was a coup of a President of the United States. He didn't want to leave. And they said, we can do it the nice way or we can do it the hard way.

TODD: Trump repeatedly leveling personal insults at Vice President Kamala Harris.

TRUMP: Kamala wouldn't have this conversation. She can't, because she's not smart. You know, she's not a smart person, by the way.

TODD: The conversation on X that Trump had hailed beforehand as the interview of the century got started more than 40 minutes late. Musk blamed it on a so-called distributed denial of service attack, a DDoS, which tech experts say occurs when someone tries to overwhelm a service by flooding it. Musk blamed Trump's enemies for the glitch.

ELON MUSK, OWNER, X: This massive attack illustrates there's a lot of opposition to people just hearing what President Trump has to say.

TODD: Media analysts not only skeptical of that but questioning whether this was a DDoS attack at all.

BRIAN STELTER, AUTHOR, NETWORK OF LIES: Musk fired most of the technical staffers at the company formerly known as Twitter. He kind of had this coming.

KARA SWISHER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Another embarrassment. After the DeSantis thing, it shouldn't have happened again. This should have been ironclad.

TODD: Last year, when Florida Governor Ron DeSantis kicked off his failed presidential bid with a Twitter Spaces event with Musk, it was delayed by 25 minutes by technical problems. This time, Elon Musk took up much of the conversation by simply gushing over Trump.

MUSK: I think we're at a fork in the road of destiny of civilization. And I think we need to take the right path. And I think you're the right path.

KATE CONGER, CO-AUTHOR, CHARACTER LIMIT, HOW ELON MUSK DESTROYED TWITTER: These two men really kind of reaffirming their views of themselves, right? These are both men who perceive themselves as strong men and as fighters. And so there's a lot of them kind of propping up each other's image in that regard.

TODD: Trump made several pointed remarks on how he'd reverse the Biden years.

TRUMP: We're going to have the largest deportation in history of this country.

TODD: What does each man get out of this? Analysts say Trump gets media clicks and attention from younger voters. As for Musk --

CONGER: For Elon Musk, it's been really important to bring Trump back to the platform. As we know, Trump was banned from Twitter in 2021. He thinks Trump is a very important magnet for audiences, and he wants X to still remain the epicenter of political conversation.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: Kamala Harris' campaign responded to the Trump-Musk conversation by calling them, quote, self obsessed rich guys who will sell out the middle class and who cannot run a live stream in the year 2024. Elon Musk went on X today to say that he's happy to host Harris as well. We reached out to the Harris campaign to ask if she would do an interview with Elon Musk. We haven't heard back. Wolf?

BLITZER: Yes, I wouldn't hold my breath. All right, thanks very much, Brian Todd.

I want to dig deeper right now with our panel of experts. And, Donie O'Sullivan, you're an expert. Take us inside how Elon Musk turned X, formerly known as Twitter, into a pro-Trump machine promoting disinformation and hate speech in the process.

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Wolf. Yes, look, I mean, we shouldn't pretend that X or Twitter, as it was formerly known, was ever this kind of haven of just, you know, great conversation and no hate and no misinformation. It always had its problems. But, really, the transformation of this platform and still such a hugely important and influential platform, both in the U.S. and around the world under Musk, it has just been incredible. Of course, after January 6th, Trump had been suspended from Twitter, as had many election conspiracy theorists, white supremacists, and other people who were sharing hate on the platform. Musk basically brought them all back.

When it comes to Musk himself, he has gone down a rabbit hole of conspiracy theories. Himself, he is also, as well as being the owner of the platform, he has the most followers on the platform, 190 million followers. And what we've seen over the past few weeks, especially, is Musk really pushing totally discredited conspiracy theories about voting machines and also this conspiracy theory that is becoming popular on the far right and in MAGA circles that undocumented people will vote en masse for Democrats in November. That is false. There is no evidence for that, whatsoever. But that is something that Musk is pushing. So, you can really see, you know, just in terms of bringing characters like this back and pushing these lies himself, Musk has totally transformed this platform.

BLITZER: Kristen Holmes, I know you've been talking to Trump's allies and advisers who have actually had some mixed reactions to that conversation with Elon Musk last night. What can you tell us?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, when you talk to his campaign advisers, they explain a situation that they believe is true about the race in November, which is that whoever wins, whether it be Harris or Donald Trump, it's going to be decided by a thin margin.

[18:10:07]

And part of what they are trying to do is to expand the electorate in favor of Donald Trump, and that means reaching it to what they call persuadable voters, people they believe would lean right but wouldn't engage in politics in a traditional sense. They're not going to watch the news, they're not going to potentially watch a press conference or a rally, but they are going to watch, at least potentially, an interview with Elon Musk, or they are going to potentially watch an interview with Aiden Ross, which is something that he did two weeks ago.

These are things that Donald Trump's team are trying to promote to reach this group of nontraditional voters to bring them to the polls in November. So, from that standpoint, they believe it was great because they're talking about the viewership and how many people tuned in and how it reached so many people. But when you talk to a number of Trump's allies, there's still a lot of concern about the fact that he's not doing the traditional campaigning, particularly at this time when we're seeing this boost in polls for Kamala Harris, this boost in enthusiasm around Kamala Harris. It is fundamentally a different race.

And what they want to have Donald Trump be doing is being out there on the campaign trail, talking about policy issues, talking about the economy, talking about immigration. These are issues that Donald Trump has consistently pulled ahead of Joe Biden on and issues that they believe that he will pull ahead of Kamala Harris on if he continues to focus on them.

But instead, you get these kind of meandering two-hour interviews that leave a lot of room for Donald Trump to go off script and sometimes in a way that could be detrimental to him with these voters. So, that's why you see a split between the advisers and the allies on what exactly Donald Trump is doing to reach voters.

BLITZER: Jasmine Wright is with us as well. Jasmine, Harris' team trolled Trump on Truth Social after that glitch on X, reporting his own words in 2023 about Ron DeSantis, and I'm quoting now. Wow, the DeSantis Twitter launch is a disaster. The whole campaign will be a disaster. Watch. That was what Trump said about DeSantis when he was on that Twitter exchange after he announced his candidacy. Is Harris facing criticism for not sitting down for more interviews at the same time? And is that a liability for her?

JASMINE WRIGHT, REPORTER, NOTUS: Yes, Wolf, I think that the vice president is facing criticism for not sitting down, but it's important to point out where that criticism is coming from. It's coming from us in the media. Obviously, we are people who like to sit down with folks in power to ask some tough questions, something that we feel is within our guidance as journalists.

And it's also coming from the Trump campaign who want her to sit down because they believe in a lot of ways that maybe she makes mistakes in those inscriptive moments, trying to kind of put her in a place where she could look bad or she could have a bad interview, something that has happened in the past, particularly we know that first interview with Lester Holt, her first year as vice president.

But because of that is where that critique is coming, from the media and Trump, I think that's why you're seeing the vice president's campaign really kind of wave it off, dismiss it, because they aren't hearing those same concerns or wishes for her to sit down and do an interview or press conference from the American voters who they are very much so focused on right now. And they're not hearing it also from the other elected Democratic officials, something that we heard after President Biden did his debate in June. They obviously wanted him to sit down to show that cognitively he could take the case and make the case against Trump.

And so I think that those are two of the reasons why we haven't seen her yet and why we may not even see her before the convention. We know when asked last week when she would do an interview, she said that she had talked to her team about it and that they were looking before September. So, that's a couple of weeks from now obviously after the convention, but I think that those are the two main factors in their kind of decision-making, Wolf.

BLITZER: A good point. Donie, as Kristen pointed out just a little while ago, Trump is trying to appeal to non-traditional audiences. You spend a lot of time in this ecosystem. How far of a reach did he have?

O'SULLIVAN: I mean, I think they'll be pretty disappointed with that number last night of only a million listeners on X, given how much Musk was touting the reach of this. But you're right, Wolf, I think that we are in a majorly different media environment, social media ecosystem environment this election cycle than we were last time. And a lot of that actually has to do with after January 6th, a lot of people, including Trump, but a lot of his supporters, too, were kicked off the major social media platforms.

Now, a lot of them, of course, have been put back onto those platforms. But what that allowed for was really this creation of a whole alternate universe of social media platforms, like Truth Social, but there's many others out there. And lots and lots and lots of Americans, millions of Americans, are getting their news information and misinformation from those platforms.

[18:15:05] BLITZER: Yes, a lot of misinformation. Kristen, let me play one part of Trump's conversation that angered labor leaders in the U.S. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You're the greatest cutter. I mean, I look at what you do. You walk in and you just say, you want to quit, they go on strike. I won't mention the name of the company, but they go on strike and you say, that's okay, you're all gone. You're all gone, so every one of you is gone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: The UAW filed federal labor charges against Trump and Musk in reaction to that. Is there any concern inside the Trump campaign about that?

HOLMES: Well, look, they put out a statement saying that this was a political stunt, and that it was basically fraudulent, that they didn't need to be filing these labor charges and we're only doing so because of politics. And, of course, as we will know, UAW has endorsed Kamala Harris. They had endorsed President Joe Biden. And on top of that, the head of UAW, Shawn Fain, and Donald Trump have had nothing but negative things to say about each other publicly for the last several months, if not years.

So, it's not surprising that the two are at each other. And obviously the concern would be for the rank and file members because Donald Trump's team and Donald Trump himself, to an extent, know that they're never going to get union leadership behind Donald Trump. He is, if you talk to any labor expert, not a pro-labor president.

But what they have tried to do is reach out to those working class voters, to those rank and file union members, and to some extent, they have been incredibly successful. Even if you ask some of these labor union leaders, they will admit to you that the rank and file often sides with Donald Trump. And that is something that could be of a concern with these comments.

But when you talk again about labor in general, Donald Trump is not necessarily pushing a pro-labor agenda, but what he's pushing is a change in the economy. And he believes that reaching out to these working class voters, he can reach them by talking about inflation, by talking about the price of groceries, by talking about the price of gasoline at the pump. And that's how he thinks that they will be getting these kind of voters.

Now, obviously, again, this could hurt him with them, but that's not entirely the platform he's running on, that he would be pro-labor 100 percent.

BLITZER: Good conversation. Thanks to all of you. I appreciate it very, very much.

Just ahead, there's breaking news on why the expected Iranian revenge attack on Israel hasn't happened.

Plus, a brand new forecast on Tropical Storm Ernesto as it plows through the Caribbean. It could reach hurricane strength within a few hours.

Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:20:00]

BLITZER: We are live here in Israel following breaking news on the threat of an attack by Iran against Israel. U.S. officials say they believe Iran has not yet decided exactly how to follow through on its vow of retaliation for the killing of a Hamas leader in Tehran. This as President Biden says, he's concerned about the prospects for a Gaza ceasefire deal as the possibility of an Iran strike still looms.

Let's get more on the ceasefire talks. CNN's Jeremy Diamond is joining us right now. He's joining us from Haifa in Israel. Jeremy, what is the latest in regards to the negotiations scheduled to take place this Thursday?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, we are less than 48 hours away from those scheduled negotiations, and there is still considerable uncertainty around the amount of progress that can actually be made at those talks, and also whether those talks will actually happen.

Hamas has been sending mixed messages about its plans to actually attend and engage in these negotiations. There are still major sticking points, major differences between these two sides. And then, of course, there is this threat of Iranian retaliation, which is still very much looming. And should that retaliation come before those talks actually take place, depending on the severity of those strikes, depending on what happens on the ground here in Israel, it could derail those talks all together, or at least potentially postpone them until a later date.

But for now, the United States, European countries are trying to bring enormous pressure to bear to keep Iran from retaliating before those talks actually happen. And the U.S. also has a number of officials in the region working to try and craft a bridging proposal, to try and bridge the difference between the Hamas and the Israeli positions on these talks.

And so, ultimately, whether or not we can get to those talks will be the critical question. But if we can, Wolf, there is at least the possibility in the air of progress, and, of course, so much riding on those negotiations.

BLITZER: Yes, so many lives are at stake. There's no doubt about that. Jeremy, there's no sign Israel is slowing down its military campaign inside of Gaza ahead of these talks, right?

DIAMOND: There certainly is not, Wolf. We have continued to see Israeli strikes across the Gaza Strip, particularly in Central Gaza. Last night and early in the morning, we saw that 32 people were killed overall in Gaza by Israeli strikes, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. We're already getting more reports of strikes tonight once again. But of those 32 people who were killed, 23 people were killed in Central Gaza, and that, Wolf, is where we found the father of two newborn twins absolutely devastated by their loss.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIAMOND (voice over): How do you console a man whose whole world has been shattered, a man who hours earlier was locked in the warm embrace of his wife and newborn babies, but now cries out in agony, begging to see them one last time?

His new horrific reality is too much to bear.

[18:25:00]

His wife and twin babies are dead, killed in an Israeli strike on their apartment in Central Gaza, according to hospital officials.

Aisal and her brother Aser (ph) were just three days old. The Palestinian Ministry of Health says they are among 115 infants born and killed during the war in Gaza.

Hours earlier, their mother, Jumana (ph), a pharmacist, was blissfully responding to congratulations and well wishes on Facebook. I feel like it was a miracle. Alhamdulillah, sister, everything is going well.

Jumana, Aisal, and Aser now lie here in a room consumed with Mohammed's inconsolable grief. These are the birth certificates, he says. While I was getting them, I received a phone call telling me our apartment was targeted and that my wife and children were at Al-Aqsa Hospital.

Neighbors are still sifting through the aftermath of that strike. Hospital officials say an Israeli shell hit the building. The Israeli military did not respond to CNN's request for comment.

The victims of several other strikes in Central Gaza also pour into Al-Aqsa Martyr's Hospital, where more parents grieve the deaths of their children. How can I live after you, my son? This mother cries.

Amid the grief, there is also anger and exasperation, including from the dead man's father. The entire unjust world does not care about this. That's all I can say, Hassan says. Just numbers, we are just numbers. But for God, we are martyrs.

One by one, their bodies are brought out of the morgue so the living can pray for the dead, including nine-month-old Jamal and his father, Uday (ph).

Mohammed is performing the same rituals for his wife and twin babies. But prayers offer little comfort for a man who has lost everything, for a new father with no children to raise.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DIAMOND (on camera): And, Wolf, I think it's just so important that we remember that as we talk about these ceasefire negotiations, these are the lives that we are talking about. If there was a ceasefire agreement last week, Mohammed might still have his wife, he might still have his twin newborn babies to hold tomorrow, but for now, Wolf, the lives of so many others still depend on those talks. Wolf?

BLITZER: And our deepest condolences to that family. Jeremy Diamond, thank you very much for that report.

Coming up, new information about the apparent hack of the Trump campaign, what sources are now telling CNN about the vulnerability exploited by the attackers.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:30:00]

BLITZER: We're learning new details now about the apparent hack of Donald Trump's presidential campaign. Sources telling CNN the breach appears to have originated with a personal email account of longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone, and that the hackers are suspected to be Iranian.

I want to bring in our Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst John Miller, who's joining us right now. What exactly would Iran's goal here be, John?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, this is a wide aperture program. The same hackers are believed to be responsible for attempting to use the same techniques to hack into the Harris-Biden campaign. Those attempts failed. Because of a vulnerability introduced in the Roger Stone email account, they were able to get partway into the Trump campaign.

But the goal is to get information out, things that could be embarrassing, compromising interesting. And this is, when I say wide aperture, this involves fake news websites that Iranian hackers have created, some geared for conservative audiences, some geared for liberal audiences, fake social media platforms from fake groups advocating things. It's to stir discontent, to stir mistrust, to raise doubt in the election system, to create controversy between opposing ideas, as if we don't have enough in the natural course of order. It's to wreak havoc as much as they can to destabilize, you know, democracy. And we've seen it before.

BLITZER: Yes, we have. John, the U.S. government has not publicly or officially pointed the finger at Iran for this hack. Why do you think that is?

MILLER: Well, I think as the FBI goes into this case, there's a complicated relationship there, A, with Roger Stone, who you remember, they arrested in the pre-dawn hours in 2019 with a SWAT team in Fort Lauderdale, but also with the statements that Donald Trump has made about the FBI, the campaign has made about the FBI. So, I think the FBI is holding this very close to the vest as far as the investigation goes, until they're able to say something that they can prove vis-a- vis Iran beyond the intelligence that's being gathered.

But even on Sunday night, Roger Stone ended up tweeting his doubts that the Iranians were behind it because, you know, the FBI could be using that as a cover for their own spying. So, there's a lot of paranoia here.

BLITZER: It certainly is. John Miller, thank you very much for your analysis.

I want to get some more our reaction right now from Republican Congressman Mike Lawler of New York. Congressman, thank you so much for joining us.

How much confidence do you have in the FBI's ability to properly investigate this potential hacking of the Trump campaign?

[18:35:04]

REP. MIKE LAWLER (R-NY): Well, look, the FBI is going to get their investigation underway and hopefully come away with all of the facts and information pertaining to it. Obviously, Iran is no friend to the United States. Under the Trump administration, Iran was broke. Donald Trump had put secondary sanctions in place with respect to the illicit oil trade between Iran and China. And they were, for all intents and purposes, broken, weren't able to fund their terrorist regime throughout the Middle East.

Joe Biden came in trying to renegotiate the Iran nuclear deal and lifted secondary sanctions on Iran. And that's why the Iranian oil sale, petroleum sales, have increased by over $100 billion under Joe Biden, because he has allowed this illicit oil trade with China. China, of course, purchasing 90 percent of Iran's petroleum. And Iran is funding Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and other terrorist organizations in the region.

So, Iran certainly is no friend to the U.S. and certainly doesn't want to see Donald Trump back, that much is clear, because under his administration, they were broke.

BLITZER: And the other day, Microsoft was warning of potential hacking by Iran against very sensitive sites here in the United States.

Hillary Clinton's campaign, Congressman, as you well remember, was hacked back in the 2016 race. The documents were eventually released by Wikileaks and reported on by various news organizations. This is what Trump said at that time. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Wikileaks, I love Wikileaks.

This Wikileaks stuff is unbelievable. It tells you the inner heart. You got to read it.

It's been amazing what's coming out on Wikileaks.

This WikiLeaks is fascinating.

This WikiLeaks is like a treasure trove.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Now the shoe is on the other foot, Congressman, the Trump campaign is reportedly urging news organizations not to report on the stolen documents this time. Is this a hypocritical position to take?

LAWLER: Well, look, obviously, you look back to 2016, and I believe much like you're reporting here with Roger Stone, I believe it was John Podesta's emails that were originally hacked.

And so, you know, the safety and security of our elections is paramount, and I think everyone should take that seriously, including former President Trump, and now President Biden and his administration, on combating this. Obviously, Iran, China, Russia, these are not our friends. And their objective is to certainly have interference in our elections, certainly, you know, try and sow discontent.

And I think everybody should recognize obviously this is not, you know, beneficial to the United States. It's not beneficial to our elections. Certainly over the course of campaigns, as anybody who's ever been in a campaign knows, information comes out. Reporters in the United States are very good at getting the inside story without leaks like this. But, you know, ultimately, we should all want to make sure that there's not foreign interference in our elections and that Iran, an enemy to the United States, an enemy to our ally, Israel, who's seeking at this very moment to strike the state of Israel, we should be pushing back and combating this.

BLITZER: Here in Israel, I'm here in Israel, Congressman, the region, as you know, is clearly bracing for a retaliatory strike from Iran for the killing of a Hamas leader in Tehran. How should the U.S. respond if Iran does attack Israel?

LAWLER: Well, I think obviously it's important that President Biden continue to move resources to the region, including the USS Abraham Lincoln, which has already been moved towards the region.

Look, this is a threat. Iran is an enemy of Israel. They are an enemy of the United States. Their nuclear weapons program that they are desperately seeking to advance is a threat. But we need to reaffirm and re-establish peace, not only in the Middle East, but around the globe.

We are in the most precarious place since World War II with the threats emanating from Russia, from Iran, from China in the Indo- Pacific, this unholy alliance that they have engaged in to undermine and destabilize the United States, Israel and the free world, and I think the United States needs to be prepared to act.

[18:40:11] You look back to the Obama administration. Barack Obama said there would be a red line in Syria, never acted on it. You look at obviously the invasion by Russia, President Biden, at moments, waiting or limiting the ability of Ukraine to respond. We need to recognize the threat that we are facing around the globe and not constrict our allies. And that means getting Israel the weapons it needs now.

This administration, since Congress passed the supplemental aid package, has been withholding key weapons and ammunitions to Israel. That needs to stop. Israel needs our support in this moment. The United States needs to be prepared to join Israel and strike if necessary, because, frankly, the threat posed by Iran is far bigger than just Israel.

And when you look at this concerted effort, you look at the illicit oil trade, as I mentioned before, between Iran and China and the money that is flowing to fund terrorism, you look at the weaponry that is being sold to Russia and their war against Ukraine, this is serious. And I think the United States needs to be prepared to strike.

BLITZER: I will leave you with this thought, Congressman Lawler. The State Department, the Biden administration today announced it approves another $20 billion in U.S. military assistance to Israel, including 50 additional F-15 fighter jets and a lot of other hardware. So, that's moving forward as well.

Congressman Mike Lawler, as usual, thank you very much for joining us. We appreciate it.

And just ahead, we'll have a live report from Greece as wildfires are raging just outside the capital city of Athens.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:46:20]

BLITZER: In Greece, the wildfire raging near Athens has turned deadly.

CNN's Eleni Giokos has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELENI GIOKOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As morning breaks in Greece, a moment of reckoning, residents return to their homes not knowing what they'd find.

Seventy-year-old Sake Monfils (ph) ran away, taking only his beloved dogs. Everything else is now gone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My house, it was utterly destroyed. Even the walls fell down.

GIOKOS: But Monfils lost more than his home. He also lost a colleague, a 65-year-old woman who went missing after the evacuation orders.

Her friends and colleagues say that they were looking for her. She went missing, and eventually her body was found here at a place of work.

She spent over 20 years of her life at this business and her co- workers are saying how she was talking about going back to home country, back to her daughters at the end of this year.

And sadly, they say she just didn't make it. And today, we find a rose left here by someone that says we'll remember her dearly.

More than 700 firefighters, almost 200 vehicles and 35 water bombing aircraft have now managed to control the blaze.

But 100,000 acres of land were lost. The extent of the damage so great, it can be seen from space.

A scenario of destruction, just a few miles from Athens. Experts say the last few years of fires are drastically changing the city's climate, the loss of trees making winds and temperatures rise along with the risk of fire.

A tough challenge ahead local officials are well aware of.

MAYOR VASILIS XYPOLITAS, KIFISIA, GREECE: At some point, the fire was faster than the cars and trucks, and we are trying to catch the fire. We must find solutions in the way of evacuating and in being first at the time of the start of the fire.

GIOKOS: Miles of beautiful green virgin forests reduced to charred barren hills.

For residents like Sofia, the feeling of loss is beyond words.

SOFIA, LOCAL RESIDENT: I feel terribly -- I can't explain how I feel this morning. We had sat a green grasses here. Now, I don't know after how many years it's going to be again, and if it'd be like before.

It was great.

GIOKOS: Many like her now point the thing at the government, blaming the lack of prevention and care as part of the fuel feeding the fire that spared nothing in its path.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GIOKOS (on camera): So, Wolf, I'm spending so much time with people that have been impacted during these wildfires from devastating impact to their properties, their livelihoods, and also a loss of life. One thing that really resonates is just what happens next, their new reality. I've been covering these wildfires for a few years now and the same question is, you know, what happens now, where are they going to go and live if their houses have been destroyed.

They feel very abandoned and also the reality is that every single year, this is going to be a phenomenon that is inescapable. You've got prolonged heat waves not only in Athens, but also around Greece, which creates so much risk in terms of what lies ahead.

BLITZER: So sad indeed. Eleni Giokos, thank you very much for joining us from Greece. Appreciate it very much.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:54:04]

BLITZER: Today, a court appearance from former Republican Congressman George Santos. He's facing 23 federal charges.

CNN senior legal analyst Elie Honig is joining us right now.

Elie, what are the charges and how strong is the evidence?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: So, Wolf, George Santos has been expelled from Congress, but now he faces a federal indictment, as you said, 23 counts. And essentially, the charges here relate to a series of overlapping scams where the victims were George Santos's own campaign and his own donors, for example, in one of the charges scams, Santos stole his own donors' credit card information, and then use that information to essentially pay himself. In another scam, he took money that had been donated to his campaign and used it to fund his own personal lavish lifestyle.

The evidence, Wolf, looks to me to be overwhelming. Prosecutors have financial documents, they have credit card records, they have bank records, and they have testimony from Santos's former treasurer who will be a cooperating witness against Santos when he faces trial in three weeks.

[18:55:05]

BLITZER: We'll see what happens.

Elie Honig, thank you very much.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Tropical storm Ernesto is gaining strength in the Caribbean right now, I want to go to our meteorologist Chad Myers.

Chad, give us the latest forecast. Is Ernesto quickly becoming a hurricane?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Not yet, Wolf, it doesn't have an eye yet. We're not seeing that development at least at this hour. When the sunsets, things get a little bit more calm in the atmosphere. I suspect that we will get that certainly to ramp up.

Very heavy rainfall now expected for the U.S. and British Virgin Islands, could be some way we end as well, 50 to 60 miles per hour over Puerto Rico. We know what that can do to the power grid. But I want you to do is look at Puerto Rico right here and how much

rainfall could fall tonight from Ponce all the way, there could be flash flooding with ten inches of rain. So yes, there'll be wind, but I think the biggest threat, Wolf, is going to be flooding.

BLITZER: Chad Myers, thanks very much for that update. Appreciate it very much.

And to our viewers, thanks very much for watching.

"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.