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The Story Is with Elex Michaelson

Schiff: Republicans Trying To Shift Focus Away From Issues; Netanyahu Refutes Israel Was Warned Of 2023 Hamas Attack; Witness Who Was In Van With Man Killed By ICE Speaks Out; Trump Asks Supreme Court to Revive System for Voter Purges; Rams Face 49ers in First Regular Season Game in Australia. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired September 09, 2026 - 01:00   ET

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

[01:00:00]

NATHALIE GOULET, FRENCH SENATOR: Almost. I think it's like an open door to a new tribe for other museums.

MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Now calls are growing for authorities to help better protect the country's museums to prevent increasingly organized and determined criminals once again striking at the heart of French culture.

Melissa Belle, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELEX MICHAELSON, CNN ANCHOR: What a story. Thanks for watching the first hour of The Story Is. The next hour starts right now.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Live from Los Angeles, The Story Is with Elex Michaelson.

MICHAELSON: It is 10:00 p.m. here in Los Angeles. I'm Elex Michaelson. Coming up, the Iran sends a barrage of missiles towards Jordan after the U.S. military struck more Iranian tankers. Plus, President Trump is hyping the upcoming Republican midterm convention promising a sold out event. But why do some Republicans not feel sold on the idea at all?

And I'll speak with Democratic Senator Adam Schiff about the November midterms affordability and the war with Iran, as well as a startling new report about the October 7th attack on Israel. He's with us on set.

But we begin with this. Iran threatening further retaliation after U.S. Central Command says its forces struck five Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps tankers, sinking one of them. Secretary of State Marco Rubio warning any retribution from Tehran will be met with a response from the U.S.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: But Iran continues to try to hit U.S. naval ships. And for every time they do that or try to do that, they're going to lose tankers. And I think you'll see that again today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Says the attack was in response to attempted ballistic missile strikes on a U.S. navy ship. Iran has since responded by launching a barrage of missiles targeting a key Jordanian air base used by the U.S. forces. Tehran has also threatened to target oil tankers near Bahrain and Kuwait's ports. President Trump took aim at Iran during a speech earlier today honoring 9/11 first responders. He offered praise for the brave men and women who ran towards danger during the 2001 terror attacks.

And he drew a comparison between the tragedy and the administration's war with Iran, now in its seventh month.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have a certain nation that wanted a nuclear weapon, they were very close to getting it and now they have no chance at getting it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: The president is gearing up for his Republican midterm convention set for Wednesday and Thursday in Dallas, Texas. The Republican president is pumping up the event on Truth Social, claiming it's really hot, totally sold out and everybody wants to be there. He plans to speak both nights, but a number of Republican candidates in key races have said that they are skipping the convention. They're privately questioning whether the extravaganza strikes the right tone amid tight budgets and the wisdom of spending time away from campaigning in their districts just weeks from Election Day.

Earlier today, California Senator Adam Schiff joined me on set. We talked about the convention and a lot more. Here's part of our conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Let's talk about the midterms. We are now, you know, after Labor Day, campaigning is underway. President Trump is doing something unusual this year, the first ever midterm convention for the Republicans. Do you think that's a good idea and you think Democrats should do something similar?

SEN. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): I think it's a desperation move. And look, I understand why they're desperate. The president promised to bring down costs, and costs are just going up. This new iteration of the trade war with Canada is driving prices even higher. Now we have this escalated fighting between Saudi Arabia and the Houthis, which are driving gas prices higher.

So they're going to try everything they can to change the topic. I think that's what this is about. It's also why they're trying to suppress the vote with these absentee ballot initiatives where they're trying to attack voting by mail. It's all about voter suppression.

MICHAELSON: He says it's about voter security and it's about making sure that there aren't people voting who shouldn't need to vote.

SCHIFF: Except even the conservative Heritage Foundation finds that almost never happens. It's already against the law. So what they're going to do is try to prevent lawful voters from being able to access the polls with new voter ID requirements and new requirements that there be some massive database that you run absentee ballots against. That has been tried by the Trump administration. It has failed.

It continues to fail in court. And should they succeed in court, because it's before the Supreme Court right now, it will be chaos.

MICHAELSON: In terms of the midterm convention, though, you don't think the Democrats should do something like this?

SCHIFF No. No.

MICHAELSON: In terms of one of the issues that has been driving prices up is, of course, the Iran war. We've seen gas prices go up because of the Iran war. I know you don't like what we did so far, but we're here. So what do we do now? How do we make the best of this situation and get out of this war to try to bring costs down?

[01:05:21]

SCHIFF: Well, that's hugely difficult because the president went into this without much thought. I think he expected this would be like Venezuela. He would go in and grab or kill the leader of Iran and there would be some kind of ability to govern Iran at a distance. But Iran is not Venezuela and Venezuela is not Iran.

And now there's this quagmire. Seven months in, 18 service members killed, prices going through the roof with no end in sight. How do we get out of this? Well, I don't know how the president cleans up mess, but I do know we need to bring an end to this because it's just going to continue to cause more suffering, more loss of American service members lives. And the president has never made it clear for what.

MICHAELSON: I mean, he says it's for a nuclear weapon, that we do not want to have a nuclear armed Iran, that that would be a danger to the world and that it's worth the price that we're paying.

SCHIFF: Well, he says that on Monday and then on Tuesday he says it's about regime change. On Wednesday it's about something else. I mean, he --

MICHAELSON: He's always said that about the nuclear weapon thing.

SCHIFF: He has at various points, yes, along with a lot of other things, a lot of completely unrelated things. But if you focus just on the nuclear, what he seems to be angling for now is something that is even weaker than what we had in the JCPOA that he tore up. So how does he get something better than that when Iran now knows it can close the Strait of Hormuz? I don't have the answer to that. It's why you don't get into a war like this without thinking through the consequences.

MICHAELSON: And the JCPOA, of course, was the deal negotiated by President Obama and his team with Iran years ago.

Meanwhile, our partner in getting into the war with Iran was Israel. And there's been news this week about Benjamin Netanyahu, specifically the United Arab Emirates claiming that they gave Netanyahu warning that an attack was coming before October 7th and they feel like he didn't do enough. Several of the folks who are running against Netanyahu are calling him out for that. How do you respond to that latest intelligence and in terms of the way that Benjamin Netanyahu has reacted?

SCHIFF: I don't know the basis of the intelligence. I've seen the public reporting about it. If it's accurate, of course, that's hugely damning of the prime minister. There was already, and I think this has been pretty well confirmed reporting a year or two ago about at least one intelligence product that Israel had that suggested that Hamas might engage in an attack like the one that took place. And for whatever reason, it was not given credibility.

So this would just add to that, add to the warning, if accurate, that the prime minister had. I would think that would be devastating politically, if it's true.

MICHAELSON: There's a lot of folks in the Democratic Party in your caucus who feel like Benjamin Netanyahu is a war criminal, who has committed war crimes, that Israel is an apartheid state, and that the United States should not fund any military weapons to Israel because they are funding a genocide. What do you say to that?

SCHIFF: Well, I voted against the last two arms requests of the administration for Israel for a variety of reasons. First, I think they're using excessive force in Gaza. I also think that the expansion of the war against Iran in Lebanon is not in the interests of either Israel or peace in the region. I also recently led a letter that over 40 of my Democratic colleagues joined condemning the settler violence in the west bank, which I think is just contributing to the loss of life and instability, and the proposed settlements now in a new settlement bloc that would effectively prevent a Palestinian state I'm vehemently opposed to.

I do think Israel has a right to exist and exist as a Jewish state. I think it has a right to defend itself. But that right doesn't go further to using excessive force to ethically cleanse or destroy whole blocks of neighborhoods in Gaza or elsewhere.

MICHAELSON: So you wouldn't say that Israel has committed genocide?

SCHIFF: I would not. Because genocide has a very specific legal meaning. I don't think this meets the definition of genocide, but I think it's certainly ethnic cleansing and there should be investigations because there may very well have been war crimes committed as well.

MICHAELSON: Why do you think this is splitting your party the way that it is?

SCHIFF: You know, look, I think we're a big, diverse party, and that is both a strength of our party, but it's also puts parts of the party in tension with each other. I do think that Netanyahu and the decisions he's made have been catastrophic for Israel, for the region, for the Palestinians. I think the Democratic Party is coming to grips with that. I think, as the whole country is.

[01:10:07]

Tragically, Israel, in the wake of that terrorist attack by Hamas, has managed to alienate most of the rest of the world in how it has responded. And, you know, as someone who wants Israel to survive, succeed, continue to be a homeland for the Jewish people, it's heartbreaking. But I think he has been a disastrous prime minister and his legacy will be a terribly destructive one.

MICHAELSON: And, of course, he's up for reelection in the weeks ahead. It'll be interesting to see what happens there. Will be interesting to see what happens with the midterms as well.

Senator Adam Schiff, always a pleasure catching up with you. Thanks for coming in. Great to see you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Other news now, the U.K., France and Canada have announced sanctions on illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The coordinated effort includes bans on goods imported from the settlements and enforcing measures against parties that facilitate or profit from them. The British foreign secretary condemned Israel's actions in the occupied territory, accusing what he calls settler terrorists of committing, quote, "ethnic cleansing against Palestinians." Israel has strongly denied the accusations and is vowing retaliatory measures.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GIDEON SA'AR, ISRAELI FOREIGN MINISTER: Accusations made today by the foreign secretary in the British Parliament were outrageous lies. Let me make this clear from the outset. We have nothing against the British people. We know that we have many friends in Britain. Unfortunately, a hostile Labour government is in office systematically acting against the state of Israel, and it has left us with no choice but to finally respond to its hostile actions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: The leaders of U.K., Canada and France also issued a joint statement reaffirming their commitment to a two-state solution. Nine other Western nations also released a separate letter pledging to introduce similar restrictions or support European efforts. Secretary of State for the United States Marco Rubio declined to comment directly on Europe's sanctions, but said that the U.S. does not want to see further destabilization in that region. Still ahead on The Story Is, three members of the jury in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial speaking out for the first time about the high profile case. We'll hear from them about why they say they couldn't get to a verdict. Plus, a CNN exclusive, a man who was inside the van when a Houston father was shot and killed by ICE, sharing his story for the first time only on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:17:08]

MICHAELSON: For the first time since the judge declared a mistrial in the Lindsay Clancy triple murder trial, we are hearing from three of the jurors on that case. Here's what the jury four person said about the lone holdout juror who prevented the panel from acquitting Clancy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RONI CARLSON, JURY FOREPERSON, LINDSAY CLANCY TRIAL: He had reasonable doubt. He admitted he had reasonable doubt after we watched that video of the interview. I think that's when it was. He admitted he had reasonable doubt and I started filling out the forms. I was so excited.

I actually -- there were three forms I had to fill out and I started filling them out. I wrote my signature on each one. And then he said, but I'm still not going to say that she's not guilty with -- by reason of insanity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: Clancy's defense attorney says that he is willing to work out a plea deal for his client. Lindsay Clancy has admitted to strangling her three young children in 2023. But attorney Kevin Reddington had argued that she should not be held criminally responsible because she suffered from postpartum psychosis. It's now up to the district attorney to decide whether to retry the case. Reddington is also asking President Trump to pardon Clancy, but she was tried in state, not federal court, giving the governor of Massachusetts the actual pardoning power here.

Meantime, an attorney for Lindsay Clancy's ex-husband is threatening legal action to stop what they call an escalating campaign of misinformation and disinformation and defamation. The attorney is accusing conspiracy theorists of publishing falsehoods that suggest that Patrick Clancy was somehow involved in the deaths of his children. Remember, she admits that she was and he wasn't.

A chilling firsthand account of the ICE shooting that killed Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, the 52-year-old father of three was killed in July during a traffic stop in Houston, Texas. One of the passengers in his van is describing what he saw in the seconds right before that shooting. Ed Lavandera brings us this CNN exclusive and a warning some of the images in his report are disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Daniel Tirado Pantoja says he constantly thinks about the moment Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was shot and killed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer in Houston and still doesn't understand why it happened.

LAVANDERA: He had no reason to shoot in that moment.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Tirado and his stepdaughter sat down exclusively with CNN to vividly detail what he says happened to Salgado. Tirado and two other men were riding in Salgado's van that July 7 morning. He walked us through the videos that show some of the events that led up to the shooting.

LAVANDERA: ICE officers pursued Lorenzo Salgado's white van here on Canal Street. And then just a few houses away, he makes a U turn.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): The U.S. attorney in Houston has said the fatal shot occurred during this turn. If you look closely at the video, you can see two ICE officers appearing to stand around the side of the van.

[01:20:09]

AARON REITZ, U.S. ATTORNEY, SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS: Preliminary information indicates the driver shifted the van into reverse, then forward again while an officer was partially inside the van or immediately next to it. During this confrontation between federal agents and a group of illegal aliens attempting to flee, one of the officers fired a single shot. That round struck Lorenzo Salgado.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): But Tirado tells a different story.

LAVANDERA: There's the truck making the U turn.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): He says after the U turn, Salgado drove back up Canal Street and stopped the van. During this moment in the video, you can see the officers do not appear to be in the van's path. They're chasing it down from behind.

LAVANDERA: No shots have been fired at this point. And then there's one, two, and a third agent.

And this is where the van comes to a complete stop. It's not captured on video that we've seen so far, but Daniel Tirado says this is where the ICE officer fired the fatal shot.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): For the first time he's showing us which ICE officer he says fired the deadly shot.

LAVANDERA: He says that the ICE agent that shot Lorenzo was the first agent here running after the van.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): ICE officials have not identified the shooter, but said the agent shot Salgado in self-defense. We asked ICE to confirm Tirado's account of where the shooting happened and which officer fired the shot and if they plan to identify the officer. A spokesperson refused to confirm or deny, saying in a statement, "Publicizing their identities puts their lives and the lives of their families at serious risk." Tirado says the officers were never in danger and that what happened next terrified him.

LAVANDERA: They came shooting is what you're saying.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Tirado says he was sitting on a cooler behind the front passenger seat when he saw the ICE officer point his gun through the side window and fire one shot at Salgado. He says the last words he heard Salgado say, they just killed me. And Salgado's brother told the officer, you just killed him. He says the same officer then opened the van's back door and pointed the gun at his head.

LAVANDERA: When the gun is pointed at your face, what are you thinking?

LAVANDERA (voice-over): He says, if the officer just shot and killed my boss, he's going to shoot me too.

LAVANDERA: He thought that was the end right there for him.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): ICE has not offered new details about why this happened. The agency initially said Salgado weaponized his vehicle and attempted to run over an ICE agent and that the officer fired in self- defense. The agents were not wearing body cameras.

Pure lies, he says. Why don't they tell the truth? More than two months after Salgado's death, it's not clear where the investigation into the shooting stands. Tirado says the officer should pay for what he did so he can suffer what they are suffering.

JUANA DEGOLLADO, TIRADO'S STEPDAUGHTER: I think they're trying to cover for him, they're trying to protect him.

LAVANDERA: What would you like to see happen to that ICE agent?

DEGOLLADO: A lot of things. We need him to get some type of punishment, too. We need justice for Lorenzo more than anything. Putting that ICE agent's name out there, making sure he pays in jail or something.

LAVANDERA: You think he should be arrested and charged criminally?

DEGOLLADO: Yes. Of course, yes.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Daniel Tirado says he came to the United States 30 years ago and worked in construction to save money so he could build his parents a home in Mexico. He says Lorenzo Salgado was more than his boss the last eight years. He was his friend. He says, we weren't hurting anyone. We just wanted to work.

He's angry that ICE officers targeted them instead of criminals.

(END VIDEOTAPE) LAVANDERA (on camera): This interview raises new questions about where the ICE officers were standing when Salgado was shot. We've reached out to local, state and federal law enforcement agencies to get clarification. The U.S. attorney in Houston did provide CNN a new statement saying that Tirado's comments in this interview conflict with earlier statements made to federal authorities. And the U.S. attorney also says that nothing has come to light to change Tirado's original account of what happened.

Daniel Tirado spent almost two months in immigration custody. He was just recently released. His lawyer and his family stand by what he told us. They say this entire experience has been incredibly traumatic.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Dallas.

MICHAELSON: Ed, thank you.

Next on The Story Is, confusion reigns over Missouri's midterm map. The U.S. Supreme Court says one thing, a lower court says another. So what do we do now? Our panel is back. Brian Tyler Cohen on the left, Jennifer Horne on the right.

[01:24:26]

Plus, a big night for tennis. Frances Tiafoe hands his American opponent a surprising defeat at the U.S. Open and follows it up with an all too knowing embrace. An emotional night in Flushing Meadows.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELSON: Live picture from Washington, D.C. where it's almost 1:30 in the morning and control of that Congress is very much in doubt heading into the midterm elections. President Trump now asking the Supreme Court, which of course is right behind the Capitol, to reinstate his controversial citizenship record system to review voter rolls. For at least a decade, the president has argued that noncitizens are tainting elections, despite lots of studies debunking that claim.

A lower court ruled in June that the administration's plan to audit voter rolls violates privacy laws. Opponents say that it would produce inaccurate results that could disenfranchise voters.

Meanwhile, Republicans could be on track to pick up an extra House seat from Missouri in November's midterm elections. A federal court has ruled that the state must use a congressional map redrawn last year to favor the GOP.

[01:29:50]

That follows a U.S. Supreme Court ruling just a few hours earlier in a separate case rejecting the new map.

Missouri's attorney general, who is a Republican, says that changing the map from the primary to the general election is not feasible and is profoundly unjust.

The groups challenging the Republican-friendly map have appealed and begun filing a series of emergency motions in an effort to pause the lower court order.

Our panel is back. On the left, podcast host and author, Brian Tyler Cohen; on the right, L.A. radio talk show host Jennifer Horn.

Brian, like the midterms are here. People are voting in some parts of the country. We're still debating the map?

BRIAN TYLER COHEN, PODCAST HOST AND AUTHOR: And we shouldn't be. But that's a testament to the fact that when you can't win on the merits, you have to try and rig the rules of the game in your favor.

That's exactly what Trump was trying to do with this midterm redistricting cycle. And his, you know, Republican acolytes were willing to give him exactly what he demanded. He said he was entitled to more seats in the House. And now you have even a Republican Supreme Court in Missouri and a Republican U.S. Supreme Court that are saying that they've gone too far and that this effort has to stop.

But look, again, if they -- if they were able to run on any of the things that they promised they'd be doing that, the fact that they're not really does give the whole game away.

MICHAELSON: Do you think that's what's happening here?

JENNIFER HORN, L.A. RADIO SHOW HOST: I don't think so. I think we need to have the maps. I think look, I'd love to see what California has done -- I can't believe I'll cite California as an example of doing something right.

But an independent --

MICHAELSON: Whoa.

HORN: I know, write it down. An independent commission is where we need to be. Unfortunately, Gavin Newsom didn't like that. So everybody played redistricting palooza. And here we are. Everybody's confused.

MICHAELSON: You're saying California did something right before the Democrats --

HORN: Before they did something wrong.

MICHAELSON: When the Republicans were suggesting an independent commission.

COHEN: Well look, you had -- you had all Democrats who voted in 2021 to eliminate partisan gerrymandering nationwide. Not a single Republican voted in favor for it -- in favor of it.

And so, look, you have every Democrat who's going to be in favor of doing exactly what it is you're saying, but you've got Republicans who want to continue rigging the rules of the game in their favor. HORN: I don't know about rigging the rules, but I think we have to get

this all figured out because we are 60 days away, not even. And there's still a lot of questions and Missouri is a great example of that.

MICHAELSON: So you support the idea of a national independent redistricting plan?

HORN: State by state. State by state.

MICHAELSON: Yes.

HORN: I don't think you can do anything nationally. You've got to give states control of their own elections.

MICHAELSON: But the argument that Brian has made for years is that why is it fair that Democratic states do this and that Republican states don't do this?

HORN: You know, I look, I'm going to say that I think all states with independent commissions would probably do a whole lot better than all of this.

Look, this is not my preference. I wasn't this -- I know Elex is looking at me like, oh my gosh, this is blowing your mind.

But I actually didn't like this whole redistricting fight from the beginning. I think in the middle, it's just -- it's too confusing. It's too hard.

I do think that it was meant to correct problems that happened with the census early on. So I do understand the reason to initiate all this. But state by state, I think ultimately this has caused a lot of confusion.

MICHAELSON: Do you think that there are questions and we just talked about this voter roll, we talked about these different districts. We talk about all this misinformation that frankly, comes out from both sides at times on all of this, that the people may not trust the system. Are you concerned -- are you concerned about that?

(CROSSTALKING)

HORN: I can't. I mean, I don't know if anybody really does. If we're being honest.

I know Republicans have questioned it for a long time. Democrats question it. We need to get people solid. This is what you and I have talked about before, Elex, is that this should be less political and more about the security of our elections. We have to get serious about it.

MICHAELSON: Are you concerned about that too?

COHEN: Of course I am. I mean, you can't even get Republican officials today who are willing to come out and say that Joe Biden won the 2020 election. That's become a third rail in Republican politics, which is crazy, but a testament to the --

HORN: Really?

COHEN: -- of course. But a testament --

MICHAELSON: You're joking, right?

HORN: Sure.

MICHAELSON: Ok, ok.

COHEN: -- but a testament to the fact that you know, the misinformation and disinformation isn't a fluke in today's GOP. It is -- it is a feature of that party. And it's and it's a clarion call that's handed on down from Donald Trump.

And now all of his underlings have to toe the line and just, you know, spew these lies to curry favor with the god king.

MICHAELSON: I mean, do you think that some of the things that he said about mail-in voting has actually hurt Republicans, frankly?

HORN: Well, I think mail-in balloting -- mail-in voting is just wrong on so many levels. I don't trust our voter rolls. I think every question that Donald Trump has brought up about mail-in ballots are worthy and should be answered.

I think if you look at what's gone on here in our state of California, we've had voters put back on the voter rolls that you've got. There just -- there needs to be an effort.

And again, this should be nonpartisan to make sure that our voter rolls are not bloated. They do not have dead people. They do not have dogs. They do not have people who haven't requested ballots.

I'm all for mail-in ballots if a human being has actually requested that. That used to be the absentee system that we had here in California.

MICHAELSON: Yes.

HORN: I believe that works. What I don't believe works is a system where people leave states and they move back and forth, and they don't end up changing their registration. And that's problematic.

[01:34:46]

COHEN: So there is something called ERIC, which is a commission that is bipartisan across the country, and it allows states to talk to each other when somebody dies, when somebody moves, these states talk to each other so they can take somebody off the rolls in one state, put them on the rolls in another state.

Donald Trump and Republicans have vilified this commission. And so all of the Republican states have now left ERIC. It is exactly the thing that you're describing. But Republicans have undermined it to the point where now they are not

able to talk to other people. They're not able to figure out who's died, who needs to be taken off the rolls.

So they're undermining the very thing that would give the accuracy that you claim you want to see.

HORN: I do want to see the accuracy. And look, I think we were getting closer in our -- where we're sitting today in Los Angeles county. There was a lawsuit that removed a million voters just in L.A. County.

MICHAELSON: Yes.

HORN: And then the Democrats had to put those back on. I don't understand how -- I mean, I guess I can understand that when one party benefits, they don't want to change. They don't want to provide safety --

(CROSSTALKING)

MICHAELSON: And California is not part of ERIC too --

HORN: That's right.

MICHAELSON: -- which is another interesting thing as well. Now, part of what you're trying to do is to try to increase trust. Both of you say that in different ways.

Brian, you -- you are a founder of something called Chorus, which is basically an organization of a bunch of content creators like you to get the message out about politics. And you've got a provocative way to try to create poll workers. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, can I work the poll here to save democracy? What's that? It's POLL worker. That makes more sense.

Its national poll workers day. We desperately need poll workers to work our elections to make sure that everything runs smoothly and securely. And you can get paid while doing it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MICHAELSON: First off, how about those guns?

HORN: Do we have tickets to the gun show?

MICHAELSON: Yes, exactly.

What's the -- what's the bottom-line message there?

COHEN: You go on a stripper pole one time. And all of a sudden you're on TV talking about it.

I am so proud of what we were able to accomplish. Chorus is a nonprofit that trains pro-democracy content creators to effectively educate and mobilize their audiences. We've been able to incubate 175 content creators to date.

This poll worker recruitment campaign is exactly what Chorus was built for. We identified a critical way to help democracy. We gave these content creators information resources that they need. They -- we got -- we gave them a community of people who wanted to help and what they were able to accomplish was amazing.

The Chorus creators were able to recruit 27,000 poll workers just this past weekend, which again, confirms the point that we had all along, which is once you give these content creators resources, information and a community of people who want to help. The sky's the limit.

And I think that, you know, this is a testament to exactly that.

And I want to give a special shout out to Shay Walker and Tevin Davis and Alex Castillo, who did a great job. But all of the other creators online who were able to recruit poll workers this weekend. And for folks who are still looking to recruit poll workers, you can find all of that information@workforce.org.

MICHAELSON: And poll workers is not a Republican or Democratic thing.

COHEN: No. No.

MICHAELSON: It's basically just an idea of getting people there, because that's the way -- if you do want to have people vote in person, you need poll workers, right?

HORN: Look, I want more people involved in our system. I think, sadly, young people. So I give you a lot of credit for this. Whether or not we agree on many things politically, which I don't think we do.

MICHAELSON: Yes.

HORN: But I give you credit because here's the thing. There are a lot of young people who believe America is the problem and not the solution. And I think getting more young people involved in voting, in poll watching and just making sure that we protect our system is really important.

MICHAELSON: Yes. And we get to see Brian's --

HORN: And yes.

COHEN: Look, I got to talk about this without taking any of my clothes off.

HORN: I didn't know you had it in you, really. I mean, that was pretty good.

COHEN: I stayed -- I stayed fully dressed for the whole segment.

MICHAELSON: We're fully-clothed here on CNN. All right.

HORN: I think the chicken wing buffet is in the back.

MICHAELSON: That's very funny.

All right. Coming up on THE STORY IS, the NFL is heading halfway around the world for its first ever regular season game in Australia.

Netflix sports host Elle Duncan, you see her there, standing by live in Melbourne to preview the matchup between the Rams and the Niners and her new team on Netflix. Excited to talk with her next.

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MICHAELSON: An emotional ending at the U.S. Open quarterfinal as Frances Tiafoe came back in the third set to beat fellow American Alex Michelsen -- not to be confused with this guy, Elex Michaelson.

Right after his final shot, Tiafoe ran over to embrace Michelsen, who sobbed into his shoulder. This is the third time that the two have faced off in a pro match. They both say they consider themselves friends.

Michelsen had looked like he was going to win in his first Grand Slam quarterfinal, before falling to serve out the match. Those Tiafoe plays next. Here is that moment. You see them embracing there. Tiafoe plays next in the semis on Friday.

THE STORY IS, the NFL. The league is heading down under. Week one will see the Los Angeles Rams facing off against the San Francisco 49ers in Melbourne, Australia.

The game marks the NFLs first-ever regular season contest in Australia. The Rams and the 49ers will take the field at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on Thursday evening for fans in the U.S.; Friday morning in Melbourne.

It is the first of a record nine international games to be played across four continents and seven countries this season.

Netflix will live stream the Melbourne matchup. Also new this year, Netflix will air the NFL's first ever Thanksgiving Eve game, two Christmas Day games, plus a week 18 game on the final weekend of the regular season.

We go live now to Melbourne, Australia and Elle Duncan, who is the host of Netflix Sports. She will lead the streamer's pregame, halftime and postgame studio coverage alongside a trio of Super Bowl winners.

Elle, welcome to THE STORY IS for the first time.

ELLE DUNCAN, HOST, NETFLIX SPORTS: Yes. Thank you so much, Elex. By the way. I like the little -- the little Aussie twist that you did on "down under".

MICHAELSON: I'm trying. DUNCAN: I hear it -- under.

MICHAELSON: I'm trying the little things. Right. So let's talk about what it's like down under. How important this moment is for the NFL, how people are reacting to this in Melbourne right now.

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DUNCAN: I think when this was first announced, there was a lot of people going, OK, this continent plays Australian rules football. Obviously cricket's really big here and soccer. Not understanding the NFL connection.

I got to be honest, the last three days that I've been here this isn't NFL -- like they love the NFL. In fact, they've been telling me like during the Super Bowl they do activations and thousands of people show up to these parks to celebrate.

So the excitement is palpable. A lot of Niners jerseys around, but they've got different activations all over town, concerts. The Melburnians, as they're calling themselves are all in.

MICHAELSON: Well, we know the Niners fans tend to travel really well, especially when they play here in Los Angeles. There's a lot more Niner fans than Rams fans usually.

And when you're in Australia, you got to visit a koala, right? I think we have some video you posted on social media. What was that experience like?

DUNCAN: It's like so stereotypical, but like the second that we landed, we went right to a nature preserve, which is about an hour away from here.

I mean, I love koalas so much that I even snuggled up to a fake one, but it's so quintessentially Australian. That's a kangaroo. Just kind of dumped food on the ground. That's Reggie, who I did try to see if I could, like, maybe bring home with me. Koalas are very much my spirit animal.

So it was great. And from what I understand, as stereotypical as it sounds, right? Like Australians know that it is uniquely a part of their culture and identity. And so shout out to the Moonlit Sanctuary. And my guy Reggie, who honestly, my husband needs to watch his back.

Reggie was quiet. He ate, he kept to himself. And we had a time.

MICHAELSON: You know, Netflix has gotten itself into the NFL game in a big way. We've seen in the past with the half-time shows on Netflix included Beyonce, Snoop Dogg, Andrea Bocelli.

What's in store for sort of making this game big and what we can expect this year on Netflix, kind of making this bigger than just a regular game.

DUNCAN: So I think one of the things is like on the surface, when people think about a Netflix event, that's what they think, right? Like what big celebrities, what the halftime show will look like, like what comedians going to come do this or like bits or whatnot.

But I think it's also logistically how we're stepping up. And the Netflix sprinkle and sparkle can also look like how many cameras that we're using.

We have 40 cameras that we're using on this particular broadcast, which is something that you would typically only see in a championship, a conference championship game. That's what we're going to do for every single one of our events.

It's cinematically how are we thinking. It's yes, the sparkle of what our half-time will look like for this particular game. We got the Jo Bros.

But I think in general it's just about trying to sort of honor what the moment is. We're going to lean in to the Aussie of it all, and you're going to see some special surprises at the end of the game with our, our trophy presentation, if you will.

But it really is sort of looking at every single thing, figuring out what makes it unique and then just giving you one little extra thing that sort of amps up the presentation itself.

MICHAELSON: And your particular crew that you're going to be working with in terms of the studio or on the set, is Michael Irvin, the Hall of Fame Dallas Cowboy wide receiver; Nick Foles, who of course, won a Super Bowl with the Philadelphia Eagles as a quarterback. And my old pal Chris -- Clay Matthews, who I grew up with in Agoura Hills and went to USC with as well. Of course, legendary Green Bay Packer defensive player.

How do you build your chemistry? It's going to be your first time out together. You know, that's an interesting group of people you wouldn't necessarily put together. What's it been like?

DUNCAN: It's actually been so great. And I love that you mentioned the chemistry part. That can be the most difficult thing. You know, everybody always looks at sort of these like tentpole desks.

They're like, man, how do we recreate, you know, sort of the inside the NBA thing that Chuck and Shaq and Ernie and Kenny have.

And I'm like, well, they've got 20 years in the game together. So you're trying to do that on the fly. And we've had an opportunity to spend some time together a couple of weeks ago in Stamford, Connecticut, where we did a bit of a workshop. We went on a boat together, and we helped Clay work through his motion sickness on a boat.

We spent some time here together. We're doing things like going to the zoo. And we are on a group text together.

But I will say like the one thing that, you know, sort of binds all of us is that they have such a love, knowledge and a passion for the sport, and they want to be really good.

Like they recognize Irv has done TV before. But Clay and Nick, they're new. But they are approaching it the same way that they would if they were rookies in the NFL.

They want feedback. They're so earnest. They're like watching tape. They're really, really excited. And I think that you're going to see that come alive.

Clay Matthews, as you know, Elex, around the set, because the first part of our show is going to be at Yarra Park (ph) with thousands of fans around. Can you imagine like Clay leaning into that, getting his gladiator moment on and leaning into the spectacle of it all?

I think it's going to be great, and it's just going to be something that continues to grow as we keep working together.

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MICHAELSON: He is -- he is surprisingly very, very funny, which some people may not know as well. So who do you got? Niners. Rams.

DUNCAN: Ok. Yes. We obviously have some bad news come down with the Niners as well. They're already facing a lot of injury issues which is sort of par for the course for this team.

And this is a Rams team that is Super Bowl favorites preseason for the first time in 24 years. I'm going to go with the Rams on this one. Although I do think the crowd is going to be heavy Niners because they are not super happy that the Rams are sort of coming in and not spending time in Australia.

So from everybody that I've talked to, they are all on team San Francisco. But I still think ultimately the Rams are a better team.

MICHAELSON: Well, the Rams are used to doing that sometimes in their home stadium. So --

DUNCAN: Correct. Exactly. Rams fans got to show up more as a Rams fan.

Elle Duncan with Netflix. Great meeting you. Best of luck. Can't wait to watch you. Can't imagine how many people are going to be watching you later this week. Really exciting stuff.

DUNCAN: Going to be great. Thank you for having me, Elex. We'll see you later.

MICHAELSON: All right. Stay with us here on CNN. We'll have the top stories right after this.

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MICHAELSON: Welcome back to THE STORY IS. I'm Elex Michaelson.

Let's take a look at some stories we're following.

Scientists say that El Nino could temporarily raise sea levels along California's coast by about a foot by mid-October. The state has already seen beaches swallowed by waves and damage from coastal flooding and conditions expected to get worse. This El Nino is forecast to be the strongest such event on record since at least 1950.

The trade war between the U.S. and Canada is escalating even further. President Trump is threatening to enact outright bans on a range of Canadian goods. This comes less than 24 hours after Canada imposed tariffs on $20 billion worth of U.S. products in response to President Trump's previous levies.

Thanks so much for watching THE STORY IS.

Tomorrow, join us for live reaction to night one of the Republican midterm convention. And night one of the NFL season will be live in Dallas and right here in southern California.

Gloria Allred and Elisha Krauss (ph) will be with us. Plus John Thomas in Dallas.

I'm Elex Michaelson. The news continues next here on CNN.

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