Muted Microphones, Harris Republicans, Afghanistan Blaming
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For every life-saving treatment. For every next step. For every care in the world. Cleveland Clinic. It's Tuesday, August 27th, right now on CNN This Morning. Now all of a sudden they want to make a change in the rules because she can't answer questions.

The debate over the debate. Donald Trump and Kamala Harris' teams clashing over muted microphones. Plus, more than 200 Republicans reaching across the aisle to support Harris for president. We'll dig into that and this. He couldn't stick with the decision. He didn't stick with the decision.

The blame game as Donald Trump uses the anniversary of the withdrawal from Afghanistan to pin the blame on the Biden-Harris administration. His former national security advisor says Trump should take some too. And later, Battleground Pennsylvania, the state that both parties think will decide the election. We're going to talk to former Pennsylvania Congressman Charlie Dent and see who he thinks has momentum at their backs in the Keystone State.

All right, 6 a.m. here in Washington. A live look at the Washington Monument. The White House is in there, too. It's just hard to see. It's so dark still. Getting towards fall. It's darker in the morning. Good morning, everyone. I'm Casey Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us on this Tuesday morning. Will they or won't they? New questions about the scheduled debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump after the former president said this.

in the ABC debate? Well, you know, I watched this weekend, and it's the worst of all networks. But when I looked at the hostility of that, I said, why am I doing it? Let's do it with another network. I want to do it. I think ABC really should be shut out. I'd much rather do it on NBC.

Scheduled for just two weeks from today, that debate could be voters' only chance to see and hear the candidates face off in person. And even if the debate does go ahead, just what the voters can hear is the sticking point right now. Would you want the microphones muted in the debate whenever you're not speaking? We agreed to the same rules. I don't know. It doesn't matter to me. I'd rather have it probably on. But the agreement was that it would be the same as it was last time. In that case, it was muted.

I didn't like it the last time, but it worked out fine. Ask Biden how it worked out, it was fine. And I think it should be the same. Ask Biden how it worked out. Trump there also saying, it doesn't matter to me if the microphones are muted when it is not candidates turn to speak. That of course was how it was at the CNN debate in June.

What he said there, what Trump said there, might have been news to his own campaign. Just one day earlier, Trump campaign advisor Jason Miller told Politico, quote, The Harris campaign seizing on Trump's comments to say that now they think the matter's been settled.

I think what you have is both candidates themselves who agree on the debate format, right? We have both candidates who now agree that we should have a full-throated debate with live microphones for the duration that fully allows for both candidates to clearly articulate their visions for where they want to take this country. I think we'll see whether or not Donald Trump allows his handlers to overrule his decision that he made today. Allow his handlers to overrule his decision.

The fight over the microphones is on center stage because both campaigns think that the dynamic is really important in terms of creating breakthrough moments. Personal emails, not official. 33,000? Well, we turned over 35,000. Oh, yeah. What about the other 15,000? Please allow her to respond. She didn't talk while you talked.

Yes, that's true. I didn't. Because you have nothing to say. That is absolutely not true. Is he only going to repeal part of the Trump tax cuts? If you don't mind letting me finish, we can then have a conversation, okay? Please. Okay. 1864. Well, I'd like you to answer the question. Mr. Vice President, I'm speaking. I'm speaking. Okay.

Okay, joining us now to discuss Mark Preston, CNN senior political analyst, Brad Todd, Republican strategist, a partner at the political strategy firm OnMessage, and Amisha Cross, Democratic strategist, former communications advisor for Barack Obama. Welcome to all of you. Thank you so much for being here. Mark Preston, our friend of the show, Stephen Collinson, writes this about, and this is why, I mean, look, this is, we're down kind of in the weeds on the rules of a debate, right? Right.

But there's a reason we're talking about it because the images that could come out of this debate could define the fall at race, this incredibly compressed timeline. Collinson writes this way, "An open mic would test the Republican nominee's self-discipline in a debate with Harris at a time when GOP strategists are pleading with him to stick to policy, quit his smash mouth politics for the good of his campaign. Visuals of Trump talking over and openly disrespecting the woman who has a chance to be the first black woman president

would speak for themselves. He also says Harris would have a chance to demonstrate the strength in standing up to Trump by reprising her famous riposte, which we just watched in that debate with Mike Pence. Where do you see all this going? - It seems like Stephen spoke to Brad Todd last night when he was writing that piece, 'cause all of that is absolutely true. I mean, I mean,

Right now, I mean, the debate over the debates is really an internal Washington, D.C. debate. When it becomes really an issue for the American people is if the Harris campaign is able to effectively cast Donald Trump as somebody who's afraid to take her on. But everything that they just said, that Stephen wrote, you know, in his piece and his analysis is absolutely true. It's a bad image to have a man, let alone Donald Trump, trying to speak over a woman.

I mean, we just saw the clips. They weren't pretty. They were funny, but they weren't pretty. Brad, what do you think about how they should be handling this? Well, I think, first off, Kamala Harris should be very comfortable with a muted mic. We're on day 34 with her not doing any interview with a major journalist. Her mic's been muted for a month.

So she should be happy to have it muted after the questions in the debate. You know, I always think that when you're the candidate trying to change the rules of the debate, then perhaps you're worried about how you're going to do in the debate. And that's how this looks to me with Kamala Harris. Amisha, do you want to push back on that? Absolutely, because she's needling him because she can. Kamala Harris has the wind at her back. She has outwitted

outsized fundraising she has been able to amass within a very short amount of time historic levels up on the ground outreach we're talking a campaign like none other we've seen in American history it's quite often compared to the 2008 Obama campaign but Obama's campaign did not do this in record speed that's what we're seeing here in addition to that she is on the ground where it matters she still has to introduce herself to millions of people across this country she's doing that we know that many of those people aren't watching traditional news that just is what it is

The numbers bear that out. But should she walk away from the debate if they won't make this world change? She's not walking away from the debate. She's already said she's not walking away. She will be at that debate even if Trump is not there and just have the conversation with ABC News. What she is doing is needling someone who has tried since the top of the ticket change for the Democrats to get out of this debate. I was at the National Association of Black Journalists conference. He purposely verbally assaulted an ABC News reporter there because he did not want to do this debate. He's been setting this up

for weeks now he does not want to debate her in general wait on Brad I mean Brad I do you see world where not debating is good for Donald Trump I mean is that I mean it if he is a little bit on his his back foot it seems like a debate is something that I don't might be able to change things for them I think

most people in the news media can't get to come with us to ask her hard questions what may take a debate for her to have a hard question so no i think he needs a debate yet i mean okay that's fair enough and and and we can we can take into that one i do want to get into the interview and question a second but and mark preston do you see a world where this debate is not go forward and and g because it does seem to me that it is probably in both their interest to have it happen regardless of this fight over the rules you know i i know the sounds crazy but i think in a convoluted way before september eleventh the you know i uh...

After September 11th, I should say, nothing surprises me anymore. And I really do mean that. Look, the odds of this debate not happening are very, very low. The odds of it happening are very, very high. But in this political world we live in right now, I mean, things are not normal necessarily. And we can't follow, you know, the same script that we've fallen over the years. If you're Harris, would you go ahead and do this debate without this rule change?

uh... of course because uh... because she can't look like she's she's backing off but it will be interesting to donald trump doesn't show up at the a_b_c_ debate does she still want a b c_n_n_'s a_b_c_ still give her that time and if that's the case then that becomes another issue and that becomes another big story the campaign has already said that she's going to do it whether he shows up or not that's not in contention yeah yeah yeah whether she wants to do it away maybe she's already in the end of the whole thing because of the way they to where they've been this glossing over her policy changes are alleged policy changes i think a_b_c_'s on the hook here as well

Interesting. Okay, let's talk for a second about the interview question, because yesterday we also learned that an advisor said she's going to, Kamala Harris is going to schedule an interview before the end of the month. She has started to get some pressure from fellow Democrats, including Congresswoman Debbie Dingell and others who say that, hey, she is actually going to have to answer some more questions. Let's watch.

Well, I think sometimes you all over exaggerate what the importance of it. She knows what she's going to have to do. She's going to have to spell out her vision and talk about policies more. From reproductive rights to lowering costs, she's been very specific. And as this campaign goes on, she'll be sitting for more interviews. She'll be engaging in debates. The truth is that she's answered questions along the way. You've seen her do that when she's getting on and off of

Air Force Two does she need to sit down for an interview? Of course, and they've said they'll do that. So Amisha, have they let this go on a little too long because it's now become this situation where the story is about whether she's going to do an interview? I mean, I realize that there are countervailing strategies often in terms of when you sit a candidate down with the news media. Sometimes it can be counterproductive ahead of a convention, for example. But on the other hand, if you let it go on too long,

long it can get out of your control. I think you're right. And that's also why her campaign has said that it's going to happen before the end of next month. And I think that that's very important. Be mindful. The DNC just ended last week. She was just became the official nominee on Friday. On top of that, we also saw that, you know, with the roll call, which was just a few days prior, the virtual roll call, that vote came through. This is something where we've had Kamala Harris atop the ticket on

officially for just a few days. So this is not, this is a very historic campaign, a very truncated campaign, but the pressure for her was to actually get out and talk to the voters. She's been doing that. She had to build that capacity. She also just chose her vice presidential, her vice president as a

running. Hang on. Hang on. She's not her top priority. We're talking about the vice president of the United States. She's been preparing to be president for allegedly three and a half years. She's also been doing a lot of interviews as vice president. So how different she should have been able to do an interview on the first day. Why isn't she not? It's not a question of ability. It is one of campaign measures. No, it's one. She doesn't want to answer how much she needs

to be out and visiting the people. She doesn't want to answer for the fact that she was against fracking, she was against private insurance, she was against gasoline cars. And she's meeting people where they are and having those conversations every day. She's talking about it to the people who actually cast votes in November. Let me push pause, because Mark, I will say that this has been something that people behind the scenes will acknowledge is something that is not her top strength. These unscripted moments where she's under pressure from interviewers. If it was her strongest strength,

If it was her strongest move, they would have played it already. They would have played it, no question. Look, I hate to play the middle here, but they're both right. I mean, Amisha and Brad, you're both right in the sense that right now they don't have to do the interview. There isn't enough public pressure for them to do it. But we are seeing these interviews start to pop up more and more, and then the question arises. I think the public pressure is building up.

for the interview. - No, but I think it is. But remember, this is the first week back to school for a lot of schools, certainly in the Northeast. You know, kids are just back in the South right now. People are finishing their vacations. She is able to enjoy the cover of summer right now. - She's sawed off one third of this campaign and members of the news media have let her.

She's not answering questions about, we know her position. She's against fracking. She's against private health insurance. She's against gasoline cars. That's what she told us when she ran for president last time. She doesn't want to talk about those positions. That's why she's stalling it. And she should do an interview. I'm just politically saying, Brad, and you have to acknowledge that it hasn't been that bad. And she will do one. It is coming. She'll show up at NPR or somewhere like that, but she's not going to take tough questions. She's going to show up on a network and she's going to have a sit-down conversation. She has already said, her campaign has already said that that's going to happen.

If you're waiting for the day, everybody else is waiting for the day. It's a month. She's actually on the ground. She's doing bus tours across the state of Georgia. She is talking to the voters. She's the last one in the room. The voters are people who are going to make this decision. We're going to have to take a break. I'm sorry to cut you off, but I do...

I don't think that doing softball interviews is going to put this to rest. I understand the point that you're making, but I think the decision that I'm looking for from the Harris team is who are they choosing to sit down with? And is that going to be something where you come away feeling like she took the hard questions or if this snowball continues? All right. Coming up here on CNN this morning, another former Trump staffer turning against him as more than 200 Republicans throw their support

behind Harris. Plus, the Department of Justice is hoping to revive their classified documents case against Trump. We'll dig into that. And later, on the anniversary of the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, both Trump and Harris marking that day and the lives that were lost. -Neither going to Arlington nor any individual paper statement is ever gonna be enough to repay these families.

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Would you work in a Trump White House again? No, I think, Anderson, I would work in any administration where I feel like I could make a difference, but I'm kind of used up with Donald Trump. Former Trump National Security Advisor, Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster, joined the long list of former Trump administration officials who say that they would not be part of a second Trump term. McMaster's comments come as more than 200 former Bush, McCain, and Romney staffers endorse Harris'

in a new letter writing that they quote, "came together to warn fellow Republicans that re-electing President Trump would be a disaster for our nation." Some prominent Republicans making the same case at the Democratic National Convention last week. The Republican Party is no longer conservative. These days our party acts more like a cult. A cult worshiping a felonious thug. He has no empathy, no morals, and no fidelity to the truth.

To my fellow Republicans, you aren't voting for a Democrat. You're voting for democracy.

All right, panel's back. Brad Todd, I'd kind of like to get your take on this because obviously there's a lot of layers, a lot of different stories in those sound bites of the people that spoke at the Democratic National Convention. But two people in particular I want to focus in on, which is H.R. McMaster, what he told Anderson, and also a person like Jeff Duncan, who is illegitimately, like he is conservative. He is

He is somebody that a lot of Republicans take very seriously. There's not like a personal grudge other than the fact that his family came under death threats for him attempting to stand up for the election in Georgia. I mean, how do you answer what they have to say here? I understand you're running Republican campaigns across the country. Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket.

I mean, what do you say to these folks? Well, let's break it down a little further. I mean, General McMaster, who everybody has a great deal of respect for, he's not in that 200-person list that you saw on the letter today. And the first name on that letter today was a finance intern. So let's not get carried away with exactly how broad this list is. And there are more others on the list who are of the same category. So not quite General H.R. McMaster. But there are also some more senior people who worked for McCain and Romney and others.

Well, in Washington, D.C., it's always going to be fashionable to move from right to left. Always. It's always good for your career to do that. And so some of that's going on as well. They're new in place of employment. This is more suitable to what they're doing. But look, it's a free country. What else happened last week is RFK endorsed Donald Trump. He tried to run the Democratic primaries. They locked him out. So the counter to that is the way you counter program this in campaigns is then you try to find other people who you can show have swapped sides. And that's really mostly what this is. Let's take a look.

Brad at members. Well, this is one person who's a member of the military, others who have worked in the defense establishment in very high level roles talking about whether or not Donald Trump is fit from a national security perspective to be president. Let's watch. We don't take an oath to a king or a queen or a tyrant or a dictator. And we don't take an oath to a wannabe dictator. We don't take an oath to an individual.

I mean,

What do you say to those folks who worked for him or served in our military? I agree with John Bolton on virtually every policy issue you can come up with, so they put me in a tough spot on him. You know, I think General Milley and former President Trump have a long-running personal animus. I don't know that it's appropriate for him to be criticizing any commander-in-chief, former or future, while he's in uniform. If he wants to do that, he ought to step out of uniform and become a private citizen again. But, you know, I think...

There are differences between Donald Trump and some of the guys these folks have worked with before. And you go into the administration knowing that difference, and there's somewhat of an obligation when you do take the job to defend the boss. And then you can have your differences when you leave, but you have to do it while-- work for the team while you're in the team. I think that's an expectation presidents ought to have. It's one that Donald Trump hasn't always gotten.

And you can argue whether he's deserved it or not at times, but I think there is somewhat of an obligation when you take the job administration to work. - Let me ask you, I know you work on a lot of down-ballot races, trying to get Republicans elected. Does this kind of criticism, does it resonate? Does it matter in those types of races? - No, because I think Donald Trump is very well defined. Voters get what they like about him and what they dislike about him.

The main thing they like about him is that he fights and that he fights against the far left and they see the left in the Democratic Party that is way too far left. They know his downsides. We've never had an elected official or candidate for office who's been so well defined and for whom Americans have conflicted emotions. And yet, you know what? This is a tie race. It's a tie race and I think we ought to talk about what that says about where the Democrats are.

So to come up after the break here, the election just 70 days away. Still one state above all others poised to determine who will take the White House ahead. We're going to take a deep dive into the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Plus, how a dog trying to sneak some leftovers ended up starting a kitchen fire. Oh no. This is one of, yikes. This is one of five things you have to see this morning.

All right, 27 minutes past the hour. Five things you have to see this morning. Extreme flooding in Bangladesh and India. At least 44 people have been killed and millions are stranded due to rising waters. In some places, the water now chest high.

One hungry dog sets a kitchen fire. Security footage from inside the home shows the bulldog climbing up to the stove to get some leftovers, but his paw hit the knobs and lit the gas stove, sparking the fire. Oh my gosh, the dogs were rescued. Thank goodness nobody was injured. Put your food away. Yikes. All right, then there's this.

- Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! - Oh, . - He just bit my boat! He just bit my boat! - My dear Lord. I would have used swear words more intense than what that guy was out there saying. Two fishermen capture the moment a great white shark tried to take a bite out of their boat. This was off the coast of Australia. One called it, okay, this Australian's for you. One called it the best experience he's ever had on the Sunshine Coast.

I do not agree. I would not, I would not, that's, oh my God. Okay, there was also this. Okay, well that's awesome. That's the British World War II vet, Manette Bailey skydiving on her 102nd birthday. For her 100th birthday, she raced a Ferrari at speeds topping 130 miles an hour.

Her secret to living a long life, she says, always look for something new to do and don't forget to party. I love this woman. How can you not love this woman? I'm way more down for the Ferrari, by the way, than the skydiving. I don't know. That takes guts. That's amazing.

All right, and it might be the middle of August, but it looked like the middle of winter on the Sierra Nevada mountains. A rare summer snowfall hitting the area. The local sheriff who posted the video says this is just a reminder of how unpredictable the weather in the mountains can be.

And speaking of weather, more than 90 severe storms reported across the U.S. yesterday. The majority hit Minnesota, a combination of the thunderstorm at sunset producing this stunning visual over Target Field in Minneapolis. That's, of course, the home of the Minnesota Twins. But this morning, more than 50 million people from the Midwest and Mid-Atlantic are waking up under heat alerts. Let's get to our meteorologist, the weatherman, Derek Van Dam. Derek, good morning. What are you seeing out there?

Casey, that was a really nice rainbow you saw. And, you know, that's all because of the storms that moved through Minneapolis yesterday. Yeah, there it is. What a stunning sight. And we like to see that because, you know, that just means that the weather's only going to get better from here, right? It's this line of storms that moved through Minneapolis late last evening. And there were several reports of wind and hail. In fact, over 120 reports.

with a swath of thunderstorms that moved across the upper Midwest. There were a few hail reports along the East Coast as well. So today's severe weather threat extends across Wisconsin and Michigan and then moves to the mid-Atlantic for the day tomorrow. A slight risk of large hail, damaging winds. Can't rule out a tornado as well. This is what happens when the atmosphere gets too hot, right? We have heat warnings today.

And heat advisories in effect for over 75 million Americans stretching from the East Coast through parts of the Midwest, including Chicago. It'll feel like 109 today if you step outside, factor in the humidity. Grand Rapids, my hometown, also feeling the heat today. But this is dangerous heat. You need to do the precautions that we talk about this time of year because this is just downright dangerous. Casey. All right. Good to know. Derek Van Dam for us this morning. Derek, always grateful for you. Thank you.

All right, still ahead on CNN this morning, three years after the chaotic evacuation from Afghanistan, Donald Trump blames it on the Biden administration. The humiliation in Afghanistan set off the collapse of American credibility and respect all around the world. But one former Trump official says his old boss should share some of the responsibility for what happened at the end of America's longest war.

Reporting live from under my blanket, I'm Susan Curtis with Dunkin' at Home. Breaking news, pumpkin spice iced and hot coffees are back. I'll pass it to Mr. Curtis with his blanket for the full story. That is so right, Susan. You know, it's never too early to get in a spicy mood. I'm talking cinnamony goodness that's so tasty, people don't want to leave their blankets either. Back to you. No, back to you. All you. The home with Dunkin' Pumpkin Spice is where you want to be.

Sound familiar? Loud, persistent snoring and gasping for air could be signs of sleep apnea. Visit phillips.com forward slash sleep quiz and take the symptoms quiz to find out if you or your partner may be at risk of sleep apnea. Start your journey to better sleep. Please note, the symptoms quiz is only for information gathering that you can share with your doctor.

Donald Trump is once again going after the Biden administration over the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. On Monday, Trump attended a wreath laying at Arlington National Cemetery, marking the anniversary of the bombing of Abbey Gate at Kabul Airport. It was there three years ago when an ISIS suicide bomber attacked, killing 13 American service members and more than 100 Afghan civilians while the evacuation of US forces was coming to an end.

Trump pledges to fire top military officials over the incident if he's reelected. We'll get the resignations of every single senior official who touched the Afghanistan calamity to be on my desk at noon on Inauguration Day. You know, you have to fire people. You have to fire people when they do a bad job. We never fire anybody. You got to fire them like on The Apprentice. You fired, you did a lousy job.

The White House released a statement from the president honoring the service members who lost their lives at Redden Park. Quote, they embodied the very best of who we are as a nation. Brave, committed, selfless, and we owe them and their families a sacred debt we will never be able to repay, but will never cease working on to fulfill. In the past, the Biden administration has partially blamed the Trump administration for the botched evacuation, something that Trump's own national security advisor, H.R. McMaster, spoke with Anderson Cooper about last night.

Does Trump bear part of the responsibility for what happened? Oh yes. I mean, so the whole premise of talking to the Taliban before you leave Afghanistan, why the heck were we even doing that? What happened in these series of negotiations and concessions to the Taliban is we kind of threw the Afghans under the bus on the way out.

All right. Panel is back. Mark Preston, this chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal, it felt like a political turning point for the Biden administration. When they had come in, of course, we were dealing with COVID. We were starting to emerge from COVID. That felt positive. Obviously, we were coming off of January 6th.

That was something that left a lot of people with bad taste in their mouth around Donald Trump. But then this moment happens in late August of that first Biden administration year, and it was a devastating event. What impact do you think it had then on Biden, and what impact do you think it has now? Well, if you remember, even the weeks leading up to that day were chaotic, but they came upon us really quick.

And at the time, it certainly damaged the Biden administration, something that he wasn't able to shake. Now, is it the reason why he got pushed out of the Democratic race? No, he got pushed out because of his age and, you know, his slow response to answering questions and some would say his meandering. But this Afghan Afghanistan situation really is a political football opportunity.

I'll tell you, it's a football, though, that I don't like to touch because when you start bringing in the deaths of service members and who's responsible, who's not responsible, it's an ugly land that I choose not to walk on. Brad Todd, how do you look at this here? Because this, of course, comes and, you know, and you should jump in as well. Harris.

has to show that she's ready to be commander in chief. That's kind of the key test for any leader. And she obviously was not in charge on this day,

she was part of the administration. -She told Dana Bash on this network she was the last one in the room when Joe Biden made that decision, the tragic decision to get out of Kabul. That's a thing she needs to answer for. She also -- It's the darkest day of this administration, and it's one that the administration itself has yet to -- The administration owes those 13 families an apology for the disastrous decision. They owe really the whole country an apology for not figuring out how to continue to project strength

abroad. So even if that's the case, how do you explain Donald Trump doing things like saying the Presidential Medal of Freedom is better than the Medal of Honor, the Suckers and Losers comments, I mean the things that he has said about members of our military? He says plenty of things that are indefensible along that line, and he shouldn't have negotiated with the Taliban. However, he had managed to figure out a way to keep a modest force in Kabul, to keep Afghanistan stable.

Joe Biden undid that because Joe Biden is a weak president and Kamala Harris was the last one in the room to help him. Joe Biden had few choices because of the calendar that Donald Trump put in place before he left office. He met with the Taliban without meeting with the Afghan government in terms of consulting with them. He did not talk to our allies about this before moving forward. And that

that calendar that he put in place forced Joe Biden's hand. There was only so much he had to work with. I think that you're forgetting how the strength of the Taliban and the fact that they were going to continue to pursue, um, very, very dangerous, uh, and very violent, uh, wartime efforts against many of the troops who were there, had they not been removed by the calendar date that was set by the previous administration. So you did have Joe Biden having to move quickly. He has admitted to there being some faulty intelligence in terms of, um,

Needing to get more troops out quickly ensuring that a lot of those who are working on our behalf were also brought home safely That has been said but let's not forget that Donald Trump set this whole thing in motion and now wants to hide his hand on top of that It is hard for me to accept someone criticizing any military Any military move who also makes fun of POWs who also talks about those who've been disabled who have fought for our country who is also someone who does not and had himself

avoided military service by being wealthy and privileged. This is someone who does not have a leg to stand on when it comes to our military. All right, we'll leave that there for right now. Straight ahead here on CNN this morning, Mark Zuckerberg laying out some big regrets. This is really interesting. New details this morning about how he said the Biden administration pressured him around content, plus a closer look at the state of play in one commonwealth that could decide the November election, Pennsylvania. They all understand that the

to the White House comes right through Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania picks the president. 47 minutes past the hour, here's your morning roundup. After the classified documents case against Donald Trump was dismissed last month, special counsel Jack Smith is now arguing it should be revived. Smith arguing the judge's decision lacked merit after Judge Eileen Cannon ruled the DOJ didn't have the ability to fund special counsels like Smith.

An American man is dead after an ice cave collapsed in Iceland. A group of tourists were exploring the glacier when it happened. Several people had to be rescued. At least one other American tourist was injured.

SpaceX delaying the launch of its Polaris Dawn mission until tomorrow morning so that teams can examine a helium leak. Polaris Dawn is a private mission that will conduct the first spacewalk by private astronauts and fly at the highest altitude of any crewed space mission since Apollo. Wow. All right, let's turn now to this. ♪ music playing ♪

It's that great state, well, Commonwealth.

that brought joe biden over the 270 electoral vote threshold handed him the 2020 election it is my home state of pennsylvania where early voting begins in just 21 days the most populous battleground state that has been a frequent campaign stop for both candidates it's viewed as an absolute must win while trump believes he can sway disaffected democrats across pennsylvania the governor there josh shapiro says voters are curious about the new democratic ticket

When I'm out in rural communities, in those areas around Pennsylvania where maybe a voter voted for Obama and then Trump and moved to Biden, voters that shift around, they're really curious about Kamala Harris. They'll say to me, hey, what do you think of her? What do you think she's going to do on this, that, or the other thing? I think that curiosity is important. It means they're open to casting a vote for Kamala Harris.

All right, joining me now to discuss someone who knows the state very well, former Republican Congressman Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania. Congressman, it's always wonderful to see you. We're going to start doing this on Tuesdays because there's actually only nine of them left until we get to Election Day, which is kind of mind-boggling. But it is what it is. And so, look, you...

You know the state so well. You also see all kinds of internal data. You are talking to a lot of people all of the time. I'd really like to know, this race has moved a lot since Biden got out of the race, but who do you see as winning Pennsylvania right now? Who has the upper hand?

Well, today, Casey, and by the way, I'm so motivated after hearing the Rocky theme song. I'm ready to run up the art museum steps in Philadelphia. So that said, I think that right now this is still too close to call in Pennsylvania. There are still a lot of questions about Harris. Both Trump and Biden are well-known figures in Pennsylvania. Harris is not.

uh... frankly i thought that no shapiro could really help dresser running mate uh... had she selected him because uh... pennsylvania the harris is is do or die she must win pennsylvania to win the election uh... and trump needs to win it too but not as much as harris uh... so bottom line is icy pennsylvania right now took as a total toss-up

A lot of questions about Harris still by a lot of voters. She's probably going to have to explain herself a bit on why she changed her position on fracking, which is going to harm her probably in western Pennsylvania pretty significantly. We have a lot of white working class voters who work in that industry. That's an issue. But in the Philadelphia suburbs, I think she will be strong. And I suspect that the issue of women's health.

and uh... reproductive rights will resonate well there uh... but bottom line she's gonna have to really perform over perform in that philadelphia media market up to the lehigh valley uh... and also in the capital region in suburban pittsburgh if she hopes to prevail the right now i i don't think she has yet close the deal not saying she won't but she hasn't gotten there yet yeah it's really interesting that that comes when are you seeing any uh...

If you're the Harris campaign, how are you looking at especially male voters who had actually stuck with Joe Biden regardless of his challenges?

You know, I'm not so sure. Look, Democrats have a gender problem with white men. Republicans have a gender problem with women. There's no question about that. Each party does suffer a gender gap. So she is going to need to make inroads, particularly with college educated men, college educated white men who I think will might be more receptive to some of

her issues and particularly that crowd is also, I'd say more college educated men probably are more disillusioned or dispirited by Trump, maybe than say white men without a college degree. So I think she can make inroads with them on maybe some of these social issues. And she's going to have to come up with some better responses on inflation. I think she did herself in her campaign some damage.

with that price gouging or price control proposal that the Republicans are having an easy time swatting. Yeah. Congressman, what do you think is going on on the undercard in the Senate race in particular? There's kind of a marquee Senate race there. And how do you look at coattails, reverse coattails, those kinds of phenomenon going on in Pennsylvania right now?

Well, what's typically happened, not just in Pennsylvania, but in many other battleground states, is that the Senate race often follows the presidential race. We saw that in 2016 with Pat Toomey, you know, when he won over...

Over Katie McGinty, we saw that in many other states. But the Senate right now, it's a total it's up for it's up for grabs. I mean, Republican candidates, frankly, in Ohio and and and out in Montana, you know, are not the strongest candidates they've ever had running against strong incumbents. And so the Republicans need to take one of those seats.

in order to prevail. But right now, you just watch the Senate. As goes the presidential race, I suspect that's how the Senate race will go. McCormick in Pennsylvania is very well capitalized. So is Casey. And that's going to be a real tough race. But right now, it's probably a slight lean Democrat situation because Casey will have to run ahead of Harris in order to hold his seat.

- Yeah, all right. Former Congressman Charlie Dent, very grateful to have you. Thank you very much for being here. - Thanks, Casey. - We're gonna talk about this next story in a second, but Brad Todd, I wanna get you to weigh in on Pennsylvania just briefly, 'cause I know you're working on that Senate race. What do you see? Who is ahead right now, Harris or Trump? - Well, this is perhaps the one battleground state where Kamala Harris is a weaker candidate than Joe Biden. Joe always talked about being the third senator from Pennsylvania, and there was this group of older voters

who kind of leaned right on a lot of issues, who were very familiar with Joe Biden. So I think that's a problem for her. She also is going to have to defend the fact that she wanted to ban fracking. Fracking is 300,000 jobs in Pennsylvania. That's a problem for Bob Casey too. It's one of the big issues looming over the election there. It's the game. It's the whole ballgame. It's Pennsylvania for the president's choice. For Harris it absolutely is.

Let's turn now to this. Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook's parent company, now says he regrets agreeing to requests from the Biden administration to censor content related to COVID-19. In a letter to the House Judiciary Committee chairman, Jim Jordan, Zuckerberg wrote this, quote, In 2021, senior officials from the Biden administration, including the White House, repeatedly pressured our team for months

to censor certain COVID-19 content, including humor and satire, and expressed a lot of frustration with our teams when we didn't agree.

I believe the government pressure was wrong, and I regret that we were not more outspoken about it. Zuckerberg went on to say Facebook should not have temporarily demoted an article from the New York Post reporting on allegations of corruption in the Biden family in the lead up to the 2020 election. The panel's back. We're also joined by CNN media analyst Sarah Fisher. Sarah, good morning. Wonderful to have you. Thanks for jumping in on this story. I think what Zuckerberg has done here is fascinating.

It's not something we've heard from him in this kind of direct way before. What is going on here, and what does it mean for future elections or issues like this? This is a huge deal. You'll recall Republicans from two states sued. They went all through a huge court

battle basically alleging that the government overreached. They lost that court case, but we never heard from Facebook. We never heard from Meta. So we didn't know how they felt about the issue. This is the first time now. And them coming out and saying, look, this is a big deal. We don't agree with these policies sets a precedent moving forward that if any government official, if the White House were to pressure them again, we now know where they stand and hopefully they now feel empowered to push back.

What are the politics behind this? I mean, clearly Zuckerberg is being influenced by a wide variety of factors. Sending this letter to Jim Jordan, did he feel like he had to do it? Why now? Because ahead of the election, they're going to face a lot of content moderation issues. Even though they don't want to be involved in politics and news anymore, inevitably they are.

And so if there is going to be an 11th hour issue like the New York Post story and Facebook were to make the wrong call, they want everyone in Congress, particularly Republicans, to know that their intent here is not to be picking one side, that they're doing what they think is best for the health of the platform. But if he didn't speak up about the White House pressure now, no one would have believed them then.

Mark Preston, what do you see here? If you have a question for Sarah, too, I'd be interested in kind of like how you, you spend a lot of your time thinking about how we as a news organization here at CNN are going to cover these elections, cover politics. It can be really, really tricky. And Facebook now meta was at the center of this. I hate walking the center line again, but I agree with Mark Zuckerberg. No, I agree. I mean, the idea that we have to protect free speech is critical to our democracy. No question about that.

We still haven't been able to handle how do we slow the disinformation so as people don't get wrong information. The government clearly didn't do it the right way, but there needs to be a way. It's just we haven't figured it out yet. The way, by the way, is transparency. And that's what I think a lot of government officials are starting to lean into.

Facebook can make all the content moderation decisions in the world. We want to know how their algorithms work and why they're making them, and then we can hold them accountable to the decision whether it's right or wrong. We didn't have a lot of those transparency measures in place. It was the 2020 election and, quite frankly, the New York Post story that has now forced a lot of tech companies to be more forthcoming around how they make these decisions. Are they telling us more about their algorithm? They are.

I mean, now this algorithm is much more like TikTok. It elevates what is going viral as opposed to what your close friends and family think. And that matters, Casey, because a lot of the political content being shared on Facebook, it came from your close friends and family. So we know that there's a reduction in political content. We know that there's a reduction in news content. And we know that it's easier for a random person to go viral very quickly. Now, that's a disinformation problem within itself. But a lot of that disinformation right now, it actually isn't mostly politics.

It's a lot of disinformation around consumer harms. Things like, you know, someone hawking a bad drug product that's not good for weight loss, but they claim that it is. Yeah, well, we've just uncorked a whole lot of other issues to dig into. But anyway, very remarkable moment from Mark Zuckerberg here. All right, I'm going to leave you with this. Sarah, you're my heart.

All right, the band behind that epic millennial karaoke classic is getting back together. British rock band Oasis, they just announced a reunion tour happening in the UK next year. Did you ever think this was going to happen?

Fans never did. I never did. You may remember the nasty breakup they went through in 2009. Noel Gallagher said this about his brother. Remember, they are brothers, Liam, at the time. Quote,

And they may have had a song called Let There Be Love, but there's clearly been no love lost between these two brothers over the years. They have squabbled on and off the internet and in interviews. This headline from the LA Weekly, possibly explaining all of it, quote, Liam Gallagher on his brother Noel, I would rather eat my own blank than be in a band with him again, end quote. Yikes. Okay, and in 2021, Noel said he would only get the band back together for 100 million pounds. So, you know, maybe somebody found a bunch of money lying around.

Or maybe their other song title, Don't Look Back in Anger, says it best. Tickets for the show go on sale Saturday morning. I mean, I never thought I'd see it, Sarah Fisher. I think as a millennial, I was most excited about this story. Other people look at me like, why do you care so much? But I care. Mick Jagger is 81, 82 years old, and he's still rolling. All right. Thanks, guys. Thanks to all of you for joining us. I'm Casey Hunt. Don't go anywhere. CNN News Central starts right now.

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