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Trump Says, Will Vote Against Florida Abortion Rights Measure; New Polling Shows Harris And Trump Neck-And-Neck In Sun Belt Battlegrounds; Georgia Election Workers Sue To Seize Giuliani's Condos, Car, Yankee Rings; Labor Day Gas Prices Heading Toward Three- Year Low; NHL Player & Brother Killed By Driver While Riding Bikes. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired August 30, 2024 - 18:00   ET

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

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news, Donald Trump is pulling back from his criticism of Florida's six-week abortion ban, now saying he would vote against a Florida measure that could overturn it.

[18:00:09]

We're breaking down Trump's shifting views, as the Harris campaign ramps up its appeal to supporters of reproductive rights.

Also this hour, Rudy Giuliani's luxury lifestyle is at risk, as Georgia election workers, who won a multimillion dollar defamation case against him, sue to seize his assets. Will they get Giuliani's condos, his Mercedes, even his New York Yankees World Series rings? We'll discuss.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. Wolf Blitzer is off today. I'm Alex Marquardt and you're in The Situation Room.

And we begin with that breaking news, Donald Trump sending a very different message tonight about Florida's six-week abortion ban than he did just 24 hours ago.

CNN's Steve Contorno is covering the Trump campaign and joins us now. Steve, Trump just publicly shared how he's going to vote in November on that Florida ballot measure, which could overturn Florida's strict ban. What did he say?

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN REPORTER: Alex Trump just moments ago saying he will vote against that ballot referendum in his home state of Florida. And if that ballot referendum does not pass, it means that the state's existing six-week abortion ban will remain in place.

Now, Trump yesterday, just yesterday, was asked about this referendum, and his answer seemed to suggest that he was open to voting for the referendum. In fact, his response was so confounding that anti- abortion advocates who believe that he was gearing up to vote for it, but today, speaking out again, he sought to clarify his answer and this is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Are you voting yes or no on Amendment 4 in Florida?

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: So, I think six weeks you need more time than six weeks. I've disagreed with that right from the early primaries when I heard about it. I just disagreed with it. At the same time, the Democrats are radical because the nine months is just a ridiculous situation, that way you can do an abortion in the ninth month. And, you know, some of the states like Minnesota and other states have it where you can actually execute the baby after birth. And all of that stuff is unacceptable. So, I'll be voting no for that reason.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: I should point out that there are no states where you are allowed to kill a baby after it is born. And Florida's abortion referendum would have allowed abortion access up until viability, which is about 24 weeks. But his continued waffling on this issue raises questions about whether he would, what he would do as president if a federal abortion ban reached his desk just days ago. And his running mate, J.D. Vance, said that was a closed issue. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would he veto it?

SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I think it would be very clear he would not support it. I mean, he said that explicitly.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But would he veto it?

VANCE: Yes, I mean, if you're not supporting it as the president of the United States, you fundamentally have to veto it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So he would veto a federal abortion ban?

VANCE: I think he would. He said that explicitly.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CONTORNO: Now, Trump has been all over the map on the issue of abortion over his time in the public eye. Earlier this summer, we took a look at his stances over the years. We found at least 15 examples of him shifting his stance, and that includes supporting, at one point, a federal abortion ban. When he was a president, he spoke to the National Rights to Life Convention in Washington, D.C., where he said he called on Congress to send a bill that would effectively have banned abortion at a certain threshold nationally. Alex.

MARQUARDT: And, Steve, Trump is going to be attending a Moms for Liberty event, that's later tonight. Why is that so notable?

CONTORNO: Well, yes, he'll be in D.C. in just a few hours, speaking to this group, and Trump has tried to reignite the culture wars that really inflamed school board races and the fight over education in recent years.

And perhaps no group was more responsible or more influential in that fight than Moms for Liberty. They have built up an incredible amount of clout in the GOP over the last three years since they were created. And they were one of the forces behind pushing Florida to remove books from schools, to getting certain LGBTQ topics, certain topics on race, out of curriculum. And Trump as president has aligned himself with many of those views, so he will be speaking to a very friendly audience on that matter later this evening, Alex.

MARQUARDT: All right, Steve Contorno on the campaign trail as it comes here to Washington. Steve, thanks very much.

Now to the Harris campaign and how it's positioning itself on this issue of reproductive rights, as Trump sends those mixed signals. Let's bring in CNN's Priscilla Alvarez who follows the Harris campaign.

So, Priscilla, what are you now hearing from the Harris camp?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well look, this has been a galvanizing issue for Democrats and the Harris campaign is seizing on it.

[18:05:00]

Now, they are saying that they are going to launch a reproductive rights bus tour next week. They're going to hit at least 50 stops, the first of those, though, in Florida, with Senator Klobuchar, as well as the campaign manager, Julie Chavez Rodriguez. And that, of course, was a significant decision, because, of course, Florida, today, is in the headlines. But it has been one of the states that they have been eyeing because of abortion is on the ballot.

Now, the vice president had kicked off a reproductive rights tour at the beginning of the year, and she also went to states where it was on the ballot. And at that time, she coined the term Trump abortion ban. So, you can anticipate there will be more of that.

Now, the campaign did hold a call earlier today with Senator Elizabeth Warren and she called the promises that the former president, Donald Trump, and his campaign has had made this week on IVF quote, smoke and mirrors. Take a listen to what else she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): Making vague promises about insurance coverage does not stop a single extremist judge or state legislature from banning IVF. Making vague promises about insurance coverage does not stop a single one of the 131 Republicans in Congress from advancing their fetal personhood bill that would ban IVF.

Despite what Trump seems to think, American women are smart, and we aren't falling for his gaslighting. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ALVAREZ: Now, of course, women voters is going to be such an important block for either campaign to win come November. And so this is certainly an issue that the Harris campaign sees they can make inroads on. And so they're going to launch this bus tour next week to send their message across the country at a time where the former president has been flip flopping on his stance.

MARQUARDT: All right. Priscilla Alvarez, who's been following the Harris-Walz campaign, thanks very much.

Let's break all this down with our political panel. Daniel, I want to start with you. Now we're seeing Trump leaning into this conservative culture war, he's talking to Moms for Liberty tonight after he's saying he would vote to keep Florida's six-week abortion ban in place, and then at the same time, he said that you need more weeks, he said that six weeks is too little time. And then he's also pushing this proposal to universally cover IVF treatments. How's he trying to square all of this?

DANIEL STRAUSS, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: I mean, he's not, or not in a coherent way and this is not the ideal situation any Republican nominee for president wants to be, pushing a point of view that is meant to appeal to a broader national electorate while also keeping favor with an evangelical base of the party. That's something that any Republican running for president would want to resolve maybe in a primary but not in almost September in a very, very close election cycle.

MARQUARDT: With 60 something days to go. Domenico, we've also seen Trump trying to distance himself from Project 2025, which the Democrats keep trying to link him to. Moms for Liberty, this group that he's speaking with tonight, is on the advisory board of Project 2025. So, again, how does he try to square that? I mean, does he try to distance himself from the people he's talking to as well?

DOMENICO MONTANARO, SENIOR POLITICAL EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT, NPR: Well, it's not just, you know, this group that has ties to, you know, Project 2025 and President Trump. He has lots of former advisers, people who are likely to serve in his administration. There are hundreds of policies that Trump has that overlap with Project 2025. So, that's the reason why so many Democrats are trying to tie every single policy in Project 2025 to Trump.

And just like abortion rights and Trump is really trying to say, you know, all the controversial stuff in Project 2025 is not associated with me, but some of the stuff that's more popular, I like.

And I think that what this has shown us today, this finally, this definitive stance on Amendment 4, is that Trump realizes finally which direction, how far, will the anti-abortion groups allow him to go. And, clearly, there's a line here, which is very different than for Kamala Harris, where progressives really have allowed her a lot of runway to be able to aim to the middle. MARQUARDT: So, he is saying very clearly that he is against this amendment, but at the same time, just a week ago, he was very clear about something else. He said, quote, he posted this, my administration will be great for women and their reproductive rights.

MARQUARDT: So, Erin, now voting for a near total abortion ban in Florida, is that his idea of supporting women and their reproductive rights?

ERIN PERRINE, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST, AXIOM STRATEGIES: Well, he's also been very clear about where he stands on IVF and that he would not support a total abortion ban. And I'm sitting here as people are saying that he is flip flopping over and over again on these issues. But where are we for slamming Kamala on this? Didn't she just do an interview where she said that she had -- where she acknowledged that she has changed her positions on, I don't know, banning fracking, on Medicare for all, on an open southern border. Wasn't it Tim Walz who said, if you build the wall 25 feet high, I'll build a ladder factory that makes them 30 feet high?

[18:10:00]

Listen, politicians evolve over time. If we're going to provide that same grace to Kamala Harris, who now has to try and defend her positions and couldn't even come up with a strategy for A1 day one as president in her interview here on CNN, we can provide Trump a little bit of grace and understand that when he says he's going to support IVF for women. And I am a woman who is sitting here in this position being a Republican, strong, conservative voice, because an individual like Donald Trump gave me an opportunity to be a spokesperson. And as a woman I get to stand here in that definitive nature and say I would not be here if it had not been for Donald Trump giving me the opportunity.

MARQUARDT: Just to be clear, she changed her position over the course of several years and this was within 24 hours.

ASHLEY ETIENNE, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BIDEN: Do you mind if I step in here? I mean, here's the real reality. Donald Trump, Republicans have an all-out assault on women. Donald Trump bragged about -- let me just make my points. I let you make your points. Donald Trump bragged about undermining reversing Roe. He bragged about it. He was found liable for sexual assault against a woman. He's running with a running mate that said that women who don't have children matter less in our American democracy. Okay. You have a Senate, Republicans in the Senate who voted to and are trying to push a national ban and voted to undermine and outlaw IVF, okay?

So, there's no question about where the president stand with the former president stands on this issue. What we're seeing right now is the worst of pandering. That's what's going on right now. And it's completely disingenuous. And the reason why is because it's what The Wall Street Journal said, that the problem for the Republican Party is their candidate, Donald Trump. People don't like him. He has nowhere to go. So, he's seeing all the numbers. Obviously, the vice president is surging. She's surging among women because of this issue. Republicans have underperformed over the last two cycles because of this issue. And he's seeing that his back is against the wall. So, what is he doing? He's doing what Donald Trump always does, and that is to move the ball and try to convince people that he's not who he actually is.

PERRINE: So, one point I will contrast here with you is that you say that Democrats are trying to vote in the Senate to support IVF. I worked in the Senate -- no, I worked in the Senate. You were just talking about this. I worked in the Senate. I understand. Right now, anybody that's voting on anything in June and July.

ETIENNE: I thought we were talking about the president though. I thought we were talking about him.

PERRINE: No, but I'm talking -- but you were talking about, you were talking about Democrats.

ETIENNE: I said the Republican Party.

PERRINE: Right, and you were talking about that in the Senate, Republicans voted against supporting IVF. So, I'm going back to that point to be able to tell you clearly that Chuck Schumer didn't put that bill up to be serious. You want to know why he put it up? So, he could score political points so people can sit on panels like this and say, look at what Republicans think. That was a show, guys.

MARQUARDT: We have new sound from the Republican nominee, Donald Trump, moments ago, I understand. He was talking about this question of signing a national abortion ban. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Would you veto a federal abortion ban?

TRUMP: I'm not going to have to think about it because it's working out so well right now. The states are doing it. It's a state's issue.

REPORTER: I'm only asking that because J.D. Vance said that you would veto an abortion ban if it was sent to your desk.

TRUMP: Well, what's happening is you're never going to have to do it because it's being done by the states. The states are voting and the people are now getting a chance to vote. And this is the way everybody wanted it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUARDT: So, Daniel, he's saying there you won't have to veto it, but his V.P. was quite clear on NBC saying that he would end up vetoing it if it came to pass.

STRAUSS: Right. And, look, this is something that -- it's alarming, the Republicans I've talked to today, some of whom feel that the Dobbs ruling was just part of this. And the inevitable goal is to not have even states push -- have sort of freedoms for reproductive rights. And so Trump here is saying now that he'll never be faced with the choice over signing a veto but some of his supporters have been hoping for that.

MONTANARO: I mean, Donald Trump knows this is a tricky issue. He's been talking about this for a while. He said that he feels Republicans have lost in the last couple of election cycles because of how they've talked about abortion rights. And he's trying to find some way to sort of walk this line. And the Republican campaign the Republicans in general, are pointing back, as Erin pointed out, toward Kamala Harris' switches from positions from her 2019 presidential campaign. And that's where this is all going to sort of play out.

What Democratic strategists have told me is that they feel like a lot of this policy stuff isn't going to really matter all that much, potentially, at the end of the day, because these flip flops, quote/unquote, largely cancel each other out, they believe, and that this may wind up being an election that's change versus more of the same. And, ironically, I think there's going to be a fight over who is really change, but, ironically, at this point, Kamala Harris, who is a sitting vice president, has somehow been able to take the mantle of change and say that she wants to turn the page.

And that's a very strong message in politics. There are few greater forces than change.

MARQUARDT: Erin, to Ashley's point about perhaps Trump seeing the numbers, he has said that he's -- you know, basically he's trying to balance this real backlash from conservative pro-abortion voters with his appeal to more middle of the road, independent swing state voters, particularly women.

[18:15:07]

PERRINE: I think that this is always going to be a tough conversation to have, right? This is not an easy one. And he has -- this is where Republicans, I think, ultimately have faltered over the last two cycles, right? Republicans are afraid to speak what they want to say on abortion. They're afraid to put down a definitive marker. And Democrats are as well. What's the limit for Democrats? Where do they want it to see?

If they're worried that Donald Trump is going to put a full abortion ban into place, I challenge my Democrat friends to say, what is acceptable? When does it go too far? Because it's not outlandish for Republicans to point to Terry McAuliffe, the former governor of Virginia, who tried to run again, and ultimately said, the child can be born, they can be made comfortable, and then a decision can be made. That's not outlandish for Republicans to say that, because that audio exists.

So, if people are saying Republicans are too extreme, Republicans will push back and say, but Democrats are afraid. Republican candidates need to be unafraid and say, yes, this should be a state's issue. And I agree if you're running in Virginia or --

ETIENNE: As you guys are losing on the issue.

PERRINE: Well, I don't disagree with that at all. Republicans have absolutely lost on that issue. But they want an answer.

ETIENNE: No, they want them to reinstate Roe. That's the problem for the Republicans.

PERRINE: And Republicans fail at giving that definitive. That will help so much. Just stand in your convictions. And if you are --

ETIENNE: But the problem is your conviction is not aligned with where the American people think he should be as a nation, the majority.

PERRINE: Some people have convictions that don't, but the majority of Republicans, including Donald Trump, who has said he believes at the end of the first term (ph), he stands where Ronald Reagan stood as a Republican, which included exceptions for rape, incest, and life of the mother.

ETIENNE: He bragged about it.

PERRINE: I'm telling you, you can keep saying that, but that does not change where he stands on his policy position.

ETIENNE: And he's not changed, that's the point we're making. He actually has not changed.

PERRINE: So, wait, did he flip flop or is he in the same position?

ETIENNE: I never said he flip flopped. I think he's pandering. I don't think he (INAUDIBLE) any of this.

MARQUARDT: As the Harris campaign launches this reproductive rights bus tour, which they were going to do anyway, what kind of moment does this set up for them? Do you expect them to really seize on what we've heard from him in the past 24 hours?

ETIENNE: Oh, absolutely. And, I mean, what I really appreciate about it is they're starting the bus tour in Palm Beach, I mean, in his backyard. It's like taking a page out of Donald Trump's book. It's like needling him. You meet him exactly where he is. But it also makes this point that Florida's actually in play. There's polls now that show that they're tied in Miami-Dade, Trump and Harris. So, absolutely --

PERRINE: Doesn't that worry Democrats?

ETIENNE: No, absolutely. I mean, no, absolutely not. We're expanding the map. Her presence has expanded the map. You guys should be concerned about Georgia, North Carolina, and Florida, where you should be holding the line, but you're actually not. You're losing, according to the polls. So, nevertheless, I think they're going to lean into this issue like they have because it's been a loser for the Republican Party.

MARQUARDT: And, I mean, just this conversation shows, of course, how important this is going to be with, you know, just under 70 days.

ETIENNE: And I don't think women are going to be fooled by this.

MARQUARDT: All right. Well, thank you all for a terrific conversation. Really appreciate it.

Just ahead, we are standing by for a new court filing in the revamped January 6th election subversion case against the former president, Donald Trump.

And former Trump White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci is standing by with his take on Trump's changing message on abortion.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:20:00]

MARQUARDT: We are getting new reaction to the breaking news, Donald Trump now saying that he will vote against a Florida measure to expand abortion rights a day after signaling that he might support that same measure.

Joining me now is former Trump White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci. Anthony, thank you so much for being with us.

Despite saying a six-week abortion ban is too early, just yesterday Trump said that, he's now saying that he'll vote to keep one in place in Florida, which, of course, is his home state where he votes. And now he's waffling on whether he would sign a national abortion ban. So, what do you think that that says about his mindset, his approach to this issue right now?

ANTHONY SCARAMUCCI, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Well, he's done a very good job of the last nine years of saying two contradictory things at the exact same time and giving enough food for everybody at the table. You know, he did that with the Charlottesville case. He said there were very fine people on both sides. And a day later, he had denounced it. And this way, the people that are gaslit by Donald Trump, they can hang on to those sentences in those words.

And so that's what he's doing right now. He's shot gunning out statements and words. The conservatives in this party are calling him up saying you can't do that. Many of these pro-life conservatives will not come out to vote for you. You have a low ceiling at 47.5 percent. You've never been able to punch through that. You need every one of these votes. And so he equivocates and goes back out there and says what he said today.

But he's in trouble. He knows it. And the interesting conversation you guys are having before the break, it's going to be very hard for women, even conservative women, to give up their reproductive freedoms to J.D. Vance and Donald Trump. And he knows that. He's got very good political instincts. So, this is a vexing problem for him right now.

MARQUARDT: And in terms of how he approaches a variety of issues, you know, he's been going after Kamala Harris as a flip flopper. Do you think what he's doing here is going to get him in some trouble for doing basically the same thing?

SCARAMUCCI: So, it should get him into trouble, but it never does. This is the one of the more fascinating things about former President Trump. He's able to get away with these things and people let him off the hook. I think it's the rapidity of the lies. He told one lie every 90 seconds during the debate with Joe Biden in June, President Biden. He told 4,000 -- I think 30 -- I'm sorry, 30,450 lies, according to The Washington Post during its term as president. And so the perpetual lying gives him a lot of space to say a lot of different things that people don't necessarily take that seriously.

[18:25:02]

On the flip side, you saw a very serious candidate running for president last night, as interviewed by Dana Bash. And what you saw there was an incredibly concise statements of policy that people take seriously.

MARQUARDT: In terms of the landscape and the battleground states were some really interesting new numbers in a Fox News poll of the Sun Belt. Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina, those swing states, they found Harris and Trump neck and neck in all four of those states, all within the margin of error. It is not the race that Trump was expecting, not the race that he had a couple months ago. How much do you think that that's frustrating him in his campaign?

SCARAMUCCI: I think it's frustrating him, but if I was on the Harris side, though, I would tell them that he under polls. And so he may be up a little bit more than that, and they've got to dig in and work very hard in those areas of the country.

Now, she could have a breakout moment with more interviews. She could have a breakout moment in the September 10th debate. But if I'm on her campaign, I'm recommending she pushes very hard in those areas because she could put him on the run if she opens up an ideas lead and a policy lead because he's not really that substantive at this point in his political career.

MARQUARDT: And speaking of that interview that our colleague, Dana Bash did with Kamala Harris yesterday, Trump has respond, responded, he called Harris low energy, but he said not too much about the substance of the interview. What does that tell you?

SCARAMUCCI: Well, he's a perception guy. You know, he's a very aesthetic person because, you know, he has, he's a problem reading and probably various learning disabilities. So, he's working off the aesthetics of the moment and he's pressured the content of her policy. He's sitting there. He said very derogatory things about her, which I won't mention on this air, but he's looking at her saying, wait a minute, the things I'm saying about her doesn't match up with the content that she's providing right now, and he's worried about it.

And so he's trying to figure out if he can outmuscle her or bully her without being substantial. And I think he's going to be surprised by her. I think she's consistently outperforming, and she's consistently exceeding expectations of her. And she's going to be a very formidable candidate come November.

MARQUARDT: Yes, and he's reposted some pretty nasty things about her as well. Anthony Scaramucci, thanks.

SCARAMUCCI: And that's shameful, by the way. I mean, that is disgusting stuff. I hope people pay attention to that. It's very shameful what he's posting.

MARQUARDT: Yes. Well, Anthony Scaramucci, I appreciate your time.

SCARAMUCCI: Thank you.

MARQUARDT: Coming up, we are standing by for new court filings on how Special Counsel Jack Smith and Donald Trump's legal team plan to move forward with the election interference case. Those details are next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:30:00]

MARQUARDT: Any moment now, we should be getting a look at how Special Counsel Jack Smith plans to move forward with his revamped, slimmed down, superseding indictment against Donald Trump in the 2020 election subversion case, as both sides, Jack Smith and Trump's team, lay out their proposed timeline and address how they think the court should handle the all important questions about presidential immunity.

Let's bring in our legal panel to discuss all of this. First, I want to go to Jessica Schneider, CNN Justice Correspondent. So, Jessica, what is the latest in this filing that we're expecting?

JESSICA SCHNEIDER, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we have about probably five and a half hours until the special counsel and Trump's team have to file this joint status report about how they want to move forward in this January 6th case. Remember, it was earlier this week that Jack Smith's team filed that superseding indictment, same charges, but different allegations of facts to try to take out some of those official acts that would have been barred by the Supreme Court.

So, now they have to come up with essentially a schedule of how to move forward here. You know, there might be some disagreement. That's why it's taking up to the last minute, which is the midnight deadline tonight. But our team understands that Jack Smith's team really has been methodical in moving forward with this superseding indictment, and that might actually translate to not a lot of public hearings or big filings that might come before the election.

So, they might be kind of slow walking this, and we'll see how Trump's team responds, and, of course, how the judge responds.

MARQUARDT: So, this could be a slower process, Laura Coates. In terms of the judge, Judge Chutkan, how does this impact her job? Is it easier? Is it harder? LAURA COATES, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: Many thought that there was going to be a sort of a mini trial leading up to whatever would ultimately conclude in a trial, trying to assess what was an official act, trying to get the parameters of what that would mean based on the Supreme Court ruling about immunity, where you cannot be prosecuted for official acts as a president.

But here, it essentially has the heavy lifting for the judge to say, need not have that evidentiary hearing of all the different aspects of it, here are the confines of what we're trying to actually put forward. The charges are the same, so that's not going to be changing, but the allegations, yes, for those four, what actually supports the allegations is different, and it's contoured in a way to make it align with what they believe the Supreme Court will rule.

She still has, the judge has to essentially say, is it in line with my understanding, because this is not going to be the end of the story for a litigious case like this.

MARQUARDT: And, Norm Eisen, in terms of this schedule, this timeline, how do you see this playing out? And how do you see the impact of the election, whichever way it goes, impacting this case?

NORM EISEN, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Jack Smith has already landed a powerful bomb in this election season by not going with his first indictment, superseding, streamlining the case, but making clear he thinks there's a strong case against Donald Trump.

[18:35:01]

And it is a strong case against Donald Trump that he's laid out in the superseding indictment, Alex, and it's reverberating in this election season with the one-two punch of activity in the 2016 election interference and cover up case in Manhattan, making this a campaign issue again.

Now, we have to wait and see what will Jack Smith's move be, what will Trump's move be. The judge ordered them, come together as much as you can in this joint scheduling proposal. Why is it taking a while? They're probably arguing they may be still fighting about the terms, as we speak right now.

We'll see what they do. It has been publicly reported that Smith is not going to seek an evidentiary hearing, but that may be because on this superseding indictment, he thinks he can win on the papers. He doesn't need an evidentiary, he wins as a matter of law. That might be part of the reasoning. We'll see when we get the filing.

COATES: And to be clear, we've had a kind of evidentiary hearing in the form of a congressional hearing on January 6th. A lot will come out. It's not necessarily new to the American public, but remember, earlier in the week, Alex, there was the Truth Social post by Donald Trump where he was quibbling with the idea of a DOJ policy, not a law, but a policy that suggests that you cannot actually prosecute or change anything that would have an impact on an election. Remember, that's a policy, this is an existing case, and we are still within that, generally, 60-day window when that's usually enforced. He was saying, Trump was saying earlier, yes, but early voting should count towards, it's not general election, therefore we're in the window. That's not going to persuade this judge at all.

MARQUARDT: And, Laura, in terms of what's going on in Georgia, there was this defamation case by these two Georgia election workers against Rudy Giuliani. They won a major judgment. They are now asking the former New York mayor to turn over a lot of luxury goods, multimillion dollar properties in both Manhattan and Palm Beach, exclusive sports memorabilia, his New York Yankees World Series rings, to pay off the more than $100 million that he owes to these two election workers. How likely is it that they get at least some of those millions?

COATES: This translates to pay up. You've lost your case, you don't get to keep your money when you have done, and the behavior you have. Remember we're talking about Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss, people who were totally innocent, passing a ginger mint between mother and daughter, accused of nefarious conduct that they did not commit. He was aware they believed in it. It was not truthful, he's being held to account.

Now the accounting starts, and no claim of bankruptcy or et cetera would actually change that. This might not be enough, but you don't have to have it all for them to collect any.

MARQUARDT: And, Norm, back at the RNC in July, Rudy Giuliani told our colleague, Kaitlan Collins, that he has, quote, no regrets about falsely accusing these two women of rigging the 2020 election. Do you think that could come back to haunt him?

EISEN: It can, because comments like that, if there's litigation now over these damages, these getting a hold of his properties, his World Series rings, the sports memorabilia, total lack of contrition. Of course, the courts take that into account as they are deciding on these personally painful give-ups for Rudy Giuliani.

So, I do think his continued lack of remorse is a problem for him. He's likely to lose everything he owns to these women that he defamed.

SCHNEIDER: and they're asking for it quickly. They want these assets turned over to them within the next seven days. And it is a long list of assets, you know, luxury watches, his cars, his properties. We'll see how quickly the court acts, but it's a quick timeline.

MARQUARDT: All right. Thanks to you all. A lot going on in the legal space, lucky to have you all with me, thank you.

And just ahead, the unprecedented campaign to vaccinate hundreds of thousands of children in the Gaza Strip against polio. Will the fighting pause for long enough to distribute that desperately needed aid?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:40:00]

MARQUARDT: The United Nations now says it hopes to launch a desperately needed polio vaccination campaign in Gaza on Sunday, the U.N. counting on temporary pauses in the fighting to reach more than 600,000 Palestinian children in Gaza.

CNN's Nic Robertson is joining us now from Jerusalem with details. So, Nic, how challenging is it going to be to get this fighting to stop, to get the vaccinations to these kids?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, this is huge. It's something that the U.N. has never really done before. I was speaking to one of the U.N. senior officials in Gaza, Sam Rosen. He told me this is monumental. They're going to do this in three parts. They'll do the center of Gaza first, then the south, then the north. And they'll have three days in each place. And each of those days, they'll have seven to eight-hour pauses.

So, if you run the math, 640,000 children they need to vaccinate, you roughly have about to do 10,000 children every hour. So, that's a massive numerical challenge in of itself.

And he says, look, we're going to have clinics at our big health centers that are smaller clinics. We're going to have mobile clinics. We're going to have teams out in the field, 3,000 people on the ground setting up vaccination spots in the middle of the some of the sort of the tent cities and places like that. So, they're going to have a lot of people out there to do it.

But there are many, many challenges here. And one of those is actually needing to get 90 percent of those 640,000 people, children vaccinated, and they don't really have a solid number. He says, he fears, sadly, many of those children may be under the rubble. So, getting the right number of children vaccinated is also a challenge.

[18:45:01]

But I asked him as well about the stakes. What's at stake here? This is what he told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: You're going to be tested to the max. I mean, what's at stake if you don't manage to get to all the children you need to get to?

SAM ROSE, UNRWA DIRECTOR OF PLANNING: I mean, what's at stake is the spread of polio. And right now, we know of one case, one confirmed case. We don't know if there are more. We've not had the ability to check, but if the disease spreads, it will be catastrophic.

ROBERTSON: That -- can break out of the region?

ROSE: Who knows how far it can spread? There's a probability that it could spread beyond the borders of Gaza, indeed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERTSON: So they really have to get it right. And he said, look, you know, we're going to learn each step as we go. We may need to ask for more time, but there's also one other huge, huge catch here as well, Alex, quite simply this, they need to do all of this again in four weeks, a second dose of the vaccination.

Otherwise, he said, there's no -- this one -- this vaccination will reject null and void, useless. They need to get that second dose in and asked him, what do you have guarantees of pauses, humanitarian pauses in four weeks time? No, there's nothing like that on the horizon. They'll have to go through that whole process of getting the pauses back in play again as well.

MARQUARDT: Nic, it's just incredible that we're talking about polio at all to begin with, this is the first case, this one boy, 11 month old, Abdul Rahman, that Gaza has seen in 25 years. He is now partially paralyzed.

So how did we get here? What -- what are the conditions that led to this now fear of a polio outbreak?

ROBERTSON: The huge and massive destruction of civilian infrastructure, meaning the sewage system, meaning the freshwater system, meaning houses destroyed, so people are living outside without clean water where feces can mix with the water that people are actually drinking.

So that's the cycle of how polio gets into people's bodies and propagates. But one of the other compounding factors here, and this is what Sam Rose was telling me, is, although there has been a really good vaccination program until quite recently, obviously, before the Hamas's brutal October the 7th attack and the war in Gaza began was the vaccine that they were using for the past 10 years doesn't actually attack -- attack this particular variant of polio. So it's something that this part of the population, the under tens haven't been vaccinated for before.

MARQUARDT: Just when you think things can't get any worse in Gaza. We're talking about polio.

Nic Robertson, thanks so much for that reporting.

Coming up, why this Labor Day weekend maybe cooler and cheaper than you might have expected?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:52:02]

MARQUARDT: As Labor Day weekend gets underway, millions of Americans are about to hit the road and it will cost them less to fill up their tanks than in the past few years. The average price of gas nationwide is projected to fall $3.27 per gallon on Labor Day. That is the lowest price on this holiday in three years.

Now let's see how the weather may be impacting your travel and activities.

CNN's chief meteorologist Chad Myers has the forecast.

So, Chad, how's it looking for this long weekend?

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: You know, it's always the unofficial end of summer and it's kind of looking like it.

Two days ago, Chicago hit heat index of 115 degrees. On Labor Day, it'll feel like 75. So that's I guess some good news there. The West does get hot, I get it. The East is going to be warm, but cooling down and the West is going to be warm and heating up even more.

So, yes, there'll be some thunderstorms if you're going to be out here on the East Coast to make sure you have a place to get away. If you have a picnic, some kind of shelter because there will be lightning in some of these storms. So yes, just kind of keep that in mind.

But there's a couple of things going on in the tropics. Obviously the hottest part of the year, even though the end of summer, right. Still 20 percent chance of something developing in the Gulf of Mexico in the next couple of days. And then way out here in the Atlantic, this is Africa. So way out here in the Atlantic, there is also the chance of something tropical is still going. The true middle of hurricane season, doesn't even get here until September 10, officially, that's the peak. And we go down from there.

So we'll hope you go down rather quickly -- Alex.

MARQUARDT: Thanks so much for keeping an eye on that, and happy Labor Day to you. Coming up, a lot of new details in the shocking killing of an NHL all-star brother along with his brother. A very sad story and NHL all-star player, excuse me, in his brother the criminal complaint because just coming in.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:58:13]

MARQUARDT: A professional hockey player and his brother are dead after a driver struck and killed them while they were riding bikes on a New Jersey roadway.

CNN's Polo Sandoval reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Hockey star Johnny Gaudreau and his younger brother, Matthew, killed by an alleged drunk driver Thursday night on the eve of their sister's wedding, where they were set to be groomsmen.

State police confirm the siblings were bike riding and southern New Jersey when they were hit by an SUV.

Sean Higgins is believed to have been the driver. The 43-year-old now charged with two counts of second-degree vehicular homicide. Police records say he admitted to drinking five to six beers before the accident, and that he failed a field sobriety test. Higgins made an initial court appearance Friday, where a judge orders he be held until his next hearing.

JUDGE: We'll see you back in court on Thursday.

SEAN HIGGINS, SUSPECT: So I'm here until Thursday?

JUDGE: Yes, sir.

Gaudreau, who earned the nickname Johnny Hockey was drafted by the Calgary Flames in 2011 -- signed with the Columbus Blue Jackets in 2022, where he tallied a dozen goals and nearly 50 assists the last season alone.

Johnny played the game with great joy, read a statement from his team. The impact he had on our organization and our sport was profound, but pales in comparison to the indelible impression he made on everyone who knew him.

But despite the success in the rank, the true passion appeared to be off the ice, as a loving husband and proud father of two babies, the youngest born this year and carries dad's name.

Matthew followed in his brother's footsteps, playing side-by-side with Johnny in Boston College. Coaches there described the brothers as full of joy for the sport.

JERRY YORK, FORMER HEAD COACH, BOSTON COLLEGE MEN'S HOCKEY: If you ask us the name of our favorite players, you know, they've got to be -- both boys are going to be among them.

SANDOVAL: An uncle of the Gaudreau brothers releasing the statement saying: Last night, we lost two husbands, two fathers, two sons, but truly two amazing humans.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANDOVAL (on camera): And we're just learning right now from a spokesperson for the Blue Jackets that the younger of the two brothers, Matthew, that his wife is currently expecting a baby, Alex. So that's certainly adds yet another layer of tragedy for this family that just 24 hours ago was getting ready to celebrate a wedding.

MARQUARDT: It's just so horrifically sad.

SANDOVAL: Yeah.

MARQUARDT: Polo Sandoval, thank you very much.

I'm Alex Marquardt in THE SITUATION ROOM.

"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.